Patterico's Pontifications

2/11/2022

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 4:23 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Liz Cheney on refusing to be intimidated:

Republicans used to advocate fidelity to the rule of law and the plain text of the Constitution. In 2020, Mr. Trump convinced many to abandon those principles. He falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him because of widespread fraud. While some degree of fraud occurs in every election, there was no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have changed this one. As the Select Committee will demonstrate in hearings later this year, no foreign power corrupted America’s voting machines, and no massive secret fraud changed the election outcome.

Almost all members of Congress know this—although many lack the courage to say it out loud. Mr. Trump knew it too, from his own campaign officials, from his own appointees at the Justice Department, and from the dozens of lawsuits he lost. Yet, Mr. Trump ignored the rulings of the courts and launched a massive campaign to mislead the public. Our hearings will show that these falsehoods provoked the violence on Jan. 6. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have begun to pay the price for spreading these lies.

The Jan. 6 investigation isn’t only about the inexcusable violence of that day: It is also about fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law, and whether elected representatives believe in those things or not. One member of the House Freedom Caucus warned the White House in the days before Jan. 6 that the president’s plans would drive “a stake in the heart of the federal republic.” That was exactly right.

Those who do not wish the truth of Jan. 6 to come out have predictably resorted to attacking the process—claiming it is tainted and political. Our hearings will show this charge to be wrong. We are focused on facts, not rhetoric, and we will present those facts without exaggeration, no matter what criticism we face…

Second news item

President Biden makes a decision about frozen Afghan funds:

President Joe Biden has decided what to do with the $7 billion of the Afghan central bank’s assets sitting frozen in the U.S. banking system. According to reports, the president will split the money down the middle between 9/11 families in America and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan. The billions were frozen after it became clear that the Taliban would seize control of Kabul last year, and the group has urged the U.S. to release all of the funds to help stave off a humanitarian crisis in the nation. But, as first reported by The New York Times on Friday, the Taliban won’t get the money. Biden will sign an executive order later Friday that will designate half the money to humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, and the other $3.5 billion will be used to compensate victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Third news item

President Biden rejects Army’s report on US Afghanistan withdrawal:

From NBC interview with President Biden regarding the Pentagon Afghanistan report

HOLT: It interviewed many military officials and officers who said the administration ignored the handwriting on the wall….

Another described trying to get folks in the embassy ready to evacuate and encountering people who were essentially in denial of the situation. Does any event ring true to you?

BIDEN: No, no. That’s not what i was told.

HOLT: Are you rejecting the conclusions or the accounts that are in this Army report?

BIDEN: Yes, I am.

HOLT: So they’re not true?

BIDEN: I’m rejecting them.

Again, I highly recommend that you read George Packer’s devastating opus on Afghanistan titled “The Betrayal”. It is nothing less than a brutal indictment of President Biden.

About Biden, Packer observes:

“During the 2020 campaign he was seen as deeply empathetic, but the fierce attachments of ‘Middle-Class Joe’ are parochial. They come from personal ties, not universal concerns: his family, his hometown, his longtime advisers, his country, its troops. The Green Beret interpreter and the girl in the unfinished schoolroom now stood outside the circle of empathy.”

Fourth news item

Republican candidates courting kooky MTG for endorsements:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the COVID vaccine-hating, conspiracy theory-spewing freshman congresswoman who came to national prominence as a far-right QAnon promoter, is increasingly in demand. This is due in large part to her direct line to former President Trump, and her vast network of small, grassroots donors.

According to four longtime Republican operatives working at senior levels on a variety of competitive GOP primaries across the nation, Greene’s endorsement in competitive 2022 Republican House and Senate primaries is not only considered as welcome, but also as one that should be actively courted—particularly in races where the nominee is likely to be decided by which candidate most animates the ultra-Trumpist grassroots.

According to four longtime Republican operatives working at senior levels on a variety of competitive GOP primaries across the nation, Greene’s endorsement in competitive 2022 Republican House and Senate primaries is not only considered as welcome, but also as one that should be actively courted—particularly in races where the nominee is likely to be decided by which candidate most animates the ultra-Trumpist grassroots.

“If you can’t get Donald Trump, you are going to want to have MTG in your back pocket,” another one of the four operatives…conceded, in discussing the most desired 2022 endorsements today.

Fifth news item

Ramping up:

The Pentagon is sending another 3,000 combat troops to Poland to join 1,700 who already are assembling there in a demonstration of American commitment to NATO allies worried at the prospect of Russia invading Ukraine, a senior defense official said Friday.

The additional soldiers will depart their post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, over the next couple days and should be in Poland by early next week, according to the defense official, who provided the information under ground rules set by the Pentagon. They are the remaining elements of an infantry brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Their mission will be to train and provide deterrence but not to engage in combat in Ukraine.

Related:

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Russian forces were now “in a position to be able to mount a major military action” in remarks seen as a clear escalation in the urgency of warnings from US officials.

“We obviously cannot predict the future, we don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that [leaving] is prudent,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the increase in Russian forces at the border was “very troubling signs of Russian escalation”.

“We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time, and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics [which end on 20 February],” Mr Blinken said.

Note: President Biden has said that he would not send troops to rescue any citizens left stranded in the event of Russian action.

Sixth news item

California dreamin’ turns into a slow-motion suicide:

Right now, in the heart of downtown San Francisco, “the bullshit” the mayor [San Francisco’s London Breed] spoke about is worsening by the day. The city is running a supervised drug consumption site in United Nations Plaza—just blocks away from city hall and the opera house—in flagrant violation of state and federal law. (Two weeks ago, my colleagues and I broke the story. The San Francisco Chronicle confirmed our reporting.) There, city-funded service providers supervise people smoking fentanyl and meth they buy from drug dealers across the street.

The police do nothing. Indeed, the mayor, through the Department of Emergency Management and the Department of Public Health, is running the site.

Tom Wolf, a recovering homeless addict who served on the city’s drug-dealing task force, compared the department to “the mafia.” Everyone sees that the situation is untenable, he added, but “nobody wants to go on record” because “everyone is afraid of the backlash.”

Seventh news item

How Republicans justify the censure of Cheney & Kinzinger:

With very few exceptions, elected Republicans lack the integrity or courage to stand up for Cheney, Kinzinger, or Pence. Instead, they’ve been inventing excuses for the censure, for Trump’s attempts to block the peaceful transfer of power, and for burying the Jan. 6th investigation. Here’s what they’re saying.

1. Cheney and Kinzinger deserved censure because they voted to impeach Trump…
2. Cheney and Kinzinger are part of a plot to sabotage the GOP…
3. Who are we to judge the RNC?…

Read the whole thing to learn how the author qualifies his list.

Eighth news item

California Democrats read the writing on the wall:

For months, a nationwide parental backlash to school closings has dominated headlines and driven speculation about a brewing electoral wave for Republicans. But what’s happening in deep-blue San Francisco complicates that picture:

Here, a liberal school board is colliding with a group of angry, just-as-liberal parents who’ve mounted a recall campaign against them.

The city’s Democratic mayor and big media organs have endorsed the recall effort. So has state Sen. SCOTT WIENER, who is eyeing Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s congressional seat when she retires.
What’s happening in San Francisco is the clearest sign of how Democrats are recalibrating — by backing away from the party’s 2020 swing toward progressive activist views on Covid-19, race and crime.

It’s happening throughout the Golden State. Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM is lifting mask mandates. Rep. KAREN BASS, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles, called this week for a surge in funding for L.A.’s police force because residents “don’t feel safe today.” Over and over, progressive shibboleths are being dispensed with in one of the most reliably Democratic places in the country.

Which brings us back to Tuesday’s election in San Francisco. Three members of the S.F. Board of Education — GABRIELA LÓPEZ, ALISON COLLINS and FAAUUGA MOLIGA — are facing the first recalls to qualify for the ballot in the city since 1983, when the White Panthers tried to recall then-Mayor DIANNE FEINSTEIN.

It all started when they couldn’t figure out why San Francisco’s public schools remained closed while other cities were sending kids back to in-person learning. So they dialed into the city’s Board of Education meetings — and, like a lot of other parents, were annoyed at what they saw:

*A massive budget shortfall.
*An inordinate amount of time and energy spent on a plan to rename 44 school buildings, including those honoring GEORGE WASHINGTON, ABRAHAM LINCOLN and Feinstein.
*Eliminating the merit-based admissions process at Lowell High School and transforming the coveted academic destination to a lottery so that it would better reflect the diversity of the city’s overall student population.
*A two-hour debate over whether SETH BRENZEL, a father who happens to be white and gay, brought enough diversity to be allowed to join a volunteer parental advisory committee. During the discussion, the board failed to ask Brenzel a single question, then blocked his appointment.

Ninth news item

Unfortunately, there will always be ugly bigots and racists, and there will always be people and organizations that protect them:

A Jewish high school student said he couldn’t believe what was going on when a history teacher in a wealthy Alabama school system had classmates stand and give a stiff-armed Nazi salute during a lesson on the way symbols change.

Once he shared a video and photos of the incident on social media, Ephraim Tytell said, he received a reprimand from school administrators in Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham.

The point of the lesson, Tytell said, was that something very similar to what’s now widely known as a Nazi salute was used before World War II to salute the U.S. flag. Called the “Bellamy Salute” for decades, it was ditched in 1942 for the now-familiar right-hand-over-the-heart gesture after the United States’ entry into the war.

“He explained to us that in America we used to do that before WWII and everything, and then he proceeded to show us, ask us to stand up to salute the flag, and he and everyone else did the Nazi salute,” Ephraim said. “I felt upset, unsure of what’s going on —just kind of shocked.”

Tenth news item

Moving forward:

School districts around the country are rapidly rolling back Covid-19 policies that have built up over nearly two years, with many eyeing a return to more normal classroom life and operations as infection rates fall and fewer students and teachers miss class.

The number of Americans with new cases of the virus fell to 202,001 on Feb. 9, down from 860,860 four weeks earlier, on Jan. 12, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Estimates show that the Omicron variant was likely responsible for 99.9% of Covid-19 infections in the week ended Jan. 29, according to the CDC.

Have a great weekend!

–Dana

460 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello.

    Pre-emptive strike: I post what I find interesting, timely, and relevant. While I may not necessarily agree with everything in the links I post, I agree with them enough that I think they are worth posting.

    Dana (5395f9)

  2. Hello, Dana. How dare you pre-empt commenters who want you to emphasize this over that!

    norcal (2c7427)

  3. Oops, they did it again department:

    Oops No. 1
    Thomas Massie Is Either the Dumbest Member of Congress or He’s Joking About Elderly People Dying

    ………[T]he Republican from Kentucky appears to have devised the single dumbest take on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed nearly a million Americans. He tweeted it out on Wednesday.

    Thomas Massie
    @RepThomasMassie

    Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll ?

    8:00 AM · Feb 9, 2022·
    Twitter for iPhone4,215 Retweets8,015 Quote Tweets17.9K Likes

    Massie neglects to mention that Medicare generally benefits Americans aged 65 and older, who are far, far more likely to die from Covid. The tweet implies that it’s not old age, but Medicare itself that is killing these Americans. One thing that most definitely is killing Americans is the lack of affordable health care. Studies have shown that tens of thousands die every year because they don’t have access to medical care.

    Massie’s office did not reply to a request for clarification from Rolling Stone about what exactly he meant by his tweet.
    ………
    Massie’s office also did not reply to a query from Rolling Stone about whether this was some sort of trollish joke made at the expense of the hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans who have died from Covid. It was a reasonable question considering it’s always difficult to tell with Massie where the stupidity ends and the troll begins………
    ……….

    Oops No. 2

    Marjorie Taylor Greene confuses ‘gazpacho,’ a soup, and ‘Gestapo,’ the Nazi secret police
    ………
    Greene, who has a penchant for making Holocaust references in her political attacks, in an appearance on the conservative network OAN baselessly suggested that Pelosi’s “gazpacho police” were “spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff, and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives.”
    ……….
    In response to a request for comment from Insider on her “gazpacho police” remark, Greene via a spokesperson told Insider, “No soup for those who illegally spy on Members of Congress, but they will be thrown in the goulash.”

    There’s no evidence that the Capitol Police are spying on members of Congress, despite such assertions from Republicans like Greene.

    Greene was widely mocked online for her reference to the nonexistent “gazpacho police.”
    ………..
    And MTG is a coveted endorsement? For MAGAWorld, that figures. I’m sure NJRob will be offended.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  4. Deputy Va. attorney general resigns after revelation of Facebook posts praising Jan. 6 rioters, claiming Trump won election
    ………
    Former deputy attorney general Monique Miles also espoused unfounded conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election interference in more than a dozen Facebook comments that spanned months. Four people who interacted with Miles on Facebook confirmed the authenticity of the posts.

    Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jason S. Miyares, said the office had been unaware of the Facebook posts before The Washington Post, which obtained screenshots of the posts, shared them on Thursday morning.
    ………
    “The Attorney General has been very clear — Joe Biden won the election and he has condemned the January 6th attacks,” LaCivita said.

    In an email to The Post, Miles called the revelation of the Facebook posts a “character assassination to stir up controversy” and wrote that “some liberals have their daggers out for black conservative females.”
    ………
    ……… These posts have been taken out of context.”
    ………
    In response to someone who commented on the post, Miles wrote the riot was a “peaceful protest.” She added, “Don’t believe the MSM,” ……

    Miles later edited the original post to blame the violence at the Capitol on “antifa dressed as Patriots,” saying the supposed false flag operation was “Typical antifa and BLM intimidation tactics.”
    ………..
    Miles went on to write “Patriots are peace loving, Antifa and BLM are not.”
    ………
    ……… Miles made baseless claims that China interfered in the election and that there was evidence of significant voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan, among others states, according to screenshots. At two points, she flatly and falsely declared Trump was the true winner of the election.

    “These left wing violent loonies better realize that DJT is getting a second term,” ……..

    Miles, who was the deputy attorney general for government operations and transactions, had a broad purview that included representing the state in election-related litigation and giving legal advice to the state Department of Elections and its governing body, the state Board of Elections, on various matters.
    ………
    The AG’s office needs to do a better job of checking the backgrounds of their new hires.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  5. More voter fraud:

    Trump backer, 4 others charged with voter fraud in Wisconsin
    ………
    All five voters, including a homeless person, improperly listed a post office box number at a UPS store as their address, rather than a residential address as is required under Wisconsin law, said Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney.

    That brings the number of people charged with election fraud during the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin to 10, including seven in Fond du Lac County. Three of the five people charged cast ballots in the 2020 election.
    ……….
    ……….[O]ne of the people charged indicated she had voted for Trump and told investigators to look into cheating because “they took it away from Trump,” according to the complaint.

    Another person charged who did not vote in 2020 “appeared very apologetic upon learning that he could not register to vote with a PO Box,” the complaint said. Another man who didn’t vote said he was living out of his truck when he registered and used the post office box because he could use that on his driver’s license.
    ………
    The issue of voters listing post office boxes when registering to vote, rather than where they live, was also raised in La Crosse County following the 2020 election. However, the district attorney there decided not to press charges after determining the voters did not intend to break the law.

    But Toney, when explaining why he decided to bring charges, said ignorance of the law is no excuse.
    ………
    One of the people charged was homeless but should have listed any kind of address, like the location of a park bench, rather than a post office box number, Toney said. A married couple who were charged were traveling around the state in an RV and could have listed the address of a campground where they stay, he said.

    The five people were each charged with a Class I felony, which is punishable by up to 3 ½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  6. Tomorrow is Lincoln’s birthday. If nothing else, celebrate it by re-reading his Second Inaugural, especially the magnificent concluding paragraph:

    With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

    Tomorrow I will be checking several newspapers to see whether they even mention the birthday of our greatest president. (The Seattle Times has ignored it for years. I’d be interested in learning whether that is true in your areas, too.)

    I have wondered why so many modern journalists ignore Lincoln, given the commercial possibilities. Most Americans love to read about this great man.

    I have concluded that those who ignore Lincoln are committed to giving us what I call “warts only” stories on American history. If it doesn’t make America look bad, they aren’t interested in printing it.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  7. That’s an exquisite piece of writing and instruction by Lincoln. I’ll check my local paper tomorrow and get back to you. Odds are that they get commentary from a progressive academic who can’t quite bring themselves to tout the former president.

    Dana (5395f9)

  8. “The Pentagon is sending another 3,000 combat troops to Poland to join 1,700 who already are assembling there in a demonstration of American commitment to NATO allies worried at the prospect of Russia invading Ukraine, a senior defense official said Friday. The additional soldiers will depart their post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, over the next couple days and should be in Poland by early next week, according to the defense official, who provided the information under ground rules set by the Pentagon. They are the remaining elements of an infantry brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. Their mission will be to train and provide deterrence but not to engage in combat in Ukraine.”

    ROFLMAOPIP

    Why?
    Who pays??
    How much does this saber rattling cost the U.S. Treasury on borrowed $ charged to Uncle Sam’s credit card???
    When do Ukrainian Advisor War Bonds go on sale????

    US Advisors in Vietnam 1955-1965

    https://olive-drab.com/od_history_vietnam_advisors.php

    ________

    And lest you forget:

    ‘Joe Biden first ran for U.S. Senate in 1972 as the Vietnam War was entering its waning years. He was not a tenacious anti-war voice, nor did he embrace the anti-war movement, saying he was “not big on flak jackets and tie-dye shirts.” Biden described himself at the time as being married, in law school, and wearing sports coats. He professed a “lack of moral outrage” at the war. He described walking through campus with law school friends one day and seeing other students occupying office buildings in protest. “They were taking over the building,” Biden said. “And we looked up and said, ‘Look at these assholes.’ That’s how far apart from the anti-war movement I was.” In Biden’s words, “The war had just been a tragic mistake based on a faulty premise.”

    Biden, who was of draft age during the war, received five student deferrals. A spokesperson said in 2008 that Biden was “disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager.” In his own words, Biden did not oppose the immorality of the war, which took the lives of as many as 2 million Vietnamese civilians and 58,000 U.S. soldiers, as much as he believed that it was “lousy policy.” Other political figures from his generation “felt more strongly than I did about the immorality,” Biden said. “My view of it was it didn’t make sense.” This posture would become a consistent theme of Biden’s positions on war: With some notable exceptions, Biden has emphasized strategic considerations and constitutional and legal arguments over questions about morality, sovereignty, or foreign casualties caused by U.S. militarism.’ – source, https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/joe-biden-vietnam-war/

    “Stupid is as stupid does…” – Forrest Gump [Tom Hanks] ‘Forrest Gump’ 1994

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  9. @5. That is so totally cheesehead, and very f***ed-up too, on the part of the prosecutor. That’s not fraud under any definition of fraud. The election board could have just rejected the applications on their face. The prosecutor’s alternatives would have been fraud:

    One of the people charged was homeless but should have listed any kind of address, like the location of a park bench, rather than a post office box number, Toney [the prosecutor] said. A married couple who were charged were traveling around the state in an RV and could have listed the address of a campground where they stay, he said.

    What a Trumpcake!

    nk (1d9030)

  10. Here’s an estimate on how many books have been written about Lincoln: 15,000.

    Lincoln has attracted some fine writers. The poet, Carl_Sandburg, won a Pulitzer Prize for his volumes on Lincoln’s war years.

    (You may be able to find a single-volume copy, as I did, years ago, of those volumes, combined with Sandburg’s volumes on Lincoln’s prairie years. As you would expect, the writing is amazing in places. At one point, Sandburg lists the causes of the war — in a single sentence spanning a page and a half. And it all makes sense.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  11. B&N is offering the Sandburg prairie years for a reasonable price: free, as a Nook book.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  12. #7 Dana, thanks.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  13. https://www.life.com/people/life-with-hillary-portraits-of-a-wellesley-grad-1969/

    Lingering 53 years– and rumors hint it is worse than Covid.

    “They’ll never be rid of it!” – Dr. Jeremy Stone [Arthur Hill] ‘The Andromeda Strain’ 1971

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  14. @9-
    The DA is running in the Republican primary for state attorney general, so it is possible that the prosecutions are a “get tough on voter fraud” campaign. But if also shows how voting laws are deliberately arcane to trip up voters.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  15. RIP Ian McDonald (75). Co-founder of King Crimson and Foreigner.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  16. On a light note: I wouldn’t have thought MTG would be familiar with gazpacho.

    It’s a wonderful cold soup. I’ve made it, using a blender, which shows that it doesn’t require any great culinary skill. (I’ve used a recipe from an old “Joy of Cooking”.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  17. President Biden rejects Army’s report on US Afghanistan withdrawal…

    Rejects polls, too. Typical response from a senator. All anybody had to do was go back and review his history over the past 50+ years; something the current generation of reporters truly failed to do to enlighten the electorate- and conservatives who bailed on their own party nominee out of hate or character flaws- put aside as well.

    The guy has always been a second or third stringer; the embodiment of the Peter Principle; a motormouth w/t character, ethics and spiel of a used car salesman from SCranton– or is it Wilmington this week– and the vision of Mister Magoo.

    In short: he’s a bum.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  18. “Not a cult,” episode 37,864:
    Alyssa Farah’s father and stepmother boycotted her wedding because Donald Trump is more precious to them than she is.

    Radegunda (e9d462)

  19. I wouldn’t have thought MTG would be familiar with gazpacho.

    If she were familiar with it, would she have confused it with the Nazi secret police?

    It gave us a lot of clever soup puns, so that’s a plus.

    Radegunda (e9d462)

  20. Between Russia and Ukraine, Americans say either stay out or side with Ukraine – CBS News poll
    A slight majority of Americans would prefer the U.S. stay out of any negotiations around the situation with Russia and Ukraine, while those who would take a side say the U.S. should stand with Ukraine. They cite stopping further Russian influence in the region and defending democracy as top reasons.

    The proportion saying that the U.S. should stay out is driven by Republicans and independents, while more Democrats feel the U.S. should side with Ukraine.
    …….
    …….. While Republicans would prefer the U.S. stay out of the Russia-Ukraine situation, at the same time, they are critical of Mr. Biden’s approach to Russia, with most Republicans calling it “too friendly,” and a quarter calling it “too hostile.……

    ………. There is more support for U.S. siding with Ukraine among older Americans, whose views may be shaped by memories of the Cold War. Younger Americans, particularly those under age 30, are inclined to feel the U.S. should stay out of the situation……..
    …………
    Some top lines:

    The US Should:
    Stay Out-53%
    Support Ukraine-43%
    Support Russia-4%

    Biden’s Approach to Russia Is:
    About right:-46%
    Too Friendly: 34%
    Too Hostile: 20%

    Why Should the US Support Ukraine:
    To Stop Russian Influence-70%
    To Support Democracy-63%
    To Stand Up to Putin-55%
    In US Interest-53%

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  21. A growing number of countries warn their citizens to leave Ukraine.
    Countries across the world have joined the United States in issuing a series of increasingly urgent calls for their citizens to leave Ukraine because of the threat of a Russian invasion.
    ……..
    The United Kingdom advised British citizens on Friday that they should leave Ukraine “while commercial options remain.”
    ………
    The Netherlands joined the warnings, and told people not to postpone their departures.
    ………
    Latvia, Norway and Japan have also called on their citizens to leave as soon as possible, and Israel said Friday that it planned to evacuate relatives of its diplomats working in Ukraine.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  22. US to evacuate Ukraine embassy amid Russian invasion fears
    ……..
    U.S. officials say the State Department plans to announce early Saturday that all American staff at the Kyiv embassy will be required to leave the country ahead of a feared Russian invasion. The State Department would not comment.
    ……..
    The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said a limited number of U.S. diplomats may be relocated to Ukraine’s far west, near the border with Poland, a NATO ally, so the U.S. could retain a diplomatic presence in the country.
    ……

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  23. Dear Dana: I sent Patterico this link for you, because I was struck by the kindness in a most unkind world at present.

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/02/11/europe/north-macedonia-bullied-girl-president-intl-scli/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3wguSKMIrKYdTtetn3GQipIK3HrDmTjC_kbRZAPVmW-AonGAHVT2BDSac

    Best wishes.

    Simon Jester (96aafe)

  24. Wonderful story, Simon. Thanks for posting it.

    Radegunda (e9d462)

  25. White House staff were afraid to bring classified information to Trump, considering the distinct possibility that he would recklessly divulge it.

    Radegunda (e9d462)

  26. Simon,

    Thanks for that heartwarming story. Glad the little girl has so much support.

    Dana (5395f9)

  27. I can attest that I know the man words better than the woman words. What guy hasn’t paraphrased Han Solo, that he made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. There are a couple other eyebrow raisers.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  28. White House staff were afraid to bring classified information to Trump, considering the distinct possibility that he would recklessly divulge it.

    Radegunda (e9d462) — 2/11/2022 @ 9:53 pm

    Funny, I distinctly remember this same class of people complaining a couple years ago that Trump rarely bothered to read the morning intel report. NPR in particular had a Very Serious Commenter who had Very Serious Concerns about it.

    Now that we are at war with Eastasia, Trump’s staff was too scared to bring him any classified material at all. Not surprised that effete dingus Miles Taylor is the Squealer in this instance.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  29. Studies have shown that tens of thousands die every year because they don’t have access to medical care.

    Studies have also shown that hundreds of thousands die every year from medical malpractice.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  30. @22. So Choo-Choo Joey’s been in office a year and on track to lose two U.S. embassies.

    And it’s only February.

    ‘Can anybody here play this game?’ – Casey Stengel, 1962

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  31. Funny, I distinctly remember this same class of people complaining a couple years ago that Trump rarely bothered to read the morning intel report. NPR in particular had a Very Serious Commenter who had Very Serious Concerns about it.

    Now that we are at war with Eastasia, Trump’s staff was too scared to bring him any classified material at all. Not surprised that effete dingus Miles Taylor is the Squealer in this instance.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/11/2022 @ 11:47 pm

    There’s no inconsistency in Trump being both obstinately lazy and prone to blurting out the occasional nugget that finds its way through his aversion to learning.

    lurker (59504c)

  32. Russia reportedly makes decision on Ukraine invasion

    The U.S. believes Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and has communicated that decision to the Russian military, according to PBS Newshour. – source, yahoonews

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  33. How does a deck full of jokers keep losing to a pair of deuces?

    Ask Joe.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  34. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2022/02/11/a-tale-of-two-realities-n1558613
    This bimbo should run for president. 81 million morons are in lockstep with this hag.

    mg (8cbc69)

  35. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/02/minneapolis-circles-the-drain.php
    swatting is so disgusting
    what is wrong with these people?

    mg (8cbc69)

  36. Prosecutors’ witness list offers glimpse into Jan. 6 trial strategy
    Prosecutors late Monday began laying out their trial strategy for Jan. 6 cases in the clearest detail yet, indicating they intend to call multiple Capitol Police officers, a former Senate aide, a member of the Three Percenters militia who was granted immunity and the Secret Service agent who helped supervise then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Capitol that day.

    Prosecutors revealed their proposed witness list in the case of Guy Reffitt, a Texas man who was charged with storming onto Capitol grounds, attacking multiple Capitol Police officers and carrying a firearm. Reffitt is charged with civil disorder, obstructing Congress’ proceedings, carrying a semiautomatic handgun to the Capitol and later, after returning home, attempting to obstruct justice.
    ………..
    The witness list underscores the complexity of the case prosecutors must lay out to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Reffitt breached Capitol grounds with the intent of disrupting Congress’ Electoral College counting session — and that his actions contributed to interrupting that process. To do that, jurors must have an understanding of the complicated Jan. 6 proceedings and intricate procedures followed by the Capitol Police, the Secret Service and the FBI.
    ……….
    The Justice Department revealed it plans to call Reffitt’s two children — including his son Jackson Reffitt, who reported his father to the FBI in December 2020 and then secretly recorded him after he returned home from Washington in January 2021. Jackson Reffitt has publicly talked about his efforts in various media interviews over the past year.

    Both of Reffitt’s children are expected to testify about what the government has described as threats their father made to his family to prevent them from reporting him to federal investigators.
    ……………

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  37. What guy hasn’t paraphrased Han Solo, that he made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.

    Not many, I hope. In the first place, a parsec is a unit of distance, not of time; and in the second place, what use is it?

    nk (1d9030)

  38. Enes Kanter Freedom Gets Traded To The Rockets And Waived

    He probably will never play another game in the NBA.

    Colin Kaepernick can sympathize.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  39. Contempt of ones voters 101 on the part of soon to be ex Rep. Jim Cooper of TN.

    https://twitter.com/natalie_allison/status/1491057101934055424

    But in NY, CA and IL, they’re neck-redding the minority GOP party. For all his dirty work, Kinzinger deserved a spiny district along the Edens Expy to get nk, me and some NTs along the way.

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  40. Hey Ted, help your boy!

    urbanleftbehind (c073c9)

  41. I hope Alperovitch is wrong, too, but I don’t see Putin backing down.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  42. If you look at who owns the NBA teams … the hit to their NBA revenues will be negligible compared to the hit to their real business revenues if American consumers take a deep dislike to China.

    nk (1d9030)

  43. There’s no inconsistency in Trump being both obstinately lazy and prone to blurting out the occasional nugget that finds its way through his aversion to learning.

    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 3:03 am

    Thanks, Squealer.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  44. The much better-looking Dana wrote:

    School districts around the country are rapidly rolling back Covid-19 policies that have built up over nearly two years, with many eyeing a return to more normal classroom life and operations as infection rates fall and fewer students and teachers miss class.

    Meanwhile, in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, the Democrats have doubled down, with city Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole saying that it will ‘probably’ be many months before the city relaxes its COVID restrictions, and the Philadelphia School Board has not only maintained its mask mandate, but now requires N95 or equivalent masks; the old cloth ones simply Will Not Do.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated Reichsstatthalter Tom Wolf’s (NSDAP-PA) school mask mandate in December, and some local districts outside of the City of Brotherly Love have made masks optional. That led three families to sue in federal court, claiming under the Americans with Disabilities Act that their three health-compromised children would be in danger were the in school mask mandate not kept in place. Judge Wendy Beetlejuice Beetlestone ordered the Perkiomen Valley School District to keep its mask mandate in place. If masks protect people from COVID-19, why wouldn’t the three health-compromised children be protected by wearing masks; why must hundreds of other people be forced to do the same?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  45. …….. if American consumers take a deep dislike to China…..

    The problem is while most Americans oppose China’s human rights record, is they don’t care enough to take action.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  46. If masks protect people from COVID-19, why wouldn’t the three health-compromised children be protected by wearing masks; why must hundreds of other people be forced to do the same?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001) — 2/12/2022 @ 6:37 am

    Because it’s not about public health, it’s about compliance, control, and demonstrations of fealty to the left-liberal consensus. If my immuno-compromised, un-Fauci Juiced kid can recover from COVID in three days with mild symptoms, the kids of these parents are hardly in greater danger. The pig politicians who enforce these edicts know it too, which is why they regularly flout the very measures they say are necessary for everyone to follow, with the assistance of their media mouthpieces.

    “Comrades!” he cried. “You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us.”

    Funny how a old-school socialist so perfectly captured the never-ending self-justification and easy hypocrisy of the left-liberal ruling class.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  47. No, it’s the other way around. The standards by which everyone on the Farm is judged are the standards which Boxer can meet.

    nk (1d9030)

  48. DCSCA: “Who pays?? How much does this saber rattling cost the U.S. Treasury on borrowed $ charged to Uncle Sam’s credit card??? When do Ukrainian Advisor War Bonds go on sale????”

    Of course a couple of months back, DCSCA: “Wahhhhh, where’s my stimulus check?!!!!!” When do those stimulus bonds go on sale?

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  49. There’s no inconsistency in Trump being both obstinately lazy and prone to blurting out the occasional nugget that finds its way through his aversion to learning.
    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 3:03 am

    Please don’t take this the wrong way, lurker, but I am pretty sure you just said “splunge!

    felipe (484255)

  50. Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/11/2022 @ 11:47 pm

    I think that that when someone says ” two things can be true,” the response should always be “two things can be false,” because it is perfectly consistent with their simplistic understanding.

    felipe (484255)

  51. Nigel Gould-Davies explains why Putin might choose war in Ukraine, even though that will bring more suffering to Russia, as well as Ukraine.

    There are three reasons why this calculus might lead Putin to war.

    Firstly, Putin has repeatedly miscalculated in Ukraine. In 2013, his pressure on President Viktor Yanukovych not to sign a free-trade agreement with the European Union led to the Maidan protests and Yanukovych’s overthrow. In 2014–15, Putin’s ambition to carve an expansive ‘Novorossiya’ from Ukraine failed in the face of local resistance and Western threats of sanctions. He has alienated President Volodymyr Zelensky, who in 2019 took office seeking a more constructive relationship. In short, he keeps making mistakes. As Talleyrand said of the Bourbons, Putin has learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

    Secondly, pandemic isolation is deepening Putin’s misperceptions. Few now get face time with him, and most of those who do are from the security elite, such as Sergei Naryshkin, head of foreign intelligence, who recently opened an exhibition in Moscow comparing Ukraine today with ‘the terrible years of Hitlerite occupation’. The range of influences on Putin is narrowing and hardening. Thirdly, Putin’s obsession with Ukraine appears to be growing as he ages – he will be 70 this year – and thinks more urgently about his legacy.

    In short, the aging Putin’s blunders, blindness and incompetence may cause a disaster for Russia.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  52. Thank you for that powerline link, mg. It led me to this.

    felipe (484255)

  53. Funny, I distinctly remember this same class of people complaining a couple years ago that Trump rarely bothered to read the morning intel report.

    There’s no contradiction at all.

    Staff tried to brief him in a way that was tailored to his low attention span and limited ability to absorb information. They brought material with a few simple bullet points, a lot of pictures, and references to Trump to get his attention, and tried to walk him through it.

    Radegunda (940254)

  54. How has Trump’s historic trade deal with China worked out so far? Poorly.

    wo years ago, President Donald Trump signed what he called a “historical trade deal” with China that committed China to purchase $200 billion of additional US exports before December 31, 2021. Today the only undisputed “historical” aspect of that agreement is its failure. One lesson is not to make deals that cannot be fulfilled when unforeseen events inevitably occur—in this case, a pandemic and a recession. Another is not to forget the complementary policies needed to give an agreement a chance to succeed.

    In the end, China bought only 57 percent of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war.[1] Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal had promised.

    The pandemic was one of the reasons for the failure, says the author, Chad P. Bown, but that explains only part of the failure. The deal was “problematic, if not unrealistic, from the start, . . ”

    (I have long thought that Trump’s strategy of picking trade fights with everyone at once was idiotic. And obviously so.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  55. That SF school board sounds like a conflict bewteen the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  56. “picking trade fights with everyone at once was idiotic”

    But he fights. For many, step #1 is FIGHT….tactics and strategy can be debated later

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  57. DCSCA: “Who pays?? How much does this saber rattling cost the U.S. Treasury on borrowed $ charged to Uncle Sam’s credit card??? When do Ukrainian Advisor War Bonds go on sale????”

    Of course a couple of months back, DCSCA: “Wahhhhh, where’s my stimulus check?!!!!!” When do those stimulus bonds go on sale?

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:50 am

    He just wants attention. This is his life. If he were in Russia he would troll by crapping on Russia and bragging about how happy Biden is with his ice cream. There’s probably an NSA intern making bots to do that. At least, I kinda hope there is.

    Granted, America is awesome and everyone here has a huge TV and internet, while Russians live in a pathetic hellscape and are dying of COVID because they don’t have plumbing.

    And Putin smiled hoping people buy that he’s satisfied with how things have been going.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  58. It’s amusing that no matter how many unflattering reports about Trump come from people who actually worked him, and no matter how consistent those reports are between themselves and with what is easily observable, the faithful will keep insisting: “No, he’s not like that at all! He’s the opposite!”

    I stopped paying attention to numerous people and dropped a lot of media I used to consume when they started painting Donald Trump as a truth-teller who’s zealous to “drain the swamp” and a self-sacrificing patriot who loves America more purely and deeply than all his competitors and critics.

    I’ll believe my own ears and eyes instead.

    Radegunda (940254)

  59. #55 Radegunda – Obama was similar to Trump in that way. Michael Hayden reports (in “Playing to the Edge”) that intelligence officials, faced with Obama’s demands to keep their written briefings brief, quipped that perhaps they should reduce them to haikus.

    Incidentally, Hayden, who was not originally appointed by George W. Bush, came to have considerable respect for how Bush listened to briefings that gave him unpleasant news.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  60. The (New York) Times is allowed to publish Project Veritas documents until a full appeal

    The New York Times is free to publish documents pertaining to the conservative group Project Veritas after a New York State appeals court temporarily stayed an order by a state trial judge that had been denounced by First Amendment advocates and journalism groups.

    In a decision made public on Thursday, the appeals court said the order would not be enforced until a formal appeal could be heard. The decision means that, for now, The Times can publish certain documents and will not have to turn over or destroy any copies of the documents in its possession.

    “We’re pleased with today’s decision to stop the enforcement of prior restraint while the case is being appealed, and we look forward to explaining our position in the appeal,” a Times spokeswoman, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said in a statement. “The use of prior restraint to prohibit news gathering and block the publication of newsworthy journalism is unconstitutional. No libel plaintiffs should be permitted to use their litigation as a tool to silence press coverage about them.”
    ……….
    ………. The Times published an article in November that included excerpts from memos prepared by a lawyer for Project Veritas, who described legal strategies that would allow the group to engage in deceptive reporting practices that did not violate federal law.
    ………..
    Related:
    ………..

    Now the Supreme Court has never decided whether media outlets (or any other speakers) may be barred from publishing improperly leaked attorney-client-privileged information.…….

    When it comes to other kinds of leaks, though, the Supreme Court has not recognized any power to block the publication of leaked or otherwise improperly released information (at least so long as the publisher wasn’t complicit in the initial illegal interception, theft, or leak). In the Pentagon Papers case (1971), the Court famously refused to uphold an injunction against the publication of leaked government secrets (though it didn’t decide whether publishers could be criminally punished for such publication). In Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989), the Court held that a newspaper couldn’t even be held civilly liable for publishing the name of a rape victim that had been erroneously released by the police department. And in Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001), the Court held that a radio talk show host couldn’t be held civilly liable for “intentional disclosure of an illegally intercepted cellular telephone conversation about a public issue,” at least where the host “did not participate in the interception, but … did know—or at least had reason to know—that the interception was unlawful.” Based on that, here’s my quick analysis of Justice Wood’s decision:
    ……….
    Yet it seemed to me that this analysis can’t be reconciled with Bartnicki v. Vopper:
    ……….
    …….[E]ven if the Times got an unfair advantage in this litigation because of its access to an adversary’s attorney-client privileged material, and because of its publication of that material, it seems to me that this would at most justify litigation sanctions against the Times as litigant. The most extreme such litigation sanction would be in effect entering a default judgment against the Times in the underlying libel action; I don’t think that would be sound, but I think it would be the limit of what could be justified under a theory that stems from Project Veritas being the Times’ litigation adversary. I can’t see how this can justify an injunction against the Times as publisher.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  61. nk (1d9030) — 2/12/2022 @ 5:32 am

    I know, nk. It is a classic nerd trap baited with nerdnip. I have seen fan fiction attempting to “explain” that the Kessel run is actually a convoluted, plotted path, seeking to avoid Empirial Authorities that smuggler’s use to get to their fences, and that it take great skill to shorten that route.

    Of course, in reality, Solo’s line is meant (according to Lucas) to convey that he is a braggart and a liar. But I was annoyed because I thought it a failed attempt at a Norm crosbyism which would have supported the endeared following that this character enjoys.

    felipe (484255)

  62. As far as the Bellamy Salute is concerned, I’m not completely sure of who is wrong in this case.

    Is the teacher wrong for his insensitivity towards a Jewish student, and not finding a better way to preface it?

    Is the student wrong from not accepting the context of the lesson, which was about how symbols change, where the dropping of the salute was a pretty dramatic example?

    Is the article missing a lot of detail? On this I think the answer is “yes.”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  63. But he fights. For many, step #1 is FIGHT….tactics and strategy can be debated later

    Oh, hardly. Step #1 is RANT.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  64. There’s no contradiction at all.

    Staff tried to brief him in a way that was tailored to his low attention span and limited ability to absorb information. They brought material with a few simple bullet points, a lot of pictures, and references to Trump to get his attention, and tried to walk him through it.

    Radegunda (940254) — 2/12/2022 @ 8:47 am

    Complaining that Trump was uninterested in reading the intel briefing–which contains classified information up to the TS level–and using alternate presentation methods for that same info, and then claiming two years later that they tried to avoid bringing him classified information, is a literal contradiction of narrative. You’re simply being disingenuous because you ran in to someone with a memory span longer than a week.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  65. and in the second place, what use is it?
    nk (1d9030) — 2/12/2022 @ 5:32 am

    I have seen men resort to this line, when their deceit has been discovered, as an attempt at humor, hoping to diffuse the situation.

    felipe (484255)

  66. It’s amusing that no matter how many unflattering reports about Trump come from people who actually worked him, and no matter how consistent those reports are between themselves and with what is easily observable, the faithful will keep insisting: “No, he’s not like that at all! He’s the opposite!”

    It’s even more amusing when people like you argue that contradictory positions from agenda-driven media reports are actually intellectually consistent.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  67. Incidentally, Hayden, who was not originally appointed by George W. Bush, came to have considerable respect for how Bush listened to briefings that gave him unpleasant news.

    To the point where he acted on unpleasant information brought him that was faulty. Bush never lost the respect of the military brass, or the troops. Obama and Trump did. Trump lost the active duty vote in 2020.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  68. “Norm Crosbyism”

    Which is what I think MTG’s “gazpacho police” is.

    Not to be confused with “the vichysoisse” which was an early term for NeverTrump used by some Trumpkins, including some commenters here.

    nk (1d9030)

  69. How will Biden react if Russia invades Ukraine in the next week and achieves a military victory in a day or two?

    Hoi Polloi (998b37)

  70. Complaining that Trump was uninterested in reading the intel briefing–which contains classified information up to the TS level–and using alternate presentation methods for that same info, and then claiming two years later that they tried to avoid bringing him classified information, is a literal contradiction of narrative. You’re simply being disingenuous because you ran in to someone with a memory span longer than a week.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:03 am

    No, it’s definitely not a contradiction. A-hole boss screams at people for trying to inform him, naturally they avoid the task.

    Relax. Trump isn’t worth your tears.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  71. How will Biden react if Russia invades Ukraine in the next week and achieves a military victory in a day or two?

    Hoi Polloi (998b37) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:14 am

    No one knows. One of the reasons Biden is such a terrible president.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  72. Trump isn’t worth your tears.

    Don’t cry for me Mar-a-Lago.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  73. I have seen men resort to this line, when their deceit has been discovered, as an attempt at humor, hoping to diffuse the situation.

    Not me! I meant that it’s a word only a science fiction nerd “needs” to know. And I mean it!

    And “pessary” from that same list Paul linked. Have you ever seen it outside (an English translation of) the Hippocratic Oath?

    nk (1d9030)

  74. How will Biden react if Russia invades Ukraine in the next week and achieves a military victory in a day or two?

    Nothing.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  75. Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll?

    Medicare exists because almost all elderly people would be priced out of the health insurance market otherwise — even with Obamacare many 60yos are priced out of the exchange markets due to “too much income” for subsidies and tripled premiums due to the dead weight added into the system.

    And before Obamacare wiped out the preexisting-condition clauses, most people over 65 have one or more such condition and could not obtain insurance for any price they could afford.

    So, a prepay system was developed (at least it’s prepay now, 50 years on) so that folks could get medical care when they most needed it, not as welfare but as something they (were forcably) subscribed to.

    Of course, #MedicareForAll drops that prepay part, and will necessarily turn Medicare INTO a welfare system while taxing the elderly again to pay for it.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  76. But the liar should have been honest and said “yeah, you caught me -aren’t I adorable?”

    felipe (484255)

  77. Greene was widely mocked online for her reference to the nonexistent “gazpacho police.”

    Some people have no sense of humor.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  78. One of the people charged was homeless but should have listed any kind of address, like the location of a park bench, rather than a post office box number, Toney said. A married couple who were charged were traveling around the state in an RV and could have listed the address of a campground where they stay, he said.

    I can’t decide if:

    A. The law is an ass.
    B. The DA is an ass.
    C. People with no actual address should be precluded from voting.

    I’m leaning most towards B. Maybe A. I wonder how many voters have listed a crack house as their address, which would seem to be OK with the DA.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  79. No, it’s definitely not a contradiction. A-hole boss screams at people for trying to inform him, naturally they avoid the task.

    The complaint was that he rarely read the briefing, not that he was yelling at staff for trying to inform him. Turning around and claiming two years later that they didn’t want to bring him classified information anyway is the very definition of sour grapes, and a departure from the previous narrative.

    The first argument complained that he should have taken more interest in the complexities and had a deeper understanding of the classified intel being presented to him.
    The next argument put forth that they were afraid to bring him any classified intel at all.

    Those are contradictory positions. Just like when my kids tell me that they want me to make them a peanut butter and honey sandwich, then turn around 15 minutes later and claim that they never wanted a peanut butter sandwich in the first place (yes, the comparison of the mainstream media and their simps to elementary school-age children is a deliberate one).

    Relax. Trump isn’t worth your tears.

    Dustin (47bccc) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:14 am

    Pointing out 180-degree changes in left-liberal media narratives is hardly a weep-fest. It’s simply another tic on the ledger of why they shouldn’t be trusted, and that they’re always pushing an agenda.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  80. nk (1d9030) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:19 am

    LOL. Yes, nk; let’s face it, we’re both nerds, but nerds who can see a trap for what it is.

    felipe (484255)

  81. How has Trump’s historic trade deal with China worked out so far? Poorly.

    Can’t be so. Trump told us that “trade wars are good and easy to win.” How could you doubt him?

    Trumpers will, of course, say it would have worked if only Trump hadn’t been deprived of another term in office.

    I’ve seen the same sort of argument regarding his pulling out of JCPOA. It’s been conservative orthodoxy that the Iran nuclear deal was a “disaster” and that it put Iran “on a glide path” to getting nukes, and that Trump was 100% correct to abandon it and instead apply his “maximum pressure” strategy (though he didn’t consistently apply it if other interests took precedence, such as his wish to please Erdogan).

    Subsequently, the Iranians declared that they were longer bound by the JCPOA’s restrictions, and openly ramped up uranium enrichment, and became more belligerent in the region. The relatively moderate regime was weakened and a more hard-line one came to power.

    The Trumper line is that the regime was “on its knees” and reaching an inflection point, but then in 2020 the Iranians thought “We’ll just wait for Biden to win, and then everything will go our way.”

    A number of Israeli intelligence officials have concluded otherwise, saying that the regime was “far from collapse” and that, whatever the weaknesses of the JCPOA, Trump’s unilateral withdrawal made things worse. Here’s a summary version (with links): Top Israeli Security Experts Agree — Withdrawing from the JCPOA Nuclear Agreement Has Been a Total Failure.

    Danny Citrinowicz, who spent a long of time studying Iran, said:

    “One of our biggest problems is that we do not understand Iran,” he said. “What’s worse, we make incorrect working assumptions about Iranian goals and strategy based on very shaky knowledge that rests primarily on our understanding of Iran’s activities in the region.”

    The people who believe that Trump and Netanyahu were right are basically the same people who like to say “The ‘experts’ are wrong! We need common sense!” (NB: “common sense” = “the opinions of people I agree with.”) But sometimes, oddly enough, the people who actually study things know more about them.

    Radegunda (940254)

  82. Pointing out 180-degree changes in left-liberal media narratives

    LOL

    A-hole boss screams a lot about something, his employees react naturally to that. That’s not a 180.

    He’s not worth your efforts.

    Most of Trump defense is to deflect into paranoia. Epistemology barely a defense.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  83. felipe (484255) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:22 am

    I am talking about myself here. The defect of the written word is that all physical nuance is lost.

    felipe (484255)

  84. The question isn’t Biden will do if Russia attacks Ukraine (next to nothing, as Ukraine isn’t part of NATO), but what would he do if Russia decided to go for broke and attack the Baltic states, who are NATO members? Biden has telegraphed his response to a Ukraine attack-sanctions and possibly supporting Ukraine partisans in a guerrilla war.

    Also, what if China went for broke and attacked Taiwan at same time? Taiwan is much better armed, but again, the US has no formal treaty to defend Taiwan and in any case the war would be over by the time the Navy would arrive. Also, Americans would not want to get involved in what is essentially an Asian problem. Any US involvement would be driven by domestic political considerations.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  85. Tomorrow I will be checking several newspapers to see whether they even mention the birthday of our greatest president.

    Google’s logo is default.

    The Wapo Black History Month (February) special section does not use the word “Lincoln.”

    The L.A. Times main page does not use the word “Lincoln” but has several links to stories about Valentine’s Day.

    The last article published by the NY Times, indexed to Abraham Lincoln, was In mid-December, about how a statue that he authorized was being pulled down.

    The WSJ has a report today called: What’s Really at Stake in America’s History Wars?

    Kevin M (38e250)

  86. I’m leaning most towards B. Maybe A.

    I pick A.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  87. A-hole boss screams a lot about something, his employees react naturally to that. That’s not a 180.

    This is just cope. The original narrative was never that he was “screaming” about something. It’s that he wasn’t interested in their in-depth, classified reports and wanted a bullets or infographics instead.

    He’s not worth your efforts.

    And the left-liberal media is not worth yours.

    Most of Trump defense is to deflect into paranoia. Epistemology barely a defense.

    Dustin (47bccc) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:37 am

    Deflecting to Trump’s character doesn’t change nature of the contradictory arguments.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  88. Earlier in this Biden puppet show, I assumed Taiwan and Ukraine would be picked off because of the weaknesses of this administration.
    That could happen because the time is ripe.

    I’ve come to believe that chances are also quite high both Putin and Xi are happy having this administration in their pocket and what we will see is headlines and stories telling us how Biden backed Putin down, juxtaposed to Trump who was Putin’s lapdog

    steveg (e81d76)

  89. …and using alternate presentation methods for that same info, and then claiming two years later that they tried to avoid bringing him classified information, is a literal contradiction of narrative.

    There’s no contradiction. It was well established that his national security people dumbed down their briefings so he would pay attention. His interest in briefings went down to zero after the election because he was too busy having a two-month temper tantrum about losing. Everybody knows that.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  90. LOL. Yes, nk; let’s face it, we’re both nerds, but nerds who can see a trap for what it is.

    I, for one, am glad that I brought up “parsec” and face Star Wars trivia instead of “shemale” in that link, felipe.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  91. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:40 am

    Sammy! Kevin is infringing on your trademarked comments.

    felipe (484255)

  92. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:50 am

    Well put, Paul!

    felipe (484255)

  93. Complaining that Trump was uninterested in reading the intel briefing–which contains classified information up to the TS level–and using alternate presentation methods for that same info, and then claiming two years later that they tried to avoid bringing him classified information, is a literal contradiction of narrative. You’re simply being disingenuous

    You are falsely accusing me of dishonesty, because you failed to read my words literally and interpret them rationally.
    I did not literally say “they tried to avoid bringing him classified information,” in the sense of “they didn’t bring him any classified information at all,” which appears to be your insinuation.
    I quoted a former aide who said: “We Were Afraid To Bring Classified Info To Trump.” Those are his words, and clearly he was speaking for others too. He explained that staff feared that Trump would divulge secrets to people who shouldn’t hear them. He did NOT say that therefore they never brought him classified information.

    There’s abundant evidence to demonstrate that Trump has been reckless in his handling of government documents. There’s also testimony from multiple insiders that he did not generally read briefings on his own power, and that it was hard to keep his attention when he was briefed orally and led through bullet points. Briefers had to treat him basically like a young child.

    There is no contradiction whatsoever if you have the ability to put thoughts together rationally.

    Why not just accept the blazingly obvious fact that your hero has some serious defects of character and is nowhere near as smart as he believes?

    Trump is still boasting that he “aced” an elementary cognitive test and claiming that it proves a very high level of intelligence — because he’s too dumb to realize that it was a simple test of basic cognitive function.

    Radegunda (940254)

  94. Akshually, until Brazil’s most notable export came along, the only time I had seen “shemale” was in early 1900s Westerns, by such writers as Max Brand and his contemporaries, used by crusty old cowboys in place of “female” when referring to women.

    nk (1d9030)

  95. If she were familiar with it, would she have confused it with the Nazi secret police?

    Apparently, you didn’t get the joke either.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  96. Deflecting to Trump’s character

    Um ok, but what if we’re talking about Trump.

    Then it’s not a deflection and you’re playing ‘I’m rubber you’re glue’ while generally being ridiculous, and I guess insulting everybody who is not ridiculous. Not that I care. I genuinely am not honored or dishonored by upset Trump fans. I just hope you realize it’s not worth your effort. You’re not fighting the good fight. Even ‘good’ politicians aren’t worth it. Just concede Trump’s a POS loser and move forward. Get some nachos and a beer.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  97. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:04 am

    felipe, Kevin, & nk = 3 amigos

    Which amigo am I? Obvioulsy “the one that is not so smart.”

    felipe (484255)

  98. You’re not fighting the good fight. Even ‘good’ politicians aren’t worth it. Just concede Trump’s a POS loser and move forward. Get some nachos and a beer.
    Dustin (47bccc) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:09 am

    As a Texan, I find great wisdom in this comment about nachos and a beer!

    felipe (484255)

  99. Earlier in this Biden puppet show, I assumed Taiwan and Ukraine would be picked off because of the weaknesses of this administration.
    That could happen because the time is ripe.

    I’ve come to believe that chances are also quite high both Putin and Xi are happy having this administration in their pocket and what we will see is headlines and stories telling us how Biden backed Putin down, juxtaposed to Trump who was Putin’s lapdog

    steveg (e81d76) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:43 am

    Biden is a mushy-brained wimp. Like Carter if Carter was high. There’s no real point comparing him to the previous wimpy loser. Both of them had no honor to our friends, ruined the value in teaming up with America, and might fight to save face, but for no other reason.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  100. @27: So, 3/4ths of men know the word “boson”? How many can define it?

    Kevin M (38e250)

  101. This bimbo should run for president. 81 million morons are in lockstep with this hag.

    It took me a while to discover mg is not talking about the author of the article.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  102. In the first place, a parsec is a unit of distance, not of time; and in the second place, what use is it?

    Observational astronomy.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  103. #87 Kevin – Thanks. Bing, like Google, is using a default. (Though the picture is interesting.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  104. If masks protect people from COVID-19, why wouldn’t the three health-compromised children be protected by wearing masks; why must hundreds of other people be forced to do the same?

    Your assumption is wrong, impacting your conclusion. Masks prevent you from spreading your as-yet unknown infection to others.

    AKA “GIGO.”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  105. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:50 am

    I don’t mean to brag (doesn’t everyone have sisters and brothers?) but every word on that list is familiar to me, even if I do not bandy them about, equally.

    Hmm.

    How long before wokesters use the frequency of the listed* words in authors (read “men”) works as a basis to lodge accusations of – to list just one type – sexism! After all, isn’t wrong-speech actually violence?

    *Oh, just imagine the different lists that can be compiled to support every affront, real or imagined! What need of witnesses? Their own words condemn them!

    felipe (484255)

  106. If you look at who owns the NBA teams … the hit to their NBA revenues will be negligible compared to the hit to their real business revenues if American consumers take a deep dislike to China.

    You know what is going to damage US-China trade? Not the genocide, but the supply-chain mistake. The idea that you could source everything in China and it would magically arrive “just in time” has been exploded by the pandemic and the near-random motion of every factor involved.

    IC production, in particular, will come back the USA, not only to Intel, TI and such, but also to Samsung and TSMC fabs in the US. That whole Chinese supply-chain infrastructure is due for an existential recession.

    It won’t be poliical or ethical reasons, but for commercial and financial ones.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  107. Oops!

    *Oh, just imagine the different lists that can be compiled to support [complaints of]every affront, real or imagined! What need of witnesses? Their own words condemn them!

    Yeah, that’s what I meant.

    felipe (484255)

  108. @27: So, 3/4ths of men know the word “boson”? How many can define it?
    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:17 am

    Why, all of them, Kevin! [sotto voce] Solidarity, brother.

    felipe (484255)

  109. If she were familiar with it, would she have confused it with the Nazi secret police?

    Apparently, you didn’t get the joke either.

    Apparently you didn’t get my joke.

    Radegunda (354d82)

  110. Quite possible.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  111. I just hope you realize it’s not worth your effort. You’re not fighting the good fight. Even ‘good’ politicians aren’t worth it

    It’s a mystery why some people are so fiercely committed to defending the honor of someone who would happily throw them overboard if he saw some advantage to himself in it. Why does Donald Trump, the person, matter so much to them? Why does a father boycott his daughter’s wedding because she has criticized Trump’s effort to overturn an election with the help of an angry mob?

    It isn’t about policy. It’s a bizarre personal devotion to an exceptionally self-centered man.

    Radegunda (354d82)

  112. Kevin M didn’t get my joke here at #24 either.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  113. Dustin: “Not that I care. I genuinely am not honored or dishonored by upset Trump fans. I just hope you realize it’s not worth your effort. You’re not fighting the good fight. Even ‘good’ politicians aren’t worth it. Just concede Trump’s a POS loser and move forward. Get some nachos and a beer.”

    Thanks for capturing my sense of this discussion. We can certainly only REALLY know public figures so well….and yes people who dish insider information can always have ulterior motives, no doubt. But Trump has provided sufficient evidence over time that he is not especially interested in policy, policy details, or any of its underpinnings, say from books/essays on history, economics, or leadership (again, this is inferred by how he frames discussions and makes arguments).

    It’s reasonable to infer he is NOT a details guy, but is most interested in spin and how to communicate that. He’s brilliant at tapping emotion. He understands that he connects deeply with people that say, he says what I feel. And so criticism is taken very personally by that audience…because we can’t offer some alternative that makes that connection. Even the suggestion that “we can do better” is taken as a slight. Many politicians are trying to ape Trump, but they don’t get that benefit of the doubt.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  114. Quite possible.

    I’ll admit that my “joke” wasn’t funny. But I don’t think I cluelessly took something seriously that was meant in jest. (Not that I’ve never done it before.)

    But my feelings were hurt, so I had to do something about it.

    Radegunda (354d82)

  115. Here’s how the self-sacrificing man of the people goes about Saving America:

    In 2021, Trump’s PAC spent more money on rent at Trump Tower (~$375k) than he gave away to other candidates he has endorsed (~$350k).

    Many of those candidates, in turn, spent at Trump properties. Herschel Walker spent $135k at Mar-a-Lago alone.

    Radegunda (354d82)

  116. It’s a mystery why some people are so fiercely committed to defending the honor of someone who would happily throw them overboard if he saw some advantage to himself in it. Radegunda (354d82) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:56 am

    AJ provides an insight which prove useful.

    He understands that he connects deeply with people that say, he says what I feel. And so criticism is taken very personally by that audience… AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:58 am

    felipe (484255)

  117. trump obsession on overdrive today

    JF (e1156d)

  118. But my feelings were hurt, so I had to do something about it.
    Radegunda (354d82) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:59 am

    Maybe allow Trumpsters the same recourse?

    felipe (484255)

  119. Fewer Americans now say Trump bears a lot of responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot
    ……..
    Last year, in the immediate wake of Jan. 6, about half of U.S. adults (52%) said Donald Trump bore a lot of responsibility for the violence and destruction committed by some of his supporters that day. Today, 43% say this. The share of adults who say Trump bears some responsibility has changed little since then, but more Americans now say Trump bears no responsibility for the mayhem caused by his supporters that day (32% today vs. 24% then). The new survey was conducted Jan. 10-17, prior to several developments involving the Jan. 6 investigation and Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.

    ……… The share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say he bears a lot of responsibility has declined from 18% a year ago to 10% today. Nearly six-in-ten Republicans (57%) currently say he has no responsibility at all for the violence, up from 46% shortly after the riot. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners, seven-in-ten say Trump bears a lot of responsibility for last year’s violence at the Capitol, down from 81% a year ago.

    ……… A third of Americans say the right amount of attention has been paid to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, while about equal shares say the riot has received too much attention (35%) and too little attention (31%). These views are little changed from September 2021.

    A large majority of Republicans (65%) say that there has been too much attention paid to the riot, with 22% saying it has received the right amount and just 12% saying it has received too little.

    Among Democrats, about half (48%) say too little attention has been paid to the events of Jan. 6, while 41% say the amount of attention has been about right and just 11% say it has received too much attention.
    ………
    Republicans are internally divided in their views of the Jan. 6 riot, including Trump’s role in it, depending on whether they believe Trump or Joe Biden was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. In a June 2021 survey, about two-thirds of Republicans said Trump definitely (33%) or probably (33%) won the 2020 presidential election – meaning they believe he received the most votes cast by eligible voters in enough states to win.
    …………
    If you repeat the Big Lie long enough, the more you will convince people of its truth.

    Top lines

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  120. JF (e1156d) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:11 am

    Yes, it is, but I care about my fellow commenters, enough to risk their opinion of me, by seeking to play the moderator.

    felipe (484255)

  121. @122 wasn’t directed at you felipe

    i just hope a russian invasion of ukraine and a chinese invasion of taiwan doesn’t make anyone feel compelled to stop the trump talk

    people need their therapy and it’s free here

    JF (e1156d)

  122. Also, Americans would not want to get involved in what is essentially an Asian problem.
    Rip Murdock (da0cad) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:38 am

    google TSMC

    JF (e1156d)

  123. Anti-mandate convoys huge in Canada and Australia while politicians call them anti-vax (most of them are vaxed), racists and bigots. The people know better. American msm giving them minuscule coverage unless it’s to cast them in a negative light.

    Trudeau now threatening them with loss of license/insurance etc., even threatening people who support their cause. Obama’s DHS advisor CNN expert calling for vigilantes to slash their tires and steal their fuel.

    People who supported the violent/fiery riots of 2020 and condemned Tom Cotton for saying troops should be used to stop the destruction and save the cities now calling for military force against peaceful protestors who are just asking their governments to be left alone.

    Crazy. Even crazier are the media/blogs ignoring it.

    Along with Democrats doing 180s on masks because of cratering poll numbers, the biggest stories of the past couple weeks.

    Obudman (8ab61f)

  124. chip fabrication is a national security issue, which means Taiwan’s independence is a national security issue

    which means biden won’t do anything about it

    taiwan is only an asian problem just like the spratleys and paracels were

    china got the message when bush and obama did nothing, which is why taiwan is now in the conversation

    America doesn’t get how much china is hated in other parts of Asia, and how we’d have plenty of support if we just put up any resistance

    JF (e1156d)

  125. Join the “Rename Swastika Mountain” crowd. The mountain in Oregon is named after the brand a local rancher chose for his cattle back when a swastika was a good luck symbol and before the Nazi’s co-opted it.

    On this Bellamy Salute issue, I agree with the people who say the lesson should have stopped short of re-enactment, but criticisms that charge racism and bigotry seem unfair unless they have better evidence.

    Some Mexican people salute their flag in a way that might be misconstrued as Nazi. They first extend their arm, hand out flat and then bring it into their heart, hand flat.

    Young people need to be taught these lessons, to provide context for things they see.
    People who used the swastika or the salute before the time of the co-option by the Nazi’s were not racist precursors and some millions people still use the swastika today throughout Asia, millions more use the same type of salute.

    I’ve always thought the Nazi version of the swastika was smart for Germany at that time. By tilting it at an angle instead of sitting flat, they gave the symbol a sense of movement and momentum

    steveg (e81d76)

  126. google TSMC

    JF (e1156d) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:27 am

    Your point? Any war would be over before sufficient US forces could arrive there. War games have shown that the US and Taiwan could easily lose to a Chinese invasion.

    Taiwan, however, is second only to Israel in political influence in Washington, so win or lose, the US will be involved in another Asian war.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  127. Mr M wrote:

    If masks protect people from COVID-19, why wouldn’t the three health-compromised children be protected by wearing masks; why must hundreds of other people be forced to do the same?

    Your assumption is wrong, impacting your conclusion. Masks prevent you from spreading your as-yet unknown infection to others.

    AKA “GIGO.”

    So, you are saying that masks do not prevent airborne virus from getting in, but do prevent airborne virus from getting out? Amazing how one-way that is.

    Makes me wonder why my fully vaccinated and boostered wife wears a mask, face shield, gloves and a gown while treating COVID patients. After all, since they already have it, it makes no difference if she has it to pass on. And since many of her patients can’t wear a mask, why would Elaine need all of that protective equipment and a mask if the mask does not prevent her from contracting the virus? Why hasn’t she brought it home to me? After all, she’s treated hundreds of COVID patients!

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  128. Newspapers (and others) noting Lincoln’s birthday.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  129. @128 Any war would be over before sufficient US forces could arrive there.

    it’s not wwii anymore

    just like with ukraine, we would know well ahead of time of any potential invasion

    the loss of chip fabrication would not be in china’s best interests either

    unless they plan to just walk in there, that will be the cost

    but maybe your guy biden will usher them in

    I’m sure the chinese entertain that as a possibility, cuz they aren’t stupid

    JF (e1156d)

  130. “Pointing out 180-degree changes in left-liberal media narratives is hardly a weep-fest. It’s simply another tic on the ledger of why they shouldn’t be trusted, and that they’re always pushing an agenda.”

    Do you remember this?

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/09/01/trump-accidentally-revealed-the-amazing-resolution-of-u-s-spy-satellites/?sh=2c4548c13d89

    President Trump is known for his somewhat erratic tweeting, but he likely didn’t realize the implications of releasing a classified image from a U.S. satellite the other day.

    Davethulhu (b008b2)

  131. Mr Murdock wrote:

    The question isn’t Biden will do if Russia attacks Ukraine (next to nothing, as Ukraine isn’t part of NATO), but what would he do if Russia decided to go for broke and attack the Baltic states, who are NATO members? Biden has telegraphed his response to a Ukraine attack-sanctions and possibly supporting Ukraine partisans in a guerrilla war.

    The United Kingdom and France gave Poland unconditional guarantees, and declared war after the Nazis invaded, but they were not in any position to actually help Poland. Poland was overrun, and only ‘liberated’ by the Red Army, which then imposed Comrade Stalin’s version of Communism.

    The Baltic States expose the fundamental fallacy of NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in April of 1949, and the USSR tested its first atomic bomb in August of the same year, much earlier than estimates. NATO was formed to protect western Europe from a convention attack by a conventionally-armed Soviet Union.

    Even with the first Soviet A-Bomb, the USSR couldn’t deliver it anywhere. Now the Soviets Russians have the power, on hand, to obliterate any country in the world. It’s problematic to think we’d go to war with nuclear-armed Russia over Germany, much less Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia.

    Also, what if China went for broke and attacked Taiwan at same time? Taiwan is much better armed, but again, the US has no formal treaty to defend Taiwan and in any case the war would be over by the time the Navy would arrive. Also, Americans would not want to get involved in what is essentially an Asian problem. Any US involvement would be driven by domestic political considerations.

    And China has nuclear weapons as well, and delivery systems, though not nearly as many as Russia, with guesstimates of about 70-80 intercontinental range and submarine launched ballistic missiles, some with MIRVed warheads. Who here wants to go to war with China over Taiwan?

    Let’s face facts: once the bad guys obtained a sufficient number of deliverable nuclear weapons to virtually destroy the United States, all obligations to go to war to defend other nations became functionally obsolete. What American President is going to put 330 million Americans at the real risk of death to defend someone else?

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  132. I see Biden is set to buy the Feds 660,000 EV’s.
    Probably makes sense for urban areas with good power grids, but I’m old enough to remember when Jimmy Carter bailed out Chrysler and thus not optimistic we are going to get a good product

    steveg (e81d76)

  133. Mr g wrote:

    Join the “Rename Swastika Mountain” crowd. The mountain in Oregon is named after the brand a local rancher chose for his cattle back when a swastika was a good luck symbol and before the Nazi’s co-opted it.

    In Lexington, facing Lyndhurst Place at the intersection with Rose Street, very much a UK student neighborhood, is an old dark red brick building apartment building with a white tile swastika embedded in it. The building predates the Nazi takeover of Germany, and is oriented opposite der Führer’s redesign. I will admit to being surprised that its removal hasn’t been forced.

    Along Interstate 68 in western Maryland, there are elevation markers for various high points: Keyser’s Ridge, Meadow Mountain and the like. But the very woke Marylanders removed the elevation marker for the second highest point, Negro Mountain.

    Why was the mountain so named? The most widely accepted, but still not proven, story is that a free black man believed to have been named Nemesis, or possibly Goliath, the “body servant” of Col. Thomas Cresap, was killed in 1756 in a fierce battle with Indians during the French and Indian War.

    Cresap, an English-born frontiersman and land speculator in Maryland and Pennsylvania, named the mountain in honor of Nemesis’ race, according to an account from the Western Maryland Historic Library, part of the Western Maryland Regional Library in Hagerstown.

    That account also was published in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette on June 17, 1756. Another account offers a different version, saying the man died while fighting with a Capt. Friend.

    Lynn Bowman, an adjunct associate professor of English and speech at Allegany College of Maryland, has a darker version. She claimed that the west side of the mountain there was an area called [culturally inappropriate slang term derived from Negro] Hollow where black people were lynched, though that would seem to post-date the name of the mountain.

    Well, who can know, but it wouldn’t have made much sense to name the mountain for Nemesis’ race if the second account is the true one.

    But one thing is certain: I would never have heard of Nemesis, or Goliath if that was what he was called, had the mountain been named Nemesis Mountain; it would have held no interest to me. I also did not know that there were free black men on the frontier at the time; now, I do.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  134. I’m not sure if I’ve linked to this article previously, but I ran across it again and think that it’s an interesting take on the culture war, how it has changed over the past 30 years, what’s driving it now, the effect of technology on discourse, and concern for what will underwrite our shared liberal democracy. It doesn’t provide solutions per se. It’s sober.

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/20/culture-war-politics-2021-democracy-analysis-489900

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  135. Christopher Paul reminds us that “China plays by different rules”.

    Imagine the U.S. allowing a rival unfettered access not merely to its marketplace, but to its media ecosystem – the fourth pillar of our already fragile democracy. And not just access, but the full-blown ability to own, control, and influence the content. You don’t have to imagine it, because it’s happened – and keeps happening. Chinese companies have successfully burrowed into the U.S. media ecosystem with little to no pushback from U.S. regulators, particularly when it comes to radio stations.

    Paul recommends that we ask for “reciprocity”, that we ask for the same access to the Chinese media market that they have to ours. They won’t grant it, but that will give us cause to toss them out of ours.

    (For some time I have been wondering whether one of the Joe TV sub-channels, Asian-American TV is a ChiCom operation. Since I know no Chinese, I can only guess.

    Incidentally, Joe TV is a Fox affiliate.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  136. @50. Pfft. Another “I love America but hate Americans” be our AJ. Think of Americans as Halliburton, AJ. 😉 Investing in yourself- Americans and America- makes dollars– and ‘cents,’ AJ. Wasting $ on Ukraine to rattle swords, not so much.

    Unless you’re Hunter Biden.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  137. @59. Sez the whistling-past-the-graveyard-Dustin….

    …and DCSCA smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  138. trump obsession on overdrive today

    JF (e1156d) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:11 am

    What you dismiss as obsession, we see as reasonable concern and discourse. This is because we’ve already seen the damage Trump did when in power, and we understand that there is the possibility that he may be returned to power in 2024. It would be foolish to ignore that reality. Where goes Trump, so goes the Republican Party. That impacts a huge number of Americans.

    You can continue to dismiss concerns about Trump, of course, but to me it just continually demonstrates your devotion to him.

    Dana (5395f9)

  139. As far as the Bellamy Salute is concerned, I’m not completely sure of who is wrong in this case.

    Is the teacher wrong for his insensitivity towards a Jewish student, and not finding a better way to preface it?

    Of course, he is wrong. He is the adult in the room. Also, being a trained educator, one should be able to assume that he understands the significance of said salute, and the sensitivity toward it by a Jewish student in the class. And honestly, if my kids were in the class and the teacher did that, I’d be pissed too.

    Is the student wrong from not accepting the context of the lesson, which was about how symbols change, where the dropping of the salute was a pretty dramatic example?

    That the teacher made them do the salute. Why? Moreover:

    “He [the teacher] explained to us that in America we used to do that before WWII and everything and then he proceeded to show us, ask us to stand up to salute the flag and he and everyone else did the Nazi salute,” Ephraim told CBS 42.

    The teacher instructed students to salute the flag with the Bellamy Salute. There was absolutely no need for that, and given the sensitivities by marginalized groups when slurs or attacks are made against them, this guy is just too dumb to be in the classroom.

    But the tell to me the school didn’t take this seriously is that, in typical bureaucratic fashion, the school punished the student for exposing what the teacher did instead of punishing the teacher or should I say, the adult in the room and the one responsible for what takes place in his classroom.

    Dana (5395f9)

  140. Radegunda,

    I didn’t have a problem understanding the gist of your comments.

    Dana (5395f9)

  141. @86. The question isn’t Biden will do if Russia attacks Ukraine (next to nothing, as Ukraine isn’t part of NATO), but what would he do if Russia decided to go for broke and attack the Baltic states, who are NATO members?

    Russia will not ‘attack’ a NATO member; they’re Putin’s best energy customers– and Europe likes to keep the heat and lights on. “Sanctions” on a people who’ve endured/turned back Napoleon, the Nazis and rolled tanks over fields full of the frozen bodies of their own dead comrades aren’t going to deter. And this time, China has their back as a conduit to markets. That’s one reason Putin’s pair of deuces keeps beating Biden’s deck full of jokers. Vlad knows how to play this game. And if ol’Joe did, he’d realize this isn’t about Ukraine [or Hunter’s portfolio] at all- but Taiwan. The nostalgic Soviet Putin has craved some semblance of the ol;’CCCP back for years– so doormat Ukraine has had a Crimean fate for a long time. How America reacts telegraphs how it will manage a similar incursion to ‘liberate’ Taiwan– where U.S. obligations are more pressing, nebulous– and economically vital– to the United States- or any paper ‘allies’ on board to square off against China:

    ‘WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – The United States and its allies would take unspecified “action” if China were to use force to alter the status quo over Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.’ – source, https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-allies-would-take-action-if-taiwan-attacked-blinken-2021-11-10/

    Sound familiar? It does to Vlad.

    … and Putin smiled… as Jinping grinned.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  142. …and DCSCA smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/12/2022 @ 1:27 pm

    Actually, Trump lost. That’s what all the crying’s still about, right?

    But put on a brave face and get on your knees to please Putin if you need to. Maybe long for a day when TV news was relevant, generations ago.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  143. JF (e1156d) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:23 am

    I know JF. I was simply agreeing with you and taking the opportunity to explain my meddling with those whom I meddled.

    felipe (484255)

  144. @73. How will Biden react if Russia invades Ukraine in the next week and achieves a military victory in a day or two? Hoi Polloi (998b37) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:14 am No one knows. One of the reasons Biden is such a terrible president.

    No one knows? Ask the Taliban, Dustin. Joe’s already on track to shutter and lose two embassies in a year. Could he score the hat trick?!! It’s only February, you know:

    ‘The US Embassy in Taiwan is a bilateral mission in Taipei and promotes US interests in Taiwan. The embassy of the United States also plays an important role in development, cultural affairs and contacts with the local press of Taiwan. The US Embassy in Taipei is headed by REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE of the United States to Taiwan.’

    But for how long…

    And Jinping smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  145. @144. ‘Reaganoptics’ from you, Dustin? Apparently, you’re the person still fixated on Trump. He’s been out of office 13 months. ‘And that’s the way it is; Saturday, February 12, 2022.’ 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  146. Thanks, Squealer.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/12/2022 @ 6:36 am

    Your response to reasoned disagreement is a juvenile insult?

    That should dispel any mystery about what you see in Trump.

    lurker (59504c)

  147. DCSCA wrote:

    Russia will not ‘attack’ a NATO member; they’re Putin’s best energy customers– and Europe likes to keep the heat and lights on.

    Vladimir Vladimirovich should have attacked in January, not waited through half of February. Western Europe gets 23% of its natural gas from Russia, and President Putin can shut off the spigot with a word. Russia can handle a month without an infusion of euros better than Germany can handle a winter without heat.

    The United States and its allies would take unspecified “action” if China were to use force to alter the status quo over Taiwan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

    It’s more than just ‘taking action’ that matters here. China could take over Taiwan, and control Formosa in perpetuity, while any Western action taken would be temporary. That’s a part of Xi’s calculation.

    There’s no military or economic reason that China needs to retake Formosa, but there is an element of pride involved. Xi Jinping is 68 years old, and while he abolished term limits for his own offices, he has to know that he won’t live forever. Reconquering Taiwan would be a real legacy coup for China’s paramount leader.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  148. A comment from Barkley Rosser, economist at JMU who has a Russian source…

    I shall continue with my bad news from my Russian source. Apparently media in Russia are continuing to spout the brazen lie that US troops are in Ukraine (a few advisers are). I have also heard that apparently he is also ticked at Xi Jinping, apparently having not been met by any Chinese when he landed in Beijing, only the Russian ambassador. David Ignatius reports that Xi is “skeptical of Putin’s overbearing manner and disdain for rules” may be a two-way street.

    What worries me is his isolation and egomania. While Xi is rational, Ignatius reports that Putin seems to have some delusions. The worst apparently is the one GW Bush had about Iraq before going in, that he will be welcomed as a liberator, at least by the native Russian-speaking minority. It is now pretty clear that even in relatively pro-Russia places like Kharkiv, they do not want him coming in at all. He also has gotten the idea that taking Ukraine is a “sacred” cause, ugh.

    I had long been thinking he would not invade, partly following the views of my friends in Kyiv on this, where even now they are probably more complacent than many others. But this latest stuff from Putin has me more seriously worried. I think Xi has him so he will not go while the Winter Olympics are on, but around Feb. 20 looks like a dangerous moment, the end of those and also the supposed end of the war games in Belarus. Officially his troops there are supposed to go home. But they could easily decide to do otherwise about then.

    It is a combination of his delusions, isolation, and clearly mounting egomania on the part of Putin that have me the most worried now, and I am.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  149. steveg (e81d76) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:44 am

    I have always wondered if the swastica “going” clockwise or “going” counter clockwise

    made any difference. after all, a cross pointing up means something different than a cross pointing down to Christians, at least to Christians who know that Peter asked to be crucified upside down. Just as writing an S pointing the opposite way is still an “S” but says something about the writer.

    felipe (484255)

  150. Davethulhu (b008b2) — 2/12/2022 @ 12:01 pm

    Not taking a side, but wasn’t it helpful of Forbes’ source, and others who picked up the story, to highlight the matter just in case any other country might have missed it?

    felipe (484255)

  151. Since my last link about words that men know that women don’t (and vice versa) went over so badly, here’s one about American English and UK English words. I knew all the American words easily but only managed a handful from those British yobs.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  152. Asked in new interview if he would consider becoming Speaker in 2023, Trump suggests he will be reinstated as president before then: “A lot of things are happening .. what should happen is the plan we are on now .. that’s gonna make people very happy, we’ll be announcing …”

    Either he is planning to run in 2024, or he remains completely deluded and thinks Congress or the Courts or The Tooth Fairy is going to magically reinstate him to the WH.

    Dana (5395f9)

  153. @149. The timing for Vlad’s ‘liberation’ likely has to do the calendar as well as sizing up Joe’s incompetence; Afghanistan sealed the deal on that assessment; weather- frozen ground to support the weight of the armor as well; as well as basics like storms- full moon [on 2/16 this month] and such. Events are a factor as well- Olympics, Super Bowl. Any distractions aid him and he’s clearly worked as partnership of convenience w/Xi. Gotta hand it to Vlad. Helluva poker player. Keeps regional power Russia playing the superpower game and winning pots with a pair of deuces.

    …and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  154. It’s a mystery why some people are so fiercely committed to defending the honor of someone who would happily throw them overboard if he saw some advantage to himself in it. Radegunda (354d82) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:56 am

    AJ provides an insight which prove useful.

    He understands that he connects deeply with people that say, he says what I feel. And so criticism is taken very personally by that audience… AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:58 am

    felipe (484255) — 2/12/2022 @ 11:08 am

    But what is it that he is connecting with? I believe it’s an emotional connection. And that would include feelings of anger, resentment, marginalization, abandonment, and being ignored and wronged. Is that a good basis to choose someone to be the POTUS? I feel like loyal Trumpers believe it’s personal and that he recognizes and knows them. I don’t think he does and doesn’t care to know them. They just provide a convenient well of emotions for him to tap into and exploit for his own gain. And what’s really awful is that so many love this country and are patriotic and fiercely loyal to America and see him as the one to secure that. But he is just using them – again, for his own personal gain.

    Dana (5395f9)

  155. @153. When we first moved to London, the day to day ‘slang’ infused in colloquial speech for day to day life was definitely a short-term challenge. The solution turned out to be simply listening and watching BBC and ITV television programmes. The 1969 BBC telecasts of Monty Python and such were packed full of it – and with visual cues to aid– and in about six weeks, we’d picked up the lingo.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  156. Another image showing different directions. Maybe it doesn’t matter in the way a yin-yang symbol with colors reversed matters not.

    felipe (484255)

  157. Paul Montagu,

    I watch/read a lot of British shows/books, so I was pretty chuffed to see how well I did on the right-hand column.

    Dana (5395f9)

  158. Dana (5395f9) — 2/12/2022 @ 1:41 pm

    That is a very persuasive comment, Dana. I completely agree.

    felipe (484255)

  159. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 2:26 pm

    I thought your comment went over very well, due to the discussions that resulted. Perhaps you were expecting a different result.

    felipe (484255)

  160. @149. Experts are speculating over Russia’s next move. They may want to check Ukraine’s weather forecast

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/europe/ukraine-russia-weather-climate-intl/index.html

    It would be ironic if the ‘hand of God’ muddied up his play. Like about to show the winning hand at a California casino — as a quake & fire strikes.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  161. Russian troop and vehicle movements near the Ukraine border, courtesy of TikTok videos. I’d be a little alarmed, driving by and seeing all that. This is only getting more serious.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  162. Just being self-deprecating, felipe.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  163. I believe it’s an emotional connection. And that would include feelings of anger, resentment, marginalization, abandonment, and being ignored and wronged – Dana (5395f9) — 2/12/2022 @ 2:34 pm

    I believe the same, Dana.

    Is that a good basis to choose someone to be the POTUS?

    No. But I recognize that, for some, it is enough – what a pity. This goes for every party.

    I feel like ….

    This is where every argument/difference of opinion occurs. Both sides attempt to mind read the other and it off to the races.

    felipe (484255)

  164. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 2:51 pm

    We both know that it speaks well of you, Paul.

    felipe (484255)

  165. Dana- “I watch/read a lot of British shows/books, so I was pretty chuffed to see how well I did on the right-hand column.”

    You have a favourite??? We had little choice back in the day and found them all superbly produced and written. And as the BBC had no commercial constraints, if a story was written to run an hour and 37 minutes, it ran without being edited to tel lthe sory as written. We found them basically split into two areas high brow dramas to police shows and comedies- From Z-Cars to Up Pompeii, Benny Hill and the Pythons into what I consider the best evewry written; Fawlty Towers. There was some really good stuff- several of them lifted, as I’m sure you know, by Norman Lear and successfully reworked for U.S. audiences.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  166. Russian troop and vehicle movements near the Ukraine border, courtesy of TikTok videos. I’d be a little alarmed, driving by and seeing all that. This is only getting more serious.

    Troops on the march in Europe. Again.

    Film at 11.

    … and the History Channel smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  167. There are nations that have done worse against COVID than the US. For example, Putin’s Russia. The estimates for excess mortality for the two nations are almost identical, a little less than 1.2 million — but Putin’s Russia has a population of about 146 million, compared to the US population of about 334 million.

    Putin should be trying to save his people’s lives, rather than getting more of them killed in a war of aggression against a neighboring nation.

    (COVID probably arrived later in Russia than the US, which would have given them an advantage.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  168. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 2/12/2022 @ 2:54 pm

    I had the same experience. Two favorites: Fawlty Towers and Black Adder 1 – 3. I was so pleased to discover House online with Hugh Laurie playing the lead! Also, I enjoyed Masterpiece theater’s Kean.

    felipe (484255)

  169. You have a favourite???

    To name a few: Endeavor (all-time fave), the excellent George Gently and Foyle’s War, the charming Father Brown Mysteries, and the current All Creatures Great and Small is wonderful.

    Dana (5395f9)

  170. “You cannot record me – that is against my HIPAA law!”
    I swear, the 39-second video is glorious.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  171. I think the German Swastika was going clock wise early in the festivities and Hitler assumed it would always be so.

    steveg (e81d76)

  172. #150

    I don’t know how many advisors we have in Ukraine, but I do know that in Syria, US policy is to keep very close eyes on sophisticated lethal aid.
    Javelin tubes need to be returned before resupply. There are videos in Syria of US Special forces deployed and using UTV’s to shuttle replacements.

    Russia has troops and mercenaries in Syria as does the US. I’d assume we’ve agreed to continued deconfliction even if Ukraine is invaded, but the Wagner Group has gone rogue before

    steveg (e81d76)

  173. Speaking of the Nazis, as an immigration officer I was once preparing to interview a Hispanic family. I asked them to raise their right hands so as to place them under oath, while at the same time I was looking down at their files. When I finished speaking the oath, I glanced up to see the whole family giving me the Hitler salute.

    norcal (2c7427)

  174. This whole Ukraine debacle might have been avoided had Ukraine kept its nukes. Likewise, Taiwan would be more secure if IT had nukes. It certainly works for North Korea.

    I’m confident Taiwan could have produced nuclear weapons a long time ago, but like Japan, it may have decided to rely on the U.S. for protection.

    norcal (2c7427)

  175. @175. “Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss” – The Who ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ 1971

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  176. @176. They’re a chip that gets you a seat at the Big Game that you never play; expensive to create, secure and maintain.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  177. Investigation finds less double voting in Georgia than alleged

    After the hectic 2020 Georgia primary, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made a bombshell allegation from the steps of Liberty Plaza outside the Georgia Capitol that 1,000 people potentially voted twice.

    A year and a half later, an investigation by his own office has found less double voting than he had suspected.
    ……….
    The investigation so far indicates about 300 voters cast two ballots in the June 2020 primary and August 2020 primary runoff, almost always because of mistakes by confused voters and poll workers. The number of double voters could rise because about 100 cases remain under investigation.

    Investigators confirmed 22% of 1,339 suspected cases of double voting in the primary elections. The other 78% appear to have only voted once.

    The additional votes didn’t change any election outcomes, and violators could face fines or prosecution. Three vote counts and dozens of investigations checked the 2020 elections in Georgia.
    ………
    Some Georgians tried unsuccessfully to vote again because they were confused by constant calls, mail and texts telling them they hadn’t voted yet. In other cases, poll workers made mistakes when operating new voter check-in tablets called Poll Pads.
    ……..
    The Poll Pads were supposed to alert election workers at polling places when a voter had already requested an absentee ballot, requiring them to cancel their mail-in ballot before being able to vote in person. That process sometimes broke down because of “human error” either by election officials at the polls or during absentee ballot processing, according to the secretary of state’s office.
    ……….
    Of 129 people in the South Georgia region investigated for voting twice in the 2020 general election in November, the State Election Board in September found reason to believe that just four of them had actually done so.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  178. Speaking of the Nazis, as an immigration officer I was once preparing to interview a Hispanic family. I asked them to raise their right hands so as to place them under oath, while at the same time I was looking down at their files. When I finished speaking the oath, I glanced up to see the whole family giving me the Hitler salute.

    Lol.

    Dana (5395f9)

  179. Kevin M didn’t get my joke here at #24 either.

    Actually, having met Schmitz after he left office (we were in the same summer politics class at UCI), I did get the joke. In fact I was making the same joke.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  180. But I don’t think I cluelessly took something seriously that was meant in jest. (Not that I’ve never done it before.)

    Sorry. filipe said I was impersonating Sammy today. Maybe he’s right.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  181. The Unbearable Lightness of Nikki
    ………
    ………[S]he and her fellow Republicans are being asked simple and direct questions that they absolutely do not want to answer.

    Things like: “Do you support the RNC censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger?”

    And:

    Do you agree with Donald Trump or Mike Pence about whether the vice president has the power to overturn an election?”

    They are clarifying questions, but deadly ones, because they force the GOPers to take sides on the issue that the Orange God King in Exile has made a litmus test for political survival in his party.

    Their choice: embrace Trump’s vast array of lies and his unconstitutional attempt to overturn the election — or tell the truth. It’s a bitter conundrum for Republicans in the Overtime Age of Trump.
    ………
    You will recall “Nikki Haley’s Time for Choosing,” when she was appalled by Trump’s attacks on Mike Pence — and declared was done with Trump after January 6. “We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she told Tim Alberta.

    “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

    Well, “ever” lasted a few months for Nikki, before she was scratching and clawing her way back to Mar-a-Lago to drink deep the cup of self-humiliation that is always on offer there.

    On Monday, she was asked to react to Pence’s declaration that “Trump was wrong.” It was another one of Nikki’s times for choosing. And she said this:

    “Mike Pence is a good man,” Haley said. “He’s an honest man. I think he did what he thought was right on that day. But I will always say, I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans.”

    Presumably this would include things like saying “Hang Mike Pence,” but a search for any sort of consistency here seems pointless. She knows Pence is right, but cannot bring herself to say so, or to stand up for democracy, because that would risk re-angering Trump.

    So Nikki clutches her pearls as she insists that she doesn’t cotton to Republicans criticizing other Republicans. Because Trump, or something.
    ……,,,
    For the last six years, (Trump) has been a Vesuvius of Insults directed at his fellow Republicans. It’s actually his brand. This is, after all, a guy who continues to insist that the late John McCain “was a bad guy … a bully and a nasty guy.”

    But Nikki has made her choice.

    So don’t look for Nikki to voice objections the next time (Trump) calls Mitch McConnell a “broken down old crow,” or calls Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), a “terrible Republican” who “did everything he could to block voter integrity.”

    Don’t expect Nikki to take umbrage when Trump calls Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) a “lightweight,” or calls other GOP officials “Super-Rinos.”
    ………

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  182. https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/02/12/john-durham-drops-a-shock-and-awe-filing-about-spying-on-donald-trump-n521239
    nothing will ever happen to the dirty 3 branches of gubmint
    because the 4th branch will take care of it

    mg (8cbc69)

  183. Fewer Americans now say Trump bears a lot of responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot

    Give it some time and a majority will say that the Jan 6th event is being used to hide the evidence of the Big Steal.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  184. chip fabrication is a national security issue, which means Taiwan’s independence is a national security issue

    It is not possible to defend Taiwan against China without using nuclear weapons, which I hope to God we do not do. If China were to make a serious attempt to invade, they would succeed, and we would restrict our actions to make sure that not one stick and one stone of those TSMC fabs were not within 10 feet of each other. Assuming the Taiwanese did not beat us to it.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  185. the kind of trump news the trump obsessed aren’t interested in

    Durham says Clinton campaign funded surveillance of Trump Tower, White House

    Special counsel John Durham alleged in a court filing Saturday that the Clinton campaign paid a tech company to hack servers in former President Donald Trump’s residences and the White House to gather derogatory information on him during the 2016 campaign and while he was president.

    In the filing, Mr. Durham says the government has evidence that an unnamed tech executive “exploited” an arrangement with the government to monitor Mr. Trump’s internet traffic related to a Trump Tower, Mr. Trump’s Central Park West apartment, the executive office of the president and an unnamed healthcare provider.

    yawn

    JF (e1156d)

  186. @171. Yes- all excellent; Foyle’s War is extremely well done; and the thing is, speaking from the experience of viewing them from decades past, the quality of all the programming- has remained consistently good aand strong over the decades. Can’t think of any that were really poor. A lot of the comedies stay with me; On The Buses; The Dustbin Men; Steptoe & Son; Till Death Do Us Part; Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise… Marty Feldman, Bernard Cribbins… they all had great comedy shows. Blackadder, Python; Fawlty Towers; Up Pompeii! Yes Minister! Yes Prime Minister! Are You Being Served? [exactly how Harrods was run]; Dad’s Army! Absolutely Fabulous! [literally taped in the neighborhood of my old high school BTW]… and the dramas- Doomwatch; U.F.O.; I, Clauvius; Upstairs, Downstairs; Callan… it was all just so good. Especially when you compare it to what was being piped out in America around the same time- Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie; Gilligan’s Island, The Fugitive, Lost In Space and so forth. Recall it was ‘big news’- made the newspapers- when the BBC began airing Laugh-In [a year after it was aired stateside] and some goofy space show called Star Trek. The way they were written for commercial breaks was glaring compared to routine BBC programming. OTOH, even in the late 60s and early 70s, BBC 1 television came on the air at 4 PM and went off the air around 11 or 12 PM– and commercial ITV became Thames Television/London Weekend Television over the weekends… and BBC-2 was an experimental colour station with periodic programs. But the sports programming was quite comprehensive- lots of soccer– mainly because the country ‘played the pools’ betting on the matches. We did it every week.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  187. So, you are saying that masks do not prevent airborne virus from getting in, but do prevent airborne virus from getting out? Amazing how one-way that is.

    It only takes a few particles coming in to be a problem. The best way to reduce that number is to reduce what is coming out from others. A mask will offer some protection, but very little if you are standing next to the unmasked coughing sick guy. His mask will bring the numbers way down, to the point where your mask is protective.

    But if you think that statistics are a all-or-nothing thing, you really need to study the topic some more, or stop talking about it.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  188. @185. Beating the dead horse won’t breathe life into it; and after a year, the rotting carcass merely stinks– and draw flies.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  189. I have always wondered if the swastica “going” clockwise or “going” counter clockwise

    Ask the guy who used the word “niggardly” at a school-board meeting.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  190. @191. Was his wife a thespian, too? 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  191. @167: Much British comedy is topical and relates to Britain and British events. The humor often doesn’t translate, Python excepted.

    Drama is better. The Brits have the mystery and police procedural down pat. They also had Shakespeare, Dickens and Agatha Christie.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  192. The BBC in the 70s and 80s was pretty terrible for the most part. A lot of despair and grimness everywhere. Dickens adaptations were bleaker than Dickens wrote. Unbelievably depressed.

    Later, though, it gets pretty good. One of the most amazing series was David Suchet’s Poroit. While the production was uneven at first, he managed to complete every story and book that Christie wrote about Hercule Poirot, and his characterization was spot on. I think his “Orient Express” is the best version so far done.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  193. Stock-Trading Ban for Members of Congress Gains Traction
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expected Democrats to reach consensus on restricting stock trading by members of Congress and called for new rules for federal judges, as proposals competed for bipartisan support.
    ……..
    The comments by Mrs. Pelosi show how quickly momentum has grown for new rules. In mid-December, she had rejected further regulations, telling reporters that “we’re a free-market economy,” in reference to lawmakers’ trades. Last month, Mrs. Pelosi shifted her position, saying “I’m OK with that,” if lawmakers wanted to tighten restrictions on trading.

    The developments come amid greater scrutiny of trading by top government figures. …….
    ………
    One bill, led by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas), would require lawmakers, their spouses and dependents to put stocks, futures and derivatives into blind trusts managed by outside advisers. Another, led by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.), would ban lawmakers and senior staffers, but not spouses, from trading in stocks and other investments.
    ……….
    Not all lawmakers are on board with the idea of further regulating trades.

    “I think there’s a free market out there, and I’ve never seen any instances myself of insider trading,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.). “I don’t think that’s very likely because we do so much out in the open.”
    ……….
    Related:
    WSJ Editorial: The Misguided Rush to Ban Congress’s Stock Trades
    ………
    ……… Banning stock trades is populist grandstanding that will do nothing to limit government. It will deter candidates who are more likely than political lifers to serve a few years and then skip town for productive work.
    ………

    Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who violated stock-trading rules 132 times last year, says it’s ‘ridiculous’ to ban lawmakers from trading stocks
    …….
    Insider’s “Conflicted Congress” investigation identified 55 lawmakers who failed to properly report their financial trades last year as mandated by the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, also known as the STOCK Act. The rule is designed to combat insider trading by requiring timely disclosure of stock transactions.

    Tuberville was one of the worst violators of the STOCK Act in 2021, disclosing 132 stock trades weeks or months late with transactions totaling at least $894,000.
    ………
    Unlike Tuberville, many Republicans have expressed support for a stock-trading ban. Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ben Sasse of Nebraska have each introduced bills to ban lawmakers from stock trading.
    ……. .

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  194. President Joe Biden has decided what to do with the $7 billion of the Afghan central bank’s assets sitting frozen in the U.S. banking system. According to reports, the president will split the money down the middle between 9/11 families in America and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

    Will that cause Senator Rand Paul to lift his hold (1-man filibuster) on funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system?

    Sebator Rand Paul said he wanted the Afghanistan money used for that, and the rest to revert to the Treasury.

    They had to pass it as a stand-alone bill in the House because of the Squad and others, and to bypass Rand Paul they’d have to take up up to 30 hours of floor time debating it. I read they were still hoping to fold it in into a bigger piece of legislation.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  195. U.S. withdraws Nat’l Guardsmen [aka troops] from Ukraine. No airbase to abandon this time, eh, Joe?!

    50 years of government experience at work.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  196. Putin imagines himself an International Man of Mystery, sort of like Austin Powers but shorter.
    No way the saber waver invades the U of crane. They have nothing, zero, zilch.

    mg (8cbc69)

  197. @193. Much British comedy is topical and relates to Britain and British events. The humor often doesn’t translate, Python excepted.

    That would be news to Norman Lear and others who ripped of the British:

    https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/21046/4-great-american-tv-shows-stolen-british

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  198. @170. McGoohan’s brilliant ‘The Prisoner’ and early ‘John Drake’ ‘Danger Man” spy shows remain stellar and survive the test of time; and, of course, The Avengers remains stellar; a superb series for a long, long time giving us the ever dapper Patrick Macnee, saucy Honor Blackman, leather bootkicker Diana Rigg, sassy Linda Thorson and sultry Joanna Lumley.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  199. One thing that we should point out to Mr Putin is that an invasion of the Ukraine, as a war of territorial conquest, will be considered a war crime in and of itself.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  200. Anecdotal, but the neighbor, a Marine lieutenant who has mentioned his likely deployment if issues w/Taiwan heat up, has taken his family off for a long ‘vacation’- last time he did this was just before he was deployed to Palau last June– for six months of war gaming exercises against China.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  201. That would be news to Norman Lear and others who ripped of the British:

    Not all all. He did so because the originals wouldn’t play well in the states. So, he updated them and the humor to a US version. No one had to remake “The Avengers” (although someone did).

    There was a very successful British SF drama called “Life on Mars” where a modern-day policeman wakes up to find it is 1973. But all the period reference were completely lost on a non-British audience so they remade the show in the US. Then again in South Korea for much the same reasons.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  202. @202. It’s a real estate deal.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  203. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she expected Democrats to reach consensus on restricting stock trading by members of Congress and called for new rules for federal judges, as proposals competed for bipartisan support.

    It will never pass. Only Democrats think that politicians should not dabble in capitalist pursuits.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  204. Mr Putin, say hello to the new Cold War. This time, when you lose, we won’t be so nice about it and let you guys off without facing a court.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  205. Rand Paul, party pooper:

    As many anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protesters in trucks continue to paralyze Canada’s capital and block border crossings, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he hopes truckers would come to the United States as soon as this weekend to clog up streets in Los Angeles during the Super Bowl or next month to Washington.

    Participants in the self-styled “Freedom Convoy” are expected to flood Ottawa for a third straight weekend in what Ontario Premier Doug Ford called a “siege” as he declared a provincial state of emergency. Protesters have also blocked several U.S.-Canada border crossings, affecting industries on both sides of the border.

    I’m not a big fan of the Super Bowl, but I don’t see why a small minority of truckers should spoil the party.

    More seriously, the blockades have already put people out of work:

    Automakers have been particularly affected by the partial shutdown of the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor and Detroit. Trucks cross it thousands of times a day carrying $300 million worth of goods, about a third of which are related to the auto industry. The blockades have left carmakers short of crucial parts, forcing companies to shut down some plants from Ontario to Alabama on Friday.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  206. No way the saber waver invades the U of crane. They have nothing, zero, zilch.

    I’m willing to take that bet. Putin will attack Ukraine for political reasons and not to lose face. Ukraine does have significant mineral and metal deposits.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  207. There, city-funded service providers supervise people smoking fentanyl and meth they buy from drug dealers across the street.

    This is not good enough.

    If they don;t want criminal activity, they’ve got to give them the money to buy the fentanyl and the meth, perhaps conditioned on not doing certain things.

    Do they think they are getting the money by collecting bottles?

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  208. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he hopes truckers would come to the United States as soon as this weekend to clog up streets in Los Angeles during the Super Bowl or next month to Washington.

    Curious how Sen. Paul felt about BLM protesters blocking roads and bridges???

    Dana (5395f9)

  209. Mr M wrote:

    One thing that we should point out to Mr Putin is that an invasion of the Ukraine, as a war of territorial conquest, will be considered a war crime in and of itself.

    Oh, that will just scare him poopless!

    War crimes: the excuses given by the winners to hang the losers. The only way this would apply to Vladimir Vladimirovich is if he orders an invasion of Ukraine, and Russia loses, and he’s taken captive.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  210. 188,

    My tastes in British comedy tend to run more toward Keeping Up Appearances with the delightful Patricia Routledge, as well as Ab Fab. I didn’t care for Monty Python.

    Dana (5395f9)

  211. The BBC in the 70s and 80s was pretty terrible for the most part. A lot of despair and grimness everywhere.

    It’s the griminess, as in grubby, even sordid, I cannot stand. They even seem to take a sort of pride in it. Leo McKern speaks snidely of American cleanliness in one “Rumpole of the Bailey” episode. A show I *used” to watch, but stopped watching in the middle of an episode, in the middle of a scene actually, of Rumpole holding a conversation in the court public bathroom while taking a pee, with the only detail missing being the sight oh his nether regions. What was the necessity of that? Even the shake, for crying out loud? Cor blimey, guv’nor!

    Another one I wasted only one minute of may life on, was the BBC’s “Poirot” for opening “Death On The Nile” with a sex scene. WTF? “Keep it with your butter scones and tea, you vitamin-deficient wankers!”

    nk (1d9030)

  212. Mr Murdock wrote:

    No way the saber waver invades the U of crane. They have nothing, zero, zilch.

    I’m willing to take that bet. Putin will attack Ukraine for political reasons and not to lose face. Ukraine does have significant mineral and metal deposits.

    Have you ever met Ukrainian women? They are just drop dead gorgeous!

    Invading Ukraine shows the weakness of NATO, and will trigger real worry in Poland and the Baltic States that their NATO membership is meaningless. Eventually the Baltic States, at the very least, will opt for some sort of neutrality and end NATO membership, just the kind of buffer states that Russia wants. It’s not a guarantee that the tanks will roll, but Mr Putin has almost painted himself into a corner: whatever his intentions have been, if he doesn’t order the tanks to roll after all of this, it will be seen as a victory for Joe Biden, NATO and a loss of prestige for him.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  213. ‘No way the saber waver invades the U of crane. They have nothing, zero, zilch.’

    European real estate won’t come any cheaper to Vlad for the next 50 years. And Ukranians aren’t so stupid [or high] enough to destroy their own homes and businesses– they have to live there when the dust settles and the snow melts. They’ll put up token resistance to save some face – then go ‘French.’

    “I don’t know, man, maybe we’ll just sit there and groove on the rubble.” – Jerry Rubin [Gabe Kaplan] ‘Richard Nixon: Superstar’ w/David Frye, Elektra Records, 1971

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  214. You are falsely accusing me of dishonesty, because you failed to read my words literally and interpret them rationally.

    I’m not accusing you of dishonesty; I’m pointing out that you’re parroting dishonest, contradictory narratives.

    I did not literally say “they tried to avoid bringing him classified information,” in the sense of “they didn’t bring him any classified information at all,” which appears to be your insinuation.
    I quoted a former aide who said: “We Were Afraid To Bring Classified Info To Trump.” Those are his words, and clearly he was speaking for others too. He explained that staff feared that Trump would divulge secrets to people who shouldn’t hear them. He did NOT say that therefore they never brought him classified information.

    Which contradicts the argument two years ago by the same class that Trump *should* have been reading the in-depth intel reports rather than the bulleted briefings.

    There’s abundant evidence to demonstrate that Trump has been reckless in his handling of government documents. There’s also testimony from multiple insiders that he did not generally read briefings on his own power, and that it was hard to keep his attention when he was briefed orally and led through bullet points. Briefers had to treat him basically like a young child.

    Yeah, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that a waste of carbon molecules with direct connections to the major left-liberal media organs like Miles Taylor is suddenly coming out with the shocking revelation that the intel staff were afraid to tell him classified info, just a couple days after Haberman came out with her Gorilla Channel-tier “sources say” story about Trump supposedly flushing documents down the White House toilet. Funny how he didn’t see fit to mention this earlier.

    There is no contradiction whatsoever if you have the ability to put thoughts together rationally.

    Two years ago, the complaint was that he wouldn’t take the time to read the in-depth, comprehensive intel reports he was being brought. Now, the complaint is that they actually didn’t want to give him that info at all, and basically did all that work for nothing.

    Just because you don’t want to see the contradiction doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

    Why not just accept the blazingly obvious fact that your hero has some serious defects of character and is nowhere near as smart as he believes?

    Radegunda (940254) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:57 am

    LOL, Trump is hardly my “hero.” You know who is my hero? My wife, for successfully refusing to take Fauci’s Miracle Wellness Tonic long enough, that now she doesn’t even have to do weekly testing anymore after the family got over COVID.

    I’m glad Trump finally ended the neocons’ 25-year Reign of Error, but that would have happened eventually anyway after the TARP bailout, and the later debacle of Romney’s 2012 campaign. He just happened to be the one to do it, and was incidental to the direction the party’s voters were already going.

    There’s no contradiction. It was well established that his national security people dumbed down their briefings so he would pay attention. His interest in briefings went down to zero after the election because he was too busy having a two-month temper tantrum about losing. Everybody knows that.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:49 am

    The complaints that Trump wasn’t reading the in-depth intel reports took place long before the election, which you’d know from a simple Google search. Try and keep up.

    You’re not fighting the good fight. Even ‘good’ politicians aren’t worth it. Just concede Trump’s a POS loser and move forward. Get some nachos and a beer.

    Dustin (47bccc) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:09 am

    Nah. Slagging contradictory left-wing media narratives is a lot more fun than “I jus’ wanna grill, bro!”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  215. Curious how Sen. Paul felt about BLM protesters blocking roads and bridges???

    Dana (5395f9) — 2/12/2022 @ 5:36 pm

    So your complaint is that the truckers are giving the left-liberal establishment just a small spoonful of its own medicine, after two years of them blatantly shoving their “emergency powers” in everyone’s face and taking these same people for granted?

    They aren’t doing any tactics that weren’t normalized the left 1.5 years ago, with about 1/10,000 of the mischief caused by BLM and Antifa for months on end. The difference is that this one isn’t having its signal boosted by the Democrat-voting media, isn’t supported by the same jerkweed politicians who gleefully support property destruction and traffic-blocking for *their* pet causes and donate to bail funds for the protestors, and isn’t sponsored by Coca-Cola and Nike.

    The Laptop Class is getting a pointed lesson in how logistics work in a “just in time” supply system, and how utterly dependent they are on it to survive from the very people whom they look down their nose at.

    And considering Paul had his ribs broken by his Democrat-voting neighbor, I’m inclined to give him a pass when he expresses support for those who are making life difficult for that same class of people.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  216. @215-

    The Ukraine girls knock me out,

    They leave the West behind ……

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  217. @213. Dana – ‘My tastes in British comedy tend to run more toward Keeping Up Appearances with the delightful Patricia Routledge, as well as Ab Fab. I didn’t care for Monty Python.’

    KUA is quite funny, too- their comedies have a deep bench; some of it goes back to the music hall days and when we were living there, they were still aired’ The Black And White Minstrel Show’ as a weekly variety show series. Blatantly racist but right out of their music hall history. Python is definitely an acquired taste. True story: we’d just settled into our flat and had the TV hooked up and read the listings in the newspaper and came across this show called ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ – so figuring it was going to be about airplanes, we tuned it. The episode began with the ending- and the credits rolled in from the side— I’ll never forget we just all looked at each other and mouthed ‘what the heck is this’– watched waiting for airplanes… whichnever appeared; but learned the slang; “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it was topical for the England of the times; especially lampooning everything German and French- and PMsd Heath or Wilson. For example, you have to know Brian Trubshaw was to understand why he was even mentioned in jokes as humor– he was the first British pilot of the Anglo-French Concorde which, at the time, was as big a story to the Brits as the moon shots were for America.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  218. @219. And surprise, this time, Joe, Joe, Joe. Joe ain’t on their mind.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  219. Rand Paul is a creep. But even creepier are the also-rans of society who want to make life more difficult for their fellow citizens. The winners like their country the way it is.

    nk (1d9030)

  220. Rip – Why chance war with Europe and Eastern Europe when they are the best oil customers you have. Prices are high.
    After defeating the Army, they would then have to defend the conquered Ukraine against urban terrorists for decades.
    Putin is a tyrant living in his past kgb daze.

    mg (8cbc69)

  221. Hardcore sanctions on Russia may pizz off his close oligarchs.

    mg (8cbc69)

  222. nk reminds me of this bit of Rand Paul history.

    The aide says he has changed his mind. I would like to think that is true, but I recognize that the change, if it occurred, was very convenient, politically.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  223. I’m not accusing you of dishonesty; I’m pointing out that you’re parroting dishonest, contradictory narratives.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/12/2022 @ 5:58 pm

    BS. You accused her of being disingenuous, a form of dishonesty.

    lurker (59504c)

  224. The fiends! But how did they “infiltrate” Natalia Veselnitskaya, a top Putin errand-runner, into a meeting with Don Junior, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, at Trump Tower, with the promise of dirt on Hillary straight from the Russian “Crown Prosecutor”?

    nk (1d9030)

  225. BS. You accused her of being disingenuous, a form of dishonesty.

    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:02 pm

    I pointed out the media was being disingenuous, and that she was uncritically repeating their dishonesty.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  226. “You’re simply being disingenuous because you ran in to someone with a memory span longer than a week.”

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:03 am

    lurker (59504c)

  227. lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:14 pm

    That’s what happens when you uncritically repeat disingenuous media reports.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  228. FWO, to Radegunda: “You’re simply being disingenuous because you ran in to someone with a memory span longer than a week.” That’s an attack on the person, not the “media”.

    Disingenuous, per Oxford: “not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.”

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  229. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:18 pm

    That’s what happens when you uncritically repeat disingenuous media reports.

    The complaint about attacking the person is particularly rich coming from you.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  230. That’s what happens when you uncritically repeat disingenuous media reports.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:16 pm

    Now you’re just explaining why you accused her dishonesty.

    So you admit you did it?

    lurker (59504c)

  231. accused her *of* dishonesty

    lurker (59504c)

  232. Now you’re just explaining why you accused her dishonesty.

    So you admit you did it?

    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:26 pm

    Maybe not uncritically repeating disingenuous media reports and doubling down when the contradictions in previous narratives are pointed out will reduce those incidents.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  233. Out of curiosity, does anyone know what FWO is for?

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  234. That’s what happens when you uncritically repeat disingenuous media reports.

    The only words I repeated were yours, FWO, and a dictionary definition.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  235. @236

    Fine. Accuse her of dishonesty, then deny you did it, then tacitly admit you did it, then evade admitting or denying anything. And all of it right before our lying eyes.

    Could anything be more Trumpian?

    lurker (59504c)

  236. One of the poets, whose name I cannot recall, has a passage, which I am unable at the moment to remember, in one of his works, which for the time being has slipped my mind, which hits off admirably this age-old situation. The gist of his remarks is that lovely woman rarely fails to start something.

    — P. G. Wodehouse, The Clicking of Cuthbert

    It also accords with the conversations about British TV, above. I always liked “Wodehouse Playhouse”. The “Mulliner” stories more than the “Jeeves” stories, and the golf stories best.

    nk (1d9030)

  237. The complaints that Trump wasn’t reading the in-depth intel reports took place long before the election, which you’d know from a simple Google search. Try and keep up.

    Trump was never a reader, FWO. A simple Google search would learn you that. This was from last November, so it covers his entire single term.

    Donald Trump’s “fact-free” approach to the presidency created unprecedented challenges for intelligence officials responsible for briefing him, according to a newly released account from the CIA.

    The 45th president’s chaotic and freewheeling style, and his disinclination to read anything put in front of him, resulted in the presidential daily briefing, or PDB – a crucial security update including information about potential threats to the US – being delivered more regularly to Vice-President Mike Pence instead, the report states.

    By the middle of Trump’s term in office, his briefings were reduced to two weekly sessions of 45 minutes each. Briefings were discontinued altogether after the deadly insurrection of 6 January, which was sparked by Trump urging his supporters to march on the US Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.

    The analysis comes in a 40-page unclassified update to the CIA’s Getting to Know the President, a publication that chronicles efforts to brief presidents-elect through transition periods and into office for every administration since 1952.

    Please tell me how this makes me or The Guardian “disingenuous”. For a guy who claimed he didn’t vote for the clown, you do spend a lot of words either defending him or attacking his critics.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  238. @Jim@237 Civil war as far as I can tell. He says he’s OK with people disagreeing with him, after all his wife is a Democrat, but he doesn’t seem to tolerate enough people disagreeing with him that his preferred team sometimes loses elections. He seems so unhappy that the team he supports doesn’t win every single time that instead of solving this by convincing more people to agree with him (which is the way democracy is supposed to work) his solution is to carve out a separate country where most of the people who disagree with him are in the other country and most of the people who agree with him are in his new carve-out (which is Bad Americaning.)

    Nic (896fdf)

  239. Biden tells Putin Ukraine invasion would bring decisive response

    ‘WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday that the West would respond decisively to any invasion of Ukraine, adding such a step would produce widespread suffering and isolate Moscow.

    In the latest effort to manage growing hostility, the two men spoke by phone for an hour a day after Washington and its allies warned that the Russian military, which has 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, could invade at any moment. Moscow has dismissed those warnings as “hysteria.” Neither side said there had been any breakthroughs. A senior Biden administration official said the call was professional and substantive, but that there was no fundamental change.

    The Kremlin said Putin told Biden Washington has failed to take Russia’s main concerns into account, and it had received no “substantial answer” on key elements including NATO’s expansion and the deployment of offensive forces to Ukraine. The senior Biden administration official said it was unclear whether Putin was committed to diplomacy even as he agreed to stay in touch with Biden.

    The call took place as Israel, Portugal and Belgium joined the list of countries that have urged their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately.’ – https://news.yahoo.com/biden-putin-speak-ukraine-warnings-060526420.html

    Oy vey. “The West”???? The Germans sent helmets, Joe. Who do you think you’re kidding, “Dad” ??

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

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  240. Fine. Accuse her of dishonesty, then deny you did it, then tacitly admit you did it, then evade admitting or denying anything. And all of it right before our lying eyes.

    Could anything be more Trumpian?

    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 7:45 pm

    Game. Set. Match.

    FWO, why don’t you take a break from the poo flinging and just admit your error? Is that a bridge too far for your ego?

    It’s very liberating when one learns to admit error and apologize. I learned this the hard way.

    norcal (2c7427)

  241. says the hall monitor, without milk money
    snitching is how one survives for the under 65 posse

    mg (8cbc69)

  242. Joe Cellar = 60% stupid – 40% liar
    and that goes for you 81 million morons

    mg (8cbc69)

  243. “Joe Cellar = 60% stupid – 40% liar and that goes for you 81 million morons”

    Now do Trump. You need to screen capture that so you can show your grandkids your inspired contribution to political discourse circa 2022. Maybe record a fart and belch with it…

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  244. What does retired Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov think of Putin’s adventurism? That it is a distraction:

    The massive buildup of Russian troops on the Ukraine and Belarus borders, therefore, is not to deal with a threat from the West. Rather, it is to divert attention from the internal health, demographic challenges, living-standards collapse and pervasive corruption that the Russian citizenry is suffering under the mismanagement of an incompetent Putin regime.

    A distraction that may lead to “catastrophic” consequences for Russia, especially Russian soldiers.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  245. Mg,

    They don’t care that radical leftists like Hillary and her goon squad broke the law to spy on the president because it was Trump. They’ll tear down every law, destroy every right to get their man.

    And we know what Satan thinks about that.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  246. Wordle in three, today, using my patent (but not patented) method, which I have described enough times and you might remember more easily if you think of Kimberly Guilfoyle (or maybe not). Burner Word 1 and Burner Word 2 gave me all the letters, one in the green, and all I had to do was put the other four in order.

    nk (1d9030)

  247. CNN – Joe Rogan’s use of the n-word is another January 6 moment

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/13/us/joe-rogan-n-word-blake-cec/index.html

    CNN finally gets something right. Joe Rogan’s use of the N-Word was as threatening to our democracy as Jan 6.

    Obudman (8ab61f)

  248. [] A. He won, didn’t he?
    [] B. What difference at this point does it make?
    [] C. What about the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya?
    [] D. I hope the taxpayers are not paying for Durham.
    [] E. All of the above.

    nk (1d9030)

  249. Putin won;t invae Ukraine right away.

    It is almost an absolute rule of warfare, going back almost 4,000 years, that planning a military operation takes time, and I think that is one thing that still holds up, despite all technological changes. I think it is close to a minimum of 9 months. While, an attack may take the target by surprise, but it doesn’t take the initiator by surprise.

    Now sometimes planning is continuous and so an attacker is always ready, and sometimes something is prepared as a contingency by someone, and involves a small force, and is done without much, if any, rehearsal and it could take approximately six weeks from the go-ahead decision. But most of the time I’d say nine months from the consideration of a decision.

    Now I don;t think Vladimir Putin even had the idea of invading Ukraine before November. What we are seeing now is a rehearsal. And we know it is rehearsal because the mobilization has been a bit slow and parts were getting ahead of itself (supplies before men) and because we are seeing training that we never aw before.

    It’s not going to that Russia will find the carrying out of activity perfect. So it won’t be even the next exercise.

    I’d say that the over and under date for an invasion is August 12, and there’s a significant probability it will be called off by then for one reason or another. There is also a small chance it would be soon, although that is crazy, because crazy military decisions happen from time to time. But that also increases the probability of failure, which is not zero, so, in a sense, of it is going to happen anyway, the United States should want it to happen sooner rather than later, although the last thing NATO etc. would want is for this to be considered inevitable.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  250. The threat of an invasion can sometimes accomplish a goal without the costs.

    felipe (484255)

  251. True, felipe, but won’t Putin need to resettle Ukraine with French and Czechoslovakians first? Or wait till it joins the EU?

    nk (1d9030)

  252. Hey AJ – in your face.

    mg (8cbc69)

  253. Giuliani in Talks to Testify to House Jan. 6 Panel
    ………..
    ……….Mr. Giuliani, through his lawyer, has signaled to the committee that he plans to take a less confrontational stance toward its requests than some other members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle who are fighting the committee’s subpoenas or have otherwise refused to cooperate.

    Mr. Giuliani’s discussions with committee officials suggest that he may be seeking to avoid a potentially costly legal fight over a subpoena that was issued to him last month. By engaging with the committee, Mr. Giuliani could also make it more difficult for the House to issue a criminal referral of him to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress if he in the end does not comply with the subpoena.

    Should Mr. Giuliani ultimately provide the committee with substantive cooperation, it would be a major breakthrough for the investigation and a breach in the relationship between Mr. Trump and one of his closest if most problematic advisers. Mr. Giuliani was instrumental not only in the post-Election Day effort to keep Mr. Trump in power but also in the pressure campaign on Ukraine that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment.
    ………
    As a key figure in some of Mr. Trump’s attempts to stave off electoral defeat, Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, would be in a position to tell investigators how much the former president knew about a series of extraordinary measures that were proposed to him last fall and winter in a bid to maintain his grip on power.

    Among those efforts was a scheme to disrupt the normal workings of the Electoral College by persuading lawmakers in contested swing states to draw up alternate slates of electors showing Mr. Trump was victorious in states that were actually won by Joseph R. Biden Jr.

    Mr. Giuliani was also instrumental in vetting a plan to use the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines in order to examine the data housed inside them for supposed evidence of fraud. At Mr. Trump’s direction, Mr. Giuliani asked a top homeland security official if the department could legally take control of the machines — a notion that the official shot down. Mr. Giuliani later opposed an even more explosive proposal to have the military seize the machines.
    ……….
    The committee has interviewed around 500 witnesses and issued more than 100 subpoenas, including broad ones to banks as well as telecommunications and social media companies.

    Faced with at least 18 Trump allies who have signaled they will not fully cooperate, investigators for the committee have adopted techniques more typically used in organized crime prosecutions than in congressional inquiries and quietly turned at least six lower-level Trump staff members into witnesses who have provided information about their bosses’ activities.

    The committee is also considering granting immunity to crucial members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle who have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as a way of pressuring them to testify.
    ############
    Giuliani has a raft of legal issues. This should bring some more sleepless nights to Mar-a-Lago……

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  254. Bringing a Sturge Weber and Autistic granddaughter into your hate rhetoric is par for the course from you, AJ. You republicans are a worthless lot.

    mg (8cbc69)

  255. nk

    The Russians were being hired by the DNC and Hillary, to disrupt a presidential and several Senate elections in 2016. They were being paid cash and they were paying 500,000 to her husband for a speech he didnt give. They also contributed tens of millions to the Foundation which has paid clinton family members and loyalists millions in salaries.

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  256. Rip,

    PA just declared the mail in ballots for 2020 illegal. MI is doing the same, Wisconsin and AZ are examining the signatures. Georgia is reauditing and going through signature examination and all voter registrations made 45 days before the election. Colorado, Florida and Texas are quietly auditing, Texas is indicting democrat operatives for voter fraud in fact a Federal Judge put out w wild injunction stopping the cases but it will be instantly overturned in the 5th. Tennessee just convicted a top Tennessee Democrat and the first Tennessee democrat has lost their seat. A criminal case is being made against Abrams and her sister the Judge for several items. Durham is expanding his probe to encompass sitting members of congress and current and retired FBI agents and other officials.

    Guiliani has nothing really to offer, he was told nothing and had been excluded for months. Jan 6th committee has about 600 days left then the courts will shut it down. Its operating without the required number of members as legislated

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  257. Rip,

    60 DAYS LEFT. The Jan 6th committee has a couple of months, the leader of the committee just has his seat redrawn and will not be reelected to congress

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  258. The threat of an invasion can sometimes accomplish a goal without the costs.

    Up until now that hasn’t proven true now. Putin has not received any of the security guarantees that he has demanded, and all have been explicitly rejected: NATO has not precluded future Ukraine membership (which wasn’t even on the NATO agenda) and has rejected a cap on any new members; the West continues to send weapons to Ukraine; NATO hasn’t removed any troops or weapons deployed to countries that entered the alliance after 1997 (which would include much of eastern Europe such as Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Balkan countries); and hasn’t agreed to asking Russian permission (LOL!) to conduct exercises in Ukraine, eastern Europe, in Caucasus countries such as Georgia or in Central Asia.

    Putin is locked into a war strategy because his pressure campaign has actually fused Europe and the US closer together rather than driven them apart. The only other option for Putin (outside of war) is to slowly (over a period of months or years) is to withdraw the troops back home. The West should then be magnanimous and not rub Putin’s defeat in his face.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  259. 60 DAYS LEFT. The Jan 6th committee has a couple of months, the leader of the committee just has his seat redrawn and will not be reelected to congress

    Not arguing the truthfulness of your statement, but all members of committee retain their seats until this Congress adjourns.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  260. EPWJ (0fbe92) — 2/13/2022 @ 8:35 am

    To dream, the impossible dream!

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  261. “Bringing a Sturge Weber and Autistic granddaughter into your hate rhetoric is par for the course from you, AJ”

    No, I said grandkids….but thanks for deflecting from my point. You post crap…and you don’t want anyone to call you on it. And you now bring your grand daughter into it as if that absolves you from posting crap. The only hate I see here is your rhetoric towards people who voted for Biden…including perhaps your host(s). Both parties need to get better with what candidates they offer. Most here want the GOP to get much better…and provide the environment where we can hear and cultivate alternatives to Trump. Just slinging poop might be a good arm workout, but it’s not especially productive. I hope you get to spend some time with your grand daughter today.

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f)

  262. Bob Saget’s death now a conspiracy theory:

    Did he owe money?

    What was his affiliation with the Clintons.

    Are they making it up to cover he died from the shot ? Don’t trust much of anything with the govt.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  263. By the way, Durham just justified his investigation with the latest revelations about Hillary operatives spying on Trump and the Executive Office of the President. Their purported motives (to find a conspiracy involving Putin) are irrelevant, it’s a sleazy, slimy illegal thing to do. And it’s unsurprising that Hillary’s Web is behind it.

    Special Counsel John Durham reportedly said in a new court filing that a technology executive working with a Clinton-tied lawyer accessed White House servers as well as Internet data for Trump Tower and elsewhere in connection with an effort to dig up dirt on Donald Trump and establish a “narrative” linking him to Russia.

    This could be worse than the Steele “investigation” to dig up dirt on Trump.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  264. Linking to The American Thinker is a self-facial.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  265. Ms. Applebaum has the right understanding and attitude towards Putin.

    But the fact that Lavrov is disrespectful and disagreeable is old news. So is the fact that Putin lectures foreign leaders for hours and hours on his personal and political grievances. He did that the first time he met President Barack Obama, more than a decade ago; he did exactly the same thing last week to French President Emmanuel Macron. Truss should have known all of this. Instead of offering empty language about rules and values, she could have started the press conference like this:

    Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the press. I am delighted to join you after meeting my Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. This time, we have not bothered to discuss treaties he won’t respect and promises he won’t keep. We have told him, instead, that an invasion of Ukraine will carry very, very high costs—higher than he has ever imagined. We are now planning to cut off Russian gas exports completely—Europe will find its energy supplies somewhere else. We are now preparing to assist the Ukrainian resistance, for a decade if need be. We are quadrupling our support for the Russian opposition, and for Russian media too. We want to make sure that Russians will start hearing the truth about this invasion, and as loudly as possible. And if you want to do regime change in Ukraine, we’ll get to work on regime change in Russia.

    Truss, or Borrell before her, could have added just a touch of personal insult, in the style of Lavrov himself, and wondered out loud just how it is that Lavrov’s official salary pays for the lavish properties that his family makes use of in London. She could have listed the names of the many other Russian public servants who send their children to schools in Paris or Lugano. She could have announced that these children are now, all of them, on their way home, along with their parents: No more American School in Switzerland! No more pied-à-terres in Knightsbridge! No more Mediterranean yachts!

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  266. @271. Except she doesn’t. Doubt she’s ever even been to Knightsbridge.

    I lived there.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  267. EPWJ wrote:

    PA just declared the mail in ballots for 2020 illegal.

    Sadly, this is only partially correct.

    A Pennsylvania court on Friday struck down the state’s mail voting law, saying the state constitution requires voters to cast ballots in person unless they meet specific requirements.

    That almost certainly won’t be the final word on the matter, as the state quickly appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, triggering an automatic stay of the decision and leaving Act 77 in place while the high court considers the case. And Democrats believe the Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, will uphold the law.

    Democrats had feared for months that the state’s Commonwealth Court, with its Republican majority, would strike down Act 77.

    I do wonder: when the Commonwealth sent out all of those mail-in ballots, did any go to my old address? We had voted in 2016, and moved in 2017, so the only election we missed was 2018, hardly enough time to have caused the registrar to take our names off the voter rolls.

    It was the mail-in ballots which gave Joe Biden the victory: it caused the lazy and the slothful who rarely, if ever, took the effort to go to the polls, to mark ballots and use the postage-paid return envelopes and send them in. These are the people we don’t want voting, but they gave the dummkopf from Delaware an 80,555 vote victory in the Keystone State.

    Remember: our greatest Presidents ever, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, were elected when the franchise was limited to white male property owners. Universal suffrage has led us to Jimmy carter, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

    The libertarian, but not Libertarian, Dana (730001)

  268. Remember: our greatest Presidents ever, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, were elected when the franchise was limited to white male property owners. Universal suffrage has led us to Jimmy carter, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

    Disappointed? States lifted the property requirements between 1792-1856.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  269. ‘“We are in the window. And an invasion could begin — a major military action could begin — by Russia, in Ukraine, any day now,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN.’

    We?

    What’s with this ‘we’ crap, Jake? When did this become an American problem, Jake? Hell, the Ukranians are whining that they’re not even being consulted by the meddlers making decisions affecting their own fate. It’s almost comical; but then, their president was a comedian.

    Dear ol’Vlad has made no secret of his desire to reconstitute the ol’CCCP ‘sphere of influence’ in some fashion and he is following through on it. It’s that simple; his strategy, effective and disciplined; his long term plan, masterful. He’s made NATO Europe dependent on his energy resources. He will never attack his best customers, but will effort to reconstitute the regions unaffiliated w/the outdated alliance of deadbeats. A regional power playing a superpower game with a pair of deuces– and beating Joe’s deck full of jokers every time. Like Tom Brady- you may not like him, but he plays a helluva good game.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  270. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/13/2022 @ 9:42 am:

    Excellent!

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  271. @Jim@237 Civil war as far as I can tell.

    You can’t really tell much, then.

    He says he’s OK with people disagreeing with him, after all his wife is a Democrat, but he doesn’t seem to tolerate enough people disagreeing with him that his preferred team sometimes loses elections.

    That would be the leftists, including the vast majority of your profession, who pitch a fit about the dark curtain of fascism falling whenever the Democrats don’t win. It’s been going on since Bush vs. Gore, after all.

    One of the reasons I married my wife, after all, despite our political differences is that she isn’t a whackadoo like many of your left-liberal colleagues in the educational-industrial complex.

    He seems so unhappy that the team he supports doesn’t win every single time that instead of solving this by convincing more people to agree with him (which is the way democracy is supposed to work) his solution is to carve out a separate country where most of the people who disagree with him are in the other country and most of the people who agree with him are in his new carve-out (which is Bad Americaning.)

    Nic (896fdf) — 2/12/2022 @ 8:51 pm

    The hilarious part of this is that the Democrats have been acting so obnoxiously the last couple of years, that my wife and even my Bernie-supporting sister-in-law are likely going to be voting Republican for the first time in their lives. And all I had to do was point out how obnoxious they were being.

    Influence begins in the home and in the community. A random internet board is just a snapshot in time. And I’ve been taking great pleasure in pointing out repeatedly that the Democrats dominate the government, the mass media, and the schools for the precise reason that conservatives adopted the “I’m too principled to be involved in local government” pretense, and went to sleep for three decades at the behest of the late, unlamented neocon grifters, who never met a culture war battle they didn’t retreat from in terror. You have to get involved in your local PTA boards, school district board meetings, city councils, and community planning boards–firstly, because our ancestors in this country considered such things to be a civic duty, and secondly because your very presence there ensures that the left isn’t going to steamroll their agenda down the community’s throat.

    Like I pointed out a couple of days ago, the right-wing populism that most of the commenters here complain about is a direct reaction to left-wing cultural and political overreach. The greater the overreach, the greater the reaction.

    You want to stop the reaction? Kill two birds with one stone and prevent the overreach from happening in the first place, instead of begging the right to stop resisting so hard.

    his solution is to carve out a separate country where most of the people who disagree with him are in the other country and most of the people who agree with him are in his new carve-out (which is Bad Americaning.)

    In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been quite a few thinkpieces over the last decade or so pointing out that people have already been sorting themselves out by residence according to political affiliation for quite some time.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  272. Please tell me how this makes me or The Guardian “disingenuous”.

    Old and Busted: “Trump has no interest in reading our detailed classified reports after all the work we put in to it!”

    New Hotness: “We were afraid Trump was going to read our detailed classified reports and leak the contents!”

    For a guy who claimed he didn’t vote for the clown, you do spend a lot of words either defending him or attacking his critics.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/12/2022 @ 8:14 pm

    Probably because I find the latter to be a bunch of self-righteous, arrogant snobs.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  273. Jim Jordan Says Trump ‘Right On Target’ With Statement Suggesting Clinton Campaign Operatives Should be Executed
    ………..
    Trump, who has ceaselessly complained about investigations regarding his connections to Russia, seized on the news in order to make the argument the Clinton campaign not only spied on his campaign, but his full administration after he won the White House. Trump said that the actions of the Clinton operatives “should be subject to criminal prosecution,” and at other times in U.S. history, “this crime would have been punishable by death.”

    The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia. This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.

    ……….
    Fox & Friends invited Jordan on the program Sunday to react to the Durham filing. The Ohio congressman blasted the Clinton campaign, saying “there was spying going on and it was worse than we thought ’cause they were spying on the sitting president of the United States and it goes to the Clinton campaign.”

    “We’ve never seen anything like this in history,” Jordan added. “So President Trump’s statement yesterday, I think is right on target. This is truly unprecedented, truly something that has never happened in the history of our great country.”

    To be clear, the part of the statement in which Trump suggested execution for the Clinton operatives was not mentioned in the report Fox presented just before Jordan joined the broadcast. However, Jordan retweeted a Fox News article which did include the entirety of the former president’s comments — making it unlikely he wasn’t aware of the Trump’s suggestion the operatives should be put to death.
    ……….
    I look forward to Durham proving his allegations in court.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  274. But my feelings were hurt, so I had to do something about it.
    Radegunda (354d82) — 2/12/2022 @ 10:59 am

    Maybe allow Trumpsters the same recourse?
    felipe (484255)

    I was speaking in jest about a joke about whether or not I understood a joke that began with confusing gazpacho and Gestapo. How did the delicate feelings of Trumpers come into it?

    Meanwhile, a Trumper accused me of being “disingenuous,” i.e. dishonest, because that person misread — attached a false, nonliteral meaning to — what I said. That’s hardly the first time a Trumper has accused me of dishonesty.

    Am I obliged to refrain from responding when I am called dishonest, or ridiculed for allegedly having an extremely short memory and not being able to see contradiction? (I have been praised by very smart people for my ability to spot contradiction and logical inconsistency.)

    Is it mean to observe how weirdly personal and emotional the Trumpers’ attachment to Trump is?

    Is it unfair to note the many moral compromises that Trumpers make in the effort to defend him at all costs, while they allow no indulgence whatsoever to their enemies?

    Years ago, I noticed that Trumpers got angry and hurt when people criticized Trump, or even quoted some of his ugly or nonsensical statements. Trump critics have no obligation to protect Trump-lovers from that emotional reaction.

    Loyal defenders of an assertively selfish, overtly cruel, congenitally dishonest man have no moral right to be protected from hurt feelings when other people make note of what they are defending.

    Radegunda (c970ff)

  275. The funniest part of Jim’s “he doesn’t stand for anything!” complaint is that I’ve made plenty of arguments for things like nerfing the surveillance state, supported the withdrawal from Afghanistan for the precise reason that I knew from deployments how useless, corrupt, dysfunctional, and wasteful the whole enterprise had become, eliminating CRT pedagogies from schools, treating Big Tech like a Gilded Age trust, and not implementing COVID vaccine mandates. People here may not like those policies, but it doesn’t mean they haven’t been argued, just because they don’t like me personally.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  276. It was the mail-in ballots which gave Joe Biden the victory: it caused the lazy and the slothful who rarely, if ever, took the effort to go to the polls, to mark ballots and use the postage-paid return envelopes and send them in. These are the people we don’t want voting…

    “We”? PA voters still had to actively request mail-in ballots. They didn’t just appear in residents’ mailboxes for no reason. These registered voters are citizens of legal age with no criminal records. Like it or not, they’re qualified to submit their votes. What gave Biden victory is that they were stuck between the sucky choice between a doddering Democrat and a corrupt snake-oil salesman with a triple-weave bleached combover who mismanaged a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  277. ‘House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a stark warning for Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Russian military buildup near the Ukraine region showed no signs of slowing on Sunday.’

    “I’m very proud of what the president has done. The unity of our allies and NATO to come to an agreement as to the severity of the sanctions is very, very important. And that is, that is something that Putin should pay very close attention to,” Pelosi added. -source, ABC News

    And just who is Nancy Pelosi to Vlad? A cigarette butt on the sidewalk of life.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  278. Is it unfair to note the many moral compromises that Trumpers make in the effort to defend him at all costs, while they allow no indulgence whatsoever to their enemies?

    Like I said above: “the right-wing populism that most of the commenters here complain about is a direct reaction to left-wing cultural and political overreach. The greater the overreach, the greater the reaction.

    You want to stop the reaction? Kill two birds with one stone and prevent the overreach from happening in the first place, instead of begging the right to stop resisting so hard.”

    Like I’ve also said before: “Do Unto Others” goes both ways. I’m under no obligation to indulge the temper tantrums of the members of a political faction whose entitlement streak is the size of the Grand Canyon and has been accusing their right-wing opponents of bad-faith, oppression, and totalitarianism for decades now. Christ also something about shaking the dust off of one’s feet, after all.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  279. ‘Alt-Right Armory’ Podcaster Faces Charges of Possessing Machine Guns
    A Pennsylvania man who hosted what he described as “the alt-right’s favorite firearms-related podcast” was, along with his father, indicted on several gun charges, including possessing machine guns and unregistered silencers, according to federal prosecutors.

    The men, Joseph Paul Berger, 32, and Joseph Raymond Berger, 67, owned 13 fully automatic machine guns and 12 gun silencers that were illegally imported into the United States, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in a statement on Thursday.
    ………
    The case against the two men began after federal authorities seized three packages, prosecutors said, that contained firearm silencers shipped from China and addressed to the men at their home in Bethlehem, Pa., which is about 60 miles north of Philadelphia.

    Paperwork for two of the silencers included the cellphone number for the younger man, according to court documents.
    ……….
    In arguing that the younger Mr. Berger, who does not have a criminal history, was a threat and should be detained until trial, prosecutors cited the anti-government and anti-law enforcement views espoused on his podcast.

    In one episode, Mr. Berger said “a white man with a rifle can be very dangerous to the system indeed if he has the right motivation” and also praised the values of Eric Frein, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 2014 ambush killing of a Pennsylvania state trooper, prosecutors said in court documents.

    Mr. Berger and an unidentified co-host also discuss targeting the police, along with “legislators, lobbyists and left-wing billionaires,” for assassination, prosecutors said.

    “They halfheartedly claim that the discussion is a ‘prank’ and a ‘playful thought,’ and they are not advocating for violence, but it is clear that the discussions are serious,” prosecutors wrote.

    A magistrate judge granted the prosecutors’ motion to keep the younger Mr. Berger detained. The judge released the elder Mr. Berger on $25,000 bail……..
    …………
    “ Paperwork for two of the silencers included the cellphone number for the younger man, according to court documents.”

    Not terribly bright.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  280. More seriously, the blockades have already put people out of work:

    Jim, playing Devil’s Advocate here, it’s not like there hasn’t been a lot of that going around with the Covid response.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  281. The Durham probe seems to show that in some ways, Hillary was more sore of a loser than Trump.
    The post election antics of both have been enormously corrosive.
    The sooner we get Hillary’s inner circle and her out from any position of power in the Democrat party, the better.
    Same goes for Trump.

    Doubtful it happens soon enough. The fallout from those two gave us Biden. Biden is under the care of doctors for his mental issues and is a mental patient. The rest of the world is and will continue take advantage of our weakness and division

    steveg (e81d76)

  282. Out of curiosity, does anyone know what FWO is for?

    UNseriously … being Against?

    He doesn’t seem to favor factories, work or orphans.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  283. Memo to Nancy Pelosi–

    Step away from the bong:

    Biden’s Long Trail of Betrayals – Why is the president so consistently wrong on major foreign-policy matters?

    [Afghanistan] is the latest blunder in a foreign-policy record filled with them:

    -In 1975, Biden opposed giving aid to the South Vietnamese government during its war against the North, ensuring the victory of a brutal regime and causing a mass exodus of refugees.

    – In 1991, Biden opposed the Gulf War, one of the most successful military campaigns in American history. Not only did he later regret his congressional vote, but in 1998, he criticized George H. W. Bush for not deposing Saddam Hussein, calling that decision a “fundamental mistake.”

    – In 2003, Biden supported the Iraq War—another congressional vote he later regretted.

    – In 2007, he opposed President George W. Bush’s new counterinsurgency strategy and surge in troops in Iraq, calling it a “tragic mistake.” In fact, the surge led to stunning progress, including dramatic drops in civilian deaths and sectarian violence.

    – In December 2011, President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden withdrew America’s much-scaled-down troop presence in Iraq; the former had declared Iraq to be “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant,” and the latter had predicted that Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” Their decision sent Iraq spiraling into sectarian violence and civil war, allowing Iran to expand its influence and opening the way for the rise of the jihadist group ISIS.

    -According to Obama’s memoir A Promised Land, Biden had advised the former president to take more time before launching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

    – Ten years ago, Biden said in an interview that “the Taliban per se is not our enemy.” He added, “If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us.”

    – source, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/biden-afghanistan-record/619799/

    BTW, Nancy dear: 7.5% inflation…

    “I trust his judgement.” – Nancy Pelosi

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  284. Wordle in three, today

    Me too, with my own method which only includes a starting word. After two I had the first letter in place, and the last two without their order, although one order was more likely. Then some thinking showed me there was only one likely answer, and it was.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  285. MTG clearly didn’t know what gazpacho was.

    I suppose the best explanation is that she didn’t remember what the exact word Gestapo was, and her software offered a correction to gazpacho. (it’s too distant from “gestapo” (probably uncapitalized) to be an initial error.)

    Also, maybe Gestapo wasn’t in its dictionary.

    Maybe she tried “gazchapo” (z instead of s, no t, maybe “ch” instead. And “a” as the vowel after g.)

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  286. PA just declared the mail in ballots for 2020 illegal.

    No, they declared that the mail-vote law was unconstitutional (and reading their constitution, that’s inescapable, at least in normal times, as it lists the valid reasons and “I wanna” isn’t among them).

    But that’s going forward and has no impact on past elections. Further the decision was not unanimous, indicating that some judges cannot read simple English, so maybe it will be overturned.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  287. He doesn’t seem to favor factories, work or orphans.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 11:21 am

    On the contrary, I’ve criticized the decades-long policy of shipping manufacturing overseas, particularly China, when the Credentialed Class deluded themselves after Tiananmen in to thinking that giving them Most Favored Nation trading status would democratize the country.

    Additionally, I’ve criticized mass immigration for the express reason that the same class just assumed they could use them in a system of quasi-peonage in perpetuity, so that native-born Americans wouldn’t have to worry about doing those dirty, yucky blue-collar and service-level jobs anymore.

    For all the bad policy that FDR implemented, at least he recognized that citizens getting paid to do real, actual work was far better for the nation’s character than pawning that work off all the time on new immigrants.

    Factory Working Orphan (2775f0)

  288. Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 2/13/2022 @ 11:35 am

    Classic Sammy insight.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  289. -In 1975, Biden opposed giving aid to the South Vietnamese government during its war against the North,

    So did a majority of the newly elected Congress. The two countries’ armed forces, South Vietnam and Afghanistan, collapsed in much the same way. Ukraine is probably not like that, even if the Russian plan involves confusing the armed forces about their commands.

    Biden in addition, opposed taking out refugees from South Vietnam. That happened in spite of U.S. policy.

    There were no refugees from Cambodia in 1975 – the matter of how horrible a regime is and the number of refugees fleeing immediately are not so closely related.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  290. And Democrats believe the Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, will uphold the law.

    Considering that the state constitution has explicit language limiting absentee ballots, this is a sad commentary on the politicization of the courts.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  291. Are they making it up to cover he died from the shot ? Don’t trust much of anything with the govt.

    Salk wept.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  292. The 170 Florida National Guard troops in Ukraine, helping train some Ukrainians, have been removed, but an unknown number of Green Berets remain. It’s not been reported what, if,anything, has happened with the Marine embassy guards, but the U.S. is evacuating (and Russia ditto) most of its embassy personnel, probably with the idea that a war could start on Wednesday. or rather, won’t start before.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  293. ….Andrew Jackson, were elected when the franchise was limited to white male property owners

    Not so.

    The 1828 presidential election was the first in which non-property-holding white males could vote in the vast majority of states. By the end of the 1820s, attitudes and state laws had shifted in favor of universal white male suffrage.

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

    In 1824, 366,000 votes were cast. In 1828 (Jackson’s election) 1,149,000 votes were cast, triple the previous election.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  294. Provocative piece by French over at the Dispatch about how the seeds of extremism are finding there way into less than traditional Christian religious venues. I’m not sure of my take on it. In one sense, I think he’s nutpicking a bit, looking for hyperbolic commentary and then drawing more generalized conclusions then maybe warranted. On the other hand, some Christians have really compressed the meaning of “love your neighbor” and religion is just becoming another forum to air political gripes, with strained Biblical rationalizations. The comments there certainly go all over the place but they tend not to devolve into “idiot”, “liar”, and accusations of overt “snobbery”.

    https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-seeds-of-political-violence-are

    It just makes me wonder sometimes the point of internet blog comments. Even after a few beers at a bar or party, I would never call someone I politically disagree with an idiot, liar, or snob. I would likely not let it get to that point by changing the subject or finding some civil way to agree to disagree or end on some note of agreement. It’s harder to be an a$$ to someone’s face. Usually, there is so much else to talk about including sports, work, vacations, hobbies, family, heck even the weather, that not every conversation has to be about battering the opposition like some imaginary live-or-death joust. Yes political ideas matter, but relationships and civility do too. And you will rarely convince someone you’ve just called an idiot, liar, or snob.

    So what becomes the point? It seems to be all about the gotcha and propping up our sensitive egos. So much is about being accused of not reading correctly or inferring something from a tone. I came to this forum because I liked Patterico’s writing style over at RedState. I wish that he would write more but understand that life intervenes and, let’s face it, our political times are pretty depressing and uninspiring. Patt’s view is a minority view, unfortunately. I suppose I like to write out things that are on my mind. Probably much too long, like this, to the dismay of Noel and others. Maybe cathartic. Maybe looking for some validation or objective criticism. I do understand TLDR and practice it myself. If I don’t respond to your jab or insult, don’t take it personally…..just think of it as me moving over to the other side of the bar to talk about sports.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  295. Good news-
    Canadian Police Clear Protesters Disrupting Cross-Border Bridge Traffic

    Canadian police on Sunday arrested protesters and towed vehicles to clear access to a crucial bridge connecting Detroit with the Canadian border city of Windsor, Ontario, a move local officials say marks an end to a week of economic turbulence.
    ……….
    Over 100 police officers surrounded the remaining protesters shortly after 8 a.m. ET Sunday on a main street that leads to access to the bridge……..

    A spokesman for the Windsor Police Service said roughly 12 protesters were arrested on Sunday and two or more vehicles were towed. Sgt. Steve Betteridge said protesters who were arrested weren’t violent and police didn’t have to use force.
    ………
    Windsor police added that officers would remain in the vicinity of the bridge until they judged it safe for regular traffic to resume. “There will be zero tolerance for illegal activity,” the police force said in a tweet.
    ……..
    A spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency said officials were working with police to restore normal border operations as quickly as possible.
    ……..
    With authorities moving to reopen the bridge, the focus in Canada will now turn to ending a protest in Ottawa, which on Sunday entered its 17th day. Protest organizers have repeatedly said they won’t leave the capital until governments in Canada drop the vaccine mandates and social restrictions. Over 400 heavy-duty trucks and other vehicles have turned the capital’s downtown into a parking lot, clogging traffic in the core and disrupting residents’ lives. Some Windsor protesters said their blockade was inspired by events in Ottawa.

    “The country needs the police to do their job…and restore order,” Bill Blair, Canada’s Emergency Preparedness Minister, told CTV News on Sunday. He added that federal officials have discussed the rarely-used powers available in Canada’s federal Emergencies Act to help end protests. The act permits the national government to impose temporary measures, such as deployment of the military, if it believes local authorities are unable to maintain security.

    At another Canadian border town, Fort Erie, Ontario, Canadian police on Sunday restricted traffic to the Peace Bridge, which crosses from the community into Buffalo, New York, after protesters attempted to block bridge traffic…….
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  296. Of course, in the elections of 1840, 1948, 1852 and 1856, those voters picked some real losers, and while the guy they picked in 1844 was a strong president, the subsequent regional conflict over the status of slavery in his Mexican Cession threatened civil war during the next 4 Administrations, the last one being Lincoln’s.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  297. 53.

    Secondly, pandemic isolation is deepening Putin’s misperceptions. Few now get face time with him, and most of those who do are from the security elite,

    When French president Macron met with him they sat at opposite ends of an incredibly long table.

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/that-long-table-macron-refused-to-give-putin-his-dna-sources-say-20220211-p59vp3.html

    Actually not his DNA – a PCR test except they could also get his DNA. (and how could they use it?)

    French President Emmanuel Macron refused a Kremlin request that he take a Russian COVID-19 test when he arrived to see President Vladimir Putin this week. Sources say that is why they sat at opposite ends of a four-metre-long table to discuss the Ukraine crisis….

    ….“We knew very well that meant no handshake and that long table. But we could not accept that they get their hands on the President’s DNA,” one of the sources said, referring to security concerns if the French leader was tested by Russian doctors….

    ….The second source in Macron’s entourage confirmed he declined to take a Russian PCR test. The source said Macron instead took a French PCR test before departure and an antigen test done by his doctor once in Russia.

    “The Russians told us Putin needed to be kept in a strict health bubble,” the second source said.

    Putin is petrified of catching Covid, or taking precautions like he was, or he just doesn’t trust anyone.

    This could be a problem if he wants to recover Ukraine for Russia before he dies. But, if so, who cares besides him? Did he promise anyone close to him that he would?

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  298. Memo to Nancy:

    They ain’t paying $15.00/pint for ice cream– even at the capitalist-pig-run Baskin Robbins stores in Moscow.

    https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g298484-zfd9899-Moscow_Central_Russia-Ice_Cream.html

    Nor $6.00/gallon for gasoline in Moscow:

    https://fuelprices.ru/en/cfo/moskva

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  299. I expect Putin to attack at 4AM tomorrow morning, Kyiv time, right in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Depending on how the game is going, it might be a welcome distraction in Cincinnati.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  300. So, if Putin attacks Ukraine in a war of conquest, what will be/should be the US response (probably two answers there).

    The Gandhi Option: Do nothing
    The Dick Tracy Option: Level war crimes charges.
    The Bugs Bunny Option: “You realize, of course….”
    The Caesar Option: Reforger; NATO to Russia
    The Strangelove Option

    Perhaps there are some more nuanced choices. I expect Gandhi

    Kevin M (38e250)

  301. @306. Not kickoff at the kickoff? 😉

    I expect it to be on February 16; the full moon– depending on weather.

    https://www.eldoradoweather.com/forecast/ukraine/Kyiv/Kyiv.php

    And expect ‘save face’ token resistance- then watch Ukraine go totally ‘French’– unless they’re stupid enough to destroy their own businesses and homes.

    Eastern Europe

    AccuWeather forecasters say interior portions of Eastern Europe will be in the bull’s-eye for unseasonably cold air this winter.
    https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/accuweathers-2021-2022-europe-winter-forecast/1032617

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  302. 303. I think you mean 1848, but Zachary Taylor was considered a very good president by Lincoln.

    He possibly was murdered by southerners who wanted the Compromise of 1850 – killed not by arsenic – which is one of the stupidest theories – and I’d like to know where it comes from.

    Killed in the obvious way, by being given cholera germs to drink by someone who was up on the latest medical developments from England.

    https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/cholera-victorian-london

    In 1848–49 there was a second outbreak of cholera, and this was followed by a further outbreak in 1853–54. Towards the end of the second outbreak, John Snow, a London-based physician, published a paper, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera (1849), in which he proposed that cholera was not transmitted by bad air but by a water-borne infection. However, little attention was paid to the paper.

    Except maybe by some politically active southern slave owners?

    https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-zachary-taylor-dies-unexpectedly

    ,,,On a scorching Fourth of July in Washington, D.C., Taylor attended festivities at the newly dedicated grounds upon which the Washington Monument would be erected. According to several sources, Taylor gulped down a large quantity of cherries and iced milk and then returned to the White House, where he quenched his thirst with several glasses of water….The bacteria were mostly likely present in the water or iced milk Taylor drank, though other sources have claimed that Taylor died of gastroenteritis caused by the highly acidic cherries combined with fresh milk. Others suspected food poisoning or typhoid fever. It appears no one suggested foul play even though Taylor, a Mexican War hero, opposed secession and vowed to personally lead a military attack against any state that threatened to secede from the Union.

    Taylor died on the evening of July 9, after four days of suffering from symptoms that included severe cramping, diarrhea, nausea and dehydration. His personal physicians concluded that he had succumbed to cholera morbus, a bacterial infection of the small intestine. His vice president, Millard Fillmore, was sworn in as the new president the next day.

    Unlike Taylor, he was going to sign the Compromise of 1850.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  303. @307.

    The LBJ Option: Look the other way [See Czechoslovakia, August, 1968.]

    The Biden Option: Blame Covid.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  304. the full moon– depending on weather

    Most would aim for the new moon. When attacking, darkness is your friend.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  305. 307. Sanctions but not too strong.

    If the Biden Administration thinks Putin has passed the point of no return, they’ll try to impose sanctions before any Russian forces cross the border. In the hopes of causing a last minute reversal.

    Also, any Americans who can get into Poland will be assisted in traveling further.

    But I think this is actually a dress rehearsal to discover what won’t work right.

    Any real invasion will be preceded by a cyber attack.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  306. I think you mean 1848

    Yes. But Taylor died early in his term. Fillmore did not just sign the Compromise of 1850, he crafted it, brokered it, and twisted arms to get it signed. Why? Because the alternative was secession then and there.

    The dispute over how the Southwest would come into the Union tore both najor parties into sectional camps, with the Southern Whigs and Democrats becoming closer to each other than they were with their northern counterparts. In the end it destroyed the Whigs — Fillmore was their last President and they were gone by 1860.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  307. The announced sanctions would be a world-wide ban on sale to Russia of ANY project containing ANY US-DERIVED hardware or software. Not only containing US chips or software, but anything containing intellectual property sourced in the US.

    That means everything. It’s a “You can deal with us (and our friends) or you can deal with Putin. Choose wisely” statement.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  308. @311. Not w/t gadgets they have now- and w/snow on the terrain the reflectivity more or less gives them a night-long ‘twilight’ to work with. The real variables are ground conditions to support armor and any heavy weather. This be best month for solid ground. Joe’s on track to lose two embassies in six months. And it’s only February. Taiwan on deck!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  309. @314. China is their conduit; and they’ve been successfully pirating intellectual property for years; from movies to missile components.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  310. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 12:07 pm

    After explicitly saying US troops will not be sent to defend Ukraine, his strategy is the best that can be done:

    -Intensive diplomacy-to work with European allies, ultimately proving that diplomacy will fail with an intransigent adversary

    Declassify intelligence to show what Putin may be planning (thereby create dissension among his inner circle) and also to convince the European and American populace

    -Outline explicitly what sanctions will be imposed so there is no doubt as to the consequences. The Russian ambassador doesn’t think much about this threat-whistling past the graveyard?

    The wild card is if some trigger happy Russian shoots down a USAF surveillance aircraft flying over a NATO country. Then all bets are off.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  311. Any real invasion will be preceded by a cyber attack.

    They have been ongoing for months.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  312. Radegunda (c970ff) — 2/13/2022 @ 10:54 am

    Thank you for your questions. I am on your side, so forgive my candor.

    “Am I obliged to refrain from responding”

    Obviously you have not, and no one has suggested it.

    “Is it mean to observe…”

    It is not the act, but the manner.

    “Is it unfair to note…while they allow no indulgence whatsoever…”

    It is your characterization that is unfair, and you have allowed yourself every indulgence.

    Without doubt, you have suffered an attack and have every right to defend and retaliate. But in this anonymous public forum, you have enjoyed a well-deserved defense on your behalf. Lurker took your side in his comments with an attempt to persuade your opponent that you are right. For example:

    There’s no inconsistency in Trump being both obstinately lazy and prone to blurting out the occasional nugget that finds its way through his aversion to learning.
    lurker (59504c) — 2/12/2022 @ 3:03 am

    Here, I can see that FWO’s retort to you has been rebutted and FWO moves on to another topic. Maybe you were well aware of this, and knew your case was made, if so, there was no need for you to further pursue the matter. But you took up your cause again, and FWO retorted yet again getting personal which drew in Dustin’s comment:

    No, it’s definitely not a contradiction. A-hole boss screams at people for trying to inform him, naturally they avoid the task.

    Relax. Trump isn’t worth your tears.
    Dustin (47bccc) — 2/12/2022 @ 9:14 am

    I had already noticed the escalation, and I confess that I was just a little annoyed that you kept up your part in the escalation, even after enjoying what few commenters are ever afforded in base comment sections, so I began to meddle, mostly because, I was annoyed that you ignore the efforts made on your behalf.

    Radegunda, you must do what you think is right, but your battle was already won twice over. As Dustin aptly said to FWO, [he] “isn’t worth your tears.”

    felipe (484255)

  313. 311. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 12:16 pm

    Most would aim for the new moon. When attacking, darkness is your friend.

    That;s what the United States would do.

    But Russian military forces (and most others) are not trained so as to operate well in the dark. The bloodless takeover of Crimea happened during a new moon. but that was by special forces. (an attack later by “pro-Russian gunmen”on a Ukrainian army base in Crimea happened during a full moon more or less.)

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  314. @317. Yes, leave it to the Biden Administration to blame Americans for Putin’s long time grand plan. It is, of course the fault of Texas alone that Dear Ol’Vlad annexed Crimea. Expect Joe to call for a Russian lockdown of all their troops for not wearing masks. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  315. #242 Nic – Thank you for that explanation. (Like, I suppose, almost everyone else, I pay more attention to some regular commenters than to others, and so had missed, or forgotten those comments.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  316. The wild card is if some trigger happy Russian shoots down a USAF surveillance aircraft flying over a NATO country. Then all bets are off.

    Or a great circle passenger flight, like Vancouver to Beijing.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  317. Thanks to all of you who answered my question about the attention paid to Lincoln’s birthday, yesterday. And some of you may be interested in a small experiment I conducted.

    Yesterday was a beautiful day for a walk here, sunny, with the temperature rising from 34 or so in the morning to about 54 in the afternoon. As I walked I encountered many people and, if appropriate*, said hello to them.

    To about thirty of them, I added, “Happy Lincoln’s birthday!” Almost all of them smiled, and thanked me for the reminder. Many chatted with me, giving me a chance to recommend they read, or re-read, his Second Inaugural.

    Those reactions give a little support to my theory that Americans (and people in many other nations) enjoy hearing or reading about Lincoln, and so our journalists are missing a commercial opportunity by not giving us the stories about Lincoln we want.

    There’s nothing new about that idea; for a famous and funny example, look up what Bennett Cerf supposedly said about Lincoln’s doctor’s dog.

    (*I am no expert on etiquette, but I believe the rule is that gentlemen don’t ordinarily speak to ladies until the lady has spoken to them. If the lady makes eye contact with me, I give a small nod, as if I were tipping my hat. If they greet me, I reply.

    Miss Manners, who is an expert, recently mentioned an exception: A lady, who wishes a gentleman to speak to her, might “accidentally” drop a handkerchief where he could see it.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  318. I expect Putin to attack at 4AM tomorrow morning, Kyiv time, right in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Depending on how the game is going, it might be a welcome distraction in Cincinnati.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 11:59 am

    If the T man was still president, he might have gotten his East LA excuse.

    urbanleftbehind (493d38)

  319. Or a great circle passenger flight, like Vancouver to Beijing.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 2:49 pm

    After this massacre by the Russians, airlines are canceling flights to Ukraine.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  320. If you think about what the democrats and rinos have done wrong, Trump supporters here often are somewhat justified (Except the Russian troll guys).

    And similarly, obviously plenty for the Nevertrumpers and such to be justified.

    Which is why felipe is right. Relax y’all. We’re not the bad guys. There are bad guys, but we shouldn’t waste ourselves fighting with other people over it. Why isn’t there border control? Why are cities being torn apart by defunding the cops? Why did we abandon so much progress in foreign affairs? Where’s this nation’s greatness and decency?

    Plenty to get worked up about, but not in defense of these losers in office.

    Dustin (47bccc)

  321. ‘The wild card is if some trigger happy Russian shoots down a USAF surveillance aircraft flying over a NATO country. Then all bets are off.’

    Don’t bet on it; suggest you ask Rudolph Anderson.

    Oh. Wait. You can’t. The USAF pilot was killed when his U-2 was shot down over Cuba.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  322. @325. If the T man was still president, they’d do a heavily garlic and buttered Chicken Kiev lunch in Geneva and talk turkey about profitable hotels and lucrative pipeline deals. 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  323. @330. The Super Bowl flyover costs taxpayers about $80,000 in gas and other operational costs.

    The Russians would do it for free.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  324. I am no expert on etiquette, but I believe the rule is that gentlemen don’t ordinarily speak to ladies until the lady has spoken to them.

    It depends on the age difference:

    One of the privileges of [old] age is that it enables a man to thrust (sic) his society on a beautiful girl without causing her to draw herself up and say “Sir!” — P. G. Wodehouse, The Heart Of A Goof

    nk (1d9030)

  325. Not a bad Superbowl so far. The commercials are more meh than good.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  326. Jim Miller,

    Just checked all my local papers, and not one word about Lincoln. Tons about the Super Bowl. Given that tomorrow is Presidents’ Day, we may see something then…

    Dana (5395f9)

  327. Presidents Day not until next Monday 2/21

    urbanleftbehind (493d38)

  328. Bob Saget’s death is indeed a mystery. Something doesn’t add up.

    He entered his room after 2 am, and put something on video on the Internet after 3, looking fine.

    His skull was fractured in more than one place, like you’d see if he fell from 20 or 30 feet or was assaulted by a baseball bat – but if he had been assaulted, most likely there’d be other injuries,

    If he fell he’d likely have to hit himself at just the right angle, if you can figure it out. There’s not much to fall on hard in the room. Not the headboard. Maybe the night table. Or the bathroom.

    Two separate injuries, hours apart?

    If only this, he should have been extremely woozy. His brain bled internally.

    I first heard that he tested positive for Covid and assumed that maybe he suffered from a blood clot. It would be Covid itself, if there is any connection, not the vaccine.

    The fact you don;t know of anything pointing to an assault doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Except that he was apparently uninjured after he got into the hotel room and nobody else is known to have entered the room, although that may be possible without being recorded in the records they looked at.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  329. They o longer pay attention to Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12.

    George Washington was born on February 11, 1731/2 Old Style, which later in his life was February 22. He didn’t retain the old date, apparently..

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  330. The actual official name of President’s Day is George Washington’s Birthday, which now can never come out on February 22. If February 22 is a Monday, it comes out on February 15.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  331. The Liquid Death commercial was good, thanks to a leg-up by Judas Priest.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  332. 249. NJRob (eb56c3) — 2/13/2022 @ 6:26 am

    They don’t care that radical leftists like Hillary and her goon squad broke the law to spy on the president because it was Trump.

    They didn’t spy on Trump. They faked evidence that a server in Trump Tower was being used by Russia. And he wasn’t president then. It’s not really news.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/clinton-october-tweets-resurfaced

    Hillary Clinton 2016 tweets pushed now-debunked claim of Trump use of ‘covert server’ linked to Russia

    ….Clinton, on Oct. 31, 2016, tweeted: “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” and shared a statement from her campaign’s senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan, who now serves as President Biden’s White House National Security advisor.

    What’s new is this:

    Fox News first reported on Saturday a filing by Special Counsel John Durham on Feb. 11 which revealed that Clinton campaign lawyers worked with a technology company and “assembled and conveyed” allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia to present to the FBI and a second federal government agency.

    The motion on Feb. 11 focused on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty.

    The indictment against Sussmann, says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.

    A section titled “Factual Background” reveals that Sussmann “had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.”

    Durham’s filing said Sussmann’s “billing records reflect” that he “repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations.”

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  333. Of course, Putin would never take Trump into his confidence, as the collusion allegation presupposes.

    But Trump didn’t mind Putin’s apparent endorsement of his campaign.

    Putin probably thought Hillary was against him, because of Valerie Nuland’s role in Maiden Revolution in February 2014. Hillary knew this but tried to mislead by placing the break between them, or Putin;s enmity, back in 2011.

    Putin also probably had hopes of placing agents like Mike Flynn or Paul Manafort and maybe Rick Gates high up in a future Trump Administration (except that Manafort was playing the Russians – he had no intention of becoming a spy – it wouldn’t have paid enough, and he’d have to make all sorts of financial disclosures to take a job.)

    Now who touted Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort to Donald Trump – now that’s a question.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  334. @339. The phone spot w/Pardon ‘getting something off her chest’ by pulling a phone out of her 76 year old cleavage was just creepy– but memorable as it got mentioned. Too many movie spots; too many pick-up truck spots and a down right lousy half-time show interrupting a pedestrian football game w/one team half the host city doesn’t care about and the other from a place known for a baseball gambler and a fictional radio station.

    “Oh my God- they’re turkeys!” – Les Nessman [Richard Sanders] ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ CBS TV 1978-82

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  335. 11:47 ,left in the 4th quarter. Cincinnati Bengals 20 , Los Angeles Rams 16. The lead has switched back and forth.

    So far this game is not living up to the ups and downs of many of the playoff games this year – but most of that happened in later in the game.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  336. Every Super Bowl Sunday, play the CBS telecast of Super Bowl 14 taped from 1980 when the Steelers kicked the butts of the ‘original’ Los Angeles Rams, 31-14. Moment of silence for ‘our hostages in Iran’ from those Carter days at the start is so… Bidenesque.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  337. #334 Dana – Thanks much for the info. The neglect of Lincoln seems almost creepy to me, though I think I understand why it happens.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  338. Rams-23
    Bengals-20

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  339. Don’t bet on it; suggest you ask Rudolph Anderson.

    Oh. Wait. You can’t. The USAF pilot was killed when his U-2 was shot down over Cuba.

    Our mistake for not retaliating.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  340. #332 nk – As a man of a “certain age”, I have been vaguely aware of the old age exception — and have been embarrassed the few times I took advantage of it. And ten times more embarrassed when, for example, a sweet young thing offers to let me go first.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  341. Film producer and director Ivan Reitman (75) has died.

    Rip Murdock (da0cad)

  342. And ten times more embarrassed when, for example, a sweet young thing offers to let me go first.

    I was like that, too, at first, when … well, I won’t say that I became differently abled but I had to give up my dream to be a ballerina and drop out of Ninja school … but nowadays I’m used it, and if a “Please, go ahead, I’m slow!” doesn’t work, I just thank them in a sincere tone.

    nk (1d9030)

  343. used *to* it

    nk (1d9030)

  344. It was a good game, good defensive contest. The difference was Kupp. The man stepped up.
    A friend of mine’s son got a full ride to Eastern WA University when Kupp was playing there, and no one doubted that he was going to be a star at the next level.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  345. I worked for Ivan Reitman and he was a good man

    steveg (e81d76)

  346. His gardens were stunning

    steveg (e81d76)

  347. Of course, Putin would never take Trump into his confidence, as the collusion allegation presupposes.

    “Trump” and “confidence” should not occur in the same sentence, unless immediately followed by “man.”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  348. @347. Our mistake for not retaliating.

    Except it was not a mistake to not retaliate– otherwise, if you were around in ’62- what was left of you would still be glowing in the dark.

    Learn something:

    How the Death of a U.S. Air Force Pilot Prevented a Nuclear War

    On October 27, 1962, U-2 pilot Rudolf Anderson Jr. was shot down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. His death may have saved the lives of millions.

    https://www.history.com/news/the-cuban-missile-crisis-pilot-whose-death-may-have-saved-millions

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  349. Hillary clinton is NOT a radical leftist She is an establishment deep state corporate 3rd way democrats. If you disagree what does she have in common with AOC/ilhan omar let alone antifa and the john brown gun club? Watch the move fair game if you want to see presidential lying.

    asset (1bb6cc)

  350. Except it was not a mistake to not retaliate– otherwise, if you were around in ’62- what was left of you would still be glowing in the dark.

    The Soviets were far far behind us in actual working missiles and more importantly the ability to put warheads on them. It is the main reason that Khrushchev fell — his adventurism had almost let them to a war they would have lost, badly. This was something Brezhnev corrected as quickly as possible. By 1970, the situation had been reversed.

    I’m not saying we wouldn’t have got our hair mussed, of course, but Turgidson was mostly right.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  351. Hillary clinton is NOT a radical leftist She is an establishment deep state corporate 3rd way democrats.

    I’m afraid you see differences in Statism that I don’t. It the fact they want the State running everything that matters to me, not why, or for whom.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  352. @358. It’s wise to blink- then blink again:

    ‘Arguably, the most dangerous moment in the crisis was not recognized until the Cuban Missile Crisis Havana conference, in October 2002. Attended by many of the veterans of the crisis, they all learned that on October 27, 1962, USS Beale had tracked and dropped signaling depth charges (the size of hand grenades) on B-59, a Soviet Project 641 (NATO designation Foxtrot) submarine. Unknown to the US, it was armed with a 15-kiloton nuclear torpedo. Running out of air, the Soviet submarine was surrounded by American warships and desperately needed to surface. An argument broke out among three officers aboard B-59, including submarine captain Valentin Savitsky, political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and Deputy brigade commander Captain 2nd rank (US Navy Commander rank equivalent) Vasily Arkhipov. An exhausted Savitsky became furious and ordered that the nuclear torpedo on board be made combat ready. Accounts differ about whether Arkhipov convinced Savitsky not to make the attack or whether Savitsky himself finally concluded that the only reasonable choice left open to him was to come to the surface.  During the conference, McNamara stated that nuclear war had come much closer than people had thought. Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, said, “A guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.”‘ – source, wikioopsboom.vaporized.org

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  353. IOC dopes say yes to doping; Russian skater skates by.

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  354. Lest you forget:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbkGkr0iceI

    Vlad can even can carry a tune– whilst Joey has trouble walking up steps. Don’t be surprised in the Ukraine liberation isn’t code named, “Blueberry Hill.”

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  355. Hillary clinton is NOT a radical leftist. She is an establishment deep state corporate 3rd way democrats..

    She’s an ancient Wellesley feminist– clad in Birkenstocks, no less:

    https://www.life.com/people/life-with-hillary-portraits-of-a-wellesley-grad-1969/

    ‘Feelin’ Groovy.’ – Simon & Garfunkel, 1966

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  356. So…
    If Putin invades, it’s Trump’s fault.
    If Putin does not invade, it’s Biden’s resolute statesmanship.

    Kevin M (38e250)

  357. We”? PA voters still had to actively request mail-in ballots. They didn’t just appear in residents’ mailboxes for no reason. These registered voters are citizens of legal age with no criminal records. Like it or not, they’re qualified to submit their votes. What gave Biden victory is that they were stuck between the sucky choice between a doddering Democrat and a corrupt snake-oil salesman with a triple-weave bleached combover who mismanaged a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of citizens.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 2/13/2022 @ 10:57 am

    Not true, ballots were mailed county wide in democrat controlled countys, ending in chaos with hundreds of thousands of votes without voters

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  358. So…
    If Putin invades, it’s Trump’s fault.
    If Putin does not invade, it’s Biden’s resolute statesmanship.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/14/2022 @ 1:12 am

    Either outcome, both presidents were failures to build up American credibility and prestige. Both a lesson in the value of those things.

    Dustin (150498)

  359. Not true, ballots were mailed county wide in democrat controlled countys, ending in chaos with hundreds of thousands of votes without voters

    I don’t think so. All 67 counties in the state tracked mail-in and absentee ballot requests. If any county was 100% mail-in, there would be no need to request ballots.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  360. Considering that Trump ordered, and I know what “ordered” means, his supporters not to vote by mail, complaining about it now is like the British officers who ordered a bayonet charge with unloaded rifles at Gallipoli complaining that the Turks had machine guns.

    nk (1d9030)

  361. So…
    If Putin invades, it’s Ukraine’s fault.
    If Putin does not invade, it’s missing out on the best real estate deal in 50 years.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  362. 358. Kevin M (38e250) — 2/13/2022 @ 11:01 pm

    . It is the main reason that Khrushchev fell — his adventurism had almost let them to a war they would have lost, badly.

    He fell two years later,

    The reason I read was that he was going to abolish the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Kosygin and others had their children in this non political career, and it caused them to throw in their lot with Brezhnev.

    The idea that the shooting down of the USAF pilot over Cuba scared both Kennedy and Khrushchev is just an idea. It is likely that things didn’t hinge on just one thing.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  363. There is a distinction between the death of a U-2 pilot in the 1960s and my “wild card” (….. if some trigger happy Russian shoots down a USAF surveillance aircraft flying over a NATO country.) Anderson was killed over enemy territory (Cuba), while my “wild card” asks what would happen if the Russians shoot down an American plane that is not flying over a combatant country, but over a NATO country such as Romania or Poland.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  364. 328. nk (1d9030) — 2/14/2022 @ 8:43 am

    Considering that Trump ordered, and I know what “ordered” means, his supporters not to vote by mail,

    He didn’t order it – he couldn’t exactly do that – but he strongly discouraged it, and his campaign didn’t help, and he said it would be conducive to fraud. Except in Florida.

    complaining about it now is like the British officers who ordered a bayonet charge with unloaded rifles at Gallipoli complaining that the Turks had machine guns.

    He complained that when more votes were counted, the totals were turning against him. He caused that anomaly.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  365. Worth reading: Mark Racicot’s letter to Ronna McDaniel.

    Here’s his conclusion:

    So what can be done now? My suggestion and request is that you lead the Committee through the process of withdrawing and dismissing the RNC Resolution rebuking and deserting Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. I urge the pursuit of this remedy with the understanding that we’re human, that politics is a competitive enterprise and that sometimes we make mistakes. But I also believe in such a situation the final measure of our character is whether we have the insight and courage to humbly and honestly correct them.

    He’s absolutely right.

    (Marc Racicot)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  366. Trump has always derided “American Exceptionalism” (which is different from “America First”). In a notorious interview with Bill O’Reilly, Trump argued for a moral equivalence with Putin.

    Trump has from the outset eschewed the premise of distinctive American virtue. Interviewed by Bill O’Reilly, a cooperative TV host, Trump in 2017 disputed the host’s characterization of Vladimir Putin as a “killer.” “There are a lot of killers,” Trump retorted. “You think our country’s so innocent?” Positing equivalence and deriding exceptionalism, what Trump formulated was the kind of critique that had, theretofore, circulated most easily on the left flanks of academia. In the aftermath of his summit meetings with Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, however, Trump’s disavowal of American righteousness, his forceful rejection of the Wilsonian creed, appears to have been a portentous admission, warranting reflection.
    ………
    ………Records from conversations (between Trump and Kim Jong Un) in Singapore may never surface, but no indication has yet appeared that the U.S. president remonstrated with Kim over the dismal plight of human rights in North Korea. Where George W. Bush expressed concern for the enchained North Korean people, Trump has summonsed for Kim an ostentatious affection that has been mostly absent from Trump’s interactions with democratic leaders. Kim, in Trump’s assessment, is a “very talented man” who “loves his country very much.” Confronted by the charge that Kim had “done bad things,” Trump has made familiar recourse to relativism. “Yeah,” Trump responded to Fox News’s Bret Baier, “but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things.”
    ………
    Russia today offers, as during the Cold War, a dark mirror to American ideals. ……

    ………Trump debased himself in Helsinki, where his performance echoed the debacle with Kim. In both summits, Trump put the foes of democracy on a plane of symbolic equality with the president of the United States. Still worse, he espoused a crude and transactional relativism, whereby ideals are at best an irrelevance in foreign policy, at worst an encumbrance. All the while, as he has gripped tyrants tighter, Trump has pushed harder against those core allies that share the liberal commitments that U.S. foreign policy once espoused. Like Putin, Trump has incited domestic opposition to Europe’s remaining liberal democrats, especially German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose liberal backbone and gender seem to make her an object of double suspicion. In another of last week’s startling developments, Trump declared the European Union a “foe”—a word that he appears loath to use to describe strategic adversaries. Amid a deepening struggle between an embattled West and its diverse adversaries, Trump is offering aid and comfort to liberalism’s enemies.

    Source

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  367. I suppose I could have used “adjured”, Sammy, but I try to avoid sesquipedalianism, and, besides, you’re the only other one who would have known, or looked up, what it means.

    nk (1d9030)

  368. @371. No. There isn’t:

    ‘On July 1, 1960, a United States RB-47H spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Air Defence Forces while performing signals intelligence in the Barents Sea, near the Kola Peninsula, off the Arctic coast of the Soviet Union. Four of the six crew members died. The shootdown occurred exactly two months after the far better known U-2 shootdown involving Francis Gary Powers, and added to the tensions created by that incident. The plane was part of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and took off from RAF Brize Norton airbase in the UK. It was shot down by Soviet pilot Vasily Polyakov in a MiG-19. The US position was that the plane was in international waters, and this was later corroborated by information provided by spy Oleg Penkovsky.

    Three of the crewmen (reconnaissance officers Capt. Oscar Goforth, Capt. Dean Phillips, and Capt. Eugene Posa) were missing in action, and the remains of one other (aircraft commander Maj. Willard Palm) were recovered. The two survivors, navigator Captain John R. McKone and co-pilot Captain Freeman “Bruce” Olmstead, were picked up by Soviet fishing trawlers and held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow until immediately after the inauguration of newly-elected US President Kennedy, when they were released by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a goodwill gesture.’ -source, wikioopsboom.theregoestheworld.thastsallfolks

    And a kneejerk reaction certainly doesn’t justify a full blown nuclear exchange.

    Learn something; it’s quite a list:

    http://6901st.org/history/shootdown.htm

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  369. @374. ‘Trump has always derided “American Exceptionalism” (which is different from “America First”). In a notorious interview with Bill O’Reilly, Trump argued for a moral equivalence with Putin.

    Trump has from the outset eschewed the premise of distinctive American virtue. Interviewed by Bill O’Reilly, a cooperative TV host, Trump in 2017 disputed the host’s characterization of Vladimir Putin as a “killer.” “There are a lot of killers,” Trump retorted. “You think our country’s so innocent?”’

    He’s right. Won’t bore you w/personal knowledge and details of U.S. plan to assassinate Libya’s Kaddafi by way of oil company executives in late 1969. Suffice to say the ‘assets’ and methods were offered by the U.S. in a meeting offshore— and it was the reasoned vote by the head of Standard Oil at the time who kept Kaddafi from getting bumped off then.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  370. Supposedly russia attacks ukraine on Wednesday. Happy World War III everybody!

    asset (06ee9d)

  371. Won’t bore you w/personal knowledge and details of U.S. plan to assassinate Libya’s Kaddafi by way of oil company executives in late 1969

    Thank you.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  372. Cock of the roost is still Sunday dinner. Russia is not America. It’s not even Junior Varsity America. It’s a bigger Libya, Uganda, or Venezuela. In America, Putin would not be President. He’d be serving eighteen consecutive life sentences.

    nk (1d9030)

  373. Kevin:

    Zelensky says Ukraine has been informed Feb. 16 will be day of attack

    https://news.yahoo.com/zelensky-says-ukraine-informed-feb-190318842.html

    Again, full moon, 2/16.

    Told ‘ya.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  374. @379. Ignorance is bliss; stay happy! 😉

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  375. @378. Ukraine will go ‘French’ over night!

    Chicken Kiev! C’est bon!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  376. U.S. Is Closing Kyiv Embassy

    WASHINGTON—The U.S. is closing its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and relocating operations 340 miles west to Lviv near the Polish border.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-is-closing-kyiv-embassy-relocating-diplomatic-operations-to-western-ukraine-11644864455

    Who can lose TWO United States embassies in six months?

    Joe Can Do!

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  377. 50 years of 20th century government experience = the 21st century Confluence of Incompetence.

    Way to go, Joe.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  378. @379. Ignorance is bliss; stay happy! 😉

    You are the one who offered “not to bore” us with the details, I am just thanked you for your offer.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  379. The flaw in this will be the usual GOP mouthpieces labeling Joe as projecting American ‘weakness’ when, in fact, it is merely classic ‘incompetence.’

    And, of course, their foolish use of the term ‘WE’ Ukraine isn’t a ‘We’ issue for the United States.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  380. @387. Psy ops.

    More like space optics; satellite imagery reveals Russian armor has now been dispersed from the ‘parking clusters’ earlier imaged and deployed along the border for action.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  381. In 1950 communist china sent “volunteers” to fight in the korean war. In 1936 volunteers including the abraham lincoln brigade fought in spain. Volunteers including osama bin ladin from all around the muslim world fought in afganistan. The flying tigers fought in china against japan (this would scare russia if they faced volunteer pilots) There are things that can be done short of war.

    asset (06ee9d)

  382. The U.S. deserves a good swift kick in the azz. We’re nearly 25 years into the 21st century already and America still has got OLD politicians in authority with 20th century mindsets still babbling about scenarios akin to World War II– which ended nearly 80 YEARS AGO. Our political class is ancient and perpetuated by two major parties clinging to power while increasingly out of touch with the electorate yet reactive, impotent, and increasingly incompetent, at managing events coming at them in the fast-changing world around them.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  383. DCSCA – Since you follow “Czar” Putin more closely than most of us, please answer this question: Why did Putin do so badly against the COVID epidemic? (Reminder: Russia has about as many deaths from the epidemic as the United States — with a population about 44 percent of ours.)

    So, where did Putin fail? Vaccinations? Quarantines? Corrupt and under-funded medical system? General incompetence? All of the above?

    Should he have put some money into the medical system instead of his fancy yacht?

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  384. @391 How do you think the squad got elected? Bowman cleaned another one out in 2020.

    asset (06ee9d)

  385. Would our congress critters do better?

    New research from the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) has revealed nearly half of the Commons is functionally innumerate. When a sample of MPs were asked “If you toss a coin twice, what is the probability of getting two heads?”, an astonishing 48% managed to get it wrong. The correct probability being 25%, although co-conspirators will already know that.

    (Minor quibble: Since coins are typically asymmetrical, there should be a tiny bias in the results.

    Major quibble: The problem assumes a fair coin flipper. But it is fairly easy to practice, especially with a larger coin, so that you can produce tails or heads, whichever you want. Humans being imperfect, I assume that has happened before some sporting events. A procedure less susceptible to fraud is to place a coin on its edge on a hard surface, and give it a hard spin.)

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  386. A new Russian tactic, according to the Wall treet Journal, according to Ukrainian authorities:

    Bomb threats. In the month of January, there were nearly 1,000 anonymous messages, mostly sent by email claiming bomb treats against more than 10,000 locations.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  387. 387. He was only repeating what everybody knows, and was somewhat sarcastic. He’s heard that date, too,

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  388. The U.S. deserves a good swift kick in the azz.

    Unfortunately, it won’t be the US getting a swift Russian boot, it will be the Ukranians.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  389. In America, Putin would not be President. He’d be serving eighteen consecutive life sentences.

    Were it not for Trump, I’d believe that. Also: “Who’s being naive, Kay?”

    Kevin M (38e250)

  390. ‘In America, Putin would not be President. He’d be serving eighteen consecutive life sentences.’

    Are you kidding? Have you heard him sing Blueberry Hill?

    He’d be a judge on ‘America’s Got Talent’— or ‘The Voice.’ Americans do love them ‘bad boys.’

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  391. @398. Unfortunately, it won’t be the US getting a swift Russian boot, it will be the Ukranians.

    Nothing new for ’em; once a doormat, always a doormat:

    https://www.quora.com/How-many-times-was-Ukraine-invaded-by-hostile-force

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  392. @392. Did he? Does it matter to anyone but the ‘Yesbutta Party’?? The question is will any of his 130,000 Ukranian liberators be wearing masks– other than gas masks? If not, expect Joe to demand they lockdown— and Kamala, in Europe now, secure the NATO borders declaring, ‘don’t come,’ a stern glare, a zesty finger wag– and another shopping spree in Paris.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  393. @398. Forget about Ukraine. This is really about Taiwan. The powers that be are watching and assessing how U.S. officials act and react– the game stakes are higher w/Taiwan in the pot.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  394. If people really thought that Taiwan was up for grabs, why wouldn’t Intel stock be out of the cellar?

    Kevin M (38e250)

  395. @404. Give it time. Look at oil; every hour the price per bbl. rises– that’s rubles in the bank for Vlad.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  396. you’re the only other one who would have known, or looked up, what it means.

    nk (1d9030) — 2/14/2022 @ 9:49 am

    I take homage to that remark.

    lurker (59504c)

  397. Justin Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell trucker protests in Canada

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/justin-trudeau-invokes-emergency-powers-quell-trucker-protests-canada-rcna16213

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaXsWQAI2j4

    ‘They’re not even a real country anyway.’

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  398. Doing what Donald wouldn’t.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  399. “Not a cult,” episode 37,864:
    Alyssa Farah’s father and stepmother boycotted her wedding because Donald Trump is more precious to them than she is.
    Radegunda (e9d462) — 2/11/2022 @ 7:46 pm

    “Not a nevertrump cult,” episode 37,865:

    “A Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty Monday to trying to pass information about American nuclear-powered warships to a foreign country, while his Trump-hating wife still denies the charges against them.

    Diana Toebbe said her husband only wanted to flee the country because she hated Donald Trump, a court has been told.

    Lawyers for Diana Toebbe, 45, claim she only wanted to exit the US because of her disdain for the former president, and not because she was worried about getting caught for allegedly trying to sell the classified information.”

    lmfao

    JF (e1156d)

  400. Read this by David French and tell me if he sounds like an elitist religious bigot alerting us all to vast numbers of the great unwashed amongst us.
    I’d counter French and say there are crazy people in every church in America. He should look around some Sunday and ask God what he isn’t seeing. One thing some Christians do is reduce nearly everything the feel as negative to “spiritual warfare” and they talk about it in those terms. Clearly, hanging people is out of bounds, but you will hear warfare sounding rhetoric, pledges to fight evil in schools, government etc all the time in those churches.

    https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-seeds-of-political-violence-are?r=bh4jz

    I’m open to someone telling me I’m misunderstanding French and I want to be charitable but he sounds a lot like Peter Strzok talking about being able to smell Trump supporters in a down state Walmart.

    steveg (e81d76)

  401. steveg, I don’t see the problem with calling out Christian nationalists like Metaxas, or a church that hosts a political charlatans like Eastman or Flynn, or tolerates someone who says that election fraudsters “deserve to hang”, in a church, mind you.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  402. The United States has closed its embassy in Kiev (Kyiv) and relocated some personnel to Lviv, which I guess they expect to hold out longer (one fear is a n attack on the capital)

    Reporters report that people in Ukraine are mostly going about their daily business like nothing was happwnning.

    Is Volodyrmyr Zelensky a Winston Churchill because that’s what happened in 1940 in England. That’s how he got the people in the Great Britain to react, thenn, and all through the bombing.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  403. nk: In America, Putin would not be President. He’d be serving eighteen consecutive life sentences.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 2/14/2022 @ 2:15 pm

    Were it not for Trump, I’d believe that.

    Trunp, rather, proves the case.

    He did not, after all, declare martial law, as (probable Russian agent) General Mike Flynn wanted him to, (Heand Sidney Powell got into see him by contacting someone in the White House who let them in. They got vlosse enough to Trump for him to call them in, but they did not meet alone with Trump. His aides prevented a second meeting.

    Mike Flynn was probably recruited by the GRU when he was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Obama was suspicious of him and advanced his retirement but he otherwise left the question up in the air, thinking that after all, he;d never be in a position to harm U.S. security. Later on, he could not explain to Donald Trump why he didn’t want Mike Flynn to be National Security Advisor. The FBI eased him out, not quite going by the book.

    Trump is not evil enough to stage a false flag terrorist attack, like Putin did, but he also wouldn;t get away with it. That requires the skills of a Clinton. It took all of Bill Clinton’s cover-up skilles to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco (to protect Little Rock BATF head and planner of the raid Jay William Buford, who killed three of his own men in front of KWTX – Channel 10 in Waco – television cameras, if the footage was properly understood) and cover it up and protect everybody involved. And then he needed the Oklahoma bombing, but the escalation stopped with that.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  404. In the Wordle for Friday, I had all of the letters after 4 tries, but it made up the word CRUEL and that was wrong.

    L was the second letter. C was not the first, pr the 4th, and couldn;t be the fifth unless the word ended in IC but there was no I. U was not the 3rd or the 4th and couldn’t reasonably be the fifth. ULNAR? I had thought if UL before but couldn’t think of a word.

    I knew R was not the first letter It had to be U almost. C almost had to be the third letter.

    I had to p;ace every letter in its proper place before I could guess the (not too uncommon) word.

    RE was at the end ER.

    It came out as ULCER.

    I had no idea that ULCER was an anagram of CRUEL.

    This is why the algorithm used by a computer is not so good for people. The computer has the list of words, and has no problem anagramming. People just know what letters likely go together and where in a word they might appear.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  405. lmfao

    wptgy

    Kevin M (38e250)

  406. Are you sure it isn’t Red Jakoff?

    He is a bit of doncha know, no doubt of it.

    nk (1d9030)

  407. Since the Putin cheerleader refuses to tell us went went wrong, with COVID in Russia, here’s a partial answer, explaining why the death rate in Russia from VOVID is more than twice as high as in the United States.

    Inside Russia, vaccine hesitancy is a bigger challenge, and average Russians have proven to be especially skeptical of Sputnik V. Even President Vladimir Putin hesitated to take it, waiting for roughly seven months to be jabbed. Russia’s low vaccination rate is on par with much poorer countries. Only about 36 percent of Russians have been fully vaccinated as of November 18, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center vaccine database. This likely has contributed to the country’s deadly COVID-19 waves in 2021.
    . . .
    Instead of tackling such challenges head on, Sputnik V’s backers and the Russian state-controlled propaganda apparatus have repeatedly tried to tarnish the reputation of Western vaccines. For example, when Pfizer released data admitting decreasing efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine over time as part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory review of its booster shot, Sputnik V’s Twitter account made a specious comparison to erectile dysfunction medication.

    Sound familiar? The Russian scientists did the their job, but Putin botched his, and is attempting to distract Russians from his incompetence by anti-Western propaganda.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  408. This isn’t exactly news, but who is saying it is:

    Former president Donald Trump’s longtime accounting firm informed his company last week that a decade’s worth of Trump’s financial statements “should no longer be relied upon” and suggested that any recipient of the documents be alerted, according to a copy of the letter filed in New York court filings.

    In the letter, Mazars executive William J. Kelly voiced new concerns about the statements, which the firm helped Trump prepare and which have come under scrutiny recently by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D)

    No doubt Tucker Carlson will do a whole show on this development.

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  409. 418. The accounting firm also quit. The Trump organization claims vindication because the accounting firm also said that the financial statements it prepared on their financial condition do not contain any “material discrepancies.”and says the investigations should now come to an end. (because no fraud on lenders)

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  410. The “spying on the White House’ by the people paid by Clinton campaign was the Obama White House.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/tech-exec-used-access-white-house-computers-look-dirt-trump-says-speci-rcna16123

    A tech executive “exploited” his access to computer data at the Trump White House to find “derogatory information” about President Donald Trump, a special counsel appointed during the Trump administration said in a court filing Friday.

    John Durham, appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2020 to probe the origins of the FBI’s investigation of Russian election interference, said “Tech Executive-1,” not named in the filing but first identified by The New York Times as Rodney Joffe, used his access to domain name system, or DNS, data to compile information about which computers and servers the White House servers were communicating with.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  411. Yesterday Ukrainian president Volodyrmyr Zelensky said that today would be a day of national unity and the United States destroyed its cryptographic ability and its phone system at the embassy in Kyiv.

    Russia has halted and slightly reversed its mobilization.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  412. I’m sure that Mazars accurately reported the fraudulent information that Trump gave them, i.e., no “material discrepancies”.
    From the NYT account, the financial statements were “compiled”, which means Mazars did no auditing or verifying that Trump’s numbers were legit. For compilations, accounting firms report the information given them but make no assurances to users of their statements that Trump’s numbers are accurate or reasonably stated.
    It sounds like they had to resign because the prosecutors made clear to them that Trump was giving them phony numbers, and they probably had a conflict of interest for cooperating with prosecutors. Also, this only puts Weisselberg in deeper sh-t.
    To me, this doesn’t take Mazars completely off the hook because they worked with this fraudster for a decade, and they had to have seen the fraud at Trump University and Trump Foundation (how could Trump Organization be run any differently? The rot from the fish first comes from the head). Any users of their signed reports may have good lawsuit material.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  413. I think “no material discrepancies” means that the problematic estimates of current property values did not materially affect the overall financial condition of the Trump organization, and their ability to pay back loans.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  414. I don;t know what this means:

    In the letter, Mazars noted that the firm had not “as a whole” found material discrepancies between the information the Trump Organization provided and the actual value of Mr. Trump’s assets. But given what it called “the totality of circumstances” — including Mazars’ own investigation — the letter directed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the statements that they should no longer rely on them.

    The thing is, any time something sells, the price is negotiated. It’s impossible to place a real value on it.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  415. Paul,

    Engagements with accounting firms are wide and deep as well as different. You make some statements that maybe are correct but haven’t begun to be litigated and most likely won’t be. Also, Trump was prevailing in court in the Trump University cases settled due to the optics of the campaign and paid no money in the settlements. His partners who actually did the operations did

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  416. I take back my previous comment about Durham.
    Turns out that the so-called “Hillary hacked Trump servers” scandal is a nothingburger. Durham left out of his filing that most or all of Joffe’s sleuthing was while Obama was prez, and it was legit.

    “What Trump and some news outlets are saying is wrong,” said Jody Westby and Mark Rasch, both lawyers for Mr. Dagon. “The cybersecurity researchers were investigating malware in the White House, not spying on the Trump campaign, and to our knowledge all of the data they used was nonprivate DNS data from before Trump took office.”

    In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr. Joffe said that “contrary to the allegations in this recent filing,” he was apolitical, did not work for any political party, and had lawful access under a contract to work with others to analyze DNS data — including from the White House — for the purpose of hunting for security breaches or threats.

    Ms. Wheeler has more here. Morning Joe spent a full half-hour on the topic.
    Mr. Sussman shared the results of Joffe’s work with the CIA in February 2017, and hyperpartisans like Kash Patel knew that.
    If nothing else is produced by Durham, then his investigation can be fairly viewed as a big fat waste of time, a “witch hunt” as it were. He nailed Clinesmith, which was handed to him by IG Horowitz, and he may have caught Sussman in a false statement.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  417. US accuses financial website of spreading Russian propaganda
    ………
    The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.

    Zero Hedge denied the claims and said it tries to “publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story.” In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it has “has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.”
    ……..
    In recent months, Zero Hedge has published numerous articles that accused the U.S. of fomenting panic about Ukraine, which now faces the possibility of an invasion by more than 130,000 Russian troops massed on several sides of the country. Some of those articles are listed as being written by people affiliated with the Strategic Culture Foundation.

    The Biden administration sanctioned the foundation last year for allegedly taking part in Russia’s interference in the 2020 U.S. election. U.S. intelligence officials allege the foundation’s leaders ultimately take direction from the SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service.

    Recent articles listed as authored by the foundation and published by Zero Hedge include the headlines: “NATO Sliding Towards War Against Russia In Ukraine,” “Americans Need A Conspiracy Theory They Can All Agree On” and “Theater Of Absurd… Pentagon Demands Russia Explain Troops On Russian Soil.”
    ……..
    A manifesto published on Zero Hedge’s site defends its use of anonymous authors and proclaims its goal is “to liberate oppressed knowledge.” Many articles are published under the name Tyler Durden, also a character in the movie “Fight Club.”

    The website was an early amplifier of conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. ………
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  418. Jesse Watters Makes WILDLY Unfounded Claim That Hillary Paid Hackers to Plant Evidence on Trump
    ………
    On Friday, Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion alleging that Clinton hired a tech executive with legal access to non-public, non-private internet data, some of which was allegedly used in an effort to link Trump to Russia. That executive has elsewhere been confirmed to be Rodney Joffe.
    ………
    On Monday, (Watters) told his audience:

    Durham’s documents show that Hillary Clinton hired people who hacked into Trump’s home and office computers before and during his presidency, and planted evidence that he colluded with Russia.

    Yeah. You heard that right. Hillary broke into a presidential candidate’s computer server and a sitting president’s computer server, spying on them. There, her hackers planted evidence, fabricated evidence connecting Trump to Russia, then fed that doctored material to the feds and the media.

    The problem is that Durham’s documents don’t show this – at all.
    ……….
    Rather than an elaborate hacking scheme, Durham states that Sussmann and a tech executive had access to certain non-public Internet data and that the tech exec “exploited” this by passing on data to the Clinton campaign.

    The Government’s evidence at trial will also establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system (“DNS”) Internet traffic pertaining to (i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (“EOP”). (Tech Executive-1’s employer, Internet Company-1, had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP. Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP’s DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.)

    …….Durham’s motion (doesn’t) contain any allegations of hacking, fabricating, or planting evidence.
    ……..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  419. EPJW, none of what you said about Trump University is true. The plaintiffs received financial settlements from Trump, which was curiously paid by Trump’s Las Vegas hotel business partner who wasn’t even involved in TU (which is itself kind of funny), and the reason why the chumped “studentry” got 90% of their money back is because Trump’s so-called university was a scam. I do stand corrected that a judge shut down the operation. He ended the university because of all the fraud lawsuits.

    Regarding Mazars, the key word verbiage from the NYT is here.

    The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided.

    My CPA training tells me that “compiled” has a specific meaning in the accounting profession. Since they’re not doing auditing or review, they’re made no representations to the accuracy of Trump’s financials.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  420. I’m not surprised that ZeroHedge was busted for being a conduit of Putin propaganda.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  421. And here’s a handy chart of Putin’s propaganda & disinformation ecosystem. ZeroHedge is a “Kremlin Amplifier”, along with Global Research, The Saker and the racist Unz Review.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  422. Breaking – Fox News reports cyberattack is underway against Ukranian Ministry of Defense, banks and other infrastructure elements.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  423. Paul,
    Again, Trump paid nothing and did not participate materially in the day to day. No Judge shut down the operation, Trump’s business lic in NY for the university expired, he chose due to the optics, being exaggerated in the press not to renew it. The NYT’s a disreputable source said Mazar compiled, not a court. In fact – it may very well be Mazar themselves, who did the questionable accounting. So when we have some facts to actually go over, like I said, you may very well be right, but I dont know, New York doesn’t know, and you don’t know

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  424. https://cnsnews.com/article/national/terence-p-jeffrey/price-unleaded-gas-408-under-biden-used-cars-405-beef-160

    Thanks Biden voters. You’re doing a fantastic job creating that socialist utopia you desire.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  425. EPJW, I gave you four links.
    Trump University shut down in 2010, in part because “University” was a lie. The judge awarded the plaintiffs $25 million, payable by Trump, and he got the cash from Phil Ruffin, who paid him over $20 million in so-called back fees at around the same time.
    As far as the NYT goes, you’re going to have to do better than avoiding the substance by taking the intellectually lazy way out and going ad hom. They’re not the only media organization saying this.

    Mazars compiled the statements and included a two-page introduction that stated Trump was responsible for valuations, but they noted that in many ways they did not comply with US accounting rules.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  426. Paul,

    From Mazars website today:

    ” Industry experience, effective solutions, proven results.

    We advise clients on operational inefficiencies and reduce costs by providing services across accounting, auditing, tax consulting, credit and cash flow planning, forecasting and budgeting, cost systems, profitability analysis, and financing. We serve as advisors to a full spectrum of real estate companies, including prominent real estate funds, institutional investors, real estate owners and real estate investment advisors.

    Our robust in-house business valuation services include a specialty focus on how debt and derivative instruments are valued. Unlike traditional real estate advisors, we also offer seamless real estate consulting and planning for both simple and complex engagements at every stage of a project’s life, nationally and internationally”

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  427. Paul,

    Your links were incorrect. Also Mazar doesn’t offer bookkeeping services. Those two page letters are on every fortune 500 companies audited books. Its required by their errors and omissions insurance and its meaningless, just ask Arther Andersen.

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  428. EPWJ, I’m a CPA, and I gave you a link. You don’t understand what compilations are.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  429. Paul,

    We don’t KNOW what Mazar did, according to their website – they dont offer mere compilations

    EPWJ (0fbe92)

  430. https://www.thecollegefix.com/my-parents-fled-communism-decades-ago-but-at-my-elite-d-c-university-the-ideology-is-alive-and-well/

    To my family, the ability to speak freely and without fear is worth dying for. My parents’ only hope was to raise their children in a land that would not oppress them for daring to speak out, and to their horror, their children’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech is in grave danger.

    In the 1970s, my father fled Romania, was thrown into a communist labor camp in Yugoslavia, beaten by guards there, and starved. He eventually got out, made his way to Austria, and applied for asylum to the United States.

    It was a difficult journey, but if you ask him he would say he’d do it all again in a heartbeat for the price of free speech and personal freedom.

    So it’s ironic — and frankly frightening — that as his daughter attending one of the country’s top universities in the capital of our country, that I am threatened for my speech so much so that I now fear to speak freely and voice my conservative beliefs.

    Leftism survives by rewriting history and silencing all dissent.

    NJRob (fbe422)

  431. Sure, Rob. The Left has an airtight monopoly on silencing opinions it doesn’t like. Your take on the problem is totally uninfluenced by tribalism and confirmation bias.

    lurker (59504c)

  432. I can get Custom Range with Google here. So I don’t know what is going on yet..

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  433. On a lighter note: Eileen Gu has told us she is Chinese in China, and American in America. Unfortunately, as far as I know, no reporter has asked her this obvious question: Suppose you were on an airline from a neutral nation flying over international waters, for example, Aer Lingus over the Atlantic. What would you be, then? Irish? None of the above?

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  434. Mitch Daniels calls for “lemon laws” for public schools, definitely including colleges and universities.

    And gives this example of how a simple incentive worked in Indiana grade schools:

    Through one of the educational reforms for which I advocated as governor, Indiana prohibits the so-called social promotion of children from third to fourth grade until they pass a reading test. It’s well-established that up to that point, children must learn to read, so that beyond it they can “read to learn.” Yet far too many schools choose to shuffle along kids who are not reading-ready, in most cases dooming them to struggle and failure later on.

    The reform worked, in a uniquely rapid and emphatic fashion. In the first post-reform cycle of national assessments, Indiana fourth-graders jumped from 27th to 14th. Two years later, the state ranked ninth. The extra costs for summer tutoring, or the reputational bruise from too many youngsters having to repeat third grade, clearly got the system’s attention.

    Last year Oregon stopped giving proficiency tests for high school graduation, which inspired this Daniels quip: “A lot of losing football coaches in Oregon wish they, too, could just stop keeping score, but, of course, football is too important for such nonsense.”

    Jim Miller (edcec1)

  435. 432. The Ukrainian websites are all back up. They think this was a test.

    Russia did pull back some troops who would not be involved in any initial attack, but overall, it has ramped up and nw there are 150,000 troops surrounding Ukraine. There is also the thought that maybe they’ll go also into Moldova.

    Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d)

  436. Lurker, your whataboutism while leftists control all institutions is noted.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  437. Biden tells Trudeau US workers are experiencing ‘serious effects’ from trucker protests. – TheHill.com

    Breaker, breaker one-nine, ol’18-wheeler Joe not being a good buddy to his fellow truckers.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  438. Good news. The wokey extremist activists on the SF school board were just trounced (h/t Tim Miller).

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  439. Sorry, Rob, that’s not whatabouting. Generally if you mention bad behavior by your opponent, and someone replies with similar behavior by your side, that’s whatabouting. But if you also implied the behavior is peculiar to your opponent, examples of comparable behavior by your side aren’t whatabouting. They’re a legit rebuttal of your accusation.

    lurker (59504c)

  440. “… while leftists control all institutions….”

    I’m so glad I don’t live in the dystopian world you see through your eyes.

    lurker (59504c)

  441. Wait, why would a 15-year old need three different kinds of “heart medicine”?

    Heart of a champion. Heart medicine of a 70 year-old with angina.

    Can we just have a ban on all Russian athletes in the Olympics until after Putin is dead?

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  442. New York Times link for Wordle

    https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

    I can’t figure out how the New York Times could monetize that except to maybe license it to be used in a game show or sell a device or app that plays it.

    https://www. wordle powerlanguage.co.uk now redirects to that.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  443. RATES
    CABIN
    CADDY
    COUGH
    CAULK

    After CABIN I already thought of CAU.. but coudn;t think of any word but CAUSE, and that was ruled out.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  444. They have other games. Is it to keep you on the NYT website? Encourage you to register (so as to keep track of how well you do)

    You can make amistake in typing or rather inserting in the mini crossword. Backspace deletes a letter there.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  445. Now they say it is the 1889 flue that could have been a cornonovirus. Is that the same as the 1890 one?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/health/russian-flu-coronavirus.html”They are looking to see if there are any preserved samples. Even accidentally preserved.

    Harald Bruessow, a retired Swiss microbiologist and editor of the journal Microbial Biotechnology, points to a paper published in 2005 concluding that another coronavirus circulating today, known as OC43, which causes severe colds, may have jumped from cows to humans in 1890.

    Omicron has code from 229E.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  446. I can’t figure out how the New York Times could monetize that except to maybe license it to be used in a game show or sell a device or app that plays it.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 2/16/2022 @ 1:44 pm

    I don’t know but my guess would be they’ll put it behind the paywall to incentivize subscriptions.

    lurker (59504c)

  447. Infrastructure Joe vs. Infrastructure Vlad:

    The recently collapsed Fern Hollow [Forbes Avenue] Bridge in Pgh., will cost $25 million in Federal funds to repair and take between 18 months to two years.

    https://theconstructionbroadsheet.com/penndot-gets-m-selects-designbuild-team-to-rebuild-collapsed-bridge-p707-175.htm

    The Russians constructed a bridge across the Prypiat River in Belarus in just a few days to move heavy armor into Ukraine.

    https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/satellite-pics-show-new-military-bridge-heavy-russian-troops-near-ukraine-2773062

    … and Putin smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  448. Now that the Trump clan is required to undergo depositions for their fraud at the Trump Organization, I have one question: Which one will plead the Fifth the most.
    I’m guessing Ivanka, the smart one. Her daddy will just blab away in a massive jumble of word salad, and he’ll probably get away with perjury because his answers are so incoherent and incomprehensible.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)

  449. Is it TDS if it’s true that Trump is engaged in all kinds of fraud? Such as his defrauding political donors by using their money (which was supposed to help elect Republicans) to rent vacant office space at Trump Plaza?

    NEW YORK ― Former President Donald Trump spent $375,000 raised from his followers for rent at his financially troubled Manhattan skyscraper last year ― even though his political committees have no presence in the building.

    “It’s a huge scam,” said one former aide with direct knowledge of Trump’s political spending. “I can’t believe his base lets him get away with it.”
    […]
    A HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows that Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC spent $37,541.67 in each of 10 months last year renting office space at Trump Tower, the former president’s 57-story mixed-use building near Central Park.
    […]
    The $375,417 Trump spent for the unused office space is more than the $350,500 that his Save America committee donated last year to Republican candidates running for office, which is ostensibly Trump’s purpose for raising money for his committees.

    At $64 per square foot, that rent ain’t cheap. It’s an extra windfall because revenues are received but the landlord pays no utilities or maintenance on the 7,000 square foot space.

    Paul Montagu (5de684)


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