Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
While Kevin McCarthy’s desperate efforts to obtain enough votes for the speakership is wholly captivating, other events continue to happen throughout the world. So, here we go.
First news item
At the time of writing this post, here’s where Kevin McCarthy says he’s at with negotiations with House Republicans:
During a conference call this morning with the Republican conference, McCarthy told members that there’s not officially a deal to vote him speaker, but said he believes they’re “in a good position” and working in “good faith.”
“I’m not telling you we have an agreement,” McCarthy said on the call, according to multiple sources. “We’re in a good position and having meetings.”
So basically, he’s nowhere. He reportedly again offered the concession to make it easier to remove him as speaker if he is elected. The house is set to reconvene at noon (ET) today.
And there is this interesting tidbit:
The vast majority of the Republicans blocking McCarthy’s speaker bid have given life to the so-called ‘big lie’ in the two years since the Capitol attack.
Of the 15 incumbents…rejecting McCarthy, 14 challenged the results of the 2020 election two years ago.
Just two of the 20…acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election…
The small but significant group appears on the verge now of taking the reins of power in Washington by using their leverage against McCarthy, who himself has a tortured relationship with Jan. 6 and the 2020 election.
McCarthy was one of 147 House Republicans to reject its certification ahead of a floor speech deeming Trump “bears responsibility” for the “mob attack.”
Second news item
The Charlie Hebdo publication is in trouble with Iran after the cover of the latest edition had a cartoon showing (explicit description warning ahead) “a line of clerics walking into a naked woman’s vagina with the message: “Mullahs, go back to where you came from.”
Iran says it has closed a Tehran-based French institute over “sacrilegious” cartoons of its supreme leader in a French satirical magazine. Charlie Hebdo’s latest edition features caricatures mocking Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and fellow Shia Muslim clerics sent in by readers in support of the anti-government protests in Iran…It threatened further action if France did not “hold to account the perpetrators and sponsors of such instances of spreading hatred”.
France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had told LCI TV before the announcement that “freedom of the press exists [in France], contrary to what is happening in Iran” and blasphemy was not an offence under French law.
The special edition marks the eighth anniversary of an attack on its Paris office by French Muslim terrorists outraged by the magazine’s publication of caricatures of Mohammed. The attack left 12 people dead, five of which were cartoonists for the magazine.
Third news item
Of course they are: Republican House members gumming up the McCarthy vote are cashing in off the chaos:
Multiple McCarthy holdouts have used the fight to raise campaign cash this week.
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) campaign asked potential donors to “support our fight with critical reinforcements” and in one email dubbed McCarthy “Kiev Kevin.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) asked donors “to turbocharge our emergency efforts to break the Establishment.” His campaign emails link to a payment processing page that claims “every dollar helps secure the Speaker position.”
An email from Rep. Bob Good’s (R-Va.) campaign Thursday claimed that McCarthy “spent millions of dollars trying to defeat conservatives in Republican primaries” and closed with a donation plea.
House Freedom Caucus member Mick Mulvaney also said that he received a fundraising letter from Colorado’s Rep. Lauren Boebert. Additionally, Ultra MAGA PAC, a group run by ex-Trump aide Corey Lewandowski, is also fundraising by calling for McCarthy, Mitch McConnell and RNC chair Ronna McDaniel to be replaced.
Democrats are fundraising as well. They are pointing to the chaos on the other side of the aisle, saying: “Republicans have fallen into complete chaos. Will you help me prove that grassroots Democrats can get more support than Republicans in these first hours of the new Republican House?”
Fourth news item
President Biden on the border:
President Joe Biden said Thursday the U.S. would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally…
The new rules expand on an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the U.S., which began in October and led to a dramatic drop in Venezuelans coming to the southern border. Together, they represent a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows U.S. authorities to turn away asylum-seekers.
“Do not, do not just show up at the border,” Biden said as he announced the changes, even as he acknowledged the hardships that lead many families to make the dangerous journey north.
“Stay where you are and apply legally from there,” he advised.
Ah, and then there is this:
…the U.S. will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to work legally, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks.
President Biden’s announcements comes as a decision regarding Title 42 is pending (and if it ends, would bring untold numbers of migrants across the border), and just days after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced that he would be sending migrants to New York City, Chicago and elsewhere because, as he claimed, Colorado was not really their destination state:
Polis’ office said about 70% of the migrants who arrived in Denver aren’t seeking to make Colorado their final destination. But “due to weather and workforce shortage, they have been experiencing transportation cancellations,” hence a large number of people suddenly making their way to other places…
Because of the very high number of immigrants arriving in Denver, the mayor declared a state of emergency for both the county and city of Denver.
New York City Mayor Adams balked at having yet more migrants, yet “local laws compel the state to shelter the new arrivals…
The president is scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas this Sunday.
Fifth news item
She lost her election by 17,000 votes but that won’t hold her back in Arizona:
A number of Republican names have been floated as possible Senate candidates in 2024, including unsuccessful 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, failed 2022 Senate nominee Blake Masters, Treasurer Kimberly Yee, Rep. Andy Biggs (R), Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, and former Rep. Matt Salmon.
Lake has recently fielded calls from supporters encouraging her to run for Senate, according to a person familiar with those calls.
“On the Republican side, I think this has all the makings of a total jungle primary with several candidates running,” said Brady Smith, an Arizona-based GOP strategist. “Republicans in Arizona looking at this race are cautiously licking their chops.”
Sixth news item
Some great news about Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin:
On Thursday, his doctors announced Hamlin had started to awaken. Though he remains critically ill and on a ventilator, his medical team said the player is showing signs of “good neurologic recovery” and is making significant improvement.
The immediate response of Kellington and other medical personnel was vital to “not just saving his life, but his neurological function,” Dr. Timothy Pritts, one of Hamlin’s doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said Thursday.
First question upon waking up, according to Hamlin’s doctor:
Damar Hamlin is awake and able to communicate with written messages, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said Thursday.
The first question the 24-year-old asked from his ICU bed was “who won the game?”
The answer was simple, “yes, Damar, you won the game of life,” said Dr. Timothy Pritts, who specializes in general surgery, trauma, surgical critical care and more at UC Health.
I’m reading here and there that some people are appalled that this was what Hamlin asked. What’s the problem? He’s a grown man who nearly died from a harrowing experience, he can ask whatever the hell he wants. It’s nobody’s business.
Here is what a cardiologist and one of the world’s top researchers in the field had to say about commotio cordis.
Seventh news item
The brave men and women of Iran continue to protest against the regime. Here is a summary of where things stand:
Iranian authorities have tried to stamp out the protests with mass arrests, the use of live fire and intimidating those they perceive to be linked to protesters or in some way support them. They have also accused foreign forces of fuelling the unrest.
So far, at least 516 protesters have been killed, including 70 children, and 19,262 others arrested, according to the foreign-based Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 68 security personnel.
Two protesters have been executed and some 12 others sentenced to death, according to AFP news agency. Half are awaiting retrial, it says.
Eighth news item
Today is the second anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. President Biden will be honoring 12 Americans with the Presidential Citizens Medal:
The individuals include law enforcement officers who were injured defending the Capitol, a Capitol Police officer who died the day after rioters stormed the building and election workers who rejected efforts by former President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Biden is set to deliver remarks and host a ceremony at the White House honoring the dozen individuals chosen for having made “exemplary contributions to our democracy” and shown “courage and selflessness” around the events of January 6, a White House official familiar with the details told CNN.
About the award:
The Presidential Citizens Medal is one of the country’s highest civilian honors, given to American citizens deemed to have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”
Honorees include: “Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, Capitol Police Officer Carolyn Edwards, retired Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and retired Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, mother-daughter election workers who were targeted by MAGA election conspirasists after the 2020 election, and Several state and local officials who stood up to pressure to overturn the 2020 election results will also receive the honor, including Rusty Bowers, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt…Biden will also bestow the honor posthumously to Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who officials said died of natural causes a day after being assaulted with bear spray while defending the Capitol.”
JVW sends our ninth news item which concerns Hillary Clinton:
Hillary Clinton will join Columbia University as a professor and presidential fellow in global affairs, the university announced Thursday.
Clinton will become a professor of practice at the School of International and Public Affairs and a presidential fellow at Columbia World Projects next month, Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger said in a statement.
“Given her extraordinary talents and capacities together with her singular life experiences, Hillary Clinton is unique, and, most importantly, exceptional in what she can bring to the University’s missions of research and teaching, along with public service and engagement for the public good,” Bollinger said.
Never short of a deliciously to-the-point insight, JVW opines:
I’m sure Columbia will use Hillary to raise oodles of money from high-strung wealthy progressive alums, just as Hillary will use Columbia to burnish her credentials as a deep-thinking intellectual, but this is the kind of rot in academia that is hollowing out public respect for higher education. How would you like to be an adjunct professor at Columbia, teaching three classes a term at wages that barely allow you to live in NYC, hoping against hope that a tenure-track position opens up and that you have a shot at it, and then see Hillary waltz in and teach one graduate seminar per term for $250,000 annually (or, knowing the Clintons, much more than that)? What a racket.
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:06 amMitch Daniels recommends this book:
(Links omitted.)
Here’s another way to put Eberstadt’s conclusion: When American men are better off, so are American women and children.
Daniels also approves of Eberstadt’s approach, as well as his message:
That approach, as Daniels goes on to say, is essential to the scientific method and, I would add, to rational thinking, generally.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:25 amRussian Orthodox Christmas begins tomorrow. What does “Czar” Putin deserve in his stocking? The traditional coal? Or something even worse?
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:31 amHIMARS all around.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:50 amFinally, some real firepower to Ukraine:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:00 amMcCarthy falls short this morning.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:02 am@7. Seems several are flipping– and they’re still counting… on this vote.
Selling his soul for personal ambition to eek out the gig, still makes him weak and easy for his side of the aisle to roll. Doesn’t score well for his “leadership” skills at all to have gotten to this in the first place.
He’s the ‘Lt. Norman Dike’ of the GOP.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:13 amMitch Daniels should throw his hat in. He’d be a solid representative for the Normal Wing of the GOP.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:19 amStill not enough to put him over yet. Needs 217 today- only 213. Apparently 9 flipped on this vote cycle.
Wait ’til voters learn what he’s forfeited to get the gig. Raw personal ambition on display. Even The Big Dick resigned ‘for the good of the country’ [and minimal support in the Senate for a trial] rather than pursue his personal ambitions to the end. Now the deal includes one member can call a vote to have him ousted from gig.
Some hold out member should demand all the loose change in McCarthy’s pocket, too. 😉
If you’ve got’em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow — Theodore Roosevelt
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:29 amMcCarthy looks shorter and shorter every day.
1. The rebels would never vote for him.
2. He’s not an election denier.
3. He would have to be out of his mind.
The only way he could win would be with Democratic votes, and since he is an outsider, he can’t be threatened with a primary. But #1 still applies.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:30 amA proud American would have declined a second nomination after losing the first vote; personally nominated Hakeem Jeffries; and resigned from Congress.
nk (658f2c) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:39 amDemand the folding money in McCarthy’s pockets along w/t loose change, too– and his reserved SoH parking space. Leave him his cufflinks and the account number to his Swiss bank account for the next flipper. 😉
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:45 amGoetz and Boebert will never flip.
So McCarthy know the few remaining to sell what’s left of his integrity and soul to– along w/his family pets– and ‘special services’ from him wife.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:53 amRIP Kenneth Rowe (90). On September 21, 1954, as Lt. No Kum-Sok of the North Korean Air Force, he defected to the United States by flying his MiG-15 to Kimpo Air Base. He received a $100,00 reward (now worth just over $1M) from Operation Moolah, which promised the reward to the first pilot to defect with a MiG.
The airplane is now located at the located at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:18 am#14
He’d likely throw in special services from his mistress. Hope he doesn’t have a daughter.
Appalled (cea615) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:27 amJohn Bolton just announced on British television that he’s running for American president. Someone should tell him that he can’t use his mustache as a running mate.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:31 amThis is overtaken by events but is fascinating:
https://www.grid.news/story/politics/2023/01/06/the-democrats-the-republicans-and-the-freedom-caucus-inside-the-rights-plans-to-seize-power-in-the-new-congress/
Appalled (fc0604) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:32 am17,
He’s got more than enough time to find a trans-POC who likes regime change.
frosty (bc9af7) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:46 am@16. Since he’s very publicly ‘screwing the pooch’ as it is, the wifey, mistress and kiddies are easy barter. 😉
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:51 am@17. The Walrus is always full of Gumbo.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:52 am@18. Heard that a few days ago, too– a McCarthy vs. Lettuce scenario?
‘In God We “Truss”‘ 😉
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:55 amLoses 13th vote.
There’s only 2 or 3 he can flip now…
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:58 amThe old mistress might have more, ahem, value to the Matt Gaetzes of the world. The wife strikes me as a Rue McClanahan look a like…which may work for the olds.
urbanleftbehind (bed5f0) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:02 pm“History will remember your names…” – Squinty McStumblebum
That’s right Joey:
Remember Ashli Babbitt; veteran, American citizen, murdered two years ago today by Royalist guards.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:04 pmDCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:53 am
If so, he needs to flip 3 of the other 4 holdouts or a Democrat.
Jeffries needs to flip 5 Republicans or get 10 to vote present or absent themselves.
These numbers may change after the February 21, 2023 special election in the 4th Congressional district of Virginia. (it would take an additional two or three weeks to have the winner certified)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:09 pm@26. What’s left to barter– buy’em lifetime passes to California’s Disneyland?? Boebert and Goetz firmly oppose him. His leadership skills suck.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:14 pmHow do they come up with these acronyms? Can an appropriate acronym work for any name?
Democratic Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres has a proposed bill to be called the SANTOS Act
Stop
Another
Non-
Truthful
Office
Seeker
It would
https://nypost.com/2022/12/29/george-santos-bill-would-make-candidate-lies-a-crime-ritchie-torres/
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:16 pmScott Perry on Fox News says he ‘never really was against McCarthy’…
Except he was.
And repeatedly voted against him… then flipped.
What did he get?
The one vote, ‘vacate the chair’ option.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:17 pmFounding member. He’s not in Congress now. He served as budget director and also, simultaneously after awhile, as Acting White House Chief of Staff (he never wanted any title beyond acting because he thought he might last longer that way!) and envoy to Northern Ireland.
I think he was possibly the one who came up with the idea of tying the Ukrainian aid to something in the hopes of unfreezing it. In the end the end of secrecy did it.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:22 pmhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/mccarthy-house-speaker-vote-trump-freedom-caucus-budget-spending-committee-republican-majority-11672956869?mod=opinion_featst_pos1
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:30 pm“Now we’ve learned how to govern.”- Kevin McCarthy 1/6/23
O.M.G. How many years has this Royalist been in Congress????
Storm the castle.
DCSCA (1134cb) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:32 pm@4 So 1 in 5 are traditional conservatives 4 in 5 are populists. Helping working class has more support then lowering taxes. Only 46% say you can’t be a good republican if you support abortion rights. So in 2024 pro choice initiatives on ballots get 50% of republican vote 75% of independent vote 90% democrats vote so pro abortion initiatives will win even in the south as they won in all states in 2022. South Carolina supreme court just gave a post natal abortion to right to lifers!
asset (e8de93) — 1/6/2023 @ 12:48 pm33,
To think, team pro-abortion spent so much yelling about back ally abortions and killing women. That energy could have been put into class warfare and we’d already have grass growing on top of the ditches.
frosty (c77e67) — 1/6/2023 @ 1:29 pmAt this time of day exactly two years ago, I was watching a riot and insurrection by MAGA Nation zealots on live television. Thank you, Mr. Pence, for holding the line and abiding by the rule of law.
Earlier today, I laid out three options and, with 214 votes so far, and it looks like it’s #1, the one where McCarthy drops his drawers down to the ankles in order that he’ll be called Speaker.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/6/2023 @ 1:31 pmIt’ll be a do-nothing Congress for the next two years, which I actually don’t mind.
“Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis”
This crisis was the power behind the Trump movement, you know. Yes, they picked a poor champion, but those are his folks.
Charles Murray has a contemporaneous take at AEI.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/6/2023 @ 2:57 pmIt’ll be a do-nothing Congress for the next two years, which I actually don’t mind.
They’ll be holding Speaker elections every other week with this surrender. And what is to stop the Democrats from gaming this single-member vote of confidence every time they want to delay things?
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/6/2023 @ 2:59 pmWant to be in as good condition as Senator Chuck Grassley, who was born in September, 1933?
I found a simple set of exercises that will help you get started in the November 15th New York Times “Ask Well” column:
As is usual in such exercise routines, Howell recommends a warm up of some sort before starting the exercises.
If that set is too easy, you can scale up; if, like me at 79, that’s too hard — for now — you can scale down, with fewer repetitions.
By the end of the year, you should be able to compete with Senator Grassley.
(I found that in a print copy. I don’t have a subscription, but I believe this is the link for those who do.)
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/6/2023 @ 4:16 pmThat Grassley workout reminded me of the notorious RBG workout where she did planks- when she weighed what? 80lbs? That said, my dad is late 90’s and just gave up his gym routine because his eye doctor told him he shouldn’t drive anymore.
steveg (20384e) — 1/6/2023 @ 4:59 pm🍩🍻😌
Dustin (a87c64) — 1/6/2023 @ 5:03 pmVideo Shows Arrest of Ashli Babbitt’s Mother During Protest Outside Capitol
https://www.newsweek.com/video-shows-arrest-ashli-babbitts-mother-during-protest-outside-capitol-1772010
Kill the daughter.
DCSCA (b7c276) — 1/6/2023 @ 5:21 pmArrest the mother.
Take the Cannoli.
Now that Damar Hamline is thankfully recovering, I’m going to admit to some confusion over the scope of public reaction to his injury. The devastation to his family, friends and teammates? I totally get that. Other players on and off the field? Sure. “There but for the grace of God go I.” Fans of the Bills and of Hamlin I also understand. Sports fans are irrationally invested in the lives of players they root for.
But what about everyone without a personal, professional or recreational connection to the man, the team, or the sport? How did Hamlin come to dominate a full day+ of cable news and social media? What distinguishes him from similarly afflicted victims who get little or no attention?
To be clear, I include myself among those whose responses perplex me. I prayed for him and his family, and I’m genuinely grateful he’s on the mend. And it’s not that I think he’s undeserving. On the contrary. By all accounts he’s an exemplary dude. As good a person as he is an athlete. But I don’t think that explains the outpouring, when on any given day cops, fire, sanitation and construction workers, miners, farmers, etc., are victims of accidents equally serious and often just as freakish. And don’t even start with the suffering beyond our borders.
The first obvious answer is “celebrity.” We know this guy. The others are abstract, less immediate. I’m sure that’s part of it, but I doubt it’s the whole thing. If it were, we’d be getting hourly updates on the condition of Jeremy Renner, a movie star far more famous than Hamlin, who around the same time also put himself in critical condition/intensive care with an equally unlikely accident.
Is it that healthy young people shouldn’t have to risk their lives doing frivolous things for our entertainment? Again, maybe in part, but I think mostly not. A couple of people a year are killed on movie sets, and we don’t break into regularly scheduled programming to announce it. Even when Alec Baldwin killed one and injured another, it was a big story but not this big.
Here’s my intuition: the defining feature that separates this is that 24 million of us saw it in real time. If the identical injury happened to the same player in a non-televised exhibition game, I doubt the public response would even be discernible by comparison. And that concerns me. It’s how television, reality/spectacle and infotainment television in particular, distorts our perception and perspective.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/6/2023 @ 5:25 pmThe one difference, lurker, is that Hamlin was dead on the field, heart stopped, which is something never before seen in an NFL game. We’ve gotten used to seeing concussions and compound fractures, but this was new ground.
The last time I saw something similar was Hank Gathers in a college basketball game, back in the 1980s, and I’ll never forget the expression on his face before he collapsed, him fearing/knowing that he was going to die.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/6/2023 @ 6:26 pmExpect your energy bill to more than double this month, says SDG&E
‘SAN DIEGO — San Diego Gas & Electric said customers can expect their energy bill to more than double this month.
The company implemented new natural gas and electric rates on Jan. 1. SDG&E says the increase reflects the rising costs of providing reliable energy services.
The most significant contributor to price hikes, according to the company, is the ongoing rise in the natural gas market. [Thank you fvcking Joe Biden and you damn energy policy!] Data shows the cost per unit of natural gas has more than doubled for the month of January, increasing from $2.36 per unit in January 2022 to $5.11 per unit in January 2023. To put this in perspective, if your peak winter gas bill was $105 last year, you can expect this months bill to be $225. For those enrolled in the CARE bill discount program, your January 2022 bill was $60, it will now increase to $130. Natural gas rates change monthly based on the market price for the fuel and residential natural gas usage is typically the highest in January when weather is usually the coldest, the company explained.’ – https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/expect-your-energy-bill-to-more-double-this-month-says-sdge/
Awful. Real world stuff for Americans. The SS COLA bump is already stolen by Bidne policy… an elderly neighbor was in near tears… this on top of inflation driven soaring food and gasoline costs… and said she’s already cut back on gas cooking and food purchases and now will only heat one room overnight w/an electric heater– then she cursed bumbling Biden helping other countries before Americans… and the energy company parent- Sempra. Unlike the homes of the service, their stock is heating up:
Sempra Energy strikes LNG supply deal with Germany’s RWE
Dec 28 (Reuters) – Sempra Energy said on Wednesday its unit would supply 2.25 million tons per annum of liquefied natural gas for 15 years to Germany’s RWE AG from its Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project under development in Jefferson County, Texas.
Americans are getting screwed.
DCSCA (039744) — 1/6/2023 @ 6:59 pmMcCarthy denied again?!
CSPAN cameras catching some very nasty exchanges between McCarthy, Boebert and Goetz. The anger is showing. With t/cry, ‘Stay civil’ echoing in the room… Somebody cane somebody! 😉
DCSCA (039744) — 1/6/2023 @ 8:11 pmApparently McCarthy won this one. Er, good for him?
Nic (896fdf) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:52 pmThe last time I saw something similar was Hank Gathers in a college basketball game, back in the 1980s, and I’ll never forget the expression on his face before he collapsed, him fearing/knowing that he was going to die.
The big difference there was that Gathers had already suffered a similar incident on the court earlier in the season (and was on medication for heart arrhythmia, though he was not taken the recommended dosage because he felt it made him sluggish), so as horrible as it was to see him die on the court that night at LMU, it wasn’t entirely a surprise. The Hamlin situation came out of nowhere, and that’s what made it so frightening.
Interestingly enough, I just re-watched that 30 for 30 documentary on Gathers and that ’89-’90 LMU team a week or so ago. It’s interesting how ahead of their time that team was in their style of play.
JVW (6458d0) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:57 pmThe anger is showing. With t/cry, ‘Stay civil’ echoing in the room… Somebody cane somebody!
Uh, I wouldn’t be challenging Lauren Boebert to a duel; she practices concealed carry. But I wouldn’t have a problem cuffing a rapscallion like Goetz right across his dumb mug.
JVW (6458d0) — 1/6/2023 @ 9:59 pmWTF- Jeffries is doing an audition: he is speechifying like the winner he wasn’t.
Nothing like running the clock later and later and having McCarthy give his “victory” speech at 1 AM on Friday night when America’s out partying or asleep– a la Hubert Humphrey’s middle of the night acceptance speech back in ’68.
DCSCA (9b131d) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:09 pmUh, I wouldn’t be challenging Lauren Boebert to a duel; she practices concealed carry.
Is she packing heat on the House floor?
DCSCA (9b131d) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:09 pm50,
Mr. Speaker, tear down these metal detectors!
frosty (1271c3) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:50 pm“I will carry my firearm, in D.C. and in Congress”
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/6/2023 @ 11:02 pmI don’t think it is celebrity or the frivolous nature of his job or that it happened in real time. I think we are sick of the stress from politics and Covid, and desperate for something that unifies us (for a change), especially where we can do something to try to help.
It was gratifying and encouraging to see the effective medical response on the field and in the hospital. It was equally wonderful to see the donations for his Mother’s daycare Christmas fund grow exponentially. It was a feel-good story for everyone in a country that desperately needed and needs that.
DRJ (78044b) — 1/7/2023 @ 3:56 amAnd the icing on the cake is Hamlin waking up and asking if they won (showing he was not brain damaged), and the doctor or nurses response that HE won.
DRJ (78044b) — 1/7/2023 @ 3:59 amhttps://legalinsurrection.com/2023/01/capitol-police-arrest-ashli-babbitts-mother-on-anniversary-of-capitol-hill-riot/
Some animals are more equal than others.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/7/2023 @ 5:57 am“The one difference, lurker, is that Hamlin was dead on the field, heart stopped, which is something never before seen in an NFL game. We’ve gotten used to seeing concussions and compound fractures, but this was new ground.”
Chuck Hughes, a backup receiver for the Detroit Lions collapsed with a stopped heart on the field in a game against the Chicago Bears in Oct 1971 and received CPR on the field. It was not successful.
He was removed to the sidelines where they continued attempts to resuscitate him but he was dead.
There was only a minute left in the game and it was not nationally televised so it’s not exactly the same but Hamlin was not the first.
Hughes was later found to have a severely clogged artery, his family sued a hospital for $21 million for failing to diagnose it and was awarded an out-of-court settlement.
One note on Hamlin: the people who say the vaccine had something to do with Hamlin’s heart issue are just as ridiculous as those who say it had nothing to do with his heart issue (and for some strange reason do not want his vaccine history released).
Look at the data and judge accordingly.
Obudman (6c7d77) — 1/7/2023 @ 7:19 amToo funny not to share: On July 10, 2022, the Seattle Times published a big article with this title: “UW student publishes hotly anticipated Sapphic sci-fi sequel”.
(Details: The student is Zoe Hana Mikuta. The reporter who interviewed her is Jayce Carral. The sequel is Godslayers. From the description in the article I would call the book fantasy, rather than science fiction. At Amazon, it currently ranks 91,521 among books.)
And the newspaper wasn’t joking. Intentionally, anyway.
Finding that article in one of my newspaper stacks reminded me of the “juvenile” science fiction I read in my youth. (Now that category is called “young adult”.) Both Asimov and Heinlein wrote books intended for younger audiences, Asimov in his “Lucky Starr” series, Heinlein in a much wider range. Both were directed, mostly, toward boys. And there were, of course, books in the long-running Tom Swift series. Which inspired that Gates fellow you may have heard of.
All this suggests to me that publishers are missing out on a large market, by not publishing books for boys as often as they once did. And the incredible success of the Harry Potter series is more evidence for that argument.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 8:40 amThank you for the link, NJRob. She refused to comply with police orders during a protest and asked to be arrested. This was her goal, apparently, to make her protest point.
DRJ (78044b) — 1/7/2023 @ 8:43 am@52. But is she packing while on the House floor during legislative sessions? Word play is a politicians stock and trade; she may just have it ‘in Congress’ — in a locked office drawer but not carrying it into the chamber itself.
DCSCA (f67ea4) — 1/7/2023 @ 8:44 amRegarding Hillary’s new teaching position…
She’s teaching the practice of politics, but she will not be teaching how she actually practices politics unless there is a special dispensation regarding academic norms. I mean, how could she talk about strong-arming her husband’s sexual victims, or the nitty-gritty of trading Presidential funding directives for votes in the House or Senate? It will be the Mister Rogers version of a Lenny Bruce routine.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:06 amMaybe she got a concealed carry permit from the House Sergeant-at-Arms.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:08 amJim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 8:40 am
From my perusal of the freely downloadable book places on the Internet, there are quite a few bodice-rippers (for several persuasions) that masquerade as SF or Fantasy.
These are not to be confused with actual SF or fantasy. There are plenty of SF books that will appeal to what Siverberg called “The Golden Age of Science Fiction”: 13.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:15 amYou mean he wasn’t already??
Conservative writer David French joining New York Times
Conservative writer and author David French is joining The New York Times as a columnist, the newspaper announced on Tuesday.
French, who has emerged as a leading critic among conservatives of former President Trump in recent years, helped launch the anti-Trump conservative website “The Dispatch” before spending several years as a writer at The National Review.
The Times, in a note announcing French’s hire, described him as “forthright in his views, yet open to counterargument; sincere in his ideological commitments, yet willing to call out those who normally share his beliefs when he believes they’ve wandered astray.”
LMFAO
Bari Weiss did some calling out, as evidenced by a newsroom mutiny. Zero chance of that with French, which says everything about his “conservatism”
JF (42e20d) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:23 amThis Washington Post article has some stats on the most dangerous jobs:
I believe most of these occupations are much safer than they were, say, 50 years ago.
(On sports generally, I recall reading a few years ago that, in high school sports, the highest rate of injuries was girl’s cross country. The highest rate of fatalities, as I recall, was in football.)
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:38 am#63 – It’s good to see an evangelical like David French join the New York Times, since many of the writers there despise those with his religious beliefs. Perhaps the people running the Times have realized they need to practice a little more tolerance of diversity.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:44 amJim Miller,
I think you can also switch out “evangelical” with “conservative” and your comment would still be accurate.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:49 amAccording to all of the reports I’ve read, reports, Babbit’s mother was given several warnings before being arrested. Moreover, she chose to be arrested rather than comply with law enforcement:
Dana (1225fc) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:58 amFor me, and I can’t believe I’m alone in this, the fact that we saw Damar Hamlin’s collapse in real time made all the difference. It was captivating because he is so young (24) and there is still a view that the young (especially when they appear so physically fit) are somehow immune to life-threatening events like this. It’s always jarring when the young are struck like this.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/7/2023 @ 10:05 amDana – I think you are right, though on some issues, French is more of a libertarian.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 10:13 amSeven Young Adult Novels from Heinlein:
Between Planets
Citizen of the Galaxy
Farmer in the Sky
Have Space Suit — Will Travel
The Rolling Stones
The Star Beast
Tunnel in the Sky
I still enjoy all seven, though I am many years removed from being a “young adult”.
I doubt most book critics would agree with me, but I think they are among his best books, perhaps because of the discipline imposed on him, making them fit for the standards at the time for books for young people.
(No links, so as not to go over the limit, but you can find links to all seven of the books, here.)
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/7/2023 @ 10:26 amI have seen her work categorized as “young adult fiction”, “young adult science fiction,” and “young adult fantasy,” but regardless, I love Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time quintet. There is a stable grounding, and core of love and meaning to the books that I appreciate more with age.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/7/2023 @ 10:54 ameveryone knows Hamlin’s collapse was due to climate change
JF (ef8f09) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:21 amAnd on national television.
Rip Murdock (58ae3c) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:24 amVancouver teacher’s MAGA hat is a form of political speech protected by First Amendment, appeals court rules
JF (ef8f09) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:27 amthe left’s efforts to dumb down our kids continues, only slightly abated cuz parents are calling BS on it
JF (f4ab60) — 1/7/2023 @ 12:11 pmCredit to Musk where due.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/7/2023 @ 12:29 pmUkraine is working Solovyov’s dream come true.
Rip Murdock (58ae3c) — 1/7/2023 @ 1:02 pm@76 Do you get the feeling that liberals get into education because they care more about other things then low pay and conservatives mostly don’t. Because of the massive teacher shortage in all states (worse in red states because lower pay) Bullying by right wing authority has little effect and is vulnerable to a teachers general strike. Like red for ed 2 years ago in az. When one teacher was told by a politician your hurting children. Teacher replied not as much as you nazis are!
asset (8a4a46) — 1/7/2023 @ 2:15 pm@80 asset, there are plenty of conservatives in education. See @75. They just don’t see it as a political tool. Do you think equity is a valid reason to hold gifted students back? Do you believe
JF (0ac90b) — 1/7/2023 @ 2:50 pm“a system in which outcomes can be predicted by race is, by definition, a racist system”?
Nice bit of Russian propaganda. tbf, with the 100k dead males plus WIA from Putin’s invasion, there probably is a surplus of available women.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/7/2023 @ 3:26 pmhttps://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2023/01/06/oopsie-j6-committee-exposes-nearly-2000-social-security-numbers-of-republicans-gop-governors-family-members-n522008
J6 committee needs to be held accountable for their either massive incompetance or deliberate malicious leaking of private information of American citizens. We hold businesses accountable for less.
NJRob (59e86b) — 1/7/2023 @ 4:54 pmPretending teachers are massively underpaid is a good one.
NJRob (59e86b) — 1/7/2023 @ 4:55 pmKevin McCarthy Thanks Trump after Speakership Win: ‘I Don’t Think Anybody Should Doubt His Influence’ – NationalReview.com
DCSCA (a1fe7a) — 1/7/2023 @ 6:26 pmhttps://floridapolitics.com/archives/579522-gov-desantis-taps-christopher-rufo-5-others-to-transform-new-college-of-florida-into-classical-college/
DeSantis stepping up and taking charge. 2024 cannot get here soon enough.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/7/2023 @ 6:34 pmIf Harris Co dropped charges against White Claw Wizard, what should they and HPD do with this responsible firearm owner:
https://thepostmillennial.com/houston-man-who-shot-killed-robber-armed-with-air-powered-pellet-gun-sought-for-questioning-by-police
urbanleftbehind (881ecf) — 1/7/2023 @ 7:10 pmIt was after 7:00 pm. 11:30 pm, according to the story. Under Texas law, he could have shot the robber if he was an “escort” who refused to provide the expected services but instead tried to walk away with the money.
nk (bb1548) — 1/7/2023 @ 7:48 pmTrue story, BTW. As is that of a 16-year old killed for trying to walk off with a case of beer from a liquor store. In Texas, after 7:00 pm, and both times shot in the back.
nk (bb1548) — 1/7/2023 @ 7:51 pm@JF@76 My current principal also hates differentiated classes. She seems to be of the opinion that a teacher can remediate and accelerate and teach all simultaneously in a 50 min period, which doesn’t work. We fight with her every year for accelerated classes and she canceled our extra help math class a few years ago, though we are sneaking it back in another way this year. I think it must’ve been part of the admin curriculum 10-15 years ago.
@asset@80 Most of the teachers I know are flavors of moderate, though we do get an occasional hardcore (one way or the other) person.
@njrob@85 If one is using market theory, teachers are underpaid because there is a severe shortage. Market theory says that if teachers were paid the right amount for the trouble, the profession would be at equilibrium and if they were paid too much there would be a glut.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/7/2023 @ 8:44 pmNic,
there’s a deficit because it’s a guild profession. Get rid of the teacher’s union and the problem solves itself.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/7/2023 @ 9:13 pm@NJRob@93 What is your impression of how people get into teaching?
Nic (896fdf) — 1/7/2023 @ 10:15 pm@92 Most are moderately liberal the activist are always the minority ;but when the moderately liberal have had enough they join with the activists. @94 they are mostly idealists like AOC.
asset (05fe34) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:35 pm@asset@95 While I appreciate the idea that we are all idealists (maybe frustrated idealist 😛 ), my concern was really that I’m not sure what guild-like thing NJRob thinks is blocking people from getting into teaching.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:46 pm@96 Usual anti-teachers union propaganda. By the way in poorer districts teachers start at 30,000 in southern states and az its 34,000. In kansas instead of raising teachers salary republicans passed a law that you didn’t need a teaching certificate to be a teacher in a class room though they had a problem like we did in az with private schools with attracting child molesters.
asset (05fe34) — 1/7/2023 @ 11:56 pmI hear the initiation, including the ritual grooming of the toddlers and mandatory late-term abortions, is pretty rigorous.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:35 amThe ChiComs are making it harder on their businessmen:
And doing that at a time when unemployment is high among the young. In a last Tuesday article in the New York Times, reporter Claire Fu said that: “Nearly one in five people between the ages of 16 and 24 in China are unemployed.”
(Three details that I have been thinking about ever since I read them: Several years ago, a review in the Wall Street Journal claimed than half of China’s rich wanted to leave the country within the next five years. (The reviewer did not define rich, or give a source.)
And the government has been making it harder and harder for them to take their money with them. For example, for a while Chinese could buy whole life policies using their smart phones, from foreign companies, thus, instantly moving money out of China. But, as I understand it, that loophole got banned fairly quickly.
Third, when Jack Ma decided to buy a country estate, he chose one in upstate New York — which, I note, worriedly, could be a refuge in a nuclear war.)
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:47 amSummers off and a taxpayer funded pension.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:17 amTeaching certificates are garbage and why so many teachers can’t do their job. All they can do is hopefully read out of a book. They are not subject matter experts. Too many have zero ability to educate.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:18 amFrom personal experience, Mrs. Montagu joined the teaching ranks primarily for the paycheck and benefits, but she stayed in the job because it became a full-blown calling. Most of her colleagues are in the calling boat, not the paycheck or political-agenda dinghy.
Not that the administration doesn’t try to cram down all kinds of PC crap. In one year, they really wanted her to read Robin D’Angelo, which she threw out for the racialist garbage it is.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/8/2023 @ 7:42 amhttps://donsurber.blogspot.com/2023/01/hundreds-of-teachers-had-sex-with.html?m=1
And then there are all the people that become teachers to prey upon the young.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 8:18 amMy understanding is that high school teachers make somewhere in the $40k-80k depending on experience, education, and location. However, the workload can be high and the environment stressful. Add in things like differentiated instruction and behavioral problems coupled with weak adminstratins, and the job gets even harder. Merit pay can help reward the best innovators but it does have some perverse side effects. High-pressure testing can incentivize teaching to the test and a more stifled teaching approach. Add in extra curricular mentoring of teams and clubs and its hard to argue that they are over paid.
Are they underpaid? Do teacher’s unions prevent getting rid of bad teachers and inflate the cost of teaching? I’m sure there are some good and bad to the unions. They do tend to be left leaning which makes them annoying and they tend to stifle innovation too. But if there is a shortage of teachers, market forces are at work. The pay does not match the workload and people explore other opportunities. So, either the workload and other stressors have to be reduced or the pay increased (and the taxes used to support it).
AJ_Liberty (a18253) — 1/8/2023 @ 8:58 amhttps://www.nationalreview.com/news/pregnancy-center-hires-private-investigators-to-find-pro-abortion-firebombers/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=30188897
Doing the job our government refuses to do as they prefer to jail little old ladies.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:34 amAJ,
That’s absurd. There isnt a shortage of teachers that isnt artifically created through guild membership and nonsensical certification. A math teacher should need to know math, not have a teaching certificate where they learn cultural marxism.
They also only work half the year when you consider weekends, summers, random weeks off, conference days, etc.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:37 amhttps://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-the-fbi-hacked-twitter-lee-smith
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:41 am@NJRob@100, 101, 103 And yet none of these have anything to do with teachers creating barriers for entry in a guild-like fashion.
@AJ_Liberty@104 The bottom end can be more in the 30k region in some states and in expensive places they can top out a bit above 80k after 30 years, but that’s probably about right on average. Merit pay causes issues in staffing because no one then wants to teach the remedial/intervention classes or any special education students and everyone fights over the honors classes. In CA a teacher can be bounced for whatever during their first 2 years in a district (this is not called “firing” but “non-re-elect” and doesn’t show up in stats regarding teacher dismissals, so a teacher applying with a bunch of 1-2 year stints in various districts is a red-flag. However, everyone is also desperate for teachers, so even a teacher who has been non-re-elected from several districts can often still get a job because some districts just need any adult to put in a classroom.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:47 am@NJRob@106 Again you haven’t provided any examples of guild-like barriers but only added a complaint that teachers are required to be educated. What do you think a teaching certification entails? I would think that the cost of an extra year of education would be covered by the market forces.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:51 amI presume if a grand jury refuses to indict, the charges will also be dropped.
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:03 amhttps://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/01/08/sciam-damar-hamlins-injury-was-racist-n522349
More cultural marxism coming from the left.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:04 amNic,
I refuse to play. School unions do not care the slightest bit about students. All too many teachers don’t as well.
We see the indoctrination taking place at all levels of “education” while actual reading, writing and math leveks decline.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:06 amThe president is scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas this Sunday.
Apparently, it’s a bit of a Potemkin Village now.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:06 amAn education certificate is the opposite of educated.
NJRob (6e4a43) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:07 am@NJRob@112 So you have no examples of what you are complaining about, and no knowledge to back up your opinions, just uninformed complaints and uninformed opinions.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:23 amMy understanding is that high school teachers make somewhere in the $40k-80k depending on experience, education, and location.
While I think that teachers are underpaid, those numbers do not include significant benefits such as medical, retirement and time off.
Your data is somewhat outdated as well. LAUSD teacher pay scales (2022) (pdf) show a base rate for normal credentials of $56K and a top rate of $97K.
There are districts that pay more. According to Indeed job postings, the average base salary in Santa Monica is $88K
Left unsaid is how much of the money that the schools get is siphoned off by oversized administration departments, where the salaries are still higher. A school principal in Santa Monica makes $175K. At LAUSD, the salary table for administrators (pdf) shows salaries for many positions in the mid-$100K region.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:26 amAn education certificate is the opposite of educated.
Someone with a BS in math, plus an ed certificate is suddenly uneducated? How does that work? Sure, Ed school can be mind-numbing but I don’t think it includes a prefrontal lobotomy.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:28 am@113 this POS administration actually boasts of trying to ditch one of the only effective border policies
JF (763527) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:44 amI look forward to Secretary Mayorkas (and President Biden) being impeached over their handling of the border crisis.
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:57 am@Kevin@116 Salary varies by region, but the CA coast is very non-representative of everywhere else. Bottom in my district (I am not coast or Bay Area metroplex) is low/mid 40s, top is low/mid 90s (depending on credit hours above a BA/BS- mid 90s would be BA/BS + 75 credit hours + MA/MS) at year 32. Our benefits also come at least partly out of our paychecks. So, in my case, I take the cheapest HMO option for one person and still pay 200 of it. Anyone who has dependents would pay the difference between the district compensation and the insurance cost for themselves and then fully for each of their dependents. Any additional coverage (cancer coverage, long term disability coverage, life, etc) we pay 100% out of pocket. We also do full contributions for our pension plans and do not get matching funds for any 403b savings we make.
A LOT of the money goes to district office Admin. My district office has more than doubled in size (maybe tripled) in the last 20 years. They got a brand new fancy fancy district office 10 or so years ago with plenty of extra individual office space and last year they had to construct a bunch of new individual offices because they ran out. Our number of students has not grown and funding is on a by student basis, so basically the DO is using money that should’ve gone to people involved in direct student service in order to hire more bureaucrats. We NEED more campus monitors across the district and several of them could be hired for the cost of one associate superintendent of random thing that another person used to have under their umbrella. We have a lower staff/HR admin ratio than we do student/site admin ratio, which is ridiculous. Site staff doesn’t have any control over it and it’s all lumped into “certificated admin” (which includes all the site admin as well) in the budget, so the Board is easily left ignorant unless they are paying close attention.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:04 amRIP Adam Rich (54). Child star of Eight is Enough.
RIP author Russell Banks (82).
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:09 amThis is our Maggie…Thatcher would be considered a RINO and a classist in modern lens:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mtg-member-congress-blames-internet-182054262.html
urbanleftbehind (881ecf) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:17 amWeird, I’m all for motivation ploys, but somebody didn’t take to the prepa approach: https://nypost.com/2023/01/07/principal-victoria-najera-posted-test-scores-to-shame-low-achievers/
urbanleftbehind (881ecf) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:22 am@121: At LAUSD, the Administrator’s contract ties their increases to those of teachers, percentage-wise. Or at least it did a while back when the teachers tried to get a separate deal.
And yes, Santa Monica is hardly representative, as the City government is run by a slate-election city council and the slate is always won by the hard-left Renters’ coalition. There is some fairly egregious feather-bedding in many city agencies.
Still the 40K-80K numbers that AJ suggested are outdated. 50K-100K is closer to it. My experience is also that HMO medical options are not a huge savings over PPO. Most employer plans I’ve been in charged the same amount regardless of age, which means that the older employees are getting a much better deal than younger workers.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:30 amJack Ma is not living in China any more.
He’s mainly based in Japan and probably doesn’t dare visit Mainland China or Hong Kong.
It’s pretty easy for a rich person to immigrate to Japan.
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:31 amWhat frosts me is that the average school administrator makes the same (or more) than the average electrical engineer.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:34 amIt’s pretty easy for a rich person to immigrate to Japan.
Or anywhere else.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:34 am@Kevin@125 The admin contract being tied to the teacher contract is true for site-level admin, but kind of a trick at the district office level. The Superintendent is usually on an individual contract where the salary can increase independent of the teacher’s contract when the contract is up or the Superintendent changes. So, often what happens is that the SI salary goes up when they sign a new contract and then the SI creates new titles to move DO admin to that are basically salary increases outside of the contract because they keep the same duties. So, frex, the head of HR in my district had had 3 different titles with increasing salaries and decreasing responsibility during my time with the district.
The difference between an HMO and a PPO in my district is roughly $300 a month.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:45 amNot so easy to the United States, although a very rich person can probably become an investor — but it probably takes years of processing,
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:46 amSplit abortion decisions by state supreme courts:
………
In a 3-2 decision, the court dismissed the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood over three Idaho abortion laws — a near-total abortion ban passed by the state legislature in 2020, a 2021 prohibition on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected and a law passed in 2022 that allows potential family members of the fetus to sue for damages.
………
“When we apply that test to this dispute, there simply is no support for a conclusion that a right to abortion was ‘deeply rooted’ at the time the Inalienable Rights Clause was adopted,” Justice Robyn Brody wrote in the majority opinion.
However, Brody noted that the state Supreme Court’s ruling does not prevent Idaho voters from “answering the deeply moral and political question of abortion at the polls.”
……..
Another 3-2 decision taking the opposite position:
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:48 amLink to South Carolina Supreme Court case article.
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:50 amI don’t think they took care of this with the amendments to the Electoral Count Act.
What if this had happened two years ago?
Maybe you wouldn’t have needed objections, or Mike Pence, or the storming of the Capitol, to stop the vote count.
This didn’t happen before, because till 1937, the Electoral vote count was done by the lame duck Congress in February with the inauguration of the president and vice president taking place on March 4, and the election of a Speaker of the House had not gone past a first ballot in a century.
On second thought the constitution dies not mention a Speaker, only the president of the Senate – and the Senate does not have such problems. But they surely must be sworn in.
Some details are being left out.
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 11:54 amC-SPAN was able to show members arguing and milling around on the floor of the House because the rules governing where the cameras can point hadn’t yet been passed=d, and they’ll be able to do that on Monday, too.
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:00 pm“Still the 40K-80K numbers that AJ suggested are outdated. 50K-100K is closer to it.”
Wait, in Mississippi? In Texas? In Alabama? No way. $30-60k is more like it. My numbers were trying to bracket averages across locations…not just California.
“That’s absurd. There isnt a shortage of teachers that isnt artifically created through guild membership and nonsensical certification.”
Some states are dropping certification and licensing requirements because of the shortage, but here is a decent article that looks at the issue regionally. Some states, not much of a problem. Others, big problem for many reasons, including the ones I mentioned.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:04 pmhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/12/21/why-there-teacher-shortage-schools-struggled-nationwide-2022/10882103002/
R.I.P. Adam Rich, who played young Nicholas Bradford on “Eight Is Enough”
Icy (ed146d) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:04 pmKevin M (1ea396) — 1/6/2023 @ 2:59 pm
There might already be some other Parliamentary maneuvers that could do that, like suggesting the absence of aa quorum,
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:07 pm49. DCSCA (9b131d) — 1/6/2023 @ 10:09 pm
That was George McGovern’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in 1972.
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:12 pm@138. Hubert gave a late, late, late show snoozer, Sammy.
DCSCA (03b9d9) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:25 pmThousands of radical backers of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro breached and vandalized the presidential office building, congress and the Supreme Court on Sunday, and sought to enter other halls of power, in scenes that hauntingly evoked the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump.
……..
Images on Globo TV showed protesters roaming the halls and standing near smashed glass cases in the Planalto Palace, the office of the president. Thousands of others wearing the national soccer shirt — now a symbol of the far right — and waving the Brazilian flag milled about the massive square outside in a part of the Brasilia capital that is similar to Washington’s National Mall.
…………
Thousands of Bolsonaristas have camped out at military headquarters across Latin America’s largest country, demanding military intervention to reinstate Bolsonaro, who last week flew to Florida instead of attending a ceremony in the capital of Brasilia where outgoing presidents traditionally hand over the sash of power.
………..
Videos on social media showed protesters breaking glass windows and entering the National Congress and the Palacio do Planalto, where they vandalized furniture in one of the palace’s most traditional ceremonial rooms. Videos also showed supporters of the former president attempting to force their way into ministerial offices inside the presidential palace.
#########
Anyone know where DCSCA is?
Rip Murdock (e6a4f2) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:27 pmNic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:23 am
Keep it coming. You like your guild. You.like that they focus on social indoctrination instead of education. You ignored what I wrote.
Carry on.
NJRob (277bf5) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:29 pm@NJRob@141 What you wrote wasn’t applicable to the point you had tried to make about the market forces involved in the current lack of teachers. You made a claim and couldn’t back it up with any facts and then tried to change the subject. I’m sorry that you don’t like teachers, but that has nothing to do with the market forces around the teaching career.
Nic (896fdf) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:38 pmFlorida is leading the way. May the rest of the nation follow.
NJRob (277bf5) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:40 pmNot so easy to the United States, although a very rich person can probably become an investor — but it probably takes years of processing,
Most countries allow investors (of $millions) to have resident status. In the US the processing is very slow for most things due to the resources expended on the southern border. But still, people investing millions might get a different line.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 12:57 pmWait, in Mississippi? In Texas? In Alabama? No way. $30-60k is more like it. My numbers were trying to bracket averages across locations…not just California.
The same money goes much further in those locations, and salaries for private sector workers are also lower in comparison to the coasts. But, OK, you were talking about a national average, so I’ll let you off the hook.
Still, an LAUSD administrator makes the same kind of money as an LA engineer. The thing that depresses teacher salaries everywhere is that all money has to pass through the hands of the HQ blob first.
You want to fix your local schools? Cut the blob headcount by 25% and pass all the resulting savings to the teachers and schools.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 1:04 pmThe South Carolina justices noted in their opinion that other state constitutions include a similar right to privacy. And while they recognized that the language in the South Carolina provision does not explicitly mention abortion, they said that such a right could be reasonably extended, based on history and previous court decisions. They rejected arguments by lawyers for the state legislature and the attorney general that the privacy provision applied only to “search and seizure.”
Six weeks is pretty restrictive. I expect that the legislature will quickly pass a less restrictive 13 week rule, more in line with international norms. There will also be stricter scrutiny over who gets appointed to the SC bench.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 1:10 pmAlso, “unreasonable violations of privacy” invites the obvious question: “Privacy to do what?!” ANd suddenly one is back at a value judgement again.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 1:13 pmGovernor Abbott calls out Biden’s BS
these are all basic federal law enforcement responsibilities, which Biden of course won’t do
JF (294173) — 1/8/2023 @ 1:35 pmhttps://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/01/07/auto-draft-53-n522351
Leftist mask comes off. They don’t want illegal aliens soaking up social services either.
NJRob (736d00) — 1/8/2023 @ 3:28 pmThey don’t want illegal aliens soaking up social services either.
Milton Friedman pointed that out long ago.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 4:32 pmEven if you have no place to put them? And even minors?
federal courts have conflicting orders, I think.
Even Trump didn’t do this. It would clog up the courts. And ICE isn’t interested in hunting people. Does he mean also people who were brought to the United States as children but are nit included with the Dreamers, or parents of Dreamers?
How fast?
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:31 pmCongress may have appropriated money for wall construction but it didn’t apppriate money for prisons, and the MAGA people are not currently asking fir that. Congress long ago froze the number oof immigration detention beds,
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:34 pmMeanwhile, the Republicans seem determined to stop by the book enforcement if income tax laws,
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:36 pmNJRob (736d00) — 1/8/2023 @ 3:28 pm
Who says so? What they want is to have the federal government pay the bill – and to exaggerate the cost. If this is to be interpreted as they meaning they don’t want illegal aliens soaking up social services, then they don’t want military families doing that either,
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:39 pmMight be an idea – although they might then try real terrorism, if they get bombed.
The Mexican government just had a battle with the Sinoloa cartel, with several dozen killed
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son
It’s not the first one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culiac%C3%A1n
Sammy Finkelman (4e1de2) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:45 pmFor some reason the story about Ms. Clinton reminds me of the time when I learned that former LA Mayor Villaraigosa had announced he was joining a think tank
steveg (03800c) — 1/8/2023 @ 5:48 pmThis photo ought to replace the elephant as the symbol of the GOP.
(H/T: Patterico’s Twitter feed)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:12 pmSammy equating people who serve our nation with those who invade it.
Sammy,
How many illegal aliens have you let live in your house?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:25 pm@140. Anyone know where DCSCA is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYTaz5UZJOg&t=9s
DCSCA (4b125f) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:42 pmLori Lightfoot is up for reelection a month-and-half from now. I don’t know what Adams’s angle is, but I doubt hers is her stated one.
nk (a51187) — 1/8/2023 @ 7:07 pmlurker (cd7cd4) — 1/8/2023 @ 6:12 pm
the NeverTrump symbol remains unchanged
JF (eb89c1) — 1/8/2023 @ 7:17 pm@120 how about convicted? Chance ZERO!
asset (77cc65) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:07 pm@161: Is that all? Only Democrat? Aren’t we also elitist, virtue-signaling, Marxist pedophiles? Or does that go without saying after “Democrat?”
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:08 pmlurker (cd7cd4) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:08 pm
c’mon, absolutely not a pedophile
JF (eb89c1) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:25 pmBolsonaro backers storm congress, court, presidential office in Brazil’s capital
Who knows what’s up there; it’s Brazil. I saw the movie.
But really, what I note, in all the reports is statements of the following sort in the first paragraphs of almost every report:
.
How does the NY Times adjudicate their claim? Or the Washington Post, or the LA Times, or any of the newspapers of record? Because Brazilian authorities say so? It was a very close election in a country with not all that much history of fair and free elections. What is their evidence there was no fraud?
Now, I’m not saying there WAS fraud, because I don’t know either, but the MSM seems so damn sure of the fact that they don’t even qualify it. Added to that they had a strong preference for the result and their delight in yet another chance to fly the J6 flag, and I just gotta wonder.
When I get a full force assertion, without facts to back it up, by the MSM, in favor of a result they like, I get a little skeptical.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:30 pmNow, here’s the odd thing about Central American immigrants: They all work. They don’t come here expecting a had out (they may have one forced on them, but that’s on us). If you look at who we’ve let in legally (aunts, uncles, even grandparents of legal residents), you’ll find that the system encourages dependents, not workers.
So, I don’t buy the welfare thing as the larger problem. The effect on infrastructure (roads and rental markets mostly) is much more of an issue when immigration is unconstrained. If you could magically remove the illegals from Los Angeles County, quite a few pressing problems (high rents, terrible traffic and homelessness to name 3) would be greatly eased.
The next issue is the fact that they DO work, and how that affects Americans in those jobs they compete for (trades, mostly). Not that that is still an issue in LA — you need to speak Spanish to work in non-union trades.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 9:39 pmBolsonaro and Trump have a similar quality in that, if there was anyone that election officials would cheat out of a second term, it would be them. I’m pretty sure that is what drives these protests, and why, love or hate them, claims of election malfeasance have legs.
I think that, even among the most vociferous opponents of these fraud claims, there is a little uncertainty since they know that there are plenty of people who would have engaged in fraud to avoid the SOB’s re-election. “Couldn’t happen to nicer guys.”
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/8/2023 @ 10:39 pmThat’s the same burden-shifting used by Trumpists and, like with Cult 45, they haven’t presented evidence of serious fraud.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:52 amThe similarities between Trump and Bolsonaro don’t seem coincidental, and it’s not just on the subject of undermining democracies, given how both presidents handled their Covid problem, with the US 16th worst in deaths per million and Brazil 20th.
Bolsonaro fled to Florida two days before his term ended. I think it’s only right that we send Brazil Trump.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:32 amSo, today, the same Brazilian Supreme Court, appointed by Lula and his (impeached) successor, that had cleared Lula of the corruption charges he’d been convicted of and allowed him to run for an unprecedented third term, has ordered the elected governor of Brasilia, a Bolsonaro supporter, to be removed from office.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:28 amMeanwhile, here in Georgia:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/fulton-county-grand-jury-trump-election/index.html
Upshot — there is a final report. A judge has to approve its release in a couple of weeks.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:29 amThat’s the same burden-shifting used by Trumpists
When articles explicitly say that something is false — not disputed or lacking evidence, but FALSE — they have a burden to state why this is so. It is unlikely to convince anyone who does not already want to believe it.
The same thing happened here, immediately after the 2020 election, when all claims by Trump were declared to be false, as if it was orchestrated a la JournaList. Even when it turns out later to be true, making flat claims of this sort, in advance of evidence, is not responsible journalism.
Even before counting of PA was done, the NY Times was calling any assertion that there were problems with the counting “false” and “disinformation” despite many questions about the provenance of mail-in ballots that they were still receiving.
And again, I am not saying that there WAS any fraud — I find it hard to believe at this point — but that the press does no one any service by jumping in with their own flat assertions even before the counting is done. That they desperately want the outcome they foresee not only makes their assertions as suspect as Trump’s, but also gives credence to the idea that even if elections are rarely dishonest, this time there are many who would look the other way.
I think that both here and in Brazil, that the speed at which the press declared all disputes to be “false” tended to convince doubters that their doubts might be correct.
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” — Hamlet.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:46 amAnd of course, Brazil probably would not have elected Lula again had not the very flawed Bolsonaro been the opposing candidate. Much like Biden’s luck having Donald Trump.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:50 amThe SC legislature has tried (and tried again) to ban abortion completely. Based on the reaction of the South Carolina legislature leadership,(which is overwhelmingly Republican), it is more likely that they will try to amend the SC constitution to ban abortion rather than widen the timeframe when it is legal.
I don’t understand your obsession with “international norms.” If anything, most conservatives disdain following what other countries do.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 9:50 amI don’t understand your obsession with “international norms.” If anything, most conservatives disdain following what other countries do.
Normally, no. But since those other countries have debated this and arrived at a consensus, while we have been frozen in 1973, looking to what they ended up with DECADES AGO is fairly conservative — trying to force everyone into a long-abandoned viewpoint as you would is not conservative, it’s radical.
It’s not like following the latest trends overseas, but long-established norms in countries with similar cultures that — for the last 40 years — have been move conservative than what we’ve had here is not a liberal position.
I know you don’t get it, as any abortion is one too many, but pointing to the liberals’ favorite countries and showing that their laws are more restrictive than the law that was the basis for Dobbs is a telling argument against the Left’s position.
Didn’t you get the message from Bible-belt Kansas? NO NONE NEVER is not a sustainable position. I doubt that any state will have such a law 10 years from now. Politics is the art of the possible.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 10:17 amI don’t understand your obsession with “international norms.”
Neither does Ali Khamenei.
No, it’s not a cheap shot. I could have as easily said Putin, Xi Jinping, or whoever’s the Grand Panjandrum of the Taliban.
We have to care about international norms if we’re going to be part of the West.
There’s a point where laws become lawlessness, like the Texas Trigger-happy Back-shooters Protection Act mentioned above.
Also what Kevin said.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 10:53 amOTOH, other historical trends in Europe are based on fundamentally different histories. The American Revolution was based on an armed citizenry being able to defend its freedoms, while Europe remained (and in fact remains) in the thrall of the aristocracy.
This difference shows up two places: gun control and the death penalty. We never had an aristocracy keeping control by frequent hangings and (not coincidentally) we had a citizenry that kept its power by being armed.
[Only in the South did this fail, with freedmen, but it failed because of “gun control” disarming blacks, not because of guns themselves. Then came the frequent hangings.]
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:04 amI do get it, but I don’t think we need to conform to whatever are European standards. In other words, you are trolling. I’ll take your ten-year bet.
I don’t disagree, but not every moral/political issue needs an international consensus, and like the Supreme Court in Dobbs, every country should be allowed to chart its own course on whatever issue it deems important.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:53 amMSM decoder:
“Far-Right” = Right of Hillary Clinton
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:55 am“Right-wing” = Hillary Clinton
“Moderate” = Leftist
“Centrist” = Leftist
“Social Justice” = Marxism
“Climate Change” = Marxism
“Liberal” = Socialist
“Protest” = something moderates do.
“Insurrection” = something the far-right does
“Mostly Peaceful” = Moderates attacking opponents and smashing windows
“Far-Left” = Far-right fiction. Does not exist
“False” = something unproven that the far-right claims
“Alleged” = something false that moderates claim
“Scandal” = something unproven that moderates claim
Clarifying who said what:
I do get it, but I don’t think we need to conform to whatever are European standards. In other words, you are trolling. I’ll take your ten-year bet.
I don’t disagree, but not every moral/political issue needs an international consensus, and like the Supreme Court in Dobbs, every country should be allowed to chart its own course on whatever issue it deems important.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:56 amhttps://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/01/07/nolte-insider-report-says-woke-hollywood-killing-art-discriminating-against-white-men/
Surprising absolutely no one, leftist hollywood is still a hotbed of racism and sexism.
NJRob (bd2b01) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:57 amI don’t think the storming of the Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court and Presidential offices had anything to do with anything going on in Brazil, (what was it supposed to accomplish, except look like an imitation? Stress on look like ) or with Trump, despite the fact that the ex-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsanaro, went to Florida before it happened.
These same people were calling for acoup before. Nobody listended, but the government offices were not defended properly.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:10 pmSteve Bannon endorsed this one.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:10 pmURLs for the Last two concluding speeches after the selection of a Speaker of the House of Representatives Friday night/Saturday wee hours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1It5Z7dfMY Hakeem Jeffries speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbvUN3q3pZs Kevin McCarthy speech
My question is how does Hakeem Jeffries, who was not the previous Speaker, who had the majority in the previous Congress, none of whose rules I think, carry over, get to give a speech and hand the gavel over to Kevin McCarthy? It’s a nice symbolic gesture, but how does this work? Who recognized him?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:19 pmThere must be some hidden rules. Or maybe there are some provisional rules enacted into law.
We are told:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/04/us/politics/house-speaker-representatives.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:24 pmAnd they get ahead of themselves, or believe in retroactive authorization.
Kevin McCarthy was occupying the Speaker’s office all last week.
And members of Congress were voting before being sworn in.
Either it is necessary to be sworn in to act, or it isn’t. And if it isn’t, the House can do other things too.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:24 pmYou know, the Democrats had a vote, too.
212 of them.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:26 pmKevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:46 am
They are encouraged by the would-be censors, to overrate their own reputation. And wo wants to argue too much against people relying on them/
These would-be censors wat people to reply on argument by authority. And even if in the first few instances they are right, or likely to be right, people can take advantage of presumed authority to lie and mislead.
It would be better to say, this writer sees no such thing. There are things missing from the accusations.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:45 pmBernard Kalb RIP. aged 100.
As the result of a fall January 2. Survived by among others, his wife of 64 years and his younger brother Marvin, aged 92.
Four weeks short of his 101st birthday.
People that age are fragile. Not only easier to fall, but the consequences are worse (internal bleeding?)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 12:50 pmIt’s good for consumers when companies compete, especially news organizations. So I was pleased by this column in the Washington Post:
But I wouldn’t bet that will happen.
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:03 pmNYU study russian troll had little or no impact on 2016 election and no I didn’t find this on DU that is why I have to read both side. Adam schiff pressured twitter to censor reporters criticizing his claim of trump/russian collusion without evidence. Hope republicans investigate this instead Ilhan Omar.
asset (b97d7f) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:05 pmIn other words, you are trolling
How is that?.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:16 pmThe place in New York least affected by the Republican wave or ripple was the state legislature. Especially the Sae Senate.
Thy=ey are trying to force the nomination of a “progressive” or something to the state’s highest court. They wanted at first to refuse the name without a hearing, and said they were against 2 of the others (of 7) she was allowed to pick from. And they may have forced out the chief Judge.
So far, Governor Kathy Hochul is fighting them at least on this.
https://nypost.com/2023/01/06/hochul-blasts-nys-senate-democrats-over-court-of-appeals-pick-hector-lasalle
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:16 pmWhen you say “pointing to the liberals’ favorite countries and showing that their laws are more restrictive than the law that was the basis for Dobbs is a telling argument against the Left’s position…”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:20 pmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/us/politics/house-rules-republicans-mccarthy.html
And the question I have is, could they pass the Senate version of a bill?
The Senate has no germaneness rule at all. The House always had one.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:21 pmPerhaps the Times can extend this focus by writing about the decision by the New York Times Co. to embrace the trend.
As has the LA Times, which engages in other shady practices, such as renewing subscriptions at “regular” prices without so much as a courtesy email.
I really love the equality of that last part.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:22 pm@194: Then you misread or misunderstand, neither of which are my problem.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:23 pmLiterally sick to his stomach:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:23 pmpaving the way for the creation of a new select subcommittee under the Judiciary Committee focused on the “weaponization” of the federal government.
Damn! They are going to form a committee to weaponize the federal government!?! The bast*rds!
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:24 pmRIP Bernard Kalb (100). His brother, Marvin, is 92.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:28 pmas he repeated false claims of election fraud in his contest with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
MUST mention that these claims are false at every opportunity! All elections in Brazil are renowned for their honesty.
Yeah, they probably are false but the repetition of this alleged fact in every mention of said claims is rather grating. It sounds more like counter-propaganda than news.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:28 pmI’m not sure whether this is the right way to bring about changes in the behavior of these tech companies, but it is certainly an interesting way:
Jim Miller (f29931) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:43 pm@202:
They don’t just want to censor individual posts, but to censor whole segments of communication.
Did you know that South Africa didn’t permit television until 1976, and then only a state-run channel. Corrupter of youth, a threat to Afrikaans, and it might encourage dissent if it showed certain things.
Then there was the 1950s moral panic in the UA about comic books. They corrupted youth and lead inevitably to juvenile delinquency.
This goes back to Socrates at least.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:55 pm*UA = USA
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:55 pmThe war on natural gas takes a turn for the worse:
Safety agency considers ban on gas stoves amid health fears
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 2:00 pm“Institute for Policy Integrity”
About what you’d expect.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 2:02 pmFlorida Woman
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 2:35 pm@203 Speaking of socrates he said “when argument is lost slander becomes the tool of the loser!” Apply where necessary.
asset (452bbe) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:00 pmNo, Socrates did not say that. It was part of the noise of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation.
But if you can reference the Dialogue in which Socrates allegedly said it, no link necessary, I will gladly check it out.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:08 pm@209 Thanks. That what I get for reading alan west a real loser.
asset (452bbe) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:17 pmPerhaps the Times can extend this focus by writing about the decision by the New York Times Co. to embrace the trend.
As has the LA Times
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 1:22 pm
What do you expect from any sane business trying to operate in our overly litigious society?
norcal (862cdb) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:26 pmHeh! You’re welcome.
The fact is that Socrates famously opposed the Sophists who taught the youth of Athens how to win debates. His interest was in finding the truth. It did not help him at his trial.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:31 pmnorcal, I agree. But the same papers will castigate any other business doing it. The LA Times business section reflects well the attitude of CA government towards business. They should call it the anti-business section.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:33 pmToday I finished my second viewing of all six seasons of The Sopranos. What a show. I now have to re-shuffle my TV drama rankings.
1) The Sopranos
2) The Wire
3) Breaking Bad
4) Better Call Saul
5) Pick ’em: Mad Men, The Americans, Fargo
I believe I have the ending of The Sopranos figured out. Tony does get whacked, and he didn’t even hear it, which is a question his brother-in-law pondered in a previous episode. Foreshadowing, anyone? Hence the cut to black, and no sound.
The ending was eerily prescient, because only six years later James Gandolfini would suddenly and unexpectedly die, with no one seeing it.
Another thought–it’s amazing that Dominic Chianese, the “old” man in a series that ended 16 years ago, is still alive, while Gandolfini and Tony Sirico are dead. Also alive are obese actors from the show: Vincent Pastore, Steve Schirripa, and Joseph Gannoscoli (who seemed like he could barely walk). Life is such a crap shoot.
norcal (862cdb) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:50 pmBut the same papers will castigate any other business doing it.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:33 pm
Are you calling them the H word, Kevin? 😛
norcal (862cdb) — 1/9/2023 @ 4:53 pmI could not avoid seeing the last five minutes of The Sopranos and I gave the show a try on my Roku. I watched the first half hour or so.
I enjoyed the irony of Tony Soprano complaining about how his mother henpecked his father, while his own wife had him by the short and curlies. But a two minutes of irony to thirty minutes of dreck ratio, right from the start, wasn’t enough to hold my interest.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 5:17 pmBut a two minutes of irony to thirty minutes of dreck ratio
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 5:17 pm
How dare you! Where’s that blocking script? 😉
norcal (862cdb) — 1/9/2023 @ 5:22 pmhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11616823/DOJ-reviewing-classified-Biden-Vice-President-documents-think-tank.html
kaf (6fa9cd) — 1/9/2023 @ 5:42 pmBiden kept classified documents unsecured at think tank. Please freak out over this as much (or as little) as you did over Trump docs at Maralago. Or is this different?
Please freak out over this as much (or as little) as you did over Trump docs at Maralago. Or is this different?
There are lots of differences.
Principally, we know what kind of “classified documents” Trump had at Mar-a-Lago. For all we know, these could be Biden’s travel itinerary.
Secondly, we’ve had lots of published information from the warrant and the court proceedings in Trump’s case, from almost every news media. Not some vague scribblings from a British scandal sheet.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:26 pmOnly someone addled by TDS could fail to discern the genius of The Sopranos.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:30 pmalso the well known right wing CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-upenn/index.html
and cnbc: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/09/federal-prosecutor-reviewing-classified-documents-found-at-former-biden-office.html
and abc news: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-reviewing-biden-lawyer-classified-docs-found-office/story?id=96324422
and nbc: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/justice-department-is-examining-small-number-of-classified-documents-found-at-biden-think-tank/ar-AA169kkb
kaf (6fa9cd) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:41 pmOh jeez, I tripped the irony-challenged moderation filter. I forgot about “TeeDeeEss” (sic). It was way too dumb a comment to warrant repeating, but that can’t stop me:
Only someone addled by [TeeDeeEss] could fail to discern the genius of The Sopranos.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:47 pmJust to clarify: I am not a Trump supporter. he is a lazy, incompetent, ineffectual, lying, used car salesman of a person. i.e. a typical politician.
kaf (6fa9cd) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:47 pmAnd I, on my part, acknowledged Trump’s standing to challenge the Mar-a-Lago warrant as well as the warrant itself for lacking Fourth Amendment specificity.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:54 pmIs [TeeDeeEss] the way to keep the filter from blocking the abbreviation of Trump Derangement Syndrome or is it something else?
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:57 pmYes, it was that.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 7:08 pmNot some vague scribblings from a British scandal sheet.
nk (26c37e) — 1/9/2023 @ 6:26 pm
yes that famous British scandal sheet, CBS, which broke the story
JF (d056af) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:08 pmThere are lots of differences.
Principally, we know what kind of “classified documents” Trump had at Mar-a-Lago. For all we know, these could be Biden’s travel itinerary.
considering that this was most likely a friendly leak by biden’s team, more than two months after the discovery, and they carefully chose not to leak any of the contents, I would say the chances are good it’s more significant than a travel itinerary
but not to worry, nk, the most significant difference is that he’s a democrat and not a republican
plus, Garland is a “reasonable prosecutor” in the full Comey sense
JF (d056af) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:19 pm@219. There are lots of differences.
Except there’s not.
Too much crap is classified as it is. But the sloppiness is self-evident.
Bust the bastard.
DCSCA (3bb5cc) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:28 pm1) The Sopranos
Nah. Not better than The Wire or Breaking Bad. Although the last season of Sopranos is pretty good.
I see you have no SF listed. The Expanse deserves some mention.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/9/2023 @ 8:46 pmDavid French trolls Factory Working Orphan.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 10:16 pmNah. Not better than The Wire or Breaking Bad.
I used to think so, but then I watched all of them a second time.
norcal (862cdb) — 1/9/2023 @ 10:36 pm#232. Coincidentally I’m finishing my second viewing of The Wire. As I suspected, it’s much better than I thought the first time (20 yrs ago?), but it still lags well behind The Sopranos. And Breaking Bad, while eminently watchable, I continue to assert is vastly overrated. In short, you’re 100% right. Kevin and nk stand corrected and beg your forbearance of their philistine want of taste or breeding.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:37 pmI hope the republicans and conservative media call out MSM if they try to down play the biden story. We need somebody else (AOC) in 2024.
asset (4dffa4) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:06 amExcept there is a difference. There’s a reason the FBI cited the Espionage Act, 18 USC 793, in the search warrant, because Trump willfully retained information relating to the national defense, and then obstructed their return, and the “willfully” part was made apparent by the fruit of the search, along with his obstruction.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:29 amFor Biden, we just learned that he retained the ten classified documents, but you don’t know the “willfully” part, and “sloppiness” is not illegal. What we do know from the reporting is that his lawyers found the documents, self-reported the finding, and then returned them in short order.
David French trolls Factory Working Orphan.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 10:16 pm
In these times of inflation, one might think you could make some extra money for the space I’m occupying in your head. But then, citing a self-important screed from Mr. By-Ends himself is hardly a surprise.
Factory Working Orphan (bce27d) — 1/10/2023 @ 5:11 am“it still lags well behind The Sopranos”
OK, I’ll admit that Sopranos never drew me in. Maybe I didn’t give it enough time, but the thesis seemed a little predictable. Walter White becoming a drug kingpin was anything but predictable. I know, I know, I know….James Gandolfini did a masterful job….and there’s the black comedy angle of him really wanting to be better…and deal with his mommy issues….but ultimately it’s a tale of bad people killing other bad people…and some good people tragically caught up in their orbit. Breaking Bad built to something oddly heroic….Sopranos, well, maybe an inevitability, but nothing noble.
Don’t get me wrong, the show is 20 years old and changed the landscape and expectation for production value. It was the first. Maybe like the Americans, you find yourself sort of rooting for the bad guy in Sopranos. But with the Americans, I just felt an awful tension that was magnified by the kids and the relationship with Stan the FBI agent. You knew Philip and Elizabeth would be found out. You just didn’t know what would happen with the kids. With the Sopranos, just more whacking. Did teh how, when, and why move you?
Again, maybe I’ll go back to it….though I’ll more likely go and start Saul. I’m sure Sopranos might still be a top 10 show….bada bing….just not sure it’s GOAT worthy….
AJ_Liberty (d756f9) — 1/10/2023 @ 5:12 amTroy Nehls (R – TX) to Erin Burnett: “Listen, I don’t know if you’re aware of, young lady, but I am also a member of the House Freedom Caucus. So, I am one of those America First patriots.” and then, noting his first appearance on CNN, referred to it as the “Clinton News Network.”
I happened to be watching the show live and thought, is he intentionally trying to look like an a$$? But this is the “anger and fear” aspect of today’s GOP that French is contrasting against its more hopeful past. The name of the game is persuasion. It’s hard to be persuasive when you’re derogatory and rude. If Nehls had a substantive point, it was quickly overshadowed by being uncivil.
Some of this comes about because of cacoon thinking. This is exactly how one talks on Hannity’s TV and radio shows. Conservative infotainment is built on this sort of gotcha language. The Left on MSNBC has its own schtick and accepted rudeness. All of it operates against navigating thru a pluralistic society where people with different ideas must co-exist. Maybe this is human nature that has taken over our media….driven by profits over civic responsibility. I just think it’s a horrible development. Our leaders and the people that cover them should model much better conduct. Nehls should have been ashamed….
AJ_Liberty (d756f9) — 1/10/2023 @ 6:05 amPaul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:29 am
the documents were held for an untold number of years, since this was from Biden’s time as VP. And, unlike Trump, he was in no position to declassify them
but, we already know he will skate, as did HRC, as did Berger, who both willingly did what they did. So, why bother making ridiculous excuses for the guy?
take a clue from the NeverTrump hypocrites here and just pretend the story never happened, or better yet is British tabloid driven
JF (d056af) — 1/10/2023 @ 6:39 amBut this is the “anger and fear” aspect of today’s GOP that French is contrasting against its more hopeful past. The name of the game is persuasion. It’s hard to be persuasive when you’re derogatory and rude
It’s instructive here how nk points out that Socrates was killed for teaching his students that they needed to try and arrive at the truth, in contrast to the sophists who were teaching how to win arguments, while AJ in this comment says that winning the argument is the name of the game.
Maybe Jesus would have been more persuasive if he hadn’t rudely called the Pharisees a brood of vipers. And of course, AJ blames “Hannity and radio” for this, as if his ideological opponents never evaluated the arguments, or the political tenor of the times, and came to their own conclusions based on their own personal moral framework–similar to what leftist academics and pundits argue when they claim conservatives vote against their own interests. By denying agency, he can pretend to be above it all while never actually having to take a stand on anything.
Factory Working Orphan (e643a1) — 1/10/2023 @ 7:00 amas with everyone on the left, his new bosses at NYT will be very happy with French
JF (d056af) — 1/10/2023 @ 7:38 amHere is the difference between the Biden’s stuff and Trump’s
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-center-classified-documents/
As we know, Trump’s material was the subject of endless correspondence between the National Archives and Trump’s team and there was little cooperation. Also, there seem to be 10 documents in the Biden stache, and the Trump stache was considerbly larger.
Appalled (03f53c) — 1/10/2023 @ 7:49 amJF, Maybe you’re unaware butt Sandy Berger was convicted, sentenced to 100 hours community service, 2 years probation, and fined 50K. Not sure what your bank account looks like but that would for sure cramp my style and feels like a fairly stiff punishment for a man who had to work for a living.
I think the investigation of Trump was (and is) warranted.
I think an investigation of Biden was and is warranted and I’m glad that the DOJ has opened one.
IANAL but my understanding is that the law requires the perpetrator have some intent to violate the law.
Biden’s lawyers reaction to finding the documents seems correct. They promptly returned the documents and are purported to be cooperating. This would be consistent with an ‘honest’ mistake.
Anyone know who was assigned to investigate this from the DOJ?
Time123 (db7ec2) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:22 amAt Mar-a-Lago we knew the who, where, when, and very shortly thereafter the what, even if we’re still guessing about the why. With the Biden documents, all we know right now is the where and a vague what.
No, comrades, we don’t even know the when. For all we know, these documents were part of of the trove Trump stole and were recently planted there.
nk (bb1548) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:23 amIANAL but my understanding is that the law requires the perpetrator have some intent to violate the law.
IANAL but I believe intent doesn’t matter and the number of documents doesn’t matter
and if Trump got the same as Berger, NeverTrump would say he got off
JF (00ab08) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:30 amThe type and number of documents greatly matter, and intent could mean the difference between a nomination for a Pulitzer or life in prison.
nk (bb1548) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:34 amI used to think so, but then I watched all of them a second time.
I’ve watched all but the Sopranos more than twice. Too much of the Sopranos drags and seems to fill time, so I’ve not watched it but the once.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:37 amKevin and nk stand corrected and beg your forbearance of their philistine want of taste or breeding.
I refute this.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:41 amJF, the law references intent and willfulness several times. I’ll defer to actual lawyers about what that means in practice but my understanding is that in the past it has meant that the person who broke the law had to know they were braking the law to be guilty of a crime.
Which seems reasonable and something that should be vetted in the investigation of Biden. If my understanding is correct a key part of decision to prosecute will be if they’re able to find evidence of intent and willfulness.
Time123 (db7ec2) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:45 amTrump willfully retained information relating to the national defense, and then obstructed their return, and the “willfully” part was made apparent by the fruit of the search, along with his obstruction.
1) I’ve not seen it, have you?
2) Reports are that he kept things like his own letter to Kim Jong Il. He created it. It would be interesting to know what the copyright situation is regarding that.
The thing that really gets the mishandling clauses going is not “willfulness” but “disclosure.” If the disclosure is willful, it’s espionage, if not it’s just bad. Most (not all) cases of mishandling that lead to prison sentences involve disclosure, or the presumption of disclosure.
There is at least one well-known case of willful THEFT and DESTRUCTION of cosmically classified documents, for the purpose of misleading a select congressional committee, that did not result in jail time. On the Sandy Berger scale, this is peanuts unless there is disclosure.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:48 amThe problem with our politics is that it is an article of faith among the aggrieved that there are only two ways to look at an issue: liberal or conservative. And, as a corollary, only two types of people: liberals and conservatives. That’s why there’s so much effort here to call non-Trumpists closet liberals and Neocon nihilists. The postulates then are there are no meaningful shared values, little opportunity for mutual understanding or respect, and certainly no room for compromise. Most every other aspect of American life is about the freedom to pick and choose, yet in politics both sides have effectively knee-capped moderation or anything unorthodox and, in the process, civility. The only way now to get anything done is to control all three branches of government and even then we hear about the need to nuke the Senate filibuster rule. The dream is permanent dominance. Everything becomes about the good of the party, rather than the good of the country. The GOP must adopt an election denialism and will now have to impeach Biden because that’s what the politics demands. Americans view of Congress is depressingly low….and now we attack the FBI, the intelligence community, the justice department….institution by institution is being lessened to feed the political toxicity. But fear not, say some, this is all healthy and good. Yeah I’m not so sure….
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 1/10/2023 @ 8:58 amDe gustibus. Escapism is the chief purpose of my TV and movie watching. Reading too. I do not judge the poor souls who want to escape to the world of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad.
I am binging on 1956-1966 Perry Mason right now. I’m streaming it on Freevie through my Roku. If you want TV noir the way it should be, watch “The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink”, Season 1, Episode 13.
nk (bb1548) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:03 am1957-1966
nk (bb1548) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:06 amDon’t get me wrong, the show is 20 years old and changed the landscape and expectation for production value
Sopranos and The Wire were contemporary, so they can be compared, production-value wise. BB was 10 years later.
Here are some of the shows that were active in the 2002-2003 TV season, possibly the best season ever:
24
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:20 amArrested Development
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
CSI
ER
Farscape
Firefly
Friends
Law & Order
Oz
The Shield
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
West Wing
The Wire
I am binging on 1956-1966 Perry Mason right now.
I’ve been through all those, twice, years apart. They hold up surprisingly well and the historical oddities (e.g. woman willing to go to the gas chamber to avoid admitting her child was born out of wedlock!) are actually more fascinating than dated. You also see some historical changes happening, as blacks start showing up in bit roles in the later seasons.
Well worth binging, pretty good writing, and quite entertaining. Also IMHO the reason the death penalty came under fire in the 60s. All of Perry’s clients seemed sure to be sent to the gas chamber, and all were innocent. Maybe there were others?
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:27 amCopyright generally doesn’t apply to government documents.
The Kim letter is a Presidential record that should have been turned over to the National Archives. In addition, Trump knew the letters were classified.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:31 amnk,
Have you tired the British Poirot series? The motif is a bit much in the first episodes, but the later stuff is fantastic. David Suchet portrays Poirot in every story Agatha Christie wrote, and seems to nail the character.
I particularly recommend 9×01, “Five Little Pigs.”
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:34 amThe Kim letter is a Presidential record that should have been turned over to the National Archives. In addition, Trump knew the letters were classified.
1) He could disclose its content with out without a copy.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:37 am2) So could Kim, which makes the whole idea of classification awkward.
3) I have seen no indication that there are no copies in the National Archives, or whether he retains the original (one assumes that Kim has that).
*with OR without
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:38 amAJ,
Thou dost protest too much.
Now maybe if you gave the same grace to Trump supporters that you demand for yourself you’d see some recprocity. But all too many do here is attack Trump and his supporters and look for ways to excuse bad behavior on the left or whine that when the left does something that NeverTrump wants to jail Trump for, they plead that it’s different because…
Yet they never made those arguments when it was time to convict Trump and his supporters.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/10/2023 @ 9:54 amApparently the National Archives thought they were missing.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2023 @ 10:02 amRIP Adolfo Kaminsky (97).
Free link to obit.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2023 @ 10:10 amMe: 3) I have seen no indication that there are no copies in the National Archives……
Your quote: “For example, the original correspondence between President Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un were not transferred to us; it is our understanding that in January 2021, just prior to the end of the Administration, the originals were put in a binder for the President, but were never returned to the Office of Records Management for transfer to NARA,” he wrote.
Well, I said copies, not originals, and what the originals are of something GIVEN to a foreign dictator isn’t all that clear. Maybe “original copies”, but now we are on a narrow semantic road indeed.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 12:31 pmJim Miller @2 quoting Mitch Daniels about the book by Nicholas Eberstadt, “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis” :
1. 10 million is what percentage of the whole? Say, approximately 10%
2. How does this compare to 50 years ago?
That is not to say that this is not a regrettable thing.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 12:46 pm263. Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 12:31 pm
We don’t know what they are talking about but maybe it could be something like “master copies” (if Stanford University will forgive us)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 12:48 pmRip Murdock (58ae3c) — 1/7/2023 @ 1:02 pm
Putin himself said something like that, in speaking to mothers of killed soldiers.
I don’t think he was talking like that before the war.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:15 pmI used the phrase “willfully retained” for reason, JF, because it’s language taken directly from the Espionage Act.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:29 pmWhat’s truly hypocritical is you trying to claim equivalency between the current president and his predecessor.
Even if it was his own handwritten letter, Kevin, that doesn’t mean it’s a personal record under the Presidential Records Act. For it to be a personal record, Trump (1) must have separated it from governmental and presidential records and (2) been of a purely private or nonpublic character.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:37 pmSuch a letter is a a piece of American history and part of the president’s work product, and therefore cannot have been a personal record. It belongs to the USA, not Trump, IMO.
Do all copies belong to the US Archives? How many do they need?
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:43 pmWe don’t know what they are talking about but maybe it could be something like “master copies” (if Stanford University will forgive us)
Well, it would not do for Trump to be found holding “slave” copies.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:45 pmThe Hunter Biden drive that the FBI took by subpoena in December, 2019 was a “slave” drive, and that’s why the FBI couldn’t look at it and had to call up John Paul Mac Isaac, the computer repair shop owner, and ask him how to access it.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 1:55 pmThe computer Hunter Biden left wasn’t bootable, but the files could be recovered.
To recover them John Paul Mac Isaac first had to copy them to his server, and it was from the server that he copied the files onto the drive he intended to give back to Hunter Biden – but Hunter ever came in for a third time.
Hunter had two other laptops. One was completely ruined, and the other could be used with an external keyboard, which John Paul Mac Isaac gave him as a loan. Hunter never brought back the keyboard he loaned him, or paid for it.
Almost all the files on the three laptops were identical and synched with his iCloud account. Hunter had just ruined 3 computers, possibly one after the other. Once he had his files, and a usable computer, and maybe he got another, he probably didn’t need the hard drive he brought in on his second visit to put the recovered files onto and he left it behind in Delaware when he moved, or was moved by his father, from Delaware to California.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:03 pmProbably, that is.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/denver-gazette/hunter-bidens-laptop-is-100-authentic-forensic-examination-concludes/article_0b82a538-db7a-11ec-b0b2-a3fc8f7a9b34.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:14 pmHe was using all of his laptops as terminals. The laptops were the backups, not the iCloud account being the backup to his laptops.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:17 pmThere’s now some news about Hunter being involved in trying to get a deal in Mexico.
Actually, it is old news, just mostly overlooked till yesterday.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/hunter-biden-used-joes-vp-perks-to-pursue-deal-with-carlos-slim
Nothing apparently came of that:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:21 pmWhat is ridiculous is the idea that Hunter was turning over any of his profits to Joe. It’s ridiculous what that’s derived from.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:24 pmDespite there being no evidence yet that Biden did anything comparable to Trump’s lying, obstruction, and brazen refusal to disgorge government documents, what I see here is NeverTrump approval of investigating Biden, approval to which I add my own. Remind when of when you voiced approval of investigating Trump.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/10/2023 @ 2:58 pm*Remind me of when you voiced approval….*
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/10/2023 @ 3:00 pmKremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov is urging Russians to welcome death.
Sounds like he’s auditioning for his next gig as the head of Canada’s medical system.
Factory Working Orphan (e643a1) — 1/10/2023 @ 3:03 pmOMG: ‘The Three Amigos’ in Mexico City…. President Martin Short blames America’s open border failures on… EARTH:
“It’s the hemisphere’s fault.”
DCSCA (46cdbc) — 1/10/2023 @ 3:12 pmIn short, you’re 100% right. Kevin and nk stand corrected and beg your forbearance of their philistine want of taste or breeding.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/9/2023 @ 11:37 pm
🍻
and
😂
norcal (862cdb) — 1/10/2023 @ 4:30 pmGiven the fact that Trump admitted the Kim letters were classified, it would make any copies also classified.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/10/2023 @ 4:42 pmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/digital-cameras-olympus-canon.html
Sammy Finkelman (0ac4d7) — 1/10/2023 @ 6:05 pmI agree the premise and plot of Breaking Bad are less predictable than The Sopranos, and that’s not nothing. But for me, dialog, character, and authenticity are key. IMO The Sopranos, and also The Wire, had it all over Breaking Bad on all three scores. The dialog was poetic… even operatic… and the characters, good and bad but mostly bad, all made me care. Breaking Bad had a few characters like that, but many, including Walt’s whole family, just annoyed me. And the dialog was pedestrian, often reminding me I was watching actors reciting lines, not characters speaking in an authentic voice.
Another aspect of authenticity is fidelity to the characters, which Breaking Bad too often breached in service of plot. Here’s one example: When Walt calls Junior from New Hampshire, and Junior berates him for killing Hank, Walt protests vaguely and ineffectually. I didn’t buy it. The Walt we knew would have made Junior shut up long enough to hear that not only didn’t he kill Hank, he did everything in his power to save him, including offering the actual killers all his money, some 80 odd million dollars, to buy Hank’s life. But the plot required Walt’s family reject and revile him, so he in that moment he was rendered bumbling and inarticulate. I hated it. And there were other moments like it.
Don’t get me wrong. I watched all of Breaking Bad at least 3 or 4 times, so there must be something about it I found tolerable. As I said, I just think it’s overrated. It’s a constant battle between fun, creative plot and annoying characters and dialog. On balance pretty good, but a tradeoff. The Wire on the other hand, and even more so The Sopranos, are just more consistently satisfying. Even when The Sopranos is slow, and it sometimes is, it’s always aesthetically pleasing.
At least that’s how I see it. Of course, and I’ll deny I said this, this stuff is all subjective, there are no rights or wrongs yada yada yada but I mean it.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/11/2023 @ 12:56 amBTW, another series that would be in my top 5 or so is The Crown. But I’m not sure it doesn’t belong in a different category, much as I assume we’ve been treating comedies, none of which have been mentioned.
Also forgot to second norcal’s nomination of Fargo as a top 5 show (I might have it top 3). Another show with compelling characters and impeccably authentic dialog.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:22 amFactory Working Orphan (e643a1) — 1/10/2023 @ 7:00 am
Very good points, FWO.
felipe (484255) — 1/11/2023 @ 2:58 amGiven the fact that Trump admitted the Kim letters were classified, it would make any copies also classified.
You keep going back and forth between classified and “archive material.” Pick one. I refuse to play a funicular whack-a-mole game.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 9:36 amlurker, I like The Crown, too, although the story is only semi-fictional, so it’s in a different class and plot twists are unlikely.
There are just so many good shows that they are kind of hard to rate. It’s not in my top 5 (or 10) and after that it’s just in the “will always watch” group. But there’s a wide range of quality in that group, and not all shows stay there as they age.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 9:43 amHere’s a TV question: What is your favorite show that almost no one else has seen (generally a single-season show)? And why?
For me, it’s “Defying Gravity” (ABC 2009). Not to be confused with the song from “Wicked!”
It’s an intense character study of 8 astronauts on a 6-year Grand Tour space mission whose real objectives have been hidden from them, for good reasons. 13 episodes and done, but really quite excellent. ABC pitched it as (gawds) “Grey’s Anatomy in Space” which turned off most who would have liked it and attracted many who couldn’t understand it.
Starring Ron Lingstone, Malik Yoba, Laura Harris. Available through several services at $1.99 an episode.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 9:54 amOnce a Hero.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/11/2023 @ 1:19 pmMy taste in action/mystery/drama is fairly mainstream, so I rarely love something that isn’t popular. My taste in comedy, leaning toward dark irony, is less so, so I’ve often loved a sitcom that dies quickly. One such is Action, a late ’90s Fox sitcom starring Jay Mohr, Illeana Douglas, the hilarious Jarrad Paul and the tragically wasted in the role Buddy Hackett.
A more recent example is the also Fox sitcom, The Grinder, created by the aforementioned Jarrad Paul. It stars Rob Lowe as a Hollywood star who having just left a successful TV run starring as a heartthrob lawyer returns to his Idaho hometown where he torments his real life lawyer brother, Fred Savage, with his intrusions into the family law practice with what he believes is legit lawyer expertise gleaned from playing one on TV. I really love this one, and hate the irony-challenged dolts who didn’t get it. Like Action, it was pulled after one season.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/11/2023 @ 4:10 pmSo, lurker, did you ever see Blake Edward’s dark comedy “S.O.B”? It abounded in irony both in-film and IRL, some unintentional. If you haven’t, I think you’d like it. Note: the opening is intentionally bad.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 1/11/2023 @ 6:24 pmHere’s a TV question: What is your favorite show that almost no one else has seen (generally a single-season show)? And why?
Mare of Easttown. Kate Winslet is phenomenal (as usual), and the show seems to capture the culture of a small Pennsylvania town that has seen better days. It’s dark, subtle, and outstanding.
norcal (862cdb) — 1/11/2023 @ 6:51 pmUp Pompeii! w/Frankie Howerd
“Salu-tee!” – ‘Lurcio’ [Frankie Howerd] ‘Up Pompeii’ BBC TV, 1969-70
DCSCA (0f890d) — 1/11/2023 @ 6:59 pmI’ve seen it, norcal, and it was excellent.
Dana (1225fc) — 1/11/2023 @ 6:59 pmDana (1225fc) — 1/11/2023 @ 6:59 pm
I think I like it even more than the first season of True Detective. I love actresses who are willing to look unglamorous.
We just might have the same taste in music (Stones), books (Infidel, Red Azalea), and TV shows.
norcal (862cdb) — 1/11/2023 @ 7:07 pmYes, Kevin, I saw it and liked it. That was a long time ago. We’re old.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 1/11/2023 @ 7:47 pm