Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Oh:
In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia…What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives…The Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners — Thomas, his mother and the family of Thomas’ late brother…He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements…A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of most real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties…The disclosure form Thomas filed for that year also had a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction, such as a real estate deal. That space is blank.
Harlan Crow explained why he made the purchase:
“My intention is to one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice,” he said. “I approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest Americans.”
Second news item
It’s inconceivable to me that shutting down an entire library would be considered a positive outcome:
A small-town Texas library system threatened with extinction was spared Thursday after the Llano County commissioners said they would abide by a federal judge’s order to restore the books they banned rather than shut the system down.
Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, who is the head of the county commission, made the announcement after county leaders heard from more than a dozen residents at an emergency meeting.
“The library will remain open while we try this in the courts, rather than through the news media,” said Cunningham, who said the county has already spent more than $100,000 on legal costs and vowed to appeal the federal judge’s decision.
Disappointment in the ruling:
A disappointed Eva Carter disagreed. She said she was on the side of those who wanted to close the libraries and predicted the federal judge’s ruling would be overturned on appeal. “We need to fight it in the court system and get this salacious material removed,” Carter, 82, said. “We have God on our side, and we expect he will get the glory when this is said and done.”
Third news item
Classified intel leaker arrested:
A Massachusetts Air National Guard member was arrested Thursday in connection with the disclosure of highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other top national security issues, an alarming breach that has raised fresh questions about America’s ability to safeguard its most sensitive secrets.
The guardsman, an IT specialist identified as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, was taken into custody without incident after FBI officers converged on his Massachusetts home. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he is to be charged with removing or transmitting classified national defense information, a crime under the Espionage Act.
Garland did not reveal a possible motive, but accounts of those in the online private chat group where the documents were disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated more by bravado than ideology.
How the reported low-ranking individual with TS/SCI clearance was able to access such sensitive material:
Teixeira was a “cyber transport systems specialist,” essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, including their cabling and hubs. In that role Teixeira would have had a higher level of security clearance because he would have also been tasked with responsibility for ensuring protection for the networks, a defense official told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Background on the documents:
The leak is believed to have started on a site called Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games and where Teixeira is believed to have posted for years about guns, games and his favorite memes — and, according to some chatting with him, closely guarded U.S. secrets.
This from a sitting member of Congress is more than a bit troubling. It’s not “serious,” Marge, it’s a felony and if convicted, Teixeira could face up to 15 years in prison. Considering the jeopardy in which he may have put Americans doing sensitive work on behalf of our country, the threat to our national security, and the damage to relationships with our allies, you should be ashamed of your encouragement to “many” other would-be “heroes” that you seem to know about:
While yes, leaking classified documents is serious, many are calling Jake Teixeira a hero for pulling back the flimsy transparent curtain and revealing what we suspected all along.
Criticism about who can be trusted with national intelligence need to ask themselves that…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 14, 2023
Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar.
That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.
And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.
Ask yourself who is the real enemy?
A young low level national guardsmen?
Or the…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 13, 2023
Former Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday that GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene should not have a security clearance after Greene defended the Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking a trove of classified documents.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind.”
Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, Tucker Carlson is also joining Marge in defending the leaker, and even “heroizing” him. More, unfortunately, Russia is using it to its advantage:
Russian propagandists agree with their "colleague Tucker Carlson" and start portraying Jack Teixeira as a “mini-Trump” and a “heroic leaker,” having previously described him as a "total nobody," who shouldn’t have had access to classified documents.https://t.co/srHYWuAqOt
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 14, 2023
Fourth news item
— Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama) April 10, 2023
Footage of the February 28 incident, captured in a broadcast by the Tibet arm of the United States government-backed Voice of America, showed the Dalai Lama interacting with about 100 student graduates of India’s M3M Foundation at his temple in McLeod Ganj, which is in Dharamshala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
After the young boy asked the Dalai Lama for a hug, the child was invited to greet the religious leader, who asked for a kiss on the cheek, gave the boy a kiss on the lips, and said: “And suck my tongue.” The boy appeared to stick out his tongue, but the pair separated after touching foreheads and shared a laugh to applause from the crowd.
Note: The Dalai Lama’s team’s clip was *after* the offensive part took place, indicating they knew that they were aware of the problem.
Reminder: Every religious leader who has ever walked the earth has had feet of clay. They are not magical beings, they do not walk on water, and they are not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. They are deeply flawed mortals, just like the rest of us. But clearly, deviants walk among them as well.
I was reading about the Tibetan custom of greeting people by sticking out their tongues:
Sticking out one’s tongue is a sign of respect or agreement and was often used as a greeting in traditional Tibetan culture. According to Tibetan folklore, a cruel ninth-century Tibetan king had a black tongue, so people stick out their tongues to show that they are not like him (and aren’t his reincarnation)
Despite protests of misconstruing what took place because sticking out the tongue is just a traditional greeting, and warnings that it’s CCP propagandists using the video to discredit the Dalai Lama, I haven’t seen anything that even remotely suggests that sucking another’s tongue is part of the traditional Tibetan greeting. Moreover, if having a child suck an adult’s tongue was just part of the Tibetan greeting, why would the Dalai Lama feel compelled to apologize, rather than use it as a teachable moment to enlighten us all? We know better.
Fifth news item
Is Navalny being slowly poisoned? It wouldn’t be surprising:
Alexey Navalny’s attorney Vadim Kobzev reports that paramedics had been summoned to Navalny’s cell late on the night of April 7–8, due to acute symptoms that the prison personnel refuses to explain.
Kobzev says he wouldn’t rule out that Navalny is being poisoned again, this time in small dozes calculated to make him decline “gradually but steadily”:
In response to the question “What’s making me sick?” the prison doctor tells him, “It’s spring, everyone has acute symptoms.” Judging by the bizarre and outrageous situation around Navalny’s health, with sudden attacks he never used to have, we cannot rule out that they’re poisoning him slowly, to make him deteriorate gradually but steadily. This might have sounded like a paranoid idea if this was a different person, but not with regard to Navalny after Novichok. We’re going to press for toxicity testing and a radiological study.
A swift and sudden death, like falling out of a window, would be too obvious and risks making a martyr of Navalny. But a slow poisoning while struggling to survive extraordinarily challenging circumstances poses far less risk of that happening.
Sixth news item
Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal appeals court to take immediate action to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in the Justice Department’s probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Trump filed an appeal earlier this week in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, and on Friday he asked the court to take immediate action.
Seventh news item
Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson, who was discovered to have referred to the former president as a “demonic force” and a “destroyer” but will do anything to pump the ratings:
President Xi is a brilliant man. If you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find—there’s nobody like that. The look, the brain, the whole thing. We had a great relationship. You know, when he first came to Mar-a-Lago . . . it was so organized by them and by us, but by them, pom, pom, pom. Everything’s like business. No games, you know. They don’t say, “Gee, how did the Yankees do last night? Oh, that was wonderful.” They don’t care. They don’t care about anything. I said, “You ever go to a Broadway play? I’ll take you to one. Do you ever have plays—like, do you ever go?” . . . No, I don’t know. He’s all . . . This is business. These aren’t game players, right? I like it, you know, in a way, I like it. You have no life. But that’s what he likes.
As for Russia, Trump expounded at length on his views that American support for Ukraine would fail; openly suggested, without evidence, that the United States itself blew up the Nord Stream pipelines; and pointed out that “there are people that say Ukraine cannot win”…
Russia loves them some useful idiots:
Meanwhile in Russia: state TV propagandists on every channel aired multiple clips of Trump's interview with Tucker Carlson. Their main takeaway: "Donald said that America is tired of fighting Russia and should surrender." Watch:https://t.co/FPQm005iHK
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 12, 2023
Meanwhile in Russia: Trump's interview with Tucker Carlson is on every state TV channel. They laud Trump's glaring insinuation that the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream and admire the way Trump's "primitive" language appeals to his target audience. https://t.co/88bA93WPtz
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 12, 2023
Eighth news item
It was a little more than a year ago that President Biden was being saluted for “making history” by hiring Sam Brinton to be the deputy assistant secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition in the Office of nuclear energy for the Department of Energy.
The former DOE official has now pleaded no contest to stealing luggage from the Las Vegas airport and been ordered to pay $3,670.74 in restitution for the stolen luggage and clothes and given a 180-day suspended jail sentence.
It would be nice if someone, anyone associated with the U.S. Department of Energy could just concede, “This was not a good hire. We screwed up, and we will scrutinize applicants for positions like this more closely in the future.” The Biden administration has not said anything about Brinton, insisting that Brinton was not an administration appointee.
Brinton announced the hiring on Twitter in January 2022. Brinton was working in the office by late June, and on June 29 added, “to clarify, I am not a Biden appointee (despite what was reported) and instead serve as a career employee in the Senior Executive Service – I intend to be serving my country in this role through many many presidencies.” Members of the senior executive service “serve in the key positions just below the top presidential appointees,” according to the Office of Personnel Management.
…
On July 6, about a week after announcing the start in the new position, Brinton was recorded on video stealing a woman’s luggage from a carousel at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid International Airport, “wearing a white t-shirt with a rainbow atomic nuclear symbol on the front.” Then in October, Brinton was charged in Hennepin County, Minn., with felony theft for stealing a woman’s luggage from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
MISCELLANEOUS
New Trump political ad and I can’t even:
Pudding Fingers pic.twitter.com/PRCVAZlkw9
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) April 14, 2023
P.S. Bellingcat, whose Chriso Grozev worked with Alexie Navalny to identify those responsible for poisoning the activist (documented in the Acadamy Award winning film, “Navalny”), was also instrumental (via Aric Toler, a staff writer at Bellingcat) in identifying the alleged source of the leaked documents this week.
Have a great weekend!
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/14/2023 @ 11:04 amWait. DJT’s people are concerned with where RD’s fingers have been?
REALLY?
What is wrong with us?
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 4/14/2023 @ 11:09 amhttps://legalinsurrection.com/2023/04/ex-obama-staffer-joe-biden-conducted-malfeasance-in-office-to-enrich-his-family/
Biden/Obama official states under oath that Biden used public monies to enrich himself in Ukraine.
Silence.
NJRob (426623) — 4/14/2023 @ 11:27 amFinal item —
If someone hadn’t mentioned Trump, I would have assumed this was a Democrat’s ad.
Appalled (439547) — 4/14/2023 @ 12:10 pmIf there are books at the library that you don’t want your kid to check out, be the person who takes them to the library and don’t let them check those books out.
If Teixeira was leaking classified material, he should be jailed. He’s not a hero.
Yes, there are people who say that Ukraine can’t win. Mostly they are Russian. And Tucker Carlson.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/14/2023 @ 12:39 pm@2
Mr. Jester… my man.
Never interrupt your opponent making a big mistake.
I’m in blood-red Missouri, and ads like this is turning off former Trump voters faster than anything I’ve seen.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/14/2023 @ 12:58 pm@6, that’s good news!
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:05 pmThis headline is hilarious, and also appears to be completely accurate.
Nazi-Admiring Jan. 6 rioter sentenced to 3 years in separate weapons case.
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:14 pmPresident Xi is a brilliant man. If you went all over Hollywood to look for somebody to play the role of President Xi, you couldn’t find—there’s nobody like that. The look, the brain, the whole thing.
Never, EVER, underestimate your adversary– like this imbecile has:
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man… I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us…” – Idiot Joe Biden, May, 2019
Xi is brilliant, creating an Eurasian Alliance and while peeling off so called U.S. friends and making American foreign policy reactive, not proactive. The balloon says it all.
Though in Hollywood, Michael Ovitz comes to mind as an equally evil menace.
DCSCA (65f130) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:15 pmNJRob @3.
It’s nothing.
First of all, Biden allocated nothing. Second, promotion of fracking in Ukraine would only incidentally maybe benefit Burisma, and what Burisma really needed was a way for Mykola Zlochevsky to maintain control of it, and not have it taken away from him and not get prosecuted because he was not supposed to have used his earlier Ukrainian government position to benefit himself. He was officially not in control of the company, I understand. Third, Jake Sullivan is not taking credit for the aid, and even less so for directing it to a specific company.
Last, but not least, Jake Sullivan was close to Hillary Clinton, not Joe Biden and looked to Hillary Clinton as the head of the next administration.
Jake Sullivan worked for Vice President Joe Biden for a short period of time between when Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State and going to work for her campaign. He was National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States from February 26, 2013 to August 1, 2014. He did not have a longstanding connection to Joe Biden. April 21, 2014 is in the middle of that time period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Sullivan
You can come out with theories as to why Jake Sullivan (or somebody else, assuming that somebody actually went out of his way to help Burisma) would want to help Joe Biden’s family members.
Maybe, you could say, to be better able to convince Joe Biden not to run for president, although that was more after Beau Biden died on May 30, 2015. First they argued he had more time to decide and then that it was too late. But saying that Jake Sullivan knew anything or cared is too thin a thread to hang anything on. And the connection to Burisma is too tangential.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:29 pmRe: Second News Item: It’s Not Just in Texas:
Update:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:32 pmAre statements to Fox News made under oath? If so, there are a lot of others who are in trouble. The steno hasn’t testified to Congress or grand jury, and we only have his word that he reported it to FBI.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:35 pmRip,
If it was against Trump you’d be blasting it from the headlines repeatedly and the Times, WaPo, CNN, etc would all have it on the front page of their sites with chyrons blazing.
NJRob (426623) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:42 pmNJRob, you don’t seem to have addressed Rips point….
Time123 (a56091) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:45 pmPar for the course.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 1:57 pmIt’s just an unfounded rumor. Once the steno testifies in public (no hiding behind a grand jury) during the impeachment hearings, I would be glad to blast it anywhere you like.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:00 pmClarence Thomas is extremely smart. Far smarter then I am. I strongly suspect that he has carefully not broken any laws and complies with all pertinent disclose requirements to the letter of the law. But he’s been taking a lot of money and items of value
This is corrupt. It would be corrupt if we were talking about Kagen and Soros. But many of the people current outraged would be fine, and may of the people unbothered would be outraged.
As it stands, Justice Thomas looks corrupt, but likely complying with the law.
Like it was corrupt but legal for China to give Ivanka a bunch of valuable TM.
Like it was corrupt but legal for foreign governments to donate to the Clinton foundation while Hillary was SOS.
Like it was corrupt but legal for the Clinton Foundation to high Chelsea at an inflated salary.
Like it was corrupt but legal for Bursima to higher Hunter Biden.
Our leaders have become experts at being corrupt but legal. They’ve also become experts at being so partisan and tribal no one on their side cares. Not just to the point that no one cares enough to take action that would reduce political power, that’s a tall bar. As a culture we’ve become so tribal we can’t even admit it because doing so would imply our enemies have a valid point and as a culture we hate them too much to do that.
I wish I had a solution. But i don’t. I can just see the problem.
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:01 pmAs it stands, Justice Thomas looks corrupt, but likely complying with the law.
I don’t begrudge anybody for holding this position, but I guess I am getting old and crotchety because a huge part of me is of the opinion that if I don’t have to declare things to the government, I’m damn well not going to. Of course I am not a government employee, and perhaps if I were I would feel a stronger obligation for transparency, but right now I want the government — at all levels — to know absolutely as little about me as they possibly can.
JVW (1ad43e) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:16 pmFaux noise had on another limo on to talk about the leaker. The usual”traitor” not concerned citizen BS. Are the american people better off not knowing about what the government is doing in their name like giving prostitutes LSD to see the effect as it did in the 1950’s ? Most of the government misdeeds are not found out about till many years later. So are assange, winner, manning, snowden and many others traitors or the the government officials who hid their misdeed the real traitors? Funny to be on the same side as MTG ;but as the limo said both the right and the left don’t trust the government and for good reason. Do you want to know when your government messes up and lies to you or be allowed to hide its embarrassments. I do.
asset (3ed00d) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:25 pmIf the economy doesn’t grow more than projected and current law does not change, Social Security benefits could be cut by 22% in a little more than ten years. That’s not going too happen.
Peole who propose avoiding that propose cutting benefits of some people not currently receiving any – less cost of living increases (assuming they know exactly what is going to happen with wages and prices) changing the normal retirement age etc. Other people prefer waiting for a crisis. That’s also true with debt ceiling.
And its Medicare and Medicaid that have the real problems.
The DeSantis ad aims to create a memorable image that doesn’t make too much sense
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:29 pm@17 As the politicians say I can’t be a criminal if I make sure my crime isn’t against the law and I make the laws!
asset (3ed00d) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:29 pmThere is a stronger case against Clarence Thomas than what Legsl Insurrection has against Joe Biden
It probably was not required to be disclosed since Clarence Thomas wasn’t the sole or majority owner. It was probably legal, and Propublica has tried to make it sound illegal (they certainly did with the disclosures of trips) by including a few false statements or mitting some and has timed this to make a drip drip.
Maybe the purchase of his family’s property saved him (or hs nephews and nieces) money in taking care of his mother. They note also his mother probably pays no rent (it would have been sold on the condition of a life tenancy)
Harlan Crow wants to create amuseum in honor of Clarence Thoomas and that probably endears him to Clarence Thomas also.
But he has no cases, although his idea might be that all this might help stop Thomas from drifting left like Blackmun or others..
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:39 pmasset (3ed00d) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:29 pm
Not always. President Clinton had the chutzpah to signa bill making it legal to ask a person being sued for by sexual harassment about other sexual relations. A bill he himself signed made it legal to ask him about Monica Lewinsky!
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:42 pmThe New York Times was at Jack Teixeira’s house before they came to arrest him.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:44 pmJVW,
My understanding is that Justice Thomas was required by law to disclose the details of sales over $1000, and he failed to do so. It looks like this might be more than just poor optics.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:46 pmThe DeSantis ad aims to create a memorable image that doesn’t make too much sense
It aims to draw DeSantis’s attention. But DeSantis is too smart to fall for that. He will let Trump yap on the other side of the fence while he heats up his grill.
nk (bb1548) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:50 pmJVW, I agree with you. But a SCJ getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts seems to justify an exception to that very good general rule.
Time123 (3be131) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:52 pmDana, even if he’s complying with the law I I think accepting the gifts and not disclosing them is a corrupt.
Time123 (3be131) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:53 pm@18
I begrudge tho.
Having a wealthy friend, showering you with gifts like that isn’t illegal.
Furthermore, no one has shown me the actual corruption that is being round-a-bout alleged. Nor has there been ANY court cases that Thomas had to participate in that affect his rich friend.
Just another faux-controversy to bring down a successful conservative black man.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/14/2023 @ 2:58 pm“Having a wealthy friend, showering you with gifts like that isn’t illegal.”
It’s the failure to report that’s (potentially) illegal. I know this point has been made several times before.
Speaking of the supreme court:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/14/supreme-court-temporarily-blocks-abortion-pill-restrictions.html
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/14/2023 @ 3:04 pmWhembly, being paid 6 figures by a Ukrainian oligarch for a no-show job isn’t illegal. It’s not illegal even when your dad is the VPOTUS. But it’s corrupt and worth criticizing even when all the evidence is that Biden’s actions were aligned with US interests and there’s no evidence Biden lifted a finger to make it happen, or in response to it.
Foreign officials donating to your charity while you’re SOS isn’t illegal.
But both of those things are corrupt.
Thomas took lavish vacations and got a lot of money for a land deal by this guy. His wife’s charity got a lot of money from this guy. It looks corrupt, especially if he didn’t disclose it.
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/14/2023 @ 3:38 pmIt’s not a matter of perceived obligation by a government employee. It’s our right as citizens to know our employees aren’t on the take. As long as no one puts a gun to anyone’s head that makes them take a government job, I’m fine with mandatory disclosures as a condition of accepting high public office, even if those disclosures would be onerous for you or me. It’s just one of the reasons you don’t see me running for office. That and the fact that nobody wants me to.
Also, the failure to disclose, legal or not, isn’t the corruption. Disclosure is just the legal vehicle for oversight of our employees. The corruption is the payment and receipt of the private largess, and its purchase, or at least perception thereof, of government influence. The appearance of impropriety is something we’re entitled to demand of our political leaders, even if that demand is observed mostly in the breach.
As Time mentioned, that legally permissible breach is what allowed the Clintons to be legally compliant while manifestly corrupt. They got rich off government employment while dotting and crossing all the required “i”s and “t”s. Now, if these reports are accurate, Thomas is guilty of the same legally permissible corruption. That’s on us for not demanding that our representatives close the loopholes.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/14/2023 @ 3:42 pmDoh! *The appearance of propriety.*
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/14/2023 @ 3:43 pmWe don’t know that Thomas got any money to declare on the sale of his mother’s house. Why should he? Get any? It was his mother’s house.
His signature on the deed means nothing by itself. He could have been, and very likely was, signing away a remainder, heirship, or implied interest which could be a cloud on title (for example if he had ever co-signed a mortgage loan for his mother).
Show me the closing statement with the disbursements. Better yet, show me a cashed check made out to him.
nk (bb1548) — 4/14/2023 @ 3:57 pmIt’s not a matter of perceived obligation by a government employee. It’s our right as citizens to know our employees aren’t on the take.
Where does that logic end, lurker? It’s our right as patients to know that our doctors aren’t on the take. It’s our rights as customers to know that our insurance agents aren’t on the take. It’s our right as students to know that our professors aren’t on the take. It’s our right as diners to know that our chefs and servers aren’t on the take, and on and on. Pretty soon, you’ve got a nice little government regulatory apparatus and lots of required personal disclosures, the sort of which would make a Ralph Nader or an Elizabeth Warren absolutely jump for joy. Count me out. If there is an argument to be made that Supreme Court justices, or federal judges in general, or any judges for that matter need to disclose with whom they vacation and show exactly who pays for what, then let’s have Congress enshrine that into law. Same goes for every single other possible financial disclosure for government employees. Otherwise, it’s none of our business.
JVW (1ad43e) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:24 pmDon’t you need to have a good reputation to begin with in order for it to be harmed?
All of the causes of action that Trump accuses Cohen could apply to himself. LOL!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:27 pmMaybe because it’s an allegation without evidence, like so many other allegations from Trumpalistas.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:28 pm“If there is an argument to be made that Supreme Court justices, or federal judges in general, or any judges for that matter need to disclose with whom they vacation and show exactly who pays for what, then let’s have Congress enshrine that into law. ”
Here you go: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5a/compiledact-95-521/title-I
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:32 pmCatching a break:
Excuses, excuses.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:37 pmIf there is a better, more complete correction of past errors by a journalist, I don’t know what is, and it’s worth watching the full 18 minutes, here.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:42 pmTop lines. Darling Nikki is in fourth place, trailing Undecided (7.4%), followed by Mike Pence and Liz Cheney (2.3%), Tim Scott (1.3), Mike Pompeo (.6), Chris Christie, Kristi Noem, and Asa Hutchinson (.4), and Glenn Youngkin (.1).
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 4:48 pmJonah on Teixeira and his defenders, the latter of whom (see Marge and Tucker) are worse than the former.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:00 pmThis is good news, that Pompeo isn’t throwing his hat in. We don’t need a crowded field with each having low single-digit support.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:05 pmTake the hint, Pence.
Trump Civil Litigation Watch:
Sad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:06 pmVia Michael Weiss:
The thread from the guy who exposed “Donbass Devushka” is hilarious.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:19 pmI don’t see a lot of uptake on the ProPublica claims at the MSM. This is surprising as they’ve been trying to “get” Clarence Thomas since before his confirmation hearing. They imply impropriety, but perhaps it isn’t.
Consider that the man did not grow up in a sophisticated, investing-class household. He was literally poorer than dirt — sharecroppers seemed affluent in comparison. I don’t fault him for getting what he can, so long as it does not affect his rulings on the court. If his buddy had been Tom Steyer and he started drifting Left, that would be corruption.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:24 pm“Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind.”
Yeah. I said that yesterday.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/14/2023 @ 5:26 pmEarlier, at another site, I joked that Justice Thomas has just been getting reparations — and without the taxpayers even being involved.
Yes, I was joking (mostly). But I was making a point, which those who favor reparations refuse to think about.
Speaking of gifts, and not reporting, there’s this story.
Did Donald the Loser violate the emoluments clause? I’m not a lawyer, much less a constitutional lawyer, so I won’t venture an opinion. But he certainly violated the spirit of the clause.
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/14/2023 @ 6:14 pm“Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind.”
so far, MTG hasn’t used her clearance to harm the US at the cost of many thousands of American lives
Liz can’t say the same
JF (ce5710) — 4/14/2023 @ 6:49 pmConsidering the jeopardy in which he may have put Americans doing sensitive work on behalf of our country, the threat to our national security, and the damage to relationships with our allies, you should be ashamed of your encouragement to “many” other would-be “heroes” that you seem to know about
Teixeira deserves the same punishment as Mr/Ms Manning, who last I heard was offered a Harvard fellowship
I don’t think it was MTG who commuted his/her sentence
JF (ce5710) — 4/14/2023 @ 6:54 pm“Teixeira deserves the same punishment as Mr/Ms Manning, who last I heard was offered a Harvard fellowship”
She did 5 years in prison first. Gonna leave that out?
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/14/2023 @ 6:57 pmOK Davethulhu, I have you down for 5 years and a Harvard fellowship for Mr. Teixeira
I think he’ll take that
Let’s see if the prosecutors agree with you
JF (ce5710) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:02 pmWhere does it end? It ends where it begins, with high government officials. I don’t care if my doctor, my insurance agent or my waiter gets sweetheart deals or extravagant gifts from Harlan Crow, George Soros, or Xi Jinping. And if I did, I’d find myself a new doctor, agent or waiter. I do care if someone may be buying influence from my President, Senator, or SCOTUS Justice. Those people tax me, take my property, lock me up, send my children to war, limit or eliminate my Constitutional rights or create new ones out of whole cloth. And I’m stuck with them for four years, six years, or life, respectively.
Do you really not think we’d have a legitimate interest in knowing if George Soros bought, renovated and allowed a SCOTUS Justice’s mom to continue living in the mom’s home? If Soros had paid for the Justice’s lavish annual vacations? I know I’d care. I know I’d want to know about it. And I believe it’s perfectly legitimate to make disclosing such events a condition of seeking those publicly selected and compensated jobs, which again, no one requires them to do.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:06 pmIt says Trump and family relinquished the gifts but did not declare them. If they relinquished the gifts, why declare them? The act of relinquishment contains both and says, “I have this golf club A (declaration) and cannot accept this golf club (declaration), so I must hand it over to you” that is two declarations and a relinquishment
Relinquished means given up, which is the diplomatic way of politely accepting a gift and then passing it on. The acceptance of the gift was “thank you, thank you” and then a hand over. What do you want a President to do in such circumstances? Insult the Japanese PM and tossing the gift directly into the bin? or maybe accepting it, using it, and then putting it into the relinquished bin a couple days later? I think it would be entirely fine even if Trump used the golf club gift for a while, took a PR photo with it out on the course, said thank you and then turned it over a day to months later.
I think Jim’s scenario violates the spirit of diplomacy
steveg (2d85d7) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:08 pmI live in coastal CA. A real estate transaction of $100,000 is pocket change. Not to mention, the purported explanation sounds just fine to me.
steveg (2d85d7) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:12 pmChelsea Manning got 5 years and the taxpayer paid for hormone therapy even though he committed a serious crime before becoming a she
steveg (2d85d7) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:17 pmBaseball Crank asks whether Texas is being invaded by Mexico, and it’s a good discussion.
Bolding mine. If Treviño’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was a co-founder of RedState, and I used to blog at his Tacitus site back in the early days.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/14/2023 @ 7:44 pmhttps://trendingpoliticsnews.com/revealed-shadow-billionaire-funding-sexual-assault-suit-against-trump-is-linkedins-founder-jrupp/
Radical leftists abusing our court system for political advantage. Just like they did in Alaska.
Moved to current thread
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2023 @ 5:52 amhttps://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1646842598382874624
All of those who are reflexively against MTG, care to respond to this?
Do you support mutilating and sterilizing children? It’s sad that we need a law like this to protect children from clear child abuse.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2023 @ 6:06 amI wasn’t reflexively against MTG when she first popped up on the national radar. I didn’t know anything about her. But in very short order she showed her true colors, as is typical with public figures. It has been her own words and actions that have informed my opinion of her. This is true for you as well, I’m sure. The difference, of course, is that because of your own political alignment with her, you saw/see her actions as good. Reflexively so. There are obvious reasons why MAGA loves her, and those reasons more often than not fly in the face of what I value and hold true. Not the least of which is that she has consistently claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. It’s become the cornerstone upon which all other views are built. And now, in the third news item, she is defending an individual who committed felonious acts for his own amusement and vanity and put Americans at risk, has negatively impacted our relationship with our longstanding allies, and caused damage, to one degree or another, to our own national security. That is un-American, and nothing to be admired – especially from an elected official. So yeah, I am now reflexively against MTG because she is too often reflexively un-American. See: white nationalism, Christian nationalism, racism, supporting and defending actors who violate the Espionage Act and endanger Americans and national security, denying the outcome of legitimate elections, associating with white supremacists, pushing conspiracy theories, wanting a national divorce, etc., etc.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 7:37 amIt’s a curious thing that the young leaker doesn’t appear to have been working on behalf of any foreign actors (as far as we know). Rather it seems that he wanted/needed to be seen as a big man by a small fringe group and used what he had at his disposal to accomplish that. There also doesn’t appear to have been any financial gain from his actions (as far as we know). Vanity and immaturity.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 7:47 amDana,
You slander me yet again with your words. I have not spoken in support of MTG, but I have not tarred her as well. She votes the way I support and speaks out against the left.
She also sponsors bills that protect our children. I notice you wrote a long message, but neglected to respond to the actual question.
I do tire of you taking the words of the left and coopting them as your own :
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 7:58 amHow/where did I slander you yet again? You just said you support her views and that she speaks out against the left (which you do as well).
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:05 amAnd Darling Nikki, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Asa Hutchinson. They have no chance at all.
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:07 amThe real question about this coming GOP campaign is “who will be operating the debates?” In the past, the so-called GOP debates has been a bunch of liberal Democrats asking GOP contenders liberal Democrat questions that have NOTHING to do with Republican agendas or divisions, unless to drive a wedge.
Frankly, the GOP should require all debates to be run by Fox News unless and until the other media agree to some groundrules about moderator selection.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:19 am@65: Do you have this on F7 or something? Or do you forget you’ve said it before?
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:21 amI was responding directly to Paul Montagu’s advice for regarding (extremely) low polling candidates-along Pompeo and Pence, they have no place in primary campaign except to re-nominate Trump. Haley, Scott, are extremely low polling candidates. DeSantis hasn’t declared yet and already is polling double digits.
I haven’t forgotten I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep pointing it out. Let me know when one of them breaks 10% against Trump and DeSantis. It ain’t gonna be any time soon.
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:34 amHere’s Another Candidate Who Won’t Poll Above 1%:
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:43 amLink to Larry Elder piece.
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:45 amYes. As I support anyone who speaks out against the left. Their views are harmful to our nation. Teaching children to deny biological reality is destructive. How is that even in dispute?
You tar me when you tie my view and others like me in with the fringe supremacists who have zero influence in society. And you do it to shut down conversations.
No one cares what they think. They aren’t feted upon on the right, unlike the supremacists are on the left such as Sharpton or Kendi.
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:00 amDana, I agree with your comment in 61 and its very well written. “Felonious acts for his own amusement and vanity” is a really compelling and clever turn of phrase.
NJRob, I don’t hold MTG in contempt from reflex but from her many contemptible acts and statements. Her bill was performative, had no chance of becoming law, and was intended for fundraising. The contents may be good. But it was doomed by her incompetence as a legislator.
Time123 (6eaa58) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:00 amMTG is not a fringe figure.
Time123 (6eaa58) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:04 amTime,
If the policy is good why don’t one of your politicians sign on to the bill? Where’s Romneys version for example?
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:13 amNo one said she is a fringe figure Time. Try again.
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:14 amThis is a crazy story.
Guy drives car into a group of protesters then shoots one 5 times.
Is convicted of murder even though the deceased was armed as witnesses said the deceased didn’t raise or point his weapon at the killer.
Both deceased and his killer were military vets.
Governor of Texas vows to pardon the killer.
Copious evidence comes out that killer was racist, had made numerous statements about wanting to kill protesters and was a pervert trying to hook up with teens. He doesn’t seem to have been a pedophile, but given his age it’s still gross.
MAGA really needs a better class of folk hero.
Time123 (6eaa58) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:20 amRob, given the context and flow of conversation i assume you were including her as one of the ‘fringe supremacists” in you comment at 72. Since that doesn’t seem to be the case I’m not sure what your point was.
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:26 amYou’ll have to define “fringe supremacist,” a term that I’ve never used.
P.S. I am currently engaging in conversation with you.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:26 amDeSantis hasn’t declared yet and already is polling double digits.
But he’s been running since 2021.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:27 amTime,
Your spin on that case is repulsive. The driver didn’t drive his car into anyone. A group of left wing terrorists attacked his car and started banging on it and intimidating him.
The guy shot had an AK-47 and mentioned previously about wanting to use it. The left wing site was happy to mention the shooter’s previous comments, yet neglected this piece of pertinent info.
The so-called witnesses were the terrorists banging on his car.
The leftist prosecutor chose to go after the guy even when the cops said their was no case.
All that said, the jury might have deliberated honestly. Mr Branca does a fantastic job summarizing the situation and the case unlike you or your biased link.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/04/daniel-perrys-murder-conviction-was-legally-sound/
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:32 amRegarding MTG, AOC, Biden, Trump and everyone else: The statements and position that are attributed to them come through the media’s Left-Is-Good filter. Some statements are not reported, others are spun. Positions are stated within the media’s preferred framework (e.g. “gender-affirming care”, not “state-sponsored genital mutilation”).
So, I don’t jump to conclusions until the shark does. Those 4 above have managed to meet that bar, but I’m not so sure about some others.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:33 amFringe supremacist means not invited on tv or to venues for endorsements. Not feted upon by tge political class for their support.
They don’t have a voting block.
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:34 amDana,
Do you support her bill stopping the modification of children and their mutiliation and sterilization?
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:35 amJust a reminder that the left believe’s MLK’s colorblind society and judging people by the content of their character is racist.
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:39 am“The driver didn’t drive his car into anyone. A group of left wing terrorists attacked his car and started banging on it and intimidating him.”
From your own article:
Also definitely need to give the author of the article credit for this:
He was 100% correct here.
Do you think he should be pardoned, NJRob?
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:45 amPretty humiliating for Darling Nikki to be trailing a Republican non-entity like Pence by a full percentage point.
Sad!
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:12 amNRob,
You accused me of “slandering” you and I still don’t see where I did that. I take an accusation like that seriously, and would like you to show me where I committed said offense. Please be specific.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:27 amRob great link. It does a really good job supporting my summary of events and provides additional explanation of the evidence of Perry’s guilt. I really like that it includes a video that shows that people weren’t beating on Perry’s car prior to him murdering foster and also points out that such a sequence of events doesn’t make sense in light of Perry’s actions.
There’s no reason for perry to pardon this scumbag and I predict that the Texas board of pardons will quietly not recommend hie do so.
Time123 (f63df3) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:33 amDana – Intelligence experts have long said that most who share secrets they shouldn’t are usually motivated by money, ideology, compromise, or ego, MICE, for short.
From what we know now, Jack Teixeira appears to have been motivated by ego. (I think the same is true of Snowden, who had failed at so many things, before he decided to share secrets he shouldn’t have.)
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:35 amDana,
It’s tying in my remarks with MAGA and ending the subject with your litany of progressive namecalling.
I quoted the exact paragraph.
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:54 amTime,
Now if you had just done the research instead of spitting back the left wing link think how things could’ve gone…
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:55 amThulu,
His social media wasn’t pertinent to the case and it was years prior to the incident. It woyld’ve been relevant had he testified.
I have no opinion on a pardon.
Do you still support antifa and their black bloc?
NJRob (397937) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:58 amIt’s there if you look for it.
I don’t begrudge Justice Thomas for taking advantage of being part of the elite. There have always two sets of rules: one for elite government officials, politicians, corporate leaders, celebrities, etc. and the rest of us. The elites cultivate relationships with other elites, and the different rules include believing the rules that apply to the rest of us don’t apply to them.
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:59 am@ whembly,
What is in question isn’t whether it’s a violation that a wealthy friend showered a SCJ with gifts, or whether any court cases that Thomas has participated in have affected Crow. What is in question, as I read it, is whether he violated reporting requirements concerning the sale of the homes. According to the report: A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of most real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties…The disclosure form Thomas filed for that year also had a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction, such as a real estate deal. Additionally: Federal officials, including Supreme Court justices, are required to disclose the details of most real estate transactions with a value of over $1,000. Thomas would not be required to report the purchase if the property were his or his spouse’s primary personal residence, but this stipulation does not apply to this purchase, which Thomas did not report.
By labeling this “just another faux-controversy to bring down a successful conservative black man,” you are politicizing what does not appear to be a political attack but rather a simple violation of requirements for SJC and federal officials. If there is a reporting requirement that Thomas violated, it would be just that, and not a political hit job, not a smear, not a left-right matter, and not an attempt to bring down a conservative Black man. There is a danger in assuming that any controversy (against one’s team) is just political theater or an attempt to take them down because what if the violation is proven?
(Note: I don’t doubt that ProPublica has been digging into Thomas for some time. He’s long been target-ripe. Are they digging into Kagan or Sotomayor in the same way? Probably not. Or perhaps there hasn’t been anything on the radar that compels a further look. I don’t know. Regardless of the motivation, it appears that they’ve they’ve uncovered a reporting violation by Thomas, then that becomes its own issue.)
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:02 amI’m not going to do your work for you, NJRob, but these are verifiable. You may claim they are the words of the left, and accuse me of co-opting them as my own, but I see them as her own claims. You are invested in making everything left or right instead of actually searching out whether they are simply true or not.
You’ve now accused me of co-opting and slander.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:09 amRob, your link doesn’t disagree with the one I posted on any of the facts. It just analyzes the situation from more of a legal lens while the one I posted was more about his prior statements.
You disagree with me. But your link doesn’t.
Time123 (731c34) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:11 amUntrue.
Also:
In other posts he admits to being a racist. Not a good look for the governor (or Texas Republicans).
Rip Murdock (d169ff) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:20 amTwo protesters storm stage during DeSantis’ speech in New Hampshire, hold up ‘Jews against DeSantis’ signs
https://nypost.com/2023/04/14/protesters-storm-stage-during-desantis-speech-in-new-hampshire/
DCSCA (343e60) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:36 amDeSantis hasn’t declared yet and already is polling double digits.
30+ points BEHIND Trump.
DCSCA (343e60) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:51 am“Do you still support antifa and their black bloc?”
Only when they’re punching Nazis.
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 11:57 amRip,
If you read my link, you’d see it wasn’t because he didn’t testify.
So please don’t make incorrect remarks.
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:14 pmDana,
That is their language. I don’t see you applying those labels ever to the left even though their langage is directly racist towards all races and segregationist.
Why?
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:16 pmDave,
According to them, everyone they disagree with is a Nazi. Do you agree?
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:16 pm99, they were off by exactly a week
urbanleftbehind (aedbaa) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:16 pmhttps://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2023/04/15/protesters-storm-the-stage-as-desantis-delivers-speech-in-new-hampshire-n544010
When leftists attack Republicans example #12,645,221,184
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:17 pmTo paraphrase Reagan, if a politician like Marge disagrees with me 80% of the time, she’s not my ally.
Paul Montagu (e8c2dd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:20 pmCool story that we only learned about after he died: Actor Chaim Topol lived a double life as a spy.
Paul Montagu (e8c2dd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:32 pmDana, my barometer for sickening political ads is whether it’s worse than the one showing Paul Ryan shoving granny in her wheelchair over a cliff. By comparison, I found the pudding ad to be slightly better than that, or not worse.
Paul Montagu (e8c2dd) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:40 pmThe real issue is that it was green-lighted by former Democrat Trump, not by current Democrats.
I understand is verboten to discuss the FBI and USSS as co-opted by the Democrats, but just floating out there that the FBI already knows everything the whistleblower on Joe and Hunter put out. They do not care beyond when it comes to protection, they extend that word and role of protection into protecting Biden’s from being caught in a scandal. For example the USSS whose volunteer program went and retrieved a gun they knew drug addicted Hunter was not legally able to possess because Hunter had lied on his gun purchase paperwork. The USSS also had to know that Hunter was diddling around with a young niece and looked the other way, so no, the FBI and USSS are not going to speak up on financial impropriety.
steveg (59f0ed) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:43 pmWhataboutisms are also verboten but am of the opinion the if this was DJT jr. no stone would be left unturned
Sagan sure nailed it!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqJKJjGNlCy/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:50 pmI was responding to your characterization that Perry’s social media posts were “years prior to the incident,” which is demonstrably untrue.
While the posts weren’t used at trial, they will be used at his sentencing:
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:54 pmLink to quote in post 112.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:57 pmIf the guy pointed a gun at Perry’s head in a threatening manner, he got what he should’ve expected.
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 12:58 pmWeird how a gaffe prone, venal Biden has not been Vindmanned or had call transcripts leaked to the media that have made the front page above the fold. No one seems to have leaked the info needed to file a precise FOIA request. Maybe Biden is indeed a paragon of virtue, all that is true and good and at his worst is simply a doddering old fool (under an almost complete media blackout about his condition) a doddering old fool who is most aware of the upcoming date of his weekly scoop of ice cream and the media limits questions to what flavor.
One of the interesting things about the WH press briefings is how the WH PR team answers or does not answer questions. It is clear when they are uncomfortable with certain lines of questioning, but the press largely ignores that there is a story under that misdirection or outright lie. Seasoned journalist, bright lawyers who have spent decades sniffing out lies suddenly have no further questions and seem to willfully suspend disbelief; going beyond that and scolding the reporter who dared make the WH mouthpiece uncomfortable even though the reverse was true when George W. Bush was President. They even coined a phrase that belongs on all their gravestones “Fake but Accurate”
steveg (59f0ed) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:08 pmBiden gone by year’s end. You read it here…
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:11 pm“According to them, everyone they disagree with is a Nazi. Do you agree?”
You have Antifa on the brain. Do you think that Garret Foster, the man Perry shot, was Antifa?
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:12 pmIn 2021, as the US recovered from the COVID recession the value of US manufacturing reached an all-time high of approximately $2.5 trillion.
Continuous productivity gains has meant that we are doing that with fewer workers — and, if we want to be richer, that decline is nearly inevitable.
About a century ago, farmers made up about half the work force. Now, we produce far more food, with fewer workers. As someone who grew upon a farm, I can tell you that the loss of farmers was hard on many. But it has made possible an enormous gain in wealth as farmers, and their sons and daughters found other kinds of work.
(Could our manufacturing policies have been better, and saved some of the jobs that were lost? Absolutely. Even Obama seemed to recognize that when he told the ChiComs to stop stealing our intellectual property. Spoiler: They haven’t.)
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:18 pmUnsealed court filing detailing Daniel Perry’s social media posts.
Rip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:18 pm“If the guy pointed a gun at Perry’s head in a threatening manner, he got what he should’ve expected.”
No he didn’t
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:20 pmFrom the same source that claimed Martin Sheen had died……..
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:22 pm“I believe he was going to aim it at me … I didn’t want to give him a chance to aim at me”
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:23 pmI’ll put the Biden prediction up against any of your 26,069 copy pastas, rip!
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:27 pmIt’s possible. But I think if that happens the Democrats will have a free for all primary, with Kamala Harris losing. They could also end up with an open convention and/or draft someone who didn’t run in primaries (Newsom?).
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:29 pmLaw enforcement saw no crime committed by Perry, Cthulhu. That the Soros-funded DA would choose to prosecute is not surprising.
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:30 pm124… I dunno… but what does AP tell ya, rip?
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:31 pmhttps://babylonbee.com/news/budweiser-replaces-clydesdales-with-cows-dressed-as-horses
Colonel Haiku (f29103) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:33 pm@125, jury didn’t see self defense. Read Rob’s link. It explains the guilty verdict very well.
Time123 (84b82a) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:33 pmWhat made you think Martin Sheen had died?
At least what I post have numbers to back them up, and/or come from named sources, as opposed to a tweeter hiding behind a screen name.
Rip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:34 pmSince AP reports on what happened, and doesn’t report on something that is highly speculative, I have no idea.
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:37 pm“Law enforcement saw no crime committed by Perry, Cthulhu. That the Soros-funded DA would choose to prosecute is not surprising.”
The jury did, and they’re the ones who count.
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:38 pmLaw enforcement, whether local cops or the FBI, don’t get to decide whether a crime should be prosecuted. If someone is arrested, then it’s either the local DA or the DOJ who decides if there is a case.
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:42 pmHmmm…
Teixeira did describe Putin’s War Against Ukraine as Bears v. Pigs, the former being Not An Insult of the Russians and the latter being Not A Compliment of the Ukrainians.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/15/2023 @ 1:53 pmWhat happened to Twitter!!!
/sarc
https://www.reddit.com/r/walkaway/comments/12kpc5r/looks_like_twitter_actually_is_full_of_hate_speech/
Colonel Haiku (dcf9ad) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:03 pmThe very same person says:
“You slander me yet again with your words. I have not spoken in support of MTG…”
Then says:
“She votes the way I support and speaks out against the left [and] also sponsors bills that protect our children.”
Which sounds like support, but let’s ask him and find out. So Dana does:
“How/where did I slander you yet again? You just said you support her views and that she speaks out against the left (which you do as well).”
Sure enough:
“Yes. As I support anyone who speaks out against the left. Their views are harmful to our nation.”
I think it is fair to summarize NJRob’s position here as: “Dana has slandered me by saying I support Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom I support.”
My ruling: it is not slander to attribute to a person an opinion which they themselves have expressed.
If being seen as a victim is important to you, NJRob, then 1) why? and 2) you’re going to have to make a more coherent case than this.
I’d prefer that my valued co-bloggers not be accused of “slander” without ironclad evidence, which I suspect you cannot amass.
Patterico (f1aff5) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:05 pm“ Has your stock portfolio improved?
Are interest rates down so you can better afford a home?
How about inflation? Do your groceries cost less?
Do you pay less for gas at the pumps or for electricity/gas to heat your home?
Are we spending less money to engage in proxy wars?
Is the military better prepared to face potential threats?
Is speech more open and less censored?
Are schools and universities doing a better job of educating children?
Can you name a single thing that has improved under the current administration?
Please, enlighten me.”
Colonel Haiku (dcf9ad) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:05 pm#136 Here’s a bunch.
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:15 pmPatterico,
I mentioned and quoted the section I took issue to. It had nothing to do with my remarks nor with Republicans, MAGA or otherwise, but is a direct talking point of the left. To be tied into the same grouping with the supremacists which had zero bearing on our conversation was my issue.
They have no relevancy on the Republican party unlike the supremacists on the left who are welcomed and rewarded with positions and influence.
Nick Fuentes is not a kingmaker. He is a joke.
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:16 pmI still don’t see anyone other than Time that was even willing to answer my question amount abusing children and MTG’s bill banning the practice.
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:17 pmI support my policies being advanced. I can separate the policy from the person.
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:18 pmThe Biden administration is doing a terrible job. Even if your policy preferences align with theirs they’re hard to defend. If (like me)you don’t support many of their goals they look like a complete mess
Time123 (a9de35) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:26 pmPlease release post 141, it’s an obituary for cinematographer Bill Butler. Can’t imagine why it’s in moderation.
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:27 pmCan someone point me to the place in the article on Thomas that shows that Thomas personally benefited $1,000 or more from the sale of property? The article left me with questions.
steveg (59f0ed) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:29 pmDid they check to make sure Justice Thomas didn’t have his family keep all the money from the sales?
Did they look at the the final closing statement?
How was the joint ownership structured? 1/3 each or?
Did Crow purchase property at the neighborhood average or over?
If I co-owned property with my 94 year old mother and the family of my dead brother, I’d let them keep 1/2 each of all the proceeds of the sales $61,500 each and my signature would be on it. However, I’d have already produced documents that prove it and would tell Pro Publica to shove it up their ass… but Thomas has not done so….. and that leads to other questions
Fuentes views are shared by MTG and very welcome in mainstream republican thought, provided you keep the outright slurs to a minimum.
Time123 (731c34) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:32 pmRIP Dame Mary Quant (93). Fashion designer of the miniskirt and other clothes that epitomized the swinging ‘60s in London.
Rip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:34 pmLies Time.
NJRob (56aedd) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:34 pmVivek Ramaswamy Torches DeSantis and Darling Nikki:
Rip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 2:52 pm^ Real nice, now the goombas can pull the limbs that the cartel dudes leave on the trunk.
urbanleftbehind (bfb1b2) — 4/15/2023 @ 3:29 pmHas your stock portfolio improved?
My defense and energy stocks are doing just fine.
Are interest rates down so you can better afford a home?
Already own, not looking
How about inflation? Do your groceries cost less?
I don’t really track prices, I can absorb the price increases.
Do you pay less for gas at the pumps or for electricity/gas to heat your home?
I have two Teslas and and my home is solar powered, so I don’t pay at all.
Rip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 3:45 pmThe jury did, and they’re the ones who count.
A good DA can convict a ham sandwich.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 4:11 pmRip Murdock (490109) — 4/15/2023 @ 3:45 pm
Shorter: “I’m all right, Jack!”
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 4:15 pm@141 The alternative was trump. (I voted green party) Democrats held their nose and voted for biden even many who would not hold their nose and vote for clinton. Unbelievably some establishment democrats liked him! On a lighter note Over at DU they have become super patriotic law and order national security hawks attacking the leaker as a traitor! While the right has taken jane fonda’s place on the anti-aircraft gun as anti-war peace freaks defending the leaker as a patriot! I remember when democrats praised the leaker of the pentagon papers and republicans called it treason! Normally democrats defend leakers from then all the way to adam schiff and republicans call them traitors. I Give MTG/tucker carlson the jane fonda anti-war peace freak award!
asset (f94397) — 4/15/2023 @ 4:23 pm@150 Did you complain that a good grand jury prosecutor could convict a ham sandwich if it was a person you didn’t like or disagreed with? ( I tried too ;but didn’t always succeed:) The grand jury system needs to be altered or abolished as justice is seldom served by the way it is run.
asset (f94397) — 4/15/2023 @ 4:29 pmThe grand jury system needs to be altered or abolished as justice is seldom served by the way it is run.
It’s one of those “terrible, but better than all the other systems” things. All a grand jury does is attempt to filter out weak cases, but a prosecutor can make a weak case seem strong.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 4:52 pm“I think it is fair to summarize NJRob’s position here as: “Dana has slandered me by saying I support Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom I support.””
I think I just pee’d in my pants. Yes, there it is.
AJ_Liberty (8114a6) — 4/15/2023 @ 5:28 pmThe grand jury in America is older than the United States:
The grand jury is a constitutional requirement, it’s the first sentence of the Fifth Amendment:
Source
Paragraph breaks added. Footnotes omitted.
It’s not going anywhere.
Rip Murdock (892d5c) — 4/15/2023 @ 5:38 pmWhy would Marge agree to speak at Fuentes’ white nationalist event if she disagreed with his views?
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/15/2023 @ 5:43 pmAJ that is easy. I support the 1-20% I get that I agree with vs. the 100% I’d disagree with from the opponent. That was the calculation that I went with Trump vs Hillary Clinton. I don’t want to hear about rule of law because Hillary was crystal clear that as a Democrat and a Clinton, the rule of law was going to be what she said it was.
steveg (59f0ed) — 4/15/2023 @ 6:08 pmI have no control at all over MTG, but am happy when she stumbles into something helpful. I had a vote Trump vs. Hillary, which to be fair, was Dud#1 vs Dud #2. I came to the conclusion that Hillary was a #2 and would never deliver anything useful to my agenda, but would deliver plenty that was contradictory. That did not mean Trump was not a #2, he just had to be marginally better than Hillary on policy. Trumps judicial choices alone pushed him out over the #2 #2 which vindicated my choice in my eyes because anyone can figure out the type Hillary would have picked. Plus its great to think that the #2 #2 still drinks herself to sleep every night carrying the burden of losing to a Trump size #2. If I were her, I’d blame the Russians too, a lie to myself that would decrease the mental and emotional burden
The same reason Trump would have dinner with Ye and Fuentes. It’s a (pretty obvious) signal to their constituency that MTG and Trump want their support.
I don’t believe either of them when they say they were unaware or didn’t know what Nick Fuentes or Ye represents.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/15/2023 @ 6:48 pmIt’s All a Conspiracy…….
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/15/2023 @ 6:58 pmThe Military/Industrial/Congressional Complex
Free link.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/15/2023 @ 7:28 pmI’m confident the Ukrainian pilots are well aware of the risks of flying an A10 in contested airspace. If they still want to give it a try, let them do it. Maybe they will fail, or maybe they will pioneer some new way of making them work in a modern contested environment
steveg (59f0ed) — 4/15/2023 @ 8:49 pm@156 Then alter it by having a defense lawyer ask questions that jurors might not know to ask.
asset (4b2ee5) — 4/15/2023 @ 9:49 pmSome defense analysts and former U.S. officials have urged the Biden administration to send A-10s to Kyiv, but others say the planes wouldn’t last against Russian air defenses, and the Ukrainians would need extensive training and support to fly them.
I’m sure some civilian volunteers could be found here in the USA. It’s what we did in the past.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:38 pmThen alter it by having a defense lawyer ask questions that jurors might not know to ask.
No, because that lets the fox inside the coop. Instead, require that any exculpatory information be presented, on pain of misconduct.
Kevin M (1ea396) — 4/15/2023 @ 10:40 pm165 wrong not the defendants lawyer ;but a court appointed defense lawyer for each case who would be asking questions the jurors may not know to ask.
asset (4b2ee5) — 4/16/2023 @ 12:26 am@158: “AJ that is easy. I support the 1-20% I get that I agree with vs. the 100% I’d disagree with from the opponent.”
steveg, I’m not sure at all what this is in response to. I think I’ve only made comment @155, about peeing because patterico made a funny.
But I’d like to comment on choosing between two #2’s, which has been the case in 2016 and 2020. For me, the threshold question is whether the person is minimally qualified to be the head of the Executive Branch, which is an awesome responsibility. In the Senate, you are 1 of 100; the House, 1 of 435; the Supreme Court, 1 of 9. Only with the Presidency is there no dilution.
I don’t think Mr. Trump ever was qualified, so I disagree with a whole bunch of Republicans. Now you can argue that he ran a large corporation and executed a national campaign…and took positions (or sorts)…..and that you are not just voting for one individual, but a whole collection of individuals who will direct agencies, execute policy, and provide guidance to the President — you are voting for Republican governance.
I do get that, but just think that most of Trump’s pre-Presidency experience was largely irrelevant to the job and that thoughtful advisors can be bypassed or discarded by a President operating on his own agenda. I do understand 2016 was different than 2020 (and even more so than 2024). In 2016, you just didn’t really know how Trump would govern and there were enough competent people around him that it was reasonable to believe that “Republican governance” could compensate for clear deficiencies and constrain any irresponsible impulses. I get it, and in some ways, we saw that play out with Kelly, Tillerson, Mattis, Pompeo, Pence, et al checking some of Trump’s less rational ponderings.
But we have to review the totality of the “outsider” Presidency. We did get conservative justices and the repeal of Roe, which included sticking with Kavanaugh and having the audacity to nominate Coney Barrett. We got a better business regulatory environment and a re-balancing of energy policy. But how much was Trump, how much was Pence at al, and was Trump a net positve or negative in executing “Republican governance”?
I fear going down a policy checklist misses what Trump’s teammates were saying about Trump and his lack of attention to detail, lack of knowledge, lack of discipline, and his weird fascination with things. It’s disturbing how many past cabinet members and advisors would not support him for President again. January 6th should be a bright blinking light that there’s something not right with Mr. Trump, as he sat and watched his supporters lay siege to the Capitol….and did nothing, while maintaining a meme that his own attorney general rejected as complete BS.
So in my eyes, we now have 50% of polled Republicans saying that they are OK with supporting a candidate who has something wrong with him, that wants to try and pull us out of NATO, S. Korea, and Africa and maintains a weird submission to Russian interests. When a crisis erupts, do we really want someone somewhat unbalanced with his finger near the button or speaking for the country? Sure, maybe we can aford it with smooth sailing, but the world is anything but smooth. It ought to frighten the hell out of you to have someone confused about reality who might need to deal with Russia’s next provocative move or China pressing toward invading Taiwan…or the next pandemic…or energy crisis.
That’s why we can’t be ok with an election between two #2’s. We have to pull in a 3rd candidate that is NOT a #2. That’s what responsible people do. We should never settle for deluded or incompetent….and voting for the less deluded or slightly less incompetent perpetuates the problem. We need to fight for our democracy and not just throw up our hands and accept mumblers or sociopaths.
AJ_Liberty (8114a6) — 4/16/2023 @ 4:10 amHey AJ,
do you support MTG’s bill and goal to ban sex change surgeries, castration and sterilization of children?
Yes or no?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/16/2023 @ 4:23 amΧΡΗΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!
Christ has Risen from among the Dead,
nk (705d49) — 4/16/2023 @ 4:55 amTrampling Death with Death,
And to those Entombed,
He has Granted Life.
— Resurrection Hymn, Irene Pappas & Vangelis
@168, if her bill was just limited to surgeries, I might say yes. Otherwise, I tend to be with Asa Hutchinson (R) who vetoed a similar overly broad Arkansas bill
https://apnews.com/article/arkansas-legislature-us-news-legislation-asa-hutchinson-83d07a502678f9745bb00f91aa4865f6
As a conservative, I also honestly question the appropriateness and constitutional authority for the U.S. Congress to ban a broad range of treatement therapies that most medical associations have approved/endorsed. Again, I understand where we are at with the commerce clause authorizing such intrusions, I just tend to not accept that this is a good development.
AJ_Liberty (8114a6) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:35 amSo that’s a no.
NJRob (aeef63) — 4/16/2023 @ 6:24 amI mentioned upthread about the “Donbass Devuskka”, and it turns out she was active duty US Navy until last November. While active duty, she was a pro-Russian propagandist who contributed to Russian media. Post-Navy, she released doctored Teixeira documents on her Telegram channel. More here.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 6:27 amAJ,
From your link:
All of these “treatments” cause lifelong changes. The entire panoply mocks the idea of “age of consent.” These are children, and the treatment they need is psychological, not medical. Except in a situation where a birth defect has cause physical gender ambiguity, there is no call for surgery.
Puberty blockers and hormone therapy are not universally accepted, however. Links below from Wikipedia, to avoid political sites.
Puberty blockers, which are used here to delay puberty until much later in adolescence, often to adulthood. But this use is not FDA approved.
It is not unreasonable for state laws to prevent use of unapproved drugs on children.
Hormone Therapy as gender-affirming care is more widely accepted. But safety is again an issue…
See also tables of risk factors at the link above which include things like early-onset Type II diabetes.
Again, state laws preventing the gaming of children’s endocrine systems in dangerous and sometimes irreversible ways are hardly beyond the pale. One does not have to be a political wingnut warrior to find these practices disturbing.
Calling this “gender-affirming care” is like calling abortion “medical care.”
(I lament the lack of a preview in advance)
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:11 amStupid German government. What are they thinking?
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:21 amWe are just now learning about the incredible complexity and interlinking of the body’s control systems. But of this control is done by hormones that serve multiple purposes (and indeed, most of the body’s systems serve multiple purposes).
Subverting entire control systems, such as shoving high doses of estrogen into a male body that is otherwise unprepared, may have some desired effects, but those effects are complex and generally poorly understood. This is a 50 year old therapy for menopausal women, and used here in a brute-force manner.
It is really irresponsible, at Tuskegee levels, to practice this brute-force therapy on pubescent children. NATURAL hormones are disturbing enough at that age, adding this kludge of a hack on top is crazy. It should be banned.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:26 am*
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:27 amBut of[T]his control@175, why do you think the AMA and APA may disagree with you? Do you feel you have a deep understanding of the topic and are trying to read more to understand the other side? There is evil in the world and there are well-educated people who can be wrong….but why should you be the last say on how someone’s kid gets treated for a complex condition? How confident are you that your opinion should purvail in all situations? Would you feel bad if someone commits suicide because their treatment is terminated?
AJ_Liberty (8114a6) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:37 amAJ,
Politics. Just like Asa’s cowardly actions that were thankfully overridden.
This is devastating child abuse no different than the genital mutilation done in muslim countries.
The same medical field used to claim eugenics was a valid field and some races were mongrels.
No thanks.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:44 am@177: The FDA does not approve long-term use of puberty-blockers in anyone, let alone children. Why do you suppose that a few providers suggest this off-label use?
As for the (corrupt and political) AMA, I doubt they themselves will face the inevitable liability suits. Then again, maybe, considering the various bankrupt Catholic dioceses. I wonder how many of its Board actually risk these suits themselves.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:12 amBut, AJ, I am not opining MY understanding. I am quoting from Wikipedia, which if not totally objective has never been accused of being a Trumpist site.
These treatments are reckless and the state has every right to regulate them, or to block them entirely. The arguments in favor of them are largely not medical ones.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:19 amMichael Shellenberger showed, to my satisfaction, that anti-nuclear causes in the US have sometimes been financed by men with investments in fossil fuels. I have read that the Russians financed “Green” movements in eastern Europe, presumably for similar reasons.
I wonder if something similar could be happening in Germany.
Chancellor Merkel’s switch on nuclear power puzzles me in one way. Her advanced degree is in quantum chemistry, which makes her next door to being a nuclear physicist, and qualifies her to understand the technical issues.
And doesn’t puzzle me in another. I think she was tempted by all those Green votes.
(I don’t believe she has given a real interview since her resignation.)
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:31 amDid you know that the inventor of the prefrontal lobotomy won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1949? That gave the operation credibility and by 1951 20,000 lobotomys had been performed in the United States. A few years later the procedure was largely abandoned due to the poor results. It “cured” schizophrenia by inflicting severe and irreversible brain damage.
The 20th century was rife with medical fads. Heroin as a cough suppressant. Delivering babies with forceps. Antibiotics for the what-ails-you. Sterilization of promiscuous women. “Diet pills.” The list is endless. All of these had professional acceptance for a while. Mostly attributable to what patients demanded and/or social constraints on care.
What matters is the science. Why has the FDA not approved these uses? Probably waiting a political change at the top.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:39 amChancellor Merkel’s switch on nuclear power puzzles me in one way. Her advanced degree is in quantum chemistry, which makes her next door to being a nuclear physicist, and qualifies her to understand the technical issues.
I quibble about that last part, as the technical issues are largely engineering, not chemistry or physics. In many respects there is not a huge cross-section either.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:42 amThe SNL Weekend Update was pretty good, especially the line about Biden being so Irish that he can slur his words without any alcohol.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:45 amAmazon’s Alexa system was non-functional for hours this morning. Echo devices would “wake” but immediately go back to sleep without responding to voice commands. Fixed now, but a lot of people had to learn how where their light switches were again. The horrors.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:54 amBiden being so Irish that he can slur his words without any alcohol.
Old AA joke:
Newly-sober person wears T-shirt that says “Instant Assh0le. Just add alcohol”
Oldtimer sees it and asks: “What makes you think you need alcohol?”
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:56 amDoes this mean that Trump is Irish? He can act like a barroom drunk without any booze at all.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 9:58 amGiven it would take about a year of training Ukrainian pilots to fly, it’s a pretty pointless exercise.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 10:32 amGlenn Youngkin is Out:
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 10:40 amFrom the AMA https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-states-stop-interfering-health-care-transgender-children
Now I don’t know what to do with all of that. My initial reaction is like many of your’s, this sounds tragic on many levels and that “therapy” should be conservative until the individual is old enough to maturely accept the consequences. But I also have to acknowledge not knowing anyone suffering from gender dysphoria or understanding the underlying research. I don’t know families struggling with the issues, including suicidal ideation. I sure would not want a child to die because the issue gets caught up in the culture war. I’m also suspicious that the increase in cases might represent a curiosity induced because of so much media attention — could it be a new way to act out and gain attention?
Still, it’s reasonable to ask what is the role of government, both federal and state, in regulating personal health care? On one hand, we don’t trust the government’s vaccinations but on the other we trust democracy to assign the best rules for unique psychiatric care. I kind of like leaving it to the laboratories of democracy to see what is best….and I like states to err on the side of best practices as we understand them. I fear broad-tailored bans are fundamentally based on politics and hot-takes rather than genuine compassion. How many suicides are worth handing it to the libs?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:12 amThe Haleys covering a lot of bases, just in cas
urbanleftbehind (aedbaa) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:17 amNo concern about the larger point of article that Congress is mandating retention of legacy weapon systems solely to provide jobs to their constituents, to the detriment of taxpayers and modernization of the military to confront China?
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:19 amWould you feel bad if someone commits suicide because their treatment is terminated?
Would I feel bad? Probably. Would that change my mind? No. I also don’t see the shooting of a child as grounds for general gun control.
Let me turn this back on your, though. Would you feel bad because a boy, at age 18, decides he doesn’t really want to be a girl, but doctors tell him that his penis will always be 1 inch long due to the long-term effect of puberty blockers and his time for choice has passed? THEN he kills himself?
All because of a social and medical fad.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:32 amDana, as always I appreciate these weekend posts, but the Twitter links render slowly and the comment section jerks uncontrollably for a good minute after each comment posts and they render yet again on the page refresh.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:34 amNo concern about the larger point of article that Congress is mandating retention of legacy weapon systems solely to provide jobs to their constituents, to the detriment of taxpayers and modernization of the military to confront China?
The A-10 was largely cancelled to provide an addition claimed use for the F-35, even though no one is ever going to use an F-35 in close combat support where it could get hit by man-portable weapons.
The A-10 wasn’t being cancelled because the military didn’t want it — the Arm=y would have loved them, but the Air Force, which has a monopoly on fixed-wing aircraft, didn’t want them. It is no coincidence that AF women were flying them in combat.
But whatever. If you truly think they should be gone, give the working ones and parts to the Ukrainians. Let them figure out the pilot issues. I’m going to bet that a lot of retired US pilots would be willing to give it a go if the government didn’t stop them.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:40 amThe Haleys covering a lot of bases, just in case
I really don’t think they arranged all this to help the campaign. And it is not clear that it will help them in the South.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:44 amTransgender individuals are up to three times more likely than the general population to report or be diagnosed with mental health disorders…
Tautologies are often unconvincing.
But I also have to acknowledge not knowing anyone suffering from gender dysphoria or understanding the underlying research
I have a transgender nephew, um, niece. She is not doing all that well and the meth addiction which seems to have preceded this declaration is probably not helping. I don’t think that it is really gender-affirming care she needs as much as she needs to stop using meth and getting her head clear. Sadly, her father has been unwilling to deal (and has his own problems), and the rest of the family does not seem inclined to take in a meth head of whatever gender.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:51 amRip
So you are saying if we’d seen the light a year ago, the Ukrainians would be flying A10’s now?
You have to remember I live in CA. For example I’ve heard every reason why we don’t build new reservoirs but the favorite is some version of “even if we were to start today, it would take at least___ years.” Which is just an excuse, mixed with a brush off, not an explanation.
Also, if you don’t think this fight is going to last in one form or another for more than another year, you are delusional. Even if Ukraine can somehow manufacture a decisive victory, reclaiming the Donbas and Crimea, Russia will keep trying. They may need to wait a few years, rebuild, get sanctions lifted, but they’ll be back
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:53 amRip
Apologies for using the word delusional. You are not, and I could have used a better word
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:56 amI know you’re fixated on A-10, but you didn’t respond to larger question raised in the article (the link to which is free so you can read it) about Congressional interference in military modernization decisions regarding obsolete weapon systems. The point is (using the A-10 as an example) Congress has forced the AF to spend $4B over last ten years on an aircraft it doesn’t think can survive in today’s anti-aircraft missile environment.
Your claim that “no one is ever going to use an F-35 in close combat support” applies equally to the A-10.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:57 amAgain, your assumption is that the doctors are flying blind and caught up in a fad, whereas the opponents, some with a wiki-level understanding, are more noble and well informed. I trust the people closest to the situation and the most invested to make hard decisions. That tends to be parents and their trusted physicians. Parents know their kids best and have the most interest in doing what’s best, including looking out for 1-inch penises. There’s a presumption here that liberal parents are experimenting on their poor kids and must be stopped. I tend to distrust such broad sweeping memes as just being politically motivated, though obviously there can be some of that.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 4/16/2023 @ 11:58 amNo-I’m saying the A-10 is not the aircraft for the Ukrainians for the same reasons that the USAF doesn’t want them. Neither believe the plane could survive the current Russian anti-aircraft environment. The F-16 Viper and F-35 will take over the close air support role, and their avionics will allow them to operate without getting as close to the ground as the A-10.
Which is why the Ukrainians are begging for the F-16 and not the A-10.
I’ve been called worse than “delusional”-no harm, no foul.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 12:45 pmThe fingers ad does not show footage of the real DeSantis. It is based on a 2019 story about what DeSantis supposedly did once on a private plane.
Sammy Finkelman (170eb5) — 4/16/2023 @ 12:46 pmI don’t believe itt would have been legal for Donald Trump to greenlight that ad. More likely, someone who left his staff. T
It’s by a PAC, which is not allowed to co-ordinate wit the candidate or the candidate’s committee.
Of course, it is an anti-DeSantis ad that doesn’t meantion any election – purely an issue ad.
Sammy Finkelman (170eb5) — 4/16/2023 @ 12:51 pmA friendly warning to the GOP from Georgia:
https://kdhnews.com/news/politics/kemp-makes-case-for-anyone-but-trump-in-2024/article_2908d3a9-55c8-5bee-a938-d06219606282.html
Appalled (b24426) — 4/16/2023 @ 1:10 pm133. That’s the WSJ article I read. So I think the member(s) of the group who are in Ukraine are fighting, or pretending to be fighting, with the Wagner Group.
Lucca, the member who posted the photos to another Discord group in early March, from which it was in turn copied to a forum that dealt with Minecraft also bought some stuff from someone with the Russians in Ukraine.
The person who described himself as evil (for his comments in the original forum) must have had a real basis for that.
Teixeira must have been the one who deleted the original forum. He stayed in contact with the members by telephone. ‘
His handle was identified, and billing records revealed his name.
Ukraine is not fighting a united enemy,
Sammy Finkelman (170eb5) — 4/16/2023 @ 1:22 pmRip, to continue the conversation on the A10 and Ukraine.
I think it is safe to say the subgroup in the DoD that wants the A10 around is the infantry and they are agnostic to how they get air to ground support but tend to lean towards the A10 because there are some younger generals and such who had their butts saved by one.
We may not agree about my above thoughts, but we agree that the DoD thinks the A10 is obsolete.
I think we can agree that the Ukrainians have seen the hundreds if not thousands of published Pentagon PR that contains all of the reasons why the USAF and Pentagon want to scrap the A10, and the Ukrainians (and the entire world of warfighters) are well educated about how the Pentagon feels about operating A10 in a contested environment.
But the Ukrainians still want them, the Pentagon does not want them, so what is the problem? Maybe A10 upgrades contain secret stuff…? Then say so. Strip it out and bill it to the Biden Ukraine war account
I think the absolute worst outcome for the USAF is innovative use of the A10 by Ukraine and the USAF gets stuck with A10, or even worse than my absolute worst is if Ukraine innovates and the USAF finds out the US Army Aviation Branch is trying to take over flying the A10
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:02 pmFuzzy Math:
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:05 pmI think it’s safe to say that the next war (defending Taiwan) won’t involve a lot of infantry but carriers, missiles, and cyber attacks.
Unless the administration does a 180, Ukraine will never see A-10s. And as noted above, the Ukrainians want the F-16, not the A-10.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:12 pmI know you’re fixated on A-10, but you didn’t respond to larger question raised in the article (the link to which is free so you can read it) about Congressional interference in military modernization decisions regarding obsolete weapon systems.
I didn’t respond to that because it has been going on since the Mexican War and is not ever going to change. Do not use this against the A-10 because the exact same thing is true of the F-35 and who got contracts there.
The problem is that all those advanced systems are NFG for the infantry, The Air Force won’t let the Army get a fix-wing aircraft for that purpose, but won’t develop another flying tank themselves. Trying to blame this back to procurement isn’t persuasive.
And you still don’t explain why the Ukrainians can’t have them. As steveg suggests, their main problem seems to be fear of bureaucratic embarrassment.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:13 pmWhy the US’s A-10 Warthog just isn’t the right jet for the war Ukraine is fighting
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:14 pmThe more the press, Trump, the neverTrump turned never GOP, hit at DeSantis the more I start to realize this guy DeSantis is really ruffling the feathers of everyone I don’t want running the country, so they must know more than I do about how great DeSantis is.
I’d characterize it as a bunch of barking seals on an iceberg suddenly launching into the water because the killer whale is scaring them.
I could be wrong, but I’ve also got 15-16 months to be entertained by the barking mad seals.
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:14 pmAJ,
Please explain to me then, why, if this is all just disinformation and stupid opponents, why the FDA is not approving these therapies?
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:18 pmhttps://www.realcleardefense.com/2023/01/03/ukraine_asked_us_for_100_a-10_warthogs_to_fight_russians_873472.html
This article said that Ukraine asked for 100 A10’s. I would agree that they’d rather have f16’s
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:34 pmThe Donbass Devushka story was picked up by the WSJ. If you want to know how the classified intel that Teixeira stole became so widespread, point your finger at this anti-American scuzbag.
Here’s some more about her propagandizing for Putin.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:38 pmWhy the US’s A-10 Warthog just isn’t the right jet for the war Ukraine is fighting
Why do you care if you want it gone?
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:39 pm1. If we gave A-10s without any training and told them to “figure it out on their own” they would lose more of the limited number of pilots due to non-combat crashes.
2. If the Air Force were to train the Ukrainians it would take at least a year, removing those pilots from flying combat missions against the Russians.
3. A-10s are highly vulnerable to current surface to air missile threats. The reason the aircraft succeeded in Iraq and Afghanistan is that the air space was dominated by the US. No one controls the air battlefield over Ukraine.
4. Unless directed by Congress, the Administration is unlikely to change its mind.
5. The Ukrainians don’t want them:
The only way A-10s can be successfully used in Ukraine right now is have to American pilots fly them; but of course the aircraft would still be vulnerable to Russian anti-aircraft systems.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:49 pmMost of the 100 A-10s the Ukrainians identified are on concrete blocks:
See also my original post, with photos of stripped planes.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 2:58 pmLooks like DeSantis struck back, not a good strike, but a strike.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 3:20 pmThe Ukrainians and Neo-Soviets both use the very capable, very durable Su25 as close air support. There is plenty of video out there showing Su25’s eating stinger type anti air in one of its two engines and flying home. For reasons the USAF would never allow, Ukraine can still fly Su25 in close air support against neo Soviet positions. So the airspace is contested, but the Ukraine has not lost all its Su25’s. That isn’t true, Ukraine had 17 operational at the beginning of the 2022, has lost 22. They also received “spare parts” from various places which added 14. So the Ukrainians have about 9 left.
The story on those “spare parts” is teams went into Hungary, Georgia and maybe a couple other places, disassembled Su25’s and then reassembled them after transport. Side story. The US did that for Great Britain before entering into in WWII, except the US took everything up to a field on the Canadian border and the Canadians using horse for muscle, hauled them across the border into Canada and then shipped them to Great Britain.
I think if A-10s had been trained for and now delivered, they would have played a big role in close air support during the upcoming counter-offense, and yes, they would lose a lot of them because without f16’s the air space is not contested enough. I would imagine the Ukrainian would use any aircraft as an innovative guerilla air force.
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 3:23 pmIn addition to the Air Force ground support options, regarding close air support, the Army has its own air force –helicopters.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 3:26 pmWell, I am fairly certain, Ukraine always asks for more than they think they are going to get. Of course they ask for 100, maybe get 10-20. The Ukrainians started the war with 17 close air support planes so 10-20 A10 would give them a big bump in capability.
it is kind of odd the USAF and Pentagon are being so stingy about a plane they do not to want, its obsolete, yada yada yada yada, yet they can’t scrape up 10.
I’m going to switch topics: wonderful news from Sudan! I realize, civil war in Africa: yawn. Much more rare to have there not to be a civil war in Africa, but this isn’t shaping up as a global summer of love
steveg (ebd080) — 4/16/2023 @ 3:36 pmFemales in the Russian military who’ve been sexually assaulted are known as “field wives“. That’s quite the euphemism.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/16/2023 @ 3:47 pmLooks like DeSantis struck back, not a good strike, but a strike.
Strictly speaking, that’s a PAC ad. If DeSantis has anything to do with it, it would be a campaign finance violation. Which I am sure he is taking pains to avoid.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:05 pmSo, Rip, your answer is to pat the little Ukrainians on the head and tell them it’s no good for them and they should eat their broccoli. This from a country that told Zelensky he was going to lose in 3 days.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:08 pmLooks like DeSantis struck back, not a good strike, but a strike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91g1SNy2I8&t=7s
DCSCA (408b62) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:18 pmSince Ukrainians themselves don’t want the A-10, why force it upon them?
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:29 pmThe only people who want the Ukrainians to have the A-10s are Americans-not Ukrainians. I’m all for giving them F-16s and more sophisticated weapons. But giving the Ukrainians something that will fail to help them is not a solution.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:32 pmRIP jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal (92).
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:35 pmSince Ukrainians themselves don’t want the A-10, why force it upon them?
You keep quoting ONE GUY. That’s not the same as “Ukraine.” I bet you $1000 against a jelly donut that they would take them if offered.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:36 pmRip,
I know we have a longstanding debate about Trump vs DeSantis vs ?, with you claiming “?” is the empty set. I see Youngkin is out, and I expect that Pence will be out soon, being hated by both fish and fowl.
So, we have left for the third candidate spot (for the many Rpublicans who are unhappy with Trump v DeSantis) Haley, Scott and Hutchinson. I think that Hutchinson’s (overridden) veto is a deal-breaker. I think that Haley’s campaign so far has been a colossal dud. Although she did raise $10 million in the first month, she has not caught fire.
But Tim Scott. My reaction to his opening, after knowing nothing about him, was quite positive. Right now he has nearly zero visibility, both in name recognition or policy. That’s OK, as I’d think less of him if he grandstanded a lot (a criticism of DeSantis), but he is capable of a broad appeal. Right now his problem is the same as Haley’s — Trump is consuming most of the oxygen and DeSantis only gets a few breaths by referencing Trump.
BE interesting to see how this goes, but I thin #3, if there is one, is Tim Scott. Which is extra bad news for Nikki.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:48 pmRIP Sgt. Major (Ret.) Billy Waugh (93), “the Godfather of the Green Berets”:
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:53 pmHaley raised just over $8M for her presidential campaign, see here.
Right out of the gate Tim Scott has bobbled the abortion issue:
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 6:19 pmNo point in giving them an aircraft that they can’t fly. By the time they’re trained on them in it the war will be over, one way or another.
Remember, he has the gold makes the rules.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 6:27 pmI wish I had a nickel for every time I was told the “war” will be over. “I don’t know what I believe, I’ll be home by christmas eve!”
asset (5b1741) — 4/16/2023 @ 7:25 pmThey just never say what year.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 7:41 pmPublished on April 13, 1953. A first edition can cost you plenty.
Rip Murdock (b6f09f) — 4/16/2023 @ 7:55 pmLeaked Pentagon documents suggest US is pessimistic Ukraine can quickly end war against Russia
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/11/politics/pentagon-documents-ukraine-war-assessment/index.html
DCSCA (f6f56f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:10 pmChinese Spy Balloon’s Solar Panels Could Power Sophisticated Radar -Washington Post
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by the U.S. in February carried solar panels that could generate enough electricity to power a type of radar that can generate images at night and through clouds, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing leaked U.S. intelligence documents.
The balloon’s surveillance capabilities were detailed in a U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) document allegedly leaked to a Discord chatroom by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, the Post said. – https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-04-15/chinese-spy-balloons-solar-panels-could-power-sophisticated-radar-washington-post
DCSCA (f6f56f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:14 pmJames Taranto at the Wall Street Journal takes Propublica reporters to task and really puts meat on the bone regarding Justice Thomas’ reporting on the home sales:
Read the whole thing. It is not behind a paywall.
Dana (1225fc) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:15 pmBut my review of Justice Thomas’s disclosures and other documents convinces me that any failure to disclose was an honest mistake.
“Honest mistake?” So ‘ignorance of the law’ is an excuse. Even for a SCJ.
Storm the castle.
DCSCA (f6f56f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:39 pmIf this flight tomorrow morning succeeds it will open a whole new chapter in HSF– as well as human travel back to the moon and on toward Mars…
Scheduled for Apr 17, 2023
SpaceX is targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 at 8:00 a.m. CT for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas.
Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon and travel to Mars and beyond. With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship.
To date, the SpaceX team has completed multiple sub-orbital flight tests of Starship’s upper stage from Starbase, successfully demonstrating an unprecedented approach to controlled flight. These flight tests helped validate the vehicle’s design, proving Starship can fly through the subsonic phase of entry before re-lighting its engines and flipping itself to a vertical configuration for landing.
In addition to the testing of Starship’s upper stage, the team has conducted numerous tests of the Super Heavy rocket, which include the increasingly complex static fires that led to a full-duration 31 Raptor engine test – the largest number of simultaneous rocket engine ignitions in history. The team has also constructed the world’s tallest rocket launch and catch tower. At 146 meters, or nearly 500 feet tall, the launch and catch tower is designed to support vehicle integration, launch, and catch of the Super Heavy rocket booster. For the first flight test, the team will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the Super Heavy booster.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin ~45 minutes before liftoff. As is the case with all developmental testing, this schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our social media channels for updates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5QXreqOrTA
DCSCA (f6f56f) — 4/16/2023 @ 8:51 pmKevin M (f94f4f) — 4/16/2023 @ 5:48 pm
What I knew about him (besides his being a back Republican)was that , last year or so, (actually this was 3 years ago, in 2020, but I only read a column that mentioned it last year – perhaps there wass a further push) he came up with a police reform bill, that was intended to stop bad things from happening without stopping good things, and the Democrats expressed no interest in it.
https://www.scott.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/JUSTICEActText.pdf
Here’s Senator Tim Scott on a Biden executive order regarding olice work:\
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:40 amhttps://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senator-tim-scott-statement-on-bidens-policing-executive-order
240.
This was no error. This was malice.
A previous notable ProPublica “scoop” was the revelation of what was in the contents of 15 tax returns from rich people, including Bill Gates, — without mentioning that the leak to them waa violation of the first principle of IRS rules, and a felony by the original leaker.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:47 am242. Why is Elon Musk calling a vehicle that can, at best, go to Mars, a Starship ?
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:49 amWe needed leaked documents to know that?
There have been verbal leaks about this all the time.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:51 amChina ss racing ahead with elecctric cars, (and starting production of sodium instead of lithium batteries.
Some of the cars are being prodcuced for forein companies, like BASF, but the engineers are Chinese.\
Sodium batteries are bulkier than lithium batteries that can hold the same charge (which is why the first market is electricity generation storage) but the sodium batteries are much ceaper (though not as cheap andd pollution free as they could be, because China does not want to import sodium from the United States) and they don’t lose their charge in extremely cold weather.
They developed a sodium battery that can be made sing the same equipment now used to make lithium batteries.
One idea for cars is to have mixed batteries – the sodium for emergency use.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/business/china-sodium-batteries.html
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:59 amWhat are the odds that Trump will not see another indictment and that DeSantis may yet underwhelm on the national stage? There still needs to be other options who can credibly run. Worst comes to worst, they would be potential running mates for DeSantis. For Trump, I still see him running with Kari Lake. They’re perfect together. Haley at least was a governor and an ambassador. Scott’s credentials are thinner. Hutchinson is the adult in the room, which means this year will likely not be his year even if Trump and DeSantis implode.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:10 amStarship launch scrubbed. Pressurization issue in first stage.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:13 amThis was no error. This was malice.
Propublica began as a centrist organization, but is now controlled by people like Louis Henry Gates.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:17 amHutchinson is the adult in the room
Yes, but which room?
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:18 amNew York State seems to have created a new extended form of s statute of limitations and the judge whom KAthy Hchul agreed to appoint after her first nominee was defeated by the “progressives” in the State Senate signed a decision to do so.
This decision treats all prosecutors as normally aggressive.
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-judge-rowan-wilsons-injustice-on-rape-20230415-iacnkxa3xre7libz5lqsbzw2te-story.html
https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/hochuls-new-top-court-pick-freed-rapist-stunned-victim
This could harm rape victims especially, and maybe people who are being protected by law enforcement because of corruption.
This doctrine of delayed prosecution existed before, but was more limited
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:22 amThe centrists are seizing every opportunity to miss an opportunity. There is a vast political gulf between Trump and Biden, and its wider in 2024 than in 2020.
Choices:
1. A man who is campaigning on the idea of retribution. It’s not about “owning” the liberals, it’s about driving them from public life by any means necessary.
2. A man who wants to create a government-run economy with central planning and ruinous taxes on those competing with government, backed by a party unified in that desire.
We can do better.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:23 amKevin M, #249: I wish that EM spent ALL of his time on SpaceX instead of silliness on Twitter. But that’s me.
The #ElonH8 I see on social media is horrific. It’s as if no one can give the person any credit at all for leading us toward something that our current NASA sure could not have.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:24 amAnd no, I will not post quotes from movies and such.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:25 amKevin M, #253: I agree wholeheartedly. And it looks as if both Team D and Team R are more and more about statism, hypocrisy, and retribution.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:26 amTrump is most in danger of being indicted on charges of defying a subpoena/obstructing justice because he reportedly went through the papers in his possession deciding which ones (that the lawyers said complied with the subpoena?) and took out the ones he wanted to still keep. He also lied to his lawyers about something not specified.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:27 amSenator Tim Scott is basically a completely conventional Republican (and that has been impacted by Trump’s issues)
https://nypost.com/2023/04/12/our-nations-soul-put-to-the-test-we-must-fight-the-liberal-agenda
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:33 amIn her deal with the legislative super majority, snd the radical left Democrats, Kathy Hochul is amenable to trying to get a do-over of the Congressional redistricting. (which may be one reason the legislature wants its own Court of Appeals judges)
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-and-governor-hochul-urge-court-order-independent
https://nypost.com/2023/04/15/new-york-redistricting-lawsuit-could-end-gop-house-majority
They argue that the 2022 redistricting was only for that election.
Now the 2014 amendments say clearly that protecting incumbents cannot be a reasson for drawing lines.\\Hochul also tried to name a replacement for the judge getting a promotion, buut the state constitution says judges must be nominated separately, Each time she gets a list of seven names.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:42 am254, Elon Musk is alittle bit too quick to react and repeat the latest right wing meme. He was so sure that Bill Lee had been killed by a stranger (because that’s what everybody said) rather than by someone he knew, like in a Columbo story line. Apparently he thought the married Lee was interested in his sister)
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:44 amSince December or January. The Washington Post said there were altogether 300 of them (not 50 or 100 as had been widely reported)
He started by typing out paragraphs \(off a screen)
He resorted to whole documents because he was more afraid of being seen typing than of smuggling out printouts.
He did it because he could not gety them to pay attention to his information in their soeculation.
A lot of people, having no fear of prosecution and perhaps anxious to clear their reputation, talked freely to reporters and must have sent them screenshots and/or downloads..
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 6:58 amThe documents probably lasted longer online on Disord and elsewhere than theory did in the classified system because what Texeiera had access to was a system for circulating the latest current intelligence (not raw though).
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 4/17/2023 @ 7:01 am@95
I’m calling out the bad faith reporting here Dana.
As you surmised later, ProPublica isn’t going after Kaga or Sotomayor because they’re an extreme partisan outfit that everyone should question their “conclusions”.
If indeed, Thomas failed to meet some reporting requirement, then he should rectify it as soon as possible.
But the framing here by those on the left that this is so bad, that he need to step down or be impeached, is laughable.
And because this is only directed at Thomas, as stand by my “just another faux-controversy to bring down a successful conservative black man”. Really, that should be everyone’s reflective response to any attack on Thomas, until irrefutable evidence says otherwise.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:03 am@135 Pat, I do think NJRob is being a bit unfair, however…
I do think this is an unfair characterization.
Are you saying, that one cannot separate a politician’s policies from the person.
Are we only ever allowed to like a certain policy position only if we support the politician?
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:11 am@161
Hey Rip, I want to point something out.
This, is an example of a propaganda by those who wants to retire the A-10. Either by the Airforce, or F-35 lobbyist or some other lobbying entities wanting a larger piece of the pie.
I cannot find the article, but the Air Force/Congress purposely made it so that it would be extremely difficult for the Marines/Army to take over that platform, as they absolutely love the CAS these Warhogs provided.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:17 am@173
One of the most destructive argument about this “gender-affirming care” is the fact that puberty blockers only “delays” the puberty.
That is 100% false, as the human body has a finite “window” for the body to change/grow during puberty.
The other, is the concept of informed consent. This concept is being obliterated by these folks.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:22 am@177
AJ… the AMA and APA’s own behaviors during COVID should disabuse you of the notion that these groups are anything but political organizations.
Furthermore, the AMA/APA don’t “speak” for everyone in the industry, and they have more than their fair share of detractors.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:24 am@201
I think by and large, this is true.
I work with doctors, pharmacists and whole swath of clinicians at my day job. Just because they’re highly credentialed, doesn’t mean they’re also highly principled.
These are people just like you and me, who can come from a whole swath of political persuasion.
Furthermore, there’s a massive financial incentive to participant in gender-affirming treatments, as it creates a permanent class of patients that would need near-constant treatment.
But, if you don’t want to even thing about the financial incentives… just look at medical history – which is a graveyard littered with “good ideas” at the time that only made things worse.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:32 am@217
I think the arguments for/against the A-10s is mostly missing the point.
The role of the A-10 is NOT the same as the F-35s.
Could the F-35s do the job as the A-10s? Probably.
Could the A-10s match the F-35s? No.
The F-35s (and F-22s) main role is to maintain air superiority. Once that is established, then other platform, like the A-10s, can proved the CAS that the infantry division desires.
With respect to Ukraine, could they ever get to the point have having air superiority? I think the answer to THAT question will drive whether or not the A-10s would be a good fit. Personally, I don’t think they need A-10s, they simply need more modern planes, (ie, F-16s) as those platforms can give the Migs a run.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:39 am1. The Air Force has been trying to get rid of the A-10 for decades, particularly since the 2010s, see the links in my previous posts.
2. Do you think the Ukrainians, without US training and experience, can successfully use the A-10?
3. Actually, the F-35 and F-16s are multirole aircraft, and part of their mission is close air support (and least the US Air Force thinks so).
Anyway, its a moot point, as the Administration will not be transferring A-10s to anywhere except the boneyard. see post 222.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:57 amThe other, is the concept of informed consent. This concept is being obliterated by these folks.
When the negative possibilities are denounced as “transphobia” it makes actual discussions difficult. This is just another way that corrupt “scientists” (read: politicians in lab coats) attempt to prohibit backtalk.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 8:57 am@267, I agree that some of this is driven by ideology. Again, my gut impulse is like you and Kevin that kids, even ones with serious emotional problems, should not be experimented on….especially since a lot of teens are dealing with stuff, fitting in and dealing with their bodies. The parent in me would want to exhaust every avenue before going the pharmalogical or surgical route. I can hardly imagine a case where a child would absolutely know that modifying or mutilating their body was the right call. Even adults who have “sex change” operations seem to have mixed results. Is there a best practice? Does the research really point toward a certain therapy? I don’t know which gives me a little pause about following the mob….either of them. I think Hutchinson’s view changed when he met with therapists and tran sufferers (for lack of a better term)…and got more perspective. He does not impress me as being gullible or rash. I would like to hear more voices that are smart and comfortably away from the reactionary extremes. I certainly would like extreme measures limited to truly extreme situations. Maybe bans aren’t correct and stricter guidance/approval processes are what is needed.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:03 amActually, the F-35 and F-16s are multirole aircraft, and part of their mission is close air support (and least the US Air Force thinks so).
There is no way that anyone will use a $75 million F-35 in a place where it can be defeated by a WW2-era AA gun. Less likely still is using a $140 million F-22.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:03 amIs there a best practice?
“The only winning move is not to play.”
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:05 amThe Dominion v. Fox Defamation Trial Has Been Delayed:
Just negotiating how big a check Fox needs to write.
Related:
With advice like that who needs lawyers.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:13 amYet you want to send Ukrainians A-10s in the same environment. F-35 avionics allow them to operate the CAS mission at greater distances from and higher than an A-10 can.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:15 amKevin M:
What do you think of Tim Scott’s abortion position?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:19 amClarence Thomas to amend financial disclosure forms to reflect sale to GOP megadonor
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:20 am@270 Whembly:
Yeah, I know. But the weird thing about this is that the Air Force won’t let the Army take over the A-10 platforms. Why is that?
Probably. But only if we build *new* A-10s. (yes there were/are plans with actual mfr lines only needing a few months to prepare).
But you and I know this will never happen.
F-16s, yes can provide CAS.
They’re not going to use F-35s for sustained CAS.
The advantage of the A-10 is they can loiter providing CAS for much longer than even the F-15s/F-35s. That’s why the ground forces are such a fan of that platform.
Agreed. They should be sending F-16/18 as soon as feasible imo.
whembly (d116f3) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:20 amWhat do you think of Tim Scott’s abortion position?
Right here you see the MSM recasting the world-standard 15-week limitation as a “ban.”
Exactly correct. The reporters are playing a game of “let’s you and him fight.” Speculative answers do nothing useful, unless you are an opponent running attack ads.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:29 amYet you want to send Ukrainians A-10s in the same environment.
The A-10 is a flying tank. It is very hard to shoot down. They were quite successful against Saddam Hussein in 2004. Now, sure, it would help if the Ukrainians also had air superiority, but that is actually a separate topic and the issues of training don’t disappear.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:32 amAs can drones and Army helicopters, which more maneuverable than A-10s.
A-10 training takes up to a year, so I doubt the Ukrainians can learn it on their own, without crashing quite a few and killing their pilots.
Since the production of A-10s ended in the 1980s, and the tooling destroyed (a standard practice) there will be no new A-10s.
I understand the fascination with the A-10s, it looks really cool when that Gatling gun fires, but it has never really been flown in a heavily contested environment against a peer enemy. As Kevin M has said, if you’re not going to fly a F-35 in “where it can be defeated by a WW2-era AA gun” why would you fly a slower, fatter target like an A-10?
We can go back and forth forever about this, but it really is a moot point.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:36 amOr take a stand, like Ron DeSantis. Scott comes off wishy washy.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:39 amAir dominance is key. The US dominated Iraqi and Afghan air space. Ukrainian air space is not dominated by anyone. Also, the anti-aircraft missile environment is far different now than nearly 20 years ago. And the A-10 needs to fly low and slow to hit its targets.
As I said, unless Congress directs the Administration to give Ukraine A-10s, they are headed to the boneyard.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 9:45 am@245. Why is Elon Musk calling a vehicle that can, at best, go to Mars, a Starship ?
Poetic license, most likely, Sammy. Why does SpaceX call their Dragons ‘capsules’ when the more appropriate term is ‘spacecraft’? Why did Von Braun label his series of heavy lift LVs ‘Saturn’ as they were engineered for moon flights? Why was the U.S. moon program named ‘Apollo’ when that mythological figure flew his chariot to the sun? Go figure.
DCSCA (55fcc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 10:46 am53 years ago today, April 17, 1970– the ‘odyssey’ triumphantly concludes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX8-Vmys-Fk&t=10s
“We show you on the mains.” – Dr. Joe Kerwin, Capcom
DCSCA (55fcc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:05 am@255. “Does he look like the kinda guy who’d put doo doo in the capsule?” – Jack Ridley [Levon Helm] ‘The Right Stuff’ 1983
DCSCA (55fcc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:14 am@277. It’s the same as DeSantis going Kramden on Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IH7-qcp8nA
DCSCA (55fcc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:20 amInfantry are adjusting to a new world of close air support being delivered from miles away, rather than from an airplane that flies right overhead that they can hear and see. Back when bombs were dumber, the higher the drop, the more likely the chances the infantry would be hit by friendly fire. The new doctrine is nearly 100% reliant on technology. I think A10 gives a comfort of participation on nearly the same level as infantry that can be summed up as their “here comes the cavalry” moment. F16 or f18 doing their passes do the same thing for morale.
steveg (7e48ca) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:28 amThere’s no jury?
Sammy Finkelman (036909) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:37 amThat was the follow-up accusation, delayed so that Thomas’s defenders would look bad. If I hssv this right. The initial accusation was that he didn’t report gifts (of trips and hospitality – no cash) The reporting requirements had changed about that.
Sammy Finkelman (036909) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:42 amHere’s a small dent in alleviating the housing shortage in Frisco. I doubt the NIMBYs there will approve it.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 11:50 amOr take a stand, like Ron DeSantis. Scott comes off wishy washy.
No, Scott comes off smarter, since there is nothing at all he can do as a Senator. I hope that he avoids the Cruz/Rubio type of in-debate squabbles over who supported what amendments to what bills.
DeSantis was stupid to sign that bill, which will be overturned by the state court anyway. It puts him firmly in the “Can’t get elected nationally” camp of the GOP aspirants.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:18 pmHere’s a small dent in alleviating the housing shortage in Frisco. I doubt the NIMBYs there will approve it.
I favor destroying SF housing and replacing it with parks where the “unhoused” can live.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:22 pmWhen the MSM is calling modest restrictions on abortion “bans” only an idiot would answer their questions. It should be a given that the press will just use part of any answer to cast further bad light.
DeSantis signed the 6-week bill because it would get him press attention. Ne doesn’t care that they will lie about him, he just wants his name spelled right. He’s using Trump’s strategy of acting out for attention that has been working for Trump since childhood.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:30 pm“A key figure in the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” campaign has apologized after being accused of asking teenage boys for sexual pictures.
Ali Alexander has become one of the most ubiquitous figures in the MAGA movement. Trump himself reportedly requested that Alexander speak at his rally before the riot, with his appearance only quashed by a last-minute intervention from Trump’s aides. But this week, Alexander stands at the center of a scandal that raises questions about how powerful men in the far-right treat their younger acolytes.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stop-the-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-apologizes-after-being-accused-of-asking-teen-boys-for-sexual-pics
Article doesn’t mention if he’s trans or a drag performer.
Davethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:33 pmKevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:18 pm
He’s saying there’s nothing he can do as president except either to sign or not sign bills, and he says he’ll sign any anti-abortion bill that can pass Congress.
It is not quite true that a president’s position affects nothing – since he can go to court, and affect various regulations.
We we see it now with the first anti-abortion pill(which sounds like it is mostly to prevent discomfort, or make the abortion go easier and reduce the risk of other medical intervention.
The plaintiffs are being hit on standing.
That’s all right, on that and other issues.
But we need to know background knowledge, executive ability, ability to pick people, and ability to think (hopefully)
(Trump was actually good at picking people, by although he mostly followed a heuristic – almost always pick from among the most right wing persons who were generally respected by their peers and most ofthe more conservative Republican Senators, partly because most of his nominees needed Senate confirmation.
The need for Senate confirmation shouldn’t be ignored as an important factor in the way the Trump Administration turned out and it affected even jobs for which Senate confirmation was not needed because the same procedure was used for finding them .
And also, of course, that they wouldn’t criticize him.
He made a few mistakes like Rex Tillerson.
Trump might not do something similar given a second try.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:41 pmDeSantis thought he was smart.
Sign the bill, but do it as quietly as possible – no press, just fly back to Florida, sign the bill and leave)
He figured that if he didn’t sign it he would be lambasted by anti-abortion people, but they didn’t need for the bill to get any attention, while if he called attention to it he’d be criticized by people who thought the bill went too far.
DeSantis was trying to attract the least attention to the question.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:43 pmWhich doesn’t explain why in the past Congress he co-sponsored and voted for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:55 pm275.
Donald Trump
Therehe goes again.Not ony saying that the electon was stolen, but that everyone agrees (Hillary would say everyone who has looked into it.rump leaves out this qualification from his lies.
It is, or was, theoretically possible, that Trump could believe that the election was stolen. But not that everybody believes so.
He uses the word “rigged” to include possibly illegitimate changes in election laws. But the person who made these changes affect the election outcome was chiefly Donald Trump himself.
Except in Florida.
There, he told his people to vote absentee by mail because the Florida Republican Party had things well in hand.
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/08/04/trump-reverses-himself-says-voting-by-mail-in-florida-is-fine
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:56 pmThere will be to decide if Fox’s broadcasts constituted “actual malice.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:57 pmRIP
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/world/europe/benjamin-b-ferencz-dead.html
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:09 pmRip Murdock @101.
Why no jury about the underlying fact?
If Fox stipulated it, why was it necessary for the judge to rule?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:11 pmThey are bans against abortions after certain time periods, six, 15, 20, or whatever weeks. I’m not sure what else you could call them.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:13 pmDavethulhu (fe2f72) — 4/17/2023 @ 12:33 pm
It says:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:14 pmThe new Florida law, I think allows abortions up to six weeks after conception (four weeks after a missed period), with abortion allowed under the usual conditions, (rape or incest, backed up by a police report or restraining order) up to 15 weeks.
It is set up to be another test case. It only takes effect if the current 15 week law is upheld.
30 days after the Florida Supreme Court either
1) upholds the 15-week ban from last year,
2) reinterprets the privacy clause in the State Constitution or revisits prior cases to decide that the clause does not apply to abortion rights.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:23 pmFox didn’t stipulate it, the court ruled on a Dominion motion for summary judgement, which he granted on all the issues except whether Fox committed “actual malice.”
See also here:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:27 pmShouldn’t it be an issue of fact if Fox was actually endorsing the allegations as it pertained to Dominion? (it clearly wanted to avoid contradicting them)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:48 pmThat’s the “actual malice” part, that Fox knew, or should have known, the allegations against Dominion where false, but allowed them to be broadcast anyways.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:50 pmChairman Xi sounds as thin-skinned as Trump.
Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:51 pmhttps://www.lexisnexis.com/community/insights/legal/practical-guidance-journal/b/pa/posts/summary-judgment-making-the-motion-ny
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 1:55 pmWhich is exactly what the Delaware court did.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:01 pmXi is not think skinned. He is thorough. (but he actually has a small and inefficient secret police)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/determined-to-flee-china-thousands-take-a-long-dangerous-route-to-the-southern-u-s-border-73acfbe9
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:04 pm312. But what about the defense they weren’t endorsing the lies about Dominion?
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:06 pmNo, Scott comes off smarter, since there is nothing at all he can do as a Senator.
Meh. ‘Hamlet on the Hudson’ DeSantis vs. Canned Scott is Kramden vs., Norton. Choose.
Pompeo, literally the smartest person gathering splinters on the GOP bench- the Alice Kramden of the trio– chose to stay there and sit this pie fight out.
The quickest way to flame out Donald Trump is let him win the nom this cycle and watch him lose again. And should he win the general thanks to Joey’s incompetence, it’s only 4 years and the #2 spot holds the most value– as Haley well knows. Now suppose Joey doesn’t run? If he declares he stop being POTUS and has to be campaigning; if he cops a health excuse and doesn’t run, he’s instant lame duck and all hell will break loose for the D’s ferreting out a fresh rat to run who ain’t named Kamala. Ike presided at Columbia before he ran for POTUS. The fireplug in drag ‘teaches’ there now, too…
DCSCA (d75834) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:09 pmIt seems a judge could issue a summary judgement against Donald Trump on the same grounds, if anyone cared to sue him personally especially with regard to his claim that THE ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLLEN…YOU KNOW IT, & SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE!”
Trump says that everyone who disputes that is lying.
“EVERYONE” knows it.
Of course Trump did not accuse any specific person or company of being guilty of election fraud. I don’t know if he ever mentioned Dominion himself.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:13 pmThe judge barred them.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:13 pmFox News banned Trump legal team from air in December 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/business/fox-news-dominion-trump-legal-team/index.html
Dominion, however, has demanded a retraction, not just silence:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dominion-fox-news-needs-retract-lies-2020-election-rcna74041
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:17 pmMccurtain county OK. maggot officials being investigated for complaining that they are not being allowed to “lynch uppity blacks!” caught on tape. (DU)
asset (ed82a4) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:20 pmComedy gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:20 pmIt could be argued that Fox News gave the allegations too much credence.
But where are you if there’s no difference between saying something yourself and a person being interviewed saying it?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:22 pmSantos needs to run (for now anyway) in order to raise money, to,among other things, refund money
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:24 pm319. Where do they think they are? Mexico?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:27 pmhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/movies/bill-butler-dead.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:40 pmRupert Murdoch’s technical title doesn’t measure his influence or how active he is. He’s more than the title – and less.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:42 pmIn the Chicago mayorale lection (decided by 16,000 votes) the youth vote went overwhelmingly for the “progressive”
What happened?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:43 pmTrump Civil Litigation Watch II:
The trial in this case is scheduled to start on April 25th.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 4:15 pmIt was enough for the judge to impose sanctions.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 4:17 pmOklahoma Governor Calls for Resignations After Threatening Audio Surfaces
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt called for the resignations of several officials of a county in the southeast corner of the state after a newspaper published surreptitiously recorded comments in which the officials allegedly discussed killing two of its reporters and expressed nostalgia for past decades when Black people were frequently lynched.
Audio of parts of the conversation, which took place after a public meeting of McCurtain County Commissioners on March 6, was published by the McCurtain Gazette-News, which left a recording device in the meeting room, according to the newspaper. The publisher and his son, both of whom write for the paper, were the subject of the comments about killing reporters, the newspaper said.
……….
The governor called for an investigation and the resignations of McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy, Commissioner Mark Jennings, sheriff’s investigator Alicia Manning and Larry Hendrix, the jail administrator, who were identified by the newspaper as being in the room March 6 during the time the recording was made.
……….
The newspaper said audio of the meeting had been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. The FBI declined to comment. The Attorney General’s office said it had launched a probe into the situation, but declined to comment further.
………
In the section of the recordings that the newspaper made public, people are heard discussing the hiring of hit men and the use of deep holes, ostensibly to hide the bodies of the two reporters, according to the newspaper. One person can be heard on the recording, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, saying he would run for sheriff “if it was back in the day when” someone would “take a damn Black guy and whoop their ass and throw him in the cell.” Chris Willingham and Bruce Willingham are both white.
“Well, it’s not like that no more,” another person responds in the recording.
“I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got,” one person is heard saying in the recording.
Joey Senat, an associate professor of mass communication at Oklahoma State University, said recording a public meeting is legal in Oklahoma and that since the officials stayed in the same room and the room was ostensibly still open to the public, the officials likely wouldn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
………
Appalling.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 4:42 pmI’m not sure what else you could call them.
Regulation. Restrictions. Lots of words. Even a 6 week bill is not a ban (although its effect may be, as practitioners might not want to argue “was it 5 or 7 weeks?” in court).
There is such a thing as a bad regulation, or an unworkable restriction. Europe has PROVEN that 15 weeks is workable and a compromise that holds. Six weeks is just political posturing, as it is unworkable, unjust and rides roughshod over liberties with very little cause. If you can set the bar at 6 weeks, zero weeks is not a huge step.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:25 pmKevin D Williamson at the Dispatch gives a good argument as to why the GOP is poised to lose again:
Meet the Whigs
Read the whole thing. We are now at a place where neither party will compromise with the other, as their base will go ballistic. The base is unhappy even when they talk to their own centrist members. So we lurch from 51-49 to 49-51 and nothing gets done. There’s a reason why Congress’s approval rarely breaks 20%.
At some point the system will break. Either we get a new party grabbing the unoccupied center 70% of the spectrum, or we get an Emperor who can make Congress hop when he says frog. We already saw one candidate for that. There are others.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:33 pmGeorge Santos Says He Will Run for Re-election in 2024
Well, he’s welcome to do it. If he wins again, it won’t be based on lies. Or at least not the same lies.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:38 pmEuphuisms.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:55 pmEuphemisms. Just like the word “choice.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/17/2023 @ 5:58 pm335, 336: This is probably the weakest argument you have ever made.
I ask for a vote.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 7:13 pmHow so? Have abortions declined compared to the period before the 15 week ban went into effect?
Speaking of weak arguments.
Rip Murdock (4b62ad) — 4/17/2023 @ 7:31 pm@AJ@272 My experience is that very few young teenagers are put on any kind of drugs or medical treatment. I do deal with the younger end, but over my almost 20 year career working with thousands of students, I only have had one student who started a medical transition via puberty blockers.
@Sammy@306 Pregnancy is counted from the end of the last period, so 6 weeks pregnant is 2 weeks after a missed period. It isn’t unusual for women to be late or miss a period due to life stressors or health issues.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/17/2023 @ 7:39 pmHow so? Have abortions declined compared to the period before the 15 week ban went into effect?
Not my point. It may be yours.
By “workable” I mean “a socially accepted political compromise that has stood for years, and works as intended.”
Now, you seem to be the flip side of the abortionists who saw Roe as the LAST WORD, and tried to make everyone agree with them by force of law. You have utterly no desire to argue, appeal or convince; you just want to shove YOUR position down their throats, as much a zealot as the leadership of NOW.
The point of Dobbs was to find acceptable political solutions, and what we are seeing from abolitionists run amok is not that. It will be undone — and soon — but you seem to be willing to burn down the party to get your way, even if it’s just for a moment.
Bah.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/17/2023 @ 10:32 pm@333 The problem the whig party had was southern wigs pro slavery and northern wigs opposed slavery to varying degrees. As for abortion your 70% is actually less then 20% as ross perot demonstrated in 1992. 40% are republicans who say democrats are gun grabbing commies! and 40% + are democrats they have won the popular vote all but once since 1992 who say republicans are white supremacistis and nazis! You gunners say you will never give up the second amendment and your gun will have to be pried out of your cold dead hand, yet you expect democrats to submit to the supreme court’s abortion ruling because democrat party doesn’t believe in anything. Since the 1960’s a minority of gun nuts have dominated the gun control issue winning elections and intimidating democrats. Now a MAJORITY of abortion rights democrats and independents will be intimidating republicans and winning elections on the abortion issue. 2022 was just the beginning.
asset (d80ab1) — 4/17/2023 @ 10:58 pm@339, Nic, you listen to some people and you get the impression that johnsons are getting hacked off left and right, and that half of the student population is on puberty blockers. Again, it’s hard to get a sense of proportionality. Is this a legitimate reaction or just another example of the culture war on over drive? Is is worthwhile legislation if it only impacts a handful of kids?
AJ_Liberty (8fe377) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:37 amIn the Chicago mayorale lection (decided by 16,000 votes) the youth vote went overwhelmingly for the “progressive”
What happened?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2023 @ 2:43 pm
The CTU’s candidate had the great fortune of having 2 parent households out of Chicago during the system’s (and the Archdiocese’s) Spring Break, the same week as the election. Also J B Pritzkers unwitting Perfect-enemy-of-good enough conservative fellow travelers started mumbling that lifelong Democrat Vallas wouldn’t do much better anyway.
urbanleftbehind (aedbaa) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:18 amIs this a legitimate reaction or just another example of the culture war on over drive?
Finally, kidnapping and child abuse now legal in Washington State. Other states to follow.
JF (aad514) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:19 amKevin,
12 weeks is the accepted norm in most European nations.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:45 amAJ,
you get the impression that 12 year olds are getting raped and impregnated all the time in states that have limits on abortion. It’s not the case and is very rare.
Why is that?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:47 amIt all depends on who you believe is right.
There is no compromise possible, except to let different parents decide differently in similar cases.
Sammy Finkelman (ce06df) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:47 amWhat is required in Washington State, and perhaps soon in California (even without a court order, usually needed, for instance, to require chemotherapy) is prohibited in Arkansas.
The people who want to do “gender-affirming” care are wrong, and the increase in numbers, and contagious effect are a reducto ad absurdum.
The tide is receding in the UK and other places, but here, the people who want to do it have control of the professional organizations.
Sammy Finkelman (ce06df) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:52 amShelters for juvenile runaways are a good thing. A very good thing. So is medical treatment against the parents’ wishes when a child needs a blood transfusion and the parents are Old Testament fanatics.
You know what’s a bad thing? National divorce. That’s a bad thing. A very bad thing.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:55 amNJRob, you just don’t understand. The dismissive “culture war” label only applies to one side.
JF (aad514) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:56 amMaybe if Ohio had shelters for ten-year old girls whose mother is pimping them out to the lodger there might not be an abortion in Indiana. And you know what I’m talking about.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:15 amAnd no school counselor’s or emergency room doctor’s recommendation is going to terminate nobody’s parental rights. All it will do is get a judge’s attention. That same day, maybe that same hour. While the kid has a safe space.
But you all don’t like “safe space” either, right? It’s Leftspeak?
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:21 amGood article on mercy by one of my favorite writers.
Time123 (e9d20b) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:22 amnk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:15 am
no the abortion would’ve been in Guatemala, and you know what I’m talking about
but, do continue with your usual theater of the absurd
JF (aad514) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:26 amno the abortion would’ve been in Guatemala, and you know what I’m talking about
No, I do not know what you are talking about. I know there was a ten-year old girl in Ohio, living at home with her “parental rights” holder, who went to Indiana for an abortion, and the “parental rights” holder spoke out in defense of the girl’s molester afterwards.
but, do continue with your usual theater of the absurd
And you with your war against 0.1% of children. If even that many. They’re the easiest target.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:38 am12 weeks is the accepted norm in most European nations.
It varies. That’s the minimum, though. There are also major differences regarding exceptions (rape, fetal defects, etc). A good roundup on Wikipedia.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:53 amSo is medical treatment against the parents’ wishes when a child needs a blood transfusion and the parents are Old Testament fanatics.
Indeed. And there are provisions for that now. These new laws are not about that. They are about allowing life-altering medical experimentation on children. Mengele would be so proud.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 8:01 amThere were provisions for that in 1977, when I was writting (habeas corpus) “parents” to Juvenile Court from Joliet Correctional Center to have their “rights” terminated.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 8:16 amAnd you with your war against 0.1% of children. If even that many. They’re the easiest target.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:38 am
how’s the weather up there on your pedestal?
JF (69a706) — 4/18/2023 @ 8:24 amIt’s April in Chicago. Between 32 degrees with snow and 20 mph winds, and 60 degrees, sunny and mild, depending on the time of day.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 8:33 amhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Europe
12 weeks Kevin. And that’s using lefty Wikipedia which only uses leftist sources like “the center for reproductive rights,” which only supports murdering the unborn so talk about a misnamed group.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:00 amChicago: Cloudy with a good chance of murder
Colonel Haiku (be9b75) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:08 amAs NJRob pointed out, most European countries allow elective abortions for shorter periods than 15 weeks. And I would debate that they have “stood for years.” France’s 14 weeks was enacted just last year; and in Germany abortion is illegal, but not punishable during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy under the condition of mandatory counseling.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:18 amThat Was Quick:
Live updates.
I’ll bet the case doesn’t go the jury. Fox will settle mid-trial after testimony by their “talent” goes south.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:29 amFree link.
Tim Scott’s bobbing and weaving on abortion is surprising for someone who co-sponsored Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the last Congress.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:45 amDeSantis: The Phantom Menace.
DeSantis will not run. His cronies will not let him. The ones that have enriched him, and the ones he has enriched. They will not withstand the scrutiny of serious oppo research.
But he’s having fun as Trump’s Nightmare At Mar-A-Lago.
nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 10:10 amComedy gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 10:15 amTwin Tragedies:
First Ralph Yarl and now Kaylin Gillis:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 10:26 am” Why is French President Emmanuel Macron cozying up to China while trashing his oldest ally, the United States?
Why is there suddenly talk of discarding the dollar as the global currency?
Why are Japan and India shrugging that they cannot follow the United States’ lead in boycotting Russian oil?
Why is the president of Brazil traveling to China to pursue what he calls a “beautiful relationship”?
Why is Israel suddenly facing attacks from its enemies in all directions?
What happened to Turkey? Why is it threatening fellow NATO member Greece? Is it still a NATO ally, a mere neutral, or a de facto enemy?
Why are there suddenly nonstop Chinese threats toward Taiwan?”
https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/14/the-biden-10-step-plan-for-global-chaos/
Colonel Haiku (11c899) — 4/18/2023 @ 11:07 amSecurity breach at the White House.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 11:52 amBreaking-
Sad! And I have all this popcorn!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 1:10 pm@370. Great photo of guards, behind iron fence clutching illegal trespasser
DCSCA (7423d7) — 4/18/2023 @ 1:23 pm‘breaking-in’ to the WH grounds. Too bad it wasn’t taken at the border.
@369. Rest easy. Joey’s at the controls and knows where he’s going…
“It’s Ireland!” – Charles Lindbergh [James Stewart] ‘The Spirit of St. Louis’ 1957
DCSCA (7423d7) — 4/18/2023 @ 1:29 pmDeSantis will not run.
He be a total Donald Duck. Believes he can build a ‘better mousetrap’ by wasting millions constructing a prison next to Florida’s ‘Mousewitz’ — when a nuclear power plant would be better.
DCSCA (7423d7) — 4/18/2023 @ 1:35 pmI’m hearing that Dominion settled for a measly 785,500,000$.
Time123 (8e2273) — 4/18/2023 @ 1:48 pmI was reading in the New York Times (and elsewhere) this morning that one sticking point in a settlement could be the exact statement that Fox News would make. But maybe it wasn’t.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/business/fox-dominion-trial-delay.html
That’s not the same issue.
But it might show that Fox cares about what Trump-following stolen election believers think. But that didn’t rest solely on one supposed means of vote fraud – an impossible one, by the way, given the double entry bookkeeping style of election records, not to mention the fact that Dominion machines couldn’t be rigged that way, regardless of what Hugo Chavez might or might not have done in Venezuela years before using machines that had nothing to do with Dominion
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:15 pmThis is the story about an hour ago today from newser:
https://www.newser.com/story/334182/fox-defamation-trial-abruptly-called-off.html
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:18 pmhttps://www.nbcnews.com/media/fox-news-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-rcna80285
Also, a Fox statement in quoted:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:24 pm369.. DeSantis’ gamble is simply that
1) The bill he signed will never become law at least not before election day 2024,
2) Pro-choice ads will not interest people before a bill becomes law
3) Anti-abortion people will care – or would have cared if he did NOT sign the bill.
4) Nobody much will remember what he did by the time of voting.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:29 pmThere’s another lawsuit coming, this one from Smartmatic:
I don’t know how these things work, but it would not surprise me if Dominion shares some of what it has learned with Smartmatic.
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:46 pmDeSantis is talking about doing other things to hurt Disney – maybe build a competing amusement park – and he said that someone said to build a prison near Disney — “the possibilities are endless”
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/604047-a-prison-at-disney-world-possibilities-are-endless-gov-desantis-says
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:52 pm366. nk (1871f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 10:10 am.
What might be discovered with serious opposition research – even more serious than is given in a Gubernatorial race – might explain both Mario Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo not running for president – and perhaps Mike Pompeo.
But what, if anything, specific are you talking about with regard to Ron DeSantis, or is this just speculation, based on his evident cynicism?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 2:58 pmasset @319. See Rip Murdock #330.
They weren’t talking about lynching anybody. They were talking about killing the publisher, and his son, who were also acting as reporters or writers of a local newspaper the family had owned for 40 years, the McCurtain Gazette-News. The son was writing stories against the sheriff.
The tone was that it was too bad they couldn’t just take some black guy and whip them and throw them in a cell, and they can’t lynch anybody either.
The reporter-son of the publisher filed a lawsuit against the sheriff on March 6 accusing county officials of defaming him. The same day the newspaper left a recording device in the meeting room of the McCurtain County Commission – and apparently left – so it should look like nobody from the public was still there at this open meeting.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:18 pmWhat’s good enough for Patterico, Dana, Paul Montagu, and Kevin M.(any others) is good enough for me.
I subscribed to The Dispatch.
norcal (15fce4) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:22 pmThe recording was legal since the public meeting was still open to the public.
They discussed hiring of hit men, and the possible use of deep holes to hide the bodies after they killed them. And how back in the day they arrest and beat up a black man and throw him in a cell – ad hang them with a rope. But, one said. they can’t do that any more.
“They got more rights than we got” said one of the persons in the room.
The publisher and his son are both white. They were really talking about unchecked power, although the reference to rights might be to blacks.
The complete audio of the meeting has been turned over by the newspaper to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office. The paper only made public a bit.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:27 pmhttps://www.npr.org/2023/04/10/1169162240/mad-magazine-cartoonist-al-jaffee-obituary
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/10/arts/al-jaffee-dead.html
He created the Mad Fold-In, which he did from April 1964 (in issue number 86) till he retired in 2020 (that issue had a fold-in he’d created in 2014 to be used if he retired with one exception in 2019. when Mad magazine had stopped printing new material except once a year He actually was a freelancer all the time)
The New York Times obituary gives detail of one example of a fold-in:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:41 pmYes, New York City is still the safest city in the country, but the most important factor in the amount of crime is the level of crime (and criminally inclined) recently.
Nobody ever compares the current level to that of the days of Giuliani and Bloomberg – and the first two years of DeBlasio, when crime was dropping year to year – and so, eventualy, was the jail population.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:46 pmhttps://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/04/16/california-goes-full-communist-utilities-to-base-what-they-charge-on-how-much-you-make-n1687622
Congratulations to communist California in leading the way to their utopia.
Basing the price for electricity and heat on how much you can afford versus how much you use. Capitalism was so quaint and for a less modern time.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:48 pmSammy,
I was in Manhattan last week and the number of scam tables selling garbage and homeless people laying on the sidewalk was insane. It’s worse than it was under Dinkins.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:53 pm12 weeks Kevin.
I guess you missed the map on the right with about 20 different rules listed.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:55 pmhttps://getpocket.com/explore/item/torching-the-modern-day-library-of-alexandria
Originally publised in the Atlantic in 2017.
By James Somers
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 3:58 pmAs NJRob pointed out, most European countries allow elective abortions for shorter periods than 15 weeks.
*I* said 12-15. Rob said NO IT’S 12, then linked to a site that said 12 or more.
And I would debate that they have “stood for years.”
From the Abortion in Europe page that Rob linked:
You would debate the sun coming up in the morning (or, if you prefer, the earth continuing to rotate).
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:01 pmOn 86 ST in Brooklyn by 23rd Avenue it is normal goods, like a weekly street fair. Chessboards, socks.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:02 pmTim Scott’s bobbing and weaving on abortion is surprising for someone who co-sponsored Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the last Congress.
Unlike DeSantis, Tim Scott does not want to put abortion front and center, so he declines to give hard numbers to extremists of either side, knowing that it will not be used to his advantage.
Trump has no problem, however. Although what he said yesterday might not be what he says today. Or tomorrow. And everyone understands that.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:05 pmHow can I put this more clearly? Most Americans do not want to hear another gd word about abortion. Ever. A candidate who locks himself into repeating, defending or just arguing about some hard and fast rule will repel everyone to his left OR right on the issue. It’s just stupid.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:08 pm@384. Dispatched to the Dispatch, eh? “The Alamo” welcomes another defender. 😉 Stove piping behind a paywall is comforting but inhibits disseminating messaging and efforts to persuade others.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:09 pmBusiness Insider has a little list of lawsuits to come from Dominion and Smartmatic.
(Unfortunately, they put it in one of those rotating thingies I have come to despise. But there are only 9 items in the list.)
Jim Miller (0e46f9) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:10 pmHow can I put this more clearly? Most Americans do not want to hear another gd word about abortion. Ever.
Always been crabgrass in the lawn of a house on fire. But 21st century women voters won’t forget the GOP’s stand to inhibit a long held right. Hell hath no fury… etc., etc.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:12 pm@388: As someone who lived in LA for years, those fixed rates are hilariously low. I easily spent $500/month on electricity in the summer. Just think what it would have been with an electric car.
This will be a sad discovery soon and force the rates to go up several hundred percent by the time they are implemented. Mostly at the top end.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:13 pmIt’s too bad that Dominion didn’t demand they fire some people.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:16 pmDeSantis is talking about doing other things to hurt Disney – maybe build a competing amusement park – and he said that someone said to build a prison near Disney — “the possibilities are endless”
No doubt competitor Universal Orlando would not take kindly to that idiocy. Maybe DeSantis should just burn his marriage license and wedding photos– he was married at DisneyWorld. He is a fool:
The World’s Top Media Companies
Ranked 2. Walt Disney (DIS): $238.21 Billion
Disney (DIS) has a $238 billion market cap, generating almost $67.42 billion in revenues over the trailing 12 months (TTM). Disney, founded in 1923 and headquartered in Burbank, Calif., is a large media and entertainment group with multiple subsidiaries and an international presence.
https://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/021815/worlds-top-ten-media-companies-dis-cmcsa-fox.aspx
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:19 pmhttps://nypost.com/2023/04/16/how-the-us-is-subsidizing-high-risk-homebuyers-at-the-cost-of-those-with-good-credit/
More leftist redistribution of wealth from the Biden adminastration from the responsible to the irresponsible.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:52 pmKevin you wrote the above and I said most have a 12 week ban. So in actuality Europe has proven that a 12 week ban works in most places.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:01 pmAnd next most common was 14 weeks. France is at 16 weeks. Some are at 3 months or 90 days. The terms also get fuzzy in that the start may be conception, or the last menstrual period, generally about 2 weeks apart.
Florida was at 15 weeks, which is why I used that number, but Europe is roughly the same time, depending on which country and how you count.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:32 pmNostalgic for the good old days.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:40 pmComedy gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:42 pmThat is one thing we can agree on, but when you make statements that are demonstrably incorrect (through a simple Internet search) or exaggerated like “Europe has PROVEN that 15 weeks is workable….” when Europe hasn’t proven anything of the sort, it begs to be disputed.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:49 pmIt only gets worse (or better, depending on your point of view) for Fox:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/18/2023 @ 5:53 pmThe most common in Europe is 12.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:14 pmAlbania, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan,Latvia Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine.
Kevin M-
I apologize for comments directed at you in post 408. I shouldn’t have singled you out. There are plenty of people here who make demonstrably incorrect or exaggerated statements that deserve to be politely corrected.
Rip Murdock (c79034) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:15 pmNJ,
My issue was that you made a fairly petty and somewhat inaccurate correction about where world government stand. I was arguing that 15 weeks had been shown to be a workable restriction, allowing women to have some useful time for an early abortion, but not too much time. THat 12 weeks also works isn’t much of a rebuttal, although I think that, like Rip, I got some of the argument crossed.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:22 pmAlso, the page below is a bit more thorough.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_law#Summary_tables
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:24 pmThe majority of abortions performed in the United States, 93.1%, that’s a big majority, during Roe, were in under 13 weeks. That would be like 12 weeks or fewer?
93.1%. Now do you see why abortion opponents might not consider 12 weeks much of a “victory”?
nk (bb1548) — 4/18/2023 @ 6:29 pmNk,
It shows life matters and gets the left to admit their lie is about choice versus beimg North Korea.
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:39 pmKevin,
I apologize for beijg a stickler, but limiting it to the first trimester is a big step in acknowleging the life growing within a woman. It matters from a public perception and getting people to understand their must be limits on “the right to choose.” *spit*
NJRob (7ed191) — 4/18/2023 @ 7:41 pm@NJRob@346 I have had more pregnant jr. high students than medically treated trans students. And, very very unfortunately, more kids being sexually assaulted by adults than both other things. This year we’ve had one student who was being trafficked by her mother and one student who was being regularly raped by her step father.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/18/2023 @ 8:02 pmDispatched to the Dispatch, eh? “The Alamo” welcomes another defender. 😉 Stove piping behind a paywall is comforting but inhibits disseminating messaging and efforts to persuade others.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 4/18/2023 @ 4:09 pm
DCSCA, speaking of efforts to persuade others, has your mind ever been changed by other commenters here on any issue? If so, please state what it was.
norcal (15fce4) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:32 pmRob, I also apologize for my sometimes harsh responses. I am so very tired of the whole subject and a bit bewildered by the way some politicians seem to take Dobbs as license to be just as extreme as the Roe people were.
If Roe had never happened, we would have a consensus by now, somewhere at the end of the first trimester (or a damn good reason).
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:38 pmI should also apologize to Rip, not so much for what I said, but for the way I said it.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:38 pmI’m in complete agreement with you on abortion, Kevin. Too many people are in love with absolutes, and can’t handle nuance or gray areas. The extremes on both ends of this issue are like religious zealots.
Both sides need to recognize that neither abortion on demand through all nine months, nor a complete ban, will ever be accepted by the majority of people.
norcal (15fce4) — 4/18/2023 @ 9:50 pmThe abortion dog caught the car now what? You gun fanatics (I try to be civil so I don’t say gun nuts!) Know how you feel about guns. Well thats how democrats feel about the abortion issue. You are not interested in compromising about guns and democrats are not interested in compromising on abortion. As you know the gun fanatics cost democrats election after election over gun control. We will do the same to republicans over abortion. I have gun supporters that it is not fair for democrats to do the same back to republicans that they have been doing. @416 to nic I hope you have reported this to law enforcement.
asset (a4ab0a) — 4/18/2023 @ 11:10 pmhttps://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/18/ron-johnson-biden-welcomes-nearly-five-million-illegal-aliens-to-u-s-exceeding-populations-of-28-states/
The invasion is in high gear aided and abetted by our leftist ruling class.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/19/2023 @ 4:43 amWell thats how democrats feel about the abortion issue.
Sure. And, like us gun nuts, they know that every attempt to compromise is followed by a more strident demand from the other fringe.
But I ask you, are Democrats really concerned that abortion on demand the day before delivery is something they should go to the wall for? Even the NRA did not defend machine guns.
How many sexually active young women are concerned that they might only have 3 months to do something about an unplanned pregnancy. I’m going to bet that Texas women would chose that over current Texas law. Or Florida’s new 6 week rule, which fails for the same reason that a 13-week rule succeeds.
Democrats are adamant that there be reasonable access to elective abortion, and that abortion for good cause (fetal deformity or life-threatening complications) be allowed at any stage. But elective abortion at 29 weeks? Not even California goes there.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/19/2023 @ 8:28 amBTW, I see no reason that rape or incest be an exception to a 13-week on-demand period. Maybe in the case of children who have no agency of their own, but not generally.
Kevin M (f94f4f) — 4/19/2023 @ 8:31 amIn the early campaign for legal abortion by Planned PArenthood and the Reader;s Digest, circa 1962-68, fetal abnormality (birth defects) was a proposed reason for a an abortion, but it’s been left off the list for decades. Not even death of the fetus is given as a reason for an exception. It isn’t used in polls. It’s just rape, incest or the life of the mother and you also have a woman and her doctor.
More recently, in the last decade or so, the tide has really turned against birth defects as a reason, because it could be interpreted as being against the disabled.
Sammy Finkelman (8228f2) — 4/19/2023 @ 8:43 amThat is the crux of the matter. There are those who oppose abortion, and those who don’t.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/19/2023 @ 9:08 am@Asset@421 Yes, of course. Not only is it the law, but we wouldn’t leave one of our students in such situations.
Nic (896fdf) — 4/19/2023 @ 5:56 pmTwo notable quotes I read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/opinion/leaked-documents-desantis-biden-budget.html
https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wonder-land-henninger/wsj-opinion-jack-teixeira-and-the-gamification-of-accountability/F3191764-F680-442C-97CA-98760AE832FB
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/20/2023 @ 4:12 pmPhoto of bomb crater in Belgorod , Russia. Russian MoD takes responsibility in a statement
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1649158690568564739
Russian Defense Ministry commented on the explosion in #Belgorod
steveg (263377) — 4/20/2023 @ 9:49 pm“In the evening of April 20, while performing a flight of a Su-34 aircraft of the Air Force over the city of Belgorod, there was an accidental fall of an aircraft munition,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the Defense Ministry, there were no casualties, but there were damaged buildings. An investigation is underway.
A better translation:
steveg (263377) — 4/20/2023 @ 10:15 pmOn April 20, during the flight of the Su-34 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces over the city of Belgorod, an abnormal descent of aviation ammunition occurred.” – Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The boom-boom actually detonated. Was the fuze somehow armed before it was dropped? Is that why it was dropped? Because it would not be safe for the plane to land with the bomb armed?
Somebody should sue. I recommend Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas. If anybody can determine if the Russian Ministry of Defense is testing its bomb fuzes properly, he can.
nk (701c95) — 4/21/2023 @ 5:39 am