Patterico's Pontifications

9/15/2023

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:07 am



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

When you have to pay for protection for your family because of serious concerns about supporters of the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, what does that say about your political party?

As a critic of Trump’s, King was concerned for Romney’s safety. More than two years later, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee is still paying $5,000 a day for private security to protect his family from the supporters of his party’s presidential nominee in the next two cycles…

Second news item

Despite the most “most pro-Union president” predicting that they wouldn’t strike, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) walked off the job at midnight. Three plants are involved (Missouri, Ohio, Michigan). What the workers want:

The UAW had been seeking a 40 percent wage hike over four years (amounting to 46 percent compounded), along with cost-of-living increases; beefed-up retirement benefits, including pensions on par with what autoworkers previously received; and full pay for a shortened 32-hour workweek, down from 40 hours (NBC News). The union wants workers to benefit from corporate profits since the last contract in 2019, and to account for inflation.

Additionally:

They are also pushing back against President Joe Biden’s nationwide push for electric vehicles, a transition that could impact auto worker jobs when it is fully implemented. In contrast with gas-powered vehicles, electric cars require fewer workers to assemble, and the batteries can be made in non-union factories or by workers with lower wages.

Despite his vocal support for labor unions, Biden has not received an endorsement from the UAW. Many other unions have endorsed the president.

Oh.

Third news item

The courageous Masih Alinejad continues to work tirelessly for regime change and gender apartheid in Iran. As Iranian women remove their hijabs and brave the streets of Iranian cities and villages, they face arrest, torture and even murder (see: Mahsa Amini). While Iranian women are taking great risks in defying the government, so too does Alinejad:

Fourth news item

California school district says let’s stick to state and country flags:

A California school district banned the flying of any flag other than the United States or state flag, a move critics and supporters say is directed at the flying of the LBTQIA+ pride flag. In the same measure, Temecula Valley Unified School District also required that “Students not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance shall maintain a respectful silence.”

“No flag other than the United States of America and state of California may be displayed on school grounds, including classrooms, unless it is a country, state or United States military flag used solely for educational purposes within the adopted curriculum. Any other flag must be approved by the Superintendent or designee prior to displaying if, and only if, it is used for educational purposes and only during the related instructional period,” read the full section of the approved measure.

Either you allow the flags representing all causes to fly or you limit it to just the United States and California flags. I don’t have a problem with this district’s decision.

NOTE:

“The First Amendment bars the government from restricting others’ speech, but it doesn’t apply to the government’s own speech. A school district can speak on its own behalf and promote some views but not others,” said Aaron Terr, Director of Public Advocacy at free speech nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in response to an inquiry from The Center Square. “As long as the policy applies only to flags that schools display on school grounds, it should pass constitutional muster. But if the district were to, say, restrict students from wearing clothing or displaying a patch that depicts a flag disfavored by the district, that would raise First Amendment issues.”

Fifth news item

Top Democrats cannot bring themselves to say, Yes, Kamala Harris is the best running mate for President Biden. In the case of Jamie Raskin, he declined to answer directly when pressed three times by Jake Tapper:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) declined to endorse Vice President Harris as the best running mate for President Biden in 2024 when pressed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper…Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) similarly declined to say if Harris, a fellow California Democrat, was Biden’s best option for a running mate earlier this week.

I get it. I feel the same way…

Sixth news item

I double-dog-dare you, cried the man who sold his soul to become the Speaker:

Angry, frustrated and unable to lead a fractured and unruly Republican majority, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday told the colleagues threatening to oust him: Do it.

The embattled Republican leader essentially dared his hard-right flank to quit holding the risk of a vote to remove him from the job.

“File the f——- motion,” McCarthy said, using a profanity for emphasis, according to those in the private meeting.

With a government shutdown looming, McCarthy is confronting the same stubborn problem that has driven Republicans before him from the speaker’s job — trying to lead a ruptured GOP majority that’s split between what’s left of the traditional party and a harder-right element largely allied with former President Donald Trump.

Even his decision to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden did little this week to appease the demands of the Freedom Caucus and others as they threaten to shut down the government in pursuit of deep spending cuts or move to a motion to oust him from office.

Seventh news item

President Zelensky to address United Nations General Assembly:

US President Joe Biden plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky next week around the United Nations General Assembly meetings, according to multiple officials familiar with the plans…One source familiar with the matter told CNN that Zelensky is expected to travel to Washington, DC, after his stop in New York…Zelensky is planning to use an in-person appearance at the annual meeting to appeal for more support for Ukraine as it continues to wage a counteroffensive against Russia…Among his objectives will be trying to persuade nations that haven’t taken a firm stance against the war to be more forceful in their condemnation of Russia.

Unfortunately, moderate Republicans are also questioning funding for Ukraine:

Skepticism is growing among House Republicans on the approval of more Ukraine funding as Congress faces its first test on America’s role in the war against Russia.

The House could face a vote as soon as this month as the Senate looks to fold a Ukraine aid package into a continuing resolution that would push back the deadline for a potential government shutdown…

While a minority wing of far-right lawmakers have long opposed more Ukraine funding, several GOP lawmakers told The Hill this week that more moderate House Republicans are also raising concerns…

The uneasiness in the House comes as the Senate plans to include Ukraine funding in a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded as annual appropriations bills are worked out.

If the House refuses to pass a CR with the Ukraine funding attached, it could be punted to later this year and attached to other spending bills or considered on its own.

Punchbowl News reported this month that McCarthy does not want Ukraine funding in a CR but will move to pass it as a separate supplemental — but only if he wins additional funding for the border.

Note: The next vote on Ukraine aid will be the first on a major package since Speaker Kevin McCarthy took the gavel promising no more “blank checks” to Ukraine.

Eighth news item

Los Angeles District Attorney failed to apply for state funds to fight increasing crime wave:

Candidate for Los Angeles County District Attorney Eric Sapetto Siddall slammed District Attorney George Gascón’s failure to secure additional resources to combat the rampant smash and grab retail theft happening throughout Los Angeles.

The deadline to secure state funding to combat organized retail theft passed today and counties from all over California applied and received grants. Despite a dire need for additional resources to fight back against organized retail theft, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office was not on the list of grant applicants or recipients.

“George Gascón’s failure to secure additional resources from the state to combat smash and grab robberies is just another example of his negligence and inability to lead. As criminals carry out these brazen robberies, the district attorney’s office should be utilizing every tool to put a stop to these crimes. Once again, Gascón didn’t even show up. His incompetence failed all Angelenos,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall.

Ninth news item

When you know you’re old: you roll your eyes from exhaustion at the mere thought of participating in group hyper-self-introspection, dissection, and navel-gazing…while naked:

When I arrived for the dinner party, a naked woman holding a wine glass filled with hibiscus tea greeted me at the door. Inside I could see a group of about 15 people already in the backyard. They too were all naked…This is how my night started recently when I attended my first nude dinner. I was among the 26 people who paid $150 to experience Füde, a plant-based gathering that invites people to leave their inhibitions, self-doubt and clothing behind…Charlie Ann Max, 29, the dinner’s founder, who told us it was time to start the evening’s Füde. The name is a combination of food and nude, with an umlaut to encourage the proper pronunciation.

Max is a multidisciplinary artist, chef and former dancer who began hosting nude-optional dinners in 2020. She started practicing nudity after she stopped dancing, seeking liberation from the constraints and expectations the career put on her mind and body. She also adopted a plant-based diet, eventually creating Füde……Max, introduced Lihi Benisty, a local breathwork, movement and meditation teacher, and instructed everyone to sit on the pavement around the pool.

“And this is Maya, our safety steward,” she said, and pointed to a young woman next to her. “If you have any concerns or discomfort, we can work together.”

Benisty then introduced the theme for the evening.

“Tonight, we explore the ‘yes’ within,” she said. “What does it mean when we say yes? What does it mean when we say no?”

Have a great weekend!

–Dana

411 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello!

    Dana (4020dd)

  2. Abandoned Apollo 17 lunar lander module is causing tremors on the moon

    Hopefully we get bamboo based Electric Eco spacecraft soon! We are destroying the solar system!!

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  3. It’s a sad state of affairs when a U.S. Senator has to pay $5000 a day to protect his family due to maniacal Trump supporters.

    I voted for Trump in 2016, hoping that he would get better once in office. He didn’t. Shame on me, and shame on anyone who still supports him. He’s a malignancy on the republic. Take off your blinders and you will see it.

    norcal (16f554)

  4. Putting my CPA creds to work, $5,000/day is over $1.8 million per year, all out-of-pocket by Romney, just to protect himself and his family. It’s just another reason why my party is worthless and deserves to be destroyed.

    Regarding UAW, it figures that they’re standing in the way of progress by standing against EVs. The transition to EVs is happening whether the labor union likes it or not.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  5. For those who are still focused on policy, while ignoring the malignancy, consider this:

    https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/boilingfrogs/the-partys-over/

    I’ve said before and will say again here that policy differences are a second-order concern in American politics. We mistake them for first-order concerns because we have the luxury of living in a country where first-order concerns were traditionally taken for granted. Shall we have liberal democracy or autocracy? Does character matter in leadership or not? Is physical intimidation a proper tool of political influence? Both sides broadly agreed on first-order questions until recently, so we turned to second-order questions to decide which side should govern.

    Mitt Romney has been cynical and opportunistic on second-order questions during his career. But on first-order questions, he’s the best the American right has to offer. It’s true that he and J.D. Vance, about whom Romney expressed scathing contempt in Coppins’ piece, have each flip-flopped in the past for the sake of ambition. But they’ve flip-flopped on different orders. Romney reversed himself on the second-order question of which abortion policy the country should follow. Vance reversed himself on the first-order question of whether fascism is good.

    The bolding was done by me.

    norcal (16f554)

  6. Here is a more complete quote of the pay walled Atlantic article:

    On Jan. 2, 2021, Romney was warned by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, that a high-ranking Pentagon official had said the certification on the Electoral College vote, set for Jan. 6, was being viewed as a moment of reckoning by Trump’s extremist supporters. King told his colleague law enforcement was tracking online discussion of gun smuggling, bombs, arson and punishing the then-president’s perceived enemies in Congress — much of which eventually occurred or was attempted during the attack.

    As a critic of Trump’s, King was concerned for Romney’s safety. More than two years later, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee is still paying $5,000 a day for private security to protect his family from the supporters of his party’s presidential nominee in the next two cycles, according to the book excerpt.

    After his conversation with King, Romney texted McConnell and relayed what King had told him.

    “There are calls to burn down your home,” Romney wrote. “I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”

    McConnell did not respond, Coppins wrote.

    Wow! Kinda a stop-the-presses moment here. Angus King knew about the pending insurrection?? And Romney relayed that to McConnell in time to thwart the attack?!?

    It lines up with Chief Sund’s representations of the events leading up to, and during, the hostilities.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  7. $5,000/day is over $1.8 million per year, all out-of-pocket by Romney, just to protect himself and his family.

    Until the actual evidence/facts/etc is laid out for the public to see this as a being true, I will treat it as no better than whatever tripe James Comer and Jim Jordan claim about Joe and Hunter Biden.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  8. Romney isn’t accused of committing crimes, BuDuh, but you do you.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  9. Why does that matter?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  10. It’s the difference between freedom and jail, BuDuh. Think about it.
    The evidence for a trial or legal proceeding should always require a higher level of proof or verification, but you do you.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  11. BTW, multiple sources are saying Chechen leader Kadyrov is in a coma, caused by an “illness”.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  12. BTW, Romney has a track record of telling the truth about his finances, by his own disclosures. It was d0uchebags like Harry Reid who not only lied about it, but got away with his lies.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  13. Keeping It Classy:

    Prosecutors and FBI agents involved in the Hunter Biden investigation have been the targets of threats and harassment by people who think they haven’t been tough enough on the president’s son, according to government officials and congressional testimony obtained exclusively by NBC News.
    ………
    The threats have prompted the FBI to create a stand-alone unit to investigate and mitigate them, according to a previously unreleased transcript of congressional testimony.

    “We have stood up an entire threat unit to address threats that the FBI employees’ facilities are receiving,” Jennifer L. Moore, then an executive assistant director of human resources for the FBI, told the House Judiciary Committee in June. “It is unprecedented. It’s a number we’ve never had before.”

    “It’s going to be about 10 people when it’s finished,” she said. “We are still in the process of staffing it right now. But their sole mission on a daily basis is threats to FBI employees at facilities.”

    Moore told lawmakers that threats to FBI agents and facilities had more than doubled — there were more in the six months from October to March than in the previous 12 months. More recent data was not available; officials say the pace of threats increased after the FBI investigations of Trump became public last summer and has not slowed since.
    ………
    Federal prosecutor Lesley Wolf, who had been part of U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ team investigating Hunter Biden, got such a barrage of credible threats that she sought security help from the U.S. Marshals Service, according to previously unreleased testimony from an FBI official to the House Judiciary Committee last week. Two IRS agents on the case have accused Wolf of making decisions that appeared favorable to Biden.
    ……..
    The FBI told House Judiciary Committee aides that Laura Dehmlow, who headed the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and has been accused by congressional Republicans of suppressing social media and news coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop, was the target of multiple threats after her name was connected to the Biden story, according to two congressional officials.
    ……..
    Last week, an FBI agent involved in the Hunter Biden investigation told the House Judiciary Committee that the threats have extended to agents’ family members.
    …….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  14. From the Atlantic:

    He has never really interrogated the cause of this preoccupation, but premonitions of death seem to follow him. Once, years ago, he boarded an airplane for a business trip to London and a flight attendant whom he’d never met saw him, gasped, and rushed from the cabin in horror. When she was asked what had so upset her, she confessed that she’d dreamt the night before about a man who looked like him—exactly like him—getting shot and killed at a rally in Hyde Park. He didn’t know how to respond, other than to laugh and put it out of his mind. But when, a few days later, he happened to find himself on the park’s edge and saw a crowd forming, he made a point not to linger.

    How many people don’t listen to those warnings?

    Did he ever try to check it out? Was there a rally?

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  15. I subscribe to the Atlantic but haven’t gone through the process of registering on the site – or I lost the log in information.

    The New York Times had an article about the Atlantic article which gave 6 takeaways:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/opinion/mitt-romney-trump-retiring.html

    One is wrong.

    Almost every Republican shared his disgust with Trump.

    Romney counted a dozen Senators – that’s one quarter.

    From the article:

    Mr. Romney kept a tally of his colleagues who approached him to privately express solidarity when he publicly criticized Mr. Trump, often saying they envied his ability to air his views. At one point, he told his staff, the list reached more than a dozen.

    That sounds more like it. Of course there’s two different things/ One is people wanting to criticize Trump; the other sharing his opinion about him. Romney said they laughed at a speech he gave in 2019 to the weekly Senate Republican caucus after he left. But they had given him a standing ovation.

    He spoke about

    what he called the “Russia hoax.” They nodded when he said the G.O.P. would be known as “the party of health care” after they moved on from impeachment. But as soon as Mr. Trump left the room, the senators all burst out laughing.

    Presumably abut the business of being the party of health care.

    A lot of theats don’t pan out. It’s easier to talk than to do – and less rsky for the person making the threat.

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  16. Mitt Romney didn’t think much of Mike Pence:

    Mr. Romney, known for his genteel manners, could not hold back his deep disgust for some of his Republican colleagues.

    “You’re the reason this is happening!” he recalled yelling at Mr. Hawley, Republican of Missouri, during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “You did this.” Mr. Hawley, who suggested that Mr. Trump could remain in office and that President Biden’s inauguration was not guaranteed, famously raised his fist that day outside the Capitol in a show of solidarity with the rioters.

    Of Mr. Vance, the freshman Republican senator from Ohio, Mr. Romney said bluntly, “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more.” After reading Mr. Vance’s best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Mr. Romney said he had once been a fan. It made Mr. Vance’s swift conversion to a MAGA soldier all the more depressing to him.

    “It’s not like you’re going to be famous and powerful because you became a United States senator. It’s like, really? You sell yourself so cheap?” Mr. Romney said. “How do you sit next to him at lunch?”

    Mr. Romney, an observant Mormon, also had little regard for a fellow man of faith, Mr. Pence. No one, he said, had been “more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence.”

    Of course, Mike Pence was also in the position of being the vice president. But Mike Pence stayed loyal to Donald Trump until it came to his oath to support the constitution.

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  17. Angus King knew about the pending insurrection??

    Not the same exact one that happened. They heard talk f things that never did.

    There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator — the President — is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.

    They didn’t want help because they didn’t know on what side the help might be on.

    Angus King had warned him that there was talk

    King told his colleague law enforcement was tracking online discussion of gun smuggling, bombs, arson and punishing the then-president’s perceived enemies in Congress

    here were no guns, there was no arson, there was no bomb – but there were people calling for harm to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence. King’s information came from law enforcement sources who were reading things online.

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  18. Romney considered running for president in 2024 but decided against it on the grounds he would help Trump.

    Isn’t he more likely to get votes from Republicans?

    NYT’s MICHELLE GOLDBERG thinks that age isn’t the real reason Romney is not running for re-election because he considered running for president in 2024

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/opinion/mitt-romney-trump-retiring.html

    I don’t think that’s why Romney is bowing out. Rather, he’s given up on a second Senate term because his brand of stolid, upstanding conservatism has become obsolete, replaced with a conspiratorial, histrionic and sometimes violent authoritarianism. His reluctance to say so clearly, at the cost of breaking with his party definitively, is evidence of something tragic in his character.

    Sammy FInkelman (7a85f9)

  19. Regarding the United Auto Workers upcoming strike, it was the UAW who organized graduate students as an affiliate union. The University of California system grad students were some of the first to partner with the UAW. Please oh please oh please oh please let’s have the gradudate students embark upon a solidarity work stoppage in defense of their striking brothers and sisters (and non-binary-gendered siblings).

    JVW (1ad43e)

  20. Paul Montagu @11.

    Any sign that Kadyrov broke with Putin or sided with the Wagner Group?

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  21. Cuomo s serious about making a comeback:

    https://nypost.com/2023/09/14/cuomo-blames-biden-administration-for-nycs-migrant-crisis/

    The NYP runs ant immigration column. The fallacy is that not all people who want to come to USA do; the umber is already depressed – at the cost of lves and it costs money to arrest people.

    Sammy FInkelman (7a85f9)

  22. Not muxh ARep talk on wasting money but there was this

    https://nypost.com/2023/08/23/nyc-could-save-3b-by-putting-migrants-in-permanent-housing/

    Sammy FInkelman (1d215a)

  23. Sammy, I’m not sure if there’s hijinks involving Kadyrov, but here’s a theory.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  24. Putting my CPA creds to work, $5,000/day is over $1.8 million per year, all out-of-pocket by Romney, just to protect himself and his family.

    Is it at least deductible? It seems like a job-related expense, but I don’t know how the regs define that.

    lurker (cd7cd4)

  25. Also, I don’t know how Mormons are supposed to calculate expenses for tithing purposes — PAGING NORCAL– but it may be that the LDS Church is in effect paying 10% of that $5,000/day.

    lurker (cd7cd4)

  26. MacStrudelfarten had millions of his monkeys chattering angrily starting on November 9. I don’t blame law enforcement for having a hard time figuring out which were capable of anything more than peeling bananas with their feet. I venture that a good number of them, having been told that there would be a rally in Washington on January 6, found themselves wandering wonderingly in downtown Tacoma.

    nk (ba4d98)

  27. Utah is a gun state Mitt and his family can carry assault rifles to shoot back with. By the way do you knew why you never take a mormon fishing with you?

    asset (e9a63e)

  28. Toyota doesn’t think EVs are a good idea right now:

    https://jalopnik.com/toyota-focusing-on-hybrids-not-electric-vehicles-1850440908

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  29. Cuomo is serious about making a comeback

    Democrat strategists were casing around for someone else Trump could beat. Biden, Harris and now Cuomo. Elizabeth Warren must be getting frantic.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  30. Of course, Mike Pence was also in the position of being the vice president. But Mike Pence stayed loyal to Donald Trump until it came to his oath to support the constitution.

    But Mike Pence stayed loyal to Donald Trump until it came to his last and final chance to support the constitution.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  31. Vaping wasn’t the only issue for Boebert in that theater. Slut.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  32. Paul Montagu,

    Perhaps not an elected official, but the guy she is with is pretty slutty too.

    Dana (4020dd)

  33. Conservatives point out that the U.S. is a republic not a democracy. The constitution allows a small minority of mostly wealthy white people to control the republic. Example for those who need it 18% of the population in 26 states control 52 senate seats and even in the house the small states are over represented. On top of this senate has the fillibuster and sen. tuberville holding up the senate. To make things even more undemocratic we have gerrymandering to give the majority even less of a say.
    This is our system. Yet the white racists republicans say this is not enough advantage and we need strict voter id & registration laws to prevent too many democrats from voting like in floriduh where the voters allows convicted felons to vote. Passing protection for poll watchers to harass voters and challenge their registration among other deviltry. The corporate establishment tells democrats running for office who need money in the election system (before AOC) that they have set up. Be a good corporate establishment stooge and just whine and complain ;but do not use your power to strike back against them or else! This corrupt system benefits the corporate establishment democrats like clinton and biden who are in it for the $$$. Soon the democratic base will be running candidates who will use the system against those who are in power. Look at the desperate attempts the DNC is doing to keep RFK off the ballot in Ia. and NH and he isn’t even a lefty which is who they rightly fear.

    asset (4996cd)

  34. Maybe Boebert is making a late play for VP as well. The base would love the drama….especially if they get voyeur cam.

    AJ_Liberty (8cd28d)

  35. The company Boebert chose to keep, and her behavior was obnoxious enough that she apologized.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  36. True.

    Yes, the Democrats treatment of Mitt Romney is part of how we ended up with Trump. They were awful, dishonest scumbags about him (though I guess you can just call that politics as usual), but it also meant they had nothing left to say about Trump they didn’t already claim about Romney.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  37. I’m thinking about how quickly circumstances can change in life, politics. It’s amusing that two women who would love to be Trump’s running mate have, in the space of one weekend, seen their reputations (what they had) go up in flames. Noem and Boebert will struggle to bounce back, especially if compromising pics of Noem and Lewandowski are made public. Cue: Marge, who I think is wearing a smug grin tonight. Here’s the opening she’s been waiting for. While Trump, being the shallow and vain creature that he is, would likely prefer one of the more attractive possibilities, but he knows Marge will be the relentless attack dog he’ll need.

    Republican women aren’t covering themselves in glory right now.

    Dana (4020dd)

  38. I don’t think divorce is really a good excuse for her behavior. “I’m getting divorced so I forgot how to act in public.” Really?

    Nic (896fdf)

  39. Boebert’s behavior was hardly worse than several dozen of Trump’s own escapades. I find it amazing that we get all prudish about sexual behavior in people’s private lives, given the orange elephant in the room. Noem is a bit of a surprise though, suggesting that she decided to sleep her way to the top.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  40. Speaking of which, where are the tapes of Trump behaving badly. There must be some. Or maybe he’s just very good at paying people off.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  41. @39. I hope you’re not suggesting that Boebert’s groping qualifies as private?

    lurker (cd7cd4)

  42. These populist women used to be in the democrat party. Ignorant trailor court white trash. The gop is welcome to them. James carville talked about dragging a $100 bill thru a trailor park!

    asset (4996cd)

  43. It’s a given. Good people do not align with Trump. He’s a nasty pimp and his coterie are nasty wh*res. Liars, frauds, hypocrites, blasphemers.

    nk (c8c74b)

  44. BTW, do we know what she was vaping? Because 18 USC 922(g) also bans gun possession by an unlawful user of a controlled substance including marijuana, not only addicts.

    nk (c8c74b)

  45. lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/15/2023 @ 11:07 pm

    This is an interesting question. There was no expectation of privacy for sure, but, as far as I know, no witnesses claimed she was grabbing privates. It was an infrared camera, that cuts through the dark, that brought the soft-porn images that Paul found in his searches and shared here.

    She is a crude woman.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  46. Trump says he’s pleased by Putin’s praise: ‘I like that he said that’

    Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that he appreciated recent praise from Russian leader Vladimir Putin. In an exclusive interview with NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, Trump said it meant “what I’m saying is right,” referring to his positions on the war in Ukraine.

    ………… The former president has asserted several times that he could quickly end the war.
    ………….
    Putin, Russia’s longtime leader, said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, last week that he had heard “that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.”
    ………….
    “I like that he said that,” (Trump) told Welker. “Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out.”
    ………….
    Trump continued to avoid an explanation of what his plan would entail, though he claimed he would “make a fair deal for everybody” when asked if he would allow the Kremlin to keep Ukrainian territory that Russian forces had illegally seized by force.
    …………
    The former president did not have much to add when Welker pressed him about the Kremlin’s brutality in Ukraine, however. She noted that Russian forces had bombed maternity wards, buried Ukrainian civilians in mass graves and kidnapped children in the occupied territory.

    “It’s all terrible,” Trump said in response.
    …………..
    When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump praised Putin as “a guy who is very savvy” and the invasion of Ukraine as “genius” in an interview with a conservative podcaster.
    …………..

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  47. Thank you, BuDuh. Over the many years of performing due diligence before investing, I have come to understand that one trusts a transcript at one’s peril. Too many times, a transcript materially affects the reader’s understanding of what the speaker is trying to convey. I understand the wish to provide “safe harbor” for the “company” (or “team”, if you prefer), but this action often robs the astute of the crucial information which occupies the space in between the lines.

    felipe (3e245c)

  48. Seriously?

    Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that it is “very unlikely” he would pardon himself if he wins another term in 2024, adding in an exclusive interview with NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that he believes he did nothing wrong.

    “I think it’s very unlikely. What, what did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump said. “You mean because I challenge an election, they want to put me in jail?”
    ………….
    “People said, ‘Would you like to pardon yourself?’ I had a couple of attorneys that said, ‘You can do it if you want,'” Trump said. “I had some people that said, ‘It would look bad if you do it, because I think it would look terrible.'”

    Trump recalled giving a decisive response at the time, in 2021: “Let me just tell you. I said, ‘The last thing I’d ever do is give myself a pardon.'”

    But Trump declined to fully rule out a self-pardon when Welker pressed him about whether he might grant himself one “even if you were re-elected in this moment.”
    …………

    Since his freedom is seriously at stake in the January 6 election interference and Espionage Act trials, does anyone seriously believe that Trump would not at least attempt a self-pardon?

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  49. LOL!

    Former President Donald Trump declined to stake out a clear position on the future of abortion rights in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” but he repeatedly expressed interest in serving as a mediator between “both sides” of the issue to reach an agreement.

    “I think they’re all going to like me,” he said. “I think both sides are going to like me.”
    …………
    “We’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it,” Trump said. “And both sides are going to come together and both sides — both sides, and this is a big statement — both sides will come together. And for the first time in 52 years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us.”

    In response, Welker asked whether such an agreement would take place at the federal level.

    “It could be state or it could be federal,” Trump said. “I don’t, frankly, care.”
    …………..
    Trump said members of his own party “speak very inarticulately about this subject.

    “I watch some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera,” he said, referring to conservatives who don’t support abortion exceptions in cases including abortion and rape. “I said, ‘Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.”
    ………….
    In his interview, Trump said “people are starting to think of 15 weeks” as “a number that people are talking about right now” in terms of a federal abortion ban, but said he wouldn’t sign such legislation as president.

    “No, no,” he replied.

    He went on to call a six-week ban signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his rivals, “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
    …………
    ………… Trump portrayed himself as uniquely capable of finding a solution to put the issue to rest permanently, saying “both sides will be happy” with the solution he helps broker as president and suggesting it will “bring the country together.”

    “Let me just tell you what I’d do,” he said. “I’m going to come together with all groups, and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable.”
    …………..
    As to whether he could manage such a grand bargain between anti-abortion rights groups and pro-abortion rights activists, Trump claimed “the most powerful people that are anti-abortion are okay with” not having a complete and total ban. (Anti-abortion rights activists have sought the most stringent bans that are able to be passed through legislatures at the state and federal level — a standard that varies by legislative body.)
    …………..

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  50. Also, I don’t know how Mormons are supposed to calculate expenses for tithing purposes — PAGING NORCAL– but it may be that the LDS Church is in effect paying 10% of that $5,000/day.

    lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/15/2023 @ 3:28 pm

    I’m pretty sure that expenses are paid out of the 9/10ths that are left over after paying tithing.

    The only debate among church members is whether to pay tithing on gross income or on net income, and by net income I mean after taxes–not after expenses.

    Curiously, the church does not give specific guidance on the gross versus net debate.

    Me? I wish I could get a refund of the tithing I paid. I spent two of the best years of my life proselyting for the church without pay. The church didn’t even pay my expenses! My dad paid mine.

    These days, the Mormon church is sitting on a $100 billion fund. Talk about a racket.

    norcal (5f0f1f)

  51. https://thefederalist.com/2023/09/11/the-case-against-ken-paxton-is-all-hat-no-cattle/

    Before any witnesses were called, Judge Patrick exhorted the jury that according to the rules of the impeachment court that they had passed, only evidence that was sworn before these proceedings could be considered as they assessed their final votes. While it may seem obvious, it was an important reminder and a subtle rebuke of the Texas House, which had infamously rammed the impeachment resolution through the House in less than 48 hours over the Memorial holiday weekend in May after receiving a mix of closed and public third-hand summary testimony from sworn investigators who were recounting interviews from witnesses who had not been sworn during their own interviews.

    The House prosecution team’s first witness was Jeff Mateer who served as first assistant attorney general under Ken Paxton. Mateer is a widely respected Christian whose biggest claim to fame was having his nomination for district judge under President Trump scuttled for being too conservative. In his testimony, he came across as an Alex Vindman-style bureaucrat defending the “inter-agency consensus” who was upset at Paxton for marching to his own drum and not strictly hewing to departmental policies — as actual elected officials are often wont to do.

    Defense Attorney Tony Buzbee put on a masterclass in deconstructing a web of complex allegations made by an otherwise credible witness. He offered innocent, compelling, and credible explanations for everything that drove the whistleblowers to assume Paxton’s conduct was illegal, which Mateer struggled to refute. Mateer also came across as remaining deeply offended and judgmental about Paxton’s prior confessed extramarital affair, which had clearly caused a rift between him and Paxton, thereby keeping any innocent explanations for Paxton’s conduct from being candidly communicated between the two men.

    Next up was Ryan Bangert who served as deputy first assistant attorney general. His primary claim of misconduct was that during Covid, Paxton had sought to get official guidance released to forestall public “courthouse step” foreclosure sales. Bangert’s theory of misconduct was that all along this was an effort to help Nate Paul’s business interests, which he acknowledged was based on media reports, not any investigation of Paul’s particular circumstance. Nate Paul was a friend and donor of Paxton who was persistent if not downright obnoxious in trying to leverage his connections with Paxton for help with his various legal troubles. Paxton’s lawyer credibly established that because Paul had filed for bankruptcy prior to the time when the guidance was released — which automatically stayed the foreclosure — the guidance didn’t benefit Paul at all.

    Looks like the witch hunt failed.

    NJRob (7cb41d)

  52. Paxton impeachment vote in progress

    https://www.youtube.com/live/-w-kEOuHPCA?si=M5PRsdJaXQvwfZWG

    So far, he has been acquitted of the first 9 charges.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  53. Since his freedom is seriously at stake in the January 6 election interference and Espionage Act trials, does anyone seriously believe that Trump would not at least attempt a self-pardon?

    Well, he could instead try for a President-for-Life self-coup.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  54. I hope you’re not suggesting that Boebert’s groping qualifies as private?

    She’s not the first person to engage in heavy petting in a dark theater. That was taken by a wide-view (hence the low rez), low-light camera (hence the B&W), and there may have been an expectation of privacy in that setting. The image presented makes it look like everything was visible, but that’s a lie.

    Reasonable expectation? Maybe not, but when I was in high school, the balcony section of my local theater was kind of notorious for that kind of behavior.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  55. They are now on the last 4 articles of impeachment. None so far have gotten a majority, let alone 2/3rds. Apparently few Republican senators are willing to dare Trump’s ire.

    The GOP cannot be destroyed fast enough.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  56. . The image presented makes it look like everything was visible, but that’s a lie.

    There were children behind her and near.

    I get it, I was in high school too, but didn’t normal people do that crap in the back of the theater? I think this is not only no privacy expectation, but was somewhat exhibitionist. I think Lauren has flaunted sex appeal quite a lot, her gun poses are often a bit sexualized for example. One way to avoid people noticing you is to avoid vaping in the middle of a room full of people.

    This is unimportant as a story, and Ted Kennedy used to slam his body into waitresses so it’s not a sign of decline. But what a loser.

    They are all losers. Trump was electable because everyone up there is an idiot. Biden was electable for the same reason. Whoever wins in 2024 will also be an idiot. Anyone who is normal will be screeched off the map a year before the first primary like “Sure, Not” in idiocracy. Ted Cruz, an actual alien from outer space, was a plausible candidate.

    Willard Delecto (d3a725)

  57. DeSantis Can’t Catch a Break

    The Republican Party of Florida on Friday night scrapped plans to require presidential candidates to sign a loyalty oath, siding with former President Donald Trump over Gov. Ron DeSantis in a proxy war that tested the strength of the two rivals’ support in their home state.

    ……….. Pro-Trump forces in the party, led by state Sen. Joe Gruters, pushed to reverse course Friday, arguing that the state GOP violated national party rules that bar such changes to candidate eligibility requirements within two years of an election.

    Gruters, a former chairman of the Florida GOP, made a motion to remove the language and won out in a voice vote by an “overwhelming” margin, he told CNN.
    …………
    On Thursday, Trump told conservative host Megyn Kelly he does not plan to debate his fellow Republicans, pointing to his commanding lead over the 2024 primary field.

    “I don’t see it,” Trump told Kelly. “Why would I do it?”
    ########

    Florida Republicans, like those in California and other states, are tailoring their primary to benefit Trump’s campaign. While there is limited polling for the FL Republican primary (nothing since June, with Trump 10 points ahead of DeSantis), this retreat demonstrates Trump’s ability to dominate internal politics of state parties.

    The Lilliputians don’t have a chance.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  58. She’s not the first person to engage in heavy petting in a dark theater.

    How many of them would be sitting Members of Congress?

    Rip Murdock (36fe40)

  59. Apparently few Republican senators are willing to dare Trump’s ire.

    Because they were all so lovey dovey in the past?

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  60. Paxton acquitted on all counts.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  61. How many of them would be sitting Members of Congress?

    Hard to say, but probably not zero. I offer Gary Stubbs as an example.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  62. Does a Ted Kennedy “Waitress Sandwich” count?

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  63. They are now on the last 4 articles of impeachment. None so far have gotten a majority, let alone 2/3rds. Apparently few Republican senators are willing to dare Trump’s ire.

    The GOP cannot be destroyed fast enough.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 10:29 am

    For what?

    NJRob (7cb41d)

  64. Based on the actual testimony, an acquittal for Paxton was obvious. It was a witch hunt based on heresay and innuendo.

    NJRob (7cb41d)

  65. For what?

    For ceasing to be a conservative party and becoming a radical fascist one.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  66. And, yes, I use the word “fascist” with a full understanding of its historical meaning.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  67. This seems right on brand:

    We are excited to announce Congresswoman @laurenboebert is added to our all-star @texyouthsummit lineup.

    🗓️September 29-30
    📍The Woodlands Marriott

    This is FREE to ages 12-26, adults 27+ can buy tickets starting at texasyouthsummit.com/events.

    (Announced after her groping incident)

    Dana (4020dd)

  68. Noem, Boebert, Marge, Stefanik, Lake all hoping to get the call from Trump. I think he’ll go with Stefanik. But, he’s unpredictable, and flattery counts for a whole lot in his book:

    KRISTEN WELKER: Are you leaning toward a woman?

    FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP: I like the concept, but we’re going to pick the best person. But I do like the concept, yes.

    KRISTEN WELKER: A lot of people noticed when Governor Noem endorsed you there were Trump/Noem signs. Do you have your eye on her?

    FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP: I do. I think she’s fantastic. She’s been a great governor. She gave me a very full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement actually. And, you know, it’s been a very good state for me. And certainly she’d be one of the people I’d consider, or for something else maybe. But we have a lot of people. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.

    Dana (4020dd)

  69. Dana (4020dd) — 9/16/2023 @ 11:38 am

    Does anyone think Boebert will have the decency to withdraw?

    Nah.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  70. Heck, look what Gingrich was doing and STILL he ran for President. And came pretty close.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  71. I really have little patience for prudery in politics. People are sexual animals and denying that is an exercise in hypocrisy. This is just another e3xample of gotcha politics, and I wonder just how this tape was obtained from what is obviously a low-light, wide-angle security camera. The venue could reasonably be sued for invasion of privacy, as this was not why the camera is there.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  72. For ceasing to be a conservative party and becoming a radical fascist one.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 11:11 am

    So you have nothing and are just emoting. I’ll disregard the rest of your hyperbolic statements till you cool off.

    NJRob (7cb41d)

  73. I wouldn’t discount Kari Lake either, but her stock is down. Trump is comfortable with eye candy and fierce loyalty. I think it’s Noem or Lake. Boebert has those two requisites but she lacks the discretion component. Trump needs every waffling independent and Boebert might make Harris look darn near Presidential. Noem’s ahead but it will depend on the Lewandowski fallout. Does that offset her superior resume qualifications?

    Let’s face it. It’s a collective freak show. Just think what that foreshadows for the cabinet positions. Come on America.

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  74. Fox News Poll 9/15/23

    Three weeks after the first Republican presidential primary debate, the latest Fox News survey finds Donald Trump has increased both his lead in the race and his strength of support.

    Sixty percent of Republican primary voters back Trump in the primary race, up from 53% in the Fox News pre-debate August survey.
    ……….
    At 13% support, Ron DeSantis sees a downtick of 3 points since the debate, while Vivek Ramaswamy holds steady at 11%. Next is Nikki Haley with 5%, Mike Pence and Tim Scott at 3% each, and Chris Christie at 2%. All remaining candidates receive 1% or less.
    …………
    “Unless something changes, this is Trump’s race to lose,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw who conducts the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson. “The question is, how likely is it that something changes enough to shake Trump’s Republican supporters loose and get them to look at someone else?”

    ………..(W)ithout Trump, the poll shows a tight race between DeSantis and Ramaswamy, at 33% and 31% respectively, with Pence in third at 11%. All others are in single digits in that scenario.

    Another indication of Trump’s strength is the growing number of GOP primary voters saying they will definitely back him – now 65%, up from 58% in June.

    That level of support isn’t seen for any other candidate tested: 28% say they definitely will back DeSantis, 24% for Ramaswamy, 13% for Haley, 12% for Scott, 9% Pence, and 4% Christie.
    ………….
    Since the GOP debate, Ramaswamy (+8 points), Haley (+6), Trump (+4), and Burgum (+2 points) all saw increases in their favorable rating among GOP primary voters while DeSantis (-2), Scott (-2), and Christie (-1) saw declines. Pence saw no change.
    ………..
    “Support for Trump is so strong in the Republican primary that any signs of growth among his rivals also spurs backlash among Trump loyalists,” says Anderson. “It’s increasingly difficult to see a winning pathway out of primary for anyone not named Trump.
    ……….

    Poll cross tabs.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  75. “The venue could reasonably be sued for invasion of privacy”

    Many a teenager would agree with you. Unfortunately no prosecutors would. I’m pretty sure a public venue can monitor have its premises monitored. And last I looked, there’s no expectation of privacy in a public theater.

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  76. It’s a collective freak show. Just think what that foreshadows for the cabinet positions. Come on America.

    81 million voted for this:

    Non-binary ex-Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton arrested for being ‘fugitive from justice’

    Indeed America, come on…

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  77. I really have little patience for prudery in politics. People are sexual animals and denying that is an exercise in hypocrisy.

    It’s got nothing to do with prudery, but everything to do with the Party of family values sanctimoniously telling other people how to live and not exampling it themselves. To the contrary.

    Dana (4020dd)

  78. Heck, look what Gingrich was doing and STILL he ran for President. And came pretty close.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 12:08 pm

    LOL! He won a single primary (South Carolina) and a total of 138 delegates out of 2,286. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul won more delegates.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  79. And last I looked, there’s no expectation of privacy in a public theater.

    Perhaps, although in my state there are signs. The video is taken purely for security reasons, and the bit that was made public was targeted and certainly against the venue’s policy and/or stated purpose. To say it is not an invasion of privacy to post that video is laughably obtuse. It was precisely WHY it was posted.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  80. The venue could reasonably be sued for invasion of privacy, as this was not why the camera is there.

    Any real world examples?

    Most places with surveillance cameras have posted warnings about cameras and/or it’s part of the fine print when you purchase the ticket. There is no expectation of privacy in a public venue.

    If Boebert sues, then the images will be played over and over again. She just filmed her 2024 opponents’ campaign commercials.

    Truly Comedy Gold!

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  81. Gingrich won Georgia as well, and ran a close second in others. Heading into Florida (Jan 31) he was a serious contender, but he botched Florida with his moon colony talk, getting only 32% there, and no delegates and never recovered. Sure, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum ended up with more delegates, but they never actually had a chance of getting the nomination — single-issue candidates.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  82. My only disappointment is that SNL is off the air due to the writers strike, but it would be hard to top this reality TV.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  83. but they never actually had a chance of getting the nomination

    Neither did Gingrich, no matter how it’s spun.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  84. Most places with surveillance cameras have posted warnings about cameras and/or it’s part of the fine print when you purchase the ticket. There is no expectation of privacy in a public venue.

    The announced surveillance is for a limited purpose. Someone committing a crime would have no cause to sue. This video was released to shame a customer, and that’s a tort.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  85. Once Gingrich’s sugar daddy pulled the plug, he was doomed.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  86. Here is a direct link to the video that my previous link promised:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=j_hxQxrArzTKReMG&v=3Q_BIqy_kkI&feature=youtu.be

    This is the work of a sanctimonious party, that tells us how to live, IMO.

    But I am probably wrong.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  87. This video was released to shame a customer, and that’s a tort.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 12:58 pm

    We’ll deserved.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  88. This video was released to shame a customer, and that’s a tort.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 12:58 pm

    Well deserved.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54) — 9/16/2023 @ 1:22 pm

    Denver Arts & Venues, which controls many venues in Denver (and is apparently a government entity) released the video, probably in response to media inquiries.

    Good luck with that lawsuit. It may be a tort, but the continuing negative publicity won’t enhance her “family values” reputation (such as it is).

    A tort for the tart.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  89. I expect to see a raft of embarrassing videos. Biden picking his nose, Trump’s hairpiece flapping around, that kind of thing. Our politics suck.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  90. We’ll deserved.
    Rip Murdock (f97e54) — 9/16/2023 @ 1:22 pm

    I believe that is called “actual malice.”

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  91. This video was released to shame a customer, and that’s a tort.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 12:58 pm

    Assuming Boebert does sue (which again I think is laughable) I would love to watch her squirm when she’s cross-examined by defense counsel.

    Must See TV!

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  92. I would love to watch her squirm

    Paul will probably find that video first.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  93. I believe that is called “actual malice.”

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/16/2023 @ 2:11 pm

    Uhhh…. no. “Actual Malice” applies to defamation law, not torts.

    ………(T)he Supreme Court held (in New York Times v. Sullivan) that for a public official to succeed on a defamation claim, the public official plaintiff must show that the false, defaming statements were said with “actual malice.”
    ……….
    The Sullivan court stated that “actual malice” means that the defendant said the defamatory statement “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”

    The Sullivan court also held that when the standard is actual malice, the plaintiff must prove actual malice by “clear and convincing” evidence, rather than the usual burden of proof in a civil case, which is the preponderance of the evidence standard. On this point, the precise language the Sullivan court uses is that the plaintiff must show “the convincing clarity which the constitutional standard demands.”
    ………..

    Paragraph breaks added.

    Nobody has said anything defamatory about Boebert’s behavior. It’s there for all to see.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  94. You’re indulging in fantasy, Kevin.

    I don’t know how they do things in the hills. There might be a reasonable expectation of privacy behind the barn or in the hayloft. And if you hear rustling in the bushes by the sheep trail, maybe you’re supposed to avert your eyes and just keep on walking.

    But in the big city, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a crowded theater, with hundreds of people all around you. And that camera didn’t capture anything that those hundreds of people could not see once their eyes had adjusted to the light.

    nk (5bc229)

  95. Republican traditional family values or those of the manson family. Ask ken paxton who was just now not convicteted or any republican trailor court trash like bobert & Mtg.

    asset (0671c6)

  96. In, as I recall, his 2000 acceptance speech, George W. Bush said this (or something very like it) about Bill Clinton: “All that talent. Wasted.”

    I’ve been thinking for some time that the same comment applies, sadly, to Ted Cruz, too.

    Jim Miller (1aabf6)

  97. Just in time, Jim. Will you please weigh in on the hairdos of the pretend top contenders mentioned at 11:47?

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  98. Also, Boebert has been regularly addressing/tweeting that kids should be taken to church not drag shows, and yet her groping date at Beetlejuice okay is a bar owner where drag shows are hosted, per NYPost.

    Dana (4020dd)

  99. BuDuh,

    You’ve never explained why Jim’s question about Lake’s haircut seemed to trigger you. For some reason, it still does.

    Also, you can’t say whether they’re just “pretend” candidates. We can speculate, which is what I’ve done.

    Dana (4020dd)

  100. Trump Civil Litigation Watch:

    The federal judge who dismissed Donald Trump’s RICO case against Hillary Clinton more than a year ago has once again declined to indulge the former president’s demand that the judge remove himself from the matter as the case is appealed.

    U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks ……….. previously denied a similar motion from the former president in April 2022.

    “I have never met or spoken with Bill or Hillary Clinton,” Middlebrooks wrote in that April 2022 ruling. “Other than my appointment by Bill Clinton, I do not now have nor have I ever had any relationship with the Clintons.”
    ………..
    “Upon the filing of an appeal, the District Court is divested of jurisdiction over the matter,” the judge wrote (citations omitted). “‘The filing of a notice of appeal is an event of jurisdictional significance — it confers jurisdiction on the court of appeals and divest the district court of its control over those aspects of the case involved in the appeal.’”

    “Plaintiff’s Notice of Appeal on February 6, 2023, divested this court of its jurisdiction over the case,” he wrote. ………“He did not, however, file a motion to stay the appeal for a motion to disqualify”………
    …………
    “I would not grant the motion and do not believe it raises a substantial issue,” the judge writes, noting Trump’s criticisms of the judge’s order of sanctions against team Trump.

    “Movants complain that I ‘went above and beyond’ the defendants’ arguments and conducted ‘extrajudicial research,’” Middlebrooks writes. “This seems to be a pejorative misnomer. In my two orders on sanctions, I conducted limited independent judicial research in every instance in response to arguments made by the parties. I looked at judicial decisions, legal filings, and statements not subject to dispute and directly made by Mr. Trump and his lawyers. In each instance, I cited the source for the information.”
    ……….
    “The case before me was frivolous, its purpose was improper and part of a pattern of behavior harmful to the Rule of Law,” he writes. “Article III judges have an obligation to protect the administration of justice from abuse.”
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  101. I am speculating that they are pretend. Is that ok?

    And yes, I found Jim’s comments about Kari Lakes hair to be sanctimoniously delivered and think those comments should be held in the same regard as “barefoot and in the kitchen” type stuff.

    Kari Lake is lousy for so many other reasons.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  102. Curiously, the church does not give specific guidance on the gross versus net debate.

    Thanks. Maybe it’s because of the veil of secrecy, but I find such tidbits about LDS machinations and policy endlessly fascinating.

    These days, the Mormon church is sitting on a $100 billion fund. Talk about a racket.

    Yeah, I hear the same beef from a good friend who, like you, is a Jack Mormon. And make no mistake, the complaints are compelling. At the same time, I have to confess, that as uber-wealthy rackets go, there’s a lot I find to admire in the LDS Church. Principally, LDS Philanthropies seems to do an awful lot of good. For example, in the immediate, heckuva-job-brownie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it made an indelible impression on me that several victims I saw interviewed reported that the crucial first and most generous assistance they received came not from FEMA or the Red Cross, but from Mormon volunteers emptying the shelves of LDS Church warehouses.

    lurker (cd7cd4)

  103. I have often disagreed with Nicholas Kristof, but have always considered him a person of good character. (I see him, as I always have, as a “bleeding-heart” liberal, a person who wants the best for everyone, but may not be willing to make the hard choices necessary to achieve that.)

    And now I have even more respect for him; he has said the unsayable, and at the New York Times, no less:

    American liberals need to accept that single-parent families are more likely to raise children in poverty, an influential New York Times columnist has argued.

    Nick Kristof said the fact was taboo among progressives, who worried that they would be labelled racist for admitting it.

    As someone who is old enough to remember what happened to Patrick Moynihan when he raised this issue, I admire Kristof’s courage for writing this.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Family:_The_Case_For_National_Action

    (For years, I have believed that the decline in families in America is our largest domestic problem — by far. We are, more and more, less able to do what, for example, ordinary crows do routinely: form pair bonds that make it far easier to raise healthy offspring.)

    Jim Miller (ac3118)

  104. no. “Actual Malice” applies to defamation law, not torts.

    It does apply to defamation law, but I bet you dollars to donuts proving actual malice when it comes to a tort is not in the defendant’s favor.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  105. I get the shadenfreude wrt Boebert. But this kind of glee when one’s political opponents get a comeuppance isn’t very demonstrative of your own character. As I said, our politics today suck if this is the tenor of our discourse.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  106. Given Trump, what level of disrepute does his running mate have to avoid? It seems more likely that media “victimization” is a plus for those folks. Getting the elites tsk’ing at them also helps.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  107. Jim,

    There was a time when the federal government conditioned aid to poor families on there being no man in the household. For dubious values of “aid.”

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  108. https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/09/16/nebraska-woman-sues-trans-doctors-who-removed-her-breasts-as-a-teen-n578434

    Hein reportedly went through a very traumatic childhood. She was “groomed and threatened” by an adult man and experienced other trauma. This led her to exhibit the symptoms of serious mental health struggles by the age of 13. But the doctors at the Health Center didn’t pursue any sort of therapy to address those issues. They instead diagnosed her as having “gender identity disorder” at the age of 15 and rushed her into the trans treatment pipeline, leading to the removal of her healthy breasts. Another doctor urged her to schedule a partial hysterectomy and have her womb removed at the age of 16, a procedure that would have left her permanently sterile. Thankfully, they failed to convince her to go that far, but the damage was already done.

    Hein has been suffering from many of the negative effects brought on by years of testosterone injections. These can include hair loss or abnormal hair growth, high blood pressure, and a deepened voice. She will never be able to fully recover and if she is still capable of having children someday (which has not yet been established) she will never be able to breastfeed them.

    I hope she bankrupts the hospital that abused her and took advantage of her to make a buck.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  109. I’ve often thought that liability lawyers make a lot of actual law.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  110. proving actual malice when it comes to a tort

    Irrelevant comparison, unless you can cite cases where “actual malice” was part of the litigation.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  111. I get the shadenfreude wrt Boebert. But this kind of glee when one’s political opponents get a comeuppance isn’t very demonstrative of your own character.

    If this was directed at me, you mistakenly assume my reaction to be “glee”. I have come to expect lowbrow behavior from MAGAland. It isn’t surprising nor does it make me gleeful. I’m embarrassed for Boebert, and feel badly for her kids.

    Dana (4020dd)

  112. Dana/JVW-

    Please release my post at 5:46 pm from purgatory. Thanks!

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  113. Dana – She and her soon-to-be ex-husband have four sons — and a grandson, and you are right to feel for all five of them. We can even feel a little sorry for her, judging by what little Wikipedia has to say about her mother.

    Jim Miller (192368)

  114. a href=”https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-dodges-questions-about-classified-documents-during-megyn-kelly-interview/amp/”>Trump Dodges Questions about Classified Documents during Megyn Kelly Interview
    …………
    During an interview with Trump for her SiriusXM show, Megyn Kelly asked him about an audio recording of the 2021 meeting when he allegedly showed a writer, a publisher, and two of his staff members “some sort of document that you described as secret.”

    ………..(I)n an interview on Fox News, Trump claimed that he had a newspaper.
    ………….
    Kelly asked why Trump described the document as “highly confidential” and “secret” if it was just a newspaper. Trump dodged the question, saying it doesn’t matter what document he was holding because he was protected by the Presidential Records Act.

    “Let me just tell you something,” he said. “Number one, I did nothing wrong because I come under the Presidential Records Act. The fascists who are going after me, and they’re not going after Biden even though he has about ten times more documents, maybe more than that, he has documents going back 40 years of 50 years. We did nothing wrong. I come under the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to have these documents. This was done in 1978. And this was done for exactly this reason.”

    “I’m allowed to have these documents,” Trump said.

    When Kelly pressed Trump, not on whether he was legally allowed to have the documents, but about why he would claim that a newspaper was secret and could have been declassified, Trump again dodged. “I would have to look at it,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to talk to you about that because that’s already been, I think, very substantiated, and there’s no problem with it.”
    …………
    During the interview Trump also said he didn’t recall giving Dr. Anthony Fauci a presidential commendation at the end of his time in office. ……….
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  115. Rip Murdock (f97e54) — 9/16/2023 @ 6:16 pm

    Link to Megyn Kelly/Donald Trump interview.

    Rip Murdock (f97e54)

  116. Rip Murdock (f97e54) — 9/16/2023 @ 6:16 pm

    More from Trump:

    ………..

    This is all about the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to have these documents. I’m allowed to take these documents, classified or not classified. And frankly, when I have them, they become unclassified. People think you have to go through a ritual. You don’t, at least in my opinion, you don’t. But it’s even beyond that. Because the Presidential Records Act allows you to do as president, only as president. Now, the other people that we talk about, including Biden, he wasn’t president. So what he did is a different standard. And he should have real problems. They really should be talking about that. Not about me. I did absolutely nothing wrong.

    Trump’s response quickly raised eyebrows as legal analysts and observers argued the president confessed to charges against him.

    “Credit to @megynkelly for letting him confess to the crimes in the indictment. She’ll see this played at the trial by the government,” responded national security lawyer and pundit Bradley Moss.

    “Donald Trump looked around this week, saw Biden hit with the impeachment inquiry and Hunter hit with an indictment and decided, ‘you know what, I’m not getting enough attention, I think I will go confess to crimes under the espionage act,’” Moss added. ………

    “At some point you almost begin to feel for his lawyers. (Almost being the key word there),” replied David Rothkoopf.

    Below are some additional replies:

    ………..
    Xeorge Xonway
    @gtconway3d

    interviewers should be required to read him his rights
    ………..
    Joyce Alene
    @JoyceWhiteVance

    So nice when Trump does prosecutors’ work for them. Good confession

    Paul Niland
    @PaulNiland

    Cracking confession. “Not according to my opinion” doesn’t change the law, whoever you are.

    ##########

    Comedy gold!

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  117. Rip Murdock (90963c) — 9/16/2023 @ 7:29 pm

    A Different View:

    Former Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States Neal Katyal thinks Donald Trump’s all-over-the-place interview with Megyn Kelly isn’t the most “unwise strategy.”
    …………
    “I know everyone’s saying, ‘Well, Trump is reckless in giving this interview,’ and the like. I have a different view. I actually think that this is not an unwise strategy for him, because he doesn’t have a legal defense, he doesn’t have a factual defense,” Katyal said.

    “The only defense he has is to try and poison the jury pool with his cockamamie nonsense and hope that he can draw a juror that’s going to say this or, as Andrew says, hope that he can just stretch this out through innuendo and so on until after the presidential election and hope that the prosecution is terminated. These aren’t legal defenses or factual defenses — they’re extrajudicial defenses.”
    …………
    “He’s trying to drag it out and put himself in a situation where he’s already nominated by the time that the trial comes around and even if he’s convicted, he’ll look at the Republican party. And say you’re stuck with me and let’s go through with this” said National Security Attorney Bradley Moss.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (64eff4)

  118. Ken Paxton is under indictment for fraud, and he’s under FBI investigation (link).
    Because corruption knows corruption, Trump pushed for his acquittal in the impeachment trial, and his lapdogs in the Senate went along.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  119. There could not possibly be any other reason the Ken Paxton impeachment failed.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yvKQCEx1GBc

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=01fW08560Hk

    Nope, no other reason at all. Simply Trumpthuglicans…

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  120. @98 The D.C. madam had a different opinion of cancun ted.

    asset (4e25fe)

  121. @109 and it was conservatives who were responsible for it. Like reagan and his welfare cadillacs ;but also before him and the hyde amendment.

    asset (4e25fe)

  122. @119 Of course this is his strategy. This is the problem with political trials as opposed to bribery, sex and corruption. Right now you can go to trumpest blogs where legal bloggers tell trumpsters how to give answers like don’t have an opinion on anything and act dumb, that will get them on the jury.

    asset (4e25fe)

  123. @125. Links?

    lurker (cd7cd4)

  124. BuDuh (6bd49e) — 9/16/2023 @ 11:00 pm

    Great remarks by Smithee.

    felipe (5e2a04)

  125. BuDuh,

    those are excellent videos explaining how the House abused the process to try and lynch AG Paxton.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  126. More on Ken Paxton.

    The impeachment articles against Paxton are pretty straightforward: He is accused of abusing the powers of his office to help out a politically connected real-estate investor in Austin, Nate Paul, who is himself under felony indictment (eight counts) for alleged crimes of a distinctly Trumpish nature (i.e., defrauding banks by lying about his assets and liabilities in order to obtain loans). Paxton, according to the articles of impeachment, essentially handed over the power of the attorney general’s office to that alleged criminal and con artist; in return, the charges say, that alleged criminal and con artist helped Paxton out by picking up some of the tab for various home renovations and—here’s where things first got messy—putting Paxton’s mistress on the company payroll, setting her up in Austin for the purposes of adulterous convenience.

    The specifics are very … specific, but lawmakers accuse Paxton of trying to help out Paul with litigation involving a charity that had invested with—and was now suing—his company. Paxton allegedly gave Paul access to what should have been confidential information and at one point put out legal guidance to delay certain foreclosures as a favor to Paul. In exchange, Paxton received bribes from Paul in the form of the aforementioned home-improvement and adultery subsidies. When whistleblowers brought these allegations to the attention of federal law enforcement in 2020, Paxton embarked on a campaign of retribution and intimidation.

    The Republican-led state legislature took relatively little interest in all of this until Paxton reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the whistleblowers whose careers and reputations he had wrecked and then attempted to put taxpayers on the hook for the bill. In the course of all this, the impeachment articles say, Paxton “abused the public trust,” engaged in “dereliction of duty” and the “misapplication of public resources,” “violated the constitution and his oath of office,” partook in “misconduct, private or public, of such a character as to indicate his unfitness for office,” and—the really undeniable one in the view of many Texans—brought “the office of attorney general into scandal or disrepute.”

    As state Rep. Andrew Murr, the impeachment manager, put it: “Paxton turned the keys to his office over to Nate Paul.”

    Williamson was wrong about a conviction in the Senate, but then he didn’t expect a short-fingered cult leader insert himself into the proceedings.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  127. If the theater didn’t have cameras, Boebert could well have gotten away with her lies that she wasn’t vaping and behaving obnoxiously in a crowded theater, and the theater could well have been sued by Boebert. But the tape don’t lie, Boebert does, until she got busted on it, one-finger salute and all.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  128. BOEBERT!!!!!

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  129. Fair message by Mr. Erickson, but it didn’t stop him voting for a fully corrupt and contemptible human being twice.

    I am not of the left. I expect those I support to have higher standards. I believe if i don’t work to clean up my own side, the voters themselves will do it. One cannot belong to a party that claims family values and stocks it full of philanderers, adulterers, and deviants.

    The other side wins when our side offers a message that resonates with people, but deploys politicians carrying that message who mock the message in their own lives. The voters won’t trust those we claim can carry the message.

    It is notable how the media has largely ignored the Democrat candidate who made online porn and focused instead on the GOP congresswoman who claims family values who was in a public theater behaving badly and denied the behavior till exposed.

    The solution is not that my side should ignore our sides’ bad candidates like the left/media does to their side. The solution is for our side to reject those sorts of candidates, clean up our side, and offer a better alternative.

    If you think our side should behave like the other side, you are no better than the other side.

    But will Erickson vote for him again if nominated? If yes, then his hypocrisy will be there for everyone to see.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  130. Felipe and NJRob, thank you. I actually spent time watching/listening to the hearings. It was every bit the joke that was laid out in those videos. Dan Patrick’s audit will be very interesting, IMO.

    An endless loop of Boobert’s Voyeur Vids commands more attention though.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  131. Does Erickson live in a “my vote doesn’t count” state? If he does, then why is he a reference for anything related to POTUS?

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  132. “Assuming zero corruption and money laundering” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this tweet, but even if the payouts are 25% overstated, even 50% overstated, the KIA and WIA for the rashist invaders is massively understated, and way higher than 300k total KIA/WIA reported by the NYT.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  133. Does Erickson live in a “my vote doesn’t count” state? If he does, then why is he a reference for anything related to POTUS?

    You can answer that question for yourself, as he’s some not unknown or obscure person.
    He was one of the inaugural contributors to RedState.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  134. So… you don’t know.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  135. Yes, I do know. I was one of the inaugural contributors at RedState, too.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  136. Fair enough.

    Since Erickson vowed in 2016 to never vote for the “racist” and “fascist”(his words) Trump, but voted for him twice since then, according to you. Isn’t he already an untrustworthy hypocrite? Why does he get a third chance?

    Is it because you were friends?

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  137. But will Erickson vote for him again if nominated? If yes, then his hypocrisy will be there for everyone to see.

    I probably won’t, but you seem to see political difference as mere differences of opinion, rather than something that also reflects on character. Is a group that wants to tax the bejeezus out of working families so they can send money to deadbeat supporters simply of a different opinion? Or are they corrupt thieves and scoundrels?

    Biden IN POLICY is corrupt and destructive to actual living people. He would command their lives and their earnings and force them to obey his demands. He would corrupt their children, denigrate their beliefs and impoverish their futures.

    Now, sure, Trump sucks too, in more ways than I can count, but to find the fault all on one side — and “obviously so, as you do — is to carry a lot of water for the current corrupt thieving liar in the White House.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  138. Friends? No, and I haven’t interacted with him since RedState booted me out.

    There was an election and a democracy that Trump undermined after the 2020 election, so it’s a little different the third time around, but he should be fairly criticized for his poor judgment in voting for him the first two times.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  139. Correction, I did interact with him before he shut down the comment section at The Resurgent.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  140. Now, sure, Trump sucks too, in more ways than I can count, but to find the fault all on one side — and “obviously so, as you do — is to carry a lot of water for the current corrupt thieving liar in the White House.

    Not honest, Kevin. I don’t “find the fault all on one side”.

    Also not honest is that I “carry a lot of water for the current corrupt thieving liar in the White House.”

    My only support for Biden is with most (but not all) of his support for Ukraine, and that’s it. More accurately, he agrees with me on the subject. I don’t support his fearful reactions to Putin’s threats, and I don’t support his slow-walking aid to that country, and I don’t support his other policies, except maybe a couple of things with the ChiComs.

    Biden is a ordinary Democrat and ordinary liar. He’s going to put out wrongheaded proposals, which isn’t good and I don’t support them, but he’s not threatening to “terminate” the Constitution, he’s not engaged in a Big Lie or Election Fraud Hoax, and there’s no evidence that he’s a felon. Does this mean I’ll vote for him? No. I’ve made my position clear about that. I’m just as much NeverBiden as NeverTrump as NeverRamaswamy as Never[name Democrat here].

    There’s nothing ordinary about Trump, IMO. He’s an extraordinary liar, an extraordinary con man and extraordinary cult leader. The RCP average has him at 56.6% for the nomination, which is 43.9 ahead of the 2nd place challenger, which speaks to his cultish support, and should speak to the dysfunctional and off-the-rails and right-wing and un-conservative descent of my party. If we don’t clean house of this malignant narcissist, it’ll get cleaned out for us with more electoral losses.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  141. “Biden IN POLICY is corrupt and destructive to actual living people.”

    And this is how we get more Trump. When he pulls support from Ukraine and pulls our forces out of South Korea, we will need to revisit this what-aboutism. Trump is a threat to national security…whether its calculated or simply benign ignorance. He’s unfit….and one of his many indictments calls this out.

    Yes Biden is horrible on most economic and social policy, and his diminishing state also makes him a threat to national security but likely a little less of a threat. He’s navigated Ukraine well and is building alliances in the far east. It’s unclear to me that Trump II will be able to build much. Again, we will likely get the C team of hacks, conspiracy loons, and yes men. Trump is Commander in Chief. He can make moves that will be difficult to check. Biden’s economic policies must get through a tight Congress.

    AJ_Liberty (0fa53d)

  142. Quinnipiac University National Poll 9/13/23

    In the race for the 2024 Republican Party nomination, support for former President Donald Trump now stands at 62 percent among Republican and Republican leaning voters, slightly up from 57 percent support in August, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll released today.

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis receives 12 percent support, down from 18 percent support in August. In today’s poll, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy receives 6 percent support, former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence each receive 5 percent support, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott receives 3 percent support, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie receives 2 percent support. All other listed Republican candidates receive less than 2 percent support.
    ……………
    Among those voters supporting Trump in the Republican primary, 68 percent say they are firmly set on Trump no matter what happens leading up to the Republican primary, while 29 percent say they might change their candidate choice depending on what happens leading up to the Republican primary.

    In the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, President Biden receives 73 percent support among Democrats and Democratic leaning voters, environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. receives 11 percent support, and author Marianne Williamson receives 8 percent support.
    …………….
    Among those voters supporting Biden in the Democratic primary, 51 percent say they might change their candidate choice depending on what happens leading up to the Democratic primary, while 46 percent say they are firmly set on Biden no matter what happens leading up to the Democratic primary.
    ………….
    In a hypothetical 2024 general election matchup between President Biden and former President Trump, 47 percent of registered voters support Biden, while 46 percent support Trump, essentially a dead heat and unchanged from Quinnipiac University’s August poll when Biden received 47 percent support and Trump received 46 percent support among registered voters.
    …………..
    Voters 61 – 34 percent support setting a maximum age limit for candidates to be eligible to run for president of the United States. There is strong support among all listed groups. ………. As for what the maximum age limit should be for candidates to be eligible to run for president: 30 percent of voters say 70 years old, 19 percent say 75 years old, 5 percent say 80 years old, 2 percent say 85 years old, and 34 percent of voters oppose setting any age limit.

    As for candidates to be eligible to run for the United States House of Representatives and Senate, voters 66 – 30 percent support setting a maximum age limit. ……….
    ……………..

    Unfortunately for the American public, the only way to impose age limits (or requiring mental acuity tests, or prohibiting a felon from serving in Congress or as President) would be through a constitutional amendment.

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  143. BTW, Rob won’t answer my questions, but I’ll answer his questions, the ones he put to Time.
    Did you or did you not support shutting down churches by state mandate due to the same type of nonsense New Mexico’s dictator is doing now?
    Quarantines and such by governors are allowed for limited periods, based on multiple court rulings, including the USSC. What’s not allowed is discriminating against or singling out houses of worship.

    Are you pro-abortion, directly contrary to Christ’s teachings?
    No. I’m pro-life, or anti-abortion.

    Do you believe the government must mandate homosexual indoctrination in schools, permit it if the teacher desires, or should they focus on reading, writing and arithmetic?
    Hate the sin, love the sinner. Schools should not be promoting sinful acts or sinful lifestyles. At the same time, Christ’s Great Commandment is to love one another, and he added no exceptions to it.

    Do you believe that boys are boys and girls are girls or are they “gender-fluid?”

    The former, the part about boys being boys and girls being girls.

    Do you believe drug use is harmful and mass drug use breaks down society?
    Yes.

    Do you believe there are illegal aliens or are they just “undocumented Americans?”
    I’m good with illegal aliens or illegal immigrants. The common theme is “illegal”, as in they have no right to be here.

    Is Christ the Son of God, who sacrificed himself and died on the cross for our sins only to rise again and ascend to Heaven?
    Yes.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  144. Christ’s Great Commandment is to love one another, and he added no exceptions to it.

    Well… except the exceptions regarding Trump.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  145. Well… except the exceptions regarding Trump.

    My “no exceptions” weakness, where I fall short, is with assholes, but we all fall short, don’t we, BuDuh?

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  146. We do.

    BuDuh (6bd49e)

  147. but he’s not threatening to “terminate” the Constitution

    But effectively he IS doing it. The First and Second Amendments are under attack by him, the power of Congress to make the law is being ignored, he is failing in his oath to faithfully execute the laws, and he is now going to force Texas to deal with his immigration catastrophe on its own. It’s kind of odd that he ignores the international borders of Texas while enforcing travel bans on the same immigrants over internal borders.

    Trump is, if anything, just stupid and ineffective in his wish to “terminate” the Constitution. Biden is actually doing it.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  148. I have not voted for either major party since 2012, and I don’t see a dime of difference between the two horrors leading the polls this time. I refuse to choose them by the worthiness of their victims.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  149. I have this picture of INS lining the borders between TX, OK, NM and LA to make sure that no immigrants cross illegally.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  150. Biden’s economic policies must get through a tight Congress.

    Since when? Tell me when they last passed a law about oil production.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  151. Kevin, if you want to talk about not upholding the laws of the land and about violating the Constitution, there is no president who lost more court cases percentage-wise than Trump. And like I said, I don’t support Biden either. Criticism of Party A ≠ Endorsement of Party B.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  152. Highlights from Trump’s Sit Down with MTP:

    Trump tells his party to drop pushing abortion bans with no exceptions

    Trump said members of his own party “speak very inarticulately” about abortion, and he criticized those who push for abortion bans without exceptions in cases of rape and incest, and to protect the health of the mother.
    …………
    Trump says he is not afraid of going to prison
    …………
    “I don’t even think about it,” Trump said. “I’m built a little differently I guess, because I have had people come up to me and say, ‘How do you do it, sir? How do you do it?’ I don’t even think about it.”

    But he also came back to the question on his own accord later in the interview, suggesting it stuck with him.

    “When you say, do I lose sleep? I sleep,” he said. “I sleep. Because I truly feel that, in the end, we’re going to win.”

    Trump says he likes democracy, just not how the U.S. system currently works

    One of Welker’s final questions centered on whether Trump — …….. still believes democracy “is the most effective form of government.”

    “I do. I do. But it has to be a democracy that’s fair,” he said. “This democracy — I don’t consider us to have much of a democracy right now.”

    He suggested U.S. democracy was unfair because of the indictments he currently faces ………But he also said it’s not fair because of tough questions from the news media, asking Welker why she was “fighting me” on some answers.
    ………..
    Trump — whose campaign has promoted efforts (to make it easier to fire federal workers)— said he would not enact broad firings of federal workers.

    “No, I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “I want great people, whether they’re Republican or Democrat. I want great people. But I want people that love our country, not people that hate our country.”

    Trump doesn’t rule out pardoning himself if elected but called the scenario ‘very unlikely’
    ………….
    Trump says he ignored legal advice from attorneys who told him the election was not stolen
    ………..
    “We have many people, and it’s my choice,” he told Welker, later adding, “It was my decision. But I listened to some people.”
    ………..
    He said he didn’t listen to White House and campaign attorneys “because I didn’t respect them as lawyers.” He said those lawyers “turn out to be RINOs [Republicans in name only], or they turn out to be not so good, in many cases.”

    The key to gaining his respect, he suggested, was to agree with the fabricated claim that he was cheated out of a second term.

    “But I did respect others,” Trump said. “I respected many others that said the election was rigged.”

    At one point, Trump noted how close the election was in terms of the number of votes he would have needed, spread across several states, to win the Electoral College.

    “Are you acknowledging you didn’t win?” Welker asked.

    “I’m not acknowledging,” he said. “No. I say I won the election.”

    Trump links his call for ‘retribution’ to Jan. 6
    …………
    “When I talk about retribution, I’m talking about fairness,” he said. “We have to treat people fairly. These people on Jan. 6, they went — some of them never even went into the building, and they’re being given sentences of, you know, many years.”

    Welker followed up with Trump to ask if he will pardon the imprisoned rioters.

    “Well, I’m going to look at them, and I certainly might if I think it’s appropriate,” he said. “No, it’s a very, very sad thing. And it’s – they’re dividing the country so badly, and it’s very dangerous.”

    Trump says he had nothing to do with Republicans’ effort to impeach Biden
    …………..
    Trump says he liked Putin’s recent comments about him but is vague on his plan to end the war in Ukraine
    ………….
    Trump says he won’t seek a third term should he win next fall
    ………….
    To shut down or not?

    Trump said Republican hard-liners in the House should not back down on their demands in order to avoid a government shutdown like the record-long stoppage he forced in late 2018 and early 2019.
    ………….
    Trump won’t say how he’d protect Taiwan
    …………
    He dodged the specifics of whether he would commit U.S. forces to defend Taiwan against China, a move Biden has said he would make.

    “I won’t say. I won’t say,” Trump said. “Because if I said, I’m giving away — you know, only stupid people are going to give that.”
    ……………

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  153. Rip Murdock (90963c) — 9/17/2023 @ 11:47 am

    If anyone speaks “inarticulately” about abortion in the Republican primary it’s Trump.

    And like with his Megan Kelly interview, the segment on his delusions regarding the results of the 2020 election will be played back to a jury.

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  154. Kevin, if you want to talk about not upholding the laws of the land and about violating the Constitution, there is no president who lost more court cases percentage-wise than Trump.

    That’s not cases as President but as a failed candidate. He hires stupid lawyers on his own.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  155. Trump says he won’t seek a third term should he win next fall

    Well, that’s a relief.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  156. Washington Post/Monmouth University Poll-South Carolina 9/14/23
    ………….
    The Washington Post-Monmouth poll finds 46 percent of potential Republican primary voters in South Carolina support Trump at this early stage of the campaign. The state’s former governor Nikki Haley, who later served as United Nations ambassador in Trump’s administration, stands in second place at 18 percent, triple her support in national polls following last month’s GOP debate.

    Another 10 percent support South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and 9 percent back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. ………..

    Combining voters’ first and second preferences, 52 percent (support) Trump………
    ……………
    Nearly 9 in 10 Trump supporters say Joe Biden won the 2020 election only “due to voter fraud,” while about 6 in 10 of those supporting other Republicans say Biden won “fair and square.” …………..
    A 73 percent majority of Trump backers say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while 52 percent of those voters who support other candidates say abortion should be legal. ……….
    ………….
    ………….Trump’s strengths align with the bulk of GOP voters. A 57 percent majority of potential South Carolina primary voters believe the 2020 election was fraudulent, and 58 percent say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.

    ………… About half of those with a current preference say they will “definitely” vote for that candidate, though Trump’s support is significantly more solid, with 76 percent saying they are committed to vote for him compared with 33 percent of those who support other candidates saying they are firmly committed to their favorite.

    ………….. Roughly 6 in 10 South Carolina GOP voters have a favorable opinion of Haley and Scott, though that is similar to Trump’s standing. ………… DeSantis’s image is slightly weaker at 50 percent favorable……….
    …………..
    Ramaswamy receives mixed reviews with 28 percent favorable, 33 percent unfavorable and a larger 40 percent having no opinion or saying they haven’t heard about him. Pence and Christie have the worst images in the state. ……….

    ………….. Three-quarters of (Trump’s) supporters — 35 percent of all potential primary voters in South Carolina — say they will definitely vote for him. His overall 46 percent support rises to 54 percent among those with a high rate of turnout in previous South Carolina Republican primaries………..

    …………. Haley’s support is relatively high among low-turnout and less-certain voters.

    A 54 percent majority of Republicans say Trump is definitely or probably the strongest candidate to beat Biden, while 42 percent think another candidate would be stronger. ……….
    ……………..

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  157. Sorry for the lack of blockquotes.

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  158. Trump says he won’t seek a third term should he win next fall

    Since he’s won twice, isn’t this a third term now?

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  159. Trump’s become a runaway train in the GOP primary.

    …………
    Examining the voters assembled behind Trump — and the minority who are backing other candidates — is essential to understanding how he came to dominate the fight for the GOP nomination. It also underscores the uphill climb Trump’s opponents have to unseating the former president as the leader of a Republican Party he’s reshaped in his own image. Call it a pre-mortem autopsy for the primary, which feels close to being over despite Trump’s well-documented judicial headaches.

    What was once an emerging two-man race between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instead now looks like a runaway train. Two major national polls this week showed Trump at or above 60 percent among Republican primary voters, a commanding lead far greater than early in the year, when Trump’s average share of support was in the low-to-mid 40s.
    ………….
    Essentially, the Republican primary has boiled down to a majority of voters who would pick Trump — and most of them are sure about it. They represent what has become the most influential voting bloc in the party: more conservative voters with lower levels of educational attainment.

    Banking on something happening to disrupt that — whether it’s another legal bombshell or an early-state electoral upset — may be Trump’s opponents’ best hope, but it isn’t much of one.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  160. Since he’s won twice, isn’t this a third term now?

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/17/2023 @ 2:23 pm

    That was a weird question, but it was in response to Welker asking about DeSantis’s argument that he would be able to serve as President for eight years, not just four.

    What’s more interesting is Trump’s “confession” to the election interference indictment in the MTP interview and the Espionage Act indictment in the Megyn Kelly interview.

    I’m sure Jack Smith will be sending out subpoenas for the interviews (and any outtakes) to be played during Trump’s trials.

    Trump’s lawyers must be screaming into their pillows.

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  161. Haley gets a bounce in New Hampshire — right into the veepstakes

    Nikki Haley is finally getting a bounce in New Hampshire. It’s just not the one she wants.
    …………..
    The Republican activists and politically curious who turn out for campaign events in the first primary state are now grading candidates on a lower curve — as the person next in line should Trump implode, or, more realistically at this juncture, as his running mate.
    ………….
    A post-debate NMB Research poll of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, conducted on behalf of the Competitiveness Coalition and the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, put Haley tied for second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — her best showing in a survey here yet. But the support DeSantis and Haley notched, 10 percent apiece, is still leagues behind Trump, at 47 percent.
    ………….
    Haley’s rise is being blunted by the same force dragging down every candidate running behind Trump: Love him or hate him, many Republicans in this critical early state say they’re hard-pressed to see a scenario in which Trump isn’t the GOP nominee for the third consecutive cycle.

    And as lower-polling candidates come through the Granite State, their continued deference to Trump only bolsters the idea among New Hampshire voters that they’re witnessing a race for second place.

    ……….(Vivek Ramaswamy’s) level of fealty has left some Republicans here questioning whether Ramaswamy is outright auditioning to be Trump’s next vice president. Trump has been open to the idea. ………

    Tim Scott’s refusal to engage with Trump — or any of his GOP presidential rivals — is raising similar sentiments about the South Carolina senator. ……….
    …………
    “There’s no doubt [that] more than any other candidate, fair or unfair, voters view Nikki Haley as a vice presidential candidate,” said veteran New Hampshire-based Republican consultant Mike Dennehy.
    ………….
    Haley herself has shot down speculation she’s running to be someone else’s running mate. “I don’t run for second,” Haley told POLITICO last month.

    But even still, Haley acknowledged the unique dynamic of the 2024 primary, in which everyone is asking not just how a lower-tier candidate can win, but whether they’d be willing to run alongside Trump.
    ………….

    Would Haley, who has described Trump as “the most disliked politician in all of America” serve as his running mate?

    Absolutely. Political ambition knows no bounds (or principles.)

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  162. “A 57 percent majority of potential South Carolina primary voters believe the 2020 election was fraudulent”

    That’s a whole lot of dumb voters. I assume that most of those also believe Trump did nothing wrong to deserve four indictments. It’s hard to have a stable democracy when so many voters revel in being ignorant. You have to blame a right-wing media that refuses to tell the truth because it impacts their bottom line. You have to blame left-wing media for their partisan slant that rightly calls into question their fairness and balance. You have to blame craven politicians who lack the courage to confront the propaganda. You have to blame large swaths of ministers, priests, and evangelists who have sold out truth and character in order to play in the gutter of earthly politics. But most of all, the blame has to fall on the people who know better or should know better. To continue to support a man facing four indictments….who led a low-grade insurrection in order to try and protect against loser being tied to his brand….who is arrogant enough to claim that celebrities play by different rules regarding sexual assault….and who is foolish enough to threaten the legitimacy of our national institutions…including the vote and criminal justice system….for purely selfish reasons.

    “A 54 percent majority of Republicans say Trump is definitely or probably the strongest candidate to beat Biden”

    And how many will cry when that lead crumbles in the face of a trial case that will chase away any fence sitters? Maybe 100%. It’s dumb and I hope that there will be a reckoning.

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  163. “I’m sure Jack Smith will be sending out subpoenas for the interviews (and any outtakes) to be played during Trump’s trials.”

    “And how many will cry when that lead crumbles in the face of a trial case that will chase away any fence sitters?”

    We should all appreciate the occasional reminders of why these indictments are happening.

    Trump has requested Judge Chutkan recuse herself for two prejudicial statements made during J6 trials. The Judge is well aware that she can say just about anything and be shielded, so long as the statements occur during a legal proceeding over which she presides. So of course, the recusal request will go nowhere, which will have no bearing on a valid perception of bias.

    Also going nowhere will be a request for a change of venue from a DC jury pool where greater than 90% voted against the defendant. But anyway, the case against the defendant is rock solid and DC can produce a fair jury, so it shouldn’t matter, say those who fear moving it just about anywhere else.

    And after all this and the people get to vote, if Trump wins in 2024 we already know the discussion will move to whether we should permit him to take office. There must be some way it can be legally prevented, if we all just brainstorm.

    On these sturdy pillars stands Democracy and the Rule of Law.

    lloyd (722c16)

  164. Trump’s lawyers must be screaming into their pillows.

    Is there such a thing as “client malpractice”?

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  165. “A 57 percent majority of potential South Carolina primary voters believe the 2020 election was fraudulent”

    I expect to see a day when Florida Democrats are trying to pull books out of school libraries that say the 2020 election was a fraud.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  166. And after all this and the people get to vote, if Trump wins in 2024 we already know the discussion will move to whether we should permit him to take office. There must be some way it can be legally prevented, if we all just brainstorm.

    LOL! If the people elect Trump to be President, there is no Constitutional way to prevent him from taking office. “Brainstorming” ideas will just be wish casting.

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  167. The House could refuse to count the electoral votes.

    I mean, it’s something they could do, and none would call it a coup. Except maybe the 50 million people digging up their guns.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  168. I expect to see a day when Florida Democrats are trying to pull books out of school libraries that say the 2020 election was a fraud.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/17/2023 @ 4:04 pm

    LOL!

    1. What is your evidence? What books say that now?

    2. The Florida Democratic Party is in such disarray it will take decades to obtain any power. Like California (but the opposite) Republicans have a 37-25 voter registration edge. Democrats are vastly outnumbered in the Florida Legislature, and DeSantis crushed Crist 60-40 in his reelection.

    Comedy Gold!

    Rip Murdock (90963c)

  169. The House could refuse to count the electoral votes.

    The House doesn’t count the electoral votes.

    On January 6, the votes are officially opened and counted in a joint session of Congress in the House of Representatives with the Vice President presiding. A candidate must receive 270 of the 538 electoral votes to become President or Vice President.

    Source

    Rip Murdock (64eff4)

  170. This is how the DeSantis campaign should be challenging Trump and his obvious unfitness.

    In just one week, Trump:

    — Struggled to answer if a man can become a woman
    — Said he didn’t know who awarded Fauci the Presidential Commendation
    — Denounced Heartbeat laws as “terrible”
    — Promised to compromise on abortion to appease Democrats
    — Walked back his plans to use the military against the cartels
    — Invented excuses for why he didn’t keep his promise to end Birthright Citizenship
    — Said Biden is not too old to be president
    — Confused Obama with Biden, then confused Obama with Hillary
    — Said Biden is getting us into World War Two (big, if true)
    — Complained about not getting credit for COVID, said his response was perfect
    — Claimed the mRNA shots saved 100 million lives
    — And, of course, repeatedly lied about Ron DeSantis

    This is not the Donald Trump from 2016.

    It’s past time to take the gloves off.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  171. Trump could say he shot John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre and saved Abraham Lincoln’s life and he wouldn’t lose any votes. To paraphrase Stalin, it’s not the gibberish you spout, it’s the morons who don’t care.

    nk (701c6d)

  172. The House doesn’t count the electoral votes.

    Your pedantry knows no bounds.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  173. Trump could say he shot John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre and saved Abraham Lincoln’s life and he wouldn’t lose any votes.

    Now, why are 30 million Republican voters so adamant about voting for him in the primaries? It’s easy to just say they’re dumb, but that’s not really why.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  174. 1. What is your evidence? What books say that now?

    Give it time. Those who control the present, control the past.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  175. This is how the DeSantis campaign should be challenging Trump and his obvious unfitness.

    TrumpWorld won’t care. Trump voters won’t migrate to DeSantis (or anyone else.) They especially reject DeSantis as a globalist tool of Wall Street, and have reasons (rational and irrational) not to vote for anyone not named Trump. If they can’t vote for Trump in the general election, they will just not vote at all.

    And DeSantis’s polling since February 2023 shows just how weak he is, both at the national (Trump +41) and state levels.

    State Polls RCP Average; Trump v. DeSantis:

    Michigan Trump +48

    South Carolina +37

    Iowa +30

    New Hampshire +31

    Florida +10

    California +33

    etc.

    Rip Murdock (ea3d80)

  176. Your pedantry inaccuracy knows no bounds.

    FIFY

    Rip Murdock (ea3d80)

  177. Give it time. Those who control the present, control the past.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/17/2023 @ 9:13 pm

    Well, Florida Democrats are no where near controlling the present.

    Rip Murdock (ea3d80)

  178. Well, Florida Democrats are no where near controlling the present.

    Rip Murdock (ea3d80) — 9/17/2023 @ 9:44 pm

    See here as to why.

    Rip Murdock (ea3d80)

  179. @126 quora, ace are just two.

    asset (408e53)

  180. Floriduh democrats problem is similar to what happened in az. Republicans from ca. moved to az for many years skewing the state red despite latinx demographics (100+latinx turn voting age every day) for the past 10 years democrats because of high cost of housing are moving to az negating the republican exodus. Look at az elections in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 to watch the change. The same will happen in floriduh with democrats moving south and puerto ricans moving west.

    asset (408e53)

  181. @174 remember lying ted in 2016 indiana primary that destroyed ted cruz. Trumpsters wil hound desatan if he goes after trump and he is vulnerable with trump’s pictures of desatan with under age girls at drinking orgy party.

    asset (408e53)

  182. “It’s easy to just say they’re dumb, but that’s not really why.”

    So you think there’s good evidence that 2020 was stolen with illegal votes? Do you think there are good arguments as to why Trump held onto classified documents after the government requested them back? Do you think the electoral count act scheme was a faithful approach to the Constitution? Is broad vaccination skepticism based on empirical science and statistics or something else? Does cutting Ukraine loose embolden or discourage Chinese adventurism?

    The GOP base is tied with a lot of intellectual baggage. You can argue that they’re mad about globalism, illegal immigration, and cultural decay…but it’s no excuse for believing other stuff that’s simply not true. Again, propagandists give them cover but there’s no excuse for remaining ignorant and supporting a demogogue and crook. Why not Haley or DeSantis or Scott or Christie? To look at Trump’s legal exposure and conclude “so what” is an ignorant conclusion. Let’s stop letting them off the hook because there really is no excuse….

    AJ_Liberty (d4ad66)

  183. Jealousy, hate, and fungal itch of necessity reduce intelligence because they submerge awareness, and critical analysis, of objective reality.

    nk (9aacc9)

  184. Trump Says He Hopes Meadows Will Remain ‘Loyal’ to Him in Election Case
    ………….
    “By the way, do you think your former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is still loyal to you? He just pleaded not guilty in the Georgia case,” Kristen Welker asked (as part of her interview with Mr. Trump on Meet the Press).

    “Well, I hope he’s loyal to me,” Mr. Trump said.

    “Do you worry about him flipping?” Ms. Welker asked.

    “I mean, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Mr. Trump replied.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (66c03d)

  185. @186

    “It’s easy to just say they’re dumb, but that’s not really why.”

    So you think there’s good evidence that 2020 was stolen with illegal votes?

    I don’t think we can ever know it was stolen. Its literally impossible to make that determination.

    I think we can make that argument that the covid-led voting changes, mainly mail-in ballots, was the least secured election in modern times simply due to the fact of the sheer numbers of ballots that you don’t have chain-of-custody.

    What do we do going forward? You can have a redo. They way forward is to look at the voting structures and seek out improvements to mitigate issues, like those lack of chain of custody to buttress the system. You need to give voters confidence that the system is robust.

    Do you think there are good arguments as to why Trump held onto classified documents after the government requested them back?

    Good ones? No.

    A believable one? Yeah… Trump believes (wrongly) that he could deny a subpoena. He has bad lawyers then.

    Do you think the electoral count act scheme was a faithful approach to the Constitution?

    Yes. In this country you’re allowed to contest an election.

    Is broad vaccination skepticism based on empirical science and statistics or something else?

    Yes.

    Does cutting Ukraine loose embolden or discourage Chinese adventurism?

    Dunno.

    The GOP base is tied with a lot of intellectual baggage. You can argue that they’re mad about globalism, illegal immigration, and cultural decay…but it’s no excuse for believing other stuff that’s simply not true. Again, propagandists give them cover but there’s no excuse for remaining ignorant and supporting a demogogue and crook.

    There’s no excuse to support or dilute your vote that allows Democrats back in power.

    Why not Haley or DeSantis or Scott or Christie?

    Definitely rather have them.

    To look at Trump’s legal exposure and conclude “so what” is an ignorant conclusion. Let’s stop letting them off the hook because there really is no excuse….

    AJ_Liberty (d4ad66) — 9/18/2023 @ 3:12 am

    Yup.

    Nominate DeSantis, or bust.

    whembly (5f7596)

  186. should be “you can’t have a redo”…

    whembly (5f7596)

  187. Well, Florida Democrats are no where near controlling the present.

    Way to distort and then argue against your distortion.

    I said that the libraries will be filled with books promoting “The Steal™” — that would be the control of MAGA, not Democrats — and that Democrats would be the ones complaining.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  188. So you think there’s good evidence that 2020 was stolen with illegal votes? Do you think there are good arguments as to why Trump held onto classified documents after the government requested them back? Do you think the electoral count act scheme was a faithful approach to the Constitution? Is broad vaccination skepticism based on empirical science and statistics or something else? Does cutting Ukraine loose embolden or discourage Chinese adventurism?

    I think none of those things — as you should know — but apparently they do. WHY do they think these things? Why is their distrust of the government so incredibly high that they believe it would rig an election and then cover it up to the point of jailing all who object? Why are they so loyal to a man who deserves no loyalty? It may seem irrational, but there ARE reasons. Ignoring them, or calling them all morons, is unlikely to solve the problem.

    Trump is not the source of this distrust, only the guy marching out in front. Defeating Trump will NOT make this go away, either. Even if Trump were to die tomorrow, these tens of millions will just find a new “champion” to front their anger. Probably someone less principled than Trump.

    So, again, what is the cause of this divide and can it be lessened or closed? Because failing that we face an abyss.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  189. The GOP base is tied with a lot of intellectual baggage. You can argue that they’re mad about globalism, illegal immigration, and cultural decay…but it’s no excuse for believing other stuff that’s simply not true. Again, propagandists give them cover but there’s no excuse for remaining ignorant and supporting a demogogue and crook.

    If you are angry enough at the folks running the country, and they call you ignorant morons, or worse, why should you believe a word they say? Why should you not support the guy who shares your outrage and suspicions? The scary part is that they might give up on Trump and find someone worse, like Ramaswamy (because THAT is Videk’s game).

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  190. Even in better times, we have large portions of the populace believing patently false things.

    * More than 10% believe that state ownership of the means of production would be a good thing.

    * More than 10% believe that white supremacists run everything.

    * More than 10% believe that military spending is a total waste

    * More than 10% believe that social security will fail before they get any.

    * More than 10% believe that immigrants come here for welfare handouts.

    * More than 10% believe that black people get all the good jobs.

    * More than 10% believe that OJ was innocent.

    * More than 10% believe that income taxes should be much much higher (including the president).

    * More than 10% believe that government should run on sales tax alone.

    So, the fact that some people believe that the 2020 election was rigged, despite the increasingly strident denial by the winning side (and jailing of the most vocal opposition), should not come as a particular surprise. But it is a divide that needs to be addressed and a “beatings will continue” strategy probably won’t prevail.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  191. I said that the libraries will be filled with books promoting “The Steal™” — that would be the control of MAGA, not Democrats — and that Democrats would be the ones complaining.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/18/2023 @ 8:12 am

    FL Democrats can complain all they want, but no one will listen.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  192. 169.

    I expect to see a day when Florida Democrats are trying to pull books out of school libraries that say the 2020 election was a fraud.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/17/2023 @ 4:04 pm

    172.
    Rip Murdock (90963c) — 9/17/2023 @ 4:55 pm

    LOL!

    1. What is your evidence? What books say that now?

    The first question is talking about the future. Books could be ppulled on a local level – or more likely. never ordered.\\What book(s)

    Maybe this one?

    Taking Back Trump’s America: Why We Lost the White House and How We’ll Win It Back

    by Peter Navarro

    (Peter |Navarro is the person who wrote something put out by Trump that claimed mathematical proof that the election was stolen.

    Or perhaps not even that one.

    An Amazon review says in part:

    It’s an interesting book insofar as he is 100% pro-Trump, yet doesn’t point to voting machines and boxes pulled from under tables as to why Joe Biden is now president, but bases it largely on five factors: 1) Not tough enough on China; 2) too much globalism instead of “populist economic nationalism”; 3) Poorly run 2020 campaign; 4) Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; and 5) the communication team’s inability to fight back against the vast Never-Trumper media.

    The book is important insofar as it makes these points, but falls short of five stars (barely makes four) because Navarro blames Trump for NOTHING. The tweets, the erratic messages regarding the pandemic, the first debate vs. Biden, none of it.

    Most Americans don’t care nearly as much about trade imbalance as Navarro does. I think his view of what’s important to voters is a tad skewed.

    What’s also unfortunate is that he seems to lump anyone who’s not all in for Trump in one big category. It’s unclear whether Navarro has any higher regard for, say, Lindsey Graham than for Nancy Pelosi.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  193. News Item: Five Americans freed from Iran land in Qatar before flying to the US

    In response to this outrage, I would like to see three things:

    1) Congress pass a law that forbids negotiating with nations holding Americans in exchange for any considerations; as well as banning travel to nations that hold US citizens under any circumstances;

    2) Unequivocal statements from the Republican presidential candidates at the next debate that they would not negotiate under any circumstances with nations holding Americans in prison;

    3) Include this in any impeachment, whether of President Biden or SoS Blinken. This will make any future Administration think twice about doing the same thing.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  194. To answer in detail as whembly did:

    So you think there’s good evidence that 2020 was stolen with illegal votes?

    There is good reason to believe that the playing field was tilted toward the Democrats by the extremely loose expansion of ballot access with very little interest in preventing fraud. Note that a similar approach to pandemic relief resulted in $130 BILLION in fraudulent payments. Was it fraud, or simply a disinterest in election integrity, and does that really matter?

    Do you think there are good arguments as to why Trump held onto classified documents after the government requested them back?

    No. I think that this was his petulant response to his defeat.

    Do you think the electoral count act scheme was a faithful approach to the Constitution?

    The scheme (involving the VP tossing out votes)? No. I think that the attempt by legislators to use the existing anti-fraud mechanisms (e.g. challenging certain results, particularly PA’s) was a faithful approach and entirely legal, if not wise.

    Is broad vaccination skepticism based on empirical science and statistics or something else?

    Mostly something else. The idea that this needed to be tested another couple of years first was stupid. In retrospect, though, the mandate that *everyone* should get the vaccine probably was a bad move, however good an idea it seemed at the time. People were dying. OTOH, I think the mandate for those caring for defenseless and vulnerable people (e.g. nursing home employees) was righteous.

    Does cutting Ukraine loose embolden or discourage Chinese adventurism?

    That and worse.

    The GOP base is tied with a lot of intellectual baggage. You can argue that they’re mad about globalism, illegal immigration, and cultural decay…but it’s no excuse for believing other stuff that’s simply not true.

    We all believe stuff that isn’t true. Half of us believe in God, half do not. One half is wrong. Some even think that baseball is boring.

    Again, propagandists give them cover but there’s no excuse for remaining ignorant and supporting a demagogue and crook.

    It is indeed sad that an ignorant demagogue was the only candidate that appealed to this large group. IF only someone more principled (e.g. Ted Cruz) had been the one.

    Why not Haley or DeSantis or Scott or Christie?

    Separate questions. Christie denies all their beliefs and tells them to learn to code. Scott just tells them to pray about it. Haley is closer to Romney than Trump. DeSantis is on the Leader’s sh*tlist for trying to steal his thunder. I see you left out Videk, who is the more likely alternative.

    To look at Trump’s legal exposure and conclude “so what” is an ignorant conclusion.

    They don’t say “so what?” They say “Biden fears him and is trying to use the raw power of government to crush him, but look! Trump, he fights!”

    Let’s stop letting them off the hook because there really is no excuse….

    Who is on the hook? It’s not Trump who is behind in the polls.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  195. @197 I’m not disagreeing with you. But, I’m not sure Congress can pass a law like that, which runs afoul with President’s near universal power in all things foreign policies.

    Impeachment, however, should and *can* be on the table for sure.

    whembly (5f7596)

  196. Williamson was wrong about a conviction in the Senate, but then he didn’t expect a short-fingered cult leader insert himself into the proceedings.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/17/2023 @ 5:45 am

    A Wall Street Journal editorial today blames Texas |Lt. Gov Dan Patrick.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/dan-patrick-saves-ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-gop-senate-dd04c809

    It is now obvious that the fix was in from the start and that Mr. Patrick lobbied his fellow GOP Senators to unites against the House articles of impeachment.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  197. In response to this outrage, I would like to see three things:

    1) Congress pass a law that forbids …. travel to nations that hold US citizens under any circumstances;

    So, a US citizen rapist of murderer? “Any cirucmstances” is pretty broad.

    3) Include this in any impeachment, whether of President Biden or SoS Blinken. This will make any future Administration think twice about doing the same thing.

    Impeaching for something that presidents of both parties have done, in the absence of a clear policy change, seems ill-founded.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  198. *of or

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  199. Dear AI workers:

    Please create an adaptive spellcheck correcting or flagging the user’s common typos.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  200. The number one reason that Trump lost in 2020 was that he made it a disloyal act to vote by mail. Biden’s supporters had 30 days to vote, Trump’s only the one. If that only cost Trump 1% of his vote total, it was enough to lose all those swing states he won in 2016.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  201. But Mike Pence stayed loyal to Donald Trump until it came to his last and final chance to support the constitution.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/15/2023 @ 5:45 pm

    But Mike Pence stayed loyal to Donald Trump until it came to the moment of truth, and he either had to follow the constitution or not. He was hoping that Trump would back down.

    Sammy Finkelman (b434ee)

  202. Kansas Will No Longer Allow Residents To Change Gender On Birth Certificates.

    The leftist governor said she was going to ignore the law till she realized she had zero support and backed down.

    NJRob (83d845)

  203. Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 9/18/2023 @ 9:04 am

    Or the more logical scenario is that the RINO in the House rushed the impeachment and didn’t provide any evidence worthy of conviction.

    The RINO should resign.

    NJRob (83d845)

  204. Impeaching for something that presidents of both parties have done, in the absence of a clear policy change, seems ill-founded.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/18/2023 @ 9:13 am

    It would be drawing a bright line that trading arms or money for Americans is not acceptable.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  205. Nominate DeSantis, or bust.

    whembly (5f7596) — 9/18/2023 @ 7:29 am

    LOL!

    Billionaire and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, a major Republican donor, says he is sitting on the sidelines of the GOP presidential primary and not supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who he backed in 2022.
    ………
    “I’m still on the sidelines as to who to support in this election cycle,” Griffin said. “Look, if I had my dream, we’d have a great Republican candidate in the primary who was younger, of a different generation, with a different tone for America. And we’d have a younger person on the Democratic side in the primary, who would have his message for our country.”

    With two younger, fresher candidates, “We’d have a debate around ideas and principles and policies to make this a great nation,” he said. “We’re not having that dialogue right now.”

    Griffin has an estimated net worth of $35 billion, and he gave more than $100 million during the 2022 midterms to a mix of a state and federal candidates, with almost all of it going toward Republicans. ……

    His sidelining in the GOP primary means, at least for now, one of the party’s biggest contributors will not be putting his considerable financial resources toward a candidate challenging Trump’s enormous advantage.
    ………
    Each day that passes with donors like Griffin staying out of the Republican primary is a day the money race accrues to Trump’s benefit.
    ………
    As for DeSantis, Griffin doesn’t understand the strategy of the Florida governor’s presidential campaign.

    Before the Florida governor launched a run for the White House, Griffin said “our country would be well-served by [DeSantis] as president.”

    But not anymore. “I don’t know his strategy,” Griffin said, referring to DeSantis’ 2024 campaign. “It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to.”
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  206. Donald Trump Wishing You A Happy Rosh Hashanah:

    ………
    “Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed in false narratives!” said the post, which came on the weekend of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. “Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward!”
    ………
    Michelle Terris, the founder of JEXIT, an organization that says its mission is to “educate and encourage” Jewish Americans to exit the Democratic Party, confirmed to NBC News that Trump’s post came from a JEXIT flyer posted Sunday on Instagram.
    ………
    Reached for comment, the American Jewish Committee pointed to a tweet it posted Monday that condemned Trump’s post: “Claiming that American Jews who did not vote for Mr. Trump voted to destroy America and Israel is deeply offensive and divisive.”

    “As we approach one year until the next election, we urge political candidates from the top to the bottom of the ballot to avoid incendiary rhetoric.”
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  207. Have You Seen This Plane?:

    A U.S. fighter jet’s stealth abilities appear to be working too well, with authorities forced to ask the public for help finding an F-35 that went missing somewhere over South Carolina when the pilot ejected because of a “mishap.”

    Joint Base Charleston, an air base in North Charleston, said it was working with Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort to “locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap” Sunday afternoon.
    ………
    The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing — the jet belongs to one of the unit’s training squadrons — confirmed Sunday’s “mishap” and that “the pilot had safely ejected from the aircraft.”
    ………
    The jet was left in autopilot mode when the pilot ejected from the aircraft, Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, said. Authorities believed there was a possibility that it could have remained airborne for some time, though as of noon Monday they were certain it was no longer flying.
    ………
    When asked whether the jet had crashed, (Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston) said he was unable to elaborate. ……

    Huggins said searchers initially focused their attention north of the air base around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion based on the jet’s last-known position and coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration. That effort expanded on Monday afternoon, as searchers had little luck in the initial search area.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  208. @209 LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!

    Nominate DeSantis, or bust.

    whembly (5f7596) — 9/18/2023 @ 7:29 am

    LOL!

    Billionaire and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, a major Republican donor, says he is sitting on the sidelines of the GOP presidential primary and not supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who he backed in 2022.
    ………
    “I’m still on the sidelines as to who to support in this election cycle,” Griffin said. “Look, if I had my dream, we’d have a great Republican candidate in the primary who was younger, of a different generation, with a different tone for America. And we’d have a younger person on the Democratic side in the primary, who would have his message for our country.”

    With two younger, fresher candidates, “We’d have a debate around ideas and principles and policies to make this a great nation,” he said. “We’re not having that dialogue right now.”

    Griffin has an estimated net worth of $35 billion, and he gave more than $100 million during the 2022 midterms to a mix of a state and federal candidates, with almost all of it going toward Republicans. ……

    His sidelining in the GOP primary means, at least for now, one of the party’s biggest contributors will not be putting his considerable financial resources toward a candidate challenging Trump’s enormous advantage.
    ………
    Each day that passes with donors like Griffin staying out of the Republican primary is a day the money race accrues to Trump’s benefit.
    ………
    As for DeSantis, Griffin doesn’t understand the strategy of the Florida governor’s presidential campaign.

    Before the Florida governor launched a run for the White House, Griffin said “our country would be well-served by [DeSantis] as president.”

    But not anymore. “I don’t know his strategy,” Griffin said, referring to DeSantis’ 2024 campaign. “It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to.”
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/18/2023 @ 10:12 am

    Ken Griffin is declining to support Ron DeSantis because the governor “defied” him and “took on” Disney.

    To everyone who said that DeSantis is “owned” by Griffin: No apology is necessary.

    Your support for DeSantis 2024 is sufficient.

    You are not going to make me like DeSantis even more.

    whembly (5f7596)

  209. Your support for DeSantis 2024 is sufficient.

    I don’t support DeSantis at all. How you got that impression is beyond me.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  210. You are not going to make me like DeSantis even more.

    whembly (5f7596) — 9/18/2023 @ 10:48 am

    Sorry, I misunderstood your comment. Given DeSantis’s current standing in the polls (see here), you may not even get a chance to vote for him in the primary.

    Comedy Gold!

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  211. I’m not sure about the view that we must call reckless behavior somehow justifiable. Trump et al is playing with the legitimacy of our election systems and our justice system….and voters are choosing to normalize and rationalize it. There’s nothing conservative about it. They’re ignorant that nothing can go wrong with this.

    When this election and its finality is an even bigger sh*t show than the last, then come back and educate me on how Trump supporters are rational and must be placated. If Trump is in fact elected and proceeds to rip apart the Justice Department to keep from being prosecuted, then remind me how the MAGA movement really stands for important principles. If Trump attempts to pardon himself and creates a Constitutional showdown and another insurrection, then perhaps…I guess..we can be critical of the movement at that point.

    No thanks. If there are great policy positions at play, then emphasize those. I primarily see a weird shifting platform that moves with Trump and focuses on what he wants to focus upon…which right now is about him. That’s a ridiculous way to run a party and we shouldn’t be shy about calling it all out.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  212. It would be drawing a bright line that trading arms or money for Americans is not acceptable.

    It would be much easier to simply outlaw it.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  213. With two younger, fresher candidates, “We’d have a debate around ideas and principles and policies to make this a great nation,” he said. “We’re not having that dialogue right now.”

    Amen.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  214. ask the public for help finding an F-35 that went missing

    Blofeld.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  215. They’re ignorant that nothing can go wrong with this.

    The make that mistake about a lot of things. Like, say, socialism.

    Could you please make an argument why Trump’s futile and stupid gesture is more of an attack on the Republic than legions of socialists in Congress?

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  216. AJ, both whembly and I answered your questions in detail, differing somewhat. You should maybe point out where we are wrong rather than just regurgitating your previous broadside.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  217. My basic problem is that I realized that “Trump” is no longer the issue. He could drop dead and still his supporters would find someone equally offal, um, awful. That is exactly why Videk is in the race you know.

    This means that his positions need to be addressed and the least-terrible, most responsive ones should be co-opted. Biden has been doing this, if you haven’t noticed (e.g. China). No one in DC has complained about tariffs since Jan 20th, 2021.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  218. ask the public for help finding an F-35 that went missing

    Blofeld.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/18/2023 @ 12:48 pm

    And Emilio Largo.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  219. It would be drawing a bright line that trading arms or money for Americans is not acceptable.

    It would be much easier to simply outlaw it.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/18/2023 @ 12:46 pm

    They why the outrage against Biden if you’re not going to hold him responsible?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  220. With two younger, fresher candidates, “We’d have a debate around ideas and principles and policies to make this a great nation,” he said. “We’re not having that dialogue right now.”

    Amen.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/18/2023 @ 12:47 pm

    LOL! More “Waiting for Godot.” “Younger” politicians can be just as divisive as older ones. Gavin Newsom is 25 years younger than Biden and three years younger than Harris. Vivek Ramaswamy is 38 years younger than Trump. How are their policies any different?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  221. (Trump) could drop dead and still his supporters would find someone equally offal, um, awful. That is exactly why Videk is in the race you know.

    Vivek may think that, but TrumpWorld doesn’t like him for several reasons, including:

    1) He’s not a Christian.

    2) His Big Pharma connections.

    3) The irrational belief that he’s not a (natural born) citizen.

    etc.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  222. It’s past time (for DeSantis) to take the gloves off.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/17/2023 @ 6:59 pm

    Unless he has a plan to win the general election after antagonizing Trump’s supporters, it will never happen.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  223. Have the Iranian hacked an F35 and we will be asking to get it back after they have backwards engineered it like they did with our drone?

    steveg (2bef8a)

  224. TrumpWorld doesn’t like him for several reasons

    Judging by Trump, they’ll get over it.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  225. Vivek is going to be the standard-bearer for Trumpism after Trump dies, and he’ll probably be president sooner or later.

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  226. > I assume that most of those also believe Trump did nothing wrong to deserve four indictments.

    Not only that, but because they believe Trump did nothing wrong and has been unfairly subject to persecutory prosecution, they *also* support using the power of the state to go after Trump’s enemies with trumped-up nonsense charges, just like they think was done to Trump.

    The Republic is *going* to fall within our lifetimes, because within our lifetimes a majority of Americans will want it to happen.

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  227. His Big Pharma connections.

    He’s merely a parasite huckster on the back of Big Pharma.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  228. The Republic is *going* to fall within our lifetimes, because within our lifetimes a majority of Americans will want it to happen.

    I can make an argument it failed some time ago.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  229. The Republic is *going* to fall within our lifetimes,

    going to?

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ETX1E__iVsE

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  230. The Trumpists, for example, think the election of 2020 is where it failed, and as long as it has failed they are going to push for THEIR emperor. The things that they expect in a second term (e.g. mass deportations and a gutting of the federal government) are unlikely to happen in regular order.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  231. The Republic is *going* to fall within our lifetimes

    There’s a long list going back to Andy Jackson.

    The scary thing these days is the use of presidential orders to the point where Congress is as effective and meaningful as the UN General Assembly. We have so many things to come back from. I think we still can.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  232. Let’s not exaggerate the socialism. No one’s distributing the means of production to the masses or having it run by government. Social security is popular. Medicare is too. Our health system is vulnerable to single payer, and we should have that debate. But what great threats has Biden posed? Sure the emergency covid stuff was nonsense and the courts agreed. The regulatory state is always problematic…especially with regards to energy…but that’s why we need two healthy parties to engage that debate. We have someone who is battling to stay out of prison and promises retribution. Biden wants an infrastructure bill….maybe to raise the upper tax rate to control the deficit. I’m not exactly worrying about Biden monetizing state nuclear secrets or installing Ken Paxton or Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General. Yes, there are right-left debates we need to have…while attempting to actually solve problems but let’s not pretend that socialism is just around the corner if we don’t nominate a lunatic. It is much more of a problem to nominate someone who could still crater from saying and doing dumb stuff…if you don’t want a 2008 situation where a bunch of liberals get to play…nominate someone who isn’t nuts….

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  233. Iran has significantly upped their drone game since backwards engineering

    steveg (2bef8a)

  234. Amendment 6: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”

    The question these days involves what a “public” trial consists of. Many would like federal trials to be public, with some controls (e.g. not showing child rape victims testifying). The traditional form, going back to the Founding, is a physical courtroom of limited size, where members of the press and public can attend, subject to space constraints.

    But this is just about the only Right that is frozen into the form of the founding, at least in federal court. Speech, press, assembly, arms, search and seizure, punishment and nearly every other right has been modified to fit the times. As far as public trials are concerned, the advances in communications technology since at least the telegraph might as well not have happened. Does the accused have the right to demand the trial be broadcast, as they do a speedy trial? In cases where it IS broadcast (as in state courts), does the accused have a veto over that? (Is it their right to waive?)

    It would be interesting if Trump demanded his federal trials be broadcast. I wonder if it would have legs.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  235. maybe to raise the upper tax rate to control the deficit.

    His heart is in the right place…

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  236. Let’s not exaggerate the socialism. No one’s distributing the means of production to the masses or having it run by government.

    In my lifetime, a number of industries have been taken over by government, or have had the bulk of their funding and operations controlled by government, to the point where the private participants are merely implementing the government’s rules.

    Social security is popular. Medicare is too.

    Neither of these is “socialist” — they are prepaid insurance systems. They exist because market forces do not deal well with people of advanced age, particularly with medical insurance. So, we all pay into a system for 40 years to guarantee that — should we live that long — we won’t be beggars in our old age. One CAN avoid those taxes, but you also avoid most of the benefits.

    Our health system is vulnerable to single payer, and we should have that debate.

    This would further divorce benefits from participation and responsibility. Obamacare, for those that experienced it first hand (less than 10% of the population), was a stark warning of the problems this disassociation brings. Cost was inversely proportional to responsibility, and hugely so.

    But what great threats has Biden posed? Sure the emergency covid stuff was nonsense and the courts agreed.

    Eventually, after the crisis and orders were moot.

    The regulatory state is always problematic…especially with regards to energy…but that’s why we need two healthy parties to engage that debate.

    What debate? It just executive orders these days. Things that Congress would never pass get the full force and effect of government because you don’t have 2/3rds in each House to vote them down.

    We have someone who is battling to stay out of prison and promises retribution. Biden wants an infrastructure bill….maybe to raise the upper tax rate to control the deficit. I’m not exactly worrying about Biden monetizing state nuclear secrets or installing Ken Paxton or Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General.

    I’m not worrying about that with Trump. It’s nuts to think that the Senate would go along with that, or that Trump could sell secrets to Putin and not be impeached with ANY Senate. This is just fear-mongering.

    Yes, there are right-left debates we need to have…while attempting to actually solve problems but let’s not pretend that socialism is just around the corner if we don’t nominate a lunatic.

    There are plenty of lunatics in the Democrat Party. Bernie, AOC, and Warren to name three who have run for/will run for the Presidency. Warren actually agreed with banning guns by emergency order. That’s pretty far down the slippery slope already. Trump hasn’t on his worst day tried something like that.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  237. Fixed:

    We have someone who is battling to stay out of prison and promises retribution. Biden wants an infrastructure bill….maybe to raise the upper tax rate to control the deficit. I’m not exactly worrying about Biden monetizing state nuclear secrets or installing Ken Paxton or Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General.

    I’m not worrying about that with Trump. It’s nuts to think that the Senate would go along with that, or that Trump could sell secrets to Putin and not be impeached with ANY Senate. This is just fear-mongering.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  238. @238: Many would like federal trials to be public televised,

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  239. Kansas Will No Longer Allow Residents To Change Gender On Birth Certificates.

    The leftist governor said she was going to ignore the law till she realized she had zero support and backed down.

    NJRob (83d845) — 9/18/2023 @ 9:58 am

    I can see how that hurts transgenders. Whom does it help?

    nk (3f7e2b)

  240. “Molly! C’mere!”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Here’s your to-do list. Ignore the stuff that says ‘classified‘ on it, okay?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Oh, if any FBI come sniffing around, just tell ’em they being very unfair and you don’t know anything about the boxes.”

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  241. > It’s nuts to think that the Senate would go along with that, or that Trump could sell secrets to Putin and not be impeached with ANY Senate.

    It’s nuts to think that Republican Senators would vote to convict Trump under any circumstances. Doing so would guarantee they lose in the next primary.

    You really have a blind spot here, Kevin, in understanding how corrupted the Republican party has been by Trump.

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  242. The evidence for a trial or legal proceeding should always require a higher level of proof or verification, but you do you.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/15/2023 @ 11:36 am

    Uh-huh…

    Nice “sources say” link at 4:57.

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  243. Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/18/2023 @ 4:57 pm

    Comedy Gold!

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  244. Nick Catoggio (ALA Allahpundit) had an article in The Bulwark that addresses Mr. Griffin fairly well. Paraphrasing: when there was agreement between the parties on first order policy (e.g. democracy vs autocracy) it allowed for political focus to be on second order policies (e.g. taxes, abortion, etc…). Now that agreement does not exist, and thus our focus must be on first order policy.

    Sam G (4e6c22)

  245. One of former President Donald Trump’s long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements. https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-wrote-lists-assistant-white-house-documents-marked/story?id=103226113

    Are those sources in the DOJ or on Trump’s legal team? (The defense gets copies of written/memorialized statements of prosecution witnesses.) Either way, one more person now with a target on her back.

    nk (3f7e2b)

  246. Nice “sources say” link at 4:57.

    She’s “Trump Employee No. 2” in the indictment. I’m assuming her evidence will be presented at trial, if Smith needs to.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  247. Only Trump could have gotten Biden Harris elected and the Democrats are shrewd enough to know that. They did not want Trump out. They still don’t. They want him around pooping on the GOP’s carpet.

    I am confident that, in the impeachment trials, if 16 Republican Senators had voted to convict, then 18 Democrat Senators would have voted to acquit.

    nk (3f7e2b)

  248. Hey, if we are assuming stuff will come out at trial, then alright!

    So much for all the concern for Hunter’s sensitivities.

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  249. Comedy Gold!

    …………
    “After seeing what has happened to our beautiful USA in such a short period of time, including Afghanistan, Self Imposed Inflation, Energy Independence, the Horrors of the Open Border, NO VOTER I.D., & now, 6 Billion Dollars for 5 Hostages from Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

    “I ASK, WHY HASN’T THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BEGUN THE PROCESS OF INVOKING THE 25th AMENDMENT AGAINST THE WORST & MOST INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CROOKED JOE BIDEN? With these facts, they would have done it to us long ago!” he continued.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  250. Sources say this was the to-do list.

    1. Bang porn star
    2. Payoff porn star
    3. Tweet on toilet
    4. Head over to Doral, shoot a round, write down “67” on scorecard.
    5. Crash a wedding at Mar-A-Lago.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  251. & now, 6 Billion Dollars for 5 Hostages from Iran,”

    And they did not even provide any evidence against Hunter Biden.

    It’s Iran’s money which had been frozen in foreign banks. Not American money. Ransoming people with the kidnappers’ own money is not the worst Art Of The Deal in the world. But that’s our Trump!

    nk (a425bf)

  252. I can see how that hurts transgenders. Whom does it help?

    First responders? Hospitals and medical personnel?

    I admit it’s not all that many, but it is not zero.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  253. It is Iran’s money, but hostages only seem to be released when money goes to Iran. By all appearances (and it’s how the Iranians see it) the exchanges come across as ransom payments, which is face-losing for the US and a propaganda win for the Mullahs, and Iran continues to be incented to take more Americans hostage.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  254. You really have a blind spot here, Kevin, in understanding how corrupted the Republican party has been by Trump.

    Bill Clinton committed filmed perjury and they could not convict. Not one Democrat voted to convict; with Trump there were GOP votes to convict each time.

    What you fail to see is that the Democrat Party (and the entire government) is no less corrupt.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  255. It is hilarious that Democrats view the unanimous Democrat condemnation of Donald Trump to be an example of integrity.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  256. You really have a blind spot here, Kevin, in understanding how corrupted the Republican party has been by Trump.

    Also, you have another blind spot in misunderstanding Democracy.

    In a Democracy, the leaders are beholden to the voters and to say that “they do something because otherwise they’ll be voted out of office” is blaming them for acting as the system demands.

    Now, maybe it’s an example of how Democracy isn’t the best possible system, but it is better than all the others, as they guy said.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  257. Crash a wedding at Mar-A-Lago.

    I have to think that anyone holding their wedding [reception] at Mar-a-Lago would be delighted to have the President of the United States “crash” their event.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  258. Wait a minute, is this true? How can this be true? Can any Texas commenters speak to it?

    As challenges continue surfacing as a result of record levels of illegal border crossings, “Colony Ridge Communities”—the land development company responsible for providing loans for the construction of one of the largest illegal alien settlements in America—is funded by one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s major donors.

    Liberty County, just North of Houston, is home to the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country and one of the fastest-growing school districts in Texas. In 2020, the Colony Ridge settlement included approximately 20,000 residents and now includes an estimated 75,000.

    Colony Ridge is known for its dealings and associations with Gulf and Sinaloa cartels. In 2013, 300 acres of Liberty County lands were used to host the “largest and most sophisticated marijuana-growing operation” in U.S. history. The area broke another record in July 2021, when the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a multimillion-dollar methamphetamine manufacturing lab in Colony Ridge.

    Terrenos Houston, the marketing program for Colony Ridge, advertises to illegal aliens by indicating they do not require traditional bank loans, nor do they need Social Security numbers or a proven job history. Instead, they operate through owner-financed lots for illegal aliens who don’t qualify for certain loans.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  259. @189 On numerous posts I pointed out how the 2020 election was stolen from trump ;but by the republican party!

    asset (25b802)

  260. @260 this is not a democracy ;but a republic to protect the oligarchy. We had to fight a civil war to stop the republic from protecting slavery.

    asset (25b802)

  261. The people of Wyoming voted Cheney out. Not because they were supporting the things that got Trump impeached, the things Liz was fighting for. The GOP voters of Wyoming thought that under Trump, the boot they felt on their necks during the Obama years was lifted. Their interests were narrower and more focused on what was good for Wyoming GOP and to hell with “big picture” Washington impeachment bullshit. You can uphold the constitution without chairing the inquisition. They probably still spit when they think about how Liz’ actions gave Wyoming back to the Obama cartel and Biden. They actually probably don’t spit, because they’ve run dry of spit.

    steveg (43b642)

  262. The people of Wyoming voted Cheney out. Not because they were supporting the things that got Trump impeached, the things Liz was fighting for. The GOP voters of Wyoming thought that under Trump, the boot they felt on their necks during the Obama years was lifted. Their interests were narrower and more focused on what was good for Wyoming GOP and to hell with “big picture” Washington impeachment bullshit. You can uphold the constitution without chairing the inquisition. They probably still spit when they think about how Liz’ actions gave Wyoming back to the Obama cartel and Biden. They actually probably don’t spit, because they’ve run dry of spit.

    I’m not inclined to romanticize their decision. They voted out Liz Cheney because they preferred Donald Trump’s morally corrupt attempt to steal an election to the courageous woman who stood up to that corruption. Their choice smells like dogshit and let’s not pretend it’s rosy and sweet-smelling.

    Patterico (f23c1c)

  263. In short, fuck them and their stupid decision.

    Patterico (f23c1c)

  264. ……… Iran continues to be incented to take more Americans hostage.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/18/2023 @ 6:11 pm

    Which is why the State Department should ban travel to Iran rather than just “advise” Americans not to travel there (or any other Level 4 countries); alternatively Congress should enact travel bans against them like the Cuban travel ban.

    Congress can stop Americans from becoming targets. It’s not like these terrorist states are kidnapping Americans from other countries.

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  265. Put differently, Patterico, we all need to ask what we believe in, and why. Not what we do not believe in. I put that inelegantly, but both “teams” have lost sight of their values. All that exists is owning the other side.

    Simon Jester (14c506)

  266. Right now, neither party believes in what I believe in. However, only one party has members who do, and the other party will never in my lifetime believe in those things.

    The Democrat Party does not believe that what Trump did was wrong, they believe that what Trump did can get more Democrats elected if they push on it, and that is the end of their concern. They are not being noble, they are simply consuming popcorn and letting the GOP fight.

    There are even candidates who believe what I believe in, running for President. And no, that is not necessarily those who focus on Trump, mainly because that focus makes them hard to elect. Only Nikki is the real deal, and while it is hard to see how she gets past Trump’s incredible lead, no one else can that I give two sh*ts about. So, that’s where I donate and where, if the campaign gores that far, where I will volunteer.

    If it is Trump vs Biden? God help us. Himmler vs Molotov. I have no dog in that race, other than hoping both their planes crash. I’ve voted for someone else twice now, and I’ll do it again hoping the Republic can survive.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  267. @269 I believe in justice and now equity. I oppose evil so I oppose evil doers like the gop.

    asset (25b802)

  268. “They probably still spit when they think about how Liz’ actions gave Wyoming back to the Obama cartel and Biden.”

    What does this even mean? Cheney supported Trump in 2020 and impeachment happened after the election.

    “The GOP voters of Wyoming thought that under Trump, the boot they felt on their necks during the Obama years was lifted.”

    It requires a degree of self introspection to understand why then Trump lost to a gaffe-prone old man campaigning from his basement mumbling through a mask. Pretty much any Republican in the current field…minus Ramaswamy…would offer similar policies and a more effective governing style. Throw in that no one else is currently under indictment or willingly participated in an ill-conceived coup.

    Just admit that much of the 60% who support him like his nastiness, admire that he has no shame, and value entertainment over virtue. This is a cult of personality…that admires lawlessness and a healthy tinge of irrationality. They don’t want Reagan or Lincoln…they want P. T. Barnum and think that that is hilarious.

    AJ_Liberty (f53c5f)

  269. Only Nikki is the real deal, and while it is hard to see how she gets past Trump’s incredible lead……..

    Haley getting past Trump’s lead? She needs to get past Ramaswamy (+1.5 over Haley) and DeSantis (+7.0) first before she eats Trump’s dust.

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  270. asset (25b802) — 9/18/2023 @ 8:54 pm

    We had to fight a civil war to stop the republic from protecting slavery.

    That was the end result, but the Civil War broke out because politicians did nit accept that they lost an election and would lose all future elections as well, and to permit the continuation of holding slave masters in ill repute.

    Sammy Finkelman (25436a)

  271. The Civil War was initially fought to avoid disproving the argument that no democracy, anywhere in the world, could last without breaking up through the actions of competing factions.

    https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=text

    Gettysburg Address

    Delivered at Gettysburg, Pa.

    Nov. 19th 1863.

    “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure….

    Sammy Finkelman (25436a)

  272. If Florida has a “public nuisance” law, perhaps it would be possible to declare Mar-a-Lago one.

    Which seems appropriate, considering all the crimes committed there.

    Jim Miller (aec6ae)

  273. Only Nikki is the real deal…….

    Nikki is about as authentic as a South Carolina palmetto blowing in the wind.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  274. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/09/19/spinning_the_press_on_hunter_biden_980044.html

    An actual investigation into Joe Biden’s corruption and collusion with his son.

    NJRob (c10b27)

  275. https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/09/failed-dept-energy-nominee-appointed-to-senior-role-in-efficient-energy-office/

    Biden’s radical appointee who Congress rejected due to his desire to ban gas stoves and other civilizing equipment. Biden slaps reality in the face with his continued reckless actions.

    NJRob (c10b27)

  276. Case
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : : v. :
    JAMES RAY EPPS, SR.
    :
    Defendant.

    VIOLATION:
    : 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2)
    :
    :
    (Disorderly or Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds)

    The United States Attorney charges that:
    COUNT ONE
    On or about January 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, JAMES RAY EPPS, SR.
    did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds—that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President was and would be temporarily visiting—when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, and attempted and conspired to do so.
    (Disorderly or Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1752(a)(2))

    Respectfully submitted,
    MATTHEW M. GRAVES United States Attorney D.C. Bar No. 481052.
    /s/ Michael M. Gordon_______ MICHAEL M. GORDON
    Assistant United States Attorney, Detailee Florida Bar No. 1026025
    400 N. Tampa St., Suite 3200
    Tampa, Florida 33602
    (813) 274-6370 michael.gordon3@usdoj.gov
    2

    As I suspected the whole time. He was just a common thug that facilitated an insurrection.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  277. She needs to get past Ramaswamy (+1.5 over Haley) and DeSantis (+7.0) first before she eats Trump’s dust.

    DeSantis is done — his support is evaporating and his money will be gone soon. Ramaswamy is this year’s Herman Cain. His only hope is that Trump drops out soon, because no one who dislikes Trump likes him.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  278. Nikki is about as authentic as a South Carolina palmetto blowing in the wind.

    Says the poll-follower.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  279. Crushed under the 100% man-made material boot of radical liberalism. Where will it all end?

    nk (997524)

  280. Trump has no class but he has style. DeSantis is a mean pencil pusher.

    nk (997524)

  281. @280 BuDuh (4214e4) — 9/19/2023 @ 9:17 am
    You can make the case that Ray Epps has done more to foment ‘insurrectiony’ behaviors on J5/J6 than Trump ever did, but he’s being charged with a measly misdemeanor?

    This just gives even more ammo by Trump supporters that this whole thing is whacked.

    Frustrates the hell out of me.

    whembly (5f7596)

  282. Nikki is about as authentic as a South Carolina palmetto blowing in the wind.

    Says the poll-follower.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 9:30 am

    Haley doesn’t have a position that she hasn’t changed three or four times.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  283. Morning Consult Republican Primary Tracking Poll 9/19/23

    ……….
    The bulk of the GOP’s electorate (59%) would back Trump if the primary or caucus were held in their state today, while 13% would support DeSantis.
    Vivek Ramaswamy is backed by 10% of the party’s potential voters, followed by Haley (6%), Pence (5%) and Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who each have 2% support.
    ………
    Hypothetical head-to-head matchups show Biden tied with Trump, at 42%, while DeSantis trails by 4 points among the general electorate. …….
    ……….
    Trump is popular with 80% of the party’s potential electorate, while 19% view him unfavorably, marking a slight improvement from the previous week.
    Haley is holding on to her marginal post-debate popularity boost. Her net favorability rating has improved from 24 points to 30 points since late August, with 50% of potential primary voters viewing her favorably and 20% unfavorably.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  284. Haley doesn’t have a position that she hasn’t changed three or four times.

    How would you know?

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  285. How would you know?

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 10:52 am

    I read her about her positions and history.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  286. I read her about her positions and history.

    I get it first hand. You should try that.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  287. I get it first hand. You should try that.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 11:13 am

    You know Darling Nikki?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  288. I get it first hand. You should try that.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 11:13 am

    How’s this for first hand?

    In the 2010 interview, Haley said the Confederate flag was not “racist” but part of heritage and tradition within the state. She called the flag’s location a “compromise of all people, that everybody should accept a part of South Carolina.”

    “You know, for those groups that come in and say they have issues with the Confederate flag, I will work to talk to them about it,” Haley said. “I will work and talk to them about the heritage and how this is not something that is racist. This is something that is a tradition that people feel proud of and let them know that we want their business in this state. And that the flag where it is, was a compromise of all people that everybody should accept as part of South Carolina.”
    ……..
    When asked about secession, Haley said that while she believed under the Constitution that states have the right to secede from the rest of the country. When asked if she would support the seccession of South Carolina, which was the first state to secede during the Civil War, she said she did not think “it’s gonna get to that point.”

    “The Union, I think that they do,” Haley inaccurately said. “I mean, the Constitution says that.”
    ……….
    “You know, I’m one of those people that doesn’t think it’s gonna get to that point,” Haley said before describing how she might rally governors to go to the federal government to settle disputes over “federal intrusion.”
    ………
    Haley also said she supported South Carolina’s “Confederate History Month” during the interview, comparing it to Black History Month.

    “Yes, it’s part of a traditional – you know, it’s part of tradition,” she said. “And so, when you look at that, if you have the same as you have Black History Month and you have Confederate History Month and all of those. As long as it’s done where it is in a positive way and not in a negative way, and it doesn’t go to harm anyone, and it goes back to where it focuses on the traditions of the people that are wanting to celebrate it, then I think it’s fine.
    ………
    “I think you have one side of the Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think you have another side of the Civil War that was fighting for change,” she added. “You know, at the end of the day, what I think we need to remember is that you know, everyone is supposed to have their rights, everyone is supposed to be free, everyone is supposed to have the same freedoms as anyone else. So, you know I think it was tradition versus change is the way I see it.

    “Tradition versus change on what,” asked the interviewer.

    “On individual rights and liberty of people,” she responded.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  289. And then, a mere 5 years later, after a racist assh0le killed 9 people in a black church using that same flag as his standard, she changed her mind.

    In the wake of the 2015 mass shooting that killed nine Black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Nikki Haley, then the state’s governor, attended service there. It was Sunday, several days after the tragedy, and images had been circulating of the killer with the Confederate flag—a banner that still flew on the grounds of the state capitol.

    After the service, Haley told her team she intended to call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the capitol, according to Rob Godfrey, then her deputy chief of staff. She would ask lawmakers and community leaders to join her for a news conference, she said, but she wasn’t sure how many would show up. In the end, she convinced a bipartisan group of lawmakers including the son of Strom Thurmond, the infamous segregationist, to join her. The next month, the legislature passed a bill to take down the flag.

    “She brought those people together to give Republicans cover to do the hard work that it was going to take to work together with their colleagues to pass the bill to remove the flag,” Godfrey says. “It’s something that history will judge her well by, and I think that it’s something that voters will always have in mind when they think of her.”

    https://time.com/6255503/nikki-haley-2024-confederate-flag/

    What a flip-flopper! Better to stand with the killer and tradition! Where’s my axe-handle?!

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  290. You know Darling Nikki?

    No, but I’m sure she’d be great to know. What I mean is that you should watch the actual debates, townhalls, and other direct presentations, rather than get your information from people who have spin to add.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  291. “The sound you hear,” Reagan announced, “is the concrete cracking around my feet.”

    –Governor Reagan accepting the need for tax increases. Politicians who cannot change their minds are roadkill when circumstances require changing their minds.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  292. What a flip-flopper! Better to stand with the killer and tradition! Where’s my axe-handle?!

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 11:47 am

    Haley blamed an inanimate object for a murderous killer. Just shows she has no core.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  293. What I mean is that you should watch the actual debates, townhalls, and other direct presentations, rather than get your information from people who have spin to add.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 11:50 am

    LOL! How would you know if the positions she holds now have been changed for political expediency?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  294. Will all the MAGA Trunts finally accept that Epps was never an FBI plant and never plotted an insurrection? I’m doubtful.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  295. Politicians who cannot change their minds are roadkill when circumstances require changing their minds.

    LOL! The only circumstance that requires Haley to change her mind (on anything) are her political fortunes; example #1 is her relationship with Trump. If she is offered the vice presidency slot with Trump, no doubt she would accept it.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  296. Chaos in the House:

    Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday punted plans to tee up a vote on the party’s short-term spending plan later this week – the latest sign of the ultraconservative fever gripping House Republicans.

    McCarthy is now left without a viable plan to fund the government, with just 12 days left to avoid a shutdown. ……..
    ………
    ………McCarthy’s conference will face another test in the coming hours: Republican leaders will try to bring up a massive defense spending bill that stalled out last week amid conservative opposition. If the party fails to move forward, as Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) put it: “The week is gone.”
    ………..
    ………..Multiple GOP lawmakers used a closed-door meeting Tuesday to challenge their hardliner colleagues to suggest an alternative if they’re refusing to go along with McCarthy’s preferred approach.

    Inside the room Tuesday morning, Republicans lined up at the microphone to voice their irritation with more than a dozen colleagues who oppose the proposed GOP stopgap spending bill – a package of spending cuts and stricter border policies. If House Republicans fail to pass that bill, these members warned, the Democrat-run Senate will steamroll them as Congress looks to avert a shutdown that would kick in Oct. 1.
    ………….
    McCarthy, who’s made it clear that he’s fed up with the hardliners, told reporters afterward that he still planned to bring up the Freedom Caucus-Main Street plan for a vote on Thursday — a sign that, while those plans now appear on ice, he could reverse himself at any time. The speaker indicated leaders are open to changing the deal, too, though he didn’t detail what acceptable changes might look like.

    “The number one thing to do is try to get 218 for it. Sometimes you have a vote, it helps you get there,” McCarthy said.
    ………..
    Hanging over the spending fight is the fate of McCarthy’s speakership, with conservatives threatening to try to boot him if he works with Democrats to avert a shutdown.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  297. Will all the MAGA Trunts finally accept that Epps was never an FBI plant and never plotted an insurrection? I’m doubtful.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/19/2023 @ 12:02 pm

    I certainly hope so regarding the FBI nonsense. As far as” plotting” an insurrection, he certainly “conspired” and “attempted” to “ in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions.”

    Do you actually still maintain that Epps is not an insurrectionist?

    Do you think Epps was an insurrectionist, Paul?

    No, because there’s no evidence that he broke the law.

    Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 7/12/2023 @ 4:32 pm

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  298. Botched blockquote. Sorry.

    Do you think Epps was an insurrectionist, Paul?

    No, because there’s no evidence that he broke the law.

    Paul Montagu (8f0dc7) — 7/12/2023 @ 4:32 pm

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  299. Do you actually still maintain that Epps is not an insurrectionist?

    What I said is that I haven’t seen the evidence that he broke the law, and I still haven’t seen it.
    He could’ve been an insurrectionist on J6, as I doubt that the FBI would file this charge if they didn’t have the supporting evidence. It sounds like he’s cutting a plea deal tomorrow.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  300. Is there a plea deal that would make him not an insurrectionist?

    It is starting to sound like those who engaged in “insurrection” are becoming a smaller and smaller group.

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  301. Hardliners block defense spending bill as GOP civil war worsens
    ………..
    Republican rebels blocked the annual defense appropriations bill in a procedural vote, delivering a stunning loss to McCarthy and hawks who’d sought to break an impasse over federal spending that forced leaders to yank the legislation last week.

    ……….Many conservatives withheld their votes on the Pentagon bill to force Republican leaders to take a harder line on a stopgap to keep the lights on.

    Ultimately the procedural vote on the $826 billion defense spending bill, known as a rule, failed in a 212-214 vote on Tuesday. Five Republicans defected on the procedural vote, which almost always falls along party lines.
    ………
    A partisan stopgap rolled out Sunday that was negotiated by two competing GOP factions — the hard-right Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus — would fund the government through October. It would slash certain domestic spending while exempting national defense programs. The measure includes harsh border security provisions while excluding new money for Ukraine.

    That measure is still well short of the support needed to pass amid the Republican chaos. And it’s unclear what the House can pass with a shutdown looming.
    ……….
    House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) lamented that the Pentagon bill was being blocked by a faction of right-wing lawmakers who had demanded the bill be written with a variety of conservative social provisions.

    “That’s not good legislation. And that’s blackmail,” Cole said. “So hey, if there’s … nothing in this bill you disagree with, tell me why you’re voting no.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  302. 301. Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 9/19/2023 @ 12:02 pm

    Will all the MAGA Trunts finally accept that Epps was never an FBI plant and never plotted an insurrection? I’m doubtful.

    That will depend on whether people stop accusing him of working for the FBI or being an FBI informant which they might because of fear of a defamation lawsuit, but his being charged with a crime should prevent disinterested people from taking that claim seriously.

    The question is, was he charged because he was accused of instigating the riot on behalf of the FBI? They might not have bothered except for the anti-FBI conspiracy conspiracy theories. (they might have seen this as away to clear themselves because if that were true, Epps would surely use that in his defense and/or in a lawsuit against the FBI)

    Sammy Finkelman (c5132f)

  303. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/19/politics/ray-epps-capitol-january-6-charges/index.html

    He also filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and former host Tucker Carlson, saying that “Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican Party” and “eventually, they turned on one of their own.” Fox News and Carlson are fighting the case in court.

    No, they were searching for someone to blame who could be said to be part of or working on behalf of the Jan 6 prosecutions </B.

    It wouldn't do to blame Vladimir Putin and Russian agents, which they could do with much more credibility:

    https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/09/01/far-right-propagandist-turns-moscow-after-jan-6

    Russia Insider founder Charles Bausman traveled from his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, and video appears to show him among the insurrectionists that breached the building’s walls. Soon after, he left the country for Moscow.

    …He mystifies not only researchers of the far right, who struggle to understand his objectives or his funding, but also his own family. Bausman’s older sister, Mary Watkins, who says she loves her brother but opposes his fascist politics, told Hatewatch she watched online as his wife, Kristina Bausman, originally from the rural community of Mednogorsk, Russia, posted a video to Facebook of what looked to her like a live scene from the Trump rally that descended into violence…

    Some other January 6 criminal defendants have even pointed the finger at Epps during their own trials, though prosecutors have repeatedly rejected the theory that Epps is affiliated with law enforcement, saying again and again that rioters were not tricked by law enforcement officers into entering the Capitol.

    Well, not U.S. law enforcement or government agencies anyway.

    Charles Bausman is still in Russia:

    https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2023/09/11/jan-6-participant-who-fled-russia-hasnt-come-home

    Pro-Kremlin propagandist Charles Bausman has reemerged as a media commentator in Russia since leaving behind nearly $1 million in property following the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington, D.C., Hatewatch found.

    Bausman, 59, is an American who has lived in Russia on and off for the past three decades. He founded the pro-Vladimir Putin website Russia Insider in September 2014 while living in Moscow. In 2018, Bausman relocated to the eastern Pennsylvanian town of Lancaster about an hour and a half outside Philadelphia. There, Bausman collaborated with members of the pro-Hitler podcast network The Right Stuff, as well as promoted and attended “Stop the Steal” events in the region, pushing the lie that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Bausman appeared among the rioters inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, before traveling to Russia and leaving behind nearly $1 million in property in the Lancaster area. Neighbors told Hatewatch he has not returned.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  304. There’s another instigator – many details of the case were put under seal:

    https://whyy.org/articles/jan-6-rioter-convicted-samuel-lazar-secret
    (WHYY-TV is the PBS affiliate in Philadelphia.)

    Hundreds of rioters have been charged, convicted and sentenced for joining the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Unlike their cases, Samuel Lazar’s appears to have been resolved in secret — kept under seal with no explanation, even after his release from prison.

    Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters.

    There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar’s court docket.

    But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. …

    …The Justice Department has refused to say why the case remains under wraps, and attorneys for Lazar did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Associated Press. The judge overseeing Lazar’s case in May rejected a request from media outlets — including the AP — to release any sealed records that may exist….

    ….George Washington University criminal law professor Randall Eliason, who spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, said he couldn’t remember any case during his Justice Department tenure in which a sentencing hearing and sentence were placed under seal. Eliason said it’s possible that “either there’s some kind of security concern about him personally, or maybe more likely that he’s cooperating in some respect that they don’t want the people he’s cooperating against to know about.”

    But many Jan. 6 defendants have cooperation deals with the government, and their cases haven’t been resolved in secret. Defendants who agree to cooperate with prosecutors often get their sentencing hearings delayed until they finish cooperating.

    “The fact that he also got sentenced, went to prison and is already out, that whole situation is just unusual,” Eliason said.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  305. Can Gavin be more skeezy?
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/newsom-justifies-hunter-biden-business-deals-says-using-family-get-little-influence-hardly-unique?intcmp=tw_fnc
    Lemme recap this succinctly…

    We’ve gone from:

    1). Hunters laptop is Russian disinformation
    2). Hunter did nothing wrong
    3). Hunter did drugs, but not corruption

    And now…

    4). Actually, corruption is good.

    News flash Gov. Newsom – family members getting money from foreign entities seeking favors for someone in Government is still bribery.

    whembly (5f7596)

  306. More on the Lazar case: (and another case)

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/07/25/curious-plea-deals-afoot-in-lancaster-pa

    CURIOUS PLEA DEALS AFOOT IN LANCASTER, PA

    July 25, 2023

    …. James Breheny, who has ties to the Oath Keepers, was arrested even before Lazar, in May 2021. He was linked to the Oath Keepers by dint of being added to their comms the day of the attack and — more importantly — inviting Stewart Rhodes to a coordinating event in Quarryville, PA…

    …Though Breheny was always treated as part of the Oath Keeper prosecution, he was never joined to one of the existing conspiracies. Instead, his case just kept getting continued every two months. Until, on June 6 — after almost all of the Oath Keepers were convicted and sentenced — Breheny pled guilty to one count of obstruction as part of a cooperation agreement.

    There was no one obvious, at that point, to cooperate against.

    And today, Judge Mehta set Breheny’s sentencing for February 23, not long after the other cooperating Oath Keepers, who’ll be sentenced in December and January.

    There are a few other sleeper plea agreements I have watched. But these are nevertheless two of the most bewildering plea agreements of the twenty or so we’ve seen so far.

    And both of them have a tie to the Lancaster, PA area.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  307. There are things I want to write about but I am not getting around to it.

    Enormous extra spending in NYC on migrants compared tootehr cities – NYPost notes we see waste in other tings as well

    AI – doesn;t value truth only “right” (approved) answers

    Covid vaccine – guesswork

    more

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  308. The fentanyl overdoes at a small makeshift day care center in the Bronx that passed inspection one child dead. Daily News argues a simple crackdown is not the answer. Could make things worse.

    (fentanyl was stored under the mats that the toddlers had been put to sleep on — probably involved a very inexperienced drug wholesaler. probably the first time they tried this. Husband of owner ran away but not before coming in before 911 was called and removing some stuff)

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  309. Well, Rip, I’ll ask then: if the choice is Haley or Trump, are you for Trump?

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  310. The fentanyl overdoes at a small makeshift day care center in the Bronx that passed inspection one child dead.

    I see Narcan on sale OTC here in NM.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  311. Well, Rip, I’ll ask then: if the choice is Haley or Trump, are you for Trump?

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/19/2023 @ 4:25 pm

    Neither. Voting in the California Republican primary is a waste of time (unless you are a Trump supporter) since Trump totally dominates the CA GOP and has rigged the delegate selection process in his favor. And no Lilliputian has a chance given the high cost of television campaigning, so I doubt Haley will have the funds available (or will even be a viable candidate come Super Tuesday). Ron DeSantis’s super Pac has dropped out of California.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  312. Rip is here for informational purposes only.

    BuDuh (212ca6)

  313. @313, the GOP house is on fire and Rip is worried about the mole in the front yard. Anyone other than Ramaswamy in the field is better than Trump. Do I wish that the GOP would reward hearing the hard truth about Trump? Of course, but this is obviously a process…and maybe it has no hope this round. We will start to see in 116ish days. Some more debates….some culling of the field…and a Trump reckoning coming at a quickened pace. The more Trump talks, the deeper his hole gets. Will it collapse in on him? I hope so. It’s what’s best for the country. I prefer the party to reject him before we face a constitutional crisis.

    For my money, as long as the GOP nominee has a realistic world view with regards to Russia and China, favors less regulation, will have a sane plan for the border, and wants to start developing a plan to move us toward fiscal sanity, the rest is just background noise. Other culture wars just sideline the big issues. She’s fine on all of the above and is better than Trump. Maybe Christie might be even better but his negatives likely make him irrelevant. But again I would have been fine with Kasich or Bush…or Walker or Perry…or Jindal

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  314. the GOP house is on fire and Rip is worried about the mole in the front yard……..
    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 9/19/2023 @ 5:16 pm

    Given how the California GOP has rigged the Republican primary in Trump’s favor, what do you suggest I do? I’ll vote for a non-Trump candidate, for all the good it will do.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  315. For my money, as long as the GOP nominee has a realistic world view with regards to Russia and China, favors less regulation, will have a sane plan for the border, and wants to start developing a plan to move us toward fiscal sanity, the rest is just background noise.

    Too bad none of the candidates that fit that bill have a chance of being the nominee.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  316. Agent provocateur ray epps does plea deal to one minor misdemeanor so media can say see he wasn’t government agent provocateur like terry norman who fired the first shot at national guard at kent state. When in fact it does the opposite.

    asset (bc7578)

  317. AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 9/19/2023 @ 5:16 pm

    I would be fine with any of those candidates, but do I believe that they have a chance at the nomination? As of today, no. I would be more than happy to see Trump’s national poll numbers in the forties, but do I expect that to occur? No.

    And thinking that Trump’s indictments will be a savior is not considering the fact that by the time his election interference trial is over (assuming it starts on March 4th and last 6-8 weeks), over 70% of Republican delegates will have been selected. Trump could easily be convicted and become the putative Republican nominee at the same time.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  318. Republican voters love Donald Trump, and they want him to be President. Unfortunately until one of those two numbers changes, he will be the nominee. No amount of magical thinking will change that.

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  319. @322 Try voodoo! Can’t hurt.

    asset (bc7578)

  320. “Too bad none of the candidates that fit that bill have a chance of being the nominee.”

    An individual person…unless he has 100’s of millions to burn or has a syndicated show that reaches a significant number of voters…has little that he can easily accomplish. Especially looking at a measly one vote out of millions…especially looking at a very blue state. Blog commenting where there might be 12 regular commenters is not exactly influencing national opinion. It’s more therapy than a meaningful action.

    If Trump is in fact inevitable, then maybe the discussion has to move beyond that. One direction is to argue that the GOP must lose decisively in 2024 to send a crushing message to the influencers that the current strategy is unacceptable. Another direction is to join a 3rd party that has a uniquely different message. If the base refuses to nominate a candidate not under indictment, then they must understand that a chunk of the party will play spoiler until something changes. Arguing against Biden avoids the problem entirely…letting it metastasize.

    There’s no fixing people…easily, while the number of information sources has exploded. Confirmation bias rules. Hyper-partisanship is comfortable. We see frequently how people want to hold onto poorly-reasoned positions….getting defiant even. My thinking still takes me to the inevitability of a monstrous international blunder or a catastrophic economic collapse….where partisan games no longer are entertaining. No one can wish for it…but it’s becomming more and more plausible.

    Haley is a small piece of the puzzle. I think focusing on her misses the bigger picture. We are going down the path of nominating someone who has serious personality problems…with increasingly erratic behavior. All polls are just snap shots. I will shout the truth until the end….

    AJ_Liberty (81ab5c)

  321. @324 Tell that to AOC and what good did bloomberg’s or jebbies money buy them? Clinton’s money didn’t buy squat! Money works in a vacume for non-entities running against each other.

    asset (bc7578)

  322. AJ,

    the leftist cultural rot is destroying our nation. They demand their faith be affirmed in every aspect of society, but you keep saying it’s not important. Why is that?

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  323. I see Narcan on sale OTC here in NM.

    They’re making Narcan more widely available. Narcan was administered to the toddlers, but it was too late for one. It took some time for the picture to become clearer. This happened on Friday. Although there’s been a sign on the door for maybe a year, and the place got a license in May and a surprise inspection on Sept , it didn’t actually begin taking in children till about this month.

    Police say it was a front for the fentanyl wholesaler. People who lived there knew more than the inspectors. At least one would be

    mother customer thought they didn’t look like they could take care properly. The woman owner didn’t put her own child in her own day care center. This only got operational this month, one baby at a time but the fentanyl wholesaling business probably was active for some time,.

    Such small home based day care centers are regulated by the state but the inspections were turned over to the city, The owner and her husband lived next door, and the husband’s cousin, who rented a room there was doing the fentanyl operation.

    The woman and her cousin-in-law have been arrested; the husband is on the lam. The woman probably did not understand why the children did not wake up from their nap but she called her husband and others before calling 911, Before that the husband came back and probably removed some fentanyl or other illegal things, but some was left, They are Spanish speaking people

    Sammy Finkelman (4eaa6c)

  324. “cultural rot is destroying our nation”

    Define “destroying our nation”

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  325. Define “destroying our nation”

    Google?

    BuDuh (3f6b53)

  326. I’ll vote for a non-Trump candidate, for all the good it will do.

    “this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part”

    –Otter, Animal House

    Defeatism seems to be your forte, Rip.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  327. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

    –often attributed to Edmund Burke.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  328. Such small home based day care centers are regulated by the state but the inspections were turned over to the city

    The parents should inspect; relying on government to protect your kids is child abuse.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  329. In California, the best was to qualify a new political party is by voter registration.

    Voter Registration Method – Elections Code Section 5100(b) or 5151(c)

    To qualify a new political party by voter registration requires that voters equal in number to at least 0.33 percent of the total number of voters registered on the 154th day before the primary election or the 123rd day before the presidential general election complete an affidavit of registration, disclosing a preference by writing in the name of the political body intending to qualify as a political party. (Elec. Code, §§ 5100(b), 5151(c).)

    Now, for a fringe party this can be daunting, but for an “I Hate Trump Party” of erstwhile Republicans and independents? Maybe not so hard. It takes about 73,000 voter registrations out of the 10 million GOP or NPP registered voters.

    There are several moderate parties attempting to qualify now: Common Sense, American Moderate, No Labels, and Normal parties.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  330. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/09/19/ca-principal-claims-there-are-13-genders-justifies-drag-queen-discussion-in-health-class-n1728325

    ”trans” Trans is an umbrella term for someone who’s [sic] body at birth does not match the gender they feel they are.

    ”gender-queer” A gender-queer person may feel that they have characteristics of both men and women, or that they do not fit into either gender category.

    ”gender-fluid” A gender-fluid person does not identify solely as male or female and their gender identity changes over time.

    ”genderless” Genderless, or Agender, refers to a person who does not identify with gender.

    ”agender” (see above definition of Genderless)

    ”bigender” Bigender refers to a person who has two gender identities or a combination of two gender identities.

    “tri-gender” A trigender person defines their gender identity in a third category, which is not situated in between man/woman.

    ”pangender” Pangender is a term for people who feel that they cannot be labeled as female or male in gender.

    ”non-binary” Non-binary is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn’t sit comfortably with man or woman.

    ”third-gender categories” Third gender is a term that refers to those who do not identify with being either male or female.

    ”two-spirit people” In the Native American culture, a person who embodies both masculine and feminine qualities.

    ”bisexual” A person who is attracted to two genders.

    ”bi-curious” Someone who is interested in having a sexual experience with a person of the same sex.

    The mental illness being pushed in California schools on pre-teen children. Soon to be pushed on the rest of the nation.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  331. https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1704547965107355957

    Andrew Desiderio
    @AndrewDesiderio
    NEWS — Schumer is filing cloture on senior-level military promotions that Tuberville has been blocking.

    Oh, so Democrats could vote on military promotions…eh?

    God forbid that these Senators has to at the very least, put on shorts/hoodie to promote our military leaders.

    whembly (5f7596)

  332. The last thing Rudy needs is an allegation of him trying to a grab a young pretty woman by the pizda. He’s already in hot legal water.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  333. Oh, so Democrats could vote on military promotions…eh?

    I wonder if it will take 12 billion hours like the worst-case-assumption-in/worst-case-assumption-out CRS memo burbled.

    BuDuh (e458f6)

  334. WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville has spent months blocking promotions at the Pentagon in protest to a new abortion policy but Wednesday seemed poised to try to force the Senate to vote on a key nominee — an effort to flip pressure onto Democrats after criticism from them and members of his own party.

    Tuberville sought to force the Senate to confirm Gen. Eric Smith’s promotion to Marine Corps commandant on Wednesday afternoon, a Senate aide with knowledge of the plan told NBC News — implementing a combination of procedural and political gymnastics as Democrats and the White House paint his hold as endangering military readiness.

    Let’s go. It’s time to vote,” Tuberville posted on X Wednesday morning, captioning a photo of him signing a document known as a cloture petition.

    Smith is currently serving in an acting capacity due to Tuberville’s blockade, leaving the Pentagon operating without a Senate-confirmed commandant for the first time in over 150 years.

    But before Tuberville could act, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the floor to start the process of voting on three nominees — a move that appeared to try to blunt the Republican efforts.

    Turns out that one senator knows how to make Schumer squirm and eventually be responsible.

    AFAIAC this is a lesson to all other GOP Senators.

    BuDuh (e458f6)

  335. Bill Melugin

    @BillMelugin_
    Follow
    It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now. Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.

    https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/1704535232970457439#m

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  336. There are two videos in that tweet. How many women and children do you count seeking asylum?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  337. > The parents should inspect;

    i have friends who are parents who have the time and capacity to do this.

    my mother, on the other hand — a single woman with no social support system and two kids — would never in a million years have been able to do this.

    state inspections exist as a safeguard to help protect the children of parents like mine.

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  338. https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1704574020971040932?

    These are the creeps Biden and Schumer are putting in charge of our military. But some want to pretend that Tuberville is the problem.

    NJRob (fc2ef3)

  339. Defeatism seems to be your forte, Rip.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/20/2023 @ 9:41 am

    Magical thinking appears to be yours.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  340. Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/20/2023 @ 10:01 am

    Case in point.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  341. Andrew Desiderio
    @AndrewDesiderio
    NEWS — Schumer is filing cloture on senior-level military promotions that Tuberville has been blocking.

    Oh, so Democrats could vote on military promotions…eh?

    God forbid that these Senators has to at the very least, put on shorts/hoodie to promote our military leaders.

    whembly (5f7596) — 9/20/2023 @ 11:45 am

    Cloture requires 60 votes, so it would require Republican support.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  342. Let’s go. It’s time to vote,” Tuberville posted on X Wednesday morning, captioning a photo of him signing a document known as a cloture petition.

    Hypocrite.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  343. Cloture requires 60 votes, so it would require Republican support.

    Captain Obvious

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  344. Defeatism seems to be your forte, Rip.

    Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/20/2023 @ 9:41 am

    What evidence is there that

    a) Donald Trump is not popular among Republican voters; and

    b) Republican voters do not want Donald Trump to be President?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  345. https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/09/20/musk-why-isnt-the-msm-covering-the-border-crisis-n579348

    The MSM expends no effort in pressing the administration to explain its policies. Karine Jean-Pierre at the White House and Alejandro Mayorkas at Homeland Security declared that the “border is secure,” and that is good enough for them.

    Thousands of people A DAY are marching into our country, and in many cases, border patrol agents will literally open gates to escort them into the country. The Biden administration is fighting in court to prevent Texas from protecting its borders, siding against Americans.

    At the same time Democrats are simultaneously passing laws to give driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and, unsurprisingly, to automatically register people to vote when they get driver’s licenses. Is this a coincidence? Of course not. Opening our borders, giving free food and housing, not to mention cash to the illegals who rush in is the official policy of the United States, and at the same time Democrat governors are screaming about making voting easier and automatically registering people to vote.

    Over 2 million a year, mostly young men. But it’s not an invasion, right?

    NJRob (fc2ef3)

  346. > Thousands of people A DAY

    > Over 2 million a year

    2000000/365 = 5479

    It’s not clear that “thousands of people a day” equates to “five thousand five hundred people a day”.

    do you have a source for the thousands of people a day claim?

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  347. While he looks up a source, what is the preferable amount of people marching in each day?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  348. Ouch!:

    Former President Donald Trump holds a sizable lead in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire, but a close contest for second place has emerged among four candidates seeking to gain traction as an alternative to the front-runner, according to a new CNN/University of New Hampshire poll.

    Overall, Trump is the first choice of 39% of likely GOP primary voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state…….

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who stood out as Trump’s chief rival in the last UNH survey on the New Hampshire race in July, has dropped 13 points since then to 10% support. He’s now running about even against three rising candidates: tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (13%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (12%) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (11%). South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is at 6% support in the poll and former Vice President Mike Pence holds 2%. No other candidate tops 1%.

    DeSantis’ decline stems from a sharp drop-off among moderates, from 26% backing him in July to 6% now. He fell a smaller 8 points among conservatives.
    ……….
    Ramaswamy’s increase is concentrated more among those who are not registered Republicans (up 16 points since July with that group while holding relatively steady among registered Republicans) and among younger likely voters (he’s up 28 points among those younger than 35 and 11 points among those ages 35 to 49, while holding about even among those ages 50 or older).

    Christie’s growth is concentrated among those who identify as independents or Democrats but say they will vote in the GOP primary (from 23% support in July to 38% now, while among self-identified Republicans, he’s holding roughly steady at 3% support). And Haley’s increase is a bit larger among those with more formal education (up 11 points among those who’ve completed some postgraduate work and 15 points among other college graduates) and among moderates (she gained 18 points with the group, while her support among conservatives is roughly even with July).
    ……….
    About half of likely Republican primary voters, 51%, say that Trump has the best chance to win the general election in 2024, with DeSantis the next highest at 16%. ……

    Few likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters raise serious doubts about Trump when asked to name their top concern about him as a candidate. ……
    …………
    ………..While roughly three-quarters of those who back candidates other than Trump say it is very important that the Republican nominee attract support from outside the party (75%), less than half of Trump supporters feel the same way (45%). Trump backers broadly want a candidate who will fight for conservative values even when they are unpopular (93%) and who is not a typical politician (64%), but far fewer backing others agree (50% and 26%, respectively). Those backing someone besides Trump are more than three times as likely as Trump supporters to say it’s important that the GOP nominee is respectful to others (73% vs. 23%) while the vast majority in both camps say they’re looking for a candidate who says what he or she believes.
    ………..


    Paragraph breaks added.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  349. October ‘22 to July ‘23:

    Southwest Land Border Encounters

    FY2023TD – All 1,973,092

    I do not exactly understand what CBP is breaking down in their numbers. Does anyone know?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  350. whembly (5f7596) — 9/20/2023 @ 11:45 am

    Oh, so Democrats could vote on military promotions…eh?

    They wanted to make it worse what Tuberville was doing. But it wasn’t working 100% to make Tuberville the only bad guy. They had to. at least, confirm the most critical military appointments.(which, by the way, are more in the line of policy making positions on abortion help)

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  351. https://nypost.com/2023/09/16/nyc-dumping-more-money-into-migrant-crisis-than-any-other-us-hotspot

    The Big Apple took in more migrants than anywhere else in the country since last spring, and city taxpayers are on course to spend an astronomical $40,000 per migrant — far more than any of the top five cities where asylum seekers land, data analyzed by The Post shows.

    Between last April through the end of July 2023, over 125,000 migrants have headed for the five boroughs, according to data on the zip codes where migrants told U.S. Customs and Border Protection they plan to settle.

    The stats are tracked by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonprofit at Syracuse University.

    This is TRAC link:

    https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/ntanew/

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  352. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/19/us/migrants-buses-la-nyc.html

    1.Fewer people want to go there. It takes 8 days for Texas to fill up a bus far around 40 people.

    2.Some are headed other places, like toward the Central Valley

    3.They already have the infrastructure. for immigrant absorption

    “Although Los Angeles is home to the largest undocumented population in the United States, most have been living in the city for at least a decade.

    The migrants arriving by bus from Texas are just a small fraction of the more than 1,000 recent immigrants each week who head to the Los Angeles area to start new lives in California — a number that has stayed steady for years.

    Most of them initially stay with relatives, who help them find work, housing and schools for their children. As a result, they are unlikely to seek emergency shelter or other city resources, immigration experts said.”

    4. Homeless shelters in Los Angeles report that they have not seen a significant increase.

    5. “Those fleeing their home countries in the current migrant wave include Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, who, like others from Caribbean nations, have traditionally migrated to the East Coast, rather than to California. The biggest group is Venezuelans, who have not historically migrated to the United States at all, and who do not have well-established networks in California.

    Mr. Chishti said that for Venezuelans, New York is a much more attractive destination, largely because of its legal requirement to provide shelter to families. New York also has an enormous, diverse economy and, crucially, a robust transit system. Unlike in Los Angeles, newly arriving residents do not need a car to traverse the New York region”

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  353. https://nypost.com/2023/09/17/mayor-adams-its-time-to-end-right-to-shelter-charade

    …Without question, the “right” is the central reason New York is spending far more per migrant than any other large city — nearly $40,000 a head here, vs. under $3,000 in Los Angeles and less than $7,000 in Chicago.

    Heck, Gotham is spending more than four times more on migrants than the entire city budget of Miami, the No. 2 city for “asylum seeker” arrivals.

    It was never based on anything like a sincere reading of the state Constitution, but that hasn’t stopped self-declared advocates for the homeless from steadily adding to the “right” over the decades.

    It initially only meant giving overnight shelter to single vagrant men at an inflation-adjusted cost of $40 million in its first year.

    It eventually grew to a $2-billion-a-year industry housing all comers — and is likely to cost the city $4 billion this year and ahead, as long as influx of illegal immigrants doubles the shelter population.

    Bizarrely, as Nicole Gelinas noted last month, it’s based only on this passage in New York’s fundamental law: “subject to the limitations on indebtedness and taxation, nothing in this constitution . . . shall prevent the legislature from providing for the aid, care and support of the needy.”

    That’s right: Nothing except lack of money need stop the state from caring for the needy…

    ….Nor is that language even in the section of the Constitution that outlines fundamental rights, such as to form a labor union.

    Law aside, it hasn’t worked as a policy: The city has far more people claiming homelessness than almost any other…

    …Mind you, eliminating the right wouldn’t force the city to dump anyone out on the street — but merely allow it to use discretion, to balance the desire to help the truly helpless with the need to pick up the garbage, keep the streets safe, educate children and so on.

    As it stands, the mayor’s been obliged to order cuts to every municipal agency to manage the added costs of sheltering migrants (when the city budget is looking at multibillion-dollar shortfalls starting next year even without this added strain).

    Ending the right would, however, threaten the $2 billion industry that’s grown up to provide shelter — and, potentially, the even larger blob of “social-services nonprofits” that often form the power bases of Democratic bosses.

    That surely plays into Adams’ decision to seek only an emergency limit to the right because the city “lacks the resources” to handle the added burden: The entire Democratic establishment would go ballistic if he called out the emperor’s lack of clothes.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  354. The MSM expends no effort in pressing the administration to explain its policies.

    Neither do the Republicans. Ad they jknow the answer.

    Sammy Finkelman (c5132f)

  355. 2 million a yearis well under 1%

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  356. BuDuh @354: thank you!

    aphrael (b0fc08)

  357. I wonder if it will take 12 billion hours like the worst-case-assumption-in/worst-case-assumption-out CRS memo burbled.

    It will if one side or the other wants it to.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  358. Derp.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  359. @326 Alan colmbs wrote a book “thank the liberals” writing how liberals made this country great despite sabotage by conservatives. Despite prager u’s lying comic book for children slavers were conservatives not liberals. See the movie 1776. You think justice tanney was a liberal or John Brown and lincoln were conservatives? Brown vs board of education thurgood marshall was a liberal. Justice uncle thomas is the conservative.

    asset (42cadb)

  360. @343 creeps? Did you serve in the military?

    asset (42cadb)

  361. Considering Tooberville is allowing only three votes out of three hundred promotions still being held hostage (in a pointless exercise), the votes today are a barely minor victory. So the CRS memo is still essentially correct on the time it will take to process the votes.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  362. Looks like Kari Lake is taking herself out of the running for VP.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  363. It is essentially correct in the worst case scenario of the maximum post-cloture 2 hours per candidate.

    Do you thing the three hearings that Schumer allowed will use the full post-cloture 2 hours?

    How many hearings could Schumer have allowed if he started this at the beginning of the year?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  364. Rep. massey to AG garland How many government agent provocateurs were at the Jan. 6 capital riot? AG Garland I don’t remember I mean I don’t know! See terry norman kent state’s first shot fired.

    asset (42cadb)

  365. It is essentially correct in the worst case scenario of the maximum post-cloture 2 hours per candidate.

    Do you thing the three hearings that Schumer allowed will use the full post-cloture 2 hours?

    How many hearings could Schumer have allowed if he started this at the beginning of the year?

    BuDuh (4214e4) — 9/20/2023 @ 5:28 pm

    Cloture doesn’t require hearings. All of the officers have been reported out of committee and are only pending Senate confirmation.

    Under current Senate precedents, invoking cloture on a nomination requires majority support, and most nominations are subject to a maximum of two additional hours of post-cloture debate.

    Absent unanimous consent, the steps to confirm a nomination include:

    • The Senate votes on a non-debatable motion to proceed to executive session to take up a nomination on the Executive Calendar.

    • The majority leader ( or his designee) files cloture on the nomination. The Senate must wait two session days before voting on cloture absent unanimous consent to alter this “ripening period.” The Senate can conduct other business during these two days, and usually does.

    • Two days of session later, the Senate votes on cloture. The rule requires that the vote to invoke cloture is required to be a roll call vote. If a majority of Senators voting support cloture, then cloture is invoked, and further consideration of the nomination is limited.

    • The Senate conducts post-cloture debate on the nomination. For all military nominations now pending on the Calendar, there is a maximum of two hours of consideration on each nomination after cloture has been invoked. Once cloture is invoked on a matter, the Senate can consider other business during the post-cloture period only by unanimous consent.

    • After post-cloture debate time expires, or when no Senator seeks to discuss the nomination further, the Senate votes on the nomination. Confirmation requires majority support.
    ……..
    Because the Senate must wait two session days between when cloture is filed on a nomination and the ensuing cloture vote, separately confirming a large number of nominations using the cloture process can take considerable floor time.
    …………….
    Incorporating the above assumptions, it would take the Senate approximately 689 hours and 20 minutes of floor consideration, plus two days of session at the start of the process for cloture to mature on all 273 nominations. This total represents approximately 30 days and 17 hours to process all 273 military nominations, assuming the Senate worked 24 hours a day without break or interruption by other business. Alternatively, based on the above assumptions, if the Senate exclusively processed these nominations during eight-hour session days, it would take approximately 89 days to confirm all 273 nominees.

    Source My emphasis.

    Tooberville lifted his holds on the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Air Force Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown Jr., who was confirmed earlier today), as well as the Commandant of the Marine Corps (Gen. Eric M. Smith) and the Army Chief of Staff (Gen. Randy George), so they were able to be approved. He still has holds on nearly 300 other officers. Tooberville only lifted his holds because Gen. Mark A. Milley is required to retire by September 30th.

    Following Brown’s confirmation vote (89-11), the Senate began work on a motion to advance George’s nomination, with a confirmation vote expected Thursday. The chamber also will work to advance Smith’s nomination on Thursday.
    ………
    Moments after the Senate advanced Brown’s nomination, the freshman senator vowed to continue holding the other military nominations if the Pentagon does not change its abortion policy.
    ………..
    Numerous other nominees for four-star positions also are on hold, including five in the Air Force, four in the Navy, two in the Space Force, and one each in the Army and Marine Corps, according to Pentagon data previously provided to The Washington Post. They include nominees for the top two jobs overseeing the Air Force and Navy, and the No. 2 jobs in the Army, Marine Corps and Space Force.

    Source

    Tooberville has two goals, protesting DoD’s abortion travel policy (which does not “fund abortions”, and to grind the Senate to a halt.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  366. 😢

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  367. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/20/2023 @ 6:03 pm

    Of course, these three confirmations don’t reduce the backlog at all, as the nominees to replace them are also being placed on hold, as will their successors.

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  368. Like what is going in the House, it goes to show that Congressional Republicans aren’t interested in governing.

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  369. Rip’s quote of his CRS link:

    Under current Senate precedents, invoking cloture on a nomination requires majority support, and most nominations are subject to a maximum of two additional hours of post-cloture debate.

    Absent unanimous consent, the steps to confirm a nomination include:

    • The Senate votes on a non-debatable motion to proceed to executive session to take up a nomination on the Executive Calendar.

    • The majority leader ( or his designee) files cloture on the nomination. The Senate must wait two session days before voting on cloture absent unanimous consent to alter this “ripening period.” The Senate can conduct other business during these two days, and usually does.

    • Two days of session later, the Senate votes on cloture. The rule requires that the vote to invoke cloture is required to be a roll call vote. If a majority of Senators voting support cloture, then cloture is invoked, and further consideration of the nomination is limited.

    • The Senate conducts post-cloture debate on the nomination. For all military nominations now pending on the Calendar, there is a maximum of two hours of consideration on each nomination after cloture has been invoked. Once cloture is invoked on a matter, the Senate can consider other business during the post-cloture period only by unanimous consent.

    • After post-cloture debate time expires, or when no Senator seeks to discuss the nomination further, the Senate votes on the nomination. Confirmation requires majority support.
    ……..
    Because the Senate must wait two session days between when cloture is filed on a nomination and the ensuing cloture vote, separately confirming a large number of nominations using the cloture process can take considerable floor time.
    >>>>>>>>>>> ……………. <<<<<<<<<<<<
    Incorporating the above assumptions, it would take the Senate approximately 689 hours and 20 minutes of floor consideration, plus two days of session at the start of the process for cloture to mature on all 273 nominations. This total represents approximately 30 days and 17 hours to process all 273 military nominations, assuming the Senate worked 24 hours a day without break or interruption by other business. Alternatively, based on the above assumptions, if the Senate exclusively processed these nominations during eight-hour session days, it would take approximately 89 days to confirm all 273 nominees.

    The second cut Rip made, highlighted by my bold “>” and “<“ is where he excluded the actual assumptions used by CRS. His quote is one of the most deceitful things I have seen from him.

    The pdf is tough to cut and paste, but there is no excuse for this shenanigan. Anyone wanting to see the complete assumptions, they are indeed at his link.

    BuDuh (76907e)

  370. Rip has an agenda that he likes to push. Over and over again. It’s spam.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  371. Good-bye Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

    Israeli officials are quietly working with the Biden administration on a polarizing proposal to set up a U.S.-run, uranium-enrichment operation in Saudi Arabia as part of a complex three-way deal to establish official diplomatic relations between the two Middle Eastern countries, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed top Israeli nuclear and security specialists to cooperate with U.S. negotiators as they try to reach a compromise that could allow Saudi Arabia to become the second country in the Middle East, after Iran, to openly enrich uranium, the officials said.

    They promise, of course, that it’s not about weapons.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  372. most nominations are subject to a maximum of two additional hours of post-cloture debate.

    It WAS 30, until McConnell put his foot down. And even then, Trump’s judges all got the maximum 2 hours of debate. Any side that wants to drag its feet can do so. Now, maybe with the military they won’t want to, but Tuberville and his allies just might.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  373. 376 BiBi strikes again! I wonder if they will have bottle deposits netanyahu and his wife can cash in?

    asset (bfc9e4)

  374. Anyone wanting to see the complete assumptions, they are indeed at his link.

    BuDuh (76907e) — 9/20/2023 @ 7:38 pm

    Which is why I posted the link. Without it would have been truly “deceitful.”

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  375. Rip has an agenda that he likes to push. Over and over again. It’s spam.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/20/2023 @ 9:04 pm

    LOL! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! 🤣😂

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  376. That cover story took a while to prepare for the most prolific poster here.

    Sorry, Rip. The edit was too perfect. You intentionally misled with a quote that said “incorporating the above assumptions” and not including the specific assumption list, but something that you wanted people to believe was the list.

    You did that to emphasize the total time that might be consumed while concealing, with your selective quote, how many hours, of the speculated total hours, are from a wild 2 hour “maximum” assumption.

    Take the L, big boy. This one is too obvious.

    Or dig deeper in the excuse bin.

    BTW, any idea how much post-cloture debate time was consumed on General Brown?

    “LOL,” right?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  377. For context, Tuberville is blocking 300-plus military personnel for leadership positions over a matter that affected only a dozen women who put in chits for travel expenses and leave.

    In a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican Roger Wicker, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reported that only 12 women, of approximately 230,000 eligible service members, have utilized the policy. Politico reported that a number of service members declined to use the policy for fear of reassignment or retribution.

    BTW, Charles Q. Brown was appointed in June 2020 to Chief of Staff of the Air Force in a 98-0 vote. Yesterday, the vote for his appointment to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was 83-11. What changed in 39 months? The Republican preeners.

    The 11 senators voting against Brown were all Republicans: Mike Braun (Ind.), Ted Cruz (Tex.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Eric Schmitt (Mo.), J.D. Vance (Ohio), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Cynthia M. Lummis (Wyo.), Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Tuberville.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  378. Paul’s Dispatch link is paywalled. Only a snippet of the article was visible. This quote was just before the blurring and the solicitation from The Dispatch:

    Since Tuberville instituted his hold in March—when the policy he is protesting went into effect—Schumer has declined to hold floor votes for the senior leadership of the Marines, Army, and Navy,

    Fact-check: TRUE

    This is on Schumer.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  379. Rip has an agenda that he likes to push. Over and over again. It’s spam.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 9/20/2023 @ 9:04 pm

    LOL! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! 🤣😂

    Rip Murdock (1b9322) — 9/21/2023 @ 7:15 am

    And he said that without a hint of irony! 😆 🤣😂

    Rip Murdock (1b9322)

  380. Paul, did the Dispatch link the letter from Austin to Wicker? The Political hyperlink you have in the quote you used only talks about a letter that Wicker sent to Austin asking Austin to confirm what Wicker heard elsewhere

    From your(or the Dispatch’s?) Politico link:

    After this story was published on Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Republican Roger Wicker sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, saying he “received information” that “approximately 12” women have taken advantage of the policy.

    In the letter, obtained by POLITICO, Wicker demanded Austin confirm the number and asked whether the policy is being used to address late-term abortions. Wicker also challenged Austin’s assertion in correspondence with Congress that the Dobbs v. Jackson decision would have significant implications for the readiness of the force.

    Considering that letter was written on the 15th, I am impressed that Austin responded so quickly.

    I await the link to Austin’s response. Thanks in advance.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  381. You should subscribe to The Dispatch, BuDuh. Patterico and AJ comment more there than here, and the publication has excellent clear-headed conservative (not right-wing) contributors, and their podcasts are pretty good. Ms. Rogers also mentioned this about Schumer.

    But until this Tuberville forced his hand this week with his own push to bring the top positions up for a floor vote, Schumer had refused floor votes for those positions because he thought doing so would incentivize other senators to adopt Tuberville’s tactics. “If everyone objected to everything, to get leverage for their pet priorities, it will grind this body to a halt,” Schumer said in a speech Wednesday.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  382. It sounds like Tuberville’s forcing Schumer’s hand ground the Senate into motion.

    There is nothing that Schumer is doing now that he could not have done months ago. His bluff wasted time.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  383. Tuberville’s goals are to put the U.S. military in disarray. He does what Trump tells him. Trump does what Putin wants. It’s called the chain of command.

    nk (bb1548)

  384. I have to chuckle about Schumer crying over “pet priorities.” If there really is a letter from Austin to Wicker that confirms that only 12 people availed themselves of this DoD abortion taxi service, that was important to the “readiness of force” status of the country, I don’t think I could image a more blatant “pet priority” with all the time that has been wasted on it by the proponents.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  385. From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff this past Sunday:

    ZAKARIA: Is the U.S. military too woke?

    MILLEY: No, not at all. So — you know, I’m not even sure what that word truly means. But I would tell you that the military I see, is a military that is exceptionally strong. It’s powerful. It’s ready. In fact, our readiness rate is — the way we measure readiness is better now than they’ve been in years. And what I see on a day-to-day basis — right now for example, Fareed, in the last 24 hours we’ve had about 5,000 sorties of U.S. aircraft that are keeping the skies safe. You’ve had somewhere between 60 and 100 U.S. naval vessels patrolling the seven seas. You’ve got a quarter of a million U.S. troops — ground troops, the army or marine corps, on freedom frontier sort of thing around the world maintaining peace and stability.

    This is a military that’s dedicated to maintaining our readiness or capabilities or lethality. And the thing that we also need to focus on is the modernization for the future character of war that I see fundamentally changing. But this — military is a lot of things but woke it is not.

    So, I take exception to that. I think that people say those things for reasons that are their own reasons. But it’s not true. It’s not accurate.

    And it is not to say, by the way, that there is — there is not some things out there that are — could be fit into that category. But I don’t think it certainly is — it is not a broad-brush description of the U.S. military as it exists today.

    Great stuff!

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  386. It sounds like Tuberville’s forcing Schumer’s hand ground the Senate into motion.

    There is nothing that Schumer is doing now that he could not have done months ago. His bluff wasted time.

    BuDuh (4214e4) — 9/21/2023 @ 8:31 am

    Tuberville only allowed the JCS nominations to be confirmed because it was embarrassing to the US military to have only “acting” leaders. He is still has holds on their successors and about 300 others.

    Tuberville’s point isn’t that nominations should be voted upon individually-it’s to hold up the careers of 300+ officers (which could reach to over 600 by the end of the year) to change DOD’s abortion travel policy.

    If Tuberville was serious, he would sponsoring legislation to overturn the policy.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  387. If you were serious you wouldn’t have written your 6:03pm.

    I don’t think you should be speculating on the embarrassment of others. But I don’t control that.

    Schumer could have stacked the calendar, as he has now conceded. Tuberville showed how the Senate is supposed to operate during conflict.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  388. Paul, I have to run. I am always rewarded by our cordial dialogue. Thanks again.

    I’ll check in later to see if there was a response from Austin or if The Dispatch made a simple error in their quote.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  389. If you were serious you wouldn’t have written your 6:03pm.

    I don’t think you should be speculating on the embarrassment of others. But I don’t control that.

    Schumer could have stacked the calendar, as he has now conceded. Tuberville showed how the Senate is supposed to operate during conflict.

    BuDuh (4214e4) — 9/21/2023 @ 9:00 am

    Speaking of my 6:03 pm post, if you think I left out vital information from my quote, feel free to post what I left out to correct the record. That post was to show what time consuming steps are required to overcome a senator’s hold.

    I will speculate all I want about the motives of politicians that are supposed to put their personal beliefs aside to serve the needs of the nation. Again, Tuberville is not interested in “how the Senate operates,” if the DOD did not have the abortion travel policy it does, he would not be doing this. Humiliating the military leadership is a side benefit.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  390. https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1704640256429985863?

    Governor Greg Abbott announced an hour ago that he officially declared an invasion at the southern border today and he’s going to begin repelling it.
    He sent a letter to Joe Biden and declared that he’s sending troops to the border and they are building a wall, deploying razor wire and marine barriers to protect his state from the Mexican drug cartels since Biden won’t do it:

    He wrote: “The federal government’s failure has forced me to invoke Article I, § 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, thereby enabling the State of Texas to protect its own territory against invasion by the Mexican drug cartels.”

    Acknowledging what we all know to be true. It’s an invasion aided and abetted by certain members of the ruling class.

    NJRob (1bf8c2)

  391. It’s an invasion aided and abetted by certain members of the ruling class.

    May be Abbott should be going after them.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  392. I don’t think you should be speculating on the embarrassment of others. But I don’t control that.

    If you don’t like anyone speculating about others’ motivations, you really must not like Sammy’s posts. They’re mostly speculations.

    No offense, Sammy.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  393. For context, Tuberville is blocking 300-plus military personnel for leadership positions over a matter that affected only a dozen women who put in chits for travel expenses and leave.

    For context, Biden allowed all these promotions to be held up over a matter that affected only a dozen women who put in chits for travel expenses and leave.

    FIFY

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  394. This is on Schumer.

    The gun to his own head.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  395. @388: Another wacky conspiracy theory.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  396. I don’t think I could image a more blatant “pet priority” with all the time that has been wasted on it by the proponents.

    The priority was to drag this through the op-ed section and talking-heads shows for months. It seemed like a winner, until it didn’t.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  397. BuDuh (4214e4) — 9/21/2023 @ 8:40 am

    If there really is a letter from Austin to Wicker that confirms that only 12 people availed themselves of this DoD abortion taxi service, that was important to the “readiness of force” status of the country, I don’t think I could image a more blatant “pet priority” with all the time that has been wasted on it by the proponents.

    They’re arguing over theory. It is just as unimportant to Tuberville. He could say he cares about every baby – but he really doesn’t.

    It’s a philosophical problem.

    And it’s not even new since Dobbs. Because before there was the issue of U.S> military personnel stationed in countries where elective abortion was not available. I don’t know how that was handled.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  398. Kevin M (ed969f) — 9/21/2023 @ 1:48 pm

    @388: Another wacky conspiracy theory.

    Wacky because there’s no way Putin would trust Donald Trump with a secret.

    Fool him, maybe.

    Try to create the impression in Trump’s mind that what is a pro-Russian position is politically advantageous for him – possible, if he has moles.

    You know, it’s working in Poland. Poland is going to cut off sales of arms to Ukraine.

    https://www.newser.com/story/340438/poland-says-its-not-sending-more-weapons-to-ukraine.html

    … Foundation Donates $200M for Reproductive Health Care China Warmly Welcomes Leader Shunned by the US Massive Operation Clears Out Prison Run by Inmates India Suspends Visa Services as Rift With Canada Widens Torture Made 9/11 Defendant Delusional, Psychotic: Panel US Announces Plans to Protect 472K Venezuelan Migrants A Day Into Military Assault, Victory Is Declared ‘When Hatred Is Weaponized Against One Nation, It Never Stops There’ Japan Hits a Gray Milestone Guy Who Surfs With Pet Python Hit With a Fine Highlights of Biden’s Speech to UN His Slaying in Canada Is Now an International Incident
    WORLD /
    RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
    Ukraine Loses Arms Supplier
    Facing campaign pressure, Poland’s prime minister says no more weapons will be shipped
    By Newser Editors and Wire Services
    Posted Sep 21, 2023 4:20 PM CDT

    Poland Says It’s Not Sending More Weapons to Ukraine

    Poland’s prime minister said his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine, a comment that appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv and put Poland’s status as a major source of military equipment in doubt as a trade dispute between the neighboring states escalates. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview late Wednesday that Poland is not shipping weapons to Ukraine. His populist party faces pressure from a far-right party in a national election on Oct. 15. The far-right party, Confederation, says Poland is not getting the gratitude it deserves for arming Ukraine and accepting its refugees, the AP reports.

    Russia has I presume been behind this “pro-Poland” party.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  399. If you don’t like anyone speculating about others’ motivations, you really must not like Sammy’s posts. They’re mostly speculations.

    No offense, Sammy.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/21/2023 @ 1:30 pm

    That’s right.

    There’s nothing wrong with speculation.

    Although there is a considerable dosage of facts.

    The conclusions are speculations.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  400. And then there are things that I notice.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a)

  401. The conclusions are speculations.

    Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/21/2023 @ 3:44 pm

    LOL! You even know what Trump thinks (as an example) or thought during the insurrection, and what his motivations were.

    Completely (unsubstantiated and unprovable) speculations.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  402. This is probably the best slam on David Brooks’ tweet.

    The “readers added context” section below was equally good: “The restaurant has noted that 80% of this tab was Brooks’ bar bill.” I hope David French doesn’t succumb to this kind of out-of-touch elitist complaint.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  403. No letter from Austin to Wicker?

    BuDuh (76907e)

  404. If George Santos won’t resign after being indicted, why should Menendez?
    What’s a few gold bars and cash and such between friends.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d)

  405. “The restaurant has noted that 80% of this tab was Brooks’ bar bill.”

    That explains a lot.

    Kevin M (ed969f)

  406. If George Santos won’t resign after being indicted, why should Menendez?

    I expect Trump to come to his defense — yet another example of the weaponized DoJ — and he’ll be penciled in as an afternoon speaker at the Convention.

    Kevin M (ed969f)


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