Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
How many times and in how many ways must this be said:
Putin’s strategy is to scare the entire Western world. Putin wants us to be afraid of him.
He wants us to talk about “nuclear threats”. The West, the entire free world, must not allow itself to be frightened.
If Ukraine loses more territory, then the entire West pays the consequences.
We need the weapons to be able to defend ourselves. Support from the USA is crucial for this!
…[President Emmanuel] Macron was asked about the prospect of sending Western troops to Ukraine, which he publicly raised last month in comments that prompted pushback from other European leaders who stressed they had no plans to do so.
“We’re not in that situation today,” he said, but added that “all these options are possible.”
Macron said that troops would only be sent in if Moscow provoked it. He declined to expand further, other than to say that” France would not lead an offensive into Ukraine against Russia.”
He also warned that France cannot afford to be weak where Russia is concerned:
“If war was to spread to Europe, it would be Russia’s sole choice and sole responsibility. But for us to decide today to be weak, to decide today that we would not respond, is being defeated already. And I don’t want that,”
Second news item
President Biden being squeezed by all sides over Israel:
More than three dozen Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American leaders blasted a White House effort to meet with community organizations in Chicago over the administration’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
In a joint letter addressed to the White House, the groups criticized the outreach as a bid to “whitewash months of White House inaction,” arguing there was no point in agreeing to more meetings until President Joe Biden changes his approach to the conflict…The rebuke serves as the latest sign of the challenge that Biden faces in winning back voters alienated by his steadfast support for the Israeli offensive. A campaign urging Democrats to express their discontent with Biden’s position has spread to several states, after roughly 13 percent of Michigan voters chose to vote “uncommitted” instead of for Biden in their primary last month.
Third news item
The Manhattan district attorney’s office is willing to delay Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial for up to 30 days, according to a court filing.
The trial is currently scheduled to start on March 25.
The potential delay throws the date for what’s supposed to be the former president’s first criminal trial into question, a surprise twist that represents a major boost for Trump – whose defense teams have employed a strategy of consistently trying to delay all of his trials past the election.
…
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sent about 31,000 pages of discovery material Wednesday and will have more to share, the new filing states.
Fourth news item
“Unrealistic demands” by terrorists for a ceasefire:
Hamas has presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the U.S. that includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life sentences, according to a proposal seen by Reuters.
Hamas said the initial release of Israelis would include women, children, elderly and ill hostages in return for the release of 700-1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, according to the proposal. The release of Israeli “female recruits” is included…
Related: Today Netanyahu’s office announced that a ground invasion of Rafah had been approved. Plans include evacuating civilians beforehand.
Fifth news item
Racial realignment in politics hurting Biden:
“As you can see, Biden’s margin against Donald Trump has basically not moved an inch among white voters; he’s losing them by 12 percentage points, as he did in 2020. However, Biden is now only winning Hispanics by 7 percentage points — down from 24 points in 2020 — and Black voters by ‘only’ 55 points, as compared with 83 points in 2020.”
“I’m not going to cover every possible difficulty when surveying non-white voters, who generally have lower response rates to polls than white voters do. I’m just saying this has been a consistent pattern; Split Ticket has been doing the same analysis for months now, and they’re finding the same thing every time. So at the very least, Democrats can’t wish this problem away by complaining about small sample sizes, although that doesn’t mean they won’t try.”
Sixth news item
And therein lies the problem with the modern Republican Party:
Rep. Nancy Mace’s reelection campaign is calling on one of her primary challengers, Catherine Templeton, to drop out of the South Carolina First Congressional District race.
This comes as former President Donald Trump threw his support behind the congresswoman over the weekend, calling her a “strong, conservative voice” for South Carolina.
On Wednesday, Mace’s campaign manager John Mason Long said Trump’s endorsement signals that the campaign is “stronger than ever” and urged Republicans to unite behind her…
“It’s time for Templeton to step aside and support the only candidate supported by our party’s leader and the only candidate who can win in November. To do otherwise would be to oppose the direction our party leader, Donald Trump, has set for us,” he continued.
Seventh news item
A Georgia judge ruled Friday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should not be disqualified from prosecuting the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and several co-defendants — with one major condition.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found the “appearance of impropriety” brought about by Willis’ romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade should result in either Willis and her office leaving the case — or just Wade, whom she’d appointed to head the case.
The choice is likely to be an easy one: If Willis were to remove herself, the case would come to a halt, but having Wade leave will ensure the case continues without further delay.
The judge said the prosecution “cannot proceed” until Willis makes a decision.
Eighth news item
Unsurprising and disappointing:
President Joe Biden on Friday praised the speech delivered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a day earlier in which he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and called for new elections in Israel.
“He made a good speech and I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him but by many Americans,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office when asked what he thought about Schumer’s remarks.
Some Democrats are pushing back on Schumer’s comments:
“Although I have disagreements with Israel’s government, I respect the Israelis’ right to decide for themselves when to call elections and whom to choose as their leaders,” Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., said in a statement. “I pray that when the time comes, Israelis of all faiths and backgrounds will come together to elect leaders who will strengthen democracy and build on the unbreakable bonds between our two nations, just as I pray we Americans will do in November.”
Former Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., now president of the American Jewish Committee, wrote in a statement that while the organization appreciates Schumer’s defense of Israel, “We do not believe it is appropriate for U.S. officials to try to dictate the electoral future of any ally.”
Note:
Biden has faced ongoing calls from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to exert more pressure on the Israeli government to make greater efforts to curb Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid into the strip.
I agree that there absolutely needs to be less civilian deaths and more humanitarian aid to those suffering. But there also needs to be the acknowledgement and full understanding that until Hamas is eradicated and the hostages are freed, there will be a war.
MISCELLANEOUS
A couple of good cartoons:
— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) March 15, 2024
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (8e902f) — 3/15/2024 @ 11:22 amRE: First news item…
Macron is right to signal this now, and I’m heartened by the fact that at least one European nation is willing to rattle their own sabres.
whembly (5f7596) — 3/15/2024 @ 11:52 amRe: Sixth item:
“Party leader”? Sounds like “Dear Leader”. Maybe the parallel is to be expected.
Kenneth Pocket (1f45e0) — 3/15/2024 @ 11:57 amAs predicted, Mayorkas refused to provide DHS files on Laken Riley’s murderer and continues to stonewall, because he’s an a$$ who works for an a$$hole president.
lloyd (a32922) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:19 pmRE: 8th item: I think you’re in agreement with Biden and Schumer, ultimately – that Israel needs to do more for the civilians, ensure that a plan to evacuate non-combatants from Rafah before/during any operation, and that the war will proceed because it must.
The question is: is Netanyahu and the far-right taking enough steps to ensure the above? Reporting today indicates there is a plan to evacuate Rafah prior to an attack, which is good – but ben Gvir has previously made statements indicating a severe lack of concern for ensuring aid is delivered.
And: what is the plan for after the war? What are the options being considered? Worst-case scenario is Hamas continues to rule; next slightly less bad is permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza. Would it be just a chaos scenario like Mogadishu? Is the least bad option that something like the PA or local Gazans governing?
The potential for elections to occur is quickly approaching, as there must be an agreement made in the next two weeks on whether the ultra-Orthodox will be continued to be exempted from serving in the IDF or not. If no agreement is made, then we can expect a split and elections.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:30 pmHey Lloyd: it was Trump that blocked Venezuelan deportation, not Biden. https://apnews.com/general-news-international-news-88ba0f2a51b35bf8195e886d4210e5c3
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:31 pm@5 No mention of the hostages of course, Sam G.
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:35 pm@6 That’s interesting, Sam G. What does that have to do with Laken’s murder?
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:38 pmLloyd, Biden has been working to bring the hostages home since October. Negotiations proceed apace, and we don’t have to discuss those every single time when we talk about prosecution of the war.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:41 pm@8: why was he still here instead of being deported? Trump.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:42 pmNathan Wade, the special prosecutor leading the Fulton County investigation of Donald Trump, has resigned.
Rip Murdock (a57757) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:48 pm@11 the expected result of the decision, yes.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:49 pm@10 Laken’s murderer didn’t arrive in the US until Biden’s second year as president. I mean, you really need to do better, Sam G.
If this is how you’re going to defend Mayorkas giving the middle finger to Laken’s family, we’re done.
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:50 pmGreat, I never have to get a reply from you again. Agree to the deal, Lloyd.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:53 pmHere’s the thing:
If Laken Riley was killed in a mass shooting event via AR-15, you’d not give two sh*ts.
So spare me the histrionics.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:55 pm@15 I thought we had a deal, Sam G.
If you want to change the Constitution and delete the 2A, go ahead and get that rolling.
There is no constitutional defense for Biden’s border mess.
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:58 pmMacron’s statement is an empty threat. The West will not send ground (or air) forces into Ukraine, unless Russia attacks NATO.
Macron concedes France will not take the lead. The French military totals only slightly less than 200,000 personnel, of which only 118,600 are in the army. Even with those pathetic numbers, France has the largest military in the EU.
Rip Murdock (a57757) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:02 pm@16 The agreement was that you were done replying to me 🙂
Like I said, you don’t really care about Laken Riley’s death. I don’t think you really care about the border either, considering the hold-up to being able to manage it well lies with Congress passing changes to the applicable laws – which Biden has promised to sign.
Get on the phone with your representatives and have them sign the discharge petition if you really want to make improvements.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:08 pmThe West will just watch Ukraine fall to the Russians, just like they did during the East German, Hungarian, Czechoslovakian revolts in the 1950s and ‘60s, especially since the West has largely cut off military support.
Rip Murdock (a57757) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:09 pmMaybe I missed it, but have those “three dozen Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American leaders” called for Hamas to stop their war, surrender and abdicate power, and return all the hostages? Seems not.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:15 pm@18 Sam G, since you’re so well informed about the border issue, despite not knowing when Laken’s murderer got in, educate me on the following:
1. How did Laken’s murderer get in the country?
2. Regarding the method in #1, what does the Senate bill (which didn’t pass the Senate) do about it?
They’re simple questions, and yes I know the answers. I’m sure you know, too. I’ll await your answers….
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:24 pmm I don’t know if that is possible without the cooperation of Egypt and the United Nations.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:35 pmlloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:58 pm
Yes, there is:
https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm
Article 1, Section 9. Clause 7
For more see https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C7-1/ALDE_00001095/
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:44 pmLike with me, Pence is going protest vote, refusing to endorse Trump.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:50 pmSam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:30 pm
But that is not what Schumer complained about. Because Benny Gantz is, if anything, worse than Netanyahu on that. Schumer complained about Netanyahu not being willing to unconditionally endorse a Palestinian state.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-senator-chuck-schumers-speech-israeli-elections-are-the-only-way
He;s talking about the period AFTER the war!
Because the lack of a plan about what to do after victory is the excuse they are making for Hamas not agreeing to reasonable terms for a pause in operations.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:54 pm#24.
I’m actually surprised. Good for Pence.
Appalled (5ecdf9) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:57 pmI bungled this.
The point is that while everybody complains about non-combatants being killed, this is not the issue Schumer says he has with Netanyahu. </B.
The issue he has is what will happen after the war.
Some Arab states have explained their ack of help by saying they want a satisfactory situation after the war.
Biden and Blinken don't realize when they are being lied to.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 1:58 pmJay in Kyiv is a little steamed at MAGA Mike, and I don’t blame him.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:03 pmHow much more trouble can Mayorkas get in? You can only impeach someone once, and any criminal referral would be ignored by the Justice Department.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:04 pmSammy, look at my post: I asked the question “What comes after the war?”. Most American Jews have these concerns about both the prosecution of and what comes post-war, and as most of us support a two-state solution we understandably do not support Netanyahu or any of the far-right’s decision making in regards to either question.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:07 pmSchumer:
That’s his problem. He says Israel should care more about the people getting killed, but that’s not why he says he wants a new Israeli government.
And Netanyahu has not rejected a Palestinian state. He has rejected a Palestinian state that is not demilitarized and deradicalized. And Biden. meanwhile, has said it needs to be reformed before it is given control of Gaza..
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:09 pmSam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:07 pm
Israel’s position is that they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it, and maybe that it will be easier after victory. The Israeli government is divided as to what comes next but Netanyahu at least believes that failure to come up with a post war plan should not get in the way of achieving victory..
Two states is not a “solution” to anything except a certain irregularity in the status of many Palestinian Arabs. It’s a solution to the wrong problem, which is the vilification and hatred of Israel and interference by Iran.
The far right was promoted by Netanyahu solely because they would be a reliable coalition partner unlikely to defect to the opposition. They are not, and will not, be making any decisions.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:17 pmNetanyahu has in fact rejected a two-state solution, and stated that he is proud to have prevented its establishment.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:19 pmSam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 12:30 pm
The least bad realistic option is Gaza being ruled directly by Israel. Hamas and Iran is determined to force a binary choice: Them or Israel.
Benny Gantz doesn’t care about the draft because he already offered the religious parties what they want if they will agree to join in a coalition with them – nor is it at all practical, because draftees need months of training
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:19 pmSam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:19 pm
At this point.
When electioneering. He has modified his position to opposing merely one that is not demilitarized and that could pose a threat to Israel.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:21 pmThe issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription isn’t only about this war, Sammy. It’s been an issue for a long time, and one that is made more stark during this war as the non-Haredim have their reserve status extended – ’cause a significant portion of the populace refuses to serve.
Reversion to a status of Israeli occupation of Gaza forever is not gonna work: it’s the same situation as before 2005, and that wasn’t a safe time from my recollection. A two-state solution with security guarantees for Israel from the neighboring countries (like Saudi Arabia) would be best. That it is difficult and requires much effort does not change that – but what it does mean is that those that wish to annex the West Bank and Gaza will be angry, which is also a good thing.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:40 pmCongratulations, Biden supporters.
Migrant Who Entered U.S. Under Biden Parole Program Charged With Rape Of Teenage Girl: Report
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:50 pm“If DHS continues to stonewall the [House Judiciary] Committee’s investigation, the Committee will be forced to use compulsory process,” the three congressmen wrote in the letter, referring to tools, such as subpoena power, House Republicans have to compel information.
They can actually arrest him.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:52 pm@21 Sam G, the answers are:
1. parole
2. nothing
You knew that, right?
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:52 pmIncorrect:
1: claimed asylum
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:58 pm2: asylum claims would only be accepted at ports of entry, and would be more expeditiously processed – most likely leading to his rejection from asylum.
@40 Source, Sam G? Ibarra did not file an asylum claim. He was admitted on parole, and even the left wing sources confirm that.
Mayorkas could clarify everything by simply releasing the DHS file. That he won’t should point to where the blame lies.
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 3:31 pm@41: read that again. It predates the humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans (started October 2022, Ibarra’s apprehension was September), and if you understand our system you understand that he was released because he claimed asylum – and because not enough funding for holding facilities or processing has been made available by Congress, he was paroled pending his case being heard.
We need to fix the system by making asylum harder to claim; faster to process; and if we want to ensure that such claimants are not wandering about then we need to build more holding facilities.
Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 4:00 pm@42 Like I said, Mayorkas can easily clarify this instead of stonewalling. The murderer was let in a year after Remain in Mexico was halted by Biden, that much is known. That act created the detention and processing crisis for which Biden wants more funding.
There’s also the fact that either Biden’s ICE failed to file detainers or the local Democrat run jurisdictions refused to honor them. There were several points at which Laken could’ve been shielded from the murderer and Democrat policies failed her at every point. The Senate bill does nothing about this.
lloyd (f7ae32) — 3/15/2024 @ 4:44 pmLong time no post.
As I always say, this place IMHO *needs* a bit more levity, so thought I’d share a link to Sasha Stone (a favorite of mine at X/Twitter) and her preview (she hasn’t seen it yet) of a new film by Alex Garland (writer/director of the great Ex Machina) called Civil War.
Many reviewers are saying that if in fact the US fell into one, it would look like this movie. It also appears that both left and right reviewers/audiences are enjoying it, interestingly, even if the premise seems too close for comfort. (In the film, both Texas and California are jointly leading a charge for secession against a three-term president, played by Nick Offerman.)
Or you could just go see Cabrini instead. 🙂
https://www.hollywoodwoketopia.com/p/civil-war-least-woke-since-american?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
qdpsteve again (ea27af) — 3/15/2024 @ 4:49 pmHighly unlikely. Congress hasn’t used its “inherent contempt” powers since the 1930s. And given the sliver of a majority in the House, I doubt the votes are available-the was a bare majority for Mayorkas’s impeachment.
By the way, what happened to the Mayorkas impeachment?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/15/2024 @ 5:04 pmBiden and Schumer feel there are more votes from Islamists than Jews that support Israel. So under the bus they go.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/15/2024 @ 5:30 pmMacron is right to signal this now, and I’m heartened by the fact that at least one European nation is willing to rattle their own sabres.
I think I agree. I know the American voter continues to have a bad taste in his/her mouth over Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. But I think it’s very cowardly of modern politicians to announce at the very beginning of hostilities that U.S. troops will not be involved. I get that the Barack Obamas, Donald Trumps, and Joe Bidens of the world feel like they have to reassure us that our sons & daughters, husbands & wives, nephews and nieces, etc. aren’t going to be sent far away to join in someone else’s fight, but all his preemptive declaration that the U.S. and NATO wouldn’t send troops has done is to embolden Putin.
I may write a post about this next week, but ever since the beginning of the war The Spectator has been publishing a number of voices who can hardly be considered to be pro-Putin, but have been consistent in predicting that Russia will in fact eventually “win” this war just because their military is so much larger than Ukraine’s and Putin is willing to bankrupt his economy, sacrifice tens of thousands of his own men, and kill Ukrainian civilians with abandon. Meanwhile, we lack the will to stop him. That’s just the way it is, and at this point I don’t blame anybody who says that it may be time to reach a negotiated truce in this war lest we watch Ukraine lose another 30,000 troops and 50,000 civilians.
JVW (7a22b8) — 3/15/2024 @ 5:57 pmSo how many cities will it be OK to lose to atomic attacks in order to demonstrate that “we are not frightened”? Are we really certain that a dictator with access to nuclear weaponry would be too noble to make use of such weapons if he were to feel driven into a corner? At what point does not being frightened become indistinguishable from not having any survival impulse! 🤔
Towering Barbarian (177cd9) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:22 pmThat’s exactly the reaction Putin’s hoping for, and it caused Biden to blanch and delay in the early months of his latest invasion. Putin’s been issuing these empty threats for years, and we know they’re empty because he understands MAD as well as he understands Article 5 of NATO.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:32 pmSo how many cities will it be OK to lose to atomic attacks in order to demonstrate that “we are not frightened”?
Seven.
The question is, when we nuke Russia, do we let it sit for a minute to finish cooking or do we nuke it again to crisp it?
nk (95fcea) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:40 pm@44: I saw the trailer. It looks like a pretty good cautionary tale. If you think having murder squads on your block — asking who you support — is a good thing, then you’ll like a civil war.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:47 pmSo how many cities will it be OK to lose to atomic attacks in order to demonstrate that “we are not frightened”?
Nuclear war doesn’t work that way.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:50 pmConsider the destruction of 1000 2 megaton bombs set off on a 50-mile pitch covering the inhabited part of Russia.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/15/2024 @ 6:54 pmAs I mentioned above, Macron wants someone else to take the lead, not France. And if the West sent combat troops into Ukraine, it would be a declaration of war against Russia, which would invite instant retaliation.
Macron’s getting ahead of his voters:
Macron’s “saber rattling” is to appear tough in upcoming European elections, and to portray his far-right opponents as tools of the Kremlin. Given that the UK, US, and Germany have rejected his proposal, he may be forced to put up or shut up.
A big nothingburger. 🍔
Rip Murdock (a57757) — 3/15/2024 @ 7:01 pmTrump flip-flopped on TikTok, and Tucker followed suit. And now he’s lying about the bill the House passed.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/15/2024 @ 7:20 pmThe illiberal left’s intolerance of liberal Zionism.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 3/15/2024 @ 8:39 pm@56 liberal zionism is not running Israel. Netanyahu and the likud party are running Israel which are both corrupt and racist. I use to be on the far left ;but the young leftys have passed me by. Palestinian rights and hamas are not the same thing. Calling people who want a ceasefire pro terrorist for cheap political gain is already backfiring. Anti-war protesters being called communists and traitors during the vietnam war led to the left later in the war supporting north vietnam and anti-military until recently. Even AOC supports aid to the Ukraine. If you support Israeli people like I do be careful about cheap political attacks on the future of America for Israel’s sake.
asset (279ec3) — 3/15/2024 @ 11:10 pm#57. As usual, I’m struggling to parse your stream of consciousness. But assuming I do follow it, and further assuming for the sake of argument that everything you say is true, so what? What does any of it have to do with the article I linked? If anything, your evasion seems to confirm Cathy Young’s point, i.e., that to the intolerant Left, liberal Zionists might as well be racist West Bank settlers.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:10 amA Boeing thread, starting with the following…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:20 amVisegrad24 has numerous entries like this, showing their Putin “no” votes. Not that it matters. The Russian gangster is in charge.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:34 amlurker (cd7cd4) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:10 am
Bless you, lurker. In a sense, you are doing charitable work by being attentive to those who, otherwise, would exist only on the margins. asset is Lazarus.
felipe (5045ed) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:43 amNo matter what anyone tries to tell me, I think that busing illegal immigrants from the border to the interior of America has been the most ingenious move the GOP has come up with a long time. Look at what is happening in Brandon Johnson’s hyper-progressive Chicago:
Sure, there will be an amazing onslaught of illegal immigrants claiming medical conditions and domestic violence, but this policy flies in the face with Mayor Johnson’s previous grandstanding:
I guess when you’re the mayor and your big-hearted policies are draining money that otherwise could go to feeding the bureaucracy and creating useless public works projects which might one day bear your name, it’s time to get real with this idea of being “welcoming.”
JVW (1ad43e) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:45 amPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:20 am
I agree that DEI is not the culprit, because DEI does not call for ignoring safety; but neither is deregulation, because it also does not call for ignoring safety: Ignoring safety is solely on Boeing.
felipe (5045ed) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:48 amJVW (1ad43e) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:45 am
I completely agree, JVW. Spcialism’s hallmark is shared misery, and will continue to be pushed until the pushers, also, share in the misery.
felipe (5045ed) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:51 amI agree that DEI is not the culprit, because DEI does not call for ignoring safety; but neither is deregulation, because it also does not call for ignoring safety: Ignoring safety is solely on Boeing.
This. Armies of lawyers and bureaucrats do not enhance engineering or manufacturing efforts. If anything, relaxing bureaucratic contact allowed Boeing to focus more resources on their actual business. That they did not, or that those efforts were wasted, is completely a management failure.
Is there anyone who thinks that Boeing actually wanted to lower the build quality of their planes?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:59 amNo, liberal arts education hasn’t gone conservative, it’s gone left-wing. The Brilla method, for one, is a corrective back to classical liberalism, noted here.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:00 amI agree that DEI is not the culprit, because DEI does not call for ignoring safety; but neither is deregulation, because it also does not call for ignoring safety: Ignoring safety is solely on Boeing.
Considering that this period also saw strident labor union activity at Boeing, with a strike in 2008, a 2014 contract that was widely despised, and the possibility of a strike this year, it seems more likely that worker sabotage (or indifference to safety) is at fault.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:04 amMontana rancher busted by the feds for trying to genetically engineer giant sheep. I love gyros too much to be opposed to that endeavor.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:05 amPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:00 am
The New Yorker has an aggressive paywall. Links to that place are useless to non-subscribers.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:07 amMontana rancher busted by the feds for trying to genetically engineer giant sheep. I love gyros too much to be opposed to that endeavor.
Everybody says that until they get trampled by half-ton sheep.
JVW (1ad43e) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:31 amI don’t subscribe to the New Yorker, Kevin.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 10:13 amIt was my once-a-month freebie, and worth the read.
Everybody says that until they get trampled by half-ton sheep.
It’s probably legal to breed aggressive sheep instead. Surprise the wolves.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 10:24 amA BC tribe plans to take advantage of their sovereignty and build a city within the City of Vancouver. I have no idea how to pronounce the name of the development: Sen̓áḵw, but the architectural rendering is impressive.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 10:38 amRIP singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist Eric Carmen (74):
Rip Murdock (e931af) — 3/16/2024 @ 10:55 amHuh. I only knew Carmen’s version of “All by Myself.” I never knew Celine Dion covered it. I suppose that says more about my ignorance of Celine than it does my interest in Carmen.
JVW (1ad43e) — 3/16/2024 @ 11:00 amRussia’s official ballot here. Remember, they’re checking the voting booths, too, make sure you get to right answer.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 11:01 amJVW (1ad43e) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:31 am
Quite right, sir, but it depends on who gets trampled- I’ve seen the running of the bulls, and I still love bovine steak. “Get’em Ferdinand!”
felipe (5e2a04) — 3/16/2024 @ 11:09 amThe Seattle Socialists who passed a minimum-wage law for delivery drivers are getting a lesson on how capitalism works.
Laws like this are why the socialists on the city council aren’t running for reelection, and it’s a black mark on Mayor Harrell’s record. The good news is that I’ seeing city workers clearing out tents along the freeways and cleaning up those affected areas, which was long overdue.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 11:51 amDoes this suprise you?
If so, you haven’t been paying attention. (And, no, you can’t solve the long-term spending problems with Social Security and Medicare by cutting waste and fraud.)
Jim Miller (cf0b46) — 3/16/2024 @ 12:23 pm“surprise” not “suprise” (I can spell fairly well, but I’m not much of a typist.)
Jim Miller (cf0b46) — 3/16/2024 @ 12:24 pmWriter Hans von Spakovsky thinks Trump will have a strong case for appeal if convicted in Fulton County
Judge McAfee notes that testimony given left “the odor of mendacity”
Spakovsky gives a good short breakdown of why he thinks Trump would have a good chance if he has to appeal, I think its a fair one
https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/03/15/judges-ruling-required-willis-wade-leave-georgia-case-wade-left/
steveg (bfb200) — 3/16/2024 @ 12:36 pm@59 The Boeing 737 Max was certified by the FAA two months after Trump took office, after being designed and tested since the model was first announced in 2011. So, really amazing that barely two months of Trump deregulation totally destroyed six years of stellar development and testing under Obama’s hands on tutelage.
That this claim is being made must be some kind of self parody.
One ironclad rule about DEI is that if it ever does cause safety issues, we won’t be trusted to know about it. DEI is good for everyone, even if it’s not.
lloyd (c41f55) — 3/16/2024 @ 1:15 pm@62 You’re failing to note that Biden has been shuttling migrants across the country, though we’re not allowed to know about it. The problems in blue cities are as much Biden’s doing as the GOP’s.
lloyd (c41f55) — 3/16/2024 @ 1:22 pm#79 A small point to add to Paul’s thoughts: For those unfamiliar with King 5, it is, to say the least, not particularly conservative. Or open-minded.
Jim Miller (bbe3be) — 3/16/2024 @ 1:55 pmThey are at it again:
(Links omitted.)
Will it work again? Only if Republican voters fall for it.
Jim Miller (bbe3be) — 3/16/2024 @ 2:18 pm68, I didn’t know that one could get a gyros in the PNW, I always thunk it as a hog-butcher-to-world Chicago frankenfood.
urbanleftbehind (94e344) — 3/16/2024 @ 2:28 pmNews outside the bubble michelle morrow north carolina republican candidate for school superintendent calls for violence against democrats and killing Obama and biden. (yahoo news) More bad news for biden and dnc, african-americans not impressed with their calls that trump is a threat to democracy think its more democrat party and media jive. (yahoo news)
asset (241296) — 3/16/2024 @ 2:31 pm@58 I am not the intolerant left and lumping those who want a ceasefire and support palestinian rights with a small minority who for radical chic support hamas for short term political gain is counter productive and is already back firing. Israel needs support among young liberals to protect its future if you disagree what would happen to Israel if american support was ended? Young vietnam war protester democrats grew up to take control of the democrat party and media. Even republican populists are holding up aid to Israel as border is more important and are mostly non-interventionist. Think about that for Israel’s future.
asset (241296) — 3/16/2024 @ 2:46 pm@62 works only as long as those inundated states and feds don’t retaliate. Liberals like to be punching bags so far.
asset (241296) — 3/16/2024 @ 2:49 pm#87 Traditionally, Montana is not included in the Pacific Northwest. But Idaho is, and they still have lots of sheep, whough far fewer than they once did. And they still have Basques:
(As far as I know, Idaho is the only state where the Basque vote can be important.)
Jim Miller (bbe3be) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:05 pmFake news.
From the Court’s decision:
Citations omitted.
If you don’t like the fact Presidents have had long standing immigration parole authority, then Congress should pass a law forbidding it. Oh wait…….
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:29 pmWill it work again? Only if Republican voters fall for it.
Magic 8-ball says: Signs point to yes.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:47 pmLooking for an exit:
Given the desire of the Republican presidential candidate and his supporters, it is imperative that the Republicans at least vote out articles of impeachment no matter what their fate would be in the Senate.
The House Republicans impeached Mayorkas despite the fact that the Senate is unlikely to convict. Why should that suddenly become a consideration for Biden’s impeachment?
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:55 pmTo paraphrase Teddy KGB in Rounders, pay de wooman her monney. The FBI’s time would be better spent finding out who in the system took her two grand.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 3:56 pm@92 “Fake news”
Thanks Rip for giving your comment a headline.
lloyd (a2f848) — 3/16/2024 @ 4:20 pmNow that Trump has clinched the nomination, I guess the Democrats care more about getting their left wing out to vote than they worry about repelling the center. Because ask yourselves, between Trump and a Venezaguacan with a baby swaddled on her back selling apples at the stoplight, which does a normal person find more repellant?
And it gives me a sad.
nk (821e63) — 3/16/2024 @ 4:36 pmHere’s the story of a Ukrainian novelist who received a huge batch of old KGB files from the early 20th century, and the contents of those files are harrowing. I think I’ll buy his book, a mystery and first part of a trilogy, and historically accurate to boot.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 5:01 pmI just asked myself, and I don’t think normal persons find a Venezuelteca selling apples with a baby swaddled on her back repellant. How do we know she is Venezuelteca though? Is she wearing 1/2 of a sandwich board sign announcing her nation of origin? Are the apples imported? Is the baby a rental intended to induce sympathy purchases? So many questions.
Seriously though, I think persons have “Trump fatigue”. There are inner city working moms in Biden’s base who would agree Trump is an a-hole but they are more upset that their childrens rec center is closed to the kids after school because it is filled with uninvited non-citizens, some of whom are out in the streets making already difficult neighborhoods worse.
steveg (bfb200) — 3/16/2024 @ 5:51 pmAre you saying that Texas did not sue the Biden administration, and did not lose?
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/16/2024 @ 6:02 pmCorrection:
Are you saying that Texas did not sue the Biden administration, or that Texas did not lose?
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/16/2024 @ 6:10 pmBad blood:
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/16/2024 @ 6:53 pmNow that Trump has been given a pass by the cowardly Supreme Court, he makes no bones about what will happen if he loses again (or if he wins):
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/16/2024 @ 8:16 pmLink
Here’s a good summary of Trump’s Dayton Debacle.
Video here.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/16/2024 @ 9:40 pmTrump plays to our worst instincts, prejudices, and emotions. He knows what he’s doing. His brain trust understand the need to push buttons. To keep his disciples focused on the villains of the moment. I wonder how this ages
AJ_Liberty (4ba5a2) — 3/16/2024 @ 10:48 pmTim Miller asks a good question of those who intend to vote for Trump:
lurker (cd7cd4) — 3/16/2024 @ 11:04 pm@97 They better care that when the left comes out to vote it doesn’t vote for jill stein as they did in 2016. The establishment democrats fear trump not the left. Contempt for democrat establishment is what got AOC and the squad elected in 2018. I guess the Israel lobby is not burning any more money trying to find opponents to run against Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tliab now that their districts have voted uncommitted in the presidential primary as most young democrats support ceasefire in their heavy democratic districts.
asset (f9fa81) — 3/17/2024 @ 1:49 am@102 lets see the vote Haley gets in upcoming primaries those will be never trumpers. Democrats will watch in fear the uncommitted vote those will be jill stein votes as will marianne williamson votes.
asset (f9fa81) — 3/17/2024 @ 1:53 am@105 its worked for over 200 years. @106 Tim miller is like posters here. They will answer I don’t care! He hates the same people they hate. Tim miller is a conservative. Trump supporters are racist populists and now some minority men populists joining the trumpsters.
asset (f9fa81) — 3/17/2024 @ 2:00 amNo religious freedom in Russian-occupied Ukraine, not when all Catholic priests have been murdered, expelled or jailed. I’ll say it again: Putin is not a Christian leader, and Russia is not a Christian nation.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:12 amPaul,
Additionally, at the rally the announcer said, “Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated [January 6] hostages,” and Trump salutes as the National Anthem begins. IMO, there’s no question that he is saluting the “hostages”.
Dana (8e902f) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:47 amAnd Trump has 8 more months to rally the insurrectionists. The entire point of 14.3 was that one insurrection was all you would get.
But it’s dead now.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:53 am@106, yeah I don’t get the attraction other than he’s familiar, he amuses them, and he simplifies things down to gut reactions.
I suppose this is the result of the outsider meme coming to fruition. Trump is the absolute opposite of a typical politician. The meme suggests he will shake up the system. They believe his purported financial success means that he is smart and understands how things get done.
The problem is that he has no great wisdom, knowledge, or expertise. He’s a marketer that will simply say anything to market himself. He offers only the most simplistic solutions then quickly pivots to finding scapegoats to target, humiliate, and attack. He was out of his depths with managing Covid and had to use Fauci and the Chinese to distract from his own incompetence and complete lack of leadership skill.
This is just one long con that people refuse to admit to. The notion that “other people” or “government institutions” will restrain him baffles me. Why would anyone want a leader that likely needs to be restrained from his worst impulses and how much trouble are we inviting if that restraint is not there or, God forbid, too late?
Trumpism is the essence of oblivious governing. We don’t know exactly what Trump will do, how he will do it, and whether it will strain our system of government, we just know he will be better than Biden! It’s recklessness and the opposite of conservative governance. I am still convinced that we will have to break the system to wisen up people who don’t know what that might look like. The question will be how bad does it get and can we weather it?
AJ_Liberty (4ba5a2) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:02 amI have been registered as a Republican since before Trump and have resisted calls to change my registration, arguing that someone had to stay and be an adult. Now, with this latest diatribe, Trump has torn it. I can no longer stay in an organization that condones past insurrections and and promotes future ones.
The only thing keeping me from changing my registration is the June primary, where I can vote, once more, against Donald Trump. I’m not sure that’s enough.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:34 amI wonder. Could some of those Trump-hating, weather-controlling, liberal Rothschilds who run Hollywood run a facial recognition on the crowds at Trump’s rallies and see how many of them are members of the Screen Extras Guild? And of those who are not, how many are paid political staff, in Trump’s campaign or in local politicians’ offices?
I find it hard to believe that you can get so many stupid people together in one place. They have to be people paid to be there.
nk (e16c68) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:51 amYet another case where the value of citizenship is diminished. The 14th Amendment incorporated the 2nd amendment against the states as a right of citizenship. This decision devalues citizenship once again. How long until illegal immigrants can vote?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:54 amI find it hard to believe that you can get so many stupid people together in one place.
I don’t. There are an awful lot of them. Go look at a Bell curve.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:55 amIf Trump wins, Kevin, I’ll leave the Republican Party and return to being an Independent (like I was in 2013-2018), because there will be nothing left of the GOP for me to support.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:01 amIf I leave, and Trump loses, I’ll return. If he wins, I’ll return before 2028, hoping to turn the ship.
I wonder if the long-lines protest might work in upcoming primaries. There is always a place for “a futile and stupid gesture.”
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:08 amI find it hard to believe that you can get so many stupid people together in one place.
Welcome Idiots
Village Idiots Convention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ObycvN3DA
steveg (beaf44) — 3/17/2024 @ 11:31 amTrump only instituted “Operation Warp Speed” which developed aa vaccine, (which Democrats cast aspersions on) and helped several other treatments, one of which saved his life.
Now this maybe can be attributed more to his staff – but he picked the staff,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/17/2024 @ 11:39 amHe (and much of the Republican Party) wants people to think as many of them as possible fall into that category, but he was talking about gang members with tattoos, whom he claimed were being deliberately released from prison by Venezuela and one Central American country (I forgot which)
You’ve got to be fair.
Fidel Castro did that in 1980. But he was only trying to get the United States to enforce its immigration laws, so that he would not need to work so hard to prevent people from leaving. Many of these “criminals” turned out to b genuine political refugees, because his people were in the habit of, when one of his officials didn’t like a relationship their child had, of arresting and imprisoning them, as prostitutes if it was an unwanted girl, and for rape if it was a boy. And there were others who had stolen necessities from the government and adjudged not to be real criminals. There were genuine criminals, who had tattoos, but the INS didn’t listen to the people who came with them on the same boat who pointed them out but relied on them honestly admitting they came from prison.
Another category f people that Castro sent who were inadmissible under U,S. immigration laws were homosexuals (now it’s comnpletely eversed – they qualify for political asylum on hat basis)
In the end it didn’t do many of them any good,, as they came to the United States only to get AIDS and die. While they would have been much less likely too die in Cuba. AIDS was then unknown.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/17/2024 @ 11:54 amI find it hard to believe that you can get so many stupid people together in one place.
Proof you can
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:40 pmThat’s a good argument for the primary, when the nevertrumpers proved absolutely inflexible because … I guess most of them didn’t think Trump was that scary.
So now it’s Trump, with most of his critics lacking credibility, vs Biden, who has trashed our border.
Trump is the first who did not preside over a peaceful transition of power, and as I don’t want my kids to grow up in a banana republic, I cannot support him. However, reasonable people absolutely can disagree on that. I think Trump has a pretty good chance of being elected.
We’ll see if, in 2028, the part of the GOP that never compromises, and tends to have a problem with balanced budgets and social conservatism, learned anything.
Paul, I watched your link, and it failed to show that quotation where Trump actually said all immigrants (or any) are not actual people. They played a very short snippet where Trump said something about a snake bite, but I don’t think Trump was saying immigrants are actually reptiles. And I also think it’s important to note the conflation of legal and illegal immigration.
90% of the time on the video was a far left dude just paraphrasing Trump.
normally i don’t care. Trump doesn’t deserve an ounce of effort on my part to defend him. He’s a sleaze and a liar who betrayed the Kurds.
but when you lie, you lose credibility. If this is a campaign to get biden elected, it simply lacks credibility. And it needs credibility, for example, when Trump claims the election was rigged. It is strange to me that Trump faces so many stupid or dishonest attacks. this implies that’s the best ya got. But what it really means is emotion has taken over the discussion, and it’s not about beating Biden. It’s about demonizing his supporters. The GOP needs to figure out why this is happening.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:41 pmPublic officials can be held liable for blocking critics on social media
This will be quickly misconstrued. All it says is that officials need to keep their official comments off their personal pages.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:42 pmI’m not sure if the GOP will miss us. We no longer are a target audience. They want angry tribalists that howl at propaganda, cheer Trump’s verbal strength, and jeer at his critics unfairly persecuting him. Hey I can take a hint….along with those retiring from Congress or who were retired as part of the mounting retribution.
We kind of get neatly defined as Neocons…people who only like starting wars…free traders who screw the blue collar workers while favoring the business class…small government purists looking to cut other people’s entitlement benefits…compromisers who don’t recognize the shear beauty of an impenetrable wall…and who don’t abide the cultural wars…meaning never do a damn thing to fight back against liberalism and wokeism in any meaningful way.
I certainly think the GOP needed a bit of a course correction following too many years in Iraq and too much time trying to persuade Afghanis to bump up to the 20th century. The Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld/Cheney theory of shaking the game board and seeing what emerged was ill-conceived. Though we have some saber rattling about Iran, there’s little stomach for nation building or nation crushing. Traditional conservatives are jiu jitsued between wanting our military to strongly oppose Russian and Chinese world influence while cutting our mounting debt.
Obviously I think the populist critique is crap….and that it remains an untenable agenda ultimately focused on the personality foibles of Trump. The party is morphing into an obnoxious mini-me of Trump…low on character….high on conspiracy theories…and fixated on one’s puffed-out navel. It’s doomed to failure as illustrated by the chaos in the House and the full-court defense of Trump’s lawlessness. If you can’t impeach and convict what Trump did, what would it really take? I suppose we buzz overhead and take note. This cat ain’t following the orange pied piper going over the cliff. Others must like the music and the view off the cliff. All i can say is flap hard…
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:52 pmDustin, how do you justify voting for someone who is upfront about calling for mass insurrection if he loses? “Blood in the streets” is not something any politician should be able to threaten, particularly not a politician who has a large mob behind him. I’m sure that you’ll find a way to laugh it off, but at what point do you get tired of being an apologist?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:52 pmAJ,
I am open to joining an alternate center-right party. Preferably one without all the “social conservative” statism that Trump seems to have co-opted. It will be interesting to see what they do when Trump comes out for restoring Roe.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 12:54 pm“I am open to joining an alternate center-right party.”
I think most of us here want an alternative to MAGA or geriatric Joe…but no “interesting” candidates are putting their hats in the ring to leave the GOP. Most must view it as burning the bridge, when MAGA may yet fizzle out. Yes Trump looks strong going into 2024, but he keeps opening his mouth and letting stupid come out….and there’s no vaccine to inoculate that. And even if Trump wins, he may yet find he can get impeached and removed….and that most Americans won’t look pleasingly at a more bloody insurrection following that. The plan appears to be to bide one’s time…so Paul Ryan waits….Larry Hogan runs for Senate….Nikki Haley waits for a Trump entreaty….Mitch Daniel drops his Senate campaign.
I would just say politics isn’t everything…and that accountability will come….however slowly
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/17/2024 @ 1:40 pmI know what I heard, Dustin, but here’s a link.
Trump is allowed to say almost anything he wants under the 1st Amendment, even dehumanize brown-skinned human beings entering our country that he doesn’t like. But he has said that some, he assumes, are good people.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 4:06 pm@132 “In some cases they’re not people” is hardly the same as what you wrote @104, and it’s “dehumanizing brown-skinned human beings” only to those who are put out that Biden called a murderer “illegal” in the SOTU and are comforted that he turned tail and regretted it.
lloyd (8ba82f) — 3/17/2024 @ 4:16 pm@129 Trump said he would put Hillary in jail, but when he had the power he didn’t and instead struck a conciliatory tone. We had to wait until Democrats took power to see a president deliver on threats to put his opponents behind bars.
lloyd (8ba82f) — 3/17/2024 @ 4:23 pmJoe Scarborough Deletes Trump ‘Bloodbath’ Post After Reply From Elon Musk
lloyd (8ba82f) — 3/17/2024 @ 4:44 pm@106
I can answer that.
I don’t need to know him better than all them.
All I need to know, that he’s not amongst the Democratic party.
The. End.
fin.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 6:35 pm@119
Very doubtful that he’d win.
The dynamic is very similar to 2020, and nothing is telling me that Trump will have a better chance the 2nd time around.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 6:37 pmThat’s the washington post so I’m unable to read it without paying them.
Do you have a link to Trump actually saying it? Your last link was very misleading, and showed Trump giving some incomprehensible snake metaphor gibberish.
Remember, your claim is that Trump referred to immigrants generally as not people. That includes his latest wife.
I’m not voting for Trump. LOL! You’re the one who let Trump get nominated, not me. It’s really disturbing you guys were totally unwilling to compromise even slightly on social conservatism because you didn’t think Trump was that big a deal, and now he’s hitler again. This reality, that you totally yawned and let Trump be the nominee, totally undermines the notion he’s worth the kind of compromise you’re asking social conservatives to make. This is 12 years now of the GOP refusing to bridge the gap in the party, which is the reason Trump remains a potential winner.
Trump is a narcissist who can’t admit he lost an election, and he’s a grifter who will raise money by pretending he won an election he lost. And that’s really bad.
Did he threaten that? Like Paul’s example, it’s possible Trump was misquoted hysterically, making a metaphor for massive job losses.
Can you, like Paul, provide a youtube link to Trump threatening blood in the streets? Obviously a good faith clip for you and Paul would be very easy to find online if he said that, and it would not be a snippet with a far left agitator telling me what he said, but instead, just Trump saying it so I can see it myself.
You guys need to understand you are helping Trump tremendously if you campaign against him dishonestly. By picking a battle you can’t win, you lose by choice.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:04 pmPaul,
Just for clarification, you said Trump said all legal immigrants are not people. And it looks like you’re now saying Trump said the absolute worst of the worst illegal aliens who practice in bad acts (murder and rape and sexual slavery) are not people.
A crude thing to say. Not productive. And sadly, even the worst criminal are very much still people. They are still like us, and we have to figure out why they did the things that are horrific. But this notion of Chuck Norris style justice is simply nothing like what you claimed Trump said. In fact, I would guess condemning Trump for being too mean to the most vicious criminals would totally help him. It simplifies the problem of Trump to ‘he says mean tweets’. It bothers me tremendously that Ace of Spades type commenters pretend the problem with Trump is ‘mean tweets’.
the problem with Trump is that he’s an idiot and a sore loser, generally a punk, and he damaged our country with real policy decisions. For one, gracefully handing over power like George Washington would. Two, he spent money and infringed on civil liberties when it benefited him and is no conservative. Three, he squandered great power in his first two years, with both houses of congress – with stupid issues like the size of his inauguration.
This was a good reason for you to support Desantis, so we would have an option for the presidency who appeals to social conservatives, to those who seek an ethical public servant, to those who want to beat the democrats. The past is in the past, and now we have a choice between two men who are unable. Unworthy barely enters into it when they simply are unable.
so we get another 7.5 months of hysterical lies about Biden and Trump. Because there’s just no way for either side to make a compelling positive argument. It’s going to be a lot of ‘I can’t believe you can vote for the OTHER guy!’
Until you guys own up, it’s going to be like this until the country really falls apart. I see the dents, but it’s still a fundamentally great country.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:15 pmHe was quoted accurately, Dustin, gibberish and all. Trump doesn’t provide more specifics to his gibberish, and he never clarifies, so the best you can do is go by his past behavior and his past actions, and his past behavior and past actions are more than enough for me to say f-ck that guy.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:52 pmTrump got in trouble in 2016 for calling some illegal alien criminals “animals” which the left had twisted into Trump called immigrants animals and everyone ran with it like lemmings
steveg (beaf44) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:56 pm@117 hopefully soon AOC needs to be president.
asset (8183de) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:58 pmRegarding his “bloodbath” comment, Trump didn’t say it strictly about the auto industry, he said the whole country. And it also speaks to his general failure to comprehend that 100% tariffs can be both inflationary and an economic backfire on an economy, and this from an alleged econ major from Wharton.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 7:59 pmThey ain’t gunna Dustin.
All the dishonest slices, taking the most unflattering interpretation of Trump’s statements fuels Trump’s martyrdom, and his opponents simply refuses to face that fact.
Trump’s opponents has had plenty of opportunities to be the “adult in the room”, and they can’t even do that.
I still don’t think Trump will win…but, if he does, we might as well as turn off all media sites as they’ll lose their ever loving minds over it.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:03 pmPeople in AOC’s districts are saying it looks “third world” (some of those people are from third world countries) Trump can’t say something looks third world and he can’t call Haiti a shithole, even though it is one.
By the way, Russell Brand absolutely excoriates the Clintons and their Haitian Initiative for spending all the money while making Haiti worse.
Brand claims the Clintons destroyed domestic Haitian rice production and instead locked Haitians into rice grown from- Arkansas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR5vPjrHKOM
steveg (beaf44) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:06 pmIt’s really disturbing you guys were totally unwilling to compromis
It’s really disappointing that you continue to peddle the same BS about DeSantis, who blew his chance all by himself when he and Trump had divided the GOP between them. NO ONE ELSE was higher than an asterisk when DeSantis cratered. Blaming it on anyone but DeSantis (or maybe Trump) is just not going to work.
But maybe more cowbell.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:07 pm@143
OUT: “fine people”
IN: “blood bath”
Narrator: The this exciting chapter of how to spot a hoax, all you have to do is look at who is perpetuating this story.
That’s all you need know.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:07 pm@128 the majority of republicans are populists. The money the donor class used to buy elections ended with mitt $ romney. It is their party now so don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Populists like soc. security and medicare that is why trump beat the 16 dwarfs in 2016. They would rather cut defense spending then entitlements.
asset (8183de) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:08 pmUntil you guys own up
It’s not us spewing manure.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:08 pm@145
It’s really disappointing that you keep missing the point.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:08 pmit’s possible Trump was misquoted hysterically, making a metaphor for massive job losses.
It’s possible he meant that his people would be cleansing the neighborhood, too.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:10 pmIt’s really disappointing that you keep missing the point.
Which point is that? That DeSantis lost because of NeverTrump? There is no point to be made there.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:10 pmHere’s what I mean:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-media-keep-helping-trump-by-lying-about-him/
ALL.OF.THIS!
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:13 pmExactly, Whembly.
I agree that Trump is not likely to win. The democrats wanted him nominated, so they united with the GOP to screw over the one decent option, but they are going to hit him hard in October. It’s always a little confounding though. When there’s a really good angle to criticize Trump, he lucks out and his enemies hit him with a bizarre spin on it. It’s like he made a deal with the devil and his enemies are constantly beating themselves up.
As nk joked in the other thread, the real attack on Trump is that you can’t understand his gibberish from his enfeebled mouth. It’s not that he’s the next President Hitler. He’s the next President Camacho.
So why didn’t you quote him accurately the first time? He simply did not say all immigrants are subhuman. He said the worst of them are.
What past actions are you even talking about? The dude wanted amnesty and failed to secure the border. He’s better than biden on this issue – sadly by a longshot, and it’s a very very important issue, but when did his actions show he thinks all legal immigrants aren’t human?
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:14 pmPaul says:
Dustin says:
I think the claim is the quote that Paul provided from the Washington Post article. You asked if Trump “actually said all immigrants (or any) are not actual people.” Paul responded with the quote. The answer is that he did not say all immigrants are not people, but he did say some are not people. The context is his claim that Mexico is emptying its prisons of criminals and sending them here. You can watch the full rally with as much context as you like. The immediate quote and surrounding context begin around 15:38 at this link.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:14 pmNo, whembly, “very fine people” is still out there because there was no video of such people on the night in question but for tiki torch carrying neo-Nazis chanting “blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!”
Link
For the sake of this nation, Trump must lose.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:17 pmI don’t think Dustin has attempted to justify such a vote. I think he has said he would not cast such a vote. Right?
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:18 pm@131 conservatives are not in the majority. Our political system gives over weight to smaller populated states who used to be run by conservatives that are now run by trump populists. Pro-choice has won every election to the point that republicans dare not put it on the ballot. Trump populists in many areas are closer to democrats then they are to conservatives. That is why neo-con warmongers are leaving the republican party 1930’s republican party was isolationist and jacky robinson was a republican.
asset (8183de) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:20 pm@151
No, the point is this.
EVERYONE knew what was going to happen if the GOP primary started with a bajillion candidate vying for the top slot with Trump in the mix.
A candidate getting 30-40ish percent of the vote will win in a crowded field.
You knew this…
I knew this…
Dustin knew this…
Everyone knew this…
So, how come the not-Trump primary voters (and I include myself in this), couldn’t get their act together and come up with a plan to address this?
The fact that we couldn’t, no matter the rationale, means we were stuck with the inevitable and we should ALL own up to it.
And when I say “own up to it”… I mean, do the self-reflection needed to ascertain the root causes so that we’re prepared in the next election cycle.
What should’ve of happen, and I’m happy to hear another plan as well, is that the crowded field turns into just a not-Trump candidate v. Trump in the primary from the beginning.
Be it Nikki Haley…or Chris Christie…or DeSantis…or WHOMEVER! Just pick one not-Trump horse and coalesce behind that candidate against Trump.
That’s the only chance we had, and we f’ed up.
We truly deserve the candidate we get. Realize that.
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:21 pmIf this is a serious concern of yours, where’s the sobriety? If you REALLY BELIEVE that the nation stands on the brink, because of so much frustration and anger, where’s the effort to save the country?
If you’re right, doesn’t that make you also very deeply wrong?
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:25 pmI’m voting for Biden. I’m just super annoyed about it.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:26 pmThe problem is not that it took too long to get to a two-person race.
The problem is that most GOP primary voters like Trump better than the other people in the field.
Which is an indictment of most GOP primary voters, pure and simple.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:27 pmWell then, once again, you and I see things eye to eye!
Patterico (d8492d) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:28 pmI don’t think Dustin has attempted to justify such a vote. I think he has said he would not cast such a vote.
My mistake. He does defend Trump though.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:31 pmHaving watched the bloodbath thing in context, I think it’s one of those things the guy says where maybe he meant the worst thing people attribute to it, and maybe he didn’t. It’s not like he’s just not the type of guy who would incite violence. Then again, the context (lack of drama, surrounding blabbering about economic stuff) also lends itself to a more innocent interpretation. Me, I would not choose this hill to die on, in making the case that he engages in violent rhetoric, because it risks looking like a Chicken Little situation. But I’m not going to fly off the handle screaming at people who interpreted it that way either.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:32 pmWhich is an indictment of most GOP primary voters, pure and simple.
It’s an indictment of the move from Republic to Democracy. In a republic, we choose representatives to study issue and make decisions for us. Nowadays, we skip the issue-studying part entirely and just vote our feelings.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:34 pmAll I see him doing here is arguing that Trump’s dehumanizing and stupid language be placed in its proper context: not as a clear attack on all immigrants but as part of a claim (probably without any factual basis, but who knows) that Mexico deliberately sends its worst criminals to us.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:34 pmDustin,
you are correct.
It is telling though that people who dislike Trump constantly feel the compulsion to lie about him and to make up things to say.
Why do they need to do that if he’s as bad as they say?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:38 pmSo, how come the not-Trump primary voters (and I include myself in this), couldn’t get their act together and come up with a plan to address this?
Perhaps we would have. DeSantis started off pretty well and it was his race to win. But then he decided he needed to be more of a anti-woke demagogue and used the State to attack his foes and he lost a lot of people. No one else was getting traction UNTIL DeSantis lost his cool.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:39 pm@156 Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:17 pm
Paul, if you had the whole quote, he expressly was not talking about those nazi blowhard.
See…this is an another example of the media unfairly slices & dices what he says. At the end of the day, it adds more sympathy to the guy who doesn’t deserve it.
If you don’t believe me, here’s the breakdown:
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:39 pmhttps://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/the-very-fine-people-trap-and-how-to-avoid-it-today/
thank you!
Trump is meandering from taking billions from China, but it’s clear he was talking specifically about MS-13 illegal aliens who are serving lengthy prison sentences as the subject of the ‘If you even call them people, they are not people in my opinion” remark.
Trump is barely making a point, but I disagree that MS-13 affiliated criminals, I assume meaning people who did terrible things to get into prison, are not people. Trump’s statement there is wrong, and even those guys deserve the same rights as anyone else, and the constitution merely recognizes what the government can’t take away (more for the MS-13 guys than for commenters here). This isn’t far from joking about rape in prison, something that really gets under my skin, but also gets a lot of nodding heads.
This is not a statement that Trump called all immigrants ‘not people.’ In fact, I again question why illegal and legal immigration is conflated, let alone violent gang member from dad wading across the river to feed his children back home. We don’t need to think about the context (which to some extent, is being retold to us by the same people who can’t be straight about Trump’s comments today).
—
I never listen to Trump speak. My main reaction to this video is that biden’s cognitive level is lower than Trump’s, and it isn’t close.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:40 pmI’m annoyed that the Republican Party has allowed itself to be co-opted by a corrupt and incurious individual lacking character and morals, and rather than having the nation’s best interest at heart, he cares only about himself and expanding his brand in any way that he can. I will gladly vote for Biden to keep Trump away from the White House because I wholly believe that our country is strong enough to handle four years of questionable policy decisions that I might disagree with but not four years of having the Constitution trampled by a deranged authoritarian.
Dana (8e902f) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:43 pmI examined the whole thing years ago, whembly. There were no “very fine people” on television on that Friday night, where Trump claimed that he saw such folk. This is not unlike his lie that he saw on TV that Muslims were cheering the collapse of WTC 1 and 2.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:44 pmDustin,
I apologize for thinking you were supporting Trump.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:44 pmNo worries. I technically did defend Trump… from things that aren’t true – while encouraging arguments about Trump that are a bit more compelling and more easily defended.
I am really disappointed in the GOP primary, and I have had this problem (expressed on this blog) for over a decade, so I’m sure a few of you are sick of me whining about it. But really. It’s literally the same problem every time, only obviously this election is a billion times dumber than Obama vs Mccain.
So because of my dismay, I so kinda take it personally that the folks who shrugged at beating Trump are now acting like he is going to end the world. Not just because I don’t buy the sincerity. But because Trump totally did get in the way of peaceful transition of power, and I don’t want my kids to grow up in a banana republic. This is why I won’t vote for Trump, even though frankly I do think it’s not an easy decision, because the stakes at the border are horrible.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:44 pmaccepted, but I was definitely dialed up too high and don’t really think you owe an apology. It’s all good.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:45 pmI wholly believe that our country is strong enough to handle four years of questionable policy decisions that I might disagree with
On the other hand we said the same thing about Obamacare, which is now with us forever. The level of immigration he is allowing will also be with us forever. The economic damage from his wish list would take years to undo. And don’t assume that there will be a GOP Senate to stop him; the filibuster will end before the midterms.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:48 pmFrankly, much of the whole epoch of the Trump years recording all the real/fabricated scandals just ends up being one big Rorschach Test™.
Particularly within the political media sphere.
It’s getting exhausting…
whembly (5fa28b) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:49 pmIndeed, Republicans scoffed at Desantis, who has great character and doesn’t live in a Boeing funded palace. They acted like every Trump/democrat meme about Desantis, even very stupid ones, held water. They did this all through the primary.
And they handed the GOP to Trump, even though they cough cough they cough act like Trump is a danger to the space-time continuum.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:49 pmWhat’s going to be exhausting is when some damning evidence comes out showing either side’s politician of the day is horrible, and it doesn’t register with most people as newsworthy because, like the 9/11 attack warning, the context is thousands of false positives.
Oh wait that’s where we are right now.
Bill Clinton is the architect of the fake news defense. It almost worked with Monica, and the clintons have kept that defense up through today. Now, enough goobers on Tik Tok and Twitter will validate literally any point of view. And trolling reactions has its own power and lucre. So the news we hear is geared towards a reaction, pro or con, and not accuracy. Damn sure not persuassion. Throw on AI videos (google sassy justice), and the fact both parties have such poor leadership, and it’s going to be very difficult to convince people of anything.
Dustin (caf05c) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:00 pmLeave aside all of the Trump’s nonsense in Dayton OH this weekend, there are performative klown kar hacks like Matt Gaetz who are emboldened to say sh-t like this…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:02 pm“You never know, David — there may be an Attorney General Matt Gaetz down the road, or someone of my liking”
Don’t count Giuliani out either.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:13 pmI think there should be a law that no campaigning — and no polling — can be done before the election year. By the time we get to the actual primaries, it’s all over.
Failing that, get rid of the primaries entirely.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:15 pmTrump likes to say things that could be interpreted in an awful way (which he likely means) or in an innocent way (which he generally does not mean, but can find someone to claim it’s what he meant).
I just think we need a final solution to the Donald Trump question within the American sphere of influence. And I am hoping that this election will solve the question once and for all.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:59 pmI can tell you that when Donald Trump talked about how immigrants were poisoning the blood of our country, it would be a total outrage to interpret that clear nod to Nazi propganda as a nod to Nazi propaganda.
Because if someone says something that sounds like a nod to Nazi propaganda but they could pretend it wasn’t, you have to go with the pretense or you’re a horrible person.
(Before the election he’ll end up being asked about it and he’ll say “oh yeah of course that was a nod to Nazi propaganda” and his cultists will be all “and it’s good that he did that!”)
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:07 pmBy the way, Putin is in the process of stealing the election in Russia.
He deserves to be strung up from the nearest lamp post.
Stealing elections is an act that carries consequences. And Putin has done more than steal elections, by the way. He has murdered countless innocent people in his bloodthirsty quest for power. He deserves death, and the sooner the better.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:10 pmI wonder if Trump has congratulated him yet.
Patterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:10 pmU.S. government is banned from terminating with extreme prejudice putin. Too bad maybe the ukraine or a russian soldier can do his duty.
asset (8183de) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:37 pmLost in the debate about whether Trump’s etiquette is within bounds is the appropriateness of his proposed tariff policy.
And further lost is whether it’s a good idea for a President to wield this much power over the economy. Certainly Congress has delegated some of its tariff authority….and Grassley, Portman, and other Republicans have previously tried to take it back…unsuccessfully. Will Trump’s tariffs avoid a Detroit blood bath? To me such moves are a political play covering up for dysfunction in the industry. They have an inflationary effect and our citizens pay more for products. It’s curious to me that the GOP chooses a candidate that wants to go down this path.
As to Trump’s comments about the humanity of the worst of the worst illegal immigrants, the problem is that most people will not wrestle with the distinction. The rhetorical goal here is clear: enough illegals are rapists, thieves, gang banging drug importers, and mental patients to justify the most extreme counter measures. This point doesn’t get much push back in today’s GOP. Are most illegals “animals” or not? We need an ordered immigration system but we need compromise and general agreement on what that is. Lankford and Sinema started that process. Trump short circuited it.
The national interest is subsumed by his personal interest…and that’s a common theme. Despite Dustin’s protests…and continued evasion….MAGA and the +60% of the GOP who chose Trump in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina owns this.
Anti-illegal immigration is likely the one issue that gives us a Trump second term. The country is poised to reject late-to-the-game Joe who has his sanctuary city class to appease. Biden has to fix the problem. People want the cleaver, not the scalpel. They may end up with the long-handled mallet. Trump’s language is intentionally coarse.
This is NOT the man to lead us. It’s a shame that the GOP and its media arm chose not to reject him….
AJ_Liberty (a08836) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:38 amIn caveman days, when the Chrysler hemi was the state of the art, our auto shop teacher showed us how to keep a crack in an engine block from getting bigger. You drill a small hole at each end of the crack.
RNC Sofa (but she prefers Chairperson) Ronna McDaniel must have taken a similar class at Avenging Angel High. Faced with a fracture in the GOP, she drilled the two holes. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.
And I’m running out of different ways to say it.
nk (e83214) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:26 am@190, name the best, most articulate, intelligent, and charismatic non-Trump Republican. That individual…a bit of a white unicorn….would have also lost to Trump. You and Dustin refuse to see where the problem lies. It wasn’t that Haley and DeSantis were SOOOOO bad that they made Trump look acceptable…or preferable. More than half of the GOP are luxuriating in a cult of personality…perpetuated by a media environment that prizes drama. Nobody was out-drama-ing Trump. The result was cooked. Four indictments and your popularity increases. This is head over heals in love….
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/18/2024 @ 6:20 amThose cheering an administration going after their main opposition handed conservatives a reason to support Trump. DeSantis never had a chance to get out of the gate. It’s not Republicans who need to square their support for Trump. It’s Nevertrump that needs to come to terms with their full throttle support for a weaponized justice system.
lloyd (e134d5) — 3/18/2024 @ 6:39 amErm … no. I am saying the opposite of what Dustin says. I am saying something like you’re saying. I am saying that the primary was a sham and a fraud; that Trump had the bulk and the machinery of the GOP establishment in his pocket; that Haley and DeSantis were catspaws and stooges; that their purpose was to block any serious challenger to Trump; and, Trump being Trump, to gift him with a column of cheap wins.
nk (e83214) — 3/18/2024 @ 6:40 amMy 193 was to AJ_Liberty’s 191.
nk (e83214) — 3/18/2024 @ 6:41 amIn other news, as Glenn Greenwald recently said:
whembly (86df54) — 3/18/2024 @ 7:13 amThe most under-reported and under-discussed story of 2023: a federal district court judge, upheld by a unanimous appellate panel, found the Biden WH and FBI committed one of the gravest attacks on the 1st Am in decades by coercing Big Tech to censor dissent online.
The case is being heard at SCOTUS today.
I just want to say: props to Dustin for defending Trump here. I don’t like Trump at all but I agree there are some taking things he said out of context in a way that changes the meaning.
Many elections I find myself annoyed to be having to defend the candidate I won’t be voting for because my side is making unfair attacks (as well as reasonable attacks).
I too am annoyed to be casting a vote for Biden this election but it’s not particularly close.
Nate (30f36d) — 3/18/2024 @ 7:19 amlloyd,
Trump allegedly tried to steal an election and allegedly tried to encourage a coup.
Sorry, those are crimes.
A weponized DoJ would have started the prosecution on January 21, 2021. Nevertrump needs to figure out why they support a guy who is so inept at properly weponizing the system,
Appalled (a8d433) — 3/18/2024 @ 7:44 amWhat Dustin aregues for is the smoke-filled room method of selecting candidates, rather than having primaries. That way, folks like Trump can be excluded from the club, and the party wise men can select who is accptable to the donors, and see if the people prefer him/her to the other candidate.
After 1968, nobody has had the appetite for this method. Though, frankly, this approach has generated as many FDRs and Eisenhowers and Trumans as it has Warren G. Hardings.
Appalled (a8d433) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:47 amBreaking-
Trump has been unable to get bond for $464 million judgment, his lawyers say
I’m sure there are sovereign wealth funds (Saudi Arabia, Russia) that could provide the bond. And it’s surprising that someone who is worth $14B (according to Alina Habba) has trouble finding a bond.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:51 amBecause the number of Trump voters exceeded the number of non-Trump voters by a large margin.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:59 amWill Trump’s tariffs avoid a Detroit blood bath? To me such moves are a political play covering up for dysfunction in the industry.
Well, it’s not “Detroit” you know. It’s Tesla and Toyota and Volkswagen too. The onslaught will be from China, a country which we are busily disengaging with for any number of reasons and probably don’t want to create new dependencies with.
Tariffs should be looked at as sin taxes. Yes, they interfere in markets, but so do taxes on booze, pot, cigarettes and gasoline. The correct questions to ask is “should there be a tax on this activity?”, in this case buying a slave-built electric car from China.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:03 amIf this election was about POLICIES, I’d have no problem voting for Trump. But it isn’t.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:05 am@198
If there ever was a time to do that, it was this election.
whembly (86df54) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:06 amIt’s Nevertrump that needs to come to terms with their full throttle support for a weaponized justice system.
Because trying to send phony electoral votes to Congress or keeping TS:SCI documents in a disused ballroom is just fine and dandy and should never be questioned!
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:08 amthat their purpose was to block any serious challenger to Trump
Who would that have been? Jesus is still not answering his phone, and probably would have lost anyway.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:09 am@192: “a weaponized justice system”
I’m curious if you supported impeachment and removal following J6? If not, why not? If you did support impeachment, then how did Trump go from being unfit to now being fit (and did you complain to your Senator about NOT voting for conviction).
I agree with Appalled…and Jack Smith….who is not exactly a Fani Willis or Alvin Bragg. He’s prosecuted Democrats and Republicans, and is not a political creature. The sad part of this is that Trump had opportunities to stop events before they crossed the line…and chose not to avail himself. What would be the proper accountability….or do you believe a President or ex-President has no accountability except for impeachment?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:12 amAfter 1968, nobody has had the appetite for this method. Though, frankly, this approach has generated as many FDRs and Eisenhowers and Trumans as it has Warren G. Hardings.
Harding was selected on the 10th ballot at a brokered 1920 convention. He started out tied for 6th place and was never above 3rd until the 9th ballot.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:16 amBut I agree with Dustin about going back to the smoke-filled room. I favor having well-informed professionals making the decisions rather than mobs expressing uninformed feelings. It’s why we have legislatures and not just plebiscites.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:17 amRip @199. That is devastating news. It could mean a bloodbath, with the Trump Organization assets on the bidding block, and the appeal moot.
nk (03785b) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:17 amDoes the RNC have $557 million in cash in its coffers?
nk (03785b) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:29 amRip @199. That is devastating news. It could mean a bloodbath, with the Trump Organization assets on the bidding block, and the appeal moot.
Is it moot? Let’s say that the state puts liens on the assets and begins to organize a sale. Is Trump still precluded from appealing the judgement? The bond is simply to assure payment, but if payment is assured by other means, can he not appeal at that point?
Let’s even say that his assets are sold at 50 cents on the dollar and he wins his appeal, or greatly reduces the amount. Does he get some money back? Is he made whole, or does his lack of a bond absolve the government from compensating him for losses due to the forced sale?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:30 amShould they seize his assets and he is subsequently elected to the Oval Office, I would really not like to be NY or NYC trying to get a dime out of the federal government. The litmus test for federal judges and USAs in NY would be simple. And, what with the filibuster gone, legislation regarding sanctuary cities might carry some retroactive teeth.
This is assuming that Trump can be vindictive.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:35 amI used to wonder about Glenn Greenwald’s mixed political views. But then I realized there was a consistency to them: He was always helping Putin.
Jim Miller (36b508) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:37 am#212 Being a billionaire is a part of the Trump mystique. If his organization collapses, I can see his popularity doing likewise.
Appalled (a8d433) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:41 am@195:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/03/18/us/supreme-court-social-media
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 10:24 amSupreme Court lets ‘insurrectionist’ ban against New Mexico official stand
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 10:25 amFree link:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 10:39 amThe real inflation rate.
NJRob (97ee37) — 3/18/2024 @ 10:57 am“We conclude that States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the (Supreme Court wrote in Trump v. Anderson).
So, the decision was more wrong than I thought.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:03 amTrump’s argument regarding the bond is this: He has real estate assets considerably in excess of the judgement, and he cannot abscond with them. If he loses his appeal, the state can seize them or force a sale at that time. What the state and/or the trial court are doing is preventing an appeal by imposing impossible preconditions.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:46 amTrump (again) is asking to be treated differently from every other losing party involved in civil litigation.
As I said above, I’m sure there are overseas sovereign wealth funds that can easily afford to provide the bond, with his properties as collateral.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:08 pm@221
This should be illegal for politicians, as this is how real foreign influences flexes their muscles.
whembly (86df54) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:14 pm207. Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:16 am Harding was selected on the 10th ballot at a brokered 1920 convention. He started out tied for 6th place and was never above 3rd until the 9th ballot.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:19 pmKevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:30 am
Trump can appeal, but the state can start collecting. New York State Attorney General Leticia James has her eyes on a building Trump owns in lower Manhattan.
Meanwhile. she’s not consistent about combatting fraud, according to a New York Post column by Miranda Devine:
https://nypost.com/2024/03/17/opinion/an-irish-society-an-unpaid-loan-and-the-hypocrisy-of-letitia-james
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:35 pmPatterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 10:07 pm
It is ? a nod to Nazi propaganda, and so is the term “America First.” But it not because he wants support from Nazi sympathizers, of whom there are virtually none.
It’s because he is trolling and wants to get verbally attacked.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:43 pmJesus take the wheel…
This is directed to those intending to vote for Biden.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/18/justice-jackson-complains-first-amendment-is-hamstringing-feds-censorship-efforts/
This is impeachable.
This is what happens when you vote for Biden.
You’ll get more KBJ on the courts pushing inane legal theories, who’ll be on the bench for decades.
That is a statement that no lawyer and no jurist should ever, ever say without tongue firmly in check.
Would she hold this same view regarding NYT v. US, which was about censorship of military documents during a freaking war?
I know I cannot convince you to consider voting for Trump…but, could you consider NOT voting for Biden? Because another 4 years of Joe Biden will only get more constitutionally bereft jurist like KBJ.
Such that, I would argue, 4 more years of Joe Biden (or any of the current Democrat administration) would entail far more lasting damages than a 2nd Trump administration.
whembly (86df54) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:46 pmPatterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 9:59 pm
I think he actually doesn’t mean it – it wouldn’t do him any good – but he does mean to get lambasted for it.
I don’t think he meant anything except to say something which can sound ambiguous
Et tu, now what?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:47 pmThe problem is there can be implicit threats – and yet information on a platform may be wrong, or the government has a right to argue with it.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:48 pmNo one is the Ministry of Truth.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:49 pmIncluding the Food and Drug Administration.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 12:50 pm@220, I would probably agree to that but does the judge have that discretion? I’m not wild about the judgment but have no basis to lower it or create a special case. I suppose my question would be, what can he afford to secure? Negotiate something reasonable based on that.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:03 pmRFK Jr is reported by the New York Post to have decided on attorney Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential running mate, for much of the same reason that David Koch was the Libertarian vice presidential candidate in 1980: As a candidate, she can contribute unlimited amounts to the campaign. (certainly for ballot access)
She is the ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin. She earlier paid for more than half of the cost of the RFK Jr. ad that ran during the Super bowl. She is also critical of vaccines.
The official announcement will be made on Tuesday, March 26 in Oakland, California.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:14 pm36. Sam G (74da99) — 3/15/2024 @ 2:40 pm
It’s not an ideal solution but Hamas is determined to prevent any other.
Yes, they should tr to find something..
Is there a danger that they will acquire a veto over the composition of Israeli government?
Anyway I think Hamas ad Iran wants them to get stronger.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:19 pm37.
He was vetted but, unlike more illegal entrants, did not have to prove his sincerity by undergoing a hazardous trip.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:21 pmGlennwald has been in the tank for Putin since at least as far back as when Snowden fled to Moscow, but probably much longer.
Paul Montagu (bc1004) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:38 pmPatterico (ed55c8) — 3/17/2024 @ 8:34 pm
That was what he said in 2016, This time he accuses Venezuela. If anything like that were true, it would be undeniable. Fidel Castro in 1980 offered prisoners the option to get out of jail, provided that they went directly to the United States. And his goal was to stop the Mariel boat lift, which could have ended his regime, like later the fall of the Berlin Wall and the freedom to go to West Germany put an end to the German Democratic Republic.
Many Venezuelans have left the country over the years, but going to the United States is recent, and the result of marketing and I think many are coming after having resided for years in third countries.
There seem to be a number who belong(ed) to a certain gang who came too.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:53 pmAre you tired of the political establishment elites running this country? Had enough of Big Tech controlling your lives? Then vote for RFK’s kid and the Google guy’s billionaire first wife!
Somehow, that will actually work on a lot of people. Just like the conservative values Bible Belt party going for Donald Trump (because Hugh Hefner was unavailable, apparently) or people who cheer on Elon Musk for stoking vaccine and AI conspiracy theories while he runs a Neuralink business that literally is about putting chips in people’s brains.
Turd Ferguson (5d7144) — 3/18/2024 @ 1:55 pmThis is not surprising, especially to Patterico, who’s chastised Ms. Heminway on multiple occasions for her hyperpartisan dishonesty.
Bottom line, Ornato’s January 2022 testimony wasn’t hidden as there was a confidentiality agreement between Secret Service and the J6 Committee. His “Trump offered or ordered 10,000 National Guard” doesn’t hold water because there’s no other corroborating testimony. Ornato wasn’t Secret Service during the time in question, he was Trump’s political appointee (Deputy Chief of Staff) and he acted like a political appointee, not a Secret Service agent.
Paul Montagu (bc1004) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:23 pmAssuming you are referring to the Pentagon Papers case, the Nixon administration obtained a court order against the Times and other newspapers, rather than just jawboning the papers not to publish. In addition, the Pentagon Papers did not disclose any current military operations, the documents were a history She may have hold to her views if a similar case reached the court in the future, since there were three dissents in the case.
Based on the reaction by the justices to the arguments by the states, it appears Missouri and Louisiana will lose.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:23 pmNo it’s not.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:24 pmSorry, I should have labeled as sarcasm; except I wouldn’t put it past Trump. He can also get a loan from Deutsch Bank or Elon Mush.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:27 pmhttps://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/chuck-schumer-is-fighting-to-prevent-hamas-from-being-destroyed-its-disgraceful-he-will-never-live-this-down/
Completely true.
Biden and Schumer have become pro-Hamas because the radicals in their party dictate policy. May they suffer for eternity for their evil.
NJRob (50c7c9) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:38 pmclearly not, or it would have “loaned” it to Trump.
DRJ (c673a9) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:44 pmThree years ago, Deutsch Bank said it would no longer do business with Trump.
DRJ (c673a9) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:47 pmMore about Murthy v. Missouri:
More:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:56 pmI’m sure they would go back on their word (which isn’t worth anything) and do so for a high price. Too bad the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (aka Bank of Crooks and Criminals International) isn’t around. They would the money in a heartbeat, with no questions asked.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 2:59 pmCorrection:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 3:00 pmIs the right way to describe these protests as “pro-Palestinian protests”? (As the WaPo did today, like every other news organization I’ve seen. After all, Hamas does not represent all Palestinians.)
Possible alternatives: pro-Gazans
pro-Hamas
pro-terrorist
I think “pro-Hamas” is the alternative I prefer, but can see arguments for any of the four.
(There have been some large protests in this aea, one of them even shut down the the main north-south route through Seattle, I-5, for hours.)
Jim Miller (ca3e99) — 3/18/2024 @ 3:35 pmSenator Manchin thinks we shoudl be proud of these statistics:
“Here are some statistics we ought to be proud of: In 2023, the United States produced a record 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 4.7 billion barrels of crude oil and 238 million megawatt-hours of solar. This is more than at any other time in history, including during the Trump administration. In 2016, we were exporting almost zero LNG; seven years later, our peak capacity is around 14 billion cubic feet per day. This past week, analyses from J.P. Morgan and the Energy Information Administration confirmed that American energy is booming. No other country in history has produced as much oil and gas as the United States is producing today.”
(Links omitted.)
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/18/manchin-energy-independence-biden/
I agree. (Now, if we can just get some of the same progress on nuclear energy, the future will be even brighter, for us, and the world.)
Jim Miller (ca3e99) — 3/18/2024 @ 3:57 pmhttps://thefederalist.com/
This is neither related to the Federalist Society, or to the old Federalist Party, or to those writing as “The Federalist” in 1790. It’s pretty much just the high end of MAGA.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:13 pmRFK Jr is reported by the New York Post to have decided on attorney Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential running mate
How much of the Silicon Valley measles outbreak was her fault?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:16 pmThen vote for RFK’s kid and the Google guy’s billionaire first wife
Because she knows all the dirt!
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:17 pmA two-state solution with security guarantees for Israel from the neighboring countries (like Saudi Arabia) would be best. That it is difficult and requires much effort does not change that
It would require a dismantling of the West Bank settlements, which is a show-stopper for Likud.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:19 pm@191 I have been posting this for many years: the majority of republicans are trump populists not traditional conservatives. Hope yoy have better luck then I have had.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:20 pmDeutsch Bank said it would no longer do business with Trump.
Hitler was bad enough and they still remember not being able to gamble at Rick’s.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:21 pmNo other country in history has produced as much oil and gas as the United States is producing today.
Well, sure. No one wants to have it on hand when AOC outlaws it.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:23 pm@196 funny conservatives voting for biden and I a democrat (down ballot) will be voting tomorrow for marianne williamson and in november third party (jill stein)
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:24 pm@200 exactly.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:26 pmIt looks like the Supremes are going to side with the NRA against New York. The ACLU is representing the NRA in a case where the NY banking regulator made it clear that regulated entities should not work with the NRA if they knew what was good for them.
Free link: https://wapo.st/4afJkMu
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:27 pm@233 solution for gaza pay egypt $$$$$$$ to annex gaza and have their soldiers keep hamas out. If you got a better solution lets here it. Egypt say no ;but enough money and military supplys will get them to say maybe.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:38 pm@248 Most protesters are pro-palestinian and for ceasefire. While it is fun for netanhayu supporters to label them pro hamas/terrorists as conservatives labeled anti-vietnam war protesters communists and traitors. When these young activists grow up and run the country the pro Israel lobby will rue the day they started this. It is already backfiring as the bottle deposit crook is sending a delegation to washington about rafah as biden can’t take the heat from the grown up vietnam war protesters. Think about Israel’s long term future which isn’t we will just nuke everybody.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:50 pm@242 NJ Robb netanyahu/likud racist party is not the majority of opinion in Israel where biden’s numbers are better then the bottle deposit crooks. Netanyahu dare not hold an election because he would lose badly. Joe walsh: Nixon’s at bat playing it day by day! Time to change the batter. Paul mccarthy: we all chip in for a bag a cement. Tricky dick resigned so can netanyahu.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 4:57 pm@259 looks like AOC will have to become president to get rid of the nra. ACLU doing its job.
asset (7c4c22) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:00 pmFIFY:
Most protesters are pro-palestinian
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:07 pmand for ceasefire.This is what government coercion looks like, not what was described in Murthy v. Missouri.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:09 pmThat anti-Vietnam war protester generation is currently Trump’s most MAGA voting bloc. And it only took them like 12 years before they switched from commie hippies to Gordon Gekko acolytes.
Likewise, something tells me today’s young college activists who are vowing politicians will “rue the day” they failed to support a pro-Palestinian solution aren’t exactly going to prioritize that on their political to do list when they’re 40.
Turd Ferguson (58c36a) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:11 pmInteresting comment.
Failing to have a little intelligent infrastructure (that then appeals democratically) means the GOP is forcing the populists to figure it out.
But really, half the comment is just wrong. The GOP absolutely had an appetite for this method this year. That’s what Nikki Haley was. She was a rejection of populism, and a refusal to coalesce around a viable alternative to Trump.
and here we are.
So I guess you can ignore that reality, while also pretending you were above the fray. But the country is left with Trump vs Biden* and as I keep saying, that was totally avoidable.
*if the dems actually run Biden. They do not mind the smoke-filled room thing at all.
Dustin (c1324d) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:19 pmOffering assets that you have been convicted of falsifying as collateral for an appeal bond from that conviction. The Art Of The Chutzpah?
nk (f87d65) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:21 pmThis is what government coercion looks like, not what was described in Murthy v. Missouri.
Something everybody said.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:22 pmOffering assets that you have been convicted of falsifying as collateral for an appeal bond from that conviction. The Art Of The Chutzpah?
Refusing to reconsider your woefully low estimates of real estate value as an excuse to avoid having those valuations reviewed.
Counter-chutzpah.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:25 pmLOL Gleen Grenwald.
Sounds like that argument did not go well for the whiners trying to prevent government officials from exercising their own free speech rights. Sad!
Patterico (74e40d) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:30 pmRick Ellensburg hardest hit
Patterico (74e40d) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:31 pmDustin, I am sure that when Trump loses, MAGA will trot out those same arguments to blame NeverTrump and Haley for Trump losing rather than looking at why they did not close the deal on those votes.
Pretty much the same error that you are making.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:32 pmIt is the abode
Of that toad
Mollie Hemingway.
One of the most dishonest pieces of trash out there.
Patterico (74e40d) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:33 pmRIP Air Force Lt. General (ret.) and former astronaut Thomas Stafford (93):
Ad Astra!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:38 pmjerryseinfeldpopcornthatsashame.gif
Patterico (d8492d) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:40 pmIt’s comments like that that make people think “lawfare.”
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:50 pmOne of the reasons why our judicial system works is that no single judge has the final say. Obstacles to review of trial courts are an affront to our system. Of course, scoundrels hate the light. You can point at Trump, sure, but Ms James is a scoundrel too, and Judge Erdogan seems her willing tool. Mar-a-Lago is not worth a mere $18 million and the judge knows it.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 5:58 pmSad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2024 @ 6:09 pmAppeals as of right, even in criminal cases, are a second half of the 20th century phenomenon; and I suspect that half the reason for the growth of appellate courts is the perpetual realignment of the spoils system to create new positions for political cronies (ad their wives and children) as the former jobs available become obsolescent.
nk (f87d65) — 3/18/2024 @ 7:02 pmAt the risk of sounding pedantic (😉), the $18M figure cited by Judge Engoron is the low end of MAL’s property tax assessments by Palm Beach County. In 2020 Trump conceded that MAL’s assessed valuation was $26M. It’s certainly not worth Trump’s estimate of 1-1.5 billion.
The problem is that MAL cannot be assessed as a private residence, because Trump signed away his rights in 1995 to maintain the property as a social club in perpetuity, which considerably devalues the property. Also, in 2002 Trump signed an easement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation which restricts the ability to renovate the house and forecloses development of the property into multiple single family homes. By signing the 2002 deed, Trump received a significantly lower property tax rate.
The fraud involving MAL was that Trump and his associates valued MAL as if it was an unrestricted single family residence.
Sourcepp. 36, 66-67.
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:34 pm@271
Sad coming from you Pat…
The idea of concerted coordination between government entities and big tech should send chills to any 1st amendment supporters.
whembly (159625) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:38 pm@281
Here’s the problem with this.
What the property is worth, meaning what Trump could get for someone ELSE to take it off is hand, has absolutely ZERO to do with the property tax assessment.
Zero.
The idea that he’d “only” get $26 million is laughable.
I dunno if he’d get 1 – 1.5 billion, but it’s not that outrageous when you consider the comp. He could certainly get half that for sure, but he’s setting the market with this property.
whembly (159625) — 3/18/2024 @ 8:47 pmThere’s really only one way to know for sure what Trump’s beach and country club is worth, whembly, and that’s for him to put it on the market, but any prospective buyer is going to have to deal with the building being on the National Historic Register, which means it can’t torn down or modified to any serious degree.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/18/2024 @ 9:13 pmIn 2020 Trump conceded that MAL’s assessed valuation was $26M. It’s certainly not worth Trump’s estimate of 1-1.5 billion.
It is pretty sophomoric of the judge to use that inflated price to justify lowballing it. Remember, the amount of the judgement was based on the degree of “fraud” involved, and the judge is being as fraudulent as Trump in using an assessor’s value which is nearly always low, often low by law. The house I sold in Los Angeles went for 4 times the assessed valuation.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:21 pmNational Historic Register, which means it can’t torn down or modified to any serious degree.
Go read the wiki and you will realize this is a load of crap. It was on the market for $20 million WHILE on the Register, with an expectation that it would be demolished and the site parceled out for several homes. Trump bought it (for $10 million in 1985) and then ripped it apart and remodeled.
Now, I ask you, what property in a desirable location that was purchased for $10 million 40 years ago is worth $20 million today? Try a factor of 15 or 20. The judge knows this,m but he’s such a pipsqueak that he lowballed it out of hatred for Trump. That’s not to say that hatred is not understandable, but judges shouldn’t succumb.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:29 pmA fair number is circa $400 million. Again, the amount of the judgement depends on these numbers.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:32 pmThe idea of concerted coordination between government entities and big tech should send chills to any 1st amendment supporters.
So, if the NY Times is publishing that the D-Day landing will be next Tuesday at Normandy, the President cannot pressure them to hold off?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:35 pmFrom the Wiki:
The problem with valuation here is that insurance coverage has to be based on replacement cost, otherwise why bother? But the judge complains about the coverage because its so much higher than the book value.
The deed restriction and other Registry issues have been repeatedly circumvented before, even on this property by previous owners. If it burned down and cost $200 million to rebuild, but could only be run as a club, it would remain ruins. Except it wouldn’t. The restriction would be removed and it would become pricey houses.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/18/2024 @ 11:44 pm@266 Both trump populists and democrat progressives are non-interventionists from the vietnam war generation. Neo-cons from that generation are without a party. Who does mark levin represent in his generation? Biden is being challenged by progressive base and is running scared. Most of the anti-war protesters put a save the whales bumper sticker on their BMW as they grew up.
asset (086f63) — 3/19/2024 @ 1:20 am@267 Biden’s problem is enough democrats don’t like a biden or clinton foisted on them and in 2016 patiently waited in voting line to vote for Jill Stein or in michigan where democrats voted down ballot for democrats ;but 80,000 left president line blank and 55,000 voted green party. In 2020 over 100,000 democrats voted uncommitted and 40,000 voted for others.
asset (086f63) — 3/19/2024 @ 1:28 amIs all that on the record? Did Trump’s lawyers present those valuations to Engoron through competent and credible testimony and documentation?
Or is this what is on the record?
Did Trump try to persuade the court or did he just oink-oink for the MAGA sty? Trump has no credibility except with morons.
nk (f87d65) — 3/19/2024 @ 3:50 am“Oink-oink for the MAGA sty.”
Hmm.
nk (f87d65) — 3/19/2024 @ 4:12 am— I’ll take Trump for $600, Alex.
— Here is the clue: “Oink-oink for the MAGA sty.”
— What is anything Trump says?
— That is correct.
Like I said, there’s one way to know for sure, and that’s test it on the open market.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/19/2024 @ 4:27 am@288
That’s not coordination this case is talking about, and I would appreciate you stop these dumb games.
The coordination this case is about is government back-channeling suppression requests over things like covid / lockdown / government malfeasance opinions.
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:16 amBased on what?
Rip Murdock (4f4246) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:17 amThe deed restrictions were signed by Trump, and didn’t exist with previous owners.
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:19 am#267 Dustin:
I think we are talking past each other a bit, and that may be because of the way we are defining things. When I speak of party wise men, I was speaking more generally, and not about the circa 2014 GOP establishment. “Wise” does not seem to charactarize them.
Today’s GOP is a coalition — like any US party. Some are the remanants of Reagan Republicanism — and some are the ideological descendants of Pat Buchanan. Haley ended up being the avatar of the nostalgic Reaganites. DeSantis was the hope of Buchanan’s decendants who actually care about policy and being effective. (I don’t love DeSantis, but I respect him as an effective governor)
I think Dustin felt that the old Reaganites should take a powder, and let the populists get together and nominate their candidate and get behind them. Since the Reganites care about their policy preferences and want a shot too, that seems to ask a lot. The process of “getting together” usually requires a party conference, or a convention. Where’s the mechanism for that in this world of front-loaded primaries?
Appalled (c8439b) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:21 amAnd there were no private “previous owners” before Donald Trump. After Marjorie Merriweather Post died, the property was bequeathed to the National Park Service. They found it too expensive to maintain Congress returned it to the Post Foundation in 1981. Trump bought the property in 1985.
The federal government soon realized the immense cost of maintenance and the difficulty of maintaining security for diplomats, and returned it to the Post Foundation in 1981. It was then listed for sale for $20 million. Dina Merrill and Post’s two other daughters did not maintain the property in the meantime, anticipating a sale, but there was so little interest that its demolition to build smaller homes was approved.
…………..
Donald Trump learned about the estate after unsuccessfully trying to purchase and combine two apartments in Palm Beach for his family. He offered the Post family $15 million for it, but they rejected it. Trump purchased the land between Mar-a-Lago and the ocean from Jack C. Massey, the former owner of KFC, for $2 million, stating he intended to build a home that would block Mar-a-Lago’s beach view. The threat caused interest in the property to decline, and Trump ended up getting the property for $7 million in 1985.
Source Footnotes omitted.
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:32 amThe second and third paragraphs above should have been block quoted.
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:33 amReformatted:
And there were no private “previous owners” before Donald Trump. After Marjorie Merriweather Post died, the property was bequeathed to the National Park Service. They found it too expensive to maintain so Congress returned it to the Post Foundation in 1981. Trump bought the property in 1985.
Source Footnotes omitted.
Rip Murdock (3229f4) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:36 amThis:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/03/bully.html
…
If “bully pulpit” is sometimes understood that way, it’s risky to argue “A central dimension of presidential power is the use of the office’s bully pulpit….”
The riposte was predictable: “The bully pulpit is not a pulpit to bully.”
I want to add that what is said behind the scenes is not from the pulpit at all. A pulpit is an elevated and conspicuous platform. One thing about social media posts is that they are out there, in public, and perfectly conspicuous. If the President (or the shadowy people behind him) want to use the”central dimension of presidential power” that is the “bully pulpit,” let them step up onto a conspicuous platform and proclaim opinions they intend us to find righteous.
In this case, the opinion that was conveyed behind the scenes was that social media platforms ought to take down posts on various political topics — coronavirus vaccines, claims of election fraud, and Hunter Biden’s laptop — that people wanted to debate. If it’s pulpit-worthy, express that opinion outright and clearly to all of us. Don’t go behind our back and intimidate the social media giants upon whom we, the little people, depend to slightly amplify our tiny voices.
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:38 amUgh, should’ve been block quoted. Sorry ya’ll…
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:39 amIt used to be that the Ninth Circuit was the most reversed by the Supreme Court. Now it looks like it will be the Fifth.
Eric Schmidt filed in the Western District of Louisiana instead of in Missouri because it was the likeliest place a couple of partisan peckerwoods could posture as First Amendment champions without being laughed of court.
The case should have been dismissed for lack of standing a long time ago. With costs.
nk (f87d65) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:01 amDo I hear an “Ew! Forum shopping!” Anybody?
nk (f87d65) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:20 amThe reason we get false or exaggerated attacks on Trump (and we also get that on Biden) is because professional campaign consultants – too many of them – always aim to make the strongest and the simplest (one soundbyte) attacks – one that can switch votes or drive people to the polls – aimed at potential voters who are uninterested or relatively uninformed – regardless of its truth value , except when an attack is so rebuttable that it falls apart and boomerangs, and then they try to end the controversy as soon as possible.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:29 amhttps://amgreatness.com/2024/03/18/guilty-but-not-really-guilty/
How do you fix this?
Can this be fixed?
If it’s proper and justified to prosecute one set of people, but not another…. then what?
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:33 amAppalled (c8439b) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:21 am
All you need is he end of the provision giving the nomination to whoever gets 50.1% on the first ballot, Make it 62%.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:36 amAnd don’t disparage people who run to STOP somebody,
President Trump’ DOJ certainly had the opportunity and power to prosecute Brennan, Clapper, Clinton, and Holder but chose not to do so.
Also, what crime has Fani Willis committed? If bad judgement or moral turpitude were crimes, every politician would be in jail.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 9:44 amEnd-stage Communism:
Cuba blames US for stoking protests amid power cuts and food shortages
I suspect the UN will bail them out with our money.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:02 amThat’s not coordination this case is talking about, and I would appreciate you stop these dumb games.
What coordination? These requests are all one-off and the companies ignored 2/3rds of them.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:05 amWhat is the evidence of coercion in Murthy v. Missouri? The plaintiffs argued an extreme position, whereby the government cannot encourage social media companies to remove threats that are posted on their platforms.
There is much more evidence of actual coercion in the second case argued yesterday, NRA v. Vullo.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:05 amBased on what?
I listed the “what” elsewhere. But based on any number of independent evaluations, some of which were rather higher. Forbes, for example, estimated $350 million in 2022. Area brokers went as high as $725 million (close to the valuation that Trump used).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-a-Lago#Trump_ownership
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:09 amHere are the argument transcripts for Murthy v. Missouri and NRA v. Vullo.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:10 amits demolition to build smaller homes was approved.
Despite being on the National Registry, which should tell you just how iron-clad those designations aren’t.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:10 amDo these estimates incorporate the “in perpetuity” deed restrictions, or are they simply comparables with similar properties?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:13 amIn an earlier response to a question from Barrett, Aguinaga described himself as a “First Amendment purist,” such that “even mild encouragement” from the government would be enough to create a First Amendment violation. But that line may prove to be too much for this court.
Yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater is OK by him. Or, in Covid terms, posting that Chinese people were secretly infecting people with Covid and should be “stopped” is fine, too, even as attacks on Chinese people increase.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:15 amDo these estimates incorporate the “in perpetuity” deed restrictions,
If it burns down, how do those covenants affect the property then? It cannot be rebuilt for the artificially limited value. Pretty much why the 1981 reversion led to decay and expected demolition.
The judge was just playing a gotcha game here, sticking something in Trump’s eye, but it was not something a judge should do when the valuation greatly affects the outcome of a case.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:20 amDo these estimates incorporate the “in perpetuity” deed restrictions, or are they simply comparables with similar properties?
They were after the covenants were in place, and the covenants are public information. Maybe they discounted the covenants.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:22 am@312
That is an extreme hypothetical, but isn’t what’s happening that started this case.
Let’s articulate this a little differently.
Do you see any difference between these two statements:
a) Government uses backchannel, non-public communication pathways to encourage like-minded social media companies to censor americans using their platform.
vs.
b) Government uses mandates/threats to force social media companies to censor americans using their platform.
Then consider the end result between a) and b) – that is, the american is censored.
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:22 am@317
Both are absolutely fine.
What’s not “fine”, is if the person yelling “Fire!” in falsehood that endangers people.
What’s not “fine”, is reaching that Brandenburg incitement level that would encourage violence against Chinese people over covid statements, but assholes just blathering online is fine.
whembly (86df54) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:25 amI am less concerned about what government asks a social media company to do than I am about what the social media company does on its own. The government usually has a strong reason. The “company” may censor because some thin-skinned summer intern pushes a button.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:26 amDespite being on the National Registry, which should tell you just how iron-clad those designations aren’t.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:10 am
MAL was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980; the above reference to demolition referred to a time prior to 1980 when the house was occupied by Post’s descendants. As I pointed out above, Trump signed away his rights in 1995 to maintain the property as a social club in perpetuity, which considerably devalues the property as a single residence. Also, in 2002 Trump signed an easement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation which restricts the ability to renovate the house and forecloses development of the property into multiple single family homes. By signing the 2002 deed, Trump received a significantly lower property tax rate.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:27 amBrandenburg incitement level
I’m not fully happy with that standard.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:27 amMAL was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980; the above reference to demolition referred to a time prior to 1980 when the house was occupied by Post’s descendants.
1981-1985
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:27 amIt also wasn’t occupied, just left to rot.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:28 amThen those valuations are useless.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:28 amHowever, that was the argument that the Missouri Solicitor General made.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:30 amI prefer to stick to the facts and the arguments made by the parties. There is no evidence in this case of government officials threatening punitive actions in their communications with social media companies to achieve certain ends. The companies were free to (and did) reject any government requests.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:39 amMy guess is that Murthy v. Missouri will be decided 7-2 against the states, possibly on standing grounds.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:42 am#308 —
You want to go back to what the Democrats used to do before 1932. Interesting thought.
Appalled (c8439b) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:44 amBreaking news:
“Divided” Supreme Court clears way for Texas to arrest migrants who illegally enter
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:13 pmSupreme Court clears way for Texas to enforce immigration law, for now
@330:
Good guess.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:14 pmYou want to go back to what the Democrats used to do before 1932. Interesting thought.
2/3rds is how you get party unity. Carter and Ford never had more than a bare majority of delegates.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:20 pmCarter (1980)
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:22 pmKevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:13 pm
his has got the same problem as invoking Section 3 of the 14th amendment: The state of Texas would be deciding who had violated federal law. But the Supreme Court is sort of following the election returns. Sort of, because for now all it opted to do was leave the matter undecided, but lift the stay- and then tellalower court to decide whether or not to stay it.
Where to?
At most Texas can exclude from the state of Texas some people who are not citizens of the United States, or considered the equivalent by federal law. It has to leave them with the choice of where to go (perhaps on pain of spending a day or two a week in jail)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/19/2024 @ 12:52 pmAppalled (c8439b) — 3/19/2024 @ 10:44 am
No. The Democrats had 2/3. I propose a lower number: 62%. Two thirds is too high. And this can be modified in later ballots just so long as it doesn’t obviate the effect. Maybe lower the threshold by 1% or half of 1% per ballot.
The 2/3 rule was suddenly re-imposed in 1844 when it votes to go back to the “Rules of 1832” It denied Martin Van Buren the nomination in 1844 after he had won it.
In 1832, the 2/3 rule had been imposed on the Democrats first convention because Andrew Jackson wanted to ensure that his vice Presidential candidate would not be someone other than Martin Van Buren
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/19/2024 @ 1:02 pmIt is cold today or was this morning. It is supposedly the first day of spring- or almost. Spring begins at 11:06 pm March 19. I don’t know in what time zone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udjX3_yErNc
Spring doesn’t usually begin on March 21 but rather on March 20. It’s occurring today in the United States technically on March 19 – the day the tourists return to San Juan Capistrano, (if they still do) because there was a February 29 this year and we have been on the equivalent of the Julian calendar since March 1, 1900 – and the Julian calendar advances spring 1 day every 128 years. It won’t happen again on March 21 until the year 2101 (because there is not supposed to be a February 29 in 2100.)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/19/2024 @ 1:10 pmGiven Judge Cannon’s proposed jury instructions, it appears she’s considering that somehow national defense materials can be interpreted as personal records, thus entitling Trump to keep classified documents at his country club, despite the 11th Circuit already ruling that Trump “lacked a personal or possessory interest in the records”.
It’s past time for Jack Smith to make a motion to remove Judge Cannon from the case, for incompetence and bias.
Paul Montagu (d4d407) — 3/19/2024 @ 2:31 pmIt’s past time for Jack Smith to help the judge make the right decision, and to protect her from the defense’s inveigling to have her make the wrong one. Judges appreciate that.
With very few exceptions, the rule for defense jury instructions is generally “some evidence”.
If the defense presents some evidence that Trump had a personal or possessory interest in the records — evidence, not “Oink-oink” to the MAGA sty — then the defense is entitled to the instruction.
Even if it is something that some peckerwood already inclined to acquit Trump will elevate to reasonable doubt. You leaves The Hague and you takes your chances. Welcome to America!
nk (bb1548) — 3/19/2024 @ 4:52 pmNo. The Democrats had 2/3. I propose a lower number: 62%.
Only Sammy would do this.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:25 pmEven if it is something that some peckerwood already inclined to acquit Trump will elevate to reasonable doubt. You leaves The Hague and you takes your chances. Welcome to America!
Voir dire will be interesting, if we ever get there.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:27 pmNo Fly List case 9-0 for plaintiff.
Immigration judges’ discretionary judgements are reviewable by Circuit Courts 4+1 to 4.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:33 pmThe Fifth Circuit will probably take another beatdown when FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is argued next Tuesday. It also should have been dismissed on standing grounds.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:35 pmHuh? The question in the case was whether the case was moot since the government removed the plaintiff from the No Fly List. There is nothing in the decision that turns on “discretionary judgements” by immigration judges, who are not mentioned anywhere in the opinion.
Source. Opinion. Paragraph breaks added.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:54 pmI see which opinion you are talking about. You really should at least include the case name or a link.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/19/2024 @ 5:57 pmTwo different cases, both decided today. I guess separate paragraphs, with two different vote totals, aren’t enough.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:15 pmIn all cases, go here: http://www.scotusblog.com/
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:15 pmKatie Porter is still complaining that 30% of the CA electorate still votes Republican, despite the best efforts of the LA Times.
She regrets calling it rigged, though. Just that it was manipulated to make Republicans vote for Garvey instead of her.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:18 pmTrump again picks the loser in the Ohio Senate race.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:19 pmMelania seems to be hitting the ice cream pretty hard lately.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:23 pmSenator Menendez says it’s unfixable.
I know that you are consistent and honorable about this, whembly, because I know you would get upset if any president from either party publicly criticized his Attorney General for political prosecutions of people from his party.
For example, you were righteously furious when this happened:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-hits-sessions-weeks-over-indictments-gop-congressmen-n906036
I’m having trouble finding your full-throated condemnation of that outrageous pair of Trump statements, which is odd because you deeply care about the evenhandness of the law and making sure that prosecutions are not contaminated by partisan statements from presidents.
Could you find me that link of yours?
Patterico (c2d22d) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:26 pmI generally trust Jack Smith’s judgment. It would not surprise me if he is contemplating that, as this sounds outrageous. He probably gets only one shot at it, though, and it’s kind of a “if you shoot at the king you best not miss” type situation, so he has to get it right.
I am interested to hear what Andrew Weissmann says about whether proposed jury instructions are subject to an interlocutory appeal by the Government. I never heard of such a thing stateside. Which is not to say it can’t happen; I just don’t know.
Patterico (c2d22d) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:38 pmThe loser who won, you mean?
Patterico (c2d22d) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:39 pmThe loser who won, you mean?
Patterico (c2d22d) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:39 pm
I hope Kevin was forecasting that Trump’s guy will lose to Sherrod Brown in the general.
norcal (d99a8b) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:46 pmEvery bad thing that happens to America for the next decade will be the fault of Donald Trump and the s— 4 brains citizens who keep voting for this loser.
The Democrats are defending 2/3rds of the seats up, and cannot lose more than 1 and keep control. So far, of the 4 tossups, losers will be running for the GOP in two of them (AZ and OH). Of the 3 running in Michigan, 2 voted to impeach Trump once. Trump endorses the other guy. Tim Sheehy will be the candidate in Montana, which was once thought to be a slam dunk by now is a tossup.
Then, when Biden has the House and the Senate and the filibuster is gone, watch them “regulate” elections to allow anyone to vote at least once, get Biden his wealth tax and 70% income tax, add 17 new seats to the Supreme Court, and make DC and Puerto Rico states.
And it will be the fault of those who keep nominating asshats.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:47 pmI hope Kevin was forecasting that Trump’s guy will lose to Sherrod Brown in the general.
It’s the track record.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:47 pmThe loser who won, you mean?
Exactly.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:49 pmWho’s on first.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:49 pmThey figure he will be the easier to beat by incumbent (D) Sherrod Brown.
nk (bb1548) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:50 pminterlocutory appeal
Reading the Trump immunity case arguments, it’s rarely allowed and only when it is preemptively correct AND cannot be fixed afterwards. Or Trump is involved.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:52 pmThey figure he will be the easier to beat by incumbent (D) Sherrod Brown.
I think “less likely to beat” Sherrod Brown, who has an R+8 problem.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 6:53 pmI’d like to see Repubs in all 50 states make their primaries impossible to meddle with by Dems or anyone else.
If rank-and-file GOP voters do in fact almost always choose to speed-sail over the cliff with whoever best kissed the BOAR’s toes lately, fine, but it doesn’t help when they let hateful Dems take the wheel as the cherry on top.
qdpsteve again (8f9c49) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:01 pmTrump clinching the nomination so early may have thrown off Jack Smith’s timing.
Let me explain: The Democrats desperately
wantneed to run against Trump. Jack Smith was giving Trump line (as in fishing) to run until it was too late for another Republican to step in before he started reeling him in (like a fish) for trial.Hmm?
nk (bb1548) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:03 pmMe, too, but he did say that Cannon is “legally fundamentally wrong”.
But…per the Daily Beast, appellate courts have healthy oversight powers over district court judges.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/19/2024 @ 7:31 pm“The Supreme Court or any other court of appellate jurisdiction may affirm, modify, vacate, set aside or reverse any judgment, decree, or order of a court lawfully brought before it for review.”
But can they do it before/during a trial?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:01 pmDC attorney general drops charges against Steve Nikoui for disruption of Congress during SOTU speech
What a shame it took this long. Thanks to intervention from Speaker Johnson. Nikoui may as well have been shouting at a celery stalk.
lloyd (05649e) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:02 pmNikki suspended her campaign on 3/5, yet two weeks later she still got 21% of the vote in the Ohio primary, which goes to show that he has his base locked up but is basically pissing everyone else off.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:45 pmWhich is fine, because Trump must lose.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/19/2024 @ 8:45 pm
It shows you free media is worth a lot’
That’s a lot of protest votes. Or it could be early votes. I don’t know how early it started in Ohio.
In 2008, Giuliani banked a lot of votes in Florida before he dropped out – he mostly skipped the earlier states,
This year, even with a 62% threshold Trump likely would have won the nomination. Not sure if anyone ese would have jumped in and he would have collected more than 62% of the first ballot votes even though he got less of the raw vote,
trump’s got about 60% of the Republican vote.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/20/2024 @ 11:23 amWhiplash:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/20/2024 @ 1:32 pmThat would seem to violate the 8th amendment, (cruel and unusual punishment) and possibly the 14th (equal protection of people under its jurisdiction)
But it seems to me that Texas could send them to the border of Oklahoma or Louisiana but Texas has to claim that federal protections do not apply to non-citizens.
The New York Daily news cited several United States Supreme Court decisions, which I never heard of – didn’t find when looking for something – in its bottom of the page editorial (the second one) on Wednesday March 20, 2024. I don’t know what these decisions actually say:
Chae Chan Ping vs. United States (1889)
Fong Yue Ting vs. United States (1893) (power of Congress)
Truax va. Raich (1915) solely in federal government.
Takahashi vs. Fish % Game Commission (1948) broad authority
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/20/2024 @ 2:14 pmBTW, the testimony from Lev Parnas in today’s Comer House Clown Show is something else.
And Rupar has quite thread. An example here.
Paul Montagu (1e8339) — 3/20/2024 @ 2:22 pmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truax_v._Raich
Although a careful reading of the United States constitution would indicate that that is a state power (both specifically – Article 1 Section 9 Clause 1 (Powers Denied Congress) and under the 10th amendment (all powers not given to Congress are reserved to the states) and not a federal power (it not being an enumerated power of Congress in Article I Section 8)
What Congress has the power to do is to determine who is a citizen and who is not, aside from people who are automatically citizens by the 14th amendment. But states have the right to pass discriminatory laws against all non-citizens, including expulsion from the state. It is probably not free to pass discriminatory criminal laws and some other laws.
That, at least, is what an originalist and a textualist would rule.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/20/2024 @ 2:29 pm372. And one bit of dirt involved exploiting and twisting the interpretation of a lie Joe Biden told the audience at the Council on Foreign Relations on January 23, 2018, about being instrumental in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor whom it was asserted was causing trouble for Burisma.
Joe Biden’s defense is quite correct, he never sold any influence – he didn’t have any influence to sell! In the words of Mitt Romney, his family “bilked” foreigners (who were not familiar enough with American politics)
Tony Bobulinsky is correct that Joe Biden was what they were selling – but it was so to speak, flour, not heroin. And he’s also right that Jim Biden (Hunter uncle) is a proven liar – by Hunter’s own testimony in fact – and that two Democratic members of Congress are peddling lies.
s
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/20/2024 @ 2:38 pmhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/tony-bobulinski-joe-biden-was-the-brand-testimony-hunter-biden-1923a539
Minimal effort — including not exerting any influence.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/20/2024 @ 2:43 pmUS Green Berets are now stationed on Taiwan’s Kinmen and Penghu Islands. Kinmen is only a few miles from China proper, overlooking Xiamen’s harbor. It was once called Quemoy and back in the 1950’s Ike threatenen to use nukes if China invaded. Kinmen is indefensible by itself, but our soldiers are there anyway.
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china
To quote from The Wire, “Sheeeeeee-IT”
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/20/2024 @ 8:47 pmTo quote from The Wire, “Sheeeeeee-IT”
Somebody has good taste in television fare.
norcal (5ce52e) — 3/20/2024 @ 10:49 pmI heard online the other day some news report, I think from al jazeera (which is Qatar) It talked about possible famine in Gaza – and later on in the (is that called a podcast?) mentioned Burma and Argentina (!) as places where people might starve. (Mentioning those last two gives the illusion of comprehesiveness.)
But not Sudan (this is north Sudan)
That’s because it’s a Moslem country with only Moslem forces (backed by outside powers) fighting. One of the sides is backed by Russia.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 3/21/2024 @ 11:43 amRIP, Vernor Vinge, 79. SF writer and three-time Hugo winner for Best Novel: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbows End (2006).
IMHO, A Deepness in the Sky may be the single best work of Science fiction written to date. Endlessly inventive. Despite the marketing, it has no real relationship to the Zones of Thought novels.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/21/2024 @ 9:07 pmVinge obit
He also coined the term “singularity” regarding the changes AI will bring.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/21/2024 @ 9:09 pmNews outside the bubble. White voters have chosen their candidate Most white men trump. White republican women trump. White democrat women biden. Independent women mostly pro-choice if not pro biden. Donor class biden. Black women/latinx women biden. Half of black /latinx men biden the other half don’t want to have to drive electric vehicles.
asset (a6de08) — 3/21/2024 @ 9:38 pmA Deepness in the Sky may be the single best work of Science fiction written to date.
Even better than L. Ron Hubbard’s books? 😊
norcal (9c94cc) — 3/21/2024 @ 9:40 pmEver think what will happen if biden wins popular vote ;but lose the electoral college? Look at what was planned to happen in 2020 if biden jot 44,000 less votes in az, ga. and wi.
asset (a6de08) — 3/21/2024 @ 10:02 pmStar Trek has even more elements of what amounts to fantasy than what I mentioned before. Like parallel universes and the ability to go to and from them, (accidently mostly) or the appearance of alternative worlds. But that doesn’t make it bad. We have “Remember Me” in which Beverly Crusher gets caught in a vortex which results in her being present in a series of smaller and smaller complement of people on the Enterprise until she is all alone. Things in space explain a lot of things in Star Trek.
A lot of science fiction is how people react to situations, or figure them out. Sometimes the explanation is extremely implausible, even within the Star Trek universe.
We have a number of other interesting plots. Some project the characters into the future. Except in some it.’;s not real. We get Riker 16 years into thee series’ future. It’s supposedly created from his mind (as is also in “The Savage Curtain” in the original series, Riker only realizes it when one of the characters (the woman he was supposedly married to who died two years before) is “Minuet” who was a hologram.
We have “Chief” Miles O’Brien not being able to understand the engineering of the original Enterprise in “Trials and Tribulations” because it has been rewired so much, and Scotty not being able to undersand the engineering of the Picard era Enterprise.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/22/2024 @ 2:10 amasset (a6de08) — 3/21/2024 @ 10:02 pm
Nothing, except the Democrats would discard one of their principles.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 3/22/2024 @ 2:12 am@385 in 2020 Labor union activists along with certain members of the democratic party surprisingly not the far left ;but clintonistas fearing a left take over of the party. They were planning a general strike to shut the country down and the deep state would help. It was talked about a few days before the 2020 election and then disappeared as it was not needed. The paranoia thanks to msdnc ranting is even worse now. The resistance will be even more wild. (crazy)
asset (a6de08) — 3/22/2024 @ 2:39 amEver think what will happen if biden wins popular vote ;but lose the electoral college?
AOC will go to a highway overpass and cry against a chain link fence.
Hillary won the popular vote by, a margin of three million votes, but lost the Electoral College. Al Gore won the popular vote, by a mere 555,000 votes, and lost the Electoral College. That’s why the Democrats came up with the “Electoral Vote Thing Like You Know Round With A Mirror That Women Used To Keep In Their Purses”.
nk (cd56ba) — 3/22/2024 @ 3:10 amEven better than L. Ron Hubbard’s books?
PUH-leeeze.
Although I kinda like Battlefield Earth in a trashy kind of way.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/22/2024 @ 9:02 amEver think what will happen if biden wins popular vote ;but lose the electoral college? Look at what was planned to happen in 2020 if biden jot 44,000 less votes in az, ga. and wi.
Yes, I expect the righteous Left to invade the Capitol and prevent the Electoral Votes from being counted, but with the support of all people of goodwill.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/22/2024 @ 9:03 amSammy, try reading some real SF. Nearly all filmed SF is about 50 years behind the times. Including Dune, which was written in the 1960s.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/22/2024 @ 9:05 amthe Democrats would discard one of their principles.
Do they have one to discard?
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/22/2024 @ 9:06 amThe Electoral College isn’t intended to mirror the popular vote. It will, most of the time, but it is designed to slightly favor candidates who win the most states, and particularly small states. The Founders feared large states, where masses of people could be swayed in blocs (as in CA and NY), controlling the election, so large states were slightly disfavored. That bias doesn’t factor in unless the election is close. It did in 1876, 2000 and 2016.
Note that the EC also delivers decisive victories in close elections when the popular vote isn’t concentrated in a few states. The election of 1960 was the closest in modern times (0.17% margin), yet Kennedy won by 84 electoral votes.
Kevin M (8676e4) — 3/22/2024 @ 9:17 am@389 Thats been tried already. That is not how the media, donor class, deep state, establishment/multi national corporations and democrats riot even though they would get an all black jury in D.C. They can make the country ungovernable and trump dare not go into democrat controlled states. Individuals may break the law. By the way AOC and the squad would be to busy taking over the democrats party to do much.
asset (f3b302) — 3/22/2024 @ 2:57 pm