Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First new item
Arizona’s new but old abortion law:
The Arizona Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Tuesday to prepare to enforce a long-dormant law that bans nearly all abortions, drastically altering the legal landscape for terminating pregnancies in a state likely to have a key role in the presidential election.
The law predating Arizona’s statehood provides no exceptions for rape or incest and allows abortions only if the mother’s life is in jeopardy. Arizona’s highest court suggested doctors can be prosecuted under the 1864 law, though the opinion written by the court’s majority didn’t explicitly say that.
The Tuesday decision threw out an earlier lower-court decision that concluded doctors couldn’t be charged for performing abortions in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The attorney general said she will not enforce the law. The abortion ban won’t go into effect immediately.
The middle ground view on abortion in the U.S. continues to be allowing a reasonable period of time in which an abortion is legal, exceptions for rape and/or incest, and if the mother’s life is endangered.
Even MAGA candidates running for office are flip-flopping and pushing back on Arizona’s new law:
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake is actively lobbying state lawmakers to overturn a 160-year-old law she once supported that bans abortion in almost all cases, a source with knowledge of her efforts told CNN.
Lake is pushing for GOP lawmakers in her home state to repeal the law while leaving in place legislation signed in 2022 by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey that would restrict abortion to within the first 15 weeks of a pregnancy.
Second news item
The level of childish self-centeredness is a sad commentary on today’s pro-Palestinian protesters:
A graduation dinner at the home of the University of California Berkeley Law School’s Dean Erwin Chemerinsky devolved into an ugly incident after a Palestinian American Berkeley Law student who was invited to the dinner picked up a microphone and stood before the gathering…The purpose of this cartoon was to encourage students to protest a student dinner that Chemerinsky was scheduled to hold at his home.
About that dinner, as described by Chemerinsky:
On April 9, about 60 students came to our home for the dinner. All had registered in advance. All came into our backyard and were seated at tables for dinner. While guests were eating, a woman stood up with a microphone, stood on the top step in the yard, and began a speech, including about the plight of the Palestinians. My wife and I immediately approached her and asked her to stop and leave. The woman continued. When she continued, there was an attempt to take away her microphone. Repeatedly, we said to her that you are a guest in our home, please stop and leave. About 10 students were clearly with her and ultimately left as a group.
The dinner, which was meant to celebrate graduating students, was obviously disrupted and disturbed. I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda.
Note:
Remarkably, the student said she had a First Amendment right to protest in Erwin’s home. Erwin, ever the teacher, actually said “the First Amendment does not apply.”
SMDH.
This clip shows the protester was asked to leave repeatedly and refused, even after the homeowners threatened to call police. She held on to the mic, risking pulling an older woman down. She said that because she was a Muslim women, she could not be touched. pic.twitter.com/hrvQ38J7Ep
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) April 11, 2024
Third news item
Ukraine in a vicious quandary:
Forced back, Ukraine is now digging in to stop a collapse across the war’s front lines as Russian attacks and American delays leave Kyiv and its allies to confront the possibility of a painful defeat.
A $61 billion aid package has been stuck in Congress for months, leaving Ukraine exposed on the front lines — running out of ammunition and men — while its energy system now faces an onslaught that is exposing its depleted air defenses.
The shortages forced Kyiv’s military to withdraw from a key eastern city in February, and with no progress in Washington, Ukrainian soldiers are now desperately trying to hold on to their positions along some 600 miles of the front line.
“Nothing has changed: We did not have any shells then, we don’t have any shells now,” said artillery sergeant Andriy, who was part of Kyiv’s retreat from Avdiivka in February after months of intense fighting. “The Russians continue to push in packs, without stopping,” Andriy, who did not want his last name revealed as he was not authorized to speak publicly, told NBC News last week.
Reportedly, Speaker Mike Johnson is in talks with the White House about advancing an aid package. However, it doesn’t look too hopeful:
House Republican Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that Johnson had been talking with White House officials about a package that would deviate from the Senate’s $95 billion foreign security package and include several Republican demands. It comes after Johnson has delayed for months on advancing aid that would provide desperately needed ammunition and weaponry for Kyiv, trying to find the right time to advance a package that will be a painful political lift.
“There’s been no agreement reached,” Scalise said. “Obviously there would have to an agreement reached not just with the White House, but with our own members.”
Two things: Johnson faces pressure from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has threatened to oust him as speaker if he pushes ahead with Ukraine funding, and per the report:
The Republican speaker is set to travel to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Friday to meet with Trump and has been consulting him in recent weeks on the Ukraine funding to gain his support — or at least prevent him from openly opposing the package.
This:
Congressional Republicans intend to travel to Normandy to honor the D-Day dead. But that gesture will be hollow—and worse than hollow—if they have failed to act to help the people of Ukraine in their life-and-death struggle.
Fourth news item
O.J. Simpson passed away yesterday after battling cancer. Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman, whom Simpson was accused of killing, responded to the news of Simpson’s death:
Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, capping off what legal analysts described at the time as the “trial of the century.”
…
“The only thing I have to say is, it’s just further reminder of Ron being gone all these years,” Fred Goldman said in a phone interview. “It’s no great loss to the world. It’s a further reminder of Ron’s being gone.”
It’s funny how those of us of a certain age remember exactly where we were when the infamous chase on the 405 freeway happened.
Fifth news item
Israel is bracing for a worst-case scenario that U.S. officials believe could materialize within just hours — the possibility of a direct attack on Israeli soil by Iran in retaliation for a strike almost two weeks ago that killed seven Iranian military officers. Iran has vowed to take revenge for Israel killing its commanders, who were hit by an April 1 strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria’s capital.
Two U.S. officials told CBS News that a major Iranian attack against Israel was expected as soon as Friday, possibly to include more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles aimed at military targets inside the country.
The officials said it would be challenging for the Israelis to defend against an attack of such a magnitude, and while they held out the possibility that the Iranians could opt for a smaller-scale attack to avoid a dramatic escalation, their retaliation was believed to be imminent.
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (8e902f) — 4/12/2024 @ 8:57 amFirst News Item:
If Kris Mayes continues to hold that position once the decision take effect, or the law isn’t changed, she should be impeached and removed from office. She won her election by 280 votes, so her popularity is tenuous. It’s also misleading to say the law has been in effect since 1864. It was recodified twice into the laws of the State of Arizona in 1913 and 1928.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:12 amRecycling a nearly 30-year old joke:
Knock-knock.
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:12 amWho’s there?
OJ.
OJ who?
Great, you’re on the jury.
Headed back to Earth:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:38 amA lot of those AZ Republicans are in R+70 districts and don’t much care what “RINOs” like Lake think.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:49 amIf Kris Mayes continues to hold that position once the decision take effect, or the law isn’t changed, she should be impeached and removed from office
As a general principle, I agree with this. Also refusing to defend a citizen initiative should be grounds for immediate disqualification. And all pigs should fly.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:51 amThe shares of Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, have dropped by more than 47% month-to-date, wiping out billions of dollars in the company’s paper valuation.
FIFY. Like Schrödinger’s Cat, a stock’s value is unknown until you try to sell it.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:53 amIt’s funny how those of us of a certain age remember exactly where we were when the infamous chase on the 405 freeway happened.
Yeah, I was on the 405 thinking “WTF?”
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:55 amAn Iranian attack on a population center would start a war, possibly a short one.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:56 amAlso, the obnoxious dinner guest brought her own microphone, giving premeditation to her political stunt, and it probably wasn’t lost on her that the hosts are Jewish, and not in the Santos Jew-ish kind of way.
Paul Montagu (467ef9) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:00 amDear law firm recruiter:
I am glad that you have reached out to me regarding _______, a candidate for employment at your firm.
You do not need this kind of grief. Find someone else.
Sincerely,
Edwin Chemerinsky, Dean
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:02 am*Erwin
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:04 amBarry Scheck: “OJ, the DNA results came back and I’ve got good news and bad news.”
OJ: “What’s the bad news?”
Scheck: “We’ll, they confirmed without doubt that your blood was on the murder weapon and the victims’ bodies.”
OJ: “Damn. How can there be any good news?”
Scheck: “Your cholesterol was only 150!”
I think Ito told that one.
Paul Montagu (467ef9) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:08 amHearing about Orenthal James Simpson always takes me back to the day of his acquittal back in October 1995. I was 25 years old and living and working in the Boston area at the time, but a colleague and I were in Cincinnati for a meeting at my company’s office there. My colleague was an Asian-American woman a year younger than I was. She was from a bedroom community of NYC and had attended Wellesley College, and she had recently become engaged to her boyfriend.
They had announced the previous night that the verdict would be read the next morning in court, so my colleague and I had dinner that evening and discussed the case. We both believed that O.J. was guilty but wondered about how the jury would decide. We were also discussing the racial angle of it, especially in light of Mark Fuhrman’s testimony which had been a dagger in the heart of the prosecution. We both agreed that black men were by and large in favor of acquittal thanks to Fuhrman, but my colleague was cautiously optimistic that black women would see O.J. as the typical abusive husband/boyfriend and would have sympathy for what Nicole and Ron Goldman had been through.
That day we were in the company’s large cafeteria having lunch when the verdict was read. Because it was the pre-cellphone days and because the cafeteria didn’t have TV sets, we had to wait for word to start percolating through the office. Suddenly we started to hear murmurs throughout the cafeteria, and eventually the words “not guilty” started being passed through the room. A table next to us was occupied by three 20-something black women, and upon hearing the news one of them let out a giddy cheer and the other two broke into big smiles. My colleague was kind of crushed that they had chosen their race over the sisterhood, and she remained disgusted for the rest of the day over the outcome.
I’m not so sure things have gotten much better since, and I think a similar sort of trial would break down along the same lines. Hopefully I am being too pessimistic.
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:46 amOJ’s defense team was a collection of household names, but maybe the most important was the largely unknown Jo-Ellan Dimitrius who developed the jury profile. She also did the same for Kyle Rittenhouse. A reminder of how much juries matter. As a defendant, would you rather have the evidence on your side, or the jury on your side?
lloyd (d3385c) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:07 pmNew ‘Biden Diet’ Sweeps Nation: Pay The Same Amount Of Money But Eat 50% Less Food
Yet another way Biden is making us a healthier nation.
lloyd (d3385c) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:09 pmTruth be told though, I have some sympathy for what OJ went through in his last year. I have a very good friend of 50 years standing, also black, who is in end-stage prostate cancer. It saddens me, and I find that part of that transfers to OJ. Not much, but some.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:49 pmYet another way Biden is making us a healthier nation.
Not me. I just charge it.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:50 pmKevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:02 am
Heh. When asked to provide info on a past employee, or for my opinion on a hire, I always write:
I urge you to waste no time in hiring _____.
If the hire turns out well, then my advice will be perceived as sound. If the hire turns out bad, then I remind them “I told you not to waste your time!”
felipe (5e2a04) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:53 pmPomona College faculty members are pushing back at administration’s “overboard” response to campus hooligans.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 12:57 pmThe reactions to Starr’s no-nonsense actions has bee swift:
And this truly disappoints:
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:01 pmDear students:
As a result of our divestiture from companies doing business with Israel, we will be needing to decrease student aid in the next term by 30%. Please warn your parents that costs will be rising significantly.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:03 pmI am a supporter of FIRE, so I will gladly consider their perspective on this. It sounds like the quote in Kevin M’s comment was given to the LA Times reporter in response to a general question and might not yet be the official position of FIRE. I just checked the FIRE website, and thus far there is not yet an official news release declaring FIRE’s position on the matter.
From everything I read, I support President Starr’s efforts to quickly remove the students from her office. For one thing, it was late in the afternoon and those students very likely targeted that time in the hopes that they would be allowed to stay all evening. For another, the students eventually said racially derogatory things regarding her. And in general the students should have seen what has happened at Vanderbilt and realized that there is very little sympathy for this kind of nonsense.
If those students who work in the admissions office refuse to give tours they should congratulated on holding true to their principles and immediately dismissed from their jobs. Because that is how the real world works, or at least ought to. If faculty want to strike in support of students then they should have their wages withheld and be subject to disciplinary actions for failing to performed their assigned duties. The time for coddling miscreants has long since passed, and if anything positive is going to come out of this it will be that colleges have at long last figured out that their ridiculous tolerance has created generations of nimrods.
JVW (8059f9) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:36 pmStar voting iniatiave in Oregon:
https://www.equal.vote/problem
It doesn’t solve all problems. You can still have strategic voting but it is hard to figure out.
The way it would work is that each voter values each candidate by giving that candidate 0 to 5 stars. Candidates are ranked by total number of stars. Then the top two finishers get an automatic runoff. You look at the ballot again and then see which if any of the two got more stars. Equal scores are allowed – that is, a voter may score both equally, including 0 stars for both and then that vote doesn’t count in the runoff if it is between two that were ranked by that voter equally.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:40 pmIt would take a lot to get me to take the side of the academic establishment against students.
Against Trump-toadying termagants from North
nk (dc6ba6) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:47 pmAppalachiaUpstate New York is a different matter.Sigh.
nk (dc6ba6) — 4/12/2024 @ 1:49 pmNorth AppalachiaUpstate New YorkRIP journalist and broadcaster Robert MacNeil (93):
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:03 pmThree quick thoughts from memory on the OJ trial:
1. The lead prosecutor was offered, free, a survey of possible jurors to see what kinds of people would produce a jury most likely to convict. She turned the offer down.
2. At the time, and, possibly to a lesser extent now, some black women have been angry about white women “stealing” the most successful black men. Apparently the prosecutor was unaware of this.
3. Although most whites thought OJ was guilty, more whites than blacks thought he was innocent, because the white population is so much larger.
Jim Miller (e96cbf) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:05 pmI am a supporter of FIRE
As am I, which is why I say it disappoints.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:06 pmJVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 11:46 am
But somebody could have thought to take along a radio, but I guess finding out as fast as possible was not important enough to people.
I remember, I was watching with my father who was sitting down on a soft chair that could semi-rock. I had called up a radio station to predict that the verdict would be guilty because the jury had asked to listen to Allan Park’s (the limo driver) testimony. He had not seen a car when he arrived.
Watching that was like being in an episode of “Slider’s”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliders_(TV_series)
Each episode began with something like that.
Now my father had medicine delivered in person by the owner of a pharmacy and when he came he told me that he recognized my voice.
I think that a juror was trying to make money on a illegal bet and that’s why the verdict was delayed. This person (acting through a family member I would say) wanted to raise the odds on a not guilty verdict. And therefore arranged for reading of testimony that could make it look like someone was trying to convince a holdout juror or two that OJ was guilty. I think that juror was trying to cash in twice – once maybe by a probably indirect bribe but he or she wanted more and so then also tried to cash in also by a bet. He or she had to give time to a family member to place the bet (with an illegal bookie – just like sports ambling at the time) The verdict had actually been reached almost right away and no good reason was ever offered as to why the juror arranged for a delay. The delay wasn’t caused by Lance Ito – it was caused by the jury.
They were probably not quite incommunicado. You may remember how an impartial juror was kicked off the case by what were probably lies.
we had to wait for word to start percolating through the office. Suddenly we started to hear murmurs throughout the cafeteria, and eventually the words “not guilty” started being passed through the room. A table next to us was occupied by three 20-something black women, and upon hearing the news one of them let out a giddy cheer and the other two broke into big smiles. My colleague was kind of crushed that they had chosen their race over the sisterhood, and she remained disgusted for the rest of the day over the outcome.
I’m not so sure things have gotten much better since, and I think a similar sort of trial would break down along the same lines. Hopefully I am being too pessimistic.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:07 pmSigh.
North AppalachiaUpstate New YorkSo, is your litmus test students-that-you-disagree-with or students-from-redneck-places ?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:09 pmIn the TV series about the OJ case, there’s a scene at a party in the black community where Marcia Clarke utterly destroys the planted-evidence argument, demonstrating that would need, among other things, a time machine (e.g planting blood 2 days before it was collected from OJ).
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:12 pmI have tried to resist sharing this straight line, but can no longer. In a March 19th NYT article on the return of female genital cutting in Gambia, I found this:
(Try to keep the punch lines relatively clean.)
Jim Miller (e96cbf) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:13 pm‘Memba that DeSantis was such a big meanie monster against the great Disney corporation?
…I ‘memba…
whembly (86df54) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:20 pmhttps://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2024/04/12/oh-now-you-him-disneys-abc-hails-desantis-cracking-down-retail
Oops: Left too much of the quote here:
JVW:
There were some people like that, but the jury was probably composed of about half or more useful idiots and a few bribed ones or those who wanted to make money from a bookie.
The jury had been specially selected to be people who got most of their news from the National Enquirer ad the National Enquirer was running story after story about different ways in which O.J. Simpson could be not guilty. Of course I think the National Enquirer was compensated in some way.
Right after the verdict the National Enquirer switched to running stories as to how O.J. Simpson did it acting entirely alone I think O.J.s co-conspirators (who may have included one of his lawyers, Robert Kardashian, although I think he was not privy to most of the secrets, and the other co-conspirators were willing if necessary to cut him loose – RK probably took the car to a car wash during the night and when he got back to Rockingham he couldn’t get in and had to leave the car parked on the street)
Anyway I think O.J.s co-conspirators wanted to give the Goldman family and others something so they arranged to lose the civil lawsuit because they didn’t want a further investigation or a second trial (OJ was only charged with the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and he could have been tried second time by the Los Angeles DA for the murder of Ron Goldman without it being precluded by double jeopardy, not to mention federal prosecution. They had to give the family of Ron Goldman some sense of justice.)
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:21 pmEcuador is fighting back against the narco gangs.
It’s a closer fight than you might guess; the gangs have about as many members, 40,000, as the nation has soldiers.
I wish Ecuador, and its brave young president, Daniel Noboa, well, in this war.
Jim Miller (e96cbf) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:27 pmhe Wall Street Journal (and the New York Times) seem to have sources high up in the Iranian government. It seems like some high ranking officials are trying to dissuade Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from ordering an attack. (Sometimes he gives in to them.)
The newspapers even know what kinds of attack are contemplated.
By the way, Khamenei wants an attack launched by Iran itself, not its proxies.
Now, on the one hand Ali Khamenei doesn’t want an attack that will cause a massive attack in return by Israel on Iran. And he also doesn’t want one that will fail.
Everyone is waiting for Ali Khamenei’s decision.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:29 pmI write the following on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 )or the draft was approximately this) :
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:34 pmI composed, at the time of the fatwa against Salmon Rushdie
Rule Khomeini {or now Khamenei)
Khomeini rules the planet.
His will never never never can…
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:37 pmOr can it?
9. Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:56 am
That would be stopped by the “Iron Dome” system (at least according to the United States which thinks that Gush Dan (center of Israel) Jerusalem and Beersheba are safe) so the Iranian professionals have given Khamenei other options, like Israel’s desalination plants, or nuclear reactor.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:42 pmThe NYT ran a story about the history of anti-aortion laws around the time of the Civil War.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:44 pmMy favorite O.J. joke from back in the day, when email was a new thing.
Question: What is O.J.’s email address?
Answer: Front slash, front slash, back slash, back slash, f escape.
norcal (f55616) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:46 pmSo, is your litmus test students-that-you-disagree-with or students-from-redneck-places ?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:09 pm Neither. The “Trump-toadying termagant” I refered to is Elise Stefanik. Remember? It was not all that long ago.
I would be worried if I did not disagree with students no matter where they came from. But between them and the academic drones who feed off of them, my sympathy leans heavily on the side of the students.
nk (dc6ba6) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:47 pmApparently, the comment form cannot cannot handle more than two tags or two tags inside a blockquote. Let’s try it again. (And fix another typo.)
Sigh.
North AppalachiaUpstate New YorkSo, is your litmus test students-that-you-disagree-with or students-from-redneck-places ?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:09 pm
Neither. The “Trump-toadying termagant” I referred to is Elise Stefanik. Remember? It was not all that long ago.
I would be worried if I did not disagree with students no matter where they came from. But between them and the academic drones who feed off of them, my sympathy leans heavily on the side of the students.
nk (dc6ba6) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:53 pm(Try to keep the punch lines relatively clean.)
Jim Miller (e96cbf) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:13 pm
If she has all her bits, she will give you fits.
(I had a better one, but it’s not as clean.)
norcal (f55616) — 4/12/2024 @ 2:54 pmI got the gist, nk
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:20 pmthe husbands of women who have not been cut suffer because they can not meet their wives’ sexual appetities.
Husbands of those who have been cut are going mostly without.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:22 pmHusbands of those who have been cut are going mostly without.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:22 pm
Do women even dare to say “no” in the parts of the Muslim world where female circumcision is a thing?
norcal (f55616) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:27 pmTwo words: Lorena Bobbitt.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:35 pmSome people seem to think that if they act like their position is both a matter of life and death and indisputable, they can get people to treat their cause that way, and tis is done mostly when it is not – they want people to reason backward from their carrying on.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/12/2024 @ 3:50 pmIran is getting ready to do whatever it decides to do, all at once. The preparations seem to be bigger and bigger. I don’t think Iran intends to attack US forces, There’s been a de facto ceasefire since February and they are deterred. Whether the Supreme Leader can restrain himself entirely remains to be seen, A few rockets, that all did no harm because of Israeli defenses, have been fired from southern Lebanon, I think Hezbollah wants no part of this and Iran is seeking other proxies – but this is something that Khamei wants Iran;s responsibility for whatever he orders to be clear,
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:02 pmOJ would have been convicted if the case was tried in the area the crime was committed-the LA Westside. The prosecution decided to hold the trial in Downtown LA, which was convenient for them but was a godsend to the defense. On the Westside it would have been a nearly all-white jury pool, downtown not so much.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:15 pmThe “Trump-toadying termagant” I refered to is Elise Stefanik. Remember? It was not all that long ago.
I’ll tell you guys this since I was texting Patterico and Dana about this yesterday. For months I have been receiving daily calls from a 315 area code marked potential spam. I did some investigating and discovered that 315 is the area code in which Elise Stefanik resides, so I figured it’s her PAC calling me for donations. I just got in the habit of ignoring them.
Yesterday I was down in Long Beach on business, when I got a call from the 562 area code also market potential spam. Because that is the Long Beach area code, and because I happened to be there at that very moment on business, against my better judgement I answered. Sure enough, it was Elise Stefanik’s PAC calling me for a donation. I damn near gave in and passed along a few bucks, mostly because the women with the Appalachian accent was so sweet and I wanted her to get her little commission, and partly out of a since of honor now that they had defeated me in the game. But I held firm and begged poverty.
My concern here is that we have entered a new realm where they the spam callers are going to come after you with numbers which are harder to ignore. Is there now technology to ascertain where my phone is located and use a number close by, or was the fact that they called me from the area code where I happened to be strictly a coincidence?
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:16 pmYour speculations are completely lacking in evidence.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:17 pmThough they would be great plot for a novel.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:20 pmShill in Chief:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:29 pmJVW,
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075473
DRJ (b2d376) — 4/12/2024 @ 5:02 pmWow. Good find, DRJ.
norcal (52f585) — 4/12/2024 @ 5:18 pmOJ would have been convicted if the case was tried in the area the crime was committed-the LA Westside. The prosecution decided to hold the trial in Downtown LA, which was convenient for them but was a godsend to the defense. On the Westside it would have been a nearly all-white jury pool, downtown not so much.
Moving the trial for the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King to mostly white Simi Valley had caused a great deal of controversy just a couple of years earlier. I don’t think the trial was moved so much out of convenience as it was because the prosecution felt they had a slam-dunk case and having a largely minority jury convict him downtown instead of a mostly white Westside jury would qualm any fears that OJ had been symbolically lynched in Brentwood.
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 5:28 pmThanks DRJ, that’s super-interesting. Is Elise Stefanik’s PAC engaging in illegal activities to target me?
The answer you found is almost six years old, however (it is dated May 2018). I wonder if anything has changed since then.
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 5:32 pmThe Federal court smacked down Hunter Biden’s lame attempt to get his gun charges dismissed today:
Needless to say, I like her quite a bit.
JVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 5:35 pmI imagine they have found new, probably legal ways to target us in the last 6 years, but I couldn’t easily find anything that says that.
DRJ (b2d376) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:11 pmhttps://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1778460987777237083?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:23 pmThe bottle deposit crook is so desperate to stay in office and out of a jail cell that he attacks the Iranian embassy in syria hoping to provoke a war with Iran to stay in power longer. How many more have to die to keep netanyahu out of a prison cell. I wouldn’t worry about an unwanted dinner guest when world war III could breakout! Anybody here want to see8 to 10 dollar a gallon gas so bibi doesn’t go to jail?
asset (456552) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:27 pm@64 Just in? I read about that awhile back from multiple outlets and here too.
asset (456552) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:30 pmhttps://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2024/04/12/did-you-hear-who-planted-a-bomb-at-an-alabama-republicans-office-n2637688
Look who planted the bomb.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:38 pmAsset,
perhaps you are unfamiliar with the word “testimony” or you are just pulling the standard leftist tactic claiming pertinent information is just old news.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/12/2024 @ 6:39 pmhttps://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/04/10/how_taxpayers_will_heavily_subsidize_democrat_boots_on_the_ground_this_election_1023475.html?mc_cid=824cd3fa38
Using the power of the government to entrench itself. Keep pretending the other option is worse.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/12/2024 @ 7:05 pm“CBS News locked me out of the building and seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files, including confidential source information.”
Always keep your work elsewhere too.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 8:45 pmI’ve been waiting for this shoe to fall: My local cable TV company is getting out of the Cable TV business and attempting to transition everyone to Internet + Streaming. Probably why they changed their name from CableOne to Sparklight a couple years ago (although gawds what a name!).
Your typical retired couple is facing Technogeddon.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 8:51 pmFind a 10 year old.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:17 pmI assumed reporters work product was the property of the employer, since it would be the news organization that would be legally responsible for any libel committed by the reporter, who would expect the company to defend them.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:22 pmRIP documentary filmmaker Eleanor Coppola (87), wife (for 61 years) of Francis Ford Coppola. Among other films, she directed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991), about the trials and tribulations that beset the making of Apocalypse Now. She also served as the cinematographer on two related films: A Million Feet of Film: The Editing of Apocalypse Now and Heard Any Good Movies Lately?: The Sound Design of Apocalypse Now, both from 2006.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/12/2024 @ 9:38 pmlegally responsible for any libel committed by the reporter
Like that can happen. When was the last successful libel case against the NY Times?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:24 pmFind a 10 year old.
Indeed. The cable company’s typical English-as-a-5th-language phone reps are no help and seem badly trained.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:27 pmI invite Patterico or someone else familiar with the process to correct me, but isn’t it the same jury pool? In the 30 years I’ve lived on the west side, I’ve been called for jury service downtown several times, and never to the West L.A. court house.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:27 pmHere’s a thought: If Biden really feels that the survival of Ukraine is paramount and Congress won’t act, he actually CAN send in the US Army. Don’t like it? Impeach him, or cut off funds to the US military.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/12/2024 @ 10:36 pmLibel actions don’t need to be successful to be expensive.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:01 amSource
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:18 amMore on OJ trial location:
Article published in 1995. Garcetti barely won reelection as DA in 1996, 50.1% to 49.89%.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:44 amIn the 30 years I’ve lived on the west side, I’ve been called for jury service downtown several times, and never to the West L.A. court house.
I was thinking the same, lurker, but I’m wondering if the whole jury process changed post-OJ. I have been in this area for 28 years and been called for jury duty probably seven or eight times. At least four of those calls have been in the Torrance Courthouse, the closest one to where I live, and one was to the Airport Courthouse which is probably the second-closest to me. But the last time I was called, which was probably 2018 or 19, I was surprised to be ordered to report to Downtown Los Angeles Court, and eventually I ended up being transferred to East LA Court. So I’m left wondering if at some point the rules for jury duty were changed and we’re now subjected to being sent just about anywhere in Los Angeles County.
I’ve been called to jury duty later this summer and I have thus far been once again assigned to the downtown courthouse.
JVW (b02843) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:58 am@80 Frankly, I am shocked at the suggestion that justice is heavily influenced by venue and jury selection. Shocked (!!!)
lloyd (9a53f1) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:23 am@80. Vincent Bugliosi should know, so I’m sure he’s right. In which case I’m curious how that happens in light of what I described. I live in Santa Monica and get called for downtown jury service. I assume people from downtown likewise get called to Santa Monica, but could that be wrong? Maybe it’s not symmetrical? In short, if I’m part of the downtown jury pool, how do downtown and West LA end up with demographically disparate juries?
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:40 amLibel actions don’t need to be successful to be expensive.
OK, when was the last time one went to trial against the NY Times? I would expect them to gain rapid dismissals with the magic word (“Sullivan”).
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:44 amThe 6th Amendment states that a trial should be held “in the district” where the crime is committed. This is important, Levenson said, because a crime is not just against an individual but also against the community.
Having utterly nothing to do with this case.
The courts draw the majority of jurors from their districts, jury officials say, but also draw some jurors from outside their districts, as long as they live within a 20-mile radius of the courthouse.
Nearly all of Los Angeles County is within 20 miles of downtown. Those are hard miles to drive though, so people 19 miles away find any reason they possibly can to avoid or postpone such service. Since the jury would be sequestered, hardship arguments are easier and whole classes of employed people are likely to be able to escape.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:56 amMaybe it’s not symmetrical? In short, if I’m part of the downtown jury pool, how do downtown and West LA end up with demographically disparate juries?
The simple explanation is an algorithmic preference for summoning nearby citizens as more likely to result in actual jurors. There is also the lower citizen-density near downtown to consider.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:59 am@JVW: I suppose the assignment process may have changed, but I served on two juries downtown when I lived in West LA >20 yrs ago. And as I said, for whatever reason, that’s the only court I’ve ever been called to. I found that moderately annoying since during at least one of those services I lived walking distance from the West LA court. But I chalked it up to downtown having such a greater need for warm bodies that it sucks in nearby jurors like a black hole. Maybe the satellite areas with their relatively modest need for seat warmers don’t have to reciprocate, so they limit their pool to locals. I don’t know.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:09 amYeah, I missed that the first time. I suppose it could account for much of the asymmetry.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:18 amMy experience was with downtown, too, but I also was called once to the Compton courthouse.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:24 amSarah Palin v. New York Times went to trial in 2022, which has been appealed to the Second Circuit in November 2023. As far as I can tell no decision has been made yet.
But “big media” aren’t the only targets in defamation cases. Defending a single case could bankrupt a small town newspaper.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:24 amA Chinese academic’s somewhat surprising perspective on Putin’s War Against Ukraine, particularly since it’s from a No Free Speech zone like communist China…
Personally, I think it’s premature to conclude that Ukraine has lost or Putin has won when they’re right in the middle of it, although Ukraine’s chances of losing are greater if Trump’s lapdog of a Speaker keeps stonewalling aid. Johnson was at Mar-A-Lago just a day or two ago, awaiting instructions from his Orange Master. A Chinese-centric view here…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 12:08 pmhttps://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-aims-to-quell-settler-violence-in-west-bank-after-jewish-teens-death-8070314d
This is how the Klan worked in the Old South. It’s really hard to defend this.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 12:21 pmIran has launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:35 pmI’m reading it is only drones.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:40 pmIsrael will likely shoot them all down. I doubt they will go so far as to attack the launch sites. But they should.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:42 pm@96 Don’t rain on Dearborn’s parade.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:47 pmCongress Passes Bill Allowing Surveillance On Every American Except For Those Who Bring Cocaine Into White House.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:51 pmI wonder how many in Biden’s State Department are cheering this attack by Iran. The answer isn’t zero.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:56 pmJust wait:
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 2:06 pmI doubt Iran would only slow moving, easily targeted drones as their only method of retaliation. They wouldn’t have any real effect on Israel.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 2:17 pm@99 and republicans cheer putin. The bottle deposit crook isn’t even liked by most Israelis. Your right and you better get used to it. Israel better dump netanyahu for its own good America’s demographics are changing as my side gets stronger every day. As for trump favorables with black and latinx men 25%/40% they lie a strong leader and biden sucks at leadership. A strong leader like AOC will bring them back.
asset (18ed12) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:09 pm@101 just in cruise missiles launched by Iran. Icbm next? Thank the bottle deposit crook for starting war with Iran in desperate attempt to stay in power.
asset (18ed12) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:13 pmCongress Passes Bill Allowing Surveillance On Every American Except For Those Who Bring Cocaine Into White House.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:51 pm
then
I wonder how many in Biden’s State Department are cheering this attack by Iran. The answer isn’t zero.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 1:56 pm
Cognitive dissonance.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:29 pmDemocratic left cheers.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:30 pmA fascist like AOC will bring them back.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:31 pm… or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:33 pmThat’s for treason against the United States, not Israel.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:36 pmThough some conflate loyalty to the United States and Israel as the same thing.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:40 pm@104 “Cognitive dissonance.”
Cognitive deficiency.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 3:56 pmGoing to be hard for the Obama and Biden crew to cover for Iran now.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/13/2024 @ 4:07 pmBut they will give it the old college try.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/13/2024 @ 4:09 pm@109 Yes, that’s true. But it’s much more common to conflate enmity toward the US and enmity toward Israel as the same thing.
lloyd (9fd23c) — 4/13/2024 @ 4:12 pm@69 You’re complaining that the Biden administration is using government funds to increase electoral participation by lawful voters. I understand they’re not being even handed (and they should be!) but I don’t think helping people to access a fundamental right of citizenship is an outrage.
Time123 (7d7e5f) — 4/13/2024 @ 4:53 pm@92 Paul, I think China wants a weakened Russia that is dependent on them to have taken territory and been allowed to keep it by the international community. That gives China a potentially dependent ally and a precedent that if a major power wants it badly enough they an take territory by force.
Time123 (7d7e5f) — 4/13/2024 @ 5:00 pmNo, i remember when he used the power of the state to punish Disney for political speech he didn’t like.
Also, it looks like Disney got what they wanted, a return to the previous status quo, and DeSantis got what he wanted, good publicity.
Time123 (7d7e5f) — 4/13/2024 @ 5:03 pmWhich is a shame, what DeSantis did was despicable. As would be a lefty governor doing a similar thing to a right wing group that exercised their free speech rights.
Said every 3rd world socialist utopia.
NJRob (a3a92e) — 4/13/2024 @ 5:58 pmThough some conflate loyalty to the United States and Israel as the same thing.
How would you view cheering for Iran then?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:00 pmI understand they’re not being even handed (and they should be!) but I don’t think helping people to access a fundamental right of citizenship is an outrage.
If they base that help on partisan views, then it is as much an affront as blocking speech for the same reason.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:02 pm@115: I think they want a Russia that has to sell natural resources cheaply.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:03 pmIt’s like when California put those handy ballot drop boxes in the inner city but not as many in the suburbs and hardly any in Red counties. Just being helpful.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:04 pmJVW (b02843) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:16 pm
This is already the case. They can spoof numbers with a local area code. It may not be legal One way to test out if the number is real is to try to call back
Yes. The area code of your phone number.
Although cell phones can have any area code, it usually works quite well in locating where your phone is or where your home is. If people move something usually causes them to get a local phone number, perhaps the payment plan.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:21 pmThe U.S. shot down some drones, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is consulting with the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant. The scope of the attack isn’t clear yet.
One reason Biden wants to get involved, besides natural sympathy and common enemy is that he doesn’t want a war between Israel and Iran to break out – which could involve yet more countries, and of course, another go-round in any time from a few months to a few years, could go nuclear.
This problem of Iran’s atomic bomb probably needs to be resolved now.
U.S. participation tends to guarantee that Iran will not escalate too much and enables the U.S> to influence the Israeli response.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/13/2024 @ 6:32 pmIt’s not so much spam calls — T-Mobile has an effect block — but spam texts that are on the rise.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/13/2024 @ 7:16 pmEven if just drones, the Iranians still committed an act of war on Israel. Whatever naval vessels they have in the Red Sea (which they’re using to facilitate Houthi attacks) should be sunk.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 7:57 pmMade me laugh
https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read
steveg (8408cc) — 4/13/2024 @ 7:58 pmSteve, sounds like a typical leftist description of any Republican and the way he worships Obama in it says it all.
NJRob (a3a92e) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:12 pmsteveg (8408cc) — 4/13/2024 @ 7:58 pm
Steve, thank you for that link! I laughed as well.
“Even his flaws have flaws”. 🤣
norcal (c19a27) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:12 pmthe way he worships Obama in it says it all.
NJRob (a3a92e) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:12 pm
He’s not worshipping Obama’s policies, but rather how Obama spoke and comported himself.
norcal (c19a27) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:14 pmLike with Rob not liking steve’s link, lloyd didn’t like my link to Nate White either, which I take as affirmation.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:18 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:18 pm
And your response to Lloyd was similar to what I had in mind.
norcal (c19a27) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:24 pm@130 Just trying to help you. Paul. Since your “bloodbath”, “immigrants aren’t people” and Jay in Kiev falsehoods all emanated from partisan leftist sources, you might want to take a break from that to raise your credibility above a Geraldo Rivera level.
lloyd (33c26c) — 4/13/2024 @ 8:46 pmI’m a bit more with NJRob on the Nate White quip than I am with those of you who appreciated it. I don’t care if he bashes Trump, that’s fine and dandy as far as I am concerned. But as NJRob points out, Mr. White does seem to be something of an Obama lickspittle, and the world already has far too damn many of those. And then he also takes gratuitous swipes at Nixon for allegedly not being trustworthy and George W. Bush for allegedly not being smart, so yeah, I do think Nate White is likely your standard prissy English jackoff lefty toff. He could have easily substituted Bill Clinton as not being trustworthy, and then he would be comparing Presidents 42 through 45 which would have made sense, but I’m sure a step-out-of-the-shower-to-pee type like Nate White probably thinks Bill Clinton is a pretty awesome dude.
And as to whether Donald Trump is funny or not, the answer is hell yes he is. I’ve made this point before. He’s like that super-obnoxious kid in second grade who made fart noises when the teacher had her back turned or re-christened the obnoxious principal Mr. Bonnar as Mr. Boner. You laughed, even if you didn’t really want to, and that’s my same damn reaction to Trump. He’s like if a less-manic Will Farrell were elected President. (I can’t stand Will Farrell, but I confess that I have guffawed at his buffoonery from time to time.) If you don’t believe me on this, even Rich Lowry at NRO has admitted that Trump is a funny guy even though he doesn’t care for him any more than I do.
JVW (b02843) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:36 pmDude, now you’re just making sh-t up. Talk about credibility.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:42 pmJVW, Trump has his funny moments at rallies. He has a cult following for a reason, and part of it is that he’s entertaining in front of a crowd, and content and policy don’t matter.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:49 pmAnd Nate White can humorously describe the manboy that is Trump, regardless of his politics.
And, to be fair, Trump was rather witty at his first ever debate back in 2016, when Megyn Kelly mentioned all the nasty things Trump had said about women. Trump retorted, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
That was pretty damn funny.
norcal (c19a27) — 4/13/2024 @ 9:56 pmBTW, with a little help from the US and UK, out of 331 missiles/drones the Iranians fired at Israel, only 7 got through (link). That counts as 331 acts of war by the de facto theocratic Iranian regime. They really don’t deserve a navy.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:16 pmDavid French…
Nevertheless, Ukraine has been on the receiving end of hundreds, maybe thousands, of terrorist missile attacks by Iranian-made drones, fired by Putin.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:22 pmSpeaking of David French, is anybody familiar with the Moth Radio Hour on NPR?
David’s wife Nancy told a 15-minute story about the beginning of their relationship. It’s very fun and entertaining. It’s worth a listen, I promise.
https://themoth.org/storytellers/nancy-french
norcal (c19a27) — 4/13/2024 @ 10:45 pmWell, doggies! It’s Mr. Drysdale again.
Mr. Nate White knows a lot of words, he has all the
nk (bb1548) — 4/14/2024 @ 3:35 amgoodfifth-grade vocabulary words, but he cannot hold a candle to John Astin in a Spitting, Belching & Cussin Contest.“A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.”
Maybe one can dispute Trump’s lack of wit…as tastes in humor vary, but even there it’s usually nasty and only appeals to the hopeless partisan. It’s at someone else’s expense. It’s wit that lacks charm and class. It’s based on being outrageous and over the top. It’s more “I can’t believe that he said that”. It’s never self deprecating and it frequently punches down…and below the belt. It’s rarely clever and more usually like 3rd-grader name calling. It’s challenging to differentiate when Trump is being funny and when he’s attacking. It’s why he skips the correspondents dinner. You do actually have to be clever and self deprecating at the event.
“And then he also takes gratuitous swipes at Nixon for allegedly not being trustworthy and George W. Bush for allegedly not being smart, so yeah, I do think Nate White is likely your standard prissy English jackoff lefty toff”
Nixon resigned in disgrace for facilitating a coverup. His own party told him he didn’t have the votes to survive impeachment. He was in fact a criminal who needed the pardon. Bill Clinton may have also disgraced himself but it didn’t involve the power of the office. What-abouting here seems to really miss the point.
AJ_Liberty (91acf4) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:27 amJD Vance continued his disingenuousness about Putin’s War Against Ukraine, this time on Tapper’s State of the Union. One, he said we should focus on our domestic industrial complex instead of give aid to Ukraine, but giving this aid actually increases domestic manufacturing base because our tax dollars are being spent stateside on replacing and growing our military arsenal.
Two, he said at the end of the interview that Israel is a more important ally than Ukraine, which I actually I agree with but misses the point, because it’s about Russia, not Ukraine, and Russia is a top geopolitical foe. Dealing with an expansionist land-grubbing hostile foreign power with nukes like Russia is more important than an Israel than can well defend itself, and has capably done so.
Three, Tapper referenced the National Review critique of Vance, and it’s here. His is indeed the logic of appeasement and retreat and surrender. It’s the logic of American Weakness, which other opportunistic dictator states will exploit if we falter, just like Biden’s faltering in Afghanistan emboldened an opportunistic Putin to take his shot at Ukraine, IMO.
Vance is just not honest, but he is a gifted bullsh-tter, and he’s channeling a dishonest Trump (also a gifted bullsh-tter) and his opposition to sending aid to Ukraine. We know Trump opposes it because his Supplicant Compliant Speaker opposes it.
And on that note, a happy Sunday to all.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:42 amhttps://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read
I should write something scathing about the British Prime Minister. Never mind how little I know.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:50 amhow Obama spoke and comported himself.
Obama was an arrogant stick-up-his-ass condescending elitist. Unacceptable in a different way.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:51 amStill, he didn’t put ketchup on a ribeye.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:52 amBill Clinton may have also disgraced himself but it didn’t involve the power of the office
He used the power of his office to intimidate witnesses against him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:05 amHow bad a candidate is Trump?
President Biden is holding his own despite “Direction of the Country” poll numbers being as bad as at the height of Covid. The 40-point spread may also reflect how bad a candidate Biden is, of course.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:13 amWe know Trump opposes it because his Supplicant Compliant Speaker opposes it.
Just like the Speaker opposed FISA reauthorization? And when Ukraine aid passes over MTG’s dead body, then what?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:15 amWe should also note that, before the Iranian theocratic regime launched a wave of drones and missiles at Israel, Biden gave this ineffectual warning: “Don’t”.
Well, the Iranians did, and guess what. Instead of heeding Biden’s warning, they sh@t all over it, and now Biden is telling Bibi to “take the win” and to not respond with retaliatory strikes.
“Take the win”? What win? The Iranian terrorist state took Biden’s “don’t” and mushed it in his face. This is my second link to Noah Rothman, but he’s making a lot of sense.
This is beyond Israel now, because it’s now about Biden and his rejected warning and his do-nothing approach to deter the Mullahs from further belligerence, especially when the Iranian regime has too many boats in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and too much drone manufacturing capacity for its own good.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:21 amLike I earlier said, Kevin, MAGA Mike found an “out” by cutting extension from six years to two, so that a President Trump could kill it.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:24 amIf he passes a Ukraine aid bill, I’ll say “job well done, Trump must’ve flip-flopped, for political reasons”.
And like I said about Nate White last December: “Agreeing with one commentary doesn’t connote agreement with the guy’s political affiliations or ideology.”
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:29 am“If you care about your country, read Ludwig Von Mises’ 6 lessons of the Austrian Economic School, motherf*ckers” – UFC lightweight Renato Moicano
https://twitter.com/vtchakarova/status/1779521680399860168?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
steveg (8dc96d) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:02 amWell said.
NJRob (6edbaf) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:08 amIsrael needs to decide if it wants to go to war with Iran. Iran seems to have decided through.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:14 am*though
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:15 amNot treason, since the US has not declared war against Iran. Bad taste, but cheering for Iran or chanting “Death to America (or Israel)” is protected by the First Amendment.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:27 amThe House should pass a declaration of war against Iran, and dare the Senate to stop it.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:32 amThe Iranian regime has no respect for the Biden administration. It acts with impunity against American forces and American interests. It has Biden sized up as a clueless chump. It has Biden’s senior officials sized up as a team of idiots.
He exudes all the authority of a substitute teacher.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:39 amThey’re always at war in that part of the world.
For one simple reason.
There is no point in fighting one to the end.
Win or lose, they will still be treading water in a cesspool, a miserable existence with redemption only on Judgment Day.
nk (46b4bd) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:40 amIt’s an interesting point about how Ukraine suffers the same attacks daily and doesn’t have the same air defenses. Is that on the US? Or is it on Israel which has provided NOTHING to Ukraine because they have business going with Putin?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:45 am@158 It’s not a team of idiots. It’s a team trying to keep the Al-Quds wing of the party happy, because they need Michigan. It used to be San Francisco Democrats we needed to be wary of. Seems quaint now.
lloyd (ac4f73) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:53 am“This is by far the worst and least prepared US administration in the field of foreign, security and defence policy since quite some time now. I know that Europeans don‘t like to hear it or admit it as they are in an absolute denial out of fear for a second Trump term.”
Velina Tchakarova
I agree with her that this Administration is really bad at those three things, but my real point of agreement would be that people refuse to admit it because they think speaking of Biden’s weaknesses empowers Trump.
The Emperor goes into foreign, security and defense policy meetings wearing only a bow tie and a clown nose, carrying only an ice cream cone.
Someone will no doubt mention the fiasco that is the GOP House with its slim margin that empowers the fringe, but that bent is isolationism not appeasement.
The Biden Administration provided Iran liquidity by releasing 100’s of billions to banks in Qatar. “Not a dollar has been withdrawn” is the Biden Administration company line but come on. How hard would it be to take out a loan or a credit line from the bank holding that $200B using that $200B as collateral? Borrowing cash secured by cash and the investment returns of that cash? I’m confident the Bank of Qatar and the Iranian banking system have people and means that can solve that problem.
steveg (8dc96d) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:54 amIn 2023 Bank Pasargad of Iran jumped from outside the Asian/African top 30 banking institutions by assets to number 20. According to Wikipedia, “investigative journalism by IITV revealed the bank coordinated Iranian oil smuggling corruption through helping Iranian regime via a cover committee”
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202402146835
I guess hackers got the documents.
My point is that a country and a banking system that has been circumventing sanctions for years- often with a wink and a nod from larger regional banking entities, is going to be able to figure this out, and the Qatari’s under Islamic finance rules and religious obligations have to hear the Iranians out, help them in coming up with ways to solve the $200B problem
steveg (8dc96d) — 4/14/2024 @ 11:06 amLOL! I’m sure Trump and his supporters had no idea what the chant meant.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/14/2024 @ 11:41 amLOL! I’m sure Trump and his supporters had no idea what the chant meant.
It means “Let’s Go, Brandon!”
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 12:14 pmThey’re always at war in that part of the world.
It’s all fun and games until someone uses a nuke.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 12:17 pmFrom the Business Insider article that Rip linked to:
This is how you know it’s serious. Nobody probably believes that Joe Biden has much to say about this situation that isn’t spoon-fed to him by his advisors, and there’s probably nothing he can do in the White House that he couldn’t do from his home in Delaware. But the Biden Reelection Campaign realizes how horrible the optics are of the President spending his 180th consecutive three-and-a-half day weekend in Rehoboth Beach during what is now very clearly a bona fide Mideast Crisis, so they’re making sure he’s back in the Oval Office by Sunday morning. I hope there’s decent ice cream in Washington.
JVW (b02843) — 4/14/2024 @ 3:42 pmhttps://www.foxnews.com/opinion/great-covid-cover-up-shocking-truth-about-wuhan-15-federal-agencies
They all need to go to jail for a long time.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/14/2024 @ 3:45 pmFolks, it’s a cult when 79% of Republicans believe what Trump says about Putin’s War Against Ukraine and only 33% believe what journalists in the war zone are saying. Sigh.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 4:13 pmBe fair, Paul, it’s not just a cult which encourages the disbelief, it’s also the degree to which present-day journalists have completely lost credibility. Let me remind you that it was “journalists in the war zone” who spread the nonsense about Israeli missile attacks hitting the al-Ahli Hospital back in October, when it’s now pretty obvious that it was a Palestinian misfire instead.
JVW (b02843) — 4/14/2024 @ 4:58 pmCoupla things, JVW. One, there were no journalists at al-Ahli hospital, just partisans. The problem is that mainstream media like the NYT took the word of those partisans without qualification, even published a photo of a destroyed building that wasn’t even the hospital.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 5:12 pmTwo, how is it that journalists “have completely lost credibility” yet Trump hasn’t?
Two, how is it that journalists “have completely lost credibility” yet Trump hasn’t?
Where did I try to imply that Trump hasn’t lost credibility?
And regarding the difference between journalists reporting claims of partisans vs. journalists being actually on the ground observing events themselves, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of difference. It’s sort of how many of those “journalists” in the war zone on October 7 may not have been entirely objective.
JVW (b02843) — 4/14/2024 @ 5:41 pmThe poll in the link was about Trump and war-zone journalists (among others), so my question still stands. Trump fomented an insurrection, schemed to overturn a legitimate electoral result, and lied 30,000-plus times while in office, yet there’s not a ding in his political fender from four out of five Republicans.
This is not unlike the poll that had Trump as more religious than Romney and Pence (Pence!) other Christians who actually go to church and read the Bible. It’s just confounding and vexing.
Gaza is a tough animal because mainstream journalists can’t actually go there, but that’s not the case for Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:08 pm@161The pro palestinian wing and yes a few ;but growing number give lip service to hamas say to biden you want michigan we want ceasefire. Biden/clinton wing of the party was discredited by trumps win in 2016. Thats how AOC beat crowley. Biden knows they are the future of the democrat party and he and the clintonistas are the past and are desperately trying to retain power in the party as the left sharpens their knives. Criticism from conservatives is of no concern to them.
asset (c27b39) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:47 pmNot the Ken Burns version:
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:53 pm@172 I have been pointing out that journalists have been bias since the founding of the country. This yellow journalism was excepted including col. mccormick’s paper giving away secrets during WW II because he hated FDR. Remember Truman holding up dewey defeats truman newspaper. Starting in the late 1950’s the corporate deep state pushed so called unbiased journalism to fool the public in their war against communism and the scam continues to this day. At least msDNC and fox do it openly and everyone knows talk radio is bias.
asset (c27b39) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:57 pm@175 tell their draft boards they all have bone spurs like I did!
asset (c27b39) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:59 pm@175 Isn’t it embarrassing how Trump knows more about Gettysburg than Biden knows about himself.
lloyd (8e1a6a) — 4/14/2024 @ 7:28 pmIf Trump knew anything about the Battle of Gettysburg, he wouldn’t have called it “so beautiful”. And what kind of idiot says that Robert E. Lee is “no longer in favor”, as if the Confederate took a hit in some poll.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 7:49 pmAnd I’m pretty sure Trump’s General Lee quote “never fight uphill” was pulled straight out of his arse.
This is not unlike the poll that had Trump as more religious than Romney and Pence (Pence!)
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:08 pm
As a devout Jack Mormon I take umbrage at the absence of an exclamation point after Romney. 😛
norcal (6d64b6) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:10 pmThe Battle of Gettysburg wasn’t Trump first mention of the Civil War during a 2024 campaign event this year. Talking at a rally in Iowa in January, the former president said that the war “could have been negotiated” and thus avoided.
Rip Murdock (047daf) — 4/14/2024 @ 6:53 pm
Negotiated my ass. What’s the proposal? They’ll only be slaves on even-numbered days?
norcal (6d64b6) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:13 pmI’m pretty sure that when Trump hears somebody discussing “General Lee,” he thinks they mean this.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 4/14/2024 @ 8:20 pmThe word beautiful and synonyms are used like that frequently to describe battles, war, bravery in war. In his column titled A Dreadful Masterpiece” Ernie Pyle describes the fire bombing of London”
“I shall always remember above all the other things in my life is the monstrous loveliness of that one single view of London on a holiday night”
“These things all went together to make the most hateful, most beautiful single scene I have ever known.”
Michael Kelly “The tracer rounds made lines of incandescent beauty, lovely arcing curves and slow S’s and parabolas of light..”
War photographer An-My Le on War and Aesthetics trying to answer the question Why is war so beautiful to me? answers: I think there’s always an element of something not quite understood in the sublime, something otherworldly, conflicting—something beautiful that’s not always beautiful
Reed Johnson War in all its awful beauty:
War, we all know, is hell. But war is also beautiful. It is the savage lyricism of “The Iliad,” the epic sweep and microscopic precision of a Bruegel battle scene, the solemn symmetry of a photograph, published in Life magazine in September 1943, of three soldiers lying dead on a New Guinea beach, their dark bodies pressing into the light sand.
Look again at some of the imagery spewing from America’s war with Iraq. On our TV screens, chiaroscuro clouds of smoke and sand drift to engulf palm trees, minarets, people. In newspaper pages, shafts of light from exploding missiles pierce the desert night, recalling Walter de Maria’s wondrous outdoor sculpture “The Lightning Field.” A British soldier’s reflection in a pool of leaking oil shimmers and blurs.
In the split-second it takes for the eye to absorb them, momentarily removed from their grim context, these images are ravishing, exhilarating, uncanny. Beautiful.
“War is beautiful because it combines the gunfire, the cannonades, the cease-fire, the scents, and the stench of putrefaction into a symphony. War is beautiful because it creates new architecture, like that of the big tanks, the geometrical formation flights, the smoke spirals from burning villages,” wrote Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944).
And yet the impulse to aestheticize war is as old and possibly as instinctive as the urge toward war itself. Metaphorically, it’s no accident that Beauty, in the person of Helen of Troy, was the cause of the decade-long battle between the Trojans and Greeks, a cultural touchstone of Western civilization. Centuries later, Freud mused about the symbiotic relationship between Eros, the heavenly personification of sexual love, beauty and desire, and Thanatos, the dark embodiment of the death wish.
Like the gods Mars and Venus, who were clandestine lovers in Greco-Roman mythology, war and beauty are deeply, almost pre-cognitively embedded together in the human psyche. Though reason and ethics may insist that nothing that causes death and destruction ever can be truly beautiful, the senses argue otherwise.
steveg (8dc96d) — 4/14/2024 @ 9:30 pm@183 look at the opening scenes of saving private ryan on Omaha beach see if you see any beauty there. Only after the battle is over do they talk about the scenery and even then you can’t smell the stench. Or hacksaw ridge. You don’t smwll burning flesh their.
asset (c27b39) — 4/14/2024 @ 10:55 pmNegotiated my ass. What’s the proposal? They’ll only be slaves on even-numbered days?
There was a proposal to add a pro-slavery amendment if they would stay in the Union.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 11:07 pmTrump knows Gettysburg like he knows Two Corinthians.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/14/2024 @ 11:08 pm@185 the movie lincoln explains the 13th amendment (Non trump republicans will like the movie democrats wont!)
asset (c27b39) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:44 amIf horsesh!t was an Olympic event, Trump would have fifteen gold medals.
And all the spectators would be from the Screen Extras Guild paid union rate to cheer and applaud.
nk (46b4bd) — 4/15/2024 @ 3:22 amhttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/cGb-YdCbBZ0
These are the Americans Biden is supporting.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2024 @ 5:30 amhttps://www.thefp.com/p/american-anti-war-activists-cheer?utm_source=tfptwitter
More leftists cheering for Iran and the death of American and Israel.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2024 @ 5:37 am@116
No Time… Disney did NOT get what they wanted. They lost badly on all fronts.
They lost control over the district. The board are still members hand-picked by the governor.
No other company, be it Universal/Nascar/Seaworld/AB enjoyed the largesse that was the original arraignment of Reedy Creek. Such arraignment was ALWAYS held by the good graces of Floridian.
If you knew Florida, or simply took the time to understand the history of Reedy Creek, you’d know that most Floridian hated the Reedy Creek arraignment and the not-Disney parks were disdainful as well.
Ask yourself this: Why do you think the ‘not-Disney’ parks haven’t banded together to defend Disney?
Yes, Disney trying to throw their weight around over an unrelated bill was used as a pre-text for Florida government to change that Reedy Creek arraignment, but it was always going to be something that would happen at some point. Politics is about striking when the grounds is favorable, because in a vacuum, this doesn’t happen due to the outsized lobbying influence Disney still holds.
No lefty governor would do this. Because the lefties don’t care about their constituents. They only care about staying in power, and being in good graces with a large corporation keeps the campaign dollars flowing.
And even after ALL THAT…Time…Disney’s arraignment is STILL immensely beneficial that other parks could only dream of…
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 6:55 am@169
When media stops standing in front of burning buildings and saying the equivalent of “it’s fiery, but peaceful here”…
Then, maybe they’ll be able to rebuild their credibility.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:05 am@171
Who cares about Trump? It isn’t about Trump.
This is about the media.
Ya know… the same media who gleefully lies about the Russian Collusion Hoax…
The same media who always took the Biden Administration’s stance on the lockdowns…
The same media who’s only job is to the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party™.
Unless something changes in that industry, you will still have large segments of the population who will challenge the media’s credibility all day long.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:09 am1. They didn’t ‘throw their weight around’. They published a letter and said they would support politicians they agreed with.
time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:22 am2. You have it backwards. DeSantis didn’t target speech as a pretext to execute reforms. In court he used reform as a pretext to taret speech.
3. There are countless special give aways in Florida an across the nation. The Villages has a deal similar to Disney but if you look generally at infrastructure investments and tax give aways the ‘special deals’ are endless.
Biden didn’t hold elected office or have an administration during Covid. That happened during the Trump administration. But I know what you mean.
time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:23 amWhembly, here’s a decent summary of the deal. Looks like a return to the previous status quo in terms of what Disney can and can’t do. So the governor can appoint the board and he’s appointed ppl who will ‘work with’ Disney. Disney gets to go back to making money and Republicans get to punish speech they dislike. Everyone (well, censors and a large corporation) get what they wanted.
https://apnews.com/article/disney-florida-ron-desantis-settlement-91040178ad4708939e621dd57bc5e494
time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:29 am@194
That’s… not the only thing they did time. Disney was throwing their weight around, up to engaging their army of lobbying efforts.
Yes, in court he argued it was about reform.
Floridian has ALWAYS wanted to reform that arraignment.
The pretext, though, was in light of the backlash that Disney was outright LYING about the bill that was duly passed.
That set the stage that, with obvious support by voters, to advance the reforms.
But NONE of those were the likes of Reedy Creek, whereby the company RAN the district as another city.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:37 am@196
I’m going to be patient with you, because I recognize that you’re only getting superficial information from news site.
I have deep connections (familial and work) at Florida.
Disney lost. And lost bigly, as in the Corporation doesn’t have the full control it enjoyed since it’s inception.
That doesn’t mean that the governor’s hand-pick team won’t work with Disney, ensuring that Disney still makes a bunch of money, while at the same time, this board looks out for regular Floridian.
I’ll sum it like this… the relationship can be described simply as this:
Don’t bite the hands that feeds you.
You decide whom is the “hands*” here…
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whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:41 am.
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* The answer is both.
If the goal was reform DeSantis failed as evidenced by the recent changes on the board makeup. Disney pauses their lawsuit and the board goes back to letting them do what they wan.
If the goal was punishing speech (which it was) he was successful as he demonstrate that the state of FL will punish you for speech they don’t like if you say something DeSantis doesn’t like or advocate against policies he likes the state will punish you.
Time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:43 amWhat I think is that the real estate developers and builders that DeSantis had planned to sell Reedy Creek to after he had driven off Disney told him that the value of the land derived from Mickey and Cinderella and not sedge and ringworm, that’s what I think. But it did get Bridget Ziegler one more plum job.
nk (bb1548) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:47 amHere’s a good explainer on how there are lots of special districts in FL. All of them are different and Walt did a great job negotiating his back in the 60’s.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2022/05/24/florida-special-tax-districts-like-disneys-reedy-creek-explained/
Time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:50 amYou’re describing the patronage system here, not a constitutional democracy. If I have the right to speak I have the right to say things the governor doesn’t like or doesn’t agree with without fear of reprisal.
I favor having that right. YMMV.
Time123 (6259ea) — 4/15/2024 @ 7:52 am@202
I get, this ordeal is distasteful for some free speech advocates.
But I really don’t believe its easy to point to “here” this is a government infringing on free speech.
I think Disney would be on much stronger grounds, if the Florida government took away the arraignment that the end result was subpar to what other public-private arrangements get normally.
That’s why I’m saying that this ordeal was simply a pre-text to for Florida government to do what Floridan wanted for years.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:04 amThis explains a lot
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:08 am1. They didn’t ‘throw their weight around’. They published a letter and said they would support politicians they agreed with.
They attempted to sanction a state legislature.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:10 amI’m still of belief that Biden is going to win, so long as he continues his “basement strategy” of 2020.
However, if he does loses, it’s going to be primary because of the economy, or specifically inflation:
https://tippinsights.com/bidenflation-soars-to-18-8-squeezing-americans/
Lots of good charts…take a gander.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:14 amhttps://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2024/04/15/biden-expands-temporary-amnesty-to-12-million-illegal-aliens-n3786521
Biden continues to act like he’s a king. He needs to be gone ASAP
NJRob (628f29) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:28 amChange the law that allows Presidents to provide temporary amnesty to immigrants. Problem solved.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:57 amChange the law that allows Presidents to provide temporary amnesty to immigrants.
It’s not temporary.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 10:29 amThey come with experation dates and get extended.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 10:54 amRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/15/2024 @ 8:57 am
It only creates other problems. For instace with refugees from Afghanistan in 2021.
The fact is, either you have confidence in a president or you don’t. You could maybe authorize a special fixed term commission. But the restrictionists don’t want any exceptions.
Meanwhile, how come it is all right with them for a president to grant an unlimited number visitor’s visas and waive it altogether for many countries? With the only condition being they are not allowed to work and their country has a track record of people not staying over – but all that is decided by the president.
And all of this is not a problem unless your objective is to limit the number of people in the United States or you set up welfare incorrectly.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 10:55 am178. lloyd (8e1a6a) — 4/14/2024 @ 7:28 pm
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:06 am168.
But they didn’t get it!
And what they were actually trying to do was get paid double for the same thing: by the Chinese military and by foreign organizations.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:12 amSammy. way to miss the point.
The point is they knew this research was taking place and deliberately lied amd said it was natural to cover up what was taking place.
They were doing illegal experiments that killed millions and then tried to cover up and lie about it.
NJRob (28a0af) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:27 am54.
There are reasons for them. I mean, the jury did deliberately postpone the announccement of the verdict,and asked for reading of some testimony that would be an argument for conviction.
The only reason I thought for that is that some juror got a not guilty verdict too soon, and there wouldn’t be time for some family member to place a bet on the outcome. Maybe the delay could have ben in order to avoid suspicion, but asking for the limo driver’s testimony would have been to increase the payout on the bet.
Now I thought at the time (because OJ made some statement in front of the jury – I don’t remember how he managed to do so – that he had confidence in the jury) that OJ’s thought the jury was being tampered with.
But I thought that OJs lawyers were lying to him when they were telling him telling him they had tampered with the jury. (because, for one thing, they didn’t want to get taken off the case)
After the verdict, I though, no, they were telling him the truth.
I think I mostly just didn’t want to believe that they could successfully tamper with the jury.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/12/2024 @ 4:20 pm
I’m probably not capable of writing it.
Although I could work with somebody else, maybe.
Years ago, someone wanted to know (not seriously) if I had written Twin Peaks.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:31 amI remember that the next time I heard the Rush Limbaugh show after the OJ verdict he played the song (or part of this song):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZY9P4O4cQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaXdkGArom0
I’m not sure that my links are that exact version of the song.
I remember hearing the refrain: Mack the Knife is Back in Town
That was the first time I heard that song, which I learned was an old song.
I was thinking that that was the day after the verdict, but that is impossible, because the next day was Yom Kippur.
Rush knew a lot of popular music. That was before he went deaf.
I don’t know how well he could hear 21st century music with his cochlear implant think he was deliberately poisoned (the story is consistent) but that didn’t knock him off the air. At first he hired Diane(?) a stenographer, and that the origin of him putting transcripts of what he broadcast on the Internet.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:48 amNJRob (28a0af) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:27 am
If they were asked to fund it, and they didn’t, they could reasonably believe that because they fund it, it didn’t get done.
Once the disease broke out in Wuhan, with no bats anywhere near, it should have been obvious what was the most likely explanation.
They did the research anyway. And they didn’t need foreign money.
Maybe only illegal (to fund it) under U.S. law. But very unwise.
It was a mad scientist, Dr. Ralph Baric, of the University of North Carolina, who seems to have first interested the Chinese in doing this.
Sammy FInkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:55 amThe Bobby Darin version you linked is as good as any in English, unless you prefer Louis Armstrong.
If you must have the original from “The Threepenny Opera” here is the movie version.
If you want the originaler-original here is the version recorded by Kurt Weil’s wife, chosen purposely for her bad singing in line with the decadent theme of the play, and who later played the KGB agent with the switchblade shoe (yes, shoe) in “From Russia With Love).
nk (bb1548) — 4/15/2024 @ 12:15 pmWhat should be done about Iran now:
I don’t know if anyone will – but Joe Biden is right about avoiding a retaliation, which will amount to nothing. The threat is stronger than the execution.
But they should shoot for a full victory.
Iran is scared and the way the attack took place also shows that many in the government are scared.
So Iran should be told that nothing further will happen provided the war in Gaza ends to Israel’s satisfaction: That is, at a minimum, the return of all the hostages and Hamas giving up power and being replaced by some regime satisfactory to Israel. Maybe some of the perpetrators can be protected for a moment, but they should really go to Hague. No pretending to believe that they can’t direct the actions of Hamas and more.
This would not just be to make a point but would be the most important factor in determining whether anything more is necessary.
In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini ended the Iran-Iraq war, and it stayed ended even past the wars of 1991 and even since. Khomeini compared it at the time to swallowing poison.
Well, it is time for the Supreme Leader of Iran to swallow poison again. And the United States should use those exact words. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And Iran should be given a very short timeframe – something like “The United States is confident it can restrain Israel at least until next Sunday or Monday.”
Maybe the Ayatollah will swallow poison.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 12:26 pm#207 “Biden continues to act like he’s a king. He needs to be gone ASAP”
You may want to modify that last statement, to avoid getting our host in legal trouble.
Jim Miller (dfe272) — 4/15/2024 @ 12:28 pmAnyone have concern over the leaks that Biden knew about and consented to the attack on our ally Israel as long as the attack didn’t exceed certain limits?
NJRob (28a0af) — 4/15/2024 @ 12:43 pmJim,
there’s nothing in there that’s a threat. And it’s disingenuous of you to pretend there is.
NJRob (28a0af) — 4/15/2024 @ 12:47 pm@221
I mean, Biden gave the green light that “some” Jews dying is okay.
Or, if we want to be fair, it’s his administration who’s running the Whitehouse is saying some Jewish death is okay.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:03 pm@223 That’s what you voted for Biden voters.
You voted for this.
whembly (86df54) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:03 pmNJ Rob
I take your point and have some agreement, but it was still well written and made me laugh even while I was thinking “ouch”. Its OK to laugh about Trump, Biden, and even at them. Sometimes they say laughable things, behave laughably.
Compare that piece to the things Steven Colbert said about Bush at the WH Press event- Colbert never brought the funny, it was just mean.
Brits wear those ridiculous wigs and have some people in the House of Lords and House of Commons that make MTG look sane and Tlaib look moderate, so there is plenty of funny to be had at their expense too, but right now we’ve been gifted with a top echelon of a jackass x windbag x ______ and mental patient x ventriloquist dummy and all we can do is laugh because one of them will win
steveg (216e5b) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:09 pmWhen the respective descendants of Jacob and Esau (or is it Isaac and Ishmael?) lob boom-booms at each other, somebody is bound to get hurt.
And I’ll tell you something else, too, comrades. At least the Iranians sent their infernal devices to their enemies’ territory. Not to their neighbors’.
Why isn’t anybody asking what the people of Syria and Lebanon did to deserve having their homes become battlefields?
nk (bb1548) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:19 pm#218
I don’t much care for how the lyrics translate into English. The original movie version has the menace this song needs, and Louis and Bobby don’t.
Appalled (3914de) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:31 pmBiden tells the bottle deposit crook if you attack Iran to keep you from losing the election and going to prison for corruption your on your own. We will see what “tough guy” netanyahu does.
asset (41cce7) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:44 pmBiden tells Iran to show restraint in retaliation for embassy attack which is an act of war. Only complaints about biden and none about Israel’s act of war provoking it.
asset (41cce7) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:56 pmHe did the same thing with Ukraine when Russia invaded it on February 2022. Of course he didn’t really give consent, and he tried to have Iran avoid killing any Israelis (anybody on whom the shrapnel fell outside of Israel was OK) although that was mostly so he could avoid escalation. (A piece of a damaged drone or missile badly hurt a 7-year old Bedouin girl in Israel/Most of the 300 or so drones, missiles etc got nowhere near their target intact except a few that hit an Israeli air force base in southern Israel, without hurting any people. Some were shot down by the USA, US and Israeli planes were involved and he British and Jordan helped track the projectiles. Turkey and Jordan closed their air space. The USA knew almost exactly when it was coming. Some Iranian military may have warned the US in order to protect themselves.
This president is very afraid of starting what could become a nuclear war and he has few other thoughts in his mind when it comes to war. He just “muddles through”, otherwise.
We have the same truce terms Trump initiated (stumbled into) and that was done again this February: So long as no Americans get killed, whether they tried to or not – that is an incentive to the Iranian military to fail – he will not respond militarily.
Now he wants Israel to do the same.
As I indicated, what he should do is say that nothing further will happen provided the war in Gaza ends to Israel’s satisfaction: That is, at a minimum, the return of all the hostages and Hamas giving up power and being replaced by some regime satisfactory to Israel. No
pretending to believe that they can’t direct the actions of Hamas and more.
And he should say:
“The United States is confident it can restrain Israel at least until
next Sunday or Monday.”
With words just like that.
Also:
“In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini ended the Iran-Iraq war, and it stayed ended even past the wars of 1991 and even since. Khomeini compared it at the time to swallowing poison.
Well, it is time for the Supreme Leader of Iran to swallow poison again.”
There would be no point in understating things. Nothing will be lost ls by making this promise to prevent anything for the next few days..
And this is a logical determinant of whether to do anything more militarily or not.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 2:14 pmThere is a good story over on ace ( I would link if I was computer able enough) about npr by uri berliner how npr degenerated from liberal ;but fair to out and out democrat propagandist against trump. It helps explain the media bias of the liberal parts of the media. Ace of course doesn’t mention conservative media bias because that’s their side. I scan both sides attacks on the other to get at the dialectical truth.
asset (41cce7) — 4/15/2024 @ 2:25 pmasset (41cce7) — 4/15/2024 @ 1:56 pm
That wasn’t the start f the war with Israel. The Iranian generals were actively engaged in planning the next diplomatic and military steps in the war.
And they told their mid ranking people- and it was reported so in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal- that the October 7 attacks were planned by Iran.
What Iran did now is, in the words of the main Wall Street Journal editorial today
“Truth in advertising at last.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted that.
Now it is time for him to emulate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and end this war (or “swallow poison”)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 2:27 pmMaybe this:
https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/15/2024 @ 2:30 pmOuch!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/15/2024 @ 3:13 pmhttps://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/13/twilight-of-patriotism-is-prescription-for-nationa/
Leftism is cultural suicide.
If you vote for it, you are voting for the death of our nation and our heritage.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2024 @ 4:31 pmI think it’s darling the way the MSM treats the WNBA draft as “breaking news”
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 4:44 pmThe share price of Trump Media closed trading down more than 18% on Monday
As I predicted. It’s all fun and games until it’s YOUR money.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 4:45 pmFiled my taxes. Zero to the state, zero to the feds. First time ever.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 4:50 pmhttps://sentinelksmo.org/kansas-gov-laura-kelly-vetoes-bill-to-ban-gender-affirming-care-for-minors/
Any Democrat, even the so called moderate ones, are extreme when it comes to the leftist agenda. That is what you are voting for.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/15/2024 @ 5:18 pmIf the first pick was someone other than Caitlin Clark, no one would care.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/15/2024 @ 5:22 pmClark is really an outlier in the WNBA, which is why she is news.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/15/2024 @ 5:39 pmClark is really an outlier in the WNBA, which is why she is news.
Where do you think she’d be drafted in the NBA draft?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/15/2024 @ 6:30 pm@235 What has concord bridge battle field have to do with stealing native american lands and wiping them out to almost extinction?
asset (c473b4) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:49 pm@242 This is why I like auto racing women compete against men. Hailie Deegan ran against men in the nascar race in texas this weekend.
asset (c473b4) — 4/15/2024 @ 11:54 pmI’m not really a fan of women’s basketball, but one has to be stuck in a hole to not appreciate what Caitlin Clark has done over the last couple of years and understand its import.
First you just have to look at the numbers. It was the first time ever that the ratings numbers for the women’s championship game beat the men’s. You can extend that to butts in seats as Clark chased the scoring record for all of NCAA basketball. You’re looking at the most prolific scorer ever. Yes her competition isn’t NBA quality but making a 3-pointer 5 feet beyond the arc is a skill that doesn’t require testicles…. and it’s objective.
Clark also carried an Iowa team to the finals two years in a row. This isn’t a team stacked with other future wnba players. These are players made better by Clark. She’s a class act too, praising those that came before her while relentlessly promoting the sport. This will only help the profitability of the wnba….and those that envy her attention.
Caitlin Clark is a generational talent. She is Larry Bird or Magic Johnson entering the NBA. That’s why she went #1…and that’s why it’s breaking news.
AJ_Liberty (6312d0) — 4/16/2024 @ 2:48 amWay to miss the point, Kevin.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/16/2024 @ 12:55 pmRIP former Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog (92) and Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine (97), the last surviving member of the “Boys of Summer.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/16/2024 @ 2:15 pmZelensky wants the US to pay the same attention to missile attacks on Ukraine as we do to Israel. He’s not wrong. Defending someone against missiles from another country should be a no-brainer, even if the launching country is a nuclear power.
Let Russia worry about killing Americans in Ukraine.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/16/2024 @ 4:35 pmWe should be more concerned about another world war than we are.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/americans-are-still-not-worried-enough
This article makes the case that WWII didn’t start in 1939 or 1941.
norcal (fdba28) — 4/16/2024 @ 4:58 pmPerhaps, but acting in fear of such a war is most likely to cause it. I can see Trump coming back from a meeting with Putin and declaring peace in our time. Problem is, I can see Biden doing it too.
Where are our Flying Tigers?
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/16/2024 @ 5:13 pmMore heckler’s veto:
USC valedictorian’s grad speech is canceled
She is Muslim and her politics are pro-Palestinian.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/16/2024 @ 11:09 pmRIP former three-term US Senator and two-term Florida governor Bob Graham (87).
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/16/2024 @ 11:26 pm“We should be more concerned about another world war than we are.”
The greatest fear of authoritarian regimes like China or Russia is liberalization. I believe that Putin is in Ukraine because he feared that it was leaning West….would enter the EU…and finally NATO. Russians would see the prosperity of the West at their footstep (notwithstanding Tucker’s amazement with Moscow shopping cart technology).
The same sort of holds with China/Taiwan, though it’s not clear to me what China “wins” by initiating a world war….one that inevitably will be triggered by a Taiwan invasion. Invading Taiwan will be costly. Would chip fabs still exist afterwards? Will its democratic population ever submit? Will the world continue to trade with China? How will that work with its 1.4B population? Saber-rattling has a certain nationalist appeal, but a world war will bring misery to all.
And then there’s Mutually Assured Destruction. No one knows what turns war brings and there’s always the temptation to use nuclear means to wrestle back advantage…and to initiate the awful spiral of what follows. Stepping through the war game typically wrenches back sanity.
We will clearly see when China starts preparing for an invasion of Taiwan. It will be a massive endeavor that will have clear signs throughout the country. Obviously we should continue to nurture our alliances and use them to press China to moderation. Team Biden is doing this; the continued awfulness of team Trump is that it’s just unknowable what direction Trump leans and where his mood might take us.
I also look at Ukraine and wonder how much further can Putin realistically extend his reach beyond Ukraine. He can’t really attack Baltic countries without unleashing NATO’s superior conventional forces. If anything Ukraine has shown is that Russia’s conventional forces are sub-par. Does he start lobbing nukes? How does that end? Does China benefit from teaming with Putin? What is left to rule afterwards?
We should always be prepared for war and make the price of warmaking unacceptably high. We should also create alliances and economic conditions that make war unattractive. We need to lesson our dependency on China, especially with key technologies. These are serious activities. Trump is not a serious leader and may not put serious people around him. We can’t afford reality gameshow hosts riffing and ad-libbing about geopolitical chess. Imagine applying the recent word salad about Gettysburg to Taiwan….
AJ_Liberty (6a135f) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:06 amRegarding the USC valedictorian, I agree with Ms. Ham…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:27 amThe USC valedictorian is more important to us, total strangers, than she is to USC. Especially since she is graduating and they will no longer be getting her Benjamins. She used up her essential value.
She is an unwelcome object. And object is the word. A disarrangement in the graduation ceremony decorations, a wrinkle in the administrators’ honorary gowns. Not a young person starting out in life with feelings and aspirations, with pride in her achievements, with affection (now revealed to have been misplaced) for her alma mater.
That is how those pigs in the academic trough think. The students are just the bucket that slops them their swill. Nothing more.
Present company excepted, as always.
nk (d994f3) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:58 amMake that “…*rooting* in the academic trough…”.
nk (d994f3) — 4/17/2024 @ 5:00 amMeanwhile, Biden continues to promote his 25% minimum tax on billionaires (25% of increased paper wealth, not income). That such a plan would drive wealth offshore and set us up for a new Depression doesn’t matter to him. He’ll be dead before that happens. And I don’t buy the “just on billionaires” shtick since the proposal already applies to non-billionaires.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 7:52 amYou can make a political point out of this if you like. To me it’s just an interesting story.
(According to the story, she was spooked by a car backfiring, while she was being washed.)
Jim Miller (76b392) — 4/17/2024 @ 8:17 amFWIW there is an impeachment going on right now:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?534981-1/senate-session&live=
Schumer is trying to stop it before it even starts:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GjjAmQvysec
Kennedy right now is trying to restore normalcy to the process, but it looks like a procedural trick will win the day and end the impeachment.
Apparently this is the government people want.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 11:56 amKennedy’s motion failed. Schumer looks like he will pull this off.
Mitch McConnell is aghast. He cannot believe the Constitution and their oaths have been trashed.
Now begging for relief to table this mess.
There is no reason to believe this will work. Mayorkas will be off the hook in moments at this rate.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:04 pmSchumer’s claim is that Article 1 of the impeachment does not rise to a high crime and/or misdemeanor so the impeachment is not Constitutional. Schumer wants no debate on his claim either in public or behind closed doors.
Straight up party line votes to stop this in its track without debate on the validity of Schumer’s claim.
Article 1 vote results coming up
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:16 pmAs near as I can tell Article 1 has been rejected through Schumer’s point of order.
On to Article 2. Schumer has made another point of order to dismiss it for the same reason as Article 1
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:23 pmDumbest impeachment ever. It deserves to have Schumer & Co. lift their legs and pee on it.
Patterico (73db81) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:28 pmRepublicans are going down the same path of trying to stop this motion with the same set of motions that failed to preserve Article 1.
(I have to admit that the way Patty Murray announced the final vote on Article 1, I am only assuming that it is dead. But I am pretty sure.)
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:28 pmWhat would make an impeachment of mayorkas palatable? What would he have needed to do?
I haven’t read or kept up on this topic. I am really fascinated procedural dance to avoid debate.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:32 pmA Republican Senator has a parliamentary inquiry. He wants to know if the Senate is really going down the path of not debating felony accusations. Patty Murray said that isn’t an allowed inquiry.
Sen Kennedy asks if “lying to Congress is not a high crime and misdemeanor?” Patty Murray asks him to make an appropriate motion.
He does and now we have another vote that will go down in flames.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:37 pmI think this is the current articles of impeachment:
https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Articles-of-Impeachment.pdf
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:38 pmThere are quite a few laws the House alleges he broke. Seems debate worthy on its surface.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:43 pmLooks like most of the Republican Senators are going to present the same type of motion to delay the hearing to a different date. The motions are distinct only in them having different dates and times.
There is no reason to expect any of these to work.
I am going to do something else now.
Whether or not Mayorkas was rightly or wrongly accused, I am not too pleased with how the Dems are handling their obligations. It deserved the debate, IMO, and the only result I see out of this is another irreversible carving of The Constitution.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:53 pmWhat goes around…
That was the 2nd impeachment, where 45 GOPers voted to dismiss Trump’s attempted coup without a trial. Because impeachment is a political process, not the legal kind, they can pretty much do what they damn well please.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 4/17/2024 @ 12:59 pmhttps://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/863/text
I don’t see any citation to a criminal statute he violated.
nk (304d76) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:00 pmTit for tat, Paul? That is what you like?
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:02 pmIs there an Aiding and Abetting A Criminal Invasion of the United State of America law?
nk (304d76) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:03 pmI worded that poorly, nk. The House alleged that he willfully failed to enforce the law as obligated. Not that he broke the list of laws they outlined.
Thanks.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:06 pmI’m just noting the hypocrisy of several Republican Senators. But my feelings about it are irrelevant.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:10 pmA Republican Senator asks a Parliamentary Inquiry. He asked Senate pro tem Patty Murray if this action succeeds today will it have a precedent effect on all future impeachments including those for Presidents.
She said it would indeed be the new precedent.
Earlier there was an inquiry as to whether this has happened before to create a precedent and she said that it had not.
Paul’s note of the 2021 attempt suggests that the earlier question must have been as to whether this kind of point-of-order has ever been successful.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:14 pmDo you think it is a good idea to stuff debate on an impeachment inquiry, Paul? Or do you think the process should play out through their political trial?
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:16 pmArticle 2 fails. Schumer is calling to adjourn the impeachment hearing altogether.
The world never gets to see the administration and the dem party defend Mayorkas and his actions.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:18 pmI never agreed with the suggestion that high crimes and misdemeanors are anything Congress says they are. I don’t know if the post-Civil War Tenure In Office Act provided for criminal penalties but Johnson was acquitted anyway.
The “good behavior” standard for judicial impeachments is a different thing. As I recall (it’s been a while 😉 ) the first judge to be impeached was for drunkenness and coarse language.
nk (304d76) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:21 pmThe ultimate fate of Biden’s impeachment-if it ever happens.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:23 pmI’m sure the world doesn’t care.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:25 pmI haven’t been in favor of any impeachment trials since Bill Clinton (Porteous excepted).
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:27 pmImpeachment is over!
That was easy.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:27 pmnk, Article 2 pretty much starts with:
Although they don’t say which specific statute he violated, I am assuming that this claim is based on an actual crime. Would that have come out during debate?
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:31 pmBuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:06 pm
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:36 pmReally?
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:36 pmMike Lee is up now and whining like a baby. You lost, bro.
The die is cast.
Later.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:40 pmI looked for a catch-all federal official misconduct law that would encompass malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and I could not find one.
They are all pretty narrow addressing specific acts of misconduct. The broadest I saw involved violations of individual rights under color of law by federal employees.
nk (304d76) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:55 pmYes, really.
Trump wasn’t even impeached for that call, let alone had an impeachment trial for it. But if Fani can keep it in her pants, maybe she can convict Trump on his “perfect” conversation with Raffensperger.
But nice try, playing “gotcha”. I guess that’s what trolls do.
BTW, I did nail it. Trump did indeed say that his call with Raffensperger was “perfect”, more than once.
Paul Montagu (383f45) — 4/17/2024 @ 1:58 pmArizona republican legislators again kill repeal of 1864 law almost completely banning abortion. Democrat party pretends to be upset as they get ready for november election with abortion on the ballot. Republicans running for office run for cover told to not mention abortion and change the subject to transgenders and illegal aliens if it comes up.
asset (cb6ed7) — 4/17/2024 @ 2:17 pmBuDuh,
partisans gonna partisan. And those on the left lie repeatedly.
NJRob (73bb22) — 4/17/2024 @ 2:29 pmThe Wall Street Journal had a front page story today (blow the fold) entitled in the print edition:
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-leaders-rivalry-iran-netanyahu-gallant-gantz-667aed13
They are divided on everything.
What this collects together is reports that say that asset is absolutely wrong about Netanyahu waning more war than the others. (Netanyahu’s far-right allies, in a party he created, are for more – their whole philosophy more or less is Jews have power and should use it – but they’ve been kept out of the war cabinet and as Netanyahu said: “They joined me, I didn’t join them”)
Excerpts:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/17/2024 @ 2:44 pmAnnexation.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:01 pmActually, the WSJ article only says that Gallant, the Defense Minister is more hawkish – it doesn’t rank Gantz.
More:
Gallant won’t shake hands with Gantz over a dirty trick that one or the other might have played to prevent Gallant from becoming Chief of Staff of the IDF in 2010. Gallant lost the chance after he was acxused of being behind a smear of Gantz.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:07 pmAJ_Liberty (6a135f) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:06 am
Thank you for your thoughts on this issue. You are quite reasonable.
I guess I won’t become a prepper anytime soon. 😊
norcal (ab13fb) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:21 pmI love this quote from Catoggio’s article today:
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/boilingfrogs/missing-souljah/
norcal (ab13fb) — 4/17/2024 @ 6:19 pmAnnexation.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 4:01 pm
“Pave Gaza Strip, put up a parking lot.” – Joni Mitchell (paraphrased) 🙂
qdpsteve again (fa8408) — 4/17/2024 @ 6:25 pmAnnexation.
With around 7.2 million Jews in both Israel proper and the West Bank, and with maybe 2.6 million non-Jews already in Israel, what happens to the Jewish Nation-State when you “annex” another 3 million Palestinians from the West Bank and another 2 million from Gaza? Or, better question, what does the Jewish Nation-State do to remain a Jewish Nation State in that little patch of land less than one-fifth the size of Arizona?
Keyboard Garibaldis. Oy vey!
nk (55484e) — 4/17/2024 @ 6:45 pmI didn’t say they would become Israeli citizens.
Rip Murdock (8e7ea7) — 4/17/2024 @ 7:27 pmIsrael should annex Gaza and treat it as a province that is separate from Israel proper; and develop Gaza into a series of world class beach resorts. The construction alone of hotels, golf courses, and related facilities (as well as new housing) would employ hundreds of thousands of Gazans, and thousands more would work in the resorts and in ancillary businesses. The resorts would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Gaza and give the populace a stake in Gaza’s future.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 7:44 pmIsrael should annex Gaza and treat it as a province that is separate from Israel proper; and develop Gaza into a series of world class beach resorts.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/17/2024 @ 7:44 pm
I fear there will always be a not insignificant amount of Gazans who will resent the occupation, and commit terroristic acts in furtherance of their cause, thus scaring people away from visiting those resorts.
I know I wouldn’t go.
norcal (ab13fb) — 4/17/2024 @ 7:49 pm300. That’s called apartheid. And that’s the nicest word for it.
nk (55484e) — 4/17/2024 @ 8:13 pmRip, I know just the guy for that project! His initials are DJT.
qdpsteve again (fa8408) — 4/17/2024 @ 8:41 pmUnfortunately he’s a little busy with some stuff right now… 😛
But seriously folks, it wouldn’t surprise me if this old thing gets dusted off for Gaza, once it’s entirely razed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan
qdpsteve again (fa8408) — 4/17/2024 @ 8:44 pmHe does and now we have another vote that will go down in flames.
Essentially they used the Nuclear Option to kill this. Yet another nail in the heart of comity.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:02 pmI don’t see any citation to a criminal statute he violated.
So what? That NOT what “misdemeanor” means. I meant “bad behavior” to the Founders. Trump, for example, is guilty of a lot of that.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:04 pm*It meant bad behavior. They didn’t know about me.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:04 pmAlthough they don’t say which specific statute he violated
Only in Schumer’s world do they have to. GD lawyers.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:06 pmSee here, for example:
https://lawliberty.org/the-original-meaning-of-high-crimes-and-misdemeanors-part-1/
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:08 pmIt might take a while for Palestinians to get the hang of the hospitality business.
steveg (c5e615) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:09 pmsteveg:
qdpsteve again (fa8408) — 4/17/2024 @ 9:15 pm“Coffee, tea or TNT?”
BuDuh and NJRob, standing around clucking their tongues at people being partisan. If they hate anything, it’s that damn partisanship.
Patterico (73db81) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:24 pm@291 NJ Robb please inform me what lie you think I told?
asset (31f60e) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:26 pm@292 I have said netanyahu will do anything to stay in power and out of prison. If prolonging the war in gaza keeps him out of a prison cell he will do that if it wont he will do that. What ever benefits netanyahu is what he will do. The likud coalition doesn’t trust him either ;but like we are stuck with joe they are stuck with the bottle deposit crook.
asset (31f60e) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:34 pmFor a brief while there, NJRob was somewhat reasonable, in that he supported DeSantis over Trump. Now it’s “all aboard” the Trump train.
The only commenters who are interesting are those who can call balls and strikes on both sides.
Anybody can read from one tribe’s script.
norcal (9eb68e) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:37 pmAnnex gaza! Really? Israel has killed less then 2% of the palestinians who live their 98% to go! The only workable solution I have said many times buy/force egypt to take it over and have their soldiers control whats left after Israel gets through. I challenge any of you to come up with a more workable solution not this silly stuff!
asset (31f60e) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:44 pm@315 One of the batters is crazy and the other is senile and both are corrupt and the umpire can only throw one out of the game.
asset (31f60e) — 4/17/2024 @ 10:47 pmHmmm.
The article doesn’t specifically mention who the ChiComs were lobbying, but a certain ex-president did flip-flop on the subject of TikTok.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/17/2024 @ 11:37 pmIs Speaker Johnson ending the stonewalling? Seems like it. Did Trump give him prior approval?
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/18/2024 @ 12:12 amAnd the ratification debates uniformly reflect that same broad understanding.
If the broad is Marjorie Taylor-Greene.
Even by 1789, the Federalist Society view was two centuries out of date. Village juries making up the common law as they tried a case had been supplanted by statute and precedent during the reign of Henry VIII.
There were still “common law” crimes but they differed from our current scheme only in that the statute was not required to list every element of the offense. The elements could be based on stare decisis and reflected in the judge’s instructions to the jury.
And if we want to be snarky about it, the Federalist Society view did actually prevail in this case. The “village jury” decided as a matter of law that what Mayorkas was accused of was not in the neighborhood of treason or bribery or any other high crime or misdemeanors for which Mayorkas could be criminally prosecuted not withstanding that he was already impeached (that’s in the Impeachment Clause too and also provides further context which cannot be ignored in construing it).
nk (629463) — 4/18/2024 @ 5:29 amOther than Kevin,
show me the NeverTrumper who has been remotely objective when it comes to Trump and the 80 million who will vote for him.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/18/2024 @ 5:45 amNobody is completely objective, but that doesn’t preclude calling balls and strikes, regardless of who’s at bat.
Paul Montagu (be3bb7) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:14 amIf I only knew what “remotely objective” means.
Show me any person who remains impersonal when they see a dog which is snarling and frothing at the mouth staggering up their driveway.
nk (629463) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:39 amWhat did I say here that warranted this specific personal attack? NJRob directs a comment towards me and I now represent what he said?
I wasn’t happy about how the impeachment inquiry was quashed, and I thought I expressed that in a fair and open way. When did I “cluck” about partisanship?
Is there a comment in the past that I need to address? I’ve made peace with DRJ and backed off my more aggressive posture. I’ve had more cordial conversations with nk. Others here seem to either take or leave my comments. Paul and Rip and I will always be in the oil/vinegar category because you just can’t get along with everyone in life and I have placed them as people I would never want to have anything to do with in real life due to how I perceive their debate style.
Maybe I did enough around here to have put myself in a similar category with you, Pat. I am pretty sure I have apologized for the lines I have crossed, but that might not be enough.
I do not understand how my live comments of the impeachment warranted the arrow I just took, and maybe it really is that I am universally a bad fit for this blog.
I am out of ways to adjust who I am and how I communicate, so I will try to end commenting here again. (I am not very good at that as I do enjoy the blog)
Thanks again for having this place. Take care.
BuDuh (d3070f) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:50 amNo it’s not-it’s called building a future that’s not depending on terrorism. Once Gazans demonstrate they can have a future state that’s economically viable and can handle the responsibilities of a civilized community, Israel could let be free (though it might take a couple of generations).
So far the only industry in Gaza is terrorism.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 11:08 amSpeaking of silly stuff, why would anyone in their right mind in Egypt want to take the Gazans back? Gaza is a terrorist state. It’s time for out of box thinking.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 11:15 amRIP Allman Brothers Band guitarist, singer, and songwriter Dickey Betts (80):
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 12:12 pmSpeaking of silly stuff, why would anyone in their right mind in Egypt want to take the Gazans back? Gaza is a terrorist state. It’s time for out of box thinking.
Indeed. Which is why I say that the Saudis should take over and do one of their megaproject things.
Please ignore what happens to the terrorists in the back room.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 12:20 pmIran Threatens to Work on Nuclear Arms if Israel Attacks Nuclear Sites
Were Iran to begin to build nuclear weapons, Israel would stop them by any means necessary.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 12:22 pmOne thing is almost clear. If this isn’t resolved, the next go round will be nuclear – and that’s not the end of it.
One mistake everybody is making is thinking the war is or could be between Israel and Iran (with other countries, like Russia, joining in.
The war between Israel and Iran includes the war in Gaza. It can’t e resolved without the agreement of Iran.(even if Israel occupied Rafah, Iran might be able to get Hezbollah to continue the war, and the war in the Red Sea isn’t over – or Iran could continue it itself with direct attacks on Israel. And there’s starting terrorism in the West Bank – which the attack on the compound in Damascus interfered with.)
Someone should say: It s time for the Ayatollah to emulate Khomeini an drink poison (end all of Iran’s proxy wars)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2024 @ 2:24 pmIs my somewhat lengthy comment somewhere in moderation?
Paul Montagu (1e8339) — 4/18/2024 @ 2:27 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 4/18/2024 @ 12:12 am
Saturday night. Three bills, to match the big Senate foreign aid bill (intended to be passed by the Senate) and a 4th bill just to let right wing Republicans vent.
There’s talk of including in one of the bills, a House rule change that would raise the threshold for making a motion to vacate the Speakership.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2024 @ 2:28 pmThe New York Times had a front page story today about miscalculations by Israel when it attacked the Iranian compound in Damascus. It seems to give the viewpoint of both U.S. government sources and some in the Israeli military. In all their talk of escalation it, like everybody else, ignores the ongoing war in Gaza as something having to do with Iran..
In the course of this article it says that both Gallant and Gantz are more hawkish than Netanyahu:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/world/middleeast/iran-israel-attack.html
I’m not sure the Israelis understood it themselves. (how much of a blow it was to Iran’s war plans against Israel.) It probably got approved on the grounds it was limited. Which should raise the question: Why do you need to do it?
But Iran waited 12 days and that gave some time, and besides Iran held to the truce the U.S. had achieved and made no attacks directed at U.S. forces – but U.S. forces attacked Iran’s missiles. These conditions for a truce were first first established by Donald Trump, more or less accidently, when he cancelled an attack on Iran because Iran’s attack in Saudi Arabia had not killed any people.
Here’swhere it calls Benny antz more hawkish:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2024 @ 2:50 pmNYT:
. What it should do is, not try to effect ground rules or direct attacks between Israel and Iran, not make not doing anything (again and again) conditional on Iran ending the war between Israel and its proxies.
That is:
1. Hamas and Islamic Jihad and any other groups, including criminal ones, releasing all of the hostages
2. Hamas ceding power in Gaza
3. A nee temporary government being established in Gaza hat is amenable both to Israel and the United Nations. (Iran must not interfere with this)
4. Hamas members being subject to arrest and trial for war crimes if they should wind up in the wrong place.
3
Image
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2024 @ 2:56 pmWe can expect that if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does not end all the wars with or related to Israel -like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ended the war with Iraq in 1988, Iran will proceed to do its best to develop (and use!) a nuclear bomb.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-20-mn-6124-story.html
This must happen again, and if it doesn’t happen:
1. The war in Gaza will never end, because even if it ends it will continue in other theatres.
2. Gaza will never be rebuilt.
3. The hostages will not be recovered or released.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 4/18/2024 @ 3:03 pmWe need to be prepared for colder weather, too. As the recent eruptions in Iceland and Indonesia remind us.
Some historians believe the eruption of Laki was an important cause of the French Revolution.
Jim Miller (33c0dd) — 4/18/2024 @ 3:34 pmSaturday night. Three bills, to match the big Senate foreign aid bill (intended to be passed by the Senate) and a 4th bill just to let right wing Republicans vent.
I applaud Speaker Johnson’s tactics. There are factions that intend to act out, but now they will be doing so at separate times.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 4:07 pmMonday morning, Speaker Johnson is fired.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 5:51 pmLOL! The Saudis can’t even defeat the Houthis, who are located in their own backyard.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 5:54 pmNJRob, here’s a little “both sides” for you. This is Jonah Goldberg yesterday:
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/the-people-are-voiceless/
I agree with Goldberg.
norcal (2c0043) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:03 pmThe SA military is pathetic, the total active duty is only 275,000, of which 75,000 are in army. I’m sure the main focus of the SA military is protecting the royal family and not international adventurism.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:06 pmMonday morning, Speaker Johnson is fired.
Nope. It hasn’t been the Trump rump with their handful of votes which has been firing the GOP speakers. It has been the 212 Democrats. As much as Hakeem Jeffries may have been enjoying the hog-calling and watermelon seed-spitting exhibition, the bills under consideration are too important to sacrifice for the sake of continued chaos in the GOP caucus.
nk (629463) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:34 pmThe votes on Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel military funding bills will be on Saturday. After that, Johnson will have served his usefulness and will be fired for relying on Democrat votes.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:55 pmPlease. It’s the Republican caucus that imposed the motion to vacate rules, not the Democrats. They are merely letting the Republican caucus enforce its own rules.
Rip Murdock (8e7ea7) — 4/18/2024 @ 6:58 pmLOL! The Saudis can’t even defeat the Houthis, who are located in their own backyard.
There are no Houthis in Saudi Arabia.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:04 pmMonday morning, Speaker Johnson is fired.
Say hello to Speaker Jeffries then.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:05 pmThe China-US rift grows wider:
Apple Removes WhatsApp, Threads From China App Store on Government Orders
Apple was just following orders.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:11 pmApple was just following orders.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:11 pm
Do you really expect Apple to sacrifice the Chinese market?
norcal (2c0043) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:13 pmThe funny thing is that they will screw Apple soon, too. Their iPhone sales are already plummeting in China.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:14 pmIsraeli missiles hit Iran
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:17 pmUntrue.
The Houthis are in Saudi Arabia’s “backyard” (next door in Yemen), like Cuba and Central America are in our backyard. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked targets in SA from Yemen, and the Saudi intervention in Yemen has been an abject failure.
Don’t be pedantic.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:19 pmChinese hardball ahead of legislation banning TikTok.
Rip Murdock (8e7ea7) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:22 pmYes, there are some sporadic rocket and drone attacks over the border, as shown here, but your suggestion that there is some kind of hotbed of Houthi activity inside Saudi is unsupported.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:33 pmChinese hardball ahead of legislation banning TikTok.
You know, I think we should give them their wish and cut them off from the Internet entirely. Let them eat their own lies.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:34 pmYou said that, I never did. I said the Houthis were in SA’s “backyard” meaning an adjoining country (Yemen), which the SA military has been trying (and failing) to defeat.
Don’t put words in my mouth.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:39 pmincluding the southern Saudi regions of Asir, Jizan, and Najran
Your words, not mine
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:41 pmA quote in response to your (untrue) assertion that
Be that as it may, the failure of the SA military to defeat the Houthis in Yemen doesn’t bode well for their ability to occupy and tame a territory (Gaza) of two million, each one who will have a good reason to oppose them.
Also, would SA want to ride into a Arab territory on the back of an Israeli tank? Doing so wouldn’t improve their standing in the Arab world to be seen as a lackey of the Israelis.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 7:56 pmAnd why should Americans pay (through higher oil prices) for SA to develop Gaza?
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/18/2024 @ 8:05 pmBe that as it may
Bwahahaha
Be that as it may, the failure of the SA military to defeat the Houthis in Yemen doesn’t bode well for their ability to occupy and tame a territory (Gaza) of two million, each one who will have a good reason to oppose them.
Nobody shoots the guy with the checkbook. Israel never tried that. You can attract a lot more people with a police state and a trillion dollars than you can with a police state alone.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 8:12 pmAnd why should Americans pay (through higher oil prices) for SA to develop Gaza?
Oil is fungible.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 4/18/2024 @ 8:13 pmGood on the Israelis for striking back against Iran. Hopefully they did some damage to the nuclear warhead program Obama and Biden have funded.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 4/18/2024 @ 9:29 pm@328 I didn’t say they wanted too! I said people and countrys do things all the time they don’t want to do.
asset (857192) — 4/18/2024 @ 9:46 pm@361 Iran’s bluff has been called. Paper tiger or … Looks like we will see. Nobody wanted world war I ;but both sides escalated and called on its allies like netanyahu will be calling biden for more ammunition.
asset (857192) — 4/18/2024 @ 9:51 pmTime to start praying.
qdpsteve again (a085b4) — 4/18/2024 @ 10:51 pmLOL! The Democrats already run the House. Speaker Johnson is dependent on Democratic votes to pass the most basic legislation.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/19/2024 @ 1:02 am@365 This is the least offensive way to get things done. A minority say we will stop what we don’t like and you must allow us to get away with it. There are other ways to deal with an intransigent minority ;but the deep state prefers the velvet glove over the steel fist to what happened to senator sumner. The establishment prefers that congress members don’t need to carry guns to protect themselves from each other!
asset (857192) — 4/19/2024 @ 2:29 amOnly if you’re not a Republican.
Rip Murdock (4f1d60) — 4/19/2024 @ 9:00 amThe situation in Ukraine is portrayed as critical. If so it is the Administration’s fault because they kept on assuring the Ukrainian government that supplies of ammunition would soon be sent, because, after all, the majority of the U.S. Congress favors it..
And Ukraine decided on military moves that used them up. But had very little chance of getting the outcome they wanted. In general they are taking too many risks and doing things with low odds.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/19/2024 @ 10:18 amSome Democrats are prepared to make a vote to vacate the Speakership fail. They probably can’t make Jeffries Speaker this year. Still,less change committee memberships.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/19/2024 @ 10:18 amsome missiles were fired by Israel, or because of Israel, within Iran, froma Kurdish area. Did Israel give away a big secret for nothing worthwhile?
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 4/19/2024 @ 10:21 am@370 I have heard nothing about kurds can you elaborate?
asset (8b684e) — 4/19/2024 @ 5:23 pm