6/21/2024

209 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

1. Hello.

   Dana (2d0dab) — 6/21/2024 @ 8:59 am

   
   

2. If young men have to register, why shouldn’t young women?

   And if not, do transwomen have to register?

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:04 am

   
   

3. Why it matters: People close to Biden tell Axios they worry about raising concerns in meetings, because his longtime loyalists can exile dissenters.

   Surrounded by yes-men. Also, a campaign on which candidate is less unfit is unlikely to inspire much enthusiasm. Then again, Biden can’t campaign on his accomplishments which as slim to none.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:09 am

   
   

4. China just wants access to Siberian raw materials at fire sale prices. To get that they will sell Putin the rope to hang himself.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:13 am

   
   

5. Already we see that the “history and tradition” test is unworkable.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:15 am

   
   

6. As President, Trump would appoint many more judges like Aileen Cannon.

   DRJ (f65e25) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:29 am

   
   

7. JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting.

   After New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U. S. 1 (2022), this Court’s directive was clear: A firearm regulation that falls within the Second Amendment’s plain text is unconstitutional unless it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue, 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(8). Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

   JUSTICE JACKSON, concurring.

   I write separately because we now have two years’ worth of post-Bruen cases under our belts, and the experiences of courts applying its history-and-tradition test should bear on our assessment of the workability of that legal standard. This case highlights the apparent difficulty faced by judges on the ground. Make no mistake: Today’s effort to clear up “misunderst[andings],” ante, at 7, is a tacit admission that lower courts are struggling. In my view, the blame may lie with us, not with them.

   JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN joins,concurring.

   The Court today emphasizes that a challenged regulation “must comport with the principles underlying the Second Amendment,” but need not have a precise historical match. Ante, at 7–8. I agree. I write separately to highlight why the Court’s interpretation of Bruen, and not the dissent’s, is the right one. In short, the Court’s interpretation permits a historical inquiry calibrated to reveal something useful and transferable to the present day, while the dissent would make the historical inquiry so exacting as to be useless, a too-sensitive alarm that sounds whenever a regulation did not exist in an essentially identical form at the founding.

   The Chief wrote the opinion, in which ALITO, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, GORSUCH, KAVANAUGH, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined. Everyone but Alito filed or joined a separate concurrence, or in Thomas’s case a dissent.

   It’s clear that there is considerable tension on the court what the “history and tradition” test means and/or is limited to. In this case, the general idea of “protecting society from violent people”, rather than some exact matching regulation, satisfied the test for the majority.

   In any event, Mr Rahimi was a piss-poor plaintiff as nearly any reason for denying him a gun would have been a happy outcome.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:30 am

   
   

8. As President, Trump would appoint many more judges like Aileen Cannon.

   Well, that’s a nice assertion, but his last four years of appointments shows nothing of the sort. She (and a few Texas judges) are outliers and enough GOP Senators will block obvious nutters, if only because they have to attend their 3rd cousin’s wedding that day.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:32 am

   
   

9. If you want to talk about obstructionist judges, I have the entire 9th Circuit of 1990 as a counter.

   Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:36 am

   
   

10. It also seems that the prohibition on guns to financial felons is just as much up-in-the-air as it was before this decision.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:40 am

    
    

11. A better case here would have been one denying a gun to a person in a pending divorce action where a boiler-plate order demanded all guns to be surrendered without a showing of domestic violence. Such routine orders exist.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:55 am

    
    

12. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called the provision requiring women to sign up for the draft “insane.”

    He accused the Biden administration of trying to implement a woke agenda at the Pentagon.

    “There shouldn’t be women in the draft. They shouldn’t be forced to serve if they don’t want to,” he said on Fox News. He criticized Democrats for wanting to experiment with the military, saying “normal people are like, ‘Leave our daughters alone.’”

    Men should be forced to serve if they don’t want to, but women shouldn’t be forced to serve if they don’t want to, because …?

    If we’re all equal citizens before the law, then *all* should be required to serve. Service does not have to come in combat capacities.

    aphrael (1797ab) — 6/21/2024 @ 12:20 pm

    
    

13. urged by senior federal judges

    What extra authority and responsibilities does a “senior” federal judge have? Is it codified somewhere?

    Roger Taney probably had a lot of advice to give as well.

    BuDuh (e8d53f) — 6/21/2024 @ 12:40 pm

    
    

14. The 8-1 ruling

    I keep forgetting that this is an incredibly divided court that is in the tank for Trump. I sure I will be reminded of that as soon as disfavored opinions emerge.

    BuDuh (e8d53f) — 6/21/2024 @ 12:43 pm

    
    

15. What extra authority and responsibilities does a “senior” federal judge have? Is it codified somewhere?

    Roger Taney probably had a lot of advice to give as well.

    BuDuh (e8d53f) — 6/21/2024 @ 12:40 pm

    Judges on “senior status” don’t have any extra authority or responsibilities, it is a form of semi-retirement. Congress created the senior status option for lower court judges in 1919.

    To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and have served at least 10 years, and the sum of the judge’s age and years of service as a federal judge must be at least 80 years. As long as senior judges carry at least a 25 percent caseload or meet other criteria for activity, they remain entitled to maintain a staffed office and chambers, including a secretary and their normal complement of law clerks, and they continue to receive annual cost-of-living increases. The president may appoint new full-time judges to fill the vacancies in full-time judgeships caused by senior status.
    ………..
    Senior status at the federal level is defined by statute: 28 U.S.C. § 371. To qualify for senior status, § 371(e)(1) requires that a judge be annually certified by the chief judge as having met at least one of three criteria:

    Having carried, in the preceding calendar year, a caseload involving courtroom participation which is equal to or greater than the amount of similar work which an average judge in active service would perform in three months. §371(e)(1)(a)

    Having performed, in the preceding calendar year, substantial judicial duties not involving courtroom participation, but including settlement efforts, motion decisions, writing opinions in cases that have not been orally argued, and administrative duties for the court to which the justice or judge is assigned. §371(e)(1)(b)

    Having performed substantial administrative duties, either directly relating to the operation of the courts, or for a Federal or State governmental entity. §371(e)(1)(d)

    In addition, §371(e)(1)(e) provides that a judge not meeting any of these criteria may be certified as being in senior status by the chief judge if the criteria were not met “because of a temporary or permanent disability”.
    ……..
    The rules governing assignment of senior judges are laid out in 28 U.S.C. § 294.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/21/2024 @ 12:56 pm

    
    

16. urged by senior federal judges

    In the case of Judge Aileen Cannon, “senior” could also mean judges that have served longer than 3.5 years.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/21/2024 @ 1:03 pm

    
    

17. “Bowman’s district covers the southern half of Westchester County, including Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, and Yonkers, as well as a small portion of the Bronx.”

    The district is heavily Democrat but not as much as others (the GOP candidate got 33% in 2022). It is 40% white, 29% Hispanic and 20% black (including a high proportion of Jamaican blacks). Average household income is $95K.

    Most of the poorer areas in the 2020 district that Bowman initially won were redistricted out. Hillary Clinton’s endorsement should carry a lot of weight with the far whiter and far richer new 16th CD.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 1:11 pm

    
    

18. SAD!

    ……….
    In its ruling, the appeals court explained that nothing in Steve Bannon’s recent emergency request (to avoid reporting to prison on July 1st) would “warrant a departure from the general rule that a defendant ‘shall … be detained’ following conviction and imposition of a sentence of imprisonment.”

    The “requirements” to win the appeals court over were not met, namely, his failure to raise any new “substantial question of law or fact” that would likely result in a reversal of his conviction or demand a new trial.
    ………
    ……….(Bannon) has argued at length and unsuccessfully that the government has incorrectly interpreted the meaning of the word “willfully.” He contends his noncompliance was unintentional and further, that advice he received against complying with Jan. 6 committee was given to him by his attorney, Robert Costello.

    “Bannon’s proposal — that to prove willful default the government must establish that the witness knew his conduct was unlawful — cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s approach to the statute,” Thursday’s order states. “If an assertion of good-faith reliance on advice of counsel excused a witness’s wholesale noncompliance, even as it is plainly unavailable to a more cooperative witness who appears but refuses to answer certain questions, Congress’s power of inquiry would be ‘nulli[fied].’”
    ……….
    Bannon has also argued that he is only being imprisoned now because the Justice Department is intent on keeping him quiet in an election year and seeks to stop his political activity.
    ……….
    ……….It is highly unlikely the Supreme Court will step in; they did not when the similarly-situated, charged and convicted Peter Navarro filed emergency requests hoping to stave off his sentence.
    ………

    Today Bannon filed an emergency motion for a stay; however, it is unlikely that Chief Justice Roberts, who twice denied similar motions from Peter Navarro, will change his mind.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/21/2024 @ 1:18 pm

    
    

19. Bannon has also argued that he is only being imprisoned now because the Justice Department is intent on keeping him quiet in an election year and seeks to stop his political activity.

    I’m not sure how Bannon reconciles his agrument with the fact that it was U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, who ordered him to prison in the first place.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/21/2024 @ 1:20 pm

    
    

20. Bannon is lying. but it is not clear to me why he really didn’t testify – not even invoke the 5th amendment, which is almost never questioned.

    Maybe so that he could say he would keep confidences when he’s up to no good?

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:12 pm

    
    

21. hBowman seems more interested on staying on the good side of the Democratic Socialists of America (to whom being anti-Israel has become a very important part of their ideology) than of anyone else.

    He engaged in a bit of double talk about having quit.

    Most likely the truth is he let his membership lapse but then not only rejoined, but then paid up all his back dues!

    Dies he think his bread and butter is connected with the DSA? I mean it doesn’t have votes.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/nyregion/jamaal-bowman-dsa-israel.html

    Last fall, in the days after Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York appeared ready to make a hard public break with the Democratic Socialists of America.

    Mr. Bowman condemned a rally promoted by the group “in the strongest possible terms” after some attendees glorified the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. His office also took the opportunity to publicize for the first time that he had let his own D.S.A. membership lapse amid earlier disagreements over funding for Israeli defenses.

    But in a private video meeting with the group late last month, Mr. Bowman insisted he had never actually left, shifting his story as he sought to mend fences with the small but influential group amid a primary challenge that has become a symbolic test of his party’s divisions over Israel.

    “I’m still a member,” the congressman said in a recording of the May 26 meeting that was obtained and verified by The New York Times. “I didn’t let my dues lapse.”

    Pressed by members to explain why his office had publicly stated otherwise, he added: “Media has a tendency to talk about B.S., and not focus on the race. And we wanted to make sure we were focusing on our race at that time and getting re-elected.”

    ???

    Double talk.

    Later:

    Mr. Bowman’s campaign manager insisted he had not been trying to mislead anyone but offered a different explanation than the one Mr. Bowman delivered to D.S.A. members.

    The manager, Gabe Tobias, said that Mr. Bowman had indeed stopped paying dues sometime in 2021 or 2022 during a period of intense disagreement with the D.S.A. and had “assumed” he was no longer a member. But when the two sides re-engaged about Mr. Bowman’s current race, he said, the group’s leaders “informed us that in accordance to their own rules — that we were unaware of — Bowman could start repaying his dues and once again be a member in good standing, a standing that would apply retroactively even to the times his dues had lapsed.”

    Jeremy Cohan, a leader of the socialist group, offered a similar account, stressing that Mr. Bowman had agreed recently to rejoin the group and begin paying dues.

    Worse:

    He has told them that he’d supported funding for Iron Dome because he didn’t want to make it look like he wanted Jews to be killed.

    But now he’s fine with that.

    …In 2021, some D.S.A. members called for his expulsion after his Iron Dome vote and a trip to the region with J Street, a center-left Israel lobby. The fallout prompted Mr. Bowman to stop paying his dues…

    …In the May endorsement interview, Mr. Bowman went further. He explained that he had voted to fund the Iron Dome to reassure Jewish constituents still getting to know him. “I didn’t want my ‘no’ vote to be misinterpreted as ‘I want Jews to be killed,’” he said.

    But, he added, times have changed. “Now, there’s no way I could support any of that, because there’s a genocide happening in Gaza,” he told the group.

    “Genocide is the Hamas line, and anyone who says that is being totally dishonest or inexcusably ignorant because even the worst accusations against Israel about its conduct of the Gaza war don’t add up to that.

    Similarly, Mr. Bowman told the group that he was personally supportive of the B.D.S. movement, contradicting his public opposition. The D.S.A. has endorsed the program, which aims to marshal political and economic pressure on Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians, but Democratic Party leaders oppose it.

    I think someone wrote a letter to the editor saying that’s not what BDS is for. See below.

    In the meeting, Mr. Bowman indicated that he had been trying to delicately broach his views to his district, which is home to a “large Jewish population, large Zionist population, large pro-Israel population, large AIPAC population.”

    He said that he wanted to go public with his position “at some point” to open a more direct conversation about the issue and how to secure “peace and justice and safety and humanity for all people.”

    Letter to the editor:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/19/opinion/alzheimers-dementia-eldercare.html#link-10e2a0fd

    “Bowman Makes Amends After Rift Over Israel” (news article, June 11) describes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel as a program “which aims to marshal political and economic pressure on Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians.”

    Actually, the co-founder of the B.D.S. movement, Omar Barghouti, has said that his goal is not merely to “improve conditions for Palestinians,” but to eliminate the Jewish state altogether.

    For example, in a panel discussion in 2014, Mr. Barghouti declared: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, would ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

    Rafael Medoff
    Washington

    The writer is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

    The issue of Israel is not being mentioned in the TV ads for the primary.

    I think Bowman is best known for pulling a fire alarm and lying about it.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:40 pm

    
    

22. Men and women serve in the IDF and it looks like it works well.
    Service is mandatory but there are some major loopholes for the “pacifist” orthodox folks.

    Paul Montagu (55444c) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:42 pm

    
    

23. We know from the Menendez indictment that the government of Egypt is corrupt.

    But someone seems to be making money off the desire for people to leave Gaza.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/world/middleeast/palestinians-gaza-gofundme-egypt.html

    Over the past eight months, an estimated 100,000 people have left Gaza, Diab al-Louh, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, said in an interview. Though some managed to get out through connections to foreign organizations or governments, for many Gazans, exiting the territory is possible only by way of Hala, a firm that appears to be closely connected to the Egyptian government.

    Now the future of that avenue is uncertain, especially after the Israeli military launched an offensive against Hamas in Rafah and took over the crossing there, leading to its closure in May. No Gazans have been allowed to pass through it since, and it is unclear when it will reopen.

    The New York Times spoke to a dozen people inside and outside Gaza who were either trying to leave the territory or help family members or friends to do so. All but one spoke on the condition of anonymity over fears of retaliation by the Egyptian authorities toward them or their relatives or friends.

    Other pathways out of Gaza exist, but many of them require large payments, too. One route is to pay unofficial middlemen in the enclave or in Egypt, who demand $8,000 to $15,000 per person in exchange for arranging their departure within days, according to four Palestinians who either made the payments or tried to.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:43 pm

    
    

24. I think Egypt may be protecting Sinwar. The hostages won’t work as human shields They can be rescued.

    But Egyptian officials can’t be killed.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:44 pm

    
    

25. 4th item Clinton said democrats shouldn’t endorse opponents of incumbents unless its me. She should crawl back under what ever rock she crawled out from under.

    asset (a52307) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:52 pm

    
    

26. Netanyahu and the Israeli army at of=dds on strategy (army basically wants to quit and go to war against Hezbollah in Lebanon)

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/world/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-idf-war.htm

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 6/21/2024 @ 3:17 pm

    
    

27. Hot thsi week, but several degrees less than predicted, Today is the hottest or most humid,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 6/21/2024 @ 3:47 pm

    
    

28. L.A. teen got a second chance from Gascón after killing. Now he is accused in a new homicide

    Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s reform-minded outlook on juvenile justice seemed made for someone like Denmonne Lee.

    When he was 16, Lee took part in an Antelope Valley gas station robbery that ended in the death of former Marine John Ruh. Lee, who was acquainted with the victim, had planned the 2018 robbery and provided a weapon to his co-defendant, according to court records. Although Lee wasn’t the shooter, he was charged with murder.

    But when Gascón took office two years later, as Lee’s case was making its way through the court system, he barred prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults. Lee was convicted and ordered held at the county’s Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar until he turned 25.

    Lee “responded very well” to programs in custody, authorities said. Within a year, probation officials moved him from the high-security Sylmar facility into a rehabilitation-focused setting in Malibu. After being released to a halfway house last June, Lee enrolled in community college and found work at a local nonprofit.

    And then, in April, he was arrested and charged with playing a major role in another homicide.

    When you’ve lost the LA Times….

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 3:58 pm

    
    

29. 4th item Clinton said democrats shouldn’t endorse opponents of incumbents unless its me. She should crawl back under what ever rock she crawled out from under.

    asset (a52307) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:52 pm

    Does this mean you’re in favor of the incumbent, who spouted Hamas propaganda? I thought you wanted Hamas wiped out.

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:43 pm

    
    

30. Men and women serve in the IDF and it looks like it works well.
    Service is mandatory but there are some major loopholes for the “pacifist” orthodox folks.

    Paul Montagu (55444c) — 6/21/2024 @ 2:42 pm

    I recently started watching the TV show Naked and Afraid. The women survive as well as the men do, and in some cases, better.

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:46 pm

    
    

31. I don’t know why we have not already ratified a Constitutional Amendment that says that as a matter of law the United States wins every war we find ourselves in. Then we would not need a military at all.

    Think about it. As you’re putting a Smucker’s Uncrustables into your air fryer.

    nk (bb1548) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:53 pm

    
    

32. I remember that Barbie Batlash (a/k/a Megyn Kelly) asked Marco Rubio about drafting women in the the first Republican primary debate of 2016. And it’s all been downhill since.

    nk (bb1548) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    
    

33. I had time to finish my thoughts on item #1 and posted this:

    If young men have to register, why shouldn’t young women also have to register? Clearly there are any number of non-combat roles for women, if it came to that. Additionally, the Hawleys and Wickers of the GOP likely object to the mandatory registration of women because they tie it into the “gentler sex” notion: Men are strong and defenders of hearth, home and country. Women are caretakers of children, home and community. Each has their assigned place, and if women were required to register, that would upset these historic roles. I think that a number of Republican lawmakers still hold to this thinking, and they want to keep their like-minded voting bloc happy. If it’s not because of these reasons, then why are they so stridently against it?

    Dana (991633) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:57 pm

    
    

34. In other Supreme Court opinions released today:

    In Texas v. New Mexico, the court upholds (5-4) the U.S.’s objections to a consent decree that would resolve the dispute over each state’s allocation of the waters of the Rio Grande.

    The court rules 6-3 in Department of State v. Munoz that a citizen does not have a fundamental liberty interest in her noncitizen spouse being admitted to the country.

    In Erlinger v. United States, the court rules (6-3) that under the Armed Career Criminal Act, which imposes mandatory prison terms, a judge should use a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard to decide whether the offenses were committed on separate occasions or instead a jury must make those decisions unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt.

    In Smith v. Arizona, the court rules that when an expert conveys an absent lab analyst’s statements in support of the expert’s opinion, and the statements provide that support only if true, then the statements come into evidence for their truth, and thus implicate the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:01 pm

    
    

35. Yeah, in Cincy, it’s been the humidity that kept the haze and clouds in place so it’s only hitting the lower 90s, heat index is still around 100. It’s too hot to get in the pool. Much worse than 105 in Vegas, at night its still been in the 80s.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:01 pm

    
    

36. Men? Women? What are those? There are persons with a front hole and persons without a front hole. And of those, some are birthing persons and some are not birthing persons.

    nk (bb1548) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:16 pm

    
    

37. Correction:

    In Erlinger v. United States, the court rules (6-3) that under the Armed Career Criminal Act, which imposes mandatory prison terms, a judge should use a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard to decide whether the offenses were committed on separate occasions or instead a jury must make those decisions unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:20 pm

    
    

38. Corrected correction:

    In Erlinger v. United States, the court rules (6-3) that under the Armed Career Criminal Act, which imposes mandatory prison terms, a jury must decide whether the offenses were committed on separate occasions, unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:23 pm

    
    

39. It’s been hot here in ABQ this June. Then again, it’s always been hot in ABQ in June.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:24 pm

    
    

40. Here’s a joke my 92-year-old mother told me today. She thought of it herself (probably years ago).

    The chicken told the pig he didn’t like his grunting and oinking.

    In response, the pig told the chicken he didn’t care for his fowl language.

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:37 pm

    
    

41. Dana (991633) — 6/21/2024 @ 4:57 pm

    There is a more practical reason, although maybe it’s outdated. A country’s birthrate is invariably a function of how many birthing persons are available. In a war like the first world war, where the male population is literally decimated, the birthrate isn’t greatly affected. If you do the same to the female population, it’s different.

    MY main concern is captured soldiers being treated differently by sex.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:45 pm

    
    

42. That’s actually a dad joke, norcal.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:47 pm

    
    

43. That’s actually a dad joke, norcal.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:47 pm

    It’s better than a dad joke. It’s a great-grandmother joke. 😊

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:52 pm

    
    

44. MY main concern is captured soldiers being treated differently by sex.

    Women would not be on the front lines and/or going into going into battle. There are plenty of jobs that would keep them from that.

    Dana (991633) — 6/21/2024 @ 6:09 pm

    
    

45. Inter arma enim silent leges. War is not woke.

    nk (bb1548) — 6/21/2024 @ 6:32 pm

    
    

46. Women would not be on the front lines and/or going into going into battle.

    If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor…

    BuDuh (4214e4) — 6/21/2024 @ 6:52 pm

    
    

47. According to Wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_military_by_country#cite_note-1

    In 2018, only two countries conscripted women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway and Sweden.

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:18 pm

    
    

48. Women are going into active combat today, just not as often as men. Women make up a lot less of both the enlisted and officers corps, so that makes sense. Even tier 1 teams have female components.

    There’s still a pretty terrible history (and present) of women being treated horridly, it’s like when you get lots of young men together they have little sense, who knew.

    Still, a draft would theoretically make it closer to 50/50, though not in the officer corps. With our technical capability and automation, physical strenghth is less important than mental, and even in combat theaters, about 80% of all troops are support, where most women are today. You still get shot at, you’re just not 11B. Heck, combat close air support drones are flown from Creech outside of Vegas.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:22 pm

    
    

49. Women would not be on the front lines and/or going into going into battle. There are plenty of jobs that would keep them from that.

    Dana (991633) — 6/21/2024 @ 6:09 pm

    Women currently serve in combat units already, and in units that would likely be sent to the front lines. The “ground combat exclusion policy” was ended in 2014. For example, they serve as pilots assigned to aircraft carriers and command warships, and command battle groups.

    In addition, the “front lines” in any future conflict will also include military bases far from the where the actual fighting is.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:30 pm

    
    

50. The military is like Patterico’s Pontifications. It’s better when women participate. 😀

    Thank you to Dana, DRJ, Nic, and Radegunda for hanging out here.

    norcal (cdaf58) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:38 pm

    
    

51. Heck, combat close air support drones are flown from Creech outside of Vegas.

    Former Senator McSally served as an A-10 squadron commander in Afghanistan and earlier as an A-10 combat pilot enforcing the Iraqi no-fly zone.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:42 pm

    
    

52. The Air Force edges out the Navy in percentage of women officers, while the Marine Corps lags substantially behind all military services.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/21/2024 @ 7:55 pm

    
    

53. I’ve got to have a talk with my kindergarten teacher. All my life I’ve thought that “can” and “must” were two different words.

    The issue is conscription. Involuntary service. And any male who thinks it’s unfair can put on a dress and we’ll exempt him too.

    nk (bb1548) — 6/21/2024 @ 8:24 pm

    
    

54. I don’t know if the draft would ever be emplemented again in the US. The problem is you probably have no situation where you will have a need for an 10M troops on the ground somewhere, especially on the modern battlefield where you have masses of dismounted troops. That would require a completely different strategic plan of our armed forces, maneuver warfare just doesn’t work like that.

    The other problem is that when you draft someone, you can’t deploy them for 6-12 months. So the capabilities you need are something to plan for next year. Again, the age of human waves is over, so it’s another thing that’s not really practically valuable.

    If you wanted something like this, significantly raise the pay of troops (28% of current budge), both active and reserve, and have a much larger trained and volunteer force. Adding 2M at ~$50k/year averaged across active/reserve would only add $100B to the DoD budget of $2.08T. Again, again, I don’t think you need that many.

    One other thing, women can be conscripted today, in specific healthcare practices anyone under 44 can be drafted. That’s not combat, but it would push active duty and reserve medical specialties further toward the front. Which to be fair, wasn’t that close during GWOT.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:15 pm

    
    

55. If you wanted something like this, significantly raise the pay of troops (28% of current budge), both active and reserve, and have a much larger trained and volunteer force. Adding 2M at ~$50k/year averaged across active/reserve would only add $100B to the DoD budget of $2.08T. Again, again, I don’t think you need that many.

    Assuming roughly 70% are reserve.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:17 pm

    
    

56. The issue is conscription. Involuntary service. And any male who thinks it’s unfair can put on a dress and we’ll exempt him too.

    Klinger tried that on M*A*S*H. Didn’t work.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:27 pm

    
    

57. I don’t know if the draft would ever be emplemented again in the US. The problem is you probably have no situation where you will have a need for an 10M troops on the ground somewhere

    Unlikely, but not impossible. And even 3M would cause a manpower problem.

    Scenarios:

    Ground war in Asia.
    Cold War II, with large armies massed in Central Europe.
    Occupation of Russia.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:32 pm

    
    

58. The most likely manpower callup I can see is Reforger in the event of Putin going mad.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:34 pm

    
    

59. The issue is conscription. Involuntary service. And any male who thinks it’s unfair can put on a dress and we’ll exempt him too.

    Klinger tried that on M*A*S*H. Didn’t work.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:27 pm

    A rare instance of nk getting one-upped 😁

    norcal (847751) — 6/21/2024 @ 9:50 pm

    
    

60. Just to clarify my IDF comment, I’m okay with women in combat, but not where there’s a real risk where they could become POWs.
    I’d hate to see a female POW return to Texas and not be able to get an abortion where her pregnancy was caused from a rape while in captivity.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/21/2024 @ 10:06 pm

    
    

61. Also, I don’t support an American draft. Nixon was right over 50 years ago to end it, but I respect how the Swiss and Israelis have done it.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/21/2024 @ 10:08 pm

    
    

62. Scandinavians have a similar system, ~2 years, then you can be called up till 44. Like the IDF, that gives a lot of, at least marginally, trained folk that can be called up, much of the population if required.

    Although, I don’t know how that would work in our society, we tend to be generally in worse physical shape, so the indoc process would be a pretty significant hurdle. If you can raise fitness, you could shave months off of indoc training, too fat to fight is a real problem. Its an issue getting folks qualified at the recruiting office, and through basic.

    Go to a VFW and you can see quite a few GWOT folks that have haven’t had PT in years. Some of it is old fud’s like me who’s body just doesn’t work that well any longer, I call it a day at about 3k, and my knee’s still need ice and days of rest. I climbed up the Belfry of Bruges a few months ago and thought I might have to just jump off the roof to get back down. You can literally hear me climbing the stairs with all the racket my knees make.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/21/2024 @ 10:35 pm

    
    

63. Given that three branches of the military are failing to meet their enlistment goals (excluding Marines), wouldn’t the registration of both men and women be a good thing if the worst actually happened?

    Dana (0f057e) — 6/22/2024 @ 6:29 am

    
    

64. Probably, but in today’s world, “registering” seems pretty antiquated. We track everyone from birth, so I don’t know what the practical advantage you might have. I can’t remember if there is a requirement to keep your contact information updated, that might help. It was never a thing for me, I was in ROTC from before I had to register, and either active or the reserve for the next 30 years.

    I just looked it up, you’re supposed to update your contact info within 10 days of it changing. I would bet compliance for that is tiny though.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/22/2024 @ 6:58 am

    
    

65. Also, I don’t support an American draft. Nixon was right over 50 years ago to end it, but I respect how the Swiss and Israelis have done it.

    A draft is only for when you need masses of troops and training isn’t a main issue. Klink is right that there are no likely scenarios; the ones I listed above are pretty much horror stories in themselves.

    Conscripts seem most useful in a large occupation, not so much in the actual campaign.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:37 am

    
    

66. I just looked it up, you’re supposed to update your contact info within 10 days of it changing. I would bet compliance for that is tiny though.

    Google knows where we all are.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:40 am

    
    

67. Is it just me, or does it seem like every weather event of any kind will be billed as “climate change”? Sure, the Earth is warming but this just feels like non-stop propaganda in advance of an election. The primary cause of heat in summer is summer.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:43 am

    
    

68. Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/21/2024 @ 5:45 pm

    Dana (991633) — 6/21/2024 @ 6:09 pm

    We know how American women POWs will be treated because we have had female POWs. While they were not assigned to front line combat units, they served in combat areas. In most modern wars there is no front line.

    During Operation Desert Storm Major (now Brigadier General) Rhonda Cornum was the flight surgeon with the 229th Attack Helicopter Regiment and was aboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a search and rescue mission when it was shot down and she was seriously injured. She was captured and raped, and served as the ranking POW officer while she was imprisoned.

    Shoshana Johnson was a Specialist of the U.S. Army 507th Maintenance Company, 5/52 ADA BN, 11th ADA Brigade aka an Army cook. She was captured after her unit was ambushed by Iraqi troops in 2003 and held for 22 days before being rescued by US Marines. Pfc. Lori Ann Piestawa was injured in the attack and died in captivity.

    Jessica Lynch was captured in the same battle as Shoshana Johnson. Lynch was a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:20 am

    
    

69. Conscripts seem most useful in a large occupation, not so much in the actual campaign.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:37 am

    Tell that to the Greatest Generation.

    Rip Murdock (d7042b) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:24 am

    
    

70. A provision of the House defense authorization bill allows the for the automatic registration of males aged 18-26. However, the bill is chock full of policy bans favored by Republicans that it is unlikely to pass the Senate or remain in the final version.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:54 am

    
    

71. Conscripts seem most useful in a large occupation, not so much in the actual campaign.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:37 am

    Tell that to the Greatest Generation.

    Rip Murdock (d7042b) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:24 am

    Or a Vietnam veteran. I’m sure they will appreciate it.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:58 am

    
    

72. Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:43 am

    The new normal.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:01 pm

    
    

73. Tell that to the Greatest Generation.

    They didn’t all land at Omaha Beach. Occupation of the Axis states was manpower-intensive and did not require considerable training. The reason that conscription was necessary was that the armed forces in 1940 were bare bones. We have active duty and reserves to handle actual fighting, but a large occupation needs more bodies.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:18 pm

    
    

74. Or a Vietnam veteran. I’m sure they will appreciate it.

    We put 500,000 troops into Vietnam, wastefully. Nothing about that war was done right, including getting involved. Sure, the guys fought, but the availability of a draft made the bosses careless and profligate with lives. Particularly since the middle class had was to avoid conscription.

    We don’t have a draft now, and only a big need will get us one. We have a well-trained active-duty core and well-trained reserves who aren’t going to be used as cannon fodder as before.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:25 pm

    
    

75. Or a Vietnam veteran. I’m sure they will appreciate it.

    Tell an active-duty Marine how we need conscripts to win a war. Best use email or text though.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:26 pm

    
    

76. Folks, this is my party’s batsh-t GOP nominee, trying to rehabilitate his sharks-and-batteries tale…

    “Now they’ll say all these stories are terrible. Well, these stories have, you know, you heard my story in the boat with the shark, right? I got killed on that. They thought I was rambling. I’m not rambling. We can’t get the boat to float. The battery is so heavy. So then I start talking about asking questions. You know, I have an, I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for many years, long, I think the longest tenure ever. Very smart, had three different degrees and you know, so I have an aptitude for things. You know, there is such a thing as an aptitude. I said, well, what would happen if this boat is so heavy and started to sink and you’re on the top of the boat. Do you get electrocuted or not? In other words, the boat is going down and you’re on the top, will the electric currents flow through the water and wipe you out? And let’s say there’s a shark about 10 yards over there. Would I have to immediately abandon or could I ride the electric down and he said, sir, nobody’s ever asked us that question. But sir, I don’t know. I said, well, I want to know because I guarantee you one thing, I don’t care what happens. I’m staying with the electric, I’m not getting over with it. So I tell that story. And the fake news they go, he told this crazy story with electric. It’s actually not crazy. It’s sort of a smart story, right? Sort of like, you know, it’s like the snake, it’s a smart when you, you figure what you’re leaving in, right? You’re bringing it in the, you know, the snake, right? The snake and the snake. I tell that and they do the same thing.”

    He said “sir”, and you know what that means. And this. Definitely go with refuttal…

    And my stupid people when I wanted to refute it, they said, sir, don’t dignify it with a refuttal. Refutal or refuttal. What the hell word would that be? Refuttal. Watch, they’ll say he didn’t know refuttal or refutal but they don’t know either.

    And this…

    If I took this shirt off, you would see a beautiful beautiful person. But you would see wounds all over. I’ve taken a lot of wounds I can tell you. More than I suspect any president ever.

    More than Ike, a career soldier before he became president? And don’t forget, he was better to the blacks than anyone, with the “possible exception” of Lincoln. It’s f–king batsh-t.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:47 pm

    
    

77. Neither WW I, WW 2 , (forgot to mention the Korean War) and Vietnam could not have been fought without draftees.

    Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom were the perfect wars for an all-volunteer military-short, with fourth tier opponents.

    Right now I don’t believe the US could fight a war that lasts more than a year without a draft, especially against a tier-one or two opponent, meaning Russia.

    The coming war with China will be fought mostly with ships, submarines, and missiles (of all types), with very few ground troops. It will be short and devastating.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:59 pm

    
    

78. Tell an active-duty Marine how we need conscripts to win a war. Best use email or text though.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:26 pm

    Marines have an overweening belief in their own invincibility. But when the *hits hits the fan they wouldn’t mind being rescued by ground pounders.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 1:03 pm

    
    

79. The coming war with China will be fought mostly with ships, submarines, and missiles (of all types), with very few ground troops. It will be short and devastating.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 12:59 pm

    No glory for the Marines.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 1:05 pm

    
    

80. Keeping it classy:

    Spy camera videos of a Republican lawmaker dumping water into a Democratic rival’s bag at the Statehouse were released on Tuesday, confirming previous reporting by Seven Days about the bizarre incident.

    Rep. Jim Carroll (D-Bennington) shared with Seven Days two videos he surreptitiously took in the Statehouse hallway that captured Rep. Mary Morrissey (R-Bennington) pouring a cup of liquid into his tote bag as it hung on a hook outside his committee room.
    ………….
    The videos, which Carroll took using a remote camera in an effort to catch the person responsible for repeatedly soaking his belongings, show Morrissey, 67, approaching a bag outside Carroll’s committee room and dumping a cup of water directly into it. Portions of both videos are obscured, as though the camera is partially concealed behind something.
    ………….
    In the first video, taken March 23 at 9:10 a.m., shows Morrissey, wearing a gray suit, entering the frame. She walks directly to the tan and green bag, reaches up and, as though watering a houseplant, pours a cup of liquid into the bag.
    …………..
    (In the second video, taken March 26 at 12:21 p.m.) Carroll then walks toward his committee room, and seconds later, Morrissey, wearing a rose-colored jacket and scarf, pops into the frame. She quickly lifts a clear cup of water up to the top of the bag, dumps it in and scurries off.

    “What that tells me is that she was watching me,” Carroll told Seven Days on Tuesday.
    …………

    Morrissey initially denied responsibility, Carroll said, but in a follow-up meeting where Carroll was present, she apologized to him.

    “It was a very uncomfortable meeting,” Carroll recalled.

    After the meeting, (House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington)) blocked Morrissey, who was first elected in 1997, from serving on a key legislative committee. The matter was then referred to the House Ethics Panel. The status of the complaint is unclear.
    ……………
    Morrissey has not returned multiple calls and emails for comment……….
    …………….

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 1:27 pm

    
    

81. Forgot to mention the above story is from Vermont.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 1:33 pm

    
    

82. Neither WW I, WW 2 , (forgot to mention the Korean War) and Vietnam could not have been fought without draftees.

    Because they had about 12 soldiers before those wars. They kept an officer corp and enough enlisted to shine their shoes, but didn’t want to pay for (or have) a standing army. After WW2 they let everyone go.

    Our participation in WWI was so short that few draftees ever saw combat. We weren’t sending any draftees to Europe until 1918. But again we needed draftees because we had a tiny regular Army.

    Same again for WW2. For Korea and Vietnam, they already had a draft law (they didn’t before WWI & II) so it was convenient.

    For any war we are likely to fight today it will probably be over before draftees could be trained. So we have 2 million under arms and almost 800K civilian support.
    
    Right now I don’t believe the US could fight a war that lasts more than a year without a draft, especially against a tier-one or two opponent, meaning Russia.

    Even against Russia, the war wouldn’t last a year. Ukraine is holding Russia off with our hand-me-down weapons and restrictive use rules.

    The only thing you would need more people for is occupation afterwards.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 2:01 pm

    
    

83. Marines have an overweening belief in their own invincibility. ………

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 1:03 pm

    With Marines losing their helicopters to the flying deathtrap called the V-22 Osprey and the loss of their tank battalions, I’d be feeling a little less invincible.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 2:02 pm

    
    

84. A silver lining?

    As the president’s son prepares to appeal his recent conviction, he will likely renew his challenge to the constitutionality of the federal law that bars drug users from having guns. The high court’s 8-1 ruling on Friday leaves a clear path for that challenge — and even contains some language that could bolster it.
    …………..
    ………….. Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized in his majority opinion that the justices were only greenlighting taking guns away from people who had first been deemed by a judge to pose a danger to others. That was what happened with Zackey Rahimi, the Texas man whose case reached the high court.
    …………..
    Peter Tilem, a criminal defense lawyer and former Manhattan gun prosecutor, said that line is a good sign for Biden.

    “If you look at the holding of the court, there has to be a finding by a court that the person is a danger to someone,” he said.

    Referring to the section in the U.S. Code that contains the drug-users prohibition, Tilem added: “It seems to me that 922(g)(3), whether someone is a drug user, doesn’t necessarily make them a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner or anyone else.”
    …………
    “This is a little-used statute,” he said, “and I would certainly think that he has a very strong claim.”
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 3:03 pm

    
    

85. Rip[,

    You are absolutely correct that the restraining order ruling doesn’t affect non-violent felons. But I think that a tax-evasion felon has an easier case than a drug addict and the recent decision cuts both ways.

    people who had first been deemed by a judge to pose a danger to others.

    Historically, drug users have been treated as dangerous, both while loaded and while seeking drugs or money for drugs. Most street crime is related to drug use. Most burglary today is related to drug use. Most armed robbery is related to drug use.

    Like Rahimi, it’s not the place I’d start. I’d actually start with Trump or someone like him who could listen to his lawyer.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 3:50 pm

    
    

86. USC 922(g)(3):

    …who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act

    I have always wondered about this, particularly the definition of “addicted” as it is treated as separate from “unlawful user.”

    USC 802(1)

    (1) The term “addict” means any individual who habitually uses any narcotic drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction.

    If you understand the 12 Steps, an addict remains an addict even after long periods of abstinence. They are said to be powerless over the substance even then. And, indeed, should they again attempt to use “a little bit” they will demonstrate that lack of control.

    Now I don’t think that is what the definition means, but it is off-putting to someone like me despite 36 years of continuous abstinence.

    —

    Separately, I wonder about lawful (prescribed) users of controlled substances such as cocaine or meth who believe themselves to be unaddicted, regardless of the actual fact, with a special call-out for marijuana, which can be prescribed in many states.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 4:09 pm

    
    

87. I’ve been thinking about trying pot. I’m a marijuana virgin, and recreational weed is legal in Nevada. Will I be disqualified from buying a gun if I do it?

    norcal (21a07d) — 6/22/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    
    

88. Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 4:09 pm

    According to the ATF regulations (27 CFR 478.11), an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance is

    A person who uses a controlled substance and has lost the power of self-control with reference to the use of controlled substance; and any person who is a current user of a controlled substance in a manner other than as prescribed by a licensed physician.………….. An inference of current use may be drawn from evidence of a recent use or possession of a controlled substance or a pattern of use or possession that reasonably covers the present time, e.g., a conviction for use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year; multiple arrests for such offenses within the past 5 years if the most recent arrest occurred within the past year; or persons found through a drug test to use a controlled substance unlawfully, provided that the test was administered within the past year.
    ……………

    So remaining clean for 365 days prior to the purchase of a firearm would make such a purchase legal. The standard in Rahimi means that courts will need to adjudicate a user or addict as “dangerous”, it cannot be assumed.

    By the time H. Biden’s case reaches the appeals court, it is likely that a number of other cases involving drug possession and firearms possession will have reached the Supreme Court. It is bound to happen sooner than later given the number of challenges to the restriction.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 5:11 pm

    
    

89. I’ve been thinking about trying pot. I’m a marijuana virgin, and recreational weed is legal in Nevada. Will I be disqualified from buying a gun if I do it?

    norcal (21a07d) — 6/22/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    Not if you don’t tell anyone.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 5:12 pm

    
    

90. norcal (21a07d) — 6/22/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    But technically, yes. The ATF doesn’t care if a state has legalized pot, they are guided by federal laws.

    Rip Murdock (fec955) — 6/22/2024 @ 5:14 pm

    
    

91. Almost any controlled substance, even prescribed, can make you technically ineligable. That’s why the question on the 4473 is probably invalid as it’s written, it’s the and/or part. I’m 100% addicted to coffee, probably the caffeine too, but every day I have a whole elaborate process to brew my first cup. After that it’s just espresso beans in a drip, but that first one, special beans, different grind, french press, 8:45 and now I want another.

    See, that’s an expensive addiction, but should I check the box? Is an alcoholic, a social drinker, it’s legal. Darts, hate darts, but it’s legal. Ambien, painkillers, all are pretty common things to get prescribed and tolerance/withdrawal can happen in days, so is that an addiction? That’s why that question is so nebulous. Depending on your state of mind, you and another person could honestly check either but have the same…input.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 6/22/2024 @ 5:51 pm

    
    

92. The standard in Rahimi means that courts will need to adjudicate a user or addict as “dangerous”, it cannot be assumed.

    The standard in Rahimi, with 6 concurrences is “well, not robotically history and tradition” and “dangerous” in some regard. The standard for “dangerous” might turn out to be, well, anything. Rahimi is just a marker.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 8:45 pm

    
    

93. I’ve been thinking about trying pot. I’m a marijuana virgin, and recreational weed is legal in Nevada. Will I be disqualified from buying a gun if I do it?

    Once marijuana is removed from Schedule I, a doctor can legally prescribe it without federal difficulties, just like he can prescribe Vicodin. If you are using it as prescribed it’s not a problem. If you are “addicted” however, then the prescription doesn’t help.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 8:48 pm

    
    

94. Once marijuana is removed from Schedule I, a doctor can legally prescribe it without federal difficulties, just like he can prescribe Vicodin. If you are using it as prescribed it’s not a problem. If you are “addicted” however, then the prescription doesn’t help.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 8:48 pm

    Recreational weed is legal in Nevada. Does having a prescription for it somehow make it better when it comes to buying a gun??

    norcal (edc148) — 6/22/2024 @ 9:07 pm

    
    

95. And, by the way, I’m not worried about getting addicted to marijuana. I haven’t become addicted to alcohol.

    norcal (edc148) — 6/22/2024 @ 9:08 pm

    
    

96. As I understand it, the federal rules depend on whether the drug CAN be prescribed under federal law. If it is on Schedule I, it can’t be not matter what your state says (in federal eyes). The government is going to move pot off of Schedule I (because it’s a load of horsesh1t to have it there) and put it on Schedule III. Drugs not on Schedule I can be legally prescribed (again, under federal rules).

    Since the ATF form is federal, any use of marijuana is technically disqualifying until they change it’s category.

    As for addiction, here’s the test: Do you use the substance when you know using the substance will cost you dearly (e.g. the night before an employment physical)? If not, you’re fine.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 9:55 pm

    
    

97. Won’t you give just $19 a month to help this little guy? (sound on)

    lurker (c23034) — 6/22/2024 @ 11:45 pm

    
    

98. Israel haters are some of the dumbest m-f’rs.

    lurker (c23034) — 6/23/2024 @ 1:17 am

    
    

99. No, then-President Donald Trump did not call neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people” in 2017. Speaking about a deadly protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, he said those groups should be “condemned totally.” https://snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/

    https://x.com/snopes/status/1803900319178309662

    WHAT??!?!!!?!?!!!

    BuDuh (8fe1b7) — 6/23/2024 @ 7:01 am

    
    

100. Israel haters are some of the dumbest m-f’rs.

     At least he wasn’t delivering cucumbers and tomatoes at the same time.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 8:55 am

     
     

101. Yeah, Trump did say that the Unite the Right Nazis were “very fine people”, because he was talking about events on that Friday night, when the only coverage was of tiki-torch bearing racists chanting “Jews will not replace us!” Trump back-pedaled after those initial remarks.

     It’s akin to Trump’s bogus claim that he saw Muslims across the river cheering when the towers came down. There was no such video anywhere.

     Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:48 am

     
     

102. Well, Snopes does not think so. He just said that very fine people existed on both sides, with no reference to their numbers. If it was 1% on one side and 90% on another, it would be still true without meaning that the Nazis were very fine people.

     One could also say that “many of the participants” on J6, or in the 1992 L.A. riots were very fine people and not be saying that the violent of law-breaking elements within those groups were such.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:52 am

     
     

103. Not that any of those statements would be wise.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:52 am

     
     

104. Muslims across the river cheering when the towers came down. There was no such video anywhere.

     Well, which river? The Jordan?

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:53 am

     
     

105. Here’s Seinfeld’s brilliant response to the Jew-hating “Free Palestine” hecklers at his stand-up show Down Under.

     Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:54 am

     
     

106. And Snopes is actually parsing this literally. He did not actually say that “Some Nazis are fine people.”

     Further, even though Unite the Right organized the demonstration, that does not mean that all the people they drew were part of that group or Nazis. Useful idiots abound.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:56 am

     
     

107. Well, Snopes does not think so. He just said that very fine people existed on both sides, with no reference to their numbers. If it was 1% on one side and 90% on another, it would be still true without meaning that the Nazis were very fine people.

     The point is that the only coverage of that night were the Nazis, but Trump said he saw “very fine people” there. He couldn’t have, because no coverage of anything else on the night in question.

     As for which river, read the f–king link. I didn’t put it there for my health.

     Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:59 am

     
     

108. As for which river, read the f–king link. I didn’t put it there for my health.

     I’m just winding you up, Paul

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 10:42 am

     
     

109. On Willie Mays, by the incomparable and long-lamented Jim Murray (5/23/1962):

     Wonderful Willie

     The first thing to establish about Willie Mays is that there really is one.

     He’s 5 feet 10, weighs 183, has five fingers on each hand, five toes on each foot, two eyes, all his teeth and a nice smile. He’s quite mortal. He makes $90,000 a year but gets to keep only enough to pay off the alimony and the rent on time and is made up like the rest of us of about 87 cents’ worth of iron, calcium, antimony and whatever baser metal a human being is composed of. Only in his case, it’s put together a little better than in the rest of us.

     All this is important to know in talking to baseball people because when you mention Willie Mays, several things happen: A film comes over their eyes, their cheeks flush and flecks of foam appear at the corners of their mouths. Listening to them, you half expect to see the Angel Gabriel running around with No. 24 on his back. At the very least, you think they are describing one of their own hallucinations — a combination of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Elmer the Great, a comic strip character 28 feet tall pasted together out of old clippings of The Sporting News or conjured out of a pot of reheated Welsh rarebit.

     Willie Mays is so good the other players don’t even resent him. They have his name in standing type in Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame ever since he was a rookie. Leo Durocher started to drool the first time he saw Willie Mays, and he hasn’t stopped since. “If he could cook, I’d marry him,” Leo once announced.

     The only thing he can’t do on a baseball field is fix the plumbing. As a batter, Bill Rigney once said, his only weakness was a wild pitch. But he hit one of those in spring practice for a clean single from a semi-prone position. As long as gravity is working they boo him in San Francisco. This makes strong men cover their ears because around the rest of the league they figure anyone who would boo Willie Mays would kick in a stained-glass window…..

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 10:46 am

     
     

110. Remember when Jennifer Rubin was a center-right columnist backing Mitt Romney? How things have changed. Here’s today’s offering, backing Kamala Harris:

     A closer look at Harris shows how effective she’s become

     On Friday, after the Supreme Court issued its latest batch of opinions, I spoke briefly on the phone with Vice President Harris. After several days spent attending her appearances, it had become obvious to me that far from being a liability, as her critics insist, she is an effective communicator and skilled advocate — especially on causes on which she has developed expertise over decades.

     Given the recent court scandals, I asked her about ethics reform. Even when in the Senate, she recalled, she supported a code of ethics for the Supreme Court. “The reasons are more evident today, ” she said. She pointed to blindfolded Lady Justice. “This is how ingrained it is in our system of justice,” she added. “I’m concerned there has been loss of confidence” in the court, Harris said, highlighting not only ethics concerns but also the extreme ideology of a court that has shredded precedent.

     From there she spoke passionately about her work since Dobbs to defend reproductive freedom. According to her office, since that decision, she has delivered scores of speeches and held more than 90 gatherings in 21 states (as well as convening groups at the White House) to discuss reproductive freedom with elected officials, health-care providers, faith leaders, students, and advocates. On her Fight for Our Freedoms College Tour, beginning in 2023, she raised the issue at college campuses…..

     ….As is true with the entire campaign, the voters most enthusiastic about Harris are those who are most engaged. Now, the campaign must ensure the entire electorate gets to see what those watching her up close have observed: a formidable candidate.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 11:05 am

     
     

111. nevertrumpers and other members of the left need Trump to be a racist because they know that it is bad to hate, but hatred of a racist is understandable, forgivable and they can give themselves a pass if the object of their guilty pleasure is a racist.
     Building a moral high ground for oneself is made much faster by mimicking earthworks and using cut and fill. Once the faux high ground is established, the way to maintain and enhance ones elevation above the other is to cut and dig the other lower because god forbid one would have to stand on ones own merits

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 11:11 am

     
     

112. Boxing and UFC are interesting sports. There is no doubt boxing draw a different crowd at the Paris olympics than the synchronized swimmers will. Boxing is a blood sport (much like politics) and UFC goes further and draws what many would call even baser elements. The pageantry and hype of the UFC pre-fight weigh in, the announcer before the fight whips up the anticipation, and then in comes Trump. But back to Olympic boxing, because as a metaphor for politics, its how we wish it were done but UFC is probably more the reality.
     Trump comes into his rallies and whips it up like its the UFC. He says stuff that the media isolates as racist like Donald Trump’s “UFC Migrant League” where the migrant vs migrant league winner gets to take on the reigning UFC champion in their weight class. Trump’s point after sifting through all the media misdirectional chaff was that there are some very tough people in the current flow migrants. Trump didn’t say this part, but I will- Venexuelans might represent well beyond their statistical numbers as their criminals moving into our land of opportunity seem to be showing.

     There are about 1,000,000 men in state prisons in the US and according to statista 15,094 are in there for murder. I would guess that if we were to dial down into that population of 15,000, we will find even fewer men who have sexually assaulted and then killed women and girls but Venezuela has sent us 3 this year.

     Trumps point seems to be that recent illegal immigrants seem to be punching well above their weight, but Trump is a racist and his point should be discarded. Right?

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 12:31 pm

     
     

113. “The point is that the only coverage of that night were the Nazis, but Trump said he saw “very fine people” there. He couldn’t have, because no coverage of anything else on the night in question.”

     Paul, there is a lot to unpack in your statement.

     “The only coverage of that night were Nazis”
     “no coverage of anything else on the night in question”

     Paul, I speak about “nevertrumpers’ with disdain and I don’t feel that way about you, but I have disdain for the “coverage” and I have disdain for the nevertrumper trope that Trump never looks into things for himself, only midlessly watches snippets of TV, couldn’t possibly have known of people who were at Charlottesville who Trump believed are not white supremacist.

     My issue is with assertions of about the coverage, and the conclusions then reached.

     The media covered militias at the rally, and blanket represented them as racists, white supremacists.

     Media “experts” on militia usually begin and end with the SPLC but in an appalling moment of fairness the WP actually published this:
     https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/09/08/remember-those-militias-at-the-charlottesville-unite-the-right-rally-heres-what-they-believe/

     Sam Jackson is the militia expert in the article above and he noted this about one group:

     Jackson quotes Sociologist Amy Cooter as finding: “The prevalence of individual racism does not exceed what would likely be found in other gatherings of the same demographic.”

     “Michael Vanderboegh, founder of the anti-government Three Percenters movement, declared that he “fought white supremacists and neo-Nazis all my life.” And after the “Unite the Right” rally, a national body of Three Percenter leaders issued a public stand-down order, firmly disassociating itself from that rally’s racism, to keep from being “tainted by news outlets as they will most certainly report that we have aligned ourselves with white supremacists and Nazis.”

     Jackson goes on to say: “The militias that showed up in Charlottesville are prepared to use their firearms to defend America, which they believe to be under attack. For the most part, they want to protect political ideals, not (imagined) genetics.”

     I guess one view might be that there can’t be any good people in a militia, and another view might be that even if there were good people in a militia, Trump couldn’t, shouldn’t know about them, much less think there were good people amongst them in 2017

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 1:36 pm

     
     

114. BTW, the coverage of the Unite the Right rally did show different militia groups on that Saturday, and I’m sure there really were “very fine people” who were covered by the media on that day, but Trump said “and I looked the night before”, so his comment was full of sh-t.

     This is representative of Trump’s mentally screwed up pathology of never admitting error and never changing his story after the facts come in and prove he was making sh-t up. Like him putting a Sharpie to a hurricane map to include Alabama, because earlier he wrongly said the state was in the path of the hurricane. He’d rather use his will to distort reality to his fake storyline, and then his weak-minded and weak-willed devotees just go right along.

     Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/23/2024 @ 2:05 pm

     
     

115. Paul will double down forever.

     NJRob (412cbf) — 6/23/2024 @ 2:23 pm

     
     

116. Here is a link to 3% statement after Charlottesville
     https://www.thethreepercenters.org/single-post/2017/08/12/the-three-percenters-official-statement-regarding-the-violent-protests-in-charlottesville

     excerpt:
     The violent protests that occurred today happened when ANTIFA and BLM showed up to counter-protest against alt-right white supremacists and Nazi groups who were scheduled to gather in Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park to protest the city’s decision to remove a confederate statue there. While we support and defend everyone’s right to free speech, we will not align ourselves with any type of racist group. We cannot have this organization tainted by news outlets as they will most certainly report that we have aligned ourselves with white supremacists and Nazis. Furthermore, ANTIFA and BLM are currently protesting in other large cities now such as Memphis and Atlanta in response to the events that unfolded in Charlottesville today. Normally our response would be spin up teams to push back against protests by ANTIFA and BLM, but at this time we will not respond to these protests for the same reasons mentioned above. We strongly reject and denounce anyone who calls themselves a patriot or a Three Percenter that has attended or is planning on attending any type of protest or counter protest related to these white supremacist and Nazi groups.

     The 3% had been showing up at a variety of rallies up to and including Charlottesville. Some 3% had begun showing up around Trump rallies in 2016 to protect Trump rally attendees from Antifa/BLM violence

     Here is a link to the statement wherein the 3% movement disbands post Jan6

     excerpt:

     “It appears that other “Three Percenter” groups no longer hold the values and morals that we have held in our organization for so long. The DC riots and Capitol breach has hurt the patriot movement drastically and as a result brought an end to our organization. It’s quite unfortunate that we’ve come to this. The media refuses to differentiate between the different “Three Percenter” organizations and groups, leaving all of the fingers constantly pointing towards us. We were determined to always hold high standards and morals, and be an ensign to all other patriot groups to look to. Violence is never the answer and we have condemned those who fought with police and stormed the Capital on January 6th. In order to enact change the legal avenue is the only avenue and the only answer.”

     https://thethreepercenters.org/2021/02/ttpos-final-statement/21/

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 2:31 pm

     
     

117. Paul is a good guy.

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 2:34 pm

     
     

118. KevinM is a good guy too

     Being disagreeable within a disagreement is usually simply a snapshot of a moment in time whether it is Kevin, Paul or me. Well, for me, because I am always great. And right. There is more about me but I’m too humble to go on…

     “Justin is being disagreeable, which I see as a glimpse into the window of the deep dark diseased thing once remembered (by his mother, at his birth) as his soul”

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 2:56 pm

     
     

119. Somehow, somewhere, I see a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron if you will, between “Nevertrump” and “needing Trump to be”.

     Now if you were talking about the Democrats, that’s something else. They desperately need Trump and pray that he will prove enough.

     nk (bb1548) — 6/23/2024 @ 5:10 pm

     
     

120. Trump: To be or not to be. That IS the question.
     The Bard had it right:

     Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
     The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
     Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
     And by opposing end them?

     See, Donnie, a way out!

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 5:45 pm

     
     

121. “Nevertrump” and “needing Trump to be”

     Explains the current state of being of George Conway though

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 6:34 pm

     
     

122. Anna Paulina Luna(tic?) (R-FL)

     Wants to force a vote to hold Merrick Garland in “inherent contempt” of Congress and bypass the DOJ, which if successful would put poor bastard House Sergeant at Arms Bill (why me?) McFarland in the awkward spot of having to go arrest the Attorney General who is protected by armed FBI agents.

     I’m being derisive but am of two minds here. Part of me supports the AG answering to the people and spending a couple days under House arrest. Particularly because the claim of Executive privilege over the audio Garland encouraged is lame considering the transcript was released and presented as complete, accurate. Not sure if I want Garland Housed for being a dick about nuance, or for covering up the sanitization of a transcript lamely. Or both.
     It seems an odd thing to do that has at least the odor of partisanship to it because releasing the written transcript and then claiming executive privilege over the audio casts a shadow over the transcript and the people who wrote/sanitized(?) it.

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 7:03 pm

     
     

123. steve, I appreciate that. Except for a couple at most (and Kevin is not part of that couple), I like all the commenters here.

     Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 6/23/2024 @ 7:04 pm

     
     

124. It is a Presidential election year with two hot wars and a polarizing candidate. Stakes are higher than usual and will probably climb as outside actors like Russia, China, Iran, Ukraine, Israel, EU all try to manipulate emotions toward a preferred outcome (or a preferred chaos)

     There are many people here who treated me with forgiveness and respect I did not deserve- Dustin isn’t here a lot but I’ll praise him as a person who earned my loyalty and respect by being relentlessly kind, forgiving, longsuffering of my foolishness when I was dealing with stuff- and dealing with it very very poorly. The host of the site Patterico as well. He’s been very kind even though we are so different that I rarely completely understand him- and I mean that as a compliment

     It is Sunday and I was remembering teachings I’d heard about the times the Bible mentions the good heart and how God is drawn to those with a good heart. The encouragement being to develop that goodness, to live from that larger than me place. To live and act in a way that encourages others to do the same for the sake of something that is again, larger and more important than me but still something where my small bit of good hearted participation – for some odd reason – is indispensable to the success of the process. All those great epic stories through human history where all hangs in the balance and the one, or the few answer the bell and the collective group says we’ve got this. One of the greatest stories of good hearted participation and success of the process I’ve been able to see has been the USA warts and all. My cynical, old, cranky side sees what seems to be fewer and fewer good hearts amongst the participants which often ends in painful purgation, but we’ll see

     Tremendous gifts of good fortune, blessings whatever you want to call them to you all

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 11:47 pm

     
     

125. So, the debate: Who walks out? Biden? Trump? The moderators? The voters?

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:02 am

     
     

126. And Snopes is actually parsing this literally. He did not actually say that “Some Nazis are fine people.”

     Further, even though Unite the Right organized the demonstration, that does not mean that all the people they drew were part of that group or Nazis. Useful idiots abound.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:56 am

     Friday night kicked off with the organizers leading a large number of people down the street carrying torches and chanting “Blood and Soil, Blood and soil, Jews will not replace us.”

     I don’t think history buffs who are comfortable working shoulder to shoulder with that crowd are very fine people even if (and I’m being charitable here) their only motivation were a deep seated love of statuary.

     Time123 (bf9676) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:37 am

     
     

127. Every time I think about these debt increases, I feel like apologizing to younger Americans for the burden we are leaving them.

     By the numbers: Trump added $8.4 trillion in borrowing over a ten-year window, CRFB finds in a report out this morning.

     Biden’s figure clocks in at $4.3 trillion with seven months remaining in his term.

     If you exclude COVID relief spending from the tally, the numbers are $4.8 trillion for Trump and $2.2 trillion for Biden.

     Oh, and Social Security and Medicare will be going broke (though possibly not in my life time, since I turned 80 last year).

     (Incidentally, Megan McArdle recently noted that the current Social Security and Medicare projections assume a birth rate higher than any seen in the US since George W. Bush was president. So maybe the programs will go broke while I’m still alive. Unless we have a large increase in young worker immigrants.)

     Jim Miller (ca3e99) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:37 am

     
     

128. It doesn’t take much to establish a moral high ground WRT to Trump. Even a loose adherence to the teachings of Jesus and the rule of his Church will get you there. From a Christian standpoint the man is unrepentantly sinful and vile.

     Also, Trump doings and saying racist things goes back decades. His actions around the Central Park 5, while well before my time, are clear. His statements about Latino’s in the modern political arena speak pretty clearly as does his collaboration with the ‘alt right’

     nevertrumpers and other members of the left need Trump to be a racist because they know that it is bad to hate, but hatred of a racist is understandable, forgivable and they can give themselves a pass if the object of their guilty pleasure is a racist.
     Building a moral high ground for oneself is made much faster by mimicking earthworks and using cut and fill. Once the faux high ground is established, the way to maintain and enhance ones elevation above the other is to cut and dig the other lower because god forbid one would have to stand on ones own merits

     steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 11:11 am

     Time123 (bf9676) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:44 am

     
     

129. Steve, I don’t know much about the 3% group, but good for them on taking a principled stand. I hope they’re able to find ways to drive their policy goals.

     Time123 (bf9676) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:45 am

     
     

130. #125

     If anyone walks from the debate, it will be Trump. He will be upset that his mike is dead when he wants to interrupt and disrupt Biden, and this is his way to make the debate about him in a way that keeps him from looking weak.

     If Biden is not the declning old man often portrayed, he should show that by responding to Trump directly and summarizing Trump’s off topic remarks. Biden needs to show mental acuity (if any) and highlight his opponent’s periodic wierdness.

     Trump can’t interrupt Biden and has no crowd to boo, hiss and drown Joe. Biden will not get a better chance to personally take it to Trump — and given concerns about his age, he needs to do it. (Too bad “Well, there you go again” has been used. )

     Appalled (4eddcf) — 6/24/2024 @ 8:21 am

     
     

131. Their only positive goal will be to motivate their die-hard supporters to get out and vote. Everybody already knows them both for what they are and there is nothing either can do to change anybody’s opinion of them except for the worse.

     nk (bb1548) — 6/24/2024 @ 8:47 am

     
     

132. re Muslims across the river cheering when the towers came down. There was no such video anywhere.

     184. Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/23/2024 @ 9:53 am

     Well, which river? The Jordan?

     I think the Hudson.

     A couple of years after 9/11. a story in TIME magazine (reprinted on page 443 of the TIME 2006 Almanac) placed Trump in Chicago on September 11, 2001. Adrian D. Smith, a Chicago architect, is quoted as a source

     He was supposedly going to come to an agreement to build the world’s tallest building, but then this happened and they went into a room and watched TV. That has not been explained.

     Actually what happened was that a couple of Israeli who haad overstayed their visas pwere photographing the destruction (or possibly some Arabs in New Jersey) and false complaints were maade against them and they were arrested,

     Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:17 am

     
     

133. What Trump says has less connection to reality than his hair has to his scalp.

     nk (bb1548) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:23 am

     
     

134. Trump was talking about supporters and opponents of taking down the statue, not the people who turned out..

     Even if wrong about the crowd, even if he was deliberately wrong, the premise of his remarks was that this was a gathering of all kinds of people.

     Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:23 am

     
     

135. nk

     Biden is assumed to be senile by a lot of voters. This is his one chance to prove otherwise in an environment that is not obviously rigged. I also think that Trump cannot do the electric battery boats that are eaten by sharks or Hannibal Lecter moment in this debate, without it having some kind of impact.

     Appalled (4eddcf) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:29 am

     
     

136. Jim Miller (ca3e99) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:37 am

     So maybe the programs will go broke while I’m still alive.

     Social Security is projected to run out of money in eight years. (Well, I see eleven years)

     That means the “trust fund” will be exhausted and if nothing is done benefits will be reduced by about a quarter. Or is it 1/6?)

     https://www.cnbc.com/select/will-social-security-run-out-heres-what-you-need-to-know

     The financial future of the more than 70 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits is slightly more secure than anticipated, according to the agency’s annual trustees report, released May 6: The trust fund reserves used to pay beneficiaries are projected to become insolvent in 2035, a year later than previously projected.

     Social Security will still exist after 2035, according to the trustees’ findings, but retirees will only receive 83% of their full benefits.

     MEDICARE is supposed to run into trouble before that. (or is it later?)

     https://www.crfb.org/blogs/social-security-and-medicare-trustees-release-2024-reportsv

     The Trustees project that both the Social Security and Medicare trust funds are within 12 years of insolvency and in need of trust fund solutions. Specifically, they project the Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will run out of reserves in 2033, the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund will become insolvent by 2036, and the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund will remain solvent over the 75-year projection window. Assuming revenue is reallocated in the years between OASI and SSDI insolvency, the theoretically combined Social Security trust funds will be insolvent by 2035.

     The estimates keep on changing.

     Unless we have a large increase in young worker immigrants.)

     They can even be illegal, as long as Social Security tax is collected.

     The trouble with legalizing them is that Republicans have an argument that that is replacement (and that’s bad because of the culture and, most important, they won’t vote for Republicans if they become citizens, because the Republican Party opposes all immigration while the evil Democrats, who supposedly know it’s bad. want more Democratic voters) and also the fallacy that the number of jobs created is independent of the number of people looking for them.

     All politicians play that game of counting jobs created, but you cannot make any half reasonable projection without assuming that the number of jobs created is normally proportional to the number of people looking for work!

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 10:43 am

     
     

137. Here’s my new favorite tune, a little sing-song love ditty.

     Paul Montagu (383f45) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:05 am

     
     

138. The June 27 debate, starting at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT/6 p.m. PDT. will be simulcast on many networks. It’s being made available by CNN but on the condition that the CNN logos will remain (a small spot is being left for the other broadcaster to put its own logo on.) Also it is supposed to be referred to as the “CNN Presidential Debate. It’s a bit like it is advertising for CNN.

     CNN itself will make the debate available live on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Max and will stream without a cable login necessary on CNN.com.

     It will be on a lot of cable channels including C-SPAN, and, I think, the CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS broadcast networks (not sure about Fox over the air) which will precede it and follow it with their own debate related shows.

     In addition there will be some live blogging and on the radio, at least Bloomberg (1130 AM in New York) and C-SPAN Radio (90.1 WCSP-FM in Washington, D.C.)

     There will be two 3 1/2 minute commercial breaks. Other networks can run their own commercials then, but they can’t put on their news staff.

     During the breaks nobody will be allowed to approach the podium to give any help to the candidates. The candidates cannot take anything with them but they can make notes while the other or the moderator is speaking.

     There is supposed to be a second debate on September 10 produced by ABC, and the Biden and Trump campaigns are arguing over who should produce a Vice presidential debate (Trump wants FOX, Biden wants CBS) Biden got ahead of Trump by accepting a July 23 or Aug. 13 date from CBS.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:13 am

     
     

139. The ADL has a profile on the Three Percenters. Although they joined the white nationalists at Charlottesville, they’ve since distanced themselves from those racists.

     Paul Montagu (383f45) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:20 am

     
     

140. Time123 (bf9676) — 6/24/2024 @ 7:44 am

     Also, Trump doings and saying racist things goes back decades. His actions around the Central Park 5, while well before my time, are clear.

     Everybody thought they were guilty. Trump was arguing for the death penalty for rape even if it did not result in death or maybe Trump thought she would die.

     Trump was staking out a tough-on-crime position that would sound reasonable, but that nobody else would take. He had political ambitions.

     The situation was a classic case of the “prisoner’s dilemma” for which to happen, neither of the two (or five) need to be guilty.

     Each boy wanted to clear himself of responsibility for the murder (and the rape) while confessing to being part of a gang attack. They confessed to witnessing what they had not witnessed. They wanted to be believed by the detectives and they would change their story to make it more believable.

     There were more than five. But some did not confess.

     They really had attacked people in the park – otherwise the prisoner’s dilemma wouldn’t have worked – it’s just that none of them were involved in the rape.

     At the time of the confessions it was thought the Central Park jogger would die.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:28 am

     
     

141. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/19/media/wikipedia-adl/index.html

     Wikipedia now labels the top Jewish civil rights group as an unreliable source

     And not for a good, or impartially applied, reason. Wikipedia just shows its own bias.

     Wikipedia’s editors declared that the Anti-Defamation League cannot be trusted to give reliable information on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and they overwhelmingly said the ADL is an unreliable source on antisemitism. It’s a stunning rebuke to one of the world’s preeminent authorities on anti-Jewish hate and a significant advocate for the rights and causes of American Jews.

     The editors, a group of volunteer moderators for one of the world’s most popular information websites, voted last week to label the ADL as a “generally unreliable” source on the Israel-Palestine conflict. That means that the ADL should usually not be cited in Wikipedia articles on that topic except for extraordinary circumstances. Other generally unreliable sources, according to Wikipedia editors, include Russian state media, Fox News’ political coverage and Amazon reviews.

     The ADL also faces a vote from Wikipedia editors to potentially label the organization as unreliable on the topic of antisemitism. The editors overwhelmingly support that label but continue to debate the decision, which could ultimately deal a blow to the credibility of the leading source of research and information on antisemitism. JTA was first to report the vote.

     There the problem may be the definition of anti-Semitism.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:36 am

     
     

142. steveg (5f4d7f) — 6/23/2024 @ 11:47 pm

     It is a Presidential election year with two hot wars

     There’s more than two hot wars, but nobody’s paying much attention to the war in the Sudan; little to the wars in the Sahel;, and almost none at all to what’s going on in the Congo or in Burma and only incidental attention to the chaos in Haiti.

     Part of the reason may be that the two or more parties are not independent states.

     https://www.foreignaffairs.com/sudan/sudans-manmade-famine

     https://www.rescue.org/article/crisis-mali-what-you-need-know-and-how-help

     https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo

     https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/21/world/americas/haiti-gangs-segonn-5.html

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:50 am

     
     

143. The other day President Biden couldn’t remember the name of his Secretary if Homeland Security. He realized he didn’t, mumbled some syllables and then said something to the effect that it didn’t matter and went on.

     https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-appears-freeze-up-forget-homeland-securitys-name-during-white-house-event-all-kidding-aside

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 11:56 am

     
     

144. 67/ Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/22/2024 @ 7:43 am

     The primary cause of heat in summer is summer.

     We used to have 90 degree heat waves in New York in May. This doesn’t seem to be happening now. It usually can get very hot around the 4th of July.

     What the climate alarmists are saying is that there might be a few more heat waves now.

     Ignored is the trivial effect of any changes. or the fact that America cannot serve as an example unless the alternative is also cheaper and the possibility of various forms of geo-engineering, which they try to take off the table, except for burning less carbon which is geo-engineering that’s guaranteed not to work.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:05 pm

     
     

145. Someone wrote about the Urban Heat Island Effect. Says tha=at the difference between different places in the same city is more than they thought – can reach 15 degrees Fahrenheit even – and that the principal differences are not caused by concrete but by the presence and absence of trees.

     Trees not only provide shade they cool the air.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:08 pm

     
     

146. Supreme Court watch:

     Court to hear case on TN’s ban on “gender-affirming care”

     Still open: 6 petitions variously challenging IL’s gun bans/restrictions.

     See scotusblog for petitions as of 6/20. A few of these are now on the docket for next year, others may be soon.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:39 pm

     
     

147. The 2025 ‘Tax Armageddon’

     Democrats in Congress say they’ll hold middle-class tax cuts hostage to a huge overall tax increase.

     That headline isn’t our phrase. It comes from Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, who like other Senate Democrats has been laying out in public the party’s tax strategy for the next Congress. Democrats are saying out loud that they plan to use the scheduled expiration of the 2017 tax cuts at the end of 2025 to insist on the largest tax increase in history.

     “The main goal here is this can’t just be a debate about the 2017 tax cuts,” Mr. Warner told Bloomberg. “This is going to be Tax Armageddon.”

     Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, who runs the Finance Committee, on Thursday revived his pitch to tax the appreciation of assets for those with at least $100 million in income. Mr. Wyden plans to run through the door on wealth taxes that the Supreme Court left open Thursday in its lamentable decision in Moore v. U.S.

     Mr. Wyden floated his version of a wealth tax in 2021 to pay for President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. Opposition from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema scuttled the $4.8 trillion bill, but both are leaving the Senate.

     Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week said she’ll hold the middle-class tax cuts that expire in 2025 hostage if Republicans don’t agree to soak corporations and people who earn more money than she thinks they deserve. “Better to let all the Trump tax cuts expire than be accomplices to another slash-and-burn tax bonanza for America’s billionaires,” she said. Her plan also includes a 2% annual tax on the net worth of households with more than $50 million in assets.

     Elections have consequences.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:48 pm

     
     

148. There’s more than two hot wars, but nobody’s paying much attention to the war in the Sudan; little to the wars in the Sahel;, and almost none at all to what’s going on in the Congo or in Burma and only incidental attention to the chaos in Haiti.

     Not our problems.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:59 pm

     
     

149. Elections have consequences.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 12:48 pm

     Nothing to worry about; Wyden’s and Warren’s tax proposals have a less than zero chance of passing the Senate, let alone the House.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:04 pm

     
     

150. Russian missiles kill 10,000 Ukrainians. Ukrainian missiles kill 4 Russians. Putin says Russian will hit US targets in response.

     Walking on eggshells isn’t working.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:11 pm

     
     

151. Nothing to worry about; Wyden’s and Warren’s tax proposals have a less than zero chance of passing the Senate, let alone the House.

     Just like Obamacare had no chance of passing, and besides the Supreme Court wouldn’t allow it.

     Pardon me if I call this “wishcasting”

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:13 pm

     
     

152. If the Democrats win the White House they will hold the Senate and win the House. They have announced they intend to kill the filibuster. Connect the dots.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:15 pm

     
     

153. If the Democrats win the White House they will hold the Senate and win the House. They have announced they intend to kill the filibuster. Connect the dots.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:15 pm

     Now that is wishcasting. LOL!

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:21 pm

     
     

154. Maria Kramer interview with George Lattimore, opponent of Jamal Bowman (Bowman has refused requests to appear on that show)

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp50_LELFMw&list=PLeAhy4TE2-hUT-PZ 1CoBLR6Fv8elQHQnW&index=3

     I saw an independent ad against Bowman hat referred to honoring a cop killer at the school where he was principal and about praising a person who was an anti-Semite. Undoubtedly true, although those things were probably not his excuse for honoring them

     Bowman was at a rally organized perhaps by AOC (who also has a primary campaign she’s not likely to lose) held in a part of the Bronx outside his district where maybe 50 people attended – it was done for the cameras – where he called Israel’s campaign in Gaza “genocide” (but he’s apologized a few days ago for calling reports of rapes and child murders by Hamas on October 7 lies) and used a lot of foul language He also criticized the fact of Jews living in Jewish communities (I think in the context of not wanting to campaign there).

     He’s reported losing by 17 points. It may be bigger. There’s been a lot of early voting. The problem was why he managed to get elected in the first place

     There is no primary election of any kind where I
     live. The United States Senate primaries were cancelled.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:24 pm

     
     

155. Russian missiles kill 10,000 Ukrainians. Ukrainian missiles kill 4 Russians. Putin says Russian will hit US targets in response.

     Walking on eggshells isn’t working.

     So what else is new-Putin has threatened the West dozens of times since his war began, and always failed to follow through. Why should this time be different?

     My guess is the West wouldn’t mind Putin doing something rash-it could galvanize support for retaliation. Right now the vast majority of American voters could care less what happens in Ukraine.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:31 pm

     
     

156. There seems to be a nationwide movement in the last two weeks or less to disrupt or attack events known to the public involving Jews or Israel or alleged support for Israel.

     Does somebody know something about a coming escalation in the war?

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:32 pm

     
     

157. Does somebody know something about a coming escalation in the war?

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:32 pm

     It’s hidden in plain sight-Israel has openly discussed in recent weeks about invading Lebanon (again) to attack Hezbollah.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:35 pm

     
     

158. The problem was why he managed to get elected in the first place

     In 2020 his district was mostly the Bronx. In 2022 redistricitng left him with a choice of running in southern Westchester county in “his” 16th district or running against Ritchie Torres in the 15th (now most of the Bronx).

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 1:42 pm

     
     

159. Sad!

     A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.

     In an “emergency” motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to “conduct an orderly wind-down” of the operations of Infowars’ parent company and “liquidate its inventory.” Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
     ……….
     Murray also asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to put an immediate hold on the Sandy Hook families’ efforts to collect the massive amount Jones owes them. Murray said those efforts would interfere with his plans to close the parent company, Free Speech Systems in Austin, Texas, and sell off its assets — with much of the proceeds going to the families.
     ………
     “The Trustee seeks this Court’s intervention to prevent a value-destructive money grab and allow an orderly process to take its course,” Murray said.
     ……….
     Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, according to the most recent financial filings in court. Free Speech Systems has about $6 million in cash on hand and about $1.2 million worth of inventory, according to recent court testimony.
     ……….

     I expect that Jones will become Steve Bannon’s War Room substitute host when Bannon is unable to podcast from the Big House.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:01 pm

     
     

160. Yes, but for The “Arab” side to begin preparing
     protests seems to indicate an intention by Hezbollah to escalate.

     Hezbollah is getting bolder. Israel isn’t that near to launching an attack, and to extent that it’s moving closer, it’s Hezbollah’s escalation that’s pushing it.. The Israeli military was pushing for a deadline of September to get a peaceful enough situation do that the inhabitants of the northernmost parts of Israel could return to their homes..

     https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/hezbollah-iranian-backed-group-war-israel-111379953

     What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group that could go to all-out war against Israel?

     Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are threatening all-out war

     By KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press
     June 24, 2024, 3:10 PM

     BEIRUT — After more than eight months of low-scale conflict, Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are threatening all-out war.

     The United States and the international community are lobbying for calm and hopeful for a diplomatic solution. They have not been successful so far and time for a political settlement could be expiring.

     Should war break out, Israel would face a much more formidable foe in Lebanon than it faced in Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

     Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallahwarned Israel last week that his group has new weapons and capabilities, and it has published surveillance drone footage taken deep inside northern Israel that showed the port of Haifa and other sites far from the Lebanon-Israel border.

     here’s some controversy in Israel about why they didn’t shoot down the drone. The IDF said they didn’t want to panic the public. ?? Were they hoping to hide it?

     There have also been offers from the Houthis and others to send troops to Lebanon. Hezbollah says they have enough men. (they have missiles)

     The United States is trying to stave it off with diplomacy that’d kind of worthless.. (who cares about the Litani River now?)

     Israel’s Defense Minister is visiting the United States. (I wonder if they still believe that Netanyahu is the war hawk)

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:04 pm

     
     

161. Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying for about ten years that it is 1938 or 1939.

     Now at last it is 1939, or perhaps 1940.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:06 pm

     
     

162. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4734305-us-diplomacy-lebanon-hezbollah-israel

     Hezbollah has tied its daily cross-border rocket and artillery fire into northern Israel to the Israeli military operations in Gaza. But with no end in sight to the war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the conflict in Lebanon inches closer to a crisis.

     I think the problem is the opposite: That it could come to an end, unfavorably for Hamas, or at last Sinwar might be killed.

     All that has to happen now maybe is for Egyptian officials to be warned to keep their distance from him lest they be finished along with him.

     The United States is supplying intelligence (coming form pictures by drones or satellites or electronic intercepts etc) with the proviso that it could only be used to free hostages or to target the highest echelons of Hamas.

     Which I
     Israel is likely to honor if only because of the sensitivity o the intelligence.

     And The U.S government wants Israel to target the top leadership of Hamas, thinking that the war will end that way

     Not if Iran has anything to say about it.

     Even if you think that nobody in Gaza besides Sinwar or his closest associates wants to fight on because who in his right mind would want to continue fighting when they could save their lives, at least temporarily and save some of their city state from being destroyed?

     Iran has other proxies at its disposal.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:10 pm

     
     

163. https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-805827

     ‘We have the Israelis where we want them’: Sinwar’s words revealed – WSJ report

     According to a Wall Street Journal report, Yahya Sinwar has been in direct contact with Hamas leaders in Qatar, saying civilian casualties are “necessary sacrifices.

     …In a message to Hamas leaders in Qatar, Sinwar presented as an example the civilian casualties during the Algerian war, affirming such casualties “are necessary sacrifices.”

     In a similar vein, when the three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed in an Israel Air Force (IAF) strike in Gaza in April, Sinwar affirmed both their deaths and that of other Palestinians would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor.”

     Regarding civilian women and children being taken hostages by Palestinian mobs on October 7, the WSJ report cites his messages to negotiators as saying, “Things went out of control.”
     “People got caught up in this, and that shouldn’t have happened,” he claimed.

     Sinwar was also reportedly discontent with Hamas officials meeting with other factions [I think this means Fatah] in December to debate reconciliation after the war, which he labeled “shameful and outrageous.”

     He reportedly added, “As long as fighters are still standing and we have not lost the war, such contacts should be immediately terminated.” He further stated, “We have the capabilities to continue fighting for months.”

     Referring to a ground operation in Rafah, Sinwar wrote to Hamas leaders in Qatar that “Israel’s journey in Rafah won’t be a walk in the park.”

     The WSJ report also noted that Sinwar’s recent messages to Hamas allies illustrate an inclination to die while fighting. He equated the Gaza war to the battle of Karbala in Iraq, which occurred in the 7th century and in which the grandson of the prophet Muhammed was killed. “We have to move forward on the same path we started,” Sinwar said. “Or let it be a new Karbala.”

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:19 pm

     
     

164. An example of what (new) is going on:

     https://nypost.com/2024/06/23/us-news/nyc-jewish-family-pummeled-at-5th-grade-commencement-by-attendees-shouting-free-palestine-mom-says/

     This involves the graduation ceremony for a special school where the graduation went off without trouble.

     There was an Arabic speaking family and a Jewish woman married to a Dominican Catholic whose twin 19=0pyear daughters were graduating.

     One student marched across the stage wearing his graduate cap marked “Free Palestine” and waving a small Palestinian flag. This was allowed on the grounds it was only speech. The woman’s mother (the grandma) walked out.

     After the event concluded, Lana and Johan started to take pictures with their two kids in front of a PS 682 banner and balloons when relatives of the boy with the flag tried to push them out of the way, she said.

     “We told them there was space for both families,” Lana said. “An older man turned to us and said ‘Free Palestine!’ for no reason. My husband told him this was not the time or place for that but the man cursed at him in Arabic, and shouted, “Free Palestine, Gaza is Ours, Death to Israel.”

     They don’t even know what the war is about.

     While Johan argued with the older man and told him to back off, another man “just came out of nowhere, punched me in the head and it was a scuffle,” he said. “From there, I don’t remember, because there was so much going on and so many people on top of me. Then I was put on a chokehold. Somebody was holding my leg. It was chaotic.”

     Their 16-year- old son tried to help his dad, but he was punched in the face.

     Lana walked toward her son and managed to record a glimpse of the scene with her cell phone — capturing a group holding her husband down, jostling and loud shrieks — before she, too, was assaulted.

     “A woman from the group came up from behind me, pulled me by the hair, and knocked me down on the ground, shouting, ‘I will kill you,’” she said.

     Lana screamed, “Call the cops! Call the cops!”

     No security was on site. Two male teachers rushed over to break up the attack.
     Johan was taken to Maimonides Medical Center with scrapes, bruises and swelling on his head, face and body, photos show. Lana suffered a gash on her leg. Their teen son had a bloody nose.

     Cops made one arrest: Ez-Al Dean Bazar, 26, who punched and dragged Johan, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. The complaint makes no mention of his motive.

     Bazar was released on his own recognizance. He and his lawyer did not return messages seeking comment.

     The family had trouble getting the NYPD to classify that as a hate crime./

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:29 pm

     
     

165. hat was Saturday.

     On Sunday posted on lamppost about half a mile away (on the NW corner of Avenue O and W 7th St) was a was apiece of paper with the words written on it in black pen (filled out letters and with the words Palestine and Enemies misspelled)

     VICTORY TO
     PALISTINE
     DEATH TO
     OUR ENIMIES

     and with a color picture of man wearing Tefillin cut out from a newspaper attached. He looks a little like Netanyahu maybe 30 years ago.

     On the other side of the newspaper was some article apparently stating that (many years from now) people would ask Grandpa what did you do to stop the Islamists so somebody knew the other side of the story. The paper is cut before the end of a column on that side.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:38 pm

     
     

166. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/23/middleeast/intense-phase-hamas-war-end-netanyahu-lebanon-intl-latam/index.html

     ‘Intense phase of war with Hamas about to end,’ focus to shift to Lebanon border, Netanyahu says`

     ..an, Israel. Jack Guez/Pool/Getty Images
     CNN
     —
     Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the “intense phase of the war with Hamas (in Gaza) is about to end,” and that the military’s focus could then shift to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks.

     Netanyahu, however, vowed that Israel would continue operating in Gaza until the militant group Hamas was eliminated.

     “It doesn’t mean that the war is going to end, but the war in its current stage is going to end in Rafah. This is true. We will continue mowing the grass later,” Netanyahu told Channel 14 Television in his first one-on-one interview with local Israeli media since October 7.

     Mowing the grass is the phrase sedd to describe Israel’s policy with regard to aza before October 7.

     Netanyahu also weighed in on the ongoing negotiations to end the war, saying he was ready to make “a partial deal” with Hamas to return some hostages still being held captive in Gaza, but reiterating his position that the war will still continue after a ceasefire “to achieve the goal of eliminating” Hamas.

     “I’m not ready to give that up,” Netanyahu said.

     Netanyahu’s comments were at odds with the aims of a broader proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden last month. That plan, which the US has said is an Israeli one, sets out conditions intended to lead to the eventual release of all remaining hostages, in return for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces.

     Israel, really, really, does not want to occupy gaza.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/24/2024 @ 2:43 pm

     
     

167. Julian Assange accepts plea deal to end US charges

     Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, agreed to plead guilty on Monday to a single felony count of illegally disseminating national security material in exchange for his release from a British prison, ending his long and bitter standoff with the United States.

     Mr. Assange, 52, was granted his request to appear before a federal judge at one of the more remote outposts of the federal judiciary, the courthouse in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, according to a court filing made public late Monday. It was a fitting twist in the case against Mr. Assange, who doggedly opposed extradition to the U.S. mainland….

     Barring last-minute snags, the deal would bring to an end a prolonged battle that began after Mr. Assange became alternately celebrated and reviled for revealing state secrets in the 2010s….

     The agreement was not unexpected. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia suggested that U.S. prosecutors needed to conclude the case, and President Biden signaled that he was open to a rapid resolution. Top officials at the Justice Department accepted an agreement with no additional prison time because Mr. Assange had already served longer than most people charged with a similar offense — in this case, over five years in prison in Britain.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 4:34 pm

     
     

168. Israel, really, really, does not want to occupy gaza.

     There are those that do, but without any Gazans.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/24/2024 @ 4:35 pm

     
     

169. Paul

     The 3% did not “join” the white supremacists. They regularly mobilized to protests and counter protests usually as a presence against Antifa. They showed up in a Guardian Angel role.
     I am sure there were a few loons in the group – it’d be more remarkable if there were not, Antifa has some loons.

     This is news to no one, but street violence, street protests draw a unique crowd of characters- many without any character. The people who get arrested usually have had previous contact with law enforcement, the people who get shot usually have had contact with law enforcement.
     The people without criminal history tend to be live action role players like the people Rittenhouse was hanging with.
     Its the Mos Eisley Cantina crowd.

     Street protests are great places for people with antisocial personality disorders (sociopath) to find each other, hang out, do some drugs, break and steal stuff. 2016 was like a 4 month long convention for them
     Same goes for the LARP guys

     steveg (e97f24) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:22 pm

     
     

170. Looks like I got the Pastor Morris thing all wrong. Keyword all.

     Should have used the “wait a week” rule

     steveg (e97f24) — 6/24/2024 @ 9:51 pm

     
     

171. I remember when Atlanta was not the hub of Presidential campaign activity. I was planning to go to trivia with friends out in the suburbs on Thursday. Since my path would take me past CNN, that plan is out the window. Guess I’ll watch the debate instead.

     Meanwhile, things are not completely dead on the Fani Willis prosecution front:

     https://www.ajc.com/politics/analysis-a-determined-judge-vows-to-keep-trump-case-moving/IPBJBPSKWZACXFCXAKHFEPMQZM/

     (Previously posted at wrong Open thread)

     Appalled (843fba) — 6/25/2024 @ 8:54 am

     
     

172. (Previously posted at wrong Open thread)

     Maybe a date on the title?

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 9:54 am

     
     

173. LA Times: Get ready, California. Geothermal energy has finally arrived

     Geothermal startup Fervo Energy — which has spent seven years perfecting lower-cost drilling techniques, with financial backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and other investors — announced its largest contract to date, a milestone 15-year deal to sell 320 megawatts of climate-friendly power to Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest utility companies.

     That’s enough electricity to power 350,000 homes. It will be available to Edison customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

     “This is a technology that is bankable, ready for prime time,” Fervo’s chief executive, Tim Latimer, said in an interview.

     But wait…

     US Fish & Wildlife Service

     Air and water pollution are two leading environmental issues associated with geothermal energy technologies. Additional concerns are the safe disposal of hazardous waste, siting and land subsidence. Most geothermal power plants require a large amount of water for cooling or other purposes. This need could raise conflicts with other users or uses such as fish spawning and rearing in areas where water is in short supply. Steam vented at the surface may contain hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide. Dissolved solids discharged from geothermal systems include sulfur, chlorides, silica compounds, vanadium, arsenic, mercury, nickel and other toxic heavy metals. All of these releases, if concentrated, can create localized fish and wildlife kills.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 9:58 am

     
     

174. Mr. Assange, 52, was granted his request to appear before a federal judge at one of the more remote outposts of the federal judiciary, the courthouse in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands……..

     I would have preferred Gitmo.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 11:37 am

     
     

175. Compromise: Utqiagvik, AK

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 11:43 am

     
     

176. In other state establishment of religion news:

     ……….
     Tuesday’s 6-2 decision (by the Oklahoma Supreme Court) marks a significant victory for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who pressed justices in April to reverse a state charter board’s approval to open the publicly funded St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

     Conservative groups have rushed to St. Isidore’s defense with the hope of creating a test case that changes the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause — and advances a new form of public education supporters argue will advance religious freedom and school choice.

     But state justices ordered the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to rescind its contract with the religious charter school, declaring the agreement an unconstitutional violation of both state and federal law.

     “Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school,” justices wrote in the majority’s ruling. “As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian. However, St. Isidore wil evangelize the Catholic faith as part of its school curriculum while sponsored by the State. This State’s establishment of a religious charter school violates Oklahoma statutes, the Oklahoma Constitution, and the Establishment Clause.”

     The school has been pushing to start operations by July 1. But justices wrote St. Isidore cannot justify its creation by invoking its rights to the free exercise of religion. The school exists because of its charter with the state and would function as a component of Oklahoma’s public school system, they said.

     “This decision is a tremendous victory for religious liberty,” Drummond said in a statement. “The framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who drafted Oklahoma’s Constitution clearly understood how best to protect religious freedom: by preventing the State from sponsoring any religion at all. Now Oklahomans can be assured that our tax dollars will not fund the teachings of Sharia Law or even Satanism.”
     ……….

     Related:

     A group of individuals, including religious leaders, teachers and parents whose children are in Louisiana public schools filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to stop the state from enforcing a new policy that would require classrooms statewide to prominently display the Ten Commandments in schools.

     Plaintiffs, who are represented by several civil liberties groups, are asking the Western District of Louisiana to declare the law is unconstitutional and block it before it takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.
     ………
     In the lawsuit filed Monday, plaintiffs say through that requiring schools to post the 10 Commandments is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Students have the right to not be forced into any religion in their school and only parents should choose which beliefs their children will be exposed to, the plaintiffs say.

     “Upwards of 680,000 students are enrolled in more than 1,300 public elementary and secondary schools across the state,” plaintiffs say in the lawsuit.

     Under the bill, plaintiffs warn in the lawsuit, “all of these students will be forcibly subjected to scriptural dictates, day in and day out.”

     “The state’s main interest in passing H.B. 71 was to impose religious beliefs on public-school children, regardless of the harm to students and families,” plaintiffs said in their complaint.
     ……….
     “This new law doesn’t just interfere with my and my children’s religious freedom, it tramples on it,” Plaintiff Jeff Simms, a Presbyterian minister who has children in Louisiana public schools, said during a press conference Monday.

     “The separation of church and state means that families get to decide if, when and how their children should be introduced to religious Scripture and texts, not the state,” Simms added.
     ………..
     “The law’s primary sponsor and author, Representative Dodie Horton, proclaimed during debate over the bill that it ‘seeks to have a display of God’s law in the classroom for children to see what He says is right and what He says is wrong.’”
     ……….
     “My children are legally required to attend school, and they are there to learn math, science math, but they are not there to be evangelized,” (Simms) said.
     ……….
     Plaintiffs, all of whom have children in the Louisiana public school system, identify as Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious.
     ………

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 11:59 am

     
     

177. I would have preferred Gitmo.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 11:37 am

     Compromise: Utqiagvik, AK

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 11:43 am

     Alaska is part of the United States, which would give Assange the full range of legal protections. Gitmo for the most part is a legal no man’s land. Prisoners held there do not have the usual constitutional rights. What happens in Guantanamo Bay stays in Guantanamo Bay.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:19 pm

     
     

178. Except he would probably not agree to Gitmo.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:39 pm

     
     

179. Students have the right to not be forced into any religion in their school and only parents should choose which beliefs their children will be exposed to, the plaintiffs say.

     If only. Do the CA schools still have Malcolm X Day celebrations?

     Separate School and State.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:41 pm

     
     

180. “This decision is a tremendous victory for religious liberty,” Drummond said in a statement. “The framers of the U.S. Constitution and those who drafted Oklahoma’s Constitution clearly understood how best to protect religious freedom: by preventing the State from sponsoring any religion at all. Now Oklahomans can be assured that our tax dollars will not fund the teachings of Sharia Law or even Satanism.”

     The Blaine Amendments still live. Pretending to be even-handed on moral and religious instruction, the secular humanists fiercely guard their established pulpit. It used to be Protestants, but the same fervor.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:46 pm

     
     

181. Students have the right to not be forced into any religion in their school and only parents should choose which beliefs their children will be exposed to, the plaintiffs say.

     If only. Do the CA schools still have Malcolm X Day celebrations?

     Only in Oakland and Berkeley.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:10 pm

     
     

182. Except he would probably not agree to Gitmo.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:39 pm

     I’m sure most prisoners at Gitmo haven’t agreed to go.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:15 pm

     
     

183. This is interesting: New NM poll: Biden 48%, Trump 41% or a 7% advantage with 11% undecided. MoE 4.2%.

     This is closer than 2020, when Biden won by 11%. Other questions indicate that much of the vote is based on who people despise more (50% disapprove Biden, 57% disapprove Trump).

     Independents split 43-41 for Trump. Trump is getting 31% of non-white and/or Hispanic vote.

     Polling by PPP, a Democrat organization, so it might even be closer.

     New Mexico is theoretically in play.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:16 pm

     
     

184. I’m sure most prisoners at Gitmo haven’t agreed to go.

     It depends on what choices were offered.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:17 pm

     
     

185. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:19 pm

     Alaska is part of the United States, which would give Assange the full range of legal protections. Gitmo for the most part is a legal no man’s land.

     That was the original idea, but I think the Supreme Court ruled it is just like the 50 states. But even afterwards, Congress people demagogued about taking unindicted terrorists to the United States and that has been forbidden by law.. Nobody new has been sent to Guantanamo Bay in over 15 years.

     According to the New York Times (updated May 24) approximately 780 prisoners were taken to Guantanamo since 2002. Thirty remain. Sixteen are held in law-of-war detention but have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements to another country. Three are being held in indefinite law-of-war detention and are neither facing tribunal charges nor being recommended for release. The remaining eleven have been charged with war crimes in the military commissions system of which
     seven are awaiting trial and one has been convicted (pleaded guilty I think and will be released when they find a place to send him).

     Prisoners held there do not have the usual constitutional rights.

     They don’t, but only because they are prisoners of war or unlawful combatants.

     Putting them on trial has become a legal quagmire because of the issue of using statements that were made after being tortured or being forced to speak and answer questions. Many people taken there were minor figures but releasing them in a problem because the United States both wants to ensure they will not be free to engage in terrorism and also will not be arrested and tortured by the country to which they are sent. Nobody can be sent to Yemen because of the war. And then judges quit before they finish anything.

     What happens in Guantanamo Bay stays in Guantanamo Bay.

     To a considerable degree, because of limited visitation and the issue of classified information.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:28 pm

     
     

186. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 12:19 pm

     Alaska is part of the United States, which would give Assange the full range of legal protections. Gitmo for the most part is a legal no man’s land.

     That was the original idea, but I think the Supreme Court ruled it is just like the 50 states. But even afterwards, Congress people demagogued about taking unindicted terrorists to the United States and that has been forbidden by law.. Nobody new has been sent to Guantanamo Bay in over 15 years.

     According to the New York Times (updated May 24 this year) approximately 780 prisoners were taken to Guantanamo since the first in 2002. Thirty remain. Sixteen are held in law-of-war detention but have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements to another country. Three are being held in indefinite law-of-war detention and are neither facing tribunal charges nor being recommended for release. The remaining eleven have been charged with war crimes in the military commissions system of which seven are awaiting trial (I think all or most in connection with the 9/11 plot) and one has been convicted (pleaded guilty I think and will be released when they find a place to send him).

     Prisoners held there do not have the usual constitutional rights.

     They don’t, but only because they are prisoners of war or unlawful combatants.

     Putting them on trial has become a legal quagmire because of the issue of using statements that were made after being tortured or being forced to speak and answer questions. Many people taken there were minor figures but releasing them is a problem because the United States both wants to ensure they will not be free to engage in terrorism and also will not be arrested and tortured by the country to which they are sent. Nobody can be sent to Yemen because of the war. And then judges quit before they finish anything.

     What happens in Guantanamo Bay stays in Guantanamo Bay.

     To a considerable degree, because of limited visitation and the issue of classified information.

     Julian Assange is going to a courthouse in Saipan, obviously because it is the closest U.S. federal court to Australia and he’s going to released after being sentenced to time served in a British prison while fighting extradition to the United States.. His time in the Ecuadorian embassy isn’t being counted.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:35 pm

     
     

187. Comedy Gold!

     ……….
     Multiple Conservative candidates and figures close to the British prime minister (Rishi Sunak) are being investigated over alleged bets on the timing of the U.K.’s general election, in the most jaw-dropping moment of the race for No. 10 Downing Street so far.

     It’s a huge headache for a Conservative Party that is already facing electoral annihilation — and an open goal for the opposition Labour Party that hopes to replace them.

     ………. Sunak took the country by surprise when he announced a snap poll for July 4.
     ……….
     ……….(I)t has since been revealed that two separate Conservative candidates and — in the latest bombshell — the party’s own director of campaigning, Tony Lee, are being probed by Britain’s Gambling Commission over bets placed on the timing of the vote.

     Craig Williams, a Tory candidate and parliamentary aide to the prime minister, was the first to come under scrutiny. He is alleged to have placed a £100 bet on the timing of the poll just days before Sunak went public and called the vote. He’s apologized for a “huge error of judgment” and admitted he had a “flutter” on the election.

     ………Tory candidate Laura Sanders, who recently worked in Conservative HQ, was also being looked into by the watchdog. Labour are calling for her head.

     Saunders is the wife of Lee, the Conservatives’ director of campaigning. The BBC reported that Lee himself is also under investigation for a bet on the timing of the election. The party confirmed that Lee, who is meant to be steering the Conservative ship, has taken a leave of absence with two weeks still to run on the campaign trail.
     ………..
     ……(T)he Metropolitan Police confirmed that an officer in Sunak’s police protection team had been suspended and later arrested as the gambling watchdog probes alleged bets “related to the timing of the general election.”

     Capping the election campaign’s descent into farce, the Conservatives’ official X account had tweeted on Wednesday night: “If you bet on Labour, you can never win” — alongside a video of a roulette wheel.
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:45 pm

     
     

188. Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:16 pm

     New Mexico is theoretically in play.

     New Mexico went for Gore in 2000 and Bush in 2004. Only three states switched between 200o and 2004 New Hampshire went for Bush in 2000 and Kerry in 2004 and Iowa and New Mexico went for Gore in 2000 and Bush in 2004. The Bush margin was more than razor thin in 2004 because there was also the factor of reapportionment.

     Trump has hopes of carrying Minnesota and even New York! (I think because he regards a loss in NY as a rebuke to himself) But he’s no Ronald Reagan/1980 when people thought about him and decided he was reasonable. I don’t think Trump can do that.

     Ronald Reagan also carried New York in 1984 and perhaps the only reason Walter Mondale carried Minnesota is because Reagan shut down his campaign there, wanting to leave Mondale one state besides the District of Columbia.

     1988 was largely a landslide for the Republicans but New York was one of several states to be carried by Dukakis.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:46 pm

     
     

189. I’m sure most prisoners at Gitmo haven’t agreed to go.

     It depends on what choices were offered.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:17 pm

     Why should prisoners be offered a choice?

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 1:50 pm

     
     

190. What happens in Guantanamo Bay stays in Guantanamo Bay.

     To a considerable degree, because of limited visitation and the issue of classified information.

     It should be treated as our Devil’s Island.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 2:02 pm

     
     

191. Not that they are for it, and they still think it creates a “dangerous impression” that they’re can be a quick fix for climate change but they don’t want companies to be the only source of funds funding research into solar radiation modification.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/climate/edf-solar-geoengineering-research.html

     The Environmental Defense Fund will finance research into technologies that could artificially cool the planet, an idea that until recently was viewed as radical but is quickly gaining attention as global temperatures rise at alarming rates.

     The group hopes to start issuing grants this fall, said Lisa Dilling, associate chief scientist at E.D.F., who is running the project. She said research would focus on estimating the likely effects in different parts of the world if governments were to deploy artificial cooling technologies.

     The intent is to help inform policymakers, she said. “We are not in favor, period, of deployment. That’s not our goal here,” Dr. Dilling said. “Our goal is information, and solid, well-formulated science.”

     The Environmental Defense Fund has previously expressed skepticism about techniques like these. But Dr. Dilling says the discussion about ways to cool the planet isn’t going away, regardless of opposition. “This is something that I don’t think we can just ignore,” she said.

     Of course. If something is necessary, that’s what it has to be.

     They are going to try to predict changes in precipitation.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 2:31 pm

     
     

192. 187. This doesn’t say whether they were right on their bets or not.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 2:32 pm

     
     

193. Maybe Assange could see Russia from there. He’s already a Russian asset.

     Paul Montagu (6a638f) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:02 pm

     
     

194. Biden’s latest attempt to avoid war in Lebanon?

     https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/06/report-u-s-warns-hezbollah-it-wont-be-able-to-rein-in-israel-if-terrorist-escalation-continues

     US President Joe Biden’s Mideast envoy Amos Hochstein warned Lebanese officials last week that Washington would not be able to stop Israel from invading should Hezbollah continue its attacks, according to several reports,” the Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

     The U.S. warning comes after Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened to unleash an all-out war against Israel after relentlessly firing missiles and mortars for months. Armed, Funded and trained by Iran, Hezbollah boasts of a huge arsenal of missiles and weapons — hoarded largely near population centres. The terrorist group has set up missile launch sites in Beirut’s busy neighborhoods and amassed arsenal in city’s main airport.

     The airport’s particularly dangerous. An explosion there could be more destructive than the one that happened at the port,

     They are making an assumption: That Hezbollah does not want this to happen.

     If they are correct, no warning is necessary; if they are not correct, and Iran wants a bigger war, and Hezbollah is not independent enough it does not have enough of a sense of self-preservation it may be counterproductive.

     At least Hezbollah is rejecting the sending into Lebanon of foreign troops/ Of course it itself is Iran’s Foreign Legion.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:07 pm

     
     

195. Iran’s presidential election is on Friday June 28. The president who died was the youngest member of a 4 man commission that in 1988 selected who among their political prisoners was going to be killed without even a show trial. They executed 5,000.

     The government is very worried about a low turnout. They even let one “reformer” run with five conservative. All of them are calling for reining in policing of women. But who knows if the vote will even be counted honestly?

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:12 pm

     
     

196. Trump’s gag order has been modified, possibly because of the debate.

     He’s now allowed to criticize witnesses but not prosecutors, court staffers, or their families, And he can talk about jurors just so long as he doesn’t give away personally identifiable information (but he can call them Democrats etc or maybe what they said during voir dire)

     https://www.newser.com/story/352147/judge-partially-lifts-trumps-gag-order.html

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:17 pm

     
     

197. > seeks to have a display of God’s law in the classroom for children to see what He says is right and what He says is wrong.

     So the children of Hindus should be forced every day to go into a building with signs telling them that there is *one* God and that it is wrong to worship any other Gods?

     This is one of the things the first amendment was *intended* to prevent.

     aphrael (1797ab) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:56 pm

     
     

198. Frank Luntz has an Op-ed article in The New York Times today about what matters most in presidential debates. Reading it over and re-interpreting what he said, and adding some of what I remember from debates I think you can glean from that article that:

     1) It’s not what candidates get wrong that matters, especially like misremembering or miscues or flubs or gaffes but what they get right, or what people approve, unless the other candidate calls attention to where the other candidate gets something wrong.

     By the way it doesn’t have to be actually wrong, but the viewer has to think it is, so the rebuttal needs to e rebutted. Romney got all flustered by Obama saying he had called Benghazi terrorism (he didn’t know that they had later unlearned it)

     2) If nothing remarkable is said, the debate has no effect in moving the needle.

     3) A candidate not seeming to be up to speed on something is bad, but so also is being too stiff or abstract and the answers not being connected to reality. The other candidate doesn’t actually have to attack him on this — it just needs to seem apparent, perhaps by the absence of comment.

     4) One liners matter. Or 2-liners. (if perceived to be true or to the point)

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 4:10 pm

     
     

199. aphrael (1797ab) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:56 pm

     So the children of Hindus should be forced every day to go into a building with signs telling them that there is *one* God and that it is wrong to worship any other Gods?

     For maybe 150 years, perhaps under the influence of the British, Hindus have claimed to be monotheistic. Just like Christianity only with more.

     https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca Province of Manitoba PDF:

     In some sense, Hinduism appears as polytheistic; however, the various gods and goddesses are viewed strictly as embodiments of the Divine Brahman, and so the system is monotheistic. Atman is the true inner self of the individual which carries on from one life to another.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 4:15 pm

     
     

200. https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/releases/?view=109959-cbs-news-announces-special-primetime-coverage-of-the-first-presidential-debate-on-june-27

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 4:18 pm

     
     

201. O have an article from November 9, 2023 issue of Hamodia that gives the pre-October 7 breakdown of the budget of Hamas: (based on what Hebrew University professor Elie Podeh said)

     It had five sources of funding, adding up to $2 billion to $2,5 billion a year.

     1. More than $1 billion came from the Palestinian Authority and went through the banking system supervised by Israel. It covered salaries and pension contributions for 40.000 (government) employees as well as some other civilian expenses. The PA also paid Israel millions of dollars a year for Gaza’s water, power and medical services.

     2. $400 million annually from Qatar. Originally it was cash delivered in suitcases but later it went through banks under UN supervision and with Israel’s approval. It paid for welfare payments, some of the salaries of Hamas civilian and military employees. fuel for the Gaza power plan This money was not used for military purposes.

     3&4. Customs duties and taxes On imports from Egypt and Israel and on smugglers.

     Illegal under international customs regulations, since Hamas was not a legal government but the PA was. This paid the salaries of Hamas; military apparatus and military equipment.

     5) Iranian aid and donations from Hamas supporters outside of Gaza. Transferred in various ways sometimes in the form of military equipment and some through cash by money changers. This amounted to several hundred million dollars a year, almost all of it allocated for military equipment and other military uses.

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 4:37 pm

     
     

202. Heat (temperature of room) and infections reduce cognitive ability temporarily.

     What could be going on with Biden?

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 4:43 pm

     
     

203. Trump’s gag order has been modified, possibly because of the debate.

     He’s now allowed to criticize witnesses but not prosecutors, court staffers, or their families, And he can talk about jurors just so long as he doesn’t give away personally identifiable information (but he can call them Democrats etc or maybe what they said during voir dire)

     https://www.newser.com/story/352147/judge-partially-lifts-trumps-gag-order.html

     Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 6/25/2024 @ 3:17 pm

     Which I’m sure has nothing to do with the debate, and everything about the trial being over. I doubt it would be a winning strategy if Trump spent his time at the debate attacking Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, the jurors, etc.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/25/2024 @ 5:18 pm

     
     

204. So the children of Hindus should be forced every day to go into a building with signs telling them that there is *one* God and that it is wrong to worship any other Gods?

     Yeah:

     Even if you argue that Judaeo-Christian belief encompasses these commandments, the wording and order differ among sects. Islam has similar commandments, although they differ substantially. But Hindus (and Native Americans and others) would have a real problem with the expressed monotheism. And of course there are the atheists.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 5:34 pm

     
     

205. A power trip is a power trip both when a judge permits and when he forbids. The humiliation was in the asking.

     nk (bb1548) — 6/25/2024 @ 5:35 pm

     
     

206. I feel the same way about speed limits.

     Kevin M (a9545f) — 6/25/2024 @ 5:59 pm

     
     

207. Supreme Court today:

     Murthy v. Missouri (6-3) (Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch)-No Article III standing to challenge content moderation by social media platforms. Another reversal of a Fifth Circuit decision. “……… “platforms had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgment. To be sure, the record reflects that the Government defendants played a role in at least some of the platforms’ moderation choices. But the Fifth Circuit, by attributing every platform decision at least in part to the defendants, glossed over complexities in the evidence.” ……….The challengers needed to show that they were injured with regard to each platform and each defendant.”

     Snyder v. US (6-3) Jackson, Sotomayor, Kagan)-The question before the court was whether the law makes it a crime for those officials to accept gratuities that may be given as a token of appreciation after the official act. The answer, the court says, is no. “State and local governments often regulate the gifts that state and local governments may accept. [The federal law] does not supplement those state and local rules by subjecting 19 million state and local officials to up to 10 years in federal prison for accepting even commonplace gratuities. Rather, [the federal law] leaves it to state and local governments to regulate gratuities to state and local officials.”

     Source

     Rip Murdock (c27dcc) — 6/26/2024 @ 7:19 am

     
     

208. Supreme Court faux pas:

     The US Supreme Court is poised to allow abortions in medical emergencies in Idaho, according to a copy of the opinion that was briefly posted on the court’s website.
     ………
     Bloomberg Law obtained a copy of the opinion that appeared briefly on the court’s website as the justices were issuing two other opinions Wednesday morning. The copy of the opinion isn’t necessarily the final ruling, given that it hasn’t been released.

     The Supreme Court’s press office said the opinion in the case had not been officially released. “The Court’s Publications Unit inadvertently and briefly uploaded a document to the Court’s website,” said Patricia McCabe, the court’s public information officer. “The Court’s opinion in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States will be issued in due course.”

     The copy indicates the court is voting 6-3 to lift a stay it previously placed on a federal district court order, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissenting.
     ……….
     The court as a whole doesn’t explain its decision in the posted version, saying that the appeals are being dismissed as “improvidently granted.” ……….

     In a concurring opinion, Justice Elena Kagan said the court’s decision “will prevent Idaho from enforcing its abortion ban when the termination of a pregnancy is needed to prevent serious harms to a woman’s health.”
     ……….
     Alito said the court “has simply lost the will to decide the easy but emotional and highly politicized question that the case presents.”
     ………..

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/26/2024 @ 11:19 am

     
     

209. I see North Korea will have troops in Ukraine (Donetsk) maybe as soon as next month.
     Engineering, not infantry at this point

     steveg (2099f3) — 6/26/2024 @ 12:43 pm