Patterico's Pontifications

10/11/2024

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:42 am



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item]

Sarah Longwell on the impact of Donald Trump’s false claims about FEMA, including saying that FEMA is confiscating properties, FEMA money diverted to illegal migrants. Republican members of Congress have joined in as well:

I mean, here’s what Trump does. In a moment like this, when normal politicians would be, because of the very real consequences, they would be looking to unite people, right? Not to divide them. That’s not how Donald Trump thinks.

Donald Trump only cares about winning. And so he is utilizing this disaster, this natural disaster, which cannot be, you know, engineered by anybody, as some people are saying, because as Republicans are now having to reassure people, one cannot engineer the weather. Democrats are not engineering these storms for some reason or other pernicious influences.

But these Republicans who constantly support Trump are forced now to grapple with the very real consequences of his lies on their constituents at a moment when they are trying to help people see this is the thing is, oftentimes Donald Trump’s lies don’t have a personal consequence for the people who repeat them. You know, like the election being stolen or migrants eating pets in Springfield. But they have real consequences for somebody. And when those consequences affect you, as they are now, the Republican leaders on the ground were having to deal with the consequences of them. I feel like this should be the moment that they realize this is why this person can never lead the country again.

And one of the things that Donald Trump does, it’s a very specific tactic from Trump, where what he does is he elevates the notion of scarcity at a time when people are frightened. Right. So people are much more likely to buy into these conspiracies because they are suffering at the moment. Right. They don’t have wi-fi. They don’t have water. You know, they are dealing with a response to a natural disaster. And so they’re scared.

And Donald Trump manipulates and uses that fear to sow distrust for the agencies that are trying to help them. And that is unique to Trump’s character. Other politicians, even ones that aren’t very good at their jobs, don’t usually do this because they are at least decent enough people to understand that real lives are at stake.

Unfortunately, these false claims are having real life impacts to those who have lost everything during Hurricane Helene:

. . . Anthony said his father-in-law is unwilling to accept assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”

Second news item

The damage done:

The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality. As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet. The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel. Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed on the East Coast by the U.S. government, and “truth seeker” accounts on X that posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” in order to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”

. . .

Even in a decade marred by online grifters, shameless politicians, and an alternative right-wing-media complex pushing anti-science fringe theories, the events of the past few weeks stand out for their depravity and nihilism. As two catastrophic storms upended American cities, a patchwork network of influencers and fake-news peddlers have done their best to sow distrust, stoke resentment, and interfere with relief efforts. But this is more than just a misinformation crisis. To watch as real information is overwhelmed by crank theories and public servants battle death threats is to confront two alarming facts: first, that a durable ecosystem exists to ensconce citizens in an alternate reality, and second, that the people consuming and amplifying those lies are not helpless dupes but willing participants.

Third news item

The times Kamala Harris changed her mind on issues:

Where Harris is on the ideological spectrum has long been hard to pinpoint. After Joe Biden selected her as his running mate in 2020, she moved toward the center on some issues, and has generally kept those positions since taking Biden’s place atop the ticket in this year’s election.

Harris has not explained many of her shifts. They may help her among moderate voters in the general election, but they have left her open to criticism from the right.

Some of the issues listed that she has changed her mind on: fracking, border security, healthcare, defunding.

Read the whole thing to see her Before and After views.

Fourth news item

ABC’s The View hosts in explicit political ad:

ABC warned its audience before airing a disturbing political ad the network said it was required to broadcast during a live episode of The View, with the commercial depicting graphic imagery from abortions and comparing several celebrities — including all six cohosts of The View — to Nazis.

During the show’s final commercial break on Thursday, a warning message appeared on screen, reading, “The following is a paid political advertisement, and the ABC Television Network is required to carry it by federal law. The advertisement contains scenes that may be disturbing to children. Viewer discretion is advised.”

The explicit clip — fronted by presidential candidate and anti-abortion activist Randall Terry — opened with a shot of Miley Cyrus (pictured with a cake topped with the message “abortion is healthcare”) and an image of Whoopi Goldberg seated at The View Hot Topics table.

“I am so sick of stupid celebrities and lying journalists,” Terry says via voice-over in the ad, before its footage displays images of View stars Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, Ana Navarro, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin; broadcasters Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer, and Dana Bash; and famous figures like Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Billie Eilish, Scarlett Johansson, and more. The commercial then shows multiple images of fetuses and, later, images of abortion procedures. “Why don’t you fools follow the science?” Terry asks.

Fourth news item

President Zelensky meets with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz:

During a joint press conference, Scholz revealed that Germany had delivered a package of aid for Ukraine worth 600 million euros ($660 million). This included a fifth IRIS-T medium-range system, armored vehicles, tanks, howitzers, ammunition, and drones.

“By the end of the year, with the support of partners — Belgium, Denmark, Norway — we will deliver another package worth 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to Ukraine,” Scholz said. It will include IRIS-T, Skynex, and Gepard anti-aircraft weaponry, as well as artillery, armored vehicles, drones, radars, and ammunition.

Fifth news item

Speaker Johnson ready to give up on Ukraine:

“I don’t have an appetite for further Ukraine funding, and I hope it’s not necessary. If President Trump wins, I believe that he actually can bring that conflict to a close. I really do. I think he’ll call [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that this is enough. And I think everybody around the world is weary of this, and they want it to be resolved. So whatever the terms are, I’m not sure, but I think if Kamala Harris is president, I don’t think it ends, and that’s a desperate and dangerous scenario.”

What would be desperate and dangerous is a Trump administration refusing to provide critical aid to Ukraine during the middle of a ferocious war against a murderous enemy that doesn’t embrace democracy. A limited view of outcomes would be detrimental to Europe and freedom-loving countries everywhere. To just end the war because we’re weary is foolish, especially as it would most likely include allowing Russia to keep the territories inside Ukraine that they have subsumed as their own. This must not happen.

Sixth news item

Word:

How nauseatingly comfortable and safe do you have to be in the West to celebrate, justify, qualify terrorism in the Middle East

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

486 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (6f85d2)

  2. Last link broken

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  3. Every time I get the idea that maybe, just maybe, I could vote for Donald Trump, out comes another flood of crazy and I remember why, as much as I dislike Harris, her Fellow Travelers and Useful Idiots, Donald Trump is another class of danger entirely.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  4. The funny thing is that, while I am correct in pointing out that J6 isn’t decisive in most people’s thinking, Trump manages to top that issue on a daily basis.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  5. Trump was correct about FEMA diverting money. I don’t know how anyone can claim otherwise. They also have billions squirreled away from former disasters that they haven’t closed the books on.

    Must be nice to have a neverending government slush find.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  6. Trump was correct about FEMA diverting money.

    Show us!

    I don’t know how anyone can claim otherwise.

    They’re sane?

    It was TRUMP who diverted FEMA money! https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/donald-trump/trump-administration-diverted-fema-disaster-funds-immigration-ice-fact-check/536-814bb634-4d14-4463-a77f-b2f304320d33

    nk (50fc6a)

  7. In a powerful moment, Governor Ron DeSantis just fact checked Donald Trump by making it clear President Biden and Vice President Harris have provided Florida with all the resources it needs to fight against Hurricane Helene and Milton.

    Nonsense. DeSantis didn’t say anything like that. Nor did he mention Harris once. It’s funny how the Kamala partisans were attacking DeSantis yesterday and are touting him today, in both instances lying about what he said and did.

    I’m not going to transcribe the quote from the video. Listen to it yourself.

    lloyd (ea3858)

  8. FEMA’s devoted $641 million this year just to help state and local governments handle the influx.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  9. https://www.fema.gov/grants/mitigation/state-local-territorial-governments

    And here is FEMA in the Biden-Harris administration’s own words on their priorities.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  10. Trump was correct about FEMA diverting money.

    No, he wasn’t, he lied.
    This was roundly fact-checked. That money was made available by an act of Congress, and not taken from FEMA.

    The Shelter and Services Program was created by Congress in 2023 specifically to make payments to “nonfederal entities that provide shelter and other eligible services to migrants encountered by and released from DHS custody,” as a Congressional Research Service report published that year explained. Congress authorized about $364 million for the program for fiscal year 2023, and increased the program’s appropriation to $650 million for fiscal year 2024.

    As FEMA has said, that money was not rerouted from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which is funded by Congress separately.

    Paul Montagu (a0b412)

  11. https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240412/department-homeland-security-announces-300-million-direct-funding

    Lovely when they annouce a press release, but people blinded by partisanship will continue to believe lies if it supports their agenda.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  12. That’s right, Rob, it’s actually DHS money, not FEMA’s, but administered by FEMA.

    Paul Montagu (a0b412)

  13. Paul pretending money isn’t fungible. FEMA was broke according to Mayorkas. They prioritized funding illegals. That is what was said.

    Counting the angels on the head of a pin doesn’t change the truth and trying to parse the truth into a lie doesn’t change the facts.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  14. NeverTrump will keep spinning as Trump is reelected.

    Enjoy it.

    NJRob (63ee2f)

  15. And Rob will dismiss anything that contradicts his myopic worldview as “leftist sources”. Moving on. You’ve been fact-checked.

    Paul Montagu (a0b412)

  16. Notice you don’t hear from Nevertrump “Appropriating $1billion to deal with the Biden Harris migrant mess would’ve been better directed to disaster relief for US citizens.” Instead, you hear “That’s a different appropriation, so it’s all good. Give Mayorkas more money.”

    lloyd (ea3858)

  17. The reality is that this government is doling out billions, and needy Americans are moved to the back of the line. And, if this administration and its defenders ever had a problem with it, no one could possibly tell.

    lloyd (ea3858)

  18. Lloyd: (#7)

    In a powerful moment, Governor Ron DeSantis just fact checked Donald Trump by making it clear President Biden and Vice President Harris have provided Florida with all the resources it needs to fight against Hurricane Helene and Milton.

    Nonsense. DeSantis didn’t say anything like that. Nor did he mention Harris once. It’s funny how the Kamala partisans were attacking DeSantis yesterday and are touting him today, in both instances lying about what he said and did.

    I’m not going to transcribe the quote from the video. Listen to it yourself.

    I am not sure what role Harris is playing in the Hurricane response, or why she would be involved. Unlike a lot of my fellow anti-Trumps, I don’t have a problem with DeSantis not taking the Kamela hurricane call. (Joe’s the guy in charge and Ron was kind of busy fr a social call.). That said, Trump is his usual despicable on this issue. And DeSantis did contradict Trump on whether politics is having a role in FEMA response.

    Appalled (d53a96)

  19. #16

    The one thing you never hear from the GOP. “Let’s call Congress back in session so that we can increase FEMA funding for the year.” (Biden has the power to call Congress into session — wonder is he will make use of it.)

    Appalled (45b67d)

  20. as it would most likely include allowing Russia to keep the territories inside Ukraine that they have subsumed as their own. This must not happen.

    Would Russia settle for that, and the rest of Ukraine being defended by NATO>

    Trump’s model is the ending of the Korean War by Eisenhower.

    What does he propose to do if that doesn’t work? Eisenhower, it is reported, threatened to escalate and use a dirty bomb.

    Eisenhower is also his model on immigration — if we’re lucky. (Eisenhower isn’t so well known for this, but it happened while under Truman I think there was an amnesty in 1948)

    https://www.history.com/news/operation-wetback-eisenhower-1954-deportation

    July is scorching in Mexicali. The Mexican city just across the border from Calexico, California, averages 108 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, but temperatures often swell into the 120s.

    In 1955, thousands of disoriented people roamed the city’s streets as the sun bore down on them. They had just been dumped there by American immigration officials—snatched from their lives and jobs in the United States and thrown into a city where they didn’t know anyone.

    People were contacted and told they had 3 days to leave the country

    During Operation Wetback, tens of thousands of immigrants were shoved into buses, boats and planes and sent to often-unfamiliar parts of Mexico, where they struggled to rebuild their lives. In Chicago, three planes a week were filled with immigrants and flown to Mexico. In Texas, 25 percent of all of the immigrants deported were crammed onto boats later compared to slave ships, while others died of sunstroke, disease and other causes while in custody.

    It’s not clear how many American citizens were swept up in Operation Wetback, but the United States later claimed that 1.3 million people total were deported. However, some historians dispute that claim. Though hundreds of thousands of people were ensnared, says historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez, the number of deportees was drastically lower than the United States reported—likely closer to 300,000. Due to immigrants who were caught, deported, and captured again after re-emigrating, it’s impossible to estimate the total number of people deported under the program.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  21. Katrina got pinned on Bush. Just as with government shutdowns, the rule with natural disasters and pandemics is that Republicans get blamed no matter who’s in the White House. But yeah, there’s a high road and Republicans suck because nobody takes it.

    lloyd (ea3858)

  22. 43. NJRob (63ee2f) — 10/11/2024 @ 9:25 am

    Paul pretending money isn’t fungible. FEMA was broke according to Mayorkas.

    There was never any kind of committee vote to take money from disaster relief and transfer it to anything else or at least I haven’t heard any such claim.

    Not even a test vote like Democrats make to raise taxes on high income people and use it to support veterans or whatever.

    Disaster relief gets limited because Congress doesn’t want to appropriate in advance any more money than necessary.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  23. The one thing you never hear from the GOP. “Let’s call Congress back in session so that we can increase FEMA funding for the year.”

    Unless you are a US Senator running for reelection. Of course, calling the Senate back into session to approve more aid to FEMA is a waste of time if the House refuses to reconvene.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  24. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/follow-money-understanding-femas-disaster-budget-hurricane-milton-aftermath

    FEMA’s coffers for “immediate needs” and the Disaster Relief Program (DRF) were nearly bone dry as Congress approved an interim spending bill to keep the government from shutting down in late September. Lawmakers awarded FEMA more than $20 billion to reload the DRF, which dwindled to around $1 billion and change in September.

    Congress restocked the DRF simply because it was prudent to do so. Lawmakers had to return to Washington in an emergency session in the late summer of 2005 to refurbish the DRF after Hurricane Katrina. Front-loading the DRF with $20 billion this year would be enough for FEMA to get through any natural disaster until Congress returned in mid-November….

    ….This is why House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., resisted demands to recall Congress to address the storms. President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre have insisted that Congress come back ahead of schedule. The House and Senate are on recess until after the elections in mid-November.

    Regardless of the severity of both storms, it’s hard to envision a scenario where Congress returns to replenish FEMA’s coffers. Yes. It’s good politics for the President, Mayorkas and lawmakers in the affected areas and others to implore Congressional leaders to summon the House and Senate back to Washington. It gives the illusion of exhausting all options. Plus, if Johnson or Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., don’t call people back, those from the opposite party can suggest that they aren’t responsive or taking the damage as seriously as they should.

    Moreover, it’s probably not even necessary for Congress to come back into session until November 12th. The DRF is now well stocked. Only something as catastrophic as thermonuclear war could draw down the DRF to zero before next month. So draining the fund that fast – prompting Congressional action – is not likely.

    When lawmakers returned in a dramatic, emergency, witching-hour session in 2005 to replenish money for FEMA in the wake of Katrina, it did so with a skeleton crew. Only a few lawmakers showed up. Then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., approved the bill on the floor after a few quick remarks and “unanimous consent.”

    It was Biden and Mayorkas’ lie that FEMA needed money now that caused Republicans to circulate the other lie that the money was spent on migrants.

    The adversary method is not the path to the truth.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  25. both parties are telling serious lies: The Democrats about abortion law and the Republicans about illegal immigration (and a non-stolen election.)

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  26. Democrats are not engineering these storms for some reason or other pernicious influences.

    But both Democrats and Republicans are ignoring the remedy:

    https://freakonomics.com/2012/11/another-look-at-an-unorthodox-hurricane-prevention-idea

    Very interesting backgrounder on Stephen Salter, the British scientist who, in the course of trying to turn ocean waves into electric power, discovered a potential way to prevent, or at least limit, the impact of hurricanes:

    Devastating tropical storms of the kind that battered the U.S. last week could be weakened and rendered less deadly using a simple and cheap technology based on a surprising component – old car tyres.

    One of Britain’s leading marine engineers, Stephen Salter, emeritus professor of engineering design at Edinburgh university and a global pioneer of wave power research, has patented with Microsoft billionaires Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold the idea of using thousands of tyres lashed together to support giant plastic tubes which extend 100m deep into the ocean.

    Wave action on the ocean surface would force warm surface water down into the deeper ocean. If non-return valves were used, he says, the result would be to mix the waters and cool the surface temperature of the ocean to under 26.5C, the critical temperature at which hurricanes form.

    This is the same hurricane-prevention invention we discussed in a brief Freakonomics Radio segment and in greater depth in SuperFreakonomics:

    How does it work? Imagine one of these skirted inner tubes— a giant, funky, man- made jellyfish— floating in the ocean. As a warm wave splashes over the top, the water level inside the ring rises until it is higher than the surrounding ocean. “When you have water elevated above the surface in a tube like that,” Nathan [Myhrvold] explains, “it’s called ‘hydraulic head.’”

    Hydraulic head is a force, created by the energy put into the waves by wind. This force would push the warm surface water down into the long plastic cylinder, ultimately flushing it out at the bottom, far beneath the surface. As long as the waves keep coming — and they always do — the hydraulic head’s force would keep pushing surface water into the cooler depths, which inevitably lowers the ocean’s surface temperature. The process is low-impact, non- polluting, and slow: a molecule of warm surface water would take about three hours to be flushed out the bottom of the plastic cylinder.

    Now imagine deploying these floats en masse in the patches of ocean where hurricanes grow. Nathan envisions “a picket fence” of them between Cuba and the Yucatán and another skein off the southeastern seaboard of the United States. They’d also be valuable in the South China Sea and in the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. How many would be needed? Depending on their size, a few thousand floats might be able to stop hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

    The only objection would be that this is untested geo-engineering.

    Instead we have people who want to things that are also geo-engineering (reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, except that it is geo-engineering that’s guaranteed not to work!

    More electric cars or eliminating gas stoves in the USA won’t reduce or limit carbon dioxide in the air.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  27. Harris has not explained many of her shifts.

    What is she going to say?

    I followed the advice of my political consultants who showed me polls?

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  28. “He has refused all FEMA help because he’s a hardcore Trumper,” Anthony told Abrams. “He literally believes that if he accepts anything from FEMA, they’re going to take his house.”

    I don’t think Trump said that.

    Maybe some guy on the radio said that.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  29. FEMA is not Medicaid. I don’t think it comes with a clawback and only means tested help does. And then they

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  30. > Wave action on the ocean surface would force warm surface water down into the deeper ocean. If non-return valves were used, he says, the result would be to mix the waters and cool the surface temperature of the ocean to under 26.5C, the critical temperature at which hurricanes form.

    sounds like it has the potential to have a catastrophic effect on the things that live at that depth.

    aphrael (cbf740)

  31. WSJ: When the Hurricane-Relief Worker Turns Out To Be a Neo-Nazi

    The fit, helpful strangers who descended on Horseshoe Beach, Fla., after Hurricane Helene were a welcome sight. The men swiftly chopped through downed trees and cleared mounds of debris for distressed residents in the small gulf-coast town west of Gainesville.

    These weren’t typical disaster-relief volunteers. They were members of Patriot Front, an organization branded by the Anti-Defamation League as a white-supremacist group.

    Neo-Nazi groups aggressively escalating their activity in recent months across the U.S. have seized upon a potent new recruiting tool: the surging tide of misinformation surrounding hurricanes.

    The contentious U.S. presidential race that has sharply politicized the storms is providing a new opening for hate groups that were already on the rise. Hurricane falsehoods about government malfeasance have spread rapidly on social media, often seizing on the hot-button debate of immigration by claiming relief funds are being diverted to migrants or favor minority victims over white applicants, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency denies.

    Exploiting public confusion, grief and communication breakdowns, white supremacist groups are now showing up in vulnerable storm-ravaged communities in Florida and North Carolina. They blend in among the many legitimate church or other charity workers that have rushed in to help. But these militia groups offer aid while filming propaganda videos that both amplify falsehoods about the government response and help the groups remake their image as patriotic civic organizations for men.

    Horseshoe Beach Mayor Jeff Williams said he didn’t realize, until after a call from a Wall Street Journal reporter, that the group was Patriot Front. Williams said he went online and looked them up after the call. “Plain as day, they are white supremacists,” he said, adding that he would have never known by their trim looks. “Typically when you see white supremacists, they are not as clean cut looking as what I saw.”

    “You’re seeing these hyper-localized militias, these antigovernment groups, who are able to use this massive distrust, the panic, the fear, the unrest, to recruit,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “It’s not surprising to see these groups trying to use these disasters for promotional efforts.”

    Probably totally unrelated to any of Trump’s messaging.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  32. Regardless to whether the money was “diverted” away rather than toward, the fact remains that we had one hurricane and Mayorkas said FEMA was out of money. The larger point was that DHS and FEMA have plenty of money, its just not allocated to citizens, legal residents of the US who are experiencing financial hardships due to a natural disaster. FEMA says it does not give cash cards to migrants, but it does reimburse state and local entities who do. For example, NYC loads pre-paid cards for migrants and then applies to be reimbursed by the DHS through FEMA.
    There is also the “Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) program [which] helps eligible refugees and other humanitarian immigrants by providing cash assistance for up to twelve months from their arrival date in the United States”

    So we have one hurricane and per Mayorkas, are said to be out of money. But we have this Biden Administration oversight of an ongoing self inflicted disaster at the border that is sucking up a lot of money. We have disaster relief $$ for Lebanon and Ukraine. Not arguing that we should not fund Ukrainian relief, but US legal residents and citizens should be prioritized and if funds are short, if I may, funds should be “diverted” to cover hurricane relief

    steveg (292c87)

  33. One of the sad bits here is that there are groups of similarly fit people like Team Rubicon, which tends to employ former soldiers, and is emphatically not a white supremacist group.

    Among its supporters are Bill Clinton and George W Bush, and it has advisors like General Petraeus and senior executives from FedEx, GoldmanSachs and Farmers Group.

    But in this sh1tstorm of disinformation, God only knows what gets hit with the tar.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  34. To donate to Team Rubicon’s efforts in Florida and North Carolina, go here: https://teamrubiconusa.org/

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  35. sounds like it has the potential to have a catastrophic effect on the things that live at that depth.

    The general problem with non-remedial geo-engineering is that it would allow destructive activity to continue. Then when the machine breaks, the piper show up.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  36. both parties are telling serious lies: The Democrats about abortion law and the Republicans about illegal immigration.

    There is some truth in those lies. You don’t have to believe that the bulk of the immigrants are rapists and murderers to still think it’s a huge mistake. You don’t have to believe that most abortions involve preemie infants to still think abortion on demand should be limited.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  37. Is Soros running his hurricane-making Jewish space laser thing again? I thought that Trump’s Space Force had destroyed that. Or maybe I was just watching “Moonraker” again.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  38. > The general problem with non-remedial geo-engineering is that it would allow destructive activity to continue.

    I think the premise here is that it is politically impossible to achieve conditions in which the destructive activity (the release of greenhouse gases) is reduced by a substantial amount, so given that we can’t reduce the incidence of the destructive activity, we have to mitigate it.

    I see absolutely no reason at this point to believe it is possible to reduce global greenhouse gas generation by a non-trivial amount. The history of attempts to get that to happen have revealed it to be an optimistic fantasy.

    aphrael (cbf740)

  39. Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 10/11/2024 @ 10:37 am

    The adversary method is not the path to the truth.

    The right word came to me later.

    It’s adversary system.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  40. The one thing you never hear from the GOP. “Let’s call Congress back in session so that we can increase FEMA funding for the year.”

    We’re $35 trillion in debt. That’s an annual shortfall of over $1.5T. We’ve crossed the 100% of GDP rubicon and interest on the debt is now outpacing defense.

    Maybe we don’t need to increase funding. Maybe we need to re-allocate. (The $40 billion to connect rurals to the internet that connected exactly zero people would be a good start.)

    SaveFarris (43bcd9)

  41. So we have one hurricane and per Mayorkas, are said to be out of money.

    When did the Republicans start believing him? They just added to that lie by supplying a false reason to be out of money, Bidden just wanted to show Republicans unwilling to assemble in Washington and limit campaigning in order to help people.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  42. The people who have space lasers are Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson but they don’t do any harm on earth.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  43. The one thing you never hear from the GOP. “Let’s call Congress back in session so that we can increase FEMA funding for the year.”

    They just did it! In the continuing resolution,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  44. The abortion lie is that it is impossible to ban partial birth abortion without risking the lives of women in late stage of pregnancy, And that doctors have to choose between breaking the law and saving women’s lives. Obama said that. Maybe that is the legal advice they are getting from pro choice lawyers. I said they are like Hamas.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  45. Free speech? Not for everyone.

    California officials reject more SpaceX rocket launches, with some citing Musk’s X posts

    SpaceX’s plans to launch more rockets from the California coast were rejected by a state commission this week, with some officials citing Elon Musk’s political posts on X and raising concerns about the billionaire’s labor record at his companies.

    The plan to increase the number of rocket blasts into space up to 50 a year was rejected by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday despite assurances from Space Force and Air Force officials that they would increase efforts to monitor the effects that rocket launches have on nearby wildlife.

    The military also vowed to mitigate the reach of sonic booms that often span across 100 miles of coastline, an issue that has caused controversy.

    Members of the California Coastal Commission commended Space Force and Air Force representatives for reaching an agreement, but some cited their concerns about Musk, the owner of SpaceX, before rejecting the plan.

    Among the issues raised were Musk’s decision to insert himself in the presidential race, his spreading of conspiracy theories, the labor record of his companies and derogatory comments he has made about the transgender community.

    “We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” commission Chair Caryl Hart said.

    As I said the other day, there are many tyrants and the petty tyrants at the California Coastal Commission are among the worst. Musk exercises 1st Amendment rights and the Greenies who rule the CA coast will put him in his place. I guess they want to make Trump’s lies true.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  46. There are, and always will be voting blocs (on both sides) that are deeply distrustful of Government. Of course they wonder if the government is stupid or malevolent enough to cloud seed a hurricane. Part of it is paranoia and well, the government lies to us 24/7. Then they lie about lying. Everyone involved seems to get a promotion or a golden parachute. They have very little regard for “the people” whom they can smell in the Walmart. They told us they did not cover a snipers perch of a roof in PA because it was a “sloped roof” even after someone pointed out that the pitch was less than what the ADA requires for wheelchair access. The WH Press Conference “spin room” (lies) is a daily event. C-span is a blizzard of lies. Might be best to proceed as if they are malevolent liars and then be pleasantly surprised by the truth.

    Trump is a liar. Harris is a liar. Harris named Proposition 47 in CA that has led to an avalanche of unpunished recidivist crime the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” I prefer Trump’s style of lying

    steveg (292c87)

  47. Hopefully Musk makes it his mission to dismantle the CA Coastal Commission and CA Air Resources Board (CARB) petty f-ing tyrants. Harris supports them. Her support of those entities and Trump’s antipathy for them make me choose Trump

    steveg (292c87)

  48. I see absolutely no reason at this point to believe it is possible to reduce global greenhouse gas generation by a non-trivial amount.

    The United States greenhouse gas emissions are 16% below the peak (2007-8), and 3% below 1990 levels. A transition to electric cars, which will happen over the next 20 years will have a great effect on this. China is forcing this transition domestically, although their electricity production still relies on coal.

    Every time a coal plant is replaced by natural gas, CO2 production from that plant is halved. But environmentalists are at the forefront of kneecapping a transition to natural gas.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  49. > The United States greenhouse gas emissions are 16% below the peak (2007-8), and 3% below 1990 levels.

    The *United States* is, yes. But *globally*, no, and there are no effective political structures for coordinating global change here.

    aphrael (9c2ac5)

  50. The *United States* is, yes. But *globally*, no, and there are no effective political structures for coordinating global change here.

    aphrael (9c2ac5) — 10/11/2024 @ 3:26 pm

    Correct. The UN is an exercise in herding cats.

    A one-world dictatorship could get it done, but there would be downsides.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  51. Good work by the Justice Department:

    TD Bank pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges Thursday, agreeing to pay more than $3 billion in fines for enabling drug traffickers and other criminals to open accounts and transfer money through the bank.

    If, perhaps, a little slow, judging by how long this took.

    Some background. The list of the bank’s sponsorships will impress some.

    Jim Miller (39abee)

  52. What norcal said.

    But it isn’t hopeless.

    If there is broad agreement, however, among the US, EU and China — and there are workable methods of bringing down CO2 production — then the standard carrot-and-stick approach works.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  53. BTW, if the US, EU and China transition to electric cars, so does everyone else by Hobson’s choise.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  54. My across the street neighbors, who are good friends of mine, have put up a Trump sign in their yard. I’m tempted to put up my own Harris sign, but I fear it will put a chill on our friendship.

    What should I do? Is a Harris sign on my non-busy, residential street, really going to change anybody’s mind? There is already a huge, gay, Harris sign a couple of doors down. (I don’t have anything against gay people, but I can see how that sign could backfire.)

    norcal (fd38eb)

  55. Here’s some basic data on CO2 emission trends.

    For the record: My own thinking on this subject has been informed by two books, Shellengerger’s Apocalypse Never and Koonin’s Unsettled.

    Jim Miller (39abee)

  56. correction: Shellenberger

    Jim Miller (39abee)

  57. Correction: choice.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  58. There were people who hate DeSantis saying he was charging toll fees on Milton evacuation routes, but it is true that Waffle House has its own Storm Weather Center and you can tell how bad local damage is by the menu. Green = full menu Yellow = some items not available Red = Closed. FEMA and State of FLA, liaison with Waffle House

    steveg (292c87)

  59. I won’t eat at the Waffle House. They use margarine. Gross. And unhealthy.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  60. Maybe you can put up an ”It’s packed with some stuff! HA HA HA HA!” sign to compete with gays, norcal.

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  61. Corporate establishment democrats in panic mode! Making 6 figure Jill Stein attack ads buy to tell voters what they already know a vote for Jill Stein is a vote against the donor class and the D.N.C. establishment. Jill Stein says thanks for the publicity we can’t afford ad buys as we don’t have much money ;but neither did AOC! 2016 trump wins michigan by 10,000 votes Stein gets 50,000 votes. Trump wins pennsylvania by 43,000 votes Stein gets 50,000 votes. Trump wins wisconsin by 22,000 votes jill stein gets 36,000 votes. In 2016 Stein got 36,000 votes in az democrats kept green party off ballot in 2020 with biden winning state by 10,000.

    asset (565389)

  62. Jill Stein says thanks for the publicity we can’t afford ad buys as we don’t have much money ;but neither did AOC!

    asset (565389) — 10/11/2024 @ 4:40 pm

    Apples and watermelons. A national election is 435 times bigger than an election for a House seat.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  63. BuDuh (6115f4) — 10/11/2024 @ 4:30 pm

    Meh. Both candidates commit word salad.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  64. Barack Obama at his absolute worst:

    Former President Barack Obama on Thursday chastised black men who have not been all-out in their support of Vice President Kamala Harris, claiming it is sexism that is keeping many of them from supporting the Democratic presidential nominee.

    Obama shared his feelings with a small group of voters during a surprise stop at a local Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh.

    He said the lack of energy around Harris’s campaign “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

    [. . .]

    “You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” the former president said. “Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

    After eight years of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I am trying to find things to like about Barack Obama. At the very least, he was miles ahead of both men in intellect and temperament. But this is the kind of bullcrap that I hate the most about Obama: the smug preening, the attempt to place his fairly posh and comfortable life experiences within the traditions of black struggle, his annoying predilection of lecturing everyone for not being as enlightened and pure as he is. I’m a white guy — but of course I am also a noted feminist, I must say — so I don’t have any real standing to take offense on behalf of black men. But I can certainly understand why they may look at someone like Kamala Harris and see a conniving, performative, duplicitous phony. In many respects, I guess that’s why Barack Obama likes her — birds of a feather and all that.

    JVW (ae22d9)

  65. @62 Jill Stein wins if she takes votes from corporate democrats and in latest polling she is leading vote getter among both muslims and other arabs in swing states AZ, MI, PA. and WI. (usa today) Ask not president hillary clinton if its apples and watermelons. You don’t have to win to make someone lose. If she causes kamala to lose green party will have devastating effect on the democrat party.

    asset (565389)

  66. Trump campaign asks for military aircraft with antimissile capabilities and other security measures in lead-up to election

    After two attempted assassinations and an ongoing threat from Iran, Donald Trump’s campaign has ramped up requests for security, including transport by military aircraft and additional security measures on the ground at the former president’s campaign stops, three sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

    Trump’s campaign wants to use these resources – including access to military aircraft with deterrent systems to protect against surface-to-air missiles – as the former president crisscrosses the US during the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

    President Joe Biden, when asked about Trump’s requests on Friday, said they should be fulfilled – “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”

    “I’ve told the department to give him every single thing he needs … as he were a sitting president,” Biden said. “If it fits into that category, that’s fine.”
    …………
    The requests from Trump’s campaign also include access to Camp David vehicles for Trump’s primary motorcade as well as access to other military assets, such as drones with thermal monitoring.

    In addition, Trump’s campaign asked the US Secret Service to increase stockpiles of ballistic glass across several key swing states that the agency now uses to encase Trump at his outdoor rallies.
    …………
    But Trump’s team has also been informed that some of the requests aren’t feasible for any presidential candidate. Trump has complained privately that he is forced to hold smaller rallies because of the security concerns, though every president and presidential candidate has faced restrictions on their freedom of movement because of security concerns, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
    …………

    As I have said before, the SS should be replaced by military special operations personnel, such as Navy SEALS, the Army’s Delta Force, or the Marine Raiders.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  67. JVW (ae22d9) — 10/11/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    It does seem that Obama got an extra helping of self-esteem while growing up.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  68. The jumped-up bellboy always has his hand out palm up.

    How much of this is going to be diverted from FEMA funds?

    nk (50fc6a)

  69. On the subject of the gender gap which irks Barack Obama to no end, this is absolutely incredible. It’s almost too good to be true, and I confess that I am passing this along without checking it, but here is a tweet sent out in response to the new Harris/Walz ad where “everyday manly men” talk about why they are going to vote for the Democrat ticket:

    As many of you know, Jimmy Kimmel's writer, Jacob Reed, directed an ad for the Kamala Harris campaign titled 'Men for Kamala.' The ad features what are presented as everyday male voters explaining why supporting Kamala Harris is the masculine thing to do. However, none of the men… pic.twitter.com/UKsD7o3l15— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) October 11, 2024

    Absolutely insane that they believe they can fool the American public like this, but that’s just how the Dems roll.

    JVW (ae22d9)

  70. Here’s the full text to Bad Hombre’s tweet for those of you who don’t want to venture over to Twitter:

    As many of you know, Jimmy Kimmel’s writer, Jacob Reed, directed an ad for the Kamala Harris campaign titled ‘Men for Kamala.’ The ad features what are presented as everyday male voters explaining why supporting Kamala Harris is the masculine thing to do. However, none of the men in the ad are actually regular voters—they are paid actors.

    Moreover, their real-life circumstances differ significantly from the individuals they portray in the ad. Here are their stories:

    – Wayland McQueen is a far-left, pro-Antifa comedian and actor who has, until now, found limited success. He does improv gigs at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. In a Twitter post from 2022, he explains what white privilege is and tells you why you need to acknowledge your white privilege. As of 2024 he is single.

    – Lanre Idewu is an immigrant from Nigeria. He is also an actor who works at the D.C.-based OCTET Productions. He has many intimate pictures with the Obamas and the Bidens. Idewu, who is bisexual, has done gay-for-pay movies and nude solo shoots. In the “Men for Kamala” ad, he says he is “man enough to f-ing braid his daughter’s hair,” but the only problem is that he doesn’t have a daughter. Idewu isn’t braiding anyone’s hair.

    – Mike Leffingwell, a gay man, also works at the Upright Citizens Brigade, where McQueen works. He is an acting coach, cartoon writer for Netflix and DreamWorks, and an actor in TV commercials. On his public Instagram page, he showcases his participation in his latest project—the “Men for Kamala” ad.

    – Winston Carter, the heavyset fellow in the ad who claims to be a mechanic and rancher, lives in Los Angeles signed with Taft Broadcasting Company. He has found limited success in the acting world, mainly as an extra in films and as a character in the low-budget superhero film Spaghettiman.

    – Tony Ketcham, the tough, rugged, bearded grandpa in his garage in the “Men for Kamala” ad, is also an actor. He now mainly does low-budget independent films like Car Botz, where he played the role of PePaw. Tony is unmarried in real life. In 2001, he played the extra role of “alcoholic consumer” in the movie Ghost World.

    JVW (ae22d9)

  71. JVW (ae22d9) — 10/11/2024 @ 5:11 pm

    I wonder if there is fine print at the bottom of the screen stating they are actors.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  72. I wonder if there is fine print at the bottom of the screen stating they are actors.

    Well, so are Harris, Walz, Trump, Vance, and the rest of them. Certainly Barack Obama was even more of an actor than Ronald Reagan ever dreamt of being.

    JVW (ae22d9)

  73. Paul pretending money isn’t fungible.

    Good grief. It was a separate tranche of money. Congress doesn’t do “fungible” on appropriations. This is ignorance on hyperpartisan overdrive.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  74. fm

    Trump’s model is the ending of the Korean War by Eisenhower.

    How is that, Sammy? What “model”?
    We never fought in Ukraine. We wouldn’t have US soldiers in a Russian-Ukraine demilitarized zone to keep the peace.
    I doubt Trump even has a concept of a plan for a Russia-Ukraine armistice, and I’ve never heard him offer any particulars. I doubt he has any to offer, other than forcing a Ukrainian surrender in a one-sided deal that gives Putin what he wants.

    Regarding Operation Wetback, Trump did refer to it in 2015, not by name but by referring to Eisenhower but, as usual, Trump doesn’t understand history, he makes up his own FakeHistory.

    One crucial difference between today’s immigration situation and the one six decades ago, is that most of the people Trump and other hard-liners want to deport are full-time residents of the United States. Their lives are here. That wasn’t true of the immigrants who got deported to Mexico during Operation Wetback.

    In 2014, a majority of unauthorized immigrants had been in the US for a decade or longer. Millions of unauthorized immigrants live in nuclear families with US-born children — and millions of others came here as children and have grown up in the United States.

    This large population of unauthorized long-term residents is relatively new. Starting around 1996, the United States began seriously militarizing the border with Mexico to make it harder for people to cross without legal authorization. Previously, it had been easy for people to cross back and forth between families in Mexico and jobs in the United States. This “circular” unauthorized migration was especially useful to farmworkers, who would come to the US for the growing season, return to Mexico after it was over, and come back the next year.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  75. Trump will end the war in Ukraine by making Zelensky an offer he can’t refuse.

    norcal (fd38eb)

  76. Governor Glenn Youngkin Issues Statement on Noncitizen Voting Lawsuit Filed by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice

    RICHMOND, VA— Governor Glenn Youngkin, after being notified this afternoon that the Biden-Harris Department of Justice was filing a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia, released the following statement:

    “With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote. Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia’s election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.”

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  77. I couldn’t stop watching this conflict. There is a subset of cyclists out there who act like entitled assholes.

    Paul Montagu (694e07)

  78. What should I do? Is a Harris sign on my non-busy, residential street, really going to change anybody’s mind?

    norcal (fd38eb) — 10/11/2024 @ 3:46 pm

    A generic Harris sign? Unlikely. But I could imagine a “Conservative for Harris” or even better, “CBP Agent for Harris” sign giving a fence-sitter, especially a neighbor who knows and respects you, permission to take the leap. Not that I would expect the Harris campaign to have such signs, but if you called the local office and told them you’d plant the sign if they made it for you, who knows?

    lurker (c23034)

  79. My plan moves forward.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  80. “FEMA agent for Harris”

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  81. Trump campaign asks for military aircraft with antimissile capabilities and other security measures in lead-up to election

    “oops”

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  82. Here’s the perfect song for a Trump event. Random words, but good melody and beat.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  83. @69 JVW Collapse of the democrat corporate establishment and D.N.C. who have no answer for black men who they took for granted.

    asset (0f3860)

  84. There is a subset of cyclists out there who act like entitled assholes.

    Do you think that subset is a smaller percentage than the subset of Trump 2020 voters that were indicted for Jan 6 actions?

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  85. The Los Angeles Dodgers are returning to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2021:

    Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Friday night and advance to the National League Championship Series.

    Rip Murdock (615377)

  86. My plan is for a Dodgers-Yankees World Series. It would be the 12 meeting of the teams there, more than any other pairing. The Yankees have won 8 of them, including the first 5.

    The classic October Classic.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  87. I wonder if there is fine print at the bottom of the screen stating they are actors.

    Trump was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists before he resigned rather than face expulsion over his actions on January 6th. Apparently he still receives a six figure pension from the unions.

    Rip Murdock (615377)

  88. My plan is for a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.

    Probably won’t happen-the Dodgers pitching hanging by a thread (or ligament); one more pitcher injury and they’re done.

    Rip Murdock (615377)

  89. @64

    …I hate the most about Obama: the smug preening, the attempt to place his fairly posh and comfortable life experiences within the traditions of black struggle, his annoying predilection of lecturing everyone for not being as enlightened and pure as he is. …But I can certainly understand why they may look at someone like Kamala Harris and see a conniving, performative, duplicitous phony. In many respects, I guess that’s why Barack Obama likes her — birds of a feather and all that.

    JVW (ae22d9) — 10/11/2024 @ 4:56 pm

    This… all of this.

    I will never forgive Obama for lighting the race relation “wars” and how “wokeness” was fueled by that man.

    He’s a radical who adeptly was able to package progressiveness into something possibly palpable. That made him so dangerous.

    whembly (f7d883)

  90. Probably won’t happen-the Dodgers pitching hanging by a thread (or ligament); one more pitcher injury and they’re done.

    Everyone has hurt pitchers. The TJ thing is epidemic the way clubs push their pitchers to their limits.

    And the Dodger pitchers have at least stopped beating their wives.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  91. Trump was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists before he resigned rather than face expulsion over his actions on January 6th

    “Conduct unbecoming an actor”, as if there is such a thing.

    (“You could smoke dope and end up going steady with your afghan, and you’re just one of the gang.”)
    –S.O.B. (1981)

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  92. I don’t think they ever expelled OJ.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  93. From Obama’s Pittsburgh stop:

    “My understanding, based on reports I’m getting from campaigns and communities, is that we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,”

    In 2008 Obama received 372,474 votes in Allegheny County. In 2012 he received 352,687 votes. In 2020 Biden received 430,759 votes.

    It seems the brothers prefer Biden‘s campaign style. Obama is just not the dynamic adept politician that Biden is.

    Biden need to go and rally the voters like he did in 2020.

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  94. I am less interested in celebrities than many, but even I knew about Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein before the law caught up with them.

    Which makes me wonder — did most people in his business know about Sean Combs? Did some even approve?

    Jim Miller (90f884)

  95. For those like me who were unfamiliar with Combs.

    Jim Miller (90f884)

  96. I am surprised that at least one of Paul’s dozens of Trump Feeds didn’t go Five Alarm🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨on the Orange Baboon’s latest atrocity. The narcissist stops his so called “rally,” (we know it is just sycophants, toadies, and Nazis), to go off on a woman and her infant. It is difficult to watch this sick monster.

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  97. The WHOLE story:
    Trump: ‘Get That Baby Out Of Here’

    At first, the GOP nominee didn’t seem to mind the infant. When its cry interrupted his remarks, he said, “Don’t worry about that baby. I love babies.”

    He went on: “I love babies. I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a baby. What a beautiful baby.”

    He told the mother not to worry, indicating that he noticed she was nervously trying to quiet her child.

    “Don’t worry about it, you know?” Trump said. “It’s young and beautiful and healthy, and that’s what we want.”

    He went back to the subject of his remarks: China and trade.

    But then, with the baby continuing to cry, Trump seemed to have a change of heart.

    “Actually, I was only kidding, you can get the baby out of here,” Trump said, gesturing like an umpire.

    He added, “That’s all right. Don’t worry. I, I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking. That’s OK. People don’t understand. That’s OK.”

    nk (6c45b4)

  98. Funny how troll trolls someone about feeds, yet his feeds to him to a hack by the name of johnny maga. Oh the irony.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  99. And speaking of the X, this one is about how Trump’s economic policies are worse than Kamala on our national debt and inflation.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  100. If you really thought I was trolling, Paul, you would not bite on the links. Haha.

    BuDuh (6115f4)

  101. As they say, mindreading is an intellectually lazy and dishonest practice.
    Speaking of feeds, here’s yet another person who served under Trump who’s warning America about Trump.

    Mark Milley to Bob Woodward: Trump “the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked… about his mental decline & so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country.

    “A fascist to the core.”

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  102. The bigger CBS scandal wasn’t 60 Minutes editing of the Kamala interview, it was management’s reaction to Dokoupil’s questioning Te-Nehisi* Coates on his one-side anti-Israel screed, claiming that his questions fell short of “editorial standards”, which says more about the left-wing culture in the CBS newsroom than about Dokoupil.
    This was well discussed on The Dispatch podcast, where Kevin Williamson had some choice words about Coates (it sounded like Coates played a key role in bouncing Williamson out of The Atlantic).

    From the X feed, Aizenberg has a good breakdown of Coates’ blatant lies and antisemitism and terrorism apologia.

    * I’m pronouncing his first name as Tennessee, because I’ve heard different people pronounce it different ways, and Tennessee Coates sounds better.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  103. The bubble media putting their thumb on the scales as usual.

    Ex-CBS News reporter says there’s ‘precedent’ for releasing full interview transcript — when it came to Donald Trump

    “As Trump campaign calls on @60Minutes to release ‘full, unedited transcript’ of Kamala Harris interview … There is precedent,” Herridge posted on X on Wednesday.

    “When I interviewed then President Trump in July 2020. @CBSNews we posted the interview transcript. This is more complete and NOT the same as a transcript of the edited TV report.”

    lloyd (b89152)

  104. Colin Allred calls Cruz a liar, and blatantly lies while doing it

    “Ted Cruz is lying again, but now he’s lying about our children,” Allred said in the new ad. “I’m a dad, I’m also a Christian. My faith has taught me that all kids are God’s kids. So let me be clear: I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports or any of this ridiculous stuff Ted Cruz is saying.”

    Though Allred denies having believed in letting boys play girls’ sports he supported the Equality Act in both 2021 and 2023, which, among other things, would have required public school districts to allow biological males who identify as transgender girls to play on female sports teams. The law also would have mandated that schools allow trans-identifying males to enter girls’ locker rooms.

    Allred also cosponsored a resolution in March 2023 calling for the establishment of a “Transgender Bill of Rights.” The resolution’s text explicitly calls for ensuring that trans-identifying males can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”

    lloyd (b89152)

  105. Colin Allred is also running ads saying up front “I’m running to be the first Black Senator from Texas.” Making it about race probably attracts some voters, and alienates many more.

    lloyd (b89152)

  106. More on Dokoupil-Coates here. Byers noted how 60 Minutes fell short of editorial standards.

    On Wednesday, while CBS News was still scrambling to clean up the Dokoupil mess, the network was on to another micro-scandal: 60 Minutes had released two different transcripts of its interview with Kamala Harris, leading the Trump campaign to accuse the network of trying to edit the remarks in her favor. The error, whatever its cause, was an obvious violation of the CBS News standard guide, which states, verbatim, that “answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response.” It continued, in a line that evokes the nostalgia and anxiety and wishful thinking of the era, “You cannot create an answer merely because you wish the subject had said it better.”

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  107. The bigger CBS scandal wasn’t 60 Minutes editing of the Kamala interview,

    So no separating tranches when it comes to scandals? “Hey, look at this ‘bigger’ scandal that has nothing to do with the scandal that is incredibly severe.”

    BuDuh (0d586b)

  108. The “bigger” scandal has no election impact. It just further indicates to what lengths bubble media will push their bias.

    lloyd (b89152)

  109. More from The Feed…Trump’s speech in CO yesterday was riddled with lies, racism and fascism. Yay, Donnie.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  110. What could possibly go wrong?

    Elon Musk has showcased his army of $30,000 Tesla Optimus robots that are designed to help with household chores, prompting people to draw comparisons to the dystopian future depicted in I, Robot.

    In shocking and impressive footage, the humanoid robots were seen stiffly walking in single file across a stage while viewers stood jaw-dropped on the sidelines.

    Musk said attendees could walk up to the Optimus robots who would do things like serve drinks.

    ‘At scale, you should be able to buy an Optimus robot for $20,000 to $30,000,’ he said.

    ‘It can walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend.’

    The footage goes on to show the human-like bot sitting at a family table, laying with a child, as well as wiping down a kitchen surface and collecting post.
    …………
    ‘Tesla Bots are initially positioned to replace people in repetitive, boring, and dangerous tasks. But the vision is for them to serve millions of households, such as cooking, mowing lawns, and caring for the elderly,’ Musk wrote in an essay published in China Cyberspace magazine.

    But many social media users are now drawing comparisons to the 2004 Sci-fi movie I, Robot set in 2035, after seeing the clip of Musk’s droids.
    ………….
    The Tesla bot, which would be 5’8 and weigh 125 pounds, is set to include the Autopilot computer used in the company’s electric cars, which will allow the humanoid to recognize real-world objects, although the robot will have its own customized sensors and actuators.

    It will also be able to ‘deadlift’ up to 150 pounds, carry 45 pounds, walk 5 miles per hour and have human-like hands plus visual sensors giving it the ability to ‘see.’

    But just six months ago, the mogul warned a robot uprising could be imminent as he claimed AI will outsmart mankind by as early as the end of next year.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (fec955)

  111. That latest Musk story reminds me — a bit — of the original Star Trek “I, Mudd” story.

    Jim Miller (5746f5)

  112. Jim Miller (5746f5) — 10/12/2024 @ 12:17 pm

    Exactly. 😏

    Rip Murdock (fec955)

  113. More incoherence by Trump from The Feed, twice asked the question but couldn’t answer, just bullsh-tted. If he wins, it’ll be dementia and gish-galloping on a daily basis.
    BTW, Trump lied that he’s the only businessman to be prez. There were six others.
    Unfit.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  114. Jim Miller (5746f5) — 10/12/2024 @ 12:17 pm

    It also reminds me of a 2012 film called Robot & Frank, which stars Frank Langella as an aging ex-con (also named Frank), who is given a personal care robot by his son (who is tired of his weekly visits with his father). It turns out that the robot’s programming doesn’t distinguish between right and wrong, so the robot is roped into committing burglaries with Frank.

    Rip Murdock (fec955)

  115. @114 Paul, there wasn’t a question. There was a declarative statement to which Trump responded directly with “I agree.” And, “Let’s start with the criminals” to which the interviewer said “I agree.” You’re just bullsh_tting. If Mark Cuban has a direct answer to those “questions”, I’ve yet to hear it. But, he’s not running for anything — taking shots from the gallery while Trump puts himself in front of assassins bullets. The guy who distributed “Loose Change” 911 truther movie is high class.

    lloyd (3b3922)

  116. He asked it, lloyd…”Maybe we can open our hearts to people who are trying to be good hard working Americans”? Then he tried to get Trump back on track, but didn’t happen.
    Trump’s response was dementia and gish-galloping pulled straight from his ass. That’s your guy, lloyd, and it’s only going to get worse, because he’s 78 and he can’t hold a thought together for more than a few seconds.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  117. @117 Yeah Paul, you were way out in front of the Biden dementia news, three years after everyone else knew. For how many years did Biden’s gish-galloping not move the needle for you? Just like Kamala’s incoherence doesn’t bother you now. Suddenly dementia and age are huge issues for you. But you think both candidates suck, right?

    lloyd (3b3922)

  118. But just six months ago, the mogul warned a robot uprising could be imminent as he claimed AI will outsmart mankind by as early as the end of next year.

    Cylons.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  119. Or, here, way back in 1947

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  120. For Paul’s benefit, here are some direct questions about the border mess and a lot of gish-galloping in response that even heavy editing by CBS couldn’t hide.

    ‘You Have Changed’: Harris Faces Brutal Grilling On Flip-Flops, Border Crisis In 60 Minutes Interview

    The “60 Minutes” host asked Harris why she and President Joe Biden just now embraced a recent crackdown on asylum seekers, rather than taking those steps in 2021.

    “The first bill we proposed to Congress [ed. note, in 2024] was to fix our broken immigration system, knowing that if you want to actually fix it, we need Congress to act. It was not taken up. Fast forward to a moment when a bipartisan group of members of the United States Senate, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, got together, came up with a border security bill,” Harris said, repeating her administration’s frequent talking points about Trump asking members of Congress to kill the bill.

    “I’ve been covering the border for years, and so I know this is not a problem that started with your administration. But there was an historic flood of undocumented immigrants coming across the border the first three years of your administration. As a matter of fact, arrivals quadrupled from the last year of President Trump. Was it a mistake to loosen the immigration policies as much as you did?” Whitaker pressed.

    The vice president began to answer, telling Whitaker that the border crisis was a “long-standing” problem that her administration has offered solutions to before he interjected and repeated the question.

    “What I was asking was, was it a mistake to kind of allow that flood to happen in the first place?” The “60 Minutes” host followed up as Harris once again calling on Congress to act.

    lloyd (3b3922)

  121. Where do Democratic and Republican campaigns spend their food money? Sadly, it is even more polarized than I would have guessed, with Democrats flocking to Starbucks, and Republicans to McDonald’s.
    (FWIW, I’m not a big fan of either.)

    One bright spot: Costo seems about equally popular with both.

    Jim Miller (45004b)

  122. correction: Costco

    Jim Miller (45004b)

  123. Shots fired into democrat office in tempe az. for third time closes to protect workers. (DU)

    asset (294792)

  124. I’ve never thought of Starbucks as a food place, though I know they have food there. Apparently, enviro preaching Democrats like waiting in a drive thru with the car idling just to get an overpriced cup of coffee and snack.

    “If the average wait time in a Starbucks drive-thru is five minutes, the average amount of CO2 emitted is 274 grams per car. Multiply that across hundreds of stores with drive-thrus, and you have a huge amount of needless carbon emissions.”

    lloyd (3b3922)

  125. Reminder: Those who follow the Loser are likely to lose their money, their health, or even their freedom. Another example from the Gateway Pundit:

    The Gateway Pundit, a far-right news site that repeatedly published bogus stories claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, has settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers whom the site falsely reported had tampered with the election results in their state.

    I haven’t followed him for years, but when I did, Jim Hoft struck me as insufficiently skeptical.

    Jim Miller (45004b)

  126. US attempts to leak Israeli attack plans, but is hampered in that Israel isn’t sharing them.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-officials-israel-iran-strikes-targets-rcna175140

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  127. The Gateway Pundit is crazier than Infowars.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  128. Apparently, enviro preaching Democrats like waiting in a drive thru with the car idling just to get an overpriced cup of coffee and snack.

    In my car, a hybrid, there is no CO2 emitted until I push the accelerator hard, which I hardly ever do in a drive-thru line.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  129. I’ve never thought of Starbucks as a food place,

    Me neither, but I’ve also never thought of McDonald’s as a coffee place.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  130. Suddenly dementia and age are huge issues for you.

    I’ve been saying both have issues since 2020. Biden has classic dementia, with Trump it’s Alzheimer’s.

    FOr those that need a reference, check out this old guy as he LEFT office.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  131. Lanny Lutz
    @lanny_lutz
    I noticed @GovTimWalz didn’t invite Dick Cheney to go hunting with him even though they are so happy to have his endorsement.

    Ouch.

    lloyd (3b3922)

  132. Starbucks and food: Some years ago, I wandered into a Starbucks shortly after I had read a description of what was served on a US WW II carrier, on a day a battle was expected:
    doughnuts
    sandwiches
    coffee

    The Starbucks was serving:
    sweet rolls
    sandwiches
    coffee

    I found the similarity more interesting than the Starbucks employees did.

    Jim Miller (f18fce)

  133. Iran to gulf states: butt out or you’re next:

    …………. In (the event of an Israeli attack on their nuclear facilities or oil installations), Iran has warned it would respond with devastating hits on Israel’s civilian infrastructure, and would retaliate against any Arab state that facilitated the attack, the officials said.

    The Arab officials said the countries that Iran has threatened include Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all of which host U.S. troops. These states have told the Biden administration that they don’t want their military infrastructure or airspace to be used by the U.S. or Israel for any offensive operations against Iran, the officials said.
    …………..
    U.S. defense officials acknowledged that some regional partners have told the Pentagon that they don’t want Israeli warplanes flying over their territories or U.S. troops launching offensive operations from inside or over their airspace. The Arab countries have said the U.S. forces are allowed to conduct self-defense operations, the officials said.
    …………..
    Israel likely has other routes for sending warplanes to attack Iran, including over Syria, where its air force has freedom of movement, and Iraq, where air defenses are no match for Israeli stealth technology.

    Still, any restrictions on how the U.S. military moves throughout the region makes it potentially harder to secure or resupply its assets, such as aircraft carriers operating in the Red Sea.
    ……………

    Earlier this month, Iran’s Mission to the United Nations publicly warned “any country render[ing] assistance” to an Israeli attack “shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target,” but did not provide any specifics.
    …………..
    During an emergency meeting last week in an effort to avert any attack by Tehran, Persian Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E, promised not to allow their territories or airspace to be used in any possible strikes on Iran.
    ……………

    Rip Murdock (fec955)

  134. I’ve been saying both have issues since 2020. Biden has classic dementia, with Trump it’s Alzheimer’s.

    What’s the difference, doctor?

    Rip Murdock (fec955)

  135. Trump has always been a bad seed with a foul mouth unconnected to any sense or sensibility, and as he sees what little future he had remaining to begin with being decided in 23 days, he is letting all his vileness and depravity have free rein.

    It does resemble mental disease or defect but it is an innate characteristic perhaps exacerbated but not caused by the ravages of old age that normally afflict people.

    nk (29d674)

  136. Yeah Paul, you were way out in front of the Biden dementia news, three years after everyone else knew.

    I’ve always said he was too old and shouldn’t run for reelection. His crap performance in the last debate only confirmed my opinion. I agreed with George Will 11 months ago on that very thing. Meantime, you’re supporting this Trumpian mental illness and mental decline, unreservedly. The hypocrite ain’t me, lloyd.

    I’ll also note that your bogus equivalency–and it’s amazing how often you Trump water carriers engage in bogus equivalencies–between the occasional incoherence of the Dem candidate and constant argle bargle from your deranged nominee. It’s really something, the denial of it all.

    And let’s be clear on who the real gish galloper is, because words mean things, and it’s your Orange Manchild and no one else.

    Infamous debate tactic used by amateurs, grifters who are paid by shills, and people who only care about winning alike, the Gish Gallop is a tactic in which one person purposefully gives as many incorrect or falsely-quoted statistics as possible in a very short time frame. This forces the opponent to waste speaking time taking down endless strawmen and lies created by their opponent, and is usually a sign that the utilizer is arguing in bad faith.

    For Paul’s benefit, here are some direct questions about the border mess and a lot of gish-galloping in response that even heavy editing by CBS couldn’t hide.

    Sad, lloyd, that you still don’t comprehend that Criticism of Party A ≠ Defense of Party B, and the fact is that I’m not voting for Party B.

    You won’t find anywhere my support for Biden’s or Harris’ suckass border policy, but you would’ve heard me say more than once Mayorkas should be sacked for his incompetence.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  137. @137

    I’ll also note that your bogus equivalency–and it’s amazing how often you Trump water carriers engage in bogus equivalencies–between the occasional incoherence of the Dem candidate and constant argle bargle from your deranged nominee.

    Trump is out doing interviews and speaking off the cuff at rallies nearly every day, providing fodder for your out of context snippets. Your gal Kamala is bubbled wrapped in the china cabinet, doing only the most friendly heavily edited interviews every full moon. The nonsense per word spoken isn’t even close.

    And, oh yeah, the buck stops with Mayorkas LOL

    lloyd (65a7d5)

  138. Your gal Kamala is bubbled wrapped in the china cabinet, doing only the most friendly heavily edited interviews every full moon. The nonsense per word spoken isn’t even close.

    And, oh yeah, the buck stops with Mayorkas LOL

    lloyd (65a7d5) — 10/12/2024 @ 6:13 pm

    This is how you get called a troll.

    Paul already told you he’s not a Kamala supporter, yet you state “Your gal Kamala”.

    Then, instead of finding agreement on the appropriateness of firing Mayorkas, you go into mocking mode.

    norcal (7e490d)

  139. lloyd, I haven’t taken anything out of context, and I’ve provided the links. I don’t know why you keep making sh-t up in defense of insanity.

    The irony here is Trump pizda’d out on a 2nd debate and 60 Minutes, and his only interviews are with right-wingers, in safe territory, taking safe softball questions, and he still can barely speak longer than a sentence on actual policy before veering off onto Eisenhower or circles or rockets or whatever random thought pops into his dementia’d head.

    And today, the next raft of lies is coming from Coachella, which should’ve stayed a concert venue.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  140. Infamous debate tactic used by amateurs, grifters who are paid by shills, and people who only care about winning alike, the Gish Gallop is a tactic in which one person purposefully gives as many incorrect or falsely-quoted statistics as possible in a very short time frame.

    I don’t know that this is true. Does a person with narcissistic personality disorder actually believe what their saying from moment to moment?

    Trump’s always been stupid, now he’s stupid with a mental defect surrounded by exactly the wrong people.

    Oh, and the excuse that Biden is senile so Trump’s senile is fine seems to be a moronic argument. Plus, he’s a loon, seems to be the mostest riskiest terriblest idea. But own the libs, lolz.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  141. norcal, I’ve been called a sock puppet and a Putin stooge here, among other things. Paul’s a big boy. He likely doesn’t need your highly selective defense. And I stopped believing what people here self identify as a long time ago. You are as you comment.

    lloyd (65a7d5)

  142. I’ve always said he was too old and shouldn’t run for reelection. His crap performance in the last debate only confirmed my opinion. I agreed with George Will 11 months ago on that very thing.

    6 months ago:

    it’s not that I don’t vote for Democrats, because I have. But for Biden, I just can’t bring myself to that decision, and fortunately I have the luxury of not having to.

    This all assumes that the Biden-Harris ticket is unchanged, that Trump’s VP pick is loyal and docile and a yes man to a fault, and none of the candidates run into health issues, be it physical or mental.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/11/2024 @ 7:15 pm

    Oh…

    BuDuh (aad567)

  143. @140

    The irony here is Trump pizda’d out on a 2nd debate and 60 Minutes, and his only interviews are with right-wingers, in safe territory, taking safe softball questions

    Trump did two debates, as he had agreed to do way back in May. Biden’s people choose the dates, format, network, everything — and Trump went along with it all. The Democrats getting buyer’s remorse in July doesn’t mean Trump has to accommodate them yet again.

    Trump and Vance have done countless interviews with unfriendly reporters. Vance just did one with NBC. We have yet to see Kamala do one single unfriendly debate or news conference. Sorry, the debate with two other Democrats running interference for her doesn’t count.

    lloyd (65a7d5)

  144. From the same 6 month old link:

    If I were in Michigan or Georgia, my voting strategy would be different, and I could see myself crossing that Rubicon of voting for Biden in those states.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/11/2024 @ 7:15 pm

    BuDuh (aad567)

  145. By the way, I once had the opportunity to listen to Mr Gish present his theories, at my STEM alma mater. I have to give him credit for walking into the lion’s den like that, not that it saved him.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  146. Trump has always been a braggart and a BS artist. Always wanting to look more knowledgeable than he is. So he makes up stuff, lies, and spouts gibberish straight-faced in your face.

    It’s nothing recent. I remember when Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire Of The Vanities was “news”. Trump was on a TV talk show pretending to have it read it when it was painfully obvious that he had not. The host and the other guests were visibly cringing but the show had to go on.

    Is there a treatment for his condition? I don’t know. Maybe an injection with some kind of disinfectant or ultraviolet light?

    nk (7c2843)

  147. Defend the pizda all you like, lloyd. As you said, you are as you comment.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  148. This is how you get called a troll.

    Paul already told you he’s not a Kamala supporter, yet you state “Your gal Kamala”.

    Then, instead of finding agreement on the appropriateness of firing Mayorkas, you go into mocking mode.

    norcal (7e490d) — 10/12/2024 @ 6:20 pm

    When you only attack one side, you support the other side.

    I’ve known Paul when he went by other names. He’s a moby.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  149. Except I don’t criticize just one side, Rob, evidenced right here in this thread, which is why you’re just another liar for MAGA. Y’all are defending a mentally ill and deranged candidate.

    Paul Montagu (0e8283)

  150. Starship 5 to launch tomorrow morning.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  151. We’ve had three choices:

    Senile, Crazy and Evil. Evil looks like the best of them.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  152. 2 things can be true at once, sometimes 3.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  153. Hollywood libs don’t seem to be saying they will move to canada if trump is elected this time. Afraid might send a moving van to their house.

    asset (9bc8e0)

  154. Senile, Crazy and Evil. Evil looks like the best of them.

    By the process of elimination I’m guessing you mean Biden, Trump and Harris, in that order. About Biden I agree, but after that you lose me. IMO Trump is all three, and Harris, for all her faults, is none of them. She’s an unlikable, pandering midwit with awful left-wing policies (except Ukraine), but that doesn’t make her evil.

    lurker (c23034)

  155. Trump, on the other hand, is a virtual cartoon-villain. If you lab-assembled the most noxious bits of our most malign presidents, Jackson, Johnson, Wilson, LBJ, Nixon, Clinton… the resulting monstrosity would still only be a pale approximation of Trump. In the annals of presidential malevolence, he’s a unicorn.

    lurker (c23034)

  156. If harris loses what happens to democrat party? The left is sharpening their knives.

    asset (9bc8e0)

  157. Leftist policies destroy innovation, cause division and suffering. They are evil.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  158. Maybe Paul and George Will talked about this 11 months ago as well.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  159. Senile, Crazy and Evil. Senile, Crazy and Evil. Evil looks like the best of them.

    Senile, crazy and evil is one choice, Trump. The other choice is liberal, misguided and soft.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  160. Starship 5 to launch tomorrow morning.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/12/2024 @ 10:14 pm

    The mission was successful. Great video of the rocket being captured in mid-air.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  161. The real show starts at T+6.00

    As an engineer, I am f-ing impressed.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  162. The other choice is liberal, misguided and soft.

    Keep telling yourself that.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  163. Trump, on the other hand, is a virtual cartoon-villain.

    I have long said he is a Democrat-caricature of a Republican, sent by Bill Clinton to destroy the GOP. Like most golems, he is running amok.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  164. U.S. Is Sending Antimissile System to Israel to Bolster Defenses Against Iran

    The Biden administration is planning to send an advanced antimissile system to Israel along with American troops to operate it, moving to bolster its top Middle East ally’s defenses, U.S. officials said Sunday.

    The deployment of the (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)) system, a ground-based interceptor designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, would mark a significant step in American efforts to directly protect Israel against an enemy attack by putting U.S. soldiers on the ground.
    …………….
    The soldiers, just under 100 troops in all, would man the system, a rare U.S. deployment to Israel. How quickly the Pentagon can move the system to Israel wasn’t immediately clear.
    …………….

    Updates to follow as news develops.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  165. Keep telling yourself that.

    I do, Kevin, because I’m not delusional, and because there’s actual history, i.e., presidents in 12 of the last 16 years are Democrats, and we’re not competing with Maduro for which country is most socialist.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  166. Bill Ackman
    @BillAckman
    Oct 11
    A number of my good friends and family have been surprised about my decision to support @realDonaldTrump for president. They have been surprised because my political giving history has been mostly to Democrats, my voting registration has typically been Democrat (in NY, you must be registered to the party in order to vote in the primary, and usually the Republican candidate has no chance to win), and many of our philanthropic initiatives have supported issues that are consistent with Democratic priorities.

    All of the above said, I have always considered myself to be a centrist and/or moderate, and I have voted for the candidate and supported the issues and policies that I believe are in the best interest of the country. Some have accused me of supporting Trump because doing so will somehow benefit me financially. Fortunately, I do not need any financial benefits as I and my family have well more than we need. I have also committed to give away the substantial majority of my resources at or by the time I am no longer, so I don’t consider personal financial benefits in the determination of whom I support for office.

    Some have suggested that I am supporting Trump because I am seeking a position in his administration. To be clear, I haven’t been offered one and I wouldn’t take a job in the administration (I love my job and it is the wrong time in my life to work in an administration). I will, however, do everything else I can to help the president succeed in helping our country and its citizens.

    All of the above said, I am an investor who manages funds that own some of the best, principally American, businesses in the world. In a better governed and managed America, these business will do better and increase in value faster. One might therefore argue that being ‘long’ America is somehow a conflict, so I thought to disclose this potential ‘conflict’ here.

    Some of my friends and family who support @KamalaHarris are ok with my supporting Trump, but don’t want me to attempt to convince others to support him. Because I strongly believe that a Trump administration will be better for the country and the world than a Harris administration, I think it is important to share my thinking to the extent it helps others come to the right conclusion.

    Three months ago, when I endorsed Trump on the day of the first assassination attempt, I promised to share my thinking about why I came to this conclusion in a future more detailed post. I intend to do so in possibly more than one post, with the first, this one, explaining the actions and policies of the Biden/Harris administration and Democratic Party that were the catalysts for my losing total confidence in the administration and the Party.

    To be clear, my decision to vote for Trump is not an endorsement of everything he has done or will do because he is an imperfect man. Unlike a marriage or a business partnership where there are effectively unlimited alternatives, in this election, we have only two viable choices. Of the two, I believe that Trump is by far the superior candidate despite his flaws and mistakes he has made in the past.

    As always, I welcome your feedback on how I could be wrong and on how the below actions and policies I outline below might actually have been good for America. I have always believed that the best way to get to the truth is to hear the best arguments on all sides of an issue.

    While the 33 actions I describe below are those of the Democratic Party and the Biden/Harris administration, they are also the actions and policies that unfortunately our most aggressive adversaries would likely implement if they wanted to destroy America from within, and had the ability to take control of our leadership.

    These are the 33:

    (1) open the borders to millions of immigrants who were not screened for their risk to the country, dumping them into communities where the new immigrants overwhelm existing communities and the infrastructure to support the new entrants, at the expense of the historic residents,

    (2) introduce economic policies and massively increase spending without regard to their impact on inflation and the consequences for low-income Americans and the increase in our deficit and national debt,

    (3) withdraw from Afghanistan, abandoning our local partners and the civilians who worked alongside us in an unprepared, overnight withdrawal that led to American casualties and destroyed the lives of Afghani women and girls for generations, against the strong advice of our military leadership, and thereafter not showing appropriate respect for their loss at a memorial ceremony in their honor,

    (4) introduce thousands of new and unnecessary regulations in light of the existing regulatory regime that interfere with our businesses’ ability to compete, restraining the development of desperately needed housing, infrastructure, and energy production with the associated inflationary effects,

    (5) modify the bail system so that violent criminals are released without bail,

    (6) destroy our street retailers and communities and promote lawlessness by making shoplifting (except above large thresholds) no longer a criminal offense,

    (7) limit and/or attempt to limit or ban fracking and LNG so that U.S. energy costs increase substantially and the U.S. loses its energy independence,

    (8) promote DEI ideologies that award jobs, awards, and university admissions on the basis of race, sexual identity and gender criteria, and teach our students and citizens that the world can only be understood as an unfair battle between oppressors and the oppressed, where the oppressors are only successful due to structural racism or a rigged system and the oppressed are simply victims of an unfair system and world,

    (9) educate our elementary children that gender is fluid, something to be chosen by a child, and promote hormone blockers and gender reassignment surgeries to our youth without regard to the longer-term consequences to their mental and physical health, and allow biological boys and men to compete in girls and women’s sports, depriving girls and women of scholarships, awards, and other opportunities that they would have rightly earned otherwise,

    (10) encourage and celebrate massive protests and riots that lead to the burning and destruction of local retail and business establishments while at the same time requiring schools to be shuttered because of the risk of Covid-19 spreading during large gatherings,

    (11) encourage and celebrate anti-American and anti-Israel protests and flag burning on campuses around the country with no consequences for the protesters who violate laws or university codes and policies,

    (12) allow antisemitism to explode with no serious efforts from the administration to quell this hatred,

    (13) mandate vaccines that have not been adequately tested nor have their risks been properly considered compared with the potential benefits adjusted for the age and health of the individual, censoring the contrary advice of top scientists around the world,

    (14) shut down free speech in media and on social media platforms that is inconsistent with government policies and objectives,

    (15) use the U.S., state, and local legal systems to attack and attempt to jail, take off the campaign trail, and/or massively fine candidates for the presidency without regard to the merits or precedential issues of the case,

    (16) seek to defund the police and promote anti-police rhetoric causing a loss of confidence in those who are charged with protecting us,

    (17) use government funds to subsidize auto companies and internet providers with vastly more expensive, dated and/or lower-quality technology when greatly superior and cheaper alternatives are available from companies that are owned and/or managed by individuals not favored by the current administration,

    (18) mandate in legislation and otherwise government solutions to problems when the private sector can do a vastly better, faster, and cheaper job,

    (19) seek to ban gas-powered cars and stoves without regard to the economic and practical consequences of doing so,

    (20) take no serious actions when 45 American citizens are killed by terrorists and 12 are taken hostage,

    (21) hold back armaments and weaponry from our most important ally in the Middle East in the midst of their hostage negotiations, hostages who include American citizens who have now been held for more than one year,

    (22) eliminate sanctions on one of our most dangerous enemies enabling them to generate $150 billion+ of cash reserves from oil sales, which they can then use to fund terrorist proxy organizations who attack us and our allies. Exchange five American hostages held by Iran for five Iranians plus $6 billion of cash in the worst hostage negotiation in history setting a disastrous and dangerous precedent,

    (23) remove known terrorist organizations from the terrorist list so we can provide aid to their people, and allow them to shoot rockets at U.S. assets and military bases with little if any military response from us,

    (24) lie to the American people about the cognitive health of the president and accuse those who provide video evidence of his decline of sharing doctored videos and being right wing conspirators,

    (25) do nothing about the deteriorating health of our citizens driven by the food industrial complex, the fraudulent USDA food pyramid, and the inclusion of ingredients in our food that are banned by other countries around the world which are more protective of their citizens,

    (26) do nothing about the proliferation of new vaccines that are not properly analyzed for their risk versus the potential benefit for healthy children who are mandated to receive them,

    (27) do nothing about the continued exemption from liability for the pharma industry that has led to a proliferation of mandatory vaccines for children without considering the potential cumulative effects of the now mandated 72-shot regime,

    (28) convince our minority youth that they are victims of a rigged system and that the American dream is not available to them,

    (29) fail to provide adequate Secret Service protection for alternative presidential candidates,

    (30) litigate to prevent alternative candidates from getting on the ballot, and take other anti-competitive steps including threatening political consultants who wish to work for alternative candidates for the presidency, and limit the potential media access for other candidates by threatening the networks’ future access to the administration and access to ‘scoops’ if they platform an alternative candidate,

    (31) select the Democratic nominee for president in a backroom process by undisclosed party leaders without allowing Americans to choose between candidates in an open primary,

    (32) choose an inferior candidate for the presidency when other much more qualified candidates are available and interested to serve,

    (33) litigate to make it illegal for states to require proof of citizenship, voter ID, and/or residence in order to vote at a time when many Americans have lost confidence in the accuracy and trustworthiness of our voting system.

    I welcome your thoughts

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  167. The above 33 items are simply the actions of liberal, misguided and soft leadership. Nothing to worry about.

    Especially from behind an Electoral College skirt, or a lie about Biden’s cognitive decline. That make believe world has nothing to fear.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  168. presidents in 12 of the last 16 years are Democrats

    She is to the left of both of them. Considerably. Oh, she’s putting on sheep clothing right now, but just wait. I expect quite a bit of “I told you so” and I won’t be shy about it.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  169. Things Harris would do with a majority in Congress, however thin:

    1. Nuke the filibuster. A perquisite.
    2. Add seats to the Supreme Court.
    3. Raise taxes considerably, starting with uncapping the rest of FICA and eliminating capital gains treatment. Raise top rates and cap home mortgage deduction further.
    4. Preempt all state abortion laws to establish a 25-week right to abortion on demand
    5. Create 2 or 3 new entitlements, all of which will be underfunded. Examples: Federally-funded preschools, free public college, expanded Medicare (e.g. dental, vision), federally-funded abortions, etc.
    6. Forgive all student loans.

    She will have the House. The Senate will depend on luck. The GOP has underperformed the polls in most recent Senate elections, so I am not as sanguine as some.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  170. At least her health report is a good as Biden’s was.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  171. A Democrat House that impeaches Cannon, Kacsmaryk, and Doughty (even if there is no Senate to remove them) would be like so wonderful. Those gerbils ratify Trump’s opinion of the judiciary even if he had to appoint them himself.

    As for packing the Supreme Court, Alito and Thomas are in their mid-seventies. The Democrats will be satisfied with Harris appointing their replacements. Me too.

    nk (7c2843)

  172. I would like to see Congress consider an amendment to fix the size of the Supreme Court at 9.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  173. I would rather have them with an enforceable code of ethics.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  174. She is to the left of both of them. Considerably. Oh, she’s putting on sheep clothing right now, but just wait. I expect quite a bit of “I told you so” and I won’t be shy about it.

    More delusion. There won’t be an “I told you so” from you.
    Politically, Kamala’s fairly close to Bernie, a little left or right of him depending on who’s surveying them. Bernie’s vision is a big American version of Denmark, which is a free nation with a free economy and big social safety net, not Venezuela or Cuba like the hyperventilators here claim.
    Kamala doesn’t have the political chops to enlarge the safety net we have, especially when there will be at least 51 Republicans in the Senate.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  175. Ackman’s list, after a quick look:

    2-Republicans and Democrats are both guilty

    5&6-Bail and shoplifting are state/local government issues

    10-12 a lack evidence or are protected speech

    Most of the rest also lack evidence or just his opinion. For example, #20, the US has no leverage to negotiate with Hamas to release the hostages with the Israelis being in the best position to do so.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  176. Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/13/2024 @ 10:01 am

    That’s a brave stand as a retiree to object to expanding Medicare. I salute you!

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  177. Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/13/2024 @ 10:01 am

    That’s a brave stand as a retiree to object to expanding Medicare. I salute you!

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/13/2024 @ 11:16 am

    When will you endorse abolishing Medicare (and Social Security)? 😉

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  178. I would rather have them with an enforceable code of ethics.

    Of course you would, as it’s the Democrat talking point. How well is that enforceable Congressional code of ethics working? Or any other code of ethics in government?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  179. When will you endorse abolishing Medicare (and Social Security)?

    Never. It’s a blood oath by government to the people it taxes. They would have to pay me back every dime, plus the percentage gain on the S&P 500, before I’d consider it.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  180. That’s a brave stand as a retiree to object to expanding Medicare.

    No, it’s simply objecting to further strain on the system. It’s going to be cut back as it is.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  181. More delusion. There won’t be an “I told you so” from you.

    The delusion is yours. Hell, Rip accuses ME of wishful thinking. She will move as far Left as she is able.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  182. not Venezuela or Cuba like the hyperventilators here claim.

    There is a vast gulf between the US and Cuba, and you can destroy our system long before you get that far.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  183. Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/13/2024 @ 10:01 am

    I have no doubt Republicans would nuke the filibuster in order to pass Trump’s agenda. And once that is done, a national abortion ban could be passed (assuming they retain control of the House, which I think they will).

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  184. Never. It’s a blood oath by government to the people it taxes.

    Nothing is a “blood oath” by the government. They’re always changing the rules.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  185. Of course you would, as it’s the Democrat talking point. How well is that enforceable Congressional code of ethics working? Or any other code of ethics in government?

    So ethics are a democrat thing? That explains a lot.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  186. “Chinese researchers, using a D-Wave quantum computer, claim to have executed what they are calling the first successful quantum attack on widely used encryption algorithms, posing a “real and substantial threat” to sectors like banking and the military, as reported by SCMP.
    The D-Wave Advantage, initially designed for non-cryptographic applications, was used to breach SPN-structured algorithms but has not yet cracked specific passcodes, highlighting the early-stage nature of this threat.
    Despite the advance, the researchers acknowledge limitations such as environmental interference, underdeveloped hardware and the inability to develop a single attack method for multiple encryption systems still hinder quantum computing’s full cryptographic potential.”

    Also note that “Golden Jackal” hackers (probably Russian gov’t) have twice breached air gapped systems.

    steveg (292c87)

  187. So ethics are a democrat thing? That explains a lot.

    Yeah, sure. Deflect. Ethics in institutions that Democrats want to control, but don’t, are a Democrat thing. The complaints about Alito and Thomas are trumped up — they affect nothing. It’s just the normal MSM smear machine. Are are you saying that Thomas hews Right because he’s being paid to do so? If so, make your case.

    Then we can talk about Congress and the stock market. Or Maxine Waters and her husband’s bank

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  188. Nothing is a “blood oath” by the government. They’re always changing the rules

    Let them try to change this rule and you will see the blood.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  189. I have no doubt Republicans would nuke the filibuster in order to pass Trump’s agenda

    They didn’t last time. Trump demanded it, but enough Republicans refused. It would take only a few, no matter what MAGA wants. Maybe he could get some Democrat votes.

    OTOH, the Democrats did try and nearly succeeded and the majority leader has announced they will succeed next time. Maybe we should call them MASA (Make America Statist Again).

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  190. BTW, if you have not watched that SpaceX booster landing, check out the video at: https://wapo.st/3YkqW1Y

    If you’re impatient, the real fun starts at 45 seconds in. Note that the booster is 233ft long and 30 feet in diameter and weighs 300 tons empty.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  191. 2 things can be true at once, sometimes 3.

    It’s weird that I’m deflecting as a response to a SCOTUS post, about SCOTUS, and I’m deflecting too…congress.

    Wait, that was you.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  192. Politically, Kamala’s fairly close to Bernie

    yeah no big deal

    Dustin (4b502c)

  193. Yeah, Denmark is such a communist wasteland.
    Good grief.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  194. https://x.com/i/status/1845467052443828579.

    But via Elon Musk so if quirky “sperg’s” offend you, don’t click

    No WaPo paywall

    steveg (292c87)

  195. Rip

    5,6 are Kamala issues. She is the one who named Prop 47 the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” and she will bring that type of leadership to the WH

    steveg (292c87)

  196. Indeed, they all knew. The difference is us NeverTrumpers never changed our tune. There was no reason to.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  197. My opinion of Trump as a person is more or less how nk describes him. Irredeemable and awful.

    Putting that aside, just looking at whether he can perform or not: he can’t. His first two years, when he had a GOP congress and no real crisis, was a waste. His second two years, when he had a crisis, he seized power clumsily and failed every test somewhat bigly.

    I mentioned for some time that Biden would not be Trump’s opponent. The dems were smart to try to repeat the 2020 campaign (not run against Trump, but Trump run against himself). However they took this too far. Kamala came in with very little record to stand on.

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25201760/240478-nbc-october-2024-poll_101324-release.pdf This recent poll shows she has lost favorability rapidly. We all seem to understand that the battle lines are radical. Trans in girls bathrooms, millions of illegal aliens ruining towns, idiots insisting we should appreciate the working class competing with second class citizens because the rich need as close to slavery as they can get.

    So remember, all those nevertrumpers who refused to compromise in a way that would crush Trump at the right moment: they have left us in a situation where Trump could be reelected. And that makes sense. You can’t beat from from the left like you can beat him from the middle if you just give the populists some respect.

    I think Kamala will win, and Trump will be terrible in the aftermath. But maybe not. Maybe the nevertrumpers handed Trump the white house.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  198. Yeah, Denmark is such a communist wasteland.

    Bernie honeymooned in Brezhnev’s USSR, not Denmark.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  199. No WaPo paywall

    Mine was a free link, so no paywall there either

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  200. She is the one who named Prop 47 the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act”

    She did a lot of that. No power too petty to pervert.

    Many propositions addressing pensions have been, and are being, proposed, but all face withering assaults from the well-funded and powerful public-employee unions.

    Their power was displayed when California Pension Reform qualified a reform measure for the ballot in 2012, leading to the next step in the process: the Attorney General’s drafting of a ballot title and summary.

    California’s attorney general [was] Kamala Harris, a San Francisco liberal and great friend of the unions, who were primary funders of her tough campaign for her seat. The ballot statement she drafted for the pension reform initiative said the measure reduced pension benefits for current employees, but it didn’t. It said the measure prohibited death and disability benefits, while it specifically allowed them. And, showing the deliberateness of her effort to paint the proposition in a bad light, Harris’ ballot statement singled out teachers, nurses and police officers as those whose benefits would be cut.

    https://californiaglobe.com/fr/california-ballot-initiative-title-history-and-kamalas-ag-days/

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  201. Raddatz seems to have a case of Paul’s tranche rational disease.

    BuDuh (aad567)

  202. @203 Vance has been doing regular interviews with a hostile and biased media, which Kamala and Walz refuse to do — even with a media biased in their favor. And, Vance has been knocking it out of the park. More on the exchange:

    Vance: “Well, Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated. That means that there’s gotta be some element of truth here. Of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado talking to people on the ground, and what we’re hearing is people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs — ”

    Raddatz: “Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened. I’m going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes and the mayor said, ‘Our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns.’ A handful of problems.”

    Vance: “Only, Martha? Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem, not Kamala Harris’ open border? Americans are so fed up with what’s going on, and they have every right to be. I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said, rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.

    “I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again, and unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions — most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are — you’re going to have problems like this. Kamala Harris — 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump’s successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen. They bragged about opening the border, and now we have the consequences and we’re living with it. We can do so much better, but frankly we’re not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out.”

    lloyd (924176)

  203. I have no doubt Republicans would nuke the filibuster in order to pass Trump’s agenda

    They didn’t last time. Trump demanded it, but enough Republicans refused. It would take only a few, no matter what MAGA wants. Maybe he could get some Democrat votes.

    The next Senate will be totally different, so whatever happened in the past is irrelevant.

    Rip Murdock (6b103f)

  204. What is relevant is that two GOP votes will stop it. Last time they have 30 to stop it.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  205. I know all true Republicans are those who aren’t concerned about a politician winning election to the most powerful office in the land who is only a little to the left of Bernie Sanders.

    NJRob (3ea254)

  206. Forty years ago, what Jean Kirkpatrick identified in her “San Francisco Democrats” speech as Blame America First has evolved into Blame Americans First. You see it with the war on fossil fuels, inflation, regulations, defunding police, banning gas appliances, border policy overwhelming our towns and cities, disaster relief. “Just a handful of problems” is a further manifestation. And we’re set to elect a bona fide San Francisco Democrat more extreme than what Kirkpatrick was imagining.

    lloyd (924176)

  207. Speaker Johnson is also going out in front of a hostile media. Here, he’s grilled on Trump’s health and “cholesterol levels” by the same Democrats in the media who hid Biden’s cognitive decline.

    ‘Listen To Your Question!’: Kristen Welker Presses House Speaker Mike Johnson On Release Of Trump’s Medical Records

    lloyd (924176)

  208. Man with illegal guns arrested outside Trump’s Coachella rally venue
    ………….
    “The male driver, identified as Vem Miller, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was found to be illegally in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine. Miller was taken into custody without incident and later booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center for possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a high-capacity magazine. This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” (the Sheriff’s statement said.)

    Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told the Southern California News Group that Miller also possessed fake VIP and press badges.

    “We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Bianco said. Miller was later released on $5,000 bail.

    Miller ran for state assembly in 2022 as a Republican.
    ………….

    There is an on-going press conference on YouTube.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  209. Maybe Bernie Sanders has lower cholesterol, lloyd.

    BuDuh (aad567)

  210. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/trump-brad-raffensperger-phone-call-transcript/index.html

    During the January 2 audio call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump said:

    So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

    And flipping the state is a great testament to our country because, cause you know, this is — it’s a testament that they can admit to a mistake or whatever you want to call it. If it was a mistake, I don’t know.

    You know what a great testament to our country is? It’s Brad Raffensperger refusing to go along with Trump’s attempt to steal the election.

    A citizenry with a functioning civic compass would tell Trump to get off the stage.

    norcal (7e490d)

  211. He was looking for illegal votes norcal. Not creating them.

    NJRob (3ea254)

  212. He was looking for illegal votes norcal.

    NJRob (3ea254) — 10/13/2024 @ 4:07 pm

    And a mafioso is just expressing admiration and concern when he tells a shop owner, “Nice business you have there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

    Trump’s handpicked attorney general told him it wasn’t a fraudulent election.

    norcal (7e490d)

  213. No way you can have one hundred percent confidence in that. You only say that because your bias against Trump is showing.

    NJRob (3ea254)

  214. Jonah Goldberg is such a great writer.

    https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/gfile/slog-and-sacrifice/

    But everywhere I look, right or left, up and down, I see people who think the nation they’ve inherited is something to resent. The sense of entitlement—the very opposite of gratitude—derives from various forms of utopianism, including the personalized version of it we might call narcissism. After all, not all utopianisms are about creating a perfect world for everybody. Some people just want a perfect world for them or their tribe. Regardless, the utopians see all that is good as contemptible in the reflection of their personal idea of perfection. All the work that went into getting us here is taken for granted, and the prosperity and freedom we enjoy is proof that “the system” has failed them because it hasn’t provided them with enough, while it has provided others too much. Systemized envy is a metastasizing cancer in American life eating holes in our souls.

    I see this problem on both sides. The progressive left thinks that systemized racism prevents minorities from getting ahead. The MAGA right thinks that free trade is just an assault on the working class.

    norcal (7e490d)

  215. You only say that because your bias against Trump is showing.

    NJRob (3ea254) — 10/13/2024 @ 4:22 pm

    You appear to be biased for Trump.

    I actually voted for Trump in 2016, so accusations of bias fall flat. When is the last time you voted for a Democratic nominee for president?

    norcal (7e490d)

  216. Dude with fake creds going to Trump rally is a Mega-MAGA, runs America Happens. Less assassination attempt and more a militiaman playing the role of Trump protector. Sovereign Citizen wack job.

    The sheriff says they prevented a third assassination attempt…and he was released and returned his guns with a $5k bail. It’s probably that the sheriff is a notorious libtard and let the guy go so he could try again, as a California person that’s just a given.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  217. We’re talking about a punk-ass who stole from his brother’s kids. If there’s any benefit of the doubt to be given, it belongs to Raffensperger, not the jumped-up bellboy.

    nk (7c2843)

  218. “The sheriff says they prevented a third assassination attempt…and he was released and returned his guns with a $5k bail. It’s probably that the sheriff is a notorious libtard and let the guy go so he could try again, as a California person that’s just a given.”

    [quote]Chad Bianco is an American law enforcement officer currently serving as sheriff of Riverside County, California. He was first elected in 2018 and then re-elected in 2023. A political conservative, Bianco has been affiliated with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.[/quote]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Bianco

    [quote]The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is a political organization of local police officials in the United States who contend that federal and state government authorities are subordinate to the local authority of county sheriffs and police. Self-described constitutional sheriffs assert that they are the supreme legal authority with the power and duty to defy or disregard laws they regard as unconstitutional.[/quote]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_Sheriffs_and_Peace_Officers_Association

    not a lot of air between the Sheriff and the suspect.

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  219. forgot how to do quotes blocks lol

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  220. Ah, so only two assassination attempts. Not three. Trumpers lie again!

    lloyd (d15e54)

  221. Five, actually. Hurricanes Helene and Milton were really directed at Trump by the cannibal vampire weather control leftist liberals from outer space, but they missed like Crooks dis and got innocent people instead.

    nk (e1b191)

  222. dis did

    nk (e1b191)

  223. Anybody who gives half a second’s consideration to Trump’s claim of a rigged 2020 election is ignorant of history. Trump claimed that Cruz won the 2016 Republican primary in Iowa through fraud!

    https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/trump-cruz-stole-iowa-tweet-deleted-218674

    “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong any [sic] why he got more votes than anticipated. Bad!” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. The tweet disappeared within minutes of posting and was replaced by with another that no longer included the word “illegally.”

    He followed up with an ultimatum: “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” he tweeted. Trump said later Wednesday that he’ll likely sue. “I probably will; what he did is unthinkable,” he said during an interview with Boston Herald Radio.

    Sound familiar? After losing in 2020, Trump said something similar:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63851751

    “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” he said.

    Trump even claimed the Emmy awards were rigged against him.

    Sowing distrust (on an unprecedented scale and for an unprecedented duration) about election outcomes is worse than anything Kamala has done.

    norcal (1a8b67)

  224. “Ah, so only two assassination attempts. Not three. Trumpers lie again!”

    I think it’s more likely he was going to wave his guns around in support for Trump

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  225. nk (e1b191) — 10/13/2024 @ 5:12 pm

    🤣

    norcal (1a8b67)

  226. “Trump said” and “Trump lied” are synonymous.

    nk (e1b191)

  227. You’re just a water carrier with a sense of humor, nk.

    Carry on the carrying.

    norcal (1a8b67)

  228. It’s just that “synonymous” is a Greek word. I know lots of Greek words. I have the best Greek words.

    nk (e1b191)

  229. When is the last time you voted for a Democratic nominee for president?

    Romney.

    SaveFarris (78c013)

  230. “Trump said” and “Trump lied” are synonymous.

    And White House medical reports are as good as gold.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  231. But not as good as Trump’s daddy’s tenant’s diagnosis of bone spurs.

    And then there was the guy before the real admiral and then the rear admiral.

    If anybody has made medical examinations a joke, it is the orange conman.

    nk (a7556d)

  232. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-climate/2024/10/10/coastal-commission-1-spacex-0-00183373

    “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” commissioner Gretchen Newsom (no relation to Gov. Gavin) said at today’s meeting in San Diego.

    “I really appreciate the work of the Space Force,” said Commission Chair Caryl Hart. “But here we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race

    Coastal Commission 1- SpaceX 0
    .
    Yeah well its now bottom of the first inning with SpaceX up to bat

    Elon Musk:

    “Incredibly inappropriate. What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a “coastal commission” in California!
    Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment.”

    I’d love to see the State of CA Coastal Commission get a spanking from the Supreme Court

    steveg (292c87)

  233. Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment.”

    Taking his cue from Donnie 6,000 Lawsuits, eh? I understand he’s also suing advertisers for dropping X. What’s next? Suing drivers for not driving a Tesla?

    nk (7e0fd9)

  234. A TV show I highly recommend is The Sinner. It stars Bill Pullman, and ran from 2017 through 2021, on USA Network of all places. I just finished the series last night. Pullman does a masterful job, and the location filming is beautiful.

    Each of the four seasons is a self-contained story.

    norcal (1a8b67)

  235. It has a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score.

    norcal (1a8b67)

  236. @237 Maybe he’s taking his cue from Garland 6,000 lawsuits.

    lloyd (a02410)

  237. Yeah, that show was great.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  238. @173

    A Democrat House that impeaches Cannon, Kacsmaryk, and Doughty (even if there is no Senate to remove them) would be like so wonderful. Those gerbils ratify Trump’s opinion of the judiciary even if he had to appoint them himself.

    As for packing the Supreme Court, Alito and Thomas are in their mid-seventies. The Democrats will be satisfied with Harris appointing their replacements. Me too.

    nk (7c2843) — 10/13/2024 @ 10:14 am

    …hey…the sauce…might be a wee bit much.

    If I’m drinking what you’re drinking…then…

    I’d be okay a GOP House impeaches the DC democrats judges who ratifies every thing the progressive intends to implement.

    whembly (67cc79)

  239. @175

    I would rather have them with an enforceable code of ethics.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 10/13/2024 @ 10:47 am

    Congress would have better arguments if they have their own “enforceable” code of ethics.

    Sorry…was laughing too much.

    whembly (67cc79)

  240. @194

    Politically, Kamala’s fairly close to Bernie

    yeah no big deal

    Dustin (4b502c) — 10/13/2024 @ 12:46 pm

    Right?!?! To they hear themself say that?

    Bernie is too far left for this country.

    whembly (67cc79)

  241. @195

    Yeah, Denmark is such a communist wasteland.
    Good grief.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6) — 10/13/2024 @ 1:06 pm

    Denmark isn’t even close to the US.

    And, no, I don’t want to be like Denmark.

    whembly (67cc79)

  242. @199

    Maybe the nevertrumpers handed Trump the white house.

    Dustin (4b502c) — 10/13/2024 @ 1:37 pm

    Doubtful…

    If Biden can win with a “basement” campaign, no reason to stand that Harris couldn’t.

    whembly (67cc79)

  243. Probably true, Whembly.

    But it’s much closer than it ought to be. I don’t really know to what extent the polls are inaccurate or push polls, but Trump is viable.

    Nevertrumpers had a great option to avoid the outcome. Either way it goes, they should be kicking themselves for not making that compromise and trying to build that bridge. The far left, the folks who love Trump, they seem to have been more effective.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  244. So never Trump is 10% of the republican party, and if 100% of us supported Nikki…

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  245. @158 we say the same about the right.

    asset (c18906)

  246. Nevertrumpers had a great option to avoid the outcome. Either way it goes, they should be kicking themselves for not making that compromise and trying to build that bridge.

    Too bad neverTrump never had the opportunity to “make that compromise” as DeSantis quit after the Iowa caucuses.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  247. Jen psaki on msdnc says black and latinx males should stop worrying about the economy and start worrying about trump being a threat to democracy! The economy is doing great for our donors and professional women, so its not the economy stupid. Don’t you dare vote for jill stein!

    asset (c18906)

  248. Trump is going to have a rally in New York Madison Square garden like the Nazis did in 1939. Anyone here going to attend?

    asset (c18906)

  249. Man arrested outside Trump Coachella rally denies assassination intent; he’s ‘all in’ supporting Trump

    Vem Miller, 49, told Fox News Digital that he was 100% a Trump supporter and claims against him are false

    nk (a61e3a)

  250. 240. @237 Maybe he’s taking his cue from Garland 6,000 lawsuits.

    lloyd (a02410) — 10/13/2024 @ 7:38 pm

    This is not a MAGA site, Mr. lloyd. People here know the difference between the chief law enforcement officer of the United States and a mendacious multi-national money-grubber.

    nk (a61e3a)

  251. For the record, I’m still predicting a Trump victory. My mourning garb are rended and ready.

    lurker (c23034)

  252. Nevertrumpers had a great option to avoid the outcome. Either way it goes, they should be kicking themselves for not making that compromise and trying to build that bridge. The far left, the folks who love Trump, they seem to have been more effective.

    Dustin (4b502c) — 10/13/2024 @ 8:18 pm

    They don’t care. If they don’t get what they want, they will take their toys and go home. After setting fire to your house.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  253. Trump is going to have a rally in New York Madison Square garden like the Nazis did in 1939. Anyone here going to attend?

    asset (c18906) — 10/13/2024 @ 9:03 pm

    Democratic National Conventions in 1976, 1980, and 1992 were held at current MSG.

    They must be 3x’s the Nazis by your math. Who knew.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  254. Holocaust Harris is trending now on Twitter. Because that’s what the far left thinks of her. Try telling an actual far leftist that Harris is far left and you’ll hear a good belly laugh. If a far leftist isn’t pulling for Jill Stein or Cornell West, they’ve taken the RFK Jr. conspiracy caucus junket across the horse shoe to Trump.

    Just like right-wing extremists are voting for Harris, right? No, actually, the far right are standing back and standing by in their MAGA merch, also all-in for Trump. Odd, huh?

    lurker (c23034)

  255. @254 Yeah nk, we know. One pays for his own lawsuits, the other fleeces taxpayers for the privilege.

    lloyd (a02410)

  256. @255

    For the record, I’m still predicting a Trump victory. My mourning garb are rended and ready.

    lurker (c23034) — 10/14/2024 @ 3:42 am

    I don’t see it…

    Unless, you’re one of those people who expects the worst and likes to be pleasantly surprised in being wrong?

    whembly (477db6)

  257. I don’t see it…

    Right back at you…….I’m sure your prediction of a Trump loss is so you’ll be “ pleasantly surprised.”

    What do you base your prediction on?

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  258. I have never thought Trump would win, even after the first debate when Biden was still in. Even after Butler. This has a “red wave” feel to it, as in the opposite will happen. The tinkering with voting rules starting in 2020 is having its intended effect. It was never about saving democracy.

    lloyd (8f699b)

  259. Crocodile tears.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  260. The tinkering with voting rules starting in 2020 is having its intended effect.

    Which really haven’t had an effect on the polling. If they did, Harris would be leading by a mile.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  261. Confidential to Rip: Polls don’t decide elections.

    lloyd (8f699b)

  262. Confidential to Rip: Polls don’t decide elections.

    lloyd (8f699b) — 10/14/2024 @ 7:34 am

    Confidential to lloyd: they create expectations. And the polls are showing that the expectation is that Trump will win.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  263. Time magazine owner takes Kamala Harris to task for denying interview requests: ‘We believe in transparency’

    Here Time is all ready to do a beachball interview and puff piece, and Kamala just doesn’t want to risk it.

    lloyd (8f699b)

  264. @267 Guess what, the slackers and low information voters that the voting rules are meant to accommodate don’t factor into polls. We saw that with the last “red wave.” Polls can be wrong, I know it’s too mind blowing to consider but try.

    lloyd (8f699b)

  265. The tinkering with voting rules starting in 2020 is having its intended effect.

    If Trump does lose, it will be his d*mn fault for belatedly encouraging his supporters to take advantage of early and mail-in voting.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  266. A theory on this election:

    Policy doesn’t matter.

    Personalities don’t matter.

    What matters is whether one supports the political establishment, or wants to kick it to the curb.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  267. @237:

    Sad to see nk attack the 1st amendment

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  268. Either way, the country is poised for the next level of institutional stress testing.

    If Trump loses, we will get the next round of baseless claims of fraud…that will no doubt be amplified and conspiratorized by a prepped and willing base. FNC, Talk Radio, NRO will continue to be driven by audience capture and cynical marketing.

    If Trump wins, we will have the awfulness of a President pardoning himself and dismissing DoJ staff who were not sufficiently loyal. We will all be waiting with bated breath as to the fate of Ukraine: odds are trending poorly as Zelensky was warned “it takes two to tango.” If we shouldn’t care about J6 and blatant move to disrupt and influence our voting process, what will be the next prod and poke to our liberal society? Mass roundups, attacks into Mexico, federal soldiers inserted into cities, a Mark Milley arrest? A side of our Trumpsters would be pumping more, more, more. They’re too close; they don’t see it.

    We’ve been told here that Harris is not just underwhelming but in fact EVIL. By that logic, would any Democrat be anything better than a little bit less evil. I imagine any generic Democrat would still pack the court, suspend the filibuster, applaud the National Vote Compact, and just make us become Denmark a little slower. It’s the problem with throwing around that word evil without much thought…or accountability.

    Once the other side is evil, is the grand democratic experiment we have teetering? How do we repair things when the leader of one movement can’t EVER lose without fraud and corruption? There is little to no effort to square this on one side — just continued twists to weirdly blame NeverTrump for Trump’s massive popularity in the GOP. They’re invested. They will never own it.

    AJ_Liberty (b2aab7)

  269. People here know the difference between the chief law enforcement officer of the United States and a mendacious antidemocratic lawfare crapweasel.

    FIFY.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  270. If Trump does lose, it will be his d*mn fault for belatedly encouraging his supporters to take advantage of early and mail-in voting.

    Indeed. Own voter suppression.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  271. As for those who think the Dodgers weakness is their injured pitching staff, Sunday’s game left their pitchers tied with the all-time scoreless inning streak in playoff games: 33. No one has scored against them since the 2nd inning of game 3 of the divisional series (the Padres did not bat in the 9th inning of that game).

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  272. Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/14/2024 @ 8:57 am

    One game. We’ll see how they are doing after game 6.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  273. The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,
    than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,
    “I see,” quothe he, “the elephant is very like a rope!”

    nk (a61e3a)

  274. First, the candidate Donnie wants to run against drops out.
    Then, the candidate they replace him with does not campaign the way Donnie wants her to.
    SO UNFAIR! Mommy!

    nk (a61e3a)

  275. The tinkering with voting rules starting in 2020 is having its intended effect………

    lloyd (8f699b) — 10/14/2024 @ 7:55 am

    If Trump does lose, it will be his d*mn fault for belatedly encouraging his supporters to take advantage of early and mail-in voting.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 7:56 am

    To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you run a campaign based on voting rules that exist, not the ones you want or wish to have.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  276. @262

    What do you base your prediction on?

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 7:07 am

    Biden successfully ran a basement campaign in 2020.

    We all knew, correctly so, that Biden would be a disaster and didn’t believe the media/Democrat establishment (BIRM) could drag his ass across the finish line.

    Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Harris was just as successful.

    whembly (477db6)

  277. Biden successfully ran a basement campaign in 2020.

    In other words, no hard facts or data.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  278. Biden successfully ran a basement campaign in 2020.

    So what?

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  279. @273

    We’ve been told here that Harris is not just underwhelming but in fact EVIL. By that logic, would any Democrat be anything better than a little bit less evil.

    No.

    I imagine any generic Democrat would still pack the court, suspend the filibuster, applaud the National Vote Compact, and just make us become Denmark a little slower.

    Correct.

    It’s the problem with throwing around that word evil without much thought…or accountability.

    You mean, like calling J6 an “iNsUrReCtIoN”?
    You mean, like calling Trump an “Danger to Democracy”?
    You mean, like calling any GOPer “fascists”?
    You mean, like calling any voters not voting Democrats “racists”?

    The problem with throwing hyperbole, is the indignation when there’s hyperbolic return fire.

    Once the other side is evil, is the grand democratic experiment we have teetering? How do we repair things when the leader of one movement can’t EVER lose without fraud and corruption? There is little to no effort to square this on one side — just continued twists to weirdly blame NeverTrump for Trump’s massive popularity in the GOP. They’re invested. They will never own it.

    AJ_Liberty (b2aab7) — 10/14/2024 @ 8:12 am

    Own what? The fact that some of us chose to NOT acquiesce to the progress left that’s dominating the Democratic party?

    Own what? That while Trump, and other non-establishment Republicans are imperfect, but are a far batter lot than the current Democratic party?

    Sure, for me personally, I’ll own it and go to bed peacefully every night.

    whembly (477db6)

  280. Rip,

    I wonder how good the “hard facts and data” do with this campaign. The polls totally overcalled the GOP vote in 2022 and the results they are coming up with combine wierdness with a lot of assumptions.

    My no hard facts and data guess this is a turnout election and that the low propensity voters that Trump is trying to mine might not get to the polls. Also, if the contest is between men for Trump and women for not Trump — men are just the type of folks who will NOT make a plan to vote, and then end up doing something else rather than stand in line on the last day.

    Appalled (1f1528)

  281. @282

    In other words, no hard facts or data.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 10:35 am

    As if you have hard facts or data.

    (and no, polls ain’t it chief…if it were, Hillary would be in her 2nd Term and the GOP would’ve had a massive Red wave in ’22)

    whembly (477db6)

  282. @285

    Rip,

    I wonder how good the “hard facts and data” do with this campaign. The polls totally overcalled the GOP vote in 2022 and the results they are coming up with combine wierdness with a lot of assumptions.

    My no hard facts and data guess this is a turnout election and that the low propensity voters that Trump is trying to mine might not get to the polls. Also, if the contest is between men for Trump and women for not Trump — men are just the type of folks who will NOT make a plan to vote, and then end up doing something else rather than stand in line on the last day.

    Appalled (1f1528) — 10/14/2024 @ 10:43 am

    To be fair to Rip, polls can show “movement” in the trends. So, yeah, you’d want to be Trump right now if we’re weighing the “trends” accurately.

    But, probably the hardest thing to poll, is during voting, which is compounded by the various schedules of early votings… is this:
    The preference cascade™, especially when the race is *this* close.

    If Trump represent that “change” candidate, in that the election is about Biden/Harris’ job performance, Trump has a chance.

    But, if the preference cascade to the point that Democrats successfully reminds Trump’s chaotic 1st term, impeachment, j6 to such degree that it overshadows the economic pain-points in voter’s wallets… Harris has a chance.

    Harris has a very compliant media and an absolute warchest that Trump has to overcome.

    That’s a tall order, no matter who’s the GOP candidate.

    whembly (477db6)

  283. It always scares me when whembly and I come roughly to the same conclusion. Now if we end up in the same place and asset and Rip agree with us, it’s either the apocalypse or the Walz Vance debate.

    Appalled (1f1528)

  284. Speaking of hyperbole:

    I imagine any generic Democrat would still pack the court, suspend the filibuster, applaud the National Vote Compact, and just make us become Denmark a little slower.

    Correct.

    This assumes a lot of facts not in evidence, particularly that the Senate will almost assuredly be controlled by Republicans. With both Montana and West Virginia flipping, Democrats would have to flip seats they are currently losing.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  285. As I have continually said, the President has no role regarding the filibuster, it’s a Senate rule.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  286. @288

    It always scares me when whembly and I come roughly to the same conclusion. Now if we end up in the same place and asset and Rip agree with us, it’s either the apocalypse or the Walz Vance debate.

    Appalled (1f1528) — 10/14/2024 @ 10:52 am

    🤣🤣🤣🤣

    whembly (477db6)

  287. @290

    As I have continually said, the President has no role regarding the filibuster, it’s a Senate rule.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 10:58 am

    A president, who observes the importance of the Senate filibuster, has no obligation to sign any legislation that was passed when the filibuster is neutered.

    What’s your confidence that President Harris would voted any legislation that was passed by Democrat controlled Senate?

    What’s your confidence that President Trump would voted any legislation that was passed by Democrat controlled Senate with the filibuster dead? (I don’t think he’d care, he’d simply veto it because its probably going to be veto worthy on its own).

    Each of the House, Senate and President plays a part in passing legislation. All 3 does have power to influence internal parliamentary procedures…albeit, rarely done.

    whembly (477db6)

  288. *veto not “voted”. Sorry, my brain must be extra dyslexia today.

    whembly (477db6)

  289. This election has been Trump’s to lose. Had he continued to focus on all the bad things that the Biden/Harris administration did, this election would have been a cakewalk. But instead he focused on derogatory attacks on Harris, her changing positions, and self owns like cat eating Haitians, threatening his opponents, and Vance’s prior public statements.

    Nobody cared about what he was saying, which has led this election to be a toss-up.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  290. A president, who observes the importance of the Senate filibuster, has no obligation to sign any legislation that was passed when the filibuster is neutered.

    What’s your confidence that President Harris would voted any legislation that was passed by Democrat controlled Senate?

    What’s your confidence that President Trump would voted any legislation that was passed by Democrat controlled Senate with the filibuster dead? (I don’t think he’d care, he’d simply veto it because its probably going to be veto worthy on its own).

    ………..All 3 does have power to influence internal parliamentary procedures…albeit, rarely done.

    I’m not sure what your point is-I think Harris or Trump would sign any legislation passed by a Democratic (again, an unlikely possibility) Senate whether or not the filibuster was “neutered” if they favored the legislation.

    And as I’ve said before, I can see a Republican Senate repealing the filibuster rule to overcome Democrat objections to legislation favored by Trump.

    Do you have any examples of a President influencing the internal parliamentary procedures of either the House or Senate; or the two chambers influencing the proceedings of be other?

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  291. Great article by Williamson today

    “You say Trump is a would-be tyrant, a moron, a monster of moral depravity—which means that you’re saying that the people who support him, half the country, are idiots and moral miscreants and fools.”

    Yes, that’s right. That’s exactly what I am saying.

    It doesn’t necessarily follow that I’m saying that, of course—you could make a pretty good case that Trump supporters are just stuck in a corner and that they aren’t all morally culpable and entirely willing participants in a pageant of stupidity and cruelty. But that’s not my case. My case is that these people should be ashamed of themselves, that a self-respecting society wouldn’t allow such a specimen as Lindsey Graham to vote, much less to serve in the Senate. I understand that hurts some feelings out there in the dank, wooly wilds of the “real America.”

    So what?

    There are two ways of looking at the fact that gigantic stampeding herds of people buy into stupid and false ideas, believe patently untrue things, do dumb things, or, in the case at hand, support this particular lunatic and would-be caudillo, frequently because they are good Christians who think that what we need in government is this particular griftastical habitual liar and retired game-show host who spent his pre-presidency years appearing from time to time in pornographic films, a “very stable” guy who has a son named after the imaginary friend he invented to lie to the New York Post about his sex life. “By their fruits shall you know them,” etc.

    You can say: “Well, ‘We the People’ have to be right, because that’s what democracy is all about, so there must be a little something to this guy, because the holy demos, or at least about half of it, has offered him its transformational blessing.”

    Or, two: You can face up to what we all already know, which is that “We the People” are, in their formal democratic aspect, cretins, and that the only really good reason for letting them vote on anything important is that the alternative is war. Democracy can produce good results and it can produce bad results, and the fact that a particular conclusion or position was come to democratically tells us nothing about its wisdom, efficacy, or morality.

    I can’t say it any better…

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  292. One game. We’ll see how they are doing after game 6.

    They’ve pitched 3 shutouts in a row.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  293. This assumes a lot of facts not in evidence, particularly that the Senate will almost assuredly be controlled by Republicans.

    …and the Supreme Court will certainly block Obamacare.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  294. In other words, no hard facts or data.

    Again, this is a gut-check election. Do you want to kick the table over, or not?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  295. @296

    My case is that these people should be ashamed of themselves, that a self-respecting society wouldn’t allow such a specimen as Lindsey Graham to vote, much less to serve in the Senate. I understand that hurts some feelings out there in the dank, wooly wilds of the “real America.”

    So what?

    –channeling Jules from Pulp Fiction–
    Well allow me to retort!

    Mr. Williamson can eat a whole bowl of richards.

    That’s “what”.

    If all these NT pundits truly, and sincerely wanted a “not-Trump” candidate…far more work and money is NEEDED to be spent on the grass-roots pre/during primary phase. Bitching about Trump’s nomination without putting in any effort to change it otherwise is just whining in the most pathetic manner.

    Jules diner quote…

    Ezekiel 25:17. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you.”

    Now… I been sayin’ that sh.t for years. And if you ever heard it, that meant your ass. You’d be dead right now. I never gave much thought to what it meant. I just thought it was a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherf.cker before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some sh.t this mornin’ made me think twice.

    See, now I’m thinking: maybe it means you’re the evil man. And I’m the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here… he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness.

    Or it could mean you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. And I’d like that.

    But that sh.t ain’t the truth.

    The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard to be the shepherd.

    Mr. Williamson is too weak to acknowledge what this country is facing in a Harris/Walz administration.

    Mr. Williamson’s writing isn’t that of a righteous man.

    It’s writings that ignores the trials and tribulations of the common citizenry.

    Mr. Williamson ain’t no shepherd.

    whembly (477db6)

  296. Shorter Kevin Williamson and AJ: “Blame Americans First”

    lloyd (8f0994)

  297. NASA (which is to say SpaceX) Launches Europa Clipper to Explore an Ocean Moon’s Habitability

    Europa Clipper, the biggest interplanetary spacecraft that NASA has ever built, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Monday afternoon.

    The mission will tackle one of biology’s core questions: Can life exist anywhere else in our solar system?

    The spacecraft’s destination is Europa, a moon of Jupiter, where water sloshes beneath a shell of ice that could be more than 10 miles thick. Such ocean worlds are fairly common in the outer solar system. That has created speculation: Could there be life swimming in any of those oceans?

    For now, the answer is an intriguing maybe.

    The $5.2 billion Europa Clipper mission is the first by NASA devoted to filling in the blanks to the question of habitability on these ocean worlds.

    The spacecraft will attempt no landing.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  298. Do you have any examples of a President influencing the internal parliamentary procedures of either the House or Senate

    https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/nov/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-among-flip-floppers-senates-nuclear-o/

    SaveFarris (79ab12)

  299. I wonder how good the “hard facts and data” do with this campaign. The polls totally overcalled the GOP vote in 2022 and the results they are coming up with combine wierdness with a lot of assumptions. My no hard facts and data guess this is a turnout election and that the low propensity voters that Trump is trying to mine might not get to the polls.

    It’s not out of the realm of assumption that the “low propensity voters” Trump is counting on sat out 2022 (an off-year election)
    It’s not out of the realm of assumption that the “low propensity voters” Trump is counting on sat out most if not all of the Abortion special elections in the post-Dobbs era where pro-abort forces experienced higher than polled turnout

    Those same “low propensity voters” turn out for Presidential elections at a much higher rate, of which this is one.

    SaveFarris (79ab12)

  300. You know it’s true when…

    A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully “bomb.” It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” My former wife, Ivana, was a kind and wonderful person, and I had a great relationship with her until the day she died. The writer of this pile of garbage, Gabe Sherman, a lowlife and talentless hack, who has long been widely discredited, knew that, but chose to ignore it. So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement, which is far bigger than any of us. MAGA2024!

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  301. “Mr. Williamson is too weak to acknowledge what this country is facing in a Harris/Walz administration. Mr. Williamson’s writing isn’t that of a righteous man. It’s writings that ignores the trials and tribulations of the common citizenry. Mr. Williamson ain’t no shepherd.”

    What a bizarre and deluded response. Williamson ain’t no anonymous hack that suffers zero reputational harm from spouting nonsense and bullsh*t. He also doesn’t whitewash accountability or rely on falsely labeling political opponents as evil. He’s an adult that doesn’t come on the internet with over-sized floppy shoes, a bulbous red nose, and an incessant honking horn looking for attention. He’s from Texas and doesn’t abide fools. Honk all you want, it doesn’t change the truth…

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  302. Mr. Williamson’s writing isn’t that of a righteous man.

    It’s writings that ignores the trials and tribulations of the common citizenry.

    Mr. Williamson ain’t no shepherd.

    Worse than that, he doesn’t want to give Donnie a cookie.

    nk (7e8ecc)

  303. @306 AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 10/14/2024 @ 1:24 pm
    Yeah, miss me with all that.

    The nose honking are those following the Liz Cheney of the world.

    whembly (477db6)

  304. @308

    Worse than that, he doesn’t want to give Donnie a cookie.

    nk (7e8ecc) — 10/14/2024 @ 1:43 pm

    But, what if he ate his meat.

    Would he get some pudding?

    whembly (477db6)

  305. If harris loses what happens to democrat party? The left is sharpening their knives.

    asset (9bc8e0) — 10/13/2024 @ 3:31 am

    they will raise a bazillion dollars.

    There are plenty on the left who want Trump to win. He is, after all, a democrat, and not really functional as a republican. For example, his one accomplishment, judges, is actually not one, because he led to the opposition appointing more than he did.

    There’s only one path for the normal conservative: compromise.

    So never Trump is 10% of the republican party, and if 100% of us supported Nikki…

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 10/13/2024 @ 8:30 pm

    A far, far, far leftist, someone who believes trans pronouns must be enforced, will tell you Nikki Haley is a compromise candidate despite her standing for absolutely nothing but her own personal enrichment.

    No. She burned the bridge. All she represented was sneering at the actual good compromise we were offered.

    We’ll have another chance. I’m sure of it, and I bet it’s a decent option because it would represent something. Last time we went the compromise route was W. It was great only in comparison to all the alternatives. Like democracy itself.

    Just think about it, guys. Don’t take it personally. Really consider if I have a point here.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  306. “A far, far, far leftist, someone who believes trans pronouns must be enforced, will tell you Nikki Haley is a compromise candidate despite her standing for absolutely nothing but her own personal enrichment.

    No. She burned the bridge. All she represented was sneering at the actual good compromise we were offered.”

    Just ask yourself one question: if Nikki Haley was never in the race, would Ron DeSantis have won the nomination? Even Ron would be skeptical. Ron DeSantis was a flawed campaigner that failed to persuade Trump-skeptical Republicans to leave Trump. He remained their second choice. Haley is a weird red herring in your analysis. It’s also quite weird that Haley…in your opinion…. was just seeking her own enrichment, whereas DeSantis was being civic minded….I guess. This is just weird projection. Haley was a decent candidate, but she too could not break voters away from Trump. Stop blaming Haley and start blaming MAGA voters who had no interest in leaving Trump.

    AJ_Liberty (5f05c3)

  307. A far, far, far leftist, someone who believes trans pronouns must be enforced, will tell you Nikki Haley is a compromise candidate despite her standing for absolutely nothing but her own personal enrichment.

    What in the fresh hell is this? Nikki is standing for her own personal enrichment, sure, why not.

    That’s like the flea on the back of the elephant. There is no human more focused on this than donnie 2 inch. It’s literally the only thing he stands for. see trump sneakers/watches/flags/trading cards/politics/game show/water/steaks/casino/university/marriages… Scams all.

    Good on him, he’s proving Thomas Tusser right.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  308. Also, uh, what now?

    Trump: We have Aseurasians in our room. We have some incredible people in our room. We have so many that we just can’t. But we have some people, we have some people.. pic.twitter.com/k0ru3Zew0r— Acyn (@Acyn) October 14, 2024

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  309. Just ask yourself one question: if Nikki Haley was never in the race, would Ron DeSantis have won the nomination?

    Nikki simply represented the same bridge burning sneering at conservatism that Romney and Mccain represented.

    She’s very replaceable and stands for nothing, has accomplished basically nothing. She can’t even tell you if the civil war was about slavery or keep the doors on an airplane. She ain’t no desantis, that’s for sure.

    But no, Desantis winning has nothing to do with Haley specifically. She was obviously a far weaker candidate.

    The issue was whether the party is ready to compromise. This year is as good a time to learn that it’s a good idea as any year.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  310. Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 10/14/2024 @ 2:39 pm

    Hey man, you’re free to be on the far far left, from my perspective. It’s a free country.

    But that’s what you are. It’s not subtle. You don’t reject Trump because of his nonsense with elections, right? You reject him for the same reason you reject Desantis. The people who support him are inferior to you.

    to me, Trump and desantis are barely the same species so this kind of realization is always odd.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  311. hey’ve pitched 3 shutouts in a row.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/14/2024 @ 11:48 am

    As I said, we’ll see where the Dodgers pitching stands at the end of the NCLS. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  312. This assumes a lot of facts not in evidence, particularly that the Senate will almost assuredly be controlled by Republicans.

    …and the Supreme Court will certainly block Obamacare.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/14/2024 @ 11:51 am

    Irrelevant.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  313. @256 Republicans don’t steal signs? I was going to list ;but way too many just google republicans steal campaign signs.

    asset (e6010a)

  314. 21 days till election. Over at DU their grasping at straws.

    asset (e6010a)

  315. Do you have any examples of a President influencing the internal parliamentary procedures of either the House or Senate

    https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/nov/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-among-flip-floppers-senates-nuclear-o/

    SaveFarris (79ab12) — 10/14/2024 @ 12:41 pm

    Aside from his remarks as President after the filibuster rule was changed, what actions did Obama take to facilitate the change (which of course came around to bite the Democrats in the ass)?

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  316. Dustin has yet to explain why DeSantis quit the primary race after one contest (thereby depriving neverTrump voters outside of Iowa the opportunity to coalesce around his candidacy) and then immediately endorsed Trump.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  317. @311 Raising money can’t buy angry democrats ask joe crowley or eliot abrams. Bowman and bush only lost to black swan event (gaza) and with biden in white house democrats weren’t angry. More and more corporate democrats out. The more they lose the more the left takes over the democrat party. Corporate establishment democrats try and pretend to be leftist the more silly they look. Donor class says pronoun police safe. Taxing the rich not safe and no dinero for you!

    asset (e6010a)

  318. @321 look up LBJ for examples.

    asset (e6010a)

  319. Dustin has yet to explain why DeSantis quit

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 3:23 pm

    DCSCA, I try not to feed trolls.

    Dustin (4b502c)

  320. So if neverTrump republicans never voted for Trump, and 90% of the MAGAGOP continues to vote for Trump, like in the last 3 elections, the other republicans that could win a primary would be whom? Please, tell me how neverTrump could have influence the primary? Explain it, show the math.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  321. Dustin has yet to explain why DeSantis quit

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 3:23 pm

    DCSCA, I try not to feed trolls.

    Dustin (4b502c) — 10/14/2024 @ 3:53 pm

    There’s no need to be insulting. It’s a legitimate question to your argument as to how neverTrump voters could coalesce around DeSantis as an alternative to Trump if he wasn’t available as a candidate.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  322. It’s a legitimate question to (Dustin’s) argument as to how neverTrump voters could coalesce around DeSantis as an alternative to Trump if he wasn’t available as a candidate.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22) — 10/14/2024 @ 4:28 pm

    Speaking of trolls, perhaps Dustin doesn’t have an answer.

    Rip Murdock (d56b22)

  323. NeverTrump might as well have supported Tinkerbell, Ronald Reagan’s ghost, or Nancy Sinatra; they also weren’t an option.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  324. First news item:

    A North Carolina man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly threatening harm against FEMA employees responding to Hurricane Helene, according to the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office.

    William Jacob Parsons, 44, was arrested and charged with Going Armed to the Terror of the Public, a misdemeanor, Capt. Jamie Keever said in a news release issued Monday.

    “Parsons was armed with a handgun and a rifle,” Keever said.

    The sheriff’s office began investigating after receiving a call that a man “made the comment about possibly harming FEMA employees working after the disaster of Hurricane Helene in the Lake Lure and Chimney Rock area.”
    …………..
    Parsons is now free on a $10,000 secured bond, the sheriff’s office said.
    …………
    The alleged threat from Parsons was the main one FEMA was aware of when officials decided to pull back its staff going door to door, the FEMA spokesperson said, adding the agency has been the target of threats and harassment for several days.

    On Saturday, FEMA workers had to halt their work in Rutherford County due to reports National Guard troops saw “armed militia” threatening the workers, CNN affiliate WBTV confirmed after reviewing messages sent to employees of a FEMA contractor. The threats were first reported by the Washington Post.

    In the announcement of Parsons’ arrest, Keever said, “It was determined Parsons acted alone and there were no truck loads of militia going to Lake Lure.”
    …………
    There were more than 1,200 FEMA staff providing support in North Carolina as of Saturday, according to an update from the agency. More than 250 Urban Search and Rescue personnel remained in the field and had rescued or supported more than 3,200 survivors, the update said.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (a8f7fb)

  325. ‘’Joker: Folie à Deux’ is a box office nuclear bomb:

    ………..
    So far, the offbeat musical about Batman’s notorious foe has grossed $51.5 million domestically and $165 million globally after two weeks of release. By comparison, the first “Joker” had generated $96.2 million domestically and $248.4 million globally after three days of release. …………

    That’s a huge problem because “Joker 2” cost $200 million to produce and roughly $100 million to market and distribute. At this rate, the film won’t get anywhere close to the $450 million needed to break even in its theatrical run ………. After critics and audiences flat out rejected the big-budget tentpole, which received a 33% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes and a rare “D” grade on CinemaScore, it’s shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest catastrophes. ………..
    …………..
    …………..(Joker: Folie à Deux) paltry grosses represent a shocking collapse from “Joker,” which became an unlikely and undisputed box office champion with $335 million in North America and $1.078 billion worldwide. It stood at the time as the highest grossing R-rated movie in history. ……….

    …………Much of the reason for the follow-up film’s gargantuan price tag was because of fees for director Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix (returning as disturbed stand-up Arthur Fleck), both of whom earned $20 million upfront, as well as Lady Gaga (joining as fellow Arkham inmate Harleen “Lee” Quinzel), who pocketed $12 million.
    ………….
    Box office analysts believe that Phillips alienated the DC fan base by bringing song and dance numbers into the sequel, resulting in the cavernous difference in sales between the first and second “Joker” entries. While the original was a dark and grisly drama that borrowed from Martin Scorsese’s filmography of “Taxi Driver” and “King of Comedy,” the next chapter plays as a fantasy musical — and includes covers of “That’s Life,” “Get Happy” and “For Once in My Life” — as Arthur Fleck awaits trial for murder.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (c0c9f4)

  326. So remember, all those nevertrumpers who refused to compromise in a way that would crush Trump at the right moment: they have left us in a situation where Trump could be reelected.

    It was bullsh-t when you said it months ago and it’s no less bullsh-t today. There aren’t enough NeverTrumpers to make a difference. The MAGAs are to blame for his nomination, the ones who actually vote for Trump in the primaries are to blame, no one else.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  327. “100,000 plus in Coachella, What a night. Thank you!”

    Well, there are events with 100k in Coachella.

    MAGA Chad Sheriff said the venue has a capacity of…15k.

    But they did bus all the people from a remote lot…and didn’t have buses after the event.

    So it was planned as well as anything else Trump is involved in. The defective leading the unqualified.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  328. “Only a handful of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs…”

    Vance is lying about that, too, in defense of Trump’s lie, debunked by the Republican mayor of the city.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  329. I know all true Republicans are those who aren’t concerned about a politician winning election to the most powerful office in the land who is only a little to the left of Bernie Sanders.

    Trump isn’t a true Republican.
    True Republicans are good Americans who put country above self, and who aren’t sexual abusers, who aren’t frauds, who don’t commit crimes like trying to overturn legitimate elections.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  330. Who can forget Trump’s doctor in 2016, who waved his stethoscope over Trump’s head and declared in healthiest man alive.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  331. @lloyd@337 You throw a rock in Denver and you’ll hit someone I’m related to. Half of them are from Aurora (my great great grandfather headed one of the founding families), one is a cop, the another a firefighter. Venezuelan gangs are almost vaporware. Aurora had most of it’s gang issues back in the early-mid 90s.

    Nic (120c94)

  332. Aurora police also deny Trump-Vance lies. Blue Lives Matter, no?

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  333. Paul, armed militias are threatening FEMA, based on no proof at all. An email, that’s it. Right? Believable! Truth! We’ve had numerous stories about Venezuelan gangs in the bubble media for months. First person accounts. Not just Aurora, but NYC and other locales. Fake! Lies!

    As Vance said, “Do you hear yourself?!”

    lloyd (49af17)

  334. Uh oh, Tre Fo/Tre/Deuce operating in Denver metro

    Uh oh, Rolling 30’s operating in Denver metro

    Oh oh, Gallant Knights Insane operating in Denver metro

    Uh oh, Colorado might someday have as many gangs as Texas, or Missouri, or Oklahoma. I mean, not now, but someday.

    It’s almost like large metro’s have gangs, and rural areas have gangs. I’m not sure why a Venezuelan gang is worse than the crips, bloods, aryan nation, Sicilians, Russians…some of them don’t speak English too.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  335. As Vance said, “Do you hear yourself?!”

    As you said, lloyd, you are as you comment. Never mind that the mayor and the PD are disputing the Trump-Vance lies. They live there, they’re the ones who know what’s going on with crime in that city.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  336. Like any good Leftist, Klink is good with every gang coming across the border because, I mean, we already have a gang problem. Maybe they can all take each other out with fentanyl, says Einstein.

    lloyd (49af17)

  337. Yo, that why I always roll strapped in the 40014.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  338. @342 Paul, I can’t wait for you to dump water on the FEMA story. Let me know when you post that comment.

    lloyd (49af17)

  339. The Aurora Mayor is a “Liz Cheney” Republican, by which I mean a Republican whose constituents are about to vote them out of the party and then will be proven right when the Mayor endorses the most leftist candidate in recent history

    I think this should be like one of those cases where they sentence the slumlord to live in his own building. I tend to believe the people who live there more than the Mayor who does a drive by with his cops swarming the place. Here is the deal. There should not be one building like this. Gang members are not supposed to be let into the country, but if they are, they are supposed to not break the law. If they film themselves and go on social media handling firearms, they should be deported-for breaking the law. They kicked around the cops in NYC? Back to Caracas.
    1. They should not be here
    2. They should be removed for breaking our laws
    3. I’m so old I can remember when the host said “deport the criminals first” and we all agreed. Now its more like “well, if Trump wants them out, then I think they should stay”
    Trump getting rid of those particular Venezuelans is a good thing and I really don’t care if his rhetoric is mean. Walk the straight and narrow or go home. We’ve got enough homegrown idiots without importing new ones

    I used to get in arguments here with people because they felt I was to pro-immigrant. I still am, but there are criminal elements in the Haitians, the Congolese, the Venezuelans and they should go. I saw there was a Mexican guy, 3rd DUI the local PD sheltered from ICE. Send him back. Its a privilege to be here, not a right

    steveg (292c87)

  340. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13960163/Woman-forced-home-influx-Venezuelan-Tren-Aragua-gang-members-airs-furious-message.html

    ‘I feel like it’s a slap in the face. How many gangs is okay to have in Aurora? How many properties is okay to take over? How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it okay to displace?’

    lloyd (49af17)

  341. The Aurora Mayor is a “Liz Cheney” Republican, by which I mean a Republican whose constituents are about to vote them out of the party and then will be proven right when the Mayor endorses the most leftist candidate in recent history

    Well, his term started 10 months ago, so I kind of doubt he’s about to be voted out.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  342. @342 Paul, I can’t wait for you to dump water on the FEMA story. Let me know when you post that comment.

    You need to think of better things to do with your life, lloyd.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  343. Aurora is really the same pattern as Springfield.

    Trump starts with his stupid lie, Vance defends the stupid lie and adds his own bit of lying spin to it, and then all the MAGAs swarm in and carry their water, defending the stupid lie.

    Rinse and repeat.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  344. Uhh, this happened.

    Trump at his town hall: "Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music. Who the hell wants to hear questions?" pic.twitter.com/vc9aZK5YRZ— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) October 14, 2024

    I know that 2 folks fainted, but to just blow off the town hall part of the town hall and turn it into a terrible version of Studio 54 seems like a strange thing to do.

    Hey, he lied exponentially less, that’s a plus. How he lied less makes him seem more mentally defective not less.

    Also, his campaign should really be canned, this is the closing 3 weeks. This with the aircon and Coachella with the forgetting the return buses does not make for a look of competence.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  345. @Col Klink@351 I don’t think anything Trump does, other than collapse (and maybe not that), will make any kind of difference at this point, either way. Everyone knows who he is. His crazypants Trumpness is already built in.

    Nic (120c94)

  346. I want someone to find a true blue undecided about who they’d vote for…and feed them some sodium pentathol, because I don’t believe a word they’re saying.

    Now, there are probably some that can’t be bothered to get off the couch. But you’re probably right, there aren’t 13 people in the swing states to convince to choose. You’re going to have to go find granny and drive her to the precinct.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  347. You people, you people, you just don’t understand what’s at stake for Mr. Trump here. If he doesn’t win this election, he could go to prison. And even if he avoids prison, Putin will recall Melania as his controller and replace her with Jill Stein.

    nk (6c45b4)

  348. Yes, comrades, there is a foreign criminal gang which threatens to overrun America. It calls itself MAGA and is controlled from the Kremlin.

    nk (7e8ecc)

  349. Some years ago, I recall reading a poll about stealing campaign signs. You will be shocked to learn that many Republicans thought it was OK to steal Democratic signs — and that many Democrats thought it was OK to steal Republican signs.

    That type of mistake is common, to say the least, but those who make it look foolish.

    Jim Miller (b195ff)

  350. Stealing campaign signs in California is considered petty theft (Penal Code Section 488), but I’ll bet it’s rarely enforced. One way to track down sign thieves is to attach an Apple air tag.

    In California, it’s also illegal for a landlord to prohibit a tenant from posting political signs (Cal. Civ. Code § 1940.4).

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  351. More on the Aurora CO slumlords…

    Here’s what a City of #Aurora spokesperson had to say about @CbzManagement now being on X:

    “We are not going to give credence to these continued exaggerations. Please see the numerous statements and many public records we have provided.

    “These delinquent property owners, managers and/or ‘investors’ conveniently fail to acknowledge that their own bank lenders took them to court in the last few weeks where a judge ordered some of their problematic properties into receivership. That means a judge has given the legal authority to a third-party receiver to actually manage the properties, and who the property owners will be forced to compensate.”

    And there’s more here and here. It wasn’t that gangs, Venezuelans or otherwise, took over their apartments, they let gangsters come in, through their own mismanagement and neglect. But things like what actually happened don’t matter to a serial liar like Donnie and his docile parroty minion, whose birth-certificate name is James David Hamel. Because, just like in Springfield OH, things like facts and the truth don’t matter, it’s about Trump’s lying racist ploy to scare Americans about brown-skinned immigrants occupying and conquering America, all in order to get those scareable Americans to vote for him. It’s the lowest form of political opportunism, fascist even.

    Seriously, we’ve dealt with Trump’s rank lies and bullsh-t on the political scene for nine years. This isn’t new, but it is getting worse, because Trump is a mentally ill “man” with irreversible dementia, who’d rather sway to his playlist for 39 minutes than answer questions that we know would be filled with argle bargle, incoherence, tw@ttery and lies.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  352. More good news on nuclear power.

    For years I have been saying that, if you think global warming is a serious problem — and can do arithmetic — you will favor nuclear power.

    For example, I don’t doubt that Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, genuinely worries about global warming. But I do doubt whether he can do arithmetic.

    (Google may be doing this partly for political reasons, of course.)

    Jim Miller (b195ff)

  353. Surreal:

    The town hall (in Oaks, Pennsylvania and) moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. Donald Trump offered meandering answers on how he would address housing affordability and help small businesses. But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention.
    ……….
    “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said.

    For 39 minutes, Trump swayed, bopped — sometimes stopping to speak — as he turned the event into almost a living-room listening session of his favorite songs from his self-curated rally playlist.

    He played nine tracks. He danced. He shook hands with people onstage. He pointed to the crowd. Noem stood beside him, nodding with her hands clasped. Trump stayed in place onstage, slowly moving back and forth. He was done answering questions for the night.
    ………..
    As Trump stood onstage in his oversize suit and bright red tie, swaying back and forth, it was almost as if he were taking a trip back to decades past. Trump’s decision to cut short the question-and-answer portion of the town hall and instead have the crowd stay to listen to his favorite songs was a somewhat bizarre move, given that the election was only 22 days away. …….

    Some in the crowd began to leave. Some looked around, wondering whether he was done speaking for the night and how much longer the dance — or sway — session would last. Many stayed holding their cameras and watched as Trump took in the music, at times looking over at a screen beside him that showed videos of James Brown singing “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and Sinéad O’Connor performing “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
    …………
    He briefly returned to talking about the election and the importance of winning Pennsylvania. After Noem gave Trump the option of closing “with a specific song” or taking “two more fast questions,” he addressed one of his aides: “So Justin, how about a couple really beauties and we’ll sit down and relax.”

    It was time to listen to Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to Say Goodbye.” After listening to James Brown, Trump began to speak again, as if remembering that he was still at an event that was billed as a town hall.
    ………..
    ………..“So play ‘YMCA!’ Go ahead. Let’s go nice and loud!”

    “Here we go, everybody,” Noem interjected.

    The crowd cheered and danced to the Village People song from the 1970s, which celebrates gay cruising culture. ………
    ………..
    Then it was “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinéad O’Connor. “An American Trilogy” by Elvis Presley. “Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony. Trump stood and swayed.

    As “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses played, he walked off the stage. He spoke to attendees on his way out, as “Memory” from the musical “Cats” played in the background.
    ############

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  354. @359

    “We are not going to give credence to these continued exaggerations. Please see the numerous statements and many public records we have provided.”

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6) — 10/15/2024 @ 8:52 am
    That’s a ‘Cover Your Ass’ statement if I ever seen.

    Government officials surely wouldn’t lie to us…

    Right?

    whembly (477db6)

  355. @360

    More good news on nuclear power.

    For years I have been saying that, if you think global warming is a serious problem — and can do arithmetic — you will favor nuclear power.

    For example, I don’t doubt that Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, genuinely worries about global warming. But I do doubt whether he can do arithmetic.

    (Google may be doing this partly for political reasons, of course.)

    Jim Miller (b195ff) — 10/15/2024 @ 9:06 am

    Yup. The planned base load needed for future AI development is being constrained by near exponential increases in cost.

    Only nuclear can stabilize that.

    whembly (477db6)

  356. Government officials surely wouldn’t lie to us…

    Yet a slumlord would be truthful? There’s a documented record on this slumlord.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  357. @364

    Government officials surely wouldn’t lie to us…

    Yet a slumlord would be truthful?

    Why this “slumlord” descriptor?

    There’s a documented record on this slumlord.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6) — 10/15/2024 @ 10:13 am

    Soo…

    what?

    The property owners deserves this?

    Smacks to me that you’re hand-waving this away that the proper owners’ skirt is too short.

    whembly (477db6)

  358. Elon Musk on sending people to Mars:

    Getting the cost per ton to the surface of Mars low enough that humanity has the resources to make life multiplanetary requires a roughly 1000X improvement in rocket & spacecraft technology.

    Recent US Mars missions have had a cost per ton of useful load to the surface of Mars of about $1B. Moreover, it has become more, not less, expensive over time!

    To build a city on Mars that can grow by itself likely requires at least a million tons of equipment, which would therefore require >$1000 trillion, an obviously impossible number, given that US GDP is only $29T.

    However, if rocket technology can be improved by 1000X, then the cost of becoming sustainably multiplanetary would drop to ~$1T, which could be spread out over 40 or more years, so 1000X improvement over existing systems and, especially after yesterday’s booster catch and precise ocean landing of the ship, I am now convinced that it can work.

    steveg (292c87)

  359. Default mode for ALL politicians is Spin Cycle- which is a skillful misdirectional lie.

    They will quibble over what constitutes a “handful”, they will minimize impact, maximize what constitutes “control”. Just because they oppose Trump doesn’t mean they are not lying.
    This is a weird time where the enemy of my enemy must be a paragon.

    Lets take Liz Cheney and her endorsement of Harris.

    Harris in her various roles, speeches in CA politics has shown herself to be a horrible person who would be horrible for the country. Antithetical to everything Liz used to claim the Cheney brand stood for. Liz must have been lying to us about who she really was, what she really believed because add Trump into the mix and Liz suddenly indulges in human alchemy- Harris is now good for the country and is a good person to vote for- Cheney family values approved ***** stars
    No, Harris is not, and will not, be good for the country. She remains the bad person with bad policies.

    How about if we just use venomous snakes and the LD50 test (LD50 is Lethal Dose =50% The finishing point of the LD50 test is when half of the animals in the group have died. The amount of test substance that kills half the animals gives the LD50 figure)

    #1 is Australia’s Fierce Snake which has a bite that can produce 110mg of the most toxic of venoms. That one bite produces enough of a venom dose to kill 100 humans.
    #5 is the Tiger Snake which kills more people than any other snake. It’s venom is #5 but the snake is f-ing Aggressive

    Which one does Liz want to put into your tent

    steveg (292c87)

  360. Sure, but that 40 years starts in 150 years, maybe 250. Technology advancement in launch capability has actually decreased since the 70’s. Musk has said that Falcon Heavy is heaviest lift rocket in existence except for the Soviet Energia and NASA Saturn V.

    The SLS is basically a failed product, so for the US it’s Falcon Heavy or nothing.

    The current launch cost is $117M per ton, as it’s a monopoly and costs have dramatically increased. Musk said it will be $10M/t within 2-3 years, and $2M is the goal.

    The Mars network will require a 4th gen launch platform, and require over 1000 launches. If you believe the timeline, we should be launching Falcon Heavy’s replacements replacement today. Currently the replacement is in test, major milestone last week, but the timeline is vastly longer, the cost exponentially higher for decades at least.

    No one is alive today that will colonize Mars. Maybe their grandkids or great grandkids will. And realistically it’s probably 2 or 3 after that.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  361. The requirement to develop a plan for Mars is General AI. Seed Mars with HAL and robots, and 50 years later send people.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  362. That’s not a snake, steveg. It’s a garden hose to wash an unclean thing back into the sewer it oozed out from.

    nk (1a7685)

  363. BTW, Trump appears to have fallen behind Biden on mental competency. Not just his normal lunacy, but the stress of the campaign has shown a level of senility that is shocking.

    The dems saw it, and booted Biden. So a vote for Trump is actually voting for Vance to be president, in Feb or so. How long does it take to invoke the 25th?

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  364. There’s a reason that Musk, Thiel and co are such major Trump backers, but Vance is actually their guy.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  365. Smacks to me that you’re hand-waving this away that the proper owners’ skirt is too short.

    Ridiculous and wrong. He has a record, hence slumlord.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  366. Upset:

    Former President Trump seemingly mocked Fox News Monday evening, after the network announced that Vice President Harris agreed to sit for an interview, calling the outlet “weak and soft.”

    “Lyin’ Kamala Harris has wisely chosen Bret Baier, of FoxNews, to do a much needed interview, because he is considered to be “Fair & Balanced,” though often very soft to those on the “cocktail circuit” Left,” he wrote Monday on Truth Social.

    “I would have preferred seeing a more hard hitting journalist, but Fox has grown so weak and soft on the Democrats, constantly polluting the airwaves with unopposed Kamala Representatives, that it all doesn’t matter anymore,” he added. “Hopefully, the people will understand on November 5th, and Early Voting. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
    ……..
    Harris’s interview with Fox News, conducted from Pennsylvania, will air Wednesday at 6 p.m. EDT during the network’s “Special Report” newscast.
    #########

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  367. Disappointing:

    The extent to which young adults have gun-carry rights will not be the next big Second Amendment question considered by the Supreme Court.

    The Court on Tuesday declined a request by Pennsylvania officials to review an appeals court decision striking down the state’s ban on gun carry for adults under 21 during declared states of emergency. Instead, the justices opted to grant, vacate, and remand (GVR) that decision back to the appeals court to be re-examined with the Supreme Court’s most recent Second Amendment decision in mind.

    “The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for further consideration in light of United States v. Rahimi,” the Court wrote.

    The order did not contain any explanation or dissents from any of the justices.
    …………..
    Pennsylvania law allows all adults 18 and older who are not prohibited from owning firearms to open carry in public without a permit. However, state law also bars the public from carrying firearms during a state or municipal emergency declaration. That statute provides an exemption for valid concealed carry permit holders, which can only be issued to adults aged 21 and up, leaving 18-20-year-olds without an avenue for lawful gun carry during emergency declarations.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  368. This is what I mean by “new rules” in the effort to use lawfare against Trump.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/10/biden-harris-doj-goes-to-bat-for-illegal-aliens-against-virginians/

    Understand: The Biden-Harris administration, led as ever by U.S. history’s most politicized Justice Department, is now doing the very thing it has indicted Donald Trump for doing — and for which it would have him imprisoned for up to ten years. That is, it is conspiring to injure the people of a state, Virginia in this instance, in the enjoyment of their right to vote. That’s a felony violation of the civil-rights laws (§241), at least according to the indictment Biden-Harris DOJ special counsel Jack Smith has brought against Vice President Harris’s opponent (formerly President Biden’s opponent) in the 2024 election.

    If that’s the standard, then by golly that same standard must be applied in the other direction.

    whembly (477db6)

  369. There is only one rational explanation for this ill-conceived exercise of prosecutorial discretion against the United States citizens of Virginia and on behalf of illegal aliens: The Biden-Harris administration is trying to influence the outcome of the election by enabling illegal aliens to vote. The expectation that illegal aliens will vote for Democrats and transform closely divided states into Democratic strongholds also helps explain why Biden and Harris dismantled American border security.

    whembly (477db6)

  370. America’s Team takes it on the chin, again and again:

    ………..
    ………..Through the first six weeks of his inaugural season in Fox’s booth, (Tom Brady) has been required to suffer through four–four!—Dallas Cowboys games, three of them horrid stinkers at home, including Sunday’s 47-9 thrashing by the Detroit Lions.
    ………..
    Dallas is still in the mix at 3-3—but those losses, they have been brutal. There was a 44-19 thump by the Saints in which New Orleans scored on its first six drives; a 28-25 loss to Baltimore in which Dallas trailed 28-6 heading into the fourth quarter; and this newest fiasco to the Lions. Also in the memory bank is the 48-32 playoff crunching the Cowboys took from the Packers last January.

    ……….Dallas has been falling behind early, losing on both sides of the ball, losing on (Jerry Jones, 82) birthday, and embarrassingly losing in front of Brady. (They’re 1-3 with Talking Tommy on the call.) Worst of all, they’re losing at home, in JerryWorld, where they’d recently won 16 in a row.

    Sunday’s disaster versus Detroit was Dallas’s worst-ever defeat in the House that Jones built (opened 2009) and the worst Cowboys home defeat since 1988.
    ……….
    The 4-1 Lions looked unintimidated on Sunday, despite a devastating injury to defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who broke his leg. They scored early and often, and kept pouring it on, goofing around with gimmick plays when the outcome was no longer in question.
    ……….
    Does anyone (fear the Cowboys)? Dallas may have proud championship DNA, but the last generation has been defined by underachievement. Cowboys haters (you know who you are) wonder why this team still generates so much media coverage, how a franchise can still have the hubris to call itself “America’s Team” when it hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the 1995 season. Because since then, it’s been a big fat zero.
    …………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  371. If integrity was dynamite, Andrew C. McCarthy would not have enough to blow his nose. A big, sloppy, wet kiss for Trump … that he will always have.

    nk (6c45b4)

  372. @379

    If integrity was dynamite, Andrew C. McCarthy would not have enough to blow his nose. A big, sloppy, wet kiss for Trump … that he will always have.

    nk (6c45b4) — 10/15/2024 @ 2:12 pm

    The fact that you think McCarthy is this MAGA figure shows how little you know about him.

    whembly (477db6)

  373. Well, Trump, when asked today if he’s been negotiating with Putin for the last 4 years…”Well, it would be smart if I had”

    Illegal? Yes, unAmerican? Yes. Traitorous? Quite possibly.

    Best case, he’s lying about talking to Putin. Worst, he’s actually promising Putin things. It’s Trump, I suppose the former is quite possible, and fits with the fact that he’s always lying. The worst case is pretty bad.

    I’d like to know MAGA’s defense of either.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  374. “I didn’t particularly like it. I played tight end, I could catch the ball good, but I didn’t particularly like having some guy who was lifting weights all day long and came from a bad neighborhood … they were tackling hard. And I had a quarterback without much of an arm.”

    So, he’s a pu$$y and didn’t want to be touched by those vermin. Cool.

    None of his schtick is new, he’s been a pansy blowhard and racist for all 78 years, shocking.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  375. Economists Say Inflation, Deficits Will Be Higher Under Trump Than Harris

    Most economists think inflation, interest rates and deficits would be higher under the policies former President Donald Trump would pursue in a second administration than under those proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal.
    ………..
    Of the 50 economists who responded to the survey’s question on inflation, 68% said prices would rise faster under Trump than under Harris. That was up from 56% in July. Only 12% of the economists thought inflation would be higher under a Harris presidency, while the remainder saw no material difference between the candidates.

    “Both candidates have policies that are inflationary,” said Dan Hamilton, director of the center for economic research and forecasting at California Lutheran University. But in a change from their July forecast, Hamilton and his colleague Matthew Fienup now see a second Trump term producing faster price increases because of the former president’s tariff plans. “Since July, it became apparent to us that Trump is even more anti-free-trade than Harris,” Hamilton said.

    Since July, Trump has pledged across-the-board tariffs of 10% to 20% on imported goods, up from his earlier plan to impose 10% tariffs. He has also proposed a 60% or higher tariff on imports from China.
    ………….
    The Journal asked economists to assess the proposed policies of the candidates. Whether those policies are enacted depends on several factors, most important the makeup of Congress.
    …………
    The Journal’s survey asked economists how Trump’s proposed broad-based tariffs would affect domestic manufacturing employment within three to five years, relative to a scenario with no such policy. Of the 44 economists who responded, 59% said employment would be lower, while only 16% said it would be higher. The remainder said employment would be the same.

    While neither Trump nor Harris has expressed much appetite for fiscal rectitude, 65% of economists see Trump’s proposed policies putting more upward pressure on the federal deficit, up from 51% in July.
    ………..
    A likely consequence of higher deficits and inflation is higher interest rates. The Journal’s survey showed 61% of economists saw rates being higher under a hypothetical President Trump than under Harris.
    ………..

    More:

    ………..
    Both Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, and Trump, her Republican opponent, have proposed lavish spending and tax cuts that would add significantly to the debt.
    ………..
    ………..(It) would be a mistake to dismiss Trump’s plans as unserious. They not only are more costly than Harris’s, they also are more likely to be enacted.

    President Biden and Harris certainly had no compunction about running up debt for their spending priorities. Still, if Harris became president, Republicans are strongly favored to take back control of the Senate, where they would likely block most of her costly spending plans. (The party that wins the White House would likely win control of the House of Representatives.) Even within her own party, Harris doesn’t command the personal loyalty that Trump does with his.
    ………..
    Under Trump’s influence, the debt has steadily receded as priority for Republicans. He banished any talk of cutting Social Security or Medicare benefits, the deficit’s two biggest long-term drivers.

    Much of the tax cut he signed into law in 2017 expires at the end of 2025, teeing up a major new tax bill early in the next president’s term. Trump wants to make its provisions permanent, which could cost an estimated $4 trillion over 10 years, not including his other proposed tax cuts. Even if Trump doesn’t get all he wants—repealing taxes on Social Security benefits is a particular stretch—he could get a lot of it.
    ………..
    Said (Bob Corker, a former Republican senator from Tennessee): “For those who hope for even a modicum of fiscal responsibility, pray for divided Congress.”
    ###########

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  376. I don’t like linking to a Kremlin amplifier like ZeroHedge, but this…the path to expanding nuclear energy is through the private, more particularly Big High Tech.

    First it was Amazon, then Microsoft, now Google telegraphs why the “next AI trade” will generate obnoxious amounts of alpha in the coming years by sending the same message: i) it’s all about how all those data centers will be powered, and ii) in the future a growing number of data centers will be powered by small modular nuclear reactors.

    On Monday, Google – picking up on what we discussed last week in “Google Turns To Nuclear To Power Its Data Centers” – announced plans to buy power from Kairos Power’s small modular reactors (SMRs) as part of a growing industry shift toward nuclear energy to meet rising data center demands. By purchasing energy from multiple SMRs, Google aims to send a strong market signal while supporting long-term commercialization.

    This feels like some sort of breakthrough.

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  377. …private sector

    Paul Montagu (8ea9f6)

  378. May be illegal, but Kerry and Clinton both did it
    I don’t much care who Trump talks to on the phone, I’d guess Xi, Putin, Netanyahu, Pudgy Li”l Rocket Fellow, maybe even Zelensky (once the room has be swept for Vindman’s)
    Would not be shocked to hear of anyone in the EU or UK. Trump has probably called Denmark now and then to ask again about what it would take to buy Greenland. If I remember right maybe Modi got along with Trump. The Saudi’s and Jordanians probably “check in”.
    Probably not a lot of calls from 3rd world countries he’s called – correctly in some instances- sh!th0les.

    steveg (292c87)

  379. This nice young woman shows us the best of technology
    https://x.com/i/status/1846193753184211442

    steveg (292c87)

  380. Wuff…

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  381. Wuff…link

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  382. Market Manipulation?

    ………..
    Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group was trading sharply higher during a volatile session at about $31 per share when it swiftly collapsed below $29 shortly after 2:40 p.m. ET on heavy trading volume.

    Nasdaq paused trading for Trump Media at 2:42 p.m. ET for five minutes, a routine cooling-off period that exchanges are required to impose during times of heavy volatility.

    When trading resumed, Trump Media initially bounced back before plunging below $27.

    The owner of social media platform Truth Social ended the day down 10%, and 20% below its high of the day.
    ………
    The stock had more than doubled its value in the span of three weeks, a stunning move driven by polling and betting odds that suggest the race for the White House could go either way.
    ………
    At Tuesday’s peak, Trump’s stake of 114.75 million shares in the company was worth $3.88 billion on paper. But by the end of the day, the value of that stake had dropped to $3.1 billion.
    ………

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  383. Probably legal manipulation trolling for preset buy/sell triggers

    steveg (e81d76)

  384. Look at the volume, it’s tiny, so a small (relative) set of buys/sells will dramatically impact price.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  385. Trump Media & Technology will be in single digits in either late 2024, or early 2029. 2029 is too far away to tie up money and 2024 is too risky

    Check out the activity in the options chains here
    https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/djt/option-chain

    Lots of speculation, hedging going on

    Alvin Bragg charges Trump over Trump Media on day after Inaugural day if Trump wins

    steveg (292c87)

  386. I actually liked Trump swaying to music for 38 minutes….a nice change of pace. I also thought it was special how Kristi Noem tried her best to roll with it. I still actually think she is Trump’s true electoral soulmate. Anyone who would do Y-M-C-A to kill time at an election rally….well, is a keeper. Mesmerizing….

    AJ_Liberty (f8d10d)

  387. The fact that you think McCarthy is this MAGA figure shows how little you know about him.

    whembly (477db6) — 10/15/2024 @ 2:46 pm

    If by MAGA you mean all-in for Trump, then yes, McCarthy is MAGA. Like J.D. Vance, Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz, he found Trump unfit for office, then mortgaged his dignity for a ticket on the Trump train. He may not have declared the slavish fealty Trump demands of his politician toadies, but he finds a way to whatabout, false-equate, and otherwise excuse one indefensible Trumpism after another, while showing no such generosity for Harris.

    The cynical explanation is McCarthy, Vance, Cruz and Graham all lack Liz Cheney’s commitment to principle over power. The generous one is they believe Trump is unfit, but, like you, they believe any Democrat is worse. Either way, the controlling commitment is anti-anti-Trump. As with all double negatives, the result is a single, in this case pro-Trump, positive. In other words, anti-anti Trump is effectively indistinguishable from MAGA, and McCarthy’s anti-anti bona-fides are well established.

    lurker (c23034)

  388. This is the best part of Trump’s Disco party.

    Also…

    I have just seen Kamala’s Report, and it is not good. According to her Doctor’s Report, she suffers from ‘urticaria,’ defined as ‘a rash of round, red welts on the skin that itch intensely, sometimes with dangerous swelling.

    She also has ‘allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis,’ a very messy and dangerous situation. These are deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning

    OMG she has hay fever and an allergy!!!!

    Says the guy who decided the other old guy with a brain worm is a genius.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  389. On the woof above…

    MICKLETHWAIT: The U.S. Justice Department is thinking about breaking up Alphabet, as Google likes to be known now. Should Google be broken up?

    TRUMP: [heavy sigh] I just haven’t gotten over something the Justice Department did yesterday, where Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes. And the Justice Department sued them that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote. So I haven’t, I haven’t gotten over that. A lot of people have seen that. They can’t even believe it.

    MICKLETHWAIT: But the question is about Google, President Trump.

    TRUMP: Yeah. Look, Google’s got a lot of power. They’re very bad to me. Very, very bad to me. I mean, I can speak from that standpoint. They only have bad stories. In other words, if I have 20 good stories and 20 bad stories—and everyone’s entitled to that—you’ll only see the 20 bad stories. And I called the head of Google the other day, and I said, I’m getting a lot of good stories lately. But you don’t find them in Google. I think it’s a whole rigged deal. I think Google’s rigged, just like our government is rigged, all over the place.

    MICKLETHWAIT: You would break them up, in other words?

    TRUMP: I’d do something. You have to have—look, I give a lot of credit. They’ve become such a power. It’s such a power. And you gotta give ‘em credit for that. How they became a power is really the discussion. At the same time, it’s a very dangerous thing, because we wanna have great companies. We don’t want China to have these companies. You know, China is a very powerful, very smart group of people I think TikTok is a threat. I frankly think everything’s a threat. But sometimes you have to fight through these threats. You know, you can’t—just like Google. I’m not a fan of Google. They treat me badly. But are you gonna destroy the company by doing that? If you do that, are you gonna destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure that it’s more fair. They do treat me very badly. Oh, and he told me, “No way. You’re the number one person on all of Google for stories.” Which probably makes sense, to be honest with you. I actually believe most of ‘em are bad stories. But these are minor details. And it’s only bad because of the fake news. ‘Cause the news is really fake. That’s the one we really have to straighten. We have to straighten out our press, because we have a corrupt press.

    I know, it’s shocking buuut…when asked, Alphabet stated categorically that no one from Alphabet has spoken to Trump since March of 2019.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a)

  390. 1. And I called the head of Google the other day, and I said, I’m getting a lot of good stories lately. But you don’t find them in Google.
    PLUS
    1. Alphabet stated categorically that no one from Alphabet has spoken to Trump since March of 2019.
    EQUALS
    2. Dementia Trump. For a normal person, five and half years being “the other day” could indicate dementia. For Trump, it could merely be the 5,763,484th lie he’s told.

    nk (9565c8)

  391. Trump’s not talking about 2019 and he didn’t have a conversation like that then and Alphabet isn’t saying he did. His story is just a lie.

    . You’re the number one person on all of Google for stories.

    Somebody maybe told that to Trump at one point, but it wasn’t the head of Google speaking to him.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  392. A likely consequence of higher deficits and inflation is higher interest rates.

    Not true. Empirically false. And notice the weasel word “likely.”

    Deficits don’t cause inflation, although occasionally they cause the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates which in turn causes inflation.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  393. After yesterday’s debate where Cruz demolished Allred by showing his actual voting record time and time again, it’s clear that anyone who supports Allred is not a Republican or someone that supports the success of the United States of America.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  394. 74.

    Trump’s model is the ending of the Korean War by Eisenhower.

    How is that, Sammy? What “model”?
    We never fought in Ukraine.

    I don;;t think that that’s the important similarity, although you may be right that that is an important distinction that keeps the USA involved.

    What Eisenhower did was threaten to escalate unless unless North Korea agreed to an armistice.

    The Biden Administration may be trying the same thing with Iran – or at least Thomas Friedman wants it to:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/15/opinion/iran-israel-war.html

    This is about 20% wishful thinking.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  395. Harris’ political consultants are really stupid and don’t understand what their own polls mean.

    I don’t think Obama is that stupid, but his interest in campaigning is not to help win an election but to remain in good standing with the elite of the Democratic Party. It’s a really really stupid argument he used – based on the idea that black men support Harris but just are not interested in voting. The reason she does better with women is a series of lies about abortion. She’s not doing worse with men.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  396. The fact that you think McCarthy is this MAGA figure shows how little you know about him.

    whembly (477db6) — 10/15/2024 @ 2:46 pm

    nk is not saying that Andrew C. McCarthy is a MAGA figure – just not honest in what he’s writing. Partisan maybe.

    Sammy Finkelman (e0dccb)

  397. 3. I’m so old I can remember when the host said “deport the criminals first” and we all agreed.

    Bad idea.

    First, I don’t believe it. Second he’d go after criminals who served their sentences long ago and have aged out of crime.

    Sammy Finkelman (e0dccb)

  398. It wasn’t that gangs, Venezuelans or otherwise, took over their apartments, they let gangsters come in,

    In exchange for higher rent or kickbacks.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  399. Trump’s dementia and malignant narcissism were on full display at the Bloomberg event. Practically nothing he said was true.

    We could very well have a demented crazy person as Leader of the Free World. His getting elected could be the biggest fraud in history.

    Paul Montagu (e74931)

  400. Georgia on my mind:

    A record number of votes were cast on the first day of early voting in Georgia-328,000. The previous record was 136,000 in 2020.

    A Fulton County judge blocked the State Election Board’s new rule requiring counties to hand count ballots on Election Day, saying it would cause “administrative chaos” given the limited time to train poll workers. It is likely to be appealed. The Board is facing a “barrage” of lawsuits from both Democrats and Republicans.

    The same Fulton County judge ruled in a different lawsuit that certifying election results is a “mandatory” duty of county election officials and that ” “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  401. Regarding yesterday’s event and Trump’s “answers” on tariffs and whatnot, the Bloomberg guy should’ve taken a page from Billy Madison…

    Mr Trump, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.
    At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought.
    Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

    Paul Montagu (e74931)

  402. Why isn’t Chris Christie supporting Harris?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  403. FoxNews is trying to drag the demented Trump across the finish line, cutting out the fascist part of his comment to Bartiromo. Last night, Hannity was trying to get everyone to clap harder after Trump’s debacle at the Bloomberg economic forum.
    Please America, don’t vote for dementia mentally illness.

    Paul Montagu (e74931)

  404. …dementia and mental illness.

    Paul Montagu (e74931)

  405. [Trigger warning for Rip: contains wild speculation and facts not in evidence]

    So, Biden says that Trump is only running to avoid jail. Suppose it’s basically true.

    So, the “House of Cards” scenario: Trump is elected, but a deal is struck for his resignation, with both GA and NY pardoning him and or dropping charges. Then Trump is pardoned for his federal crimes while president. And JD Vance achieves his ambition. Later, given an opportunity, appoints his wife to the Supreme Court.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  406. FoxNews is trying to drag the demented Trump across the finish line

    Meanwhile, Drudge attempts to do the same for Harris, linking every pro-Harris or anti-Trump story on the Internet regardless of accuracy.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  407. In other state election-related litigation news:

    The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the persons with felony convictions and have completed their sentences can register to vote. The Nebraska enacted a law allowing individuals with felony convictions to register to vote after completing the terms of their sentences. However, the State Attorney General issued a non-binding opinion that the law violated the state constitution; and the Secretary of State ordered local election officials to reject registration applications of with prior felony convictions unless they were specifically pardoned by the Nebraska Board of Pardons.

    In a per curiam opinion, the Court ruled that under the Nebraska Constitution,

    “No legislative act shall be held unconstitutional except by the concurrence of five judges.” In this case, as demonstrated in more detail in the separate opinions that follow, fewer than five judges find that the re-enfranchisement provisions of L.B. 20 are unconstitutional.

    The Secretary’s sole defense in this mandamus proceeding was that the re-enfranchisement provisions of L.B. 20 are unconstitutional. Because the Secretary was unable to establish his defense that the statutes were unconstitutional, a majority of this court agrees that the relators have established the prerequisites for mandamus relief under provisions of L.B. 20 and that the writ should issue. …….For essentially the same reasons, the relators (plaintiffs) have shown they are entitled to mandamus relief ordering the election commissioners to register the individual relators to vote upon the receipt of a complete and correct registration application. The election commissioners are ordered to do so.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  408. criminals who served their sentences long ago and have aged out of crime.

    Yeah, that happens a lot.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  409. Why isn’t Chris Christie supporting Harris?

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:20 am

    From a NYT interview published last Friday:

    (Frank) Bruni: You wrote a guest essay for us before the Harris-Trump debate. And you said that you were still forming an opinion of Vice President Harris. It’s almost a month since that debate. Do you have a more informed opinion of her today?

    Christie: I certainly have a better understanding of her political skills. And I think that she has displayed some really significant political skills over the course of the last — what is it now? — about 80 days or so that she’s been a candidate. I admire her for that because it is not easy to perform on that stage with no notice.

    What I haven’t heard from her yet, which I need to hear, are the sacrifices that she’s going to be willing to make politically to unify the country if she becomes president. I need to hear from her that she is going to be different than Donald Trump was and, quite frankly, different than Joe Biden was, because Joe Biden didn’t do much, in my mind, to try to unify the country and work with the other side.

    I’m not going to vote for the lesser of two evils anymore. I’ve done it before. I did it with Trump in ’16. I got motivated to support Trump because I thought Hillary Clinton would be such a bad president, you know? I’m not making a decision like that again. She’s got time to convince me. But she hasn’t done that yet.

    Bruni: Are you saying you may just not vote on Election Day?

    Christie: I’ll vote, but I may not vote for president.

    Bruni: Is that really a responsible thing to do?

    Christie: I have an obligation to vote for the person that I think is best if I believe there’s a best choice. I will not vote for Trump. Practically, my vote is not going to matter in New Jersey, anyway. She’s going to win New Jersey by 10 to 14 points.

    In the end, who cares? A Haley endorsement of Harris would have been much more influential than one from Christie. But if Haley thought she would gain any influence with Trump by her “full throated” endorsement at the convention, she is sadly mistaken. She will never be MAGA enough for the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  410. Reminder: The Loser once tried to bribe Harris.

    Campaign finance records show Donald Trump donated twice to reelect Kamala Harris as the attorney general of California. Records show Trump made a $5,000 donation in 2011, months after she was first sworn in, and another $1,000 donation in 2013, one year before she was reelected for a second term.

    The Harris campaign told CBS News that she later donated those funds to a nonprofit group advocating for civil rights and human rights for Central Americans, which was first reported by the Sacramento Bee. The paper noted that her donation came in 2015, as she was launching her campaign for the U.S. Senate.

    Reminds me of the Mafia boss in The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, who tried to bribe every pol who might be able to help him,

    Jim Miller (89e19f)

  411. She will never be MAGA enough for the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:48 am

    Correction: Haley will never be MAGA enough for the ascendent Trump wing of the Republican Party.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  412. In the end, who cares? A Haley endorsement of Harris would have been much more influential than one from Christie. But if Haley thought she would gain any influence with Trump by her “full throated” endorsement at the convention, she is sadly mistaken. She will never be MAGA enough for the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

    She would never be a candidate of the GOP if she failed to endorse Trump. It’s against the politician code. If Trump loses and there is an open competition for the GOP nomination in 2024, she will be one of the favorites, competing with DeSantis and Vance. MAGA will be a force, but a pretty spent one.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  413. She would never be a candidate of the GOP if she failed to endorse Trump. It’s against the politician code. If Trump loses and there is an open competition for the GOP nomination in 2024, she will be one of the favorites, competing with DeSantis and Vance. MAGA will be a force, but a pretty spent one.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 10:00 am

    LOL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  414. McCain lost to W, then Romney lost to McCain, then everyone lost to Romney. The GOP tends to favor 2nd place last time.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  415. Noticed that the DOJ decided having math on firefighter exams creates racial disparity

    One question was:
    Your Captain determines that 350ft of hose is needed to reach the burning vehicle.
    If the hoses on the apparatus are 60ft in length, what is the minimum number of lengths of hose needed

    A: 3
    B: 4
    C: 5
    D: 6

    steveg (04876c)

  416. The DOJ should be investigating the schools these applicants attended

    steveg (04876c)

  417. @395

    The fact that you think McCarthy is this MAGA figure shows how little you know about him.

    whembly (477db6) — 10/15/2024 @ 2:46 pm

    If by MAGA you mean all-in for Trump, then yes, McCarthy is MAGA. Like J.D. Vance, Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz, he found Trump unfit for office, then mortgaged his dignity for a ticket on the Trump train. He may not have declared the slavish fealty Trump demands of his politician toadies, but he finds a way to whatabout, false-equate, and otherwise excuse one indefensible Trumpism after another, while showing no such generosity for Harris.

    Another tell that you really don’t understand, or kept up to McCarthy’s writings.

    He’s said, over and over again that he’s not voting for Trump and that Trump really has a tall order in winning.

    The cynical explanation is McCarthy, Vance, Cruz and Graham all lack Liz Cheney’s commitment to principle over power. The generous one is they believe Trump is unfit, but, like you, they believe any Democrat is worse. Either way, the controlling commitment is anti-anti-Trump. As with all double negatives, the result is a single, in this case pro-Trump, positive. In other words, anti-anti Trump is effectively indistinguishable from MAGA, and McCarthy’s anti-anti bona-fides are well established.

    lurker (c23034) — 10/15/2024 @ 8:37 pm

    I’m anti-anti Trump camp… in that, in my view, he’s eons better than any current crop of Democrats.

    McCarthy is not. He’s not voting for Trump. End of story.

    What he does, is takes acute pains to separate the hyperbolic politics of the issues to that of criminal/penal laws. Something that our host has issues with.

    So, no, your discriptor that McCarthy is on the “Trump” train doesn’t hold water.

    whembly (477db6)

  418. @404

    The fact that you think McCarthy is this MAGA figure shows how little you know about him.

    whembly (477db6) — 10/15/2024 @ 2:46 pm

    nk is not saying that Andrew C. McCarthy is a MAGA figure – just not honest in what he’s writing. Partisan maybe.

    Sammy Finkelman (e0dccb) — 10/16/2024 @ 8:33 am

    nk is wrong if that’s his position then.

    To this day, nk doesn’t engage on the sustenance of things like McCarthy’s writings (or that I recalled of recently).

    It’s always some snarky “but, Donnie didn’t get a cookie!” inanities.

    whembly (477db6)

  419. @413

    [Trigger warning for Rip: contains wild speculation and facts not in evidence]

    So, Biden says that Trump is only running to avoid jail. Suppose it’s basically true.

    So, the “House of Cards” scenario: Trump is elected, but a deal is struck for his resignation, with both GA and NY pardoning him and or dropping charges. Then Trump is pardoned for his federal crimes while president. And JD Vance achieves his ambition. Later, given an opportunity, appoints his wife to the Supreme Court.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:31 am

    I don’t even think the producers would greenlight that on Amazon.

    whembly (477db6)

  420. …dementia and mental illness.
    Paul Montagu (e74931) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:26 am

    Great to see Paul’s dementia detector is working after being on the fritz all through the Biden years.

    lloyd (6d6131)

  421. McCain lost to W, then Romney lost to McCain, then everyone lost to Romney. The GOP tends to favor 2nd place last time.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 11:13 am

    That Republican Party died in 2016. Four years from now, whether Trump wins or loses, nobody will remember Nikki Haley.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  422. @376 whembly, thanks for posting that article by McCarthy. Speaks volumes on where this DOJ is on election integrity.

    So far, no counterpoints on the substance — just the usual comical ad homs from nk and lurker.

    lloyd (6d6131)

  423. [Trigger warning for Rip: contains wild speculation and facts not in evidence]

    So, Biden says that Trump is only running to avoid jail. Suppose it’s basically true.

    So, the “House of Cards” scenario: Trump is elected, but a deal is struck for his resignation, with both GA and NY pardoning him and or dropping charges. Then Trump is pardoned for his federal crimes while president. And JD Vance achieves his ambition. Later, given an opportunity, appoints his wife to the Supreme Court.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:31 am

    LOL! You’re right, this is nonsensical.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  424. Jimmy Carter casts a early vote for Harris. Should he (God forbid) pass before the election, do they have to back out his vote?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  425. I don’t even think the producers would greenlight that on Amazon.

    No, but they’d have no problem with a show having him nuking California.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  426. ‘Evil’ super gang seizes four apartment complexes in major Texas city in new terrifying show of strength

    Let me assist the Harris supporters with counterpoints:

    1. It’s only a handful of apartments.
    2. But, it’s not Aurora!
    3. We already had a gang problem anyway.
    4. Daily Mail isn’t credible like bubble media.
    5. Don’t believe your lying eyes.

    lloyd (6d6131)

  427. Ouch!

    ………..
    The Republican presidential nominee made at least 19 false claims in the one-hour (Fox town hall event with an all-female audience) that aired Wednesday morning………
    ……….
    Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody,” even “the Democrats” and “the liberals,” wanted the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision overturned and the power to set abortion policy left to individual states; he added, “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government.”

    It’s not even close to true……..
    ……….
    Trump declared that he is entirely in favor of IVF. But Trump also falsely claimed, “I’m the father of IVF.” This is just nonsense. The first child conceived through IVF was born in 1978; Trump, clearly, had nothing to do with it, and he said in this same town hall answer that he only recently had IVF explained to him by a Republican senator.

    Trump, criticizing his election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, repeated his false claim that President Joe Biden “made her border czar.”…….

    Trump, speaking about Harris and the border, repeated his false claim that “she never even went there.” …….

    Trump repeated his false claim that his favorite immigration chart – which he had fortunately turned his head to look at when a gunman tried to kill him at a campaign rally in July – shows that “the day I left office” had the lowest level of border crossings.

    In fact, the arrow on the chart that Trump keeps saying points to a record-low level of southern border crossings on the day or week he left office actually points to April 2020, when Trump still had more than eight months left in his term and global migration had slowed to a trickle because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. After hitting a roughly three-year low (not an all-time low) in April 2020, migration numbers at the southern border increased each month through the end of Trump’s term.
    ……….
    Trump falsely claimed, “I got out of Syria.” Trump reduced the US military presence in Syria but kept a contingent of troops there throughout his presidency, even after he claimed US troops were “out” (other than to protect oil sites, he added). …….

    Trump, touting the defeat of the ISIS terror group, repeated his false claim that “it was supposed to take literally five years and I did it in a month.” Aside from the fact that Trump doesn’t merit sole credit, the ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into his presidency.
    ……….
    Trump, speaking again of the US military presence in South Korea, falsely claimed that “they” (South Korea) “don’t pay,” adding that Biden “said they don’t pay anymore.”

    In fact, South Korea agreed under Biden and Harris to pay more for the US military presence than it had been paying during the Trump era. Completing the negotiations that began under Trump, South Korea agreed in March 2021 to a 2021 payment increase of 13.9% — meaning its payment that year would be about $1 billion — and then additional increases in 2022 through 2025 tied to increases in South Korea’s defense budget.
    ………..

    Putting on my Sammy Finkelman hat, when Trump says “I’m the father of IVF” I think he means he became a father through IVF.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  428. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-virginia-violating-federal-laws-prohibition-systematic-efforts

    The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections to challenge a systematic state program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls too close to the Nov. 5 general election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

    Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA, also known as the Quiet Period Provision, requires states to complete systematic programs aimed at removing the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists no later than 90 days before federal elections. The Quiet Period Provision applies to certain systematic programs carried out by states that are aimed at striking names from voter registration lists based on a perceived failure to meet initial eligibility requirements — including citizenship — at the time of registration.

    So take your Andrew C. McCarthy and put him on your shelf with your Walter Duranty.

    nk (5401ee)

  429. George Will believes that “World War III is already under way. Not that Harris or Trump has noticed.”
    source

    I am inclined to agree with him, on both claims.

    Jim Miller (ae0a5d)

  430. 423. The correct answer is 6. You can always use a hose longer than necessary, Tests for firefighters were/are accused of benefitting people with family involved in firefighting.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  431. In that case World War II started in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  432. Kevin M (a9545f) — 10/16/2024 @ 12:42 pm

    Jimmy Carter casts a early vote for Harris. Should he (God forbid) pass before the election, do they have to back out his vote?

    If somebody challenges the vote (before opening it) probably yes. If they counted it, no.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  433. 3. We already had a gang problem anyway.

    is probably correct, or at least a crime problem,but they’ll never say it.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  434. By “father” Trump means the biggest supporter (now at least)

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  435. He would be the father if it had just been proposed, He’d invest in it,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  436. Great to see Paul’s dementia detector is working after being on the fritz all through the Biden years.

    It’s sad how MAGAs so easily resort to lying. I’ve said since before the 2020 election that Biden is mentally diminished. Quote: “That said, I think Joe is mentally diminished but, then, so is his opponent. Hopefully, the debates will decide which person has lost more in the acuity department.” –9/16/2020

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  437. 423. The correct answer is 6. You can always use a hose longer than necessary, Tests for firefighters were/are accused of benefitting people with family involved in firefighting.

    The correct answer is: “This is a horsesh!t test. Firefighting is not a classroom exercise. You want a fireman who can look where the fire is, look at the hose segments, and know at a glance how many segments he will need. It’s call spatial perception and there are tests which measure that. Use them!”

    nk (5401ee)

  438. … If I were in Michigan or Georgia, my voting strategy would be different, and I could see myself crossing that Rubicon of voting for Biden in those states…

    … it’s not that I don’t vote for Democrats, because I have. But for Biden, I just can’t bring myself to that decision, and fortunately I have the luxury of not having to.

    This all assumes that the Biden-Harris ticket is unchanged, that Trump’s VP pick is loyal and docile and a yes man to a fault, and none of the candidates run into health issues, be it physical or mental.

    Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 3/11/2024 @ 7:15 pm

    6 months ago you were stumped on what to do because none of the candidates had run into mental health issues, Paul.

    BuDuh (aae926)

  439. Nice trolling, BuDuh, but your stalking skills fell short.
    I’ve said more than once that, when Biden was in the race, the choice was between Mentally Diminished v. Mentally Deranged.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  440. Harris and Baeir were pretty good. Contentious but going on fox showed bravery. I’d like to see trump with Maddie now.

    I don’t think she convinced one person to change their vote, but that’s where we are. Undecided are a fallacy

    Colonel Klink (ret) (301152)

  441. The Biden administration has a terrible record on immigration, but Trump had a terrible record on immigration too and then there’s everything else too.

    Colonel Klink (ret) (301152)

  442. Biden was mentally impaired, and the Democrats somehow managed to get him off the ticket, which actually surprised me considering the state of Democratic party leadership. Trump is also mentally impaired, but there’s zero chance he gets pulled. In 4 years he’ll be as bad or worse than Biden is now.

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  443. So far, no counterpoints on the substance — just the usual comical ad homs from nk and lurker.

    lloyd (6d6131) — 10/16/2024 @ 12:38 pm

    My on point response to whembly wasn’t ad hominem. Do you not know what ad hominem means, or did you intentionally mischaracterize my comment?

    lurker (c23034)

  444. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 10/16/2024 @ 9:02 am

    More Georgia on my mind:

    A local judge on Wednesday delivered a sweeping ruling that rejected multiple new rules governing elections in Georgia, describing them as “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
    ………..
    In a swift, 11-page ruling, Judge Thomas A. Cox found each of the rules passed by the Georgia State Election Board to be unlawful, violating Georgia state law, the Georgia State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
    ………..
    “The S.E.B.’s authority can only extend to adopt rules and regulations to carry into effect a law already passed or otherwise administer and effectuate an existing enactment of the General Assembly,” Judge Cox wrote. “The rules at issue exceed or are in conflict with specific provisions of the Election Code. Thus, the challenged rules are unlawful and void.”
    ……….
    Regarding a rule requiring video surveillance of drop boxes after polls close, Judge Cox wrote that “the S.E.B. cannot by rule require something the General Assembly both did not legislate and specifically considered and declined to enact.”

    Regarding a rule mandating hand counting of ballot totals to compare to machines, Judge Cox wrote, “This hand counting exercise is nowhere authorized by the General Assembly in the Election Code.”

    And regarding a rule requiring that a photo ID or a signature be presented when delivering absentee ballots, Judge Cox wrote that the election board had “no authority to require such presentment as a condition of accepting and counting an otherwise properly delivered ballot.”
    ………..

    Other SEB rules that were overturned were:

    The Reasonable Inquiry Rule, which would require local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into the completeness and accuracy of election results before certifying them;

    The Examination Rule, which would allow individual county election board members to examine all documents related to an election before certifying the results;

    The Poll Watcher Rule that expands the areas where poll watchers can be positioned; and

    The Daily Reporting Rule, which adds further requirements to what is already required in daily absentee ballot reports submitted by county boards of registrars.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  445. I’m anti-anti Trump camp… in that, in my view, he’s eons better than any current crop of Democrats.

    McCarthy is not. He’s not voting for Trump. End of story.

    whembly (477db6) — 10/16/2024 @ 12:07 pm

    No, not voting for Trump is not “end of story.” Paul Montegu isn’t voting for Harris. Does that make him any less NeverTrump? Like Paul, McCarthy lives in an uncontested state (New York). Move him to Pennsylvania and I’ll be impressed if he still isn’t voting for Trump.

    lurker (c23034)

  446. The “ad hominem fallacy” fallacy (sic) is that it applies to anything other than abstract debate. Like saying that you cannot take a basketball home from the store because that’s traveling. “Dude, that’s like only when you’re playing!”

    In the real world, character matters. Prior conduct matters. Bias matters. Partisanship matters. Pedigree matters. FICO score matters. Anything that tends to make the proponent more or less credible matters.

    There are other words for what you mean when you say “ad hom”. “Invective” is a good one if you want to be fancy, but “name-calling” always hits the spot.

    nk (bf0c98)

  447. lurker (c23034) — 10/16/2024 @ 6:21 pm
    nk (bf0c98) — 10/16/2024 @ 6:41 pm

    Guys, that’s really interesting. Anyway… were you interested in addressing the substance of that article?

    lloyd (137446)

  448. I did, lloyd, in my comment 437.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-virginia-violating-federal-laws-prohibition-systematic-efforts

    The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections to challenge a systematic state program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls too close to the Nov. 5 general election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

    Section 8(c)(2) of the NVRA, also known as the Quiet Period Provision, requires states to complete systematic programs aimed at removing the names of ineligible voters from voter registration lists no later than 90 days before federal elections. The Quiet Period Provision applies to certain systematic programs carried out by states that are aimed at striking names from voter registration lists based on a perceived failure to meet initial eligibility requirements — including citizenship — at the time of registration.

    (Personal remarks omitted.)

    nk (bf0c98)

  449. @457 Then you didn’t read the article, because McCarthy addresses that directly.

    lloyd (137446)

  450. The article is behind a paywall, so why not explain how he addresses it?

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  451. @459 I don’t subscribe, haven’t paid a cent to NRO, and I can read it fine. Whatever…

    Yet, Governor Youngkin’s state-law-directed protection of election integrity is being challenged by the Biden-Harris DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, led by the radical progressive Kristen Clarke — who, when we last took note, was under investigation for suspicion of lying to Congress and manipulating a witness in connection with her controversial confirmation.

    According to the DOJ, Youngkin’s restriction of the voter rolls to qualified voters runs afoul of the National Voter Registration Act. Clarke claims that under NVRA §8(c)(2) — codified at Title 52, U.S. Code, §20507(c)(2) — Youngkin’s restriction is illegal because (a) it constitutes a “systematic” removal of ineligible voters from the rolls, and (b) such programs must stop 90 days prior to an election for federal office. There are some exceptions to the 90-day rule — e.g., if the state is removing from the rolls the dead, those who have been convicted of crimes, those who are mentally incompetent, and those who have moved away. But those exceptions do not explicitly cover illegal aliens.

    The DOJ’s objection is specious. While Youngkin has an overarching interest in preventing illegal aliens from casting votes, the state can only challenge and remove aliens from the rolls on a case-by-case basis, not systematically. Plus, as we’ve seen, state law allows challenged persons to vote as long as they attest under oath to being citizens. Ergo, the Biden-Harris DOJ cannot even pretend that it is protecting citizens from being inadvertently purged — legitimate American citizens simply need to attest that they are citizens; if the attestation is true, they needn’t fear subsequent prosecution.

    The DOJ’s complaint about allegedly illegal “programmatic” initiatives is particularly rich coming from this administration. Biden and Harris have programmatically permitted hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to enter the country and remain at liberty in violation of federal law. The administration has purported to do this under its parole authority. Under federal law, however, such authority may not be exercised programmatically, as Biden and Harris have done; parole may be extended only on a case-by-case basis, and only when doing so is demonstrably in the interest of the United States (which the mass admission of illegal aliens plainly is not).

    Furthermore, the election in three weeks is a state election as well as a federal election. The commonwealth has an abiding interest in ensuring that only qualified Virginians vote in Virginia’s elections.

    Finally, federal penal law makes it a crime for illegal aliens both to register to vote and to cast ballots. Under §1015, it is a crime, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment, for an alien to make a false statement that he is an American citizen in order to register to vote. That, in part, is why Virginia law allows a challenged person to vote if he attests that he is a U.S. citizen — a false statement is prosecutable under state and federal law, so a non-qualified person is likely to think twice before perjuring himself. Moreover, under §611, it is a crime for an alien to vote in a federal election (punishable by up to a year’s imprisonment and a stiff fine).

    Consequently, it is in the patent interest of the United States for Youngkin to press ahead with an initiative that vindicates Congress’s election-integrity laws as well as Virginia’s.

    There is only one rational explanation for this ill-conceived exercise of prosecutorial discretion against the United States citizens of Virginia and on behalf of illegal aliens: The Biden-Harris administration is trying to influence the outcome of the election by enabling illegal aliens to vote. The expectation that illegal aliens will vote for Democrats and transform closely divided states into Democratic strongholds also helps explain why Biden and Harris dismantled American border security.

    As is said, read the whole thing.

    lloyd (137446)

  452. Dishonest artisan claptrap. That’s why I said what I said initially.

    nk (bf0c98)

  453. *partisan*

    nk (bf0c98)

  454. The prospect of North Korea entering the iron sights shooting end of the ongoing Ukraine chemistry project is interesting. I can see the US being very reluctant to allow Ukraine to use US weapons on the North Koreans
    My guess is the US will work with the UK or Scandinavians reach out long range and use their weapons to hit the North Koreans before they reach the front. They should be easy to find.
    I am in favor of giving NK an entirely negative wartime experience. Jake Sullivan will be worried sick that Li’l Rocket teletubby will respond to any butt kicking by attacking US troops in S. Korea.

    steveg (04876c)

  455. @461 So that’s your legal argument, nk? Figures.

    lloyd (137446)

  456. I think “artisan claptrap” worked just fine. Upgrade to “artisan jibberjabber” and you’ve really put lipstick on the dummy

    steveg (04876c)

  457. His argument is nonsense. The only part that could theoretically carry weight is “the state can only challenge and remove aliens from the rolls on a case-by-case basis, not systematically”. But “systematically” and “case-by-case” are not antonyms. In fact the provided exceptions (criminals, dead people, incompetence) would be applied on a case-by-case basis.

    With that argument removed, the rest is irrelevant. The law says there’s a 90 day cutoff, period.

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  458. Davethulhu (05d4c3) — 10/16/2024 @ 8:27 pm

    Such deep concern for the Rule of Law doesn’t seem to extend to the law that says millions are here illegally. Period. Your interest in allowing illegal aliens to vote is clear, your contorted objections notwithstanding. We’ll see how the courts rule.

    And for pasting in that wall of text, you’re welcome.

    lloyd (137446)

  459. “Such deep concern for the Rule of Law doesn’t seem to extend to the law that says millions are here illegally. Period. Your interest in allowing illegal aliens to vote is clear, your contorted objections notwithstanding. We’ll see how the courts rule.”

    How many legal voters would you disenfranchise to stop a single illegal vote? In your (and McCarthy’s) case, the answer appears to be “unlimited” as long as it’s more Democrats that Republicans.

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  460. *than Republicans

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  461. @468 “How many legal voters would you disenfranchise to stop a single illegal vote?”

    The answer is zero.

    I guess you skipped this part:

    “Plus, as we’ve seen, state law allows challenged persons to vote as long as they attest under oath to being citizens. Ergo, the Biden-Harris DOJ cannot even pretend that it is protecting citizens from being inadvertently purged — legitimate American citizens simply need to attest that they are citizens; if the attestation is true, they needn’t fear subsequent prosecution.”

    lloyd (137446)

  462. “The answer is zero.”

    Messing with the voter rolls this close to the election will result in a non-zero number of legal voters being removed without notice.

    ““Plus, as we’ve seen, state law allows challenged persons to vote as long as they attest under oath to being citizens. Ergo, the Biden-Harris DOJ cannot even pretend that it is protecting citizens from being inadvertently purged — legitimate American citizens simply need to attest that they are citizens; if the attestation is true, they needn’t fear subsequent prosecution.””

    I didn’t skip it, I said it was irrelevant.

    Davethulhu (05d4c3)

  463. @471 “Messing with the voter rolls this close to the election will result in a non-zero number of legal voters being removed without notice.”

    That isn’t what you’re worried about.

    lloyd (137446)

  464. Fox stooge refuses to bring up abortion issue in interview. The floriduh fascist government threatens stations who run pro abortion initiative ads demanding they be pulled off the air. Biden administration allows their civil rights to be violated.

    asset (fd8f37)

  465. Kamala was an absolute disaster on Baier. She rambled, disembled, was incoherent and didn’t answer the questions, especially as it pertains to immigration.

    Anyone who things she did a fair job is obviously trying to gaslight the public.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  466. Lloyd,

    Thulu is a pro-antifa, partisan leftist.

    Just thought you should be aware.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  467. @431

    LOL! You’re right, this is nonsensical.

    Oh Rip! Lighten up…. That scenario is entertaining!

    Chris (3d25b0)

  468. Good question by Darth Putin

    Have my anti imperialists noticed that North Korea directly joining the war is not considered an escalation?

    It is odd, how Putin’s escalations are not condemned, while Putin’s friends lie that responding in self-defense to the invader’s escalation is somehow an escalation. Meantime, Biden is still tying Ukraine’s hands, prohibiting them from hitting legitimate military targets deeper into Russia.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  469. More bad news for the Hamas terrorists. Sinwar is eliminated.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  470. This is yet another reason why Trump is wholly unfit for president, his brazen lie that Zelenskyy is somehow responsible for Putin’s invasion. The lengths this motherf–king senescent manchild will go to defend Putin.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  471. I wasn’t expecting Jordan Peterson to be a paid stooge by Russia Today, but he did spend his rehab in Russia, but no surprise about Tucker. This came from under-oath testimony by PM Trudeau.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  472. Hi Paul

    In 478 you spoke to the NK and escalation.

    I hate Washington spin.

    Sending the weapons we promised: Escalation

    North Koreans possibly on Ukrainian sovereign territory? Not escalation

    People are making a big deal out of the difficulties Russia will have in coordinating the NK with Russian troops given the language and cultural barriers, but they forget that the Russians were fairly successful using the Cubans as mercenaries in Africa.

    I’m guessing that the NK’s will be used as manual labor. Loading and unloading shipments of munitions. Out of curiosity, I’d like to see how they do on the ground in a fighting role

    steveg (04876c)

  473. I can’t remember where I read this, steve, but the motivation for Kim was to bring back some battle-tested NK soldiers from Russia.

    Paul Montagu (a28670)

  474. the Russians were fairly successful using the Cubans as mercenaries in Africa.

    steveg (04876c) — 10/17/2024 @ 5:37 pm

    Spanish is easier to learn, and has a much wider application, than Korean.

    norcal (96628a)

  475. We had 320,000 ROK (South Korea) soldiers in Vietnam. Combatant and noncombatant.

    nk (6fbee9)

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