Patterico's Pontifications

1/17/2025

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:42 am



[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Breaking:

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a controversial ban on TikTok may take effect this weekend, rejecting an appeal from the popular app’s owners that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.

Opinion here.

Ah:

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to accept an invitation from President-elect Donald Trump to attend his inauguration.

Chew will be seated front and center on the dais with other VIP guests and fellow tech executives Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.

. . .

Trump is now considering an executive order to suspend enforcement of the law requiring TikTok to divest from Chinese-owned ByteDance or face a ban in the U.S. for 60 to 90 days, according to the Washington Post, to buy time to negotiate a sale or some other solution.

Trump’s defense of TikTok marks a reversal from his position in 2020, when he tried to block the video-sharing app in the U.S. and force its sale to a U.S. company.

Second news item

New federal agency forming, if met with Congressional approval:

President-elect Donald Trump. . .announced plans to create a new agency called the External Revenue Service to collect tariffs and other revenues from foreign nations.

“We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying,” Trump said Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social. He compared his planned creation to the Internal Revenue Service, which is the nation’s domestic tax collector.

Third news item

What Trump intends to do on Day One:

Close the US-Mexico border

Begin what Trump says will be “the largest deportation program in American history”

Reinstate a travel ban that restricts — to varying degrees — entry from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela; expand the ban to include refugees from Gaza

Sign an executive order declaring that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants do not automatically gain US citizenship

Expedite permits for drilling and fracking

Roll back environmental regulations

Undo President Joe Biden’s action to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, though this would require congressional action

Pardon people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol

Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

Roll back President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies

Enact tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico, Canada and China

Create an “External Revenue Service” to collect funds from Trump’s promised tariffs and all revenue from “foreign sources”

Fourth news item

U.K. partnership with Ukraine:

British peacekeepers could be sent to Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky suggested, as Sir Keir Starmer pledged “more military support than ever” for the war-torn country.

The Ukrainian president confirmed the pair had held discussions over a French proposal which could see Nato troops used to monitor a post-war ceasefire after a meeting in Kyiv on Thursday.

But Mr Zelensky told a news conference that it was “a bit too early to talk about details” of the plan.

It came as Sir Keir arrived in Kyiv on a surprise visit to unveil a new 100-year partnership to boost Ukraine’s maritime security and economic recovery.

Fifth news item

Russia continues to clamp down on dissent:

Three lawyers who once represented the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were convicted by a court Friday as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent that has reached levels unseen since Soviet times.

Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser were already in custody and were given sentences from 3 1/2 to five years by a court in the town of Petushki, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Moscow. They were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with extremist groups, as Navalny’s networks were deemed by authorities.

The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition to discourage defense lawyers from taking political cases.

Sixth news item

Final vote comes later today:

The Israeli security cabinet on Friday approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal announced in Qatar on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The 11 voting members of the security cabinet approved the deal with a simple majority vote.

The full, 33-member Israeli cabinet still needs to approve the agreement.

Have a good weekend.

—Dana

245 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (dedf09)

  2. Under what authority does Trump have to suspend the enforcement of Tok’s bannings??

    Is it the same one that Biden used to forgive student loans or the rent moratorium?

    whembly (477db6)

  3. Third news item

    What Trump intends to do on Day One:

    Close the US-Mexico border

    Yes. Economic consequences be damned. The closure should only be done until the border is adequately under control and then reopened in a measured fashion. (can’t see it taking longer than a few weeks if not a months).

    Begin what Trump says will be “the largest deportation program in American history”

    Do it.

    Reinstate a travel ban that restricts — to varying degrees — entry from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela; expand the ban to include refugees from Gaza

    Do it.

    Sign an executive order declaring that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants do not automatically gain US citizenship

    Will be challenged in courts and need to navigate to SCOTUS for them to make the ultimate ruling. Will probably take the entirety of Trump’s administration. I would anticipate SCOTUS would rule against, and clarify that Congress must pass legislation to make that determination. Which, is a good thing as it squarely places the ball in Congress’ court to make it a political issue (which Congress really doesn’t want).

    Expedite permits for drilling and fracking

    Do it.

    Roll back environmental regulations

    Hell yeah.

    Undo President Joe Biden’s action to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, though this would require congressional action

    I don’t think so. Under Unitary theory of article 2 of the constitution, previous administration’s action cannot bind the subsequent administration.

    Congress cannot pass a law that says particular administration EO on a particular law is binding to future administration (in sense, Congress cannot delegate law making in a way that binds future presidents. Congress must pass a NEW law to actually do so.). All EOs are open to reversal from future administration.

    Pardon people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol

    Yes. With apology and compensation.

    Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

    Do it.

    Roll back President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies

    Do it.

    Enact tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico, Canada and China

    So long as it’s targetted and resets the table… do it.

    Create an “External Revenue Service” to collect funds from Trump’s promised tariffs and all revenue from “foreign sources”

    That’s likely will be challenged as unconstitutional and I think that’s right.

    whembly (477db6)

  4. 3. A+ (except that anyone that committed actual violence or theft on 1-6 is maybe outside the pardon zone)

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c5cc8)

  5. @2

    Under what authority does Trump have to suspend the enforcement of Tok’s bannings??

    Is it the same one that Biden used to forgive student loans or the rent moratorium?

    whembly (477db6) — 1/17/2025 @ 7:49 am

    So… president Trump *can* give a one time 90 days extension:

    The Act permits the President
    to grant a one-time extension of no more than 90 days with
    respect to the prohibitions’ 270-day effective date if the
    President makes certain certifications to Congress regarding progress toward a qualified divestiture. §2(a)(3).

    whembly (477db6)

  6. @4

    3. A+ (except that anyone that committed actual violence or theft on 1-6 is maybe outside the pardon zone)

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c5cc8) — 1/17/2025 @ 8:03 am

    Under normal circumstances, I’d agree. Under normal circumstances, the J6er would only be applied to those who “committed actual violence or theft”.

    But, that’s not what happened. It became politically charged and certain segments of government officials went absolutely overboard and the prosecution/conviction became political, instead of seeking “justice”.

    So, how do we signal to these government prosecutors and judges that their overzealous prosecutions are unacceptable? They can’t be sued.

    The only thing that CAN be done, is to issue a broad pardon, thereby making it so that those overzealous Judges and Prosecutors essentially wasted their time on this.

    So that the NEXT time something as political charged happens again, these same prosecutors and judges learns the lesson of the Pardoned J6er™, and only pursue cases with strict good-faith investigation/prosecution/conviction absent of any political taints.

    whembly (477db6)

  7. I don’t object to most of Trump’s Day One stuff, except for his inflationary tariffs and his violating the 14th Amendment.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  8. And congrats to Dana for another release of the White Album. 🙂

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  9. Thanks, Paul. Fixed. Good thing I don’t get paid for this gig, considering dumb mistakes like forgetting a title, now occurring on a semi-regular basis.🙄

    Dana (6d512b)

  10. his violating the 14th Amendment.

    I applaud his effort on birthright citizenship for a reason you may not expect. This will force the Supreme Court to give a single coherent opinion on the matter. IMO, their previous rulings were of narrow scope and it has led to the confusion, both honest and otherwise, as to whether or not the Founding Fathers and the drafters of The Fourteenth Amendment really meant to give away citizenship without allegiance.

    I look forward to the court battle.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  11. So… president Trump *can* give a one time 90 days extension:

    The Act permits the President to grant a one-time extension of no more than 90 days with respect to the prohibitions’ 270-day effective date if the President makes certain certifications to Congress regarding progress toward a qualified divestiture. §2(a)(3).

    whembly (477db6) — 1/17/2025 @ 8:03 am

    Since Trump can only grant an extension if there is progress toward a sale, any other attempt to do so would be legally questionable if not unconstitutional:

    Trump has been mulling ways to save the day for the wildly popular video app, talking through unconventional dealmaking and legal maneuvers such as an executive order that would unravel the law passed by Congress last year with bipartisan support, according to two people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.
    ………..
    But the strategy of using an executive order — the kind of presidential decree that Trump dashed off in rapid fashion at the start of his first presidential term — has fueled doubts among some legal observers, who argue the president’s word can’t entirely overcome a law that Congress approved with overwhelming bipartisan support.

    Executive orders “are not magical documents. They’re just press releases with nicer stationery,” said Alan Rozenshtein, a former national security adviser to the Justice Department now at the University of Minnesota. “TikTok will still be banned, and it will still be illegal for Apple and Google to do business with them. But it will make the president’s intention not to enforce the law that much more official.”
    ……….
    But one of the people familiar with the discussions said such a sale is extremely unlikely, given the political risks and the stratospheric price tag, which analysts estimate at around $50 billion. Some have also questioned whether TikTok remains as attractive of an asset as it did four years ago, given the flurry of short-video copycats from companies like Instagram and YouTube, and the fact that the few buyers and investors who could afford the costs may also face antitrust scrutiny or legal risks.
    ………..
    After Trump pushed to force TikTok’s sale in 2020, China added TikTok’s core recommendation algorithm to its export-control list, effectively blocking any sale of the app’s technical backbone. …….

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  12. Just as Trump can’t issue an executive order to undo a law approved by Congress and signed by the President, he can’t issue an executive order to overturn a Supreme Court decision.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  13. Sad!

    President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is expected to be moved indoors Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures projected in the nation’s capital, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the plans told CNN.

    Plans are underway to have Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance sworn into office inside the US Capitol Rotunda, the sources said. Discussions regarding where to hold the inaugural parade and other celebrations are still underway. However, Trump’s team has been in talks to potentially hold some of the festivities at the Capital One arena, where Trump will host a rally on Sunday.
    ………..
    The last president to be sworn in indoors was Ronald Reagan in 1985, when daytime temperatures dipped to 7 degrees with a windchill of -25. Reagan took the oath of office inside the Capitol rotunda. His inaugural parade was canceled.
    ###########

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  14. The temperature on Monday is expected to be in the low-20s, which is around 20 degrees below normal.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  15. What Trump intends to do on Day One:

    Close the US-Mexico border

    So, all those frat boys who spent the weekend in TJ are stuck there?

    Begin what Trump says will be “the largest deportation program in American history”

    The Devil is in the details, but yeah.

    Reinstate a travel ban that restricts — to varying degrees — entry from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Venezuela; expand the ban to include refugees from Gaza

    Why? The only ones you really want to keep out have diplomatic passports.

    Sign an executive order declaring that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants do not automatically gain US citizenship

    Seems unconstitutional.

    Expedite permits for drilling and fracking

    Drill baby drill.

    Roll back environmental regulations

    Which ones? I’m more concerned with environmental laws that are constantly weaponized due to broad standing grants.

    Undo President Joe Biden’s action to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, though this would require congressional action

    Yeah, OK. But I bet that Florida remains off-limits.

    Pardon people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol

    THis is the acid test, and it will likely be influenced by any blanket pardons Biden gives his bagmen aides.

    Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

    In theory, great. In practice? Can they talk about climate change or history?


    Roll back President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policies

    The People are mostly doing this themselves.

    Enact tariffs on goods coming in from Mexico, Canada and China

    How about putting them all on China?

    Create an “External Revenue Service” to collect funds from Trump’s promised tariffs and all revenue from “foreign sources”

    Well, tariffs themselves are paid by the importer*, so this is normally done by Customs. Why do we need a separate agency?

    ——

    * yes, I know they function as a sin tax on the end user, but they are PAID by the importer.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  16. Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

    You would need a Department of Education to enforce this. Better is to cut all federal funding of education and close the department.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  17. Just as Trump can’t issue an executive order to undo a law approved by Congress and signed by the President

    I would agree with this had not Biden, Obama and other presidents ignored Immigration Law. What is DACA, for example?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  18. I would hope that, in all of this, the Supremes put a clear boundary on the scope of executive orders before we get to the ruling-by-decree we see in California.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  19. As for Ukraine, I’d like to see NATO troops in Donbas. Or Kursk.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  20. > > Roll back environmental regulations

    > Hell yeah.

    Who needs clean air and water when there’s profit to be made? If people want clean air and water, they can pay for air and water purifiers themselves.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  21. > So, all those frat boys who spent the weekend in TJ are stuck there?

    I’ve been curious about this, too.

    I’m pretty sure it only applies to the *land* border, and that air and sea travel will still be allowed.

    I’m also pretty sure it’s a naming myth because i’m certain there are exceptions for, say, the shipment of *physical goods* (like the parts made in factories in border towns and shippde back to the US for use).

    So i wonder if this is more “close the US border for foreign nationals” or something.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  22. Trump’s inauguration has been moved indoors, due to near-zero temperatures. I’m sure the Secret Service is relieved.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  23. @20 Oh man, not only is it the End of the Republic, but the end of clean air and water.

    lloyd (11d69b)

  24. 10, BuhDuh: yes its about time this was decided by someone out in the open. Birth tourism and racing across the border to confer citizenship on a kid is not what anyone had in mind.

    Its all very touching in movies, but very expensive as as you say, and undermines the entire idea of citizenship. There is no allegiance there, just convenience. It needs to stop.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e)

  25. Sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for any school “pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto the lives of our children.”

    You would need a Department of Education to enforce this. Better is to cut all federal funding of education and close the department.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 9:33 am

    For which you would need Congressional approval; and would likely face a Democrat filibuster.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  26. Sign an executive order declaring that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants do not automatically gain US citizenship

    This is as bad as Joe Biden declaring he Equal Rights Amendment part of the U.S. constitution. He’d been urged to do this.

    https://www.newser.com/story/362685/equal-rights-amendment-is-law-of-the-land-biden-says.html

    With a little more than 72 hours remaining in his presidency on Friday, President Biden made a big move on the Equal Rights Amendment. “It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people,” he said in a statement. “In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.” White House officials, however, acknowledged that the statement doesn’t have the force of law, Politico reports.

    He didn’t order the National Archives to acknowledge it?

    To formally become part of the Constitution, the ERA would have to be certified and published by National Archivist Colleen Shogan, NPR reports. Shogan, a Biden appointee, has argued that Congress will have to lift the expiry date. The White House says Shogan won’t be ordered to add the amendment, which will leave it in limbo for now. CNN notes that Biden’s opinion is likely to meet “swift legal challenges”—and, like many of his other last-minute actions, it could easily be reversed when President-elect Trump takes office on Monday….

    Then what’s the point? I think he wants to be honored by the “progressives.”

    He did not, however, explain why he had waited until three days before leaving office to make the move. The New York Times describes it as a late effort from Biden “to bring about profound change and shape his own legacy, but without taking actual action.” Former Sen. Russ Feingold, however, tells the Times that it is “completely historic to have the president of the United States say it’s already in the Constitution,” adding, “I believe and many believe that whether or not the archivist certifies it or not doesn’t matter.”

    What the president says also doesn’t matter. It’ll encourage someone to raise the issue in court, that’s all, and federal courts will rule.

    What’s the issue?

    The amendment essentially consists of one sentence: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” It was sent to the states by Congress in 1972, the year before Biden became a senator. In 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it, meaning the threshold of three-quarters of the states had been reached. The deadline for ratification was 1982, but a White House official says Biden agrees with an American Bar Association opinion that “stresses that no time limit was included in the text of the Equal Rights Amendment,” CNN reports.

    Actually the original deadline was seven years which means 1979, but Congress voted to extend it. At the time when the amendment was sent to the states it was argued that it was not necessary to insert the seven year ratification deadline, as had been done with several other amendments in the Twentieth century, in the text of the amendment itself. I wonder if this was not e first time this was done.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  27. As for Ukraine, I’d like to see NATO troops in Donbas. Or Kursk.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 9:43 am

    LOL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  28. Close the US-Mexico border

    That would block over $800B in trade with Mexico. Very expensive.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  29. As for Ukraine, I’d like to see NATO troops in Donbas. Or Kursk.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 9:43 am

    More fantasies.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  30. The only ones you really want to keep out have diplomatic passports.

    Maybe also some clergy, and work visas – maybe student visas – at academic institutions. But there already is a large watch list or blacklist.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  31. Biden can’t leave the White House faster.

    We are not enforcing the Tik-Tok ban that *we signed into law* but we are unilaterally declaring the Equal Rights Amendment ratified is an odd final play for the Biden administration.

    It’s not odd at all, considering Biden’s mental fugue.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  32. “Closing the border” no doubt has some informal technical meaning among its proponents which the media never attempt to explain what it means (if they can find out themselves.)

    Ontario has threatened to cut off hydroelectric power to New York State but it probably won’t happen.

    Why would Trump want to start a fight with a departing Justin Trudeau? He’s got somebody friendlier to him probably coming in later this year.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  33. 31. No, the final play has to be more pardons.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  34. Maybe also some clergy, and work visas – maybe student visas – at academic institutions. But there already is a large watch list or blacklist.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 1/17/2025 @ 11:07 am

    What is the justification to admit clergy and grant academic/student visas to residents of Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, or Gaza (I would also add China)?

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  35. Marco solo: Trump could end Day 1 with a one-man Cabinet

    President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees are so far sailing through their Senate confirmation hearings. But only one appears likely to sail on to a swift vote on Trump’s first day in office.

    That would be Marco Rubio, the Florida senator and secretary of State nominee, who is the only Trump pick being widely discussed as a Day One possibility.
    ……….
    ……….Under Senate rules and the current calendar, all 100 senators will have to agree to accelerate any final confirmation vote to Monday. And those discussions, multiple senators said Thursday, continue.

    The holdups are due to a combination of procedural, political and paperwork problems. Several nominees have seen their hearings postponed due to missing background checks. Some committees have delayed necessary panel votes due to internal rules. And Democrats aren’t likely to yield debate time on Trump’s most controversial nominees.
    ………..
    A confluence of factors is pushing Rubio to the front of the pack. Chief among them is that Rubio is one of the Senate’s own and a critical mass of Democrats have already signaled they’ll back him.
    ………..
    Each of those nominees has to undergo a committee vote before becoming eligible for floor action. Some panels have notice requirements that could push those votes into late next week. And once nominations are on the floor, opponents could stretch the debate process over as many as four days.
    …………..
    Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi likely won’t see confirmation until the week after next under a timeline described Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley. ……..

    Another Trump nominee who is expected to garner some Democratic support, UN ambassador pick Elise Stefanik, won’t have a hearing until Tuesday. And some of Trump’s most controversial nominees — including FBI director pick Kash Patel, HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, his choice for director of national intelligence — haven’t had hearings scheduled yet.
    ………….

    At least Rubio will have the company of Trump’s special envoys.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  36. CNN pretty much had to lose their defamation case, because malice was easy to prove, by Alex Marquardt himself, when he said stuff like “we gonna nail this Zachary Young mf*****” and has a “punchable face”.
    CNN should’ve settled, like Foxnews did with Dominion.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  37. @20

    > > Roll back environmental regulations

    > Hell yeah.

    Who needs clean air and water when there’s profit to be made? If people want clean air and water, they can pay for air and water purifiers themselves.

    aphrael (dbf41f) — 1/17/2025 @ 9:58 am

    We can still have clean air and water without the onerous regulations foisted by Democrats.

    whembly (477db6)

  38. “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

    As we have seen, the courts have basically read this into the 14th Amendment in it’s most expansive version (e.g. Same-sex marriage or transsexual rights). God only knows what mischief they would get up to if the actual words were really there.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  39. Biden can’t leave the White House faster.

    Good news: Biden is leaving
    Bad news: Nikki Haley is not being sworn in (along with the rest of Trump’s enemies list).

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  40. Ontario has threatened to cut off hydroelectric power to New York State but it probably won’t happen.

    Ontario’s PM Doug Ford’s late brother Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, was even more disreputable than Trump, including multiple incidences of public intoxication and a viral video of him smoking crack. I guess that Doug sees problems with Trump that he never saw with Rob.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  41. We can still have clean air and water without the onerous regulations foisted by Democrats.

    Or laws that allow anyone to block anything by asserting it *might* affect something in the environment. The NIMBY’s Toolchest.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  42. Giuliani settled his defamation case and will not lose his homes or possessions and get what he turned over already back.

    It’s not clear how.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  43. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/17/2025 @ 11:14 am

    What is the justification to admit clergy and grant academic/student visas to residents of Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, or Gaza (I would also add China)?

    The law and having some people there who remember the U.S. fondly and might help someday. Sending their children to the United States makes for advocates for good relations and people who don’t want sanctions put on themselves – that’s why Putin told people close to him not to buy real estate in the US and Xi is cutting back on Chinese study in English.

    Trump’s reason for excluding people from some countries is the argument that it is impossible to vet them. But basically they might not be trying.

    North Korea doesn’t send students to the U>S. not even from the de facto royal family.

    Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09)

  44. I would hope that, in all of this, the Supremes put a clear boundary on the scope of executive orders before we get to the ruling-by-decree we see in California.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 9:42 am

    You mean the same “rule by decree” authority granted to Florida’s governor, for example, during a declared state of emergency?

    ……..the Governor may issue executive orders, proclamations, and rules and may amend or rescind them. Such executive orders, proclamations, and rules shall have the force and effect of law. An executive order, a proclamation, or a rule must be limited to a duration of not more than 60 days and may be renewed as necessary during the duration of the emergency. If renewed, the order, proclamation, or rule must specifically state which provisions are being renewed.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  45. Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 1/17/2025 @ 12:25 pm

    “Students” and “academics” from Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, or Gaza (and China) would either be spies or terrorists.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  46. Good news: Biden is leaving

    Bad news: Nikki Haley is not being sworn in……..

    Still beating that dead horse.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  47. Assuming the ERA thing holds, which I doubt it will, the big technical legal change is that currently discrimination based on race is evaluated using strict scrutiny (“narrowly tailored to meet a compelling government interest”) while discrimination based on gender is evaluated using intermediate scrutiny (“furthers an important government interest by means that are substantially related to that interest”).

    the shift from one standard to the other will be a significant change.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  48. Bill Gates says he was “impressed” by a sit-down with Donald Trump

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  49. the shift from one standard to the other will be a significant change.

    I’m not sure it will be a good one, considering how the current regime is so badly tortured to obtain desired results.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  50. The ERA is dead, dead, dead.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  51. Bill Gates says he was “impressed” by a sit-down with Donald Trump

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 12:57 pm

    RFKJr. will straighten Trump out.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  52. You mean the same “rule by decree” authority granted to Florida’s governor, for example, during a declared state of emergency?

    Said by a state court about a governor acting under that state’s constitution, in an actual emergency. Not applicable in the least to the federal executive under normal conditions. What dots do you connect to get from COVID-in-Florida to DACA?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  53. @48

    Assuming the ERA thing holds.
    aphrael (dbf41f) — 1/17/2025 @ 12:41 pm

    It’s not holding even now. POTUS serves no role in ratification.

    whembly (477db6)

  54. You mean the same “rule by decree” authority granted to Florida’s governor, for example, during a declared state of emergency?

    Said by a state court about a governor acting under that state’s constitution, in an actual emergency. Not applicable in the least to the federal executive under normal conditions. What dots do you connect to get from COVID-in-Florida to DACA?

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 1:01 pm

    As you saw in my post, I directly quoted your “rule by decree” reference to California.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  55. I’ve become used to Trump sucking up to an evil terrorist like Putin, regrettably, but this is cringe.

    The vice president of China is attending the inauguration, TikTok’s CEO is on the dais, Trump’s doing everything he can to keep TikTok operating in America, the proposed tariffs on Chinese exports have been reduced from 60 percent to 10 percent, and Trump’s back to his reflexive gushing that Xi Jinping is “a strong man, powerful man,” “certainly revered in China.”

    The TikTok CEO also made a pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring and arse, and this still lingers: the likely Ground Zero for the spread of a virus that killed 1.2 million Americans was a ChiCom lab in Wuhan, and ChiComs have been held to account.
    The orange con man is selling us out.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  56. Vivek Ramaswamy plans to announce Ohio gubernatorial run
    ………..
    “Vivek’s base plan remains [the] same: to get accomplishments at DOGE and then announce a run for governor shortly,” said an Ohio operative familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the former presidential candidate’s intentions.

    A person inside Ramaswamy’s political apparatus who spoke to Ramaswamy this week said that Ramaswamy said he plans to run to replace Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), who is term limited. “The statement is drafted. It is ready,” the person said Ramaswamy told them. ………

    Trump has said DOGE’s work must be completed by “no later” than July 4, 2026 — before the Ohio gubernatorial election in November 2026.

    DeWine on Friday named Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill Vance’s Senate seat after Vance’s resignation from the Senate last week. ………
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  57. Er, …no ChiComs have been held to account.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  58. The orange con man is selling us out.

    Paul Montagu (a96200) — 1/17/2025 @ 1:59 pm

    Is?

    I watched Fifth Avenue’s 2017 inauguration in the waiting room of a Sears Auto where I had brought my car for an oil change. I was wearing a Work King quilted liner that I had bought at K-Mart for $30.00, under a London Fog parka that I had bought at Carson Pirie Scott.

    By the time of Biden’s 2021 inauguration there was no Sears, no K-Mart, no Carson Pirie Scott, and Amazon is now selling Work Kings for $70.00.

    Anyway.

    nk (fdbbb3)

  59. Implicitly blaming Biden for the death of Sears and K-Mart isn’t great. Both of them died due to their own *massive* mistalkes, and Sears in particular appears to have deliberately committed suicide.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  60. > It’s not holding even now. POTUS serves no role in ratification.

    Oh, sure. I was trying to point out the potential elgal impact,not commenting on whether whatever’s going on now is valid or working. I’m minimizing my interaction with the news as it’s the only way to keep my mental peace and not come out of the next four years a boiling ball of rage.

    The value I bring to my community arises from who I am and how I behave and interact when I can hold my inner peace and radiate joy and excitement and love, and I can’t do that unless I basically stop paying attention to the news at all.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  61. Implicitly blaming Biden for the death of Sears and K-Mart isn’t great.

    aphrael (dbf41f) — 1/17/2025 @ 2:54 pm

    I don’t think nk was doing that. He pointed out that these things happened during Trump’s term.

    norcal (a72384)

  62. As you saw in my post, I directly quoted your “rule by decree” reference to California.

    Out of context.

    Rip: Just as Trump can’t issue an executive order to undo a law approved by Congress and signed by the President

    Me: I would agree with this had not Biden, Obama and other presidents ignored Immigration Law. What is DACA, for example?

    Also me: I would hope that, in all of this, the Supremes put a clear boundary on the scope of executive orders before we get to the ruling-by-decree we see in California.

    Rip: You mean the same “rule by decree” authority granted to Florida’s governor, for example, during a declared state of emergency?

    Me: Said by a state court about a governor acting under that state’s constitution, in an actual emergency. Not applicable in the least to the federal executive under normal conditions. What dots do you connect to get from COVID-in-Florida to DACA?

    I’d say “intellectually dishonest” but maybe it’s just a lack of reading comprehension.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  63. Implicitly blaming Biden for the death of Sears and K-Mart isn’t great.

    Who did that? Blamed Biden? Both Sears and Carson Pirie Scott closed in 2018. KMart still has a token presence in New York and Miami but it announced the closing of 45 stores in February 2019 and closed them in February 2020.

    nk (0e2d7a)

  64. It’s not holding even now. POTUS serves no role in ratification.

    Bottom story of the day.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  65. Thanks, norcal!

    nk (0e2d7a)

  66. But the real question is this: Biden has until Monday noon to make an utter ass out of himself. What will he choose to do?

    Issue EOs to ban fracking?
    Lift all tariffs on China so Democrats can accuse Trump of imposing them again?
    Issue blanket pardons to every employee in the Executive branch who served in the last 4 years?
    Start a war with Russia?
    Lift all sanctions on Iran?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  67. Implicitly blaming Biden for the death of Sears and K-Mart isn’t great.

    Biden was sworn in as a Senator in 1973. White Front went out of business 1973-75. The pattern was set!

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  68. > Who did that? Blamed Biden?

    Oh, sorry, I misread the dates.

    It’s also wierd to me to implicitly blame Trump, here. Sears and K-Mart destroyed themselves through really bad decision making.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

  69. Vice President Kamala Harris

    @VP

    Follow

    The Equal Rights Amendment is the 28th Amendment, and it is the law of the land.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  70. Jonah on Biden’s five years late discovery that the ERA is the law of the land…

    Say what you will about Biden, the man can keep a secret. In his statement, Biden says that it became the 28th Amendment almost exactly five years ago when the Commonwealth of Virginia ratified it on January 27, 2020.

    From that time until now, Biden has said pretty much nothing about this belief. That’s kind of a weird conviction to keep under your hat all this time.

    That is, unless, like almost everybody else, he didn’t think Virginia’s ratification of the ERA was anything other than symbolic until recently. Heck, the New York Times story on Virginia’s symbolic ratification of the ERA uses the word symbolic in the subhead and the first sentence. If the Times thought there was a shot at the ratification being something other than symbolic at the time, it would have flooded the zone with “let’s make this happen” coverage. Again, if they thought this was possible, the newspaper might even have asked Joe Biden what he thought about it, given that he was running for president at the time.

    Among the reasons nobody but a handful of activists even bothered claiming that Virginia’s ratification of the amendment was anything other than symbolic is that the deadline for the amendment’s ratification expired nearly two decades earlier. Again, don’t take my word for it. Here’s the NPR headline at the time, “Virginia Ratifies The Equal Rights Amendment, Decades After The Deadline.”

    Now, it’s true there are lawyers, including at the American Bar Association, who argue that there was no deadline for the amendment approved by Congress in 1972 because the seven-year time-limit for ratification was only in the amendment’s preamble not the actual text. But it was put there expressly to keep the text clean if ratified. The Justice Department, including under Joe Biden, has long held that the deadline is binding.

    You know who else thought that the window closed on the Equal Rights Amendment? Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course she wasn’t a Supreme Court Justice then, she was just one of the country’s most famous feminist lawyers and law professors. But then in 2020, as a Supreme Court justice, she explained—again—that the deadline had passed for the ERA. Sorry, she said that the allegedly extended deadline had passed, in 1982. Among the reasons she thought it was a dead letter: Several states had withdrawn their ratification.

    Noon on Monday can’t come too soon.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  71. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/01/cnn-takes-a-hit.php

    CNN pays millions for defaming a Navy veteran. After losing the case and being on the hook for 5 million plus punitive damages, they settled before the jury could decide just how many millions more they’d owe.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  72. Rip: Just as Trump can’t issue an executive order to undo a law approved by Congress and signed by the President

    Me: I would agree with this had not Biden, Obama and other presidents ignored Immigration Law. What is DACA, for example?

    As I said before, federal immigration law allows the President a lot of discretion as to who can be admitted to the US; such as those granted temporary protected status (citizens of Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Afghans, etc. Citizens from 17 countries have TPS.) DACA was grant of TPS for those who had resided here since they were 16. Congress has the power to cancel DACA and TPS in general if they wished to, but has been perfectly clear that only Congressional action on immigration is inaction.

    Your original comment conflated the two-presidential executive orders, which are inherent in the position; and what Gov. Newsom has done, which is not willy-nilly “ruling by decree” but consistent with California law. I just pointed out that Florida (and most other states to varying degrees) have similar laws. It’s not just California.

    Courts have reviewed presidential executive orders throughout our history and have overturned many, so they are not ignoring the issue.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  73. Classic moment, Bob Uecker on Johnny Carson. Just a naturally funny guy.
    Down in the thread is the great Norm MacDonald telling a story about Uecker on Letterman.
    Great stuff.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  74. Courts have reviewed presidential executive orders throughout our history and have overturned many, so they are not ignoring the issue.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 1/17/2025 @ 5:42 pm

    All of Biden’s attempts to forgive student loan debt were executive orders that were overturned by the courts.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  75. Noon on Monday can’t come too soon.

    Paul Montagu (a96200) — 1/17/2025 @ 5:20 pm

    Cheers, Paul.

    BuDuh (5d8cc7)

  76. What is DACA, for example?

    Unconstitutional, but apparently only in Texas:

    ………….
    In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the policy was unlawful but said that a federal judge in Texas had erred in concluding that the entire program should be halted nationwide. The court instead narrowed the injunction against part of the program so it would only apply to Texas.
    …………..
    The appeals court kept in place a pause on a lower-court ruling that barred the government nationwide from accepting new applications to the program, meaning that for now, DACA remains largely intact.

    “Because (Department of Homeland Security) intended the aspects of DACA to be severable and to function independently from one another, the district court erred by not severing the forbearance provisions from the work-authorization provisions,” Judge Jerry Smith, Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in the ruling.
    …………
    The court said that it would keep its ruling on hold “pending a further order of this court or the Supreme Court.” It’s unclear what the incoming Trump administration, which has shown a hostility to DACA, will decide to do with the ruling.
    …………

    Trump has said that he wants to work with Democrats to continue DACA.

    Rip Murdock (ea3b0a)

  77. I remember a few years back, someone said that LA has a fire season and a mudslide season. Just wait ’til the rains start.

    After steep hillsides burn, a rainstorm is likely to trigger flash floods, mudslides, or debris flows. The threats to life and property are dire. State and local officials in California are rushing to study land that has burned, identify where trouble is likely when it next rains, and warn residents. But more time is needed to complete their work. And there are limits to what their models can predict.
    […]
    The consequences of incomplete knowledge can be catastrophic, as a recent disaster illustrates. In a wildfire that began in December 2017, 282,000 acres near Santa Barbara burned. On January 8, 2018, before the fire was extinguished, a rainstorm arrived, prompting emergency warnings. In the wee hours of January 9, half an inch of rain fell on the Santa Ynez Mountains in perhaps 15 minutes. That rainfall led to more death and destruction than the fire itself.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  78. Vivek Ramaswamy plans to announce Ohio gubernatorial run

    Good. A loss there will end his ambitions.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  79. The Equal Rights Amendment is the 28th Amendment, and it is the law of the land.

    No, it isn’t.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  80. Your original comment conflated the two-presidential executive orders, which are inherent in the position; and what Gov. Newsom has done,

    No, your misreading conflated them in your head, which is thankfully beyond my control.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  81. someone said that LA has a fire season and a mudslide season.

    It was a common saying. Aldo “fire” and “rainy”

    BUt good point. Anyone want to give me odds on PCH being closed after the next good rain?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  82. All the talk in right wing media about democrats changing their voting patterns. Number one concern of blacks, women, progressives and younger voters in democrat primaries is fighting racism and sexism with donor class saying it will go along with D.E.I. as long as no 15$ dollar minimum wage and not letting that damn Bernie Sanders raise my taxes. Billionaires running to curry favor with trump will be remembered as their great white hope gavin newsom slowly twists in the wind! More important then what trump will do is what the democrat party establishment will do to keep the left from taking over the party from corporate liberals that are called communists here.

    asset (5ff489)

  83. Maybe 6th-ranked Mouw shoulda laid up at the par-5 16th at PGA West. For us hackers, we’ve all been there, every cringeworthy shot.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  84. Statement from President Joe Biden on the Equal Rights Amendment
    BRIEFING ROOM

    STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

    I have supported the Equal Rights Amendment for more than 50 years, and I have long been clear that no one should be discriminated against based on their sex. We, as a nation, must affirm and protect women’s full equality once and for all.

    On January 27, 2020, the Commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.

    It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.

    Have these “leading legal constitutional scholars” been identified?

    Will they get the John Eastman treatment?

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  85. Will they get the John Eastman treatment?

    Did Biden commit a crime? Did he commit electoral fraud, like Eastman did?
    But as I recall, Joe has immunity, thanks to the 6-3 Trump Supreme Court.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  86. ABA’s argument can be found here.

    Their main claim is that The Constitution does not have the time restraints that were baked into the law that created the amendment.

    Not sure I care enough to do a deep dive.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  87. Oh, ‘scuse me, these “leading legal constitutional scholars” didn’t commit electoral fraud.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  88. Joe has immunity

    You might note that I didn’t ask about him. I asked about the “scholars.”

    By “John Eastman treatment” I am referring to the massive scrutiny his flawed opinion received.

    I am trying for a reasoned conversation here, Paul.

    Or at least I was…

    It is not worth the time.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  89. Did he commit electoral fraud, like Eastman did?

    Like Biden and his scholars, Eastman has not been convicted of anything.

    lloyd (9a6f24)

  90. Lose a nation, gain a restaurant. That bitter quip helps explain why Washington, D. C. has so many ethnic restaurants. (And much of the rest of the US.)

    So I should have been expecting what I saw yesterday, a new restaurant, opening soon, in this suburb of Seattle: “Afghan Cuisine”. (It appears to be part of a small chain.)

    I suppose we can credit this restaurant to the Loser and to President Biden. But mostly to the Loser.

    Jim Miller (9e1098)

  91. Here’s a story illustrating the general point I just made:

    Los Angeles is a city characterized by its tangle of boundaries, delineating nothing. Guelaguetza, the James Beard Award-winning Oaxacan restaurant founded by Fernando Lopez and Maria Monterrubio, sits squarely within Koreatown. In South L.A., some of the city’s best Southern fried chicken is helmed by Cambodian immigrants at the Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken chain.

    And then there’s the fact that Southern California’s doughnut shops are significantly Cambodian-owned. California Sunday Magazine estimates that over 1,500 stores are run by Cambodian refugees or their children.

    (If you aren’t familiar with why there are so many Cambodian refugees here, take a quick look at this biography.)

    Jim Miller (9e1098)

  92. Vivek Ramaswamy plans to announce Ohio gubernatorial run

    Good. A loss there will end his ambitions.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/17/2025 @ 10:56 pm

    Too bad the gubernatorial election isn’t until November 2026.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  93. Trump to Begin Large-Scale Deportations Tuesday

    The incoming Trump administration is planning a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago next week, according to four people familiar with the planning, the first move in President-Elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation campaign.

    The raid is expected to begin on Tuesday morning, a day after Trump is inaugurated, and will last all week, the people said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation.
    …………..
    The transition team had been contemplating cities to target in a day-one operation as a way of making an example of so-called sanctuary cities, which adopt policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. They settled on Chicago both because of the large number of immigrants who could be possible targets, and because of the Trump team’s high-profile feud with the city’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson.
    ………….
    …………. Immigrant labor is deeply embedded into the U.S. economy. And economists and employers fear a labor shortage if mass deportations pull workers out of critical industries that rely on immigrant labor, like construction, agriculture and the service industry.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  94. Like Biden and his scholars, Eastman has not been convicted of anything.

    Disingenuous. He’s criminally indicted in two states.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  95. Rip Murdock (25e885) — 1/18/2025 @ 8:50 am

    Any more Congressional Democrat cooperation on immigration legislation (as shown with their recent vote to move the Laken Riley Act forward) just flew out the window.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  96. 78 Paul M: The only real security from endless fires and rains in LA is in the flat areas where there are no brushy spaces and where there is lots of drainage. People there watch the endless stories about rain and fires every year, till they largely ignore it. Living out in the canyons though, is –well in the canyons. Very nice–Andy of Maybury scenes-but a price to pay for that.

    When I lived in a canyon, we put plastic tarps over exposed earth near the sloped driveway and near the house. People that didn’t sometimes saw their driveway lose support and crumble. Or a mudslide would stop a road till the city came and bulldozed it. In Topanga Canyon, a large boulder fell and blocked a main road a couple of years ago, Its just constant.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (a2cb52)

  97. Disingenuous. He’s criminally indicted in two states.
    Paul Montagu (a96200) — 1/18/2025 @ 8:54 am

    Disingenuous. An indictment doesn’t render a trial and verdict formalities, except in places like Russia or Jack Smith’s head.

    lloyd (d812dd)

  98. Retailers have a solution to blue state pro-crime policies

    Walgreens put more merchandise in locked display cases to offset theft. Sales declined, the retailer says.

    Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. CEO Timothy Wentworth said during a Jan. 10 call with investment analysts putting more products in locked display cases “does impact how sales work through the store because when you lock things up, for example, you don’t sell as many of them. We’ve kind of proven that pretty conclusively.”

    “Shrink,” a retail industry term for lost inventory including shoplifting, drove $112 billion in retail losses in 2022, up from $94 billion in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation.

    And shoplifting isn’t slowing down. Retailers reported a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting in 2023, compared to 2019, in a more recent NRF report released in December 2024. The average number of shoplifting incidents rose 93% during that time, the trade group said.

    The solution: Close more stores.

    Also as part of its turnaround plan, Walgreens plans to close about 1,200 stores, with about 500 to be closed in the company’s fiscal year 2025, which ends in August 2025, Walgreens said in October.

    The company closed 70 stores in its first quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended November 30, 2024, Wentworth said during Friday’s call. Walgreens plans to close about another 450 stores through the end of 2025, he said.

    lloyd (d812dd)

  99. Israel begins rebuilding Hamas for the next war:

    Israel is set to release up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terror attacks and murder, in return for 33 Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip during the first, 42-day phase of its deal with Hamas, according to a government decision made early Saturday morning.
    …………
    They include members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, along with women and children being held in Israeli jails. Some prisoners were released in 2011 in return for captive soldier Gilad Shalit later and re-arrested.
    ………..
    Israel will also be releasing 1,167 Palestinians detained in the Gaza Strip during the IDF’s ground offensive, who did not participate in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel.
    …………
    Among the prisoners set to be released is notorious Fatah terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, the former Jenin commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Zubeidi was detained in 2019 for his part in shootings near Beit El in the West Bank. He is thought to have been involved in numerous terror attacks, including a bombing that killed six people at the Beit Shean branch of the Likud party in 2002, at the height of the 2000-2005 Second Intifada.
    ………….
    Ahmed Dahiri, a senior PIJ official convicted of the murder, is also up for release. So, too, is Mahmoud Atallah, who is serving a life sentence for killing a Palestinian woman he suspected of cooperating with Israel. Atallah was indicted in September for raping a female prison guard at Gilboa Prison, where ex-officers are accused of having “pimped” female colleagues to security prisoners.

    The list of prisoners to be released also includes Mahmud Abu Varda, who is serving 48 life sentences for masterminding multiple terror attacks, including a 1996 bombing on a bus in Jerusalem that killed 45 people.

    Three prisoners from the so-called Silwan Squadron are also on the list. The Hamas terror cell, named for its members’ East Jerusalem neighborhood, carried out five bombings across Israel between March and June 2002, killing 35 people and wounding hundreds.
    …………..
    Israel is set to release (an aide to popular Palestinian politician and former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades Marwan Barghouti, who is not being released) Ahmed Barghouti. The latter Barghouti, who was also detained during Operation Defensive Shield, served at the time as a senior military official in Fatah. He was sentenced to 13 life sentences in Israel for involvement in terror attacks in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that killed six people, including a police officer.
    ………..

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  100. Rip Murdock (25e885) — 1/18/2025 @ 11:34 am

    By arm and twisting Israel, the US will be partly responsible.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  101. Hamas shot callers will be released into elevated roles.

    My preferred outcome would have been that all hostages were released- no exchange-
    POW’s (IDF and Hamas military aged males) swapped on a 1:1 basis
    Or whats left of your crap and personnel continues to explode

    I realize Hamas personnel are not POW’s and that IDF are technically hostages, but treating them as POW’s is about as much concession as I’d be willing to give

    steveg (626b3a)

  102. The Loser’s choice for National Security Advisor is . . . . interesting:

    In February 2020, Rep. Michael Waltz, then a first-term GOP lawmaker, received a coveted invitation to fly to his home state of Florida aboard Air Force One. During the flight, he seized the opportunity to lobby President Donald Trump about an issue to which he had devoted most of his career: the war in Afghanistan.

    Trump had just approved a conditional peace agreement with the Taliban that called for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops within 14 months. Waltz, a Green Beret who had served two combat tours in Afghanistan, pleaded with the president to reconsider, arguing that the Taliban couldn’t be trusted and that the U.S. military needed to stay indefinitely.

    Better to have him inside the tent . . . ? That’s the only explanation I can think of, off hand.

    Jim Miller (9e1098)

  103. Adviser, not Advisor. (I prefer the latter because it is consistent with “advisory”, and didn’t check the official version.)

    Jim Miller (9e1098)

  104. Better to have him inside the tent . . . ? That’s the only explanation I can think of, off hand.

    Perhaps the assumption that he only wants “yes-men” is incorrect. “Loyalty” for sure, but that doesn’t mean obsequiousness.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  105. The thing about Trump isn’t that he has well-reasoned ideas; his positions are like mayflies at times. Not that this is a good thing, but he can be talked out of really bad ideas.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  106. steveg (626b3a) — 1/18/2025 @ 12:43 pm

    My preferred outcome would be that there was no one remaining in Hamas to negotiate with.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  107. The thing about Trump isn’t that he has well-reasoned ideas; his positions are like mayflies at times. Not that this is a good thing, but he can be talked out of really bad ideas.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/18/2025 @ 1:35 pm

    Since Trump is an instant lame duck the minute after he is sworn in as president, he won’t need to take into consideration any adverse political consequences to his decisions.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  108. WSJ Poll 1/17/25

    …………
    …………(M)ost (voters) want a tempered, less assertive set of policies than Trump promised in the most unbridled moments of his campaign. The appetite is for MAGA lite, rather than extra-strength MAGA.

    Some 53% want Trump to make significant changes in how government is run once he is inaugurated Monday. But more than 60% oppose one of his central ideas for doing so—replacing thousands of career civil-service workers with people chosen by the president.

    More than 60% also oppose eliminating the Education Department, a marquee Trump proposal for paring the federal government. Only 18% would supersede congressional powers and give Trump more authority over federal spending, as he has proposed.
    ………..
    Nearly three-quarters say that only those with criminal records should be removed from the country, and 70% would protect longtime residents from removal if they don’t have criminal records. Trump is planning to scrap a policy that focused arrests on serious criminals and discouraged officials from targeting illegal residents who have no criminal record.
    …………..
    Voters in the new survey opposed some of Trump’s top proposals or were conditional in their support:

    His promise to pardon people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol drew opposition from 57% of voters.

    More than two-thirds oppose using economic coercion or military force to take control of Greenland, while 57% oppose using coercion or force to retake control of the Panama Canal. Trump has said he cannot rule out such tactics to accomplish his territorial ambitions.

    Two-thirds oppose making Canada the 51st state, an idea that set off tensions between the two countries.
    ………….
    By a margin of 64% to 31%, voters oppose ending birthright citizenship—the constitutional provision that someone born in the U.S. is a citizen, which Trump has promised to try to eliminate.

    …….. By about 60% to 34%, voters say protecting (education, healthcare and social safety-net) programs is more important than cutting taxes or reducing the federal debt.

    Support is essentially split over another signature Trump plan—placing tariffs on imported goods—with 48% of voters in support and 46% opposed. At the same time, 68% also say that tariffs would make the products they buy more expensive.
    ………….

    Trump’s voters deserve to have his ideas enacted to the fullest extent possible.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  109. WSJ poll questions and responses.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  110. Disingenuous. An indictment doesn’t render a trial and verdict formalities, except in places like Russia or Jack Smith’s head.

    I’m not involved in the case, so your point is irrelevant, disingenuous even.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  111. NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll 1/15/25

    ………….
    • 49% of Americans support or strongly support the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and 49% oppose or strongly oppose these deportations.

    • While 74% of Democrats are against mass deportations, 79% of Republicans are in favor of them. Of note, 53% of Republicans say they strongly support the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Independents divide (50% support to 49% oppose).
    …………
    • 62% of Americans disapprove of Trump pardoning people who were convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 35% approve of the pardons.

    • 89% of Democrats, 62% of independents, and even 30% of Republicans disapprove of pardoning individuals convicted for their actions in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 64% of Republicans approve of the pardons………..

    • 59% of Americans, including 84% of Democrats and 61% of independents, believe the events of January 6, 2021 were an insurrection meant to overthrow a free and fair election. 38% of U.S. residents, including 61% of Republicans, believe the events of the day were protests by patriots to stop a stolen election.
    …………
    • 48% of Americans think placing tariffs or fees on products imported from other countries generally hurts the national economy. 31% believe it helps the U.S. economy, and 18% think tariffs do not make much difference.

    • 57% of Republicans think the fees will benefit the U.S. economy, while 71% of Democrats and 49% of independents say tariffs will be detrimental to the economy’s health. An additional 22% of independents say imposing import tariffs will not matter much.
    …………

    Poll survey data.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  112. In a nutshell, this is why giving up Palestinian prisoners and releasing Israeli hostages, at ratio of 50 Palestinians to a single Israeli, is so morally whacked. It’s truly unacceptable, yet still accepted by the Netanyahu cabinet.

    Seeing this name on the list of terrorists about to be released shattered my heart. Again. He murdered Ari, my older brother. And now he’s getting out.

    And the murderer will likely rejoin Hamas to kill more Israelis.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  113. I wonder if Biden’s book deal is going to be ghost written?
    Show hands of people here who plan to buy and read it.

    I will be continuing the Junior Bender series instead.

    Oddly enough, I expect the series of fictions to have a higher truth to BS ratio

    steveg (626b3a)

  114. Paul Montagu (a96200) — 1/18/2025 @ 3:05 pm

    Is there a post on X that reflects the hostages take on the deal?

    BuDuh (e83217)

  115. I don’t know if even the Israeli community has the stomach for an “iron fist” to the end posture on their hostages.

    I’d like to beat my enemies so bad they give up, return hostages, and beg forgiveness. An evil hatred consumes HAMAS, and I think they would instead torture their hostages to death than capitulate completely.

    steveg (626b3a)

  116. War is one of the most heinous examples of the means becoming the end. Trump gets it. I give him credit for that.

    nk (dc7f02)

  117. TikTok has shut down in the United States.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  118. Since Trump is an instant lame duck the minute after he is sworn in as president, he won’t need to take into consideration any adverse political consequences to his decisions.

    This is silly. Of course he will. He wants to do stuff and if he starts off like Nixon 1974 he will accomplish nothing.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  119. The question about Trump’s prospective executive order allowing a ninety extension for TikTok to sell itself is that TikTok doesn’t control its recommendation algorithm (that’s owned by ByteDance and is subject to Chinese export controls), which makes the app so popular.

    In addition, would the EO immunize the Google, and Apple app stores and Oracle cloud services from the onerous penalties?

    However, it remains to be seen if those promises will be enough for companies to expose themselves to major financial liability by keeping the app up and running. The extension is a one-time option that the law grants the president, though it requires certification to Congress of “significant progress” toward divestiture, complete with the “relevant binding legal agreements” — none of which appears to be true, as ByteDance has refused to sell.

    App stores and service providers face a daily $5,000 fine for every user who can still access TikTok, and those penalties easily add up to billions of dollars.
    ………….
    ………….Pam Bondi (President-Elect Trump’s nominee for Attorney General), refused to commit to enforcing the ban during her confirmation hearing.

    When asked about her reluctance, (Senator Rick Scott of Florida) said “I expect the laws to be enforced.”
    #########

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  120. Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/18/2025 @ 8:08 pm

    Most of things he wants to accomplish, like tariffs, acquiring new territories, and immigration enforcement, don’t require political support from Congress. There are a variety constitutional and statutory provisions that already give him the necessary powers to do what he wants.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  121. Source for blockquote in post 120.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  122. Mike Johnson is getting rolled by a member of his own caucus.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  123. TIK TOK Banned! The left is already listing the names of those who voted for ban on line. More direct actions could follow.

    asset (49b785)

  124. ICE plans a big raid or raids in Chicago and a few other places on Tuesday. If this is something new, how can this be done without Biden administration involvement? No executive orders can be signed until noon on January 20.

    Is ICE a power unto itself? And is this being done for political reasons – to punish critics?

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  125. Tik Tok goes down at midnight tonight (the end of Sunday) despite Biden’s promise of no penalty. Biden or his people call doing that a stunt.

    In a court filing some weeks ago Tik Tok said it had to know by a date (Jan 10 – I don’t remember) whether it is going to be shut down or not.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  126. 118, So it’s the beginning of Sunday, This actually was not clear to me. Unless they shut down before it was legally required.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  127. That “External Revenue Service” sounds like a “jobs for the boys” program. (Patronage jobs for supporters of the Loser.) But then I may be too suspicious — or know too much Ameican history.

    Jim Miller (91a3d9)

  128. Here is an interesting article for those who may be too suspicious — or know too much Ameican history.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  129. Much to the chagrin of some here, three hostages have been released.

    https://nypost.com/2025/01/19/world-news/first-israeli-hostages-freed-as-part-of-cease-fire-deal-with-hamas/

    BuDuh (e83217)

  130. @125

    No executive orders can be signed until noon on January 20.

    Is ICE a power unto itself? And is this being done for political reasons – to punish critics?

    It’s called law enforcement. Since when does enforcing the law require an EO?

    I guess we’re so used to ICE doing nothing the past four years, when they finally start doing their job in accordance with the law some wonder about nefarious motives.

    lloyd (a96dd5)

  131. Great news, though five years too late for millions now dead

    Government Debars Notorious Fauci Crony, Gain-Of-Function Mastermind Peter Daszak

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) formally debarred Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a company which coordinated with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s aides to receive funding for gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, according to documents the House Oversight Committee released Friday.

    HHS debarred and cut funding to both Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based nonprofit which researches pandemics. EcoHealth also terminated Daszak’s employment, according to a series of letters the House Oversight Committee made public.

    The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, praised the decision on X.

    “Bad actor EcoHealth Alliance & its corrupt former President, Dr. Peter Daszak, were formally debarred by HHS for using taxpayer funds to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in China,” Comer wrote Saturday.

    Even Biden’s HHS weren’t swayed by all those fact checks by Glenn Kessler and others liars in the media. Again, years too late.

    lloyd (a96dd5)

  132. The Covid origin nonsense is further evidence that there are many folks so invested in anti-Trump narratives they will willingly believe media lies and cling to them.

    It’s how the Democrats got stuck with a demented candidate the media insisted was mentally fit.

    lloyd (a96dd5)

  133. California incompetence news:

    Amid dangerous winds in 2011, LAFD engines stood ready. That didn’t happen this time

    Thirteen years ago, Los Angeles Fire Department officials were bracing for the kind of dangerous winds that could drive flames across hillsides and canyons and tear through neighborhoods from Malibu to the Pacific Palisades to the San Fernando Valley.

    The National Weather Service had issued red flag warnings of doomsday gusts as fierce as 90 mph. Forecasters described the coming windstorm as a once-every-five-to-10-years calamity.

    So the LAFD began to marshal its defenses in the days before the arrival of the winds, taking the type of dramatic measures that the department failed to employ last week in advance of the Palisades fire, which followed wind alerts as bad or worse, due to the lack of recent rain, than those of late November 2011.

    With the tempest expected to hit on Dec. 1 that year, LAFD commanders ordered up at least 40 extra fire engines for stations closest to the areas where the fire hazards were greatest, including the Palisades, The Times has learned through interviews and internal department records.

    Among the additional rigs were more than 20 that were pre-deployed to those stations and 18 “ready reserve” engines that supplement the regular firefighting force in such emergencies, the records and interviews show….

    The weather service had advised that Jan. 7 and the next day could bring the strongest winds since that period in 2011. The warnings were even more dire because a lack of rain in recent months had left the wildlands particularly parched, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist for the weather service.

    “The plants were extremely dry and the winds were extremely strong — it’s just the worst combination,” Kittell said.

    As The Times reported last week, the LAFD decided not to tap several dozen available engines to join the fight against any fires fueled by the winds. A document obtained by The Times showed that commanders said “no” to deploying nine ready reserve engines to supplement nine other engines that had been pre-positioned the morning before the fire to the Valley and Hollywood.

    Officials said they moved more engines “first thing in the morning” to cover northeast L.A. No extra engines were sent to the Palisades.

    The department also opted against requiring a shift of about 1,000 firefighters to remain on duty rather than go home in the hours leading up to the fire. That decision made it more difficult to quickly staff the unused engines after the fire began to rage out of control, former LAFD chiefs told The Times….

    Crowley did not respond to an interview request for this article. She and a spokesperson also did not provide answers to a list of written questions from The Times about the LAFD’s preparations for and response to the Palisades fire.

    When asked about the planning decisions at a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that “the buck always stops with me,” but deferred questions to Crowley. Bass’ press office did not respond to an email requesting an interview with her for this article.

    Deputy Chief Richard Fields, who was in charge of staffing and equipment decisions ahead of the Palisades fire, defended his plan for deployment as “appropriate for immediate response.” When asked about the more robust preparations in 2011, he said the department’s fleet of operable engines was larger back then.

    “Today, I have zero reserve fleet,” Fields said. “Zero, because of the number of apparatus that we have in ill repair.”

    The Times found, however, that the department had a set of more than 40 engines that were available for crews, and officials chose to staff just five of them ahead of the fire

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  134. LA residents got what they voted for, good and hard.

    lloyd (3e3bf1)

  135. lloyd,

    I truly hope that you don’t get what your locality voted for (over your dissent), or worse, what you too voted for, but regret.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  136. If it seems like I’m saying you’re being a jerk for saying that, well, maybe.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  137. Did you know that the biggest vote total for Trump in any US country was the 1.19 million votes he got in Los Angeles County?

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  138. lloyd (3e3bf1) — 1/19/2025 @ 10:39 am

    LA residents got what they voted for, good and hard.

    Government as usual, except that there is a steady lower priority given to traditional, basic government functions, and new (mostly stupid) things to spend money on, amid higher salaries for government employees,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  139. Emily Damari could not stop smiling as she was reunited with her mother on Sunday following 15 months in the clutches of Hamas.

    But, as she waved to family in a video call, the scars of her horror were immediately visible.

    Damari, 28, a British-Israeli citizen, wore a bandage on her left hand where two fingers that blown off in the brutal Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack in which terrorists took her hostage.

    Hopefully Rip and Paul can get ahold of her and her selfish family and explain how her freedom is going to get more people killed.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  140. 132. China would most likely have done that type research anyway, once they were introduced to the idea. They just wouldn’t have doubled billed for it, billing both the Chinese military and this American group.

    Dr. Fauci came up with a definition of gain-of-function research that did not incllude what they did. I think it was defined as something that made a virus more infective to humans, but noot something that made it infective in the first place,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  141. Tik Tok is preparing to start up again.

    Senator Cotton issued a statement (earlier I think) saying that once it was shut down, a president had no legal authority to grant a 90-day extension of the deadline

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  142. 131. Trump is looking it over to see if it’s all right with him. (you know there could be an element of corruption here, and just where are they going?)

    https://abc7chicago.com/post/trumps-chicago-deportation-plan-dhs-officials-confirm-city-will-target-area-incoming-admin-mass-fears-grow/15813592/

    They also did something in California.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  143. *US country county

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  144. Trump will have no problem with Tik Tok, so long as it censors the right things.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  145. Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 1/19/2025 @ 11:38 am

    The only way President Trump can legally implement a 90-day extension to TikTok is if a “qualified divesture” is underway.

    Under the Act, app stores and internet hosting services are prohibited from enabling the distribution, maintenance, or updating of a foreign adversary controlled application unless the application’s owners execute a “qualified divestiture.” For a transaction to be a qualified divestiture, the President has to determine that, after the transaction is executed, the application would no longer be controlled by, and would have no operational relationship with, a foreign adversary. ……….. the President can grant a one-time extension of up to 90 additional days when a path to a qualified divestiture has been identified, there is evidence of “significant” progress toward executing the divestiture, and there are legally binding agreements in place to enable the divestiture.

    The fact is President Trump intends to issue an executive order without determining that a qualified divesture is underway (essentially extending the 270 period that ended on January 19th) would violate the law.

    More:

    “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “My initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose.”
    ………….
    “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” said Trump. “The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
    ………..
    “Now that the law has taken effect, there’s no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a staunch backer of the law, said in a statement with Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). “For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale.”
    ……….
    Sens. Cotton and Ricketts applauded Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft for “following the law,” and encouraged other companies to do the same — the exact opposite of Trump’s request after.

    Asked if Trump should enforce the law on Day One, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told POLITICO “I would think so” on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled the provision is constitutional.
    …………

    House Speaker Mike Johnson made similar comments on Meet the Press. The question is whether Congress would take Trump to court to compel enforcement.

    Rip Murdock (9c1a97)

  146. The TikTok app still isn’t available on the iPhone App Store, so apparently Apple isn’t listening to the President-Elect.

    Rip Murdock (25e885)

  147. Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/19/2025 @ 10:47 am

    Take a viagra and get taller.

    I live near the fires. You don’t. But you sure talk like you do.

    lloyd (9c34d6)

  148. The TikTok app still isn’t available on the iPhone App Store, so apparently Apple isn’t listening to the President-Elect.

    Rip Murdock (25e885) — 1/19/2025 @ 12:59 pm

    And now it is. So I guess by your remarks they are listening to the President-elect.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  149. Hopefully Rip and Paul can get ahold of her and her selfish family and explain how her freedom is going to get more people killed.

    Cheap shot and personal attack. Typical BuDuh.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  150. The future of CA fire prevention could be the targeted deployment of goats.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  151. I live near the fires. You don’t. But you sure talk like you do.

    1) F. U.
    2) F. U. some more.

    3) I lived in Los Angeles for the first 65 years of my life, sometimes in homes that were on the edge of this (Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Arcadia).
    4) Some of my extended family still lives there and were evacuated.
    5) One of my business partners was evacuated.
    6) Another of my business partners lost his house.

    Don’t tell me I have no skin in this.

    What I will tell you is that you are an utter jerk for suggesting that the fires were, in any way, their vault. ASSH0LE.

    Kevin M (a02814)

  152. It’s kinda funny that you’ve managed to be a bigger jerk than merely a Trumpbot.

    Kevin M (a02814)

  153. Think of them as drunk drivers, Kevin.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  154. FU too.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  155. And now (the Apple Store is hosting the TikTok app). So I guess by your remarks they are listening to the President-elect.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/19/2025 @ 4:12 pm

    We’ll see how long it lasts until the courts enforce the law.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  156. I remember when Kevin whined on and on about Paul calling him an assh0le. LOL

    lloyd (f8ff8e)

  157. Own it.

    This is just more of you attacking the commenter, BuDuh.
    I can do two things at once and be intellectually consistent, such as be thankful that three hostages were returned and that this ceasefire agreement is a bad deal.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  158. this ceasefire agreement is a bad deal.

    “Bad deal?” Oh…

    Your previous position was that “giving up Palestinian prisoners and releasing Israeli hostages,” at a ratio inconsistent with your expertise, is “morally whacked.” You said “It’s truly unacceptable.”

    Sorry Paul. This isn’t “intellectually consistent.”

    BuDuh (e83217)

  159. That’s what I meant by bad deal, BuDuh, and you took the low road with your cheap shot, smear, personal attack. Your “logic” fails.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  160. If it was a one to one trade for the girl that had her fingers blown off and Hamas only got “the murderer [who] will likely rejoin Hamas to kill more Israelis,” would the deal still be “unacceptable” and “morally whacked?”

    Same question, but it is all three released in trade for the murderer.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  161. I am not a rabbinical scholar, so I went to the Google AI:

    In Judaism, the religious duty to free fellow Jews who are imprisoned or held captive is called Pidyon shvuyim. This duty is considered a major commandment and a communal responsibility.

    What does Pidyon shvuyim entail?
    Paying a ransom to free a captive;
    Negotiating a reconciliation with the captor; and
    Pursuing the captive relentlessly.

    Why is Pidyon shvuyim important?
    It’s considered a great mitzvah.
    It’s a way to demonstrate the boundaries of the Jewish community.
    It’s a way to show empathy and mercy for fellow Jews.

    **What are some guidelines for Pidyon shvuyim?
    Captives should be redeemed at their market value as slaves.
    Excessive ransom payments should be avoided.
    The public good should not take precedence over the individual.

    Content Google’s, formatting mine. Personally, I am just glad to see something more than war for war’s sake.

    nk (e7dae9)

  162. nk (e7dae9) — 1/19/2025 @ 7:08 pm

    Pidyon shvuyim shouldn’t be a suicide pact. It took the Israeli government over a year to make a deal that it could have made any time after Oct. 7th.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  163. It took the Israeli government over a year to make a deal that it could have made any time after Oct. 7th.

    You would have preferred they made this deal before killing as many terrorists as they did?

    BuDuh (e83217)

  164. It’s not always easy to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.

    Or for Netanyahu to balance the sacred obligation regarding the hostages with the survival of Israel.

    But, in the end, if Israel is not a Jewish state with all that entails, then what is it?

    nk (e7dae9)

  165. Same question, but it is all three released in trade for the murderer.

    You’ve already displayed your shoddy reasoning with the Electoral College, so I’m passing on all the rest of your brain damage, which is a you problem.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  166. I knew it would dawn on you how your position falls apart so easily.

    Always going for the escape hatch…

    I will count that as another one of your losses.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  167. @152 its a ceasefire the bottle deposit crook can go on killing after it ends unless the voters kick him out of office.

    asset (e61f2c)

  168. I will count that as another one of your losses.

    As usual, the MAGA resorts to gaslighting and bad faith. Happens every time with you.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  169. Sure, Paul.

    Simple questions wreck you. Every time.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  170. You would have preferred they made this deal before killing as many terrorists as they did?

    BuDuh (e83217) — 1/19/2025 @ 7:36 pm

    If the goal of Pidyon shvuyim is to save as many of the hostages as possible, then the Israeli government could have released the 2,000 or terrorists and then gone to war.

    I would have preferred that Israel had destroyed Hamas so thoroughly that would have been no Hamas leaders to negotiate with. But with the terrorists who have been released, Hamas has a new leadership cadre.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  171. Simple questions wreck you. Every time.

    Still gaslighting. Your questions are consistently disingenuous and rhetorical, since you’ve already arrived at your own answers.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  172. Ye of little faith, Rip.

    You want to take a stab at the questions that sent Paul into a blubbering tailspin?

    I’ll check back after noon eastern time.

    BuDuh (e83217)

  173. @175 That’s… jeezus.

    I don’t want to hear any teeth knashing over J6ers getting pardons…

    whembly (477db6)

  174. Something to think about today: Lincoln’s second inaugural.

    The speech astonishes me every time I read it, especially the final paragraph:

    With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

    (I read it at least once a year.)

    Jim Miller (177d9e)

  175. NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/20/2025 @ 4:59 am

    LOL

    Liz, Fauci and the J6 committee joins Hunter Biden, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Marc Rich.

    Country over party!

    lloyd (f8ff8e)

  176. The “first 100 days” phrase was invented after FDR’s flurry of legislation in his first term, and now we have “the last 70 days”, which denotes a lame duck president’s flurry of bad decisions before leaving, thanks to Biden and his stupid decisions and comments and pardons, and he’ll carry that moniker forever, second only Trump’s Big Lie and attempted coup.

    Biden’s pardons today are exquisitely bad and stupid because (1) he showed an anti-American lack of faith in our justice system, that this set of pardonees somehow have a chance of getting convicted for their “crimes”, and (2) what goes around comes around, because now Trump can use the Biden Precedent to protect his loyalists when they run afoul of the law. It’s like immunity on cocaine laced speed, because Trump now has immunity and so do every criminal who works under him. This is supremely awful. Thanks, Joe.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  177. Pre-emptive blanket pardons. How far we have fallen.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  178. “We had to destroy the Law in order to save it”

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  179. Hopefully this (and the J6 pardons) will lead to a constitutional amendment limiting pardons to named crimes. This makes Ford’s pardon of Nixon look good.

    If Liz Cheney wants to retain her claim to integrity, she will refuse this elevation above the Law.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  180. Congress should immediately hold hearings into the pardon power. Perhaps getting some recipients (Hunter, Fauci to name two) to testify under oath about what crimes they may have committed to need blanket pardons.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  181. This is a pretty poor showcase for the “peaceful transfer of power.” Grudging seems more apt.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  182. The pardons don’t seem to be being mentioned in the limited amount of TV coverage I sw so far. Dan Quayle was there with his wife. at first I thought they were the Bidens. Dan Quayle is now 76 years old. Mike Pence walked in alone without his wife. Barack Obama also alone. Michelle Obama didn’t attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral either.

    There’s comment on how you may the greatest collection of wealth there at the same time, Musk, Bezos etc.

    Vivek Ramaswamy will probably run for Governor of Ohio. I think he was offered the Senate seat earlier. He’s going to leave DOGE before he starts. DOGE is something informal.

    Among the things Trump will sign almost immediately, is of course his official nominations for Cabinet posts that need Senate confirmation, Marco Rubio and some others expected to be confirmed before tonight.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  183. There were 250,000 people who had tickets, maybe 200,000 on the mall. They are reduced to 600 in the Capitol rotunda and 20,000 in the Capital One basketball arena (where yesterday Trump had a rally)

    The stand is still there but just covered with snow..

    JFK was famously sworn in in cold weather without an overcoat in 1961. Reagan was moved inside in 1985 at a temperature of 9 degrees. It was predicted 29 degrees today. Some people suspect security was the reason for moving it indoors – there is always the possibility of lone wolves.. They could attack the crowd, too,

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  184. I don’t think Hamas would have released all the hostages before, and still don’t expect that to happen without further military or political developments. a few hostages got killed in the war and some by Hamas.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  185. BREAKING: Biden pardons his family for all crimes since 2014. Last act in office.

    For realz?

    But Comer never had anything on them, right Rip and Paul.

    Probably fake news.

    Have a wonderful four years.

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  186. The Biden crime family is what we knew they were. Will love to see the spin on this. Leftists and their allies tripping over themselves lying for the past 4 years will now pretend to admit they knew Biden was a crook and that they will toss him away now that he’s no longer useful to them.

    NJRob (1da0d9)

  187. Yes, for real.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  188. The pardon power needs to be limited to named crimes.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  189. But Comer never had anything on them, right Rip and Paul.

    That’s correct. All those Foxnews appearances by Comer, and no evidence of crimes. Remember what happened to Comer’s star witness, Smirnov?

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  190. I think that those pardoned will have unpleasant sojourns in front of Comer’s committee, under oath. Truth or consequences.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  191. I would, however, be pleasantly surprised if Trump’s words about ending weaponized justice rang true.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  192. Is there a crime cutoff as to how bad the crime may be that the DOJ goes from simply enforcing law to “weaponized justice?”

    BuDuh (4214e4)

  193. Biden is a coward, afraid of Putin’s threats (which hurt Ukraine’s ability to defend itself) and afraid of Trump’s retribution threats, and afraid of our judicial branch, going so far as to abuse his pardoning power to “protect” people not even indicted for a crime.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  194. The problem I have with these blanket pardons, is that the same people who have an issue with the (far more limited) immunity assigned to presidents by that recent Supreme Court decision have no problem with this.

    “No one is above the law”, said Napoleon to the other animals, “but some have more immunity than others.”

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  195. @192

    That’s correct. All those Foxnews appearances by Comer, and no evidence of crimes. Remember what happened to Comer’s star witness, Smirnov?

    Paul Montagu (a96200) — 1/20/2025 @ 9:31 am

    Smirnov wasn’t the star Paul, so please quit gaslighting everyone.

    The star is, and will always be, Joe Biden. There is no family business w/o Joe’s political office.

    But since he was POTUS and DOJ answer to him, there’s only so much Congress could do to successfully investigate this.

    whembly (477db6)

  196. Even amnesties, which are unspecific as to individuals, are specific about the crime(s) being pardoned.

    The family pardons are extraordinary, and would seem to validate some of the “Biden crime family” rhetoric.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  197. But since he was POTUS and DOJ answer to him, there’s only so much Congress could do to successfully investigate this.

    I disagree, assuming they are so inclined. By issuing pardons, he took away their ability to refuse to testify under oath, and made them subject to perjury charges if they attempt to lie.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  198. Testify?
    They will say “I don’t recall” 1-1000 times

    steveg (c55fba)

  199. Trump told everyone what he planned for that January 6th committee. Biden believed him and apparently disagrees with that plan of action. If the republican congress wants to spend all their time chasing them for testimony anyway, that’s definitely a choice that they could make.

    Nic (120c94)

  200. Smirnov wasn’t the star Paul, so please quit gaslighting everyone.

    Bullsh-t. Joe was Comer’s suspect, not witness. Talk about gaslighting.

    Paul Montagu (a96200)

  201. The star is, and will always be, Joe Biden. There is no family business w/o Joe’s political office.

    But since he was POTUS and DOJ answer to him, there’s only so much Congress could do to successfully investigate this.

    whembly (477db6) — 1/20/2025 @ 10:18 am

    Not any more; Joe Biden is just Joe Blow after today. He can be subpoenaed and forced to testify about his “crimes.” What has been missing is direct evidence of Biden receiving payoffs, so far it’s only been hearsay. It’s unlikely he could claim immunity for receiving payoffs from Hunter’s clients.

    And he certainly can be prosecuted for unlawfully retaining classified information as he did so after he left the vice presidency.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  202. I think that those pardoned will have unpleasant sojourns in front of Comer’s committee, under oath. Truth or consequences.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 9:38 am

    Talk about beating a dead horse.

    Rip Murdock (d07b6e)

  203. I think that those pardoned will have unpleasant sojourns in front of Comer’s committee, under oath. Truth or consequences.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 9:38 am

    Given the fact that Speaker Mike Johnson needs Democrat votes to pass anything substantial (like funding the government), this may not be the best course of action.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  204. But Comer never had anything on them, right Rip and Paul.

    Apparently Comer (and Jim Jordan) didn’t have enough to impeach former President Biden.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  205. The problem I have with these blanket pardons, is that the same people who have an issue with the (far more limited) immunity assigned to presidents by that recent Supreme Court decision have no problem with this.

    Since the pardon power is defined in the Constitution without restrictions (except being limited to federal crimes and not for impeachment), what is the point?

    Rip Murdock (d07b6e)

  206. Talk about beating a dead horse.

    Congress is good at doing that.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  207. Since the pardon power is defined in the Constitution without restrictions (except being limited to federal crimes and not for impeachment), what is the point?

    Amendment 29 (or maybe 29):

    1. The power of pardon, amnesty or reprieve held by the President is limited to itemized crimes or activities, although the recipients may be a general class. No blanket reprieves or pardons may be issued.

    2. Actions taken prior to the effective date of this amendment are not affected.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  208. * 28 or 29

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  209. I guess, Rip, you did not see my last 2 or 3 comments calling for an amendment.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  210. They will say “I don’t recall” 1-1000 times

    Which can be charged as perjury.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  211. Trump told everyone what he planned for that January 6th committee. Biden believed him and apparently disagrees with that plan of action.

    Pretty sure that most of them relied “Bring it!” since they were completely covered by the Speech & Debate Clause.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  212. I guess, Rip, you did not see my last 2 or 3 comments calling for an amendment.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:25 pm

    I did, but it’s not gonna happen in the real world.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  213. I guess, Rip, you did not see my last 2 or 3 comments calling for an amendment.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:25 pm

    Constitutional amendment fantasy camp. I prefer to deal with the world as it is, not as I wish it to be.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  214. More mansplaining from Rip.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  215. Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:42 pm

    More political fantasies from Kevin M.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  216. Correction:

    More political fantasies wishful thinking from Kevin M.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:44 pm

    To dream, the impossible dream!

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  217. @202

    Trump told everyone what he planned for that January 6th committee. Biden believed him and apparently disagrees with that plan of action.

    Trump told everyone, including the voters. But I guess when you’re so busy Saving Democracy, the voters’ plan of action can fall by the wayside.

    lloyd (639643)

  218. Trump told everyone what he planned for that January 6th committee. Biden believed him and apparently disagrees with that plan of action.

    Pretty sure that most of them relied “Bring it!” since they were completely covered by the Speech & Debate Clause.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:28 pm

    The Speech and Debate clause is a defense, but wouldn’t prevent an investigation and prosecution.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  219. Trump also told everyone about his plans for government. Biden believed him, which is why he’s tried to “Trump-proof” the bureaucracy. Voters be damned.

    lloyd (b1bcf3)

  220. @lloyd@220 Biden doesn’t answer to the voters at this point.

    Nic (120c94)

  221. but wouldn’t prevent an investigation and prosecution.

    Nothing can prevent an investigation, even a full pardon, if the DA has the bit between his teeth. But prosecution? The demurer would be pretty quick.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  222. Biden and the J6 committee told everyone what they planned for Trump and his supporters. Voters believed them and apparently disagreed with that plan of action.

    lloyd (639643)

  223. Biden doesn’t answer to the voters at this point.
    Nic (120c94) — 1/20/2025 @ 1:00 pm

    Just as the Save Democracy folks would prefer it.

    lloyd (639643)

  224. Biden doesn’t answer to the voters at this point.

    Correct. But he does answer to history and the mendacity quotient of his administration doubled this morning. If Trump succeeds, Biden looks terrible.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  225. *terribler.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  226. Nothing can prevent an investigation, even a full pardon, if the DA has the bit between his teeth. But prosecution? The demurer would be pretty quick.

    Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 1:02 pm

    I’m sure a US Attorney (not a DA) could get at least an indictment, which is the first step in a prosecution.

    Rip Murdock (d07b6e)

  227. Lloyd,

    Biden’s pardon-pa-looza was a gift to Trump. Not only does it give him grievances to complain about, it gives him cover for January 6 pardons/commutations, and it allows him to pivot away from personally gratifying but time wasting vengeance-seeking.

    So old Joe did 47 a solid on the way out the door. Hopefully Trump has the wit to see it.

    Appalled (ee7116)

  228. @lloyd@226 As the founders wrote into the constitution.

    @kevin@227 Doesn’t matter unless he cares.

    (I don’t think Trump really answers to the voters at this point either. I think he’d be perfectly happy bloviating and having ICE run flashy operations, so I don’t think the future make up of Congress or who will be following him as President really matter to him).

    Nic (120c94)

  229. Appalled, the voters gave Trump cover. Unlike Biden, Trump was transparent about what his plans were, and people voted for it.

    lloyd (639643)

  230. #232

    I’m going to disagree. I read the mandate on January 6, to the extent one can be discerned, as “We really don’t care about this.” That’s not a mandate for prosecutions.

    The problem about being “transparent” is that it made those plans very easy to counteract by what Biden did. However, the consequences of the precedent set will be very evident in 2029. (Though Joe may not be in a position to notice)

    Appalled (ee7116)

  231. I prefer to deal with the world as it is, not as I wish it to be.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:39 pm

    Except when is comes to Jewish hostages…

    BuDuh (ac9b17)

  232. Biden’s pardon-pa-looza was a gift to Trump. Not only does it give him grievances to complain about, it gives him cover for January 6 pardons/commutations, and it allows him to pivot away from personally gratifying but time wasting vengeance-seeking.
    ………..
    Appalled (ee7116) — 1/20/2025 @ 1:14 pm

    President Trump doesn’t need the gift or cover from former President Biden’s pardons. . As lloyd has said, pardoning or otherwise forgiving the J6 defendants has been a longstanding position for him.

    However, I don’t think voters approve of that decision (see here and here) now or in the past; as inflation, immigration, and employment were consistently rated as the top three issues of the campaign. The vast majority of voters didn’t care.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  233. Kevin M (a9545f) — 1/20/2025 @ 1:04 pm

    mendacity quotient of his administration doubled this morning. If Trump succeeds, Biden looks terrible.

    That’s why Biden left the pardon of members of his family for the very last.

    They announced first Dr. Fauci and Mark Milley and said there were others, and only later mentioned the members of his family, who may be the only people in the group of pre-indictment pardons who were possibly actually guilty of something.

    Probably at least some variety of fraudulant enrichment.

    Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e)

  234. I prefer to deal with the world as it is, not as I wish it to be.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b) — 1/20/2025 @ 12:39 pm

    Except when is comes to Jewish hostages…

    BuDuh (ac9b17) — 1/20/2025 @ 1:40 pm

    I’m not sure why the religion of the hostages matters, I’ve been pretty consistent in my views that governments shouldn’t trade prisoners for hostages.

    If you look at my posts on the Israel-Hamas War, I’ve been a cheerleader for Netanyahu’s cold-blooded approach: full throttle attacks on Gaza while ignoring the protesters demanding he prioritize the release of hostages. Resisting the reports of hostages being murdered and tortured to make a bad deal took a lot of guts in the face of the protesters.

    Unfortunately, in the last few weeks he went soft, just about the time Trump was demanding that hostages be released before his inauguration. Hamas still exists and has gained three thousand or so terrorists as well as potentially new leadership.

    The ceasefire agreement also requires Israel to eventually withdraw from most of Gaza, another mistake. Israel should occupy Gaza and transform it from a terrorist training camp into a tourist destination full of beach resorts, dining, and entertainment. It could be the new Lebanon (before the civil war.)

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  235. Welcome to the real world, Rip.

    BuDuh (ac9b17)

  236. I’m sure the ceasefire won’t last more than a month.

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  237. Perjury for “I don’t recall”?

    True-

    But
    Doubtful it’d be put to the test.

    Fauci for example has already been caught lying and everyone eventually moved on to the next question

    steveg (626b3a)

  238. You just knew this would happen:

    The “pizzagate” gunman who fired his rifle in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in 2016, acting on a debunked conspiracy theory, has died after police shot him in a traffic stop.

    Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police over the weekend and died from his injuries (on January 6, 2025), authorities in North Carolina said (on January 9th.)

    Almost 10 years ago, Welch made national headlines when he traveled to the nation’s capital from North Carolina and fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, spurred by a conspiracy theory that had spread online.
    …………
    Welch, who was 28 when the incident occurred, ended up surrendering to police after he did not find evidence to support the conspiracy theory, according to court documents at the time.
    …………
    Police Chief Terry L. Spry of Kannapolis, North Carolina, near Charlotte, said in a news release Thursday that police shot Welch on Saturday during a traffic stop and that a police officer “recognized the front seat passenger as the person with the outstanding warrant for arrest.”

    Welch had an outstanding arrest warrant for violating probation, according to the police department.

    When an officer opened the passenger door to arrest Welch, Spry said, Welch “pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer” and did not put the gun down when officers ordered him to.
    ………….

    Rip Murdock (57fc2b)

  239. More L.A. fire news:

    (LA Times) Western Altadena got evacuation order many hours after Eaton fire exploded. 17 people died there

    * Records, radio logs and interviews show that residents living west of Lake Avenue were not told to evacuate via electronic alerts until many hours after the Eaton fire started.
    * Residents said they were stunned how long it took to get the evacuation order, and by then many homes in the area were on fire.
    * Of the 17 deaths confirmed so far in the fire, all of them occurred in the area west of Lake Avenue, records show. More than 7,000 homes were burned overall in the fire.

    [R]ecords reviewed by The Times show that Altadena neighborhoods west of North Lake Avenue did not get electronic evacuation orders until 3:25 a.m. and never received evacuation warnings. By then, burning embers were raining down on neighborhoods on the west side of Altadena and igniting homes.

    The first radio report of fire west of Lake came at 10:51 p.m. on the 500 block of East Calaveras Street. Subsequent calls at 11:42 p.m. and 11:55 p.m. relayed reports of additional fires on the same block.

    By 2 a.m., witnesses said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department patrols were driving down streets west of Lake and using loudspeakers to urge people to evacuate.

    The fire ended up decimating western Altadena, burning large swaths of the community from New York Drive north to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In total, more than 7,000 structures were burned. While the search for victims continues, L.A. coroners office records indicate all the deaths occurred west of Lake.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  240. all the above should be blockquoted

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  241. Still more fire idiocy:

    Apparently, state law prevents any housing rental to exceed $10,000/month during a state of emergency. However, this is LESS than the pre-fire going rate for house rentals in many parts of West L.A., corresponding to a house worth about $2 million, which is hardly uncommon in that area.

    So, people who might normally rent out a house to the wealthy “refugees” are keeping them off the market while this cap persists.

    Kevin M (a9545f)

  242. > Apparently, state law prevents any housing rental to exceed $10,000/month during a state of emergency.

    Seems like this should be indexed to pre-emergency local rates. Probably has to be done on a county or city level (for rate determination), which isn’t ideal, but would be an improvement.

    aphrael (dbf41f)

Leave a Reply


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1457 secs.