Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Trump’s longed for birthday celebration military parade is on schedule:
When the Army celebrates its 250th birthday on June 14, a date that just so happens to be President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday, the streets of Washington, D.C., will be filled with marching troops and tanks as World War II airplanes and Vietnam War-era helicopters swoop overhead.
. . .
The final cost of this year’s event is unknown. While the Army is estimated to spend up to $45 million to deploy troops and equipment, the celebration is expected to require considerable security on par with a large-scale event like the Super Bowl or presidential inauguration.
Army officials said the parade is designed to tell the history of the Army, starting with troops wearing Revolutionary War garb. As the parade enters the World War II era, troops will march alongside period jeeps and an M4 Sherman tank while a B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft, Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport plane and four North American P-51 Mustang fighter-bombers buzz overhead. More recent conflicts will be represented with Army UH-1 Huey, AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.
Also included in the parade are 28 M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker vehicles and six Paladin self-propelled howitzers.
Second news item
The undeniable evil of anti-Semitism:
Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, with police saying the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested.
The two victims, named as as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.
The report notes that Lischinsky had a ring for Milgrim and they were to be engaged next week in Jerusalem.
Third news item
Trump admits many are suffering after his very own USAID cuts:
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its aid programs worldwide have been “devastating.”
. . . Trump was asked about his cutting most foreign aid by a reporter who said the decision had significant impacts in Africa.
“It’s devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
“I’ve talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and we’ve spent a lot. And it’s a big – it’s a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.”
The administration has repeatedly defended the cuts, saying they were focused on wasted funds.
I. Just. Can’t.
Fourth news item
A 31-year-old Danish national with no criminal record who has been living in the U.S. legally for more than 10 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine appointment to finalize his citizenship, according to multiple media reports.
Kasper Eriksen, a green card holder who works as a welder in Sturgis, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and four children, was unexpectedly taken into custody on April 15 and later transferred to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana
ICE officials reportedly detained the 31-year-old for failing to file a single document, due in 2015, around the same time the couple lost their first child in a stillbirth. Amidst their grief, they forgot to file Form I-751, the Mississippi Free Press reported.
More than a month later, the Danish national remains in a Louisiana detention center with dozens of other detainees, unsure about his future, where he might get sent, and without a date scheduled for a court to hear his case.
Fifth news item
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block an effort to open the inner workings of the secretive DOGE cost-cutting effort to public scrutiny.
The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Wednesday urging the high court to put a hold on a judge’s orders giving a watchdog group access to documents detailing firings, grant terminations and other actions proposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which was overseen by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
The Trump administration contends that DOGE, formally known as the U.S. DOGE Service, is exempt from FOIA because DOGE only provides advice to the president and federal agency officials and has no independent decision-making authority.
. . .
However, in a series of rulings beginning in March, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found there were strong indications that DOGE was actually directing cuts and layoffs at numerous federal agencies. That substantive operational role suggests DOGE’s activities fall under the Freedom of Information Act, the judge wrote.
Sixth news item
Just the would-be king telling a private company where to produce their products, or else. . .:
President Trump on Friday threatened to hit Apple with 25 percent tariffs if he does not move the company’s manufacturing to the U.S.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.” he continued. “Thank your for your attention to this matter!”
Cook has diversified his production locations. Besides China, he now has parts manufactured in Vietnamese and India. All of which has irritated the would-be king:
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, ‘Tim you’re my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion, but now you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India,’” Trump said.
“I said, ‘Tim, look, we’ve treated you really good. We’ve put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now, you gotta build us. We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well. We want you to build here,’” he added. “And they’re going to be upping their production in the United States.”
Seventh news item
FIRE statement on Trump administration revoking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification
The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to escalate its assault against Harvard University by revoking its ability to enroll international students is retaliatory and unlawful.
Secretary Noem’s letter warns that the Trump administration seeks to “root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses.” But little is more un-American than a federal bureaucrat demanding that a private university demonstrate its ideological fealty to the government under pain of punishment.
The Department’s demand that Harvard produce audio and video footage of all protest activity involving international students over the last five years is gravely alarming. This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected.
The Department is already arresting and seeking to deport students for engaging in protected political activity it disfavors. Were Harvard to capitulate to Secretary Noem’s unlawful demands, more students could face such consequences. The administration’s demand for a surveillance state at Harvard is anathema to American freedom.
The administration seems hellbent on employing every means at its disposal — no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional — to retaliate against Harvard and other colleges and universities for speech it doesn’t like.
This has to stop.
Since 1999, FIRE has fought for free speech and academic freedom at Harvard and campuses nationwide, and we will continue to do so. We know there is work to do. Whatever Harvard’s past failings, core campus rights cannot and will not be secured by surveillance, retaliation, and censorship.
No American should accept the federal government punishing its political opponents by demanding ideological conformity, surveilling and retaliating against protected speech, and violating the First Amendment.
You can read Noem’s at the link.
Eighth news item
If the Trump administration’s sudden assault on thousands of foreign students legally studying at Harvard seems unprecedented, it’s because it is. If the abrupt abrogation of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans legally living and working in the United States seems unprecedented, it’s because it is. If the sudden arrests and deportations of law-abiding immigrants checking in as ordered at government offices seems unprecedented, it’s because it is. If the deportations of other immigrants without anything like due process and basically in defiance of court orders to prisons in third countries seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.
And if it all seems utterly stupid and terribly cruel and amazingly damaging to this country, it’s because it is.
But it turns out nativism is one hell of a drug. The Trump administration has ingested it in a big way, and it’s driving its dealers and users in the administration into a fanatical frenzy of destructive activity. And the Republican party and much of Conservatism Inc.—and too much of the country as a whole—is just watching it happen.
Have a good weekend.
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (c767b8) — 5/23/2025 @ 6:47 amSo apparently to Boomer in Chief used a picture of corpses that were over 1000 miles away in his discussion with the South African President. What a freaking embarrassment to our county. It’s not just that he lied by misrepresenting the situation, it’s that he did so with such incompetence. With the entire power of the federal government at his disposal this was the best he could do?!?!
What embarrassing clown. The people passionate about this should be despondent. They had their time in the sun and this is the best evidence the POTUS could come up with.
https://apple.news/AmFMGTJ4aQNKMHH-AKAbrHg
Time (cf931f) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:05 amThe complete lack of competence showed up in several of the posts Dana highlighted as well.
Time (cf931f) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:05 amThe good news for Trump: this will not require a national injunction.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:28 amDemocrats invited accused terrorist killer’s dad to Trump address just weeks before heinous crime
Of course. The family’s politics lines up exactly with Democrats.
lloyd (69b064) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:48 amIf Harvard’s complicity in threats against Jewish students seems unprecedented, it’s because it is. If the Biden’s administration frontal assault on our immigration laws seems unprecedented, it’s because it is. If slurpee consumption by Nevertrumpers like Bill Kristol seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.
lloyd (772c51) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:29 amhttps://thefederalist.com/2025/05/22/co-forces-lgbt-on-christian-camp/
Demanding Christian organizations to compromise their beliefs in order to exist is why I know the Supreme Court was wrong in their school decision. It’s clear as day that the secular left is hostile to Christianity and doesn’t belief in a separation between church and government. They believe that their leftist beliefs are supreme and all must submit or be destroyed.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:37 amTime spamming multiple threads with his copypasta.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:41 amThe Supreme Court wasn’t “wrong” in its school decision. The fact is that the vote was 4-4, which means there was no decision, and doesn’t create a precedent. Blame Justice Amy Coney Barrett for recusing herself.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:57 amFrom Cornell Law School:
BuDuh (599ae3) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:12 amSeventh News Item
The Dog and Goat Show must really be feeling its oats to take on Harvard.
Reminds me of Tojo and Pearl Harbor.
With lip plumper in place of a moustache.
nk (6b748f) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:13 amON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF OKLAHOMA
It is precedent in the State of Oklahoma.
Which it already was. Unless disturbed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Which it was not.
nk (6b748f) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:21 amIndeed. Rip’s problem was a poor use of “and.”
BuDuh (599ae3) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:22 amhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/colombian-national-charged-voter-fraud-federal-benefit-fraud-and-identity-theft-offenses#:~:text=According%20to%20court%20filings%2C%20Orovio,applied%20for%20a%20U.S.%20passport.
Hopefully a judge will take her side. Poor thing…
Nic, she makes a mess out of your misogynistic immigration plan. That has to suck.
BuDuh (599ae3) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:32 amMaybe she can argue that she was “domiciled” in Boston and always wanted to shed her allegiance to her home country. Let’s give her a break.
BuDuh (599ae3) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:34 amThe US Supreme Court merely noted that due to the tie vote, the judgment by the Oklahoma Supreme Court was “affirmed.” The US Supreme Court didn’t render a decision on the merits, so there is no precedent that can be cited by other federal courts.
See also here where this past week five justices recused themselves from an appeal of a copyright lawsuit against Ta-Nehisi Coates, leaving the Court without a quorum. Therefore the judgment of the lower court (the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.)
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:37 amIncomplete thought in post `8:
Therefore the judgment of the lower court (the Second Circuit Court of Appeals) became the final judgment and no precedent was set (except in the Second Circuit).
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:39 amMuch better.
BuDuh (599ae3) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:47 amBreaking:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:47 amThere is precedent and there is precedent and even more precedent but only the first two need concerns us right now.
1. Binding or mandatory precedent which all the courts in the jurisdiction (including the highest court itself) must follow.
2. Advisory or persuasive precedent that a court may consider but need not follow. The U. S. Supreme Court uses this a lot, it kind of goes with the job since it mostly takes up cases involving novel questions.
nk (6b748f) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:48 am@22
Harvard is defending their massive revenue streams. Almost 30% of their student are on foreign student visas, paying the full freight of Harvard.
Although, strange that Harvard refuses to comply with DHS’ request, as it doesn’t appear to implicate any constitutional issues.
whembly (45287f) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:51 amUS District Court Judge Allison Burroughs
Appointed by Obama 2014
lloyd (84d827) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:52 amHere is the temporary restraining order against the government:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:53 amIt would be better overall if all foreign “students” were banned from US schools.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:55 amIt’s not about academic freedom or the 1A.
It’s about Harvard forcing taxpayers to underwrite their anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism.
lloyd (84d827) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:56 amGeneral Douglas MacArthur.
Appointed by FDR 1942.
nk (6b748f) — 5/23/2025 @ 9:57 amWe were talking about other kinds of precedents?
UPDATE: University of Illinois confirms international student visas have been restored
Don’t quote me under oath, but maybe 25% or more of students at University of Illinois campuses are foreign students and we love them.
Why do we love them, you ask? Because they do not cost the Illinois taxpayers a single penny. They receive zero financial aid from the State of Illinois. They pay full tuition from whatever resources they can muster.
nk (6b748f) — 5/23/2025 @ 10:07 amWhat money do we have to help starving people in Africa? We’re 37 trillion in the hole.
Ingot9455 (e01914) — 5/23/2025 @ 10:11 amWe don’t have any money for anything.
Sixth news item:
The problem with Trump’s tariff threats is that no one believes them anymore. His “reciprocal” tariffs lasted less than 24 hours before he walked them back; given the market reaction at the time they probably won’t be reimposed. His 145% tariffs on China have fallen to 30%; again, the 145% probably won’t be reimposed. He walked back his tariffs on Canada and Mexico for goods imported under the USMCA, despite his declared fentanyl “emergency.” He’s excluded smartphones; computers; cars and car parts; and electronic parts.
Trump needs to stick to his guns if he still believes that tariff “is most beautiful word in the dictionary.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 10:22 amIf your numbers about their income are correct I’d expect them to fight tooth and nail to keep admitting international students.
IANAL but I expect due process will be one of their claims. They may also claim that this is retaliation for speech that the current administration dislikes.
The TRO seems reasonable to me given the nature of the Harms.
Time (536aaa) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:07 am@31, Agreed. We’re fortunate that these are mostly empty threats.
Time (536aaa) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:09 amBingo.
Students from taxpaying families aren’t preferred, as they get a discount.
lloyd (bad842) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:10 amUSAID was an American soft power program, so someone will probably step into the void dismantling it opened. Probably China.
Davethulhu (468890) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:25 amI have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Davethulhu (468890) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:34 amSlave labor hardest hit.
lloyd (83e009) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:36 amTwelve people are stabbed in knife rampage in Germany before woman, 39, is arrested
lloyd (83e009) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:41 am@38 There are only two possibilities:
1. Right wing extremist incited by evil right wing rhetoric.
2. Random nut job acting alone in an isolated incident.
lloyd (83e009) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:42 amFrom the previous Open Thread:
The question remains what to do about the nuclear waste:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:45 amFortunately, a judge blocked Trump’s latest attack on Harvard, the one that banned foreigners from attending.
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:52 amIs the judge an Obama appointee? Yes.
Was her ruling correct? Yes. What FIRE said.
Pro-Hamas, pro-Nazi or even pro-Trump speech at Harvard and anywhere else is protected by the First Amendment.
This review article surveys some of the legal precedents. I quote or paraphrase from it below.
The Supreme Court has held that the government cannot proscribe speech for “outrageousness”:
It has also found:
Calls for genocide, mass murder or other crimes, however abhorrent, are allowable unless the crimes are likely to follow directly (e.g. inciting an angry mob at the White House to go sack the Capitol).
The law prohibits harassment that creates a hostile environment. Harassment creates a hostile environment when the conduct is so severe, pervasive, or persistent that it limits a student’s ability to participate in, or benefit from, the school’s services, activities, or opportunities. A hostile environment could impact a student’s school life in many ways. Physical illness, anxiety about going to school, or a decline in grades or attendance could signal a hostile environment.
The Supreme Court has held, in regard to Title VII hostile environment in the workplace “mere utterance of an ethnic or racial epithet which engenders offensive feelings in an employee” would not affect the conditions of employment to [a] sufficiently significant degree to violate Title VII.
A school becomes liable only when it actually knows about the harassment and is “deliberately indifferent” to it. To amount to deliberate indifference, the school’s response to the harassment must be “clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.” Justice O’Connor explained that, if there is more than one way that school officials could reasonably respond to harassment in a given instance, courts must give those officials room to decide which remedial steps to take since Congress has not itself specified any particular remedial measures that are required. The Court acknowledged, for example, that “it would be entirely reasonable for a school to refrain from a form of disciplinary action that would expose it to constitutional or statutory claims.”
The Court concluded that a school is liable under Title IX only for deliberate indifference to harassment that is “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims’ educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution’s resources and opportunities.” Single incidents of teasing, name-calling, or other common forms of peer-on-peer harassment among children, for example, are unlikely to rise to that level.
Dave (751db2) — 5/23/2025 @ 11:56 am“Slave labor hardest hit.”
Apparently, as long as a tariff is paid it’s no big deal.
Davethulhu (468890) — 5/23/2025 @ 12:12 pmIt’s only a TRO, so the government will have the opportunity to make its case. She said nothing about the merits or constitutionality of the government’s accusations.
Rip Murdock (b0526c) — 5/23/2025 @ 12:32 pmNuclear waste storage is solvable, technologically. The real problem is the political will.
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 12:44 pmThere’s obviously not a lot of political will for the past 16 years since the Yucca Mountain’s nuclear license was pulled. Congress will need to override any objections that states may have to storing nuclear waste for the next several centuries, but I doubt that will happen.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 12:59 pmIndeed. The political will to dump it in your backyard.
About 25 years ago, I visited WIPP (the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant), a DoE underground waste storage site in Carlsbad, NM.
https://wipp.energy.gov/
This place stores waste classified as radioactive, with trace amounts of transuranics, but not actual spent fuel.
We were considering the site as a possible location for an underground proton decay/neutrino experiment.
Dave (751db2) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:15 pmOuch!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:37 pmSome media are reluctant to mention murder victims were attending meeting to get Israeli palestinian cooperation to aid the children of Gaza. DU.
asset (ccd2ad) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:37 pmWhat’s stupid is this idea of enforcing the law, and not requiring it to make any sense. And usually accompanied by lies.
They pretend they are doing things that are justified like throwing murderers out of the country. But even those things don’t necessarily make sense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/us/criminal-defendants-immigration-deportation.html
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:38 pmNot to mention sadism, and to attempt to force people to do things they feel are wrong. There’s a lot of that. And possibly corruption hiding..
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:39 pmRelated:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/23/2025 @ 1:53 pmThis is interesting. I don’t think his father was part of it, though.
This could be interpreted as good news or as bad news. Good news: It requires some earlier level of extremism to reach this point and there are few people like this. Bad news: People with this history exist.
He belonged to some Socialist group in 2017 but probably went “underground” after that like some Communist Party members used to do in the 1930s and 1940s..
I think he probably had help and guidance. How did he even know about this event?
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/yaron-lischinsky-sarah-milgrim-israeli-embassy-shooting-948adf7d
This was ann attempt to prevent any discussion of peaceful coexistence.
Of course the premise of this event was not well founded. Slander and hatred doesn’t come from the bottom up, but from the top down and it will not be gotten rid of by working for friendship from the bottom up.
(although informers might be recruited and someone secretly opposed to all that might come to power in the next generation)
Hate groups and countries are not democracies.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/23/2025 @ 2:00 pmHe rarely comes up with his own lies.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/23/2025 @ 2:13 pmThe media and Democrats calling out Trump for the corpse picture are the same folks who wanted us to fall for the Border Patrol horse whip photos.
lloyd (f02071) — 5/23/2025 @ 2:56 pmRip, here is something from SCOTUS that you may have missed:
Happy to help.
BuDuh (c85533) — 5/23/2025 @ 4:00 pm@BuhDuh@16 Nah, it’s not like she attacked anyone.
Nic (120c94) — 5/23/2025 @ 5:02 pmGood on you, Nic.
BuDuh (c85533) — 5/23/2025 @ 5:23 pmJust a victimless crime, huh Nic? We shouldn’t expect people to be law-abiding, should we?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/23/2025 @ 6:06 pm@NJRob@60 You missed the precursor to this conversation, I think.
Nic (120c94) — 5/23/2025 @ 6:52 pmBTW, Trump’s latest tariff attack, 50% on imports from the EU, is as stupid as it comes. The EU is our largest trading partner, larger than Mexico, larger than Canada, larger than China.
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 6:59 pmAccording to the WA Post subhead, the 10/7 Hamas terrorist attack was about a difference of opinion about “where Jews belong”. Kimberly Ross…
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:07 pmBut trust the WaPo otherwise.
BuDuh (c85533) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:20 pmWe wouldn’t want these dirty foreigners like the future queen of Belgium going to Harvard, right? She’s an EUer, so slap that 50% on that b-tch and her country.
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 7:59 pmPaul, I’m so very worried about the future queen.
lloyd (059e2d) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:15 pmTrump thought Harvard would choose foreign students and government grants over anti-Semitism.
Harvard proved him wrong. Take that, MAGA!
lloyd (059e2d) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:22 pmGuess Trump isn’t the racist so many claimed he was.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:26 pmWeird how Trump is meddling in a private school’s admission policies. Again, what FIRE said.
Paul Montagu (dfc26f) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:36 pmWell, he has to throw the occasional bone to his college dropout DHS Secretary who, believe it or not, claimed college internship credit to complete her degree for serving as an elected Congresswoman.
nk (db9d9e) — 5/23/2025 @ 8:58 pmUS District Court Judge Allison Burroughs
Appointed by Obama 2014
You keep posting stuff like this. Are you saying they aren’t actually judges? One of the protections we have as a people is that judges are not all the same. But this is Massachusetts,, which rarely elects a GOP senator and home state senators have great say over judges. This is perhaps related to the idea that judges should reflect the political culture in their district (see also Amend 6)
Kevin M (187556) — 5/23/2025 @ 10:34 pm@71 I think he’s saying the ruling doesn’t count because Obama appointed the judge and therefore the judge is biased. But I notice that ppl who say things like this never find the rulings of Trump
Time123 (311152) — 5/24/2025 @ 6:20 amAppointed judges compelling when they rule against Trump. So I just discount it as partisan whining.
NeverTrump rises to the occasion on Memorial Day.
What a group..
BuDuh (67aaa4) — 5/24/2025 @ 6:25 amHillary is a Democrat, not NeverTrump.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 6:50 amBut you knew that, no?
Same as
BuDuh (67aaa4) — 5/24/2025 @ 6:59 amMAGAs sure hate facts. And simple definitions of words.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:02 am@71. She didn’t even read the petition before issuing the TRO. It could’ve been a cake recipe and she would’ve still issued it. Judges put the law before their politics, and Obama/Biden judges generally don’t. That’s how they get to be Obama/Biden judges.
lloyd (059e2d) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:06 amPffft
lloyd (059e2d) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:07 amCharles C.W. Cooke…
Trump’s “rationale” for employing tariffs on every country in the world (and one penguin colony) was that it was a “national emergency“, yet it’s not a national emergency that his president is still defying both statutory law and a Supreme Court ruling? It’s not a national emergency that a foreign company, its algorithms and content moderation controlled by the communist Chinese, is data-mining the personal information of Americans and still doing business here?
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:19 amHas anyone mentioned the new research on the Wuhan Flu shot that shows myocarditis being an actual side effect in young men and eggs destroyed in ovaries in lab testing?
Was it appropriate for the Biden administration to lie and hide these results from the public? Was it appropriate to silence and attack those who spoke the truth?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 8:30 amunder whose administration was the vaccine developed, rob?
Davethulhu (1f98b6) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:10 amDid myocarditis cause an excess death rate of a million people?
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:19 amSame as
Due to rampant misuse, I suggest that “NeverTrump” go on the nanny list
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:37 amShe didn’t even read the petition before issuing the TRO
She didn’t have to get out of bed to issue a TRO against that patently stupid and illegal order.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:38 amshows myocarditis being an actual side effect in [5s of] young men
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:40 amunder whose administration was the vaccine developed, rob?
No doubt Democrat-appointed scientists.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:40 amThe Trump administration is the one that bypassed normal testing to get it created. The Biden administration is the one that used thuggery and deception to distribute it and mandate its use.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:43 amIs there a link, Rob? Is it more credible than Creeping Sharia?
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:43 amSo I’ll take it that none of you have read the reports. Good to know you’re uninformed rathed than misinformed.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:43 amWhat a stupid comment.
lloyd (c5a4de) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:46 amA study in late 2022 found that you’re seven times more likely to get myocarditis from the virus than the vaccine. Note that there’s a link to the claim.
RFK Jr., the non-expert in medicine but expert in conspiracy theories and general crackpottery, refers to vaccine side-effects as “vaccine injuries”.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 9:52 amMyocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare. For example, one study found that the risk of myocarditis after a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was about 0.0002% in males aged 12 to 17 years
[Google AI]
That corresponds to 2 in 1,000,000 vaccinations (possibly comprising 2 shots) IN THAT AGE BRACKET. About 20 people IF everyone in that age bracket received a vaccination. Likely fewer.
Even there the death rate from Covid is at least 10 times higher in the same age bracket (900 Americans under 18 died from Covid, more if you count “pneumonia” diagnoses). The death rate to others that we exposed by unvaccinated young men is incalculable, but would seem much much higher. How many grandparents did they kill at Thanksgiving?
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:00 amSpencer Hakimian…
It’s even worse and more hypocritical than that because a significant amount of Galaxy phone manufacturing is in India.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:02 amWhat a stupid comment.
You would know
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:02 amThe point is that hard-core MAGA doesn’t give a flying F about legality. They just want all those people who they hate to be hurt.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:03 amOne of the reasons for Trump’s 25% tariff on Apple is because they’re moving their manufacturing operations away from China and to India but not the US, where the cost is way higher, as would the cost of buying a iPhone.
The irony is that Trump is manufacturing golf resorts offshore but not in the US. Do as Trump says, not as he does, no?.
Not included in Hakimian’s graphic is Trump’s new golf resort (with three new golf courses!) in Vietnam.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:13 amAnd I never hear MAGA worry about the ways President AOC might use the powers that Trump claims he has. Even if you like Trump’s ends, being cavalier about his means ensures those means will be used against you by smarter and more ruthless people in the future.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:24 amI live in West Texas. There is a low-level storage site in Andrews County, Texas, abount 100 miles East of Carlsbad. There are plans to make it a high-level site. There wasn’t much opposition until we started having earthquakes.
DRJ (a84ee2) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:36 amAfter Trump and Biden:
Amendment:
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:51 amuntil we started having earthquakes.
It is fairly easy to design for earthquakes up to Richter 5, maybe 6. Since we can now detect much smaller “quakes” to need to be more specific (not that popular opinion is much swayed by numeracy).
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:55 am*
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:56 amtoyou@97 Trump invented EOs, lawfare and weaponized government power. This is the sort of BS I expect to hear once the Democrats get back to doing it.
lloyd (16ec71) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:56 amMuch of the center of New Mexico is federal land. The real difficulty will be how close to reservation land the sites are.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:58 am#97
MAGA is likely to get a big dose of FAFO after the current regime passes from the scene. Thing is, hard core MAGA does not believe the current regime will ever go away and will do whatever anti-democratic things it can think of to make sure it doesn’t.
The real problem is that it may actually be necessary to be less than 100% rule of law to clear away the mess these folks are leaving behind. We’ll miss that filibuster. And the states of DC and Puerto Rico will quickly do away of that historic advantage in the Senate. We might even get a few constitutional amendments through to do away with some of the crappier Supreme Court decisions. (So long Presidential Immunity….Hello, toughened up insurrection provision. Goodbye bogus emergency declarations. Hello congressional veto. Goodbye unitary theory of Presidency).
Appalled (b85e7b) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:00 amTrump invented EOs, lawfare and weaponized government power.
Of course not. But he is expanding it to all kinds of areas and dialing it up to 17. Instead of reforming prior abuses, he is seeing just how far he can push it and is no longer even pretending it’s anything but lawfare. Or EO-fare since it’s not law.
Taking something like Obama’s cutting off of student loans to Oral Roberts for open and unrepentant racism, and stretching it to denying Harvard the right to enroll foreign students for a problem they are already fixing is at escalation in degree AND kind.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:03 am@104
You mean right now isn’t the Left’s FAFO moment?
LMAO
lloyd (16ec71) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:04 amAfter the left and right coasts secede from flyover country, where do they plan to store their waste?
lloyd (16ec71) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:06 amLloyd —
If you can get your head out of your tu quoque a second:
1. Is the current fight with Harvard a good idea?
2. What about the EO that specifically targets individuals or individual law firms? Is this a great EO idea?
3. Emergency declarations with inaccurate justifications? Is this a good idea that you endorse?
4. Is the current headlong rush to throw out anyone and everyone ICE can lay their hands on the best approach? You are concerned with criminals and murderers that are part of the immigrant population. Seems like the current ICE push concentrates on law abiding individuals, because they are the ones who are easy to get.
Appalled (b85e7b) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:07 am@108 Appalled, your questions could’ve been tweaked a little and asked during the past four years, but you decided to FAFO instead. Anti-semitism, lawfare and a grossly incompetent immigration policy deserved more than a “meh”, but that’s what you gave it.
lloyd (16ec71) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:15 am#106
My honest answer is that Biden and the woke beyond belief are getting a lot of FAFO, and the rest of the country is getting pounded with the collateral damage. During my young conservative days (yes, I had those), I used to posit in my dorm room pontifications what if a right wing government took over all the big government stuff you lefties feel is necessary. That dystopia I posited looks a heck of a lot like the Trump administration.
Appalled (b85e7b) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:17 am@110 Appalled, what collateral damage have you suffered? Be specific please.
lloyd (16ec71) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:21 amI share DRJ’s concern about nuclear waste in earthquake zones, but even that is technologically solvable.
I’m also concerned about the nuclear waste being stored in one Yucca Mountain basket. That never made sense to me.
It shouldn’t be hard to find ideal nuclear waste sites in every state that has a nuclear energy plant, places that are geologically stable and have good security. One of those locations are military bases, because many of them are huge, with plenty of excess unused land, and have the additional benefit of built-in security. In my state, there are plenty of spots east of the Cascades, in West Idaho.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 11:23 amSource? As far as I can tell that never happened.
Rip Murdock (631a75) — 5/24/2025 @ 12:04 pmTrump’s bizarre ‘trophy wives’ rant during life ‘tips’ ramble stuns West Point grads
Biden was never this unhinged.
Also:
“We’ve freed our troops from divisive and degrading political training,” he lied, while wearing a MAGA hat at the podium – no political indoctrination here!
Dave (9cfc8d) — 5/24/2025 @ 12:19 pmI thought he might be referring to this, but it has nothing to do with student loans, or Obama:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jones_University_v._United_States
Dave (9cfc8d) — 5/24/2025 @ 12:25 pmThe answer is “yes”:
Rip Murdock (8af2eb) — 5/24/2025 @ 12:30 pmI read Harvard’s lawsuit. Just as with the research grant terminations for alleged discrimination, the administration didn’t even pretend to follow the relevant law. They completely ignored the process spelled out in the statute.
Dave (9cfc8d) — 5/24/2025 @ 12:47 pmI’m shocked!
Rip Murdock (0130c8) — 5/24/2025 @ 1:18 pm#111
All the governmental firings, tariffs, economic instability. That affects a lot of Trump voters who weren’t looking for the policies bringing all that about. Collateral damage is a polite way to describe it.
Appalled (278d13) — 5/24/2025 @ 1:47 pmKevin,
your numbers are so off and out of date that I wonder if you’ve done any reading at all the past 2 years.
How many children should be permanently damaged due to your comfort?
Reminder, the shot didn’t prevent getting or transmitting the Wuhan Flu.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 1:53 pmThe irony, Rob, is that you’ve produced no evidence–no numbers–on “vaccine injuries”.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:09 pmBecause you’re too lazy and dishonest to look up the information. It’s easy to find.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:14 pmThat’s called burden-shifting, Rob.
You made the claim, so you’re the lazy one for not backing it up. It’s not hard to produce a link, so man up and do it.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:24 pmSpent nuclear fuel remains deadly for tens of thousands of years. No military base in history has lasted that long.
Ensuring safe storage on the surface for periods that long is hopeless – it has to go deep underground.
Dave (9cfc8d) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:30 pmSo you’re too lazy and dishonest to see why there is now a warning label on the shot.
Not surprised.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:42 pmMeasles has now spread to Albuquerque and Sandoval count (where I live) and has included 3 vaccinated persons.
Albuquerque itself is in Bernalillo County. Sandoval County is adjacent to the northwest and includes Rio Rancho, also adjacent to ABQ on the west side of the Rio Grande.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:51 pmReminder, the shot didn’t prevent getting or transmitting the Wuhan Flu.
You really need to learn math. I drastically decreased the incidence of both, just like almost all the deaths were among the (smaller group) of unvaccinated people. That you have no effing idea of how to analyze statistics is not my fault and yyou obviously are too obstinate to learn.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:54 pmIn France, where 68% of their power generation is nuclear, they are developing waste storage half a kilometer down, “hacked out of the 160 million-year-old compacted clay rocks”, although it won’t come on line for a decade. The French also recycle nuclear waste (see how those links work, Rob?).
I find it hard to believe that we don’t have the capability of developing several of those kinds of facilities in the US, but it goes back to political will, IMO, and commitment.
It should be no surprise to anyone that I’m pro-nuclear when it comes to energy production (including thorium), because it’s safe, reliable and there’s practically no carbon footprint.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:55 pmI’m also concerned about the nuclear waste being stored in one Yucca Mountain basket. That never made sense to me.
You know what makes no sense? Storing the stuff in “temporary” containers in major cities. But that’s what we do now.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:56 pmAfter the left and right coasts secede from flyover country, where do they plan to store their waste?
They conquer flyover country with killer robots and then store it there.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:58 pmAgain, ironic, for your being too lazy to back up your assertions. You claimed it, you back it up. That’s how it works.
As for “dishonest”, you’re the dishonest one for lying that I “pushed the 51 intelligence officials garbage hook, line and sinker”, and that I “took the bait because you wanted the lie to be true”.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/24/2025 @ 2:59 pmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jones_University_v._United_States
Yeah, well, I’m old and I conflate stupid people.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 3:00 pmIIRC, Jimmy Carter killed a plan for deep storage because it would not withstand the reglaciation of North America.
Kevin M (5e0549) — 5/24/2025 @ 3:01 pmEveryone has a reason why they dont want nuclear waste, and West Texas is a big, desolate place. But our concern is putting a high level waste repository in such a vital economic/energy producing area:
DRJ (a84ee2) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:13 pmI live in Nevada, and I’m fine with storing all the waste in Yucca Mountain. Alas, state and local politicians can’t resist the temptation to grandstand, fear monger, and play the victim card, with the result that plans to store waste there can’t proceed. All the money spent preparing the site has been for nothing.
In Nevada, coming out in favor of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is the equivalent of a speaker telling a MAGA rally that Trump lost the 2020 election.
norcal (cdf133) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:13 pmLow level waste is very different.
DRJ (a84ee2) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:14 pmAin’t no such place in California.
Rip Murdock (72590f) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:16 pmThat’s because the regions in France don’t have the political influence that US states have.
Rip Murdock (72590f) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:19 pm“What was that bang?”:
Rip Murdock (72590f) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:30 pmHow misguided was it that Angela Merkel opposed nuclear power in Germany? Is reliance on Russian energy safer? Methinks not!
norcal (cdf133) — 5/24/2025 @ 5:31 pmMerkel was played by Putin, which in part probably gave him the confidence to push forward on Ukraine, expecting NATO would be slow to reject Russian oil. It’s hard to imagine that her legacy isn’t stained.
AJ_Liberty (2383f7) — 5/24/2025 @ 6:56 pmPaul: “I find it hard to believe that we don’t have the capability of developing several of those kinds of facilities in the US”
The French are a bit more desperate: they have no oil, no natural gas, and very little coal. They had to go all in on nuclear to not be perilously dependent on others. Necessity is the mother of invention. I agree that there’s no doubt that we could go a similar route and do it safely. Still, we’ve been lulled into thinking nuclear is just too unsafe or that all we need to do is drill baby drill. Nuclear could by us the time until the next energy innovation and when we deplete at least oil. It’s just that neither side can think beyond the next election cycle or bend to any risk. We need an engineer or scientist to become President….of course Merkel had a tech background and she flinched….
AJ_Liberty (2383f7) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:12 pmHey AJ,
I’m happy you have returned. Now all we need is for lurker to come back. Dave came back after a multi-year hiatus.
I suspect there was also a domestic political component to what Merkel did. It’s too bad. I used to think the Germans were savvier than the French, but they aren’t when it comes to nuclear power
Hopefully Germany’s current leaders have better judgment.
norcal (cdf133) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:13 pmCouldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
I noticed when Mann won a bogus lawsuit that Rip posted about it, but now he’s silent.
Why?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/24/2025 @ 7:34 pmIt’s the same lawsuit, Rob, which Mann won on the merits. Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn were both found liable for defaming him.
Mann and his lawyers apparently screwed up during the testimony to determine the damages he was due. At issue was a graphic showing an inaccurate or out-of-date list of Mann’s research grants (which the defense did not object to entrance into evidence). The defense had successfully excluded an exhibit containing the accurate information, and Mann did not testify about the inaccurate parts of what was shown, but the judge found it to be sanctionable professional misconduct by his attorneys.
The ruling is here: https://www.scribd.com/document/838517788/DC-Superior-Court-Filing-Re-Michael-Mann
Dave (9cfc8d) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:37 pmDo you think the world isn’t getting warmer, Rob?
Dave (1d8822) — 5/24/2025 @ 10:46 pmI think there is this big glowing orb in the sky that determines whether we are a ball of ice or a habitable planet.
The CAGW watermelons out there just want to control people’s behaviors and destroy human life.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/25/2025 @ 4:32 amThat’s certainly right, but the sun’s luminosity only varies by +/-0.1%, repeating over an 11-year cycle.
Changes in the sun aren’t nearly enough to account for the rapid increase in average surface temperature (over 2 degrees Fahrenheit) during my lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#/media/File:Global_Temperature_And_Forces_With_Fahrenheit.svg
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:29 amSteyn compared Mann to Jerry Sandusky and Mann took him to court.
The court said: “That’s what we’re here for. Glad you guys didn’t shoot it out on Main Street.”
Happens all the time.
nk (28ba02) — 5/25/2025 @ 6:22 amhttps://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/10/25/urban-heat-island-effects-have-not-yet-been-removed-from-official-ghcn-warming-trends/
Some reading for you Dave so you can understand the data.
You’re welcome.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/25/2025 @ 6:33 amMann lied about his results, he lied about his losses, he lied about everything. No surprise he continues to lie.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/25/2025 @ 6:34 amFrom your link, Rob:
“Since 1961” is (almost) “during my lifetime” (I was born in 1963).
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:15 amApparently the dolphins and whales have been building underwater cities behind our backs, creating that pesky “Urban Heat Island” effect in the oceans, too…
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ocean-warming/?intent=121
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:25 amRIP actor Joe Don Baker (84). Starred in Walking Tall; and appeared in Charley Varrick and The Outfit (all 1973); and three James Bond films: The Living Daylights (1987) opposite Timothy Dalton as Bond, and a 007 ally CIA agent in the Pierce Brosnan-led GoldenEye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
Rip Murdock (0130c8) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:34 amMichael Mann loses big and Dave tries to spin it. LOL
lloyd (f3d4be) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:37 amBecause arguing over old news (especially something that happened 12 years ago), like spilt milk, is pointless and accomplishes nothing.
Outside of a few people here, nobody cares.
Rip Murdock (18b8f0) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:41 amComedy gold!
lloyd (f3d4be) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:43 amI prefer to discuss what is happening now, not what happened more than a decade ago. And whether Mann won or lost his lawsuit was pretty irrelevant then and is certainly irrelevant now, except for those who are emotionally invested in the controversy.
Needless to say, I’m not.
Rip Murdock (0130c8) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:47 amYet you posted it when he “won his lawsuit even though that was 11 years old at the time. Guess when your agenda isn’t pushed, you aren’t interested.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:54 amAs usual, you’re projecting your agenda on everyone else. I didn’t post about the lawsuit “even though that was 11 years old at the time,” I posted about it when the lawsuit was decided in 2024. It was big news, especially given the fact it had wandered through the courts for 12 years. There was no “agenda” involved.
Leave me out of your food fight.
Rip Murdock (0130c8) — 5/25/2025 @ 8:12 amDid you post about the lawsuit when a jury decided it in Mann’s favor, Rob?
Is it possible that you might be guilty of this yourself?
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 8:14 amTrump’s own 2018 National Environmental Assessment well established the connection between CO2 levels and global tempreratures.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/25/2025 @ 8:15 amBut Trump didn’t like the scientists’ answers so he sacked them in Term 2. Since an assessment is mandated by Congress, my expectation is Trump will defy statutory law, or write a one-pager that says, “We’re good”.
My interest in Michael Mann’s lawsuit lasted for the few minutes it took to post the news item and about five seconds after. As far as I can recall I never posted anything about it in the prior 11 years before the verdict and nothing afterwards. You’re free to search my posts.
Rip Murdock (0130c8) — 5/25/2025 @ 8:24 amNo, because Rob isn’t among the many commenters here who comically try to hide their partisanship.
lloyd (f3d4be) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:00 amSo “not being interested when your agenda isn’t pushed” is OK for Rob, but not the rest of us?
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:12 amPutting numbers to the “white genocide” in South Africa, some context below…
If that 87.6% figure as of 2017 holds through 2024, out of 2,297 murders over 35 years going back to 1990, means that 2,014 white farmers’ lives were cut short, or around 58 per year. That number is a problem, but there were 19,000 murders in South Africa in the first nine months of 2024, which extrapolates to over 25,000 for the year. South Africa is top five in murder rates, which speaks directly to their society and their government that runs the show.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:14 am@165 asset posting only his left wing nonsense isn’t being a troll
lloyd (c5a4de) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:21 am“No, because Rob isn’t among the many commenters here who comically try to hide their partisanship.”
Hyper-partisanship. It’s like a trained seal: my side is the best and the other side is the worst. Broad tariffs that change with the wind are dumb. This is just economics 101 that conservatives used to know well. Now MAGA has to pretend that tariffs won’t raise prices and create shortages.
Russia is a our geopolitical enemy. They want the US to fail so that they have more influence. They want to take over countries to extend their geopolitical reach and buffer their kleptocracy from liberalism and capitalism. This used to be understood by all Republicans, but conservatives especially. Few conservatives 20 years ago would question the value of opposing Russian military expansion or supporting NATO to stop it. No conservative would appease Russia by blaming the invasion on the victim. But our hyper-partisan populists here meekly accept it.
Conservatives have always been law and order, with an especial eye to the Constitution and following the rules. Our new gang our Machiavellian autocrats never objecting to Trump using the power of government to bully his opponents and perceived enemies. Today’s Republicans can’t quite bring themselves to acknowledge due process, free speech, or free association if it goes against Dear Leader. Today’s gaggle have given up their souls for the cocaine rush that is Trump. They’re actually political nihilists, waiting to bend in whatever direction Trump points them in.
So, yes, Rob really believes in stuff, but it’s unhinged, hyperbolic, and frequently factually strained. It’s like having Marjorie Taylor Greene posting here daily. It’s what’s wrong with the GOP…..
AJ_Liberty (2383f7) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:43 amThe latter isn’t really the right number to compare to though, is it?
What fraction of farmers are black, and white?
Whites are reported to own 72% of the farm land in the country, while blacks own 4%.
Also, the murder numbers (87.6% + 12.4%) add up to 100%, but Whites and Blacks – as South Africa classifies them – don’t make up 100% of the population. There are also Indians and “Coloured”, and both of those groups also own more farmland than the black majority.
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:45 am👍
Rip Murdock (7d2651) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:48 amIf nothing else, Rob didn’t run away and hide after Trump lost in 2020.
Calling out deep concerns about “due process, free speech, or free association” only when your opponents are in power is the very definition of hyperpartisanship. All you folks had to do was collectively call out a ridiculously incompetent immigration mess the past four years, but you weren’t up for it. Instead, you excused it. Your hyperpartisanship got Trump elected.
lloyd (ebc479) — 5/25/2025 @ 10:02 amConservatives still do, but not the MAGA right-wing, or the New Right as Jonah calls it.
Personally, I don’t deny that I’m partisan, but partisan for traditional conservatism and for what I believe is right. Sometimes there’s overlap with Trump and the GOP in that regard, but regrettably a majority of the time not.
Speaking of Rob, if his intentions yesterday were to impart information or engage in a conservation, then he would’ve linked to this “new research” (which he has still not disclosed). Instead, he tried to play a silly bad faith game. I dare say he’ll never tell us what these “reports” are.
Paul Montagu (bea1f1) — 5/25/2025 @ 10:07 amI think there was merit to Steyn’s defense to Mann’s defamation claim. I also think the $1 damage verdict recognized that fact and was not a result of Mann’s incorrect lost wages claim/evidence.
DRJ (a84ee2) — 5/25/2025 @ 10:47 amEuropean air carriers slash flights to the US due to lackluster demand:
Related:
Rip Murdock (01d85e) — 5/25/2025 @ 11:28 amI may be wrong about this, but it seems that people who buy the “commenters here who try to hide their partisanship” view may easily and mistakenly include those of us who have no loyalty to either party, and are somewhere in the middle ground no-man’s land in this polarized political landscape. It would be a mistake to make such such assumptions about people who can hold more than one thought in their head at a time about policy, who loath Trump because of what he has done to the nation, and who also understand what the end goal of the powerful progressive Democrats see as a win.
There has to be room for nuance. To see everything black-and-white is to see people as black-and-white, and they are anything but. . .
Dana (759c78) — 5/25/2025 @ 12:34 pmIf you’re not MAGA, you’re PARTISAN.
There are three layers to the dungheap that Trump perches on: The shills, the yo-yos, and the psychos.
The shills and the yo-yos are relatively simple to understand. But the psychos … nobody knows what itches them, nobody can say what triggers them.
nk (4336bc) — 5/25/2025 @ 12:58 pm@175 There wasn’t much of any nuance in the reflexive opposition to Trump. Nuance means getting behind a viable compromise candidate like DeSantis. Holding multiple thoughts in one’s head means calling out a nonsense immigration policy and calling out an administration and media blatantly lying about the physical and mental state of Biden, rather than running interference for BS. A little nuance among Trump’s opposition wouldn’t have handed him winning issues that gifted the election to him. Nuance was exactly what was missing, and still is.
lloyd (d014c7) — 5/25/2025 @ 1:10 pmAlways blame someone else for your choices. Ya voted for him at least 3 times, probably 6, own your shyte.
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/25/2025 @ 1:23 pmDana,
you were so NeverTrump that you resorted to making excuses for Biden’s obvious infirmary when it came to him wandering off as a doddering old man.
That was purely partisanship.
NJRob (4fc167) — 5/25/2025 @ 1:47 pmIn Nevada, coming out in favor of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is the equivalent of a speaker telling a MAGA rally that Trump lost the 2020 election.
How much of a bribe is needed? There must be a number. $10,000 per capita is only $32 billion.
Kevin M (187556) — 5/25/2025 @ 1:49 pmMORE
CHART
Kevin M (187556) — 5/25/2025 @ 2:02 pmStuff like that got us Teslas.
nk (be4e67) — 5/25/2025 @ 2:24 pmIf only Michael Mann had made a couple of hundred billion from climate change and spent one-tenth of one percent of it on Trump, eh?
nk (be4e67) — 5/25/2025 @ 2:30 pmSo I am clear, when the moderators skipped over Klink calling everyone he disagreed with, “The Bund,” was that because the rhetoric sat closer to nuanced than it did to black-and-white?
Looking for the baseline.
BuDuh (c85533) — 5/25/2025 @ 2:31 pmYou cannot be reasonable when dealing with unreasonable people.
Trump has perverted every conservative principle, every American value, and every Christian virtue, and giving even an inch is an invitation to take a yard.
nk (be4e67) — 5/25/2025 @ 3:08 pmWell, you are the Bund. Kinda like the lady I saw walking down the street from da clubs in OTR last night, if your wearing the uniform, you shouldn’t be shocked that people see you as you appear.
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/25/2025 @ 3:12 pmMore from the shopkeeper-in-chief:
Paragraph breaks added.
Rip Murdock (01d85e) — 5/25/2025 @ 3:25 pmThe fact that something is true (e.g. Biden sometimes showed signs of his old age) does not make every attempt to push that narrative (e.g. deceptively edited videos) genuine evidence of it.
Dave (1f70be) — 5/25/2025 @ 4:29 pmTrump backtracks (again) on Euro tariffs:
Rip Murdock (01d85e) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:08 pmThey told me if I voted for Kamala Harris, Leninism would be imposed in a matter of months … and they were right!
Dave (1d8822) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:10 pmComedy Gold! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Rip Murdock (01d85e) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:20 pmThanks for admitting you voted for Kamala.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:21 pmMissing that nuance thing again.
Rip Murdock (01d85e) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:39 pmEnthusiastic Bund at that.
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/25/2025 @ 5:52 pmAmerican Charged With Attempted Firebombing Of Tel Aviv U.S. Embassy
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:48 pmBiden Aide Admits Staff Did ‘Undemocratic Things’ Because Trump Was ‘Existential Threat To Democracy’
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:52 pm@188 LOL “deep fake” describes media coverage of Biden’s physical and mental state running up to the election.
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 7:55 pmThe problem several people on this blog are experiencing is that the rest of us are not playing the same game they are. They seem to be looking for (AFAICT)some kind of mindlessly partisan flame-war like what used to happen on the Hill before they closed comments or an echo-chamber like RedState. That isn’t what attracts most people to participate in the conversation that happens here. I imagine it’s frustrating to be looking for those simpler styles of posting, trying to force it, and then the rest of us not having any of it.
Nic (120c94) — 5/25/2025 @ 8:56 pmNic, sorry you haven’t been following the thread.
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:08 pm@lloyd@199 I probably got something different out of it than you did.
Nic (120c94) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:27 pm@200 Yeah Nic, if comments like “unhinged, hyperbolic” and “Bund” count as conversation to you, then you certainly got something different out of it. The archives are really easy to search. There were a lot more commenters and a lot more conversations years ago before the rest of you decided you weren’t “having any of it.”
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:38 pm@lloyd@201 If you read the archives, you might discover that the conversations many of those people were participating in (at least, many of those people who didn’t get themselves banned for flaming our host) weren’t either flame-wars or echo chambers. Sometimes they still stop by and put a couple of cents (sense) in.
(Nobody should flame the host. It’s rude and poor planning.)
Nic (120c94) — 5/25/2025 @ 9:46 pm@202 Yes… and no. Again, the archives are easy to search.
lloyd (61065e) — 5/25/2025 @ 10:00 pmI am counting down the days till the next election and doing what I can to help progressives running against corporate establishment democrats. More effective then whining about trump.
asset (acf7ef) — 5/25/2025 @ 11:13 pmVladimir, Vladimir, where you been?
nk (16e6b6) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:43 amIn yore house, and gone again!
Grifters are always hurt and surprised when they find out that they don’t have a monopoly on grift, and Donnie more than anyone.
SO UNFAIR!
nk (16e6b6) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:47 amPromises made, promises kept!
Dave (1d8822) — 5/26/2025 @ 4:59 amFunny. And Jarvis is not dead.
Paul Montagu (b38845) — 5/26/2025 @ 6:33 amMy guess is that he will just double down.
Not admit that he is a fool and a pussy-ass punk that Putin can play like he plays his own MAGA yoyos and that there’s nothing he can do about it.
Just that it’s not our war. Which he, of course, knew all along but thought it was worth a try for the sake of WORLD PEACE.
nk (911e92) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:19 amRIP Oscar winning French-German filmmaker Marcel Ophuls (95):
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:21 amOver 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid. Over 4 million able-bodied Americans with no kids on Medicaid.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:35 amOver 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid.
Not federal Medicaid except through emergency rooms. And when we let people bleed to death on the street because of their immigration status, it will be time for America to receive the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Some states provide non-emergency room Medicaid though state-funded programs. It’s their prerogative under the Tenth Amendment. No federal money spent.
nk (911e92) — 5/26/2025 @ 9:05 amBTW, you cannot get a student visa without a health insurance policy. Just so you all know since student visas are in the news.
nk (911e92) — 5/26/2025 @ 9:08 amPresident Trump’s solemn Memorial Day message.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 9:52 amJust one more thing the future queen of belgium needs to worry about.
SO UNFAIR!
lloyd (c6f163) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:15 amFake news.
The “over 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid” is the estimated number of persons served by state-funded programs that would lose coverage if states ended those programs to avoid the financial penalties contained in the current One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Source
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:28 amPresident Trump’s solemn Memorial Day message.
I wouldn’t read it, but I got the gist of it from the headlines.
Sick.
nk (c99815) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:30 am217:
Did it say anything about trophy wives?
Appalled (086272) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:36 am@218 Was he glancing at his watch?
lloyd (c6f163) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:39 am@216 LOL Rip thinks it’s “fake news.”
So, is the correct number zero, Rip?
lloyd (c6f163) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:41 amCorrect.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:53 amUnless you have a reliable source that demonstrates otherwise.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 10:56 amSo, with the speech at West Point–25th Amendment
For the bribery dinner–High Crime
For the bribery plane–High Crime
For the infinite stupidity of the tariffs–Misdemeanor
Of course, Vance would be guilty too. So it would fall to Johnson, I’m fine with that. Well, not fine, but better is better.
I’m sure would could come up with another 4, or, 000.
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:02 amThe CBO isn’t a reliable source. Got it!
lloyd (d24373) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:04 amPressing its advantage:
Trump’s grandiose claims about his relationship with Putin have a hollow ring.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:10 amYou (and NJRob) are confused. The CBO pointed out that the 1.4 million (now up to 1.9 million) who would lose health coverage are not on Medicaid but on state funded programs. The loss would occur if the states with such programs ended them to forgo the penalties in the OBBBA.
As far as I know there is no reliable source saying “Over 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid.”
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:22 am@226 Rob didn’t say “only federally funded.” Medicaid is both state and federally funded. It’s you who are confused. It’s a point about those here illegally getting government assistance, which you claim is zero because you’re being ridiculous.
lloyd (d24373) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:35 amMan, before the current invasion of Ukraine, I wonder if sH ever messaged Vlad that it would be smart…
Colonel Klink (ret) (9dbb75) — 5/26/2025 @ 12:02 pm<blockquote>Over 1.4 million illegals on Medicaid. ……..
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:35 am
Medicaid is both state and federally funded. It’s you who are confused. It’s a point about those here illegally getting government assistance, which you claim is zero because you’re being ridiculous.
lloyd (d24373) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:35 am
While Medicaid’s costs are shared between the states and the federal government, recipients are not divided between the funding sources. Some states have established their own programs, funded by their own taxpayers, to provide health care for persons not eligible for Medicaid, like illegal immigrants (in California it’s called Medi-Cal.)
NJRob specifically made a claim about Medicaid, not government assistance in general. My reply saying “correct” was in response to your comment referencing my post 216, which dealt specifically with Medicaid; whose the rules of are enacted by Congress; and forbids assistance to illegal immigrants.
NJRob’s statement is still fake news.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 12:06 pmBREAKING: Liverpool police respond to car collision with pedestrians
17 Reported Injured as Car Rams into Revelers at Liverpool Trophy Parade
Guess which is the MSNBC headline. Did those involved exchange info?
lloyd (fc3df6) — 5/26/2025 @ 12:14 pmCalifornia is also finding out the providing health care for illegal immigrants is very expensive.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 12:17 pmAmazing what zero means in your world.
lloyd (fc3df6) — 5/26/2025 @ 12:19 pmRip is just lying. He knows it. We know it. But he does it anyway.
NJRob (749677) — 5/26/2025 @ 1:26 pmDoes anyone think “newsman” Scott Pelley would’ve been hired had DEI been around fifty years ago?
“Non-partisan” jounos cashing in their rank partisanship. There is nothing new in this.
lloyd (fc3df6) — 5/26/2025 @ 1:40 pmShow me.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 2:32 pmIrrelevant to our discussion.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 2:34 pmThe law permits the use federal funds for emergency medical care for illegal immigrants; if Congress doesn’t like it they change the law.
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 2:37 pmLloyd,
the evil people who trash our Founding Fathers, call American history racist and deserving of being thrown on the trash heap whining that they are being oppressed and silenced.
They really aren’t smart. are they?
NJRob (749677) — 5/26/2025 @ 2:41 pmRip,
you said it wasn’t being used. Now you said it’s permitted for emergencies.
Which is it?
NJRob (749677) — 5/26/2025 @ 2:42 pmTrump announces pardon for former Virginia sheriff convicted of federal bribery charges
Dave (9ed913) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:02 pmFederal Medicaid pays emergency rooms for emergency care to people without health insurance including illegal aliens.
Anybody who begrudges that is not a human being.
nk (c99815) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:07 pmNo one is begrudging that, nk. Can you spot the squirrel?
lloyd (fc3df6) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:13 pmRob, chattel slavery was legal here for 250 years, and blacks were denied civil rights, education and economic opportunity for another hundred years after that.
You don’t believe any of that is racist?
Dave (9ed913) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:14 pmYour claim was
is untrue; for the reasons described here.
What is your source for this information (aside from Republican talking points)?
Rip Murdock (ad3705) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:40 pmRope a Dope:
Rip Murdock (121c73) — 5/26/2025 @ 3:51 pm“tariff tennis” is a nice play on words, although tennis is a game with pretty clear logic to it.
The mad king’s tariffs bear a stronger resemblance to the pointless, and puerile, “52 pickup”
Dave (9ed913) — 5/26/2025 @ 4:56 pmSo the number is accurate. Good to know.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 5/26/2025 @ 5:03 pmUm, DSCSA’s source is one of his own comments, where he shows the CBO says NJRob is 100% correct that 1.4 million non citizens would lose medicaid coverage.
nk’s got a point that people showing up to the ER needing help should get it. Beyond that, it’s amazing how much you guys talk out of both sides of your mouth trying to lie. I imagine the CBO estimate is not perfect, given it’s an estimate, but NJRob was arguing in good faith. I don’t see how anyone here has been fair to him.
Dustin (278692) — 5/26/2025 @ 5:46 pmWhich, of course, is the exact opposite of what the CBO said:
Reading comprehension is fundamental.
Rip Murdock (d6d95d) — 5/26/2025 @ 6:31 pmIn TrumpWorld, it’s a character flaw.
Dave (9ed913) — 5/26/2025 @ 7:23 pm@249 is Dscsa back? If so welcome back! I would like to see everyone back.
asset (3232b0) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:16 pmNo longer range restrictions on weapons sent to Ukraine that should make things interesting. A long time ago DeGrasse sailed to the chesapeake bay to counter royal navy.
asset (3232b0) — 5/26/2025 @ 8:25 pmRob, chattel slavery was legal here for 250 years, and blacks were denied civil rights, education and economic opportunity for another hundred years after that.
The 20-30 years after the Civil War were not that one-sided. There was significant Republican support for freedman’s rights even after the end of Reconstruction. The major losses were mostly at the hands of the Supreme Court as it turns out, from Cruikshank to Plessy, as the post-War settlement was undone by propaganda and the GOP turning away from Lincoln, much as they are turning away from Reagan now.
But Jim Crow wasn’t an institution until the late 1890s with Plessy in 1896. Most of the disenfranchisement happened after Plessy put the final nails in the 14th Amendment.
This isn’t to say that it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t monolithic or inevitable.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 5/26/2025 @ 11:27 pmThe warp and weave of the post-Civil war 1800s were theft, graft and genocide.
Freed blacks have their place in that history in such roles as Regulators, the 10th Cavalry, or Judge Parker’s jail guards; but for the most part they were like the other wretched refuse of the teeming shores; tilling, and fertilizing with their sweat and blood, the orchards and truck gardens of The Gilded Age.
nk (22a4a6) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:40 amAs it was it is, and as it is it will be.
The rich tipping their jumped-up bellboy one-tenth of one percent of their wealth for their Big Beautiful Tax Cuts, while the people who make the rich richer are being persuaded that eliminating Medicaid is a moral imperative.
nk (22a4a6) — 5/27/2025 @ 4:23 amWhile I share the common consensus that Rob’s view of reality is somewhat hard to fathom, Why do I want to spend money on social services for illegal immigrants?
My going in position is that we shouldn’t pay money for that. I can easily see possible reasons to spend public funds on Illegal immigrants, for instance in screening for contagious diseases or vaccinating for same, but I think the burden is on the people who want to spend that money to justify how it’s for the public good.
Time (3f9afe) — 5/27/2025 @ 6:50 amAlso it’s oblivious that when someone shows up to the ER having a heart attack or bleeding the only decent thing a society can do is try to save their life and I fully support that.
Time (3f9afe) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:09 am@129
Actually, depends on what you mean by “temporary” comtainers.
The industry standard storage facilities for those waste are more than fine.
It’s NIMBY’ism the problem.
whembly (35fa91) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:13 am@185
See, the problem here nk, is that you’re making everything about Trump.
Even Trump voters don’t do that.
Because in doing so, makes one a wee bit unreadable…eh?
whembly (35fa91) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:20 am@212
“Siri… how does money work?”
Siri: Look up “fungible”.
whembly (35fa91) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:52 am@213
BTW, student visas are not illegal aliens.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
whembly (35fa91) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:53 amThe warp and weave of the post-Civil war 1800s were theft, graft and genocide
Much of the story we hear is part of the Southern propaganda attacking Grant, who was VERY committed to Reconstruction. If not for Andrew Johnson, the story of the freedmen in America might have been very different.
And yes, the Gilded Age, where the Republicans became enthralled with the nation’s growing power and westward expansion and marginalized the “radical Republicans.” But it might not have happened that way, without Johnson’s support of the former Confederacy.
The Indian genocide is another matter entirely. It would have happened even if the Civil War had not.
Kevin M (dcd6be) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:55 amThe industry standard storage facilities for those waste are more than fine.
There is no acceptable storage in an urban setting. They are too vulnerable to direct action and the consequences would be terrible.
Kevin M (dcd6be) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:56 am@248
nk’s point is a poorman’s strawman because illegals having access to the ER (legal under EMTALA) is totally different than illegals having access to medicaid.
whembly (35fa91) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:58 amBTW, student visas are not illegal aliens.
OK, how about Biden visas?
Kevin M (dcd6be) — 5/27/2025 @ 7:58 am@263
That’s a bit of fearmongering. In any case, no need to place them in “urban settings”.
We have space here in the boonies.
The same sort of storage security seen at existing power plants (even nuclear) would suffice for storage for wastes.
whembly (6baf52) — 5/27/2025 @ 8:41 am@265
Those are legal too, until they’re rescinded.
whembly (6baf52) — 5/27/2025 @ 8:42 am@257
Which EMTALA already covers.
whembly (6baf52) — 5/27/2025 @ 8:48 amThe amount of resources we spend on helping ppl that need asylum is a legitimate policy difference between the two parties. The Dem’s have done a terrible job at proactively making their case to the American ppl.
The GOP has done a good job bucketing all foreign persons as ‘illegal immigrants’ from a marketing perspective.
Time (3f9afe) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:00 am@269
No, I think that’s wrong.
It’s the media/democrats who’s saying any foreign persons are ‘illegal’.
whembly (6baf52) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:18 amExample?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:22 am> President Donald Trump announced he is granting a “full and unconditional pardon” to a former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of conspiracy, honest services fraud and bribery.
“Drain the swamp of government corruption” was a lie.
aphrael (ecd0bc) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:27 amThat doesn’t seem to align with the rhetoric I’ve seen from either party
Time123 (f6b2d2) — 5/27/2025 @ 9:58 am@274
Then please show that GOPers are saying “any foreign persons are ‘illegal'”.
@271
Who uses phrases such as “undocumented immigrants”?.
whembly (1f677e) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:43 amAn investment that paid off:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:53 amWho uses phrases such as “undocumented immigrants”?.
whembly (1f677e) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:43 am
That doesn’t equate to “saying any foreign persons are illegal.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:55 am@277
Rip, in the interest of teaching you something, rather believing you’re being pandantic for whatever reasons… I’m choosing the former.
It’s what Democrats/Mainstream Media/Commies/Marxists do.
They change the language to steer the context of the conversation to purposely mislead others.
Accept the premise the phrase “undocumented immigrant” makes it easier to conflate ALL immigrants into one bucket.
Ergo, any GOPers wanting illegal aliens deported are often confronted by retorts from the other side using “undocumented immigrants”, which the otherside maliciously steers the conversations into GOPers wanting to depart ALL immigrants (by dropping the undocumented wording).
whembly (1f677e) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:06 am> They change the language to steer the context of the conversation to purposely mislead others.
Like renaming the Gulf of Mexico to be the Gulf of America? 🙂
> which the otherside maliciously steers the conversations into GOPers wanting to depart ALL immigrants (by dropping the undocumented wording).
Meanwhile, the administration is taking people who were let into the country legally — like the Afghans who came here when we abandoned Afghanistan — and ejecting them by revoking their status (when the situation which justified their status to begin with hasn’t changed).
How do we explain that without assuming animosity towards immigrants in general?
aphrael (ecd0bc) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:10 amWhembly, the first one that springs to mind are the Haitians from Springfield IL. The second is what’s his name that we sent to an el Salvadoran prison.
But if you feel it’s otherwise I’m not going to argue with you.
What i see is the GOP pushing a nativist agenda by putting anyone here on asylum or for college or for other reasons into the same general bucket.
Maybe I’m misreading it, but I haven’t seen any real distinction coming from the administration.
Time (3eef95) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:16 am@280
The Haitians were beneficiary of a program called “TPA” I believe, that was wildly understood to be, if not illegal, abusive use of that statute by Biden.
Abrego Garcia?
Who, was a legit illegal alien and who already had deportation orders adjudicated.
Ok, just wanted to convey that I think you’re mistaken.
The focus has been on those here illegally.
You are conflating the Student Visa situation too. Those here on student visas don’t have rights to stay here and Secretary Rubio has full authority to deport any students on visa if they violate their visa agreement.
whembly (1f677e) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:25 amApparently in your mind; to me the phrase “undocumented immigrant” is a politically correct substitute for illegal immigrants or aliens. Thanks for uncovering this grand conspiracy.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:30 amThat’s the problem.
There’s nothing politically correct about it, as it seeks to minimize law breaking.
whembly (1f677e) — 5/27/2025 @ 11:53 amMigrant sounds innocuous and unthreatening
Undocumented immigrant sounds like a paperwork error and not very serious.
Illegal immigrant sounds scary and implies the person themselves is illegal, which hurts some ppls feelings.
Illegal Alien sound super scary and makes the immigrant sound like might be some sort of extra-terrestrial.
Illegals Also sounds scary and sort of insulting.
I think the impact of vocabulary on this issue is pretty small at this point. But I could make a case that any of these are sufficient to make clear who is being referred to in a discussion.
Time (3eef95) — 5/27/2025 @ 12:12 pmOr they wrote an op-ed he doesn’t like, has friends he doesn’t like, or even if he woke up feeling crabby today. It’s pretty broad power that AFAIK doesn’t have a limiting principle.
Time (3eef95) — 5/27/2025 @ 12:13 pmRight, they were here legally and were a focal point of the Trump campaign’s rhetoric.
Time (3eef95) — 5/27/2025 @ 12:15 pmNo opinion on if Biden’s use of the statute was abusive, but I don’t think it was good policy.
Ouch!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 1:15 pmLindsay Graham can stomp his feet as much as he wants about imposing sanctions on Russia, but his legislation will require passing the House and surviving a Presidential veto; neither of which is likely to happen.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 1:25 pm“Those here on student visas don’t have rights to stay here and Secretary Rubio has full authority to deport any students on visa if they violate their visa agreement.”
Revoking someone’s visa, not telling them, and then arresting them is a ridiculous overreach.
Davethulhu (468890) — 5/27/2025 @ 2:52 pmWould a Democratic president be within their authority to revoke whatever status Trump’s Afrikaaner genocide survivors have been granted, and deport them to a prison or labor camp in South Sudan, Zimbabwe or Haiti?
Asking for a friend.
Dave (28e1f6) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:15 pmNo!
Immigration is an Article I (Congress) power, not an Article II (Executive) power. However broad the discretion that the Congressional statutes have granted the Executive may be, it still cannot be exercised whimsically or arbitrarily.
nk (41bebf) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:24 pmRefugee status (what the Afrikaaners got) is a green card – what Trump revoked or tried to revoke, or rather terminate early, s Temporary Protected Status, which in some cases has been extended for twenty years but by bit.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:47 pmActually that’s an hallucination everybody has.
Immigration (as opposed to foreign commerce or national defense) is a state power, certainly once someone is internally in the United States.
Congress has (textually) power only over naturalization. Remember, the Know Nothing Party never proposed an immigration law. When Blacks were not considered citizens, states like Ohio enacted laws to exclude them.
See the Tenth amendment, and then there’s this in Article I:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-9/
From this we see that states have the power to admit people. (but not to give them citizenship – and they also can pass various discriminatory laws against noncitizens)
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:55 pmI read over the weekend that Memorial Day only got its name changed from Decoration Day in 1967. In 1967,
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/27/2025 @ 3:59 pmRIP:
Former Congressman Charlie Rangel. he got caught up in ethics issues at the end.
Former Congressman Peter King’s brother Kevin.
Former Congressman Joe Crowley’s son, age 25.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/27/2025 @ 4:01 pmhttps://www.newser.com/story/336909/leading-honesty-scholar-accused-of-dishonesty.html
Harvard seems to pursue academic fraud more intensively o more readily than disruption. Although it’s doing that now too – just wants to be in control of the punishment.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 5/27/2025 @ 4:04 pmMaybe that was the Old Way of doing things, but our President, Mr. Donald J. Trump, has shown us the New Way.
Dave (28e1f6) — 5/27/2025 @ 5:36 pmI guess then the Supreme Court then has been hallucinating for decades.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/27/2025 @ 5:49 pmActually, Trump is not currently our President. His occupancy of the White House is illegitimate as are all his appointments and executive orders and, I expect, every bill he signs into law.
The 22nd Amendment is clear and unambiguous:
By his own admission, in fact his often repeated and loudly-stated claim, he was elected to the office of the President in 2016 and in 2020. BY A LANDSLIDE in 2020, in his very own words.
I don’t know why he was even allowed to run in 2024 in the first place.
nk (41bebf) — 5/27/2025 @ 6:10 pmHe’s the chosen of God.
Dave (1d8822) — 5/27/2025 @ 6:13 pmI know what you all will say. Trump did not assume office after the 2020 election, Biden did.
I don’t see how that matters. The 22nd Amendment does not say “serve in” it says “elected to”.
Either English is the official language of the United States or it isn’t.
nk (41bebf) — 5/27/2025 @ 6:16 pmHallucination explains a lot of comments on this site.
lloyd (c36060) — 5/27/2025 @ 6:42 pmFor my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law.
Dave (1d8822) — 5/27/2025 @ 10:08 pm@304 The confession of a Biden supporter.
lloyd (262cc3) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:59 amLloyd, did you read the link and do you have any thoughts about this use of the pardon power?
Time (c208ac) — 5/28/2025 @ 6:29 amgoogle it, Time
lloyd (e0f14b) — 5/28/2025 @ 6:47 am@306
I really don’t have a strong opinion on pardon powers anymore.
Only to comment that at least Trump is more upfront about this than other Presidents trying to sneak mass pardons at the end of their Presidency.
whembly (551929) — 5/28/2025 @ 6:49 amFor my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law.
Nah! The real meaning of “Golden Dome”. Starting at $1 million, American money.
Runs in the family.
nk (e84530) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:18 amIndeed, the corruption is more upfront
The jumbo-jet sized corruption.
Paul Montagu (e0abdb) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:20 amRussian presidential aircraft.
nk (e84530) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:34 amIllegal Immigrant Arrested For Alleged Jet Ski Hit-And-Run That Killed Teenager
Good job, Biden fans.
lloyd (c27bec) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:43 amWhembly, what a Nihilistic point of view. Is it because you view the system as corrupt in a way that can never be addressed? Or because you view it as “if their side does it so can ours”?
Time (c208ac) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:44 am@307 I didn’t think so, but just wanted to check.
Time (c208ac) — 5/28/2025 @ 7:45 am312. I think Trump might have to be content with his kickback from some private detention center for that one, lloyd.
Where would an illegal alien find a million dollars?
nk (e84530) — 5/28/2025 @ 8:35 amIt wasn’t your teen, nk, so why should you care?
lloyd (00268b) — 5/28/2025 @ 8:57 amThe Dog and Goat Show have been doing that, haven’t they? Taking criminal aliens out of state and local criminal justice systems and into ICE custody prior to deporting them?
Is it to pad only their detention and deportation numbers?
nk (e84530) — 5/28/2025 @ 8:59 amI’m sure you’re not including the mass pardons Trump issued on Jan. 13th; Jan. 19th; and Jan. 21st, 2021 on his way out the door.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 9:10 amCorrection: Trump’s last pardon of his first term was on January 20, 2021.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 9:11 amNihilism is a feature, not a bug.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 9:12 amElon Musk says Trump’s spending bill undermines the work DOGE has been doing
You were used, Billy Breakenridge! To redistribute the patronage, and to torment Trump’s “enemies” for the entertainment of his fan club. You haven’t gotten that yet?
nk (e84530) — 5/28/2025 @ 9:35 amSlander.
Dave (ffb911) — 5/28/2025 @ 11:28 amAt best your version of Trump’s quote is misleading. The full post says
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 1:50 pmThis nomination should make an interesting confirmation hearing.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 2:23 pmA federal trade court just blocked Trump’s worldwide tariff attack.
Under the Roy Cohn Doctrine, Trump will of course appeal this all the way to the Supremes, who should uphold because there’s no “national emergency” anywhere that justifies Trump’s actions, IMO.
Paul Montagu (07689a) — 5/28/2025 @ 4:44 pmI don’t see that as a problem; it is the right of every party to litigation to appeal.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 4:54 pmI didn’t say it wasn’t. I was just saying what is, given his long track record.
Paul Montagu (07689a) — 5/28/2025 @ 4:57 pmIf the trade court had decided the other way, no doubt the plaintiffs would have appealed “all the way to the Supremes.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 4:59 pmTrump isn’t thrilled with the “TACO trade”:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:06 pmHere is the opinion from the Court of International Trade blocking the “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:20 pmMahmoud Khalil‘s motion for a preliminary injunction has been denied, but a court found that the attempt to deport Khalil due to Secretary of State Rubio’s determination that he negatively impacted U.S. foreign policy is likely unconstitutional.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:33 pmThat’s a hypothetical and speculation. Trump has a long record of appealing losing cases regardless of their validity. You don’t know that about the folks at Reason.
Bold mine.
Paul Montagu (07689a) — 5/28/2025 @ 5:56 pmIf the trade court had decided the other way, no doubt the plaintiffs would have appealed “all the way to the Supremes.”
After they recovered from witnessing outright insanity and “checked for pods.”
Kevin M (f9cb10) — 5/28/2025 @ 9:46 pmVoyager 2 retransmits message from space. Trump angry (afraid?) No wonder he wants a space force!
asset (fc32ba) — 5/28/2025 @ 10:18 pmRFK Jr strikes again.
HHS cancels funding for Moderna to develop vaccines to combat bird flu
By whom? Not actual immunology professionals. They were all fired because their training causes them a pro-vaccine bias. Luckily bird flu is so innocuous that RFK Jr has volunteered to be injected with the virus to show that ivermectin can cure it.
Kevin M (5c7862) — 5/29/2025 @ 5:27 pmI doubt the plaintiffs would have taken a contrary ruling lying down.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/29/2025 @ 5:34 pmTrump’s voters are getting what they wanted.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 5/29/2025 @ 5:37 pmDisgraced former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik (69) has died.
Rip Murdock (261350) — 5/29/2025 @ 7:48 pmRFK Jr. was always a non-credible crank, and not just on vaccines.
RFK Jr. testified before Congress that, “My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant…I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” but his opinions about anything are irrelevant, and mostly wrong. No one should take any advice from him.
A prior WA Post report notes his sketchy scholarship.
Paul Montagu (07689a) — 5/29/2025 @ 8:43 pmThe last grandson of President John Tyler just passed away. Those three generations of his family span almost the entirety of US history.
John Tyler was born in 1790, while George Washington was president. He was the first vice president to succeed in office after William Henry Harrison died a month after inauguration. His party, the Whigs, expelled him, and he left office in 1845.
After his first wife died in 1842, he remarried a 24 year-old in 1844, when he was 54. John Tyler had a total of fifteen children with his two wives, the 13th of whom, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, was born in 1853 (his father was 63 at the time).
Lyon Gardiner Tyler also remarried late in life, and (at the age of 75!) sired Harrison Ruffin Tyler in 1928.
Harrison Ruffin just passed away at age 96.
I’m out of gift links for the month, but the story is here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/us/politics/harrison-ruffin-tyler-dead.html
Dave (d3f316) — 5/29/2025 @ 9:46 pmHomeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said a migrant threatened to kill the president. Law enforcement thinks he was set up.
Purge him before he purges you, Comrade.
Dave (d3f316) — 5/29/2025 @ 10:01 pmDementia cover-up, Day 129:
Trump posts meme saying he’s ‘on a mission from God’ featuring alt-right symbol Pepe the Frog
Dave (d3f316) — 5/29/2025 @ 10:31 pmBefore Dainna banned him from her blog, Pacheco used to criticize John Stuart for playing the clown nose game. What do you wanted to be serious? You wanted to be taken seriously when people tried to call him out for things. He said he would put the clown nose on and say he was just a comedian. I always thought Petko‘s critique was a little off base Because it’s reasonable for somebody to be able to say my day job is making people laugh, but I have these other thoughts and not have to have his comedic act held to the standard of serious discourse.
I think what JFK is doing here is a great example of it. He’s not a comedian. He’s the head of an important agency and people are taking his statements about areas under the purview of his agency seriously and asking him to defend the insane. It’s stupid and incorrect ones. For him to then flip and say hey oh shucks guys, I’m just some regular. Joe is ridiculous. Part of his job is to advocate for the policies of his agency. If his statements are at odds with those policies that is a legitimate cause for concern.
I did this on voice to text so if there are errors in the transcription, I will apologize in advance
Time123 (967b20) — 5/30/2025 @ 4:57 amDave (d3f316) — 5/29/2025 @ 10:01 pm
lloyd (eb8074) — 5/30/2025 @ 6:48 am@342 “I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline.” — Jake Tapper
lloyd (eb8074) — 5/30/2025 @ 7:00 amTrump appointed a 28-year old guy with a whopping 10 months of law practice under his belt to run the Office of Special Counsel…
…but he’s a full-blown MAGA and Andrew Tate and Putin fanboy, so I guess our GOP Senators with vertebrae of squid will vote “aye”.
Paul Montagu (92c87c) — 5/30/2025 @ 7:33 amThe primary mission of the Office of Special Counsel is to protect the civil service system from patronage and graft, and employees and applicants from retaliation and discrimination.
“Full-blown MAGA and Andrew Tate and Putin fanboy” is perfect vetting for the Fifth Avenue Filth Brigade.
nk (44eff9) — 5/30/2025 @ 8:00 am