5 to 1

Plus: Milei's abortion law, Shane Gillis' controversy, Business Insider's journalism attempt, and more...

Immigration/foreign aid deal stalled: And it's Ukraine that stands to lose.

Ukrainian military officials told The New York Times that on the eastern front, in places like Avdiivka, "the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian artillery fire is five to one," which means Ukrainian soldiers are being forced to conserve and put their own lives in danger when smaller groups of Russian forces approach. Russia, meanwhile, is being supplied by North Korea, Iran, and China.

It's an example of how American congressional haggling has a direct impact on the Zelenskyy-Putin showdown in Ukraine. Currently, America supplies about half of Ukraine's total foreign aid, to the tune of nearly $50 billion. But now, a deal that would have cracked down on the U.S.-Mexico border while supplying aid to Israel and Ukraine has collapsed in the Senate. To some, the stalled aid package is evidence that America is beginning to quench her thirst for foreign entanglements; to others, it's a gloomy sign that Ukraine may fall without continued U.S. assistance.

"Ukraine has found itself outgunned before," reports the Times. "In the first days, the military handed rifles from the backs of trucks to all willing to take them in Kyiv, as Russian troops advanced through the city's suburbs. Eventually, new American weaponry arrived, such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, and Patriot air defense missiles. Now, Ukraine is once again seeking ways to adapt and improvise by expanding domestic armaments manufacturing and relying more heavily on drones built from commercially available, off-the-shelf parts."

Ukraine has also self-sabotaged via its own internal corruption scandals, including one involving top defense officials allegedly embezzling some $40 million meant to buy more arms.

Milei takes some heat: Yesterday, news broke that the party of Argentine President Javier Milei, La Libertad Avanza, has introduced a bill to parliament that would ban abortion in the country.

Abortion would be criminalized for women who seek it as well as for their doctors, a repeal of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law, which currently legalizes abortion up to 14 weeks in Argentina (and forces taxpayers to pay for it so the government may provide it to anyone who wants it, free of charge).

La Libertad Avanza's bill calls for judges to have a great deal of discretion when deciding criminal penalties for abortion-seekers. Judges should consider "the reasons that prompted her to commit the crime, her subsequent attitude, and the nature of the fact" and prison terms should range from one to three years.

More on Milei—the good and the bad—from my co-conspirator Zach Weissmueller:

Javier Milei's swift action intended to transform Argentina's floundering economy provoked the country's biggest labor union to call tens of thousands to protest in Buenos Aires against his libertarian agenda. pic.twitter.com/WJn6ySB4UV

— reason (@reason) January 31, 2024

(And this episode of Just Asking Questions, with the delightful Marcos Falcone, touched on abortion attitudes in Argentina, as well as Milei's possible approach.)

---

Scenes from Berlin: 

(Liz Wolfe)

A Spielplatz (playground) in Berlin that's only for 6- to 12-year-olds. No parents allowed, no rules, no babies. A perfect free-range/free-play environment. (Reminds me of The Yard, New York's only adventure playground, on Governor's Island.) The kids had made a massive bonfire, which is part terrifying, part awesome. Can't wait to go back and visit again when my son is older.

---

QUICK HITS

• "Those who argue that the tax code shouldn't favor parenthood treat children as a lifestyle choice or a consumption good, like a Tesla," writes Tim Carney in The Wall Street Journal. "The tax code shouldn't be pro-Tesla, but it should be pro-human, especially amid our baby bust."
• Socialized healthcare isn't what people think:

All these dumb Americans who think socialized healthcare is the only metric that matters should go visit a cancer-stricken relative as they lay dying in an NHS hospital in Britain. I done that, friend, and it ain't whatever you think it is. It's not happiness and salvation.

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) February 8, 2024

• "Former Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley has long maintained that he cut off his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein once he became boss of the UK bank," reports Bloomberg. "Legal documents seen by Bloomberg News claim that he had indirect contact with the late pedophile financier for years after that" via an intermediary.
• Sweet Marianne, gone but not forgotten. She will live on in our hearts.
• Yes:

I wish these people spent as much time investigating the rampant fraud and corruption of our public servants as they do "exposing" the identity of anonymous fintwit meme accounts https://t.co/8S7X458c6B

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) February 8, 2024

• Very normal, healthy behavior: "Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions head to the polls to vote in a new government," reports the BBC.
• The regulators are coming for your paella. "A Spanish rice variety traditionally used to make paella is under threat from a fungus after the European Union banned a pesticide farmers said they relied upon, in another example of how the bloc's environmental rules are angering growers," reports Reuters.
• Truly:

These ghouls always use the word "resurfaced" like it's a dead body that floated to the top of a lake. No. You searched for them, like gravediggers, picking the bones of the dead. pic.twitter.com/5beftNUUT8

— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) February 7, 2024

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Spielplatz (playground) in Berlin that's only for six- to 12-year-olds. No parents allowed, no rules, no babies.

Der Thunderdome.

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[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Wer regiert die Barterstadt?

[TheReEncogitationer]

You know who else gathered children without parental input and would have no babies?
🙂
😉

[InsaneTrollLogic]

John Money?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Michael Jackson?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Jackson had a kid or two.

[Dillinger]

the Hansel & Gretel Witch?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Green Day?

[Fats of Fury]

The Pied Piper?

[Roberta]

Oh, darn. Too obvious.

[A Thinking Mind]

Angelina Jolie?

[Roberta]

The Pied Piper?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Mit Lord of the Flies.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

"To some, the stalled aid package is evidence that America is beginning to quench her thirst for foreign entanglements;"

Hey, I got a bridge in Arizona to sell you.

[JesseAz]

Mail in ballots remain 100% safe and effective. No downsides.

DoJ charges New Jersey politiciab with registering inactive voter ballots to be filled put by campaign friendly staff. Return ballots for the voter. Voters were inactive and admitted they never vote.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/political-organizer-and-former-president-city-council-atlantic-city-charged-submitting

Herr Sarc will be here shortly to call the DoJ conspiracy theorists.

[sarcasmic]

You're asking the wrong question.

The question you're asking is "Did any fraud or irregularities exist?"

The correct question is "Was there enough fraud to change the results of the election?"

[JesseAz]

I mean for 3 years you pushed the theory that anyone pushing voter fraud in 2020 was a trump cultist, petitioning states to investigate fraud was a crime, and so on and so on.

Now you’re retreating to “fine, there is fraud, not enough fraud, but you can’t investigate to prove the new assertion.”

Lol.

Your bald assertion while attacking any looking into voter fraud is quite the contradiction.

Basically youre to the "fine it is happenin" stage of denial.

[CountmontyC]

The left is so confident that there is no voting fraud that they refuse to let there be an investigation.

[Minadin]

Or any voter ID laws.

[Medulla Oblongata]

I respond to that by saying "Then let's make voter fraud punishable by public flogging, to death." We'll never have to have it enforced, right?

[sarcasmic]

From the beginning I've said the same thing. Was there enough to change the results? And from what I can tell the answer is no.

[Spiritus Mundi]

And what line of investigation would you base that 'no' on given there hasn't really been one.

[sarcasmic]

You're switching the burden of proof. The burden is on the accuser, not the accused. Because the accusers haven't shown any evidence to suggest enough fraud to change the election results, I do not believe their claims.

[TJJ2000]

Hut Hum ... The wild contrast of in-person to mail-in that gave Biden the win recognized by everybody.

[Spiritus Mundi]

You just believe what you want to be true, no evidence required, got it.

[sarcasmic]

You've got that backwards. You believe the election was stolen. You don't have evidence to prove it, but you believe it. You believe it so bad you've committed the fallacy of switching the burden of proof by demanding those who do not believe your claim provide evidence to prove a negative.

[JesseAz]

You don’t have evidence to prove it, but you believe it.

I'll ask clearly and with small words.

How can they get the evidence when it is owned by the state and attempts to get the data are threatened with criminal investigations?

Do you not see the irony in your defense of the elections?

[sarcasmic]

That's not proof of anything. What happens if investigators gain access to that information and don't find what you're looking for? Where will you go searching after that?

[JesseAz]

Your non answer is proof that this defense you have created is just an excuse for your own narrative.

I will ask again, clearly.

If someone doesn't have access to the voter data, and are threatened with criminal charges if they access it, how can they get the data you demand?

Fani charged Powell and an election official with illegally accessing data, as an example. Arizona threatened Kari Lake for posting signature matching (they didn't match) pictures to her Twitter despite the pictures being from a public hearing.

Your demand for proof is literally proof controlled by the state.

Answer the question. How can someone meet your burden of proof requirements when only the state has access to the proof you demand?

[sarcasmic]

Potential proof. Just because you claim the proof is there doesn't mean that it is.

[R Mac]

Sarc is so dumb.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Jesse, in this country, there must first be evidence that a crime has been committed, before an investigation into the matter may be authorized. To do it backwards - to investigate everything trying to hunt for a crime - is called a fishing expedition, and is generally frowned upon as a violation of liberty and generally results in innocent people being dragged through the court system for 'crimes' they did not commit.

So if you want access to the voter data, you have to provide some sort of evidence that justifies having access to the voter data. The burden of proof is on you and your team to provide that evidence. You all haven't done so. All you all have are conspiracies and wild theories.

[Medulla Oblongata]

“Jesse, in this country, there must first be evidence that a crime has been committed, before an investigation into the matter may be authorized. ”

It’s called auditing.

It’s done as a matter of course whether or not a crime is suspected, or should be.

It should be conducted by professionals not affiliated with the audited body, who have full access to all data, records, processes, laws, personnel, etc. Their purpose is to ensure that all stated processes and laws have been followed in a transparent and verifiable fashion, that all published results are consistent with the records, etc., and that no one is "cooking the books."

We demand it of corporations for their accounting purposes (SEC, IRS). It’s not too much to demand it of electoral boards.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

For all of the close elections, some type of audit was conducted. Even Georgia.

But, there again, there might have been Democrats 'contaminating' the audit so therefore totally rigged, right?

[Medulla Oblongata]

A recount is not an audit.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Does the law authorize "auditing"? If not, you need to first change the law before you can demand "auditing" of an election no on has ever found to be fraudulent.

And stop whining.

[JesseAz]

The accuser hasn't been allowed to access the data dumdum. You require a burden of proof on the entity that isn't allowed to get the proof. You blindly accept the state/left's narratives.

Arizona has even sent criminal investigations after people who try to gather the proof.

[Zeb]

Legally, sure that's how it works. But when there is a real lack of confidence in elections among a large part of the voting public, I'd say there is some burden on officials to help re-establish confidence. There's certainly plenty of room for doubt with the mail voting security gaps and the know cases of fraud.

[sarcasmic]

I’d say there is some burden on officials to help re-establish confidence

I don't think that's possible because the burden of proof has been switched, and you can't prove a negative. No amount of evidence can get people to change what they feel. There's always another rock to look under.

[HorseConch]

Maybe having results the same day would be a good start. We are the only 1st world country that spends weeks counting ballots. Voter ID isn't racist, that's just a good excuse to at a minimum call republicans racist. There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, even if every single vote is properly counted. Multiple states taking a break at the same time to stop counting isn't very reassuring, even if it was for a valid reason.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

We used to have them the same day, or at least by early the next morning. That seemed to change in the past couple of elections.

[R Mac]

A leaking toilet is not a good reason.

[JesseAz]

I have long maintained that if we want mail in ballots, the ID should be checked when the ballot is returned, in person, at an election office. They can keep those offices open for weeks. This is the requirement for day of voting, how is it not a requirement for early voting with mail ballots? It gives people plenty of time to find a short 15 minute window to drop off their ballots.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I have long maintained that if we want mail in ballots, the ID should be checked when the ballot is returned, in person, at an election office.

This defeats the whole purpose behind a mail-in ballot. Which is the whole point of course.

[Zeb]

Maybe you can't change anyone's mind about past elections. But it isn't impossible to build confidence about future ones.

[sarcasmic]

How? What is good enough? You'll get different answers from different people, and many will still declare fraud when their guy loses because there's always another rock to look under.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Read the discussion below. Ultimately the source of the belief that the election was rigged is that the big cities are run by Democrats, and Democrats naturally are horrible people who cheat and lie to win. You can't reassure people like this that the election is fair if they believe despite all evidence that the people running elections break all the rules. For every element of transparency that you bring to the process, they will just shift the goalpost somewhere else to claim that the evidence is fake, the process is a sham, etc., etc.

It is not about the election process, it is not about the election rules. It is about the PEOPLE. They don't like the PEOPLE running the elections and they won't be satisfied until those PEOPLE are gone.

[Zeb]

Hasn't always been that way. Presumably it's possible for things to change again. I think you are a bit too dismissive of some of the concerns about elections.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Sure. The proper new criteria for crimes should be did it matter enough. Now let's apply that to all the pet issues on the left, like rape, racism, oppression, climate, etc. Or even just voting regulations like ID requirements.

[sarcasmic]

Where did I say fraud shouldn't be investigated and prosecuted? Oh, no where. Nice strawman.

[JesseAz]

The last 3 years. I can probably pull up comments from the Trump/Ga call. I can definitely pull up the comments in the Arizona audit articles.

[sarcasmic]

Go for it. You'll have to do the usual and claim my words mean something other than what they say.

[JesseAz]

You mean the usual word for word citations I provide that you lie about and then cry victim or the words are out of context despite being your entire post? LOL.

[sarcasmic]

So you've got nothing. But I already knew that.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

About 10 posts up-thread.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

He's got a memory that makes a goldfish look good.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah, sure. Except I didn't.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

You: 'The correct question is “Was there enough fraud to change the results of the election?”'

So tell us, do you mean prosecution is unnecessary because you judge insufficient fraud, or even if a court proves fraud, the verdict does not matter?

[sarcasmic]

I said that fraud should be prosecuted when it is discovered, but the mere existence of fraud doesn't prove that there was enough of it to change the election results. I don't know how to make myself more clear.

[Minadin]

If you aren't allowed to investigate, you won't find any evidence. If you don't find any evidence, you aren't allowed to investigate.

If you bring the suit beforehand, it's moot, because you haven't been damaged yet, and if you bring it up afterwards, well then, too late, the damage is done.

[JesseAz]

And from what I can tell the answer is no.

Based on what evidence? Reminder, you've attacked any investigation into voter fraud called for.

For example, you have supported the left narrative that Trump's call to Ga was illegal. In that call he presented over 20k potentially illegal votes. You claim this was a crime when discussing the Ga indictments.

These illegal votes were from voters who switched districts in state and even included voters who moved out of state. All backed up by change of address data from the postal service.

So given this information, how can you make the assertion you just did. Trump lost by 12k votes in Ga. Less than the potential fraud just from the voter movement data. In Ga it is in fact illegal to vote out of district.

You have attacked any ask for a deep audit of elections, screaming recounts were audits!!! Despite those simply recounting ballots including any illegal ballots.

You are making an assertion without evidence as you attack anyone who points out how much potential fraud is in the mail in ballots democrats pushed for 2020. This is shown in the indictment above with how easy it is. You ignored and attacked reports of in person voters turned away by election officials claiming they voted by mail when they said they did not.

I could go on and on.

[sarcasmic]

Based on what evidence?

Based upon a lack of evidence. The burden of proof is on you.

Reminder, you’ve attacked any investigation into voter fraud called for.

No I have not. That's a lie. Everything you attribute to me in your post is a lie.

The burden of proof is on you. Not to find evidence of fraud, but to find evidence of enough fraud to change the results of the election. So far you have not provided it.

[JesseAz]

Based upon a lack of evidence. The burden of proof is on you.

Maybe the third time will work.

The evidence is controlled by the state and only by the state. They have threatened criminal action against anyone who looks into the evidence.

So how can someone satiate the burden of proof you demand?

Answer the question sarc.

We have given you the court cases involving illegal election changes, you hand waive them away as no big deal.

We have given you the comparisons to voter postal address change records, you hand waive them away as no big deal.

We have given you the voting numbers in nursing homes including people listed as invalids with power of attorneys in family members, you hand waive them away as no big deal.

We have given you the ballot harvesting videos, you hand waive them away as no big deal.

The only evidence you will accept is the evidence controlled strictly by the state.

Oh the irony.

[sarcasmic]

Again, the existence of fraud isn't proof that there was enough fraud to change the results. Also, a lack of proof is not proof.

[JesseAz]

Are you capable of understanding arguments being made? You keep resorting to non sequiturs.

How can someone gain the proof you demand when it is controlled exclusively by the state?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Sarc is working very hard to maintain the stupid necessary not to answer.

[Quicktown Brix]

Occam’s razor analysis:

1 Trump won, but the states are holding the evidence and prosecuting anyone who tries to access it. Multiple investigations into the widespread fraud have been curtailed due to the millions of people that are in on the plot including judges and election officials actively stopping all investigations. The millions of people that are responsible for overturning the election (which would require millions of “foot soldiers”) and stopping the investigations to reveal it are all staying quiet. Not one wants to get rich with a book deal/interview by showing the evidence. Three years later, the evidence remains hidden except for tiny bits similar to what would be expected in any election. Nearly half of US voters think Trump won, but they just can’t find the evidence it’s just always out of reach.

2 Trump lost

[JesseAz]

Not a really accurate summation of Occam's Razor.

It isn't complex to alter electoral elections or even commit voter fraud. The above story, as an example, was only discovered because Candidate A's team noticed Candidate B's team dropping off multiple ballots. The voters effected did not vote. The fraud was only caught by video.

We have the Time article form a year ago literally declaring how normal this type of fraud is.

Occams Razor is there is fraud, not that there is not.

Occams Razor doesn't demonstrate in any manner how much fraud there is.

Apply your narrative to let's say... DPRK elections. Does Occam's Razor claim Kim Jong Un is elected fairly and freely?

Your assertion here is entirely silly.

[Quicktown Brix]

It isn’t complex to alter electoral elections or even commit voter fraud. The above story, as an example, was only discovered because Candidate A’s team noticed Candidate B’s team dropping off multiple ballots. The voters effected did not vote. The fraud was only caught by video.

Sure. It just needs to happen a couple hundred thousand times in a coordinated effort and stay quiet and hidden. Not complex at all.

We have the Time article form a year ago literally declaring how normal this type of fraud is.

All day long we complain about how we can’t trust MSM. The Time article revealed no evidence. It made broad vague claims backed up with nothing. 3 years later, still nothing has come from that article. But this story, we believe?

Occams Razor is there is fraud, not that there is not.

Yeah, no doubt. There is some fraud.

Your assertion here is entirely silly.

Speaking of silly, did you hear this one?

Apply your narrative to let’s say… DPRK elections. Does Occam’s Razor claim Kim Jong Un is elected fairly and freely?

[JesseAz]

Sure. It just needs to happen a couple hundred thousand times in a coordinated effort and stay quiet and hidden. Not complex at all.

This is entirely false. It needs to be coordinated in only a few election districts. These offices are filled with partisan actors who consistently, election after election, violate election laws.

Your argument is based on a bald assertion that is untrue.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

It needs to be coordinated in only a few election districts. These offices are filled with partisan actors who consistently, election after election, violate election laws.

Then find some evidence of this conspiracy to commit voter fraud. If it has been happening for so many years then there should be some type of evidence lurking around there somewhere. Even the mafia couldn't maintain complete silence and secrecy about what they were doing for such a long time.

[sarcasmic]

Then find some evidence of this conspiracy to commit voter fraud.

No evidence just proves that they did a good job of covering it up.

[JesseAz]

I mean, even the case I just linked to invalidates your entire argument here.

1) New Jersey Candidate B won, but there was a list of infrequent voters, the voters were registered to be delivered by a third party, candidate A set up those registrations to harvest ballots, voters didn’t notice they voted when they did not…. go on for as long as you want.

or 2) Candidate B lost.

There are 3 elections that have been overturned in 2022-2023 from voter fraud, only investigated due to claims of fraud and video of ballot harvesting. But your explanation is that there is not enough fraud to effect elections. It is a cop out. We have an actual example of how it is a cop out in the first post.

[sarcasmic]

But your explanation is that there is not enough fraud to effect elections.

No, the explanation is that you haven't provided evidence to prove that there was enough fraud to change the results of the presidential election.

As far as this evidence you claim you don't have access to, it isn't proof. It might be. It might not. What if it doesn't prove what you want it to prove? Where will you search for evidence next?

[sarcasmic]

I ask where you will search next because we both know you won't accept a lack of proof as proof. You just know that there's a smoking gun somewhere. You know it. You can't prove it but you know it.

[Quicktown Brix]

I mean, even the case I just linked to invalidates your entire argument here.

My argument is that a nationwide vote would require a massive, coordinated effort that would be nearly impossible to keep secret. A single person or a small group committing fraud where the evidence has been revealed is not evidence against my argument. It bolsters my argument by showing that voter fraud is hard to keep secret because so many have an interest in the outcome.

[soldiermedic76]

It doesn't need to be nationwide, it need only be in a few districts in a handful of states. Remember the electoral college. You wouldn't even need it in every district withing a targeted state, just one or two districts would be adequate considering the low vote margins Biden won by in the critical states. Once you begin to realize this, it reduces the complexity exponentially. Target an area that trends towards your candidate but generally has lower voter turnout, harvest ballots, fake ballots, describe it as improved voter participation, and viola, you have enough votes to change things in a right election.

[R Mac]

It wasn’t nation wide, it was in a handful of Dem controlled, heavily populated areas, in swing states.

That all also happened to have overt shenanigans happening.

[JesseAz]

RMac and SM are correct.

The election hinged on a very few districts in 5 states. It doesn't require nationwide fraud. This is a false assertion.

[Quicktown Brix]

It needs to be coordinated in only a few election districts.

It doesn’t need to be nationwide, it need only be in a few districts in a handful of states.

It wasn’t nation wide, it was in a handful of Dem controlled, heavily populated areas, in swing states.

Even in that case, you would need to know which few districts to infiltrate before the election and coordinate your efforts to overturn the election. This needs to happen well in advance and will need to be based on notoriously bad polling data.

Then, (actually ahead of time, most likely) you'd need to infiltrate election boards, investigation agencies and the judiciary to block the investigations and court cases which would need to be state-wide across many states. Oh and everyone needs to stay quiet for 3 years and counting.

Or, Trump lost

[Medulla Oblongata]

"Target an area that trends towards your candidate but generally has lower voter turnout, harvest ballots, fake ballots, describe it as improved voter participation, and viola, you have enough votes to change things in a right election."

And for mail-in votes, partisans can simply "disappear" ballots for the other guy after they are opened (obviously bypassing policies and procedures meant to prevent this). No recount would ever find any discrepancies, as you can count all the ballots in the warehouse a million times and those missing ballots would never impact the result of a recount. The fact that these ballots are missing would never be noticed unless a roll-call effort was made to verify that people voted.

And not just election officials...mail-in ballots could be disappeared by postal employees with an axe to grind. A person with a sign in their yard for the other guy might tempt a postal employee to "lose" the ballot(s) he/she picked up from that house's mailbox, figuring there's a good change the ballot(s) are for the other guy and making the go away will improve the favored candidate.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So, SM and Jesse and Troll Mac right here demonstrate the problem of trying to 'reassure' people of the integrity of elections. They believe that there was a coordinated effort to rig the vote in a few key heavily Democratic districts. Their evidence for this occurring is either absent or based on nothing but rumors and conspiracies - except for the one huge piece of evidence that they think is in their favor, and that is "they're run by Democrats and Democrats are horrible people who cheat and lie in order to win". That is ultimately the "evidence" that these conspiracy morons cling to. The only way to 'reassure' them is to get rid of all the Democrats running elections in these cities. Since cities like Philadelphia or Detroit are not going to become solid Republican cities anytime soon, the conspiracy morons will continue to believe that the vote is rigged despite any physical evidence that is presented to the contrary.

To them, the presence of Democrats in charge is all the evidence they need that the vote is rigged.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

And for mail-in votes, partisans can simply “disappear” ballots for the other guy after they are opened (obviously bypassing policies and procedures meant to prevent this).

Yes yes, lots of things *CAN* happen. The election *COULD* be rigged by extraterrestrial space aliens manipulating the vote via mind control. How do we know? So instead of chasing every wild conspiracy, let's have some **EVIDENCE** first.

[Quicktown Brix]

And for mail-in votes, partisans can simply “disappear” ballots for the other guy after they are opened (obviously bypassing policies and procedures meant to prevent this). No recount would ever find any discrepancies, as you can count all the ballots in the warehouse a million times and those missing ballots would never impact the result of a recount. The fact that these ballots are missing would never be noticed unless a roll-call effort was made to verify that people voted.

Yes. This will work. Now you just have to figure out how to coordinate all of the right people in all of the right places (planned out ahead of time) make sure they stay quiet and that there's no accidents that will expose evidence later (3 years and counting.)

Or, Trump lost.

[Michael Ejercito]

Was the 2016 election rigged by Russians posting Facebook memes?

https://mtracey.medium.com/the-most-predictable-election-fraud-backlash-ever-4187ba31d430

Of course what happened subsequently was that even years after Trump had safely taken power, the corporate media’s top luminaries continuously used the phrase “hacked the election” to describe the purported actions of Russia on behalf of Trump in 2016. Supermajorities of Democratic voters came to believe not just that Russia “interfered” in the election, but directly installed Trump into power by tampering with voting machines.

[Quicktown Brix]

Was the 2016 election rigged by Russians posting Facebook memes?

Neither side is able to accept they actually lost. Hacked 2020 election believers should look to 2016 to see how the human mind reacts to losing, especially an unexpected loss: with denial, excuses and confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias let’s people grasp on to any rumor, accept any confirming evidence and reject any opposing evidence of what they wanted and thought would happen. 2016 differed in that the MSM, being almost completely dem, reported the Russia hack story as true. In 2020 they rejected Trump’s hacked election claims. I think Dems also finally largely accepted that the evidence didn’t support the Russia hack. Trump’s supporters still reject any investigation findings that do not support hacking.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Occams Razor:

Biden lost every single bellwether county that has predicted the winner since 1960. Biden lost AA and Hispanic voters to Trump. Biden didn’t campaign and had pitiful turnout at the few events he held. Biden lost 100s of counties that Hillary won in 2016, yet won by increasing his share in a few urban areas. Biden got 90% of voters to turnout in key urban precincts.
Historical rates of mail in ballot rejection went from 6% to 0.06%, at the same time mail in voting first became widespread. Videos of precinct workers destroying some ballots and curing others mean nothing. Videos of ballot harvesters stuffing drop off stations mean nothing. Postal workers destroying ballots mean nothing. Judges changing election laws passed by legislators was ok for 2020. Huge ballot dumps in the middle of the night when the in person margins were known were not suspicious. Kicking the poll watchers out on phony pipe leak stories and then resuming the count is legit. Democrats rampant cheating in their own primaries the last year sheds no doubt on 2020.

Trump was cheated, primarily in Milwaukee,Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta, which is all it took to flip the election.

[Quicktown Brix]

Occams Razor:

Most of that is more simply explained by COVID, increased mail in voting, changed voting laws (even if later overturned) and changing demographics than by a still secret conspiracy.

I haven't seen any of the dumped ballots, pipe burst, suitcase ballots etc. stories that haven't been debunked or adequately explained.

You could be correct that the election was stolen, but you can't win the Occam's razor argument with the current evidence we have.

[JesseAz]

Most of that is more simply explained by COVID, increased mail in voting, changed voting laws (even if later overturned) and changing demographics than by a still secret conspiracy.

That isn't an explanation, it is an excuse.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

That isn’t an explanation, it is an excuse.

Yes we know Jesse. The most reasonable explanations are really just excuses for the far more complex conspiracy-based 'explanations' that you are absolutely certain is the truth.

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

Quicktown, what was explained?

Why did the Fulton Co Georgia people say they were shutting down due to a burst pipe and tell the poll watchers they had to leave, then resume counting?

Why would mail in ballot error rate go from 4-6% to 0.06% with exponentially more first time users?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Why did the Fulton Co Georgia people say they were shutting down due to a burst pipe and tell the poll watchers they had to leave, then resume counting?

That is not what happened.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-georgia-media-social-media-e9a73462e39e7aa39683f0f582a6659e

CLAIM: Poll workers and partisan observers were told to leave Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on election night, but four election workers stayed behind, pulled suitcases full of ballots out from under a table, and scanned them after hours without any supervision.

THE FACTS: The video doesn’t show evidence of fraud, much less the “SMOKING GUN” evidence that Trump’s legal team claims on social media.

No one told observers they had to leave, and both an independent monitor and an investigator oversaw the vote count, according to state and county officials. Confusion arose when election workers thought they were done for the night, but then were instructed to continue scanning ballots. But investigators who reviewed the entire surveillance tape confirmed it showed “normal ballot processing,” according to Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the secretary of state’s office.

[Quicktown Brix]

Why would mail in ballot error rate go from 4-6% to 0.06% with exponentially more first time users?

I haven't seen this claim before and didn't find anything online. I can only find the rejection rate "the overall absentee rejection rate for the country: from 0.96 percent in 2016 to 0.79 percent in 2020, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS)." which is not so different.

https://elections-blog.mit.edu/articles/deep-dive-absentee-ballot-rejection-2020-general-election

Do you have a link or something you can share?

[Ben of Houston]

Sarc, there is something called probable cause. At the risk of being pedantic, probable cause is the level of evidence needed to get a warrant or begin an investigation.

The Trump movement data evidence in Georgia, at the very least, seems to meet that burden. Also, the clear violations of election law in numerous jurisdictions also fall into probable cause range. Despite this, there have been numerous threats against anyone attempting to investigate.

At this point, I genuinely cannot say whether there was sufficient fraud to switch the election. I seriously doubted it at first, but the sheer vitriol against any attempt to review it and absolute condemnation of anything but blind acceptance raises suspicion.

[sarcasmic]

I disagree that there is probably cause. These are fishing expeditions desperately looking for a smoking gun, and the people doing them will never be satisfied until they find what they want. If they don't find it they will keep looking until they die, because no amount of evidence can prove a negative.

[Michael Ejercito]

There was far more probable cause than there was probable cause that Trump colluded with the Russians®™ to steal the 2016 election.

[A Thinking Mind]

The regulators are coming for your paella. "A Spanish rice variety traditionally used to make paella is under threat from a fungus after the European Union banned a pesticide farmers said they relied upon, in another example of how the bloc's environmental rules are angering growers," reports Reuters.

I mean, he didn't "present" them, as in demonstrate evidence that these 20,000 votes were improperly cast. He asked about a rumor or story that he'd heard about 20,000 invalid votes.

[JesseAz]

This is incorrect. His team ran votes which show votes in which district against change of address forms. It had nothing to do with a rumor, but an analysis his team had available.

I'm not sure why this is still even a question as to what the phone call is about. The entire print out is available. His team even presented the report, believe it is public.

There are other voter integrity groups doing the same type of analysis in various states. They are using the data they have available to show violations of law based on the data they have.

[A Thinking Mind]

It wasn't a list. He didn't say, "Here's this list of names," he says they found 20,000 names. It wasn't a presentation in that manner, he didn't send documentation that was double-checked. It was also, to my recollection, a list that had been accrued elsewhere that Trump was mentioning.

[JesseAz]

He sent the names to Ga. It wasn't a rumor. You expected him to read all 20k names off on the phone call or something? He also sent the 5k names of apparent double voters, and Ga refused to investigate.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

so, just to be clear here:

Jesse, you expect that in Georgia, after the election had already been certified by the appropriate personnel in the state, after all of the appeals in court had been concluded, that if Trump hands over a list of names to the state that he alleges represents fraudulent voters, that the state of Georgia should ignore its own rules, hop to attention and create an investigation based on the demand of the president alone. Is that what you are saying?

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

“from what I can tell”

Serenity Now

[DesigNate]

Does it really matter if there was enough to change the results? Not in my mind. It’s much more important that the state not tie people’s hands behind their backs and be as open and transparent as possible (as libertarians we should ALWAYS be slightly skeptical of the government, and even more so when they’re like “trust me bro”). The more opaque the government is being about something, the more likely it is they’re covering something up.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Why is that the correct question? Shouldn't any fraud, by any side be investigated?

[sarcasmic]

Of course fraud should be investigated. But the mere existence of it isn't proof that the election was stolen.

[Bertram Guilfoyle]

Then the questions about 2020 aren't wrong.

[Mother's Lament]

"No evidence of fraud."
"No widespread evidence of fraud."
"No systemic evidence of fraud."
"Well, it wouldn't make any difference."<== Today's Sarcasmic
"Well, it's too late now!"
"Fuck you racist!"

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

As I get older, I have less patience for this sequence to play out for every new issue. Can I just register as a racist and jump ahead?

[sarcasmic]

Except for the part where ML is a liar. Because I've said the same thing from the beginning: I have not seen evidence to prove enough fraud to change the election results.

[JesseAz]

will 4th time be the charm?

Sarc, who owns access to the evidence you require?

[Spiritus Mundi]

*fingers in ears*
Blah blah blah, I can't hear you.

[Pepin the short]

Homeless people are not known for self reflection.

[Social Justice is neither]

With his head up his ass as deeply as it is, I have a hard time imagining him getting his fingers up there too.

[sarcasmic]

Potential evidence. Just because you claim it will find a smoking gun doesn't mean it will. And when it doesn't, what rock will you turn over next? Because we both know that nothing in this world will ever convince you that the election wasn't stolen.

[Mother's Lament]

"Except for the part where ML is a liar."

In which part did I lie, Sarckles?
Spit it out, shithead.
Where's the lie?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Duh, the parts he does not like.

[sarcasmic]

Wrong question. Correct question would be what part of your post was truthful and the answer is none of it. As usual.

[Mother's Lament]

How so, you lying fuck? I'm not going to let you weasel out of this one.

[sarcasmic]

Link to posts where I said what you claim or admit to being a ratfucking liar.

[Mother's Lament]

Here you go, ratfucking liar:

https://reason.com/2024/02/08/5-to-1/?comments=true#comment-10435652

[sarcasmic]

Except in that post I say none of the things you attributed to me.

[mad.casual]

[Turns around in line to claim racist label]

Dude, I've been here since Robby was 'to be sure'ing us about civil libertarianism and the free speech rights of racists. This line ain't moving any faster.

[damikesc]

Given that Biden's EC win was even more precarious than Trump's --- it would not take much.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Wait, this is the BIDEN DOJ investigating voter fraud? Don't they get credit for their role in trying to have secure elections? What happened to the narrative of "Democrats want massive fraud because that is how they can 'win'"?

[TJJ2000]

Eric A. Boden is committing "insurrection"!!!!! /s
Isn't that what the Biden DOJ did to the last person who made accusations of election fraud?

[Medulla Oblongata]

Maybe for the same reason dirty cops sometimes actually arrest criminals?

[Commenter_XY]

chemjeff, I did want to say that the 'teaching a dog calculus' analogy awhile back was pretty funny*. I will probably use it in another context. The subsequent tag team with sarcasmic was also pretty humorous.

*I am not talking about the dehumanizing aspect.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Why thank you.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

And Jesse, when you and your allies relentless push stories about every single instance of voter fraud that exists, devoid of context or meaning, you are pushing narratives and deceiving the reader by giving an incorrect impression that voter fraud is a bigger problem than it really is. They do this for the purposes of creating an emotional reaction in their readers and driving them to vote for their team out of outrage. That has been the right-wing media modus operandi since the mid-2010's or so, when the editors of Breitbart even admitted publicly that they purposefully push one-sided stories for the purpose of helping Republicans win elections. That is what you are doing here.

No sane person denies that voter fraud exists. The rational approach is to try to strike a balance between having reasonably secure elections, and having reasonable access for eligible voters to vote. You can't go too far in either direction, otherwise the vote itself becomes meaningless. But that is not what you and your allies want, you want to push the pendulum strongly in one direction, of limiting access to voting, in the name of 'securing elections', because you know that when fewer people vote, Republicans tend to win.

[sarcasmic]

I suspect that there will be fraud done by Trump's Deranged Supporters in the next election, and it will be justified by saying "Democrats did it first, so it's ok." You know, the Trump Defense ™.

[TJJ2000]

So when Democrats do it; its okay. When Republicans do it it's not okay?????
Wow..... Why is that not surprising coming from you.

[JesseAz]

That has been his go to in every attack on Trump. Always the threat of what the Right MIGHT do, while ignoring what the left is CURRENTLY doing.

[sarcasmic]

The key difference here is that I've never claimed that anyone should not be prosecuted for breaking the law.

You on the other hand use the Trump Defense ™ to claim he and his minions shouldn't be prosecuted at all.

[JesseAz]

Another lie to justify your hypocrisy.

An example. You continue to defend Biden's illegal records stating "he returned them when asked" despite that not being part of the law and he had records over 40 years old.

Your entire defense of your support of the state political trials of Trump is based on unique application of novel laws never used against politicians on the left.

You and Jeff were just defending the FACE act convictions 2 weeks ago, despite the DoJ admitting 70% of all attacks are on pro abortion centers with no arrests or charges.

You defended BLM riots and screamed about unmarked vans while applauding J6 arrests as an insurrection.

How are you such a hypocrite?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

He hung around White Mike and Jeffy for far too long.

[Mother's Lament]

He never did get into White Mike's pants in the end.

[sarcasmic]

As always every sentence in your post is a lie.

[JesseAz]

This should say 70% of attacks are on pro life centers*

[Super Scary]

Laying down and taking it is the only option. Retaliation is poor form after all.

[JesseAz]

Trump’s Deranged Supporters

And he coined it!

[TJJ2000]

What kind of voter fraud? This case really hits hard on the already massive election fraud tactic under scrutiny. Where massive amounts of votes were made in other people's name who never voted. Need you be reminded of all the people who went to vote and were told they had already voted during the 2020 election all over the country?

The massive fraud is so obvious. Counties running a 90%+ voter turnout. More people voted than ever before? BS; someone else is voting for them. I'm just waiting for their ... and I quote Biden, "most extensive voter fraud organization in history" to accidentally pump that line just past 100%. How's that one going to be shoveled under the rug.

[JesseAz]

Need you be reminded of all the people who went to vote and were told they had already voted during the 2020 election all over the country?

The state refused to investigate, therefore no fraud. - Sarc

[sarcasmic]

Not enough fraud to change the outcome of the election? Look under this rock over here. No? Look under that rock. No? Look under that rock over there. No? Keep looking. There’s an endless supply of rocks to look under. Keep on looking. Say what? They won't let us look under that rock over there? That's proof! They're hiding proof! We found it!

-Jesse

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

The logical response, however, would be to not vote.

Their red-blooded MAGA American vote will be shamelessly stolen by Democrats next time, too, so what's the point?

[SRG2]

Because nothing shows that the 2020 presidential election was stolen better than an instance of fraud in a NJ county in 2022.

[JesseAz]

So all the leftists are just this dumb. It shows mail in ballots are easy to commit fraud with dumdum.

[DesigNate]

I don’t understand how they don’t get that was the entire point of your post.

[A Thinking Mind]

It shows that there are vulnerabilities and mechanisms people can use to induce fraud, and very few allegations of similar mechanisms of voter fraud from 2020 were ever investigated, which casts doubt.

[Commenter_XY]

This is my state. Disgusting.

The People's Republic of NJ is just a corrupt cesspool. Don't believe me?

Just check out the audio with Senator Bob "Sticky Fingers' Menendez.

[JesseAz]

In trans news (culture war news if you criticize it), trans daycare employee sexually assaults infant, is reported, has 100k bond reduced to 5k, then is given zero jail time for the assault. And it gets even worse! If he manages to not assault another infant for 6 months the charges will be removed from his record. Any employment around children have record checks.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/trans-identified-male-daycare-worker-escapes-prison-time-after-pleading-guilty-to-sexually-abusing-a-baby/

Jeff will be here shortly to tell us the other side of the story and why this is a good thing.

[JesseAz]

In North of the border trans news... Canadian woman's volleyball game features 5 men on the teams, 3 on one, 2 on the other. Men never left the court while the women on the team rotated in and out. Team with 3 men won. Activists posing as fans try to stop Rebel News from filming.

https://www.rebelnews.com/we_went_to_a_college_female_varsity_volleyball_game_and_a_sausage_fest_broke_out_five_men_pretending_to_be_women_were_on_the_court_why

[Mickey Rat]

Which is the reason why if the the word "woman" has no objective definition and anyone who calls themselves a woman must be treated as one, why should there be a "women's" division for sports.

How the LGBT activists want society to treat this is irrational.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

It's compleatly rational if you understand that they are evil marxists

[Minadin]

It makes sense if you consider that they're all mentally ill.

[mamabug]

I recently reread 1984 and, as much as we joke about it - Dear God, it really is all becoming true with this fricking trans agenda.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Aren't you someone who claims to favor equal treatment under the law?

If so, then the real question here isn't if this person got a punishment that was too lenient, the question is whether other individuals in similar circumstances were treated more or less the same or not.

If your argument is that this person should receive harsher punishment because the crime is horrible AND other people in similar circumstances were punished more severely, then you might have a point.

But if your argument is that this person should receive harsher punishment because the crime is horrible, even though other people in similar circumstances received similar treatment, then you are not applying a fair standard by your own metric.

So to be well informed, a person might want to look up how other people in similar circumstances were treated and see if this person's punishment is in line with that. Notably, you did not do so, neither did your source, because the point of your comment and the article that you cited is not to inform the reader, but to provoke an emotional anti-trans reaction. It is lying by omission and it is demagoguery of the worst kind.

So, Jesse, do you know how other people with similar circumstances in this person's jurisdiction were treated? Did they receive harsher sentences, more lenient sentences, or about the same type of sentences? Do you know? Do you care to know? (Answer: no, he doesn't care, he just wants to take any excuse to bash trans people.)

By the way, the crime itself is horrible, and any perpetrator of that crime should be punished appropriately.

[Spiritus Mundi]

The Law should hang that sick fucker.

[Minadin]

He should be tried again in Florida.

[Mickey Rat]

So do you have any evidence that the person charged was treated equally with someone accused of the same crime, or is that speculation you pulled out of your nether regions?

[Minadin]

He wasn't treated equally. The judge reduced his bond from 100k to 5k to let him out of prison because he couldn't access estrogen treatments there.

If Jeff can find a similar case of a normal person being let off so easily for infant sexual abuse that was eyewitnessed and so thoroughly documented, I'd say that person also was treated far too leniently.

[Super Scary]

I'm sure I could find a case from England if I took the time to look.

[Mother's Lament]

Funny how Jeff failed to mention any of that in his Live and Let Live homily. Probably because raping a baby isn't a big deal to him. He doesn't even think they're human.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Fuck off, you disgusting cunt.

[HorseConch]

You're the one defending the slap on the wrist given to a baby raper.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

No, I am not. Learn to read.

[Truthfulness]

You made up claims in a pathetic attempt to discredit JesseAz. Stop defending the criminal.

[Mother's Lament]

Yeah, pretty sure that the disgusting cunt here is the fat Nazi fuck who thinks raping a baby is no big deal.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

raping a baby is no big deal.

Not what I said. Learn to read.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

If Jeff can find a similar case of a normal person being let off so easily for infant sexual abuse that was eyewitnessed and so thoroughly documented, I’d say that person also was treated far too leniently.

If that is the case, then condemning the lenient sentence in this case is misplaced. The real issue would then be systemic and have nothing to do with this particular individual.

But then again, you and I both know that stories like these are not honest, small details like this are deliberately left out in order to cast trans people in the most negative light possible.

[Minadin]

What?

I said he should be treated like every baby molester, not especially harshly or especially leniently, and you come back with:

If that is the case, then condemning the lenient sentence in this case is misplaced.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Look, Jeff has a tribe to defend, a flag to wave, and a patron to satisfy.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I am agreeing with you. Relax.

[DesigNate]

Why would it be misplaced just because we heard about this one and not the other one?

They doesn’t make any goddamn sense.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Maybe you should ask Jesse that, since he is the one who is so outraged by this story.

Again what is the standard here? Is the standard here that this trans person should be treated equally under the law for this crime? Or is the standard here that this trans person should be especially condemned for this crime because he/she is trans, and totally ignore cases of non-trans individuals prosecuted under this law?

Simply put, this is an example of Jesse and his allies throwing shade on transgender individuals by selectively picking stories that cast trans people in a negative light. It is not honest and it is not right.

[Mickey Rat]

I am saying the terms of the plea deal are bad, no matter if the person is "trans" or not. A person who sexually molests a baby and pleads guilty to it should not be treated this leniently, especially if the charge might expunged given this person's professional training involves working with children.

I have extreme doubts that this how such a case is normally handled, and would be appalled if it is.

[DesigNate]

Dollars to donuts, it is not how it usually adjudicated.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I am saying the terms of the plea deal are bad, no matter if the person is “trans” or not.

Now ask yourself why a story that highlights a trans person being treated this way is presented to you, and not one about a non-trans person being treated this way.

[Minadin]

Because non-trans baby molesters wouldn’t typically get a plea deal for no jail time and an expunged record. So that story doesn’t exist.

Stories about some pedofile getting the book thrown at them like normal don’t garner as much attention as the unusual ones. You are familiar with the concept of what makes ‘Man Bites Dog’ a more newsworthy story than ‘Dog Bites Man’, right?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Because non-trans baby molesters wouldn’t typically get a plea deal for no jail time and an expunged record. So that story doesn’t exist.

How do you know? Again, doing an apples-to-apples comparison. Is it that difficult to believe that someone in a similar situation - say, a non-trans person who was also dependent on some specialized medication, wouldn't also get some leniency from the court for medical reasons?

The purpose of this story, by NOT informing you of any of the relevant context surrounding prosecutions associated with this type of crime in this jurisdiction, is to give you precisely the impression that you have received - that trans people are receiving special treatment because they are trans. We don't know if this is true, this story refuses to tell you but definitely wants you to believe it is the case. It is propaganda.

[Minadin]

. . .that trans people are receiving special treatment because they are trans. We don’t know if this is true . . .

This guy literally got out of jail on the argument that the jail wouldn't supply him with estrogen.

[damikesc]

So, you argue that some people who abuse a baby get zero prison time for it?

Outside of this tranny...can you name one?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So, you argue that some people who abuse a baby get zero prison time for it?

No I did not. Learn to read.

[damikesc]

I read it. You argue that this is not really an aberration.

This is very much an aberration.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

You argue that this is not really an aberration.

No I did not. Stop lying and learn to read.

[DesigNate]

Isn’t your whole reply to Jesse negging on him because you think it’s possible that this isn’t unheard of and he’s just posting it because of his anti-trans biases?

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

“..,, other people with similar circumstances in this persons jurisdiction were treated?”

Wow. What the fuck is wrong with you?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

A lot. We are talking about Jeffy here.

[Minadin]

More details here:

https://reduxx.info/exclusive-transgender-daycare-worker-avoids-prison-after-sexually-abusing-baby-during-diaper-change/

[chemjeff radical individualist]

This is another anti-trans biased site. Do you have a link that isn't so lopsided?

[Minadin]

Do you think that this is going to be published or promoted on a pro-trans site?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

How about one that isn't explicitly biased one way or another?

[Truthfulness]

How about telling the facts instead? Your side doesn't do that. Your ad hominem attacks are not working.

[DesigNate]

I’m pretty sure attacking the source is a logical fallacy…

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Argentine President Javier Milei, La Libertad Avanza, has introduced a bill to parliament that would ban abortion in the country.

Finally. Literal Hitler rears his head.

[Mother's Lament]

If the birth canal fairy hasn't bestowed magical "personhood" on you, you don't deserve human rights.

[Randy Sax]

On two ends of the spectrum; 1, abortion at 9 months or up until birth, 2, a plan B pill the morning after. Some people are ok with both, some people are ok with neither. But I think most Americans are not ok with 1, but ok with 2. So the real question is where is the line? Heartbeat? Viability? 6 weeks? 10 weeks? No one can seem to agree.

I propose a new line.
Your girl gets pregnant and she says "hey baby, lets do it", and you say "ok". A while later she says "hey baby, lets do it" and you say "ok" again. A while after that she says "hey baby, lets do it" and you say "Ew, No! gross, I don't want my dick that close to my kid!" WHAM, no more abortion. As soon as it is too gross to have sex with her, no more abortion.

[Mother's Lament]

A lot of women swell up like balloons, but a lot of women hardly show until month 8.

With condoms, the pill, diaphragms, sponges and a million other ways to stop conception, nobody has an excuse for "accidentally" getting pregnant.

[Randy Sax]

It's not about her getting fat. It's more about conceptualizing the fetus as "my kid".

[Mother's Lament]

You can conceptualize they're not your kid until their sixty or seventy and your dead, though. In 5% of the cases you'd be right. Probably not right to inject them with acid and rip their limbs off though.

[Randy Sax]

It was more a joke than anything else. I'm not legitimately trying to argue this as policy.

[mad.casual]

The collocation of your joke argument with the link about the tranny sexually abusing a baby seems to have tragically aborted to your comedy career.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

How about someone else's kid?

[SRG2]

That is of course a separate issue - and ignores situations like rape. Would you ban abortion even in the case of rape?

[JesseAz]

Use the under 2% of cases to argue for the 98%. Basic leftist tactic.

[JesseAz]

Most polls show 2/3rds of the country is most in line with Europe at 1st trimester only.

[Zeb]

That seems like a decent compromise position. With exceptions for non-viable and very dangerous to the mother pregnancies. 3 months should be plenty of time to figure out what you are doing.

[JesseAz]

I do have issue with the very dangerous to the mother language as places like PP have trained women to claim depression and risk of suicide to get around those provisions.

[Zeb]

That seems like more of a problem with the courts.

I just don't understand why anyone would wait that long for an elective abortion. It's never going to be pleasant, but it only gets more unpleasant the longer you wait.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I think we should just go ahead and legalize abortion up to kindergarten. Once the kid starts school, they are safe from being killed by their mother. Until then, fair game.

I'm sorry, but I just can't be arsed to care about people terminating their own genetic lines. Do we really need people who are inclined to kill their own children raising children anyway?

I would be OK with barring anyone who exercises this option from the teaching profession.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Since the argument for abortion seems to center on personal imposition, then children should also have the right to abort their parents, at least until they turn 18.

[mad.casual]

Politely, fuck you, fuck Europe, 'murica love it or leave it.

~32 States with 1st trimester
~16 States with between conception and brainwave activity
CA continues to insist the refusal to federally abort all gun owners in the country is a suicide pact imposed by The West that it will have no part of.
NY, IL, or MA guarantees an unfettered right to abortion up to birth as long as you're a duly documented taxpaying resident or illegal immigrant.

If you can't get from the 16 to the 34 or the 48 to the other 2 and pay taxes, establish residence, and give up your guns in time to murder your kid, TFB.

Compromise achieved.

[Eeyore]

In socialist utopia women don't need 2 forms of abortion.

[Roberta]

Find the point where the polls are 50-50, and that's it.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Soooo...Who's the Magic Fairy that decides that a fetus that is supposedly a person only rates a 1 to 3 year prison sentence for the host who expels the fetus from a womb?

[JesseAz]

Always amusing how the abortion zealots have to use words like expel.

[Mother's Lament]

The sentence should be the same as any other homicide.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Oops. I meant to post this here.

Ah, but read the story. Millei would only send those convicted to prison for 1 to 3 years, depending on extenuating circumstances.

That’s not how actual murder convictions should work.

For that matter, abortion was never treated on a par with murder in the U.S. even when it was outlawed.

Truth in advertising would say that anti-abortionists should call themselves either anti-abortionists or Right-To-Life-On-Somebody-Else’s-Terms-ers.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Welp, now he'll have to keep the "safety net". He was going great guns until this.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Ah, but read the story. Millei would only send those convicted to prison for 1 to 3 years, depending on extenuating circumstances.

That's not how actual murder convictions should work.

For that matter, abortion was never treated on a par with murder in the U.S. even when it was outlawed.

Truth in advertising would say that anti-abortionists should call themselves either anti-abortionists or Right-To-Life-On-Somebody-Else's-Terms-ers.

[TJJ2000]

Nazi “hereditary health courts such abortions were exempt from punishment. (This consideration extended to the exemption of punishment for a Jewish couple who attempted to procure an abortion in 1938, on the basis that the law did not protect Jewish embryos.)”

You can’t even make a ‘Hitler’ claim with abortion (single-case).

[Mother's Lament]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Germany#Nazi_era

"During World War II, abortion policy in Nazi Germany varied depending on the people group and territory the policy was directed at. The commonality between policies was its purpose in promoting the birth rate and population of the "Aryan race" and minimizing the population of others (such as Slavs), and those deemed a burden on German society such as the children of disabled and mentally ill persons. Forced abortions of Ostarbeiter for instance was referenced in documents from the Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals. It has been categorized as a part of Nazi Germany's "systematic program of genocide, aimed at the destruction of foreign nations and ethnic groups".[9]

While abortion had been punished by the law in Poland previously, under Nazi occupation these prohibitions were removed and abortion was instead encouraged subject to whether the child had a German father or could be racially "Germanized." Similarly, the policy for Eastern female workers, was that pregnancy may be "interrupted" if the pregnant woman so "desired" which gave the appearance of consent on behalf of the mother. For pregnancies of non-German woman, whether an abortion would be permitted also depended on the mother's nationality, but primarily turned on whether the father was German or if the mother was of a race that could be "Germanized." If the child was deemed to be of a race that could contribute to the German race and the father was German then an abortion, or as described in Nazi documents an "interruption of pregnancy," would likely not be permitted. Such determinations were made by the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA)– who would determine the fate of the child.[10]"

And for Jews and Gypsies abortions were mandatory.

[TheReEncogitationer]

You forgot to mention that the Nazis banned abortion for Aryan Pure Superpersons and considered abortion among the “acts of sabotage against the Aryan People” Aryans were the only ones the Nazis considered to be human; ergo, a human right to have an abortion did not exist in Nazi ideology (along with any other human Individual Right for that matter.)

Also, The Wickedly Great One in Mein Kampf explicitly stated that he would end “the liberal (that’s ‘Libertarian’ in European-ese) notion that a woman’s body is her own” and that “Abortion would be terminated with extreme prejudice throughout the land.”

I’m not saying, of course, that you or any other anti-abortionist is a Nazi and I never put hope in changing any minds on abortion. Just stating a historical fact.

Also, I have no problem with Medical Science making abortion an obsolete practice through Transoption (i.e. the transplant of embryos to either another womb or to an artificial womb,) as proposed by Libertarian Sci-Fi Writer Victor Koman.

But, of course, that will take reasoning minds in labs to perfect that, not Rosary-mumblings in The Vatican or tongue-speakings in megachurches in Branson, MO.

[Truthfulness]

None of that changes the fact that the Nazis were not pro-life. And no, not only "reasoning minds in labs" should be the only ones to have a voice. Religious Catholics and Protestants, and all other groups, should have a voice.

You haven't read Hitler's Table Talk.

[JesseAz]

This story made me laugh because our favorite one true libertarian sounds just like her. Hillary goes after Tucker.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2844417/hillary-clinton-tucker-carlson-useful-idiot-putin-interview/

[Mother's Lament]

By making Fox silence him they ended up making his voice more powerful than they could imagine.

Machiavelli these guys ain't no matter how hard they try.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

The Dr. Evils of modern politics.

[soldiermedic76]

This is why censorship, no matter how you achieve it, always backfires. The more you try to silence someone, the more people want to hear from them. Charles I and II both used extensive censorship to silence their critics. The first one lost his head, the second barely escaped England with his still attached.

[soldiermedic76]

Also, I'm wondering why the Royal Family decided on Charles the III birth to name the heir apparent Charles, given the history of English Monarchs named Charles.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

His full name is "Charles Philip Arthur George", and he could've chosen any of them when ascending the throne. Had he chosen one of the other names, he wouldn't be the first to do so.

George VI was "Albert Frederick Arthur George", choosing "George" to have continuity his father after the Abdication Crisis, and was most commonly known as "Bertie" within the family.

Edward VII was "Albert Edward", choosing "Edward" so as not to undervalue (in his opinion) the name of his father, Prince Albert.

Even Victoria was "Alexandrina Victoria", choosing "Victoria" for her name.

When Prince William ascends the throne, he can choose any of his names, "William Arthur Philip Louis" to reign under. If he chooses "William", he will be William V.

[soldiermedic76]

So, he choose Charles, which is even worse than his parents choosing it
For my Royal name I'm going to choose the same name as one king who was executed and his son who was exposed and nearly executed. Albeit, the other names do have some baggage also, never been a Phillip on the English throne, much more of a Continental name for royals, Arthur would be a bit presumptuous (especially as any historical Arthur that may have actually existed would have been a Briton, and the Windsors are a German noble family, not Welsh). George might have been the better option, but George the VII isn't that distinguished. Given my choice, I would have went with Phillip, than he would have been the first of that name. Charles really was the worst choice. I think the biggest complaint on the name Phillips would have been that several Monarchs that were historical enemies of England were named Phillips, but there were also several Charles as well.
As to the crown prince, he might want to start thinking about that, I wonder how England would take being ruled by King Louis the I?

[mamabug]

None of the choices are that good. The 'Charles' after 'Elizabeth II' has a bit more historical continuity since Charles I & II came 3rd and 4th after Elizabeth I. There's also a bit more historical distance and less baggage than the Georges.

Also makes the Kings of England song work well - "and now there's me, Charles Three"

[soldiermedic76]

I had also forgotten the reason that the family inherited the throne in the first place was because George I grandmother was a Stuart, daughter of James I.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Charles II was known for his affairs, but he died in England. You may be confusing him with James II (his brother) who was run out of the country in the Glorious Revolution.

[soldiermedic76]

You’re right, yeah. Charles died in his bed, actually just a few doors down from the room he was born in. It was his brother James II, I was thinking of. Charles had several controversies, but after the excesses of the Parliamentary Republic, he managed them with little damage. The royalist Tories, who helped bring about the Restoration overlooked his flirtation with Catholicism.

I thought I might have been mistaken so I googled his reign, and saw it ended in 1685 and I misremembered the date of the Glorious Revolution and thought it was 1685, when it was really 1688. Still choosing a name that has only been used by the Stuart’s, hardly a family that’s celebrated as a successful dynasty in England, was an interesting choice. Though, I just recalled that George I inherited the throne because he was the great grandson of James I on his mother’s side.

[soldiermedic76]

I suppose it could have been worse, Richard or John, all three Richard's really were asshole tyrants, but Richard the I got away with it because he was rarely in England, fairly successful military and had the decency to die fighting before he pissed his subjects off to much, leaving his brother with huge debts and a war with France he wasn't prepared to fight, which he subsequently lost (maybe his biggest crime according to the English people at the time, which also forced him to spend most of his reign in England which further inflamed his subjects, as he demanded more Royal privileges than they had been accustomed to providing).

[Jerry B.]

Interesting all the criticism of Tucker’s interview with Putin, considering no one has seen it.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Is he still on Xitter?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The tax code shouldn't be pro-Tesla, but it should be pro-human, especially amid our baby bust.

Or - hear me out on this - FUCKING NEUTRAL.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Hey and while were out it just make the rate for everyone really low.

[Anomalous]

And flat.

[Moonrocks]

Could we get rid of the income tax altogether?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Do you want the feds to borrow even more?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I'd rather they cut departments and programs.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Me too. But the institutions and the entrenched staff will never accept that, and most professional politicians are by definition pro-government.

[Eeyore]

The only government roles should be 100% volunteers.

[Randy Sax]

How 'bout they spend less?

[Moderation4ever]

Nice idea but people want government services. And why not they are getting them at below the governments cost for the services.

[Randy Sax]

Ya, because $75 Billion to Ukraine is a great government service we all enjoy.

[Eeyore]

The DNC is enjoying the 10% they are illegally laundering back as payment.

[Eeyore]

And Zero.

[Moderation4ever]

The amount of help parents get from the tax code is in my opinion minimal. Certainly, minimal for the work to get that help. I think there is a lot of things that government could do for parents but I would rather see direct help rather than something that just make the tax code more complex.

[Truthfulness]

You're not neutral with tax codes and you know it.

[mamabug]

I disagree as I think promoting economic stability of the country (primarily through incentivization) is one of the core functions of government. A successful country needs a birth rate sufficiently above the replacement rate to support long term growth and reduce dependency of elderly on the state or charitable organizations.

It was only the massive immigration of families w. children that allowed Gen X to be demographically larger than the Boomers that preceded them.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Yes, and it is puzzling to hear this from our Alt-right contingent, considering how they're all convinced they're being "replaced" by brown people already!

Oh well, can't violate the natural law of "FUCKING NEUTRAL".

[JesseAz]

White House threatens to make the border crisis worse if the GOp doesn't pass the bill legalizing current border crisis.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-ice-reduce-deportations-detention-capacity-republicans-dont-pass-border-bill?intcmp=tw_fnc

[BrianL.]

Yes, they are saying they will have to reduce detention capacity, because the don't have enough funds. The funds were in the bill the Republicans refused to pass.

[Super Scary]

Ahh yes, the “Border Bill” where only a fraction of the total money (20 out of 118 billion) is going to the actual border. Can't imagine why it's not getting passed.

[Super Scary]

Also, can someone tell me why there is all this shit about foreign countries in a bill about the US border? Is this some form of "pork" or whatever? Just the normal "We'll call the bill something, but it's really for this other thing"?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

More the normal Biden era "We Democrats are going to fuck over the country so we can do what we like and get reelected and spend more money and we dare anyone to try to stop us since we own the media who will tell only the narratives we want."

[JesseAz]

Brian, can you do us a favor and let us know what the current border spending for DHS is? It was just a month or so ago they started giving free legal representation to those crossing the border. Maybe their spending priorities are wrong? Maybe take away the 2B given to NGOs who help get people to the border?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Yes, they are saying they will have to reduce detention capacity, because the don’t have enough funds.

This wasn't an issue in previous fiscal years, and Congress has been passing CRs with the same funding lines.

So why is your side lying about funding availability?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Because they're a lying sack of purulent donkey cunts.

[Eeyore]

I've never used the word purulent. I should start. It is a nice word.

[soldiermedic76]

Additional funding, that wasn't needed during the last fiscal year? So, you're saying they could fund these detentions and deportations under approved funding last year, but now aren't able to and have to cut back even further than what they were able to afford last year because they didn't get additional funding above what was approved already? (As pointed out since the government is running on continuing resolutions funding is the same as the last approved budget, not less, e.g. the have the same funding that they were able to function, but now they're asking for even more). Fuck you're a moron.

[soldiermedic76]

Idiots like you are why our debt is so large, because you actually believe this bullshit. Instead of asking why they need even more spending, to continue the same level of services (number of detention space available and deportations) and asking why we were told this funding instead was to increase detention and deportations you're now the new line we're being told that too maintain the same level of services (not increase as promised) we need more funding, and you are actually buy this shit.

[Ron]

the funding issue is bogus and if it were true all they would have to do is not let them in turn them around and funding could actually be reduced since most funding is for what they get when they cross the border, health care, legal advice, food and shelter could all be reduced or even eliminated.

[damikesc]

Wow, "I'll hold my breath until I turn blue if you do not do this" is not a threat one commonly hears these days.

[Super Scary]

The adults are back in charge.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

If you count 12 year old girls as adults, like Democrats do (at least as moral and emotional ideals), then yes.

[mad.casual]

Disagree. This has been a relatively standard response to Trump. Remember, as indicated below, Trump offered to do a deal trading military spending for border spending, got rebuffed and wound up having to "steal" money from the DOD budget to finance border spending.

It's like they held their breath, passed out, hit their head, suffered a concussion and, upon waking up, are pissed that they now have a headache and internal cerebral hemorrhaging and are holding their breath again until someone fixes it for them.

The Obama-era GOP were the bad guys for driving the car into the ditch, but they look like an exceedingly lucid "Stop the car, I want to get out." option compared to the drunk roommate in the back seat giving you bad directions.

[A Thinking Mind]

Even if the right is using the crisis for political ends, it doesn't mean the left isn't doing the exact same thing.

[mad.casual]

Let us once again remember that the previous administration, in a relatively unprecedented move for a Republican, put cuts to defense spending on the table in exchange for immigration reform and was rebuffed.

It's like they got tired of the back and forth in order to get shot in the face playing the "Wabbit Season/Duck Season" game with Trump and decided to wrench the gun from Elmer Fudd's hands, shout Duck Season!, and shoot themselves in the face.

[Randy Sax]

Mojo Nixon died yesterday. Rest in peace. I hope you tie your pecker to your leg in haven.

[Mother's Lament]

Family's statement:
“Mojo Nixon was full-tilt, wide-open rock hard, root hog, corner on two wheels + on fire…, passing after a blazing show, a raging night, closing the bar, taking no prisoners + a good breakfast with bandmates and friends. A cardiac event on the Outlaw Country Cruise is about right… & that’s just how he did it, Mojo has left the building. Since Elvis is everywhere, we know he was waiting for him in the alley out back. Heaven help us all.”

[TheReEncogitationer]

Sad to hear.
🙁

While there is no "Haven," his wisdom lives on forever in the Datasphere. Millennials and Zers take note!

Mojo Nixon "Feeling Existential"
https://youtu.be/33vdCj5jyVY?si=UNfJOCTB6zm8veGZ

[soldiermedic76]

Thanks for reminding us for the one millionth time how edgy of an atheist you are. Totes edgiest person here, thanks for reminding everyone.

[Truthfulness]

An entity cannot be destroyed. We've had people come back from being dead.

[Anomalous]

My condolences to he and Debbie Gibson's two-headed love child.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

But the kid sings a mean duet with himself.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Never heard of him until he died.

What did I miss?

[Fist of Etiquette]

All these dumb Americans who think socialized healthcare is the only metric that matters should go visit a cancer-stricken relative as they lay dying in an NHS hospital in Britain.

Dreyfuss doesn't get that a life without tradeoffs is a human right.

[JFree]

There is nothing about NHS that prohibits someone from forking out money to pay for their cancer-stricken relatives medical treatment. Private medical exists in UK. American billionaire Dick de Vos paid for a heart transplant in an NHS hospital (with an NHS doctor) when he couldn't get a heart transplant in the US because he was too old for the list here in the US.

What NHS does do is it provides MUCH cheaper medical financing (via taxes rather than insurance) to the overwhelming majority of people. 12% of GDP v 19% of GDP. Virtually all employers offer some sort of supplemental insurance for the higher income and you can get that for the elderly too if you want to really experience the cost of medical.

And if the reasons why that system is cheaper - mostly heroic end-of-life care for the elderly - don't work for your relatives, then put your big boy pants on, get your wallet out and pay for your own relatives care.

[Sevo]

You.
Are.
Full.
Of.
Shit.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Now do food, shelter, and energy. You know, all the things that also sustain life.

[Idaho-Bob]

He will. There's no prog policy left behind.

[JFree]

Don't have to. NHS provides a baseline level of medical FAR cheaper than the US. So, for that matter, does every other country on Earth. Also 'socialized'. And in the case of rich countries, generally with better outcomes for patients too.

The reason everyone except the US can figure this out is because of the way market/economic power works. 'Socialized' systems use purchasing scale to make the provisioning of said medical cheaper. The US system - even for Medicare - doesn't really use scale. So it means that prices are basically determined when one individual is sick and purchases their care one itty bit at a time. When the patient doesn't have any economic power.

Is there a downside? Sure. Specialists get paid less in those countries with some form of 'socialized'. It's why the AMA has opposed it for decades.

[Sevo]

"Don’t have to. NHS provides a baseline level of medical FAR cheaper than the US."

And worth every penny; it's cheaper since quite a few die waiting for treatment.

[JesseAz]

And a few die being denied treatment offered for free in other countries.

[Social Justice is neither]

Can't make the bureaucracy look bad.

[damikesc]

So, uh, how many medical advances originate in Europe?

ANY?

Europe sucks on the US cock as always for their sustenance.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Yes you do. If you justification for the NHS, and the freedoms it violates, is that it works great, then why not institute socialized food, socialized housing, and socialized energy?

[JFree]

Because those don't 'work great'. Hayek understood that truly insurable risks are not the same as eg growing food. For the state to provide a risk pool is not diminishing freedom. It's in fact almost exactly the same as the state taking on community defense when an individual can't take that on.

Can disagree about details of how that happens but the kneejerk ideological opposition is based on stupidity and cant.

[DesigNate]

As I like to point out every time this subject comes up, the US government already pays for over 40% of overall healthcare spending ($1.9TT out of a total $4.5TT). Based on their track record, there’s no universe where the government is going to spend less money and give better service.

[Sevo]

Ain't it wonderful that shit-stain will have us pay for medical care through taxes and then out of pocket when we actually need it?
Fucking steaming pile of lefty shit...

[JesseAz]

MUCH cheaper medical financing (via taxes rather than insurance)

How does paying for it with taxes make it cheaper?

[TJJ2000]

It's cheaper for criminals to vote for Gov-Gun armed-theft of others than having to *earn* anything.

Given of course....
1) It becomes more expensive for the *earners* getting robbed.
2) It becomes more expensive due to lack of supply/demand pricing control.
3) It becomes more expensive because nobody wants to *earn* anything and supply lines run dry.

And there is how US Healthcare got so expensive. And everything else will follow so long as criminals keep voting to STEAL instead of *earn*.

[JFree]

Mostly it does so by purchasing on scale. Similar to the way Mayo or Kaiser work. Get actuaries to figure out the likely demand for say maternity beds/services in a community in a year. It becomes very predictable – the law of large numbers – in a community that is large enough for statistics to work. Similar thing happens with large employers who ‘self-insure’ – meaning their insurance company is only processing transactions not insuring anything.

Once you can predict that scale, you can buy the capacity/facility. And a good manager can hire the staff needed on salary. This is how every company works too. You don’t buy in onesies like everything is a fucking surprise and a rush job. It is how the US system started to work once the private 'charity' system broke (Spanish flu) and before the govt broke a hospital based system. The US was transitioning to a muni hospital system over the 20's and 30's. It is the reason medical tourism also works and is why it’s a lot cheaper to get a heart bypass in Singapore than in the US even if you are paying cash for both.

The other effect of taxes is that the cost of medical tends to get taxed/paid for as a % of income rather than a flat fee. Which is actually how medical tends to be demanded. The higher the income, the higher the overall demand for medical services – and not just purely discretionary stuff like tummy tucks.

[JFree]

The other effect of taxes as financing is that you are able to look further down the road for benefits. Long-term benefits (which results in cost-savings) is the entire purpose of preventive care.

Insurance companies can't do a time horizon of more than a year or so at a time unless there are mandates that prevent customers from switching companies. So the stuff that they call 'preventive care' is nothing but cherry-picking bullshit aimed at younger employees (eg gym memberships).

That is probably the biggest reason that the age group transitioning from employer-paid insurance for decades to govt retirement stuff - folks in their 50's and 60's - is so freaking unhealthy in the US. Especially if they are lower income.

[JesseAz]

So let's take your ignorance that it is due to scale.

In the US the negotiated prices "at scale" represent repayments of Medicare/Medicaid at about 90% and 93% of costs per hospital statements. The best estimates is the underpayment from these programs shifts the cost of private plans to cover underpayments, increasing those costs by 10-15%.

Even ignoring that. Places like Canada and Britain have set rates for treatments, so you're actually advocating for socialist price controls. These controls lead to long waits and worse service.

But you do you, you seem to be on the socialist bandwagon since Covid. Meh.

[JFree]

That purchasing at scale is the reason eg coronary bypass surgery cost (2017 but I'm sure you can find more current if you want) $75,000 in the US (ranged from $50,000 - $130,000) v $42,000 in Australia v $36,500 in Switzerland v $16,000 in Netherlands. Those were CASH prices for private operations. The scale purchasing sets the prevailing price in the market - even for cash/private. This isn't 5-10% piddly ass discounts.

actually advocating for socialist price controls.

So are you then for defense/military. Plus - half of medical spending in the US is 'socialized'. It's just not managed for the benefit of taxpayers/patients but for the benefit of cronies/doctors. That is the reason that you pay nearly 50% higher prices for medical stuff here in the US. THAT is socialist price controls too.

These controls lead to long waits and worse service

More generic horseshit from people who have never lived overseas. The service is generally BETTER overseas because most doctors want to be doctors not insurance processors. Lines can be longer for some stuff - but the fact is you have no fucking idea what wait times are for stuff in the US because that isn't measured or publicized. It is only publicized in countries where people hold others accountable for that metric. In the US, no one holds anyone accountable for anything. Can't find prices, waits, outcome results, etc. Nothing. Hell of a system for your life to depend on.

[JesseAz]

So you support socialist cost controls. When did I do so again? You make a claim not present to defend your own socialism.

[soldiermedic76]

Tell that to at least two sets of parents who had the government funded healthcare bar them from seeking further care for their children, one of which was even paid for by charity here in the US.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

I had the misfortune of living in the UK for many years, and I can tell you first hand that the NHS is shit. If they don't actually kill you, they fuck things up due to incompetence and/or penury. "Single payer" mandatory healthcare might work somewhere, but please don't hold up the NHS as some sort of ideal.

Where it has the US beat, however, is in the cost. You can pay a lot in the US for shit healthcare, or somewhat less in the UK--for shit healthcare.

Most other European countries have some sort of mandatory insurance system, rather than the NHS' "free-shit-healthcare-to-all" policy. From what I've heard (and experienced), the European system tends to work better, both in terms of care and cost.

[JesseAz]

But now, a deal that would have cracked down on the U.S.-Mexico border while supplying aid to Israel and Ukraine has collapsed in the Senate.

Nothing in the bill cracked down on the border.

[Social Justice is neither]

But it would do it's intended job of sending billions to Ukraine for the big guy to get his cut. Why are Libertarians for foreign intervention that has zero impact on the US these days?

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

But it would do it’s intended job of sending billions to Ukraine for the big guy to get his cut.

LOL, exactly. This was never about securing the border, because HR 2 and HR 29 have been sitting in limbo for months. The Firm easily could have hashed out something from that.

This has ALWAYS been about keeping the money-laundering operation in Ukraine going. That's why the center-right, who ALWAYS put the interests of non-citizens above that of American citizens, are sounding like manic used car salesmen in claiming it's a "game-changer" and the "best immigration bill I've seen in 20 years," and "if you don't trust Biden to enforce it, you should still pass the bill because if Trump is elected, he'll enforce it!"

"You think you hate it now, wait until it passes."
"I don't want to pass it. I just want my old border security back."

[InsaneTrollLogic]

"You didn't order the, uh, Metallic Pea?"

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

"Metallic Pea?"

[Idaho-Bob]

https://quotees.co.uk/film/national-lampoons-vacation-metallic-pea-quote/

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

If you like your border, you can keep your border.

[soldiermedic76]

The real tell is last night they debated stripping the border and immigration portion out and just voting on those parts as a separate bill and decided not to. They want us to swallow the whole load. And we already told them we don't swallow.

[mad.casual]

Why are Libertarians for foreign intervention that has zero impact on the US these days?

The same reason they oppose military and/or defense spending cuts when thy're proposed by Republicans...

[Medulla Oblongata]

Came here to say that, too. Glad I checked...

"a deal that would have cracked down on the U.S.-Mexico border"

Objection! Facts not in evidence!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Perhaps if you use the same logic Democrats use to claim that not increasing spending, or not more than a nominal amount, is the same as massive budget cuts.

[Longtobefree]

"But now, a deal that would have cracked down on the U.S.-Mexico border while supplying aid to Israel and Ukraine has collapsed in the Senate."

Come on Liz, stay the course.
That bill just codified open borders, and allowed Biden to "just say no" if any of the actual border control provisions kicked in. Permitting a couple million invaders per year is in no way cracking down. In addition, it gave big bucks to Hamas.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Right. It codified letting in the entire population of my state every year. That's not a crackdown. That's crack smoking.

[Moonrocks]

Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions head to the polls to vote in a new government

Protecting and Fortifying Democracy.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

DNC super jealous. And inspired.

[Jerry B.]

And taking notes.

[Sandra (formerly OBL)]

"the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian artillery fire is five to one"

That's obviously incorrect.

Biden's cheerleader told us months ago the war was effectively over, Putin already lost, and he'd be overthrown and hanged any minute now.

#DefendBidenAtAllCosts

[Spiritus Mundi]

How many times has Putin died from cancer?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

How many clones did they make?

[soldiermedic76]

Those who still believe Ukraine can win this should ask Imperial Germany how effective it is to get into a stationary war of attrition against an enemy that has a larger population, a larger manufacturing base and greater access to natural resources and more wealth.

[Michael Ejercito]

Or ask the Taliban.

Or ask Afghan mujahedeen veterans.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sweet Marianne, gone but not forgotten.

Not forgotten because I didn't know she was running again in the first place.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions head to the polls to vote in a new government...

Biden's handlers just creamed themselves.

[Super Scary]

Game changer! Dems are furiously taking notes.

[soldiermedic76]

How else are you going to combat misinformation to save democracy?

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Immigration deal.
1. All ngo's that help the invasion have their assets seized and citizenship revoked
2. All invaders from south and central America get dumped in the middle of central america
3. All invaders that took a plane to central America to then invade get executed

[Social Justice is neither]

Nah, just fly them home in one of the new DEI focused planes and let the doors pop off halfway through the trip back to their home country.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Huh, but I was told that it was just a slander and a myth that anyone on your team wants to execute migrants for the 'crime' of crossing the border without proper papers.

[Mother's Lament]

Huh, but I was told that it was just a slander and a myth that anyone on your team wants to import slave labour and collapse social services.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yes, that is a slander and a myth. Glad we could clear that up.

[Mother's Lament]

If you want to handwave it as a myth, you should probably have your bosses stop paying their illegal poolboys, maids, nannies and gardeners under the table for less than minimum wage and no benefits then.

Fucking clown.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

I don't have bosses that hire illegal labor. Thanks for letting me clear that up for everyone.

[Idaho-Bob]

Huh, but I was told that it was just a slander and a myth that anyone on your team wants to execute home invaders for the crime of breaking into your home without proper papers and demanding financial independence.

FTFY.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

the nation =/= your personal residence

[Fats of Fury]

It's not yours either asshole.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

And thanks for confirming that you are in the pro-migrant-murder camp.

[Idaho-Bob]

Nah, I'm in the camp of thinning the American enablers. Rid ourselves of people like you, and the "migrants" stay home. Incentive erased.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Oh, my mistake. You're in the pro-murder-political-adversaries camp. Otherwise known as the Nardz camp. Sorry for the confusion.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

You think migrants come here because of "people like me"? Who do what, say things like maybe migrants shouldn't be treated like dirt?

You think America would be better off if there were more Americans who were bigoted assholes and treated migrants like dirt so that they would feel unwelcome here and stay home? Is that what you think?

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Well Jeff, much like covid restrictions, we are rapidly approaching a point where even assholes like you will have to admit to the reality that “maybe there is such a thing as too much”.

Get that mea culpa ready.

[Spiritus Mundi]

4. Employers who hire illegals get fine $100,000 per illegal employee per year
5. Tax remittances to their homelands at 50%.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

5. Tax remittances to their homelands at 50%.

This is completely stupid. Remittances are a type of foreign aid for the people of those supposedly "shithole countries" that is entirely voluntary and doesn't pass through the grubby hands of corrupt government bureaucrats in those countries. You all demand that they 'fix their own countries', right? THIS IS HOW THEY ARE DOING IT at least to a substantial degree. A person might come here for economic opportunity and then send some of their earnings back home to support that person's family. If they aren't able to do that, or if the cost of doing so is prohibitively large, then they would very likely choose for the entire family to migrate here instead. You don't want that to happen, do you?

"Or, they could all just not come here in the first place!" Well, desperate people tend not to just sit around and suffer, when there is something in their power that they can do to alleviate that suffering.

[damikesc]

"5. Tax remittances to their homelands at 50%.

This is completely stupid."

Agreed.

Should be taxed at 100%.

[damikesc]

"Well, desperate people tend not to just sit around and suffer, when there is something in their power that they can do to alleviate that suffering."

Not desperate enough, though, to not leave Chicago because it is cold.

[soldiermedic76]

And when you try to alleviate that suffering by illegally entering another country, there's usually another word that we use other than immigration.... What was it again? Damn, it was on the tip of my tongue? In something. Invasion, is that the word I'm looking for?

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

I approve.

[Fats of Fury]

2. All invaders from south and central America get dumped in the middle of central america Tierra del Fuego.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The regulators are coming for your paella.

Dr. Jill to the rescue if she could only pronounce it.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Maybe she can make you a sandwich instead.

[Dillinger]

damn fine pallella @ that bogeda.

[Medulla Oblongata]

She can make breakfast tacos.

[Fist of Etiquette]

These ghouls always use the word "resurfaced" like it's a dead body that floated to the top of a lake. No. You searched for them, like gravediggers, picking the bones of the dead.

Indiana Jones showed them you can find glory in archeology.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Wish they take a page from another Harrison Ford movie and go Amish.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Or crash a plane

[Ra's al Gore]

$350/month/migrant. If we can't shut down the border, can we just not pay them to come?

https://twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/status/1755207160672157987
NYC Mayor Adams Defends Controversial $53M Prepaid Card Program for Migrant Families

[Ra's al Gore]

If we can’t shut down the border, can we just not pay them to come?

https://twitter.com/fentasyl/status/1754324588828213648

$2,334,000,000. 2.3 billion dollars. The GOP, instead of demanding the prosecution of NGO executives who facilitate illegal immigration, want to award them & pay them to continue enabling this human trafficking.

[Ra's al Gore]

2013:

How Immigration Reform Has Changed Us Once Before
https://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/1986-immigration-reform-immigrants-citizens-changed-america/story?id=18924790

IRCA granted legal permanent status to roughly 2.7 million undocumented immigrants, about 70 percent of them Mexican. A quarter million became citizens a decade later, when the entire cohort became eligible to naturalize. By 2009, about 1.1 million had taken the oath of citizenship.

[Ra's al Gore]

https://abcnews-nwsdynamic.aws.seabcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/1986-immigration-reform-immigrants-citizens-changed-america/story?id=18924790

IRCA also changed the electorate. According to Chishti, IRCA recipients formed the foundation of what has become today's powerful Latino vote. As they naturalized and became eligible to cast ballots, they registered to vote and became more involved in the political process. Now, several decades later, the political power of Latino voters is clear. Overwhelmingly Democrats, Latinos played a critical role in helping re-elect President Barack Obama and swayed the outcome of some state and local elections.

[Ra's al Gore]

mmigration Is Changing the Political Landscape in Key States
Supporting real immigration reform that contains a pathway to citizenship for our nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants is the only way to maintain electoral strength in the future.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/immigration-is-changing-the-political-landscape-in-key-states/

In the wake of the overwhelming Latino and Asian American support for President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election—support that was critical to his re-election—the political winds on immigration have shifted significantly to favor immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants living in our country. A full 71 percent of Latino voters and 73 percent of Asian American voters supported the president in the election, and poll after poll illustrates that these groups strongly opposed the “self-deportation” policies of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and instead supported President Obama’s immigration-reform efforts. Changing demographics, especially the rapid growth of the Latino population and their power as voters, ensured that key swing states such as Florida, Colorado, and Nevada voted for the president.

...And as our nation moves toward a point where by 2043 we will have no clear racial or ethnic majority,11 other states such as Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and even Georgia are also reaching demographic tipping points. Whether or not these states turn blue in the future has a lot to do with how politicians in both parties act and what they talk about on the subject of immigration reform.

[Ra's al Gore]

Arizona Election Law May Enable Non-Citizens To Vote In 2024 Presidential Election, Experts Warn
https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/02/arizona-election-law-non-citizens-voting-2024-adrian-fontes/

[Ra's al Gore]

We Can Replace Them
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opinion/stacey-abrams-georgia-governor-election-brian-kemp.html

...On Saturday morning, Abrams closed by reminding the crowd of Kemp’s views on democracy. “He said he is concerned that if everyone eligible to vote in Georgia does so, he will lose this election,” she said. “Let’s prove him right.” In a week, American voters can do to white nationalists what they fear most. Show them they’re being replaced.

[Ra's al Gore]

from twitter:

It’s no coincidence that everyone who favors mass amnesty for illegals also staunchly opposes voter ID requirements - even though those are two totally separate policy questions. Think about why.

[Mother's Lament]

Jeff swears this isn't happening.

[JesseAz]

To be fair, Jeff is quite stupid.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

That's puting it mildly.

[Spiritus Mundi]

I love venn diagrams - Kami H.

[Super Scary]

2018: "You will not replace us!"
"You filthy fucking conspiracy addled racists! No one is replacing you!"

2024: "We're replacing you."

[JesseAz]

The ultimate irony being that under Biden, the jobs reports show a decrease in citizen employment the last 3 years with all "new jobs" going to foreign immigrants.

[Commenter_XY]

Just to add on to what you are saying about this allegedly 'victimless' crime of illegals.

Who feeds them: American taxpayer
Who clothes them: American taxpayer
Who educates their children: American taxpayer
Who pays for incarceration of bad illegals: American taxpayer

Who pays higher prices because of higher demand: American Taxpayer

Why are their children any more precious then mine? Why should my children suffer to support lawbreakers?

Nobody asked the American people if they wanted to upend the quality of our lives for these illegals.

[Medulla Oblongata]

I suggested before that we could put a couple billion in "foreign aid" on the table, and then tell Mexico that for each illegal alien we catch we're cutting $1000 out of that $2B. For each pound of fentanyl captured, we're cutting $2500. At the end of the year, we'll hand Mexico whatever is left of the original $2B.

[DesigNate]

Fuck, offer it directly to the cartels and see how quickly they enforce both the northern and southern borders.

[mamabug]

Ah, the Terry Pratchett method of eliminating crime.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Angry over the Senate border deal, and it's not who you might think it is.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/go-fck-themselves-rank-and-file-border-patrol-agents-livid-over-senate-funding-deal

Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents have slammed the Senate's $118B Senate funding bill that would guarantee 1.5 million illegal migrants entry to the United States, while sending the majority of funds to Ukraine ($60B+) and Israel ($14.1B), the Daily Caller reports.

"Now that I’ve seen more of it, they can respectfully go fuck themselves. The more I’m seeing the more it just puts what they’ve been doing in writing. You want to shut this down, it’s real easy. Team up [the Department of Defense] with DHS and let us enforce like we were supposed to," one agent told the Caller, adding "I feel like we are the only nation in the world that is this dumb about the border. Maybe it’s because we haven’t."

Two more agents told the caller that the bill is 'bullshit' for various reasons, including the release of families and certain single adults with 'credible fear' claims.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

And establishment simps like Patterico and Allahpussy are claiming the endorsement of the head of the Border Patrol Union means it’s the best deal ever, because “he knows more than some small donor moron.”

Just like COVID, appeals to authority are all they have left, and it’s obvious that reporting on disagreement by the rank and file will be completely ignored, just like they act as if the Senate bill is the only “comprehensive immigration reform bill” that currently exists. Because they fucking desperate to keep shoveling money into the Ukraine furnace in the vain hope that MOAR FREE SHIT will somehow bleed Russia white.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Democrats return to being the party of elites. Just like in the 1860s.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

I don’t think it’s really like that. The Democrats of the 1860s were a combination of plantation owners, lower-class whites, and northern populists. The Whigs, then Republicans, consisted mostly of Yankee aristocrat goo-goos and middle-class merchants. Jackson and Polk, for example, were elected largely on lower-class populist sentiment.

But the left certainly has become a party of the elite, because that was the whole point of what Marcuse promoted as a political alliance between white college graduates and the “ghetto classes,” when the middle and working class Americans didn’t get on board with the communist utopia. Because, as even he admitted, capitalism already provides these people with a pretty decent life. So his solution was to alienate the upper classes against their own country and work with ethnic minorities to subvert it.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

“We’re with border patrol, ma’am. We don’t have any balls.”

- Kris Kristofferson from the movie “Flashpoint”.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

So where is this money going? 10% for the Big Guy?

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_6a67499c-c5c4-11ee-943d-ff78847f07ea.html

The U.S. House Oversight Committee is investigating U.S. taxpayer funding for Ukraine after a watchdog report found a large percentage of the equipment has gone unaccounted for since last June.

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., joined by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and other Republicans on the Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin raising concerns about the funding and asking for documentation of how it has been distributed.

"The Committee remains concerned about the Department of Defense's (DoD) ability to conduct end-use monitoring of weapons, equipment, and other defense articles going to Ukraine," the letter said. "It is vital that DoD works to ensure weapons and other forms of security assistance are used for their intended purposes, that they do not fall into the hands of our enemies, and that the risk of waste, fraud, and abuse is mitigated."

Lawmakers have become increasingly critical of funding to Ukraine as the figure grows and questions arise about how the taxpayer money is being spent.

The Inspector General for DOD released a watchdog report last month furthering those concerns. The report found that a significant portion of the equipment inventory were "delinquent."

"Specifically, the DoD OIG determined that, as of June 2, 2023, serial number inventories for more than $1.005 billion (59 percent) of the total $1.699 billion of EEUM-designated defense articles were delinquent," the IG's office said. "Multiple factors contributed to the reporting gaps, including the limited number of U.S. personnel at logistics hubs in a partner nation and in Ukraine, the absence of procedures for conducting EEUM in a hostile environment until December 2022, the movement restrictions for EEUM personnel within Ukraine, and a lack of internal controls for validating data in the SCIP-EUM database."

"Despite multiple assurances from DoD that every mechanism is in place to prevent waste, fraud and abuse of U.S. taxpayer funds going to Ukraine, the DoD Inspector General (DoD IG) has alerted Congress of failures by DoD to track enhanced weapons and other defense articles going to Ukraine," the letter said. "DoD IG's findings in this report contradict the commitments DoD made to the Committee guaranteeing that effective mechanisms are in place to track American weapons and equipment going to Ukraine."

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Russia, meanwhile, is being supplied by North Korea, Iran, and China.'

Is that Eastasia or Eurasia?

[Mother's Lament]

We've always been at war with them, right Jeffy?

[mamabug]

Technically, it's both - meaning we are the solo power facing an alliance until one of them (China or Russia) gets too strong so the other switches sides.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Milei does what he said he would do, news at 11

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Ukraine has also self-sabotaged via its own internal corruption scandals, including one involving top defense officials allegedly embezzling some $40 million meant to buy more arms.'

Remember how just 10 years ago Ukraine was a pariah state, and ranked worse than Russia on global corruption surveys?

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

They hired hunter biden

[Sevo]

You can tell they were desperate.

[Social Justice is neither]

Nah, it was a crack deal.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Does anyone watch snl any more? Over Christmas my father in law was watching snl "best of snl Christmas" most of the clips were from the 90s, a few in the 2000s, and none past 2012

[Super Scary]

The most I am exposed to it is when I am scrolling through Youtube shorts, sometimes some Weekend Update will pop up. Right now, it’s some white guy and a black guy and they appear to just read racy jokes and the audience reacts to how uncomfortable the jokes make the white guy.

[Moonrocks]

I'm surprised it's still on the air. It's certainly not culturally relevant anymore.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That's a big problem with it. The whole premise of the show was that it was supposed to be a medium for edgy, comedic entertainers who were on the verge of breaking out--the "Not Ready for Primetime Players." The celebrity hosts and musical guests were more about the former doing something that was a little more raw and unpolished while giving the rub to the cast members, while the musical guests weren't necessarily about pimping their current album, although that certainly happened, but just giving the audience a break from the skits.

And ultimately, it comes down to actual talent. The late 70s and late 80s-early 90s casts were arguably the peak of the show's quality, and it's because they were legitimately gifted performers who could draw audiences. It's why SNL drove the cultural zeitgeist for those years. The later casts had the occasional breakout star like Will Ferrell or steady C-list performers like Kate McKinnon or Bill Hader, but have largely been completely forgettable. It's why their most memorable skits have usually been due to mega-stars doing cameos.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

What if Argentine fetuses formed a union?

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Would they have to strike and take to the streets?

[Ra's al Gore]

Tracy Beanz Breaks Down SHOCKING Highlights from Florida Grand Jury COVID Accountability Report
https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2024/02/02/florida-covid-releases-report-n2392504

[JesseAz]

JFree must have missed this link.

[mamabug]

The Infection Fatality Rate distribution across age groups is interesting and makes me wonder if, with China's largest 'young' group being 40+, if somehow this wasn't the intention of what they were researching.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'A Spielplatz (playground) in Berlin that's only for six- to 12-year-olds.

'The kids had made a massive bonfire, which is part terrifying, part awesome.'

Did they burn coal? And kids who protested the climate catastrophe impact? That would be more awesome.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Progressives amd Marxists always attack the food supply first. They want people to starve to death. This is why they are not human

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

But are they made out of meat?

[Eeyore]

Low quality meat.

[Jerry B.]

Get a wood chipper and a box of Marxist Helper.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Is that the one with the Leninny flavor?

[Eeyore]

Mmm mmm, Lennony.

[Ra's al Gore]

Amid Criticism, UN Palestinian Agency Nominated For Nobel
https://www.barrons.com/news/amid-criticism-un-palestinian-agency-nominated-for-nobel-83116402

A Norwegian politician said Thursday that he has nominated the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, embroiled in a controversy over the alleged involvement of employees in the October 7 attack on Israel, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Labour MP Asmund Aukrust told the Dagbladet newspaper he had nominated the UN Relief and Works Agency "for its long-term work to provide vital support to Palestine and the region in general".

"This work has been crucial for over 70 years, and even more vital in the last three months", said the politician who is vice-chairman of Norway's parliament's foreign affairs committee.

Over a dozen countries, including major donors the United States, Germany, Britain and Sweden, have suspended funding to the UN agency over accusations that 12 staff members were involved in the deadliest attack on Israel staged by Hamas on October 7....

[Anomalous]

This should be regarded as a joke, but they're serious. UNRWA are wolves in sheep's clothing.

[Sevo]

Remember, Obo got a Nobel for not being Bush.

[Eeyore]

I thought he got it for drone bombings? War is peace.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Somebody wants some of that exotic Palestinian pussy.

[Eeyore]

Nothing wrong about that.

[damikesc]

Long as you beat out her brother for that piece.

[Moonrocks]

Amid Criticism

I suspect it's because of the criticism. Decolonization is all the rage in woke circles these days.

[SRG2]

Decolonization is all the rage in woke circles these days.

Western decolonisation, to be accurate. I don't see much call for the expulsion of Arabs from lands they invaded, for example.

[DesigNate]

Fair point.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

So, dude really hates Jews. Got it.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'All these dumb Americans who think socialized healthcare is the only metric that matters should go visit a cancer-stricken relative as they lay dying in an NHS hospital in Britain. I done that, friend, and it ain't whatever you think it is. It's not happiness and salvation.'

Unless, of course, you are a devout Marxist.

[Ra's al Gore]

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1754937349706752079

Current job listing for an air traffic controller on the FAA's website is open to people with disabilities including psychiatric & intellectual delays.

Doesn't it make you feel safe knowing your air traffic controller can have an intellectual disability or have a seizure while directing your flight?

[Randy Sax]

Our company is also theoretically open to people with disabilities. Of course we never hire them, but we are *legally* open to them.

[JesseAz]

Can't remember where I saw it, but there was a report out by a Pilot who stated Delta pushed through a pilot that had multiple disciplinary actions, bad behaviors, and was an overall bad pilot through their probationary period and they became a full pilot, but they hit a intersectionality check box. No other pilot he had helped train had ever had as many issues and demerits during probation as this pilot.

[damikesc]

They wish to kill off non-private flight. Commercial air travel is "bad for the environment" and the WEF types sure love their private planes a lot.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

The Carroll Court Circus.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/02/08/the-e-jean-carroll-circus/

It is hard not to escape the conclusion that this wasn’t exactly a fair trial. For one thing, it was a civil trial, so Carroll didn’t have to prove her allegations ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. She only had to prove that they are more likely to be true than false. The case couldn’t be held in a criminal court as the statute of limitations had long run over. In fact, this same statute of limitations usually applies to civil trials, too. It is only thanks to a law in New York, passed hastily in the wake of the #MeToo movement, that the statute of limitations could be set aside in this case.

The judgement itself is troubling, too. Essentially, Trump has been punished here – to the tune of $83million – for defending his own character, for denying the serious accusations that were made against him.

E Jean Carroll’s interviews are something to behold. I have to give begrudging respect to a woman who truly does not seem to care how she comes across. She is completely oblivious to how batshit crazy she appears.

Carroll’s TV appearances, stretching back decades, have always been zany. But last week’s performance on MSNBC was a knockout. She managed to embarrass both Rachel Maddow and her own lawyers by gloating over the shopping spree she was about to go on with Trump’s $83million.

Back in 2019, Carroll went off-book with another sanctimonious journalist, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, when talking about her rape allegation against Trump. Presumably, he expected her to act as if she was traumatised. Instead, she left him flummoxed and obviously uncomfortable when she told him: ‘I think most people think of rape as being sexy. Think of the fantasies.’

But the seriousness and the flattery with which she has been treated by a credulous press is nonetheless striking. It shows just how much professional judgement, decorum and precedent the media are willing to set aside if – and only if – it might hurt their nemesis, Donald Trump. Because let’s be honest, if E Jean Carroll were a MAGA type accusing Biden of similar crimes, she would have been laughed out of CNN’s green room and never heard from again.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, also in Manhattan, a Democratic judge is currently weighing up what penalty to impose on Trump’s business empire. His company was found to have misrepresented its business’s finances when applying for loans. But all of these loans have since been repaid.

These attempts to stop Trump by any means necessary are incredibly serious. The rule of law is being twisted in favour of one side. The Democrats would rather turn America into a banana republic than allow a man they dislike to become president again. The so-called Resistance is a menace to democracy.

[Michael Ejercito]

She only had to prove that they are more likely to be true than false.
She failed to do even that.

[JesseAz]

As Jeff and Sarc have told us, juries are infallible and unbiased, so Trump must be guilty. Sure, neither of them provided what evidence they agreed with, just that the jury agreed.

[EISTAU Gree-Vance]

Trump said he didn’t do it, so can he sue for defamation?

He said/she said used to cancel this shit out.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'Very normal, healthy behavior: "Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions head to the polls to vote in a new government," reports the BBC.'

Extremism in the defense of democracy is no vice.

[(Impeach Robert L. Peters) Weigel's Cock Ring]

In President Grampa Mushmouth's latest embarrassing senior moment, he couldn't remember the name of the Palestinian terrorist group that perpetrated the October 7 attack. A reporter standing off to the side had to remind gramps that they're called "Hamas".

It's not your imagination: his deteriorating brain is noticeably getting worse by the day. The possibility of president Kamala is going up substantially.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

It makes me wonder if Biden is even going to make it to November. These slip ups have become far more noticeable, even more so within the past year. He can't have much time left.

If Kamala Harris becomes President (hypothetically), what are the odds of her being replaced by the DNC before November? That is, if they even have the guts to do so based off what was said in the James O'Keefe undercover interview.

[Longtobefree]

Nothing has changed; the timing is the only unknown.
Biden gets the boot, probably when Jill says he has to leave for medical reasons. Then Kamala moves up, and Newsome gets put in as President of Vice. Then Kamala gets the old 25th boot in the butt, and the now 'incumbent' fascist is elected in a small landslide.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

I'm not so sure about the replacement by Newsom though. The interview by O'Keefe seemed to indicate that the DNC would like to do so, but they're afraid to do so for offending a major constituent group of their party.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-white-house-official-caught-on-camera-admitting-biden-mental-decline-desire-to-replace-kamala

A top official in the Biden administration confirmed to undercover investigative journalist James O'Keefe that President Biden is in mental decline and revealed that the White House wants to replace Kamala Harris as vice president.

In addition to the confirmation of the declining state of Biden's mental capacity, Kraiger revealed that the White House has an alleged desire to remove Kamala Harris as vice president.

"I think they need to get rid of him or her," said Kraiger. "Vice President Harris hemorrhages black staff. She can't keep black staff. They quit on her en masse."

While the White House might want to replace VP Harris, that desire might not come to fruition because "she's the first black lady to be vice president" and removing her could result in a loss of support from the black community, according to Kraiger.

"She will be the vice president nominee. There was a debate about removing her from the ticket, but sadly they didn’t, she's not popular, but you can’t remove the first black lady to be vice president from the Goddamn presidential ticket. Like what kind of message are you going to send to like African-American voters…People would be like, "What the f*ck?” Like she's a woman and she's multiracial," Kraiger told O'Keefe.

[Zeb]

He's getting to the point where if he has a serious illness or injury, he'll probably really lose it. At least based on my experience of elderly people who are starting to decline mentally.

[JFree]

I think the odds of a 'convention surprise' are real. No way Kamala gets anointed. Biden is hemorrhaging D voters because of decisions about Israel. A 'ceasefire' in particular is entirely about keeping Netanyahu in power v what do the majority of American voters want.

idk how long this drags out but I suspect that soon the admin is gonna tell Netanyahu and other potential PM's - we won't make this big and public to the world but no more weapons for Israel to fight forever for unachievable goals.

A weak way of dealing with this - but weak is prob better than abject surrender.

[Ra's al Gore]

https://www.dezeen.com/2023/02/20/15-minute-city-edmonton/

A planner from Edmonton, Canada, has defended its 15-minute city plan after criticism from locals, saying that the plan uses age-old concepts and "will enable the City of Edmonton to support growth more efficiently".

Edmonton's principal planner Michael Strong has refuted the idea that the city's plan to re-organise into walkable communities would restrict people's movements, amid rising controversy surrounding the concept of 15-minute cities.

"There are not – nor will there ever be – any restrictions on moving from one district to the next," Strong told Dezeen.

Misconceptions "have quickly spread across social media"

The city's plans have recently being criticised with a viral video showing a group of protestors confronting planner Sean Bohle on the street, asking him if the plans were meant to make lockdowns easier.

"Misconceptions about district plans restricting and monitoring people's movements have quickly spread across social media," said Strong.

"It's difficult to say where these misconceptions stem from," he continued.

[Mother's Lament]

Everything in Edmonton is miles apart and it can get down to -40 in the winter. It's physically the size of New York but only has 1.5 million people. How the fuck can anyone walk that?
There'd be frozen corpses everywhere in January.

[Minadin]

City planners / urban designers are, generally speaking, morons, but it's ok, because their plans wouldn't work anyway, even if they were well thought out and intelligently designed.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

“It’s difficult to say where these misconceptions stem from,” he continued.

LOL, no, it's not that difficult at all. The WEF has openly promoted them, and the environmental apocalypticists at the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change have been pimping them for some time as well.

And like a lot of techno-utopian programs, it misreads Jane Jacobs by conflating the format of an urban space with the presence of a high-trust society, when the actual evidence shows that cramming a bunch of people into a small area inorganically, leads to a multitude of mental, social, and emotional disorders.

[DesigNate]

“It’s difficult to say where these misconceptions stem from,” he continued.”

Right wing conspiracy theories, obviously.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

'These ghouls always use the word "resurfaced" like it's a dead body that floated to the top of a lake. No. You searched for them, like gravediggers, picking the bones of the dead.'

You know what else Democrats do with the dead?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Take them to the polls?

[Longtobefree]

Yep.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/08/exclusive-see-the-grave-markers-of-long-dead-residents-listed-on-michigans-voter-rolls/

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

Fuck them?

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Have them hold the highest executive level office in the land?

[Ra's al Gore]

Senate border bill says non-Mexican children won't be counted in migrant total to trigger mandatory shutdown
Senate border supplemental says 5K weekly average does not include 'noncontiguous' unaccompanied migrant children
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-border-bill-says-non-mexican-children-wont-counted-migrant-total-trigger-mandatory-shutdown

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

So, the official position of the people who wrote this bill is that non-Mexican children aren't people?

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

How about a three-fifths compromise?

[Sevo]

The 9th is looking for yet one more rejection:

"California can resume background check for ammunition purchases under 9th Circuit order"
[...]
"Afederal appeals court says California can resume requiring background checks for purchasers of ammunition while the state appeals a federal judge’s ruling that the law violates the right to keep and bear arms.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 Monday to grant state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s request for a stay of the Jan. 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego halting enforcement of the 2019 law..."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-can-resume-background-check-for-ammunition-purchases-under-9th-circuit-order/ar-BB1hSTaY#:~:text=A%20federal%20appeals%20court%20says%20California%20can%20resume,violates%20the%20right%20to%20keep%20and%20bear%20arms.

[A Thinking Mind]

9th fucking circuit.

[Ra's al Gore]

Why you should never retire
Pleasure cruises, golf and tracing the family tree are not that fulfilling
https://www.economist.com/business/2024/01/25/why-you-should-never-retire

But can anything truly replace the framework and buzz of being part of the action? You can have a packed diary devoid of deadlines, meetings and spreadsheets and flourish as a consumer of theatre matinees, art exhibitions and badminton lessons. Hobbies are all well and good for many. But for the extremely driven, they can feel pointless and even slightly embarrassing.

That is because there is depth in being useful. And excitement, even in significantly lower doses than are typical earlier in a career, can act as an anti-ageing serum.

[Minadin]

Please do not share this with Mitch McConnell.

[mamabug]

Ummm... are we at the beginning of the next 'eat bugs' narrative? Acknowledging that Gen X is never, ever, EVER going to get to retire (like we always knew was going to happen?)

I call BS on this narrative without even reading it. My very successful and driven father officially retired at 55 after the successful sale of several companies he was on the board of. He is turning 84 this year, more active than most 40 year-olds, and has spent his retirement helping build an angel investing charity, teaching kids robotics, volunteering, writing a history book, traveling the globe, skiing, hiking, and managing the entire extended family's stock portfolios.

The 'extremely driven' are more than capable of finding excitement in their retirement.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Socialized healthcare isn't what people think

More and more it is a government agent convincing you to kill yourself.

[Ra's al Gore]

Blackmail material:

Feds charge 3 with running high-end brothels allegedly frequented by politicians
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/08/feds-brothel-investigation-politicians-00126153

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That's basically how model agencies and fashion shows function, as euphemistic high-class courtesan rings. The ones who don't stay in long are the ones who don't want to fulfill those expected obligations.

[A Thinking Mind]

Paying for sex should be legal, a transaction between consenting individuals. I don’t find this damning.

[Ra's al Gore]

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1754307466303791239?s=20

BREAKING: Democrats in NJ introduced Senate Bill 2421 the “Freedom to Read Act.” It would create an exemption for obscenity laws for minors to exclude teachers & librarians and award monetary compensation to teachers and librarians who are criticized.

Teachers & librarians would get a free pass to show obscene material to minors.

They’re not even hiding their agenda anymore.

[Mother's Lament]

Creamjeff claps with glee.

[Dillinger]

hopefully only claps.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

He misspelled "faps".

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Man, these people are really desperate to sexualize children and convince them that they're born in the wrong body.

[Spiritus Mundi]

award monetary compensation to teachers and librarians who are criticized.

Criminalizing free speech.

[rbike]

Iowa GOP is pushing the opposite. $10000 civil fine for exposing children to inappropriate material.. The queers are real upset. But they can't really explain why.

[Commenter_XY]

All I will say is: Par for the course in the People's Republic of NJ.

Just remember that the sick fucks who are pushing this, also pushed lockdowns, forced vaccination, school closures, and put sick covid patients into nursing homes, killing thousands.

They are very sick people.

[Social Justice is neither]

They're working to rebrand as the Pedophiles Republic of NJ.

[HorseConch]

Jeffy is about to move to NJ and apply for a teaching job.

[Michael Ejercito]

So boys in high school will be able to read Playboy and Hustler and other porn magazines?

I can understand why teen boys would cheer if this bill passes.

[Ra's al Gore]

Wonder how much federal grant money these charities get.

Major Liberal Charities Funneling Millions Into Arms Of Chinese Government, Documents Show
https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/22/chinese-government-charities-us-funding/

[Ra's al Gore]

‘War On Families’: Federal ‘Home Visiting’ Program Classifies Parents Who Don’t Let Young Kids Cross-Dress As Potentially Abusive
https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/20/federal-home-visiting-program-classifies-parents-young-kids-cross-dress-potentially-abusive/

[Moonrocks]

In the first place, why is there a government Home Visiting program and why is it funded at the federal level?

[Longtobefree]

Fascists gotta do fascism.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

And freaks gotta do freak.

[Ra's al Gore]

It was this senator's border bill.

Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex https://www.local10.com/news/politics/2022/06/25/senator-in-2010-deposition-13-year-olds-can-consent-to-sex/

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Is that sex with anyone, or just sex with Senators?

[Michael Ejercito]

The case involved sex between minors.

[Ra's al Gore]

https://pjmedia.com/ed-driscoll/2014/01/19/the-l-word-n258237

The best short credo of liberalism came from the pen of the once canonical left-wing literary historian Vernon Parrington in the late 1920s. “Rid society of the dictatorship of the middle class,” Parrington insisted, referring to both democracy and capitalism, “and the artist and the scientist will erect in America a civilization that may become, what civilization was in earlier days, a thing to be respected.” Alienated from middle-class American life, liberalism drew on an idealized image of “organic” pre-modern folkways and rhapsodized about a future harmony that would reestablish the proper hierarchy of virtue in a post-bourgeois, post-democratic world.

[Minadin]

So, they've always been retards.

[Moonrocks]

In other words, they want a return to feudalism and believe they'll be in the aristocracy.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That wasn’t anything new–Rousseau was spouting that same nonsense in the mid-1700s.

Creatives always think utopia will come about if they don’t have to worry about icky things like the consequences of their dumb beliefs on functional, high-trust societies.

[A Thinking Mind]

Even as a younger man, the first time I read Rousseau I hated him. He was a proto-socialist/fascist, talking about how individuals have to yield before the Political Will of the state. Complete collectivist. And he was insufferably full of himself, from what I remember of his writings.

I spent a full semester in college pushing the idea “Rousseau was a prick.”

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Rousseau was a prick. I much preferred Voltaire to him.

[A Thinking Mind]

Montesquieu was a pretty swell guy, too. Persian Letters was a fun read.

I don't actually remember reading a lot of Voltaire. I should probably give Candide a shot some day.

You ever read Bernard Mandeville's "Fable of the Bees?" That one stuck with me and my libertarian sensibilities.

[Demosthenes of Athens]

Yeah, I don't really understand why Rousseau is considered a part of the "Liberal Canon" when I found him to be incredibly illiberal when I was reading him.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Also the unfairness of having to work for a living.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

See: Zoomers complaining about working 9-5 jobs.

[MWAocdoc]

“America supplies about half of Ukraine’s total foreign aid, to the tune of nearly $50 billion.”

Why? What if I don’t want to 1) crack down on the border; OR 2) supply aid and weapons to the Ukraine? Who is representing that position in the Congress? Why are the 45% of Americans who don’t consider themselves to be either Republicans or Democrats the ONLY people who are not represented in Congress? I’m afraid that America is too far gone politically to recover from this disaster rationally so I suspect our government will simply have to crash and burn before we can put things back together again in a more restrained fashion. I hope there’s something left to put it back together with again.

[Sevo]

"...Why?..."
Is it too cynical to imagine this has something to do with the Bidens' 'business' dealings?

[MWAocdoc]

Yes, it is. Ukraine no longer has the ability to bribe members of his family so we will have to look elsewhere for an explanation.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Surely some of the money we've handed them can be used for Biden family kickbacks?

[American Mongrel]

According to zerohedge enthusiasts, people like that are a left wing conspiracy theory.

[MWAocdoc]

Why can't zerohedge left wing conspiracies have representation in Congress? Enquiring minds want to know!

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

His name is Thomas Massie

[ducksalad]

MWAocdoc, got some bad news for you: if your only two issues were really “don’t want to 1) crack down on the border; OR 2) supply aid and weapons to the Ukraine” then your representative in Congress is Ilhan Omar.

[Sevo]

"EPA proposes tougher air quality standards for deadly soot pollution"
[...]
"A proposal released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency would set maximum levels of 9 to 10 micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms set a decade ago under the Obama administration. The standard for particle pollution, more commonly known as soot, was left unchanged by then-President Donald Trump, who overrode a scientific recommendation for a lower standard in his final days in office
[...]
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the proposal to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards for fine particle pollution would help prevent serious health problems, including asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Those populations include children, older adults and those with heart and lung conditions as well as low-income and minority communities throughout the United States..."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/epa-proposes-tougher-air-quality-standards-for-deadly-soot-pollution#:~:text=A%20proposal%20released%20Friday%20by%20the%20Environmental%20Protection,set%20a%20decade%20ago%20under%20the%20Obama%20administration.

Would that have been a SCIENTIFIC (tm) recommendation regarding DEI?

[MWAocdoc]

I'm still waiting for the details on how the EPA plans to control soot from wildfires and volcanic eruptions. That should be fascinating reading!

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Or we could wear a mask or three.

[Ra's al Gore]

UNCANCEL WOODROW WILSON
Despised as a racist by today’s left and a tyrant by today’s right, the 28th president championed a set of values that our politics sorely lack.

By David Frum
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/03/woodrow-wilson-racism-civil-rights/677174/

Wilson championed—and came to symbolize—progressive reform at home and liberal internationalism abroad. So long as those causes commanded wide support, Wilson’s name resonated with the greats of American history. In our time, however, the American left has subordinated the causes of reform and internationalism to the politics of identity, while the American right has rejected reform and internationalism altogether. Wilson’s standing has been crushed in between.

...My point is not to acquit Wilson of the charges against him, nor to minimize those charges by blaming the times, rather than him. Historical figures are responsible for their beliefs, words, and actions. But if one man is judged the preeminent villain of his era for bigotries that were common among people of his place, time, and rank, that singular fixation demands explanation. Why Wilson rather than Taft or Coolidge?

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Wilson must be brought low because he stood so high. He is scorned now because of our weakening attachment to what was formerly regarded as good and great.

[TheReEncogitationer]

So "Blame it on Midnight, Shame on the Moon" is Frum's take on Wilson? Yeah, fuck both these guys!

[Mother's Lament]

George W. Bush's neocon speechwriter thinks that the father of the League of Nations should be rehabilitated. Quelle surprise.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

The only reason Wilson was considered "great" by academics prior to the Great Awokening is because he significantly expanded the reach and scope of government during his time in office, and tried to make the US subordinate to the "international community" via the League of Nations.

Repealing every single one of the amendments that passed during his tenure would greatly mitigate the nation's current socio-economic dysfunctions.

[Dillinger]

>>Repealing every single one of the amendments that passed during his tenure

fuck yeah. if I had time for a Sisyphusian task ...

[Zeb]

Most "great" leaders were tyrannical fucks. "Great" doesn't necessarily mean "good".

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Perhaps he also represents a fever dream for many academics: ascend to the top of the ivory tower and then run the nation (and the world).

[mamabug]

Wasn't he also the first known President to basically be incapacitated during his term of office and had his wife actually running the country?

Wow, missed having an exact 100 year cycle by one election.

[Moonrocks]

When was he cancelled? That bridge over the Potomac is still named after the bastard.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Why am I neither surprised nor shocked that David Frum would be praising Woodrow Wilson.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

I don't understand why Wilson was ever canceled, because he was a progressive globalist-- and yes a racist, as most progressives are.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

If only he could overcome living as a white male.

[A Thinking Mind]

He was a progressive and a globalist. He’s like a caricAture of the worst impulses of the American left today.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Why Wilson rather than Taft or Coolidge?

Because Calvin Coolidge signed legislation granting Native Americans cirizenship. And showed no racial animus towards Black Americans. Made nice with the new Mexico government, ending any further conflicts between the neighbors. Among his many accomplishments. Calvin being the greatest president of 20th century.

David Frum is retarded to consider the two men even remotely equivalent.

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

But in addition to all of those other terrible things, he was also stupid enough to get us into WWI.

[Ra's al Gore]

Canada halts controversial assisted suicide program for mentally ill due to lack of doctors willing to participate
https://nypost.com/2024/02/03/news/canada-halts-assisted-suicide-program-for-mentally-ill-due-to-lack-of-doctors/

[Spiritus Mundi]

For now....

[Mother's Lament]

They'll open it up to serial killers compassionate volunteers. Just wait and see.

Maybe the Liberals are only acting like they're possessed, but they're acting like they're possessed. Gozer the Gozerian, Apollyon, Old Scratch, I don't know, but they're a nightmarish group.

[Dillinger]

>>lack of doctors willing to participate

does Canadia have executive orders?

[Minadin]

Anyone else see this new COVID bullshit from (un-)Scientific (un-)American?

"Rampant COVID Poses New Challenges in the Fifth Year of the Pandemic"

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rampant-covid-poses-new-challenges-in-the-fifth-year-of-the-pandemic/

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Fifth year?

It's not pining, it's passed on! This pandemic is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late pandemic! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies! It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This is an ex-pandemic!

[(Impeach Robert L. Peters) Weigel's Cock Ring]

We're not locking down the country again, no matter how much these scumbags might want us to.

Granted, our Deep State is pretty fucking evil, but even they don't quite have the balls to actually try it again this soon.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

Your optimism knows no bounds.

[Super Scary]

I'm sure it's going to be an interesting summer this year.

[Michael Ejercito]

Whio would want to lock down the country again?

[A Thinking Mind]

It’s Scientific American, and the second question they ask is about how this affecting her emotionally. The second fucking question. Who fucking cares?

I definitely had COVID back in January. It was like strep throat for me. Very unpleasant but not life threatening.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Test said I had COVID around Christmas 2022. Only real symptoms was very mild fever, some tiredness, and a persistent but usually mild cough that lasted for a few days.

But on the second morning, I coughed and something popped in my lower right-side ribcage in the back. That created momentary agony, then a high-degree of extremely localized pain that lasted longer than COVID. Couldn't sleep, no comfortable position, every cough no matter how small and most movement caused a stabbing pain for two or three days.

And then something popped again, and everything was fine.

[Zeb]

Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with people? Everyone has had it by now. It's long past pandemic. By at least two years.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Vulnerability and victimhood are the highest virtues, and irrational fear of exaggerated or invented danger is the proper life view. And of course, expanded state power, directed by the experts, is the only solution.

[ducksalad]

Why were you reading Scientific American?

Even looking at the website supports their business model.

[TheReEncogitationer]

"Ukrainian military officials told The New York Times that on the eastern front, in places like Avdiivka, "the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian artillery fire is five to one," which means Ukrainian soldiers are being forced to conserve and put their own lives in danger when smaller groups of Russian forces approach. Russia, meanwhile, is being supplied by North Korea, Iran, and China."

Now would be a good time for everyone, especially Ukrainians, to study about the 300 Spatans vs The Persian Empire.

[Spiritus Mundi]

Or sue for peace

[A Thinking Mind]

The Spartans famously LOST the battle of Thermopylae. It was only after a decisive naval victory in the battle of Salamis that things really turned around for the Greeks.

[MWAocdoc]

"The tax code shouldn't be pro-Tesla, but it should be pro-human"

Tim is a highly educated idiot too. The only "pro-human" tax code is one that doesn't try to fund freeways, bridges, education, healthcare and housing, or regulate private transactions, travel, employment, banking, trade, sex, drugs, gambling and property. He wants to regulate and tax what he wants to regulate and tax and NOT regulate and tax what he doesn't want regulated and taxed, and he wants to define his preferences as "pro-human" to make them sound better.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Under Argentina’s New President, Fuel Is Up 60%, and Diaper Prices Have Doubled
Javier Milei warned that things would get worse before they got better. Now Argentines are living it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/23/world/americas/argentina-economy-inflation-javier-milei.html

Milei-flation?

Did dude cancel a pipeline that never carried a drop of oil?

(Mothers Lament believes that shit.)

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Over the past two weeks, the owner of a hip wine bar in Buenos Aires saw the price of beef soar 73 percent, while the zucchini he puts in salads rose 140 percent. An Uber driver paid 60 percent more to fill her tank.

Wow.

That's inflation.

We complain about 3% on our Cheesy-Poofs.

[Sevo]

turd, the TDS-addled ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

What Cheezy-Poofs?

[Sevo]

turd, the ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Funny, Milei said right off the bat that there was going to be short-term pain to get past the decades-long effects of your side's economic policies, and he's also only been in office a few weeks. How interesting that you're repeating the same leftist claim that instant gratification not happening means total failure.

But I realize, as a Soros Shitty Society Foundation shill, that you're going to slag anyone who isn't a leftist.

[Sevo]

turd is entirely too stupid to understand that digging out of the lefty-dug hole is going to cause some pain.
He's dishonest as hell, but perhaps that's not as bad as his stupidity; he's got that by the bushels.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

I'm not being critical. He is their only hope in fact.

Just pointing out that the world inflation spike had nothing to do with a silly Canuck pipeline that never carried a drop of oil.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

No, he and his cohorts just printed a shit-ton of money backed by jack shit.

[Sevo]

turd certainly is dishonest, but he’s got a heaping helping of stupid to go with his dishonesty. Stupid, lying, despicable steaming pile of lefty shit and proud to be!

[Mother's Lament]

"silly Canuck pipeline that never carried a drop of oil."

Because you're nutty lot forbid it. Now it travels on freight trains and is backlogged the fuck up, raising prices.

"Impleading distribution doesn't affect prices!!!"

Absolutely retarded.

[MWAocdoc]

The average Argentinian benefitted from artificially low prices for decades and now they are paying the price for ending the artificially low prices with inflation. The alternative would have been hyperinflation and widespread mass starvation and chaos. Anyone who focuses on the current inflation and ignores the disaster that would have been unavoidable without the belt-tightening measures is a fool or has an ax to grind.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

That's the rub, as the inflation was already happening, thanks in large part to those price controls and subsidies.

[Zeb]

He deliberately devalued the peso and didn't hide what he was doing. This is not a surprise and is according to his plan.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

The kids had made a massive bonfire, which is part terrifying, part awesome. Can't wait to go back and visit again when my son is older.

Just so everyone knows-- as a proud member of Gen X, a 'massive bonfire' was called "Wednesday" when I was that age. So even the 'terrifying' moniker can be massively tempered.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

Joe Biden Speech Gaffe Sparks Speculation
.
Multiple outlets reported that at the second of three fundraisers in New York City on February 7, Biden said: "And then [German Chancellor] Helmut Kohl turned to me and said, 'What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the London Times and learned that 1,000 people had broken down the doors of the British parliament, killed some bobbies on the way in, to deny the prime minister to take office," referring to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-speech-gaffe-age-helmut-kohl-1868121

Gaffe? Gaffe?

Cut the bullshit.

Sleepy Joe almost didn't wake up.

WTF is wrong with our system?

A fucking walking corpse vs a lying Con Man who should be in prison?

It can't get any worse.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

‘What would you say, Mr. President, if you picked up the London Times and learned that 1,000 people had broken down the doors of the British parliament, killed some bobbies on the way in, to deny the prime minister to take office,” referring to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.</i.

What's the Gaffe here, the Helmut Kohl reference. or the allusion that some bobbies were killed during January 6?

[Zeb]

That he doesn't know how Prime Ministers are selected?

[Super Scary]

"killed some bobbies on the way in, to deny the prime minister to take office,” referring to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot."

...but no cops were killed by people going into the building. Are they still trying to blame the protesters for cops committing suicide weeks, even months, later?

[Sevo]

turd's got stupid by the buckets, don't he?

[Dillinger]

>>but no cops were killed by people going into the building

everybody not @Reason (and Jeff) still believes the opposite.

[Michael Ejercito]

Yes, they are.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

I'm at the point where I think the cops that committed "suicide" were about to tell the truth about j6

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

What did they know about the Clinton family?

[Sevo]

Too much.

[Super Scary]

It depends. Were they the “hang myself by a ceiling fan/throw a toaster in a bathtub” type of suicides or the “tie myself to a tree and shoot myself in the chest with a shotgun” type of suicide.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Or the Clinton-knowing "shoot myself in the back of the head, twice" kind of suicides?

[Dillinger]

Ron Brown died long before that plane hit the ground lol.

[Sevo]

turd lies. That's not a surprise to anyone who reads his constant stream of bullshit.
But it's becoming obvious that as Misek is too stupid to understand the concepts of "evidence" or "relevance", the concept of "honesty" is simply beyond turd's ken.

[Dillinger]

I don't know if there's a better Doors song ... maybe Peace Frog.

[Dillinger]

>>Russia, meanwhile, is being supplied by North Korea, Iran, and China.

file in What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

[Super Scary]

We should probably start paying more attention to what Germany is getting into...just in case. They have a bit of history when it comes to countries teaming up against each other.

[Dillinger]

gute idee.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Listening to SCOTUS oral arguments in CO sec 3 case. Even Jackson Browne seems skeptical. Out on a limb here but this could go 9-0.

[Dillinger]

Jason Murray thinks he's cute.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Court adjourned. Colorado is toast. I'm going all in
9-0. Jackson and Kagan were the toughest questioners. This will not be conservative v liberal. They will not go to the insurrection question. But Trump will be on the ballot in every state.

[Z Crazy]

It seems to me the easiest way to dispose of the case is to say that states don't have authority to judge the qualifications for federal offices.

I mean, even if Trump gave nuclear secrets and a ton of plutonium to Hamas on a live stream, states don't have power to do anything about it.

[A Thinking Mind]

Sotomayor is clearly not with the majority on this. Can’t get a read on Kagan. It’s not going to unanimous unless there’s some back room negotiations by Roberts.

[Dillinger]

back room negotiations by Roberts create 5-4 leftist majorities

[Commenter_XY]

I would be very careful about that forecast. Don't get me wrong, I think the country needs a decisive ruling from SCOTUS, and I would love to see 9-0. We will see.

note: I have not read the transcript or heard the audio.

[Dillinger]

>>Very normal, healthy behavior: "Pakistan has suspended mobile calls and data services as millions head to the polls to vote in a new government,"

you know that shit goes on here right? "private companies" and whatnot

[Super Scary]

Sounds like a good way to combat misinformation! I'm sure they will only try this stateside if they really, *really* need to.

[Dillinger]

>>only for six- to 12-year-olds. No parents allowed, no rules, no babies.

fun! we called that the 1970s --> 1980s

[Dillinger]

>>Former Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley has long maintained that he cut off his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein once he became boss of the UK bank

did his children even believe him?

[Dillinger]

>>Javier Milei, La Libertad Avanza, has introduced a bill to parliament that would ban abortion in the country.

never going to reach the point where Buenos Aires is central enough for the bugs to nuke unless there is an Explosion de Bebes first

[Ajsloss]

The only good bug is a dead bug.

[Senater Tim Scott]

Speaking of foreign countries… after Mr. Tucker gets done interviewing libertarian hero, Vladimir Putin, he should interview my Canadian girlfriend, who I fuck a lot when I go up there to Christian summer camp. Her number is 1-900-555-1212 if you want to call her, but right now she’s on a mission to find Santa Claus so she might not pick up.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Sure her number isn't 867-3509?

[A Thinking Mind]

For a good time ca-all.

[Senater Tim Scott]

That’s the number to my hot Brazilian girlfriend. How’d you get that one?

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Why do you ask, is her name Jenny?

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

Is she your mother or your sister?

[Mother's Lament]

"after Mr. Tucker gets done interviewing libertarian hero, Vladimir Putin"

Buttplug thinks we should apparently find this wrong.

[Senater Tim Scott]

Listen I know that some people think I’m a gormless, sexless, closeted weirdo emblematic of a dysfunctional cultural zeitgeist full of right-wingers who don’t want you to touch your pee-pee, but I want you to know that I have real sex with a real Canadian and we fuck like rabbits when we’re together, ok?

[Sevo]

No, you're a fucking witless troll. Fuck off and die.

[Senater Tim Scott]

Ya see? This is what touching your penis too much does to you. Gets you backed up and unpleasant.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Shrike, this is just stupid.

[Sevo]

Ya see? This is what a room temp IQ does for you. This pile of shit thought his reply was "clever" instead of brain-dead.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

It's sbp.

[Sevo]

That would explain the level of stupid.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2]

You is a fool.

[Sevo]

turd certainly is dishonest, but he’s got a heaping helping of stupid to go with his dishonesty. Stupid, lying, despicable steaming pile of lefty shit and proud to be!

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

She's your dad in drag.

[Medulla Oblongata]

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/member-of-eu-parliament-threatens-sanctions-against-tucker-carlson-for-interviewing-putin/?utm_campaign=TPI02082024AMWUC&utm_source=criticalimpact&utm_medium=email&source=TPICI#google_vignette

Remember when Hillary Clinton gave a literal Reset button to Russia when Putin was Prime Minister in 2009?

Remember in 2012 when Obama plotted the future after his re-election?

Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space."

Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…"

Obama: "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."

Remember then that Obama and Clinton denied aid to Ukraine during the first Crimean invasion by Russia?

Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014, and the Obama decision against including lethal aid in its overall support of Ukraine came after.

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

I bet that made him swallow hard ...

[beteille]

It's true, WSJ, children are a luxury item. No one dies from failing to breed.

[Truthfulness]

And slaves are 100% property of their owner, as the Dred Scott case declared. No one dies from failing to buy slaves.

See how fallacious your declaration is?

[Senater Tim Scott]

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America is hurtling towards zero! Yesterday, the crack libertarian commenters came up with the perfect analogy. If the money in your account is going at 90 miles per hour and inflation is going at 30 miles per hour that means you’re traveling at -60 miles per hour towards Venezuela. SELL!!! SELL!!! SELL!!! Buy rubles and rupees— the new reserve currency.

[DesigNate]

Goddamn this is just an all around bad troll. Not even a 1 out of 10.

Sad

[See.More]

.

A Spielplatz (playground) in Berlin that's only for six- to 12-year-olds. No parents allowed, no rules, no babies. A perfect free-range/free-play environment...

Writing Hint: The first and third sentences are incomplete. They completely lack meaningful verbs.

(reminds me of The Yard, New York's only adventure playground, on Governor's Island)

Journalistic Hint: You should also have one or more links regarding the primary subject matter, especially if you're going to link to tangential subject matter.

[Dillinger]

criticize the "that" for even being there because nobody should use "that" but is the "apostrophe-s" not the verb?

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

People should ask King Charles why he's going to a private hospital for cancer treatment vice the NHS.

[Mother's Lament]

Think of him like a Democratic party official except British.

[JFree]

Why would Brits want him to add himself to an NHS wait list? He's got the money to bypass that and that is exactly what Brits expect. NHS is intended for 'the common man'.

Brits want the cancer wait times fixed - roughly 300,000 people have paid for their own cancer treatments in the last five years there. But fixing those wait times and sticking Charles on a wait list is the sort of stupid virtue signaling that a Brit would expect of Americans. He's rich enough to pay for his own cancer treatment.

[Sevo]

"...Brits want the cancer wait times fixed – roughly 300,000 people have paid for their own cancer treatments in the last five years there. But fixing those wait times and sticking Charles on a wait list is the sort of stupid virtue signaling that a Brit would expect of Americans. He’s rich enough to pay for his own cancer treatment..."

JFucked assures us it's far cheaper than what we have, right, JFucked?

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

I have found that private care here costs less than it does back home at least for the services we needed. Of course, we also pay for the NHS that we use only for minor problems and emergencies so it costs a lot for good care.

Our medical or maybe insurance-industrial complex could learn a lot from the UK's. That includes the failures as well as successes.

If we learn how to control the cost of care, we could end the arguments about who pays for it.

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

If the leader of the country shuns it, what are the plebes to think. And, I'm not saying I blame the king. I live here and I use private care. If I got cancer I'd head right home to the USA.

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

Furthermore, the NHS constitution states it's available to all.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-nhs-constitution-for-england

[Diane Reynolds (Paul. they/them)]

"Those who argue that the tax code shouldn't favor parenthood treat children as a lifestyle choice or a consumption good, like a Tesla," writes Tim Carney in The Wall Street Journal. "The tax code shouldn't be pro-Tesla, but it should be pro-human, especially amid our baby bust."

I wonder how hard it is for Journolisming types to quietly pivot from Overpopulation(tm) to acknowledging population decline.

[Dillinger]

the over/under on group emails is three.

[mad.casual]

Whichever one of them had the idea to cut the good stuff with some anti-Tesla vermouth was a frickin' genius.

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

I've never read anything of Carney's about overpopulation.

[TommyInIdaho]

“ To some, the stalled aid package is evidence that America is beginning to quench her thirst for foreign entanglements; to others, it's a gloomy sign that Ukraine may fall without continued U.S. assistance.” It’s both and we should have gone to the bargaining table instead of to war.

[Miss Ann Thrope (She/It)]

I agree it's both. However, if Europe would tend it's own back yard, Ukraine wouldn't fall.