Thursday Open Thread

What's on your mind?

Comments

[Kazinski]

I'm a little bit confused by the racial affinity groups cropping up "White Dudes for Harris" and "White Karen's for Harris". I get some groups like Truckers for Trump, or Tech Bros for Harris, or Crypto Geeks for Trump, they got an agenda and they want the candidate to remember the support and hopefully deliver something tangible when the get into office.

What's Harris promising White Women? Or White Dudes? Why is she moving them to the head of the line?

When I give money to a politician, I don't look around for some affinity organization to bundle my money with for better clout. Why are these White people banding together excluding other races to make their pitch?

I don't get it, is anyone else confused by it all, or am I just weird?

[David Nieporent]

You're weird, but you're not weird, if you know what I mean. You seem to be completely misunderstanding the dynamic. These aren't lobbying groups. They're just ways to organize volunteers. These are more like Oklahomans for Harris or Star Wars fans for Harris. It makes volunteers feel like they're more a part of something as opposed to a generic Americans for Harris, while at the same time making a public statement that people who fit into that category do support her.

[Kazinski]

Why do the want people to know White Karen's support Harris?

I'd try to keep that low profile.

[Kazinski]

Here is two black men discussing Kamala and Joe. I had to look up Joe Brown, I didn't realize he was almost as big as judge Judy, I have missed whole generations of daytime TV.

It's at least more interesting than the White woman zoom call.

https://x.com/SpartaJustice/status/1816983739047801316?t=C5DnQ1CA3TdvyvhdaiDYsA&s=19

[Frank Drackman]

"45" 3 kids with 3 different Baby Mama's, doesn't pay his bills, Convicted Felon, Gets shot, and all he cares about are his Shoes...

Fuck Bill Clinton, "45" is our first "Real" Black President!!!

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Shouldn't that be 5 kids?

[Frank Drackman]

I'm guessing by "Big" you mean TV ratings? Joe Brown's a big duge, while Judge Judy makes Olive Oyl look like Dr. Rachel/Richard Levine (if only Ed Wood were alive to make an updated version of "Glen or Glenda?"

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Chickens for KFC comes to mind....

[Malika]

These are the same people who took "deplorables" as a badge of honor.

[Riva]

Yeah, uh huh. Want to be judged by your character not the color of your skin? Stay the hell away from the Democratic Party.

Come to think of it, if you want democracy, freedom, and prosperity, stay the hell away from the Democratic Party.

[Frank Drackman]

It's like N-words with the N-word, you call me "D-plorable" I'll wad it up and throw it right back at you (to me, it wasn't the D-word, but Hillary Rodman's cute little Artsy-Fartsy-Fag-Bag "Basket" she wanted to put me in
Funny how all the Nate Silverstein types don't understand some basic math, Yes, Cums-a-lot will increase her share of the Black Female vote from %99.9999 to %99.99999, but if "45" gets just a few more % of the Black Male vote (largest % for a Repubiclown since that great Civil Rights Icon Richard Milhouse in 1960) the erections O-vah
It's already O-vah, Cums-a-lot just doesn't know it yet

Frank

[SimonP]

Anyone with even the most basic familiarity with how the white vote typically splits Republican/Democrat would understand why white Kamala supporters would want to normalize and promote that support.

The electoral math isn't hard.

[CountmontyC]

Would a group called White People for Trump be considered racist in your opinion?

[Malika]

Why can't I use the N word?

[Krayt]

You can, legally. You would suffer the social consequences.

Maybe some day, you will be able to use it in a joking, convivial, compadre way. That time is not yet. And those white people who want to use it, not you of course, want to go back to using it in the old, mean way.

[CountmontyC]

I will ask you the same question. Would a White People for Trump group be racist in your opinion?

[Nelson]

Nope. White people are the majority of Republican support. They have been since the Civil Rights Act was supported by LBJ and they fled to the Republican party.

It would be more "Well, duh!".

[Frank Drackman]

Your Pubic Screw-el Ed-jew-ma-cation is showing, the Civil Rights Bills only passed because the Repubiclowns supported them, more DemoKKKrats voted against them than R’s including former Grand Kleagle Robert KKK Bird (D, WVA)

[SimonP]

Isn't that every Trump rally?

The comparison you should be drawing would be to an ethnic group that historically hasn't supported Trump or the Republican Party, like "Black Men for Trump" or "Latinos for Trump." Would those be "racist"? No, I wouldn't think so.

I also don't see why "White People for Trump" would be "racist," unless they were to get on the call and all talk about how Trump will promote white supremacy. But, again - it seems more redundant than anything.

[grb]

You're talking to people who filled a whole comment thread with fiery anger because the slogan Black Lives Matters left them out. Per them, that was "racist" too.

Please understand, today's Right is addicted to zero-sum thinking. It also craves victimhood like a sweaty crack addict his fix. Everybody else is trying to get something over on them. Everyone wants to steal their due. And they really get-off believing that someone has a dark skin. That gives them a pleasure that approaches sexual release.

Thus we get the party/movement most reliant on identity politics forever whining about the same. Because their's is White, it somehow doesn't count.

[Kazinski]

Nah, what sets people off about Black Lives Matter is that they are pretending it's White People or the police taking all the Black Lives.

Politifact: 90% of Black murders are by other Blacks.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2015/may/21/updated-look-statistics-black-black-murders/

Add to that the fact that the founders of BLM turned out to be Marxist grifters (Sarcastro alert! I called some people Marxists).

[Frank Drackman]

Eeek! Facts!

[grb]

Kazinski : “Nah, what sets people off about Black Lives Matter is that they are pretending…”

Two Points:

1. People in that thread made that point but didn’t stop there. What I describe is accurate. There was a lot of bizarre anger against the group’s very name itself. It was judge presumptuous and cheating.

2. Speaking for myself alone, I always thought three thing fuel BLM : First, the sense that police violence against Blacks frequently goes unpunished – often against substantial evidence and particularly before the movement began.

Second, is seeing large parts of the White community reflectively excuse any police violence against Black – often using tortured reasoning or no reasoning at all. Lastly, are common experiences many Blacks have with cops that leave an ugly feeling, even though they’re much less serious. Talk to a few African Americans, and those stories start to accumulate.

As for the “founders of BLM”, so what? It is a movement spread very wide and diverse with little connection to any central organization or structure. Professor Bernstein does a similar trick with the BDS movement against Israel. He found dirt on BDS founders nobody knows or remembers and thinks that discredits a movement expanded and grown well beyond its origin ages ago. The vacuity of Bernstein’s tactics is obvious. So is yours.

[Sarcastr0]

Oh, I think we know what sets people off about black lives matter. Just based on the reactions around here, which talked about savages and thugs and Marxists and anti-white racism.

Just like with Harris, y'all have trouble resisting certain things.

[shawn_dude]

Well, certainly redundant...

[Riva]

Well, no question that Kamala is smart. She's a winner.
Kamala 2024 " You think the country went to shit over the last 4 years, you ain't seen nothing yet"

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well, there is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIjoPqIcyaw

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

From the talking points memo, straight to your mouth.

As if there’s nothing in between the two.

[Brett Bellmore]

Right, and absolutely nobody is surprised that Democrats want to sort their volunteers into whites in one group, and blacks in another. Because it's totally on brand, and absolutely does not have problematic history for the Democratic party.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

This time, though, it's for a good reason! They think the Coloreds are too stupid to get voter ID, so they're separating groups out between Smart People Who Can Get ID's and Stupid People Who Can't Get ID's. This way they have everyone who they think are too stupid to do basic modern human stuff in a single group to address all at once.

[Mr. Bumble]

Since when did ID matter in order to vote for a "D"?

[Malika]

Anyone who thinks anyone is disadvantaged thinks that person is stupid!

Come for the racism, stay for the lazy stupidity!

[Pansenmaria]

In this country, if you're disadvantaged, you are stupid.

[Malika]

So, you're massively disadvantaged?

[bernard11]

No. That's the converse. It does not hold, except by chance.

Being stupid does not imply that one is disadvantaged.

[Kazinski]

Well, being the spouse of a recent immigrant from one of the pooter countries in the world, and behind by a significant margin every country in the Western Hemisphere, except Haiti, I can say I am pretty plugged in to what most recent immigrants say about the disadvantaged in this country: "they are lazy".

A couple my wife know just recently bought their first home. They've been here 5-6 years. What do they do for a living? They make sandwiches for an institutional food vendor.

A couple from a third world country, with poor English skills, and don't even speak a widely spoken language like Spanish, and of very limited formal education, and they are homeowners.

Of course there are the disabled, but other than a disability there are no structural impediments to at least modest success in this country.

[Sarcastr0]

Quite a card to play - you Speak for the Immigrants.

And whaddya know the immigrants align with libertarian bootstrapiness.

[Frank Drackman]

But hey, if she picks Josh Shapiro I may change my Vote!!!!!

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, this branding thing whose efficacy DMN explained is actually Jim Crow 2.

Just the lamest shit these days.

[David Nieporent]

Right, and absolutely nobody is surprised that Democrats want to sort their volunteers into whites in one group, and blacks in another. Because it’s totally on brand, and absolutely does not have problematic history for the Democratic party.

There is a purported group — it’s not clear that it has any actual members, but it has signs and t-shirts and such and appears at many Trump events — calling itself “Blacks for Trump.”

And then there’s the official campaign group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Voices_for_Trump

Weirdly, I’ve never heard you say anything about these.

Oh, and just to be clear, "Democrats" did not sort anyone here; these were organized by the volunteers themselves.

[Armchair]

So, Harris is organizing groups of volunteers segregated by race and gender....

[Malika]

No, Harris supporters knew Trump and his supporters were going to make this about Harris' race and this is laughing at that. We get you don't want to get it, but, please, keep on the race path!

[Riva]

What pathetic jokes. Biden himself defined her as DEI hire, his regime bragged about their DEI bullshit. Harris has exploited race as it suited her throughout her career. But now DEI is an insult? DEI is repulsive discriminatory garbage that is poisoning the workplace and society in general. And you clowns are now afraid that it’s being exposed, so the gaslighting.

[Sarcastr0]

Ah yes, they call this kind of rant DEI with the hard 'r.'

[Malika]

This shouldn't be hard. When Biden says "To me, the values of diversity, equality, inclusion are literally — and this is not kidding — the core strengths of America. That’s why I’m proud to have the most diverse administration in history that taps into the full talents of our country. And it starts at the top with the Vice President" he's clearly not insulting Harris (note "taps into the full talents of our country"), but when Republicans like Tim Burchett calls Harris a DEI hire and says "“Biden said he’s gonna hire a Black female for vice president,” Burchett said. “What about white females? What about any other group?” When you go down that route, you take mediocrity and that’s what they have right now as a vice president" then that's clearly insulting (note "mediocrity").

Of course, perhaps English isn't your originally programed language?

[Riva]

I guess it depends on whether one thinks judging someone by the color of their skin is insulting and racist. I do. President Trump does as well. This is the core of DEI and Biden admits she is a DEI hire and he supports such racist policies. He and you apparently just think this is good racism. And now that you’re challenged on it, the hysteria and insults. Pathetic.

[Sarcastr0]

You're judging Harris by the color of her skin right now, at the same time you say that's insulting and racist.

[Riva]

Don’t see that at all. I judge her and the Biden/Harris administration by their offensive and damaging policies. I’ll leave the race exploitation to the Democratic Party, you invented it after all.

[Sarcastr0]

Maybe if you call her a DEI hire a few thousand more times, you might have more insight.

[Riva]

Actually, probably not your best option to try to defend the indefensible. Your best bet would be to get google and the other tech companies to censor any references to the truth, you guys seem to be good at that.

[Malika]

You're just repeating yourself and being non-responsive to what I wrote. Why do people think you're a bot?

[Riva]

You simply don’t like the way I responded. So we have another tantrum and more insults. The more you’re challenged, the more hysterics. Predictable and pathetic.

[Malika]

No tantrum here, I'm just laughing at you because your non-responsive and repeating yourself, silly bot.

[Riva]

More insults. You clowns really don’t like to be challenged. And it shows.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Riva bot worried about people being challenged by the complexity of its "thought." lol

[Riva]

Don’t know about complex. But you clowns certainly are unable to debate the merits of, well, just about anything. So we have more tantrums and insults. I doubt even Kamala would pay for you morons to promote her.

[NOVA Lawyer]

You just lie and then apply faulty logic to those lies. The errors in your facts and logic have been pointed out above. You're just a troll, I've yet to see you make a point in good faith without lying about something.

For instance, Biden never called Harris a "DEI hire." He said a bunch of words that you don't comprehend, but distill down to "DEI hire" which has a specific meaning when used by you and Republicans criticizing her. It's a bait and switch, using two meanings of a phrase to pretend Biden (who never said the phrase) and Republican critics of Harris said the same thing.

But this is all beside the point, you won't respond in good faith. It'll just be insults and flouncing off. You're a troll and, likely, a bot. If not a bot, you are a very bot-like human.

[Riva]

Yeah, you clowns really don't like it when you're challenged. Especially with facts. Biden called her a DEI hire but he meant the "good" kind of racism. Whereas critics obviously are bad faith racists. When they quote him. The problem for you gaslighting clowns is anyone who actually points out your gaslighting bullshit. Pathetic little intellectual cowards.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Biden called her a DEI hire

He didn't. That's a bad faith interpretation of when he said something quite different.

When they quote him.

Unsurprisingly, Riva-bot doesn't know what "quote" means. Perhaps why Riva-bot has failed to make any interesting or honest point in this thread.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"he’s clearly not insulting Harris (note “taps into the full talents of our country”),"

Do you think excluding over 90% of the candidate pool is tapping into the full talents of our country? You don't see how doing so can result in mediocraty?

[Malika]

It could I guess but it didn't here, we got a former AG and Senator, that's pretty good qualifications for a VP. Interesting though that we've had how many VPs and this is our first woman of color...Maybe something was wrong with the previous methods of tapping?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Maybe something was wrong with the previous methods of tapping?"

Why yes it was, the same thing that was wrong with this method tapping.

[Sarcastr0]

It's kinda silly at this point when folks get grumpy there's not enough white men in positions of power. There's the idea that there's some kind of optimization game where there's some metric of objective talent.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"It’s kinda silly at this point when folks get grumpy there’s not enough white men in positions of power."

Sarcastro would never resort to a dishonest strawman when he doesn't have an argument, right guys?

[Sarcastr0]

"Do you think excluding over 90% of the candidate pool is tapping into the full talents of our country?"

This is you being grumpy that Harris wasn't part of the 90%.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Whatever it is, it's not me saying that there's not enough white men in positions of power.

That's your dishonest strawman.

[David Nieporent]

1) Biden did not in fact "define her as DEI hire."

2) Whether something is an insult is determined by intent.

[TwelveInchPianist]

So it's not an insult if you think it's good to be a DEI hire?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Always great to observe Heterodox Academy dumbasses complaining about affirmative action, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Carry on, bigoted clingers.

[David Nieporent]

So, Harris is organizing groups of volunteers segregated by race and gender….

Nope; your stupid day-late-and-dollar-short-take isn't even correct. Harris didn't organize these.

[Riva]

[Malika]

Riva's most substantive comment in a long time!

[VinniUSMC (Banana Republic Day 5/30/24)]

Says Queenie, who has a 0% rate of producing substantive comments.

Why'd you get banned? Joined buttplug in the kiddie porn?

[Riva]

I can almost hear your high pitched girly whine.

[Drewski]

It's a narrative designed to push back against racist attacks on Harris and to annoy people like you. I don't know if you really don't get it or are performatively confused - but you're talking about it, so it's working.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

How does the narrative work?

Like this:
“Look, even these regular White people just like you support Harris, so she can’t be that bad of a negro! Some have even called her 'clean' and 'articulate', the highest of compliments from a White person to a black person!”

[Malika]

This is the commenter who said he stopped speaking to his mother because she voted for a black man (he said "jogger"). He's got this race thing all figured out! Notice how no conservative commenters here ever call him or his kin here out.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I have noticed that also

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

They are cowards and bigots. The lot of them.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Cowards and bigots? You mean the leftists gripping about the "jogger" comment while ignoring your comments in this thread about celebrating the death of Jews by eating cheeseburgers?

[Sarcastr0]

I'm sure what RAK said was very offensive.

Have you ever thought about replying to Frank Drackman, or Ilya Snowman, or JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes, or Pansenmaria, or Roger S, or Corve5, or Swede045 or anyone like that?

[Ilya Snowman]

‘…or anyone like that?’

THOSE people. People like THAT. They're all the same, aren't they?

What a cowardly, bigoted thing of you to say. Stereotypical…

[Nelson]

Are you talking about the Republican ad where the nice suburban white folks talk about "those people"? Or is this selective outrage?

[Ilya Snowman]

'Sure' because you wrote those offensive words...?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"I’m sure what RAK said was very offensive."

Can't bring yourself to say antisemitic?

[Sarcastr0]

No, actually, I have no need to go soft on RAK. That you assume so says a lot about why you've never replied to the list above.

I didn't call him antisemitic because I can't tell. I haven’t read an RAK comment in years, and I’m not starting now.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"I didn’t call him antisemitic because I can’t tell. I haven’t read an RAK comment in years, and I’m not starting now."

But you reply to people that reply to him. Aren't you worried that you'll say something that's incredibly stupid when you reply without knowing the context?

[Sarcastr0]

LOL, when is the last time RAK wrote something novel, TiP?

Silly man.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Never antisemitic, you bigoted right-wing write-off. Anti right-wing assholes who are theocratic and bigoted authoritarians, war-criming and genocidal bullies, land-thieving terrorists, and parasitic, superstitious dumbasses.

[TwelveInchPianist]

So why cheeseburgers?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

When celebrating imposition of accountability on violent, theocratic, right-wing bigots it seems natural and proper to flout their superstitious nonsense.

When celebrating the demise of Saudi Arabia’s superstitious, theocratic assholes I will enjoy a boilermaker. Hard core, maybe, although the submerged shot glass is disgusting.

[Ilya Snowman]

You’re NOT opposed to any such people or actions. You expressly want to welcome such people into America and criticize opponents of it as being ‘Islamophobic’. Can you do ANYTHING other than lie and expose your hypocrisy???

Who owns what land? Who created the laws that determines who owns what? What are the legal criteria for ‘genocide’? Who regularly commits terrorism?

DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS NEW COLD WAR IS ABOUT, you fucking airhead?

YOU are nothing more than a parasite on a ‘white’ Western settler colony on stolen Indian land, trying to defend the racist imperialist systems you’ve foisted upon that land and upon the world, in addition to your totalitarian social re-engineering programme for the USA and the world.

YOU are doomed. You have NO future. Look at the actual political science data: your fellow Americans want to MURDER you now. And they will—especially the more they learn about what your lot has REALLY been up to. There are millions who think thus; so, it doesn’t matter who wins your elections. You will not be tolerated any longer, parasite.

Your time is over. Even if you CLOAK yourself in the language of reason, science, etc, it’s now IRREFUTABLE that your values aren’t based upon them, don’t track those things, and that you ignore them when they UNDERMINE your self-contradictory dogmas. The time of your superficial CULT is over.

What’s your family’s exit strategy from America, AIDS? How long till your fellow Americans otherwise bust your door down…?

[David Nieporent]

I'm only saying this because I care: there are a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market today that are just as tasty as the real thing.

[Ilya Snowman]

I'll enjoy that decaf coffee in the house you're going to soon transfer to me once you onboard our bet and lose.

[David Nieporent]

You remember how I keep mocking you for thinking that asserting stuff makes it true? You're doing it again.

[Ilya Snowman]

I don't remember because you haven't done so; and when called out to accept a bet about whether I am capable of providing credible, real evidence to buttress my claims, you chicken out.

Do you see how that latter FACT, a fact evidenced by previous comments that are easily found on the VC, undermines your own claim about what you pretend to be pointing out?

You can do better than that, David.

Now, take the fucking bets: one is about foreign justices. The other is now about the hard left in the USA. I can easily, and will, provide the evidence to definitively establish both claims.

Then I will take your house.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Israel's right-wing war criminals and theocratic bigots do not deserve and shall not, I expect, much longer be able to hide behind American political, military, and economic skirts.

Israel's conservative assholes and their Republican friends in America demonstrate no likelihood to change, so I expect the accountability for Israel's multiple offenses (ranging from war crimes in Gaza to terrorism in the West Bank and from making support for Israel's immoral right-wing conduct a left-right divider in American politics to aligning with the losing side of the American culture war) to be severe.

Israel has made itself an international pariah. The predictable consequences of the loss of mainstream America's support will be Israel's self-inflicted problem.

I hope we cut Saudi Arabia loose simultaneously and that decent Israelis avoid Israel's fate by getting out of Israel while they still can, ideally by moving to the United States.

Cowards and bigots is correct, TwelveInchPianist. Faux libertarians, too.

[Ilya Snowman]

Israel didn't do that. The Western press did.

For the same reason the Press---including the real Left---consciously avoids talking about the Gulf, about what actually happens in Sudan, in Mali, in the DRC, in Pakistan, etc.

MANUFACTURING consent. Manufacturing belief.

People on the RIGHT can now see that, clearly as day; especially after the Biden fiasco. You're in mortal danger now; you'll never be OK in America ever again. 🙂

[Ilya Snowman]

And you are their queen.

[Riva]

Not that I wouldn’t take the word of a bullshit gaslighter such as yourself, but what exactly did this commenter say that offended you so much? What were the exact words, absent your bullshit?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

You probably should avoid trying to defend "jogger."

Better to emulate Blackman, Bernstein, and Volokh by just ignoring the bigotry from right-wingers at this blog.

[Riva]

I said absent bullshit. Not being a democrat race baiter, I think I’ll refrain from commenting until I know what the allegedly offensive words actually were.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

What offends me is this blog's habitual use of vile racial slurs -- a tone set at the top -- and daily, incessant stream of multifaceted right-wing bigotry. You're welcome to try to defend that, clinger. More likely, you'll emulate the right-wing law professors who operate this blog by saying nothing at all about the everyday conservative bigotry that is this white, male blog's signature element.

[Riva]

I'm not defending or condemning anything because no one has provided me with the allegedly offensive quote. I'd say provide some evidence or shut the F up, but we both know you're not smart enough to stay quiet.

[Michael P]

The narrative pushes back on attacks about her being racist by segregating even her supporters by race and gender?

[Brett Bellmore]

It makes sense if you're a Democrat. Remember, according to the Democrats, being color blind is the most racist thing you can be; You can only avoid racism by doing everything strictly on the basis of race.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Tips on racial issues from Birther Brett?

Only at the Official White, Male Legal Blog for Right-Wing Bigots.

[Malika]

"Now, the #CancelColbert people think that even in context, I'm a racist," Colbert explained. "I just want to say that I'm not a racist. I don't even see race. Not even my own. People tell me I'm white and I believe them because I just devoted six minutes to explaining how I'm not a racist!"

[Malika]

Oh, no, the Harris campaign has made it about race!

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/31/politics/fact-check-debunking-trumps-lie-that-harris-suddenly-embraced-a-black-identity/index.html

Pathetic.

[Mr. Bumble]

AP 2016:
https://x.com/catturd2/status/1818753562958062054

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, she's Indian AND black.

At the same time!

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Frank Drackman]

She's also a Nagger

[Malika]

These are your people Speaker Mike!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Don’t forget the Volokh Conspirators.

[Frank Drackman]

What word are you thinking of, you race-ist?
I said she's a "Nagger"

NAG
transitive verb
1: to irritate by constant scolding or urging
2: BADGER, WORRY
intransitive verb
1: to find fault incessantly : COMPLAIN
2: to be a persistent source of annoyance or distraction
nagger noun

So who'd got the 3rd grade Vocabulary now?

Frank

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Nagger"

People who annoy you.

[Joe_dallas]

Malika links to one of the many news organizations that claimed Biden was sharp as a tack, yet malika somehow believes that "fact check" by a respectable news organization is true.

[Sarcastr0]

Joe Biden Foreverrrrrrrr

[TwelveInchPianist]

You don't think covering up the incompetence of the current President and presumptive Democrat nominee is a legitimate issue, Sarcastro?

[Sarcastr0]

I think no cover up has been established, and until you've got more than just stamping your foot, it looks more like you're frustrated that all your planned Biden old yelling is now for naught.

[Joe_dallas]

Sarcastr0 18 mins ago
Flag Comment
Mute User
"I think no cover up has been established, "

So Says Sacastro who like most every woke leftist believed Biden was sharp as a tack and still believes it.

[Sarcastr0]

Insightful as always, Joe.

Given your neuroscience expertise, have you nailed down which of the specific diseases you suggested Biden has yet, or is it going to be some new discovery for you to write up?

[Joe_dallas]

Sacastro - still being fooled and proud of his ignorance

[Sarcastr0]

So no diagnosis yet, just a specific timeline and certainty that it's *something* beyond just getting old.

I dunno if you cut it as the new Dr. House, Joe...don't quit your day job.

[Joe_dallas]

Sacastro - why not spent a few minutes getting some tiny amount of education on the subject so that you dont continue display your ignorance.

Try googling "dementia "
Lots of good information that even a woke leftist can understand

[Sarcastr0]

I see. So you take your vibes, add in some Google, and mix with your usual angry overconfidence and boundless accusations of dishonesty.

We should call the AMA and let them know the formula for layperson Internet expertise!

[David Nieporent]

Try googling “dementia ”
Lots of good information that even a woke leftist can understand

That's the way Joe_dallas "learns" everything he thinks he knows about every field of science!

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Of course it is, David.

Joe_dallas has one play:

1) Google something he knows nothing about.
2) Come here and post his new 'truth' without a shred of evidence.
3) When called out for not providing any evidence, claim his newly-pasted wikipedia entry is "common knowledge" and refuse to source anything while he runs away.

He's an expert on everything, as long as it can be googled ahead of time and provided that nobody actually checks the veracity of what he has to say.

[Malika]

I don't think they thought he was "incompetent" but if so they likely just thought he was better than the elderly incompetent that one of the major two parties is still running.

[Malika]

"CNN" claimed Biden was "sharp as a tack?"

Maybe this is like your "Clarence Thomas was the most qualified jurist in the nation when he was nominated to the Court and his race had nothing to do with it!" claim by JD the other day.

[Frank Drackman]

Sharp as a Tic Tac maybe, got a brain the size of one

[David Nieporent]

Weirdly — there's that MAGA thing again — Joe_dallas forgets to provide any evidence that CNN (the whole organization, even!) claimed that Biden was sharp as a tack.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The issue I have is her being a whore.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Does that comment give right-wing law professors (and former professors) the same tingle they get from vile racial slurs?

We must guess, because these Federalist Society cowards don’t want to discuss it.

[Ilya Snowman]

Just wait till the average American gains titillation from hunting you and people like you. 🙂

The time for you to run is fast approaching. Can you feel it yet?

[Malika]

Why are people talking about Trump attracting authoritarians? Lol.

[Ilya Snowman]

How do infer a desire or preference for authoritarianism (let alone authoritarian forms of governance) from that statement???

Oh, that’s right: you’re an American, You don’t actually care what terms mean, or about the truth more generally. Sorry, my mistake for forgetting what you really are for just a moment. My bad. ( After all, just look how easy it was to prove that Adorno’s book on that topic was chock full of lies…)

[Malika]

Some people might think hunting down those you disagree with is kind of authoritarian...But maybe there's a different view in your country. Which is that now?

[Ilya Snowman]

They might think that, but only because they don't understand the concept properly.

Likely, those people would be Americans, as they're both poorly educated and have little to no interest in accuracy or the truth.

[Malika]

Troll who won't say where he's from thinks hunting down political opponents is totes not authoritarian.

Clown show.

[Ilya Snowman]

Oh oh, it used the word 'clown'! Oh no!

Weird how it didn't even try to establish that the case must be subsumable under the relevant concept...

[Frank Drackman]

Ah C’mon (man!) do you have daughters? Well I do, and if I taught them anything, its that most Non-Homo men would give their Left Nut for even the possibility of a little Strange, and don’t blame me, blame whoever invented Testosterone.
So if going out with the ROTC Instructor gets you a little better evaluation, which gets you into Pilot training instead of Logistics, and massaging your Flight Instructors shoulders gets you into fighters instead of C-130’s….
Same thing happened in Med School, funny how the hot chicks got the best evaluations.
I’ve tried to get them to Eat at the Y, but they’ve got that taste for (Kosher) Sausage, fortunately (for them) usually real men like Firefighters, other Pilots, Truck Drivers,
My problem with Cums-a-lot is she wants to take my guns (I paid good Shekels for them) and send me and my people up a Chimney (Her Beard, I mean Husband's Jewish? so was Avrham Stern), like Barry Hussein said when asked if he’d listen to Congressional Repubiclown suggestions,
“No!”

Frank

[MoreCurious]

Once again, Drackman tries to convince us that he is an educated man. But, as always, he uses the language of a moron who's stuck in middle-school. If any of you are waiting for him to say something insightful, you might as well give up now. Congratulations, once again, for proving beyond any doubt that you are the stupidest person on the VC. And be sure to let us know if you ever decide to grow up, act like an adult, and make a real contribution to discussions here.

[Frank Drackman]

For someone who calls himself(I know your a him, no split tails on this Sausage Fest of a Blog) "MoreCurious"(Yellow?) you don't seem very Curious.

Frank

[David Nieporent]

The issue I have is her being a whore.

What Dr. Ed means is that she deserves to be murdered.

[Frank Drackman]

She'll get murdered in WI, MI, PA, NV, just like Hillary Rodman did, not really smart to call people weird and then beg for their votes.
Oh, and she's a Nagger, nag, nag, nag

Frank

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

These bigots are your fans and defenders, Volokh Conspirators . . . and the reason better schools (such as UCLA and Northwestern, a list that seems destined to grow) don't want you on or near campus.

[Nelson]

"The issue I have is her being a whore."

So you have an issue with all politicians? Noted.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Why anyone suooirtsthe whore usbeyond me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPpP277D8Y

[shawn_dude]

Supporting a "whore" is beyond the pale for a guy who supports a serial sexual abuser and adulterer.

Ha! Never change. Your garbage is always worth a chuckle.

[Pansenmaria]

Trump gets asked a stupid and offensive question by a black journalist, and when he responds with "When did Harris even start considering herself black," he's the bad guy.

Fuck the Soros media.

[Malika]

More like the dumb, ignorant guy. Seems perfect candidate for you!

[Ilya Snowman]

It isn't ignorance, though.

Do you prefer your candidates to be non-compos mentis, like your current POTUS?

[Malika]

Or the GOP nominee?

[Ilya Snowman]

Nah, your main honcho is gone.

You going to apologize to the world for lying about it for so long, totalitarian? (Do you see why I call you that? It’s because of your lot’s effort to police thoughts and actions, and not just about your POTUS’ lack of mental fitness for office for more than just a few months… Do you see how the label FITS with practices your lot exhibits?

(You're a proper American. So obviously one can and should only expect lies or insults in response to the question.)

[Malika]

Which non-authoritarian country you from, bro?

[Ilya Snowman]

A more civilised one than yours.

Don't assume my gender, 'bro'! You're supposed to be hyper-sensitive and aware about that kind of garbage now, right Yankee Doodle dipshit?

[Nelson]

"Do you prefer your candidates to be non-compos mentis, like your current POTUS?"

Fortunately, there's only one mentally challenged octogenarian left in the race now. I wonder if his supporters will apply the same standard to his mental errors and forgentfulness as they did to Biden?

I'm sure they will. They are a principled group of people who don't let their preferences change their analysis of facts.

[Pansenmaria]

No, the Soros media.

[Malika]

Birchers all the way down.

[Ilya Snowman]

Yours would be a better, more honest country today were that so.

[David Nieporent]

Look, his antisemitism hasn't subsided since yesterday; he just added racism on top.

[shawn_dude]

Because a rich Jew is pulling the strings of the NABJ?

There's gotta be a "fascists for Trump" group too, I guess.

[Nelson]

Yes. It's shortened to MAGA for simplicity.

[Nelson]

"I don’t get it, is anyone else confused by it all"

Are you also confused by the various caucuses in Congress, where some are about race, some are about policy, some are about coviviality, etc., and people belong to more than one?

You understand that people group by numerous criteria, and often belong to several different groups, right? Or do you think that people are only allowed to have one identity or guiding principle?

[darkknight9]

Is the election over yet?
#teamcashew

[Frank Drackman]

Don't look now, but Cums-alot Harris is scheduled to ride on an M1 Abrams, to show her National Defense Boner-Fides

Frank

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Commentary like that must be what inclines Profs. Kerr, Bray, Adler, Sachs, and Whittington to post at this blog.

Carry on, clingers. With your target audience of disaffected, antisocial, conservative bigots.

[Frank Drackman]

Revolting, you're the reason Jay-Hey created the Middle Finger.

[Ilya Snowman]

It's obviously what has brought you here every day for years.

You one of those extreme masochist (evolutionary dud) homosexuals and/or type of gay who desperately wants to get with 'straights'?

Carry on, AIDS, till you finally see (probably too late) that you really will need to flee for your life.

[Malika]

"Type of gay," lol. Good job, Boomer!

[Ilya Snowman]

Thanks! Typically, people here say 'a gay'.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I believe bigots should get no free swings, especially bigots with law degrees and (for a while) faculty appointments.

Plenty of batting practice at this white, male, Federalist Societeer blog.

[Ilya Snowman]

You should pay to take swings at others???

Why would anyone pay to do that to you when they’re going to HUNT you instead? Fuckwit, wake the hell up to what's actually developing in your country. Don't just STYLE yourself as being socially aware; actually become so, if you can.

[darkknight9]

In other news, the first hockey team at a HBCU gets closer to taking the ice having revealed their jersey's recently:
https://tntribune.com/tennessee-state-unveils-1st-hockey-jersey-for-hbcu-team/

"Coach Duante Abercrombie unveiled the home blue jersey that the first hockey team at a Historically Black College (HBCU) will wear when it debuts for the 2025-26 season. The design was shared on Friday at the 67th annual Tennessee State University National Alumni Association Convention at the Nashville campus."

I'm excited for them!
Only 64 more days until NHL hockey.

[Nelson]

This is the Sabres' year. I can feel it!

Or it will end in tears. Again.

[Kazinski]

In polling news, Nate Silver has updated his model for the switch in candidates from Biden to Harris, and Harris is definitely doing better than Biden, which isn't surprising right now. Just the fact that nobody is worried she's going to drop dead next week, should improve her chances over Joe.

Bottom line is that Trump's chances of winning dropped from 65.7% to 61.3%,with Harris at 38.1%, way up from Joe's 26% chance.

But there certainly is some choppiness in the polls especially the battleground state, for instance these are the last 3 polls in Michigan:
RCP Average
Bloomberg:
7/24 - 7/28 53 42 Harris +11
FOX News
7/22 - 7/24 49 49 Tie
Emerson:
7/22 - 7/23 45 46 Trump +1

And here are those same 3 polls in PA:

Bloomberg:
7/24 - 7/28 50 46 Trump +4
FOX News:
7/22 - 7/24 49 49 Tie
Emerson:
7/22 - 7/23 48 46 Trump +2

We probably need 4-5 more battleground polls over the next two weeks to stabilize the averages.

It's also worth noting that Bloomberg had Biden up by 5 in Michigan in early July when every Pollster had Trump up between 2-7, so this isn't their only aberration, it just doesn't have enough other polls to average out the anomaly.

[David Nieporent]

It's way too early to say much of anything, but I'd caution about RCP, which seems to rather arbitrarily select which polls it includes. They always have many fewer polls listed than other aggregators.

[Armchair]

Evidence?

[Sarcastr0]

Seems he was providing an opinion not asserting a fact. And he provided the evidence in his second sentence.

[Armchair]

"and he provided the evidence in his second sentence."

That's not evidence. That's a claim which is unsubstantiated.

[SimonP]

Here's an idea! You can look yourself. Chip's assertion is a very simple, factual one, which can be verified (or not) by just going to the website in question and comparing it to other prominent poll aggregators.

You might learn something! You might learn that he's wrong, or right! You might learn more about the polls and poll aggregators!

[OtisAH]

What is it about Armchair that suggests he has any desire to learn anything?

[Michael P]

He's not you, for a start.

[Armchair]

Looks like no evidence from David. Another unsupported assertion.

[Sarcastr0]

He made an anodyne nonpartisan point along with an observation that was easily checkable.

You are just picking a dumb fight and being an asshole.

[Magister]

You can go look at lists of polls; RCP has 28 listed since July 21st, and 538 has 40.

[Commenter_XY]

Bob from Ohio truism: Political polls are trash.
Other: The needle did not move after unceremoniously removing the elected primary candidate.

I did say, all VP Harris has to do is open her mouth, and America will surely turn the page on her word salads. I had no idea it would be so soon.

A debate won't move the needle, either. Whiny, screechy voice.

[Kazinski]

I think it did move needle, back to where it was pre-debate, that's not insignificant.

But I think it will be her highpoint, once the country realizes how far to the left she is than even Joe Biden.

Things like insisting on free transgender surgeries for prisoners when she was CA-AG, free healthcare for illegals, a ban on fracking (which will kill her in PA), amnesty for illegals, Hamas remaining in power in Gaza, bailing out rioters and arsonists.

And just about all of it is on video, she really likes her camera time.

But I don't see anything wrong with her voice.

[Commenter_XY]

Kaz, the more VP Harris opens her mouth, the worse it will get. She can't help it. Leave aside her screechyness and preachiness. VP Harris has the albatross of an atrocious record on the border, and a shitty economic record on inflation. Those fundamentals do not change.

[David Nieporent]

Hey, remember when you were convinced that the Republicans would find some evidence of Joe Biden's corruption?

[Commenter_XY]

I note that POTUS Biden is out of the race, David. You miss the news? You think it is just because he is an empty vessel? 🙂

[Kazinski]

They found lots.of evidence, some of it very convincing.

You don't think that had anything to do with his position in the polls, before they found out he was senile?

I could go back and find the polls that found that 65% of voters thought Joe either violated the law, or was unethical, 'but at this point what difference does it make?'

[Sarcastr0]

The guy with the magically partisan critical thinking skills found lots of convincing evidence! But is very skeptical about Trump's crimes.

Even you stopped posting Comer these past few months.

But sure, go ad popularum. Why not, we all know what you've decided to think.

[Kazinski]

I thought that was how democracies are supposed to work, you convince a majority of people of your position, like Joe must go, for a variety of reasons, and then Joe goes, kicking and screaming.

And that's how it went.

[Magister]

That sounds like mob rule, not democracy in the US. How else could someone who never had 50% approval remain President for four years?

[Kazinski]

Well it's your party.

My party had free and open primaries.

[Sarcastr0]

Well, you sure turned on a dime. Which is it, the majority should be the determiner, or it's not? And did you actually have polls to cite, or just kinda making up numbers?

At this point, the carping about Harris not being the candidate in the primary just looks like sour grapes.

[David Nieporent]

They found lots.of evidence, some of it very convincing.

They found zero — with a capital Z — evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, that he got even one penny from any foreign source, let alone that he took any action because of it. Which is why the GOP essentially dropped the whole thing.

[David Nieporent]

But I think it will be her highpoint, once the country realizes how far to the left she is than even Joe Biden.

I believe this is called hopium. Also, it's going to be hard for the country to realize that when her opponent is spending all his time attacking her for not having kids and for not being black.

[Brett Bellmore]

The media will keep trying to push Harris' numbers up, and then exposure will keep pushing them down. If only she had some excuse to hide in her basement instead of campaigning! The media coverage could push her across the finish line without her screwing things up.

[Martinned2]

The media will keep trying to push Harris’ numbers up

Yes, that evil Fox News and its pro-Harris bias!

[Mr. Bumble]

CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR..........

[Martinned2]

It's not much of an evil MSM conspiracy if the biggest 24-hour news channel isn't included.

[Michael P]

They're the biggest because they buck the MSM trends. That argument easily meets your usual standards for quality and robustness!

[Martinned2]

Do they? I thought Kazinski and Brett were complaining that they were also cooking the books to favour Harris?

[Brett Bellmore]

Fox is relatively even-handed: Their general dislike of Democrats is balanced by their particular loathing of Trump, so they end up roughly as negative towards Trump as his Democratic opponent. By contrast, the other outlets are all in for Harris.

[Pansenmaria]

Look at the CNN headlines. They all present opinion as fact.

[Malika]

"Fox is relatively even-handed: "

The comedy stylings of BB!

[Brett Bellmore]

I literally, just below, linked to a study by the Harvard-Kennedy Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, looking at CBS and FOX coverage of the 2020 election.

Figure 3: 58% of Fox's positive/negative comments about Trump were negative. For Biden that was 59% Yeah, I'd call that even handed.

Contrast that with figure 2: CBS was 11% negative for Biden, and 95% negative for Trump. THAT is what actually having partisan bias looks like, Malika.

[David Nieporent]

Figure 3: 58% of Fox’s positive/negative comments about Trump were negative. For Biden that was 59% Yeah, I’d call that even handed.

If, in the aftermath of 9/11, 59% of news coverage of George Bush was negative, and 59% of news coverage of Osama Bin Laden was negative, would that be "evenhanded"?

[NOVA Lawyer]

DN explaining rather simple concepts to the engineer. Maybe it was because it was numbers. So long as the numbers are the same, everything is fair and right in the world. Come on, Brett. Be smarter than that.

[Malika]

Dude who dodges Martinned's point talks about usual standards for quality and robustness!

[Brett Bellmore]

A Tale of Two Elections: CBS and Fox News’ Portrayal of the 2020 Presidential Campaign

In contrast to CBS, which actually was wildly partisan in favor of Biden, Fox was negative on both candidates, just being worse on Biden. But the difference between their coverage of Trump and Biden was a lot less than for CBS, where it was stark.

So, yeah, while every media outlet EXCEPT Fox will be boosting Harris as much as they can, Fox will only be bashing her mildly more than Trump.

[NOVA Lawyer]

You do realize the very first graph shows that Trump received far more coverage than Biden in 2020. You think that had to do with Trump being President and claiming the election was stolen and all of the crazy things he said as President during Covid?

As DN pointed out above, thinking everything is fair when the news says 59% positive things about George W. Bush in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 and also 59% positive things about Osama bin Laden and the hijackers fits with what we know of how you understand the world. But just because two numbers match, that is not a solid sign that things are "fair" given it's quite possible, as in 2020, the two numbers are measuring different things.

[SimonP]

I’ve heard the Hannity clip – where he explains to his audience that all of this strange voter and donor enthusiasm over Kamala is just a brief moment, a high point, in her campaign, and will pass – described as a kind of storm blanket for his older white retirees. Get into a small space, take some deep breaths, don’t panic.

I’m sure you will say, “I don’t watch Hannity!” Still, you got the talking point all the same. You and others are very confident that Kamala will fumble in the weeks ahead. I’m not confident that she won’t. But it is a strange thing to keep telling yourself before any evidence is available.

You know what is happening right now? You see Trump trying to campaign. Do you remember those weeks when Biden was reeling from his debate performance and it was just a drip-drip of people trying to get him to bow out? Trump didn’t have to campaign. If he held a rally and made any embarrassing statements, it didn’t matter, because the Biden drama occupied headlines. He could spend his time golfing. But now that his opponent is more competitive he has to get back to work. And what you are seeing is him campaign badly. His Vice President pick is campaigning badly.

Harris is going to make her VP pick soon, and then it’ll be the DNC convention. Another burst of coverage, more enthusiasm. And you’re predicting now that her polling numbers will go down. Let’s just take a moment and ask whether that is a reasonable expectation.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I will try to remember XY’s conservative misogyny as I celebrate the demise of Israel’s theocratic, war-crimping, bigoted right-wing assholes.

Cheddar, bacon, and beef is the way to salute accountability in this context.

[Ilya Snowman]

Islamophobic much, AIDS? Way to be exclusionary...

[Commenter_XY]

It is hilarious when Arthur is reduced to mumbling about bacon cheeseburgers. This coming from a guy who cannot define a woman.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

"This coming from a guy who cannot define a woman."

You're a misogynist who cannot help but level crude insults towards women in general.

Fix your own bigotry before bitching about his.

[Commenter_XY]

Bad day, Jason? Some of your hamas homies get waxed?

[Jason Cavanaugh]

What's the matter, child? Can't defend your blatant history of misogynistic remarks, so you're going to instead resort to some kind of schoolyard "I'm rubber; you're glue" lies?

You're so proud of your sexist remarks, yet when called out, you run away like a little bitch.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

You have the bad days of all bad days coming, XY.

And you deserve it.

I'll enjoy watching you wail, because I don't like right-wing bigots.

[Commenter_XY]

I quake in terror of your powers of prognostication, Arthur.

For instance, aren't you the same chump who confidently predicted in March 2021, that SCOTUS would be enlarged to 13 Justices? So Arthurdamus, WTF happened, are you that chump? Why, I believe you are.

By all means, please keep predicting Israel's demise. That way, I know the opposite will actually happen. You have a shitty track record at predictions.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I’ve called the modern American culture war correctly for decades. That’s why you are a bitter loser, as bigots deserve to be.

Encourage any decent Israelis to get out while they still can, clinger. Watch the most recent John Oliver program to understand why that is important advice.

[Ilya Snowman]

Hah! No you haven't. Your country's falling apart.

You don't breed, you're fundamentally on outsiders to do so, and the world is uniting against the system you foisted upon them.

People are abandoning your value system for both the left and the right.

YOU are losing on all grounds, and shall continue to do so.

YOU ARE DOOMED. Choose reason. Choose science. Choose the facts.

And don't run. Face justice at home for what you've done to help contribute to ruining your country forever.

[bernard11]

Bob from Ohio truism: Political polls are trash.

No, they are not. They're obviously not exact predictors, but they give a decent picture of the state of things, especially as the election gets closer.

[Bob from Ohio]

To be honest, its Issue polls that are always trash. Horse race polls are only useful in the aggregate.

[Commenter_XY]

At best, they are a general indicator of a direction, at this stage.

Talk to me after 10/15 about polls and predictions. To me, that is when you pay attention.

Besides bernard11, the election will come down to AZ, GA and WI.

[David Nieporent]

Bob from Ohio truism: Political polls are trash.

I'm pretty sure his claim — equally bullshit, of course — is actually that issue polls are trash.

Other: The needle did not move after unceremoniously removing the elected primary candidate.

The needle moved substantially after Biden decided to drop out of the race.

[Commenter_XY]

Were you not discussing some other commenter quaffing something called 'Hopium', David?

I am content to wait and strongly encourage VP Harris to speak to the world, unburdened by what once was, and could still be. 🙂

[David Nieporent]

I don't understand your comment; I didn't make any statement about the future there — just a statement about the present.

[Kazinski]

Well maybe her voice in this one isn't exactly shrill, but quite the scold.

https://x.com/theblaze/status/1819127146604122156?t=EILEfst8aNT5aSufupxMfA&s=19

[Sarcastr0]

Unearthed clip of Kamala Harris scolds people for saying “Merry Christmas” because illegals might not get to celebrate: “HOW DARE WE SPEAK MERRY CHRISTMAS?”

Did you click on the video? Those all caps are basically a lie.

She’s not shouting, she’s making a point. You know, with rhetoric. Like happens in a speech sometimes.

You really will swallow anything.

[Josh R]

The latest update (7/31) had Harris at 42.5% and a favorite (57.1%) to win the popular vote. Combining AZ, MI, NV, PA and WI, Harris is 0.5% behind. Biden was 2.6% behind. The Democratic Senate candidates in those states are ahead 5.1%.

[Commenter_XY]

The popular vote doesn't elect the POTUS; the Electoral College does. Not concerned about the Senate, it will be changing hands.

VP Word Salad's sole hope is to pick Josh Shapiro as the running mate; he can deliver PA. Not guaranteed, but I think he can deliver the state.

Kamala's problem is talking. You don't believe me. That is fine. You didn't believe me about Biden, the empty-vessel, either. Just watch. Her numbers will go down the more she talks.

[bernard11]

What is this is "word salad" shit? Tired of "heels up?" so you come up with a new childish insult?

Listened to Trump lately? Not exactly a Lincolnesque speaker.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

You seem quite optimistic about right-wing prospects in the United States and in Israel.

Prepare to cry, XY.

[Josh R]

The 8/1 update has Harris at 45% to win (down 0.1% in the five swing states noted above), which Silver calls a toss-up (I suppose he believes his model is not accurate enough to distinguish between 45% and 50% this far out from election day).

[Kazinski]

There are two new national polls out today, since I wrote that add some clarity to the race:

Rasmussen Reports Trump +5
Daily Kos/Civiqs Harris +4

[Magister]

Given Rasmussen's well known Republican bias, this probably clarifies that the race is even.

[Kazinski]

Well I think we can at least say confidently the race is somewhere between those two numbers.

[Josh R]

Silver has Harris up 0.7%-points.

[Kazinski]

Maybe you are just looking at the Trump-Harris polls,

For instance this Trump-Biden for MI has the 7 most recent in their average, but scroll down you see the polling history the way back to October. I think it's reasonable to drop the polls out of the average when they get stale.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/michigan/trump-vs-biden

The Trump Harris page has 4, but one is a PPP poll which is Democratic and goes back to 7/10 before Harris was the nominee.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/michigan/trump-vs-harris

[Commenter_XY]

Kudos to Israel for converting Ismail to Wasmail. 🙂

[Commenter_XY]

Oh, and kudos to Israel for converting Mohammed Deif to fertilizer also.

Guess he was the conductor for the one-way paradise train for Wasmail.

[Commenter_XY]

Hezbollah's military commander Fuad Shukr also met an untimely, and much deserved violent end as well. He also boarded that one-way paradise train to a warm and toasty place.

[Commenter_XY]

Yahya Sinwar: Your days are numbered. Judgment is coming.

[Don Nico]

The sooner the better.
I listened to the UNSC meeting last night. Lots of very hot air from places like Algeria, Sierra Leone, etc. bemoaning the death of the innocent Haniyeh in peaceful Iran

[Martinned2]

I don't think people who think illegal immigration in the US is an invasion should talk breezily about Israel bombing Teheran.

[Don Nico]

Where did I say anything about bombing Iran or that the mass migration into the US is an invasion?

However in both those cases policies of the present administration have been impotent. Certainly Iran is moving steadily toward a nuclear weapon while US has hardly noticed.

[Martinned2]

Apologies, I'd misremembered how the Israelis got at Haniyeh.

[Don Nico]

It was not by bombing Iran. The did take advantage of know where he was in a country with which that have no diplomatic relations. That is likely why they never targeted him in Qatar.

Of course you never misrembered. But you might explain why Iran has two stories. 1) Haniyeh was shot. 2) His residence was hit by a missile.

[Martinned2]

Yes, it's the 2nd one that I had in mind.

Iran is run by a bunch of lying scumbags. I'm not sure why you think that I might believe them.

[Don Nico]

It is strange that so far there are no photos of the residence where a missile strike would be obvious, strange unless Haniyeh was actually shot, which might suggest complicity of Iran's new President who strongly influenced Haniyeh's timeline and position.

[Martinned2]

Iran's new president is in no position to do anything for or against Haniyeh. Not just because he's new, but also because the president of Iran has no authority over anything to do with intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard, etc.

[Don Nico]

He or one of his entourage were in position to provide intelligence to the assassin

[Mr. Bumble]

Didn't Iran launch a barrage of missiles etc at Israel just a few months ago? Was that an act of war or "invasion"?

[Martinned2]

It was. So was Israel's attack on Iran. It's the Middle East. Everyone's attacking everyone constantly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Israeli_strikes_on_Iran

[Frank Drackman]

So like most of you Homos, you've got "October 7 Neglect Syndrome"(ICD10 Q55,62)
Yeah, Israel's been attacking Ear-Ron since they were Persia, see, unlike the US, when somebody attacks Israel, they kill the Motherfuckers, that's their policy (HT H. Callahan) not give them billions of $$(I know, "It's their own money")on pallets like Barry Hussein Osama did.
Ear-ron knows when "45" becomes "47" on January 20, every one of their Generals might become the next Soul-Man-ani, while Cums-a-lot Harris would have them over for a State Dinner (and a little sum-sum, nome sane?)

Frank

[Don Nico]

What's your point today? That Iran has replaced KSA as the head of the snake?

[Frank Drackman]

What replaced? Ear-rons got 3x the population of Saudi Arabia and 4-% of the GDP, think they might "Bitter Much?" and even with a Military twice as big, Ear-ron spends 1/10 of the Saudi Military Budget, Saudi's have nearly brand new F-15's while Ear-ron is still flying F-4's F-5's and their domestically produced versions of the Mig-29, only question is why nobody has invaded Ear-Ron since Sodom did in 1980 (and fought the Ear-ronians to a draw with 1/4 the population, lack of "Strategic Depth", and lets say, not the most motivated Army in the world)

Frank

[Don Nico]

If the missile explanation is wrong, then it is hard to call the assassination an attack on Iran. I would be a daring murder.

[Martinned2]

It might still be, but in the comment you replied to I was referring to the attack in April.

[Don Nico]

Ah, you meant the counterattack.

[Mr. Bumble]

Per the NYT (paywalled) it was a bomb not a missile.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/middleeast/how-hamas-leader-haniyeh-killed-iran-bomb.html

[Bob from Ohio]

"NYT (paywalled) it was a bomb not a missile."

NY Post has an article discussing the NYT story.

"bomb was hidden inside the guesthouse approximately two months before Haniyeh’s visit, five of the Middle Eastern officials told the Times."

Kudos to whomever did this. [wink, wink]

[Don Nico]

The NYT has now revealed that the assassination was by a bomb planted months ago. So no missile attach, just a murder performed by some miscreants.

I guess the Revolutionary Guards are evn more incompetent than the US Secret Service

[Commenter_XY]

There is no way a bomb was planted two months ago, and lain undetected for that time. Yemen, I would believe. This is Iran. They do not make those mistakes, Don Nico.

I am sure there is footage of the event.

[Kazinski]

I agree no one could be that incompetent, unless perhaps the guesthouse had a sloped roof which would certainly explain why it couldn't be thoroughly searched and secured.

Of course the 2 months could just be a cover story to protect someone who has access 2-3 weeks ago, or it could also be misdirection to implicate an innocent party that had access 2 months ago.

You can't trust anyone.

[Ilya Snowman]

Why not?

[Commenter_XY]

Agree, Don Nico. The sooner the better.

My understanding is that Wasmail was specifically and personally targeted with a small drone. And I do mean personally targeted, as in a direct hit to his body, and subsequent detonation. UKR has helped advance the most lethal aspects of applied drone technology in an urban environment.

[Mr. Bumble]

Aren't those Jewish space lasers amazing?

[Martinned2]

No wonder Marjorie Taylor Greene is so nice to Israel. She must be worried that otherwise she's next.

[Don Nico]

Ms Greene is a very stupid person, best ignored.

[Martinned2]

Compared to most Congresscritters she at least has the merit of being amusing. It's like Lord Binface in the UK. You wouldn't want them to run the country, but it's amusing when they stand next to someone serious.

[Frank Drackman]

You guys are phonier than Mr Common-Law-Harris’s-Willie-Brown’s Heterosexuality,
You see an actual “Strong” Woman and she’s “stupid” blaseyblaseyballs-y-Ford,
Seriously, MTG would crush your shriveled excuses for Testicles into Fumunda Cheese between her toned Adductor Magni
My daughters grew up in Jaw-Jaw, fly Jet Fighters for Uncle Sammy, and the only criticism they have of MTG is she doesn’t kick more of you panty-wastes-of-sperm in their nether regions.
But that’s just one, admittedly not typical Jaw-Jaw Fambily.
You know who turned me on to "Hillbilly Elegy"? (and when it came out, not now) Daughter #1, I thought "JD Vance" was the guy who sold that "Kaboom" Bathroom cleaner
Unfortunately, she lives in San Diego, so she was one of the 6 million (that damn number again) of "45" voters who threw their vote away in 2020 (More "45" Votes in CA and NY than GA/AL/MS/LA/TN/AR combined, my suggestion was they all move to Seattle the day of the Erection, register and vote, and Voila, WA "goes Red")
Oh, and daughter #2 is registered to Vote in AZ (now if she’ll vote that’s another thing, but I think Cums-a-lot might “Move the needle)

Frank

[Don Nico]

Martin, I have never found her to be the lest bit of amusing. She is just very stupid with no redeeming characteristics.

[Kazinski]

There is a whole list on both sides:
MTG
AOC
Boebert
The late SJL
Corrie Bush
Even my own Congressman Paul Gosar.
etc. etc.

[Martinned2]

AOC is one of the most talented communicators in US politics today. She's the opposite of MTG. She's just a few standard deviations away from the median US voter.

[Zarniwoop]

I want civic-minded, competent, honest … and boring. MTG is none of these.

[Martinned2]

Sure, but you're never going to get that from the Georgia 14th. So the best thing to hope for is a Republican who makes all the Trumpists look bad.

[Frank Drackman]

Like that former Oompa Loompa from the Shittiest Shithole District in Jaw-Jaw, John Louis?

Frank

[TwelveInchPianist]

With 72 leather-bound inexperienced men lined up behind him.

[Kazinski]

Pretty classy for Hezbollah to first take credit for killing the children at a soccer match, then when they found out they weren't Jewish Children, deny responsibility.

[Martinned2]

I don't think Hezbollah likes Druzes any more than they like Jews. They might hate them more, because they might consider the Druzes apostates/false Muslims.

[Brett Bellmore]

I point that out occasionally: A lot of people mistakenly think these groups only hate Jews, which leads anti-Semites to feel solidarity with them.

Actually, they hate everybody but themselves.

[Martinned2]

Narcissism of small differences. The more fanatical they are, the more they hate everyone who has even a small theological disagreement with them. That's how the Algerian civil war in the 1990s ended; not so much that the government won, but that the Islamists splintered into ever more groups who spent more time fighting each other than the government, each in deadly hate the one against the other (to borrow a phrase).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algerian_Civil_War

[Don Nico]

The modern Druze are not apostates, unless one's brain is stuck centuries ago when they derived from a Muslim sect.

[Martinned2]

The Druze aren't entirely consistent in whether they consider themselves to be Muslims or not. And to some Muslims, any Muslim who disagrees with them on a theological point is an apostate.

[Ilya Snowman]

Yep. That's why they occasionally fire rockets at Jewland from Druze villages in Lebanon.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/08/06/Hezbollah-members-intercepted-by-locals-in-rare-challenge-to-Iran-backed-group

Hez threatened retaliation against this village. They do this from Christian villages too.

[Martinned2]

Many Druze were allied with Israel during the Lebanese civil war. Some of them ended up living in Israel as a result.

[Kazinski]

I’m sure Iran does, there are a lot of similarities to the Bahai, and Iran basically exterminated its Behai population in the years after the revolution.

So Hezbollah’s missle supply is safe.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Fuad Shukr also met an untimely, and much deserved violent end"

Nasrallah is supposed to be giving the funeral oration. If in person, seems like a good opportunity to do him too.

[Commenter_XY]

Nasrallah's days are numbered as well. I won't shed tears if they blow his ass up at the funeral.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Maybe Nasrallah and Netanyahu will go through the checkout line together, if the decent, mainstream world is a bit lucky.

[Frank Drackman]

Honest mistake, he didn't realize "Air b&b" stood for "Bombed & Blown Up"

[John F. Carr]

According to the media the region is now on the brink of war. Again. How many months has it been since a regional war was last imminent?

[Commenter_XY]

Yeah, I know...only the last 9 months or so. I thought PM Netanyahu put it well; give Israel the tools faster and they'll finish the job faster.

[Martinned2]

Yes, that's what we're worried about.

[Don Nico]

It's a feature not a bug, to be trite.

But the state of perpetual war is not helpful to anyone except Shia extremists.

[Martinned2]

The only strategy that makes any sense for Israel, as a country (as opposed to Netanyahu individually) is to bite the bullet and decide that they really don't care about international law for a while, and bomb the Palestinians in Gaza until they're all either dead or in Egypt. And the only sensible strategy for the West Bank is similar, except with less bombing and more apartheid.

So you can see why the rest of us who care about upholding the law might be troubled by this possibility.

[Ilya Snowman]

You’ve got bigger fish to fry, as the main players on the other side of this new cold war ALL have the express, conscious aim of dismantling that law.

And with very good reason, too, since it’s a racist form of domination and control over the world.

I obviously don’t know what’s going to happen for sure, but you’re probably going to lose.

[Martinned2]

Wait, who has the conscious aim of dismantling which law?

[Ilya Snowman]

What? Where have you been for four years now, bruv?

See from 14:13 onwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFn8_ESsffI&t=119s

[Martinned2]

Oh, the Americans haven't cared about international law for decades, not since they decided they won the Cold War. But you claimed that the "main players" were "all" trying to get rid of international law.

[Ilya Snowman]

I stated the ‘on the other side’, which you are missing for some reason. The Americans DO care about international law, to the extent it forms part of their liberal international order/control.

[Bob from Ohio]

"they decided they won the Cold War"

Facts are not "decided", they happen. We did win the Cold War with the Soviet Union despite Eurotrash protests. Freed Eastern Europe too.

[Don Nico]

"why the rest of us who care about upholding the law might be troubled"
That is easy to say from the distance of the US or London. but there is no effective law that governs this conflict and there has not been for decades.

Your comment does have a nugget of truth; namely that the time for a 2-state solution is past. The future appears to be a semi-secularized Israel with a couple of million Palestinian citizens

[Commenter_XY]

Probably not so many palestinians (over time). I see incentivized, voluntary emigration on the horizon - post war.

Israel needs to get this over with.

[Don Nico]

C_XY,
Unfortunately, none of their Arab neighbors want them. That has been demonstrated over and over.

[Commenter_XY]

The arabs would sell their own mothers for the right price. We already know the arabs sell their sisters.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

"The arabs would sell their own mothers for the right price. We already know the arabs sell their sisters."

Some people talk about Jews in that manner. I suspect you don't like it.

Right-wing bigots are among my favorite culture war casualties. Do you have a suggested menu for the celebration(s) when accountability and justice have their way with right-wing assholes?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Oh, it's going to be over with, XY.

When better Americans stop subsidizing the right-wing criminals, bigots, and corrupt theocrats in Israel.

Maybe quickly.

[Martinned2]

there is no effective law that governs this conflict and there has not been for decades.

Not when no one in the conflict is interested in obeying the law, no.

[Ilya Snowman]

Let's see if that law subsists, globally, over the next few years, or if it's dismantled for being a racist form of colonial domination.

You going to enlist your family in your military to fight in WW3? For Ukraine? For Taiwan?

[Martinned2]

Interesting blog post on the process used by the pre-trial chamber I in the Situation in Palestine case: https://www.ejiltalk.org/friendly-feast-during-the-plague-is-the-pre-trial-chamber-losing-its-way-on-the-palestine-arrest-warrant-proceedings/

For the record, I think it's broadly fine for all sorts of amici to weigh in at this stage if they want to. The ICC process is extremely slow, as were international criminal law prosecutions in the past (Yugoslavia, Rwanda, etc.) I don't think it much matters whether it takes three months or six to issue an arrest warrant. Who knows, some of the Hamas would-be defendants might not live long enough to have an arrest warrant issued against them.

[Martinned2]

I haven't checked the statute, so I claim no knowledge of whether this is right as a legal matter, but as a policy matter I think it's an interesting one:

CPSC Finds Amazon Responsible Under Federal Safety Law for Hazardous Products Sold by Third-Party Sellers on Amazon.com

https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2024/CPSC-Finds-Amazon-Responsible-Under-Federal-Safety-Law-for-Hazardous-Products-Sold-by-Third-Party-Sellers-on-Amazon-com

[Mr. Bumble]

You realize that a money losing "newspaper" and that yacht need a steady influx of cash?

[John F. Carr]

At least one of the federal Courts of Appeals addressed Amazon's liability under state law a few years ago. It found that Amazon was considered the seller of a defective product, maybe an exploding hoverboard, despite disclaimers saying the real seller is some mysterious company in China and by signing up to Amazon you promise not to sue Amazon. This was before Amazon stopped demanding arbitration. Contracts do not bind third parties, anyway. Maybe you agree that your Tesla can kill you. You can not agree that your Tesla can kill me.

As a policy matter, Amazon should be responsible. Amazon is huge, the other potentially responsible parties are likely not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and Amazon may be able to recover costs from foreign companies where U.S. consumers can't. I also want Uber to be considered more than a mere bystander as two independent people happen to hook up on its platform.

I know some online sellers require a U.S. person to be the contact for the store, but the real seller is in Asia. I know somebody who got an offer to be the name on the paperwork. The Chinese company had hit the maximum store to U.S. person ratio and needed more warm bodies to open storefront accounts on social media. But if your new gadget explodes, only the Chinese company has the cash to make your lawyer's contingency fee worth something.

[Mr. Bumble]

Now do eBay.

[John F. Carr]

If I were making up rules for platform immunity in tort cases, I would give heavy weight to the platform's ability to identify a tortfeasor as a person subject to general jurisdiction in a U.S. court. That's for tort cases like exploding hoverboards. For routine contract disputes you'll probably get a refund from Amazon or eBay.

[Martinned2]

Why wouldn't a 3rd party seller who sells through Amazon to a US-based customer not be subject to US jurisdiction?

I agree that it's more convenient for the consumer to be able to sue Amazon, and that in consumer law lawmakers sometimes change the normal rules to protect consumers. So this is a result that could make sense. But since your contract is with the 3rd party seller (right?) this is certainly a departure from how product liability normally works.

[Michael P]

The Chinese sellers are in theory subject to US jurisdiction, but even if China was willing to enforce judgments against them, the firms are fly-by-night outfits that change their legal identity after a few months. By the time anyone holds them responsible, they no longer exist.

[Brett Bellmore]

At least it's a few months on Amazon. On FB marketplace it's more like a couple weeks.

[Voize]

Oberdorf v. Amazon (3rd Cir. 2019)A panel found Amazon liable for a defective dog leash, but the en banc court certified a question of strict liability law to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Amazon settled before they received an answer.

Bolger v. Amazon (Cal. Ct. App., 4th Dist. 2020)Amazon placed itself in the distribution chain of a defective laptop battery by warehousing the item, shipping it, and accepting payment, and cannot win summary judgment on the theory that it is only a facilitator of the sale.

Loomis v. Amazon (Cal. Ct. App., 2nd Dist. 2021)The hoverboard case. Amazon was never in possession of the item and so wasn't as involved in the sale as it was in Bolger, but is still potentially liable because all plaintiff's pre and post-sale interactions were with Amazon who did not allow the overseas seller to communicate directly with the plaintiff.

McMillan v. Amazon (5th Circuit 2021)Amazon was not potentially liable for injuries to a child who opened a remote control and swallowed the batteries because they were not a seller for the purposes of the Texas Product Liability Act.

[Martinned2]

Like I said, it's an interesting issue.

[John F. Carr]

Thanks for the list of cases.

[Martinned2]

I like Biden's solution for the Guantanamo detainees, something Obama never managed to fix. Get them to "agree" to a plea deal of life in prison in order to avoid a "trial" where 20 years of illegally obtained "evidence" would be used against them.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/1/us-reaches-plea-deals-with-three-accused-of-9-11

[John F. Carr]

A plea to a life sentence is a decent resolution for those who take it. I think there are still some detainees who are not subject to life sentences but can't be freed because no country will take them.

Maybe the new regime in Afghanistan wants some alleged former terrorists.

[Martinned2]

If that's the plea, what's the worse sentence that they're avoiding? A death sentence? Between the diplomatic fallout that that would create and the legal mess that the US has created for itself at GITMO, no one is getting executed for at least another 20 years. KSM would die of natural causes before anyone will ever execute him.

[John F. Carr]

Execution is unlikely. Being freed is also unlikely. Conditions of confinement can change after an official conviction. I remember a prosecutor telling me in his jurisdiction it was better to take two years in state prison (only available after formal conviction) than one year in a county jail (used for pretrial detention).

Donald Trump would risk causing diplomatic offense in the name of a cause. The president c. 2035 might feel like Trump.

[Frank Drackman]

Why the fuck can't KSM be executed? THAT's the fucking problem

[Dan Schiavetta]

Good God. In jail for more than 20 years and still awaiting trial??

[Martinned2]

Tbf, in the beginning the US government wasn't really worried about holding a trial. So I suppose they've only been awaiting trial since 2008-09 or thereabouts.

[John F. Carr]

There have been some unusual circumstances beyond the usual delays that will put Trump on trial in 2025 for what he did in 2020.

There's the need for special defense lawyers who are cleared to know things that officially don't exist despite being revealed in books and movies. There was a judge who had to be disqualified very late because of a conflict of interest (find this guy guilty and get nominated for a more prestigious job). There are legitimate disputes over admissibility of evidence. Probably, there is a lot of need to develop procedures because the tribunal has no case law.

And nobody cares any more. Out of sight, out of mind. No public clamor for a conviction. No Speedy Trial Act.

[David Nieporent]

There are legitimate disputes over admissibility of evidence.

Yeah. Much of the evidence was derived from torture, which would be rather problematic if the case were to actually to go to trial.

[Martinned2]

Hence the threat of using a military commission

[Kazinski]

Yeah, its the penultimate FAFO.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"I like Biden’s solution for the Guantanamo detainees,"

Why? There's nothing resembling due process going on.

[Martinned2]

Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm tags. I thought the scare quotes would sufficiently communicate my views.

[Bob from Ohio]

"nothing resembling due process going on."

On the contrary, they have gotten far, far more process than they deserved.

After the interrogation was done, one day hearing and immediate execution. Or skip the hearing.

[Commenter_XY]

Agreed, on the immediate execution part, that is.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Your contempt for the constitution never ceases to amaze me. A true disgrace to the legal profession.

[Noscitur a sociis]

What additional process do you think they’re due?

[TwelveInchPianist]

A trial by military commission would have been fine. In a reasonable time frame. Followed by execution or whatever sentence if convicted, freedom if acquitted.

That's not what they got.

[Stephen Lathrop]

The Heritage Foundation has announced a second American revolution. With a promise that it will be bloodless, if the left does not resist. In short, MAGA faction leaders threaten a violent contest for American sovereignty.

I want to hope for the best. But contests for sovereignty are not benign. They are not typically contested with eloquence in the marketplace of ideas. They are typically contested with violence and arms—as the Heritage announcement anticipates.

For the sake of argument, imagine a post-election interval fogged by confusion over which side actually won the election. What would prevent such a situation from devolving into a mutual test of force between the parties? Is it wise to let a question like that go unexplored, until it imposes itself on the nation willy-nilly?

Indeed, if the election shapes up as a close one, given experience, and given public resistance by MAGA office holders to pledge respect for election results, what risks does that entail? What should happen, for instance, if the MAGA party attempts openly to thwart vote counting in the states, with an eye either to rig the election for Trump, or to throw the election illegitimately into the House?

Should the Biden administration act now, to alert would-be insurrectionists that it will meet with force any challenge to this nation's tradition of popular sovereignty, decided by elections? Should the Biden administration instead take some other steps, to try to defuse a gathering threat of armed violence? If so, what steps?

Is there anyone who thinks passivity, an appearance of neglect, and hope, are the best policies for now? If so, for how long? What further evidence is needed to justify proactive measures against warlike rebellion and continuing chaos?

[Krayt]

We are the United States. If a handful of assholes try to take over, the several states can ignore them, and the people.

Disasterbate away, though.

[Pansenmaria]

If a group of conservative states wanted to separate from the U.S., why do you leftists in blue states care? Why do you want these people you hate in your country?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

They can leave. Or comply. End of list.

[Pansenmaria]

Again, why do you need areas where 80% of people disagree with you to comply? Why do you think your side deserves the whole physical land mass?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Comply or leave.

If you need help with compliance, that can be arranged.

Clingers get to whine about it as much as they like, of course.

[Ilya Snowman]

Oh! exciting!

Please explain, in detail, how you will ensure compliance. How will you coerce them to leave? Which bodies will enforce compliance here?

‘Cause it much rather looks as those those folks are on the cusp of blowing your fucking brains out instead. 🙂

[Pansenmaria]

I hope so. I don't know why conservatives say we should avoid civil war if we can. I don't see any alternative to cleansing out the unsavory elements existing inside the United States.

[Ilya Snowman]

'Civil war'... Please...

This isn't 1861. The 'fight' with the unarmed, incompetent blue teamers in their main hives would last for several hours---at most.

My friends have been discussing this since at least 2005. We'll host a party and watch it all on television.

If/when some of the rats try to flee abroad, they'll nevertheless have to be dealt with upon arrival. No doubt others have already anticipated such contingencies and will respond accordingly. They cannot and will not be tolerated here or in other civilised countries.

[not guilty]

"I hope so. I don’t know why conservatives say we should avoid civil war if we can. I don’t see any alternative to cleansing out the unsavory elements existing inside the United States."

The yapping and yammering of keyboard warriors about civil war amuses me. Who would raise, train, arm, command and supply an insurrectionary force? (In the nineteenth century, eleven states tried that. It did not end well for them.)

And what about 10 U.S.C. § 252, which provides:

Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.

Does anyone really think that a ragtag bunch of misfits with popguns can take on the U. S. armed forces?

[Pansenmaria]

I don't think the U.S. armed forces will fight against conservative freedom fighters. Remember, the front lines are still largely conservative white men from the Midwest and South. The blacks, Hispanics, transgenders, homosexuals and others usually are in support roles.

[not guilty]

Pansemaria, do you have any, you know, evidence supporting the aspersions you have cast on the professionalism of members of the armed forces? Dereliction of duty in the face of orders of the commander in chief is quite a serious allegation.

[shawn_dude]

Racist twaddle.

[not guilty]

Still waiting, Pansemaria. Do you have any evidence supporting your supposition that the U.S. armed forces will refuse to fight against conservative "freedom fighters" if directed to do so by their commander in chief?

I promise that it won't break your keyboard to give a straight answer.

[Sarcastr0]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOSqCjMRXWA

[Frank Drackman]

A misfit in literal ragtags came within an inch of taking out "45"
and hate to tell you this, but the US Armed Forces aren't designed to fight a domestic insurrection (or even a foreign one, see 1: Korea 2: Vietnam 3: Iraq 4: Afghanistan
Seeing a pattern here?
and like I've heard a gazillion times, I thought the Military was 90% hayseed Nazis? not like they're going to do much, the rest are minorities just shufflin' along doing the bare minimum...

Frank

[Stephen Lathrop]

not guilty, please consider, 10 U.S.C. § 252 opens with a premise similar to the proverbial loaded gun in the dresser drawer, glimpsed briefly in the opening act. If nothing else, its wording ought to terrify anyone who reflects on what could follow if a president immunized and unscrupulous lunges to get hold of it.

What is the nation to expect if two would-be presidents—both considering themselves immunized—recognize during a moment of electoral obscurity that a, "Both went for the gun," moment had arrived? Conversely, what are the implications if a properly-constituted president quails at such a moment?

I am doubly dismayed. First, that such reflections appear necessary now. Second, that a SCOTUS apparently constituted to exacerbate such risks continues to reign unchallenged as the only institutional backstop against them.

[Ilya Snowman]

Why would they US armed forces fight these people?

You haven't answered that.

What percentage of the latter would be comprised of the former anyway?

Again, your stupid American discourse about another 'civil war' is ridiculous. There wouldn't be militias, platoons, etc. What happens if small groups take action in your blue cities (several thousand, at most) and copycats follow suit elsewhere?

Your quoting of 10 USC § 252 is interesting, nonetheless. Can it be applied, for example, against US officers and entire branches of government for rendering it impracticable to enforce the laws)?

[David Nieporent]

Setting aside all the other problems with your notion, there are lots of liberals in red states (and lots of conservatives in blue ones). For a stark example, in 2020, there were more votes for Biden in each of Texas and Florida than in any state other than California. And there were more votes for Trump in California than in any blue state.

On a larger scale, democracy cannot survive if it's "heads I win; tails I quit."

[Pansenmaria]

It also can't survive if the losing party changes who composes the democracy in order to win.

It's called bringing in ringers.

[shawn_dude]

Are you making a replacement theory argument here?

[Ilya Snowman]

Are you claiming that it's a theory here?

[Ilya Snowman]

'Should the Biden administration act now, to alert would-be insurrectionists that it will meet with force...'

Will it/would it, though? Don't want to beg the question of what your military and other armed forces would actually do in such a situation. After all, their loyalties might lie elsewhere (eg with the constitution, as they understand it), and not with the current office-holders...

Take solace, JC: most of the more serious firearms in your country are held by people on one side of the political aisle. 🙂

As an aside, do you actually expect anyone else in the world to still believe that nonsense about America's having 'popular' sovereignty? Who in the world can continue to be deceived about that possibly being the case?

[David Nieporent]

As an aside, do you actually expect anyone else in the world to still believe that nonsense about America’s having ‘popular’ sovereignty?

They do, Vlad.

[Ilya Snowman]

You wouldn't take my bet. How come?

I want your house.

[David Nieporent]

You wouldn’t take my bet. How come?

Asked and answered.

[Ilya Snowman]

Inadequate.

Don't be a coward. Take the bet.

[Noscitur a sociis]

What proactive measures do you have in mind, exactly?

[Martinned2]

I've been trying to work out what's going to happen to Lina Khan. Because despite everyone trying to get her fired, she first needs to be reappointed for another term of seven years, because her current term expires next month. Does she have the votes to get confirmed?

And separately, if Harris or Trump does want to fire her, what kind of protection would she derive from the rule in 15 USC 41 that an FTC commissioner can only be removed for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office"?

[Armchair]

"Does she have the votes to get confirmed?"

Probably, if Biden nominates her again. JD Vance and several other GOP members have endorsed her and are quite happy with her. And if Biden renominates, then a number of Dem Senators will agree

[Martinned2]

The Khan/Kanter project was always based on support from parts of the Democratic and Republican caususes. On both sides of the aisle there are people who would like to stop her and people who support here. My sense was that the balance had shifted against her compared to 2021, but I didn't do a headcount.

[Armchair]

The big money corporations certainly don't like her. I wonder if Harris is in their pocket....

[Martinned2]

She's certainly in lots of people's pockets, as is Trump. US democracy, the best democracy money can buy!

https://x.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1816478653863067918

[Krayt]

Harris or Trump should be able to fire her. If regulatory bodies, in their role as dictators, “speaking the law into existence”, without direct approval of legislators, is to have any hope of surviving constitutional authority, it can only be under the president’s authority as enforcer of the law. It’s a strain to consider creating laws, things that pull money from your pocket or throw you in jail, as part of a mechanical action umbrella’d under “enforcement”, but there you go.

And if it’s under the president’s power of enforcement, he gets to fire the head if he or she wants because he has the honor of enforcement, which includes the actual such regulations in his priorities.

Of course, the fired-only-for-cause thing is just fraud fighting between branches, as one side fancies it can continue detailed control of speaking laws into existence, with a ghost of a former speaker, and not the current.

Run! It’s the LawGiver! Ummm, the former LawGiver’s assistant!

[Martinned2]

Exactly because the President is the enforcer of the law, he or she shouldn't be able to ignore what Congress has seen fit to write into 15 USC 41.

[Frank Drackman]

Anyone ready for the Women's High Jump tomorrow? Qualifying starts at 0415 Eastern.
Current World Record Holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh of You-Crane (set with a jump of 2.1 Meters or just a shade under 7 feet)
and if you're wondering, that's better than the Men's World Record was in 1936
and of course you Homos want these beautiful women replaced with
NBA Summer League washouts,
So none of you Homos touch my stuff tomorrow at 0415, I'll be
"Busy"

Frank

[Armchair]

Is Harris black?

Trump gave an interview before the National Association of Black Journalists. And he was confused, because Harris always presented herself as Indian...until a few years ago, when she suddenly turned black.

The Audience laughed at the comment. Not the response Harris wants...

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/07/how-did-trump-do.php

[Martinned2]

Trump taking racist pot shots at his opponents? Why wouldn't Harris want that? The more the Republicans talk about her race, the more they annoy non-Trumpists.

[Brett Bellmore]

If somebody makes a big deal of their race, it's racist to notice that they used to claim to be of a different race?

[Martinned2]

Does Harris make a big deal of her race? I think it would be bad strategy if she did. But if Trump talks about her race, he loses votes.

[Roger S]

Yes, Harris makes a big deal of her race.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Great comment at a white, male, bigoted blog.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Has it ever occurred to you that people might have complicated relationships with their identity growing up biracial in a country that has a long and complicated history with race?

[Brett Bellmore]

If her race is complicated, why does she make it so simple?

Look, it's not actually all that complicated: She's half Indian and (Probably slightly less than) half black. But you don't get minority points in the Democratic party for being Indian, so she calls herself "black".

It's a fair dig for Trump to point out that she used to call herself Indian.

[Armchair]

Indeed.

One of the bits of identity politics is, often people vote for people of their ethnicity (ie, Black voters voting for Black politicians), because they view those politicians as being "like them" with shared experiences and shared values.

But a politician who isn't "actually black" but is "politically flexible" in their ethnicity...and people are actually repelled by that.

Harris very much doesn't want that.

[Sarcastr0]

people are actually repelled by that

Pure whitesplaining.

[Armchair]

No, it's called being normal explaining.

People hate fakes.

[Sarcastr0]

I take it back. Your insight is mighty.

Harris is faking being black because sometimes she says she's Indian.

Keep on keeping on, Race Understander!

[Stephen Lathrop]

Armchair — I get that right-wing bigots are fine with non-whites, so long as the bigots are empowered to rule out equity and inclusion for the non-whites.

[Bwaaah]

Sarc: "Pure whitesplaining."

Pure race-baiting. The truth hurts, don’t it?

[Sarcastr0]

A white person explaining how black people will react to something that involves racial identity does not have a great history of accuracy.

Go say whatever you want; I can’t force you into humility.

[Brett Bellmore]

"Whitesplaining". "Mansplaining".

You're not content to racially and sexually segregate rooms and organizations, you have to segregate conversations, too.

[Sarcastr0]

Sure, get mad that someone might suggest that your opinions on how people think are anything but universally insightful.

[grb]

I'd actually forgotten the seething sublimated anger when Obama ran. There was a section of White American that couldn't mention his skin color without grinding their teeth. After any sentence or word touching on race, they went obssessive compulsive in rambling bizarre ways. It was weird.

[Brett Bellmore]

The last time I felt seething anger was when a football game ran into overtime and ended up canceling a show I'd wanted to watch. That was, I think, in the late 80's?

I didn't like Obama, but if I felt seething anger towards every President I don't like, I'd probably have stroked out by now, I don't like ANY of them.

[Sarcastr0]

You and I are both white guys.

I know enough to realize I don't know much about having a racial identity, much less a biracial identity.
I would note that Prof. Bernstein also seemed aware of this in his post yesterday.

But you, and it seems most of the GOP, seem eager to blunder into this arena with all your zero understanding and make some broad pronouncements.

Black outreach going great!

[Bwaaah]

Behold a lesson about racial identity predicated on knowing nothing about racial identity.

Vintage Sarc. Insightless.

[Sarcastr0]

Some old smart Greek guy once said that realizing when you know nothing is the start of wisdom.

[Ilya Snowman]

It's going to be better than that, as all your claims abut 'knowledge' and 'sensitivity' get tossed out the window over the next few years.

[Sarcastr0]

My position that it's not my place to tell black people how to think about race will not change if American politics becomes shittier to minorities.

[Ilya Snowman]

Your position is yours alone. Many of your fellow travelers in your American-totalitarian race discourses will change their views about it.

About whose ‘place’ it is to say or think anything.

About who has ‘standing’ to say anything, and what that standing is based upon.

About epistemic standpoints.

And when they come to understand how they have been MANIPULATED AND CONTROLLED via the pseudo-norms ‘governing’ such matters, they’re going to respond in VERY amusing ways.

Amusing to me, at any rate. Others might find them horrifying.

[grb]

Ilya Snowman : "Others might find them horrifying"

But they're already voting for Trump so are hopeless anyway. We're talking about more normal, people.

":Horrifying"? Pretty damn weird.

[Ilya Snowman]

See the American.
See the American lie.
Lie American, lie.

It's so weird how your petulant little American shits have come to use the word 'weird' a lot this past week or so....

Just kidding: you keeping going high when they go low, OK Yankee Doodle?

[Malika]

She calls herself both. I mean, you've got Bumble in this very thread pointing to an AP headline as if it's Harris' herself as Indian-American.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

What are mail order brides who shack up with autistic losers to get citizenship calling themselves these days?

[Ilya Snowman]

'Americans'?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Yeah, that, too.

[Nelson]

"half Indian and (Probably slightly less than) half black"

Her mother is Indian. Her father is black. How does that make her "slightly less than half black? Was there a mysterious third parent involved in her conception?

[Commenter_XY]

I know, it is like Libs of Tik Tok, writ large. Kamala did the claiming. It makes her look like a female race grifter, along the lines of Al Sharpton.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Recently, every day has been another step toward accountability for your right-wing assholes in Israel, XY. It is increasingly likely that Kamala Harris will be involved in pulling that plug.

How are you going to cope?

[Ilya Snowman]

It's pretty clear now, to the whole world, that your POTUSes don't call the shots. So, no, Kamala obviously wouldn't be involved in any real decision-making---if she 'wins' your 'elections', that is.

In that vein, how are you going to cope with both the loss of face and the widespread realization domestically (not just globally) that your regime isn't really what it presents itself as being?

[Commenter_XY]

She has to win first, Arthur. 😉

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

If Kamala Harris doesn't pull the plug on Israel's right-wing assholes, somebody else will. It's just a matter of time. Unless clingers are able to reverse the decades-long tide of the American culture war, transforming from culture war casualties to culture war winners vindicated by a big comeback in racism, superstition, antisemitism, misogyny, xenophobia, etc. Good luck with that, clingers.

Tick, tock.

Tick, tock.

[Ilya Snowman]

It's just a matter of time before the right-wingers in your country come for you. LOOK at the empirical data about what they believe, then couple that with the Hawthorne effect!

Tick tock, tick tock.

[David Nieporent]

Harris, of course, has never claimed to be of a different race. What is it with the GOP's recent efforts to revive the Nuremberg Race Laws?

[Armchair]

If they were simply racist pot shots, the primarily black audience wouldn't have laughed...

[Frank Drackman]

Well at least she's 1/2 Indian instead of 1/1,024th like Senator Poke-a-Hontas

[Sarcastr0]

In actuality questioning a biracial persons authentic race was not a good move by Trump.

Saying when she says she’s Indian she is ignoring that she is black…not going to play well I don’t think.

And saying she presented as Indian when she went to Howard?

[John F. Carr]

It certainly got the mainstream media coming out against him.

[Sarcastr0]

It’s a newsworthy gaffe. Especially as they doubled down with 'Habba: Unlike you Kamala, I know who my roots are and where I come from.'

[Mr. Bumble]

As if the MSM needs a reason to come out against him.

[Malika]

"And saying she presented as Indian when she went to Howard?"

He's a very stupid man, a perfect candidate for some here.

[Ilya Snowman]

In actuality, all the evidence suggests that those discourses are discounted by the American lower and working class and MANY minorities. It's predominantly only bourgeois liberal American whites and certain other minorities who care.

ASK ME FOR THE EVIDENCE.

So, when you say 'in actuality', what you really mean to say is 'in my parochial American liberal bourgeois opinion, based on the viewpoints that dominate my workspace, local culture, etc, I ASSUME THAT...'

[David Nieporent]

ASK ME FOR THE EVIDENCE.

As soon as Vlad feeds it to you, you'll produce it. Just like you'll produce that evidence for what the rest of the world thinks.

[Ilya Snowman]

Says the guy who won't take the bet???

YOU back out, and then you delude yourself into thinking you still have a leg to stand on???

You projecting, Nieporent: you get paid by the Russkies?

Otherwise, take the bet about the foreign justices. I WILL take your house.

[David Nieporent]

Um, one must have been in to "back out."

[Ilya Snowman]

So, take the bet.

[Moderation4ever]

I think it is exactly what the Harris campaign would want. Rather than addressing issues Trump is attacking her race. He even thought he could divide on her race. Harris is a multiracial American, something that is more common than Trump might think, assuming he thinks.

Here an interesting question, why did Trump even go to this event? Did he think they were going to throw softball question at him like they do at FOX and NEWSMAX? This would be like Harris going on Hannity or to CPAC.

[Mr. Bumble]

More interesting is why Harris begged out of the event.

[Sarcastr0]

That won't stand before the can of worms Trump just dumped in his pants.

Though, there is some interesting inside baseball hay to make of that, but not what you think.
She's keeping Biden's schedule, which is pitched for someone of Biden's stamina.
Thus, she is keeping a low profile and letting Trump get in his own way as he scrambles to revector his attacks.

Anyhow, she joined via Zoom, I thought.

[Mr. Bumble]

You "thought" wrong.

[Sarcastr0]

OK then.

Still not gonna be the story. But kudos on realizing that the current story is bad enough you want to change it.

[David Nieporent]

More interesting is why Harris begged out of the event.

You mean, to attend a funeral? Why is that interesting?

[Mr. Bumble]

Who died?
Another victim of an illegal alien?

[David Nieporent]

Sheila Jackson Lee. Yet another thing that informed people know but that Mr. Bumble surprisingly doesn't. And I don't think immigrants give people pancreatic cancer.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have all said they plan to attend Thursday’s service. Harris, the newly-minted presumptive Democratic nominee for president, will deliver a eulogy, according to the White House."

Seems like a convenient change of plans.
Is she also there today?

[Armchair]

"why did Trump even go to this event?"

Trump takes interviews from challenging audiences. Something to be commended.

As for this audience, probably because Trump is going after the Black vote, and going to an interview before the National Association of Black Journalists is a good way to get your message out to the Black voting public.

[Martinned2]

Trump takes interviews from challenging audiences. Something to be commended.

Indeed. He's famously good with critical questions. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1818713678407254323

[Malika]

"because Trump is going after the Black vote,"

Why does Harris make everything about race? lol

[Armchair]

"I think it is exactly what the Harris campaign would want."

No, Harris doesn't want this. When a comment is made how Harris appeared to change her race to black, the primarily black audience laughing about it is exactly what she doesn't want.

[Martinned2]

I don't think people who go to a Trump event are the voters she's targeting.

[Armchair]

They were black journalists...And they take their views back to their audiences.

[Malika]

"If her race is complicated, why does she make it so simple?"

Lol.

[Brett Bellmore]

The "National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention & Career Fair" is a Trump event?

[Sarcastr0]

I don't think Powerline has the correct readout there. Trump did not win over the audience with his response.
Or at all - they pulled the interview early.

Powerline seems to be indulging in a bit of cope.

[Armchair]

You appear to be flailing.

[Malika]

Talking to your reflection on your screen?

[Sarcastr0]

I guess we'll see if Powerline is right or just about everyone else in the media and a buncha Republicans as well.

Meanwhile, I think you should push the Harris is a fake black woman - as a white guy, your ability to police racial authenticity is naturally top notch.

[Ilya Snowman]

Why not stick with it? After all, Biden is clearly a fake president now, no?

[Malika]

It's hard for weird people to discern when someone is laughing at them, not with them, and hard for them to tell when it's happening to other weird people.

[Brett Bellmore]

It's doubly hard to tell which is going on when they refuse to release the video so that people can judge for themselves.

[Sarcastr0]

FULL INTERVIEW: Donald Trump takes questions from NABJ panel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eCCbVr3EU

[Brett Bellmore]

Cool, thanks! I had heard that they pulled the interview, must have been an unfounded rumor.

[Malika]

"must have been an unfounded rumor."

That Brett ran with? Unpossible!

[Brett Bellmore]

Woosh.

[Sarcastr0]

Brett, I meant the Trump folks pulled the interview early.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-interview-black-journalists-ends-abruptly-1932829

Not a sign it went great, despite Powerline's assurances.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

It was Trump who walked out. The journalists hid nothing, stopped nothing.

Some people really struggle to understand normal, mainstream human interactions. Doesn’t stop them from opining, though.

[Brett Bellmore]

Starts out they’re laughing with him, certainly. Will take a long while to listen to the whole thing.

Yes, they were laughing at the Indian dig, like they thought it was funny.

[Sarcastr0]

they’re laughing with him, certainly

I tried, but I cannot hope to tell from the video.

[Brett Bellmore]

To be sure, he got fewer laughs for the Indian dig than earlier in the interview.

I mean, it's the truth: She really did lean into her Indian side at first, and then switch to being just "black". There's too many records of that to successfully memory hole it.

That's actually my concern about Google's talk about going to an AI front end for all searches. At that point, they WILL be able to just make stuff disappear.

[Malika]

"There’s too many records of that to successfully memory hole it."

Like that the video of the interview was unavailable!

[Sarcastr0]

You have this paradigm where if a biracial person is mentioned as one race, that denigrates the other.

I don't think you can assume that at all.

Your sourcing for 'it's the truth' is weak. Feels like you're going with vibes again.
For instance, you ignore that *she went to Howard* so much for Indian at first.

That’s actually my concern about Google’s talk about going to an AI front end for all searches. At that point, they WILL be able to just make stuff disappear.
As though you do searches for this stuff. You do not. And you already don't trust any institution who doesn't tell you what you want to hear.

[David Nieporent]

mean, it’s the truth:

And by "the truth," Brett means that he heard it repeated multiple times on Fox, which he doesn't actually listen to but knows all the talking points from, despite them not having any connection to reality.

At no point are either of these statements accurate:

She really did lean into her Indian side at first, and then switch to being just “black”.

[Jonathansingletary]

She went to Howard University, you dummy.

[Frank Drackman]

Moe Howard University more like it, given her 3 Stooges mental level.

[Bob from Ohio]

"She went to Howard University,"

So?

"66.6% Black or African American, 6.34% Hispanic or Latino, 4.51% Two or More Races, 3.44% Asian, 1.09% White, 0.908% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.14% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders." Howard website.

Now no doubt it was higher when she went but not 100% either.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, going to Howard is a very Indian thing to do.

You can't help but make it weird.

[David Nieporent]

Not only does that not appear to be from the Howard website, but it only adds up to 83%.

[Bob from Ohio]

Sorry, its from DataUSA, my error.

I withdraw the comment.

[Jonathansingletary]

I love that the first replies to this were people I’ve muted. Keep wasting your breath, boys!

[David Nieporent]

Everyone on both sides of the aisle agrees this was one of the most disastrous performances ever seen by a presidential candidate, but Armchair pretends that people laughing at Trump is actually good news for him.

[Mr. Bumble]

"Everyone on both sides of the aisle agrees..."
Your ability to speak for "everyone" is fucking amazing.

[Bob from Ohio]

"one of the most disastrous performances ever seen by a presidential candidate"

Like the Biden debate?

[Sarcastr0]

You sure this comparison works well for you?

[Bob from Ohio]

Trying to get a baseline from him.

The debate drove Joe from the race. Yesterday will be forgotten by Monday.

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, mention Joe Biden's performance a lot in the same breath as Trump's.

Just keep on banging that drum till you get the baseline figured!

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Your understanding of the fallout from that interview is, as expected, utterly incomplete.

You should probably watch the interview yourself and see how many people were laughing versus how many people were appalled at Trump's blatant racism.

[Commenter_XY]

Interesting, President Trump showed up knowing it was a hostile audience. But he at least showed up and engaged. Contrast that with his opponent who did not.

[Brett Bellmore]

Well, that's the thing: Trump has an inflated view of himself, but he actually DOES have that inflated view. It's not a false front. So he's not particularly scared of hostile audiences.

[Martinned2]

Sure. His "inflated view of himself" simply means that he thinks any critical question is the worst any presidential candidate has been treated ever.

https://x.com/Acyn/status/1818713678407254323

[SimonP]

He doesn't need to worry about an embarrassing performance, because he can rest confident that his supporters will valorize him - and attack his enemies - no matter what he does.

There is no outcome from the NABJ invite that you wouldn't spin somehow in Trump's favor. If he elected to decline the invitation? "Why should Trump waste his time speaking before a hostile audience that won't vote for him anyway or tell the truth about him?" Once he accepted? "See, Trump's willing to go before a hostile audience and try to win them over." If he had done well? "See, he's actually really good, he went into the lion's den and performed well." Once he flailed? "I actually think he did well. Where's Kamala, anyway?"

When a candidate like Trump has the uncritical, unflagging, loving support of MAGA dunces like yourself, of course they will develop an "inflated view of himself." There is literally nothing he can do that would make you drop your support for him. Your protestations of being a long-time libertarian and Trump skeptic notwithstanding.

[Commenter_XY]

Yeah, thousands of Bronx supporters showed up for his rally right there in the South Bronx. Say what you will about President Trump (and there is plenty to say, I know), the man shows up. Funny, I don't see Kamala going to the Bronx to hold a rally. You might say it is total BS and exploitation going to NABL, but that man still shows up anyway.

November is not so far away. This will end soon enough.

[SimonP]

Yeah, thousands of Bronx supporters showed up for his rally right there in the South Bronx.

Lie about the numbers, lie about where they come from, lie, lie, lie.

Funny, I don’t see Kamala going to the Bronx to hold a rally.

No, she's going to places like Houston and Atlanta - places where it makes sense to try to drive turnout, to build on enthusiasm and support, to win votes.

Trump has the enthusiasm, he has the donors, so his rally strategy is about getting into the news cycle and creating narratives. He also likes the kind of play he gets with his crowds (even though they tend to walk out on him, when he starts getting all boring and rambling).

These are just two campaigns at different points in their strategy. If Kamala were to hold a rally in the Bronx, you'd be here making fun of her for playing to a friendly audience.

You might say it is total BS and exploitation going to NABL, but that man still shows up anyway.

As I've said in another thread, the decision to go to NABJ no doubt was made when Trump thought he had this thing all sewed up, so it was just about goosing the Black vote and twisting the knife on Biden. Now that Kamala has upset that dynamic - if not flipped it entirely - it makes much less sense. As for Kamala - she'll be speaking with the NABJ later, apparently. She just wasn't available on short notice for the convention yesterday - which I don't think should surprise anyone.

Anyway, we'll see if Trump "shows up" at the debate in September, huh? Or do you have an excuse already on why he shouldn't?

[Commenter_XY]

President Trump should absolutely debate VP Harris.

[bernard11]

There is no outcome from the NABJ invite that you wouldn’t spin somehow in Trump’s favor.

This is a critical fact about Brett. It really means that his defenses of Trump contain zero information, because they are 100% predictable.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

He walked off in a huff when he disliked a question.

[David Nieporent]

So he’s not particularly scared of hostile audiences.

He is in fact terrified of them, which is why he repeatedly backs out of debates.

[Malika]

How did he know it was a hostile audience? I thought he was the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln and had all kinds of support in the Black community.

[David Nieporent]

President Trump showed up knowing it was a hostile audience. But he at least showed up and engaged. Contrast that with his opponent who did not.

His opponent was at a funeral. And he did not engage; he had a tantrum and then walked out.

[Mr. Bumble]

You've morphed into another SarcastrO.

[Sarcastr0]

Hah.

He should be so lucky.

[Zarniwoop]

But he at least showed up and engaged.

Oh c'mon. This is one of the lamest rationalizations being trotted out today.

If a party guest shows up late, takes a dump right in the middle of the living room carpet, and then leaves in a hissy fit ... "he at least showed up" is hardly the win you seem to think it is.

[OtisAH]

“Is Harris black?”

In the United States of America, the answer to that question is found in the answer to the question “Which drinking fountain would she be allowed to use in the Jim Crow south?”

Answer that and you have your answer.

[hobie]

Fellow trumpers, I’m begging you, please keep talking about Harris’ race, physical looks and sex life. Sprinkle in a few mentions on childless women, Project 2025 and the national abortion ban. Use mature-sounding nicknames like Cum-a-lot and Cameltoe. All this will get you millions of votes from women and minorities. Let’s get ‘er done, boys!

[Sarcastr0]

I'm hoping they break out the calipers.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Armchair,

I must once again implore you: please, please stop helping.

[shawn_dude]

"The Audience laughed at the comment. Not the response Harris wants…"

They were laughing at him not with him. It's like going to the zoo to watch the baboons throw their shit. Oh look! He's doing it again!

The NABJ was a hostile audience for Trump.

[Moderation4ever]

I noted this article in my local newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, titled "Undocumented residents pay $96.7B in taxes to US".
Another indication that the immigrants are important to the US economy.

https://madison.com/eedition/page-a12/page_bbddbf13-8bc3-5032-a679-fbfe72303e38.html

[Ilya Snowman]

How much do they cost your system?

[Moderation4ever]

There are an estimated 11 million undocumented so they would each have to cost more than $8.8K per year before you would be paying out of pocket. Even assuming you gave them social services similar to the working poor for a family of four you be looking at $36K in services before its coming out of the native's money. The US is getting a pretty good deal here.

[Brett Bellmore]

Just to put $8.8K in taxes in context:

Federal Spending per Person Is Skyrocketing

That's about 1985 level federal spending. But, to be fair, most federal spending isn't benefiting anybody directly, so let's look at state spending:

Total State Expenditures per Capita

So, in 26 states, that's not even breaking even, assuming it was all state taxes. The article was paywalled, but I assume it was combined federal and state taxes, so, yeah, net loss for sure.

[Jacob Grimes]

The federal government, yes. The states, not so much. Somin posted a report on here not too long ago that admitted illegal immigration costs states more than it benefits them.

If I recall correctly, a major reason why illegal immigration doesn't cost the federal government much is illegibility for programs like Social Security. If the illegals are rotating in and out, that's not an issue. But if they're putting down roots, I don't see how they won't eventually be awarded some form of benefits once they retire.

[Brett Bellmore]

Yes, almost all of the benefits that illegals receive, and expenses they incur, are at the state level. That's why the states are so enraged about the federal government casually dumping illegals on them: It's costing them a fortune, and not a small one, either.

[Sarcastr0]

the states are so enraged

Or it's populist politics/a handy excuse.

Who is to know, except those of us with telepathy.

[shawn_dude]

Well, it’s been going on since before either of us was born. Occasionally, a federal administration will offer some sort of path to citizenship, but benefits like social security have to be earned. When they “put down roots,” one of the things they do is pay property and sales taxes–both local. So, at the very least, they contribute as much as any legal resident in a similar financial situation does and they consume less in terms of government-funded programs that are tied to legal residency. To measure their economic contribution, you’d need to compare it to the alternative US citizen doing the same job–what wage would they be willing to take in exchange for back-breaking field labor in the hot sun? How much would our food costs increase if farmers only hired legal residents?

Undocumented immigrants who build families and a life here use their children and their communities to make it through retirement. I’ve no doubt they’re fine with that exchange given the better lives they’ve provided for their offspring. I also have no illusions about my own (Irish) ancestry and the likelihood that one or more of them came into this country the same way.

[ThePublius]

That's only half the story. What's the balance, i.e., what are the costs to the citizens for illegal immigrants. I can assure you that in Massachusetts it's a big net drag.

[OtisAH]

Your assurance is worthless.

[Bob from Ohio]

"“Undocumented residents pay $96.7B in taxes to US”."

No way to calculate that. The government does not even have an idea how many illegals are here.

Its just boob bait for open borders boobs.

[Brett Bellmore]

Actually, the IRS and SS Administration have a pretty good idea, because even though illegals use fake ID, when you've got somebody paying taxes working laying sod in Massachusetts, and their SS records show they're in their 50's, living in Nebraska, and working as an accountant, it's not hard to figure out what is going on.

[Bob from Ohio]

"IRS and SS Administration have a pretty good idea"

Doubtful.

[Martinned2]

Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the US, according to people familiar with the situation.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-01/us-reporter-released-by-russia-in-multi-country-prisoner-swap?sref=Ntkyx7AB

[Malika]

Good news. I really felt for those two.

No American should trust going into Russia.

[Martinned2]

Let's see how this works in detail. The last time they did a swap, trading Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout, I don't think the US got a very good deal. As the Israel/Hamas bargaining over the years shows, it's hard for a democracy to do win in such negotiations, and they always end up creating bad incentives.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Good News"

If we keep making these swaps lucrative, we’ll probably get a lot more good news like this in the future.

[Malika]

Russia doesn't seem to need any incentive to do this kind of thing, it's good they are coming home.

[TwelveInchPianist]

And bad that they were held hostage in the first place. And bad that criminals are going free.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Russia doesn’t seem to need any incentive to do this kind of thing"

If they didn't benefit, they would stop doing it.

The only way to US to do this is to get our unscrupulous friends to "arrest" Russians post-kidnapping and then trade them.

[Sarcastr0]

It is good news, you're just so obligate partisan you will allow nothing Biden does to be good.

[TwelveInchPianist]

I thought it was bad when Trump did it too.

What makes it good news? Or are you just “so obligate partisan” that you will allow anything Biden does to be good?

We were saying the same thing about Griner being released recently. That exchange appears to have bought us about four months of hostage freedom.

[Sarcastr0]

Sure you did, TiP. You just held your tongue when Trump did it.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader why this is good news.

Yes, y'all were pretty unenthused about Griner coming back home as well. That also didn't reflect well on you.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Sure you did, TiP. You just held your tongue when Trump did it."

Evidence? I seem to remember discussing it.

"Yes, y’all were pretty unenthused about Griner coming back home as well."

Yup. Here's what I said: "...this sucky deal ensures that we’ll have to make more sucky deals in the future.... if we let them benefit from this, they’ll be arresting more Americans."

I'd say that aged a lot better than your chicken-fucking comment.

[Sarcastr0]

I don't recall what you in particular said, I was speaking collectively.

And collectively, y'all were pretty fucking racist.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Lol. Collectively y'all are a lot of bad things as well.

[Sarcastr0]

Did you think y'all meant just you?

[TwelveInchPianist]

Why would I think that?

[Bob from Ohio]

"That exchange appears to have bought us about four months of hostage freedom."

And this one will likely buy less time. Twice shown to work heavily in Russian favor, Biden's people have now twice asked the Russians to please kidnap more Americans.

[Sarcastr0]

It bought actual people actual freedom.

'Hostage freedom' seems an odd, overly predictive, metric.

[Bob from Ohio]

"It bought actual people actual freedom."

And it will bring actual people actual pain in the future.

[Sarcastr0]

We once had a message that we don't negotiate with terrorists. But that was always more posture than reality.

Because in reality, a for sure people getting let go is going to beat upping risks that may or may not come to pass later.

[Bob from Ohio]

I'm not going to Russia so no skin off my nose if we want to be pitifully weak.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Because in reality, a for sure people getting let go is going to beat upping risks that may or may not come to pass later."

That's why people take hostages. The Gilad Shalit deal is one to the reasons Hamas took so many hostages on 10/7.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Because in reality, a for sure people getting let go is going to beat upping risks that may or may not come to pass later.'

To be clear, are you saying that Putin and other unscrupulous actors should take as many Americans hostage as possible?

[Sarcastr0]

You came back 6 hours later to drop that strawmanning turd?

You’re essentializing a single factor within a complicated risk with many factors.

That’s a mistake. Or more likely bad faith.

[TwelveInchPianist]

It's not a strawman, it's a question, and I notice you didn't answer it.

You get that if you pay more to release hostages than it costs to take hostages, you're creating a problem, right?

It really is that simple.

[Sarcastr0]

It wasn't a serious question, so saying I didn't answer is stupid. I'm quite sure you know my answer.

Hostage taking will *always* be a baseline problem. At best, this raises one risk factor among many.

As I already said.

[OtisAH]

I hate to be repetitive, but Bob is still an idiot.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

While it might be good news for their families, that does not necessarily mean it is good news for the US or the world.

We are rewarding kidnappers.

[Mr. Bumble]

Isn't that what you would have Israel do?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Whelan and his family are assholes who did not deserve to have Americans bail them out.

[Martinned2]

More detail:

As part of the deal, at least 12 political prisoners held in Russia are expected to be released to Germany. Eight Russian nationals are expected to be returned to Russia, including several with suspected ties to Russian intelligence. Among the Russian nationals expected to be involved in the swap is Vadim Krasikov, a convicted murderer who has been serving a life sentence for a 2019 killing in Germany that the judges said had been ordered by Russian federal authorities.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-russia-prisoner-swap-frees-americans-evan-gershkovich-paul-whelan/

[Martinned2]

Regardless of whether it's a good deal, it's a miracle that it worked at all. It seems like only yesterday that Trump promised us that he and Putin were such good buddies that only he would be able to get a deal for Gershkovich...

https://x.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/1818995594679013694

[hobie]

I guess Biden stole that thunder from Trump. I believe Trump when he said he could get this done immediately. Two criminals having a meeting of the minds seems legit

[TwelveInchPianist]

Two candidates arguing over who's better at being extorted. That's where we are.

[Martinned2]

Good point:

Reports on the apparent prisoner exchange indicate that many of the Russians being traded in exchange for Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, at al, come from Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Norway. That's why alliances matter. It's not just a racket.

https://x.com/juliaioffe/status/1819009420606550212

[Martinned2]

President Biden made sure to say this:

President Biden: "The toughest call on this one is for other countries. Because I asked them to do something that was against their immediate self-interest. Really difficult for them to do. Particularly Germany and Slovenia."

[David Nieporent]

And Trump, being Trump, didn't even pretend to care. Not even a pro forma "This is great news for the families, but…" He just went straight to the "Biden probably got a bad deal."

[Armchair]

In other news, there are reports that top Democrats, including Harris, threatened Biden with the 25th Amendment if he didn't drop out of the race.

https://thefederalist.com/2024/08/01/what-does-kamala-harris-know-about-biden-suddenly-dropping-out-of-2024/

Let's hypothesize this is true. Harris blackmails Biden "Drop out of the race now, or we'll remove you via the 25th amendment".

Would blackmail, if true, be impeachment worthy?

[Malika]

The Federalist sourcing the NY Post. Let's hypothesize indeed!

[Sarcastr0]

There are reports!

::links the federalist quoting the NY Post citing 'a source close to the Biden family' and no one else::

If I linked Mother Jones for some inside scoop into the Trump campaign, what would your first thought be?

[Ilya Snowman]

Something something Steele dossier.

[Commenter_XY]

I know, right?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"If I linked Mother Jones for some inside scoop into the Trump campaign, what would your first thought be?"

They would be, "Well, this is an interesting scenario, but not credibly sourced. Hypothetically, what are the implications if it's true?"

[Sarcastr0]

If you want to offer a hypothetical, you offer a hypothetical.

If you want to push noncredible bullshit, then you cite noncredible bullshit.

Try to do both, and it still looks a lot like bullshit. Especially since Armchair has a history of...tendentious hypoes, and then going mask off when being called on it.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Hold on there. We only know it's not credibly sourced. We don't know that it's bullshit.

[Sarcastr0]

Bullshit is not the same as false.

With a hat tip to DMN I point you to "On Bullshit" by Harry G. Frankfurt

“Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”

[Brett Bellmore]

The other perspective is that the bullshitter isn't necessarily trying to persuade you of anything against your interest, while the liar probably is.

When Trump says 100K people showed up at a rally in a place that would only fit 40k, it's not true, but there's no particular harm in it, and Trump isn't relying on your believing it to your detriment. It's not good, but the harm is limited.

When Obama told people they'd get to keep their doctors and insurance, he WAS trying to mislead them, to their detriment.

With all due respect, Frankfurt was totally wrong about that.

[Sarcastr0]

Jesus Christ you're shameless.

[Brett Bellmore]

No, I don't think that counts as "blackmail". It's more like giving the guy a chance for a graceful exit.

[Roger S]

Yes, it was extortion. Impeach her for high crimes and misdemeanors, assuming that Harris really did agree to use the 25A as Obama claimed.

[grb]

Hilarious. You guys have spent the better part of four years trying to find something (anything!) to impeach Biden over. Your failure was pure bungling comedy. You even tried impeaching a cabinet member on no grounds at all. Now you’re immediately off & running on the next Dem president.
Two Points:

1. Damn, you’re weird.

2. Impeachment is much easier when the impeached is a lifelong criminal.

[Roger S]

The Dem playbook is now to call everyone weird.

[grb]

But the shoe does fit, doesn’t it? After all, the head of your party – worshiped as a god – is an incoherent huckster buffoon. Go to one of his speeches and you’re liable to hear some rambling lunacy about electric boats and sharks. Or a repeated call-out to Hannibal Lecter. The new party second seems determined to prove you must be emotionally crippled towards women if you grew up in Appalachia. I spent eight months hiking thru the region. I know that’s not true.

The rest of the party is filled with weirdos like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz. The base barely cares about facts or policy these days. They only want pro-wrestling-style entertainment from the reality-TV stars they chose as political leaders. And that’s not to bring-up their non-stop snowflake butthurt victimhood whinning. Or their endless wack-a-loon conspiracy gibberish.

These days, the entire Right is a carnival freakshow.

[bernard11]

Go to one of his speeches and you’re liable to hear some rambling lunacy about electric boats and sharks. Or a repeated call-out to Hannibal Lecter.

But Harris' speeches are "word salad" per the Trump cultists.

[Sarcastr0]

I've been calling people on here weird for years.

But lord, does it not work a treat, eh? Man, the triggered snowflakes are everywhere.

'Weird, WEIRD?! Would someone who is weird have this exhaustively catalogued list of trans athletes?'

[Zarniwoop]

I think a lot of people can when something is not just "weird", but "creepy weird".

DJT is not just weird, he's embracing creepy weird.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, there are absolutely different connotations to weird.

I expect that to trip them up as well.

[SimonP]

So... do you want to impeach Kamala because she didn't invoke the 25th Amendment, or because she did?

Are you guys really flipping this fast on the talking point? You just were rolling out the whole, "Kamala was in on the conspiracy" bit.

[Roger S]

Neither. Kamala can lawfully decide whether to invoke the 25A. The impeachment would be for threatening to use the 25A, as a way of coercing Biden to do what she and the rest of the cabal want.

[SimonP]

So, you think Kamala shouldn't be impeached for invoking the 25th, or not invoking the 25th, but for telling Biden that she intended to?

[Krayt]

How would this be different from telling him his position was hopeless, and he might want to consider dropping out instead, as a kindness.

Is the difference a different set of neural paths in her brain? She couldn't do anything unless she has buy in from not just opposition, but the President's supporters, by design. His supporters must agree he's so bad he needs to go.

[Roger S]

No, for threatening to, if he does not do what she wants. It is extortion. Look it up.

[TwelveInchPianist]

If true, it would be a coup. But anonymous source in the NY Post aren't any more credible than they are in the NYT, Wapo, or elsewhere.

[Sarcastr0]

How would it be a coup? Using the 25A would be definitionally lawful, as would telling Biden you plan to do so if he doesn't step down.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Using the 25A would be definitionally lawful..."

Using it for an improper or corrupt purpose is impeachable, and threatening to use it for an improper or corrupt purpose isn't lawful, definitionally or otherwise.

"as would telling Biden you plan to do so if he doesn’t step down."

That's not what the article says they did. It says they threatened to do so if he ran for a second term.

[Sarcastr0]

This is kind of the opposite of what you say with respect to Trump’s actions.

But even ignoring that, how are you figuring an improper or corrupt purpose?
Are you saying Biden after the debate was clearly fit for office and doing awesome?

The 25th is a really high hurdle; if it's a possibility there's something going on beyond palace politics.

[TwelveInchPianist]

“But even ignoring that, how are you figuring an improper or corrupt purpose?
Are you saying Biden after the debate was clearly fit for office and doing awesome?”

It he’s not, she should invoke it. Not threaten to invoke it unless the drops out of the race.

"This is kind of the opposite of what you say with respect to Trump’s actions."

What do I say about Trump that's the opposite of this?

[David Nieporent]

How would it be a coup? Using the 25A would be definitionally lawful, as would telling Biden you plan to do so if he doesn’t step down.

It would not be a coup, since "presumptive nominee" isn't a government position. But I don't agree with your overall analysis. The individual components of extortion are typically lawful, but the combination is not.

Imagine that instead of (hypothetically) saying, "Drop out or we'll invoke the 25th," she said, "Pay me $1,000,000 or we'll invoke the 25th." That would sound an awful lot like extortion. She's using the threat of official action against him for private gain. Which her hypothetical "drop out" demand would also be.

[Martinned2]

I remember there once being a series of posts on that question on VC, I think by prof. Volokh himself. It's a fascinating question how the threat of lawful action can be unlawful.

[Sarcastr0]

1. I see the point - lawful acts can be extortion, and thus illegal even if properly following the constitutional process.

Not established here, but invoking the 25th could be illegal...well, unless immunity for official acts applies.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Not established here, but invoking the 25th could be illegal…well, unless immunity for official acts applies."

Vice-presidential immunity for official acts?

[Sarcastr0]

Why not?
Same rational of needing to act freely applies.

This is what bad decisions get you.

[hobie]

Again with the great concern for Biden from you hayseeds. You fellas are coming around. Welcome back to the human race

[Frank Drackman]

Again with the "Hayseeds", make sure you're stocked up on Poly-Grip when my man Obie Trice shows up, real name, no gimmicks.

[David Nieporent]

Let’s hypothesize this is true.

Let’s not, any more than we should hypothesize that Harris threatened Biden with having him kidnapped by space aliens, which would be equally plausible. Hint: invoking the 25th amendment requires — in addition to a majority of the cabinet — a 2/3 vote by each house of congress if Biden contested it. How exactly was Harris supposed to credibly threaten that outcome?

[grb]

Besides, the effort would suffer from being unfocused and divided. Half the right-types want to blame one Evil Black Person™ : Obama. The other half want to blame another Evil Black Person™ : Harris.

As with our Ed and the Baltimore bridge accident, there must be an Evil Black Person™ at fault; that much they agree on.

[Armchair]

"Let’s not, any more than we should hypothesize that Harris threatened Biden with having him kidnapped by space aliens, which would be equally plausible. "

Well...no The 25th Amendment is well within Harris's powers and capabilities (unlike space aliens), and there have been several public calls for her to use this power.

Reports are it was Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh who made the assertion. He has a history of investigating and revealing government cover ups (for example, the My Lai massacre). So, at least a bit of credulence can be entertained...it's not a random internet junkie like David here.

Reports are that Obama called up Biden and said Harris was on board with the 25th Amendment if Biden didn't drop out. Now, Harris alone may have had trouble convincing a majority of the Cabinet. But if it's Obama and Harris....there are a lot of old Obama people in Biden's cabinet who owe Obama. They can read the writing on the wall, Biden's not going to be around too much longer, but Obama is still a political force to be reckoned with.

So, then it goes to Congress. You have a Obama-Harris on one side, with 50% of the cabinet at least, saying Biden's not fit. And a shaky Biden saying "no I am, really...." I think under that situation, Biden loses at least 70% of the Democratic Caucus.

[Sarcastr0]

“ Now, Harris alone may have had trouble convincing a majority of the Cabinet. But if it’s Obama and Harris”

Oh hey another Armchair hypo that’s actually his fan fiction.

[grb]

Armchair : “Reports are it was Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh who made the assertion”

Yes, Hersh did make the assertion. That much is true enough. But since the halcyon days of Pulitzer Prizes, his record is pretty abysmal. Most recently he claimed the U.S. Navy blew-up Nord Stream. Within days people were shredding all his supporting facts and the evidence now points somewhere completely different. There’s a long string of sensational Hersh allegations stretching back from that story and none (zero) have held-up. These days, having Hersh on your side in the latest tin-foil-hat conspiracy meme is the exact opposite of good.

[bernard11]

"There are reports." Yeah. There reports of UFO's landing in cornfields, from sources as reliable as yours.

[Kazinski]

Obviously justified given Biden's condition.

[OtisAH]

Welcome to Eugen Volokh’s Home for White Supremacists Who Don’t know What ‘Bi-Racial’ Means.” Today’s big news:

Famous shoe-designer Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s campaign is proud to announce the new Limited Edition CFT Bitcoin High-Top Sneakers. These are not the Gold CFT High-Tops (still on sale!) with a new skin on them. These are 100% genuine new shoes and are now available for $79.99 each, or you can buy a pair for $170! Get yours while they last.

Thoughts? Will you buy these to go with your gold set? Or will you perhaps wait for the release of the “She’s not REALLY black” Convicted Felon Trump-branded sneakers? And more broadly, what’s your favorite CFT-branded product?

[Malika]

Trump and Vance are deeply weird candidates for deeply weird people.

[LawTalkingGuy]

The best way to respond to the “weird” criticism is to not respond and just be normal. But so many on the right at the moment are so incapable of doing that and they inevitably prove the criticism correct. Pretty much every Twitter interaction is like this:

*Trump/Vance or a major supporter/other prominent right-wing figure do or say something weird*

Liberal on Twitter “these guys are real weird”

Hundreds of indignant right-wing weirdos: *gets indignant and posts collages of LGBT people or sex acts, crudely drawn cartoons they made, other bizarre and incomprehensible memes, types out lurid descriptions of sex/bodily functions*

[Michael P]

The party of Sam Brinton and video-recorded sex in the Senate wouldn't know "normal" if it walked up and slapped them.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Having some rando on your mind so you can immediately post about him to prove that other people are weird is actually deeply weird behavior! So is still thinking about a staffer scandal where the person involved was properly fired.

[Michael P]

Keep Austin/Portland/DC weird, dude!

[LawTalkingGuy]

Having a humorous self-deprecating attitude about your city’s unique culture is normal and healthy actually!

[Michael P]

Keep your rationalizations weird, dude!

[LawTalkingGuy]

You’re not very good at this.

[Michael P]

... says the guy whose 81-year-old president just gave unsolicited relationship advice to a 12-year-old, and whose presidential candidate went all-in on sounding like Greta Thunberg: "How dare we speak Merry Christmas? How dare we?!"

[Malika]

"Sure, JD Vance and Trump are truly weird, but whatabouta this Democrat congressional staffer? Huh? Huh?"

[Sarcastr0]

Weird response, Michael!

[David Nieporent]

The party of Sam Brinton and video-recorded sex in the Senate wouldn’t know “normal” if it walked up and slapped them.

Um, having sex in an unoccupied conference room at one's workplace may be utterly unprofessional, but it's not exactly abnormal.

[Mr. Bumble]

Do tell, you randy bastard.

[Bob from Ohio]

"not exactly abnormal"

Classic libertarian immorality.

It was also a hearing room, not a conference room.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Guy who supports regimes that use sexual violence against dissidents has thoughts on immorality. Ah but I guess your problem is that the moral values are “libertarian.” It’s morally okay to rape prisoners if it’s done by a conservative authoritarian government, right?

[Sarcastr0]

Constant issues with our law library private rooms.

It may be a kink I don’t share, or it may just be striking while the iron’s hot. But it’s a pretty common one thing.

[Zarniwoop]

I was a pretty well-known thing with the music practice rooms in the student center at my alma matter, too. Pretty much a running joke amongst the folks who had the keys for check-out.

[Frank Drackman]

Says the Trans-sexual supporter of an Administration that has a (Ugly) Man in a Dress in a high Pubic Health Position, and had another one involved with Nuke-ular Power

Frank

[Malika]

Lol, look at all those misplaced capitalizations, Frank's feeling it today!

[MoreCurious]

Drackman's so stupid that he doesn't even realize that everything he rights merely confirms that he is the stupidest person on the VC.

[Mr. Bumble]

"rights"? Certainly not a typo.

[Bob from Ohio]

"stupid that he doesn’t even realize that everything he rights"

Never fails.

[Sarcastr0]

Drackman defenders rolling typo police is pretty rich.

Also don't defend him, he sucks.

[Bob from Ohio]

"he sucks."

He's funny.

[Ilya Snowman]

What a weird thing for someone to say.

Just kidding. It's just the latest petulant tactic by American morons.

When they go low, you invariably go high. Right, Yankee Doodle dipshit?

[Malika]

Oh, look, it's TheEndoftheLeft!

What country you from, bro?

[Jonathansingletary]

I appreciate the attempt, but this is some real C- trolling. Too hysterical and try-hard. Needs work!

[Ilya Snowman]

What a weird assessment: rather than just offer bald assertions, why not try to provide some justifications to buttress your claim?

[Jonathansingletary]

Good troll.

[hobie]

My favorite Trump brand product is the 18k dental grille. It's sporty and also an investment hedge for the coming collapse of society

[Martinned2]

Gold is a terrible hedge. In the last 100 years it's been way too volatile, and if society actually collapses no sane person would buy your gold.

[Mr. Bumble]

Better to "invest" in MREs.

[hobie]

But all the gold commercials on talk radio say different

[Mr. Bumble]

Isn't that the point and the nature of all commercials?

[Krayt]

If gold sellers thought gold was going up, as they screetch in ads, they'd be hanging on to it, not trying to get you to buy it.

This assumes it is gold, and not fraud, except in a convoluted lawyerly sense, like "here are some old gold coins, which have sold recently for $3000 to $4000 dollars each!

Now you, too, can own these gold replicas for only $59.95! Clad in 30 micrograms of gold...

[hobie]

A conservative hayseed and his money are soon parted

[Mr. Bumble]

Yes, but it's his money, so why would you care?

[Jonathansingletary]

Right but what about a gold plated Trump bible?

[Pansenmaria]

You know what would be really funny? If the detestable Shapiro ends up VP, and the White House chef ends up sprinkling bacon bits into his food, and telling him afterwards that his stupid god isn't going to smite him down after all

[Martinned2]

Sure, why not get an early start on the antisemitism?

[Pansenmaria]

I'm actually equally anti all religions.

I think Christianity and Islam are just as stupid.

[Krayt]

If God actually exists, and doesn’t want Jews eating pork, then is it the ethical responsibility of non-chosen to spite that asshole god by feeding his chosen secret bacon bits?

I am an atheist, but I have a whole load of shit to shovel into the face of any actually-existing god, out of pure, justified malice. Worship a creature that lets babies get raped to death? Not on your life.

[SRG2]

I argue that believers hold God to a lower moral standard than other humans.

If you saw a baby being raped, and you did nothing, and when asked why, you responded, "it's all part of a plan" or "I didn't want to interfere with the rapist's exercise of his free will", you would rightly be excoriated.

[Pansenmaria]

Yes, it is the ethical responsibility of non-believers to lead ignorant people to the right side.

[Krayt]

Correct. If no god exists, that is the correct thing to do.

If a god exists, go ahead and bend the knee to that immoral plague. I shan't be joining you.

[Krayt]

Any actually-existing Christian or Muslim god, or various eastern ones, won't fare any better. My final observation is valid in all cases.

[SRG2]

Wrong response. Antisemitism is not hostility to Judaism but hostility to Jews.

[Pansenmaria]

And that has what to do with my comment?

[SRG2]

Because saying that you're against all religions as a response to being, in effect, accused of antisemitism doesn't actually address the accusation.

[Ilya Snowman]

What about if, instead, they sprinkle bits of Shapiro into your food?

[Malika]

All these leftist anti-Semites!

[Ed Grinberg]

premise #1: Pansenmaria makes an antisemitic comment.
premise #2: Pansenmaria is a rightwinger.
From these two premises, Malika concludes ... what?
A. Some rightwingers are antisemites.
B. All rightwingers are antisemites.
C. No leftists are antisemites.
It's the last one, of course. Solid logic, Malika!

[Sarcastr0]

Ed's missed the claim on here that all antisemitism comes from the left these days.

From Mr. VDARE, this is not surprising.

[John F. Carr]

I was going to call the hypothetical a civil rights violation, except section 1983 doesn't apply to federal employees.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

Why isn't this parental right acknowledged and protected in the Bill of Rights?

The fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of your children shall not be infringed.

[Roger S]

The Founders probably thought that no one would question it. No one did, for a long time.

[Pansenmaria]

They also didn't contemplate no fault divorce and a court system that favors women.

[Malika]

"no fault divorce and a court system that favors women."

One of those. Maybe it's you, dude.

[Pansenmaria]

Why do you leftists have no ability to see reality?

[Ed Grinberg]

We've been over this before; see the discussion here (especially my comments, of course).
Hint: no, it isn't just him.

[SimonP]

No, the Founders probably thought they were designing a federal government of limited, enumerated powers, lacking a general police power. They probably figured that matters of the family would be regulated at a state, or perhaps even more at the local level.

Fascists like Jesús, above, only started caring about constitutionalizing "parental rights" when it came to restricting children's fundamental rights, in accordance with parental preference.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

What fundamental rights are you referring to? Can you be more precise?

Do these rights flex by age?

[SimonP]

Children have fundamental rights to free speech, freedom of religion, and should have fundamental rights to their own bodily autonomy.

It is true that these rights are circumscribed in various contexts, where parents and teachers have the responsibility of helping children exercise these rights in mature ways, and the state has some role in protecting children from harm that the state does not have with adults. But the balance will shift as the children mature and come more into their own.

For instance - parents should be free to raise their kids as Catholic. But they should not be free to force their children to go through confirmation, or compel their 17-year-old children to go to mass or take Communion. Parents have a basic responsibility for taking care of their children's health, and should be free to make decisions about their health, to the extent they are not actually harming their kids. But they should not be able to prevent their sexually-active 16 year old daughter from accessing contraception, or their 14 year old from accessing COVID vaccines. Parents should be free to teach their kids not to use curse words and to educate them in their personal politics, but they should not be free to force their 16 year old to go to a Trump rally and hold up signs supporting Trump.

The "children are chattel" perspective on parenting is not consistent with our constitutional tradition, and seems a bit bizarre coming from a bunch of MAGA contrarians. Don't you remember what it was like being a teenager? There are plenty of people who appreciate having had disciplinary parents, but I can't imagine even those people feeling like their parents ought to have been able to compel them to speak, practice their faith, or undertake medical treatments in ways they strongly objected to.

[Zarniwoop]

yo SimonP, don't feed the sealion.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

I dont think you know what thst term means.

[Zarniwoop]

Your lack of ability to think is a "you" problem, not a "me" problem.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

A thoughtful response, thank you. I would like to take my reply in chunks as I think through your argument.

My first thought is that I don't see how a right to bodily autonomy transmorgrifries into some positive right to a particular product.

Secondly, I don't agree with you elevating teachers to be equals in their obligation to help children exercise their rights. Where did this duty come from? It sounds like you are inventing some new duty to provide cover for some secret activities that any schools have been doing.

I'm still thinking about your other cases. While I do that, would you mind explaining how you got 14 for the COVID vaccine?

[SimonP]

My first thought is that I don’t see how a right to bodily autonomy transmorgrifries into some positive right to a particular product.

You don't see how a ban on condoms is, in effect, a restraint on the freedom to use them?

Secondly, I don’t agree with you elevating teachers to be equals in their obligation to help children exercise their rights.

Well, that's not what I said. What I said was that kids' free speech rights in the classroom or on school grounds are appropriately subject to teacher discipline and guidance. (Same goes for kids' free speech rights anywhere, and their parents.) When I say that both parents and teachers have a role in guiding children's freedom of speech, I am talking about their acting in their respective capacities. So, a teacher may discipline a student for what they say in an essay, while they provide appropriate guidance (and not substantive editorial vetos) over school newspaper stories. Parents can teach their kids to be respectful towards others and bar them from political activity they feel their kids aren't old enough to fully appreciate, but they should be doing so in a manner that encourages and respects their children's developing autonomy, so that they become responsible citizens.

It sounds like you are inventing some new duty to provide cover for some secret activities that any schools have been doing.

Back off the ledge, Jesús. Nothing that I'm saying is about spinning a conspiratorial web of darkness to protect conniving counselors so that they can convince their depressed adolescent students that they're actually trans furries.

I’m still thinking about your other cases. While I do that, would you mind explaining how you got 14 for the COVID vaccine?

It's just an arbitrary age, chosen to approximate when we generally start being old enough to make some decisions about our bodies. By that point, most girls have started menstruating. Should they have some agency over their usage of menstrual products?

[David Nieporent]

The “children are chattel” perspective on parenting is not consistent with our constitutional tradition,

Few think children are chattel; we think children are… children. A sui generis category. Your "parents are nothing more than temporary guardians" perspective on parenting is even less consistent with our constitutional tradition. A guardian ad litem may have no justification for taking his charge to a Trump rally, but if a parent thinks that's best, that's the parent's prerogative.

[SimonP]

The view that children are a "sui generis" category who have no rights whatsoever vis-a-vis their "parent's prerogative" is the view I have derisively called "children are chattel," and has been espoused by several MAGA posters here. And now, I suppose, yourself.

I never said nor implied that parents were merely "temporary guardians." I very clearly lay out some of the parameters where parents ought to be free to make judgments about how best to promote their children's welfare.

[David Nieporent]

There may be some bizarre little fundamentalist cults who think that kids have no rights vis-à-vis their parents, but I don't think that's a normal view, and it's certainly not what I said. If parents are endangering their kids, then the parents forfeit their parental rights. We agree on that.

Where we disagree is your 'parameters' (which really just seem more like a collection of your personal preferences). As long as someone remains a dependent minor, I see no reason why parents can't make him go to a Trump rally. When I was 16, my parents dragged me to a political rally — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Sunday_for_Soviet_Jews — that I had no interest in going to (because I was 16). I don't think that I had, or should have had, any right to refuse.

I know you didn't use the words "temporary guardian." That was my summary of how I viewed your view of the relationship: that parents are little more than caretakers, kind of like their teachers while kids are in school, and their job is to do no more than implement a "best interests of the child" standard.

[SimonP]

As long as someone remains a dependent minor, I see no reason why parents can’t make him go to a Trump rally.

“My personal preferences trump yours.”

It is hard to imagine the state interfering in the private decisions of parents, and it isn’t really what I have in mind. Most of what I’m referring to are situations where there is some kind of state involvement, and the parent is trying to compel or prevent some result, citing “parental rights.” So adjust your hypothetical:

A public high school proposes to take the seniors and juniors enrolled in a civics course to two presidential rallies during school hours, on a field trip, both occurring in the same area over a month’s time – one for Trump, the other for Harris. The school permits students to elect not to go to one or both of the rallies, no questions asked, in which case they stay at school in a proctored study hall.

A junior high school student in the class indicates his preference to attend the Harris rally and not the Trump rally. His parents, Trump supporters, sue, in order to compel the school to require their child to attend the Trump rally, and not to permit him to go to the Harris rally.

Do they have the right to compel this result? Should they?

[Kazinski]

When my kids were young there was a book on Abraham Lincoln that I'd read them. One part told about how Lincolns father hired him out to local farmers until he was 21, and then kept all the wages for himself.

I loved that part, I used to reread it to them over and over again.

[Ed Grinberg]

See kids? The government usurping parents' right to direct the care and upbringing of their children isn't fascism! But parents (or the government, for that matter) "restricting children’s fundamental rights" is!
Up is down, black is white...

[Pansenmaria]

These commies think that the state should be the ultimate parent. Unless of course, you want an abortion. Then it's all about individual rights.

[SimonP]

The government usurping parents’ right to direct the care and upbringing of their children isn’t fascism!

No one is proposing the government do that, Ed.

Democrats want kids to be able to read age-appropriate books on the topics they like; to learn American history as it happened and not as how conservatives would prefer to remember it; to learn about their bodies, sex and sexuality in an age-appropriate way not constrained by ideology; to be able to access the healthcare they need, when they need it; and so on.

Republicans fighting the culture wars invoke "parental rights" when they want the ability to decide, not just for themselves and their kids, but for entire districts and states, that some topics and manners of instruction are off limits, or when they want to use the state to define which healthcare decisions parents have veto rights over (and which they have no rights over whatsoever).

MAGA tries to run on "parental rights," but they end up creating this kind of nightmare scenario where the dumbest parents in their kids' class decides what gets taught, and each teacher can import whatever religion they practice into the classroom, where their kids get serious, communicable diseases because other parents are "anti-vaxx" now. How any parent of children could be in favor of that outcome is beyond me. It seems to serve only the dumbest parents' interests.

Which - maybe that's who I'm talking to here, I dunno.

[hobie]

What the...! Jesus, I'm shocked as hell you're championing the parents of gay and trans kids. This blog is full of surprises today

[not guilty]

The right to establish a home and direct the upbringing of children has been recognized as fundamental to the liberty protected by the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for more than a century now. See Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390. 399 (1923); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 518 (1925). See also Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651 (1972); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 232 (1972); Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 753 (1982); Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 66 (2000) (plurality opinion).

[Frank Drackman]

Wonder if Parkinsonian Joe will realize it would really help Cums-a-lot's chances if she was running as POTUS instead of VPOTUS, of course I'm not sure if Parkinsonian Joe knows he's Parkinsonian Joe at this point.
Can't wait for her to nail "45" for opposing the "Bi-Partisan"(you know it's bad when it's "Bi-Partisan" you know what I'd like to see be "Bi-partisan"?? public hangings (in Effigy of course)
the Bi-Partisan Border Agreement that would have limited the number of Rape-ists/Murderers/Drug/Human Trafickers to 10,000/week (I know they said "5,500" you have to know DC Math)

Frank

[Malika]

I love it when someone who can’t do elementary school level capitalizations goes on about the mental incompetence of others!

[Frank Drackman]

It's my own personal style sort of like Steven King or John Donne, Emily Dickinson, Jimmy Joyce, Proust, Faulkner, don't hate me because I'm more talented (and richer, better looking, contribute more to charity, saved more lives) than you

Frank

[MoreCurious]

Is there anything more pathetic than a proven moron like Drackman trying to convince us that he writes as well as a few authors he pulled off Wikipedia and that he is talented, rich, good-looking, and generous? Anything else you'd care to add, Drackman, just in case there are still some readers here who don't realize how stupid you are?

[Frank Drackman]

Yeah, the "Jerk Store" called, and they're all out of you, Oh, and I had sex with your wife!!!

[John F. Carr]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act does not require elimination of prison rape. As implemented by regulations in the 2010s it only required states to work on a plan. Committing to taking steps to implement a plan that ought to result in rape reduction involves discretion and can not give rise to liability under the Tort Claims Act. So a woman alleging she was raped by a guard at a District Court lockup in 2014 could not sue the state.

The guard was acquitted of rape and convicted of asking a coworker to destroy a phone full of porn to conceal evidence from investigators. He was sentenced to a year in jail and let out on bail while he appealed. His conviction was affirmed during the COVID-19 pandemic when prisons were full of sick people. Mass. App. Ct. 2018-P-1466. I don’t know if he ever had to serve time, or if he was sued as an individual.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/doe-v-massachusetts-trial-court-sjc13470/download

[Michael P]

In other amazing news from the Bay State, the Legislature pulled a twofer by both endorsing verbiage even more clunky than "birthing parent" and also literally othering fathers: https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/massachusetts-bill-would-replace-mother-with-person-who-gave-birth-in-state-law

[John F. Carr]

Also in Massachusetts law, community college will be free. Except, you have to fill out the standard financial aid application form. The answer is always "yes" but you have to fill out that form. My understanding is, you need your parents to help fill out the form if you are under 24. So you can not dump your parents or be kicked out of the house and get free community college. If your parents are rich and supportive, you can get free community college.

I knew a woman who took a couple years off from a private school because she couldn't get both parents to sign the aid paperwork and she couldn't afford full tuition.

Students who are not citizens or permanent residents must promise to apply for citizenship or permanent residency if and when they become are eligible.

[Jonathansingletary]

You can fill it out yourself if you can prove that you are *fully* financially independent or emancipated, I believe.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Young people with parents who are assholes can pursue emancipation, at least in some jurisdictions. Modern mainstream America often knows how to handle misfits, malcontents, religious kooks, disaffected losers, bigoted assholes, antisocial culture war casualties, etc..

[John F. Carr]

Also also in Massachusetts law, the legislature has responded to Tyler v. Hennepin ("equity theft") by giving homeowners a bunch of legal rights. A property taken due to a tax lien must be offered for sale through a real estate agent for a year. It is not stated what price it must be offered at and this omission may offer a loophole. If it doesn't sell after a year it can be auctioned. Or the municipality can keep the property and pay appraised value.

Notices must be given in simple English along with a warning in the most commonly spoken other languages stating that the notice needs to be translated. Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Cantonese will be four of the languages.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I found the section of the final report of the Presidential Commission of the Supreme Court on term limits helpful. It covers the argument pro & con, provides details of current practice, and different ways of doing so (by amendment and statute).

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SCOTUS-Report-Final-12.8.21-1.pdf

A reference was also made elsewhere of a statutory proposal endorsed by Senator Whitehouse. The report discusses the approach used. Also, the proposal would only apply at the beginning of the next full presidential term after enactment.

(“This Act, and the amendments made by this Act, shall apply beginning on the date on which the first full term of a President commences pursuant to section 101 15 of title 3, United States Code, after the date of enactment of this Act”)

So, if this bill passed in 2025, it would apply in 2029.

[Bored Lawyer]

There was a recent mini-controversy over release of a parody video featuring a fake voice of Kamala Harris.
I recently became aware of the introduction of a bill in Congress that would grant a person rights in his her voice and make sound-alikes an infringement of that right. There are exceptions for reporting, criticism and parody. The devil, as usual, is in the details.

NO FAKES Act: Unpacking the New Bipartisan Bill on Digital Replicas
https://patentlyo.com/patent/2024/07/unpacking-bipartisan-replicas.html

Not sure if I support this or not, but thought it might spur some interesting discussion.

[Moderation4ever]

I seemed to remember a case many years ago when an actor complained about a voice actor using his voice in a commercial. The voice actor was fired causing a controversy. The actor in question did not have an animosity toward the voice actor but felt that it needed to be made clear whose voice was on the actually commercial. So, the voice thing is not really new.

Anyone remember this because I cant' remember the actor in question?

[Michael P]

I don't remember that particular case, but earlier this year there was a dispute over similar-sounding voice actors for a generative AI: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/scarlett-johansson-shocked-angered-openai-voice-rcna153180

[Brett Bellmore]

Given a population in the US of about 330M, I tend to assume that for every distinctively voiced actor out there, there have to be a few hundred people who sound close enough to them that you can't tell the difference. Are they all to be legally precluded from voice acting?

[Krayt]

I recall a case with a person who looked just like Wilford Brimley being hired to act in commercials. I don't recall if he sounded like him, too.

Brilliant cross casting with Brimley as a subtle, speak softly cleaner/enforcer in The Firm, IIRC.

[hobie]

Would this put impressionists out of business?

[Bored Lawyer]

Presumably that would come under parody.

[Longtobefree]

Well, the whole damn world is parody now, so the exception negates the bill.

[Frank Drackman]

Anyone catch the (announced) death of Mass Murderer William Calley? Died in April, gee wonder why his family didn’t tell anyone, Convicted of 34 counts of First Degree Murder, Tricky Penis commuted his sentence, then Jaw-Jaw Governor Jimmuh Cartuh asked Georgians to drive with their headlights on during the day to show their support.
For a Mass Murderer
And when Jimmuh finally dies (has any POTUS been in Hospice for 20 years?) it’ll be like he was Mother Teresa
Frank

[Krayt]

Bipartisan agreement? They must have thought he was railroaded, or a patsy for more powerful people who got off.

[Sarcastr0]

I'm listening to a History of the Civil War course at Open Yale Courses. It's pretty good, but sort of...peripatetic. Looking for my next Open Yale Course after that, if folks have recommendations.

In the meantime I want to recommend this course. I took it a couple of years ago and found it interesting and helpful in understanding people and politics:
https://online.yale.edu/courses/moral-foundations-politics

[Frank Drackman]

Spoiler Alert, the North "Wins"

[Ridgeway]

If you have not read Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson, do yourself a favor and do so. It is one of the best history books I have ever read -- highly detailed yet extremely readable. It is also very fair and objective, at least to my eyes.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY
RACIAL SLUR SCOREBOARD
(Northern California edition)

This white, male, conservative blog
with a vanishingly thin, misappropriated
academic veneer — dedicated to creating
and preserving safe spaces for America’s
vestigial bigots — has operated for
no more than

TWO (2)

days without publishing at least
one explicit racial slur; it has
published racial slurs on at least

THIRTY-FIVE (35)

occasions (so far) during 2024
(that’s at least>/b> 35 exchanges
that have included a racial slur,
not just 35 racial slurs; many
Volokh Conspiracy discussions
feature multiple racial slurs.)

This blog continues to outrun
its remarkable pace of 2023,
when the Volokh Conspiracy
published racial slurs in at least

FORTY-FOUR (44)

different discussions.

These numbers likely miss
some of the racial slurs this
blog regularly publishes; it
would be unreasonable to expect
anyone to catch all of them.

This assessment does not address
the broader, everyday stream of
antisemitic, gay-bashing, misogynistic,
immigrant-hating, Palestinian-hating,
transphobic, Islamophobic, racist,
and other bigoted content published
at this faux libertarian blog, which
is presented from the disaffected,
receding right-wing fringe of
American legal thought by members
of the Federalist Society
for Law and Public Policy Studies.

Amid this blog's stale, ugly thinking, here is something better -- try to catch the time signature.

This one has an unusual time signature, too. The guy who wrote in -- mid-60s -- is still around. He also worked with Dizzy Gillespie and on Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, and Dirty Harry.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Today's Rolling Stones gems:

The Stones have dabbled in odd time signatures, probably most often 12/8, such as this one.

Keith performed this 12/8er in Ridgedale a couple of weeks ago.

Link limits prevent a pointer toward Dear Doctor (3/4), which is part of the greatest country music album ever recorded.

Enjoy.

[SimonP]

12/8 is not an "odd" time signature. It is a perfectly ordinary compound quadruple meter, practically indiscernible from vanilla 4/4.

Moreover, "Midnight Rambler" isn't in 12/8. You might transcribe it that way, but on hearing it, it is clearly a swung 4/4.

5/4 - i.e., the time signature from the Mission: Impossible theme song you've linked - would qualify as an "odd" time signature.

[Zarniwoop]

Love an interesting time signature! If anyone is still living in the Dark Ages, give Brubeck's Time Out a listen:

Time Out is a studio album by the American jazz group the Dave Brubeck Quartet, released in 1959 on Columbia Records. Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, it is based upon the use of time signatures that were unusual for jazz such as 9/8, 6/4 and 5/4. The album is a subtle blend of cool and West Coast jazz.

[SimonP]

If anyone is still living in the Dark Ages, ...

Actually, the music of that period is more complex and interesting (from a metrical perspective) than anything you've listed. The "Dark Ages" are when they were just starting to figure out some of these things out.

Personally, I listen primarily to classical music. I listen to more popular music from the past half-century, too, but nothing I hear from that period is really as interesting or challenging. (And it happens that, within popular music, I tend to favor art/psychedelic rock.)

[Zarniwoop]

And then there's always the Hon. F. Zappa:

Time signatures in Zappa's works
The Deathless Horsie - 5/4.
Don't Eat The Yellow Snow‎ - 7/4.
Watermelon In Easter Hay - 9/4 (4/4 + 5/4)
9/8 Objects‎ - 9/8.
Outside Now‎ - 11/8 (6/8 + 5/8)
Tink Walks Amok - 11/16.
Oh No - repeated sequence of 4/4 + 3/4.
Five-Five-FIVE - repeated sequence of 5/8 + 5/8 + 5/4
Thirteen (from You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6) - Played as 4/4 & 5/8.
Son Of Suzy Creamcheese‎ - repeated sequence of (4+4+4+4)/4 + (8+9)/8 + (8+9+8+9+8+9)/8 + (8+4+5+6)/8

In particular, "Watermelon in Easter Hay" (from Joe's Garage) is absolutely sublime guitar work.

[Jonathansingletary]

Nothing touches the merry prankster genius of Zappa.

[Commenter_XY]

You Are What You Is would drive Arthur over the edge. You know that, right?

[Ilya Snowman]

Ha! You can’t even count!

If I call you ‘an American’, does that qualify as a slur if I and many poeple in the world intend it as such?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Which figure did I get wrong.

The Volokh Conspiracy publishes racial slurs so frequently I am confident I miss a few. But don't worry -- I am also confident Eugene Volokh doesn't miss a single one.

[Frank Drackman]

Lets see, how about "How many years until you're eligible for Parole?"

[Bob from Ohio]

“I wanted this victory at all costs. Just for my father.”
Italian boxer Angela Carini emotionally discusses winning for her late father after securing a spot at the Paris Olympics.
She just forfeited her match against Imane Khelif, who is male. twitter account

Comments?

[hobie]

It's a weird gray area. I don't know what to think

[Mr. Bumble]

Hardly gray at all.

[Martinned2]

I agree with Bumble. Nothing grey or gray about it.

[Don Nico]

There is nothing gray about a male boxing against women. Let him get in the ring with boxers who are proud to be men.

[Sarcastr0]

How are you defining male?

[Estragon]

I think the current operative MAGA test is 90% vibes and 10% genetic testing.

I will also point out there seems to be a… well, WEIRD obsession with genitalia and the hypothetical amputation thereof. Something to contemplate for the huckleberries

[Estragon]

Carini had a lumpy head

[Martinned2]

Don't be silly

[hobie]

Well, is the Algerian an actual man? With a penis? Or a woman with a genetic disorder? Or what?

[Martinned2]

Haven't you heard? Algeria has gone woke.

[hobie]

Naw. I looked her up just now. She's a woman with exceptionally high testosterone. She's also been beaten plenty of times by other women. The Italian must have gotten dinged good on her nose is all

[Mr. Bumble]

Maybe the Olympics should go back to the original tradition of competing naked.

[Frank Drackman]

High Hurdles could be interesting (and painful)

[David Nieporent]

I dunno; I saw a report that said Khelif was disqualified for an event in 2023 after generic testing showed she had XY chromosomes, not because of high testosterone.

[hobie]

She apparently has both

[Sarcastr0]

No room for intersex when there’s transes to target. As expected.

This is why a well thought out approach to gender and sports is needed, not either the 'everyone who wants to can pick' and also not 'we decide based on vibes and maybe dicks.'

[Bob from Ohio]

"She apparently has both"

Well, yeah, XY chromosomes and testosterone do go together.

[Sarcastr0]

So is gender based on chromosomes to you? Testosterone level? Genitals?

[Frank Drackman]

First of all, it's "Sex" Gender is a Grammatical term, jeez, you'se guys get so bent around the axle about me and capitol letters, and you can't even get this little detail right.
Sex is totally based on Chromosomes, the Y Chromosome is why you (and Dr. Richard Levine) have a dick (Where you stick it is your own problem)
and OK smarty, if you had "Sexual Reassignment Surgery" you're just a guy who had his Dick chopped off, and a fake Gash installed.
Sorry if you can't "Follow the Science"

Frank "99% Unaltered"

[David Nieporent]

Sex certainly is, and sex is what's relevant in athletic contexts.

[Sarcastr0]

I mean, that’s my take – that (to be a bit reductive) testosterone over time is the functional issue, so make that the definition.

But that’s not the immediately evident definition.
It’s a bit hard to find a rock-solid source, but it appears that Khelif has a vagina, not a penis. Or at least the doctors at her birth thought so. Though my source is some rando on bluesky with a screenshot that could be a fake.

Point is, a lot of the shouters who say gender is simple (or sex I guess) should be tripped up by this. But they’re not. Because when the facts are hard, the thinking goes down.

[David Nieporent]

To be clear, I know nothing about this specific person. (Like every other commenter) I had never heard of this person before yesterday, and I've heard contradictory things since. So I am not opining on whether s/he is a man or woman, biologically or psychologically. The only thing I am saying is that for sports, biology — not gender identity — is what should control.

[Sarcastr0]

Biology includes a wides swath of potential metrics.

[Frank Drackman]

He's an actual man, with an actual penis, unlike you, a pathetic excuse of a man, with a pathetic excuse for a penis.

[Estragon]

Moved

[Don Nico]

He has XY chromosones.
Whethere his dick has been amputated was not reported.

[Sarcastr0]

You do realize there are edge cases where XY has a vagina, right?

Until you know what's going on, you shouldn't make shitty accusations from ignorance.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/androgen-insensitivity-syndrome/
https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/swyer-syndrome/

[OtisAH]

In relating a story about the widow of Corey Comperatore accepting/refusing a $1 million allegedly crowd-funded donation, Convicted Felon Trump said:

“But you know what? Corey’s wife said, ‘I’d rather have my husband.’”

He then added this ad lib:

“Isn’t that good? I know a lot of wives that would not say that. I’m sorry. They would not say that.”

Today’s quiz: Is the number of wives he knows who would never say “I’d rather have my husband” greater than, or equal to, three?

[grb]

This isn’t the first time Trump sang this sad befuddled tune. After Congressman Scalise was shot, Trump visited him at the hospital. Later, he recounted this:

Trump recalled during a Republican fundraiser Wednesday having met Jennifer Scalise at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where the Louisiana Republican was recovering from surgery in June 2017. Scalise’s wife “cried her eyes out when I met her at the hospital that fateful day … I mean not many wives would react that way to tragedy, I know mine wouldn’t,” Trump said, according to Politico.

Of course, while looking up that quote, I saw an article entitled “How many times has Trump cheated on his wives?” Even allowing that’s only the tip of the iceberg of the crude transactional way he treated the women he married (vs the crude transactional way he treats everyone), who wants to bet he never thinks to link his cheating with said “lack of tears”. It’s a safe bet that never occured to him.

He’s so empty and hollow inside – a truely crippled and broken mind. His monster father raised someone who can only pretend to be a human being.

[Zarniwoop]

One reason I think "weird" isn't quiet on the mark for DJT; "creepy" comes closer to the bulls-eye.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I believe this may have been an example of what's sometimes referred to as a "joke".

[LawTalkingGuy]

Of course it’s a “joke.” But it’s one that demonstrates that he’s someone who simply doesn’t understand love, loss, grief, and what the appropriate and compassionate responses to those emotions are. It shows he’s a profoundly broken human being.

[Frank Drackman]

Watching the Olympics Women’s Boxing, Andy Kaufman died 40 years too young, and why didn't someone tell me Borat was participating? I might watch just for the yucks

Frank

[grb]

Frank Drackman : "I might watch just for the yucks"

From a safe distance, of course. If you were actually in a ring with one of those athletes, she'd knock your head off.

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

I think you're right. Did you see where that male woman destroyed that female woman?

[grb]

Comments like this from the Nazi Child almoat fooled me into thinking this was some kink of trans thing. But no, the athelete in question - Imane Khelif - was born female, registered as a girl at birth, legally a woman, and has always identified as a woman.

Apparently the same crowd who insist we are what we we were at bith claim the exact opposite here. And they do so with the same ranting fury as they did saying the exact opposite.

If only they weren't such weirdo freaks. A normal person couldn't help but spot the contradiction.

[Frank Drackman]

"registered as a girl at birth"?
Imane Khelif has a Y Chromosome, the definition of Maleness.
Sorry your Pubic Screw-el didn't teach that (Mine did, Auburn too, part of grad-jew-ma-cating with a BS(appropriate) in Poultry Science was telling your little future Roosters from your little future Hens. (Yes, I've done the "Rooster/Pullet/Hen" joke a million times.
And save your hysterics, you're the one cheering for the man beating up women

Frank

[grb]

What happened to your "plumbing at birth" equals sexual identity? What happened to your "one thing or the other" when born? By either standard, Ms Khelif is now & always was a woman.

Now if you want to backtrack and agree it's more complicated than that, I welcome your growth in maturity & knowledge. It would be a very positive sign. After all, being your usual shit-for-brains toxic-troll self must get boring after a while.

Just tell me you now understand it's more involved than looking between an infant's chubby little legs and checking a box.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"What happened to your “plumbing at birth” equals sexual identity?"

It's a strawman you're pushing. But the claim that self-identification equals sexual identity is an actual position that your side claims is the only non-bigoted position.

[grb]

TwelveInchPianist : "It’s a strawman you’re pushing"

No it's not. It's what I heard over & over & over & over. I'm just the messenger repeating the stale tinny tune your side has driven into the ground.

Now here's what I know: Some people feel like the opposite sex from what a quick check in their underwear would suggest. It's been that way all of history. It's that way in nature itself, where animals sometimes with sexual traits opposite what their birth state suggests. My own theory is this : Sex is both those delicious physical differences we all cherish and love - and other traits hardwired into the brain. In the overwhelming majority of people those two things are in synch. In a few, they're not. How else to explain people driven to feel their own bodies alien from the earlist possible age?

But whether my theory is correct or not, here's the mystery: Why has the Right launched a brutal jihad against this tiny little group of people? Of course we all know the answer. Political hucksters have targeted "Others" throughout history to feed the bloodlust of easily manipulated mobs. Which one are you, TIP: Huckster or dupe?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"No it’s not. It’s what I heard over & over & over & over. I’m just the messenger repeating the stale tinny tune your side has driven into the ground."

Can you point to an example?

[Ilya Snowman]

This is an Islamophobic comment. Apologize.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"But no, the athlete in question – Imane Khelif – was born female, registered as a girl at birth, legally a woman, and has always identified as a woman."

What does any of that have to do with his ability to box?

"Apparently the same crowd who insist we are what we were at birth claim the exact opposite here."

Huh? No one is saying that. A bunch of idiots are saying that the only thing that matters is how someone self-identifies, but that's your side.

[Estragon]

Anyone ask Kellie Harrington what she thinks about all this?

[Sarcastr0]

You're being flamingly inconsistent, Kaz. 'assigned X at birth' is something y'all RAGE about.

And here you are saying it's really about hormone levels. Or maybe Chromozones.

Point is it's super easy to define what a woman is, until you need to define what a woman is.

And then you try to yell about some strawmen say to get out of it. It's not very effective.

[Kazinski]

Kaz?

But while we are on the subject, this is what the International Boxing Association had to say:

"On 24 March 2023, IBA disqualified athletes Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships New Delhi 2023. This disqualification was a result of their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA Regulations. This decision, made after a meticulous review, was extremely important and necessary to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition.

Point to note, the athletes did not undergo a testosterone examination but were subject to a separate and recognized test, whereby the specifics remain confidential. This test conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors."

[TwelveInchPianist]

“You’re being flamingly inconsistent, Kaz. ‘assigned X at birth’ is something y’all RAGE about.”

You misspelled “consistent”. Y’all are the ones raging about sex assigned at birth. My position is that it’s not a thing with any significance.

As I’ve said repeatedly, what sex someone is “assigned” at birth only matters to the extent that it corresponds to one’s actual sex.

And neither what was recorded at birth, nor how someone self-identifies, has anything to do with boxing.

[Frank Drackman]

Yeah, because "She"'s a grown man so there's that.
and I'm a lover, not a fighter, Mrs. Drackman's 110lbs and a 15th degree Black Belt (Feragamo of course, she is a "JAP") and would totally kick my ass with her Krav Maga, both Daughters would 2, but they're more Amazonian

Frank

[Estragon]

“Don’t be surprised if Trump drops out of the race.”

-Anthony Scaramucci, 7/31/24

[not guilty]

Donald Trump will not drop out of the race. Winning election to another term as President could be the only way he can avoid dying in prison.

[Estragon]

“dying in prison”

Honestly, he might prefer that to being publicly humiliated by VP Harris. Say he’s down 6-8 points at the beginning of October…

[hobie]

It would be kinda fun if Harris co-opted 'Lock Him Up' for the remainder of the race. Might win her a lot of republican votes because they like that kind of talk.

But, yes, a loss to Harris would be a nightmare for Trump. A nasty woman and a negro to boot. He'd be seething while in Leavenworth

[Moderation4ever]

Trump is an old man and his crimes are white collar, he is not going to prison. He is not going to drop out either and when he loses, he will claim fraud. He will ask for millions to fight the fraud and pocket most of the money jus like he did in 2020. He wins either way.

[David Nieporent]

The New York conviction may be for white collar crimes; the other prosecutions are not. 'White collar' connotes more than just the crime being non-violent. (Nobody would describe Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as having been convicted of a white collar crime.)

[not guilty]

The RICO charge in Georgia carries a minimum sentence of five years confinement. The D.C. charges under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2) and 1512(k) carry severe penalties as well. And the federal charges in Florida are also harsh, and the matter in all likelihood will be assigned to a different district judge on remand.

Imposition of consecutive sentences may well be imposed. With Trump now being in his late seventies, the prospect of dying in prison is something that should scare him.

[Kazinski]

How that trial going?

[Commenter_XY]

Assassination seems far more likely than prison, NG.

[John F. Carr]

I agree with your assessment of his incentives, he will be practically untouchable until 2029 if he wins and faces legal risk otherwise.

That said, if he loses I think he has a decent chance of avoiding a prison sentence or completing his sentence. The Georgia prosecution is a mess. The D.C. prosecution was always a stretch and the Supreme Court has put two big dents into it in the past term. In Florida he could survive a guidelines sentence for obstruction. The classified documents charges have a sympathetic judge and unusual facts.

In the other direction, he might well die before his appeals are resolved. I expect him to be out on bail during any federal appeals. He isn't a danger to the community and the factual situation is novel.

[not guilty]

“The D.C. prosecution was always a stretch and the Supreme Court has put two big dents into it in the past term.”

Uh, no. The D.C. prosecution is not a stretch at all. Under controlling D.C. Circuit precedent, when a sitting President acts in his capacity as a candidate for re-election, he acts in his private, unofficial role as office-seeker, not in an official capacity as an office-holder. “The presidency itself has no institutional interest in who will occupy the office next. Campaigning to attain that office thus is not an official function of the office.” Blassingame v. Trump, 87 F.4th 1, 17 (D.C. Cir. 2023) (italics in original). The great bulk of the actions and omissions alleged in the indictment are the unofficial conduct of a (failed) candidate for re-election.

Fischer v. United States, 603 U.S. ___ (June 28, 2024), narrowed the scope of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), but not in a manner that will benefit Donald Trump. Chief Justice Roberts there wrote for the Court:

When the phrase “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding” is read as having been given more precise content by that narrower list of conduct subsection (c)(2) makes it a crime to impair the availability or integrity of records, documents, or objects used in an official proceeding in ways other than those specified in (c)(1). For example, it is possible to violate (c)(2) by creating false evidence—rather than altering incriminating evidence.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-5572_l6hn.pdf (pp. 8-9) (emphasis added). Trump’s role (along with John Eastman and others) in creating and transmitting bogus electoral slates from six states is the quintessence of creating false evidence in order to obstruct/interfere with an official proceeding.

“In Florida he could survive a guidelines sentence for obstruction. The classified documents charges have a sympathetic judge and unusual facts.”

Trump will likely not rest safe in the bosom of Judge Aileen Cannon on remand after the indictment is reinstated. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has twice reversed Cannon at the investigative stage of this case. In numerous other cases where that court has reversed the same district judge multiple times, the court has directed that a different judge be assigned upon remand. United States v. Plate, 839 F.3d 950, 958 (11th Cir. 2016); United States v. Gupta, 572 F.3d 878, 892 (11th Cir. 2009); United States v. Martin, 455 F.3d 1227, 1242 (11th Cir. 2006); United States v. Remillong 55 F.3d 572, 577 (11th Cir. 1995) United States v. Torkington 874 F.2d 1441, 1446–47 (11th Cir. 1989) (per curiam); United States v. White, 846 F.2d 678 (11th Cir.) cert. denied, 488 U.S. 984 (1988).

“In the other direction, he might well die before his appeals are resolved. I expect him to be out on bail during any federal appeals. He isn’t a danger to the community and the factual situation is novel.”

Bail pending appeal is the exception in federal courts. Per 18 U.S.C. § 3143(b)(1), after sentencing the District Court shall order that the defendant be detained, unless the Court finds—

(A) by clear and convincing evidence that the person is not likely to flee or pose a danger to the safety of any other person or the community if released under section 3142(b) or (c) of this title; and

(B) that the appeal is not for the purpose of delay and raises a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in—

(i) reversal,
(ii) an order for a new trial,
(iii) a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment, or
(iv) a reduced sentence to a term of imprisonment less than the total of the time already served plus the expected duration of the appeal process.

Trump’s goose is not cooked yet, but it likely will be if he loses the election in November.

[Zarniwoop]

I'll be surprised!

(opens up PredictIt to see if there's a market for "DJT voluntarily drops out of 2024 race")

... nope (at least not that I could easily spot)

[OtisAH]

“Couchy Vance will stand before the world’s media and weepily apologize to Convicted Felon Donald Trump for causing so much fuss, then step down” is the far safer bet.

[Bored Lawyer]

Chances are minimum. But it would sow chaos at first. Question would be how fast the GOP could get its act together and who they would nominate instead.

A DeSantis-Haley ticket would clean the Dem's clock. Too bad that is not going to happen.

[hobie]

A new ticket of people not chosen in the primaries. But the dems just did that and republicans [checking notes] didn't like it

[SimonP]

Not to mention the legal issues. Every legal argument the Republicans have floated, against Kamala, will be twice as hard for a last-minute switch out of Trump/Vance for another pair. The ballot deadlines start this month, too.

[David Nieporent]

A DeSantis-Haley ticket would clean the Dem’s clock.

On a clean slate, maybe: if Trump had never run, and the GOP had nominated those two. Not now, though, even if that nomination did somehow happen.

[OtisAH]

Even with a clean slate DeSantis does not suddenly become a likeable person with human-like emotions or the like.

[Moderation4ever]

Trump not leaving. You will see him suck all the money he can out of the election and after claiming fraud. Trump has monetized politics like never before.

[Frank Drackman]

Why do people listen to that putz? Donny Bonaduce has more credible political chops.

[gVOR08]

Someone had the perfect reply:

"Maybe…is he included in the Russian prisoner swap?”

[JesusHadBlondeHairBlueEyes]

Who saw that tranny stomp that chick a new mudhole in boxing?

lol that athlete needs to learn how to compete and not cry when she gets pummeled ruthlessly by another real authentic woman in a totally fair contest.

[TwelveInchPianist]

Yup. Who'd have thought that the women's right movement would end up with men getting medals for beating the shit out of women?

[Estragon]

“men getting medals”

The whole comment is risible, but what medal was awarded? This was the round of 16, you putz.

What do you think Kellie Harrington has to say about this?

[TwelveInchPianist]

So he has to beat the shit out of more women to get a medal?

[Sarcastr0]

You could just say oops.

[SRG2]

Andrew Bailey, the MO AG and loathsome POS who in any decent society would have been assaulted with a baseball bat, finally had to let an innocent man be released.

I understand why law-and-order types want to see criminals locked up for a very long time, but I don't understand why along with that mindset is the failure to recognise mistakes, or, worse - and likely in the case of Bailey - the willingness to keep innocent people in prison.

https://www.kcur.org/news/2024-07-31/christopher-dunn-free-missouri-attorney-general-wrongful-conviction-prison

This is not the only instance.

[Noscitur a sociis]

I mean, don't you think the most plausible explanation is that he doesn't agree that the Bailey is innocent or that he was wrongfully convicted?

[David Nieporent]

None of us think Bailey is innocent, but that's because Bailey is the GOP politician in this scenario.

[Noscitur a sociis]

Touché, David Nieporent. Distinctly touché.

[SRG2]

The most plausible explanation, IMO is that he doesn't give a shit about it, only about whether his attitude garners him votes.

See also, Clinton/Rector on the other side (I suppose one might argue that it's different because Rector was guilty. But I won't.)

[hobie]

Because in modern conservatism, as Charlie Sykes would say, it's all about the cruelty

[Brett Bellmore]

Modern liberalism is all about imagining the worst possible motives for anybody who dares to disagree with you, so that you can feel better about not being them, and feel less guilty about what you do to beat them.

[LawTalkingGuy]

This is potentially the least self-aware thing you have ever posted. And that’s saying something.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Remarkable, isn't it?

[hobie]

My memory is shit. Can someone commit this to memory? Brett would want to be reminded often that he said that

[grb]

Brett Bellmore : "Modern liberalism is all about imagining the worst possible motives for anybody who dares to disagree with you...."

Brett Bellmore said this!

Know the word "projection"? Open up a dictionary and this comment is the picture next to that term.

[SRG2]

More on Bailey:

https://theintercept.com/2024/08/01/missouri-andrew-bailey-marcellus-williams-innocence/

[OtisAH]

Is there trouble in the Putin household? We’ve been told that Convicted Felon Putin-Trump was the only person who could secure the release of Evan Gershkovich. Yet although Mr. Putin had no desperate need to agree to Mr. Gershkovich’s release prior to CFP-T’s next coronation, he did so anyway. This seems to be a great betrayal of his special friendship with CFP-T.

What say you? Did Convicted Felon Putin-Trump agree to let Mr. Putin strike the deal with President Joe Biden, or did Mr. Putin do this without even asking permission?

[Zarniwoop]

I assume that DJT will claim credit anyways, while simultaneously asserting that he would have gotten an even better deal than team Biden's months and months of negotiations.

[hobie]

A good theory may be that Putin was gonna hold out until Donnie boy got back in office so he could get Ukraine handed to him for the swap. But now that it is Harris, Donnie boy don't look too promising so Putin's gonna get while the gettin's good

[Moderation4ever]

Interesting theory. Proof could be Putin moving to settle the Ukraine War. Better yet, how far ahead in polls would Kamala Harris have to get for Putin to move on a Ukraine settlement.

[Brett Bellmore]

About minus twenty is my guess.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Better yet, how far ahead in polls would Kamala Harris have to get for Putin to move on a Ukraine settlement."

A zillion points!

Putin ain't afraid of Harris.

[grb]

He’s damn sure more afraid of her than Trump. Remember DJT’s Afghan treaty? Compared to Trump, Nevillve Chamberlain was a piker in giving away everything for nothing to achieve a meaningless piece of paper. Remember: Trump had agreed to cut U.S. forces in half the first one hundred-thirty days, abandon five U.S. bases in the same time period, renounce all U.S. sanctions against the Taliban and push the UN to as well, free Taliban prisoners at a 5-to-1 ratio, ban U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban beyond 500 meters, ban U.S. airstrikes against the Taliban unless they’re engaged in military action, and eliminate all U.S. & allied forces inside Afghanistan within fourteen months.

The mullahs thought they died and went to heaven. They gave zilche in return except a milquetoast pledge to fight terrorism and touchy-feely commitment to be nicer someday. That’s how much that meaningless piece of paper meant to Trump.

And nobody believes the Taliban is anywhere near Trump’s hearthrob like Putin. Anytime he’s around the Russian thug, he’s as pie-eyed as a tweeny girl meeting her boy-band idol.

[Don Nico]

Just be glad that the US and Russia are talking at a high level.

[SRG2]

Meanwhile, why ignore the Olympics? And how the US presents the medal table...(spoilers - wrongly)

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/american-media-criticised-for-us-bias-after-using-wrong-olympic-medal-table-to-top-china-s-golds/ar-BB1r1xDY

[Krayt]

The US media did this the previous Olympics. Use total medals to rank, instead of most golds.

You could create a weighting for each and total the weightings, but gold would be 5, silver 3, bronze 1, something like that, as long as bronze + silver was less than gold.

I understand the media earns money based on views, and rah rah USA helps that, so criticize away!

[SRG2]

I think it was Merlene Ottey who said that a gold was equivalent to about a thousand silvers…

5-3-1 isn't too bad.

[hobie]

I don't think Chinese golds in diving should count. Have you seen them divers? They are so slight and paper-thin that they slip into the water without a ripple

[Ska]

Anyone remember Summer Games by Epyx (I personally was playing the good old C64 version, though there's probably an Atari/Coleco/Intellivision version or versions)? They had a weighted score of 5,3,1 if I recall correctly. Makes sense to me.

[David Nieporent]

Absolutely; used to play it on the Apple II. For whatever reason, I always played Australia.

[Jonathansingletary]

“Historically, the vice president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact.” -ancient presidential candidate and convicted felon Donald Trump

“I hate the police.” - JD Vance, author, Dreams of My Memaw

[Krayt]

'member when young Clinton wrote, "I loathe the military" in a letter as a teen? Good times, conservatives. Good times!

[David Nieporent]

Not an actual quote, though one can argue that he phrased it the way he did for deniability. (Something along the lines of, "I understand why so many people have come to loathe the military.")

[hobie]

LOL!!!

[hobie]

Cops and dead soldiers are suckers and losers

[loki13]

Wow. Seems like the majority of this thread is some kind of bizarre argument about Harris and race. Not a great look, albeit better than Dr. Ed "She's a hoo-ah!" comments, I guess.

Moving on ...

1. Mango season is over. So sad.

2. Bit the bullet and got a month of Peacock for the Olympics. I mean ... that is some awesome coverage! I was holding out, and then Mrs. Loki13 said, "Really? It's $7.99. You spend more on a cup of coffee." If you're into the Olympics, highly recommend.

3. Finally, I will reiterate something I often say. If you find that your blood is getting all angered because of politics, remember that you can't change those things. Take a break. Do some good in your local community and see what it can do! You'll feel better.

I truly hope that we get back to politics being boring, not some kind of 24/7 spectacle of owning the other side.

[Krayt]

I spent 3x that on an omlet lunch today 🙁

[Jonathansingletary]

But was it delicious?

[Noscitur a sociis]

What kind of coffee are you buying?

[loki13]

... the intravenous kind?

🙂

[Magister]

So the price is that high because of the malpractice insurance?

[Jonathansingletary]

I really would love to see a Boring Governance movement that is built on extremely practice issues of governance and politicians that you never hear from except when they’re actually doing their jobs.

[loki13]

Oh, they would get ALL MY VOTES!

[SRG2]

Sir Keir Starmer basically ran on being boring. It seems, "we're not a shit show" is an effective campaign slogan.

[David Nieporent]

Michael Dukakis tried, "This election is not about ideology; it's about competence." It didn't go so well.

[loki13]

Hey. At least he got to ride in a tank.

[Ridgeway]

Also, say what you will about Bush Sr., but few people would tar him as "lacking competence."

[Frank Drackman]

Do-Cock-us was shorter, the shorter candidate almost always loses (FDR skews the Stats) also displaying less emotion than even Mr. Spock (except during Pon Farr) when Bernie Shaw asked if he’d want his Wife’s hypothetical Murderer/Rape-ist executed, But wait! let’s go to the Videotape
`”Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”
“Irrevocable”? besides Hey-Zeus (supposedly) has any one “revoked” their death penalty?
Do-Cock-Us’s Answer?
“No, I don’t, Bernard,” he said, “And I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life.”
To be fair, LBJ, Gerald Ford, GHWB, Clinton, Barry Hussein, and Parkinsonian Joe probably felt the same way, just wouldn’t have had the balls to say it

Frank

[Sarcastr0]

Starmer is doing a hard line with his whipping - dissidents to his agenda are losing the whip, i.e. can't run on the Labor ticked when next there's an election unless they get back out of the doghouse.

Used to be that was for sex pestery. Boris Johnson made it about supporting Brexit.

Now I guess Starmer is also on the Johnson power consolidation train.

[hobie]

Yeah, Congress is now just a place for grifters and loudmouths seeking the lulz, brand clicks and cash. Should probably create a second Congress just for them so they could be their shameless fame whore selves while the grownups legislate. Kinda like a daycare Congress. That would lessen the temperature

[Sarcastr0]

I interned in Congress. Some seemed to like the job, but my member and her friends all seemed to loath it. All independently wealthy, seemingly there to be in the history books.

She had good politics, but man was she miserable. Kept running for reelection like she had a compulsion.

Freshmen have 30 hours a week fundraising, unless they choose to buy their way out (see: AOC). That's on top of all their committee work and floor time and meeting with fundraisers and going back to their district as much as possible.

By the end I sure didn't want to be appointed to the House, much less go through an election to get there!

My rep delegated a lot of the work to her chief of staff - she was smart enough to know who was the workhorse and who was the showhorse, and to act accordingly.

[Don Nico]

I worked for a US Senator for 6 years. That was fun.
I would have been happy to be appointed (no chance whatsoever of that), but going through the slog even to be able to run was not my cup of tea.

[John F. Carr]

Coverage of the recent French election speculated about a "gouvernement technique" in the aftermath. The expression was not familiar to me. I gather it means a technocratic government.

[Jonathansingletary]

Also, Peacock has some pretty good other stuff, and at least a couple years ago they aired Premier League games, if you like soccer.

[SRG2]

They still do premiership footy - and very well too.

I notice more and more commercials are creeping into their coverage.

[Commenter_XY]

Do they have a month only deal? = Peacock

I recall doing a short term deal with ESPN+ during the world cup. Might have to do that again.

[loki13]

Yep. You can subscribe, and while they will auto-renew you if you aren't paying attention, you can cancel any time.

[David Nieporent]

Do they have a month only deal? = Peacock

Yes. You don't need to do a year-long contract. They of course hope that you'll forget to cancel be so enamored of their programming that you will keep paying them monthly.

[Mr. Bumble]

Ah for the good old days when broadcast stations would vie to cover the games.

[ducksalad]

The question is whether it’s really a single payment of $7.99 for one-month and done deal, or a sign up with a mostly theoretical right to cancel after one month if you are willing to call a cancellation line during work hours and be put on hold for a time period that exceeds $7.99 by an order of magnitude if you value your time at the same price you sell it to your employer.

[Don Nico]

Don't be cheap. Pay $13.99 and get the service with no commercials. It is far more enjoyable.

[SRG2]

Mango season is over. So sad.

There's an Asian supermarket not too far from me that has about three or four different kinds of mango always available. I like the relatively flattened yellow oval mangos with the texture of butter when ripe.

[Mr. Bumble]

"I truly hope that we get back to politics being boring, not some kind of 24/7 spectacle of owning the other side."
Don't think we'll ever go back to that (if it ever was).
This coming election will no sooner be over (and no matter who wins) than the media will be hyping the mid-terms and the 2028 election.

[Brett Bellmore]

The only way we're ever going to get to politics being boring again is if,

1) The power of government at all levels diminishes to the point where your political foes being in power isn't viewed as an existential threat.

and,

2) Political parties get over the idea that they're entitled to do big things with small majorities on essentially party line votes.

It's all friendly when you're playing penny ante poker with nothing at stake but some chits that get tossed back in the box at the end of the game. But if halfway through the game the stakes suddenly become whether you lose your home and livelihood?

Expect blood.

[hobie]

Back in the Tip O’Neill/Reagan days there was at least comity. Sometimes the dems got what they wanted, sometimes the repubs did. And everyone got their pork. It was never a big deal that one side or the other got a win. Then came Newt

[Frank Drackman]

Hobie, your congenital Lues is showing, first of all, were you even sentient during Ronaldus Maximus's terms? (probably not, as you're barely sentient now) Jimmuh Cartuh, who reinstated Draft Registration, ordered a disastrous Hostage rescue mission that ended with Iranian Revolutionary Guards dragging the burned bodies of American Servicemen through the streets, boycotted the Olympics, gave refuge to one of the biggest Mass Murderers of all time, the Shah of Ear-ron(he was our "Friend"? hate to see our enemies)
that Jimmuh said Ronaldus would start WW3 and put Blacks back on the Plantation (Jimmuh actually had a plantation that Blacks worked on)
I wasn't cogent during JFK or LBJ's terms, which is why I don't pretend to be an expert on what happened then

Frank

[Commenter_XY]

#1 is good enough.

[hobie]

Yeah. Between Obama's ascendance making all the rednecks lose their minds, and Trumps ascendance making everyone else lose their minds, then throw in COVID to bring into view the lunacy that was always underneath, and - Presto! - permanent political warfare. Everything's on the table now. Everyone's ugly true nature has been exposed. No going back

Turning and turning in the widening gyre...every day up in this bitch

[OtisAH]

You know what would be fun? Let’s all voice our opinions on what race JD Vance’s children are. I say they’re mixed-race, Caucasian and South Asian (his wife is of Indian descent, which MAGA has already weighed in on in exactly the manner you expect). JD Vance apparently thinks they can be white or Indian, but to my knowledge has not offered his opinion in this context.

What say you?

[Mr. Bumble]

Go fuck yourself.

[Estragon]

Better one’s own self than a glove shoved in some couch cushions though, amirite?

[Mr. Bumble]

You should know.

[Estragon]

Should I? You speak from experience? Did you mean “would”?

I’m sorry, but there’s a several point deduction here for not going with “You oughta know”

Did you forget about me
Mr. Duplicity? I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Turns out the reason people find so much change among couch cushions is that JD Vance is a good tipper!

[Frank Drackman]

If you hadn't stuck your tip in so many times you'd be a free man, Jerry

[Sarcastr0]

Ah the right-wing tradition of dishing it out but being unable to take it.

[LawTalkingGuy]

I’d go so far to say it’s a key feature of most ideologies that can be grouped under the right-wing umbrella. I’d say maybe the Neo-Cons (or what’s left of them) don’t have this tendency as much anymore.

[Kazinski]

I say they are whatever they want to be. Having 3 mixed race children of my own, all three have differing degrees of affinity, and all are at least somewhat bilingual. And the more time they spend in Japan the more American they feel.

In fact my Mother has 9 grandchildren, and 6 great grandchildren and all of of mixed race from Japanese, Filipino, Native Hawaiian, and Black, and we are all one big happy family.

[loki13]

Half couch, right?

[hobie]

I'll speak for the klansmen here and say they will be Indian.Obama is exactly half white and half black but we call him black. A redneck explained it to me once that we cannot be calling anyone white that ain't pure white. So Vance's brats will be defaulted to Indian

[Frank Drackman]

I never thought anyone could be as vile as the Revolting "Reverend" Sandusky, but congrats Hobie, at least you're not pretending to be a Veteran anymore, speaking of Veterans, there's more character and virtue in any one of JD's pubic hairs than in your whole corpulent disgusting excuse for a body (admit it, you're the spittin image of the Simpsons "Comic Book Guy", and you know who I be talkin' bout Willis)
I'd call you a Wigger, but that'd be insulting to the real Wiggers who don't have a choice but to conform to their N-word Overlords, you brag that you live among them by choice,

Frank

[Kazinski]

Ford is looking to add a new feature to its cars, lets call it Stasi mode:

"Ford is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.

A patent application from the automaker titled “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations” was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023.

In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other’s speeds. If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle. A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a police car or roadside monitoring units via an Internet connection, according to Ford."

https://www.wtnh.com/automotive/future-fords-might-detect-speeding-and-report-you-to-the-cops/

[hobie]

Putting America first

1. Trump gets back from the hospital with COVID. Wheezes up the stairs. Strikes pose. Salute's Marine One. Click.

2. Trump, unopened bible in hand, drags law enforcement and senior administration officials thru Lafayette Square protest crowd. Tear gas. Head thumping. Raises bible in front of St. Johns Church. Click.

3. “Let’s move, let’s move.”“Let me get my shoes."“I got you sir, I got you sir.”“Let me get my shoes on.”“Sir we’ve got to move to the car sir.”“Let me get my shoes.”“hold on, your head is bloody.”Immediately stands up putting everyone's head in the line of fire. Power fist. Click

[Kazinski]

God love him, can't wait for 4 more years.

Biden took a shot at Trump today too, announcing the prisoner exchange deal for Evan Gershkovich who has been held by the Russians since March 2023:

"REPORTER TO BIDEN: "President Trump has said repeatedly that he could've gotten the hostages out without giving anything in exchange. What do you say to that?"

BIDEN: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?"

[hobie]

True dat. A lot of them prisoners were there when Trump was prez.

[Michael P]

Exactly one out of the four who were traded today, for those of us better than hobie at comprehending what "a lot" means.

[NOVA Lawyer]

Still missing, any response to the fact that Whelan was detained during the Trump administration and, taking Trump at his word that he could have gotten him out for nothing, why Trump left Whelan to rot in a Russian prison.

[David Nieporent]

Note that when Biden got Brittney Griner released, MAGA had a thinly-racial tantrum that he hadn't also secured the release of Whelan. As soon as he gets Whelan out, it's "Why'd he pay so much?"

[NOVA Lawyer]

They don't even try to be consistent or objective. It's all tantrum, all the time.

[hobie]

Four more years of using law enforcement as shields for photo ops?

[Jason Cavanaugh]

Just Evan Gershkovich, or might there have been more people involved that you deliberately omitted because you're a lying sack of shit?

[Magister]

Trump made prisoner exchanges when he was president where he gave up prisoners, contradicting his claim now that he never did that and his claim that he could get hostages released without giving the opposing country anything. So, why did he give up prisoners then? Why didn't he get other prisoners released for nothing?

[NOVA Lawyer]

Trump apologists unable to admit that he is completely, utterly, full of shit. About everything. And that that's a really bad thing in the leader of a country.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"So, why did he give up prisoners then?"

For the same reason Biden did. He gets political credit for getting the hostages out, and he doesn't pay any political cost for releasing criminals or for hostages getting taken in the first place.

Hostage-taking benefits Trump, Biden and Putin.

"Why didn’t he get other prisoners released for nothing?"

Because he's full of shit.

[Magister]

When Trump had COVID, he insisted on being driven around, exposing Secret Service agents purely for another photo opportunity.

Or the time he shoved the Prime Minister of Montenegro to be at the front of a NATO summit photo op.

[hobie]

Oh yeah, I forgot about driving his detail around like that. He sure does have it out for the Secret Service

[Estragon]

He also tried to infect Biden at the debate

[Frank Drackman]

So why Didn't Parkinsonian Joe "just wear the damn mask!" like he wanted everyone else to? and who infected him a few weeks ago? You're probably stupid enough to believe the story, a lame attempt to come up with an excuse for dumping him.

frank

[Krayt]

And just now, when President Trump greeted the 3 returning prisoners, he had to make sure he talked to them first, before even the families, for a photo op.

Before even the families!

Oh, wait. That was Biden.

Being hyper partisan is easy. It writes itself!

You're all such predictable bores.

[Sarcastr0]

Yes, how above it all you are, calling people bores and cleverly tricking your own straw men.

Just a superior human

[NvEric]

COVID ?
SARS‑CoV‑2 - A mostly urban disease.
Mostly infecting the mental state;
Impairs reasoning; causes: fearful tendencies, delusions, excessive worry about race; can trigger overt paranoia; ... .

[ThePublius]

When will NASA and Boeing admit that Starliner is stuck in space?

[hobie]

If Elon's little startup has to come to the rescue, I think Boeing as a company is going down

[ThePublius]

Yes, I agree. Maybe Elon will acquire Boeing, eh? 🙂

[hobie]

Then he would own the airline industry as well. Fuck it. Why not

[Martinned2]

Exactly. He can always get Tesla to pay him another $50bn "salary" if he's a little short on cash for the takeover.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I noticed just today, walking along downtown Manhattan on a hot summer day, me in my hot suit because I was just in court, that most women’s butts are shaped like hearts, but if turned upside down, they look like the Ace of Spades. What inferences can be drawn?

[Commenter_XY]

captcrisis has a creative mind?

[Frank Drackman]

wait until you see a Vagina for the first time

[John F. Carr]

captcrisis is three feet tall.

[John F. Carr]

(comment not valid in Italy where height jokes are punishable by a fine)

[Intelligent Mr Toad]

ON MY MIND:

Today i enjoyed reading Murray Rothbard's review of RJ Rushdoony's crappy book EDUCATIONAL SCHIZOPHRENIA: CULTURE, CRISIS, AND EDUCATION. Typical excerpt:

Rousas J. Rushdoony’s Intellectual Schizophrenia (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co., 1961) is one of the poorest books that I have read in quite a while. It is true that one of Rushdoony’s central conclusions, a root-​and-​branch opposition to the public school system as inherently and unfortunately statist, is unexceptionable. But a book, to be worthy of commendation, let alone of recommendation for NBF distribution, needs more than a conclusion with which one could agree: it needs, for one thing, the ability to pursue and develop a reasoned and coherent argument. Rushdoony, particularly in the first half of the book but also throughout, seems to lack this ability: page after page, indeed individual sentence after sentence, follows after each other in whopping and irrelevant non sequitur. The man seems almost incapable of ratiocination. In many pages, not only does each particular sentence make little sense, but there seems to be no connection whatever between any given sentence and the ones preceding or following. One gets the distinct impression with Rushdoony that any other random distribution of his sentences make as much-​-​or as little-​-​sense as the one he has somehow selected. As a result, the book is a turgid miasma, a patchwork of repetition, miscellaneous harangue, irrelevant biblical quotation, a passage or two on jazz or on Senator Kefauver, etc. Once in a great while a good or even valuable sentence or even paragraph will appear such as his attack on the group-​worship mysticism of the public school system, or on the lack of the idea of “calling” in modern life, etc., but these passage are few and far between.

Thus, even aside from the ideological content of the book, this utterly confused jumble would debar this book from any serious consideration, let alone serious consideration for NBF use. But this is far from all. For the major theme of Rushdoony’s is not opposition to the statism of public school (this is what we could call his minor theme). His major theme is that no reality, no life, no mental health, no knowledge, no culture, etc. can exist apart from an absolute acceptance of the truth and the supremacy of fundamentalist Calvinist Christianity.

[Dan Schiavetta]

I don’t think that writer knows what “ratiocination” means.

[Commenter_XY]

Brutal. Ouch.

[NvEric]

So, it reads like a Somin article ?
And, maybe like most comments here ?
However, the title does refer to "Intellectual Schizophrenia" so it could indicate the author's status too.

[Martinned2]

Aren't jury trials great?

The National Football League scored a victory today with a US federal judge granting its motion to vacate a jury verdict awarding $4.7 billion in damages to Sunday Ticket subscribers after finding the jury’s calculation to be based on “guesswork or speculation.”

Given that the judge wasn't in the room when the jury deliberated, and the jury doesn't have to explain its decision, it does make me wonder how the judge knows the jury's calculation is based on guesswork or speculation other than by engaging in his own guesswork and speculation.

[John F. Carr]

The reporting is not very good. The judge had qualified plaintiffs' expert witnesses before trial. Their testimony at trial showed they were not using reliable methods. He retroactively excluded their testimony. Without their testimony the jury would just have been guessing.

See docket entry 1513 at https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5923341/in-re-national-football-leagues-sunday-ticket-antitrust-litigation/?page=8

For example

Dr. Rascher used college football as his model of what would happen in the absence of the competitive restraints at issue in the case (“college football but-for world”).
[...]
Defendants have requested a post-trial Daubert review of Dr. Rascher’s testimony based on his college football but-for world. 50(a) Mot. 3:2–7:8. Defendants argue that Dr. Racher’s college football but-for world “is not the product of reliable economic methodology” as it “is devoid of economic reasoning and contrary both to basic economics principle and all of the trial testimony offered by witnesses other than Dr. Rascher.” Id. 3:7–10. As such, they maintain that “Dr. Rascher’s testimony must be excluded,” id. 3:27, because his “ill-defined college football BFW raises many questions that should have been answered as a matter of sound economic analysis, but that he completely failed to answer other than with his unsupported and sharply contradicted say-so,” id. 7:3–5.

[OtisAH]

Amy Broadhurst: Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat.’ I thinks it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beating by 9 females before says it all.

Ben Hyde: what would your reaction of been if you were supposed to fight Khelif? Amy I have great respect for you boxing legacy but you’ve missed the mark here, agreed the way you’re born is out of your control but it’s a clear advantage & shouldn’t be allowed.

Dan Davies: Amy Broadhurst did fight Imane Khelif, in the 2022 world championship final. She won.

[all sic]