Friday Open Thread

What's on your mind?

Comments

[not guilty]

R.I.P. Bill Moyers, dead at 91.

[Dr. Ed 2]

He started as as an aide to JFK if I am not mistaken.

[Frank Drackman]

I haven't checked it, but with your record you probably are

[Dr. Ed 2]

Fire trUCK you. I looked it up -- Peace Corps and Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- Ed was right.

[Frank Drackman]

And the St Louis Browns pinch hit a Midget once, good for you, Midget!

[Frank Drackman]

Eddie Gaedel, one appearance in 1951, walked on 4 pitches, with a Career OPS of 1.000, no “Happy Endings” for this Ed, murdered in Chicago, 1961.
Wore number 1/8

Frank

[Dr. Ed 2]

Sounds to me like someone was upset with how the strike zone was being called. Check further because 1/8 is not a legal number and I believe teams were limited to a 26 man active roster and a total 40 man roster back then.

[Frank Drackman]

Are you really that dense, any baseball fan of a certain age (i.e. yours and mine) knows how Browns owner Bill Veck(as in Wreck)loved publicity stunts (see Gray, Pete) and the Midget was one of them, “26 man roster??” It was 25 for years until just recently, unlike you I don’t pretend to know everything

[Michael P]

I suspect that Bill Moyers, like Bill Cosby, started out as a child. (Republicans start out as embryos or zygotes.)

[Frank Drackman]

+1

[Frank Drackman]

And The Corporation for Pubic Broadcasting survives!!!!!!!!!!
LBJ's Joseph Goebbels, just goes to show the really Evil ones often live to ripe old age (Ayatollah Khomeini died at 89, Castro 90, Jimmuh Cartuh 100)

Frank "63 next Friday, "Born on the 4th of July Baby!!!"

[not guilty]

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of marriage equality becoming nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). The decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003), is now more than two decades old.

Will the Chicken Littles now admit that the sky has indeed not fallen in the interim?

[bye]

Perversion is on the increase and the prod was Obergefell.
You remind me of Lincoln's assessment of slavers: They don't want you to say it is legal they want you to say it is a social good.

=============
Well, It is lust and perversion and that's that. Homosexual acts are immoral and a cancer on society.

[Dr. Ed 2]

It's not saying that it is a social good as much as forcing everyone else to acknowledge and consider it legitimate. Obergefell led to trannies and that will lead to Lord only knows what next.

There will always be a line that people try to cross, and back when it was men with long hair and women wearing pants, while it truly was silly to draw such a line, at least that is where the line was drawn.

This won't end with trannies, the next generation will come up with something even more bizarre...

[Don Nico]

You leave my perversion alone and I'll respect yours. Is that a deal.

[Bwaaah]

He talks like somebody who [acts like he] has no perversions. It's as if his house is not made of glass, and he enjoys hearing other people's houses shatter.

Some people get off on shit like that. I think it's something about demons.

[Don Nico]

Exactly, I agree

[LexAquilia]

$30B a year on AIDS.
30% of young children identify as LGB.
Trans-hysteria permanently ruining countless children's lives.
Social cohesion at all time lows.
Birth rates declining under replacement levels.
Rates of marriages plummeting.

----
I'd say "Damn, that was fast, faster than I had guessed".

[Riva]

I will admit that the Court’s lawless redefinition of marriage stands brightly as a disgraceful example of judicial hubris and abuse of power,”…a naked judicial claim to legislative—indeed, super-legislative—power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government.”

[Dr. Ed 2]

Goodridge would have been defeated via a constitutional amendment had the people been able to vote on it. And I still say that had Romney a scintilla of the principles he claimed to have (and not the ones he actually had) he would have simply stopped issuing marriage licenses. Excepting the Cape & Islands, no part of Massachusetts is more than 30 miles from another state -- NH, RI, CT, NY, or VT -- and Romney could have said "get married in the next sic months or get married out of state.

The rainbow people crossed the Rubicon with this, and history will show that it eventually came back to bite them.

[David Nieporent]

And I still say that had Romney a scintilla of the principles he claimed to have (and not the ones he actually had) he would have simply stopped issuing marriage licenses.

And I still respond that you're a retarded bigot who doesn't know that the governor doesn't issue marriage licenses and that there was no discretion not to issue them.

(For those of you who think this is harsh, he'd just be a bigot — note that he has no trouble using various slurs but can't bring himself to use profanity — except that he has said this like 5 times before and each time I've quoted the applicable Massachusetts statute that does not permit this, and he just goes back to saying it again, which makes him a retard.)

[Dr. Ed 2]

Have you ever actually read the decision? (Can you actually read?)

Margaret Marshall knew that she was on very thin ice and hoped that that the legislature would bail her out by legalizing gay marriage and it didn't. Her decision was based on the MA ERA and that wouldn't have held up if people realized that.

Mitt Romney could have simply ordered the DPH to stop issuing marriage licenses -- heck, to stop buying the forms -- and said "make me."

He would have become President (his lifetime goal) had he done that. Even if Marshall had then ordered him to, and she wouldn't have had a 4-3 majority on that because of another portion of the MA Constitution, which explicitly recognizes the balance of power.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Not only did the Goodridges divorce, but the Mass Teacher's Association successful defeat of legitimate referendum attempts to put the decision on the ballot showed them how to defeat Education Reform, which they have now done with the MCAS being defeated in last November's election.

Marriage was always about father's obligation to children, and father's rights, and intergenerational obligations of children to their aging parents and all of that is now gone, replaced by the fiats of f*cking social workers. Hitler would have been proud.

But the real question, that I have never seen a serious answer to, is why would gays and lesbians want to give the government the power to deny them their relationships?!? Not only is a license the government granting permission to do something (e.g. a Driver's License) but also inherently having both the power to deny it (i.e. revoke the license) and to punish doing so thereafter (i.e. Operating after Suspension).

The Massachusetts State Police arrested two (male) Smith College English teachers in 1964 for "suspicion of homosexuality." Forty years later, homosexuals want to give that same state government the power to deny them the right to love each other and live with each other?

Do they not remember history?

And there was no glacial change -- 50-60 years before the arrests, there were the so-called "Boston Marriages" of educated women.

So why would a minority, with a long history of persecution, WANT TO give the government this authority over them? Anyone want to answer THAT question?!?

[bye]

Gay sex is the disgust of most of the nation. IF the sky has not fallen you would not need to post QED

[Frank Drackman]

Most normal men go out of their way to avoid anything going up the Poop Shute, now it’s questionable if I’m “Normal” (They said Manson was crazy too) but I picked out an XX Urologist entirely because if someone’s gonna stick their finger up there I’d prefer it not to be Rob Gronkowski (for some reason most male Urologists are built like Tight Ends)

[Bwaaah]

As if the notion of male homosexual sex doesn't trigger enough uncomfortable images in one's head, there are all those health care practitioners (like you) who do more hardcore shit while claiming to do so as "professionals." Every hole is fair game for the pros. They reach in deeper than anybody else, and more times than not, they throw in a device or a tube to broaden the exercise. Are blue latex gloves supposed to sanitize that image for me? Hell no! The gloves just make it quicker and more convenient for them to do another nasty deed in the room next door 15 minutes later. (Small rooms, with steel fixtures, no windows, and a super bright feature light.) OK. So they call them "patients" instead of "partners." I don't imagine homosexuals having to routinely admonish their partners, "You're going to feel some discomfort here." (While knowing well it'll be a lot more than "some" discomfort.) I don't imagine a partner turning away to his side, silently, compliantly, resignedly, as a rolled out sheet of sanitary white paper crackles beneath him. ("Let me just run some paper under you here to catch any residues.") Is it supposed to comfort me to know they've made a half-assed attempt to hide every part of my body except their point of entry? (And my eyes? Why do they insist that they be able to see those too?)

"Incoming! For your own good!" ("You're going to stick *that* *where*???!!!")

In the screening room that is my mind, the homosexual imagery is relatively tame stuff. I'm keeping it clean here.

[Stephen Lathrop]

No VC conspirator interested in the Emil Bove judicial appointment?

No conspirator cares to comment that the Trump administration has sued the Maryland federal judiciary as a whole, arguing among other points that judges are flouting democracy?

[Frank Drackman]

Bove does resemble Actor Fred Gwynne of “Car 54 where are you”, “the Munsters”, and “My Cousin Vinny”. I hope he gets to use the line “What is a Yute?” From the Bench

Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

Looks more like Count Orlok in Nosferatu.

[LexAquilia]

Why?

It's a fantastic appointment, and Trump's case against the insurrectionist judges is rock solid.

[Riva]

They claim quite correctly that the standing order providing automatic injunctive relief to any alien filing a habeas petition challenging removal is an lawful abuse of equitable power in derogation of S.Ct. precedent and federal law.

[David Nieporent]

It is, of course, none of those things.

[LexAquilia]

Non-responsive comment. Do better.

[Michael P]

History suggests he's not going to.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Nor is he able to.

[Riva]

Odd but the government asserts otherwise and has the case law to back it up. ' '[S]everal hundred years of history,' Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 329 (1944), teach that injunctive relief “is an ‘extraordinary’ equitable remedy that is ‘never awarded as of right, even where a plaintiff claims or shows that he will suffer irreparable harm without one, Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, 602 U.S. 339, 345 (2024).

[Don Nico]

I've not paid attention to it. Other priorities, the past couple of weeks.

[A Japanese Student]

A 34-year-old man wakes up today, in a solitary confinement cell at the Tokyo Detention House. Prison guards lead him to a room, where he meets the chaplain for the last time.

After a short moment, to another room the man is brought. Facing the Buddhist altar, the guard reads aloud an order signed by the Minister of Justice. He is then blindfolded and handcuffed, and the guard opens the blue curtain.

The man stands above the trapdoor, with a leather noose fixed to his neck. Watching through the glass window are the warden, fellow guards, and junior prosecutors - who are legally mandated to attend the site.

Three prison guards at the small Button Room wait for the moment. After receiving the command, they push the three buttons on the wall. The trapdoor opens, and the execution succeeds.

The man was Takahiro Shiraishi, also known as the Twitter Killer. Convicted of robbing and murdering nine people (including eight victims who he raped before death).

Notably absent from the execution chamber are the victim's' families, the press, and the public.

[Commenter_XY]

IOW, Takahiro Shiraishi faced justice. And is no more.

Hope the victim's families are Ok.

[Bwaaah]

This comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65F6lRdUU_c

[Frank Drackman]

It’s not so much the drop as the sudden stop at the end of the rope

[Frank Drackman]

Demonstrating the wisdom of the founding fathers, DemoKKKrats new rising star Mullah Zoran Mandamus ineligible for the Presidency due to his Ugandan birth (unlike our first Moose-lum POTUS at least the Zoran’s upfront about his Shit-ite-ism)

Frank

[Riva]

imagine what some of his victims must have thought before this animal raped and killed them, then dismembered the bodies.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Many people forget or are not aware that Japan has the death penalty.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-executes-twitter-killer-takahiro-shiraishi-serial-killer/

[Frank Drackman]

Most of the larger Civilized nations do

[Bob from Ohio]

And the civilized parts of the US.

[Dr. Ed 2]

<i.'Notably absent from the execution chamber are the victim's' families, the press, and the public."

That was more to confirm to the public that he was really killed -- executions used to be public festivals in the UK & US.

[Kazinski]

I am not a supporter of Trump's tariffs particularly in relation to third world countries, but so far they do not seem to be effecting inflation, but do seem to be providing substantial revenue:

"President Trump's tariffs are pouring billions more into US coffers in June, putting the revenue supplied by importers on pace for another monthly record.

The latest measure of government receipts for "Customs and Certain Excise Taxes" stood at more than $26.7 billion for the month of June, according to the Treasury Department’s latest daily statement dated June 24.

June’s total so far has already topped May’s total haul of about $22 billion — not to mention April and March totals of $17.4 billion and $9.6 billion, respectively.

The new data also comes after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected earlier this month that Trump's tariffs could reduce primary deficits by $2.8 trillion over the coming decade — but with a significant assumption that current duties stay constant and in place even after Trump is scheduled to leave office."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-tariff-revenue-is-on-pace-for-another-monthly-record-in-june-170536916.html

Coincidentally 2.8 trillion is what the CBO tabbed the cost of the Big Beautiful bill at.

"Congressional Budget Office digs further into 'Big, Beautiful Bill' and now says it will raise deficit by $2.8 trillion"

I know Trump always chickens out, except i guess for almost 30 billion a month.

[Commenter_XY]

^ Trigger Alert for the usual suspects 🙂

Kaz, the equities market are giving a huge boost to POTUS Trump's economic strategy via record performance. This is starting to look like 2017, from an investment perspective, for US stocks.

Int'l stocks have been on a tear (glad I have a healthy slug of intl).

[SRG2]

Int'l stocks have been on a tear

Might be due to the weak US dollar, of course

[Michael P]

The biggest effect I have noticed that might be attributable to tariffs is that the Nintendo Switch 2 is very scarce in the US but was widely in stock when I traveled to Canberra recently. That might reflect demand rather than supply, though.

[EllaWilson]

Even the fake democrat accounting service has said the tariffs "have had no measurable effect on prices."

[Stupid Government Tricks]

1. Tariffs raise prices, by definition, and also by definition, inflation is an increase in the money supply, which triggers price increases, but is not caused by price increases.

2. The revenue you speak so highly of is a tax increase. Did anyone who voted for Trump want or expect a tax increase?

[bye]

Okay, just let's not let such Economics nonsense pass unnoted.

Tariffs raise prices for some but not for others. Inflation is many things, not just an increase in the money supply. Biden's huge throwing of trillions of spending eg was the cause of recent inflation.

And wrong about that last sentence on price increases as sometimes under cover of inflation a manufacturere raises prices. Why ? Because he can....Though discredited this is exactly what Biden said
study by 3 Ph.D. economists at the San Francisco Fed has found that “price markups for goods and services” — aka, price gouging — has “not been a main driver” of recent inflation. Instead, the root causes are “large” federal government “fiscal transfers and increased unemployment benefits” (aka, social spending) and Federal Reserve policies like lowering “the federal funds rate target to essentially zero.”

, Joe Biden, and other Democrats have been blaming inflation on “corporate greed.” The Fed study confirms that the real cause of inflation is the big government spending agenda that Warren, Biden, & Co. supported and enacted.

Revenue is not a tax increase. And those who voted for Trump were not expecting a revival of your "right of instruction" of Representatives !!!
DEF A right of instruction permits a majority of constituents to direct a legislator to vote a particular way

[SRG2]

Revenue is not a tax increase.

If revenues arise from tariffs, that is assuredly a tax increase. Who do you think pays tariffs?

In answer to Stupid Government Tricks here:
Did anyone who voted for Trump want or expect a tax increase?

Many probably thought that tariffs would be paid by exporters, and so voted in ignorance.

[Kazinski]

It is a tax increase, in fact a consumption tax.

Taxes are a necessary evil, but if I had to choose between these tarrifs, and reverting back to 2017 tax rates, ill choose the tariffs.

[Sarcastr0]

Of course. Convenient, that.

[Lee Moore]

Nice loose change, but hardly serious money.

[Kazinski]

I thought 2.8 Trillion was serious money, at least when it comes to extending the 2017 tax cuts.

[hobie]

This week the Times has been listing the 100 best movies since 2000, based on ballots submitted by industry luminaries. Thinking about it, these are my top five:

1. Parasite
2. No Country for Old Men
3. WALL-E
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
5. Life of Pi

[Frank Drackman]

I can't call it for you, you have to call it.
Allright, time for Frankie to go to Hollywood
I'll give you "NCFOM" but just off the top of my head I've got (and unlike alot of Pretentious Cine-files, I actually have seen the movies (HT to Hobie for not calling them "Films")
1: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
2: The Godfather Part 2
3: Gone with the Wind (no fair h8-N if you haven't seen it)
4: Goodfellas
5: Dirty Hairy
what am I saying,
#1 "Dr. Strangelove (Or "How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb*)
* "The Bomb, Demitri.....the Hydrogen Bomb"

Frank

[hobie]

"...since 2000", Frankie. Were we allowed to go back further in time, Pulp Fiction would be my number one. And Goodfellas probably number two

[Frank Drackman]

OK Smarty, go to a Party, Girls are scantily clad and showing Body, so I missed your “Since 2000” qualifier
Just off the tip of my Shiny head,
1: “Dude, where’s my Car” 2001
2: “A Walk to Remember” 2002, Mrs Drackman loves this movie so I have to love it, and who didn’t cry when Mandy dies at the end?
3: “Ghost World” worth it was 16 yr old Scarlett J
OK, these next 2 might officially not be “since 2000” but I saw them in 2000
4: “Fight Club” prescient, “I am Joes Prostrate, I get Cancer, I kill Joe”
5: “Amurican Beauty”

Frank

[John 4]

1. Learn how to read.
2. Learn how to write.

Your tasks for then weekend.

[Area Man]

1. Hot Tub Time Machine
2. Hot Tub Time Machine 2
*End List*

[hobie]

'What color is Michael Jackson?'

[hobie]

"Right-wing Republicans in Congress attack Mamdani with Islamophobic comments."

Must have graduated from Columbia or Harvard. Off to El Salvador they go!

[Mr. Bumble]

Bowdoin College.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Not surprised, Joshua Chamberlain is spinning in his grave.

[Frank Drackman]

Posted this earlier in the wrong spot, got the Jet Lag, Seattle to Miami 🙁 (it's like you died and went to Jew Heaven)
"Demonstrating the wisdom of the founding fathers, DemoKKKrats new rising star Mullah Zoran Mandamus ineligible for the Presidency due to his Ugandan birth (unlike our first Moose-lum POTUS at least the Zoran’s upfront about his Shit-ite-ism)"

Frank

[hobie]

Why, Frankie. This would appear to imply that MAGA's bizarre, fierce condemnation of hatred directed towards a religious group has not been sincere at all!

[Riva]

You promise to globalize the intifada and some people go crazy. Go figure.

[DaveM]

+1 Dark humor is the best.

[bye]

Okay, but not one of those congressmen used the word 'Islamophobic" so Hobie must be a liar, what a surprise.

Suppose I reported your post and said hobie made Islamophilic remarks. See how stupid you are 🙂

[hobie]

Anti[insert religion] terrorism for me but not for thee, eh? Some religions are just a little too brown to be afforded condemnation of bigoted thoughts and words directed at them...ain't that right, bye?

[apedad]

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the filing of a complaint against the U.S. District Court of Maryland for implementing a “Standing Order” that automatic injunctions be issued for federal immigration enforcement actions. This order requires the court clerk to automatically enter an injunction against removing or challenging the legal status of any alien detained in Maryland who files a habeas petition.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1404566/dl?inline

IANAL so wondering if this is a normal procedure and why didn't DOJ instead ask for an injunction (or what's the correct term?) at the Fourth Circuit?

[David Nieporent]

why didn't DOJ instead ask for an injunction (or what's the correct term?) at the Fourth Circuit?

That essentially is what DOJ is doing. You can't ask a random court for an injunction; an injunction is a remedy available in an existing lawsuit. So they filed a lawsuit. But of course you can't file a lawsuit in the 4th Circuit; you have to file in district court, and then appeal if you lose.

Ordinarily, the appropriate approach would be to wait until one of these habeas actions is filed and the automatic stay is entered, and then it could be appealed. But of course because these automatic stays only last 2 days, that wouldn't work very well.

[EllaWilson]

"Court decides against Planned Parenthood"
SCOTUS is beginning to correct their past failures. They know there is a new sheriff in town, the American people, and they'd better get back in line with the constitution.
The constitution is back in charge! Amen!

[hobie]

Didn't Conservatives champion the concept of being able to choose your own doctor?

[Mr. Bumble]

You can choose whomever you like, just don't expect the government to pay the bill.

[hobie]

But ain't the government paying for all the other doctors? Kinda makes your assertion sound dumb.

[Riva]

Don't mean they got to pay for every procedure some hack performs in association with the vile and repulsive planned parenthood. The government doesn't automatically pay for all other doctors. I guess in NY the islamist socialist may plan to change that though. Because the extreme socialist practices he advocates have worked out so well everywhere else. On second thought maybe not, even failed socialist regimes don't automatically pay for all medical care.

[John 4]

This is a post by a purportedly serious person who thinks they have good ideas about how the rest of the country should live their lives. How are normal people supposed to take this rambling nonsense seriously?

[Riva]

Who are your "normal" people again? Radical socialists? Islamists calling for a global intifada?

[David Nieporent]

Correction: it's a post by a bot.

[Riva]

As noted before, I found the Buffalo Bill character in Silence of the Lambs to be rather repulsive. But you seem to enjoy emulating his sick rhetorical style of referring to others as "its." To each his own I guess.

[Kazinski]

Government pays for about 50% of healthcare, we should probably reduce that.

[Frank Drackman]

Since it's a fundamental right, probably, but it's because of the Liberals my daughters Pediatrician asked how many guns were in the House ("Umm, let's see, I think 64....oh wait, make that 63, "64" is in my holster")
Frank

[Mr. Bumble]

"But ain't the government paying for all the other doctors?"
No.

[Riva]

Choose what you want, without government subsidy.

[bye]

NO, you are thinking of Obama !!!

“And if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you. It hasn’t happened yet. It won’t happen in the future.”

– Obama, remarks in Portland, April 1, 2010, after the health care law was signed into law.

BIG MISTAKE THERE

[LexAquilia]

I remember those days. I had a catastrophic, high deductible plan ($10k) for my family of four at a cost of $310 a month.

Now, thanks to Obamacare, I have a high deductible plan that costs $1600 a month with only $12,000 out of pocket limits. But the good thing is that atleast my family gets to cover the costs of gay party drugs like PReP which cost over $1000 a month. Fuck providing for my kids when some homosexual wants to bareback strangers in a bookstore's backroom without consequence!

[Dr. Ed 2]

I agree -- why can't the gays pay the same copays as the rest of us?

[EllaWilson]

Trump v. CASA - the power of federal district courts to issue “nationwide” or “universal” injunctions
The profoundly democrat party federal judges are about to get slapped down. The constitution is back in charge!

[Aladdin's Carpet]

Been seriously contemplating going up to my boss (FAANG, software engineer) and just quitting on the spot. Between the … over the past 3 years they removed basically any opportunity for advancement and they won’t let me change internally.

I’ve been told multiple times things like “oh your doing great but for *corporate politics* we’re gonna have to wait another quarter before we give you your promotion, and pretty directly too those are pretty close to my managers words. There is only so much of this I can put up with.

I knew going in that this particular company had a … a reputation for this, but I didn’t think it would get this bad.

Would be nice to have something lined up but I’ve tired and just a constant string of rejections. I’ve make it to the final round fairly consistently in interviews but no offer. So Idk what to do /vent

[Riva]

Promotion? You seem to be working in the private sector. Therein lies your error. Now, if you really want promotion and benefits beyond the dreams of avarice, get some government work.

[ThePublius]

Just buckle down, do your job, don't make waves, while you seek another job. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

[Bwaaah]

+1

[DaveM]

+10 work even harder/smarter, and add a second part-time job of taking your talents elsewhere. When asked why you're leaving, you have the perfect reason: I'm ready to do more, but my old company was not.

[LexAquilia]

You must be a White male watching less qualified diversity hires take your rightful promotions.

[Dr. Ed 2]

+1

Actually +100,000

It's gonna get ugly when reconstruction ends this time too.

[Michael P]

I'd strongly recommend finding a new job before you bail. My employer watches Linkedin and at least used to consider making improvements when someone started looking for a new job.

[Armchair]

Just for the record....

Iran, 1979: 80,000 Jews
Iran, 2013: 10,000 Jews

Egypt, 1948: 75,000 Jews
Egypt, 2022: 3 Jews

Syria, 1945: 15,000 Jews
Syria, 2024: 3 Jews

Iraq, 1948: 200,000 to 400,000 JEws
Iraq, 2025: 3 Jews

British Palestine, 1945: 1.06 million Muslims.
Israel, (not including west bank or Gaza) 1948: 156,000 Muslims
Israel (not including west bank or Gaza), 2021: 1.7 million Muslims

Remember, Israel is committing ethnic cleansing and genocide though.

[apedad]

Every point you made is bad - including the last one.

And since the last point is actually current and not 40+ years ago, shouldn't we be addressing that to prevent ethnic cleansing and genocide?

[Joe_dallas]

ethicnic cleansing and genocide isnt happening except in your delusions. At least not by Israel. Though the arab countries were quite active with expulsions after the 1948 war.

[Armchair]

Oh, so we should ignore past ethnic cleansing and just concentrate on potential future ethnic cleaning? Ignore trends in population?

Russia must be scared of ethnic cleansing of ethnic Russians from Russia then.

[apedad]

Sheesh...

No, we should LEARN from past ethnic cleansing while addressing current (and hopefully preventing) potential future ethnic cleaning.

[Joe_dallas]

Ape - Israel is not engaging in ethnic cleansing or genocide. Quite making s.... up. You lose credibility (though you likely gain credibility with other delusional leftists)

[Armchair]

Learn from past Ethnic cleaning?

Here's what I "learned." If a minority population in a country has gone up more than 10-fold in the last 80 years.... (IE, Israel's Muslim population going from under 200,000 to more than 1.5 million)...It is in no way "ethnic cleansing". Actually the opposite.

And people who claim that Israel is engage in it are lying their asses off to cover for actual ethnic cleansing.

[Josh R]

Israel is engaging in a never-ending occupation of the West Bank, denying the non-Jewish residents of basic political rights. At least two members of the Israeli cabinet advocate for ethnic cleansing by annexing the West Bank and kicking out the Palestinians.

[Riva]

His point is that the jews are the real victims of ethnic cleansing. Shouldn't we be addressing that? Well, I mean not the way the Muslim communities are, I mean by stopping it.

[bye]

Bad because you said so 🙂 now there's egotism-cum-stupidity in Macy's window

[Don Nico]

Where is ethnic cleansing and genocide going on?

[apedad]

Israeli Soldiers Ordered to Shoot at Unarmed Palestinians Waiting for Aid: Report

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-soldiers-ordered-to-shoot-at-unarmed-palestinians-waiting-for-aid-report/ar-AA1HygYh?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=6304fb21681947a089ffa7a672c6086d&ei=75

[Joe_dallas]

correct - mass expulsions of jews from iran, iraq, syria, egypt, libyia, etc shortly after the 1948 arab israeli war.

[hobie]

Here's a concept. Maybe...just maybe...smart Jews chose to immigrate out of those shithole countries. Unless you're making another baseless MAGA assertion that a bunch of good old fashioned mini-holocausts occurred in each country of which no one has ever heard any accounts of

[Armchair]

In October 1956, when the Suez Crisis erupted, the position of the mutamassirun, including the Jewish community, was significantly impacted.[183]

1000 Jews were arrested and 500 Jewish businesses were seized by the government. A statement branding the Jews as "Zionists and enemies of the state" was read out in the mosques of Cairo and Alexandria.[184][185] Jewish bank accounts were confiscated and many Jews lost their jobs. Lawyers, engineers, doctors and teachers were not allowed to work in their professions. Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country and told that they may be sent to concentration camps if they stayed.[184] They were allowed to take only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign declarations "donating" their property to the Egyptian government. Foreign observers reported that members of Jewish families were taken hostage, apparently to insure that those forced to leave did not speak out against the Egyptian government. Jews were expelled or left, forced out by the anti-Jewish feeling in Egypt.[186] Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States, South America and Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion. By 1957 the Jewish population of Egypt had fallen to 15,000."

But sure...no one has heard any accounts of it.

[hobie]

Basically you plagiarized this Wikipedia entry and swapped 'palestinians' for 'jews'. No hands are clean in the revolting nest of savages known as the Middle East

"The Nakba (Arabic: النَّكْبَة, romanized: an-Nakba, lit. 'the catastrophe') is the ethnic cleansing[14] of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.[15] The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel.[16] As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.[17][18]

During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine's predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people,[19] were expelled from their homes or made to flee through various violent means, at first by Zionist paramilitaries, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by its military. Dozens of massacres targeted Palestinian Arabs and over 500 Arab-majority towns, villages, and urban neighborhoods were depopulated.[20] Many of the settlements were either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews and given new Hebrew names.[20][21] Israel employed biological warfare against Palestinians by poisoning village wells. By the end of the war, 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel."

[ThePublius]

"Basically you plagiarized this Wikipedia entry and swapped 'palestinians' for 'jews'."

That's a lie. Why do you lie?

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

[Joe_dallas]

Why does he lie?

He is a leftists - its ingrained

[Joe_dallas]

https://www.mena-researchcenter.org/the-emigration-and-expulsion-of-jews-from-arab-countries/

[Joe_dallas]

https://www.gov.il/en/pages/jewish-refugees-expelled-from-arab-lands-and-from-iran-30-november-2021

[Armchair]

No.... I took an actual wikipedia entry and copy-pasted without editing.

Israel's Muslim population has gone up more than 10-fold in the last 80 years. Not including the West Bank or Gaza. It's not "ethnic cleansing."

Israel proper has a higher Muslim population today than the entire British mandate of Palestine did in 1945. It's not ethnic cleansing. The Muslim population is increasing. Dramatically.

[hobie]

That's good to hear. Are they gonna get all their land a belongings back?

"It's not "ethnic cleansing.""
Nowadays it ain't (except in the settlements). But, oh brother, back in the 40's it was a doozy. But that's just too long ago, so we shouldn't really care anymore

[SRG2]

Are they gonna get all their land a belongings back?

Simple, Arab countries who stole property from Jews pay compensation for those thefts into a fund which is then used to pay compensation to Palestinian Arabs.

[hobie]

Ah, the ol' they did it so we can too. Always a winner when addressing the subject of human subjugation and inhumanity. It can alleviate a lot of guilty feelings

[Don Nico]

"Are they gonna get all their land a belongings back?"
spoken like a typical antisemite. There is no "right of return.

[hobie]

I wasn't aware that my concern for equal justice also meant I hate Jews. How am I gonna break this to all my Jewish friends?

You know, Don; being the Boys Who Cried Antisemitism at anything and everything is eventually gonna cause antisemitism fatigue across the greater American polity, coarsening people's opinions against the very - manufactured - concerns you now pretend to hold dear. America's Jewry is right in distancing themselves from conservatism; because abusing them and their cause for political gain is perhaps the most antisemitic thing of all.

[Mr. Bumble]

Being willfully stupid isn't a positive.

[Don Nico]

non-so-smart, antisemitic snark!

[SRG2]

a bunch of good old fashioned mini-holocausts occurred in each country of which no one has ever heard any accounts of

Except people who read. You can find some accounts in Martin Gilbert's book In Ishmael's House: a History of Jews in Muslim Lands

[Dr. Ed 2]

Rumor has it that the FBI is close to identifying the Dobbs leaker.

What then?

[hobie]

Another laptop found in a pawnshop, Ed? Comer can get right on it, and Green can revenge porn some photos in public. It strains belief that we will get a credible, non-clown car investigation from MAGA these days.

[Michael P]

What pawn shop are you talking about?

[Frank Drackman]

Since we don’t really use Capital Punishment anymore, maybe a Moe-Saad Cell Phone?

[David Nieporent]

Let me guess: a police officer told you.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Trump's no income tax on tips, overtime and Social Security is going to backfire badly because it will become a major benefit to the wealthy.

A lot of government workers (not just police) routinely make six figures of overtime and how do you not tax that while taxing someone whose total income is only a third of that?

And taxing social security is only an issue because of the other income that people have.

So this will become the poor subsidizing the rich.

[Longtobefree]

No one is serious about "taxing the rich"; if they were, the issue of SALT deductions would never come up.

[Joe_dallas]

The salt cap is a nothing burger. the increase in amt exemption, the increase in the standard deduction resulted in only a very small subset of taxpayers actually paying more federal income tax.

[SRG2]

The removal of the SALT deduction was Trump targeting states he didn't like.

[Joe_dallas]

The salt cap is a nothing burger.

[ThePublius]

I don't think it's reasonable to characterize these three as a group. I disagree with no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, but I agree social security benefits shouldn't be taxed. But know that the BBB doesn't eliminate tax on SS benefits, it only includes a temporary enhanced deduction for seniors. This deduction is an extra $4,000 for filers 65 and older.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

" social security benefits shouldn't be taxed."

I see no reason why social security benefits should not be taxed. Other retirement income, financed form working-life income just like SS benefits, is taxable as well--SS benefits shouldn't be special. Estimates I have seen indicate that eliminating the tax would cost the SS "trust fund" (ultimately a cost realized as an increase in the national debt) about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Of course, as noted above, Trump's promise to eliminate taxes on SS income is not honored in the Big Beautiful Budget Busting Bill. The $4000 increase in deductions for couples with AGI less than about $150k probably isn't too bad (maybe even a good thing with a cost of about $23 billion/year) as it will not benefit high income SS recipients very much.

I admit that the idea of eliminating taxes on SS income is sort of drool inducing as it would benefit us about $15k/year. But, it would be bad policy and I'm glad it's probably not being seriously considered.

In any event, the better way to reduce AGI by about $200k/year and mostly eliminate taxes on SS income is by using QCDs to contribute that $200k to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Pretty much eliminate federal tax liability entirely and the reduction in taxable income won't have any affect on our life style. Won't even be noticed.

[Malika the Maiz]

“Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the "Twitter killer," was sentenced to death in 2020 for the killings in 2017 of the nine victims, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. He was also convicted of sexually abusing female victims.

The execution was carried out as calls grow to abolish capital punishment in Japan since the acquittal of the world's longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.

Shiraishi was hanged at the Tokyo Detention House in high secrecy with nothing disclosed until the execution was done.

Police arrested him in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.

Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes. He killed the eight women, including teenagers, after raping them, and also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.“

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-5448572/japan-execution-man-killing-9-people

[Frank Drackman]

Friend of yours?
Whammo! (HT (Dr) Bill Cosby)
You just got ranked by a fictional character!

Frank

[Malika the Maiz]

Wonder what character the writer of the Frank Fakeman persona performed here performs on X?

[Don Nico]

If he bugs you so much, why not put him on must instead of subjecting everyone to you Fakeman shtick.

[Mr. Bumble]

Apparently he's already on Queenie's "must".
Trolls gotta troll.

[Bwaaah]

Indeed. There's even a good bit of envy tucked in there.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

Envy? That's bizarre.

[Magister]

If Malika the Maiz bothers you three so much, why don't you mute him?

[apedad]

Illinois Gun Possession Statute Upheld by State High Court

Illinois’ highest court upheld a statute frequently used to charge felony gun possession, finding that a requirement to obtain two separate permits—one to own a gun and another to carry it publicly—doesn’t violate the Second Amendment.

Five of the seven state Supreme Court justices joined in an opinion finding that the US Supreme Court’s decision in NY State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen explicitly endorsed 'shall-issue' licensing requirements like Illinois’.

“Licensing decisions in shall-issue states, like Illinois, turn on objective criteria, not on a licensing official’s subjective opinion or an applicant’s showing of some additional need for self-defense . . . . ”

(Bloomberg Law but I don't have an account for the full article.)

Fully agree that 2A shouldn't be a suicide pact and that lawful weapons owners should have some basic training on law and usage.

[ThePublius]

"Fully agree that 2A shouldn't be a suicide pact and that lawful weapons owners should have some basic training on law and usage."

I don't understand the suicide pact comment. On the latter comment, sure, firearms owners and carriers should get training and know the law as well as they can; know that the law can be complex and confusing, sometimes contradictory, and open to interpretation. But I am opposed to mandatory training on usage and law. We don't require that for any other constitutional right. No mandatory training on the law and usage for the first amendment, for example.

Many states have mandatory training for a license to carry. Massachusetts requires a safe handling course completion. I had to fire when I took mine 30+ years ago. Rhode Island has a rather draconian requirement which restricts one's carry rights to the largest caliber used in their live fire test. I think it's to discourage people from pursuing the license.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I can justify RI's caliber rule -- qualify with a .22 and then fire a .45 for the first time in a real situation and you will be freaking dangerous. Qualify with that .45 if you intend to carry it.

[apedad]

"We don't require that for any other constitutional right."

Actually 1A has restrictions - there are no absolutes.

Particular Governmental Regulations that Restrict Expression

https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-01/13-particular-governmental-regulations.html

[Stella Link's Ghost]

"Many states have mandatory training for a license to carry. "

Texas still does. Even though law changes in the last few years have pretty much eliminated the advantages of having an LTC, there are a few advantages including expedited background check approval.

Looks like the training requirements have been significantly reduced. Now the requirement in Texas is a 4-6 hour class available online and a range "class" of 1-2 hours. Back about 25-30 years ago, the required classroom instruction took a couple days. The range class lasted about an hour and basically just verified that the license applicant was not outrageously incompetent and dangerous-- a good thing. My recollection is that if an applicant went to the range with a revolver, the LTC would be restricted to revolvers, but I don't know how that would have been enforced. With Texas going to near universal concealed carry with no competency requirement at all most of the old stuff just doesn't matter.

[Bob from Ohio]

"Illinois Gun Possession Statute Upheld by State High Court"

Really? I'm completely shocked.

[John F. Carr]

The Boston Globe reports on use of driver's licenses as debt collection tools:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/09/metro/impacted-drivers-massachusetts-licenses-expire-unpaid-tolls/

In New York, and I believe also in Massachusetts, if you have a transponder linked to an expired credit card you will get a big fine every time you drive through a toll. If you didn't have a transponder you would get a bill in the mail and pay a couple dollars more because they had to look up your plate. So why don't they bill the plate if the transponder account is empty? They make more money off of fines, fees, and surcharges.

The federal government could fix this problem if anybody in Washington cared.

[ThePublius]

I get a blank page when I go to that link.

[Bwaaah]

https://archive.ph/20250609094652/https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/09/metro/impacted-drivers-massachusetts-licenses-expire-unpaid-tolls/

[ThePublius]

Thank you!

[Dr. Ed 2]

I thought that Tall Deval "fixed" this.

[Mr. Bumble]

When will the SC drop the results of the remaining cases?

[John F. Carr]

A complaint with the Department of Education accuses Smith College of violating Title IX by admitting students based on female gender identity rather than biological sex. My first reaction is Smith is within the law. Gender identity is not an explicitly protected status. If gender identity earns protected status by piggybacking on sex, then Smith has the benefit of the exception in Title IX allowing discrimination in admission based on sex. Title IX did not ban single-sex schools.

I gather Smith is following the Biden administration's guidance.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/27/metro/smith-college-transgender-students-complaint/

[LexAquilia]

Smith is clearly no longer a single-sex school and they are discriminating against females who identify as men by banning them from admissions.

[John F. Carr]

Smith is discriminating. Smith is not violating Title IX as I understand it. Smith has the benefit of the exception in 20 USC 1681(a)(1):

in regard to admissions to educational institutions, this section shall apply only to institutions of vocational education, professional education, and graduate higher education, and to public institutions of undergraduate higher education;

Private undergraduate institutions are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex in admissions.

[LexAquilia]

They aren't discriminating on the basis of sex. They are discriminating on the basis of gender.

They admit males and females. They ban males who identify as men and they ban females who identify as men.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Last I checked, Smith admitted biological females who identified as male, to the point that Smith no longer refers to its students as "her" and "she" -- by policy.

The discrimination is amongst men -- they are treating men who identify as women differently than men who identify as men.

One has to wonder how they treat men who identify as furries...

As an aside -- Massachusetts law prohibits single sex GRADUATE education because, when it passed in the early '70s, the female colleges were only undergrad-only. Hence Smith's social work program is required to be coed and has been for decades.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Carolyn McCarthy, a former nine-term congresswoman from Long Island who became a champion of gun regulation after her family was shattered by a deranged shooter on a commuter train — transforming herself from a nurse and homemaker into a national symbol of unflinching, if largely frustrated, advocacy — died on Thursday at her home in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 81.

https://archive.ph/ekc8K

[LexAquilia]

This is a current headline on Reddit's frontpage:

"Did Donald Trump steal the 2024 election? A legal challenge in New York could reveal the truth behind allegations that last year’s election result was “consistent with vote manipulation”

It wasn't too long ago when headlines like that were attacks on our Sacred Democracy and got buried by the gov-backed censorship complex.

Weird.

[SRG2]

We know the story can't be true because it's impossible to steal a presidential election, right?

[LexAquilia]

We know it's entirely possible. In fact we saw it happen before our very eyes in 2020. But if you stated that in 2020 or 2021 or 2022 or 2023 you were harming our Sacred Democracy.

[Stella Link's Ghost]

" In fact we saw it happen before our very eyes in 2020. " No, we saw, before our very eyes, a concerted effort by the enemies of democracy to steal the election thwarted.

[Drewski]

Jonathan Braun, a buddy of Jared Kushner whose sentence Trump commuted, is back behind bars. He is charged for assault of an elderly man; assault of his wife; groping his nanny’s breast without her permission; assault of a 3-year-old child; and menacing a hospital staffer. In his arraignment he threw a tantrum and flipped off the gallery.

Will Trump pardon him again? Make America Great for Violent Felons?

[SRG2]

An apparently unreported scandal of the US bombing of Iran is that the bunker-busting bombs did not perform as they were supposed to.

[Mr. Bumble]

Why don't you volunteer to go check out the site and report back?

[Dr. Ed 2]

The problem is that if the bomb makes a entry hole and only explodes within the structure below, the damage will not be visible to someone standing on the surface, let alone looking down from a satellite.

[Michael P]

Unreported? Lots of your leftist media got burned by reporting that a highly classified (but "low confidence" and apparently wrong) assessment claimed exactly that.

[Sarcastr0]

Highly classified but apparently wrong is not very likely given the content doesn’t appear to reveal sources and methods.

There’s not much threat to national security from low confidence probably wrong info.

More likely the administration is lying to save face.

[Don Nico]

Of course, my favorite gaslighter vomits his usual partisan BS:
"More likely the administration is lying to save face."

Also "Highly classified but apparently wrong is not very likely" is another comment based on knowing nothing about the weapons or the operation.

More likely he will claim that any action by this administration is a failure or worse.

[Michael P]

I think it's wilful ignorance. For example, classified assessments infamously came down on both sides of the COVID-19 "lab leak" question, so some of them were necessarily wrong (although I don't know what clarification level they had).

And https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Iraq_NIE_Excerpts_2003.pdf, representing a view that Iraq continued its WMD programs past 2000, was presumably based in large part on highly classified sources.

Maybe the guy issuing grants for indigenous basket weaving has some idealized view of how the DOD and IC operate, but not all of us do.

[Sarcastr0]

lol citing Iraq WMD reports as legit intel assessments is the real ignorance. Cheney would settle for nothing less.

Low credibility assessments that don’t reveal sources and methods aren’t going to be TS. Maybe Secret.

[SRG2]

your leftist media

Not mine. I'm not a leftist.

[Joe_dallas]

quite a few other leftists claim not to be leftists

[Sarcastr0]

Is that right? My understanding is they blowed up most of what they were supposed to blow up.

It’s that enriched Uranium is the driver of the development timeline, and wasn’t there anymore. And may be easy to replace through other channels anyhow.

The leak of a TS document to the press is also an independent scandal.

[Don Nico]

"And may be easy to replace through other channels anyhow."
Just more talking through is hat.

[Bob from Ohio]

"wasn’t there anymore."

Mossad completely penetrated Iranian security so that they could , for example, assemble/launch drones inside Iran, know the home addresses of most senior military offices and nuclear scientists, and call a high level IRGC meeting and kill everyone.

Then it missed dozens [perhaps hundreds] of trucks leaving nuclear sites with uranium.

Your hatred of Trump is affecting your brain.

[Sarcastr0]

I know you are ignorantly knee-jerking, but your beef is with the DIA, not me.

Mossad as superpowered superspies is some childish fetishization thing. They win some, they lose some.

[Bob from Ohio]

"DIA"

There are other agencies and groups [CIA, Israel, France, UN atomic agency] that disagree with the alleged leaked DIA assessment.

I guess the leak served its purpose, it lets Trump haters have a talking point.

"childish fetishization thing"

Or, its based on the best intelligence penetration since The Brits ran the entire German spy ring during WWII.

[tylertusta]

I don't know how you think they were supposed to function, but apparently the bombs performed as designed.

I'm fairly impressed that they managed to deliver multiple bombs through the same hole; that's a significant technological feat in and of itself.

[Bob from Ohio]

The French! believe the bombs worked great but some left lawyers here know better.

[hobie]

"Gov. Greg Abbott's recent veto of a $60 million state plan to support low-income families through a federal summer food program has sparked concern among educators and hunger relief advocates across Texas.

The program, known as Sun Bucks, would have provided $120 per eligible child to help families buy groceries during the summer months, when school meals are unavailable for many children."

[Mr. Bumble]

Oh the humanity.

[hobie]

Hunger seems to be a pernicious little entitlement this year. You hayseeds are going at it with both barrels

[ThePublius]

The government should not be in the business of feeding children, either through the schools, or with summer stipends. That is the responsibility of parents, families.

When I was a kid, a poor kid in the Bronx, we either brought our lunch to school or managed to pay the 70¢ per week for the hot school lunch. Only a ver few got it for free, and those were subsidized by charity - the Catholic church - not the government. We ate breakfast at home, not at school, too.

There's a lot to be said for self reliance and familial responsibility.

[LexAquilia]

Given how utterly corrupt and shitty the school food is too, governments should be banned from providing food to anyone.

[Mr. Bumble]

For an example see Feeding Our Future fraud in Minnesota.

[Sarcastr0]

Remember how you asked below for evidence of social Darwinism in MAGA?

[David Nieporent]

When I was a kid, a poor kid in the Bronx, we either brought our lunch to school or managed to pay the 70¢ per week for the hot school lunch. Only a ver few got it for free, and those were subsidized by charity - the Catholic church - not the government.

You must be older than Joe Biden if they didn't have the federally funded National School Lunch Program when you were a kid.

[Mr. Bumble]

"You must be older than Joe Biden if they didn't have the federally funded National School Lunch Program when you were a kid."
Cite.
And yes a law passed in 1946 had that title but was nothing like what exists today.

[hobie]

I can tell you from experience that black people are shitty cooks who cannot feed themselves or their children properly. I can also confirm that food deserts are a very real thing. Those who can cook (the grandmas) are looking at long bus rides to find a grocery store. So basically, out of necessity, kids are fed from the snack aisle of the convenience store. Is it really so awful to give these kids a healthy meal once a day?

And yes, I absolutely think it should be the government's role to use its power to help with hunger

[Michael P]

It "sparked concern" among people whose jobs are to run around with their hair on fire. News at 12.

[apedad]

Texas already doesn't have the Sun Bucks program so it's not like they're losing something they already had.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/summer/sunbucks

[hobie]

But we're the richest state in the Union. Like the gulf states, if it wasn't for oil, we'd be just another backwards state filled with ignorant, religious bigots...basically a gigantic Alabama

[LexAquilia]

Yeah, Alabama where:
- U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command is.
- U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command is.
- Missile Defense Agency is.
- Missile & Space Intelligence Center is.
- FBI Cyber operations hub is.
- NASA Marshall Space Flight Center is.
- U.S. Space Command is.

[Bubba Jones]

How much of a racist troll does Blackman have to be before he gets the boot?

[Mr. Bumble]

Composer Lalo Schifrin dead at age 93.
Try to get that Mission Impossible theme out of your head.

[Mr. Bumble]

Trump V CASA released; all 119 pages.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf

[apedad]

Anybody want to guess how Melania got an EB-1 ("Einstein") visa?

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent-workers/employment-based-immigration-first-preference-eb-1

[ThePublius]

"Super model" fits right in.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Josh Blackman's favorite justice has the big universal injunction opinion. Let's see how THAT JB post will go.

[hobie]

I'm sure he'll jump on how the decision is nakedly political for the current moment, and not originalist at all

[JoeFromtheBronx]

It helps Trump, but it's Barrett. Tough call for him.

[ReaderY]

One of the features of the MAGA movement perhaps exemplified by Elon Musk, but which is no means limited to Musk, is a very strong expression of 19th Century social Darwanism with only a slight veneer of up-to-date sounding scientific-sounding terminology.

Under Social Darwinism, evolution requires the weak to die and the strong to survive and reproduce. It is therefore not just good but essential for society’s and the human species’ survival that the poor, the weak, the disabled, the elderly, sexual misfits, and other useless eaters die as quickly as possible so as not to suck up resources from the Great and the Strong who alone are the species’ future. Rather, society should invest in maximizing the success of the Great, the winners in the evolutionary battle underlying all society, and enable them to maximize their reproductive opportunities.

From this point of view, the entire Western religious tradition of compassion has been not just a profoundly wrong turn but a danger to the human species’ very existence. Society has absolutely no business interfering with nature’s natural redness in tooth and claw. This whole business of propping up the useless eaters and keeping them from meeting their natural and richly deserved fate through government-sponsored welfare, healthcare, insurance, education, civil rights laws, and all the other elements of the liberal administrative establishment represents an eclipse of reason and science by religious superstition. It is time to restore science to its proper place, ensure government of the Great, by the Great and for the Great. It is time to kick all these lilly-livered weak-willed compassion people and all these government programs stealing from the Great and preventing the human speicies from evolving by propping up all these useless eaters out the door and put them all in the dustbin of biology where they belong.

Since I have joined this blog, I have tried to consistently emphasize that the Western religious tradion of conpassion is a critical component of Western civilization and is always a rational basis for essentially anything. Whenever it conflicts with perceptions of science, it is not for courts to declare the religious people wrong. In the past this meant I mostly stood up for the right of people on the religious right to have abortion laws. More recently, it has mostly involved supporting the right of people on the left to have liberal immigration, welfare, and other laws, and also for courts to interpret immigration and other laws passed in more compassionate times according to their original intent.

In particular, I have consistently strongly opposed courts denigrating the western tradition of compassion. It is not for courts to say that people opposing abortion do so because they irrationally hate women. But it is also not for courts to say thst people supporting liberal immigration do so because they irrationally hate their country.

Similarly, the Western tradition of compassion provides a completely rational basis for liberals to be solicitous of the needs of trans people if they want; it is no more the place of courts to bring “truths outside the constitution’s text” to impose their own view of the science of gender on the public than it would be their place to impose more compassion than conservative states are prepared to support.

I recognize that compassion cannot be an absolute, society often has to limit it to be able to get by. But it is never the role of the courts to say compassion has gone too far.

And I absolutely hate and loathe the social darwinism exemplified by the Musk wing of the MAGA movement. It horrifies me. It disgusts me. An America that embraces such a philosophy is an America that has truely become another Sodom, another Gomorrah.

I would far rather pay higher taxes and put up with a combersome and sometimes meddling bureaucracy than live in such a society. Whatever the problems of the liberal order, and there are many, such a monstrosity would be far, far, far worse.

[ThePublius]

How about some references to support your assertion that what you articulate is the view of Musk and MAGA?

[hobie]

I was thinking along similar lines when reading the new attempts by MAGA to destroy medicaid. I thought to myself, this won't just affect brown people, it will largely affect its greatest users: white MAGA hayseeds. Coupled with the crippling of domestic food aid, everyone - white and brown - will theoretically be dying prematurely. But when you have this concomitant drive to elevate the super wealthy, then isn't the answer here obvious? The oligarchs are using Congress to eliminate all competition. And congress-creatures' desire for their own personal power and wealth means they will play along...even at the expense of a vast portion of their own constituencies.

This isn't a tribal tit for tat among political parties. This is an obscene, long game, out-in-the-open takeover of the state by the super wealthy, and no one is to be spared

[ThePublius]

"new attempts by MAGA to destroy medicaid."

Citation?

[hobie]

Uh, pretty much any newspaper for the past week. I forget the news sources in the MAGA ecosystem don't normally 'report' that stuff, so you may be unaware

[Sarcastr0]

Are you sealioning? It’s apropos language that has been tying the House in knots.

[LexAquilia]

There is no language in the House that "destroys Medicaid".

Be a better person.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

We have an hour into opinion announcements and dissents from the bench at SCOTUS & still going. If they think this is important enough to do, they should live stream it.

[John F. Carr]

In Mahmoud v. Taylor the Supreme Court found a constitutional right to opt out of "LGBTQ+-inclusive" storybooks in elementary school. The school board's claimed hardship was of its own making. The school board chose to teach material which a lot of parents in the district would want their children to avoid. The school board chose not to make gay education an isolated unit like schools do with sex education.

Free Exercise law continues to be a mess.

[Joe_dallas]

Did you see the exhibits attached to the opinion.

Anything more explicit than G rated should not be in a 5 year old through 10 year old book.

[John F. Carr]

Under American constitutional law "what kind of sick groomer would show that to a kindergarten student?" is not a winning argument. Violation of religious freedom is a winning argument. That's why Free Exercise law is such a mess. Lawyers and judges have to fit claims of government overreach into one of the recognized categories, even as extra-constitutional feelings color their constitutional arguments.

[Joe_dallas]

Another leftist embracing school mandates exposing children to content inappropriate for the childs age.

[Joe_dallas]

Sotomayor's dissent in mahmoud v taylor show how sick and perverted the left has become.

MAHMOUD ET AL. v. TAYLOR ET AL.

[Bob from Ohio]

Today is the anniversary of the infamous Biden debate collapse for those who celebrate.

[hobie]

That old, retired bastard still lives rent free in there, eh Bob?

[ReaderY]

Yoder lives!

Not only is Yoder alive and well, it now stands for the broad proposition that Infringements on the right of parents to direct the religious education of their children IN GENERAL constitute a blanket exception to Smith, and are subject to strict scrutiny.

[Sarcastr0]

Not even religion. Anything with a “real threat of undermining” a religions belief.

That’s really broad, unimplementable even.

[Bored Lawyer]

For a minute there, I thought you were talking about Yoda.

[Michael P]

The little bastard withdrew his children from public school after 8th grade to indoctrinate them in hokey religions and ancient farming implements.

[John F. Carr]

The five opinions so far today all have Thomas-Alito-Gorsuch voting one way and Kagan-Jackson-Sotomayor voting the other way. Yesterday's decisions were almost as predictable.

[hobie]

"Pentagon Strips Harvey Milk's Name From Navy Vessel"

I think this is a good start. We shouldn't be naming boats and bases and buildings after politicians and slavers. It just causes all the hate on display in this rotten blog commentary.

Portugal has the right idea; buildings, streets, parks etc. are all named after - and statues are only erected for - engineers, doctors or poets.