Sunday Open Thread

What's on your mind?

Comments

[Mr. Bumble]

What will today bring?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Someone suing Trump for something...

[not guilty]

A couple of days ago, Donald Trump squawked on Truth Social:

Just in: Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost. They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115432378654253078?ftag=YHF4eb9d17

This missive curiously omits identification of any particular "illegal . . . behavior" that Messrs. Wray, Smith and Garland of Ms. Monaco engaged in, for which any of them should be prosecuted.

The motto of the Trump Department of Justice appears to be the maxim coined by Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the Soviet Secret Police: "Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime."

How about it, MAGAts? Which federal criminal statutes did Wray, Smith, Garland and/or Monaco violate, whether before, during or since the Biden administration? What is the nature and cause of the accusation that the Sixth Amendment requires that the alleged offenders be informed of?

[Dr. Ed 2]

I don't know the statute, but fir "illegal wiretapping" to BE illegal, it has to violate SOME statute. It was illegal when Nixon's men did it...

[Kenneth Almquist]

18 U.S.C. 2511 makes wiretapping illegal, but it’s not a criminal statute.

Of course Trump is lying about taping calls of members of Congress.

[gVOR08]

And who was president during the 2020 election? How did Biden appointees rig an election before being appointed? The same time machine Obama used to plant a birth announcement in the 1961 Honolulu papers?

[Sarcastr0]

That Reagan quote Canada used is real.

[Mr. Bumble]

BFD!

[Stephen Lathrop]

Bumble — Except to quiet inner psychological turmoil, what purpose did that serve? Why publish that world-wide?

Do you suppose that when some great scorer comes to mark against your name, he will even notice you did that? If so, do you think you get a good mark for that?

[ThePublius]

And who the heck are you to criticize what he posts?

[Michael P]

He's a washed-up newspaper editor with logorrhea and crazy ideas, of course. Why do you ask?

[Mr. Bumble]

But he does have several billionaire friends.

[Stephen Lathrop]

ThePublius — I commend the wit in that reply. Did you do it on purpose?

[Mr. Bumble]

Well, aren't you special.
H/T Church Lady.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And Ross Perot was right about the "giant sucking sound."

[Mr. Bumble]

"June Lockhart, beloved mother figure from 'Lassie' and 'Lost In Space,' dies at 100"
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/june-lockhart-beloved-mother-figure-from-lassie-and-lost-in-space-dies-at-100
Note at the bottom of the article this obit was primarily written by a reporter who died in 2014.

[not guilty]

Obituaries of public figures are often prepared while the subject is still living. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/08/how-far-in-advance-do-newspapers-write-obituaries.html

[Mr. Bumble]

No shit Sherlock. I just think it is ironic that the major contributor to Ms. Lockhart's obit died at least 11 years before she did.

[Dr. Ed 2]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tX6jdoruH8

[Frank Drackman]

IIRC she was also on “Petticoat Junction”
“Here’s a Lady MD she’s as pretty as can be…..”

Frank

[darkknight9]

Any bow/gun/spear hunters out there? With the season rolling around hereabouts I'm curious.

[Frank Drackman]

Is it Wabbit Season or Duck Season??

[Mr. Bumble]

FWIW the first session for black bear closed in NJ with about 250 taken ( archery only for six days and archery and muzzeloaders for three days).
A second season opens in Dec. for shotgun and muzzeloaders.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Sounds excessive: 250 in 9 days, in New Jersey. Hard to see how it could happen under sporting conditions. Baiting? Maybe so. Does NJ permit hunters to bait bears? Silly me, of course it does, while pretending not to.

The law even acknowledges baits will be used. It keeps hunters back, to wait for a baited bear at a no-doubt closely-supervised 300-foot perimeter. And it admonishes the hunters to clean up the baits afterwards.

It's a shame black bears have temperaments about as aggressive as deer. What I want to see is an archery season for polar bears.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Not that a couple of very dry summers in a row might change bear behavior, mind you. No, it couldn't be that....

[Mr. Bumble]

Update:
"Hunters killed 368 bears during the first part of New Jersey’s annual bear hunt, a decrease compared to the same time last year, data from the state Department of Environmental Protection shows."
"The hunt is limited to archery during the first three days in October, while both guns and archery are permitted during the final three days.

A second segment of the annual hunt will be held Dec. 8 to Dec. 13. Hunters will be limited to guns during that week.

Under a provision in the law, the hunt can be extended into a third December segment if less than 20% of the estimated bear population is culled.

If the state calculates 30% of the bears have been killed, the hunt will be stopped early.

It’s unclear exactly how many bears are in New Jersey, but some state Department of Environmental Protection estimates put the population at around 3,000.

However, the state uses the number of tagged bears when calculating the percent of the population culled during the hunt. Only 15.7% of the tagged population was culled during the first segment, state officials said. "
https://www.nj.com/data/2025/10/njs-controversial-bear-hunt-just-killed-368-bears-and-its-not-over-yet.html

[ThePublius]

New Jersey does, indeed, have a bear overpopulation problem, with bears wandering into residential neighborhoods searching for food. They are not just cute, they are very dangerous animals, and will, on occasion, maim, kill, and even eat people. It's important to cull the heard.

[SRG2]

They are not just cute, they are very dangerous animals, and will, on occasion, maim, kill, and even eat people.

I assume you didn't know that the bears in NJ are black bears, which are shy, can readily be chased away even by house cats, have apparently killed only one person in NJ in the last 150 years and attack about one person every two years.

Brown bears, different matter

[ThePublius]

"have apparently killed only one person in NJ in the last 150 years"

Untrue.

There was an attack this year, and a fatal attack in 2014.

"Black bear attacks are rare in New Jersey, but have occurred, with the most recent being a woman being bitten by a bear in a Dollar General store in Vernon in September 2025. The state's most notable attack was the fatal mauling of a hiker in 2014 in West Milford. When encountering a black bear, remain calm, back away slowly, and make yourself appear larger by being loud and waving your arms, advises the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. "

[Hugh]

Written by Thomas Jefferson, July 4, 1776, about the abuses of England's King George III:

"For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.” “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.” “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Legislatures.” “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.” “Obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither.”

Sound familiar?

And yet the proponents of the unitary executive theory, who also claim to be originalists, would have is believe that's what the writers of the Constitution intended.

[wvattorney13]

You packed so much misleading and incorrect information in one post. That is pretty amazing.

[Stephen Lathrop]

wvattorney13 — Did he get the quote wrong? If not, what are you talking about? Is this a new trend, like Trump/MAGA retaliation against Canada for quoting Ronald Reagan accurately on tariffs?

[Stephen Lathrop]

Hugh — Excuse me please while a I hobby horse off your fine comment.

Please, VC libertarians, go back to the Declaration and read again the bill of particulars part. My civics teachers always skipped past that, to leave more time to drill down on what a fine specimen of rights-protective history it was.

I read the bill of particulars and stuck up my hand: "If this is all about rights, why are most of the specifics about government powers, and a list of offenses by Britain against colonial ambitions to wield those powers themselves?" I asked. Silly me. That was not in the lesson plan. I got the brush-off.

I mention this to counter assertions—heedless, habitual, and reliable as clockwork on July 4—that the DoI was written as a, "Rights first, then government," sort of proclamation. That was not in fact its purpose, nor is it a faithful summary of what it says.

Its purpose was to proclaim a new and independent sovereignty, which might afterward become the protector of whatever schemes of government the jointly sovereign People might choose at their pleasure. The DoI says that explicitly. It is astonishing to me that so few ostensible students of government even notice what is right there in the preamble, and afterward supported in detail with a bill of particulars.

I think this point matters a lot. It notes the starting point for a cascade of constitutional misinterpretations which have been rolling along like a fattening snowball ever since. If you do not get that sovereignty newly proclaimed on behalf of the People themselves was the whole point of the Declaration, then it is a short step before you end with a conclusion that government itself is sovereign. After that, all the rights go up for grabs, in contests among government officeholders to say who gets what. That is exactly what the Roberts Court is doing to the nation now.

[Poxigah146]

"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people"

Was TJ talking about Obama or Biden?

[Area Man]

So, is this y’all’s new thing? Just labeling everything you don’t agree with “unitary executive theory,” even if it has nothing to do with that theory?

Let me help you. No proponent of the UET thinks the president has the power to unilaterally impose tariffs. The people saying the president can impose tariffs are saying that *Congress has already given the president that power.* I don’t agree with those people who say Congress did so. But their argument isn’t based on the UET.

The same goes for deploying the National Guard. The argument is that Congress has given him that authority, not that he could do it on his own. Again, that is highly debatable. But their argument has nothing to do with UET.

I don’t even understand some of your other arguments. Has anyone claimed Trump created new offices, or obstructed naturalization laws? Trump is accused of doing lots of stupid things. And, in fairness, he does lots of stupid things. But I’ve never even heard of those accusations. And can’t all presidents, by exercising the veto power, refuse to pass migration laws? Again, what does that have to do with UET?

I happen to agree with the UET, but it isn’t above debate and critique. But it’s not what you apparently think it is. If you’re going to bitch and moan all the time, at least know what you’re talking about.

[not guilty]

According to Politico, it appears that some blastocystophiles are harshly critical of the Trump administration's meager efforts to make in vitro fertilization more readily available to those who have difficulty conceiving offspring. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/25/the-pro-life-movement-still-has-some-real-juice-how-trumps-promise-of-free-ivf-fizzled-00622464

What is it with these busybodies? Why do they regard it as any of their freaking business whether and how other folks reproduce or not?

In purely political terms, opposition to both IVF and abortion rights makes little sense for Republicans. Stable couples with enough disposable income to afford IVF are a natural Republican constituency. The demographic groups of females most likely to abort are also more likely to produce offspring who, if they vote at all upon reaching adulthood, are likely to favor Democrats.

This makes no sense.

[Mr. Bumble]

"What is it with these busybodies? Why do they regard it as any of their freaking business whether and how other folks reproduce or not?"
Forgetting the issue of the morality of abortion or IVF, should the government be paying for these procedures?

[Stephen Lathrop]

Bumble — Do right-wingers suppose an obligation in government to deliver right-wing-friendly programs at no cost? Or is the pretense to put aside morality mere hypocrisy?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Bumble, they said the same thing about the Abolitionists.

[Frank Drackman]

Shhhhh......(I'm trying to "shush" you)
If Afro-Amuricans figure out "Roe" resulted in 70-80 million fewer of them "shaking their bootie" (HT P Smails)
OK, depends on your model, but easily 500,000 Black Babies (OK, what are they? Tadpoles??) killed a year for 50 years, that's 25 million right there, and 1/2 were girls, so figure a few progeny from each, and we're into the 4th child bearing generation, so we're talking great grandchildren of murdered babies.....

[Malika la Maize]

Francis weeps for babies! We deserve a better class of edgelord.

Or, in Francis speech:

francis weeps for Babies we deserve a
better Class )of Edgelords) !!!

[The Margrave of Azilia]

It's no news to abortion opponents that Trump is willing to sell them out for votes. You are of course correct that, in the current corrupt state of public opinion, Trump can probably pick up votes by promoting the killing of human beings, provided they're (a) inconvenient and (b) small enough to "not look like us."

[Stephen Lathrop]

The Guardian reported today that a Honduran man was killed when struck by a vehicle as he bolted through traffic after being stopped by ICE on a Virginia highway.

Two points:

1. A Honduran immigrant may have had good reason to flee threats of violence in that country. He may suppose with reason that Honduran gangs also operate in this country. For such a person, masked, anonymous, unbadged, thugs driving unmarked vehicles might reasonably create fear of a gang reprisal, instead of a legitimate arrest.

2. The longer this nation permits irresponsible ICE, "law enforcement," tactics to continue, the more likely it will become that gangs operating internationally will try to exploit ICE-alike activities. Those would be not only convenient as terror tactics against gang members' targets living in the US, but also useful to intensify fear and despair in places like Honduras, by foreclosing prospects for safety abroad.

That is not a result which wise law enforcement policy, or wise foreign policy, should abet. Gang reprisals are often anti-family reprisals. Danger to US citizens—especially including children born in the US to immigrant parents—would also be implicated.

If those happen, can anyone imagine Trump/MAGA fans doing anything but hooting approval? On what evidence would anyone expect anything else?

In the current political climate, what means exist to hold criminally accountable politicians who visited such Gestapo-like activities on this nation? May we at least hope for future accountability if election results put anti-Trump/MAGA majorities in Congress, and later permit Democratic Party control of the Executive?

If we can hope for that, what does that portend for prospects of a free and fair US election come next November? Does anyone suppose Trump/MAGA government officers facing criminal accountability will stand meekly aside to permit any such election result?

[Frank Drackman]

He should have stayed in Honduras.

[ThePublius]

"masked, anonymous, unbadged, thugs driving unmarked vehicles"

Nowhere in that article does it say anything other than "masked." You made up the part about anonymous, unbadged thugs driving unmarked vehicles.

And then you made up a narrative about gangs pretending to be ICE agents.

Well, what is the truth about that unfortunate Honduran man? Was he in the country illegally? I presume he probably was, given that he fled; behavior inconsistent with innocence is an admission.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Approval predicted. Approval delivered. QED

[Michael P]

The lunatic left need to make things up because reality has a well-known pro-Trump bias. For some reason they are ideologically devoted to the 20% side of just about every 80-20 issue.

[Malika la Maize]

“behavior inconsistent with innocence is an admission.”

Yeah, the reneging on releasing the Epstein files does suggest fishiness.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Stephen, if people behaved themselves, ICE wouldn't need masks.

[JRipplefireEsquire]

Is it conceivable that Dem open border policies were what got us to where you either brusquely round up between 10 and 20.million illegal aliens or amnesty the unvetted lot of them? The voters conceived it and went for the first option. Do you think reoffering them open border days is a promising political platform? I haven't come across one Dem who thinks otherwise.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Masked Gestapo tactics in the U.S. are not, "brusque," they are criminal when applied against citizens, as they have been. And they remain unwise when applied against anyone. Why do you think you like them?

[Poxigah146]

The point is to impose fear on immigrants so they self deport and that future ones don't come.

[Frank Drackman]

That’s a Bing-O!!!!!!!!!!!

[JRipplefireEsquire]

I wish they all followed due process. And that legal remedies will be available to those wronged. Meanwhile, the restoration of law to Bidens lawless border fiasco continues. But I don't see the Dem party turning away from that in the future.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'd like to see the citizens interfering with ICE treated like the Jan 6 folk.

[SRG2]

That would mean, being treated like heroes by people like yourself, you'd claim that "I"CE welcomed the interference, and you'd support a president who pardoned them from any acts committed against ICE.

[Malika la Maize]

I’m rooting for the Jays, but wow last night.

The extent of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s postseason dominance is most clearly enumerated as follows:
Before this year, no starting pitcher had thrown a complete game in any round of the postseason since 2017. No starter had thrown a complete game in the World Series in a decade. No pitcher had thrown back-to-back complete games in the postseason since Curt Schilling in 2001.

Yamamoto broke the first drought in the National League Championship Series last week. He broke the second and third with nine sparkling innings in Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night, a 5-1 win for his Los Angeles Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/10/26/dodgers-blue-jays-game-2-yoshinobu-yamamoto/

[Stephen Lathrop]

Malika — Late in life I got the insight to understand that on first impression some folks judged me competitive, in an unseemly way. To offset that, I got myself a Red Sox cap, and that has worked like a charm. No one newly met thinks I am competitive anymore. I am surrounded everywhere with others who believe as I do that any team which would trade away Mookie Betts has little interest in being competitive. If not for the residual pain of that, I would be a Dodgers fan.

No matter what they do, nothing about the Blue Jays, from their anodyne blue north, with their anodyne blue everything, strikes me as anything but boring. I worked for years for a graphics design firm with an owner whose business methods included threatening to fire anyone who showed up for work in blue clothing. The place was a roaring success for decades, until the owner died. He loved warm colors. When he saw anything else, he exclaimed, "My pills, get me my pills!"

[Malika la Maize]

Where’s Kaz?

New data released Friday showed inflation heated up in September to a pace not seen since January, according to the first dataset to be released during the government shutdown.
The September consumer price index showed prices rising at a 3 percent annual rate — up slightly from 2.9 percent in August and above April’s post-pandemic low of 2.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/24/delayed-inflation-report-tariffs/

[ThePublius]

Yet, I paid $2.99/gallon for gas yesterday.

[Frank Drackman]

When corrected for Inflation that’s cheaper than it was in 1965, of course back then you got the Tetraethyl Lead to lubricate your Valves (and your Brain) and maybe a Knife Set

Frank

[Stephen Lathrop]

I saw some excellent looking beef yesterday, for twice the price of the halibut in the adjacent fish counter.

"Can I help you?" asked the butcher's helper.

"No thanks, I'm just here to admire the meat museum."

[ThePublius]

You know, people complain about the increase in beef prices, but at the end of the day, the marginal increase in cost to one person, or a couple, is no more that one or two Dunkin iced coffees. You can get beef on sale, too. Do you have a freezer? I just checked: my local market has, for example, USDA Choice Beef Petite Sirloin Steak Value Pack - 3.5 Lb, at $8.99/lb. That's pretty good! That's probably three one pound plus steaks at about $10.50 each, and for me, more that twice what I'd eat in one sitting anyway. And going out is not super bad, either. I went to a Texas Roadhouse Thursday. An 8oz. sirloin, loaded baked potato, green beans, and bread and butter for $15. Cooked to perfection, and of course, served to me by very nice waitstaff. The place was packed! Couples, families, indeed, 8 to 80. And there were dozens and dozens of staff working. No sign of inflation there.

So, I don't know. I'm on a fixed income, and I'm not feeling any pain regarding beef prices. Then again, I'm not feeding a family, and I don't eat that much.

[Malika la Maize]

Pubes loves his government so much he happily sucks it up when it costs him money, and so should you! I mean, how many dolls, or donuts, do you need? A little sacrifice for Dear Leader, please!

[ThePublius]

That's baloney. It has noting to do with my support for Trump, it's just the way things are now, and an observation about the relative costs of things. Who's responsible for the huge natural gas costs in New England? Well, Healy blocked three new pipelines, that might have something to do with it. But what are we powerless consumers to do?

[Malika la Maize]

With Halloween coming there’s also:

The price of chewing gum and candy has risen 39% since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

All the major chocolate brands have raised their prices, including Nestlé, Lindt, Hershey and Mars, which makes M&Ms, Snickers and Twix.

And they're resorting to tricks to make their treats, says David Branch, who tracks the cocoa market at Wells Fargo's Agri-Food Institute.
"We're seeing a lot more fillers going in," Branch says. "They're putting more nuts, less chocolate, keeping the price the same, just reducing the amount of cocoa cost."

Reese's makes a Halloween-themed peanut butter cup called "White Ghost" that's dipped in "white creme" instead of chocolate. KitKat's Halloween flavors include cinnamony "Ghost Toast" and marshmallowy green-colored "Witch's Brew," both very light on cocoa.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5582259/halloween-candy-prices-chocolate-cacao

[Mr. Bumble]

"...since February 2020,..."

[Malika la Maize]

Francis Ford Coppola, Who Says He’s ‘Broke,’ Is Selling a $1 Million Watch

The famed director will put some pieces from his personal collection up for auction later this year.

“I don’t have any money because I invested all the money, that I borrowed, to make ‘Megalopolis,’” he said in March during the “Tetragrammaton” podcast, speaking with the music producer Rick Rubin. “It’s basically gone.”

At the center of Mr. Coppola’s sale with Phillips is a timepiece that he designed himself in 2014 in collaboration with F.P. Journe, a Swiss watch company whose horological marvels are expensive enough to make Rolex look like Swatch.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/fashion/francis-ford-coppola-watch-auction.html

[ThePublius]

That's interesting. How could a guy who made so much money in his life have been so careless, so cavalier, as to not prepare, not invest and provide for himself? One shouldn't invest money in risky endeavors that one can't afford to lose. Now he has to sell his possessions to live? And about buying a million dollar watch; what the heck?

[Malika la Maize]

I think a fair amount of artists might not be great money managers.

[ThePublius]

Or they have lousy, or even corrupt, personal managers.

[Malika la Maize]

Of course. I mean, the World Series is going on, not that long ago (athlete not artist but similar position) Ohtani’s translator got into trouble for bilking him out of gobs of money.

[ThePublius]

Yes, it's a shame. A good manager for an artist or athlete should guide and advise them regarding investing money for their lives, allocating portions for "fun," and so on. They make decent money without being corrupt. There is probably a business opportunity for a firm that would audit artists' managers.

[Malika la Maize]

Agreed.

[Mr. Bumble]

Coppala has a long history of money problems (he had to sell his winery) mostly in order to finance his artistic vision.
Art for art's sake the money be damned.

[Malika la Maize]

Yes, and he also has had some experience with rolling the dice, taking on risk and loss but then eventually coming out ahead (Apocalypse Now). That can give a guy a feeling of invulnerability to try again when those around him tell (or should be telling him) to be cautious.

[Mr. Bumble]

Early success can do that.

[Poxigah146]

It's accepted as gospel that the Civil Rights Act public accommodation laws have made things better for racial and religious minorities, but for many things, the evidence says otherwise.

An example. Many restaurants in places like Chicago and New York City limit bathroom use to paying customers. Most of them don't really have an issue with a nice middle class white woman using the bathroom, but they can't let her use it without also letting the black homeless druggie use it, so they prohibit it for everyone.

From a utilitarian perspective, the solution is to allow businesses to impose de jure discrimination again. The law has not improved things in my example for blacks, it's only made things worse for whites.

[ThePublius]

It's not a race thing. There are plenty of white junkies who will camp out in bathrooms. Management can, if they care, use their discretion as to who may use their bathrooms, and just turn away obvious undesirables. But, it consumes personnel time and attention to vet those seeking accommodation, so it's just easier to deny access to all but paying customers.

[Malika la Maize]

Most fast food places are really pushing for you to go through the drive through or get mobile orders to go, they don’t want to have to clean dining areas and restrooms. I don’t blame them. Non-paying public shouldn’t use the restrooms, they’re not rest areas.

[Malika la Maize]

“The law has not improved things in my example for blacks”

This is a laughable statement. In 1955 over half of black families lived below the poverty line, by 1969 that had fell to a third and now is around a quarter. In 1960 26% more whites completed high school than blacks, by 1970 that fell to 19% and by 1980 that fell to 12%. Etc.

[ThePublius]

He's not talking about wealth or academic achievement, he's talking about access to supposed places of public accommodation.

[Malika la Maize]

Access to public accommodations is tied to wealth and educational attainment (having businesses and schools and other public accommodations not be restricted to you makes it a lot easier to attain things like that).

[ThePublius]

Not when managers exclude all in order to exclude blacks.

[Malika la Maize]

And yet there are all those darn statistics I cited which suggest these exclusions might not be significant.

[ThePublius]

You just like to argue.

[ThePublius]

Germany is insane.

They continue to destroy nuclear powerplant infrastructure while their electricity prices are triple those of the U.S. Can you imagine? For me, living alone, albeit in a big house, it would mean $300/month for electricity, in addition to the average gas bill of $500/month.

Business are closing, and leaving, because they can't make a go if it with those electricity prices. People are living colder in the winter, and sacrificing things like better food and clothing to pay the electricity bill. They country is going backwards. And, it's only due to ideology. Leftist, woke-ist ideology. No sensible, reasonable reason to do this. They should be building more nuclear plants, not destroying them! Geez....

https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1982070361887039792

[Malika la Maize]

Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) are acting only by leftist woke-ist ideology?

[ThePublius]

I don't understand your comment.

[Malika la Maize]

I doubt the CDU acted because of lefty woke-ist ideology, it’s more likely due to reaction to the Fukushima nuclear accident.

[Mr. Bumble]

Germany has tsunamis?

[ThePublius]

Well, yes, this all started in Germany in the wake of the Fukushima incident, an emotional, over-reaction led by Merkel. It made no sense then, and it makes no sense still.

[Malika la Maize]

Merkel was hardly a lefty woke—ist, instead of trying to shoehorn every bad thing into that maybe be more nuanced: it was a run of the mill risk averse politicians acting to counter a perceived panic caused by a disaster thing (see Simpsons the Bear Patrol episode).

[ThePublius]

She was woke. This nuke phobia continues under the current woke government.

[Malika la Maize]

Again, woke has become a word for anything to the left of you. Merkel was hardly woke, she acted like risk-averse politicians have to panics have for centuries.

[Mr. Bumble]

What panic?

[Bwaaah]

Environmentalism, characterized by anti-nuclear, anti-fossile-fuel, anti-development activism and policies, is a hallmark of the political left in Germany and in the U.S. and across the wealthier parts of the world.

The Democratic Party in the U.S. has been the popular political representative of regressive anti-development environmental policies for decades. That has included full-throated anti-nuclear advocacy.

But you know these things.

[ThePublius]

Paris Police Arrest Two Men in Connection to Louvre Crown Jewel Heist

Some idiot leaked this news to the media, hampering the investigation, which continues. Such leakers should be rooted out and dealt with harshly.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/10/26/paris-police-arrest-two-men-in-connection-to-louvre-crown-jewel-heist/

[Michael P]

If the news was leaked, why did the Interior Minister congratulate the investigators instead of criticizing the news release?

[ThePublius]

Well, once the cat is out of the bag....

“I deeply regret the hasty disclosure of this information,” Ms. Beccuau (Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor) said in her statement. She said that the leaked information would hinder “the 100 or so investigators who mobilized in the search for both the stolen jewelry and for all of the criminals.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/world/europe/louvre-heist-arrests.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20251026&instance_id=165171&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=55741502&segment_id=209344&user_id=1a4eba98b22b102feb084316d14a6ce7

[SRG2]

Amongst the many lies that infest Trump's speeches and tweets, the least believable of all of them was the denial, following a leak,. that Trump intends to name the WH ballroom after himself, and that he'd not given it any thought.

Report: Trump gives update on White House ballroom after name was 'leaked'

Trump denied he was looking to add his own name to the ballroom.

He said: 'I don't have any plan to call it after myself. That was fake news. Probably going to call it the presidential ballroom or something like that. 'We haven't really thought about a name yet', despite an ABC News report on Friday emerging that officials are already calling it The President Donald J Trump Ballroom.

There is absolutely no fucking way that Trump hadn't thought about calling it after himself, probably even before he'd decided what he wanted to build