Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[not guilty]

Folk wisdom teaches that the nut doesn't fall far from the tree. One nut named Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., however, has shown that he is decidedly the exception.

Cutting back on childhood immunizations?? WTF??

<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/us/politics/rfk-vaccines-hhs-trump.html&quot; rel="nofollow

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-vaccine-advisers-not-babies-153428052.html?.tsrc=1340&ncid=crm_-1285232-20251205-561--A&bt_user_id=BeArHzNbxl3yYk4YEtF7gik%2FRx4r%2BK4wGZWY2c35UYvG0XazSIRJEl5AouybeIsMI%2FGTDz55VOkf3UIQQ86Ot0EXgODsDifG7iBWcPButWEkQ2qILXK0aPA8tkzVVQM2&bt_ts=1764953330307

What does the self-styled "pro-life" crowd think of having a Health and Human Services Secretary who is pro-measles? Or does that simply not matter, because it doesn't involve interfering with the sex lives of women who are not too unattractive to get laid?

[Riva]

I understand there used to be “measles parties “ so children could get it over with back in the day. Maybe they never even invited you Not Guilty? Childhood traumas can stick with you but get over it.

[Krayt]

Some around here think you should be able to sue elected officials for deathly effects of their policies. In their mind does that extend to deaths from measles and other diseases preventable from vaccines, because vaccines were disclaimed from the Internet UFO crowd?

[Riva]

I don't actually know what you're referring to and I don't read minds. I'll leave the mind reading to the anonymous WP sources who knew Sec. Hegseth's intent.

[wvattorney13]

From your own link:

"But Kennedy’s advisory committee decided to recommend the birth dose only for babies whose mothers test positive, and in cases where the mom wasn’t tested.

For other babies, it will be up to the parents and their doctors to decide if a birth dose is appropriate. The committee voted 8-3 to suggest that when a family elects to wait, then the vaccination series should begin when the child is 2 months old."

Whether you agree or disagree with this it is hardly "pro-measles." The committee merely does not recommend vaccinating all babies at birth, but only some and the rest at 2 months. Any parent who disagrees may go ahead and immunize at birth. Maybe this is wildly stupid, but you would do better to accurately describe it.

Many, if not most of us were never vaccinated against Hep. B.

This is like everything else going on. You guys just cannot rationally and calmly state your objection to what is actually happening. You must grossly exaggerate and get hysterical about it.

[hobie]

[TwelveInchPianist]

A successful vaccine program requires trust in the government.

The government squandered a lot of that trust during covid.

[Glaucomatose]

The fact that RFK and his fellow antivaxx loons have spent the last five years attacking vaccines and promoting debunked quack cures for Covid is their fault, not the government's.

[TwelveInchPianist]

The fact that people find people like that credible and not the government is the government's fault.

And the fact that people generally don't trust the government with respect to vaccines is the government's fault.

[Kazinski]

Long tradition of leftist hippies not trusting vaccines.

Here is an article about a measles outbreak 2019 pre-covid on Vashon Island, which is only accessible by ferry from Seattle or Tacoma.

https://komonews.com/news/local/vashon-island-with-its-low-vaccination-rates-reacts-to-measles-outbreak-in-western-wa

In the California Hippie branch of my family my brother told me about a conversation he had with his Grandson in 2021:
Q: Why don't you get a covid vaccine?

A. I don't know, I've never been vaccinated for anything.

[not guilty]

My main point is that the self-styled "pro-life" crowd is strangely silent on any issue which doesn't affect women's sex lives.

As George Carlin said, they are not pro-life; they are anti-woman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZijLQGH1v0

[Armchair]

"Health and Human Services Secretary who is pro-measles? "

If you're just going to be dishonest, then...

[Bwaaah]

The truth appears to be insufficient to get NG where he's gotta get.

[Dr. Ed 2]

What the jackbooted fascism of Covid did was raise legitimate questions about all vaccines, questions which ought to have been asked long ago.

The era of blindly trusting big pharma is over, even if it does de-facto own the media.

[not guilty]

Trusting Big Pharma? Didn't he pass away in 2021? https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/media/rush-limbaugh-obituary/

And he was many things, but trustworthy was not one of them.

[Riva]

He must have forgotten that leftists prefer censorship to debating issues

[Michael P]

RFK Jr has been an antivax nut since long before COVID: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_Immunity

He was a very poor choice to lead HHS.

[Dr. Ed 2]

A loose cannon is not always a bad thing.

[Michael P]

I wouldn't mind having a loose cannon behind literal enemy lines, but I struggle to see when it would be desirable on my side or (regardless of partisan control) my government.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Who do you agree with—Hegseth that believes we lost Iraq because we killed too few Iraqis or Gabbard who believes we killed too many???

[Dr. Ed 2]

Both. How many years were we killing them?
It's a provable fact that the atomic bomb saved Japanese lives.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

lol, you supported invading Iraq!

[Dr. Ed 2]

Michael, what do you think a good auditor is?

[Michael P]

They're not a loose cannon. A good auditor knows the way things should be done, ways things are often done wrong, ways wrongs are covered up, and how to document what they find so that someone less expert understands the issue of any issues uncovered during the audit. In contrast, a loose cannon is characterized by danger from a lack of control (of the loose cannon); a good auditor needs to be in control to avoid causing damage directly. People might cause damage in response to being audited, to deficiencies being aired, or to remedial measures -- but those damage are not fairly attributed to the auditor or (directly) the audit.

[Bwaaah]

My opinion is that the FDA as an administrative body has convened capable panels to audit and contribute to the productive, usually healthful dissemination of drugs. Exceptions to the FDA's performance are most egregiously a result of Presidential overreach, typically for the purpose of servicing their political constituencies.

Setting aside the incredibly costly, time-consuming burden of clearing FDA approval, I marvel at the expansive content of FDA drug labels and their attention to relevant details. The FDA's deliberations are mindful of the great burden they place upon deployment of new drugs, as reflected in recent "fast track" efforts. There are compelling arguments that we over-regulate substances through the FDA, but not many compelling arguments that their work is without a strong rational basis.

Presidential overreach for political ends has been and continues to have significant adulterating effects upon scientific research. Some professional associations have also risen "above" science in favor of political and business interests. But the culture of science, of scientists, remains relatively unmoved. Those doctoral degrees in the hard sciences rarely come without doing real math and years of inculcation into rigorous foundational basics. When a person graduates from that process, he's the kind of damaged goods I want around the dialogs of science.

Both parties are guilty of egregious political overreach into our efforts at good scientific practices. I note that Democrats are particularly blind to how bad they are that way, while Republicans are less shameful about their pursuits of political self-interests (in sciences and elsewhere).

[Malika la Maize]

Recent disaffection runs deep!

[Joe_dallas]

I agree with MP that Robert Kennedy jr was a bad choice to lead HHS

He is a lunatic that is frequently wrong.
though whats the difference between the past hhs directors, Sane vs a lunatic, yet both frequently wrong.

[Glaucomatose]

Scientists don't have perfect information, but self-correct as information develops. True believer lunatics like RFK reject new information that doesn't align with their beliefs. There is, in fact, a difference.

[Joe_dallas]

Most everyone here on both the right and left, including me, agree that kennedy is a lunatic and should not be the head of the HHS.

Yes science does self correct (eventually ), yet, the self correction by the cdc during covid was very much anti-correcting with the cdc clinging to many discredited covid science theories, protocols, etc.

The point is rfk jr lunatic & bad policies are much different from prior other supposedly sane policies that are also wrong.

[Nelson]

“ What the jackbooted fascism of Covid did was raise legitimate questions about all vaccines, questions which ought to have been asked long ago.”

They have been asked. Repeatedly. For decades. The answer always comes back that they are safe.

Only the hopelessly deluded think that the next study is going to change everything. Vaccines are safe and effective. Sorry to pee in your Cheerios.

[not guilty]

CNN is reporting that the accused pipe bomber has told FBI investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/accused-dc-pipe-bomber-told-144231367.html?.tsrc=1340&ncid=crm_-1285232-20251205-560--A&bt_user_id=k9ZSzKQhGu86r5cJqxF718oXB4hWkwwrR1vwpmQSOrZIXayzjHOtcAhN7CYBdjUSHpENhKQNI5Nn0iUkAgX9Fc%2FCZx386eseFl6JdpdbKT5sT47jfqZ3jGJOtGNr8jfK&bt_ts=1764952610240

What are the odds that he is trying to set up a request for a preemptive pardon from Donald Trump?

[David Nieporent]

Pop quiz: the lunatics who identified a former capitol hill police officer as the culprit based on phrenology "gait analysis" will:

a) Admit their insanity and apologize;
b) Double down and claim that this arrest is a coverup;
c) Pretend that they never accused the woman; or
d) blame Biden.

[Kazinski]

I did of course post a link, I also said:

"for entertainment purposes only".

Were you not entertained?

The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though.

As Joe himself said "Sonofabitch he got fired".

[grb]

Kazinski : "The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though"

Sure - since you abandoned honesty and sold your soul to the MAGA Baal long ago. But apparently we have to go thru this one more time: Yes, Biden demanded Shokin be fired. This was because :

01. That was the order of the President – who wasn’t concerned about Hunter.

02. Firing Shokin was a publicly-stated United States foreign policy objective. This had zero to do with Hunter.

03. The official State Department position was Shokin had to go. Hunter was irrelevant to this.

04. The U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine gave a speech in Odessa demanding Shokin be fired. Hunter wasn't a consideration to him.

05. Firing Shokin was a bi-partisan position of the U.S. Senate (including Lindsey Graham). Their group letter demanding this action failed to mention Hunter.

06. The European Union insisted Shokin be fired. The EU doesn’t care a bit about Hunter.

07. A World Bank official policy goal was Shokin had to go. The World Bank didn’t worry about Hunter, then or now.

08. The IMF insisted on Shokin’s firing. None of its reasons concerned Hunter.

09. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development issued a policy statement demanding Shokin’s ouster. Hunter’s name doesn’t appear in the document.

10. There were street demonstration in Ukraine against Shokin alone. Every anti-corruption group in the country insisted he must go. When the prosecutor was finally pushed-out, the Kyiv Post described him as one of the most loathed figures in the entire country. I’m betting none of that was based on Hunter.

So what's left of your tin-foil-hat conspiracy, Kazinski?

[Kazinski]

Joe Biden's own words for one:

https://www.c-span.org/clip/campaign-2018/user-clip-biden-tells-story-of-getting-the-ukraine-prosecutor-fired/4820105

Plus the fact that Hunter Biden's boss at Burisma, Zlochevsky, was a fugitive from Ukraine at the time.

Now I'm not disputing Shokin may of been corrupt, and was shaking down Zlochevsky, which is sad because it means Joe Biden was selling his office cheaper than a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor.

In fact Zlochevsky is still a fugitive to this day, it was never appropriate for Hunter to be on Burisma's board, or Joe to be point man in Ukraine while Hunter was getting paid a million a year, for nothing more than Joes influence, while he was.

Mykola Vladyslavovych Zlochevsky (Ukrainian: Микола Владиславович Злочевський; born 14 June 1966) is a Ukrainian oil and natural gas businessman, politician, and an oligarch. Zlochevsky was Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from July 2010 until April 2012 and was the deputy secretary for Economic and Social Security of the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 until February 2014 when Euromaidan occurred.[1][2][3][4] He is wanted by Ukrainian authorities for attempting to bribe the prosecutors in order to drop all charges against him.[5]

[grb]

Kazinski : "The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though."

Since every. single. fact. is against Kazinski, maybe that's enough. After all, why pile on? But there's also his "motive" to consider:

Per Kaz, Biden secretly snuck into Ukraine to demand the exact thing already demanded by the White House, State Department, Congress, European allies, and major international economic organizations because .... (wait for it) .... Shokin posed a "danger" to Burisma.

Which is laughable counterfactual horseshit too. In fact, Shokin was Burisma's guardian angel. The UK opened an investigation into the company and oligarch who owns it, Mykola Zlochevsky. In April 2014, the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom froze $23 million belonging to Zlochevsky's companies as well as his personal assets. They needed information from Shokin to prosecute but he refused any cooperation. As a result, the UK had to shut down the inquiry and unfreeze everything. Service performed, though for God alone knows what price. Probably Burisma got a better deal than that Crypto Guy to buy a pardon.

Zlochevsky couldn't have been concerned about a threat from Shokin because the latter never charged or prosecuted a single oligarch during his entire time in office. If your loony-toons wack-job tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory depends on the prosecutor making an extra-extra special exception for Zlochevsky alone, that's a sign you're reaching.

[grb]

Kazinski : "The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though."

And then there's this:

"David Sakvarelidze was five months into a new job as Ukraine’s reformist deputy chief prosecutor when a witness came forward with intelligence that would change the course of everything. The witness, a sand producer in the Kiev region, complained of men extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars. It took a while to persuade the man to give evidence. But when he did, and the investigation began, the trail led to two of the country’s highest-placed prosecutors.

A search of the men’s apartments revealed a scene that looked like a comic heist: bags full of cash, diamonds and other precious stones. But that was not the only incriminating evidence. Documents seized at the time indicated the men appeared to have a connection to the top prosecutor in the land, Viktor Shokin. Police found copies of Shokin’s passports, property registration certificates and even his license to carry firearms. One of the two men, it transpired, was Shokin’s former driver who had subsequently climbed the ranks behind his boss."

Yep, the famous "Diamond Prosecutors" case. And what became of this corruption inquiry? Shokin shut it down, all investigation halted, all questions stopped, his two prosecutor underlings released, and their bags brimming with diamonds returned. I'm sure this took an effort. Shokin couldn't just pardon them like Trump. Corruption is so much easier for some than others.

Another quote from the linked article below:

“When I joined we were doing 80 per cent honest endeavor, and 20 per cent corrupt,” says one prosecutor, who began his career in the late 1990s. Now things have switched, and it’s only 20 or 30 per cent honest. The main thing that matters is making the boss happy, and ultimately that means making the president happy. Everything else is for sale.”

Kazinski's hero Shokin!

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/viktor-shokin-ukraine-prosecutor-trump-biden-hunter-joe-investigation-impeachment-a9147001.html

[grb]

Kazinski : "The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though."

Let's check-in with the Financial Times:

Quote : "European and US officials pressed Ukraine to sack Viktor Shokin, the country’s former prosecutor-general, months before Joe Biden, the former US vice-president, personally intervened to force his removal, people involved in the talks said. Mr Biden did not act unilaterally nor did he instigate the push against Mr Shokin, despite suggestions to the contrary by supporters of US president Donald Trump, people familiar with the matter said."

Quote : “All of us were really pushing [former Ukrainian president Petro] Poroshenko that he needs to do something, because the prosecutor was not following any of the corruption issues. He was really bad news,” said an EU diplomat involved in the discussions. “It was Biden who finally came in [and triggered it]. Biden was the most vocal, as the US usually is. But we were all literally complaining about the prosecutor.”

Quote : "Prominent Republican senators, including Rob Portman of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, were on a similar push at the time, calling for “urgent reforms to the prosecutor-general’s office and judiciary” in an early 2016 letter to Mr Poroshenko."

Quote : "Ukrainian officials have said its anti-corruption authority had been investigating Burisma for the company’s actions between 2010 and 2012, which predated Hunter Biden’s arrival on the board in 2014. They say he was never accused of any wrongdoing and the inquiry was dormant at the time Mr Shokin was removed in 2016."

https://www.ft.com/content/e1454ace-e61b-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc

[grb]

Kazinski : "The Biden-Shokin posts I will stand by forever though."

By November 22, 2015, the official position of the US government was that Shokin had to go according to a State Department document meant to prep Biden for an upcoming trip to Ukraine. A quote from that document (linked below) :

"The time is ripe for President Poroshenko to reanimate his reform agenda. You should recommend that he give a state of the nation speech to the Rada in which he reenergizes that effort and rolls out new proposed reforms. There is wide agreement that anti-corruption must be at the top of this list, and that reforms must include an overhaul of the Prosecutor General’s Office including removal of Prosecutor General Shokin, who is widely regarded as an obstacle to fighting corruption, if not a source of the problem."

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-08/VPBidenTPUkraineMeetingShokin.pdf

Once again, this was Biden's official White House instructions BEFORE he went to the Ukrainian meeting.

[Kazinski]

CNN is also reporting that the pipe bomber started buying components for his pipe bomb in 2019.

"In 2019 and 2020, Cole purchased multiple items consistent with the components used to make the bombs at Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s and Micro Center stores, according to the affidavit."

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/us/brian-cole-jr-fbi-investigation

He couldn't have known there would be contentions about the election when he made the first overt act.

When you want to make a pipe bomb, any excuse will do.

But the real question is why someone who wants to make a pipe bomb for well over a year, decides to make a pipe bomb that he knows can never explode then deploy it where it will get the absolute maximum attention possible.

Seems an ego thing, not a political act.

[Michael P]

He couldn't have known there would be contentions about the election when he made the first overt act.

"there would be contentions" should have been a no-brainer, but yes, he could not rely on the specific contentions to rationalize his previous-year purchases.

It is curious that the bombs have been reported to have such shoddy design and construction, such as using kitchen timers that normally run for less than an hour. Did he intend the bombs to go off overnight? Did he never test his design? Did he just build them very poorly?

Buying lots of parts over a long time period suggests that he intended to build actual bombs rather than scary fakes, but if he was incompetent a bomb-builder as it seems, why wasn't he similarly incompetent at covering his tracks (considering the almost five-year delay in arresting him)?

[Kazinski]

The reported details are he used components that could be used as a pipe bomb, but they were not assembled in a fashion that any competent person would ever expect them to explode. When there aren't wires that go from the timer to the detonator, then you aren't really trying.

Which is a good thing.
.

[Brett Bellmore]

My reaction when I first saw the bomb years ago was, "that's just a prop", and I still think that. The goal wasn't to blow things up, but just to create a big fuss.

[Mr. Bumble]

Now, who built the stage prop gallows?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Bumble, think logically for a minute.

Mike Pence weighs what -- 170 lbs? A gallows works by abruptly stopping a falling weight and that is a factor of four times the actual weight. So we are now talking 680 lbs -- well over 1/4 ton -- and do you honestly believe that rickety gallows could have held that amount of weight?!?

It was made out of 1 inch pine boards which are actually 3/4" thick after finishing. A single board with a 3-4 foot span -- there is no way that could have held 200 lbs, let alone 680 lbs! Not to mention that the thing was so rickety that it looked like it would fall apart as they pranced around with it.

It's called "symbolic"....

[Mr. Bumble]

Ed, in your own way you are as insufferable as Il Douche and Lathrop.

[ducksalad]

Three comments:

1. Look up "short drop hanging"

2. Online beam calculator says deflection of less than 0.06" even at 680 lbs if used in the strong direction. I think the horizontal could make it. Brett could verify. Verticals buckling very unpredictable but cross section is comparable to a vaulting pole.

3. Even though you're irritating sometimes, please don't try to prove you're right with a self-demonstration.

4. Having said all that, yeah, it was a prop - because the capitol is full of better options to hang or defenestrate someone.

[David Nieporent]

What makes Dr. Ed's comment particularly dumb is that it relies on the notion that if it wouldn't work that this proves they knew it wouldn't work.

[bernard11]

It's just an extension of the idea that an insurrection that failed was therefore never an insurrection at all.

[Michael P]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15358571/January-6-pipe-bomber-autistic-recluse-computer-nerd-grieving-loss-pet-chihuahua.html

If "he has the mind of a 16-year-old" is true(-ish), that would explain a lot about his incompetence -- and probably an inability to process conflicting or controversial inputs, such as about the 2020 election.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I doubt he is even at a 16-year-old level.

[Dr. Ed 2]

We don't know how mentally ill he is, Brett.

There is something called "magical thinking" -- he could have believed that his thoughts alone would make the wires act as if they were connected or something. Mental Illness....

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

I thought the same thing until he turned out to be Black.

[not guilty]

Mr. Cole buying supplies during 2019 and 2020 is consistent with the averments of the affidavit supporting the criminal complaint. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/media/1420196/dl?inline

Just as his now kvetching about the 2020 election being stolen is consistent with sucking up to Donald Trump in anticipation of seeking a pardon.

[Kazinski]

Seeking a pardon after Trump already lost?

You aren't really that stupid are you?

Or are you strategizing his insanity defense?

[not guilty]

No, Kazinski. I suspect he is presently seeking a pardon by sucking up to Trump in the wake of his arrest.

Are you so dumb that you didn't get my intended meaning? As Lewis Grizzard quoted his foot washing Baptist preacher grandfather, "Damn, brother, I don't believe I'da told that!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpGr_RUioiM

[Joe_dallas]

The lefts first several attempts to tie the pipe bomber to trump fell flat. Maybe NG thinks his new line of BS will fool people.

[Glaucomatose]

How’s the right’s attempt to tie the pipe bomber to the FBI going

[Malika la Maize]

Remember jd is the guy who said Kirk’s shooter was trans and then the next day challenged someone with “who said the shooter was trans?”

[TwelveInchPianist]

He wasn't far off. The shooter did, in fact, have some trans in him.

[Joe_dallas]

Twelve - as I have pointed out numerous times, Malika continues to lie about my statement

On the day of the shooting, someone made a comment that the shooter was trans, Someone else asked where the info come from. I stated that there were reports circulating to that effect. Approximately 2 hours later, I added a follow up post to the effect that those reports were speculative and we should wait for better info.
Malika has been corrected multiple times on those points, yet he continues to lie about what I stated. That is typical of his behavior.

[Bwaaah]

Malicia is not prone to self-correction. Not incapable. But not prone.

[Kazinski]

Here is what is Grandmother said about him, he doesn't seem that sophisticated:

"But Loretta, his grandmother, said Cole has no party affiliation and never votes.

Rather, he keeps to himself, living in his mother’s basement in Woodbridge, Virginia, where he’s been grieving the loss of his beloved pet chihuahua, while working a data entry job for his family’s bail bonds business.

‘He’s not politically affiliated with anything,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail during an interview at her home in Gainesville, Virginia. 'He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.

'He’s borderline autistic,’ she added. 'He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking - What the hell? What’s going on?’

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'm thinking more NGI, NG.

There were (and are) people so far to the left that they make no distinction between Brandon & Trump. Many of them consider the entire system to be corrupt.

I think that's what this guy is. if you think that the election itself is illegitimate, it doesn't matter who runs, let alone wins.

[not guilty]

Per 18 U.S.C. § 17:

(a) Affirmative Defense.—
It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under any Federal statute that, at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. Mental disease or defect does not otherwise constitute a defense.

(b) Burden of Proof.—
The defendant has the burden of proving the defense of insanity by clear and convincing evidence.

Planning the offense for well over a year, as well as assembling the bomb components in advance and placing them in multiple locations on the day before Congress was to certify the electoral count, is inconsistent with an insanity defense. Kvetching about the election results more than five years after the election may indicate an unbalanced personality, but it does not advance any planned insanity claim.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I'm saying he's nuts...

[Commenter_XY]

Quite low, near zero = What are the odds that he is trying to set up a request for a preemptive pardon from Donald Trump?

Brian Cole needs a psych evaluation.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Will he argue that the recent election-related pardon handed down by Trump applies to him?

("as well for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting
fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election")

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-11-14/pdf/2025-19928.pdf

[Michael P]

Probably. It would be no stupider than most of the other things you people argue.

[Joe_dallas]

Looks like leftists will embrace this line lunacy to link this guy to Trump since all the prior lunatic attempts to link the guy to Trump failed

[Kazinski]

Its one thing to float that before reading the pardon proclamation, but to keep pushing that line after reading it is absurd.

[Estragon]

If this is Kash’s attempt to save himself from the knives that are clearly out for him, it strikes me as woefully misconceived. All it does is bring focus back onto the ridiculous pardons specifically, and J6 more generally.

[Riva]

Well Not Guilty, there’s also evidence that this alleged bomber is a nutcase in the BFM/Antifa mode. Why the Biden FBI that left no stone unturned to arrest any grandmother who walked by the Capitol on or about Jan. 6 was completely disinterested remains a mystery if his case could have done nothing more than bolster the false insurrection narrative they were obsessively pushing.

And even assuming he is what you claim, it only shows that the Trump administration doesn’t give a shit about lawfare narratives. They’re only interested in non political law enforcement.

[not guilty]

The Trump administration is "only interested in non political law enforcement"??

Is that as true as everything else you have said, Riva?

[Riva]

“Truth” and initial news reports based on anonymous sources are two very different things. Ask the WP.

[hobie]

Like I told you insurrectionists yesterday: MAGA is in a pickle with this one. Do you pardon yet another MAGA terrorist and get the 'MAGA pardons terrorists' label [which, to be fair, didn't stick when all the other J6ers were pardoned]; or do you make an example and prosecute this guy so that the only J6 convict happens to that one neegro. [Which again, to be fair, the systematic erasing of neegroes hasn't registered with the cult either]

[Riva]

No they're not. Only leftists weaponizing the law have those issues. The Trump administration is only interested in law enforcement. They don't give a shit about your political narratives.

[SRG2]

The irony is that had he been found much earlier, then he would already have been covered by Trump's pardon.

We know he's a lone nut because only left-wing bombers and shooters are part of a cabal, conspiracy, or "movement". Right-wing bombers and shooters are always lone nuts. Just ask pretty much any right-winger here.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Schumer's going for a THREE year largess tells me he has given up on the 2026 election and is thinking of 2028.

If Trump was what the left claims he is, he would make a deal with Schumer -- deport AOC and Omar in exchange for silence on this. So what if Occasional Cortex was actually born here...

[bernard11]

WTF is a "three year largess?"

The phrase makes no sense at all.

[Stephen Lathrop]

The Guardian today reports that the Trump administration has acted to bar H1-B visas for foreigners who have practiced editing to exclude Trump/MAGA lies from publications—which Secretary of State Rubio has characterized as. "censorship." A quote from the article:

According to NPR, which said the memo was sent to US foreign stations on Tuesday, diplomatic officials are instructed to turn down visa applications from anybody who worked on factchecking, content moderation “or other activities the Trump administration considers ‘censorship’ of Americans’ speech”.

They must scrutinize for evidence an applicant’s work history, including going through their LinkedIn profiles and other social media accounts, and looking for mentions in media articles of “activities including combatting misinformation, disinformation or false narratives, content moderation, compliance, and trust and safety”.

[Kazinski]

They are also going to start limiting work permits to 18 months rather than 5 years for temporary visa holders.

Sounds like a good idea.

[jb]

Sounds like a terrible idea. H-1B visas are for skilled workers, who are the most obvious example of immigrants beneficial to the economy.

[SRG2]

It's axiomatic to Trump and the cultists that the only immigrant who benefit the US is Melania. Musk was, but he's been airbrushed out of the picture.

[A Japanese Student]

Whoever wrote that memo should spend a day doing content moderation. Most of the reports are scams, scams, scams, copyright, and in some cases, CSAM.

[Bunny495]

Problem with HB1 visas is they drive down wages. The average pay for an HB1 employee is less than 100k which is a pittance for a "skilled worker". I just asked AI about the cost for applying for an HB1 visa and there are so many add on and exemptions I gave up trying to understand the final cost. Point is for what I will call a top tier skilled worker paying the new $US100,000 would be nothing for someone being paid top tier wages but would stop the bringing in average foreign workers who will work for underpaid wages.

[ducksalad]

Competition brings down prices. That's the problem you've discovered?

[SRG2]

Initially they might, but a resultant rise in GDP will lead to an increase in wages. Linearity is for squids.

[not guilty]

Immigrants will often do work that most Americans find distasteful.

Hey, two of them even married Donald Trump.

[Dr. Ed 2]

If there are 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota, and half are here illegally via some sort of visa fraud, that's 40,000 to go.

Then there is the Manhattan Institute's investigation of fraud in Minnesota -- all linked from here: https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-somali-fraud-al-shabaab-terrorists-immigration-welfare

"The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums in remittances, or money transfers, from Minnesota to Somalia. According to reports, an estimated 40 percent of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. In 2023 alone, the Somali diaspora sent back $1.7 billion—more than the Somali government’s budget for that year. [emphasis added]

The fraud from Minnesota alone exceeds the country's total budget.

[Dr. Ed 2]

The direct url for the above quote is:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-welfare-fraud-somalia-al-shabaab

And this is just Minnesota -- not mentioned is all the fraud in Maine.
Lewiston, once a French-Canadian city has become South Central LA, with children carrying rifles on the streets and the rest.

[Estragon]

“children carrying rifles on the streets and the rest.”

Lemme guess— they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the cats?

[Michael P]

The city seems to have a definite teenagers-with-guns problem, although rifle vs handgun is not specified in these stories:

https://wgme.com/news/local/lewiston-parents-teens-meet-with-police-to-discuss-gun-violence-in-city-crimes-shots-fired-shooting-incidents
https://www.themainewire.com/2025/12/what-happened-to-lewiston-maine-a-proud-mill-city-now-on-the-brink-as-leaders-stay-silent/

[Estragon]

“Children carrying rifles on the streets and all the rest”

One wonders what the “rest” entails. In any event I think we can go ahead and file this one under “directionally true”.

[Michael P]

So that puts Dr. Ed one up on you?

[Estragon]

Not a Scott Adams fan, I take it

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well the above cited articles articulate it -- drug use, drug overdose deaths, and public parks that the decent people can't use.

Fraud has been a problem for years -- back in the LePage administration, they found that the amount of SNAP business being conducted by a tiny little store exceeded that of a nearby super-supermarket and that involved fictitious sales and EBT credits being bought for 50 cents on the dollar.

[ducksalad]

Article summary:

Two years after the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history, Lewiston is still reeling. Eighteen men and women were murdered by 40-year-old Army reservist Robert Card, who indiscriminately opened fire in a bar and a bowling alley there. It's the Somalis' fault!

[Dr. Ed 2]

Robert Card is dead & buried -- it is other perps now...

Although it appears that Somali organizations have stolen some of the relief money donated to the shooting victims.

[hobie]

Kyle Rittenhouse

[TwelveInchPianist]

No, the other children.

[SRG2]

We need to know what colour those kids are. If they're white, they're merely exercising their 2A rights - as we all know.

[hobie]

2025, $14B medicare fraud: white Estonians
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-324-defendants-charged-connection-over-146

2023, $200M medicare fraud: Elizabeth Hernandez (white lady, hispanic name)
https://www.acfe.com/acfe-insights-blog/blog-detail?s=case-study-florida-nurse-convicted-200-million-medicare-fraud

1985, $780M medicare fraud: White guy. Also had Jeb Bush lobby for him.
https://www.gao.gov/assets/t-osi-88-1.pdf

1997, $1.7B medicare fraud, Columbia/HCA: CEO Rick Scott [yeah, that MAGA Rick Scott
https://web.archive.org/web/20110604180435/https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2006/04/17/story1.html

You mask-hating patriots have any more bullshit windmills you want me to slay?

[David Nieporent]

If there are 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota, and half are here illegally via some sort of visa fraud, that's 40,000 to go.

If there are 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota, and 100% are here illegally via some sort of visa fraud, that's all of them. On the other hand, if there are 80,000 Somalis in Minnesota, and none are here illegally via some sort of visa fraud… the math is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Mr. Bumble]

Easy to say from Whitelandia where there are no Somalis.

[Kazinski]

Reason is reporting:

"European Union slaps Elon Musk on the wrist: As of today, X became the first company to be fined (to the tune of $140 million) under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) for violations including the platform's "deceptive design" that allows users to mislead others about who they really are as well as prohibited advertising practices and refusal to provide researchers with access to public data."

I think we need to put at least another 140 million in tariffs on the EU. I would pick one country in particular for the extra tariffs, French Wine, German Cars, Italian Ham, or Belgium chocolates, to really isolate the pain. Or perhaps 140 million of tariffs on every one of this sectors.

[Commenter_XY]

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/12/05/eu-fines-elon-musks-x-140-million-for-not-following-censorship-law/

Agree on tariff response, but target the EU organization in Brussels with the 140MM tariff (to be divided amongst all EU members). Do that enough, and we might see more 'Brexit' responses.

[Malika la Maize]

Not sure why we should be working to defend Musk’s blue check and ad disclosure policies.

[Joe_dallas]

not sure why you think censorship is a good idea

[Malika la Maize]

Disclosure isn’t censorship, read some Scalia.

[Joe_dallas]

The issue is censorship, not disclosure

[Malika la Maize]

“violations including the platform's "deceptive design" that allows users to mislead others about who they really are”

[Joe_dallas]

In other words censorship

Your deflection is BS -

[Malika la Maize]

Don’t know what disclosure is?

[Joe_dallas]

To both malika and benard

"Bloomberg reports that the European Commission has imposed a €120 million ($140 million) fine on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, for breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). This marks the first penalty issued under the new censorship law, which aims to regulate online platforms and “protect” users from illegal content and disinformation."

Its still a fine for censorship even though they call it disclosure.

[bernard11]

You think it's censorship if a site requires commenter to use their real names?

And even if the US thinks it's a bad policy why do we want to punish the EU for it?

All you isolationists suddenly care because it's Musk?

[Life of Brian]

You think it's censorship if a site requires commenter to use their real names?

Pedantically that's more chilling speech than censoring it, but the net result is the same.

And even if the US thinks it's a bad policy why do we want to punish the EU for it?

Perhaps the same general reason we've historically wanted to punish countries like North Korea, China, Iran, etc. for oppressive policies toward the speech of their own citizens?

[Joe_dallas]

Bernard - its censorship regardless of who is involved.

Are you trying to defend the censorship because its musk ?

[TwelveInchPianist]

"You think it's censorship if a site requires commenter to use their real names?"

Of course. In the US, anonymous speech is protected by the first amendment. See, for example, McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n.

[Josh R]

I thought the fine wasn't for permitting a person to remain anonymous to the public at large, but rather for giving blue check marks to people who have not been verified as claiming (privately to X) who they are.

That doesn't strike me as censorship. Rather, it strikes me as a disclosure regulation that is justified by preventing scams. For example, you don't want the Chinese government to have a account with a blue check mark when X has verified them as being a US-based charitable organization.

[hobie]

I see directly above in this very comment section a report on Trump pressuring visa applicants that didn't sufficiently quote Trump. I saw earlier tjhis year a student on visa get arrested for signing an oped about ceasing the GAZA war.

I see law firms and universities sued for viewpoint discrimination. I see the Pentagon excluding all journalists that do not 'ask the right questions'.

You hayseeds are making my job easy today.

[Armchair]

Censorship is how Malika and friends like to keep in power.

People can't protest what they don't know about.

[bernard11]

Censorship is how Malika and friends like to keep in power.

Judging by Hobie's comment and a lot of other things it's Trump, not Malika, who is using censorship to stay in power.

[Estragon]

Wow, just tariffs, no orbital bombardment of judges?

[Armchair]

"I think we need to put at least another 140 million in tariffs on the EU. "

Agreed

[bernard11]

Agreed???

Why. For what? To defend Musk's honor.

You don't want to defend Ukrainians from being killed by Russians, but Musk gets offended by an EU regulation and you're all over the case.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Can a Member of Congress be deported by ICE?

I'm thinking of Rep Omar (D-Somalia) and while the bleep would hit the fan if Trump had the guts to do it, if she's here illegally, if she got here via visa fraud, then she should go back.

It once was the case that immigrants were glad to be here, and were more patriotic than anyone else. I'm thinking of elderly Cambodians proudly pointing to the American flag on the wall and my not having the heart to tell them that the stars actually go on the left (i.e. they had it backwards).

If these immigrants don't like it here -- fine, let's buy them plane tickets home.

[Commenter_XY]

No, she cannot.

We already have CBP home: free airline ticket home + 1,000 cash.

[ducksalad]

How does that work?

If there's some remote way to get the tickets and cash, it's going to be fraud all the way down.

If they have to show up in person someplace, aren't they just going to be arrested? Even if they're not going to be arrested, why would anyone believe it?

[John F. Carr]

The first step is revoking her citizenship. If the government had good evidence to do that Trump would have already tried. Then she becomes removable and spends a few years fighting removal until Democrats take over and pass a special law granting her citizenship. Congress can and does exempt individuals from the normal naturalization process.

[Dr. Ed 2]

It's more complicated than that --

1: Are Members of Congress exempt from arrest? State legislators usually are because arresting the opposition is a stunt that used to be pulled to win legislative votes.

2: If she is no longer a citizen, can she serve in Congress?

The body determines qualifications of members, so it would be what -- a majority vote of the House to expel her?

This is a real hot potato...

[santamonica811]

In your feverish brain; it's a real hot potato. In the 98% of the country with non-paranoid minds . . . it's the very essence of a "no-brainer."

[SRG2]

It once was the case that immigrants were glad to be here, and were more patriotic than anyone else.

And they may still be more patriotic - but about the US as it was before Dear Leader ascended to the throne.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Also, the Guardian reports that a British medical journal has formally retracted a decades-old article which endorsed the cancer safety of glyphosate weed killer.

The headline from an article originally published in something called, "Retraction Watch:"

Glyphosate safety article retracted eight years after Monsanto ghostwriting revealed in court

Google that to read the details.

The linked article says this: "The now-retracted article appeared in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology,"

The Retraction Watch article does not allege any new data to make a case that glyphosate does cause cancer. It instead details court allegations that Monsanto corrupted the authorship of the original article—which has been among the most-cited papers on the fraught topic of glyphosate safety. The article generalizes to say the paper was, "ghost written," by Monsanto, and published under the names of 3 ostensibly-independent medical researchers, two of whom are now dead. The third has not returned queries.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Grrrrrr........

[Stephen Lathrop]

My personal take is that this disclosure is barely relevant, except to plaintiffs suing over questions of human health. The larger question of glyphosate ecological safety remains easy to answer: it makes no ecological difference whether a chemical agent designed to kill everything in a farm filed except the crop does that by one mechanism orby another.

Whether a toad, or a bird, or an insect, for instance, dies by direct poisoning, or because its entire chain of sustenance has been wiped out, is a question with the same ecological answer either way. It will always be an ecological catastrophe to raise crops that way.

[David Nieporent]

It will always be an ecological catastrophe to raise crops that way.

That’s still Dr. Ed levels of stupid. The less pesticide used, the better for the environment.

[Mr. Bumble]

"A History of Pesticides from Sumerian to DDT

Civilizations have used pesticides for thousands of years. With the development of agriculture and permanent settlements also came agricultural and household pests. With pests came the need for pest control. The earliest known use of pesticides was by the ancient Sumerians, who used powdered sulfur to control insects and related pests more than 4,500 years ago. Early Chinese also developed pesticides, using mercury and arsenic compounds around 1100 BCE or earlier to combat pests."

https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/technical-documents/technical-article/food-and-beverage-testing-and-manufacturing/flavor-and-fragrance-formulation/pesticides-and-residuals-history-and-food-safety

[Stephen Lathrop]

Nieporent — What do you think cropland is? Not part of the environment?

For at least thousands of years, agricultural land has been an inseparable part of human-animal-plant-microbial ecology. Now you conclude it is advantageous to take all that land, and annually kill almost every living thing on it except a genetically engineered crop?

Where does an impulse to think that way even come from? What goal do you think it serves? Or are you just in denial that all that killing actually results?

You remain a self-deluded deluded urbanite, Nieporent, without any notion what natural processes keep you alive. In our lifetimes, we know we have experienced world-wide massive declines among wild mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds and insects. Likewise among wild plants. What may be happening microbially remains less noted.

The declines encompass both species, and populations within species. Natural evidence shows no sign of any previous comparable event, except perhaps in cases of a few global extinctions triggered by catastrophes which remain poorly understood.

Not all stupidities are comparably dangerous. A person could be stupid about crossword puzzles without risking much. Being stupid about running an economy risks more. Being stupid about weapons of mass destruction takes the risk to another level—but with an advantage to make risks imposing. They become dramatically and suddenly obvious.

Compared to that, the ecological derangements happening now are less obvious, and hence more dangerous still. Because human response to counter them requires concerted action. And because folks blinkered as you are do not notice them, and thus leave themselves free to dream that disordered actions which serve political liberty will likewise prove efficacious naturally.

But natural virtue is served differently, not by disordered action, but instead by purposeful inaction. What today's natural world needs most is a concerted leaving alone.

Your cherished libertarianism is incompatible with any such goal. Which is the answer to my question above, where does the impulse to think as you do come from? Ecological catastrophe is an outcome so imposing that to save your habit of thought you must deny the obvious, while accepting a risk to lose everything else. In short, it is a stupidity more culpable even than the one concerning weapons of mass destruction.

[Krayt]

Food production continues apace. You natter about the edges with irrelevancies, talking points not that different from the religious saying the end of the world is nigh.

Yet things are better than ever. We've long since blown past predictions of Malthusian starvation by 2x or more, and the result from freedom-based capitalism? Our biggest problem isn't starvation, but obesity.

Shall I piss thee off? Very well then, I piss thee off. You're no different than RFK, Jr., a scare tactics salesman pushing intimations.

Are there problems? Sure! And they get addressed. But the end of the world is not nigh. It's further away than ever. You know, as actually measured by numbers, health, and longevity.

Obesity, what a wonderful and historically novel problem to have!

[Bwaaah]

Amen.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Krayt — Food production is a second-order priority. The first order priority is to sustain natural capacity to support food production. Natural capacity to support food production was my principal focus. You chose to bypass that, in effect offering a subject change instead.

You, like Nieporent, show by your commentary a motivation to avoid a subject on which you seem ill-informed. But you, like Nieporent, are not forthright about what that motivation is. That makes your commentary unpersuasive. Why not see if you can engage forthrightly. Let's narrow the question way down, to two issues among thousands. See how you do with these:

1. After centuries of exploitation without sign of notable decline, the commercial North Atlantic cod fishery collapsed to far lower levels of productivity. Despite heroic efforts to reverse the collapse, beginning in 1992, the outlook remains bleak.

2. Major declines in insect pollinators are becoming general. Luckily, some staple crops do not require insects for pollination. Maize, for instance, is wind pollinated. Unfortunately, many other crops do need insects to continue in production. No comprehensive plan to address that problem is evident anywhere.

So go ahead and explain what your advocacy can do to either alleviate those two problems, or failing that, to make them insignificant.

[Bwaaah]

SL: "Major declines in insect pollinators are becoming general"

Upon seeing the instability of honey bees during the onset of so-called "Colony Collapse Disorder," industry and the USDA have shown heightened vigilance (as I would expect). In my examination of USDA honey bee surveys, here's what I see:

* From 2016 to 2025, total honey bee colonies have increased slightly. For example, the survey increased from 2.59 million colonies in 2016 to 2.63 million in 2025.

* From 2016 to 2024, the cost of pollination of surveyed crops were lower than inflation for the same period, i.e. the real cost of pollination appears to have gone down during that period.

On what do you base your belief that there are major declines in "insect pollinators," and due to what cause (other than, you know, man), and to what effect (for, you know, man)?

[hobie]

I hope the vax nuts don't take down glyphosphate. I really like the product.

[Stephen Lathrop]

hobie — Systematic annual killing of almost every plant and animal species across ~ 20% of the area in the contiguous 48 states is more worrisome than whatever you plan to do. Targeting weed plants one at time between patio flagstones is so trivial by comparison that it becomes unrelated to any ecological issue worth public focus.

[hobie]

Well, I ain't engaging in silent spring level stuff. Just every once in awhile I get an unkillable invasive or bush. Then I break out my Roundup

[David Nieporent]

First, you overestimate the amount of roundup use. Second, I reiterate: by using an effective herbicide, that allows fewer overall acres to be used for agriculture, which leaves more acres untouched.

[Bwaaah]

Glyphosate has an excellent safety profile.

I suspect farmers, many of whom use glyphosate, have much greater knowledge and interest in the sustainability of their practices than does Stephen Lathrop.

[Stephen Lathrop]

No, Bwaaah, people who organize and conduct crop raising activities as if they were running an extractive industry prove by their conduct that their interests have little to do with long-term sustainability. Advocates who excuse extractive agricultural practices encourage the crop raisers to profit maximally year-to-year, with no heed for sustainability. Instead the advocates turn to optimism, to assure the crop raisers that when the next crisis arrives, another technological fix will arrive to take care of it. On that basis the crop raisers roll the dice.

No one even knows what that next fix might look like, only that if you stake world population growth on having it turn up, it had better be there on time. Which means in turn that if the rules have to change to save human lives, every other consideration will get bypassed in time of emergency. Down that road lies inevitable systemic collapse, followed by famine on an unprecedented scale.

[Bwaaah]

Did you know that by the late 1800s, less than 30% of Vermont was forest? Today, it's 80%.

Do you remember what city air used to be like in the sixties? Do you remember when fishing hauls went unregulated? Do you remember when there wasn't an EPA? Do you remember when everybody dumped anything wherever they were? Do you remember when wolves were almost extinct? Bald eagles?

Have you been watching mortality statistics? Hunger statistics? Forest management? Water management?

The world is not standing still, Stephen. People are seeing problems and reacting to them, with self-interest in mind. Not dumb-ass self-interest like the moronic picture you paint. Real self-interest, including radical notions like "there are ecosystems on which my livelihood depends."

Try to keep up, Stephen. Your type of muckraking makes for scary stories. But you show blind disregard for intelligent response and progress.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Nieporent — You are unacquainted with farm management practices. No farmer takes it upon himself to proportion resource allocation to world demand. Each farmer strives to get the biggest crop he can out of his farm investment.

If a new technology comes along to make crop raising more economically efficient, that just means that land previously too laborious, or too input-intensive, to devote to production becomes a newly-rational scene for profitable effort.

Actual practices in rural America bear that out. Weedy fence rows are a thing of the past on newly efficient farms. Now it's all crops from wire to wire. Wetlands vegetation gets killed by glyphosate, to increase productive acreage.

Economically, each farm is an independent unit, engaged in a trade war against all the others, with the highest per-acre grossing operations winning the right to continue in business. The others fall by the wayside, awaiting consolidation to make them bigger and better candidates to exploit technology.

That means that a practice to reduce cultivation by excluding any potentially profitable acreage is economically unthinkable. If as you seem to think, glyphosate makes profitability easier, that just means more cultivation of previously marginal land.

[Bwaaah]

Yeah. Because farmers do whatever the destructive hell they want, and government regulators stand by watching with their thumbs up their asses, and surrounding communities ignore all the destructive signs, and nobody but the stupid people see the dangers you see.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And then there is this:
Harvard Law School visiting professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea—who told authorities he fired a pellet rifle outside a synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur "to hunt rats"—agreed to self-deport after ICE arrested him Wednesday.

Does anyone other than Ilya want to try to explain why he shouldn't be deported? Or -- well -- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot....

This man is anti-gun, an anti-gun activist, and takes what is not much less lethal than a .22 rifle (and what was legally defined & regulated as a "firearm" until 1994) into an urban environment (Brookline is surrounded by Boston, and would be part of Boston were it in the same county) to "shoot rats"? outside a synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur? In Massachusetts?!?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???

https://freebeacon.com/campus/rat-hunting-harvard-law-professor-agrees-to-self-deport-after-firing-pellet-gun-near-synagogue-during-yom-kippur/

[wvattorney13]

At first I thought he was calling Jews "rats."

But it seems from the article that he was using to to vandalize car windows of people outside the synagogue and when the police showed up at his house he made up a ridiculous story about "shooting rats."

[Kazinski]

Current NFL playoff percentages
AFC:

1.Patriots (11-2) >99%
2. Broncos (10-2) 99%
3. Jaguars (8-4) 79%
4. Ravens (6-6) 69%
5. Chargers (8-4) 61%
6. Colts (8-4) 72%
7. Bills (8-4) 90%

NFC

1. Bears (9-3) 76%
2. Rams (9-3) 96%
3. Eagles (8-4) 95%
4. Buccaneers (7-5) 84%
5. Seahawks (9-3) 93%
6. Packers (8-3-1) 89%
7. 49ers (9-4) 90%

Pretty wild that the current #1 seed Bears have the lowest chance of making the Playoffs of any of the top 7 NFC teams.

I'm not convinced that any of the top 7 AFC seeds will make the Superbowl, my pick would be the Texans, or possibly the Bills at #7.

For the NFC, I'd just pick a slip out of a hat between the Packers, Rams, 49ers, and Seahawks.

Defense wins Championships, unless its the Bills, then its offense.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Kazinski — I doubt the Bills will even be a favorite against the Patriots at home. I think the tougher question in the AFC is whether the Patriots or the Broncos become the number one seed. It currently seems unlikely that any other teams have a shot at that.

The Broncos, who will likely finish with the tie breaker against the Patriots, have only one road game left against a plausible opponent. At home, in thin air, at the end of the season, the Broncos have always proved nearly unbeatable. You watch opposing linemen on the bench, struggling to get air between rotations.

I doubt the Broncos would beat the Patriots at Gillette, and I doubt the Patriots could beat the Broncos in Denver. That makes me think that to have a chance at the Super Bowl, the Patriots need to win out, and hope the Broncos lose one or more, so the tie breaker does not figure in the outcome.

If that happens, then I think the Patriots will be favorites against any teams in the AFC. They would need to win only two games at home, after an initial bye. No other team in the AFC is so favorably positioned. That makes the Patriot's upcoming post-bye-week confrontation against the Bills look like a must win for the Patriots, whose road to the Super Bowl will otherwise likely run through Denver.

By the way, barring injury, Patriot quarterback Drake Maye looks like the real deal. He continues to improve. Earlier sack-prone choices seem not to happen so much anymore.

Maye is not Tom Brady, but he has already shown better accuracy with the long pass than Brady ever had. That makes the Patriots lightning-strike dangerous against any opponent. I think they might turn out a plausible Super Bowl favorite.

[Stephen Lathrop]

Kazinski — By the way, I think by your own criteria, you might be wise to put just two slips in that NFC hat: the Rams and the Seahawks. They seem to have proved themselves the defensive elite of the conference.

[Kazinski]

Funny that. If the Seahawks beat the Rams in two weeks on Dec 18, that means the 49ers could take the NFC West on the last weekend of the season.

All three of them have 9 wins, but the Niners have an extra loss.

If they all end up 12-4 the 49ers will have the tiebreakers, I think.

[Kazinski]

Correction, if they all end up 13-4.

[Malika la Maize]

After this week’s game the Bears have a tough schedule.

[Mr. Bumble]

Kaz, Qualika and the rest of you fans might enjoy this piece on the Raiders (Oakland) and Steeler's rivalry from the 1970's.
https://spectator.org/the-nfls-criminal-element-remembering-the-raiders-steelers-rivalry-of-the-1970s/

[jb]

"Defense wins Championships, unless its the Bills, then its offense"

Given the number of Super Bowls the Bills have won, apparently the exception proves the rule.

[Kazinski]

Honestly I would have to question the motivation of anyone who would file a lawsuit like this:

"The city of Asheville must pay five white residents who filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were racially discriminated against when they were rejected from a volunteer board that advises the city on equity, according to a news release from a Western North Carolina group. WNC Citizens for Equality said the Human Relations Commission of Asheville posted application forms indicating “white persons were automatically excluded from serving unless they could prove a ‘plus factor,’” such as being gay or transgender or living in public housing."

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article313367040.html

Would you really want to be part of that circle jerk?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Having to live with what it produces -- yes....

[Michael P]

I've heard that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", and governments tend to look to that kind of board for policy advice. Becoming a member of such a board is one way to speak up against bad policies advocate by other such boards.

[Brett Bellmore]

Not really, but it seems it was an effective way of drawing attention to Asheville doing something indefensible.

[Bwaaah]

You'd be better off building a boat.

[wvattorney13]

I don't think they really want to be a part of the organization. They saw the application and immediately imagined a payday because the application is so cartoonishly illegal.

So they applied to get rejected and file the lawsuit.

[hobie]

White man getting picked on again, Kaz?

[Kazinski]

I don't think they are getting picked on, being excluded from that Commission seems like the nicest thing they could possibly do for them, even though it is illegal.

[Commenter_XY]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/12/05/federal-judge-orders-epstein-grand-jury-transcripts-unsealed/

Took long enough. Still more to go.

[Life of Brian]

From the 25-line order:

The Act applies to unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Consequently, the later-enacted and specific language of the Act trumps Rule 6’s prohibition on disclosure.

Jim "not guilty, but hopelessly headstrong" Cramer hardest hit.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And proof that "Dumb" is only half a word: https://freebeacon.com/democrats/proud-of-my-alma-mater-dem-senate-candidate-mallory-mcmorrow-praised-white-privilege-seminar-that-included-trip-to-racially-segregated-conference/

"White Privilege" in Kentucky. Yea....

[Kazinski]

Hobie is an enthusiastic supporter of White privilege in Cleveland.

[hobie]

What privilege?

[Kazinski]

Chortling that you don't have to worry about crime in your 'hood', while your Black neighbors keep their curtains drawn, they have plenty of reason to fear crime because they are targeted at a much higher rate than Whites, 85% of homicide victims in Cleveland are Black.

But Hobie likes to rub it in that he doesn't have much to worry about because he's White.

[hobie]

Bro, they block the windows to hide from authorities (all authorities, not just police surveillance). Although that is not something they necessarily need to worry about as much today, a couple centuries of it make habits that are hard to break.

[Bwaaah]

I think you got some real stuff there. Makes sense.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

"Trump’s Security Strategy Focuses on Profit, Not Spreading Democracy

President Trump’s new National Security Strategy describes a country that is focused on doing business and reducing migration while avoiding passing judgment on authoritarians."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/us/politics/trump-national-security-strategy.html

Proud to be an American!

More here:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-5-2025?utm_source=%2Finbox&utm_medium=reader2

I would rather not be on this road to perdition.

[Michael P]

The NYT and Heather Cox Richardson are priceless sources of bad advice on international and security policy.

The phrase "rules-based international order" seems to be having a moment recently, probably from efforts by worthless bureaucrats who realize their worthlessness is ever more evident. The order that keeps putting places like North Korea on UN human rights bodies and that gives Russia and China vetoes over resolutions against military expansions is breathing a death rattle.

[Bwaaah]

Or as they were called in less mature days, "international norms." Somebody should report this subversive shit to the United Federation of Planets.

[hobie]

"Their vision of “our country’s inherent greatness and decency,” requires “the restoration and reinvigoration of American spiritual and cultural health,”[That's the 'Christian' part] “an America that cherishes its past glories and its heroes, and that looks forward to a new golden age,” [That's the 'white' part] and “growing numbers of strong, traditional families that raise healthy children.” [That's the 'heterosexual' part]

[Commenter_XY]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/climate-change-nature-study/2025/12/05/id/1237288/

Oooops. Where are the Climate Covidians?

[Michael Ejercito]

What is a Climate Covidian?

[Mr. Bumble]

Hockey Stick Mike and his believers?

[Joe_dallas]

That type of study is one of the major reasons that there is such low confidence in climate science. The activists (faux scientists - aka climate scientists) make a lot of S--- up.

[Brett Bellmore]

"But after the study was published, other researchers found that economic data from Uzbekistan from 1995 to 1999 had skewed the results. Without Uzbekistan, the 2100 damage forecast fell to 23%, not 62%."

Good God. The economy of Uzbekistan is 0.18% of the world economy. The size of the mistake necessary to have that result is utterly staggering. They must have been off by several orders of magnitude!

And it took this long to notice?

[Mr. Bumble]

You'll never find what you aren't looking for.

[jb]

Yeah, there's no skeptics of climate research. That must be it.

[Bwaaah]

Not many doing climate research.

[Malika la Maize]

One might take the lack of skepticism of the qualified people who study a field about a theory in that field as a pro for that theory, but I get as the recently disaffected liberal you claimed to be YMMV….

[Bwaaah]

Tell me the liberal values you affirm that you think I deny.

[Bwaaah]

You imply that it is helpful that qualified people in a field of study should lack skepticism of their theories. Do you believe that?

It is my belief that good scientists, in any field, should be skeptical of just about everything related to their work, especially their own beliefs. That's an important aspect of critical thinking.

(It's a good practice in other fields too.)

[Glaucomatose]

Do you demand that geneticists be skeptical of gene theory?
Evolutionary biologists be skeptical of evolution?
Geologists skeptical of gravity?
Physicists of the atom?

Scientists don't have to pretend mountains of evidence don't exist just because you want to keep sealioning.

[Mr. Bumble]

Real science is fueled by skepticism.

[Bwaaah]

Skepticism is not denial. That you are incensed by the implications of your rhetorical questions suggests you are neither comfortable with, nor well-versed, in the philosophies of science.

Indeed, a comfortable answer to all of those questions, for scientists, is "yes" (although I wouldn't demand skepticism; I'd expect it). Go talk to some. You'll see.

[Glaucomatose]

More accurately, denial is not skepticism, and an ideological refusal to acknowledge two centuries of aggregated scientific evidence and discovery and an insistence that a phenomenon happening all around is in real time isn't the same thing as being open to new information. At a certain stage, scientists move on to research the implications of past discoveries, and don't continue trying to refute people who refuse to see what's already been shown.

[Bwaaah]

Only by knowing and seeking the best possible arguments against our beliefs, and having done so, seeing what remains uncontradicted, can we attempt to ascertain what truth may be therein.

That's not a one-time effort. It's part of the iterative process of science.

[Kazinski]

What's interesting is the difference in between the different disciplines of science in their belief in CO2 caused warming.

By far the most skeptical discipline is physicists.

Now you might say what do physicists know about ecology, or biological impacts. But the theorized mechanism of global warming is purely physical, the absorption bands of long wave infrared by gas molecules consisting of 3 or more molecules. 2 molecule gases, like O2, and N2 don't absorb IR photons, and they are about 96-98% of the atmosphere (this is normally put at 99%, but that ignores H2O which is by far the most potent greenhouse gas at up to 4%, while CO2 is .04%)

The real action in understanding GW, and CO2 saturation points (at what point more CO2 won't absorb any more heat), heat transmission in the atmosphere via kinetic theory of gasses, and of course the Stefan Boltzman law.

Most climate scientists are studying anything but the actual science of the mechanics of AGW.

In short if you are studying the Uzbek economy you aren't really a climate scientist.

[Glaucomatose]

“By far the most skeptical discipline is physicists.”

Got a cite for that claim? You realize that atmospheric physics is an entire discipline, right?

[Kazinski]

William Happer, Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Koonin who was Undersecretary of Science in the Obama Administration are all prominent physicists that are skeptics.

John Clauser who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022 is a self proclaimed "climate denier".

Happer is probably best known Atmospheric Physicist among them and co-authored this paper:

Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases
W. A. van Wijngaarden1 and W. Happer

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.03098

[Life of Brian]

One might take the lack of skepticism of the qualified people who study a field about a theory in that field as a pro for that theory

"More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!"

[Glaucomatose]

There’s some irony in that joke, seeing as literally some of the same people at the Heartland Institute who spent decades trying to pretend there was scientific uncertainty about the link between smoking and lung cancer have been the ones trying to pretend there’s scientific uncertainty about the link between human activity and climate change.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Fleming did --- it's how he discovered penicillin. Floating soap (Ivory Snow) was someone forgetting to shut off a mixer before going to lunch and accidentally beating a lot of air into a soap mix.

Abnormalities from the expected in electrical, water, or even computer time usage (back when the latter was billed) have found things ranging from drug production to communist espionage.
--
It's the difference between quantitative and qualitative research, the latter asking why the numbers are what they are.

[David Nieporent]

What long to notice? It was published in April 2024, and by November 2024 they had "noticed." Then they had to figure out what the problem was, and then retracted it once they had.

[Malika la Maize]

The conservative website the Blaze published a report last month naming a female former Capitol Police officer as a “forensic match” for the person who placed pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of Jan. 6, 2021, fanning persistent speculation on the right that the government was implicated in both the pipe bombs and the attack on the Capitol.

“This might just be the biggest scandal and conspiracy in American history,” one of the Blaze reporters, Steve Baker, wrote in sharing the story on X.

But after the arrest Thursday of a suspect who lives with his mother and works in a Northern Virginia bail bond office, the Blaze deleted its blockbuster story, adding an editor’s note that said, “we consider the values of fairness and accuracy to require retraction of this article.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/12/05/jan-6-pipe-bomb-blaze-retraction/

[Mr. Bumble]

So are you damning them for running the original story or praising them for retracting it?

[Malika la Maize]

Just noting their error.

[David Nieporent]

I'm not MlM, but both! Retracting it is good, and is itself a sign of good journalism. (Just like the climate science study discussed above is a sign of good science.) Everyone screws up; legitimate professionals admit it. That does not change the fact that the story was obvious garbage from day one, relying on a conspiracy theory and some kook who claimed to do "gait analysis," which isn't a real thing.

[CommentMonkey]

Well this is fantastic news. Now Steve Baker will be free to devote his prodigious talents to tracking the shadowy conspiracy involving the Chinese government's data mining operatives, the polio vaccine, Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and the Loch Ness Monster. It may turn out to be the greatest scandal since the Klingons blew up that grain silo on Neptune.

[Malika la Maize]

[Michael] Jordan’s highy anticipated appearance followed dramatic testimony from Heather Gibbs, the daughter-in-law of race team owner Joe Gibbs, about the chaotic six-hour period in which teams had to sign an extension or forfeit the charters that guarantee revenue week to week throughout NASCAR’s 38-race season.

“The document was something in business you would never sign,” said Heather Gibbs, who is also a licensed real estate agent. “It was like a gun to your head: if you don’t sign, you have nothing.”

Charters are the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR it guarantees every chartered car a spot in every race, plus a defined payout from the series. The system was created in 2016, and during the two-plus years of bitter negotiations on an extension teams begged for the renewable charters to be made permanent for revenue stability.

When NASCAR refused to make them permanent and gave the teams six hours in September 2024 to sign the 112-page extension, 23XI and Front Row were the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse. They instead filed the antitrust suit and the trial opened Monday to hear their allegations that NASCAR is a monopolistic bully. 23XI is co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row is owned by fast food franchiser Bob Jenkins.

https://apnews.com/article/nascar-antitrust-lawsuit-michael-jordan-gibbs-5d47be8ca9f298aec86bed707f96057b

[Mr. Bumble]

...and in news from the Pacific theater of operations in the war on drugs:
"Incredible footage shows the moment a US Coast Guard sniper fired on a drug boat in the Pacific Ocean before seizing more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15358221/Coast-Guard-sniper-drug-boat-cocaine.html

[Malika la Maize]

Some of us have been Reason readers for long enough to remember when the “war on drugs” was a lamentable or mock worthy thing in libertarian circles.

[Bwaaah]

I admit that I haven't read [much] Reason recently. Has it changed its position away from that? (It would surprise me if it did.)

[David Nieporent]

MlM is engaging in the dumb double guilt-by-association, first by conflating the VC with Reason, and then by conflating the VC commenters with the VC.

[Bwaaah]

That was my theory. But I thought maybe I missed something.

[Longtobefree]

How many more innocent fisherman must die?

[Michael P]

The sniper killed the shit out of that engine. I'm sure the poor fisherman has no idea how those drugs got on his absurdly overpowered boat; they were cleverly hidden in plain view on an oversized dinghy.

[ThePublius]

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and taking that as sarcasm.

[Glaucomatose]

None, if they just hire one of Trump's former campaign aides to lobby for them, apparently.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Over 20,000 lbs and figure 6,000 lbs for the truck (it will be more) -- you would actually have to have a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) to drive that load in a truck!!!

(A CDL is required for GVW of 26,001 and above.)

Cocaine is roughly the same density as water, so 20,000 lbs would be about 2,400 gallons of cocaine, and to put that into perspective, the average two axle (six tire) home heating oil delivery truck holds about 3,000-3,500 gallons. Those long LP (propane) tanks that you will see adjacent to restaurants and sometimes homes -- those are 500 gallons.

Almost five of those tanks -- and that's just the powder, not the packaging. This is a bleep-load of cocaine!

[hobie]

Anyone point for me where in the CFR cocaine smuggling is a capital offense? Asking for a friend.

Does it really matter to MAGA that all these sailors are going to be tried for murder just to get your brownie kill count?

[ThePublius]

They didn't execute the boat drivers, they destroyed the boat; that the drivers died is just unfortunate collateral damage.

And about your 'brownies' comment: you are the most racist commenter here.

[David Nieporent]

They didn't execute the boat drivers, they destroyed the boat; that the drivers died is just unfortunate collateral damage.

That's not how it works. If police suspect crime is being committed in a particular location, they can't just blow up the location and say, "Oh, too bad people died too."

[ThePublius]

That IS how it works, for drug smugglers at sea, who refuse orders to stop and heave to! We need a lot more of this.

[hobie]

"That IS how it works

No it is not. Jesus..what is the matter with all you people? This is why it is pointless to argue with MAGA. If you think people's lives are pointless...we have absolutely nothing in common...Not as Americans, not as people

[David Nieporent]

Doesn't that dumbass Coast Guard sniper know that you're supposed to try to murder all the people on the boat?

[Mr. Bumble]

You're normally a fuckwit but you've taken it to a new level today.

[not guilty]

Were the people on the boat perhaps white? The Daily Mail article does not indicate.

[Mr. Bumble]

Bevis and Butthead learn about White Privilege:

https://x.com/UltraDane/status/1996769678581289253?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1996769678581289253%7Ctwgr%5E849057aa10f6633777593ea8f89bcd218da3e5e5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F760703%2F

[Malika la Maize]

The Fabergé egg locket was an extravagant homage to “Octopussy,” the 1983 James Bond movie about murder and jewelry smuggling that includes a scene in which Bond deftly swaps a real Fabergé egg for a fake one at an auction.

Crafted in 18-karat gold and decorated with green guilloche enamel set with 60 white diamonds and 15 blue sapphires, the egg opened to reveal a miniature gold octopus with two black diamonds for eyes.

Last week, a man walked into a jewelry store in Auckland, New Zealand, picked up the egg and then swallowed it, the police said. When officers arrived, he was arrested and charged with theft.

After the man underwent a medical assessment, the only thing the police had to do was wait. They assigned an officer to monitor him around the clock until, finally, six days later, the jewel-encrusted egg, which appeared to be roughly the size of a large grape, was recovered on Thursday night.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/world/faberge-pendant-swallowed-recovered.html

[Mr. Bumble]

Talk about crappy duty...

[Bwaaah]

And the perp, clinging to what dignity he had left, couldn't pass the thing for six days. (Or was that just false hope?)

[Bwaaah]

YOU SAID DUTY!

[Mr. Bumble]

For Martinned2 who apparently keeps holy the Jewish Sabbath:
https://x.com/orenbarsky/status/1997033619710197965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1997033619710197965%7Ctwgr%5Ed8dc36b8082e336ea5c0f946d2384d8359908b9c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F760758%2F

[ThePublius]

"The Netherlands pulling out of Eurovision [Eurovision Song Contest] over Israel’s participation reminds me how, for years, the Dutch have proudly framed Anne Frank's story as one of Dutch people protecting Jews.

But in reality, it is a story of Dutch people who turned them over to the Nazis."

Can Martinned say 'antisemiet?'

[Malika la Maize]

That’s pretty facile. Dutch persons may have informed on them but it’s also true that Dutch persons risked much to hide them. Your Dear Leader is into ascribing collective guilt to whole nationalities for the bad acts of a few, but you don’t have to follow him in that.

[ThePublius]

How do you get a Trump angle on this? Is everything connected to Trump in your mind?

[jb]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60024228

[bernard11]

Or it's a story of of some Dutch people protecting the Franks, and others betraying them.

The lumping of all the Dutch into one category is insane.

[ThePublius]

January 6 pipe bomb suspect is an 'autistic recluse computer nerd'... and he is NOT a Trump supporter, family claims

And he's not a white guy, as Jake Tapper reported.

Who can you trust these days?

[jb]

Apparently not the people who have been claiming it was an inside job for years.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Covering it up -- i.e. electing not to find him -- well could have been.

Bongino put a major investment in manpower in catching him, and in the larger Jan 6th hysteria, it was justified.

But if this had happened on a random Tuesday in Peoria, I'm not so sure it would be. No one has convinced me that those devices could go "bang" on their own -- that "as built", they could have worked.

A computer nerd could have found instructions on the internet, I think he's just plain crazy. BUT cui bono -- who benefited from him being unidentified???

[ThePublius]

The jury's not in on that yet. He could have been put up to it, a convenient dupe; not unlike the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping conspiracy.

[Dr. Ed 2]

If he really was autistic, I'd be very surprised if he wasn't put up to it.

[jb]

What I heard was that Buddha made him do it, but then after he planted them Jesus flew down from heaven and disarmed the bombs. And the FBI had this on video, but someone used Biden's autopen to sign a double top secret executive order to destroy the tapes because they didn't want to have to admit that Jesus was real.

And I haven't seen any evidence at all that this theory is wrong.

P.S. Have you guys ever heard of Ted Kaczynski?

[Sarcastr0]

White nationalist National Security Strategy.

"Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European."

https://whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf
Page 27.

[ducksalad]

How can you be so disrespectful, Sarc?

Over the past nine months, we have brought our nation - and the world - back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster. After four years of weakness, extremism, and deadly failures, my administration has moved with urgency and historic speed to restore American strength at home and abroad, and bring peace and stability to the world.

No administration in history has achieved so dramatic a turnaround in so short a time.

[Glaucomatose]

You're forgetting, Trump also kept all the hurricanes away from the US coast this year, and brought good weather to the world.

[Michael P]

Perhaps that reflects Gaia's approval of Trump? Or maybe you go in for the Old or New Testament deity instead.

[David Nieporent]

1) It takes a lot of chutzpah for a MAGA to lament that some NATO countries may not "view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter." That describes Trump and his people to a 't'.

2) Extreme continental drift? What continent do Trump people think that NATO countries will move to? They mean "non-white," not "non-European."

[Sarcastr0]

"Middle East partners are demonstrating their commitment to combatting radicalism, a trendline American policy should continue to encourage. But doing so will require dropping America’s misguided experiment with hectoring these nations—especially the Gulf monarchies—into abandoning their traditions and historic forms of government."

::spends 4 pages hectoring Europe for their domestic policies::

[Joe_dallas]

Here is a guy that Democrats dont want deported

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/12/dfl-insider-deported.php

[jb]

Man, MAGA propaganda blogs are really dumb. To base this in something where there's actually some facts and inquiry into the truth, here's a link to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals case considering his situation:

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/434/1074/515992/

Now, back to Powerline:

An illegal immigrant from Somalia with a long rap sheet for fraud

As far as I can tell, he was convicted once for fraud, in Canada, for misrepresentations he made in his asylum case. Hard to understand how that qualifies as a "long rap sheet".

Notwithstanding being an illegal, Ibrahim appears to be a DFL Party insider:

As evidence of this, there are pictures of him with two Democratic elected officials and one socialist who lost a primary. By this logic, Jeffrey Epstein was a Republican Party insider.

How did Ibrahim come to America? He was deported from Canada for fraud

He came to the US from Ethiopia when he was 14 in 1989, which is why Canada deported him back to the US.

Apparently they take asylum fraud seriously in Canada, unlike the U.S... The judge cited Ibrahim’s “complete lack of credibility,” in rejecting his petition.

The US also found "that Ibrahim failed to prove a well-founded fear of persecution due primarily to Ibrahim's complete lack of credibility."

So... seems like the US and Canada came to the exact same finding.

Here in America, Ibrahim has continued his life of crime.

Other than being in the country despite a deportation order, there's no indication that he was involved in any crimes in the US.

Maybe stop reading sources that lie to you in order to try to make you mad all the time?

* I'm going to admit that it seems a little wild that this case ended up before the 8th Circuit as he seems pretty obviously removable, but on the other hand I don't have a good idea of how to make sure there's reasonable due process without allowing for normal legal appeals.

[Bunny495]

Well this should be interesting. As Nancy use to say 'we have to pass it to see what is in it". Seems the Big Beautiful Bill included a provision to slap a $US5,000 “apprehension fee” on illegal aliens when they are caught by ICE.

https://archive.is/HwpoT

[Michael P]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/12/a-massive-chinese-backed-port-could-push-the-amazon-rainforest-over-the-edge/
(The port is on the Pacific coast, but the Amazon and the rest of South America might become relatively accessible by rail.)

Is choosing not to destroy first a city and then a rainforest another example of the US "fucking this whole thing up", as Sarcastr0 described Chinese intervention in the Western hemisphere yesterday?

[Bunny495]

While China is definitely trying to expand its influence in the Americas it has not been as successful as they wish. The dams they built in Venezuela used substandard rebar and concrete and are failing when only a few years old. In Cuba China is limiting their aid since Cuba is broke and has a long history of defaulting on debts; since China mostly builds stuff with money they loan to countries Cuba simply does not qualify.

[hobie]

My nut job rich friend donated over $250k last year to every MAGA charlatan org that has their hand out. He then sends me piles of all the mailings he receives just to torment me. I'm currently going through the 3ft pile of crap he has sent me the past six or so months.

Normally I'd toss all this garbage, except it turns out that a new tactic with some is to send either a $0.50 coin, a $1 bill and sometimes a $2 bill when they beg for money. Apparently this 'gift' is supposed to prime the hayseed to give back more in turn for the favor. A simple Jedi mind trick for the simples.

These piles usually take a couple of days to go thru. But as of yesterday I had accumulated $11 in MAGA cash which I used to pay a little pickaninny to shovel my drive and walk this morning. He then shot to the corner store to buy sugary snacks. We both thank you hayseeds for the largess!

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Righteous bucks!

[Bwaaah]

I like that story. It's not just a win-win story. It's a win-win-win-win story.

[BrotherMovesOn]

Me too. It beats Michael Scott's win-win-win strategy by one win.

[Commenter_XY]

That is very rude = But as of yesterday I had accumulated $11 in MAGA cash which I used to pay a little pickaninny to shovel my drive and walk this morning.

[Bwaaah]

It's hobie. It usually doesn't come without rude. I think he means it in an affectionate, rude way.

[BrotherMovesOn]

My take is that he likes to propose situations in a Jonathan Swift like fashion, often using language that the folks he means to skewer use amongst themselves. Maybe he's an amateur satirist. I understand it going over XY's or ThePublius' head but not yours.

[Bwaaah]

In defense of many of the people (not all) he skewers, the so-called "hayseeds," they don't use those words, publicly nor privately. More significantly, they don't have those feelings toward people that those words express. I know that seems to be contradicted by the way they talk about people they perceive as being dangerous or criminals (or categories of people they treat as political fodder). But hobie is talking down ugly about a neighbor using a word that's commonly understood to be a racial epithet. A lot of us "hayseeds" grew up in homes where it's not okay to talk about people like that, no time, no way. My father, a self-avowed bigot, would've come down swiftly and severely if me or my siblings ever talked like that. (We didn't.) Believe it or not, he considered such talk to be grossly disrespectful of people.

People are complicated.

[hobie]

Of course, being a progressive, I thought about how to play you hayseeds. I knew you'd fall for anything. So earlier today, I thought to myself, 'If I call one of these black kids a pickaninny, the racist hayseeds will clutch pearls. Then what I'll say is that [now pay attention], 'Well, hayseeds, I would have said 'That little black boy/person/human' but I realize that referring to a black person in those terms would confuse you.'

As I was walking my dog this morning when I formulated all that. Pretty clever, eh? Of course I'm telling you the scheme in a back-handed way at this point, but I think you can see the brilliance.

[jay.tee]

but I think you can see the brilliance

No, we see a pathetic, racist troll attempting to deflect now that others have tired of your “schtick.”

[hobie]

One donation pleading that caught my eye today is from Chosen People Ministries:

"I am inviting you to stand with Chosen People Ministries. YOU can reach out to Jewish people with the message of the Messiah, and by doing so, help fulfill prophecy.

Never has ministry to Jewish people been more important: because Israel is God's timepiece for the return of Christ.

...This is the good work you will support: Train, send, and support missionaries who present the message of salvation through campus outreaches, home visits, messianic congregations, and more....[prophecy] reveals w will not see Messiah's return until the Jewish people recognize Him...When Israel turns, Christ will return."

Translation: if you confused Jews would just renounce your cherished beliefs and hook up with Jeebus...the Christians...er...we mean 'everyone'...will get into Mexican Heaven (I assume there's a ton more brownies up there than whites).

Ah antisemitism...thy name is Christianity.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Hobie, if you seriously believe that sane Christians believe that garbage, I suggest you go to the primary source, the Bible.

It's quite clear -- Jesus will return when HE wants to, and there is nothing that humans can do to expedite it. Nor will we know until he does return.

Now will there be false prophets -- yes, we are warned about that. And hoaxes and huxters and folks after the cash -- which you apparently have found.

[jb]

"Hobie, if you seriously believe that sane Christians believe that garbage, I suggest you go to the primary source, the Bible."

No true Christian!

[BrotherMovesOn]

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of Dr. Ed.

[BrotherMovesOn]

Does that mean you think the Chosen People Ministries are insane?
What til they read some of your 'musings'.

[not guilty]

With allies like Chosen People Ministries, who needs enemies?

This is the future that those "Christians" hope to bring about, as described in Zechariah 14: 1-21 (RSV):

1 Behold, a day of the LORD is coming, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in the midst of you.
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.
4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward.
5 And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzzi'ah king of Judah. Then the LORD your God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
6 On that day there shall be neither cold nor frost.
7 And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.
8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.
9 And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one.
10 The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft upon its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Han'anel to the king's wine presses.
11 And it shall be inhabited, for there shall be no more curse; Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will smite all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet, their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths.
13 And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will lay hold on the hand of his fellow, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other;
14 even Judah will fight against Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the nations round about shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
15 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the asses, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
16 Then every one that survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths.
17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.
18 And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then upon them shall come the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths.
19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths.
20 And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar;
21 and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the flesh of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

Many Christian supporters of Israel believe that the LORD in that chapter refers to Jesus the Christ. Not a happy future for Jews there.

[Poxigah146]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/06/politics/free-admission-national-parks-donald-trump-birthday

I love it, triggering the left one decision at a time.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I like this as a precedent -- while I'd rather encourage the K-6 teaching of US Civics via other means, free admission on the birthday of the current POTUS is a means of having schoolchildren know who the current POTUS actually is....

[Bunny495]

I was in the hot tub at the gym when an elderly lady while attempting to enter slipped and fell. The lifeguards (the hot tub is right by the pool) quickly responded and called the police and ETMs. The LEO in charge approached the lady and started questioning her asking today's date and then who was the president; obviously an attempting to determine how cognizant she was. An ETM asked the same questions.

[Frank Drackman]

ETM? Maybe they should be testing your mental status.

[hobie]

Have you accepted Jeebus as your Lord and Savior, Frankie? MAGA requires it. I could send you some MAGA literature on the matter.

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

Nope, Bush Republicans require that…Kash Patel is a Hindu.

[Bwaaah]

"October something? Bill Clinton? I think I need a techmician."

[BrotherMovesOn]

Yes "who is paying for this and how much?" is of course the first question whenever a third-grader goes on a field trip. Good point.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Rep. Grijalva says ICE agents pepper sprayed her at Tucson restaurant raid

No no.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin disputed Grijalva’s characterization.

She wasn’t pepper sprayed. She was in the vicinity of someone who *was* pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement,” McLaughlin said in an email.

The article notes:

“Get out of the way. Stop. You guys need to clear, now,” an agent tells her later.

Shortly afterward, an agent shoots a projectile from a canister toward Grijalva and a cloud of white smoke appears at her feet.

In the video, Grijalva is standing next to a reporter for the Tuscon Sentinel who was sprayed directly in the face as the lawmaker’s staff tries to protect her.

https://archive.ph/yIVhr

[David Nieporent]

An ICE agent could rape and murder a five year old girl on national TV and Tricia McLaughlin would claim that the kid had assaulted the agent and prevented the agent from arresting her terrorist seven year old brother.

[ThePublius]

In your perverted fantasy mind.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Happy St. Nicholas Day.

Monday, December 6, 1943.

When St. Nicholas’ Day approached, none of us could help thinking of the prettily decorated basket we had last year and I, especially, thought it would be very dull to do nothing at all this year. I thought a long time about it, until I invented something funny, … composing a little poem for each person.

[Anne Frank]

[Sam Bankman-Fried]

I visited The Anne Frank House on this day over 20 years ago…at least that’s what I told my parents. Instead I got super high smoking marijuana with tobacco and drank Amstel and talked to some weird expat at a bar in Amsterdam. Oh, the pizza place recommended by Lonely Planet was really good! The hostel on the other hand was really bad! 😉

[Jerry B.]

Go, Dawgs!!!!!!