Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Dr. Ed 2]

Sears & Roebucks is down to just five stores, and people laugh at me when I say that the same implosion is in the process of happening to higher education and particularly to law schools.

https://www.costar.com/article/1406528706/once-giant-sears-could-soon-be-down-to-just-five-locations

The Sears of a century ago was a mail order giant -- using Rural Free Delivery (which had arrived in 1906) and Parcel Post (which the US Post Office has now essentially abandoned), Sears sold almost everything including houses. Seriously, Sears sold ready-to-assemble house kits although those were shipped to the nearest railroad siding.

With the post-war prosperity it opened physical "brick & mortar" stores which became the anchors of shopping malls but still maintained its catalogs and its national inventory numbering system for every item it sold. Most of the stores were small and didn't stock most of the items in the catalog, but you could either have your catalog order delivered to your house and pay for shipping, or have it delivered to the nearby store for free.

To get to the part of the store where you could pick up your order, you had to go through the rest of the store and would inevitably buy a few more things, and their telephone ordering system (you called someone and gave her the numbers of the things you wanted) could have easily been easily been transferred to the web.

And payment -- Sears had its own credit cards...

And as to Christmas Toys -- at the height of the baby boom, the toy department was all commission sales -- something that would be unimaginable today.

So Sears first abandoned its catalog in favor of larger stores, and then abandoned its stores in favor of e-commerce and then abandoned its reputation for middle-class quality by merging with "that junk store" K-Mart, and regardless of what Eddie Lambert may or may not have done, imploded itself.

Sears stopped meeting its customer's needs in the 1970s, starting with responding to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo by not decorating for Christmas that year. (The next year they put the decorations up but didn't plug them in.) It was more than this -- and it wasn't -- but Sears imploded. Just like the railroads did a generation earlier, and just like higher education soon will....

[Frank Drackman]

Those Kenmore appliances would run forever.
Remember my Dad bought a Sears Lawn Sprinkler, had a 10 yr warranty, gaskets went at about 9yrs 10 months, Sears replaced it with a new one, and that's not why they're failing (that was 1971) because Dad probably bought $20 of Crap he wouldn't have bought getting a $4 (it was 1971) Sprinkler replaced.

Frank

[Michael P]

Sears & Roebucks is down to just five stores, and people laugh at me when I say that

... because even the headline of the story you link to says "Sears could soon be down to just five locations": currently eight, with one closing soon and two more "in question".

As much as anything else, Sears was an early victim of Amazon. The Sears catalog has nothing on an online marketplace.

[Malika la Maize]

It’s like comparing a bicycle to a motorcycle, but man people of a certain age can remember getting that catalog in the mail as kids and excitedly going through it circling what we wanted our parents, uh I mean Santa, to get us.

[Kazinski]

Nah, it was Wal-Mart that was eating their lunch. That was behind the hail Mary to merge with Kmart was to try to compete with Wal-Mart on the discount side at the shopping center, rather than the mall.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Five, eight, sixteen -- when one remembers that just about every mall 50 years ago had one, the actual number is a distinction without a difference.

That said, the Sears catalog had both an index and a directory and was actually far more accurate than a search function today. And Sears had multiple (different) catalogs -- the regular one, the Christmas one, and then specialty ones, e.g. "Farm & Ranch."

There was a limit on the thickness of a catalog, but that didn't prevent multiple ones, and Amazon could exist the way that Sears did circa 1980 -- you called the regional distribution center and they shipped it to you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Center_(Boston)

[Krayt]

I realiized Sears was on the way out, when a couple of weeks before Christmas, they had maybe 100 cars clustered around their main opening. These used to pack to the road. This was about 15 years ago.

[Mr. Bumble]

As George Harrison sang "All things Must Pass".

[MarkJawz]

Sears was destroyed by Eddie Lampert. What a greedy piece of shit.

[wvattorney13]

Sears is a case study on not resting on your laurels and keeping up with changes in your market. Despite their dominance they completely missed the internet revolution and when they finally got on board they completely botched it.

[Joe_dallas]

Sears decline is very similar to hundreds of other companies decline over the last 4-5 decades. I dont think it was just the internet. Companies resting on their laurels and not adapting to changes in demographics, technology, or some other reason has been common for a decades. Sears decline started long before the internet revolution.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Sears neglected to remember that they were in a customer service business. Home Depot did more to them than WalMart, as did the outdoor stores like Dicks & LL Beans. Sears used to sell Boy Scout stuff, uniforms, books, I even got my (official BSA) hatchet from there.

The only thing sustaining higher ed right now is the requirement for a college degree for many white-collar jobs. But those are the jobs that AI will eliminate.

Higher Ed is where Sears was in the early '80s. It's on spongy ice which hasn't collapsed yet.

[Kazinski]

That's not true.

Sears helped lead us into the online age, From Wikipedia:

"Prodigy was founded on February 13, 1984 as Trintex, a joint venture including CBS, computer manufacturer IBM and retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company.

The company's service was launched regionally in 1988 in Atlanta, Hartford and San Francisco under the name Prodigy. The marketing rollout plan closely followed IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) network backbone. A nationwide launch developed by ad agency J. Walter Thompson and sister company JWT Direct followed on September 6, 1990.

Subscribers using personal computers initially accessed the Prodigy service over copper wire telephone "POTS" service or X.25 dialup. Prodigy employed 1,200 bit/s modem connections for its initial rollout and offered low-cost 2,400 bit/s internal modems to subscribers at a discount to provide faster service and stabilize the diverse modem market. The host systems used were regionally distributed IBM Series/1 minicomputers managed by central IBM mainframes located in Yorktown Heights, New York."

[wvattorney13]

None of which has anything to do with buying products from Sears online.

[Krayt]

You'd wonder why. Why launch Starlink then not use it for your main business model?

[not guilty]

"Sears & Roebucks is down to just five stores, and people laugh at me when I say that the same implosion is in the process of happening to higher education and particularly to law schools."

What is the similarity there?

[TwelveInchPianist]

Not sure if this is Ed's intent, but Higher Ed is operating on a 15th century model. The internet will transform learning. Perhaps Higher Ed is slow to change because it is so heavily subsidized.

And hopefully the government will start spending higher ed money in online education models that don't require people to be pulled from the workforce and that people can take advantage of at any point in their lives. It's unrealistic to expect the government to do the right thing, but a guy can dream.

[Brett Bellmore]

Maybe they're slow to change because the needed changes might be great for educational purposes, but would suck for purposes of indoctrination.

Which is job 1, NOT education.

This is also why government will be VERY reluctant to move money to another model.

[Randal]

Why would another model, like the Internet, suck for indoctrination? The evidence shows the Internet to be damn good at indoctrination, it seems to me.

[David Nieporent]

Not sure if this is Ed's intent, but Higher Ed is operating on a 15th century model. The internet will transform learning.

MOOCs were the wave of the future circa 2000.

[TwelveInchPianist]

MOOCs are not the only way for the internet to transform learning. A lot of the problem with them is that they are too close to the old model.

And in any event, as i said, if the government continues to fund the old model, things will be slower to change.

[Randal]

The internet will transform learning.

The Internet will transform some types of learning, but not the type that happens at research universities. I wouldn't want to be a community college, for instance... they haven't got much on the Internet. But universities have (at least) two legs up compared to online courses: community and hands-on.

As anyone who's actually been to college knows, the shared lifestyle aspect is yuge. Living in that environment and meeting and interacting with so many others doing the same thing as you are day to day is incomparable to anything the Internet could offer.

Then there's the "research" part. You're learning from people at the front of their fields, as they're advancing it. For STEM, that means access to functioning labs and equipment. For others, it means access to books, journals, manuscripts, preprints, original art, production facilities, etc. The Internet can't do any of that.

So no, I'm not concerned that university-style learning is coming to an end anytime soon. It may recede in popularity somewhat - there's a good argument that we're forcing too much of our population through higher ed for bad reasons - but that small correction isn't life threatening to higher ed as an institution.

[Dr. Ed 2]

You clearly were a student in the 20th Century.

Student life changed circa 1990 -- students no longer make friends at college nor have fun there -- many are working 2-3 jobs...

And research is irrelevant to most, and addressed to national associations and not the institution.

[Randal]

students no longer make friends at college nor have fun there

Oh my god you've got to be kidding. Are you kidding, or delusional? Wake up, maggots! Your cult leader is lying to you about the state of the nation. Real dumb, obvious lies such as the above.

[Malika la Maize]

As the clock struck midnight on Christmas morning at one Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at least one someone was stirring. 

Starting in the early hours of December 25 and ending in the evening, President Donald Trump posted over 100 times on Truth Social…

At 12:01, Trump began the spree by sharing an over-eight-minute video by someone explaining “The DEMOCRAT FRAUD PYRAMID.” 

Throughout the day, concluding around 7 o’clock, the president repeated many times that the 2020 election was stolen. He also shared a post that praised White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s handling of the “fake news,” another of someone who called Democrats a “criminal organization,” and one where Trump said, of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), “Throw her out of the U.S., Now!”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/trump-spent-christmas-posting-over-a-hundred-times-on-truth-social/

[Frank Drackman]

and with all that he still won every "Battleground" State, and Florida? the state "W" had to go to the Surpremes to ratify he won by 534 Votes in 2000, "45/47" won by oh, 1.4 million.
that's a "1.4" with 5 Zeroes after it.
But of course look at who he was running against, the Late, Great Dr. Hannibal Lecter could have won against her, and her prancing Forest Sprite, Sergeant Major Pepper-Waltz

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

1.4? Obama won by 10 million in 2008, 5 in 2012. Biden won by 7 in 2000.

[Riva]

Crazy conspiracies! It’s not like some county in a battleground state admitted that 315,000 illegally certified early votes were included in the 2020 election. Oh wait…my bad, forget I wrote that.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/12/17/fulton-county-we-dont-dispute-315000-votes-lacking-poll-workers-signatures-were-counted-in-2020/

[Malika la Maize]

If you want that 7 million to be 6.7 to make you happy go nuts. Wait a minute, I forgot bots don’t experience happiness.

[Michael P]

Malicia thinks that Atlanta early voters went 100% for Trump. What a maroon.

[Malika la Maize]

Is there a sourced claim of some sort in this comment?

[Riva]

Only an extremely idiotic, second or even third string troll believes that presidential elections are won by the popular vote count. Fortunately, we have a surplus here. I wonder what the troll thinks “battleground state” means “? Probably thinks it refers to the Civil War.

[Malika la Maize]

Bot doesn’t realize it was Frankie who originally brought up popular vote margins. Bad programming.

[Riva]

If you read his comment as arguing that the president is elected by the popular vote, we'll have to bring you down to a 4th or 5th string troll. A troll that still has trouble with the term "battleground state." And I'm sure also has no clue what the reference to "534 votes" was. Probably thought it was a small town in Florida. Then to cite Biden's popular vote margin in response. Poor guy is really out of his depth. Does troll depth really go down as low as the 4th or 5th string? Apparently so. Smell must be awful.

[Malika la Maize]

“ "45/47" won by oh, 1.4 million.
that's a "1.4" with 5 Zeroes after it”

Bot struggles to read entire text or context of discussion. Bad programming!

[Riva]

The concept of stop digging when you’re in hole apparently never expected to meet a 4th or 5th string troll. I advise thinking further about the meaning of “battleground state”and what was meant by “winning by 534 votes.” On second thought, forget it. We both know the thinking thing is off the table.

[Malika la Maize]

Bot either can’t read Frankie’s quote I supplied or can’t get that my reply was to that. Bad programming.

[Riva]

So much for the thinking thing. Which would have included understanding that Georgia was a key swing state won by about 11,000 votes by Biden. And further understanding that Fulton County (that would be a county in Georgia) illegally certified 315,000 early votes. I suspect this idiot troll would just counter with Biden's popular vote count, as he or she (or maybe a little of both) did above ("If you want that 7 million to be 6.7 to make you happy go nuts"). Maybe 5th string isn't low enough?

[Malika la Maize]

At best Frankie is referring to Florida, bot.

Bad programming!

[Riva]

Some idiot 4th or 5th string troll wrote: "If you want that 7 million to be 6.7 to make you happy go nuts." Maybe you've met?

[jb]

Riva just has a really short context window. The response you get is the response to the previous comment with no ability to understand what the overall conversation is about.

[Malika la Maize]

It’s badly programmed.

[jb]

I think the Russians just can't afford very much RAM

[Riva]

"If you want that 7 million to be 6.7 to make you happy go nuts". Do you also think a president is elected by popular vote? Your little troll friend seems to think so.

[Riva]

Notice no response from idiot troll number 2 to a comment reflecting idiot troll number 1's belief that an overall popular vote count total renders the impact of improprieties/fraud in an individual state's vote total a moot point. Really no need for me to respond to your joint idiocies when your own words for themselves. And they say morons.

[Josh R]

No votes were illegally certified. Required signatures were missing on the daily vote totals, but Georgia law nonetheless permits the votes to count based on (possibly different) recounted totals. The entire state was recounted.

[Riva]

From the Federalist article above:

Georgia election rules require that election officials have each ballot scanner print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day. Poll workers must sign these tapes or include a documented reason for refusal. Voting rules also require poll workers to begin each day of voting by printing and signing a "zero tape" showing that voting machines are starting at zero votes.

If there is no record of whether the tabulator was set at zero at the start of polling, there is no way of telling whether ballots from a previous election (or ballots from a test run) were left on the memory card and might later be counted. Notably, this happened in Montana, where officials discovered more votes than were cast and believe the votes were leftover sample data that had not been cleared.

“These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic,” Cross told the SEB at the Dec. 9 hearing. “Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting.”

***

Cross also highlighted additional irregularities, such as polling locations being open at “impossibly late hours, like 2:09 a.m.” Cross also said that he found “duplicated scanner serial numbers, where the memory devices were removed from one scanner and printed on an alternate scanner.”

“These are not clerical errors. They are catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification,” Cross said.

“Because no tape was ever legally certified, Fulton County had no lawful authority to certify its advanced voting results to the secretary of state. Yet it did,” Cross said. “And Secretary Raffensperger accepted and folded those uncertified numbers into Georgia’s official total without questioning them. This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”

Kevin Moncla, an election integrity activist who has been at the forefront of these challenges, estimates the number is likely higher than 315,000.

[Josh R]

These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic.

No. The recount superseded the machine counts.

[not guilty]

Don't confuse MAGAts with facts. I suspect it makes them break out in hives.

[Brett Bellmore]

My concern is that, if it can take over 4 years to find out about THIS, what might they have done that we haven't yet found out about? I mean, we're just assuming the recount followed all relevant procedures, and why?

This is a pretty huge thing to go undiscovered for so long, if Fulton county was actually getting the sort of scrutiny it deserved.

[jb]

THIS is a minor procedural requirement that the recount demonstrated had no effect whatsoever on the tally. Other than people desperately flailing around for controversy around the 2020 election, no one would care about this at all other than possibly an opportunity to fix or emphasize certain parts of the poll worker training.

[Brett Bellmore]

And, what minor procedural requirements did the recount itself ignore?

[jb]

The fun thing about conspiracy theories is that there's really no evidence that will disprove them. In this case, not even when the computer count and the manual count match up almost exactly. Brett is sure there's shenanigans!

[not guilty]

"My concern is that, if it can take over 4 years to find out about THIS, what might they have done that we haven't yet found out about? I mean, we're just assuming the recount followed all relevant procedures, and why?"

Isn't innuendo where an Italian inserts a suppository?

[Riva]

Any recount only re-tallies illegally certified votes.

"If there is no record of whether the tabulator was set at zero at the start of polling, there is no way of telling whether ballots from a previous election (or ballots from a test run) were left on the memory card and might later be counted. Notably, this happened in Montana, where officials discovered more votes than were cast and believe the votes were leftover sample data that had not been cleared.

“These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic,” Cross told the SEB at the Dec. 9 hearing. “Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting.”

[Josh R]

Any recount only re-tallies illegally certified votes.

The recount happened before certification.

there is no way of telling whether ballots from a previous election (or ballots from a test run) were left on the memory card and might later be counted.

It doesn't matter what the machine counts were because the ballots were counted by hand during the recount.

These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic.

As I already said, that's not the law in Georgia.

[David Nieporent]

As I already said, that's not the law in Georgia.

It's not the law anywhere, and that's for obvious reason: the made-up bad faith argument by Trump lickspittles/bots is insane.

It's bad faith because they decided the election results were invalid first, and cast about for reasons second. If tomorrow the GA Secretary of State said, "Hey, good news: we found the actual tapes with the requisite signatures on them; these were just unsigned copies," not a single one of these nutjobs would say, "Okay, guess we were wrong and the election result actually was legitimate."

It's insane because the proposition is that hundreds of thousands of Americans would be automatically disenfranchised if a poll worker was lazy or didn't fully understand the rules. That is not the rule anywhere. Things that do not go to the validity of a ballot — that is, that the voter was legally entitled to vote and actually did cast that vote — do not cause ballots to be thrown out.

[Riva]

No, what is insane are the massive, gross illegalities coming to light in only one corrupt democrat county in Georgia. And the response, oh never mind, the rules really have no purpose. Screw the certification. All because the corruption benefits democrats. Fucking repulsive.

[David Nieporent]

If there is no record of whether the tabulator was set at zero at the start of polling, there is no way of telling whether ballots from a previous election (or ballots from a test run) were left on the memory card and might later be counted.

There is, in fact, a "way": recount the actual ballots by hand. Which they did.

When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.”

There is no such "definition." There is no such thing as certifying individual votes, in fact.

[Riva]

I guess those pesky rules really have no purpose so we might as well just ignore them. What a fucking clown.

[David Nieporent]

As always, the self-proclaimed "Christian" bot resorts to insults when there are no arguments in support of the position being asserted.

[Riva]

Putting aside the weird, yet always obnoxious anti religious bullshit, the point, which seems to escape my strange and sick bigoted friend is (as noted above) there were "catastrophic" breaks in the legal chain of custody and certification of the ballots in this particularly corrupt, although not uniquely so, democrat county. Recounting fraud, even accurately, only gives you an accurate recount of the fraud. I have no doubt democrats would be screaming until their corrupt lungs were hoarse if republicans had been the beneficiaries of such "irregularities."

[Josh R]

there were "catastrophic" breaks in the legal chain of custody and certification of the ballots

Citation for the custody? As to certification, ballots are not certified. Totals are certified. And in this case, the totals from the recount were certified in accordance with Georgia law notwithstanding the missing signatures on the initial machine counts.

[Riva]

No, no they weren’t. There was a breakdown in the certification process. An illegal certification is really no certification at all my sealioning troll friend.

[Josh R]

There was a breakdown in the certification process.

There was a breakdown in confirming the machine totals. But (for the umpteenth time), those totals were not used in the certification, those totals aren't required by Georgia law to be used in the certification, and the missing signatures aren't required by Georgia law as part of the certification process when a recount is used instead.

[David Nieporent]

There were no breaks in the chain of custody, and ballots don't get certified. Bot programmed to use jargon that the bot's programmers don't understand.

[Riva]

The election rules violated in this illegal certification absolutely implicate ballot chain of custody. As noted above, "[t]hese are not clerical errors. They are catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification.”

I know you're bastards, but do you have to be such stupid bastards?

[David Nieporent]

It is in fact not like some county in a battleground state admitted that 315,000 illegally certified early votes were included in the 2020 election. Nothing even remotely like that happened — neither the event nor the admission. Bot should really be programmed to only rely on legitimate news sources, not The Federalist.

[Riva]

You should ask a lawyer about chain of custody. You might learn something.

[Darth Buckeye]

Why spoil the beauty of a thing by talking about its legality?

[David Nieporent]

You should get your programmer to learn what words mean. Nobody has claimed that the ballots at issue here were not the ballots that were counted. Nobody has claimed that these ballots were ever misplaced, or lost track of between the time they were cast and the time they were counted. This has nothing whatsoever to do with chain of custody.

[Riva]

No you f'ing imbecile. Georgia election rules that require election officials have each ballot scanner print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day; that require poll workers to sign these tapes or include a documented reason for refusal; and that also require poll workers to begin each day of voting by printing and signing a “zero tape” showing that voting machines are starting at zero votes are classic chain of custody controls for ballots.

[DDHarriman]

I wonder where all those 10M Biden "voters" vanished too when it was Her Turn?

[santamonica811]

My God! People in the middle moving from a supremely popular Democrat President to a Republican candidate in the next election, when the new Dem candidate had a toxic last name, and was female?!?!??? That's absolutely unpossible!!! No one could ever believe that this could happen . . . unless they had a functioning brain, I guess.

I guess "Conspiracies for Idiots" is a real thing.

[Brett Bellmore]

She didn't have a toxic last name, she had a toxic reputation, well earned.

But, honestly, I'd agree that if Trump had faced a better Democratic nominee in 2016, he'd have been slaughtered. (Just as Biden would have been slaughtered in 2020 if the economy hadn't been tanked by state level Covid policies.) Democrats might want to think about why they keep puking up candidates who can't slaughter Trump. Who need something like Covid to eke out a narrow victory.

Oh, wait, they did think about it, and found the conclusion too frightening to announce.

[Malika la Maize]

I like how Brett hand waves off the exception to his sample of 3.

And “slaughter?” Biden beat Trump in 20 by about the same electoral margin as Trump beat Harris in 24.

[Brett Bellmore]

I judge the narrowness of elections by how many votes would have to have been swapped to reverse the outcome.

2024: 127,500 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
2020: 21,500 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
2016: 39,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin
2012: 215,000 votes in Florida, Ohio Virginia, and New Hampshire.
2008: 430,000 votes in North Carolina, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and Indiana
2004: 59,000 votes in Ohio
2000: 269 votes in Florida

So, if you consider 2016 to have been a nail biter, 2020 was hardly a slaughter.

By the way, Reagan v Mondale? Mondale would have had to have flipped over 8M votes to have won. Reagan could have turned it into a 50 state sweep with under 2000 more votes in Mondale's home state.

[Malika la Maize]

You referred to 2016 as a slaughter, that doesn’t seem to give with your criteria.

And if 2024 was a slaughter what was 2008 and 2012?

[Brett Bellmore]

Go back and try harder at reading comprehension. I did NOT refer to 2016 as a slaughter. I said that if Trump had faced a better Democrat than Clinton HE would have been slaughtered.

In 2024 the "how many votes would have to flip" margin was 6 times larger than in 2020, 3-4 times larger than 2016. I wouldn't call that a slaughter, but it was a solid win. 2008 and 2012 actually were pretty bloody for Republicans.

[Malika la Maize]

Fair point, mea culpa.

[DDHarriman]

"supremely popular Democrat President"

Biden? More than Obama? Whose voters vanished and popularity vanished by the end of that election November? Like in no other election before?

Weird.

[TwelveInchPianist]

He's talking about Obama. Strangely he mentions Hillary's sex, but not Obama's race.

[Joe_dallas]

santamonica811 4 hours ago
Flag Comment
Mute User
My God! People in the middle moving from a supremely popular Democrat President "

Santa - what planet are you on?

From AI
_ "Joe Biden's popularity during his presidency (ending January 2025) hovered generally in the low 40s, starting high but declining after mid-2021 due to factors like the Afghanistan withdrawal, inflation, and COVID-19, with near-record partisan divides and a final approval around 40%, making him one of the least-approved presidents in modern history, according to Gallup and CNN polls.

[David Nieporent]

I wonder where all those 10M Biden "voters" vanished too when it was Her Turn?

Still the most retarded argument ever. First, it's based on a lie; the difference between Harris and Biden was nothing close to 10M. Second, "This candidate got fewer votes than a different candidate from the same party in a different year," literally proves exactly nothing. It doesn't suggest or insinuate anything. Moreover, it's procedurally stupid; if they could fake all those votes in 2020, when Trump was president, why wouldn't they do the same thing in 2024, when Biden was?

[Frank Drackman]

Malika hasn't heard of the Electrical College.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"that's a "1.4" with 5 Zeroes after it."

1.4 with 5 Zeroes after it is 1.4.

[Michael P]

The sad sacks at Mother Jones seem like they have nothing better to do than count how many times Donald Trump posts on social media in a day, and apparently have to juice their numbers by counting the equivalent of retweets.

[Malika la Maize]

This is the perfect example of how “TDS” really works: it’s not deranged for a President to spend Christmas crazily posting for about twenty hours straight, it’s deranged to point out such behavior!

[Michael P]

Not even the drug-addled losers at MJ claimed "twenty hours straight", Mrs Living Example Of TDS.

[Malika la Maize]

They said a spree lasting from 12:01am to around 7pm. Is your argument “the President was just crazily posting for 17 hours, not about twenty, checkmate libs!!!”? Talk about deranged fealty!

[Michael P]

Your math is as bad as your reading. Midnight to 7 PM is a span of 19 hours, but they made no statement about continuity or dispersion over that span. Did he sleep during that span? Take a break to eat with family or his staff? MJ didn't say, but you and your TDS assumed he didn't.

[Malika la Maize]

So your fealty is based not on the math knee but the use of the word “straight”? Lol.

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
spree
/sprē/
noun
a spell or sustained period of unrestrained activity of a particular kind.

[Michael P]

Those of us not afflicted with derangement syndromes understand that words have meanings. M-W gives a rather broader definition for "spree": "an unrestrained indulgence in or outburst of an activity". This is closer to the sense implied by the rest of MJ's rant.

"Straight" implies the narrower meaning.

[Malika la Maize]

Again, the knee you’re bending in fealty here rests on the difference between a sustained period of unrestrained activity of a particular kind and without a break; continuously? Talk about derangement.

Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
sus·tained
/səˈstānd/
adjective
continuing for an extended period or without interruption.

[Michael P]

I have faith in and respect for the English language. You, not so much, especially when your derangement kicks in.

[Malika la Maize]

You say that, but you think the difference between, checks notes, continuous and without interruption is the story here, not POTUS texting madly throughout Christmas Day?

The derangement of fealty to a mad would-be king, folks!

[Michael P]

Malicia thinks that traffic just after midnight and another post 18 hours later establish "throughout". And then claims that others are deranged.

[Malika la Maize]

Ok, so now you’re knee of fealty shifts to resting on “well, that’s the Oxford dictionary but I found one that says something else!”? The derangement thickens.

[SRG2]

If someone said they were working for 19 hours straight, you would not conclude that they didn't go to the bathroom, didn't grab a coffee, didn't stop to eat a snack. You'd conclude that most of that 19 hours was spent working, but not every second.

[Malika la Maize]

Imagine you swore uncritical fealty to a mad wanna-be king like Trump. In defending his latest action trying to parse between two critics of that description of that action of spree and straight is probably the best you can do. That’s the position Mikie Q *willingly* puts himself in!

[Brett Bellmore]

OTOH, if somebody worked at 4pm on Tuesday, and worked at 11am on Wednesday, you wouldn't say they'd worked for 19 hours straight barring evidence of work occurring in between with only small gaps.

But, strangely, all the posts MJ actually cited occurred in a 1 hour window. Strange way of establishing that somebody was doing something continually for 19 hours... You'd think they'd have given some sort of timeline if they wanted to cement the case.

All the information provided in the story was perfectly consistent with Trump having posted some right after midnight, gone to bed, and then not posted until early afternoon. And then MJ pretending he'd been posting continuously the whole while.

[Brett Bellmore]

"As the clock struck midnight on Christmas morning at one Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at least one someone was stirring.

Starting in the early hours of December 25 and ending in the evening, President Donald Trump posted over 100 times on Truth Social.

Hours before Trump sat alongside first lady Melania Trump to answer the calls of children dialing into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, during which he told kids from Oklahoma that “we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa,” the president shared posts attacking Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and former President Joe Biden, amongst several others.

At 12:01, Trump began the spree by sharing an over-eight-minute video by someone explaining “The DEMOCRAT FRAUD PYRAMID.”

Throughout the day, concluding around 7 o’clock, the president repeated many times that the 2020 election was stolen. He also shared a post that praised[12:04AM] White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s handling[12:53AM] of the “fake news,” another of someone who called[12:21AM] Democrats a “criminal organization,” and one where Trump said,[12:44AM] of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), “Throw her out of the U.S., Now!”

Many times, Trump would post a photo or video to his platform and then immediately after post a screenshot of how a supporter responded to his post. For example, around 1 in the morning, Trump shared a video of White House border czar Tom Homan at a press conference, discussing[1:04AM] the administration’s mass deportation campaign. Less than one minute later, there’s another Trump post of a user called “RWB_American” on X quoting the video and writing about “the success ICE is having at nabbing illegals that need to be departed.” "

So, to establish a "19 hour posting spree", they cited posts all time stamped within a 1 hour and 1 minute, ("Less than one minute later"; Could actually all have been in the same hour.) interval.

Pretty strange thing to do if they could prove 19 hours of continual posting.

[Michael P]

Brett has a "knee of fealty" for facts and evidence, which some commenters here will think proves he has TDS.

[Malika la Maize]

It’s one thing to argue they should have provided a timeline to cement their case, it’s another to go on about how spree=\= straight.

But Brett hasn’t exhibited the kind of slavish fealty to Trump you do.

[Michael P]

There's no slavish fealty to Trump here, you just have TDS and are upset that I pointed out how it helped you misread an already TDS-addled opinion piece.

[Malika la Maize]

1. Where’s the misread? You want to argue sustained=\= continuous again?

2. Regardless, you like your Presidents sending over a hundred Xeets on Christmas as long as they allow for breaks? lol

[Michael P]

How sad. Malicia doesn't understand that "straight" and "spree", "sustained" and "continuous" are different words. Make English Great Again!

[Malika la Maize]

lol, Mikie Q doesn’t understand that there are many words for the same concept in English!

“Continuous and straight are totally different, one has a c in them!”

(Also note how he completely ignores point 2…)

See, folks, this is what you’re reduced to when you swear slavish fealty to a goofball.

[Michael P]

In spite of demonstrations in multiple threads today, Malicia still doesn't realize that similar words are not exact synonyms.

I ignored point 2 because it's a figment of your imagination. This entire thread has really been about how your TDS emphasizes the stupid, malignant asshole in you.

[Malika la Maize]

Mikie Q backs down from both fronts.

Spree means sustained which means continuous. Straight means continuous.

Notice Mikie Q’s exact weasel words here: not *exact* synonyms! Lol

But let’s remember what brought Mikie Q to this sad display of English ignorance:

He wants to defend POTUS (which he thinks of as his beloved king) making over a hundred of (petty, puerile) posts on Christmas Day.

As a slave to this guy in mind and soul, he wants to desperately argue it’s ok because some people criticized as a spree and one as straight.

THIS is the defense of his beloved wannabe king he has spent so much time and effort here offering!

[Brett Bellmore]

The bottom line for me is this: If you claim someone engaged in a 19 hour spree of doing somthing, and every example you give occurred in the same one hour interval, if you so abjectly fail to produce evidence for you claim when doing so would be a trivial exercise if it were true, the presumption becomes that you're lying.

Let me see the posts that prove he didn't post a bunch of stuff around midnight and then go to bed, or give it up.

I make no affirmative claim here about Trump, but MJ so grossly failed to prove their accusation that it's absurd anyone takes them seriously.

[Brett Bellmore]

So, looking into this, it appears he posted from 12:01 to 1:15, fell silent until 5:48, resumed posting, fell silent again from 9-11:30, then again from 3:30 to 6:45.

I think it would be fair to say he spends far too much time posting to Truth Social, but looks more like 4 separate "sprees" with major breaks between them.

Google Gemini, by the way, estimates that he typically spends 2-4 hours on social media most days, but on Christmas probably logged 5-6 hours.

But, he apparently routinely only sleeps 4-5 hours a night. Wow.

Google Gemini also suggests that he has the "Thatcher gene", AKA "familial natural short sleep", an inherited trait where somebody routinely sleeps very little without any negative consequences.

Much to the frustration of some here, this inherited trait is strongly protective against dementia, too. 😉

[Michael P]

Malika, you are delusional. "Spree" is a weasel word -- it doesn't necessarily mean continuous, and most definitions don't include that. You misread it to mean something other than what MJ could back up.

And it's also not backing down for me to point out that your stupid accusations of "slavish fealty" are based on your imagination rather than what I wrote.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spree
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/spree
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/spree

[David Nieporent]

I think it would be fair to say he spends far too much time posting to Truth Social, but looks more like 4 separate "sprees" with major breaks between them.

If police described someone as having gone on a weeks-long crime spree before being arrested, would you insist that unless the crimes were daily, or at least at regular intervals, during those weeks, that it wasn't really a crime spree but really a series of separate ones?

[Michael P]

If police described someone as having gone on a weeks-long crime spree before being arrested,

I think we would agree it's not reasonable to say that the suspect committed crimes "for [n] weeks straight", which would be the wording analogous to what triggered this whole protracted thread. Especially if the suspect committed crimes in roughly a third of the weeks in that period.

[Brett Bellmore]

Putting this in context, because Trump routinely gets by with only about 4 hours of sleep, even with his obsessive social media use he still has about the same amount of waking time available for doing his freaking job as somebody with a normal sleep schedule who didn't spend hours a day posting.

Maybe he's even doing the White House staff a favor by not insisting that they, too, have 16 hour workdays.

[David Nieporent]

Putting this in context, because Trump routinely gets by with only about 4 hours of sleep,

Sure he does. And he's also routinely wins golf tournaments. Is there any bit of pro-Trump propaganda you won’t swallow?

[David Nieporent]

So, to establish a "19 hour posting spree", they cited posts all time stamped within a 1 hour and 1 minute, ("Less than one minute later"; Could actually all have been in the same hour.) interval.

"Establish"? His tweeting¹ history is a matter of public record; they don't need to prove it. Anyone who cares and go and look. They're just citing some examples of his tweets, not trying to prove anything.
​​
​
¹Yes, I know it's not technically on Twitter.

[David Nieporent]

This is the perfect example of how “TDS” really works: it’s not deranged for a President to spend Christmas crazily posting for about twenty hours straight, it’s deranged to point out such behavior!

What makes the comment even stupider is that he thinks that there's something strange about journalists paying attention to what presidents do.

[Michael P]

Paying attention to a president getting oral sex from an intern? Very journalistic, although also very under-reported.

Counting how many social media posts a president makes on Christmas Day, and describing that as a "spree"? Compulsive and deranged.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

As the clock struck midnight on Christmas morning at one Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, at least one someone was stirring.

People needed the smelling salts when Candidate Hillary Clinton spoke of "baskets of deplorables" in remarks to supporters.

Now, we have Trump providing presidential Christmas messages to "Radical Left Scum" supposedly doing all they can to destroy the country. Just Trump being Trump. And ha ha. Trolling the libs!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115777270368444049

NYT and others provided weeks of coverage after Biden's debate performance, both on the news and op-ed pages, including liberal-leaning blogs (e.g., Lawyers, Drugs and Money), with the overall message that he had to end his presidential campaign since he was unable to adequately serve four more years.

We get occasional coverage on the clear evidence of Trump's incapabilities, including a single long form NYT analysis piece a while back. Then it's back to the regular news of the day.

I suppose Josh Blackman will also have an entry on how we shouldn't let old "injustices" linger on instead of just granting what is done is done and we should focus on other things, such as the usual stuff people do on Christmas Day.

You know, bombing terrorists in Nigeria in a perfect style.

[Kazinski]

That's somewhat funny Malika, 100 posts in 24 hours is some sort of a sign of derangement?

Ok, but this thread has been up less than 12 hours and you have 64 posts up so far.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I have 4 inches of Global Warming to shovel.

[Frank Drackman]

Sounds like there was some Shrinkage

[Bwaaah]

We got about 4 inches here in NYC. I got my shoveling done at sunrise. Snow is a beautiful thing.

[Mr. Bumble]

Pro tip. About 4" and still snowing lightly where I am but it is a light powdery snow so if you have a decent hand held blower or backpack blower you can use it to clear paths and clean the snow off of your car.

[Bwaaah]

This was not that kind of light (dry) fluffy snow. I had to keep banging down my shovel every few strokes to get the caked-up snow off it.

Great snowball snow, though!

[JoeFromtheBronx]

This is considered a lot of snow in NYC in recent years.

[Malika la Maize]

More than 800 storm victims around Helene-battered western North Carolina have applied under FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. State officials vetted applications and began sending them up the chain to FEMA as far back as February. As of Dec. 15, they had sent nearly 600 buyout requests to Washington, with more likely to follow.

So far, they say, not a single approval has come through.

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein has called the paralysis “absolutely unacceptable,” and has pushed for answers. Earlier this month, he wrote to FEMA’s acting administrator, detailing the startling number of applications that “remain without a final decision.”

“Further delay of these approvals,” he wrote, “keeps communities and families in limbo, in some cases paying expenses on homes they cannot live in while they await word from FEMA.”

FEMA did not comment on questions about the program.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/12/26/fema-buyouts-north-carolina-hurricane-helene/

[Michael P]

Is that breakdown because four people was too many to fire because of political bias in managing FEMA aid in the wake of Hurricane Helene -- or too few?

[Malika la Maize]

Ah, for the days when people were held accountable by the Executive for such politicizing of aid relief, as opposed to now where it comes from the head himself.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/political-games-blue-states-see-154913863.html

[Michael P]

Trump is also telling red states like Arkansas to chip in more because FEMA is not meant to underwrite all the delayed and deferred maintenance work that a state wants to move off its budgets. You and your TDS again.

https://stateline.org/2025/04/25/trump-denies-disaster-aid-tells-states-to-do-more/

[Malika la Maize]

Uh-huh.

From Politico:

But a review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/03/helene-trump-politics-natural-disaster-00182419

[Malika la Maize]

Trump Truth Social Post:

I just spoke with Governor Mike Kehoe, of the Great State of Missouri, and told him that I am approving $2.5 Million Dollars in individual assistance after severe storms, high winds, large hail, flash flooding, and tornadoes, which occurred earlier this year. I won “The Show Me State” three times in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and it is my Honor to deliver for these incredible Patriots!

[Malika la Maize]

Another Trump post:

I just informed Governor Mike Dunleavy that, based on his request, I am approving $25 Million Dollars to help Alaska recover from the major typhoon they experienced earlier this month. It is my Honor to deliver for the Great State of Alaska, which I won BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — ALASKA, I WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!

[Dr. Ed 2]

Why should I subsidize idiots who built where they never should have? Let THEM take the loss caused by THEIR bad decisions.

[SRG2]

Quite, Tornado Alley states, per Google AI: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, but also including parts of South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, and Eastern Colorado

[Frank Drackman]

WWJD?

[Glaucomatose]

Out of curiosity, where do you think are the places that people should build houses?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Not five feet above the high tide line when the Hurricane of 1938 and Blizzard of 1978 both would have unquestionably washed the house out.

"FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program... nearly 600 buyout requests..." -- that's removing houses that should never have been built where they were...

A tornado is a different story, but when you know that a certain "Motif #1" fishhouse washed away in 1978, you kinda know that both it and all the multi-million dollar mansions behind it will wash away in the next one.

People freak out when a winter storm has a two foot storm surge (in addition to the astronomic higher high tide caused by the moon) -- the 1938 Hurricane went ashore with a THIRTY foot storm surge.

[Glaucomatose]

Where do you think the high tide line is in the western North Carolina hills?

[DDHarriman]

I wonder if those Biden Democrats still work there and are dragging the process because NC is Trump Country?

That's my guess.

[Malika la Maize]

Lex was all like “Biden’s not giving enough money to these people shows he hates white people” but now many months later with Trump not coming through it’s “oh it must be Biden’s fault!”

Pathetic.

[DDHarriman]

Not quite, it was the leaks of the FEMA Democrats where they explicitly confessed to violating human rights and that they were fucking over Trump supporters.

Of course you've already forgotten the facts of this since your tiny bug brain can't support more than one thing at a time.

[Malika la Maize]

Sure, cool story!

[Estragon]

“tiny bug brain”

Once again I encourage the community to take note of comments like this. People who say things like this always turn out to be the good guys.

[Malika la Maize]

They can’t denounce him, no enemies on the right is their marching order.

[Malika la Maize]

From Politico:

Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.

If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/

[DDHarriman]

What!?!? An uncle of Stephen Miller?

Wow, that's so authoritative and powerful! Were none of his underage nieces available or were they too busy getting banged by Hunter Biden?

[Malika la Maize]

Yeah, what would an uncle know about family? Lol

[Estragon]

Miller would do well to contemplate this in the same way DB and JB ought to, and indeed all who would hitch their wagon to such things. Because these kinds of movements have a way of consuming their own, most committed members. There will always be new targets. Does Miller really believe he is white enough for the true ultras? Ernst Rohm comes to mind.

[DDHarriman]

"If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out."

You think it takes the intimate knowledge of an extended family member to make that claim?

lol wtf, can your kind - CCP Bug - even reason?

[Estragon]

The people calling others bugs always turn out to be the good guys, in the end.

[Malika la Maize]

Well, yeah, an older member of the family is likely to have important information about family history.

According to this source there are currently no Jews living in Antopol:

https://sztetl.org.pl/en/towns/a/1488-antopal/99-history/137028-history-of-community#:~:text=The%20carer%20working%20in%20the,2%2C600%20Jews%20lived%20in%20Antopol.

[ThePublius]

What a piece of shit article. This is a tell: "I would encourage Stephen to ask himself if the chanting, torch-bearing Nazis of Charlottesville, whose support his boss seems to court so cavalierly, do not envision a similar fate for him."

A return to the 'very fine people' hoax, eh. That has been thoroughly debunked.

Miller's forebears came here legally, when the U.S. was not a welfare state. Things are different now.

[Michael P]

All they have are aunts like these: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-campaigns-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-virginia-91e78d30da9cf79e7e7743273fc56026

[Malika la Maize]

How has that been debunked?

[SRG2]

For a claim against Trump to be debunked, all that's required is for cultists to keep repeating that it's been debunked, and after a while, lo! that counts as a debunking.

[Michael P]

To be clear, "seems" does most of the work in the quoted sentence -- and it is work that is done entirely by that writer's imagination.

[Malika la Maize]

“Seems” in the Miller relative’s quote does most of the work to debunk the “very fine people ‘hoax’”?

[Michael P]

No, to give the sentence either meaning or relevance.

English really is a weak point for you.

[Malika la Maize]

You seem to be confused, you responded to a discussion about Pubes claim that the “very fine people hoax” was debunked with a comment about how “seems” works in Miller’s relative’s quote.

[Michael P]

I'm not confused at all. It takes very little to debunk a claim where the core of the claim is how something "seems" to a loony with TDS.

[Malika la Maize]

Miller’s relative could have been referring to many things that he thinks shows that Trump seems to court the support of the Cville Nazis.

But the discussion you joined was about Pubes claim that the “very fine people ‘hoax.’” Miller’s relative’s use of “seems” doesn’t debunk that claim.

I get it’s probably tough for a guy who gets his news from X to deal with such details.

[Michael P]

Sure, double down on defending SRG2's lie by incoherently trying to criticize me. It's par for your course.

[Malika la Maize]

lol, my criticism of you is detailing how you’re response is confused here. I note you don’t even try to confute.

[Malika la Maize]

?

[Michael P]

David Glosser could have been referring to his fever dream, but you people treat any vague accusation as merited based only on its target, not its factual detail or logical structure.

The "very fine people" hoax was that Trump courted the support of Nazis or white supremacists, and that has been endlessly disproven by looking at what he actually said at the time. The only thing you or SRG2 or Glosser have here is a dangling "seems", and you're too busy DARVOing to admit that.

[not guilty]

You lie, Michael P. Here is the video of Trump proclaiming the moral equivalence of the two sides at Charlottesville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmaZR8E12bs

[SRG2]

Michael P: What lie do you claim I uttered?

[Randal]

What sort of "very fine people" do you think show up to an explicitly white-supremacist rally, Mikey Pikey?

He said it, and he said it about people at a white-supremacist rally. "But he was talking about the non-white-supremacists!" is a retardedly weak defense. You sound retarded.

[Michael P]

The memo must have gone out to repeat the "very fine people" hoax. Even Snopes recognizes you as lying stooges.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/

... and the really sick among you pretend that this is just "cultists [] repeating that it's been debunked".

[Randal]

Huh? That Snopes article says

For the record, virtually every source that covered the Unite the Right debacle concluded that it was conceived of, led by and attended by white supremacists, and that therefore Trump's characterization was wrong.

So, no. Trump called the people at a white-supremacist rally "very fine people." It's a fact. Do you dispute that fact? No. Does Snopes dispute it? No.

But by all means, please keep bringing this up every day. It's great to get to keep rubbing your guys' noses in Trump's mouthshit.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"So, no. Trump called the people at a white-supremacist rally 'very fine people.'"

No, he said that there were very fine people at the rally, which may or may not have been true. And he clarified that he was not talking about white supremacists.

[Magister]

Very fine people on both sides. Anybody who found themselves in a murderous white supremacist rally, which was promoted that way, and did not leave could not be called a fine person.

[Dr. Ed 2]

And who is it who actually IS killing Jews in the USA...

It's not the Tiki Torch Brigade....

[Malika la Maize]

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

[David Nieporent]

A return to the 'very fine people' hoax, eh. That has been thoroughly debunked.

Yes, the idea that it was a hoax has been thoroughly debunked. He in fact said it; it's on video.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Another psychologist.

Another Ash stake needed.....

[Malika la Maize]

We get why you might hate psychologists Ed.

[Mr. Bumble]

Nuke psychologists?

[Malika la Maize]

Gazan psychologists especially beware!

[Dr. Ed 2]

Nukes won't work with the undead -- you have to drive an ash stake through their hearts to kill them.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” – 2 Thessalonians 2:3

[Frank Drackman]

Sounds like Meyer Lansky's (sort of a childhood Idol) story.

[Frank Drackman]

Or Bugsy Siegel's (another childhood Idol)

[Roger S]

Somebody needs to learn the definition of hypocrite.

[CountmontyC]

So 122 years ago the immigration rules were different. Of course 122 years ago there was no welfare, food stamps or housing for illegal aliens. Immigrants back then received nothing from the government. No health care was provided ( on the contrary if an immigrant showed up with any sign of a communicable disease back then they were sent back to where they came from). The rules are different because the situations are different.

[jb]

With very few exceptions, undocumented aliens aren't eligible for most forms of welfare in the US, either. As throughout history, immigrants come to the US for work and opportunity, not handouts.

[CountmontyC]

How much has New York spent on housing illegal aliens?

"The city has obligations to shelter anyone who asks for it. The city put up tents and rushed to convert more than 150 hotels into shelters.

"We spent over $7 billion in this response," Castro said.

The yearly budget for asylum seekers has been larger than the budget for the city health department, the sanitation department, and even the fire department."

https://abc7ny.com/post/watchdog-questions-high-cost-sanctuary-new-york-city/16122940/

Now that is only one state and just housing alone. California has promised to pay for illegal aliens health care to the tune of billions of dollars.
And while officially illegal aliens are not supposed to receive government assistance most state governments don't really check immigration status of those receiving benefits. Then there are the benefits that can not be denied illegal aliens such as education.

Your claim is the ideal not reality.

[David Nieporent]

How much has New York spent on housing illegal aliens?

[...]

The yearly budget for asylum seekers has been larger than the budget for the city health department, the sanitation department, and even the fire department."

Sigh. Asylum. Seekers. Are. Not. Illegal. Aliens.

[Michael P]

https://x.com/phl43/status/2004579757191499802 discusses an interesting economics paper that identifies several confounding causes that muddle the effects of immigration on wages and welfare of native workers. In particular, a large part of the regional employment and wage effects of an immigration shock are due to "crowding-out" effects on labor elasticity, where natives of other parts of the country don't move to work in the area "treated" with the immigration shock.

The paper itself seems to be at https://doi.org/10.1086/739196, although there's a preprint at arXiv.

[Malika la Maize]

Does it address seasonal work which may involve many moves and which I bet attracts a lot of migrants?

[Michael P]

The introduction says "we exclude irregular, marginal, and seasonal employment", if that counts for whatever you mean by "address".

[Malika la Maize]

Exclude means doesn’t address, that shouldn’t be hard.

That doesn’t mean the paper doesn’t have valuable analysis, just wondered if they addressed that segment.

[Michael P]

"address" could mean that it calculates effects separately. "address" could also mean that the paper excludes seasonal employment to avoid confounding effects from seasonal employment having different behavior than other kinds.

The paper's main conclusion is that second-order effects of immigration are large enough that most predictions about the effects of immigration on wages and welfare are not supported by data -- especially the kind of predictions that Ilya the Lesser confidently makes. That's probably even more true for sectors that already include lots of relocation, whether within or between countries. (Lots of seasonal employment is handled by marginal workers without relocation, such as day camps and theme parks in summers and retail in December.)

[Malika la Maize]

address
1 of 2
verb
ad·​dress ə-ˈdres a- also ˈa-ˌdres
addressed; addressing; addresses
Synonyms of address
transitive verb
1
a
: to deal with or give attention to

If it excludes it doesn’t deal with or address it.

But again, that doesn’t mean the paper doesn’t have valuable information otherwise.

[Michael P]

You already demonstrated that you don't know how to use a dictionary. You don't need to repeat the demonstration here.

[Malika la Maize]

You’re the one that doesn’t seem to get that exclude means not address.

[Michael P]

Excluding seasonal employment is one way "to deal with or give attention to" it, you ultramaroon.

[Malika la Maize]

exclude verb
OPAL W
/ɪkˈskluːd/
/ɪkˈskluːd/
Verb Forms
​ exclude something (from something) to deliberately not include something in what you are doing or considering

They addressed it by deliberately not considering it?

[Michael P]

You already demonstrated that you don't know how to use a dictionary. Several times. You don't need to repeat the demonstration yet again.

Yes, one can deal with a matter by excluding it from what one is doing.

[Malika la Maize]

You give attention to something by deliberately not considering it?

Maybe your dictionary is upside down?

Mikie Q’s (hypothetical, of course) partner: Did you address the X situation?
Mikie Q: Yes, I deliberately did not consider it!

Lol

[Michael P]

Again, dude, one does not use a dictionary by picking arbitrary words from a definition and then pretending that is the entire and exclusive meaning.

You asked a vague question, and for some reason are upset that the answer is "yes".

[Malika la Maize]

Except I dealt with both prongs of the definition. Again with those pesky details!

[Frank Drackman]

Did they address the Addresses?

[Malika la Maize]

Bonner Springs officials in October approved a large tax incentive package to help the $540 million development of Mattel Adventure Park in Wyandotte County.

The park will be built near an entertainment district in Kansas City, Kansas. That area already features shopping and sports venues, and it will likely be the new home of the Kansas City Chiefs new $3 billion stadium.

It’s another major development project to which the state has committed future tax revenue through the Sales and Tax Revenue incentive, also known as STAR bonds. Those are loans secured by a municipality that are paid off through state and local sales tax revenue generated by the project. Sales taxes collected in the special district go to paying back the bonds instead of being collected by governments.

But if a project were to fail, municipalities do not have to guarantee the bonds, meaning the investors who provided the loan may ultimately be on the hook for them — not taxpayers or the developers. That’s what happened when a STAR bond project in Overland Park defaulted on its loan, according to the Kansas City Star.

https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2025-12-26/kansas-is-paying-millions-for-a-barbie-and-hot-wheels-theme-park-its-another-star-bond

[DDHarriman]

Mandami appointed a lesbian whose never been a firefighter as FDNY Chief.

This is how the conflagration of Global Intifada and DEI intersect to kill Americans, or in this case since it's NYC, a bunch of illegals and foreigners.

Merit should be a requirement in public services. Instead it's Democrat fagginess.

[Malika la Maize]

Is this like putting a person with no prosecutorial experience in as a federal prosecutor?

[Mr. Bumble]

Apparently experience is no guarantee of success. See Jack Smith.

[Malika la Maize]

Tell that to Harriman.

[Frank Drackman]

Exactly! like when Barry Hussein O was put in charge of the Executive Branch with abso-tu-lutely (HT D Addison) Zero Executive Experience.

[Malika la Maize]

Or when a guy with no government experience was put in charge of the federal government?

[Estragon]

The key weasel words here are obvious. This lady worked for the EMS side of FDNY for 30 years. Voltage guy dittoheading musk in this comment section is overdetermined.

[Brett Bellmore]

Which side of the "relevant experience is entirely optional" argument are you on? Make up your mind.

Can you actually defend hiring somebody with zero firefighting experience as fire department chief? Rather than be all, "Oh, look, Trump did the same!"?

[Malika la Maize]

Harriman made it a general partisan thing, I pointed out that that sword has two edges. A Trump supporter talking about lack of merit in government hiring is like a hooker complaining about extra-marital sex.

[Brett Bellmore]

I have no problem saying that Trump is bad at hiring, which surprised me, frankly. It's self evidently true.

[Malika la Maize]

Ok, that’s fair.

As to Mandami, as I’ve stated here numerous times I think he’s a goof. Is this hiring part of that? I think Estragon provides good context as to how the current MAGA critique has weak points. Having said that I would think one could find someone with EMS and firefighting experience.

[Estragon]

EMS is a critical core component of FDNY. The commissioner does not personally fight fires. She has decades of experience working with firefighters within FDNY. Her ability to climb a ladder or man a hose is irrelevant to how effective she will be as an administrator— organizational familiarity is much more important and she has that in spades. I assure you the deputy chief and all the top ranked people on the firefighting side will have firefighting experience.

It is not a “weak point.” It’s a stupid criticism, designed to elicit argle bargle responses about women and gay people from Trumpists exactly like the ones provided here. “Dearie me, how could they possibly make her the commissioner when she’s never driven the back of a hook and ladder???!!!” Give me a break.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Yes.

As a resident of NYC, I would add that this is yet another reminder that the Mayor-Elect is not a "goof," though at times he is (not a problem for me) goofy.

[Malika la Maize]

Hmm. What say you to this, Brett?

[Estragon]

Nothing, because he’s a cowardly goober.

[David Nieporent]

As to Mandami, as I’ve stated here numerous times I think he’s a goof. Is this hiring part of that?

Not the hiring, no. But announcing she was LGBTQ when hired, yes. It's 2025, long long long past time to stop announcing, "This is the first person from X identity politics group to have Y job."

[Estragon]

You might or might not be right about that, but I’m sure she agrees with you.

[Brett Bellmore]

My own view is that, when your hiring process arrives on a black lesbian, or a cross dressing in stolen clothing fetishist, or whatever, as the most qualified person for the job, and your reaction is to celebrate, rather than being shocked at how unlikely that was, the odds are that you were not hiring on the basis of merit, but instead primarily on the basis of being a black lesbian or whatever.

Because almost all of the candidate pool are not black lesbians, cross dressers, bondage fetishists, or whatever. Almost all of your candidate pool are "normal" people, because that's what "normal" means. So arriving on a black lesbian should be a shocking thing that startles you.

Now, there's a belief abroad on the left, (Rationalization would be more accurate, I think.) that once you cross some (As low as the situation necessitates...) threshold of qualification for a job, merit ceases to be an important consideration. That the absolute best person for the job, and the 100th best person for the job, do not differ enough to matter. So, why not put a thumb on the scale, and pick the oddball, and rack up a "first ever" entry in the record books?

Sarcastr0 is fond of this sort of rationalization.

Well, for starters, if somebody inverted this, and said, "Why not put a thumb on the scale, and hire a straight white male?, you'd explode in righteous anger. And yet, there's no principled difference between discriminating in favor of straight white males, and discriminating against them. (Except for the obvious point that the latter involves discriminating against enormously more people.)

To be clear, I've got no real problem with it if a pure meritocratic process arrives at the black lesbian being the most qualified for the job. It's an extremely unlikely outcome, but unlikely things happen all the time.

I just doubt that's what happened.

[David Nieporent]

Now, there's a belief abroad on the left, (Rationalization would be more accurate, I think.) that once you cross some (As low as the situation necessitates...) threshold of qualification for a job, merit ceases to be an important consideration. That the absolute best person for the job, and the 100th best person for the job, do not differ enough to matter.

But I mean, with rare exceptions like world class athletes, that's absolutely true. Or, to put it another way, there's absolutely no way to tell who is the absolute best person for a job and the 100th best person for the job. Or, to put it yet a third way, there is no such thing as "absolute best person" for a job, because people have different areas of strength and weakness, and you don't know ex ante what areas will be called into play.

There is no objective measure of best accountant or best plumber or best fire department commissioner. One can say that a particular person is unqualified — like a Trump nominee — or that one person has significantly more experience than another, but there's no obvious reason why, say, 25 years of experience makes one better than 20 years of experience.

As to the rest of your comment, your Bayesian analysis is terrible. "Most people aren't black lesbians, if you've hired one she's probably unqualified" is… ugh. Most people aren't named Dennis, either, but that doesn't say that choosing someone named Dennis calls into question his qualifications just because it's "unlikely" that the best choice would be named Dennis.

[David Nieporent]

which surprised me,

It shouldn't have; it only did because you do everything based on vibes, so you think Trump is smart and successful just because he inherited a lot of money and didn't squander all of it.

[Brett Bellmore]

Well, yeah. Because idiots who inherit a lot of money DO squander it, routinely. Especially if they actively manage it, rather than taking some non-idiot's advice and putting the money in a mutual fund, or buying an annuity, or something of the sort.

[Estragon]

EMS is a core function of FDNY.

[Malika la Maize]

Yeah, but it’s kind of a girl thing providing care and not a man thing like fighting a fire.

[Mr. Bumble]

"A girl thing"?

[Malika la Maize]

A sarcasm thing?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Malika, you ever cut someone out of a wrecked car?

The only "girl" thing is being smaller is an asset in confined spaces.

[John F. Carr]

Around the United States, fighting fires is a very small part of the job of a fire department.

[Mr. Bumble]

Yes, cooking, eating and sleeping fill a lot of their time.

[DDHarriman]

Hence the dames...

[Dr. Ed 2]

Brett, unlike normal departments where every EMT has to be/remain qualified as a basic firefighter because in a big fire they may be needed as such, the NYFD appears to have two separate commands.

In such a situation, amongst two equally competent deputy chiefs, I'd pick the EMS person because EMS is 3/4 of your calls today.

[Estragon]

This is actually a sensible comment.

[David Nieporent]

Can you actually defend hiring somebody with zero firefighting experience as fire department chief?

The premise is incorrect, so the question is irrelevant.

[jb]

As others have noted, she worked in the EMS. But even if she hadn't, is your expectation that, e.g., the CEO of large corporations have worked in the trenches for that particular industry? Which is more important to senior leadership roles: executive experience versus industry experience? Ideally you want a strong mix, but there's a long history of both successful and unsuccessful leaders coming from either end of that spectrum.

[Brett Bellmore]

"But even if she hadn't, is your expectation that, e.g., the CEO of large corporations have worked in the trenches for that particular industry?"

Yeah, actually. The idea that "management" is a fungible skill that needs no help from actually knowing the thing being managed is a lot of what's destroying Boeing, for instance.

I'm sure there are a lot of management positions that don't require internal knowledge of the industry, but there are going to be a lot that do.

[Randal]

But that's not even the point in this case. She's not the fire department chief. That's a different person. She's been working in the FDNY trenches for decades, just not as a firefighter.

You guys are getting confused by names and titles. Like, do you think that the coach of the Lions is unqualified for not having been a lion? You retards will grieve anything. Grieve and grift, grift and grieve.

[jb]

On the one hand, I agree that Boeing is a good example of a company that lost its way when they shifted to leadership that didn't come up through engineering. On the other hand, Elon Musk was not an automotive engineer nor a rocket scientist.

[TwelveInchPianist]

"Is this like putting a person with no prosecutorial experience in as a federal prosecutor?"

Hey, at least she had some sort of legal experience. It sounds like this person has no experience working any type of hose.

[Malika la Maize]

Interesting to read this showing he hasn’t read this discussion.

Do you just see the topic and cut and paste responses?

[Estragon]

Thirty year veteran of FDNY! You people are seriously beyond belief.

[jb]

TIP just wanted to make a lesbian joke. The overall merits of the conversation don't matter.

[Michael P]

"He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire." - LAFD Deputy Chief Kristine Larson

[Dr. Ed 2]

She's not wrong, but the question is "could she"?

[Michael P]

Deputy Chief Larson probably could not. She was explaining why her skin color was important but her (lack of) ability is not.

[Malika la Maize]

?

[TwelveInchPianist]

What do you mean "?" ? It's a quote, and names the person being quoted.

[Dr. Ed 2]

You are supposed to not become a victim yourself -- it sorta detracts from rescuing others.

[David Nieporent]

Mandami appointed a lesbian whose never been a firefighter as FDNY Chief.

Mamdani — note the actual spelling — did not appoint a lesbian whose [sic] never been a firefighter as FDNY Chief. Mamdani appointed a lesbian with decades of experience in emergency services — the primary responsibility of the FDNY — as FDNY Commissioner. This is not a nitpick about the title; it's a fundamental misunderstanding. The FDNY has both a chief¹ and a commissioner. The chief is the operational head.
​
​
¹It has more than one, actually - one for the firefighting side and one for the EMS side. And this woman already served as chief on the EMS side, so this was a logical next step.

[John F. Carr]

The Colorado Appeals Court asked the state Attorney General to respond by January 8 to Tina Peters' request to be released from prison now that Trump has pardoned her. The state prison system already refused to respect the pardon.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-pardon-tina-peters-colorado-appeal-28b86c413ae9d112931aaf3fb5a1abd3

[Mr. Bumble]

Any predictions?

[John F. Carr]

She loses in state court. Probably the US Supreme Court refuses to grant relief without written opinion.

[Brett Bellmore]

Sounds about right. The idea that Presidents can pardon state offenses doesn't deserve to be taken more seriously than that.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Team Bondi starts going over the Colorado state penal system with a fine toothed comb.

[David Nieporent]

The state prison system already refused to respect the pardon.

To the contrary, they did respect the pardon; they gave it its full effect. Your phrasing is like showing up to Soldier Field with opera tickets and, when they don't admit you, saying that the ushers "refused to respect your tickets." The tickets you have are entirely valid; they just don't entitle you to admission to an NFL game.

[John F. Carr]

Judge Vernon Broderick issued an unusually aggressive order on Christmas, blocking authorities from even detaining Imram Ahmed. Ahmed is one of five Europeans whose presence was declared by Secretary Rubio to be detrimental to foreign policy. Unlike the other four he lives in the United States and has a green card. Being deported would be a substantial disruption. The other four can continue to shout insults across the Atlantic.

A conference is scheduled for Monday.

I wonder if judge Broderick was annoyed by being dragged away from Christmas. He is the designated emergency judge for the whole week in the Southern District of New York.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72079865/ahmed-v-rubio/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33mx6j5jrvo

[Bwaaah]

Maybe the judge is just irritated knowing that no matter how he writes his orders, the administration's actions will likely be based on what he didn't write?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

I am reading Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time by Kristin Swenson.

It is a summary intended for the average reader. Some people think the Bible should just be read "straight" and the words themselves will set us free.

Others see some value in reading some context.

https://kristinswenson.com/?page_id=4756

The book references Ruth's famous statement of loyalty:

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Many use it as a wedding vow.

In Fried Green Tomatoes, the suitably named Ruth sends the passage to the Threadgoode family to announce she is returning home, fleeing an abusive husband.

It has lesbian implications in the story as well, given Ruth and Idgie's relationship. In the original, Ruth is talking to her mother-in-law, who is planning to return to Bethlehem.

Naomi's sons, now dead, married Moabite wives. Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to stay. One does.

Ruth, however, pledges her loyalty to Naomi. Ruth's son is the grandfather of King David.

The book was apparently written fairly late, after other biblical accounts of David. The involvement of a foreign wife is notable since elsewhere foreign wives were seen as so bad that there is a command for men to divorce them.

Anyway, the Bible is a collection of books written and edited over a long span of time. It has various apparent contradictions.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Ruth references an old custom:

"Now it used to be the custom in Israel that, to make binding a contract of redemption or exchange, one party would take off a sandal and give it to the other."

The charming Hallmark film Loving Leah has a scene involving a sandal, alluding to Deuteronomy 25:8-10.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Checking, the first version of the David narrative (Samuel) was apparently written first. Chronicles was written later.

Ruth might have been written before the completion of Chronicles. Both are estimated to have been written in the Persian period.

Dating of biblical texts is often at best an educated guess.

[Malika la Maize]

Pretty interesting biography of Sam Goody, founder of the record store chain of the same name:

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/12/erik-visits-an-american-grave-part-2045

[JoeFromtheBronx]

It is amazing how far he has taken that series.

Some here might not like some of his asides, but overall, they should be interested in those biographical accounts.

[Joe_dallas]

Minn Lt Gov is solidarity with Somalia and their fraud

https://nypost.com/2025/12/26/us-news/minnesota-lt-gov-peggy-flanagan-wears-hijab-at-somali-market-amid-multibillion-dollar-fraud-scandal/

[Sarcastr0]

Somalia is a country.

[Mr. Bumble]

Hahahahahahaha.
Failed state is more accurate.

[Mr. Bumble]

Did Navy Joan Roberts ever get a stocking?

[Joe_dallas]

Boston mayor in solidarity with somalians

https://www.facebook.com/MayorWu/posts/boston-stands-in-solidarity-with-our-somali-neighbors-and-members-of-the-somali-/890767476790281/

[bernard11]

And?

[Mr. Bumble]

From our friends at Powerline:
"Today in Minnesota fraud

The big news, of course, is the amazing count on the Nick Shirley video as he visits childless childcares in Minneapolis (now beyond 33 million views),

Contrary to popular belief, other news outlets are also on the case,

New York Post: Ilhan Omar’s hubby’s $30M firm quietly scrubs names from website – as ‘Squad’ member faces mounting questions on sudden wealth amid Minnesota welfare fraud.
Fox News: Minnesota Fraud Exposed: Misspelled ‘learning’ center, no children inside: Emmer presses Walz over Minnesota daycare tied to $4M.
Newsmax: Calls Grow to Investigate Walz Amid Minnesota Fraud Allegations
Wall Street Journal (Opinion): A Tale of Two Medicaid States: Minnesota Fraud vs. Indiana Reform.

Everything old is new again."

[David Nieporent]

quietly scrubs

I love how every time a website is changed in any way, the word "scrubs" is used by partisans. Newsflash: websites change all the time.

But even worse is the clichéd writing: "quietly" scrubs. As opposed to what, calling a press conference to announce it? Generally, adverbs lead to bad writing. (It's of a piece with calling something "selectively" edited. No shit; that's what editing is.)

[DDHarriman]

Haha yeah, after a $10B fraud scandal involving Somalians in MN, the Somalia Congressmen husbands name scrubbed from their brand new organization -- after a very very recent explosion in value.

"Just totes normal website maintenance" - David Nieporent

Why don't you care about the billions in fraud perpetuated by your political tribe?

[David Nieporent]

$10B fraud scandal

Still can't help lying, Voltage?

[ThePublius]

I love how when anything controversial is raised implicating liberals, leftists, or progressives, or their allies, you reflexively leap to their defense.

[Mr. Bumble]

David Notsoimportant embodies two of the Three Wise Monkeys'
See no evil and hear no evil (when Dems are involved) but feels free to speak evil based on TDS.

[Randal]

I don't see anyone defending the fraud.

Have you ever seen a strawman you didn't suck his dick? This too:

Contrary to popular belief, other news outlets are also on the case

Strawman orgy over here.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Bumble, it isn't just Minnesota.
Maine's a mess as well...

https://www.themainewire.com/2025/12/gateway-communities-implodes-and-governor-janet-mills-owns-this-failure/

[DDHarriman]

I was thinking of starting a new family tradition after how much fun we had doing it this year.

I took my kids on a nice wintery drive to check out the seasonal lights and to yell "RETARD" while driving by the Walz's.

I think we should do it every year, as kind of a MAGA Christmas tradition.

[Brett Bellmore]

Seems like it would have to be a local tradition, I'm not going on a long road trip just for that.

[Randal]

Sounds retarded.

[ThePublius]

Can you imagine a picture frame - just the frame - that weighs in excess of 3,000lb.? And, took 12,500 sheets of gold leaf to gild?

Wow. I wonder what it cost.

https://frintonframes.co.uk/2025/02/05/framing-a-great-washington-crossing-the-delaware/

[Brett Bellmore]

Yeah, I can picture it. Sounds about the same as the frame for the painting of Corput's Battery, at the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park on Lookout Mountain. That thing is enormous.

[ThePublius]

Wow, that is a huge painting, bigger than the one I referenced. How did they do it?

[Mr. Bumble]

Given that gold leaf sheets are between 3 3/8 and 5.5 square inches the number become less remarkable considering the size and intricacy of the frame.

[ThePublius]

I still wouldn't want to have to pay for them, no less apply them!

[jb]

It's not actually that much gold. Standard gold leaf is something like 16 grams per thousand sheets, so 200 grams of gold, or 7 ounces. In 2007, that would have been $5-6k worth of gold.

[Dr. Ed 2]

My guess is that the labor would be more.

[Michael P]

The Eagles famously described Hotel California as a place where "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave". New York has made that -- or maybe its obverse -- official state tax policy.

https://natlawreview.com/article/unsuccessful-taxpayer-change-domicile-new-york-florida-shows-courts-will-follow

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Cell phone records reflected that the taxpayers spent 186 days in New York, 131 days in Florida and 48 days in other locations in 2018. In 2019, the Hoffs spent 164 days in New York, 153.5 days in Florida and 47.5 days in other locations.

This is where they got them. Gotta love Verizon.

[Randal]

For the record, daily open threads suck.

For reasons previously elaborated upon by others.

[Hugh]

Happy to see that professors Blackman and Bernstein have abandoned the cesspool of fascist pigs known as the Heritage Foundation, even if it took the revelation that the Heritage Foundation is a cesspool of fascist anti-semitic pigs to lead to said abandonment.