Hello. I’ve never done this, or written this line before, or anything like it: Today, I donated a thousand dollars to a presidential campaign. For most of my adult life, I have been highly encouraged not to make political contributions of any size, to anyone, because of having to maintain the elaborate professional fiction that journalists are absolutely pristinely politically neutral. It’s sort of nonsense. Journos are very knowledgeable and opinionated: I always expressed opinions robustly, including the one right here, in which I
I can't "like" comments anymore. I am far too technology impaired to understand why or fix it. I particularly don't understand how/why I can reply, but not "like"
So. Instead of 1 number higher beside the little red heart, you get a whole gasbag paragraph to say I like and agree wholeheartedly with the moldy turnip comment.
Wow! I am having the same problem on my Mac! And yet on my iPad I can "like" things. Am also baffled. And am also responding more when I like something but am stymied. LOL!
I was having that problem on my desktop (Windows 11, Chrome). I also couldn't reply to comments (much less post new ones) and could never see all of them. After I complained about the problem here (and found that Edge worked fine), the issues suddenly evaporated--one more proof that Google is always listening!
Actually I think Rubio or Haley or Vance could more successfully go all “ et tu Brutus?” on Trump’s ass before the quisling Kamala could face down Dr. Jill who’ll be the effective president when Biden’s “ he has good days, he has bad days” become just bad days long before 2029.
I was sure the symphony story was going somewhere else. ********************************************************
The Calumet Symphony was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage-about 20 minutes-during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time, some of the bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.
After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch. "Hey! We need to get back!" "No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."
A few minutes later they staggered back into the theater and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member in the audience whispered to her companion, "Hey, doesn't the conductor seem a little bit edgy? "
"Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."
I'm a little confused about the recent rulings. The Supreme Court says the prez can't be prosecuted for official acts. Also says that rulings by executives agencies (EPA in particular) are disallowed. So how can the two rulings be reconciled? Can't Biden tell the EPA to keep going? EPA civil servants are answerable to the President, and the President is above the law. I know I am missing something, but what?
It primarily has to do with court discretion in litigation, not necessarily how the agencies actually go about their work. What "Loper Bright" did was essentially put the nail in the coffin of the primacy of "deference to agency decisions/expertise " as the leading theory or doctrine a court would rely on --- but did have to, in any case. Now, while this deference doesn't suddenly disappear under the ruling, it no longer is supposed to have that primacy or precedence in decisions if the agency rule or regulation is simply "reasonable" under the previous standard.
Now we know. You don't need a vote of two-thirds of the states or both Houses of Congress to amend the Constitution when you have a six black-robed person constitutional convention. Just give John Roberts a call or drop a hint to Clarence when shopping for a new RV.
Re “adultery” if one in the party is unmarried. This happened in “Seinfeld.” George goes to bed with a woman, who later reveals she is married. George exclaims, “I’ve committed adultery!” The woman replies, “No; I’ve committed adultery. You have committed fornication!”
Following the Trump v United States decision, why can't Biden take advantage by using the hypothetical offered during arguments? Declare his opponent a threat to America, send in Seal Team Six, and all would be official acts and therefore he would have immunity?
i.e. adultery: I dated an Air Force captain many years ago, back when they were all men and he told me it was ok to have sex with the major’s wife but not the major.
The MAGAts will enthusiastically support Trump regardless of what he says or does. Anyone who hates the Marmalade Mussolini will vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. The Presidential race will be decided in a handful of states by the votes of a small group of people: low information people who vote only occasionally. These low information voters who watched the Biden-Trump debate will focus on the differences in demeanor between Trump and Biden, not the factual content of their messages. If the election were held tomorrow, Trump would probably win.
The Biden campaign is hoping for memory decay among low information voters. They hope that the impression Biden gave low information voters will fade between now and November, and that they instead will remember the good that has come from the Biden administration’s policies. That isn’t going to happen for two reasons. First, these low information voters are the ones who in polls state that the country remains in a deep recession and that immigrants from Central and South America are stealing jobs from US citizens. They blame Biden for those things. Poll responses from low information voters have been consistent and resistant to change. They are unlikely to shift significantly before November. Second, right wing social media has unleashed a torrent of attack videos that feature Biden’s performance. Biden’s debate performance will be the Republican message throughout the rest of the campaign: Biden is a doddering, senile old man who is unfit to be President.
If Biden remains the Democratic Party candidate, the Democrats need to shift the focus from Biden to Trump, and to go as negative as possible as often as possible on Trump. The low information occasional voters who will decide the election won't pay attention to positive messages on Biden's achievements. They will be much more likely to come out and vote if they fear Donald Trump. The objective of the negative Democrat campaign would be to so terrify low information occasional voters that they will vote....against Donald Trump
In a chaotic world…like this one…the low information types are going to go with the tough guy. Always. Trump says he didn’t bang a porn star. Biden says Beau died in Iraq. Trump said he presided over the best economy in history, Biden says inflation was at 9% when he came into office. Trump screwed around on his pregnant wife, Biden ignores his 5 year old granddaughter. Dems need a reboot. Hell, I’d take Cuomo at this point.
Except (1) being found guilty of 34 felonies; (2) being found liable twice for defamation; (3) being found liable for sexual assault; (4) being found liable for business fraud to the tune of $450MM and (5) the very real possibility of become a dictator for life like his bosom buddy Mad Vlad thanks to his Supreme Court majority. And these are just for starters.
The Democrats have a nearly inexhaustible supply of Trump quotes, Trump actions and Trump legal challenges, so many that if they were to circulate 10 new negative ads on Trump every day from now until the end of the campaign, they would cover perhaps 20% of the available material.
I agree that Trump's own words should be used to hang him. "Christian men don't grab women by the privates - would you want some stranger grabbing your daughter's privates because he is rich" followed by the Trump assertion that women love this. "Do we need a president who threatens democracy?" followed by Trump saying he will get even with everyone he hates the first day of his presidency. Only his cult praise him for this - the people on the fence will be outright appalled.
I expect because those people are the worst hypocrites among his supporters, the self-congratulating so-called "Christians". They aren't fools who don't understand Trump; they are fools who think they are successfully tricking the Devil into doing God's work, as they see it.
"Christian men" ads would be targeted to Mormons, Southern Baptists, anyone whose Facebook profile highlights their devotion to Christianity. Meta and Google make it easy to target specific ads to specific demographics. Ads about Trump denigrating people who have died while serving in the armed forces could be targeted to anyone with a social media profile highlighting either their service or the service of family members or friends, as well as to broadcast media serving areas hosting large military bases. Such a commercial would be devastating if aired on The American Heroes (formerly the Military) Channel.
I would vote for a moldy turnip if I knew I could trust it to preserve the pillars of American democracy over its competitors.
I can't "like" comments anymore. I am far too technology impaired to understand why or fix it. I particularly don't understand how/why I can reply, but not "like"
So. Instead of 1 number higher beside the little red heart, you get a whole gasbag paragraph to say I like and agree wholeheartedly with the moldy turnip comment.
"I'll take Gasbag for $600, Alex."
Are you replying to me? Unsure what that means.
To WolfBite's gas bag comment.
Ah. It's also hard to tell which comments on here go to which other comments. :)
Wow! I am having the same problem on my Mac! And yet on my iPad I can "like" things. Am also baffled. And am also responding more when I like something but am stymied. LOL!
I was having that problem on my desktop (Windows 11, Chrome). I also couldn't reply to comments (much less post new ones) and could never see all of them. After I complained about the problem here (and found that Edge worked fine), the issues suddenly evaporated--one more proof that Google is always listening!
It’s a fair trade.
The principal pillar in play in a vote for Biden is the 25th Amendment. Pretty damn cynical. “ Wes Moore in ‘24.”
If the 25th were invoked on either of the two current candidates, who do you think would less likely respond in a way that caused people to die?
"LIKE"
Actually I think Rubio or Haley or Vance could more successfully go all “ et tu Brutus?” on Trump’s ass before the quisling Kamala could face down Dr. Jill who’ll be the effective president when Biden’s “ he has good days, he has bad days” become just bad days long before 2029.
I was sure the symphony story was going somewhere else. ********************************************************
The Calumet Symphony was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage-about 20 minutes-during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time, some of the bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.
After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch. "Hey! We need to get back!" "No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."
A few minutes later they staggered back into the theater and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member in the audience whispered to her companion, "Hey, doesn't the conductor seem a little bit edgy? "
"Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."
I'm a little confused about the recent rulings. The Supreme Court says the prez can't be prosecuted for official acts. Also says that rulings by executives agencies (EPA in particular) are disallowed. So how can the two rulings be reconciled? Can't Biden tell the EPA to keep going? EPA civil servants are answerable to the President, and the President is above the law. I know I am missing something, but what?
It primarily has to do with court discretion in litigation, not necessarily how the agencies actually go about their work. What "Loper Bright" did was essentially put the nail in the coffin of the primacy of "deference to agency decisions/expertise " as the leading theory or doctrine a court would rely on --- but did have to, in any case. Now, while this deference doesn't suddenly disappear under the ruling, it no longer is supposed to have that primacy or precedence in decisions if the agency rule or regulation is simply "reasonable" under the previous standard.
My answer is even simpler: Biden is a Democrat, so he is not allowed to do end-runs around asinine SC decisions. Trump and future Trumplicans are.
Now we know. You don't need a vote of two-thirds of the states or both Houses of Congress to amend the Constitution when you have a six black-robed person constitutional convention. Just give John Roberts a call or drop a hint to Clarence when shopping for a new RV.
I am late to the game here, but IMO the best minor-league baseball team is the Portland Oregon Exploding Whales. If you know, you know.
Wow, they really adopted that event! Cool!
Re “adultery” if one in the party is unmarried. This happened in “Seinfeld.” George goes to bed with a woman, who later reveals she is married. George exclaims, “I’ve committed adultery!” The woman replies, “No; I’ve committed adultery. You have committed fornication!”
Gene, thank you for contributing, I wish I could give that much but I do put in monthly. This is an amazing time.
It's easy to "call balls and strikes," in the words of confirmand John Roberts, when you keep changing the strike zone.
John Roberts is the Angel Hernandez of Supreme Court Justices.
Yeah, too bad he won't follow Hernandez out to pasture.
No one has mentioned the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters yet? I even have their ball cap. I might wear it to the Flushies.
Following the Trump v United States decision, why can't Biden take advantage by using the hypothetical offered during arguments? Declare his opponent a threat to America, send in Seal Team Six, and all would be official acts and therefore he would have immunity?
538 posted an Ipsos poll for Reuters today that shows Michelle Obama trouncing Trump by 11 points: 50% to 39%.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/
i.e. adultery: I dated an Air Force captain many years ago, back when they were all men and he told me it was ok to have sex with the major’s wife but not the major.
My comments are not processing.
This one did.
re: suggested negative ads on trump. Nothing we didn't know the first two times. why does anyone think it would be more effective this time around?
Here's the explanation. It's a long one.
The MAGAts will enthusiastically support Trump regardless of what he says or does. Anyone who hates the Marmalade Mussolini will vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. The Presidential race will be decided in a handful of states by the votes of a small group of people: low information people who vote only occasionally. These low information voters who watched the Biden-Trump debate will focus on the differences in demeanor between Trump and Biden, not the factual content of their messages. If the election were held tomorrow, Trump would probably win.
The Biden campaign is hoping for memory decay among low information voters. They hope that the impression Biden gave low information voters will fade between now and November, and that they instead will remember the good that has come from the Biden administration’s policies. That isn’t going to happen for two reasons. First, these low information voters are the ones who in polls state that the country remains in a deep recession and that immigrants from Central and South America are stealing jobs from US citizens. They blame Biden for those things. Poll responses from low information voters have been consistent and resistant to change. They are unlikely to shift significantly before November. Second, right wing social media has unleashed a torrent of attack videos that feature Biden’s performance. Biden’s debate performance will be the Republican message throughout the rest of the campaign: Biden is a doddering, senile old man who is unfit to be President.
If Biden remains the Democratic Party candidate, the Democrats need to shift the focus from Biden to Trump, and to go as negative as possible as often as possible on Trump. The low information occasional voters who will decide the election won't pay attention to positive messages on Biden's achievements. They will be much more likely to come out and vote if they fear Donald Trump. The objective of the negative Democrat campaign would be to so terrify low information occasional voters that they will vote....against Donald Trump
In a chaotic world…like this one…the low information types are going to go with the tough guy. Always. Trump says he didn’t bang a porn star. Biden says Beau died in Iraq. Trump said he presided over the best economy in history, Biden says inflation was at 9% when he came into office. Trump screwed around on his pregnant wife, Biden ignores his 5 year old granddaughter. Dems need a reboot. Hell, I’d take Cuomo at this point.
Except (1) being found guilty of 34 felonies; (2) being found liable twice for defamation; (3) being found liable for sexual assault; (4) being found liable for business fraud to the tune of $450MM and (5) the very real possibility of become a dictator for life like his bosom buddy Mad Vlad thanks to his Supreme Court majority. And these are just for starters.
Yes, THOSE are the things we must be talking about not the previous stuff!
The Democrats have a nearly inexhaustible supply of Trump quotes, Trump actions and Trump legal challenges, so many that if they were to circulate 10 new negative ads on Trump every day from now until the end of the campaign, they would cover perhaps 20% of the available material.
I agree that Trump's own words should be used to hang him. "Christian men don't grab women by the privates - would you want some stranger grabbing your daughter's privates because he is rich" followed by the Trump assertion that women love this. "Do we need a president who threatens democracy?" followed by Trump saying he will get even with everyone he hates the first day of his presidency. Only his cult praise him for this - the people on the fence will be outright appalled.
why must you suggest Christian?
I expect because those people are the worst hypocrites among his supporters, the self-congratulating so-called "Christians". They aren't fools who don't understand Trump; they are fools who think they are successfully tricking the Devil into doing God's work, as they see it.
"Christian men" ads would be targeted to Mormons, Southern Baptists, anyone whose Facebook profile highlights their devotion to Christianity. Meta and Google make it easy to target specific ads to specific demographics. Ads about Trump denigrating people who have died while serving in the armed forces could be targeted to anyone with a social media profile highlighting either their service or the service of family members or friends, as well as to broadcast media serving areas hosting large military bases. Such a commercial would be devastating if aired on The American Heroes (formerly the Military) Channel.
I’m confused by the poll wording. The “a” rhymes with “fair” or “an” is odd. “Sounds like the ‘a’ in…”
The poll I'm seeing says "rhymes with fail."
You're talking about a guy who comes from the Bronx.