This is it. The Wire. You may think that our fateful moment will come on Election Day in November. Or when the last tranche of Epstein Files hits. Or the coming New-9/11. But you're wrong. This is a potential save that (alas) we're about to lose.
In a couple of weeks it will be too late for 'decent Republicans' to step up and register as candidates in 2026 GOP primaries. There's still just a little time for honorable, courageous conservatives (and I must believe that some still exist!) to step up and flip the tactic that till-now effectively destroyed the Republican Party, turning every top GOPper into an unknowing -- or in many cases knowing -- tool of our nation's enemies.
Maybe two weeks. That leaves just a little time to talk it over with family... then step up. Like a citizen. Like a patriot. Like a decent person.
Sure it would take guts to 'primary' the MAGA cretins who now rule in red districts. Even now, as polls show GOP popularity plummeting nationwide, those districts have been heavily gerrymandered and now are weighted toward fanaticism. By design. Moreover, all sorts of KGB methods are used to coerce into darkness any challengers who possess even a scintilla of honor, methods that range from honeypot traps, to blackmail, to (in some cases) threats of violence.
Above all why try something that's doomed to be futile?
But is it? Futile, I mean?
Less than you might think! Because there's another deadline looming. One that every decent person in any Red district should consider. Because only a fool remains a "democrat" or "independent" in such a place.
== Register in the party of your district! ==
If cheating politicians have rigged things so they get to choose voters, instead of the other way around, then you should vote in the only election that matters, in such a district. The primary of the dominant party.
1. If you do, for the first time in years, your vote might actually count! Even if it means a liberal or leftist must choose a somewhat decent conservative over a mad-corrupt one. Aw, poor baby. (And don't pick the crazy one! That never works!)
2. You'll protect your own registration to vote! In recent years we've seen flagrant and rampant purging of Democrats in red states (and may the culprits rot in hell.) Often this happens just weeks before Election Day. (Even if you don't re-register to change parties, as I recommend, CHECK your registration, especially this coming October! And tell your friends.)
3. If you do change parties, you'll mess up their calculations! Their joy over an uptick in GOP registrations will soon turn to sour bile in their mouths, when they realize.
And sure, this also holds for conservatives who live (frustrated) in heavily Democratic districts. So? Vote for a moderate instead of a leftist? That's your right! Only note that in California and bunches of blue states, party registration matters a whole lot less than it used to. Any citizen can vote for any candidate, already.
The way things ought to be.
Anyway, envision this happening nationwide, if say 200+ honest, honorable and residually sane American conservatives were to step up -- (again the deadlines are soon!) -- to challenge cretinous confederate Putin-puppets. It might seem hopeless, but have courage!
A: If you do step up, publicly and vigorously, there may follow a flood of newly registered "Republicans" in the district. Democrats and Independents who are sick of having no meaningful choice. And...
B: You'll have staked ground for after the GOP self-torches in the fall. Folks will remember that you tried!
And I have one answer for the MAGAs who are already screaming at their screens right now, typing furiously that 'this'd be cheating!' No it wouldn't be. But it's a good way to answer YOURS!
== The Voter ID Scam is NOT what you think! ==
They are desperate.
Almost no one anymore believes that there was even a scintilla of evidence for a 'steal' of the 2020 election. Not only zero evidence, but Democrats have shown ONE-EIGHTIETH the rate of cheating, corruption and malfeasance in office as Republicans, as revealed by Grand Juries (mostly white retirees) all across the continent. (And I invite you to have your attorney contact me when you have escrowed $10,000 in wager stakes.)
But faced with those facts, the Foxites are trying to distract. by howling that 'Democrats oppose Voter ID. And hence must be intending to cheat!'
First, there have only been about 30 known and audited cases of fraudulent voting by non-citizens, across thirty years and over a billion votes. Want to prove your case? AUDIT MORE! Though in fact, the case is nonexistent. An incantation.
BUT DEMOCRATS ARE STOOPID TO OPPOSE VOTER ID IN PRINCIPLE!
This is a trap to make it seem as if you are intent on cheating.
There is a better answer.
"Sure, we'll all be happy to do Voter ID! Just as soon as you confederate/MAGA/Foxite jerks stop cheating.
"Stop deliberately CLOSING DMV OFFICES IN BLUE OR MINORITY AREAS IN RED STATES! And offices for other government services. Which should OVER-serve those who need help, not under-serve or starve them.
"Re-open those offices and help poor folks to GET the ID that will help their lives in all sorts of ways. And thereupon they'll have their rightful ID to show at the polls. It's called COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE and corporations demand it, whenever they face some new regulation!
"If you do that - and get results - then watch as we'll all negotiate over Voter ID. Because we're not the cheaters.
"Oh and do you truly want to get folks to go back to standing in line to vote, instead of mail-in ballots?
"Fine! Then make any citizen's receipt for in-person voting their ticket to a day off work! Watch how quickly things will shift back!"
Can you see how this flips the narrative they hope to use against us and against America? Yeah.
And that's just one of the 35 proposals in my Newer Deal list of pragmatic, easily passed and crucial reforms that you can scroll through, here.
Specifically:
13. THE VOTER ID ACT: Under the 13th and 14th Amendments, this act requires that states mandating Voter ID requirements must offer substantial and effective compliance assistance, helping affected citizens to acquire their entitled legal ID and register to vote.
Any state that fails to provide such assistance, And thus substantially reducing the fraction of eligible citizens turned away at the polls, shall be assumed to be in violation of equal protection and engaged in illegal voter suppression. If such compliance assistance has been vigorous and effective for ten years, then that state may institute requirements for Voter ID.
In all states, registration for citizens to vote shall be automatic with a driver’s license or passport or state-issued ID, unless the citizen opts-out.
== And a couple of small revisions ==
Finally a couple of revisions to one of those proposed reforms.
2. THE PROFESSIONALISM ACT will protect the apolitical independence of our intelligence agencies, the FBI, the scientific and technical staff in executive departments, and the United States Military Officer Corps. All shall be given safe ways to report attempts at political coercion or meddling in their ability to give unbiased advice. Any passive refusal to obey a putatively illegal order shall be immediately audited by a random board of quickly available flag officers who by secret ballot may either confirm the refusal or correct the officer's error, or else refer the matter for inquiry.
Whistle-blower protections will be strengthened within the U.S. government.
As described elsewhere, the federal Inspectorate will gather and empower all agency Inspectors General and Judges Advocate General under the independent Inspector General of the United States (IGUS).
NEW PARAGRAPH: Certain positions that have until now been appointed entirely at presidential discretion or whim shall be filled henceforth -- by law -- in ways that narrow selection down to a broad pool pre-approved by pertinent professional organizations. Posts that involve scientific judgement, for example -- such as the heads of NASA, NSF, EPA, CDC and so on may be presidentially appointed only from pools of twenty or more candidates selected by the National Academies of Science and Engineering. The leaders of agencies or institutions bearing on the arts shall be chosen from pools selected by pertinent arts councils, and so on. The Attorney General and other high justice officials and federal judges shall be chosen from large pools of candidates rated 'qualified' by both the American Bar Association and a national academy of police officers.
== Get busy living, or... ==
Are we lesser Americans than the blue volunteers who stepped up to rescue our revolution -- against 6000 years of wretched/failed/oppressive feudalism -- before us? At Cowpens and Yorktown? At Gettysburg and Appomattox? At Pearl Harbor and Berlin... and 44 years later, again, in Berlin?
I guess we're about to find out.
------
Lagniappe:
Shouts for you to use at the right moments:
If there's some kind of 9/11 event aimed at distraction and to get us to 'rally around the leader,' shout "Reichstag fire!" Folks will get it.
From now until this phase of the US Civil War finally ends:
"APPOMATTOX!"
...OH...
And THANK YOU, MINNESOTA!
72 comments:
I live in Missouri's Second Congressional District which is gerrymandered Republican. (I'm not to blame for Ann Wagner, I promise.)
We have open primaries in Missouri, and you don't have to be registered in a particular party to vote in their primary. When you get to the polling place, you tell the election official which ballot you want. It's that simple.
I always check out all the candidates' websites at least; but I usually can't tell one Republican from another. Their main argument seems to be that their opponent isn't MAGA enough. The one time I voted in a Republican primary, I wound up being responsible, in my small way, for our disgraced former governor, Eric Greitens. I need to own that.
Is registering as a Republican in order to vote in the primary enough, or enough that can be done safely? Safe as in would it be safe to attend a Republican town hall or open forum and ask if you can ask just two questions. The second question being dependent on the answer to the first question.
You ask:
1. "Did Donald Trump win the 2020 presidential election?"
2. "As you did not give a yes or no answer to the first question, was your answer scripted as you replied because a reply of yes will automatically bar you from receiving funds from the Republican National Committee?"
By now the microphone has been shut off. But to continue (if media is present)
"I cannot support a candidate who makes a consistent concencous effort to avoid a yes or no question."
"I cannot support a candidate who affirms the welfare of Donald Trump over that of the state of Arizona."
"I cannot support a candidate who accepts the systematic structure of financial blackmail for political compliance."
A dream scenario of course.
To do so in reality would get a brick through your plate glass window in under 24 hours.
Re: Celt, from the last thread:
With the rising anger against the greed, unfairness and perversion of the rich, America feels like France before the storming of the Bastille.
I wanted to mention Marquis de Sade as a child of those times, but then remembered that the crown actually persecuted him and sentenced him to death.
Yet, there are similarities: Wealth disparities lead to resentment on one, and entitlement, lack of empathy and loss of a grip on reality on the other side.
On the AI topic from yesteryear:
Here's an article about a team working on some of the ideas Dr. B has been promoting here...
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/article/canadian-researchers-develop-ai-tool-to-fight-online-disinformation/
The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research says incorporating AI technology into its debunking tool CIPHER has allowed it to better keep up with a constant flow of false and misleading claims.
“Russia was the main threat … targeting Canada most generally,” he said in a recent interview. “We are now beginning to shift.”
...
McQuinn cited a recent example where the system found a Russian media outlet had reported Alberta is moving towards independence, which is factually incorrect. Separatists in the province have held events and reportedly spoke with U.S. officials, but no process is currently underway for Alberta to separate.
“Effective disinformation often has kernels of truth in it,” McQuinn said.
...
McQuinn said the overarching goal of disinformation campaigns is to tear societies apart and incite violence.
...
He said the United States is increasingly becoming a main source of disinformation in Canada.
“You have to always remember that most of Canada’s dialogue when it comes to social media is on U.S. platforms,” McQuinn said.
“We have seen that Canadian news and certain types of Canadian content are being downgraded and throttled within these algorithms.”
Artificial intelligence has been the source of much disinformation on people’s social media feeds, he added, but he said CIPHER needed the technology to make debunking easier.
“We are in an AI arms race around disinformation,” he said.
" I usually can't tell one Republican from another. "
Do you remember the 2016 Republican primary debates, before Donald Trump was the undisputed front-runner? Something like 13 candidates on stage, and every one of their speeches was (essentially) about how much they believed in the same things that all the others did and how closely they resembled Ronald Reagan.
"To do so in reality would get a brick through your plate glass window in under 24 hours.:
Well, to continue the daydream, you could arrive dressed in full MAGA cosplay with plenty of pro-ICE buttons, so part of the costume which would be totally accepted is a mask.
"the crown actually persecuted him [ the Marquis de Sade ] and sentenced him to death."
Similar to Jeffrey Epstein.* And maybe for similar reasons. Who knows what dirt the marquis might have had on some rich and powerful aristocrats?
Or maybe, as also with Epstein, he was just too gross even for them. He gives the court of Louis XVI a bad name.
* the "sentence" being carried out extra-legally in Epstein's case
https://www.threads.com/@stonekettle
How do you reform an agency that kidnaps people, puts children in cages, and summarily executes Americans in the street? How do you reform goons who sneer at due process, probable cause, and the Fourth Amendment? How do you reform thugs who believe they are above the law and not bound by the Constitution? How do you reform an ideology that see AMERICANS as the enemy?
Answer: You can't.
Just as you couldn't reform the SS.
Abolish ICE and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
* * *
Shutting down ICE seems like a reasonable reform to me.
That could be the new recruiting ad: Are you a total loser with an inferiority complex who couldn't get hired to ride around the mall on a Segway? Join ICE! Everyone hates you and you don't get paid.
Ruefully gratifying to see that my viewing the Trump administrations through the lens of Nazi Germany, once considered egregiously deranged, is now pretty much accepted as common sense. Even among those who like the similarities.
Seen on a recent protest sign:
You want 1939 Germany
You'll get 1789 France
My first No Kings protest sign back in April highlighted the year 1789 and asked rhetorically, "Constitution or Revolution?" The "Revolution" side had a drawing of what has now become my trademark guillotine with "Basket of Deplorables" written on the container that catches the heads.
Stonekettle links to an Elon Musk post on "Shitter":
https://www.threads.com/@stonekettle/post/DUyVk6GkR--/media
Elon Musk @elonmusk
For a country to survive, there has to be a common culture.
Nobody dies to defend a "multicultural economic zone"!
American culture with its English-Scots-Irish origin is great and worth fighting for.
Some might not realize it, but that's why people come here.
So many things wrong with that, starting with what kind of "common culture" did the oligarchic planation owners share with the peasants who fought for the Confederacy? Or that people might indeed fight and die for a country that protects their right to practice whatever religion they believe in against those who would compel submission to a different one.
But what caught my eye was the blindness that prevents one from noticing that "English-Scots-Irish" is itself multicultural.
We'll need anthems. The Battle Hymn of the Republic served out blue forebears in the 1860s, but not today. Springsteen will do. Still, listen to the righteous rage in Judy Collins singing this warning of revolution, from Marat-Sade. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEysfTMWmSY
Elon's surround of flatterers must be complete. Jeepers. Debt/deficits are ALWAYS worse under republicans. And the all-absorbing nature of American culture, sucking in and incorporating all immigrant cultures, has been its greatest strength. Idiots mouthing such nonsense probably don't recall what big fans they were of the Dirty Dozen. Lee Marvin, Jim Brown and a big hillbilly and mexican and so on, killing Nazi lords.
Musk is just pointing out the obvious truth that the element which actually holds societies together throughout history, that makes them workable, durable and worth defending, are not the abstractions of laws, political ideologies or economic systems, but ethnos. And this is even true of America.
This is a terrifying truth for globalist-types, which they have to work to deny, vilify and make war on 24/7/forever. But ultimately they are just fighting aspects of themselves which they deny. People like our host should be the first to understand this: your primary identity still exists because it mattered more than any nation you inhabited, and you were willing to emigrate, struggle, and do whatever it took to preserve it. And when the going gets tough these identities trump allegiance to globalist abstractions, which is why in a thousand years there will be Jews, and Arabs, and many other ethnicities, but the chances of there being “Americans” or a nation called America is rather slim, imo.
As a thought experiment, if you had to choose between the survival of Jews and the survival of America, which would you choose? Be honest now.
Treebeard:
Musk is just pointing out the obvious truth that the element which actually holds societies together throughout history, that makes them workable, durable and worth defending, are not the abstractions of laws, political ideologies or economic systems, but ethnos.
I wouldn't disagree until we come to the conclusion. Laws and political ideologies are practical means for running a country, not the things that swell your heart with pride and determination to protect.
But your focus on "ethnos" as the only thing that does that is myopic. You speak for yourself, but not for everyone. The very notion of America (and Canada and parts of Europe) as places where one can be atypical and not persecuted for it is a reason to love and defend them.
This is a terrifying truth for globalist-types, which they have to work to deny, vilify and make war on 24/7/forever. But ultimately they are just fighting aspects of themselves which they deny.
That sounds an awful lot like projection. It's you who are terrified and work to deny 24/7 forever that tolerance and equality and justice for all can exist and that majorities vote for them given the chance without suppression. Deep in your soul, you know that a black woman or a Puerto Rican might be attractive enough that you would forego your race-hatred to be with her. And the realization must be akin to homosexual panic.
continued...
continuing...
People like our host should be the first to understand this: your primary identity still exists because it mattered more than any nation you inhabited, and you were willing to emigrate, struggle, and do whatever it took to preserve it.
Emigrating from Nazi Germany could be motivated by something other than preserving a particular religion or culture. It could be as simple as personal or family survival. And why did those who were lucky enough to be able to flee Nazi Germany long to immigrate to North America? Not because it was a Jewish homeland, certainly. Maybe because it wasn't actively trying to murder us? Sounds like reason enough for Jews to love America.
And when the going gets tough these identities trump allegiance to globalist abstractions,
Globalists don't particularly love globalism the way one loves a homeland or a tribe. Globalism is a way of getting along with the world instead of having it as an enemy, just as the rule of law and justice in America that respects many cultures is. You claim that survival of your tribe is more important than abstractions like justice and law, but those are methods for keeping from being in a state of war with one's neighbors 24/7 forever--a situation you'd seem to prefer, but which makes you and your kind less safe.
which is why in a thousand years there will be Jews, and Arabs, and many other ethnicities, but the chances of there being “Americans” or a nation called America is rather slim, imo.
Will there be Christians? Because that identity seems bent on absorbing people from all over the world. It's certainly not an ethnicity.
As a thought experiment, if you had to choose between the survival of Jews and the survival of America, which would you choose? Be honest now.
Stupid question. The loss of a refuge in America (as it was before Trump) would greatly increase the chances of a more-successful Holocaust 2.0. And while I can't speak for Dr Brin or anyone else, my personal preference would be for the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution to survive, no matter in whom. My desire that Judaism also survive is based on the values that Judaism teaches its own and models for the world, not because it shares my chromosomes. The woman I love more than anyone else is not Jewish*, and my daughter is certainly a mix of multiculturalism.
Now, I'm...whatayacall...half finished. And you still haven't addressed the observation that there's something ridiculous about worshipping the idea of a monoculture, referring to it as English-Scots-Irish.
* I actually suspect there's some Jewish ancestry in her lineage. No proof, though.
per Treebeard:
Musk is just pointing out the obvious truth that the element which actually holds societies together throughout history, that makes them workable, durable and worth defending, are not the abstractions of laws, political ideologies or economic systems, but ethnos. And this is even true of America.
So bizzare that on the one hand, there's this undercurrent on the right of "American Exceptionalism", and on the other hand, a total lack of understanding of what is exceptional about America.
For 250 years, Ethos, not Ethnos is what has held America together. I get that Musk lists "Irish" as part of America's founding ethnicities, but you do realize they were considered "foreigners" as late as the 19th cenutry.
https://www.theirishpotatofamine.com/blogs/blog-1/nativism-against-the-irish-in-america-a-historical-perspective
So sure, some of the great American heroes, Lincoln, Franklin, Washington, the Kennedy brothers were descendent from Musk's vaunted "English-Scots-Irish" ethnicities.
But just as many were not.
The pair of Rooseveldts? Dutch.
Eisenhower was ethnically German.
America's greatest prophet - MLK? Mende.
As a thought experiment, if you had to choose between the survival of Jews and the survival of America, which would you choose? Be honest now.
You mean if the Nazi symps complete their takeover of the government, and move on to the next stage? ... yeah, you're damn right, we'd fight for survival of the Jews over survival of some perverted, desecrated remnant of the USA.
If OTOH, you mean that the American experiment survives this round of craziness, the ship of state is righted, and the trends throughout the late 20th century of Jews intermarrying, and blending into the American fabric continues, so the only way for "Jews" to survive as a distinct entity is to destroy America ... you've got a very different answer.
"I get that Musk lists "Irish" as part of America's founding ethnicities, but you do realize they were considered "foreigners" as late as the 19th cenutry."
Not only foreigners, but n*gg*rs . Same for Italians into the 20th century.
People like Musk and Treebeard want to freeze the boundary of inclusivity to what they're comfortable with in the here and now, standing athwart history to prevent further inclusion. But they seem to have no idea how that boundary evolved before they were born or came of age.
Elon's surround of flatterers must be complete. Jeepers.
Sigh. That reminds me of "If only the Führer knew of this..."
While Elon certainly has flatterers, he is evil.
And fully responsible for his moral and mental decline. His evil is a cocktail of inheritance brattishness, apaartheidt, ketamine, billionaire soul-rot, and maybe too many parties with Epstein.
People look strange at me when I say Germans actually belong to one of multiple dozens of tribes who all still now and then hate each other.
Germans actually belong to one of multiple dozens of tribes who all still now and then hate each other.
"The only ones we hate more than the Romans are the f***ing Judean People's Front!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX47ObjShLA
...
Then those foreigners started coming.
Like the Germans in 1790.
Then the Irish arrived--the potato blight--
The neighborhood started changing.
...
Speaking of anthems in this context...the late Jill Sobule's "America Back"
If they US of A instituted a centralized faith based reign, they seize to be. Religious freedom is one of the core founding myths.Among others.
They become Gilead instead.
"Eisenhower was ethnically German."
For that matter, so was King George III.
Treebeard has a perfect right to have different horizons of inclusion than I have. But he's behooved to address my assertion (backed by all of history and anthropology) that such horizons are inversely proportional to levels of fear. And that his cult's frantic need fror comfy-close horizons of exclusion and hostility are manifestations of inner personalities of cowardice.
https://www.davidbrin.com/nonfiction/eon.html
Of course the very same Tolkien who gave the ent his monicker preached diversity - even amid his other personality trait, deep loathing of modernity.
What's fundamental here is the utter dishonesty of ent's cult, Claiming to favor capitalism while betraying Adam Smith at every turn, in favor of feudal plantation lords who gave him and his fellow romantics nothing but pain for 6000 years.
"Treebeard has a perfect right to have different horizons of inclusion than I have.'
Of course he does, but he's mistaken when he insists that everyone has the same horizon as he does, and that if we claim otherwise, we're just pretending for some nefarious reason.
Treebeard’s ode to ethnos breezes over its question-begging core. Where does ethnos come from???
Two thousand years ago, there was no such ethnos as “English”. There were Celtic tribes called “Britons”, but they would contribute only a fraction of either the genes or memes of “England”. Angles and Saxons came and admixed with natives and each other; Normans and other flavors of Scandian arrived, delivering French and Viking influences respectively. And all those factions strove to maintain genetic and cultural purity against the unavoidable tides of human nature. All that accomplished was to provide the shape of the ethnos that emerged, along with plenty of intensive and intentional ethos building an identity from materials old and new.
This is ethnogenesis, and its existence is both the antithesis and the refutation of the arguments against American pluralism. The same forces are at work here today, churning at a far greater scale than on that splendid isle.
Barring apocalypse, there will indeed be an ethnicity of “American” in a thousand years. Its spirit lives already in the streets of Minneapolis today, as England did in Londinium under the shadow of the new-built Tower. Squint and you can see that ethnos forming all around us. It will not be European, or African, or Asian, or Hispanic, or anything else seen before; it will have inheritances from them all, but it will be its own self.
Ethnos trumps ethos, but ethos is the mother of ethnos.
For that matter, so was King George III
Funny how the view on him can differ. While he being vilified is certainly understandable, the transition into a parliamentary monarchy was already under way, and he himself seems to have been a comparably descent person (outside the acute phases of his illness). Almost a bit of a tragic personality...but then, they all were: him, Louis XVI, Frederick of Prussia, Maria Theresia and even Katherine of Russia.
Complicating matters... on the global stage there is a difference between 'nation' and 'state'. Nations are identities. States are the legal entities that govern regions. Most States are composed of multiple nations with relationships ranging from tolerance to genocidal hatred.
There is no US 'nation'. Yet.
We are in the process of defining it.
For example, though Der Oger is technically German, they'd make a fine USian. So say i... another USian.
Forces that shape the nation we are creating range from joyous intermarriage to fearful intolerance and violence. Very messy.
If you are going to be paranoid, be paranoid about something real.
https://youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE?si=xCNY9z7XMXIPp7mq
This is what a digital coup looks like.
The most important TED talk you will ever see.
We are already living in East Germany and Instagram is the Stasi.
We are already living in East Germany and Instagram is the Stasi.
The true extent of the Stasi's power was not the mass surveillance.
It was the ability to make people look away, make them pretend that everything was totally normal.
Even decades after the tyranny ended.
Of course the very same Tolkien who gave the ent his monicker preached diversity - even amid his other personality trait, deep loathing of modernity.
I feel like a man who came of age watching modernity massacre his fellow soldiers on the Somme, and who spent WWII as an Air Warden, trying to limit the damage modernity was inflicting on his beloved Oxford, (while praying that modernity didn't kill his two sons that volunteered for the RAF), can be forgiven some qualms about modernity.
Let's not forget "modernity" at that time also meant eugenics and "race lore", which led to industrialized genocide.
So now so Rubio is calling for the return of colonial empires.
Run by white people of course.
Yep. Though I missed the outcry about that.
Von Rubiotrop's speech at Munich was described as a "poisoned declaration of love" by commenters.
Merz speech was labeled as good, but I think he paused a bit too often in awkward moments. He used to be a better orator.
The better, more interesting pieces seem to have been the panels with AOC in foreign politics and the rise of populism.
Does Rubio think that Cubans count as white people?
Can Elon actually name a country that is not multicultural? I don't think there is one (at least not one that is larger than 1,000,000 people, some single island countries might! be unicultural).
BTW, it is Rose Monday again. And with it, this one.
(Add: the creator of these wagons faces a criminal indictment in Russia now. Here is the answer of the artist.)
Der Oger, I think your first link is broken.
The second link is funny and I can see why Putin would call it a crime.
Alas Floridian Cubans do. The whitest.
Firstly, Mr Musk's reference to "English-Scots-Irish" misses a defining word. Everything about him and his background tells me he's really saying "English-Scots-Irish PROTESTANTS". In the Irish case that means the English-Scots overclass throughout centuries of Irish history.
Not unlike the English-Boer overclass which ran South Africa for so long, to his family's benefit.
Secondly, in response to Larry Hart's question, I have no doubt that Mr Rubio considers SOME Cubans to be white people. Let's not forget that the Spanish Empire in North/South America had a VERY carefully worked out scale, it's literally where the word 'caste' comes from.
In fact, with only a couple of exceptions, the breakup of that empire was triggered by the Spanish authorities' attitude that there was a class difference between people born in Spain itself and the colonial elite who were of overwhelmingly European heritage and had documentation to show this. (In theory Spain had the 'one drop' rule with respect to Black ancestry, but someone who was 7/8 White and 1/8 Indigenous was officially white. In practise, of course, things were more fluid.)
OGH weighed in while I was composing . . .
"Let's not forget that the Spanish Empire in North/South America had a VERY carefully worked out scale"
When I was a college student in the 1980s, I always thought it was a little myopic that American leftists decried Americans as colonizers in Latin America, but gave a pass to the descendants of the conquistadors as if they were the indigenous people of the region,
"Brexit was a petri dish for Trump."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSMr-3GGvQ
Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy
Given Epstein's widespread "social network" and his friendship with Trump, I wonder if he encouraged Trump to run for president and how much he may have helped.
“While this lack of cooperation is concerning and unprecedented, the BCA is committed to thorough, independent and transparent investigations of these incidents, even if hampered by a lack of access to key information and evidence,” the BCA said in a press release. “Our agency has committed to the FBI and Department of Justice that should its stance change we remain willing to share information that we have obtained with that agency and would welcome a joint investigation. We will continue to pursue all legal avenues to gain access to relevant information and evidence.”
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/fbi-will-not-share-access-to-alex-pretti-evidence-with-minnesota-officials-bca-says/
Is there any law allowing the FBI to withhold evidence from a state-level capital crime investigation?
The FBI has state publicly that they have evidence relevant to the case, and that they are not going to voluntarily share that. If any private citizen did so, the next step would be a search warrant.
So what happens if the Minnesota police show up at the Minnesota FBI office with a search warrant for the premises?
"So what happens if the Minnesota police show up at the Minnesota FBI office with a search warrant for the premises?"
That may well be what the new Civil War looks like. Not soldiers shooting at soldiers, but federal and state forces facing off with weapons drawn.
As part of her current crusade, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene revealed that since she and Trump became enemies, she and her kids have received at least 773 death threats. The actual number is apparently much higher, but a certain bar has to be cleared to make the threat "official" and thus reportable to the Capitol Police. There are some folks who think it is instructive that Greene was despised by the left for years, but that she did not have to hire security until she crossed Donald Trump. We are among the folks who think that way.
Another person who has reason to be nervous is Trump's nemesis in Congress, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). who decided there was wisdom in sending this message via eX-Twitter this weekend:
I am not suicidal. I eat healthy food. The brakes on my car and truck are in good shape. I practice good trigger discipline and never point a gun at anyone, including myself. There are no deep pools of water on my farm and I'm a pretty good swimmer.
In other words, for anyone who is not getting Massie's drift, the things that might be made to look like suicide don't pass the smell test if he is indeed suicided. If he was Russian, he'd be tweeting that he's not in the habit of hanging out right next to ninth-story windows, or drinking tea with a dash of polonium in it. After Massie sent that tweet, Greene responded: "These are not the type of public statements that any of us should have to make." She's right about that.
...
Both sides do not do it. And "What about Steven Scalise?" doesn't balance the scales.
The link to the above:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2026/Items/Feb17-2.html
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2026/Items/Feb17-4.html
We also wrote last week about the administration's efforts to rewrite history, including excising all that pesky stuff about slavery being presented at Independence Hall. Yesterday, District Judge Cynthia Rufe (a George W. Bush appointee) issued an injunction ordering the administration to put the removed displays back in place. It was yet another scorching ruling from a federal judge, this one beginning with a quote from George Orwell's 1984: "All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place." Rufe also compared the Trump administration to Orwell's Ministry of Truth, and all of that was before she got really mad.
Someone other than me gets the 1984 connection.
"The FBI has state publicly that they have evidence relevant to the case, and that they are not going to voluntarily share that. '
Ok, so the state does not have access to evidence needed to charge ICE agents with murder. Can't they charge FBI agents with obstruction of justice? I'll bet a lot of the local jury pool would be ready to convict.
Just a few questions:
What has to happen to be held in contempt by a court, and is the federal government already crossing lines here?
What happens if a judge decides to hold the government in contempt?
With regards to the cross roads of Europe that is Germany, you can tell the mixture of tribes that make up the German "volk", from the word used for Germany by neighbouring countries.
Der Oger said ...
"Just a few questions:
What has to happen to be held in contempt by a court, and is the federal government already crossing lines here?"
There are many things that could cause a judge to hold an entity in contempt. Disrespecting the court, ignoring court instructions, blatant disregard for the law and established legal precedents, and many more no doubt.
And yes. Officials and lawyers representing the federal government have crossed the line many times.
"What happens if a judge decides to hold the government in contempt?"
Good question. There have been several instances recently where judges have initiated contempt investigations or considered doing so, against administration officials and DOJ lawyers. Several judges have openly, on the record, accused administration officials and DOJ lawyers of things that would certainly get the average lawyer, defendant or plaintiff charged with contempt. Such as "Failing to meet ethical obligations," and "Defiance of a court order." But as far as I know there have been no cases of actual contempt charges being brought.
And actually doing something about it? To right things or administer consequences? That doesn't seem likely. At such high levels as the executive and legislative branches of the US, or any nation, the rule of law is relevant only if enough of the people making up those bodies are willing to honor them to a certain minimum amount. The Republican Party has steadily, for decades, been ignoring laws, rules and established precedents to greater and greater degrees. For example, since Trump's 1st administration they have completely ignored congressional subpoenas. No other administration has ever done that.
Nope, with this government contempt charges won't have any significant impact. At least not directly. It is possible that it would be one more twig on the camel's back that maybe leads to more people being willing to vote the scumbags out. But that might just be wishful thinking on my part. It might also cause yet another constitutional crisis, but in contrast to the shit-show we've endured so far most people probably wouldn't even notice.
What an ungrateful child Ethnos is, to trump its own mother Ethos.
"Almost a bit of a tragic personality...but then, they all were: him, Louis XVI, Frederick of Prussia, Maria Theresia and even Katherine of Russia."
Maybe the fact that they were all pretty closely related - maybe a bit TOO closely - might have had something to do with their 'tragic personalities'. Or, maybe, growing up thinking of other humans as play toys - wasn't there a period fashion for human chess games? - stunts a part of them. Drouet's cart might have been slow but it proved effective nonetheless.
Pappenheimer
Oger,
France is similarly not a monolith. Everyone hates the Parisians; Languedoc and Langue d'oil don't mix (or maybe that's been changing); FLB; Why do they even have half the Catalans anyway? (answer - History, vicious Clio again).
(I might make a vile comment here about how Old French is actually just Bad Late Latin but as an English speaker I have NO leg whatsoever to stand on.)
Every nation - state, even ones with near impeccable genetic purity (like Japan), has centripetal social forces. There's an old book called 'Twelve Fair Kingdoms' about a planetfull of witchy Appalachians who ALL COME FROM THE SAME PLACE and within a few generations one of the 12 families has become the 'sad sack' kingdom for the others to look down on. The author knew what she was talking about.
Pappenheimer
While YouTube's menu system appears to be down, here's a link to test, and a fun little trip down memory lane. Back whn this sort of thing took real money to make!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVNJIshl2o
Maybe. Though I think much of their reputed decadence might have been an exaggeration. Especially when I look at the behaviour of the Epstein Class today.
Thank you!
You're not the only one who feels that way ....
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2026/Items/Feb18-4.html
Heard on Stephanie Miller's radio show:
"Jesus is a victim of identity theft."
Also:
"A civil war has erupted in the Republicans party between those who know Trump has raped children and care a little, and those who know he raped children and don't care at all."
Do what we did to Nixon - remove VP Agnew first.
Only this time (using the SCOTUS precedence establish by Sen Mitch McConnel) deny Trump the abilityto fill the VP slot.
Then impeach Trump.
Viola!
The Democratic speaker of the House becomes president.
"Jesus is a victim of identity theft"
Just watched some Videos from the Genetically Modified Sceptic, an atheist raised in a radicals fundamentalist evangelical cult.
Here is a piece about the role of the US and evangelicals in the suppression of liberation theologists in South America.
Hakeem Jeffries might not get the Speakership if 6 GOP defectors demand a price of a compromise (presumably decent republican) choice, so it would not seem a coup.
And then there is the little detail that over a dozen GOP Senators must flip, too.
Do it after the dems sweep the mid terms.
As we enter this season of reflection and repentance, let us renew our commitment to the common good, and the dignity of all. - Mark Carney
Republican Senators will never vote to convict under those circumstances. And it's not a matter of a filibuster. The Constitution requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate for an impeachment conviction.
One thing I do like about Celt's scenario, though, is that it would probably lead to removing the House Speaker and the Senate President pro tem from the line of presidential succession. It makes no sense that legislators are in that sequence which is otherwise made up of cabinet members chosen in part by the president himself. And the only way I can imagine that will be changed is in the exact scenario described above--if there's the threat that a Republican president might be replaced by a Democratic speaker.
(The other way around would be treated as the intent of the Founding Fathers and a testament to their judgement and foresight.)
onward
onward
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