The Frankish Reich

Congratulations for making it. I think I mentioned before that I was a teaching assistant as a grad student a lifetime ago. The most involved/best students I had were in a night class with mostly "nontraditional students."

I thank the NFL gods for scheduling a crap game that I had no interest in, thereby allowing me to avoid this.

I don't know enough about this Connor Grubb thing to comment. I do know enough about Michael Brown to say that it was a tragedy, but I don't think the cop who shot him was guilty of any offense.

I take care of my similarly aged mother, but only for a few weeks at a time. My siblings help more than me. I do the George Costanza's father "serenity now!" thing several times a day. But every night I'm thankful that I have that time with her.

One word (well, technically two): J6. Four words: Peaceful Transition of Power. The sins of GWB (and even more, Cheney) are fairly commonplace in our country. The sins of Trump were not, and hopefully are not.

Notice the responses to my post. They are "responsive" in name only. Absolutely no one bothers to justify how the reproduction of Trump's signature by some mechanism (maybe an autopen!) is any different than Biden's use of the autopen. Actually the Trump situation is worse, since he disavows any knowledge of some of the high-profile subjects (CZ) that his machine nevertheless pardoned.

He's a good politician. I've watched him a bit over the last few months. He's young, dynamic, not afraid to say what he thinks. Getting over 50% in NYC was a significant achievement that reflects those skills. I'm thinking that Trump has a grudging admiration for someone who is this good at Trump's own game.

They are a strategic partner, but that's only because of where they're located and how much oil is under that sand. Other than that, they are a disgusting feudal society with almost no homegrown expertise in any field of endeavor whatsoever, living under an unchecked dictator who thinks he's a lot smarter than he really is.

And yet they have a big lead on the generic congressional ballot polling for 2026. Yes, they are fools. But there is a bigger fool.

It's not easy. I know. But it's worth it.

GW Bush just delivered a eulogy for Cheney. Coherent, well written (kudos to the speechwriter), well delivered. Obviously sharper 17 years after his presidency ended than all 3 of our 2024 presidential candidates. A sobering thought.

Who said it was impossible? Like there's never been a high-level meeting with the nominal Palestinian leadership before? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oslo_Accords

Y'all can have your clever, cutting, witty. But please: leave the edgy to the experts.

Come on, you know that situation is just slightly different ...

I was wondering that myself. He was our "doctor of Indian ancestry" if I remember correctly.

Talk about a break. Short week, backup QB, our defense should look kind of ... acceptable again!

Seth made a good point that's somehow been lost on the media, both mainstream and alt. Trump is now supporting a vote that will compel him to release Epstein files, something he ALREADY COULD DO. "Please force me to do it"

Trump just had one of his weird post-Head of State chats with MBS/Saudi. And lashed out at the inevitable Epstein questioner, thereby assuring that the only thing people will remember from this latest Brown Nose the Dictator session is "Epstein."

Hey, I've never called anyone A***Man. I favor the more sophomoric (that's high school for you) responses.

Why don't I deserve a 4th grade nickname? Feeling lesser than.

Oops. https://apnews.com/article/trump-pardon-biden-justice-department-ed-martin-d525b1911534a40f70394fddf396acc1 Note that the bluesky embed from some unknown source is solely for the benefit of our nonreader audience. I am relying on the AP (and you'll find it all over the place) article here.

Trump back on his favorite turf, swapping bs with his favorite (even better than Putin) dictator. And they share a love for beautiful women, many of them on the younger side. https://nypost.com/2020/08/31/inside-the-lavish-life-of-saudi-arabias-party-prince/

Hey, there's nothing that boosts viewership more than a Trump effort to censor. Tells me and my ilk that I must be missing something good.

In reality, Massie is inoculating the public against the next very likely argument: "we have brought charges against [name the Democrat], and many of these files are investigate files that are being used in an ongoing federal prosecution, and therefore they cannot be released."

Summary of the judge's decision: Fitzpatrick also said Halligan, who had never prosecuted a case prior to Comey’s, appeared to make two “fundamental misstatements of law” to the grand jury that could jeopardize the indictment altogether. He said Halligan, facing tough questions from grand jurors, appeared to suggest Comey might have to testify at trial to explain his innocence, an improper characterization of the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Fitzpatrick also said Halligan appeared to improperly suggest grand jurors could assume the government had more evidence against Comey than what it presented to them. “The record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding,” he wrote.