The Frankish Reich

JD Vance says this childless woman really has no stake in our children's future.

I imagine he also won every golf tournament held on the grounds of his own villa. Oh, they're trying all right.

The current government rousing a bunch of "protesters" to try to stop an orderly election process that would result in it losing power? Yeah. Difference of degree, not of kind.

It's interesting. Based on real conversations with people who work in this field: Yes. You do see some doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, etc. walking across the border with backpacks. The first recent wave of Venezuelan immigrants had a lot of educated/professional people. The Venezuelan middle/professional classes collapsed, and they came whatever way they could. The second wave was more of laborers, etc. And unfortunately the most recent wave has included a lot of the lowest economic rung. They didn't have the money to get out, but with "modern" smuggling networks anything is doable now, you just owe a debt that you repay through money or work, including supporting the criminals who smuggled you.

Ahh, that's our Bernie (and you won't see me defending him)

Serious question: Cuba is ruled by a horribly corrupt and abusive communist regime. Is it a bad thing that people who hate living under that regime are able to come to the United States to seek a new life?

Good. That's what I was hoping to hear. So next: was JD Vance absolutely the best qualified VP choice? There was no woman, no minority candidate better qualified than a 39 year old white man who has held public office for not even a couple years?

As Twitter would say, a reader provides context: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/nyregion/chinese-immigrants-new-york-city.html#:~:text=But immigration court filings since,at the Migration Policy Institute. The shelter they are protesting would be in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn's Chinatown. Q. How did it become Brooklyn's Chinatown? A. Thanks to a wave of Chinese asylum seekers/illegal immigrants! In other words, the last wave of illegal immigrants protesting the current wave of illegal immigrants.

Apparently female + black + Asian Kamala is considering only male + white candidates for VP in a type of ticket balancing. Is that bad?

I'll wait for the full conspiracy theory. Ask your buddy over at that other board and get back to us.

Good for him. And this raises an excellent question for the New Isolationists: what are you gonna do about it? Should there be a Pan-Latin American military force ready to eject Maduro and his henchmen? Should the United States be involved? Remember, under Trump we recognized Juan Guaido's government as the legitimate government of Venezuela, but without any type of regional or international force behind that, it was utterly ineffectual.

Hey, whatever happened to Repeal Obamacare? Could it be that Americans kind of like it?

I love how you guys turn on a dime. Just a few days ago there was some Obama-Kamala rift.

The nationalist contingent should like the Olympics. Think about it: we are 80 years into post-WW2 "world governance." We are constantly being told that national borders are being erased and that the idea of the nation-state is in decline. And guess what? There's no "EU" basketball or soccer team. There's a whole bunch of traditional teams. We play France or Italy, not "the EU." And people care about how their national team fares. Same thing with the World Cup or the recent Europe and America cups. National anthems, not world anthems. That old world stubbornly refuses to go away. Enjoy it for what it is!

It's the new world. Look at basketball. What is Nikola Jokic? He brings the ball up the court, leads the team in assists but also in rebounds. A point Center? Look at baseball. What is Mookie Betts? A fantastic player. Put him in RF and he'll win a gold glove. Or at 2B. (Maybe not at SS long term though.) That's where scouting has gone in baseball - the idea is that a good defensive player is a good defensive player wherever you put him on the diamond. Or look at NFL defenses. What is Matt Milano? In some ways, a great safety or what some old college teams called a Rover. The best vision/sense of the field who whose talents would be wasted if trapped in a tradition weak side LB role. Or peak Von Miller for that matter. I like finally having a coach who wants to lead innovation.

I like the "Weird" talking point. People have "danger to democracy" fatigue. Plus "weird" appeals to young people. Freaky. Not normal. Weird. And yes, there's plenty of weirdness in the new Nationalist Right to keep that talking point going.

Edgy! Poor taste if that's really what it was called, but kind of amusing unlike the rest of the interpretive dancing.

That was then, this is now. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-sees-boost-favorability-after-biden-drops-race/story?id=112306763 Time for you guys to move on. Harris is the candidate. It's basically a 50-50 race again. I was pissed when Trump (formerly a Democrat, then almost the Reform Party candidate in 2020) took over the Republican Party right in front of our eyes. But it's no use arguing that this is so, so unfair to Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. I have to live in the real world; so do you.

Just as many as Biden, because people voted for the Biden-Harris ticket. Your question would have been right on point if the Democrats hadn't all rallied to support Harris and instead had chosen a different candidate. But they didn't, and perhaps this was one reason why.

They've been selling greed a whole lot more than fear. Between those two - greed and fear - they've got quite a product to sell you.

Just when you think he's all out of bad ideas, Trump calls for a "strategic U.S. cryptocurrency reserve." https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-adds-crypto-to-his-america-first-agenda-71ceb046?mod=hp_listb_pos2 If elected president, Trump said he intends to create a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” where the government would keep the tokens it holds or acquires. The crypto industry has long hoped that the U.S. would establish a bitcoin reserve comparable to its gold reserve to lend legitimacy to the cryptocurrency and stabilize its price. In what way is it the U.S. government's role to "lend legitimacy" to crypto? Or even worse, to "stabilize its price." That sounds like a Federal Reserve type system for crypto, which is kind of the antithesis of the anti-fiat currency, right? This is more of what's called regulatory capture, this time by the biggest crypto investors/exchanges.

Don't they take demand take downs of all Olympics video footage? Even actual athletic performances?

Thank you for the game recap. Ultimately, the score is all that matters, and we agree that Elon Musk as Parent = 0.

You mean less important than mock drafts? How could this be?

And other than Logan Roy (the incredible Brian Cox), Tom was the most entertaining character.