The Frankish Reich

Not really. There's the close the border thing, in which he implies that he'd go back to the Title 42 thing, which was based on a declaration of a COVID health emergency. There's the occasional quarter-baked tax stuff. Last week he was eliminating the income tax and going to a full tariff-based revenue system. This week he was keeping the Paul Ryan tax amendments in place. In other words, not eliminating the income tax, but keeping it in its current form and adding new taxes (tariffs), which isn't exactly lowering taxes except in Trump's mind. We let the states decide on abortion! Yeah, and New Mexico now is the abortion capital of America as Texans go there. So if you think abortion is baby killing, well, you accomplished nothing except raising the cost a bit. What's next? You'll end the Ukraine-Russia war in 24 hours. In other words, you'll pull all U.S. assistance and tell Ukraine to waive the white flag. And they eat it up, don't they.

Borders, well, ok. She does realize that no-cash bail is a NY state thing? That she may just be substituting one emotional response for another?

Our friend Julie was also behind the fake outrage over "authorized use of deadly force" warrant thing. It isn't reporting. It's agitprop.

It's basically an insult comic routine. Long digressions like some old monologue comedian. Everyone's heard the shtick before but they still fake laugh and applaud. Sharks. Electric boats. Ramps that he thought were too slippery. Joe Biden doesn't know where he is. Hillary is a crook. We beat Obama. Wiry looking immigrants are really cage fighters. Blah blah blah It's a bonding experience for them. People who look like me! He plays to people like us! He's paying attention to us! Yes, a cult experience. I went to one political rally in my life. Believe it or not it was Mike Dukakis 88. I was working downtown where the rally was. Most boring stupid thing ever. Kept waiting for him while people like Darryl Hannah said things like "we need a guy like Mike who'll roll up his sleeves and work for us." I barely caught Dukakis before I had to go back to work. Why anyone attends these things is beyond me.

Sometimes something is so stupid it doesn't warrant a response. Trump, Bannon, Navarro convicted = "that's how communism works." Yeah. Communism works by jailing an opponent of free trade and "globalism" (Navarro), a sexual deviant and serial liar (Trump), and a former investment banker who hates immigrants (Bannon). She is an idiot.

I've pretty much stopped looking at state-wide polls, or even worse Congressional district polls. There is so much error there that it's hard to draw any conclusions. Weirdly, though, national presidential polling is still pretty good. I say "weirdly" because who answers their phone and agrees to take a poll? I've had a few of these calls over the years that I have answered, but they always seem kind of fake and I don't go ahead; they won't give me the name of the company doing the polling. If they simply said "Quinnipiac" or something I recognized I would do it. So in 2020 we had Biden with about a 7 point lead in the national poll aggregates, and he won by about 5, within what we would consider margin of error (there is no such thing when aggregating, but you know what I mean). Pretty good, all things considered. Nate Silver is promising his model before the debate, so we'll see. For now, fivethirtyeight (which he really no longer is a part of) has it as a virtual tie - Biden + 0.2 in the national aggregate. But that's with RFK still drawing 9+ percent. The national polls really don't mean anything in the electoral college, but I think it's fair to assume that with the electoral college advantage the Republicans have Biden will need to win the national popular vote by at least the same margin as he won by in 2020.

Maybe that, maybe Dr. Ronny's Special Adderal Blend, maybe both. But watch out for Smokin' Joe come Thursday night. I'm taking the over on Number of C'mon Mans.

I agree with you on the transferable vote thing. We used to say that our system of elections meant that politics was fought in between the 40 yard lines. That's not how it works now. We are now in a horrible rut that rewards extremes on both sides by the way our primary process works. But I disagree on expanding the size of the House. It is already pretty unwieldy, and I can't imagine a 900 member House being more willing to reach reasonable compromises. I think it would only get worse as representatives answer only to their smaller/even more uniform constituents. Your gerrymander reforms could help, but I'm not optimistic.

I've done plenty of court arguments in my career. And yes, I think I "know the material" in each and every one. But you know what I still do? Prepare. Practice. Lawyers do moot court sessions with their colleagues in which they can be asked any and every thing. It would be malpractice to just walk into a courtroom and start spewing things off the top of my head. But no, we should expect our candidates today to stand for 90 minutes riffing on things like battery powered boats and sharks and my genius uncle at MIT rather than actually study and prepare. That's the true sign of genius.

Again - have I suggested any out of left field questions here that would surprise either candidate? Do you have some of those? If so, let's hear them! Remember that we know more about these 2 old men than we know about virtually any other public figure.

And while the initial strayer is to blame, others that take the bait ought to know better. We had a newsworthy event, for both sports and society. A 78 year old former baseball great returned to a place of unhappy memories from 58 years ago, and he reflected - in an emotional way - on his experiences. Isn't that enough? I say this as a guy who hated Reggie and the Yankees back in the day. At least I thought I hated. I really didn't. It was just sports. I see a real man today, not a caricature. I hope others can share in that experience.

So what are your "gotcha" questions? All predictable as far as I can see. For Biden: do you regret pressing so hard for your final COVID stimulus package? Do you believe it had some impact on the burst of inflation we saw in 2022-23? For Biden: do you agree that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic, that it caused deaths to U.S. soldiers, and that Afghanistan slipped quickly back into Taliban control? How could you have gotten this so wrong? For Trump: during your 2016 campaign and in your presidency, you promised that you would release a replacement for Obamacare. Do you believe Obamacare should be repealed? If not, what specific fixes do you propose? And why did your administration (or your 2024 campaign) never release a plan of your own? Why should we believe that one will be forthcoming if you win? For Trump: you proposed increased tariffs to replace the income tax. Have your campaign economists estimated what the tariff level would be to allow for such a replacement? Independent economists have suggested that it may need to be in the range of 60-80 percent or more. Do you have any studies showing it could be lower? And last week you stated that you want to make the Ryan/Trump tax bill permanent. I thought you wanted to repeal the income tax altogether? Which one? Where's the actual tax/revenue plan?

Why do we need to fall back on these nutcase quips every time race comes up? The topic here is that a noted sports figure reflects (in conjunction with Juneteenth and a MLB game being played in Birmingham AL) on his baseball journey that began in a time of intense racism. He talks about how ugly it still was in the minors in Alabama in 1967 - after the Civil Rights Act. And he talks about white teammates who went out of their way to look out for him. I found it remarkably honest and heartfelt. And like I said earlier in this thread, the actual experience of ballplayer heroes of mine was important in me understanding what it was like to be a black man in the South in those days. This adds to it. It is not about reparations or white punctuality or whatever, and the OP doesn't make any mention of such things. It's a knee-jerk "but what about anti-white discrimination today" response.

Thanks for the clarification. There really is nothing to see here, other than some Trump people trying to drum up a big evil conspiracy. As usual.

I'm sorry, am I missing the "smart" part? She sounds like a female Deranged Rhino in heat. Damar Hamlin is dead and a body double is in his place? She currently works for ... wait for it ... LindellTV. Yeah, that Lindell. Are you sure you aren't suffering from the side effect of Luciferase? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Robinson In April, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she promoted a conspiracy theory that Bill Gates was planning to use vaccines to track people.[9] After then-president Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Robinson promoted conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems.[10][8] In November 2021, Robinson falsely tweeted that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine contained luciferase "so that you can be tracked." This echoed earlier false social media claims that the vaccine supposedly had satanic links due to "lucifer" in luciferase and alleged references to "666." Robinson's tweet began with the salutation "Dear Christians" and referred her over 400,000 followers to the Book of Revelation; in a tweet days earlier, she equated vaccines with the Mark of the Beast. EDIT: oh yeah, I forgot. This alt media is so, so much more reliable than that lyin' mainstream media. You guys consume this sh[I]te like it's caviar.

In Colorado we have emissions tests for cars that are older than a certain number of years. I can't remember how many years (5?), but I've got a car that needs it this year. Passage rate is extremely high for any car newer than about 2010. Incredibly wasteful of my time and money.

I would like to see us go to a VAT in lieu of the income tax. A VAT taxes consumption, not earnings or savings. We spend an enormous amount of time and money around income taxes, tax preparation, tax avoidance, etc. This is the single most wasteful thing in our economy. The regressive effects could be mitigated by some kind of rebate.

Sometimes things that are important take time and resolve. No, not everything we did in service of deterring the Evil Empire (Reagan's words) was wise in retrospect. But our resolve was critical in eventually bringing freedom to the Baltic states, Poland, Czech/Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria. Some might call it a righteous cause ...

Thank you, Blitzy, for introducing me to the wit and wisdom of "Emerald Robinson." But you pasted the wrong tweet. This is the one that has me really worried - the Fake Damar Hamlin is on the loose! Shouldn't we be doing something about this? Next thing you know they'll be designing fake punts for the fake Damar!!

Yeah, because there's so many trick questions out there ...

And the original Cold War lasted about 45 years. With an incredible amount of military spending, the Marshall Plan rebuilding Europe, proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, mutually assured nuclear destruction, etc., etc. I guess that wasn't worth it? Maybe we should have just let Stalin have all of Europe.

Ooh, someone is sounding scared of the Dead Man Standing (for 90 minutes). I got tricked!! Meanwhile, noted Dr. Feelgood Ronny Johnson (sic) shares with Biden his pre-debate pharmaceutical protocols.

True. That is a fair argument. I will say that this kind of photo "leak" is not unusual, but there is something to be said for keeping these things under wraps until they need to be released in a courtroom.

Some really obnoxious comments. I saw the interview with Reggie. You could see that he is now an old man who has come to terms with himself and with the America he grew up in and the America he knows now. There was none of the old swagger. There was clear emotion when he recalled the blatant racism of his youth. He was born in 1946. That means he was 18 when the Civil Right Act passed. The South was still Jim Crow country when he was growing up. His dad played in the Negrro Leagues (the auto censor doesn't like that word!). His childhood was one in which segregation was real. He considered colleges in the South but decided that he wasn't ready for that kind of abuse, or maybe that the South wasn't ready for a black man who spoke his mind. This isn't about reparations, or racism against whites, or whatever foolish talking points it always brings up. This is about a shameful era in U.S. history. You can love your country and still feel ashamed by some of the things it did.

Right. And it's our old friend Julie Kelly spreading misinformation again. Here's what they drill into you if you have a security clearance: - the document itself is classified at the level noted on it. - you must put a cover sheet on the document to avoid having it picked up by cameras, snooping eyes, etc. (this has happened). The cover sheet notes the highest level of classification in the document. For example, some paragraphs may be unclassified, marked by (U). But if other paragraphs are Secret (S) the whole document is considered Secret and the cover sheet will include Secret. - any derivative document including the information in the classified documents is considered classified at the same level. So a photo of the text of a secret document is also secret and must be similarly secured. This would include a memory card. When you go into a SCIF to discuss a classified documents, you check your phone outside. If you take notes during the discussion, those notes must be destroyed (typically a shredder meeting the standards for national security documents; they're pretty fun since they reduce the document to something like a powder; no gluing strips of shredded docs together like they did in the movie Argo) before you leave the SCIF. Classified documents must be secured in a safe authorized for classified storage, and someone has to sign a card every day noting that the safe was checked, was secured, and nothing seems out of place. Everyone knows this. As I said, they drill it into you. Yes, Biden knew this (unless he knew and forgot it). Trump knew this (unless he knew and forgot or was incapable of learning). -