The Frankish Reich

It was clearly NOT bs. It was from his own PAC, the one that's raised the most money for him. And the head of that PAC left to join the DeSantis campaign itself. I suspect you'll be seeing a lot of what's in that memo start to seep into the day-to-day DeSantis campaign now. He couldn't very well follow the script at the debate since Vivek would've been ready for a comeback on that.

I don't know. I wasn't about to read hundreds of pages of oppo research. It looks like he refrained from giving Vivek a nickname, which is the only thing I remember about what was in that long memo. Good for him.

True. And the evangelicals believe that everyone is a sinner. "Man in justified by faith alone." The older Lutheran credo. Good works, good schmerks. A man who does bad things all his life but repents and accepts Jesus as his personal lord and savior on his deathbed is saved; an atheist who commits his life to helping others and is adored by everyone in his community is denied eternal salvation. That's just the way it is. Don't believe me; look it up. I will not do that. If I make fun of Vivek and his constant references to capital G "God" it is because I am calling him out as a pandering phony. Nikki Haley can do that all she wants even though she is of Indian Sikh ancestry. She is very openly Christian, and I have no reason to doubt a true believer.

WTF are your social media blatherers watching? I actually watch the old fashioned network half hour news from time to time. They all led with the destruction, and had their lead correspondents ON THE GROUND IN LAHAINA for at least a week. It was to the point that my wife asked "aren't they getting in the way of the recovery efforts" But the Not-That-Steven Miller you quote tells you they have "no pictures"

I guess that's why you didn't adopt the moniker "DR's Little Brother"

That is very inclusive of you, and I would certainly hope that a loving God would not commit to eternal damnation the members of many other faith traditions who live good and moral lives but who have not accepted Jesus as their lord and saviour. Maybe it's just me, but that would seem to be a jealous and petty God indeed. Coming from the Catholic tradition, I would have to say that your statement here has a strong Catholic accent. But that's not evangelical Christian doctrine. Here's a pretty standard expression of what that is: https://billygraham.org/answer/isnt-just-believing-in-jesus-enough-to-get-me-into-heaven/ No one goes to Heaven because of their goodness. Those who accept Christ as their personal Savior go to Heaven because of what Jesus did on the cross. Salvation is the work of Christ alone; however, someone who is truly saved believes “in” everything Jesus has proclaimed. EDIT: Vivek went to a Catholic High School. He will know this from his theology/comparative religion classes. I have Vivek Derangement Syndrome. A visceral dislike of bs spouting pharma bros. Thank you.

Yes, as far as getting traction as the golden boy of his party. But as far as being a serious candidate? More Rand Paul. New Wave Bomb Thrower.

I kind of liked Andrew Yang when he did this on the Dem side in 2020. And when I first heard of Vivek I was favorably disposed to him - seemed like he was coming from that now-marginalized libertarian wing of the party that could use some time on the debate stage. But the more I see and hear him the more I dislike him. An incredible phony who's now adopted the persona of some kind of Young Trump. Read about how he made his money. He isn't a tech guy; he has a biology degree from Harvard, but he's a lawyer. He started an investment company that bought the patent on failed and neglected drugs. He'd have you think that he brought orphan disease drugs to the market, doing good as he also got rich. But he made a ton of money from pumping up an Alzheimer's drug that had already failed in 4 clinical tests. How did he pump it up? By being one of those insider elites he supposedly despises! His company put Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and others on its board, hoping to use their influence to pump up the value of the company (and probably also to turn up the pressure on the FDA to approve some of his drugs. The Alzheimer's drug failed. His company also supported vulture pharm bro Martin Shkreli, who did some really disgusting things in the drug market. And then he adds the God talk that annoys me coming from any politician, but particularly annoys me coming from someone who is from a different religious tradition altogether. He is a loudmouth phony. And yes, his behavior on the debate stage got me started ...

Sometimes he seemed like the only grown-up in the room. Certainly the better of the two rich guys turned politician. A bit thin on government experience, but he exuded stability and thoughtfulness the day after he blew out his achilles. Pretty impressive. North Dakota, nicely done. (He doesn't stand a chance)

Oh, I gained knowledge all right. 600 pages of "Q Analysis," enthusiastically supported and honored by many still here today. I had no idea how lost and insane some people are.

I like the instinctive "its from a conservative source, so I'll instinctively like it" response from another poster here. tl;dr "Overall, I don’t think he came out looking strong from it. He’s certainly overshadowed a lot of people, but he didn’t really prove himself to be a presidential candidate. Instead, he proved himself to be an annoying millennial on the stage who thinks he knows better than everybody else." Oops. I'm the one who should be liking the article. Get it right next time.

And it takes Ol' Tarheel to provide the 10 second summary. Could someone pass him a message that I thank him from the bottom of my heart. Love, TFR

This will not please the gods. The gods will descend on the Hypothetical One Bills Drive. Expect a Severe Weather Warning.

Glad to see we have another participant here who also thinks journalists should behave like politicians. Tucker went from being a never Trumper to cheerleading for Trump to saying he hates him passionately to ... cheerleading for Trump. Getting richer all the way.

The only candidate who offered an anti-abortion yet consistent (and respectful of the constitution) argument last night is gonna get 1% https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doug-burgum-backed-abortion-ban-north-dakota-outlaw/story?id=99943781#:~:text=Doug Burgum said Thursday that,states was the right one. "I think the decision that was made returning the power to the states was the right one. And I think we're going to have -- we have a lot of division on this issue in America. And what's right for North Dakota may not be right for another state ... the best decisions are made locally," Burgum said on "CNN This Morning." For 50 years the pro-life movement argued that Roe improperly took the issue away from the states. Now that Dobbs returned it to the states, the Pence types are saying "jokes on you; we didn't really just want to return it to the states, we just wanted federal law prohibiting it everywhere."

You were supposed to say commies. Get with the system.

I'm certainly not "accusing it of being full of hate." I'm accusing it of being full of sh!te. Guy who said to everyone at Fox that he "hates Trump passionately" sucks up to him for 90 minutes like all of that never happened.

True. A serious politician might think about putting import duties on OPEC oil to counteract OPEC's (read: Saudi's) manipulation of the world oil market. Even if Biden were to open up drilling on all kinds of marginal oil fields, those wells wouldn't be drilled when the Saudis can simply manipulate the price of oil lower, making it not economically feasible for drillers to exploit those fields. This is the core of our oil dependency problem: it is not a free market, and it is not a free market because of our friends the Saudis.

No doubt they worked hard, and they put their money where their mouths were, paying to send Vivek to a Catholic High School and then onto Harvard. The whole "Brahmin" line of criticism strikes me as stupid and an attempt to subtly call attention to "not one of us." Out of curiosity: is he a vegetarian? If so, how does he avoid all those meat-eating Iowa campaign events?

I'm glad you like your journalists as shallow and self-serving as our politicians.

True.

Purdy was so good last year - and the team was so close to a Super Bowl with him at QB - that it would have been foolish to start all over again with Lance at QB. And if you're going with Purdy at QB, Darnold as backup means you keep running the same offense. And I have a weird feeling that Darnold will get some starts this year and that with that offense he'll suddenly look more like Purdy 2022 than Darnold 2017-21. Lance was going to be a totally different type of QB. We still have no idea whether he could do it. He's a good low cost/high ceiling lottery ticket for some QB deficient team. I gotta give credit to the Niners brass for ignoring the sunk cost and moving on.

Geez, I'm so sorry I missed it. The Passionate Hate of Tucker set aside as he bends over for self-aggrandizement. I hope Elon provided the lube.

Here's an indication of where the Republican voters are on this whole "Christian nation" thing and the lack of fealty to the constitution: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/21/most-republicans-support-declaring-the-united-states-a-christian-nation-00057736#:~:text=Christian nationalism%2C a belief that,to the 2022 midterm elections. We followed up by asking: “Would You Favor or Oppose the United States Officially Declaring the United States to be a Christian Nation?” The findings were striking. Overall, 62 percent of respondents said they opposed such a declaration, including 83 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Republicans. Fully 61 percent of Republicans supported declaring the United States a Christian nation. In other words, even though over half of Republicans previously said such a move would be unconstitutional, a majority of GOP voters would still support this declaration.

too long; didn't watch So I'm assuming it was all sweetness and light and a Tucker/Trump love fest. So cute that they made up