The Frankish Reich

That's the new "Republicans" for you.

Right. Mike Pence refused to be intimidated into doing something he knew was contrary to law and the constitution. Poetic justice for Trump. He chose Pence as his running mate to shore up support/turnout from the religious right (unlike fake Christian Trump). He didn't realize that that would mean Pence takes his oath of office, sworn on the Bible, seriously.

Oh really? https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/jared-kushners-deal-making-career-off-to-sluggish-start-d245fea8 Jared Kushner set up last year at Tel Aviv’s Hilton Hotel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, aiming to spend some of the $3 billion that Gulf nations had pledged for him to invest. For five days, Kushner and his team at Affinity Partners listened to pitches from promising Israeli companies hoping to secure funding from the former White House senior adviser, who is also former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner had raised the money from Saudi, Emirati and Qatari investors, after presenting himself as a unique business leader able to bridge the region’s economic and cultural divides. To that end, he had secured unique approval from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to invest the kingdom’s money in the Jewish nation for the first time. Kushner left Tel Aviv last spring without writing any checks. *** Kushner’s post-White House work has drawn scrutiny from some in Congress who question whether the business arrangement is a Saudi reward for all the work Kushner did in government to advance the kingdom’s interests in Washington. The Trump Tower is also North of Richmond. But Oliver may want to take a southward look too, toward Palm Beach.

The info we have on this insta-star says that he dreams of being a cattle rancher. It's good to have dreams. But if you want to be a cattle rancher, well, come on out here to the great empty quarter of the country and work on a cattle ranch. Learn the trade. Work your way up. I know people who've done this. They are immigrants from Mexico. They now live pretty well. Nobody gave them a damn thing. Ain't no 5'3" 300 lb welfare queen stopping you from doing it. Calling bs on that part of the backstory.

Very gracious of Tucker to agree to spend some quality time with a man he hates passionately.

Brown is a puffed up TE. Put on 80 lbs (!) in college ahead of the shift to T. Or to be more accurate, a puffed up 6'8" basketball/baseball/TE/DL player. A project, both when he was drafted and today. He may be adequate of even good someday. If I were the Texans HC I'd have given him the starting RT job right out of his rookie camp. We are not the Texans, hoping to compete by Brown's 3rd or 4th season. Wrong player for a win-now team.

I have nothing against this guy. I even kind of agree with the general sentiment about out-of-touch Washington politicians. But it is fair to call him out for seeming to blame his (previously) dire economic situation on what Reagan called "welfare queens." Dude says he dropped out of high school at 17. Worked tedious/dangerous jobs for a while. Obviously tried on the side to be a singer/songwriter. Now roughly 30 years old (even Wikipedia doesn't seem to know for sure). In other words, kind of the typical millennial people roll their eyes at when it's a liberal woman ("I want to be a writer, but it's hard and so I've had a bunch of dead end short term jobs and now they're gonna make me start paying back my student loans!) In other words, until a week-and-a-half ago a classic Millennial Failure to Launch. Nobody's fault but his own. Congrats to him, he won the Country Singer/Songwriter Lottery. Now take that $8 million someone is waving at you, but don't sign till you get a good lawyer and financial advisor.

I read the part of the AG memo screenshotted above. It appears that she's saying that the Arizona statute does not allow for hand counting except in certain limited circumstances. So ... it basically says "follow the law as written." But some people apparently don't like following the law as written. Me? I'm waiting for the release of that 100 page CONCLUSIVE and DAMNING REPORT that will cause all charges against Trump to be IMMEDIATELY DROPPED. That's still coming, right?

It was deliberately leaked by his far and away dominant PAC. A PAC led by the same guy who has now been pulled into the immediate DeSantis campaign. It was leaked because it's illegal for these PACs to coordinate with campaigns. In other words, the PAC people can't call the DeSantis campaign people and say "you're doing it wrong; here's what our research shows would work better." So they posted - briefly, but long enough for everyone including the campaign to take notice - a strategy memo for everyone to see. Technically no "coordination" that way. There's nothing happenstance or "outsider" here.

No. It sets off my finely tuned bs detector when a Hindu speaks in terms of a singular capital G god. Ramaswamy's god is (not surprisingly) Rama. One of the Hindu gods, sometimes considered to be a manifestation or avatar of Vishnu. Certainly not the God of the Old Testament. So it is idiotic pandering for a follower of a polytheistic religion to put out a statement that "God is real." All gods are real? That's a refutation of the religious right voters he's trying to pander to. Let's hope they see right through it. A more honest approach: I am a Hindu. I follow a moral code based on my religion and sense of morality. I respect your Christian faith and I pray to my gods that you will respect my Hindu faith, and I believe you will find some important similarities in the moral codes we follow.

To end the curse you must embrace the curse.

Reading is a skill. Go back and read what I said. It is the exact opposite of what you think I said.

The backlash is on! No more trans women playing competitive chess in the female division. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/17/sport/fide-bans-transgender-women-chess-spt-intl/index.html It seems to me that if there is any competitive activity that should not have gendered divisions, it would be something like chess. But ... whatever.

After a few months in Cheektowaga, Caracas may start looking pretty good again.

Which one? I told you they'd go there. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-desantis-documents.html An opposition research memo suggests that Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been gaining on Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in some polls, “was very much ingrained in India’s caste system.”

Yes! Fire away. And by the way, a textbook kill shot. Give him a medal.

Exactly. This is a SECURED AREA. This is not someone knocking at the closed door of a dentist office. Oh, and the other protesters outside (the ones who hadn't smashed windows, etc.) were chanting Hang Mike Pence just to ensure that everyone understood that We Come in Peace. I've said it before: I've worked in secured areas within secured facilities. Anyone coming into the building/compound without being screened who then tries to barge into an inner secured area, with a cop/security officer trying to stop them, should be presumed to have ill intent. And then add to that the obvious ill intent that goes with calls to hang someone presumed to be inside.

Was the Capitol Police officer who shot her a human metal detector?

First, thanks for the shoutout in your response. On Babbitt: yes, she was unarmed. But of course she also didn't go through security (nobody did, that was kind of the whole thing), and she did try to smash her way into the inner chambers, obviously ignored a law enforcement officer trying to stop exactly that, and she wasn't exactly a small woman all by herself. So a lot of this is after-the-fact second guessing of a law enforcement officer's decision that deadly force was warranted.

As others have said, you have no idea of how he reacted when the FBI arrived. You would agree that if he brandished a gun they were justified in shooting him? What if he actually pointed a gun at them after they arrived yelling "FBI?" You don't know the facts. I don't either. But his pattern of past behavior suggests that pointing a gun at them is certainly believable.

It has an appeal. But think about business owners. Investments in the business. Business expenses. Etc., etc. Are we going to tax "income" as in "revenue?" Or earnings? And if we're taxing "earnings" we're auditing the write-offs. Just like we do now. Again: Trump (just because we know his situation better than anyone else). He got in trouble by being cheap (and also arguably by trying to conceal an embarrassing fact). He wrote off the Stormy Daniels payoff as a "business expense." Is the New IRS just gonna take his word for it? Or will they have to audit him if there's a pattern of unusual "business expenses?" If getting the IRS off our backs is a big point of tax reform, a flat tax may get us to the 50 yard line, but a total rethink will advance the ball all the way to the goal line.

They actually match really well. Guy who pointed a gun at utility workers before more or less likely to have pointed a gun at federal agents now? And think about it: afraid of 5G. Threatening federal officials. Where have we seen similar patterns of paranoia? And they say this QAnon stuff is all made up by the libs. Yeah. Right. Oh, and notice the Trump supporter in the photo in the article and how he proudly displays a "F*ck Biden" flag. What about all the children who must be protected from such vulgarity!

I'm not so sure. Understand that I am using this as an example, not a political point: Trump's taxes. What "income" counts? Those years he didn't pay income taxes, did he have "income?" It's still a mess. Meanwhile, he consumed. A lot. A VAT is often regressive, but there are ways to at least partly ameliorate that through grants, etc.

Everytime I see the name O'Cyrus I have Cyrus Kouandjio PTSD.

Anecdote: early 80s. I am living in a college dorm. Another very political Republican guy in the dorm thought it was funny to send a letter (remember those?) to a friend in which he covered the envelope with catch phrases like "death to the fascists" "death to Reagan" etc. A joke, apparently to a fellow young Republican. One fine morning a couple of Secret Service agents came knocking at his door down the hall from me ....