The Frankish Reich

A perfect Richard Thompson song. As an Englishman, he had a little fun writing it, using references to English place names in a heavily bluegrass influenced song. And he's such a great guitarist that he can pull it off playing solo. McCoury I think substituted the more typical American place names. "Red hair and black leather, that's my favorite color scheme."

Vivek is running to be Trump's VP and the Republican presidential candidate in 2028. He provided no reason other than "I'm young" to vote for him instead of Trump. She strikes me as the Republican who would fare best in November 2024. She could swing a lot of independent voters. But I don't see any path for her to get nominated given the mindset of Republican caucus/primary voters today.

I have nothing personal against Carlos Santana, and I'm not even offended by these comments. But please, please cancel him so I don't have to hear those tedious guitar solos anymore. He always struck me as the most boring of the so-called great rock guitarists.

True. The weight thing is just funny because it is so incredibly childish. He just reported his weight as 240 in the Manhattan case, and I think everyone had to assume he was doing the usual driver's license thing of shaving 5 or 10 pounds (at least) off the real number. 215 is like what he weighed in his 30s. Such a stupid, pointless, LOL lie coming from a 77 year old man tells us more than anything he said today.

Well ... ... I don't know how old you are. I suspect quite a bit younger than me. I spent a lot of time in school. Probably did at least one more degree than was really necessary. Didn't own a home until my late 30s. Then finally began to accumulate enough to pay off those loans, which weren't paid off until I was over 50. But they really weren't burdensome by that time. It takes time. I hear a lot of millennial and Gen Z types talking about how hard it is to buy a home now. True. But not exactly a new thing, depending on where you live. Hard where I lived for sure, in the SF Bay Area. Not so hard when I moved to Colorado at that time. Really not hard at all in WNY. Upper middle class does mean more taxes. But it also means you're probably not ever moving down the economic ladder. And the normal thing is you're economic security won't peak until you're at least in your 50s. Patience and a bit of delayed gratification were lessons I learned just in time.

Sorry, but that's just silly. Ukraine is being bombed relentlessly. It is literally impossible to conduct any kind of election in large parts of the country. They have been invaded. They're going to set up polling station in the Donbas? And if they had elections without polling that part of the country, would those elections be considered legitimate, having excluded nearly every Ukrainian citizen who has pro-Russian allegiances? There was talk of postponing the NYC mayoral transition (remember America's Mayor? ahh, what an innocent age) after 9/11, and that was for a horrific attack but one that immediately impacted a few square blocks of a massive 5 borough city. In the end it wasn't necessary, but I don't recall anyone thinking that it was an outrageous suggestion.

I liked him too. He was a rare thing in politics c. 2023: a gentleman.

Really, couldn't the Fulton Cty Sheriff at least throw him on a scale? Even if that isn't protocol? There was a betting line on this! Real money riding on it. I think they said the over/under was 274.5. Instead they tell us that he grew an inch and lost 25 lbs since his Manhattan surrender. Boo.

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.