The Frankish Reich

On Social Security: the fraud is in the disability part, not in the retirement part. Why is no one talking about that? Same thing on the VA side: the fraud is in service-related disability claims, not in people getting too much health care treatment. Why is no one talking about that?

Let's look at how the process worked here. And by "worked" I mean "reached a rational decision based on the available facts" up until Trump ICE mistakenly (read: illegally) deported him to El Salvador. - arrested, detained, and brought before an Immigration Judge. He asks to be released on bail to fight his "withholding of removal" (a lesser type of asylum) case from the outside. The judge considers all the evidence, finds that he is an MS 13 gang members, and orders him detained. He'll have to fight his case from the inside. - Judge holds a hearing whether he should be deported. Finds that yes, he is subject to deportation. But also finds that his evidence shows that he'd likely be persecuted if returned to El Salvador. That allows ICE to send him to any country other than El Salvador. Apparently ICE doesn't appeal and accepts that result. So we have a judge who determined that he is a gang member, but that he would be persecuted if sent back to El Salvador. And so he's protected from deportation to that country. This is based on our treaty obligation not to send someone back to a country if he/she has established that he/she would be subjected to extreme abuse. We, as a country, agreed to this standard after WW2. So did almost all other countries. It is the law. I don't know if/why he was released after his case was done. The Trump administration is correct in trying to find alternative countries to accept these aliens who can't (for legal or practical reasons) be sent back to their native country. None of that changes the fact that this deportation was against the law. It was a "mistake" as the White House admits, but it was also a mistake that resulted in a violation of the law. He should be brought back, not to be set free, but to be held in detention until some other country agrees to take him. His wife and kid can join him there. I have a rather quaint (these days) belief that our government should follow the laws it has enacted.

Wow, look at that Bosa kid!

I had no idea anyone kept track of this. Can I place a wager on it now that I know? I'll take laces out at 25:1

I hated that circus, but I also hated the huge amounts of money pumped into a judicial election by both sides. Elections for judges have always bothered me, since they're supposed to be above the partisan political fray. I get it: today people view judges - including and maybe particularly high court judges - as politicians in robes. Obviously there's some truth to that. But this electioneering opens the floodgates to a particularly rotten circus. Life tenure is supposed to save federal judges from this. I think we need something in between, like set lengthy (15 year) terms.

So about 15% of voters agreed with Voter ID, but also voted for the liberal Supreme Court judge. Sometimes we do need to listen to the voice of the people. Maybe someday there will be a sensible political party again.

I saw that. And I think I would have voted in favor too. And I would also vote for the liberal Supreme Court justice, who so far is in good shape. I don't think there's anything inconsistent about those results, and I think it show what a weird place we are in politically that people consider them inconsistent.

Apparent reason: hey, don't forget about me! I'm made of presidential timber!! You try to create a perfect Democratic candidate, you start objectively with Cory Booker's attributes. Kind of an Obama Jr. But somehow the whole is way less than the sum of the parts. I just don't see it.

Right. Talk about Orwellian.

It was an illegal deportation. The Trumpistas are generally correctly citing the background. But here's the key: a judge found that he is properly deportable, but also found that it was more likely than not that he would be subject to extreme abuse (persecution) if returned to his native El Salvador. And this happened under Trump 1.0, so if his Homeland Security officials disagreed they had the right to appeal that decision to try to get it overturned. Apparently they didn't. So it became final. That meant that the U.S. could deport him to any country other than El Salvador. Get Venezuela to take him? Fine, off he goes. Get Mexico or Honduras or Vanuatu to take him, same thing. There's literally one place you can't send him: El Salvador. And they sent him to El Salvador. Yes, we should request his return, not to freedom in the USA, but to immigration detention in the USA. And then we should look for an alternative country that will let him in, and deport him to that country. Or if the DHS thinks they can show he'd no longer be subject to persecution in El Salvador, they can ask the judge to reopen the case to update the evidence and basically start again. That's how it works, that's what obeying court orders means. In America we fix our errors when we can, and try to get it right the second time around. At least we have for a couple centuries now.

Let's begin with some extra spacing so Tarheel can't pretend he just happened upon this. / / / / / / / / / / That should do it. The good thing is your vote is still private. Elon can't make you come in with your ballot, make sure you've ticked the Republican candidate, and then watch you deposit it in the box. But I'll admit here that this is a real concern with vote by mail and other non-voting booth old fashioned in-person voting ... ... Having said that, the fact that some Young Republican college organizer "won" the random drawing does raise and eyebrow, doesn't it?

I’m not sure it has anything to do with Trump directly. But has any Russian player said anything vaguely anti-Putin? That’s the kind of fear Putin strikes in any would be opponent. You’ll end up falling out of a window or grabbing a radioactive doorknob.

Sh!t. This is buried on Page 3 of the Moderna COVID warnings: Avoid severe impacts to the chest/thorax area, including those that may be incurred in a vehicular collision or during an NFL contest.

I thought we needed to eliminate the FBI? What's Pammy doing praising it? Good to see Kash is eyeballing foreign gangsters. Two at a time.

I guess Russians buy hockey skates too.

Yeah, I was - still am - kind of late to the whole "he's just trolling the left" party. I've been told that we did have a peaceful transition of power on January 20, 2021. You know, the peaceful transition that followed the violent attempt to stop that transition. It was all a joke!

Normal cycle in sports. 1970s: the "bump and run" stifles passing games. Nobody had ever thought about playing CB that way until some guys (I remember the name Jimmy Marsalis) started doing it. It wasn't against the rules, but it was messing with the game. The NFL outlawed it. 2024 MLB: the defensive shift was messing with the game as we'd always played it. Nobody had ever though of playing 3 guys on the right side of the infield against lefty hitters until some clever analytics nerd suggested it would work and it wasn't against the rules. A few years later everyone was doing it. It changed the game in a way that most fans didn't like, so it was banned. The tush push was illegal as "aiding the runner" when I was a kid. In the early part of the 2000s the NFL changed the rule (why?) but it took about 15 years for some clever coach (probably analytics nerd to be honest) thought about exploiting the rule change. To me it's made the game less interesting, more predictable as that 4th and 1 is automatic. (Or at least it was until we decided it requires the QB to go left) I'd rather see Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen rollout and make a great athletic play. Or a defender make a great athletic play to stop it. Ban it.

When I first heard someone say that, I thought "good one." Now I'm thinking it's the Democrat's only way to counter the latest Trump stunt.

What about the 12th Amendment? If you are constitutionally ineligible to be President, then you can't run as Vice President, right? Minor inconvenience. Remember Gerald Ford, our first (and only so far) unelected President? VP Don Jr. resigns. Is replaced by Don Sr. Then Pres JD resigns. Bingo! Third term. Unconstitutional? Probably, in theory. Unconstitutional to our Supreme Court today (and even worse after another Trump appointee?). LOL. Bottom line: no one is going to save the American electorate from itself.

He already speculated out loud that he would pull a cynical Putin-Medvedev switcheroo. But given that he's Trump, he'd take it a step further and have "President" JD Vance resign so he could ascend to the formal presidency again. And I suppose that if Vance says hell no, he'd just run Don Jr. as the figurehead. After all, according to Putin's favorite political philosopher, Putinism has won in the USA. Or they may try to go the constitutional convention route, which would require 34 states to sign on. As a practical matter you'd probably need 34 states with a Republican "trifecta" - Republican control of both legislative houses (except unicameral Nebraska) + the Governorship. They're quite a bit short now, but they'll keep on trying ...

Keep at it, Cockeyed Kash!

He wants one of the most prominent Russians in America to say something about how his President is killing thousands of people in a neighboring country. When Enes Freedom Kanter did it, you thought it was great. When he was blackballed by the NBA, you thought it was awful.

Exactly, but who is rushing to conclusions? THE OP! Could be any number of environmental factors, or could actually be random (they are apparently not the same type of brain tumor in all). Of all things to jump to the COVID vaccine just shows a confirmation bias. We distrust the COVID vaccine, it must be that. We don't even know if they all got the same vaccine. Where are all the sick doctors? Other health care workers in the same hospital?

Talk about jumping to conclusions. Ten nurses in a hospital, over a period of time (several years) developing brain tumors of different types. Null hypothesis: fooled by randomness. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc reasoning.

Translation: of course it's illegal. But it was improperly venued! That's a compelling defense. Pretty daughter. He should be proud of her. No need for Laura Loomer maxillofacial surgery. Weird though that she has that kind of power over him. Or maybe she just happens to agree with his legal decisions.