The Frankish Reich

If we are "at war" with Venezuela, then they are ... prisoners of war? Think this through. Obviously Trump (read: Stephen Miller) hasn't.

I now understand that we were at war with Italy when the Mafia ruled major U.S. cities. Thank you for the clarification.

Oh, we had paneling when I was a kid too. Came with the house. Was quite the thing for the "den" of the 70s. I later helped my dad use the other end of the hammer to peel it off ...

I don't think you've been around our little PPP corner of TBD for long. I have worked in law enforcement, and I absolutely believe that immigration laws are essential and that they should be enforced. I had big issues with the Obama and Biden administrations on this point. But I also believe that it is critical that we follow the laws as they are written. The Alien Enemies Act has never been used against a country that we are not at war with, either a declared war or open armed conflict. There's a good reason for that - that's how the law was written 200+ years ago. We have laws that allow us to arrest and deport illegal aliens, and to keep illegal aliens detained until the process is over if they are not able to show that they are not a danger to the community. So my objection here isn't to vigorous enforcement; it is to an unnecessary/illegal/ultimately dangerous expansion of long settled law.

Yes, and Congress has set forth dozens of reasons that don't require a state of war. Are we at war with Venezuela?

⬆️ Hasn't explained how he knew that I made a joke about Butler PA a couple days ago.

⬆️ So the paneling rumor is correct. But because I'm a nice guy: warning - don't inadvertently share your search history like Wacka did. Incognito mode for what you do, and I don't mean Richie.

Are you suggesting that Irish Lass is neither of the above?

Right on brand!

Blockbuster revelations, coming no later than February 2025! I think Pam didn't run this one past Donnie first.

From your profile it looks like your country is the 51st state. But whatever. Yes, but the question is does the President have that right where Congress has legislated who may stay and who must go? Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act - an Act that requires that the US be at war, which we aren't - is exactly the kind of loss of democracy we ought to care about, regardless of which party has the White House. Imagine if Biden had declared a "climate emergency" as many people thought he would. Umm, @Wacka, I hate to tell you this, but the ads you just got are based on your own search history ... don't know what you're doing with that Vaseline blend, but please keep it to yourself.

Well, true. But it doesn't sound as good to say "every fat DL who has one good season probably has one, and only one, other good season left in him."

Hey, that's my Frankish Rule of Fat Defensive Tackles: every one of them will have two good seasons in his career; you just never know which one and which seasons. Larger picture: we sign 3 DL players. Two are being suspended for PEDs, one has always had PED rumors swirling around him. It's almost as if Beane said "eff all the choirboys, go get me someone who will do anything to win"

Then I'm old and crochety too. I kind of liked the days when you just knew the guy's position by his number.

The Allen thing is more about locking up Allen for as many years as possible, which strikes me as a damn good strategy

I agree with this. But does Julie Kelly, wife of Big Agra lobbyist? (Not just snark here. Mostly, but not just. I'm trying to point out some inevitable conflicts that will arise in the Trump coalition)

Prescription medicine advertising to the general public used to be banned. For good reasons.

Gateway drugs, JD. You gonna wind up like mama if you don't nip it in the bud.

Hoecht, an Ivy League grad who tutored kids in calculus, says he just trusted the guy (unnamed) who provided him with various supplements.

Few things have been more studied in the last two decades. There is no link. It is simply that autism is often diagnosed at around the same time as some childhood vaccinations. It made sense to see if there is any correlation (which is still a long way from a "cause"), but that has been done. We are now at a point where it is nothing more than the classic error of logic: post hoc ergo propter hoc. https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccines-and-other-conditions/autism#:~:text=Vaccines are not associated with,vaccines and development of autism.

I always go back to the MLB Mitchell Report for insight. One thing we learned then: GMs know (or as the lawyers say, "have reason to believe") when one of their players is benefiting from PEDs. Example: Paul LoDuca, Dodgers catcher. "Late bloomer" - never more than 8 HRs in many minor leagues seasons. Age 29: all of a sudden 25 big league HRs. Signs to a big contract a couple years later. Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta learns that he's off the juice as the steroid scandal gets hot. Dumps him in a trade to the Marlins. Nobody was fooled. Everyone knew what was going on. Players were signed because teams knew (had "reason to believe") they were juicing and would be good additions. Today I have to assume GMs damn well know what's going on too, and they also know that there's no reason to believe that a guy who was caught juicing in February won't still be benefiting from the PEDs in December. Beane surely wasn't snookered by Hoecht, who signed after the Bills knew he'd be suspended. It's almost like a selling point: I just finished a cycle, I'm gonna kick ass this season. How idiotic is it that we give guys 6 game suspensions for PED cycles that may confer benefits for an entire season or more? Show me the incentives, and I will show you the behavior.

I think it shouldn't count unless the president signed with a quill pen and an ink bottle. No sharpies in 1789.

And guess who's picking those French wine grapes? Seasonal immigrant workers. Not French workers. That's what I saw in Bordeaux. By the way, does our illegal immigrant labor give us an unfair advantage such that other countries should impose a tariff on our agricultural goods?

You forgot the part about reading your posts that he so strenuously denies he ever saw. Strange, lonely bird

I watched Bill Maher last night. The guest did do a good, spirited defense of the purpose behind Trump's tariff wave. I will point out that she forgot the 5th strategic/national security interest Trump says he must protect. It is wine and champagne (umm, "sparkling wine"). OK, all snark aside, a few facts: - Manufacturing output is not the same thing as manufacturing employment. Yes, 1970s manufacturing continued to provide jobs that allowed workers and their families to achieve a middle class livelihood: home ownership, the ability to save for retirement, etc. But it was at a cost - the use of human labor for heavy, literally back-breaking jobs (I had a great uncle who could barely walk after years in a Buffalo tire factory). Those jobs are now automated if they are performed in developed economies at all. And if steel production "returns" to the US, it is certain that steelworker jobs won't follow in anything like the numbers we used to see. Efficiency, they name is Elon Musk and the automated manufacturing process. Given the political environment, it is quite clear that Trumpism will also not bring back union jobs, which were part and parcel of keeping more money with the middle class than with the ownership/capitalist class. - So Sam Stein had a point about peak manufacturing output during the Biden years (since output is not employment). So his female guest (I don't recall her name) had a point about income and wealth distribution in America, 1970s vs. 2020s. And Bill Maher had a point about Trump's tariffs being about some kind of nostalgia for a bygone era of U.S. manufacturing that we will never see again, regardless of what tariff he slaps on aluminum and steel next week. Remember that from an economic perspective the numerator is output and the denominator is something like man-hours when we talk about something like "efficiency" or "productivity." Those jobs are gone, whether they've gone to low-wage men in China or high-tech machines in Fremont, CA.