leh-nerd skin-erd

He was great, good, sharp as a tack, and designated by the elect as He who might heal…until he was awful, bad, and kept getting confused between the two aids—Medi and Kool.

I can't remove the circus atmosphere these thing bring without thinking of how Kavanaugh (and others) have been treated. I understand you not wanting him to be confirmed, can certainly see why the opposition party wants to delay them all, but the system is a joke. The 'guy's own mother' has said more than that, though, too, and explained her fragile mental state at the time she wrote her email. Btw--you thought the attack against Kavanaugh was a joke, and good for you for acknowledging it. Interestingly, it didn't seem to impact how you voted, which looking at it from the outside, seems a lot like apathy over the abhorrent behavior of democrats up to and including Harris. It's yet another reason I don't pay much attention to concerns about Hegseth.

It depends on what you mean by 'screen/background check. Verifying that a political appointee doesn't have a criminal record is one thing, or that she employed an illegal immigrant and beat the tax man while angling for director of IRS is another. When background checks devolve into the absurdity of the Brett Kavanaugh spectacle, where unfounded allegations of wrongdoing can derail a person's prospects, I'm not a fan.

@The Frankish Reich...more Herbert Hoover trivia. I believe you were interested in flipping something Hoover-related a week or two ago, though I cannot recall the context.

Ancient history? He was a headliner in getting out the vote 30 days ago. The purity test argument is hysterical.

No, Trump hasn’t been pardoned. I was referring to Hunter Biden. Correctomundo. Pardons are a political reality, as is the fact that some people are above the law. Seems a waste of energy to spend much time worrying about who gets what.

Interesting that it wasn’t really the “crazy uncle” that tipped the scales in the election. Also interesting that this “informed” Democrat missed the whole implosion of Biden and cl#sterf#ck of a campaign for Harris. I hope he stays similarly informed in future years.

With luck, you’ll get your wish with at least one notable exception.

Might have been good to know that our government was knuckles deep in the Wuhan partnership early on. Might have been good to know it was involved in development of COVID early on. Instead, he went to a baseball game when the country was locked down, avoiding people like the plague and wondering what was coming next.

@Tiberius actually confused Singapore and Cincinnati, another country Trump abandoned to the Russians.

JB tells the story of a fight he got into at Notre Dame when he was a young guy. Hunchebacked fella and he liked the same girl, Joe took him out behind the abbey and worked him over real good.

At first I read that as 'degree milf'. I was thinking about asking them for a brochure, but it all sounds kinda boring without the milf part.

Ah, you're down with the drama. It all makes sense now.

I'll tell you this, most people love me in Eastern Ohio, and if I make you sick, maybe you don't have what it takes? The corrupt Biden DOJ tried to steamroll me but I only got stronger--I didn't get physically ill over that. I got shot and it didn't make me physically ill. I'm very popular there, actually, very big numbers out of Coshocton and Dover. Not Dover as in Delaware---they like Sleepy Joe over there, but he's retired now. I beat him badly in the debate--he was rambling like he didn't know what day it was--you may have heard, but after the debate he went home crying, so I call him Cryin Joe--actually Cryin Gina Joe.

I'm at about 10, though some are names I don't recognize anymore. My thought is that the negativity from another poster can drag me down, but I can work around that. Imo some posters are gigantic time wasters, and I can handle that as well. When a poster mixes negativity with time wasting, I occasionally remember to add them to ignore.

This really seems straightforward to me. If the director has a guaranteed term, he/she stays. If not, if the director has the support of the incoming President and can do the job, he/she stays. If not, the director should offer an action plan to win the support of the incoming President. If that fails, he/she should resign.

Fall of Singapore, 1942. Tibsy has determined that Trump was working with Hirohito. This explains @Tiberius absence from the board after the election…he’s been hard at work reviewing the microfiche to get in front of this breaking story.

I am willing to pay more for items, yes, if our current system of anarchy, strife, loss and pain is replaced by an orderly process that deals with legal immigration. I’m still surprised, frankly, that this position bothers you. You must really be bad with budgeting. No, it’s sad and tragic for so many people. Trump is dealing with a problem decades in the making, and the only reason the phrase “mass deportation” arises is because of the anarchy and chaos at the border. Solve the problem and the problem will be solved. Again, you’re part of the problem with your consumerism and constant need for cheaper goods.

But when taking things one at a time, shouldn’t you start at your beginning? What you wrote, the singular most important thing to you, according to you: Well thank goodness no one has "fixed" the "problem" at the border. Our economy is way better because of it. In the big picture, you’re not about the lives of illegal/legal immigrants, it’s about you and your double-quarter-pounder with cheese, two large fries and your large chocolate shake for as cheap as you can get it. There’s a better way, Tibs, but you have to see beyond the paper plate loaded with food in front of you, and the new android you feel you need so desperately. You don’t need it. Now that we’ve addressed that, yes, deportation is going to cause strain and angst. Many things in life do, and wanting everyone to have a safe place to land so the 4th 45” television you purchased is cheap cheap.

The problem is multi-faceted: It starts with a process that encourages individuals seeking a better way of life to risk their lives on a dangerous journey, where murder, assault, rape, death and victimization is common place. It seems clear to me that you don't care about those people, or perhaps you're comfortable with the price they pay so you can get cheaper Cheese Doodles at your local Walmart; It extends to this side of the border where a significant number people continue to be victimized, trafficked, and manipulated, though it apparently is acceptable to you because you save an extra 50 cents on the frozen pizza you get at the local Dollar General; It extends further to people in this country--some here legally, some not, and many citizens victimized by crime, though their suffering does allow you as a privileged American to get your fruit at a 10% discount; It goes further still with benefits funded with taxpayer money at the expense of other necessary and important social programs, but you make pretty good scratch so f*** everyone else, right Tibsy? It rewards business and individuals exploiting the system by paying people under the table, defrauding the taxpayer further, but I get that you like it's good for you and the price of peppers and onions; It seems to me that in the chaos of illegal immigration, we subsidize people/countries that don't have our best interest at heart. That's a bad idea. The US is indeed a country of immigrants, and a clean, neat, safe an orderly process should be our collective goal. I don't know why it isn't. That doesn't seem to be something you're interested in, but I understand you gotta take care of you first. You're the problem, Tibsy, not the solution.

JB's issues as a man are pretty well-documented, so I'll move past that. JB had a difficult life as an adult--losing his first wife and a child in a car crash, losing his adult son to cancer, HBs obvious addiction and downward spiral, the issues with his daughter if her diary is to be believed, and more. As a human being and father myself, I can appreciate on some level how difficult that all is on a person. That said--it's hard to imagine that many of HBs problems don't relate back to JB as a father. It strikes me as highly unlikely that JB wasn't aware of the many skeletons in Hunter's closet, and from where I'm sitting JB is a first class enabler. Even now, he portrays his son who made millions in a sweetheart job as a victim.

I don't like the rhetoric all that much, but that pales comparison to the abject failure to address the issues at the border by dems and republicans alike over the past several decades. Sadly, we're at a point where a firm hand has to be applied to fix the problem, and in doing so, it's almost certainly going to be ugly. Imo, the single best thing that can happen is if/when a person in authority obstructs lawful proceedings, he's placed in cuffs and taken to jail. I think your approach makes sense, if for no other reason than it has to start somewhere.

I couldn't tell you what the evidence supports, all I know is the Biden DOJ pursued him for certain crimes and his Dad had the juice to get him off. The nature of a blanket pardon for any/all activity seems extreme to the max, and is suggestive of concern on behalf of JB beyond that which was already adjudicated. I'm just a citizen, one of the majority who pushed back against a heavy-handed administration intent on using the law to take down a political rival. As for J6, I have no real argument with you there. My biggest issue stems from the relentless pursuit of people who were guilty of trespass or entering the building, and disproportionate/hyper-punitive sentences once they were found. Further, while I recognize that special rules likely apply to sacred areas inside the seat of power (and probably should), you can't read the news from trusted media source (Frankish Certified as Approved of course) where some person isn't wandering the street 20 minutes after being picked up for beating a shop-owner with a brick. Or, firebombing police cars. As for violent offenders, they should do the time associated with the crime.

Good stuff. The only case to be made is he was certain Hunter would be pardoned by his successor. When that changed, he moved to protect his son. Oh for goodness sake. What's the Frankish argument for giving him a 10 year hall pass when he's already shown a complete disregard for the law? Note--not the political argument, obviously Hunter was off the hook any way you sliced it. No need to get upset about it, Biden was simply playing the cards that Harris would be his successor. You're suggesting that if Hunter shared some of the classified documents with his Chinese counterparts in 2017, 2018, and 2022, he is deserving of a hall pass?

Right now, he's probably talking with his life coach about what went wrong and why. A lot of martial law seekers are actually quite introspective and just looking to grow. He'll learn from this.