leh-nerd skin-erd

When all is said and done, the game hasn’t really even started yet. Trump will be hammered on all things Trumpian. Biden’s job killing Go Green philosophy will be front and center, not far removed from 20m folks who found themselves suddenly out of work, the question of governmental incompetence with respect to Covid response juxtaposed with MCA4all and what Americans might have expected had we entrusted every aspect of our health care system to bureaucrats, Joe’s open-borders plan v a sensible immigration plan with reasonable border security. Add to all that....Biden’s evolving rules of engagement for sexual assault victims and as you mentioned, his diminishing mental capacity. Should be interesting.

It’s not so much a vetting as a grooming, I’d think. She’s right in his wheelhouse.

Sorry, "Ms." Ballsy Ford. You believed her, and feel no empathy for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. I take no issue with that, though I think you're wrong. I think she fabricated a story, played the system for political gain, and when Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh drew a line in the sand, she went away back to Scumbagville. Thankfully, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed, and in some small way my voice was heard and my vote mattered. Ms. Ballsy Ford is my enemy, not unlike the Iranian government, Bernie Sanders and the Shamwow guy from days past. Thanks for the update on the soda choice of nefarious accusers. I find them interchangeable, and as such I'm not much of a brand loyalist.

I don't care if you believe Ballsy Ford or not, it's irrelevant. Some will believe, others will not. The point was originally about "tribalism" and divisiveness. You do however make my point that if this is the new political landscape, then it is what it is. Borque got Borqued, Thomas got Pepsi canned, Kavanaugh is the rape train guy, and so on. We might as well keep playing. Brett Kavanaugh is another American hero. They tried to assassinate him and destroy his family and he told the dems, Ballsy Ford and everyone else to #@!! a $#@@. Most people don't have that depth of character, but he did. There's a trend here. Oh...you never answered my question on name calling and lost arguments. Maybe you forgot?

What I mean is pretty simple. If labeling a man a predator, a deviant and the lead engineer of a rape train only raises to the level of "bad" politics in your mind, then it should be a tactic used by all. If the vast majority of the public sees it as such, then there is no reason not to have an endless media freak show on every nominee. When the next female candidate is nominated, something "bad" should be expected. You mentioned your daughter, I indicated i have one, also have two sons. It's not just that I would hate to see any of them treated as BK was by Pelosi, Harris, Schumer, Biden, et al--to see their lives destroyed, reputations in ruins, having to explain to their own children "No honey, no I never participated in a gang rape, that's just what people say when they disagree with you politically". It's that I would hate to see it happen to Sotamayer, Ginzburg and everyone else. I have a pretty basic rule. If they will do it to XXX, they'll do it to me. Or you. Or one of your daughters. It transcends bad.

Fascinating, really, to me. Comparing a nomination that died on the vine due to political processes ( legal and acceptable) to branding a man a sexual predator and the lead party on a rape train....wow. What the dems and their voters did to BK is beyond shameful. And to be completely honest, if what happened there is only "bad", then it might as well be mainstream. If you as a conservative leaning independent see it as such, the next liberal nominee should, and unfortunately must be treated in kind. The worse the unsubstantiated rumor or allegation is, the better. When it falls apart, after a man probably a lot like you who loves his daughters as much as you has been gutted on a national stage because of his political views, we can all lament that it was "bad". When a smart and ambitious female works hard and grows up to have an opportunity to sit on the Supreme Court, and some political operative comes out and accuses her of performing oral sex on a child in her care when a babysitter at age 16, we can all think...gee, too bad, buy wtf, shes a lib.

Everyone knows this to be true, and if they didn't, it takes less than 5 minutes to find on the internet. It's a common political tactic, report on something perfectly legal and just as if it's an outrageous act of tyranny. It lather up the uninformed.

I have a President, my problem is the folks trying to ice him outside the ballot box. To the bolded, this has never been the standard, never will be the standard and is naive to the point of absurdity. If, generally, you as a voter think every investigation some junior politico can come up with requires voluntarily submitting to a tribunal to prove one's innocence, great. It's a noble aspiration indeed. Hold your people to account for it and vote accordingly. Since it never happens in real life, why apply that standard to everyone else? If one is innocent, why have limitations on police powers and prosecutions to safeguard civil liberties to begin with? If one is innocent, why would a search warrant be necessary for police to perform a search in the name of public safety? Why have attorney/client privilege? Why have a required Miranda disclosure, and a constitutional right to refuse to answer? To take this through to it's natural conclusion, why tie the hands of the CIA and FBI if people are innocent? It cannot be cost, because as everyone knows, defending oneself is completely and totally without cost. What were your general feelings on the Kavanaugh hearings? Better, worse or the same as treatment of Garland?

I didn't pose the initial question, so I want to acknowledge I'm jumping in here. Presumably, your question about parties being flip-flopped applies to all, so I'll share my two cents. Your political views are probably pretty close to mine in terms of how you've described them. As we so often find, people tend to agree on many things generally, but often come to blows over one or two hot button issues. I'd say with respect that if the roles were flip-flopped, I'd feel the same way I do today. If Donald Trump weaponized the intelligence agency to assert control over our elections, if he charged the DOJ with destroying an American citizen with bogus charges and used the crushing weight of tyranny to do so, I would speak up. If Mitch McConnell and the Rs in power attempted the character assassination of a judge with the record of a Brett Kavanaugh the way the dems tried to gut BK, I'd be incensed. Merrick Garland, btw, was the victim of the American political system and all it's ugliness, but the reality is simply that elections have consequences. We saw the same approach with the phony impeachment probe last year. What was done was done because it could be done. No laws were broken, we ain't all in this together, and Garland was a pony backed by the wrong side. If the roles were flip-flopped, I'd hope to God I wasn't so bound up with personal animus against an individual that I'd buy into what amounts to the storyline of a really crappy Ludlum novel that a Presidential candidate was a Russian operative, sit by as politician after politician after politician claimed to have clear and convincing evidence of something mysteriously referred to as 'collusion', all the while waiting for a massive government investigation to be completed with no boundaries, no limitations, and no budgetary constraints that ultimately leads to...nothing. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to have been duped, to have impacted the rights and vote of my fellow citizens and to have contributed in a major way toward the polarization of which you speak. In the alternative, with so much at stake as the voting rights of other citizens are impacted, I would expect the narrative would be proven beyond a reasonable doubt or that heads would roll for the IC missing so badly. If the roles were flip-flopped, and one of my like-minded friends suggested CONSPIRACY over the firing of any, and I mean any administration official, my first question would always be....Did the president have the power to terminate the relationship? If the answer to that was "Yes, he did but..." my response would be simply "It is what it is.". In fact, that's happened many times over the past several years. James Comey fired? So? IG fired? So. If you serve at the pleasure of the President, and you no longer please the President, there's not much more to discuss whether it's Obama, Bush, Clinton (Bill, not Hill) or Jimmy Carter. It's really just a matter of googling presidents and who(m) they fired and you can find out---and this is crazy--it happens in every administration. If the roles were reversed and Donald Trump sent billions in unmarked bills on a cargo plane to Syria, I'd be furious. I'd wonder why cash was king, especially given international banking regulations and the fact that he acted like a 3rd rate gangster in doing so. I'd wonder how much of the billion+ was funneled back to him, his family members and his associates, especially if I foun out he dropped a cool $25m on a climate killing oceanfront villa off the cape. I have a wife, one daughter, a mother and mother-in-law, and two sisters I love, adore and cherish. I am blessed that they are strong and independent thinking women, who don't gauge their own self-worth by the actions of people like Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Barrack Obama or W Bush or any of the many, many other politicians that dot the landscape. I understand your desire to boil it all down to sexual assault allegations, but I don't limit my thinking as such. I voted for John McCain and came to despise him--he has the blood of hundreds of untold innocents on his hands while allowing the border to go unaddressed, and I was glad to see him gone from the Senate. I respect his military service, respect his toughness, but he was morphed into bloated gorgon of the ruling political class over several decades. You can add as many names as you want to that list, btw, Obama, Bush, Kennedy, McConnell, Graham, Pelosi, Feinstein...all have fiddled while men, women and children are victimized day after day after day. I'd think if the situation was flip-flopped and Biden was in office during Ukrainamania, and I was sure we had him, I'd think it very, very odd that Trump as VP was on taping shaking down the Ukrainians for the purpose of interfering in the affairs of a sovereign nation, and I'd think it even more odd that he did so with the knowledge that his son stood to benefit personally and directly to the tune of millions of dollars. I don't think I'd stomp my feet, cover my ears and say "I don't want to talk about that!". This buzzword, 'tribalism' is all the rage these days. It means...nothing, and interestingly, reeks of bigotry. Personally, I no longer have a desire to 'meet in the middle' when the people on the other side support the things they do, that snap their fingers along when some cool cat like Barry O slow jam on Fallon all the while he's slow-jammin the electoral process. I have no desire to meet in the middle when people pretend to be morally outraged by Trump and his comments while flocking like minions to vote for Hillary Clinton, she of 'bimbo eruptions, dead ambassadors and such unifying language as ...deplorabe...irredeemable...misogynst...xenophobe and the like'. It's not that I'm "tribal", it's that I vote in my own best interest, and just based on the math of 300,000,000+ million Americans, there are lots of people who think like I do. Personally, I do my part as a citizen when someone I don't like is in office. Obama was a bad president and it's becoming more apparent every day that he's a bad human being (atleast as judge by our political process), but the only pushback from me was in conversation when it mattered, and as to who and where I directed my money and efforts. I didn't call for his ouster, I would not have supported political action to dethrone him, and if Joe Biden wins the election, so be it. Then again, I'm just a conspiracy guy.

Excellent point. Turns out Donald Trump is actually a Bernie Bro, supporting changes to the tax code to put more money in the hands of the middle class.

Good call. IRS Schedule XRayNiner-Bingo-7-Alpha-Oscar EGO FMV (*Fair Market Value) will be very enlightening indeed. What’s amazing to me is why the IRS and MSM are keeping the prosecution for tax evasion under wraps. Political influence, of this I am sure.

I am in complete agreement with you. I heard that not only did they build a set for the reality TV show, some of the people on the reality tv show had make up applied by Hollywood types, there were some episodes where they did multiple takes, and sometimes the voices were dubbed in. I also heard some scenes were scripted, that maybe sometimes people were overly dramatic or aggressive purely for entertainment value,and that the car outside after someone got fired wasn’t there by chance. I also noticed no one ever used the bathroom, which is odd. You also hit on the branding of Team Trump. They out-hustled the competition, out marketed, out worked and were masters at digital marketing. Ironically, Joe Biden also specializes in digital penetration, though a different type. He appealed to an extremely broad segment of the public, from no collar to blue collar to white collar. Historically speaking, he rocked the world and should rightly be acknowledged for it. Let’s hope for 4 more years. But yeah, lots of people were fooled by The Apprentice experiment. Same thing happened with Leave It To Beaver (the original sit com, not the porn remake). People were furious when they found out everyone on the show was an actor. ,

At :11 seconds....the announcer says "some of the people look...almost crestfallen.". Almost??? By that definition, the Hindenburg "almost' caught on fire!

Man, this just shows how much of a winner 45 really is. Billionaires are lucky.

Under normal circumstances, reasonable people would think it odd that a president in power for 8 years in the waning moments of his term would suddenly expel 35 diplomats from what apparently was a serious foreign adversary/super power intent on doing us grave harm. Rounding up a day or two, the guy was king of the world for 3,287 days, working with, negotiating with, offering to partner with Russia. All along, with access to all the secrets of the world, business as usual. On day 3,286, suddenly, almost miraculously he finds his testicles, zips of his bean bag and gets the beer muscles on. You people are dumb, and who cares that I know it, the key is he knows it.

I would go with pomposity, maybe utter pomposity, but that's only because you grabbed audacity first. If they want to reach the young people, they should just shortcut it and put Biden on the panel. He'll grab 'em but good.

Never. Sure he’s got the high cheek bones and wide set eyes of a Nefertiti, but that just makes him exotic.

Mansplaining, not cool in 2020.

I have been warned, and thank you. Wait though...if you’re part of the machine, you would be right. That would be how you draw us in. ?

there is so much about this series of posts that is troubling. Obviously, since I took the time to consider it, it's all on me. Then, Nanks provides enlightenment and I'm forced to confront the limitations of my creativity and intellect because it all makes so much sense. Still, I'm reading your response now and thinking the damn thing spins "3rdInning" again...could I be dyslexic? Is that peven ossible at 59? That would be bad enough...but then you went and made it dirty.

Well, this is really awkward. I'd like to tell you I was joking when I asked, but that would be a lie, and you're part of the cabal anyways.

I haven't gotten to you yet, but since you brought it up. "3rd". Deranged. Niagara. 3rd. Look at how it's laid out, you're literally 3rd. You've offered a barrel, a barrel offers protection from harm. You're providing cover for DR and Niagara50k. I don't know why I didn't see it before. By the way, while I'm accusing you of treachery, a question. I always read your screen name and think "3rd Inning". I don't know why, but as I read this today, i realized it's only 3rd Inning if I have a speech impediment which wouldn't matter here. That got me thinking, maybe it's not 3rd at all. Maybe you're into RdnLngs, and you have 3. The trouble is, what the heck is a Rdnlng? Elaborate, vile fiend.

I may be way out there but... Niagara Bill. Niagara....Bill. Niagara..a massive waterfall. A waterfall literally brings a fall of water. One cannot live without water, and thus without water a person will surely fall. A bill...evidence of a debt incurred. You're in on it. I cannot prove it yet, but the one called Deranged Rhino (for now) owns you like Howard Dean owns a crazy scream. Your name gives you away. You hid in plain site....but you owe a debt to DR that must be paid or surely you will fall. It all just clicked. Criss cross. 50,000.

This really doesn’t frustrate me at all. It’s a welcome distraction from thinking about the $&#@ show that is our political system.

I remember when you predicted that when DR was at 29,997 posts. Sure, it was just before Labour Day, but it WAS odd that we didn’t hear a thing from him until Tuesday. Everyone knows CIA cuts checks on a Monday. You were so in the zone I took your picture.