The Republican Party of Reagan lasted nearly 40 years, but that is dead and gone. That kind of Republican is getting out of politics, being replaced by those in Trump's image. The ideals of Ronald Reagan are dead in the party. (This goes double for "normies" who refuse to speak up against the fascist tide rolling across the party.) Sadly, I don't see the Republican party healing in my lifetime, if ever.
The Orange Snake is getting desperate. I got an email: "just released: trump 2024 automatic knives". No idea how much they're charging - no price mentioned, other than it being 70% off. LOL. Apparently it's not the only "Trump Knife" out there.
"Expect to see Speaker Mike Johnson going office to office in the months ahead, making sure his members are exercising regularly, sleeping enough, and *taking all their pills*."
MAGA Mike is in luck. Capt (despite what it says on his House home page*) Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, is now a Rep in the House. Jackson will be sure that all amphetamines and Xanax, along with other antidepressants and anxiety meds, will sit in candy jars on the House floor, to be taken as needed.
(* In December 2019, after 25 years of distinguished service to his country, Dr. Jackson retired from the United States Navy as a Rear Admiral. https://jackson.house.gov/about/)
-----
"Trump: Nobody has been treated like Trump in terms of badly"
Just going to repeat what so many people have been saying for so long: the Mango Malignacy has stated again that he has been treated worse than Mr Lincoln was. I'll consider that comparison should anyone put a bullet in his head like Lincoln. (This is in no way a call for violent actions to be taken against the Sandstone Snowflake. I would be hesitant to think that any true American could be as vicious and mean as the MAGA knuckle draggers.)
Close Ms Seifert, but not quite I'm sorry to say. From your link:
"But Jackson is no longer a retired admiral. The Navy *demoted him in July 2022* following a damaging Pentagon inspector general’s report that substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician, a previously unreported decision confirmed by a current defense official and a former U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel move."
The demotion was in 2022, the decision was just released. Please don't think that I'm calling you out on this, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I am just defending my post and link. Besides, if I didn't follow your link I never would have known about the hit to his annual retirement pay-out, nor done a little -- very little -- research on him. (I don't usually use Wikipedia as a source, but I noted that they mention the demotion in the first graf [see below]. I also learned that the Senate was going to reject his nomination (by the Sandstone Snowflake in 2018) to head the VA.
The fact that Dr/Rep Pill Pusher hasn't updated his House bio makes me think he's hoping that in the less-than-24-hour news cycle we are being overwhelmed with these days, by next week the only people who will remember this are those in the military community and his scam will just keep on keeping on. As the Texas Tribune says, he's making no efforts to correct his being referred to as "Admiral."
Missed the year, but as I said, all the headlines are from the past week or so. :-) Yup, his bio still has him as an admiral. The Orange Snake will make him an admiral again and probably appoint to Surgeon General or something.
Speaker Johnson is supposedly cooking up help for Ukraine in terms of a sort of latterday Lend-Lease. Perhaps it is something real, but part of me thinks it's a sort misinfo project to deal with or lull (hopefully) the majority of Republican voters who aren't fans of Putin.
The aid has largely taken the form of 30 year old Gulf War I (and older) systems that cannot really be sold and will otherwise have to be stored or expensively scrapped. A Lend-Lease infrastructure creates an extra bureaucratic layer and delay when using these old systems chastise Putin is a net gain for relatively little.
Still the petition seems to be going nowhere, so never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Trump's flip flop on TikTok is fascinating. Wariness towards Xi's China and its projects is shared widely across the political divide. Xi has crossed small palms with the requisite silver. It might be hopeful too.
I am disturbed by this rush on TikTok. The real danger of it, indeed of any social media platform including Twit-X and Facebook and the many others that I am of the wrong age or political persuasion to know much about, is the already realized potential to spread bad, misleading, and deceptive "information"/propoganda to their mostly unsuspecting users. The US government has not ever grappled with this aspect, preferring to mostly ignore it or get all upset about selling private data to domestic or foreign adversaries.
1) I'm genuinely puzzled as to your distinction between the NSA and other U.S. government intelligence services, spying on Americans vs. foreign nationals. If they have the capability to do the latter, it's the exact same technology to do the former.
2) I think you're leaving out some important context on this point. First is that FISA court rulings are classified, and they are also ex parte (fancy lawyer talk for saying that the target(s) of the investigation and the companies involved had no opportunity to make submissions in advance). And, because FISA court rulings are classified, the various private companies are enjoined (prohibited) from disclosing that they've been subject to the ruling, much less inform the users. Second, Senator Wyden was briefed on the mass surveillance projects of the NSA, and he hauled then Obama Administration Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper into a committee hearing.
Let me add, Wyden's office explictly communicated to Clapper's office that they knew about the mass collection of cell phone metadata and that they were expecting him to tell the truth.
Notwithstanding the warning, Clapper flat out committed perjury under oath (never charged despite a bullet proof case), denied that any such surveillance program existed.
You say that the risk of #2 is overstated because the courts have ruled that such levels of mass surveillance are brazenly unconstitutional.
Buddy, not a single respectable legal scholar ever tried to argue PUBLICLY, that the Constitution allowed for such indiscriminate surveillance of private American citizens--SCOTUS precedent also obviously held that this broad surveillance was unconstitutional.
Dude, Clapper was willing to comitt perjury to obfuscate the existence of this program, because he clearly knew it was unconstitutional. But he relied on the fact he'd never get caught out on the lie because FISA court rulings are classified.
If Clapper was confident enough in the secretive nature of FISA rulings to literally commit perjury (again which he was inexplicably never charged with, thus bolstering the confidence of others to do the same), why are you in any way confident that the FISA court isn't doing the same right now?
It's sweet that Bill thinks any Repub in the House would stand up and speak for Ukraine now that Trump is settled as nominee. It's also sweet that Will sees the rejection of Lankford's bill & getting basic stuff done as a "new" low.
The GOP's behavior was likely set in stone when Trump became the 2016 nominee, but if not then, certainly when they punished Liz Cheney for voting to impeach Jan 2021.
We liken MAGA voters to a cult, but all these guys in Congress look like a cult too. None will cross Dear Leader. This is why Ken Buck is leaving along with other "normies;" they have finally realized most of them are no longer saying one thing for the camera but another among themselves; instead Buck et al are witnessing their colleagues' transformation to something like a religious zealot or a drug addict, where their minds reason that ANYTHING is justified as God's will/GOP power or required to quiet the addiction center of their brain. The Senate will complete their transformation now that Mitch is tamed.
This is too good and bad not to share. From Dr. Richardson in Letters of American talking about House republicans:
"The conference has become so toxic that fewer than 100 members agreed to attend their annual retreat that began today. "I'd rather sit down with Hannibal Lecter and eat my own liver," a Republican member of Congress told Juliegrace Brufke of Axios."
Trump, and the House Republicans are all Putin's puppies. I hope that phrase goes viral. Feel free to use it. Trump needs the money and is also selling out to the Chinese. When does all of this cross the line to bribery, election interference, and possibly treason. What has Trump done with those documents? It seems judge Cannon doesn't want anyone to know.
Cannon evidently sees the prospect of getting a Supreme Court nomination as worth the cost of selling out America's security and the rule of law.
She must be aware that her aim to protect Trump is rather obvious. She just doesn't care. It's the kind of moral impunity that Trump models and inspires.
If the US wants to ban TikTok for spreading Chinese propaganda and false information, it should also ban X for spreading Russian propaganda and white supremacy messages. I on't know which is worse? Free speech? Why has out country given so much power to raze, narcissist billionaires?
It's funny how everyone takes the American intelligence community at face value when they assert that Tiktok poses a unique danger as a social media platform, as it can be easily manipulated by the Chinese government.
Don't get me wrong it's 100% true that Tiktok poses a security threat to its users. It's just hardly UNIQUE and the proposed "solution" of forcing Tiktok to sell to a non-Chinese company does little to protect the privacy interests of users.
Let me go back in time to illustrate my point. Prior to the Snowden disclosures, American intelligence agencies were just as hysterical about Chinese made routers vs. American routers. The claim was that Chinese made routers would have backdoors allowing the Chinese government to spy on its customers.
Post-Snowden, it turned out that the American made routers sold in foreign markets had backdoors in place to allow the U.S. to spy on the customers. Worse, Snowden revealed that the Americans were in fact tapping ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC crossing the oceans by tapping the fiberoptic cables.
I similarly believe there's a dual function in the current Tiktok battle. Yes, it's a danger to the privacy interests of American Tiktok users. But the American intelligence service doesn't care about privacy rights, they just want to be the only ones with access to the data.
And let's face it, short of the Saudis, only American companies have the money it would take to purchase Tiktok. At which point we are then looking into antitrust concerns, as a tech company will presumably be making the purchase.
I guess you didn't read my comment carefully, nor did you apparently follow the Snowden revelations.
1) As I noted above, the U.S. was and is presumably continuing to tap ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC crossing the oceans, which is how 99% of data enters and leaves the U.S.
Buddy, this means they're spying on YOU as well.
2) I guess you missed the proven Snowden claim that the secret FISA court authorized the government to collect all metadata on MILLIONS of AMERICAN phones.
3) Snowden also revealed that the FISA court had been authorizing access to user records from the domestic social media companies, in secret, for YEARS. Yeah, that includes Americans.
But if a social media company, say Ticktock does not hold the data in the U.S., it can't be subpoenaed to provide records in the United States.
Well, won't be a problem after this bill goes through.
NSA spying on US citizens is very different than the US govt spying on other countries. (Also pretty sure your claim #2 is a bit overblown...because it was later deemed illegal to blanket collection).
It also has nothing to do with other countries collecting - and using nefariously - data on US citizens. Or the fact that said foreign country can easily use the platform to spread dis/mis-information against the US.
If you simply think this is about making it easier for the US govt to spy on it's own citizens, well...I hear there's a sale on tin-foil at Wal-mart.
What the hell‽ Why have only 177 House members signed the discharge petition for Ukraine Aid. Last I checked there are 213 Dems in the House.
Shesh I would have thought getting to 213 would immediately happen. After that it should have then just been a matter of finding 4 reasonable Republicans. But if the Dems can't even secure their own votes, good luck with that.
A number of House Dems have already announced they won't sign it since the bill includes aid to Israel. I call them the HAMAS Caucus, maybe 5-6 members.
Putin warns that Russia is "ready" to use nuclear weapons, though he says "there has never been such a need". He also said ""Weapons exist in order to use them."
Indeed, Trump has been treated bigly badly.
The Republican Party of Reagan lasted nearly 40 years, but that is dead and gone. That kind of Republican is getting out of politics, being replaced by those in Trump's image. The ideals of Ronald Reagan are dead in the party. (This goes double for "normies" who refuse to speak up against the fascist tide rolling across the party.) Sadly, I don't see the Republican party healing in my lifetime, if ever.
The Orange Snake is getting desperate. I got an email: "just released: trump 2024 automatic knives". No idea how much they're charging - no price mentioned, other than it being 70% off. LOL. Apparently it's not the only "Trump Knife" out there.
Bill and Andrew, please put your name at the top of your writing. I spend the whole reading time wondering who I’m
Reading.
Thank you🙋
"Expect to see Speaker Mike Johnson going office to office in the months ahead, making sure his members are exercising regularly, sleeping enough, and *taking all their pills*."
MAGA Mike is in luck. Capt (despite what it says on his House home page*) Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, is now a Rep in the House. Jackson will be sure that all amphetamines and Xanax, along with other antidepressants and anxiety meds, will sit in candy jars on the House floor, to be taken as needed.
(* In December 2019, after 25 years of distinguished service to his country, Dr. Jackson retired from the United States Navy as a Rear Admiral. https://jackson.house.gov/about/)
-----
"Trump: Nobody has been treated like Trump in terms of badly"
Just going to repeat what so many people have been saying for so long: the Mango Malignacy has stated again that he has been treated worse than Mr Lincoln was. I'll consider that comparison should anyone put a bullet in his head like Lincoln. (This is in no way a call for violent actions to be taken against the Sandstone Snowflake. I would be hesitant to think that any true American could be as vicious and mean as the MAGA knuckle draggers.)
fnord
Jackson lost his rank just last week because of his drug peddling, among other no-nos. He's now a retired captain. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/07/ronny-jackson-white-house-navy-demoted/ Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Of course, the Snake will reinstate him if he wins.
Close Ms Seifert, but not quite I'm sorry to say. From your link:
"But Jackson is no longer a retired admiral. The Navy *demoted him in July 2022* following a damaging Pentagon inspector general’s report that substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician, a previously unreported decision confirmed by a current defense official and a former U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel move."
The demotion was in 2022, the decision was just released. Please don't think that I'm calling you out on this, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I am just defending my post and link. Besides, if I didn't follow your link I never would have known about the hit to his annual retirement pay-out, nor done a little -- very little -- research on him. (I don't usually use Wikipedia as a source, but I noted that they mention the demotion in the first graf [see below]. I also learned that the Senate was going to reject his nomination (by the Sandstone Snowflake in 2018) to head the VA.
The fact that Dr/Rep Pill Pusher hasn't updated his House bio makes me think he's hoping that in the less-than-24-hour news cycle we are being overwhelmed with these days, by next week the only people who will remember this are those in the military community and his scam will just keep on keeping on. As the Texas Tribune says, he's making no efforts to correct his being referred to as "Admiral."
fnord
Missed the year, but as I said, all the headlines are from the past week or so. :-) Yup, his bio still has him as an admiral. The Orange Snake will make him an admiral again and probably appoint to Surgeon General or something.
Well Kristol, I agree with you on something. Well said.
Speaker Johnson is supposedly cooking up help for Ukraine in terms of a sort of latterday Lend-Lease. Perhaps it is something real, but part of me thinks it's a sort misinfo project to deal with or lull (hopefully) the majority of Republican voters who aren't fans of Putin.
The aid has largely taken the form of 30 year old Gulf War I (and older) systems that cannot really be sold and will otherwise have to be stored or expensively scrapped. A Lend-Lease infrastructure creates an extra bureaucratic layer and delay when using these old systems chastise Putin is a net gain for relatively little.
Still the petition seems to be going nowhere, so never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4530355-johnson-signals-shift-on-ukraine-to-gop-senators/
Republican Senators skeptical:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4532133-mcconnell-raises-pressure-on-johnson-over-ukraine-finish-the-job/
Trump's flip flop on TikTok is fascinating. Wariness towards Xi's China and its projects is shared widely across the political divide. Xi has crossed small palms with the requisite silver. It might be hopeful too.
I am disturbed by this rush on TikTok. The real danger of it, indeed of any social media platform including Twit-X and Facebook and the many others that I am of the wrong age or political persuasion to know much about, is the already realized potential to spread bad, misleading, and deceptive "information"/propoganda to their mostly unsuspecting users. The US government has not ever grappled with this aspect, preferring to mostly ignore it or get all upset about selling private data to domestic or foreign adversaries.
1) I'm genuinely puzzled as to your distinction between the NSA and other U.S. government intelligence services, spying on Americans vs. foreign nationals. If they have the capability to do the latter, it's the exact same technology to do the former.
2) I think you're leaving out some important context on this point. First is that FISA court rulings are classified, and they are also ex parte (fancy lawyer talk for saying that the target(s) of the investigation and the companies involved had no opportunity to make submissions in advance). And, because FISA court rulings are classified, the various private companies are enjoined (prohibited) from disclosing that they've been subject to the ruling, much less inform the users. Second, Senator Wyden was briefed on the mass surveillance projects of the NSA, and he hauled then Obama Administration Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper into a committee hearing.
Let me add, Wyden's office explictly communicated to Clapper's office that they knew about the mass collection of cell phone metadata and that they were expecting him to tell the truth.
Notwithstanding the warning, Clapper flat out committed perjury under oath (never charged despite a bullet proof case), denied that any such surveillance program existed.
You say that the risk of #2 is overstated because the courts have ruled that such levels of mass surveillance are brazenly unconstitutional.
Buddy, not a single respectable legal scholar ever tried to argue PUBLICLY, that the Constitution allowed for such indiscriminate surveillance of private American citizens--SCOTUS precedent also obviously held that this broad surveillance was unconstitutional.
Dude, Clapper was willing to comitt perjury to obfuscate the existence of this program, because he clearly knew it was unconstitutional. But he relied on the fact he'd never get caught out on the lie because FISA court rulings are classified.
If Clapper was confident enough in the secretive nature of FISA rulings to literally commit perjury (again which he was inexplicably never charged with, thus bolstering the confidence of others to do the same), why are you in any way confident that the FISA court isn't doing the same right now?
I am curious as to where you get your information. Who says Clapper committed perjury?
It's sweet that Bill thinks any Repub in the House would stand up and speak for Ukraine now that Trump is settled as nominee. It's also sweet that Will sees the rejection of Lankford's bill & getting basic stuff done as a "new" low.
The GOP's behavior was likely set in stone when Trump became the 2016 nominee, but if not then, certainly when they punished Liz Cheney for voting to impeach Jan 2021.
We liken MAGA voters to a cult, but all these guys in Congress look like a cult too. None will cross Dear Leader. This is why Ken Buck is leaving along with other "normies;" they have finally realized most of them are no longer saying one thing for the camera but another among themselves; instead Buck et al are witnessing their colleagues' transformation to something like a religious zealot or a drug addict, where their minds reason that ANYTHING is justified as God's will/GOP power or required to quiet the addiction center of their brain. The Senate will complete their transformation now that Mitch is tamed.
This is too good and bad not to share. From Dr. Richardson in Letters of American talking about House republicans:
"The conference has become so toxic that fewer than 100 members agreed to attend their annual retreat that began today. "I'd rather sit down with Hannibal Lecter and eat my own liver," a Republican member of Congress told Juliegrace Brufke of Axios."
I’d love to know which member said that.
Now there's a Cheap Shot.
Trump, and the House Republicans are all Putin's puppies. I hope that phrase goes viral. Feel free to use it. Trump needs the money and is also selling out to the Chinese. When does all of this cross the line to bribery, election interference, and possibly treason. What has Trump done with those documents? It seems judge Cannon doesn't want anyone to know.
I'm sure he got connected with Putin when he had to start borrowing from Russian banks in NYC because his credit was bad.
Cannon evidently sees the prospect of getting a Supreme Court nomination as worth the cost of selling out America's security and the rule of law.
She must be aware that her aim to protect Trump is rather obvious. She just doesn't care. It's the kind of moral impunity that Trump models and inspires.
I was loathe to get this tablet, but finally I did. My friend Bob took 1 look at me with the tablet and said "You are addicted."
And I was and still am.
Therefore, I am against banning TikTok. The effect on
kids would be devastating.
Consider your privacy: it was lost before TikTok.
We cannot go back to before.
huh?
I need a few more words to reply.
If the US wants to ban TikTok for spreading Chinese propaganda and false information, it should also ban X for spreading Russian propaganda and white supremacy messages. I on't know which is worse? Free speech? Why has out country given so much power to raze, narcissist billionaires?
Re: Tiktok
It's funny how everyone takes the American intelligence community at face value when they assert that Tiktok poses a unique danger as a social media platform, as it can be easily manipulated by the Chinese government.
Don't get me wrong it's 100% true that Tiktok poses a security threat to its users. It's just hardly UNIQUE and the proposed "solution" of forcing Tiktok to sell to a non-Chinese company does little to protect the privacy interests of users.
Let me go back in time to illustrate my point. Prior to the Snowden disclosures, American intelligence agencies were just as hysterical about Chinese made routers vs. American routers. The claim was that Chinese made routers would have backdoors allowing the Chinese government to spy on its customers.
Post-Snowden, it turned out that the American made routers sold in foreign markets had backdoors in place to allow the U.S. to spy on the customers. Worse, Snowden revealed that the Americans were in fact tapping ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC crossing the oceans by tapping the fiberoptic cables.
I similarly believe there's a dual function in the current Tiktok battle. Yes, it's a danger to the privacy interests of American Tiktok users. But the American intelligence service doesn't care about privacy rights, they just want to be the only ones with access to the data.
And let's face it, short of the Saudis, only American companies have the money it would take to purchase Tiktok. At which point we are then looking into antitrust concerns, as a tech company will presumably be making the purchase.
Don't worry. If a US tech oligarch exploits the people, that's just good-ol-capitalism. You know, like god intended.
You do understand what "US national security" means, right? It means about the security of the US, not other countries.
I really don't care that the US is spying on other countries. I DO CARE about other countries spying on us.
I guess you didn't read my comment carefully, nor did you apparently follow the Snowden revelations.
1) As I noted above, the U.S. was and is presumably continuing to tap ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC crossing the oceans, which is how 99% of data enters and leaves the U.S.
Buddy, this means they're spying on YOU as well.
2) I guess you missed the proven Snowden claim that the secret FISA court authorized the government to collect all metadata on MILLIONS of AMERICAN phones.
3) Snowden also revealed that the FISA court had been authorizing access to user records from the domestic social media companies, in secret, for YEARS. Yeah, that includes Americans.
But if a social media company, say Ticktock does not hold the data in the U.S., it can't be subpoenaed to provide records in the United States.
Well, won't be a problem after this bill goes through.
You're conflating a whole bunch of things.
NSA spying on US citizens is very different than the US govt spying on other countries. (Also pretty sure your claim #2 is a bit overblown...because it was later deemed illegal to blanket collection).
It also has nothing to do with other countries collecting - and using nefariously - data on US citizens. Or the fact that said foreign country can easily use the platform to spread dis/mis-information against the US.
If you simply think this is about making it easier for the US govt to spy on it's own citizens, well...I hear there's a sale on tin-foil at Wal-mart.
What the hell‽ Why have only 177 House members signed the discharge petition for Ukraine Aid. Last I checked there are 213 Dems in the House.
Shesh I would have thought getting to 213 would immediately happen. After that it should have then just been a matter of finding 4 reasonable Republicans. But if the Dems can't even secure their own votes, good luck with that.
A number of House Dems have already announced they won't sign it since the bill includes aid to Israel. I call them the HAMAS Caucus, maybe 5-6 members.
Putin warns that Russia is "ready" to use nuclear weapons, though he says "there has never been such a need". He also said ""Weapons exist in order to use them."
2016: Hillary Clinton will start World War 3
2024: Joe Biden will start World War 3.
Putin: We win or everybody loses.
Trump: We win or everybody loses.
MAGA: We win or everybody loses.
#SaveAmerica #NeverMAGA #NeverPutinists #MolesInPlainSight