It's honestly kind of funny you would fill a column with left wing idiocy then trot out the tired meme that MAGA supporters--people who both see a sharp decline in the moral and spiritual quality of our nation and want to reverse that and Make America Great Again--are dumb.
COVID was less dangerous than the flu for all healthy people under 65 or so. None of the measures taken were needed, and all of them made our public physical and mental health much, much worse, and killed a lot of us.
And with respect to John McCain, the guy was a cocky and obnoxious jerk his whole life. He ran a crap campaign in 2008, and he was insulting Trump daily, despite the fact that they were supposedly on the same side.
My intent was to commend this largely Democrat run website for doing the honorable work of pointing out that the real divide in our nation is between sane people and lunatics, but then that comment.
I will still say, though, that you all seem to be evolving in the right direction. Nobody who actually understands what conservatives believe and why will EVER, ever go back to Left wing lunacy. The Left HURTS people and lies about it. There is nothing good or human or admirable in that. It's all lies, and even lies about the lies.
So all censorship protects bad ideas, and all honest discussions, when allowed, move the world towards the middle, which is where the "right" actually lives. We oppose Hitlers and Lenins, and we also oppose kings and rule by Popes and Mullahs. That is actual Liberalism.
Well said. The MAGA bashing seems pro forma, like when Jerry and George had to immediately say “not that there’s anything wrong with that!” Immediately after pointing out someone was gay.
Bill Maher does this a lot. He'll skewer the radical left for their idiocy, and then (as an old reflex I suppose) bash Trump for something, just to validate he's still a liberal.
He bashes Trump bc. Trump sued him and waged a campaign against him as he has done with others. Bill Maher was voted # 1 in a poll that asked who is most credible to get news from.
Oliver Wiseman's article proves that the right is just as goofy as the left. I know who Taylor Swift is but I have never heard her sing and don't care to. I never understand the masses' fascination with the glitterati. To me these entertainers live in their own La La World and most aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Just ignore them. If you don't, you are just feeding the beast.
This comment proves that you lack critical thinking and are possibly a narcissist.
It doesn’t matter what your opinion of Taylor Swift is. Millions of voting Americans worship her and her bland persona. They rabidly attack any one who critiques her online.
And then; after a strange dispute where a shadowy equity group somehow gained control of the rights to her music. Miss Swift suddenly becomes political. And then weeks after Travis Kelce, who’s style and taste is best described as ‘w*gger’, and who has only ever dated curvaceous ethnic women, signs a contract with Pfizer to hawk their mRNA products to the masses amidst plummeting uptake.
A few weeks later the Pfizer prince’s preferences in women change to waifish asexual white girls in a highly publicized pairing. Coverage of the relationship is awkwardly shoehorned into every imaginable MSM broadcast.
Pointing out that this is obviously unnatural and forced does not make one a goofy conspiracy theorist.
Dutifully swallowing the nonsense being fed to you by establishment media is not a badge of honor. It has been made glaringly obvious how they mislead the public over the past 4 years. They didn’t suddenly choose to play it straight.
I think you may be a little blinded here, too. You call John McCain a "cocky and obnoxious jerk". Is Trump NOT those things, as well? Also, I reject not being able to critique those in your own party. This is a democratic republic; those who we elect to represent us should be held to the highest standards. Your arguments seem to come from a place of tribalism, which will only divide our country further. And I don't think I would call Trump a conservative. (He's called for "termination" of parts of the US Constitution, and he more recently proposed blanket Presidential immunity... which is ABSOLUTELY nuts and very non-conservative in the proper sense.) Also, the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are by definition opposites. Most people are a mixture of the two (e.g., fiscally conservative, socially liberal, etc.). There's good and bad to both sides, that's why balance (and open, honest discussion, like you mentioned) is vitally important to move our country forward and keep us together.
There are dumb people on both sides. It might be worth taking a step back and looking at the issues from the other side.
Trump is certainly cocky, but he also plainly has a warm and generous side, that I never saw in John McCain. John McCain was elected as a Republican but he never acted like one. I liked him for a long time, but he was simply insufferable when it came to Trump. So is Mitt Romney. Both made it very clear there is a Club that includes both parties, does NOT include the American people, and that anyone who rocks their very comfy yacht is not welcome, even though the whole damn thing is sinking.
And no, conservatives and liberals are not opposites. Liberal, in its traditional and accurate usage, is about freedom. Liberty and Liberal have the same root. Adam Smith and John Stuart Mills were honest Liberals.
Democrats, in this country at this moment, are NOT Liberals. They are totalitarian Fascists who are using a corrupted Federal government to harass their opponents, prevent honest and fair elections, to censor all views that were not approved by the Ministry of Truth, and generally do the opposite of the the sorts of things they claim they value. It's easy to misunderstand this. All you have to do is look at what they say rather than what they do.
And what Trump said, in effect, was that if that election was Constitutional, there was something wrong with the Constitution. He's right. That scale of blatant fraud should not be POSSIBLE in a functioning system, and given that it happened--and may yet happen again--we have a very serious problem at the core of our system. I personally think this is obvious.
And as a general rule the "highest standards" argument, when trotted out, is only applied to one side. Joe Biden stuck his finger inside Tara Reade, in a public place, then after being inaugurated as President harassed her so severely she felt she had to leave the country for her own safety. Biden takes bribes. He took showers with his daughter when she was 8. Both of his children are sex and drug addicts. He is senile, and probably crapping his pants even in meetings with foreign leaders, at least one of whom said he smells terrible. He lies habitually and daily about everything, and at that absurd, ridiculous lies that can't be believed by any but the most gullible and naive.
Agree totally about McCain. He was never a Republican and was always out for himself. I don't like to talk bad about the dead, however, John McCain was a mean, selfish, spoiled SOB. Read the book The Nightingale's song by Robert Timberg and the whole picture of McCain comes clear. For me the day that he walked into the Senate from practically his deathbed to vote against repealing the ACA (Obamacare) was the last straw, his thumbs down was the proverbial nail in the coffin for me, no further examination needed. RINO and a mean one at that. I doubt that you would ever see Trump doing something like that just for a personal vendetta without any regard for the American people he was elected to serve.
As my comments re McCain; he talked the talk, but did not walk the walk, ie supporting conservative positions and American values during his career. He was vindictive to those who he perceived have wronged him. McCain (and his supporters) hid behind his POW mystique. Yes he was a POW (Prisoner of war, not Hero of war). Trump simply made a comment that he was not a war hero, "because he was captured" during the vietnam war/shot down. Heroes typically "shoot down" multiple enemy aircraft at key battle moments, and most often die in combat, hence earning the title "died a HERO". I truly respect the 5 years he survived in captivity and punishing physical torture he received, as did many other vietnam POW vets. What other vietnam POWs received similar or even notable status as heroes? None that I recall or have come across. Yet McCain is lifted up on high as a hero, while many thousands of his fellow soldiers have been subjected to years of scorn and hatred for their time of service in vietnam. Many of those living on the streets of our country, homeless and forgotten, and no less important than McCain, many with more horrific stories than McCain. What did McCain do to improve the lives of our surviving soldiers, through VA improvements (gee, guess Trump did start something here), through medical and housing initiatives that would help our veterans live their lives with respect and decent accommodations vs on park benches. Mental health issues plague our veterans, but I dont know of any initiative McCain was a champion of for his fellow veterans. If I am mistaken , I stand corrected.
What are some instances where Trump is warm and generous? I think he is tribal and panders to his base without making their lives much better (as do Democrats). His strategy is to put down everyone else (both Democrats and other Republicans who are not on the Trump train) and to flatter and prop up those that support him. That's been his MO for the most part. If I'm wrong, please give me specific examples. I'm open to being wrong.
I think we're working with two different definitions of "liberal", which is one of those "catch-all" words that can mean different things to different people. I'm using them as Jon Haidt uses them in "The Righteous Mind" - he goes back to the French Rev. which is where we get the terms "Left Wing" and "Right Wing", liberals (those who wanted the gov't to change, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) sat on the left, and conservatives (those who wanted to conserve the current gov't) sat on the right. Over time in America, the liberal group split into Progressives (what many call "Liberals") today and Libertarians (generally distrust gov't power and want to reduce it), actually. With this definition, liberals wants to change existing institutions and conservatives want to protect them. Now, it's a bit more complex because our gov't stands for those rights that the old liberal guard used to push for (Liberty, Fraternity, Equality), so applying them to modern political parties, I can see how they overlap.
Can you also say that John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith were conservative figures of their time? I don't know enough of their histories to say one way or the other. They may have been liberal then and deemed conservative now, but in their own time period, were they both?
I agree that democrats are not liberals (in either sense of the word!) today. I actually think most politicians are probably conservatives because they want to conserve their own power.
I think your 1984 references can and do apply to both parties, not just Democrats. Personally, it's scary to feel like our gov't has to choose between two bad options right now.
Both sides have either hinted or outright said that elections in which Trump has won and elections in which Trump has lost are "fraudulent". I personally have yet to see actual proof that this is the case in any recent election. (The Bush hanging Chad ballot fiasco is the closest I've seen in my lifetime.)
I think things that the Democratic party has gotten away with (Clinton, Biden, apparently) has allowed Trump to also be a player in the political sphere. This implies that men (or women) with power are immune to the consequence of using their power to hurt other people. That is not okay, but the cycle has to break somewhere.
Trump also has plenty of senior moments, he just blusters through them (confusing Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi). Both candidates are unfit to be president again.
I don't really agree or like either candidate being thrust on the US right now. My argument is more about feeling the need to defend "our" candidate because they are "ours". I'm not trying to change your mind; you have every right to support Trump. I'm just pushing back on your arguments a little because I think you could use the exact same arguments to justify "the other side". This, I think, it what I mean by tribalism.
I dont have time to get into Trumps history, but his history of private charity and public inclusion is long and good. Thats why Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at one time wanted pictures with him.
In the French Revolution the true Liberals—who in a world of monarchy and theocracy were still radicals—sat in the middle, in what I think was called the mountain.
The Left, then as now, consisted in radically intolerant authiritarians with a sever case of bloodlust, which resulted in the murder of I think some 40,000 people.
What charitable donations? Do you mean the free rounds of golf at Trump golf courses, distributed through the Trump Foundation? The donations to military veterans from a fundraiser where the money was supposed to go to the Trump Foundation but in fact went to the Trump Campaign? The lie he admitted to in a November 2019 settlement where he had to pay $2 million in damages because he stiffed the veterans, and he admitted that the fundraiser was fake? Those “donations”? The Trump Foundation got shut down because it was a fraudulent family enterprise designed to make Trump look good, but in reality do nothing. Kind of like Trump University. All fake.
Do me a favor: if you can find something equal to taking millions of dollars from the Ukraine then provoking and sponsoring a war there, lay it on me.
And if you can find an equivalent to taking millions of dollars from our biggest rival--China--that would be swell too.
We both know you can't. I've read Saul Alinsky. I get it. You want me to justify myself endlessly while you ignore entirely the enormous, huge, completely absurd crimes of the person you are trying to make people forget.
Did your mother raise you to be a disingenous hypocrite, or is this something you picked up in college?
You aren’t informed about any of Trump’s warmth or generosity because you have formed your opinion of him from the talking points fed to you by the fake news media. You see all of the little snippets they have so carefully edited from his speeches, read all of the articles lacking context with intentional missing facts and draw your opinions from them. They have you right where they intended to put you. Gobsmacked with distaste for someone so vile. You have fallen for it.
Have you ever been to a Trump Rally? If you dare be seen with we “low-lifes”, take a look around you and look into the faces of middle America. You are not going to see only “red neck hicks” like you have been told. You will see men and woman, young and old, white, black and brown, blue collar and white collar and sweet little kissable babies. We are the freedom loving free-thinkers “uncaptivated” by Trump’s lying persecutors. We have kept our souls and our hope that America will be restored to its greatness.
I apologize if any of my comments implied that I think any of those things about Trump supporters. I was simply encouraging us (all) to take a step back and think about things from another point of view. Do our arguments stand up to criticism? Can they be applied to the other candidate? Do we like our candidate because they stand for what we believe in or because we hate the other side?
I have many friends and family that did vote for Trump, and you're assuming that I never have and never will. Your assumptions that I think all Trump voters are stupid or mean is untrue and really not fair, as I never attacked UF or anyone's intelligence based on their political allegiance. In fact, I work really hard to come to a conversation with the opposite in mind.
You just don’t remember Trump calling people who served their country “losers”? He is actually very proud of that and of how he dodged any obligation to his country. He would be offended to be said to “serve” his country, even as a president. He proudly serves no one but himself.
He never said that. Someone SAID he said that, to sell their book. But go ahead and believe whatever bullshit hesrsay you want. I heard you were a child molester, Andy.
In my mind, one of the most notable example of the Bad Orange Man's charity, was when he called the father of the kid shot and killed in Seattle's CHAZ/CHOP. Contrast this with the local PRO-crime democRAT's claiming this was going to be a "Summer of Love" (Jenny Durkan) and the governor, dimwitted Jay Inslee, claiming that he didn't have any firsthand knowledge of Seattle ceding 15 square blocks to a bunch of anarchists.
"John McCain was a republican but he never acted like one."
False. He never acted like the republican you thought he should have been. He acted like what he professed to be: a moderate republican comfortable with compromising with Dems. There used to be lots of them. Whether they were right or wrong in your view is a different story.
"I liked him for a long time but he was insufferable when it came to Trump." Agreed. He was. And it was a legitimate thing to be opposed to-again, not saying whether it was right ir wrong, but it is and was legit to be anti Trump and be on the right. Your comment sounds like a personality cult more than a philosophy issue.
There was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election other than the fact that Trump refused to accept the fact that he lost. There was no fraud. Trump filed over 60 lawsuits trying to prove fraud and he lost them all. Trump forced recounts in several states and he still lost, even after recounts supervised by his own people. In some of those cases, after the recount, Trump lost by more votes than he’d originally lost by…..with his won people counting the votes!
In some of the election lawsuits he lost, Trump’s lawyers admitted in open court before the judge that they actually had NO PROOF there had been any fraud. Filing frivolous and malicious lawsuits is one of the reasons Giuliani is in so much trouble now, as is Sydney Powell, who has plead guilty in the Georgia case for election interference. Texas is going to disbar Powell, which is saying a lot about the veracity of the election fraud claims, and none of it good.
So the bottom line is that there was NO election fraud in 2020, much less “blatant” fraud. The Trump lawyers who pursued those claims are being sanctioned, going to jail, and being disbarred. Trump-appointed Republican judges ruled against Trump in those election fraud lawsuits. The ones that were appealed to the USSC were thrown out by the Trump-appointed justices. There is NOTHING even remotely credible to support continuing to believe Trump’s lies about “he didn’t really lose the election”. Anyone, including TFP writers, who makes fun of MAGA voters for believing lies, whether it’s about election fraud or Taylor Swift, is right to do so. Both stories are equally ridiculous.
"There was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election" these words alone make it clear you don't know the whole story. You might argue that the "wrong things" weren't important or weren't enough to sway the election, but to say, "there was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election" is mind boggling to me
It’s mind boggling to me that Trump voters think that Trump actually won the 2020 election and that it was somehow stolen from him. He lost over 60 lawsuits trying to prove that. And some of those had Republican judges he’d appointed and they ruled against him anyway. His appeals to the USSC, with 3 justices he’d appointed, were all denied. He defamed the voting machine companies and they won millions of dollars in damages from him for defaming them.
Now if you are saying that mistakes were made that, while lamentable, did not affect the outcome, then maybe I agree with you, but those are mistakes, not fraud. Human error has the potential to enter into anything. There are Democrats who think the election was stolen in 2000 with Bush v Gore and the famous hanging chads. I think those people are crazy too. When Trump lost the Iowa primary to Ted Cruz in 2016 he yelled fraud and wanted a redo of the primary. Trump was all over Twitter saying the primary was “stolen”. This is just how Trump reacts to losing. Whether it’s a primary, an election, or a lawsuit, it’s never his fault, he’s never wrong. It’s always the election was “stolen”, there was “fraud”, the trial was “rigged”, the jury “didn’t like him”. The truly mind boggling thing is that so many people continue to believe in this man when all he’s ever done throughout his life is lie and act like a spoiled baby. That is mind blowing.
Ann, I find it curious that you are repeating the same arguments ("Trump lost 60 lawsuits!) you have used previously, which have been countered multiple times by other commenters, but you won't address their arguments or evidence but just keep repeating the same thing over and over. A perfect example of cognitive dissonance.
What you are writing is simply inaccurate. Among the cases HEARD BY THE COURTS he won well over half of them. But most of his cases never reached the level of admitting and examining evidence. I actually don't think ANY of them did. Anywhere.
And the media LIES about what they can't spin. In Arizona, it took many months of difficult fighting to get even a rudimentary audit done, which was fought tooth and nail every moment it was going on--you know, because there was nothing to hide--and the STILL found several hundred thousand ballots lacking chain of custody, which meant THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN COUNTED.
Nobody threw these ballots out, even though we are told Biden only won by 12,000 votes. It's a very plausible and sustainable conclusion that Trump ACTUALLY won by several hundred thousand votes, which is why several hundred thousand ballots had to be added after the counting stopped, and after the legal cutoff, and the total changed in the system.
What is mind boggling to me is that the people screaming THERE IS NO EVIDENCE were the ones talking about Trump's collusion with Russia, which was always hearsay, never had any substantive evidence, and which John Durham subsequently proved in court was not only concocted BY THE DEMOCRATS, but also KNOWN AT THE OUTSET TO BE FRAUDULENT BY THE FBI.
You look at that, see no problem, then want to tell people looking at counts stopped in the middle of the night, numerous reports of trucks pulling in after the deadline in the middle of the night, then Fidel Castro levels of support that are statistically impossible the next day, that they are completely crazy?
Trump v. Biden (Wis. Dec. 14, 2020) – In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed three of Trump’s four claims under the doctrine of laches. However, it decided on the merits Trump’s claim that voters wrongfully declared themselves indefinitely confined. Ultimately, the court ruled against Trump on this claim because Trump challenged the status of all voters who claimed an indefinitely confined status, rather than individual voters. Trump petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari on Dec. 29, 2020 with a motion for expedited consideration, but the court denied his motion.
Trump v. Wis. Elecs. Comm’n (E.D. Wis. Dec. 12, 2020) – The district court dismissed Trump’s claim that Wisconsin officials violated his rights under the Electors Clause because said officials allegedly issued guidance on state election statutes that deviated significantly from the requirements of Wisconsin’s election statutes. First, the court found that interpretations of election administration rules do not fall under the meaning of “Manner” in the Electors Clause. Moreover, even if “Manner” were read so broadly, the defendants had acted consistently with, and as expressly authorized by, the Wisconsin Legislature; their issued guidance did not significantly or materially depart from legislative direction. Thus, there was no violation of the Electors Clause. The U.S. Appeals Court for the 7th Circuit affirmed the district court’s opinion on Dec. 24, 2020. Trump filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 30, 2020 along with a motion for expedited consideration, and the court denied Trump’s motion.
King v. Whitmer (E.D. Mich. Dec. 7, 2020) – While the district court stated that the claims of plaintiffs—Republican presidential electors—could be dismissed for lack of standing, the district court nonetheless analyzed the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims. First, the district court was unpersuaded by the plaintiffs’ claim that defendants violated the Elections and Electors Clauses by allegedly violating the Michigan Election Code because it found that deviations from state election law are not the same as modifications of state election law. Second, the district court found the plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim to be too speculative, finding no evidence that physical ballots were altered. The plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020, and subsequently filed a motion for expedited consideration on Dec. 18, 2020. However, the court denied the motion.
Ward v. Jackson (Ariz. Sup. Ct., Maricopa Cnty. Dec. 4, 2020) – The superior court denied relief requested by the plaintiff in an election contest because the plaintiff failed to meet the evidentiary standard necessary for such a contest. First, plaintiff’s evidence failed to show fraud or misconduct—rather, it showed that the duplication process of the presidential election was 99.45% accurate, and that the inaccuracies were caused by human error. Moreover, the plaintiff’s evidence failed to show illegal votes or an erroneous vote count. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the superior court’s decision on Dec. 8, 2020. The plaintiff filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020, and subsequently filed a motion for expedited consideration on the same day. However, the Court denied the motion.
Law v. Whitmer (Nev. Dist. Ct., Carson City Dec. 4, 2020) – The district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ election contest on the merits. First, the plaintiffs—Republican presidential electors—failed to prove that there had been either a voting device malfunction or the counting of illegal/improper votes in a manner sufficient to raise reasonable doubt as to the election’s outcome. Next, the plaintiffs failed to prove that the election board or any of its members were guilty of malfeasance. Finally, the plaintiffs failed to prove that defendants had manipulated or altered the outcome of the election. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s decision on Dec. 8, 2020.
Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar (M.D. Pa. Nov. 21, 2020) – While the district court found that Trump lacked standing, the court decided to touch upon the merits of his Equal Protection claim, ultimately rejecting the claim. The district court held that different counties implementing different types of notice-and-cure policies (many implementing none) did not violate the Equal Protection Clause because the clause does not require complete equality in all situations—“a classification resulting in ‘some inequality’ will be upheld unless it is based on an inherently suspect characteristic or ‘jeopardizes the exercise of a fundamental right.’” The district court highlighted the fact that the notice-and-cure policies adopted by certain counties imposed no burden on voters, and that it would be impossible to require every single county to administer elections in exactly the same way. The U.S. Court for Appeals for the 3rd Circuit affirmed this decision on Nov. 27, 2020.
Wood v. Raffensperger (N.D. Ga. Nov. 20, 2020) – While the district court stated that the claims of a plaintiff—a registered voter—could be dismissed either for lack of standing or under the doctrine of laches, the court nonetheless ruled on the merits. First, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Equal Protection claim because there was no disparate treatment among Georgia voters. Next, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Elections and Electors Clauses claim because Secretary Brad Raffensperger had not overridden or rewritten any state law. Finally, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Due Process claim because there is no individual constitutional right to observe the electoral process (i.e., monitor an audit or vote recount). The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit affirmed the district court’s opinion on Dec. 5, 2020. The plaintiff filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8, 2020 and filed a motion for expedited consideration on the same day. However, the court denied the motion.
Bower v. Ducey (D. Ariz. Dec. 9, 2020) – The district court largely dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint on the grounds of lack of standing. However, the court did touch upon the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud, ultimately finding that the plaintiffs’ claims were largely based on, “anonymous witnesses, hearsay, and irrelevant analysis of unrelated elections.” For one, the declarations from poll watchers that the plaintiffs provided as proof of fraud did not actually allege fraud at all, but rather simply raised concerns about the manner and process by which election officials matched signatures on absentee ballots. Moreover, none of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses stated that defendants committed any fraud; instead, they only provided speculative statements about what “could have” happened. Additionally, one of the plaintiffs’ experts relied on a study with no information about its author or methodologies involved. Finally, the court found the plaintiffs’ claim of alleged voting machine hacking to be unconvincing since the voting machines’ behavior could be easily explained by standard voting machine protocol. The plaintiffs filed an emergency petition for extraordinary writ of mandamus to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 15, 2020, and the court denied the plaintiffs’ emergency petition.
Costantino v. City of Detroit (3d Jud. Ct. Wayne Cnty. Nov. 13, 2020) – In denying the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction, the court found that the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud would unlikely prevail on the merits. The court noted that many plaintiffs failed to include crucial information in their allegations, such as locations of alleged misconduct, frequency of alleged misconduct, names of those involved in alleged misconduct, and so on. Overall, the court found the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud to be speculative, filled with “guess-work,” and often unsubstantiated. Moreover, defendants provided a sufficient amount of evidence to convince the court that they had acted within the law. This decision was affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals on Nov. 16, 2020, and by the Michigan Supreme Court on Nov. 23, 2020.
Arizona Republican Party v. Fontes (Ariz. Sup. Ct., Maricopa Cty.) – The superior court ordered the Arizona Republican Party and its lawyers to pay legal fees for bringing a “groundless,” bad faith lawsuit challenging Maricopa County election procedures. The court noted that the relief plaintiff sought—an additional hand count of ballots—was not legally available due to the suit’s numerous procedural defects. The court found that plaintiff did not adequately assess the validity of their claims before filing the suit, and thus failed to prove that the county had inappropriately applied the statute in question. The court determined that plaintiff brought the suit for the “improper purpose” of undermining Arizonans’ confidence in election results, rather than to defend election integrity as they claimed.
Demonstration of common sense, wit, or a sincere desire to engage on this topic: none.
Without looking through all that--and let's be honest: you didn't either--I can say that all these cases were decided on procedural grounds.
Let me take the last: the court decided against the plaintiffs, by saying a hand recount was not possible (it was) because of errors in the lawsuit itself. They then made the political claim that the motivation of the lawsuit was impure and then threw it out.
That's not evidence against or for fraud, is it?
And you ignored what I wrote, ENTIRELY. I posted an article listing the problems with all the Swing States. They are legion and even if the problems do not conclusively point to fraud as a decisive factor, they OBVIOUSLY and UNDENIABLY point to a system in which fraud appears likely to have happened, and likely to have made a significant difference.
I would, again, differentiate that level of evidence from the patent fraud that the Democrats used to harass Trump for four years, and spent $100 million of tax payer money on an investigation that they knew at the outset was a wild goose chase.
The level of callousness and viciousness required to not be able to understand why reasonable people would view that election as fraudulent is far, far beyond anything I am personally capable of. I don't hate people. I am not a hater. That is why I spend so much time opposing the Left, because the Left consists in nothing else. Lies and hate. They lie about the hate, obviously, so there is no contradiction between a rhetoric of compassion and transparency and a reality of nastiness and deceit.
I don't know. Given that John Durham proved that the FBI cooperated in an investigation of a sitting President it knew at the outset was innocent, why should any reasonable person view our system as fair?
Every lawsuit I have personally examined was dismissed on procedural grounds, typically a "lack of standing". Texas, for example, was unable to argue in front of the Supreme Court that election fraud in other States affected them, when we are seeing daily evidence that Joe Biden rather than Trump in the White House is making a huge difference for them.
I posted a long series of problems with all the Swing States. You can look at it, or not, as you choose.
I can go all day, but choose not to with people who ignore what I write, have an obvious axe to grind, and who don't strike me as kind, thoughtful, or open to new ideas and information. Your cat no doubt loves you. Your friends are no doubt happy you are out here "fighting the good fight". What I see is an angry, brain washed drone who can't AND won't hear me, but will ask me indefinitely to listen to her.
curious regarding the fraud. I more or less decided that if Bill Barr was comfortable with the results then that was good enough for me. Do you distrust Barr?
Extremely. I think he is a dishonest POS. He not only did no investigation, I think he prevented anyone else from doing one.
The Democrats were given Robert Mueller, on the basis of rumors that we now know were created by the Democrats, and known by the FBI at the outset to be lies.
Given how much more evidence of fraud exists with respect to 2020, why cant we ask the same?
Why? Trump authorized Mueller because he knew he had nothing to hide. Joe Biden, in contrast, has a LOT to hide. He belongs i jail right now on the basis of what we already know; and we can feel VERY sure that what we know is just a small small fraction of it.
Bill Barr defended Trump from every single attack, vigorously. Yet because he called BS on the election, he now can't be trusted to many Trump supporters. If they were thinking logically, instead off emotionally, they would realize that it's precisely because he didn't buy Sidney and Rudy's position on the election that trust should INCREASE in Barr. The fact he defended Trump on everything gives him more credibility, not less on the issue. But nope, nothing other than 100% down the line fealty to Trump is good enough. This is why I maintain most Trump support is emotional and not rational, that's why the support is so strong nothing harms it.
Something like two thirds of Republicsns believe, based on some combination of common sense and time spent examining the details, that Joe Biden lost that election.
Is this a desirable state of affairs?
Would not SOME honest investigation have helped greatly to mitigate it?
Was not Bill Barr the guy whose JOB IT WAS to examine issues of that sort?
Did he not OBVIOUSLY fail miserably, or is it your contention we should trust him that there was no evidence, when we know he didnt even look?
I am not blindly loyal. I am just not stupid. Its not a high bar, but it is manifestly too high for many.
I lost faith in Bill Barr when he concluded that their was no foul play in the death of Jeffrey Epstein. There were too many coincidences to not have taken a deeper probe.
This is nonsensical. In my experience such circular logic comes from a very entrenched position. And yet you encourage looking at things from the other side. So here goes. UF seems pretty conservative to me so by criticizing John McCain he IS criticizing his own party. One of the things Trump detractors overlook, or are incapable of grasping, is that Trump acts lawfully. Lawfully as within the judicial system. The "fake electors" myth/scam/hoax was an effort, with legal advice, to designate alternative electors so that if his legal challenge to certified electors was successful there would be alternative replacements; had those suits proceeded unimpeded there might well be more confidence in election integrity today. Likewise the immunity claim is a legal defense in a court of law. The "terminate" the Constitution is also misguided on your part. The Constitution can , and has been, amended. Many times. It was d3signed that way - to be able to change to meet different needs occasioned by different times. It is accomplished by established legal procedure. Even the "insurrection" claim.is bogus. Trump discussed with lawyers how to stop the certification of electors he believed were fraudulently chosen. (I often wonder if given the sorry state of affairs occasioned and pain of American citizens generated by the Biden administration if Pence regrets certifying the Biden results. After all
If he had not done so, it would have been Biden challenging the results. In a court of law or otherwise.) Insurrections occur with guns. Not with lawyers operating in the confines of the system you would have us believe Trump sought to overthrow. That you, or your leftist cronies, disapprove of any of these legal arguments is of no significance. The decisions thereon are for judges to make. And Trump, unlike Biden, abides by court decisions. Lastly you wholly misunderstand the terms liberal and conservative in 21st century America. Everyone who believes in the Constitution is a liberal. Modern conservatives not only believe in the Constitution they believe it is being eroded by those who have co-opted the term liberal. They would more accurately be labeled illiberal or as they label themselves, Progressive . They promote the idea of government remedy. To such an extent that they require the relinquishment of the autonomy of the American citizen thereto (and demonize American citizens who oppose such) via the sham that the government is the only way to achieve the greater good. All while utterly blind to the impracticality and actual harm resulting therefrom, much less the route to full bore authoritarianism occasioned thereby. I suggest you do a factual analysis devoid of the biases and prejudices, and resulting emotions, of either side.
Neither party has nominated a candidate whom I could vote for since 2012. This November looks like another such election. As a serious citizen, I resent it.
My main questions about the January 6 "insurrection" are why the 2,000+ members of the Capitol Police Force were not ordered to lock the Capitol after the close of business that day and why, instead, they spent their evening hours escorting the later-convicted felons around the joint instead.
You don't have to be a Trump fan to wonder also whether charging the guy with 91 felonies doesn't suggest we have more than a little political bias in our so-called justice systems. Those systems are staffed by persons whose jobs are to represent the public interest -- not to punish someone because they Just Know He's Bad.
American citizens deserve better than what we are getting.
I agree with your perspective on this Lynn and you end with "....on either side". I think ALL OF US commenting here about LEFT vs Right sides CONTINUE TO ALLOW OURSELVES to argue between the 2 when we KNOW it's really about Top - Down- The Washington Establishment, which is comprised of BOTH Dems and Republicans. Trump is NEITHER & he is NOT Washington Establishment. In 2016, he was the Best we had and he made an impact on uncovering just how corrupt our Leaders are. He was our best alternative- flaws and all.
Theses flaws come no where near impacting our Country the way the Establishment has these lastv3 years.
Unfortunately, for anyone that can think strategically, it is common sense to see that a huge swath of people are ready to vote for Trump again and the Dems are thrilled because they already have their plan in place to put Biden out to pasture in May or about and slide Michelle Obama into place.
And she will win in a landslide. And we will be f*cked. And everyone who votes for her is too dumb to realize it
I agree. But I suspect there may not be a vote at all. Reportedly Zelensky canceled Ukraine's scheduled for March. And rumour is that trucker convoy heading to the border are walking into a trap. I do not like to talk about it, but there are folks who believe that contrary to the idea that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine was organic it was instead deliberately instigated by sharpshooters in the crowd with the design to overthrow a duly elected, albeit pro-Russian, president. Matt Taibbi ran a couple of good pieces last week. One was about a Dem group that strategized various scenarios that the right would ostensibly use. But instead they have used them. Somewhere in the two articles I recall the question is the US ready for a color revolution? For all the talk about civil war and secession, could they possibly be capable of igniting a new revolution? I think.it is plausible because in the event they win (they have a sitting commander-in-chief after all) they can just imprison the opposition.
"Her"? (Joke, don't hurt me!) I mean, who does the Left idolize more than black women, except Trans black women? (Joke again, sorry, it just slipped out, I didn't mean it!)
The latest proof that Trump is not a conservative are the lies in his adds concerning Social Security. He was attacking Haley for stating the truth about the need to reform this entitlement, and was doing so by repeating the leftist lies about Social Security having been “payed for” and pretending that anybody telling the truth wants to cheat Americans out of their totally deserved entitlement. He says whatever sells, he has no principles - the typical demagogue.
As it is obvious from the comment above, at least Haley would address the problem of the entitlements running out of money, which both Biden and Trump refuse to do. From this point of view, it’s more reasonable to ask what’s the difference between a Trump and a Biden presidency, other than the noise.
Agree with almost everything you said, except that the US is not a democratic republic. We are also a constitutional republic, a federal republic, etc., but we do use a democratic system to elect officials to represent us.
Everything else, I agree with, especially the last part. Thanks for your response.
I think it's just a habit of long standing. If you live on the Left, and you don't say the right things and wave shiny bright ribbons in the air that are the right coleurs (sic) then you get canceled. It makes everyone nervous. Every time you talk you have to look over your shoulder. You develop the habit of hedging your bets, and insulting the Enemy becomes almost de rigeur as a sort of defensive spell. It's like crossing yourself, or throwing salt over your shoulder or carrying a rabbit's foot. It's simultaneously delusional and understandable.
I think in those circles you are assumed to be ideologically compliant, and the ritual insult of Trump and his supporters amounts to a protective spell that keeps the mob--the Beast--from waking up and looking at you.
The whole thing is sociologically monstrous, and the farthest thing imaginable from anything that would warrant being called "Liberal". Liberality is a good thing. This is why I never call Leftists Liberals. Ever. It's a lie, and I do my best never to lie intentionally.
But delusional people do not provide reliable information. Which is what I am here for. And this piece was not a hatchet-piece on Trump. It was condemnation of anyone not in Biden's camp. In essence if you don't support Biden you ain't sane.
I watched the CDC announce to the nation they were going to let us get infected with the initial, deadly first wave, because "racism is more dangerous than a virus" and Oliver thinks that the stupid people are the ones who thought "Wu Flu" was funny.
Oliver, I spent two months on the West Coast warning people what was coming while the corporate propagandists called COVID a "right wing conspiracy theory" and ran scores of headlines telling people not to worry about it. There was almost not a single person in liberal, progressive Seattle who bothered to look at the evidence at all. Most repeated propaganda lines about racism.
Anyone who isn't furious over how our institutions handled COVID is blind, and if you think "Wuhan Flu" was the part we should be offended by, YOU are the one who is stupid and unserious.
So the using phrase “Wuhan flu” is a sign of idiocy and social decay? The author makes this claim despite a couple of years of elaborate and unceasing gaslighting by government and media that the virus was a zoonotic that jumped out of a (pangolin, bat, raccoon dog, or whatever the animal de jour happened to be) until the FBI Director casually states in a media interview that “of course we have long assessed that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology“.
And the author begins his diatribe with the sentence “We live in stupid times.” Yes, indeed we do.
Most astounding to me was that the public was forbidden to be curious about the origin of the virus. It has now become obvious via information released through FOIA and other avenues that Fauci was determined to quash discussion. He and Collins explicitly state as much. Yet journalists—including Rachel Maddow and friends— obediently acted as PR soldiers for Pharma and its well-paid (off) government aides. Are they stupid? They were fine with never asking, “Why exactly are we financing bioweapons research in China?” Still waiting for the answer to that one.
That's true. A lot of what I read here I either disagree with or find insipid. But then Bari publishes the interview with Clarence Jones, MLK's speechwriter, or the taped testimonies of Palestinians living under the yoke of Hamas, or whistleblower Jamie Reed who exposed the corruption at the children's gender clinic in Missouri. I share more articles from The Free Press than any other source.
If I'm understand you correctly, Frances Block, who wrote about Clarence Jones, Jamie Reed, who wrote about her personal experiences, and Joseph Brande, who has an organization that publishes the testimonies of Palestinians, are not actually journalists, but merely shills for Bari's perspective.
All Substack journalists write from their own perspective and cover topics that matter to them. Bari just happens to be more enterprising than most of them. She decided that by hiring journalists, she could create an actual newspaper and publish many more stories with a wider reach. In this she has succeeded. The Free Press breaks stories not covered elsewhere.
I have no idea (maybe you do?) how many of the articles published here come directly out of the brain of Bari Weiss and how many are submitted to her for publication. We can only guess, but I assume it's a bit of both. In either case, I give credit where it's due, to Bari as the entrepreneur, and to the journalists who work for her or take advantage of her openmindedness to blow the whistle on the gender clinic, as Jamie Reed did.
I had to reread that pretzel logic several times. It never made sense. Ramaswamy's admitted wild speculation on X, plus Biden's "unsurprising" desire to benefit from Taylor Swift's popularity, equals a Fox News far right agenda? Not in the real world.
Good comment. I was trying to remember the MAGAs making fun of McCains war injuries and came up blank. I do remember Trump's stupid I like soldiers that weren't caputured comment. And I think there was a cheap shot about his arm, but that's Trump, no filter. I do not remember the 50% of the country that want to see it great again making fun of McCain. Anybody remember that?
I find that people on the left know WAY more about the minutia of things some Conservative did or said than most conservatives. And then they attribute that thing to ALL conservatives.
"The Left HURTS people than lies about it" - 100% true!
All someone at TFP has to do is take a pc of paper , make 2 columns- one marked Left amd one marked Right. Then LIST all the ACTUAL PHYSICAL HARM & DEATHS , causes by Democratic policies, decision- making . we are not including 'making people feel bad or feel scared or feel like a Victim. I'll get us started: # Fentanyl deaths and overdoses from a Biden Open Border/ # of sex/human trafficked individuals from a Biden Open Border/ # of Oct 7 hostages that Biden is ignoring/ # of unnecessary injuries and deaths of people FORCED to take the Covid Vax that didn't need it and were prohibited from hearing the Actual DATA of the Side effects- not just "it's Safe & Effective" / number of killings in Dem Cities due to Defund the Police/ # of Homeless in Blue States and cities
Then the list from when Trump was Prrsident: ONE TRUMP SUPPORTER was shot by police during J6- 4 others dies of heart attack or similar. Ummm.... anyone else?
It's s simple fact that those things were said about McCain, and they are indefensible, period. One problem with the right these days (I'm right wing) is that the ethos is if the left does or says bad things we can do them to the left too. No, we shouldn't. Your opinion about McCain's personality is meaningless and irrelevant to the comments made about him. He was a war hero, end of story. Even if gasp, he was cocky. Such a High School orientation to some people today.
thanks for the opinion based on literally nothing. The guy actually refused to be released. You know, it's ok for an adult to dislike someone and still acknowledge that they did a great thing and went through a lot for the country. You can still dislike them, you don't have to make up reasons why we shouldn't admire what they did.
You are denigrating his service and accomplishment for three reasons: 1- you don't like that he was anti-Trump, 2- because you don't like some of his votes, and 3- you perceived him as arrogant--importantly, AFTER he began annoying you by being anti-Trump. None is a legitimate reason to denigrate McCain's service. Even though I'm right wing, I'm pretty sure several heroes with distinguished records were actually moderate or even gasp, Dems. It's like saying Eisenhower had a poor record because he was a too moderate republican President.
I came here to say pretty much the same thing and then saw your comment which runs circles around what I would have written and now I'm crawling around on the floor looking for the mic that you dropped.
"[He] was insulting Trump daily, despite the fact that they were supposedly on the same side."
It's not a bad thing when those on the same side disagree. Donald Trump did some good things, I certainly admit, but the bad things he did not do can be put down entirely to good advisors -- whom he later fired.
Doesn't Trump regularly insult other Republicans? Only, he thinks he's a side unto himself. If true, if he is, then it puts us back to rule not by law but by personality.
In my view, Trump always speaks the truth. And he gets angry, with justice, when people tell lies about him.
He's no saint. I'm not a teenage school girl with a man crush. He's got issues. But in a world filled with the most egregious lies told by the highest echelons of our government and society, honesty is enough for me.
Trump attacks those who attack him. But all anyone wants to talk about are his responses, not what provoked them. Anyone with a high school diploma and a sincere interest in the topic should be able to figure this out quickly.
Yes, but many of those attacks to which he has responded are justified. When you don't pay a man his wages, and he sues, it doesn't do to counter-sue; just pay him what you owe. That has happened multiple times. Anyone even without a high school diploma knows you don't stiff the people who built your hotels and casinos.
Or the silly, hopeful saps who were taken in by your phony college.
You and I would not pull such stunts. And it doesn't matter that other politicians might. We are talking about Donald Trump.
A man shouldn't be basing most policy on screwing the other guy, grievances, and grudges. And while Trump often does tell the truth -- I take no offense at his labeling some African countries as cesspools -- too often it is "his truth."
I’ve read bruef accounts of these things, but never any with enough detail to know who was in the right. Contracting and building are rough businesses and the ways people try to screw one another are voluminous.
If you want to post a link I will look at it, but my by now long experience is that most of the negatives anout Trump—other than his philandering and habits of self congratulation—are spurious and usually willfully misleading.
And, in pushing attention away from the crook and idiot currently occupying the White House, usually intentional distractions.
A friend of mine in NJ knows people who were stiffed by Trump. As you say, he's probably far from the only person who has done it, but he does have that reputation.
As near as I can tell from my East Coast friends' reports, money-grubbing and back-stabbing and cheating seems to be an innate part of how people do business in that part of the country. You could not pay me to live there.
'Little guy’ contractors still angry at Trump Taj bankruptcy
BY BERNARD CONDON
Published 5:32 PM EST, June 28, 2016.
And many other articles.
It's a known thing, and it went back decades. He even stiffed his workers even when he wasn't declaring bankruptcy. Anyway, who declares bankruptcy as often as Trump has?
I guess that, at the time, such things didn't mean much to anyone who didn't live in New York or New Jersey.
Shrug. Not every New York businessman is a crook. People like to think so. I don't know why.
Trump's use of the term "Wuhan flu" had the virtue of being an accurate acknowledgment of China's responsibility for Covid's cause and spread. Trump also pushed ahead with Operation Warpspeed, even as Fauci (who falsely denied funding the Wuhan lab's juicing of the virus), insisted that development of a vaccine would take at least 5 years. Educate yourself, Oliver. Your snarky ignorance is embarrassing.
It's always been a source of black humor to me that Trump was invariably accused either of doing too much or too little in response to COVID. Whatever he did, or didn't do, it was adduced as evidence of incompetence. None of his critics wanted to be reminded that Trump basically followed the advice of Anthony Fauci. That was a mistake, but it was an election year, and he didn't want that added as one more criticism.
You don't have to be very smart to get the game, but most people are manifestly not very smart. Thinking is hard work, as (I think) Henry Ford said. That's why so few people do it.
I was offended by the "sick, sick" description. "Stupid, stupid" would seem more appropriate to me. Kung flu , while sort of funny, lets the US actors off the hook and joking about McCain's injuries just isn't a good look (it's stupid). But that seems to define where the MAGA crew has gone. Amplifying things that matter little but gets the base riled up, while failing to understand the big picture - the Taylor Swift thing being the latest. Keep it up and they will make sure Biden is re-elected.
I havent talked about McCain since that whole dust up. We are talking about it now fir the precise reason that people DO love to be distracted. Its nit an issue being utilized to mobilize Trump supporters—we have much bigger fish to fry—but rather to demonize and denigrate Trumo because in sustantially all areas of policy he is right and the shrieking horded are wrong.
I debate. Its what I do. But I prefer fiscussing large ideas, and not trivia. John McCain was for all intents and ourposes working for the Democrats. No honorable man would do that. Thats the end of the only interesting aspect of that story fir me.
"John McCain was for all intents and [p]urposes working for the Democrats."
And here I thought he was working with Democrats, who also compromised in order to reach an agreement, for the good of the country.
It's called governing, not playing football. Our politicians are supposed to be helping the country function, not taking sides and scoring points.
If by now commenters do not know that I say the same thing about Democrat-progressives who want what they want, without compromise, then I do not know what else to say.
Unsaint Finbar - your post is an excellent example of moral degradation on the rabid “right” or whatever that is these days. You can think whatever you want of McCain’s politics and the way he run his campaign, but to allow an elite card-carrying member like Bone Spur Trump to insult McCain for his service to his country is evidence of the lowest form of stupidity and obnoxiousness. You are essentially cheering a cynical draft-dodger who pretends to represent the ordinary people by insulting everybody who served, was wounded or died while serving this country, people who are exactly the ordinary ones, not the elites. One has to be trash to come up with such an insult and one has to be also trash to cheer this insult to people who are “losers” for serving their country.
McCain was a loser because he acted in dreadful ways as a United States Senator.
Do you REALLY want to make the claim that it is socially unacceptable to criticize the characters and behavior of those who fought and suffered for this country? What if people are equal pedigree disagree? What if a war hero is just plain wrong?
John McCain officially worked, among other things, to turn Americas back on the POW’s we left in Korea. This as a man who was a POW himself and no doubt aware we abandoned many men who trusted our nation and its leaders behind in Vietnam.
“During the Korean War (1950–1953), Corso performed intelligence duties under General Douglas MacArthur as Chief of the Special Projects branch of the Intelligence Division, Far East Command. One of his primary duties was to keep track of enemy prisoner of war (POW) camps in North Korea.[3] Corso was in charge of investigating the estimated number of U.S. and other United Nations POWs held at each camp and their treatment.
At later hearings in 1992 of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Corso testified that he believed hundreds of American POWs were abandoned at these camps.[4][5] Committee member John McCain stated that his knowledge obtained from those who had personal relationships with Eisenhower led him to believe that Eisenhower was just not capable of allowing known American POWs to remain incarcerated after the termination of the Korean War.“
I side with Corso, who knew Eisenhower well.
It is quite possible to be both valorous and a shithead.
And if you want to oppose Trump simply because of this issue, can you honestly say it is because you believe that is the best way to protect what our fighting men thought they were fighting for? Afghanistan? Iraq? C’mon man.
And I would not hesitate to say this to your face. I count many veterans as friends and support them strongly. John McCain made himself into a public embarrassment.
Trump kept us out of wars and would have ended Afghanistan without pissing on all the Americans and Afghans who fought, suffered and died there.
Again, you are utterly unable to differentiate between the politics of McCain and his personal service and suffering, including refusing to be freed before others. Trump very specifically attacked him for becoming a POW, not for his later politics. Trash is trash.
No, I believe you conflate his military service and being a POW with his politics and perfidy in the senate and his personal life. He could have been heroic once but then slid into the morass.
His first wife waited for him to return and then when he did, upon meeting Cindy, a rich man’s daughter, he divorced the first wife. Oh did I mention his first wife became disabled while he was a POW and then he dumped her.
He was the token R in the Keating Five corruption scandal.
He continually presented himself to Arizonans as a conservative and then voted left. He lied about defunding the ACA but in the end voted for it as a fuck yiu to Trump.
Please, let's not base a man's accomplishments on his faithfulness as a husband. What was Donald Trump up to when Melania was giving birth? Or was that story associated with his second wife?
Joe Biden handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban after we fought for something close to 20 years to prevent that. They control more of that country than they did in 2001, and we gave them many BILLIONS in cash and weapons, all while abandoning people who trusted us to what no doubt was a lot of murder.
If you want to get your panties in a wad because Trump said he liked heroes whose heroism was on the field of battle, fine.
All I can say is your priorities are very screwed up.
And as I said McCain was a pale shadow compared to James Stockdale. They never broke Stockdale, and he tried in the end to kill himself to avoid betraying his fellow prisoners.
You know perfectly well that Trump called McCain a “loser” for having being captured by the Vietnamese, not for whatever he did or didn’t do later. You know it, you know that everybody knows it but you keep lying about it. That’s the ethic of the American loonies, be they woke or MAGA.
You know perfectly well that the only reason this discussion is happening is that someone who openly hates Trump brought it up.
I personally happen to think pretty much every POSSIBLE policy discussion is more important and relevant than how we remember a man who is dead.
James Carville, I think it was, once said something like “Republicans are right about a lot of things but I could never be one, because they are too stupid’”
That this discussion is happening is good evidence of the sort of thing he meant.
Well of course Biden would appoint Tracey Jacobson to oversee Iraq. After all.....she's a woman and there's that whole DEI thingy that seems to be the most important box to check with the current administration so that their blatant bigotry isn't mistaken for being a Nazi . Oh.....and don't mind the billion+ dollars of military equipment she was in charge of abandoning in Afghanistan, or the fact that the Taliban was back in full control of the entire country in 12 hours. All. That. Equity.
I love how Abigail Shrier is 110% absolute, no bullshit. Her writings clearly show Gender Dysphoria, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Tourette syndrome are all social contagions spread by social media and promoted by mentally ill progressive parents (mostly wealthy white women) who suffer from some bizarre coupling of narcissistic 'give me a prize for being a really awesome parent of a marginalized child' & munchausen syndrome by proxy.
If the majority of the corporate media is saying that Taylor Swift is not a deep state psyop, you can bet she's a deep state psyop! And.....I'll give 6/1 odds that Oliver Wiseman has never watched a full 4 quarters of football....ever.
Not only is she about a thousand percent better looking than TS, the few times that they've shown her during a niners game, she isn't doing some Disney choreographed dance with a gaggle of other 4th grade 30 year olds....
Taytay isn’t known for her looks. I imagine that sans the pro makeup, few guys would give her a second look. I’m not a fan, but she’s taken her musical talent and worked to turn it into an multi-million dollar industry.
No question that Olivia Culpo is much better looking than TS. But being pretty is merely an accident of birth, and sadly doesn’t last all that long.
Taylor Swift has never entered a beauty contest, partner. She's one of the most talented singer/songwriters in the history of pop music...I would argue THE most.
Disparaging her makes you sound like baby boomer parents who never got their heads around The Beatles...and missed so much.
Her music is good, transcending country, pop, soul, and romantic ballads. Hence "Eras Tour"
So glad Taylor Swift isn’t dating my Detroit Lions QB and I had to see her reaction after every completed pass Jared Goff threw! His girlfriend happens to be a model! The NFL made sure Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were going to the Super Bowl!
how? Did they tell John Harbaugh to only run the ball six times against the 5th worst run defense in the NFL? Did they make Zay Flowers fumble at the goal line and Lamar Jackson to throw into triple coverage? Did they make the Bills OC call two horrible pass plays as they were driving for the lead and then miss a game tying field goal? The whole Swift/Kelce relationship is a scripted as a WWE storyline, but it's for marketing purposes, not political.
I didn’t say it was this past game. Could’ve been a few games leading up to the Ravens game. If you don’t think sports is political…think again. It’s not only political, it’s corrupt. I say that as a long time sports fan who doesn’t spend much time watching sports anymore because of this. It’s too obvious how things have changed.
I provided you examples of past games. KC would have an argument over the missed calls in the Green Bay game, especially that brutal missed PI call in a loss that cost them home field advantage. I guess the conspiracy took a wee of, eh? It must be difficult to go through life so paranoid and believing everything is fixed. BTW, you do know the owner of the Chiefs is a big GOP donor, having donated to, among others, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz,), Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, and the late John McCain, and is a very outspoken and proud Christian who has thanked God on the field after each Chiefs victory, right? And Patrick Mahomes openly thanks God on the field; you know that, right? Nah, why would you? Ignorance must be bliss for you.
We're happy to keep TSwift as she's had an enormously positive impact on the KC economy. Honestly, they are a sweet couple, and I'm a hardline Republican. I don't think Travis Kelce cares enough about politics to be part of a psyops, lol.
I'm right with you - in KC and opinion. Travis isn't a political dude. On his podcast, he repeatedly says his big brother should be president. He's just having his best life and enjoying dating TSwift. They're cute together.
The Vikster doesn’t leave countries, she takes them over. It’s her specialty! The fight for spreading democracy continues behind our noble warriors like Vicky.
Evan you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. The current administration is obsessed with checking the box. Meritocracy be damned. Also, let's not forget the 13 troops that were killed and the many more maimed.
Social media certainly has a negative impact on children but how can we rely on parents to solve the problem when they are part of the problem. At the very least the social media companies should be funding solutions.
I think the odds are even greater that Oliver has never watched a complete NFL game. After all, they drink beer while watching. TS is probably not a government psyop but she certainly has put a smile on the faces of many NFL execs.
I agree except about the parents. The village is raising the child these days. Literally. And the parents who resist are investigated. Parents need to re-take control. And not just of phones.
Just as I'll bet you have never played a full game of tackle football. The only psyops that went on last Sunday was Baltimore and Detroit losing their f-ing nerve
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) -- you nailed it, Evans W. And just as that particular mental illness manifests itself in child abuse, so does the transmania of woke parents (largely leftist white women, as you point out).
You had me agreeing until the Taylor Swift thing. I think she's a young naive liberal and honestly it would be career suicide in this day and age to not be.
They plan to have a Taylor cam at the Super Bowl with instant replay and a panel of analysts to dissect every reaction. It will be a pop up screen that stays on the entire game including halftime and commercials..
There is nothing trivial about Pfizer using Kielce to sell their dangerous mRNA jab to young healthy people. That technology was never adequately tested and everyone now knows it. Insulting the Maga and the right half of the half of the country is appalling. Akin to Hilary using the term “ Deplorables”.
Good point. Young men who enjoy watching the NFL are being targeted by Pfizer for a vaccine that will afford them little benefit given their healthy age cohort, for a only brief interval of time, at the cost of risking cardiomyopathy. The benefit/risk ratio does not add up. No thanks Kelce ! (Disclosure- I am > 60, healthy w/o risk factors, and no, I will not get Pfizer’s shot)
I agree, but allow me to give you some insight. About 40 years ago, during the Reagan administration, the Pharma companies were able to make the argument that advertising was a free speech issue. Against the popular backdrop of deregulation during that period, TV ads for medicines appeared. There are indeed strict rules on content to this day. I have always found the ads unseemly. Disclosure: I worked first as a pharmacist (before ads), then as a pharmaceutical representative. Companies make the argument that driving patients into their HCPs is a good thing, and that the HCP is the ultimate decision maker. Trust me, there is pressure on the HCP to accede to the patients request. The ads work for the companies marketing their products and increasing share.
Personally I always disliked the ads. I tried to tell HCPs honest and cogent arguments for using a medicine, with an accurate balance of untoward effects. Advertisements telling people that death or permanent movement disorders as possible adverse effects is very scary. The worst TV ad was long ago, warning people of possible rectal leakage of oily stools. Yewwww, yuck..you can’t make this stuff up
Exactly!! You know big pharma would love to get rid of doctors and let consumers manage their own healthcare. Or let the micro chips of the future dictate. Too scary!!! The pressure on HCPs to prescribe what people walk in demanding is unethical and disturbing. Fortunately the docs in my family are willing to tell people NO.
John, thanks for adding some context to the issue. I’ll have to admit that I was rather ignorant to the nuances of the industry until recently. I watched a Joe Rogan podcast where he had a former Pharma Rep, Brigham Buhler, as a guest. Admittedly, I was shocked and angered. If you haven’t watched it you may find it interesting.
As far as the ads themselves I chuckle at the side effects listed. All too often, I may prefer the illness.
Also, Big Pharma spends billions on advertising and that leverage reverberates throughout our society
Drugs companies should NOT be allowed to advertise. EVER! This is why you have a doctor. Patients show very bad behavior in doctors' offices (several docs in my family) when they are told the drug they saw on TV and are now demanding isn't right for them. It's more pharma evil!!
Well, most drugs require a doctor to give you access anyway. I see a lot of people saying that drugs should not be allowed to be advertised, but giving no reasons.
Why not? Why should any company not be able to advertise a legal product? The real issue is HOW the do it. They should have to be honest about the product (that goes for ALL products). And they should not be allowed to hide, put in fine print, or mumble past the side effects.
Because the potential for abuse is staggering. We have to look no further than the Covid vaccine boondoggle. We were assured it was safe and effective and of course it was neither. When pharma spends over 35 billion in advertising, funds the US health system and our academic research departments, corruption follows close behind. It does not matter what the fine print states. RFK jr wrote an excellent book, "The Real Anthony Fauci" It is a in-depth analyses of Big Pharma and public health. Also, I encourage you to listen Bret Weinstein on his Dark Horse podcast or his recent interviews with Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
So you fall into the camp of "If there is enough potential danger in something we must make it illegal"? It sounds to me like your real issue is that the government is greenlighting drugs that should not be greenlit. The same government that you would have to ask to make commercials illegal is the one that pushed for the covid stuff in the first place.
These drugs can only be gotten by prescription. If you have a good doctor they will properly educate you before prescribing. If they are willing to just give you whatever drugs you asked for, I don't think a lack of commercials is going to be that much of a protection.
Maybe, just maybe, we should all take responsibility for the things we put into our body and press the government to do its job and make sure the people providing products are doing so honestly and legally. And when they lie to us, we should vote them out.
In general though, I do not see the difference in drug adds or pretty much any product that could end up being bad for you. Its YOUR job to figure out what is safe enough for you or not. Your jobs to figure out the risks in your life. If a commercial with a full page of fine print doesn't make you skeptical enough to do some research before putting something in your body, that's on you.
I don't fall into any camp. I am saying money buys corruption. Big Pharma spends a lot money on advertising. The leverage gained by this is enormous. So why should we give the industry this leverage. This is the reason there are few countries that allow this type of advertising.
The evidence I am reading says that if you get three shots or more you are playing Russian Roulette with your whole immune system. The rates of extremely aggressive cancers are going through the roof, seemingly in part because our immune system is our main line of defense against cancer cells, and many Americans have had their immune systems destroyed.
But this destruction didn’t start with the crap Covid shots- think of the food, meds, sedentwryblifestuke, told to stay outbid the sun and the the MANY MANY MANY more shots they give to babies that they didn’t do merely 49 years ago. The destruction of our immune systems is WHY healthcare is so expensive - and the obesity epidemic
I'm not going to let you get me started, because I can literally go on indefinitely, but the sun is an interesting one. The nations that wear the most sunscrean have the highest rates of skin cancer, or so I have read. The sun is our friend, not our enemy, and most American kids don't get nearly enough.
There are MANY disorders and diseases affected and exacerbated by too little sun (ie. Vitamin D3) exposure. I read a study years ago that showed more people with MS live in higher Latitudes. Besides all the increases in depression (outside time is necessary!) so I get you!!
The sun is a wonderful healer! For ex., I actually had a pediatrician who told me to put my slightly jaundiced baby in the sun for 20 minutes a day. It worked. Simple and free solution.
I am not speaking with any additional knowledge but just throwing out for thought, that sounds like a simple correlation. If you’re in a place where you think you need sunscreen, you’re probably in a place where there’s more intense sun.
Do some digging. I was reading an article on it this morning, but cant find it now. Frequent unprotected sun exposure is actually PROTECTIVE against skin cancer. The problem is with intermittent exposure.
This book is supposedly good. I haventcread it but have read summaries:
Not to react to anything. Or to overreact to everything. You have unopposed cancer growth on the one side, and severe automimmune disorders on the other.
These things are toxic poison that should be pulled from the market immediately and not given to anyone for any reason. There are very good COVID treatments that are vastly, vastly better than these criminal injections.
There is good evidence these jabs have killed over ten million people worldwide. This whole thing is the largest mass murder at least in recent human history, and in sheer numbers likely the worst ever.
If I personally had any little kids now, they would get what I got, and no more. Why would any sane person trust this system when the manufacturers cannot be sued directly, and we KNOW beyond any doubt whatever that the CDC and NIH lie to us?
Just to add in, that jab or no jab, ANY virus can result in an autoimmune response or trigger an immune disorder/disease. Certain people are more susceptible to this than others, and it seems that Covid is especially prone to trigger these immune disorders.
I really feel like most or all of the cases of autoimmune disorders and “long COVID” arise from entanglemwnts caused by both the jabs and COVID itself.
If only as a nation we had created an agency tasked with evaluating such things openly and honestly, with diligence and integrity. But no such agency exists. Perhaps if Trump wins a third time he can create one. Until then, we will not have enough data to be certain of anything, other than that we are being lied to.
Not to mention all the heart issues the shots cause especially for young males. I have to wonder at the connection of all the young males pouring through our open border .... replacements for ours who will "die suddenly"?
Now THAT is a decent conspiracy theory. Because the odds that those folks have job is pretty low. And I doubt we are giving it to them when they come in, despite how apparently important it is.
Thanks but I'll leave her music to my kids. She's definitely a talented and driven young woman who's an enormous success. She just needs a thinking adjustment
As for Kelce shilling for Pfizer, nobody put a gun to his head. And saying if he didn't do it somebody else would have is a pretty lame justification. Like the clown who raped the passed out girl a few years back? Well if he didn't do it someone else would have?
Notice he called Covid a deadly plague. If you still believe that covid was some kind of threat to the vast majority of people, despite all evidence to the contrary, then you are likely to see the "vaccines" as worth seeing to young healthy people.
Saddens me that this si still so poorly reported on. I mean you have new reports of how deadly the "vaccine" can be as far as causing heart issues, especially in the young, but you rarely hear of it even in places like this.
Here is the commercial. You tell me where Travis shits in your mouth, because trust me, if you're on the field opposite him, he will shit in your mouth. This is positive, feel-good advertising and no one is insulted except those looking to feel insulted.
He's shilling for the jab. Given the facts of the side effects and the relative mildness of the Covid variants, no healthy young person should get the vaccine. Our public health establishment is retarded. Kelce is simply whoring for them. Good football player or not. Stick to State Farm, MAAUTO. They provide a good product, not poison.
I like to take my medical advice from doctors. Even Paul Offit at CHOP - heretofore the vaccine guru - said he wouldn’t give it to his own kids given the limited testing and low risk of the disease to kids. Thanks much, Travis and Taylor, I’ll pass.
Kelce is a shill to push acceptance of the vaccine. His popularity produces attention from the young cohort, who are led to believe it is without problems for them to simply take a drug that is quite a bit less than perfect. Pfizer makes money from this - they wouldn’t do it otherwise. You don’t have to be conservative to be smart about this.
As far as “man wins game and gets girl” American pie, who wouldn’t want to be Kelce? He’s living the dream. The NFL fell into this money maker. It would be impossible to engineer it. Enjoy.
He’s a shill for Pfizer being paid loadsa money to influence young men to get a vaccine they don’t need so pharma can make more billions and you’re defending it. Boggles the mind.
Bret and Heather’s latest Dark Horse podcast is about Bret’s trip to the Darien Pass, a patch of impenetrable jungle in Central America, where it joins Colombia. He witnessed camps where “economic” illegal immigrants from Venezuela, but also Yemen and Afghanistan gather and are aided by the UN in their trek north. People fly into Ecuador from all over the world for this trek. Then there is another type of camp where only young Chinese men gather to invade America. The number I heard from another source is 28,000 able bodied Chinese men are now in America.
Our destruction is being enabled by the Biden administration. Wait til a water supply is poisoned or an elecrical grid is blown up.
Have a nice day, everyone. Keep obsessing about Taylor Swift.
Apparently Hamas, Hezbollah & other Iranian operatives are quite happy down Mexico way as well. Enough to cause serious problems if things go fully pear shaped with Iran. This is well known in government circles. Conspiracy theorists are ridiculed by all sides but I can understand how these things come about if such threats are ignored or in this case seemingly encouraged with a completely porous border with few security checks. The obvious question is “do they want a terrorist attack on home soil. The dereliction of duty ensuring the safety of the American people for a slavish adherence to a mantra of “closing the border is racist” is astounding.
I saw this podcast yesterday. The analysis of the situation by Bret and Chris Martenson was very interesting. I have thought of some of the reasons why this invasion is happening and I was terrified to find out that they are thinking these things too. I recommend these two podcasts with Bret. The other one is with Michael Yon.
“Kung Flu” was a fantastic bit of levity during a period when you’d the thought the entire world was covered by a deep green toxic fog according to the experts hyperventilating on tv. The more we read/discover about the veracity of COVID being designed and leaking from the Wuhan lab, the more it seems appropriate. I still like the term.
In 2020, America elected (maybe - the facts counsel otherwise) a senile imbecile who was said by Obama's Defense Secretary to have "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Including arguing against the raid that captured and killed bin Laden. And you wonder why the world is in such a mess today? Remember elections have consequences. Even those that Americans allowed to be stolen with barely a whimper.
Oh, and as far as your stupid shot against Trump for allegedly "trivializing" Covid by calling it the "Wuhan flu"........ Most people with firing neurons believed then and are certain now that the virus escapes or was deliberately released from the lab in Wuhan. Except for our liberal friends who screeched that China was being fully transparent and the virus came from a cave. Were they truly that demented or just the shills for communists that they've always been?
"The MAGA crowd is known for trivializing the serious: calling a deadly plague the “kung flu"
Vilifying the opposition by sneering at their supposedly lowbrow shibboleths and slogans is a technique that we have seen on the Right that Oliver Wiseman has now adopted into his own condescending commentary. While I am no fan of the Right, adopting divisive and contemptuous language into your critique only helps to build enmity between the different groups of our country. Our true enemy is the globalists, and by increasing divisiveness between different political movements in this country, Wiseman is a good friend to the globalists. Divided we fall. Also, did you not read John Ioannidis research published March 2020 demonstrating that COVID-19 had an IFR comparable to a typical seasonal flu? Have you heard who was the first to debunk this research? No-one.
Agree. The Wu Flu wasn't a serious illness to 90% of the population and the only thing that made it deadly to a small segment was the treatment that the government was mandating.
Of those who died of COVID-19, how many died WITH COVID-19 and how many From COVID-19? How many died of FAILURE TO TREAT and how many of INAPPROPRIATE TREATMENT, such as remdesivir and unnecessary intubation? How many actually died of complications of the COVID-19 vaccination which were improperly labeled COVID-19? We have no freakin' idea, and HHS has zero interest in answering these questions. The sketchy evidence we have suggests that whatever the numbers are, they are heftily inflated by massive government fraud and incompetence in the statistics-keeping. We have been hornswoggled yet again, at least those of us who chose the blue pill.
I guess there are plenty of crazies on both sides. But I’ll take maga brand of crazy over the crazies who chop off kids body parts and call me racist all the time, then open our borders, take away our energy, drive up all our costs, then negotiate with Iran.
Ouch MAGA hater. That stings. I don’t believe anything the MSM parrots these days, so the wall to wall coverage of this little love story doesn’t sit right with me. Nothing surprises me anymore.
FYI, Fox's Nick Wright counted and almost to the second, the amount of time given to showing Taylor on camera on Sunday was equal to the amount they showed of crab cakes
Taylor Swift is dating Kelce so that she may ultimately dump him after she has gathered enough material for a new hit song about how she has been wronged by yet an other guy. Hahaha
I think a conversation we should have about the poor results of children, rather than blaming social media companies, is poor parenting. Many parents (especially in blue states) are self-absorbed. The focus is on them; their kids are part of that self-obsession.
Thus, the actual parenting of the kids falls elsewhere. In the past, a common set of values was taught through the family and institutions. Today, many of those institutions have been hijacked by the left. Thus, you have kids who are ignored, not taken to church, and, since they are a bother, are sat in front of a TV when kids or a phone are in their teen years. And getting values from influencers and rabid leftist teachers while living in a protected cacooon, we have the myriad of terrible outcomes we see today. Many kids (red America) do not have this problem.
But we should call it for what it is and try to find ways to help rehabilitate lost people. The rich kids protesting are one symptom, but we also are having kids raised with no values or structure in our poorer communities, leading to crime and mayhem in cities. We are losing social cohesion, and it's not the fault of the social media companies. How to fix it? That is an issue for our time.
Parenting is clearly a major part of the problem. I think we have a lot of problems with the concept of imposing expectations, responsibilities, and discipline on our children. This has had the effect of keeping them children (immature) forever.
We spent the summer of 2022 in a small (affluent) city in France. One of the most remarkable differences we noticed was how well-behaved the children were compared to US children (regardless of class). In restaurants and museums etc., the children were quiet, well-behaved, and most importantly, NOT on phones. On the beach, or in a park, they ran around, played, and sometimes got a bit loud. From our casual observation, it’s hard not to think that digital content has a destructive aspect. We will spend the summer in rural England this year (the carrots are sweet and plentiful), and we’ll be very interested to see how the children there behave. The UK has definitely adopted many of the US’s “woke” doctrines, whereas that is far less common in France.
No stuff, Sherlock, but: Old chestnut of the opposite sense: Kind words and a Smith & Wesson will get you further than kind words alone. Thus, sketchy parenting and "social" bullstuff media is more harmful than sketchy parenting alone.
Willing to bet that plenty of parents who vote R or live in red states raise their kids on phones. This is not a left/right phenomenon. Sure, maybe more R parents are stricter, but I know plenty that gave their kids phones at a young age.
I’ve enjoyed Oliver’s reporting recently, but don’t agree with this dig at MAGA republican voters. “The MAGA crowd is known for trivializing the serious: calling a deadly plague the “Wuhan flu,” joking about the injuries John McCain suffered while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, etc. It’s sick, sick stuff.”
Those comments, as far as I know were from Trump and not parroted by the majority of those that voted for him, most likely those that didn’t. Btw, isn’t there plenty of evidence that Covid did come from a lab in Wuhan?? Isn’t this comment and “stereotyping ” the same as saying, Jews are colonizers?
Oliver seems to have let his true colors come through with that dig. Wouldn't surprise me if he agreed with Obama's dig about conservatives clinging to their guns and bibles or Hillary's deplorables comment. Another liberal elitist.
If this is what we’re going to be getting from one of the main editors and contributors of TFP with the lead up to 2024 elections, paying subscribers will be leaving in droves! Wonder if we’ll see Oli or BW address this feedback??
I wish more of us ascribed to the cafeteria style.
Probably the Covid virus did originate in and then escape from the Wuhan lab. At this point, there should be little doubt. And I never minded calling the Spanish flu the Spanish flu, so is this different?
Does believing the Covid virus came out of a Chinese lab mean I cannot say that Donald Trump's sense of humor mostly hews to the deliberately malicious?
Does appreciating Trump's moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem mean that I must also appreciate (or dismiss!) his weird exaggerations of his crowd sizes, his wealth, and his golf scores?
Many of us abhor the fact of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants lying about fleeing their countries and wish they could be loaded onto buses, boats, and planes and sent back. Now. With no right of appeal. No, they're not passengers on the "ship of fools"; they are not fleeing the Gestapo.
And the same many of us who do also support a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.
Can't we use our heads, or must we pick sides and stick to them?
Taylor a psyop ; Russia Collusion; Laptop Russian Disinformation ( i could go on) . I just want to know Ollie's term of derision for those who still cling (bitterly) to the last two( which include MSM, elected officials and sly stone's everyday people).
Mr Irrelevant is a so much better story than the over saturated angle of Kelce in every commercial (selling COVID boosters no less, and every other thing you probably don’t want)and the coverage of Swift.
Funny but KC was one of the most resistant to lockdowns and the jab locations in 2020. Missouri is the show me state and most of us are weren't buying the whole thing.
Ah Oliver’s “objectivity” was shown farcical when he called Trump supporters stupid. Especially about the Taylor swift kelce show.
The world burns, but Trump supporters are stupid. Great.
Here’s a clue Oliver. I’m sick of them. I’m sick of every time Kelce scores they show an open mouthed swiftie celebration. I’m sick of the chiefs. I’d have rooted for Dallas against them. I believe I’ll be giving the Super Bowl a miss this year. Any funny commercials can be found on line elsewhere.
Cannot see what all the fuss is about with Taylor Swift, tried watching a concert on Netflix (when you could password swop). Can’t remember any songs, lots of wardrobe changes, kept dosing off. Switched off & went to bed, haven’t bothered with her since.
You need to remember that her core audience (not sole, but core) is women. And Women as a whole have been known to get caught up in social contagions. So many obsessive fads appear to me to have come from the feminine side of the spectrum. I suspect Taylor is one of them. Mind you, her music could be great...but I honestly can't say that I have ever heard any of it.
I have noticed the same phenomenon: those wide, open-mouthed poses. You see it in selfies and billboards and everywhere elsewhere. When did it begin? Kinda déclassé. Except when caught actually guffawing, in candid photographs, you'd never see Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn with mouths agape.
I find it lends an air of stupidity to all of them.
jennifer lopez does this, too. one has to wonder if they think they look sexy, when in reality, they look ridiculous. also, for j.lo, it could also be she thinks/was told her face photographs better (firmer?) when she has her mouth open just a little like that...?
Every single commercial is released the week before on social media now any way. As a media guy, I don’t understand why the broadcasters who paid billions for the SB allow that, but....... you won’t miss any good ads. [Although of course they’ve gotten less creative over the years, for many reasons.]
If Biden recognizes a Palestinian state it will all but guarantee continued violence in the Middle East. Just as Hamas has promised. What is he thinking?
We don’t negotiate with terrorists...unless you kidnap and rape 1,200 civilians, then we’ll recognize you because it’s an election year and mean people are shaking the gates outside my government funded home!
It's honestly kind of funny you would fill a column with left wing idiocy then trot out the tired meme that MAGA supporters--people who both see a sharp decline in the moral and spiritual quality of our nation and want to reverse that and Make America Great Again--are dumb.
COVID was less dangerous than the flu for all healthy people under 65 or so. None of the measures taken were needed, and all of them made our public physical and mental health much, much worse, and killed a lot of us.
And with respect to John McCain, the guy was a cocky and obnoxious jerk his whole life. He ran a crap campaign in 2008, and he was insulting Trump daily, despite the fact that they were supposedly on the same side.
My intent was to commend this largely Democrat run website for doing the honorable work of pointing out that the real divide in our nation is between sane people and lunatics, but then that comment.
I will still say, though, that you all seem to be evolving in the right direction. Nobody who actually understands what conservatives believe and why will EVER, ever go back to Left wing lunacy. The Left HURTS people and lies about it. There is nothing good or human or admirable in that. It's all lies, and even lies about the lies.
So all censorship protects bad ideas, and all honest discussions, when allowed, move the world towards the middle, which is where the "right" actually lives. We oppose Hitlers and Lenins, and we also oppose kings and rule by Popes and Mullahs. That is actual Liberalism.
Well said. The MAGA bashing seems pro forma, like when Jerry and George had to immediately say “not that there’s anything wrong with that!” Immediately after pointing out someone was gay.
Bill Maher does this a lot. He'll skewer the radical left for their idiocy, and then (as an old reflex I suppose) bash Trump for something, just to validate he's still a liberal.
He bashes Trump bc. Trump sued him and waged a campaign against him as he has done with others. Bill Maher was voted # 1 in a poll that asked who is most credible to get news from.
Well, toss whatever poll THAT is in the crapper. Bill Maher is a smarmy word-that-rhymes-with-“dishrag”.
Never trust anyone whose primary affect is a sneer.
Oliver Wiseman's article proves that the right is just as goofy as the left. I know who Taylor Swift is but I have never heard her sing and don't care to. I never understand the masses' fascination with the glitterati. To me these entertainers live in their own La La World and most aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Just ignore them. If you don't, you are just feeding the beast.
Love TS’s music. Not the least bit interested in her politics.
good for you.
My thoughts exactly. Don't know, don't care.
This comment proves that you lack critical thinking and are possibly a narcissist.
It doesn’t matter what your opinion of Taylor Swift is. Millions of voting Americans worship her and her bland persona. They rabidly attack any one who critiques her online.
And then; after a strange dispute where a shadowy equity group somehow gained control of the rights to her music. Miss Swift suddenly becomes political. And then weeks after Travis Kelce, who’s style and taste is best described as ‘w*gger’, and who has only ever dated curvaceous ethnic women, signs a contract with Pfizer to hawk their mRNA products to the masses amidst plummeting uptake.
A few weeks later the Pfizer prince’s preferences in women change to waifish asexual white girls in a highly publicized pairing. Coverage of the relationship is awkwardly shoehorned into every imaginable MSM broadcast.
Pointing out that this is obviously unnatural and forced does not make one a goofy conspiracy theorist.
Dutifully swallowing the nonsense being fed to you by establishment media is not a badge of honor. It has been made glaringly obvious how they mislead the public over the past 4 years. They didn’t suddenly choose to play it straight.
Thank you for your kind words.
Yes, but he IS more or less saying there is something wrong with that.
Mark D, just rewatched that episode last night! I had forgotten how witty and well written Seinfeld was, now I’m rewatching all 9 seasons.
I think you may be a little blinded here, too. You call John McCain a "cocky and obnoxious jerk". Is Trump NOT those things, as well? Also, I reject not being able to critique those in your own party. This is a democratic republic; those who we elect to represent us should be held to the highest standards. Your arguments seem to come from a place of tribalism, which will only divide our country further. And I don't think I would call Trump a conservative. (He's called for "termination" of parts of the US Constitution, and he more recently proposed blanket Presidential immunity... which is ABSOLUTELY nuts and very non-conservative in the proper sense.) Also, the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are by definition opposites. Most people are a mixture of the two (e.g., fiscally conservative, socially liberal, etc.). There's good and bad to both sides, that's why balance (and open, honest discussion, like you mentioned) is vitally important to move our country forward and keep us together.
There are dumb people on both sides. It might be worth taking a step back and looking at the issues from the other side.
Trump is certainly cocky, but he also plainly has a warm and generous side, that I never saw in John McCain. John McCain was elected as a Republican but he never acted like one. I liked him for a long time, but he was simply insufferable when it came to Trump. So is Mitt Romney. Both made it very clear there is a Club that includes both parties, does NOT include the American people, and that anyone who rocks their very comfy yacht is not welcome, even though the whole damn thing is sinking.
And no, conservatives and liberals are not opposites. Liberal, in its traditional and accurate usage, is about freedom. Liberty and Liberal have the same root. Adam Smith and John Stuart Mills were honest Liberals.
Democrats, in this country at this moment, are NOT Liberals. They are totalitarian Fascists who are using a corrupted Federal government to harass their opponents, prevent honest and fair elections, to censor all views that were not approved by the Ministry of Truth, and generally do the opposite of the the sorts of things they claim they value. It's easy to misunderstand this. All you have to do is look at what they say rather than what they do.
And what Trump said, in effect, was that if that election was Constitutional, there was something wrong with the Constitution. He's right. That scale of blatant fraud should not be POSSIBLE in a functioning system, and given that it happened--and may yet happen again--we have a very serious problem at the core of our system. I personally think this is obvious.
And as a general rule the "highest standards" argument, when trotted out, is only applied to one side. Joe Biden stuck his finger inside Tara Reade, in a public place, then after being inaugurated as President harassed her so severely she felt she had to leave the country for her own safety. Biden takes bribes. He took showers with his daughter when she was 8. Both of his children are sex and drug addicts. He is senile, and probably crapping his pants even in meetings with foreign leaders, at least one of whom said he smells terrible. He lies habitually and daily about everything, and at that absurd, ridiculous lies that can't be believed by any but the most gullible and naive.
Agree totally about McCain. He was never a Republican and was always out for himself. I don't like to talk bad about the dead, however, John McCain was a mean, selfish, spoiled SOB. Read the book The Nightingale's song by Robert Timberg and the whole picture of McCain comes clear. For me the day that he walked into the Senate from practically his deathbed to vote against repealing the ACA (Obamacare) was the last straw, his thumbs down was the proverbial nail in the coffin for me, no further examination needed. RINO and a mean one at that. I doubt that you would ever see Trump doing something like that just for a personal vendetta without any regard for the American people he was elected to serve.
Great book, nobody was born to more “ white privilege” than McCain.
ahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha! No Trump would NEVER pursue a personal agenda! What cult do you belong to?
As my comments re McCain; he talked the talk, but did not walk the walk, ie supporting conservative positions and American values during his career. He was vindictive to those who he perceived have wronged him. McCain (and his supporters) hid behind his POW mystique. Yes he was a POW (Prisoner of war, not Hero of war). Trump simply made a comment that he was not a war hero, "because he was captured" during the vietnam war/shot down. Heroes typically "shoot down" multiple enemy aircraft at key battle moments, and most often die in combat, hence earning the title "died a HERO". I truly respect the 5 years he survived in captivity and punishing physical torture he received, as did many other vietnam POW vets. What other vietnam POWs received similar or even notable status as heroes? None that I recall or have come across. Yet McCain is lifted up on high as a hero, while many thousands of his fellow soldiers have been subjected to years of scorn and hatred for their time of service in vietnam. Many of those living on the streets of our country, homeless and forgotten, and no less important than McCain, many with more horrific stories than McCain. What did McCain do to improve the lives of our surviving soldiers, through VA improvements (gee, guess Trump did start something here), through medical and housing initiatives that would help our veterans live their lives with respect and decent accommodations vs on park benches. Mental health issues plague our veterans, but I dont know of any initiative McCain was a champion of for his fellow veterans. If I am mistaken , I stand corrected.
take care
rich
You are absolutely correct. McCain did nothing for vets in his tenure in the Senate, so he was hardly a hero.
What are some instances where Trump is warm and generous? I think he is tribal and panders to his base without making their lives much better (as do Democrats). His strategy is to put down everyone else (both Democrats and other Republicans who are not on the Trump train) and to flatter and prop up those that support him. That's been his MO for the most part. If I'm wrong, please give me specific examples. I'm open to being wrong.
I think we're working with two different definitions of "liberal", which is one of those "catch-all" words that can mean different things to different people. I'm using them as Jon Haidt uses them in "The Righteous Mind" - he goes back to the French Rev. which is where we get the terms "Left Wing" and "Right Wing", liberals (those who wanted the gov't to change, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) sat on the left, and conservatives (those who wanted to conserve the current gov't) sat on the right. Over time in America, the liberal group split into Progressives (what many call "Liberals") today and Libertarians (generally distrust gov't power and want to reduce it), actually. With this definition, liberals wants to change existing institutions and conservatives want to protect them. Now, it's a bit more complex because our gov't stands for those rights that the old liberal guard used to push for (Liberty, Fraternity, Equality), so applying them to modern political parties, I can see how they overlap.
Can you also say that John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith were conservative figures of their time? I don't know enough of their histories to say one way or the other. They may have been liberal then and deemed conservative now, but in their own time period, were they both?
I agree that democrats are not liberals (in either sense of the word!) today. I actually think most politicians are probably conservatives because they want to conserve their own power.
I think your 1984 references can and do apply to both parties, not just Democrats. Personally, it's scary to feel like our gov't has to choose between two bad options right now.
Both sides have either hinted or outright said that elections in which Trump has won and elections in which Trump has lost are "fraudulent". I personally have yet to see actual proof that this is the case in any recent election. (The Bush hanging Chad ballot fiasco is the closest I've seen in my lifetime.)
I think things that the Democratic party has gotten away with (Clinton, Biden, apparently) has allowed Trump to also be a player in the political sphere. This implies that men (or women) with power are immune to the consequence of using their power to hurt other people. That is not okay, but the cycle has to break somewhere.
Trump also has plenty of senior moments, he just blusters through them (confusing Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi). Both candidates are unfit to be president again.
I don't really agree or like either candidate being thrust on the US right now. My argument is more about feeling the need to defend "our" candidate because they are "ours". I'm not trying to change your mind; you have every right to support Trump. I'm just pushing back on your arguments a little because I think you could use the exact same arguments to justify "the other side". This, I think, it what I mean by tribalism.
I dont have time to get into Trumps history, but his history of private charity and public inclusion is long and good. Thats why Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton at one time wanted pictures with him.
In the French Revolution the true Liberals—who in a world of monarchy and theocracy were still radicals—sat in the middle, in what I think was called the mountain.
The Left, then as now, consisted in radically intolerant authiritarians with a sever case of bloodlust, which resulted in the murder of I think some 40,000 people.
What charitable donations? Do you mean the free rounds of golf at Trump golf courses, distributed through the Trump Foundation? The donations to military veterans from a fundraiser where the money was supposed to go to the Trump Foundation but in fact went to the Trump Campaign? The lie he admitted to in a November 2019 settlement where he had to pay $2 million in damages because he stiffed the veterans, and he admitted that the fundraiser was fake? Those “donations”? The Trump Foundation got shut down because it was a fraudulent family enterprise designed to make Trump look good, but in reality do nothing. Kind of like Trump University. All fake.
Do me a favor: if you can find something equal to taking millions of dollars from the Ukraine then provoking and sponsoring a war there, lay it on me.
And if you can find an equivalent to taking millions of dollars from our biggest rival--China--that would be swell too.
We both know you can't. I've read Saul Alinsky. I get it. You want me to justify myself endlessly while you ignore entirely the enormous, huge, completely absurd crimes of the person you are trying to make people forget.
Did your mother raise you to be a disingenous hypocrite, or is this something you picked up in college?
Now do the Clinton Foundation.
You aren’t informed about any of Trump’s warmth or generosity because you have formed your opinion of him from the talking points fed to you by the fake news media. You see all of the little snippets they have so carefully edited from his speeches, read all of the articles lacking context with intentional missing facts and draw your opinions from them. They have you right where they intended to put you. Gobsmacked with distaste for someone so vile. You have fallen for it.
Have you ever been to a Trump Rally? If you dare be seen with we “low-lifes”, take a look around you and look into the faces of middle America. You are not going to see only “red neck hicks” like you have been told. You will see men and woman, young and old, white, black and brown, blue collar and white collar and sweet little kissable babies. We are the freedom loving free-thinkers “uncaptivated” by Trump’s lying persecutors. We have kept our souls and our hope that America will be restored to its greatness.
I apologize if any of my comments implied that I think any of those things about Trump supporters. I was simply encouraging us (all) to take a step back and think about things from another point of view. Do our arguments stand up to criticism? Can they be applied to the other candidate? Do we like our candidate because they stand for what we believe in or because we hate the other side?
I have many friends and family that did vote for Trump, and you're assuming that I never have and never will. Your assumptions that I think all Trump voters are stupid or mean is untrue and really not fair, as I never attacked UF or anyone's intelligence based on their political allegiance. In fact, I work really hard to come to a conversation with the opposite in mind.
Curious what context do you think makes his comments about Haley after New Hampshire acceptable? Birdbrain, her dress, etc
You just don’t remember Trump calling people who served their country “losers”? He is actually very proud of that and of how he dodged any obligation to his country. He would be offended to be said to “serve” his country, even as a president. He proudly serves no one but himself.
He never said that. Someone SAID he said that, to sell their book. But go ahead and believe whatever bullshit hesrsay you want. I heard you were a child molester, Andy.
See how easy that was?
Well said. And so nicely. Kudos E, kudos.
In my mind, one of the most notable example of the Bad Orange Man's charity, was when he called the father of the kid shot and killed in Seattle's CHAZ/CHOP. Contrast this with the local PRO-crime democRAT's claiming this was going to be a "Summer of Love" (Jenny Durkan) and the governor, dimwitted Jay Inslee, claiming that he didn't have any firsthand knowledge of Seattle ceding 15 square blocks to a bunch of anarchists.
"John McCain was a republican but he never acted like one."
False. He never acted like the republican you thought he should have been. He acted like what he professed to be: a moderate republican comfortable with compromising with Dems. There used to be lots of them. Whether they were right or wrong in your view is a different story.
"I liked him for a long time but he was insufferable when it came to Trump." Agreed. He was. And it was a legitimate thing to be opposed to-again, not saying whether it was right ir wrong, but it is and was legit to be anti Trump and be on the right. Your comment sounds like a personality cult more than a philosophy issue.
Perhaps you have heard the term RINO? I dont like them, because it is pretty much always a synonym for hypocrite and usually Uniparty Swamp Creature.
Whenever I think of John McCain I can’t help think of him chanting/singing … “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”
There was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election other than the fact that Trump refused to accept the fact that he lost. There was no fraud. Trump filed over 60 lawsuits trying to prove fraud and he lost them all. Trump forced recounts in several states and he still lost, even after recounts supervised by his own people. In some of those cases, after the recount, Trump lost by more votes than he’d originally lost by…..with his won people counting the votes!
In some of the election lawsuits he lost, Trump’s lawyers admitted in open court before the judge that they actually had NO PROOF there had been any fraud. Filing frivolous and malicious lawsuits is one of the reasons Giuliani is in so much trouble now, as is Sydney Powell, who has plead guilty in the Georgia case for election interference. Texas is going to disbar Powell, which is saying a lot about the veracity of the election fraud claims, and none of it good.
So the bottom line is that there was NO election fraud in 2020, much less “blatant” fraud. The Trump lawyers who pursued those claims are being sanctioned, going to jail, and being disbarred. Trump-appointed Republican judges ruled against Trump in those election fraud lawsuits. The ones that were appealed to the USSC were thrown out by the Trump-appointed justices. There is NOTHING even remotely credible to support continuing to believe Trump’s lies about “he didn’t really lose the election”. Anyone, including TFP writers, who makes fun of MAGA voters for believing lies, whether it’s about election fraud or Taylor Swift, is right to do so. Both stories are equally ridiculous.
"There was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election" these words alone make it clear you don't know the whole story. You might argue that the "wrong things" weren't important or weren't enough to sway the election, but to say, "there was nothing wrong with the 2020 presidential election" is mind boggling to me
It’s mind boggling to me that Trump voters think that Trump actually won the 2020 election and that it was somehow stolen from him. He lost over 60 lawsuits trying to prove that. And some of those had Republican judges he’d appointed and they ruled against him anyway. His appeals to the USSC, with 3 justices he’d appointed, were all denied. He defamed the voting machine companies and they won millions of dollars in damages from him for defaming them.
Now if you are saying that mistakes were made that, while lamentable, did not affect the outcome, then maybe I agree with you, but those are mistakes, not fraud. Human error has the potential to enter into anything. There are Democrats who think the election was stolen in 2000 with Bush v Gore and the famous hanging chads. I think those people are crazy too. When Trump lost the Iowa primary to Ted Cruz in 2016 he yelled fraud and wanted a redo of the primary. Trump was all over Twitter saying the primary was “stolen”. This is just how Trump reacts to losing. Whether it’s a primary, an election, or a lawsuit, it’s never his fault, he’s never wrong. It’s always the election was “stolen”, there was “fraud”, the trial was “rigged”, the jury “didn’t like him”. The truly mind boggling thing is that so many people continue to believe in this man when all he’s ever done throughout his life is lie and act like a spoiled baby. That is mind blowing.
Ann, I find it curious that you are repeating the same arguments ("Trump lost 60 lawsuits!) you have used previously, which have been countered multiple times by other commenters, but you won't address their arguments or evidence but just keep repeating the same thing over and over. A perfect example of cognitive dissonance.
What you are writing is simply inaccurate. Among the cases HEARD BY THE COURTS he won well over half of them. But most of his cases never reached the level of admitting and examining evidence. I actually don't think ANY of them did. Anywhere.
And the media LIES about what they can't spin. In Arizona, it took many months of difficult fighting to get even a rudimentary audit done, which was fought tooth and nail every moment it was going on--you know, because there was nothing to hide--and the STILL found several hundred thousand ballots lacking chain of custody, which meant THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN COUNTED.
Nobody threw these ballots out, even though we are told Biden only won by 12,000 votes. It's a very plausible and sustainable conclusion that Trump ACTUALLY won by several hundred thousand votes, which is why several hundred thousand ballots had to be added after the counting stopped, and after the legal cutoff, and the total changed in the system.
All of this could keep my typing for hours. I will add this as one example of something approaching a good beginning: https://www.frontpagemag.com/auditing-bidens-victory/
What is mind boggling to me is that the people screaming THERE IS NO EVIDENCE were the ones talking about Trump's collusion with Russia, which was always hearsay, never had any substantive evidence, and which John Durham subsequently proved in court was not only concocted BY THE DEMOCRATS, but also KNOWN AT THE OUTSET TO BE FRAUDULENT BY THE FBI.
You look at that, see no problem, then want to tell people looking at counts stopped in the middle of the night, numerous reports of trucks pulling in after the deadline in the middle of the night, then Fidel Castro levels of support that are statistically impossible the next day, that they are completely crazy?
Yeah. Nah.
Post-Election Cases Decided on the Merits:
Trump v. Biden (Wis. Dec. 14, 2020) – In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dismissed three of Trump’s four claims under the doctrine of laches. However, it decided on the merits Trump’s claim that voters wrongfully declared themselves indefinitely confined. Ultimately, the court ruled against Trump on this claim because Trump challenged the status of all voters who claimed an indefinitely confined status, rather than individual voters. Trump petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari on Dec. 29, 2020 with a motion for expedited consideration, but the court denied his motion.
Trump v. Wis. Elecs. Comm’n (E.D. Wis. Dec. 12, 2020) – The district court dismissed Trump’s claim that Wisconsin officials violated his rights under the Electors Clause because said officials allegedly issued guidance on state election statutes that deviated significantly from the requirements of Wisconsin’s election statutes. First, the court found that interpretations of election administration rules do not fall under the meaning of “Manner” in the Electors Clause. Moreover, even if “Manner” were read so broadly, the defendants had acted consistently with, and as expressly authorized by, the Wisconsin Legislature; their issued guidance did not significantly or materially depart from legislative direction. Thus, there was no violation of the Electors Clause. The U.S. Appeals Court for the 7th Circuit affirmed the district court’s opinion on Dec. 24, 2020. Trump filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 30, 2020 along with a motion for expedited consideration, and the court denied Trump’s motion.
King v. Whitmer (E.D. Mich. Dec. 7, 2020) – While the district court stated that the claims of plaintiffs—Republican presidential electors—could be dismissed for lack of standing, the district court nonetheless analyzed the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims. First, the district court was unpersuaded by the plaintiffs’ claim that defendants violated the Elections and Electors Clauses by allegedly violating the Michigan Election Code because it found that deviations from state election law are not the same as modifications of state election law. Second, the district court found the plaintiffs’ Equal Protection claim to be too speculative, finding no evidence that physical ballots were altered. The plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020, and subsequently filed a motion for expedited consideration on Dec. 18, 2020. However, the court denied the motion.
Ward v. Jackson (Ariz. Sup. Ct., Maricopa Cnty. Dec. 4, 2020) – The superior court denied relief requested by the plaintiff in an election contest because the plaintiff failed to meet the evidentiary standard necessary for such a contest. First, plaintiff’s evidence failed to show fraud or misconduct—rather, it showed that the duplication process of the presidential election was 99.45% accurate, and that the inaccuracies were caused by human error. Moreover, the plaintiff’s evidence failed to show illegal votes or an erroneous vote count. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the superior court’s decision on Dec. 8, 2020. The plaintiff filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2020, and subsequently filed a motion for expedited consideration on the same day. However, the Court denied the motion.
Law v. Whitmer (Nev. Dist. Ct., Carson City Dec. 4, 2020) – The district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ election contest on the merits. First, the plaintiffs—Republican presidential electors—failed to prove that there had been either a voting device malfunction or the counting of illegal/improper votes in a manner sufficient to raise reasonable doubt as to the election’s outcome. Next, the plaintiffs failed to prove that the election board or any of its members were guilty of malfeasance. Finally, the plaintiffs failed to prove that defendants had manipulated or altered the outcome of the election. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s decision on Dec. 8, 2020.
Donald J. Trump for President v. Boockvar (M.D. Pa. Nov. 21, 2020) – While the district court found that Trump lacked standing, the court decided to touch upon the merits of his Equal Protection claim, ultimately rejecting the claim. The district court held that different counties implementing different types of notice-and-cure policies (many implementing none) did not violate the Equal Protection Clause because the clause does not require complete equality in all situations—“a classification resulting in ‘some inequality’ will be upheld unless it is based on an inherently suspect characteristic or ‘jeopardizes the exercise of a fundamental right.’” The district court highlighted the fact that the notice-and-cure policies adopted by certain counties imposed no burden on voters, and that it would be impossible to require every single county to administer elections in exactly the same way. The U.S. Court for Appeals for the 3rd Circuit affirmed this decision on Nov. 27, 2020.
Wood v. Raffensperger (N.D. Ga. Nov. 20, 2020) – While the district court stated that the claims of a plaintiff—a registered voter—could be dismissed either for lack of standing or under the doctrine of laches, the court nonetheless ruled on the merits. First, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Equal Protection claim because there was no disparate treatment among Georgia voters. Next, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Elections and Electors Clauses claim because Secretary Brad Raffensperger had not overridden or rewritten any state law. Finally, the district court dismissed the plaintiff’s Due Process claim because there is no individual constitutional right to observe the electoral process (i.e., monitor an audit or vote recount). The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit affirmed the district court’s opinion on Dec. 5, 2020. The plaintiff filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8, 2020 and filed a motion for expedited consideration on the same day. However, the court denied the motion.
Bower v. Ducey (D. Ariz. Dec. 9, 2020) – The district court largely dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaint on the grounds of lack of standing. However, the court did touch upon the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud, ultimately finding that the plaintiffs’ claims were largely based on, “anonymous witnesses, hearsay, and irrelevant analysis of unrelated elections.” For one, the declarations from poll watchers that the plaintiffs provided as proof of fraud did not actually allege fraud at all, but rather simply raised concerns about the manner and process by which election officials matched signatures on absentee ballots. Moreover, none of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses stated that defendants committed any fraud; instead, they only provided speculative statements about what “could have” happened. Additionally, one of the plaintiffs’ experts relied on a study with no information about its author or methodologies involved. Finally, the court found the plaintiffs’ claim of alleged voting machine hacking to be unconvincing since the voting machines’ behavior could be easily explained by standard voting machine protocol. The plaintiffs filed an emergency petition for extraordinary writ of mandamus to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 15, 2020, and the court denied the plaintiffs’ emergency petition.
Costantino v. City of Detroit (3d Jud. Ct. Wayne Cnty. Nov. 13, 2020) – In denying the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction, the court found that the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud would unlikely prevail on the merits. The court noted that many plaintiffs failed to include crucial information in their allegations, such as locations of alleged misconduct, frequency of alleged misconduct, names of those involved in alleged misconduct, and so on. Overall, the court found the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud to be speculative, filled with “guess-work,” and often unsubstantiated. Moreover, defendants provided a sufficient amount of evidence to convince the court that they had acted within the law. This decision was affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals on Nov. 16, 2020, and by the Michigan Supreme Court on Nov. 23, 2020.
Arizona Republican Party v. Fontes (Ariz. Sup. Ct., Maricopa Cty.) – The superior court ordered the Arizona Republican Party and its lawyers to pay legal fees for bringing a “groundless,” bad faith lawsuit challenging Maricopa County election procedures. The court noted that the relief plaintiff sought—an additional hand count of ballots—was not legally available due to the suit’s numerous procedural defects. The court found that plaintiff did not adequately assess the validity of their claims before filing the suit, and thus failed to prove that the county had inappropriately applied the statute in question. The court determined that plaintiff brought the suit for the “improper purpose” of undermining Arizonans’ confidence in election results, rather than to defend election integrity as they claimed.
Control C, Control V mastery: Yes.
Demonstration of common sense, wit, or a sincere desire to engage on this topic: none.
Without looking through all that--and let's be honest: you didn't either--I can say that all these cases were decided on procedural grounds.
Let me take the last: the court decided against the plaintiffs, by saying a hand recount was not possible (it was) because of errors in the lawsuit itself. They then made the political claim that the motivation of the lawsuit was impure and then threw it out.
That's not evidence against or for fraud, is it?
And you ignored what I wrote, ENTIRELY. I posted an article listing the problems with all the Swing States. They are legion and even if the problems do not conclusively point to fraud as a decisive factor, they OBVIOUSLY and UNDENIABLY point to a system in which fraud appears likely to have happened, and likely to have made a significant difference.
I would, again, differentiate that level of evidence from the patent fraud that the Democrats used to harass Trump for four years, and spent $100 million of tax payer money on an investigation that they knew at the outset was a wild goose chase.
The level of callousness and viciousness required to not be able to understand why reasonable people would view that election as fraudulent is far, far beyond anything I am personally capable of. I don't hate people. I am not a hater. That is why I spend so much time opposing the Left, because the Left consists in nothing else. Lies and hate. They lie about the hate, obviously, so there is no contradiction between a rhetoric of compassion and transparency and a reality of nastiness and deceit.
Name the election lawsuits that Trump won.
I don't know. Given that John Durham proved that the FBI cooperated in an investigation of a sitting President it knew at the outset was innocent, why should any reasonable person view our system as fair?
Every lawsuit I have personally examined was dismissed on procedural grounds, typically a "lack of standing". Texas, for example, was unable to argue in front of the Supreme Court that election fraud in other States affected them, when we are seeing daily evidence that Joe Biden rather than Trump in the White House is making a huge difference for them.
I posted a long series of problems with all the Swing States. You can look at it, or not, as you choose.
I can go all day, but choose not to with people who ignore what I write, have an obvious axe to grind, and who don't strike me as kind, thoughtful, or open to new ideas and information. Your cat no doubt loves you. Your friends are no doubt happy you are out here "fighting the good fight". What I see is an angry, brain washed drone who can't AND won't hear me, but will ask me indefinitely to listen to her.
No Ma'am.
curious regarding the fraud. I more or less decided that if Bill Barr was comfortable with the results then that was good enough for me. Do you distrust Barr?
Extremely. I think he is a dishonest POS. He not only did no investigation, I think he prevented anyone else from doing one.
The Democrats were given Robert Mueller, on the basis of rumors that we now know were created by the Democrats, and known by the FBI at the outset to be lies.
Given how much more evidence of fraud exists with respect to 2020, why cant we ask the same?
Why? Trump authorized Mueller because he knew he had nothing to hide. Joe Biden, in contrast, has a LOT to hide. He belongs i jail right now on the basis of what we already know; and we can feel VERY sure that what we know is just a small small fraction of it.
Bill Barr defended Trump from every single attack, vigorously. Yet because he called BS on the election, he now can't be trusted to many Trump supporters. If they were thinking logically, instead off emotionally, they would realize that it's precisely because he didn't buy Sidney and Rudy's position on the election that trust should INCREASE in Barr. The fact he defended Trump on everything gives him more credibility, not less on the issue. But nope, nothing other than 100% down the line fealty to Trump is good enough. This is why I maintain most Trump support is emotional and not rational, that's why the support is so strong nothing harms it.
Something like two thirds of Republicsns believe, based on some combination of common sense and time spent examining the details, that Joe Biden lost that election.
Is this a desirable state of affairs?
Would not SOME honest investigation have helped greatly to mitigate it?
Was not Bill Barr the guy whose JOB IT WAS to examine issues of that sort?
Did he not OBVIOUSLY fail miserably, or is it your contention we should trust him that there was no evidence, when we know he didnt even look?
I am not blindly loyal. I am just not stupid. Its not a high bar, but it is manifestly too high for many.
I lost faith in Bill Barr when he concluded that their was no foul play in the death of Jeffrey Epstein. There were too many coincidences to not have taken a deeper probe.
This is nonsensical. In my experience such circular logic comes from a very entrenched position. And yet you encourage looking at things from the other side. So here goes. UF seems pretty conservative to me so by criticizing John McCain he IS criticizing his own party. One of the things Trump detractors overlook, or are incapable of grasping, is that Trump acts lawfully. Lawfully as within the judicial system. The "fake electors" myth/scam/hoax was an effort, with legal advice, to designate alternative electors so that if his legal challenge to certified electors was successful there would be alternative replacements; had those suits proceeded unimpeded there might well be more confidence in election integrity today. Likewise the immunity claim is a legal defense in a court of law. The "terminate" the Constitution is also misguided on your part. The Constitution can , and has been, amended. Many times. It was d3signed that way - to be able to change to meet different needs occasioned by different times. It is accomplished by established legal procedure. Even the "insurrection" claim.is bogus. Trump discussed with lawyers how to stop the certification of electors he believed were fraudulently chosen. (I often wonder if given the sorry state of affairs occasioned and pain of American citizens generated by the Biden administration if Pence regrets certifying the Biden results. After all
If he had not done so, it would have been Biden challenging the results. In a court of law or otherwise.) Insurrections occur with guns. Not with lawyers operating in the confines of the system you would have us believe Trump sought to overthrow. That you, or your leftist cronies, disapprove of any of these legal arguments is of no significance. The decisions thereon are for judges to make. And Trump, unlike Biden, abides by court decisions. Lastly you wholly misunderstand the terms liberal and conservative in 21st century America. Everyone who believes in the Constitution is a liberal. Modern conservatives not only believe in the Constitution they believe it is being eroded by those who have co-opted the term liberal. They would more accurately be labeled illiberal or as they label themselves, Progressive . They promote the idea of government remedy. To such an extent that they require the relinquishment of the autonomy of the American citizen thereto (and demonize American citizens who oppose such) via the sham that the government is the only way to achieve the greater good. All while utterly blind to the impracticality and actual harm resulting therefrom, much less the route to full bore authoritarianism occasioned thereby. I suggest you do a factual analysis devoid of the biases and prejudices, and resulting emotions, of either side.
Neither party has nominated a candidate whom I could vote for since 2012. This November looks like another such election. As a serious citizen, I resent it.
My main questions about the January 6 "insurrection" are why the 2,000+ members of the Capitol Police Force were not ordered to lock the Capitol after the close of business that day and why, instead, they spent their evening hours escorting the later-convicted felons around the joint instead.
You don't have to be a Trump fan to wonder also whether charging the guy with 91 felonies doesn't suggest we have more than a little political bias in our so-called justice systems. Those systems are staffed by persons whose jobs are to represent the public interest -- not to punish someone because they Just Know He's Bad.
American citizens deserve better than what we are getting.
I agree. The election is pretty easy for me though. But I confess the more hysterically I am told no, the more likely it is I will.
I agree with your perspective on this Lynn and you end with "....on either side". I think ALL OF US commenting here about LEFT vs Right sides CONTINUE TO ALLOW OURSELVES to argue between the 2 when we KNOW it's really about Top - Down- The Washington Establishment, which is comprised of BOTH Dems and Republicans. Trump is NEITHER & he is NOT Washington Establishment. In 2016, he was the Best we had and he made an impact on uncovering just how corrupt our Leaders are. He was our best alternative- flaws and all.
Theses flaws come no where near impacting our Country the way the Establishment has these lastv3 years.
Unfortunately, for anyone that can think strategically, it is common sense to see that a huge swath of people are ready to vote for Trump again and the Dems are thrilled because they already have their plan in place to put Biden out to pasture in May or about and slide Michelle Obama into place.
And she will win in a landslide. And we will be f*cked. And everyone who votes for her is too dumb to realize it
I agree. But I suspect there may not be a vote at all. Reportedly Zelensky canceled Ukraine's scheduled for March. And rumour is that trucker convoy heading to the border are walking into a trap. I do not like to talk about it, but there are folks who believe that contrary to the idea that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine was organic it was instead deliberately instigated by sharpshooters in the crowd with the design to overthrow a duly elected, albeit pro-Russian, president. Matt Taibbi ran a couple of good pieces last week. One was about a Dem group that strategized various scenarios that the right would ostensibly use. But instead they have used them. Somewhere in the two articles I recall the question is the US ready for a color revolution? For all the talk about civil war and secession, could they possibly be capable of igniting a new revolution? I think.it is plausible because in the event they win (they have a sitting commander-in-chief after all) they can just imprison the opposition.
"Her"? (Joke, don't hurt me!) I mean, who does the Left idolize more than black women, except Trans black women? (Joke again, sorry, it just slipped out, I didn't mean it!)
Lynne, extremely well done. Thank you again.
Thank you for the kind words.
The latest proof that Trump is not a conservative are the lies in his adds concerning Social Security. He was attacking Haley for stating the truth about the need to reform this entitlement, and was doing so by repeating the leftist lies about Social Security having been “payed for” and pretending that anybody telling the truth wants to cheat Americans out of their totally deserved entitlement. He says whatever sells, he has no principles - the typical demagogue.
What would be the difference, practically, between a Haley presidency and the Biden presidency?
As it is obvious from the comment above, at least Haley would address the problem of the entitlements running out of money, which both Biden and Trump refuse to do. From this point of view, it’s more reasonable to ask what’s the difference between a Trump and a Biden presidency, other than the noise.
Agree with almost everything you said, except that the US is not a democratic republic. We are also a constitutional republic, a federal republic, etc., but we do use a democratic system to elect officials to represent us.
Everything else, I agree with, especially the last part. Thanks for your response.
Yes, I would love this comment if I had the option. I will consider this next time I use this phrase; it can easily be co-opted like you said. Thanks!
Exactly right
Yes, MAGA supporters as if they are the problem. Oliver is delusional and appears to be suffering from a severe case of TDS.
I think it's just a habit of long standing. If you live on the Left, and you don't say the right things and wave shiny bright ribbons in the air that are the right coleurs (sic) then you get canceled. It makes everyone nervous. Every time you talk you have to look over your shoulder. You develop the habit of hedging your bets, and insulting the Enemy becomes almost de rigeur as a sort of defensive spell. It's like crossing yourself, or throwing salt over your shoulder or carrying a rabbit's foot. It's simultaneously delusional and understandable.
Well in some circles, you definitely receive a chip into the club simply by attacking Trump and his supporters.
I think in those circles you are assumed to be ideologically compliant, and the ritual insult of Trump and his supporters amounts to a protective spell that keeps the mob--the Beast--from waking up and looking at you.
The whole thing is sociologically monstrous, and the farthest thing imaginable from anything that would warrant being called "Liberal". Liberality is a good thing. This is why I never call Leftists Liberals. Ever. It's a lie, and I do my best never to lie intentionally.
But delusional people do not provide reliable information. Which is what I am here for. And this piece was not a hatchet-piece on Trump. It was condemnation of anyone not in Biden's camp. In essence if you don't support Biden you ain't sane.
I watched the CDC announce to the nation they were going to let us get infected with the initial, deadly first wave, because "racism is more dangerous than a virus" and Oliver thinks that the stupid people are the ones who thought "Wu Flu" was funny.
Oliver, I spent two months on the West Coast warning people what was coming while the corporate propagandists called COVID a "right wing conspiracy theory" and ran scores of headlines telling people not to worry about it. There was almost not a single person in liberal, progressive Seattle who bothered to look at the evidence at all. Most repeated propaganda lines about racism.
Anyone who isn't furious over how our institutions handled COVID is blind, and if you think "Wuhan Flu" was the part we should be offended by, YOU are the one who is stupid and unserious.
So the using phrase “Wuhan flu” is a sign of idiocy and social decay? The author makes this claim despite a couple of years of elaborate and unceasing gaslighting by government and media that the virus was a zoonotic that jumped out of a (pangolin, bat, raccoon dog, or whatever the animal de jour happened to be) until the FBI Director casually states in a media interview that “of course we have long assessed that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology“.
And the author begins his diatribe with the sentence “We live in stupid times.” Yes, indeed we do.
Most astounding to me was that the public was forbidden to be curious about the origin of the virus. It has now become obvious via information released through FOIA and other avenues that Fauci was determined to quash discussion. He and Collins explicitly state as much. Yet journalists—including Rachel Maddow and friends— obediently acted as PR soldiers for Pharma and its well-paid (off) government aides. Are they stupid? They were fine with never asking, “Why exactly are we financing bioweapons research in China?” Still waiting for the answer to that one.
It was the Wuhan Flu!
TFP are liberals but not 'those' liberals (their words). You gotta love 'em! At least they put their cards on the table. I'm a supporter.
Agree! I have no problem with the writers putting it out there, then allowing a free and open dialogue to begin!
That's true. A lot of what I read here I either disagree with or find insipid. But then Bari publishes the interview with Clarence Jones, MLK's speechwriter, or the taped testimonies of Palestinians living under the yoke of Hamas, or whistleblower Jamie Reed who exposed the corruption at the children's gender clinic in Missouri. I share more articles from The Free Press than any other source.
Slight correction, you share more articles by Bari Weiss than by anyone else.
If I'm understand you correctly, Frances Block, who wrote about Clarence Jones, Jamie Reed, who wrote about her personal experiences, and Joseph Brande, who has an organization that publishes the testimonies of Palestinians, are not actually journalists, but merely shills for Bari's perspective.
All Substack journalists write from their own perspective and cover topics that matter to them. Bari just happens to be more enterprising than most of them. She decided that by hiring journalists, she could create an actual newspaper and publish many more stories with a wider reach. In this she has succeeded. The Free Press breaks stories not covered elsewhere.
I have no idea (maybe you do?) how many of the articles published here come directly out of the brain of Bari Weiss and how many are submitted to her for publication. We can only guess, but I assume it's a bit of both. In either case, I give credit where it's due, to Bari as the entrepreneur, and to the journalists who work for her or take advantage of her openmindedness to blow the whistle on the gender clinic, as Jamie Reed did.
I had to reread that pretzel logic several times. It never made sense. Ramaswamy's admitted wild speculation on X, plus Biden's "unsurprising" desire to benefit from Taylor Swift's popularity, equals a Fox News far right agenda? Not in the real world.
Good comment. I was trying to remember the MAGAs making fun of McCains war injuries and came up blank. I do remember Trump's stupid I like soldiers that weren't caputured comment. And I think there was a cheap shot about his arm, but that's Trump, no filter. I do not remember the 50% of the country that want to see it great again making fun of McCain. Anybody remember that?
I find that people on the left know WAY more about the minutia of things some Conservative did or said than most conservatives. And then they attribute that thing to ALL conservatives.
This is the entire logic behind Charlottesville and January 6*. A handful of people did it so 50% of the country is responsible for it.
*this was actually the FBI.
don't forget the "good people on both sides" that still gets ignorantly or purposely clipped of full context
"The Left HURTS people than lies about it" - 100% true!
All someone at TFP has to do is take a pc of paper , make 2 columns- one marked Left amd one marked Right. Then LIST all the ACTUAL PHYSICAL HARM & DEATHS , causes by Democratic policies, decision- making . we are not including 'making people feel bad or feel scared or feel like a Victim. I'll get us started: # Fentanyl deaths and overdoses from a Biden Open Border/ # of sex/human trafficked individuals from a Biden Open Border/ # of Oct 7 hostages that Biden is ignoring/ # of unnecessary injuries and deaths of people FORCED to take the Covid Vax that didn't need it and were prohibited from hearing the Actual DATA of the Side effects- not just "it's Safe & Effective" / number of killings in Dem Cities due to Defund the Police/ # of Homeless in Blue States and cities
Then the list from when Trump was Prrsident: ONE TRUMP SUPPORTER was shot by police during J6- 4 others dies of heart attack or similar. Ummm.... anyone else?
It's s simple fact that those things were said about McCain, and they are indefensible, period. One problem with the right these days (I'm right wing) is that the ethos is if the left does or says bad things we can do them to the left too. No, we shouldn't. Your opinion about McCain's personality is meaningless and irrelevant to the comments made about him. He was a war hero, end of story. Even if gasp, he was cocky. Such a High School orientation to some people today.
He cooperated with his captors more than he had to. James Stocksdale provided a much better example of how to do it.
And I will always judge false friends more harshly than open enemies.
thanks for the opinion based on literally nothing. The guy actually refused to be released. You know, it's ok for an adult to dislike someone and still acknowledge that they did a great thing and went through a lot for the country. You can still dislike them, you don't have to make up reasons why we shouldn't admire what they did.
Im not making up anything.
And I did admire McCain at one time. He had to work to make me dislike him so strongly.
Are you even a veteran or is this just your way of venting?
You are denigrating his service and accomplishment for three reasons: 1- you don't like that he was anti-Trump, 2- because you don't like some of his votes, and 3- you perceived him as arrogant--importantly, AFTER he began annoying you by being anti-Trump. None is a legitimate reason to denigrate McCain's service. Even though I'm right wing, I'm pretty sure several heroes with distinguished records were actually moderate or even gasp, Dems. It's like saying Eisenhower had a poor record because he was a too moderate republican President.
And while you are at it, add this for context: https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2015/09/09/admiral-james-stockdales-day-and-mccains-twisted-truth/
I have nothing but admiration for Stockdale. McCain is another thing altogether.
Youre right: I’m denigrating his accomplishments because I dont like him. He said things that pissed me off.
Think carefully: is there something wrong with that?
Finally It got said; thanks. (Scary how far I had to go down the queue to find it, though.) Now I can go feed the pig.
I came here to say pretty much the same thing and then saw your comment which runs circles around what I would have written and now I'm crawling around on the floor looking for the mic that you dropped.
To quote Mike Myers on Coffee Talk: START!!!
I don't write for praise, but I certainly don't eschew it. I'm used to abuse. The opposite is a bit of a welcome change.
"[He] was insulting Trump daily, despite the fact that they were supposedly on the same side."
It's not a bad thing when those on the same side disagree. Donald Trump did some good things, I certainly admit, but the bad things he did not do can be put down entirely to good advisors -- whom he later fired.
Doesn't Trump regularly insult other Republicans? Only, he thinks he's a side unto himself. If true, if he is, then it puts us back to rule not by law but by personality.
It's always a mistake.
It's a mistake when Democrats do it too.
In my view, Trump always speaks the truth. And he gets angry, with justice, when people tell lies about him.
He's no saint. I'm not a teenage school girl with a man crush. He's got issues. But in a world filled with the most egregious lies told by the highest echelons of our government and society, honesty is enough for me.
Trump attacks those who attack him. But all anyone wants to talk about are his responses, not what provoked them. Anyone with a high school diploma and a sincere interest in the topic should be able to figure this out quickly.
Yes, but many of those attacks to which he has responded are justified. When you don't pay a man his wages, and he sues, it doesn't do to counter-sue; just pay him what you owe. That has happened multiple times. Anyone even without a high school diploma knows you don't stiff the people who built your hotels and casinos.
Or the silly, hopeful saps who were taken in by your phony college.
You and I would not pull such stunts. And it doesn't matter that other politicians might. We are talking about Donald Trump.
A man shouldn't be basing most policy on screwing the other guy, grievances, and grudges. And while Trump often does tell the truth -- I take no offense at his labeling some African countries as cesspools -- too often it is "his truth."
I’ve read bruef accounts of these things, but never any with enough detail to know who was in the right. Contracting and building are rough businesses and the ways people try to screw one another are voluminous.
If you want to post a link I will look at it, but my by now long experience is that most of the negatives anout Trump—other than his philandering and habits of self congratulation—are spurious and usually willfully misleading.
And, in pushing attention away from the crook and idiot currently occupying the White House, usually intentional distractions.
A friend of mine in NJ knows people who were stiffed by Trump. As you say, he's probably far from the only person who has done it, but he does have that reputation.
As near as I can tell from my East Coast friends' reports, money-grubbing and back-stabbing and cheating seems to be an innate part of how people do business in that part of the country. You could not pay me to live there.
See the AP:
'Little guy’ contractors still angry at Trump Taj bankruptcy
BY BERNARD CONDON
Published 5:32 PM EST, June 28, 2016.
And many other articles.
It's a known thing, and it went back decades. He even stiffed his workers even when he wasn't declaring bankruptcy. Anyway, who declares bankruptcy as often as Trump has?
I guess that, at the time, such things didn't mean much to anyone who didn't live in New York or New Jersey.
Shrug. Not every New York businessman is a crook. People like to think so. I don't know why.
Nicely said, thanks for writing out my thoughts so I don’t have to, I’ve only had one coffee this morning:)
Trump's use of the term "Wuhan flu" had the virtue of being an accurate acknowledgment of China's responsibility for Covid's cause and spread. Trump also pushed ahead with Operation Warpspeed, even as Fauci (who falsely denied funding the Wuhan lab's juicing of the virus), insisted that development of a vaccine would take at least 5 years. Educate yourself, Oliver. Your snarky ignorance is embarrassing.
It's always been a source of black humor to me that Trump was invariably accused either of doing too much or too little in response to COVID. Whatever he did, or didn't do, it was adduced as evidence of incompetence. None of his critics wanted to be reminded that Trump basically followed the advice of Anthony Fauci. That was a mistake, but it was an election year, and he didn't want that added as one more criticism.
You don't have to be very smart to get the game, but most people are manifestly not very smart. Thinking is hard work, as (I think) Henry Ford said. That's why so few people do it.
I was offended by the "sick, sick" description. "Stupid, stupid" would seem more appropriate to me. Kung flu , while sort of funny, lets the US actors off the hook and joking about McCain's injuries just isn't a good look (it's stupid). But that seems to define where the MAGA crew has gone. Amplifying things that matter little but gets the base riled up, while failing to understand the big picture - the Taylor Swift thing being the latest. Keep it up and they will make sure Biden is re-elected.
I havent talked about McCain since that whole dust up. We are talking about it now fir the precise reason that people DO love to be distracted. Its nit an issue being utilized to mobilize Trump supporters—we have much bigger fish to fry—but rather to demonize and denigrate Trumo because in sustantially all areas of policy he is right and the shrieking horded are wrong.
I debate. Its what I do. But I prefer fiscussing large ideas, and not trivia. John McCain was for all intents and ourposes working for the Democrats. No honorable man would do that. Thats the end of the only interesting aspect of that story fir me.
"John McCain was for all intents and [p]urposes working for the Democrats."
And here I thought he was working with Democrats, who also compromised in order to reach an agreement, for the good of the country.
It's called governing, not playing football. Our politicians are supposed to be helping the country function, not taking sides and scoring points.
If by now commenters do not know that I say the same thing about Democrat-progressives who want what they want, without compromise, then I do not know what else to say.
A pox on both their houses.
Unsaint Finbar - your post is an excellent example of moral degradation on the rabid “right” or whatever that is these days. You can think whatever you want of McCain’s politics and the way he run his campaign, but to allow an elite card-carrying member like Bone Spur Trump to insult McCain for his service to his country is evidence of the lowest form of stupidity and obnoxiousness. You are essentially cheering a cynical draft-dodger who pretends to represent the ordinary people by insulting everybody who served, was wounded or died while serving this country, people who are exactly the ordinary ones, not the elites. One has to be trash to come up with such an insult and one has to be also trash to cheer this insult to people who are “losers” for serving their country.
Trump was against forever wars. McCain wanted to start new ones (bomb Iran). Pull your head out.
McCain was a loser because he acted in dreadful ways as a United States Senator.
Do you REALLY want to make the claim that it is socially unacceptable to criticize the characters and behavior of those who fought and suffered for this country? What if people are equal pedigree disagree? What if a war hero is just plain wrong?
John McCain officially worked, among other things, to turn Americas back on the POW’s we left in Korea. This as a man who was a POW himself and no doubt aware we abandoned many men who trusted our nation and its leaders behind in Vietnam.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Corso
“During the Korean War (1950–1953), Corso performed intelligence duties under General Douglas MacArthur as Chief of the Special Projects branch of the Intelligence Division, Far East Command. One of his primary duties was to keep track of enemy prisoner of war (POW) camps in North Korea.[3] Corso was in charge of investigating the estimated number of U.S. and other United Nations POWs held at each camp and their treatment.
At later hearings in 1992 of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, Corso testified that he believed hundreds of American POWs were abandoned at these camps.[4][5] Committee member John McCain stated that his knowledge obtained from those who had personal relationships with Eisenhower led him to believe that Eisenhower was just not capable of allowing known American POWs to remain incarcerated after the termination of the Korean War.“
I side with Corso, who knew Eisenhower well.
It is quite possible to be both valorous and a shithead.
And if you want to oppose Trump simply because of this issue, can you honestly say it is because you believe that is the best way to protect what our fighting men thought they were fighting for? Afghanistan? Iraq? C’mon man.
And I would not hesitate to say this to your face. I count many veterans as friends and support them strongly. John McCain made himself into a public embarrassment.
Trump kept us out of wars and would have ended Afghanistan without pissing on all the Americans and Afghans who fought, suffered and died there.
Spare me your outrage.
Again, you are utterly unable to differentiate between the politics of McCain and his personal service and suffering, including refusing to be freed before others. Trump very specifically attacked him for becoming a POW, not for his later politics. Trash is trash.
No, I believe you conflate his military service and being a POW with his politics and perfidy in the senate and his personal life. He could have been heroic once but then slid into the morass.
His first wife waited for him to return and then when he did, upon meeting Cindy, a rich man’s daughter, he divorced the first wife. Oh did I mention his first wife became disabled while he was a POW and then he dumped her.
He was the token R in the Keating Five corruption scandal.
He continually presented himself to Arizonans as a conservative and then voted left. He lied about defunding the ACA but in the end voted for it as a fuck yiu to Trump.
Just a few perfidies among many.
Please, let's not base a man's accomplishments on his faithfulness as a husband. What was Donald Trump up to when Melania was giving birth? Or was that story associated with his second wife?
Look at the context of the previous comment sweetie.
Joe Biden handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban after we fought for something close to 20 years to prevent that. They control more of that country than they did in 2001, and we gave them many BILLIONS in cash and weapons, all while abandoning people who trusted us to what no doubt was a lot of murder.
If you want to get your panties in a wad because Trump said he liked heroes whose heroism was on the field of battle, fine.
All I can say is your priorities are very screwed up.
And as I said McCain was a pale shadow compared to James Stockdale. They never broke Stockdale, and he tried in the end to kill himself to avoid betraying his fellow prisoners.
You know perfectly well that Trump called McCain a “loser” for having being captured by the Vietnamese, not for whatever he did or didn’t do later. You know it, you know that everybody knows it but you keep lying about it. That’s the ethic of the American loonies, be they woke or MAGA.
You know perfectly well that the only reason this discussion is happening is that someone who openly hates Trump brought it up.
I personally happen to think pretty much every POSSIBLE policy discussion is more important and relevant than how we remember a man who is dead.
James Carville, I think it was, once said something like “Republicans are right about a lot of things but I could never be one, because they are too stupid’”
That this discussion is happening is good evidence of the sort of thing he meant.
Well of course Biden would appoint Tracey Jacobson to oversee Iraq. After all.....she's a woman and there's that whole DEI thingy that seems to be the most important box to check with the current administration so that their blatant bigotry isn't mistaken for being a Nazi . Oh.....and don't mind the billion+ dollars of military equipment she was in charge of abandoning in Afghanistan, or the fact that the Taliban was back in full control of the entire country in 12 hours. All. That. Equity.
I love how Abigail Shrier is 110% absolute, no bullshit. Her writings clearly show Gender Dysphoria, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Tourette syndrome are all social contagions spread by social media and promoted by mentally ill progressive parents (mostly wealthy white women) who suffer from some bizarre coupling of narcissistic 'give me a prize for being a really awesome parent of a marginalized child' & munchausen syndrome by proxy.
If the majority of the corporate media is saying that Taylor Swift is not a deep state psyop, you can bet she's a deep state psyop! And.....I'll give 6/1 odds that Oliver Wiseman has never watched a full 4 quarters of football....ever.
Christian McCaffery doesn’t care about Taylor Swift. SF 49ers by 10.
Have you seen his girlfriend. Like no comparison between her and Swift. He for sure doesn't care.
Not only is she about a thousand percent better looking than TS, the few times that they've shown her during a niners game, she isn't doing some Disney choreographed dance with a gaggle of other 4th grade 30 year olds....
Taytay isn’t known for her looks. I imagine that sans the pro makeup, few guys would give her a second look. I’m not a fan, but she’s taken her musical talent and worked to turn it into an multi-million dollar industry.
No question that Olivia Culpo is much better looking than TS. But being pretty is merely an accident of birth, and sadly doesn’t last all that long.
Accident of birth or a glam squad.
Had to look that one up.
Can't disagree.
Taylor Swift has never entered a beauty contest, partner. She's one of the most talented singer/songwriters in the history of pop music...I would argue THE most.
Disparaging her makes you sound like baby boomer parents who never got their heads around The Beatles...and missed so much.
Her music is good, transcending country, pop, soul, and romantic ballads. Hence "Eras Tour"
Give a listen. You just may be surprised.
Not girlfriend, fiancé. She’s beautiful!
So glad Taylor Swift isn’t dating my Detroit Lions QB and I had to see her reaction after every completed pass Jared Goff threw! His girlfriend happens to be a model! The NFL made sure Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were going to the Super Bowl!
how? Did they tell John Harbaugh to only run the ball six times against the 5th worst run defense in the NFL? Did they make Zay Flowers fumble at the goal line and Lamar Jackson to throw into triple coverage? Did they make the Bills OC call two horrible pass plays as they were driving for the lead and then miss a game tying field goal? The whole Swift/Kelce relationship is a scripted as a WWE storyline, but it's for marketing purposes, not political.
I didn’t say it was this past game. Could’ve been a few games leading up to the Ravens game. If you don’t think sports is political…think again. It’s not only political, it’s corrupt. I say that as a long time sports fan who doesn’t spend much time watching sports anymore because of this. It’s too obvious how things have changed.
My aunt said it was rigged 50 years ago and now i start to wonder
I provided you examples of past games. KC would have an argument over the missed calls in the Green Bay game, especially that brutal missed PI call in a loss that cost them home field advantage. I guess the conspiracy took a wee of, eh? It must be difficult to go through life so paranoid and believing everything is fixed. BTW, you do know the owner of the Chiefs is a big GOP donor, having donated to, among others, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz,), Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, and the late John McCain, and is a very outspoken and proud Christian who has thanked God on the field after each Chiefs victory, right? And Patrick Mahomes openly thanks God on the field; you know that, right? Nah, why would you? Ignorance must be bliss for you.
Thanks for all the info. Some I knew while some I did not. Paranoid and ignorant?…hardly! Enjoy the Super Bowl!
We're happy to keep TSwift as she's had an enormously positive impact on the KC economy. Honestly, they are a sweet couple, and I'm a hardline Republican. I don't think Travis Kelce cares enough about politics to be part of a psyops, lol.
I'm right with you - in KC and opinion. Travis isn't a political dude. On his podcast, he repeatedly says his big brother should be president. He's just having his best life and enjoying dating TSwift. They're cute together.
Go Chiefs!
word.
The point is that KC gets to the superbowl to ensure maximum air time for swift and Pfizer. They don’t need to win.
Even if 49ers do win, half the postgame will be discussing Swift.
And Neither Do I.
BTW who is playing?
Biden has a track record of appointing incompetent harridans. Vicki Nuland, anyone?
She’s a monster who loves war.
The Vikster doesn’t leave countries, she takes them over. It’s her specialty! The fight for spreading democracy continues behind our noble warriors like Vicky.
to be fair to Biden, Vicki Nuland predates him by quite a bit...many admins have appointed her to positions above her talent.
Well, given that history of failure, how stupid does that make Biden to have a pointed her again?
I think its pretty fair to believe by now that Uncle Joe just does what he's told, with a reward of Rocky Road if he doesn't mess up his lines
Evan you have hit the proverbial nail on the head. The current administration is obsessed with checking the box. Meritocracy be damned. Also, let's not forget the 13 troops that were killed and the many more maimed.
Social media certainly has a negative impact on children but how can we rely on parents to solve the problem when they are part of the problem. At the very least the social media companies should be funding solutions.
I think the odds are even greater that Oliver has never watched a complete NFL game. After all, they drink beer while watching. TS is probably not a government psyop but she certainly has put a smile on the faces of many NFL execs.
I agree except about the parents. The village is raising the child these days. Literally. And the parents who resist are investigated. Parents need to re-take control. And not just of phones.
Just as I'll bet you have never played a full game of tackle football. The only psyops that went on last Sunday was Baltimore and Detroit losing their f-ing nerve
Well, you took a losing wager on the tackle football bet, just like I did taking the money line on Detroit last week. Win some, lose some.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) -- you nailed it, Evans W. And just as that particular mental illness manifests itself in child abuse, so does the transmania of woke parents (largely leftist white women, as you point out).
You had me agreeing until the Taylor Swift thing. I think she's a young naive liberal and honestly it would be career suicide in this day and age to not be.
Satire at its finest. 😵💫😵💫😵💫
They plan to have a Taylor cam at the Super Bowl with instant replay and a panel of analysts to dissect every reaction. It will be a pop up screen that stays on the entire game including halftime and commercials..
*facepalm*
There is nothing trivial about Pfizer using Kielce to sell their dangerous mRNA jab to young healthy people. That technology was never adequately tested and everyone now knows it. Insulting the Maga and the right half of the half of the country is appalling. Akin to Hilary using the term “ Deplorables”.
Good point. Young men who enjoy watching the NFL are being targeted by Pfizer for a vaccine that will afford them little benefit given their healthy age cohort, for a only brief interval of time, at the cost of risking cardiomyopathy. The benefit/risk ratio does not add up. No thanks Kelce ! (Disclosure- I am > 60, healthy w/o risk factors, and no, I will not get Pfizer’s shot)
I agree that the Pfizer is targeting the NFL's young male audience but the bigger question here is should Big Pharma" be allowed to advertise at all?
I agree, but allow me to give you some insight. About 40 years ago, during the Reagan administration, the Pharma companies were able to make the argument that advertising was a free speech issue. Against the popular backdrop of deregulation during that period, TV ads for medicines appeared. There are indeed strict rules on content to this day. I have always found the ads unseemly. Disclosure: I worked first as a pharmacist (before ads), then as a pharmaceutical representative. Companies make the argument that driving patients into their HCPs is a good thing, and that the HCP is the ultimate decision maker. Trust me, there is pressure on the HCP to accede to the patients request. The ads work for the companies marketing their products and increasing share.
Personally I always disliked the ads. I tried to tell HCPs honest and cogent arguments for using a medicine, with an accurate balance of untoward effects. Advertisements telling people that death or permanent movement disorders as possible adverse effects is very scary. The worst TV ad was long ago, warning people of possible rectal leakage of oily stools. Yewwww, yuck..you can’t make this stuff up
Exactly!! You know big pharma would love to get rid of doctors and let consumers manage their own healthcare. Or let the micro chips of the future dictate. Too scary!!! The pressure on HCPs to prescribe what people walk in demanding is unethical and disturbing. Fortunately the docs in my family are willing to tell people NO.
My personal favorite is "cancer of the perineum". Yikes!
John, thanks for adding some context to the issue. I’ll have to admit that I was rather ignorant to the nuances of the industry until recently. I watched a Joe Rogan podcast where he had a former Pharma Rep, Brigham Buhler, as a guest. Admittedly, I was shocked and angered. If you haven’t watched it you may find it interesting.
As far as the ads themselves I chuckle at the side effects listed. All too often, I may prefer the illness.
Also, Big Pharma spends billions on advertising and that leverage reverberates throughout our society
The US and New Zealand [of all places] are the only two countries on Earth that allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.
Good question. Those jabs are more dangerous than smoking.
Drugs companies should NOT be allowed to advertise. EVER! This is why you have a doctor. Patients show very bad behavior in doctors' offices (several docs in my family) when they are told the drug they saw on TV and are now demanding isn't right for them. It's more pharma evil!!
Well, most drugs require a doctor to give you access anyway. I see a lot of people saying that drugs should not be allowed to be advertised, but giving no reasons.
So totally agree with your statement!
Why not? Why should any company not be able to advertise a legal product? The real issue is HOW the do it. They should have to be honest about the product (that goes for ALL products). And they should not be allowed to hide, put in fine print, or mumble past the side effects.
Because the potential for abuse is staggering. We have to look no further than the Covid vaccine boondoggle. We were assured it was safe and effective and of course it was neither. When pharma spends over 35 billion in advertising, funds the US health system and our academic research departments, corruption follows close behind. It does not matter what the fine print states. RFK jr wrote an excellent book, "The Real Anthony Fauci" It is a in-depth analyses of Big Pharma and public health. Also, I encourage you to listen Bret Weinstein on his Dark Horse podcast or his recent interviews with Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan.
So you fall into the camp of "If there is enough potential danger in something we must make it illegal"? It sounds to me like your real issue is that the government is greenlighting drugs that should not be greenlit. The same government that you would have to ask to make commercials illegal is the one that pushed for the covid stuff in the first place.
These drugs can only be gotten by prescription. If you have a good doctor they will properly educate you before prescribing. If they are willing to just give you whatever drugs you asked for, I don't think a lack of commercials is going to be that much of a protection.
Maybe, just maybe, we should all take responsibility for the things we put into our body and press the government to do its job and make sure the people providing products are doing so honestly and legally. And when they lie to us, we should vote them out.
In general though, I do not see the difference in drug adds or pretty much any product that could end up being bad for you. Its YOUR job to figure out what is safe enough for you or not. Your jobs to figure out the risks in your life. If a commercial with a full page of fine print doesn't make you skeptical enough to do some research before putting something in your body, that's on you.
I don't fall into any camp. I am saying money buys corruption. Big Pharma spends a lot money on advertising. The leverage gained by this is enormous. So why should we give the industry this leverage. This is the reason there are few countries that allow this type of advertising.
The evidence I am reading says that if you get three shots or more you are playing Russian Roulette with your whole immune system. The rates of extremely aggressive cancers are going through the roof, seemingly in part because our immune system is our main line of defense against cancer cells, and many Americans have had their immune systems destroyed.
But this destruction didn’t start with the crap Covid shots- think of the food, meds, sedentwryblifestuke, told to stay outbid the sun and the the MANY MANY MANY more shots they give to babies that they didn’t do merely 49 years ago. The destruction of our immune systems is WHY healthcare is so expensive - and the obesity epidemic
I'm not going to let you get me started, because I can literally go on indefinitely, but the sun is an interesting one. The nations that wear the most sunscrean have the highest rates of skin cancer, or so I have read. The sun is our friend, not our enemy, and most American kids don't get nearly enough.
There are MANY disorders and diseases affected and exacerbated by too little sun (ie. Vitamin D3) exposure. I read a study years ago that showed more people with MS live in higher Latitudes. Besides all the increases in depression (outside time is necessary!) so I get you!!
The sun is a wonderful healer! For ex., I actually had a pediatrician who told me to put my slightly jaundiced baby in the sun for 20 minutes a day. It worked. Simple and free solution.
Amen! That stuff is poison. And ppl slather it all over their babies every dang day.
I am not speaking with any additional knowledge but just throwing out for thought, that sounds like a simple correlation. If you’re in a place where you think you need sunscreen, you’re probably in a place where there’s more intense sun.
Do some digging. I was reading an article on it this morning, but cant find it now. Frequent unprotected sun exposure is actually PROTECTIVE against skin cancer. The problem is with intermittent exposure.
This book is supposedly good. I haventcread it but have read summaries:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/164411402X/
Think of multiple covid jabs as allergy desensitizing shots. They teach your immune system not to react.
Not to react to anything. Or to overreact to everything. You have unopposed cancer growth on the one side, and severe automimmune disorders on the other.
These things are toxic poison that should be pulled from the market immediately and not given to anyone for any reason. There are very good COVID treatments that are vastly, vastly better than these criminal injections.
There is good evidence these jabs have killed over ten million people worldwide. This whole thing is the largest mass murder at least in recent human history, and in sheer numbers likely the worst ever.
Why should ANY parent trust the vaccine schedule when that crap jab is on it?
If I personally had any little kids now, they would get what I got, and no more. Why would any sane person trust this system when the manufacturers cannot be sued directly, and we KNOW beyond any doubt whatever that the CDC and NIH lie to us?
Just to add in, that jab or no jab, ANY virus can result in an autoimmune response or trigger an immune disorder/disease. Certain people are more susceptible to this than others, and it seems that Covid is especially prone to trigger these immune disorders.
I really feel like most or all of the cases of autoimmune disorders and “long COVID” arise from entanglemwnts caused by both the jabs and COVID itself.
If only as a nation we had created an agency tasked with evaluating such things openly and honestly, with diligence and integrity. But no such agency exists. Perhaps if Trump wins a third time he can create one. Until then, we will not have enough data to be certain of anything, other than that we are being lied to.
Not to mention all the heart issues the shots cause especially for young males. I have to wonder at the connection of all the young males pouring through our open border .... replacements for ours who will "die suddenly"?
Now THAT is a decent conspiracy theory. Because the odds that those folks have job is pretty low. And I doubt we are giving it to them when they come in, despite how apparently important it is.
It is not necessarily a conspiracy theory. In order to understand what is going on. One must consider all possibilities.
That jab affords them zero benefit
But costs the taxpayers big time for fees and also makes nice profits for the drug company. More to donate to Biden.
You mean we shouldn’t be taking medical advice from a semi-literate jock with a degree in interdisciplinary studies?
Or his gf who squealed for the senile imbecile who has destroyed our country over the last three years.
As if that grinning simian gave a fig for his young fans, Pfizer put up the dollars and he was cashing in.
He's just a messenger. If Pfizer hadn't hired him, it would be someone else.
As for Taylor, I like her music and I think she's very low key on the political front.
She's still quite young and career-focused like I was at her age.
She may be pressured from the hard left entertainment industry.
I downloaded more of her songs to a playlist last night, 'Red', 'Clean', & 'Marjorie'
Give a listen. You may be in for a pleasant surprise.
Thanks but I'll leave her music to my kids. She's definitely a talented and driven young woman who's an enormous success. She just needs a thinking adjustment
As for Kelce shilling for Pfizer, nobody put a gun to his head. And saying if he didn't do it somebody else would have is a pretty lame justification. Like the clown who raped the passed out girl a few years back? Well if he didn't do it someone else would have?
Notice he called Covid a deadly plague. If you still believe that covid was some kind of threat to the vast majority of people, despite all evidence to the contrary, then you are likely to see the "vaccines" as worth seeing to young healthy people.
Saddens me that this si still so poorly reported on. I mean you have new reports of how deadly the "vaccine" can be as far as causing heart issues, especially in the young, but you rarely hear of it even in places like this.
Here is the commercial. You tell me where Travis shits in your mouth, because trust me, if you're on the field opposite him, he will shit in your mouth. This is positive, feel-good advertising and no one is insulted except those looking to feel insulted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6Mxy_sWBvg
He's shilling for the jab. Given the facts of the side effects and the relative mildness of the Covid variants, no healthy young person should get the vaccine. Our public health establishment is retarded. Kelce is simply whoring for them. Good football player or not. Stick to State Farm, MAAUTO. They provide a good product, not poison.
I like to take my medical advice from doctors. Even Paul Offit at CHOP - heretofore the vaccine guru - said he wouldn’t give it to his own kids given the limited testing and low risk of the disease to kids. Thanks much, Travis and Taylor, I’ll pass.
But which doctors?
"Witch doctors?"
Like the ones at the CDC?
So I rewatched it. He’s still schilling. Seems ignorant to me but then again, I don’t believe the shots are any of what they purport to be.
Kelce is a shill to push acceptance of the vaccine. His popularity produces attention from the young cohort, who are led to believe it is without problems for them to simply take a drug that is quite a bit less than perfect. Pfizer makes money from this - they wouldn’t do it otherwise. You don’t have to be conservative to be smart about this.
As far as “man wins game and gets girl” American pie, who wouldn’t want to be Kelce? He’s living the dream. The NFL fell into this money maker. It would be impossible to engineer it. Enjoy.
I'm guessing endorsing the 20 million dollar check from Pfizer made Kelce a believer in "the science". Just a hunch.....
GFY
FTW!
Maybe you should do that yourself.
He’s a shill for Pfizer being paid loadsa money to influence young men to get a vaccine they don’t need so pharma can make more billions and you’re defending it. Boggles the mind.
"Positive, feel-good advertising"
Sir, Bill Hicks would like to say a word to all those in marketing....
That’s a tasteless, stupid comment.
Well said.
Bret and Heather’s latest Dark Horse podcast is about Bret’s trip to the Darien Pass, a patch of impenetrable jungle in Central America, where it joins Colombia. He witnessed camps where “economic” illegal immigrants from Venezuela, but also Yemen and Afghanistan gather and are aided by the UN in their trek north. People fly into Ecuador from all over the world for this trek. Then there is another type of camp where only young Chinese men gather to invade America. The number I heard from another source is 28,000 able bodied Chinese men are now in America.
Our destruction is being enabled by the Biden administration. Wait til a water supply is poisoned or an elecrical grid is blown up.
Have a nice day, everyone. Keep obsessing about Taylor Swift.
Apparently Hamas, Hezbollah & other Iranian operatives are quite happy down Mexico way as well. Enough to cause serious problems if things go fully pear shaped with Iran. This is well known in government circles. Conspiracy theorists are ridiculed by all sides but I can understand how these things come about if such threats are ignored or in this case seemingly encouraged with a completely porous border with few security checks. The obvious question is “do they want a terrorist attack on home soil. The dereliction of duty ensuring the safety of the American people for a slavish adherence to a mantra of “closing the border is racist” is astounding.
I saw this podcast yesterday. The analysis of the situation by Bret and Chris Martenson was very interesting. I have thought of some of the reasons why this invasion is happening and I was terrified to find out that they are thinking these things too. I recommend these two podcasts with Bret. The other one is with Michael Yon.
They're right-wing American men, it's like they have no choice.
Thanks for the podcast tip! Depressing as this sounds I'm up for a compelling listen.
Bret and Heather are starting to sound like Trump voters.
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that…” (Hat tip: @Mark👆🏼)
“Kung Flu” was a fantastic bit of levity during a period when you’d the thought the entire world was covered by a deep green toxic fog according to the experts hyperventilating on tv. The more we read/discover about the veracity of COVID being designed and leaking from the Wuhan lab, the more it seems appropriate. I still like the term.
Wiseman is so entrenched in his TDS he can’t see how humor in dire circumstances is necessary for survival. Plus it turned out to be the “Wuhan Flu.”
In 2020, America elected (maybe - the facts counsel otherwise) a senile imbecile who was said by Obama's Defense Secretary to have "been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Including arguing against the raid that captured and killed bin Laden. And you wonder why the world is in such a mess today? Remember elections have consequences. Even those that Americans allowed to be stolen with barely a whimper.
Oh, and as far as your stupid shot against Trump for allegedly "trivializing" Covid by calling it the "Wuhan flu"........ Most people with firing neurons believed then and are certain now that the virus escapes or was deliberately released from the lab in Wuhan. Except for our liberal friends who screeched that China was being fully transparent and the virus came from a cave. Were they truly that demented or just the shills for communists that they've always been?
"The MAGA crowd is known for trivializing the serious: calling a deadly plague the “kung flu"
Vilifying the opposition by sneering at their supposedly lowbrow shibboleths and slogans is a technique that we have seen on the Right that Oliver Wiseman has now adopted into his own condescending commentary. While I am no fan of the Right, adopting divisive and contemptuous language into your critique only helps to build enmity between the different groups of our country. Our true enemy is the globalists, and by increasing divisiveness between different political movements in this country, Wiseman is a good friend to the globalists. Divided we fall. Also, did you not read John Ioannidis research published March 2020 demonstrating that COVID-19 had an IFR comparable to a typical seasonal flu? Have you heard who was the first to debunk this research? No-one.
Agree. The Wu Flu wasn't a serious illness to 90% of the population and the only thing that made it deadly to a small segment was the treatment that the government was mandating.
Of those who died of COVID-19, how many died WITH COVID-19 and how many From COVID-19? How many died of FAILURE TO TREAT and how many of INAPPROPRIATE TREATMENT, such as remdesivir and unnecessary intubation? How many actually died of complications of the COVID-19 vaccination which were improperly labeled COVID-19? We have no freakin' idea, and HHS has zero interest in answering these questions. The sketchy evidence we have suggests that whatever the numbers are, they are heftily inflated by massive government fraud and incompetence in the statistics-keeping. We have been hornswoggled yet again, at least those of us who chose the blue pill.
PREACH!
Yes, they are laughing quite heartily. They fund the chaos. As we incrementally give up a piece of ourselves until one day we have succumbed.
I guess there are plenty of crazies on both sides. But I’ll take maga brand of crazy over the crazies who chop off kids body parts and call me racist all the time, then open our borders, take away our energy, drive up all our costs, then negotiate with Iran.
Ouch MAGA hater. That stings. I don’t believe anything the MSM parrots these days, so the wall to wall coverage of this little love story doesn’t sit right with me. Nothing surprises me anymore.
FYI, Fox's Nick Wright counted and almost to the second, the amount of time given to showing Taylor on camera on Sunday was equal to the amount they showed of crab cakes
So who’s obsessed now?
I grew up outside of Baltimore and miss crab cakes! And Johnny Unitas.
Johnny Unitas. Amen
You people have the conspiracy all wrong.
My Zany & Kooky Comspiracy:
Taylor Swift is dating Kelce so that she may ultimately dump him after she has gathered enough material for a new hit song about how she has been wronged by yet an other guy. Hahaha
That's not even a conspiracy, that's just her brand.
Well yes, this is also true.
My guess is that the couple is also being very well compensated to be a couple.
Doubtful.
I think a conversation we should have about the poor results of children, rather than blaming social media companies, is poor parenting. Many parents (especially in blue states) are self-absorbed. The focus is on them; their kids are part of that self-obsession.
Thus, the actual parenting of the kids falls elsewhere. In the past, a common set of values was taught through the family and institutions. Today, many of those institutions have been hijacked by the left. Thus, you have kids who are ignored, not taken to church, and, since they are a bother, are sat in front of a TV when kids or a phone are in their teen years. And getting values from influencers and rabid leftist teachers while living in a protected cacooon, we have the myriad of terrible outcomes we see today. Many kids (red America) do not have this problem.
But we should call it for what it is and try to find ways to help rehabilitate lost people. The rich kids protesting are one symptom, but we also are having kids raised with no values or structure in our poorer communities, leading to crime and mayhem in cities. We are losing social cohesion, and it's not the fault of the social media companies. How to fix it? That is an issue for our time.
Excellent point. Like many things, it all starts in the home. Parenting is hard man......
Parenting is clearly a major part of the problem. I think we have a lot of problems with the concept of imposing expectations, responsibilities, and discipline on our children. This has had the effect of keeping them children (immature) forever.
We spent the summer of 2022 in a small (affluent) city in France. One of the most remarkable differences we noticed was how well-behaved the children were compared to US children (regardless of class). In restaurants and museums etc., the children were quiet, well-behaved, and most importantly, NOT on phones. On the beach, or in a park, they ran around, played, and sometimes got a bit loud. From our casual observation, it’s hard not to think that digital content has a destructive aspect. We will spend the summer in rural England this year (the carrots are sweet and plentiful), and we’ll be very interested to see how the children there behave. The UK has definitely adopted many of the US’s “woke” doctrines, whereas that is far less common in France.
Thanks for sharing, great insights and information
No stuff, Sherlock, but: Old chestnut of the opposite sense: Kind words and a Smith & Wesson will get you further than kind words alone. Thus, sketchy parenting and "social" bullstuff media is more harmful than sketchy parenting alone.
Willing to bet that plenty of parents who vote R or live in red states raise their kids on phones. This is not a left/right phenomenon. Sure, maybe more R parents are stricter, but I know plenty that gave their kids phones at a young age.
Valid point but the difference between the two is skewed more blue than red. And the nuts on campus are mostly Blue
This is most definitely the issue of our time. What do we value?
I’ve enjoyed Oliver’s reporting recently, but don’t agree with this dig at MAGA republican voters. “The MAGA crowd is known for trivializing the serious: calling a deadly plague the “Wuhan flu,” joking about the injuries John McCain suffered while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, etc. It’s sick, sick stuff.”
Those comments, as far as I know were from Trump and not parroted by the majority of those that voted for him, most likely those that didn’t. Btw, isn’t there plenty of evidence that Covid did come from a lab in Wuhan?? Isn’t this comment and “stereotyping ” the same as saying, Jews are colonizers?
Oliver seems to have let his true colors come through with that dig. Wouldn't surprise me if he agreed with Obama's dig about conservatives clinging to their guns and bibles or Hillary's deplorables comment. Another liberal elitist.
If this is what we’re going to be getting from one of the main editors and contributors of TFP with the lead up to 2024 elections, paying subscribers will be leaving in droves! Wonder if we’ll see Oli or BW address this feedback??
I wish more of us ascribed to the cafeteria style.
Probably the Covid virus did originate in and then escape from the Wuhan lab. At this point, there should be little doubt. And I never minded calling the Spanish flu the Spanish flu, so is this different?
Does believing the Covid virus came out of a Chinese lab mean I cannot say that Donald Trump's sense of humor mostly hews to the deliberately malicious?
Does appreciating Trump's moving our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem mean that I must also appreciate (or dismiss!) his weird exaggerations of his crowd sizes, his wealth, and his golf scores?
Many of us abhor the fact of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants lying about fleeing their countries and wish they could be loaded onto buses, boats, and planes and sent back. Now. With no right of appeal. No, they're not passengers on the "ship of fools"; they are not fleeing the Gestapo.
And the same many of us who do also support a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.
Can't we use our heads, or must we pick sides and stick to them?
Taylor a psyop ; Russia Collusion; Laptop Russian Disinformation ( i could go on) . I just want to know Ollie's term of derision for those who still cling (bitterly) to the last two( which include MSM, elected officials and sly stone's everyday people).
Best take delivered yesterday by former NFL lineman Matt Light; “A win for the Chiefs is a win for Pfizer.” Go ‘Niners!’
Mr Irrelevant is a so much better story than the over saturated angle of Kelce in every commercial (selling COVID boosters no less, and every other thing you probably don’t want)and the coverage of Swift.
Brock Purdy set to marry Jenna Brandt this March. She pretty!
Purdy is a good kid. I wish him much success... Next year.
Funny but KC was one of the most resistant to lockdowns and the jab locations in 2020. Missouri is the show me state and most of us are weren't buying the whole thing.
Peace.
The comment isn’t related to state’s policies…Kelce is the face of a number of Pfizer vaccine commercials
The Pats need another Matt Light.
Ah Oliver’s “objectivity” was shown farcical when he called Trump supporters stupid. Especially about the Taylor swift kelce show.
The world burns, but Trump supporters are stupid. Great.
Here’s a clue Oliver. I’m sick of them. I’m sick of every time Kelce scores they show an open mouthed swiftie celebration. I’m sick of the chiefs. I’d have rooted for Dallas against them. I believe I’ll be giving the Super Bowl a miss this year. Any funny commercials can be found on line elsewhere.
Didn't TFP have a whole gushing story about Taylor Swift a few months ago? Maybe it's TFP that is obsessed with her?
Cannot see what all the fuss is about with Taylor Swift, tried watching a concert on Netflix (when you could password swop). Can’t remember any songs, lots of wardrobe changes, kept dosing off. Switched off & went to bed, haven’t bothered with her since.
Her CW songs as a teen and young woman are much better. Also there is no shortage of offensive celebrities, however she is not one.
You need to remember that her core audience (not sole, but core) is women. And Women as a whole have been known to get caught up in social contagions. So many obsessive fads appear to me to have come from the feminine side of the spectrum. I suspect Taylor is one of them. Mind you, her music could be great...but I honestly can't say that I have ever heard any of it.
Are there any photos of Taylor without her mouth gaping open?
IDK but then I try to avoid her.
I have noticed the same phenomenon: those wide, open-mouthed poses. You see it in selfies and billboards and everywhere elsewhere. When did it begin? Kinda déclassé. Except when caught actually guffawing, in candid photographs, you'd never see Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn with mouths agape.
I find it lends an air of stupidity to all of them.
jennifer lopez does this, too. one has to wonder if they think they look sexy, when in reality, they look ridiculous. also, for j.lo, it could also be she thinks/was told her face photographs better (firmer?) when she has her mouth open just a little like that...?
I think it is better than that tongue thing Miley Cyrus was doing when she was still a thing.
At least she doesn’t do the tongue thing like Miley Cyrus.
That says much more about the state of photojournalism than the entertainers of yesterday & today.
Every single commercial is released the week before on social media now any way. As a media guy, I don’t understand why the broadcasters who paid billions for the SB allow that, but....... you won’t miss any good ads. [Although of course they’ve gotten less creative over the years, for many reasons.]
They're far less creative because they're forced to be politically correct.
If Biden recognizes a Palestinian state it will all but guarantee continued violence in the Middle East. Just as Hamas has promised. What is he thinking?
We don’t negotiate with terrorists...unless you kidnap and rape 1,200 civilians, then we’ll recognize you because it’s an election year and mean people are shaking the gates outside my government funded home!
It depends on who is shaking the gates.
You are quick and sharp today, Jacky!
"What is he thinking?"
Oh, never mind......
Beat me to it! LOL
Did you mean, What, is he thinking?
He is thinking "Where's my ice cream? That girl smells nice. Dang, they found my cocaine! I want my 10%!"
“What is he thinking?” That’s sooooo funnny LOL, ROFL. Sorry but that made me laugh, Biden “thinking.”
A pathway to Armageddon
You mean- What? Is he thinking? Punctuation Lives Matter!