Friday, September 16, 2022

Royalty and Competence

I don't care much about the British monarchy. I can't tell one prince or princess from the other, forget which one is the international playboy and which one is supposed to be the geeky intellectual. Queen Elizabeth has been around my whole life, always apparently gracious and proper and likeable. Nice lady, I'm sorry to see her go. None of it affects me in any way.

In the US of course we don't have royalty, really. We have multigenerational dynasties of the filthy-rich and political wheeler-dealers, we have oligarchs, but we don't have people who acquire power as a birthright and rule by just being there.

A quote by C.S. Lewis has been going around since the Queen died, and there is something to it:

Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.

The Spectator, vol. CLXXI (27 August 1943), p. 192

The idea of "honoring royalty" is feral and irrational, or, as Lewis says, spiritual. You put a crown on somebody's head and they become the Great Parent to the society. The honor is completely undeserved, and that is clearly some of the attraction of it. Even if they do not make decisions or do anything other than give medals and host galas, the people look up to their royalty with love and respect. C.S. Lewis argued that people have an innate need for inequality, and saw royalty as a response to that; royalty is just an artificially created inequality that puts one person above others but does not necessarily do any real harm to the lesser population, at least in modern times.

It seems to me that logically the goal in a democracy is to select leaders who can lead. These should be people who understand the topics involved, who surround themselves with wise advisors, who make decisions based on facts and principles, who inspire the citizenry and persuade the legislature to pass laws that are good for the country. I mean, this makes sense, doesn't it?

On the other hand, the US elects movie stars, guys you'd like to have a beer with, wits and charmers, and recently a minor reality-TV character with a string of bankruptcies, divorces, and lawsuits behind him -- almost exactly as Lewis predicted in 1943.

We Americans tend to scoff at the idea of a king or queen but we can't seem to get over it. Our political campaigns are a charade of gotchas and poses, slogans, grins and handshakes, none of which have anything at all to do with running a country. We -- and looking at history I primarily mean Republicans -- seem to have a need to choose a leader based on some hard-to-explain qualities of personality. It is almost always someone who is richer than ninety-nine percent of us, at least. It is always someone with more expensive suits than you or I could afford, they belong to clubs that wouldn't take us, their hair is always perfect. The inequality between the voters and the candidates may actually be the point of the campaigns. Republican candidate's slogan: I Am Better Than You.

It seems to me we should decide, are we trying to elect someone to run the country, or do we want to pick a Daddy? Do we want good policies to be enacted or somebody to spank us when we're bad and send us to our room without dinner?

I should point out that Joe Biden has been one of the most effective presidents ever. He has passed a ton of huge bills, with little comment in the press. He is improving the country in many ways, fighting poverty, bringing down the deficit, negotiating international policies. But his favorability ratings have never been commensurate with his leadership successes.

This week the railroads almost shut down, they had already canceled a lot of trains in anticipation of a strike. Our groceries were going to rot in the fields, fuel would not be delivered, supply chains and manufacturing and trade were going to be disrupted, the American economy was on the brink of getting hammered because of a conflict between labor and management. But the president sent his cabinet person to meet with the two sides, he himself got on the phone with them, they worked it out and now the crisis is averted. This feat will not affect his popularity with voters -- this isn't what they are looking for. Daddy didn't get mad, nobody got a spanking, there was no controversy and no spectacle on TV.

Seems to me, thinking logically, this is what we want -- somebody who can run things.

There are Republican governors and others now hoping to be president, and they are paving the way by doing despicable things and making sure the TV cameras are pointed at them. They are mocking transgender people and pregnant women, taunting those who came here seeking asylum, undermining the separation of church and state, trying to break the election process, denouncing science and education, owning the libs in ways that actual liberals are generally unaware of. As leaders their decisions are bad for the people who depend on them, but that doesn't matter because they are campaigning to be Daddy (and a couple of Stern Mothers).

I am not suggesting that the US should have royalty. The grown-up thing for our country is to learn to distinguish between the feral desire for a surrogate parent and the civilized need for someone who has the skills to run a country, and to support leaders who are competent to lead.

88 Comments:

Anonymous Slidin' MIGA Biden is makng inflation great again !... said...

it's worth noting that British politics and their press are generally much nastier than ours

although we are catching up

September 16, 2022 3:30 PM  
Anonymous US Corporate Profits Soar With Margins at Widest Since 1950: Business is passing on higher costs and then some, data show said...

A measure of US profit margins has reached its widest since 1950, suggesting that the prices charged by businesses are outpacing their increased costs for production and labor.

After-tax profits as a share of gross value added for non-financial corporations, a measure of aggregate profit margins, improved in the second quarter to 15.5% -- the most since 1950 -- from 14% in the first quarter, according to Commerce Department figures published Thursday.

The data show that companies overall have comfortably been able to pass on their rising cost of materials and labor to consumers. With household budgets squeezed by the rising cost of living, some firms have been able to offset any slip in demand by charging more to the customers they’ve retained -- though others like Target Corp. saw their inventories swell and were forced to discount prices in order to clear them.

The surge in profits during the pandemic era has fueled a debate about whether price-gouging companies carry a share of the blame for high inflation -- an argument pushed by President Joe Biden’s Democrats. Most economists have been skeptical about the idea.

US inflation has surged this year and stood at 8.5% in July, not far short of the previous month’s four-decade high. Federal Reserve officials have pointed to rising wages as one of the big risks that could keep inflation entrenched. But some economists say that historically elevated profit margins mean there’s room for businesses to accommodate worker demands for better pay without setting off a wage-price spiral.

Biden allies have singled out the energy industry, which has posted blowout profits this year, for criticism over price-gouging. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has floated a measure that would impose a windfall tax on profits in the industry deemed to be “excessive.” Similar measures have been adopted in several European countries to help finance measures that will protect consumers the energy-price shock.

Across the economy, adjusted pretax corporate profits increased 6.1% in the April-to-June period from the prior quarter -- the fastest pace in a year -- after falling 2.2% in the first three months of the year. Profits are up 8.1% from a year earlier.

September 16, 2022 4:25 PM  
Anonymous Mitch McConnell’s Refusal to Seat Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court Is Coming Back to Haunt Him said...

It’s a beguiling fantasy: Mitch McConnell lies bolt awake at 3 o’clock in the morning staring disconsolately at the ceiling. If you listen closely, you can hear him mutter, “Merrick Garland. Damn Merrick Garland. I should have confirmed Merrick Garland.”

It’s hard to imagine McConnell has much self-awareness beneath his carapace of complete cynicism. The Senate minority leader obviously blames Donald Trump for the loss of two Georgia Senate seats and a majority in January 2021. But in the deep dark night of the soul, McConnell should point to his own folly as the GOP’s chances of retaking the Senate in 2022 dwindle to 29 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight.

As Democrats remember with still smoldering fury, when McConnell was majority leader he refused to grant Garland even a token hearing after he was nominated to the Supreme Court by Barack Obama in March 2016 to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat. The day Garland was tapped, McConnell declared in the voice of the Senate undertaker, “It is a president’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent.”

Nothing in McConnell’s long career—decades devoid of any principle beyond the pursuit of power—matches his refusal to consider a moderate Supreme Court nominee who was named almost seven months before the 2016 election. When Amy Coney Barrett was anointed by Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg little more than a month before the 2020 election, McConnell, with double-jointed flexibility, rubber-stamped her confirmation in a head-spinning 30 days.

What McConnell cared about was not social issues but creating a conservative Supreme Court that would tear down government regulations and rule the Republicans’ way on voting rights, gerrymandering, and campaign finance. Now McConnell has gotten the Supreme Court and the political blowback that he deserves as the abortion decision has mobilized Democratic voters and upended Republican hopes in November.

As Democrats remember with still smoldering fury, when McConnell was majority leader he refused to grant Garland even a token hearing after he was nominated to the Supreme Court by Barack Obama in March 2016 to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat. The day Garland was tapped, McConnell declared in the voice of the Senate undertaker, “It is a president’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent.”

Nothing in McConnell’s long career—decades devoid of any principle beyond the pursuit of power—matches his refusal to consider a moderate Supreme Court nominee who was named almost seven months before the 2016 election. When Amy Coney Barrett was anointed by Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg little more than a month before the 2020 election, McConnell, with double-jointed flexibility, rubber-stamped her confirmation in a head-spinning 30 days.

What McConnell cared about was not social issues but creating a conservative Supreme Court that would tear down government regulations and rule the Republicans’ way on voting rights, gerrymandering, and campaign finance. Now McConnell has gotten the Supreme Court and the political blowback that he deserves as the abortion decision has mobilized Democratic voters and upended Republican hopes in November.

September 17, 2022 7:55 AM  
Anonymous Mitch McConnell’s Refusal to Seat Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court Is Coming Back to Haunt Him said...

That was what would have happened if Chief Justice John Roberts were still the swing vote on a closely divided Supreme Court. As Roberts wrote with palpable frustration in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, “Both the Court’s opinion and the dissent display a relentless freedom from doubt on the legal issue that I cannot share.” If Roberts had been the author of the majority opinion, Mississippi would have been allowed to largely curtail access to abortion while Roe itself would technically still exist as precedent. But thanks to McConnell’s cynical machinations dating back to Garland, Roberts was a bystander as the other five Republican justices, led by a snarling Samuel Alito, handed down the most regressive Supreme Court decision in modern memory.

If Garland had been confirmed in 2016, this would have been the Roberts court instead of the Trump-McConnell Court. Had Roberts written the majority decision and avoided the outright disdain for Roe, Democrats would now be struggling to explain to wavering voters why the Supreme Court allowing Mississippi to go forward with a 15-week ban on abortion had such dire consequences. Instead, the dramatic repeal of Roe needs little explaining to anyone.

By every measure, Republicans are likely in trouble because the Alito opinion went off the rails. In almost every swing state, women are rushing to register to vote. Right-wing Senate candidates such as Blake Masters in Arizona have cleansed their campaign websites in a futile effort to hide their uncompromising anti-abortion views. This week, when Lindsey Graham proposed federal legislation banning abortion after 15 weeks, McConnell displayed visible irritation at the South Carolina Republican as he told reporters, “You’ll have to ask him about it.”

Once-vulnerable Democratic Senate incumbents have been buoyed by widespread public disapproval of the Supreme Court abortion decision. A prime example is Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, a state where voters strongly support abortion rights. A mid-August poll by the St. Anselm College Survey Center found that 58 percent of voters oppose the abortion decision. And 50 percent of the electorate said that abortion is more likely to motivate them to vote.

This is Mitch McConnell’s legacy as he tries to become only the third senator in history* to regain the title of majority leader. If the 80-year-old McConnell fails in his quest in November, it will partly be because of his arrogance in rejecting Merrick Garland without a hearing in 2016. As the adage goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

September 17, 2022 7:57 AM  
Anonymous homosexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage said...

"It’s hard to imagine McConnell has much self-awareness"

he seems to know what he's doing

as opposed to Dems, who only hold power currently because Donald Trump switched his life-long membership in the Dem party about ten years ago

"McConnell should point to his own folly as the GOP’s chances of retaking the Senate in 2022 dwindle to 29 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight"

538 didn't too well in the last few elections

but the GOP chances have declined in the Senate

although it has less to do with abortion than bad candidates, many won because Dem supported them because of their link to Trump

and you have the nerve to talk about cynicism while suggesting O'Connell should abandon support for innocent unborn children in order to win an election

maybe you should wait until the election to draw conclusions

"As Democrats remember with still smoldering fury,"

LOL! I remember it with great merriment!

"when McConnell was majority leader he refused to grant Garland even a token hearing after he was nominated to the Supreme Court"

why give a "token hearing" to someone who has no chance to be confirmed?

"The day Garland was tapped, McConnell declared in the voice of the Senate undertaker, “It is a president’s constitutional right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and it is the Senate’s constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent.”"

a position he's stuck to consistently

that's why Amy Coney Barrett is now a future Chief Justice

she had the support of the Senate because she is committed to upholding the Constitution

Garland's actions as AG shows he has no regard for the Constitution

O'Connell was right again

"Nothing in McConnell’s long career—decades devoid of any principle"

he has consistently acted on the principles of protecting the Constitution and the life of the unborn

Dems' principle is that unborn children should killed if they are inconvenient

"his refusal to consider a moderate Supreme Court nominee"

not believing in the Constitution is not a moderate stance

"Amy Coney Barrett was anointed by Trump to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg little more than a month before the 2020 election, McConnell, with double-jointed flexibility, rubber-stamped her confirmation in a head-spinning 30 days"

rubber-stamped?

she was confirmed by the majority of the Senate

Garland had no chance to be

the Senate opposed his dubious theories about the Constitution

"McConnell has gotten the Supreme Court and the political blowback that he deserves as the abortion decision has mobilized Democratic voters and upended Republican hopes in November."

actually, the GOP is assured to gain control of the House and, though diminished, still has a shot at the Senate

they will also hold most Governor mansions and state legislatures

"Had Roberts written the majority decision and avoided the outright disdain for Roe, Democrats would now be struggling to explain to wavering voters why the Supreme Court allowing Mississippi to go forward with a 15-week ban on abortion had such dire consequences. Instead, the dramatic repeal of Roe needs little explaining to anyone."

see, it's you that's cynical

the Roe decision was wrong, both morally and constitutionally

it was obvious that winning that battle was not a long-run political winner

but the GOP stuck to principle anyway

contrast that to Dems, who do everything they can to stir up racial tension in America because they can manipulate it for political reasons

September 17, 2022 8:58 AM  
Anonymous sanity in the Old Dominion State... said...

As a sophomore at Oakton High School, Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter would rather be worrying about things like driver's education. But after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration released Friday he is rolling back transgender student accommodations in all state schools, she now finds herself having to take part in the game of political ping-pong.

Vizcardo-Lichter is the leader of the student-run organization Pride Liberation Project, as well as a member of the LGBTQ community. She said around 500 students have already reached out to her expressing their concerns.

"I've spoken to students that are terrified that these protections will be removed and that their peers will be put at risk for depression, harassment, suicide," Vizcardo-Lichter said. "These proposed regulations are only going to hurt the mental health of transgender students. Using a student's true pronoun and name has consistently been shown to prevent suicide and depression. Denying that autonomy to students only worsens the mental health crisis."

LOL!

Vizcardo-Licther continued: "What we need is to not be political pawns."

On Friday, Youngkin's Virginia Department of Education posted it was withdrawing the state's 2021 model policies for transgender students - instituted by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam - and replacing it with a new set of regulations.

Under the 2022 model policies, students must play school sports and use the bathroom of their sex assigned at birth, be referred to their name and gender as they appear on their official record, and have parental notification and approval if they want to be identified by a different name and gender by school staff. The gender on students' official record is to be their sex assigned at birth. In order to get this changed, their parents will have to provide the school district with legal documentation, such as a court order substantiating their change in names or gender.

The new regulations also require parents to sign off on any counseling for students related to gender.

A study by UCLA estimated there are around 6,200 transgender children in Virginia.

The new rules almost entirely reverse the policies put in place last year, with the exception being related to school sports. The model policies written by the state school board under Northam defer to the Virginia High School League - or VHSL, the state's governing body for high school sports - for issues involving school sports. Under VHSL rules, transgender students can only play the sport of the gender with which they identify if they have undergone sex reassignment before puberty, or is verified by appropriate medical documentation as having a consistent identity different than their gender assigned at birth, or has received hormonal therapy for a sufficient amount of time.

"I don't think biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls," Youngkin said during that earlier interview.

September 19, 2022 11:16 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' MIGA Biden is making inflation great again ! said...


Mehdi Hasan, host of MSNBC's "The Mehdi Hasan Show," reacted to a clip of President Biden saying during an interview with CBS News' Scott Pelley that the COVID-19 "pandemic is over."

"One of the reasons they’re not wearing masks is because people like Biden keep telling them the pandemic is over," Hasan tweeted in response to the "60 Minutes" interview with Biden.

Pelley asked the president if the COVID-19 pandemic was over while walking through the Detroit Auto show.

"The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it," Biden said. "If you notice, no one's wearing a mask, everybody seems to be in pretty good shape and so I think its changing, and this is a perfect example of it."

September 19, 2022 11:18 AM  
Anonymous Toxic effects of the Big Lie: Will any Republican, anywhere, ever concede defeat? said...

Days before the 2016 election, candidate Donald Trump stood before a throng of ecstatic followers and said, "I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election — if I win." Indeed he did pull out a narrow electoral victory, even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million. There was plenty of carping. There were street protests. But nobody stormed the U.S. Capitol or enlisted Democratic officials in various states to sign fraudulent elector statements in the hopes of getting Congress to overturn the result in defiance of the Constitution. Clinton conceded the next day, although no one's pretending she was happy about it. Democrats grumbled about the antiquated system that elected the last two Republican presidents with a minority of the popular vote, but everyone moved on.

There's no need to recapitulate what happened in 2020. We are all too aware of it, mostly because Trump and his allies won't let anyone forget it. He made it clear from the beginning that it was simply not possible for him to lose and now we can see that he's convinced a large number of candidates for office, as well as their voters, that it holds true for them too. The Big Lie is alive and well.

According to FiveThirtyEight, 60% of American voters have an election denier on the ballot where they live. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported over the weekend about election deniers running for office around the country who have refused to say whether they will accept the results of their own upcoming elections. The Post surveyed 19 important statewide races, and only seven Republican candidates said they would accept the results while 18 of the 19 Democrats said they would. (The other Democrat didn't respond.) The Times noted that a few of those GOP candidates seem to be posturing in order to appeal to Trump voters who've bought into the big lie, quoting an aide who said on background that their candidate would certainly accept the results but just couldn't say so in public. That's what passes for integrity in Republican politics these days.

Amusingly, a number of defeated Republicans in this year's primary elections have claimed that the votes were rigged, proving just how deep this conspiracy goes. Axios reports that losing GOP candidates in Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Florida have all claimed their elections were tainted. Even some winners complained. Arizona's GOP nominee for secretary of state, state Rep. Mark Finchem, a hardcore 2020 election denier, claimed that "people all over the state [are] saying, 'I've gotten ballots that I didn't ask for.'" Presumably he doesn't believe his own primary win was dubious, but these people are so far down the rabbit hole that you never know.

There has also been a recent spate of articles from various political number-crunchers warning that Democrats should be wary of getting it into their heads that they can win this midterm election. The momentum certainly seems to be moving their way, but these observers suggest that's a mirage: Polling in both 2016 and 2020 failed to capture Republican voters, who showed up in greater numbers than expected. (In the 2018 midterms the polls were pretty accurate. But because historically the party in power loses seats in midterm elections, somehow that doesn't count.)

September 19, 2022 2:48 PM  
Anonymous Toxic effects of the Big Lie: Will any Republican, anywhere, ever concede defeat? said...

Data analysts don't know what's going on with these invisible or "shy" Republican voters, but at least one pollster — who is generally considered right-leaning — says it's because GOP voters are sensitive to what strangers who call them on the phone might think of them:

Robert C. Cahaly
@RobertCahaly

In 2016 Trump supporters were called “Deplorables” and other unflattering names. This was a major contributor to the “shy Trump voter” phenomenon that “most” polling missed which resulted in a major loss in public confidence for polling flowing the election.
4:24 AM · Sep 17, 2022

Robert C. Cahaly
·
Sep 17, 2022
@RobertCahaly

Replying to @RobertCahaly
In 2020 people who supported Trump or espoused conservative values out of step with “Woke” culture found themselves being “canceled” or “doxed”. This led to “hidden voters” that “most” polling under counted, therefore Trump support in key battleground states exceeded expectations

Robert C. Cahaly
@RobertCahaly

Now that the Biden administration has essentially classified “MAGA Republicans” as a threat to democracy marshaling federal law enforcement to focus on them. This move has created a new type of voter that will be even harder to poll or even estimate.
4:29 AM · Sep 17, 2022


He claims that Joe Biden's comments have created an "army" of these hidden voters who are impossible to poll, "even for us." These shy voters aren't like the MAGA fans who put Trump flags on their pickup trucks, but according to this theory they are so traumatized on behalf of the good folks who wear "Fuck your feelings" T-shirts in public and worship a man who calls Democrats, "disgusting," "depraved," "treasonous" and every other gross insult known to man that they won't even admit to a pollster who they are going to vote for.

This pollster's data may be valid, but his analysis is just an personal opinion. In my opinion, it's highly doubtful that GOP voters aren't responding to pollsters because their feelings got hurt. Trump voters don't strike me as shrinking violets. I would guess they don't respond because Trump has told them that you can't trust anyone but him and his designated associates. Since he says any poll that shows he isn't winning by a landslide is in the tank, and all polls, even the right-leaning ones, do show that from time to time, his followers are required to discount and distrust all polling. They have swallowed Trump's belief that the only way Democrats can win is by cheating and that any polls which show Republicans losing are by definition rigged. Why participate in a rigged game?

September 19, 2022 2:48 PM  
Anonymous Toxic effects of the Big Lie: Will any Republican, anywhere, ever concede defeat? said...

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight threw some cold water on this whole thing anyway, noting that none of this is quite as predictable as one might think:

"People's concerns about the polls stem mostly from a sample of exactly two elections, 2020 and 2016. You can point out that polls also had a Democratic bias in 2014. But, of course, they had a Republican bias in 2012, were largely unbiased in 2018, and have either tended to be unbiased or had a Republican bias in recent special elections.

True, in 2020 and 2016, polls were off the mark in a large number of races and states. But the whole notion of a systematic polling error is that it's, well, systematic: It affects nearly all races, or at least the large majority of them. There just isn't a meaningful sample size to work with here, or anything close to it."

The consequences of this belief that the polls are definitely wrong, however, could be profound. It feeds into the idea that if Democrats do manage to hold onto one or both houses of Congress — even Silver's site forecasts that it's fairly likely they will win the Senate — it cannot be legitimate. It will give all those election deniers still more fodder for the belief that they're being cheated, and we'll see yet more lies by cynical GOP politicians who see an upside to losing: It's a chance to delegitimize a Democratic majority and nurse the grievance and delusions of their Trump-crazed base. OK, it's not quite as good as winning, but it pays the bills — and our already fragile democracy frays just a little bit more.

September 19, 2022 2:48 PM  
Anonymous if the climate is changing and we never have hurricanes anymore, it must be a gooood change!!!!!!!!.................... said...


"Toxic effects of the Big Lie: Will any Republican, anywhere, ever concede defeat?"

I agree that politicians should admit it when they lose fair and square

but why is it so toxic for Trump to deny he lost and not toxic that Hillary has spent years denying she lost?

One thing that gender ideology has exposed is that many members of our media and their scientific “experts” do not deserve the credibility their titles typically give them.

Take Maggie Mertens’s piece in the Atlantic calling for an end to gender-segregated school sports — which, in practical terms, means an end to women's sports. Mertens writes that “though sex differences in sports show advantages for men, researchers today still don’t know how much of this to attribute to biological difference versus the lack of support provided to women athletes to reach their highest potential.”

Those “researchers” should be researching other lines of work, because science and sports evidently aren’t for them.

It is not a lack of resources that explains how the average NBA player is 6’6” and the average WNBA player is 6’0”. No lack of resources can explain how the record for dunks in one NBA game is 23, which is almost the same amount that the WNBA has seen in its entire 26-year history. No lack of resources can explain how world-class female sprinters and swimmers see their times regularly beaten by college men or high school boys who are average or barely above average.

You can go through sport by sport and athlete by athlete, from the world champion U.S. National Women's Soccer Team losing badly to a teenage boys' squad to Serena and Venus Williams losing handily to the No. 203 ranked man in tennis. Neither national women's soccer teams nor the Williams sisters lack resources or support.

The average man is bigger, stronger, and faster than the average woman. You can’t blame "resources" or a “lack of support” for biological facts.

But Mertens quotes another "expert," assistant sociology professor Michela Musto, because “professor” is a title that lends (often unearned) credibility. Musto claims that sports are the reason people believe in the gender binary and not the fact that ... well, gender is binary.

September 19, 2022 3:56 PM  
Anonymous The Right's lean toward fascism has gotten so bad that even some Republicans are starting to see it said...


Arizona’s Bowers calls failed GOP election proposal ‘fascism’

Outgoing Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) has called a failed Republican proposal that would have allowed the legislature to overturn election results in his state akin to “fascism.”

“The legislature, after the election, could dismiss the election,” Bowers said of the proposal, which he effectively killed, according to excerpts of a CNN special report set to air Sunday night. “And I said, welcome to fascism.”

The proposal would have overhauled the state’s election system, eliminating most early and absentee voting and restricting where ballots could be cast.

It would have also made the legislature review the election process afterward, allowing the body to “accept or reject the election results.”

Bowers in the CNN interview warned the country could be sent “back into the dark ages” by Trump-backed candidates and election deniers, saying it’s “very possible” that the election system overhaul proposal comes back to life.

“The possibility of that getting a governor signature would just be a disaster. I call it the possibility of going back into the dark ages in Arizona,” Bowers said.

The Arizona lawmaker lost his own reelection bid last month to his Trump-backed challenger in the state’s Republican primary. Kari Lake, a Trump-backed election denier, won the GOP’s nomination in the governor race.

A key witness before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Bowers refuted former President Trump’s claims of election fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

Bowers also told the committee he was pressured by Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani to overturn President Biden’s win in Arizona.

Funny, I don't recall Hillary ever pressuring election officials to overturn an election, or sending slates of fake electors to Congress, or inciting a mob to stop electoral college votes from being counted.

September 19, 2022 11:52 PM  
Anonymous Then again, some of them are just rolling with it said...

An armed Donald Trump supporter who told cops he wanted to restore the “President King of the United States” was arrested at a Dairy Queen in Pennsylvania, where he said he wanted to kill Democrats and liberals, WTAJ-TV reported.

Jan Stawovy, 61, was arrested without a struggle on multiple felony charges, according to police in Delmont. Several people were inside the fast food restaurant at the time.

Stawovy, wearing a yellow safety vest and rainbow wig, was armed with a loaded .40-caliber pistol when officers arrived Saturday to investigate a motorist’s report of an erratic driver pulling into the Dairy Queen, police said. He declared he was “undercover with Pennsylvania State Police working on a major drug sting,” according to WPXI-TV.

Stawovy yelled profanities at officers and called himself a prophet who will “kill all the Democrats because Trump was still president.” He claimed he was “working to restore Trump to President King of the United States,” according to police.

A Dairy Queen manager reportedly told police Stawovy visited the eatery earlier and placed $120 on the counter as a tip for “non-Democrats.”

Police said they seized two other guns and ammunition from Stawovy’s car.

September 20, 2022 8:27 AM  
Anonymous How do you spell perjury said...

On Jan. 7, 2021, a group of forensics experts working for lawyers allied with President Donald Trump spent eight hours at a county elections office in southern Georgia, copying sensitive software and data from its voting machines.

Under questioning last month for a civil lawsuit, a former Georgia Republican Party official named Cathy Latham said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County that afternoon. She said she stayed in the foyer and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter at the front desk.

“I didn’t go into the office,” Latham said, according to a transcript of her deposition filed in court. She said she had seen in passing a pro-Trump businessman who was working with the experts. She said they chatted for “five minutes at most” — she could not remember the topic — and she left soon after for an early dinner with her husband.

Surveillance video footage reviewed by The Washington Post shows that Latham visited the elections office twice that day, staying for more than four hours in total. She greeted the businessman, Scott Hall, when he arrived and led him into a back area to meet the experts and local officials, the video shows. Over the course of the day, it shows, she moved in and out of an area where the experts from the data forensics firm, SullivanStrickler, were working, a part of that building that was not visible to the surveillance camera.

She took a selfie with one of the forensics experts before heading out at 6:19 p.m.

A Post examination found that elements of the account Latham gave in her deposition on the events of Jan. 6 and 7, 2021, appear to diverge from the footage and other evidence, including depositions and text messages. Many of those records, including Latham’s Aug. 8 deposition, were filed in a long-running federal civil court case involving election security in Georgia.

During the 2020 election and its aftermath, Latham was a member of the Georgia Republican Party’s executive committee and sat on its election confidence task force. She was also chairwoman of the Coffee County Republican Party. She was one of the “fake electors” who signed unauthorized certificates in a bid to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat.

September 20, 2022 9:59 AM  
Anonymous Merrick Garland....LOL!!!!!!!!!!! said...

"Funny, I don't recall Hillary ever pressuring election officials to overturn an election, or sending slates of fake electors to Congress, or inciting a mob to stop electoral college votes from being counted."

Unless blackmail was involved, Trump is entitled to pressure election officials. They were fully empowered, and did, resist. Dems have regularly sent fake electors to Congress over the years. Leftist extremists did riot and burn cars at Trump's inaugural. For some reason, the police could handle it then. They must have had long COVID on Jan 6

But, Hillary did much worse. She paid a foreign spy to concoct disinformation about Trump's alleged collusion with Russia and tied up the time and resources the democratically elected administration for three years.

That's a crime against democracy.

Alarming reports that the Antarctic ice sheet is shrinking misrepresent the science under way to understand a very complex situation. Antarctica has been ice-covered for at least 30 million years. The ice sheet holds about 26.5 million gigatons of water (a gigaton is a billion metric tons, or about 2.2 trillion pounds). If it were to melt completely, sea levels would rise 190 feet. Such a change is many millennia in the future, if it comes at all.

Much more modest ice loss is normal in Antarctica. Each year, some 2,200 gigatons (or 0.01%) of the ice is discharged in the form of melt and icebergs, while snowfall adds almost the same amount. The difference between the discharge and addition each year is the ice sheet’s annual loss. That figure has been increasing in recent decades, from 40 gigatons a year in the 1980s to 250 gigatons a year in the 2010s.

But the increase is a small change in a complex and highly variable process. For example, Greenland’s annual loss has fluctuated significantly over the past century. And while the Antarctic losses seem stupendously large, the recent annual losses amount to 0.001% of the total ice and, if they continued at that rate, would raise sea level by only 3 inches over 100 years.

Many fear that a warming globe could cause glaciers to retreat rapidly, increasing discharge and causing more rapid sea-level rise. To get beyond that simplistic picture, it is important to understand how glaciers have flowed in the past to predict better whether they might flow faster in the future.

September 20, 2022 11:07 AM  
Anonymous Merrick Garland....LOL!!!!!!!!!!! said...


Two recent studies reported in the media focus on the terminus of glaciers—i.e., where the ice, the ocean and the ground come together. One study used an underwater drone to map the seabed at a depth of 2,000 feet, about 35 miles from the terminus of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. Detailed sonar scans showed a washboard pattern of ridges, most less than 8 inches high. The ridges are caused by daily tides and serve as a record of where ice touched the seabed in the past. Researchers could read that record to infer that at some time in the past the glacier retreated for half a year at more than twice the fastest rate observed between 2011 and 2019.

The cause of the specific event at the Thwaites Glacier remains unknown, in part because the time of the rapid retreat hasn’t yet been determined. It likely happened more than 70 years ago, if not several centuries ago. But the media goes with this angle: “A ‘doomsday glacier’ the size of Florida is disintegrating faster than thought.” A correct headline would read: “Thwaites Glacier retreating less than half as rapidly today as it did in the past.”

A second study tested the idea that freshwater from the melting of one glacier could be carried by currents along the shore to accelerate the discharge of nearby glaciers. Because global climate models are insufficiently detailed to describe the ocean near the coast, researchers constructed a special model to prove out their idea. If ocean currents can connect the discharges of distant glaciers, that would add to the complexity and variability of changes in the Antarctic ice sheet.

Under scenarios deemed likely by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a connection between ocean currents and discharge would increase the overall discharge rate in one region of the continent by some 10% by the end of the century. But to emphasize the idea being tested, the modelers used human influences almost three times larger. Even though that fact is stated in the paper, reporters rarely catch such nuance, and the media goes with headlines such as “Antarctic Ice Melting Could Be 40 Percent Faster Than Thought” with the absurd statement that “a massive tsunami would swamp New York City and beyond, killing millions. London, Venice and Mumbai would also become aquariums.” A more accurate headline would read: “Ocean currents connecting antarctic glaciers might accelerate their melting.”

These two studies illustrate the progress being made in understanding a dauntingly complex mix of ice, ocean, land and weather, with clever methods to infer past conditions and sophisticated computer modeling to show potential future scenarios. These papers describe the science with appropriate precision and caveats, but it is a shame that the media misrepresents the research to raise alarm. That denies the public the right to make informed decisions about “climate action,” as well as the opportunity to marvel at the science itself.

September 20, 2022 11:07 AM  
Anonymous Tucker Carlson wants others to fight for him because he's a pussy said...

It's telling how normalized events like this have become; they barely make ripples now in the national news. On Monday, Tucker Carlson of Fox News used his massive cable news audience — an average of over 3 million viewers a night — to spread a QAnon-style conspiracy theory and encourage people to commit violence against teachers and health care providers. Media Matters collected the clip. It's hard to follow for those who aren't already well-versed in the right's mythology accusing LGBTQ people and their allies of "grooming" children to be victims of sexual abuse. But what is undeniable is that Carlson is calling for violent vigilantism in response to his false accusations against doctors and teachers.

Carlson is light on examples of this alleged grooming but heavy on hyperbole and accusations implying that every child who sees a doctor or enters a classroom is in danger of being sexually abused by some liberal cabal. Yes, schools have sex education and children's hospitals offer affirming care for LGBTQ kids. But the fantasy that Carlson spins out has nothing to do with these banal realities. He claims hospitals are "castrating" children, a claim that has no relationship to painstakingly slow care protocols for gender non-conforming minors, care which is mostly focused on mental health approaches and sometimes hormonal treatment. (Surgery is generally reserved for adults.) We see this in Carlson's accusation that sex education is offered to puberty-age children in order to sexually stimulate teachers. In reality, such education is important for preventing sexual abuse.

But what's especially disconcerting is how Carlson has grown so cavalier about using these conspiracy theories to push violence as a tool against educators and health care workers. During this clip, he calls for "neighborhood dads" to dish out "instant justice" to sex education teachers. He claims doctors and teachers are "weirdos getting creepy with other people's children" and that they are committing "sex crimes." He implies doctors are somehow facilitating gender transition for kids without consulting parents. And he flat-out calls it a "moral duty" to "hurt" people who are supposedly doing these things.

Carlson doesn't say the word "QAnon," because he's clever enough to build plausible deniability around his rhetoric. But he appears to be pandering to and legitimizing this conspiracy theory, which holds that Democrats are leading an international cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles. He even baselessly insinuates that President Joe Biden molested his own daughter, and suggests this is why Biden supports trans rights. That rhetoric doesn't just encourage people to go online to "research" on their own, sending them directly to QAnon. It trains audiences to be more accepting of illogical conspiracy theories by legitimatizing wild leaps of logic.

Also, crucially, Carlson is valorizing violence. Ultimately, this is what QAnon and all adjacent "groomer" conspiracy theories are about: Building the cultural architecture to justify political violence. It recasts violence against Democrats and LGBTQ people as "defending children." And, by running segments like this, Carlson removes the wiggle room to pretend that these outrageous conspiracy theories aren't inherently violent.

All this led to Biden giving his speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, reminding Americans that "history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy." Biden's speech was well received, with 58% of Americans agreeing with him that Trump leads a violent movement that threatens democracy.

September 20, 2022 12:54 PM  
Anonymous And Trump won't fight because he is a pussy too said...

The link between political violence and the QAnon "groomer" talk is also evident in Donald Trump's escalatingly open dalliance with QAnon. Last week, Trump posted a bit of QAnon fan art showing him in what is supposed to be a majestic pose, sporting a QAnon pin and captioned with QAnon slogans. A few days later, at a rally in Ohio that was supposed to support Republican senatorial candidate J.D. Vance, the Trump team played a tune that was almost identical to a QAnon song as the crowd raised their fingers in the QAnon salute.

The timing of this more overt QAnon support happens to coincide with Trump's increasingly open winking at violence. In response to the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago in August, which targeted classified materials Trump is illegal possession of, Trump has made unsubtle threats of violence against law enforcement. He sent a message to the Department of Justice reminding them that his supporters are generating a lot of "heat" but that he could call them off, implying that the price would be the DOJ dropping the investigation. Trump has continued to issue these implied threats through right wing media, assisted by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who offered his own threat disguised as a warning of "riots in the streets" if Trump is indicted.

As David Graham at the Atlantic argued, "If there was a time when Trump didn't know how people would respond when he makes these veiled threats, it has passed. He understands now, and does it anyway." Plausible denials that this rhetoric is anything but purposeful should have dissipated after January 6. Recently, a Trump supporter died in Cincinnati after attacking an FBI office in direct response to Trump's threatening noises about the raid.

All this led to Biden giving his speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, reminding Americans that "history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy." Biden's speech was well received, with 58% of Americans agreeing with him that Trump leads a violent movement that threatens democracy.

Trump's reaction has clearly not been to scale back but to double down. Carlson's segment is also emphatic in its endorsement of violence. The overtly violent rhetoric and unsubtle nods to QAnon all point to a strategy of scaring political opponents into backing down, and it's spreading. Across the country, far-right sheriffs are promising campaigns of intimidation at the polls. Reports show that Republican candidates across the country are flirting with pushing their own Big Lies if they lose their elections, seeding the possibility that they could attempt to rile up their own voters to "do something," much like Trump incited the January 6 insurrection.

Trump and Carlson are speaking to two audiences — their own devoted supporters and worried liberals who see clips of these messages encouraging violence. But radicalism can also breed backlash. As the largely positive response to Biden's speech shows, Americans may not be keen on either extremism or political violence. Conspiracy theories like QAnon turn off exponentially more people than they lure in. Far-right bets on the politics of violence and intimidation have not yet proven to be successful in intimidating their opponents. This strategy may even anger more voters, making them more likely to turn out for Democrats in November.

September 20, 2022 12:54 PM  
Anonymous homosexual marriage is an inherently sado-masochistic arrangement that should be discouraged by any civilized society..... said...


"Tucker Carlson wants others to fight for him because he's a pussy"

what an enchanting comment

TTFers are a lot cleaner than people give them credit for

btw, is Slidin' Biden a pussy because he's not over in Ukraine fighting personally?

as far as your pathetic post goes, how about some quotes in context instead of random quoted words?

then, you might convince someone that you're not as non-compos-mentis as you seem to be

btw, Slidin' Biden is really helping the GOP out with his border incompetence

maybe he should delegate the whole thing to Kamala

LOL!!!!!

The Border Patrol has nabbed 78 people on a terrorist watch list so far this fiscal year, according to new Department of Homeland Security data.

Twelve were caught in August alone, the second highest monthly total since numbers began to be released earlier this year.

The new numbers represent a sharp increase as the Biden administration faces growing pressure to tighten security at the border: Just 15 suspected terrorists were caught in all of the fiscal year 2021, and just 11 were caught in total from 2017 to 2020.

Vulnerable Democrats running in tight midterm races will not say if they oppose amnesty for migrants who entered the U.S. illegally through the southern border.

Over two dozen Democratic members were asked if they would oppose efforts to provide a pathway to citizenship for all the illegal migrants currently residing in the United States.

More than 200,000 migrants came through the border in August alone, and border officials encountered over 2 million people crossing into the U.S. this fiscal year. After the record number of crossings, none of the Democrats answered whether they believe millions of migrants in the U.S. should be granted amnesty.

In the final 2020 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the topic turned to the immigration issues at the southern border. “Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels,” Trump said, referring to the human traffickers who facilitate illegal crossings into the United States.

That single word — “coyotes” — brought to light how many progressives with such strong, idealistic views on the migrant situation actually know very little about what’s going on. They flocked to Twitter to attempt to mock Trump, thinking he was referring to the actual animal.

“How the hell does a coyote bring a whole human across the border?! Lord—–stop talking,” declared Democratic Georgia state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick.

It was clear that when it comes to the lives of people seeking refuge, progressives only entertain the veneer of the issue, with feel-good slogans, simplistic solutions for complicated matters and wishful outcomes based on fantasy-driven advocacy.

Martha’s Vineyard, a progressive elite safe haven, has been confronted with a fraction of the reality of the crisis and forced to momentarily leave the fantasy behind by asking itself the same question border states have been for years: How do we manage these people?

The sanctuary for many millionaires and billionaires was given the opportunity to act on its progressivism by becoming a sanctuary for the deprived.

Instead, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ scheme to send people who’ve crossed our borders to Martha’s Vineyard became the stick that slammed into the elite’s hornet nest as progressive politicians and pundits attempted to sting back with rhetoric claiming flying migrants between states is immoral

yeah, how cruel to take someone to Martha's Vineyard

September 20, 2022 8:54 PM  
Anonymous heterosexuality is how life is perpetuated and it has a privileged status said...

Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have done the American people a huge favor.

With their chartered flights and buses carrying illegal aliens to elite coastal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard and liberal sanctuary cities like New York City and Chicago, they have single-handedly exposed the left’s hypocrisy on border security and illegal immigration.

The left’s furious, yet impotent, backlash to these moves has been a textbook example of hyperbole meant to inflame and divide rather than deal with a historic border crisis.

But California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reaction probably takes the cake. He called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate DeSantis and Abbott for, get this, "kidnapping."

"I urge US DOJ to investigate whether the alleged fraudulent inducement would support charges of kidnapping under relevant state laws," Newsom wrote.

Other open-borders advocates have echoed similar claims. On MSNBC, two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has told the Big Lie that the 2016 election was stolen from her, accused Texas and Florida of "literally human trafficking."

These claims are false. Numerous journalists have reported that these illegal aliens are voluntarily accepting these travel opportunities, and are often enthusiastic about traveling further into the interior, away from the border.

But, more importantly, the radical open-borders crowd should look in the mirror before accusing patriots like DeSantis and Abbott. Because a careful reading of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, Section 1324, shows that if anyone is violating federal law when it comes to illegal immigration, it’s them.

Consider first Title 8’s very clear language making it a federal felony offense "for any person who encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law."

Encouraging and inducing illegal immigration is exactly what the federal government has done since President Slidin' Joe Biden took office.

September 20, 2022 11:19 PM  
Anonymous Dem monopoly control of inner cities has led to poverty and racism said...


Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan is sounding the alarm after a whistleblower explained a shift in the FBI's priorities.

In a letter sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday, Jordan is demanding answers about why the Bureau is allegedly distributing resources away from child sex abuse cases in favor of political witch-hunts.

"The whistleblower disclosed that the FBI is sacrificing its other important federal law-enforcement duties to pursue January 6 investigations. The whistleblower recalled, for example, being 'told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies,'" the letter states. "Such a posture is not only a derelictions of the FBI's mission to investigate violations of federal laws, but is a grave disservice to the victims of child sexual abuse and other crimes that do not advance the FBI leadership's political agenda."

"The overwhelming majority of front-line FBI special agents and employees are dedicated law-enforcement officers committed to protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution. But we have consistently heard whistleblowers describe a 'rotted' culture within the FBI's senior leadership in Washington. Contrary to your belief, the FBI is not immune to oversight or accountability," the letter continues.

September 21, 2022 8:21 AM  
Anonymous Finally, some bipartisan action from Congress said...

US senators on Tuesday condemned threats of violence against the FBI, blaming former president Donald Trump for a barrage of abuse against federal agents in the month since a raid at his south Florida beach club.

The resolution came a month after agents found thousands of pages of documents, including dozens marked "secret" or "top secret," at Mar a Lago, where Trump has lived since leaving office in 2020.

Trump, who has accused the FBI of bias against him since early in his presidency, has railed against the "illegal" raid, which was approved by a magistrate who agreed there was likely evidence of law-breaking at the resort involving mishandling of White House documents.

"I have repeatedly made clear that violence against law enforcement is never -- never -- acceptable, no matter what ideology motivates it," said Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the powerful judiciary committee.

"But here is the reality: in the past month, following the FBI's execution of a search warrant at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the FBI has faced a flood of threats against its employees and its facilities -- and these threats have been egged on by the former president and his allies."

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security last month detailed an increase in threats and acts of violence against federal law enforcement officials following the August 8 search.

Durbin said he was unable to share specifics from a briefing the agencies gave senators behind closed doors last week but he told colleagues on the Senate floor the escalation was "shocking."

The Senate passed a resolution condemning the threats and noting statements from Republican members of Congress to "defund" the FBI and likening the Florida raid to "the actions of the Nazi Gestapo."

It also called out "repeated attacks from the former president, who has called FBI officials, among other insults, 'vicious monsters.'"

The resolution described some of the intimidation attempts aimed at federal agents, which it said included a pledge to place a "dirty bomb" outside of FBI headquarters and calls for "civil war" and "armed rebellion."

It recalled a widely-reported incident in which a man armed with an AR15 rifle and nail gun attempted to get into the FBI's Cincinnati field office on August 11.

The resolution also noted that a man was indicted five days later for "threatening to murder everyone at the FBI, from the director, to agents, to the custodial staff" and that another man jumped a fence and threw rocks at the agency's Chicago field office on August 25.

The resolution passed by unanimous consent, meaning no member on either side objected.

Trump's office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

September 21, 2022 10:05 AM  
Anonymous The Red State Murder Problem said...


Every news outlet from FOX to CNN to The New York Times to local newspapers has a story with attention-grabbing headlines like “US cities hit all-time murder records.” Fox News and Republicans have jumped on this and framed it as a “Democrat” problem. They blame it on Democrat’s “soft-on-crime” approach and have even referred to a New York District Attorney’s approach as “hug-a-thug.” Many news stories outside of Fox have also purported that police reform is responsible for this rise in murder and have pointed to cities like New York and Los Angeles.

There is a measure of truth to these stories. The US saw an alarming 30% increase in murder in 2020. While 2021 data is not yet complete, murder was on the rise again this past year. Some “blue” cities, like Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, have seen real and persistent increases in homicides. These cities—along with others like Los Angeles, New York, and Minneapolis—are also in places with wall-to-wall media coverage and national media interest.

But there is a large piece of the homicide story that is missing and calls into question the veracity of the right-wing obsession over homicides in Democratic cities: murder rates are far higher in Trump-voting red states than Biden-voting blue states. And sometimes, murder rates are highest in cities with Republican mayors.

For example, Jacksonville, a city with a Republican mayor, had 128 more murders in 2020 than San Francisco, a city with a Democrat mayor, despite their comparable populations. In fact, the homicide rate in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco was half that of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield, a city with a Republican mayor that overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Yet there is barely a whisper, let alone an outcry, over the stunning levels of murders in these and other places.

We collected 2019 and 2020 murder data from all 50 states. (Comprehensive 2021 data is not yet available.) We pulled the data from yearly crime reports released by state governments, specifically the Departments of Justice and Safety. For states that didn’t issue state crime reports, we pulled data from reputable local news sources. To allow for comparison, we calculated the state’s per capita murder rate, the number of murders per 100,000 residents, and categorized states by their presidential vote in the 2020 election, resulting in an even 25-25 split.

We found that murder rates are, on average, 40% higher in the 25 states Donald Trump won in the last presidential election compared to those that voted for Joe Biden. In addition, murder rates in many of these red states dwarf those in blue states like New York, California, and Massachusetts. And finally, many of the states with the worst murder rates—like Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Arkansas—are ones that few would describe as urban. Only 2 of America’s top 100 cities in population are located in these high murder rate states. And not a single one of the top 10 murder states registers in the top 15 for population density.

Whether one does or does not blame Republican leaders for high murder rates, it seems that Republican officeholders do a better job of blaming Democrats for lethal crime than actually reducing lethal crime.

September 21, 2022 10:09 AM  
Anonymous The Red State Murder Problem said...

Trump-Voting States Account for 8 out of the 10 Highest Murder Rates in 2020.

If you’re tuned in to the media, you’d think murder is rocketing skyward in New York, California, Illinois. But those states don’t even crack the top ten.

In fact, the top per capita murder rate states in 2020 were mostly those far from massive urban centers and Democratic mayors and governors. Eight of the top ten worst murder rate states voted for Trump in 2020. None of those eight has supported a Democrat for president since 1996.

The chart below shows the top 10 murder rate states in 2020. Mississippi had the highest homicide rate at 20.50 murders per 100,000 residents, followed by Louisiana at 15.79, Kentucky at 14.32, Alabama at 14.2, and Missouri at 14. The national average was 6.5 per 100,000 residents, but the top five states had rates more than twice that high.

These red states are not generating “murder is out of control” national headlines. They seem to generate no headlines at all. The rest of the top ten were filled out by South Carolina, New Mexico, Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee—all states rarely talked about in breathless media reports about rampant crime in Democratic strongholds. Notably, New Mexico and Georgia were the only Biden-voting states in the top ten, and they ranked seventh and eighth, respectively.

Five of the largest Biden-voting states by population, and those often in the news when it comes to crime, had much lower murder rates. New York at 4.11 per 100,000 residents, California at 5.59, and New Jersey at 3.70 were each well below the national average. Pennsylvania (7.22) and Illinois (9.20) were higher than the national average. But Mississippi’s murder rate was nearly 400% higher than New York’s, more than 250% higher than California’s, and about 120% higher than Illinois’s. In fact, the five states with the highest murder rates, all Trump-voting states, had rates at least 240% higher than New York’s murder rate and at least 150% higher than California’s, the homes to some of the largest cities featured prominently in the “crime is out of control” narrative.

2020 Murder Rates Are 40% Higher in Trump-Voting States Compared to Biden-Voting States.

Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states. These Biden-voting states include the “crime-is-out-of-control” cities of Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Portland, Baltimore, and Minneapolis, among other large cities.

Among the 50 states, murder rates were often well above the national average in many Republican-controlled states and cities. Jacksonville with 176 homicides and a murder rate (19.776) more than three times that of New York City (5.94) has a Republican mayor. Tulsa (19.64) and Oklahoma City (11.16) have Republican mayors in a Republican state and have murder rates that dwarf that of Los Angeles (6.74). Lexington’s Republican mayor saw record homicides in 2020 and 2021, with a murder rate (10.61) nearly twice that of New York City. Bakersfield (11.91) and Fresno (14.09) each have Republican mayors and murder rates far higher than either San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Of course, some cities controlled by Democrats have alarming murder rates, like Chicago (28.49) and Houston (17.32). But we hear about these and other Democrat-run cities all the time. We aren’t getting the whole picture.

September 21, 2022 10:12 AM  
Anonymous The Red State Murder Problem said...


Between 2019 and 2020, Murder Rates increased slightly faster in Trump-voting states than Biden-voting states.

In 2020, murder rates increased nearly everywhere. But they increased more in Trump-voting states than Biden-voting states, albeit slightly. The average increase in murder rate across all Trump-voting states was 32.2%1 compared to 30.8% in Biden-voting states.

Three out of the five states with the highest murder rates in 2020—Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama—didn’t have reliable 2019 data available, so they weren’t included in this analysis.

Three of the five states with the largest increase in murder rate were Trump-voting Wyoming at 91.7%, South Dakota at 69%, and Nebraska at 59.1%. These states are decidedly rural and do not conform to the chaos-in-the-city meme that has overtaken the crime debate. Biden-voting Wisconsin came in at the number three spot at 63.2% and Minnesota came in fifth at 58.1%. Out of the top ten states, six were Trump-voting states—with the additional three being Kentucky, West Virginia, and Kansas. The remaining states in the top ten were Delaware and Washington. Only one of the top ten states in murder rate increases, Delaware, was among the top twenty in population density.

Again, California, New York, and Illinois aren’t in the top ten. California’s murder rate increase was 31.1%, or about the national average. Both New York (45.8%) and Illinois (38.2%) were above the national average.

Conclusion

The current narrative around crime and murder is convenient and wrong. Whether you’re watching CNN or Fox News, or getting news online or from a traditional newspaper, you would think that the increase in murder is a phenomenon found mostly in liberal cities. Many have tried attributing this increase to Democratic policies, specifically police reform. Republican lawmakers and ad makers have contributed to this narrative through clever messaging and strategies.

But the data clearly paint a different story. The increase in murders is not a liberal cities problem but a national problem. Murder rates are actually higher in Republican, Trump-voting states that haven’t even flirted with ideas like defund the police. Eight of the ten most lawless, high-murder states are not only Trump-voting states, but GOP bastions for the last quarter of a century. A more accurate conclusion from the data is that Republicans do a far better job blaming others for high murder rates than actually reducing high murder rates.

September 21, 2022 10:17 AM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

DeSantis Admits Mass Migration Not Really A Big Problem In Florida Right Now

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) offered a bit more insight Tuesday into why he is spending hundreds of thousands in state taxpayer funds chartering private flights to transport migrants to states that lie hundreds of miles away.

Lately the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have been deploying a strategy to raise awareness of the surge in people crossing the southern U.S. border by busing them to cities run by their political rivals. Last week, DeSantis joined in, claiming credit for two flights from San Antonio to the tony Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Among the many legal and ethical questions DeSantis raised with his stunt was a simple logistical one: Why didn’t he start with migrants in his own state?

“The problem is, we’re not seeing mass movements of them into Florida, so you end up with a car with maybe two,” DeSantis told reporters at a news conference.

“It’s just coming in onesie, twosies,” he said.

September 21, 2022 11:08 AM  
Anonymous When they tell you who they are, believe them said...

Sen. Ron Johnson Makes The Most Right-Wing Slip Of The Tongue Ever

The GOP Wisconsin senator uttered what one critic called an "all-time Freudian slip" in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business.

Ultra-conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Tuesday said he condoned white supremacy before quickly correcting the slip of the tongue to say he condemned it, but people on the internet mercilessly pounced anyway.

“Paging Dr. Freud,” one Twitter user cracked.

That Johnson made his gaffe in an interview with fellow rightie Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business only made it worse. One jokester imagined Bartiromo’s response to be: “Jeez, remember to ‘dog whistle,’ Ron, like we practiced!”

Johnson’s record on race happens to be problematic. In a 2020 interview, he refused to condemn Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two Black Lives Matters protesters. Johnson said “justice has been served” when Rittenhouse was acquitted.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigration rights group Voces de la Frontera, said in August that Johnson’s hyperbolic comments about border security aimed “to align with Trump and the far right to try to peddle hatemongering and division.”

In 2021, Johnson was accused of racism for saying he wasn’t concerned about the Capitol rioters, but would have been had they belonged to Black Lives Matter or Antifa.

Johnson, who faces Democrat Mandela Barnes in November’s election, was part of a fake-electors plot to reverse Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

One critic called his blunder with Bartiromo an “all-time Freudian slip.”

Don't worry Ron, the Proud Boys will "stand back and stand by" for you.

September 21, 2022 11:15 AM  
Anonymous remember when Hillary said she lost because of Russian collusion with Trump: that was the Big Lie... said...


"The GOP Wisconsin senator uttered what one critic called an "all-time Freudian slip" in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business"

please tell us wh the "one critic" is

any politician in this polarized country who has but one critic is doing pretty well

"Ultra-conservative Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)"

he's "Ultra-conservative"?

he is currently ahead of his opponent in the Senate contest

and Wisconsin is not a conservative place

"on Tuesday said he condoned white supremacy before quickly correcting the slip of the tongue to say he condemned it, but people on the internet mercilessly pounced anyway"

I bet they did

the woke creatures who have poisoned our national discourse are as merciless as rattlesnakes

condoned v condemned?

sounds like an innocent mistake

you people are so pathetic

"Johnson’s record on race happens to be problematic"

really..how?

"In a 2020 interview, he refused to condemn Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two Black Lives Matters protesters. Johnson said “justice has been served” when Rittenhouse was acquitted"

actually, Rittenhouse acted in self defense

the jury heard the evidence and acquitted him

and Wisconsin is not a conservative place

"Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigration rights group Voces de la Frontera, said that Johnson’s hyperbolic comments about border security try to peddle hatemongering and division.”

contrary to Christine's charming comment, favoring secure borders is not racist

"In 2021, Johnson was accused of racism for saying he wasn’t concerned about the Capitol rioters, but would have been had they belonged to Black Lives Matter or Antifa"

opposition to Black Lives Matter or Antifa is not racist

one is a Marxist group and the other is anarchist

they are both committed to the overthrow of our government by any means necessary

"Johnson, who faces Democrat Mandela Barnes in November’s election, was part of a fake-electors plot to reverse Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat"

fake-electors plots, whether alleged or real, are not racist

"One critic called his blunder with Bartiromo an “all-time Freudian slip.”"

the concept of the Freudian slip is a myth, as discredited as Freud himself

"Don't worry Ron, the Proud Boys will "stand back and stand by" for you"

that quote is from Trump

try to associate with someone else is common deceitful TTF tactic

in other words, a Big Lie

September 21, 2022 12:46 PM  
Anonymous hi, rememba me?, it's Merrick Garland again. just checking to see if there are any openings on the Supreme Court said...

Last week, Republican Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida finally forced elected Democrats and the mainstream media to face the consequences of the rapidly worsening crisis at the southern border by dropping off illegal migrants literally right on the doorstep of Vice President Kamala Harris (Biden’s “border czar”) and the homes of Democratic elites in Martha’s Vineyard. For months, the left has largely ignored the disastrous consequences of liberal border policies, while Republicans have had only mixed success at forcing Democrats to answer for their failures. Now, as momentum on illegal immigration turns in Republicans’ favor and voters are tuned into the issue, the GOP needs concrete solutions and specific policy measures to message to voters about how Republicans will halt the unprecedented influx of illegal aliens.

With the midterm campaign season in full swing, one would be hard-pressed to find a Republican stump speech, political advertisement, or online campaign platform without at least some reference to the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border. Candidates’ campaign websites, for instance, are often littered with promises of “securing our borders,” “enforc[ing] our laws,” and finding “a real solution” to the border crisis. But what these promises often lack are details about how candidates aim to follow through once elected.

For most Americans, the unprecedented nature of the illegal immigration crisis in 2021 and 2022 is more than enough to warrant a serious policy response. In 2021 alone, U.S. Border Patrol encountered nearly two million illegal aliens—the most in recorded history (and that only includes those who were apprehended by border officials). Between April and August of last year, illegal border encounters rose by 945 percent, 674 percent, 471 percent, 413 percent, and 319 percent, respectively, compared to the same months in 2020.

Under Biden, arrests of illegal alien drug smugglers also increased by 453 percent, while arrests of illegal alien sex offenders rose 212 percent. Perhaps most alarmingly of all, with Biden in office, Border Patrol arrests of illegal alien murderers skyrocketed more than 1,900 percent. While that may sound like good news, it means that many more such offenders likely escaped undetected and that the victims of those who were caught still had to suffer the consequences of their crimes.

As of last month, the number of illegal immigrants apprehended along the border has already surpassed last year’s figure—and is on track to reach two million in a matter of weeks.

But the Biden border catastrophe does not end there: in the months since Biden took office, unprecedented amounts of lethal drugs—including fentanyl and methamphetamine—have been detected by Border Patrol. 11,000 pounds of fentanyl, for instance, were seized in fiscal year 2021, which is more than double the amount detected the previous year. Moreover, Biden’s policies have prompted the largest number of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border in history, many of whom are under the control of human traffickers, child smugglers, and violent gangs.

These sobering statistics should mean that self-described conservative candidates make addressing the border crisis a top issue for their campaign and have specific policy prescriptions ready to implement on day one if they are elected. To be sure, some Republicans have offered a handful of concrete solutions to combat the surge of illegal immigrants—including completing construction of the border wall, reinstating Trump-era immigration policies like “Remain in Mexico,” more vigorously deporting illegal border crossers, and asylum reform.

September 21, 2022 1:22 PM  
Anonymous Hey, it's the My Pillow Guy - has anyone seen my phone? said...

"unprecedented amounts of lethal drugs—including fentanyl and methamphetamine—have been detected by Border Patrol. 11,000 pounds of fentanyl, for instance, were seized in fiscal year 2021, which is more than double the amount detected the previous year."

So what you're telling me is that the Biden administration has stopped more than twice as much illegal drugs as the year before. How many lives did they save with that? Sounds like they're getting even better at their jobs.

September 21, 2022 1:45 PM  
Anonymous Hey, It's MTG - several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law said...

"the woke creatures who have poisoned our national discourse are as merciless as rattlesnakes"

Indeed, just look at these merciless quotes!:

"Paging Dr. Freud…"
"Whoopsies..."
"They all eventually tell on themselves."
"The truth always falls out his mouth!"
"Maria Bartiromo: Jeez, remember to "dog whistle," Ron, like we practiced!"
"That's not a slip up. That's the first time Ron Johnson has said anything truthful in years."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Twitter verse:

Pushaw provided the pedophilia inferences from the Governor’s Office first on Friday night.

“The bill that liberals inaccurately call ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately described as Anti-Grooming Bill,” Pushaw tweeted.

She followed that up with: “If you’re against the anti-Grooming bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4- to 8-year-old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules.”

Republicans are using the modern day equivalent of the "blood libel" to denigrate their political opponents. You don't get to whine like a baby when your opponents treat you in a similar fashion that you treat them.

September 21, 2022 2:05 PM  
Anonymous The Republican party is an inherently sadomasochistic organization that should be discouraged by any civilized society said...

Republicans are testing out sadism as a political strategy, and there are dire consequences if their bet pays off, warns a columnist for The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump and his would-be successor Ron DeSantis have centered the GOP around tormenting and humiliating the vulnerable, according to Daily Beast columnist David R. Lurie, but the Florida governor's insecurity have driven him to more obvious and clumsy attempts to cause torment.

"DeSantis has shown himself to be a supremely non-creative politician," Lurie writes. "He has systematically copied whatever happens to be the extreme right-wing trolling strategy of the moment, and then amped it up. And at every point during his tenure, the governor has anxiously looked backwards to see if any rival (including Trump) had out-extremed him."

The governor set himself apart from his GOP rivals by making cruelty and humiliation central to his brand, Lurie argues, and he engaged a shadowy outside group to send asylum seekers from Texas, for some reason, to Martha's Vineyard under false pretenses, and he tipped off Fox News but chose not to inform authorities in Massachusetts.

"Apparently, DeSantis expected that the Vineyard’s residents would recoil from the desperate asylum seekers, allowing Fox News’ viewers to savor both the suffering of the migrants and seeing the 'libs' exposed as hypocrites, expecting them to be just as cruel as DeSantis encourages his own followers to be," Lurie writes.

"It didn’t work out that way," he adds. "The Vineyard’s residents responded to the unexpected presence of viciously victimized asylum seekers with compassion and assistance. And then government officials relocated the migrants a short distance to the Cape Cod mainland, which had facilities and resources available to help them."

The sadistic stunt backfired, setting DeSantis off balance, but he and other Republicans are continuing to double down on the performative cruelty in a bet that voters take pleasure in harming others.

"Now, many in the GOP seek to 'move beyond Trump' by replacing him with a supremely non-charismatic and thoroughly disagreeable figure, who seems only to come alive while coming up with new ways to performatively humiliate and harm the vulnerable," Lurie writes. "The GOP, therefore, appears to be on the verge of a political science experiment with very high stakes: "Testing whether sadism can become the foundation for political success."

"If they are wrong, the Republican Party may be heading into a political abyss," Lurie concludes. "If they are right, the country is going there."

September 21, 2022 2:15 PM  
Anonymous The Republican party is an inherently sadomasochistic organization that should be discouraged by any civilized society said...


On Wednesday, writing for The Atlantic, Juliette Kayyem argued that former President Donald Trump's newfound, overt embrace of the QAnon movement is a sign that he is running out of ideas about how to expand his political base.

Trump had always paid some degree of praise to QAnon, a conspiratorial belief that America is controlled by a secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who consume children's flesh to live forever. But more recently he has made his allegiance to them more explicit, by playing a QAnon-associated song at his Ohio rally and sharing memes containing QAnon tropes on his social media platform, Truth Social, including "The Storm is Coming" — a reference to the movement's imagined wave of mass arrests of their political enemies.

"This has understandably provoked a lot of hand-wringing from Democrats and disillusioned former Republicans, who rightly fear that Trump will incite QAnon supporters to violence," wrote Kayyem. "But the outrage from respectable quarters matters far less to the former president than his own political plight. Trump, who had previously maintained at least a little distance from QAnon, is only signing on now because he’s flailing."

The problem for Trump, wrote Kayyem, is that between the January 6 investigation and the FBI's probe of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the former president faces a mounting wave of legal action and bad press which effectively turn millions of voters off him — and leave QAnon as one of the only sources of enthusiasm for his brand remaining.

"Violent movements either grow or fall apart," wrote Kayyem. "They stop growing when their members are arrested or run for the exits; they dissipate when their leader can no longer stay on message and repels more people than he attracts. Without Q, what is Trump’s next move to fill stadiums? The world has moved on since November 2020, but Trump has not. He offers the same vituperation of immigrants — at the same Ohio rally, he claimed to have invented the term caravans — but he has no idea what to do about the backlash his Supreme Court appointees created by overturning Roe v. Wade. All he has left is violence, or the threat of it. He needs QAnon, even if it is not a thriving or reliable army."

"I don’t know how the decay of our democracy ends. And I do not want to minimize the danger inherent in Trump’s adoption of QAnon," concluded Kayyem. "Yet his decision is encouraging in at least one way: By throwing in his lot with a bizarre cult, he is also inadvertently showing the limits of his appeal."

September 21, 2022 2:23 PM  
Anonymous GQP crows about ‘The things we do for the Orange Jesus.’ said...

"remember when Hillary said she lost because of Russian collusion with Trump: that was the Big Lie"

Sure, but you seem to have forgotten Hillary gave her concession speech on November 9, 2016, the day after the November 8, 2016 election.

Compare her 24 hour delay to concede her loss to the nearly 2 years the your Orange Jesus has been claiming to have won and still refuses to concede his loss.

Who is telling the BIG LIE is as clear as day no matter how much you spin your BS.

September 21, 2022 6:26 PM  
Anonymous Robert Mueller...LOL!! said...


"Sure, but you seem to have forgotten Hillary gave her concession speech on November 9, 2016, the day after the November 8, 2016 election."

oh, I remember

after having a nervous breakdown that night before, she and her hangover came down in a purple pants suit and she made big pitiful speech

it was after that she began telling the Big LIe

"Compare her 24 hour delay to concede her loss to the nearly 2 years the your Orange Jesus has been claiming to have won and still refuses to concede his loss."

so, does she

"Who is telling the BIG LIE is as clear as day no matter how much you spin your BS."

providing false evidence to the FBI is a crime

it was a Big Lie and impeded the democratically elected government for three years

Trump hasn't done that

September 21, 2022 9:07 PM  
Anonymous The politicians who tell you 'Biden is coming for your guns' are the politicians who are coming for your Social Security said...

"Trump hasn't done that"

No?

Do tell, when did Trump concede he lost to Joe Biden by millions of votes.

Oh that's right, he hasn't yet.

September 22, 2022 8:18 AM  
Anonymous I’ll never understand why Trump supporters aren’t more offended by how stupid Trump obviously thinks they are. said...

Trump and those close to him have claimed ― although not in court ― that he had declassified those documents while he was still president, but they haven’t offered evidence.

On Wednesday, the ex-president took it to a new level, insisting that he not only didn’t have to tell anyone but that he could do it without a word.

All he needed was his mind.

“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” he told Hannity. “You’re the president of the United States. You can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it.”

https://www.archives.gov/about/laws/appendix/12958.html

Part 3. Declassification and Downgrading

Sec. 3.1. Authority for Declassification.

(a) Information shall be declassified as soon as it no longer meets the standards for classification under this order.

(b) It is presumed that information that continues to meet the classification requirements under this order requires continued protection. In some exceptional cases, however, the need to protect such information may be outweighed by the public interest in disclosure of the information, and in these cases the information should be declassified. When such questions arise, they shall be referred to the agency head or the senior agency official. That official will determine, as an exercise of discretion, whether the public interest in disclosure outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure. This provision does not:

(1) amplify or modify the substantive criteria or procedures for classification; or

(2) create any substantive or procedural rights subject to judicial review.

(c) If the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office determines that information is classified in violation of this order, the Director may require the information to be declassified by the agency that originated the classification. Any such decision by the Director may be appealed to the President through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The information shall remain classified pending a prompt decision on the appeal.

(d) The provisions of this section shall also apply to agencies that, under the terms of this order, do not have original classification authority, but had such authority under predecessor orders.

September 22, 2022 9:44 AM  
Anonymous more of them polls that TTFers like so much...... said...

"Oh that's right, he hasn't yet"

no, he hasn't

but, as we discussed, it's common for politicians to do that

but Hilary did much greater harm by lying, AND INVOLVING LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, and substantially hindering the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED government for three years

"Trump and those close to him have claimed ― although not in court ― that he had declassified those documents while he was still president, but they haven’t offered evidence.

On Wednesday, the ex-president took it to a new level, insisting that he not only didn’t have to tell anyone but that he could do it without a word.

All he needed was his mind."

he's right about that

September 22, 2022 10:28 AM  
Anonymous Look who's still willing to repeat any lie 'for the Orange Jesus.’ said...

"All he needed was his mind."

We see reading comprehension is not your strong suit.

September 22, 2022 1:16 PM  
Anonymous more of them polls that TTFers like so much...... said...


I read it fine, you blowhard demagogue

Go back to your rubber room, the orderlies will notice you missing soon

With Bidenflation running at 12.6%, Americans are hurting. Energy is up 43%, and food prices are up 15% since President Biden took office in January 2021.

To save his party in the midterm elections in November, the President wants to divert the public's attention from the financial misery. So, he gives a series of toxic speeches calling his opponent names such as semi-fascists, etc.

Has he been successful?

No, not at all.

Can he reposition the midterm from a referendum on ‘Bidenomics’ to a referendum against President Trump?

The chances are slim.

In the latest Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP Poll conducted in early September, Americans were asked to pick top-3 issues facing the country. The economy came as the top issue for most. It does not matter what party you are from; the sentiment is shared across the political spectrum.

The economy is the #1 issue for nearly half (48%) of the Americans who took part in the poll. It is important to 38% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans, and 46% of Independents.

The #2 issue is Gun violence/Gun control at a distant 27%. Democrats (37%) think it is important and it is ‘somewhat important’ to Independents (21%), but it has limited appeal to Republicans (15%).

Immigration and border security (24%) is the #3 issue. While immigration and border security is a critical issue for one-half (49%) of Republicans, only 21% of Independents think it is important.

Many Democratic politicians want to leverage abortion as a wedge issue, but it has only limited appeal. One in five (21%) think it is important, with 26% of Democrats and a similar share of Independents (25%). Only 13% of Republicans rated it as a top issue.

The FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, followed by leaks, dominated the recent news coverage. Only 8% think investigations of the Trump administration are a top priority. It gets only 4% support from Independents

September 22, 2022 1:36 PM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

"but, as we discussed, it's common for politicians to do that"

No we didn't "discuss" that. As usual, you just made a blanket statement to cover his @$$ without any supporting evidence and expected people to believe you.

No wonder Trump had such an easy time gaslighting conservatives. You'll believe anything if it comes from the anointed one.

How many pesos did he get from Mexico for building his big, beautiful wall?

September 22, 2022 2:46 PM  
Anonymous When the facts aren't bad enough for your propaganda, just make some up said...

"With Bidenflation running at 12.6%, Americans are hurting"

I don't know what metric you made up for "Bidenflation," but the latest numbers for inflation (Aug 2022) are:

8.3% Overall
6.3% All items less food and energy

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf

September 22, 2022 2:54 PM  
Anonymous when will Slidin' Biden apologize to America for the skyrocketing cost of food he has caused?............. said...


When Democratic political strategist James Carville famously coined the phrase "It's the economy, stupid" during the 1992 presidential campaign, he recognized that voters were chiefly concerned about their own wallets.

Thirty years later, the economy is once again the top issue for voters. Above all, polling has shown voters are primarily concerned about soaring inflation, which remains at historically high levels.

Inflation rose more than economists expected in August, with consumer prices increasing 0.1% from the prior month, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The primary factor in the unexpected increase in inflation, however, was a sharp increase in food prices.

The latest government data showed food costs spiked 11.4% over the past year, the largest annual increase since May 1979.

Specifically, restaurant menu prices increased 8%, but grocery prices surged 13.5%.

Should academic journals appoint themselves social justice gatekeepers?

Nature Human Behaviour, a respected member of the Springer stable, thinks so. “Science has for too long been complicit in perpetuating structural inequalities and discrimination in society,” the editors declare in a recent manifesto. “With this guidance, we take a step towards countering this.”

The editors assure us that “advancing knowledge and understanding is a fundamental public good.” Okay. They say that research should avoid harming the individuals it studies; not a controversial proposition. But then, in a move that deserves to be very controversial, they broaden their definition of unacceptable harm to include negative social consequences for studied groups.

Researchers should “minimize as much as possible…risks of harm to the studied groups in the public sphere,” they say (my italics). “Research may—inadvertently—stigmatize individuals or human groups,” they add (again, my italics). “It may be discriminatory, racist, sexist, ableist or homophobic. It may provide justification for undermining the human rights of specific groups, simply because of their social characteristics.”

The phrases I italicized do a lot of work. A researcher might not have a discriminatory bone in her body, and she might take exquisite care to avoid biasing her research. Her evidence may be solid, her methods sound, and her conclusions actually true. Nonetheless, the editors may reject her article, require revisions, or even retract and repudiate it if they believe it “undermines the dignity or rights of specific groups; assumes that a human group is superior or inferior over [sic] another simply because of a social characteristic; includes hate speech or denigrating images; or promotes privileged, exclusionary perspectives.”

The insinuation of political agendas into science is nothing new; I wrote about it in my 1993 book “Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought.” Currently, leftist scholars are calling for rethinking academic freedom so that it does not protect “some ideas that don’t deserve a hearing.” Just recently, the California state community college system directed its employees, including faculty, to contribute “to DEI and anti-racism research and scholarship,” in violation of academic freedom and possibly the Constitution (as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression points out). Anna Krylov, in her important article “The Peril of Politicizing Science,” gives other examples of social-justice activism masquerading as science. “I witness ever-increasing attempts to subject science and education to ideological control and censorship,” she writes, adding that she recalls similar efforts in the Soviet Union of her childhood.

September 22, 2022 8:09 PM  
Anonymous when will Slidin' Biden apologize to America for the skyrocketing cost of food he has caused?............. said...

Still, groundbreaking or not, Nature Human Behaviour’s manifesto deserves attention, because it represents an explicit endorsement of social-justice gatekeeping by a respected scientific journal. In its specifics, it is riddled with problems.

In Quillette, the social psychologist Bo Winegard does a masterly job dissecting them. He takes note of the guidance’s terminal vagueness. “Ambiguity is piled upon ambiguity to expand the capricious purview of the censor,” he writes. “It does not require clairvoyance to predict that these criteria will not be consistently applied.” He notes the tendentious ideological assumptions embedded in the document. He identifies some of the legitimate research that could be squelched and chilled.

Findings about group differences—sexual, racial, cultural, and so on—would be suspect. Winegard notes that a paper finding homosexual men to be more promiscuous on average than heterosexual men might be deemed unacceptably stigmatizing, even if the findings “might…lead to a reduction in the rate of sexually transmitted infection”—something the editors would have no way to anticipate.

A biologist might feel inhibited about stating that humans are sexually dimorphous, that male and female are biologically distinguishable, or that sex differences exist at all. Some of my own writing could be suspect, for instance on the value to children of two-parent families and the dangers of radical gender ideology. As Winegard points out, the guidelines are so vague and so broad that they are bound to be chilling.

September 22, 2022 8:11 PM  
Anonymous when will Slidin' Biden apologize to America for the skyrocketing cost of food he has caused?............. said...


I can’t improve on Winegard’s analysis of the guidance’s shortcomings, so in this essay I will take a different tack by steel-manning NHB’s manifesto. Here are what I think are three plausible arguments in its favor—and why they fail.

“Scientists and journals always consider social impact when they make research decisions. We’re just doing it explicitly.”

This is the strongest point NHB can make, because its premise is true. Researchers and editors are not machines, Vulcans, or sociopaths, and we wouldn’t want them to be. They cannot and should not abstract themselves from the societies of which they are part. They can and should think about the social implications of their work and guard against foreseeably bad consequences.

Every day, researchers, journals, and grant-makers consider the wellbeing of society, including effects on marginalized groups, when they decide what to work on, what to publish, and what to fund; if they did not, science would become sociopathic and reprehensible. I myself once urged a prominent researcher to excise a book chapter that, even if it were empirically sound, would irresponsibly damage race relations and his own reputation.

A dilemma, here, is fundamental. How can science consider social responsibility without politicizing research? This problem is hard. Over the centuries, science has worked out an imperfect but very functional answer: subsidiarity.

Subsidiarity is the notion of reducing centralized control over decision-making by pushing it down to lower levels, such as individuals, local governments, non-commissioned officers, franchise managers, and community groups. Subsidiarity taps local knowledge; it encourages experimentation and retards bureaucratic ossification; it encourages personal initiative; it deters systemic takeover by special interests.

To a great extent, science works on the same principle. Accrediting bodies, scientific societies, and professional organizations set general guidelines. Yet, in implementing those guidelines, they give broad discretion to universities, which give broad discretion to their faculties, which give broad discretion to individual researchers. For the most part, we trust trained professionals to make socially responsible research decisions. For the most part, they do. Questions about social harm and social justice are hashed out in conversations and debates among members of the research community, not settled peremptorily by a handful of editors.

In this disaggregated, decentralized system, journals play the essential role of middlemen. They assess research’s importance, vet its quality, and, on approval, usher it into the marketplace of ideas. Of course, they can’t be perfectly apolitical, because they’re human; but, traditionally, they aspire to be ideologically neutral so that the political inclinations of editors don’t supersede the scientific expertise of researchers. We want them to act as quality controls, not political checkpoints.

By explicitly making social justice an element of editorial policy, NHB breaks with this tradition. To the extent it does so, the results will be bad. However professional and well intentioned NHB’s editors may be, they are not qualified to decide on society’s behalf whether research is socially harmful or desirable. In fact, they have no idea how a piece of research will ramify.

September 22, 2022 8:12 PM  
Anonymous when will Slidin' Biden apologize to America for the skyrocketing cost of food he has caused?............. said...

From the Church’s attempt to suppress heliocentrism to modern efforts by the federal government to stymie research on gun violence and the health benefits of cannabis, authorities have consistently cited social harms as grounds to suppress research, and they have consistently been wrong. NHB’s editors’ crystal ball will be no clearer. In practice, they, too, will merely interpose their own guesses and prejudices between researchers and the larger community of scholars, prejudging and distorting the search for truth.

The editors do suggest an answer to this problem. Here it is, in full: “We commit to using this guidance cautiously and judiciously, consulting with ethics experts and advocacy groups where needed.” In other words, they will recruit political activists and non-specialist kibitzers as scientific advisers. As Winegard points out, this is not reassuring.

“We’re aware of the danger of politicization but we won’t succumb. As our editorial says: ‘Ensuring that ethically conducted research on individual differences and differences among human groups flourishes, and no research is discouraged simply because it may be socially or academically controversial, is as important as preventing harm.’”

Good luck, NHB, with your good intentions. We have 300 years of scientific tradition that helps researchers and editors understand what constitutes scientific merit. We know that Bayesian reasoning is more reliable than cherry-picking; that double-blind controlled trials are better than convenience samples; that equating correlation with causality is an error; and much, much more.

“Preventing harm,” by contrast, is a completely and inherently subjective criterion. The new policy invites activists and interest groups to veto “harmful” research. They will accept the invitation, claiming that whatever research offends them is oppressive, unequal, stigmatizing, traumatic, racist, colonialist, homophobic, transphobic, violent, and—you get the idea.

When they demand the rejection or retraction of whatever research offends them, NHB, having committed to preventing “harm,” will have nothing definite to fall back on. If the editors don’t cave in right away, they will soon.

Moreover, NHB’s guidance patently is political. Consider this criterion for problematic content: “Submissions that embody singular, privileged perspectives, which are exclusionary of a diversity of voices in relation to socially constructed or socially relevant human groupings, and which purport such perspectives to be generalizable and/or assumed.” If you can figure out what this gobbledygook means, you are smarter than I am. What it does unambiguously convey, however, is woke-left identity politics. The editors might as well post a sign that says, “Conservatives Not Welcome.”

According to the Pew Research Center, from 2015 to 2019 the share of Americans saying colleges and universities have a “negative effect” on the country rose from 28% to 38%: a startlingly (and depressingly) dramatic increase. A lot of that hostility is attributable to the perception that the academy is left-dominated and intolerant. Even if scholars and editors do not deliberately inject politics into their work (and most don’t), multiple surveys show that conservative viewpoints are so rare in some disciplines that progressive orthodoxies are simply taken for granted.

September 22, 2022 8:13 PM  
Anonymous when will Slidin' Biden apologize to America for the skyrocketing cost of food he has caused?............. said...


Everything about the NHB statement will make this problem worse.

“Well, don’t you agree that science has shown itself to be biased in ways that harm marginalized social groups? Shouldn’t we do something about that?”

Yes, and yes. But I have a better plan: more and better science.

I know a little bit about bigoted science. For decades, the U.S. psychiatric establishment categorized homosexuality as a mental illness. As a direct consequence, homosexual Americans were disqualified from jobs, stigmatized as deviant and dangerous, and subjected to “treatments” that included electroshock and lobotomies. This is not some distant, long-ago world for me; it was my world until I was 13 years old. Psychiatry meant well, but its characterization of me as sick was one reason, as my sexual desires emerged, I struggled desperately and futilely to suppress them.

In 1956, the psychologist Evelyn Hooker tested whether psychiatrists could distinguish homosexuals from heterosexuals based on anonymized personality assessments. The psychiatrists could not tell the difference. Other work confirmed Hooker’s. In 1973, by a vote of its full membership, the American Psychiatric Association formally corrected its mistake by removing homosexuality from its place in the canonic Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Frank Kameny, the last century’s greatest advocate of gay and lesbian equality (and himself a Harvard-trained scientist), called the APA’s reversal the biggest mass cure in history.

It was an example of science’s most unique strength: its ability to self-correct.

A question I ask myself: In 1956—when it was a given that homosexuals are perverts who pose a danger to themselves and society—would Evelyn Hooker’s research have passed the equivalent of NHB’s guidance? Would the journal’s editors have published it? Or would they have smothered it because of the “social harm” it might cause?

You can conjecture as well as I. I’ll just say that, given history going back to Galileo and my own experience, I am pretty skeptical of offers by self-designated guardians to suppress socially harmful science.

Here is my counteroffer to Nature Human Behaviour.

Understand that it is not your job to stop science from “perpetuating structural inequalities and discrimination in society.” Go back to doing what you know how to do. Understand yourselves not as riding astride the stream of research, judging what does and does not advance justice or harm society, but as humbly serving a community of scholars who collectively have infinitely more knowledge, wisdom, and experience than you do.

Allow your thousands of researchers, reviewers, and readers to make their own various and diverse determinations of how research might ultimately benefit or harm groups, individuals, and the public good. Accept that it is arrogant and self-important for anyone, including yourselves, to set themselves up as visionaries capable of prejudging the scientific process. Apply the non-political standards of scientific merit and editorial excellence which have been honed over centuries.

Above all, remember that by far the greatest engine of social justice, human rights, and equality has been the advancement of knowledge, and the rolling back of ignorance, by a community of truth-seekers empowered to follow evidence wherever it leads. If you care about making society better and fairer, you will serve that community, not appoint yourselves to direct it.

September 22, 2022 8:13 PM  
Anonymous Roevember is coming! said...

What clear showing of right wing desperation.

Sorry MAGA crowd.

Your ignorance is your hallmark.

September 23, 2022 7:22 AM  
Anonymous remember when Hillary said she lost because of Russian collusion with Trump: that was the Big Lie... said...


"What clear showing of right wing desperation.

Sorry MAGA crowd.

Your ignorance is your hallmark."

I guess throwing out some ambiguous generalities with no specific at all is the best TTF can do at this point

anything else would provide an opportunity to show how foolish they are

September 23, 2022 8:14 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' MIGA Biden is making inflation great again !... said...

More migrants have died attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally under President Joe Biden than ever before — a catastrophic consequence of border policies that have pushed many through dangerous terrain as ports of entry have largely been closed for asylum-seekers .

Senior federal law enforcement officials at Border Patrol headquarters in Washington said they expect to surpass 800 bodies recovered at the southern border by the end of September, the conclusion of the government’s fiscal 2022 year.

“It’ll likely hit over 800 for FY22. I thought I would never see that number,” one official not authorized to speak with the media wrote in an email. “This administration does not care about dead Hispanics.”

Internal homeland security data show the government is aware of 746 deceased immigrants found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California between last October and Sept. 6. Landowners and federal, state, and local police are typically the ones who make the discoveries.

“It is a staggering death toll, and it's a sign of how desperate people are that they are willing to take these risks,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the American Immigration Council’s policy director, adding that pandemic policies that prevent migrants from seeking asylum at ports of entry are to blame. “Title 42 has sort of encouraged people to keep trying to cross the border until they make it through. That has driven people into more dangerous crossing locations."

A second senior federal law enforcement official expects the number of bodies recovered may increase this fall because Border Patrol has anticipated a slight increase in people attempting to enter that could be exacerbated by the November midterm elections .

“A potential shift in the House or Senate to Republicans” could prompt migrants to rush to the border before Congress changes hands in January 2023, the second official said. Republicans have rolled out their plan to enhance border security and reduce illegal immigration if they win.

The 746 deaths this year are up from 566 in all of last year and triple the 2020 number. Immigrants died this year from drowning, suffocation, heat exhaustion in tractor-trailers and while walking through remote areas, and vehicle pursuits with fatal crashes.

Images of immigrant deaths under former President Donald Trump had stoked national outrage, in particular among Democrats. But the deaths since Biden took office have not triggered similar responses from Biden's party despite deaths surpassing the number under the Trump, Obama, Bush, or Clinton years.

September 23, 2022 8:25 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' Joe Biden and his family are not above the law said...

It was inevitable but is worth noting that Republican midterm chances seem to be reviving as Election Day, Nov. 8, draws nearer.

Parties hope to find an October surprise to jolt sentiment against opponents late in the race, but voters focus less on passing irritations and more on cardinal concerns the closer they are to making their decision.

As transitory annoyances recede, the public’s abiding worries stand out like rocks increasingly visible above an ebbing tide. So GOP election prospects are helped by the latest Fox News finding that 59% of people are extremely concerned about rising prices. Inflation is unambiguously President Joe Biden’s and the Democrats’ fault — it arrived before Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine allowed the real culprits to muddy the waters — so voters know Washington’s leadership is a pain in their wallets. The opportunity to replace many of them is less than seven weeks away.

The “future of democracy” is extremely concerning to half of respondents, but that cuts both ways because each side seems to represent as much a danger as the other. Then there is abortion policy at 45%, which helps Democrats, and higher crime rates at 43%, which favors Republicans. Two of the three top issues, therefore, break for Republicans.

The persistence of inflation as a fact and as the cause of public disquiet makes GOP victories that Washington thought “baked in” six months ago, but collapsed like a premature souffle this summer, seem possible again. Hence Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talks optimistically behind the scenes after weeks of gloom and complaint about weak Trumpy candidates.

In the race for the seat of Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who is retiring, Republican J.D. Vance is tied with Democrat Tim Ryan, according to the latest Marist Poll, and incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine’s 18-point lead over his blue challenger might give Vance red coattails to ride on. Dr. Mehmet Oz is narrowing the lead enjoyed in Pennsylvania by Democrat John Fetterman, his debate-shy opponent who appears to be covering up ailments related to a recent stroke. So the race for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is very much up for grabs. Over-optimism about the chances of Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) keeping his seat has prompted laughable talk about his having presidential chances, but it’s more likely that former football star Herschel Walker will plow him under just as he plowed through NFL defenders back in the day.

Never underestimate the GOP's ability to find a banana skin to slip up on, but the fundamentals still favor Republicans. They bungled the abortion debate after Roe v. Wade was overturned despite having 50 years to get their talking points straight. And they continue to be wrapped in a Trumpian stench.

But elections ask whether those in power have done a good job and deserve to stay or be replaced. Democrats running Washington have done their best to make the election about abortion and Trump, but it is really about their fiscal incompetence producing inflation that is draining value from all our incomes and savings, as well as rising interest rates and likely a recession. The economy was booming until the Democrats took over. Now it’s gone boom. The two are very different.

September 23, 2022 8:30 AM  
Anonymous blue state governors are not the solution to our problems, blue state governors are the problem said...


The cost of renting a home in the United States is surging and young workers have felt the sharpest pain, many of them taking on additional jobs or roommates to afford housing costs.

Household rents in 2021 jumped 10% from pre-pandemic levels, according to Census Bureau estimates released last week. The figures came as rising healthcare and rental costs pushed U.S. consumer prices up unexpectedly last month.

The data from the bureau’s annual American Community Survey put median U.S. rent at $1,037 in 2021, up from $941 in 2019. Year-over-year increases in the median household rent over the past decade were typically 2% or 3% - one exception was the 5% rise from 2018 to 2019.

Among those affected most are recent college graduates and other new entrants to the workforce, who have little in savings and cannot afford to buy a house.

A nationwide spike in organized retail thefts has prompted nearly half of U.S. small businesses to raise prices to offset losses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported Thursday.

The business lobbying group said 56% of 750 small retailers responding to a survey were hit by shoplifters in the past year and 50% believed the problem worsened. As a result, 46% of the retailers raised prices.

“Retail theft is not a victimless crime, and its increasing prevalence means greater danger for store employees and higher costs for law-abiding Americans,” said a statement by Neil Bradley, Chamber of Commerce executive vice president and chief policy officer.

September 23, 2022 8:36 AM  
Anonymous Person, woman, man, camera, TV said...

Insider warns Trump's serious cognitive problems revealed in Hannity interview

Former President Donald Trump appears to be suffering from cognitive impairment, a former top Trump Organization insider explained on CNN on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday evening, Trump told Fox News personality Sean Hannity he could declassify documents telepathically. Trump's claim was met with scorn and derision, described as "obscenely reckless," and disputed by GOP senators.

"There's something very different about Donald Trump today than the Donald Trump I remember at the Trump Organization," Cohen said.

"I think cognitively there's something seriously going on. He's so worried about what's going on, not just in this case but in all of the cases, that I really do believe that cognitively there's something going on there because nobody, even Donald -- he's not stupid enough to believe that you can mentally declassify documents," Cohen explained.

"He knew what documents were there. I mean, there's nuclear documents and we don't even know which ones that they are, we don't know what country they relate to," Cohen said. "And I believe he took those documents and all of them in order to use against the United States in the event that he is indicted or potentially incarcerated. "It's a 'get out of jail free' card. "

"There's nothing that he won't do to protect himself because he doesn't care about anyone else other than himself," Cohen said. "In fact, he'll let his kids go down before him. He'll let them fall on the sword the same way he let me fall on the sword. That's who he is."

September 23, 2022 9:37 AM  
Anonymous Person, woman, man, camera, TV, Nazi said...

A new investigation has revealed that Secret Service was monitoring threats against the U.S. Capitol made by at least one neo-Nazi group prior to Jan. 6.

According to CREW, the threats in question were made by a member of Vorherrschaft Division on a far-right extremist messaging site called Telegram. Initially spotted by SITE Intelligence Group, the statements made in an apparent attempt to organize violent maneuvers against the Capitol were then relayed to Capitol Police by Secret Service, at which point they were told "Thanks bro!"

"We need boots on the ground and voices loud enough to be heard for miles. That's the only way things are going to change…," read one of the messages warned about. In yet another, like-minded organizers were urged to "push for more nationalist policies and attitudes."

After spotting these communications, SITE Intelligence Group, "a non-governmental organization tracking online activity of white nationalists and extremist groups" recognized them to be an imminent threat as they're trained to spot and inform relevant officials of these very things. But once the intel was passed on to the Secret Service, and then Capitol Police, there seems to have been a lapse in a general sense of preventative urgency.

In Crew's reporting they highlight that "Vorherrschaft Division is a neo-Nazi group and one of several white nationalist groups organizing on Telegram. The group was never one to take lightly, but the Secret Service appears to have paid it only passing attention."

In addition to the threats made by neo-Nazis, Secret Service received several tips from a "concerned citizen" that "two people, including a subject who previously made threats against Joe Biden, were flying to DC to attend Trump's rally and 'incite violence,' according to Crew, "and that another individual would be driving to DC with ballistic helmets, armored gloves and vests, rifles and suppressors."

For anyone who doesn't recall, the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department is an executive department - which is a principal unit of the executive branch of the US government. Which at the time of these reports, was led by one Donald J. Trump.

September 23, 2022 9:57 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job.... said...


Every election, the media spends the summer before talking about how Dems are ascendant.

Then, as fall sets in they start qualifying so they don't get revealed as liars when the actual election occurs.

The usual pattern in now kicking in.

Democratic consultants are telling party donors that while the shifting political landscape will give their candidates a chance this fall, they are likely facing a huge increase in Republican turnout.

The “MAGA surge is real,” said a presentation for donors by America Votes, a Democratic group that coordinates get-out-the-vote efforts.

“Democrats know that they are competitive in many races that might have been blowouts a few months ago, for a few reasons: The Supreme Court’s decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, as well as ebbing gas prices and a string of legislative accomplishments by Democrats.

“But,” warned the presentation “what we’re up against: GOP turnout will be very high.”

“Democrats expect this MAGA surge largely because turnout in Republican primaries so far this year has been sky-high, just as it was in 2021.”

In Pennsylvania, for example, 1.3 million people cast ballots in the May 17 GOP primary, nearly double the total of 730,857 in 2018. That’s an 85% increase.

In Georgia on May 24, Republicans saw an even bigger surge, a 98% increase from the 2018 GOP primary. Turnout was 1.2 million in the Georgia Republican contest, up from 607,874 four years prior.

This pattern held through a number of contests. GOP primary turnout was up 42% in Nevada in June, and in August primaries it was up 66% in Arizona and 52% in Wisconsin. Michigan saw a modest increase, by these standards at least, of 9%.

The kind of intensity demonstrated in this year’s primaries among Republicans was the kind of energy that translated into a big win for the GOP in the 2021 Virginia elections, even though Democrats had huge turnout as well. The GOP were victorious there for only the second time in the last 20 years, won the lieutenant governor and attorney general races, and recaptured control of the House in the state Legislature.

And Republicans did all that despite the fact that more Democrats went to the polls in 2021 than in 2017. And in the 2017 election, Democrats had completely smashed turnout records from previous years.

September 23, 2022 10:22 AM  
Anonymous Apparently, "Law and Order" is only for the hoi polloi, not rich politicians and their lawyers said...


Controversial far-right attorney Sidney Powell was scheduled to appear before a Fulton County special grand jury in Georgia on Thursday, but did not appear as scheduled.

"Sidney Powell, former attorney of former President Donald Trump, was scheduled to testify Thursday morning, but sources tell Channel 2 Action News that there may have been some confusion over the subpoena, and she apparently did not testify," WSB-TV reported. "It is unclear if there will be legal repercussions from her failure to appear."

In January, Powell was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

When Powell was subpoenaed by the select committee, it wrote its investigation, "has revealed credible evidence that you publicly promoted claims that the 2020 election was stolen and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of the election results based on your allegations. Between mid-November 2020 and January 6, 2021 (and thereafter), you actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of former President Trump in litigation and public appearances."

"The Select Committee seeks the evidence you relied upon in making those claims. According to public reporting, in December 2020, you urged President Trump to direct the seizure of voting machines around the country to find evidence that foreign adversaries had hacked those machines and altered the results of the election," the subpoena read.
"According to court records, the grand jury wants to ask Powell about her involvement in an incident that happened in South Georgia in January 2021," WSB reported. "Video shows several people being let into the County Elections Office to download elections data from voting machines and an elections server. State investigators call it 'criminal behavior' and say Sidney Powell paid for it all."

September 23, 2022 10:37 AM  
Anonymous Iran isn't the only country with religious police said...


SODDY-DAISY, Tenn. (WTVC) - The woman suing Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies over an alleged coerced baptism is dead.

Shandle Marie Riley, 42, was found dead at a home in Soddy-Daisy Wednesday.

Riley made headlines in 2019 after claiming deputies baptized her in Soddy Lake after a traffic stop.

“I think the history of it in the media will show that a baptism by a police officer in the line of duty, in exchange for leniency in a criminal case is beyond the pale,” said Robin Flores, Riley’s attorney.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Riley was found dead at a residence in Soddy-Daisy.

“All I can tell you is that I learned late last night, or late yesterday afternoon, that she had apparently been found deceased,” Flores said.

Riley is one of several people suing Hamilton County Deputy Daniel Wilkey.

She claimed he stripped down to his underwear and baptized her in Soddy Lake after a traffic stop, offering a citation instead of an arrest if she agreed.

It’s an ongoing lawsuit that’s seen many delays due to the pandemic and other factors, and with Riley’s death comes another hurdle.

“It could impact it negatively to the point where we would have nobody to continue to prosecute it,” Flores said.

But her attorney said the case can still move forward.

“Her deposition has already been done. Her testimony is preserved,” Flores said.

She said a key factor will be whether Riley’s two surviving children want to take on the case.

“They would fill her shoes in essence,” Flores said.

It’s an ongoing case with more questions than answers about what happened at this lake and, now, at the home down this road.

Riley was due to be on court Monday on drug charges.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is awaiting her autopsy results to determine her cause of death.

September 23, 2022 10:41 AM  
Anonymous government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem said...

"Iran isn't the only country with religious police"

true, there's Saudi Arabia, for one

of course, in Iran innocent people are beaten for not obeying religious rules

the story you cite, which sounds like a dubious case embellished by a drug user trying to make a case for a lawsuit pay day, would constitute a guilty person receiving leniency for participating in a religious ceremony
/
the whole thing sounds fabricated by someone who didn't understand what they're talking about

were the police officers ordained?

churches have a process to assure people are sincerely professing faith before agreeing to perform the sacrament of baptism

why would anyone be trying to coerce someone into a fake act?

TTFers seem to fall for anything

September 24, 2022 8:22 AM  
Anonymous Republicans aren't the solutions to our problems, they ARE the problem said...


"were the police officers ordained?"

That's irrelevant for this crime. Your attempt to distract from the relevant info has failed.

"why would anyone be trying to coerce someone into a fake act?"

I think the fact that the dude stripped down to his underwear before taking the woman in the water explains the "why" well enough.

"TTFers seem to fall for anything"

A woman died for an unknown reason before she could testify in an upcoming case against the deputy.

In conservative land, that's more than enough for a giant conspiracy theory - a guy went to Comet Pizza to shoot up Hillary's alleged child sex trafficking ring on nothing but a right-wing rumor.

Hundreds of Republican voters are now facing changes for their mob assault on Congress because they believed Rump's voter fraud lies without ANY corroborating evidence - they just fell for the hot air spewing out of the mouth of a known pathological liar.

September 24, 2022 9:03 AM  
Anonymous Another "perfect" phone call said...

The White House patched through a phone call to a rioter during the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the U.S. Capitol, a tech adviser chillingly revealed in an excerpt released Friday from an upcoming “60 Minutes” interview.

“You get a real ‘a-ha’ moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone while it’s happening,” Denver Riggleman, former senior technical adviser for the Jan. 6 House select committee, told CBS host Bill Whitaker.

“That’s a big, pretty big ‘a-ha’ moment,” Riggleman added.

Riggleman, an ex-military intelligence officer and former GOP congressman from Virginia, said he made the discovery after assembling a team of analysts to pour over 20 million lines of data, including emails, social media posts, phone records and texts, to trace the connections leading up to and on Jan. 6.

Groups that popped up included the “Trump team, Trump family, rally-goers, unaffiliated defendants” charged by the Department of Justice, “Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others,” including “state legislators, alternate electors, things like that,” Riggleman added.

“We were able to do things, I think, in a way that had never been done before with millions of lines of data and to actually create a graph that shows how these groups actually intermingled,” he explained.

As for the communication via the White House switchboard, “I only know one end of that call,” said Riggleman, who didn’t provide details. “I don’t know the White House end, which I believe is more important. But the thing is the American people need to know that there are... connections that need to be explored more.”

The information raises the ominous possibility that the storming of the Capitol last year to disrupt certification of the presidential electoral vote could have been coordinated between someone in the White House and the rioters.

“From my perspective... being in counterterrorism, if the White House, even if it’s a short call and it’s a connected call, who is actually making that phone call?” Riggleman asked.

“Was it an accidental call?” Riggleman asked. “When the White House just happened to call numbers, that somebody misdialed a rioter that day, on Jan. 6? Probably not.”

Riggleman, who stopped working for the committee in April, said he aggressively pushed the panel to trace White House phone numbers.

A committee spokesperson told “60 Minutes” that the panel has vigorously pursued various leads, including those arising from Riggleman’s work.

The representative said that Riggleman was unaware of much of the recent progress the committee had made because he left “prior to our hearings and much of our most important investigative work.”

Since his departure, the committee “has run down all the leads and digested and analyzed all the information that arose from his work... and a thorough report will be published by the end of the year,” the spokesperson added, without offering details.

September 24, 2022 9:08 AM  
Anonymous Dems are desperate desperados said...


"Republicans aren't the solutions to our problems, they ARE the problem"

well, they are your problem

because they point out the bankruptcy of your ideas

"That's irrelevant for this crime. Your attempt to distract from the relevant info has failed."

actually, it is rrelevant

if a sacrament is not performed by ordained clergy, it's not a sacrament

"I think the fact that the dude stripped down to his underwear before taking the woman in the water explains the "why" well enough."

I assume he did that so his clothes wouldn't get wet

"TTFers seem to fall for anything"

"A woman died for an unknown reason before she could testify in an upcoming case against the deputy."

that case was, as you say, been going on for years

it wasn't imminent

what was imminent was a trial on drug charges

more likely, her drug dealer took her out before she would be forced to testify

"In conservative land, that's more than enough for a giant conspiracy theory - a guy went to Comet Pizza to shoot up Hillary's alleged child sex trafficking ring on nothing but a right-wing rumor."

I thought that place was called Comet Ping-Pong

they story was made up by conspiracist extermism

are you admitting that's what you are?

September 24, 2022 9:29 AM  
Anonymous Republicans think Christian Nationalism is a legitimate form of US democracy said...

"if a sacrament is not performed by ordained clergy, it's not a sacrament"

That depends on what flavor of Christianity you claim to believe in.

https://www.compellingtruth.org/baptize-who.html

Who is allowed to baptize another person? Is anyone permitted to baptize/ perform baptisms?
Does the Bible provide any details regarding who can perform a baptism? While it does not offer specific rules, there are some guidelines that can be helpful.

First, it is obvious that a person who baptizes someone else should be a Christian. A person who is an atheist or belongs to another religious group should not be baptizing Christians.

Second, church leaders traditionally baptized people in the New Testament. This was not limited to elders or pastors, but also included missionaries like Paul and his associates who performed baptisms during their missionary activities. The church leader Philip also baptized an Ethiopian in Acts 8:36-39.

Third, the Great Commission was originally given to those with Jesus before He ascended to heaven, but applies to all believers. It teaches that we are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… (Matthew 28:19). In this broad context, any Christian who leads another person to faith in Christ could potentially baptize someone.

Fourth, there is no age or gender requirement for those who can baptize others. Though not all local churches approve, a younger person or female believer could also baptize someone else.

Fifth, the local church is responsible to make sure baptisms are carried out in a manner than honors God. In other words, your local church may include requirements beyond what the Bible teaches as part of their effort to conduct baptisms in an honorable manner. This is not necessarily bad, but is rather an attempt to perform baptisms in a proper manner.

Interestingly, Scripture does not focus very much on the person who baptizes Christians. John 4:2 teaches, "Although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples." Jesus had His disciples baptize His followers rather than doing it Himself. Apparently Paul did not personally baptize many people either. In 1 Corinthians 1:14-16 we read, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)" It appears Paul allowed other believers to baptize people as part of their service to the church.

Baptism is important, but the person who baptizes is not specified with detail in Scripture. Many different people were involved in the baptisms in the New Testament. Further, the local church is important in this work as well. One's local church pastor can provide additional direction in this area.

September 24, 2022 10:52 AM  
Anonymous Republicans aren't the solutions to our problems, they ARE the problem said...

"well, they are your problem

because they point out the bankruptcy of your ideas"

No, they are the problem because:

1: They have spent the last 4 decades (way back to Regan) undermining the government with their campaign slogans - "Government IS the problem," and making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2: They adopted Grover Norquist's plan: "to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub" by drastic corporate tax cuts so large they couldn't possibly pay for themselves and let deficits accumulate into a massive debt bomb that could collapse our economy at any time.

3: The "3 legged stool" of the Republican party used to be social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and foreign interventionist. But now it's got four legs: Christian Nationalists, white nationalists, fiscal idiots, and weapon industry lobbyists paying them for warfare welfare.

4: Rather than actually using the productive powers of government to help solve - or at least mitigate the problems of the working class whom they love to claim to represent - they have created a massive propaganda campaign of perpetual culture war that keep them distracted from the fact that corporations are paying all their politicians and buying all the legislation they like. Since 1978, typical worker compensation has risen only 12%. Meanwhile CEO compensation has grown 940%:
https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/

Reagan also got workers to believe unions were the problem. Now, after 40 years of Reaganomics, we see the unions were the only thing keeping them with living wages. It is only in the last few years with millions of people working for desperation wages is it finally dawning on some folks why we had unions in the first place, and why we need them now. Ask a working class Republican what the problem is though and he's likely to say it's "the war on Christmas," "transgender bathrooms," "new pronouns," or "critical race theory."

No. Those are the distractions Republican state media has spoon fed you to keep you distracted from the fact that corporations and the Republicans have conspired to suck out all your productivity gains for last 4 decades and line their pockets.

5: Republicans have been the vanguard of the "deregulate everything" religion that has decimated the middle class. In the '80s they complained that "depression era regulations" were stifling "the new economy." Well, after the dot com bubble burst, the telecom bubble burst, and the housing bubble burst, some folks have realized that we really don't have a "new economy," we just have new fools. Those regulations were put in place to keep the greed, fever dreams, and stupidity of the investor market safely away from the hard-earned wealth and homes of the poor and middle class.

Even after GW Bush and Hank Paulson decided to socialize the losses of private investment banks and insurance companies and make the US tax payer foot the bill for their wild gambling, speculation, and completely ignoring mortgage generation rules, Republicans have never allowed us to put back in place the regulations the kept those disasters from happening. So we get to do that big mess all over again at some point in the future.

Those are some of my biggest issues with the Republican party. It's not a complete list.

The only bankruptcies I've had to deal with were as a child in the home of my conservative step-father, who liked to brag he was "just a bit to the right of Genghis Kahn." He made great money as a contracts manager for nuclear power plants, but he didn't keep most jobs very long and he had to come to his kids at times for mortgage money.

I don't begrudge him that though. It taught me a useful lesson, as I told my young self "when I grow up, I'm NEVER going to let that happen to me."

I paid off my 30 year home loan in 10 years.

September 24, 2022 11:54 AM  
Anonymous Do you want that AR-15 with pepperoni, or just plain? said...

"I thought that place was called Comet Ping-Pong"

The name of the place is "Comet Ping Pong." It is a pizzeria. It must have been difficult for you to make the connection.

"they story was made up by conspiracist extermism

are you admitting that's what you are?"

That conspiracist "sentence" is so garbled I'm not even sure what you're trying to say there.

Here are two words that may help you, if I'm guessing your question right:

"Their"
"extremism"

Why would not using the full name of a pizzeria lead one to think they are some kind of extremist? How does that even connect?!

Are you some kind of grammar Nazi?

I'm admitting that I didn't use the full official name of the pizzeria. Silly me for thinking that context and people's memory would allow them figure out the business I was referring to.

Or maybe there are dozens more pizzerias that armed Republicans are going to hunt down Hillary at that I don't know about? I didn't think I needed to be so specific.

September 24, 2022 12:10 PM  
Anonymous more if them polls that TTFers like so much... said...


"I'm admitting that I didn't use the full official name of the pizzeria. Silly me for thinking that context and people's memory would allow them figure out the business I was referring to."

dude, you're too sensitive

it was just offhanded remark

MAGA policies may be out, if you listen to President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, and every other Democrat — who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on negative campaign ads aimed at Republican candidates — but, according to a recent eye-opening poll, those very same policies are very much in, as far as common-sense Americans are concerned.

Hold on to your hats for this one: An ABC News/Washington Post poll of registered voters shows that Republicans are 21 points up against Democrats in battleground districts across the country. That’s right, 21 points. These aren’t even just likely voters — they are registered voters — and many key pollsters think Republican voters don’t even want to answer polling surveys because the FBI might take their cellphones away.

Looking at just races rated at least somewhat competitive by ABC’s FiveThirtyEight model, voters favor GOP candidates 55 percent to 34 percent. Overall, by the way, the likely voter subheading showed a 51-46 Republican-Democratic split.

Here’s the actual most important key message in this poll: The GOP is favored in three of the four issues rated most important by voters, the economy (considered important by 84 percent), education (77 percent), inflation (76 percent), and crime (69 percent).

On the economy, the GOP is plus-16, on inflation plus-19, and on crime plus-14. Democrats have a plus-6 for education and schools, though frankly I don’t see how that's possible with the growing populist support for parental rights in their kids’ education.

Historically, when a president’s approval is less than 50 percent — and Mr. Biden is way below that, actually 42 percent in the latest Rasmussen poll — his party has lost an average of 37 seats.

September 27, 2022 10:27 AM  
Anonymous more if them polls that TTFers like so much... said...


These numbers put an even greater importance on the “Commitment to America” developed by Representative Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans. The “Commitment to America” lays out a roadmap that emphasizes lower federal spending to fight inflation, tax cuts and deregulation to grow the economy out of recession, and energy independence to increase fossil fracking permits, reduce reliance on foreign countries, and lower blackouts and gas and electricity costs.

Under Mr. Biden’s radical war against fossil fuels, electricity costs have increased 22 percent and utilities and piped gas services 47 percent. Roughly 20 million households are behind on utility bills and 26 percent of Americans have been forced to reduce basic expenses like food and medicine in order to pay skyrocketing energy bills.

Also in the “Commitment to America,” the roadmap emphasizes securing the border and combating illegal immigrants, reducing crime by hiring cops, and cracking down on crazy, woke prosecutors and DAs who favor criminals over victims. There’s also a section on criminalizing all forms of the scourge of fentanyl.

The “Commitment to America” supports the parents’ bill of rights, parental choice in schools, and healthcare reform through transparency and competition. The roadmap aims to fight for free speech, protecting the lives of unborn children and their mothers, religious freedom, and safeguarding the Second Amendment. Also, there’s a strong commitment to rein in government abuse of power and corruption through tough resolutions of inquiry to guarantee proper oversight.

In short, the “Commitment to America” represents a complete reversal of Mr. Biden’s radical, progressive, woke experiment. The document messages to voters the GOP commitment to curb inflation, reinvigorate the economy, fight crime, back up parents and cops, close the border, reopen the energy spigots, and defend freedom.

Freedom is a word you never hear from Democrats, but restoring freedom in all areas of American life is a very powerful undercurrent to this election.

No matter how much Biden World Democrats try to avoid these crucial issues, or lie about them, the fact remains that Americans are a lot smarter than Mr. Biden’s big-government socialists believe. Voters see right through the phony ads and statements from the Democrats.

Yes, I truly believe the cavalry is coming.

September 27, 2022 10:28 AM  
Anonymous Why bother with policy when you can just have revenge? said...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) all but admitted this week that he doesn’t care about enacting policy if the GOP wins control of the House in the November election.

Instead, the Donald Trump-adoring Florida Republican said control of the chamber should be primarily used to settle scores with Democrats.

Gaetz, appearing on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, called on Republicans to “open up every vector of attack” on Democrats as he echoed GOP calls for the impeachment of President Joe Biden and senior members of his administration for unspecified reasons.

The Republican mandate in this year’s midterm elections is “not to go hold hands in the warm spring rain with the Democrats, it is to investigate them, hold them accountable and we can do that without the Senate, without the White House,” Gaetz continued.

“And that’s why it should be investigations first (and) policy, bill-making to support the lobbyists and the PACs as a far, far diminished priority,” added Gaetz, who reportedly remains under investigation in a sex trafficking probe. He denies any wrongdoing.

September 27, 2022 1:12 PM  
Anonymous I wonder if TTFers agree with any part of the Constitution.... said...


"Maybe even more than most medical procedures, there are lots of different reasons that someone would need an abortion."

there's not "lots" of acceptable reasons

there are only two arguably acceptable reasons:

1. continuing the pregnancy would serious risk to the mother's health

2. the woman was forced to take on the pregnancy against her will

September 28, 2022 12:37 PM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job... said...


The U.S. economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter in the three months ended June, according to the final estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, meeting the criteria for a recession as raging inflation and higher interest rates weighed on spending.

The updated report, released Thursday, showed that gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, shrank by 0.6% on an annualized basis in the second quarter.

Economic output already fell over the first three months of the year, with GDP tumbling 1.6%, the worst performance since the spring of 2020, when the economy was still deep in the throes of the COVID-19 induced recession.

September 29, 2022 11:47 AM  
Anonymous In search of GOP candidates willing to stand up for democracy said...

No one knows better than Nevadans when it’s time to put our cards on the table.

The Editorial Board, and Nevadans as a whole, are facing an agonizing problem. We have endorsed Republicans in the past and might do so again in the future. Yet as we survey the field of Republican candidates across the state, we are struggling to identify those who are not an active threat to American democracy or the institutions of government that have sustained our republic for 250 years.

Those are the stakes here for the GOP. For Nevada. For our voters.

Following his loss in the 2020 election, President Donald Trump told the Big Lie – that the election had been stolen from him by cheaters, frauds and a country hell-bent on keeping him out of office. Despite countless investigations and audits, no significant fraud or electoral irregularities were ever discovered.

But the words had been spoken. The lie was told.

Two months later, on one of the darkest days in U.S. history, we learned just how far the lie had traveled and just how important it might be. Following a rally at the White House, a violent insurrection took hold at the U.S. Capitol with the goal of overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States and stopping the peaceful transition of power. At least seven people died in connection with the attack, according to a congressional report, including three police officers who were simply doing their job.

Since the insurrection, Republican leadership across the nation has worked to disenfranchise voters, allow themselves to defy the will of voters outright and to allow partisan interference in the vote count. The GOP leadership’s assault on voting rights and basic fairness has been horrifying to watch. Happily, so far Nevada has escaped such corruption. But the coming election could change all that if Big Lie candidates gain office.

Trump told The Washington Post last month that he wished he could have marched on the Capitol with the rioters, but that the Secret Service wouldn’t allow it. And now, numerous GOP candidates in Nevada are saying they wish they had been there too — not to stop the violence, but to endorse it.

Gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert was actually at the Capitol that day, spinning unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud and accusing those Republicans who believe the vote was legitimate of being “RINOs (Republicans in Name Only)” who should be removed from the party.He didn’t think that those who vandalized the halls of our Capitol or threatened police officers should be tossed out; he cheered them on. And he’s not alone.

As we wrote last October, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo disgraced himself by not condemning the violent right-wing groups that have been welcomed into the Nevada GOP, leaving Southern Nevadans to wonder whether their sheriff will protect and serve everyone in our community regardless of political persuasion.

Of the five leading Republican candidates for the governorship of Nevada, every one of them has gone on record as both supporting and contributing to the Big Lie. In doing so, they have all made a choice to subvert our democracy, undermine the integrity of our elections, and ignore the Constitution of the United States.

September 29, 2022 6:39 PM  
Anonymous In search of GOP candidates willing to stand up for democracy said...


Will GOP leaders stand up for the rule of law and free and fair elections by rejecting autocracy and lies? Or will they continue to debase themselves and their formerly great party by kneeling to their unhinged demigod, Donald Trump, and his dreams of authoritarianism.

We pray this type of anti-democratic leadership does not represent the entirety of those candidates seeking office under the Republican banner in the Silver State. After all, this is the state that just seven years ago found common ground and reelected Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval with a staggering 70.5% of the vote.

Sandoval proved to be a fair, effective and honorable governor. And had the party not lurched into insanity, he would be considered a compelling GOP candidate for president in 2024. In today’s GOP, he wouldn’t stand a chance because honor and fairness doesn’t win primaries in the GOP anymore.

As we are working on evaluations for our primary endorsements, we are pained to admit that it’s difficult to find honesty and integrity in the GOP hopefuls on this ballot.

If you are a Republican running for office who believes in truth, believes that the last election was fair, who rejects the deranged calls to destroy our democracy, we need to hear from you. Nevada needs to hear from you. We want to endorse sanity, honesty, integrity and moderation.

As it stands right now, voters are faced with a slate of GOP candidates — nearly across the board — who aren’t fit for elective office because they buy into the Big Lie and its attempt to derail democracy. We hate finding people in the public sphere who want to destroy the very elections they now seek to win. We hate efforts to disenfranchise voters and rig future elections. We yearn for a dignified, honest and pro-democracy Republican leadership. We yearn for the Republicans of years past. Patriots, not insurrectionists.

So please, if you are such a Republican and are running for office, stand proud and reach out to us. We want to present a list of heroes trying to rescue their party from the madness afflicting it. We want to share your perspective with our readers and let them know that Republican candidates for office still exist who believe in the Constitution, who believe in democracy, and who believe that the peaceful transition of power among our duly elected officials is a hallmark of what not only has made America great in the past, but what can help us continue to be a great country moving forward.

Contact our editorial page editor, Justin R. Hager, at justin.hager@gmgvegas.com.

September 29, 2022 6:40 PM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job... said...


"Nevadans are facing an agonizing problem. We have endorsed Republicans in the past and might do so again in the future. Yet as we survey the field of Republican candidates across the state, we are struggling to identify those who are not an active threat to American democracy or the institutions of government that have sustained our republic for 250 years.

Those are the stakes here for the GOP. For Nevada. For our voters.

Following his loss in the 2020 election, President Donald Trump told the Big Lie – that the election had been stolen from him by cheaters, frauds and a country hell-bent on keeping him out of office."

Al Gore told the same lie. Democracy survived

Hillary not only told the same lie, she paid to have false evidence provided and deceived law enforcement and Congress to prevent the elected government from operating. Democracy survived

September 30, 2022 8:03 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job... said...


West Coast states are feeling the pain at the pump again as gas prices are back on the rise, and they usually foreshadow the rest of the nation, making it probable that gas prices will spike around the country in the last weeks before the midterm election.

Goodbye, Dem control of Congress..

While the majority of the nation continues to experience a steadying in gas prices, California, Oregon, and Washington have seen near 60-cent spikes in gas prices in one week’s time.

California’s average price per gallon rose from $5.52 a week ago to $6.18 Thursday morning, Oregon’s gas prices have increased from an average of $4.69 per gallon to $5.29, and Washington’s average price per gallon is up to $5.17 from $4.65, according to AAA.

September 30, 2022 8:08 AM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

"Al Gore told the same lie. Democracy survived"

Man, it's like Republicans can do nothing BUT lie.

Why do you even think your BS is believable - because other wacko Republicans are stupid enough to believe it to?

Or are you guys just getting dumber all the time and are now too old to realize it?

September 30, 2022 10:32 AM  
Anonymous Supreme Court turns back effort by MyPillow CEO Lindell to toss $1.3 billion defamation suit said...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump who is trying to fend off a defamation suit from a voting company he falsely accused of rigging the 2020 election.

Michael Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a regular presence at Trump's rallies, is fighting a $1.3 billion defamation suit filed in federal court by US Dominion, the company that manufacturers voting machines used in several battleground states.

Lindell's effort was denied by a Trump-appointed U.S. District judge last year. When Lindell appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the case was not ready for review. Lindell asked the Supreme Court to rule that he could immediately appeal in order to avoid "long and expensive" court proceedings.

Lindell argues that US Dominion hasn't met the standard governing defamation claims set out in the court's landmark 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. Specifically, he asserted that the company had not proved that he knew his comments were false or that they were spoken with a reckless disregard for truth or falsity.

The lower federal court disagreed.

"As a preliminary matter, a reasonable juror could conclude that the existence of a vast international conspiracy that is ignored by the government but proven by a spreadsheet on an internet blog is so inherently improbable that only a reckless man would believe it," U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote in his opinion.

The company, Nichols wrote, "has adequately alleged that Lindell made his claims knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth."

The case is MyPillow v. US Dominion.

October 03, 2022 10:50 AM  
Anonymous J Edgar Hoover was a homosexual who abused his power... said...


The FBI has raided the home of another pro-life advocate, this time targeting a pro-life man and his family after he prayed and sang outside an abortion business last year.

This is the second time in recent weeks that the FBI has raided the home of a pro-life family — with the first case involving pro-life advocate Mark Houck, whose family was raided after an altercation at a Philadelphia abortion business last year where he accidentally pushed down a man who was verbally accosting his 12-year-old son.

This time, FBI officials raided the home of pro-life advocate Chet Gallagher after he peacefully advocated for the protection of unborn babies at an abortion facility in Tennessee last year.

Gallagher participated in a “rescue” at the Carafem abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee where he and other pro-life advocates prayed and sang in a hallway of a building that houses multiple medical business but also the abortion company.

Gallagher was out of state when the FBI arrived with guns drawn and entered his home. FBI officers demanded his whereabouts from Gallagher’s family and reportedly have asked other pro-life advocates to face charges under for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act

Tony Bobulinski was interrupted while he was being interviewed by the FBI, 11 days before the 2020 presidential election, by a mysterious phone call from the president’s brother, Jim Biden, who may have suspected that his business partner was threatening Joe Biden’s candidacy by dishing the dirt on his family’s China deals.

The missed phone call at 1:37 p.m. October 23, 2020, came as Bobulinski was telling two FBI agents that Joe Biden stood to earn a 10% cut of his son Hunter and brother Jim’s lucrative joint venture with Chinese energy firm CEFC.

Among other bombshells, the Biden family’s business partner alleges that Hunter and Jim Biden “defrauded” him and two other partners, Rob Walker and James Gilliar, of at least $5 million from CEFC and “took the money for themselves.”

In his first television appearance in two years, Bobulinski recalls his surprise when he saw that Jim Biden was calling him, and says he showed his ringing phone to the FBI field agents interviewing him at the FBI Washington Field Office.

“On my BlackBerry, Jim Biden called me via WhatsApp, and … my phone starts ringing in the middle of this interview. So, I looked down and I’m like, ‘Is he really calling me right now?’

“So, I show the phone to my lawyer and … then I showed it to the agent. The agents got up out of the chair and left the room. They were like, ‘You can take that call if you want.’ And so, I answered it and there was nobody on the other side. So, I don’t know if it was a mistake or that he tried to send me a message, or what it was. But that’s the last interaction or communication I’ve had with the Biden family.”

Bobulinski gave the FBI a five-hour interview that day, Oct. 23, 2020, as well as the contents of his three cellphones containing encrypted messages between Hunter and Jim Biden and their business partners, emails, and financial documents detailing the Biden family’s influence-peddling operation in foreign countries during Joe’s vice presidency.

October 06, 2022 10:34 AM  
Anonymous hi, rememba me?, it's Merrick Garland again. just checking to see if there are any openings on the Supreme Court said...

"The grown-up thing for our country is to learn to distinguish between the feral desire for a surrogate parent and the civilized need for someone who has the skills to run a country, and to support leaders who are competent to lead"

LOL, when will we do that?

President Joe Biden was outraged on October 5 when the oil-and-gas cartel OPEC+ announced that it would cut production by two million barrels of oil per day. He had reason to be angry. The dis was personal. And the move has global implications. OPEC+ includes Russia, and rising oil prices will help Vladimir Putin, undermine Europe’s ability to keep the lights on, and reduce food supply in the Global South. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council director Brian Deese released a joint statement slamming the decision as "shortsighted" and harmful for "lower- and middle-income countries that are already reeling from elevated energy prices."

Yet the White House’s true worry is domestic. Here is how you can tell: Sullivan and Deese mentioned Ukraine only once in their 311-word missive. But they brought up the proverbial gas "pump" twice and U.S. "gas prices" three times. President Biden has been around long enough to understand the special relationship between fuel prices and presidential job approval. He’s incensed that OPEC+ may have helped the Republican opposition weeks before the midterm election.

Biden really ought to look in the mirror. The OPEC+ embarrassment was the latest reminder that he, not Putin nor Saudi Arabia, is the chief author of the Democratic Party’s current woes. On issue after issue, the instructions that Biden gave at the outset of his presidency have made America less prosperous, less independent, and less secure.

Energy and immigration tell the tale. Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office, and two of them dealt with U.S. oil and gas production. One order pledged that America would rejoin the Paris climate accords and commit to the deal’s targeted reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The other order blocked oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, forbade drilling in large parts of Utah, and canceled the Keystone XL pipeline between the United States and Canada. One week later, Biden stopped issuing new oil and gas leases on public lands.

Biden knew what he was doing. The "clean energy transition," as Sullivan and Deese put it, is among the top priorities of the Democratic Party. The transition involves hiking the cost of carbon-based energy to the point where renewable alternatives become affordable by comparison. You decrease supply of oil and gas until prices rise enough for the average consumer to search online for a Tesla.

October 07, 2022 11:04 PM  
Anonymous hi, rememba me?, it's Merrick Garland again. just checking to see if there are any openings on the Supreme Court said...


Retail gas prices rose steadily between Election Day 2020 and June 2022. Midway through his first year in office, Biden’s energy-dampening regulations contributed to and interacted with the general price inflation he mistakenly assumed to be "temporary." The president panicked. Rather than confront the green crusaders who fund his party, he opened the spigots of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and pleaded with OPEC+, especially with America’s Persian Gulf allies, to increase production. Gas prices fell between June and September. They settled where they were earlier this year and have ticked upward since.

Biden’s strategy of dependence has run aground. The SPR has been drained to its lowest level since 1984. OPEC+ has told Biden no. The nuclear deal with Iran is in limbo as the mullahs fend off the most significant challenge to their rule in years. And a Wall Street Journal report that the administration was looking into easing sanctions on Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela so that Chevron could increase output brought jeers from Republicans and a hurried denial from the White House.

Biden’s regulations and restrictions accomplished what he wanted: more expensive oil and gas. His problem is that voters do not want the future the climate Cassandras have in store for them. Voters blame him for the inflation they encounter as commuters and consumers. He can’t go back in time to his early days at 1600 Pennsylvania any more than he can betray the progressive base of his party. He’s left to stew in a crisis of his own making.

October 07, 2022 11:05 PM  
Anonymous hi, rememba me?, it's Merrick Garland again. just checking to see if there are any openings on the Supreme Court said...


The southern border has left him in a similar situation. On day one, Biden stopped construction of the border wall, ended restrictions on migration from 13 countries associated with national-security threats (the so-called Muslim ban), reduced the scope of interior immigration enforcement, and protected special classes of illegal immigrants, including Dreamers. He began the process of ending the "Remain in Mexico" policy, whereby applicants for asylum in the United States had to wait elsewhere until their claims were decided. He terminated "safe third country" agreements—which mandate that asylum seekers must apply for protection in the first place they reach before making their way to the U.S. border—with El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

The consequences have been massive. U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than two million migrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, the most in history. That number outpaced the previous record of 1.72 million set during the prior fiscal year. Remember: These are the illegal immigrants the government knows about. There have been an estimated 600,000 "gotaways"—individuals who evade apprehension—this fiscal year alone.

It will take generations for the legal, social, and economic effects of Biden’s policies to run their course. The immigration and asylum systems are overwhelmed, long past the point where they can function as intended. Violent criminals, narco-traffickers, and human-traffickers cross the border with impunity. The families and single men and women fleeing to the United States in search of a better life are easy prey for cartels, coyotes, and the vicissitudes of nature. It’s a humanitarian disaster that affects frontline communities in Texas and Arizona, where schools, hospitals, and municipal services are stretched beyond capacity. Recently the emergency has spilled over into deep blue enclaves such as New York City and Washington, D.C.

Biden has tried to distance himself from the border crisis. He barely discusses it. His fall girl—excuse me, the head of his "Root Causes Strategy"—is Vice President Kamala Harris. In an interview with Meet the Press last month, she made the ridiculous statement that "the border is secure." Maybe she should talk to the Venezuelans that Governor Greg Abbott (R., Texas) keeps dropping off outside her house.

Very soon, Biden will be confronted with the political fallout from choices he made in January 2021. The October 3 Monmouth poll found that 82 percent of Americans say inflation is extremely or very important. Biden’s approval on inflation is 30 percent. According to Monmouth, 67 percent of Americans say immigration is extremely or very important. Biden’s approval on immigration is 31 percent. "A major problem for Democrats," poll director Patrick Murray said in a release, "is their base messaging doesn’t hold as much appeal for independents as the GOP issue agenda does."

How could it? You just can’t wave away the reaction to stagflation and unchecked immigration. You must deal with them realistically and pragmatically. For Biden, that means revisiting his first day in office and making up for past mistakes. Before voters make a correction of their own.

October 07, 2022 11:05 PM  
Anonymous fortunately, Obama and Garland were stopped so we have a terrific Supreme Court now!!! said...

Over the last several weeks, many mainstream news media outlets have claimed that hurricanes are becoming more expensive, more frequent, and more intense because of climate change.

The Financial Times reported that “hurricane frequency is on the rise.”

The New York Times claimed, “strong storms are becoming more common in the Atlantic Ocean.”

The Washington Post said, “climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes.”

ABC News declared, “Here’s how climate change intensifies hurricanes.”

Both the FT and N.Y. Times showed graphs purporting to show rising hurricane frequency using data from the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

All of those claims are false.

The increasing cost of hurricane damage can be explained entirely by more people and more property in harm’s way. Consider how much more developed Miami Beach is today compared to a century ago. Once you adjust for rising wealth, there is no trend of increasing damage.

Claims that hurricanes are becoming more frequent are similarly wrong. “After adjusting for a likely under-count of hurricanes in the pre-satellite era,” writes NOAA, “there is essentially no long-term trend in hurricane counts. The evidence for an upward trend is even weaker if we look at U.S. landfalling hurricanes, which even show a slight negative trend beginning from 1900 or from the late 1800s.” What’s more, NOAA expects a 25% decline in hurricane frequency in the future.

What about intensity? Same story. Explains NOAA, “after adjusting for changes in observing capabilities (limited ship observations) in the pre-satellite era, there is no significant long-term trend (since the 1880s) in the proportion of hurricanes that become major hurricanes.“ Bottom line? “We conclude that the historical Atlantic hurricane data at this stage do not provide compelling evidence for a substantial greenhouse warming-induced century-scale increase in: frequency of tropical storms, hurricanes, or major hurricanes, or in the proportion of hurricanes that become major.”

NOAA indeed predicts a 5% increase in hurricane intensity by 2100, but no increase in intensity is today detectable. And the best-available science forecasts that the slight increase in overall hurricane intensity in the future won’t be because there are more intense hurricanes but rather because hurricanes overall will decline more than intense hurricanes (category 4 and 5). As a result, there will be a greater proportion of category 4 and 5 hurricanes than categories 1, 2, and 3.

In other words, the relative intensity of hurricanes will rise, even as the total number of hurricanes — and the total number of intense hurricanes — decline.

Why are the media spreading obviously inaccurate information, and not reporting the basic facts? Are journalists simply ignorant? Or is something else going on?

October 08, 2022 7:27 AM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

"Energy and immigration tell the tale. Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office, and two of them dealt with U.S. oil and gas production. One order pledged that America would rejoin the Paris climate accords and commit to the deal’s targeted reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The other order blocked oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, forbade drilling in large parts of Utah, and canceled the Keystone XL pipeline between the United States and Canada. One week later, Biden stopped issuing new oil and gas leases on public lands."

Relax, oil and gas companies are still spending millions of dollars in the US to destroy wildlife, create more global warming, extract and export more hydrocarbons for the world to burn:

As war rages in Ukraine, and Europe thirsts for fuel, the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry along the US Gulf Coast is preparing to expand -- a distressing development to some nearby neighbors.

"It's our life they took here," says Travis Dardar from the doorstep of his camper trailer.

An imposing LNG export terminal -- a massive facility that receives and liquefies gas from pipelines, then transfers the LNG to ships for export -- will soon loom next to his house, forcing him and his wife to move.

Another plant is also planned where he fishes, imperiling his shrimp and oyster business.

"This is way more catastrophic than any hurricane," Dardar says, adding that people can rebuild after a hurricane.

In this marshy coastal region between Texas and Louisiana, the proliferation of LNG export terminal projects has unsettled residents, who consider the plants to be a threat to their coast, their serenity and their way of life.

"We don't know what they're going to do next. We know one thing: We can't live here," Dardar says.

The Ukraine fallout

Last March, a few weeks after the first salvos of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden pledged to increase LNG deliveries to Europe, which has traditionally been heavily dependent on Russian gas.

US suppliers have exported 1,574 billion cubic feet (44.6 billion cubic meters)of LNG to Europe so far in 2022, a sharp rise from the 917 billion cubic feet (26 billion cubic meters) in 2020, according to the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, a Washington-based trade group that represents the sector.

Noise, light and emissions

But some residents see the coasts of Louisiana and Texas as "sacrifice zones," says John Allaire, another resident.

"You've got the noise, you've got the light, you've got the air pollution. And you got the fact that they converted several hundred acres of wetlands into a big concrete pad over there," adds Allaire from his boat, pointing to the new LNG export terminal near his home.

Allaire dejectedly watches the waves caused by the huge LNG tankers that erode the shoreline. Sludge from dredging covers his beach.

He is also concerned about the consequences on wildlife. The project planned for the land along his property is located on a wetland that is home to a critically endangered bird, the black rail.

"It's really horrifying to see this (Biden) administration that came in touting environmental justice and the climate crisis... to be approving these kinds of facilities," says Kelsey Crane, in charge of public policy at the association Earthworks.

The United States has become the world's largest exporter of LNG, an industry centered around the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico, with its infrastructure and strategic location.

This area alone has five of the seven active US export terminals and 22 of the 24 projects submitted to the authorities for construction.

This activity, in turn, brings many jobs, promises Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG. As long as the terminal construction projects meet environmental criteria, the government should "authorize them without delay," he says.

October 09, 2022 6:43 PM  
Anonymous Republicans aren't the solutions to our problems, they ARE the problem said...


During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday morning, former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen advised the DOJ to move forward with indicting the former president over the theft of government files and then lying about it, and then suggested they look into the possibility he photocopied sensitive documents.

Speaking with host Ali Velshi, the former Trump "fixer" excitedly complained that he and the MSNBC host would already be in jail if they had treated the DOJ the way Trump has.

Reacting to a New York Times report that Trump plotted to use stolen files as a bargaining chip in trade for information on the FBI's investigation into ties between his 2016 campaign and the Russians, Cohen began "This whole issue is absolutely crazy. The fact that we have to sit there, and play this game with a former president of the United States? 'I want my documents back?' He's not entitled to them."

"First and foremost, they are not his," he added. "Second of all, we know that he has more documents. We know that because in the file folder, it would specifically state the number of documents in them. Well there are more of them obviously out there."

"On top of that, we should find out whether or not he photocopied any of the documents as well," he continued. "Now he is playing the art of the deal, and he did not write that book anyways. But he's playing the art of the deal, where he says 'I will trade you this for that,' -- this is beyond unheard of."

"If it was you, certainly if it was me, we would be in jail in 24 hours," he elaborated.

"The fact they are placating him only gives him the belief that he has more power than what he originally does. And think about what he is asking: 'I will trade you this top-secret information, but I want information on the Russian investigation.' Well here is a little side note for Donald, I hope he's watching the program today. You are the president of the United States for four years, you had your lapdogs from Jeff Sessions to Attorney General Bill Barr in there. You could've gotten them, of course you could have."

October 09, 2022 6:53 PM  
Anonymous we're all originalists now... said...

A college dad shot by two homeless men high on drugs and long sought by police. An illegal migrant who stabbed eight on the Las Vegas strip. An abused wife slaughtered after her husband was released without cash bail.

In a single week, the Democrats' permissive approach to law enforcement — insecure borders, cashless bail and exploding homelessness — left a lethal wake of innocent victims that shook communities coast to coast and invigorated a political debate less than 30 days from mid-term elections.

"Policymakers have decided that law-abiding citizens are secondary and that those who commit crimes are afforded protections that embolden more crime," Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro in New York told Fox News earlier this week.

Molinaro was reacting to the tragic shooting death of Paul Kutz, a 53-year-old college dad who was gunned down in a suburban New York hotel while visiting his son during family weekend at Marist College.

The suspects were two homeless men wanted in connection with other crimes who were smoking a PCP-like substance and had bomb-making materials in their room, police have said,

New York has been ground zero for liberals' experimentation with cashless bail, and the toll exacted by repeat offenders is mounting daily.

U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee for governor of New York, has focused relentlessly on the killing last week of 40-year-old Keaira Bennefield, who was shot dead in front of her children, while wearing a bulletproof vest and fearing for her life from her husband.

Her husband, Adam Bennefield, is suspected of killing her after he was released on cashless bail on five different charges, including assault, harassment, and menacing — none of which are bail-eligible.

"There are too many pro-criminal laws getting passed right now up in Albany," an exasperated Zeldin said last week. "When do we say it's time to start sticking up for law-abiding New Yorkers instead of sticking up for criminals?"

The crime wave came literally to Zeldin's doorstep on Sunday, when two men were shot in front of his Long Island house with his daughters inside.

The men collapsed by Zeldin's porch as the congressman was headed to a Columbus Day event in the Bronx, making his home a crime scene.

The daughters "were at the kitchen table doing homework," Zeldin said. "One of the bullets landed just 30 feet from them. They acted very swiftly and smartly in response​​​​​."

October 10, 2022 11:42 AM  
Anonymous we're all originalists now... said...


Halfway across the country, the iconic Las Vegas Strip was turned into a bloody killing field Thursday when a Guatemalan man illegally in the United States knifed eight victims, killing two, including a showgirl, police said.

The episode stunned tourists and street entertainers alike, some of whom said they were afraid to go back on the streets.

"We're all really distraught — it happened on one of the safer locations on the Strip and at 11 o'clock in the morning," showgirl Mikayla Yegge told the New York Post.

"We don't feel safe being out there," she added. "We don't know what we're going to do next or how we are going to continue to make money."

Former President Donald Trump has encouraged Republicans to make fighting crime a centerpiece of their bid to win back Congress over the final month of the election.

"People are afraid to walk outside to buy a loaf of bread," Trump told Just the News in an interview last week. "And we have to change that."

Crime has been a focal point of several key races where Democrats who supported permissive criminal justice policies in the past — like Wisconsin's Mandela Barnes and Pennsylvania's John Fetterman — have found themselves on the defensive in debates and in television ads by their GOP rivals.

"We have a huge problem with skyrocketing crime," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said at a Friday debate. "One of the issues is we're not keeping criminals in jail."

The issue has soared to the top of the list for November voters. More than three-quarters of voters said violent crime is a major problem, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.

Some Democrats are crying uncle, seeking help from the federal government. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week demanded that the Justice Department send more law enforcement to her state.

October 10, 2022 11:42 AM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job... said...

Our nation is once again in a perpetual state of energy dependence. Twice now, the president of the United States has pleaded with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to come to the rescue of the American economy, and twice he has been snubbed. The most recent instance only confirms what everyone has known for nearly two years — the emperor has no clothes.

This week OPEC and its plus one Russia (OPEC+) announced they would curb production by 2 million barrels per day. This happened despite the Biden administration’s quid pro quo scheme to purchase OPEC barrels to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in exchange for a guarantee to not lower production. According to Goldman Sachs, we are likely to see oil prices return to $110 per barrel, and gasoline prices will likely return to $5-$6 a gallon nationally.

It’s understandable to see this announcement as a betrayal by OPEC, but the real betrayal is the Biden administration’s actions in weakening America’s energy independence and dominance. America should never be put in a position where our energy policy is dictated by foreign nations. Under our leadership in 2019, the U.S. achieved energy security when we became a net energy exporter for the first time in 67 years.

That all came to a grinding halt when the Biden administration took the reins of the American economy. Since day one, when American energy producers were struggling to come up for air from the devastation of the pandemic, the Biden administration tied cement blocks to their legs by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, layering regulatory red tape, and empowering excessive litigation aimed at killing new energy infrastructure development — and he did it all while pointing the finger at American companies and accusing them of price-gouging and war profiteering.

Biden has begged the Saudis to boost oil production to no avail. FILE: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in July 2022.
Biden has begged the Saudis to boost oil production to no avail. FILE: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in July 2022. (Reuters)

American energy producers used to be the world’s largest swing producers — a mighty force able to counteract the price-fixing measures of foreign cartels like OPEC+. Today, however, the Biden administration prefers to fight fire with surrender.

Rather than correct his many mistakes in regulating American energy to the brink of extinction, the administration has fecklessly deployed its own price-fixing tools, flooding the market with America’s strategic oil reserves. And if 260 million barrels wasn’t enough, the Biden administration is now set to release another 10 million barrels next month — an announcement just in time for the U.S. midterm elections.

October 10, 2022 1:36 PM  
Anonymous Slidin' Biden really is doing a pretty crappy job... said...


And where are we today? Although down from their summer peak, the price at the pump is still $1.49 higher than when Biden took office. That’s a 62% spike over what was on his first day. In fact, gasoline prices currently sit at nearly the same level as the period immediately before Putin invaded Ukraine. The inescapable logic is that global geopolitical turmoil is not the only reason for high prices. Biden’s strategy of foreign dependence is making America extremely vulnerable and threatening to drive the American economy off the cliff.

And high prices are not the only source of vulnerability for America. The SPR is at a near 40-year low, having been drained by the Biden administration by 34 percent. Moreover, this number doesn’t account for the total promised to be released by the administration. When all is said and done, the SPR will be at its lowest levels since 1983 — a total depletion of 42.5 percent.

Biden turning to Venezuela, Saudis for oil as OPEC+ reduces productionVideo
Moreover, America’s stockpiles of transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and, of course, critical heating oils are also at record seasonal lows not seen since 1996. This doesn’t bode well for a nation that has lost over 1 million barrels of refining capacity under the Biden administration.

Before we deflect blame toward OPEC, we should get our house in order. Consider that, according to the economists Stephen Moore and Casey B. Mulligan, had the Biden administration not repealed the Trump administration’s pro-growth policies, America would be producing around 2 to 3 million barrels more than we currently are, and U.S. GDP would be increased by $100 billion per year. Those are precious barrels and revenue Americans can’t afford to leave off the table.

Unfortunately, the build-nothing Biden administration has never thought to look to American energy. Instead, they run to foreign governments for energy, like Venezuela. The irony is that Venezuela itself is an OPEC member. At the same time, the administration is considering a ban on energy exports — a move that would slash American GDP by $44 billion and kill 85,000 American jobs in 2023. But don’t worry, that’s all part of the green plan — it’s certainly difficult to assume otherwise.

October 10, 2022 1:36 PM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

Here are the Right-Wing talking points repeated ad-nauseum until idiots believe them:

"America should never be put in a position where our energy policy is dictated by foreign nations. Under our leadership in 2019, the U.S. achieved energy security when we became a net energy exporter for the first time in 67 years.

That all came to a grinding halt when the Biden administration took the reins of the American economy. Since day one, when American energy producers were struggling to come up for air from the devastation of the pandemic, the Biden administration tied cement blocks to their legs by canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, layering regulatory red tape, and empowering excessive litigation aimed at killing new energy infrastructure development — and he did it all while pointing the finger at American companies and accusing them of price-gouging and war profiteering."

But here are the actual facts:

https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/economics-markets/article/14283286/eia-us-exported-record-amounts-of-petroleum-products-in-firsthalf-2022

EIA: US exported record amounts of petroleum products in first-half 2022
Sept. 26, 2022

In first-half 2022 (January-June), US petroleum product exports averaged nearly 6 million b/d, the largest first-half export in the US Energy Information Administration (EIA)’s Petroleum Supply Monthly data, dating back to 1973.

Compared with first-half 2021, US petroleum product exports grew by 11% (596,000 b/d) in first-half 2022 – the fastest growth rate for this period since 2017. Almost all petroleum products contributed to export growth, with the largest volumes coming from distillate fuel oils and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs), including propane.

Distillate fuel oil exports increased by 19% (190,000 b/d) from first-half 2021 to first-half 2022. High global demand and low inventories, coupled with economic sanctions on Russia and self-sanctions by some companies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, have disrupted global distillate trade. European imports of distillates from Russia have so far been little changed from 2021, despite changes in trade patterns for other products.

Sanctions passed in Europe in June ban the import of crude oil and certain petroleum products from Russia, including distillate fuel oil, and will take effect in December for crude oil and February 2023 for oil products. With these sanctions not yet in effect, EIA has not seen the expected increase in US exports to Europe, and instead, exports to Europe decreased to 71,000 b/d in first-half 2022, while US distillate exports to Latin America increased to over 1 million b/d.

Propane was the top US petroleum product exported in the first half of the year, continuing a trend that began in 2020. US propane exports averaged 1.4 million b/d in first-half 2022, up 6% (78,000 b/d) from first-half 2021. US exports to Asia have grown rapidly in recent years as propane consumption and consumer demand have increased as a petrochemical feedstock. This year, changing supply patterns have increased European demand for US propane. Much of the growth in propane exports in first-half 2022 went to Europe. US propane exports to Europe rose 51% (87,000 b/d) and hit a record 349,000 b/d in June.

US motor gasoline exports rose 11% (89,000 b/d) to a record 910,000 b/d in first-half 2022. US jet fuel exports more than doubled in first-half 2022 compared to the same period last year. Only US residual fuel oil exports fell slightly compared with last year, to 113,000 b/d.

If you believe conservatives, somehow the US is shipping more oil and gas than it has for the last 49 years, and yet Biden is still to blame for ham-stringing the dinosaur economy.

Oil company executives and stock holder have never suffered, and they never had cement blocks around their legs. They've been making record profits since Rumpie left office.

They are still sitting on leases they haven't even drilled yet. They can do so any time they like.

October 10, 2022 3:17 PM  
Anonymous Republicans proving their strategy is to play the media rather than actually try and do something said...

"Under our leadership in 2019, the U.S. achieved energy security when we became a net energy exporter for the first time in 67 years."

If you loved Rumpie for that, then you should really love Biden, because he has basically DOUBLED US energy exports since coming into office:

https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_energy_exports_total_value

Biden Presidency
Date $ Value
July 31, 2022 34.86B
June 30, 2022 36.02B
May 31, 2022 34.38B
April 30, 2022 32.17B
March 31, 2022 30.32B
February 28, 2022 24.07B
January 31, 2022 23.21B
December 31, 2021 25.18B
November 30, 2021 24.66B
October 31, 2021 22.71B
September 30, 2021 18.92B
August 31, 2021 21.19B
July 31, 2021 19.64B
June 30, 2021 20.29B
May 31, 2021 18.10B
April 30, 2021 17.25B
March 31, 2021 16.48B
February 28, 2021 16.27B

Failed Trump Presidency
Date $ Value
January 31, 2021 15.08B
December 31, 2020 15.11B
November 30, 2020 12.41B
October 31, 2020 12.09B
September 30, 2020 11.71B
August 31, 2020 11.79B
July 31, 2020 11.38B
June 30, 2020 9.181B
May 31, 2020 7.835B
April 30, 2020 9.59B
March 31, 2020 14.63B
February 29, 2020 16.15B
January 31, 2020 17.97B
December 31, 2019 18.86B
November 30, 2019 16.72B
October 31, 2019 17.32B
September 30, 2019 16.20B
August 31, 2019 16.15B
July 31, 2019 16.03B
June 30, 2019 16.26B
May 31, 2019 16.92B
April 30, 2019 16.71B
March 31, 2019 16.39B
February 28, 2019 14.56B
January 31, 2019 15.61B
December 31, 2018 16.28B
November 30, 2018 16.79B
October 31, 2018 18.36B
September 30, 2018 16.09B
August 31, 2018 15.87B
July 31, 2018 17.48B
June 30, 2018 16.61B

October 10, 2022 3:28 PM  

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