The Frankish Reich

I used to laugh - I’ll admit it, still do - at things like the Norm MacDonald take on “pride” in enjoying the genitalia of another. I think I realized “pride” simply means “we’re not embarrassed to admit who we are.” And maybe I needed a parade or two to get it.

As Mencken defined it: “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be having a good time."

I walked passed (actually through) our pride parade today. I saw a lot of happy people enjoying themselves in a pretty wholesome way. Honestly, other than the flags they had (and one float for some kind of Halloween haunted house thing), it could've been the 4th of July. Beautiful summer day, happy people. I'm sure you'd fine something to complain about. Enjoy being miserable.

If you want to truly understand how petty, how vindictive, how personal all of this is: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/28/star-witness-against-kilmar-abrego-garca-was-due-be-deported-now-hes-being-freed/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzUxMDgzMjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzUyNDY1NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTEwODMyMDAsImp0aSI6ImVkZTBmMDcyLWEyOTEtNGU5Zi04NGIwLWY5YzdiZGYwMmQxYiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbW1pZ3JhdGlvbi8yMDI1LzA2LzI4L3N0YXItd2l0bmVzcy1hZ2FpbnN0LWtpbG1hci1hYnJlZ28tZ2FyY2Etd2FzLWR1ZS1iZS1kZXBvcnRlZC1ub3ctaGVzLWJlaW5nLWZyZWVkLyJ9._Nch735ocr9BypFYB3Xw3tJUhhZe5g2iCY6LIT4QPPA The administration is releasing a 3-time convicted felon who was set to be deported to get his testimony against Abrego-Garcia. It is commonplace to give small-time crooks this kind of benefit to go after the bigger fish. This is ass backwards. They are letting the more serious offender go free (and avoid deportation) in order to get revenge on a stupid schmuck who had the bad luck of being illegally deported due to an "administrative error." All of this just to avoid saying, "oops, we made a mistake."

Did Jack Poso provide a link to the video of those two high-agency males going at it? Can I access that link in Texas without providing age verification? I hope you used the last few weeks to get edumacated.

A rare point of agreement between Mayor Bass and President Trump.

Various types of people America would NEVER elect, all in my lifetime: - A divorced man (Reagan, and then Trump) - A serial philanderer (Clinton, and then Trump, and before my time JFK, although the public didn't know all about that) - A black man (Obama) - A convicted criminal (Trump) When people say things like this is says more about their own personal biases than it does about "America"

In what way does she come off as “unqualified?” Don’t rely on what people tell you about her dissent in the nationwide injunctions case. Read that dissent. It is a commonsense response to the majority’s hypertechnical can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees opinion. That stupid Babylon Bee thing someone posted reveals an ugly racism behind this line of “criticism”

Good points. Despite the blatantly racist characterizations of Jackson's dissent, there is a critical point there. Let's say there's a President Bernie or AOC. Day One: an EO banning "assault rifles." Guy in WY who wants to buy an AR runs to court; federal judge finds the EO unconstitutional. Maybe that only applies to him; every other prospective AR-15 purchaser also has to file his or her own lawsuit. Maybe the court finds it applies to everyone in WY. Then people in the 93 other federal districts need a similar ruling in their cases. But they're not gonna get it in, say, SF. So let's let the cases "percolate" through the courts until the Supreme Court hears it in two years. The Supreme Court ultimately finds that the EO violated the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. So for two years a large group of people have been denied their constitutional rights. Kind of a big deal, right? Kavanaugh wrote his own opinion recognizing the big dealness of all of this. He said the Supreme Court has to be ready, willing, and able to hear these constitutional challenges to EOs on an expedited basis. In the birthright citizenship case, that would mean a merits decision right now. Otherwise the ultimate decision by the Supreme Court (next June? June 2027?) may be that the EO is unconstitutional, and there will be a whole slew of babies and toddlers subject to deportation if they travel from California to Texas to visit relatives. Not good. So the Supreme Court did a legal half-assed decision that is full-assed from a political (make a point about anti-Trump injunctions) perspective. That kind of thing is the Dred Scott kind of thing - a decision that creates an untenable situation on the ground. The kind of thing they are supposedly trying to avoid as the highest Court in the land. Meanwhile, Barrett decides that we've got to look at what federal courts thought was allowed in 1789 in order to decide if a nationwide injunction is kosher. Yeah, let's all go back to 1789 when men were men and Amy couldn't vote.

Oh, I will. I will try my damndest to stay alive till 100 so you can work till you're 80 and then have a reduced social security benefit.

Washington: father of our country, leader of the winning revolutionary army Jefferson: statesman, political philosopher, drafter of the Declaration of Independence, completed the Louisiana purchase Lincoln: kept the country intact, freed the slaves, great orator whose speeches are still taught in classes today TR: created our great national park system, reform President, war hero Trump: made real money off Monopoly money scam, sold watches and Bibles, redefined "obliteration," banged a hooker, signed loser Paul Ryan's tax bill

Ouch! Me? I quite enjoyed watching the intersection of Quebecois meathead culture and Florida trailer park culture that is Hollywood, FL in the wintertime. Does this mean they aren't coming anymore?

Racist. Meanwhile, all you Texas incels, what you gonna do when they take your Pr0nhub away?

And ... we're back to Blame Canada! Come on, Mark Carney, you didn't think the Era of Good Feelings would last more than a month or two ...

Ronnie still campaigning. 2028 is apparently not so far away. Pull up a map of the Krome detention facility in the southernmost part of the Miami area. It's been there a while. Guess what? It was surrounded by swamps - and yes, alligators (that's where they live) - when the built it. Stupid branding meant to get headlines and of course scare people. You might as well say that latest inland subdivision is "surrounded by alligators."

Birthright citizenship is not an issue that requires a trial in a lower court. That's for what lawyers call a "contested issue of fact." There is no contested issue of fact. You were born in the USA of two illegal aliens. Are you a citizen under the 15th Amendment, or are you not a citizen under Trump's EO? We call that a "pure issue of law." The Supreme Court could've decided it on the merits right now. Instead they said "no national injunctions," which is fair (to me) but is also an invitation to chaos. Well, yes. But unfortunately this is a case that proves a different political point, namely that Supreme Court Justices live in their academic ivory towers and are oblivious (or intentionally ignore) the practical effects of their decisions. Just decide the damn issue, not the procedural aspects. Are kids born in the USA to illegal aliens after the effective date of the EO citizens or not? Can you get a passport for the kid? What if the kid is born to lawful foreign grad students? The kid gets a passport if he lives in California but not if he lives in Texas? You move to California to magically make the kid a citizen? Justices need to live in the real world. The Supreme Court should seek to bring order and stability, not to encourage chaos.

What's good for the goose ... https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2018/12/18/a-look-at-the-low-key-texas-judge-who-tossed-obamacare-shows-a-history-of-notable-conservative-cases/ Both sides play the "choose a favorable district/get a national injunction" game. Democratic groups invented it; Republicans perfected it. It is a good decision in general, but the missing part is this: if individual judges can't issue nationwide injunctions, the Supreme Court is going to have to get a lot more efficient at reviewing policy changes quickly. Since we don't have that, the immediate outcome will be lawsuits on birthright citizenship in 90+ federal districts, no doubt with conflicting rulings. Born in north Texas to illegal immigrants? Not a citizen. Move west to NM? Bingo! Citizen. Unworkable.

We're in the 2028 positioning period. Booker didn't catch fire at all the last time around. He is viewed as a more centrist, and so he's trying to pick up support from a more left wing black base. Interesting, though, that his "baby bonds" concept is now part of the Republican pro-family plan. It didn't catch on with Dems, but it caught on with Republicans.

In theory, I have no quarrel with the concept. Our forebears allowed/encouraged people to be shackled and transported to the USA to take advantage of free labor. A strong reparations act c. 1870 would have been fair and good. But there's no way to decide who is entitled to what 150 years later. No one has come up with a workable concept, at least not one that doesn't get us involved is some kind of government-sponsored Henry Louis Gates genealogy project (you qualify if at least one of your great-great-great grandparents is proven to have been enslaved for at least 5 years or something like that). The remedy would be worse than the disease.

We need a rule against politicians suing media companies like this, or like the Trump vs. CBS for allegedly deceptive editing of the Kamala interview. We've opened a whole new stupid can of worms. This is not the same as the Dominion lawsuit, in which a private company was defamed.

This story flew under the radar for obvious reasons. But it's a terrible precedent: the U.S. government effectively taking an ownership stake in U.S. Steel. Last week brought us the Golden Share. No, that isn’t a James Bond movie, or a detail from the Steele dossier, although the plot is as sinister. It’s the Trump administration’s first step to nationalize the steel industry. In exchange for approval of Nippon Steel’s merger with U.S. Steel, the government receives a single preferred share, which includes voting rights and all sorts of control over U.S. Steel’s ability to close factories, invest capital and relocate jobs outside the U.S. This “Golden Share” is a bad idea. Nationalization is a fool’s errand, a slippery slope to fascism’s “government controlling the means of production.” Don’t do it.

I have no opinion about why this guy was denied admission and turned around because I don't know the relevant facts. I do know the relevant law and longstanding policy: you will be admitted as a visitor if you "qualify" as a true nonimmigrant (that means you're not planning to stay longer than the authorized period, usually 90 days, you're not planning to work without authorization, etc.) AND you are not "inadmissible" for some reason. Having a political opinion contrary to the USA's political posture at the time is not a ground of inadmissibility. Having various criminal convictions, including those related to a controlled substance, is. Having admitted (or shown, e.g. on social media) may be considered a ground of inadmissibility, but traditionally it would not be invoked - we allow probably hundreds of thousands of admitted marijuana users to come in to go to Phish concerts, etc., every year. So there is a story here which could have to do with what he was carrying or what smartass thing he said (about drug use?) or maybe an overzealous inspector a little too concerned about JD Vance's feelings. Which one, I don't know.

John Thune is on the record for not trying to override the parliamentarian's decisions. This is the way the Senate decided to do things. And, of course, that same parliamentarian also found certain Biden "budget" provisions outside the scope of the reconciliation process.

OK, I watched that Tucker interview your buddy posted below. Not all of it, but definitely all of it that had to do with Vance Boelter. She adds nothing. Actually, reports the facts just as stated in that Mpls Star-Trib mainstream story. Lots of oohing and aahing and Tucker Shock Face from your host, but ... nothing. He was a weirdo who did weird and then extremely violent things. Some questions about how the family had money to buy their house (interesting, but not terribly relevant) and his Idiot's Manifesto, which no one, including Tucker and his guest, find to be more than the rantings of a madman. If he was sent out to kill Klobuchar to benefit Walz, don't you think he would've had her first on the list? Before he became the most wanted man in MN history? Actually, I like the reporter. The part about how she got screwed over in George Floyd mania rings true. But she definitely doesn't feed the conspiratorial hunger here.

Morello's a Harvard grad! Inventive guitarist, but I feel that his talent was wasted in his prime years by Zack de la Rocha getting in the way.