The Frankish Reich

I think you're talking about Justice Kagan, who was the Solicitor General of the United States, which is the constitutional office that argues all cases before the Supreme Court. I think that's a little different than a guy who litigated a few minor contract disputes in a local court in Florida ...

Again, Colorado, because it's my state and I know it: 2016 turnout: 74% of registered voters 2020: 78% 2024: 72% We have had mail-in/drop-box balloting in all three of those presidential elections. Nothing changed regarding voting rules/procedures. Turnout decides modern presidential elections. There is no basis to suggest that there's something sinister in variations like this in turnout. You might ask why turnout isn't approaching 100% in Colorado given how easy it is to vote, but of course, it never does. I guess I was naive enough to think that the stupid 2020 fraud talk would go away now, but I realize that it never will. For one side it will always be either I won or you cheated. This is how my kids were when they were 8 years old. At least they grew out of it.

No. Not all of them. But I can assure that a 40ish applicant who has faced credible accusations of having sex with a 17 year old would not be cleared. Nor would a man who, in his 50s or 60s, admitted to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park. Nor would a man who has been the subject of credible allegations of repeatedly using illegal drugs other than marijuana in the very recent past. These are not close calls.

My "three cheers for the deep State" meant exactly that. There are people out there in the government who know what they're doing, who understand that a government of laws and not of men means that there is a continuity that must always be there regardless of who won the last election, because the constitution and the laws remain in place until they're changed. The advise and consent requirement for cabinet appointees is in that constitution for a reason. It isn't something to be cynically abandoned because Susan Collins (hah!) and a couple other Republican Senators won't just rubber stamp any fool or creep.

Well, it's my opinion that she is unqualified. It is a fact that she has no real exposure to the Intel world.

Meanwhile: the investment banker/hedge fund manager scrum for Treasury apparently got too hot even for Trump. So Mark Rowan is private jetting back from Asia to be interviewed. An upstanding member of the investor class, he started at Drexel Burnham of the 1990 junk bond fiasco, then worked with Leon Black at Apollo - the very same Leon Black who named Jeffrey Epstein as trustee of his foundation and paid him $50 million. Thank God Trump won; otherwise the Davos-Epstein class would have continued to run the world.

She's not unqualified for some things, but we are talking here about the DNI. She wasn't even on the congressional committees dealing with Intel. Wrong person for the job.

Gaetz and Hegseth and Gabbard. and Kennedy. Take away the scandals, Gaetz is still ridiculously unqualified. About 2 years of actually practicing law at a completely local/private level

From my state: By the numbers: About 72% of registered Colorado voters participated in this election. That's down from 78% in 2020 — when turnout was among the highest in the country — and 74% in 2016, per state data. What they're saying: Multiple factors contributed to this year's trailing turnout, including a lack of enthusiasm among Democrats both statewide and nationally, political experts tell us. Explanation: Colorado is a safe blue state. Unless you're all fired up by some competitive down-ballot candidate/measure, why bother to vote?

Question: Trump will have a clear Senate Majority. Does Trump strong-arming the Senate to go into a technical 10-day recess to allow him to make appointments without hearings bother those of you who support him? If not, why do you believe such a cynical manipulation of the constitution is a good idea?

If by "deep state" we mean a government of decent people who obey the laws and avoid scandalous behavior, well, then, count me in.

Pet peeve of mine (oh, and I've got many of 'em): I've worked for the federal government. I've had clearances. I've been through the whole process. Interviewing neighbors and work associates about my behavior. Excessive drinking? Any illegal drug use? Extra-marital affairs? Contacts with undesirable people like strippers and hookers and drug dealers? Sexual harassment allegations and other workplace behavior? Getting my prints taken. Giving access to my tax records. Disclosing all my investments and any foreign contacts. Undergoing interviews under oath. I've been involved in hiring. I've vetoed good job candidates because I knew that wouldn't get the necessary clearance. And then some political appointee comes in who I know could never get hired/pass a security clearance for a career job. Never. The people in the most important jobs are the most compromised individuals.

And suddenly Bo Nix just seemed to get it. I didn't see that one coming.

Bingo. In a salary cap league, it all amounts to expected value for the price. Even with these $40 million contracts, top QBs clearly exceed that in the value they provide. Yes, a true elite tier QB like an Allen or a Mahomes is actually underpaid. (That doesn't mean a next tier QB like Prescott is underpaid. There's a big difference.) Will free agent market price Greg Rousseau provide excess value? I doubt it.

And don't forget: we need to look at healthy life-years, not just at the net number of lives saved.

You are all blind to the fact that you are proving the Marxist philosophy. They dazzled you with tales of "taking on the elites" and the deep state/global financial order, only to install the very same people in positions of power. Trump is the opiate of the new lower classes. So keep having wet dreams about Tulsi and RFK Jr. It will continue to distract you from the fact that those with real power before will have real power after.

"Paradoxically, Bessent’s past association with Soros is a positive to Trump, who is impressed with the billions Soros has made in financial markets and sometimes asks what it was like working for Soros."

Duped!

Close enough for me.

So you tell me ... how is this "taking on" the Soros-led globalist investor class?

Trump's Transition Chair, Globalist Bond Trader and Tether Pimp (and possible Treasury Secretary too!) Howard Lutnick at, umm, Davos: Or perhaps you prefer the current frontrunner, Yale grad (where he was a member of one of those Bushie secret societies) and two-time George Soros investment manager Scott Bessent! https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/the-ex-soros-executive-who-is-trumps-new-obsession-4be2d493 The billionaire investor has known the Trump family for decades, though he didn’t become close with the former president himself until recently. He is friends with Blaine Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump’s late brother, Robert. Bessent visited Trump early this year at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, where they discussed ways Trump could convert his ideas into policy. Bessent is friends with Sen. JD Vance (R., Ohio) and was among the few on Wall Street advocating for Trump to choose Vance as his running mate. He also is friendly with John Paulson, another investor seen as a potential Treasury secretary under Trump. Bessent joined Soros Fund Management in 1991. He was one of the driving forces behind the firm’s enormous bet that the British pound would collapse after he spotted marked weakness in the U.K. housing market. The wager netted the firm more than $1 billion in 1992. Bessent was Soros’s chief investment officer from 2011 to 2015 and ran the firm for a time. He scored kudos again, in 2013, for a successful bet against the Japanese yen. That'll show that Davos globalist billionaire investor class who's boss! Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. You Trumpies were duped. Again.

He's never been able to take the win. He always has to try to rub it in. He's got to try to run up the score, leave his starters in until someone gets injured.

What will Julie Kelly say? She of the ADM big ag additive lobbyist family. Kill big ag! Victory Gardens for all!

thank you for flagging an incredibly stupid paragraph from an incredibly stupid book review of what appears to be a decent book. Check out this wonderful synopsis of the Frankfurt School in America: The post-1933 exodus of German intellectuals brought the Frankfurters to America, which they despised, minus Benjamin, who killed himself in 1940. Their ideology was institutionalized between 1968 and the Obama presidency. "Benjamin, who killed himself in 1940." Geez, I wonder why? As Paul Harvey used to say, The Rest of the Story: Benjamin was fleeing the Nazi occupation of Paris. His apartment was ransacked. Some friends helped him obtain documents to flee overland to Spain, but when he finally made it to the border, he found that it was closed and that would-be refugees would be sent back to the Nazi regime in France. He killed himself instead with vials of morphine he carried on his person in anticipation of this happening.