The Frankish Reich

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.

Say what you will about Mitch McConnell (and Thune is clearly McConnell's chosen one) -- he was the most successful Senate leader in decades. Trump's legacy owes an awful lot to him, not the least of which is his savvy manipulation of judicial confirmations.

A grown-up! Who would've guessed.

Surprised Gaetz got the bigger job. Must be his perfect skin.

Obvious. But not bad. Signs of improvement.

oh, it was worth the wait, and you know it

New First Lady Elon suits Trump well. She doesn’t get all pissy and refuse to take his hand. And she’s shorter than Donald, eliminating those uncomfortable “I’m not the tallest person in the room” moments that otherwise would call for a larger lift in his shoes. For similar reasons Vivek is a Better Barron. I like these Trump 2.0 fixes. More efficient than playing pretend happy family. Maybe Vivek can do up the White House for the Hindu Feast of a Better God. Or Elon can do it up for the Nietzschean Feast of the God is Dead, Long Live the Superman on Earth.

A random thought: Biden is taking the brunt of the criticism for not withdrawing earlier. He deserves it. But unspoken is the part about Kamala. Her approval ratings as VP were just as bad, if not worse. Did she HAVE to run in his stead? Was someone forcing her? No. She chose to run, no doubt campaigned behind the scenes at the White House to be made the anointed one. Just as egotistical as any politician. If she really believed that the future of our democracy hangs in the balance, she too should have stepped aside to allow a better candidate to step forward. And she's foolishly acting like she has a Third Act in presidential politics. Kamala, you were ... o.k. Just o.k. Low bar we set for you, and you cleared it. But not by enough. Go away now. The Presidency of the University of California at Santa Cruz awaits.

The funny thing about this: it isn't any more or less "convincing" than Trump's various 2020 fraud theories. The same anecdata. But what's left of the Democratic Party somehow can't take this nonsense seriously, unlike the Trump Party last time around.

First: fix immigration. A complete overhaul. Last time it was forgotten about in the rush to pass Paul Ryan's tax cut. Second: the budget. Taxing/spending. At least have a plan for not growing the deficit.

Not what it used to be, but still sharper than The Bee. On a serious note: the Hispanic men going 45% for Trump doesn't surprise me. I have Hispanic in-laws in the southwest who have been big-time Trump supporters. The whole concept of the "Hispanic" or "Latino" vote is stupid to begin with. And the Democrats have long deluded themselves that there is some unity of interest between southwestern U.S. Hispanics - many of whom trace their ancestry back to times before the American Revolution - and newly arrived illegal aliens. About time they noticed ...

But a majority of Floridians voted for it. Under Florida's constitution, they needed 60% to pass. They just missed. No. But Texas is a minefield. Anyone - anyone - can sue a person who has facilitated an abortion. Do you really think anti-abortion activists aren't going to press this when some group transports women from Texas to a New Mexico abortion clinic? I am not exaggerating when I say it will be the new Dred Scott, here implicating what rights states have to control the behavior of their citizens who interstate travel to engage in legal activity in the receiving state.