The Frankish Reich

I'm gonna shock you guys here. NC Bills Fan or DR's Lap Dog or whatever he calls himself may just have to unblock me (I mean, pretend that he'd blocked me and isn't blocking me anymore or whatever). But here it is: The Republicans took the House. They should investigate whether Joe Biden benefited in any manner from Hunter Biden's sleazy lobbying activities. It shouldn't be an everything everywhere all at once investigation, but rather a focused investigation on exactly what Hunter promised to the people that hired him (with respect to access to the big guy) and whether Joe Biden was aware that such promises were made, and whether he ever profited from Hunter's activities. That narrow point should be investigated. I have no idea what they're waiting for. They ran on this. Hunter is a sleaze, there is enough there to at least ask some questions of some people under oath.

Hey, that's all true. But Trump doesn't deal in truth. He deals in more visceral responses. And he has absolutely no shame. 76 year old obese man decides he's gonna attack 44 year old Italian American who could stand to lose, I dunno, 10-15 pounds (just like most of us) by calling him "Meatball Ron." Political consultants would say "No!" Don't go there. You'll piss off Italians and fat people. And there's a really, really lot of fat people. But Trump doesn't worry about those things. He wants to create a simple negative association that sticks. "Low energy Jeb." You will not beat him by playing his game. He is the master of the low blow, the outrageous political stunt. You have much to learn, Grasshopper Ron.

Then why are Republicans hellbent on introducing federal abortion bans? Lindsey Graham - not exactly a backbencher - started the ball rolling on this right after Dobbs. And even "mainstream" Republicans like Tim Scott are suggesting that they'd sign a federal abortion ban. They will not accept a Supreme Court "yes" for an answer. Why not? Because this was never about "leaving it to the states." That was the lie everybody told to try to get Roe overturned. It was about banning abortion. Period. That wacko judge in Texas just said the quiet part out loud.

Not the point. DeSantis just gave Trump an opening to present himself - Trump! - as the reasonable guy rather than the grandstanding fool. Hard to accomplish, but Meatball Ron just did it.

You realize that Dobbs was supposed to be about leaving the issue to the states, not about federal legislation outlawing any kind of abortion?

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/trump/2023/04/19/trump-criticizes-desantis-on-disney-with-economic-disaster-in-florida/70129695007/ Ronnie, you will not beat Trump at his own game ....

Your first sentence makes a lot of sense. Is there ANY politician willing to espouse that?

I see you are now a jury consultant too. I have no idea who was on that jury and neither do you. As for the judge: yeah, Fox's lawyers hid some stuff in discovery, and that's probably the best way to piss off a judge. And then they tried to play the age card with Rupert Murdoch, saying it would be too difficult for him to travel all the way from NYC to Wilmington in one of his private jets. The judge called Murdoch's bluff, and Murdoch folded. Simple as that. The judge told Fox's attorneys not to make him "look like an idiot." The remarks came at the outset of a pre-trial hearing when Judge Eric M. Davis noted that he previously had received a letter stating that the 92-year-old Murdoch "couldn't travel" to the trial in Delaware because of COVID. "I also have people telling me that he's done some things recently that [show] he's hardly infirm," Davis said, noting that Murdoch had recently announced his engagement to be married for the fifth time and plans to travel between his homes in Los Angeles, Montana, New York and London.

But Fox News has been revealed to be more Ron Burgundy ("it doesn't matter who or what the Trump Campaign sends over, he'll put it on the air!), less Howard Beale. From somewhere in pervy former commenter hell, in a room adjacent to Charlie Rose, Bill O'Reilly admits as much: https://thehill.com/media/3957726-bill-oreilly-criticizes-fox-news-following-settlement-the-nightmare-will-continue/ [Guilty pleasure confession: I used to watch O'Reilly from time to time. It was newstainment of a different sort. Sometimes I agreed with him, sometimes he was the man I loved to hate.] I will also half-heartedly defend Rush Limbaugh. There was a time in the early 90s when I had a hellish long commute and I'd listen to him regularly. He was funny back then. The people he skewered kind of deserved it. Then Newt and his ilk took over Congress, they started sucking up to a guy who used to be a smallish market (Sacramento) local blowhard, and he started spewing 100% party line stuff. The fun part died, the fake indignation part took over, and it all got very boring. The difference between O'Reilly 2005 and Hannity 2017.

You’re right I guess. That was my 20 minutes of Fox News for 2023. And we would’ve seen 92 year old Rupert Murdoch on the stand, bringing us a Life Imitates Art parody of Succession. Complete with stock tanking.

I did watch the start of Hannity yesterday. He led with … … Something about Biden’s inept cabinet. Mayorkas something something border. HHS Secretary something something define a woman. ATF Director something something what’s-an-assault-weapon. In other words, the Fox News Greatest Hits collection. Not a mention of the Dominion cave by his own network. The only way to tell something happened was by the dog that didn’t bark: “election fraud” was suspiciously missing from the Greatest Hits montage.

Bingo! I’ve been saying it for a long time now: there’s something homoerotic about all these proud boys (the name says it all) and their ilk.

I did the same thing. Except I thought "Breakup" (note the capital B) was some kind of website that collects sports rumors. Some people are just a little more obsessive about Josh Allen I guess.

The fact that the opinions of really stupid people are always available to me at any time of day? (Oh. Wait a minute ...)

And so the truth (as we know it so far) is far more boring, stupid, and Gen Z-ish than anyone could have imagined. - 21 year old loser, still playing video games constantly, probably no female friends (much less a girlfriend), trying to impress teenage boy gamers (repressed, umm, something) - little bit of training, like your khaki pants tech guy at the office, gives him access to all sorts of stuff he shouldn't be seeing - inflated opinion of his ordinary at best intelligence, a little bit of (small) mind warping by right-wingy racist nonsense And there you have it. A National Security scandal for the 2020s. The stupidest age ever.

I assume it’ll be a court martial proceeding. Which is likely to be a whole lot worse. Time to consider this: what message does the pardon of Bradley/Chelsea Manning send about how seriously we take deliberate leaks of national security information?

And yet you follow Kim Dotcom. Nice. As for Sy Hersh: he did some great reporting in his prime. Like, 50 years ago.

Yep. These are the alt news sources they follow.

Our April 2023 leader in the clubhouse: a narcissistic damn fool named Jack Teixeira. https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/04/13/bear-versus-pig-on-the-thug-shaker-but-not-a-fascist-recruiting-site/ Let’s let a 21 year old Massachusetts Air National Guard loser view some of our country’s most sensitive strategic national defense documents! This guy sounds like a younger, better looking Deranged Rhino.

I’d set it at an even 70. That would discourage the 67 year olds from running for Senate/Pres/VP because they’d necessarily be one termers only. But even 72 or 75 would be better than what we have now. It is long forgotten, but when Reagan’s age became an issue he committed to taking periodic mental acuity tests if elected. I guess he forgot to schedule those tests.

Why is “War” in quotes?

I think everyone (well, everyone except those who work for tips) hates the Tipping Economy. Tips solicited and given for all kinds of things that were just ordinary service, like orders at counter-service restaurants. I imagine that credit card tips must be accounted for and tax withheld on distribution. But what about all those valets and bellhops who still get cash tips? Why wouldn’t we want them to disclose the value and pay tax on it?

Hilarious take! Congrats. Now I’ll ruin it all by commenting: true. Maybin really didn’t like playing football. When I was a kid I imagined everyone out there fit the cliche: “I still can’t believe they’re paying me millions for playing a kid’s game I would play for free.” But no. Some guys are pure mercenaries out there. Part of all this draft stuff (the interviews, background checks, etc) is just figuring out who really fits the cliche and who is Aaron Maybin 2.0. Good for Maybin if he invested wisely and just walked away. Bad for the Bills, but good for Maybin.

Swanson TV dinner heir frustrates by small size of his peach cobbler.