The Frankish Reich

Hey, if it pops into your head, why not make a whole new post for it! One of the benefits of HHS cuts is that traveling biological supply salesmen have more time to post rambling pseudo-political thoughts on football boards.

Maybe it'll be poor Maria Butina. Didn't Mike Flynn have the hots for her too?

Cruel to keep us waiting

That's the kicker. Home Depot has the resources to eat the increased costs. For now.

I will drink American "Barolo?" I will eat faux "Swiss" milk chocolate? I will drive a Buick and say it's the American Audi?

Love, General Misha

Sorry, Tarheel. I know all about her now. Love, Frankiepoo “The Guardian understands Flynn and Lokhova remained in email contact, conducted through an unclassified channel. In one email exchange described by Andrew, Flynn signed himself as “General Misha”, Russian for Mike.”

Yeah, but he’s all got and bothered about this Svetlana. I think he googled (incognito) “Svetlana Hot Russian.” Now he’s ready to buy $5000 in Best Buy gift cards to help with her legal case. And, you know, maybe meet up some day.

All good MAGA people: please report immediately to the Svetlana something thread. Tarheel is lonely; he’s taken to responding to himself again. I tried to jump in to make the reply count more respectable (I don’t want to be responsible for him doing anything foolish), but he really could use some fake interest from Blitzy or BMan. Hell, he’d probably even take Wolfgang at this point. P.S. He’s promising that this is the first in a series. Don’t let him down or he may get canceled before Season 1’s script roadmap is even completed.

Glad to see your First in a Continuing Series is really catching on. Do I have to wait until next Thursday for Episode 2? Are you more Amazon Prime Video than Netflix?

New Fed governor Stephen Miran is the man obsessed with devaluation of the dollar as an economic panacea. Crackpot warning applies.

Stephen Miller’s young kids suddenly invested in Palantir in January. Smart kids!

Wasn't she Donald's Favorite Black Woman Supporter just, like, 2 months ago?

Because $1.50 for every $100 ain't "free"?

Nothing like unbounded optimism. I am old enough to remember when Obama ushered in a new Democratic century. Well, not true. But there is a troubling issue with income/wealth distribution in America. It far predates Trump (even Trump 1.0). What you guys would call "globalism" is really nothing more than "a free economy." Bernie would say it's a Winner Take All economy. Tyler Cowen called it "Average is Over." A good read.

True. And that encouragement of tipping: yeah, let's make the USA more Third Worldy than it already is.

I think you're mixing up two things. Apportionment - the number of representatives each state has - is different from districting. And this difference is what Republicans today are trying to exploit. As for the "enumeration" clause - yes, it does clearly contemplate once in ten years. And apportionment is based on that. Even the Republicans today aren't arguing that (for example, saying that net out migration from California should result in that state losing a rep or two before the next census)

After all, Trump is not a billionaire because his father gifted him $250,000 when he was 21. He's a billionaire because he's a stable genius. Stability/intelligence. What, are we gonna tax that away to level the playing field?

I guess I don't understand the thinking here. This sounds like DEI by other means. Aren't the wealthy "wealthy" because of certain attributes? High IQ (including a large genetic component), drive/perseverance, a future orientation (developing their human capital through education, etc, even if it means deferred gratification)? Isn't the Republican Party all about recognizing that? Let's apply your comment to, say, college admissions. Elite colleges have tended to have a lot of "legacy" admissions - children of their grads. If Yale has 30% legacy admissions, well, part of that is the Yale parent was likely really smart, and so the Yale son or daughter is too. I know, let's make them diversify by accepting other kids with poorer academic credentials! Let's eliminate standardized testing. DEI for me but not for thee.

This is part of a long-term GOP strategy. The constitution (we still care about that, right?) mandates a decennial census where we count the people. No 3/5 of certain people anymore. But it doesn't necessarily say that congressional districts need to be drawn based on those whole people. So the GOP would like to retain the benefit of a large illegal population (have you ever actually been to Texas?) to get more congressional seats/electoral votes, but to also obtain the benefit of drawing districts based on other ways of counting, like excluding illegal aliens.

You're right. This happens in American politics all the time. A new government comes in all full of talk of reform. And then it becomes obsessed with retaining power regardless of its principles. It's particularly true of Trump 2.0 (and yes, to be fair Biden before him, and Obama 2.0 before that). That's what happens when the presidency becomes a Cult of Personality. You might well ask "what personality" with respect to Biden. And I'll respond that he ran on a Return to Normalcy plank. Restore stability in the government, take things more down a middle of the road track. And then he governed much farther to the left as he desperately tried to keep a previously winning coalition (educated white people, minorities) intact.

OK Mr. Zero Sum Thinking.

Well that should convince everyone! They weren't fake as in "made up entirely." They were fake as in "cut-and pasted together from several emails." Reliable!

Do you really think your opposition to mandated COVID vaccines is sufficient cause to cut off grants to promising anti-cancer research? (to ask the question to the MAGAnuts is to answer it)

RFK Jr: let's kill grants for mRNA research because, well, because whatever. Goodbye to a promising research program that could eliminate certain forms of cancer. https://ufhealth.org/news/2025/surprising-finding-could-pave-way-for-universal-cancer-vaccine We have buffoons making decisions.