Good morning one and all to another amazing day!
Trump administration takes shape: President-elect completes top 15 Cabinet picks
Ric Grenell under consideration to be Trump’s point man on Ukraine: report
Trump Border Czar Tom Homan Plans PR War over Migration and Repatriations
Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Movement Facing Post-Election ‘Disillusionment with Activism’
Ranked Choice Voting Fails Bigly Almost Everywhere – Despite Backers Spending Big Bundles of Cash
Half of U.S. at risk for blackouts during extreme cold this winter, grid watchdog warns
Data centers powering artificial intelligence could use more electricity than entire cities
Stanford prof accused of using AI to fake testimony in Minnesota case against conservative YouTuber
That’s all I got for today. I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.
Thank goodness that Rank(ed) choice is going down the tubes, that is the most worthless political invention in decades.
I don’t get the RCVDS.
It makes the political process less transparent, takes away the validity of “one person, one vote”, doesn’t allow for greater political participation as it means one party can flood the zone with weak candidates which washes away peoples chance to hear alternative political messaging, and so on. And while the proponents of it say that it increases the likelihood of third party candidates, we haven’t seen that, but we have seen the chaos it has created.
In a non-adversarial system it might work, but that isn’t here.
The whole point of the scheme is to minimize the actual effect on governance of voting. You know – just consent by keeping your mouths shut.
I don’t see how FPTP doesn’t do these things to an even greater extent.
It makes the political process less transparent,
Instant runoffs seem transparent.
takes away the validity of “one person, one vote”,
Not really. Any time votes are counted, each person’s vote is counted just once.
doesn’t allow for greater political participation as it means one party can flood the zone with weak candidates which washes away peoples chance to hear alternative political messaging
Only one party can do this at a time?
I don’t get the RCVDS.
I don’t either. On paper, it seems like a good idea, to me, at least. I don’t see how two Rs and one D ends up with the D winning because the R vote split, unless the R voters are too stupid or contrary to mark one R, then the other R.
It makes the process less transparent as it takes days and weeks to find out who ranked whom, as you do not get to vote for just one person, but for each person in a list of best to worst. Hence, Ranked. Which is what takes away the “one vote, one person.”
As we see with CA, when you need weeks to count votes when it used to take hours, it allows for greater levels of fraud, as you cannot have poll watchers consistently monitor the counting.
Ireland has a much more complicated RCV system, combining it with multi-member districts. Yet when they hold their general election this Friday, they’ll have the final results by Monday or Tuesday.
There is no reason why it needs to be less transparent. The results of each iteration can and should be reported. This would be actually useful information to have for politicos
FPTP has a much higher spoillation factor built into it.
I guess it makes “strategic voting” cognitively easier.
This would be actually useful information to have for politicos
If politicos had the slightest concern with actual voter input. Perhaps in some other place, at some other time.
Smart politicos know it’s easier to manipulate an existing voter consensus rather than try and astroturf a completely new one.
See also: Kammy for Prez.
Kammy for Prez
Ah yes, the emerging Democratic permanent majority.
Politicos are assholes and stupid and need to be beaten about the heads, regularly.
Ted S.: growing up with a version of RCV, it makes a lot of sense to me and can foster the rise of third parties and give them some power to influence the system.
That said, in a past discussion on this topic, JI made an excellent point that trying to graft RCV onto an existing FPTP system is much harder. TBH, I don’t remember what his argument was but I do remember it was fairly persuasive – to me, at least.
It makes the process less transparent as it takes days and weeks to find out who ranked whom, as you do not get to vote for just one person, but for each person in a list of best to worst. Hence, Ranked. Which is what takes away the “one vote, one person.”
There is no functional difference between a FPTP election and a runoff held weeks later and RCV except for the time needed to get a final result. In both situations, whenever votes are counted, each person’s vote counts once. Thus, one person one vote.
As we see with CA, when you need weeks to count votes when it used to take hours, it allows for greater levels of fraud, as you cannot have poll watchers consistently monitor the counting.
The only time you need monitors watching is when ballots are declared valid or invalid and the choices from each valid ballot are entered into the register. After that it’s the computer tallying the highest ranked votes in each round until someone gets a majority of votes. CA’s ineptness is a direct effect of Team Blue’s attempts to swing elections in their favor.
There is no functional difference between a FPTP election and a runoff held weeks later and RCV except for the time needed to get a final result. In both situations, whenever votes are counted, each person’s vote counts once. Thus, one person one vote.
Each person gets to vote for each and every person on the ballot, thus one person, many votes. If they were only counted once, as opposed to all choices being ranked, then it wouldn’t be Ranked Choice. And if there is, as you put it, no difference between FPTP and this, then it is a solution in search of a problem. And if you need a computer to count the rankings, then you have completely removed transparency, in the same way that using electronic vote counters removes the transparency, as we have seen with the current system. I don’t care if it results in electing candidates that I don’t like, I care if it results in winners getting into office with less than 50% of the vote.
CA’s ineptness is a direct effect of Team Blue’s attempts to swing elections in their favor. Again, another reason to keep it away from elections, as it provides cover for shenanigans such as CA.
To add one thing, one of the main reasons I hate it RC is in the same ballpark as the reasons I hate round-a-bouts for traffic; they might look good on paper, but as practiced in the US they fail miserably, as they do not gel with the current practices in either elections or driving, respectively. Both are “engineer” solutions, blank sheet designs trying to revolutionize areas of society. And as such, they are solutions in search of a problem. The would work wonderfully with a complete teardown of the existing systems, but that is not going to happen.
Traffic circles fail because one of the central tenets of driving in the states is that pedestrians have right of way, and sooner rather than later a person will walk across it and completely stop traffic, thus negating the whole purpose of the new “improved” system. Also, as we did not start out driving with them, the learning curve in using them is much higher, how they are placed on roadways doesn’t match as we don’t have all the back ground specifics of how to actually build streets and direct traffic flows with them in place and we cannot go back in time to make those options happen when we needed to build them into the system. They are, by necessity, a retro fit.
And Ranked Choice is the same thing. Too many traditions are already baked into society to make this the most efficient method of selecting a political leader. The US is, at best, a medium trust society, with popularly, as opposed to parliamentary, elected executives. Having a primary system like we do is baked into the cake of society, and while RC might look good on, again, a blank sheet of paper, it still needs to interface with a society of expectations of doing things a certain way, and which will make sure that each of those things that best benefit it are kept in place, so you end up with a hybrid system at best, and a broken, zero trust system at worst, which is what CA has.
Each person gets to vote for each and every person on the ballot, thus one person, many votes.
Really? So if there are five candidate and a person ranks them 1-5, do you think when votes are tallied each of those candidates receive a vote from that person? Or is it that the top selection on their list gets a vote from that voter, and the rest get nothing?
And I never said there’s no difference. The difference is that you eliminate the need for separate runoff elections.
Runoff elections must also go against ‘one person one vote’ since people can vote both in the regular election, and then again in the runoff. Thus, one person two votes.
“Really? So if there are five candidate and a person ranks them 1-5, do you think when votes are tallied each of those candidates receive a vote from that person? ”
Did they vote for five people, or not? In my eyes, they did, as they did not make a positive, affirmative vote for one person, they ranked all of the candidates. Maybe that is a problem with how each of us look at this, but that does not remove this in my eyes.
A runoff election is a separate election. So, no, I do not see it the same way as you are positing. What you are describing, in my eyes, is a person only gets one pull of the lever in his life time, as opposed to getting one vote per position being selected.
Did they vote for five people, or not?
They did not. They provided a list of five people, the top eligible person of which gets a vote in any given round. In no round does any voter provide more than one vote to any candidate.
A runoff election is a separate election.
And each round in RCV is a separate election with a smaller set of candidates than the round before it.
A runoff election is a separate election.
Not really – it’s for the same office. When Britain conducts a Parliamentary election, there is only one vote. We conduct multiple votes (primary, general, and run-off in the general is not ‘decisive’).
A runoff election is a separate election.
Not really – it’s for the same office.
So? Vote totals are reduced to zero, people vote again for a smaller list of candidates, new vote totals are tallied. How is that not a separate election?
The election is for an office. Run-offs and RCV are “voting until you get the right result”.
If we’re going to have fantasy conditions for elections I want “None of the Above” and for it to be binding.
So, they didn’t put five names in order of how they want them? To me that is voting five times for one position. Otherwise, why rank them? Just put down who you want first, and only. It might be we are having a semantic argument over this, but in order to have that type of argument, there has to be a difference in how it is looked at.
and JI, no, though they might be for the same position, they are two separate elections.
So, they didn’t put five names in order of how they want them?
Yes, they did. That’s what I said. “They provided a list of five people, the top eligible person of which gets a vote in any given round.”
To me that is voting five times for one position. Otherwise, why rank them?
What you’re suggesting they did is say “Give each of these five candidates a vote in my name.” when what they did was say “Of these five people, give the eligible candidate I ranked the highest my vote.” That’s why they are ranked, so that the top preference gets their single vote any time votes are counted.
Like I said, we seem to be having a sematic argument over this, but, yes, in my eyes they voted five times by ranking the five candidates. Otherwise, what is the point? They might be voting best to least best, least worst to worst, but they are voting for all five candidates. If they were given a option of choosing only one, then they only voted for one person, but they were not given that option. As it would defeat that whole system.
To summarize, to rank them is to vote for all of them in my eyes. If you are only given a choice to vote for one or the other, to make a positive choice as opposed to leaving the choice blank, then you are voting for only one candidate. This is not that.
What you’re suggesting they did is say “Give each of these five candidates a vote in my name.” when what they did was say “Of these five people, give the eligible candidate I ranked the highest my vote.” That’s why they are ranked, so that the top preference gets their single vote any time votes are counted.
So, to be exact, they are getting five votes, as they get to say, “I want X to win, and I especially want Y to lose.” That is two votes, and, further, they make three more choices of the other three candidates in a similar vein. In what you are describing, they would be choosing one out of many for a positive vote along with negatively voting for another candidate.
And to me you’re only providing an order of preference, and whenever actual votes are tallied, your list simply indicates to whom your one vote might be awarded. You can still choose to only indicate one person out of five and if that one person is eliminated from consideration, you have no votes going forward. That’s a choice each voter can take.
The point of ranking them is to instantly provide votes in a runoff election (RCV is also called ‘instant runoff’ for that reason) rather than have a fresh election with a smaller number of candidates weeks out. Why do that when you can get lists of preferred candidates and have your runoffs done in far less time?
Jungle primaries aren’t much better.
Ranked choice is a great tool for those able to inorganically AstroTurf the vote.
It allows an entity that knows it is the minority to still find ways to split the majority in such a way that the minority ends up benefitting, if not outright, winning.
See Alaska.
Murkowski it a democrat in sheep’s clothing.
Apparently a majority of the people don’t want whoever TEAM RED is putting up against Murkowski, and the minority entity is trying to split the majority in ways that benefit it.
It gets you Lisa Murkowski is all I need to know.
Ted – the trick I’ve seen in other states is they put a half dozen better choices than Murkowski on the primary ballot so she wins with 25% of the vote.
Then the primary shouldn’t be FPTP either.
AK has a FPTP primary system? That’s impressively stupid.
TX at least requires a 50%+1 to win a primary.
It always boils down to “someone I don’t like won; therefore the voting system is wicked”.
I remember somebody here using the word “rigged” to describe the second round of the French election because the two establishment blocs encouraged tactical voting against a third bloc people here would have preferred.
There shouldn’t even be a primary that the taxpayers fund – that is a decision of each party.
Guys… the argument against it is in the article.
That is all you need to say and there will never be ranked-choice again.
And good riddance.
Corporal Klinger Celebrates.
Klinger wasn’t transgender. He was a transvestite.
Klinger was a shrewd as fuck dude looking for a section 8.
He didn’t believe any of the shit he showed.
Klinger was a cynical grifter gaming the system, you say? Sounds like the prototype for the current T+++ activists.
Touché.
Sooo problematic. Making fun of the genderfuck community, I can’t even.
Also, Klinger ate a Jeep, so dressing up wasn’t his only recourse to prove he was crazy.
I wish to defend Corporal Klinger from the calumny I see here.
Yes, Corporal Klinger openly sought a Section 8 discharge by wearing women’s clothing on duty and attempting to eat a jeep. Yet, he carried out his military duties with outstanding attention to detail and enthusiasm.
Yes, and that was the flaw in his plan!
You can’t be completely crazy if you’re still doing what you’re told to do and doing it well.
Why the fuck is an inept military that can’t maintain its hardware, build new hardware without it costing a fortune and so slow it is stupid, unable to properly pay those in uniform, pissing away billions on idiotic shit?
Green energy? AFUERA!
Climate change? AFUERA!
Tranny shit? AFUERA!
How about we actually spend that fucking money on thing that scare any potential adversary about our ability to wreck them instead of pet projects for the degenerates running our govrnment?
You answer your own question.
‘medically discharged’ should read mentally discharged.
GTFO. There is no way there are 15,000 trannies in the military. Though I guess a dozen or two qualifies for “as many as”.
I don’t believe anyone knows for sure. The medical requirements for coming in are stringent, but most of the population are people who were already in and have since declared.
Actual new enlistments are 10s of people every year.
the rules on how they are identified in the databases make it hard to suss out.
14,000 have figured out a fast track to promotion in Biden’s Army.
What they should really do with T-people is to end any gender discrimination in the military. One set of barracks, one uniform, shaved heads, all positions are combat eligible, no make up, and so on. You want to call yourself a woman? Don’t make any difference here.
AFIACT, the sole reason (other than delusions) why people claimed OMB as anti-LGBT was he required T folx to have completed/stabilized their transition prior to serving.
They wouldn’t let me fly fighter jets because I wore glasses. Surely you shouldn’t be able to be an 11B if you have to stop and dilate.
I can’t train today, chest was reconstructed over the weekend.
“Trump administration takes shape: President-elect completes top 15 Cabinet picks”
And just like that team blue suddenly has become obsessed with having these appointees all be vetted by the FBI/DOJ (which they opposed and blocked for all the fucking freaks they put into that Obama 3.0 cabinet that wrecked the country), and has started pointing out their lack of experience or that they do weird things.
After 4 years of luggage stealing freaks in charge of nuclear policy, congressional aids filming porn in the house, a dude in a dress with a fake admiral rank (they should have at least given em a rear admiral rank for the lolz), and a cabal of people all obsessed with normalizing sex with kids and sexualizing kids, suddenly these fucks care.
Right.
Oh Alex, they care about what they’ve always cared about and will only ever care about – having only their hands on power.
Who knows more about the asylum than the patients?
“Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ Movement Facing Post-Election ‘Disillusionment with Activism’”
Do not fall for this shit.
Whether team blue’s massive AstroTurf machine is dejected and has lost its way, or is just looking like that is the case right now after they truly suffered ana epic ass whooping, we forget these people are mercenary as fuck – willing to tell any lie, commit any crime, and go down to any and all new lows, in the name of getting, keeping, and abusing power – at our own peril.
Scorpions will be scorpions, as the fable tells us.
Epic ass whooping? Were there 30 or 40 House seats that flipped that I didn’t hear about?
Yeah, the Team Red triumphalism seems unjustified.
Considering the massive campaigns of lies, by the people that control information and vote counting, the fact the vote turnout and the actual focus on watching the vote counting made it impossible for them to rig this election, led to a republicans takeover of all there branches – even if by a minimal margin – is a massive win.
Without the massive lying and cheating you would have had exactly the scenario you defined above. And the crooks know it.
It is why they are in such disarray right now and not responding with their usual ruthless and criminal activity.
Alex, you don’t get that there really are a lot of Americans that vote for Democrats. They will vote stupidly just like plenty of Republicans vote stupidly. It isn’t like the party is a phantom that no real people actually support.
Yeah, I snicker at all the references to “landslide”.
1984 was a landslide. And 1980, to a lesser extent.
“Alex, you don’t get that there really are a lot of Americans that vote for Democrats.”
I get this perfectly.
I also get that the game is absolutely rigged to push low information voters into the democrat camp – by constantly lying and fearmongering – to the tune of about 15-20%, and that every vote count skews at a minimum 10% in team blue’s favor in controlled areas, because of cheating.
Team blue was supposed to be able to “fortify” this least election. If they lost the electoral college they were supposed to be able to hold the popular vote over the voter’s heads to deny them their ask. They spend 4 pus year wargaming al this shit. And then none of it was applicable. Heck, they ended up having to try to rig senator races in places like PA.
They were not able to “fortify” this past election because of a landslide turnout that defeated massive propaganda and cheating to the point they lost all leverages.
The notion that anything has changed is ridiculous. Trump lost in 2020 because he lost; Trump won in 2024 because he won the same way he won in 2016: barely….by the slimmest fraction in the right places….which is fine and proper. There is no massive conspiracy that somehow even Trump lawyers can’t explain and sell to Trump’s own judges…..and if they can’t tap in that two foot putt, they don’t even deserve power anyway.
Glibs waste so much energy on this garbage person because of their enemy-of-my-enemy drink-the-libs’-tears horseshit. You wanted to get rid of Chief Executive Liar 46; congrats: you got Chief Executive Liar 45/47 until he strokes out and Chief Executive Liar 48 can be crowned. And they’re jerking off right now reading your emails you paid $100 a year to VPN through a server that they set up in the Caymans; later they’re going to take a bath in the billions they taxed you to before they give it to their cronies. Then they’re going to explain away why their deficits don’t matter, and you’ll be forced to ignore that OMB is responsible for just as much or more long-term wallet-raping inflation as your worst enemies.
Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ: there are no fucking good guys in this movie.
“Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ: there are no fucking good guys in this movie.”
Who is making the argument that there are good guys?
My argument is that I want the people that want to dismantle D.C. to have at it.
push low information voters into the democrat camp
Yeah, the Democrats seem to have that delusion, not realizing how many low information voters pull the R lever.
there are no fucking good guys in this movie
ding-ding-ding……….. Johnny tell Don what he has won!
I want the people that want to dismantle D.C. to have at it.
You expect Trump – who signed off on the single largest expansion of federal spending in history to be the one to dismantle DC? Mr. I-want-the-police-to-have-even-MORE-immunity is the guy who’s going to tame the beast?
Dude, what color is the sky in your world?
“You expect Trump – who signed off on the single largest expansion of federal spending in history to be the one to dismantle DC?”
Come on man, you are not really that dumb, are you?
No, I do not expect them to dismantle it. I however see no other entity with a higher change of doing that out there as my options.
I am not looking for perfection, just action. If enough pain is put on the D.C. cabal, it might give them food for though and keep force them to slow their horses, and that is a win for me.
I mean, I could get lucky, and someone nukes D.C. for us, but that’s just wishful thinking.
You put dismantle out there. It’s projection – wish fulfillment – unrealistic expectations.
TDS is going to flip from Derangement to Disappointment without skipping a beat.
“It’s projection – wish fulfillment – unrealistic expectations.”
You seem obsessed with protecting and defending the status quo for some reason, JI.
And to add on to what JI is saying is that while I did vote for Trump and think that between him and Harris, he was the best option, it’s like choosing between being to force to eat a shit sandwich with or without glass shards.
Saying that though, I know he won’t drastically cut down on spending nor limit the power of the federal government, but at least he’s slowing down the road to ruin and also showed that you can indeed push back on the Left’s bullshit.
protecting and defending the status quo
Hardly. I just don’t expect it to go away so easily, and at the behest of someone who isn’t seriously committed. I don’t believe Trump has that commitment because he’s never gone to the ground for a principle.
“Hardly. I just don’t expect it to go away so easily,”
I am not sure why you think I think it will be easy, but I also don’t think because it is a Herculean task it should be given up on, as so many have.
“and at the behest of someone who isn’t seriously committed.”
The choice was between those that want to empower and double down on more of the evil shit, and someone that basically said that is the problem.
At least we got the opportunity..
Alex, if we get a stall in govt growth, I’ll be happy. I just don’t expect shrinkage. We live in an absurd world – where we could cut $2T of federal spending and not even be below the level of FY2019.
“Alex, if we get a stall in govt growth, I’ll be happy. I just don’t expect shrinkage. We live in an absurd world – where we could cut $2T of federal spending and not even be below the level of FY2019.”
So you saying we are doomed, and we should just live like it is 1999?
1999 for you Alex!
…and the world didn’t end.
Also, BLM – one of the main drivers of the “resistance” last time – seems strangely quiet lately. Maybe the “committed Marxists” running that hoax simply took the money and ran.
running that hoax simply took the money and ran
Could they really be smart enough to do that, and not come back for more?
The establishment is definitely signaling that the activists need to shut up and stay off the streets.
I think the plan is to have a Trump prevented from taking office by some means fair or foul, and they want those who voted for him to be lulled into not being outraged at the establishment. It could be a poisoning (‘oh no! he had a heart attack!’), it could be a plane crash, or something similar.
If I were Trump, I would find the ease with which he is getting his way very ominous.
What’s happening right now feels like a false quiet before a counter attack, where the defenders purposefully thin their lines, launch purposefully ineffective local counter-attacks while moving veteran combat units to the rear to organize for a sudden, unexpected counter-attack.
Part of me just think they’ve accepted their loss, but the freak out is certainly a lot lower than what I remembered when he won in 2016. I would also like to think they aren’t that foolish enough to try something so drastic right before the inauguration, but when you truly believe that someone is basically Hitler, then I guess in your mind you do whatever it takes to stop Hitler from coming into power.
‘Disillusionment with Activism’”
Tarran is right.
This disillusion is just among the foot-soldiers, the useful idiots that would be put up against the wall after the revolution.
The organizers are just moving around their resources to plan the next attack.
“Half of U.S. at risk for blackouts during extreme cold this winter, grid watchdog warns”
That’s what you get for following the German government’s energy policy and desire to murder off their own people.
“Data centers powering artificial intelligence could use more electricity than entire cities”
The solution to this problem is not just self evident, but blatant: more energy efficient computer systems. Given time, we will solve these engineering issues as long as the marxists – the douchebags that want to solve all problems they have created in the first place, with a marxist ideocracy where the bodies are stacked up like cordwood – are kept out of the loop.
OFFS. Carbon dioxide is not a poison, r-tards.
But if going along with their stupid grift means no more AI, maybe it’s worth it.
If AI gets the idiots to go along with nuclear, then I’d take the win.
Eh, CO2 is pretty freaking toxic (IDLH at 4%). The only reason you can expel it from your system is the equilibrium effects of it only being ppm levels in the outside air.
OK, not dangerous at the levels under discussion. Maybe it will get there some day but not by human hands IMHO.
O2, which we need to survive is also highly toxic above 25% in the mix. And H2O in high quantity is also deadly in so many way.
Everything is about balance.
The problem is that the climate change racket tries to abuse the concept of that balance to peddle marxism.
As the Chemical Hygiene Officer here, I get a bit anal. There are a lot of gases which are simple asphyxiants — as long as your O2 partial pressure is in the correct range, you’ll be fine (if perhaps with a silly voice). Which means your O2 meter is adequate.* But other gases are independently dangerous, even with 0.2atm O2, they’ll fuck you up. For those you need different metrology before you enter a confined space.
*Even if you see “acceptable” O2 levels, any deviation from normality needs to be investigated because of those actual toxic gases.
I didn’t know NA was into anal.
Far-right candidate takes shock lead in Romania presidential election
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dlw5pq967o
well this was certainly unexpected… He guy was seen at 5% a couple of weeks ago.
I know too local…
What is his stance on “Bitches need to give it up”?
the program does not specify.
His wife though is an expert on naturopathic medicine, regenerative detoxification, bioresonance therapy, Gemmotherapy , and emotional release therapy. Do with that what you will.
So about 1/4 of half of the people want the right winger. Sounds like a mandate, a landslide.
1/4 of the 1/2 that voted.
the parliamentary elections are, stupidly, next week. We shall see how that goes, given the guy who was first this time around has no official party and is an independent.
His wife is obviously far right.
Romania’s presidential election defied all opinion poll predictions – not only it was Călin Georgescu, and not George Simion, who made it to the second round to represent the anti-NATO camp, but incumbent PM Marcel Ciolacu didn’t make it for run-off.
A Romanian hard-right NATO critic and centre-right opposition party leader will likely face each other in the 8 December presidential run-off vote, results showed, in an unexpected outcome that threatens Romania’s staunchly pro-Ukraine stance.
With almost all votes counted, hard-right Călin Georgescu and centre-right contender Elena Lasconi both had around 22%, the difference between them being paper-thin.
Lasconi pushed ahead of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who was a clear favourite to win the first round, propelled by strong support from Romanian voters living abroad.
Romania’s president has a semi-executive role that gives him or her control over defence spending – likely to be a difficult issue as Bucharest comes under pressure to uphold NATO spending goals during Donald Trump’s second term as US president while trying to reduce a heavy fiscal deficit.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/more-surprises-in-the-aftermath-of-romanias-presidential-election/
Maybe spend enough to defend Romania and not start WWIII? That seems to be the prevailing opinion here.
Romania was closer to 2% of GDP than most EU countries and ramped up spending recently. We are buying f35s after all. Creating good Lockheed Martin jobs
Hey thanks! Keep spending millions on them. Don’t let the Russians and Ukrainians convince you that cheap drones are the future.
“Don’t let the Russians and Ukrainians convince you that cheap drones are the future.”
Actually the future is EMP and directed energy weapon anti-drone tech. Swarms of drones and counter drones EMPing each other while hardened drones and other systems use energy weapons to shot down the survivors. And then come the fembots!
Hopefully we will learn that in this game the only way to win is also not to play, but all things being equal, I doubt that will be what happens.
BBC is terminally biased. “Far Right” and “Pro-Russia” seems like an odd combination. Is the guy in fact “pro-Russia”, or just “pro-end-the-meath-grinder-in-Ukraine”?
He was vague about it. He said officially that he wants peace in Romania and is willing to negotiate with anyone to get it. Though in the 90s when various commie archives were opened there were some rumors he was a KGB guy. But nothing substantiated. He seems to be anti NATO.
far right… it is difficult. depends on definitions. He did in several occasion express admiration for Iron Guard leaders like Corneliu Zelea Codreanu calling them heroes who wanted to bring back morality. His political program is all over the place and full of orthodox mysticism, which can be seen similar to the old Iron Guard stuff. Though publicly he said he opposes xenophobia and antisemitism.
Economically it is a boilerplate populist lower some taxes and bureaucracy, but raise some expenses and art the same time lower the deficit. how it is not stated. His program is called something like food water and bees. He is big into purity and pollution. He want to ban synthetic pesticides and herbicides. And to re industrialize the country based on worker owned cooperatives. He says he supports strong property rights, and small and medium size business. He does have a messianic, great leader message and a lot of nonsense about brotherhood. A lot of his program is just stuff like “We must raise the flag of Truth, Love and Awakening of the conscientiousness of the Good and the Beautiful” whatever the fuck that means.
He is a sustainability expert and a soil science major and seems to be a lot into renewable energy wind biomass etc. He claims he wants sovereignty and direct democracy. calls his ideology as beyond left and right and titles it “Suveranism-Distributism” so Sovereigntism-Distributism , though it is not fully defined. . Also he seems big into saving the bees.
“He’s big into saving the bees.”
Ok. Cool. Me too.
Also, there is a whole lot of ‘whatever the fuck that means’ ism out there.
Ok, y’all try to behave. I am off to a very busy day.
I’m not seeing all that much “ultranationalist” “far-right” in that description but WTF do I know, I don’t speak BBC.
I was not previously familiar with the Iron Guard. Wikipedia explicitly calls it a fascist organization. Do you think that is correct? They do sound something like the NSDAP, including how they came to power only during a period of great political disruption, through direct appointment and not popular election.
Sounds like Georgescu is mostly peddling snake oil.
“Wikipedia explicitly calls it a fascist organization.”
Then that just means they are not a marxist entity.
Iron guard were mostly.fash but with a big splash of orthodox mysticism, lots of priests supported it then and in part now
He sounds like RFK Jr.
That is pretty far right.
So far right it comes back around from the left.
I got nothing…
I’d attend just to listen in on the new bizarre arguments. No promises I could keep a straight face.
Chat about “stuffing the turkey” would certainly have a completely different bend, right?
I’m noticing a newish push for Friendsgiving celebrations, and I’ve got nothing against it. Seems a bit off to have local restaurants pushing it though.
It shouldn’t seem off. Should be quite a moneymaker.
Major hotels here did gigantic Thanksgiving dinners with shows for a while. I loved it. Kept me from cooking and hosting. I’d just grab all the family and go out.
R.J.:
At least locally, the Friendsgiving gatherings were much more potluck and providing a place for those (who for distance or personal reasons) who didn’t have anywhere else to go. With most people brining a dish that they had fond memories of from their youth. Having it catered and/or hosted at a restaurant seems to take some of that away.
Neph,
Around here they’re also potluck affairs but tend to be a pre-or-post Thanksgiving get-together for friends since everyone scatters to see their families during the holidays E.g., I’ve got an invite for one on Dec 7th.
Back in my Army days, married soldiers would invite barracks rats to Thanksgiving. I spent a few with families I didn’t know.
I remember those from back in the day when I was in the barracks at Drum. Got invitations from department heads on my first ship for stuff like that too – but not a big deal.
Seems like it’s a lot harder to organize these days. I spent a while trying to get our church tied in to the base at Dahlgren – working with the chaplain – but there’s a lot of hoops and paperwork and I couldn’t make as much progress as I hoped before I left.
I spent a few with families I didn’t know.
We hosted some sailors and/or Marines for Thanksgiving back when we lived in San Diego.
My church had to do a bit of paperwork so they could give food packages to families at the local elementary school. They now give every Friday and also do a Thanksgiving donation.
The church does tons of local stuff even though we still meet in a school gym with no permanent building (helping out the school as well as other local stuff).
I was waiting to hear back from the command master chief for the schoolhouse regarding what kind of background investigations would be necessary, etc – but then they apparently turned over and never got back to me while I was away for training during the summer – so it didn’t work out too well. (harder to contact since I was also night shift – at least a courtesy email would have been nice).
I bet the arguments and fights are awesome.
“The pronouns they were flyin’
While the vegan turkey was fryin’
Joe and Bob’s love affair was dyin’
At the Great Friendsgiving ball…”
FTA:
We believed you for a long time. Until you wouldn’t leave US alone.
This.
I never cared what other people were doing until they demanded that I do it with them.
Yep, well said Mojeaux.
I have always been a “live and let live” kind of guy. Never cared what other people did as long as they were not abusing kids or animals.
It became a problem when people with mental disorders started demanding I not only cater to their disorder, but played along. Where it became a problem was when they added the “Or, else” qualifier.
+1
Waltz tried to use that slogan, and it was immediately obvious that he was full of shit considering that he set up a snitch line during COVID. And they all say that shit until you don’t subscribe to their reality and refuse to do what’s asked of you.
Yeah; I bet they’re the toxic ones, not their families.
Ok. Knock yourself out. The Mrs and I are doing out thing for the holidays, you do yours.
They are nothing. That is why their politics, cultural attitude, and gender ID are everything to them. Because that is all who they are. Nothing else. No accomplishments or anything else significant that others would give a damn about.
See the way to make both the Left and Right during Thanksgiving join forces and hate you is by going on some libertarian rant about how both parties are power hungry authoritarian assholes and how lessening the power of government to fuck anyone over would make disputes between the Left and the Right moot.
Absolutely. That’s my trump card. Also “Taxation is Theft.”
If all else fails, just stick your dick in the mashed potatoes.
I only know that line from Beastie Boys. I assume it’s a sample from something else?
Rudy Ray Moore had it as a joke. He took it from Leroy Skillet, who I think got it from yet another comedian.
Leroy and Skillet. Arg.
I like the way you think.
As a multicultural, mixed race, interfaith lesbian couple, my wife Kaajal and I deeply value diversity and inclusion.
Peak virtue signaling doesn’t exi…
Living in a progressive and welcoming Pittsburgh neighborhood has given us a sense of safety and belonging.
But we still lock our doors at night — until we can get rid of the rest of the diversity.
But that sense of security can quickly evaporate as we venture into the suburbs for family holiday gatherings.
Freaking out the normies and being lefty assholes to our own kin is so tiring, we just can’t even.
The constant whining about ‘safety’ and ‘security’ has got to be exhausting for the sad people who have to listen to them…
Ugh playing the victim is so goddamn tedious.
And a room full of gays is “stress-free”?!
L. O. L.
Mee-owww.
Follow the history….
Probably post-Xi and who knows what comes out of that chaos.
Not the concept of loving you long time…
I don’t want my own govt loving me long time…
When China undergoes a regime change as it did post-Mao, it’s hard to predict where it’s going to end up.
Everyone is gonna get that “loving long time” treatement?
Yeah, nobody’s going to “do anything about it.”
Sorry, the world. And the Philippines.
Taking this opportunity for a PSA to everyone: if you’re the least bit of a navalist or history buff and don’t yet read CDR Salamander regularly, then you should.
I’ve been following on twitter for a while. Signed up for his substack this week.
🎶 Love today’s music pick 🎶
Same. Haven’t listened to them in a long time. And the footage of SF was excellent!
Youtube sent me to a couple live sets, watching now.
Love that band.
Another excellent Charlie Cooke podcast on the lawsuit by Utah for the Feds to divest federal lands. (hopefully OMB can make some progress here too).
Officially rename BLM to Bureau of Land Distribution?
Triple Bankshot
@triplebankshot
Let’s settle the Taylor Lorenz age debate once and for all. On Oct 3rd 1999 she won the 12-to-14 age group of a sidewalk art contest. Her birthday was later that month. Then on Nov 4th she was described as a 15 year old sophomore. So she’s 40 and was born Oct 21st 1984.
https://x.com/triplebankshot/status/1860840594790031563
well that’s a load off my mind.
There is (was?) a debate about Taylor Lorenz’s age? Is she pretending to be a zoomer or something?
Maybe it’s because she acts like a dramatic, petulant teenager all the time.
IIRC she’s claimed three different ages.
Maiden, mother, crone?
I had known that Hero of the Republic and Supercop Michael Byrd was a fuckup who left his gun behind in a public restroom and benefitted from DEI grace, but I hadn’t realized how much of a fuckup he was:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/hldcop-who-shot-j6-protestor-has-lengthy-disciplinary-record-mishandled-firearms
When the only guy that thought it was time to start killing people was this idiot, that makes be less likely to believe it was a good shoot.
How do you fail shotgun training?
Ask Dick Cheney.
Polish version..
‘Being a cop’ seems to be a start…
Speaking of the arrival of Trump Disappointment Syndrome… it might be when heads fail to roll at all the treachery and treason surrounding his previous administration, including all the Jan. 6 funniness.
Appointing a Libertarian cabinet member? Freeing Ross?
Smug leftist admits that he doesn’t understand Trump voters, suggests listening to them.
And he gets called out on it.
Maybe stop calling legitimate concerns “race-baiting hostility”.
Or, what the other dude said in his rebuttal.
Good. I’m all for listening and asking people why they vote or feel the way they do but if you refuse to accept reality and make some changes, then all that “empathy” is for show.
He doesn’t understand – condescension and self-righteousness are the highest progressive/leftie values. Even Joel Osteen doesn’t register on the scale that measures Democrats.
“I don’t see why a “man in a woman’s uniform” couldn’t do the same job as a female.”
I can see why: A man in a woman’s dress is mentally ill.
Here’s some bullshit from CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/24/us/reverend-william-barber-democrats-cec/index.html
“For people to say they still support him, there’s something deeply wrong with a large section of the country. And then what’s really shocking to me is the number of people who still choose not to vote. What is it about our society that we can see someone who leans into fascism, and there is not an all-out effort to get to the polls and say no?”
It’s one of those articles where he kind of gets it, but at the end of the day, he’s a grifting minister who convinced himself that people aren’t being heard and thus are voting against their, “own interests.”
Skimming that all I got was “we have to far-left harder”.
Because the last 50 years of that has been so successful?
Most Democrats (probably most people, really,) confuse ’empathy’ with ‘being nice’. The two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
It’s hard to be persuaded by a religion whose only selling point is that you’re going to spend eternity in a burning lake of fire if you don’t join up.
Telling people they are racist, sexist, stupid, or brainwashed because they didn’t vote your way doesn’t seem like a good strategy for getting more people to vote your way.
They seem to believe it is why they won previous elections instead of all the heavy cheating. After all, Obama told us all he was going to fundamentally change the country (and nobody fundamentally changes anything they don’t dislike or outright hate), and they cheered and voted for him for that.
What changed?
Well, we got to see what that fundamental change really looks like, and it is marxist hellhole level shit.
“According to the Pentagon, privacy policies make it difficult to measure the number of active duty trans people, but about 2,200 service members had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, when Trump’s first ban was lifted. There are about 1.3 million active duty personnel in the military.
There are believed to be thousands of other personnel who identify as transgender.”
https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/donald-trump-transgender-troops-us-military-52xf5cdlc
So no one knows how many?
Still, this just seems like socon virtue signaling, as I don’t see why a “man in a woman’s uniform” couldn’t do the same job as a female.
How about we start with the ones we are paying for transition treatments? If you missed a deployment because you were busy getting a government paid castration, the military isn’t for you.
But that’s just the thing – in the current woke Biden military, it very much IS for you. There’s a tremendous incentive for yoots who want to M-to-F to join, since taxpayers will have to pay for all the surgery, and the current military culture is DEI-uber-alles, so once in you are the most coddled creatures ever to exist. No criticism allowed, no consequences for anything you do wrong, and the whole org twists itself into knots to participate in your delusion.
“How about we start with the ones we are paying for transition treatments?”
Not sure if that is happening. Afaik, it’s mostly hormonal maintenance.
Also, I don’t think either MTF or FTM should be in combat roles, and neither should non-trans women.
I too have concerns. The military could be cutting loose talented folks in needed disciplines such as language translation in a blanket discharge. Maybe just say the military isn’t going to pay for non-service related elective surgeries, and will discharge anyone whose activities are so distracting as to not be worth the fuss, no matter the source of the distraction. I’ll leave it to others here to comment on potential effect of transgendered on unit cohesion or whatever, as I didn’t serve.
“Honestly, my first reaction was ‘You know what, America?’ Pardon my French, but fuck it,” Wruble said on the “Daily” last week of Trump’s second win. “If that’s how you feel about it, have it, America. You voted for this. Buckle up. It’s going to get bad.”
The Big Bad Wolf is coming for you.
That isn’t French. What the fuck is he blathering on about?
“Billionaires are creating ‘life-extending pills’ for the rich — but CEO warns they’ll lead to a planet of ‘posh zombies’ ”
https://nypost.com/2024/11/25/lifestyle/new-life-extending-pills-will-create-posh-zombies-says-ceo/
I’ll wait for the movie.
I saw Posh Zombies at Metro in Chicago in 1996.
The Spice must flow!
“Posh Zombies” was my college gothcore band.
with my luck I will die just before immortality
Isn’t that what already happened?
“A Georgia mother of four arrested in front of her children after allowing her 10-year-old son to walk home alone last month isn’t going away quietly — and is using her newfound profile to make the case for free-range parents and their kids everywhere.
Brittany Patterson, 41, was taken into custody and slapped with child endangerment-related charges by the Fannin County Sheriff’s Department on Oct. 30. She’s been ruthlessly fighting back ever since, including refusing to accept a plea deal.”
https://nypost.com/2024/11/24/us-news/georgia-mom-arrested-after-letting-her-10-year-old-walk-home-alone-fighting-back-against-nanny-state-overreach/
If your county has too much “endangerment” for a ten-year-old to walk around, then the sheriff should be fired.
Whoopsie! They picked a non-poor to arrest.
Bonus points for the fat deputy with a Power Puff girl tat. New professionalism.
LEAVE BRITTANY ALONE!!!!!
LOL
And what looks like purple hair.
That child looks more than capable. I normally prefer a sheriff’s department over city/town police but this case the sheriff is asshoe.
If it doesn’t get dropped, demand a jury and just hammer that point over and over. Though, I could see the city go the other way and ban Halloween to save their nanny sheriff and deputies.
life in the big city…
Fannin County population of around 25,000 – northern end of Georgia on the Tennessee line.
I saw that story and noted the fat fuck deputy with the shitty cartoon tatt. As a parent of kids this age I also note that it happened in rural Georgia. The chances of that happening here in San Francisco are close to zero. My kids take the bus and walk and bike that distance all the time. As much as I hate progtopia bullshit, there are definitely some advantages over small town “freedom loving” America.
The End of the World Frolics
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-world-frolics
We are on the edge of nuclear war and you’d never know it watching regular news. If a couple of NATO bases and European cities go up in fireballs, will they take it seriously?
“Marginalized migrants hardest hit”
They will blame climate change…
Of course they would providing they’re still alive but then it’s too late. Unfortunately the Western leadership is replete with retards that lack good risk-assessment skills right now. How in the hell is Europe’s by far most corrupt nation worth any of this?
NATO could never allow Russia to join, who would be the bogeyman then?
China.
They own too much of our debt and control too much of our manufacturing.
The US and the lesser European vassals need an external threat/scapegoat, no doubt, to scare their fucked over populations into accepting all kinds of stupidity they’d never accept otherwise. It’s a very unfortunate situation.
The comic-book hero/villain approach to world diplaomacy.
China loves that all of “the West’s” attention is on Russia Russia Russia.
They sent a CCP flagged ship to wreck undersea cables in the Baltic, then got the whole thing out of the news…
China is ASSHOE!
Cry more, bitch.
https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1861051982229786713
Wow, they stopped fapping long enough to clap with both hands.
The corporate media are the most important pillar of civilization.
Now we are finally getting to the actual core of the First Amendment and that is ‘of the Press’ and more and more finally realizing it doesn’t have anything to do with some credentialed little bitches with worthless degrees.
I’ve always said that if there’s any positive to Trump coming onto the political scene, it’s the destruction of the corporate media. They’ve worked themselves into such a frenzy that they’ve committed seppuku and destroyed whatever little credibility they had for political expediency. And Elon Musk buying MSNBC would be hilarious. Just let that shit be a free for all news channel.
Let the whole red-faced bunch continue to enjoy their fall into reality denial and irrelevance then. Sort of a shame because a respectable media apparatus is an important facet of any democratic system but screw these people.
Huh..that protest actually leans in the opposite direction on such protests in terms of visuals. *NSFW – it is the French afterall*
Could give a damn about their cause, but I admire their dedication…
Maybe they can “raise” awareness of their cause by letting people cop a feel?
there are some decent tits there I will not lie
And they shave their pits! Not real feminists, apparently (thank God).
Shaved pits in France? Call me old fashioned but what’s the world coming to?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YTJ807KK7I
LOL!
https://x.com/War_Wilhelm/status/1860880940894937144
Fact check: Mostly true
How is it that the dreaded Male Gaze did not cripple this protest?
I was told the adults would take over and fix everything. I don’t think they know the meaning of adult or fixing based on these results..
It’s almost as if they WANT to implode the system…
They’re fixing things like Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series. It’s rigged game but they’ll be fine and they don’t give a damn.
We will never attain Peak Drama Queen
It boggles the mind to know we humans are literally made of stardust. Nearly all the elements in our bodies come from the stuff produced as stars exploded over the last 13 billion years.
It boggles the mind in a different way to know that we star children are endangering life on the planet, including our own, by burning carbon. We can stop it, but we don’t.
Now, the oil industry is causing another life-threatening problem. Plastic waste has invaded the bodies of virtually every breathing lifeform on the planet.
The jury is still out on whether the international community will solve it.
We’ve all seen pictures of sea creatures being strangled by plastic refuse. Human bodies are affected, too. Tiny plastic waste is present in our blood, brains, hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs and testicles, as well as in placentas and breast milk. We ingest the microplastics contained in fruits and vegetables, water, water bottles, seafood, cosmetics, household dust and the air. Plastics are everywhere they’re not supposed to be.
Somebody do something!
I am doing something. I’m having another drink…
Joni Mitchell for EPA?
The writer could take the first step and toss himself off a bridge.
That is the solution they aim for.
Obligatory – Southern Comfort’s version with that lyric in the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIHfuihoz70
How big is the problem? One estimate is that there are 51 trillion pieces of microscopic plastic on the planet, equivalent in weight to 1,345 blue whales and 500 times more numerous than the stars in our galaxy. The amount of plastic produced so far exceeds the biomass of all the world’s terrestrial and marine animals. Plastic waste is so pervasive and permanent — it can take 1,000 years to break down — that it is one of the reasons geologists concluded that humans are now the most destructive force on the planet.
There are several noteworthy parallels between the climate and plastics crises. Both are caused by the oil industry, whose petrochemicals are used to make most plastic. The wastes of both have spread worldwide. Both are products of a business model that profits by degrading the environment and threatening human health. In both cases, big oil companies escape the “polluter pays” principle, forcing the environment and society to cover the cost of damages.
John D Rockefeller was a visionary. The “petrochemical industry” was created for the sole purpose of destroying the planet and killing off all life.
I have to admit that I’m not too thrilled about the microplastics getting into everything myself but what’s their proposed solution? My money’s on it not being so simple as let’s try putting more things in glass like we used to.
Agreed. Let’s hit the low hanging fruit of fucked up chemicals in our food and water and worry about the microplastics later.
Oh, and knock it off with the fucking mRNA vaccines in the animals.
We have a friend who’s researching this at the local university. There are no water samples in our area, including tap water, that do not have bits of plastic . I don’t know if it’s a problem or not, but it’s definitely something we should research.
I also have a big problem with us shipping our plastic to southeast Asia to be “recycled”, where it finds its way into big garbage patches in the ocean. I would think that might be better in a landfill.
Particles per billion or million…..
This reminds me of the Boston Globe article in the late 90s claiming soon Boston would be plagues by men with tits. All because of all the estrogen runoff in the water. according to the article, Boston was gonna be tit city. It wasn’t until you went to the study they used to make this ludicrous claim that you found out that you would have to drink 3000 gallons of that water per day, for 100 years, to get enough estrogen to hit one dose of what a treatment (and you need a buttload of these to get them tiddies so ask our resident expert Q to pipe in) provides, making the whole thing stupid.
People should assume any article about woe is basically bullshit to get clicks….
Kevin:
Check out the downstream waste water of the so-called recycling plants. Landfill that shit.
–George Carlin [of course]
Grand slam!
I’m glad they used the blue whale reference. So much clearer than stupid pounds.
The dismissal also marks a historic moment. Fifty years after Richard Nixon was forced by lawmakers from both parties to resign the presidency amid allegations of criminal conduct, half of American voters will return Trump to the presidency despite his own serious charges of criminal misconduct in office.
President Bad Orange jumpsuit Man!