TrickstaPriest

I dunno if we can say that, just on these two having a spat.  I mean, they're Bart Simpson and Bud Bundy, so it's rather hard to take them as representatives of the Republican Party.
 
In other news...before the Dems lose control, the House Ways and Means committee voted to release 6 years' worth of Trump's tax returns.  

At my last job, the VP of Sales was prone to complain about how spoiled and entitled millennials were.  The millennials in the room and I always got a good chuckle out of hearing that coming from a boomer.

The previous generation also seems to always forget that they were responsible for raising the generation they're complaining about....
 
If your kids turn out to be lazy a$$holes, you might want to start looking in the mirror.

Well, apparently Trump's stuff sold out *Sigh*
 
I love my country but a too large percentage of it is freaking me out

I still recall when "pet rocks" were a thing people actually paid money for - but at least you got something physical for your dollar...

The Boys weighs in:
 
 

There is a very real possibility that Musk is burning down his entire empire.  NOT just Twitter.  The other shareholders of Tesla can't be happy with him.  He sold another $3.5B in Tesla stock, which depresses the price, after saying in April he wouldn't finance the Twitter deal by selling stock.  Tesla stock's down 60%.  Securities law is intricate, but I think he's leaving himself open for a lawsuit.  
 
The EU is also particularly unhappy with this latest stunt of his.  And rather clearly, draconian moves like this can't sit will with potential advertisers.  They want stability, and Twitter is a rowboat in a hurricane.
 
The Trump cards...<sigh>.  I just feel like screaming at anyone who still backs him.  THIS is the kind of person you want as *President*?  Well.  Preaching to the choir.  Just more support that the man's a total narcissist who lives in a fantasy world.

I'm not sure if the former President is aware of this, but I'm pretty sure the cape he's wearing is a violation of the US Flag Code.

When the SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade six months ago, anti-abortion forces seemed to have won. No federal protection for abortion, trigger laws taking effect in many states, and Republican legislatures ready to pass additional bans.
 
But now? Thie situation is far less clear. The fight will surely be long and fierce, but abortion rights advocates have found strategies and won some victories... sometimes using the very words conservatives placed into state constitutions.
 
The Unexpected Ways the Left is Winning in the Abortion Fight - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
 
Dean Shomshak

Yep, we've been here before. Today's episode of Fresh Air interviews the author of a book about American history 1917-1921 -- the country's participation in WW1 and shortly thereafter -- when the US went beyond flirting with Fascism to some pretty serious foreplay. The Federal government shutting down newspapers and magazines for unapproved political views. Thousands of people jailed for speaking against the US joining the war. A government-chartered vigilante society. A scheme for mass deportation of immigrants. Pogroms against Black people and organized labor. So much that the Trunmp administration tried, the Wilson administration actually did. But it's also been swept under the carpet. No need to trouble the Land of the Free with history of a successful campaign of state repression.
 
Woodrow Wilson led the U.S. into WWI. He also waged war on democracy at home : NPR
 
Everything old is new again.
 
Dean Shomshak

Murdoch got deposed for Fox News falsehoods. if Dominion wins, he might lose control of his empire.
CES

I'm more worried about the massive increase in banned books, than about this ruling.  The banned books movement is another clear indication of their overall intent, so trying for the contraception ban is completely in their ideological focus.

Just a reminder that the alliance between nationalism and religion is far from confined to America: Monk militia: The Buddhist clergy backing Myanmar's junta

Thousands of Teens Are Being Pushed Into Military’s Junior R.O.T.C.
 
 

[personal opinion]The American Founding Fathers were not gods, and the Constitution is not divine revelation. If the document isn't allowed to grow and evolve, it's a museum piece, like the Magna Carta and Hammurabi's Code.[/personal opinion]

Keep in mind that -- as I blieve I've said before 00 from a certIN POINT OF VIEW THERE REALLY WAS A GIGntic fraud in the 2020 Presidential election... and the Constitution was at the heart of it.
 
The question is whether one believes that straight, white, Christian conservatives are "real Americans" to whom the rest of us should defer in culture and politics. 45 anointed himself the tribune of these "real Americans," and they embraced him with fervor. But the Constitution doesn't offer much support for "real Americans," or indeed support the idea of "real Americans" in any way. Straight vs LGBTQ? Not mentioned in any way. Christian? Religious privilege explicitly barred. White? No privilege since those darn woke progressives somehow slipped the 15th Amendment in 1870. Not much if any support for other conservative" cultural positions, either. And worst of all, it lets practically anyone vote!
 
So do you accept there's no such thing as a Real American, or do you reject the Constitution? Trum p finally said out loud what I'm sure many conservatives felt but were not willing to say even to themselves.
 
Dean Shomshak

I remember coverage of Trump's first meeting as President with the leaders of NATO, during which he publicly berated them for failing to contribute more money to the alliance, and thinly disguised a threat to take the US out of NATO. At first I, like many others, was taken aback by how openly confrontational and dismissive his tone was, although other nations not contributing their agreed-upon amounts has been a sore point for America for many years. In hindsight I believe the other leaders tried to treat Trump with the respect and deference due to the POTUS, which Trump interpreted as weakness. So his first instinct was to push them around and establish his dominance.
 
I think it was after this meeting, or perhaps a little later, that one diplomat commented on dealing with Trump's sort of political posturing with a proverb from his homeland: "The dog barks, the caravan moves on."

President Trump announced that he would be pulling American troops out of Afghanistan before negotiations even started. That left the US with no bargaining leverage -- the Taliban knew they just had to wait until Americans left, and not give up anything. There are two explanations: one, Trump never cared about Afghans or securing a good deal, and was just trying to score political points at home. Very possible, given what we know about his character. Two, Trump is an idiot when it comes to bargaining. If he can't deceive or bully someone, he doesn't know what to do. Looking at his financial history, also very possible.
 
Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive.

It depends on your definition of common.  A sizable majority of Americans have barely any awareness that a world outside of the US borders exist much less that our government might be heavily involved out there.  Of those that are more political aware, maybe half are familiar with our nations history of meddling with other countries' internal politics and maybe a third of those see it as an ongoing problem.
 
As for the impeachment in Peru, I would bet money that we had nothing to do with it.  Peru just doesn't have or make anything that we care about enough to orchestrate a change of government over it. 

Britney Griner has been released in a prisoner exchange.  The same exchange they had been working on for a while now (arms dealer who had served about 14.5 years of a 25 year sentence), but reduced down to only Griner.

I can only imagine the relief for both Griner, her wife, and family.

IMO Russia would LOVE to provide Trump haven. They'd have a field day calling him the "TRUE President of America in Exile". He'd be worth it just to keep fueling sedition among Trump's faithful here in the US of A.
 
 
 
Never thought I'd say this twice in a five year period but "God Bless Georgia"

No argument they're incompetent, but that doesn't necessarily matter.  IIRC, every election challenge was pretty much laughed out of court, and the Trump lawyers were rebuked rather firmly on more than one occasion.  It still held things off.  And look at the special master thing, with the records from Mar-a-Lago.  A nice, what, month's delay there.  Helps there was an idiot judge whose continued presence on the bench is dubious, considering, but the court and trial systems have so many ways to impede the orderly flow of business that competence isn't required.
 
EDIT:  look how long Alex Jones has dragged things out by doing, literally, NOTHING.  And now he's got his business entity and personal money tied up in bankruptcy hearings.  You know, I know, the judge will know, it's nothing but a stall tactic...but it doesn't matter.    

An oldie but relevant

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/22/twitter-admits-bias-in-algorithm-for-rightwing-politicians-and-news-outlets

I'm just envisioning a Ukrainian, sitting in a candlelit apartment, hearing about the United States attacking its own electrical grid.