About those cocaine sex orgies among our Congress Critters....
During the 1980s, when powder cocaine was all the rage, very few desks and tables on Capitol Hill did not have a layer of fine white powder on them. So was the rumor inside the Beltway.
Before that, in 1974, the most powerful man in Washington, Congressman Wilbur Mills, had quite an escapade involving alcohol, a stripper from Argentina, and the Tidal Basin. See THIS. LOL.
Apparently, The lighters get so light that they get light enough to float off. At that point, they become lighter than air. Hmmmm, maybe some duct tape.... I hear the new drug of choice in DC is a mixture of Viagra and Ex-Lax. It's for those pols that don't know if they are coming or going. Now they can do both at the same time.
Warren, I think you're on target there. Also, when the lighter gts too light, it floats off into space, and you now how space "connects us all".
I'm envisioning Harris' writers just rolling and splitting their sides when she actually reads it in public. Wouldn't it be a hoot to write stuff for her to read?
@ Kid, I don't know if space connects us all together but it certainly connects her ears together. Its creepy when she gives her speeches and she sounds like a kindergarten teacher reading Green Eggs and Ham.
Kid, I don't believe she wrights this stuff either -I don't believe she is capable of writing anything even vaguely coherent- it's like listening to the Abbott and Costello, Who's on first, routine. Which begs the questions, is she the Vice-President or vice-comedian and who is getting paid to write her speeches?
As the Ukraine deservedly get's its *ss kicked, the cries for admitting it into NATO will get louder and louder. Don't fall for it. Ukraine started this war, not Russia. In the days leading up to the Russian attack on Feb. 14, UN observers noticed a starked increase in artillery fire coming from Ukraine into the Donbass. It was a direct provocation from Ukrainian militia units hoping to draw the West into supporting their ethnic cleansing of Russian speakers from the region. And of course, what "military assistance" does Biden give the Ukraine, more artillery..
The latest security package, the eighth such installment, includes 72 howitzers, 144,000 artillery rounds, 72 tactical vehicles to tow howitzers, and more than 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones..
Why does Ukraine need more artillery? Because THAT is what the Russians came for, NOT Kyev. Kyev was a feint meant to pin down the rest of the Ukrainian army whilst Russia annihilated the militia artillery positions on the Donbass perimeter.
The Minsk Agreement signed between Donbass separatists and Ukraine prohibited artillery sizes over 100mm within 15km of the negotiated border. The new artillery that the US is supplying Ukraine is 155mm, with greater range and mobility to kill more separatists
And just to make it even more wonderful, Russia (and therefor Ukraine) uses a different caliber weapon, so the US is trying to buy Russian weapons and ammo from Afghanistan and India to give to Ukraine. Yes, we are now buying weapons from the Taliban.
I'd be interested in a link for that, since I'm only aware of previously purchased stocks that were earmarked for ANSF, but never delivered.....were being repurposed for Ukraine.
It's "willful". The DoS, DoD, and IC bureaucrats that create and implement our foreign policy think that they're acting "for the greater good of the American people"... only they've lost sight of what that "greater good" is. They've been told their whole lives that "Russia is the enemy enemy" only it stopped being an enemy when the Berlin wall fell. I feel sorry for their ignorance.
You could probably say "sincere" too. They're not "deliberately ignorant." They know what they are doing but believe that the American people are too stupid to know what's good for them, and that they have to do "bad things" for America's "greater good"... kinda like the Nazi SS crematorium operators at a NAZI death camp thought that what they did was for Germany's "greater good".
Biden knew that the Ukrainians were shelling the Donbass and that Russia's "build-up" was an exercise planned months before. But the Ukrainian militia's knew it too, and so they stuck their fingers in Putin's eye trying to draw the US and NATO in when Russia inevitably responded.
What we should have done was sanction the Ukrainian militias and tell Zelinsky to reign them in. But the DoS and IC people believe that it's an advantage to the US if Russia gets weakened.... and so they averted their eyes from the intensified Ukrainian artillery bombardment.
...and so they pre-decided to put all their chips on the table on a bet that the Ukrainians would do serious damage to Russia's military if Putin responded. He did. Soon we'll learn just how stupid this whole war was. Ukraine has now permanently lost its industrial East.
And given today's pronounced military goal....and the literal Soviet enclave of Transnistria......Moldova should start preparing to be the next victim.
...and to honourable people, their "word" is their bond. Putin and Gorbachev mistook our diplomats for "honourable people." They have been sorely disappointed.
Weird that you wrote those words....and that it's in regard to politicians......
But let us take Gorbachev at his word: "“The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years." https://tinyurl.com/26p4jhja
One party broke legally binding security agreements. And it wasn't Ukraine or the West.
from your link: I would like to quote the speech of NATO General Secretary Mr. Woerner in Brussels on 17 May 1990. He said at the time that: ‘the fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.”
So the claim that it was not "discussed" may be true, but the NATO General Secretary UNILATERALLY gave the assurances.
Since that promise, the following countries put new armies allied against Russia outside Germany... Albania 2009 Bulgaria 2004 Croatia 2009 Czech Republic 1999 Estonia 2004 Hungary 1999 Latvia 2004 Lithuania 2004 Montenegro 2017 North Macedonia 2020 Poland 1999 Romania 2004 Slovakia 2004 Slovenia 2004
Are we forgetting the NATO-Russia Council (2002) and how Russia shit on that in 2014 with shelling the Ukrainian army from artillery based on Russian soil, the forced annexation of Crimea, the missile attack on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, the expulsion of Russian spies from NATO headquarters in Brussels last year?
Does Russia need security guarantees because they suck at lying and their military has failed to take Mariupol after over 7 years of continuous effort?
Biden should offer NATO membership to St. Petersburg for the lulz.
Doesn't sound like a "firm security guarantee" to me.
Nope, sure doesn't, because it wasn't. Further context from the same link: Western leaders never pledged not to enlarge NATO, a point that several analysts have demonstrated. Mark Kramer explored the question in detail in a 2009 article in The Washington Quarterly. He drew on declassified American, German and Soviet records to make his case and noted that, in discussions on German reunification in the two-plus-four format (the two Germanys plus the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France), the Soviets never raised the question of NATO enlargement other than how it might apply in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
But hey, Putin's alleged beef with NATO somehow means he was justified in invading a sovereign state and killing civilians....and as you said previously "they are deserving getting their a**es kicked"? Cool....super cool.
So Ukraine wasn't increasingly shelling the separatist region and driving refugees into Russia in the build-up to 2/24? Who knew? Certainly not the OSCE.
Those poor Ukrainian gunners, getting so tired from loading shells into their artillery pieces. By all means, send the US made howitzers with automated shell loading mechanisms... and mobile for avoiding counter-battery fire.
Yeah, the poor militant separatists and their insignia-less Russian counterparts. My heart bleeds for them. Hey, here's a cool way to defuse tensions.....have Russia recognize these breakaway regions as independent republics.
Exactly. Guess my sarcasm was more vieled than I thought.
I might give a damn about Russian refugees, had Ukraine invaded Russia. But since Russia had long ago embarked on a campaign to expropriate territory from a neighboring sovereign state....they would get none.
Russia was about to sign a trade deal with Russia when the US and Europe decided they need a coup do-over in 2014. So much for Ukrainian "sovereignty".
It certainly tracks, that is the narrative you subscribe to.
In other news, with Finland's announcement today.....much like Obama and gun sales, nobody has been better at enlarging NATO, than Putin. Good job Vlad!
Not threatening to invade Russia... just continue indiscriminately shelling and killing Russian speakers throughout the Donbass region...since they had since 2014.
But I suppose that in your book, only zombie invasions are bad, largely unreported genocides are good.
More than a million of the pre-2022 refugees, mainly from Donbas,[24] had gone to Russia between 2014 and 2016,[25] while the number of people displaced within Ukraine had grown to 1.6 million people by early March 2016.
This dance card is getting complicated. The Russians are pulling their ships away from the Ukrainian coasts they control because their flagship exploded in an accident?
So who shat all over the 2015 Minsk agreement in the days leading up Russia's 2/24/22 invasion, beamish?
You mean the Minsk agreement that called for Ukrainian law to be changed to grant "Freedom from punishment, harassment, and discrimination of persons connected with the events that took place in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
The "ceasefire" of the Minsk agreements was never honored, and Russia never even recognized their Donbass proxies as a legitimate party to the Minsk agreements until their invasion. Despite satellite image evidence to the contrary, Russia even denies they've been making war on Ukraine for nearly 8 years.
At this point, are we even sure the Russian leader isn't lying about his name being Putin?
Down's Syndrome and Parkinson's are a hell of a combo to exacerbate with fetal alcohol poisoning of those that can bypass dill seed consumption induced infertility.
Should a people that sociologically can't pour piss out of a boot with instructions stamped on the heel really be in charge of so much undeveloped land?
So when's Sleepy Joe going to Kyev to prove that his balls aren't smaller than BoJos?
He should just photo op himself on May 4th in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve tossing Russia's gold ingots to her creditors. Maybe bring along Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton for the cackling laugh track. Hillary can bring her red reset button to honk for each ingot Sleepy Joe tosses onto America's pile.
...and I, for one, object to paying Ukraine or NATO members another dime for killing Russian speakers until they stop separating Ukrainian children from their parents at the Ukrainian border.
Kids in cages, it's disgusting.
Ukrainian children are being “separated from relatives, friends or older siblings with whom they have traveled to the southern border.”
Maybe beamish and CI should pay off the last war before they go starting any new ones.
Dang, you got me. This is all my fault. I convinced Putin to invade Ukraine. My opposition to Putin's folly here on AOW's site has global reach into the halls of power...."who knew"?
Gee, maybe if you transfer another $40b in arms to Ukraine, when Russia capture it, they can sell it off to China, Iran and India and emerge from the conflict "debt free"?
There was a post citing Aristophanes "Peace" above, but like most of my posts lately, they've been disappearing... must be the new AI censorship algorithms reclassifying "spam".
The comment came in on my Email notifications but didn't appear on the blog or show up in "Spam". I'm guessing that Blogger ate it, but here it is below.
"Thersites has left a new comment on your post "Get it Off Your Chest 4/22/22":
Aristophanes, "Peace"
A BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Good gods, what am I going to do with this fine ten-minae breast-plate, which is so splendidly made?
TRYGAEUS. Oh, you will lose nothing over it.
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. I will sell it you at cost price.
TRYGAEUS. 'Twould be very useful as a night-stool….
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Cease your insults, both to me and my wares.
TRYGAEUS. … if propped on three stones. Look, 'tis admirable.
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. But how can you wipe, idiot?
TRYGAEUS. I can pass one hand through here, and the other there, and so….
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. What! do you wipe with both hands?
TRYGAEUS. Aye, so that I may not be accused of robbing the State, by blocking up an oar-hole in the galley.[381]
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. So you would pay ten minae[382] for a night-stool?
TRYGAEUS. Undoubtedly, you rascal. Do you think I would sell my rump for a thousand drachmae?[383]
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Come, have the money paid over to me.
TRYGAEUS. No, friend; I find it hurts me to sit on. Take it away, I won't buy.
A TRUMPET-MAKER. What is to be done with this trumpet, for which I gave sixty drachmae the other day?
TRYGAEUS. Pour lead into the hollow and fit a good, long stick to the top; and you will have a balanced cottabos.[384]
TRUMPET-MAKER. Ha! would you mock me?
TRYGAEUS. Well, here's another notion. Pour in lead as I said, add here a dish hung on strings, and you will have a balance for weighing the figs which you give your slaves in the fields.
A HELMET-MAKER. Cursed fate! I am ruined. Here are helmets, for which I gave a mina each. What am I to do with them? who will buy them?
TRYGAEUS. Go and sell them to the Egyptians; they will do for measuring loosening medicines.[385]
A SPEAR-MAKER. Ah! poor helmet-maker, things are indeed in a bad way.
TRYGAEUS. That man has no cause for complaint.
SPEAR-MAKER. But helmets will be no more used.
TRYGAEUS. Let him learn to fit a handle to them and he can sell them for more money.[386]
SPEAR-MAKER. Let us be off, comrade.
TRYGAEUS. No, I want to buy these spears.
SPEAR-MAKER. What will you give?
TRYGAEUS. If they could be split in two, I would take them at a drachma per hundred to use as vine-props.
SPEAR-MAKER. The insolent dog! Let us go, friend.
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Posted by Thersites to Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans at Apr 24, 2022, 9:07 AM
Russia is already coming to the end of a grace period window in which to make a payment on already defaulted debt. May 4th is doomsday for their economy. Russia owes $40 billion national debt? They can't pay that now. They're really going to hate it when their GDP drops by 10%.
Roughly 78% of the Central Bank of Russia's monetary assets (gold and foreign currencies) are held in banks outside Russia, and mostly in countries that are pissed off at them. They all appreciate the added value Russia is giving to the gold they're going to yank.
And then what? Russia's GDP drops 10% or more (likely more) and their Central Bank loses over two-thirds of its holdings to bill collectors.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve, our central bank, whose monetary holdings are already over 80% gold, and stored in US vaults whip out the calculators and see that the value of their gold increased at the same time more tons of gold were added to it.
Free Phoenix Ghost drones for everyone that sodomizes Russia. We're open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Horror movies don't do well if they take forever to get to the point. 80% import dependent welfare cases like China needs to look through their glorious trans-Siberian pipeline and see it only connects to a TV playing old Zelenskyy comedy movies.
To the humorless snivelers out there, this is why I call him Doctator Fauci. He would be right at home in a totalitarian regime:
In response to a federal judge overruling federal face diaper diktats:
Fauci responded, "Well, I clearly disagree, I mean those types of things should be decided as a public health issue by the public health organizations, in this case the CDC. This is a public health matter, not a judicial matter."
"So, obviously the CDC will abide by the order of the court because it’s a legal obligation," he continued. "But one of the problems that we have there is that the principle of a court overruling a public health judgment by a qualified organization like the CDC is disturbing in the precedent in might send," Fauci concluded.
Bureaucrat make recommendations. Elected officials make law.
Fauci is definitely a CDC "fundamentalist". He's like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket at the end or Travis Bickel in Taxi Driver... totally and completely committed to his cause ala "suicide bomber"... only Fauci's collateral damage is America's citizens.
In the USSR, these kinds of bureaucratic fanatics were screened out of the communist system because they were a danger to everyone. In the US Civil Service, these people are CIA/NSA Directors and four/five star generals/admirals.
They no longer have any "objective distance" from their positions of authority/ responsibility... like MASH's Hawkeye Pierce. They're all Major Burns' fundamentalists.
Well SF, your justification of assigning the name "Doctator Fauci" under the premise of him being "right at home in a totalitarian regime" rings rather hollow under the circumstances not presented in in a Tucker/Federalist propaganda sales pitch.
The first step would be to actually look at and analyze the credentials of Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle.
Yes, elections have consequences so having a life termed inexperience and ABA warnings of unqualified judges rammed down our throats in last minute power grabs of an out going political majority is in fact fair game.
Now the next step would be to evaluate Dr Fauci's acceptance of this Trump crony life time political hack.
There's nothing there incriminating Fauci of this "totalitarian regime" mindset you proclaim. In fact, it's quite the opposite with his statement of "So, obviously the CDC will abide by the order of the court because it’s a legal obligation". He clearly accepts and abides by the rule of the land even though he personally and professionally disagrees.
What you may be missing here is the ramifications of future pandemics (you know, really bad ones where a mere million or so Americans dead ain't really all that bad) over this Trump appointed and Plutocratic party seating toady jumping at an "own the Dems" photo op.
Ronald, for an indoctrinated member of the club that calls Republicans Hitler, Mussolini, nazis, etc, you sure get your back up when someone comes up with a clever and funny nickname for one of your heroes. Lighten up.
Why do I call him Doctator Fauci?
Because we are a democratic republic with elected officials. Elected officials need to make those life-impacting decisions, not unelected bureaucrats.
In Fauci's defense, most of our elected officials at the federal, state, county and local levels were cowards and bowed down to his diktats, regardless how self-contradictory or how little data they were based on.
Why do I call him Doctator Fauci? Because he controls billions in research grants, and that gives him incredible power to silence critics and get everyone to fall in line.
Why do I call him Doctator Fauci? Because he, Wailensky and the rest of his medical politburo refused to join a larger dialog with scientists worldwide. They shut out all dissent. Very unscientific.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya explains it way better than I could, and also in a gentlemanly and professional manner. He doesn't name call like I do.
I highly recommend this podcast. It explains a lot from a highly-respected doctor, researcher and professor. He avoids hysterics, is not in the MAGA crowd, argues in good faith, and does not insult those he disagrees with.
Related: Why I am alarmed at the increasingly dictatorial left. With the help of official gatekeeper media like WaPo, they are attempting to impose crowd sourced tyrannny:
My comment was directed specifically at Fauci's response to Mizelle's ruling which was pretty much that while he disagreed, he'd follow the law.
We've beaten the Fauci horse enough to know we're unlikely to make a sale.
Yeah, I've heard other medical professionals argue otherwise. I heard a lot of incredible suggestions from the then leader of our country. I heard the recommendations from our eye doctor KY senator. I saw an all out campaign against Fauci and I've listed my suspected motives of them.
Yes it would be a great thing if our elected officials could make these life impacting decisions rather than "unelected bureaucrats" but that's not how things work. Our elected officials do however fund and oversee such agencies as the CDC. Maybe it might be a good idea for incoming presidents to not attempt to defund them and tossing out pandemic playbooks left to them by years of previous presidents.
Even in the pre-McConnel era when we had a functioning government, such cases were better left to career experts who had a laid out plan rather than mainly lawyers and businessmen who had little expertise in this field to deal with on the fly.
That "elected officials need to make those life-impacting decisions" does have a nice ring to it but can you imagine the reaction today of either party having full control?
Just this week at a stroke of a pen, Gov Abbot disrupts the supply chain and cost his constituents untold $ for no more than a political stunt and Gov DeathSantis will tax the crap out of his constituents because Micky Mouse made him mad. This is why you need a credible government agencies. You think Margarete Toddler Greene and her lot are gonna be a life-impacting saviors?
TC, DeathSantis and his goons have openly admitted the legislation was to punish Disney for their opposition to Florida House Bill 1557.
With that SF, when I read above statements such as "Why I am alarmed at the increasingly dictatorial left" being sourced from the likes of "Libs of Tic Toc" from someone calling me indoctrinated, it does make me wonder if you even take yourself seriously.
I thought freedom of speech was among your bedrock constitutional values.
@ RJW, Free speech does not protect you from the consequences of your actions. When someone lives in your house and engages in actions that directly contradict your morals, especially concerning children, would you let them continue their actions? If so, it says far more about you than it does about the person that lives in your house! Disney, in light of released video, did far more that "speak" and was actively participating in the indoctrination of children. If you find that acceptable, it says far more about you than I really want to know.
Rufo has been adamant in promoting right wing culture wars but one thing he said was: “Perhaps the lesson that they’re learning — and certainly the lesson that they should be learning — is that they should stay out of politics”.
He also said: “I think there’s an opportunity to do the reporting, to build the narrative, much in the same way as critical race theory.”
So it appears to be ore of the right wing propaganda machine taking context and going to work spinning it- which Fox, the Federalist, and all the regulars manipulators of reality and promoters quickly went to work on.
And as PEN America put it: “CRT has primed the public to support sweeping censorship of classroom speech. For anti-L.G.B.T.Q.+ activists, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, a chance to ram through bills that are far more restrictive than anything the public would normally accept.”
So this is in fact mini-Trump DeathSantis cancelling or silencing Disney in retaliation for voicing their opinion of the bill.
The 1st Amendment protects the right of private businesses and institutions to engage in political speech and it safeguards them from government retaliation for their speech.
This is yet another example of how those on the right insist on having it both ways.
Nothing says social fascism like bestowing or revoking tax exemptions or other incentives because a company dared speak against the State. Especially after Citizens United. GQP facades keep dropping like the paper mache they always were..
I know the Orange County, FL taxpayers are going to be super happy next summer.
OC taxpayers will be just fine. Disney will be the biggest taxpayer.
CI makes a good point on indoctrination, strictly speaking. As parents we indoctrinate our children withour values, religious or otherwise.
I don't want random adults indoctrinating my children. Schools should be educating, not indoctrinating. Teach and enforce manners, basic civility and the golden rule. Get beyond that, and yeah, parents need to yank the schools back in line
For our economy and society is desperately in need of a another paradigm shift.... and not one moving us further in the direction of internet social influencers.
Florida taking away Disney's special status is not dictatorial. It was done by elected state representatives. See the difference?
Of course this is a culture war. It's not so much that Disney criticized the law. They lied about it, just like ally the hysterical screamers on the left. The left now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content.
There has always been "censorship" of classroom speech. A sane society--religion aside--agrees to not introduce age inappropriate material. Same goes for books. Refusing to stock sexually explicit books int he school library is not "book banning." If parents want those books for their children, they can go buy them.
...now you're getting back to the common-sense unwritten rules that our increasingly totalitarian "educational" establishment no longer feel obligated to consider.
SF, this is yet another example of your hypocrisy of sucking up to anything your puppet masters demand of you.
When state governors and legislators for one thing deviate from the first amendment for their own political advantages, that should bother you to some extent. But it doesn't. Why? Because it benefits YOUR side.
The Party Of Trump has now become the "free speech for me but not for thee" party. They're cancelling free speech while grooming people like you to abet them in blaming Dems for cancelling free speech.
No, the left does not now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content. This is the garbage that you indulge in nonstop because it's pleasing to your agenda. And the think tanks can't wait to pour more Kool-Aid into you.
I warned you weeks ago about this orchestrated scam from your puppet masters. Even above is quoted statement of how Rufo et al saw an opportune time to twist context and groom the basket of Gullibles.
It's quite an interesting site that the more extreme Carson and the like become, the more unhinged you yourself become. The more of a power grab and Constitutional unraveling from YOUR side, the more bootlicking and blaming of the Dems we'll see from you.
The problem with the Basket of Gullibles is not only that they can't differentiate from what is true and what isn't true but they don't care.
You're just a dupe, sf. The "enlightened" edumacators at Disney have it all right! Free speech is free! Yell "Fire" in whatever theatres you wish. Don't let your "puppet masters" tell you ANYTHING differently...
...but even more likely, you're just COMPLETELY wrong about the Left corrupting and grooming the kids nin schools. I mean, where's the NEXT generation of homosexuals and sexual-deviants going to come from if they're only 2% of the population and we don't start shaping their world-views now?
Once the Oedipal complex gets locked in at age 12, males will always remain straight according to their father's law, and how will all the unhappy gays who want give them bj's and get their asses tickled with feathers get laid?
...not that there's anything wrong with pederasty per-say, it's the making of catamites that I object to.
Oh, maybe they Left just wants to enjoy a little pederasty... and has NO intention of developing catamites! That would make it TOTALLY acceptable to advertise their practices in the schools.
SF, I suspect you will continue to "miss" things when you continue to refuse to see them.
The idea of attacking Disney really makes no practical sense in correcting yet another nonexistent problem as mini-Trump had already passed his can't say gay bill.
Why do you supposed the other 1,287 FL special districts (The Villages, Orlando International Airport, Daytona Speedway and others) went untouched? Maybe because mini-Trump and goons made no secret that it was payback for voicing their free speech of the legislation.
Up until about yesterday or maybe the day before, being pro-free market and pro-free speech was the hallmark of today's so-call conservatives. How soon they forget about Citizens United, their outrage of the left wanting to oust Chick-fil-A from airports because of the political statements from the owners (which I agreed with the right on this one and it somewhat mirrors the Disney stunt), Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cake Shop.
Here's one for ya, a case called O’Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake. The town had a rotating tow service where police would go in order calling wreckers as needed. When O'Hare refused to donate to the incumbent mayor, it was removed from the list.
In a 7–2 majority, Justice Kennedy said: “denying a benefit” can have the same effect as direct coercion: If the government could deny a benefit to a person because of his constitutionally protected speech or associations, his exercise of those freedoms would in effect be penalized and inhibited. This would allow the government to ‘produce a result which it could not command directly.”
I can simplify that if needed.
This is another problem with the Trump era indoctrinated cultists. They lack the balls to admit what they stood for yesterday if it no longer benefits their "own the Dems" agenda today. It's like I've said for years, Trump or whoever is your leader could travel the country tossing hand grenades into maternity wards in broad daylight and on live camera while admitting to it and you would be listening to your propaganda masters for instructions on how to blame the Dems.
You've been doing it for years and you're doing it now.
By the way, did ya hear about the Kevin McCarthy bombshell? Probably not? Why? Because Fox and the right wing media isn't talking about it and doesn't want you to know. And they know their gullibles will not look elsewhere.
Of course Desantis did this for political reasons. This is full-on culture war. Thanks for throwing in the story illustrating how corrupt Democrat-controlled Chicago is.
McCarthy? You have failed to notice how uninterested I am in personality based red team-blue team politics. They're all bastards in my book. I do admit I'd rather see Repubelicons run things because Democrats are so dangerous to society
SF, I don't know where you got Chicago Democrats at but whatever.
You admit on 1 hand that it was indeed a political stunt yet go along with the nonsense that's been sold to you, that "The left now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content".
You're gobbling the shit sandwich of the week that they're feeding you as fast as you can.
You obediently parrot the latest and greatest from your puppet masters that "Democrats are so dangerous to society" while at the same time, admitting that it's a cultural war they are invoking.
And the thing is, people like Rufo and others are coming out and openly telling you they're manipulating reality because they have cultists like you eating out of their hands.
Here we go again with Propaganda 101 Rule # 2. In the real world, we have a corporately owned Plutocratic party who is pro-rape, pro violence for women, pro-school shooting, pro-insurrection, pro-division, anti-democracy, and I could actually and seriously argue that are much more pro-abortion than the Democratic Party.
Ok, I can already see the "eye roll" of that last one so I guess I'll go ahead and elaborate.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act making it easier to adopt rather than abort was passed by Democrats under Bill Clinton. FMLA preventing employers from firing women because of maternity leave was passed by Democrats under Bill Clinton. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act guarantying infants born at any stage of development full legal rights and extended legal protections was passed by Democrats. The 2008 Democratic platform under Obama was “reducing the need for abortion by reducing the need for women seeking abortions" but that was shut down by a defiant Republican party hell bent on obstructing anything Obama presented.
It's worth reminding that the Republicans voted unanimously against the Violence Against Women Act. They unanimously allowed seated pro-rape appeals judge Neomi Jehangir Rao a lifetime seat. They've diligently weakened the ACA which has lowered abortion in every single state that accepted it and expanded Medicaid. In Colorado, abortions have dropped by the 40% range in the past 5 years after the state implemented a free contraceptive program yet Republicans have adamantly targeted free or reduced pricing for contraceptives for women.
I suppose the "just make abortions illegal and problem solved" Republican approach would set well with coat hanger industries and filling up their for-profit prisons with poor and uneducated women.
This is who today's so-called conservatives are. And much more. How in the hell are they better for society?
I didn't say it was a stunt. I said it was politics driven and it was another shot in the culture war. Welcome to politics in America Ronald. Glad you at least have one eye open
Well, regardless of your interpretations of politically driven verses stunts, how about we go with another con game from YOUR party.
Politics in America today is whatever scam YOU allow YOUR party to brainwash you with by the hour, day, or week.
You rely on Carson and the likes of which I've repeatedly mentioned to demand your opinions. I on the other hand rely on actual legislation, policies. and court decisions for mine.
A distraction and new shiny object for the 2022 midterm election. Polling shows a "war president's party" always does better when there's a war on the horizon.
Americans are "consumers" of politics and political parties. We want more "bang" for our political buck. And wars are kinda like internet click-bait, you literally get a lot of bang for the political buck... and the feedback loop w/voters is tight.
Why does the West need to want something in Ukraine? Sweden and Finland want to join NATO of their own volition, adding over $16 billion to NATO's annual budget as well as 1.5 million troops and over 4,000 military aircraft. That's about a quarter of Russia's entire defense budget, over half their troop strength, and alone matches Russia's air force.
Russia's been on a demographic death spiral since the 1990s, consistently loosing more people to death and emigration faster than their dill seed shriveled wombs can replace with births. On May 4th the first of a wagon train of monthly Russian debt defaults rolls through. Russia will be damned lucky if this initial shock only does a devastating 10% disintegration of their annual GDP before sector rot spreads through the rest of their economy like terminal cancer.
The West need not do anything but make popcorn and reserve seating for when the GRU and FSB string Putin up from a lamppost.
Can't really be an "ethno-nationalist" state if your "ethnos" are too drunk and infertile to make babies. Russia made its move on Ukraine now because in a few years they won't have enough people old enough to draft into military service much less train to function in a productive economy via Ouija board connection to their aging out skilled workers and experienced craftsmen.
The dollars-to-deaths ratio is always going to look wasteful as long as we keep electing pussies that aren't willing to burn down coca fields in Colombia with nuclear weapons.
Demographics will kill China. They will get old before they get rich, and its going to get ugly getting there. They have a huge imbalance of too many men, not enough women. That has never worked out well.
Also, interesting side note: China has, or will soon have, the largest number of Christians of any nation on earth.
Yup. 30 years from now, about a third of China (500 million) will be dead from old age. We can speed that up to 500 million dead from starvation in 30 days with some creative missile targeting of Russian oil pipelines. Or just Russia being unable to pay oil infrastructure workers to come back when something breaks from neglect.
Why would they have to, beamish. Europe and America will have gone broke paying to keep China's sea lanes open and couldn't pay foe Russian energy if they wanted to.
Zelensky said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, both in arms and security guarantees.
'You can't come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,' he said before the arrival of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Zalensky has government payrolls to make. CHOP-chop, where are the $billions he was promised.
Rebuilding Ukraine will be HUGELY expensive. All those IMF loans and grants for Hunter to hand out and George Soros administer... PRICELESS! They've even had past practice runs at major skimming ops w/Burisma, et al.
French Presidential Election Second Round Results Figures in this chart are based on official results
Count Pct. Emmanuel Macron Republic on the Move 10,273,496 52.8 Marine Le Pen National Rally 9,170,001 47.2 Abstentions 7,381,318 — Blank + invalid votes 1,928,225
We welcome civil dialogue at Always on Watch. Comments that include any of the following are subject to deletion: 1. Any use of profanity or abusive language 2. Off topic comments and spam 3. Use of personal invective
About those cocaine sex orgies among our Congress Critters....
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1980s, when powder cocaine was all the rage, very few desks and tables on Capitol Hill did not have a layer of fine white powder on them. So was the rumor inside the Beltway.
Before that, in 1974, the most powerful man in Washington, Congressman Wilbur Mills, had quite an escapade involving alcohol, a stripper from Argentina, and the Tidal Basin. See THIS. LOL.
Something tells me that wasn't a one off. It's a big club and you and I are not in the big club.
DeleteI have a feeling that if you really want to attend a cocaine sex orgy, it's not that difficult. Just don't trust the buffet, bring your own munchies.
DeleteI guess that is why old joe decided to give out clean crack pipes free.
DeleteWith the very important passage of time, your lighter may light again. Probably gonna be a while though. You know how those passages of time can be.
ReplyDeleteApparently, The lighters get so light that they get light enough to float off. At that point, they become lighter than air.
DeleteHmmmm, maybe some duct tape....
I hear the new drug of choice in DC is a mixture of Viagra and Ex-Lax. It's for those pols that don't know if they are coming or going. Now they can do both at the same time.
OMG this is a guy conversation - but Warren, you made me lmao! Thanks, I needed a good laugh today! :)
Delete:)
DeleteWarren, I think you're on target there. Also, when the lighter gts too light, it floats off into space, and you now how space "connects us all".
DeleteI'm envisioning Harris' writers just rolling and splitting their sides when she actually reads it in public. Wouldn't it be a hoot to write stuff for her to read?
@ Kid,
DeleteI don't know if space connects us all together but it certainly connects her ears together.
Its creepy when she gives her speeches and she sounds like a kindergarten teacher reading Green Eggs and Ham.
Did you see THIS ONE?
DeleteWarren, I did not. :). I don't believe she writes her own stuff so someone(s) is having a heck of a good time.
DeleteKid, I don't believe she wrights this stuff either -I don't believe she is capable of writing anything even vaguely coherent- it's like listening to the Abbott and Costello, Who's on first, routine. Which begs the questions, is she the Vice-President or vice-comedian and who is getting paid to write her speeches?
DeleteAs the Ukraine deservedly get's its *ss kicked, the cries for admitting it into NATO will get louder and louder. Don't fall for it. Ukraine started this war, not Russia. In the days leading up to the Russian attack on Feb. 14, UN observers noticed a starked increase in artillery fire coming from Ukraine into the Donbass. It was a direct provocation from Ukrainian militia units hoping to draw the West into supporting their ethnic cleansing of Russian speakers from the region. And of course, what "military assistance" does Biden give the Ukraine, more artillery..
ReplyDeleteThe latest security package, the eighth such installment, includes 72 howitzers, 144,000 artillery rounds, 72 tactical vehicles to tow howitzers, and more than 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones..
erratum- Feb 24, NOT 14.
DeleteWhy does Ukraine need more artillery? Because THAT is what the Russians came for, NOT Kyev. Kyev was a feint meant to pin down the rest of the Ukrainian army whilst Russia annihilated the militia artillery positions on the Donbass perimeter.
DeleteThe Minsk Agreement signed between Donbass separatists and Ukraine prohibited artillery sizes over 100mm within 15km of the negotiated border. The new artillery that the US is supplying Ukraine is 155mm, with greater range and mobility to kill more separatists
DeleteEchoes of Ahmed chalabi?
DeleteAnd just to make it even more wonderful, Russia (and therefor Ukraine) uses a different caliber weapon, so the US is trying to buy Russian weapons and ammo from Afghanistan and India to give to Ukraine. Yes, we are now buying weapons from the Taliban.
DeleteI'd be interested in a link for that, since I'm only aware of previously purchased stocks that were earmarked for ANSF, but never delivered.....were being repurposed for Ukraine.
DeleteDefinitely Chalibi...
DeleteSo, the next question is, is the ignorance of those who infest our government willful or sincere?
DeleteIt's "willful". The DoS, DoD, and IC bureaucrats that create and implement our foreign policy think that they're acting "for the greater good of the American people"... only they've lost sight of what that "greater good" is. They've been told their whole lives that "Russia is the enemy enemy" only it stopped being an enemy when the Berlin wall fell. I feel sorry for their ignorance.
DeleteYou could probably say "sincere" too. They're not "deliberately ignorant." They know what they are doing but believe that the American people are too stupid to know what's good for them, and that they have to do "bad things" for America's "greater good"... kinda like the Nazi SS crematorium operators at a NAZI death camp thought that what they did was for Germany's "greater good".
DeleteBiden knew that the Ukrainians were shelling the Donbass and that Russia's "build-up" was an exercise planned months before. But the Ukrainian militia's knew it too, and so they stuck their fingers in Putin's eye trying to draw the US and NATO in when Russia inevitably responded.
DeleteWhat we should have done was sanction the Ukrainian militias and tell Zelinsky to reign them in. But the DoS and IC people believe that it's an advantage to the US if Russia gets weakened.... and so they averted their eyes from the intensified Ukrainian artillery bombardment.
...and so they pre-decided to put all their chips on the table on a bet that the Ukrainians would do serious damage to Russia's military if Putin responded. He did. Soon we'll learn just how stupid this whole war was. Ukraine has now permanently lost its industrial East.
Delete...and we'd be the biggest fools in town if we let Ukraine into NATO now or sent them any more aid, military or elsewise.
DeleteThat's certainly the theory that Putin would endorse....if he assumes nobody had been paying attention to his own words for the last decade+......
DeleteAnd given today's pronounced military goal....and the literal Soviet enclave of Transnistria......Moldova should start preparing to be the next victim.
DeleteSince the early 1990's we've been telling the Russians that we wouldn't expand NATO east. What became of THAT promise?
DeleteEven Gorbachev shakes his head, now
Delete*head shaking* in 2014
DeleteNobody promised Russia that.
DeleteExactly, but that myth is certainly making the rounds of the Putin fanboy base....which is ironically, the base of another guy.....
DeleteLegally binding treaties and diplomatic assurances are two completely different things. One's my "word", one's a "contract". We broke our word.
Delete...and to honourable people, their "word" is their bond. Putin and Gorbachev mistook our diplomats for "honourable people." They have been sorely disappointed.
DeleteWeird that you wrote those words....and that it's in regard to politicians......
DeleteBut let us take Gorbachev at his word: "“The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years."
https://tinyurl.com/26p4jhja
One party broke legally binding security agreements. And it wasn't Ukraine or the West.
from your link: I would like to quote the speech of NATO General Secretary Mr. Woerner in Brussels on 17 May 1990. He said at the time that: ‘the fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.”
DeleteSo the claim that it was not "discussed" may be true, but the NATO General Secretary UNILATERALLY gave the assurances.
Since that promise, the following countries put new armies allied against Russia outside Germany...
DeleteAlbania 2009
Bulgaria 2004
Croatia 2009
Czech Republic 1999
Estonia 2004
Hungary 1999
Latvia 2004
Lithuania 2004
Montenegro 2017
North Macedonia 2020
Poland 1999
Romania 2004
Slovakia 2004
Slovenia 2004
Doesn't sound like a "firm security guarantee" to me.
DeleteFJ,
DeleteSince that promise, the following countries put new armies allied against Russia outside Germany...
Yikes!
Are we forgetting the NATO-Russia Council (2002) and how Russia shit on that in 2014 with shelling the Ukrainian army from artillery based on Russian soil, the forced annexation of Crimea, the missile attack on Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, the expulsion of Russian spies from NATO headquarters in Brussels last year?
DeleteDoes Russia need security guarantees because they suck at lying and their military has failed to take Mariupol after over 7 years of continuous effort?
Biden should offer NATO membership to St. Petersburg for the lulz.
Our leaders lack imagination, resolve and an ability to see situations as they are and act accordingly.
DeleteCI, Please see my comments at the bottom. I posted them there by mistake instead of in this sub-thread. I'm trying to seek some clarity.
So who shat all over the 2015 Minsk agreement in the days leading up Russia's 2/24/22 invasion, beamish?
DeleteOSCE fingered Ukraine for that.
DeleteHere's the OSCE Report in the days preceding the Russian attack on 2/24... and the aggression appears to have been primarily of Ukraine origin.
DeleteDoesn't sound like a "firm security guarantee" to me.
DeleteNope, sure doesn't, because it wasn't. Further context from the same link: Western leaders never pledged not to enlarge NATO, a point that several analysts have demonstrated. Mark Kramer explored the question in detail in a 2009 article in The Washington Quarterly. He drew on declassified American, German and Soviet records to make his case and noted that, in discussions on German reunification in the two-plus-four format (the two Germanys plus the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France), the Soviets never raised the question of NATO enlargement other than how it might apply in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
But hey, Putin's alleged beef with NATO somehow means he was justified in invading a sovereign state and killing civilians....and as you said previously "they are deserving getting their a**es kicked"? Cool....super cool.
So Ukraine wasn't increasingly shelling the separatist region and driving refugees into Russia in the build-up to 2/24? Who knew? Certainly not the OSCE.
DeleteThose poor Ukrainian gunners, getting so tired from loading shells into their artillery pieces. By all means, send the US made howitzers with automated shell loading mechanisms... and mobile for avoiding counter-battery fire.
w/ 2x the range even...
DeleteHave guns, will travel.
DeleteYeah, the poor militant separatists and their insignia-less Russian counterparts. My heart bleeds for them. Hey, here's a cool way to defuse tensions.....have Russia recognize these breakaway regions as independent republics.
DeleteMore Howitzers please! Switchblades too!
have Russia recognize these breakaway regions as independent republics. They did, two days before the invasion.
DeleteThey did, two days before the invasion.
DeleteExactly. Guess my sarcasm was more vieled than I thought.
I might give a damn about Russian refugees, had Ukraine invaded Russia. But since Russia had long ago embarked on a campaign to expropriate territory from a neighboring sovereign state....they would get none.
Well perhaps the US shouldn't have "expropriated" the entire Ukraine with their coup in 2014?
DeleteRussia was about to sign a trade deal with Russia when the US and Europe decided they need a coup do-over in 2014. So much for Ukrainian "sovereignty".
DeleteIt certainly tracks, that is the narrative you subscribe to.
DeleteIn other news, with Finland's announcement today.....much like Obama and gun sales, nobody has been better at enlarging NATO, than Putin. Good job Vlad!
...especially after the 2004 election do-over.
DeleteThe "narrative" I subscribe to was written long before the invasion, and from Left and Right.
DeleteI don't think you're going to sound so smug once the dollar gets dropped as the world's reserve currency.
DeleteI sound smug? Damn, I was gong for dismissive.
Delete...and all that US debt drowns us like an anchor stone around America's neck.
DeleteYou gave Russia no choice. They had to go full zombie. The neo-liberal European oligarch's didn't want to cut the Russian oligarch's in.
DeleteSO they ramped up the zombie propos all over the west until the zombies just ran out of brains.
DeleteNot threatening to invade Russia... just continue indiscriminately shelling and killing Russian speakers throughout the Donbass region...since they had since 2014.
DeleteBut I suppose that in your book, only zombie invasions are bad, largely unreported genocides are good.
Why do you suppose that there were over a million Ukrainian refugees in Russia before the invasion?
Deletefrom Wiki:
DeleteMore than a million of the pre-2022 refugees, mainly from Donbas,[24] had gone to Russia between 2014 and 2016,[25] while the number of people displaced within Ukraine had grown to 1.6 million people by early March 2016.
This dance card is getting complicated. The Russians are pulling their ships away from the Ukrainian coasts they control because their flagship exploded in an accident?
DeleteSo when's Sleepy Joe going to Kyev to prove that his balls aren't smaller than BoJos?
DeleteSo who shat all over the 2015 Minsk agreement in the days leading up Russia's 2/24/22 invasion, beamish?
DeleteYou mean the Minsk agreement that called for Ukrainian law to be changed to grant "Freedom from punishment, harassment, and discrimination of persons connected with the events that took place in particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts
Such as insurrection and terrorism?
The "ceasefire" of the Minsk agreements was never honored, and Russia never even recognized their Donbass proxies as a legitimate party to the Minsk agreements until their invasion. Despite satellite image evidence to the contrary, Russia even denies they've been making war on Ukraine for nearly 8 years.
DeleteAt this point, are we even sure the Russian leader isn't lying about his name being Putin?
Down's Syndrome and Parkinson's are a hell of a combo to exacerbate with fetal alcohol poisoning of those that can bypass dill seed consumption induced infertility.
DeleteShould a people that sociologically can't pour piss out of a boot with instructions stamped on the heel really be in charge of so much undeveloped land?
So when's Sleepy Joe going to Kyev to prove that his balls aren't smaller than BoJos?
He should just photo op himself on May 4th in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve tossing Russia's gold ingots to her creditors. Maybe bring along Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton for the cackling laugh track. Hillary can bring her red reset button to honk for each ingot Sleepy Joe tosses onto America's pile.
Russia isn't deep in debt like the US, beamish. Their credit is actually backed in gold as well.
DeleteRussia's national debt if $40b. America's is $30t.
Delete$8t of that US debt came from our "hugely successful" War on Terror. How much do we need to spend on our War for NATO pride?
DeleteMaybe beamish and CI should pay off the last war before they go starting any new ones.
Delete...and I, for one, object to paying Ukraine or NATO members another dime for killing Russian speakers until they stop separating Ukrainian children from their parents at the Ukrainian border.
DeleteKids in cages, it's disgusting.
Ukrainian children are being “separated from relatives, friends or older siblings with whom they have traveled to the southern border.”
Meanwhile, 40% of French politicians support Putin against "American aggression". Feel free to ignore these sentiments at your own peril.
DeleteMaybe beamish and CI should pay off the last war before they go starting any new ones.
DeleteDang, you got me. This is all my fault. I convinced Putin to invade Ukraine. My opposition to Putin's folly here on AOW's site has global reach into the halls of power...."who knew"?
Thanks for the laugh though.
Did Putin make you send Ukraine $billions too? I guess DC's budget process really is broken...
DeleteGee, maybe if you transfer another $40b in arms to Ukraine, when Russia capture it, they can sell it off to China, Iran and India and emerge from the conflict "debt free"?
DeleteHere's the last batch you sent.
Deletebtw-- Where are all the arms and supplies you left at Bagram now?
DeleteWouldn't it be smarter to go to Delphi and sack the Russian treasury there instead of emptying our into Ukraine's?
DeleteThere was a post citing Aristophanes "Peace" above, but like most of my posts lately, they've been disappearing... must be the new AI censorship algorithms reclassifying "spam".
DeleteWow....I had no idea that I wielded so much power in your demented little fantasy world. Please do go on.
DeleteI want you to spend your time blaming me. All of your time. Add a multitude of YouTube links that I won't look at please.
Thanks in advance!
The comment came in on my Email notifications but didn't appear on the blog or show up in "Spam". I'm guessing that Blogger ate it, but here it is below.
Delete"Thersites has left a new comment on your post "Get it Off Your Chest 4/22/22":
Aristophanes, "Peace"
A BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Good gods, what am I going to do with this fine ten-minae breast-plate, which is so splendidly made?
TRYGAEUS. Oh, you will lose nothing over it.
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. I will sell it you at cost price.
TRYGAEUS. 'Twould be very useful as a night-stool….
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Cease your insults, both to me and my wares.
TRYGAEUS. … if propped on three stones. Look, 'tis admirable.
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. But how can you wipe, idiot?
TRYGAEUS. I can pass one hand through here, and the other there, and so….
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. What! do you wipe with both hands?
TRYGAEUS. Aye, so that I may not be accused of robbing the State, by blocking up an oar-hole in the galley.[381]
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. So you would pay ten minae[382] for a night-stool?
TRYGAEUS. Undoubtedly, you rascal. Do you think I would sell my rump for a thousand drachmae?[383]
BREASTPLATE-MAKER. Come, have the money paid over to me.
TRYGAEUS. No, friend; I find it hurts me to sit on. Take it away, I won't buy.
A TRUMPET-MAKER. What is to be done with this trumpet, for which I gave sixty drachmae the other day?
TRYGAEUS. Pour lead into the hollow and fit a good, long stick to the top; and you will have a balanced cottabos.[384]
TRUMPET-MAKER. Ha! would you mock me?
TRYGAEUS. Well, here's another notion. Pour in lead as I said, add here a dish hung on strings, and you will have a balance for weighing the figs which you give your slaves in the fields.
A HELMET-MAKER. Cursed fate! I am ruined. Here are helmets, for which I gave a mina each. What am I to do with them? who will buy them?
TRYGAEUS. Go and sell them to the Egyptians; they will do for measuring loosening medicines.[385]
A SPEAR-MAKER. Ah! poor helmet-maker, things are indeed in a bad way.
TRYGAEUS. That man has no cause for complaint.
SPEAR-MAKER. But helmets will be no more used.
TRYGAEUS. Let him learn to fit a handle to them and he can sell them for more money.[386]
SPEAR-MAKER. Let us be off, comrade.
TRYGAEUS. No, I want to buy these spears.
SPEAR-MAKER. What will you give?
TRYGAEUS. If they could be split in two, I would take them at a drachma per hundred to use as vine-props.
SPEAR-MAKER. The insolent dog! Let us go, friend.
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Posted by Thersites to Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans at Apr 24, 2022, 9:07 AM
Thanks, Warren.
DeleteAt least beamish is smart enough to want to rob a Russian bank....
DeleteThere would at least be "some" profit in it.
DeleteRussia is already coming to the end of a grace period window in which to make a payment on already defaulted debt. May 4th is doomsday for their economy. Russia owes $40 billion national debt? They can't pay that now. They're really going to hate it when their GDP drops by 10%.
DeleteRoughly 78% of the Central Bank of Russia's monetary assets (gold and foreign currencies) are held in banks outside Russia, and mostly in countries that are pissed off at them. They all appreciate the added value Russia is giving to the gold they're going to yank.
And then what? Russia's GDP drops 10% or more (likely more) and their Central Bank loses over two-thirds of its holdings to bill collectors.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve, our central bank, whose monetary holdings are already over 80% gold, and stored in US vaults whip out the calculators and see that the value of their gold increased at the same time more tons of gold were added to it.
Free Phoenix Ghost drones for everyone that sodomizes Russia. We're open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
$40 billion? Like 4 good days of loading and unloading goods at a port in California?
Delete"In Glorious Russia, we get loan on future production..."
DeleteFrom who? Chinron?
It's time for the US to to assume the Bartleby foreign policy position. "I would prefer not to."
DeleteIn other words, keep the gold and pay off US debt, and let everyone else buy their own ghost drones.
DeleteHorror movies don't do well if they take forever to get to the point. 80% import dependent welfare cases like China needs to look through their glorious trans-Siberian pipeline and see it only connects to a TV playing old Zelenskyy comedy movies.
DeleteSure is a shame reading about which Russian facility burned to the ground on each new day. A darn shame.....
ReplyDeleteCI
ReplyDeleteApologies for making it look like you were commenting in response to nobody, but the trolls are thick today
No worries. I couldn't remember if that person was on the troll list or not.
DeleteTo the humorless snivelers out there, this is why I call him Doctator Fauci. He would be right at home in a totalitarian regime:
ReplyDeleteIn response to a federal judge overruling federal face diaper diktats:
Fauci responded, "Well, I clearly disagree, I mean those types of things should be decided as a public health issue by the public health organizations, in this case the CDC. This is a public health matter, not a judicial matter."
"So, obviously the CDC will abide by the order of the court because it’s a legal obligation," he continued. "But one of the problems that we have there is that the principle of a court overruling a public health judgment by a qualified organization like the CDC is disturbing in the precedent in might send," Fauci concluded.
Bureaucrat make recommendations. Elected officials make law.
Fauci is definitely a CDC "fundamentalist". He's like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket at the end or Travis Bickel in Taxi Driver... totally and completely committed to his cause ala "suicide bomber"... only Fauci's collateral damage is America's citizens.
DeleteHe think's he's doing what's "best for America".
DeleteIn the USSR, these kinds of bureaucratic fanatics were screened out of the communist system because they were a danger to everyone. In the US Civil Service, these people are CIA/NSA Directors and four/five star generals/admirals.
They no longer have any "objective distance" from their positions of authority/ responsibility... like MASH's Hawkeye Pierce. They're all Major Burns' fundamentalists.
Deleteerratum: "ironic" for "objective".
DeleteListen to what Zizek says about the requirements for admission to the Nomenklatura... you HAD to have an ironic distance. You couldn't be a fundamentalist "true believer"
DeleteSF,
DeleteApparently, Fauci wants to be the head of the oligarchy.
Worse. He already knows he's is a bureaucratic oligarch (just as Putin was before seizing power)..
DeleteWell SF, your justification of assigning the name "Doctator Fauci" under the premise of him being "right at home in a totalitarian regime" rings rather hollow under the circumstances not presented in in a Tucker/Federalist propaganda sales pitch.
ReplyDeleteThe first step would be to actually look at and analyze the credentials of Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle.
Yes, elections have consequences so having a life termed inexperience and ABA warnings of unqualified judges rammed down our throats in last minute power grabs of an out going political majority is in fact fair game.
Now the next step would be to evaluate Dr Fauci's acceptance of this Trump crony life time political hack.
There's nothing there incriminating Fauci of this "totalitarian regime" mindset you proclaim. In fact, it's quite the opposite with his statement of "So, obviously the CDC will abide by the order of the court because it’s a legal obligation". He clearly accepts and abides by the rule of the land even though he personally and professionally disagrees.
What you may be missing here is the ramifications of future pandemics (you know, really bad ones where a mere million or so Americans dead ain't really all that bad) over this Trump appointed and Plutocratic party seating toady jumping at an "own the Dems" photo op.
^^Would definitely NOT make the cut for Nomenklatura membership^^
DeleteRonald, for an indoctrinated member of the club that calls Republicans Hitler, Mussolini, nazis, etc, you sure get your back up when someone comes up with a clever and funny nickname for one of your heroes. Lighten up.
DeleteWhy do I call him Doctator Fauci?
Because we are a democratic republic with elected officials. Elected officials need to make those life-impacting decisions, not unelected bureaucrats.
In Fauci's defense, most of our elected officials at the federal, state, county and local levels were cowards and bowed down to his diktats, regardless how self-contradictory or how little data they were based on.
Why do I call him Doctator Fauci? Because he controls billions in research grants, and that gives him incredible power to silence critics and get everyone to fall in line.
Why do I call him Doctator Fauci? Because he, Wailensky and the rest of his medical politburo refused to join a larger dialog with scientists worldwide. They shut out all dissent. Very unscientific.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya explains it way better than I could, and also in a gentlemanly and professional manner. He doesn't name call like I do.
I highly recommend this podcast. It explains a lot from a highly-respected doctor, researcher and professor. He avoids hysterics, is not in the MAGA crowd, argues in good faith, and does not insult those he disagrees with.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya: How To Avoid 'Absolutely Catastrophic' COVID Mistakes
Related: Why I am alarmed at the increasingly dictatorial left. With the help of official gatekeeper media like WaPo, they are attempting to impose crowd sourced tyrannny:
DeleteShaming Private Citizens who Dissent
btw, this was written by a woman of color.
My comment was directed specifically at Fauci's response to Mizelle's ruling which was pretty much that while he disagreed, he'd follow the law.
DeleteWe've beaten the Fauci horse enough to know we're unlikely to make a sale.
Yeah, I've heard other medical professionals argue otherwise. I heard a lot of incredible suggestions from the then leader of our country. I heard the recommendations from our eye doctor KY senator. I saw an all out campaign against Fauci and I've listed my suspected motives of them.
Yes it would be a great thing if our elected officials could make these life impacting decisions rather than "unelected bureaucrats" but that's not how things work. Our elected officials do however fund and oversee such agencies as the CDC. Maybe it might be a good idea for incoming presidents to not attempt to defund them and tossing out pandemic playbooks left to them by years of previous presidents.
Even in the pre-McConnel era when we had a functioning government, such cases were better left to career experts who had a laid out plan rather than mainly lawyers and businessmen who had little expertise in this field to deal with on the fly.
That "elected officials need to make those life-impacting decisions" does have a nice ring to it but can you imagine the reaction today of either party having full control?
Just this week at a stroke of a pen, Gov Abbot disrupts the supply chain and cost his constituents untold $ for no more than a political stunt and Gov DeathSantis will tax the crap out of his constituents because Micky Mouse made him mad. This is why you need a credible government agencies. You think Margarete Toddler Greene and her lot are gonna be a life-impacting saviors?
"Look over there at Governor Abbot!"
Deletelol
DisneyWorld is no longer an anarcho-capitalist paradise? DeSantis should just give the Disney deal to every other city in Florida ;)
DeleteTC, DeathSantis and his goons have openly admitted the legislation was to punish Disney for their opposition to Florida House Bill 1557.
DeleteWith that SF, when I read above statements such as "Why I am alarmed at the increasingly dictatorial left" being sourced from the likes of "Libs of Tic Toc" from someone calling me indoctrinated, it does make me wonder if you even take yourself seriously.
I thought freedom of speech was among your bedrock constitutional values.
@ RJW,
DeleteFree speech does not protect you from the consequences of your actions.
When someone lives in your house and engages in actions that directly contradict your morals, especially concerning children, would you let them continue their actions? If so, it says far more about you than it does about the person that lives in your house!
Disney, in light of released video, did far more that "speak" and was actively participating in the indoctrination of children. If you find that acceptable, it says far more about you than I really want to know.
Rufo has been adamant in promoting right wing culture wars but one thing he said was: “Perhaps the lesson that they’re learning — and certainly the lesson that they should be learning — is that they should stay out of politics”.
DeleteHe also said: “I think there’s an opportunity to do the reporting, to build the narrative, much in the same way as critical race theory.”
So it appears to be ore of the right wing propaganda machine taking context and going to work spinning it- which Fox, the Federalist, and all the regulars manipulators of reality and promoters quickly went to work on.
And as PEN America put it: “CRT has primed the public to support sweeping censorship of classroom speech. For anti-L.G.B.T.Q.+ activists, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, a chance to ram through bills that are far more restrictive than anything the public would normally accept.”
So this is in fact mini-Trump DeathSantis cancelling or silencing Disney in retaliation for voicing their opinion of the bill.
I see (rolls eyes),
DeleteGod is love.
Love is blind.
Ray Charles was blind.
Therefor, Ray Charles is God.
How did I ever miss that before!
What's wrong with indoctrination? If you support raising a child to believe in a religious faith.....that's indoctrination.
DeleteBut I'm happy to see DeSantis take on Disney. They show their true colors with regard to social fascism.
Warren, this really isn't inductive.
DeleteThe 1st Amendment protects the right of private businesses and institutions to engage in political speech and it safeguards them from government retaliation for their speech.
This is yet another example of how those on the right insist on having it both ways.
But I'm happy to see DeSantis take on Disney. They show their true colors with regard to social fascism.
DeleteYes, nothing speaks to fascism like breaking up NAZI Socialism's neoliberal partnership with Krupp Steel.
Nothing says social fascism like bestowing or revoking tax exemptions or other incentives because a company dared speak against the State. Especially after Citizens United. GQP facades keep dropping like the paper mache they always were..
DeleteI know the Orange County, FL taxpayers are going to be super happy next summer.
Gee, maybe they need some kind of corporate tax... or will they move the Magic Kingdom to France, where it belongs?
DeleteYes, the sins of corporate globalism DO remain to be paid.
...I mean, but only if you'd care to discuss "root causes".
Delete...after all, the corporate "citizens" of the world only pay taxes when they "want" to pay taxes.
DeleteOC taxpayers will be just fine. Disney will be the biggest taxpayer.
DeleteCI makes a good point on indoctrination, strictly speaking. As parents we indoctrinate our children withour values, religious or otherwise.
I don't want random adults indoctrinating my children. Schools should be educating, not indoctrinating. Teach and enforce manners, basic civility and the golden rule. Get beyond that, and yeah, parents need to yank the schools back in line
Maybe corporations should be required to hold "passports"?
Delete...and all education is form of indoctrination. You can't separate it "out" in schools.
DeleteEven the "golden rule" is liberal indoctrination.
DeleteFor what's truly important for human development are the "Poetics of Space" (Kuhn/Bachelard) in a "System of Objects" (or ideas) (Baudrillard). ;)
DeleteFor our economy and society is desperately in need of a another paradigm shift.... and not one moving us further in the direction of internet social influencers.
DeleteCuz right now, CI see's the rabbit and I see the duck... and the democrats can only see their next "free meal" ticket.
DeleteRonald,
DeleteFlorida taking away Disney's special status is not dictatorial. It was done by elected state representatives. See the difference?
Of course this is a culture war. It's not so much that Disney criticized the law. They lied about it, just like ally the hysterical screamers on the left. The left now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content.
...hassen duckenpfeffer, a meal suitable only for dogs.
DeleteThere has always been "censorship" of classroom speech. A sane society--religion aside--agrees to not introduce age inappropriate material. Same goes for books. Refusing to stock sexually explicit books int he school library is not "book banning." If parents want those books for their children, they can go buy them.
Delete...now you're getting back to the common-sense unwritten rules that our increasingly totalitarian "educational" establishment no longer feel obligated to consider.
DeleteChinese "authoritarian" capitalism is infecting our social order more and more, and daily.
DeleteSF, this is yet another example of your hypocrisy of sucking up to anything your puppet masters demand of you.
DeleteWhen state governors and legislators for one thing deviate from the first amendment for their own political advantages, that should bother you to some extent. But it doesn't. Why?
Because it benefits YOUR side.
The Party Of Trump has now become the "free speech for me but not for thee" party. They're cancelling free speech while grooming people like you to abet them in blaming Dems for cancelling free speech.
No, the left does not now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content. This is the garbage that you indulge in nonstop because it's pleasing to your agenda. And the think tanks can't wait to pour more Kool-Aid into you.
I warned you weeks ago about this orchestrated scam from your puppet masters. Even above is quoted statement of how Rufo et al saw an opportune time to twist context and groom the basket of Gullibles.
It's quite an interesting site that the more extreme Carson and the like become, the more unhinged you yourself become. The more of a power grab and Constitutional unraveling from YOUR side, the more bootlicking and blaming of the Dems we'll see from you.
The problem with the Basket of Gullibles is not only that they can't differentiate from what is true and what isn't true but they don't care.
You're just a dupe, sf. The "enlightened" edumacators at Disney have it all right! Free speech is free! Yell "Fire" in whatever theatres you wish. Don't let your "puppet masters" tell you ANYTHING differently...
Delete@@
...only stop yelling "Fire" in this theatre, sf. You're exciting the "gullibles".
Delete...for FREE speech isn't for them.
Delete...those gullible "Don Quixote's"... who's very existence is an insult to us anti-racists and all people of "good" moral "character". :(
All cities should charge per day admission to keep taxation at bay ;)
Delete...but all the coffee should served in that city should be free after that.
DeleteRonald, Who are these imaginary puppetmasters you allege I am being controlled by? Evidence?
DeleteThe State of Florida has violated someone's first amendment rights? I must have missed that. Please Explain.
Is a kindergarten teacher free to vividly describe to her class the slasher movie she was last weekend?
You may be developing a novel theory here.
Probably...Trump...Bannon...Faux News. The usual suspects.
DeleteThey don't even go to Davos and attend our conferences!
Delete...but even more likely, you're just COMPLETELY wrong about the Left corrupting and grooming the kids nin schools. I mean, where's the NEXT generation of homosexuals and sexual-deviants going to come from if they're only 2% of the population and we don't start shaping their world-views now?
DeleteOnce the Oedipal complex gets locked in at age 12, males will always remain straight according to their father's law, and how will all the unhappy gays who want give them bj's and get their asses tickled with feathers get laid?
Delete...not that there's anything wrong with pederasty per-say, it's the making of catamites that I object to.
DeleteOh, maybe they Left just wants to enjoy a little pederasty... and has NO intention of developing catamites! That would make it TOTALLY acceptable to advertise their practices in the schools.
SF, I suspect you will continue to "miss" things when you continue to refuse to see them.
DeleteThe idea of attacking Disney really makes no practical sense in correcting yet another nonexistent problem as mini-Trump had already passed his can't say gay bill.
Why do you supposed the other 1,287 FL special districts (The Villages, Orlando International Airport, Daytona Speedway and others) went untouched? Maybe because mini-Trump and goons made no secret that it was payback for voicing their free speech of the legislation.
Up until about yesterday or maybe the day before, being pro-free market and pro-free speech was the hallmark of today's so-call conservatives. How soon they forget about Citizens United, their outrage of the left wanting to oust Chick-fil-A from airports because of the political statements from the owners (which I agreed with the right on this one and it somewhat mirrors the Disney stunt), Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cake Shop.
Here's one for ya, a case called O’Hare Truck Service v. City of Northlake. The town had a rotating tow service where police would go in order calling wreckers as needed. When O'Hare refused to donate to the incumbent mayor, it was removed from the list.
In a 7–2 majority, Justice Kennedy said: “denying a benefit” can have the same effect as direct coercion: If the government could deny a benefit to a person because of his constitutionally protected speech or associations, his exercise of those freedoms would in effect be penalized and inhibited. This would allow the government to ‘produce a result which it could not command directly.”
I can simplify that if needed.
This is another problem with the Trump era indoctrinated cultists. They lack the balls to admit what they stood for yesterday if it no longer benefits their "own the Dems" agenda today. It's like I've said for years, Trump or whoever is your leader could travel the country tossing hand grenades into maternity wards in broad daylight and on live camera while admitting to it and you would be listening to your propaganda masters for instructions on how to blame the Dems.
You've been doing it for years and you're doing it now.
By the way, did ya hear about the Kevin McCarthy bombshell? Probably not? Why? Because Fox and the right wing media isn't talking about it and doesn't want you to know. And they know their gullibles will not look elsewhere.
Of course Desantis did this for political reasons. This is full-on culture war. Thanks for throwing in the story illustrating how corrupt Democrat-controlled Chicago is.
DeleteMcCarthy? You have failed to notice how uninterested I am in personality based red team-blue team politics. They're all bastards in my book. I do admit I'd rather see Repubelicons run things because Democrats are so dangerous to society
Also, Florida "punishing" Disney may not survive a legal challenge.
DeleteI like Desantis, but--as politicians always do--he is channeling Icarus.
DeleteIf Disney's free speech has been silenced, why in the F are we still hearing from them about how they feel about Florida's anti-groomingnlaw?
DeleteThe idea of attacking Disney really makes no practical sense in correcting yet another nonexistent problem
DeleteAhhhh, so you chose option B. I thought you might.
"Pay no attentions to the teacher's grooming your children!"
Hey Ronnie, NAMBLA's calling. You're behind on your annual membership dues and their 2022 PAC is REALLY gonna need your money this year...
SF, I don't know where you got Chicago Democrats at but whatever.
DeleteYou admit on 1 hand that it was indeed a political stunt yet go along with the nonsense that's been sold to you, that "The left now stands for teaching young children age-inappropriate sexual content".
You're gobbling the shit sandwich of the week that they're feeding you as fast as you can.
You obediently parrot the latest and greatest from your puppet masters that "Democrats are so dangerous to society" while at the same time, admitting that it's a cultural war they are invoking.
And the thing is, people like Rufo and others are coming out and openly telling you they're manipulating reality because they have cultists like you eating out of their hands.
Here we go again with Propaganda 101 Rule # 2. In the real world, we have a corporately owned Plutocratic party who is pro-rape, pro violence for women, pro-school shooting, pro-insurrection, pro-division, anti-democracy, and I could actually and seriously argue that are much more pro-abortion than the Democratic Party.
Ok, I can already see the "eye roll" of that last one so I guess I'll go ahead and elaborate.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act making it easier to adopt rather than abort was passed by Democrats under Bill Clinton. FMLA preventing employers from firing women because of maternity leave was passed by Democrats under Bill Clinton. The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act guarantying infants born at any stage of development full legal rights and extended legal protections was passed by Democrats. The 2008 Democratic platform under Obama was “reducing the need for abortion by reducing the need for women seeking abortions" but that was shut down by a defiant Republican party hell bent on obstructing anything Obama presented.
It's worth reminding that the Republicans voted unanimously against the Violence Against Women Act. They unanimously allowed seated pro-rape appeals judge Neomi Jehangir Rao a lifetime seat. They've diligently weakened the ACA which has lowered abortion in every single state that accepted it and expanded Medicaid. In Colorado, abortions have dropped by the 40% range in the past 5 years after the state implemented a free contraceptive program yet Republicans have adamantly targeted free or reduced pricing for contraceptives for women.
I suppose the "just make abortions illegal and problem solved" Republican approach would set well with coat hanger industries and filling up their for-profit prisons with poor and uneducated women.
This is who today's so-called conservatives are. And much more. How in the hell are they better for society?
Chicago, and Illinois are totally and completely owned by the corrupt democrat machine. They actually call it the Democrat machine. Look it up
DeleteI didn't say it was a stunt. I said it was politics driven and it was another shot in the culture war. Welcome to politics in America Ronald. Glad you at least have one eye open
DeleteWell, regardless of your interpretations of politically driven verses stunts, how about we go with another con game from YOUR party.
DeletePolitics in America today is whatever scam YOU allow YOUR party to brainwash you with by the hour, day, or week.
You rely on Carson and the likes of which I've repeatedly mentioned to demand your opinions. I on the other hand rely on actual legislation, policies. and court decisions for mine.
That's the difference.
Richard Haass asks the million dollar question:
ReplyDeleteWhat Does the West Want in Ukraine?
Unfortunately for all of us, even a man as smart as Richard Haass can't figure that out.
Yep. Complicated issue with not many decent solutions.
DeleteAt least Putin was nice enough to tell us his intentions for the past several years.
What Does the West Want in Ukraine?
DeleteA distraction and new shiny object for the 2022 midterm election. Polling shows a "war president's party" always does better when there's a war on the horizon.
Americans are "consumers" of politics and political parties. We want more "bang" for our political buck. And wars are kinda like internet click-bait, you literally get a lot of bang for the political buck... and the feedback loop w/voters is tight.
Delete...and "clicks" are the Society of Control's feedback loop.
DeleteRussia bad. Interfere w/election. Trumph!
Why does the West need to want something in Ukraine? Sweden and Finland want to join NATO of their own volition, adding over $16 billion to NATO's annual budget as well as 1.5 million troops and over 4,000 military aircraft. That's about a quarter of Russia's entire defense budget, over half their troop strength, and alone matches Russia's air force.
DeleteRussia's been on a demographic death spiral since the 1990s, consistently loosing more people to death and emigration faster than their dill seed shriveled wombs can replace with births. On May 4th the first of a wagon train of monthly Russian debt defaults rolls through. Russia will be damned lucky if this initial shock only does a devastating 10% disintegration of their annual GDP before sector rot spreads through the rest of their economy like terminal cancer.
The West need not do anything but make popcorn and reserve seating for when the GRU and FSB string Putin up from a lamppost.
Can't really be an "ethno-nationalist" state if your "ethnos" are too drunk and infertile to make babies. Russia made its move on Ukraine now because in a few years they won't have enough people old enough to draft into military service much less train to function in a productive economy via Ouija board connection to their aging out skilled workers and experienced craftsmen.
DeleteHmmm. The Kurds need a homeland.
More importantly, how does this war impact the elites' money raking operation in Ukraine?
DeleteHow much do defense contractors stand to make on a protracted war?
The dollars-to-deaths ratio is always going to look wasteful as long as we keep electing pussies that aren't willing to burn down coca fields in Colombia with nuclear weapons.
DeleteIf you're good at something, never do it for free
DeleteThe Ukrainians aren't doing it for free. They're sending Washington, and you, the bill.
DeleteI feel very walrus and carpentery about that all you can eat oyster bar.
DeleteDon't worry, just put another oyster and war on your tab and wait for inflation to pay for it.
DeleteNow that the Western vampires, Romney-like, have sucked the life out of their Ukraine wealth extraction scheme, where will they go next?
DeleteThey understand the Broken Window theory too well to be hoping they can cash in on the rebuild.
"In Glorious Russia, we will hold China hostage with oil dependency..."
DeleteOh no, not the briar patch B'rer Bear. Not that.
Cui bono?
DeleteWorld Bank lenders, government grant makers, children and families of corrupt politicians
Cui nocere?
Ukrainian and Russian civilians and American taxpayers.
When the Chinron scheme (China is Enron as a country) collapses, who's economy is left standing?
DeleteThat's right. Ours.
You'd think the Chinese would have looked at the Monopoly games we make them print.
Demographics will kill China. They will get old before they get rich, and its going to get ugly getting there. They have a huge imbalance of too many men, not enough women. That has never worked out well.
DeleteAlso, interesting side note: China has, or will soon have, the largest number of Christians of any nation on earth.
Yup. 30 years from now, about a third of China (500 million) will be dead from old age. We can speed that up to 500 million dead from starvation in 30 days with some creative missile targeting of Russian oil pipelines. Or just Russia being unable to pay oil infrastructure workers to come back when something breaks from neglect.
DeleteWhy would they have to, beamish. Europe and America will have gone broke paying to keep China's sea lanes open and couldn't pay foe Russian energy if they wanted to.
DeleteZelensky said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, both in arms and security guarantees.
'You can't come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,' he said before the arrival of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Zalensky has government payrolls to make. CHOP-chop, where are the $billions he was promised.
What another $4b down the toilet?
Delete-FJ
Rebuilding Ukraine will be HUGELY expensive. All those IMF loans and grants for Hunter to hand out and George Soros administer... PRICELESS! They've even had past practice runs at major skimming ops w/Burisma, et al.
ReplyDeleteFrench Presidential Election Second Round Results
Figures in this chart are based on official results
Count
Pct.
Emmanuel Macron Republic on the Move
10,273,496
52.8
Marine Le Pen National Rally
9,170,001
47.2
Abstentions
7,381,318
—
Blank + invalid votes
1,928,225
Russia's gal in France is losing? Nice!
ReplyDeleteShe's already conceded.
Delete