#youngkin? now really

[artcallednaturalviews]

Rockstar Manhunt, So Say I

To go back

Scared in an alley

I’ve never felt the same pulse

In a game

Dead Souls just brutally hard

But scary

There is

Manhunt

I’m beyond Slender man sorry

And Five nites

The scare to terrify

Breath thee only sound

Creep willfully!

Manhunt

That was like PS2

Without prescription drugs

Extravagant attack

Small clovers killed

Just pulled out

Contracts of

Rockstar manhunt

We go back

For arena

Nother day of death

Pull out roll in grab a plastic bag

Eerily subjugated causalities

ESC

Early synapse

Caucasian

With filigree top head never cut sprinkled

over to a side pedigree chained to a golf cart spouting of words off like a sprig engine

Killing for a taproot

And let’s kill on

Rockstar make a Netanyahu game

It will be just for killing numbing

Play on

You fore’s are thee abundantly handicapped

In missiles leading mislead humans

And a whole even taxed abundantly tied

Connected arms

Engrossing

Around a World

For I tell and toll

In my crosshairs

With out

Ex producer

Help

My country

Yet soon

My nativity

So help me

Dear baby Jesus

What the fuck is with

Standers of Trump

God help Them

So on and more for the ones just don’t understand!

Dang it !

Oh my God

So speak to all of US

Hold the Bible again Trump!

Day after day

Fourth of July!

Still partying

Do say rump T

Cause

I’m not done !

Yet!

Did you yelp for yeti!

Criss cross the Trump into thinking back again

All the simple plays in America. I’m pointing from down under looking up at America

The coke bottle fell from the sky

First

There

No fake Moon land necessary

Eat tha chumbs and crackers

Slithery sinnestars

Sin the nest of ours so sly

In all digestions

Could agree?!

We need boxed up shit

In all atmospheres

Holding the smells

………

Under concrete decomposing

De fore under oppression from the evil Hamas therefore Governing ruling over and Palestinians dinning in the mathematical process covered in rubbish ties too

….i can believe

Trump involved

Add Putin

Sew through threads North Korea

Set your place marker after the fourth!

The World is Ours!

Wrong harbors & haircuts

Fuck you

Trump

Putin

Bill Kim Jong Un You

And the Provider’s

From South America

They may be, they could be, while holding that fob for seat placement

When it lights up

You now know your place

Seek the drugs

Oga bunga style

Say please, me

Say what

Say what

Thought from beginning creeping back

You can love some one

Take ‘em out of focus

No longer a problema’

: words from my American Terminator @

In parenthesis

(My problems are my own through all the ages even with magical Moon landings and don’t forget about the food pyramids and the just thee excuse for medical insurance not living up to doctored standards or the carrying out of eating desserts as the lonely spread the lower bottom rungs in this task carried out by thee upper above)

It’s all Marketing!

She said

And then sum!

Over and since 1920’s again

Well that’s a hundred years of same ol

Dust bowls

Tornados all else where

Hurricanes for land masses

I tape it on

With duck or duct

I’m confused now

As when laughing at Satie

In a comedy

A writers missed constitution

You are Wallace and Ladmo!

Sue me Trump Rump T

Come on

Come one

Sue me Trump Rump T

Come one

Come on

Big ass Sally

Letting the glide right in

Make it open forum

Make it open forum!

Add your sneer ( )

You bully!

Trump from Apprentice

Give the show out stories!

They don’t exist apparently

You none parent

Formulate riding on Underscored

Democrats

It’s easy to see!

I’m bringing the Ace suit!

For bringing humans for killings

Like a vide game

(You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality)

(You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality) (You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality) (You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality) (You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality)

(You shouldn’t reach out)

(Nah, reality)

Tripled finger above

Look closely up above

Watch the head lines

Fore!

For a Manhunt from Rockstar again!

Hope prey before gta 6

I will do tha Macreana

Manhunt 2

Manhunt II (tha second)

Or

Prequel

It’s been done

A story to the mayhem

Just a sum thang in something more scored

(Your own breathing was in first soundtrack)

As the last

Speak up again it’s been 2000 add 24 years

Don’t say it like that!

Last stab carried for

Two thousand and twenty four years ago

I stated & punched oiled buttons

Without a healing potion

Art for more gain

Had healing powers

Let’s combine

Ohh tha Silo’s

[Let’s prey pray upon tha masses of disease and buying into tha conglomerates to make themselves feel special especially against the reported enemies while trying to overcome the entities of leadership reminding thee to kill others before self]

My words granted by Trump rump T

Point all Nuclear wares towards tha Moon

Thee after shock will

Take out Republicans pelican the easy and touched in swallowing, former Dear President Trump {he said [I took acceptances only after being paid], I’m always everywhere no never elsewhere without tie jacket and long sleeves

He said I’m just a man

Please allow me to take shoes socks and pants off

He

Jung Un

Putin

Will cease to exist!

And some little girls and boys

The reaches of Woman

In the Arts

Has been ridiculed by Man

Trump

Openly define!?

LBGTQ

Not a can I tie my own shoe test

Or what did I eat this morning

Define, Openly

It is after the debate

But you, and bretheren and Some Dis Social

Other Democrats

Chumps

Easy dones

Simple drones

It’s all s and s

For former

Putin Nazi-ism add Jong Un

Nobodies of Hamas

You tied with Netanyahu too

So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say So say I

Rockstar Manhunt, So say I

Touché

Like a Trump ex President

Don’t grope me

Or poke my stomach in a Boys Room

I have been assaulted!

Never like Covid

Took it out on others!

Rump T dance needed now

And fast

Due the steps you all

Because

Cause

We all CONNECTED

Bombs on children and other civilian lives

Through domesticated America formication

In allies ( that says really all lies) dependent on the out reach

What frame you in mind?

Or NATO OTAN

I speak upon conglomerates and political figures

And those in the sames

But senates seat for forever

Well that should be calculated as wrong and not above

Stupid American zombie

The SAZ

ZAS

The book of ZAS

States:£\ Established when eating brains started

(brought by non Frasiered haircut man lowered the regulations, he then shut down UNITED STATES OF AMERICA & to add to the mayhem

He stormed the UNITED STATES CAPITOL

it was behind

Bulletproof glass

He was standing in front

Pointed them towards

Thee esculation

Deferring deflowering stated by built a building belonging to the same Country

It’s our lower case a-Merica mess

It’s mixed & fucted UP

I please, I pledge aggressively

I plead, I piss

I subtly, fuck you

I Abruptly say

I pledge Allegiance to my Flag!

No test needed

But let’s compare minds

For your sakes!

A sorry Atari

Flick Commadore54

Only a PS

One

Grabbed my attention

Finger Nintendo

And grasping X Box

But obnoxious in controller size

And not just the hand holder purchased merchandise

Ask thee ex pose the ex spouse

But cordially

The public broadcasting stations are still needed

And some frontiers

Ended in public branding’s

Those names at thee ends!

Oh awe oh ho La ga in which a tha flavors for the Mari mi Maro lar go

As Marlboro Will considering

I’m connected

Wenever considered!

Wenever considered

We never considered

Oh really

I was born to wear pomp owns pawns as

In the like of what they thoughts

The pops of trumps grope

As stated from get-fore or as in be-fore’s

Emigrate golfing ties

Fork her Rocker

In above symbol!

(It’s mine in calibration with Apple)

I’m punching in oils for in prognosis

I’m not tha Doctor

For de-ablitated

See my symbol

Full bodied above now!

(A dedication for we all CONNECTED)

Taxes, son’s & daughter’s; it’s enough

For numbers!

Holy overstated opera

Starvin’ Gazians

25 to one Israeli

Thumb next picture next

For the nest of US

No tin awe tee ya hoo

In aware of the change in quarter’s

Up holy America

And music, movies, games, books,

(Automobile, biker, tricycles, swings & slides for catastrophe in the all of U.S.)

Stocks bonds & colours

[teecupangel]

https://youtube.com/shorts/9vgk6lhbxRA?si=P0VDhXkCFfXuS87U

It would be funny if Desmond's the cat while his ancestors are the puppies

Retirement was a foreign word that would have never left any Assassins’ lips.

Yet, here they were, retired and living the peaceful life Desmond never had.

No. He did have a peaceful life.

It just so happened that Abstergo took him away from that life and plunged him deep in the middle of a shadow war he had never wanted to be part of.

But it was all water under the bridge.

Sure, he could send the rest of his years cursing every single Templar and wishing they would all die but he was pass that.

He had reached… zen…

Or the cat equivalent of ‘zen’ anyway.

He had done his part and had died for the sake of the world.

Now he had joined Shaun and Rebecca in their retirement, letting the ‘youngkins’ continue the fight.

Shaun and Rebecca seemed to have complete trust in the new mentor, some dude named Elijah, so Desmond would trust them and just…

… laze around and get enough sun for his afternoon nap.

The two had driven out of their home early this morning, leaving Desmond food (canned sardines, Desmond wasn’t going to eat that damn cat food) and water for him to eat and drink while they were gone.

His memories of the time he was a kitten were quite vague, flashes and muffled voices. All he knew that he was a ‘retirement gift’ given to Shaun and Rebecca by the mentor.

He would assume that the mentor knew who he truly was but Shaun and Rebecca were the ones to call him ‘Desmond’.

They joked about how they wouldn’t name a corgi ‘Desmond’ even if they were held at gunpoint but Desmond has no idea why that was a joke.

It didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered.

Being a cat meant behaving like a cat and that includes having this… desire to just laze around until it was time to eat.

Were all cats like him?

Probably not.

Desmond supposed he was just a lazy cat.

He deserves to be lazy.

This was his retirement.

He heard the car being parked but didn’t bother to get up.

There was the telltale sound of the keys hitting each other as they unlock the door.

And Desmond’s fur rose.

He smelled them.

They were ‘new’.

Unfamiliar.

‘Strangers’.

But at the same time…

Something inside Desmond knew who they were.

They came barreling inside, ignoring Shaun’s shout of ‘heel!’ or maybe it was ‘hey!’, Desmond didn’t really catch it because of the chorus of…

“Desmond!”

“Desmond!”

“Desmond!”

“Desmond!”

Desmond has no idea what has happened.

Before he could even react, they had descended upon him, slobbering his face with furious licks and little nips of his ear.

It didn’t hurt.

But his face was drenched.

In a sea of yipping puppies calling his name and furiously wagging tails, Desmond managed to stare at Shaun and Rebecca (who was holding her phone and most definitely recording the entire thing).

He let out a small meow and immediately closed his mouth because one of the puppies got close to licking his open mouth and Desmond didn’t want any of that.

“Desmond, meet your baby brothers.” Rebecca cooed, “Altaïr, Ezio, Connor, Edward-”

Desmond blinked at the familiar names.

That…

That was just a coincidence, right???

(the puppies were rescued by an Assassin who had been given the mission to burn down an Abstergo laboratory and they were being used as experiments. He didn’t know what else to do with the puppies so he called Shaun and Rebecca and they just… adopted the puppies.)

[qqueenofhades]

Eye will say on this election night that being a resident of northern virginia and working in dc i have been walking on my knees thru glass during youngkin's tenure and i know i KNOWWWW Blirginia is real and possible but all my neighbors are terminally online posters who dont show up in off years. 2021 was such a lightbulb moment in terms of how useless these people really are. Literally so frustrating seeing NoVa refuse to come out SMH and now we have stupid crt discourse and m4l terror in public schools in loudoun

That's the thing about any Democratic-leaning state, whether solidly blue, swinging blue, or deep purple: if blue voters don't vote, the Republicans win. I have no idea why we have to agonizingly go through this process every two to four years and spend months begging people to exercise the minimum of their civic franchise against fascism..... but.

Anyway, we've had two good harbingers thus far with Beshear's win in Kentucky and abortion rights passing in Ohio, so now all eyes are on Virginia. Obviously it goes blue in presidential elections now, but it won't stay that way, or blue on the state level, if the Terminally Online can't be arsed. Which is the same thing everywhere, so yeah.

[peterlorrefanpage]

Peter Lorre in musical/noir "Casbah" (1948)

"It gave him a new dimension to expand his own acting career."

Peter Lorre as Detective Slimane with Tony Martin as Pépé le Moko (also, wouldn't this be great as a paper doll set?)

Peter looking devilishly divine with that little whippy stick of his that I am 100% normal about...

Such a dear face:

LOTS more under the cut!

Believing Lorre a “dyed-in-the-wool good actor,” Tony Martin, who independently produced Casbah with Nat C. Goldstone, gave the actor room to rework his dialogue: “The night before, when he would get the script, he’d say, ‘I’d like to make this or that change.’ And he’d do it.” Director John Berry likewise, in Martin’s words, “let Lorre have the strength” to carry out his own ideas. The actor welcomed the freedom as well as the opportunity to assume a more contemporary role. “I like the role I’m playing now,” [Lorre] told Martin, “because all I’m doing is being a pursuer.” Martin added that the role was also a challenge: “He loved it, being the great actor that he was. It gave him a new dimension to expand his own acting career and to get out of that Sydney Greenstreet thing he was in. . . . It caught him with a sense of humor and a tenderness. - From "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" by Stephen D. Youngkin

"Singing his way through a string of minor musical-comedies had not prepared Martin for a dramatic debut. He knew he needed help. Lorre cast a spell over the actor and then snapped his fingers: “In those days, the black and white pictures, the close-ups, he could hypnotize you, and he could lull you into a deep inner peace. "We'd do a take and I'd be rotten. He’d say, ‘You know, you’re the worst fucking actor I’ve ever seen.’ I’d say, ‘Really?’ He’d say, ‘Yes, nobody worse.’ And we’d start to laugh and the director would say, ‘Alright, let’s go,’ and I’d do a good scene. He had a way of putting me down. He had a psychological way. And we had dinner every night." - From "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" by Stephen D. Youngkin

With Thomas Gomez as Louvain:

With Yvonne De Carlo as Inez:

Joined by Märta Torén as Gaby:

With Märta Torén again (and guh, those eyes of his):

Alas, poor Pépé! (But oh, the beautiful brow of our Peter.)

From Ruth Waterbury’s review in the Los Angeles Examiner:

“Lorre as the Inspector who knows he is going to get his man Pepe is utterly wonderful. He’s lazy. He’s catlike. And smart out of this world. Lorre is so consistently good in every picture that they will probably forget his work in ‘Casbah’ when next year’s Academy nominations for ‘best supporting performance’ come around. But I hope they don’t. This smooth job belongs right up among the best.” -From "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" by Stephen D. Youngkin

Want to see it?

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Jon Stewart pointed out where former President Donald Trump is in a “two-tiered justice system” after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) shared his take on the 37-count federal indictment of Trump last week.

Youngkin, in the wake of the indictment connected to Trump’s handling of classified documents, wrote on Twitter that such a system led to selective prosecution of some people while “others are not” prosecuted, claiming that parents in Virginia have also been the target of “politically motivated actions.”

Other Republicans have offered similar arguments of selective prosecution including 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President and 2024 candidate Mike Pence and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) following the indictment.

“The Problem with Jon Stewart” host retweeted a clip from his show’s account that noted he agrees with the idea of a “two-tiered justice system” before schooling the Republican Governor on Trump’s place within it.

“Trump has used privilege and wealth to protect himself from legal accountability at every turn,” said Stewart in a clip initially shared in April following the arraignment of Trump on charges linked to hush money payments.

“He has lived his entire adult life in the space twixt, illegal and unethical. He’s in the tier where you get the platinum arraignment package – no cuffs, no mugshot, all-you-can-eat fingerprint ink.”

Stewart went on to question if regular people surround themselves with a “meat shield of henchmen to go to prison in their place,” a nod to Trump associates sentenced to time in prison.

The former “Daily Show” host later analyzed the New York State attorney general’s civil lawsuit against Trump’s now-defunct charitable organization, a lawsuit he was ordered to settle for $2 million.

“Yes. It’s all selective prosecution and when you’re in the good tier, you can do whatever you want and you’re probably going to be fine,” said Stewart.

“In fact, you might even be elected president – twice.”

[nodynasty4us]

The fellow who is really sweating bullets [about a government shutdown] right now is Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA). He really wants a trifecta in Virginia, and he could have it if this November's elections go well. However, if there's a shutdown, well... voters might forget by next November, but they probably won't forget by this November. And, of course, D.C. politics usually spill into Virginia elections. So, Youngkin would very much like McCarthy to get on the ball, thank you very much.

Electoral-vote.com

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 8, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 9, 2023

Yesterday was a bad day for extremism in the United States of America. 

In Ohio, voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state constitution; in Kentucky, voters reelected Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, for another four-year term; in Pennsylvania, voters put Democrat Daniel McCaffery, who positioned himself as a defender of abortion rights, on the state supreme court; in Rhode Island, Gabe Amo, a former Biden staffer who emphasized his experience in the Biden White House, won an open seat in the House of Representatives to become Rhode Island’s first Black member of Congress; and nationwide, right-wing Moms4Liberty and anti-transgender-rights school board candidates tended to lose their races.

In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin campaigned hard to flip the state senate to the Republicans, telling voters that if his party had control of the whole government he would push through a measure banning abortion after 15 weeks. This has been a ploy advanced by Republicans to suggest they are moderating their stance on abortion, and Youngkin appeared to be trying out the argument as a basis for a run for the presidency. 

But voters, who are still angry at the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights until about 24 weeks, after fetal abnormalities are evident, rejected the suggestion they should settle for a smaller piece of what they feel has been taken from them by extremists on the Supreme Court. 

Today, Youngkin indicated he will not run for president in 2024.  

The Democrats who won have prioritized good governance, including the protection of fundamental reproductive rights. In Kentucky, Beshear focused on record economic growth in the state—in his first term he secured almost $30 billion in private-sector investments in the economy, creating about 49,000 full-time jobs—and his able handling of emergencies, as well as his support for education and, crucially, reproductive rights. 

In Virginia, Democrat Schuyler VanValkenburg beat incumbent Republican state senator Siobhan Dunnavant, the sponsor of a culture war “parents’ rights” law that was behind the removal of books from schools. While Dunnavant tried to convince voters that VanValkenburg, a high school history and government teacher, was in favor of showing pornography to high school students, he responded with a defense of teachers and an attack on book banning, reinforcing democratic principles. As Greg Sargent noted in the Washington Post, right-wing culture wars appear to be losing their potency as opponents emphasize American principles. 

In Ohio, exit polls showed that Republicans as well as Democrats backed the protection of reproductive rights. As Katie Paris of the voter mobilization group Red Wine and Blue put it: “Reproductive freedom and democracy are not partisan issues.” 

After such a rejection, a political party that supports democracy would accept its losses and rethink the message it was presenting to voters. But since the 1990s, far-right Republicans have insisted that election losses simply prove they have not moved far enough to the right. 

That pattern was in full view today as front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump explained away Republican Daniel Cameron’s loss in Kentucky by blaming it on Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who MAGA Republicans insist is too moderate. 

Cameron had tied himself closely to Trump, antiabortion, and the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor in her own home in a mistaken drug raid. Three days ago, Trump had said that Cameron had made “a huge surge” after Trump endorsed him and voters saw “he’s not really ‘a McConnell guy.’ They only try to label him that because he comes from the Great State of Kentucky.” Trump assured Cameron, “I will help you!”  

Now Trump blames McConnell. Right-wing podcast host Mark R. Levin echoed Trump when he told his 3.8 million followers on X that “RINOs have no winnable message.”

They are not alone in insisting that Republicans lost not because they are extremist but because they aren’t extremist enough. Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote that “Republicans are losing Republican voters because the base is fed up with weak Republicans who never do anything to actually stop the communist democrats…. The Republican Party is tone deaf and weak…. Republican voters are energized and can not wait to vote for President Trump…. [T]he Republican Party has only a short time to change their weak ways before they lose the base for years to come.”

It is worth remembering that just six days ago, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called Greene a close friend and said he did not disagree with her on many issues.

Last night’s results highlight a key problem for the Republicans going into 2024. Their presumptive front-runner, former president Trump, is responsible for putting on the Supreme Court the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and is on video saying he thinks that women who get abortions must be punished. That position has made him a hero with the party’s evangelical base, including lawmakers such as House speaker Johnson. But it is demonstrably unpopular in the general voting population. 

As writer Molly Jong-Fast said today: “Women don’t want to die for Mike Johnson’s religious beliefs.” 

Within MAGA Republicans’ refusal to admit that their far-right positions are unpopular is a disdain for those voters who disagree with them. Journalist Karen Kasler, who covers the Ohio statehouse, reported the statement of Republican Senate president Matt Huffman in the wake of yesterday’s election loss. "This isn't the end,” he said. “It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1."

Ohio House speaker Jason Stephens’s statement more explicitly rejected the decision of 56.62% of Ohio voters. “I remain steadfastly committed to protecting life, and that commitment is unwavering,” he said. “The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life. This is not the end of the conversation.”

Later today, 27 of the 67 Ohio House Republicans signed a statement taking a stand against the abortion measure approved yesterday and vowing to “do everything in our power” to stop it. 

In a conversation on the right-wing cable show Newsmax, former senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) complained that young people turned out because there were “sexy things” on the ballot like abortion and marijuana. He warned: “[P]ure democracies are not the way to run a country.” 

The sentiment that it is not important to let everyone vote appeared to be at work yesterday in Mississippi, where at least nine precincts in Democratic-leaning Hinds County ran out of ballots. The most populous county in the state, Hinds County is 70% Black and includes the city of Jackson, which is almost 83% Black. Officials rushed to print more ballots, but the lines ballooned. After a judge tried to remedy the situation by extending the voting hours in the county by an hour, the Republican Party of Mississippi fought that order. 

Republican governor Tate Reeves won reelection.

There was, though, another blow to the Republicans yesterday: special counsel David Weiss, who has been investigating President Biden’s son Hunter for the past five years, undermined Republican conspiracy theories when he told the House Judiciary Committee that no one is interfering with his investigation and that he, alone, makes the decisions about it. 

Earlier this year, House Republicans produced an IRS employee who claimed that Biden administration officials had pressured the IRS to back off from the investigation. Weiss made it clear that accusation was wrong. “At no time was I blocked, or otherwise prevented from pursuing charges or taking the steps necessary in the investigation by other United States Attorneys, the Tax Division or anyone else at the Department of Justice,” he told the committee.

Nonetheless, in the wake of yesterday’s damaging election results, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Representative James Comer (R-KY), today issued subpoenas to Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[bllsbailey]

The Real Reason Trump Chose JD Vance

Why did Donald Trump select JD Vance? Obviously, their current policy views are simpatico, but JD Vance was not supportive back in 2016. He was pretty harsh about Donald Trump the candidate. You know who else was? Me. Dig back through my columns and you’ll see. I was never a Never Trumper. I was always going to vote for the GOP nominee, and I did vote for the nominee. But I was a Ted Cruz guy because I didn’t think Donald Trump was actually going to do the things Donald Trump said he was going to do and I said so. In fact, CNN used to have me on as the conservative Trump-doubter…until I had it with Don Lemon’s nonsense. I was a traditional conservative, and I thought Donald Trump was a NYC liberal and that he would govern like one. But you know what? 

I was wrong.

So, I changed my mind about him. I’m now a ferocious Trump supporter. And so is JD.

Here’s the thing about opinions. You change them when they are proven wrong. I thought Donald Trump was going to govern as a liberal. He did not govern as a liberal. He did about 95 percent of the things I wanted him to do. My concern was never with what Donald Trump was saying. I always liked what he was saying. I just didn’t think he was actually going to do what he said. And then he went and did a lot of it. He probably would’ve done much more if he hadn’t been subject to an unprecedented tsunami of fake scandals and if he had had a Rolodex of reliable people to work with. JD Vance had the same experience. He didn’t think much of Trump at first. Then Trump proved himself. And then JD Vance began to support him.

That’s how this works – remember that the great Ronald Reagan himself started as a Democrat. He learned and changed. I’m not sure why we are supposed to accept the bizarre notion that once you have expressed an opinion, you are locked into it in perpetuity despite evidence that shows you are wrong. I don’t accept that, and JD Vance doesn’t accept that either.

JD Vance is a very interesting VP choice. He was not my first choice to be the nominee for vice-president because I thought that Glenn Youngkin might bring more to the table in terms of building an electoral coalition. JD was, however, my first choice for actually being the vice-president. If and when he wins, I’m going to be thrilled.

But now I’m rethinking my initial assessment of his strengths as a candidate. I may have underestimated them. How? First of all, I have grown to trust Donald Trump’s instincts when it comes to politics. After all, this guy came out of nowhere and beat all the geniuses and professionals in 2016. Worst case, he nearly beat them all in 2020. And right now, according to all the polls, he’s beating that desiccated corrupt old husk. So, he had to have a reason for choosing JD Vance and it was probably a good one. 

Dumb people will say it’s because JD Vance flatters Donald Trump. Again, that wasn’t always true, and Donald Trump has a long memory. But Donald Trump is not interested in flattery this time. He is clearly interested in winning. He has built a strong and effective campaign organization that dominated the primaries – I supported Ron DeSantis because I worried Trump was going to be hard to reelect and he just crushed my guy. Donald Trump has also shown incredible discipline by stepping out of the spotlight while Joe Biden staggered around on the verge of filling up his Depends to overflowing. And, of course, Donald Trump demonstrated his courage in his iconic response to the attempt to murder him. So, there’s no reason to believe Donald Trump picked JD Vance simply out of petty vanity. That’s silly. If you want to underestimate your opponent, feel free. But if you think Donald Trump is playing for anything but keeps this time, you are letting your own biases and prejudices cloud your judgment.

So, what did Donald Trump hope to gain from picking JD Vance? JD Vance is very smart and very effective in debate, but I’m not sure you really need that to beat Kamala Harris. She’s as dumb as a box of Arkansas rocks, no offense to Southern minerals. I think it’s something more. 

Pundits often reflexively opine, by rote, that JD Vance appeals to the working class based on his impoverished upbringing. I think they are onto something, but I don’t think they go deep enough in assessing how this dynamic works. Guys who sweat on the job are not going to vote for JD Vance just because his family was poor. In fact, I’m not sure the goal is to get them to vote for JD at all. Rather, perhaps JD Vance is on the ticket so that they vote against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the whole elite power structure.

You see, JD Vance did everything right. He did everything we asked within the paradigm of the American Dream. This was a poor but smart kid who worked hard and rose out of poverty. He served his country in the Marine Corps. Then he applied to a prestigious college and he excelled there. He was next accepted into the heart of the elite training grounds, Yale Law School, where once again he excelled. He was the editor of the law review. After graduating, he became a high-tech entrepreneur and did well. He did everything right. With his brains and his sweat and his hard work, he checked all the elite boxes. He beat the elite at their own game.

And yet, they still want to deny him his reward. He’s still not good enough, and maybe it’s because he rejects the ruling class’s ideology and because he’s a man of deep faith and patriotism. Without submitting to their false gods, he’s always going to be one of them. He’s The Other. Even though he earned it through effort, the elite refuses to allow him to be part of their clique. He will always be an outsider because he will not conform. 

The message to the working-class men, and many women, of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota is that no matter what you do and no matter how hard you work, and no matter whether you play by the rules and whether you beat the elite at their own game, you will never be accepted unless you submit and repudiate your roots. You will never be allowed to win if you refuse to sign on to all the weird social pathologies of the left. DEI, trans, anti-Americanism – it’s not enough to pay the price of acceptance with hard work. You have to pay it with your soul.

No, JD Vance was picked not because the working class will necessarily love him but because the contempt rained down on him by the elite and its lapdog regime media will demonstrate that our ruling class will always hate working people who remain true to themselves. JD Vance is proof that the people who feed, fuel and fight for America will never be allowed to succeed. He is proof that they will always be second-class citizens. And that will motivate the people who build, run, and defend this country to vote against the drooling avatar of an elite that hates them.

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but maybe not. The hate that has come crashing down on JD Vance in the wake of his selection is undeniable. The elite cast him out, just as it cast Donald Trump out, for the crime of not bending the knee. Perhaps you can become part of the elite if you give up your self-respect, but the American Dream isn’t about debasing yourself. It’s about earning what’s yours while remaining true to yourself. And as the elites deny JD Vance what he has earned because he thinks for himself, those working-class men and women who will make the difference in the Rustbelt will be watching, and they will be voting.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the newest volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel about terrorism in America, The Attack!

Look, you need to keep up the fight by joining Townhall VIP right now. You get access to a bunch of great stuff, not the least of which is my extra Wednesday column, my weekly Stream of Kurtiousness videos every Friday, and the Unredacted podcast every Monday! Plus, some stuff from Larry O’Connor – and a bunch of other stuff.

[reasonsforhope]

Thank you for posting about this, OP!! Honestly, fantastic news, especially because every politician and talking head out there has been looking at the Ohio vote as a litmus test for how people are going to vote on abortion in 2024

And abortion rights continue to do better at the ballot than anyone was predicting.

"On Tuesday, Ohio’s voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other kinds of reproductive health care. 

Issue One put Ohio at the center of the nation’s abortion battle after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Tuesday’s victory for abortion rights means that the state’s proposed ban on abortions after about six weeks cannot go into effect. Now, abortions will be allowed until viability, which was the standard under Roe. (Abortions after that time could only be considered if the treating physician considers the abortion “necessary to protect the pregnant woman's life or health.”)

The results, called by the Associated Press, are a huge win for abortion rights in one of the year's most closely-watched votes. The outcome doesn’t “change the law on the ground immediately but it will have huge implications for what comes next,” says Chris Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton.

Democrats may now look to the use of the citizen ballot initiative in Ohio as a reliable tactic to protect abortion rights. Six states had abortion-related measures on the ballot in 2022; all six were victories for abortion-rights advocates, including those in more conservative states such as Kansas and Kentucky. “We've had lots of abortion ballot initiatives in conservative states prevail but they've all been narrower questions,” says Mary Ruth Ziegler, law professor at UC Davis. Ohio is “a good litmus test for how far a ballot initiative strategy can go.”

“What it suggests is that voters in a lot of conservative states are not as far to the right on abortion as their state lawmakers,” Ziegler adds.

Gabriel Mann, a spokesperson for Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights,  says the campaign was inspired by victories for abortion-rights advocates in Kentucky and Michigan. “It really showed that this is a midwestern value…that it’s possible to pass this here,” he says."

-via Time Magazine, November 7, 2023

--

"Virginia Democrats have maintained their control of the state Senate and flipped the state House, consolidating their grip on the state legislature in what will remain divided government.

Their legislative wins provide Democrats with a stronger hand pushing against the policy priorities of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The entire 140-seat legislature was up for grabs. The elections received significant national attention, with prominent Democrats like President Biden and former President Barack Obama boosting their party with emails and robocalls.

On the Republican side, Youngkin's political action committee poured significant cash into the campaign.

Although Virginia voters weren't weighing in directly on abortion rights, the issue permeated the campaigns. The commonwealth currently acts as a southern refuge for abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year.

In one competitive district in Petersburg, voters said abortion was their top issue.

"Even though the other things are important – that's more important than anything," Wilma Nedrick told NPR on Tuesday...

The DNC cheered Tuesday's results, labeling them "a huge sign of Democrats' continued momentum heading into 2024."

Don Scott, the minority leader of House Democrats, told NPR Democratic candidates had "the message, the candidates, and the momentum to put a stop to the extreme Republicans' agenda." ...

The House will select its speaker on Saturday; Scott is the frontrunner. He would be the first Black speaker in the Virginia House of Delegates if elected."

-via NPR, November 8, 2023

--

And another piece of good election news from Nov. 7th!

"Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection to a second term Tuesday, notching another significant statewide victory in an increasingly red state that could serve as a model for other Democrats on how to thrive politically heading into next year’s defining presidential election.

“Tonight, Kentucky made a choice, a choice not to move to the right or to the left but to move forward for every single family,” Beshear told a raucous crowd of supporters in Louisville.

The governor withstood relentless attempts to connect him to Democratic President Joe Biden, especially his handling of the economy. Beshear insulated himself from the attacks by focusing on state issues, including his push for exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban that he said would make it less extreme. His reelection gave pro-choice advocates nationwide yet another victory since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade."

-via AP News, November 7, 2023

Some good news from elections tonight:

1. Ohio enshrined abortion rights in its state constitution. Thus putting to bed any and all abortion bans in Ohio.

2. Democrats in Virginia maintained their majority in the half of the state legislature they already had and flipped the other section blue as well. This puts to bed discussed Republican abortion bans in Virginia as well.

3. Not election news, but Donald Trump continues to humiliate himself in his New York civil fraud trial. So... yanno... still good news.

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."Trump blinked this morning, taking a cowardly path on a disastrous issue for him and the Rs. “Leaving it to the states” is absurd place, for he is still responsible for ending Roe, for stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America, for unleashing the escalating assault on reproductive freedom across the country, for sanctioning and green lighting the most extreme abortion bans in the country; and now his allies on the right are going to feel betrayed by him. It is a squirming, “I got no place else to go” position, one that confirms how much trouble MAGA is in right now.

Let’s be very clear that “leaving it to the states” is a more extreme position than a 15 week ban for it sanctions and accepts the most extreme state bans as legitimate without providing an alternative. As Trump is about to find out there is no safe place for Rs on abortion other than a full retreat and a restoration of a woman’s right to choose.

All this reinforces what a political disaster MAGA has become, how the extremism that Trump has unleashed has made his party unmanagable, unpopular, and a stone cold electoral loser. It remains today, as I like to say, the ugliest political thing we’ve ever seen, and despite his tortured efforts there isn’t any way to put lipstick on this MAGA pig. Today what we saw from Trump wasn’t leadership but cowardice and weakness, for even he has begun to realize how hard it is going to be for him to win with what he has wrought. He’s the captain of a sinking ship.

I also want to give a big shout out to the Hopium community this morning. For while we have worked hard in many elections together over the past year, our biggest and most consequential investment of time and money was in Virginia last fall. Youngkin had put the 15 week abortion ban on the ballot there, and this community understood the stakes and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and logged incredible amounts of volunteer time. On Election Day we did not just kept the state senate there, but we also flipped the Virginia Assembly - something few thought was possible. In the days that followed the Assembly Rs who lost blamed Youngkin and his 15 week ban for their defeat, and a decisive blow was delivered to that fantasy of an escape hatch for the Rs on abortion. There is little question that our big win there helped lead to Trump’s cowardly retreat today, and this ridiculous place of “leaving it to the states” which throws tens of millions of women and their families overboard and green lights the most extreme laws America has seen in generations.

18 Polls Have Biden Up/Other 2024 Election Notes - As I wrote on Saturday, what the polls show right now is Biden and the Dems gaining a bit in what is a close, competitive election. 18 recent national polls have Biden leading: (via 538):

51-49 Emerson (likely voters, new)

48-45 McLaughlin (likely voters, new)

52-48 Marquette

47-46 Data For Progress

50-48 NPR/Marist

42-40 Big Village

44-42 Morning Consult

48-45 Quinnipiac

44-43 Noble Predictive

44-43 Economist/YouGov (March 19)

47-45 FAU/Mainstreet

44-43 Morning Consult (March 11)

46-45 Public Policy Research

50-48 Ipsos/Reuters

45-44 Civiqs

47-44 Kaiser Family Foundation

51-49 Emerson

43-42 TIPP

Note that we are starting to see Biden do better and Trump do worse in polls which survey likely voters - people who are paying closer attention. This is consistent with Trump’s underperformance in the GOP primary polls, for when people had to make up their mind earlier this year and actually vote he performed worse than public polling - a more informed electorate is a worse electorate for Trump. This is a big problem for him as the entire electorate is about to become far more informed about him, his extremism, his criminality, his historical awfulness; and it suggests, as we’ve believed would happen, that as we get deeper into the general election things will get better for us (something that appears to be already happening).

A note on the battleground states. We have far less polling in the battlegrounds than nationally, and many of the polls we have are low sample, low quality polls. So let’s take it a little easy on jumping to big conclusions about the states. Yes some have Trump ahead, but there is polling from the last month with Biden ahead too:

MI - 42%-39% Bullfinch Group (new)

PA - 50%-45% Susquehanna

WI - 46%-45% Morning Consult/Bloomberg

And remember Trump was just +1 in GA in the WSJ poll, and only +3 in NC in Marist.

We should be encouraged by what we are seeing right now. We’ve gained a few points in recent weeks, Senate polling remains very solid, we have a cash/organization advantage, the economy is booming, Joe Biden is a good President and they have Trump. We have a long way to go folks but 7 months out I would much rather be us than them."

[ramrodd]

CNN Town Hall South Carolina Cold Open - SNL

COMMENTARY:

i was never a fan of SNL, The people I lived with in DC before Reagan were defined the Dewey Beach, a way of Life. It included a mix of anti-war draft dodgers, Woodstock Nation, future Yupups and combat crazed Vietnam vets like me who had more in common with the anti-war campus activists and civil rights warriors than I did with thugs like Pat Buchanan and Charles Colson. I voted for Nixon before I went to Vietnam and I voted for him when I got back and a great deal of SNL's appeal was its relentless anti-Nixon satire The only time I really got into SNL was the Summer of Land Sharks at Dewey Beach. I was a DJ and the company I worked for and played rugby with were able to convey Jimmy Buffet in our theory of commercial entertainment.

Nikki Halley is from the Concord Bridge of the Southern Rebellion, the 1860 version of January 6, Halley is a hard wired Republican woman who plays Southern Comfort manners perfectly, People in the South of a certain white pedigree going back to Cromwell who are outraged that dueling is no longer permitted to test the argument of the divine right to succeed by breaking a sacred oath underwritten by the blood of their ancestors. People like Glenn Youngkin, who ran on the neo=Nazi platform in order to gain command of the Virginian public treasury to fulfill his lust to own the Caps and Wizards now that Abe Pollen is dean. From the point of view of the people Nikki has successfully negotiated to get to the point she can challenge a white anti-woke Republican in a fair fight, Nikki is  a woke Republican in Charleston or Savannah: the use of the word "slavery" in those polite societies where she had to enlist financial backing is like using the "N" word on CBS.

Of course, Richard Prior gave SNL permission to say "Nigger"  LIVE: its Saturday Night!, I loved his "Nigger: riff in his Live performance when he held up a match to symbolize himself. It pisses right wingers like  Tucker Carlson that right wingers aren't allowed to call Barack Obama and MLK "niggers" I mean, the largest structural racism in America is the Presbyterian Church USA ESPECIALLY those Presbyterian more less the same age as me and Trump when Norman Vincent Peale was the toast of Manhattan with his Prosperity Gospel George Gilder's Wealth and Poverty was aimed, sublimely, at this demographic because it pushes the Jim Crow racism of Woodrow Wilson to sell the white supremacist economics of Supply Side economics and Reaganomics

And that's what happened in that debate: this is her inner woke at work, preventing her, as a Souther lady in the best of traditions, to rhetorically fart  loudly in church.

And this is why incels resent Taylor Swift. The difference between Democrats and Reagan Conservatives  is that Democrats enable women to be uppity while Reagan Conservatives are Pro-Life, where you don't express the opinion that slavery was the cause of the Civil War when everyone knows it was the stupidity of white male slave owners with wives.

You go, Nikki. I'm voting for Biden to complete Stage 2 of Eisenhower's 1956 Presidential Platform and hand off the keys to Starship America to who ever wins in 2028, but I want to watch Trump, naked and in a bag with 7 cats. Taylor Swift is one of  those uppity women and that's why the incels are freaked out by Taylor Swift: These buys entire metric for masculinity likes in the M-16, Arab men claim that they make war or the women would laugh at them.

Nikki  has launched the Party of Lincoln tickect for 2024, GOP Convention LIVE: Its Sunday Morning

[uselectionnews]

"Make Grits a Regular Part of Your Dinners," by J. Bryan Lowder in Slate.

"It’s not just Paris. There’s a “global resurgence” of bedbugs.," by Benji Jones in Vox.

"Glenn Youngkin thinks he has a Republican response to Democrats’ abortion attacks," by Zach Montellaro in Politico.

"A Masterpiece of Cringe," by Isabel Fattal in The Atlantic.

"Exclusive: Christie's low burn-rate gives him runway to New Hampshire," by Erin Doherty and Alex Thompson in Axios.

"Israel says it has killed a top Hamas commander," by David Cohen in Politico.

"Pete Davidson Might Be the Comedic Hero We Need Now. No, Really.," by Hannah Giorgis in The Atlantic.

"‘I only knew that from the Nazis’: Israeli forensic experts identify tortured and burned bodies," by Peter Wilke in Politico.

"U.S. senators visiting Israel take shelter amid rocket fire," by Shauneen Miranda in Axios.

"Water runs out at United Nations shelters in Gaza," by AP in Politico.

"Dems warm to empowering McHenry as GOP chaos persists," by Andrew Solender in Axios.

"Man died after jail staff ignored him lying facedown for 3 days, family says," by Praveena Somasundaram in The Washington Post.

[peterlorrefanpage]

"Almost all of his lines in the script are his suggestions."

My darling Peter Lorre! (Also in that reblogged pic, Peter with his bow tie off and collar opened is a beautiful sight.)

Background from "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" by Stephen D. Youngkin:

In early 1957 Hunt Stromberg Jr., an assistant program director at 20th Century–Fox, who had conceived the idea of Collector’s Item, a television series about two intrepid antiquarians, assigned screenwriter Herb Meadow to develop the concept and produce a pilot for the 1958–59 season. Meadow recalled reading a fanciful tale about golden horseshoes encased in black paint. From this germ, he developed “The Left Fist of David,” a story about an art collector and his assistant, a rehabilitated forger, who foil the theft of a priceless relic. Meadow found his leads by paging through a casting directory. Steady money, a dry spell of movie offers, and the chance to work with Vincent Price persuaded a reluctant Peter Lorre to have a go. The same could not be said of 20th Century–Fox, which, according to the writer, gave the new medium a cold shoulder. Stromberg drafted a first-time producer, who, in turn, hired a live television director whose inexperience in film left the actors in the position of having to direct themselves. Faced with the option of shrugging off the fiasco and collecting his check, or of giving his professional best, [Peter Lorre] dug in. “I think he had an innate artistic intelligence,” said Cliff Robertson, who worked with Lorre in “The Cruel Day” on Playhouse 90. “He was so good he seemed to have that security and ease only an experienced, usually older actor displays. You had a feeling that it was kind of rolling off his back.” “Almost all of his lines in the script,” said Herb Meadow, “are his suggestions. He knew what he was best at, and while the lines themselves did not come out as brilliant lines—because they couldn’t, since he was not the star—they came out as an expression of personality which was slowly building into something that was Lorre’s best."

Here's Part 1:

Watch the rest:

Part 2

Part 3

One last anecdote from the biography:

Behind the scenes, the actor played a more challenging role, that of peacekeeper. Location shooting took the company to a palatial Bel-Air estate bristling with statuary. “We were standing near the Greek Classic, ‘The Wrestlers,’” related Meadow. "Price, Lorre, the director, the cameraman and I were having quite an argument. I was ready to fight because the thing had gotten completely out of hand. Everybody was doing what he wanted to do and I had lost control of my company. "At the peak of this thing, there was one of those inexplicable silences as everybody tried to decide who was going to hit whom first. "Pointing to the statue, Lorre said wonderingly, absolutely straight, as though he really meant it, 'Do you know, the last time we passed here, the other one was on top.' "Now it was typical of what he would do. His funnies always had a purpose. It struck us as terribly funny, and that’s all that was necessary. So he saved us for another few hours."

Vincent Price and Peter Lore in a promotional photo for "Collector's Item” unsold TV pilot “The Left Fist of David” in 1957/58.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It looks like we’ll be getting heavy rain all day with chances of flash flooding. I think we’ll be fine where we are as far as flooding goes but I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose power.

Good thing my coffee is brewed and in hand. 😃

Sarah Vogelsong • virginiamercury.com

Youngkin declares state of emergency ahead of Tropical Storm Ophelia

So, yeah, this is why we have a state of emergency here in Virginia. Overnight we got a bit of rain, enough to have standing water in the yard, but we’ll be fine. I feel for folks in lower lying areas. The town of Staunton often has flooding issues. Here’s hoping everyone stays safe and dry today. 🤞🏼

Nathan Edwards • The Verge

Mastodon, the federated microblogging platform, has been updated to version 4.2, which comes with massive improvements to search and the web interface, particularly for logged-out and first-time users.

The tiny open source crew behind Mastodon continues to deliver excellent features and they do it right unlike Space Karen’s company.

While I wish some friends would leave the bird place I’m still extremely happy to have this space to share and have wonderful conversations with amazing people every day. ❤️

Paul Sutter • Space.com

The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it

This is pretty sad, isn’t it? I read this great piece in The Bitter Southerner a few years back that talked about a small town in Georgia Astronomers love because it’s so dark out there. 🌚

Joe George • Den Of Geek

The Star Trek Next Generation Story That Connects the Borg to The Original Series Crew

My question for Star Trek fans, do you love this or hate this?

I like it! 👍🏼

Vjeran Pavic • The Verge

Apple recently extended its deal for Qualcomm modems despite years of effort to develop its own — now we know why. According to a detailed report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s attempt to develop its own in-house 5G modem has been stymied by issues resulting from the iPhone maker underestimating the complexity and technical challenges of the task, and a lack of global leadership to guide the separate development groups siloed in the US and abroad.

This is a surprise to me. I can’t see it being because of the technical challenges. I could understand them saying “It’s just not ready.” But a technical challenge? Perhaps? 🤔

Joel Chrono • joelchrono12.xyz

This post was inspired by Rob Fahrni’s post, Saturday Morning Coffee. It has absolutely nothing to do with the content itself, but I got up, served myself a coffe, and wrote all this…

Hey! I inspired someone to write on their blog! That’s never happened before! It’s really wonderful and I hope Joel continues to write and bring us interesting content. Thanks for the love, Joel! ❤️

Ageist

I believe we’ve got retirement wrong. Hear me out. In the early 1990s, I attended my first business trip as a fresh-faced 23-year-old eager to make my mark in the world. I found myself at a workshop, listening to a speaker discuss the concept of retirement. At that age, retirement was a distant, almost foreign concept. Still, one statement from the speaker stuck in my mind: “People know to prepare financially for retirement but don’t know to prepare mentally.” He revealed a startling fact: mortality rates increase dramatically within the first three years of retirement. This revelation has stayed with me ever since.

Right. Do not retire and live like Blue Zone folks live. I actually love this idea.

Not retiring can take on different forms so go read the piece. Folks that know me know I want to write my own software if I ever achieve the financial stability to do it. I’ve considered doing part time work for someone like Starbucks just to socialize a bit. When we lived in Exeter I would frequent Exeter Coffee Company and hang out with a ragtag gang of folks. That’s living in my book. 👍🏼

Robert Harrington • palmerreport.com

What does it mean should Trump’s bail be revoked? First it’s important to recall he’s out on bail on four different felony charges in the first place. In other words, “out on bail” means he’s free and at liberty at the pleasure of four separate jurisdictions. If that bail is revoked in any of those jurisdictions, US marshals will be sent to wherever Trump is at the moment and summarily drag him out — in handcuffs — and take him to jail.

I know some people don’t believe a former President should be indicted of a crime much less be prosecuted or spend time in jail if convicted. I’m certainly not one of those people. TFG is a criminal and as such deserves a bit of time in the clank. 🚓

And, yeah, even at the risk of violence. If we allow certain people to get away with anything we don’t have a democracy or the rule of law. 🧑‍⚖️

Catherine Thorbecke • CNN

Alyssa Henry, the CEO of Square – a unit of Jack Dorsey’s fintech company, Block – will leave her post at the company next month.

I wonder if Jack plans to sell Block off to Space Karen so he can realize his everything app? 🤣

Valerie Ettenhofer • /Film

While you won’t find a “Joker” alternate ending available to view online, rumors about one persist thanks to a tidbit shared by filmmaker Kevin Smith on his “Fatman Beyond” podcast (via CinemaBlend). In a discussion of the film, Smith explains that he was told about a proposed original ending for the movie in which Arthur himself is revealed to be the Wayne family’s killer, and Bruce Wayne ends up in his crosshairs.

This would’ve been an amazing ending for Joker! The only problem with that is we couldn’t have sequels where Joker and Batman tangle.

I want so badly to see a Batman movie or series of movies that feature Joker exclusively. That may be too much to pull off so at the very least give us A Death in The Family in movie form. In Superman vs. Batman we get a glimpse of Robin’s — Jason Todd — armor in a glass case with Jokers writing on it. Great Easter egg.

Dave Rogers

The second night I was there, two more of our classmates joined us. One was a retired Air Force E-9 who’d worked in meteorology his whole career. The other is a highly trained engineer. Climate came up again, this time from the engineer. He’s convinced we can solve the crisis. Our host told him not to ask me, because he wouldn’t like the answer. But our Air Force friend was in my camp. It was interesting to me to listen to his take. Our views differ somewhat, but our conclusions are the same. It’s too late to avert a general collapse of civilization, likely before this century is out.

I like Dave’s writing a lot. He’s very open in what her shares and is extremely concerned with the state of the state of Florida. It’s a complete nightmare to live in if you’re an empathetic, caring, person. The GOP lead government doesn’t care about anyone or anything.

Dave’s take may seem a bit dark but I think he’s hit the nail on the head. We have screwed ourselves in the name of capitalism and investor return. And we’ve screwed future generations. 🤬

Bradley Brownell • Jalopnik

The United Auto Workers strike has expanded from three facilities to 41, as contract negotiations continue to slog on. Ford and the UAW have come together to form a tentative agreement, and while there is still a lot of work to be done, the union has chosen not to expand its striking efforts against Ford facilities.

Here’s an industry where we need radical transformation, now. I know the piece is about workers and I hope they’re able to negotiate and get what they need to survive and thrive.

At one point Detroit was a model of the middle class because of the automobile.

<img border=“0” src=“https://static.crabapples.net/troll-picking-nose.JPG" align=“right” alt=“Beware of Trolls.”/>

James Robins • defector.com

Musk’s life and personality, it turns out, is not so hard to contain. It is flat and shallow and open for all to read. The difficulty comes when Isaacson tries to impose some fabricated complexity on a not-very-complex man, and uses that illusion of knottiness as an excuse to paper over a much truer and more interesting story.

Space Karen isn’t the genius everyone thinks he is. He’s a bully who needs someone to smash his nose a few times so he’ll understand that treating people like crap has consequences.

Garbage human who managed to con his way into crap tons of money.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Republicans racked up big wins in more than a dozen state legislatures this fall — and now they’re planning to use their expanded power to crack down on abortions come January.

With sweeping abortion legislation having little chance in a divided Congress, conservative state legislators are stepping into the void, proposing to limit when the procedure can take place, enact new regulations on abortion pills and strengthen penalties for doctors who break the law. Taken together, the legislation could make it harder for tens of millions of people to obtain abortions — particularly in Southern states that still permit most abortions, like Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, which have become havens for access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The actions in state capitols come as most national-level Republicans have eschewed talking about abortion, a reticence that some in the anti-abortion movement say explains the party’s underwhelming performance in the midterm elections.

Many GOP lawmakers who sailed to victory in states with anti-abortion laws balk at the idea that Democrats’ focus on abortion rights is evidence the left’s message resonated with voters. Instead, they’re taking their electoral victories as a mandate to pass additional abortion restrictions.

“South Carolina had a huge red tidal wave in this election. We flipped eight seats in the South Carolina House of Representatives … We all ran on pro-life,” said South Carolina Republican Rep. John McCravy, who spearheaded efforts this summer to prohibit abortion in most cases starting at conception. “If anything, we need to ramp our efforts up.”

In North Carolina, GOP Senate leader Phil Berger said in an interview he believes a bill limiting abortion to 12 or 13 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, life of the pregnant person and in cases where the fetus won’t survive is the “sweet spot as far as where the public would be.”

In Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin backs banning most abortions at 15 weeks with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or if the pregnant person’s life is at risk, and tasked a panel of Republican legislators to draft a bill for consideration next year. And in Nebraska, lawmakers are expected to again take up abortion restrictions after failing to limit access to the procedure to 12 weeks this summer.

“The truth is, Virginians want fewer abortions, not more abortions,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We can build a bipartisan consensus on protecting the life of unborn children, especially when they begin to feel pain in the womb, and importantly supporting mothers and families who choose life.”

At the same time, Republican lawmakers are backing policies that would expand government support for families and children, such as providing housing to pregnant people, extending Medicaid postpartum coverage, and offering tax exemptions on household goods for babies and toddlers. In Florida, for instance, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed a permanent tax exemption for diapers, baby wipes, clothing, cribs, strollers and other necessities for children under five.

While GOP lawmakers have pushed these kinds of policies in the past, they believe they need to do a better job about telegraphing them to the public to demonstrate to voters a positive agenda — not just what they’re against.

“It’s critical because the only way you’re really going to move people’s emotions and temperaments for having abortion as a first option is to change hearts and minds,” said Indiana Republican state Sen. Liz Brown. “This is winning the hearts and minds of women, saying, ‘They’re not your friends, they’re not on your side. They want you to be able to have an abortion up until the birth of the baby, but they walk away from you, and we are there to help you.’”

But the coming flurry of anti-abortion legislation also risks dividing the Republican Party as some state lawmakers take a no-compromises approach to new abortion restrictions, while others remain willing to negotiate to put a bill on their governor’s desk.

Those divisions played out during special sessions this summer in Indiana, South Carolina and West Virginia, where some anti-abortion Republicans were accused of being insufficiently “pro-life” because they supported exceptions for rape or incest, or were willing to compromise on prohibiting abortion after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, around six weeks into a pregnancy, instead of at conception.

“Now, could somebody demagogue that as insufficiently pro-choice or overly pro-choice, or insufficiently pro-life or overly pro-life? I think folks at the extremes will do that,” Berger, the North Carolina Senate leader, said of his support for a 12- or 13-week limit. “We just need to be careful how we approach this, and we need to be mindful of how personal some of the positions that members will take on this issue might be and be respectful of that.”

Abortion-rights proponents, however, argue that Republican electoral victories should be seen as no more than a byproduct of newly redrawn district lines — not as a mandate to enact anti-abortion policies.

“They’ve shown regardless that even when they do have majorities, they’re never satisfied with just one more abortion ban,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health. “They keep doubling and tripling and quadrupling down, trying to find new ways to further punish and threaten those who provide and seek abortion care.”

Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina and Virginia — four states where there is a Republican governor or at least one GOP-controlled legislative chamber — are anti-abortion groups’ top targets for new limits on how far into a pregnancy someone can access the procedure. Abortion is currently legal until 15 weeks in Florida, 20 weeks in Nebraska and North Carolina and the third trimester in Virginia.

“You’re going to have to make a run for what you can get with the caucuses that you have. The other side has spent nearly 50 years trying to change our culture,” said Sue Swayze Liebel with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America at a recent gathering of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. “We have to work hard to get back hearts and minds, including in your own caucus.”

In North Carolina, for instance, Republicans secured a veto-proof supermajority this year in the Senate but fell one seat short of a supermajority in the House. Legislative leaders are hoping they’ll be able to get at least one Democrat to sign onto new abortion restrictions that would allow them to override an expected veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who opposes any changes to the state’s abortion law.

According to a report from the Society of Family Planning, North Carolina saw a 37% uptick in abortions between April and August, the largest of any state, which means a new abortion ban stands to have a significant impact not only on North Carolinians’ ability to access the procedure, but those in surrounding states as well.

“I believe that all of the Democrats elected in the statehouse believe that reproductive freedom is important, and I look forward to working with them to hold the line,” Cooper told POLITICO. “This is important in the southeastern United States. North Carolina has become an access point for many women throughout the Southeast.”

In South Carolina, lawmakers plan to try again to amend the state’s six-week ban and prohibit abortions starting at conception after legislators failed to agree on a path forward during the summer.

“I do think it’s possible,” said South Carolina Republican state Sen. Richard Cash. “If we get another bill through committee, the hope would be there would be enough grassroots pressure in the state to persuade the Senate leadership to put it on the floor and see if there aren’t a few votes that would be changed as a result of people having had time to reflect on everything that’s happened.”

Students for Life, another anti-abortion group, is encouraging lawmakers not to give in.

“Even if you’re against the exceptions for abortion in cases of rape — which we are, your parentage doesn’t determine your value — your constituents are actually much more in line — or closer in line — with your position than the Democrats’ position,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life.

The group is also pushing state lawmakers to introduce bills requiring doctors who prescribe abortion pills to collect and treat fetal tissue as medical waste, part of a broader strategy to use concerns around the environment to restrict access to medication abortion. They’re also encouraging red state attorneys general to prosecute doctors and abortion pill manufacturers.

In other states, lawmakers are eyeing legislation to support pregnant people, families and babies — proposals they believe will not only dissuade people from seeking abortions in the first place but could improve their standing with moderate voters who view their movement as more punitive than compassionate.

“We’re looking in a post-Roe world how can government be best optimized to allow families to flourish,” said Wyoming Republican state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, who sponsored the state’s near-total abortion ban. “That’s why we’re looking at legislation that’s more pro-life family policies versus just independently pro-life.”

Abortion-rights proponents, however, argue that much of red-state spending on this issue has gone toward crisis pregnancy centers, which they say use deceptive and misleading tactics to encourage people to carry their pregnancies to term. Miller said funding such facilities “does not address the crisis in prenatal care.”

“The policymakes and advocates who have moved the ball forward on affordable housing, on prenatal care, on child care, on investments in education, on Medicaid expansion, on all of the policies that we know are part and parcel of reproductive freedom and reproductive justice have been moved forward by elected officials and advocates who support abortion care,” Miller said. “Do I want to see policies like that move forward? Absolutely. Do I question the motives? Absolutely.”

In Indiana, lawmakers allocated $75 million to support social services for families — including $45 million to establish a “Hoosier Families First Fund” that will allow the state to award grants to support families and $10 million in child care vouchers — at the same time they passed a bill prohibiting abortion except in cases of rape, incest and life endangerment this summer.

In Mississippi, where abortion is banned except to save the life of the pregnant person or in cases where a rape is reported to the police, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves recently announced a plan for “advancing the new pro-life agenda” that includes establishing a child care tax credit, removing the five-child cap on child support and allocating $3 million to hire more attorneys to clear the state’s adoption backlog.

In a statement, Reeves said he was hopeful the state would “make serious progress in advancing sound policies that strengthen families and simultaneously lay out a policy roadmap for other states to follow” next year.

And in Wyoming, lawmakers are eyeing expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage.

“We know that just because there’s no legal abortion in a state, that doesn’t mean there won’t be women who need help, who need support,” said Katie Glenn, state policy director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

[kaydub80]

I first saw this on a now-suspended Twitter account 15 months ago.

And, we have cretins like DeSantis and Youngkin outlawing the basics on this nation's racial history never mind the really gruesome shit like this.