I understand weirdo ghouls in politics pretending that stuff doesn't happen. Even understand why the WSJ jumps in. But the Washington Post has actual reporters on staff who could pick up a phone and verify for themselves. Embarrassing shit from that paper and someone should be fired.

Although it is pretty fucked up the Senator from Ohio and their Attorney General publicly stated that the story is fake. Jordan has a history of protecting pedophiles but not a great sign for kids when the Attorney General is in on it too.

Thank you, actually worked for me on my computer. I think it was probably paywall for me on mobile because I'm local and was over my "free" limit. Ironically the reason I saw the news was because I got the alert of the article being pushed out.

Illegal border crossings skyrocketed under Trump compared to Obama. They got considerably worse during his tenure.

https://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-bor...migrants-sneak

Although the AG made himself look even worse by publicly stating that as AG, he'd know if this occurred and they were tracking down a rapist. Perhaps he doesn't have quite the pulse of the LE community as he boasted.

Cato article referred WaPo which is behind a paywall so had to poke around a little more. Cato also referenced a pdf which was dated. Here is the most recent 2021 version that I could find

Access Denied

The Cato article was geared towards "sneak-in" or "got aways" and not total "Illegal border crossings".

In the pdf, Table 2b on pg 16 shows the breakdown of "got aways". There were some good years and some bad years (just like for Obama) and I wouldn't characterize that as "skyrocketed" relative to Obama's performance.

Now if we talk about "encounters" which Pew defines as "apprehensions .. and expulsions". But for whatever reason, the Pew graphic below says prior to Mar 2020, it was just apprehensions. I don't have the stats for expulsions, but guessing Trump's will be higher than Obama's (but don't really know). The graphic is below

Migrant encounters at U.S.-Mexico border are at a 21-year high | Pew Research Center


Something did happen during Trump's tenure around May 2019 (have to research that more) but overall, you can see he did pretty well (and so did Obama) in keeping encounters down.

And we see Biden's. Although the pdf doesn't have 2H 2021 or 2022, I think we can extrapolate it'll be pretty high also.

You'd think his subordinates would have told him pretty quickly "hey, we do really have a 10-year old child rape case".

Googled some more. There was a WaPo article (paywall) but found this NBC article dated Jun 9, 2019.


In my above post, I referenced Trump "strong armed" Mexico and Mexico's admission it worked, it happened around Jun 2019. From the Pew graphic, you can see encounters dropped dramatically right after.


I don't think there is any doubt Trump threats worked, made Mexico act more hard line, and encounters dropped significantly.

If Mayor Pete continues to produce visible and tangible stuff with his infrastructure $, I'll consider him.


I've seen Pilot stations around but don't have a good sense how prevalent they are from Texas and south of the Mason-Dixon line (where most of my driving has occurred). But yeah, if its an average of 50 miles to get to a store, my range anxiety will go away.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -Upton Sinclair

You mean a Republican who went on FoxNews to sow doubt about this could have just looked up the facts in his own office instead of spreading propaganda, yet chose to do so? /shocked Pikachu face/

It's almost as if he might not be acting in good faith and should be held accountable for that rather than pretending it might have just been incompetence.

SI

I also wouldn't want my kids to be removed from me and held in an alternate facility possibly for month (or years) while being processed. Who knows how they are being treated, or who is caring for them.

As much as it was inhumane, it was effective.

Putting aside the current debate about a 10 year old rape victim potentially being required to give birth to the resulting child, I think Dems and pro-choice advocates should focus on/stress that the issue of children resulting from rape/incest doesn't just stop at having the child. Not all states allow for the termination of parental rights of a rapist and even where laws exist, it's not a given that it will happen. Consider an abusive or ex-BF scenario in which there has been consensual sex at some point but also a rape. Some of these cases don't get prosecuted, and even if they do, there has to be a determination that the rape resulted in the conception of the child.

There are plenty of instances where rapists attempt to gain custody or some sort of parental rights, I assume mostly as a revenge or control factor and not so much because of the kid.

They should be talking about documented instances of rape survivors being forced to co-parent with their rapist.

Do all Targets have charging stations, or just ours?

Not sure why we would talk about apprehensions and not people who got through. Either way, numbers skyrocketed on both in 2019. Like almost 3 times that more than any Obama year. I'd argue the policy was a pretty big failure by both metrics.

Fucking horrific.

National Right to Life official: 10-year-old should have had baby - POLITICO

There is no excuse for that.

I can understand separating them temporarily while parents are getting processed but no doubt they screwed up big time.

Mine has a limited number.

They didn’t screw anything up. The inhumanity was the plan from the start.

Hey look, another GOP AG who says untrue shit publicly instead of bothering to do minor research!

Indiana AG Todd Rokita claimed he couldn't obtain any records proving that Dr. Caitlin Bernard fulfilled her legal reporting duties. But FOX59 just got them through a public records request. https://t.co/bUz2wh2rFK

— Rachel Olding (@rachelolding) July 14, 2022

Saying he didn't bother to do minor research lets him get off when we know he was going to say this whether it was true or not. He wasn't going to tell the truth even if he knew it.

SI

The goal was always to scare people away from legally protected acts through extrajudicial means.

Just more fascists.

Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021 -- after oversight officials asked for them, watchdog says | CNN Politics


This should tell you everything about who is telling the truth.

I'm sure Biden will have those people fired and Garland is looking into obstruction of justice charges. /s

bahaha

As always, we'll agree to disagree on your/my conclusions.

Good to know they are working on this. It's not near what Schumer wants in total spending but I would like to know more details on the highlighted.

Manchin rejects climate, tax elements of party-line Dem bill - POLITICO

Flying J Map | Flying J Locations

Pretty prevalant, by design. Their original/primary use case is servicing truckers on the interstate system. The two other major competitors (the merger of Pilot & Flying J combined two of the biggest) are Love's and TCA, both of which you may have seen if you've spent decent time on the interstate system.

I'm sorry, what?

In the graph that you posted, the Obama years show the lowest totals since the chart begins (2000)*, and then 2 and 4 years after Trump taking office we see huge spikes. You can argue the 2021 spike based on methodology (from the article) but you can't argue the 2019 spike.


*and, indeed:

Here's how I would organize my response. 2 sections to discuss ...

1) Original RM post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RainMaker (Post 3372268) Illegal border crossings skyrocketed under Trump compared to Obama. They got considerably worse during his tenure. https://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-bor...migrants-sneak

And my answer below. Cato article was a subset of total illegal immigrations and discussed the got aways.

Quote:

Cato article referred WaPo which is behind a paywall so had to poke around a little more. Cato also referenced a pdf which was dated. Here is the most recent 2021 version that I could find Access Denied The Cato article was geared towards "sneak-in" or "got aways" and not total "Illegal border crossings".

See my quote below and link to more recent report and table referenced below. Tell me if you think got aways "skyrocketed" relative to Obama's performance. Go ahead and enter the Obama/Trumps nos into excel, average them out, and tell me if that fits your description of "skyrocketed"


2) I then brought up the Pew article that talked about "migrant encounters". Migrant Encounters + Got Aways = (I think) true nos of illegal immigration. But there is no single chart with this so it's logical to me to break it out between #1 above and this #2.

See Access Denied

Add up & average Obama's 2009-2016 and Trumps 2017-2020 for "apprehensions". Tell me if you believe the average is "skyrocketed".

3) I brought up Trump's policy with Mexico. If you look at the Pew Graphic, you can see a dramatic drop off after those "threats" happened with Mexico

Specifically for this comment


Can you tell me the 2 and 4 years after Trump took office? I only see 2019 spike? Are you attributing the 2021 spike to Trump?

In previous post, I supplied link to what I believe are the official nos. I see the spike in 2019 only (and a significant reduction after the discussions/threats to Mexico).

Policy-based effects don't evaporate overnight, so it's reasonable to attribute something that happens in H1'21 to pre-Biden policies. Plus, Biden's hasn't wound down Trump's policy, anyway. Which is, as we will see, a problem.


Back to the numbers. It would appear the perception gap between you and RM is because the 1.7M "migrant encounters" is inflated compared to past time periods because of the high recidivism rate, i.e. people attempting to cross multiple times. Why?


Source.


If we go back to your comment which started this, which was that the Trump policies "worked", we can see that in fact that this is not the case. The simplistic policy of blunt expulsion did little to stem the flow, and in fact stranded (by policy) many migrants in dangerous Mexican border cities.

As for the argument that Trump's pressure on Mexico (via tariffs) resulted in fewer crossings, after an initial drop in mid-2019, the very numbers we've been talking about above put paid to that particular argument.


As with many GOP/Trump policies, it sounds good on the surface (which is why you're defending it), but once you start looking at the details, the edifice falls apart. Like trickle-down economics, or abstinence-only sex education.

We'll agree to disagree on this. The reason why 2021 increased significantly is because of the anticipation that Biden would be more sympathetic.


Didn't really think about recidivism rate and unsure what that means in this context of nos. I wasn't thinking about 1.7M being inflated, I was going with the raw nos.

So agree, back to the nos. I provided you raw numbers (I believe they are official) on apprehensions by Obama and Trump years. I believe they include recidivism meaning same person 3 times is counted as 3 times.

If you add & average them for Obama and for Trump, you will see why I disagree on the description of "skyrocket". Can you let me know if you agree it meets your definition of "skyrocket"?

I don't think I said Trump illegal immigration policies worked (meaning over his 4 years). It did keep illegal immigration down but I would certainly not call it a success (e.g. no Wall). But I would not call it a total failure either. Quote me if I said otherwise.

However, I did specifically say the "strong armed Mexico" did work.
The article I quote from the Mexican government official was Jun 2019. In the Pew chart, you can see the spike was reduced after that.

I'm not sure I understand this statement? I don't understand the bolded. Let me reiterate just in case my POV is not clear

1) There was a spike in early 2019. In the Pew article, it shows it peaking in May
2) Trump "strong armed" Mexico with threats in Jun 2019. I don't think this is debatable, if so let me know if you don't think this really happened around then?
3) Starting around Jun, you can see the number of illegal encounters declining. Look at the graphic in my #5906 which I believe shows this clearly

What do you disagree about my 1-3?

I actually don't disagree with you here. I only disagree specifically to our illegal immigration discussion re: skyrocketed & Mexico strong arming was a failure.

My 2 questions to you are:

1) Do you believe "got aways" skyrocketed under Trump comparing it to Obama? I've provided link and table reference with the (aka back to the) nos
2) Do you believe "encounters" skyrocketed under Trump comparing it to Obama? I've provided link with 2009 to 2020 data/nos

And QT is fighting to get into that space. Bucky's it seems is just happy to have their massive stores more spaced out.

I only did OTR trucking a few weeks but there’s nowhere near enough truck stops in this country. Especially given the DOT hours of service rules. Not like you can keep going down the highway every time you come to a full stop.

Buc-ee's is also strictly no truck. It's basically truck stops for passenger cars only (part of what makes it such a humorously Texas institution, too)

SI

In our area, Costco has best prices. 2nd is QT.

Does anyone know how much revenue and profit a (for example) QT can make per fast charger? I understand smaller gas stations prob won't uptake it but I'd think the larger ones with a nice store (where all the money is being made anyway) would do this with a little incentive from the government (e.g. Mayor Pete and the infrastructure $).

I’m disgusted by the Biden mbs stuff

Just goes to show that like trump taught us, regarding autocrats, time is truly on their side.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Biden is literally a fucking SNL caricature of himself. Jesus fucking Christ.

In a totally expected development:
Texas Medical Association says hospitals are refusing to treat women with pregnancy complications



https://apnews.com/article/abortion-health-texas-government-and-politics-da85c82bf3e9ced09ad499e350ae5ee3


Basically, "We can't do anything until you start dying."

SI

He's always been pretty bad dating back to his Senate days.

Earlier today, @CleveWootson and I were told we, as WashPost reporters, were not allowed to attend a briefing held by the Saudis after the Biden-MBS meeting despite all other U.S. media invited. No reason was given.

A few hours later, we were invited. https://t.co/FOtOPxwneg pic.twitter.com/kZo5RSmk7R

— Tyler Pager (@tylerpager) July 15, 2022

Biden is meeting with the ruler of UAE on his trip.

BREAKING: #UAE detains US citizen Asim Ghafoor, former lawyer for #JamalKhashoggi and @DAWNmenaorg Board Member in what appears to be politically motivated conviction https://t.co/cp6CE7Mb7j

— Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) July 15, 2022

Wtf 🤦‍♂️


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

yep, not sure a middle east trip timed right now was the right play. Gas prices be damned. Just does not play well at all. MBS is such a POS.

Can u imagine the conspiracy theories that would be out there if a prominent democrat’s ex wife died of blunt force trauma from falling down stairs?

Wait we don't have the Clinton's killed Ivana meme's yet?

/Opens up the envelope/
Ok, so it was George Soros
In the pizza parlor
With a copy of Mein Kampf
I'm tired of playing Democrat Clue. Can we go back to playing Monopoly where we all get to buy up property with our trust funds and charge the poors ever increasing rent?

SI

SI doesn't the credit for being the keyboard comedian that he deserves.

Speaking of buying up all the property to charge more and more rent.....this is getting to be such an issue that it's moving the entire market and resetting housing costs for millions of Americans and pricing millions more out of the market. It's going to get so much worse before the politicians decide they need to do something. By then, it'll be a disaster for so many places.

I try entirely too hard to get the good lines. I don't have "easy effort" comedy like real comedians and I throw a lot of things at the wall to see what sticks. Most don't land or are just bad dad jokes, but I'll keep trying :D

(It's nice to be appreciated, tho)

My wife, from the other room after I told her this one: "He could have used the Jewish space laser"

SI

Isn't that basically California property, in a nutshell, for most of our lives?

SI

Same thing is happening in Canada. I think I read that over 20% of home purchases in Canada last year were from investors. And the rent pricing has dramatically increased recently to start matching home pricing.

I don't get the criticism to Biden's bumping fists with MBS. Certainly better than (supposed) bows by Dem & Rep presidents.

I guess it's really about Biden meeting with MBS. At this stage of US economy, I'm okay with him doing a little mea culpa to get more heavy crude pumped (which I've read contradictory reports if SA actually committed or not, but let's see what happens in 1-2 months). Unless the US has other immediate oil options, what else is he supposed to do?

He did get the win with Israeli flights to Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, the Abraham accords will continue to progress now that Biden has faced reality that he'll have to deal with MBS.

But yeah, there'll be a day when Elon Musk is a trillionaire and we won't be beholden to ME heavy crude (but to another country for rare earth elements). But that day is not here yet.

FWIW, we were driving around yesterday and noticed regular gas at $4. I think we reached a high of about $4.50 or $4.60 in past several months. So a good sign.

Gas has been under four at my closest gas stations for about a week. It was 3.85 on Sunday.

Our town is still at around $4.45. Towns 15 and 20 minutes away in each direction are at $3.99 and $4.05.

This county covers that. Literally on the main road going toward the interstate is where the gas is that cheap. 3 miles closer to the interstate it is $4.29. In town, it is $4.39.

No rhyme or reason that I can tell. $3.99 near the interstate going west from here, but on the east side of Lexington off of 75, it's $4.30-4.40. South of Lexington, not near anything, it's down under $4 by a few cents now. And we're west of Lexington, still sitting above $4.40.

I generally think driving around to save a few cents a gallon is stupid (even 20 gallons at 5 cents cheaper is only $1), but when you're talking 30-50 cents a gallon, that can add up.

Most places here in Myrtle under $4 now

Same, I think NKY still had some close to $4.65 as of yesterday. I keep hearing that the avg for KY has come down to like 4.12 and I'm like, where? Because it's not around here. That means there are some sub $4 places. With oil priced where it's at, it should be closer to 3.50 than 4.

Southern KY always seems to have pockets of the cheapest gas. I guess because it's in no-man's land on 75 between Knoxville and Lexington. Right now, it's $3.59 down there with one station at $3.19. You see the same in western KY too sometimes.

So Secretary of Transportation Buttiileg was at a hearing today talking about Electric Cars, when Congressmen Nehls asked him this, complete with pictures. Watch how the Secretary responds:


https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1549455693073489920

Fox News is gonna cut that shit up and make him a hero. What an embarrassment.

Sadly, that moron is from my district. His primary was up against an even worse candidate in Kathleen Wall. The Dems ran a strong candidate in Sri Preston Kulkarni but it wasn't enough in the gerrymandered district.

SI

Idea: Joe Manchin agrees to the White House bill. In exchange, the Democrats pull some strings with the liberal Hollywood elite and get Joe Manchin a weekly TV show called “Joe Manchin talks for an hour about whatever and everyone has to pay attention and listen to him and tell him he’s very important.”

Everyone gets what they really want.

Manchin is the first Democratic politician I've despised with every fibre of my being, joining Scott Walker and Ron Johnson in the Circle of Hate.

It's great there is GOP support for this bill. It'll be fantastic if it get through the Senate.

I guess SCOTUS can still strike it down as unconstitutional but it'll be (arguably) a longer road ahead than without this bill. And by that time, law of averages says good chance that Thomas and Alito will have been replaced.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/polit...urt/index.html

That was a nice quip. I wish he had continued to ad-lib a little more.

That really was about as bi-partisan as you get in a non-defense related bill.

I'll maintain all along that Manchin is the best you can hope for from West Virginia if you're a Democrat. The problem isn't Manchin, it's that he's #50 for them. The problem is that in 2020, the Dems barely got to 50 instead of winning a landslide with everything going on (failed COVID response, President almost dying of COVID, racial unrest, economy shattered by COVID, etc). It's the fact that Joni Ernst, Susan Collins, and Thom Tillis still have jobs or that a strong candidate like Steve Bullock couldn't pull off the upset. And, really, the seeds were planted back in 2018 when the Dems lost Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Texas in close races making the math that much harder. Then again, if it was anything but 48-50 going into the Georgia runoffs, I'm not sure the Dems win those in 2020.

SI

The Maryland GOP was a perfect encapsulation of the party in yesterday's primary. Larry Hogan is one of the most popular governors, but instead of picking someone like him, they chose a Trumpy nutjob with nearly zero chance of winning in November.

Yeah, I just commented on that on FB. I mean, I hope it turns out well in the end, but I still don't know if MD isn't just racist enough not to elect the black guy.

This, exactly.

If you don't have Manchin, then you have Shelly Moore Capito, who will vote with Democrats a lot less than Manchin. Like, a lot.

If you want to be mad, be mad at Cal Cunningham, who couldn't keep his dick in his pants until after the election that he lost to Tillis. Or either Sara Gideon who couldn't run a good campaign against Collins or Maine voters who got bought the lies Collins was selling. Or all the other piss-poor Democratic Senate candidates who couldn't close the deal in close races.

WTF does that even mean? Ad-lib?

Definition of ad-lib as I used it is "speak or perform in public without previously preparing one's words."

What don't you understand?

It implies that he was previously working from a script which I doubt he was. He wasn't ad libing, he was answering what was a colossally stupid question. Ad-libing was when trump would make a hard left from a speech. Pete wasn't doing that, but I suspect you know that and are doing your usual schtick looking for an argument.

Yes, I did assume Mayor Pete was working from a script which had answers to what he expected the committee to ask him.

When the congressman went on a rant about Biden's health and mental concerns, Mayor Pete said "glad to have a president who can ride a bicycle". That was clearly ad-lib and I said "nice quip, like him to ad-lib more".

Somehow, I'm thinking you thought I was making fun of Mayor Pete. You are wrong if you thought so. I thought it was a nice reply and wanted to hear more like it.

I suspect you are doing your normal schtick of drinking early and eating your edibles?

How about you jump off a cliff you judgmental prick...

I do concede I am judgmental in some situations, and not in others. But in this case, certainly not judgmental ... just returning insult/sarcasm in kind.

Honestly I could definitely do with some scotch and edibles right now.

I'm settling for rum and coke

Just cracked a Miller lite. At my in laws beach house looking at the ocean. Beach volleyball ball league about to start. Always good views. Feeling fine.

I have to settle for a spliff in the Jacuzzi after work LOL, I guess better than nothing.

I hadn't read much about this so nice surprise it seems to have bi-partisanship support. I'm thinking it'll pass.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/polit...nse/index.html

Same.

Amazing that he hadn't already caught Covid previously with all the campaigning and people around him. Wish him well.

My SIL caught it about 2 weeks ago and was also taking Paxlovid.

Yeah really seemed like it was just a matter of time with all the people he's around on a daily basis. Glad he's only experiencing minor symptoms

Hmm... this is the second very public shot across the bow I've seen recently. No doubt China is spying constantly, but not sure where they're planning to go with the increased public callouts. CNN Exclusive: FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications | CNN Politics

How come in their press conference the Nassau GOP officials didn’t show this side of the flyer? pic.twitter.com/ZdmM7H5k16

— Nassau County Young Democrats (@NassauYDs) July 22, 2022

wow

I scanned through the article and didn't think their evidence was at all conclusive. But the article did share on things the government was monitoring that raised red flags which is reassuring.

Huawei is spying because they have all this equipment that "could" spy on military posts/sensitive areas close by. I didn't read anything in the article that said we caught Person X doing Y, we saw Equipment X sending info to offshore, we analyzed the microcode in Equipment X and found Y, we overheard/intercepted communications between Huawei/China that shows subterfuge etc.

I am sure China is spying on us and there's likely stronger evidence that cannot be disclosed. But the article wasn't very convincing IMO.

Florida education program lets military veterans teach with no degree

I'm a veteran. My wife is a veteran.

This is the absolute dumbest thing I've seen from a state that's tried hard to out dumb the rest of the country.

The addition of veteran's spouses makes no sense at all.

It's bad enough that a state that's been at war with teachers decided to devalue a degree and experience, but the spouse thing is what takes this stupidity to a new level. You're gonna end up with someone who's job experience is selling Scentsy or LuLaRoe trying to teach children.

They did this so that when this program is attacked on its merits, the response will be that you're anti-veteran and hate the military and America.

Oh absolutely

But if you mock war heroes, insult gold star families, dodge the draft, ect you become president.

JD Vance is Todd Akining his way out of what should've been an easy Senate seat.

I'm beginning to think we have a real Nazi problem in the USA. There's been a lot of this kind of thing recently.

A Rhode Island restaurant decided it was a good idea to post a meme referencing Anne Frank and it being "hotter than an oven out there".

We have no words.https://t.co/nxIkaPqD71 pic.twitter.com/oKVZyvMgab

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 25, 2022

The article didn't report the Congressman's rationalization. I'll assume its some variation of "love the sinner (son), hate the sin".

https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/25/polit...ons/index.html

Wow. That is awful. People who would do something like that are miserable excuses for human beings.