According to my quick research, the main cop in the George Floyd incident was fired the day after the incident and charged 4 days later

The difference with the Floyd case though is that there was a crowd and witnesses that took video. There was no way of suppressing it. I think it would have been easy here to bury the video (or lose it, or say something malfunctioned) and stick by the initial police report of the incident.

Drone attack in Iran and Twitter is saying multiple places. No idea how big of an attack though.

Speculation is Israel. Wouldn’t think US would be that direct?

More to come.

Attacks large enough to register a 5 on the Richter scale. Holy crap.

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There is fighting going on near Iran's nuclear center.

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I believe that is a naturally occurring earthquake.

I don’t know if this is the right plan but it’s reassuring to know we are thinking new ways re: future conflicts vs China instead of rinse-and-repeat stuff.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64294915

This is all stuff that was being discussed for our armed forces when I was in. Tanks just haven't really been useful for us since the first gulf war. With drones, long range missile systems, and air superiority foot soldiers aren't as necessary either. They're really needed for securing areas we've already hit and for special operations. Helo's are just too easy to take down.

What DeSantis is doing to public education in Florida is scary when you think about him as a potential President.

Western Civilization courses are mandatory and diversity classes are now banned. He's also taken over a public liberal arts college by replacing the board, firing the president, and replacing her with someone far more conservative. All in the name of "academic freedom"

Not to mention the war he started with The College Board over the African American Studies course that he pressured them to change and they did.

It's funny, for a group of people who says the government is in too many people's lives, they want to dictate what schools can teach even at the college level. All in the name of "anti-woke" or something.

"Let's start treating each other with respect. That's what Kevin and I are going to do. Not a joke, we had a good meeting yesterday," Biden at prayer breakfast says of @SpeakerMcCarthy. "It doesn't mean we've got to agree. Fight like hell. But let's treat each other with respect" pic.twitter.com/8aJp3nrtt0

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) February 2, 2023

Biden's political superpower is that his image is so normal and moderate that people assume he's always the most reasonable guy in the room.

If Biden and McCarthy meet and both come out of the meeting saying that the other one is being unreasonable, people are going to assume that Biden is the one being reasonable--without any real regard to the actual reasonableness of their positions--because McCarthy has thrown his lot in with actual crazy people.

Like, when Biden says that he and Kevin (side note--love the use of first name there) are treating each other with respect, that actually hurts McCarthy with his base. But if he tries to push back against that--"Actually, I didn't treat the President with respect"--he loses moderates.

Random observation, I noticed my conservative brother saying "Biden administration", a lot blaming it for this and that, like how he's boycotting Amazon because Whole Foods stopped buying non-sustainable lobster from Maine fisherman, hurting their livelihood, which was all the fault of the "Biden administration" for reasons I didn't try to grasp. But I did notice he kept using that term.

Then I was in a Lyft yesterday going to the airport in Las Vegas, and the driver had on conservative talk radio, which kept blaming the "Biden administration" for this and that. It stood out. I'm pretty sure that with Obama was president it was just "Obama" destroying America and so forth. I wonder if this is an intentional difference and what is behind it. Maybe the idea is that Biden isn't villainous enough because he's too old to be an evil mastermind, so it's more an evil administration?

Heard him speak at the prayer breakfast today on the radio. He sounded great. Totally clear and coherent. Making jokes while getting the message across. Of course he isnt as sharp as he was, but it really irritates me the way the right tries to paint him as a drooling invalid who eats pudding all day.

But what about "The Biden Crime Family"

I think that you are spot on. Obama was a black guy who's middle name is Hussain. He was the bad guy.

Biden is an old white guy who like ice cream. Hard to hate. You need to say "administration" to get in all of the queers and non-whites that are really running the country Weekend-At-Bernie's style.

There is a reason why you haven’t heard nearly as much impeach Biden. They know or doesn’t sell. It’s why they are going after Myorkis now. Much more foreign sounding name. It’s also why they attacked mayor Pete following the southwest debacle.

Those people don't believe Biden is actually running anything anyway. He's a puppet and his "administration" is really running everything. He's not competent enough to do anything, is at fault for everything, because he's not good enough to know better, and is taking credit for things he's not doing.

Basically the opposite of trump, who was fully in charge of everything, not responsible for anything, and was fighting anyone in his administration who wasn't doing it his way.

Yeah, that is what I was going to post until I saw yours. Most people I talk to on the Right think Biden is just a senile incompetent old man. Plus, they love demonizing VP Harris as the real person running the show. A black woman? It must be her destroying everything.

This is spot-on. Republicans have mostly given up on policy stuff. They don't tout anything. It's all about the person.

Obama is black with a foreign sounding name. Hillary is a woman. They are thus evil because of that.

Biden on the other hand is like you said, an old white guy who likes ice cream and fast cars. He's basically their ideal American. It's why I think someone like Mark Kelly would be impossible for them to beat.

This too. Biden is a likable guy so you have to act like he's not really in charge of anything.

And somehow in 1984 Democrats thought Walter Mondale was a better idea than John Glenn...

Yeah baby, com’on back to the fold. Who needs TPP when we’ve got bases (and ANKUS), the better option. Right thing to do Bong Bong, don’t care if your dad was Marcos. Children shouldn’t be held accountable for sins of their parents.

Philippines is a country that we should target to build up militarily and economically. There’s some negative history there but for the most part the Philippines people like and prefer US over China.

Joe, drop Kamala and take Blinken (or Lloyd Austin?) as your VP.

So I guess this is where we're at.

SCOTUS held that gun restrictions are only constitutional if they have historical analogues from 1791 or 1868. But domestic violence was widely accepted in those eras. So, the 5th Circuit says, the government can't disarm alleged domestic abusers today. https://t.co/OMXrJ7jGE3

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 2, 2023

I hope they fast track appeal this to SCOTUS.

Interesting to see the ‘final’ outcome

This is pretty concerning and not getting enough press:

John Roberts' Wife Allegations Spark Call for Supreme Court Scrutiny

The Chief Justice’s wife is being paid into the six-figures a pop by law firms to recruit attorneys. Isn’t this exactly the type of thing the GOP is frothing at the mouth over with Hunter Biden? Only it is clear and easily provable right now?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...-labor-market/

If I were the GOP, I'd be focusing on social issues, too. Reality isn't being too kind to their economic arguments.

The history of Democratic Party electoral choices is a varied and idiotic story.

I'm sure its all made-up by the Biden Administration/leftist media to make him look good...

If gun restrictions can only have analogs to 1791 or 1868, does that mean that only guns available in those years can subject to 2nd amendment protections? :D

Fox spent the last couple of days getting their viewers excited for a bad jobs report that released this morning. Then they glossed over it and quickly moved on when it reported 517k jobs added and the lowest unemployment rate since 1969.

We need a left leaning state to try it just to put an end to this madness.

If we use the rationale that "if the Founding Fathers didn't care about it, we don't have to, either"...does that mean I can stop paying income taxes?

I'm confused by this balloon. Surely China has spy satellites capable of seeing everything anyway. What is the point of the balloon?

Someone suggested they might want to see how we shot it down.

Apparently Fox News posted some breaking news and a [fake] video of the "balloon" exploding over Montana about an hour ago. But people are tracking it across the midwest and at about 6pm CT it was in western KY and earlier had crossed over St. Louis.

WTF is Fox doing?

Probably probing our early warning system which apparently failed as this was first seen by civilians.

This makes a scary amount of sense to me, which is probably why we aren’t shooting it down (we are scared of debris in middle of nowhere Montana, really?)

They have probably already got a bunch of data about how we will react, how the public reacts, who and what is involved in the response, but yeah no need to give them any more. Probably next time it will be something that could be weaponized and see how the response differs.

First reported by civilians. I don’t think that the Pentagon is in the habit of truthfully telling the world what it can and can’t and did and didn’t detect.

(Though it is a good reminder of the reasons we all voted against Trump. If he were still President, he’d have felt personally embarrassed by the insinuation that he didn’t know what was happening, so he’d have given a press conference revealing all of the Top Secret stuff that military leaders told him in their “Don’t worry about the balloon, Sir” briefing).

I was not aware that NORAD made public every potential threat it detected, besides Santa.

Apparantly the balloon has made its way to the Myrtle Beach area-the FAA has issued a ground stop for the airport because of it

I imagine our military guys are telling their military guys that they really need to try and hide their spy balloons better. When they make them so obvious that even civilians can see them, it makes our whole Neo Cold War a lot more difficult to manage.

Goodbye Iowa, Hello South Carolina!

Good-bye Iowa! Democrats approve Biden's revamped primary calendar

If I were to design a system of primary voting order, first I would create 50 voting day "slots" and scatter them across the primary calendar, one date can have more than one slot if you want to preserve days such as "Super Tuesday". Then I would take the states and rank them by voter turnout in the previous presidential election. And then those states one by one would get to pick which slot their primary is. I think states who encourage voter turnout should be rewarded.

Also this is a depressing reminder that the next election is right around the corner. But at least this time I probably won't have to see stupid ads of Tim Ryan throwing footballs at TVs

This signals to me Biden is serious about a run. Curious if the party will rally around him, or if any alternate candidates come to the forefront. I think it is the former.

Despite the right wing echo chamber he's done a good job and while not as spry as he once was he isn't the brain dead fool the right portrays him as.

I turned the news over to Fox and they were broadcasting live with the balloon right over us here in Surfside Beach. So fair warning if I start turning into a mutant or get super powers :)

I can't see anyone primarying Biden if he chooses to run unless it was a Trumpy sort of person. It would cause fractions within the party and would certainly lead to a Republican victory.

I agree, but given he didn't do well in Iowa or NH last cycle I think they want to start in SC so there is a perceived show of strength. Both to deter any others from running and to broadcast he is a force to be reckoned with in the general.

That, and the 2020 Iowa Caucuses were a disaster that they never want to repeat.

I can see the Fox headlines now.

"Biden fails to deter Chinese and state forced to down Spy balloon that terrorized a nation, on its OWN, before it fled the country! Impeach Biden!"

I think a good percentage of the Democratic party was tired of the first two states having electorates that come nowhere near mirroring national party membership and the tire fire in Iowa last time around gave them an excuse to finally make the change.

Biden has exceeded my overall expectations (not stumbling too much, bipartisan deals, foreign policy, and especially vs China) and stands the best chance of beating Trump, so I do want him to run again (unless he significantly declines).

I would strongly prefer another VP though as the backup, Kamala does not fill me with confidence.

It would be good for Biden to delay formally announcing until the very last minute just to see how Trump is doing in the GOP.

Biden has underperformed my expectations, but of course been way better than Trump. I don't want him to run again just because I think his age is an issue at this point.

Democrats who can beat Trump at this point include basically anyone with a pulse. It would be possible to lose to him, but you'd have to really work hard at it. I don't think even Hillary could pull it off.

I agree. Harris is a negative. I can't tell you how many Never Trumpers were good with Biden but had an extreme dislike for Harris. Plus, she didn't even do well in the primaries, and the potential future president thing is going to be a big deal in the next election. He would be well-served to move on from her.

Kamala?

If he runs I would like to see him pick Whitmer or Kelly as his VP.

The thing about Kamala is, you don't dump a sitting VP the same way a sitting President doesn't not run for re-election. I view them as a package deal. We either get Biden/Harris or neither of them.

@Edward64 - as a national politician, I agree with you on Kamala. She's on the short list of Democrats that I think Trump would stand a chance against.

That's conventional thinking, but not necessarily a winning strategy. We'll see which one they care more about.

It's uniquely important with an 82 year old starting a 4 year term.

I don't disagree with you on either point. I also don't see any way it happens. There are some things you just don't do in politics, even if you know you should.

I mean, even Trump didn't switch out his VP for his second campaign, and he broke almost every other "rule" that existed.

Good rule of thumb:

404 - File or directory not found.


I look forward to seeing how this lowers Edward64's opinion of Joe Biden.

File under "You don't actually have to hand it to them."

It's gotta be frustrating to the R's that every time they get mad at something Biden did or didn't do and say "THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED UNDER A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION". it turns out shortly thereafter that, yeah, it happened multiple times in a Trump Administration. It's like a dragon stoking the fire then trips and actually swallows its own fire.

Because Pence was useful up to that point to appeal to mainstream GOPers. There was no reason.

It's still useful at the time as a cheap sound bite when their voting public doesn't care about the facts anyway. They see these points made on GOP media and dont see the aftermath when the truth is reported in mainstream media or these people fumble all over themselves answering questions on Meet the Press.

Hey, I like Joe. As a whole he has many more pluses than minuses.

But to respond, it doesn’t. Joe wanted it shot down, experts said wait because not worth the risk. They publicly came out and said they told Joe this. I’m okay with that.

Now I do have doubts if the military actually knew about the balloon when they should have e.g. before entering US space.

They don't exist in reality. These are the same people holding SS hostage to get what they want when we need to raise the debt ceiling because THEIR guy is responsible for 25% of the total debt with nothing to show but tax cuts for the rich. These people aren't in any way grounded in reality

I'm honestly surprised that MTG didn't suggest Biden use his Jewish Space Lasers to shoot it down. Missed opportunity.

Pretty good news. Not sure it’s that significant because Trump likely has other sources but good that more money will go to another GOP other than Trump.

The Koch brothers have never supported him. They instead concentrated on GOP legislative campaign in 2016 and 2020, after the 2016 primary were the guys they would have liked lost.

I don't think the Jews would give their space lasers to a Catholic like Biden.

I think comments like this (from the Dallas Fed Survey of retailers) are so funny.

The last stimulus check was in March 2021! Enhanced unemployment benefits ended two years ago! The Child Tax Credit has expired! You are not competing with new government transfer programs! pic.twitter.com/0onqbrFhWO

— Joey Politano ��️‍�� (@JosephPolitano) February 6, 2023

For the Koch thing to succeed, they have to convince a bunch of hopefuls to stand down and coalesce behind one candidate against Trump. If they can't do that, no amount of mony in the world is going to sway Trump voters in a 10-12 candidate field. The only way to win is to consolidate the anti-Trump vote behind one person, early on. I don't bet on it happening.

this has been my stance all along and I agree. Everyone is going to think they can beak a weakened Trump and his base will lead him to a primary victory with a minority of the vote.

The interesting thing will be if Trump does win the nomination do people fall in line again or bail on him.

We know the answer to the second part. Even people like Hogan are saying they will support the nominee.

It is amazing that even in 2023 people still have this idea that there's a notable #NeverTrump group within the GOP.

If you are anti-Trump you left the GOP years ago. Anyone who still calls themselves a Republican is pro-Trump (or a very vocal anti-Trump like Liz Cheney, but you can count those people on one hand).

Yeah, Hogan has fallen back in line. His latest thing is "I'll vote GOP but I don't think it will be Trump" - that's as anti-Trump as he'll be now. Even Sununu is walking back his comments last year about Trump being crazy as a "joke."

Anyone who wants a career in the current party they are in will continue to outwardly support their party. They may test the winds from time to time hoping they start to blow different ways, but once they encounter a stiff breeze back at them, they stand down. And yes, this is a current GOP issue only because of the Trump threat, but it's no less true on the other side. It's just that the consequences aren't nearly as immediate or drastic. Both sides are almost entirely party over country.

I meant more the money, Murdoch, et.... Obviously to go against Trump is political suicide for those in office.

State of the Union is tomorrow.

I'd love to have a President go back to the old days and just deliver it in writing.

One of the more pointless events on the political calendar, IMO.

It's good for approximately 1/2 of Congress to get in some calisthenics at least once every year.

I generally try to avoid them.

Haven't watched in years. Even Pre-Trump, why watch when you can get the highlights immediately on your phone? I will do something more entertaining. At least Obama was a good orator. Clinton was as well. Bush, Trump and Biden are really painful to watch try to give high-oratory speeches.

Rainmaker will be sure to like this proposal:

In State of the Union, Biden will propose quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks - MarketWatch

Not that it will ever get past the House.

Probably too late to put it in the State of the Union, but maybe Biden could throw in a line or two about the Democrats being against putting kids back into the mines:

A new Iowa bill would roll back child labor laws, allowing 14 to 17-year-olds to work in mining, meatpacking, demolition, operating guillotine shears, and other dangerous jobs. Under the business-backed bill, employers wouldn't be civilly liable if kids are injured or killed.

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) February 7, 2023

Anything to avoid raising wages

Also, the drastically increasing liability shield for companies over the last couple of decades reminds us just how screwed we are as individuals.

SI

Funny how a $1200 check a couple years ago upended the economy in their mind but the billions in handouts through PPP and other pandemic programs that subsidized businesses is ignored.

CNN article says China is in crisis mode in responding to the balloon(s).

Just find a scape goat (done, the weather guy), say sorry won’t happen again (but don’t passively threaten the ‘victim’), and invite Blinken to visit in March.

Then, if it wasn’t Xi, he should take care of this privately.

I didn't watch the SotU but according to liberal forums Joe Biden just solved the Social InSecurity problem.

Completely played republicans on that one.

Not bad for a guy suffering from dementia that care barely speak. Or maybe that was one of the actors playing him.

Yes he sure did. Man he really abused them in that speech. They stepped repeatedly into the bear trap.

When is Trump's SOTU for the "real" government?

His former Press Secretary already took care of that.

"Who, me?"

On the left, Republican Senator Mike Lee feigns outrage during the State of the Union when President Biden suggests that some Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare.

On the right, Mike Lee says he wants to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. pic.twitter.com/vi6pYQmhZX

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) February 8, 2023

Then we have Rick Scott wanting to sunset not Social Security and Medicare, but all federal legislation. Because Congress is known for passing necessary bills in a timely and expedient manner.

I don't want to live in a world where whether we have an army or not depends on Lauren Bobert's mood that day.

They'll make exceptions for things like the military, energy subsidies, tax cuts for the wealthy, etc.

I don't think that will ever happen for obvious reasons. Dems could have tried to pass it when they had control over everything. I think they're only proposing it now because it'd be DOA in the House.

Dems love the idea of taxing the rich when they don't have power just as Republicans start caring about the deficit when they don't have power.

Probably didn’t happen but he did go into great detail in his substack article. WH denies it of course but I would like to see more analysis/rebuttal of the article

Seymour Hersh claims US Navy behind Nord Stream 2 pipeline explosion

Intresting. They knew the balloon had signal intelligence equipment, but they also knew that the military was able to prevent it from being effective.
Chinese spy balloon contained technology to monitor communication signals, US says | CNN Politics

Hard to believe Xi did not know about it. I wonder if the intel is based on good info/humint or just speculation.

The US says Xi didn't know about the balloon. That raises even more questions | CNN
Below is more likely IMO. Maybe watch for any leadership changes shortly as a hint if this was done with or without Xi's knowledge.

At this very moment, the greatest minds in the Labour party are scheming to fuck this up.

����#UK, general election poll:

MRP seat projection:

⏫#Labour: 509 seats (+306)
��#SNP: 50 (+2)
⏬#Conservatives: 45 (-320)
⏫#LibDems: 23 (+12)
⏸️#PC: 4
⏸️#Green: 1

Find Out Now/Electoral Calculus (MRP), 05/02/23 pic.twitter.com/8u67jybwVY

— World Elects (@ElectsWorld) February 9, 2023