Friday Afternoon WTF Is It With My Internet Open Thread

Hmm, I was on a roll until my spotty connection swallowed me whole.

Well, lets have an audience survey. Which new poll results has Democrat strategist more worried:

 A) "NEW POLL: Satisfaction With U.S. at Highest It’s Ever Been Since 2005"

or

 B) "ObamaCare favorability hits highest level: poll"

Which is worse news for Democrats - People are holding up OK in the Trump years, or their seemingly inevitable nominee is a socialist whose signature issue, Medicare For All, is losing salience?

They have a long, winding road to Milwaukee, where they will meet wrath and ruin. Maybe!

Comments

[Neo]

Lebanese Health Minister confirms first COVID-19 coronavirus case in #Lebanon

[Neo]

10Coronavirus deaths in Iran in the last 24 hours.
Panic in Iran.

Reports that the city of Qom (140 km south of Tehran) will be quarantined soon.

[henry]

TM, you sound like rsbn rally coverage this week. Another rally in Vegas at 3:00 eastern.

[KevlarKid]

would a massive white phosphorous blast eradicate the My Sharona virus in Qom?

[matt - deplore me if you must]

4th!

Had to find any good news out there for the Dems lately. What a shame.

[Jane]

I vote #1.

[MissMarple2]

Extraneus,

This wound up at the end of the last thread. You asked now any non-loony person could believe the Russia hoax. I answered:

The Russia thing never made sense to me for the following reasons:

1. Trump grew up like many of us here, with vivid memories of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, and refugees from Eastern Europe settling in this country.

2. Unlike Millennials and those younger, he learned about communism, the direct opposite of the system which created his father's business and wealth, in his high school.

3. His first wife Ivana was from a formerly communist country, as is his 3rd wife, Melania. He would have heard how rotten the governments were in both cases.

It seems more likely to me that the Chinese meddled and paid off people in the intelligence community to push this story as a classic misdirection.

I still remember that the Chinese got some missile secrets from the Clinton Administration.

[sbwaters]

I just might answer:

C) Most Americans no longer trust the mainstream media.

[KevlarKid]

California's "for the public good" devaluation of private property rights.

https://spectator.org/taking-property-for-fun-and-profit/

[KevlarKid]

C).... +1

[sbwaters]

Rasmussen: a majority of Americans came to three conclusions:
(1) the Deep State criminally conspired to prevent Donald Trump's presidency,
(2) the actors involved should be imprisoned or immediately fired from the federal government, and
(3) it is likely that no criminal punishment of any kind will actually occur.

[H/T KK and American Thinker link on last thread]

[lyle]

The denouement from JiB’s Zman link last thread on the last prog debate:

”And just like that, everyone went insane”

I’d argue the insanity goes more like Hemingway’s description of bankruptcy...

[Comanche Voter]

Miss Marple 2--missile secrets are not the only things that the Chinese got from the Clinton Administration (or stole from the USA on Clinton's watch). Equally, if not more, damaging was the transfer/theft/donation of technology to machine submarine propellers. Chinese submarines suddenly got quieter underwater--and more difficult to detect.

Of course Chinese theft of US technology (or the purchase of same from compliant Harvard professors) continued unabated during the Bush and Obama administrations. Trump makes noises about stopping it--which is an improvement. I'm not certain that he will be able to eradicate it, but at least he's trying.

[Extraneus]

Do they actually not realize they're wearing tinfoil hats? Do they have no idea about what changed between Obama and Trump for Ukraine, oil prices, US military strength, and anything else Russia would care about? No sense of what might be important to them?

These moonbats should be cruelly mocked.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/02/21/martin-sheen-gets-msnbcs-odonnell-to-display-trump-putin-2020-bumper-sticker-on-air/

[Narciso]

Martin sheen the narrator for jfk. Which was total dezinforma.

[Narciso]

That was around that robert downey jr was imbibing michael rupperts left wing prattle

[Jane]

So anyone know where I can see the 3:00 rally?

[Narciso]

From the last thread, i had a small part in cuckoos nest in high school. I guess this was part of the normalizing crazy

[Jane]

I would guess that any punishment for the deep state will come in the next term. Of course there is a risk there, but I'm betting we also take the House and Senate and it gets a lot easier.

[Porchlight]

It's streaming in all the usual places, I'd expect.

[KevlarKid]

the link to cnn is intentional. in it i see how Schiff et al are delegitimzing the incumbent in advance of the next election. and after the win POTUS, IT WILL BE DEMANDED, should recuse himself from foreign policy and military affairs en toto.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/21/politics/intelligence-briefing-republican-behind-the-scenes/index.html

[Captain Hate]

I guess this was part of the normalizing crazy

It really was a nice bit of popular propaganda

[Narciso]

Best place

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHigqMMw5Ng

[KevlarKid]

70s bumpersticker: Dont laff. i dated nurse Ratchett.

[Narciso]

We did its a wonderful life the previous year.

[Porchlight]

I laughed.

[KevlarKid]

Louts rule at NPR. water is wet. felosi is a drunk. etc. etc. etc.

but this article has evidence to back up a time-honored pregunta about NPR.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/joseph-vazquez/2020/02/21/new-npr-foundation-chair-also-gave-cash-dem-taking-new-role

[MissMarple2]

sbwaters,

Seems to be the general opinion here, although I think that the President will get some criminal punishment.

At the beginning of his speech about at the 50-minute mark, he addresses the Roger Stone case, mentions General Flynn, and also mentions some others he feels unjustly treated but will not mention their names, and also talks about the 2-tier system of justice and directly draws the former prisoners into the conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AmDp9BIz20

[clarice]

MM You mean Stone will get some punishment, don't you?

[Jim Eagle]

Today's Ocean from our upper terrace. Gusts up to 45+mph. Winds strongly out of the NNE. But we have people out playing golf:)

https://youtu.be/U-3hJagDvRA

[Tom R]

Iggy @ 11:39 last thread

The problem with your analysis is that you left out the type of liberal I was referring to. I don't have any problems with your breakdown of what you think progressives and libertarians believe. The liberals I am referring to as "traditional liberals" are those just left of center.

My wife and I have four married couples we are friends with who are traditional liberal Democrats. One thing all four couples have in common is they are devout Catholics and active in the local Catholic church. When politics are getting discussed the most devout Catholic mom of the four likes to remind me that Jesus was a liberal. Our sons grew up playing football and baseball together so I have known the people for years. They are just as patriotic as you or me and two of the men served in the Army. I guarantee you none of them would answer Yes to the question you posed.

[clarice]

This time even CNN smells the B.S. (via Insty):https://hotair.com/archives/allahpundit/2020/02/21/cnn-sources-intel-deputy-overstated-claim-briefing-russia-planning-help-trump-election/

[MissMarple2]

Link to rally live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHigqMMw5Ng

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

California weather, despite its reputation, can be a bit brutal at times, too.
A week or two ago a pal was going to go skiing at the local resort south of Tahoe with a friend.
Before they left they found out the place was closed for the day. Had a 209 mile an hour gust at the top of the mountain where the lifts dump you that morning.

[DrJ]

Must have been Kirkwood, Iggy. Sugar Bowl had large gusts too, but I don't think they broke 200 mph.

[Jane]

SBW,

How is your wife doing?

[MissMarple2]

clarice,

I wasn't clear. I shouldn't try to make a post while a friend talks to me on the phone.

What I meant is that I believe some of the people involved in this coup attempt will get some criminal prosecution. Stone may get some, but I think he will either be pardoned or have his sentence commuted.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--When politics are getting discussed the most devout Catholic mom of the four likes to remind me that Jesus was a liberal.--

I always took the word "remind" to mean causing someone to recall something that is an actuality.
He was not a liberal and it is profoundly demeaning to claim that He was. Nor was He a conservative.
The attempt to make Him either is to render unto Caesar the things that are God's.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

It was Kirkwood, Doc.

[MissMarple2]

ON MY WAY! #KAG2020🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/oubu6tCG4m

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2020

Video at the link.

[MissMarple2]

RSBN showing the crowd, and it's as packed as it was yesterday.

[sbwaters]

Just got in from our latest fox hunt.

Granddog Oakley and I were out by the corner of the house when a large (half way up to the mailbox) fluffy-tailed red fox zoomed down the road 50 feet from us, past our son’s mailbox on the other side of the road headed west.

Oakley was off like a shot, tearing the leash ring off his collar, leaving me yelling "Oakley!” repeatedly at the top of my lungs, hoping against hope he wouldn’t disappear and get lost.

Dogs will be dogs and his rabies shots are up to date!

They never left the road and he came back after a hundred yard chase, never having caught it when the fox high-tailed it off the road into the snow and woods.

Fast fox. Good dog for returning immediately to me. Showered him with praise for coming back. Gave him an extra biscuit when we got inside.

[Dave (in MA)]

1).... +C

[lyle]

Jesus was a liberal

*cough*bullshit*cough*

[Dave (in MA)]

This is how I picture Oakley.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The problem with your analysis is that you left out the type of liberal I was referring to.--

No I didn't. The liberals you describe have fine, upstanding morals for the most part and they love the USA, apple pie and possibly even Chevrolets.
But if their underlying politics are of the social liberal variety then they will always lead, despite their personal probity to the gulag.
That is the very process I described of moving from FDR to JFK to Bernie Sanders to the true Stalinist who has yet to appear.
Liberalism in all its varieties carries within it a fatal philosophical flaw that inevitably leads to excess, even though that excess is not recognized nor intended by people like your slightly left of center friends. That is why it is an ideology that lacks any logical or functional limits and why conservatism which is not an ideology but a political philosophy that does not. The essence of conservatism is to recognize precisely those limits of our own natures, the limits of perfecting society, the limits to our ability to perfect society, the limitations of man's personal imperfectability, the limits and risks of using the state to perfect anything and the sordid history of man's attempts to perfect society and man himself.
That your friends don't recognize the fatal flaw in their ideology makes it tragic not nonexistent.

[Tom R]

Update on the Alabama Senate race. Tuberville ads started showing up on TV this week. Both Tuberville and Byrne attack Sessions for his recusal. Neither are attacking him on his successful conservative record for obvious reasons. Tuberville is attacking Byrne for Byrne's statement after the Access Hollywood tape was released that Trump was unfit to be president and should step down from the ticket and allow Pence to face Hillary. BTW Sessions stood by Trump's side and remained one of his biggest supporters during the Access Hollywood tape scandal. Sessions' ads are all 100% positive focusing on his record. Sessions isn't attacking anyone.

My bet is Sessions and Tuberville in a runoff and then Sessions getting most of Byrne's supporters and winning the runoff. IMO if Trump doesn't want Sessions to win he will have to formally endorce someone else for them to have a chance.

[Threadkiller]

Friday Afternoon WTF Is It With My Internet Open Thread

Try posting on an old dead thread. That is the new norm.

Which is worse news for Democrats - People are holding up OK in the Trump years, or their seemingly inevitable nominee is a socialist

The Birthers are doing great under Birther POTUS!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Confirmed: People Who Comment 'First!' Shall Be Last In Kingdom Of Heaven
"At publishing time, the report had also confirmed that people who comment "first!" but don't even manage to actually be the first comment are going straight to hell."

[DrJ]

I figured it was Kirkwood, Iggy. Nice hill, usually with good snow.

Sugar Bowl is sorta North Lake Tahoe, and is the local good hill close to me. So I knew it wan't them.

[Jane]

Is that the hockey team? How cool!

[Jane]

Boy that was a long time ago.

[DrJ]

[T]he report had also confirmed that people who comment "first!" but don't even manage to actually be the first comment are going straight to hell.

Well I'll be d*mned! :)

[Marlene]

Yes Jane,I just said to hubby,those guys all have gray hair. Didn't a few of them go to BC or BU?

[MissMarple2]

1980 US Olympic Hockey Team there! I still remember racing home from church to see the game where they qualified to play in the finals. And then they played the Russians. I couldn't believe they won.

[Tom R]

Iggy @ 3:14

Nothing you said changes the fact none of those liberal Democrats I am friends with would answer Yes to your question. BTW all four families are from other parts of the country (Northeast and Midwest) and moved to Alabama as adults so they are not traditional Southerners. Our country was built by people like them and people like you and me working together and putting aside our political differences when it mattered in a spirit of bipartisanship. That unity was possible because while we may have differences in what role the federal government should have in our individual lives, we shared common values as Christians who support the Constitution and capitalism.

IMO winning the culture war against the Progressives requires treating the kind of liberal Democrats I am friends with as allies and not enemies.

[MissMarple2]

Herb Brooks has passed away, but his daughter is there representing him. She says in her opinion her dad would have been a Trump supporter.

[Jane]

Yeah Jim Craig was there when I was in Law School I think. (BC) Maybe Mike too. At any rate I always thought I knew them.

[Jane]

That's wrong because I went to law school mid-80's. So we were probably still celebrating.

[Extraneus]

Here's Allahpundit from Clarice's link upthread:

I don’t know that Russia would have a preference between him [Trump] and a socialist. I do think they’d prefer him to a hawkish mainstream Democrat for the simple reason that Trump’s much more likely to withdraw internationally than a neoliberal is, and because a Democratic president of any stripe would come under pressure from his base to exact some sort of revenge on Russia for meddling in 2016.

Absurd. Democrats would "exact revenge" for Russia meddling in 2016? How, by indicting Putin's friends on process crimes? Who believes any Dem would take actions that advance US interests over Russia's, or over any other country's for that matter, excepting Israel.

Russia knows that any Dem would be all-in on Global Warming, much to Russia's advantage. And btw, non-rube Democrats know full well that the Crowdstrike Russian-meddling-for-Trump claim was a hoax, since they perpetrated it.

[Porchlight]

IMO winning the culture war against the Progressives requires treating the kind of liberal Democrats I am friends with as allies and not enemies.

I somewhat agree with this. But there are so few of those kinds of liberal Dems. I am grateful to the ones that exist, like my boss, who purposefully doesn't share his knowledge of my politics with the rabid SJWs at work. He could, but he doesn't.

[KevlarKid]

Ig, you have mail.

[Extraneus]

Empowered Trump Loyalist Asks for List of Never Trumpers in the President’s Cabinet

John McEntee, the new head of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), asked White House staff to list “anti-Trump” political appointees in the administration.

McEntee met with White House cabinet liaisons on Thursday to request a list, according to three sources familiar with the meeting who spoke to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.

Trump enters the next phase of his presidency determined to root out disloyalty in the administration, and McEntee’s return demonstrates his commitment to the task.

McEntee is now in charge of political appointments to the administration, and the president has empowered him to remove the Trump appointees who are blocking his agenda and even working against him.

Fired and escorted off the premises at the command of former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2018, McEntee, Trump’s former body man, has returned to the Trump White House as the head of the PPO.

(Click to open.)

[sbwaters]

Dave, Oakley is that cool, but a little more snow white. [See my avatar, although he doesn't look fast there.]

Jane: How is your wife doing?

Thanks for asking. Doing great. No — I repeat, No — lower back and leg pain. Just feeling bruised at the two, two-inch surgical incision sites. She’s doing too much, happy to be able to, until her body says not yet.

Looking forward to having healed enough to shower on Sunday.

And if she seems happy, you ought to see me! :-)

[Porchlight]

Ext, the DNC types have been high fiving the Russians and laughing together about the rubes back in the States for years.

Allahpundit is a joke.

[Dave (in MA)]

Trump replied "12 more years" to the crowd's cries of "4 more years".

[Dave (in MA)]

"first!"

[sbwaters]

McEntee met with White House cabinet liaisons on Thursday to request a list, according to three sources familiar with the meeting who spoke to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.

McEntee: "So all the WH cabinet liaisons go. Check."

[Jane]

SBW,

Tell her I'm thrilled, and I love her!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Got it, KK. Thanks.

[Marlene]

I mentioned the daughter and son-in-law are in NOLA for an event. She just sent us a picture from Bourbon St. Whoa. Looks like a party!

[henry]

Trump appears to be enjoying himself today.

[Marlene]

OMG,this Trump rally is too funny.

[Jane]

It's aiways a party on Bourbon Street!

[clarice]

Brava, Mrs sbw!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Nothing you said changes the fact none of those liberal Democrats I am friends with would answer Yes to your question.--

OK, but nothing you said, nor their answer to my question, changes the fact that their basic political ideals if allowed to predominate as they have for the last 100+ years leads inevitably to less freedom, more government power and that there is no logical end to either trend which is exactly what we have seen in both our politics and our culture.

-- That unity was possible because while we may have differences in what role the federal government should have in our individual lives, we shared common values as Christians who support the Constitution and capitalism.--

Those to the left of the political center have a tenuous relationship with the Constitution. That "difference in the role the Federal government should have" is the difference between the country the Founders created and the one liberals would like to live in. It is possible to compromise with such people only to the extent they mostly lose, because if they mostly win we are on the road to serfdom.

--IMO winning the culture war against the Progressives requires treating the kind of liberal Democrats I am friends with as allies and not enemies.--

If they are allies, fine.
Our problem has been treating people who are our enemies as though they are allies in the hope they will become so or by wishing they were.
That is the road we have been traveling and the people you describe spend a lot of time paving it with their good intentions.

[Pinandpuller]

Did you guys know that if you want to run in the 11th state district of CA you have to come up with a Chinese name and put that on the ballot? It won’t be long now, MI.

[cathyf]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I always thought that Trump should have fired all of the political appointees the first day, so that the Senate would have had to confirm replacements in order to get paychecks signed.

Ok, maybe I do know why -- playing that game with the Deep State would have made it for sure that Social Security checks wouldn't go out, the military wouldn't get paid, veterans wouldn't get taken care of. But, damn, it sure would have been fun to watch!

[MissMarple2]

cathyf,

Obama converted a huge number of their positions to Civil Service positions, so they couldn't be fired easily.

[Threadkiller]

All dead thread horses are equal except some dead thread horses are more equal than others.

[jimmyk]

The Z man gets some good points in, but I find he strays into creepy Stormfront territory too often. Such as this:

Bloomberg also lifts the veil on something we don’t get to see. For our Jewish ruling class, Bernie is the embarrassing uncle, who never amounted to much. He is a reminder of a past they would like to forget.

I agree Bernie is an embarrassment, to Jews and to all right-thinking people, but what the hell is "our Jewish ruling class"?

[Jim Eagle]

MM,

USA played Russia in the semi-finals and Finland in the finals - 1980.

Jane and Marlene,

Where are you seeing the 1980 olympic hockey team? Any link?

[henry]

Pantomime dead horse threads above all others.

[henry]

JiB, the team (and Coach Brooks daughter) were at the rally with Trump.

[MissMarple2]

Jack,

Thanks for the correction. My memory from back when I was 32 is a long way to reach, since I am not normally a sports person. LOL!

They were on at the very beginning of Trump's appearance.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

LOL
Former tough guy Recep Erdogan now
not only requesting Patriot missiles but US planes to keep those nasty old Rooskies away he was so recently playing footsie with.

[sbwaters]

I always thought that Trump should have fired all of the political appointees the first day

Then it would have been only partisan politics, not substantive dismissal for subversive activity.

[Jane]

Apparently, Trump flew them all out there.

[lyle]

Allahpundit is a joke.

Putting it politely.

[MissMarple2]

Calls for "doctor in the house."

"A lot of those people have been here for 3 days. Those front row people are tough. Take your time, doc."

[lyle]

https://theconservativeopinion.com/breaking-california-school-changes-name-to-michelle-obama-elementary-school/

Wookie elementary.

[lyle]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/why-obamaworld-is-mad-about-bloombergs-obama-ads

while Bloomberg has told friends that Obama is a lightweight, sources said. "Mike would have dinner parties and piss all over Obama when he was president. I know because I attended them," a prominent Democratic donor told me.

Strange new respect? 😬

[MissMarple2]

I can attest to how tough it is. When my sister and I went in the summer of 2016 to the rally at my high school (which has an arena that seats almost 7,000) we got to park at my DIL's driveway and walk over a mile to the already-filled parking lot, we still had to wait in line for over 2 hours on asphalt and concrete.

Pretty tough for us old gals. If he comes here this year, he will have to rent Market Square or the Colts' Stadium, we will have to go downtown and pay for parking, which will be expensive, and we probably would have to compete with out-of-town supporters who would no doubt camp out, so probably won't go.

[henry]

Two sets of justice.

[cathyf]

Hey, MM, if DJT does a rally in Indianapolis you'll also have to deal with a load of JOM houseguests, LOL. We'll all come camp out in your yard!

[MissMarple2]

cathyf,

All are welcome! We have a spare bedroom and a sofa.

Don't forget, though, we also have THREE dogs!
In the house most of the time!

[KevlarKid]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ktvu.com/news/no-longer-city-hall-but-silly-hall-oakland-councilman-says-over-police-chiefs-firing.amp

Mayor Rahm Emanuel subsequently appointed the now ex-chief, head of the Chgo PD's Bureau of Professional Standards prior to Oakland hiring her.

buh-bye.

[KevlarKid]

MM---- what does a R/T uber-lyft ride cost?

[MissMarple2]

Kev,

I have no idea. From where, the airport?

We don't have as many uber-lyft operations here. I would be happy to pick you up.

[KevlarKid]

i meant r/t for you to the Trump venue...offset the cost of pkg.