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Well, darn! I didn't even get my vote in. :-(

Only need 6 GOP votes to make him Speaker.

A secure southern border simply means controlled entry. I am in favor of controlled entry and I also believe a wall is dumb. I also recognize that shooting them on arrival is only regionally popular in the US. So what do we do to keep Central Americans from flooding through Mexico? Impoverishing them through sanctions hasn't worked. Saying pretty please to Mexico to get them to control their southern border hasn't worked. I suppose we could build a big canal through the isthmus of Panama and stop them there, or something, but we'd just give it away so that wouldn't work. Short of establishing a large military presence and a huge humanitarian zone either along our southern border or Mexico's and being willing to inflict summary justice, what to do? Maybe giving a Trillion a year to Guatemala and Belize to flourish their economies in exchange for them accepting them all would work, but probably not. So, what to do?

You don’t understand the difference between blatant lies vs changing one’s stance based on new information?….of course you don’t, forgot who I was talking to for a minute. Read my lips: no new taxes.

So now we are back to total chaos in the House of Representatives, courtesy of Matt Gaetz. They have no (permanent) speaker, and so many republicans are throwing so many absurd replacement suggestions at the wall that will be a long time before anything changes. Trump even came up. I am sure we'll be hearing about George Santos, Ted Nugent or Diamond and/or Silk next. I am reminded of a speech some time back by former president Bill Clinton: "The Republicans are pretty simple actually, and pretty straightforward. They say, ‘I want you to be very miserable, and I want you to be very angry. And I want you to vote for us, and we’ll make it worse, but we’ll blame them.' " And that is exactly what they are doing. Darrell Issa is blaming all the current chaos on Democrats. The NRCC said that "democrats voted en masse following their extreme leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to throw the House into chaos." Garret Graves even claimed that Gaetz was secretly under the control of Ocasio-Cortez; she said that Gaetz “just got schooled by AOC and others; he was totally manipulated into doing this.” Who knew that AOC was at the same time a vacuous airhead and a savvy political mastermind, able to manipulate key republicans to do her bidding? And despite republicans publicly blaming democrats (and AOC) for ousting McCarthy, internally they are going after Gaetz. Graves said an ouster of Gaetz would be “pursued in the conference." Mike Lawler said he wants to hit Gaetz “square between the eyes” with the speaker’s gavel. Don Bacon said Gaetz is "not a republican." Mike Pence's chief of staff said “Matt Gaetz, to say he came here as a fiscal crusader . . . it’s more likely he came here for the teenage interns on Capitol Hill, to be honest.” Markwayne Muller had this to say: "This is a guy that didn’t have, the media didn’t give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl, and there’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him Because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with. He would brag about how he would crush erectile dysfunction medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night—this is obviously before he got married—and so, when that accusation came out, no one defended him and no one on the media would give him the time of the day. All of a sudden, he found fame because he opposed the speaker of the House back in November, and he’s always stayed there. And he was never going to leave until he got this last moment of fame by going after a motion to vacate." Wow. Kinda says more about the sort of political party that would keep Gaetz than Gaetz himself.

This might be one of the more bizarre "disputes" I have read on here.

This doesn't meet the definition of a pissing contest.. Robert is impervious to facts... you can't have discussion with people who just reject the facts. Reminds of the Reca nonsense.

From what I understand Cohen should now have a rock solid case for legal fees and sanctions against Trump. I really don’t buy into the rehabilitation of Mickey C (he was a willing criminal participant right up until it stopped benefiting him personally) but when it comes down to which scumbag to root for here there’s only one winner!

Wrong,, Chaucer got it right. 1972.. https://archive.org/details/ReadersDigestVol20No115October1972AsiaEdition/page/n7/mode/2up "Capt. Tommy Hill dialed Code 3100 - the signal reporting a hijacking - on his cockpit transponder"

I have to give this one to Brent and US conservatives. President Biden and some liberals have flipped on the wall. Most people here know that a wall, fence, call it what you will is not a solution. Gridlock on immigration has been the fixture in the US for decades. President Biden had and has the opportunity to seize the issue and define the debate. Just as trump did. No wall will keep a prospective Venezuelan who has crossed the Darien Gap to get to the border. From getting into the US even if he is deported back the first time.

Obviously, the Deep State is out to get him: NYT: I.R.S. Puts Lien on Giuliani’s Palm Beach Condo for $550,000 Tax Debt

Kind of long, but an interesting opinion piece on the 'border crisis', Trump's lies and the reality of the R 'hate mongering'. Source: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-immigration-mexico-republicans-2024-rcna118785

2nd Viet Nam. Maybe 3rd. And you're absolutely right. Slim keeps calling for 'negotiations' and 'peace talks', but has yet to call for Russia to leave Ukraine. All that has to happen to end the war is for the Russians to stop shooting, pick up their stuff (their stuff, not all the things they stole) and start walking east.

You didn't defend CALLING for war crimes to be committed. If you really detested war and murder, you should be calling for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. But you're a russian stooge, so you won't.

FINALLY the definitive statement of the conservative mind. But you know you couldn't have your AR-15s to go with that.

Incredible. Also this from another report - "Trump and Pratt developed a relationship after Trump won power in 2016 and Pratt joined Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s members club in Florida. In 2019, Trump attended the opening of a Pratt Industries plant in Wapakoneta, Ohio, also attended by Scott Morrison, then the Australian prime minister." For everyone up in arms about the unsubstantiated allegations that Hunter Biden tried to get his dad on the phone with people who'd given him money - this guy paid a ton of money directly to Donald Trump's own business after Donald Trump was elected President, and in return he received nuclear secrets and an official visit from 2 world leaders to his business. And that's just what we know of.

Seems like the reasonable thing to do: Rep. Jared Moskowitz calls for Palm Beach County to tax Mar-a-Lago at the rate Trump claims it's worth

Looks like this thread will go on the back burner for a few weeks while the republicans eat their own.

A wife, being the romantic sort, sent her husband a text: "If you are sleeping, send me your dreams. If you are laughing, send me your smile. If you are eating, send me a bite. If you are drinking send me a sip. If you are crying, send me your tears. I love you!" The husband, typically non- romantic, replied: "I am on the toilet. Please advise."

I use a Lightman strobe on top of my helmet. I made a mount for it with a rare earth magnet (similar to the regular magnet mount that is included, using this, this, and a screw), and tape a second rare earth magnet inside the helmet (between the shell and the liner). I keep the strobe in a pocket until I'm under canopy, then pull it out, turn it on, and stick it on my helmet. I've had lots of unsolicited comments about how visible the setup is due to the canopy lighting up. Also lots of comments about how cool it looks! Yep. I landed in the forest some distance from the airport on a night jump a few years ago (after a double mal). The pilot easily spotted my strobe and was able to tell searchers where to look. He couldn't see my glow sticks at all. Without the strobe, rescue would have taken a lot longer. Which is good - that bear was scaring me! "It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg