After some internal debate about the appropriateness of addressing, or avoiding, recent events, or just not posting anything this week, I have chosen to not burden myself with any of the seemingly unlimited number of bad choices available and turn this week’s Playpen over to y’all.
As such, feel free to say as much, or as little, as you would like about whatever may be on your mind.
We will return to regular programming on the 24th.
Discuss (or not) and, as always, Go Dawgs!
Say you’re voting for Trump without saying you’re voting for Trump. I knew you would finally join the side of good and the never-ending battle of good versus evil. Welcome Derek.
3 millimeters from chaos. The RNC could likely have seen Don Jr and, knowing his father’s pick, JD Vance be the emotional pick to portray legacy and youth against Biden. The current administration would be completely bogged down by responsibility, blame and the investigation into such a tragedy. History is full of lone assassins whose motives are never fully understood. Many who are unable to accept that will create or follow a wide variety of unresolved conspiracy theories. Literal civil war come Election Day could transpire as radicalized parties on both sides seek to protect freedoms they believe to be threatened. Our enemies in Russia, Asia and the Middle East would seize the opportunity to stoke these flames and weaken the world’s greatest democracy. The press would accentuate the extremes to chase the money rather than let cooler heads be heard.
Will/has this moment changed Trump to be a unifier? How can he…or anyone…when the key issues of immigration, abortion, welfare, foreign policy and crime prevention are supported by platforms that are in complete polar opposition? Sure, the cry that we can agree to “be Americans” sounds nice, but that definition is no longer a single standard 330 million people can agree upon.
Thank God for those 3 millimeters. I don’t know how well we would have survived without them.
I personally find all the civil war talk laughable. Sure, we have plenty of nut jobs on both ends of the political spectrum that could legitimately start some small skirmishes. But, to think there are enough Americans with the intestinal fortitude to endure the sacrifices needed to fight and/or kill their neighbors in a drawn-out campaign, is plain silly.
Although, seeing videos of these Gravy SEALS who couldn’t run to their mailboxes and back, talking about civil war is some of the best entertainment on the internet these days.
Learn something everyday. May we never forget the brave Wal-Martyrs, Gravy Seals, Green Buffets, Meal Team Six, Delta Farce, and every other Walmart Warrior of the 1st Methanized Infantile Division who fought in the Great American Inbredsurrection.
I’m legitimately impressed!
Your Gravy Seals inspired the google search that included the other terms. Left out Y’all qaeda an “Old Navy” Seals.
I agree! That is an impressive list you rattled off, budlite. I’ll be adding them to my list.
Derek, I commend you. Still would like to know your thoughts on the events of the 3mm.
I was traveling the road to Damascus when I was blinded by a light. The air around me was still and a commanding voice filled the air. “Go,” the voice said, “Testify for your neighbor Derek and speak your truth.”
We don’t know the motivations of the shooter yet, Jodie Foster still looks pretty good for a woman of her age, but we do have two glaring examples of incompetence. The Secret Service and their inability to understand the importance of high ground even if a metal roof is really hot on a summer day, and the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court you say, how can that old fool drag them into this? Well, when you make a leader a king, there is but one recourse for regime change. For some reason, all of these mighty students of history that voted for presidential “immunity” were only looking at the short-term effects of their decision. They were handing out a get out of jail free card to the only ex-president that ever needed one. 248 years as a democracy and only one president wrapped himself in so much graft, corruption and sedition that the Supreme Court had to bail him out.
The members of their exclusive club (think Ted Knight in Caddyshack) are so out of touch with the 330 million of us commoners that they presume that any decision that makes their life better will “trickle down” to the rest of us. Read the Project 2025 and see if this is how your vision of America, “land of the free” plays in your head. When they changed the Pledge of Allegiance to add “under god” back in ’54, someone should have seen this coming. Oh wait, Barry Goldwater did: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/777519-mark-my-word-if-and-when-these-preachers-get-control
Out of curiosity, which of these mandates makes you uncomfortable? Granted – I haven’t gotten very far into it, but these “mandates” seem reasonable & Constitutional.
Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.
Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people.
Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats. Secure our
God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls “the Blessings of Liberty.”
Not looking for an argument, rather for edification on my part…for a greater understanding.
“Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.” And I thought liberals put too much faith in the capacity of government. 🤦♂️
You mean you want Dow chemical to tell the epa to get fucked while it poisons the water until the litigation makes its 8 year journey to DC? Or no epa at all. We won’t set the rivers on fire again! Pinky swear!
But for a certain pol, the borders would be closed to refugee claimants today. Good luck getting a better deal than Sen. Lankford had. It will never happen. Some concessions on amnesty will have to happen next time it is debated. None were there this past spring. May have been good for the candidate. Not good for people concerned about immigration.
Seriously? Every previously recognized right to privacy is on a path to elimination.
GovCo IS the problem, Derek. You need to go check out tacticalcivics.com to see a way out of the current administrative state.
“For every complex problem, there’s a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.”
H.L. Mencken
I don’t believe that the Constitution was written to promote Judeo-Christian values. I think the opposite is true and that the founders left out quotes from the Bible, a link to the ten commandments or other references to a deity as support for their writings. Jefferson and others seemed quite tolerant of Islam. The ability to be free from a state religion (Church of England) seemed tantamount. Strengthening the Christian family did not seem to be their concern.
With regard to Project 2025, this is a nice breakdown of some of the more concerning issues. I believe in this advanced time of technology it is naive to believe that a congressman or supreme court justice is qualified to make decisions about extremely technical or public safety issues that have been delegated to a variety of agencies like the FDA, EPA or DOE. I mean really, who wants to do away with the DOE other than the people who want to setup madrasas?
In short, I see the document as a prelude to a Margret Atwood novel. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for being polite.
We can agree that the Constitution makes no case for any religion, it gives the freedom to worship as you see fit. I don’t think the family structure needs to be expressly Judeo-Christian, but it does need to return to prominence. There are too many broken homes that contribute to a lack of morals & respect in modern society.
The DOE, on the other hand, has been an abject failure since it’s inception. Scores have declined every year they have been in charge of educating our students. For example, kids today would have no chance to pass a test from the 1950’s…and probably not from the 80;s when I was in HS. The DOE needs to go the way of the dinosaur.
I’ll check out your Breakdown link, as well as continuing the full document. Thanks for your reply, it was helpful.
Unless you actually look at the facts:
https://www.educationnext.org/half-century-of-student-progress-nationwide-first-comprehensive-analysis-finds-gains-test-scores/
Getting into college was easy when I did it. With zero studying btw. With the same effort I applied then, I would never have gotten into uga. Not even close. Today, I would have to actually put forth effort to make scores and grades.
^^^ This in spades.
Since someone below pulled the finger out of the “fucking moron” dike I’ll offer a post farther down the thread.
I’m going to posit that one could have a strong family unit with ethical, moral and high achieving individuals without a Judeo/Christian government mandated “study the Bible” curriculum. Billions of non-Christian Asians seem to negotiate these waters very successfully. Besides, we have enough of a problem with inches and meters without mixing in cubits. :~)
BTW, this article points to a time when scores started to decline that seems to coincide with the end of the Johnson administration and the Nixon/Ford administrations. Maybe a study could be done about what policies were instituted in this period that began/accelerated the decline.
It’s my belief that it’s easier to fix a leaking pipe than it is to rebuild the house, especially when the prescribed builder has no references or a body of work that I can inspect. Just the thought of nuns wrapping my knuckles with a ruler is triggering my PTSD. But that’s my tale.
I agree…1972 seemed to be the tipping point. The family unit can be strong minus any GovCo mandates, Judeo Christian or otherwise. I also don’t want them mandating anything…period. But we have to bring morality & ethics back in the picture for it to have any chance to succeed. Otherwise, we’d be wasting our time.
I would have had to refuse to go if Catholic School was my only option. Those nuns would have killed me…plus the ones close to Sandersville weren’t really good at any sports.
Were the Catholic schools not any good at sports or just the nuns? I remember some of the good sisters that could have played ILB at a DIV II school. It is good that you acknowledge that religious schools might not be the answer. 1/4 of the admitted Protestants in the U.S. are Catholics, 2/3 of the Supreme Court are as well as most of Congress. Something to think about while we’re musing about implementing a new or no DOE.
Bud, hold on a minute now…can’t respond to your 8:02 comment below for some reason but how in the world can an “admitted“ Protestant be a Catholic? Believe there have been age old conflicts and wars fought over the distinction for centuries. Do tell…
You’re right, I should have said 1/4 of the admitted Christians are Catholic, 1/2 Protestant. From Wikipedia: “Roughly 48.9% of Americans are Protestants, 23.0% are Catholics, 1.8% are Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Christianity was introduced during the period of European colonization. The United States has the world’s largest Christian population.”
“They were handing out a get out of jail free card to the only ex-president that ever needed one. 248 years as a democracy and only one president wrapped himself in so much graft, corruption and sedition that the Supreme Court had to bail him out.”
You don’t want presidents to have immunity while in office? Fine, we can debate that point and I might even agree with you but your comment above is extremely ignorant. How many millions has the Biden family “grafted” from foreign countries since he became VP… 30-50 Million? Quit being conned by the elite and the two party system designed to create devisive politcs and control your thinking. Look into Presidents Grant, Wilson, & Clinton (and I’m not talking about Monica Lewinsky here) just to name a few. People like you should do a lot more research before opening your mouth about politics.
I fully expect the presidential immunity decision to be reversed as misguided the moment its “logic” might provide a shield to a political opponent. Right now we have two potential viewpoints in this country: 1) The rules apply to everyone equally and 2) The rules only apply to you and never, ever to me.
Whether corruption or criminality is or is not equally divided is a side point. Only one side consistently seeks to shield themselves from accountability for it. Not one person has called for Hunter Biden to be pardoned. How many political friends and associates were pardoned last term without protest?
I am old enough to remember Clinton testifying before a federal criminal grand jury and being questioned for sitting silently while his lawyer misrepresented a fact to a judge. (That was the line of questioning that led to the infamous “it depends upon what ‘is’ is.) Biden spoke to a special counsel (Hur) with a stenographer present. Trump was never required to speak to Mueller, ever. Again, with no protest.
Tonight I suspect a subpoena defier, having been released from prison, will appear and be cheered in Milwaukee as some sort of hero/freed political prisoner. Because, by God, fuck the public knowing the truth! Taking a fall for dear leader is all that matters. Reps Jordan, Perry etc… still have not told the American People the truth, don’t want to and no one on their side gaf. Not one single fuck.
Can’t wait for the gop calls for Weiss to move to dismiss the Hunter Biden convictions and the pending tax indictment since his appointment as special counsel was obviously unlawful per Cannon. But as we know, consistency isn’t for both sides. Neither are facts or law or hypocrisy. Those are all to be molded, folded, ignored or defiled to achieve one purpose above all: power. At some point the “both sides” schtick becomes farce. You are free to comfort yourself there if you choose but your suggestion that intellectual superiority and wisdom is found there is simply misguided.
There is no “both sides.” There is one side fighting within the rules and trusting that institutions will hold and another filling their boxing gloves with plaster and laughing at their foolish rule and norm abiding opponents every step of the way with zero regard for what may be left behind in it’s wake. As an objective citizen only, I can find no comfort there.
Ignorance is a well from which we all drink. Perhaps mine is deeper than yours, but I notice in your list of corrupt presidents you ignore Nixon and Bush I & II. Maybe just an oversight on your part. Let me go on the record in saying that I believe all government corruption should be brought to light and those persons held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. They should have put Menendez away the first time they caught him. Likewise Nathan Deal should have not been available after being ousted from Congress to become Governor, just sayin’.
While we’re talking about bothsidesism, you know Trump is corrupt so you have to defend him by pointing out a corrupt Democrat. Could we agree that bothsidesism is like catching your son killing a cat and then allowing him to go unpunished because “Johnny peed on the rose bushes?” Ignoring an abhorrent behavior because “everyone does it” only emboldens the perpetrator. We are living this everyday.
“People like me”, Jesus, I could be anyone with statement, black, brown, Baptist, bi-sexual. Let me clean it up a little bit. I was born in the Truman administration and have followed politics closely since I could read. “I Like Ike”. I was in the TAR and handed out “Gold Water” at rallies in my misspent youth. But, like Saul, a light shone upon me and I realized I was on the wrong path.
I’m assuming you were OK with the rest of what I said?
You Sir are a F&&^%$### moron.
Clearly, I’ve touched you deeply. Was it the reference to other corrupt Republicans or the dismissal of bothsidesism? Your response reminds me of the end of what was the most erudite discussion of political matters on TV, The Best of Enemies. As I recall, it ended when the defender of the right wing ran out of words and called his opponent a “queer.”
It’s pretty sad when you’ve run out of words even before you get to any.
Hate to break it to y’all…The family unit is still very much intact, and the public education system (At least in my district) is in good shape. From my seat as lead flunky in facilities? The vast majority of people care greatly about the success of the kids… Families and Staff. Don’t get fooled by the media, most folks feel the same about their kids as you do yours.
About time somebody did some name calling around here.
I disagreed with the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, but I wasn’t totally surprised that they kicked it back to the lower court. I was more shocked that they said you can’t even reference the official acts in a case where the unofficial acts are being prosecuted. Like if a President talks to his Acting Attorney General and says “just say the election was corrupt and we’ll take care of the rest”, that can’t even be used as evidence. That’s pretty wild. Or the bribery-for-pardon example that Justice Barrett used in her opinion. If you’re trying to prosecute a President (or former President) for accepting a bribe, you can’t even mention what the bribe was for if it falls under the umbrella of official acts.
And I don’t know if we have any constitutional lawyers here, but I was curious about something else related to the immunity rulings. Plenty of Presidents have given orders for actions which might be considered kidnapping, murder, etc. Why haven’t any of them been prosecuted before? Were those actions assumed to fall outside the law (national security), therefore immunity never came into question? Or is there some other explanation?
Almost every action, foreign or domestic, that has any legal controversy goes through the White House counsel’s office. In certain cases you also have the AG signing off. Remember the controversy over the “torture” memos 20 years ago or the domestic surveillance program at the same time. Point being that the president generally has layers of “advice of counsel” defenses and lots of presumed authority especially when national security is at play. Moreover, his reliance upon legal experts, the relationship of the action to national interest, and lack of personal benefit all become shields against suggestions of base criminality.
Where exposure has arisen its been in areas such as Watergate, Iran Contra, blow-gate or the coup attempt where those guardrails are ignored or abused and the action has some clear personal benefit. In the coup neither the WH counsel nor the AG were playing ball at all and became lead witnesses.
The truth is that certain people have, since Nixon, been trying to shield the president from having to concern themselves with those guardrails at all and say that the president IS the law. Nixon himself referred to it in the Frost interview: “when the president does it, its not illegal!”
They got their wish. And as any Constitutional lawyer knows, the document itself says the very opposite. Trumps lawyers said the opposite in the second impeachment. McConnell said the opposite when voting “no.” No one actually believes this nonsense. Its merely advantageous. They will switch it off as needed.
This is what happens when your ideology is more important to you than your country is.