March 8, 2024

No Labels votes to move forward with bipartisan presidential ticket. Manchin/Romney??

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/labels-weighs-moving-forward-bipartisan-presidential-ticket/story?id=107896177

The third-party presidential movement No Labels voted Friday to move forward with a presidential ticket, though the hunt for candidates to lead the ticket continues.

After flirting with a third-party presidential bid over the past year, No Labels' 800 delegates from 50 states met virtually to discuss the future of the movement and whether it would enter the 2024 presidential election. The group deliberated if a "unity ticket" -- consisting of one Republican and one Democrat -- would be a viable option.

"They voted near unanimously to continue our 2024 project and to move immediately to identify candidates to serve on the Unity presidential ticket," No Labels National Convention Chair Mike Rawlings said in a statement.

And I noticed Manchin and Romney paling around at the SOTU and last week both joked about a ticket in their names...

Trying to estimate the impact on the election...

BTW, Haley has said NO

Sinema has said NO

Cheney has said NO in the past...

Christie maybe...

March 8, 2024

Turning a SOTU into a political speech was brilliant...

Some might say too political but I think it was shrewd.

This was an opportunity to get in front of the camera and DESTROY the "too old" narrative...

He sees the polls... it's better to go after Trump NOW and not wait til the campaign trail with so many fewer cameras and viewers.

Outstanding strategy... big hat tip to the Biden strategists.

I expect the polls to show some movement ASAP.

March 7, 2024

Israel's illegal West Bank settlement plans face global condemnation

similar story in WSJ today... but AJ has no paywall. Facts are the same.

Seems like someone is taking advantage of the GAZA War to implement something in the West Bank.

Israel’s illegal West Bank settlement plans face global condemnation. The 3,500 illegal housing units in the occupied West Bank add to nearly 20,000 approved in the past year.

Israel’s plan to build thousands of new homes in the occupied West Bank is facing widespread condemnation from several countries, including some of Tel Aviv’s staunchest allies.

The country’s settlement-planning authority on Wednesday greenlit permits for nearly 3,500 new illegal settlement housing units in the occupied Palestinian territory, the first such approval since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7 last year.

“The enemies try to harm and weaken us, but we will continue to build and be built up in this land,” far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in charge of civil affairs in the West Bank, said on X.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/7/israels-illegal-west-bank-settlement-plans-face-global-condemnation

Related story: Israeli Settlers look to form "New GAZA" by moving in...

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-hold-conference-resettlement-gaza-2024-01-28/

Hundreds of members of the Israeli settler community gathered for a convention in Jerusalem on Sunday calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza and the northern part of the Occupied West Bank.

Israel withdrew its military and settlers from Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it does not intend to maintain a permanent presence again, but that Israel would maintain security control for an indefinite period.

There has been little clarity, however, about Israel's longer-term intentions, and countries including the United States have said that Gaza should be governed by Palestinians. The conference was organized by the right-wing Nahala organization, which advocates for Jewish settlement expansion in territories including the West Bank, where they are classified as illegal by international and humanitarian groups and where violent clashes between settlers and Palestinians are frequent.

March 7, 2024

Our "Dark Money" system is in serious need of reform.

After reading an article about Trump meeting Musk...

I kinda wanted to reassure myself that he couldn't simply kick $1B into the Make American Great SUPER-PAC.

Well that turned into a couple hour long rabbit hole.

While it's true that a person, or corporation can give UNLIMITED AMOUNTS to a PAC... at least the PAC must identify the donors.

But.

That's not what happens in the real world.

Groups are starting 501(c) organizations to funnel anonymous money into PACs...

You see... 501(c) are not required to publicly identify their donors and they're allowed to spend up to 49.9% of their revenue on politics.

So if a 501(c) gave $10M to MAGA PAC, the PAC would only have to identify XYZ 501(c) as the donor.

For example... Musk could donate money to a 501(c) that has a stated purpose, like supporting research of AI... but that group could give half the money to MAGA PAC anonymously. Then that group could invest in SpaceX with the balance.

The powers above us have devised a system that makes people FEEL better because we can see donations (opensecrets.org) and trust that even PACs have publicly available donor lists... but they've left the back door open for Dark Money.

March 5, 2024

Sinema out... wonder if this helps Lake or Gallego

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/independent-sen-kyrsten-sinema-will-not-run-re-election-arizona-rcna124499

Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced Tuesday that she will not run for re-election this year, leaving the Senate after one term that saw her paint Arizona blue, leave the Democratic Party and play a key role in numerous legislative negotiations in a tightly divided Senate.

“I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” Sinema said in a video posted on her X account.

Sinema’s decision paves the way for a tough and expensive fight for her seat — though it will be more straightforward than the messy three-way contest she would have prompted by staying in. The leading Republican, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and the leading Democrat, Rep. Ruben Gallego, are already running hard to replace Sinema.

March 4, 2024

The case before SCOTUS that might be more dangerous than Immunity...

Bottom line, at the core of Jack Smiths case are charges that the highest court may deem unconstitutional.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/12/court-to-weigh-in-on-scope-of-law-used-in-jan-6-prosecutions/

Two days after Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the justices to decide quickly whether former President Donald Trump can face criminal charges for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could affect the charges against Trump even if the court ultimately rules that he is not immune from prosecution. The justices on Wednesday agreed to weigh in on the use of a federal law – also at issue in Trump’s case – that makes it a crime to “corruptly” obstruct congressional inquiries and investigations to prosecute participants in the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed and reinstated the charges against Fischer (as well as those against two other men). It ruled that “nder the most natural reading of the statute,” the law “applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, other than the conduct that is already covered by” the evidence-tampering provision.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Gregory Katsas countered that the government’s interpretation of the law would render it “both improbably broad and unconstitutional in many of its applications.”

March 3, 2024

Mean Girls... Miss Belarus bullied and harassed Miss Ukraine at Miss Europe contest.

Irony of all ironies... Miss Russia won the Miss Europe crown... sigh

https://eng.obozrevatel.com/section-entertainment/news-scandal-at-miss-europe-milena-melnychuk-tells-how-a-belarusian-woman-behaved-at-the-first-meeting-and-almost-disrupted-the-final-02-03-2024.html

Another shocking incident, the video evidence of which Melnychuk published in a separate post, occurred after the competition on a bus with all the participants and, presumably, some of the organizers. The Belarusian woman, who took third place, literally attacked the Ukrainian woman. Iryna Maksimovich from Vitebsk was very drunk and allowed herself to say disgusting insults not only to her Ukrainian competitor but also to our country as a whole.

March 2, 2024

Remember back in the day, DU'ers used to make jokes about "Agent Mike"

Agent Mike was the cute nickname for the omnipresent deep state eye watching over DU... kind of a "Patriot Act" sorta joke...

When did people stop making Agent Mike jokes?

February 22, 2024

Founder of violent OC white supremacist group ordered freed after judge claims bias against far-right

(Shrub Judge with a bit of a history)

https://www.ocregister.com/2024/02/21/founder-of-violent-oc-white-supremacist-group-free-after-judge-claims-bias-against-far-right/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-21/judge-again-dismisses-charges-against-members-of-california-white-nationalist-group

Federal prosecutors who opted not to pursue charges against “Antifa” members cannot prosecute a Huntington Beach man accused of helping establish a Southern California-based militant, white supremacist group whose members attacked rivals at Southern California political rallies, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Criminal charges against Robert Paul Rundo for allegedly recruiting and training others to commit violence at rallies in Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Berkeley were dismissed by U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney, who accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office of selective prosecution for pursuing suspected “far-right, white supremacist nationalists” but not “Antifa and other extremist, far-left groups.”

Previous efforts by the same judge to throw out the same charges for different reasons have been overruled by appellate judges. Judge Carney also came under scrutiny several years ago over a “racially insensitive” comment that led to his stepping down as chief judge of the federal Central District Court of California.

February 21, 2024

Making it out alive. - Kiev Independent

Exciting and harrowing read.

https://kyivindependent.com/avdiivka-defenders-forced-to-leave-wounded-behind-escape-encirclement-by-foot/

Though outnumbered and outgunned, the Ukrainians fiercely held on to Avdiivka against what many soldiers described as the largest-ever frontal assault with columns of armored vehicles they’ve seen from Russia thus far.

Using the familiar tactics they applied during the Battle for Bakhmut, another Donetsk Oblast city that fell to Moscow in May 2023, the Russians ground forward on Avdiivka’s outskirts despite the heavy losses to slowly encircle Ukrainian troops inside.

The withdrawal from Avdiivka was late and disorganized, forcing many soldiers to make their escape by foot, under heavy shelling, four servicemen with Ukraine’s 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade, a large unit that manned the defense of Avdiivka and its outskirts, told the Kyiv Independent.