There are times when I am doing something and I notice something else that should be done. Now, if I don’t do the thing I noticed, it will not get done for awhile, maybe I even forget about it. But, if I do the thing, then I will go back to what I was doing in the first place. Oh, I just remembered, I need to fold my clothes. I will come back to this comment.
I think this analysis by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh Is worth reading.
Tehran has a wartime advantage over Washington because the ruling Iranian elite wants to fight and has been willing to endure far more pain than Donald Trump has.
I’m reminded a bit of Tolstoy. He was very big on the notion that the decisive factor in a battle is who actually wants to fight, and who doesn’t.
Also in the WSJ – not the editorial page – I thought many here would be interested.
Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside a mountain last fall, Israeli and U.S. officials say, a development that would heighten concerns that Tehran could reconstitute its nuclear program.
New York progressive again ducks question on future ambitions and warns against prioritizing partisanship over search for ‘real’ solutions to problems of voters
Could Nikki Haley beat AOC? GOP has loads of great presidential candidates (J. D. “Bootlicker” Vance isn’t one)…
Not to worry!
Nicholas “they have no reason to lie” Kristof is all over this story!
“…Hamas planned massive October 7th attacks across Europe;
“Swiss newspaper reports Hamas had a years-long plot to carry out an October 7-style wave of coordinated terrorist attacks across Europe, targeting Israeli, Jewish, and Western institutions.”— https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/430526
I never tire of laughing at that video! I think it is one of my most-shared among my women friends. I was never one to get distracted from a task, but maybe about age 55 started developing this behavior by degrees. My sister and my daughter exhibited this behavior from earliest age. Ask my daughter to brush her teeth at age 7 and she would find many things to do along the way. My sister carried it into adulthood on steroids. My daughter is so high-energy and “can-do” that you wouldn’t notice it in her from college on, but only to marvel at how much she accomplishes in any given day.
Sandy Cortez was the daughter of an architect and grew up in a ranch house in an exurb on the periphery of Westchester County. I have a cousin who lives in the same township. Architects are not flush compared to others in professional-managerial employments, but her interaction with the world doesn’t suggest a daughter of the wage-earning stratum. Her family did suffer a financial reversal when her father died in 2004. It wasn’t so crippling that she elected to forego tertiary schooling.
== https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S04CGa44VP0
==
No, she did not attend any of New York’s antheap of public colleges. She attended a private research university in Boston. No, she did not receive an occupational degree, but an academic one. She was rather rudderless for the next seven years. At age 36, she has no children and hasn’t closed the deal with Riley.
==
Former President Joe Biden has been dealt a major blow in his quest to keep hidden the interviews which provided the basis of a previous memoir…
…Hur said that included in the evidence was a recorded conversation between Biden and his ghostwriter in which the President stated that he had just ‘found all the classified stuff downstairs.’
🙂 His next “memoir” is: ‘Promise Me, America’ … wonder how many he ‘plans’?
@Art Deco:Sandy Cortez was the daughter of an architect and grew up in a ranch house
Not news of course to most of us here, but this and Graham Platner and whatnot put me in mind of something.
For some reason it is very important for Dem politicians to LARP as working joes. But most Dem voters, at least the ones we see online, are not working joes, do not aspire to be working joes, and have no respect whatever for working joes. Their core voting bloc is middle-age Laptop-class women. So why do they put so much energy in grooming and applauding these fake ones? They certainly don’t want a real one in that position, but they want to pretend to want one. It’s very strange isn’t it? They must think they are fooling someone and deriving some advantage from it, but who?
“…and have no respect whatever for working joes.” Niketas Choniates
Democrats have been faux-populists, forever.
Barry, did the planned Hamas attacks include dog kennels?
If you still have stamina for more things Homeric, here are two reviews of Nolan’s “Odyssey:”
First, a strongly disapproving one by Dr. Scott Masson, whose video graced the open thread yesterday:
nik, it is because Trump stole their base. Trump’s two bedrock issues, trade and immigration, took the positions held for decades by the industrial labor unions that used to be the core of the Dem coalition. Dems took them for granted and thought they could win with the additional support of racial minorities and hip urban tech workers. But now they have become so disconnected from that original base that their idea of a “working class hero” is a nepo baby who went to a fancy prep school because he has a Nazi tattoo and abuses women. Not far from Obama’s “bitter clingers” come to think of it.
Now the minorities are ditching them too because they are not really thrilled with LGBTQWERTY or defunding the police. They’ve got the nose ring crowd locked up though. TDS begins with Dems refusing to acknowledge their own mistakes.
Just a comment on the historical appearance of Bronze Age Greeks (a.k.a., Achaeans, Danaans, Argives). These early Greeks had their fair share of fair-haired and red-haired men and women: see, e.g., the Atreides brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, i.e., “red-haired Menelaus.” As for Achilles, Google AI correctly informs us that “In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is traditionally described as having blonde or fair hair. However, the ancient Greek word used to describe his hair is ‘xanthós’, which was a broad term. It encompassed a range of lighter hair colors, including golden blonde, light brown, or tawny, and scholars debate whether it actually implied a reddish or ginger hue.”
Further: “Achilles used the alias Pyrrha (meaning “flame-colored” or “red-haired”) when hiding among women. Furthermore, his son was named Pyrrhus.”
The term xanthós is also used for Helen. IOW, the woman with the face that launched a thousand ships was a blond.
Diane Kruger, it turns out, was a splendid choice for the role (in the movies “Troy”; as was Brad Pitt as Achilles.)
This was, historically, long before 400 years of Turkish occupation of Greece resulted in a native Greek population that, to a large extent, looked as Turkish as any Turk.
P.S. Liel Leibowitz’s piece on Nolan’s movie, mentioned previously in Jim Mechler’s post, is excellent, and gets to the nub of the matter concerning why many lovers of Homer’s epics (including yours truly) have strong objections to Nolan’s interpretation of the Odysssey.
I’m not as bad as this video, but I do have a tendency to put down what I was doing when I see something else to do with a perceived higher priority. This means my phone is somewhere in the house. I try to remember where I’ve been and track it down that way, resorting to “where’s my phone” on my Apple watch only when I’m really stumped.
One of the few things that I get annoyed with my wife over is getting distracted by non-critical path items over critical path items. She didn’t used to do that.
The Democratic Party does have wage earners in its portfolio. The wage earners in question are (1) blacks, (2) California chicanos, (3) Puerto Ricans, (4) recent entrants generally, and, above all, (5) single mothers. The smart money says the laptop class dingbats understand those in these categories as their clients. Graham Platner has been unable to build a domestic life or learn a trade worth hewing to, but I doubt he’s been lacking in female company in this life.
That video isn’t a joke as much as it is a documentary for me.
And heaven help me if I go to the store and do NOT park in my usual spot – I’ll come out and think someone stole my car.
Sadly, this isn’t an age thing for me as I have so often done this kind of stuff all my life.
@Niketas Choniates: For some reason it is very important for Dem politicians to LARP as working joes.
Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent video addressing this:
Summary: The white working-class is too large a demographic to ignore, but Dems have been steadily losing them since JFK. Of that group, Trump won 66% (!) in 2024.
At this point Dems have little margin left and must make some effort to win back some of the working-class. Hence, the search for such a candidate.
However, given the D platform — left and getting lefter — all they can find are fake working-class candidates.
This is why, as unpleasant as I find the DSA/Squad people, I see them more as a serious, perhaps fatal, problem for the Democrats.
@huxley:At this point Dems have little margin left and must make some effort to win back some of the working-class.
You and Art Deco are probably right, but I don’t understand why they think this would work on the white working class, spending 99.9% of their time and energy bashing it and then finding a fake member to pretend they care about it. But that end of the political spectrum is most apt to think they can speak reality into being if they all just say the same thing at the same time very loudly and very often.
It reminds me of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge around Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “opposition” to same-sex marriage in 2008. Every single progressive that I ever asked about it–why isn’t this a deal-breaker–assured me that both of them were simply lying for the sake of the election, and would reveal their true opinions afterward, and they were totally okay with this. They had no doubt they were not the ones being lied to, though they couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me how they knew it.
Back in the 2000s Democrats were riding high on the book “Emerging Democratic Majority” (Ruy Teixeira and John B. Judis 2002), which said the changing demographics towards minorities, young people, college-educated professionals, and single women would effortlessly create a lasting, Democrat voting majority.
However, the fly in that ointment was that too many working-class and Hispanic Democrat voters shifted Republican, a process which has continued.
So if normal demographics weren’t going to win for Democrats, they would forcefully change the demographics by flooding the border with illegal immigrants.
Once Trump stopped that, Democrats put their full force behind preventing deportation of illegals, even criminals.
It’s long been strange to me that there has been almost no discussion at the mainstream level of illegal immigration as a method to stack US demographics in favor of Democrats.
“It reminds me of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge around Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “opposition” to same-sex marriage in 2008.”
A couple weeks ago, the fact that Obama ran as opposed to same sex marriage came up in a discussion with our youngest son. He could not believe it. He was flabbergasted.
huxley states; “This is why, as unpleasant as I find the DSA/Squad people, I see them more as a serious, perhaps fatal, problem for the Democrats.”
“It’s long been strange to me that there has been almost no discussion at the mainstream level of illegal immigration as a method to stack US demographics in favor of Democrats.”
It’s a fatal problem because 60+ years of indoctrination in schools and media have created a radical base. They can’t win without them but can’t win with the radical platform that the DSA will insist upon. The democrat party is flirting with the same fate that befell the Whig Party. But unlike the Whigs, who had the young Republican Party ready to replace them, the DSA hasn’t the broad based appeal of the democrat party.
Upon what basis might one imagine that there is any willingness to honestly discuss illegal immigration… at the mainstream level?
”But most Dem voters…are not working joes, do not aspire to be working joes, and have no respect whatever for working joes. Their core voting bloc is middle-age Laptop-class women. So why do they put so much energy in grooming and applauding these fake ones?”
Because that forms the core of their rationale for engaging in such destructive behavior and, if they can, profiting from it. They’re not destroying landlords for their own sake, you see, but for the tenants; not destroying businesses to benefit themselves but for the poor customers; not destroying capitalism to help their own class but for the benefit of the oppressed workers.
Oh, sure, they may be being paid a pretty penny by a left-wing NGO, but that’s only fair since they care about the oppressed victims sooooo much! It’s OK since they’re doing it in the name of the oppressed.
It turns what would normally be considered greed or ambition into virtue.
My life certainly resembles that video, more so now than in the past (although there have always been episodes) because, as Chases Eagles put it, I used to be able to do things without “getting distracted by non-critical path items over critical path items.”
Sometimes it’s a matter of not being able to distinguish between them.
There are far fewer “critical” matters for both of us, now retired, and the critical ones are usually medical appointments.
In the past, it was the reverse: almost everything that needed doing was something critical in some way, IOW it had to be done. Then it was a matter of being distracted by the less-obviously-critical while I should have been doing the slightly-more-critical.
I actually had a notepad of memo paper titled “TODAY’S PRIORITIES” on which every blank line was designated #1.
@ Barry > “…Hamas planned massive October 7th attacks across Europe;”
Not intending to downplay the seriousness of terrorism, and props to the EU law enforcement that tracked down and ended this particular threat, but … really?
“Among the discoveries was a weapons cache found in Austria last year containing five loaded pistols, ten magazines, more than 100 rounds of ammunition, and several explosive devices…while investigators allege that 13 pistols, an AK-47 assault rifle, and more than 900 rounds of ammunition were transported through Denmark, Germany, and Austria.”
Our Young Men went on a campout last week and the adult range monitors brought more firepower than that.
Plus the archery equipment.
The boys had a great time.
Re: Video
My thing is I am sitting in Room A when I realize I need to do something X in Room B. I get up and go to Room B, then I realize I’ve forgotten what X was.
I return to Room A to remember what X was, then I go back to Room B and usually accomplish X.
Actually I’ve always done this, but it is more frequent with age.
AesopFan:
Yes, but your boys weren’t intending to massacre anyone.
If a bunch of people went into a crowd in most places in Europe – which means a basically unarmed crowd – with the intent to murder as many people as possible, they could rack up quite a death toll.
Democrats are at the “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” stage. They just realized the Commies have put a stick in their bicycle rim which is the catalyst for the “big tent” memo that went out yesterday, which rippled throughout DemTardia.
There was a small incident right after the 2016 election that foreshadowed the Democrats’ current disarry. Joe Kennedy III spoke at some kind of meeting or rally and made what should have been an obvious statement, “We need to understand why so many former Democrats voted for Trump”. He was loudly booed. Trump won the election by flipping rust belt states (PA, MI, WI) that hadn’t voted R in a generation.
You’d think Dems would want to figure out why they lost an election in such a dramatic upset. But that would have required some self-reflection and self-criticism. Not allowed by the leftists who by then controlled the party and are even more dominant today.
‘… and Heaven help me if I go to the store and don’t park in my usual spot…’
This actually happened to my husband a few years ago. He parked his car at his favorite surf spot (ok, everyone’s favorite surf spot) and when he got out of the water it was gone. He went up and down the row of cars convinced he had just forgotten where he parked. Nope. Actually stolen!
The Trump administration plans to announce Wednesday that it has reached a broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors, U.S. officials said.
The accord is intended to further bind the United States with the Saudi government as the war with Iran strains the relationship. The Trump administration, according to officials, estimates it will provide billions of dollars for the U.S. nuclear industry — starting with Westinghouse, which designs many of the reactors sold abroad.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘the country’s 40-year-old de facto leader’ and I like him and his country. We want him on our side, IMHO.
FOAF at 2:59 am:
Good comment, but “…Trump won the election by flipping rust belt states (PA, MI, WI) that hadn’t voted R in a generation….” is incorrect.
WI went GOP in the Presidential contest in 1988 and 2004.
PA chose GOP in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.
MI chose GOP in 2000 and 2004.
(Per DuckDuckGo Search Assist and Wiki)
Selfy, I rechecked Wikipedia. It shows all of them voting D every Presidential election from 1992 to 2012. Can you show me a link contradicting that?
WI: D in 1988 and 2004.
PA: D in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.
MI: D in 2000 and 2004.
Those maps show the last election that MI and PA went Republican, before Trump, was 1988, and for WI it was 1984. 2016 – 1984 = 32 years, which is close enough to a “generation” if you ask me…
It can’t be emphasized enough that you can never take an LLM’s word for it, even if you’re just asking it what Wikipedia says. Ask it for references, then check the references. Always ask it for evidence that would contradict the story it tells you and check the references on that too.
Niketas “It can’t be emphasized enough that you can never take an LLM’s word for it, even if you’re just asking it what Wikipedia says. Ask it for references, then check the references. Always ask it for evidence that would contradict the story it tells you and check the references on that too.”
…
Indeed! Often, at least for me, I get what I’m searching for quicker on my own.
The devouring of resources — including people’s time and trust — by AI is its own risk.
Nontrivial and worrisome.
[gulp] Thanks, FOAF and Nik. I looked at Nik’s link, which contradicted what I posted. But I saw it on the Internet! 🙂
@ Karmi > “Saudis Reach Deal With U.S. That Could Let Them Enrich Nuclear Fuel”
@ Neo > “Yes, but your boys weren’t intending to massacre anyone.”
Forgot to put on my sarc/ tag.
Points up the moral of the story, though: guns don’t kill people; terrorists kill people.
Selfy, as Abraham Lincoln said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet”.
Everyone knew Abraham was a dog, but no one would tell him.
Oh, yes, as expected. Heh.
Israel Matsav:
*BREAKING:* President Trump says the U.S. will approve a civilian nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia only if it forgoes uranium enrichment and normalizes ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords.
See link for facsimile of Trump’s Truthpost full statement.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/430643
“Trump conditions Saudi nuclear deal on normalization with Israel
US President says that the agreement with Saudi Arabia is contingent on the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords.”
US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Wednesday formally signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, setting the stage for a long-term economic and energy partnership between the two nations.
According to a statement from the Department of Energy, the pact, commonly referred to as a 123 agreement under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, was executed alongside an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement. Together, the two documents establish the legal framework for a multi-billion-dollar alliance intended to span decades while reinforcing international nuclear nonproliferation standards.
Under the terms of the agreement, American companies will gain significant commercial access to Saudi Arabia’s emerging nuclear energy infrastructure. Department officials noted that the expanded footprint will directly benefit US manufacturing, industrial workers, and domestic supply chains while assisting Saudi Arabia in addressing its long-term power needs.
Additionally, federal officials stated that the combined agreements enhance both domestic and Middle Eastern security by upholding rigorous protocols for nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation, while bolstering the global competitive position of American civil nuclear technology.
“These agreements reflect our two nations’ shared commitment to strengthening US-Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at home and security to our allies abroad,” said Secretary Wright. “Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world’s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States. Thanks to President Trump, the American nuclear renaissance is underway and will deliver long-term benefits to the American and Saudi people.”
The White House pointed to the partnership as part of a broader effort under President Trump to restore US leadership within the international nuclear marketplace.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
There are times when I am doing something and I notice something else that should be done. Now, if I don’t do the thing I noticed, it will not get done for awhile, maybe I even forget about it. But, if I do the thing, then I will go back to what I was doing in the first place. Oh, I just remembered, I need to fold my clothes. I will come back to this comment.
I think this analysis by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh Is worth reading.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/irans-fortitude-is-its-decisive-edge-bc4af7cb?st=1BBoyV
I’m reminded a bit of Tolstoy. He was very big on the notion that the decisive factor in a battle is who actually wants to fight, and who doesn’t.
Also in the WSJ – not the editorial page – I thought many here would be interested.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-believes-iran-moved-nuclear-centrifuges-into-pickaxe-mountain-d29d21c0?st=go3JY7
Not surprising I suppose.
AOC says she ‘hasn’t ruled out a 2028 run’ as she faces criticism: ‘I’m working class not a militant leftist’
Could Nikki Haley beat AOC? GOP has loads of great presidential candidates (J. D. “Bootlicker” Vance isn’t one)…
Not to worry!
Nicholas “they have no reason to lie” Kristof is all over this story!
“…Hamas planned massive October 7th attacks across Europe;
“Swiss newspaper reports Hamas had a years-long plot to carry out an October 7-style wave of coordinated terrorist attacks across Europe, targeting Israeli, Jewish, and Western institutions.”—
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/430526
I never tire of laughing at that video! I think it is one of my most-shared among my women friends. I was never one to get distracted from a task, but maybe about age 55 started developing this behavior by degrees. My sister and my daughter exhibited this behavior from earliest age. Ask my daughter to brush her teeth at age 7 and she would find many things to do along the way. My sister carried it into adulthood on steroids. My daughter is so high-energy and “can-do” that you wouldn’t notice it in her from college on, but only to marvel at how much she accomplishes in any given day.
Sandy Cortez was the daughter of an architect and grew up in a ranch house in an exurb on the periphery of Westchester County. I have a cousin who lives in the same township. Architects are not flush compared to others in professional-managerial employments, but her interaction with the world doesn’t suggest a daughter of the wage-earning stratum. Her family did suffer a financial reversal when her father died in 2004. It wasn’t so crippling that she elected to forego tertiary schooling.
==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S04CGa44VP0
==
No, she did not attend any of New York’s antheap of public colleges. She attended a private research university in Boston. No, she did not receive an occupational degree, but an academic one. She was rather rudderless for the next seven years. At age 36, she has no children and hasn’t closed the deal with Riley.
==
Secret Biden tapes from bombshell classified documents probe on brink of release after court crushes his frantic bid
🙂 His next “memoir” is: ‘Promise Me, America’ … wonder how many he ‘plans’?
@Art Deco:Sandy Cortez was the daughter of an architect and grew up in a ranch house
Not news of course to most of us here, but this and Graham Platner and whatnot put me in mind of something.
For some reason it is very important for Dem politicians to LARP as working joes. But most Dem voters, at least the ones we see online, are not working joes, do not aspire to be working joes, and have no respect whatever for working joes. Their core voting bloc is middle-age Laptop-class women. So why do they put so much energy in grooming and applauding these fake ones? They certainly don’t want a real one in that position, but they want to pretend to want one. It’s very strange isn’t it? They must think they are fooling someone and deriving some advantage from it, but who?
“…and have no respect whatever for working joes.” Niketas Choniates
Democrats have been faux-populists, forever.
Barry, did the planned Hamas attacks include dog kennels?
If you still have stamina for more things Homeric, here are two reviews of Nolan’s “Odyssey:”
First, a strongly disapproving one by Dr. Scott Masson, whose video graced the open thread yesterday:
https://open.substack.com/pub/drscottmasson/p/nolans-odyssey?r=6y797g&utm_medium=ios
This one, on The Tablet, by Liel Leibowitz, wildly approves, but has a nice, solid critique in the middle that very nearly belies his conclusion:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/christopher-nolan-odyssey-mostly-pro
(HT Powerline)
nik, it is because Trump stole their base. Trump’s two bedrock issues, trade and immigration, took the positions held for decades by the industrial labor unions that used to be the core of the Dem coalition. Dems took them for granted and thought they could win with the additional support of racial minorities and hip urban tech workers. But now they have become so disconnected from that original base that their idea of a “working class hero” is a nepo baby who went to a fancy prep school because he has a Nazi tattoo and abuses women. Not far from Obama’s “bitter clingers” come to think of it.
Now the minorities are ditching them too because they are not really thrilled with LGBTQWERTY or defunding the police. They’ve got the nose ring crowd locked up though. TDS begins with Dems refusing to acknowledge their own mistakes.
Just a comment on the historical appearance of Bronze Age Greeks (a.k.a., Achaeans, Danaans, Argives). These early Greeks had their fair share of fair-haired and red-haired men and women: see, e.g., the Atreides brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, i.e., “red-haired Menelaus.” As for Achilles, Google AI correctly informs us that “In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is traditionally described as having blonde or fair hair. However, the ancient Greek word used to describe his hair is ‘xanthós’, which was a broad term. It encompassed a range of lighter hair colors, including golden blonde, light brown, or tawny, and scholars debate whether it actually implied a reddish or ginger hue.”
Further: “Achilles used the alias Pyrrha (meaning “flame-colored” or “red-haired”) when hiding among women. Furthermore, his son was named Pyrrhus.”
The term xanthós is also used for Helen. IOW, the woman with the face that launched a thousand ships was a blond.
Diane Kruger, it turns out, was a splendid choice for the role (in the movies “Troy”; as was Brad Pitt as Achilles.)
This was, historically, long before 400 years of Turkish occupation of Greece resulted in a native Greek population that, to a large extent, looked as Turkish as any Turk.
P.S. Liel Leibowitz’s piece on Nolan’s movie, mentioned previously in Jim Mechler’s post, is excellent, and gets to the nub of the matter concerning why many lovers of Homer’s epics (including yours truly) have strong objections to Nolan’s interpretation of the Odysssey.
I’m not as bad as this video, but I do have a tendency to put down what I was doing when I see something else to do with a perceived higher priority. This means my phone is somewhere in the house. I try to remember where I’ve been and track it down that way, resorting to “where’s my phone” on my Apple watch only when I’m really stumped.
One of the few things that I get annoyed with my wife over is getting distracted by non-critical path items over critical path items. She didn’t used to do that.
I decided to follow up on this one. The courts are a scandal in North Dakota, too.
==
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shannon-brandt-5-years-prison-death-cayler-ellingson-north-dakota/
The Democratic Party does have wage earners in its portfolio. The wage earners in question are (1) blacks, (2) California chicanos, (3) Puerto Ricans, (4) recent entrants generally, and, above all, (5) single mothers. The smart money says the laptop class dingbats understand those in these categories as their clients. Graham Platner has been unable to build a domestic life or learn a trade worth hewing to, but I doubt he’s been lacking in female company in this life.
That video isn’t a joke as much as it is a documentary for me.
And heaven help me if I go to the store and do NOT park in my usual spot – I’ll come out and think someone stole my car.
Sadly, this isn’t an age thing for me as I have so often done this kind of stuff all my life.
@Niketas Choniates: For some reason it is very important for Dem politicians to LARP as working joes.
Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent video addressing this:
–“Victor Davis Hanson: The Left’s Search for a Working-Class Candidate”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-KcXmkK8OM
Summary: The white working-class is too large a demographic to ignore, but Dems have been steadily losing them since JFK. Of that group, Trump won 66% (!) in 2024.
At this point Dems have little margin left and must make some effort to win back some of the working-class. Hence, the search for such a candidate.
However, given the D platform — left and getting lefter — all they can find are fake working-class candidates.
This is why, as unpleasant as I find the DSA/Squad people, I see them more as a serious, perhaps fatal, problem for the Democrats.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/07/sentence-affirmed-unreported.php
==
The resolution here is better.
@huxley:At this point Dems have little margin left and must make some effort to win back some of the working-class.
You and Art Deco are probably right, but I don’t understand why they think this would work on the white working class, spending 99.9% of their time and energy bashing it and then finding a fake member to pretend they care about it. But that end of the political spectrum is most apt to think they can speak reality into being if they all just say the same thing at the same time very loudly and very often.
It reminds me of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge around Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “opposition” to same-sex marriage in 2008. Every single progressive that I ever asked about it–why isn’t this a deal-breaker–assured me that both of them were simply lying for the sake of the election, and would reveal their true opinions afterward, and they were totally okay with this. They had no doubt they were not the ones being lied to, though they couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me how they knew it.
Back in the 2000s Democrats were riding high on the book “Emerging Democratic Majority” (Ruy Teixeira and John B. Judis 2002), which said the changing demographics towards minorities, young people, college-educated professionals, and single women would effortlessly create a lasting, Democrat voting majority.
However, the fly in that ointment was that too many working-class and Hispanic Democrat voters shifted Republican, a process which has continued.
So if normal demographics weren’t going to win for Democrats, they would forcefully change the demographics by flooding the border with illegal immigrants.
Once Trump stopped that, Democrats put their full force behind preventing deportation of illegals, even criminals.
It’s long been strange to me that there has been almost no discussion at the mainstream level of illegal immigration as a method to stack US demographics in favor of Democrats.
“It reminds me of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge around Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s “opposition” to same-sex marriage in 2008.”
A couple weeks ago, the fact that Obama ran as opposed to same sex marriage came up in a discussion with our youngest son. He could not believe it. He was flabbergasted.
huxley states; “This is why, as unpleasant as I find the DSA/Squad people, I see them more as a serious, perhaps fatal, problem for the Democrats.”
“It’s long been strange to me that there has been almost no discussion at the mainstream level of illegal immigration as a method to stack US demographics in favor of Democrats.”
It’s a fatal problem because 60+ years of indoctrination in schools and media have created a radical base. They can’t win without them but can’t win with the radical platform that the DSA will insist upon. The democrat party is flirting with the same fate that befell the Whig Party. But unlike the Whigs, who had the young Republican Party ready to replace them, the DSA hasn’t the broad based appeal of the democrat party.
Upon what basis might one imagine that there is any willingness to honestly discuss illegal immigration… at the mainstream level?
”But most Dem voters…are not working joes, do not aspire to be working joes, and have no respect whatever for working joes. Their core voting bloc is middle-age Laptop-class women. So why do they put so much energy in grooming and applauding these fake ones?”
Because that forms the core of their rationale for engaging in such destructive behavior and, if they can, profiting from it. They’re not destroying landlords for their own sake, you see, but for the tenants; not destroying businesses to benefit themselves but for the poor customers; not destroying capitalism to help their own class but for the benefit of the oppressed workers.
Oh, sure, they may be being paid a pretty penny by a left-wing NGO, but that’s only fair since they care about the oppressed victims sooooo much! It’s OK since they’re doing it in the name of the oppressed.
It turns what would normally be considered greed or ambition into virtue.
My life certainly resembles that video, more so now than in the past (although there have always been episodes) because, as Chases Eagles put it, I used to be able to do things without “getting distracted by non-critical path items over critical path items.”
Sometimes it’s a matter of not being able to distinguish between them.
There are far fewer “critical” matters for both of us, now retired, and the critical ones are usually medical appointments.
In the past, it was the reverse: almost everything that needed doing was something critical in some way, IOW it had to be done. Then it was a matter of being distracted by the less-obviously-critical while I should have been doing the slightly-more-critical.
I actually had a notepad of memo paper titled “TODAY’S PRIORITIES” on which every blank line was designated #1.
@ Barry > “…Hamas planned massive October 7th attacks across Europe;”
Not intending to downplay the seriousness of terrorism, and props to the EU law enforcement that tracked down and ended this particular threat, but … really?
“Among the discoveries was a weapons cache found in Austria last year containing five loaded pistols, ten magazines, more than 100 rounds of ammunition, and several explosive devices…while investigators allege that 13 pistols, an AK-47 assault rifle, and more than 900 rounds of ammunition were transported through Denmark, Germany, and Austria.”
Our Young Men went on a campout last week and the adult range monitors brought more firepower than that.
Plus the archery equipment.
The boys had a great time.
Re: Video
My thing is I am sitting in Room A when I realize I need to do something X in Room B. I get up and go to Room B, then I realize I’ve forgotten what X was.
I return to Room A to remember what X was, then I go back to Room B and usually accomplish X.
Actually I’ve always done this, but it is more frequent with age.
AesopFan:
Yes, but your boys weren’t intending to massacre anyone.
If a bunch of people went into a crowd in most places in Europe – which means a basically unarmed crowd – with the intent to murder as many people as possible, they could rack up quite a death toll.
Democrats are at the “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” stage. They just realized the Commies have put a stick in their bicycle rim which is the catalyst for the “big tent” memo that went out yesterday, which rippled throughout DemTardia.
There was a small incident right after the 2016 election that foreshadowed the Democrats’ current disarry. Joe Kennedy III spoke at some kind of meeting or rally and made what should have been an obvious statement, “We need to understand why so many former Democrats voted for Trump”. He was loudly booed. Trump won the election by flipping rust belt states (PA, MI, WI) that hadn’t voted R in a generation.
You’d think Dems would want to figure out why they lost an election in such a dramatic upset. But that would have required some self-reflection and self-criticism. Not allowed by the leftists who by then controlled the party and are even more dominant today.
‘… and Heaven help me if I go to the store and don’t park in my usual spot…’
This actually happened to my husband a few years ago. He parked his car at his favorite surf spot (ok, everyone’s favorite surf spot) and when he got out of the water it was gone. He went up and down the row of cars convinced he had just forgotten where he parked. Nope. Actually stolen!
Saudis Reach Deal With U.S. That Could Let Them Enrich Nuclear Fuel
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘the country’s 40-year-old de facto leader’ and I like him and his country. We want him on our side, IMHO.
FOAF at 2:59 am:
Good comment, but “…Trump won the election by flipping rust belt states (PA, MI, WI) that hadn’t voted R in a generation….” is incorrect.
WI went GOP in the Presidential contest in 1988 and 2004.
PA chose GOP in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.
MI chose GOP in 2000 and 2004.
(Per DuckDuckGo Search Assist and Wiki)
Selfy, I rechecked Wikipedia. It shows all of them voting D every Presidential election from 1992 to 2012. Can you show me a link contradicting that?
PS – got same results from DuckDuckGo “ask AI”.
Here’s a link to a map of the Electoral College in every Presidential election.
WI: D in 1988 and 2004.
PA: D in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.
MI: D in 2000 and 2004.
Those maps show the last election that MI and PA went Republican, before Trump, was 1988, and for WI it was 1984. 2016 – 1984 = 32 years, which is close enough to a “generation” if you ask me…
It can’t be emphasized enough that you can never take an LLM’s word for it, even if you’re just asking it what Wikipedia says. Ask it for references, then check the references. Always ask it for evidence that would contradict the story it tells you and check the references on that too.
Niketas “It can’t be emphasized enough that you can never take an LLM’s word for it, even if you’re just asking it what Wikipedia says. Ask it for references, then check the references. Always ask it for evidence that would contradict the story it tells you and check the references on that too.”
…
Indeed! Often, at least for me, I get what I’m searching for quicker on my own.
The devouring of resources — including people’s time and trust — by AI is its own risk.
Nontrivial and worrisome.
[gulp] Thanks, FOAF and Nik. I looked at Nik’s link, which contradicted what I posted.
But I saw it on the Internet! 🙂
@ Karmi > “Saudis Reach Deal With U.S. That Could Let Them Enrich Nuclear Fuel”
Time to revive an old favorite: Who’s Next?
View it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw
Download the audio here:
https://tomlehrersongs.com/whos-next/
@ Neo > “Yes, but your boys weren’t intending to massacre anyone.”
Forgot to put on my sarc/ tag.
Points up the moral of the story, though: guns don’t kill people; terrorists kill people.
Selfy, as Abraham Lincoln said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet”.
Everyone knew Abraham was a dog, but no one would tell him.
Oh, yes, as expected. Heh.
Israel Matsav:
https://x.com/i/status/2080266210545971225
See link for facsimile of Trump’s Truthpost full statement.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/430643
“Trump conditions Saudi nuclear deal on normalization with Israel
US President says that the agreement with Saudi Arabia is contingent on the Saudis joining the Abraham Accords.”