Home » Open thread 11/7/2024

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Open thread 11/7/2024 — 56 Comments

  1. General Mike Flynn–whose been through the Leftist’s mill himself–warns that another assassination attempt is likely, and that Trump needs to beef up his security.*

    I note the news that Biden has invited Trump to the White House to “speed up the Transition.”

    If I were Trump, I would not rely on the apparently incompetent/ hostile/compromised Secret Service, but would have a layer of my own, massive security operation surrounding me.

    I would also not drink or eat anything I was offered at this meeting, and I might not even touch a lot of surfaces.

    See the history of the Borgias, and other instances of enemies being eliminated by various means, straightforward or subtle–throughout world history–which are just too numerous to mention.

    * See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/theyve-already-tried-it-couple-times-theyll-try/

  2. Steve Hayward on Powerline IIRC suggested, tongue in cheek, that Trump should call for an increase in Supreme Court justices, in order to pack the court. That would be hilarious as liberals would have to reverse their previous support for this idea. We could then record their opposition in order to play it back next time they support it – again.

  3. Bluegreen, I said the same thing to my wife, without reading that “other blog”.

    I see 2 Dem Governors are already saying they will defy Trump on the immigrant deportations.
    I really really want Trump to wield the power of EO and his pen. Crush them, grind them into the ground.

  4. Will be watching Trump for any lies—in regards to how he handles the Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, and the MOMS Act, as was discussed in the Open thread 9/28/2024 post.

    MAGA stars gloat they can ‘finally’ admit Project 2025 will be Trump’s agenda – as Bannon names first targets

    Trump and JD Vance have shrugged off suggestions that the agenda is on the table for them but conservatives like Matt Walsh and Steve Bannon reveled in the opportunity to push the policy goals after Trump’s convincing electoral college win and political comeback.

    ‘Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda,’ Walsh wrote Wednesday.

    Howard Lutnick (Trump’s transition team leader) said – ‘Project 2025 is an absolute zero for the Trump-Vance transition‘, but it obviously bears watching.

    A commenter in that Open Thread 9/28 had said – ‘Some of the Project 2025 ideas are things he might adopt, and some are not.’ There are some good things in Project 2025, and there are some things that will be like grabbing a hornets nest if enacted.

    It seemed back then, that the REPs were laying the groundwork in case Trump was elected, e.g., “Bill – H.R.517 – Standing with Moms Act”, and now Walsh & Bannon are doing some gloating…Ditto on the obviously bears watching.

  5. Trump should call for an increase in Supreme Court justices, in order to pack the court. That would be hilarious as liberals would have to reverse their previous support for this idea. We could then record their opposition in order to play it back next time the… — bluegreen kayak

    I saw some GOP senator, I believe, state that they have submitted a proposal (legislation?) to end the filibuster in the Senate. The proposal is exactly the same one that the Dems were pushing just days ago. He said there was zero Dem support for the Dem proposal. I believe that actually happened, not just tongue in cheek.

    Speaking of the damage the Obama admin. did (neo’s recent post), Harry Reid ended the use of the filibuster for the purpose of federal judge appointments.

    The news I recall during the latter part of the Obama era was that Obama got a lot of new judges pushed into the DC circuit. My knowledge of the law is not sufficient to fully understand the impact of that, but it doesn’t sound good.

  6. It would be fun if Trump opened his January inauguration speech:

    “As I was saying…”

    He narrowly escaped death in more ways then one.

  7. Protests against President-elect Donald Trump took place in several cities across the country on Wednesday….

    On Wednesday night, demonstrators took to the streets in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia to protest Trump’s win.

    https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-protests-cities-1981841
    ________________________________________

    Which seems mild compared to those we’ve seen since Trump was elected in 2016. The protests feature pro-Palestine as a prominent concern.

    An interesting aspect of the article is that Newsweek includes a “Fairness Meter” in which the reader can rate the article for “Unfair Left Leaning / Mostly Fair Left Leaning / Mostly Fair Right Leaning / Unfair Right Leaning”.

    I don’t how long that has been a feature. I have noticed that Newsweek has been running more conservative articles than I expected for a while now.

    In order to survive I believe the legacy media will have to move back from activist journalism.

  8. @TommyJay:end the filibuster in the Senate

    Filibuster is theater anyway. At any time it, or any other Senate rule whatever, can be set aside one time only by a simple majority, and it is often done when the media is not making a drama about it.

    Imagine I tell you I quit smoking. You see me later, smoking on break as usual. You ask me, didn’t you quit? I say, I did, but I’m suspending my smoking cessation program this one time and I will resume it when the smoke break is over. Over time you see me doing this whenever I really, really want to smoke, and at the same time I go around telling everyone I quit.

    The filibuster works exactly the same way: it’s a mechanism for Senators to avoid individual accountability for votes. If something is popular with a majority party’s base, but the majority party’s Senators don’t really want to do it, the designated “mavericks” will oppose and the party leadership will say they “don’t have enough votes to break the filibuster”. They can then lay the blame for the failure on the “mavericks”, the other Senators don’t have to go on record, and then they appeal to their base to give more money so they can “increase their majority” to something “filibuster proof”.

    But if the majority party really does want it, they will set aside the filibuster for one time only with 51 votes.

    Sometimes the party leaderships collude. A few years ago Mitch McConnell worked with Chuck Schumer to set aside a Republican filibuster on raising the debt ceiling with 51 votes, and hardly anyone noticed. But it was very important for people to get paid, so the media did not make a big deal about it.

    They have other dodges. Occasionally they will appeal to the Senate parliamentarian, who will rule that something cannot be done. But any ruling can be set aside by 51 votes. And the parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the Majority Leader and can be fired for ruling “wrong”. Both of these have happened.

  9. Re: Newsweek’s “Fairness Meter”

    That’s an interesting idea since it oestensibly gives you a general impression of what other readers/viewers/listeners may think of an article as well as some feedback for the journalists themselves, assuming they’re genuinely making attempts to be less biased and propagandistic in order to regain a bit of trust. Of course like anything online, it can be review bombed, ratioed, spammed with bots or whatever so it’s far from ideal.

  10. Interesting there’s been no riots so far.

    I do like Kurt Schlichter’s column this morning in which he says this is not the time to be magnanimous, but the time to finally crush the Ds and the left. I agree. They would have no hesitation in doing it to us.

  11. In regards to the dread Project 2025, who is this “we” the humble Karmi (Kemosabe) is speaking of?

    Long Ranger and Tonto joke.

    President Trump isn’t back in office yet, see Snow on Pine’s coment.

  12. Mark Halperin of 2 Way had Representative Byron Donalds on his show and it’s worth listening to him. I noticed him in the spring and he was very impressive then, and this just reinforces that he might be a vp nominee in 2028 (barring something unknown).

    He has a very even demeanor, quick on this feet and knowledgeable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFoTG5V98tI

  13. physicsguy:

    I agree with you and Schlichter.

    No more Mr. Nice Guy. The age of the polite conservative/Republican is over. Or should be.

    No more of that “reaching across the aisle” bullshit. No more compromise.

    I want to hear the lamentations of their women. That is best, Conan.

  14. Brian E

    I’ve liked Rep. Byron Donalds for some time now.

    Vance as president in 2029? He’ll have to make it past Trump first—four years is a long time to get along with Trump, unless he has ‘changed his stripes.’ Vance could be the next Pence before Trump is done with him.

    Then, Vance will need to get past a loooooooooooonnng list of *GREAT* GOP presidential candidates in 2028.

    Personally, I like Rep. Byron Donalds as President in 2029…at this point.

  15. Lots of clips from around the internet this morning of the extreme cognitive dissonance happening with the Ds. It’s been fun, but also instructive about how they just cannot accept what has happened. Fascinating to see that they blame everyone except themselves. The blame groups: men, Latino men, Biden, black men, uneducated white women (who BTW are also racist and misogynist…LOL) , black women, women in general for not voting above 49% for Harris, and the lists go on and on.

    I would really like to hear Neo’s take on all this.

  16. Here is an extremely hopeful analysis by Glenn Reynolds, which sees Trump’s victory and Musk’s association with and role in that victory as freeing Musk to charge ahead with his space exploration efforts.

    Musk’s efforts eventually opening up our Solar System to human exploration and settlement, thus, ushering in a new mindset/Age of adventure, risk-taking, and exploration; a New Frontier.*

    * See https://instapundit.substack.com/p/elon-unbound?r=9bg2k&triedRedirect=true

  17. They wanted to erase the filibuster to pack the court abolish the second and first amendments and make moloch sacrifices permanent

    Thank fully none of that came to pass the evil prop 3 and 4 were vanquished i did my small part

    In arizona the black death has sadly descended maybe a decent governor can reverse thid

  18. As I said:

    “We Won and We Need to Act Like It”
    https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2024/11/07/we-won-and-we-need-to-act-like-it-n2647394

    “There will be a temptation to return to the old norms, that is, the pre-Trump era where Republicans acted like prissy gentlemen and the Democrats gave them wedgies. . . . This is not the time to be nice. This is the time to rub their faces in their defeat. Somebody’s got to win this fight. I propose it be us. When we beat the Japanese and the Germans, we did not forgive and forget. We broke them. We exacted righteous retribution. Only then did we allow them to return in a form that would no longer threaten us

  19. Karmi, I never mentioned Vance in my comment.

    I don’t think Donalds has the experiences necessary to be president. If he wants to take that tack– he needs to work toward the governorship of Florida as a stepping stone– kind of like DeSantis did.

    There is only one scenario where Vance could be like Pence– and that’s if Trump abandoned the blue collar worker. From what I’ve heard from Vance, I accept he has a genuine concern for the heartland of America– but then I think that Trump does as well.

    This realignment of the Republican Party is far from over– and it’s going to be played out in the battle over whether or not Republicans truly believe in Making the Middle Class Great Again. There are still plenty of Republicans that still think the future is with Wall St.

    The tech boom the last four decades has re-aligned Wall St. That money has moved largely to the left. Could it come back? Ideologically, that’s unlikely.

    President Trump has made some big promises to the blue collar class– promises that are going to put the Republican Party at odds with Wall St.

    The question is how to incentivize some of the wealth concentration in the tech companies redirected from white collar to blue collar jobs.

    One of the first ways is to incentivize tech companies to fund their own utilities– which can only come through Nuclear. Tech needs near 100% uptime– which no renewable can meet (other than hydro). As far as I can tell talk about improvements in storage alongside renewables is just hype.

    The first (along with the 101 other first things) priority for Trump should be to revamp the approval process for Nuclear plants. It still takes many (nine?) years to go through the process. This is absurd, especially for SMR’s.

  20. Liberals always call for bipartisanship when they lose, and say “elections have consequences” when they win. Let them feel the consequences now, good and hard.

  21. Why PA didn’t Fortify:

    …he said ward leaders in the city felt disrespected, implying that could have impacted how hard they worked for her in the city.

    Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Arms crossed defiantly in the Democratic City Committee headquarters, where ward leaders gathered to nosh on pizza and “lick their wounds,” Brady pointed to the empty conference room where he said Democratic nominees from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden all came to pay their respects in person.

    “Obama, Biden all came to say hi to the ward leaders, that means something. They never showed up,” Brady said.

    He said money was an issue, too. The Harris campaign paid about “half” of past campaigns for Philly’s get-out-the-vote effort, he claimed.

    He also complained about the campaign not including local Democrats or ward leaders in rallies or giving them VIP seating.

    “Not that I got an ego but it shows the lack of respect, that we do deserve.”

    …Brady said the Harris campaign invited him to a 4 p.m. meeting of Democratic leaders in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. “Not a chance,” Brady said of going. “I never even met the lady.”

  22. Suggestion for those who appreciate Neo but are not buying the book,
    make a donation. Thirty dollars would equal book and shipping cost.

  23. Trump needs Rudy Giuliani for Atty General. He has experience prosecuting gangsters, and good reasons to ,as well

  24. physicsguy:
    The blame groups: men, Latino men, Biden, black men, uneducated white women (who BTW are also racist and misogynist…LOL) , black women, women in general for not voting above 49% for Harris, and the lists go on and on.

    Courtesy of Maggie’s Farm: Thursday morning links, we get this little gem: No, the Problem Isn’t the Voters.

    The only group Kamala Harris made gains with was white college-educated women and those over 65.

    I included the Maggie’s Farm link, in case some readers are not aware of the blog.

  25. fullmoon:

    Not a good idea for many many reasons. I’ll start with the fact that Giuliani is 80 years old, but there are plenty of other reasons.

  26. Things are not so bright for us in Washington State. No Republican won a statewide race.

    The new Governor, Bob Ferguson, is a weasel who, as state AG, spent his time suing the Trump administration during Trump’s first term. He will try to stop deportation of illegals any way he can. As AG for the last twelve years, he stood by while the crime in this state went higher and higher.

    Jay Inslee our outgoing governor said this in his speech yesterday: “Even though this is a dark moment on the federal basis, we should be encouraged that (Washington) now leads the U.S. Climate Alliance,”

    https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/nov/06/washington-gov-jay-inslee-reacts-to-trumps-electio/

    He is the most deeply committed of the climate cultists in this country. His views verge on pure religious fervor and, IMO, are dangerous to the well-being of this state. He plans to continue to crusade for climate control efforts. He managed to get a carbon trading scheme passed in the legislature. It was challenged by an initiative (2117) that, unfortunately, went down.

    Inslee and his allies are forcing solar and wind onto our utilities, when we have plenty of clean, and really useful, hydro power. Because wind and solar are inefficient and intermittent, the price of power has been rising here to cover those costs.

    The carbon trading scheme has added 60 cents a gallon to our gas prices and does nothing to reduce emissions. It’s basically a tax on fossil fuels. What were people thinking when they voted to keep it in place?

    Unfortunately, as King County goes, so goes the state. 🙁

  27. Not Rudy? How about Ted Cruz, then. He seems capable of being ornery enough.

    Steve Bannon, for fun?

  28. Snow on Pine @ 12:57,

    It would be wonderful if Bill Whittle could get a role with Space X. It’s been Whittle’s dream since a young lad in Bermuda (I think?). Whittle is multi-talented, but it’s aviation and space that he knows best.

  29. Washington also failed to repeal the unconstitutional capital gains tax, so expect an income tax soon, even though it’s specifically prohibited in our state constitution. Laws mean nothing to the left, unless they can be used against their enemies.

  30. In a comment from yesterday’s topic Ray+Van+Dune wrote:
    ____________________________________

    Just watched a guy on Morning Joe ask what he thinks is a damaging question, damaging to Republicans. He smugly asked “How come Kamala got 14 million fewer votes than Joe Biden got last time?!”

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2024/11/06/a-personal-note-on-this-election/#comment-2770734
    ____________________________________

    I’m wondering something of the same.

    2016:
    Trump: 62,984,828
    Clinton: 65,853,514

    2020:
    Trump: 74,223,975
    Biden: 81,283,501

    2024:
    Trump: 73,263,395
    Harris: 68,699,362

    I guess everyone had more time to vote in 2020 due to Covid but the Biden number of 81 mil is off the charts.

    Trump got a big bump in 2020 and more or less held it in 2024.

    Harris dropped back to around Hillary’s number in 2016.

    Nonetheless, where did the 14 mil votes Biden got in 2020, but disappeared in Harris 2024, come from, then go?

    I’m sure some sat out 2024 and some defected to Trump. But given that Trump actually got 1 mil votes less this year than 2020, how does on explain Biden’s 81 mil votes in 2020?

  31. Ot i noticed that ben affleck is exec producer on a story about robert ames* the spy that befriended the plo (written by kai bird the author behind oppenheimer

  32. huxley:

    Some time in the next couple of days I plan to tackle that mystery of the Biden bump in 2020.

  33. re the “Biden bump”, might make sense to wait until all the votes are counted before wondering where they went. Quite a few states take days to count all the votes, one being California, which is one of the more populous ones if I remember my seventh-grade geography.

    Interesting to see the Strange New Respect for election news skepticism coming from the Left.

  34. re the “Biden bump”, might make sense to wait until all the votes are counted before wondering where they went.

    Niketas Choniates:

    I’m getting my numbers from Decision Desk HQ. From what I can tell those numbers are final.

    https://decisiondeskhq.com/results/2024/General/President/

    Perhaps there are some straggler ballots coming in, but I doubt they will be more than statistical noise.

    If you know better, please provide a cite or two.

  35. Brian E.,

    That’s an excellent point about nuclear. It would be wonderful if the Trump administration would put a major emphasis on streamlining approval, construction and operation. It could radically change this country for the better for decades to come.

  36. Trump selects ‘Ice Baby’ – Susie Wiles as his Chief of Staff—first female Chief of Staff in U.S. history.

    New to me. Anyone thinks this is a good pick? Recommend her?

    Quick glance over her resume—sounds like she is quite capable…

  37. @Brian E:From what I can tell those numbers are final.

    According to them only 60% of California votes are counted. Votes can come in up to seven days of Election Day in California. They have something like 20 million voters.

    The % of votes for each candidate might be reasonably final, you’re right that they would only be statistical noise for the final result, but we’re talking about the volume of votes, and there are millions not yet counted. It is too early to say they do not exist.

    According to California Secretary of State only 10.7 million votes are processed, and they estimate 5.5 million yet to come in. They probably don’t have 100% turnout, but like I said they have seven days.

  38. @Brian E:Niketas– that’s not me.

    So sorry, that’s the second time I’ve done that this week. I will try to be more careful, and my comment is of course directed to huxley.

  39. “Interesting to see the Strange New Respect for election news skepticism coming from the Left.”

    Oh, the Left was VERY skeptical about the 2000 and 2016 elections.

    They plum must’ve forgotten that, though. (Would appear that they suffer from Severe Super Selective Memory Syndrome, which helps them to believe the absolute worst about anyone or anything they object to…while enabling appropriate levels of hysteria to accompany said “beliefs” (generally, the kind of hysteria that no facts can pierce or rational thought mitigate).

  40. President Trump’s first important White House staffing pick has been announced: Kathy Wiles for Chief of Staff (the same post that John Kelly held before he decided that Trump praised Hitler once).

    Wiles has been a resident of Jacksonville for around 40 years. She’s served Trump in campaign management roles in Florida two times before, rising to become national campaign manager this time, too.

    She likes to stay out of the limelight. She’s well admired and has proved very trustworthy. And now is the first woman to become WH Chief of Staff.

    Her only potential blot (which may also be to her credit) is having tried to steer Florida governor DeSantis last campaign — she says she resigned because of a personality clash with Ron DeSantis

    Much praise in quotes on her by Trump and JD Vance here in this clip from Sky New Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGNe5GqPcc

  41. This video is a backhanded defense of Trump. The speaker is Peter Boghossian, an atheist, who famously mocked Trump in a Quillette article back in 2016, now talking about the effects of the 2024 election. He barely mentions Trump, but his scathing critic of the party that was in power from a secularist perspective about the damage the trans movement is wreaking on our children reinforces how important this issue is. Trump can affect this in a good way.

    The Enemies of Liberty “Will Not Go Quietly into the Night” (From Panel at the ?@danubenstitute?)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7nRZqBOCyA

  42. CORRECTION: President Trump’s first important White House staffing pick has been announced: SUSIE Wiles for Chief of Staff (the same post that John Kelly held before he decided that Trump praised Hitler once).

  43. THIS IS A GEM of a short AI video montage of leftist talking heads and guests uttering the same damn line — except, instead of “The end of Democracy,” they are voiced to say “end of bureaucracy.”

    Hysterical fun from from Newsbusters.org, but shared by Elon Muck — and viola! everything starts making a lot more sense.
    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853887450365735153?

  44. In re Kurt Schlichter’s post “We Won and We Need to Act Like It” — and others of a similar nature, and also the ones counseling some degree of magnanimity in victory.*

    We need to do both.

    Anyone who willingly and knowingly broke laws, or bent them shamelessly, to persecute & prosecute Trump and his supporters, whether they were prominent politicians, the lawyers defending them, or plain citizens in the J6 gulag, MUST suffer for their crimes, or there is no justice.

    Anyone who was a dupe of the Democrats’ pernicious propaganda should be reminded of their errors, but, if their intent was good but misdirected, to them the hand of fellowship should be extended across the aisle.

    We should not repeat the methods of the Left in driving people away from us, even if they will probably not become one of us, because perhaps they will not continue to fight us.
    ************

    *In 2008, one of our Democrat-voting relatives was twitting us about not voting for Obama. I told him, “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a sore winner.”
    He laughed and apologized.

    It’s hard to imagine that kind of response now, had Harris one, but we can at least aim ourselves in that direction.

  45. This is what a sore loser looks like.
    https://notthebee.com/article/former-white-house-staffer-and-howard-alum-insulted-that-kamala-didnt-have-the-decency-to-make-a-comment-last-night

    And this (posted on the What Went Wrong thread by mistake)

    Not the Bee has the right idea.
    https://notthebee.com/article/there-are-so-many-woke-freakouts-on-the-internet-right-now-that-we-had-to-create-a-second-article-to-fit-them-all

    If you watch these videos, you’ll see how terrified these people are of Donald Trump … the billionaire NYC celebrity famous for reality TV, cameos in “Home Alone 2,” and Pizza Hut ads.

    They got this way because the media has lied to them for a decade with increasingly ominous tales of doom that ratchet people’s anxiety to the max. If we’re going to point fingers, let’s start with the talking heads that drove these people crazy so the elites could keep political power.

    This is why we are trying to undo the brainwashing through humor

    Some of the humor is here:
    https://notthebee.com/article/i-gathered-the-best-election-memes-to-celebrate-this-maga-moment

  46. Donald Trump’s potential AG pick threatens to put Letitia James’ ‘fat a** in prison’ if she doesn’t back off president-elect

    James signaled on Wednesday she is not going to back down on her probes and lawsuits against Donald Trump as she vowed to fight against any potential ‘revenge or retribution’ from the former president.

    ‘Listen here, sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time and we will put your fat a** in prison for conspiracy against rights. I promise you that,’ he said.

    Yeah, treasonous acts by DEMs and supporters have been going on since 2015. I’d start w/ Soros and most of his kin, and the DEM politicians, certain MSM personnel, Teacher Union heads ‘n activists, Swamp Critters, etc. until I had a boatload to ship to secret site in Poland or Ukraine or wherever they’ll never be found again—unless they start ratting…

  47. Google search: conspiracy against rights

    Conspiracy against rights is a federal crime that prohibits two or more people from conspiring to restrict another person’s civil rights. It is defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 241 of the United States Code.

    The crime is a felony and can be punished by a fine or up to 10 years in prison. However, the penalties increase if the crime results in death, kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit any of these acts. In these cases, the punishment can be up to life in prison or the death penalty.

    Unlike other conspiracy statutes, conspiracy against rights does not require an overt act to be committed. Instead, prosecutors only need to show that the co-conspirators had an agreement and intent to violate the victim’s civil rights.

    Let’s start finding some rats…

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