Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

If we had had confidence that the president had clearly not committed a crime we would have said so.

In no world does that mean that they have confidence that the president clearly committed a crime. I get the desperate desire to flip the burden of proof on its head -- guilty until exonerated. But that's not how it works. I'm happy to over it with anyone that is confused.

[iam416]

If I had confidence that Jeff Buchanan was clearly not a transitioning female then I would say it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Why on earth would I read that?

[iam416]

If I had confidence that Amash was clearly not a political hack then I'd say it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If I had confidence that Amash was clearly not a political hack then I'd say it.

[iam416]

I'm certain you can technically or otherwise say that Amash is a hack, but you lack the authority to do anything about it. So, if you think he's a hack you can just say it.

[froot loops]

Amash would not be considered a political hack. Pretty much a polar opposite of that, if you're searching for a perjorative term maybe gadfly is more appropriate.

[Ghengis Jon]

Watch the town hall Amash had the other day. Standing ovation from the heavily Republican audience. It got a little testy when a Trumpster was called on to ask a question (she went off on some krapture-esque hallucination) and the audience starting demanding she ask her question so others could have a turn. Amash, to his credit, kept trying to get the audience to settle down so the woman could continue to speak. Far too libertarian to be a run of the mill gutter repub, but yeah, gadfly seems to be an appropriate characterization.

[iam416]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Quick thoughts on Israel and then back to Mueller time (maybe)...

So as you may have heard, Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government within 7 weeks of "winning" his reelection. That means the Israeli Parliament was forced to dissolve and there won't be a new election until September. Netanyahu stays on as PM but essentially the government is paralyzed till the end of summer. This has never happened before.

Netanyahu's crew are already blaming 'leftists" but the truth is Netanyahu is finding it increasingly difficult to control his coalition partners. From what I've read so far there were two main issues:

1) There is an ultra-militaristic party in Israel led by Netanyahu's former Defense Minister. He left the government because he felt Netanyahu was TOO SOFT on the Palestinians, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Whatever else they may be, this group is largely secular and supports the universal draft. This has pushed them into conflict with another faction of Team Netanyahu: the super Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. They want exemptions for ultra-orthodox Jews from military service.

2) The second point of conflict is that Netanyahu could be indicted any day on corruption/bribery charges and he has been pushing his allies hard to support passing a law that would give him, personally, complete immunity. Enough of his allies balked at that to help make the coalition talks fail.

[Whitley]

If I had confidence that Amash was clearly not a political hack then I'd say it.

Amash may be many things but if you look over his record, he has been remarkably consistent in his beliefs.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Lousiana just passed a bill that's basically a copycat of the Alabama bill.

A near complete ban on all abortions after 6 weeks (that's the earliest a fetal heartbeat is detectable). No exceptions for rape or incest. Believe medical reasons are limited to the life of the mother being threatened or the baby being totally non-viable.

Menstruation ain't science. Going 6 weeks without a period isn't completely unheard of. Laws like this essentially give women roughly a 10 day window to figure out they're pregnant, decide to have an abortion, arrange the abortion (there might only be one clinic in the entire state-- or less), and have the abortion. I genuinely don't know how easy it is to schedule an abortion and then have one. In Louisiana, can you literally just walk in and have it right then and there?

[froot loops]

What a flipping baby

[Dr. Strangelove]

What a flipping baby

Ha. I just saw this too. Amazing. How pathetic. And the WSJ reporters saw the email for themselves. They draped a tarp over the name of the ship so Trump wouldn't see it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Meghan McCain's thoughts on the White House insisting the Navy hide the USS John McCain from Trump's sight while he was in Japan