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Open thread 4/11/24 — 68 Comments

  1. Trump ‘Has Simple-Minded Ideas About How the World Works’ – that explains why he is so easily controlled by his ego. If he loses then the Democrats may hold the President’s Office for the next 12 years – terrible gamble by the MAGA GOP…

    Hamas leader’s chilling reaction as he is told his three sons have been killed by IDF – shrugging off the news and saying ‘No, why? Let’s continue’ when asked if he wants to end hospital tour

    DOJ Unmasks ‘Inconsistencies’ in Fani Willis’s Use of Federal Grant Funds

    The Justice Department said Friday it unmasked “inconsistencies” in Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis’s use of federal grant funds, confirming whistleblower allegations.

  2. Yes weve lived through president slingblade and he gives us this you know who bolton now works for victor pinchuk google him one of the premier looters involved with the iranian nuclear program and the clinton foundation

  3. Keep in mind that “We love death”…and so the darlings of the New New Left.

  4. Youre not going to get any blue state from enacting any restriction at all they love moloch too much

    Lincoln wanted to restrict the peculiar institution douglas wanted it to spread

  5. Physical therapy helps with a lot of things, but it’s hard to keep it up over time IMO.

    FWIW, The New Yorker has an article on posture in America, and the early 20th century “war on slouching” in America. My second/third grade teacher was old school and talked a lot about posture. Hardly anybody has mentioned it since.
    _________

    I suppose Trump does have an “anecdotal” view of the world, but people who claim to have a more sophisticated understanding of international relations have been making more mistakes than he did. Moreover, when it comes to foreign policy, president’s have often been much more led astray by personal, ego-driven concerns than Trump was. Arguably, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and Bolton’s own boss GWB let their own ego needs get in the way of wise policy.

    Likewise, politicians and policy have often had a “transactional” view of the world. Transactionalism is at the heart of political life. Maybe that’s something to beware of in a second Trump administration, but “what’s in it for me” wasn’t one of the hallmarks of his first administration.
    _________

    OJ Simpson has died. Is it good weather in LA for rioting and looting now or will that have to be postponed to the weekend?

  6. Thanks for the video! I’m terrible at performing regular exercise/stretches—I do walk almost every day though—but I have been doing some similar exercises because I don’t want to hunch over, get turkey-peek neck, or a widow’s hump.

    From another physical therapy YouTube, I learned some simple arm-extensions. Basically, holding arms straight in a “Y” position over your head and gently stretching them back—I feel my upper chest opening. Then move your arms straight out to your sides, at shoulder level, and gently stretch them back—imagine having your shoulder blades meeting. This is the same thing as the first move in your video, except without the stretching band.

    I think these movements are working for me because I can easily do them every day while sitting at a desk or while watching TV. Just have to sit on the front edge of the chair if you happen to be sitting.

  7. But abortion is about butchering another human being ‘choice’ is firmly in the devils almanac we will warrant a great judgement for acceptance of this thing

  8. }}} Trump ‘Has Simple-Minded Ideas About How the World Works’

    Riiiiiight. So “simple minded” that he managed to get 3 freaking treaties during a 4y term, in the ME between Israel and other Islamic states. Please list another PotUS — any time — who has a record to match.

    We need a lot MORE of those kinds of “simple minded ideas”, frankly.

    The Abraham Accords are a third stunning achievement. When Trump took office, just two Arab nations, Egypt and Jordan, had treaties with Israel, a situation that had existed without change since 1994. There are now six regional nations with diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

  9. Ever have the police Plant Evidence on you to insure your guilt?

    ASKED IF HE PLANTED EVIDENCE, FUHRMAN PLEADS FIFTH

    Detective Mark Fuhrman was called back to the witness stand Wednesday and was asked point blank whether he planted evidence against O.J. Simpson. He refused to answer, invoking his Fifth-Amendment right against self-incrimination.

    Ever have a close friend killed by police – then watch the police claim that your friend had pulled a gun, a gun you know for a fact that your friend never owned? Throwdown:

    ‘A weapon planted at a crime scene in order to mislead investigation, especially in situations where deadly force would only have been justified if the victim were armed. Also an untraceable weapon kept in readiness for such use.

    OJ Simpson, 76, Dies of Cancer – I watched a lot of the OJ trial, and it was clear that the police at least tampered with evidence and/or planted evidence. The case should’ve been thrown out long before it went to the jury.

  10. The black vs. white reaction to OJ Simpson’s aquittal for a double murder says something grave, that melanin conquers reason and justice. The blacks in my acquaintance, including my housekeeper of 20+ years, seem to have a reasoning deficit. They all despise Justice Clarence Thomas, for no objective reason that I can elicit. But they do not like that Mrs. Thomas is white.

  11. Hey, hey! Easy with that! That’s my lucky stabbing hat!

    Norm was certainly one of a kind, and fearless when it came to his humor. That NBC executive who was friends with OJ fired Norm from SNL since he wouldn’t stop cracking jokes like that on Weekend Update. I remember the SNL after the verdict, Norm grinned into the camera and said “Well, it’s official! Murder is now legal in California!”.

  12. Does anyone who ever worked for John Bolton have an agreeable word to say about him?

  13. On the subject of slouching, and stretching exercises, the newest thing at my gym is stretching sessions with a trainer. To my considerable surprise it works. I am much more flexible, my hip pain is declining, and I can get up from the floor more easily. I do stretches daily at home in addition to a monthly session at the gym.

  14. So much bad news these days. My computer places stunning pictures as wallpaper. Every now and then one is from a place I have visited.

    Yesterday it was of the Seceda Massif near Val Gardena, Italy. In 1995, my wife and I spent a week in Val Gardena doing hikes in the area every day. It’s a stunningly beautiful place.

    Here’s a slide show of some of the views we experienced.
    https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=A7itwlxa&id=93DB5B48936852DDCD8C92F5E99A40EA347F8D67&thid=OIP.A7itwlxaAElO76VfxoPRjAHaE0&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.travel4pictures.com%2Fimg%2Fs%2Fv-10%2Fp4002059311-4.jpg&cdnurl=https%3A%2F%2Fth.bing.com%2Fth%2Fid%2FR.03b8adc25c5a00494eefa55fc683d18c%3Frik%3DZ41%252fNOpAmun1kg%26pid%3DImgRaw%26r%3D0&exph=521&expw=800&q=seceda+massif+in+south+tyrol+italy&simid=608052947622967562&form=IRPRST&ck=F2CE034789996FD7CEC41D1B8E9B96BB&selectedindex=37&itb=0&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0&vt=0&sim=11

    On that trip we flew into Zurich, boarded a train, and got off for a few days of hiking around Innsbruck, Austria. Form there we rode the train to Bolzano, Italy, and a bus to Val Gardena. After Val Gardena we bussed to Cortina and did some hiking around there. Then we took the train to Heidelberg, Germany where we spent a few days before flying out of Frankfurt to come home.

    Treasured memories of the scenery, the culture, the architecture, and what a good time we had.

  15. I guess O J’s search for the murderer was unsuccessful in the end, all that time and he never encountered a mirror.

  16. 78 and slouching hasn’t set in – tho getting up from floor has been an issue for some time now, like one day (working under desk on a computer) I realized that it was incredibly difficult to get out from under the desk and then get up. 😉

    About 4-6 years ago started having issues with a constant crick in the neck. Back aches had also been creeping in. Couple years ago read something about deep knee bends being good as you get older. Now I do stretch & toe touches, neck rolls, and deep knee bends daily — that routine has cleared the back aches, hip aches, and crick in the neck.

    Unwanted exercise of keeping a hedge trimmed – roughly 300 ft++, 3-4 ft wide, and 6.5 ft++ high gets tiring quickly. Lightweight Ryobi battery hedge trimmer and a heavyweight DOEWORKS 40V Li-ion Battery trimmer gets the job done. That DOEWORKS will straighten any slouching issues…

  17. Thanks. I bookmarked the YouTube link.

    Also, in my head I was spelling his narration phonetically. Eg, [this exasize is simpo …]

  18. Re: Hunching

    My home café is mostly students and silverbacks. So I see the hunching thing everyday. I don’t wanna be like that. I regularly adjust my posture to be more erect.

    I also have three words for you: kettlebells 🙂

    My man, Jordan Peterson, is all over this one:
    _________________________________________

    In “12 Rules for Life,” Rule #1 is “Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back.” What does this mean? Do you stand up straight physically? Or is this more of a metaphor for being confident?

    It turns out Jordan Peterson’s Rule 1 means both. We’ll discuss what he meant by stand up straight, and how your physical posture affects your mental state.

    https://www.shortform.com/blog/stand-up-straight-with-your-shoulders-back-jordan-peterson-rule-1/
    _________________________________________

    Tony Robbins hits this hard too.

  19. huxley:

    Yes, it’s very important. As a former dancer, I have a slight advantage, but I still try to consciously think about posture and make sure I do my best to stand straight.

    However, one quibble is that the corrective “shoulders back” is not right. I understand why people say it and think it counteracts the shoulders-forward slumping posture, but “shoulders back” is an over-correction that – if taken literally, as it is by many people, especially the young – throws the back from flexion into extension (arched) and can cause its own problems. The shoulders should be not forward or back from the plane of the body, but rather aligned with it in an upright position.

  20. Norm was certainly one of a kind, and fearless when it came to his humor. That NBC executive who was friends with OJ fired Norm from SNL since he wouldn’t stop cracking jokes like that on Weekend Update. I remember the SNL after the verdict, Norm grinned into the camera and said “Well, it’s official! Murder is now legal in California!”.

    Don Ohlmeyer.

    Here’s 11 minutes of Norm destroying OJ.

  21. So magical thinking from down under in a thriller where they are so ignorant they think a deal between haj amin and lawrence would have been a good thing

  22. neo:

    Quite so.

    As you note, for many, maybe most people, being slouched feels normal, so to get straight up requires an effort that feels like “shoulders back.”

    My godmother trained as an opera singer. She had beautiful posture. I remember her when I find myself slouched.

    Here’s a classic bit o’ classic rock with not a bad message:

    –Argent, “Hold Your Head Up”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvfxI9yD2dM

    BTW, Argent was founded by Rod Argent, the former keyboardist for the brilliant, though almost forgotten, 60s band the Zombies.

  23. Jury found him innocent. Of course, to many Republicans that doesn’t matter – which is another one of the many issues I have with the Republican party…

  24. Yes, he was acquitted by a jury. That doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion. He went free, served time for another offense, and now is facing final judgment. God knows what was true and what was not. It’s out of our hands.

  25. another one of the many issues I have with the Republican party… – Karmi

    So what are the issues you have with the Democrat party?

  26. Jury found him innocent. Of course, to many Republicans that doesn’t matter – which is another one of the many issues I have with the Republican party…
    ==
    Get stuffed. The jury that ‘found him innocent’ decided that the concatenation of data which were consistent with his guilt were all coincidences or planted by the Los Angeles Police. Because they felt like it.

  27. “Get stuffed.” See what I meant by “rabid racism is still evident today…”

    Tampering with evidence by the Govt against Trump is not OK, but Tampering with evidence by the Govt against OJ was OK.

  28. I was recently in my eye doctor’s office to get my macular degeneration treatment.

    The waiting room was full of old codgers like me. My wife remarked that it looked like Heaven’s waiting room. Well, we all hope so.

    Not much in the way of upright postures there. At a certain point in life, some things become more important than perfect posture. 🙁

    That said, I’m vowing to do the exercises that can be done in a chair every day before I open my computer. It’s closing the gate after the horse has left the barn, but hope springs eternal, and it actually makes my neck and shoulders feel better. 🙂

  29. Karmi said, “ Jury found him innocent.”

    No, they didn’t. They found him not guilty. There’s a difference.

  30. @Karmi

    Jury found him innocent. Of course, to many Republicans that doesn’t matter – which is another one of the many issues I have with the Republican party…

    Drop the crybully act. You’re also “conveniently” ignoring that while he was found innocent by the jury in the criminal case, he was found culpable for her death in the civil suit. And I think based on the merits that the civil suit was much better run than the criminal case (starting with how the jurisdiction should have been moved when it became clear public sentiment made getting an impartial jury or judge unlikely).

    And notably they addressed the Fuhrman accusations in great detail. Which is one reason why I agree the case SHOULD have been dismissed from criminal course if it could be proven Fuhrman planted evidence (even if OJ later admitted to being guilty) precisely because it is important to maintain high standards, it is not actually an excuse to disregard all evidence about the matter.

    Also deep racial divisions exist or worsen when justice is either not done or is at least not clearly seen to be done. Especially when only an adequate command of the facts and decent explanation is one of the only antidotes to base tribalism or “let’s hope he is acquitted just because he is of Our Tribe” or vice versa. I do not find the local authorities did a good job of that and some of them – especially Fuhrman- may have tainted it so that it was worth dismissing the charges. But that does not mean we are forced to ignore preponderance of evidence or the other facts involved.

    And we are absolutely not forced to ignore the fact that even if OJ was not guilty in fact and not just in criminal law, he behaved with particular callousness, dishonesty, lack of compassion, and egotistical self righteousness towards the victims’ families and tried to profit off of the murders. And that’s before I get into the self defeating “find the real killers” goat rodeo.

    No full assessment of his innocence or guilt can ignore those things, including the second trial. It also matters because while it is better to let the guilty go than to imprison the innocent and people like Fuhrman need to be held to high standards, it does not mean that we are forced to ignore the evidence.

    If he loses then the Democrats may hold the President’s Office for the next 12 years – terrible gamble by the MAGA GOP…

    If any Republican lost then the Dems would hold it for years and years. The left has been demonizing anyone to the right of Obama since 2000. Trump was a rare break in that and stopped Hillary where many others failed. I am not one to claim he deserves sainthood, but he has been better than most.

  31. “probably the same as you and maybe even more.” -Karmi

    You mean like normalizing deviant behavior?
    Allowing/enabling kids who are confused/unstable to make life altering decisions they are unequipped to make?
    Like destroying the nuclear family?
    Encouraging/incentivizing lawless behavior in our urban areas and along the border?
    Weakening the economy and refusing to engage in policy debate to stem the debt crisis?
    Indoctrinating our children with values antithetical to the Republic?

    There, I got the list started…

    Yes, I wish some Republicans weren’t helping their agenda along.

  32. seriously, you’ve had 28 years to get some perspective, it took me a long time to get dershowitz’s misdirections in the service of his client, and the suppression of justice out of my system, because OJ was so well regarded, his actual acts of abuse against nicole were dismissed by the authorities including mark fuhrman, of course at the time of the last one, there wasn’t the likes of a ben crump who comes fully stocked with gallons of tar,

    I know it was two years after the ‘mostly peaceful’ firestorm, that engulfed LA, thanks Warren Christopher, in whichever corner of hell you’re in, so they didn’t change to a more conducive venue, we’ve been through three riots in Miami, so we got that out of the system, by 1989, the first incident the McDuffie case was agregious enough to have caused a spark, on dry timber, the others less so, I’m guessing you voted for Karen Bass, the former? communist, from the Venceremos brigades, the ones that birthed the weather underground under the aegis of the KGB

  33. Re: Underground city beneath Paris

    Weirdly true. Back when Paris was a small town in the 900s, there was a burgeoning limestone mining operation in the surrounding areas, which over the centuries led to several hundred miles of tunnels beneath Paris as it expanded outward.

    Then there was a weird solution to the Paris cemetery problem, which led to moving mass graves to the tunnels which meant that miles of tunnels were faced with skulls and skeletons. The Paris Catacombs.

    Since then the tunnels have been used by criminals, Nazis, the French Resistance and an avant-garde underground calling itself, “Les UX,” which ran an exclusive movie theatre in the tunnels while conducting a white-hat campaign to protect French heritage.

    –Thoughty2, “Meet Paris’ Secret Underground Society”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YEMo-fzmw

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_UX

    Needless to say, it’s some of the coolest cred to make the scene in the tunnels.

    BTW, if you get lost in the tunnels, you’re on your own. People have died.

  34. Brian E. – like I said earlier, this election is boiling down to The Lesser of Two Weevils. Yes, the Democratic party is horrid, but so is the Republican party.

    • Statutory Rape charges against 18-19-20-21-22 etc. year old young men because Republicans don’t want young Stage 4 puberty women having sex until they are 18 years old.

    • OJ trial was in 1995 and look at the news headlines today, and even the comments here. A ‘jury rendered a verdict of “not guilty” for the two murders’ and much of the nation insist he was guilty. Over 28 years…look at the nation’s behavior today. Alan Dershowitz said it best: ‘..will always carry the legacy of the “deep racial divisions in America”’. Racism is a serious issue with the Republican party — as it also is with many black Americans.

    • I want the right to own firearms again, which now may be possible (???) after I jump thru a lot of hoops. All my other rights were restored automatically, so why not the firearm.

    • Republicans like to create laws that turn people into criminals – like the Vice Laws, for example.

    • Republicans are mostly pro-Russian. Russians reinvaded Ukraine and have shipped children into Russia (for who knows what), a Russian soldier videoed his rape of a baby girl and then put it on his Telegraph channel—obviously thinking that it wouldn’t be an issue because..because..because all Russians knew that Russian soldiers had the OK to rape Ukrainian girls & women, torture chambers, rape chambers, whole towns destroyed, civilians murdered, etc. Republicans are mostly pro-Russian.

    Again, this election has boiled down to The Lesser of Two Weevils for me…

  35. Karmi, so far you’re expanding the list of issues you have with Republicans.

    I asked for some things that bother you about Democrats. There must be something.

  36. Brian E – and I answered it earlier: ‘probably the same as you and maybe even more.

    Your list left out a lot of them, so add more to that list — I’m not going to create a list for you.

  37. Kate: “I don’t think views of OJ are racism.”
    I agree.
    In fact I would argue his celebratory status was helping to reduce racial prejudices, along with the often numerous public advances (as well as many private ones) made by blacks after the 1960’s (up to 2008, anyway?). You don’t make him your pitchman if you think he will alienate potential customers. And something so obvious, but accepted even by then, that we don’t think to mention it: they were an interracial couple.

    Clearly the reaction to the verdict had racial distinctions by some groups, so the prejudice was still high in some quarters, but not overall.

    mongo on April 11, 2024 at 5:53 pm: agree; I would have said the same thing but you stated it first. +++

  38. Republicans are mostly pro-Russian.

    Karmi:

    I doubt that assessment, but I am sure that most commenters here are not pro-Russian, however conflicted they may be about Ukraine.

  39. So Karmi is a Dem plant after all.

    “Racism is a deep problem with the Republican party.”

    A Dem plant indeed.

    Firearms and sex charges? Didndunuffin with that young girl and wants his gat. TMI

  40. Brilliant ‘Analysis’ on your part, om – NOT!

    Seems you have somehow missed my comments about being a registered No Party Affiliation (NPA) voter.

    Heck, looks like you also missed my comments on Democrat’s Transgender, Harvard cheating, butchery of children, educational system, etc. agendas.

    Maybe the Devil just makes you commit a lot of the Seven Deadly Sins daily…

  41. Karmi:

    Your registration is irrelevant.

    I’m not registered with any party, for example. But I’m mainly a conservative.

    For what it’s worth, I think your politics are somewhat of a mixed bag.

  42. Neo: I don’t care for either the DEM or REP parties, and have bashed both here. Don’t understand your “mixed bag” statement. I see myself much further to the right than both of those parties…thanks for voicing your opinion tho.

  43. “Get stuffed.” See what I meant by “rabid racism is still evident today…”
    ==
    No, they don’t see what you mean, because being rude to a poseur is not ‘racism’./

  44. Objectively, it looks like it’s the Democrats who hate Ukraine and favor Russia, or maybe they just hate the USA. Dems have consistently opposed congressional deals which would fund weapons for Ukraine on the condition that US border control is re-instituted.

  45. Neo now has a replacement for the former commenter I will refer to as “The Durban Trampolinist”.

  46. Xix, that’s pretty harx.
    I think that all he was really trying to do was “justify the ways of [real-politique] to man”…as it were…which he did, entertainingly enough…well, most of the time.

    (But then I may not have really understood the message—that’s even assuming I have the right guy….)

  47. Is Zaphod now He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? 🙂 Voldemort, he wasn’t.

    He did see China as the young power on the make, compared to the sclerotic West, particularly America.

    I reverse that assessment. We’ve still got a few tricks up our sleeve. I see nothing but decline ahead for China.

  48. His underlying hatred for people of the wrong melanin came through clearly as well as other less obvious hatreds.

    Xi land the fabulous world of Can Do! A uniform monolithic culture (different
    regions of China with different peoples?, not to be acknowledged) imposed from the top for the good of the masses.

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