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S2kChris's avatar

“Even the most ardent _________ supporter should be terrified by the _________ action, because it could swing just as easily against them in the future.” (Blanks added)

The fact that this nugget of truth escapes so many people utterly baffles me, to the point where I start to question if I’m the idiot (no need to answer). Do people really have so little imagination or foresight? Or do they just not care? Hell, you only need to look at Merrick Garland’s current job as opposed to his “should have been” job to see a real world instance of just that happening. Insert shocked Pikachu face.

Sorry, I got distracted, I’ll go finish reading the rest now.

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Speed's avatar

these people

are not terribly clever

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S2kChris's avatar

Reminds me of one of my favorite Jaws quotes: “I dunno, Chief, if he’s very smart or very dumb.”

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Speed's avatar

Genius or stupid, if it works, it works. Yes what they're doing is completely retarded but I'm not sure anything bad will happen to them.

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Scott A's avatar

I really dont want to live under communism

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Speed's avatar

Same. Kinda am already in Canada, but it could technically get worse.

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MD Streeter's avatar

With voter fraud now enshrined as Michigan state law I'm looking forward to my future of skyrocketing energy costs, massive tax bills, and rationing of every last thing that used to be on supermarket shelves.

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Ice Age's avatar

If it's stupid, but it works, it's still stupid.

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Speed's avatar

yeah but it works

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Ice Age's avatar

Still stupid.

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Gianni's avatar

They just think they’ve fortified it enough that it will never happen to their team.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Quoted for truth.

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JasonS's avatar

In this case, the problem is this. Lets say Trump IS left off the ballot. The left will say "Democracy works". Republicans won't do anything. If SCOTUS overturns the ruling and Biden loses, the left will say Trump cheated and riot in the street.

This is all very dangerous.

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Donkey Konger's avatar

This implies the current crop of republicans would.

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S2kChris's avatar

I’m not exactly sure how you came to that conclusion, but it certainly wasn’t because I meant to imply it.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

R' Meir Kahane, may God avenge his blood, was speaking in the Israeli parliament once and a hard left member of the Knesset called him a Nazi. He replied, "If I'm a Nazi, your zayde [Yiddish: Grandpa} was a Nazi. You're afraid of me because you think I'll act like you when I come to power."

So many people on the political and cultural left just don't understand that libertarian strain within American politics. We don't want the government to be too strong because we're not always running the government.

Look at how the left is howling now that "free speech has consequences" is being applied to their own asses regarding promoting Hamas.

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Speed's avatar

Jews calling other Jews Nazis will always be funny to me regardless of context.

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Adam 12's avatar

R' Meir Kahane was absolutely correct. The other member was projecting.

You see it all the time now.

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John Van Stry's avatar

They believe that they will never lose. Look at California - only democrats can run now.

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Gianni's avatar

Here in Washington state we haven’t elected a R governor since 1980. We almost did a few years ago until the bluest of the blue counties found enough votes for the D to win.

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John Van Stry's avatar

I remember that one, the Judge even ruled that it was fraud, but as there was no laws in place to protect against fraud or to deal with the aftermath of it, he didn't overturn the election and allowed it to stand.

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Gianni's avatar

That judge did the same thing in 1999 with a minor county race. One might suspect it was beta testing in case an R might actually win an important election. Interesting that the head of King County elections, Dean Logan, who was instrumental in manufacturing the votes that pushed the D to win by 129 votes in the second recount resurfaced recently. I guess he’s now running LA elections and was able to invalidate the recall signatures for an effort to recall LA’s Soros-backed DA. I bet we see Dean again in some battleground state. He has the skills needed when democracy is on the ballot.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

In a decent country he'd be keelhauled or displayed in the stocks.

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John Van Stry's avatar

50 years ago, they would have lynched these people. Now? No one can be bothered to do a damn thing. Evil flourishes when good men don't exist. This is why we've had decades of people indoctrinating us to to believe that beating the shit out of someone isn't the way to win an argument.

FORCE wins ALL arguments. That's why we have wars.

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Scott A's avatar

Anyone who can shoot a few hundreds yards accurately could probably easily get away with it too.

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Ice Age's avatar

"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun."

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MD Streeter's avatar

If I remember correctly, something like 2% (or .02%?) of all 2020 election votes in LA County were rejected due to signature mismatches, but a quarter or more of the recall votes were rejected.

Michigan runs their elections the same way these days. The three R frontrunners in the Michigan governor's race were all conveniently disqualified (one was arrested!) before they could even have their names put on the ballot last year. I still wrote in the Detroit PD Chief.

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Gianni's avatar

Our legislators and governor, The Loathsome Jay Inslee rammed thru a regressive carbon tax that’s going to significantly increase the price of gas. There’s an initiative gathering signatures to put the tax on the ballot. I’m assuming our liberal state Supreme Court will invalidate it. The greens are terrified of the voters rejecting it.

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Ice Age's avatar

"Found" being the operative word.

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Gianni's avatar

But King County elections told me the found ballots were discovered in a secure, locked location.

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Ice Age's avatar

Uh huh...

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Chuck S's avatar

That's true of California, but all things change. California was once a Republican state - Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson, who was beating the illegal immigration drum long before almost anyone else and was the biggest champion of Prop. 187, are but two obvious examples.

Meanwhile, Texas was reliably blue until the 1990s. West Virginia is another example; IIRC it has only in the last generation turned reliably Republican.

The pendulum may swing slowly in some instances, but it always completes its arc.

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Ice Age's avatar

California started to go to shit about 1990.

I'm not sure WHY, but I AM sure of the date.

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Chuck S's avatar

Which puts the beginning of the decline squarely at the feet of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who was governor from 1991 through 1999. Granted, he had a Democratic legislature, but he was the governor.

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Ice Age's avatar

Yeah, I remember something about that. Didn't Wilson sign some immigration bill that pissed off Hispanics or something?

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Chuck S's avatar

Yeah, he was a huge proponent of Prop 187 and other measures against illegal immigration. Probably pissed off the agriculture industry as well.

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yossarian's avatar

nyc: same, same.

only the dem primary counts here. that's why we are all registered democrats. i had neighbors tell me i should vote for dan goldman because he was relatively moderate. this is actually true when you compare him to his main opponent in the 2022 primary, mondaire jones.

jones, for those of you who can be forgiven for not remembering the former congressman from rockland county, is an impassioned proponent of dc statehood. the hill had a nice piece on how jones handled that issue:

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/549895-heated-argument-erupts-after-rep-mondaire-jones-calls-gop-objections-to-dc/

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Ice Age's avatar

I guess I'm in trouble now for disclosing state secrets.

https://spectator.org/weaponized-governmental-failure-revivalist-manifesto-excerpt/

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Scott A's avatar

“Do people really have so little imagination or foresight?“ yes. Your average american is an idiot. Everyone here is probably at least a midwiit.

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S2kChris's avatar

Except I’m not talking about the “average American”, I’m talking about those in power. I’m not saying they’re smart, but I’d at least expect them to be calculating and devious.

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Scott A's avatar

The people that get them elected are

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sgeffe's avatar

I’d certainly say that a lot of the Democrats are devious, especially the Obama people running the show in Washington right now.

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Chuck S's avatar

I think you can count on one hand the number of people in Washington who are smart enough to count as calculating and devious. Mitch McConnell leads that list. No one plays a longer game, and does so more ruthlessly, than he does.

Most of them are blithering idiots or shameless opportunists (Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Jamaal Bowman, to name three obvious examples) incapable of thinking beyond the next news cycle or election. Or they think they're absolutely impervious, if not above the law, and do not give a shit about anything and simply do all they can to line their own pockets. (Bill Clinton, Jared Kushner, and Bob Menendez all come readily to mind.)

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I wouldn't mind taking Lauren Boebert to the movies though.

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Chuck S's avatar

same

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Harry's avatar

She seems fun at live theatre events.

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Ice Age's avatar

I just watched a Joe Rogan video where he interviewed some guy talking about illegal aliens and real estate, and the guy made the point that the problem is, I'll see if I can paraphrase this, "The smartest people in the world. Not contemplative intellectuals, but shrewd sociopaths. Guys who're really good at gaming the system. Who're always planning how to take advantage of and get around whatever upcoming law is supposed to shut them down."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBOKnXnm9Go

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Speed's avatar

Strong bit about the boomers at the end there. It was always about money.

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Ice Age's avatar

Then you're gonna LOVE this. It's good, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4KIaQaEuOM

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Speed's avatar

not sure love is the right word but i appreciate the link

Both of my parents are boomers. Very strange for my age group, but it's given me unique insight into "what it was like back then". I am VERY lucky given my father and his father. Could be far worse.

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Ark-med's avatar

Tim Dillon is quite perspicacious about those reptilian sociopaths.

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Ice Age's avatar

Seems to be.

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Ark-med's avatar

Give Tim's own podcast a listen. It's vile.

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JasonS's avatar

The problem with this is that conservatives or R's won't do anything about it because many of them believe in "due process". Desantis said it himself. Florida COULD find a way to leave Biden off the ballot for some wild reason without trial and just said he was treasonous, but they never will.

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Ice Age's avatar

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilantism."

Not just a malapropism anymore!

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Wheelview's avatar

I am a Democrat who has complete disdain for Trump and would very much not like to see him in the White House again. I also think this is one of the most foolhardy things that a court has ever done, and it’s going to have a full slate of repercussions on our Democracy that they clearly don’t have the vision to see. Simply stupid.

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Rick J's avatar

The Colorado's court decision will absolutely solidify Trump's base and likely move many undecideds to evaluate making a move to Trump as this is a bridge to far. Additionally, the current Alzheimer's patient living in the White House cannot possibly be seen as a viable President, or Dog Catcher. Regardless of the Wars, Inflation, Non stop spending, woke policies and his obviously incoherent thought and speech patterns. He's simply a pawn for the neo Marxists and Entitlement addicts. Or whoever else is currently running this country.

I thought about throwing down the Pedophile card but that can wait for next month when Epstein's little black book is made public. I wonder which countries will grant asylum to child rapists? I predict multiple "suicides" next 30 days.

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Wheelview's avatar

I foresee many states removing Biden from the ballot as a result of this.

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Rick J's avatar

After Epstein's book comes out next month I think many states may have a legal right to.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

If it's more than two you can have a free steak dinner in Morrow County, on me!

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Henry C.'s avatar

Successfully and not just to fanfare? Doubtful.

With enough electoral votes to make a dent? Never.

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JasonS's avatar

The Republicans won't do a thing. Most actually believe in due process.

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Henry C.'s avatar

If they do believe in it, they are fools. They don't though, really.

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Ice Age's avatar

"John Marshall made his decision, now let him enforce it."

- Andrew Jackson

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Adam 12's avatar

I am truly repulsed by the people both sides run and can’t believe we don’t have better candidates. But then again it is about the parties staying in power and not service to the electorate. In that light the “candidates/dip shits” that are on the ballot make sense.

Occasionally policies are put forward that make sense but only when they interred align with a PAC or pork spending.

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Ice Age's avatar

We don't have better candidates because people think the system is so broken it can't be fixed, so why bother? Or if it CAN be fixed, it'd be a lifelong thankless slog you'd have to devote your whole self to.

"I want to make the road-maintenance process honest again."

What kind of dream is that?

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Adam 12's avatar

Agree. There is no payoff to being honest. Why try.

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Ice Age's avatar

I was just watching YouTube videos about how homeowners have to hire lawyers and file official complaints to get rid of squatters. Squatters are trespassers and thieves. They should be hauled out bodily by the police, arrested and beaten if they resist.

Of course, reporters want to know why serial squatters slip through the cracks and operate for years, even decades. Lawyers will say that cops are only concerned with crimes that happen in their own jurisdiction and departments don't talk to each other.

And then I wonder, if cops are territorial and the system can’t connect the dots to get legitimate criminals like professional squatters, why do police across the length and breadth of America operate in perfect synchronization, with real-time information when it comes to traffic violations?

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Adam 12's avatar

Traffic laws unlike landlord tenant are pretty uniform due to federal money and incentives. Full faith and credit means the other states need to accept the judgements and traffic is pretty easy to share, but that being said not all share traffic data. There really is no threat to the state or any state licensing if you squat in one state and then in another. Only a civil issue between the landlord and tenant.

States deal with squatting differently. In California it takes an act of congress to remove someone. In North Carolina call the cops on a “squatter” who had no lease they will treat them like a trespasser or worse. We have had a few people think it was like California and when they got shot found out differently.

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silentsod's avatar

At least we're getting close to admitting the current state of things is corrupt.

I also wouldn't let Jenna Ellis represent me for a parking ticket.

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Speed's avatar

isnt she a little thin to be considered zaftig or do i not understand the word

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Scott A's avatar

Paging bryce

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Alan's avatar

Yeah, but to my knowledge Jenna was never a stripper.

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Scott A's avatar

He likes the non stripper fat chicks too. I mean “zaftig”

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Brian's avatar

"Zaftig"- full rounded figure, plump.

The picture Jack linked for Jenna was when she was in fighting shape. If you saw her recently in the courtroom for the Georgia case it looks like she's put on a few. The double chin is a dead giveaway... (Still has a cute face, though.)

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Speed's avatar

Googled her and agree, the double chin is quite visible.

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Ice Age's avatar

"Big-boned."

"Full-figured."

"Curvy."

Uh huh. She's a tank.

"This has to be a typo. This guy on Facebook Marketplace is selling a 10,000-pound wench."

"That's no typo. He's in Pittsburgh."

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Speed's avatar

bones dont jiggle

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Ataraxis's avatar

And stomachs don’t have bones.

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Alan's avatar

But Trump "hires the best people!"

I only recently realized how basically non existent her resume was. And yet she was at the very front of Trump's post-election efforts.

The bimbo representing him in the New York fraud case isn't much better. The hell with the 14th Amendment, Trump should be disqualified from office based on the quality of the legal representation he uses.

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Adrian Clarke's avatar

You mean the quality of legal representation he can get.

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Alan's avatar

There is that. Representing Trump is a great way to get black balled by every white shoe firm in the country, and get bar complaints filed against you until you cry uncle and surrender your license.

But I also get the distinct impression that Trump is the legal client from hell. Doesn't listen, can't be trusted to shut up on the stand or in front of the press, and will fire you if you don't agree to do something that will get you disbarred.

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Brian McCoy's avatar

I am a lawyer and this is 100% accurate. I'm a criminal defense guy and have represented some terrible people. I would take his case for 10 million, all paid up front. I figure I could comfortably retire on that when my practice and reputation are destroyed.

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Donkey Konger's avatar

To refine my criticism above - many attorneys aren't done earning their living and couldn't represent a client like Trump. I sympathize.

But plenty of others are rich enough to retire *yesterday*, with no future work required. Pat Cipollone was one such attorney who betrayed Trump when it mattered, and now its basically too late for any other attorney to save the guy.

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Brian McCoy's avatar

That dude is a first class attorney who had a client that wasn't listening to anything he said. No point in getting dragged down by your asshole client.

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Lynn W Gardner's avatar

Donker, hey I know Pat, he is a stand up guy, or as stand up as you can be with a $7,000 per hour billing rate. But then again he has 11 kids and needs an hourly rate to pay tuition bills fron ND, Gtown, and Fordum. But some do have a point, our President goes though Attorneys like he goes though Diet Cokes.

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Henry C.'s avatar

I get it. Anyone who represents him will be blackballed out of their profession and then deal with lawfare forever. It will take a committed man with nothing to lose.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

It's really a shame and a tragedy the way the left has corrupted your profession/guild. As a bedrock cultural value, the right to legal representation in America predates the United States. John Adams represented the British soldiers put on trial after the Boston Massacre. The way leftist lawyers, including those in the DoJ and other government agencies, have waged lawfare on their political opponents is a stain on our republic.

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Brian McCoy's avatar

I bet John Adams' clients paid their bills and listened to his advice.

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Donkey Konger's avatar

This is 100% true.

Who would take on the client from hell, who also will dramatically narrow any future career aspirations?

The attorneys who work for Trump don't have any better clients to work for, or they'd already be too busy working for said clients.

But this ALSO speaks to the cowardice of the legal profession. Lawyers from the ivy-leaguiest white shoe firms were lined up around the BLOCK to represent the central park five or the Mollie Tibbets rapemurderer - but not a single decent attorney exists for the (tragic) People's Tribune. Look at this account of Trump's own deceitful WH counsel! https://www.deepcapture.com/2021/02/how-djt-lost-the-white-house-chapter-3-crashing-the-white-house-december-18/

Probably the worst professional association I can think of.

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Chuck S's avatar

and doesn't pay his bills.

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Scott A's avatar

I recently had a client fire me because I insisted he pay last years bill before starting this years tax return. Lesson learned on that one.

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Chuck S's avatar

It doesn't help that he's notorious for not paying his bills.

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Alan's avatar

On a related note, Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy days after get found liable for $148 million in damaging for libeling two Georgia election workers.

If anybody asks Trump, I'm sure his comments will be along the lines of "I didn't really know him."

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Henry C.'s avatar

It is clearly a shot to dissuade anyone else from coming forward. The concept that the two individuals involved can claim material damages of that amount for slander is beyond absurd.

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Chuck S's avatar

The plaintiffs didn't claim that much. the jurors awarded 3x what was sought. Nor was the full amount for material damages. $16.998M went to Moss for defamation, $20 million to each for emotional distress, and $75 million in punitive damages.

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Henry C.'s avatar

Even more absurd. 'Kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.'

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Paul Alexander's avatar

I think we're getting closer to admittance of corruption because we're getting closer to the point that there's no need to hide the corruption.

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Speed's avatar

"It's fine, it was always like this"

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Ice Age's avatar

Sounds like forums for MGs, Triumphs and other British cars.

"What's wrong with this car?"

"Nothing, they ALL do that."

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Peter Collins's avatar

It helps you to build a nurturing relationship with the car!

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Ice Age's avatar

Or a DV situation.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Jenna got me out of a 165-in-55 so my confidence in her is total. The signed photo I sent her is on her Instagram.

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silentsod's avatar

Personal experience trumps seeing her be a public Twitter clown

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JasonS's avatar

I'm not sure I care for any of these people, but Trump didn't help a single one of them. So I have no pity there.

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Speed's avatar

im sorry what in a 55

how in the actual fuck

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Jack Baruth's avatar

McLaren 650S

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Speed's avatar

sounds about right

way more believable than if you had said it was a clapped out silverado with a pair of wuhan war whistles and an ebay stage 4 cam

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Scott A's avatar

I can confirm the top advertised speed of 155mph in the 2007 mazdaspeed 3 is accurate. took awhile to get there.

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Speed's avatar

top speed of a 1991 miata is about 170kph

very optimistically

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Ice Age's avatar

Downhill, wide open.

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Ice Age's avatar

That's amazing for a car that's shaped like a Reebok High Top.

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Ice Age's avatar

You ask that question in a world where thousand-horsepower cars are not uncommon?

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Speed's avatar

there are thousand horsepower cars and cars stable at high speeds

they are not necessarily the same cars

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Ice Age's avatar

Stable schmabel.

It's not the plane, it's the pilot.

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Speed's avatar

fingerprint voters found making fraudulent votes will have their fingerprints removed via the nearest benihana hibachi

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Jeff Winks's avatar

I live in Colorado, it’s getting more batshit here every year.

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Rick J's avatar

Well, fix it.

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Jeff Madson's avatar

It's hard when the native Colorado residents are nearly outnumbered by Californian's with a Colorado drivers license. Add in the hippies that have always lived in Denver and Boulder and the game is pretty much decided.

When we sold in Colorado seven years ago, people were already calling Denver LA North.

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Jeff Winks's avatar

Ha. The Republican party here has no balls what is one person to do? People are going to jail for not agreeing

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Ataraxis's avatar

I fixed my problems with Illinois by moving to North Carolina. That’s all one person can do.

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Scott A's avatar

I talk to my clients who are mostly successful small business owners “why do we still live here?” You think you could move to Tennessee and start your small business all over again? The answer is usually “nope” one bright side of beimg a w2

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

I asked someone with whom I do business, who is right of center politically and complains to me about the atmosphere there every time we talk why he still operates his business in southern California. "I had a nice bike ride by the Pacific Ocean this morning."

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Scott A's avatar

The weather would be tough to leave. Chicago weather is shit so it’s literally just the jobs. The taxes arent even that bad but the politics are shit

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MD Streeter's avatar

I used to wake up every morning when I lived in Japan and drive down the coast with the sunlight sparkling on the Pacific. I truly understand that guy's perspective.

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Ataraxis's avatar

I was just a corporate paper shuffler with the freedom to leave, so I feel for the small business owners tied to the city.

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Ice Age's avatar

The Republican party thinks politics is some high school debating society, instead of the no-holds-barred bloodsport it actually is.

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Rick J's avatar

Didn't used to all be that way. But, it is now and this country is worth getting bloody for.

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Chuck S's avatar

what's funny is democrats say the same thing about their party.

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MD Streeter's avatar

There are a lot of people angry with them for not giving us the full-blown glory of the USSR by now.

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Chuck S's avatar

Just as there are a lot of people angry that Republicans haven't given them the full-blown glory of Hungary under Viktor Orban by now.

There are extremes at each ends of the spectrum.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

It's always easier to see the divisions and inadequacies on your own side... but complaining about Democrats in national politics is like carping about the Bash Brothers' strikeout percentage in 1989.

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Chuck S's avatar

I always think of Will Rogers: "I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat."

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MD Streeter's avatar

Seeing how stupid things are these days (and for pretty much the past 20ish years) I think the best change we could make would be to force Congress to pass laws with tough man competitions and fights to the death. I'm certain there are ways to corrupt that, too, but I'd love to watch Cocaine Mitch and Box Wine Nancy slap each other to death.

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Gianni's avatar

Bring back duelling with pistols.

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MD Streeter's avatar

Too noble. I want fisticuffs and clumsy grappling from our current herd of old geezers.

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Eleutherios's avatar

"Politics is not touch football. Politics is winner take all. It always has been and it always will be. ... Government may be about service; politics is about winning." - The Last (True) Republican

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

Whitmer and her AG Nessel are steering Michigan right into a whirlpool of doom.

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Joe griffin's avatar

Agreed!

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Sir Morris Leyland's avatar

"directly into a whirlpool of doom"

"left into a whirlpool of doom"

Don't forget Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (formerly with the SPLC), who Biden literally gave a medal to for her role in delivering him a victory.

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MD Streeter's avatar

Any time anyone insists there was no voter fraud and I start feeling like a moron I think of those counting graphs they put up where Trump has a comfy lead and then the counting "stops" in the middle of the night and shortly after that "stop" Biden has an insurmountable lead. The thing with that graph is that it wasn't just Michigan. It was like every state that mattered. I would hope I had enough integrity that were the parties switched I would call out the people I supported for doing something so unbelievably, blatantly shady.

I voted against the voter fraud enshrinement in the last midterm and lost. I don't think Michigan will recover from Whitmer's moronic reign but I suppose I'll ride this ship to the bottom of the lake regardless.

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dejal's avatar

I went to bed thinking "Looks like a win". Woke up the next morning "What the Fuck?" Nationally. Mass. is a lost cause, and my vote doesn't count.

The last person for Govenor that I voted for that I was bitterly disappointed that didn't win was John Silber, Democrat, Head of Boston University in 1990. This guy was to the right of Reagan. He made Trump look like a Communist. I have no idea how he managed to get the D nomination. Instead we got Bill Weld.

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RandoDMV's avatar

Random observation, when Evo Morales had the vote counting stopped in Bolivia (mind you just overnight), we insisted he step down as President. That is our position as a country, at least as it pertains to other countries, that there is no plausible reason to stop counting other than to cheat.

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Scott A's avatar

Its the weed

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to the UP. From the billboards in this state, visitors must get the impression we're all high all of the time, and I say that as a pothead.

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Scott A's avatar

Weed is legal in illinois and i know a decent amount of people who risk driving through Indiana to buy michigan weed because it is so much cheaper.

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tinman93's avatar

Are you saying they sell something other than weed and jerky? You couldn’t tell driving up I75.

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MD Streeter's avatar

The UP is all weed shops and antiques and pasties.

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Drunkonunleaded's avatar

Have you been to Monroe lately? The area around the old outlet mall is still run down, but every abandoned fast food restaurant has turned into a dispensary. The place is hopping.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

Ohio just legalized recreational but there aren't dispensaries yet. Once there are dispensaries in Toledo, I expect that some of those Monroe dispensaries will fold.

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Drunkonunleaded's avatar

There was discussion on that. IIRC, it was estimated that it will take a few years for Ohio to have the infrastructure in place and prices low enough to compete. Hopefully by then the area has seen some new businesses move in to cater to the dispo customers. Monroe as a whole isn't doing so great, but that area in particular is a ghost town.

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dejal's avatar

Mass. Allowed a ton. Everyone was going to clean up. In the last year a bunch have folded. I remember when the 1st one opened in Northampton Mass. Cops directing traffic for months. If you include them and every town that borders them, I think there are 22 shops. At least 5 or 6 have closed or announced plans to open but didn't.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/how-many-cannabis-businesses-have-closed-in-mass-it-s-unclear-but-times-are-tough/ar-AA1lhbBt

“We don’t want to sound too callous about this for people who are in the business,” he said. “If you built your business around the idea that you could sell weed for $50 or up, and it turns out the sustainable price is $30 or $35, then some people are not going to make it.”

Also toss in, that the street guys never went away and they don't charge sales tax........

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Drunkonunleaded's avatar

Some of the larger "chains" in MI have run into similar trouble. One went bankrupt that I know of.

IMO, these places have blown entirely too much on up front costs. All of these places look like a stoner Starbucks and spent a fortune on the buildout of their locations. It's almost as though none of them decided to consider why liquor stores look the way that they do.

In trying to build an identity, they all look similar: greyscale exterior. Similar for the interior but with splashes of lime green or similar. LED light everywhere and techno blaring. It's kind of sensory overload.

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Scott A's avatar

None of your business expenses, except the cost of weed are deductible because weed is federally illegal. I suspect someone is trying to come up with a creative work around for that but I wouldn't touch a weed shop as a client with a ten foot pole.

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dejal's avatar

Map of Noho and shops. I know there's a few more than that.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/cannabis/@42.3125834,-72.7038723,12z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

Viewed on a PC. Your mileage may vary on a phone.

I'm a bit south of that.

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Ryan K's avatar

Just drove to West Michigan, and it's the same deal over by Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. It's like every other billboard.

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sgeffe's avatar

Unfortunately, in one fell swoop, Ohio not only went to pot, but has enshrined ripping a perfectly healthy baby out of a womb, beating it to death, and throwing it out with the rest of the biohazard material, into its Constitution.

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MD Streeter's avatar

Not to mention the dismemberment and genital mutilation that comes along with the vagueness that law allows....

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Nothing says spirit of 1776 like getting high, getting pregnant, then putting a drill to the head of the unborn child.

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Speed's avatar

Genuinely unsettling.

Now imagine if everyone knew what the actual procedure entailed.

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Eleutherios's avatar

I'd like to think awareness would help, but I have serious doubts.

I ranted here a few weeks back about the abuses rampant in western eldercare. After, I scoured the web for studies, investigative journalism, etc. on the issue. There's quite a bit out there. In my opinion, there's more than enough to have sparked national outrage and reform IFF we had a receptive population. I don't think we have such a population.

At best, wrt obvious issues like the malignant drug ecosystem, abortion, and porous borders, I have the sense that the trends can't be stopped. We have all the awareness we can handle, which is probably a function of the greater culture rather than any specific tactics and strategies. If an awareness campaign reforms one demographic, another two will take a turn for the worse.

:)

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Speed's avatar

the moral degeneration will continue

not until morale improves or anything itll just continue

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Ice Age's avatar

Abortion is premeditated murder in the name of convenience. Why do you think its proponents always describe it in such clinical terms as "reproductive rights" or "women's health care?" Because they're monsters who want to kill innocent human beings.

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Speed's avatar

bingo

its just politically correct infanticide

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Scott A's avatar

We should pass a "Give it a name" bill. You can't kill it until you name it. I bet that would cut down on it quite a bit.

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Speed's avatar

abortion but you have to birth it and kill it yourself with a plastic knife while you look it in its barely open eyes

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Ice Age's avatar

I swear, the legalization of weed is another part of the conspiracy to prevent the Common Man from ousting the Aristocrat from power.

Being baked off your ass is not conducive to fighting The State on principle.

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Fat Baby Driver's avatar

Weed is the dopiate of the masses.

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countymountie's avatar

The Colorado Republican party is too busy engaging in a circular firing squad to win statewide. Any sensible leaders get attacked by the lunatic fringe. The truly conservative parts of the state don't have the population to outweigh the Denver/Boulder/Ft Collins metro area. Add it all up and we're well and truly screwed here. I expect the state legislature to have a dem supermajority next time around.

The supreme court decision was not surprising and considering Trump never had a snowball's chance in hell of winning this state, the local harm is minimal except for the disenfranchisement. But that's been going on for a long time now. Viewed nationally it's nothing but judgement based upon emotion, not facts. A country that is not based upon rule of law is what I fear the most.

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Drunkonunleaded's avatar

Disagree about the harm. I see this as another level of lawfare where there is now a template by which other states can attempt to do similar.

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calm's avatar

The R’s don’t have the temerity to do anything about it. One of their presidents, the figureheads of the party, has been criminally charged and they did nothing about it in retaliation. They gave up the ghost

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Speed's avatar

the r in republican stands for resigned

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Ice Nine's avatar

It is disconcerting that we have taken another long step down the ladder that leads to "Banana Republic". If some fourth-rate country in Africa or South American or "Countries that end in -stan" had done something like this, the same people that are cheering on the Colorado court would be having full-on conniption fits about "unjust leaders", and "bring democracy to the poor third world citizens". Yet these people are so full of themselves, they can not see how disingenuous they actually are.

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silentsod's avatar

Thought you were Ice Age as I skimmed through this.

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Johnnyangel's avatar

I get that you dislike the Washington Post, but it’s annoying that you misrepresent the publication’s opinion on this. The editorial board has come out against the Colorado action (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-14th-amendment-trump-insurrection/), as have at least two of the paper’s columnists, Ruth Marcus (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/) and Jim Geraghty (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-supreme-court-ballot-decision-helped-trump/). It’s also disappointing that you appear, at least implicitly, to support Trump’s farcical claims of election fraud.

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Rick J's avatar

Farcical to who? Your opinion and not fact until all evidence is impartially viewed.

The WP is disingenuous. They DO understand the implication for current and possible future Democrat candidates. The Post has ridden the holier than thou horse since Watergate. They are just another mouthpiece for corrupt pols.

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Johnnyangel's avatar

The fraud claims have been reviewed over and over and repeatedly discredited. And if there had been election fraud, why was it so massively incompetent as to put Biden in without also ensuring control of Congress?

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Scott A's avatar

Lol. By who? I saw them pull votes out on video.

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sgeffe's avatar

Especially since Jeff Bezos, a socialist globalist pig if there ever was one, took over the Washington Compost.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

What is your opinion on the documented efforts to "fortify" the election? If all the pricing mistakes in a store favor the store, are they really mistakes? Do you really think that Marc Elias has any interest at all in election integrity? Want to buy this genuine Rolex for $1,000?

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-time-magazine-expose-on-the-conspiracy-to-elect-biden-is-not-what-you-think-it-is

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Speed's avatar

what model rolex is it

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Alan's avatar

As you can imagine, most of us don't have a subscription to that mouthpiece, so I'll just have to guess at what's behind the paywall here. But I'm assuming the gist of these opinion pieces is that the court decision is bad because it will galvanize Trump supporters and/or encourage the nefarious Republicans to use this as precedent to exact revenge on Democrats.

The Washington Post is so predictable that I struggle to take seriously anyone who takes it seriously.

"It’s also disappointing that you appear, at least implicitly, to support Trump’s farcical claims of election fraud."

A lot of his claims are indeed farcical, as was the whole "have Pence stop the certification" thing. At some point, anything that didn't turn out your way becomes fraud. Some of his most ardent supporters remain convinced that the "real" vote had the "Very Stable Genius" winning all 50 states. It's pretty cringey.

But at the same time, it's just as farcical to accept that there was no fraud, consequential or otherwise. There's always fraud, always has been. Or to ignore the vast potential for fraud that comes with mail in voting, drop boxes, lack of real voter ID standards, etc.

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Ataraxis's avatar

The biggest tell for me is Biden getting more votes than Obama.

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Speed's avatar

That was a bit of a stretch.

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Alan's avatar

Was it really, though? Consider that you had

0) Unprecedented access to early/mail-in voting

1) Lives in ruins over COVID/Lockdowns

2) A uniquely hated GOP candidate who oversaw #1

3) A Democrat who wasn't Hillary

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silentsod's avatar

Iirc we had a higher % than compulsory voting Australia.

Feel free to correct me

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Alan's avatar

How much of that percentage was run up in places like California where it was absolutely meaningless?

We also had anecdotes of Philadelphia precincts with > 100% turnout in 2012.

All I'm saying is that it was an unprecedented scenario, and there's also a long-established precedent for "irregularities" that are deemed to be unworthy of consideration in a public forum.

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silentsod's avatar

As a nation we are famously not that motivated to vote.

If a place where there are penalties for doing so doesn't reach such lofty heights its strange bordering on wrong.

Anyway, not investigating irregularities leads to ask why are we letting small things slip instead of doggedly seeking to rectify what is apparently wrong.

Unprecedented or not one cannot introduce an easy means of cheating and then simply not investigate when so many absurd things occur. If there is some bizarre and legitimate reason great, but the investigations should occur by default.

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Ice Age's avatar

How's compulsory voting work, anyway? Can I write in Optimus Prime or Jean-Luc Picard?

Because truth be told, those are the only two guys I'd feel 100% good voting for.

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JasonS's avatar

Considering in AZ an election worker is so expert in signature verification they can do it in under less than a second. They are even better than signature experts!

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Nplus1's avatar

You could read it here: https://archive.ph/VM1B3 You were basically accurate. As a "coming out against" piece, it's pretty wishy-washy.

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silentsod's avatar

Apparently failed to click post:

To Jack's point we don't have the appearance, even, of honest elections.

Does covering windows at a counting location instill trust?

What about propagating stories of broken water lines shutting a place down?

& etc

Trustworthy system or not it looks shaky.

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JasonS's avatar

That wasn't even the worst story out of GA. Several independent media groups found that voters used Church's as an address, and that these Church's were used ass addresses 400 percent more in that election. The law at the time allowed homeless to use registered city homeless shelters as an address for their voter registration. While that in and of itself is problematic, the scores of Churches, which are not shelters, used as addresses skyrocketed. How was any of this verified?

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MD Streeter's avatar

Stephen Crowder sent people to addresses in different states, found a voter in Nevada registered at a parking lot. He wasn't able to say anything about it because of youtube's policy regarding voter fraud. Someone had been watching Cobo Hall in Detroit and watched some random guy in some random van pull a Coleman cooler out of the back and walk it into the counting area. The news in Detroit (WXYZ or something if I remember) played it off as though the guy was transporting camera equipment. Right. Camera equipment is always transported in the middle of the night by shady assholes driving shady vans to vote counting stations after counting is supposed to have been halted.

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Scott A's avatar

The gaslighting and flexing of "You didn't see what you saw. There is no evidence" is bold.

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MD Streeter's avatar

Some dude in this very comment section (further down, maybe?) laid that exact line down.

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JasonS's avatar

This is where Trump and his legal team failed. Instead of chasing down invalid registrations he was too concerned with the water pipe leak story, suitcases.and hacked computers trying to play whack a mole.

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Ice Age's avatar

"Yeah, it was light from Venus bouncing off some swamp gas..."

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JasonS's avatar

Well, in all of not most states, addresses are rarely verified. I saw this on Crowder before it got pulled. Unless getting a star ID or passport, you don't have to prove where you live to get a license or free ID, and that's all that is required to register to vote. I live in a rural area and the state sure as heck and making sure addresses are verified.

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Donkey Konger's avatar

Sure guy. Go through hereistheevidence.com and dispute each report and each state one by one.

In fact just start here with Georgia. Explain this: https://twitter.com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1736760227779797134

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Ice Age's avatar

I still remember the first time I heard Ollie North refer to that Marxist rag as "The Washington Compost."

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Jack Baruth's avatar

With regards to the first point, I have no excuse other than the timing of archive.is; I will neither pay for the Post nor allow it to load ads in the service of its solvency.

With regards to the second, it seems ironclad to me that mail-in ballots and harvested ballots are by design more suspect to fraud. How much of it happened? I couldn't begin to guess. Don't think it was ten million votes. Also don't think it was ten.

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Michael W's avatar

The helter skelter times are upon us, coupled with the full scale military aged male invasion on the southern border, looming economic crash and tapped out consumer, depending on how the next 11 months go we could be talking about the disintegration of the federal government and large scale social unrest/disruption to the supply chain.

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Adrian Clarke's avatar

Baruth for President 2028!

Oh wait, I don’t get a vote.

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Speed's avatar

Neither do I, but we can hop the border and vote anyway. Work on your American accent, we'll slip right by.

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Rick J's avatar

If you speak understandable english you likely won't be admitted. Better "no hable englesh"

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Trust me, nobody in the world LOOKS MORE ENGLISH than Adrian Clarke. I'm still certain I saw him in no fewer than three Guy Ritchie films.

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Ice Age's avatar

Even Jason Statham? Or Kenneth Colley?

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Not even close. RAY WINSTONE isn't close.

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Adrian Clarke's avatar

Alan Ford. West Ham supporter as well.

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Rick J's avatar

If you speak understandable english you likely won't be admitted. Better "no hable englesh"

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Robert Shelton's avatar

Why do we have to wait until 2028?

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Speed's avatar

Jack is still of sound mind and ambulatory, gotta wait alt least until he's incoherent and bumbling about.

At least I think that's a requirement for the presidency.

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MD Streeter's avatar

It's a requirement for any high-ranking member of congress or the senate, too.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I'm not that ambulatory, let's do it.

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Mike's avatar

Reading your stories here and in other publications I question your soundness of mind. Therefore, you are a perfect candidate for President or any other public orifice.

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Speed's avatar

HE'S GONNA MAKE SPEEDING LEGAL

jack b 2032

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Henry C.'s avatar

Then it isn't speeding anymore, is it?

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Can I count on your vote?

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Mike's avatar

I would vote Baruth but you cannot run Jack. Presidents aren't allowed to drive and I think you would want to put that bulletproof Kodiak framed Cadillac through endurance testing in Detroit with the Secret Service as your passengers.

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Scott A's avatar

Being top 2 in a small accounting firm is annoyimg enough, there isnt enough money in the world you could pay me to be president of this country.

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dejal's avatar

You do understand that anyone that runs for President is usually somewhere in the DSM-5 book? DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I don't think it's possible to even think of running unless you believe your farts smell like rose petals and vanilla.

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Adrian Clarke's avatar

Buddy I have my own chapter in the DSM-V.

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Paul Alexander's avatar

I hate to be that guy again, but this is all political theater drummed up by the attorneys that make up the Republican and Democrat parties. Not just this, all of it. If you want to see where things are headed, watch the Osho documentary about what he and Ma Anand Sheela did in Oregon. That was an experiment and blueprint for where the leaders of both parties, and those that fund them, expect things to go. Like the ol' bumper sticker says, they're thinking globally and acting locally.

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Eric L.'s avatar

I have no idea what this is referencing. Who are Osho and Sheela and what did they do..?

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Paul Alexander's avatar

Here's some info on the documentary I was referring to, which also has info on the people I referenced and what they did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country It's a much a better explanation than I can probably provide.

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Donkey Konger's avatar

I only know Osho from this amazing clip, accurately summarizing "democracy"

https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE

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Joe griffin's avatar

Legal warfare has been around long enough that it has turned the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from political persecution and interference into actual harm against their constituents. The EPA has been in bed with non governmental organizations and had those organizations sue the government to get through In legislation what the agency had no rights to make law. The same thing is happening in courts around the country and it is not in the direction of the constitution. We are in the same place that Germany was in 1938, same ideologies and tactics.

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Speed's avatar

Interesting. What happened to Germany after 1938?

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Joe griffin's avatar

World War II, Germanys adventures in to France, Poland, Russia, and a whole host of other bad things

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Speed's avatar

Well, all those places are far away, so maybe nothing bad will happen if we continue down this path.

we need to get off this path asap

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Joe griffin's avatar

This is the pathway to Hell.

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Speed's avatar

yes lets not do that

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Adam's avatar

[insert Norm Macdonald joke]

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Scott A's avatar

If this ends up with us invading canada and mexico, maybe i can get behind it 😂

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Joe griffin's avatar

I want nothing to do with the inclusion of two socialist societies outside of the United States, we are already in financial ruin.

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Speed's avatar

We already ape your culture, might as well make it official.

I love Canada and everything it is but holy shit it's being obliterated at an insane rate to the point where it's not even Canada anymore.

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Ataraxis's avatar

The last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup was in 1993. When a country loses its reason for being, it’s all downhill from there.

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Speed's avatar

We still clean up at the Olympics, so we are doing alright with that.

I think.

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Christo's avatar

And your women's curling team is full of smoking hotties. I understand most of them are former figure skaters who are no longer jailbait.

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Speed's avatar

I'll have to check that out.

I often forget curling exists.

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unsafe release's avatar

Just the Winter Olympics, we suck at the summers

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Speed's avatar

well yeah theres no snow there

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RandoDMV's avatar

NGOs are a cancer. This is why we should end the charitable tax deduction.

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Joe griffin's avatar

Absolutely agree

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Since it’s an open thread (and I don’t get terribly hung up on Trump-related topics):

Mumtalakat (Bahraini Sovereign Wealth Fund) has effectively acquired full control of McLaren, including both Automotive and Racing (in which legacy ownership by MSP Sports Capital will continue).

https://investors.mclaren.com/group-news/2023/mclaren-group-shareholders-unanimously-approve-full-recapitalisation

The problem is that they’ve spent 3.5 years:

(1) Not making many cars

(2) Not developing new cars (750S and GTS lol)

(3) Trying to fix the Artura (there SHOULD be an Artura spyder and LT by now)

I wonder how the business model will change and whether or not Paul Walsh and Michael Leiters will walk the plank…

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Speed's avatar

clearly what they need is an ev truck of some sort

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Funnily enough…

So the Hummer EV is a big, dumb white elephant, right? But if Lamborghini had made an electric LM002 that size and weight with similar performance and charged $2MM apiece, they would have found 500 or 1,000 willing buyers with ease.

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Speed's avatar

Yeah, because Lamborghinis are cool and not cringe like GM.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Lamborghini also has a customer base of Emperor’s New Clothes marks.

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Speed's avatar

That too.

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Scott A's avatar

Lamborghines are cringe oil sheik cars

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Speed's avatar

yeah but they still make awesome cars

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Scott A's avatar

Im pretty sure every lambo comes with an ed hardy tshirt. They should’ve protected the brand a bit better

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Ice Age's avatar

And guys featured on "Hot Chicks With Douchebags."

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silentsod's avatar

This reminds me I saw my second Urus in the wild and I still can't believe anyone buys them.

At least they were driving like a total jackass which fits for the guy who bought an Urus.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

I probably see ten a week!

Where do you live that you have only seen your second?

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Scott A's avatar

I dont think ive ever seen one. The luxury suv here is typically a range rover

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Observed in Buckhead:

Cullinan: 5+ / week

Urus: 10+ / week

Bentayga: 10+ / week

DBX: Few times a month

G wagen: Constant (dozens and dozens every day)

Range Rover: As many as there are grains of sand on the beach

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S2kChris's avatar

I see them all the time here in Arlington Heights/Barrington/Park Ridge.

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Lynn W Gardner's avatar

Sherman, a lot if not most of the ACF community does not live in high net worth neighborhoods. Although this spring I saw a RR Ghost at Culver’s and took a picture, surly the driver was lost 😁😁😁

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

I saw an Urus in my hometown five years ago. That’s not remarkable per se - there are a few high end cars owned by locals, and there are lots of tourists from Atlanta visiting now - but the first Urus I saw was observed at “home” rather than downtown Chicago or Buckhead!

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Gianni's avatar

Last time I saw one was in the parking lot of Total Wine. the boomer owner was supervising the Total Wine employee loading a box of wine in the back.

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Ataraxis's avatar

My favorite car spotting of all time was a Mercedes Gullwing in the parking lot of the outlet mall in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

I also saw a Gullwing in the 1980s in Chicago rush hour traffic at 6:30am commuting into downtown. It appeared to be driven by a mechanic, and was sagging over on one side and belching smoke out of the exhaust.

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C'est un nom de plume's avatar

I saw a Gullwing, parallel parked on the street, outside a cocktail bar in Santa Barbara. The owner was inside drinking. Fantastic.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

My mom sent me a pic of a Rolls Royce Phantom at the Dollar General in my hometown (we are blessed with nearly a dozen in the county; Dollars General, not Phantoms).

She shops there because it’s convenient, and he knows she won’t see anyone she needs to stop and chat with!

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

How come they got rid of Mike Flewitt?

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Artura failure to launch.

McLaren scrapped the first press launch because the cars wouldn’t work (software). Flewitt left. Then they “fixed” the cars and held a press launch in Spain in spring of 2022 and more than one car caught on fire. I drove one last summer that had some issues.

I live in the thick of a supercar-heavy market (the only bigger one in the southeast would be Miami), and I have never seen an Artura on the road. They have delivered less than 1,000 globally, and the delivered cars keep breaking and having to be bought back and/or rebuilt.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

I haven't followed things too closely. What's so different about the Artura that it's fraught with issues?

Flewitt seems to have done a decent job growing the lineup of cars, considering they were all pretty much based on the same tub and (originally Nissan racing) engine.

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S2kChris's avatar

Artura is the first Hybrid McLaren if I’m not mistaken.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

P1 was first.

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Luke Holmes's avatar

Ask Freddy Hernandez how much of a success that was!

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S2kChris's avatar

While true didn’t they make like 100 of those?

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Jay's avatar

I'm hearing that P1 batteries are starting to fail. The car won't run without them. Fix is about 100K. lol

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

Artura was McLaren 2.0:

New tub (to fit the battery)

New engine (V6)

New hybrid system

New transmission

New infotainment

New Ethernet-based electrical architecture (this was the real problem - it was extremely ambitious and doesn’t really appear to work yet)

Interestingly, YASA - which is owned by Mercedes - supplies the “axial flux” motor in the Artura AND the Ferrari SF90 and 296. The Ferrari supply is public record, the Artura supply has been confirmed obliquely, and there are several other hybrid supercars that have YASA technology that haven’t been announced publicly yet.

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AJS's avatar

We knocked the new Z06 as a tribute 458 in a previous thread, but when plebs who only have 350 boxes of ziti set aside for a toy have to settle for a V6 Hybrid to get a genuine mid-engine Prancing Horse (or McLaren), paying half and getting an LT6 seems like a no-brainer. Of course it's more about putting on a show for most exotic car buyers, but I have zero desire for the 296 or Artura after decades of drooling over their predecessors. Give me the Z all day long in today's ME marketplace.

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Sherman McCoy's avatar

I saw a C8 ZO6 today, but I had to double take to make sure it was the genuine article. Not much road presence, surprisingly (it was parked, so I couldn’t hear it). It sounds like a 458, more or less (I have heard others), but the flat plane V8s (Ferrari, McLaren) don’t sound particularly great to my ears.

Sadly, 350 Boxes of Ziti gets you nowhere near a 296; you’ll need about 500, but you’ll probably come out ahead of Artura owners after you’ve both exited.

I haven’t yet driven - or even seen in person - a 296, but it has earned rave reviews from many critics. Ferrari has enormous development budgets at their disposal, courtesy of a market cap that is roughly a third MORE than that of either GM or Ford (~$64BN vs ~$48BN), and the 296 platform will probably take them to the end of the decade with the typical GTB, GTS, Versione Speciale GTB, Versione Speciale GTS plus the Challenge and GT3 race cars and then the same cycle for the facelift.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

"They are the literal equivalent of a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac."

Don Henley wishes he had fans as loyal as Deadheads.

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Peter Collins's avatar

I dare say he could console himself with the money, though. As his bandmate sang, "my Maserati does 185..."

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Don and Glenn are such great talents and also such unpleasant people. They really make Axl Rose look decent.

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Peter Collins's avatar

Interesting - was this the common side effect of immense fame and wealth or were they like that from the off? Would you recommend Felder's book as a way to fill my forthcoming flight to LA?

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Felder's book is worth reading although it meanders quite a bit.

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Peter Collins's avatar

Well, it's a long flight...

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dejal's avatar

I've heard they were unpleasant. But beating Axl Rose? That's "Impressive". I would think you have to actually practice that to be that.

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Jack Baruth's avatar

I'm not aware of Axl trying to damage anyone financially. Glenn and Don were hard-nosed businessmen whose dream was to have an "Eagles" filled with hired hands who didn't get a percentage. Thus their treatment of Don Felder.

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Flashman's avatar

It worked for Springsteen.

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Ice Age's avatar

Don't forget how Henley had that drugged-up, naked, 16-year-old-hooker in his hotel room.

Stellar human being all around, that one.

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A. Brooks's avatar

I wasn’t around back then but was there really no controversy about elections for that long? Does watergate count? Guess times really have changed

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Adam's avatar

Well the only extremely close one was 1960, of which there’s a good case to make that Joe Kennedy’s friends were stuffing ballot boxes, and Nixon decided against contesting the results because he thought it would be dangerous for the country.

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Luke Holmes's avatar

Interesting. People hate Nixon and yet he had enough foresight to see that!

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Nixon was a fundamentally decent and thoughtful man.

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Scott A's avatar

That's why they hate him

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Sad but true.

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Adam's avatar

He had the temerity to notice that Alger Hiss and others in the elite orbit were Soviet spies, to run against the proto-Obama that was JFK, and to oppose the rise of the New Left after it seized control after Johnson’s ouster.

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Ice Age's avatar

...who got in trouble not for breaking the rules, but for playing by them AS A REPUBLICAN.

Back to at least Eisenhower, Presidents and Presidential candidates spied on their opponents. Nixon was hated by the activist Left, so they wanted to destroy him.

It's like J. Edgar Hoover. The Left hated the man, and smeared him as a transvestite in an age when such a thing being true could destroy a man's reputation, because he understood communism and had been fighting it since at least 1919.

And regarding Hoover's excesses, someone once pointed out that when Republicans abuse their power, it's in defense of the country and when Democrats do so, it's to destroy the country or profit personally.

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AK47isthetool's avatar

Actually the totally legitimate war hero LBJ had a lot to do with stealing, I mean legitimately winning that election.

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Sir Morris Leyland's avatar

And he totally didn't have anything to do with the actions in his state which led to his succession to President.

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Ice Age's avatar

Don't tell me Johnson had nothing to do with Kennedy's assassination. Who do you think benefitted most from offing JFK?

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RandoDMV's avatar

This is wrong. We ceased to have "normal" elections in 2000. Bush was "selected" not elected against Gore. 2004 there was the "Diebold" conspiracy where Bush "stole" Ohio. 2008 Obama completely walloped McCain but there was the birther stuff. 2012 not too much controversy but still birtherism. 2016, Hillary conceded without conceding, labeling Trump an illegitimate president. Half of democrats believed Russia actually converted vote tallies. So I would put our descent into Banana Republic territory to really have started in earnest and we didn't notice it till now.

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RandoDMV's avatar

Another random data point on elections, Florida has become ever so slight more diverse since Bush v. Gore, 80% white then (including cubans) v. 75% now. Florida has become progressively more Republican. I can't help that this is related to the fact that mail in ballots have to be sent and tallied before the election and there aren't any randomly appearing ballot boxes.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

It appears that the Colorado Republican Party has responded by saying they will not hold a primary and instead select their preferred candidate via a state caucus if Trump is kept off the primary ballot. Sometimes the stupid party isn't completely stupid.

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Alan's avatar

You mean the stupid party that isn't capable of winning statewide office in Colorado anymore?

They actually stand a better chance if Trump is off the ballot in November and the anti-Trump vote is less motivated.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

I'd prefer it if the Republicans nominated Desantis.

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Alan's avatar

So would I. But I also think the Democrats would tar and feather him over Florida's abortion and "don't say gay" laws.

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Ronnie Schreiber's avatar

Not to mention all the "banned books" that you can get at any Barnes & Noble.

Every day is a struggle against Orwellian language.

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Panzer's avatar

That's irrelevant.

They're going to tar and feather -any- Republican, simply because every moment with an (R) president directly contradicts their self appointed eternal right to power for being on the 'right side of history.

(Which is really just rhetoric for the Marxist historical determinism that underpins their ideology)

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Christo's avatar

Remember when Mitt Romney was "literally Hitler" back in 2012. Than eight years later he was called the "elder statesman of the Republican party" by the very same journalists?

Or McCain in 2008?

Or W?

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Jack Baruth's avatar

Exactly. If you're equating a man whose two passions in life were low capital-gains taxes and magic underwear to Hitler, you're way past the point of thinking it through.

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Christo's avatar

"Right side of history" is a very weak argument was always a turn off to me. It presumes that one knows what is "right" and what the future holds.

It's also akin to the term "politically correct" as originally used: that some political positions can be reached through logical reasoning and any other position would be incorrect.

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Jay's avatar

Smart Democrats (and neocons) understand that "right-wing Rob" is a larp. He's Nimrata on even higher heels.

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silentsod's avatar

DeSantis is a paper tiger with no charisma who is rightly bombing. A policy wonk who might make for a good governor but a turd of a potus where instinct will matter.

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JasonS's avatar

A good candidate doesn't make a good president. He's terrible at running. I think he'd make a fine president, and I think his instincts are significantly better than Trump's. Trump makes decisions he or his administration would later have to backtrack on because he or his team didn't take 1 second to think about them. Desantis is significantly more measured. Look, I liked Trump, but his flaws are significantly more detrimental IMHO than Desantis'

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Henry C.'s avatar

Desantis is now where he can do the most good (or least bad) and needs to stay there doing it.

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RandoDMV's avatar

I think he would be a killer AG.

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