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Here's Another Obstructionist That Doesn't Get it Got Its Brains Beat Out on 5 November

You lost...we won...cry harder!! Keep crying and obstructing right up to the midterms so you can get some more of the same, Loser 0boma! >

Trump suddenly discovers that America is already great

We are going to make this country so great again, and we’re going to do it fast,” Donald Trump would say during the campaign. “We’re going to do it really fast.”
Promise made, promise kept.

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The president-elect doesn’t take over for another six weeks, but — magically — he has already made America great again.

  • He has solved the border crisis. Mexico’s president “has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border,” Trump tells us. “THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA.”
  • He has brought peace to the Middle East. “Former NATO chief says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire a ‘direct result’ of incoming Trump admin,” was the headline Trump posted on his social media site on Monday.
  • He has scored a breakthrough against the opioid epidemic. He announced that he had secured the “commitment” of the Canadian government “to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families.”
  • And he has already turned the U.S. economy into the envy of the world. “The Stock Market Just Recorded Its Best Month This Year in the Wake of Trump’s Landslide Victory,” proclaimed the headline of another Trump social media post.
Members of the reality-based community might have noticed that Trump did not do any of these things but rather is claiming credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments. Illegal crossings along the southern border are now lower than they were at the end of Trump’s first term. (And Mexico’s president, contrary to Trump’s claim, said, “We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders.”) It was the Biden administration that brokered the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. Opioid deaths have been dropping at the fastest rate ever and are at or below levels seen at this point in Trump’s first term. (And Canada’s public safety minister describes the country’s offer to Trump to boost border security measures as a “reassurance exercise” because “we believe that the border is secure.”) As for the stock market, the S&P 500 hit 47 record highs this year before Election Day.


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Trump’s quick post-election pivot away from calling America a “failing nation” was inevitable. He spent the past couple of years selling the country a load of bull. Now, he’s inheriting a stronger economy and a safer country than the one he left Joe Biden, with the border more secure and crime rates lower, and inflation tamed to below 3 percent. Contrary to Trump’s apocalyptic campaign claims, the world isn’t on fire and the U.S. military is not dominated by woke drag queens.
Follow Dana Milbank
So what’s a defrocked doomsayer to do? Declare victory!
His supporters don’t require much convincing. Post-election polling shows that Republicans immediately revised their opinions of the nation’s health, with sharply more now viewing the economy as good and far fewer claiming it’s getting worse. (Views among Democrats have shifted far less.) Trump, by claiming credit for Biden’s record, has given his followers permission to admit that things aren’t so bad, after all.
America is already great “again” because it never stopped being great. All that’s left for Trump to do is screw it up.


Trump might not be returning the country to greatness, but he’s definitely returning us to the attributes that defined his first term. For example, he has already restored the daily sense of chaos.



Since Matt Gaetz flamed out after an eight-day run as Trump’s attorney general selection, two other Trump picks have been canned before they could serve a single day on the job. This week, Trump dumped his nominee to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, Chad Chronister, three days after tapping him for the post; right-wingers had raised a fuss about the Florida sheriff’s arrest of a pastor for violating public health orders during the pandemic. Trump also shoved aside lawyer William McGinley, 22 days after choosing him to be White House counsel; McGinley had reportedly been recommended for the job by Boris Epshteyn, the Trump aide accused of soliciting “retainer fees” to promote potential nominees.
Then there’s the soap opera surrounding Pete Hegseth, the hard-drinking Fox News host tapped to run the nearly 3-million-person Defense Department despite a lack of significant managerial experience. The Trump team was blindsided by the revelation that Hegseth paid a settlement to a woman who accused him of rape in 2017. This was followed by a series of jaw-dropping allegations, reported by the great Jane Mayer of the New Yorker and others, about Hegseth’s drunken misbehavior, sexual misconduct and financial impropriety over several years. The New York Times even published an email Hegseth’s own mother wrote to him in 2018, saying “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way” and describing her son as one who “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...d=mc_magnet-optrumpadmin_inline_collection_18

On Wednesday, Hegseth promised Megyn Kelly that he would quit drinking if confirmed. “This is the biggest deployment of my life, and there won’t be a drop of alcohol on my lips while I’m doing it,” he said. It was quite similar to the vow John Tower made 36 years ago before the Senate rejected him for the same post over a drinking problem: “I hereby swear and undertake that, if confirmed, during the course of my tenure as secretary of defense, I will not consume beverage alcohol of any type or form, including wine, beer or spirits of any kind.”



But Hegseth has one advantage Tower didn’t: His mother is lobbying for him. Peggy Hegseth has been calling senators to urge them to support her boy. “I have a very intelligent son. I have a leader son. I’ve known that since he was 2,” she said in a Fox News appearance. “I believe he’s the man for the job. I think being a TV news host, I think prepares you for most things in a position like this.”
No doubt! Mother Hegseth also told Fox that she “retracted” her blistering email to her son after a couple of hours and that he’s a “changed man” today. She accused the Times of “almost criminal” behavior.
That accusation will probably find a receptive audience in Trump’s pick to head the FBI, longtime loyalist Kash Patel. Patel is as unqualified to run the FBI as Hegseth is to run the Pentagon, but he did say this about journalists in 2023: “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.” Patel also has helpfully published an enemies list of 60 Trump critics — he accuses them of being “deep state” conspirators — that could serve as a road map for future FBI probes.


  • Poll
Best Horror Movie House

Best Horror Movie House

  • Psycho

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Evil Dead

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Amityville Horror

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Exorcist

    Votes: 3 42.9%
  • Poltergeist

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Meyers House (Halloween)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Conjuring

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nightmare on Elm Street

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre

    Votes: 1 14.3%
  • Beetlejuice House (just because it's awesome)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

Psycho being talked about in other thread got me thinking. There have been some great ones. From Amityville to Psycho to Evil Dead and others listed. What was your favorite?

GOP self-interest can protect us from the MAGA agenda

Democrats generally have wasted their breath appealing to Republicans’ patriotism, love of democracy and empathy. Maybe Democrats would get further with appeals to blatant self-interest.

Vote with their feet: Let’s start with elected Republicans in red-state governments. “Republican-dominated states are pushing out young professionals by enacting extremist conservative policies,” Timothy Noah wrote last year in the New Republic. “Abortion restrictions are the most sweeping example, but state laws restricting everything from academic tenure to transgender health care to the teaching of ‘divisive concepts’ about race are making these states uncongenial to knowledge workers.”



In particular, living in a red state has become injurious to women’s health given the prevalence of “maternity care deserts” (multiplying in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.) Thirty-nine percent of counties in states that restrict abortion have “no hospitals or birthing centers that offer obstetric care and no individual obstetric providers (not even midwives)”; in Texas, that number is 46.5 percent.
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Follow Jennifer Rubin
Moreover, as I have written, red states on average have more gun deaths, shorter life expectancy, more child poverty and inferior rates of education. Though some red states can tout that they are gaining population — largely due to cheaper housing (query whether that will be sustainable in places such as Florida that now have a housing and home insurance crisis) — “the college-educated minority, which moves much more frequently, prefers relocating to a blue state,” Noah wrote.
Democratic governors in blue and purple states facing shortages of skilled workers can make attractive offers to lure red states’ skilled workers (and students) — just as labor agents recruited workers from the South in the early 20th century. Everything from liberal transfer policies for college students to reciprocal professional licensure to relocation stipends for government workers should be on the table. (Some states might prioritize skilled manufacturing workers. Others might focus on medical professionals or teachers.)



Such targeted recruitment would have two benefits. First, the recruiting states would increase their wealth and quality of life, and Democratic leaders would gain recognition for policies that make those states attractive. Equally important, red states would come under pressure to reexamine the policies that diminish the health, economic opportunity and well-being of their residents. Losing taxpaying residents and the services they provide could have serious ramifications for Republicans.
Until they pay a price for backward policies, red states have little reason to change. The best result would be red states improve the availability of health care, modify gun laws and take other steps to prevent drifting into Third World status.
Senate Republicans’ self-interest: Hardly profiles in courage, Senate Republicans occasionally can be pushed to do the right thing. They rebuffed the nomination of Matt Gaetz for attorney general because congressional Republicans hated him and credible allegations about sex with minors proved too embarrassing. Well-founded allegations of sexual misconduct, drug or alcohol abuse or financial misconduct (and in the case of Pete Hegseth, all three!) — rather than a nominee’s loopy ideas (e.g., no women in combat) — seem to be effective motivators for GOP senators to oppose Trump nominees.



In short, the way to spur Republicans to nix the most objectionable and dangerous appointments is to appeal to Republicans’ political self-interest. Consider unhinged, vindictive characters such as Kash Patel, who can easily turn his ire on Republicans or their allies. Fear of malicious characters is not the exclusive province of Democrats. Reminding Republicans of Patel’s threats, insults and hostility demonstrated toward fellow Republicans (including former Trump advisers) may trigger their survival instinct.
Moreover, making the case to Republican senators that they will be responsible for the possible consequences of unfit nominees’ tenure (such as the return of polio without vaccines or a possible terrorist attack due to poor national security) should at least give them pause. The more serious the stakes (nuclear war, compromised intelligence), the more traction the objection is going to get.
In sum, if Republicans are convinced a nominee will embarrass them, threaten them and/or leave them holding the bag for a national disaster, they might reject at least a few of the worst picks. Alas, that still leaves us with the “merely” unqualified, conflicted and incompetent nominees.

  • Poll
Classic Movie Rewatch Poll

Which movie to rewatch this weekend for discussion

  • The Searchers

    Votes: 3 7.7%
  • Lawerence of Arabia

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark

    Votes: 10 25.6%
  • The Shining

    Votes: 2 5.1%
  • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

    Votes: 7 17.9%
  • Requiem For A Dream

    Votes: 3 7.7%
  • Psycho

    Votes: 6 15.4%
  • Last of the Mohicans

    Votes: 4 10.3%

Tried to narrow it down and give a good cross section of time period, director, genre.

Good deal on a nice sweater if you need a gift for your lady.

Huge fan of the brand
, personally I prefer 1/4 zips but the wife wanted a full zip. They also have a down vest for the ladies which looks really nice.





U of Iowa geologists working on carbon sequestration . . .

Pretty cool research:

Iowa Geological Survey leads $11.3M Department of Energy carbon sequestration study​

"If the study succeeds, it could open the door for a new method to reduce carbon emissions.”
Monday, November 11, 2024

The University of Iowa has been selected to lead a two-year, $11.3 million Department of Energy study that could change how carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) are managed in Iowa, a potential win-win for the environment and energy producers.

Rather than transporting CO2 out of state via pipeline or other means, the study aims to prove it is feasible to inject and store CO2 deep under the earth’s surface in Iowa. This practice occurs elsewhere, but to date it has not been thought possible in Iowa.

“Once we can show the world CO2 storage in Iowa is possible, it could change things dramatically,” said Ryan Clark, the study’s principal investigator and a geologist at the Iowa Geological Survey, a unit of the University of Iowa College of Engineering and IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering.

Ground zero for the study is MidAmerican Energy’s Walter Scott, Jr. Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant in Council Bluffs. MidAmerican is a lead partner and will sponsor the bulk of the 20% cost share portion of the grant. The Department of Energy will be contributing $9 million.

“MidAmerican is pleased to assist the Iowa Geological Survey with this project," Peggi Allenback, MidAmerican senior vice president, generation, market operations and supply, said. "If the study succeeds, it could open the door for a new method to reduce carbon emissions.”

The power plant sits 2,700 feet – about a half mile – above a formation created 1.1 billion years ago when North America nearly split apart. The formation is known as the Midcontinent Rift System and is characterized by a long valley that was filled with lava. Over time, the lava turned into a 6-mile-thick complex of volcanic rock known as basalt.

Clark’s hypothesis is that supercritical CO2 (liquified CO2) could be injected into the basalt beneath the power plant where it would convert over time into calcite, a stable mineral found in limestone.

This method of CO2 storage, called geologic sequestration, is practiced widely, particularly in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, but it has not been tested with basalt.

“This basaltic mineralization method is very new,” Clark said. “Some states already understand their deep geology. Iowa doesn’t have that. That lack of information has led people to think you can’t do it in Iowa, so we are playing catch up.”

The project’s focus will be drilling a 5,000-foot-deep test hole on site to gather fundamental geologic data. The data will feed predictive models assessing what would happen when CO2 is injected and the storage capacity of the basalts.

If preliminary testing is positive, the next phase of feasibility testing would be to inject CO2, Clark said.

The grant is expected to support one undergraduate and one graduate student researcher at the UI for the project's duration.
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