swordfish

I know, he isn't in the dead pool yet, but he is getting things ready to jump in soon. Jimmy Carter, 98 years old - He certainly wasn't a good POTUS, (IMHO - kind of a toss-up between he and our current POTUS as to who was/is worse) but his life before and afterwards has certainly been incredible. A former military man, returned home to run the family business. A staunch, humble humanitarian person who gave so much of his time and efforts to so many, especially his work with Habitat for Humanity even up to a few years ago. I will give credit where credit is due. A man who has earned my deep respect - may he pass peacefully and rest in peace. https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-gerald-ford-ronald-reagan-hospice-care-f4e26c10a7b366f14e62f690da403b0a

We will never know for sure......

The purest definition of "overkill" - Those dang kids and their science projects anyway...... https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-responds-biden-authorized-200-million-fighter-jet-shoot-science-project?fbclid=IwAR0Y6fkIvgY-alF7T8NneE3wfVpSwGR7f7w-o8Phckbetmkw5Fe200mRNBE Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Thursday to criticize President Joe Biden for ordering an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down what may have been a hobby club’s science project off the coast of Alaska earlier last week. Cruz, R-Texas, joked that Biden’s decision to authorize the $200 million fighter jet to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may have been a $12 balloon serves as a "powerful deterrence" to high school students interested in creating their own at-home science balloons. The comment came after the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s (NIBBB), an Illinois-based hobbyist club, said their pico balloon that was floating off the west coast of Alaska went missing the same day a Lockheed Martin jet shot down an unidentified object matching its description. "To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America…." Cruz wrote on Twitter. "President Biden needs to tell the American people whether this is true," Cruz added in a separate tweet. The club’s globe-trotting balloon, which was last reported to be hovering at 38,910 ft. on Feb. 10, may have been one of three unidentified aerial objects the U.S. Air Force shot out of the sky via the president’s authorization between Feb. 10-12. The group said that its trajectory put it directly over the central Yukon Territory on Feb. 11, where an object was shot out of the sky. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said the objects shot down Feb. 10-12 may not have been from China or another foreign country but "could just be balloons." "I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours. The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution and the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object. And they did. And it came in inside our territorial waters," Kirby added during Friday's White House press briefing.

FIFY.....

A diversity event that is not "Diverse"? https://www.foxnews.com/media/high-school-asks-employees-avoid-inviting-white-peers-event-people-of-color-due-mistrust High school asks employees to 'avoid inviting' White peers to event for people of color due to 'mistrust' A California school district hosted an event for employees of color but warned their White peers were not invited to participate A California school district held an event for employees of color but warned educators that they should not invite their White peers because of "feelings of uneasiness and mistrust." The Acalanes Union High School District (AUHSD), in the Bay Area, hosted an event for all employees of color on February 8, but Dr. Lynnā McPhatter-Harris, the director of Student Support Equity & Inclusion for the district reminded employees their non-White peers should not be invited to participate, according to an email shared exclusively by Libs of TikTok with Fox News Digital. "Hello POCC staff, we are ready for out first coming together in 2023," McPhatter-Harris' email read. "We are looking forward to seeing our people of color in the district. Please invite any employee of color to this event."

Flying out of South Bend for work all these years, I had various opportunities to fly with "Mayor Pete" especially when his focus turned to getting out of SB and moving more into Federal politics. I told him once to stick to his own convictions (he is a smart guy), and to not let the Democrat Party pigeon-hole him into a corner just to keep him where they want him to be. (A gay guy to illustrate diversity) It appears that he didn't take my advice and finds himself in a position he is ill-equipped for and is simply floundering while carrying the Democrat fallback position for everything. (It's Trump's fault) This dude would have been fired in the public sector by now. (Rail strike, Air traffic issues, ports issues - all during which he is noticeably absent from until afterwards https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ohio-residents-erupt-town-hall-wheres-pete-buttigieg) We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe. https://www.foxnews.com/media/complete-embarrassment-buttigieg-blasted-touting-rail-safety-blaming-trump-ohio-train-derailment 'Complete embarrassment:' Buttigieg blasted for touting 'rail safety,' blaming Trump for Ohio train derailment

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Always knew of him and a few of his songs, but it wasn't until the tributes last evening that I became aware of the multitude of songs he wrote and the amount of artists who became famous with his songs. Truly amazing.

At least LeBron's kids know who the GOAT is......

A $200,000,000 Stealth Fighter (in case the balloon was armed I'm sure) fired a nearly $400,000 missile at a balloon. (After it left US land and would have completed any surveillance it was conducting) JMHO

The wagons are circling to try and protect the Bidens as the President becomes more and more useless and even a true liability to the Democrats......Any guess as to where the funding for this is coming from? https://nypost.com/2023/02/02/hunter-bidens-legal-threats-have-no-merit-raises-political-questions/ Hunter Biden appears to have finally achieved clarity. Months after The Post’s October 2020 reporting, Biden was warning reporters that his “alleged” laptop might be Russian disinformation — or it might be his. He seemed tortured by doubt in a 2021 CBS News interview: “For real, I don’t know. I don’t have any idea — I have no idea whether or not.” It now appears he does know “for real.” His lawyers sent letters Wednesday requesting investigations into figures associated with former President Donald Trump who have used information from the laptop. The first son’s sudden shift to the offense follows a meeting of a Legion of Doom of Democratic operatives reportedly planning attacks on potential witnesses against Hunter. At the same time, Biden agents are planning to create a large legal fund for the next stage. In a city where influence peddling is the leading industry, Hunter’s plight could easily become a cause célèbre. Indeed, there hasn’t been a greater sense of urgency or outpouring of humanity since the Kato Kaelin housing crisis. The letters to federal and state prosecutors seem to confirm the plan for a scorched-earth strategy. The Biden lawyers accuse people using the laptop contents of possibly violating federal and state laws “in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data.” The Biden team is also threatening media that have covered the story, including Fox News, with defamation lawsuits. (For the record, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox News.) And it’s asking the IRS to consider removing the tax-exempt status of groups that used the material such as Marco Polo, a charitable organization run by Garrett Ziegler — in a letter copied to the agency’s criminal investigation unit chief. The letters raise serious constitutional and political concerns. Critics using publicly available material are allowed to reach their own conclusions about the implications of these files. The Biden team, for example, threatens a lawsuit against Fox News host Tucker Carlson while demanding a retraction of “false and defamatory statements.” It maintains Carlson falsely portrayed Hunter Biden as involved in a “money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle” by paying him $50,000 a month in rent. It claims the story was debunked. But Hunter Biden is a public figure who must shoulder a high standard for defamation of “actual malice,” requiring that a false statement be made “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” Courts are highly protective of the exercise of opinion, particularly on subjects of great political significance like influence peddling. The laptop’s legal status is also key. To all appearances, Hunter abandoned the laptop at John Paul Mac Isaac’s Wilmington, Del., computer repair shop. That’s different from the claims of Hunter’s sister, Ashley, who triggered a nationwide FBI investigation into the theft of her diary. While she left her diary at a third party’s home, she insists she did not abandon or forget it. Under standard terms of the agreement, an item left beyond a certain number of days at a business or rental housing becomes abandoned property. It can generally then be left on the curb, sold, or given away. What’s most striking about the Hunter Biden claim is the delay. For more than two years, Hunter has refused to admit the laptop is genuine despite email recipients confirming the content of the communications. The laptop also shows Hunter engaged in potential crimes from drug use to prostitution offenses. Yet he insisted it might all be those pesky Russians again. Now the laptop is his, and he is fighting mad. Indeed, he’s shocked that anyone would treat his property in this fashion — a property he left at a computer shop and failed to claim for years. In the effort to target Marco Polo, the Biden team insists it “has operated as little more than a thinly disguised political operation to attack the Biden administration and the Biden family.” That sounds more vindictive than virtuous. Indeed, if the Biden administration started yanking the tax-exempt status of Biden critics, it would trigger an outcry over weaponizing the IRS. (A similar controversy during the Obama-Biden administration involving IRS official Lois Lerner led to a financial settlement with targeted conservative groups.) Biden’s team seems at points as conflicted as its client. After denouncing the use of his personal property and files, it suggests they might not be his files at all. It claims that “downstream recipients of what has been purported to be Mr. Biden’s hard drive have reported anomalies in the data, suggesting manipulation of it.” You certainly do not want to be downstream in any Hunter Biden scandal, but this raises questions as to whether these files are authentic while claiming ownership of them. Notably, Biden has not brought a civil lawsuit for a privacy tort claim despite the bluster and bombast of these letters. The reason is simple: He does not have a privacy case against the media or critics. Under the tort of “public disclosure of embarrassing private facts,” you can be sued for publishing even true statements that a reasonable person would find offensive. Showing Hunter’s selfie videos allegedly having sex with prostitutes would qualify as embarrassing to most people. But the tort has an exception for “newsworthy” stories or matters of great public interest. Biden may not be the energy or transportation expert his previous positions suggest, but he is most certainly newsworthy.

In light of the recent police beating of Tyre Nichols, SF is left wondering - WTF were the LEO's thinking? Benefit of the doubt - a "perp" (can't say he was a "perp" since there is no evidence to support that) runs after a traffic stop, and is caught, but then you subdue the guy (as humanely as you can) and begin the arrest proceedings. These guys just beat the crap out of him for no reason. (none that SF can see) 5 black LEO's - and SF was taught by the GID actors a loooooong time ago that a black person can't be racist. I'm not buying that one anymore, cause I can't see any other reason these officers did what they did. They were being no different in SF's eyes than any other run of the mill racist pig white guys to a guy that (maybe) deserved nothing more than a ticket or arrest for fleeing on officer. Prove me wrong.

Oh wait! - Yeah......Ivermectin (the old, non-patented, and inexpensive drug) does work after all........Well in Africa, but nowhere else apparently. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7968425/ https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.21254377v1 Conclusions The morbidity and mortality in the onchocerciasis endemic countries are lesser than those in the non-endemic ones. The community-directed onchocerciasis treatment with ivermectin is the most reasonable explanation for the decrease in morbidity and fatality rate in Africa. In areas where ivermectin is distributed to and used by the entire population, it leads to a significant reduction in mortality.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11646417/Joe-Biden-named-2017-email-discussing-multi-million-dollar-gas-deal-China.html Joe Biden was named in an email found on Hunter Biden's laptop discussing a 25 million-ton gas deal with China, DailyMail.com can reveal exclusively. In October 2017, Hunter and his uncle –Joe's brother Jim Biden – were brokering a multi-million dollar deal to supply gas from Louisiana to the country on behalf of their business partners, Chinese energy giant CEFC. At the time Joe Biden had finished his term as vice president and had yet to announce any plans to run for president in 2020. The texts AND the voicemails, now this - A far cry from what the former VP originally said about knowing or ever talking about his son's business dealings..........

One of the greats.....

Pretty sure the park will be scuttled. The dirt is certainly worth more without a tired unprofitable amusement park on it......

Nothing to see here...... https://www.foxnews.com/politics/matt-gaetz-classified-docs-scandal-feels-like-democrats-taking-out-joe-biden

https://nypost.com/2023/01/18/chief-covid-crazy-finally-admits-were-overcounting-cases-but-its-years-too-late/ Had she done less damage to our nation’s most vulnerable, it might be possible to applaud public health “expert” Dr. Leana Wen for her recent admission in The Washington Post and on CNN that the United States has been systematically overcounting the number of deaths from COVID by including deaths with COVID. The true toll of deaths and hospitalization, she notes, may be as little as 30% of the reported numbers. Horrifying? Yes. But more reason to fight back, tooth and nail, against any future effort to put kids and adults back in masks — as the feds are trying to do for air travel and as two of New Jersey’s largest school districts have done — or to lock down commerce and social life. Those policies, which had no significant measurable effect on bad outcomes, were always based on junk science. And Dr. Wen just admitted it for the world to hear. But her daring to speak this truth (obvious to any numerate person and long pointed out by The Post) comes years too late. Dr. Wen backed school closures and the CDC’s Orwellian “guidance” on indoor masking. She once infamously implied the right of unvaccinated people to go out in public should be restricted. She — along with the WaPo and CNN — was part of the establishment that fought to suppress “misinformation,” i.e. correct but controversial statements about COVID, and brand all dissenters as conspiracy theorists. What prompted Dr. Wen’s “Road to Damascus” moment? Was it a desire to help out Joe Biden by making it politically acceptable for left-leaning Dems to (gasp!) start thinking about going back to normal? Or maybe WaPo and CNN audiences were so dialed in on COVID propaganda that this really does come as news to them? We may never know. But this much is obvious. Their demure admission now, when the damage is done, that oopsie, we got the central statistic used to justify the destruction of life in America completely wrong! is as reprehensible as it is insufficient. Anyone else not surprised?

My comeback line to this line of thinking from someone thinking I owe them something - "I never owned slaves, and you for d@mn sure never picked Cotton for me or my parents".