266 responses to “Sandbox – 26dec20”

1. 

   Bill Tozer

   03 January 2021

   ON CRIME AND POLICING, DELUSION REIGNS
   “When a criminal suspects shoots at you, it is “evil” to shoot back? That actually is the narrative that the Left peddles. Maybe someone out there believes it. We live in strange times.
   “The killing of Dolal “makes me feel unsafe,” Abdirahman added. “It makes me feel confused. The same people that are here to serve and protect are the same people that are killing your own people.”
   “Activists” would prefer that criminals run rampant in their own communities, committing crimes and perpetrating violence with no effort by law enforcement to combat them. This is why “activists” speak for few minority residents of the Twin Cities, or anywhere else..
   https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/01/on-crime-and-policing-delusion-reigns.php
   ————————————
   The blatant hypocrisy of Keith Ellison. state AG of MN
   ‘Why do bar and restaurant owners feel the full force of the law while people sealing off city blocks don’t?‘
   The contrast here is quite incredible. If you open a bar or a restaurant, the state government will come down on you with all the force it has at its disposal. If, on the other hand, you seal off a section of the city and refuse access to the police even when people are getting shot, you will have the city authorities groveling to you, pleading with you to let them in.
   One of the basic principles upon which the United States works is that the law applies equally whoever you are. True, this is often honored more in the breach than the observance, but it is not a bad principle and that is no excuse for ditching it. Indeed, we should always be trying to work towards it, not away from it.
   But that is exactly what is happening in Minnesota under the state’s current leadership. There are those who are subject to the law, like Larvita McFarquhar, and those who are not, like the ‘activists’ who have seized effective control of a chunk of Minneapolis. This is the sad reality of ‘One Minnesota’.
   https://www.americanexperiment.org/2020/12/why-do-bar-and-restaurant-owners-feel-the-full-force-of-the-law-while-people-sealing-off-city-blocks-dont/

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2. 

   Bill Tozer

   04 January 2021

   It’s politics, baby.
   ‘WATCH: RNC Highlights Senate Democrats Who Supported Kavanaugh Accuser As Body-Cam Footage Shows Raphael Warnock’s Ex-Wife Making Allegations Against Him’
   https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-rnc-highlights-senate-democrats-who-supported-kavanaugh-accuser-as-body-cam-footage-shows-raphael-warnocks-ex-wife-making-allegations-against-him
   Hey, didn’t once upon a time all our outstanding Left leaning contributors here speak in one voice and say, “I believe her”? I could be mistaken. Kids say the darnest things.

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3. 

   Bill Tozer

   04 January 2021

   This is why the Lamestream media and our News Redirector will not get back a semblance of credibility for years to come. “Traitor! Traitor! He’s in Putin’s pocket and what does Putin have on him??”
   ‘Byron York’s Daily Memo: Now they tell us! Trump was tough on Russia! ‘
   The dirty little secret? But of course, Trump’s tweet was true,
   https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-now-they-tell-us-trump-was-tough-on-russia

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4. 

   Bill Tozer

   04 January 2021

   We were warned from the first day Trump won the election in 2016. Beware the illiberal Neo-cons and the Party of War, Mr. Trump. Beware and stay away from them.
   ‘Cleaning Up The Leftovers From Biden’s Last Bout Of Leadership‘
   Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria: the greatest hits of American Empire. When Joe Biden speaks of American leadership, perhaps he should look there first.
   “Let there be no doubt, in foreign policy terms “leadership” is the bipartisan and benign euphemism for America First nationalism. And that usually means some sort of war. Biden already has his warriors in place from the Obama years: Bloody Susan Rice, Blinken at State, Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense. There will be others filling in the mid ranks as those principals call in their former deputies, who call theirs.
   The problem with America’s leadership spurts is that they are often left uncompleted. They are played for U.S. domestic political consumption and leave behind a mess someone else has to clean up when politics shift. Worst of all, no one in America seems to ask those overseas who are about to be freed, liberated, encouraged to revolt, or otherwise enlightened by the arrival of the American Empire if they indeed want any leadership today.
   So maybe before spewing out any new leadership, Biden could start by cleaning up some of the leadership he and others left behind. Start with Iraq.
   Quick, Jeopardy-style, when did the Iraq War end? Correct answer of course is “What is never.” America wrecked the place from the air in 1991, then invaded by land in 2003. Those American troops mostly left in 2010, then returned in 2014, and today loiter like dropouts in the high school parking lot in unknown but relatively small numbers. The American Embassy in Iraq, physically still the size of the Vatican and once the largest embassy in the world in diplomatic headcount, sits mostly empty with a security guard-to-diplomat ratio that would embarrass any Twitter warrior.”
   https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/cleaning-up-the-leftovers-in-iraq-from-bidens-last-bout-of-leadership/

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5. 

   George Rebane

   04 January 2021

   BillT 834am – Most Americans have known for years that Trump is our ‘toughest on Russia’ president (especially compared to Putin’s pocket-president Obama). But in these pages we continue to witness readers who have no clue about this, and still believe that the Russians threw the 2016 election.

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6. 

   Bill Tozer

   04 January 2021

   Another Great Divide theme. VDH.
   ‘Defenders of Civilization?’
   Our grandees seem too exhausted, too guilty, or too ignorant to pass on and improve the civilization they inherited for others to come.
   —
   “The year 2020 witnessed a long series of writs lodged against an America beset with plague, quarantine, recessions, riot and arson, and the most contested election since 1876.
   What was strange was not so much the anarchist Left’s efforts in the present to wipe away the past to recalibrate our Animal Farm future. What was odder were both the absurdities of the complaints against American civilization, and the unwillingness or inability of Americans to rebut them and defend their own culture.”
   https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/03/defenders-of-civilization/

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7. 

   D

   04 January 2021

   Posted by: George Rebane | 04 January 2021 at 09:18 AM – don’t confuse the Trump admin. Russia policies with Trump. Trump is a buffoon,
   “Both the American intelligence community and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation have released ample evidence that the Russian government violated U.S. sovereignty during the 2016 presidential election. Senior administration officials have endorsed these assessments; Trump has not. When offered the perfect opportunity to demonstrate toughness on this issue with Putin at his side at a news conference in Helsinki after their summit last summer, Trump did the exact opposite, explaining, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” He added: “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
   At that same summit, Putin told a crazy fairy tale to Trump, and then to the world, about how a dozen former U.S. government officials allegedly had helped to launder money from Russia and then transfer some of these funds to the Clinton campaign. Putin then asked Trump for the opportunity to interrogate these alleged criminals. (Putin included me among them.) Trump called the idea an “incredible offer.”

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8. 

   D

   04 January 2021

   More Trump loves Russia,
   “Immediately upon entering the White House, Trump tried to lift Obama-era sanctions and return diplomatic compounds seized by the United States due to interference in the 2016 election. Months later, Congress drew up a bill to strengthen Russia sanctions and prevent Trump from lifting them. The administration lobbied hard against the legislation. When it passed with a veto-proof majority, Trump issued a statement expressing displeasure — and signaling that enforcement would be lax.
   His administration has done exactly that. It delayed implementing the law and missed key deadlines, grudgingly conceding only after intervention by congressional leaders.”
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/13/no-trump-has-not-been-tough-russia/

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9. 

   D

   04 January 2021

   More,
   “Trump’s most egregious act of sanctions malfeasance, however, came in April 2018. That was when the Treasury Department — acting with support from then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster, on his way out of the White House — imposed the first consequential Russia sanctions of the Trump years, targeting the oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his aluminum company, Rusal. The impact was swift: Rusal’s shares nosedived by more than 50 percent.
   Instead of using this leverage to extract concessions from Moscow, the Trump administration immediately defanged the sanctions and eventually expunged Rusal from the sanctions list. To make matters worse, the Trump administration cut a deal with Deripaska, whom the Senate Intelligence Committee described as a “proxy for the Russian state and intelligence services,” allowing him to maintain control of his businesses through allies. This episode sent an unambiguous message to both Moscow and the private sector: The Trump administration had no stomach for tough sanctions against Russia.”

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10. 

    paul emery

    04 January 2021

    Trump is done. Even the Conservative Republicans are not supporting his little dying spasm.
    Senator Mike Lee becomes the latest Trump ally to break ranks on plot to block Biden’s certification
    Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reports that Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has started circulating a letter in which he outlines his reasons for opposing the effort by colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to block President-elect Joe Biden’s win from being certified in Congress this week.
    “With respect to presidential elections, there is no authority for Congress to make value judgments in the abstract regarding any state’s election laws or the manner in which they have been implemented,” Lee writes in his letter.
    Take advantage of our limited time offer. Go ad-free for just $2 a week. Support independent journalism.
    Lee’s letter comes amid increasing discomfort among some conservatives about the president’s now-infamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he pushed him to “find” enough votes to help him win the state.
    Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), another longtime Trump ally, similarly pushed back against Trump’s call with Raffensperger by calling it “not helpful” during an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday.
    https://www.politico.com/

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11. 

    George Rebane

    04 January 2021

    “With respect to presidential elections, there is no authority for Congress to make value judgments in the abstract regarding any state’s election laws or the manner in which they have been implemented,” … nor none needed. Congress may express itself as it wills.

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12. 

    paul emery

    04 January 2021

    George
    In your view does the Congress have the Constitutional authority to flip the election as Trump wishes them to do?

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13. 

    George Rebane

    04 January 2021

    PaulE 1053am – Not sure what you mean by “flip the election”, but Congress does have the right/duty to certify or not the electoral college votes. What happens if it does not is not so clear beyond the interpretation that the presidential vote then goes into the House. What do you think?

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14. 

    Scott O

    04 January 2021

    Paul E – “Trump is done.”
    And yet he will magically still be the fault of everything bad for the next 100 years. Lefty physics at work.

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15. 

    RXCross

    04 January 2021

    George: “”Not sure what you mean by “flip the election”. I think that means a coup… you know like banana republic dictators who lose elections and then claim fraud. kind of like banana trump the wanna be dictator. Historically trump will more closely associated with Nero only trump golfed while Americans died from his incompetence. You all have been so propagandized that you can no longer distinguish between facts and trump’s fiction. You truly do live in an alternate reality where truth is lies and fake news.

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16. 

    George Rebane

    04 January 2021

    RXCross 1204pm – Well, as I’ve pointed out for some years now, we of the polarized really do share that opinion about each other.

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