Silly, actually.

Outside of Trump, I don't thing the US has degraded to saber rattling in...uh...ever. Saber rattling is for people with a weak hand. A form of bluffing. And the Iranis probably figured this out.

True.

Who won?

Don't you have some rule for this? Never rationalize?? Never change your rule/standard/routine??? Maybe not. Well, I can't send this, the gerbils are revolting!

My take. Eastman and most of his ilk, either sincerely believed the election had been compromised OR MORE LIKELY they thought that authoritarianism is preferable to democracy (when it comes to various right-wing causes like immigration.)

Trump desperately wanted to believe what was being sold to him by Wall Street. That this was a pain free way to avoid taxing the rich. He, of course, wanted to believe it.

Which was a good deal. Fully verifiable with IAEA. If that deal had been broker, then a full on war would have been justified. Trump busted that deal in his first term.....simply because a black man's adminstration negociated it.

He's going to end up with the same deal Obama got.

Please explain, Helene. Always anxious for you wisdom.

Stupid games. To look elite. In the Midwest we have a bunch of good, small liberal arts colleges. Rates were going up maybe 20 years ago and one said to their board. Why do we need to charge more??? Answer: because the others are.

So does bleach. It kills everything though, destroys cells. Don't recommend.

On the other, other hand, it doesn't look good. (Just read some more.)

I hate to think Swawall is guilty and have not paid enough attention to make a call. If he is anywhere near simple guilt, he should give his ambitions up. He shouldn't be a liability to the party. On the other hand, with my little knowledge, I would like to know more.

And it's not poverty. Alabama is poor. I get it. But why? The mark of a great nation is the success of their middle class, and in our country, the middle class has been in decline since the 1980s.

I was in Birmingham in the early-mid eighties, briefly, working in an old stell fab plant (Pittsburg Des Moines.) From plant floor, there were two men's bathrooms. One said Men and the other said Men. I went in the "wrong" one; the black guys looked at me like I was in the wrong place.

Mea culpa. But my memory is longer. The average middle class family, even in Birmingham when the steel mills operated, was distinctly different. Even for black Americans. The middle class got a better deal, they could easily buy houses, a car, and afford a couple kids.

Yes.

The average person has not kept up with the broad prosperity of the nation. Two parents working. Debt levels high (there was very little debt outside mortgages in the 50s and 60s for ordinary people. Get off the east coast and visit reality. The wealthy have grown fantastically wealth.

I do believe there has been a slow deterioration of living standards since the 1980s. In the post WWII period, the average family could afford a small house, two kids and a car on one person's income. More and more of productivity gains went to the wealthy to the detriment of the working class.

Gutsy move, but dumb on Hegseth's part.

He's not religious. He's a poser.

Looks edible to me. Why is he waving it around?

TACO!

Volker. Raising rates to mid-teens???

Wow. Got me.

Could they do a quiet coup? It seems unlikely they will invoke the 25th Amendment or vote to impeach. But could they do something else??? Better living through chemistry I’m guessing. Just a guess.

Can Republicans wait until Trump does something so outrageous that it turns 90% of the country against them? Or would the GOP arrange an “out?” They are almost certainly scrambling for a solution. Could they “take him out?”

Because you are fantastically weathly you can take the loss easily. Your opponent has made some nice compromises that you can claim as your doing.

The TACO machine in operation. Talking tough like you're going to nuke a country into oblivian. (A BIG poker bluff.) Then to avoid getting called, you fold, and claim you had a fabulous hand but were going easy on your opponent, because you're such a good-hearted guy.