Are we at the end of history? The spectacular failure of the GOP House to govern makes it look that way, as does the extremism of Project 2025. Or it could be that the stupidity of certain people is trending to its natural conclusion.
Does the ruling class finally believe that the working class will self-divide without its help? Quite possibly, since the Freedom Caucus is putting the full faith and credit of the United States into question. For Capital, it may be time to risk a real centrist party and hope that the AOC and Jeffries branches of Congress never form common ground.
Common ground could be a libertarian socialist paradigm - especially after the old social conservative pro-birth, pro-gun, white nationalist wing dies out.
The environment, particularly how the South and Midwest are too hot in July to not make this the big issue, may find that common ground - although the neo-liberals, or Liberal Democrats may resist anything but cosmetic change.
Things will get interesting in January at the earliest - or maybe when and if Jack Smith starts rounding up members of the Freedom Caucus, or November 2026 at the latest. Stay tuned.
If you ask most people (including members of Congress) what the theme of Jan 6 was, they will answer an attempt to pressure (or hang) Mike Pence. Nope. That was the diversion. Here is the real story.
The villain had henchmen plus his staff. The villain is on trial, the staff and some henchmen are cooperating, and the others are quaking in their boots and will be dealt with soon.
There was an army of heroes, and army off fools and an army of goons (the latter two being a distraction).
There were three squads of enemy effectives, all of which are in prison now, save a dead tragic heroine and the villain’s greatest fear – the one who was key to events, but got a light sentence. We will hear more about him in a week or so.
There were two SWAT teams, whose names we may never know.
There were three heroes whose actions saved the day.
The first hero was the villain’s driver, who took him off the field before the action really started.
The second hero took one of the enemy squads up the Senate stairs into the arms of SWAT.
The third hero shot the tragic heroine (Ashli) – who almost made the day interesting had she and her squad had not been stopped. Instead, that squad was stopped by SWAT. It was on live TV.
The third Squad disengaged – many of them are in prison now and will rot there.
At that point, the Villian called in his staff and the army of fools left the building. After the staff acted, the goons were driven off by the army heroes. Many of the goons and fools were caught and jailed for a time, while some of the army of heroes were casualties.
On Friday the 11th, the villain lost in court because this story, from the point of view of those involved, will be released on Friday the 18th. That this has happened is probably the most under-reported story of the Century.
He has been given 7 days to decide whether his followers care about the real story or surrender to the truth. That will be the most reported story of the Century.
'No financing mechanism': Trump proposes another tax cut
This tax cut is part of retaining the tax cuts that are expiring. It will not be paid for, just as the current tax cuts were not. The national debt increases to pay the interest on existing debt held by retirement funds, to finance the currency and to leverage high return hedge funds that finance the junk hiding in Exchange Traded Funds.
Trump lawyers, possibly with House GOP lawyers, have until one week from 5 pm Thursday to file a brief blocking the release of evidence by Smith in DC trial. If they cite jury pool concerns, they may win. If they expand the redactions, they may succeed - especially if Smith agrees as a matter of courtesy, If they let Trump approach guide their filing, then on Friday of next week, there will be an evidence data dump.
Trump could stop the dump by starting negotiations to plead guilty. They will only last as long as they make an honest effort - which is doubtful. If Smith or Trump agree on terms, data dump will not occur. Evidence will be held until and unless it is used for other trials - but only evidence for those cases, plus any testimony Trump provides.
Then the question is whether Haley seeks or agrees to take over for Trump for November - assuming that the Republican National Committee choses her over Vance. Vance may bring home Haley's never Trumpers. Haley has a better chance. This is not a hard question to find out and pollsters should be looking.
The participants in the GOP primaries in Florida and Texas are a matter of public record. Survey them all and ask who voted for Haley. Ask those who did whether they will vote for Trump, Vance or Haley in November. The list of new registrants may or may not be public. If they are, ask them too.
Forget the other polls. This is the correct measure to see how Texas, and the entire election, will turn out.
Getting the names from Texas may take between an hour or a day, depending on staff resources. There is no timeframe required to make the calls. The time takes what it takes - this is not a sample of current opinion - it is a population census or a random estimate of voters whose minds have been made up. Also ask these people how they would vote if Vance or Haley was the nominee.
Then ask Nikki if she will run, based on the result. Or ask her before you do the poll. The important question is "what will she do?" Someone needs to ask her - first quietly - then on a hot mike. #nikkihaley #jdvance #elections2024
Vance showed that, if Trump were to get out of the race, win and die in office or not defeat an objection to his election of 14th Amendment grounds, he would not be a total failure as President - indeed - he is the better alternative to Trump. The reason he has been playing dumb is because he learned his lesson from his military service: never outshine the boss. Tonight, he out shined Trump. Now, if anyone is weird, it's Donald - although it is getting to the point that dumping on a sick and failing old man for political sport is simply uncouth.
There are more Nikki voters from the Texas primary plus new registrants to not have Texas go Blue - so the election is over. Vance will likely get more votes at the top than Trump, rather than suffer a 50 state loss - mostly on the strength of tonight's performance.
In other Trump news, his lawyers let Trump control the brief that was turned in to the DC Court - so no serious arguments were made. They cannot handle the redactions this way. There was a good reason to not redact anything, which is the danger of contaminating the jury pool.
Most of the nation (at least those who do not worship Trump) know his guilt well in advance of any evidence. If January 6 is a factor, it is already part of everyone's calculation - which is why Trump has no path to victory once the Nikki yes, Trump never faction of the GOP is considered. They are hard to find in polling, but their presence in the voting booth is already obvious.
Jack Smith filed the evidence of Trump's crimes "in camera" which means that he will not use his filings to sway voters.
We don't need the details. We saw everything we need ON THAT DAY. Here is the narrative that proves that Trump was the Insurrectionist-in-Chief.
The tweet said to come to DC, this was right after Team Crazy (aka team Moscow) was shouted down by the White House Counsel. Team Russia was Trump, Giuliani, Mike Flynn and Byrne (who WH Counsel did not know - but he was GRU spy Maria Bettina's lover). When their plot to overtly stop the election failed, they started plan B with the tweet.
Here is the day of proof:
Trump gave a speech showing that he knew the plot, saying that some Republicans were with him, the Democrats were useless and other Republicans were weak and needed a push. The plan was for Trump to put them together and give the push. Those who knew he was coming were in on the plot - because that is not an official act.
The Secret Service foiled Trump's direct involvement with the future prisoners. He was pissed. Ketchup flew!
The Senate tip of the spear followed an officer right to SWAT and were arrested. The House tip was at the Speaker's lobby. They could see the members flee and knew where they were going, as they had been briefed by a member of staff. SWAT was on the way, so the police officers who were protecting the doors withdrew and the glass on one of the doors was breached. Ashli Babbitt went through, was shot in the neck, and SWAT arrived and put her crew face down on the ground. I wonder whether the exhibits involved their statements. Regardless, this was all on TV. Trump saw it and at that moment, he told Meadows that he would help wind the effort down.
The Oath Keeper stack was timed to get to the doors to each chamber. We know from their trials that one half went to check on each tip of the spear. Then they vanished. We also know that this was the point where people started leaving the building and congregating on the grounds. We watched it on TV. Anything else that happened in the Chamber and in congressional offices was theater, including the chants to hang Pence.
Just like election interference and the perfect phone call distracted from Trump stopping the Javelins by having OMB stop the money - the DoD did not let that happen. Moscow still sent the money to Lev and Igor - who funded Rudy's trip to Ukraine and the Protect the House PAC. Members gave back the money, but those who got it originally did not want their part in the plan to come out. It is why so many people voted not to certify the election. It was not fear of their voters, it was fear of their masters.
We all saw it happen and the Congress showed the events they did not see. We know enough, if you put the events together, to know that Trump was charge and was in on all of the details - including the misdirection. We even know why he tried to hold office - it was Ukraine, not ego.
We know that Trump supporters knew the outline of events. I have a classmate who posted on Facebook how great the day would be. I commented on Twitter threads on how the plot would never work - because even after the contested state votes were taken out, Biden had more votes of those cast without dispute, so he would have been elected regardless. It is plain language, and if it had been stressed before Jan 6, the riot would not have happened. Trump supporters, even if they knew the true narrative, are voting for him anyway.
Trump has to respond by Tuesday to whether the evidence showed non-official acts. By October 5, they must respond to the exhibits as well. Trump cannot stop the trial if elected - because Rule 48A says that Chutkan has to agree to let it stop. She won't. He won't win anyway.
Texas has more new voters and Nikki voters who are voting for Harris to go Blue. No one is saying this (but me and Texans), because it would show that the election was over. Trump may be in denial - but if he takes a deal before election day, it will because he wants Vance to lose a 50 state route, rather than being the biggest loser - giving Harris a mandate. The desire for that mandate and the need to have people go to the polls to put Democrats in charge of the House and keep the Senate is important.
Deal or no deal. If Trump's lawyers take the next two filings seriously, they will take getting their client to take a deal seriously. If they pander to Trump, there will be no deal until Trump is routed.
Today, with little notice, Jack Smith requested leave to file and outsized brief regarding the question of official v. non-official acts. He also acknowledged that he will not go public with this filing - and instead will create a redacted version for the court to review. The implications of this last bit are staggering.
Trump's lawyers now have to do their job, rather than serving as agents of their client's whims and mental dysfunction. If they do not engage, Smith's version of redactions will go public. If they repeat Trump's position that all acts are official or that all evidence must be redacted, the Judge will simply accept the Special Counsel's version for publication.
Trump needs to actually engage fully with the facts, rather than his personal authenticity, or else let his lawyers work for him without his interference. This will bring home the fact that the evidence against him is irrefutable and, under Rule 48A, he cannot win and make the charges go away without the permission of the Court. She won't give it, so this trial will happen unless Trump makes a deal. Since he does not like any disclosure, he needs to make that deal now. Today's filing puts some pressure on to at least consider some kind of offer or proffer which implicates his co-conspirators
The missing piece for Trump is some assurance of what confinement looks like. The Secret Service, the Federal Marshalls Service and Walter Reed-Bethesda need to work out what will become of him, especially if, because he is dead to rights, lets his lawyers argue that he is incompetent to assist in his own defense. That puts it mildly. He is hurting more than helping his cause and his advancing dementia, as well as other long term deficits (at least ADHD and likely some kind of compensating disorder). He needs to be in what can be called Trump Tower - South in Bethesda, Maryland.
Pleading incompetence takes him out of the race - and the longer he waits the less likely the party goes with anyone but J.D. Vance - which would be a 50 state + DC loss. As it is, if the Democrats go full force on Cruz as an insurrectionist - the Senate coordinator of the larger plot - then his loss will take Trump down. Trump loses anyway. Any expansion of the Democratic base, along with actual Haley voters going with Harris, means that she will get more votes than Trump. This is likely the case in Florida as well - and possibly Iowa and Ohio. Realistically, Trump is done. It is all over but the tears and tantrums - which if he has any self-respect, should be done out of site at Trump Tower South.
1. If Trump is elected, Rule 48A prevents DOJ from dropping the case.
2 On Thursday, September 26, all of the evidence against Trump will be released in n a public filing unless he makes a deal.
3. Neither of these things will be overturned on appeal.
4. Donald Trump's biggest fear is public embarrassment, he hates disclosure.
People who hate him and people who worship and/or fear him (same thing?) will not want him out of the race.
People who love him know getting out and getting help are his best result.
Not sure which camp his lawyers (or family?) fall into, assuming they are good enough to know the above.
Interesting week.
The next question is Haley or Vance? Housing and stock prices are inflated. The question is how fast will they fall and what that does to general liquidity. Nikki may take a pass. We need a president who will raise taxes on capital. That likely is not Haley.
Haley and Harris both have serious foreign policy chops. Harris is better in Ukraine. Salva Ukrani!
Note on today's attempt: real assassins never make threats.
People who make threats are usually parlor pinks, who should be found out - for their own protection. Threats are both terrorism and bullying. When you bully people for long enough, they take advantage of the easy availability of firearms.
Available guns is one factor in the US murder rate, but a major factor is bullying. The coarse nature of American society is as responsible, if not more responsible, for our violence.
Bullies are cowards. That is why anonymous bullies don't say their names. Those who don't are often not a threat, although those who incite when violence occurs should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law when domestic terrorism results. If they are not, they should look over their shoulders.
Haiti is a violent culture - it is why people come here. All it takes, however, is one Haitian immigrant who has had enough to ruin JD Vance's day. He should know better. What he says now could lead him to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life.
Partial Birth Abortion is already illegal, letting extreme preemies die ...
Partial birth abortion is not legal and the Dems did not end the ban when they were last in power. Both in 2009-10 and 2021-22. Know why? It never happens!
In 2008, Obama said he wanted to sit down with Republicans to talk about all late term abortions - including extending the ban to other procedures - and the Catholic bishops crapped in his face by starting a campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act - which was not being actively pushed - so that they could build up their voter list for 2010. Shame on them.
There is no moral obligation to hydrate someone who is dying (doing so actually causes pain because the kidneys cannot remove the fluids) or to intubate them - whether the person is born early or is very old.
Trump is losing anyway - we just don't like it when Republicans lie. On Sept 10, Trump's lawyers will get all of the details they have - and they will release them all on Sep 26 @ 5 pm, EDT. Also, Kamala will wipe the floor with him on Sep 10th. The only vote he will get is the pity vote.
Expect JD Vance to be the nominee after Sept 26. No woman will vote for him. The first female president will have the same electoral vote win as Washington - getting all of the Electoral College. No one will say this, but everyone knows it.
The new indictment will go to trial next year. The judge will likely rule that it meets requirements of SCOTUS, although a challenge of this will keep Trump in race, which will kill the GOP.
If GOP wins White House but not Congress, Harris can declare Vance will be acting President pending 14th Amendment. There is no conflict of interest because outcome has no effect on her.
DOJ cannot drop the case without District Court permission. Rule 48A is clear on this. This and incarceration options, in case of contempt or incompetence to stand trial need to be revealed regardless of election calendar need to be revealed. Withholding these options to keep Trump in a race he will lose is election interference; although letting Trump keep going is in interest of Democrats - who may lose to Nikki with coattails.
Trump will lose Texas. Ask Rove. Nikki voters will go for Kamala or Chase, not stay home. Current RCP average includes conservative polls designed to be biased. Ignore them. The only untruth at DNC was that this will be close.
There will be a deal. No trial. The only question is when.
The Bible: History or Fiction? The Discovery That's Shaking Foundations!...
Let's look at a few possibilities, which come courtesy of my studies at YouTube Theological University.
Original sin is not biologically inherited. Rather, it is renewed whenever someone dwells on whether other people are committing good or evil, rather than forgiving wrongs as Jesus directs.
Eden was found in a Kurdish refugee camp near Mount Ararat. Before the change in wind patterns which came with the Black Sea flooding, the site was the perfect paradise for hunter-gatherers who had to move down river to what is now Iraq, and then began the practice of farming - which we know started there. Hominids existed for millions of years, but by the time farming began, all other species had gone extinct.
The Canaanite and Sumeric pantheons are similar. The Phoenicians brought the pantheon from Tyre to where Carthage was, from which it went to Greece and then Rome. YHWH replaced Baal as the storm/war god and then YHWH and El were combined into the One God. Baal/El became Kronos and YHWH became Zeus. Those who think that Christianity is based on the Roman gods have it backwards. Hercules as a takeoff on the promised Messiah, not the other way around.
Horeb was the mountain of God, not Mt. Sainai. It was a small band who constructed pillars there and they likely fled the part of Egypt that was Canaan. The God-King of Salem was overthrown in the Bronze Age collapse, which allowed the northern kingdom to evolve. A Temple was found in the North in what is now part of Syria. Maybe this was the real thing - where those who were at Horeb constructed it.
The Bronze Age collapse pretty much maps onto the time of the Judges. Evidence suggests that there was never a unified kingdom, with Judah gaining the stragglers who were not taken by the Assyrians - never to return.
Some Roma scholars believe that the former captives moved east rather than west and became the Roma (who were converted by St. Thomas in India). They make this link because Roma religious custom is much closer to Israelite practice than Hindu practice. Centuries later, probably to escape Islam, migrations began to Europe. The Sinti and Manouches are generally light skinned, having intermarried with Germans, Ashkenazi Jews and Franks. Later waves are darker, including the two Calle peoples in Spain and Italy. The Kalderash are the darkest.
While David and Solomon are considered to be legendary, later kings in Israel and Judah have been identified in archeology. The question of whether God punished these nations because of their injustice to the poor, the widow and the orphan or whether these nations picked an awful place to put a country. When you locate at the spot where three continents meet, expect visitors.
Before the Exile, the Judeans still worshiped the old pantheon. There was no Torah. This was consolidated in Babylon as a way to hold the people in captivity together. When they returned in 538 BCE, Judaism was born. After 70 AD, Judaism left in the Diaspora. The entire existence of the Jewish Nation in Palestine was 607 years. Palestine became Christian with Rome - although St. Philip converted the Samaritans before then.
The Gospel of Luke says that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah. Jesus confirms this when coming down from Mt. Tabor after the Transfiguration.
James Tabor thinks that Paul wrote the Gospel of Mark. Q fleshed it out with the sayings of Jesus. Because most people were literate in the Jewish community - and we know several of the Apostles were, the fact that someone probably wrote these things down as they happened is not far fetched.
The ban on divorce had as much to do with putting your spouse away to "marry up" based on family pressure. It is ironic that Catholics would essentially interfere with gay marriages at their hospitals when Jesus said that families need to respect the marriages of their children, rather than trying to "save them" by having them renounce the relationship that led to estrangement from the family of origin.
YHWH is That which Is. In Essence, the Father is Being Itself. The Son is both Jesus and the Word by which the Universe was created. The Spirit is both Love and breath. The Spirit would have been known to Jesus as the feminine aspect of YHWH. Jesus had two mommies.
Those who do not believe in a transcendent God still believe in Being (the Universe), the Word (Physics) and Spirit (Love and Breath). One conception is as good as the other. For the Godhead to be perfect, it must be absolutely humble, meaning that it is comfortable and happy with Itself and cannot be made unhappy by creation.
Jesus used humor. Sadly, the condemnation of pederasty which came when he had the little children come to him has been placed in the Sermon on the Mount, where it does not belong, and is followed by the gouging of eyes and the cutting off of hands. Jesus was actually making fun of the obsession with sin.
One of the sayings of Jesus was that he (and he and the Father are One) is gentle and humble of heart, whose yoke is easy and his burden light. When he talks of the Father being perfect, he is speaking about perfection in Love, not avoidance of evil. Again, we make up evil. When we make moral pronouncements which are not based in what makes people happy in this life, we are doing evil - taking yet another bite of the Tree of Knowledge.
If you combine the Synoptic Gospels and John and address the question of whether Jesus sinned when he drank from the vinegar and hyssop soaked sponge - which John says he did - then salvation had to have been when Jesus called out to the Father in anguish - and that this was the completion of his divine vision quest into the broken heart of man - with that quest coming to a head when he essentially told Mary that he was dead - and told John to care for his grandmother - thus abandoning the Messianic quest. The promise that Jesus would not drink until the coming of the kingdom shows that it was the heartbreak, not the death of Jesus, that brought salvation.
The first ending of Mark was probably the most accurate, with Jesus meeting the disciples in Galilee when they went fishing. Any other encounters follow that one. James and Joses (Jesus' brothers) likely did see him in traveling to Emmaus sometime after Peter and his crew (Andrew, James and John - sons of Salome and Zebedee). Pentecost is too convenient to have occurred, as the original feast celebrates the giving of the Old Law.
The existence of Hell was a product of leakage from Zoroastrianism. The Jewish afterlife was sleep in Sheol, which the Temple Priesthood/Sadducees still held to. Jesus was in the Pharisee party as a Rabbi who likely went to Yeshiva with his cousin John, so he preached Resurrection. Since he also taught that John the Baptist had been previously incarnate, there was no need to open Heaven, as it had never closed as the original sin is to not forgive.
The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man probably was a jibe at his brother in law, who he had raised from the dead, by calling him a poor beggar. The point of the story is not the existence of Hell, it was that if Moses and the Prophets were not enough to teach justice for the poor, someone rising from the dead would not have an effect. That person rising from the dead was Jesus.
Joseph of Arimathea (a relative of Mary and John the Baptist) likely took Jesus body to a tomb on his property after the end of the Sabbath at sundown on Saturday, where it rotted with the bones placed in an osury, along with those of his family, including his mother. In the 1980s, there was a collapse of that tomb and it was excavated.
The bones are now in storage at Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Would the fact that the bones exist (and that Jesus would not want them venerated), shake your faith or your proof?
The answer on Hawai'i is for Berkeley and U Hawaii to insist that native Hawaiians have the same access to education and an equal child tax credits as anyone else in the states - or higher for all residents to meet their costs.
The answer to colonialism is to start with cooperative socialism. To get there, start with ESOPs and make them more socialistic - electing leaders who first have to bid down CEO pay in an open auction, then have worker owners making decisions (one worker, one vote - but preferred shares to reward longevity) on offering housing to lower wage employees, building housing for tenure employees (and equalizing pay), providing education, finance, having the cooperative make decisions explicitly that they now don't make collectively - so workers control the means of production, consumption, finance, retirement and human services and expand to offer their supply chains internationally the same deal - so that everyone gets the same standard of living (adjusted to the economy but buying the same things) as their American counterparts. In other words, kill capitalism by doing what Marx and Lenin did not do - ask the questions employees need to face to make decisions rather than throwing them in the deep end and watching them drown - which is what happened in Russia and led to incomplete socialism in the Nordic countries.
Back to Hawaii - work toward equal economics for those who were colonized. Provide the education - paying them to take it - no debt.
Require that Scientists learn the local religion and help practice it on the Mountain. Build spiritual centers on top of the world and accept a shorter work day if those activities last into the night. SHARE THE LOVE OF ASTRONOMY WITH THEM! They will appreciate it! Make them part of your universe by joining their spirituality!.
My family converted at every point, starting from being Egyptians during the Bronze Age to being Hebrews (both kingdoms - one going to Assyria and then India, then Saxony and the other going to Babylon and coming back Jewish then being taken in slavery to Rome, etc.
Those who were not taken to Rome eventually were converted to Christianity, then to Islam. The North African Phoenicians founded Carthage and their Semitic religion informed Greece and Rome. El became Baal, became Cronos became Saturn and YHWH became Zeus. Those who think Rome created Christianity had it backwards. Canaanite religion created Greco Roman religion. BTW, Dr. Fatima and one of my exes, who is Sephardic, could pass for Stacey when younger. Evolution has not had time to catch up.
Those who escaped slavery (and the Samaritans did so by being converted by the Apostle Philip) were all Christianized by Rome - including the North Africans who were conquered by Rome earlier. Then the Arabs conquered the Middle East and North Africa and the majority became Muslim, although not all..
Just like a Ashkenazi who eventually became Lutheran and Catholic and are now fairly secular Catholics. Ordain Women!
Palestinians can get their land and their equality, freak out the Zionists and give Bibi fits - and win - by returning to our roots as I am. Learn Hebrew, chant the blessing, go to synagogue, keep the Sabbath as you already did in Palestine in the days of old.
If you cannot beat them - and my family history shows that beating them is impossible - join them.
Doing so will confirm that Bibi wants ethnic cleansing - but this will stop him from getting what he wants. Not accepting mass conversion would look bad, even for Zionists.
24 hours ago, I was watching Dr. Fatima's video on colonialism and astronomy. You can watch it at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7hK5_Rj--8
The next three videos are my contribution.
I am a secular Ashkenazi Catholic. I have not left the Church nor do I deny myself the sacraments just because they tel me not to because I call for the ordination of women and the acceptance of queer theory for priests - both gay and asexual. My people in Iowa are blind to their heritage as Roma on my grandfather's side and Jewish on my grandmother's side. Her name was Fuchs, her mother's name was Lieb. Her mother's name was Daisenberg. The ner in bindner is like the berg. A sure sign of Canaanite heritage. The Sinti and Ashkenazi came by way of India and Rome and intermarried - which is why we are light skinned and blue eyed. It was not until Luther that we became Christian. After the 100 years war, we became Catholic and sometime after 1692, my progenitor left Aach (which had a large Ghetto, so maybe we were from there) and became Catholic Luxembergers.
Prior to going to Rome, we were in Roman Palestine and were Jews. We became Jews in Babylon. YouTube Theological and Anthropological University shows how Judaism evolved from the Canaanite religion and the local kingdoms. The time of the Judges, in my estimation, was the time of the Bronze Age collapse, when Egypt left the homeland - rather than the northern tribes escaping Egypt. Note the ongoing theme. It is continued in part 2 of this series.
As genealogy has shown me the truth, I have embraced my lost Judaism, meaning I identify Shekinah, the female manifestation of the one G_d with the Spirit and have learned the blessing Baruch atah Adonai Elinehu....
Bankrate's list is a bit skewed and the results show it. Their rankings were based on:
Affordability (40%): Analyzes factors such as local and state sales taxes, cost of living and average annual property taxes
Overall wellbeing (25%): Includes factors such as the number of adults over 62 per 100,000 residents and access to food and health care
Quality and cost of health care (20%): Looks at factors such as the cost of health care at the state level and the performance of each state's health system
Weather (10%): Evaluates data on factors such as a state's average annual temperature and average number of tornado strikes, earthquakes and hurricane landfalls
Crime (5%): Examines factors such as the amount of property crimes and violent crimes per 100,000 residents
I did not have visibility into their factor data, so I cannot adjust their rankings for each factor, but I can adjust the weights. My weights seem to be born out by where people actually live. My weights are:
Affordability 30%
Overall well-being 15%
Quality and cost of healthcare 20%
Weather 20%
Crime 15%
This is how the results compare (click on the table for a more readable image):
When you look at the numbers, you may catch the implicit bias in Bankrate's rankings. Just ask yourself, if you were not an upper middle class white person, how would you feel about ranking South Carolina as #4 and Missouri as #5 - or Delaware as #1?!!! More importantly, Bankrate, given their business model, does not factor in such things as affordable housing programs. Maryland does this very well, but their affordability rankings do not seem to take such things into account. At least we agree on Georgia, however.
Kamala Harris is now getting support from Haley voters, sometimes in an organized fashion.
Others may just leave that position blank. I suggest that instead, they vote Libertarian, both for President and Congress. Whatever they do, let us hope that all Republicans punish members who voted to stop the steal on January 7, 2021.
As far as we know, there will be no indictments of membres who met with Trump a week before. Did they coordinate with the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, or merely organize the votes and try to get Clark appointed as acting-Attorney General. The Ethics Committee needs to look at that issue and consider whether such members who met with the President should be designated as Insurrectionists for the purpose of the 14th Amendment.
Traditional practice is to wait for prosecution and conviction to expel a member who behaves unethically. The House should not wait and if they designate a member as an insurrectionist, the burden should be on the member to get the permission of both houses.
Regardless, they do not deserve reelection.
What will happen if people vote Libertarian instead? They could caucus with the Republicans as if nothing happened. They, and Republicans who are not traitors, could vote together and deny admission to the Freedom Caucus or could encourage the Democrats to split into Social Democrats and (Neo)Liberal Democrats and divide their votes accordingly.
If it is business as usual, especially if the GOP still has a substantial minority or majority, nothing will get done.
People need to vote like they want real government instead. It is up to voters, not members, to make this happen.
