Posts Made By: Brian McFarland

Originally Posted by James Brown

It is interesting that the Supreme Court issued this as a very rare "overnight order" on Saturday morning.  My guess is that the Court is reasonably worried Trump's people would whisk some or all of the alleged gangsters off to El Salvador between the hearing and the written order.

I am frustrated, because Supreme Court involvement would be so easy for the administration to avoid - in both the Tren de Aragua and Abrego Garcia cases.   Just have a proper hearing for each person alleged to be a MS13, Tren de Aragua gangster, or other type of criminal!  Win the hearing with a proper showing of criminality and deport them to jail.  Or at least prove that the alleged gangsters are here illegally, which should be easy to do, and deport them elsewhere!!   

Yes, this is time consuming, and yes this might result in some gangsters being deported, but not to prison.  So what!  Freedom reigns here and some level of civil liberty is granted under the Constitution to everyone on our soil, even illegal gangster criminals.

Before anyone accuses me of not caring about the women raped and murdered by illegal gangster criminals, let me note the following: 

1.  Biden or any other president should be remembered poorly by history if he let criminal illegals into the US through negligence or malfeasance.  

2.  If an illegal is afforded due process and is proved to have committed rape or murder in the US, I am perfectly happy to see him executed, incarcerated forever, or shipped off to El Salvador where hopefully his stay will be short and unpleasant.

3.  I hate to say this, but it must be said.  The fact that illegals will rape, murder, and otherwise commit crimes in the US does not justify rounding up alleged gangsters and deporting them without some sort of due process.  This is one of the high costs of liberty.  

4.  So, I support Trump's efforts to round up and deport illegal aliens with gang ties or histories of criminality.  At the same time, I demand that these aliens, who may indeed be scum, get proper due process under the circumstances before the government deports or incarcerates them.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

The White House has replaced government COVID information sites with a flashy page pushing the Lab Leak conspiracy.

The original pages, covid.gov and covidtests.gov, are now both redirected to the White House Lab leak page. 

I've read quite a few mainstream articles about it now, and none of them lend any credence to what the Lab Leak sites are pushing. Most experts interviewed for the articles described the Lab Leak pages as misleading, embellished, or outright propaganda. On the other hand, many people aligned with Trump are praising the changes.

There is a lot of speculation about the motivation for this change, but it appears to me that it has mostly to do with Trump's ego. The changes try to portray him as a holy warrior seeking the truth against an establishment dedicated to misleading you. Just look at the main splash page, with Trump framed by the words "Lab Leak." I'm surprised there is no bandage on his ear, and that he's not holding up a defiant fist while shouting "Fight!"

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

What!? A Republican actually has the stones to speak up on Hegseth?    

"Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) stopped just short of calling on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be removed Monday following a new report that alleges the secretary shared detailed military plans in a group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer."

“If it’s true that he had another [Signal] chat with his family about the missions against the Houthis, it’s totally unacceptable,” Bacon told Politico, adding, “I’m not in the White House, and I’m not going to tell the White House how to manage this … but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it if I was in charge.”


https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5259188-don-bacon-suggests-hegseth-out-pentagon/

Originally Posted by James Lacey

I'm assuming it's partly motivated by a political nod to his base that still thinks COVID was a hoax or that wants to blame China entirely. Or maybe it's a way to avoid any responsibility for his mishandling of the pandemic. Perhaps it could also be seen as a way to criticize and gain leverage over China? Whatever their reasoning, it's yet another thing Trump is doing that my imagination didn't prepare me for. I hope to heck we do not end up having a bird flu pandemic while this clown is still in charge. 60 Minutes did a segment on bird flu and its increasing threat as it spreads to our cattle and continues to infect more and more mammals. Thank goodness, Trump and RFK have fired so many federal workers who worked in public health.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

There are early reports that the White House is now looking for a new Secretary of Defense.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

It's all about the Trump loyalty pledge. The only qualification that genuinely matters is fealty to the mad king and a willingness to defend, no matter how insane it is, Trump's version of reality. I'm not sure we've ever had a politician who embodies the meaning of the saying "The emperor has no clothes" more than Trump does.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Another disgruntled former aide.  Nothing of course but the regular MSNB Hee Haw sycophants are up in arms.  LOL

Originally Posted by James Lacey

There is no direct evidence that the virus was engineered or that it "escaped" from a Wuhan lab. There is, however, a lot of evidence that supports a zoonotic origin. Therefore, the overarching scientific consensus is that the virus arose naturally.

Wildlife coronaviruses have long been a threat for spillover into the human population. Scientists have been warning us about it and studying coronaviruses for decades because they knew we were at risk, just like we are at risk for a spillover of H5N1 that will make COVID-19 seem easy and pleasant by comparison. For that matter, COVID-19 is not even the first coronavirus to spread to the human population. There have been several notable examples in just the last 20 or so years—namely, SARS-CoV-2 in 2019, MERS-CoV in 2012, and SARS-COV in 2003. In total, there have been 16 known major zoonotic viral outbreaks in humans over the last 50 years, whereas there have been zero lab leaks that have caused a global pandemic.

The well-known threat of coronaviruses is just one reason we were able to develop a vaccine so quickly. It was already well understood, for example, that using mRNA vaccines to trigger an immune response to the COVID-19 spike protein would be an effective strategy.

All of this doesn't mean that there are shortages of support for the lab-leak conspiracy. You can find numerous opinion pieces and even intelligence reports from our government using their influence to support the lab-leak theory. There are also congressional committee reports supporting the lab-leak theory, but just like Trump's updates to the government's COVID-19 informational sites, they are heavily influenced by politics. Regardless,  the scientific consensus is that the lab-leak theory is improbable.

Originally Posted by Maurice Clark

However if you see a closeup of the picture it looks like this...


The tattoos are real but the 'M S 1 3' and the 'marijuana,' 'smile,' 'cross' and 'skull' have been added via Photoshop.

A very clumsy attempt at fabrication. How stupid does trump think his followers are? Clearly the liar in chief will stop at nothing to convince people.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

So, he was just the coffee boy, I take it?