Transitioning your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org offers greater flexibility and control. Many beginners start with WordPress.com but soon run into its limitations and seek more advanced features.

By moving to the self-hosted WordPress.org platform, you gain access to a wider range of themes, plugins, and customization options that aren’t available on WordPress.com.

I really don't see how you finesse this. Buttigieg is with the Harris campaign; one assumes "ready to win" is not some obscure gay sex act and refers to the 2024 election. Harris campaign items festoon the wall behind him. The people are so enthusiastic that it can only be a Harris campaign event headlined by Buttigieg.

All joking aside, there is no way this is not some level of violation of the Hatch Act. Either he's actively campaigning for Harris or giving the impression of actively campaigning for Harris. Both are illegal. The real question is if anyone in the federal government cares. My guess is they don't for all the obvious reasons. //

anon-2hhh
3 hours ago
That’s really cool that we have all these laws concerning government employees and electioneering. Too bad election laws don’t mean any more than immigration laws to Democrats. If only ‘no one is above the law’ were true.

Creating and using a VHD from scratch

Since there are hundreds of email marketing service providers that you can choose from, we have hand-picked the best Mailchimp alternatives for specific use-cases such as small business, startups, non-profits, eCommerce businesses (online stores), etc.

The tide of this war changed when Israel, and Netanyahu, stopped caring what America says or thinks.

The drone that hit the Prime Minister's house was accompanied by two others that were shot down. The only one to make landfall is the one that hit the home. There are concerns that no warning sirens were sounded. Reports say the military is investigating the incident and potential failures of Israel's warning system. //

Equally, even after the death of Hamas's leader Sinwar and the harrowing footage of his last moments, Hamas still pledges to hold the hostages until the end and not give up. The problem with this enemy has always been the ideology. Death is a reward for them and they care not for the lives of anyone around them, or their own.

Israel understands the complexity of the tragic conditions of this conflict. Complete victory is the only answer. They are well on their way and the days of this war are numbered.

When drones swarmed our military bases, the only thing bureaucrats ‘shot down’ were proposals about how to deal with the problem. //

In the end, the Journal strongly implies that the drone intrusions over Langley Airforce Base came to a halt only because twenty-something Chinese student Fengyun Shi accidentally crashed his drone into a tree. Law enforcement identified Shi’s suspicious behavior, and he was arrested before he could escape on a one-way trip back to China. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to only six months in prison.

This story provides a genuine, although probably unintentional, insight into American national security. U.S. policymakers tie themselves in knots over what they view as insurmountably complex technological and regulatory questions, instead of accepting common-sense approaches. //

Our national security apparatus is addicted to complexity. The more complex the problem, the more our elites feel justified in insisting that only the experts with the best credentials at the highest levels can be trusted to address the challenges we face. The larger the budgets that can be requested, the easier the excuses for when the problem remains unresolved.

The purpose of swarm tactics (whether from drones or otherwise) is to overwhelm a single target with multiple autonomous entities, which become increasingly difficult to track and react against.

The vulnerability being exploited isn’t a technological one. Rather it’s exploiting the opponent’s centralized and rigid decision-making process. This is the same logic deployed by Antifa rioters, who seek to overwhelm law enforcement with dozens of independently operating affinity groups.

Where all tactical decisions are increasingly centralized, and often subjected to political pressure (such as the role played by vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz in the loss of the Third Minneapolis Police Precinct during the 2020 riots), autonomous swarm tactics win the day. Where individuals and small groups are empowered to respond as needed and cut through the red tape, swarms can be defeated, as amply demonstrated by the response from Florida police to illegal efforts by pro-Hamas protesters to blockade major roads in April 2024. Where power is centralized, the swarm wins every time.

We should be wary when the national security apparatus insists that if we just granted them additional powers, they could defeat the latest and greatest threat. We should be skeptical of claims that we must continue to centralize power so our safety can be ensured. Instead, to defeat the swarms that threaten us, we should be on the lookout for ways to decentralize our security, spreading out responsibilities and empowering those closest to the problem to react with prudence.

CurtTX53
2 hours ago
Seems to me many people liked Obama, because of his charisma, his supposed, coolness. I’ll give him this, he was good at reading speeches, but would fumble and stumble about when answering questions, would draw out his answer to the point of everyone wanting to go home after he answered just one question, in the last hour and ten minutes. He sure could filibuster with the best of them in response. He stood at the podium for an hour and forty five minutes answering all three questions asked, in the allotted time.

In my experience he is and was the most divisive leader this Country has ever seen ! Set the racial divide back seventy years at least. Definitely did nothing to unite the people. A sad chapter for the US of America. //

anon-jzji
2 hours ago edited
Obama has wildly succeeded in turning this country into bitter factions- it is he who started the woke movement. He continues to work behind the scenes to Cloward & Piven the country. He's done untold illegal things in the shadows, emboldened by the media's compliance. In terms of effectiveness, I'd say he was a success. //

Youngkin explained that his executive order, which he issued over the summer, was meant to clarify who can legally vote:

I think it's really important....they self-identify as a non-citizen, when this whole process starts [at the Department of Motor Vehicles], and then they've ended up on the voter roll--either by accident or purposefully--and therefore, we go through a very clear process that's been on our books for 18 years.

He said that since 2006, Virginia has notified the non-citizens, giving them 14 days "to affirm that they are a citizen or not, and then they are removed from the voter roll." He added that Virginia has same-day voter registration, so even "if there's been a mistake," any legal citizen can walk up to the polls, register, and vote via a provisional ballot.

Pointing out that there are "multiple safeguards," he called the DOJ suit "unprecedented": //

Call me crazy, but I believe that only citizens should be voting in U.S. elections.

Bartiromo interjected that that's the law, and that Youngkin and his administration are following it. She also brought up one of the contentions in the Biden-Harris DOJ's filing, which claims that the purging of names 90 days ahead is too close to the election.

Youngkin waved it away, saying that "it's an individual process" put in motion by the individual showing up at the DMV. //

I believe that this is purely political. They waited until 25 days before a presidential election in order to file this suit. I wrote my executive order back in early August....I think this is why people lose faith in the entire process....This is a moment where we have to stand strong.

On Thursday, Trump's team filed a motion to continue the stay until November 14, arguing, in part, that allowing the “asymmetric release of charged allegations and related documents during early voting creates a concerning appearance of election interference.” Chutkan denied that motion, however, and indicated that she would lift the stay of her prior order on Friday, which she then did, directing the Clerk of the Court to docket the Government's redacted appendices (laying out their evidence) on the public docket.

Of note, in making that ruling, Chutkan determined that publicly docketing the Government's evidence against Trump less than three weeks ahead of Election Day did not create such a concerning appearance. Rather, Chutkan reasoned that not doing so would run the risk of creating the appearance of election interference: //

So, in one breath, she says she's going to allow the Government to present its case publicly (when Trump's response isn't due to be filed until after the election) for fear that not doing so would appear to be election interference, and in the next, she's saying that the court will "continue to keep political considerations out of its decisionmaking."

Atterus
Ars Tribunus Militum
6y
1,830
Wednesday at 1:02 PM
#8
Gee... it seems like nuclear can actually provide a ton of clean power for high demand applications.... maybe we can, i dunno, build larger ones for general load? Had that been done before? Derp?

Oh, and the crazy costs are always government red tape and activists almost requiring a plant to be built three times with nutty reqs as regs are arbitrarily changed repeatedly and facilities are fined for stuff the govt is supposed to handle (Yucca). Always lots of pointing out the "uneconomical" costs and totally ignoring other advanced nations are reliant on it and seem to have solved the base load issue...

One of those was laughing at Russias/OPECs death grip on energy costs, btw. Oh, also found a ton of the animosity against nuclear is fanned by hostile revanchist nations afraid of everyone cutting them loose. Again, gee, imagine China pushing solar! Imagine Russia pushing wind and solar! Both suppressing nuclear abroad while pursuing it themselves. Wowsers! Whodathunk? (The nuclear sector for the past 40 years)

If other nations can be powered largely by nuclear, so can we. Any other argument is hypocrisy for sustainability and pandering to lobbyists afraid their "green" stock or fossil stocks will crater as a result. Interesting as soon as nuclear gains headway, the lobbyists do everything they can to stall it...

For the record, we need a mix, but nuclear IS the solution overall. It's goofy seeing real world examples work for cost and people get all sticker shocked at govt inflated prices but are okay blowing trillions on pipe dreams... that still don't match nuclear...

Edit: correction, reference to Russias pushing for Europe to adopt solar and wind power pre Ukraine war to control their reactions when base load couldn't be met with those sources and control them via gas prices as a result, for a while.

On a desolate slab of island tundra in western Alaska, a resident of Adak will again become the last American to cast an in-person ballot for president, continuing a 12-year tradition for the nation’s westernmost community.

The honor of having the last voter in the nation fell to Adak when they did away with absentee-only voting for the 2012 election and added in-person voting.

“People have a little bit of fun on that day because, I mean, realistically everybody knows the election’s decided way before we’re closed,” said city manager Layton Lockett. “But, you know, it’s still fun.”

When polls close in Adak, it’s 1 a.m. on the East Coast.

The United States is a big place. Roughly 3,000 miles separate the lower 48's east and west coasts - and roughly 3,000 miles separate the easternmost part of Alaska's panhandle, where Sitka and Juneau are found as well as Hyder, the easternmost settlement in Alaska, and the Aleutian island of Adak.

Note that there are U.S. possessions farther west than Adak, but while the people who live there are American citizens, they, like Puerto Ricans, don't vote for president:

Trump has had anything but a "media blackout." As of October 18, Trump has done 59 interviews compared to 26 for Kamala. He outscores her in every form of media. //

Marc Caputo
@MarcACaputo
·
Follow
Trump’s schedule since Oct 1

✅28 in-person events

✅25 cities

✅12 states

✅21 interviews (including 7 long form podcasts)

✅Little sleep
Sam Stein
@samstein
NEW -- Is Trump tired?

“Of course he’s tired,” said one adviser. “Who wouldn’t be tired? I know the campaign isn’t supposed to say that. But it’s true. And it’s also true he’s kicking ass.”

Via @MarcACaputo

https://thebulwark.com/p/inside-trumps-sleepless-exhausting
8:24 AM · Oct 19, 2024 //

Trump War Room

·
Oct 18
·
@TrumpWarRoom
·
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Kamala: "He's not doing interviews... We need to ask if he's exhausted being on the campaign trail."

Media interviews since becoming the nominee:
Trump: 59
Kamala: 26

Press conferences since becoming the nominee:
Trump: 6
Kamala: 0

Total campaign events in the month of…

Jeff Schvey
@jeff_schvey
·
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This is a good visual of the media appearances for both parties over time. Clearly Trump isn't slowing down. //

Trump is doing anything but engaging in a 'media blackout.' He's accessible and, unlike Kamala, he is able to talk policy and string a noun-verb-noun sentence together. What he is doing is engaging his base and persuadable voters. He's not spending any time giving people who hate him the opportunity to define him. This is a lesson I hope all future GOP candidates take to heart.

Cox permanently struck down Rule 183-1-12-.12 (a) (5), which aimed to ensure that the number of physical ballots counted on Election Day matches the machine count total at the precinct level. //

While Cox justified blocking the rule under the guise that “all rules enacted by the SEB must be consistent with the Existing Election Code,” SEB member Janelle King noted during a hearing on the proposal that several Georgia counties already conduct ballot reconciliation by hand and that this rule would simply be creating uniform guidance, as allegedly required by state statute.

“I just want to point out that according to our Georgia code, the role of the [SEB], part of our role, is to ‘promulgate rules and regulations to define uniform and nondiscriminatory standards,’” King said, reading from what she indicated to be state election code. “As we stated several times, having some counties counting by hand and some counties not, does not establish uniformity. This rule will do that, and we do have the ability to do that.” //

Cox’s decision further nullified one rule requiring voters to present a photo ID and sign their name when dropping an absentee ballot at a drop box, a rule that would require surveillance cameras at each drop box, a rule that expanded the area where poll watchers could be positioned, and a daily reporting rule, which as described by Cox, would expand the daily reporting (already defined in Election Code) to include weekend reporting.

Why do Democrats do this, and what does it say about their governance? They do it because they believe you are stupid. They truly think Americans are child-like figures with no more common sense than your average five-year-old. To the average left-winger, you are an idiot who needs to be meticulously guided down to having your words coached. More importantly, that forms the very basis of the left-wing power structure.

If the majority of Americans actually believed they could accomplish things on their own, without the need for politicians to light the way and provide everything for them, Democrats would never win another election. That's what is so insidious about the constant infantilization of voters. It conditions people to rely on an ineffective, wasteful government to take care of them the way instead of taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them. //

msctex
5 minutes ago
We should bear in mind the Left has moved Heaven and Earth for decades, to create a playing field comprised as entirely of fundamentally ignorant and/or acceptably brainwashed people, as possible. It is Human nature to want to assume that something one has worked hardest to create, matters. That the Creation in question here is offered from a place of the most self-serving, malevolent intent -- a thing hopefully one day recognized as the ideological Warcrime it unquestionably is -- manages to be beside the point. They treat us like fools, because they that much absolutely require it to be the case, in order to survive.

This is one of those times when it sounds like I'm being sardonic, and I might even have lifted a first foot in that direction. But the further I went, the more unavoidably true the matter presented itself as being. These people have an absolute knack for engendering these things. It is almost a skill.

When CNN pundits are asking questions, you know it smells. Though the outlet is famous for their hatred for Trump, even their senior legal analyst Elie Honig is wondering, just what the heck is going on here?

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig on Friday said he is unaware of “any precedent” for Judge Tanya Chutkan releasing redacted documents of special counsel Jack Smith’s evidence against former President Donald Trump, given the November election is approaching. //

🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸
@mrddmia
·
Follow
More blatant lawfare and election interference by Biden-Kamala’s Jack Smith and DC Obama Judge Tanya Chutkan.

They’re publicly dumping a one-sided political narrative tomorrow.

With the election less than 3 weeks away.

After waiting nearly 3 years to bring the (bogus) charges.
9:09 PM · Oct 17, 2024 //

Is it election interference? "It’s very much a Rorschach test,” Honig said. I sure as heck know what I'm reading from that test.

He argued that the matter is open to interpretation, which is damning enough considering that even the appearance of banana republic justice is problematic after all the abuses of the Justice Department since Biden-Harris came into power. //

The Justice Department flatly states in their manual:

Federal prosecutors and agents may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election, or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.

So today, I was at "Fox and Friends" at seven in the morning. I then went to two different other appearances. I then made about 15 phone calls. I've gone 48 days now without a rest, and I've got that loser who doesn't have the energy of a rabbit.

Let me tell you something. She should have been last night with the Catholics. So all they do is put out soundbites. Tell me when you've seen me take even a little bit of a rest. Not only am I, I'm not even tired. I'm really exhilarated. You know why? We're killing her in the polls because the American people don't want her. She didn't pass her bar exam. She's not a smart person. She's not a person that should represent our country so I just want to let you know that very clearly.

Three things could produce an African Renaissance: liberty, capitalism, and energy. The Western world can't do much about the first two; that's something the people of the various nations of Africa will have to work out for themselves. The one thing the West could help with is energy development. But American and European climate scolds seem determined to prevent any energy development. It is, in effect, a re-colonizing of Africa.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/10/17/climate-colonialisms-stranglehold-on-africas-energy-starved/

In 2024, it is unconscionable that over 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 28% of healthcare facilities have reliable electricity. More than 900 million people cook with traditional biomass like wood and animal dung, inhaling toxic fumes that claim over 600,000 African lives each year. Clean water remains a luxury for vast swaths of the population.

Bloomberg calls for cancellation of the SLS rocket. In an op-ed that is critical of NASA's Artemis Program, billionaire Michael Bloomberg—the founder of Bloomberg News and a former US Presidential candidate—called for cancellation of the Space Launch System rocket. "Each launch will likely cost at least $4 billion, quadruple initial estimates," Bloomberg wrote. "This exceeds private-sector costs many times over, yet it can launch only about once every two years and—unlike SpaceX’s rockets—can’t be reused."

Resist the Mainstream
@ResisttheMS
·
Follow
CNN Host doesn't want to get rid of illegal immigration because there will be nobody to 'pick your crops.'

11:12 AM · Oct 18, 2024 //

JENNINGS: He's going to crack down on immigration to the benefit of the American worker.

RAMPELL: He's going to deport 20 million people? The people who pick your crops? The people who process your meat? The people who, you know, care for your grandmother? The people who serve all sorts of critical functions in this country?

My word, talk about not hiding the ball. Apparently, illegal immigrants are the only people in the country who can pick crops, process meat, and take care of old people. Who knew? Never mind that there are already work programs in place that allow seasonal workers to come in and "pick the crops."

So what's Rampell really saying? She's saying that it's more important to have illegal quasi-slave labor to ensure her standard of living than for the nation's laws to be followed. That seems rather exploitative of the CNN panelist, doesn't it? Democrats sure love to talk about fair wages until it comes to illegal immigrants working for minimum wage to save a few cents on fruit.

Could you imagine NBC News in 1863 after Abraham Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation? "Lincoln's plan to end slavery for the first time in history would jeopardize an agriculture industry already facing shortages and push costs higher." That is literally the argument these news outlets are making about illegal immigration. They don't even try to pretend anymore. They want their cheap labor, and they don't care about what they have to do to get it.

The idea that Trump’s second term would usher in fascism isn’t just absurd—it’s a slap in the face to the millions who have suffered under actual fascist regimes throughout history. Fascism, by definition, involves the total suppression of opposition, the abolition of free elections, and the merging of state and corporate power into authoritarian control.

Think Benito Mussolini’s Italy or Adolf Hitler’s Germany, where dissent was brutally crushed, political opponents were jailed or executed, and the press was reduced to a government propaganda machine.

In comparison, Trump’s four years in office look like a model of democratic dysfunction, not dictatorship. During his first term, Americans were free to protest, criticize him openly, and vote him out of office. The 2020 election happened as scheduled, and despite the noise about election challenges, Trump left the White House on January 20, 2021. No coup, no military takeover, no indefinite suspension of power—just Trump boarding Marine One and Biden taking the oath of office. The peaceful transition may not have been pretty, but it happened.

If Trump was aiming for fascism, he did a spectacularly poor job.

Real fascism doesn't entertain opposing viewpoints—it eliminates them. Yet, under Trump, media outlets relentlessly attacked him without fear of government retaliation. There were no state-run news channels or purges of journalists. Compare that with Mussolini’s control over Italy’s press or Hitler’s use of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to manipulate information. In Trump’s America, CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times freely published critical stories every day.

That’s not fascism—it’s freedom, even if it makes the media’s portrayal of Trump as a dictator seem laughably detached from reality. //

Fascist regimes historically centralize power by shutting down elections and political opposition. Hitler’s Nazi party outlawed opposition parties, while Mussolini dismantled Italy’s parliament entirely. Trump, by contrast, lost re-election after being dragged through two impeachment trials. His critics and political opponents—including members of his own party—remained vocal and visible throughout his presidency. Far from silencing dissent, Trump was often criticized for being unable to rein in factions within his own administration.

The media’s obsession with labeling Trump a “fascist” is little more than political theater designed to distract voters from the issues that matter. Poll after poll shows that Americans care most about inflation, crime, immigration, and the economy—not recycled narratives about January 6 or imaginary authoritarian takeovers.

Trump, for all his flaws, resonates with voters because he addresses these concerns directly, while his opponents—Biden and Harris—deflect or dodge tough questions.

Ultimately, the “fascist Trump” storyline reveals more about the media than it does about Trump. Americans know the difference between a leader who promises law and order and a dictator who seizes total control. //

writeofcenter
27 minutes ago edited
I’ve studied history my whole life (I’m 4 months short of 70). Especially the study of the quest for State power in the 20th century. The universal response of socialists, Bolsheviks, communists, Marxists to their opponents is to portray them as fascists. It’s automatic. Trumps opponents are basically socialists. Socialism has infiltrated our society and culture to such a degree that they no longer have to hide their political agenda. Everyone else is to the right of them and hence, fascists.

The portrayal of this election as close or neck and neck is a myth. The left will be shocked at (and will willfully deny) how wide Trumps margin of victory proves to be.

Americans love their liberty and freedom and abhor left powered bureaucracy and control. We are fortunate indeed that Americans still prefer to vote to change things. The alternative will be ugly. //

hy dudgeon writeofcenter
7 minutes ago
Any political system which depends on consolidation of power in the hands of elites who then administer/rule from a massively powerful Central Authority is, by definition, a Leftist system.

The claims that Trump was "authoritarian" are based on the fact that he rescinded so many extra-constitutional executive orders implemented by Obama as he exercised his "power of the phone and pen" to bypass Congress and simply declare things to be law. //

Cafeblue32
29 minutes ago edited
Trump is perhaps the most moderate President we've had since Eisenhower. Fascism is not a right wing ideology, it is an economic system whereby government colludes with corporations to do things government cannot do in exchange for preferential treatment and increased profits. COVID was the perfect example of it. Corporations got all kinds of exemptions, breaks, incentives, etc to implement and enforce vax and mask mandates by threatening them with loss of employment. Most of those companies were declared' ''essential businesses" and made record profits, while those who declined to jump on the panic bandwagon were shut down. Lots of them are out of business now.

Hitler was a committed socialist before he was a fascist. He realized socialism wouldn't keep up with war production for his ambitions, so he partnered with German industrialists to produce his materials for profit. In no time at all, Hitler had more new weapons designs come across his desk than anyone could ever build. And most of them were of high quality. It also made Daimler-Benz, Porsche, Will Messerschmitt and a bunch of other industrialists very rich.

That's fascism in a nutshell. It's socialism with a business license. Only now we call it corporatism, as if it were a good thing. //

Tommy
38 minutes ago
Hmmm. Well, for starters, fascists are socialists. Nazis, the real ones, are National Socialists. They demand social and political conformity and use violence to enforce it. They also sooner or later always go after jews because, well, maintaining a unique identity and culture for 3000 years is the opposite of conformity. The bolsheviks went after jews, the national socialists went after jews, the only reason the maoists didn't is because there are any jews in china. And they never wave national flags. They make their own (the nazis used a good luck symbol) and cram it down everyone elses throat with a constant threat of retribution if you don't wave the flag. I see alot of this, but not from trump.

ConservativeInMinnesota Tommy
14 minutes ago
They did have some Jews in China before the Communist revolution. The Maoists took them out.

https://breakingmatzo.com/history-of-jews/harbin-china-the-city-that-jews-built/

How do you know Kamala Harris is in trouble, and that the momentum is with former President Donald Trump?

Endangered Democrats in tight Senate races are boasting about their ties to Trump, as they try to run to the middle to appeal to the voters.

We reported earlier about Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) saying in an ad that he bucked Joe Biden to "protect fracking and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China." That indicates he knows he needs to align with Trump to improve his chances (even if he doesn't actually align with Trump generally). //

Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) put up an ad, featuring Trump, saying she "got President Trump to sign her Made in America bill": //

Rep. Elissa Slotkin's (D-Mich.) campaign for Senate also spent more than a $1 million starting mid-August on an ad saying she "wrote a law signed by President Trump forcing drug companies to show their actual prices," according to AdImpact. [....]

Tester ads have featured Montanans who say they are "lifelong Republicans" or plan to vote for Trump, but back Tester for Senate.

An ad from earlier this year boasts that Brown "wrote a bill that Donald Trump signed to crack down on drugs at the border."

That last candidate mentioned is Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

They're blowing up Kamala Harris' narrative that Trump is unstable/Hitler when they're including him in ads. Plus, they're also acknowledging that mentioning Trump is going to help them in their elections, which is a nod to his strength in those swing states. If they thought Harris was winning, they wouldn't see a need to do that: