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RICHARD COFER

Lunar Occultation of Jupiter (Egress)

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Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

August 19, 2024 05:40 PM Forum: Politics

H.R. McMaster won't tell you who to vote for and he won't say who he is voting for but anyone still thinking Trump is their guy should watch this interview from CBS Sunday Morning

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Finally, another conservative with balls:

"Exclusive: Conservative Republican endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/19/politics/conservative-republican-endorses-harris-calls-trump-a-threat-to-democracy/index.html

August 20, 2024 12:43 AM Forum: Politics

H.R. McMaster won't tell you who to vote for and he won't say who he is voting for but anyone still thinking Trump is their guy should watch this interview from CBS Sunday Morning

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Here's Greg's bastion of sanity at work:

"Trump posts fake AI images of Taylor Swift and Swifties, falsely suggesting he has the singer’s support"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/19/politics/donald-trump-taylor-swift-ai/index.html

Getting desperate is he?...

August 20, 2024 08:50 PM Forum: Politics

H.R. McMaster won't tell you who to vote for and he won't say who he is voting for but anyone still thinking Trump is their guy should watch this interview from CBS Sunday Morning

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

I quoted trump in the thread in post 1. How the hell is it distorted BS?

If you are saying trump is a distorted mess I agree.

If you missed it:

Trump said "the Presidential Medal of Freedom, that's the highest civilian honor you can get as a civilian, it's the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, that's soldiers, are either in really bad shape, been hit so many times by bullets, or they're dead. She get it (the PMOF) and she's a healthy beautiful woman."

Yeah, that ain't disrespecting the troops. Besides, they should have all just had their doctor say they have bone spurs to get out of the draft. Then they wouldn't be full of holes or dead when they don't get their Congressional Medal of Honor.
Trump's even doubling down on this nutzoid stuff by repeating it in another interview, typifying what is generally a hallmark of your customary cons: never admit a mistake.

As for Greg, there's not much, if any, daylight between him and your dyed in the wool MAGA cultist so expecting him to accept logic, reasoning and understanding is pretty much out the window...

August 23, 2024 04:56 PM Forum: Politics

Vintage Trump: The Grifting Shifts Into High Gear

Posted By Rod Kaufman

"The former president has funneled campaign donations into his personal businesses, converting the political enthusiasm of his supporters into personal profit."

"Trump’s businesses are raking in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/23/politics/trump-businesses-campaign-spending-invs/index.html

August 23, 2024 05:23 PM Forum: Politics

My Feeling Exactly: "Harris' Speech Knocked It Out Of The Park"

Posted By Rod Kaufman

“The entire energy throughout the convention was electrifying throughout the week, and it hit a new high (Thursday night),...”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240823/nation-and-world-politics/kamala-knocked-it-out-of-the-park-chicago-area-delegates-have-glowing-reviews-for-harris-accepta/

What an uplift as compared to Trump's usual insanity that we're a third world country, constantly denigrating the USA...

August 25, 2024 02:37 AM Forum: Politics

“Talk about weird …”

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck
Considering how badly the press and tabloids have treated Baron Trump all these years I can understand where Coulter is coming from. 

Wait. What? Baron has been hands off and the press has given him all the privacy possible?

Ann Coulter is a ****. You can figure out the word, but I rarely ever use it. Deleting a tweet or whatever X now calls it doesn't really make it go away now, does it Ann?

https://wgntv.com/news/ann-coulter-criticized-for-now-deleted-post-mocking-tim-walzs-son/

"Conservative commentator Ann Coulter was roundly criticized on social media over a now-deleted post where she mocked the behavior of the son of vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).


“Talk about weird …” Coulter posted on X alongside a link to an article about Walz’s son, Gus, getting emotional during his father’s Wednesday speech in Chicago.

Gus Walz became most emotional when his father addressed the family directly during his remarks about the family’s fertility struggles."
This may have been a stunt by Coulter in a desperate attempt to attract attention to somehow remain relevant.
Alternately, she may have been serious when she posted her garbage tweet so, in likewise fashion, it's time to pick on her.

In this regard, ya gotta agree she has one of the longest necks on the planet. It's almost as if there's was some sort of body part mixup in utero. Maybe she has a transgender issue, and, being a conservative, she just doesn't want to own up to it. Or, perhaps, somebody simply rolled the genetic dice and came up short...

Looking and listening to her, ya gotta wonder if there was some sort of chromosomal fission or fusion or general malfeasance when her life, according to many conservatives, began at inception. Maybe it was an IVF procedural problem...

That said, I gotta switch gears here and comment on Kevin Costner's latest western on HBO Max entitled, "Horizon". So far, and while it has its moments, it sucks!
I like westerns and "1883" with Sam Elliot and Tim Mcgraw/Faith Hill was pretty good but, thus far, "Horizon" ain't making it. 

For starters, it's about an hour in or so before Costner rides in from somewhere on some trail and, before he does, you witness the massacre of settlers by apaches who are pissed that their land is being sliced up like pieces of pie to whomever gets there first by wagon train. Finally, and unrelated to this, Costner's character rides in after who knows how long on the trail. 

The first thing I noticed was how spotless Costner's cowboy hat, shirt and pants are with nary a speck of trail dust anywhere. My wife noticed how white the white shirts were on the settlers who were wearing them on the wagon trains. They must have invented Oxydol/Tide on the way over or packed a Maytag.

Costner eventually bags a bad guy and then is on the run from kin looking for revenge. I'm guessing "Horizon" is his next stop...

August 27, 2024 01:10 AM Forum: Politics

“Talk about weird …”

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer
While we are talking about weird stuff...... Does anyone not think it is weird that Kamala would be pushing a 25% unrealized capital gains tax? That seems insane to me.......
That's because whoever is reporting it that way is insane. 
Now for the facts:


"It applies only to individuals with at least $100 million in wealth who do not pay at least a 25% tax rate on their income (inclusive of unrealized capital gains). Payments can be spread out over subsequent years."

"In short, it would not apply to most startup founders or investors. If any group should be tweeting mad face emojis, it's top hedge fund managers."


https://www.axios.com/2024/08/23/kamala-harris-unrealized-capital-gains-tax

August 29, 2024 03:53 PM Forum: Politics

This should be a much bigger deal

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by James Brown
https://x.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1828201780544504064

I'm glad this story keeps coming back.  We've know for a long time the FBI, (think about it, the FBI!) actively and with absolute knowledge of what they were doing, interfered in the 2020 presidential election on behalf of one candidate.  Suppression of the laptop story, while armed with knowledge the laptop was genuine, right before the election, is inexcusable meddling.  This interference quite plausibly swung the election to Biden.

The general Covid censorship Zuckerberg talks about is beyond troubling too.  As you all know, the First Amendment protects citizens against government censorship.   This protection is not limited to direct censorship.  The First Amendment's scope covers indirect censorship where the government strongarms a private publisher.  Such as indisputably happened in spades according to Zuckerberg and as detailed in the "Twitter Files" published by Matt Taibbi and others.

Why is this not a bigger deal?  Seriously, the FBI meddling in elections and active governmental censorship are grave threats to effective democracy.   

My guess is the people are so divided at this point the left and middle think government malfeasance is OK or at least excusable, so long as it keeps Trump out of office.   The right of course is equally certain the government is unilaterally line up to oppose Trump, so any censorship, active lies pushed by the FBI, and the like, might be outrageous treasonous acts, but are hardly surprising.

Also, our press is broken.  The press has become divided reflecting the population (or maybe the population reflect the press?)   The major left and center news outlets happily spiked the laptop story because they were told by the FBI (and various other experts) it was "Russian disinformation."  As noted above, they were told this at the time the FBI had long known the laptop was real.  Why is the press not outraged and energized by the official deception?  Undoubtedly because it helped their guy win the election.  

For the sake of democracy, people need to rise above the balkanization and be outraged by governmental malfeasance whether or not it benefits their team.  For the sake of democracy, the press needs to return to a proper journalistic mission, no matter who the reporters and editors personally prefer.  Jim
"X" as the venue? Really? An aggrieved  Zuckerberg and his word is gospel! The FBI meddled in the elections! Got proof? 
It's not a bigger story because its BS...

August 29, 2024 09:30 PM Forum: Politics

This should be a much bigger deal

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer


Well according to your new hero Kamala it was 220 million that died, approx 2/3 of the US population lol
"Looking at cumulative deaths in Our World in Data solely for the U.S., it became clear that Harris had said "million" instead of "thousand" — by the day she spoke, the number of deaths in the United States had just surpassed 220,000:"

"Fact Check: Harris Misspoke When She Said 220M Americans Died of COVID-19"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-harris-misspoke-she-020000520.html?_fsig=XYKBpwUTPkcqac9hqQMOeA--%7EA

August 29, 2024 09:33 PM Forum: Politics

This should be a much bigger deal

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by James Brown

These are valid points James, but in my opinion your points serve to bolster Zuckerberg's credibility.  Zuckerberg states that the government engaged in censorship during Covid, and we know after the fact that some of the censored information turned out to be as likely as not true, if politically inconvenient.  Viral origin theories for example.  No lives were saved by suppressing the lab-leak theories, that was pure political censorship.  I (for one) bought it wholesale at the time.

Governmental censorship is bad, even if one can argue that it is in some specific circumstance, it might be for the good of the people.  The Constitution mandates that the government fight bad information with good information, not censorship, except in very narrowly limited circumstances.

Zuckerberg also states in his letter to Congress that the FBI was spreading beware of "Russian Misinformation about Biden and Burisma" warnings to Meta, causing them to suppress the laptop story for a time.  I believe him in part because of the reasons you have stated.  Possibly the FBI was just spreading friendly "beware of Russian disinformation about the Bidens and Burisma" advice that just happened to "coincidentally" suppress the laptop story until after the election.  I of course am not buying that and I believe Zuck is accurately recounting events.  I also suspect he has a mountain of evidence to back himself up because he is not an idiot and he knows that he is alienating some of his allies with this move.

The two thing that have me scratching my head are why Rod thinks Zuckerberg is "aggrieved" and why he thinks my original comments are BS.  The facts of censorship and the FBI at best "giving friendly advice" to Meta are well demonstrated, unless one thinks Zuck is a total liar and unless one ignores a mountain of other evidence.
"Supreme Court allows White House to press social media companies to remove disinformation"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/politics/social-media-disinformation-supreme-court-ruling/index.html