Nocturnowl
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Dozens of former Republican officials in talks to form anti-Trump party
Source: The Guardian/Reuters
Thu, 11 Feb, 2021, 03.44 EST
Dozens of former Republican officials who view the party as unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine US democracy are in talks to form a centre-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions have said.
The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved told Reuters Thursday.
More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of “principled conservatism”, including adherence to the constitution and the rule of law – ideas they say have been trashed by Trump.
The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse centre-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents or Democrats, the people involved say.
Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump’s grip on the Republicans and the nativist turn the party had taken.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/11/dozens-former-republican-officials-talks-form-anti-trump-party
In principle, I don't object to the country having a conservative party. Not everyone agrees with us, after all. Thing is, the Republicans haven't actually been conservative in the past two decades! That's why I genuinely wish this potential new party good luck!
I Am an Evil White Man
I couldn't sleep, so I watched an HBO doc on the Anthropocene. Tears were running down my cheeks by the end of the film, but my hands were also clenched into fists, as my entire body was thrumming with rage!
Humans are the most destructive fucking species ever to exist on this planet! Male humans are the worst of the worst! And white males are the very worst of the worst of the worst!
All the blameless species we've slaughtered! All the species we will slaughter! All the poorest people who will die because of our greed, our arrogance, our unearned sense of entitlement, and our Oh-so-fucking-superior view of other humans who have the unmitigated GALL to not look like us!
I have never drilled oil, fracked ground, gone on safaris to murder endangered species, cut down and/or burned forests, but neither have I tried to stop it! Like most white men, I've been perfectly content just to, as the saying has it, "go along to get along." And of course, I've used a shit-ton of carbon-based products to achieve that "comfortable American lifestyle," rammed my throat as a child but which I was only too happy to swallow, including, of course, the four-wheel carbon-emitting FACTORY that is the Average American Automobile!
And that's not even mentioning the three carbon-consuming-and-emitting humans my wife and I added to the overpopulation of Earth while we were together!
Think I'm being overly dramatic, do you? Think I've bolded, italicized, and underlined too many times in this post? Well fuck that! The truth is that, had I written it the way I felt (and still feel) about it, THE WHOLE GODDAMN THING WOULD HAVE BEEN IN CAPS!!!
Should Dak Prescott believe the Cowboys left him out of hype video by mistake?
The title question is a joke! Of course this was an intentional diss by Jerry Atric Jones! Nothing new here: The senile egomaniac has been treating Dak with deliberate disrespect for years now! If I were Prescott, I'd tell the self-important old fool to go fuck himself, and demand a trade ASAP!
China's first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, successfully enters orbit around Red Planet
Source: Space.com
By Mike Wall 2 hours ago
China has made it to Mars.
The nation's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1, arrived in orbit around the Red Planet today (Feb. 10), according to Chinese media reports.
The milestone makes China the sixth entity to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to the Red Planet just yesterday (Feb. 9).
And today's achievement sets the stage for something even more epic a few months from now -- the touchdown of Tianwen-1's lander-rover pair on a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia, which is expected to take place this May. (China doesn't typically publicize details of its space missions in advance, so we don't know for sure exactly when that landing will occur.)
Read more: https://www.space.com/china-first-mars-mission-tianwen-1-enters-orbit
Our future in space is set, America: We will be the Portuguese, the Italians, the Dutch of the Solar System. On Earth, those countries pioneered exploration of the New World, then throttled way down while Britain, Spain and France surpassed them and established!
Two U.S. carrier groups conduct exercises in South China Sea
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Two U.S. carrier groups conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea on Tuesday, days after a U.S. warship sailed near Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed waters, as China denounced the United States for damaging peace and stability.
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group “conducted a multitude of exercises aimed at increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities”, the U.S. Navy said, marking the first dual carrier operations in the busy waterway since July 2020.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the frequent moves by U.S. warships and aircraft into the South China Sea in a “show of force” was not conducive to regional peace and stability. “China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security and work with countries in the region to firmly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea,” he said.
The exercise comes days after China condemned the sailing of the destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in what the United States calls a freedom of navigation operation - the first such mission by the U.S. navy since President Joe Biden took office.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-usa-carriers/two-u-s-carrier-groups-conduct-exercises-in-south-china-sea-idUSKBN2A90I5
This is not helpful, Mr President.
Dem lawmakers splinter over criteria for $1,400 stimulus payments as Biden relief bill advances
Source: Washington Post
By Jeff Stein and Erica Werner
Feb. 8, 2021 at 1:37 p.m.
Democratic lawmakers are increasingly divided over the criteria for the next round of stimulus payments, splintering the caucus even as they aim to quickly pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.
Democrats will include payments of $1,400 per person in the stimulus proposal, fulfilling a key pledge from Biden to bring $600 payments from December to $2,000 in total. But they disagree over who should be eligible to receive them, with mixed signals from the Biden administration complicating the situation.
Democrats have not decided the final threshold levels for the checks to include in their plan despite having little time before they are expected to release legislation, according to one aide granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
“There’s a discussion right now about what that threshold will look like,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday. “It’s still being negotiated at this point.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/02/08/democrats-stimulus-checks-covid-relief/?itid=hp-top-table-main-24
Splinter? A tad dramatic, WaPo!
Profile Information
Name: WyattGender: Male
Hometown: Roy Utah
Home country: USA
Member since: Fri Feb 5, 2021, 05:48 AM
Number of posts: 74
