Cardin Drake

More humor from Bama. Gotta commend them:

Caution: Language

Nice straight forward explanation of why Bragg's case is ridiculous: https://thelibertydaily.com/trumps-hush-money-prosecution-is-bogus-case-bogus/ Here’s a quick tutorial on why Bragg doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on—call it “Federal Campaign Finance Law for Dummies 101”—an apropos title, given what’s going on. Daniels claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, fully 10 years before the 2016 presidential election, which Trump denies. For the payment, Daniels agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which is a standard provision in many settlement agreements of personal injury cases and other claims. Bragg contends that Trump falsified business records, a misdemeanor, when this payment was listed as legal expenses instead of a campaign expense. Supposedly, according to Bragg, that converted the misdemeanors into felonies because Trump was concealing another crime. That other crime, according to prosecutors, is a violation of Section 17-152 of New York law, which make it a misdemeanor to “promote … the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.” Besides the fact that it’s very strange to allege that the commission of a misdemeanor for the purpose of covering up the commission of another misdemeanor is enough to allege a felony, the only plausible theory that Bragg is pushing for the alleged “unlawful means” was a violation of federal law by concealing a campaign-related payment. With me so far? But Trump was running for president. The raising and spending of money for campaigns for president and Congress is governed by federal law, the Federal Election Campaign Act, not state law. Any wrongdoing related to federal campaign financing falls under the enforcement authority of federal officials, not a local prosecutor like Bragg. In fact, the Federal Election Commission, on which I served as a commissioner, has civil enforcement authority and the U.S. Department of Justice has criminal enforcement authority over violations of this law. For the nuisance-value settlement payment to Daniels to fit within Bragg’s rickety legal structure, it would have to be a crime under federal law. In other words, it would have to be considered a campaign-related expense that was falsely reported under the Federal Election Campaign Act. If you want an example of such a violation, just look at the $113,000 civil penalty the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed to pay in 2022. They listed the payments for the opposition research that formed the basis for the infamous Steele dossier, which fabricated the entire Trump-Russia collusion hoax, as legal expenses instead of opposition research. But opposition research on the opposing candidate is obviously a campaign-related expense under applicable federal law, so the FEC had authority to investigate and enforce the law against this deception. That’s not the case with the Daniels’ payment. For starters, the incident in question that led to the payment is alleged to have happened 10 years before the 2016 campaign. More importantly, the payment fails the test the FEC applies to determine whether an expense is campaign-related. Under federal law and corresponding regulations, the FEC applies the “irrespective test” to “differentiate legitimate campaign and officeholder expenses from personal expenses.” As the FEC explains on its website, under the irrespective test, “personal use is any use of funds … to fulfill a commitment, obligation, or expense of any person that would exist, irrespective of the candidates’ campaign.” In other words, if the expense would exist even if the individual were not a candidate, then it’s personal and not a campaign expense. The payment to Daniels clearly fails that test. Trump was a celebrity long before he ran for office, and celebrities get these kinds of nuisance claims all the time. In fact, the prosecution’s first witness in the New York case, David Pecker, said he had helped settle similar claims to avoid legal costs and embarrassment by suppressing stories for numerous other celebrities, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods. The easiest way to understand this test is to take the example of a personal injury claim. Candidate A has a car accident several years before he runs for Congress that injures another driver. After the campaign has started, the candidate decides to settle the personal injury claim made by the other driver by paying that driver $130,000 in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement. Settling and paying the claim may help the candidate in his campaign by avoiding personal embarrassment. But that doesn’t make it a campaign expense. It’s a claim that would exist even if the candidate were not running for office and is thus considered a personal expense under federal law. Daniels’ claim is also a personal claim that existed long before Trump ran for the presidency and, given his celebrity status, would have continued to exist even if he never ran for president. That’s no doubt why neither the FEC nor the Justice Department ever filed an enforcement action against the Trump campaign or Trump personally over the payment; specifically, because it was not a campaign-related expense. You know what would have led to enforcement actions? If Trump had actually claimed this was a campaign-related expense and had used campaign funds to make the payment, I have no doubt he would have been prosecuted by the feds for the illegal use of campaign funds to pay a personal expense. That’s what former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., went to prison for after he pleaded guilty in 2013 to spending $750,000 on personal expenses. Keep in mind that Bragg’s entire manufactured case of 34 counts of falsifying business records depends entirely on the legitimacy of his contention that the settlement payment should have been listed as a campaign-related expense. It shouldn’t because it wasn’t. And all of the other testimony from the prosecution’s witnesses about this payment and other settlement payments that are obviously intended to blacken the character of the former president and prejudice the jury doesn’t change the fact that none of these payments were campaign-related expenses. Period. End of story—or at least it should be.

Record-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and more intense. There is no data that supports this. This statement from NOAA in no way shape or form says the same thing. Notice how carefully it is worded. An increasing trend in intensification rates is not the same as an increase in intensity. And it's limited to the East coast. But they do know how the press will report it. 2022) report an increasing trend in hurricane intensification rates near the U.S. East Coast since 1979. And this statement here from NOAA actually acknowledges the truth: in summary, it is premature to conclude with high confidence that increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities have had a detectable impact on Atlantic basin hurricane activity, Reading comprehension should be better from an Auburn grad. As usual, when confronted with the truth, blatant denialism takes over. Since this conversation is no longer civil, I'm out. You can have the last word, Homer.

A lie repeated 10,000 times in 10,000 places is still a lie. Have NASA take it up with NOAA. I know the left will keep repeating it no matter what the data shows. It's too central to the idea of catastrophic global warming. Take it away and what do you have left? A more fertile world where plants thrive. Hard to make a doomsday scenario out of that.

A post about Biden being owned by China...and the Ukraine.

Not actually a conflict. Whether you believe or disbelieve that climate change is a serious problem, you can still understand that making our electricity more expensive just shifts more economic activity to China and India, where they continue to build coal plants because it's still the cheapest way to produce electricity. There's no true cost/benefit analysis for the incredible amounts we are spending on green energy.

Homer, the data shows and the current NOAA web site (link previously posted) acknowledges that storms are not increasing. It's not a case of being unable to separate human and natural causes, because there is no increase. You can't refute it with a ten year old report that cherry picked a starting point. This lie is so deeply embedded in the left that you have come to believe it yourself, just as Goebbels predicted. A bunch of science deniers, for sure.

Damn, hate to admit it, but that's funny..

It's absolutely a lie to say that we are now experiencing more frequent and intense storms that are driven by climate change. It's not necessarily a lie to say that we may in the future experience more frequent and intense storms. I read an article yesterday about drastic increases in homeowner's insurance in Florida, and of course it said it was driven by climate change and the more frequent and intense storms they are experiencing. The lie is what is being said, and it's widespread.

I'm just answering the question about what the flatearthers would say, but I have always admitted to being on the skeptical side. I think the earth has warmed recently, and it very well may be caused or partially caused by CO2 emissions. However, I do think the warming has been exaggerated, and it's hard to separate it from natural variation. And I think all the speculation of drastic consequences is just that--speculation. The trillions of dollars we are spending aren't a serious attempt to solve the problem. It is mostly greed from a small group of insiders who profit at the expense of the rest of us. I'll write more on this later when I have more time.

Travis county has a Soros backed prosecutor. Not a surprise.

I like the young talent we have but we needed a proven veteran for this year. I suspect a few of our receivers may take it as a message. More than anything, we need a line that can pass block. Hopefully we have that. Thorne will still have to prove himself every game. Fortunately, we have a few games to get the bugs out.

Teams are way better today in almost every sport because of focus, sport specific weight training, elite clubs, the number of athletes training year-round, more international participation, and coaching and the internet's ability to spread the coaching knowledge. However, the impact on basketball may be less than some other sports, because it has always been easy to train in basketball, even by yourself, and the elite kids have always put in some crazy hours, even 50 years ago. Of the factors mentioned, International participation may be having the biggest impact on roundball.

I think Peter Wood summed it up well in American conservative: It is also my opinion that the theory of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is a compound of leftist ideology, mass delusion, biased, self-confirming pseudo-science, and over-interpretation of fragmentary and ambiguous data. What relative proportions of these four factors go into the mix depends on the individual and the situation. Millions of people go along with so-called climate science because they don’t know any better. A fair number of scientists are so psychologically invested in the theory that they are literally unable to question it. Others have doubts but make their peace with it because it has become their livelihood. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-long-road-to-the-steyn-verdict/

The symbolism and chants are horrific. Definitely not a safe space for Jews anymore.

https://babylonbee.com/news/columbia-switches-to-online-classes-so-jewish-students-can-participate-from-the-attics-where-they-are-hiding NEW YORK, NY — In the wake of ongoing anti-Israel protests that have engulfed the school's campus, Columbia University announced it has switched to online classes so Jewish students can participate from the attics where they are hiding. The school's leadership met earlier in the week to discuss options that would ease tensions on campus and allow Jewish students to continue their education without leaving the safety of the attics where they have been forced to take refuge from rampant antisemitism among large pockets of the student body. "I'm glad I can still do my coursework," one Jewish student said after the announcement was made. "After being relegated to hiding here in this attic, I was afraid that I'd start missing too many classes and my grades would suffer. Thankfully, the administration has been kind enough to give me online access to my classes right here in this attic while they allow violent antisemitic protests to sweep across campus. Thanks!" Though anti-Israel protestors were disappointed that they would have fewer opportunities to threaten and berate people on campus, Jewish students were relieved. "Online classes make it really convenient," said another Jewish student. "Whether I'm out of town, sick in bed, or hiding in an attic to avoid being assaulted by an angry mob who want me and everyone else of my ethnicity wiped off the face of the earth, I don't have to worry about missing any assignments." At publishing time, the Columbia administration had put forth plans to load Jewish students onto train cars and transport them to special camps to help them concentrate.

It's never straight forward. I'm sure A&M has a higher overall NIL number than we do. But everyone tries to stay within the "market." You don't want to go back and have a bunch of guys feeling they got a bad deal because of what you paid the new guy. It's complicated, and I trust Hugh more than almost anyone to navigate those treacherous waters. We needed a proven WR a lot and that matters too.

Honestly, if the Heisman committee and Bush had any integrity, they would be giving it to Vince Young instead. I think he proved in the National Championship game who the real best player was.

Homer, there is no statistical reference with the skeptical science quote. It's easy enough to find; I'll let you do your own research. I see a statement like that in almost every MSM article written about an upcoming hurricane season. Surely you don't believe that lie is NOT widespread. And the information you want on hurricane frequency is already in the chart I posted.

Well, maybe next time your hear it you will stand up and correct this lie from skepticalscience.com that is being repeated every day in every media you can find: Atlantic hurricanes have increased both in power and frequency, coinciding with warming oceans that provide energy to these storms.

Gotta laugh or cry: https://babylonbee.com/news/harvard-installs-jew-detectors-at-all-entrances

You know how much it pains NOAA to write this: In summary, it is premature to conclude with high confidence that increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities have had a detectable impact on Atlantic basin hurricane activity, although increasing greenhouse gases are strongly linked to global warming... Human activities may have already caused other changes in tropical cyclone activity that are not yet detectable due to the small magnitude of these changes compared to estimated natural variability, or due to observational limitations." Here's an updated version of the chart from climatlas.com

Most of the time I think you are just visiting before you return home to lala land.