35 thoughts on “News/Politics 1-11-25”

  1. Hahaha. Once again, one man’s Christian symbol is a Nazi virtue signal to clueless leftists and media members.

    https://x.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/1877499069246947447?t=Nql2IijrSYbxEZQLyL0bfQ&s=19

    “Who put Pete Hegseth’s Nazi tattoo on the cover of Jimmy Carter’s funeral program?”

    ——

    And the same symbol on the floor of the National Cathedral? 🥵

    Nazis everywhere!

    https://x.com/carney/status/1877471022028325163?t=ywdfpYhaDyOoMqBtILIDkA&s=19

    “How did Pete Hegseth’s crypto-nazi tattoo get etched into the floor of the National Cathedral before Carter’s funeral?”

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  2. “For those that don’t understand the satire…

    Senator @SenWarren wrote a 33 page letter to @PeteHegseth regarding his nomination to be the Secretary of Defense.

    In that letter the following is on page 24:

    “You were also removed from President Biden’s inauguration because of concerns that you were an insider threat after reports that your “Deus Vult” tattoo “was a Christian expression associated with right-wing extremism.”

    We cannot have a Defense Secretary whose fellow servicemembers feel concerned enough about to report as a potential insider threat.”

    Complete Letter is here:

    warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

    https://x.com/MattOroak/status/1877524298795249901?t=66UTF12lTbw3ddkHBOir6Q&s=19

    ——

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2025/01/10/surprise-hegseths-crypto-nazi-tattoo-prominently-featured-at-jimmy-carters-funeral-1515125/

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  3. I stand corrected. The reservoir serving Pacific Palisades had been out of commission for 11 months to have it’s cover repaired. It’s still empty. The governor has called for a commission to find out why.

    Reports suggest that had there been water in the reservoir, it wouldn’t have saved everything but would have been available until about 3 am–though we don’t what day.

    My nephew’s family abandoned the house at 10:30 Tuesday morning.

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  4. Yesterday someone posted a link about the BC forest fire crew and their planes and contrasted it to the California crew. The difference isn’t DEI; Cdn fire crews have their own diversity rules. The difference is a well funded unionised gov’t infrastructure versus a crew that is dependent on convict labour. Democrat or Republicans – American governments have since Reagan “shrunk” the state so that it no longer provides a functioning service. I have no opinion on the salt water issue — I imagine the preference is fresh water but circumstances can dictate.

    I mentioned water usage issues before. In addition to the oligarchs and farming, a larger problem is AI and data collection centres. Millions of litres/gallons are needed to keep machines cool. Its rather ironic, the machines that keep track of us, distract our attention and divide us also prevent us from keeping our homes.

    Just a note on Hegseth’s tattoo – Its a Jerusalem cross or crusader cross; a symbol now in use by white supremacist and other far right groups. And yes Warren makes note of it; she didn’t call it a Nazi symbol just right wing extremism. Accuracy is important. Also important is you don’t want a secretary of defense with tattoos that would offend possible allies. Diplomacy is important

    And an other note on Hegseth — he has a drinking problem (that’s obvious from on air Fox video). He says will quit drinking just like he did in Afghanistan. Washington and Afghanistan are not the same – the latter is dry, the other is definitely not. Staying sober is greatly aided by the right environment — a military assignment in Afghanistan is conducive to sobriety, a political appointment in DC is not.

    hrw

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  5. Well, well, well….

    Another of Labour’s pervs gets outted. Keep investigating them. There are more, hence their votes against a full accounting.

    https://x.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1878152379075530957?t=s6SPij2MX2mvG-qNI0iypw&s=19

    “BREAKING: Former Labour MP Ivor Caplin, who criticized Elon Musk on British TV last week for his remarks about Keir Starmer, has been arrested following a sting operation by citizen pedophile hunters.

    Caplin allegedly attempted to arrange a meeting with a 15-year-old boy.

    Just last week, he condemned @elonmusk’s tweets about Jess Philips and Keir Starmer, calling them “unacceptable”:

    “The abuse he has tried to bring on Keir Starmer is completely and utterly unfound.”

    “He can’t do that. That’s unacceptable.””

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  6. Well if day drinking Pelosi and others are fine to serve while drunk, a well known fact, a man who does it on his personal time should be acceptable too.

    Just using the left’s rules here.

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  8. Actually, HRW, that’s the dirty secret of AI that is never aired. It consumes TONS of energy.

    That’s what’s going on with Amazon and Three Mile Island–Amazon needs the energy. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/20/energy/three-mile-island-microsoft-ai/index.html

    There are people in the midwest going crazy because of energy being “manufactured” (I’m not sure that’s the right term, I’ve been editing all day), that is so noisy they can’t sleep at night.

    And of course people use it for frivolous reasons, not having a clue of how much energy it’s sucking up.

    https://www.popsci.com/technology/ai-more-energy/

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  9. I have read the same thing that HRW mentioned about that cross symbol. Sometimes groups co-opt a good symbol for their own use. The swastika has been around for centuries, but since the Nazis used it, it has a different meaning.

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  11. I thought son would be able to dry out when he was over there in dry countries but plenty was available legally to our young folk to keep him well soused.

    mumsee

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  12. Not sure how Pelosi’s drinking habits negate Hesgeth’s drinking habits. If anything it’s a warning why Republicans shouldn’t engage in the same behaviour — the Democrats lost right?

    Hesgeth was drunk on the job and on the air. If you can’t stay sober for work, you are no longer a functioning alcoholic — you’re just an alcoholic. I’m the last to moralise on alcohol – I like my whiskey but I stayed sober for work, driving, parenting etc. I expect the same for any political leader. And I know enough about alcohol that a simple promise without recent behaviour is meaningless.

    hrw

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  13. We have a local high school with old floor tiles that have the swastika in them. I was really surprised about that. People who want to find fault will find it.

    While Pelosi’s drinking doesn’t negate anyone else’s, if someone complains and says one person can’t serve because of it, but not the other, that is hypocritical.

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  14. From what I have read – in more than one place – Pelosi does not drink. It is possible that she has a condition that could make her appear tipsy or a manner of speaking that does so.

    I have difficulty walking straight, and can weave off in one direction or another. I’m sure that I look drunk as I do so.

    But there are also reports of videos being doctored to make Pelosi appear to be drunk and slurring her words.

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  15. To go along with my comment at 7:08, “Deus vult” (“God wills it”) was a motto or some such for the First Crusade, and has also been co-opted by white supremacists.

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  17. Well, Kizzie, I have no idea, personally, if Pelosi drinks. Nor do I Hegseth. There are lots of conditions that make people seem drunk. Even blood sugar issues have been mistaken for that. My only point is that these things (especially from the past) are made issues for political opponents–not across the board for everyone. We could say the same for paying off women who make accusations. It’s okay for some, but not others.

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  19. Kizzie — sorry I missed that but I’m also not sure what the question is.

    The left has been fairly consistent in giving the ultimate blame in the increase and severity of natural disasters on climate change. It’s a clear sign to me that the left will on occasion suspend politics for science. The science is clear the climate is changing and part of it is the increase and severity of natural disasters.

    Now the left will take the opportunity to also point problems in lack of spending on infrastructure, the continued abuse of resources by the oligarchs and yes the ignorance of politicians, especially Republicans. However, at the end of the day the left does defer to the science and it’s clear; climate change is the issue. And we need to respond appropriately not bury our head in the sand.

    hrw

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  20. I found this interesting as the oligarchs continue to hijack the global conversation, create faux outrage and manipulate the people while absconding with the resources of the planet

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/12/elon-musk-and-the-new-world-order-the-hijacking-of-the-global-conversation

    And Panama has a point — why pick a battle with one of America’s best allies in the area and one who has administered the canal in an almost flawless manner.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/12/panama-canal-trump

    hrw

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  21. Kathaleena – I’m sorry if it seemed that I was replying specifically to you. I was not. I was replying to the other comments about Pelosi’s drinking.

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  23. This piece reiterates that Pelosi does not drink and states that the cost of the booze is a similar amount as Republican Dennis Hastert spent.

    ~ “The conservative group Judicial Watch obtained 2,000 pages of receipts and expense reports for speaker travel under the Freedom of Information Act. The group says these demonstrate Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s “boorish demands for military travel” are “more about partying than anything else.” Based on that, the conservative WorldNetDaily ran an eye-popping but inaccurate headline that said, “Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi’s in-flight ‘food, booze.’ ” Claims of Pelosi’s extravagant liquor bills spread from there through any number of blogs and chain e-mails, which sometimes attribute the in-flight costs of entire delegations to Pelosi alone on her flights between Washington and her district in California.

    But Judicial Watch is wrong in several respects. Our examination of the documents reveals that Judicial Watch overstated the amount of money spent on “in-flight expenses” for Pelosi’s congressional delegations, or CODELs. Furthermore, Judicial Watch, a watchdog group that describes itself as “conservative,” failed to compare Pelosi’s costs with those of the previous speaker, Republican Dennis Hastert, even though the Air Force handed over documents covering CODELs that he led, as well as those led by Pelosi. And the fact is that Hastert’s travel, as represented in Judicial Watch’s own documents, was comparable to Pelosi’s.” ~

    There are a lot more details at the link.

    https://www.factcheck.org/2010/03/pelosis-party-plane/

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  24. Yes, Kathaleena, a decade later they changed their mind. Note they didn’t say it was false, just that they don’t like the source any longer. That’s laughable. 😄

    However Tom Fitton from Judicial Watch’s post is from a receipt from a different year and shows the same type of large bar bill on taxpayer dime. There are even more out there. It’s public record.

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  26. From what I can see at the link, Business Insider posted that apology in 2010, the same year the original piece came out.

    As for the Fact Check article, AJ, did you read it?

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  27. My 2 cents, just think it’s probably not consistent with the faith to speak about others’ drinking habits when we don’t have any personal knowledge about it (and even if we did, perhaps best left unsaid?). I have no idea whether or not Pelosi drinks to excess or at all, but published accounts have said she does not. Either way, it’s harmful to one’s reputation when we don’t know, it’s repeating speculation. (Hegseth, which may be a different case, has publicly acknowledged drinking to excess. That would be a fair concern going forward should he be approved for a high-level post.)

    • dj

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  28. Didn’t mean for that to sound so preachy 🙂 But rumors about Pelosi have been running rampant for a long time and as Kizzie correctly points out, those are rumors only.

    Ok, now I need to try to get to a car wash before it closes. Jeep is covered in ash which I’m told is not good for car paint.

    • dj

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  31. I think Judicial Watch is more credible, but that’s just my opinion.

    If the military is paying I think it’s fair for all congressional delegates as well as high ranking military officials to be served the same type of fare given to the rest of the military personnel. And why should they be supplying anyone with alcohol of any kind, ever? The point is that there’s no need to supply the military ‘brass’ or ‘special’ congressmen with luxuries. Some congressmen have to practically live in their offices because they can’t afford dual residences.

    And why not mention Denny Hastert? We should be able to do better than a thoroughly corrupt Pelosi or a disgraced Hastert who confessed to molesting several boys at least one as young as 14 and did jail time. Hastert was in power almost 2 decades ago. Pelosi is much more recent, and relevant I think. But there is some equivalency there, and both parties are in need of a clean up.

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  32. On allegations of drinking: In my family growing up, it was considered a sin. Interestingly, my four older brothers (baby boomers) have all maintained that standard (although apparently my brother who spent time in the Army did drink during that time); the three youngest of us, all generation X, have drunk in some portions of our lives. (I say it that way because I didn’t touch alcohol till I was in my forties and basically it’s one glass of wine with dinner two or three times a week until the bottle is finished and then maybe a month until we open another; my sister and her husband actually made their own wine for a while, but she is now allergic to wine; and my brother likes beer but limited himself to a six-pack a week, and a couple of years ago he decided not to drink at all because his church doesn’t approve. So all three of us think it is biblically permissible, but as far as I know, I’m the only one who ever drinks at all now.)

    Well, a dozen years ago or so, two or three of my older brothers (remember, they are all teetotalers, with ridiculous assertions of how dangerous alcohol is, including saying that a man can have just one drink and then molest his own daughter . . . and any man who could do that with just one drink doesn’t need the drink to do it) . . . anyway, my older brothers decided that since my brother was willing to drink beer, and since he made a joke about drinking beer, and since he has a face that “looks like” an alcoholic, he must therefore be an alcoholic.

    Here was the joke he made that a couple of brothers found so reprehensible. For context, this brother is a bit of a loner, the only one of us who has never married. When he was a child and all our older brothers would come home for a holiday, after a while someone would look around and realize this brother wasn’t present, and someone would go to his bedroom and find that he had retreated. So anyway, he was at a family reunion with about 30 of us, and someone thought that they would challenge his assertion that he doesn’t drink to excess. They asked him, “When was the last time you drank?” He said, “I don’t remember, but I know the next time I will drink–as soon as I get back to the hotel.” What that said to me is that an introvert was going to have a beer and relax when he got back to his hotel, but he hadn’t been doing so every night or he would have said that the last time was “last night.”

    I did research about the alcoholic-type face, and found out there are three different issues that can cause it: overuse of alcohol, too much time in the sun (my brother was a truck driver in Texas at that time, and building his own house), and a skin condition. And that a lot of men are actually getting plastic surgery because potential employers wrongly assume they are alcoholics, but they have a different reason (one of the other two) for the “look.”

    I outright asked my brother about his drinking, and he told me about his six-pack-a-week limit to make sure he doesn’t go overboard. I asked if he had ever been drunk, and he thought about it, and gave an example of one time he was impaired enough not to immediately understand a situation he was in, but that didn’t sound like descriptions of serious drunkenness. So unless he is lying to me about his level of drinking and about deciding to totally abstain, he isn’t an alcoholic.

    But the family belief that he is an alcoholic because (1) he “looks like” one and (2) by his own admission he is willing to drink means that when my sister cut him out of her life, our brothers took her side because “he drinks, and therefore he cannot be trusted.” (They ignored the fact that she and her husband were actually making wine, and that they drank too. Beer was seen as more evil than wine, I guess.) And when she cut me out of her life a few years later, my family didn’t see a “pattern” in my sister’s behavior, because they assumed the treatment of my brother was wisdom, and thus my sister was likely to be showing wisdom in her treatment of me as well. The fact that I was neutral in her argument against our brother, and didn’t take her side against him, helped them distrust me.

    In other words, for what it is worth, jumping to conclusions that this person “must” have a problem with alcohol because of circumstantial evidence outside of their actually drinking alcohol can hurt real people. There are times when it is fair to say that this public figure is guilty of this or that sin, when it has been proven or has multiple witnesses. But we need to give “the benefit of the doubt” even to our political enemies until that standard is met.

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  33. Debra – The comparison between Pelosi and Hastert was because the article is from 2010, not recently. He had been the Speaker of the House just preceding Pelosi, so at the time of the writing, the comparison was apt.

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  34. Unless the wasteful spending is habitual and can show up on some DOGE list to cut, I don’t see the point of even discussing a 14 year old expense.
    Many people are unwilling to look at old news even when it is extremely relevant, such as the 2014 US precipitated coup in Ukraine which is largely responsible for the current war there.

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  35. The big news in MN will be our legislative process. The DFL were in total control for many years, but that control was partially broken this year. Because of one DFL candidate being caught lying about his residency, the Republicans have a one-person majority in the house for a short while. There are some lawsuits and voting issues still being decided. All the Dems now say they will not be at the start of the session tomorrow in order to stop a quorum. They are trying to vote for the leader to remain in Dem hands. It should all be quite interesting.

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