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I was downtown today, had to make a visit to the transmitter up at the Hancock tower.
On my way home, I walked past a large protest at the Water Tower. The kind with a PA system and barricades and police paddy-wagons parked a tasteful distance away.
Anyway, lots of Palestinian flags. The overall vibe was an interesting mix of about 50% "America needs to stop funding this genocide" and 50% "Orange Man Bad."
So far as I could tell, the irony was lost on 100% of the attendees that, after a year and a half of Team Blue funding the "genocide" in question, Orange Man is the one actually putting an end to it.
Obviously no point in trying to point that out. I just took a detour around the chaos, which had an unexpected benefit as I discovered a new Thai hot-pot restaurant.
BTW, I feel like the clear difference in the last 100 hours has been "]https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.miataturbo.net-vbulletin/742x617/moustache_7202852a46346c01a672402cd5a5af2a58d1e600 .jpg[/img]
FYI, I don't just troll on miataturbo. BTW, I feel like the clear difference in the last 100 hours has been "I love America" versus "I hate America."
CIA says lab leak most likely source of Covid outbreak
Holly Honderich
The CIA on Saturday offered a new assessment on the origin of the Covid outbreak, saying the coronavirus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals.
But the intelligence agency cautioned it had "low confidence" in this determination.
A spokesperson said that a "research-related origin" of the pandemic "is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting".
The decision to release that assessment marks one of the first made by the CIA's new director John Ratcliffe, appointed by Donald Trump, who took over the agency on Thursday.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during President Trump's first term, has long favoured the lab leak theory, claiming Covid most likely came from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The institute is a 40-minute drive from the Huanan wet market where the first cluster of infections emerged.
In an interview with Breitbart News published on Friday, Ratcliffe said he wanted the CIA to abandon its neutral stance on the origins of the virus and "get off the sidelines".
"One of the things that I've talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on a number of fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the Central Intelligence Agency has been sitting on the sidelines for five years in not making an assessment about the origins of COVID," he said.
"That's a day-one thing for me."
But officials told US media that the new assessment was not based on new intelligence and predates the Trump administration. The review was reportedly ordered in the closing weeks of the Biden administration and completed before Trump took office on Monday.
The review offered on Saturday is based on "low confidence" which means the intelligence supporting it is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
There is no consensus on the cause of the Covid pandemic.
Some support a "natural origin" theory, which argues the virus spread naturally from animals, without the involvement of any scientists or laboratories.
The lab leak hypothesis specifically has been hotly contested by scientists, including many who say there is no definitive evidence to back it up. And China has in the past dismissed the lab claim as "political manipulation" by Washington.
Still, the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies.
In 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News it was his bureau's assessment that "the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident".
Wow, this just marks another example of how the Haitian leader has escalated his xenophobic and racist rhetoric against migrants and minority groups...
I'm starting to think that you really do have a thing for that woman...
Anyway, here we are after one full week of Trump's second term in office. Russia is still at war with Ukraine, the External Revenue Service has not yet been created, men are still participating in womens' sports, the transgender lunacy in the military continues, and the price of groceries has not gone down.
But, on the plus side, a mountain in Alaska has been re-named.
Here in Chicago, the mass deportations have been brutal. As of about an hour and a half ago, the illegals who, for the past year have been sitting on the sidewalks and parking-lot islands outside of every supermarket in town store begging for money are still doing literally the exact same thing.
I can see how ICE might be having a hard time identifying them.
Meanwhile, my Congressional Representative Delia Ramirez, herself the anchor baby of illegal immigrants from Guatemala, is doing her best to prevent the laws of the United States from being upheld, which, if I remember correctly, is not the thing that members of Congress solemnly swear an oath promising to do. I have received this flyer both in print form and also in my email:
I'm starting to think that you really do have a thing for that woman...
Anyway, here we are after one full week of Trump's second term in office. Russia is still at war with Ukraine, the External Revenue Service has not yet been created, men are still participating in womens' sports, the transgender lunacy in the military continues, and the price of groceries has not gone down.
But, on the plus side, a mountain in Alaska has been re-named.
Here in Chicago, the mass deportations have been brutal. As of about an hour and a half ago, the illegals who, for the past year have been sitting on the sidewalks and parking-lot islands outside of every supermarket in town store begging for money are still doing literally the exact same thing.
I can see how ICE might be having a hard time identifying them.
Meanwhile, my Congressional Representative Delia Ramirez, herself the anchor baby of illegal immigrants from Guatemala, is doing her best to prevent the laws of the United States from being upheld, which, if I remember correctly, is not the thing that members of Congress solemnly swear an oath promising to do. I have received this flyer both in print form and also in my email:
Yeah, I'm sure she and I don't agree on everything, but we both think Newsom and Bass are completely scummy politicians. Speaking of that, is this true?
Just to add to the confusion, I like Nicole Shanahan too, even though she's only recently checked in with the ideological right side. Not only that, but I support her threat to primary the jackass Republicans that she listed.
Like Justine Bateman, I'm sure there are lots of things we don't agree on, but getting Big Pharma and Big Ag out of our pantries is a really good start.
I don't know what sources Nick Sortor or the WH are using but 10% of 2 million is 200,000 and to save 100 billion that's half a million per employee. Is that figure yearly, or during the four year term or lifetime? Numbers don't mean much unless backed up.
And the other day I hear a woman DJ talking bout mass deportations around the country. As she continues she says, at least a thousand people repatriated during the weekend. 1000 people is mass deportation over a weekend? How many were coming in daily before? How many people are still getting in right now?
The worldwide media is in heaven again now that God Emperor Trump is back in office.
I don't know what sources Nick Sortor or the WH are using (...)
There is indeed an element of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" at play here.
My favorite one thus far has probably been the press briefing given yesterday by newly-appointed WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Remember back in December, when large drones were being spotted all over the east coast, and there was all kinds of speculation about whether they were being operated by the Deep State or the Chinese military, and President-elect Trump said "They know where it came from and where it went. And for some reason, they don't want to comment. And I think they'd be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows."
Yesterday, Leavitt put those fears to rest by telling us that "This was not the enemy." She further elaborated that "Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones."
Stars being mistakenly reported as drones.
Well, I'm glad that's cleared up. We can definitely believe the WH's official explanation on this one, and not question it or think too hard about it.
Joe, I kinda think more stuff is happening that you think...
Let me start by saying that it is refreshing to see a President try so hard to fulfill campaign promises. I am being sincere when I say that.
Emphasis on the word "try."
We all collectively seem to forget this every election cycle, but the President is not the King. And just because he decrees something, it does not follow that that thing will actually happen.
Picking the low-hanging fruit here, Trump has indeed issued an edict which prohibits trannies from sharing sleeping quarters or bathroom quarters with servicemembers of the opposite sex. And by the following morning, The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) had filed their first Federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking injunctive relief halting the ban until the more substantive part of the suit, the claim that the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, can be fully decided by the Courts. Requests of this nature are almost always granted.
Lambda Legal, along with the Human Rights Campaign, is also in the process of filing a legal challenge which attacks the ban from a slightly different angle. That one hasn't been published yet.
Now, this will invariably wind up at the Supreme Court, just like it did the last time. That's a slow process. In 2017, every single federal district court which heard a challenge to the first trans-ban agreed that it was unconstitutional and thus blocked the ban. The issue then just hung around for the next few years, getting kicked around between the SCOTUS and the lower courts, until the 2020 election results dropped and it became a moot point.
Incidentally, that's another thing to bear in mind about Executive Orders, which differ from the legislative efforts of the Congress- whatever Trump does manage to get pushed through the courts will be un-done by the next leftist administration.
Biden signed an Executive Order on Jan 25 2021 which nullified Trump's 2017 Executive Order, then Trump signed an Executive Order on Jan 20 2025 which nullified Biden's nullification and set the stage for the Jan 27 2025 re-banning. Regardless of how this winds up in the courts, the next Democrat to sit in the oval office will immediately nullify the nullification of the nullification.
Let me start by saying that it is refreshing to see a President try so hard to fulfill campaign promises. I am being sincere when I say that.
Emphasis on the word "try."
We all collectively seem to forget this every election cycle, but the President is not the King. And just because he decrees something, it does not follow that that thing will actually happen.
Picking the low-hanging fruit here, Trump has indeed issued an edict which prohibits trannies from sharing sleeping quarters or bathroom quarters with servicemembers of the opposite sex. And by the following morning, The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) had filed their first Federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking injunctive relief halting the ban until the more substantive part of the suit, the claim that the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, can be fully decided by the Courts. Requests of this nature are almost always granted.
Lambda Legal, along with the Human Rights Campaign, is also in the process of filing a legal challenge which attacks the ban from a slightly different angle. That one hasn't been published yet.
Now, this will invariably wind up at the Supreme Court, just like it did the last time. That's a slow process. In 2017, every single federal district court which heard a challenge to the first trans-ban agreed that it was unconstitutional and thus blocked the ban. The issue then just hung around for the next few years, getting kicked around between the SCOTUS and the lower courts, until the 2020 election results dropped and it became a moot point.
Incidentally, that's another thing to bear in mind about Executive Orders, which differ from the legislative efforts of the Congress- whatever Trump does manage to get pushed through the courts will be un-done by the next leftist administration.
Biden signed an Executive Order on Jan 25 2021 which nullified Trump's 2017 Executive Order, then Trump signed an Executive Order on Jan 20 2025 which nullified Biden's nullification and set the stage for the Jan 27 2025 re-banning. Regardless of how this winds up in the courts, the next Democrat to sit in the oval office will immediately nullify the nullification of the nullification.
The EO nullifications are silly. However, we can ALL see the effects, such as the price of gas going up under Biden's EO's and the price going down under Trump. I believe that Congress is following some of the larger EO's with legislation that will make them permanent.
IMPORTANT--he's been in office barely a week. It's been the most consequential first week of any president in the last 100 years, easy.
Finally, trannies are mentally ill. They can't be sent to fight in battles because they require hormones and specialized doctors. They're a drain on the military, and our pocketbooks. For the Democrats, it was a legal way for them to have the government pay for their transitions as well as break down the military. Milley did a good job screwing things up even as a straight dude. Lloyd Austin always looked a little "tranny" to me...
Last edited by cordycord; Jan 29, 2025 at 05:35 PM.
I'm so confused why a far right wing circle jerk of a thread exists on a website about a Japanese roadster. Seriously, reddit seems like a far left echo chamber and this feels like the equivalent, if not worse, of a far right wing echo chamber.
Most of you guys don't even post about cars anymore. Seriously, regardless of political affiliation, why does this thread exist?
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