Free Republic

Interesting handle given the topic. I didn’t notice it last time.

I was wrong, and pretty happy about being wrong (although I’ll concede from my previous posts it might have appeared I was cheering for more deaths, which I wasn’t). I waited a month or so to see what they’d find. It appears it will be right around 200. I saw the buildings around there and assumed there were many more people in the area than there were. I also checked with a few people who said blast related injuries are tricky. They MAY not do the damage you’ve seen with other blasts (see my previous comment on the West explosion). Its weird — it is sort of a case by case and being in one spot can be different than another. The blast can be “diffused” so to speak. Needless to say, I don’t want to find out first hand, but this was a good lesson to learn: don’t automatically run to a fire and start video taping, especially if you don’t know what’s on fire or what materials are near what’s on fire.

Anyway, I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong, especially when its relatively good news like fewer deaths than expected or predicted (by me). Sad that stupidity led to 200 or so deaths and much more destruction to a city that can barely absorb it. I wish I could say that they’d learn from it but I don’t have any confidence that they will.

The key word there is early. I’ll take it down to 1K deaths but it is going to be more than 100. Shock waves cause internal injuries that people may not initially know about plus I’m guessing there are unfound bodies laying around places right now.

Look, I don’t know exactly how many were in the zone where the blast occurred and a shock wave would have affected. If only, say, 250, then yeah, there won’t be the 2500 number I suggested initially but what I’m going on is this: when the West, Tx. fertilizer plant blew in 2013, there was a retirement/nursing home across the street with several people there INSIDE that were killed (at least 3). If you haven’t seen them, look for videos of people in the Beirut blast in their car and see what that shock wave did to their car like a quarter mile or so away. Those people are going to survive but had they not been in their car (or been closer), I’m betting they are either not going to survive (even if they are alive now) or are going to be much more seriously injured than they appear to be now. I’m telling you — that shock wave will screw up your internal organs in ways you can’t imagine. And that’s even if you don’t hit something or get hit with something.

Let’s revisit the numbers in 3 months and see where we’re at. Unless there were just not very many people in the area that looks like Godzilla stepped on it, the numbers are going to be far closer to 1K than 78. Hopefully not, but the reports I’ve read say a lot are still missing.

Calling it now: 2500 dead, 25K injured. MINIMUM. And that is not including any potential toxic smoke — just initial blast related injuries. This is going to be worse than 9/11.

We MUST end lifetime appointments, if only for district court judges. While many don’t stay there a long time, those that do seem to be the most dangerous.

Smollett is STUPID. And his attorney(s) is/are BEYOND stupid. Foxx, or whoever, threw him a bone last year with the 130K thing that now appears to have been — at least on their part — pure genius. Reimburses the cops for the investigation, shows they aren’t letting him off (even though they are), and more or less made things go away about as quickly as possible. So what does he do? Puts his middle finger back in their face and says screw you; no way I’m paying.

Had he paid, he would definitely had a sound double jeopardy argument now. As it stands, he is almost certainly going to do some jail time. He probably could have negotiated that 130K down a little, too.

>>It was his first rodeo in politics. His advisers should have been better at communicating that to him. Unfortunately most of them were also deep staters.

This MAY have worked as an excuse by the time he took office or, at worst, 6 months into his term, but by the time he was replacing the staff he hired himself (Spicer and others), he couldn’t be bothered to look into replacing these people and many more like them?

Sorry, you can make all the excuses for him you want, but this one falls squarely on Trump. He has no one to blame but himself and should have figured all this out in the Spring of 2017. Hundreds of thousands of us were screaming for this then and since.

That and to eliminate federal agencies which he hasn’t done.

>>I’d say keep it criminal but change sentencing for users (not dealers)

Why not dealers? If you’re going to legalize or in any way decriminalize, why would it still be illegal to sell or distribute? That makes no sense.

“Zinn claims there is no such thing as a pure fact, but all facts are open to interpretation.”

Question: “Mr. Zinn, are you claiming the above quotation to be a fact?”

Zinn: “Of course.”

Question: “Then, by your standard, is that fact open to interpretation?”

Zinn: “Well, no, not that one.”

Question: “Didn’t you say ALL facts were open to interpretation?”

Zinn: “You misunderstood. I wasn’t speaking of facts that I myself assert.”

And on and on and on.

The contradictions by these idiots go way over their heads.

If Bannon is right, what’s going on here is that doomberg is fighting to keep the Clinton-style pay for play democrat party system in place. He and others think Bernie is a threat to that, but I’m not so sure he is. Regardless, if Bernie takes control there will be a shift of people in charge, so whether there’s a shift of philosophy, it will be under different management.

That’s what bothers doom, Clinton, and the others.

Could explain the delay and why they’re running for cover to get a story out. One or more of the following might have happened:

— Pete and/or other minor/unexpected candidates won or came in second

— Bernie didn’t win or come in second

— Biden finished WAY down the list (like 5th or lower)

— Warren finished lower than Biden

Their so-called “reporting” explanation is a lie. The party said the app was fine but others said it wasn’t. Besides, how hard is it to say, “send the results to this email address:___” and have it done in 15 minutes?

There is definitely something going on here. It isn’t just incompetence. There may have been some technical issues but I’m sure they got results they didn’t expect and it is problematic.

>>Lung cancer is not the automatic death sentence that some other kinds are, like brain or pancreatic.

Brain tumors, as long as they are primary ones and not the aggressive ones, are actually some of the “best” kinds of cancer to get (assuming there is such a way to think about best). They are very treatable and the side affects are minimal. Secondary tumors (what we mean by 3rd and 4th stage diagnosis) make things difficult to say.

I will say this: just saying a stage followed by the type is not indicative of anything any more. A friend of mine discontinued all treatments for late stage melanoma 2 and a half years ago. She’s now cancer free. Another friend just passed after a year and a half battle with pancreatic cancer. Some pancreatic cancer diagnoses results in days or weeks of life.

Although I probably shouldn’t say this, it really troubles me that a very troubled human being like RBG still lives with multiple cancers and someone like my friend didn’t. But, that’s not for me to decide.

>>The requirement for “transmission” is just a Senate rule, and nothing more.

The constitution allows for each house to set their own rules. See US Const. Art. I, Sect. 5, 2. Enforcing the rule, unless it violates another part of the constitution, is as good as a constitutional mandate in this case.

The Senate can and should simply declare that the so-called house alleged offenses are not treason, bribery, or high crimes or misdemeanors, and therefore not impeachable offenses. Thus, there is no impeachment and no need for a trial.

It isn’t just the injury. I think most people have him overrated. I think he needs another year, maybe two.

Being an NFL QB is TOUGH. Look at Matt Stafford. Heck, look at Eli. 2 titles, yes, but only 2 or 3 good years other than that. Both of these guys were much better prepared coming out of college. I think Tua is AT BEST a Sam Bradford type of NFL QB.

It would GENERALLY not be a good idea for an attorney representing someone seeking child support to allow investigators to put on evidence of criminal activity, especially felonies, of the person they are seeking support from. Such a move could endanger future support as you can’t pay if you’re in jail. Also, criminal proceeds can often be confiscated or subject to restitution.

I know people want Biden to go down (as do I) but I question how things are begin done here.

He got fired from a no-show requirement job. How stupid do you have to be for that to happen?

>>Alabama drops seven spots for a 3 point loss on the road to a ranked opponent while Michigan drops only ONE spot after being routed at home by Ohio State?

Makes perfect sense to me, actually, and is sort of refreshing to see the committee is not beholden to Bama. In spite of their reputation, Bama has exactly NO good wins. Their best win is over A&M. Although I’m an Aggie and hate saying this, A&M is not a good team this year. Their 7 wins are over marginal competition themselves. The only 2 good teams Bama played, they lost to. Michigan beat Iowa, Notre Dame and Indiana so in spite of a big loss to Ohio State, clearly the best team in the country when they played them, they shouldn’t be much lower than Bama despite one more loss (see above comparison between Bama and Auburn). Michigan’s 3 losses were, like Bama’s, to good teams.

>>What would the committee due if Wisconsin, LSU, Viginia, Utah and Baylor all won?

Can’t speak to what a committee that’s interested in politics and revenue would do, but a FAIR committee would probably put LSU and Utah in for sure, alone with Ohio State and either Clemson or Baylor. I think it would be easier to look at who would be out under your scenario:

OU
UGa
Wisconsin
UVa

That leaves Baylor as a conference champion who would be in competition with 2 non-conference champions (Clem and OhSU for the final 2 spots). Ohio State has good wins over Penn State, Michigan, with no bad losses. Baylor has no bad losses and only 1 good win over OU. Clemson has no good wins or bad losses. Under that analysis it would be Baylor or Clemson for the final spot and we all know who’d get the nod.

I don’t think either Ohio State or LSU have to win Saturday. Clemson MAY not have to. Everyone else DOES have to win to get in.

Fair question though arguable either way. Auburn lost to UFl and UGa in addition to LSU. Bama lost to LSU and Auburn, both close games. However, Bama doesn’t really have a good win and Auburn arguably has 2 good ones — Bama and Oregon.

Below 6, it doesn’t matter. Neither are getting in. If we had a REAL playoff, i.e. 16 teams, then seeding would come into play and it might matter, but even then, not a great deal and Auburn’s 3rd loss would be a factor.

It makes no sense that they’d steal the Gov. race and not at least some of the other races. It does, however, make sense if the Gov. wasn’t very popular that he alone would lose.

I don’t like it either but it appears to be his own fault. Look at the numbers and see the total votes, how many the other R candidates got, and how many he might have missed out on. THAT will tell you the story.

I too think there’s tremendous voter fraud all over the place but there will be plenty of time for rational accusations. It appears he wasn’t a very good candidate based on his own stupidity.

Or, put another way, he won’t like who backs him up.