Free Republic

I’ve been a member for 50 years. I have house and auto insurance with USAA. I wasn’t aware of this either. USAA is insurance for military families. I can’t believe their customers are going to accept this. There ought to be some kind of organized boycott of the company. I bet that would make them change their tune.

I’m laughing because my boss has taken the day off so he can view the eclipse in the Erie, Pa. area. And the weather forecasts are calling for a solidly cloudy day for most of western PA.

I am expected to go to work as usual; no day off for me or any of my coworkers, but the boss thinks he’s something special and is entitled to it. Ha, he’s probably not going to see any more than those of us who’ve stayed behind on the job. No terrific, unforgettable eclipse. Maybe he’ll get stuck on the road back and will run out of gas as he inches along behind all the traffic.

Anybody who bets on the certainty of a sunny day in western Pennsylvania is nuts.

Ohio is solidly Republican. If Vance is picked to be V.P., the governor will appoint a Republican to fill his seat. No problem there.

Vance is the future of the conservative movement. He has the smarts, the vision, and the guts to take on anybody. Trump needs someone in that spot who can take over when his term ends. Noem, Vivek, Tim Scott, and the others don’t have it. Noem even did a commercial recently backing some dentist. Scott is trying too hard to get the nomination and isn’t smart enough, anyway. Vivek is loony tunes.

I don’t see any of them as presidential material. They’re lightweights and Trump sycophants desperate for his attention and the spotlight. Vance is not. Watch him when the MSM tries to take him down. He doesn’t give an inch. He can out argue anybody, and he is as tough as nails. If Trump doesn’t pick him, he’s really dumb.

JD Vance is clear and away the best candidate. I read his autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy, and he is one tough cookie. He’s from a poor, white, working-class family that emigrated from Kentucky to Ohio to find work. He knows and admires these “hillbillies.” His mother is (or was) a drug addict addicted to pain killers and then heroin. He spent his childhood being bounced around as his mother, who appears to have been mentally unstable, had five husbands and numerous boyfriends. He didn’t always have a home and he spent his childhood trying to escape horrible family fights and breakdowns. His only stable influences were his grandparents who told him he could do anything and pushed him to study hard, not use drugs, and to stay in school.

He worked his way through college and then law school at Yale at times carrying a full academic load and working three jobs to pay his tuition. He resented people living off the dole who could afford expensive cellphones when he was practically broke working the night shift at a grocery store. He argues that intact families, a connection to a church, hard work, sobriety, and faithfulness to your spouse are the only ways to escape the poverty and despair he experienced.

Most recently, he ridiculed an FBI undercover agent who showed up at a Congressional hearing wearing a fake wig as her “disguise. He said if that’s the caliber of FBI agents, we are in real trouble.

He writes beautifully and is a very intelligent man. I recommend his autobiography to anyone on this forum. Once you read it and hear him argue the MAGA case against the MSM media types, you’ll know he should be the V.P. pick. He didn’t always support Trump, but he has recognized that Trump is on the right track and is now one of his strongest backers. He is a fighter and would wipe up the floor in any debate with Kamala. Add to it, he is a former Marine who says in his book how much he loves this country, how proud he is of it, and how people from his “culture” feel the same way.

It’s a wonderful book.

His only notable accomplishment as senator has been to campaign against snack bags holding fewer chips—shrinkflation—that is all the fault of greedy corporations. Plugs referred to it in his State of the Union diatribe and the camera panned to idiot Casey beaming with pride. Wow! Now there’s a big, vital issue to run on!

From the article, this statement:

“In the other scenario, researchers showed just how easy it is to exploit a ship’s OT system, which is used to control much of the critical control infrastructure on board, including the steering gear, engines and ballast pumps.”

Research on made-in-China transformers being used in the electrical grid here shows that they have back door entry points that allows the Chinese to hack them. Municipalities are being told not to allow them to be installed.

What shut down the power on this thing? Why did the lights go out moments before it hit the bridge?

We know that water systems have been hacked by Chinese and Iranian hackers in western Pennsylvania. They were shut down and DHS came into the investigation.

The FBI is warning about attacks on the infrastructure. Why is this so quickly being dismissed as an accident?

She’s probably been vaxxed to the max. The NHS in Britain was pushing it and the royals wanted to set an example.

We’re now being told that more and more young people are now being diagnosed with colon cancer and other cancers. Why now? She is too young for cancer. This is not normal.

Noem is a joke. She’s a lightweight, “check the boxes” candidate and we really don’t need that, and, as Republicans, we shouldn’t even be endorsing the idea.

I think J.D. Vance is the perfect candidate—he’s speaking out on MAGA issues and is taking heat for it; he has military service in his background; he has a topnotch education and he’s smart; and he’s written a best-selling book that described the plight of his ancestors and other white, working-class folks from Appalachia whom nobody gives a damn about and whose ancestors actually built this country and fought in its wars (unlike Biden’s illegal aliens).

Furthermore, he’s good looking in an Abraham Lincoln kind of way and will appeal to women voters. For such a youngish man, he has gravitas when he speaks. He’s proven he can handle the MSM and would wipe up the floor with Kamala in a debate. Steve Bannon’s crowd is backing him which may carry some weight with Trump.

It’s owned by a Chinese front company that is collecting data on Americans. That doesn’t concern you??

Trump’s been paid off by a guy with big bucks who wants to protect his enormous investment in TikTok. So much for Trump protecting Americans from our most threatening international foe who right now is engaging in broadscale warfare against us.

The Bible says, “put not your faith in princes.” Trump acolytes who think he can do no wrong should get real. Their idol has feet of clay.

How about a hysterectomy? How long does it take to recover from that?

“The perspective isn’t right.” Look at how large Kate’s head is compared to the rest of her body. She’s a tall woman. Her legs here look like they belong on a smaller person. Charlotte’s left hand comes out of her sleeve at the wrong angle. It looks like the hand was attached and it doesn’t line up with the inside of the sleeve.

And, is England that green at this time of year? Green grass, green trees?

I agree. She was downright obnoxious. And at the end, sympathizing with moms who are run ragged chasing around taking their kids to their “games.” I almost vomited.

What does this say to people who can’t afford to pay for their kids to play soccer or other “games”? People who are living paycheck to paycheck? Single mothers who worry about putting food on the table? Parents concerned about their kids getting knifed at school or taking fentanyl?

V.P.? It’s nuts to even suggest it.

Cheney is desperate to get even with Trump for calling her father, in effect, a war criminal for his involvement in pushing the Iraq war for his defense contractor buddies. I believe I’ve also read that her husband is a big shot lawyer in Washington whose client list includes CCP members worming their way into our banking and commercial sectors.

She’s compromised, just like Mitch McConnell and his China connections through his wife and Biden who’s on the take and does the bidding of his Chinese paymasters.

The whole town is corrupt. Swamp doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s a sewer full of venal, ruthless traitors.

The only person who should be selected for v.p. is someone who can walk into the Oval Office and take over immediately should 78-year-old Donald Trump have a stroke or heart attack. Period.

That isn’t Kristi Noem or this twit. If Trump selects either of them, I will think he’s lost his marbles.

Well, West Virginia has been voting Republican lately. I believe every county voted for Trump. And Weirton Steel was one of the steel companies that produced steel for the weapons for the arsenal of democracy FDR wanted the U.S. to become. My dad was an Army liaison officer at Weirton Steel during WWII. He earned a medal for expediting the production of weapons at Weirton, specifically a trench mortar bomb for Great Britain.

I deeply admire the towns and the people in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia who worked in the mills that made our weapons. I despise anyone who diminishes their contributions to our country and who looks down on their descendants as relics unworthy of our interest or compassion.

Asphalt shingles in the northeast look horrible after a few years—black streaks that the shingle industry attributes to blue green algae. They’re adding copper granules to combat this but that is incompatible with aluminum gutters which eventually are destroyed with the runoff from the copper granules. In fact, the shingle warranties warn, in tiny print, that they will not be liable for any damage to your aluminum gutters.

So, my family has installed EcoStar which is a composite shingle that looks like slate and can be recycled. It’s made out of different materials including, believe it or not, baby diaper materials. It looks wonderful and is so tough hail won’t damage it and a truck can run over the slates without any damage to them. So far, we’re very pleased with them.

EcoStar is an expensive roof, but it is made to last much longer than asphalt shingles so we shouldn’t have to replace the roof ten years from now. The asphalt shingle industry is on its last legs. According to several roofers we talked to, the warranties are a joke and the quality of asphalt shingles has deteriorated significantly in the last ten years. Good riddance.

I pay each month to keep my landline. It really cracked me up when everyone with a cell phone that wasn’t working were told to find someone with a landline. I also heard that a landline, old-fashioned and out of date that it may be, is the most reliable phone service and the least likely to be hacked.

I have a cell phone to be used for emergencies or at work if I have to make personal calls. That’s all I use it for. I don’t spend my life obsessing over some stupid YouTube video or a post on FaceBook. I watch college students walking across the campus with their heads down, totally absorbed in some X post.

That supposedly is where they get whatever little knowledge they have about government, history, politics, social issues, etc. How pathetic they are. And they’re being encouraged to vote.

Isn’t this selective prosecution? I thought that isn’t legal.

Your analysis is dead on. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Unfortunately, Trump has no control over his mouth. People don’t like him because of his childish antics and his stupid tweets. He hasn’t a clue how to act presidential and that is part of his job as Head of State. A lot of people are thoroughly sick of him.

Trump sycophants like the crowd that inhabits Steve Bannon’s show are chortling with delight at the prospect Trump will be up against Biden and will blow him away.

What if the Democrats put someone else in; a younger, attractive candidate that the MSM will promote non-stop? The average voter probably isn’t familiar with Newsome’s record. If he’s the candidate they’ll be told he’s the forward-thinking, young governor of the largest state. And Newsome is smarmy and charming and slick enough to win over independents, women, and Republicans who’ve had enough of Trump.

It’s the Democrats who are playing three D chess, not Trump. He’s sitting in court with his sagging jowls, yellowish face; dyed, unkempt hair; and perpetual scowl. He’s angry and vengeful and that’s about it. He has a right to be, but that’s not the attitude voters will want to see in a president.

He should be ahead of a loser like Biden by twenty points, but he’s barely squeaking by. Sure, not all polls are legitimate, but voters are not embracing Trump even when it’s obvious he’s the victim of the Democrats’ lawfare. Republicans who think this is in the bag are making a big mistake.