squistion

Bird avatars are cool! Not as cool as the non-avian one that I am using here and at that other place...but still cool.

Because of the 2026 midterms, in which polls at this time are suggesting will be a complete disaster for Republicans. Yes, Trump will not be on the ballot this year, but Republicans will still be running on his policies and will pay the price for supporting him.

The Boss at Davos:

From NYT subscriber content: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/21/us/supreme-court-fed-lisa-cook?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20260121&instance_id=169627&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=125207237&segment_id=214013&user_id=14502a7228c5a9b835a15627514bfe28 Supreme Court Appears Poised to Reject Trump’s Attempt to Immediately Fire Fed Governor If the justices agree to keep Cook in place, Trump’s effort to reshape the Fed would be frozen for now. The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed poised to reject President Trump’s bid to immediately remove Lisa D. Cook from the Federal Reserve board, with key justices expressing concern about undermining the longstanding independence of the central bank. Justices from across the ideological spectrum questioned whether the allegations President Trump lodged against Ms. Cook — an unproven assertion that she engaged in mortgage fraud before taking office — were serious enough to allow the president to fire her. They suggested it was premature for the court to resolve the case when there were still factual disputes over those allegations, and they sounded skeptical that Ms. Cook had received sufficient notice of Mr. Trump’s accusations and an opportunity to respond. After about two hours of argument, a majority of the justices seemed likely to order additional proceedings, perhaps in the lower courts, meaning the Supreme Court’s ruling may not be the final word in the case. But if the justices agree to allow Ms. Cook to keep her job in the meantime, the result would be that the president’s effort to reshape the Fed would be frozen for now. The court’s conservative majority has repeatedly allowed Mr. Trump to oust leaders of other independent agencies as he moves to expand presidential power and seize control of the federal bureaucracy. But the justices have signaled that the Fed may be different and uniquely insulated from executive influence because of its structure and history. Key justices sharply questioned the Trump administration’s lawyer about the implications of the president’s position for the independence of the Fed and the economy. Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who are often in the majority, noted that former Fed chairs and Treasury secretaries had warned against allowing the president to immediately remove Ms. Cook. Accepting the president’s view, Justice Kavanaugh said, would “weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” he said, opening the door to future presidents trying to dismiss officials at the Fed “at will.” The justices agreed to hear Ms. Cook’s case on an expedited basis and are expected to rule in the coming weeks or months. The final outcome of the case could determine how much latitude presidents have to influence the direction of the powerful central bank, which Congress intentionally tried to insulate from political pressures.

Daniel Dale did a running fact check during the speech (at link) he may have a summary later: https://x.com/ddale8

From NYT subscriber content: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/arts/music/springsteen-ice-minneapolis.html Springsteen Denounces ICE Deployments and Renee Good’s Killing Bruce Springsteen denounced the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in cities across the United States and dedicated a song to Renee Good, the woman recently killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, at a surprise performance in New Jersey on Saturday. Appearing at the Light of Day Winterfest in Red Bank, N.J., Mr. Springsteen told the crowd: “We are living through incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years is being tested as it has never been in modern times,” according to videos that circulated online. He added: “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed mass federal troops invading an American city using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president.” Mr. Springsteen went on to quote Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, who had used an expletive to tell ICE to leave the city. He then dedicated his song “The Promised Land,” which tells of a young working-class man striving for a brighter future, to Ms. Good. “This one is for you, and the memory of mother of three and American citizen Renee Good,” he told the crowd. Ms. Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Mr. Ross was standing near the front of Ms. Good’s car and fired his gun after she drove toward him and then turned to the right. Mr. Trump and administration officials have said that Ms. Good had “weaponized her vehicle” against the agent. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement on Sunday that no one cared about Mr. Springsteen’s “bad political opinions.” “If he actually believed in the power of the law,” she said, “he would understand that criminal illegal aliens should be deported, that impeding federal law enforcement operations is a crime and that officers have a right to act in self-defense if an individual is using their car as a deadly weapon.” Mr. Springsteen’s remarks on Saturday were hardly the first time the musician has spoken out against Mr. Trump and his policies.

From NYT subscriber content: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/21/us/trump-davos-greenland-news?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20260121&instance_id=169622&nl=breaking-news&regi_id=125207237&segment_id=214006&user_id=14502a7228c5a9b835a15627514bfe28 Trump threatens Europe over Greenland, but rules out sending troops there. President Trump told European leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that he would not send troops to seize Greenland from Denmark, while still demanding ownership of the large, icy island and threatening dire economic and security consequences if he does not get his way in the world. Addressing a room full of heads of state, billionaires and other world leaders, Mr. Trump said repeatedly that the United States needed Greenland for national security purposes. He said that only the United States was strong enough to defend Greenland from external threats, and that defending it made sense only if the United States owned it, as opposed to leased it. Rasmus Jarlov, chairman of the defense committee in Denmark’s Parliament, said he “wasn’t too upset” with President Trump’s remarks on Greenland in Davos. “I think we’ve heard a lot worse,” Jarlov said in an interview. “I’m glad he’s ruling out military force. I didn’t see in his remarks today an escalation. He insists he wants Greenland, but that’s not new. Of course, we still insist that we are not handing over Greenland.”

Thanks! That confirms what I said! Owning a domain name (one of thousands they bought and sold) before it became an operating site is not the same thing as owning or running the site, which targeted "barely legal content" (your own words which means it was legal content). And the domain name was not in itself pornographic. lol

Not true. They bought and sold domain names and may have owned the domain name at one time but did not own or run the site. AI Overview Based on the available search results, there is no evidence to suggest that Brian and Ed Krassenstein owned a site called "17 only girls" or any similarly named entity Documented Ventures: The Krassensteins are known for operating investment forums (TalkGold, MoneyMakerGroup), co-founding 3DPrint.com, running the news site HillReporter.com, and co-founding the NFT platform NFTz.me. Controversy: In 2016, the FBI investigated some of their advertisers related to a Russian Ponzi scheme, but the brothers were never charged, and they have not been linked to the specific type of site mentioned in the query. The search results do not support the claim that they owned a site named "17 only girls."

https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/2008973735840354760 (video clip at link) Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to ICE: “Get the "eff" out of Minneapolis.

https://x.com/ddale8/status/2013979738826506667 Daniel Dale @ddale8 A barrage of false claims from Trump about NATO. - "We've never gotten anything." Among many other things, the US got a NATO coalition to fight in Afghanistan after the US was attacked on 9/11, 2001. - They "were not paying their bills." NATO's spending target is for countries' own defense budgets; it doesn't create "bills." - "Most of the countries weren't paying anything." Every member was spending something on defense; in 2024, 18 countries of the 31 subject to the 2%-of-GDP target were at or above that target. - "We paid for, in my opinion, 100% of NATO." Factually incorrect "opinion." As of 2024, US defense spending was 63% of total NATO defense spending - a big chunk, clearly, but nowhere near 100%.