The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Good-Bye, ‘Blue Wave’? Clintonista May Lose Key House Race in Florida

Posted on | September 20, 2018 | Comments Off on Good-Bye, ‘Blue Wave’? Clintonista May Lose Key House Race in Florida

Of all the many fossil remnants of the Clintonian epoch, few deserve more contempt than Donna Shalala. During her tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services, she turned the department into a federal advocacy program for the 1960s “Sexual Revolution” ethos. Promiscuity, abortion and homosexuality were actively promoted by HHS during Shalala’s tenure. After she left office, she spent the next 14 years as president of the University of Miami, and ruined it. In the 20 years prior to Shalala taking over at Miami, the Hurricanes had won five national football championships (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, and 2001). After Shalala took over? Zip, zero, nada. How bad was it? From 2010-2016, Miami lost to archrival FSU seven consecutive times. Hurricanes fans have no reason to love Shalala, and it seems that local voters also have their doubts:

The congressional seat was supposed to be the easiest of Democratic pickups. Hillary Clinton carried the Miami-based 27th District by nearly 20 percentage points just two years ago. Donna Shalala, the Democratic nominee, was a well-known, former Cabinet secretary with a talent for raising money.
But now local Democrats are dismayed as Shalala is struggling to put away her Republican rival, a popular former Spanish-language television newswoman named Maria Elvira Salazar.
According to internal polls from both campaigns obtained by POLITICO, Salazar is either ahead — or just narrowly trailing — Shalala.
Salazar leads the former Clinton Foundation head by 7 percentage points in a poll conducted for the Republican’s campaign that was completed Thursday. In a poll from Shalala’s campaign, completed Sept. 1, the Democrat leads Salazar by 4 percentage points.

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.) Guess what? Maria Elvira Salazar is a University of Miami alumna and my Spanish is a little rusty, but I believe muy caliente is appropriate the phrase.

MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR for CONGRESS

 

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Category: Congress, Election, Florida

Can the GOP Win the Kavanaugh Fight?

Posted on | September 20, 2018 | 1 Comment

 

 

Whatever Happens To Kavanaugh,
Feinstein Got Exactly What She Wanted
— David Marcus, The Federalist

The drive to sink Kavanaugh
is liberal totalitarianism
— Sohrab Amari, New York Post

Kavanaugh Accuser Classmate:
‘That It Happened Or Not, I Have No Idea’
— Domenico Montenaro, NPR

‘We’re very confident:’
Trump, GOP growing more bullish
about Kavanaugh’s survival
— Nancy Cook, Politico

Media, ABC, PBS use Facebook
to beg other Kavanaugh accusers
to talk, ‘Truth will emerge’
— Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner

Whatever happened in 1982 — on an unspecified night, in an unknown location — what is happening to Judge Brett Kavanaugh now is grossly unfair and, if the Republican Party plays its cards right, the manifest unfairness of how Democrats have handled this sordid affair will redound to the GOP’s benefit in November.

The way in which this story made it to the top of the headlines, with Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein sitting on this letter from Christine Blasey Ford for six weeks before leaking it to the media, strikes many people as suspicious. Judge Kavanaugh sat for four days of hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Feinstein had this letter in her possession since July, but she didn’t think to ask him a single question about it? Has anyone gotten an explanation from Feinstein for this otherwise mysterious situation? But now that this ugly smear has gone public, Democrats say it would be wrong to expect Professor Ford to testify to the committee on Monday. So the Democrats just want to hurl this accusation out there, without anyone having the opportunity to cross-examine the accuser? This is blatantly unfair to Judge Kavanaugh, a man of hitherto impeccable reputation, and if Republicans can drive home this point — that Democrats are engaged in cheap partisan political trickery, unfairly tainting the reputation of a good man — this whole thing could blow up in the faces of the Democrats.

The committee chairman, Chuck Grassley, is a mild-mannered Midwesterner, but you can tell from his remarks about this situation that he’s angry as hell about how Democrats have turned the confirmation process into a disgraceful circus. One wit on Twitter invoked a line from an old science fiction movie: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.” Senator Grassley is all out of bubblegum, and Democrats will get an ass-kicking.

Why did Democrats think they could pull this off? Have they made the same miscalculation they made in 2016, when they expected the Access Hollywood recordings to destroy Donald Trump? As the election results proved, Americans are sick and tired of this kind of media smear-job “gotcha” game, and there is no reason to believe that Democrats can win the midterm elections by repeating a tactic that produced defeat two years ago. And there is a larger point to be made about this:

If you’re raped, call that cops. This is what sensible people have been saying for years about the situation that has emerged on American college campuses, where claims of sexual assault have been removed from the criminal justice system and handed over to administrative panels. Universities conduct secretive hearings where students accused of sexual misconduct are systematically deprived of the due-process protections that would be their constitutional right, had their accusers simply called 911 to report these alleged crimes. Centuries of Anglo-American common-law precedent have been discarded in favor of star-chamber tribunals operating under the putative authority of federal Title IX legislation. . . .

Read the whole thing at The American Spectator.



 

Category: Senate, Supreme Court

Late Night With In The Mailbox: 09.19.18

Posted on | September 20, 2018 | Comments Off on Late Night With In The Mailbox: 09.19.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Ninety Miles From Tyranny: The 90 Miles Mystery Box, Episode #383
EBL: It Was National Cheeseburger Day Yesterday…
Twitchy:  Senator Gillibrand Claims Forcing Kavanaugh Accuser Into A “Sham” Hearing Is “Silencing” Her
Louder With Crowder: Trump Dresses Down Democrats Over Kavanaugh Circus
The Camp Of The Saints: Who Is Alekandr Solzhenitsyn And Why Does He Deserve The Medal Of Freedom

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Podcast #91 – The Good Times Bad Times Episode
American Power: Laura Ingraham – The Left’s Rush To Judgment Against Brett Kavanaugh
American Thinker: John Kerry, A Traitor For The Ages
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
BattleSwarm: Democrats – Beta’s Tied! New Quinnipiac Poll – Not So Much
CDR Salamander: End The Syrian War Before Mistakes Are Made
Da Tech Guy: What A Difference Trump Makes In A Fight
Don Surber: Why Are Democrats So Crazy?
Dustbury: Fundamentally Unserious People
First Street Journal: They’e Too Stupid To Be Allowed Votes In The First Place
The Geller Report: Christian Hospital Manager In Lahore Murdered In Acid Attack By Muslim Co-Workers, also, Disgraced Former AG Holder Claims Declassifying FISA Documents “An Especially Dangerous Abuse Of Power”
Hogewash: Fort Trump, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
JustOneMinute: Breakthrough Stuff
Legal Insurrection: Sen. Grassley Threatens To Cancel Monday’s Hearings Unless Kavanaugh’s Accuser Shows, also, College Students Not Mailing Absentee Ballots Because They Don’t Know Where To Buy Stamps
The PanAm Post: Big Tech – We Won’t Show Alex Jones’ Content, But We’ll Work With The Chicoms
Power Line: The Dumbest Political Controversy Of My Lifetime (Updated), also, It’s Official, The World Has Gone Mad
Shark Tank: GOP Targets Vulgarian Democrat Anna Eskamani In New Mailer
Shot In The Dark: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, White Supremacist
The Jawa Report: Ministry Of Entertaining The Masses – You Underestimate My Powah Edition
The Political Hat: Freeing The Humanities From Academia
This Ain’t Hell: Ft. Trump, Home Of The Kielbasi Corps, also, Wednesday Feelgood Stories
Victory Girls: Democrats Don’t Want FISA Documents Made Public
Volokh Conspiracy: SCOTUS Strikes A Mighty Blow Against Student Rights
Weasel Zippers: Cajun Navy Helps Rescue 100 Cats & Dogs From Florence, also, Leftist LA Times – Congratulations, Senator Feinstein, On Making Our Politics Even Uglier
Megan McArdle: What Is Punishment For?
Mark Steyn: The Mysterious Ubiquity Of Afghans


Category: Linkagery

Riot Police Summoned as Campus Rape ‘Crisis’ Hysteria Reaches Australia

Posted on | September 19, 2018 | 1 Comment

“These kids are mimicking behaviour seen in the US, but at a far more provincial level. They are local wokels.”
— Tim Blair, Daily Telegraph

Let me begin by apologizing to Australians, on behalf of America, for causing this problem. You see, in the years leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Democrats knew that Hillary Clinton would be their nominee. Because feminism would be an obvious selling point for her campaign, the propaganda organs of the mainstream media and the energies of left-wing activists were devoted to promoting the Feminist™ brand, especially on college campuses. The idea was to mobilize young women to vote Democrat, thus to exploit the so-called “gender gap” on behalf of Mrs. Clinton. It was in this context that the “campus rape epidemic” was invented, with President Obama announcing a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault in January 2014, and publicizing the phony claim that 1-in-5 female college students were rape victims. This was cynical partisan politics, and anyone who took it seriously was in danger of losing touch with reality.

The United States is home to the world’s largest English-speaking population (325 million) and, the way the Internet operates, anything that makes big news in America will also likely catch attention in England (53 million), Canada (36 million), and Australia (24 million). This explains how the myth of widespread campus rape traveled to Australia, where activists embraced all the lunatic ideas that had been promoted by U.S. feminists, and where a popular sex columnist’s dissent from this hysteria caused a campus riot:

THE riot squad was called to the University of Sydney after commentator and sex therapist Bettina Arndt faced a storm of protesters.
Ms Arndt was invited to speak at the university on what she says is the myth of a rape crisis on campuses.
When police arrived, up to 40 students were blocking access to the event at about 6pm last night, The Daily Telegraph reported.
University security stood by while people attempting to pass through to watch the talk were pushed and shoved before police came to break it up.
During her talk, the controversial commentator said she believed universities were becoming unsafe places for both men and women.
“It is the most unromantic thing to ask ‘Can I kiss you? Can I touch you?’ Most women don’t want a man to behave that way,” she said.
She said young men should seek an “enthusiastic yes”, noting: “I think particularly in this current climate, you can’t afford to take that risk. You have to constantly make sure she is still on side.
“(Women have) been told on this campus that she can turn around later and say she changed her mind about consent, and that is absolutely appalling.” . . .
Ms Arndt told radio host Alan Jones she is still waiting to hear back from the University of Sydney on who’s paying the extra security bill.
“We’re trying to get an answer from Sydney University as to what we’re paying for with regard to this $500 security bill,” she said.
“Today’s conservatives aren’t interested in shutting down free speech, they’re trying to promote it.
“And the left, amazingly, is all in favour of silencing people expressing views they don’t like.” . . .
The protests were organised by the university’s Wom*n’s Collective as a way to “challenge her rhetoric”.
“Bettina’s ‘Fake Rape Tour’ across university campuses in Australia is a misinformed and harmful attempt to undo the work of generations of student activists and advocates in combating the issues of sexual violence on campus. We refuse to allow her rhetoric to go unchallenged,” two spokeswomen for the group told Honi Soit, the university’s student magazine.
In an opinion piece, the magazine said free speech was “not an absolute right”.
“By allowing Arndt to claim that rape on campus is not prolific enough to justify a vigorous social and institutional response, we are further disempowering victims,” the op-ed states.

Columnist Jack O’Brien explains:

To provide some background, the Club engaged in a tiresome back and forth with the administration regarding security costs, which the university ultimately refused to assist with. Why are security costs even a factor? Because the left will use whatever means necessary to shut down discussion, just as they do with every event where its content does not fit their strict narrative of how the world should operate. The fact that the administration cannot grasp this, and refused to cover costs to ensure student’s safety was bewildering and irresponsible.
The event went ahead as planned, but not without predicted, violent and intimidating opposition. Paid ticket holders were barred from entering the peaceful discussion by a mob of screaming protesters who flooded the hall leading to the room. Any individual that tried to make their way through was obstructed, pushed around and verbally bullied with the intention of shaming them for wanting to calmly engage with a simple debate.
Young men and women were trapped inside the room, with security having to form a physical, interlocked barricade to stop the violent mob from entering the venue. There were no other exits, and attendees – many of whom had no opinion on Bettina’s views and just wanted to hear what she had to say – were trapped behind a wall of hateful, screaming members of the “tolerant left” barking at them like rabid dogs. It was only when the Police Riot Squad arrived that the protesters were moved on, after many paid ticket holders were bullied out of attending the talk.
One of the protesters chants ran along the lines of “this is what democracy looks like.” If democracy looks like a forceful, intimidating and physically abusive horde screaming at peaceful event attendees wanting to engage in a debate and trying to shut down their right to speak, then we have a serious problem.

This riot in Australia was a “monkey see, monkey do” imitation of the tactics of the anti-Trump “resistance” mobs on U.S. campuses.

These people are emotionally disturbed. A handful of cynical operatives, on the payroll of tax-exempt non-profit organizations, can assemble a mob of vulnerable young women — most of whom are under treatment for depression, anxiety, eating disorders or other mental illnesses — seeking some cause to give meaning to their pathetic and lonely lives.

What we need, honestly, is a war for these kids to protest. I’m beginning to grow nostalgic for the glory years of the Bush administration. Remember when university campuses were swarming with hippie “peace” activists accusing the Bush administration of genocide in Iraq? There is a certain percentage of college kids who aren’t happy if they don’t have something to protest against, and in the absence of legitimate issues, they’ll invent something like a “campus rape epidemic” then organize rallies against this imaginary crisis. This is why “climate change” is the perfect cause for student activism — it’s the Snuffleupagus of issues, apparent only to the “enlightened.” Being ostentatiously concerned about global warming is a type of virtue signalling, a way to communicate your own moral and intellectual superiority, which is what most “progressive” activism is really about. Considering themselves too smart to believe in anything as ordinary as Christianity, atheistic youth who fancy themselves to be intellectuals become chumps, easily scammed by promoters of three-card Monte hustles like “climate change.”

You’ll find that the campus protest mobs tend to shop around for “issues” to get agitated about. They’re nothing if not trendy. For example, it would be interesting if someone showed up at a “campus rape crisis” event and asked for a show of hands: “How many of you are vegans? How many of you are into yoga and ‘mindfulness’? How many of you identify as bisexual, asexual, genderqueer and/or ‘nonbinary’?”

They remind me of what Orwell said about socialism in the 1930s:

One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words “Socialism” and “Communism” draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, “Nature Cure” quack, pacifist, and feminist in England.

What you will discover, if you examine the types of people attracted to the student “activism” scene, is that most of them are abnormal — and deliberately so. These activists disdain normality as boring. They crave the distinction of being seen as different from their peers, whom they contemptuously regard as a herd of mindless conformists. And so they go shopping around for identities and causes, donning them like costumes, in an effort to display their imagined uniqueness. This is how the suburban middle-class white kid ends up as a student radical, protesting for “divestment” from Israel or screaming “fascist” at any campus speaker who represents a discernibly conservative viewpoint.

All of these various “issues” that concern student radicals nowadays would be instantly forgotten if President Trump started a war. Maybe he could find an excuse to start bombing North Korea, or deploy a couple of divisions to occupy Syria. It doesn’t matter where the war is, or why it gets started, really. What matters is that it would immediately become an all-absorbing focus of the attention for campus activism. They need something to be angry about, and I say, let’s give it to ’em.



 

 

Category: Australia, Education, Sex Trouble

Fake Hate, Fake Victim

Posted on | September 19, 2018 | Comments Off on Fake Hate, Fake Victim

 

Fictitious crimes by imaginary racists:

A New York woman has been arrested after police say she made up a story claiming to be the victim of a hate crime.
Adwoa Lewis gave detectives a written statement on Friday, in which she said she was driving home in Long Island September 2 when four teens confronted her.
She claimed they yelled ‘Trump 2016!’ before telling the black 19-year-old she ‘didn’t belong here’.
Lewis said the following morning she found her tires had been slashed and there was a note that read ‘Go home’ on her car, which was parked in front of her home in Baldwin.
After an ‘extensive investigation’, Nassau County police determined there hadn’t actually been any confrontation between Lewis and the teens.
She later admitted to having written the note herself.
Lewis has been charged with making a false punishable written statement and was released on an appearance ticket, police said Saturday.
She is expected to appear in court on September 24.

The good news is, racism is so rare that the fear can only be maintained by inventing make-believe hate crimes. The bad news is, the would-be victims are suffering from delusions of persecution, probably caused by watching too much MSNBC.

 

Category: Crime

Late Night With In The Mailbox, 09.18.18

Posted on | September 19, 2018 | Comments Off on Late Night With In The Mailbox, 09.18.18

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
Proof Positive: Kill Brett, Part III
EBL: Keith Ellison – Assaulting Women? It’s OK When Democrats Do It!
Twitchy: Is This Why Dianne Feinstein’s Been So Cagey About Christine Blasey Ford?
Louder With Crowder: Keith Ellison’s Accuser – I’ve Been Smeared By My Own Party

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Stop Making Sense
American Power: The Smashing Pumpkins – “1979”
American Thinker: Judge Kavanaugh Meets His Anita Hill
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Recovered Memories News
BattleSwarm: Republican Pete Flores Pulls Out Victory In State SD19
CDR Salamander: Large Surface Combatant Act I – What Happened To CG(X)
Da Tech Guy: Bob Woodward & The Truth, also, Proper Saladry
Don Surber: Kavanaugh Cleared For Landing On SCOTUS
Dustbury: Quote Of The Week
First Street Journal: The Democrats’ Dirty Tricks
The Geller Report: Kavanaugh Accuser’s Lawyer Is Vice-Chair Of Soros-Funded Org Opposing Kavanaugh, also, 9 Month Jail Sentence For Facebook Posting In Sharia-Compliant Germany
Hogewash: On The Use Of Anonymity, also, Team Kimberlin Post Of The Day
JustOneMinute: Disingenuous Level Max
Legal Insurrection: New Q Poll Has Cruz Up 9 Over Beta O’Rourke, also, Kavanaugh Accuser’s Couples Therapy Record (Partially Leaked To WaPo) May Hold The Key
Michelle Malkin: Don’t Believe A Gender. Believe Evidence.
The PanAm Post: Cuba Is To Blame For The Mass Exodus From Nicaragua & Venezuela, Not The U.S.
Power Line: The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Nails It, also, A Note On The Lingering Merrick Garland Canard
Shark Tank: Mast & Murphy Secure Funding To Hire Disabled Veterans
Shot In The Dark: I Seem To Have Recovered A Memory
STUMP: Taxing Tuesday – Republican Ideas For An Election Year
The Political Hat: Euthanasia In Belgium
This Ain’t Hell: FBI Says Kavanaugh Allegations Don’t Involve Any Potential Federal Crime, also, Enough Is Enough Already
Victory Girls: No, Senator Hirono, Men Should NOT Shut Up About Christine Blasey Ford
Volokh Conspiracy: The Unpopularity Of Free Speech In Public Schools
Weasel Zippers: Kavanaugh Accuser Refuses To Come To Monday Hearing, also, Deep State Unmasked – State Dept. Employee Blabs To Hidden Cam
Megan McArdle: The Kavanaugh Mess May Never Be Resolved Satisfactorily
Mark Steyn: Docksider Dregs Of Seersucker Society


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Category: Uncategorized

In The Mailbox: 09.17.18

Posted on | September 17, 2018 | 1 Comment

— compiled by Wombat-socho

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: BOOM – Trump Releases FBI/DOJ Russian Investigation Texts
Twitchy: CNN “Legal Analyst” Burns Himself With Hot Take On Kavanaugh Hiring A Lawyer
Louder With Crowder: Democrat Senator Durbin Pontificates “Always Believe Rape Victims”, Juanita Brodderick Responds

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Sunday Movie Thread – The Hunt For Red October
American Power: Julia Salazar Post-Truth, also, The U.S. Financial Crisis Hit Ten Years Ago Today
American Thinker: Constitution Day
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
BattleSwarm: A Summary Of A Summary Of Two Summaries, also, Typhoon Mangkut Pounds China
CDR Salamander: Mali & Africa’s Past, Now, And Next
Da Tech Guy: Chisox 2018 Season Not As Horrible As Once Feared, also, Report From Louisiana  – ELA Teachers Told To Remove Novels From Classrooms
Don Surber: Kavanaugh Did Nothing Wrong
Dustbury: Strange Search Engine Queries, also, Back Up That Train Once More
First Street Journal: Of Course Julia Salazar Is A Liar!
The Geller Report: Watch Hostile Muslim “Migrants” Massing On Bosnian/Croatian Border, also, Christian Girl Defenestrated After Refusing Muslim Trafficker’s Marriage Proposal
Hogewash: What’s Confusing Them Is The Nature Of His Game, also, Team Kimberlin Post of The Day
JustOneMinute: Andrew Sullivan On Conservatism, also, The Kavanaugh Train Wreck
Legal Insurrection: FBI Couldn’t Find Trump/Russia Collusion, And Neither Could Bob Woodward, also, Maxine Waters Suggests “Knocking Off” Trump Then “Going After” Pence
The PanAm Post: Maduro Continues To Prop Up Cuban Regime With Oil While Venezuelans Starve
Power Line: Jeff Flake, Traitor, also, Richard Epstein Nails It
Shark Tank: Cruz & Rooney Team Up To Stop Chicom Technology Theft
Shot In The Dark: What Do You Want, A Cookie?
The Political Hat: Begun, The Meme Wars Have
This Ain’t Hell: Eight More Are Home, also, Study Finds Coasties Mostly Save Very Stupid People
Victory Girls: Orrin Hatch Goes Nuclear On Feinstein Over Kavanaugh
Volokh Conspiracy: Jeffrey Rosen On “Madison’s Nightmare”
Weasel Zippers: Joe Biden Downgrades Trump’s “Deplorables” To “Dregs Of Society”, also, Ted Cruz “Thanks” PETA After Group Offers “BBQ” Tofu At Campaign Event
Mark Steyn: Charleston/Carolina In The Morning, also, The Folding Stuff


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Category: Linkagery

Judge Kavanaugh Doubles Down: ‘This Is a Completely False Allegation’

Posted on | September 17, 2018 | Comments Off on Judge Kavanaugh Doubles Down: ‘This Is a Completely False Allegation’

He again categorically denies the accusation from Professor Ford:

On Monday, after Ford said she would be willing to testify publicly, the White House released an updated statement from Kavanaugh: “This is a completely false allegation. I have never done anything like what the accuser describes—to her or to anyone. Because this never happened, I had no idea who was making this accusation until she identified herself yesterday. I am willing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity.”

So we’re going to DEFCON 1 here — full thermonuclear Senate hearings.

When first I heard of this accusation, it was vaguely and anonymously described as being the subject of a letter Sen. Dianne Feinstein had forwarded to the FBI. It seemed rather silly, a desperate Hail Mary pass by the Democrats. After further revelations, I was willing to stipulate that, even if the accusation was basically true, so what? If 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh drank more booze than he could handle and did something embarrassing, that struck me as par for the course — a bad thing to do, certainly, but what do we expect from drunk 17-year-olds? Now, however, Kavanaugh has again denied the accusation. He’s not accusing Professor Ford of merely exaggerating, he’s saying he never did “anything like what the accuser describes” — she’s lying, in other words.

OK, I was prepared for a last-ditch defense — i.e., assuming it was basically true, but hyped up with melodrama for political effect — and instead, it appears that Judge Kavanaugh is confident in his innocence, certain he never did such a thing, no matter how drunk he was in 1982.

Brace yourself, folks. This is gonna be a wild ride.

 

Category: Supreme Court
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