Politics aside, he is doing a horrible job as Speaker. He can't control a sizable portion of his party. He couldn't even get enough votes to even discuss a defense authorization bill, something that is usually a noncontroversial for Republicans. He tiptoes around the MAGAs, deathly afraid that someone (and it only takes one) to call for a vote to get rid of him.

However... what if it is an empty threat?

I think that if a vote to get rid of him were called, it would fail. If it passed? No one would step forward to replace him. They see it is a tough and thankless job, nearly impossible to get the various Republican factions to move in the same general direction, let alone lockstep. He might even be voted back in.

Given this, it would be in his, his party's, and even our country's best interest to ignore the MAGATs. He could even reach across the aisle for votes on issues that both sides could agree on, like bringing the defense authorization bill to the floor.

Ah, but there's the rub. McCarthy has no spine. He wouldn't dare ask for votes from the Democrats because that would violate the Republican self-imposed rule to only vote on motions that can pass with only Republican votes.

Too bad. It would be better for the country if he had more courage. Then again, maybe not. A flailing Republican party is amusing to watch, and they are limited in the evil they can do. Then again, they are unable to do even the necessary things...

A hard drive monitoring utility I have (Hard Disk Sentinel Pro) has warned me that my data drive is on its last legs. As usual these days I was able to get a larger one at a cheaper price than what I bought the old one at.

I installed and formatted it with little problem. However, every clone or transfer app I've tried has choked. I think the issue might be related to the failing sectors. I've tried fixing the old drive with chkdsk, but it tells me the drive's in use. I try to boot to the command prompt, and I get a message asking me for the admin password, but the one I enter it says it's wrong. Even after I change it...

Anyway, (sorry for taking the long way to get to my question), since it's not my boot drive, is there any reason why I can't just drag and copy the files to the new drive? I guess I should do only a couple of hundred gigs at a time (going from 2TB to 4TB) to keep things from choking. After I'm satisfied the transfer is successful, I'll remove the old hard drive and give its drive letter to the new one.

Any thoughts?

It's been more than 15 years since I had to handle cover sheets for classified documents, but the information in this article is 100% correct.

Folks, it's as bad as we had feared. I had suspected that this had been done, but thought there was no way to tell. Fortunately, I was wrong. From Daily Kos:

When I first saw the photo of Exhibit 2A, I blanched. Trump tried to distract by ranting about the papers dumped on his carpet. That was just a feeble attempt at misdirection. What struck me was the document placed front and center, and the ruler.

Those documents aren’t dumped randomly on the carpet. They are being displayed in a very deliberate way. They are physical evidence that somebody committed a very serious crime. The kind of crime that lands people in a Supermax prison.

Look at the Secret//SCI document bounded by the ruler. Why did they put a ruler there? That’s a good question. Everyone knows the size of a standard sheet of paper. You don’t need a ruler to measure it. If you look up towards the left, you will see there are at least two other cover sheets with a similar border. Notice anything different?

In case you missed it, look at the border around the document that is front and center. If that was an original document, there should be no white border. You see the cover sheets for these sort of documents are printed by the US government printing office. They are specifically designed to signal the status of the document they cover. Now it would be nice to know if someone took a document and copied it. Turns out that is part of the design of the cover sheet.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/27/2171698/-I-have-been-waiting-for-someone-to-point-out-the-obvious-tell-in-this-photo

A judge in California can overrule the FDA's classification of Marijuana and make it legal for recreational use.

Source: Huffington Post

When Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Paul Gosar were spotted conversing on the House floor Tuesday afternoon, observers were curious to know what the New York Democrat and Arizona Republican could have to chat about so casually. After all, Gosar was stripped of his committee appointments in 2021 for posting an anime video of himself attacking and killing Ocasio-Cortez.

The topic at hand turned out to be what was playing out in front of them, as the new Republican majority attempted and failed to elect a House speaker. Without a House speaker, none of the representatives could be sworn in, and House business was at a standstill.

Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner later Tuesday that Gosar had brought up the possibility of Republicans cutting a deal with Democrats that could secure the speakership for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Challenges brought by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and others meant that three rounds of voting on Tuesday failed to reach the necessary total to elect McCarthy.

Ocasio-Cortez said with a laugh: “I think in chaos anything is possible, especially in this era.” But she signaled that the possibility of a deal of any kind was not going to happen.


Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-paul-gosar-house-speaker_n_63b59314e4b0d6f0b9f739c4

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Desperation makes some people try things they never would have tried before…

When I first heard about the substation attack with rifles, something tickled the back of my mind. I knew I had heard of this before.

After a couple of days of searching, I found it. A story G. Gordon Liddy wrote for Omni magazine back in 1989. Granted, he foretold a more widespread attack by a terror cell financed from abroad, but it is an interesting read nonetheless. He also points out other vulnerabilities we had then, and we still have today.

Of course, take the whole thing with a shaker of salt because it is Liddy, after all. I especially “like” the part at the end when his solution to a United States in shutdown is to invade an uninvolved country (really!).

https://vocal.media/theSwamp/this-fictional-memo-to-the-president-from-1989-predicted-terrorism-in-the-us

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banners openly.

But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the galleys, heard in the very hall of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor...He speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and their garment, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.

He rots the soul of a nation...he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared."
-- Taylor Caldwell, playwright, often incorrectly attributed to Cicero

Hat tip to mahatmakanejeeves, in post 10 below, who researched the quote and pointed out the correct attribution.

During this whole family separation at the border debates, something kept tickling the back of my mind. I've heard of this before.

Which is silly. There is no reason why this should seem so familiar. Then when I woke up this morning it hit me.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas".

"Omelas" is a short story by the late Ursula K. Le Guin. It is a short story that details an utopian city, full of joy and creativity. However, this comes at a price. I highly recommend finding and reading it.

From the website "Enotes.com" [https://www.enotes.com/topics/ones-who-walk-away-omelas]:

This picture of Omelas is not the whole story. There is something that makes the city special in another way. The city has a guarantee of happiness; it has struck a bargain, although how and with whom it is not clear. The bargain is this: In a room under the city is a stunted, frightened, half-starved child, and everyone over adolescence in Omelas knows that the child is there. The child is locked in a closet and shown off to those who wish to see it. It is fed half a bowl of cornmeal mush a day and is left to sit, naked, in dirt and its own excrement. The child barely talks, except for a bit of whining gibberish and a plea, heard less and less often, to be let out. No one is allowed to speak even a kind word to the child, and no one stays with it long.

If the child were rescued from its cell-like closet, the whole of the city of Omelas would falter. The city’s great happiness, its splendors and health, its architecture, music, and science, all are dependent on the misery of this one child. The Omelas people know that if the child were released, then the possible happiness of the degraded child—and it is only possible, not probable—would be set against the sure failure of the happiness of the many. Thus, the people have been taught compassion and the terrible reality of justice, and on this they base their lives.

How insightful she was. People have no problem with a suffering child if they think it ensures their own happiness.

I've been crying over this all morning.

I want to walk away from Omelas, but there is no place to go.

[Yes, I know... "stay 'here' and fight", etc... And I will.]

I see many posts here lauding McCain’s “bravery” and shake my head. This is pretty much a textbook case of “slacktivism”; a tepid online statement of support with no follow-up actions.

Yes, he disagreed with Trump’s actions. This only stands out because the Republicans are the Stepford party.

But has he been speaking out against Trump consistently? No. Has he argued against or voted against Trump policies (with the exception of his ACA repeal vote)? No. Is he urging others in his party to oppose Trump? No. Is he going to leave the Republican Party? No.

McCain is not acting as a statesman, let alone an ally. He is just an old man trying to get into heaven, or at least secure a better spot in the history books.