More: Some may object as follows: Musk owns Starlink. Doesn't he have the right to do what he wants with a business he owns?

No.

Yes, America has a market economy. And to make this economy work, we need to respect property rights. But we are, first and foremost, a democracy. And in a democracy, the rights of private property don't and never have included the right to act against the nation's interest " where democratically elected representatives of the people, not business owners, should decide what is in the nation's interest. Capitalism is not an excuse for treason.

Let's look at a hypothetical case. Taiwan's air force flies F16s made by Lockheed Martin. Imagine that for some reason " perhaps as part of a business deal with China " Lockheed Martin suddenly moved to degrade Taiwan's military capability by cutting off access to spare parts, upgrades, munitions, computer networks and more. Would anyone consider such action acceptable, a legitimate exercise of property rights? Surely not. There would be immediate demands that Lockheed Martin reverse its actions " and if it refused, the federal government would step in to temporarily take control of the company.

This has actually happened in the past.

U.S. mobilization during World War II relied overwhelmingly on private contractors. But these contractors weren't free to do as they pleased. Among other things, the federal government was anxious to avoid labor conflict that might impede the war effort. So the National War Labor Board negotiated mandatory settlements between management and workers.

Some businessmen didn't want to go along. In particular, Sewell Avery, the chairman of Montgomery Ward, simply refused to comply with the terms of collective bargaining agreements that had been hammered out with the United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

At the time, Montgomery Ward was both a major retailer and a major manufacturer, whose production of tractors, auto parts and more were important parts of the war effort. But Avery placed a higher priority on resisting unionization than on defeating the Nazis.

So in April 1944 FDR ordered the Army National Guard to seize Montgomery Ward's main plant in Chicago. National Guard troops literally had to carry Avery out of his office.

Later that year the federal government also seized a number of other Montgomery Ward facilities.

It's important to realize that none of these actions were attempts to impose long-term government control of the economy. There was never an intent to permanently nationalize Montgomery Ward. But the principle was clear: private individuals do not have the right to undermine national security. And if temporary nationalization is the only way to stop them from doing so, so be it.

Of course Boaz is cheering the arrest of a Black woman for doing something completely legal where she lives.

This makes me even more proud to be a Marine.

More: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a slur to proudly announce to an auditorium of Marines in September that he was ridding the military of all transgender troops.

The Pentagon had set up review boards at bases around the globe, manned by everyday uniformed service members with narrow orders that all but ensured that the trans troops appearing before them would be voted out.

But just steps from the auditorium where Mr. Hegseth spoke, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, boards assigned to carry out those orders were doing the opposite. Instead of firing trans Marines, the boards were voting to keep them.

The same was happening in the Navy: Boards given strict rules instructing them to force out sailors were rebelling and voting to let them stay.

It is not just a few outlying individuals. Navy and Marine Corps boards have voted to retain trans members in nine of 12 cases.

--

Ms. VanLandingham, the former military lawyer, said the votes might be influenced by growing concern in the ranks that the current Pentagon is preoccupied with wedge issues and gives little thought to the welfare of the force.

Mr. Hegseth in his speech to the Marines, she noted, said the force should have "No fatties. No trannies. No beardos. No weirdos. No wimps. No radicals," but did not mention those killed or wounded in the war with Iran.

"There's been a chipping away at any kind of confidence that Hegseth actually cares about service members," she said. "I think that's given the boards license."

There may be cultural factors, too, she said. The board instructions in all the branches are nearly identical. But each branch has different values. The Army is often seen as the most bureaucratic and least likely to buck orders. The Navy is the most diverse. The Marine Corps prides itself on a culture of loyalty.

The march was about a 45 minute walk both ways.

More: "What we're seeing now is the federal government is inserting itself into the state process for verifying their voter roles in an unprecedented way," said Jessica Marsden, a lawyer for Protect Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy group that is suing the federal agency over the door-knocking campaign. "And they are doing it in a way that seems maximally designed to scare lawful voters from participating."

The home visits ramped up in September, in the thick of the midterm campaign season, and continued over the past weekend. The Justice Department announced Monday that Homeland Security agents in California arrested more than 20 people, all of them green card holders, on allegations they had illegally registered or cast a vote.

--

Eric Balliet, a former Homeland Security Investigations agent, said the door-knocking operation is a significant departure from traditional law enforcement activities.

"In my 23 years with HSI, I never engaged in or was aware of any incident or initiative that sent Special Agents to private residences to verify the eligibility of voters," Balliet said, who served in the federal government under multiple administrations.

--

For civil rights advocates, the show of force has sparked concerns about the chilling effect it could have on legal voters.

"It is sending the signal to a much broader community, do not show up at the polls. Do not vote," said Dr. Carol Anderson, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University.

"And so if you are somebody who has registered to vote and you're a naturalized citizen, what you see in that community is that " because this is not a regime that makes those discernments " that you're gonna stay away from the voting booth."

More: Democrats are seeing far better turnout than they did at this point in the 2022 midterms, which went terribly for their party in North Carolina. But they're also doing better compared to the 2018 midterms, which ended up being a blue wave nationally. G. Elliott Morris, formerly of FiveThirtyEight, noted in his newsletter that Democrats haven't held this much of an advantage at this point in early voting since at least 2006.

Zachary Donnini, head of data science at the election data and analytics site VoteHub, said that the start of early voting has shown positive signs for Democrats nationwide, but most of all in North Carolina.

"I've been telling other people that it doesn't look like it's going great for Republicans right now, but it's not as bad as North Carolina," Donnini said Tuesday. "This is the strongest data for Democrats right now in the entire country."

Of course, there's a big caveat: we don't know for sure who these people are voting for, and we don't know what the final electorate will look like. Republicans are expected to narrow the gap throughout the rest of early voting and on Election Day. The outcome also will depend on unaffiliated voters, who have also shown an increase in turnout and make up a third of all voters so far. Polling suggests that unaffiliated voters as a whole are breaking for Democrats right now, but the split may be different among those who actually show up.

Did they also try to sell the reporter a bridge in NY City?

What a load of crap.

The original.

This modern day reimagining of Gil Scott-Heron's classic 'Whitey On the Moon' poem really say it all.

More: A federal judge ruled late Monday to uphold North Carolina's strict GOP-championed absentee ballot rules on the eve of the state's mail ballot request deadline.

Gov. Josh Stein (D) warned about the high rejection rate in a Tuesday evening social media post.

"The State Board of Elections' last-minute changes to voting by mail are leading to thousands more absentee ballots being rejected this election " at a rejection rate twice as high as in 2022," Stein wrote. "It's infuriating. North Carolinians, please make a plan to vote this year, in person if possible. And if you're voting by mail, make sure you seal both envelopes on your ballot. Don't let them take away your vote."

Common Cause North Carolina, working with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, compiled data from 27 of the state's 100 counties, using absentee review monitors " everyday voters and volunteer advocates " as well as attorneys.

The data reveals ballots are so far being rejected at a rate of around 3% in the wake of the new GOP-backed rules.

Some of those rejections were likely not down to the new rules " ballots can be rejected for numerous reasons. But the 3% total rejection rate is double the rejection rate the state saw in its 2022 election, strongly suggesting that the new rules are having a major impact.

What kind of pay cut did he take to help fix this?

Was there supposed to be an article link for this?

Dementia patients often hallucinate.

As if Trumps DOJ will respond to a letter from Senate Dems with anything other than scorn.

More: O'Donnell tore into the comment and what he thought it implied:

"No wartime president of the United States has ever said, As soon as I want the war to end, it will end.' And so what Donald Trump told American voters last night is, I don't want the war to end. I don't want the war to end today. I don't want the war to end tomorrow. I don't want the war to end next week.' Donald Trump is saying, It's my war, and it will end whenever I want it to end. And because I'm not out there fighting it myself, I do not want it to end.'"

This really isn't anything new. We were doing the same thing in the late 90s when I was still in the Marine Corps. I had a buddy who was in a river assault boat unit that got sent to South America a few different times.

Watley never stood a chance against Cooper. Cooper was an excellent Governor and is extremely popular here. Watley is one of those yankee transplants Boaz loves to scream about.

Trump was in Alaska doing a rally with Sullivan two days ago. I don't buy what this article is selling.

Also, I don't think it's officially dead.

It's just going to likely take more than a single election.

Going to take a generation or two.

More: "She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well," Zacharia said of Guilfoyle, whose status has come under an avalanche of scrutiny following multiple critical articles about her conduct before and after becoming an ambassador.

More: Donald Trump has shrugged off overwhelming evidence that his dictator pals are helping out the very country he's been at war with for the past seven and a half months.

"I see so many comments from the Radical Left Morons and Lunatics that China and Russia are helping the wonderful' Islamic Republic of Iran," the president wrote in a late-night Truth Social post on Monday.

"If they are, it's at a very low level, but I don't believe they are at all," he went on. "They have too much to lose, and we would know about it, and know about it very fast!"

"You know why I'm furious right now? I was hearing from everybody on plaintiffs' side that this was going to happen and I said repeatedly, no, I trust the government," Judge Ana Reyes told the DOJ. "I trusted you all not to do precisely what you have done."

Reyes imposed a temporary pause on the Justice Department's tree removal at the golf course until Tuesday morning, demanding to know who ordered the weekend removal and how long government attorneys knew of the plan. She said that if her current order is violated by "even two seconds" that there will be contempt proceedings, and flatly rejected the administration's claims they had done all they could.

"Do you have email accounts? Do you have cell phones? Do you have regular phones? Do you have the ability to get into a car and go to where plaintiffs are and tell them?" she asked of their efforts.

"You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst."

This twitter thread gives an excellent play-by-play of the judge's reactions to the Trump administration's lies.