"Well
-- I would honor whatever the Congress in fact legitimately asked me to
do," Biden told reporters at a campaign event in Tipton, Iowa.
The former vice president's comments come one day after he reiterated to the Des Moines Register's editorial board
he wouldn't comply with a subpoena "because it's all designed to deal
with (President Donald) Trump doing what he's done his whole life --
trying to take the focus off him." Biden told the newspaper his
testimony would enable the President to "get away" from the trial's
focus.
"If I went, let's say I
voluntarily, just said let me go make my case, what are you going to
cover?" he asked, referring to the press. "You guys, instead of focusing
on him, you're going to cover for three weeks anything I said. And he's
going to get away."
Biden first sought to clarify the comments earlier Saturday in a string of tweets, noting that "in my 40 years in public life, I have always complied with a lawful order."
He
added, though: "But I am just not going to pretend that there is any
legal basis for Republican subpoenas for my testimony in the impeachment
trial. That is the point I was making yesterday and I reiterate: this
impeachment is about Trump's conduct, not mine."
"The
subpoenas should go to witnesses with testimony to offer to Trump's
shaking down the Ukraine government — they should go to the White
House," Biden tweeted.
Republicans
have threatened to call Democrats -- including Joe Biden and his son,
Hunter Biden -- to testify in a Senate trial after the House impeached
Trump earlier this month, accusing the President of abusing his power
and obstructing Congress in relation to a Ukraine pressure campaign.
Biden's
comments in Iowa later Saturday didn't amount to a full walk back of
his remarks to the Des Moines Register. When asked if he would challenge
a subpoena in court if he felt he didn't have relevant facts to bring
to the investigation, Biden replied, "I don't think that's going to
happen to begin with. Let's cross that bridge when it comes."
He added: "I would in fact abide by the, whatever was legally required of me."
Biden also maintained that the conversation over his compliance was a distraction from Trump's conduct, which he said needs to be the focus of the Senate trial.
"I
have no firsthand knowledge. There's no basis to that. So my point was,
there would be no basis upon which to call me as a witness to an event
that in fact I cannot have any impact on," he told reporters. "And the
reason -- the point I was making in the second part of the answer I gave
you was, this whole idea is designed to take our eye off the ball."
President Trump promised minority American Citizens he would work at deporting ILLEGALS, here he had ICE nail 680 ILLEGALS and create 680 jobs for minorities.
Yet, read the article, it appears some of the Liberal indoctrination is working to make thosesame American Citizens feel they don't deserve these jobs.
Also note, the people working against our own people, those feeding off the Immigration Industry tohurt their own.
Read this New York Times article where the writer tries to make the ILLEGAL the victim.
MORTON, Miss. — Juan
Grant strode into the Koch Foods chicken processing plant for his new job on a
Wednesday morning, joining many other African-Americans in a procession of
rubber boots, hairnets and last cigarettes before the grind.
At 20, Mr. Grant was
too young to remember the days of a nearly all-white work force in
Mississippi’s poultry industry, or the civil rights boycotts and protests that
followed. He was too young to have seen how white workers largely moved on
after that, leaving the business of killing, cutting and packing to
African-Americans.
He did not know the
time before Hispanic workers began arriving in the heart of chicken country by
the thousands, recruited by plant managers looking to fill low-paying jobs in
an expanding industry.
But Mr. Grant clearly
remembered Aug. 7, the day the Trump administration performed sweeping immigration raids on seven
chicken plants in central Mississippi. He remembered the news flashing on his
phone: 680 Hispanic workers arrested. He remembers seeing an opportunity.
“I figured there should
be some jobs,” he said. He figured right.
The raids were believed
to be the largest statewide immigration crackdown in
recent history and a partial fulfillment of President Trump’s vow to remove
millions of undocumented workers from the country. The impact on Mississippi’s
immigrant community has been devastating. For
nonimmigrant workers, the aftermath has forced them into a personal reckoning
with questions of morality and economic self-interest: The raids brought
suffering, but they also created job openings. Poor ILLEGALS!
Some believe that the
undocumented workers had it coming. “If you’re somewhere you ain’t supposed to
be, they’re going to come get you,” said a worker named Jamaal, who declined to
give his full name because Koch Foods had not authorized him to speak. “That’s
only right.” But there was also
Shelonda Davis, 35, a 17-year veteran of the plant. She has seen many workers of
all backgrounds come and go. But she was horrified that so many of her Hispanic
colleagues were rounded up. Some of them, she said, wanted to work so badly
that they tried to return the next day.
Juan
Grant was able to get a job at the Koch Foods plant after the raid, earning
about $4 more an hour than his previous work at a cookie factory.
“I’m glad that I see my
people going to work,” she said of her fellow African-Americans. “But the way
they came at the Hispanic race, they act like they’re killing somebody. Still,
they were only working, you know?” Is this what teaching Victimhood does?
“As a coworker, she has the right to have him submit to an involuntary evaluation, but she has not,” Lee
told Salon.
“Anyone can call 911 to report someone who seems dangerous, and family
members are the most typical ones to do so. But so can coworkers, and
even passersby on the street.”
If that's true, why hasn't Lee dialed 911 and reported Trump? Why get Pelosi to do her dirty work?
And
Dr. Lee should probably crack open a book on the Constitution, the
separation of powers, and just who is a "co-worker" with the president
of the United States. It sure as hell isn't Pelosi.
“The law dictates who can determine right to treatment, or civil
commitment, and in all 50 U.S. states this includes a psychiatrist,” she
continued. “The advantage of a coworker starting this process is that a
court can mandate a mental capacity evaluation before the dangerous
person returns to work.”
Lee also believes that those
surrounding Trump may be suffering from a “shared psychosis.” She said
that “the severity by which others are affected is what induces me to
believe that Trump is sometimes truly paranoid and delusional rather
than merely lying.”
These sorts
of horse's ass diagnoses are common among liberal "mental health
professionals." The rest of the profession takes a rather dim view of
diagnosing a patient without a professional examination. Lee knows this,
which makes her statements even more outrageous.
“We have created one of the most dangerous periods by first delaying
impeachment and allowing his false sense of impunity to swell and then
proceeding,” Lee warned in the interview. “Impeachment is much needed as
‘limit setting,’ and the House speaker has done well to set limits on
the Senate by delaying the articles.”
Still, Lee said the country
“simply cannot ignore the dangers” of a President she described as
“highly unwell,” and she is “beginning to believe that a mental health
hold, which we have tried to avoid, will become inevitable.”
Thank you for that childish political assessment, doc. The adults will take it from here.
And
who among those liberal psychiatrists have "tried to avoid" declaring
Trump insane? They have been salivating to do it for more than two
years. What they are avoiding is the reality that their fantasies about
seeing Trump hauled off to an institution in a straitjacket are as crazy
as the entire impeachment mess.
The former CIA and FBI director’s article is a symptom of how the establishment media has become the propaganda arm of an increasingly robust U.S. authoritarian movement.
In 2018, the U.S. government filed 1,117 final applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for authority for the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches. One application was withdrawn. One other was denied. The remaining 1,115 were granted.
Hours before the FISA court issued a December 17 order openly declaring that it could no longer trust any of the sworn statements the FBI had submitted to justify spying on Americans, The New York Times published an opinion articleby William Webster, a former director of both the FBI and the CIA. Webster wrote, “Today, the integrity of the institutions that protect our civil order is, tragically, under assault from too many people whose job it should be to protect them.”
Gone are the days The New York Times worked to expose government abuse of power. The New York Times now defends power from truth.
No More ‘Dissent Is Patriotism’
Setting aside the very dubious propositions that the FBI and the CIA should be protected from criticism, let’s plumb the depths of the Webster/NYT argument. Who, according to Webster, has the job of protecting the FBI and the CIA? Webster explains exactly who he means: “I am deeply disturbed by the assertion of President Trump that our ‘current director’ — as he refers to the man he selected for the job of running the F.B.I. — cannot fix what the president calls a broken agency.”
Webster goes on to suggest that the FBI should operate as an independent agency and that he is outraged by the “president’s thinly veiled suggestion that the director, Christopher Wray, like his banished predecessor, James Comey, could be on the chopping block.” He adds, “The independence of both the F.B.I. and its director is critical and should be fiercely protected by each branch of government.” Webster goes on to make it clear that the “rule of law” is threatened by the president criticizing the FBI.
The article is a symptom of how the establishment media has become the propaganda arm of an increasingly robust authoritarian movement in the United States. This movement inverts constitutional principles so that it becomes the president’s job to protect the FBI from criticism and his threat to fire an FBI chief is a threat to the Constitution. This is the kind of thing that Vladimir Putin might have told Tass to publish as he sought to seize power from Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.
Not Mistakes But Deliberate Abuse of Power
The legitimacy of the FBI is in free fall. But not its terrifying power. The biggest lie about the latest Office of Inspector General report is that it reveals “mistakes” made by the FBI. These weren’t mistakes. The FISA court used more accurate terminology, like “misconduct.” The FBI investigators who applied for the Carter Page warrants had in their possession information that directly contradicted the basic factual requirements to apply for a surveillance warrant.
As noted by the FISA court, “On December 9, 2019, the government filed with the FISC public and classified versions of the OIG Report…It documents troubling instances in which FBI personnel provided information…which was unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession.” These include falsely claiming dossier author Christopher Steele’s prior work was relied upon in prior criminal proceedings, doctoring evidence to hide the fact that Page was actually working for America to spy on Russia, and falsely claiming that the FBI had corroborated Steele’s work when Steele himself questioned his source’s accuracy in October 2016.
The FBI knew by October 2016 that Page denied ever meeting Paul Manafort but nevertheless told the FISA court that it believed Manafort coordinated the Trump/Russia collusion through Page. The FBI told the FISA court that Page was working directly with two Russians he denied ever meeting.
‘They Withheld Information Detrimental to Their Case’
Webster wrote, “In fact, the report conclusively found that the evidence to initiate the Russia investigation was unassailable.” That’s simply not true. The FISA court wrote, “The FBI’ s handling of the Carter Page applications, as portrayed in the OIG report, was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above. The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.”
The FISA Court is referring to all pending FISA applications, more than 1,000 of which were initiated last year. The FISA court ordered the government to, “no later than January 10, 2020, inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the application.”
America is deep in the midst of a civil liberties crisis. The FISA court recently exposed a massive spying operation by the FBI using the National Security Agency’s secret database. It confirmed that under FBI Director Christopher Wray, “Since April 2017, the government has reported a large number of FBI queries that were not reasonably likely to return foreign-intelligence intonation or evidence of crime. In a number of cases, a single improper decision or assessment resulted in the use of query terms corresponding to a large number of individuals, including U.S. persons.”
The FBI routinely violated record-keeping procedures the court established to ensure that the FBI could account for who it spied upon and why. This followed an earlier decision in which the FBI falsely certified to the FISA court that it was not abusing electronic spying. In that opinion, the FISA court accused the intelligence community of an “institutional lack of candor.”
FBI Fights to Hide Its Misconduct
Under Wray, the FBI has fought congressional and judicial oversight. It foughtthe public release of yet another damning opinion from the FISA court released earlier this year. It appears to have slowed the release of this most recent OIG report.
The OIG completed its probe of the Page FISA warrants in mid-September of this year. Nevertheless, the FBI withheld from the FISA court shocking revelations until the last possible minute. The FBI slashed by 85 percent its office in charge of monitoring the shady relationships between FBI agents and their confidential human sources.
In other words, Wray has accelerated the FBI’s decline in a way more commonly associated with James Comey. One need only listen to Wray’s words to understand why. He recently said of the shocking IG report on the FBI’s many deceptions of the FISA court that it was “important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.” That’s actually totally irrelevant. That Wray doesn’t seem to care that the FBI repeatedly deceives courts to spy on Americans is what’s important.
How will the FBI react to this avalanche of damning information? The accelerating march to a Soviet-style FBI will continue unabated under the cover of lip service to correct a “failure in the process.” That’s ridiculous. Exactly what regulation needs to be changed so that the FBI stops lying to courts?
The FBI has repeatedly promised to stop illegal spying on Americans, only to increase operations. It has contempt for the court and the president’s constitutional authority to reign in these abuses. As of 2017, it used this spying to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power to a new elected president.
It’s all happening in plain sight. The legacy media, led by The New York Times, are openly advocating making the FBI an independent agency with power over the elected president. Lying to spy on Americans is pretty much the worst thing a law enforcement agency can do, short of framing elected leaders for treason. Somebody has to go to prison, or this will get worse.
We keep hearing “nobody is above the law.” But the FBI has repeatedly demonstrated otherwise.
Well, the Christmas season is over. Some people are undecorating because they’re off to warmer climates for the winter. Others are keeping their decorations up for a bit longer. And throughout this season, you probably saw an advertisement or even watched one of those sappy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. You don’t have to watch them, but next season just make an effort to keep a movie on in the background when you’re decorating or wrapping gifts. Why? Well, it drives the Left insane. Hallmark is now a white nationalist network because the casts are not diverse—not true—and well, people are happy in the movies. It’s over the top, yes. And I’ve admitted many a time some of these films, with Gremlins, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Home Alone, get me in the Christmas spirit. It’s a nice break from the pervasive amounts of blood and guts that I watch year-round. and I’d never thought that this network would be a target, but here we are. Slate magazine was the first to voice their concerns about Christmas movies a couple of years ago [emphasis mine]:
At a rally in November 2015, Donald Trump heralded, “If I become president, we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, that I can tell you.” Of all his empty guarantees, the president has perhaps fulfilled none better than a counterstrike in the War on Christmas, and no battalion has fired more rooty-toot artillery for him than the Hallmark Channel. In 2017, the network is premiering 21 original Christmas movies (up from 20 last year)—42 hours of sugary, sexist, preposterously plotted, plot hole–festooned, belligerently traditional, ecstatically Caucasian cheer. To observe the first holiday season under the Trump administration, I’m bearing witness to them all.
Hallmark Channel, owned by the Kansas City, Missouri–based greeting-card giant, has boomed since Trump began campaigning. In 2016, Hallmark was the only top-15 entertainment channel with double-digit ratings growth, and viewership has jumped another 16 percent this year. Meanwhile, Hallmark’s Christmas programming, which this year began before Halloween, generates more than 30 percent of its annual ad revenue and has helped Hallmark become the season’s highest-rated cable network among women aged 25–54. More than 70 million Americans watched Hallmark Channel Christmas movies last year.
The network has already approached that number in 2017, with three weeks and five premieres remaining. And the network’s strongholds map to Trump’s Electoral College victories.
After watching a few of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas films, the network’s burgeoning red-state appeal comes into focus. As much as these movies offer giddy, predictable escapes from Trumpian chaos, they all depict a fantasy world in which America has been Made Great Again. Real and fictional heartland small towns with names such as Evergreen and Cookie Jar are as thriving as their own small businesses, and even a high school art teacher (played by Trump supporter and the face of Hallmark, Candace Cameron Bure) can afford a lavishly renovated Colonial home. They brim with white heterosexuals who exclusively, emphatically, and endlessly bellow “Merry Christmas” to every lumberjack and labradoodle they pass .They’re centered on beauty-pageant heroines and strong-jawed heroes with white-nationalist haircuts. There are occasional sightings of Christmas sweater–wearing black people, but they exist only to cheer on the dreams of the white leads, and everyone on Trump’s naughty list—Muslims, gay people, feminists—has never crossed the snowcapped green-screen mountains to taint these quaint Christmas villages. “Santa Just Is White” seems to be etched into every Hallmark movie’s town seal.
Folks, this is what the Left thinks about during the season. Anything that’s nice, they have to destroy. They’re a virus. And as with treatment for any virus, you have to let it run its course. But this is a political virus. The best way is to show support for things they hate, even if you don’t like it. I hate peas, but if some liberal decided to deem peas a Trumpian food (I know, odd example but just bear with me)—I’d buy 100 lbs. what the Left hates is usually supported or adored by the vast majority of normal people. Keep doing what you’re doing, show them they’re an annoying minority and make them embarrassed to believe what they believe. After all, being a liberal Democrat is the most embarrassing affiliation one could have besides being part of NAMBLA. Okay, maybe that’s a bit much, but screw these people—all of them.
Now, we have Salon, who is a bit late to the game, calling Hallmark…“fascist propaganda.” These folks just love to be miserable over the holidays, huh? I mean I know there’s a slice of America that’s into sadomasochism, but this is getting to be a bit disturbing. Imagine waking up and searching for something to make you miserable. Oh, and The New York Times and The Washington Post decided to join this offensive against…what’s offensive about Hallmark. Grabs some popcorn for this (via Salon) [emphasis mine]:
Running down this year's schedule of Christmas movie offerings is like a trip into an uncanny valley of shiny-teethed, blow-dried heteronormative whiteness, with only a few token movies with characters of color. It's like watching "The Stepford Wives," but scarier, since the evil plot to replace normal people with robots is never actually revealed.
None of this should be a surprise, because Hallmark movies, as cloying and saccharine as they are, constitute the platonic ideal of fascist propaganda.
That is probably a startling statement to some. When most of us think about fascistically propagandistic movies, we think of the grotesque grandeur of Leni Riefenstahl's films celebrating the Third Reich — grand, but cold sweeping shots of soldiers goose-stepping and flags waving, all meant to inspire awe and terror. But the reality is, even in Nazi Germany, the majority of movies approved by the Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, were escapist and feather-light, with a Hallmark movie-style emphasis on the importance of "normality."
There's plenty of reason that empty-headed kitsch fits neatly in the authoritarian worldview. It's storytelling that imitates the gestures of emotion without actually engaging with real feeling. The Hallmark movie steers clear of the real passion or deeper emotion that tends to be the engine driving more artful fiction. Characters who have real feelings, after all, can prompt empathetic reactions in the audience, and empathy for others is the greatest single threat to the authoritarian mindset.
[…]
"In the Hallmark-Lifetime Cinematic Universe, Hanukkah and the characters who celebrate it exist only in relation to Christmas," Nancy Coleman of the New York Times complained, adding that the Hallmark movie "Holiday Date" could, with "remarkably little editing" turn into "a Jewish 'Get Out.'"
Britni de la Cretaz, writing for the Washington Post, not only complained that the Jewish Hallmark movies were "Christmas movies with Jewish characters," but also that the movies "rely on some of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes in the book," such as painting one Jewish character as the "perpetual outsider" who is "sneaky, untrustworthy."
[…]
Hallmark movies, with their emphasis on returning home and the pleasures of the small, domestic life, also send a not-at-all subtle signal of disdain for cosmopolitanism and curiosity about the larger world, which is exactly the sort of attitude that helps breed the kind of defensive white nationalism that we see growing in strength in the Donald Trump era.
I’m dying. I’m dying laughing because I have no clue if this is a parody, or if liberal America actually thinks this. The Hallmark Channel is akin to Nazi propaganda. Second, I live near an urban-based, cosmopolitan center. Does D.C. count? Either way, I’ve been to many and found that most of the people suck. Their politics suck. Their children suck. And as a person of color, you cannot criticize me for saying so because that’s racist. I honestly couldn’t care less about white people being in movies. Would I like to see more Asian-Americans in productions? Sure. Why not—but I don’t lose sleep over it. There is nothing wrong with rural life. There are good people out there who aren’t distracted by the rot and filth that inhabits cities; Thomas Jefferson was right about these centers from the get-go. Granted, rural America also has drug problems and issues of their own. At the same time, the New York elites, any elites that dot these deep blue cesspools, think that the entire nation should cater to their needs, their agenda items, and their way of thinking. Any deviation is met with mockery and hopes for destruction. That’s authoritarian. As for curiosity about the larger world, that’s rich. Most of these cosmopolitan snobs haven’t ventured one foot into a rural setting—and these people, again, want to lecture us about what’s ‘out there.’My eyes cannot roll hard enough. They can’t. The 2016 election was the revenge of the rural voter. It was a slap to the face of these condescending insufferable scabs in the cities who thought America was just California, New York, and the Acela Corridor. Well, surprise! Not the case. Also, calling someone with whom you have a disagreement a Nazi is, well, not very inclusive, is it? You sound like a lunatic, though that’s the default setting for the progressive Left, who I would like to happily see drugged for an eternity on sedatives. There would at least be some peace and quiet around this time.
Anyways, even if Hallmark isn’t your form of entertainment, just keep it on as background noise next year. Do Christmas a solid and piss off a liberal. Do America a solid and piss off a liberal. Why? Because if you’re not a “Nazi” for watching Hallmark, they’ll call you a Nazi for something else. Screw these people. Piss them off. And vote Republican.
Several news articles are speculating that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might run for the U.S. Senate Seat from Kansas [Hereand Here]. If accurate, that move would seem to solve a few personnel issues in a rather diplomatic way.
Since the Sept./Oct. impeachment operation started there has been a considerable shift notable in the relationship between President Trump and Secretary Pompeo; especially after officials from within the Dept. of State came out strong against President Trump after CIA whistle-blower Eric Ciaramella lit the fuse…. and Pompeo was, well, essentially mute.
Getting rid of Pompeo for a Senate bid would be a win/win.
Absent the dangerous Siren voice from Nikki Haley :::spit-spit-spit::: moving Treasury Sec. Mnuchin (or similar) to State would be a good transition. Mnuchin already knows the players and has contacts therein etc. A Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation should be seamless, well, sans the predictable Mitt Romney grandstanding.
Spitballing CTH could see moving Mick Mulvaney (or similar) to Treasury (Senate Finance Confirmation) and then put Mark Meadows in as chief-of-staff and/or Robert O’Brien with Meadows becoming Nat Sec Advisor. Or something similar.
Internationally, geopolitically and economically, term two is obviously going to be more EU centric (U.K and EU trade etc.)… while grouchy panda takes a backseat and has to prove his reform promises were genuine. Panda being tied up in promises leaves room to navigate the hostage release of Little Rocketman.
Meanwhile the strategic, fracturing, pressure on the EU would be a role Mnuchin would seem well adept to deliver….
Regardless, the Senate campaign is a diplomatic way of getting Pompeo out of the picture.
I’d wager President Trump will find a way to encourage Pompeo to run.
A primary race between Mike Pompeo and Kris Kobach would be interesting.
The reason why public business should be conducted in the open, according to Cheryl Chumley of the Washington Times, is that abuse and conspiracy thrive in the dark.
Civil rights advocates have been warning for years that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the entire Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act system of issuing secret warrants are rife with potential for abuse; are handovers of powers to secret sources that better belong in the hands of duly elected and appointed judges conducting business in open court; and are flagrantly, blatantly unconstitutional. And now we know they’re right.
The FBI had pursued an investigation of a presidential campaign on the basis of a dossier bought and paid for by the rival candidate with incalculable results: "This is the FBI’s darkest hour." The most disquieting aspect of the whole affair was pointed out by the NY Post editorial board. Could more abuses have been committed against the general public? If the FBI could fabricate pretexts against prominent individuals who could afford the best lawyers, how safe were ordinary individuals from the secret inquisitors?
"Now that we know FBI agents deceived the court to get the warrants to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page, the big question is: Was this the exception, or the rule?
That is, has the bureau taken to regularly lying in its 1,500 requests a year for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretaps — or did higher-ups opt to go rogue in this particular case?" ...
As Adam Mill dramatically put it: "It’s the greatest scandal in U.S. legal history. Most chilling of all is that the current FBI chief, Christopher Wray, recently shrugged-off FBI agents lying to the FISA court." Maybe Wray was not surprised. But Mill may have been wrong in applying the phrase "greatest scandal" to the FISA affair. TheNew York Times editorial board argues that a much bigger abuse is being inflicted upon an unsuspecting public. Every moment of every day you are under surveillance by your phone and providers don't even apply for a warrant. NYT reporters were given a workaday data set collected by application providers.
By analyzing these pings, our journalists were able to track the movements of President Trump’s Secret Service guards and of senior Pentagon officials. They could follow protesters to their homes and stalk high-school students across Los Angeles. In most cases, it was child’s play for them to connect a supposedly anonymous data trail to a name and an address — to a real live human being.
Your smartphone can broadcast your exact location thousands of times per day, through hundreds of apps, instantaneously to dozens of different companies. Each of those companies has the power to follow individual mobile phones wherever they go, in near-real time.
That’s not a glitch in the system. It is the system.
If the government ordered Americans to continuously provide such precise, real-time information about themselves, there would be a revolt. Members of Congress would trample one another to be first in front of the cable news cameras to quote the founders and insist on our rights to be free of such pervasive surveillance.
Yet, as a society, without ever focusing on this profound choice, we’ve reached a tacit consensus to hand this data over voluntarily, even though we don’t really know who’s getting it or what they’re doing with it. As the close of 2019 approaches, everybody is searching for the meaning of the decade. Here’s a thought: This is the decade — the period since the founding of the App Store, in 2008 — in which we were brainwashed into surveilling ourselves.
It would have been more convincing if the thundering NYT denunciation of surveillance had not also contained the boilerplate footer: "Like other media companies, The Times collects data on its visitors when they read stories like this one. For more detail please see our privacy policy and our publisher's description of The Times's practices and continued steps to increase transparency and protections." Even the NYT can't help spying on the public any more than anyone else.
The FISA abuses have shown there are two trains inexorably moving in opposite directions. The first is a trend toward secret state inquiries fueled by the exigencies of the War on Terror and a renewed great power rivalry. The other is the Surveillance Express run by Big Silicon conveying the world's billions toward the total destruction of their privacy.
The two trains, one the government doing more things in secret, the other bearing a public that cannot even keep its home life private will collide somewhere. It's a tailor-made recipe for political conflict, a disaster waiting to happen; and there is no shortage of political operatives piling on the steam. On the day of the 2019 general elections that led to the defeat of the British Labour Party, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch,founders of the research firm Fusion GPS, wrote that "Britain needs its own Mueller report on Russian ‘interference.’"
The British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence. ... Our Washington-based research firm, Fusion GPS, conducted much of the early investigations into Russia’s support of the Trump campaign, aided by our colleague Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk. While our initial focus was on Russian meddling in US politics, it has since become increasingly clear that Britain’s political system has also been deeply affected by Russian influence operations.
What Simpson could have said is that Western politics has become thoroughly compromised by the information imbalance brought on by the simultaneous death of privacy and expanded secret investigation of the kind he is expert in. "This asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions, which can sometimes cause the transactions to go awry, a kind of market failure in the worst case." It ruins careers, sows intrigue and worst of all falls flat on its face without open adversarial challenge, without the sunlight that disinfects rumor and hearsay.
FISA reforms by themselves will do little to slow the growing mistrust between institutions and the public occasioned by a population trapped between the searchlights and operatives determined -- and able -- to operate in the darkness.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden was asked today what he would do if he received a subpoena from the Senate and Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
Holding himself up as an example of a particularly entitled class of DC persons who are above the law, candidate Joe Biden replied he would defy any judicial subpoena.
IOWA – Former Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Friday he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in a Senate trial of President Donald Trump.
[…] Testifying before the Senate on the matter would take attention away from Trump and the allegations against him, Biden said. Not even that “thug” Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney and former New York City mayor, has accused Biden of doing anything but his job, the former vice president said. Biden also said any attempt to subpoena him would be on “specious” grounds, and he predicted it wouldn’t come to that. (read more)
Well, it’s finally here! Dianny’s Ten Most Tiresome People of 2019.
This is an annual tradition of mine that dates back to 2013 when I was a contributor to the All the Right Snark website. And it was so much fun writing my Ten Most Tiresome People lists, I kept up the tradition here at PatriotRetort.com.
While everyone else gives you the list of “most influential” or “most noteworthy,” I personally prefer pointing out those folks who either exhausted us with their sanctimonious scolding, or who just don’t know when to go away.
The tiresome people are the ones who, when you see their face on TV or their picture at a website or on a magazine, your first thought is, “Good grief, enough with this person already!”
It seems like every year it gets harder and harder to narrow down my list to ten. There’s a heck of a lot of tiresome people out there. Have you noticed?
But I do my best.
I’m sure a lot of you will get through this year’s list and think, “Hey, you forgot __________________!”
But it isn’t that I necessarily forgot; it’s just that I stick with only ten. No need to tire you out even more by increasing the number to fifteen or twenty. Though, I easily could.
Also, many of the folks you might think should be here – like Adam Schiff or Nancy Pelosi or Jerry Nadler — aren’t tiresome people so much as they’re idiots or assholes. And since this is the Ten Most Tiresome People of 2019 and not the Ten Most Idiotic Assholes of 2019, they didn’t makes the list.
Though, now that I write that, maybe I should start doing a second list of the Idiotic Assholes.
Any old how.
Without further ado, here are Dianny’s Ten Most Tiresome People of 2019.
10. Katie Hill
I never heard of former Congresswoman Katie Hill until late October. And despite her being a nobody for nearly ten months of 2019, Katie managed to cram in so much tiresome in those last two months, she squeaked in at number ten.
That’s what happens when you fully deploy the “Play the Victim for Fame and Notoriety” game with such great success.
Katie fell on our radar when compromising photos of her were released at RedState.com and then at the UK Daily Mail.
Thanks to Katie, Americans learned a new word: throuple.
Great. I went fifty-six years without the word “throuple.” And I could easily go another fifty-six without ever hearing it ever again.
My one regret in life is I cannot unsee the compromising photos of Katie Hill.
But it was Katie’s habit of sleeping with her subordinates that put an end to her short-lived Congressional career.
Not that Katie takes responsibility for breaking House rules.
No. She instantly played the Victim – claiming “revenge porn” is what drove her out of Congress.
Actually, it wasn’t revenge porn behind the wheel.
It was Nancy Pelosi.
Nance urged the clothing-optional Freshman Democrat to hit the bricks rather than face the negative press of a damning House Ethics investigation.
Lucky for Katie though, the news media was more than happy to play along and write editorial after editorial about how “revenge porn” destroyed a promising young Democrat.
And with their help, Katie rebranded herself a plucky little Victim – determined to fight injustice and stuff one CNN appearance at a time.
Katie became the new IT Girl for Hollywood and the Resistance😂.
She retroactively glommed on to “the Squad” as if she was one of them all along. Even though nobody heard of her until we were subjected to the photo of a naked Katie brushing her campaign staffer’s hair.
But if Katie Hill was a member of the Squad, she was their Pete Best.
During her final floor speech before she shuffled off to the Green Room at CNN, Katie blamed “misogyny,” and a “double standard” – rather than violating House Ethics rules – as the reason she was being “forced” to resign.
Her attempt to refashion herself some kind of Feminist Hero is particularly tiresome. Especially when you consider that she singlehandedly set back the Feminist #MeToo movement by trying to cast herself (the perpetrator) as the Victim.
And is anyone surprised that this tiresome phony victim has found a cycle sister in Alyssa Milano? They’re two peas in a pod. Where Alyssa used the Pussy Hat/Anti-Kavanaugh crowd, Katie is using her forced resignation at the hands of Nancy Pelosi to transform herself into an Anti-Trump Twitterlebrity. As if it’s President Trump’s fault she couldn’t keep her hands off her staffers.
We haven’t heard the last of Katie Hill. Mostly because she won’t shut the hell up. Not to mention she has become CNN’s go-to guest whenever they want someone to lecture us on “accountability and integrity.”
Fortunately for Katie, the Resistance😂 — both inside and outside of the media — are suckers. They will happily buy the BS she’s selling.
The rest of us, on the other hand, were tired of her the instant we clicked the damn link and had those nasty photos burned into our memories.
9. Robert Francis O’Rourke
Remember back in March when failed Senate candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke announced he was running for President?
Oh, but the media gushed with joy!!!
He was the IT Girl of 2020. Hell, he even got a Vanity Fair cover story complete with photos by Annie Leibovitz.
He was born for this, don’t you know.
Immediately his fledgling campaign was flooded with donations. Reporters followed him around like he was a Jonas Brother. They had their new Obama!!!
With Gun Control Ken (AKA Eric Swalwell) out of the race, Beto decided to step into the void and adopt the same anti-2nd Amendment rhetoric that worked so poorly for Swalwell.
Bolstered by his dead and wounded neighbors, Beto found the perfect slogan: “Hell, yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15s!”
Which sounded much better in the original German.
But it was too late to regain his footing. That’s what happens when you’re standing on the bodies of the dead.
By November first, Robert Francis O’Rourke packed up his sweaty blue shirts and his fascistic rhetoric and went home. All that Beto sizzle sputtered out like a wet fart.
The former IT Girl of the Democrat Party has been reduced to an unshaven, wine-swilling girl-sitter whose own dog is tired of him.
8. Stacey Abrams
Did you ever think it was possible that someone could be a bigger sore loser than Hillary Clinton?
Yet Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who lost to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 certainly is giving Hillary a run for her money.
Fact is, Stacey to this day believes she actually won the Governor’s race.
And because Democrats and the media tend to reward those who quickly cast themselves in the role of victim (see Katie Hill), loser Stacey became an overnight sensation for being a whining loser.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer invited the loser to give the Democrats’ SOTU Response Speech in February.
And in March, Abrams was actually toying with the idea of running for President in 2020.
Why?
Who the hell knows?!
Even the 2020 Democrat hopefuls made the pilgrimage to kiss the ring of the woman I called the Female Al Sharpton.
All of them went on record declaring that Stacey Abrams would be governor today but for “voter fraud.” Or, in the case of failed 2020 hopeful Seth Moulton, “if the country wasn’t racist.”
Out here in the real world, we normal people are puzzled by the wholesale sucking up to a loser like Stacey Abrams.
She lost by over fifty thousand votes; it’s not like it was a squeaker. And despite this, the Democrats and the media keep kissing her ass.
You’d think Democrats would put safe distance between themselves and this sore loser. But they won’t.
And for normal folks like you and me, their prostrating themselves to a woman who refuses to accept defeat is confusing to say the least.
Abrams is still being floated as a possible running mate for whomever wins the Democrat nomination.
Just last month putative frontrunner Joe Biden suggested she is on his shortlist. Though, in typical Biden fashion, he couldn’t remember her name – describing her as “The leader of the, uh, the woman who should’ve been the governor of Georgia, the African American woman.”
Talk about a ringing endorsement! Though, it could’ve been worse. Biden could’ve called her “Look, fat.”
7. Mitt Romney
Before he was even sworn in, Mitt Romney began his tenure as Utah’s Freshman Senator by writing a scathing anti-Trump op-ed for the Washington Post.
Because nothing says “severe conservative” quite like writing an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Mitt Romney is the Jeff Flake of John McCains.
I’m not surprised Romney’s tiresome “well-I-nevering” started as soon as he got elected to the Senate. Though, it was surprising that he didn’t even wait until he was sworn in to get underway.
Yes, he is a Flake. Or at the very least, Flake is a fan.
Which is why, in response to Romney’s ill-timed huffy op-ed, I pointed out:
I’m sure even as I write this, Jeff Flake has locked himself in his bathroom with his pants around his ankles and a copy of Romney’s column clutched in his sweaty free hand.
Mitt isn’t a team player. He’s on a team of one: Team Mitt.
And Mitt wants nothing more than to ingratiate himself with the biased, anti-Trump news media. And this op-ed did just that.
Which is why when, back in October, we learned that Principled Mitt had a secret Twitter account with the nom-de-twitter “Pierre Delecto,” we laughed ourselves silly. He wasn’t Mr. Principles; he was just a foolish troll from Utah.
Romney decided to set up this alter ego so he could anonymously defend himself on social media while retweeting all the people who defend him by attacking his critics.
PRINCIPLES!!!!
The man of integrity — that stalwart defender of principles who stands up and faces down his adversaries – is really just an anonymous Twitter troll.
I’m thinking his actual alter ego is Mitt Romney — the guy who just pretends to be so strong, principled and tough.
Pierre Delecto is the true face of the Troll from Utah.
By way of Massachusetts.
There are so few stories that make me laugh until I snort.
But this was one of them.
Of course once the Pierre Delecto persona was revealed and folks started combing through his timeline, brave fighter and tough stander-on-principles Mitt Romney set the account private so nobody but his followers can see his tweets.
PRINCIPLES!!!
The only way Romney could’ve destroyed his reputation even more is if someone published pictures of him sitting naked while brushing a staffer’s hair.
The Romney/McCain/Flake brand of Republican is about as fresh and vibrant as the Whigs.
We’re tired of them.
We’re tired of the principled losers who suck up to the Left and care more about airtime on Meet the Press than preserving our Republic.
Romney is what Will Chamberlain refers to as a “Peacetime Conservative.” But we’re not in a time of peace. We’re in a time of war. And our enemy doesn’t just want to win elections; they want to destroy us completely — not to mention the country as a whole.
Meanwhile while wartime conservatives beat back the rising Leftist hordes, Senator Romney is fighting for Climate Change legislation and banning vaping.
He’s not only tiresome, he also pretty damn useless in this fight against the Left.
As Will Chamberlain often says on Twitter, “Name a more useless politician than Mitt Romney.”
The truth is, when it comes to Republicans in Congress, there isn’t one more useless – or tiresome – than Pierre Delecto.
6. Brian Stelter
This summer, I referred to Brian Stelter as “The Gladys Kravitz of cable news.” But instead of spying on Samantha and Darren, CNN’s Gladys Kravitz obsesses over all the happenings at Fox News.
What a pathetic existence Brian Stelter leads.
When your entire raison d’être is to anger-watch Fox News then rage-tweeting over everything you see there, your life is very, very small.
And when he’s not obsessing over Hannity or harrumphing over Fox & Friends, Brian is busily covering for the countless failings of his ideologically-aligned media pals.
Which is why Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) refers to Brian Stelter as the media’s janitor.
To add spice to his bland, useless existent, Brian also obsesses over President Trump’s tweets.
Brian can squeeze hours of airtime out of Trump’s tweeting. He dissects each tweet like it’s a Zapruder film.
I mean for Pete’s sake, Brian did an entire segment on all the typos President Trump has made on Twitter. Because apparently that’s the job of CNN’s “chief media correspondent.”
But the Project Veritas video of ABC News reporter Amy Robach complaining about ABC spiking her Jeffrey Epstein story three years ago? Brian, media janitor that he is, simply ignored it. Even after ABC News got CBS News to fire someone they claimed was Project Veritas’ source (she wasn’t), Brian wouldn’t touch the story with ten-foot pole.
Some remarked that Stelter’s ignoring this scandal completely destroyed his credibility. But let’s be honest Brian Stelter has no credibility to destroy.
Though it did confirm that when it comes to reporting on the media, CNN’s Chief Media Correspondent is utterly irrelevant.
It isn’t like we don’t know about the Project Veritas report or the subsequent targeting and firing of the wrong damn person by CBS News.
Clearly we don’t need Brian Stelter reporting on this at all.
CNN’s Chief Media Correspondent has no relevance in the American news media.
Do you really think there is a single news personality or outlet that waits with bated breath to see if Brian Stelter takes them on in his daily newsletter?
Do you think anyone in the industry wakes up on Sunday morning and says to himself, “Dear God. I sure hope Brian Stelter doesn’t criticize me on his show today. That would ruin me for sure!”
Nobody cares. Because Brian Stelter is irrelevant.
He’s inconsequential.
Something tells me we normal folks out here in the real world aren’t the only ones who think Zucker’s mini-me is a clown. I’m guessing people in the media industry pretty much do as well.
In other words, Brian Stelter is tiresome.
5. Kamala Harris
Of all the 2020 Democrat candidates, the one who has always rubbed me the wrong way is Kamala Harris – the freshman Senator from California whose only reason for getting elected to the Senate was to position herself for a 2020 White House run.
What made her failed presidential bid so tiresome was how contrived it was.
Kamala was a poll-tested, overly-handled phony. And her phoniness was so transparent, even Democrat voters weren’t buying it.
Hell, even black voters didn’t buy her “I’m black like you” pandering.
Whenever Kamala got caught in a lie, or had one of her outlandish claims challenged, she became a deer in the headlights – stammering and back-peddling furiously.
Usually within 24 hours of making a grand pronouncement, Kamala would quickly “clarify” her positions. And by “clarify,” I mean, say the complete opposite while pretending that we misunderstood.
She did it all the time.
When she instantly hopped on board Bernie Sanders’ insane “let murderers and terrorists vote from prison” idea, the very next day, Kamala “clarified” by saying no they shouldn’t.
It was stuff like this that prompted me to call her Kamala Hamlet – the indecisive candidate who can’t make up her mind.
The biggest flip-flop, of course, was after Kamala’s pre-planned takedown of Joe Biden over busing.
At the first debate, she advocated for federal busing for integration while attacking Biden for opposing it.
This pre-planned attack, followed up immediately with the release of a campaign T-shirt, was the moment when Kamala skyrocketed in the polls.
But just days later, while campaigning in Iowa, Kamala walked it all back.
Which prompted my re-do of Kamala’s infamous “That Little Girl Was Me” T-shirt:
Her constant flip-flops and “clarifications” were so bad, even Democrat voters grew tired of her.
And all it took was Tulsi Gabbard tearing her apart at the next debate for Kamala’s so-called “top tier” status to crumble.
And in her desperation to regain her footing, Kamala decided the perfect issue to flog was getting President Trump banned from Twitter.
From top tier candidate to Brian Stelter clone in three months.
Sad.
It didn’t help that Kamala was saddled with a supremely stupid campaign team.
I mean, come on.
It didn’t take long for Kamala’s glossy, flashy, well-funded campaign to devolve into a low-tier mess complete with bedsheet backdrops, bad lighting, and awful sound equipment.
In less than a year, the female Obama was reduced to an inconsequential footnote in presidential campaign history.
Voters pretty much figured out what I knew all along. There is no substance to Kamala Harris. She’s an empty barrel. Nothing more.
4. Pete Buttigieg
Pete Buttigieg inexplicably entered the 2020 race despite the fact that his only claim to fame is being mayor of the high crime city of South Bend, Indiana.
Let’s be honest here. But for the fact that he is a gay man who married some nerdy looking guy, his campaign wouldn’t be getting any attention at all. He’d have disappeared from our radar as quickly as Seth Moulton or Mike Gravel.
But the thing that makes Pete Buttigieg unbelievably tiresome is his sanctimony.
Apparently Pastor Pete believes he is the only True Christian in America.
You see, the Gospel according to Pete Buttigieg is all about the foot-washing. And Trump is no foot-washer!
Yes, that clears it right up, doesn’t it?
Buttigieg’s insufferable, holier-than-thou preaching rears its head with exhausting regularity.
Whether it’s decrying opposition to the minimum wage or lecturing us about Climate Change, Pastor Pete always manages to find some Bible verse that he can twist to promote his radical agenda while smearing every other Christian as a hypocrite.
Apparently True Christians would fall in lock-step with every political issue Pastor Pete espouses.
And if you don’t? Why, he’ll be just so deeply disappointed in you – you big, fat hypocrites!
Could you imagine four years of listening to this insufferable guy preach at us from the Oval Office?
Good grief. Pete Buttigieg’s brand of scolding superiority would make even Barack Obama look like an easy-going, “live and let live” kinda guy by comparison.
3. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Last year, the bug-eyed bartender from New York hit number 5 in Dianny’s Ten Most Tiresome People list. And that was before she ever stepped foot into the House of Representatives.
Now that she’s a sitting member of Congress, the only accomplishment AOC has achieved is moving up to the number three spot.
I grew bored with her by summer. In fact, since the end of summer, I’ve only written about her three times. And the last time I did a Photoshop image of her was in October.
Specifically, this one:
And if you’re not even worth the trouble to Photoshop, that’s a sure-fire sign I’ve grown tired of you.
Her shtick got old fast.
Part of the problem is overexposure. The incessant media fawning, the conservative media mockery – all of it gave AOC an outsized view of her importance.
Overexposure is always a killer.
Like Clara Pellar and the “Where’s the Beef?!” ad campaign from Wendy’s. Sure, it was funny and entertaining. So much so everybody was talking about it and using the phrase. But after a while the overexposure killed it for everyone.
It’s no wonder the only people who still find AOC fascinating are Bernie fans.
Alexandria wore out her welcome. Now, even her histrionic tweets aren’t getting the wall-to-wall coverage they once did.
From IT Girl to afterthought in a year. Sad that.
And while I enjoyed photoshopping her (and how could I not? She’s a walking meme), I’m not sorry to see her fade into the woodwork.
Good riddance.
2. Elizabeth Warren
Is there anything more exhausting than being lectured and scolded by the “irritating middle school librarian” with the “voice of a dying turkey?” [Thanks to Kurt Schlichter and Jesse Kelly for those vivid descriptions.]
Elizabeth Warren is such a tiresome, inauthentic scold, she actually makes Hillary Clinton look warm and engaging by comparison.
On New Year’s Eve 2018, Liz kicked off her pending Presidential run with a desperate attempt to appeal to Millennials by filming herself cracking open a cold beer on Instagram. It was the single most painfully awkward thing since Liz’s painfully-awkward DNA test.
And, as it turns out, it was just the first of many painfully awkward moments for the Warren 2020 campaign.
In February 2019, Liz made it official. But to this day, the poor old gal just can’t figure out who she’s going to be.
Her campaign persona vacillates between being the Female Bernie Sanders and the aging, yet just as hip and cool, AOC. I guess when you really have no authentic personality of your own, the best you can hope for is coopting someone else’s.
Which makes sense since coopting from others is also Liz Warren’s economic plan.
It’s as if Liz is so busy trying to be all things to all people, that she’s completely lost track of who she really is.
And if this schizophrenic, identity-challenged candidate with a gaping authenticity deficit ends up being 2020 nominee?
Hoo boy. The Democrats are going to be so screwed.
1. Greta Thunberg
The only thing worse than being lectured by a cul-de-sac busybody like Liz Warren is being lectured by a teenager.
It’s probably not a shock that Greta Thunberg rated as the number one most tiresome person of 2019. I mean, she also was Time’s Person of the Year.
But since Greta is the Human Shield and Patron Saint of the already tiresome Climate Cult, how could I not choose her as number one?
Fact is, Greta is being used. The claptrap and propaganda she’s been fed have so skewed this kid that she actually believes that we are just years away from being burnt to a crisp by the weather.
But that doesn’t make her any less tiresome.
Like the Parkland Kids, Greta’s celebrity has gone to her head.
Let’s be honest. The kid has got a savior complex as big as all outdoors.
But are you surprised?
What other obscure, school-skipping Euro-teen gets to hang out with Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Or gets to address the United Nations?
Greta’s appeared on more magazine covers than anybody except possibly Michelle Obama.
What teenage girl wouldn’t soak up that kind of attention and adoration?
But couple that instant celebrity with a steady diet of Dystopian Gloom and Doom, and this is what you get.
Oh, blow it out your pie hole, you insufferable little scold.
The fact that this kid thinks every human being in the world should bend to her demands shows a level of hubris unmatched in the history of the universe.
Greta Thunberg is what you get if Veruca Salt got bit by a radioactive spider.
And, see, we’re not allowed to criticize or question her. We’re not allowed to point out that the snake oil she’s selling is nothing more than refashioned Marxism with an environmental sheen.
And if we do, the monsters who shove this kid with Asperger’s into the spotlight respond with “How dare you attack a child with Asperger’s! You monster!”
Yes, how dare we attack the child these cretins are using as a human shield to prevent us from criticizing the Climate Cult.
Which is exactly why they shove this tiresome little scold in our faces to begin with.
Using Greta Thunberg as a human shield has only resulted in my giving even less of a crap about “Climate Change.”
That’s what these idiots don’t understand.
Americans are independent – fiercely so. And we do not respond well to being lectured, hectored and “how dare you’d” by anyone. Least of all a petulant, misguided child.
But they won’t stop shoving Greta down our throats. And I’m thinking in 2020 just like in 2019, we’re going to be hearing a lot more lectures from this tiresome little gremlin.
~~~
Whelp. There you have it! This year’s Ten Most Tiresome People of 2019.
As I said earlier, there were so many possible people to choose from, it was not easy winnowing the list down to ten. So I hope you’re not too disappointed if someone you find especially tiresome didn’t make the cut. Trust me, just because some also-rans didn’t make this list doesn’t make them any less tiresome.
And if you’re interested in my previous Ten Most Tiresome People lists, here are the links:
