All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Prosecutor furious after GOP governor pardons man convicted of beheading woman and stuffing her in a toxic waste barrel

Delmar Partin delivered eight blows to the head of Betty Carnes with a metal pipe, killing the mother of three. He then severed her head, put her torso in a barrel, and placed her head on her own lap. This Monday, outgoing Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin pardoned Partin and commuted his sentence after he was convicted of killing her at the factory where they both worked in Barbourville in 1994.

ccording to Bevin, potential DNA evidence in Partin’s case had not been tested, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

“Given the inability or unwillingness of the state to use existing DNA evidence to either affirm or disprove this conviction, I hearby pardon Mr. Partin for this crime and encourage the state to make every effort to bring final justice to the victim and her family,” Bevin wrote.

But according to the prosecutor in the case, Tom Handy, Bevin’s move shows the “arrogance of one who has a God-like image of himself” and a “lack of concern for anybody else.”

[Tami]

If Britain had Germany’s electoral system, Boris Johnson may have lost the election

In continental Europe, the results of Thursday’s general election in the United Kingdom were largely met with a mix of frustration and a lack of understanding.

Europe’s startled take on the British elections may — at least partially — also be based on one fundamental difference between Britain and continental Europe. Whereas Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated a historic win on Friday, the same results may very well have made him a loser if, for instance, the election had taken place in Germany.

The difference comes down to electoral systems.

Britain follows the so-called first-past-the-post system. The country is split up into electoral constituencies, and voters choose their preferred candidate. The candidate who wins the most votes, wins the constituency. It’s a system that gives an advantage to big parties with concentrated regional support. With 649 out of 650 seats declared by Friday morning, the Conservatives won a majority with 364 seats, compared to the Labour Party’s 203.

[GindyPosts]

Did he forget the GOP spent about six to eight years calling for Obama's impeachment from 2009-2016? They just, y'know, didn't have evidence of a crime? ANY crime, let alone a high crime mentioned in the Constitution like bribery?

He wanted to use Grey Poupon on a sandwich? TREASON!

Like, the Obama administration had its fair share of problems, such as the overreliance on drone strikes, and how they handled the border crisis (which the Trump administration more than doubled down), but it seemed like the GOP and right wing pundits looked at dumber complaints about Obama as a person than more legitimate issues the cabinet had done. It was more of how they rather would assassinate the character of Obama than dissect the flaws the administration presented, and they figured that if they made Obama look bad, then this would be evidence enough to get him out of office.

Trump, on the other hand, has a clear history of legal and personal disputes.

[JackDaw]

If Britain had Germany’s electoral system, Boris Johnson may have lost the election

Lol.

He might have lost if they had used election system used on Mars...

Or conversely, he might well have run a completely different campaign...based on the different local conditions...and won.

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie's Cartoons of the Week:

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He wanted to use Grey Poupon on a sandwich? TREASON!

Like, the Obama administration had its fair share of problems, such as the overreliance on drone strikes, and how they handled the border crisis (which the Trump administration more than doubled down), but it seemed like the GOP and right wing pundits looked at dumber complaints about Obama as a person than more legitimate issues the cabinet had done. It was more of how they rather would assassinate the character of Obama than dissect the flaws the administration presented, and they figured that if they made Obama look bad, then this would be evidence enough to get him out of office.

Trump, on the other hand, has a clear history of legal and personal disputes.

Ahhh, but Trump isn't black, that's why he gets a big time pass on all his misdeeds and horrific behavior while Republicans went nuclear when Obama had the complete and utter audacity to wear a tan suit in public.

[AnakinFlair]

wh-wh-whaaaaat????

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politi...238320918.html

Question- can the new administration investigate this idiot after he finally leaves and see if they can charge him for taking money for pardons? And can the state legislature overturn the pardons, or are they like presidential pardons and absolute?

Mitch McConnell Brags About Blocking Obama For 2 Years, Then Laughs About It

The Senate majority leader boasts about stacking the courts with conservative judges under Trump. Even if Dems reclaim the White House AND the Senate, it could all be for naught as the country might already be screwed, thanks to Moscow Mitch's unconsciable fuckery.

If they get a big enough majority, I can foresee a lot of impeachment proceedings for a lot of these judges.

[Theleviathan]

Regardless of what people in this particular forum think, Bernie supporting Cenk should surprise nobody (for the record Warren and Yang also showed up on his show and interviewed with him). He has as much cred as anybody amongst progressives and was pretty much certain to be deemed the most progressive candidate in the race. I have serious issues with Cenk's past too, but that's just the reality of where he stands in the political zeitgeist. The progressives were all going to support each other on ideological grounds.

That was always going to happen.

It's not really surprising that the progressive endorsed the progressive. And quite frankly, you guys on this forum forgive alot more from other candidates that you like, so..... it's a little self serving to take something everyone kind of understands and use it as just another reason to go "see look how bad Sanders is".

I'm not going to go down that road, but progressives lining up behind this guy shows that everyone accepts a great deal of bad with the good in the candidates they support. It's going to be hard for Bernie supporters to stand up and lecture everyone about Biden and immigration or Buttigieg and the local police force or (insert other purity issue here) without a hefty dose of hypocrisy.

Too often opposition to one candidate boils down to "how could you support someone who X?" and then you get labeled an enabler of such behavior. I won't do that to Bernie, but maybe we should stop that altogether. World isn't so cut and dry.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm not going to go down that road, but progressives lining up behind this guy shows that everyone accepts a great deal of bad with the good in the candidates they support. It's going to be hard for Bernie supporters to stand up and lecture everyone about Biden and immigration or Buttigieg and the local police force or (insert other purity issue here) without a hefty dose of hypocrisy.

Too often opposition to one candidate boils down to "how could you support someone who X?" and then you get labeled an enabler of such behavior. I won't do that to Bernie, but maybe we should stop that altogether. World isn't so cut and dry.

I have a few litmus tests, but failing one of them is something only extreme candidates seem to pull off. Being anti-democracy, anti-vax, or a climate change denier all do it - the first is obvious, the second two are indicators of someone who doesn't have a grip on reality, and as such I can't trust any other solutions they offer since the foundation is likely based on what they want to see rather than what is there.

[Theleviathan]

I have a few litmus tests, but failing one of them is something only extreme candidates seem to pull off. Being anti-democracy, anti-vax, or a climate change denier all do it - the first is obvious, the second two are indicators of someone who doesn't have a grip on reality, and as such I can't trust any other solutions they offer since the foundation is likely based on what they want to see rather than what is there.

Absolutely, as an individual that makes total sense. I think we share those three along with other obvious ones (racism - which I'm sure you do as well)

It should be ok to say "Yeah....that kinda sucks, but I still support them because....." You'll never have a perfect candidate and sometimes the bad you swallow to support someone is really ugly. You might be totally opposed to it. It might disgust you. Yet.....the alternative is a context that is very important to remember. I would understand someone dismissing Cenk for his past actions. What is difficult is demanding others dismiss them when the context of our choices is so limited.

So I don't dismiss Bernie for his endorsement, but I hope those who support Bernie might remember that the next time they purity test someone else's choice.

[Gray Lensman]

Absolutely, as an individual that makes total sense. I think we share those three along with other obvious ones (racism - which I'm sure you do as well)

It should be ok to say "Yeah....that kinda sucks, but I still support them because....." You'll never have a perfect candidate and sometimes the bad you swallow to support someone is really ugly. You might be totally opposed to it. It might disgust you. Yet.....the alternative is a context that is very important to remember. I would understand someone dismissing Cenk for his past actions. What is difficult is demanding others dismiss them when the context of our choices is so limited.

So I don't dismiss Bernie for his endorsement, but I hope those who support Bernie might remember that the next time they purity test someone else's choice.

I'm not a Democrat myself, but I'll be voting for whoever they nominate for Pres in the hopes that in 4 years I'll still be able to vote at all.

[Theleviathan]

I'm not a Democrat myself, but I'll be voting for whoever they nominate for Pres in the hopes that in 4 years I'll still be able to vote at all.

Same, I'd vote for a potato in a hat at this point.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I'm not going to go down that road, but progressives lining up behind this guy shows that everyone accepts a great deal of bad with the good in the candidates they support. It's going to be hard for Bernie supporters to stand up and lecture everyone about Biden and immigration or Buttigieg and the local police force or (insert other purity issue here) without a hefty dose of hypocrisy.

Too often opposition to one candidate boils down to "how could you support someone who X?" and then you get labeled an enabler of such behavior. I won't do that to Bernie, but maybe we should stop that altogether. World isn't so cut and dry.

If there was a perfect candidate they didn't show themselves yet. But on each side there are generally people that are quick to criticize and justify their dislike of one person while letting a lot go for canidates they like. Quite frankly I said a long time ago Kamala's AG record would hurt her. It was dismissed here. Ended up making her the biggest dissapointment of the primary. So people have their biases.

I'll be blunt, I don't really support Cenk much more than he's ideologically progressive but suspsect his past will be a massive issue and because he's in the spotlight he has a lot fo receipts on him. If he gets the nom I'd support him because his Democrat and his policies won't be overall disqualifying. That said I totally get the progressive Presidential canididate endorsing the most known progressive running

You can play the hypocrite card all you want, but on this forum leads towards finding any small thing to call out Bernie (including out of context things like a hypothetical column he wrote a long time ago) and then dismissing centrists caniddates flaws. It's not really applicable here and I can provide more examples.

My issue with Biden isn't that I find him disqualifying. I find him to be redundant policy wise, it will be a waste of 4-8 years on most policies and he has baggage where I see him being incredibly vulnerable to Trump once the Republican machine gets going. Buttigieg I don't think he can win whatsoever. He has terrible support from blacks and you can't win a general election as a Democrat with that much of a hole with that community. The fact that their policies will give them an extra hurdle with segments of the more left base is just more on top of that. Now's the time to weed people out before you have to pick up the mess in general and deal with baggage you need to carry.

Either way I think it's coming down to Bernie or Biden. I thought before Harris or Warren had a shot being the middle ground, but this primary is showing there is no apetite for a middle ground. Buttegieg will likely make the biggest impact in the primary. He won't win. He's not close enough to Biden and he has no shot in certain segments of the country. BUT Warren or Sanders winning Iowa and New Hampshire will likely coincide with enough of a wave to give them a shot. Pete winning Iowa could be what wins it for Biden

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The only way to remove a federal judge is by impeachment, The president cannot make an executive order to remove and/or replace them. A replacement for any judgeship that has on open office (retired, resigned or impeached) will have to be approved by the Senate. The president only has the power to place a candidate for the position to go before the Senate. It is set up that so that judges do not serve at the pleasure of the president. Judge G Thomas was the last federal judge to get impeached 2010, on charges of accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury.

As always the big fear with Dems pulling power plays like this is they are fucking terrible at marketing and selling themselves, it's very easy to see a situation where the Republicans turn that to an advantage and things just get worse. Being a good politician is one thing, however getting to the show is about framing and perception. You can't do that, doesn't matter how good you are. Most people would agree that Obama was a good President, that the ACA saved a lot of people, and that the economy recovered under him. But the next President was a birther who hated Obama, beat someone from his administration running as being his third term, who took credit (and receives it) for the economy and Obama pretty much spent the last 6 years in office trying to fight off how the Republicans made the ACA politically toxic and it cost him an abundance of capital.

Until Democrats can show they can win in the arena of public perception, they have to be careful in pulling anything like that off. You can't give Republicans wins

Its not about "playing the game" fairly anymore. Its about not caring to raise hell and do it as we see Trump has tried with various orders that take time to dismantle. It may come across badly but a President who comes in and declares that the Republican party pushed through a lot of judges with non-creditials would be fun to see. Sure a lot will keep their jobs. But as the President then can joke , "Well they didn't seem to care if Trump did it...so I'm doing it."

**** playing the game anymore. We have people brag they don't care and want to hold up the country . So **** em.

[Theleviathan]

If there was a perfect candidate they didn't show themselves yet. But on each side there are generally people that are quick to criticize and justify their dislike of one person while letting a lot go for canidates they like. Quite frankly I said a long time ago Kamala's AG record would hurt her. It was dismissed here. Ended up making her the biggest dissapointment of the primary. So people have their biases.

I'll be blunt, I don't really support Cenk much more than he's ideologically progressive but suspsect his past will be a massive issue and because he's in the spotlight he has a lot fo receipts on him. If he gets the nom I'd support him because his Democrat and his policies won't be overall disqualifying. That said I totally get the progressive Presidential canididate endorsing the most known progressive running

You can play the hypocrite card all you want, but on this forum leads towards finding any small thing to call out Bernie (including out of context things like a hypothetical column he wrote a long time ago) and then dismissing centrists caniddates flaws. It's not really applicable here and I can provide more examples.

I'm trying to encourage everyone to stop that sort of argument. It's ok you don't like Biden, we should be able to disagree on particulars without sweeping accusations or dismissals. The truth is, many of the passionate Bernie supporters would be using this like a god damn nuke against Warren or Biden if some similar thing came up with a guy/gal with this history. The Warren/Bernie end of hte spectrum especially. I just think that whole line of argument is dumb from the get-go, hypocrisy or not. We all have flaws we accept and flaws we reject. I have a range of reasons I reject Bernie (none of which includes this situation), but I have a pretty good list against everybody. Ultimately, I'm in the camp (not with any excitement in saying this) that just wants whoever gets a win across the line. As of today....I'm not sure who that is. For a long time I thought it was only Biden, now I'm unsure of that.

You're right, people have their biases, I just wish people recognized the "their" part of that sentence. We should wield those biases less like a purity sledgehammer and more as a point of debate. what makes it an interesting case for Bernie fans, is it's that end of the progressive spectrum most likely to weaponize a situation like this. So it's a bit salty seeing so many shrug at it when their own guy does it. (not saying you, speaking very generally here)