All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[shooshoomanjoe]

How many days?

Nov 3 is the day.

[InformationGeek]

Well, who wants to wake up to some xenophobia this morning? The White House has you covered with this new bulls**t.



I wonder how many photos of dead people he signed this time?

[Zauriel]

**********

Nancy Pelosi: All Trump SCOTUS Justices Should Recuse From Election Decisions

“I don’t trust the Supreme Court one bit,” the House Speaker said. Pelosi is far from alone, but she's delusional to think SCOTUS won't interfere on Trump's behalf if given half a chance.

====================

Of course.

SCOTUS did interfere on Bush's behalf in the election against Al Gore.

[Tendrin]

Another laptop tied to Hunter Biden was reportedly obtained by the Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this year.

Sources told NBC News that the device belonging to the 50-year-old son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now a presidential candidate, was taken into custody by the DEA in February while executing a search warrant in the Massachusetts office of a psychiatrist who was accused of professional misconduct.

That former celebrity psychiatrist, Keith Ablow, saw his medical license suspended after he faced allegations of sexually exploiting patients and illegally diverting prescription drugs. Ablow has denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime.

The report from NBC on Friday said Hunter Biden was not a target of the search or the investigation, and his lawyer got the laptop back. It remains unclear why the device was there in the first place.

HMmmmmmmm...

[Mister Mets]

Since he is pretty clearly talking about "The Base..."?

I'd have to guess "Probably Not..."

Let's put this into pretty simple terms.

If your Democratic nominee is vetting Republicans for potential cabinet positions? What exactly is he(along with the DNC...") fighting for when they do that?

What exactly is there in that act that the base should look at, and say "Yep. This Is Exactly What I Want To Vote For!..."?

The reverse of this question would be if a Democratic nominee was fighting to be a generic Democrat, or to the left of the generic Democratic Governor or Senator, what is there for centrists to look at and say this is what they want to vote for?

Someone on the left is still going to be closer to someone on the center-left than they will to someone on the right. So Joe Biden will be a better choice for them than Donald Trump.

Someone in the center or center-right might find themselves unsure about whether they're closer politically to Joe Biden or to Donald Trump. They would be more likely to go for Trump if they think Joe Biden is moving to the left in order to appease the left-wing base. It might also signal to them that Democrats don't think that Trump is that bad if they're willing to risk an increased risk of a Trump win for policy gains.

[Tami]

HMmmmmmmm...

I'm getting a 'Where's Waldo' vibe. "Where's Hunter's Laptop?'

Is it in the mail?

Is it in a jail?

Is it with the Shrink?

Or is it in the sink?

Was it sent to Odesa?

Or maybe South-west Texas?

[Mister Mets]

This was most true in 2010 (to a lesser extent in 2014 during Senate races). But that Tea Party year... it let the GOP swipe state legislatures, then re-write the Congressional maps in those states so they could hang onto the House via a false majority for almost a decade. States like PA and NC, where Democrats would win 55% of the vote but get only 33% of the Congressional seats in the caucus. The GOP's bulls*** was out of control enough to motivate Democrats in 2018, and get the House back. They'll hang onto it in 2020, and if as many state legislatures flip blue...

Well, the unf***ing of that gerrymander will begin.

To which, the credit goes to people like Eric Holder, Beto, Stacey Abrams and the like. It was a goal they worked to undo the gerrymander for like the past 5 years.

It's still an open question about how much the gerrymander helps Republicans. There have been quite a few times when this board where gerrymandering was blamed for Republican domination in the electoral college or the Senate. Much analysis of how many seats Republicans gained in the House because of gerrymandering determined that it came down to a handful of seats.

538 determined that in 2017 that if we were to switch from borders determined by state legislatures to borders determined by an algorithm which preferred compactness, and adhering to existing county/ district lines, Republicans would lost an expected two seats.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...tricting-maps/

Republicans were able to win big in the House and state legislatures in 2010, before the gerrymander. They got their asses kicked in 2018, under the gerrymandered map.

It's also not agreed what it means to unf*** the gerrymander. I've asked before how legislative boundaries should be determined, and there's very little discussion about what the criteria should be (Should we go for more swing districts? Should we go for preserving existing communities?) The main response is to get an independent commission, but there's little consideration about what criteria they should be judged by, to make sure that any independent commissions are a backdoor for partisans to gerrymander with a veneer of respectability. There can be havoc with an unelected group interpreting vague statutes, especially when reasonable people may want different outcomes and not realize there's any debate about what the final map should like. One person might want to keep communities of interest together, while another might want to increase the number of swing seats, and another might want to have the composition in the legislature reflect the outcome of the vote. Obviously partisans want to maximize their own vote, although that gets complicated as district populations change.

Republicans have an advantage from geographic sorting, so Democrats need gerrymandering more than Republicans do.

Last year, when the Democrats took control of the Virginia legislature, the majority of them suddenly decided that they weren't interested in an independent commission any more. In the end, nine Democrats in the legislature joined the Republicans in making sure the legislature doesn't control redistricting, which was something the entire Democratic party had been campaigning on when the party was in the minority.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/o...ering-law.html

I wrote a post two years ago considering the available options.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...er#post3720119

How many days?

The election's in three days.

Some swing states don't start counting early vote ballots until Election Day (Pennsylvania had a compromise and the legislature and Governor made a deal to allow for a count on Monday) so we might not know for some time. If states are close, there's the possibility of all sorts of legal fights (Did sets of ballots follow correct procedures?) and some accept ballots postmarked on Election Day that the board of elections might not get until a few days later.

There is the possibility that the early numbers will not be representative, as Democrats are more likely to take advantage of mail-in voting, and those numbers might be released after the same-day voting numbers, which are expected to skew Republicans.

Two key states have started counting the early vote: Florida and Arizona. Florida is seen as a state that Trump needs to win. Arizona is seen as a state that has shifted to Democrats. If Biden wins both, he's a heavy favorite. If Trump wins both, it indicates more support for him than the polls currently show. If it's a split, Biden's favored but the official results will not be known for some time.

[Tendrin]

It's still an open question about how much the gerrymander helps Republicans. There have been quite a few times when this board where gerrymandering was blamed for Republican domination in the electoral college or the Senate. Much analysis of how many seats Republicans gained in the House because of gerrymandering determined that it came down to a handful of seats.

Let me know when you decide to start caring about the folks who majority-vote to elect one party to congress, but wind up with a super majority of elected representatives of the other party. I imagine you will when it no longer benefits Republicans.

[JCAll]

Someone in the center or center-right might find themselves unsure about whether they're closer politically to Joe Biden or to Donald Trump. They would be more likely to go for Trump if they think Joe Biden is moving to the left in order to appease the left-wing base. It might also signal to them that Democrats don't think that Trump is that bad if they're willing to risk an increased risk of a Trump win for policy gains.

I don't think it's possible for anyone in the center to be closer to Trump than Biden.
Where do you think Donald Trump is on the Left/Right spectrum?
Because, man, from here it looks like he's so far past Far-Right that they've literally had to invent a new word to describe it.

[Mister Mets]

And yet, you've said nothing about Trump having wanted to use $300 million federal funds intended to stop the pandemic to "defeat despair" by having celebrities record PSAs where they complimented him (who mostly snubbed them).

Or the federal funds he's spent on golf trips to the tune of $340 million.

If you think those are a good idea and the other is a "waste of federal funds" it might just be some racist reflex showing.

I've mentioned many many times that I don't like Trump. And as I've said once (mainly because it happened last Sunday), I did vote Biden in the presidential election. So my position on Trump in general is pretty clear. I don't think you guys need me to say that federal funds shouldn't be used for PSAs in favor of President Trump, or any political leader.

I do think your argument that if someone doesn't say something about a specific political issue, we must infer that they are in support of a stance is a terrible one, and that your decision to go personal (accusing me of a racist reflex) reflects poorly on you as a person.

This is not a standard most people would want to be held to. It appears you have never said anything about the uighurs, so by your own argument that if you haven't said anything about an issue you think it's a good idea, you're in favor of what the Chinese government is doing to them. This could also apply to any issue in which you haven't made your explicit position clear. It would also apply to everyone else on this forum, including the people who generally agree with you politically, but don't post all that often.

It's always been my position that we should respect other people here, and their time. This is a forum for comic book fans and a thread for people who follow politics to a greater extent than the average person, but we should mindful that people have their own lives. There should be no hint of an obligation to respond to every issue, or to spend unreasonable amounts of time talking with the regulars here.

You also didn't address the question. Should federal funds be used to support the ideas "that (1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex; (2) the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist; (3) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; (4) an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex; (5) members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex; (6) an individual's moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex; (7) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex; (8) any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex; or (9) meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a particular race to oppress another race?" You're accusing me of a racist flex without actually giving your position about a policy, or about whether the policy, good or ill, is exaggerated by a critic of it who was quoted here.

The polls in 2016 were largely correct, though.

This gets murky.

Ignore the Trafalgar group. They are not honest brokers.

The Pennsylvania polls are only within the margin of error if you include the Traflagar group.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...nton-5633.html

They try, but it's impossible to catch up to an opponent with numerous structural advantages in society, and they don't have billionaires investing in multiple decades old propaganda news networks or able to get their own judges to outnumber Republicans in the court system. And that's just what I can think if at the moment, there's more. Another problem is that as soon as the Dems get any momentum politically with congress and presidency, they're not able to make signifiant changes due to how sabotages the system is by Republicans, their voters get demotivated since they're not understanding how difficult it is to govern and the Republicans are voting it again during the mid-terms and the process repeats. This is why Obama still gets attached for not closing Gitmo on the left, despite the fact Congress wouldn't let him.

The Democrats do have their own advantages, including wider support among cultural tastemakers, academia and the non-Murdoch media.

One problem for Democrats is that a lot of their agenda involves increasing spending, which means that it's easier to block. Some conservative goals can be accomplished through inaction.

[Mister Mets]

Let me know when you decide to start caring about the folks who majority-vote to elect one party to congress, but wind up with a super majority of elected representatives of the other party. I imagine you will when it no longer benefits Republicans.

I'm interested in the solutions to help those people.

What solutions are we talking about? If we give unelected boards control over redistricting, what standard(s) should they be held to? Is the goal to preserve communities of interest with maximum geographic compactness, while making sure legislatures don't pick their constituents? I'm all for it. Is the goal to make sure that a majority of the vote corresponds to a majority of elected representatives? That gets harder, given where Democrats choose to live.

I don't think it's possible for anyone in the center to be closer to Trump than Biden.
Where do you think Donald Trump is on the Left/Right spectrum?
Because, man, from here it looks like he's so far past Far-Right that they've literally had to invent a new word to describe it.

The pushback against Trump is primarily due to affect and incompetence, rather than political positioning.

It's the whole 'concentration camps of immigrants' we take issue with, plus his unwillingness to denounce David Duke. And as those nations never fought Israel in a war, it;'s a bit early to declare peace in the middle east.

These do remain better steps in the middle east than under previous administrations.

I remain curious about what description of "concentration camps of immigrants" applies to the Trump administration, but not the Obama administration. And what policy do you guys want to see to resolve that question without encouraging people to bring their children along on a dangerous journey?

Oh by all means, keep telling yourself that.

Just like how the Comey testimony was going to bring Trump down, Stormy Daniels and her crooked lawyer were going to bring Trump down, the Mueller report was going to bring Trump down, impeachment was going to bring Trump down, etc.

It’s obvious that you people are incapable of learning.

And the funny thing is, when Trump wins again (which he will) the left will once again learn nothing from it. You’ll all go back to blaming Russia again instead of realizing that your increasingly far left agenda has even caused millions of lifelong moderate Democrats to hold their noses and begrudgingly vote for Trump.

And if Trump loses?

Contrary to what your master tells you, mail in ballots have been in use for years without issues(your master has even done it!), and also if you would like to check your calendar, you may find the election is on Tuesday, and it's Saturday. With the election so close, mailing in a ballot now wouldn't be guaranteed to make it in time(especially with DeJoy screwing with the postal service in the name of the master). Hence why they are encouraging people to vote in person now(with masks and to responsibly social distance). See, simple, just requires more than 2 seconds of thinking.

The main problem with mail-in voting is not DeJoy and the post office, but the capacity of election boards to count all the ballots.

The increase in mail for elections pales in comparison to the increase in mail during Holidays.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I remain curious about what description of "concentration camps of immigrants" applies to the Trump administration, but not the Obama administration. And what policy do you guys want to see to resolve that question without encouraging people to bring their children along on a dangerous journey?

Trump is the one who filled the camps with people who would clog the system, people entitled to due process. So please stop using that damn dodge 'Obama built them!'

[Tendrin]

– Daily deaths from COVID-19 are rising in the US, according to The Associated Press

– More than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Thursday, according to The Washington Post, NBC News and The New York Times

– It can take “several weeks” for death records to be submitted to and updated at the National Center for Health Statistics, according to the CDC

Everything is fiiiiiiiiiiiiine

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a man who we have to work up all of our energy to not just post, “F*** you, Mitch” in our update once a year, because he’s an utter dips*** who completely has broken the legislative branch of our government. And loathing this putrid husk pretending to be a human is hardly a partisan thing, as he was even booed when he took the stage to give a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention by members of his own party. He is, for us, one of the most infuriating politicians in modern history, for his hyper-partisan tactics, and his apparent desire to bring all government action to a grinding halt in the name of simply obstructing the other side from being able to govern, as well. McConnell is a six term senator (Jesus, really?) who has risen from unlikely beginnings as an ordinary turtle to being covered in radioactive ooze and forgoing a "teenage mutant ninja" stage to instead become a fixture in Washington, D.C. He has an extremely conservative voting record, which he does his best to misrepresent (y'know lie) about every six years to try and ensure his re-election while he airs some of the weirdest ads on his own behalf.

McConnell boldly stated his primary goal as Senate Minority Leader was to "make Barack Obama a one term president", so based on his own expectations, he's a complete failure. Under his leadership in the Senate from 2010-2016, McConnell led Republicans to double the usage of invoking cloture to filibuster laws, triple the number of filibustered nominees of any previous presidency, and has seen the GOP push back against confirming judges so that only 43% of judges nominated by President Obama for the bench were confirmed within 14 months of their nomination. Sen. McConnell’s filibustering ways were so out of control that he literally filibustered bills THAT HE HIMSELF WROTE. Mitch McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland Supreme Court Justice for ELEVEN F***ING MONTHS after the death of Antonin Scalia.

So what happened when the 2016 elections got stolen by help from the Russians hacking American social media feeds, and widespread voter suppression of traditionally Democratic voters by Republicans in swing states? Well, guess what, Mitch McConnell got all lathered up and almost immediately changed the rules for the filibuster so that Democrats couldn’t prevent the Trump administration from stacking the courts full of conservatives even if they had a rampant history of racial bias, promoting conspiracy theories, or making sexist or homophobic statements that clearly showed they had no business serving as a judge, let alone a FEDERAL judge. And it was all so they could get people like Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, who, for the record, is so much of a conservative f*** face that even John Roberts is getting sick of his s*** already,and even worse, a drunken fratboy accused of multiple sexual assaults with a habit of multiple perjury by the name of Brett Kavanaugh. Hell, upon learning of the accusations, McConnell moved the Senate to try and confirm Kavanaugh FASTER rather than have the FBI investigate the attack. And McConnell sees zero hypocrisy for that. Hell, only two years after insisting it would be wrong to confirm a Supreme Court Justice in the last year of a presidential term, inventing that “rule” on the spot, now this miserable, bloated tortoise has conveniently forgotten that it’s a rule, and is ready to confirm any Justices if needed in 2020.

So perhaps then, it’s at least satisfying to know that Mitch McConnell, who has orchestrated Kentucky politics to sustain his own four decade long political career and ensure no serious challengers can rise out of the state to cut his career short, is currently watching an incompetent he helped get elected to the White House and handed the reins of power to when he had never held any office turn on him for every perceived failure, and instead serve him a heaping helping of ridicule and humiliation casserole. People have noticed that when Sen. McConnell is forced into joint press conferences with Trump, he looks like he’s being held hostage and would rather be anywhere else.

But maybe that’s because he only has the courage to say he’s “upset” even when Trump can’t bring himself to criticize Neo-Nazis after they murdered an innocent woman in Charlottesville, Virginia. McConnell’s next Senate term is up in 2020, and we’re wondering that if McConnell is Dr. Frankenstein whole political maneuvering helped create a monster like Trump that he’ll get some kind of poetic justice for his part in that creation. Sometimes, it already has worked out for Democrats, as evidenced when the president was forced into a debt ceiling deal by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Hell, Mitch McConnell is such an ***hole that Sen. John McCain flew in from Arizona from his deathbed to deliver a huge “f*** you” to the old tortoise back in July of 2017 with a dramatic thumbs down vote on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This would be a repeal attempt that McConnell knew he would only be able to pull off with a simple 50 vote majority (Mike Pence being his tie-breaker) to destroy the ACA after promising to do so for SEVEN YEARS. And NOPE, John McCain hateds McConnell more than he loves conservative dogma, and that’s saying something.

This man is enough of a loathsome twit that he can push for the biggest tax break for the wealthy in a century, and then feign concern about the federal deficit it created, but blame that shortfall on Medicaid and Social Security. (Just a quick reminder, older voters elected Mitch McConnell, and he’s going to f*** them over if he gets his way).

So after McConnell has been Majority leader now for about three years of abject failure, people continue to call for him to step down from his position on both sides of the aisle. Commentators also have spread the meme that McConnell’s tombstone will read, “He Broke America”, and he and his wife Elaine Chao are getting shouted out of restaurants when they try to dine out in public back in Louisville, he’s so loathed. They’ve been chased out of establishments repeatedly, and that may have something to do with the fact that the would-be power couple have focused on aligning side deals between Kentucky businessmen, and Russian oligarchs.

[worstblogever]

Somehow, the motherf***er always has the gall to act surprised when people snub him.


McConnell actually has come to revel in being an obstructionist prick, to the extent that he enjoys killing whatever legislation that House Democrats send his way now that they have control of the lower chamber, giving himself the moniker “The Grim Reaper”. Yeah. This man has no qualms about killing legislation, or the actual lives that could be saved by passing it. McConnell outrageously even refused to allow witnesses in the impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial” and a mockery of justice.

And then… this complete motherf***er… only about an hour and a half after Supreme Court Justice and ultra-badass Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away… after the stink he made in February of 2016 when Antonin Scalia suddenly passed on about how it’s wrong to hold hearings on a Supreme Court Justice in an election year… when early voting had already begun in parts of the country in this election… this f***ing ghoul announced he would be ready to get a new justice seated to replace her. Again, an hour and a half after she died, and when medically, her body was literally not cold yet. Let alone before people had time to mourn her passing, or regard her legacy.

F*** Mitch McConnell with the chair he intends Amy Coney Barrett to sit in. I know his body is turning purple and black of late because whatever bargain he made with Mephistopheles is coming due. Whether or not he’s got Covid-19 and is on blood thinners for that, we can’t say, but we do know if he caught it, it would be fitting after he f***ing chuckled when hearing over 200,000 had died from it when the topic of Covid-19 stimulus came up during his debate with Amy McGrath. Speaking of, after the Coney Barrett hearings, McConnell shoved his whole arm into a barrel of salt, then jammed it into the wound he’s created in this country by moving to adjourn the Senate STILL WITHOUT ALLOWING A VOTE ON A STIMULUS BILL THE HOUSE PASSED IN MAY.

If this century has a “final boss”, it’s probably this ***hole. When Mitch McConnell passes away, someone could get rich selling tickets near his gravesite to people who will want to be first in line to urinate on his grave.