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

[4saken1]

The second one shows how much Germany has reduced the percentage of gas, oil and coal from Russia since the start of the war. We're Russia's biggest customer, and we're quickly changing that.

Is this adjusted for the fact that it is now approaching Summer and there is less need for these?

[CaptainEurope]

Is this adjusted for the fact that it is now approaching Summer and there is less need for these?

Yeah, this is basically contracts, not current use.

[JB]

The GOP voters are not over Trump. At least not here in Ohio. JD Vance who was hovering around 3rd and 4th place in the Senate Race a few weeks ago and had a lot of critics won the Primary in Ohio last night by 8 points. He jumped in the polls big time after Trump endorsed him.

Apparently Trump endorsed 22 candidates in the Ohio and Indiana GOP primaries and they all won yesterday. My head hurts.

[Tendrin]

We interrupt your usual wave of misogyny to look at how Dems did in the 5 special elections for state legislature last night (vs their share in 2020):
Michigan HD74: 56% (+19%) (!!)

Just a reminder that this one was this guy:

"Having three daughters, I tell my daughters, well, 'If rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.'" Regan said. "That's not how we roll. That's not how I won this election. We go right at it."

Regan would not say after his primary victory whether he would join a state House resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, likening opposition to the issue to some sort of conspiracy theory.

By contrast, Regan’s campaign has reported raising $12,943 with the majority coming from Regan himself. From March 22 through April 17, the final fundraising period before the special election, Regan disclosed raising just $20.

After the special primary election, Regan stood by his comparison of rape to the 2020 election while blasting GOP leaders on the "Your Defending Fathers" show, suggesting his opponents want to teach kids how to use condoms and joking about Stevie Wonder's vision.

"Let's be honest," Regan said at one point. "This is a distraction. It's a bunch of BS. And the voters deserve better than what our media and the Republican establishment has been giving us."

Regan also has posted anti-Semitic messages to social media, including a May 2021 post which said: "Feminism is only applied against white men, because it has absolutely nothing to do with protecting women as a sex or defending the feelings of individual women. It is a Jewish program to degrade and subjugate white men."

[babyblob]

Apparently Trump endorsed 22 candidates in the Ohio and Indiana GOP primaries and they all won yesterday. My head hurts.

I saw this on my local news an hour ago. This myth that some of the Liberal talking heads do about Trump's Influence wanning and the GOP voters being tired of him and his losing power are so full of crap. I wonder how any one thinks this.

[JB]

I saw this on my local news an hour ago. This myth that some of the Liberal talking heads do about Trump's Influence wanning and the GOP voters being tired of him and his losing power are so full of crap. I wonder how any one thinks this.

Exactly, they're delusional if they think he's simply fading away. While most of the talking heads are ignoring him he's holding rallies for his endorsements all over again.

[JB]

Maybe now the media will stop pretending covid has vanished.

Journalists from multiple news outlets test positive after White House Correspondents Dinner weekend
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/media...ner/index.html

In the days since WHCD weekend, reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, and other participating news organizations have tested positive for the virus. Most notably, ABC's Jon Karl, who shook hands with President Biden and who sat next to Kim Kardashian, has fallen ill, as Politico's Maxwell Tani first reported.

[Mister Mets]

Maybe now the media will stop pretending covid has vanished.

Journalists from multiple news outlets test positive after White House Correspondents Dinner weekend
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/media...ner/index.html

The important question is how sick they get. We don't get major headlines when journalists catch colds.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Apparently Trump endorsed 22 candidates in the Ohio and Indiana GOP primaries and they all won yesterday. My head hurts.

Not surprising. Here in Pennsylvania, Trump endorsed fellow TV snake oil salesman, Dr. Oz in the state’s GQP primary. His opponents have been running all sorts of attacks ads, most calling him a R.I.N.O., but, since he got the official blessing from Caramel Caligula, Oz will probably win. As long as Trump continues breathing, he’ll remain an unshakable force in American politics, whether we like it or not.

[Malvolio]

Make no mistake, there are signs of Trump's support waning. But that's all it is, signs. That means in some states, Trump supported candidates will lose and in other states, obviously Ohio and Indiana among them, they will win. It's a very slow wane.

[babyblob]

its funny the GOP made the whole CRT mess about parents deciding what is taught in school.
Well the High School in my area that cancelled Diversity Day had an online petition signed by 73 percent of the parents and students. Yet they have yet to say when and if the event will be rescheduled. They are currently looking at "All Factors." Involved in staging this event. Whatever that means. Yet they have had the event for many years in a row with out issue. So most of the parents and students want this to go forward. yet the board is dragging their feet on it because a handful of people had issue with it.

[Jack Dracula]

If Hillary had not run in the 2016 election but let Bernie Sanders get the nomination, Trump would not win and would also not nominate three SC justices.

If Democrats had gotten off their asses and voted in 2018 we could’ve blocked those nominations in the Senate until less conservative nominees were offered.

[CSTowle]

I see it as more of a lull as they prepare for '22 and '24. Again, seeing Trump signs since just after the election for a '24 election, never have I seen political signs for four years out. People are buying into this "Steal" hoax big-time. Reality is an optional thing now. We shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking he's losing support. You're only hope is that he doesn't feel like actually being President for four more years in what (please, gods in whom I do no believe) must be his twilight years. He'll absolutely run, that's a great fundraising and attention opportunity. Sadly, a Trump clone like Desantis has a pretty good shot at taking his place, and someone with more drive and actual conservative belief (I feel Trump cares little for anything, political philosophy or otherwise, that doesn't benefit him directly) might be more of a threat to democracy than he is. If he'd actually planned to stop the confirmation of the election instead of just sending morons out in waves like it was throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks things might be a lot different today. We might get to see that in '24, especially if things don't go their way outright.

[Mister Mets]

And other Historians say it was exactly designed to do that.

The Electoral College’s Racist Origins

I could Google bomb with dozens of other articles that confirm this. So don't think finding a contrarian opinion makes it false.

It does not appear to be a contrarian opinion.

In fairness to Mr. Mets, Wilfred Codrington is a legal scholar, not a historian. Not that I don't think he is an authority on the matter, but they do require different modes of thinking. It would be like of like asking a physicist to interpret the findings of a chemist. They likely have the fundamental ability to do so, but some of the nuance might be missed.

The fact of the matter is that history is incredibly complex and it's very hard to draw conclusions about the rationale behind certain things if they were explicitly written about. The truth of the Electoral College is more than likely somewhere in the middle.

I do certainly find Wilentz more persuasive here. Any discussion about the context of the electoral college has to take into account that at the time the franchise was limited to white landowning men. It wasn't until the 1828 election that the right to vote was granted to white men who didn't own land.

This has some implications for a system that has proportional representation based on population. There were always going to be some segments of the population that can't vote. This remains to be true now as children and recent immigrants are counted in the census, but not eligible to vote.

Just a reminder that this one was this guy:

Yeah that guy deserved to lose but it doesn't show the response to generic nominees.

Make no mistake, there are signs of Trump's support waning. But that's all it is, signs. That means in some states, Trump supported candidates will lose and in other states, obviously Ohio and Indiana among them, they will win. It's a very slow wane.

Trump does also pick his battles.

Vance in Ohio was the most prominent risky choice that paid off for Trump, but that was a crowded race without a clear frontrunner where two of the top candidates almost got into a fight a month ago.

https://www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/fight...ilitary-issue/

There's a reason Mike DeWine's top primary challenger was called Trump-aligned and not Trump-endorsed.

[CaptainEurope]

The important question is how sick they get. We don't get major headlines when journalists catch colds.

Covid-19 is not just a cold, Mets.

Please, please, please do not do this. It is a slap in the face to all of us who lost people, and those of us, like me, who are currently overworked because colleagues still get very ill and are out for weeks at a time.