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

[Deathstroke]

Regarding the Colorado ruling, I'm curious how the Supreme Court will go.

Kavanaugh is definitely not the "hawk" people thought he would be but Barrett has generally sided with the conservative bloc.

I can't imagine the Court will uphold the Colorado ruling. If they uphold it, I suspect many other states won't allow Trump on the ballot as well.

Which would be a good thing since he had no business being on the ballot for dog catcher much less president.

[AnakinFlair]

It's mainly grandstanding, and trying to get Haley and DeSantis to follow his lead.

Hmm, come to think of it, it could be an effort to get Trump's endorsement if this leads to Trump getting kicked off the ballot.

There are a few ways the court could go.

They could say Trump is an insurrectionist, and therefore constitutionally barred from running.

They could say that this part of the constitution shouldn't keep Trump off the ballot (this is the likeliest outcome.)

They could say that Colorado followed incorrect procedures.

It seems unlikely that they would say that it's up to Colorado to decide whether to consider Trump's candidacy a violation of the constitution. If this were to happen, other states would follow, especially with the court's blessing. Colorado was not considered a great state for Trump, but it certainly saves money for Democrats to get those votes in a general election without competing.

There remain some unknowns on how it works in the general election.

Maybe it'll persuade swing voters Trump is toxic. But it's also evidence that the system is refusing to abide by its own rules.

If this were to push Trump off the ballot altogether, it could be the best of all possible worlds for Republicans. They would get a more electable nominee, and the Trump supporters would still be motivated to go out and vote.

A current problem for the party is that if Haley or DeSantis were to win the nomination, which seems increasingly unlikely, Trump could encourage his supporters to stay home on Election Day.

Which would be a good thing since he had no business being on the ballot for dog catcher much less president.

There was a point made on the morning shows today- something to the effect that we don't have a federally run election, but rather 50 elections run by each state according to the rules in their State Constitutions (or something to that effect. I'm up way too early today). So in a sense, this ruling also becomes something about States' Rights.

The one legal argument against this that I can see is that he hasn't been convicted in a court of law yet for causing the insurrection. Yeah, it's obvious that he spurred it on. But there hasn't been a conviction yet. That's why I'm thinking SCOTUS will strike down Colorado's ruling, but will also strike down Trump's claim of Presidential immunity and allow that case to proceed on an expedited schedule.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of Florida State Senator Kathleen Passidomo, a member of the Florida House of Representatives who first appeared on the political scene in 2010, who since taking office, has fought hard to allow banks to be able to shorten the amount of time needed before they could seek foreclosure on homes, from five years to one. What really made Passidomo newsworthy, however, was the day she tried to get dress code restrictions passed for Florida schools by trying to justify it after news reports were released about a group of teenage boys in Cleveland, Texas, gang-raping an 11-year old girl, where Passidomo started blaming the victim and saying it was because “she dressed like a prostitute”. When the media reported her utterly disgusting remarks, Passidomo then started playing the victim, herself, and saying he was “really hurt” that people were outraged.

Passidomo was allowed to run for the Florida State Senate for the first time in 2016 unopposed, and she managed to be re-elected in 2018 with 66% of the vote to a second term in the Florida State Senate. Now, this might seem strange to most, but the Florida GOP held a vote Passidomo their President of the Florida State Senate starting in 2022. Apparently, term limits mean that they are jockeying into place, and they’ve decided anyone who is friendly to big banks, thinks that placing guns on school campuses will solve mass shootings on them, and apologizes enough for rape is someone that fits their long term strategy.

On the day she was sworn in to be the President of the Florida State Senate, she, for whatever reason, railed against the state of California, declaring that there, “something went wrong”, and then, while beaming at the Sunshine State’s very own fascist overlord, Gov. Ron DeSantis, had the unmitigated gall to praise his “strong, conservative leadership” during the COVID-19 pandemic without irony… at the time, DeSantis’ tenure as the political head of a bizarre death cult had seen more than 58,000 Floridians dead of the disease he has been so “strong” on, and sickened 3.6 million.

Wouldn’t you know it, someone who victim-blames a girl for her own rape oversaw the passage of a bill to ban abortion at 15 weeks without exceptions for rape in 2022. At least she’s consistent about offering more panic for rape victims.

Kathleen Passidomo was allowed to run for re-election unopposed in 2022, and will do four more years of damage to the state until she is term-limited to bugger off in 2026, such as voting for a bill granting Gov. Ron DeSenatis is own fascist state guard to command, or to vote for a transphobic bill to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors.

[CaptainEurope]

There was a point made on the morning shows today- something to the effect that we don't have a federally run election, but rather 50 elections run by each state according to the rules in their State Constitutions (or something to that effect. I'm up way too early today). So in a sense, this ruling also becomes something about States' Rights.

The one legal argument against this that I can see is that he hasn't been convicted in a court of law yet for causing the insurrection. Yeah, it's obvious that he spurred it on. But there hasn't been a conviction yet. That's why I'm thinking SCOTUS will strike down Colorado's ruling, but will also strike down Trump's claim of Presidential immunity and allow that case to proceed on an expedited schedule.

On the other hand, both majorities in both the House and the Senate found him guilty during the second impeachment, just that the majority in the Senate wasn't big enough to remove him from office for those final weeks.

[Mister Mets]

There was a point made on the morning shows today- something to the effect that we don't have a federally run election, but rather 50 elections run by each state according to the rules in their State Constitutions (or something to that effect. I'm up way too early today). So in a sense, this ruling also becomes something about States' Rights.

The one legal argument against this that I can see is that he hasn't been convicted in a court of law yet for causing the insurrection. Yeah, it's obvious that he spurred it on. But there hasn't been a conviction yet. That's why I'm thinking SCOTUS will strike down Colorado's ruling, but will also strike down Trump's claim of Presidential immunity and allow that case to proceed on an expedited schedule.

I saw some point that the Supreme Court is probably happy to vote against Colorado, and vote against Trump's claim of Presidential immunity. It shows they're making decisions based on their understanding of the law, rather than which side is helped at a given moment.

There is certainly a potential states right argument in saying that Colorado officials should have the ability to determine who is on the ballot in Colorado, although this is complicated in a federal election based on a judge's understanding of the US constitution.

On the other hand, both majorities in both the House and the Senate found him guilty during the second impeachment, just that the majority in the Senate wasn't big enough to remove him from office for those final weeks.

And to be clear, the category was "Incitement to insurrection."

On the other hand, if a majority of a jury wants to convict but there are four holdouts, it's not a guilty verdict.

A civil trial can also require a big majority (IE- five out of six.)

The constitution doesn't call for any verdict, although juries are the main mechanism through which facts are determined in the American legal system. That's where it would be helpful to find him guilty of insurrection.

This is a legal argument that will have to be explained to people who are not already primed to agree with any steps to keep Trump from winning back the White House.

[achilles]

You know the saying "as California goes, so goes the nation"? Well, get ready to hurl your cookies, as we are set to start drinking toilet water! Okay, they may treat it, though obviously not for the poors (in California, anyone making under maybe $500,000/year given how expensive it is to live here). They get to drink the straight stuff.

All right, that'll be the social media spin. The reality is...bad, but not quite that bad. We already do basically what they're proposing to an acceptable degree. We take waste water, and treat it pretty thoroughly, then use it to water commercial and public plantings. Its called "grey water", and it's not currently legal to use it for any human purposes such as drinking, washing dishes, or showering.

What CA has actually done here is come up with a set of standard treatments, a new set, which will require a large number of new water purification plants. Which to my mind is probably the point; billions more in graft opportunities. Have I ever mentioned CA officials are notoriously corrupt, from Newsom on down? About a decade ago, an entire city council plus mayor did not pass go and collect their normal $200, but instead went directly to jail after the feds nailed them for a whole range of corruption charges. That's a bit extreme, usually it's just one or two, like the mayor of Anaheim, where the Angels play and where Disneyland is. He got jailed for shenanigans to do with the Angels' real estate scam...er deal. So I imagine a lot of that money will go missing, as it usually does with such projects.

So we will all be drinking water that previously the state of California deemed not safe for human consumption. Nice. Probably tastes a bit crap though. All because the state government was too disinterested to build catch reservoirs to hold more water, or desalination plants, or better still, both. Yay! We are trend-setters!

But...this will be everyone else in the US in a decade's time. So pucker those lips and take a delicious swig of treated toilet water!

[CaptainEurope]

You know the saying "as California goes, so goes the nation"? Well, get ready to hurl your cookies, as we are set to start drinking toilet water! Okay, they may treat it, though obviously not for the poors (in California, anyone making under maybe $500,000/year given how expensive it is to live here). They get to drink the straight stuff.

All right, that'll be the social media spin. The reality is...bad, but not quite that bad. We already do basically what they're proposing to an acceptable degree. We take waste water, and treat it pretty thoroughly, then use it to water commercial and public plantings. Its called "grey water", and it's not currently legal to use it for any human purposes such as drinking, washing dishes, or showering.

What CA has actually done here is come up with a set of standard treatments, a new set, which will require a large number of new water purification plants. Which to my mind is probably the point; billions more in graft opportunities. Have I ever mentioned CA officials are notoriously corrupt, from Newsom on down? About a decade ago, an entire city council plus mayor did not pass go and collect their normal $200, but instead went directly to jail after the feds nailed them for a whole range of corruption charges. That's a bit extreme, usually it's just one or two, like the mayor of Anaheim, where the Angels play and where Disneyland is. He got jailed for shenanigans to do with the Angels' real estate scam...er deal. So I imagine a lot of that money will go missing, as it usually does with such projects.

So we will all be drinking water that previously the state of California deemed not safe for human consumption. Nice. Probably tastes a bit crap though. All because the state government was too disinterested to build catch reservoirs to hold more water, or desalination plants, or better still, both. Yay! We are trend-setters!

But...this will be everyone else in the US in a decade's time. So pucker those lips and take a delicious swig of treated toilet water!

If we had started fighting climate change when Al Gore said we should, this would likely not be your new normal. Sweetwater will become one rare resource.

[Tuck]

All because the state government was too disinterested to build catch reservoirs to hold more water, or desalination plants, or better still, both. Yay! We are trend-setters!

Reclamating waste water is cheaper than desalination, while being equally effective. Governments have mostly stayed away from it due to people's visceral reaction to the idea.

But every drop of water you've ever drunk has passed through living creatures countless times since the dawn of creation.

[Zelena]

Reclamating waste water is cheaper than desalination, while being equally effective. Governments have mostly stayed away from it due to people's visceral reaction to the idea.

But every drop of water you've ever drunk has passed through living creatures countless times since the dawn of creation.

True, contrary to oil, water when used is not lost…

But the novelty is the creation by the humans of new pollutants that cannot necessarily be destroyed by natural processes.

[achilles]

Reclamating waste water is cheaper than desalination, while being equally effective. Governments have mostly stayed away from it due to people's visceral reaction to the idea.

But every drop of water you've ever drunk has passed through living creatures countless times since the dawn of creation.

Well, then, you'll be fine with drinking it.

[CaptainEurope]

These are not serious people, but they are serious threats:

Texas Lt. Gov. Floats Removing Biden From State Ballot in Response to Colorado Dumping Trump

[achilles]

If we had started fighting climate change when Al Gore said we should, this would likely not be your new normal. Sweetwater will become one rare resource.

BTW, this has nothing to do with climate change. CA is a desert. When our population was much less, this was manageable. Now our population has greatly expanded, it isn't. And this was not only predictable, it WAS predicted by many people, many times down through the years. And yet our government failed to do a thing to build more water storage and distribution infrastructure. This is a problem caused by the very people who now say they're solving it with their little gray water thing.

[AnakinFlair]

These are not serious people, but they are serious threats:

Texas Lt. Gov. Floats Removing Biden From State Ballot in Response to Colorado Dumping Trump

I hear Texas is talking about seceding from the Union again as well. To which I say 'Don't let the door hit ya!'

[Malvolio]

I hear Texas is talking about seceding from the Union again as well. To which I say 'Don't let the door hit ya!'

We've already seen what a disaster it was when Texas seceded from the energy grid. But now they want to secede from the entire federal government? Yeah, run with that. See what happens.

[shooshoomanjoe]

These are not serious people, but they are serious threats:

Texas Lt. Gov. Floats Removing Biden From State Ballot in Response to Colorado Dumping Trump

Literally behaving like high school kids.