No Excuses

1 hour ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

I find the argument that previous presidents didn't win the popular vote to be potentially flawed.  Has there been a reliable study to see how many affiliated with the minority party in a non-swing state would take the time to vote if they felt like it mattered?  For example, how many Republicans in California or Democrats in West Virginia don't even bother voting knowing there vote doesn't really matter but would if it became a straight popular vote?  Is it possible to even get a realistic guess at that?

This itself is a primary reason why the EC should be abolished. There are more Trump voters in California than several small "red states" combined. And they are mostly disenfranchised because the electoral college is a garbage system with no rational logic behind it and no relevance to present-day conditions of this country.

Fealty to bad governance systems that produce bad outcomes for the sake of "muh history" is pretty regressive.

The most factually disastrous governments in the past twenty years have resulted from the archaic system of conducting national elections where the majority will of the public is disregarded for the interests of a small minority of the population. It disenfranchises people on both sides of the political spectrum.

The rest of the democratic world is doing just fine with a popular vote system, much better than us in fact. Tossing the electoral college into the dustbin of history is probably the best government reform this country can undertake.

If Texas continues its shift towards liberal politics, you can bet that Republicans will get on board with scrapping the EC. And at that point, it should be a bipartisan effort to abolish it.

The Democrats only weapon against the raw exercise of Republican power in stacking federal courts is to expand the courts. There are two things in this country that will always remain true:

1. Most of the public is low information voters, majority of the people can't name more than one SC justice, let alone keep track of how many judges are on a lower court bench

2. You win elections by making people's lives better. People need healthcare access, small businesses need bailouts, our infrastructure sucks and needs to be modernized.

If you win with a governing mandate, you expand the courts and you pass policies that are popular and that have immediate payoff. You do the Trumpian strategy of flooding the news waves with activity, where no one keep up with what happened the week before. But you do it on issues that are popular, not on garbage that is exhausting.

4 hours ago, Destino said:

 Clones?  It seems I’ve missed a few episodes of this crazy show.  When did we get clones?

Well Hillary and Obama still aren't at GITMO, so to reconcile this unfortunate development with Q-reality, the Hillary and Obama we see right now are obviously clones and the real ones are either dead or Trump already arrested them.

Portland is treating today’s far right rally as an unauthorized paramilitary activity. 
 

Cool, normal country.

New Gojira song after 4 years. Very good (both song and music video).

2 hours ago, HOF44 said:

So is this talk of using an impeachment to run out the clock on a justice nominee legit and possible or wishful thinking?  I’ve seen several articles refer to it but none lay out the specifics of how it would take precedence over the approval of the justice. Interesting idea though. 

The Republicans can dismiss any impeachment articles within 15 minutes and move on. There is no procedural moves that can delay a vote in any meaningful capacity.

The only move that exists is letting the GOP know that nothing is off the books if they break the norms they hypocritically created themselves and actually following through with it. Biden already had expanding the lower courts as part of his campaign platform. The House has already passed statehood for DC. He doesn't have to explicitly talk about the Supreme Court and expanding congressional representation to disenfranchised US citizens, but there is absolutely zero reason to not do this anymore. The GOP has governed in bad faith for two decades at this point and it has had disastrous outcomes on a number of fronts: from pointless wars, to economic meltdowns to botched pandemic responses.

The point of governance has never been adherence to arbitrary norms, especially when one side disregards them at will. This country has been an abject disaster this century both times the electoral college has allowed the loser of the popular vote to win elections. Balancing the institutions to ensure that the majority voice of the public is heard will produce better governance outcomes over the long term.

A system of governance that overvalues the electoral voice of a minority of voters (who are largely disconnected from the real world consequences of their bad decisions) is a system in need of deep structural reforms, especially when the existing outcomes are already terrible.

18 minutes ago, Fan since a Fetus said:

My wife made a donation of $100 to get Mitch out of office last night. She is really bothered by this as I am. After talking about it this morning, we are donating $400 more. Her passing has lit a fire under our butts that should have already been there. We are on a mission the next several weeks and a real possibility that we go way beyond.

I emptied my wallet to every Senate candidate in a competitive race. The only play here is that McConnell can take the short term win and if the GOP loses the Senate and WH, all of those wins are nullified AND we get four new Senators from DC and Puerto Rico.

39 minutes ago, nonniey said:

That would be the bottom of the slope. That would massively increase the power of the President. Every time there is a political shift from one party to the other the court would be increased (Heck I can see presidents increasing the court size even if it was his parties court and it blocks legislation important to him), until eventually there would no longer be political shifts in power.

This is a far better system than waiting until someone dies. And when one party has openly lied about the norms and conventions required for appointing justices. 
 

“death of democracy” is peachy. There is currently a buffoon who spends every morning undermining the integrity of our voting system because he thinks he will lose. And he has an entire party backing him unconditionally on his march to eroding all civic norms and degrading every institution that checks his power. 
 

Go pound sand.

I have very low expectations but if the Dems take the Senate, they should appoint a minimum of three justices and end the filibuster. Statehood for Puerto Rico and DC. Add four Senators. 
 

Do they have the fortitude for this? Probably not. But it’s the only response to the GOP lying and cheating it’s way to power over the past decade.

History will remember her as a titan; of human rights and of a fair and equal society. 
 

Also

Pack the courts.

4 hours ago, Springfield said:

So I've got something to get off of my chest.

 

I 100% believe, from the bottom of my heart, that wearing a mask around groups of people (shopping, work, meetings, etc) while inside protects ME. Specifically a multi layered surgical mask (or something other than a thin gaiter). I believe that even if I'm exposed to Covid while wearing a mask, I'll get a lower viral load resulting in an asymptomatic or very minimal case of Coronavirus. I believe that this type of case is less likely to spread to the community as well. I know that the science doesn't 100% support this thesis, but I can't help but think that logically a mask also protects the wearer.

 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

 

There is science to support this and this is common practice in Asian countries during flu season.

Asia handled the pandemic well because mask wearing behavior is common and universally agreed upon as an effective tool to protect yourself and to protect others.

5 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

We know there are people on all sides of this issue. So, I would think the way Cousins is acting is precisely what we want. Since we will never have 100% agreement, isn't it enough for someone to say "I don't see it this way, but I'll comply with the masks" 

 

To me that sets a perfectly fine example. 

There is no acceptable condition under which someone with a public platform should be spreading misinformation in the midst of a global pandemic that is killing thousands every day.

What you call is a perfect example is the kind of asshole-ry that made the US have the worst outbreak in the world. He wears a mask? Great. Don't go on the radio and then tell people that masks don't work with your zero expertise in medical science or epidemiology.

17 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

 

What else do we really want out of people?

For people with public platforms to not spread misinformation like “masks don’t work” and “survival of the fittest”? 

The narcissism of people like Cousins is amazing. "I will be fine, if not oh well". As if he is not capable of infecting others, especially the most vulnerable in our communities. Complete jackass.

1 minute ago, Cooked Crack said:

If Charlottesville happened today the response would be much different. Right wing media would be defending James Field. 

Yup. James Fields was treated a hero in far right circles but he never got mainstream accolades. But the arguments were the same, that he drove into the crowd because he "feared for his life". Kyle Rittenhouse's ascendance really shows how the extremists won and the entire party is now just a bunch of bloodthirsty racists whose entire worldview is about power and domination.

This was a long time coming. It's basically Charlottesville but all over the country at this point.

Trump's America was always bound to look like this.

The best part of this story is that Michael Cohen received photos and evidence of this back in 2015. Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump immediately and has been bootlicking ever since.

Seems like someone really enjoys being cucked. Lol

The indictment might as well be a complete portrait into the modern conservative movement. 
 

It’s a bunch of rich scam artists using racism and xenophobia to fuel their lavish lifestyles. 
 

These guys were literally texting each other about how no one will find out how the money is being used. They have so much contempt for the regular GOPer, it’s amazing. 

10 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

It's not clear to me whether he was indicted under state or federal law.  Trump can't do much except complain if they are state charges.  

Charges came from SDNY. This may explain why Barr was up to some ****ery there a few weeks ago. 
 

Shoot this straight into my god damn veins.

Both Roger Stone and Manafort lied to protect Trump and were rewarded along the way.

Straight up mafia stuff.

Anyone here own a roomba? Thinking of buying one. Our dog sheds like crazy and vacuuming every other day is just a pain in the ass at this point.

1 hour ago, Dan T. said:

So it really boils down to this... who do you trust for reliable information during a deadly global pandemic?

Every right wing huckster with a radio show chucks bogus dietary supplements to their audience so this is really no surprise that we went from HCQ, which did not pass any clinical trials, to dietary supplements, which don't require clinical trials.

Now they can sell fantasy pills to bozos, make tons of money and kill lots of ignorant people along the way. The ultimate GOP fantasy scenario when you think about it.

5 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

I have been seeing a ton of "OMG child trafficking!" going around Facebook lately.  Is this a Q thing or just a GOP deflection thing?  

It’s probably tied to Q. It’s the new past time for losers who have nothing in their lives to give them a purpose.