Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Old Man]

The problem with NyQuil is they moved the pseudoephedrine one behind the counter (now called NyQuil-D) and put a version with phenylephrine on the shelf.  Phenylephrine does nothing.

 

Of course, all medications containing pseudoephedrine got moved behind the counter because of people cooking meth.  That's not NyQuil's fault.

 

What is NyQuil's fault is that one dose is like 50 mL so you get very few doses in the bottle.  I suppose that's fine if you're drinking it straight out the bottle but if you're actually sick and you want to feel better, something like Robitussin is a better deal.

[Starlord]

I prefer Canadian Mist whiskey myself.

[BarretWallace]

12 minutes ago, Starlord said:

I prefer Canadian Mist whiskey myself.

You had me at "whiskey."

 

I've been sampling some locally-made whiskeys lately.  It's amazing how many distilleries are located in and near the Twin Cities.  Each year my friendly local liquor store also does a single-barrel purchase, bottles it, and uses the proceeds to support a local veterans' memorial park.  Hmm, maybe conversations like this explain why so many whiskey ads show up in my Facebook feed.

 

To get somewhat on topic, in 2016 I had the privilege of participating in the Michigan International Camporee (MIC).  Our campsite held our Michigan host unit, our Minnesota boys, a unit from Honduras, and a unit from Essex, England.  I had an interesting discussion with one of the English kids regarding who had it worse: them for Brexit, or us for the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency.  I know who "won" that discussion, and there is not enough whiskey in the world to dull the pain.

[Hermit]

December 14th is closing

Thank goodness.

 

 

[Starlord]

We'll see.

[Cancer]

11 hours ago, Pariah said:

Of course, I'm hardly an expert when it comes to alcoholic libations. The closest I get is an occasional shot of NyQuil.

 

 

I admit I heard this live, covered by Jesse Winchester in 1978, but it seems appropriate here.

[archer]

On 12/10/2020 at 1:43 PM, unclevlad said:

On the one hand, this lawsuit doesn't concern me because I cannot conceive that the SC will do anything but reject it, with either no comment or a retaliatory broadside that it's a farce.

 

On the other hand, what's so scary is the states trying to back it.  Because they aren't going to do that if they fear a political backlash...and that means, they must feel they've got widespread voter support in their states.  That shows me that the politics of separation won't change;  why accede to anything the Democrats want, when their core is this large and this strong?  It embraces Trumpian political strategy, if not philosophy of governance...because Trump doesn't have one of those.  (Or, if you prefer, it's "do what I say.")  It provides strong legitimacy to all the wild election-fraud claims;  "it's no longer a single Trump supporter, it's 17 states!!!!  How can that not be real!!! "  

 

And yes, IMO it lays bare that there's a deep fracture in this country, that feels like it's leading to passive secession...secession through selective enforcement or half-hearted, reluctant compliance *as an active policy* rather than a passive one.

 

I would dispute that there's 18 states backing this.

 

There's 18 Attorneys General backing this, not 18 states.

 

Attorney General is an elected position, in most states at least. So the guy who wins the election is usually a politician who has a law degree.

 

There's usually, and very deliberately, a limited number of ways that a governor or state legislature has to influence an Attorney General to do something or to not do something. He's the head of the state's equivalent of the Justice Department and is generally given a wide latitude to do what he sees as his job in the way he sees fit.

 

So basically you have 18 politicians who have signed onto a lawsuit to help a politician of their same political party. 

 

They're using their state's law department money to pursue the case, which might at some point in the far future come back to bite them in the butt. However, even if the Attorney General was literally the only Republican in the entire state, he likely in each state has the authority to join this lawsuit regardless of how the rest of the state government and the people in those states feel about it.

 

That's one of the reasons why you should elect ethical people to those offices rather than people like AG Paxton of Texas who had ethical and legal problems in his past before his first election and was under indictment on a separate matter during his second election in 2018.

 

At the moment, he's under investigation by the FBI for yet another matter. This week while he was at a White House party, his offices in Texas were being ransacked under an FBI warrant.

 

This whole lawsuit by Paxton is likely a fishing expedition by him to get a Trump pardon (in exchange for services) to try to get out of his own legal troubles.

 

There's not any real reason for Trump to not dangle a pardon in front of Paxton. And there's not any real reason for Trump to not follow through with giving him a pardon after this lawsuit angle has played out. It's not like giving a pardon to Paxton is going to give any more negative publicity than his pardons to former administration officials. It might not even make the nightly news.

[unclevlad]

5 minutes ago, archer said:

 

I would dispute that there's 18 states backing this.

 

There's 18 Attorneys General backing this, not 18 states.

 

 

 

True enough.  And Utah's governor already criticized his AG.

Plus, at the state level, AG is often viewed as a steppingstone to lieutenant governor or governor, or the US Senate, rather than a final destination.  So it's a good platform from which to expound.  And it turns out, the Utah AG has done this before:

 

https://utahpolicy.com/index.php/features/today-at-utah-policy/14266-group-criticizes-ag-reyes-for-support-of-partisan-gerrymandering

 

On the flip side, 22 state AGs have filed in opposition.  The negative here, tho, is the deep cracks in the union this shows.

[Cygnia]

...the HELL?!

 

Two States That Don't Exist Apparently Just Filed Brief in Support of TX Lawsuit to Overturn Election

[Ternaugh]

20 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

...the HELL?!

 

Two States That Don't Exist Apparently Just Filed Brief in Support of TX Lawsuit to Overturn Election

 

Apparently, these are movements to split the rural areas of California and Nevada into new states. At least in Nevada, the rural counties require subsidies for various services from the state government, paid for by the revenues from the larger counties of Clark (Las Vegas) and Washoe (Reno), so if they really want to separate themselves from that revenue stream, more power to them. 

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

...the HELL?!

 

Two States That Don't Exist Apparently Just Filed Brief in Support of TX Lawsuit to Overturn Election

 

 

Well, this movement has as much standing to act as Paxton does.

[BoloOfEarth]

Aaaand... the Supreme court says No.

Cue temper tantrum from the Toddler in Chief in 5... 4... 3...

[unclevlad]

In more serious news:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/11/politics/white-house-fda-chief-approve-covid-vaccine-resign/index.html

 

Trump wants the credit for its development.

But it's another extremely poor push to interfere with the scientific process for political reasons.

 

Canada approved after a separate review, so I'm not worried this vaccine is going to be dangerous, beyond the usual concerns.

[archer]

1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

 

Well, this movement has as much standing to act as Paxton does.

 

I expected the State of DeNile to be part of the lawsuit. But for the life of me couldn't think of what the other one might be.

[wcw43921]

The Congressional Republicans Who Signed On To The Lawsuit To Overturn The Election Results

[Pariah]

3 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

The Congressional Republicans Who Signed On To The Lawsuit To Overturn The Election Results

 

1) Not one of my State's three Republican Representatives is on that list. That's a pleasant surprise. I was expecting to see all three of them.

 

2) At the end of that article was a link to another article titled "Some Europeans Think Donald Trump Is Attempting a Coup". My first thought was, I've got some news for you. I'm an American and I think Donald Trump is attempting a coup.

[BoloOfEarth]

4 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

The Congressional Republicans Who Signed On To The Lawsuit To Overturn The Election Results

 

Given that Michigan was one of the states whose election Texas was trying to trash, I'm saddened to see four of our Representatives on there.  Even sadder to see the Rep of my own district listed.  Or maybe "sickened" is a better word.  I used to think, "maybe he's not so bad."  Not any more.

[csyphrett]

Virginia Foxx and Ted Budd. No surprises. The only way they can help the country is to stop breathing. A lot of the names on this list have been all in for Trump, especially Gaetz and King.

CES   

[Cygnia]

Jim Jordan too.

[Hermit]

6 hours ago, wcw43921 said:

The Congressional Republicans Who Signed On To The Lawsuit To Overturn The Election Results

 

*Sighs at the TN list* And they'll get re-elected next time too

 

[unclevlad]

6 hours ago, csyphrett said:

Virginia Foxx and Ted Budd. No surprises. The only way they can help the country is to stop breathing. A lot of the names on this list have been all in for Trump, especially Gaetz and King.

CES   

 

But that's pretty much a given, isn't it?  If they've been backing Trump, how can they not continue?

 

There's both mob pressure and peer pressure that seems to be at work here.  Mob pressure from the perception of abandonment by the Trump supporters come the 2022 primary;  peer pressure from the other representatives having signed.

[csyphrett]

maybe you're right. I live in Foxx's district and Budd's is the next county over. they're in a safe district for them with a lot of Trump/Pence flags out. They might change if they said Trump needs to go.

 

On the other hand even before this if I saw Foxx had run through a guard rail and into the river, I wouldn't have stopped to call Fire Rescue for her. 

CES  

[Cancer]

That's kind of what I think of both of the two Washington reps on the list.

[wcw43921]

Condescend much, Mr. Epstein?  Shows what we got to look forward to these next four years.

[Pariah]

Shut up, Texas. You're drunk.

 

'#Texit': A Texas state lawmaker says he will propose a referendum on seceding from the US because the 'federal government is out of control'