Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Lord Liaden]

Absolutely fair distinction to make, and I stand corrected. In some countries the head of government is also the head of state, as in the United States, while in others their offices and roles are distinct. Sometimes the head of state is effectively only a figurehead, in others they have real power.

 

I consider who attends joint conferences of world leaders to be a signifier of who wields real power in their countries. For example, France and Israel are both parliamentary systems with an elected President and "appointed" Prime Minister (that appointment is often just a formality following election results, particularly in the British Commonwealth). In such conferences the President represents France, while the Prime Minister represents Israel.

 

For the UK, of course, the Queen is very much treated as a figurehead by long convention, even though her constitutional powers are technically considerably greater. Boris Johnson leads the state today for practical purposes.

[Lord Liaden]

This came out on April 1, so it's probably a joke, but if true it's brilliantly creative, and hilariously ironic.

 

Memo Circulated To Florida Teachers Lays Out Clever Sabotage Of 'Don't Say Gay' Law

 

Below is the purported full text of the memo to teachers in Palm Beach County, a template for a letter individual teachers can fill and send to their students' parents. The memo was circulated on Twitter by the group, "Moms for Liberty," apparently in the hopes of raising outrage against it. The trend of comments seems pretty opposite.

 

 

 

The Twitter account of "Moms for Liberty" where this appeared is here. If this was a gag, they got trolled really hard.

[Pariah]

Malicious Compliance for the win!

[archer]

Finland and Sweden look poised to join NATO as early as the summer (despite Russian threats against both countries if they do join and the recent nuclear-armed aircraft Russia sent into Swedish airspace).

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-04-10/finland-sweden-set-to-join-nato-as-soon-as-summer-the-times

[Lord Liaden]

Literally everything Putin intended to accomplish by this invasion has boomeranged. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.

[Iuz the Evil]

56 minutes ago, archer said:

Finland and Sweden look poised to join NATO as early as the summer (despite Russian threats against both countries if they do join and the recent nuclear-armed aircraft Russia sent into Swedish airspace).

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-04-10/finland-sweden-set-to-join-nato-as-soon-as-summer-the-times

 

 

[Sociotard]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/04/11/they-did-everything-possible-and-impossible-ukrainian-marines-in-mariupol-are-out-of-ammo/

 

Ugh, this is awful.

 

Edit:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-airs-its-ultimate-revenge-plan-for-2024-us-presidential-elections

“When things thaw out and the presidential race for 2024 is firmly on the agenda, there’ll be moments we can use,” he added. “The most banal approach I can think of is to invite Trump—before he announces he’s running for President—to some future summit in liberated Mariupol.”

 

The last thing I want is for Mariupol to fall, but if it does, I hope this happens.

[Lord Liaden]

Florida Legislature surrenders to DeSantis on redistricting

 

 

'Draft dodgers' belie Ukrainian message of soldiers, volunteers overwhelmingly committed to fight for their country

 

 

Syrians help defend Ukraine against Russia, whose troops are now led by their brutal commander Dvornikov

[Iuz the Evil]

In the latest round of brilliant strategy, Putin lost the flagship of the Black Sea navy to a nation without a navy.
 

[Old Man]

3 hours ago, Iuz the Evil said:

In the latest round of brilliant strategy, Putin lost the flagship of the Black Sea navy to a nation without a navy.
 

 

This incident really encapsulates the entire conflict.  Russian readiness: The Moskva was probably not that well maintained.  It was scheduled to undergo modernization and refit in 2015 but didn't.  It might not have been modernized at all since 1982.  Russian operations: This aging flagship was promptly driven up to just over the horizon offshore of Odessa.  Ukrainian ingenuity: That put it in range of a Bayraktar TB2 drone, which was used to distract the ship's crew and point defense sensors (the latter of which have a 120˚ field of view). 

 

There is some question as to whether it has actually sunk or not, but given that the fires appear to have burned for twelve hours or so, the ship is done.  Especially since sanctions prevent Russia from fixing or building anything at the moment.

[unclevlad]

Russian defense ministry is admitting it sank while being towed now.

 

At this point, no matter what the outcome of this war is or how it ends, heads will be rolling in Russia.  The degree to which that's figurative versus literal, and WHOSE heads...that's up in the air.  Putin has to be losing face with the military, if not the rank and file...the former, and the oligarchs, know the truth.  

[Sociotard]

I'd rather the 1000 marines in Mariupol hadn't had to surrender than seen the warship sunk. *sigh*

 

Edit: this does brighten my day, the Moskva was THE Russian warship that called on Snake Island to surrender.

 

Russian warship has f***ed itself.

[Iuz the Evil]

 

[DShomshak]

According to the report on All Things Considered, Russian state media denies that Ukraine sank the Moskva using a pair of "Neptune" missiles. They say it was an accidental fire that reached the ship's ammo stores.

 

Is this claim supposed to make Russia's military look better?

 

Dean Shomshak

 

[unclevlad]

Yeah, I saw that comment in a separate story.  
 

The Ukrainian claim could be self-serving, so there's always some reason for doubt.  BUT, if Russia's willing to put out a story that paints them SOOOO BADLY...ya kinda gotta feel the Ukrainian story is *confirmed*.  

 

Huh.  We're in a time warp.  Welcome to 1984.

[Lord Liaden]

To be sure, it's not a good thing that at least some of the 500 sailors on the Moskva must have lost their lives. But as insensitive as it may feel, with all the tragedy surrounding this war, it feels good to make jokes about this -- almost impossible not to. Some good ones that I've heard:

 

The Moskva now lives in a pineapple under the sea.

 

The ship has been rechristened, "The Snake Island Memorial Reef."

 

The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet was sunk by a country without an operational navy. That's like being fired on your day off.

 

This ship was supposed to be in service until 2040 due to expensive refits, despite having been built in 1979. In Ukraine. Ukrainians brought her into this world, and they took her out of it.

[Iuz the Evil]

 

[Cygnia]

Republican party withdraws from US Commission on Presidential Debates

[unclevlad]

14 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Republican party withdraws from US Commission on Presidential Debates

 

Perhaps the most overt statement to date that the Party bigwigs are fundamentally opposed to democracy.

[Cygnia]

 

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Republican party withdraws from US Commission on Presidential Debates

 

According to the Republican National Committee, they're withdrawing because the debate commission is biased. I've noticed repeatedly that "biased" has become Republican code for "asks us questions we don't know the answer to or that would incriminate us."

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

According to the Republican National Committee, they're withdrawing because the debate commission is biased. I've noticed repeatedly that "biased" has become Republican code for "asks us questions we don't know the answer to or that would incriminate us."

 

I'd say it's closer to "refuses to give us everything we ask for, no matter what" in this case.  Yours is right in some other contexts, tho, to be sure.

 

EDIT:  strike "ask for."  Demand.

[archer]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

According to the Republican National Committee, they're withdrawing because the debate commission is biased. I've noticed repeatedly that "biased" has become Republican code for "asks us questions we don't know the answer to or that would incriminate us."

 

The main reason they're withdrawing is that they think Trump will be the nominee again if he wants it and he can't debate.

 

If they leave the possibility of debates open and he's opposed in the primaries, the other candidates would be idiots if they didn't use "he can't debate" against him, especially since he's even less rational now than in 2016.

 

So Trump would end up winning the nomination but be damaged...then look like he's chicken because he refuses to debate in the general election.

 

The RNC is sidestepping the whole thing by trying to get all the potential nominees to sign a pledge to not participate in presidential commission debates...and rigging the nomination process in the various states so that only candidates who signed the pledge will be eligible to be listed on the ballot during the primaries as a presidential candidate.

 

If Trump decides to not run, or runs and loses the primaries, I'd expect the RNC to do an about-face and require their nominee to debate.

 

And honestly, there's not any of them potentially running (except Trump) who don't think they could absolutely destroy Biden in a debate (whether that's true or not is another matter).

 

That was never Biden's strong suit even back to his first run for president in 1988. He plagiarized material from other politicians during his extemporaneous speaking, exaggerated his own accomplishments (such as the number of college degrees he'd earned and that he'd marched in the civil rights movement when he hadn't), and was forced to withdraw his candidacy.

 

And he's definitely lost a step in his spontaneous responses since then.

 

Everyone on the Republican side except for Trump is eager to get Biden as a debate opponent.

[Joe Walsh]

3 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

According to the Republican National Committee, they're withdrawing because the debate commission is biased. I've noticed repeatedly that "biased" has become Republican code for "asks us questions we don't know the answer to or that would incriminate us."

 

Exactly. By saying an organization with an even split of R and D leaders is biased against them, they're 1) saying they will only support things that are biased in their favor and 2) sending yet another signal to their base that democracy is biased against them and must be rejected.

[unclevlad]

archer, you're assuming Biden is going to run for a second term.  I don't think it's a foregone conclusion.  I do agree that Biden's not going to fare well in debates...his mis-steps WRT Putin have been bad.  Not that we disagree with them per se, but e.g. the war criminal comment was completely inappropriate for a head of state to make at that time.  

 

CNN is opining it's a petty revenge move driven by Trump.  That's certainly in character and plausible...but CNN is going to take the most anti-Trump view of things they can.

 

But I don't think your argument holds up.  Pulling out of CPD debates doesn't mean pulling out of debates during primary season.  It's plausible, sure, that there won't really *be* any meaningful primary opposition to His Orangeness and thus few/no debates.  Trump is also going to spew extensive nonsense during the primaries;  isolating him from debates doesn't protect him from himself.