TrickstaPriest

GOP betting on ‘sadism’ — and if they’re right we’re all heading into the ‘abyss’: columnist

Once again, Putin threatened nuclear escalation against NATO. How seriously should we take his saber-rattling? Russia and Ukraine military expert Alexander Vindman offers his opinion. tl;dr: Putin is not suicidally insane. His goal is to live to fight another day. US and NATO aide to Ukraine will not push him to the Big Hot One. But it is deeply not useful for national security people to be fretting about whether the US can restore peaceful and productive relations with Russia. Putin burned that bridge himself. It's Cold War II; deal with it.
 
A former national security official explores what could be next in the Ukraine war | NPR Illinois
 
Dean Shomshak

If I were a Russian general given this guy, and, y'know, Evil, I would give this guy a machete and a motorcycle with a full tank of gas, point him at free Ukrainian territory, and say, "Here's your buffet. Indulge yourself." He's off my hands, and makes more trouble for Ukraine.
 
I suspect this is more or less the plan in the Wagner Group recruiting from prisons. They aren't seeking soldiers. They're seeking brigands to commit atrocities. Even the ones who desert are useful if they desert in Ukraine and prey on that populace. And even if they head back to Russia, eh, they aren't likely to rob and kill anyone who matters.
 
Dean Shomshak

But it isn't about actual truth.  It's about reinforcing a perception.
 
Elsewhere, the in-box this morning had one from NYT, promoting a 30 minute video about the attack on democracy.  I presume it's paywalled, so no link.  The 2 major points:
--voter suppression efforts aren't the #1 issue.  They're anti-democratic, they're probably racist...but their impact is far from clear.  
--the bigger problem is a concerted effort to distort the voting process at its very source...the polling places.  By bringing in poll workers.  Training them to challenge voters *extensively*, to create the perception that widespread voter fraud *is* happening...when the fraud is being performed by the poll workers.  And this is targetable...election results are tallied at the precinct level, so you challenge in heavily Democratic precincts.  There's never been evidence of widespread fraud...so, well, heck, we can't have that, so let's CREATE THE EVIDENCE.  Oh, and of course, it's in all these Democratic districts.  

Oh, piss nuggets.
 
Russia announced a partial mobilization, which means 300,000 reservists.
 
https://m.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-717706
 
In better news...
 
On the 17th Russia tried crossing the Dnipro with a barge loaded with soldiers and weapons. Ukraine sank it. On the 19th Russia tried it again. Ukraine sank that one too.
 
I assume Russia has had successes too, that weren't listed, but it still gives me hope.
 
https://en.defence-ua.com/events/ukraines_military_sank_the_second_barge_with_russian_troops_during_their_attempt_to_force_the_dnipro_river-4280.html

https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2022/09/18/migrants-massachusetts-human-trafficking-legal-questions-sanctuary-states-derail-asylum/10411260002/
 
 

While the trailer is barf worthy, I think that Time writer needs to take some implicit bias training.
 
This isn't a new concept. Outward Bound has been doing it for years.
 
Teaching self sufficiency, and improving self esteem through showing someone they can do something they didn't think they were capable of isn't some novel, extremist concept.
 
The Time writer can also F *** right off on her opinions about military veterans. We're people who served, that's it. There's a whole lot of diversity under the umbrella of military veteran.
 
The show is just being puerile garbage and playing off of generational conflict to promote itself. Nothing new there. Just don't watch it and move along. They have entire categories on Netflix that are the polar opposite of this, so I'm not seeing it as "hinting" at anything. That's just the Time writer sinking to the same level as Netflix.
 
I tend to view any TV/streaming show through the lens of Sturgeon's Law: 90% of anything is garbage. With shows, you then need to apply Sturgeon's Law to the remaining 10% and feel lucky if you find something that's not awful to watch. Fortunately, given the volume of material available, you can usually find something you like. So, ignore the rest IMO.

Exactly.  The PAC system is a huge issue.  A huge, billion-dollar problem now...

I believe there's already pretty extensive campaign financing reporting laws.  If you want to know the corporate contributors, you can find out.  
 
But this catches the direct contributions;  it does nothing for the more pernicious, IMO, PAC contributions.  Since we've got a gubernatorial election, this is still a relatively loud election season here.  The candidates aren't running many ads;  the PACs run most of em.  And in general, candidate ads are MUCH less inflammatory than PAC ads.  
 
Nice article about campaign money here:
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/02/2020-cycle-cost-14p4-billion-doubling-16/
 
 

If recent history in my home state is any guide (well, recent from my perspective), I must sadly concur.  A few years back, we elected a former pro wrestler as our governor.  He did pretty well for his first two years, and then I think his ego got the better of him.  There were two major high points from his governorship that I recall.  Firstly (at least for his first two years), he was a breath of fresh air, a welcome break from the old, tired bickering of extreme right vs. extreme left.  Second, he sparked unprecedented cooperation between the two major parties; that the cooperation was against him is another point of discussion.  We haven't had a non-RepubliCrat governor since.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, but to clarify:  what does "get the big money out of government" even mean?  Get rid of the lobbyists?  Eliminate political contributions?  That's just the first level of issues.  What's the target?  
 
Email from NYT this morning pointed out this opinion piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/opinion/democracy-crisis-speech-trump.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20220914&instance_id=71899&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=101745266&segment_id=106256&te=1&user_id=618f95a4931087ea799b0e9f4a9d3344
 
Probably paywalled for many...the short-short take
 
 
A comment from the email, not in the article:

 
 
Make one big change to the system...interesting thought experiment.  I think most isolated ideas won't work, because the problems go much deeper.  As a possible means to break the cycle of radical polarization, shift everyone to ranked-choice voting.  I'd also consider making the Presidential race a true national election...ditch the electoral college, make it strictly the popular vote.  Ideally, make it ranked-choice...but that would require there to be a viable 3rd party candidate.

Maine and Alaska have ranked choice voting already, and I'll get the chance to vote on Nevada Question 3 in November, which is the Top-Five Ranked Choice Voting Initiative: https://ballotpedia.org/Nevada_Question_3,_Top-Five_Ranked_Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)

I guess I'm against the Golden Rule (He who has the gold makes the rules.)
 
However, I didn't say all laws, did I? I said "sweeping changes," not all changes.
 
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No, I've been sleeping this whole time. Thanks for the update. 😁

It really is a massive tactical win for the Ukrainian side, and a huge morale booster. As for the Russian troops, their morale was already in the toilet, and Russian command and control appears in total disarray. It's too soon to declare victory, but with continuing Western support Ukraine has a good shot at eventually achieving their stated goal of driving Russia out of all the territory they've occupied since 2014.
 
Some pundits are claiming that Vladimir Putin is facing a "Swan Lake moment." Again, it's premature to assume such a thing, but his position has to be more tenuous now, at least among Russia's other power players. Strongman politicians rarely last long if their underlings perceive weakness.

You do realize that Big Money has been in politics probably since TV became the dominant medium, right?  And that the partisan gulf that's replaced stewardship dates back to Limbaugh, then largely locked in with Gingrich?

Good luck to us all.  Reports for the last couple years have indicated hard-right, nationalistic, authoritarian parties on the upswing in many places.

This is Election Day in Sweden, for local, regional, and national representatives. I'm off to the ballot box in a little while. 
 
This time, for the first time ever, I'm more voting against than for something. And this thing is the Sweden Democrats (SD) -- avowedly national conservative by their own description, founded by actual Nazis. Their party program has passages lifted almost verbatim from Mein Kampf and speaks about "peoples' essence". They admire Victor Orbán and Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian right-wingers. They are populists, and say what they think will get them elected. They invent problems, or wildly blow them out of proportion. They are for "law and order", but no other party comes even close to having as many convicted among their representatives and party functionaries -- law and order for thee, but not for me.
 
That's the bullet points, and I think you can imagine the rest. On their own, they wouldn't be that much of a problem; they got 17.5% of the votes in the national elections four years ago, and hold 62 seats out of 349 in the Riksdag. They poll below this as of today.
 
But they are not on their own. The Moderates and the Christian Democrats (more garden-variety conservatives, of the fiscal and the social kinds respectively) and the Liberals (once actual liberals, but nowadays seems to me more of "We need to have a seat in the government or fade into oblivion!" desperates than anything) are ready to form a government with the support -- or with the actual participation -- of SD.
 
Riding a tiger and all that. I smell a von Papen moment coming along if the blue-brown block gets the upper hand.

Russian defenses collapse in the east. Perhaps 1000 sq. miles of territory taken in a few days. 
 
 

But three rights make a left.

I have to agree with Joe. There are two proposed places being fought by residents since one appears to be at the end of a development with no way to get to a main street except through the development and the other is supposed to be right at the entrance of another development behind a shopping mall.
 
There was another development nixed by Clemmons. The spot was in the same area as others already there close to the shopping strip on Clemmons Rd/Stratford Rd
CES 

And to take that further, out of how many cops and military?  
 
And on the politicians, they don't mention the level, or the nature.  City council?  County school board?  The count also includes candidates, not simply elected.  So how large is the pool of people here?  
 
Not saying it's good that there are any...but there will always be some.  So, the phrasing is misleading, but hey, it's the Daily Beast.  The original AP story discusses the fact that just being on the list means little...how many times have you signed up for something you later went, oh, this was a mistake....  To be sure, some people saying that are doing CYA, so denial skepticism is justified.

To that first point, population density isn't really a difference, considering that 80% of Canada's population lives within 100 miles of the American border. I live in the shadow of the fourth most populous city in North America, the core of an urbanized area of over six million. But, while we most definitely have a serious problem with poverty, homelessness, etc. it's true that our social safety net is in some ways more robust than yours.
 
OTOH I agree that the American mythology of rebellion, individualism, and violent conflict resolution, is probably a significant factor in the mindset of many Americans. But the historical record illustrates that wasn't always the case, and that said mythology has been promulgated by parties with a vested interest in promoting it, and the savvy to popularize it. I've always said Americans as a society are the greatest salesmen the world has ever seen. You can sell almost anything to almost anyone, even each other.