TrickstaPriest

Sadly, the middle of a recession isn't the best time to be idealistic about labor relations when a strike just before the holidays could bring supply-chain problems back to height-of-COVID levels. 

I hate the term "Both sides" but I'm rather pissed at the Democratic Party (or at least Biden) right now because of their treatment of the potential rail strikers. The GQP? I expected it from.
 
 

You don't say.
 
School principals say culture wars made last year 'rough as hell'

What I'm expecting is a repeat of 2016. The common electorate will grant him something between 10-20% of the vote.  Then the powers behind the scenes will come in and determine that we did not know what we were doing and recast the election,  giving him over 50%, WAY  more than is needed to claim the nomination. (I was surprised that this didn't happen in 2020.)

The head of the DOE, Sam Brinton, is arrested for stealing luggage. Infuriating.  I was the one defending them for being very qualified and their being non-binary not meaning anything. Neither of those things have changed, but now I do regret standing up for them.

I direct you to my signature.

My favorite part of US politics.
 
The two primary parties spend so much time and energy trying to control some aspect of somebody else's life, mostly, it seems, as a means of ensuring their own positions.
 
 

Two weeks ago there was a fatal shooting at the high school four blocks from my house.

And the Colorado Springs shooting.
 
And the UNM shooting...which was planned, premeditated, and targeted.  Which only had 1 death...one of the attackers, but still.
 
It already has devolved.  It is still only intermittent, but perpetual doesn't require continuous...but these incidents are all within 10 days of each other.
 
And that doesn't begin to touch those that don't make the wider news.
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting
 
Just to point out one:  Richmond.  The 19th.  Mother, 3 kids.  Incident categorizes it as both home invasion and domestic violence;  the shooter was the father of 2 of the kids he shot.  Just because we don't hear about it, doesn't make it any less sickening.

Benedict Donald is running again. Dammit.
 
I don't think this is the best news the democrats can get. I really don't. This guy is poison and yet still has far too large a chunk of the American population following him like cultists. Only this time he's got 'his people' planted deeper than before, and the Supreme Court has at least one judge whose wife is so deep into supporting the Jan 6 riots its scary.  Every time in 2016, folks were like 'oh now Trump goes down' or 'Trump will never win the primaries... and every time, he didn't. And he won the primary, and the democrats patted themselves on the back because how could ANYONE vote for this clown.
 
And they did vote for him. And the Electoral College got him the win. I know Desantis is smarter than Trump. It's not about smart. It's about worship of a man who is the golden calf incarnate. Everytime the liberals assume Trump is done, they end up paying a price and Trump is still untouched. He lost the presidency, and we thought 'thank god that's over' only for Jan 6 sedition to start up over the great lie, people died, and hey.. .Trump's still free from bars for his sedition, and 61% of registered Republicans still believe the votes were rigged or 'may have been'. They're not going to change their mind in 2 years. And Trump will use his run in 2024 to say any legal action brought against him is just a political stunt.
 
And now he's running again, and so many voices are clapping with glee like 'oh well, stick a fork in him , he's done THIS time'
 
I am so tired of watching that mindset bite us in the ass.

There is a nonzero chance that what landed in Poland is a Ukranian air defense missile fired to intercept a russian cruise missile that missed.
 
Complicating matters is the fact that Ukraine employs a number of anti aircraft missiles manufactured by russia, so figuring out whose fault it was is going to be extremely tricky.
 
Complicating things even further, russians have been resorting to using anti aircraft missiles (S300s for example) in land attack missions due to lack of supplies of higher grade cruise missiles.
 
So figuring out exactly what happened is going to be tricky. Hopefully somebody has satellite or radar tracking data that can be checked to figure out where these missiles came from.
 
Also, there are fires burning in Belgorod Oblast, apparently due to a misfiring russian missile(s) that failed to go where they were aimed and came down in russian territory. This is not the first time this has happened there. 

It's the real Great Replacement. I suspect (though I cannot prove) that conspiracy theories often are a sort of Freudian displacement, a way of hiding from fears that are too great to acknowledge. I suggest it's less frightening to believe in a giant evil conspiracy to bring in brown people who are Not Like Us than to admit that one's own children are the ones Not Like Us.
 
But hasn't that always been the case? Our children (I use "our" collectively -- I have no offspring and almost certainly never will) are never just Mini-Mes. They are their own people. We teach them as best we can, give them whatever help we can... then put the world in their hands when we retire to our graves. Thus has it ever been. And "conservatives" take note: Stories of attempts to do otherwise rarely end well.
 
Dean Shomshak

But, we have to realize we dodged a bullet this time.  That's all.  And again, we had 2 major assets.  #1, the abortion ruling.  That'll drop down the list;  we can't assume that's repeatable, or at least not with the same energy.  #2 is Trump himself.  Ranting about election fraud may have played to his sycophants, but don't look to have played well outside that group.  His latest rants, attacking DeSantis and others, are likely to have little traction when he's a) out of office, and b) readily targetable as an election liability.
 
Mind, DeSantis and a whole bunch of others won't be an improvement, in policy terms...and will be worse, because they won't make a dozen major mistakes a week.  
 
And apparently, some of his better media buds are laying a lot of blame on him:
https://www.newsweek.com/conservative-media-outlets-call-gop-dump-donald-trump-after-midterms-1758460
 
EDIT:  on Walker...on some of his speeches?  I've wondered a bit about brain injury.  Maybe not CTE, but as a catch-all, non-medical shorthand, yeah, we can use it.  I'd prefer Warnock just to continue hoping some semblance of sanity might be emerging.  Pipe dream, I know.  And, it's insurance...should a Democrat have to leave office in a Republican state, most of the time the interim appointment's at the governor's discretion.  50-50 is tenuous;  51-49 would be reasonably secure.  (Especially if Harris chooses to run for President, if Biden doesn't.)
 
 

I am pleased to find that pretty much all of the CA propositions went the way I was hoping. Two propositions legalizing online betting were rejected, flavored tobacco ban was upheld, Lyft's end run around the lawmaking process got nixed, etc. The CA rules about revealing funding supports for propositions pretty much gives me all the information I need to see who is paying for these things, and it's good to see that most of CA is seeing it, too. 
 
I think that making the funding transparent would dramatically alter politics in the rest of the country, if only it was implemented.

As far as Fuentes' desire for a Christian nationalist dictatorship, the anti-Trump conservative David French recently pointed out that the world's largest avowedly Christian Nation is currently getting the pants beat off it in Ukraine. Putin made Christian Nationalism part of his dictatorship from day one. It's everything Mr Fuentes wants. It's not doing so well.
 
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/the-spiritual-lessons-of-a-christian/
You have to subscribe to read the whole article, though it's free. My sister printed it out for me, so I can summarize Mr French's three "Spiritual Lessons from a Christian Nationalist Military Defeat":
 
* Power corrupts. Not exactly a new observation, but Putin's Russia offers one more example that corrupted, self-serving leadership inevitably hollows out institutions and the country as a whole.
* Christendom dilutes Christianity. French argues that Christian nationalists focus on the collective institutions of the faith, not the "radical personal renewal and redemption that is the heart of Christianity." Putin's invasion of Ukraine was supposedly, in part, to defend Christendom against the Satanic corruption of the West. And their methods for doing so...?
* Brutality isn't strength. "Bullies look strong. They strut and peacock. Russians bomb civilians. They rape women. They loot empty homes. They're ruthless. They make commercials casting themselves as fearless, fearsome warriors. And now they're fleeing by the thousands, thrown into headlong retreat by a far smaller nation, fighting with a fraction of the resources, in one of the most shocking military setbacks in modern times. Brutality is meeting courage, and courage prevails."
 
If Mr Fuentes truly wants to live in a "Christian Nation," well, nobody's stopping him from moving to Putin's Russia. They would seem to be made for each other.
 
Dean Shomshak

I am rather embarrassed to admit that I was once a die-hard Republican.  What the party said, I parroted.  Then a random conversation with a Scout parent got me taking a step back and looking at issues from more than one side.  In this case, it was the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Long story short (it's also rather boring to anyone but me), I had a sudden realization that, as part of the cost of the invasion, that kid (if he were serving in uniform overseas) could come home in a body bag some day.  I'm not saying that I will never advocate US military intervention anywhere under any circumstances, but when I started considering the cost, I also found a great deal of caution, plus a great deal of critical thinking around my own opinions.
 
These days I still lean more conservative than liberal, but if I vote for a Republican candidate, they're usually a younger Republican who advocates such crazy things as "common ground," "negotiation," "compromise," and "reaching across the aisle."  Few if any of them are ever elected.  I have no patience with Sith Republicans (or even some Democrats) who tell me, "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"  We don't have to agree, but at some point we do have to get along and work together for the common good.  I wish there were more friendships like Scalia and Ginsburg, political opponents yet personal friends.
 
I have no idea what the Republican party has even become.  I just finished reading "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and there are disturbing parallels between Nazi rhetoric/tactics and modern times.

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/nick-fuentes-says-the-results-of-the-2022-elections-prove-why-we-need-a-dictatorship/
 
 

I'm popping in to say that one of the healthiest lifestyle changes I have ever made was abandoning all of the (online) political channels I used to regularly view.

And actually, report is, Smiley conceded some time Wednesday night.  
 
On the big fear...widespread election fraud claims appear to be limited to Trump's macabre, private reality.  CNN reports some small issues, but nothing that interfered and certainly nothing systemic.  That's hopeful.  Push comes to shove, it looks like the *loud* fraud claimants lost much more often than they won.  It does seem to open the door for someone to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, altho all the presumptive, plausible candidates are different types of horrific.
 
 

I'm watching the results become official in Tennessee. It's depressing. The local GOP being in power redistricted Nashville killing the power of one of the only formerly blue areas. Our idiot governor, the guy who is anti education and anti weed alike crushed his foe and won re election easily.
'Right to work' is now to be enshrined into our State Constitution (really more right to fire) which many believe will be used to kill collective bargaining.
 
A previous ban on religious leaders holding public office has been lifted... and on one hand I'm okay with that even if I dread some 'Prosperity gospel' flim flam artist jumping up with joy at this, but the problem is, it is STILL illegal for an openly avowed atheist to hold public office in TN. Now, I am not an Atheist. But if we're going to allow Pastors, Reverends, etc to run for Office, then we really should have put in that amendment that atheists could also run without having to be in a closet.
 
We have amended our State constitution to add the words "Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime"  Long overdue,  But it's also pretty clear that any felons can still be treated as a free work force by for profit prisons and the like if I read that right. Still, I voted yes for the change. Gotta start somewhere. So hey, a win.
 
And there was another one about the transition of power in case of the removal , death, or whatever of a state governor that passed. In this state I wouldn't be surprised if it was used for a coup on our next Democratic governor if we ever get one again
 
Except for Memphis area, pretty much the whole state is red in results. DEEP Red, and a very pale red in the Nashville Davidson County area. I'm not sure the Democratic Party threw any money at all at our state, probably seeing it as a lost cause and I can't blame them.  The ones I feel sorry for are the blue leaning younger Millennials and Gen Z that stood up to vote only and probably feel it was for nothing. I tell myself, and I hope they see it too, that the very fact our state legislature is constantly and desperately finding ways to Gerrymander, obstruct and obscure is proof that the vote does mean something. That the GOP here IS watching that 33% of folks who are sick of them and voting against them growing. If the younger folk don't fall for the brain washing (They really hate teachers here who teach.. oh history) and they can hold on, they may just see a state government that represents them one day.
 
The cynic in me wonders if it will be in MY life time.
 
 

Lady P and I have completed our ballots. I'll drop them off on my way to school tomorrow; our city hall has a ballot box and it's on the way.
 
As election day approaches, remember this bit of wisdom:
 
Political promises are like babies — fun to make, but hard to deliver!
 
Vote wisely, my friends.

Y'know, call me crazy, call me dumb, call me late for supper, but I am not 100% convinced that turning political polarisation into a sector of the for-profit social media/news/entertainment sector is the wisest course of action. I mean, maybe nine billion dollars turns out to be the peak of an unsustainable financial bubble, but even so . . . .   

This is one of the most frustrating things here in Florida. Apparently, the dems have no money whatsoever. For months the only ads I have seen are Republican. No response from the dem side. None. The DeSantis ads are lies and half-truths and spin, but there's no one to correct him. I think the dems have given up.
 
He won by the narrowest of margins last time. This time it will be a landslide. 

A group called Vet the Vote recruits military veterans to serve as poll workers. Many of them have a strong public service ethic; they are trained at learning and following complex and detailed instructions; ...and they don't scare easily.
Vet the Vote encourages veterans to help out with the shortage of election workers : NPR
 
Dean Shomshak