Iuz the Evil

I find that increasingly, political extremism results in polarized positions which do not reflect the beliefs of the majority of Americans. While the conservative platform is more extreme (and frankly frightening), the progressive platform has become focused on issues that don’t resonate so routinely lose the argument in the public square. With $6 gas, and 9.1% CPI the party in power (however shackled by internal strife in the legislative branch) is poised to get crushed and lose that legislative majority in the midterm elections. That’ll render their control of the Executive Branch less consequential for the next two years, and the lack of strong candidates doesn’t bode well for 2024. Within 4 years they could easily go from control of 2/3 of the government, to nothing.
 
I am very concerned about this, because for all their floundering about and focus on Instagram-style posturing rather than sound governance, the Democrats frankly represent more thoughtful policy and a rational approach to problem solving (usually). 
 
I miss Carville-style bare knuckle politics, red meat for the working class, and winning elections. A more pragmatic approach would make me happy, but if not we will see if the majority of the electorate backs the platform. The niche issues of the day do not seem to be getting it done.

Sunak's race is actually an advantage in the current Conservative leadership contest.  While the membership might not like the idea of foreign brown skinned people coming into the country in boats, Rishi is one of their own.  He is rich, speaks well and went to the right schools.  Never make the mistake that English racism is the same as American racism.

If the SEC expanded, maybe Clemson? Probably not Florida State because of the long standing “gentlemen’s agreement” with Florida, but given the TAMU experience with the recent OU/Tx expansion I wouldn’t bet the company car on it. More likely not FSU because they’re not very good for quite some time and don’t have as much television/revenue to offer as they did 15 years ago. But maybe…
 
Gotta be big name or television markets. That conference isn’t even pretending that’s not the primary motivation.
 
Hmm. Interesting thought exercise. I don’t see the $EC adding anyone regardless of the moves made by the B1G unless and until it increases individual revenue shares. 

I believe they should do the MightyGodKing version and remain as faithful to the source material as possible.

This...is frightening
 
One in five US adults condone ‘justified’ political violence, mega-survey finds

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
 
As someone who works for local government, I am very much in favor of this. I did not want to work for a recent federal administration, even indirectly, and as a subsidiary of State government there is an indispensable partitioning that exists between the Feds and local government.
 
Federal government does some things well, some things poorly, and a number of things not at all. Same for State, Local and Private Sector entities. I prefer most decisions occur locally in government, with appropriate oversight from State and Federal entities to ensure no shenanigans occur.

Ok, I haven't bothered to read most of the stories coming out of Texas since it's still largely who can scoop who the fastest with the latest juicy bits, but I'm going to throw something out here for people to think about before they continue the rush to the pitchfork and rope concessions...
 
The PD in question is a "no-place-we've-ever-heard-of-and-still-haven't-googled", USA town police force. 
 
They're not the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team.
They're not SEAL Team 6.
They're not Hollywood or FPS action heroes.
They're not TTRPG PCs.
 
It's a pretty safe bet we're probably all role players here.  How many of you have ever had to run through a hostage scenario?  Especially with a GM willing to punish "stupid" or bad dice?
 
Imagine doing it without plot armor - and knowing if you screw up people are going to die for real.
 
It's also a safe bet that almost everyone screaming about the what the cops did (or didn't do) would be screaming just as loud if they'd gone all cowboy and gotten those kids just as dead by being reckless.
 
Yeah, protecting those kids was the cops job.  Getting kids, themselves, or anybody else caught in the crossfire killed through stupid wasn't - and isn't.
 
And I'll bet those cops are having a much harder time sleeping at night than you or I are right now...

Well, as the author of the letter said, "Still worse is the fact that you have executive power at your fingertips that could, at the bare minimum, preserve abortion rights on federal property in every state, and yet you refuse to use it. You could save our lives with the stroke of a pen, but instead you are signing off on exorbitant supplies of weaponry for a war half a world away."
 
Besides, isn't there always a rotating villain? It was Joe Lieberman for a long time. Now it's Joe Manchin. Dems offer endless excuses and then say "Vote for us."
 
50 years of voting "blue no matter who" has gotten us to this point, where we're on the verge of theocratic fascism.
 
Yet Biden does nothing at all. Despite all the pre-election talk of his years in the senate giving him a unique ability to get his agenda passed, he claims helplessness in the face of a party member's intransigence.  Heck, he nominated Manchin's wife for a cushy job.
 
Every opportunity to tie his agenda to must-pass legislation, he's split it off and left it for dead.
 
But even outside of the legislature, Biden could take steps to make things better and improve Dem's chances in the fall. In addition to the steps on abortion mentioned in the quote above, he could forgive at least some student loan debt, as promised during the campaign. But he's refused to do that.
 
People waited in line for hours to give Dems the power they now enjoy. But all the Dems have given in return is an endless stream of excuses.
 
That will surely result in a Republican landslide this fall, and then it's just one more election before we lose everything.

I’m going full blown ‘Murica this year. 
 

 
grilling hot dogs for lunch right now. dinner will be ribs, corn, fried potatoes and bacon green beans.  
 
Fireworks tonight. 
 
Then camping for a week up at my lady’s cabin by Kyburz with my daughter and her boyfriend. Swimming, hiking, target shooting.
 
 Good times.

I’m going full blown ‘Murica this year. 
 

 
grilling hot dogs for lunch right now. dinner will be ribs, corn, fried potatoes and bacon green beans.  
 
Fireworks tonight. 
 
Then camping for a week up at my lady’s cabin by Kyburz with my daughter and her boyfriend. Swimming, hiking, target shooting.
 
 Good times.

I’m going full blown ‘Murica this year. 
 

 
grilling hot dogs for lunch right now. dinner will be ribs, corn, fried potatoes and bacon green beans.  
 
Fireworks tonight. 
 
Then camping for a week up at my lady’s cabin by Kyburz with my daughter and her boyfriend. Swimming, hiking, target shooting.
 
 Good times.

I’m going full blown ‘Murica this year. 
 

 
grilling hot dogs for lunch right now. dinner will be ribs, corn, fried potatoes and bacon green beans.  
 
Fireworks tonight. 
 
Then camping for a week up at my lady’s cabin by Kyburz with my daughter and her boyfriend. Swimming, hiking, target shooting.
 
 Good times.

With all the downer stuff in this topic, what it needs, is Muppets.
 
 

From Garry Kasparov:
 
”Putin's propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO!”

In Georgia primaries, Trump-backed candidates lost.  For Sec of State, it wasn't close:  52-33.  For governor, it was a total, complete wipeout:  73-21.  

From Garry Kasparov:
 
”Putin's propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO!”

From Garry Kasparov:
 
”Putin's propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO!”

From Garry Kasparov:
 
”Putin's propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO!”

From Garry Kasparov:
 
”Putin's propagandists on TV said nuclear war is fine because patriotic Russians will go to Heaven. Heaven heard it and immediately applied to join NATO!”

Attached text: "Slava Ukraini Hey Putin, you big dumb idiot. If you’re killing people in Ukraine because you are afraid of NATO then you really f***ed up. You are the monster that reminded people why NATO was created."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/14/europe/sweden-finland-nato-next-steps-intl/index.html
 
So that’s official, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine massively strengthened NATO on their northern border (if approved, which I expect will eventually happen). Article 5 just took on a whole new significance.
 
On the other hand, this is quite the legacy achievement. Even the Soviet Union didn’t overcome the historic neutrality of those states. Impressive work by Putin in that respect…

I'm far from an expert. As I've said before, I'm not a political scientist, I'm an actual scientist. But I do know that there are people in this country who genuinely believe that they'd be better off without the other half. Blue State people who think all Republicans are reactionary fascists; Red State people who think that all Democrats are New World Order elitists who have lost touch with reality. In each case, the extremists think they're better off without their opposites. There are a lot of people where I live who would be fine to see California go their own way. I've heard similar sentiments from people in other places regarding Texas and Florida.
 
Where I grew up, we had a word for people like this: idiots. Because only an idiot, in my humble opinion, thinks that America would be a better country without diversity of opinion. We've already got countries without diversity of opinion. North Korea. Iran. Saudi Arabia. I don't want our country to be like that. And oh, by the way, the whole "We don't like where the country is going so we're going to split off and form our own country" thing has already been tried. It failed. Spectacularly. And only an idiot, in my humble opinion, would think it would work better now than it did 160 years ago.
 
But as I said, I'm hardly an expert.