Guard Dog

Regulating anything, denying anything, it's all bad. All of it. If Swift is increasing voter registration that's certainly good. Too bad the new voters are going to vote to take things away from other people. But that's what happens when people think they have only two choices. But that's just how it is in the USA now. It's not about good public policy (if it ever was) it's just about electing people who will f--k over the half of the country you've been told are your enemies. The beauty of the American political system is that it corrects. The Democrats had all the power in 2008. They pissed a lot of people off and lost the House in 2010, the Senate and most of the governorship in 2012, and everything in 2016. After 2016 you could drive from Miami to Spokane Washington and not pass through any district, state or federal with a Democrat representative. The Republicans controlled everything. They are pissing people off and it looks like the Dems will take the House in 2018, in 2020 probably take the Senate if not the WH. And if they do take everything they will piss people off, the Republicans will take the House in 2022 and the cycle continues. It happens in 1992, 1994, 1996, & 2000. Then again in 2000, 2004, and 2006. On an on it goes.

So... let's see... Kanye West bashed Bush and the Democrats think he's a hero, genius, great talent. Republicans think he's a spoiled celebrity who doesn't know anything. Kanye praised Trump and the Republicans think he's a "free thinker" and "his own man" and the Democrats say he's mentally ill and a traitor to his own race. I say "Who cares what he thinks. Why are we even talking about this????" (repeat last post and insert name Taylor Swift)

Apparently Michael B Jordan is being considered for the next superman. https://www.vibe.com/2018/09/michael-b-jordan-bein-considered-for-superman-dc-films-report/ I didn't go see Christopher Reeves, or that guy in the '90's, or Henry Cavill, and I won't go see Jordan so I don't care. But the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will come of a black superman will be very entertaining. As far as I'm concerned there has already been one:

It always looks easy to the folks who don't have to actually DO it

Now playing Franchise Hockey Manager V. https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/newsletters/nl0236/ Definitely the best one yet. Really enjoying it.

So if you are 13 years old or over in the city of Chesapeake and the police catch you going trick-or-treating you are looking at six months in jail and a fine of up to $100,000 $100. If you are any age and caught doing it after 8 PM you get the same. There is our heroes in the government protecting us from children in costumes wanting candy. https://hrscene.com/community/local-trick-or-treat-times-laws-and-guidelines/ Corrected. Thanks Sharpie. It wasn't an intentional exaggeration, it was the tiny font on my iPhone screen than made me mis-read it.

So, Taylor Swift expressed and opinion and the Washington Post dedicated not one, not two, but THREE stories to it. What happened to that newspaper? It's always been left wing. I can accept that. But the predictable opinion of one pop star expressed in predictable fashion is not worth even a single line of finite page space. What are the the f-----g NY Post now? And all the people who for some reason got angry at her, what the hell is wrong with you? First of all what do you even care what she thinks? She is an expert on nothing except writing songs and dumping guys. Second of all she is a celebrity. They are almost all left wingers. They don't know any better. Oh and now Nikki Haley is stepping down. The average turnover rate of Executive, Cabinet, & WH Staff is 35% in the first two years, 57% after (according to the NY Times today). Trump is ahead of the curve but not by a whole lot. There is likely no hay to be made in this story.

Genius!

Apparently CNN, Fox, & MSNBC are all wrong. The US is not on the brink of civil war: http://theweek.com/articles/798002/think-another-civil-war-imminent-twitter https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/country-not-on-brink-of-civil-war-alexander-hamilton/ Dammit! What am I supposed to do with all this then???

In the end the people can over rule the court. Change the constitution. The states can even ignore the government. Many states are doing that now over pot, immigration, etc. I think that is great. And in the very end the individual can resist. Take gun control for example. If prohibition and confiscation ever become a thing the day they come for mine I will die. And as God as my witness I will kill as many of "them" that come as I can. Nothing is ever final in the US. It's one of the beauties of this system. If Roe is overturned abortion will still be legal the following day. It will be up to each state to determine what happens next. I think you'll see few state legislatures will have any stomach for that fight. Most will draft bills doomed to fail. Some states will make it legal by their legislative act. Most will ultimately do nothing I think.

Wow! Nep is back, Tsuga is back. If we can get Wals, Taks, Monte, and a few other to come back we might liven this place up again!

The story is in the Washington Times yesterday. They did not list all the cases. Or any of them for that matter. On that note you do realize the most common SCOTUS decision breakdown is 9-0 right? 5-4 is only the third most common. The court has heard some 14k cases since it was created in it's current form in the 1780's. Less than 100 of those were considered "landmark" that left the law of the land significantly different than before. This is not something that occurs often. Maybe once or twice in the tenure of any one judge. At most. Of those only a handful actually overturned a previous precedent. Stare Decisis is a big deal to them. There is far less danger of things like Roe being overturned than you would think. Like I said, to even get it to the high court you have to get it past a series of lower courts and two appellate courts who are bound to the precedent Roe set. The only way to do it is to argue some point that has not been brought up yet. What else is there? The one decision I look at is DC vs Heller. The gun control decision that reinforced the idea that while restrictions are permitted prohibition is unconstitutional. That overturned a decision form the 1930's that defined the 2nd Amend as NOT an individual right. But at that time in the context of that case prohibition of ownership was not the issue. In Heller it was. It took 70 years and a different circumstance to change a previous precedent. The so called Chevron Deference is another example. IMO the court absolutely abdicated it's responsibility with that idea. Deciding that unelected government agencies were above the law is horrifying. And it's one more little nudge from going in the trash can where it belongs. But it's taken 40 years to do it. The point is, don't expect big things from the Court. They don't like doing big things. Some have. Most have not. For the most part they prefer to leave the job of making law to the legislature where it belongs.

So, now that this whole Supreme court thing is over it might be interesting to point out that Merrick Garland (Obama's appointee for Scalia's seat) and Brett Kavanaugh both served on the DC Circuit of the US Court of Appeals. In 27 of 28 decisions where Kavanaugh wrote for the majority Garland was in concurrence. In 28 of 30 decsions written by Garland Kavanaugh was in concurrence. They were on the same side of 93% of the decisions reached by the Court during their joint tenure. So consider that with this whole circus that has enthralled the media and disgusted the people of this country the last few months. Do you see now? This is all just a show. It's Barry Windham and Ric Flair screaming at the camera about how they are going to kick each other's a-ses and then having a beer together at the bar later. It's fake. It's a show. And people are actually fighting about it! EDIT: It was 27 of 28 not 27 of 38. That was a typo on my part.

How I've been is busy--new job, new (slightly used, < 11K miles) truck, no time for gaming to speak of as it's a backup for when the weather is too unfriendly. Finances are better than they've been in a decade. I've had several Twitter accounts suspended permanently for speaking my mind regarding a number of issues, so I'm not mellowing with age. I'm on the socio-economic Right because that's who I am and history has proven the futility of liberalism/progressivism. Signing off now before I segue into something that'll get this account locked, too. Good to see that plenty of familiar names are still around. You'd have to do a lot more than that to get banned here these days. It's a lot less uptight than in the past. Heck we're almost nice to each other now!

Yeah they re not going to try an impeach Kavanaugh if they take over Congress. That is just a little pro wrestling grand standing there. They MIGHT try to impeach Trump if they actually have something on him. IMO that is a waste of time that will go nowhere and might even HELP re-elect him in 2020. If I were them and had control of Congress I'd do the usual legislative impediments and try to force Trump to use executive power to circumvent them. True the die hard Trumpers will applaud but the rank and file Republicans will be turned off enough they may stay home in 2020. Plus the Dems can make hay out of the hypocrisy of complaining about Obama's abuse of executive authority and then abusing it yourself. The icing on the cake is executive overreach is like interest. The more it is used to more it accumulates. The Democrats do not give a flying rat's a-s about the Constitution and dream of one of their Tribe wielding absolute executive power. If the next President is a Democrat they will be one step closer.

Only in blue states though.I can't wait to see how democrats react if Trump gets re-elected I don't think much of Trump. But i'm not going to like anyone the Donkey's nominate either. So it would almost be worth it just for the laughs at their red faced screaming.

I tried a six pack of this: It's hard to put in a category. It tastes like a stout but it's not. Too mild to be a brown ale. It's pretty good. I wouldn't go out of my way to get it again but I wouldn't refuse if someone offered me one.

ktchong the odds of Roe being overturned anytime soon are really remote. First off a credible challenge to it would have to be initiated. Someone with standing to actually bring a suit. Rightly or wrongly Roe is about a right to individual privacy that Harry Blackmun somehow found in the Constitution. Since it is a matter of individual privacy the standing issue becomes thorny for anyone wanting to bring a challenge. The only party that can really make a case for having a compelling interest is a state of federal government and, as you pointed out, there are already provisions in the decision for them. So if someone has standing and can successfully bring a suit it would have to be litigated in Federal court (although it may not start there with would actually lengthen the process) then appealed to the Appellate Court. IF they take it it would have to be re-argued there. If the Appellate Court upholds the lower court decision the road gets even harder for the losing party. Further appeals might not even be accepted or make it past a review. Since the plaintiff is seeking to overturn a settled law they will have to make a different argument than has been tried and rejected in the past. And they will need to demonstrate that the Court arrived at the wrong conclusion in '73 and that all subsequent defeated challenges were also faulty. And remember, the morality of the issue is completely immaterial. It is not about whether it's right or wrong to abort a baby. It's only about the legality of compelling someone not to. To say it would be an uphill climb to even get it to the supreme court would be an understatement. I would not lose any sleep worrying about it.

Well look what the cat dragged in! How have you been Tsuga. It’s been a long time.