Guard Dog

It IS a thing for local elections where even a hundred votes one way or the other could turn an election. But a presidential election with 130+ million votes cast you could not fraud your way into that.

I played FO4 all night. It's not a great RPG. It's not even a great FO game. But it IS enjoyable. Put aside it;s flaws and legacy and just "live" in the world and take in the atmoshpere and it's pretty good. Of course my game is heavily modded and was the day Nora stumbled out of Vault 111 so maybe vanilla does suck.

Well I’m of the opinion that a persons religion is unique and personal to them. The best way to spread it is to be an example of it. Not use it as a club to browbeat other people into thinking like you do. But that’s just me. I also think religious convictions deserve to be and should be challenged from time to time. Besides, what do you think is more pleasing to God? Blind acceptance of what someone said? Or cold rational deduction that God is real and does, on occasion, takin an interest in the humans. And the other critters to.

Why? I do.

Democrats prepare bill limiting U.S. Supreme Court justice terms to 18 years So.... is anyone going to tell them Article 3 fixes SCOTUS appointments for life? This law, even if passed and signed, will be struck down. Not that Democrats give a flying f--k what the Constitution says unless it allows them to do what they want. Used to be the Republicans were the defenders of the Constitution. Ah the joy of remembering days long gone. Anyway. The only way this happens id by Constitutional Amendment. That is sort of a pain in the butt. And it takes years. But the Democrats are many things. Stupid isn't one of them. Other than AOC. I suspect they know this bill goes nowhere. Sometimes politicians do this kind of s--t to appear to be "doing" something about one of Mencken's Hobgoblins.

I could listen to this man play all night. Sometimes do.

I just heard this on the radio and had to double check on the Internet. Turns out it’s true. Vladimir Putin has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize. No I didn’t get that off the onion. I didn’t think this was possible but somehow Trump looks like a better candidate now.

@Achilles OK if this s--t actually happens THEN I'll agree our democracy is in real danger. This isn't spamminmg the internet with BS. This is actually plotting to subvert an election: https://theweek.com/speedreads/939191/trump-campaign-reportedly-discussing-contingency-plans-bypass-election-results Of course I still find this a little hard to swallow. Not that Trump and his ilk are not capable of it. Rather I find it hard to believe any state government would go along with it.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-congress-invs/index.html “QAnon adherents believe in a baseless conspiracy theory that there is a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who have infiltrated the highest reaches of American government and are working hand-in-hand with other elites in business and Hollywood. They believe President Donald Trump is secretly fighting to destroy this cabal and that messages are being delivered to them in code by an anonymous central character called Q.”

Sure. We go to the polls and vote. And the pattern continues. “Oh no the Republicans have screwed up the country let’s elect the Democrats“. Four years later it’s “oh no the Democrats have screwed up the country let’s elect the Republicans.“ meanwhile the Republicans and the Democrats are working together to keep the other parties off the ballot. No problem has ever been solved by employing the same processes that created the problem. A new political perspective is needed.

Not really. Because even if they were all honest paupers the country is still $27T in real debt an unfunded future liabilities. Both political parties have badly mismanaged they’re spending all while blaming the other for the problem. Neither of them is going to fix it. They have to cut spending and they’re not going to do it.

You are missing my point. Suppose Merrick garland had been a Republican appointee facing a democrat senate. If everything had played out exactly the same then and now the only difference would be who is screaming. Government is an ugly and dirty business.

He would think it was a beer or something doh! Malc beat me to it

This narrative is becoming seriously tiresome: https://news.yahoo.com/bernie-sanders-sounds-alarm-trump-120810706.html There are two things I want out of this Presidential election. 1) Jo Jorgensen gets as many or more votes than Gary Johnson did 2) The outcome is not close. This thing needs a clear and unambiguous winner on the night of. I don’t really care which turd gets flushed and which one stays in the bowl. In my opinion they are both terrible even if it’s a different terrible. But this cannot come down to recounts, court battles, absentee ballots shenanigans. If I can only have one of the two things I want I will take the latter

The most common SCOTUS vote is 9-0. 7-2 is the second most common. 5-4 comes in third. Most Supreme Court cases are mundane and only of interest to the litigants. The big "landmark" cases like Obgerfell, Kelo, Heller, etc are rare, For all the fear about Roe being undone the truth is a Congress and President could fix that right now by passing a law that made it illegal for states to interfere with elective medical procedure. Just like that abortion is legal. I know 9 lawyers in DC who would be VERY happy if they did!

Yes. Read Gromnir's posts. In this case I was saying either side would do the same thing if they were in the position to do so. But you have the idea.

LOL! OK Sowell IS repetitive. Not Bernard Cornwell repetitive but you do get the feeling you've read it before. But the three I listed are very different. He has a sharp mind and very readable writing style IMO. Oh I agree with you on Garland. They should have followed the process and voted him down. They had the votes to do that and it could easily have run out the clock on the Obama administration without all the acrimony. And like we both said, it would not have changed the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on right now about Trump getting a third justice. But, no one ever suggested the folks on 1st St. were wise. I don't think there is a path back to normal. And I don't think someone will say "no more". I think they will all fire their missiles. One thing I would like to see happen ASAP is a Convention of States or a Constitutional Amendment fixing the Supreme Court at 9. As you once pointed out, slavery was once both Constitutional and legal. Constitutional and legal are by no means synonymous with right.

First off don't mistake anything I've posted as any kind of endorsement of what Trump & McConnell are trying to do here. If I were Trump I'd make that vacant Supreme Court seat the central focus of my campaign. I'd also make the Democrats threats to "pack the court" an issue as the naked power grab it is. Even though they have backed off of it I still would not let it go if I were him. It can only help him because the Democrat voters cannot be any more motivated than they already are. Just my take. What they are doing instead, succeed or fail, is a cynical play. If they nominate Amy Coney Barrett her religion has already been made an issue. They are expecting that to happen again. Whether she ends up being nominated the fire she will take from the Dems might galvanize the "religious right" to Trump. As you already know I am not a Republican and hold them in only slightly less contempt than the Democrats. But to answer your question "yes" if all the roles were reversed the Democrats would do that same things and hypocrisy be damned. Look, these are all nice people probably individually. They are good to their friends and family, kind to their dogs, and don't cheat on poker night. But the political machine they are all a willing part of is not nice. It's ugly, it ruthless, and it collectively understands a fundamental truth about government: it does not exist to "help" or "lead" it's people. The idealized and wholly fictitious notion of it is not the reality. Government exists solely to perpetuate it's own existence. And what they are all fighting over is control of what that existence is going to look like and how that power over it can be perpetuated. Plus these folks are fighting for cushy jobs that leave them far wealthier than the sum of their paychecks. Anything goes. As you can probably

You've got quite the acerbic tone there don't you? It's irritiating. For what it's worth I thought Merrick Garland should have had a vote, and been voted down. What they did, how they did it was dirty pool. Had Garland recieved a vote and not been nominated, and I'd rather he had not been, then there would be no cries of hypocisy today. There would be every other kind of cry though. But, no one in this sad little tale would have behaved any differently had all the roles been reversed. There are no saints in hell. Only devils grasping for power. And yes I have followed politics all my life and even worked in a campaign one time.

I am curious how many of Thomas Sowell's books his fans have actually read? I have six here. Basic Economics, Knowledge and Decisions, and A Conflict of Visions are all required reading at Guard Dog U.

Assume for a moment Hillary Clinton is President and Chuck Schumer is the Senate Majority leader. The election is less than 40 days awa and it's looking like Clinton will loose to the Republican challenger and there is a better than average chance the Senate will flip. RBG passes away. Is there any doubt in anyones mind the goddamned Democrats will move heaven and earth to get a left wing activist justice nominated and confirmed in the remaining time? You bet they would. And all of the "media" that is wailing and gnashing their teeth over what Trump and McConell are about to do would be cheering the way Clinton and Schumer siezed the opportunity. It rats calling out other rats for being rats.

The current state of American politics. Democrats on one side Republicans on the other

I had a HUGE crush on her in the '80's!

That is exactly what PACs are. The one thing you have to remember about the majority’s decision in Citizens United was the FEC was attempting to stop an activity in a private group that organizations like Unions were legally allowed to do. And always had been. So the question that court had to answer is do you regulate free speech for one group but not for another, do you curtail group free speech altogether with a decision, or do you allow MORE free speech by deciding the way they did. I think they made the correct decision. Less regulation of speech is better. Even if the outcome was ugly the alternatives were uglier. The status quo could not continue. That analysis came out of memory of the details of FEC vs CU so if I got any details wrong it’s on me. I am sure Gromnir will let me know if I did.

Please tell me you are not serious. His name was the only one on the ballot. Although I do find it ironic how the Democrats decry the "death of democracy" while vigorously litigating to keep the Green Party candidates off the ballot. Since the 1960 election negative campaign ads have been a thing. On TV, on radio, hell in newspapers it's been going on since BEFORE the revolution. In fact if you want to know how nasty tings got google the guy in Gromnir's avatar picture. Negative ads range from being true (but usually without context) to laughably false and are paid for by the candidates of pacs that support them. Now it's being done on social media by foreign actors. But what is the difference? Voters are boing manipulated? Voters are getting false info? So what? Where have you been? This isn't new. Just new rats in the same old sewer. If people of voting age haven't learned by now to take everything on social media with a grain (more like a boulder) of salt then we all screwed anyway. You can't fix stupid.