Gromnir

citizens united decision once again rears its ugly head. the super pacs spawned in a post citizens united America has even senators scrambling to cozy up to any number o' interests, transparent trading integrity for campaign dollars needed to finance increasing expensive reelection campaigns. super pacs exist 'cause o' citizens united and super pacs is one o' the most terrible realities o' 2020 fed politics. mccain-feingold were a once in a generation bit o' legislation in that it had bipartisan support (though hardly universal support)and were fundamentally altering the political landscape in washington. took many congressmen, working against their personal interests, to get mccain-feingold passed. literal once-in-a-lifetime legislation. the Court, in its naivety, appeared convinced disclosure requirements would counter the parade o' horribles imagined by supporters o' mccain-feingold and enumerated by J. stevens. the explosion o' dark money political contributions following the citizens united decision reveals just how wrong were the Justices o' the majority. terrible reality is it is unlikely Congress takes another shot at serious campaign finance reform in any o' our lifetimes. as we noted, mccain-feingold were a once-in-a-lifetime aberration o' Congressmen acting against interest. perhaps worse is recognition even if Congress did try again, the Court might obtuse refuse to look to reality and instead focus 'pon utopian views o' First Amendment standards regarding political speech. HA! Good Fun!

hunter biden had no business getting the job with burisma. truth. bad optics. however, conspiracy theory o' getting the prosecutor fired to somehow help biden's son is just complete and utter nonsense. is questionable shokin, the corrupt ukrainian prosecutor, were even investigating burisma at the time he were fired, and is no evidence at all hunter biden were being targeted, so is weird how this story endures 'mongst the conservative radio crowd. funny thing is, the conspiracy theory mighta' been been more believable if biden had somehow undermined attempts to get shokin fired. IF joe biden had interfered with US efforts and european union demands to get shokin removed so as to keep a corrupt prosecutor in place, one who might be convinced to go easy on burisma just to protect his son's job, then we might have a story. but somehow the conservative radio ilk complete reverses plausible and implausible. *shrug* conspiracy theory nutters is just so weird. is absence o' evidence which sets their brains afire with suspicion. HA! Good Fun!

started laughing as soon as we recognized the old newhart show set. kept laughing when they closed with old newhart show theme music. worked precisely 'cause it were satire o' dallas and st. elsewhere dream sequence stuff. HA! Good Fun!

at times, reduction is helpful. criticize a generalization o' core trump voters, then posit an extreme overgeneralization and finish with a linky from 2016 o' which complete fails to identify core/base-- those who more strongly agree with President as 'posed to those who simple voted for him... or as often as not, against the alternatives. okie dokie. we will note how even trump has identified his base as "poorly educated," no doubt in part as a rejection o' so-called eletists. btw, an oft-cited (democrat and republican) alternative to the maligned exit polls from 2016 is the following: An examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters secret ballot notwithstanding. more recent. Demographic Shift Poised to Test Trump’s 2020 Strategy have pointed out previous how a considerable number o' folks who did vote for trump 2016, and will vote for him again, is transactional voters who do not have particular strong feelings 'bout the President. these folks don't factor into core and is not the target o' his endless campaign rallies. the folks for whom the economy is genuine good are enjoying considerable and continued financial success and thus have an understandable if myopic motivation for wanting to see another 4 years o' trump. 'course educated women who voted for trump in 2016 is ignoring transaction and appear to be leaving trump en masse. however, reality is that educated women were already a notorious small % o' trump voters so their absence will be an only minor loss. perhaps more significant to trump is growing realization working class women is also less likely to vote trump in 2020, and by a significant margin. “If you have lost, in the space of a month, 11 points of support from non-college white women,” said Robert P. Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute, “that should give President Trump some pause. That’s a big big group, and they matter in the states where Trump has just got to win — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.” -nyt article from october 2019. The Path to 270 in 2020 working class is, by definition, non college educated. "ignorance" is not a term we used, but is not actual a matter o serious debate as to who the core o' base o' trump voters is. elements o' the trump campaign, no doubt recognizing how the grim reaper alone will be to blame for a loss o' his margin o' victory in numerous battleground states he carried in 2016 is making desperate and illegal efforts to expand the core/base. even so, poorly educated (relative) is indeed synonymous with those identified as the trump base. regardless, trump core/base loyalty is alien to post ww2 US voting history. political landscape in the US is taking on a more european look with greater polarization in spite o' a two-party system which tends to minimize extremism. more curious is how voters who is benefitting little if not at all from s'posed great economy is the bulk o' trump's base. accountability has become a secondary issue? is not a question as to who is trump's base/core. rural working class (i.e. uneducated) is the face o' the base. what is curious is how such folks demanded results from bush 41 and obama but appear satisfied with trump. is proliferation o' highly polarized cable news enough to explain the shift? dunno. HA! Good Fun!

he is representing his constituency. in the past republicans considered the alt-right to be a fringe element filled with "race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot(s)." however, the last three years has forced republicans, particular republicans who are looking to be re-elected, to face reality the alt-right and fringe is now the core. republicans will win or lose their individual state races just so long as they keep the core satisfied. guys such as rand paul, in spite o' the generalized public loathing o' Congress, has never been as popular 'mongst his constituency as he is today. same is true for guys such as the one in the video we linked. what happened? the terrible truth is rand paul started representing his constituency as they are rather than attempting to do what he believed were best for his constituency. circles back to why so many question democracy. shoulda' always been more fear o' democracy, but with untenable income disparity folks is justifiable wondering why it don't matter if you are majority or minority 'cause everybody but the 1% is getting p00ped 'pon. voters is justifiable angry. trump's core is folks who feel marginalized. the trump core is, statistical, uneducated, which might partial explain why they support muslim bans and border walls and ignore warnings from mueller report and impeachment. doesn't matter in long run 'cause trump core is now the core o' pretty much 90% o' national office republicans. is folks who has been told they is part o' the privileged majority for decades but they don't feel particular privileged as they is losing their manufacturing jobs or needing take out another loan they cannot afford to keep their farm viable for one more year. democracy has failed these folks... and every other identifiable group save the 1% has a similar reason to be angry at democracy. alternatives to democracy is worse, and democracy can be fixed in ways other systems cannot. doesn't matter if you feels like you have been taking a beating for decades with democracy as the dominant paradigm. regardless, the terrible truth is rand paul is now representing his constituency. is democracy at work. god help us all. HA! Good Fun! ps Farm bankruptcies jumped 20% in 2019, even with billions in aid from U.S. have made the observation previous how is not shocking the core wanted to believe trump in 2016. the genuine surprise is how Americans, who has always held Presidents more accountable than perhaps is deserved, has ignored trump impotence and incompetence. no other President could fail to deliver so dramatic and consistent and nevertheless maintain a stranglehold on their party.

were more to finale than the last couple minutes o' the newhart finale. regardless, were obvious intentional satire o' dallas. y'know, 'cause it were a comedy and all. suzanne pleshette showing up in finale were brilliant. HA! Good Fun!

we saw a single full episode o' seinfeld and it weren't the finale. while am able to name numerous good tv show finales, am admitting bad ends is even easier to identify. both battlestar galactica finales managed to be terrible? HA! Good Fun!

hurl's dietary issues inspired us to make thai (thaish?) grilled chicken sandwiches with a peanut satay sauce. yummy. in truth, hurl's dietary issues with wheat and nuts and whatnot only occurred to us after making dinner, but were a schadenfreude coincidence. HA! Good Fun!

you can refuse but is pointless. judge will, in every jurisdiction we know, allow alternative service once good faith efforts made for personal service fail. such alternatives include delivery to a responsible agent o' defendant who is over 18 or even mail. am not gonna defend hillary, but for celebs service may be calculated for an embarrassing photo op. refusal is not an attempt to get outta a lawsuit, 'cause chances are you ain't gonna get out o' eventual being actual or constructive served, but such efforts is a way to force mail or other alternative delivery. such alternatives deny the plaintiff a chance to have paparazzi or reporters present for process moment. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain if you is being sarcastic. is a long video, and am understanding why you wouldn't watch the whole thing, but is worth viewing if you wanna hear how at least a few folks see the new kinda asymmetrical warfare which is becoming more prevalent 'mongst US adversaries. look at fraudulent facebook posts as insular is problematic. US has indeed been reactive to individual efforts by russians, chinese, iranians and others w/o recognizing the fact that each incursion is part o' larger and broader efforts. optics o' facebook and twitter nonsense is that such petty and minor keeps such attacks beneath response threshold. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4822045/user-clip-hr-mcmaster&start=605 HA! Good Fun! ps whether you agree with opinions o' speakers in video is irrelevant. am posting 'cause these folks who, like 'em or nor not is experts, view 2020 security issues holistic. gotta get out o' the cold war threats mentality.

myopic. there has been moments and times when Congress refused to act to reign in a President who violated public trust and/or severe exceeded Constitutional purview. the President has more power today than during most o' past, so again, is not exact analogous, but is reason we warned folks to look to andrew johnson trial as 'posed to clinton, 'cause 2020 kinda divisiveness is more akin to civil war Congress than 1990s. abraham lincoln, andrew jackson and thomas jefferson are only the most dramatic examples we would point to which predate 43, 44 and 45. HA! Good Fun!

no, we got you. given the tribalism o' the past decade in particular, we suspect if roles were reversed, democrats would be reflexive defending en masse. however, you did indeed specific use obama as your example/punching bag. has been 45 Presidents and a few o' them weren't even elected to the office. pretend as if they is interchangeable is flawed. as we have noted previous in discussions with gd, am doubtful democrats woulda' circled the wagons for hillary if had done same-- she weren't popular enough to move the party as a whole. you might suggest that your hypothetical is an everything else being equal kinda thing, but is not possible for us to credit such a fantasy. this situation is almost unique with an unpopular President who nevertheless has a stranglehold on his party indulges in the worst kinda self-promotion and outright deceit w/o any care for the republic and the Constitution. is not like lego bricks with one red and one blue. you keep trying to make it democrat v. republican or they v. them and is not so simple. HA! Good Fun!

as much as we disliked obama, we weren't "scared" o' him as President. obama pushed limits o' Constitutional beyond what we believed were appropriate and legal, but try and conjure up a realistic scenario in which we woulda' been in same position with obama as we are with trump and we will disagree. lesser o' two evils has worked fine for multiple centuries. has been a couple o' close calls and a small number who were outright mistakes, but voters stuck with lesser o' evils choices has largely avoided nightmare scenarios. regardless, as much as we disliked the obama Presidency, am thinking is unfair to make trump and obama equivalent... though we will concede how the trump excesses were made more likely by obama and previous Congress playing fast and loose with norms, standards, rules and laws. HA! Good Fun!

today were the first day since impeachment vote we were genuine shocked and disturbed by claims from those defending trump. admitted, the ground kept shifting as Congressmen supporting trump altered their defense o' the President, but were nothing true surprising. we lamented how Congress failure to act on mueller report made it possible for politicians in a post trump America to solicit and accept dirt from foreign powers to alter US elections as long as coordination were short o' criminal conspiracy. were a terrible precedent and one mueller, during the few moments he were animated during testimony, attempted to drive home... and failed. with impeachment we lamented how if trump avoided any kinda meaningful censure for his solicitation o' ukraine to investigate biden, future politicians would be able to not only receive dirt, but could request and coordinate with foreign powers to interfere with US elections with little concern o' sanction. we so undersold the boldness, the arrogance, o' trump's defenders. you not need to be a Constitutional scholar to be nonplussed by wh defense. before trump were elected, we doubt a single senator-- republican, democrat or independent-- would have championed the notion it were ok for a US politician to accept foreign dirt on a political rival w/o informing the fbi o' such communications. am positive no senator would argue a US politician were unimpeachable if they active solicited and coordinated with foreign powers to interfere in domestic elections. today we have sailed beyond the edge o' the map, far beyond any point even Gromnir's cynical soothsaying mighta' foreseen. a good faith belief o' a President or Congressman that their reelection is in the public interest functional insulates such actors from claims their actions is impeachable? will be some who think we are being hyperbolic. nope. this is so far outside our experience and expertise as to be complete uncharted waters. hic sunt dracones

you do realize given our borderline ocd this will continue to gnaw at us beyond all reason, yes? part o' gorth's nefarious plan to drive us more insane. HA! Good Fun!

start a sentence as follows: why would allen iverson ... end sentence with either real or made up stuff and then have folks try and guess which stuff were real and which were fake. maybe turn into a drinking game or a recurring late night talk show skit. allen iverson is. best not to question. for all we know, ai saw ocean's 12 the night previous and decided the backpack method were a keen idea. maybe he were gonna go down to banks of the delaware river and throw jewelry at the ducks but realized january is not best time to hurl hundreds of thousands o' dollars worth o' jewelry at philadelphia water fowl. you think such suggestions is too outrageous? not for ai. HA! Good Fun!

ok, am gonna admit this image has bothered us every time we view. bottom left o' the pic, next to the woman in the snakeskin (or at least animal print ) jacket is somebody doing something vague with their hands which looks like kinda picking at their fingernails. ew. real issue is... stripped object is a hat? am maybe looking at it wrong, but am not certain at what am looking. is probable obvious and am having somehow made difficult, but... HA! Good Fun!

hate to say it, but am thinking ds9 were so good 'cause roddenberry had died, but hadn't died too remote. core star trek themes and characters and character development choices were still being used in ds9, but after roddenberry death, the star trek folks were able to do a bunch o' shows they never coulda' attempted with a roddenberry driven show. religion. moral ambiguity. war. ds9 were still everything most star trek fans loved 'bout star trek while embracing more difficult themes and less savory characters... especial when those unsavory characters were s'posed the good guys. however, and am admitted repeating self, every star trek series we ever watched (admitted haven't seen more than first episode o' discovery and no picard) had at least a handful o' fantastic episodes. with so much star trek to choose from, watch a half dozen best options for each series has you with many choices and many hours o' some o' the best scifi tv entertainment evar... and some o' best tv period. thanks to stuff such as netflix, we watch those handful from each series every so often and am reminded just how good every star trek has been... when star trek was good. as for shows which ended good we will admit cheers is near top o' the list but am having no difficulty naming other wins. breaking bad and angel (and we didn't particular like angel show) is stuff which would be known to the obsidian crowd. barney miller were too old for most folks to recall but were a near perfect finale and am doubting many watched newhart but can't help but smile when am recollecting end o' the show. an inexplicable ambivalent choice for us is the the wire which if you ask us next week 'bout the finale we may have a different opinion. might be an outlier, but am recalling how much we disliked most o' the mash finale, so if such an admission complete undercuts what we has already observed, then so much the better as you may feel thorough justified in ignoring the rest o' our post. HA! Good Fun!

on some level, such a revelation would be refreshing. turns out the illuminati is a bunch o' grumpy old ex-hippy peaceniks who want more bank regulation and universal health care? hard to see that kinda illuminati as particularly frightening. HA! Good Fun!

yes. nevertheless, if you are looking to make a point and wanna claim technical accuracy... sure, am suspecting is other bernie crazies out there in America. shady jokes, but am betting there is more than a few loons who managed to work their way up the volunteer hierarchy o' any number o' campaigns desperate for warm bodies willing to do work for no and near-no pay. don't need look particular hard. fact you got one or a dozen is hardly surprising. am gonna mention this again, 'cause is still mind boggling to us, but trump keeps attacking windmills.... and not metaphorical. the guy gets elected President and he public claims the sound from wind turbines causes cancer. the President has, more than once suggested how impeachment and removal o' his corpulent arse from office will lead to literal civil war. am genuine not certain what counts as excessive crazy in 2020 politics. we keep applying a 1980s or 1990s standard and am realizing daily how out of touch we are. the bernie crazy were arrested btw. HA! Good Fun!

allen iverson could, we suspect, replace florida man as a recurring meme. HA! Good Fun!

freedom dividend is a bit like freedom fries? again, yang needs Congress to get his taxes. we'll just tax amazon and other companies voters instant recognize as sooper successful and rich is not a particular well thought out plan. as already mentioned, alaska already has a freedom dividend which hasn't worked the way yang promises. check out alaska permanent fund dividend. $1000 per adult money is not gonna sudden appear, and pretend like increased well being and hoped for better education is gonna natural bolster economy is just fantasy nonsense. HA! Good Fun! ps in spite o' criticism o' ubi from hoover institute folks and fact it has never yet worked... anywhere, am in favor o' collecting more data. human nature and politics is some o' the biggest hurdles seen in ontario canada and finland and other places where tests petered out and died. yeah, the economic problems o' a multi trillion dollar a year program is daunting, but is true that the manufacturing jobs which has been a pillar o' america's labor force for so long is gone and not coming back while automation and ai will replace even more jobs in years to come. this is an idea (an old idea which first gained traction in the late 18th century btw) which needs to be explored. turn the US into the experiment to test such w/o dealing first with all the problems? dumb. dumb on a grand scale.

we so often disagree with gd, but will observe a kinda/sorta agreement on the bernie observation. is a fundamental and pervasive misconception 'bout what Presidents do in our system. trump, for first two years, had both senate and house backing and nevertheless accomplished almost nothing worth repeating. anybody else still waiting on the big infrastructure program? heck, infrastructure investment had bipartisan support and we still got nothing. sure, for a guy self promoting as a deal maker such impotence should be emasculating, but one must also needs recognize how the President, any President, can't do the vast majority o' all the things they promise while running for office w/o Congress actual passing laws. yang wants to give $1000 to every adult? ok, beyond fact such stuff hasn't worked as planned in europe and alaska, where is money gonna come from to make such a plan work? is only so many dod dollars which may be diverted from disaster rebuilds and levee maintenance projects even if yang goes with emergency powers declaration and hopes Courts move as slow as they have with trump. warren has more comprehensive plans than yang, but is a freaking house o' cards which is utter doomed 'cause real world intrudes on her fantasies. can get the healthcare and education support but only if her tax scheme is adopted as envisioned and certain economic thresholds is achieved. alter one card and the whole thing tumbles. even w/o a looming recession worries, is no way tax scheme o' warren gets passed by Congress w/o serious compromises, which results in fails and compromises o' all those programs dependent on money which is no more real than the stuff hasbro prints for their monopoly game. is same story for most all the other candidates. particular with current polarization which makes bipartisan support for any paradigm shifting program unlikely if not impossible, voters is nevertheless looking to vote for a messiah rather than a President. is stoopid. is wrong. is doomed. oh, and tulsi may not be crazy, but we don't get her campaign 'cause running as an islamophobe who cozies up with some o' the world's more notorious authoritarians while expressing homophobic personal beliefs and attacking the Church of Obama on fox with some regularity is no way to secure the democratic nomination. only things she gots gong for her is: 1) pretty much everybody hates hillary these days, so getting hillary hate is a win for tulsi and 2) most vets want an end to "endless wars"... though tulsi is actual in favor o' endless drone strikes and special forces assassinations, so whatever. regardless, Presidents aren't meant to do what most voters want 'em to do. thank goodness for the disconnect. we can't imagine how much worse the last three years mighta' been if trump coulda' indulged all his erratic and impulsive urges. HA! Good Fun!

for any interested https://www.c-span.org/video/?70097-1/judge-nathaniel-jones-tribute begins at 1:58 and we would recommend listening to at least 8:30ish. should be worth the effort. judge jones speaks at 34:00ish. HA! Good Fun!

a few days ago spent almost 24 hours stuck in a room with a talkative republican with no way to escape. pretended to sleep for a few hours were our only relief. regardless, were a surreal experience and we thought the poor guy's head would explode when we observed how criticizing obama to make trump seem less mendacious and impotent were a waste o' time 'cause: 1) obama flaws did nothing to diminish trump's inability to get anything substantive requiring meaningful executive action done in three years save for a tax cut for rich and relief for small business owners... and we admitted the small business owner thing were actual a noteworthy positive. 2) as Gromnir didn't approve o' most obama policies, foreign and domestic, constant railing 'bot obama were less effective than he appeared to believe. we felt a little sympathy for the fellow as we could tell he had no idea how to respond to somebody who were not polarized in the way he expected. were likely outside his experience. however, am not subscribing to the notion o' a choice 'tween the democrats and republicans is wasted. is a false dichotomy and the kinda lazy binary thinking which only makes another four years o' trump more likely. HA! Good Fun! ps to be fair, we also observed how trump stepping in to direct the atf to prohibit bump stocks were a positive and warranted given the disgusting reluctance o' Congress to do anything 'bout the issue... a view which offended our temporary roomy's purist second amendment notions. go figure.