The all things Political topic -In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

[Skarpen]

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

I've come to view inflation as a form of taxation

I think Milton Friedman beat you to that conclusion:

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/milton_friedman_101538

[Pidesco]

17 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

Nice article about Justice Thomas.

Since we were just discussing him

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/us/politics/clarence-thomas-supreme-court.html

This is the original article. Watch out for dnyuz. Those guys plagiarize articles left and right.

 

 

Edit: I took the liberty of editing your post.

[Guard Dog]

2 hours ago, Pidesco said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/us/politics/clarence-thomas-supreme-court.html

This is the original article. Watch out for dnyuz. Those guys plagiarize articles left and right.

 

 

Edit: I took the liberty of editing your post.

Thank you sir!

[Guard Dog]

It’s a shame dueling has gone out of style.
 

once upon a time it was not unheard of amongst congressman. In fact the man on Gromnirs pic was part of one.

[Malcador]

6 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

It’s a shame dueling has gone out of style.
 

once upon a time it was not unheard of amongst congressman. In fact the man on Gromnirs pic was part of one.

Not quite sure that's going to work well with semi-auto weaponry.

[ComradeYellow]

2 hours ago, Malcador said:

Not quite sure that's going to work well with semi-auto weaponry.

It would have to be some kind of Battle Royale on an island in todays climate.

[Guard Dog]

5 minutes ago, ComradeYellow said:

It would have to be some kind of Battle Royale on an island in todays climate.

If you want to Congress critters to get along better they should start doing some group activities. Like paintball or fishing trips or stuff like that. You know, team builders. Personally I think all of their animosity in public posturing is just for show. It’s like professional wrestlers saying what they’re going to do to each other in the ring and then they go have a beer after they rehearse

[ComradeYellow]

1 minute ago, Guard Dog said:

If you want to Congress critters to get along better they should start doing some group activities. Like paintball or fishing trips or stuff like that. You know, team builders. Personally I think all of their animosity in public posturing is just for show. It’s like professional wrestlers saying what they’re going to do to each other in the ring and then they go have a beer after they rehearse

Yeah that was definitely true in the pre-Trump era but things seem a leeeetle bit different now.  At least to a degree.

I remember actually watching the Bush-Kerry debate and they seemed all buddy buddy like "whoever wins, we're both financially covered by the same peeps, keep on keepin' on bro!"

[Gromnir]

Judge orders release of DOJ memo justifying not prosecuting Trump

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679/gov.uscourts.dcd.207679.27.0_1.pdf

"And of even greater importance to this decision, the affidavits are so inconsistent with
evidence in the record, they are not worthy of credence. The review of the unredacted document
in camera reveals that the suspicions voiced by the judge in EPIC and the plaintiff here were
well-founded, and that not only was the Attorney General being disingenuous then, but DOJ has
been disingenuous to this Court with respect to the existence of a decision-making process that
should be shielded by the deliberative process privilege. The agency’s redactions and incomplete
explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the
notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision
was on the table at any time."

ouchie. 

am genuine curious what will be the doj response. appeal any such order for production o' documents central to attorney general review would ordinarily be reflexive. then again, we have multiple federal judges who has stated barr were "misleading" and/or "disingenuous" regarding the memo describing the mueller report findings and is tough to imagine the doj going far in defending the former attorney general's actions.

'course none o' this makes any difference 'cause our deeply polarized electorate had already formed their opinions before barr summarized mueller report findings. is now a couple years removed and any impact the truth might have had initial is even further diminished by the presumed gaslighting which will take place post release.  

...

while am curious 'bout the contents o' the memo, am more interested in seeing how the doj handles this. multiple judges (three at this point) has called barr a liar, including a bush 43 appointee, so is doubtful anybody will be shocked when memo reveals barr were less than honest 'bout whether the doj believed trump engaged in activities which woulda' exposed a non sitting President to obstruction of justice charges. only mystery left is what doj decides to do going forward, and am admitted uncertain as to that conclusion.

edit:

on the lighter side, and am s'posing related to @Guard Dog and his dueling observations...

the twitter  battle has a few more slap-fight moments including mtg calling gallego, a former marine, a "coward."

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 5, 2021 by Gromnir

[rjshae]

5 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

If you want to Congress critters to get along better they should start doing some group activities. Like paintball or fishing trips or stuff like that. You know, team builders. Personally I think all of their animosity in public posturing is just for show. It’s like professional wrestlers saying what they’re going to do to each other in the ring and then they go have a beer after they rehearse

Catch them as they fall. Let's start at 50 meters.

[Skarpen]

7 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

If you want to Congress critters to get along better they should start doing some group activities

Didn't they played baseball that one time? 

[Gfted1]

4 hours ago, Skarpen said:

Didn't they played baseball that one time? 

Well, they hilariously injected themselves into the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. 

[BruceVC]

6 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Well, they hilariously injected themselves into the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. 

Gfted1 I know you mentioned you dont normally vote but how do you feel about your politicians and members of congress....do you share the same general distain and cynicism that other US forum members feel about them?

[Amentep]

I don't want to put words in Skarpen's mouth, but I think he may be referring to the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity that's been going on since 1909. During a practice for the Republican team in 2017, Steve Scalise was shot.

[Guard Dog]

1 minute ago, Amentep said:

I don't want to put words in Skarpen's mouth, but I think he may be referring to the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity that's been going on since 1909. During a practice for the Republican team in 2017, Steve Scalise was shot.

Wow, I thought it was longer ago than that. That guy was trying to kill as many as he could. He did kill two Capital Police IIRC. 

[Gfted1]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Gfted1 I know you mentioned you dont normally vote but how do you feel about your politicians and members of congress....do you share the same general distain and cynicism that other US forum members feel about them?

No, I dont have any distain for the people, I have distain for the process. While others feels its "working as intended", it pisses me off to no end that we cant find our ass with both hands. Almost nothing gets accomplished and what does takes years. And it seems more and more common for one side to try to "stick it to" the other side instead of working together towards goals. Ive also been around long enough to watch the pendulum of power swing back and forth so I dont really have a "side" (Dem or Rep). I just want the best possible human or AI to execute their duties.

[Skarpen]

55 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I don't want to put words in Skarpen's mouth, but I think he may be referring to the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity that's been going on since 1909. During a practice for the Republican team in 2017, Steve Scalise was shot.

That's the one. Thanks for details. 

[Guard Dog]

49 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

No, I dont have any distain for the people, I have distain for the process. While others feels its "working as intended", it pisses me off to no end that we cant find our ass with both hands. Almost nothing gets accomplished and what does takes years. And it seems more and more common for one side to try to "stick it to" the other side instead of working together towards goals. Ive also been around long enough to watch the pendulum of power swing back and forth so I dont really have a "side" (Dem or Rep). I just want the best possible human or AI to execute their duties.

Better to do nothing than to make things worse

[BruceVC]

12 minutes ago, Guard Dog said:

Better to do nothing than to make things worse

I am not convinced by this argument ...it does make some sense but it seems very sardonic and  defeatist when it comes to our various Democracies and how we can make things better on the political side especially around delivery of promised policies and what is expected and demanded by citizens  

[Guard Dog]

10 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

I am not convinced by this argument ...it does make some sense but it seems very sardonic and  defeatist when it comes to our various Democracies and how we can make things better on the political side especially around delivery of promised policies and what is expected and demanded by citizens  

Clearly I am not a devotee of Hobbesian political thought.

but like I told Gorth I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything anymore.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Guard Dog

[ComradeYellow]

7 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

I am not convinced by this argument ...it does make some sense but it seems very sardonic and  defeatist when it comes to our various Democracies and how we can make things better on the political side especially around delivery of promised policies and what is expected and demanded by citizens  

Unfortunately democracies can't change jack ****.  It takes a war or some big event to shape the political landscape in any meaningful way.  Look at 1783-1865, nothing really changed (except continued expansionism and genocide amongst the natives), and then look at 1865-1945, same deal, and so on and so forth, general policies remained remained the same until the guns came out.

[Guard Dog]

Chauvin files appeal

It seems to me the activities of this one Jour before he got on the jury is more likely to submarine this verdict than the comments of waters and Biden. Just how it looks from my perspective.

[Guard Dog]

1 minute ago, ComradeYellow said:

Unfortunately democracies can't change jack ****.  It takes a war or some big event to shape the political landscape in any meaningful way.  Look at 1783-1865, nothing really changed (except continued expansionism and genocide amongst the natives), and then look at 1865-1945, same deal, and so on and so forth, general policies remained remained the same until the guns came out.

Ummm no. Sorry you were way off the mark on this one. Political change might be slow to come but it doesn’t take a calamitous event to get things trending in one direction or another. The calamitous event might make a for a dramatic change in a short time. But not only calamitous events result in change.

[ComradeYellow]

Says the completely out of touch woodsman!

[Guard Dog]

8 minutes ago, ComradeYellow said:

Says the completely out of touch woodsman!

I may be out of touch with the modern era but my knowledge of history is, if I do say so myself, pretty thorough