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U.S Presidential Election

Baloo

Delisted Free Agent
Nov 8, 2005
44,113
18,925
So the Clinton's weren't running a child sex ring from a Pizza shop?
 

KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
6,782
1,222
Ireland
Impeachment "Trial" underway. So strange to watch the death throes of political democracy in the English-speaking world. No matter where you look, parody and irony are dead.
 

TigerMasochist

Walks softly carries a big stick.
Jul 13, 2003
25,571
11,448
Impeachment "Trial" underway. So strange to watch the death throes of political democracy in the English-speaking world. No matter where you look, parody and irony are dead.
Democrats having gibbering hissy fits over the Trumpster turning their circus on it's arse is one of the funniest shows in town.
Amazing that the septics have been supposedly the biggest show on earth for the last hundred years n they're run by a complete n utter bunch *smile* imbeciles.
 

KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
6,782
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Ireland
Democrats having gibbering hissy fits over the Trumpster turning their circus on it's arse is one of the funniest shows in town.
Amazing that the septics have been supposedly the biggest show on earth for the last hundred years n they're run by a complete n utter bunch ******* imbeciles.

To be fair, the Dems are the "frogs in the crock pot". Newt Gingrich started the burner on low over a decade ago and the Repubs have been inching up the heat ever since. McConnell has had them on a double burner at full gas for ages and can't believe they never noticed. Dems seem to have just realised their arses are on fire. What's actually on fire is their whole tripartate system. Repubs captured the Legislative Branch (by boxing clever and winning small races, governerships, senate seats, local races by being utter dirtbags and using "RedMap" to redraw districts and make margunal seats safe) and used that power to capture the Judicial Branch by appointing politically aligned Judges and then won the lotto when McConnell outboxed them and stole a SCOTUS nomination. They then nominated Trump. It reminds me of the scene at the end of "The Devil's Advocate" where Pacino says to Keanu "...and then you put that lying sack of *smile* on the stand!" Putting Trump in the Whitehouse was as brazen an act of political bastardry as there has ever been. So the Repubs then had all 3 branches in their pocket. At that point American Democracy was dead. The checks and balances that were supposed to be guaranteed by "3 equal branches of government" checking each other's power was gone.

That is how it got to where it is. It is the 'prisoners dilemma' where one is playing dirty to win at any cost and the other is trying to play fair. No idea how you fix it. I don't believe everyone playing dirty is the answer.
 
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DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
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What Trump did is definitely impeachable, but impeachment has always been more about the politics, so he'll get off.

What the Democrats are not getting is that the Republicans will no longer play ball at all. In the US system it just doesn't work to have congress voting on strict party lines. The whole thing is a mess.

The gerrymandering is rife for House seats. But, while this may not be fair or democratic (whatever that means in representative democracy), the Democrats have seen this happen for years and they need to have more focus on State parliaments if they ever want to turn it around.

As for the Presidential race, the Democrats might now understand after 2016 that they can't assume they will win states like Michigan by default.

Trump got elected because Hilary was offering more of the same. The same being the middle class getting screwed for years while the rich do very well. Trump isn't the answer, but at least he was promising something different, why not try it out given you know more of the same will do you no good.

Knighter's Revenge, the Prisoners Dilemma is precisely how neo-liberals want the world to work. It informs their notions of strategic rationality and the like. It's a crock, but everyone, individually, working for their own ends and screw everyone else is their nirvana.

DS
 
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Sintiger

Tiger Legend
Aug 11, 2010
18,202
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Camberwell
The demonstration in Richmond Virginia the other day with groups of whities walking through the streets with their guns in their holsters and assault rifles im full view is one of the scariest things I have seen in a western country.
what are they protesting? Laws that will restrict them to buying one gun a week, limit ability to buy military assault weapons and better background checks on people buying high powered weapons
The US has gone mad.
 
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KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
6,782
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The demonstration in Richmond Virginia the other day with groups of whities walking through the streets with their guns in their holsters and assault rifles im full view is one of the scariest things I have seen in a western country.
what are they protesting? Laws that will restrict them to buying one gun a week, limit ability to buy military assault weapons and better background checks on people buying high powered weapons
The US has gone mad.

In fairness to the "Incels Cosplay" incident it was very tame and orderly. It can't have been a protest, if they weren't able to get the guns they wanted, what were they walking around carrying? Do they want to be able to own an aircraft carrier?

My retort to the "criminals don't use registered firearms" claim, you often hear, is pretty straight forward. The better the regulations around legal firearms, the harder it is for criminals to get them. If your gun is registered and properly secured and the ammunition is treated the same then there will likely be less guns, and they will be harder to get at.

But there are still lots of guns in Australia, more than before moratorium they say. So the real issue for me is the attitude to guns. Most people are made nervous just by the sight of them. They are like a lit stick of dynamite or an out of control semi-trailer. Not so in the U.S. TV and Hollywood give a very slanted view of life in the U.S. Over 60 Million Americans live in semi-rural to rural areas. They are around guns much more and do not have that innate fear. Fear makes people consider their safety, it is a useful motivator in certain circumstances. Accidents happen when you blunt that fear response. That is how sparkies get electrocuted on the job etc. And that is what kills many Americans every year. The biggest shift needed to get U.S. gun ownership under control is to correct this. But I have absolutely no idea how you do that.
 
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KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
6,782
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What Trump did is definitely impeachable, but impeachment has always been more about the politics, so he'll get off.

What the Democrats are not getting is that the Republicans will no longer play ball at all. In the US system it just doesn't work to have congress voting on strict party lines. The whole thing is a mess.

The gerrymandering is rife for House seats. But, while this may not be fair or democratic (whatever that means in representative democracy), the Democrats have seen this happen for years and they need to have more focus on State parliaments if they ever want to turn it around.

As for the Presidential race, the Democrats might now understand after 2016 that they can't assume they will win states like Michigan by default.

Trump got elected because Hilary was offering more of the same. The same being the middle class getting screwed for years while the rich do very well. Trump isn't the answer, but at least he was promising something different, why not try it out given you know more of the same will do you no good.

Knighter's Revenge, the Prisoners Dilemma is precisely how neo-liberals want the world to work. It informs their notions of strategic rationality and the like. It's a crock, but everyone, individually, working for their own ends and screw everyone else is their nirvana.

DS

Spot on DSSS. I feel like the Republicans have played a blinder keeping the Dems focussed on the White House while they have been busily winning small races for decades, securing the real seat of power; the House. Even governor races, which can be used to smooth the path for GOP candidates for Congress. The Democrats "Blue Wave" did happen. That they won back the House in a system the GOP had Gerrymandered to within in a inch of its life, it was truly astounding. That is what they need to keep doing to get back control of the country. Obama could do almost nothing in a McConnell controlled House/Senate. The GOP played so dirty the Dems didn't know what to do. They got American courts to declare that corporations are people, that Gerrymandering is just the spoils of war, if you win - have at it! and that bribery is only real if you can show receipts for favours granted by government officials! They have appointed political stooges into courts up and down the land. Lifetime appointments! It's nuts. And it has implications for decades.
 

TigerForce

Tiger Legend
Apr 26, 2004
70,725
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Looks like the Flock of Seagulls song got more views and comments due to this Iran issue...:mhihi
 

DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
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Yeah, the judicial appointments will have an impact for such a long time.

What gets me is that the Republicans made it clear they would never allow an Obama nominated justice onto the Supreme Court so there was already a vacancy when he left office. Why do the Dems allow the Trump nominees in, isn't it a two-thirds majority to confirm a Supreme Court justice?

DS
 
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KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
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Yeah, the judicial appointments will have an impact for such a long time.

What gets me is that the Republicans made it clear they would never allow an Obama nominated justice onto the Supreme Court so there was already a vacancy when he left office. Why do the Dems allow the Trump nominees in, isn't it a two-thirds majority to confirm a Supreme Court justice?

DS

Had they taken the house yet when Kavanagh was appointed? I don't think so. It is seriously scary the state of SCOTUS. Listen to "Opening Arguments" a podcast on law, it lays it out very well. The lawyer (leftie even more left than me) is adamant that Roberts' (the justice presideing over the Impeachment Trial and considered to be the "swing" vote on the Supreme Court) desent in "Obergefell" - the case that gave the U.S. marriage equality - is telling. If a challenge to that case makes it to SCOTUS (there are plenty percolating through the state courts because they know they have a sympathetic SCOTUS) it will be overturned. Roe vs Wade is far from safe.
 

DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
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You need the Senate not the house for judicial appointments.

Roe v Wade is seriously under threat. The irony is that, back when the judgement was made, Republicans supported the decision. The whole Roe v Wade case was won on the basis that the state should not intervene in a personal matter such as abortion. The right clearly have no scruples about intervening in peoples' personal lives these days: want to ban abortion, oppose single sex marriage, want to make sure gender is binary defined, then again, it is only later that neo-liberalism rose to the prominence it now has.

DS
 

KnightersRevenge

Baby Knighters is 7!! WTF??
Aug 21, 2007
6,782
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You need the Senate not the house for judicial appointments.

Roe v Wade is seriously under threat. The irony is that, back when the judgement was made, Republicans supported the decision. The whole Roe v Wade case was won on the basis that the state should not intervene in a personal matter such as abortion. The right clearly have no scruples about intervening in peoples' personal lives these days: want to ban abortion, oppose single sex marriage, want to make sure gender is binary defined, then again, it is only later that neo-liberalism rose to the prominence it now has.

DS

I guess I was thinking that if the GOP still held both House and Senate then I'm not sure Dems had the power to block it?
 

tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
24,150
19,620
Surprise surprise, in an election year Trump is going to add another 7 countries to the banned travel list to the USA.
 

DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
10,525
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Melbourne
I'd have to look this up but I thought you needed a 2/3 majority in the Senate to appoint a Supreme Court judge.

If that is the case then the Dems can block any appointments.

However, this causes the problem in their system: it relies on less strict voting on party lines than a Westminster system such as ours. In fact, the Westminster Commons is not as strict as the Australian House of Reps.

DS
 
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