Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let there be snark.

This really is a full service blog.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Battle won, war still ongoing.

No one could have predicted…

All your base are belong to Tunch.

I was promised a recession.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I really should read my own blog.

The willow is too close to the house.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Republicans do not pay their debts.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Major Impacts

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Major Impacts

by | 245 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Stay safe, Floridians…

Reader Interactions

245Comments

  1. 1.

    J.

    First?

    Woke up to a Hurricane Watch. Hunkering down with our two cats and hoping our house doesn’t wind up like that asteroid.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    If it weren’t for the racists, I wouldn’t have learned about the CIA statue or what Tubman did to deserve it.

    Thanks, racists!

  12. 12.

    Baud

    71% of Americans approve of labor unions — the highest reading since 1965, according to Gallup

    It would be cool if we had the same Democratic dominance we had in 1965. Then maybe we could have more unions.

  14. 14.

    danielx

    Maybe DeSantis will actually pay attention to the welfare of Floridians instead of focusing on political ambitions.

    Hey, it could happen.

  16. 16.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Of all the tv shows that were cancelled too soon, WGN’s Underground is still the one I was saddest to see go, after only two seasons.  Season two had Harriet Tubman as a main character and it was the best portrayal of her and her story that I have ever seen (much better than the film Harriet, though I did like that too).  Anyways, there is an episode called Minty where Tubman spends the entire episode giving a monologue to a roomful of White Abolitionists and it is one of the best, most powerful episodes of any tv series, ever.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend renting the series on Amazon/AppleTV.  You can even watch Minty as a stand-alone episode, even if you don’t watch the rest of the series.  You don’t really need to know the larger story/plot of the series to enjoy it.  The final scene (which starts at the 47:21 mark) has about a 10 minute slow pan, zooming in on Tubman at a nearly glacial pace as she warns the White People about the coming War and issues a righteous call to arms and Allyship that still gives me chills, to this day.  I don’t know how Aisha Hinds didn’t get an Emmy for this incredible performance.  Sadly the show was too expensive for WGN and Hulu had strict control of the rights so nobody ever picked it up (though there were rumors that Oprah was interested in it for a bit).

  18. 18.

    Nicole

    @oatler:

    Hollywood being what it is, we might get “Harriet Tubman Vampire Hunter”.

    Historically accurate, no, but… 10/10 would watch.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @J.: I’m sure you know this, but it bears repeating: don’t trust that track! Yesterday some of us were reminiscing about Charley in 2004, which was also supposed to slam into Tampa. Punta Gorda got a nasty surprise instead.

  22. 22.

    The Dark Avenger

    @Baud: In the old days, three days horseback ride was hot pursuit,  the time allotted where you could track down and take back any stolen property a thief took from you.  Unfortunately, that law was rescinded some decades ago.

  23. 23.

    J.

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, everyone who’s lived here for a while remembers Charley. Not taking anything for granted. You guys prepared? (We have hurricane windows and doors, a new roof, and a generator. But flooding could be a problem as our home is old and not elevated.)

  26. 26.

    gvg

    @Betty Cracker: Never trust any hurricane projection. I was a bit of a scold yesterday, I think. Didn’t mean to be, but someone said how remarkable that we had a solid projection 5 days out…

    All hurricane tracks are just useful but not perfect. Also people overlook how big some of them are, bigger than the state. This one is big enough that it’s going to cover most of the state all at once so even if the map track shows it 50 miles away from someone you care about, that person is still getting the hurricane.

    Tampa is a flood waiting to happen and everyone knows it.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​

    71% of Americans approve of labor unions — the highest reading since 1965, according to Gallup

    That, despite (or is it because of?) the best efforts of Steve in the WTFKW?

  28. 28.

    germy shoemangler

    thread:

    Thread 🧵
    Let me explain something about the Italian elections for all the non Italians who just read MSM.
    1) the R coalition got @ 42% of the vote of 64% Italians who voted (the lowest number ever).
    2) 36% of Italians did NOT vote. Many lost hope during the Berlusconi years /1

    — Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

    when there was no REAL opposition and in the end so-called progressives colluded with B in many ways. The system is very corrupt. Many young people did not vote because they "did not like any of the options." They do not get that the least worst actually still exists. /2

    — Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

    3) Italian students and workers who could not travel to their hometown of residence were NOT allowed to vote.
    Big failure of the so-called center left (weak and not caring about the issues of citizens) created a situation where there was NO feasible coalition of all /3

    — Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

    the Italians who did NOT vote for the R coalition. They are MORE than @ 42% but they did not band together.
    4) So because of terrible elections laws the R coalition that gets @ 42% takes 2/3 of the entire Parliament. That 42% represents ONLY @ 26% of Italians. /4

    — Marina Archer (@DrMarinaArcher) September 26, 2022

  29. 29.

    Cameron

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, I’m going to be checking regularly.  I get totally different results at AccuWeather depending on whether I check the hourly, minutecast, or Hurricane Ian special sites.  Guess I’ll know what’s what in about 12 hours.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @J.: We’re as ready as we can be, but it might get rough if the current track holds. Our main concern is river flooding. Our house is on stilts, we have Bahama shutters, and our roof is only a few years old, so as long as a tree doesn’t squash us, we’ll have shelter. But we might get stuck back here for who knows how long if our crappy dirt road washes out, which it definitely will in a flood. Thinking about moving one of our vehicles to a boat ramp upriver so that we could have a post-hurricane escape route. Or we could get my dad to come rescue us in his airboat. Having prepared for the worst, we’re hoping for the best. Y’all stay safe

    ETA: Windy is a good app to use to track the storm location if you lose power and have to rely on your phone. It got us through Irma.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gvg: A common mistake is to misinterpret the width of the published cone as the size of the hurricane. But the cone just represents a rough estimate of a probability distribution for the center of the hurricane.

  32. 32.

    kalakal

    We’re about as ready as we can be. Wind is our biggest fear, we should be well above the surge. It does seem to be trending further east which would take it just south of us.

  34. 34.

    Spanky

    @Betty Cracker: I second the windy.com site. I recommend playing with it at your leisure because it’s got a lot of options, and you might need to find something on it in a hurry.

  35. 35.

    germy shoemangler

    Washington
    CNN
    —
    The day before the 2020 election, Roger Stone, the long-time Republican operative and ally of former President Donald Trump, said in front of a documentary film crew that he had no interest in waiting to tally actual votes before contesting the election results.

    “F**k the voting, let’s get right to the violence,” Stone can be heard saying, according to footage provided by a Danish documentary film crew and obtained by CNN.

    The clip is one of multiple pieces of footage obtained by CNN that the filmmakers also shared with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The video shows Stone as an early proponent of contesting the election – even before the results were in – and raising the possibility of violence months before January 6.

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/politics/roger-stone-january-6-documentary-film/index.html

  41. 41.

    germy shoemangler

    @Baud:

    When I say “F**k Arbys, let’s get right to the Burger King” I guess they’d say I am raising the possibility of Burger King.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @Baud: But they’ve got the Real Country* Style Rib Sandwich for a limited time!

    * It doesn’t say which country, possibly Latveria.

  52. 52.

    Spanky

    @Ken:

    @Baud: But they’ve got the Real Country* Style Rib Sandwich for a limited time!

    * It doesn’t say which country, possibly Latveria.

    I’m thinking it’s more like Listeria.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker:

    “Poke Salad Betty!

    The gators know she’s ready.”

    But for what? Can the alligators watching the unusual activity of the Crackers guess what’s coming? Maybe the older gators recall Charlie and say, “Yep. Looks like we’re in the cone alright.”

  57. 57.

    germy shoemangler

    @Betty Cracker:

    I feel the same way about Ron Filipkowski.  He’s often too quick to tweet something that turns out to be false, but he’s all about the retweets and calls for donations.

    There seems to be money in feeding the anger of liberals.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: ​As beautiful as ever. The elder one is finally coming around to the idea that I’m not all bad, while the younger has decided I am the spawn of Satan. Fortunately, they both think I married a woman sent by god to cure every possible ailment. I’m pretty sure they aren’t far off.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Y’all stay safe.

    One big storm tip which is often overlooked: if you have a top loader washing machine, fill the tub with water beforehand. If water service is disrupted and/or power goes out to a water pump, can be used in a pinch to fill a toilet tank to provide flushing capability.

  66. 66.

    Booger

    @Spanky: Wow…I always thought folks were kidding when they talked about something giving them a coffee spit-take all over their monitors. Well played!

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: NHC now calling for 10-15″. How long can you tread water?

    On the more serious side, you guys take care. We’ll be thinking of you and all the other Florida jackals.

  73. 73.

    catclub

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     

    Everything that is blamed on our two-party system also happens in multi-party systems.

    But I think we are leading the way in non-participation by potential voters.

  74. 74.

    Spanky

    @zhena gogolia: Well, as far north as you live, it takes forever for a hurricane to get there.

    {Old Man Ramble alert.}

    I remember back in the day, musta been back in the early nineties, when we had them new-fangled Silicon Graphics workstations. Well, one of us found the NWS site – t’wasn’t a web site back then – what had the still satellite photos. We got to stringin’ ’em together to make our own movies of hurricanes. Got to be 4 or 5 day’s worth of data. Looked real good too!

    {End Old Man Ramble}

  76. 76.

    Ken

    I just watched the DART video linked above, and I find I’m almost crying at the last frame it ever sent, with a few lines of image and then a blank reddish screen.  I had the same reaction to this XKCD about the Spirit rover.

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Will Ian be DeSantis’ Katrina?

    Will dozens of pundits be hospitalized with spinal fractures after contorting themselves to simultaneous claim Ian was Biden’s worst moment, and DeSantis’s greatest?

    (dammit now we’re going to have the “possessive of a proper name ending in s” argument again)

  78. 78.

    Quiltingfool

    Morning, all!  Quick update on Ukraine donation blocks – I mailed blocks to these folks yesterday, so be on the lookout:

    Alison Rose, Brooklyn Dodger, Makada, Pauline, Wombat Probability Cloud, eclare, and Ruckus!

    As for the rest of you, it shouldn’t be too much longer.   I’ll be working on the long arm quilting machine for the next couple of days.  I do have to quilt some Halloween kitty placemats (for money, gotta feed my fabric habit!)  and then onto Ukraine blocks.  Thursday I will be doing a dangerous thing – going to a quilt show – so many vendors!  So many cool trinkets to buy!

    Florida peeps, stay safe!

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A young dog miraculously survived uninjured after being thrown off a 15ft bridge from a moving car while in a plastic bin. Police from Orange county, Florida, say they received a call from an eyewitness who was walking their dog and saw someone toss the plastic container over the bridge. The resident said that they realized a dog had been abandoned and alerted the local police.

    “The concerned resident had stated they thought there was a dog inside, as they could see it curled up inside from the top of the bridge,” said Orange county animal services in a statement about the incident posted on social media.
    …………………………
    “What they found was a young female dog inside a small blue plastic tote that had been thrown away like garbage,” the Facebook post said.
    …………………………………
    The authorities added that they were unsure why the dog was dumped, given the proximity of nearby shelters.

    “The location where Daisy was dumped is a short drive from the shelter. There are literally hundreds of private rescues that would be willing to take in a sweet and gentle dog for foster or adoption. And yet someone chose instead to commit this act of cruelty,” said statement read.

    It went on to say: “We will never understand why people do these cruel things to animals, but we feel fortunate that so many residents see something and say something.”

    I’ll tell you why: People are scum sucking piece of shit.

  80. 80.

    john b

    I’m all for taking Musk down a peg whenever possible, but I’m assuming this was a genuine congrats from SpaceX, as they were a big part of this mission (they were tasked with launching the probe into space).

  81. 81.

    PAM Dirac

    My favorite observation so far of the DART impact is this one (click on the small video in the middle) from the Virtual telescope folks. A very experienced amateur with a 12″ telescope opens his observatory right after a rain storm and hopes the clouds clear enough. Finds the asteroid and they watch in amazement as they see a more than 3 magnitude brightening and even the debris field. Of course to make the experience even more real, the clouds come back in. I just love the feeling of being able to be a witness in your own way to some amazing things. The quick summary of the observations are also available.

  85. 85.

    Geminid

    @john b: Musk will rise a notch on my shit list if his Starlink satellite system succeeds in giving Iranians greater access to the Internet. Last week the US Treasury modified sanctions on Iran to allow such telecommunications efforts.

    A sticking point will be supplying terminals to Iranians. They’ll have to be smuggled in and kept secure from the regime. I expect someone caught with a terminal might face a death sentence.

  86. 86.

    lowtechcyclist

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Everything that is blamed on our two-party system also happens in multi-party systems.

    Being unable to dislodge the same two dominant parties that you had 160 years ago?

  89. 89.

    Ken

    @Baud: We’ve had a two party system for that long, but the parties are not the same as they were 160 years ago.

    Although when you realize there is only one fundamental question in politics — pants or no pants — there can really be only two parties.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think the US’s two party system results from our electoral system itself. Unless we move to proportional representation, which is unlikely, or to a parliamentary system, even more unlikely, there will be two dominant parties for the forseeable future. Dissidents will have to either join one of the two coalitions and and try to transform it to their liking, or stay on the sidelines and complain about the “duopoly.”

  91. 91.

    counterfactual

    @Geminid: Since the protesters are facing death penalties for protesting, that’s not a deterrent and the Persians learned smuggling from the Assyrians 3000 years ago. they’ll get the dishes, and the Ukrainians have lots of advice on hiding them.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Agree. Although it’s possible that RCV could create multiple parties.  Although I kind of doubt it.  I believe New York allows candidates to appear in the ballot as both a Dem and as a member of the Working People’s Party. That hasn’t broken the duopoly there.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    You sometimes see fringe third party movements based on the idea of wearing only one pant leg, but they always disintegrate due to infighting over which leg to wear it on.

  94. 94.

    germy shoemangler

    Most of Alabama GOP chairman John Wahl’s extended family have been blocked from voting because they won’t show photo ID.
    In a 2016 deposition, his brother explained why: They consider photo ID the mark of the beast foretold in Revelation. 🧵 https://t.co/LD01RY7NYR

    — Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) September 27, 2022

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    @UncleEbeneezer:

     

    Of all the tv shows that were cancelled too soon, WGN’s Underground is still the one I was saddest to see go, after only two seasons.

     

    You ain’t never lied. I absolutely loved Underground.

    The first season was traumatic every single episode, but, necessary trauma.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: We need to check if Donald “go to war with the army you have” Rumsfeld is actually in that grave. Sounds like he might have sneaked off to Russia to give advice.

  99. 99.

    Matt McIrvin

    IIRC The Russian army only recently upgraded to issuing socks, in place of the traditional footwraps. (But the Ukrainian army only abandoned footwraps a little earlier… all after 2000.)

  100. 100.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m home from eye surgery, a little woozy but at last able to have coffee. I have an enormous patch over my left eye, so I have to wait until tomorrow morning to test the results.

  107. 107.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @rikyrah: Ah. There’s that army of toxic masculinity that Tucker promised us would overwhelm the “woke” armies of the west.

    Real men don’t need…

    wait…

    sleeping bags? bandages?

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

     Dr. Yadira Caraveo for CO-08 (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 6:18 AM on Tue, Sep 27, 2022:
    It’s essentially religious racist fascism now, and if more white liberals had any balls, they’d think of religious white extremist conservatives the way America as a whole thinks of al-Qaeda & ISIS.

    But white America is collectively proving to be not ready for that conversation.
    (https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1574720215761428485?t=N9iiAVZ4YSbnD7BxWdz51Q&s=03)

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @counterfactual: I was wondering if Kurds in Northeast Iraq might smuuggle arms and fighters into western Iran to assist their Iranian brethren. I ran across a Kurdish news site, @Huldaw.English that indicated this is the case. At least, the Iranians have been shelling the area near the town of Saddakan, Erbil Province, they say in retaliation for arms smuggling by a Kurdish-Iranian exile group based there.

    Mahsa Amini was Kurdish, and six of her native Kurdistan Province’s protestors were the first reported killed by the regime. Yesterday the death toll all over Iran was said  to be more than 200, and protests have been reported in 146 towns and cities.

  113. 113.

    Calouste

    @trollhattan: The good thing is that those gaspipelines are not in use, so it doesn’t affect the energy situation in Western Europe. Which also makes it hard to work out who would benefit from sabotaging something that wasn’t working. Maybe Putin wants to ensure that Western Europe has energy problems for a number of years even if he gets toppled.

  115. 115.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: When I first started organizing in 2017, I posted that final Tubman speech where she looks directly at the camera and says:

    “If you don’t have it in you to take up arms against the injustice, then you gotta pray another prayer. And you gotta walk in it with conviction. He will provide but you’ve gotta do your part. You gotta find what it means for you to be a soldier. Beat back those who are trying to kill everything good and right in the world and call it ‘making it great again.’ We can’t afford to be just citizens in a time of war. That’d be surrender. That’d be giving up our future and our souls. Ain’t nobody get to sit this one out, you hear me?”

    for my Indivisible FB group and it turns out one of our members’ husband is the producer of the show and was extra-proud of that particular episode.  The series also had that really great plot showing the story of the Gullah Geeche, another thing I had never seen in a tv show or film before.  Such a great show.  Fortunately Misha Green went on to Lovecraft Country.

  116. 116.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

    The Short Short Pants Sect and the Cult of the Three Quarter Length Cargos ritually slap their calves at your lack of ecumenicalism.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Someone’s comment that a hard right party had gotten a “huge vote” in the recent Swedish election made me look up the election in Wikipedia. The party in question did not seem so very hard right, and voting added 11 seats to its previous total, out of over 300 MPs.

    I think that six or seven parties won seats, and a number of parties did not. The Nuance Party was among those blanked, but they still won more votes than 6 smaller parties.

  125. 125.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Tony Jay:

    Hey Tony Jay, I was wondering what you thought of Jeremy Corbyn’s remarks on NATO and him blaming Russia’s aggression on the West as well as criticizing Western nations supplying weapons to Ukraine as “prolonging the war”?

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @different-church-lady: I thought a fun fake news project would be to spread the rumor/news that DeSantis has agreed to release the 12 million fund he set aside for relocating immigrants to pay for all travel and lodging expenses for those forced to flee Ian. And include the Governor’s phone numbers, including that of his press bot in the public release.

  131. 131.

    Steeplejack

    I did a little digging this morning to get a feel for my 84-year-old friend’s situation in Naples, FL, vis-à-vis Ian. I found it a little hard to drill down to specific details beneath the spray of general stories. Finally got to the Collier County website and found a pretty good resource page.

    My friend’s address is in Zone C, about five miles inland from Naples Bay and the Gulf. (Naples is about 160 miles south of Tampa.) So she probably won’t have to evacuate, although I’m sure she’ll get a lot of rain and wind. The county has issued a voluntary evacuation order only for Zone A and is holding a press conference at 3:00 p.m. EDT today. I emailed her what information I found.

    It’s sunny and 69° in my corner of NoVA, going up a few degrees this afternoon. Very pleasant. Of course we’ll get some rain from the hurricane starting this weekend.

  140. 140.

    cain

    @gvg: Tampa is a flood waiting to happen and everyone knows it.

    “As the flood waters rise, will DeSantis also rise to the occasion? In this PA diner people would rather talk about the Trump raid.”

  145. 145.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: It’s so weird to me that ranked-choice is the alternative voting scheme that’s caught on. It’s like, the worst one. It’s confusing and overly sensitive to minor changes and iirc when studied in Canada led to less-satisfied voters (can’t remember the link for that one)

  146. 146.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​A better question might be what NYC Dems have been doing right. It sure isn’t public safety, education, housing, sanitation… and then the transit stuff is run by the state but they are just awful too. I’d love it if there were a way to get better Dems running the city, but I’d settle for fewer Dems in a way that doesn’t add Republicans if this is what they’re going to be like.

  147. 147.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Geminid:

    Dissidents will have to either join one of the two coalitions and and try to transform it to their liking, or stay on the sidelines and complain about the “duopoly.”

    Of course, that doesn’t change if you are in a parliamentary system. When there are many parties, then those parties have to form coalitions with parties that represent different people with different wants and desires. That STILL requires compromise. That is the heart of the issue. The people who complain the MOST about our 2 party system don’t want to compromise. They are going to be unhappy no matter what because they will never live in a world where everyone thinks they are right about everything.

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @Major Major Major Major: I’ve noticed that the Democratic Socialists of America ran a slate of candidates in New York metro-area Democratic primaries. Don’t know how well they did.

    The DSA’s national membership is hovering around 100,000, and it seems strongest in New York City and its suburbs. I think several New York City Councilors are DSA members, and Representatives Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez are as well.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Yes, the worst case scenario would be that the center left parties are always losing their coalition and calling elections, and the right parties are more disciplined.

    If we had a parliamentary system, I bet we would have had new elections when Manchin and Sinema blocked the original BBB.

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    @Major Major Major Major: I am glad RCV is being implemented in a few jurisdictions now so we can see the potential problems over time. Same with the open, “jungle” primaries. California and Washington have them, and I think Louisiana has had jungle primaries for a while. Alsaka just introduced a hybrid system with an open primary followed  by a ranked choice election between the top four finishers.

    I’ve seen a lot of dissatisfaction over the result of New York City’s first ranked choice Mayoral election. Ironically, it replaced a system whereby there be a runoff if no one won more than 40% of the vote. Eric Adams got only ~33% of 1st round votes and would have faced a runoff with the second place finisher, perhaps with a different final result.

  162. 162.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    My biggest issues with the current system.

    1. Candidates who win primaries with less than 50% of the vote, often much less/the effect of a crowded field
    2. Third party “messaging” in general elections that allow Republicans to win with a plurality.
    3. The inability to tell whiners to prove themselves by winning elections, because any attempt might create the situation in #2.
  163. 163.

    different-church-lady

    @Geminid: ​
      Everyone thinks a new system is going to give them “better” results.
    “Better” results are always defined as “candidates with my politics will prevail”
    Everyone is going to be surprised when it doesn’t go according to plan on a regular basis.

  165. 165.

    GoBlueInOak

    @Tony Jay: I see Kwarteng is doubling down on tax cuts and promising tax cuts as far as the eye can see until the pound is worth less than the Mexican peso.   While at same time declaring the solution is to increase the number of migrant workers.

    Now I am pro-immigration myself, but I woulda assumed that the xenophobic Brexiteers would be aghast at that – then again, I also assume the puppeteers behind Brexit didn’t really care about immigration and just wanted a bunch of tax cuts anyways.

  167. 167.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Major Major Major Major: There are many types of ranked-choice system. The specific one that’s caught on is IRV, which is not the best in terms of giving people the outcomes they think they’re voting for, but mostly has the advantage of being the simplest one to describe.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: I saw a report on a Nevada ballot initiatie sponsored by an outfit called “Fight for Five.” If it passes twice, Nevada will have ranked choice runoffs between the top five finishers in an open primary.

    For reasons I can’t explain, I look at Alaska’s top four runoff and say, “Interesting, I wonder how that will turn out.” But when I think about a top five system I say, “That’s too many!”

  170. 170.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Matt McIrvin: I lived in SF and NYC for their first IRV elections and the candidates couldn’t even accurately describe how the votes are counted. It’s a terrible system.​

    not the best in terms of giving people the outcomes they think they’re voting for

    Seems bad! We can do better.

  171. 171.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    The biggest thing I’ll be interested in seeing is if RCV reduces GOP extremism. Alaska is a unique case, so I’m not sure if any lessons can be drawn there.

  172. 172.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: ​
      That’s what the right says. The left just stands there stunned, and then goes back to the Acme Company for another system.

  174. 174.

    Tony Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Just let me clarify that answer now that I’m no longer making pasta.

    His basic argument is that negotiations are what is going to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whether with Putin or a successor regime, so it should be imperative for every major international body with any credibility whatsoever to move heaven and earth to get those negotiations started sooner rather than later, instead of it just being a matter of individual governments chucking tons of very expensive weapons into the mix and using some of them using their support for Ukraine as a virtue-signalling distraction from their own links to Russian money (if you know who I mean).

    He’s been very clear for months and months that Russia is to blame for invading and needs to get the fuck out of Ukrainian territory, but as a lifelong pacifist he’s not going to change his opinion of how stupid and wasteful and easily exploited war is just because hostile media and political elements want to chat shit about him.

    Also, too, since the whole bullshit antisemitism excuse NuNew Labour’s scummy froth have been using as an excuse to take away the Party whip from him has collapsed like the crust on a Crème Brûlée recently, they need a new excuse and reason to vilify The Monster. They’ve decided that lying about his stance on Ukraine is going to do the job, and their allies of convenience in the Media are playing along for shits and giggles.

    So, no, I’m still cool with him. I may not agree with him entirely, but I respect his consistency and moral core.

  175. 175.

    Ken

    @GoBlueInOak: I imagine their focus group polling showed that “we’ll ban migrant workers, and then British citizens will be able to pick crops and be paid a higher rate” didn’t poll well with either the citizens or the people who would be paying.

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think Alaska’s November runoff for its Congressional seat will have only three candidates because the fourth place finisher dropped out. Sarah Palin has called for fellow Republican Nick Begich to drop out too, but he seems to be in the race to stay. Begich says that the outcome of  the special election proved that Palin is “unelectable.”

  181. 181.

    Tony Jay

    @GoBlueInOak:

    Madness, isn’t it? Triple-distilled utterly bonkers lunacy straight out of the furthest fringe of Glibertarian fantasyland. It’s like they gave a teenage Ayn Rand fan a mountain of Bolivian marching powder and told him to just go fucking crazy.

    The only plus point of me being absolutely buried at work is that I’ve had very little time to get worked up about the death-spasms of Charlie’s Inheritance or the insipid fuckery dribbling out of the Loyal Opposition.

  183. 183.

    different-church-lady

    Just let me clarify that answer now that I’m no longer making pasta.

    NOMINATED, WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!

  184. 184.

    Madeleine

    @Major Major Major Major: I agree that the NYC ranked choice system is bad and, in addition to the reasons given, I have another. When there are more than 3-4 candidates, the time and effort needed to inform oneself about the candidates is unrealistic for—in my opinion—most people. It works against increasing voter participation.

  185. 185.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Geminid:

    We have jungle primaries in Denver city elections.  They suck.  Different kind of suck than a “normal” system but still sucky.

    For example, last time, 3 ego-laden candidates ran against our despised Mayor.  In the jungle part, he lost overall around 55-45.  The weakest  of the three opponents squeaked out a “win” and was easily trounced in the subsequent run off.

  187. 187.

    Geminid

    @Madeleine: Do you think the system might have worked  better if voters had been allowed to rank only 3 or 4 candidates? I think it was 5, which seemed excessive to me.

  188. 188.

    zhena gogolia

    This is really strange. Zelenskyy gives an impassioned plea for “preventive measures” against Russia’s nuclear threats. The moderator, Ashton Carter, instead of asking him, “what preventive measures do you suggest?” asks for career advice for the Harvard students. GAAAH

  189. 189.

    Calouste

    @Madeleine: Australia has had some kind of ranked voting system for decades. What happens there is that candidates give their own recommendations for how their voters should rank the other candidates. So you can just look that up if you don’t have the time to do a lot of research yourself.

  195. 195.

    zhena gogolia

    This is like the most tone-deaf event on the part of Harvard — I am shocked.

    G&T’s head will explode if he watches it.

  196. 196.

    Calouste

    @zhena gogolia: Considering that some Harvard graduates end up as wannabe fascist dictators, it seems that their career counseling office is not doing a great job and some outside advice could be useful.

  197. 197.

    Madeleine

    @Geminid: in my experience with the mayoral primary, it was the number of candidates. To get to 5 I still felt that I needed to know something about all of them—granted that the system was new and I tend to think I have to give everyone a chance. It was pretty overwhelming—and I’m retired so can spend more time than most people on research.

  198. 198.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Calouste:

    Considering that some Harvard graduates end up as wannabe fascist dictators, it seems that their career counseling office is not doing a great job and some outside advice could be useful.

    You assume this is not one of the purposes of elite education.

  199. 199.

    CliosFanBoy

    @OzarkHillbilly: My wife and I just adopted an adult dachshund that was abandoned in some woods down south. The landowner’s dog found her and managed to wrangle her to the house.  The landowner called a rescue group and now she’s ours.   She’s a double-dapple dachshund, so she’s deaf and has very poor eyesight. She’s getting along with our elderly mini-weiner dog and loves attention!    I just don’t get people who abandon dogs (or cats)

  201. 201.

    zhena gogolia

    And now a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asks for more career advice for the Harvard students.

    I AM GOBSMACKED

  202. 202.

    zhena gogolia

    I guess this was the purpose of the event. They invited a president of a country in the middle of a war, under nuclear threat, to come to give career advice to their students. I am totally in shock.

  210. 210.

    zhena gogolia

    Even the Ukrainian students seem clueless about the fact that the war is far from over and the outcome is far from certain. They’re asking about how they can bring their Harvard educations back to the country to help it recover.

  211. 211.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: I sure have some around me here in the KY, but (unfortunately) I can’t just start shooting them (as I would a demonstrated and IDed Al-Qaida or ISIS operative).

  212. 212.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax:

    Meanwhile Jupiter is putting on quite the show, being the closest to us since 1963.

    This is kind of like all the “supermoon” stories, isn’t it? Jupiter is always close to the same distance from us at closest approach, which happens roughly once a year–the differences from one opposition to the next are going to be pretty minor. The stories about this being the closest since 1963 or whenever motivate people to look, but it’s not as if it’s that much more spectacular than usual, it’s that they usually don’t look.

  217. 217.

    Paul in KY

    @Tony Jay: Thank you for the explanation, Tony. Not sure the war will end with bilateral negotiations (unless Putin is removed from the equation).

  218. 218.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Tony Jay:

    I’ve seen commenters on the Ukraine threads, IIRC, say that negotiations can’t happen until the Russians are completely gone from occupied lands and that Putin is not interested in negotiations.

    They’ve also criticized people like Scholz who can’t even bring themselves to speak of Ukrainian victory. I tend to place Corbyn in that group

    You didn’t seem to address his anti-NATO comments or his blaming the West for the Ukraine crisis. The guy’s an old socialist who has a soft spot for Russia because of the USSR

  219. 219.

    Tony Jay

    @Paul in KY:

    I think the idea is a wider peace deal with everyone from the U.N. to the International Federation of Boy Scouts involved. Remember those halcyon days pre-2003 when people pretended to take International bodies seriously?

    As to Putin, you’re probably right, but you never know with megalomaniac nutters. If his position gets weak enough back in Russia, humiliation might be his only way to fend off a coup.

  222. 222.

    Paul in KY

    @Tony Jay: True on the megalomaniac nutters. If he goes full Col. Ripper & orders the nukes, I hope a sane member of general staff does the right thing & puts a bullet in back of his head.

  223. 223.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Tony Jay:

    His criticism about “prolonging the war” seems to go counter to what the Ukrainians themselves are saying they want.

    Of course, negotiations will be necessary eventually, but Putin doesn’t seem interested in negotiations what with his new mobilizations

    Again, what about him blaming the West/NATO for the Ukraine crisis? Or saying that NATO should’ve been disbanded after the fall of the USSR. You’re not addressing that

  224. 224.

    Tony Jay

    @Paul in KY:

    Ideally, three separate generals pull their guns and fire at the same time, look at each other in shock, realise that they hang together or hang separately, then order their troops to go through Putin’s loyalists like a threshing machine through a field of absolute bastards.

    Russia needs one hell of a house cleaning.

  225. 225.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Dr. Yadira Caraveo for CO-08 said:

    It’s essentially religious racist fascism now, and if more white liberals had any balls, they’d think of religious white extremist conservatives the way America as a whole thinks of al-Qaeda & ISIS.

    i think quite a few people on Balloon-Juice came to that conclusion several years ago.

    Despicable theocratic fascists, need to be sent to a reeducation camp somewhere far away from everything. Central Utah? Sonoran desert? Death Valley? several places to pick from…

  228. 228.

    cliosfanboy

    @Tony Jay: ​
      I read an alternative history some time ago where some German generals did that to Hitler in about 1942 and the war on the Eastern Front ended in a stalemate

  229. 229.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Tony Jay:

    I hope I haven’t been beating up on you? I like your updates and insights into UK politics, but Corbyn’s NATO stances really bother me

  230. 230.

    Tony Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Let me be crystal clear here. I’m not at your beck and call. You asked my opinion, I gave it. I’m not even remotely interested in spending my evening explaining what another person’s words mean like he or I need your approval.

    That’s as polite as this gets.

  235. 235.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: Those were not Ms. Caraveo’s words but rather those of Twitter commenter @NeedleofAryah. He used to use “Kenneth House of Pfizer” as his handle, but now uses a new handle to promote Caraveo’s CO 8th Congressional District campaign. He’s a Black man and ardent Democrat who lives in the Denver area, or as he puts it “Occupied Arapahoe Territory.”

  236. 236.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @GoBlueInOak: I’m not seeing any details, anywhere on record about the nature of the toxic/hostile environment.  It’s been a year now since that book came out and I would have expected a little more than one man’s claim from un-named sources.  I don’t see any of the cast backing that up at all.  I’m extremely skeptical.

Comments are closed.