Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[Hannibal]

The Proud Boys being considered an "extremist" group is a perfect example of what I was writing about above when I said that what has historically been considered common sense civics and self-evident truth has now been labeled "extreme", due to control of the media by the Left and recent moves of the Overton window to the kook Left. Much of that Overton window movement has been driven by academia and the illusion that we are now more :"enlightened" by 20th Century social sciences, much of which are utterly fake horseshit.

The population of actual Right Wing extremists in the country wouldn't' fill a MAC football stadium.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Even if you abolish the EC you'd still have the Senate, which serves the same purpose. Smaller states are given a disproportionate amount of power.

BTW, fun fact: George Washington received around 28,000 total votes in 1792. Only 4 states even held a popular vote. In a country of roughly 4 million.

[Hannibal]

Even if you abolish the EC you'd still have the Senate, which serves the same purpose. Smaller states are given a disproportionate amount of power.

It's unfair to huge population centers that prairie dogs in Nebraska have political power. It's unfair to people in Nebraska that LA and NYC have huge amounts of political power over them. The only real solution is dissolution. Peacefully is obviously preferable. I don't share Talent's optimism that Civil War II is completely infeasible. I think that there's a 50/50 shot or so at one this century. Demographics and our trillions of unfunded liabilities are going to create two major crises that are going to have to be dealt with.

[Da Geezer]

For someone who claims he wants someone new in 2024, you sure do love to paint the Trump Presidency as unrelenting excellence and triumphant success. Seems like those 4 years were a Golden Age for America as compared to the "carnage" of years prior. Hard to understand why you wouldn't stay loyal to the great man who had so many victories and accomplished so incredibly much, the most by any president of your lifetime!

Also something like 40-50% of Republicans claim to believe the election was stolen from Trump. Are you suggesting they are lying because they feel compelled to tell pollsters this out of stupid, pathetic, blind, party loyalty? That's certainly a possibility.

I said nothing of the sort. Progs continually say that Trump was authoritarian, and I simply presented an argument why that is not true. As Talent often points out, we do know what is factually true.

I'm against Trump as the R nominee because of guys like Tom and Mike. Why should the Rs take a chance on Trump? Someone above said something like " 81 million voted against orangeman bad". Mostly true. Trump Derangement Syndrom is a real thing, and there are many voters against Trump. Why take that chance when you have someone like DeSantis waiting in the wings. That is not a hard decision for me. But I would vote for Trump over Butt-itch-itch or any other D prospect.

Your extreme partisanship clouds your judgment. We know that Russia did not invade under Trump. We know the economy was booming after the tax cuts and prior to the pandemic. We know Trump called out China in the economic sphere, and in their genocide of the Uygers.

But I'll give you two things Trump did wrong:

1. He shut down the economy. All the idiotic decisions made by the government follow this tragic mistake; rent waivers, holiday on payment of student debt, interest-free loans to businesses, $ 15.00 / hr EXTRA to those out of work, all of it follows from one tragic decision. My buddy, THE WIZARD, can wax eloquent about this if you wish.

2. He was not presidential at all. That matters a lot.

[Da Geezer]

The electoral college was a compromise created so that small states would join the union. As early as the 1780s, our country’s leaders knew the dangers of having a tyranny by the majority.

If you want to do away with the EC — fine. Propose a Constitutional amendment

Correct. So many of today's controversies can be decided by the proposal of a constitutional amendment. The problem is that the D party wants to change the Constitution in clearly unconstitutional ways. We are two Senate votes from having a 15-member SC with six new replicas of Judge Jackson added. Think about that. If Roe is overturned, it will probably happen.

So, propose the direct election of US Presidents.
Propose, too, the election of an independent AG.
Amend the constitution to establish 9 as the number of Supreme Court Justices
How about limiting the terms of SC Justices to 20 years?
Amend the constitution to allow DC statehood.
Term limits anyone?

The point is that amending the constitution is the way to settle these issues. Remember too that there is provision for a convention of the states for the express purpose of amending the Constitution.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Russia booted off the UN Human Rights Council.

93 YES
24 NO
58 ABSTAIN

The list of "no" countries is what you'd expect.

[Da Geezer]

Argued about this before. It was more about making sure small states wouldn't get trampled. It was "tyranny" of the majority fears in general. Not so much cities vs. country.

Everyone in New England and a few other colonies feared Virginia dominating the country. It was the most populous state, by far, but had almost no significant towns. An alliance between them Pennsylvania, and North Carolina would've been almost enough to constantly outvote the other 10 states.

Virginia had the largest population (513,000), and Massachusetts (449,000) had the second largest population when the constitution was adopted. Penn (410,000) was 3rd.

https://www.socialstudies.org/system..._700506270.pdf.

I suspect that the "tyranny of the majority" concerns were the key, but so was slave/free. There was not much of a chance that Virginia would get together with PA or MA

[Mike]

Argued about this before. It was more about making sure small states wouldn't get trampled. It was "tyranny" of the majority fears in general. Not so much cities vs. country.

I get all that. Was just using NCY and LA as proxies for NY state and California. Currently, whether someone wins the state by 1 vote or 5 million, the result is the same: receiving that state's electoral votes. If the EC was scrapped, the largest metros like NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. could really run up the score to the point that the Ds would pretty much have a permanent hold on the WH.

And if we've learned anything these last two years, it's that large urban cities that have been controlled by Ds for decades can't govern their way out of a wet paper sack. That's not a model we should be inflicting upon everyone in the country.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Right now the House is geared to favor populous states. The Senate and Presidency are designed to give smaller states an extra bit of edge. Since the federal judiciary is chosen exclusively by the President + Senate, it's fair to say smaller states have a disproportionate amount over the 3rd branch as well. So that's 2 and a half branches of govt where small states are given added clout. I'd level the playing field a bit. Besides that, I think it's kinda silly that the Presidency is the only elected office where the actual human-level vote doesn't truly choose the winner. Obv an Amendment is the only fix.

Also America's cities are great. If R's want to do better politically in them, maybe stop constantly shitting on them all the time? 70-80% of the population lives in or near them.

[Hannibal]

Republicans do poorly in most huge cities because the party platform is at odds with the agenda of the people who live in them, not because voters are sending them a message to stop making fun of them.

If there is any party that institutionally makes fun of or insults a demographic consistently, it's the Democrats vis-a-vis the people who live in the flyover states (e.g. "bitter clingers", "deplorables", etc)

[Dr. Strangelove]

Virginia had the largest population (513,000), and Massachusetts (449,000) had the second largest population when the constitution was adopted. Penn (410,000) was 3rd.

https://www.socialstudies.org/system..._700506270.pdf.

I suspect that the "tyranny of the majority" concerns were the key, but so was slave/free. There was not much of a chance that Virginia would get together with PA or MA

I was using 1790 Census numbers from below but using estimates from 1787 from what they "thought" was the population is fair.

Virginia obviously fought for (and partially won) the right to count slaves towards representation. By 1790 (and including slaves) Virginia's population was double Massachusetts, but Massachusetts had at least 8 towns larger than the biggest in Virginia (Richmond). North Carolina had the third highest population but didn't have a single city of consequence.

1790 United States census - Wikipedia

[Dr. Strangelove]

Republicans do poorly in most huge cities because the party platform is at odds with the agenda of the people who live in them, not because voters are sending them a message to stop making fun of them.

If there is any party that institutionally makes fun of or insults a demographic consistently, it's the Democrats vis-a-vis the people who live in the flyover states (e.g. "bitter clingers", "deplorables", etc)

Ranting about "coastal elites" and expressing hatred of places like San Francisco and NYC is completely ubiquitous in conservative circles.

I will always love this piece by Kevin Williamson and will continue enjoying to post it once a quarter or so, heh

Cities -- Conservatives’ Message to America’s Metropolitan Areas Must Improve | National Review

[iam416]

I never even knew what the hell these right wing fringe groups were until the summer of 2020 when they counter-protested the BLM/leftist riots. Their influence and following is miniscule to the loons on the left. In fact, it can be argued their prominence in contemporary American political discourse is wildly exaggerated by the Left and their media allies to distract from the utter destruction they wrought in 2020. They would have you believe that Viking Man, the Proud Boys and, by extension, the Republican Party is a threat to our democracy. A democracy that BARELY escaped from being toppled on January 6.

Conversely, the progressive Left wants to abolish the Electoral College, pack the Supreme Court, grant Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. statehood to add an automatic 4 D seats to the Senate, implement a federal takeover of elections in all 50 states, and open our southern border to unlimited illegal immigration. THAT, my friends, is a mothherfucking threat to our democracy.

And the people who hold actual power in the halls of congress that advance those ideas are not ostracized as threats to our Republic and our future prosperity, they are treated as celebrities and placed on magazine covers.

Worth noting that this exactly right (IMO).

[Dr. Strangelove]

Guy who just won the Nobel Peace Prize attacked in Russia. Had red paint thrown all over him. In March he had to shut down his newspaper under duress from the govt