Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

Good old 'Vlad". The father of the one-party system. Hero to progs everywhere.

[Dr. Strangelove]

That poll likely includes people who believe in a right to life, but allows abortion in the cases of rape and incest, and to save the life of the mother. Throwing those in with 'pro choice' helps skew those numbers.

The question offered four options, if Roe is overturned do you want abortion in Texas to be:

* Legal in ALL cases? (25%)
* Legal in MOST cases? (31%)
* Illegal in MOST cases? (32%)
* Illegal in ALL cases? (12%)

If you think abortion should be banned except for rape, incest, and medical emergency, why on earth would you respond "oh I want it to be legal in MOST cases"?

I would say what could possibly skew the poll somewhat (and others on the issue) is that Pro-Choice people could be more likely to talk to a pollster right now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Florida judge says the 15-week abortion ban violates the state constitution.

Apparently the Florida state constitution contains a very explicit, very direct Right to Privacy. No penumbras here. The only question is whether you think abortion is covered by it. The Judge did.

"Article 1, Sec. 23:

Right of privacy. — Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person's private life except as otherwise provided herein. This section shall not be construed to limit the public's right of access to public records and meetings as provided by law."

Judge rules Florida's 15-week abortion ban is unconstitutional (wesh.com)

[lineygoblue]

So, in essence, Florida is making its own abortion laws. I think that's what the USSC said should happen.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Well we just can't have autonomy amongst the states! Why Alex Hamilton and John Jay must be turning in their graves! Although I'm sure even their statues have been toppled...

[THE_WIZARD_]

So like is this what those old dead white racist guys meant with the 10th Amendment or something?

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”

[Jeff Buchanan]

The PRINCIPLE, though is hugely important. I'm very well-pleased with that outcome.

NB, Internet was off for about 3h so this refers to a post made this morning (que smart ass remark from Wiz, lilke, I wish you internet connection was off forever!."

After I read the comments following this post, it became clear to me that understanding among the members here wrt the dangers of an expanding administrative state - what the progs want because they can't get shit done in Congress - is high so I'm preaching to the quire:

This is the second big government agency to get bitch slapped by the Supremes issuing strong opinions on the dangers of letting government agencies exceed powers granted to them by Congress and essentially making laws. That's what happened to HHS when Desantis (the state of FL) sued the CDC over their issuance of the "No Sail Order" essentially shutting down and entire industry in so doing with what amounted to a maritime law. This case was correctly adjudicated at the Federal District Court level but it was reviewed by the Supremes on appeal and the ruling made by District Court Judge Merriwether was upheld. His opinion was a great read just bashing the shit out of the CDC. Very rewarding when it happened back mid-pandemic as I hated those fucks.

In the big picture, all of this falls under the category of stopping progressive and extremist Ds who have wiggled their way into representing voters when it is apparent that they don't represent the actual mainstream trends in American political thought - they represent their own narrow socialist views of a nanny state and deluded leftist voters on the margins who organize and get these fucktards elected.

Thank God for conservative Judges like Gorsuch and yes, may he live forever.

Bu this isn't the way to protect the American version of a predominantly conservative liberal democracy. Its A way but not THE way. That the D majority in Congress at present carries a socialist bent to their legislative agendas and appears to not be entirely representative of the political thinking of the majority of Americans begets a WTF question...... well, it seems, at least until November 2024.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wish your internet connection was off forever.

[iam416]

Buchanan joins Abraham Lincoln as men who did not have adequate internet connections and who are reviled by Strangelove.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thank you both ...... and Wiz, get back in the kitchen and pour some ketchup on your wings for tonight's bar food.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I got yer ketchup right here pal...

[lineygoblue]

And its probably Hunts ketchup at that ...

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wouldn't waste good stuff like that on JB...he gets the Sam's Choice ketchup...

[lineygoblue]

Sometimes, you can be very mean.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Ukraine: News is filled today with Putin appearing outside Russia for the first time since January, 2020. He's also showing a new calm, collected and confident face compared to his bombastic, nuke saber-rattling self as his war in Ukraine got underway in late February - now a distant 5 months away and counting.

He's telling the few allies (real ones like Syria) he has that things are going great in Ukraine and sanctions are nothing - hurting the west more than us. He's lying in one sense, telling the truth in another. Putin suffered a humiliating loss in his opening salvo that targeted the whole of Ukraine, tried to blitz Kiev in hopes the Zelenski government would crumple and his tanks would parade onto the streets of several major Ukrainian cities planting the Blue, Red and White Russian Federation flags along with the USSR's hammer and cycle in the ground. Didn't happen and for the first 45d, Ukrainian forces created a disaster for the Russian Army.

That was then. Since those crushing defeats, Russian forces have regrouped in the east focusing on a strip of Ukrainian territory, the Donbas, that is representative in cities and urban concentration of the coastal eastern portions of the US from Washington DC to Richmond VA - about 40 miles. The Russian army has massed about 90% of soldiers deployed to Ukraine (including resent conscripted reserves) that toal some 300K personnel. Russia, in the early days, quickly seized the less well defended Kherson Province and consolidated defensive positions there just to the west of Odessa. The political branch of the Russian army, the FSB, is carying activities to establsh administrative and econmoic control in this occupied province.

The question is, "what now." This war has moved from a short one that Ukraine was winning to a long one that it is losing, slowly but surely at the hands of a slowly but steadily advancing Russian Army that, at huge but apparently sustainable losses in men and material, is claiming territory. Albeit, it has been turned into ruble, critical infrastructure completely destroyed, following unremitting bombardment with all kinds of artillery and missiles that over-power and outnumber anything Ukraine can throw back at the advancing army to try and stop the killing machine.

Which brings me to this from the Economist's cover story, How to win Ukraine’s long war.

On the face of it, a long war suits Russia. Both sides are using huge amounts of ammunition, but Russia has vastly more. The Russian economy is much larger than Ukraine’s and in far better shape. In pursuit of victory, Russia is willing to terrorise and demoralise the Ukrainians by committing war crimes, as it did by striking a shopping mall in Kremenchuk this week. If needs be, Mr Putin will impose grievous suffering on his own people (to win and advance his interests).

Some points made in this excellent article:

• Right now, western solidarity in support of Ukraine and focused on defeating Putin is probably at a peak among leadership but that solidarity is not guaranteed. Among the west's political leadership, not Ukraine because there are such dedicated men both in politics and in uniform there, where are the likes of Woody Williams?
• If unity falls apart over energy, as eu states hoard gas, it will disintegrate over Ukraine, too.
• To complicate matters, nato members worry, inappropriately, IMO, if Ukraine gains the upper hand, Putin will escalate. That could draw them into a catastrophic war with Russia.
• Leadership has to convince it's people that the defense of Ukraine and the attendant costs are worth it because we are not only defending an abstract principle in Ukraine, but also our most fundamental interest: our own security and freedom. We need Woody to articulate this as he has when interviewed before he passed.
• You can see where Putin is heading. He will rattle the nuclear saber to keep a fearful west at bay. He will take as much of Ukraine as he can, declare victory and then call on Western nations to impose his terms on Ukraine. In exchange, he will spare the rest of the world from ruin, hunger, cold and the threat of nuclear Armageddon.
• To accept that deal would be a miscalculation. Ukraine will face permanent Russian aggression. If Mr Putin believes he has succeeded in Ukraine, his belligerency will continue.
• Putin set out his ambitions in a speech this month, smirking as he talked about how Peter the Great seized parts of Sweden. He will fight tomorrow with whatever weapons work for him today. That means resorting to war crimes and nuclear threats, starving the world and freezing Europe.

What to do:

• The combined GDP of EU member states is 10X that of Russia. Collectively the EU has the resources and the money to mold a determined Ukrainian armed forces into one that can drive the Russian army out of it's boarders.
• The west's defense industries has the capacity to fully arm Ukraine with modern weapons that can out distance and out perform anything the Russians put on the battlefield.
• The west, however, needs to upgrade it's capacity to produce large quantities of weaponry. Great at one F35, not great at millions of rounds of ammunition and thousands of artillery pieces and and armor. Must adapt factory output to a war time level.
• By adopting tactics devised in the cold war, when nato too was outnumbered by the Red Army, Ukraine should be able to destroy Russian command posts and supply depots. Ukraine scored a success on June 30th, when it used nato weapons to drive Russian forces off Snake Island, a strategic prize in the Black Sea.
• Ukraine, along with western financial and armaments support, should aim to impose a “hurting stalemate”, in which it takes back similarly symbolically important territory, such as the city of Kherson, imposing a heavy price on Russia such that Putin must recalculate costs versus benefits in the face of potentially increasing opposition to his war at home that he can't suppress.

In case you can get to this paywalled link, here it is:

https://www.economist.com/leaders/20...utm_id=1221110