Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

Gretch would only have been beatable if the R candidate wasn't on record with an adamant "No Exceptions".

Yeah, that hurt her a lot. There are a lot of evangelicals and Romney/Milliken (rino) republicans here in Michigan who believe that there should be exceptions early on, and that hurt her a lot. Gretch recognized the situation, and pounced on it, promoting her 'anything goes' abortion stance. Apparently, Michigan voters like that POV.

I was mistaken back right after the election about the abortion amendment to Michigan's constitution. I've since discovered that the proposition does allow for a future legislature to add restrictions to abortions, rather than the open door and anything goes policy which now has been approved. But that's not likely to happen as long as The Party controls all the politics in the state, and Gretch would have to sign any such legislation. So anything goes abortions in Michigan are safe until at least 2026.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Ralph Norman becomes the 5th Republican to say he's a "hard no" on McCarthy becoming Speaker. If the House ends up 222-213 as expected and everyone votes the way they say they will, McCarthy would fall short 217-218. But they'd need to actually vote no, not just abstain.

Ralph Norman announced he will oppose Kevin McCarthy for speaker, the fifth GOP lawmaker to threaten his bid. (politico.com)

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wish you would abstain from breathing.

[froot loops]

[THE_WIZARD_]

I'm still waiting for the polar ice caps to melt...

[Mike]

I'm still waiting and hoping for California to become an independent island nation.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Seconded.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Supreme Court clears the release of Trump's taxes to Congress. No noted dissents

Miscellaneous Order (11/22/2022) (supremecourt.gov)

Trump's team of assholes is in court right now fighting to keep the Special Master process alive in the Mar a Lago case. They seem to be losing badly (two of the 3 judges are even Trump appointees). These judges have previously been highly critical of district Judge Cannon for intervening in that case in the first place.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I dissent against your generaL living...

[crashcourse]

hilarious watching the dems celebrate carlsons prediction that never happened

would you like a list of items dems celebrated that never happened?

russiahoax, jessie smollet, covington church kids hate indians, depape the mega guy, kavenaugh the rapist, trump has nuclear codes at marlago, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

[crashcourse]

etc etc etc etc

[THE_WIZARD_]

Seconded.

[Sanders Fan]

California District 3 is at 71% counted as of Dec 22.

[Dr. Strangelove]

lol welp Devin’s never heard of Michigan’s own, cuz he’s fuckin old man. Now who here has never heard of them?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Ukraine: A couple of things.

(1) The average Ukrainian man on the street is vocalizing his worries that Americans and Europeans will let them hang out to dry. Many of them repeat Zelenski's warning to countries that are currently supporting Ukraine but are growing tired of it and ready to turn the page and move on......"If Russia stops fighting (i.e., global political forces and battlefield losses cause Putin to find an off ramp), the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting (i.e., western support to Ukraine ends), there will be no Ukraine."

The inhumane and what amounts to unjustified, illegal and criminal bombardment of Ukraine's power and water services carried out by Putin over the last month intended to inflict pain on the civilian population of Ukraine is the most egregious action taken by a head of state in Europe since Hitler rounded up millions of Jews, forced them into death camps and had them murdered by Nazi executioners. The suffering Putin is very purposely inflicting on these people to get them to break, it's scope, is an unprecedented crime against humanity. You may not be following the stories as closely as I do and may not fully grasp the inhumanity of it. Believe me, it's hard for me to read this stuff and not get angry at the world for sitting on the sidelines and letting it happen.

(2) An editorial appeared in this evening's NYTs that is a reprint of one that was first published in the Economist by Arkady Ostrovski, the Russia Editor. It pulls no punches in asserting that with Putin's prosecution of his war in Ukraine, Russia risks becoming ungovernable and descending into chaos. There are objective findings pointing to the beginnings of an unraveling of established Russian government institutions and loss of government control that will ultimately lead to a failed state. Uncontrolled boarders (Putin annexed by decree 4 Ukrainian Oblast declaring them part of Russia when he has military or administrative control of none of them), private military formations inside Russia and deployed in Ukraine (The Wagner Group and Independent Chechnyan groups) and a Russian population (over 600K consisting of those with educations and means) that have already fled the county both before Putin's mobilization decree and after it. The economic costs of that brain drain have yet to be felt. Add to that moral decay and the increasing social tensions between city dwellers who have the means to avoid conscription and the rural Russians who don't and are bearing the brunt of Putin's mobilization and conscriptions and you have a lethal brew that could lead to deadly civil conflict. It's a dangerous mess. Putin cannot win this war and at the same time he cannot afford to end the conflict either. A paraphrased version of Arkady Ostrovskis' conclusions in his editorial follows ........

Putin may hope that by making so many Russians and other supporters of his war collude with him, subjecting them to more of his poisonous, fascist propaganda, he will be able to drag things out. Whether he succeeds or whether the flow of body bags, coupled with increasing discontent among the elite, results in his downfall, will determine how many more people will needlessly die and how far Russia falls.