Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Europe now has so much natural gas that prices just dipped below zero | CNN Business

[Mike]

Great. There goes the planet.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Time to ban natural gas.

[crashcourse]

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1585348245303197704/PL88Qv7q?format=jpg&name=small

[crashcourse]

I think R shenanigans will pale in comparison to D shenanigans...

Of course you do.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/10/...ified-ballots/

https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial?...3502page%3D128

[Jeff Buchanan]

Vladimir Putin gave a FP speech at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow on Thursday. It is the vehicle by which Putin outlines Russia's broad FP objectives on an annual basis. Analysis of his comments suggests the speech was intended to appeal to western moderates with common visions of christian values who he juxtaposes with the "other west" that is characterized by elitism, neoliberalism, colonialism and atheism. He stated, "Russia has no reason to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine." That is apparently because he thinks he will ultimately prevail and the western moderates will come around to the multipolar world view he's offering." Putin posits that Russia is close to alignment with western moderates. He does his usual railing against the "other west" that threatens Russia with NATO expansion and the forced integration of former USSR states into a world order defined by US elites of the "other west." Putin advances the idea that at some point Russia and the western powers - meaning western moderates who are willing to accommodate Russia's world view and FP - are going to have to sit down and talk about forming a new multipolar world where co-equals negotiate outcomes.

This is a seductive argument full of misrepresentations to global citizens that value freedom from repressive, nationalistic, autocratic leaders. Putin is at the forefront of those kinds of leaders. Putin seems to dismiss the value of liberty, the people deciding and governments that are instruments of the citizens being governed. Autocracy is the effective government of the future. His new strategic vision for the outcome in Ukraine is to force the west to negotiate.

This brings me to another article appearing in the NYTs today. The focus of the article was the shift in Russia's strategic approach to Putin's war in Ukraine and those shifting objectives were on display as Putin spoke. Having failed to win a military victory and continuing to loose territory, men and equipment to better equipped and lead Ukrainian forces, Putin is now conducting a war that aims to divide the Ukrainian population by degrading Ukrainian life, not only making people miserable as the first full winter of the war approaches, but hoping to foment division among Ukrainians. Putin believes divisions make governing more complicated for local officials who might then be cast out and replaced with others - aligned with Russia.

In the big picture this kind of warfare has strategic value and has been used in various conflicts of the past. The question before us now is will the Ukrainians, already complaining about the inability of local governments to restore critical services - energy, water, sewers - hold out. There is uniform agreement according to polls that recognizes, yes, the Russians did the bombardment that caused the loss of services and created some frustrations for city residents but there's a split between 70% of Ukrainians that hold the Russians fully responsible and will put up with a miserable life until Ukraine achieves victory and 30% that are ready to wave the white flag - let the Russians have what they want (the Donbas) - so the fighting stops. Many Ukrainians in the 30% are residents of eastern Ukraine where bombardment has been the heaviest. The 70% hating the Russians for what they have done and vowing not to give in to the strategic approach Putin has embarked upon are everywhere else. The poll suggests that the 30% is enlarging as the war goes on - Putin is counting on this and if he can manage to evade sanctions and get a hold of the kinds of long range weapons he needs to stand-off and fire at will with the objective of incinerating major cites in Ukraine crippling it economically and politically, he wins.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This is for you jackanapes who whine that vote counting takes too long in big cities

A rural county in Nevada decided to hand count all ballots this year (cuz machines are flipping the votes by satellite!!!).

How's it going? 60 people working a full day only managed to get through 900 ballots. That's like 15 ballots each or about 2 an hour. The group of ten people the AP spent three hours watching counted just 50 ballots in that time.

Nevada officials begin unprecedented hand count of ballots (nbcnews.com)

[THE_WIZARD_]

I really only object to pretty much everything you post...

...no offense man...

[Hannibal]

This is for you jackanapes who whine that vote counting takes too long in big cities

A rural county in Nevada decided to hand count all ballots this year (cuz machines are flipping the votes by satellite!!!).

How's it going? 60 people working a full day only managed to get through 900 ballots. That's like 15 ballots each or about 2 an hour. The group of ten people the AP spent three hours watching counted just 50 ballots in that time.

Nevada officials begin unprecedented hand count of ballots (nbcnews.com)

Pennsylvania is already warning that they might not know the results of the election for "days" -- even though a record number of votes are being cast early and they aren't counting them all by hand.

Remember when before computers were in every home we knew the results of an election on election night?

[Hannibal]

LMAO the New York Post got hacked.

Like really bad

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[Dr. Strangelove]

Pennsylvania is already warning that they might not know the results of the election for "days" -- even though a record number of votes are being cast early and they aren't counting them all by hand.

Remember when before computers were in every home we knew the results of an election on election night?

In Pennsylvania mail-in ballots may not even be looked at until the polls are closed Election Day. That's the LAW. The state Republicans wrote the law. A bunch of Boards of Election pleaded with them to change the law so they can get a head start and the state legislature told them to go pound sand. So what happens on Election Night is that first all the in-person votes get counted. Then and only then do they START the mail ballot count. Republicans are extremely aware of this and fully expected to do significantly better with in-person voting versus mail ballots. That is the primary reason every Republican is shrieking that any votes counted after a specific time (let's say, midnight), should be regarded as inherently fraudulent.

And maybe you knew the overall outcome on Election Night but the counting has ALWAYS gone on for days. Do you actually think back in 1980 that every single ballot across the entire US was counted no later than midnight pacific time? There's a reason that the Electoral College meets over a month after Election Day.

[Dr. Strangelove]

From what I heard this morning the NY Post hack was done by a disgruntled employee.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Has anyone heard from Geezer?

[Hannibal]

In Pennsylvania mail-in ballots may not even be looked at until the polls are closed Election Day. That's the LAW. The state Republicans wrote the law. A bunch of Boards of Election pleaded with them to change the law so they can get a head start and the state legislature told them to go pound sand. So what happens on Election Night is that first all the in-person votes get counted. Then and only then do they START the mail ballot count. Republicans are extremely aware of this and fully expected to do significantly better with in-person voting versus mail ballots. That is the primary reason every Republican is shrieking that any votes counted after a specific time (let's say, midnight), should be regarded as inherently fraudulent.

And maybe you knew the overall outcome on Election Night but the counting has ALWAYS gone on for days. Do you actually think back in 1980 that every single ballot across the entire US was counted no later than midnight pacific time? There's a reason that the Electoral College meets over a month after Election Day.

If you started counting mail-ins at midnight it should take you no more than a few more hours, unless you were dragging it out for some dumb reason. Or you’re trying to manufacture votes. Nobody has an objection to votes being counted after midnight if they don’t all magically break 100% for one guy and strict chain of custody rules are followed.

Previous elections have had counting after election night, but never enough to not call any of the states on election night. Other than Florida 2000.

Somehow our Republic survived through 2016 without mass mail-in voting. Barring a once-a-century close race there’s no excuse for not knowing the winner of any state by 3AM that morning.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well all they have to do is duplicate Florida's system. It works fine. They're allowed to count mail in votes before Election Day. The first votes that pop up on CNN or Fox for Florida? Those are the early and mail in votes.

Over 4 million people in Florida requested mail ballots and over 1.5M have already been returned and there's not going to be any problem because they have a good system. The law isn't written so that those votes get counted last