IheartIheartTesla

Just like there are theories Trump decided to run after Obama humiliated him at the Correspondent's Dinner, I feel like Thomas has been biding his time for revenge ever since his conformation hearings. On a more local note, we had a rally on reproductive rights here in our (somewhat conservative) town that was well attended. It even got my politically apathetic late teen daughter out on the streets. All of us signed the ballot petition for reproductive rights, so hopefully Michigan can vote to codify abortion rights, and it appears at first glance that it should have enough support. But who knows.....

'audio that can be heard' is a spectacularly vague way to frame a law since everyone hears things differently (and older people hear less in general), particularly when you have scientific ways to describe sound (like decibels and frequencies and whatnot). This is why we need more scientists running for offioe as opposed to corrupt businesspeople and religious wingnuts.

Really? I would have gone with a Dune second tier character. To be honest I have no idea what the acronym means.

Is there even a guiding principle for conservative justices any more? 'Originalism' itself was some made up gibberish, but at least it was an 'ethos', to quote the Big Lebowski. Now they just seem to be going with their gut and reverse engineering their rationale based on what the desired outcome is.

Here in the Michigan the Dems are trying to get enough people to sign on (need ~425k signatures) to a Reproductive Freedom for All ballot initiative that would be voted on in November. They have till July 11, so hopefully it can happen. I mean, I have no idea how it would do in a general election ballot, but we did legalize MJ and get an independent commission to look at gerrymandering based on such initiatives, so I have high hopes for it.

Yeah the US is a sh*t show, Biden is pretty ineffectual, polarization is tearing this country apart and the Supreme Court is accelerating the decline of this nation into third world status. Anyway, regarding Dick sporting good's decision, many corporations are attempting to do something similar (including my own). Abortion is a procedure covered by many insurance policies and its quite a conundrum as to how they can make access equitable to all employees.

Susan Collins is dismayed at being duped:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/13/bernie-sanders-lindsey-graham-republicans-fox-news-debate WTF timeline are we in?

He still has the support of slightly more than half of the Conservative voters, so if the MPs are tapped into that he may just barely survive (that's where I am leaning towards at this moment). If that does happen he'll end up like Theresa May though, just a husk of a PM.

I think its up to about 90 now, while Ladbrokes seems to think the distribution of the number of votes against Johnson peaks somewhere in the 100-149 region (based on the odds they are offering) 0-49 - 66/1 50-99 - 3/1 100-149 - 15/8 150-199 - 2/1 200-249 - 5/1 250-299 - 16/1 300+ - 100/1

I am sure there will be numerous calls for investigations into the state of the pitch, seeing how this may end up being a 2 or 2.5 day match [/s]

Finally caught up with all episodes of SNW. It was a slow burn at first, but episode 4 seems to be where it really hit its stride. This episode had a bit of the feel of TNG's 'Disaster', where you see the action taking place at different areas of the Enterprise; people working in teams or making tough decisions while weighing the 'greater good'. As to the appearance of the Gorn, didnt really bother me. You need someone you have some familiarity with, cant just call them Species X and have the same emotional response. We barely (if any) saw them anyway, and I thought the episode did a good job of accentuating their menace while not displaying too much except in flashback.

Uvalde has a population of 16000. Its a pretty small town.

The UK (and some other countries like Spain) have ordered a small amount of smallpox vaccines as a safeguard against monkeypox. I think Biden may have squirreled away some smallpox vaccines too. For now in the UK some healthcare workers have already received the smallpox vaccine.

On that note, Cawthorn needs to make up 1700 votes with ~11k outstanding votes remaining (NC-11 R apparently has ~100k votes making the math somewhat easy). I think he's done for.

Yeah, I dont have much use for Twitter, but I do feel sorry for Parag Agrawal (who grew up in the same neighborhood I did, albeit many years later - we specialize in creating techno-nerds). I dont think he would have dreamed that growing up he would end up in such a public position being trolled by wannabe Lex Luthor villains. As for the primaries, havent been paying much attention. Still find it annoying how reporting is done, based on percentage point differentials while the vote is being counted. Just talk about raw number of votes and how many votes are outstanding, much easier to understand.

Yes, from people who are typically apolitical. Were there other confusing aspects that could be clarified for you?

Anecdotally, I'm seeing a lot of women who I'd characterize as apathetic (or not especially vocal) towards politics post a bunch of memes about the upcoming SC decision, so maybe there is going to be a backlash based on that admittedly small sample. Not just the apathetic, but also among the more 'libertarian' minded as well. However, November is pretty far away.... I should note that Michigan is one of those 'trigger law' states, so its pretty important that Whitmer and Nessel get re-elected. I think I'll focus my attention there. Forget if Stabenow is up for re-election, but she usually has no trouble (compared to Peters, who had a bit of a struggle in 2020).

Then the justices can attempt to persuade members who differ to change their votes. Usually justices do not change their initial positions. However, in some cases, especially high-profile and controversial ones, like those involving abortion, justices do change their positions, as chief justice [John] Roberts allegedly did in 2012 [in which the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, was upheld]. Still holding out hope this isnt the final ruling, but I think most justice's minds must be set at this point.

"Is self defense immoral ?" - the answer for individuals is clear, even if it is, I'd rather be immoral than dead. Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission - quote by someone hardly known for the advocation of violence

The post-Easter legislative agenda involves Covid relied, aid for Ukraine, and a stripped down BBB. Hopefully something can be passed on climate change and prescription drug prices, but personally I dont give a damn about the third piece Manchin is on board with, deficit reduction.

I think the good news (if you can call it that) is that this wasnt a true surprise based on polling from the past week or so. The concern would be if there were 'hidden Le Pen' voters that werent being adequately captured or what have you. So the data is absolutely there and Macron can use it to address issues and monitor responses, but I fear France is only a cycle or two from going the 'authoritarian' route.

Very crudely, Trump was within 1-sigma standard deviation while Le Pen is more in the 2-sigma range, you can guesstimate their odds just by assuming that (~32 percent for Trump and ~5% for Le Pen). Interestingly, Melenchon wants to be Prime Minister come June.

I always read reactions (in the UK) to any of Harry's interviews with mild bemusement. Who are these people who take offense on behalf of QEII to the most banal of comments?By all accounts they had a pleasant time together. Anyway, anyone remember the brouhaha when Michelle Obama hugged her? Good times, good times.

I've voted in both; being very picky I only participate in democracies that are either the largest or the greatest.