IheartIheartTesla

Conversely, here in Michigan there has been absolutely no accumulating snow over wide swathes of the lower peninsula. This is extremely unusual for mid-December and is expected to last till past Christmas. The reason given is a strong El Nino effect, but the underlying cause for that is based in climate change of course.

The vanilla part is understandable because of the stereotypes certain ethnic groups have to confirm to lest they be accused of being 'difficult'. The crazy part is a bit harder to fathom, but since the GoP cherishes that, its the only way to float to the top.

Double post pre-coffee

Don't know why all the visible Indian-Americans in politics are batsh*t crazy loonies like Vivek, and to a lesser extent Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal (lets not forget Gabbard, on second thoughts lets forget about her). Would be nice if Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal could take equal prominence on the left, but they are more low-key and actually get things done.

Not his legal issues per se, but some of the polls in the 'swing states' indicate that if he is convicted he could lose ~4-5 percent of that support. I'm not sure I buy the magnitude of that, but any little bit at this point will help.

Whitmer just signed an EO asking the entire state fleet of cars (~8000) to go electric, right now there's only 3. Cant wait for the inevitable gnashing of teeth and disingenuous gibberish about fires, child labor, pictures of lithium mines and boring jokes about charging times from the usual suspects.

Is there any blowback from the news of the Indian government being involved in assassinations and assassination plots in the USA and Canada? I doubt it. Support for the Khalistan separatist movement is pretty low in India (its <5% even among Sikhs), and I imagine most Indians will shrug their shoulders and rationalize it by noting other (Western) nations have done similar things to protect their national interests as well.

I havent paid much attention to Indian politics for a while, but it appears as if Modi (or rather his party) is outperforming his polls quite regularly, which is quite depressing. Polls in India were pretty good when I was still a citizen and voting (back in the 90s), but I wonder if it is plagued by some of the same problems here in the US, low response rates, hidden voters etc. The parliamentary/multi-party system makes it more complicated of course.

Must be this part: No wait, its the exact opposite, and a pretty measured statement, all things considered.

Maybe then it would be time for Democrats to realize they are the party in power, and use the entire force of the federal government to ensure elections are happening freely and fairly.

In addition to his war crimes, he was also an unabashed supporter of the Iraq war. My abiding memory of those times is how much deference his views were treated with on talk shows and how it didnt ring any alarm bells for anyone that he was supportive of it (it did for me).

There was one NYT/Siena poll I linked to in one of the earlier threads that showed Trump ahead by roughly ~4 points in 4 the 5 states, with the caveat that if he was convicted then his support would erode by ~6 points. At this point in time there are large error bars and many 'undecideds', so I'd use those polls with caution. One thing to keep an eye on though was his support among minorities (about 20% among AA in those polls I think) which either isnt right, or is cause for concern. We'll see as the election gets closer.

I read somewhere that China has issued permits for a LOT of new coal plants, because of numerous factors - Ukraine war and natural gas supply, droughts leading to lowering of water levels and hydro-based electricity, and lastly I'm guessing building as many plants as they can before not making any more (as a hedge). Not good news, and once again, geopolitics will screw this world over.

Presidential approval is nationwide, these are all local races. Obviously the correlation between the two can vary from state to state. Also, nearly all reproductive rights legislation appears to win regardless of partisan lean.

Snoop is in fact not giving up smoking, it was all a PR stunt for a Solo stove (which I'm guessing is smokeless, get it, since he said he was 'giving up smoke') Is nothing sacred anymore?

In my not so humble opinion, no judge actually starts with a set of principles (the way a scientist might) and then through a series of rigorous logical steps arrives at a conclusion. Nearly all of them begin with a conclusion and then use whatever post-hoc reasoning they can to justify what they had already decided in their heads.

He has a person whose full time job is rolling joints for him, so Scot has also contributed to unemployment in the US.

There appears to be some controversy over the pitch (to assist the spinners, I surmise). Dont know why the BCCI wants to taint a potential victory, this Indian team is good enough to not need such shenanigans. And at any rate, Shami is the best bowler in the NZ innings, so its all a bit farcical.

The NOAA long term outlook for winter in Michigan (and perhaps much of the Midwest) is warmer and drier than average. We'll still have snow events, but maybe fewer than normal, all this is based on a stronger El Nino. For Mid-Michigan the lakes act like a nice little buffer that dont make our winters very extreme either. We too have 60 degree weather next few days. I dont find it surprising any more.

Climate change will start driving land based disputes sooner rather than later, and we will be looking at numerous conflicts similar to Israel-Palestine. Knowing more about an issue is never a bad thing before providing opinions, but the two crises are not as far apart as all that.

To bring this discussion of non-violence back to the Indian subcontinent (as prior discussions have), MLK was of course a great student of nonviolence as practiced by Gandhi and his followers and even took a trip to India in the late 50s. The reason both these movements worked to a certain extent is two fold, in my mind: the moral clarity of their positions which were easy to support, and the 'conscience' of the opposing side. As much as I'm not a fan of the British Empire, they were nowhere as brutal as say the Nazis would be, and its laughable to think of nonviolence as a means of opposing the latter (something Gandhi actually suggested). I think there is enough moral ambiguity in the Israel-Palestine issue for any MLK-style movement to not gain much traction at this point in time. Everyone's minds have been made up.

Between the two of you, I think this is the plot to The Time Traveler's Wife

No, I dont believe that, but I was answering a different question, O' Socrates.

Well, thats a different question, and indeed the answer is close to none in no small part because Jewish-Arab relations have been poisoned through aeons of conflict. I am pushing back against the notion that there is something in the religious/ethnic make up of a region that prevents certain things from happening at all, ever.

Since the original question (for some reason) was about Christians and Jews, I'd suggest that the former are relatively free to practice their religion in Lebanon, and indeed are part of the government to a large extent. So to answer part of the hypothetical, it is possible in the abstract for Muslim Arab majority countries to include secular elements in their government