US Politics: Passing Gas In Public is Abhorrent Behavior

[Dr. Pepper]

8 minutes ago, Fez said:

Why is this White House leading the War against Easter?!

I heard Starbucks didn't even do an easter cup this year.

[Dr. Pepper]

Alabama voted to allow a church it's own police force.  Cultural appropriation for the win.  I predict sharia law will become the next cool thing, especially among white christians.

[Week]

7 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Alabama voted to allow a church it's own police force.  Cultural appropriation for the win.  I predict sharia law will become the next cool thing, especially among white christians.

Overturning the law by Maegor the Cruel which forbade holy men from being armed. Nice. Real nice.

[IheartIheartTesla]

3 hours ago, Fez said:

I don't think the direct Sanders connection helped much; Thompson got all of $900 from Sanders' superPAC. He said he was inspired by Sanders, but his actual campaign positions were the standard moderate Democrat template. The one interesting wrinkle was that he ran as being explicitly pro-choice, which is a bold stance to have in Kansas; although it wasn't a main issue in the race.

I see. I havent paid too much attention to politics, but I still get 'Our Revolution' e-mails, and I know he supported both KS-4 and GA-6 (if those are the right numbers). I think I also saw some numbers (donation) touted for one of those seats.

[OldGimletEye]

Differences between team Democrat and team Republican, Syria intervention edition:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/syria-reflexive-partisanship-doesnt-apply-both-parties

Quote

What do Americans think of U.S. military intervention in Syria’s civil war? The Washington Post noted yesterday that “reflective partisanship” is evident in the latest polling.

More Americans than ever view the news through red-colored glasses. In 2013, when Barack Obama was president, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that only 22 percent of Republicans supported the U.S. launching missile strikes against Syria in response to Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against civilians.

A new Post-ABC poll finds that 86 percent of Republicans support Donald Trump’s decision to launch strikes on Syria for the same reason. Only 11 percent are opposed.

That’s an astounding shift in attitudes, and partisan instincts almost certainly explain the rapid change. Republican voters opposed Obama, so they had no use for his plan to attack the Assad regime, and Republican voters generally back Trump, so they support last week’s strikes.

But look a little closer at the details, and the asymmetry between the parties becomes more obvious: four years ago, 38% of Democratic voters backed Obama’s proposed strikes in Syria, and now, 37% of Democratic voters support Trump doing the same thing. In other words, there’s been effectively no change.

 

[OldGimletEye]

Well it seems we may have to put the gloves back on, as we are headed for round 2 of the healthcare brawl:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/12/trump-changes-course-again-says-health-care-repeal-must-happen-before-tax-overhaul/

Quote

President Trump and a top adviser on Wednesday pushed back plans to overhaul the tax code, saying they wanted to prioritize first a renewed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

 

[BloodRider]

13 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Did Spicer seem to be reading from a script with the Hitler comment or did he seem to be thinking on his feet with it? If I was Spicer and someone fed me that line, a) I'd be so embarrassed to have not noticed what total BS such a statement and b ) if I was facing the axe I'd make damned sure I wasn't the only one going down for it. 

It is generally believed that he rewrote it on the fly based off a comment that Gen. Mattis made earlier this week along the lines of: All combatants avoided the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in WWII. 

see here; https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1148604

Quote

SEC. MATTIS: I think what we have to look at here, Jamie, is a policy decision by the United States. There is a limit, I think, to what we can do. And when you look at what happened with this chemical attack, we knew that we could not stand passive on this.

But it was not a statement that we could enter full fledged, full bore into the most complex civil war probably raging on the planet at this time. So the intent was to stop the cycle of violence into an area that even in World War II, chemical weapons were not used on battlefields.
 

 

 

[aceluby]

37 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

Differences between team Democrat and team Republican, Syria intervention edition:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/syria-reflexive-partisanship-doesnt-apply-both-parties

 

But this flies in the face of all those people claiming both parties are the same!  

FAKE NEWS!!!!

[LongRider]

17 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Oh yeah, totally

 

The White House's War on Easter is in full swing. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 hours ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Alabama voted to allow a church it's own police force.  Cultural appropriation for the win.  I predict sharia law will become the next cool thing, especially among white christians.

That is bizarre.  I'm sure a mosque attempting the same would cause people to go apoplectic.

[Dr. Pepper]

1 minute ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That is bizarre.  I'm sure a mosque attempting the same would cause people to go apoplectic.

I'm pretty sure Alabama is one of those states that passed some "no foreign laws" bullshit because they are so scared of Sharia law (of course they ignore that christian influenced laws are also foreign).  

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

I'm pretty sure Alabama is one of those states that passed some "no foreign laws" bullshit because they are so scared of Sharia law (of course they ignore that christian influenced laws are also foreign).  

 

No argument.  Alabama had Roy Moore (of giant block of granite with the ten commandments on it fame) as its elected "Chief Justice" for years.  Alabama is weird.  Not that South Carolina is any better.

[Fez]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

No argument.  Alabama had Roy Moore (of giant block of granite with the ten commandments on it fame) as its elected "Chief Justice" for years.  Alabama is weird.  Not that South Carolina is any better.

South Carolina is a little better. You've got 4.83 million people, Alabama's got 4.85 million people; yet South Carolina was willing to spend $14.9 billion in state funds for the FY2015 budget, Alabama only spent $6.9 billion. And I don't know what South Carolina's FY2016 budget was, but Alabama cut its state spending to $5.8 billion.

So just remember, South Carolina still has a somewhat functional state government, Alabama does not. Fun fact about Alabama, a few years ago they ceased all state police functions and activities at 5pm each day (including patrols), other than respond to 911 calls, because there was no budget to do anything after business hours. That's why they're doing stuff like letting churches have their own police instead.

[Maithanet]

8 minutes ago, Fez said:

South Carolina is a little better. You've got 4.83 million people, Alabama's got 4.85 million people; yet South Carolina was willing to spend $14.9 billion in state funds for the FY2015 budget, Alabama only spent $6.9 billion. And I don't know what South Carolina's FY2016 budget was, but Alabama cut its state spending to $5.8 billion.

So just remember, South Carolina still has a somewhat functional state government, Alabama does not. Fun fact about Alabama, a few years ago they ceased all state police functions and activities at 5pm each day (including patrols), other than respond to 911 calls, because there was no budget to do anything after business hours. That's why they're doing stuff like letting churches have their own police instead.

Where are you getting these numbers from?  A quick search led me to this Wiki page of state government budgets, and they show Alabama's state budget at $29 billion in 2016, with middle of the road in per capita spending.  Mississippi and Oklahoma were the lowest in per capita spending.  

[Fez]

5 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Where are you getting these numbers from?  A quick search led me to this Wiki page of state government budgets, and they show Alabama's state budget at $29 billion in 2016, with middle of the road in per capita spending.  Mississippi and Oklahoma were the lowest in per capita spending.  

State general funds, which don't count Federal transfers or state Medicaid spending required to draw down Federal dollars. 

Though even counting those, those wiki numbers seem high for some states. I suspect they're counting bienuem budgets as single years.

I have every state's budget office bookmarked; but on the train now, can't link.

[Fez]

Ok, I found that $29 billion number. Yeah, that's a fake number. That counts all Federal and local (!) government spending tracked by the state.

Eta: whereas a lot of the budgets in that wiki are just the state budget.

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah, Alabama is definitely one of the states that made a 'no foreign law' amendment.  So, could it be successfully argued in court that these church police forces are actually against Alabama's own laws?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Pepper said:

Yeah, Alabama is definitely one of the states that made a 'no foreign law' amendment.  So, could it be successfully argued in court that these church police forces are actually against Alabama's own laws?

I think it depends on the nature of the "police force".  When I was in undergrad, 20 years ago, my Alma Mater "Winthrop University" had it's own police force.  In order to give them the jurisdiction beyond the bounds of the University all of the "Winthrop Police Officers" were "State Constables".  That ment that they were authorized by the State to do what they do and likewise they were answerable to the State for what they do.  

Will this "police force" be limited in enforcement power to the bounds of the Church (however large) or will they be "State Constables" with the power to act beyond the boundaries of the church and as such subject to State regulation and sanction?  If the later I seriously doubt it could fall under the law you cite.

[Kalbear]

I think this might be the biggest flip-flop position of anyone I've ever seen. Saddam throws 'a little gas' and people go crazy. YOU DON'T SAY.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

12 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

I think this might be the biggest flip-flop position of anyone I've ever seen. Saddam throws 'a little gas' and people go crazy. YOU DON'T SAY.

 

And Saddam threw a little gas on Iraqi Kurds in 1988 and Reagan knew about it and did nothing. But of course it was a totally legit reason to invade 15 years later.