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US Politics: Ready, Set, Announce! Bookering the Odds


Fragile Bird

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1 hour ago, mormont said:

The idea that this is something the are just figuring out is, well, daft. They've been doing it as a standard part of their playbooks for decades. It's nothing new: it's the furthest thing I can imagine from being new.

You're correct, but forget that the Democrats' standards have evolved. Republicans smear-tactics are all the more effective today, and will intensify.

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Again, people should be allowed chances to atone for mistakes, and should be granted forgiveness, or the possibility of such, if they change and repent or whatever. 

 

That being said, politicians need to be treated differently than most, since they represent massive amounts of people. So, we can forgive him if we feel he's worthy of forgiveness, but he needs to step down immediately and allow someone with less baggage to represent the people of his state. 

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Conservatives leave Clown State, for getting too clownish.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/5/18205876/conservative-media-trump-red-state-salem-media

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On Thursday, two writers for the conservative website RedState, Kimberly Ross and Andrea Ruth, announced on the website the Bulwark that they were leaving RedState.

“For more than a decade,” they wrote, “RedState was a solid voice in the world of online conservative commentary. Unfortunately, the allure of Trumpism has left the once great site a shell of its former self.”


 

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Vaughn also expressed confusion with the goals of Trump-skeptical conservatives. “I don’t understand why Never Trumpers are so unhappy with his presidency,” she wrote. “Are they upset with record low Hispanic, Black and female unemployment? Are they upset with the rising labor participation rate?

Oh dear lord. I'll say it again, conservatives are like that knucklehead you played ball with - the one that is the last to jump in on the pile, and then runs around the field, like a clown, as if he just stuffed Earl Campbell for a 3 yard loss.

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1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

Today’s Threats to Global Democracy Are Coming From Democracies Themselves

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/freedom-house-democracy.html

 

Over the past decade or so (since the US' score has started to decrease), Freedom House has had a tendency to play up the erosion of democracy in the United States even when there aren't any substantive changes to the aggregate score.  While this is understandably important to emphasize both commercially and substantively for the state of global democracy, it does add a tinge of inaccuracy to the summary of their own scores. 

The US' aggregate was 89 in 2017, then dropped to 86 in 2018 (FH releases their annual updates early in the year, so the 2018 score covered Trump's first year in office).  That is a substantial and alarming drop.  What happened this year?  The score remained at 86.  To be clear, however, this was due to dueling forces at hand - as WaPo points out in their writeup on the report (with their own misleading headline):

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Although this year’s overall score is unchanged from last year’s, that is only because widespread protests for social change and against government policies bumped up the points for freedom of assembly. That, in turn, offset a drop in ratings for equal treatment before the law, due to the administration’s policies on asylum seekers and refugees.

 

So reading this article made me learn/realize some interesting things about the Virginia governorship.  Virginia is the only state with one four-year term limit on its governors.  What I didn't know is it appears this rule has existed since Reconstruction.  And, every governor since Reconstruction has served his full term. 

This means that, if Fairfax survives the abuse charge, Northam leaves office with Fairfax taking over, and then Fairfax goes on to win election in 2021 (which he'd still be eligible to do) and serves out that term, he would be the longest serving governor in the history of Virginia.  Also fun trivia - who was the first governor of Virginia?  Patrick Henry.  Who was the second?  Thomas Jefferson.

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1 hour ago, Relic said:

Again, people should be allowed chances to atone for mistakes, and should be granted forgiveness, or the possibility of such, if they change and repent or whatever. 

That being said, politicians need to be treated differently than most, since they represent massive amounts of people. So, we can forgive him if we feel he's worthy of forgiveness, but he needs to step down immediately and allow someone with less baggage to represent the people of his state. 

How differently though? You don’t need a historian to tell you that many of the great civic leaders over the ages were deeply flawed people in their personal lives. DMC referenced Jefferson. He’s likely one of the ten most important Americans to ever live…………and he raped his slaves. Flash forward two centuries to the 1960’s, and you can see that the three marauders of the age were horrible people to their wives. We can play this game in any age or area. People are flawed and they shouldn’t be condemned for all of their transgressions. Or take this for an example:

5 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Therein lies the problem in my eyes. Like, I wouldn't care if a politician had experimented with various drugs in their youth. But being the school drug dealer? Hmmm, I'd probably have a problem with that. But how can you tell the difference, decades after the facts?

I pushed weight in high school and college, and not only does that not make me a bad person, but right historically. I view my actions as being no different than the bootleggers during the prohibition era. Stupid laws should be broken. I’m not here to abide the golden rule, and if anyone tried to use that against me in a political setting, I’d simply ask them why they lacked the foresight to see what was obvious.

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11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I pushed weight in high school and college, and not only does that not make me a bad person, but right historically.

Yeah I'll respond to this because I also kinda took that personally.  I don't think being "historically right" matters, but I too sold, like, a quap a week at most in my teenage years.  While you'd almost literally have to put a gun to my head to get me to run for public office, I don't think that should really be disqualifying to a political candidate.  Or even much of a problem.

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1 hour ago, DMC said:

This means that, if Fairfax survives the abuse charge, Northam leaves office with Fairfax taking over, and then Fairfax goes on to win election in 2021 (which he'd still be eligible to do) and serves out that term, he would be the longest serving governor in the history of Virginia.  Also fun trivia - who was the first governor of Virginia?  Patrick Henry.  Who was the second?  Thomas Jefferson.

Fairfax might become the longest serving governor in a single stretch, but he would not be the longest serving governor in total time served because people can be re-elected as governor of Virginia after sitting out a term, which happened with Mills Godwin, who was the 60th governor of Virginia between 1966 and 1970 and the 62nd governor between 1974 and 1978 and so served a total of eight full years as governor.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Godwin_Mills_E_1914-1999

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Selling drugs isn't that same as being potentially racist/discriminatory against part of your constituents. I don't see anything wrong with pushing some herb, hawking mollie, or even some harder substances, to be quite honest. 

However, when you represent a wide array of people you HAVE to be seen at someone who doesn't hold racial or gender biases, at least as a Democrat, if the Dems want to hold any sort of "moral authority" over the GOP. 

Obviously, the GOP and the devil itself (FoxNews) is filled with hypocrisy and liars and thieves, people who support Steve King and think that some Nazis are actually OK folk, but fuck the GOP. WE need to be better. 

And by we I mean all of us who aren't registered Republicans, be that Democrat, indie, agnostic, or otherwise. 

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3 minutes ago, Relic said:

Selling drugs isn't that same as being potentially racist/discriminatory against part of your constituents. I don't see anything wrong with pushing some herb, hawking mollie, or even some harder substances, to be quite honest. 

However, when you represent a wide array of people you HAVE to be seen at someone who doesn't hold racial or gender biases, at least as a Democrat, if the Dems want to hold any sort of "moral authority" over the GOP. 

Sure, to be clear, I pretty much agree with this.  Standards are plainly changing and becoming more rigid in the Democratic party.  I don't think that's a bad thing at all - depending on the circumstance.

9 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Fairfax might become the longest serving governor in a single stretch, but he would not be the longest serving governor in total time served

Yeah, I know.  You really are like a damn reviewer/editor sometimes (not an insult).

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22 minutes ago, DMC said:

Yeah I'll respond to this because I also kinda took that personally.  I don't think being "historically right" matters, but I too sold, like, a quap a week at most in my teenage years.  While you'd almost literally have to put a gun to my head to get me to run for public office, I don't think that should really be disqualifying to a political candidate.  Or even much of a problem.

I do. Take same sex marriage for example. I’ve supported that since the early 2000’s because that’s when friends of mine started coming out and I could see no valid argument against the issue. Or how about the Iraq war. I remember watching the initial bombing run and thinking to myself that we had just taken the first step in what would be an epic catastrophe. I think it says a lot about a person if they’re ahead of the curve rather than late to the party.

Also, a “quap” a week? Do you mean a quad or a QP? If you mean the former, I wouldn’t even call that slinging.

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3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Also, a “quap” a week? Do you mean a quad or a QP? If you mean the former, I wouldn’t even call that slinging.

Gotta go but to quickly answer this question a quap means a quarter pound.  Don't know what a QP is.  Not sure if the difference in nomenclature is based on age or region.

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28 minutes ago, Relic said:

Selling drugs isn't that same as being potentially racist/discriminatory against part of your constituents. I don't see anything wrong with pushing some herb, hawking mollie, or even some harder substances, to be quite honest. 

However, when you represent a wide array of people you HAVE to be seen at someone who doesn't hold racial or gender biases, at least as a Democrat, if the Dems want to hold any sort of "moral authority" over the GOP. 

Playing devil’s advocate, one is a felony while the other isn’t illegal. Honestly I’m not that worked up about something someone did 35 years ago that wasn’t illegal if they’ve demonstrated they’ve changed and atoned for their mistakes. I didn’t know anything about Northam before this story broke, but after looking at his history last night, it seems pretty clear that he’s changed a lot over the decades on a number of issues. His current stances line up exactly with mine for the most part.

That said at this point he has to resign. His responses were terrible and the knives are clearly out for him in the party. He’s a lame duck that can’t govern effectively anymore and there’s no upside to him staying in office. This turkey is cooked.

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25 minutes ago, DMC said:

Gotta go but to quickly answer this question a quap means a quarter pound.  Don't know what a QP is.  Not sure if the difference in nomenclature is based on age or region.

Same diff. Has to be region because you’re not that much older than me.  

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46 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Take same sex marriage for example. I’ve supported that since the early 2000’s because that’s when friends of mine started coming out and I could see no valid argument against the issue. Or how about the Iraq war. I remember watching the initial bombing run and thinking to myself that we had just taken the first step in what would be an epic catastrophe. I think it says a lot about a person if they’re ahead of the curve rather than late to the party.

Well, I think there's a fundamental difference there.  Supporting SSM or opposing Iraq is not the same thing as selling weed when you're a kid.  Did I think it should be legalized?  Of course.  Did I think it would be eventually?  Yep.  But it's not like I started out of some principled stand.  I did it to make money.

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Same diff. Has to be region because you’re not that much older than me.  

Yeah probably region.  Although to edit my previous statement, QP was used rather interchangeably with quap where/when I was.  Sorry that wasn't the one I meant.  What I've never heard of is "quad."  What's that mean, quarter ounce?

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1 hour ago, Conflicting Thought said:

 

In chile we have a saying, sin perdon ni olvido, we'll never forgive or forget. 

That seems like a good way to perpetuate the same shitty state of affairs for eternity.  I think when someone has obviously already changed their views and behavior, it’s usually counter productive to run them down over it.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Northam handled all of this terribly and probably deserves his fate because of that.  But I think to some extent it is also important to have examples of people who have reformed their attitudes about things through time, experience, and maturity - and to show that it is possible to overcome improper and offensive attitudes towards race, homosexuality, etc.  If there’s no coming back, to me that sends the message to a lot of people that there really isn’t any point in examination and reform, you’re gonna be crucified either way.

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56 minutes ago, DMC said:

Well, I think there's a fundamental difference there.  Supporting SSM or opposing Iraq is not the same thing as selling weed when you're a kid.  Did I think it should be legalized?  Of course.  Did I think it would be eventually?  Yep.  But it's not like I started out of some principled stand.  I did it to make money.

Thing is I kind of did. At first it was to save money, not make any, but once I realized I had the hook up I did it to help my friends do the same. The money was secondary.   

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Yeah probably region.  Although to edit my previous statement, QP was used rather interchangeably with quap where/when I was.  Sorry that wasn't the one I meant.  What I've never heard of is "quad."  What's that mean, quarter ounce?

Yep. The lingo varies a ton by location. Living in L.A. helped me understand a ton of references in West coast hip hop.    

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45 minutes ago, S John said:

That seems like a good way to perpetuate the same shitty state of affairs for eternity.  I think when someone has obviously already changed their views and behavior, it’s usually counter productive to run them down over it.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Northam handled all of this terribly and probably deserves his fate because of that.  But I think to some extent it is also important to have examples of people who have reformed their attitudes about things through time, experience, and maturity - and to show that it is possible to overcome improper and offensive attitudes towards race, homosexuality, etc.  If there’s no coming back, to me that sends the message to a lot of people that there really isn’t any point in examination and reform, you’re gonna be crucified either way.

*Cough* Liam *cough* Neeson *cough*    

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Thing is I kind of did. At first it was to save money, not make any, but once I realized I had the hook up I did it to help my friends do the same. The money was secondary.

Well aren't you just the Robin Hood of weed.  Really, I think most kids get into it in a similar fashion.  I just wanted to smoke for free and happened to be friends with a supplier and distributor that didn't know each other.  Honestly got so sick of the travel and both their bitching as being the middle man that eventually I introduced the two to each other, but that still didn't work since there was mutual dislike.  Then when college rolled around I had the Jesus look so probably about half the time I went to smoke a cigarette in the quad (actual quad) someone would ask me if I knew where to get any.  Would've been more annoying not to deal.

Anyway, I still think that's different from supporting SSM, or opposing Iraq, or supporting universal health care, or even working for NORML, which I dabbled in for a few years.

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Yep. The lingo varies a ton by location. Living in L.A. helped me understand a ton of references in West coast hip hop.

Of course it varies by location, but even slight age differences can significantly change things.  Stopped getting high for about 4-5 years in my 20s and when I started again I didn't know wtf people were talking about anymore.  Still don't, really.  Alright, sorry mods, this is my last entry in the weed nostalgia tangent.

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