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US Politics: Ted Cruz - A Tale of two Snowflakes


A Horse Named Stranger

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On 2/23/2021 at 11:54 AM, Jaxom 1974 said:

Wisconsin really needs to do better than Ron Johnson...ugh...

I’m still so sad and disappointed both for the state of Wisconsin and the country in general that as fine and principled a Senator as Russ Feingold was given the boot and replaced with a waste of oxygen like Ron Johnson.

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23 minutes ago, Ormond said:

I am sure the Texas governor has some powers independent from the legislature, but I know I have been told for years (including I am sure by people on these threads) that the powers of the governor in Texas are way less than that of the governor in most other states, so much so that it's been implied that being governor in Texas isn't as attractive a job to politicians in that state as it is in most others.

Shrug.  Less powerful than other governors is still a pretty powerful spot to be.  I'd much rather the Democrats have it than not. 

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It's always better to have an elected office than not to have it. And the Texas Governor certainly does some things, but it is one of the weaker governorships out there.

The Governor does not directly hire state agency heads, and has almost no authority to fire them. There is no state cabinet.

The Governor has no formal role in the agency rule-making process. Though Perry and Abbott have strengthened the office by carving out an informal role.

For a long time the state comptroller and the Lt. Governor (as head of the legislature) were in charge of the state budget process.

The energy industry, backbone of the Texas economy, isn't regulated by the executive branch at all. The independently elected Railroad Commission does that.

 

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Some of the They Say crowds are Saying March 4th is perhaps being organized to be the New! Improved! Real and Authentic! January 6th Sedition Effort.

Why March 4th particularly? Partly because it was the original inauguration date.

Still it is all as cray-cray as cam be, still

Quote

Rates at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, have spiked to more than $1,300 on March 4 (they start at $476 just a week later). But people aren’t organizing to come to DC in the kind of numbers that were expected for the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, for which Trump himself extended an invitation to his followers.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22280323/qanon-march-president-trump-inaugration-conspiracy-theory

 

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3 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

An amazing poll - 91% of Democrats would get a Covid-19 vaccine as of the end of January, but only 51% of Republicans would. That Republican number was 49% at the end of last September.

Keep your government talons of my Medicare, Birdie!

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While there are obviously many who draw a hard line on it, I think that a sizable chunk - if not a slight majority of gun owners would not be too upset at additional gun control measures. I think almost everyone is in favor of ‘common sense’ gun control, it’s just the unfortunate case that the phrase means different things to different people.

IMO, instead of focusing on a specific weapon like an AR type rifle what we should be focusing on are better background checks, mental health vetting, severe penalties for inappropriate storage around minors etc. People with mental health problems, people with significant criminal history, people with a history of domestic violence should not be allowed to own firearms - and if that means I have to go through some extra hoops in order to get a gun I have zero problem with that and I suspect most gun owners are probably in that camp.

Beto going out and announcing a blanket ban on something like an AR is more a soundbyte to rally the troops, I guess, but I do think it’s a misstep. The shooter at Virginia Tech had a pair of 9mm handguns and killed 30-some people. ARs are just one of many semi-automatic firearms on the market and I think are mainly singled out because they look like military weapons. Some of them will shoot 5.56 rounds which is the adopted round for standard NATO military rifles, so in a sense those are equivalent to ‘weapons of war’. But you can also have an ‘AR’ that looks totally badass but shoots .22 caliber rounds and is basically a glorified varmint killer. On the other side of the aesthetics spectrum you can also have pretty standard hunting rifles that look completely boring but are semi-automatic, capable of firing a powerful round, and are essentially an extended magazine away from being every bit as devastating a weapon as the much maligned ‘AR’.

So there’s not a lot of consistency there and actual gun nuts, er experts, (I’m only a dabbler) could run circles around most legislators when it comes to the nuances. There’s not always much difference between grandpa’s old  rifle and a ‘weapon of war’ so it’s tricky and I do think the focus should be on vetting gun owners and punishing irresponsible ones. I’m all for a licensing program, personally.

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11 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

An amazing poll - 91% of Democrats would get a Covid-19 vaccine as of the end of January, but only 51% of Republicans would. That Republican number was 49% at the end of last September.

So I am fortunate that 3/4 of my grandparents are still alive - all in their late 80s now. My dad’s parents have both gotten their first dose of the vaccine. Great.

My mom’s mother refuses to get it. Why? Because my insane fucking Q following dumbass aunts have poisoned her on the idea. I have completely stayed on the sidelines and just gotten info from my mom and sister about how insane quite a few family members on my mother’s side have become. But recently I was told that one of my nutty aunts will literally call my grandma, who does not have the internet at all, and ‘fill her in’ on the latest Q nonsense. I do talk to my grandma on the phone sometimes and I generally avoid any kind of political topics. But I am so tempted to call my grandma and methodically lay out why 3 of her daughters are utterly full of shit. I really don’t want to be involved in this insanity at all, and my grandmother is more than welcome to make her own decisions about getting the vaccine, but now that I know she’s being fed misinformation I might be duty bound to say something. I don’t know maybe I can get my mom to try and talk sense into her. 

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I feel for you, S John. What a miserable thing to see happening.

Thinking about those poll numbers, I had to play with the math. Using rough numbers, there are 330 M people in the US, about 24% younger than 18 and therefore not going to be vaccinated.

76% is about 250.8 M. I know that technically there are three groups of voters, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, but basically people vote for 2 parties. I know there are more Democrats, let’s call it a 53/47 split. About 118 M Republicans then, about 58 M who don’t want to be vaccinated. Add the 24% below 18, 79 M plus 58 M, 137 M people, that’s potentially over 40% of the population not being vaccinated. And no herd immunity.

Very rough math with a lot of assumptions there. After all, maybe 90% of independents want the vaccine, though I think the independent split is closer to the Democrat/Republican split. However, in another, non-political, poll at the end of January, 13% don’t want to get it, 7% only if it’s required, and 31% are still “wait and see”. That sounds like herd immunity is going to be tough to reach.

Sorry, the things that roll around in your brain at  1:00 am!

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Are people going to seriously let Margarey Taylor Green get away with the whole, "MTG" thing like she's some sort of QAnon AOC?  :rolleyes:

I feel like its gotten pretty common for political figures with three names to get called three letters; Amy Coney Barrett often gets referred to as ACB, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was RBG, etc. It's just a convenience thing since no one wants to type out all three names all the time. 

 

In other news, Gamestop stock started surging again for some reason. It was under $50 for most of yesterday, and pretty stable for the past three weeks, now its up to $127 (and was briefly as high as $180 at the start of trading). Guess maybe this saga still isn't quite over.

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8 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I feel for you, S John. What a miserable thing to see happening.

Thinking about those poll numbers, I had to play with the math. Using rough numbers, there are 330 M people in the US, about 24% younger than 18 and therefore not going to be vaccinated.

76% is about 250.8 M. I know that technically there are three groups of voters, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, but basically people vote for 2 parties. I know there are more Democrats, let’s call it a 53/47 split. About 118 M Republicans then, about 58 M who don’t want to be vaccinated. Add the 24% below 18, 79 M plus 58 M, 137 M people, that’s potentially over 40% of the population not being vaccinated. And no herd immunity.

Very rough math with a lot of assumptions there. After all, maybe 90% of independents want the vaccine, though I think the independent split is closer to the Democrat/Republican split. However, in another, non-political, poll at the end of January, 13% don’t want to get it, 7% only if it’s required, and 31% are still “wait and see”. That sounds like herd immunity is going to be tough to reach.

Sorry, the things that roll around in your brain at  1:00 am!

 

 

I think that poll is absurd and quite suspect especially given vaccine uptake data so far.  That’s not to say that we are going to get to 70-85% of uptake - we aren’t, but I think making it political isn’t the right lens. I also think that “herd immunity” (and a zero Covid world) are pipe dreams and people should stop focusing on them.

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1 hour ago, Fez said:

I feel like its gotten pretty common for political figures with three names to get called three letters; Amy Coney Barrett often gets referred to as ACB, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was RBG, etc. It's just a convenience thing since no one wants to type out all three names all the time. 

 

Can't say I've seen much of a push to call Barrett by just her initials.  Ginsburg, well that was as much pop culture as anything else.

Right now, with Green, it just feels like she's trying to make Fetch happen...

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7 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Can't say I've seen much of a push to call Barrett by just her initials.  Gainsburg, well that was as much pop culture as anything else.

Right now, with Green, it just feels like she's trying to make Fetch happen...

Come on, you're just trying to make a reference about fetch not happening happen. 

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