you’re voting for potentially dozens of things at once, including things that aren’t elected positions in any other country as far as I know
I heard in Switzerland they have federal or local elections/referendums several times a year. Would Americans want to invest that much effort in their world-famous democracy?
(In Finland we vote about once a year, always only one thing at a time)
Diego Duarte
4 years ago
The amount of irregularities in the Iowa caucus, and the suspicious connection between the voting app and Buttigieg’s campaign pisses me off. I can’t believe they have the nerve to be so blatant about the whole thing. “Pete the cheat” is the kindest nickname I have for that corporate hack.
@Sheila Crosby
More and more I suspect that someone has a safe full of compromat on Republican politicians, either in Mar a Lago or the Kremlin.
From what we know both McConnell and Nunes do have compromats, given their involvement with Russia.
Now, I’d be interested to see what they have on Lindsey Graham that he did such an about face and went full 180° on everything he had said about Trump.
Something tells me it’s more than a simple sex scandal involving consenting adults, and it’s more in the realms of sexual assault or grooming.
ChloroFluoro
4 years ago
I’d be interested to see what they have on Lindsey Graham that he did such an about face and went full 180° on everything he had said about Trump.
Something tells me it’s more than a simple sex scandal involving consenting adults, and it’s more in the realms of sexual assault or grooming.
Tell me that you couldn’t imagine Lindsey dressed up like a Southern Bell.
(And no, I am not shaming cross dressers, but I bet Lindsey would at the drop of a ruffled sun bonnet.)
Naglfar
4 years ago
@Diego Duarte
Something tells me it’s more than a simple sex scandal involving consenting adults, and it’s more in the realms of sexual assault or grooming.
Oh, for sure. There have already been so many conservative politicians found to have committed rape or even child molestation, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are many more.
@Lumipuna
Where I live, we have one election each year. In even numbered years we elect senators, representatives, governors and presidents if they are up for election, and in odd numbered years we vote for city council, school board, mayor, and other local positions.
Alan Robertshaw
4 years ago
I becoming very receptive to the idea of just giving leadership positions to whomever can pull a sword from a stone.
I love this tale; and I think what the guy says about why the sword allowed itself to be found is so sweet.
It’s funny though, that pool is reputed to be bottomless; but it barely comes up to her knees 🙂
Must be a magic thing.
ChloroFluoro
4 years ago
There have already been so many conservative politicians found to have committed rape or even child molestation, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are many more.
Over and over again, psychiatric and social research has shown that it is sexual repression– rather than sexual permissiveness– that results in what I would term, “maladaptive” deviant behavior.
And the more vehement the judgment, and the harsher the dehumanization of those whose sexual proclivities fall outside conservative norms of “proper ” sexual expression, the more likely the ones who are judging are struggling with desires that also fall outside those norms.
*********************************************************
Slightly OT, but my favorite television show is coming back on the air tonight.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I love to an unnatural degree similar to the way that Jake loves Die Hard will be on NBC at 8 PM.
In keeping with the ethos of tolerance and respect established on this forum by David, I would like to quote Captain Holt:
“Whenever someone steps up and says who the truly are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.”
Nine-Nine!
Jesalin, Goddess of Lust & Pleasure
4 years ago
Oh, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!
Daughter
4 years ago
Good news from Thüringen! Kemmerich has resigned as Ministerpräsident!
It looks like hounding politicians with letters and e-mails can still work.
Democracy is not yet dead!
**Euphoria**
Moggie
4 years ago
@Daughter, ouch, after just one day in office? He should be happy that he’s made history!
Diego Duarte
4 years ago
@ChloroFluoro
Tell me that you couldn’t imagine Lindsey dressed up like a Southern Bell.
I’m not going to speculate about his sexual orientation but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he were gay. But given the circumstances in which he turned to the “Dark Side” and considering how openly welcoming the Democrats would have been, I’m not thinking it simply falls within the realms of sexual orientation.
The complete about-face and boot-licking he has engaged in… it’s beyond fishy. He’s more than likely engaged in something illegal that would have ended his political career without support of the republicans.
ChloroFluoro
4 years ago
@ Diego Duerte
I wouldn’t dream about disputing anything that you wrote.
I was not speculating about Graham’s sexual orientation, (nor do I care). The Southern Bell trope just popped into my mind because something about the “righteous” outrage that Graham affects has a pearl-clutching, fan-fluttering, “Oh-mah-delicate-nahves” sensibility that is different from the pompous outrage of others on the right.
Hearing Don Jr. protest the nepotism behind Hunter Biden’s job options makes me roll my eyes so hard they risk getting stuck at the back of my orbital sockets. He sounds like the entitled fratboy that he is, but I don’t picture him going into a swoon. (Stomping his foot perhaps, and trying to thrust out his chin?)
The Universe only knows what ugly secret Graham fears exposure over. It may have nothing to do sex directly–but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.
When that sort go on about morality and honor, they usually relate those issues back to sex. After all, what’s a little predatory business behavior between friends? Environmental affronts, even killing someone with a car can be excused in their world.
(Damn, I am so depressed now. )
Sheila Crosby
4 years ago
@Weird That was likely it. I was only about 11 at the time so most of the details went right over my head.
This isn’t going to turn into a Bernie Bro conspiracy theory website is it? Cause I see enough of that on Twitter. Sometimes people lack competence.
And I know it’s easy to be misinformed about how presidential primaries and caucuses work, so I’ll say it again. The DNC does not run them. The state parties run them.
More and more I suspect that someone has a safe full of compromat on Republican politicians, either in Mar a Lago or the Kremlin.
The parsimonious answer is that they’re fascist fuckheads, and while they’d rather have had someone semicompetent in charge, this is their moment to seize power.
Sheila Crosby
4 years ago
@Diego @Naglfar
I know McConnel has the keys to the money chest and getting re-elected would be very hard without his support.
I know humans tend to follow their herd.
I know they’re not the nicest bunch of people. /British understatement
But I think we’ve got so used to their behaviour that we’re forgetting how unprecedented it is. It’s still a question of looking for another job vs betraying your country, and even the guy who’s retiring anyway (Lamar Alexandre?) voted for acquital. They don’t act like people afriad of losing their job; they act like people afraid of prison or the death sentence.
As Naglfar says, Lindsey Graham’s about face is striking. I’ve heard rumours that he’s gay for some time, and I know that most republicans would view that very differently than we do, but still – he acts like they’ve got proof of something very illegal.
Moggie
4 years ago
@Sheila Crosby, their behaviour looks unprecedented because Trump is unprecedented (or, as he would write, unpresidented). These are not deeply principled men and women. They’re grifters, who will do whatever is necessary to maintain their power and privilege, and to serve their owners. At present, that means submitting to the Trump cult. And if one of them has a stirring of conscience, the prospect of murderous retaliation by Trump supporters might convince them to keep quiet.
There may be kompromat, but on the whole damn lot of them? That’s hard to believe.
Diego Duarte
4 years ago
@Sheila Crosby
(…) even the guy who’s retiring anyway (Lamar Alexandre?) voted for acquital. They don’t act like people afriad of losing their job; they act like people afraid of prison or the death sentence.
Trump reportedly said that those who voted for conviction would find their head on a pike for it. And that may not be all too farfetched considering the way Trump riles up his base.
This might be my personal opinion, but I feel like the real reason Republicans don’t pass any gun control laws (and are now opposing even Red Flag laws: where threats have already been issued) is because they are all too aware of the fact that the ones doing the shootings are their supporters. Whereas the people who mostly get murdered are more likely to vote democrat, based on demographics and gender. They actually gain power by letting them happen over and over again.
Seriously, the way Trump and his media allies engage in stochastic terrorism would give any would-be traitor pause as to what would happen to them if they stepped out of line.
Naglfar
4 years ago
@Sheila Crosby
even the guy who’s retiring anyway (Lamar Alexandre?) voted for acquital. They don’t act like people afriad of losing their job; they act like people afraid of prison or the death sentence.
Trump’s trying to become an authoritarian dictator, so he’s scaring them into cooperating. If he gets that goal, he’ll want to execute anyone who opposes him. So, in a sense, they are afraid of the death sentence but not enough so that they’d think about how to actually prevent fascism taking over. They’re pulling the fascist trick of selling out everyone else to save their asses.
@Moggie
There may be kompromat, but on the whole damn lot of them? That’s hard to believe.
When there are so many awful people in a group, it becomes easier to believe that every one of them has done at least something awful that could damage their reputation if it got out.
There are very few, if any, innocent Republicans.
Big Titty Demon
4 years ago
OpenBLAS is the best BLAS library, out-performing Intel MKL even on Intel architectures. The OS code for Linux is open-source and vastly out-performs Windows. I can think of a lot of examples like this. Open-source is the cornerstone of academia, it couldn’t exist without it. All of the best research is done in open-source, and then is swiftly adapted into closed-source as if it had been there all along.
Snowberry
4 years ago
I don’t think we should use language which could be seen as feminizing to describe Lindsey Graham, even if it’s not intended as such. He already gets shamed a lot for being a gay crossdresser despite the fact that there’s no evidence that he’s gay or a crossdresser and it’s not shame-worthy even if he was.
And that’s if he’s not being shamed for being a pedophile, a transwoman, or even a drag king (and yes, I saw someone do that, they shamed him for being a woman trying too hard to pretend to be a man). Most of those people are supposedly liberals. Let’s do better than that, and call out that kind of stupidity on our side.
If Lindsey Graham is to be shamed for anything, it’s for having no principles whatsoever. His moral compass is always aligned towards and a bit lower than whoever he currently sees as strongest conservative. Which is, right now, Trump.
Hippodameia
4 years ago
This isn’t going to turn into a Bernie Bro conspiracy theory website is it? Cause I see enough of that on Twitter. Sometimes people lack competence.
We Hunted The Mammoth
I heard in Switzerland they have federal or local elections/referendums several times a year. Would Americans want to invest that much effort in their world-famous democracy?
(In Finland we vote about once a year, always only one thing at a time)
The amount of irregularities in the Iowa caucus, and the suspicious connection between the voting app and Buttigieg’s campaign pisses me off. I can’t believe they have the nerve to be so blatant about the whole thing. “Pete the cheat” is the kindest nickname I have for that corporate hack.
@Sheila Crosby
From what we know both McConnell and Nunes do have compromats, given their involvement with Russia.
Now, I’d be interested to see what they have on Lindsey Graham that he did such an about face and went full 180° on everything he had said about Trump.
Something tells me it’s more than a simple sex scandal involving consenting adults, and it’s more in the realms of sexual assault or grooming.
Tell me that you couldn’t imagine Lindsey dressed up like a Southern Bell.
(And no, I am not shaming cross dressers, but I bet Lindsey would at the drop of a ruffled sun bonnet.)
@Diego Duarte
Oh, for sure. There have already been so many conservative politicians found to have committed rape or even child molestation, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are many more.
@Lumipuna
Where I live, we have one election each year. In even numbered years we elect senators, representatives, governors and presidents if they are up for election, and in odd numbered years we vote for city council, school board, mayor, and other local positions.
I becoming very receptive to the idea of just giving leadership positions to whomever can pull a sword from a stone.
@Alan, how about the Lady of the Lake?
@ moggie
That would be this lass.
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/local-news/king-arthur-sword-found-lake-438667
I love this tale; and I think what the guy says about why the sword allowed itself to be found is so sweet.
It’s funny though, that pool is reputed to be bottomless; but it barely comes up to her knees 🙂
Must be a magic thing.
Over and over again, psychiatric and social research has shown that it is sexual repression– rather than sexual permissiveness– that results in what I would term, “maladaptive” deviant behavior.
And the more vehement the judgment, and the harsher the dehumanization of those whose sexual proclivities fall outside conservative norms of “proper ” sexual expression, the more likely the ones who are judging are struggling with desires that also fall outside those norms.
*********************************************************
Slightly OT, but my favorite television show is coming back on the air tonight.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I love to an unnatural degree similar to the way that Jake loves Die Hard will be on NBC at 8 PM.
In keeping with the ethos of tolerance and respect established on this forum by David, I would like to quote Captain Holt:
“Whenever someone steps up and says who the truly are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.”
Nine-Nine!
Good news from Thüringen! Kemmerich has resigned as Ministerpräsident!
It looks like hounding politicians with letters and e-mails can still work.
Democracy is not yet dead!
**Euphoria**
@Daughter, ouch, after just one day in office? He should be happy that he’s made history!
@ChloroFluoro
I’m not going to speculate about his sexual orientation but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he were gay. But given the circumstances in which he turned to the “Dark Side” and considering how openly welcoming the Democrats would have been, I’m not thinking it simply falls within the realms of sexual orientation.
The complete about-face and boot-licking he has engaged in… it’s beyond fishy. He’s more than likely engaged in something illegal that would have ended his political career without support of the republicans.
@ Diego Duerte
I wouldn’t dream about disputing anything that you wrote.
I was not speculating about Graham’s sexual orientation, (nor do I care). The Southern Bell trope just popped into my mind because something about the “righteous” outrage that Graham affects has a pearl-clutching, fan-fluttering, “Oh-mah-delicate-nahves” sensibility that is different from the pompous outrage of others on the right.
Hearing Don Jr. protest the nepotism behind Hunter Biden’s job options makes me roll my eyes so hard they risk getting stuck at the back of my orbital sockets. He sounds like the entitled fratboy that he is, but I don’t picture him going into a swoon. (Stomping his foot perhaps, and trying to thrust out his chin?)
The Universe only knows what ugly secret Graham fears exposure over. It may have nothing to do sex directly–but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.
When that sort go on about morality and honor, they usually relate those issues back to sex. After all, what’s a little predatory business behavior between friends? Environmental affronts, even killing someone with a car can be excused in their world.
(Damn, I am so depressed now. )
@Weird That was likely it. I was only about 11 at the time so most of the details went right over my head.
This isn’t going to turn into a Bernie Bro conspiracy theory website is it? Cause I see enough of that on Twitter. Sometimes people lack competence.
And I know it’s easy to be misinformed about how presidential primaries and caucuses work, so I’ll say it again. The DNC does not run them. The state parties run them.
Ohlmann,
Really, dude?
@Sheila Crosby
The parsimonious answer is that they’re fascist fuckheads, and while they’d rather have had someone semicompetent in charge, this is their moment to seize power.
@Diego @Naglfar
I know McConnel has the keys to the money chest and getting re-elected would be very hard without his support.
I know humans tend to follow their herd.
I know they’re not the nicest bunch of people. /British understatement
But I think we’ve got so used to their behaviour that we’re forgetting how unprecedented it is. It’s still a question of looking for another job vs betraying your country, and even the guy who’s retiring anyway (Lamar Alexandre?) voted for acquital. They don’t act like people afriad of losing their job; they act like people afraid of prison or the death sentence.
As Naglfar says, Lindsey Graham’s about face is striking. I’ve heard rumours that he’s gay for some time, and I know that most republicans would view that very differently than we do, but still – he acts like they’ve got proof of something very illegal.
@Sheila Crosby, their behaviour looks unprecedented because Trump is unprecedented (or, as he would write, unpresidented). These are not deeply principled men and women. They’re grifters, who will do whatever is necessary to maintain their power and privilege, and to serve their owners. At present, that means submitting to the Trump cult. And if one of them has a stirring of conscience, the prospect of murderous retaliation by Trump supporters might convince them to keep quiet.
There may be kompromat, but on the whole damn lot of them? That’s hard to believe.
@Sheila Crosby
Trump reportedly said that those who voted for conviction would find their head on a pike for it. And that may not be all too farfetched considering the way Trump riles up his base.
This might be my personal opinion, but I feel like the real reason Republicans don’t pass any gun control laws (and are now opposing even Red Flag laws: where threats have already been issued) is because they are all too aware of the fact that the ones doing the shootings are their supporters. Whereas the people who mostly get murdered are more likely to vote democrat, based on demographics and gender. They actually gain power by letting them happen over and over again.
Seriously, the way Trump and his media allies engage in stochastic terrorism would give any would-be traitor pause as to what would happen to them if they stepped out of line.
@Sheila Crosby
Trump’s trying to become an authoritarian dictator, so he’s scaring them into cooperating. If he gets that goal, he’ll want to execute anyone who opposes him. So, in a sense, they are afraid of the death sentence but not enough so that they’d think about how to actually prevent fascism taking over. They’re pulling the fascist trick of selling out everyone else to save their asses.
@Moggie
When there are so many awful people in a group, it becomes easier to believe that every one of them has done at least something awful that could damage their reputation if it got out.
There are very few, if any, innocent Republicans.
OpenBLAS is the best BLAS library, out-performing Intel MKL even on Intel architectures. The OS code for Linux is open-source and vastly out-performs Windows. I can think of a lot of examples like this. Open-source is the cornerstone of academia, it couldn’t exist without it. All of the best research is done in open-source, and then is swiftly adapted into closed-source as if it had been there all along.
I don’t think we should use language which could be seen as feminizing to describe Lindsey Graham, even if it’s not intended as such. He already gets shamed a lot for being a gay crossdresser despite the fact that there’s no evidence that he’s gay or a crossdresser and it’s not shame-worthy even if he was.
And that’s if he’s not being shamed for being a pedophile, a transwoman, or even a drag king (and yes, I saw someone do that, they shamed him for being a woman trying too hard to pretend to be a man). Most of those people are supposedly liberals. Let’s do better than that, and call out that kind of stupidity on our side.
If Lindsey Graham is to be shamed for anything, it’s for having no principles whatsoever. His moral compass is always aligned towards and a bit lower than whoever he currently sees as strongest conservative. Which is, right now, Trump.
Seconded.
https://m.imgur.com/c3VE9al