Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Creeping up according to Rasmussen’s tracking poll. Only down 9 points.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/ukraines-deadly-gamble
Here’s a good explanation of the (recent) history that lead to the invasion. I think we can all agree that the initial sanctions were garbage. Yesterday’s announced sanctions were the result of Germany reassessing its energy policy and realizing they’ve taken the wrong path since the 1990’s.
https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1498094616704217090
Oh, and they finally decided to devote 2% of their GDP to defense… because they realize that their part of the world isn’t the safe haven they thought it would be.
#Germany vs. #France carbon emissions comparison. The choice is obvious – clean and reliable #nuclearenergy is the only way in achieving #netzero. #Nuclear. pic.twitter.com/j4qjpgGZyQ
— Uranium Trends (@UraniumTrends) January 22, 2022
Yooooo 🇩🇪, I hear you guys might need some energy? Look at how quickly the French were able to decarbonize in response to the oil shocks with a little ⚛️ magic. Just sayin' pic.twitter.com/LqPSZhpTtX
— Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼 (@AngelicaOung) February 22, 2022
I get it. Source, etc. But this isn’t a Ukraine or recent development.
Germany’s CO2 emissions haven’t budged since 2009, despite a $580 billion investment in renewables and a 50% ⬆️ in electricity costs. Meanwhile, France produces 1/10 of the emissions Germany does and pays just over 50% of the bill. How? Nuclear power. https://t.co/2qTZlwTiZO
— Rosatom Global (@RosatomGlobal) March 2, 2019
How is the US doing on energy policy?
Federal regulators reverse decision to extend nuclear plant license in Florida. Turkey Point station near Miami would have been permitted until 2052.
The environmental group Beyond Nuclear argued that climate change risks were not taken into account. https://t.co/srqT20DKeY
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) February 25, 2022
You read that right. The NRC decided to REVERSE itself and not renew the licenses for two nuclear plants because some “environmental” group called “Beyond Nuclear” said the renewal applications didn’t factor in effects from climate change. Beyond stupid. We are not a serious country when it comes to carbon emissions.
[quote quote=5629] On the right you have a huge network of self-reinforcing talking points and echo chambers that many conservatives listen to, read, watch, etc. with much more regularity because it tends to be much more personality driven with talk shows, blogs, podcasts, etc. [/quote]
I see your allegation and raise an actual media echo chamber, with evidence. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-aspiring-novelist-who-became-obamas-foreign-policy-guru.html
As Malley and representatives of the State Department, including Wendy Sherman and Secretary of State John Kerry, engaged in formal negotiations with the Iranians, to ratify details of a framework that had already been agreed upon, Rhodes’s war room did its work on Capitol Hill and with reporters. In the spring of last year, legions of arms-control experts began popping up at think tanks and on social media, and then became key sources for hundreds of often-clueless reporters. “We created an echo chamber,” he admitted, when I asked him to explain the onslaught of freshly minted experts cheerleading for the deal. “They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.”
This is still going on to a ridiculous extent. Ron Klain whined to the press, and this was the result:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/03/biden-media-coverage-worse-trump-favorable/
What about all the “inflation is good, actually” pieces that came out around Thanksgiving? Like NBC suggesting that Americans not serve turkey to cut costs… on the “Today” show?
What about more recently? https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1471258774136664067
Aside from priorities, is this even true? Is there any good reason to believe that inflation hits low-income households especially hard? 1/ https://t.co/72hxWaL5zW
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 11, 2021
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/01/economy/inflation-good-bad-winners-losers/index.html
I also believe it will be Newsom, based on his behavior, and him being so confident he’s running ads in Florida and Texas.
That being said, he’s a Patrick Bateman level sociopath. He’s responsible for:
- The homeless problem through his Housing First policy, which flips programs (and the accountability / incentives that goes with them) that work on their head, and repackages them a “compassionate” approach. It’s been a failure, and started the rapid decline of San Francisco. When he became governor, he exported that program throughout the state, and voila! Homelessness is everywhere. LA got affected the most.
- Lockdowns and closed schools. The two issues that lead to the unsuccessful recall. When the recall was unsuccessful, he implemented the vaccine requirement for schools to punish the electorate. He can do this because California is dominated by the big cities. The education achievement numbers are coming out. They’re a disaster for California.
- The largest / only loss of population in California since it became a state. I get it. People may be leaving for affordability issues, etc., and continuing to vote like they aren’t fleeing policies, but man, that should be a disqualifying black eye.
- Government waste. Who got that $500M that he spent on PPE? It never got delivered. What happened to the $2.7B for water storage projects? Not one project has even gotten started. $9.95B for high speed rail? How many miles of track have been laid? How many acres of land have been set aside for a test track? What about $20B in EDD fraud?
- Income inequality. It’s gotten worse. California has the highest supplemental poverty measure of any state (only DC is higher!). See number 3.
- Crime. It’s not all Gavin’s fault, because the voters got suckered into approving a couple propositions that have been terrible. He’s been lying about it, though. And he actively appointed ACLU lawyers and criminal reform advocates into advisory positions, the parole boards, and other areas where the Governor affects crime. Becerra and Bonta (both appointees) have been soft on crime, and more interested in harassing legal gun owners than punishing criminals. Oh, and there’s been a moratorium on executions.
- Education. I get it. COVID disrupted education. But it didn’t have to…. But the state of education in California is dismal. Look at the science testing numbers. The percentage of students meeting and exceeding standards is below 50% for language skills, below 40% for math, and below 30% for science. They’ve each dropped about 1-2% through COVID.
Gavin Newsom has a record. It isn’t a good record.
We were warned about Joe's Lying ..
In 1987~
Lying mattered to the News Media and Voters …Watch for the comment at the end … pic.twitter.com/9cD3PS4x8q
— Lawyerforlaws (@lawyer4laws) July 29, 2022
And yet Gavin Newsom is spending time attacking Ron Desantis in Florida, and trying to get people to move to California. Claiming that Californians have freedom when he mandated lockdowns, the vaccine in order to keep your job, the vaccine for your kids to go to school, etc.? California even places restrictions on where public employee (other than the governor when he’s on vacation) can go. Do you want to talk about AB5?
lmao jokes on you there is no middle class in california https://t.co/b3levSMGLp
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) July 5, 2022
Good explainer. In short, centrally planning / attempting to get easy credit by appealing to environmentalists / globalists created the crisis.
My favorite new talking point is that there is inflation everywhere, so it’s clearly not Joe Biden’s / the Democrats’ fault. 1) We live in a global economy, and 2) inflation spreads along trade routes, particularly when you’re running up record trade deficits. It’s not like this is a new concept.
https://msh.councilforeconed.org/lessons.php?lid=68371
Back in the 14th century, Mansa Musa of Mali went on the Hajj, and brought so much gold (and gave it away) that he caused hyperinflation in Cairo, Medina, and Mecca for approximately a decade. Granted record-keeping back in those days wasn’t great, but all three cities reported that the price of gold dropped by a lot for almost a decade. Given how important trade was back then, it’s unlikely that it had no effect.
Bobby Engel, the agent who was driving the presidential SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are willing to testify under oath that no agent was assaulted and Trump never lunged for the steering wheel, a person familiar with the matter said. https://t.co/C9hVTkglLY
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 29, 2022
Well, her source / head of security denies telling her the story, and the driver denies being assaulted / that Trump tried to grab the wheel. Even the Washington Post thought the testimony smelled funny. The committee itself then played video showing that Trump was not in the limo, as the witness said the rumor was reported, but in an SUV. Either way, the whole thing was implausible.
Here's the thing. The committee has Secret Service testimony that would seemingly corroborate or dispute what Cassidy Hutchinson said today, but it wasn't played. Unclear why.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 28, 2022
Also, the “handwritten note” wasn’t hers.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-white-house-attorney-disputes-cassidy-hutchinsons-testimony/
People who work with the attorney (and Trump himself noticed this when he put out his response) back up that the attorney’s handwriting is distinctive and she did not write the note. It’s one thing to get something wrong because it is rumor / hearsay. It’s another to get something wrong that you claim you did.
What’s the credibility jury instruction? If you find the witness’s testimony is false as to one thing, you can disregard part or all of their testimony? This reminds me of how organizations find leaks: by putting out implausible rumors and seeing how / if they get reported to the press.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ishapiro/status/1541491241678000128
The political question doctrine formerly left the Court out of a lot of thorny issues. Finding a constitutional right to abortion (taking advantage of the proclivities of the justices at the time) resulted in the politicization of the Court. What is interesting to me is that Breyer now joins dissents that ten years ago, he may not have joined. So be it.
Justice Thomas is bearing the brunt of the left’s attacks, but he has been the most intellectually consistent justice since joining the Court.
https://stanforddaily.com/2021/09/02/ras-strike-indefinitely-after-stanford-fails-to-meet-demand/
Revised alcohol and drug policy to end the “open door policy.”
GR, please don’t take your ball and go home. I (and I think I can say we) value your insights. This board is a place where I will challenge what I believe are extreme positions, or where I want to at least present evidence that will support my views on things.
I have no intention on changing your opinion of Trump. I am, however, interested in challenging your position he is directly responsible, and further criminally responsible for treason and sedition. My position is simply that the evidence, which we have known since at least January 12, 2021, does not support your position. I hope that I have supported my position with evidence. Please keep an open mind. With that spirit in mind, please consider listening to this podcast episode re: the January 6 hearings.
https://ruthlesspodcast.com/episodes/the-libs-are-dangerous
The tagline of the podcast refers to the Kavanaugh assassination attempt, so disregard it and keep an open mind. Keep in mind that this podcast is slanted, and the commentary is meant more to entertain than inform. It does present, however, a view of the January 6 hearings that I believe most of the nation holds at this point.
Fascinating. With regard to an actual plan to kidnap Pence or Pelosi, what evidence do you have to support your speculation as to what was going to happen? You cannot use what Trump said privately to advisors when he was blowing off steam or discussing alternative courses of action. You must have actual evidence from riot participants, indicted seditious conspirators, or public statements on January 6. The evidence must be direct, not “dog whistles” or “implied,” or “people could have interpreted this to mean….” (based on the legal standard for incitement).
I agree completely that everyone who assaulted a police officer, picked up a weapon and hit a peace officer, or even picked up a weapon should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Even the people who appeared to make a coordinated effort to incite the riot / get people to storm the Capitol should be prosecuted (although it appears they left the “rally” much earlier than the words cited by the committee). I do not agree that there is any evidence of a coordinated effort to actually kidnap / hold hostage Pence or Pelosi.
If you cite “zip-tie guy,” that has been debunked… by the prosecutors.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/capitol-riots-zip-tie-guy-190644133.html
Also, the one person who apparently publicly claimed that he wanted to take hostages, Larry Rendall Brock Jr., has not been charged with anything of the sort. There was testimony that another guy, Reffitt, talked about taking hostages. But Reffitt’s friend, Hardie, admitted that Reffitt was joking about taking Pelosi, and he never meant to go through with it (although he went into the Capitol). Reffitt was convicted of disorderly conduct and obstructing an official proceeding.
Did you see me calling for others to be charged with treason or seditious conspiracy? No. I was simply pointing out that the actual actions of Obama, H-Clinton, and Biden were more damaging to the Republic than anything Trump said when lashing out. In general terms, most people seem to agree with me that the riot wasn’t an “insurrection,” and that it wasn’t a serious effort to seize the levers of power.
I agree with you that Trump had it within his power to stop the riot. I also believe that his abandonment of the lower level people who are still in custody for just going into the Capitol shows that he has major character flaws. Note that I have no sympathy for anyone who hit an officer, or did more than just wander around the Capitol.
I completely agree with you that Trump should have spent his money on preventing the rule changes that could have stopped fraud (see court rulings in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania). He spent those millions on the lunatic fringe sideshow (as I explicitly noted in my original response by citing Giuliani and Powell. Should have thrown in Lin Wood, as well), rather than legitimate challenges to how the election was conducted. The sideshows allowed the media to concentrate on them, and distract from real, systemic issues with universal mail in balloting, voting by proxy, no ID verification, ballot harvesting, etc., that occurred in 2020. The media concentration on the sideshow convinced most of America to take the position that there aren’t problems with our election system. But ask yourself, why was the Georgia bill necessary?
I don’t really have an opinion regarding auditing the election, other than to note that the audits were meant to see if the submitted ballots were counted correctly, not whether the voters actually submitted the ballots, or if ballots were filled out fraudulently, which is the main problem with the rule changes.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/2/wisconsin-probe-finds-2020-election-riddled-nursin/
I don’t know whether anything would have changed the outcome of the election. I don’t care, honestly. I just have some understanding of why people would be upset, and why they may have formed the beliefs they hold. I would like a reversion to a system where there would be a paper trail that could be audited, rather than the systems that are in place today. That’s also why I hate the current California system. It seems designed to be opaque and subject to abuse. For those interested in why systems matter, I recommend “The Battle of Athens,” a book about a 1946 seditious conspiracy (gentle ribbing here) against a local election machine in Tennessee. When the voting rules are bad, people should demand better systems.
This is a roundabout way of saying that the way to prevent both sides from continuing to undermine the legitimacy of elections is to adopt better systems that are not subject to abuse. Georgia did it, and look at how the media and Democrats reacted. I hope the experience in Georgia undermines once and for all the “voter suppression” narrative that prevents implementation of better, more efficient systems. The actual academic evidence shows that voter ID, for example, does not have a suppressive effect on voting. But people still trot out materials from Priorities USA and the media accepts their surveys as “evidence” all the time.
Other countries, and individual states, have implemented good election systems where the results can be quickly tabulated. As a result, people trust the elections, and participate at higher rates. Look at this, copy and pasted from the California SOS website for the primary election on June 7:
Election results are updated as often as new data is received from county elections offices after the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots continue to be counted after Election Day during the canvass period; county elections officials must report final official results to the Secretary of State by July 8, 2022. The Secretary of State will certify the results on July 15, 2022.
As of today, turnout is at 21.4%. That is on pace to break the 2014 record low of 25.17%. Even the last gubernatorial election in 2018 got 37.54%.
