Politics And Current Events

[Troy Loney]

The US is going to keep spiraling into chaos unless someone is strong enough and smart enough to break that system

electing Trump is a shark-jumping moment. It’s likely only gonna get worse from here on out

I really don't understand how why this is a both sides thing, or a country as a whole thing. We either continue things as is, in a two party system, or allow for the dissolution of the federal government. There are guard rails that prevent a president from just outright declaring himself a dictator, but what we're seeing is the current president bluntly stating that he's going to use his power to try and control the vote, and his party seems completely on board with the tact. I guess I just don't understand what democrats are supposed to do? Are they supposed to stop representing their constituency and run on GOP platforms in order to persuade center right folks to vote for them?

The Dems got their house in order, they put down the Bernie campaign.

[eddy]

Partially...I mean, it's just about knowing who you're out there against...

If like NP or someone asks that, then you can take the leap on where it's going...but it's meow, meow doesn't participate in this thread, so he deserves the benefit of the doubt of taking the question at face value...if "is there such a thing..." is part of a better answer, I think it's probably fine...but this reads like buzzards pecking at his eyes for asking what the weather was gonna be like today...

Giving meow the benefit of the doubt is how the apocalypse begins. That cat is a stone killer (Charles Bronson reference)

[faftorial]

This stuff swings on a pendulum. It'll regress to normalcy .

[eddy]

when was the last time we had a legitimately great VP? Jefferson?

Is this a joke, too?

Jefferson was such a horrifically bad VP (in terms of fit with Adams) that they changed how VPs are selected because of it.

Staying mellow in Monticello?

[Kaiser]

Come on man. Read the situation. Someone, who has almost as many posts as you and have shared the forum together for 5 years, posts in the most popular thread on said forum for the first time and asks a pretty simple, straightforward question and your response is "hurr durr there is no such thing as a dream candidate" - phrasing of course. You don't see how that can be taken as a bit combative and childish?

PS, don't post random convservative twitter comments and foxnews links in this thread either. It's bad, really bad.

You can however post the same story from another source.

Where's your comments about sorting machines being removed from post offices in Iowa, and the president admitting the purpose was to suppress voting? That's why nobody takes Fox news seriously. Better to have an argument about biden's senility than address an actual problem.

Is it because it's no big deal? Not worth mentioning? Because there's evidence besides freddy's facebook posts? The actual news is almost always ignored in favor of 10 pages of the both sides dysentery fest.

[Morkle]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... reddit.com

Funding for the U.S. Postal Service and to shore up election infrastructure became a major sticking point in congressional talks on coronavirus relief, as President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to block any money to facilitate mail-in voting.

“The items are the post office and the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting,” Trump told Fox Business Network, saying Democrats want to give the post office $25 billion. “If we don’t make the deal, that means they can’t have the money, that means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. It just can’t happen.”

The amount of money in question is less than 1% of either party’s current proposed response, with Senate Republicans having unveiled a $1 trillion response while the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in May passed a $3 trillion bill.

Yikes

[MR25]

Just have to laugh

[Gaucho]

[mikey]

[tifosi77]

"Dey want our guns!" has been a cry against every democrat I can remember. One day it may actually be true.

Harris is one a select few Democrats that has an actual legitimate track record on this front. (Which I suspect might be at least part of dodint's objection to her)

In CA we have a law that says all new semiautomatic handguns have to have 'microstamping' technology that effectively means the firing pin has to more or less embed a 'finger print' on the primer of e shell which is unique to that specific firearm. This is sort of like obligating gun manufacturers to invent alchemy to sell new gun designs. The law was written so that the tech had to unencumbered by patent restrictions (meaning available to all manufacturers at no cost), and as attorney general, Harris unilaterally declared this hurdle had been cleared, which, 10 years on, it still manifestly has not been. So for the last decade no new handgun designs have been available for consumer purchase in CA (outside of a very few, exceedingly rare exceptions). If any changes are made to the serialized parts of an older design that had been grandfathered in, it falls off the Roster of Handguns Certified For Sale.

[count2infinity]

[tifosi77]

So this Harris chick checks a lot of boxes, right? Woman. Minority. From the bluest of blue states. Cool. I get that. Politics is a game and you gotta play it. My question is - is she capable? Like, if the dream VP candidate is a 10 out of 10, what is being sacrificed to get all these boxes checked? Is she a 9.5 out of 10? A 2 out of 10?

She's been a focal point a Dem politics for 15 years. She has won 3 statewide elections in CA (2 by enormous margins), and ran the CA DOJ, which is a beauracracy with a $1 billion budget and thousands of employees. She had also been the only remotely effective questioner in her carrots committee hearings.

Does that qualify her to be President? Not sure. But I still stand by the notion The next 4 years are intended to be on-the-job training, so that by 2024 this question will be moot.

[tifosi77]

it feels like in my lifetime, VPs are always a punchline. I was too young to remember him but Quayle seems to be laughable. I don’t know how he was In office but Gore eventually became a joke. Cheney was a joke. Biden was mostly a joke while VP. Pence is a joke

when was the last time we had a legitimately great VP? Jefferson?

Cheney was probably one of the most powerful VPs ever.

He was probably the most powerful man in government for the first 6 years of the Bush administration. Biden was extremely effective because if his legislative experience, and also in regards to diplomacy.

Pence is a bag of gas. Gore was.... there. Same with Quayle. GHWB was decent. Beyond that, in my lifetime they were either forgettable or criminal.

[meow]

So this Harris chick checks a lot of boxes, right? Woman. Minority. From the bluest of blue states. Cool. I get that. Politics is a game and you gotta play it. My question is - is she capable? Like, if the dream VP candidate is a 10 out of 10, what is being sacrificed to get all these boxes checked? Is she a 9.5 out of 10? A 2 out of 10?

She's been a focal point a Dem politics for 15 years. She has won 3 statewide elections in CA (2 by enormous margins), and ran the CA DOJ, which is a beauracracy with a $1 billion budget and thousands of employees. She had also been the only remotely effective questioner in her carrots committee hearings.

Does that qualify her to be President? Not sure. But I still stand by the notion The next 4 years are intended to be on-the-job training, so that by 2024 this question will be moot.

That is a lucid, well thought-out, intelligent response

Thank you

[Shyster]

"Dey want our guns!" has been a cry against every democrat I can remember. One day it may actually be true.

https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/

Get weapons of war off our streets. The bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that Biden, along with Senator Feinstein, secured in 1994 reduced the lethality of mass shootings. But, in order to secure the passage of the bans, they had to agree to a 10-year sunset provision and when the time came, the Bush Administration failed to extend them. As president, Biden will:

Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Federal law prevents hunters from hunting migratory game birds with more than three shells in their shotgun. That means our federal law does more to protect ducks than children. It’s wrong. Joe Biden will enact legislation to once again ban assault weapons. This time, the bans will be designed based on lessons learned from the 1994 bans. For example, the ban on assault weapons will be designed to prevent manufacturers from circumventing the law by making minor changes that don’t limit the weapon’s lethality. While working to pass this legislation, Biden will also use his executive authority to ban the importation of assault weapons.

Regulate possession of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act. Currently, the National Firearms Act requires individuals possessing machine-guns, silencers, and short-barreled rifles to undergo a background check and register those weapons with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Due to these requirements, such weapons are rarely used in crimes. As president, Biden will pursue legislation to regulate possession of existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act.

Buy back the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines already in our communities. Biden will also institute a program to buy back weapons of war currently on our streets. This will give individuals who now possess assault weapons or high-capacity magazines two options: sell the weapons to the government, or register them under the National Firearms Act.

"Democrats aren't coming for your guns" is pure gaslighting.

[Kane]

I feel like I will regret this; but so what? Why does Joe Schmoe need an assault weapon.

[count2infinity]

I feel like I will regret this; but so what? Why does Joe Schmoe need an assault weapon.

2nd amendment brah...

[tifosi77]

when was the last time we had a legitimately great VP? Jefferson?

Is this a joke, too?

Jefferson was such a horrifically bad VP (in terms of fit with Adams) that they changed how VPs are selected because of it.

To me this is more reflective of how flawed the original construct was rather than any defect with TJ or his relationship with President John Adams (good luck).

It is crazy that the guy who comes in second gets to be Vice-president.

[nocera]

Oh my bad we're talking about assault weapons. I'd hate for America to lose its spot near top of the mass shootings chart. Carry on.

[tifosi77]

"carrots committee hearings"

I hate posting from my phone......

[dodint]

when was the last time we had a legitimately great VP? Jefferson?

Is this a joke, too?

Jefferson was such a horrifically bad VP (in terms of fit with Adams) that they changed how VPs are selected because of it.

To me this is more reflective of how flawed the original construct was rather than any defect with TJ or his relationship with President John Adams (good luck).

It is crazy that the guy who comes in second gets to be Vice-president.

Right. But I think flagging Jefferson as 'a legitimately great VP' washes over this entire era of American history.

But MiMH did reply that he had no idea, so I wasn't going to kick him while he was down, tif. Rude of you to do so.

[tifosi77]

I am not a 2A truther, but the fact of the matter is it is a constitutional right. And I'd like to know what other constitutional rights we talk about encumbering so glibly and with such absolutism.

I've said this a thousand times itt, but the legal acquisition of firearms contributes such a tiny fraction to the commission of gun crimes that the FBI doesn't even track it as a data point in the annual Uniform Crime Report. Dicking around with legal purchasing is absolutely the wrong tree to climb in addressing the problem (which I do recognize is pretty unique to the US).

[tifosi77]

when was the last time we had a legitimately great VP? Jefferson?

Is this a joke, too?

Jefferson was such a horrifically bad VP (in terms of fit with Adams) that they changed how VPs are selected because of it.

To me this is more reflective of how flawed the original construct was rather than any defect with TJ or his relationship with President John Adams (good luck).

It is crazy that the guy who comes in second gets to be Vice-president.

Right. But I think flagging Jefferson as 'a legitimately great VP' washes over this entire era of American history.

But MiMH did reply that he had no idea, so I wasn't going to kick him while he was down, tif. Rude of you to do so.

Look, I'm just trying to keep pace with eddy and mikey with the Hamilton references. It's largely reflexive at this point.

[Kaiser]

"carrots committee hearings"

I hate posting from my phone......

I just assumed it was a cali thing she was known for.

[Shyster]

My understanding of the reason the USPS was losing money in the first place was that the volume of first-class mail was way down. So why would an increased volume of first-class mail overwhelm the system?