Politics And Current Events

[CBear3]

Democrats should have canceled the primary.

Supreme Court seat is up for vote.

[Freddy Rumsen]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/0 ... nel-171943

Shameless.

So much for checks and balances. Fewer checks and no balances apparently.

So where does it go from here? They just pick and choose who gets the money and no oversight?

If you read the story there is still an inspector general, just it's the guy from EPA.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Democrats should have canceled the primary.

Wisconsin Democrats wanted to extend absentee voting and even postpone the election altogether, but Republicans successfully blocked both in court. As a result, Democratic turnout is likely to be depressed because of the virus and the deadlines for absentee voting. A crucial seat on the State Supreme Court is on the ballot.

That still doesn't have anything to do with cancelling the primary. There is no reason the DNC should hold one.

The Supreme Court ruled as it did per the law that was in place. The major problem is that hundreds of local elections were scheduled for Tuesday, that could not be moved because not having the election meant a lag in people being in office. It is a quirk that wasn't present for instance in Ohio where the GOP governor successfully postponed everything.

[AuthorTony]

Oh, I agree it should have been canceled. All primaries on all levels should be until this is over.

[faftorial]

There's no reason to have a primary at all at this point. The party should have canceled it, since they are party run.

Biden is the presumptive nominee and it's not like they are going to be able to have the convention in its present form any way.

Governor canceled it and GOP sued and had it un-canceled .

[faftorial]

Oh, I agree it should have been canceled. All primaries on all levels should be until this is over.

Or they need to get mail in ballots to everyone in case it returns in the Fall.

[Morkle]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/0 ... nel-171943

Shameless.

So much for checks and balances. Fewer checks and no balances apparently.

So where does it go from here? They just pick and choose who gets the money and no oversight?

If you read the story there is still an inspector general, just it's the guy from EPA.

Yea, I got that. I just thought the overall issue here was that these where to be independent?

I didn’t know/think Trump could appoint anyone and it was committee selected. Maybe I’m just missing something.

[grunthy]

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have been buying hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that Trump has been pushing as a COVID-19 cure despite a lack of evidence for its efficacy.

"It appears to be the first time that the BOP has purchased the drug," reports The Daily Beast's Lachlan Markay. He points out "the use of taxpayer money on hydroxychloroquine by the two agencies came in spite of a heated debate among policymakers and medical professionals about the drug's effectiveness in treating the virus, and the possibility that a sudden surge in demand for the drug could diminish the supply for those who use it to treat other ailments such as malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis."

In the midst of this, rumors about Trump's alleged financial stake in hydroxychloroquine have started swirling, with help from Ian Sams, Kamala Harris's former communications director. "Trump himself has a financial stake in the French company that makes the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine," Sams tweeted last night, citing The New York Times as his source.

The Times article stated that "Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in [drug maker] Sanofi," which sells hydroxychloroquine under the brand name Plaquenil.

Both the Times and Sam use vague language and omit specifics, making the matter sound potentially nefarious. It turns out that one of the many mutual funds that the president's family trusts invests in holds significant stock from Sanofi.

"The suggestion that this is significant is a huge stretch," tweeted lawyer and vocal Trump critic George Conway, husband of Kellyanne Conway, a Trump adviser.

Mutual funds consist of diverse securities packaged together and managed by a fund adviser; it's not as if Trump owns stock in Sanofi directly. What's more, Sanofi makes a lot of different drugs, and its patent on Plaquenil has run out. That means hydroxychloroquine is hardly a big money-maker for the company, and there are abundant other sources where one can get versions of the same drug.

https://reason.com/2020/04/07/trump-was ... trillions/

I love how the narrative is slowly changing. First he is pushing unproven drugs and killing people, then we’ll here are some small studies that show it isn’t anything and studies that show promise a too small. Now, well... if it does work Trump is going to profit off of it.

[faftorial]

I only saw one person here saying he was looking to profit on it so give it a rest or call out that person.

[tifosi77]

I wish the "influencer" shtick would go away.

I don't even understand how social media celebrities became a thing, much less how most of them make a (really good) living off of it.

Most of the ones trying to be 'influencers' only have a few thousand subs. Some get into six figures. Chances are, the only ones you've ever heard of (outside of niche personal interests) are holders of the Platinum Plaque with over 1 million subscribers, of which there are only a couple thousand, total, across the platform. When a channel gets monetized at that level, the owner is only drawing a modest five-figure income from the ad revenue share. There are thresholds that must be met to qualify for Google Adsense (which are substantially lower than Platinum Plaque), but the real key to driving revenue is finding a sponsor for the channel, or video-specific advertising. And that's a function of getting eyes on your channel.

When you get to that level of eyes on your #content, you're talking about viewership that rivals or surpasses most weeknight talk shows, which is how Sean Evans is able to get Justin Timberlake to go through the hot sauce gauntlet on Hot Ones. PewDiePie - f**king PewDiePie - has 122 million subscribers.

[faftorial]

I am blissfully unaware of those people.

[tifosi77]

There's no reason to have a primary at all at this point. The party should have canceled it, since they are party run.

Biden is the presumptive nominee and it's not like they are going to be able to have the convention in its present form any way.

You are aware that there are other offices/elections on this ballot, right?

Edit: I see you are aware. So this is just a silly post.

[Freddy Rumsen]

There's no reason to have a primary at all at this point. The party should have canceled it, since they are party run.

Biden is the presumptive nominee and it's not like they are going to be able to have the convention in its present form any way.

You are aware that there are other offices/elections on this ballot, right?

Edit: I see you are aware. So this is just a silly post.

Not having the primary could have prevented a lot of the extra headaches.

[faftorial]

Tuesday’s mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the state’s largest newspaper — which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker — called “the most undemocratic in the state’s history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/p ... icans.html

[Troy Loney]

And rubber stamped by the supreme court.

Moving towards one party rule at an increasing pace.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Tuesday’s mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the state’s largest newspaper — which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker — called “the most undemocratic in the state’s history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/p ... icans.html

That sounds like an article written objectively.

(The governor is a Democrat, the only party not named in the quote)

[Kaiser]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/0 ... nel-171943

Shameless.

So much for checks and balances. Fewer checks and no balances apparently.

So where does it go from here? They just pick and choose who gets the money and no oversight?

Yes. And if you think the effing Trump appointee is going to be lawful about it, you're unreachable at this point. It's the same thing NAN eyerolled me about the other day, and lookee here.

[faftorial]

Tuesday’s mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the state’s largest newspaper — which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker — called “the most undemocratic in the state’s history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/p ... icans.html

That sounds like an article written objectively.

(The governor is a Democrat, the only party not named in the quote)

[NAN]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/0 ... nel-171943

Shameless.

So much for checks and balances. Fewer checks and no balances apparently.

So where does it go from here? They just pick and choose who gets the money and no oversight?

Yes. And if you think the effing Trump appointee is going to be lawful about it, you're unreachable at this point. It's the same thing NAN eyerolled me about the other day, and lookee here.

I'm still going to eyeroll you.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Took care of that mess.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Tuesday’s mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the state’s largest newspaper — which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker — called “the most undemocratic in the state’s history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/p ... icans.html

That sounds like an article written objectively.

(The governor is a Democrat, the only party not named in the quote)

[faftorial]

Tuesday’s mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the state’s largest newspaper — which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker — called “the most undemocratic in the state’s history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/us/p ... icans.html

That sounds like an article written objectively.

(The governor is a Democrat, the only party not named in the quote)

You said they didn't mention the party of the governor.

[Freddy Rumsen]

It was a poor attempt at a joke on my part.

Conservatives always complain about Dems getting their party affiliation left out of stories.

[tifosi77]

Took care of that mess.

Guy flew 8,000 miles across the globe to deliver the message in person. It will be interesting to see the reenlistment rates among TR's crew when this shakes out.

[Morkle]

"Let me be clear, I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think, and always believed him to be the opposite," Modly said in his statement. "We pick our carrier commanding officers with great care. Captain Crozier is smart and passionate. I believe, precisely because he is not naive and stupid, that he sent his alarming email with the intention of getting it into the public domain in an effort to draw public attention to the situation on his ship. I apologize for any confusion this choice of words may have caused."

Modly's apology firmly puts himself in the too naive or stupid segment.