Political hot takes

[mimekiller]

WITH THE SIMPLE SWIPE OF A PEN GAVIN NEWSOME HAS SNATCHED A HOUR OF MY LIFE AWAY LIKE IT"S NOTHING. I WILL HATE THIS WELL GROOMED SHARK TOOTHED EMPTY SUIT TILL I DIE

https://www.wga.com/blog/ca-governor-si ... quirements

[poorpete]

If Bolton always gives bad advice and Trump never listens to Bolton, Trump should have kept Bolton.

[Phoebe]

[mimekiller]

[Phoebe]

Not if it means Steven Miller is setting the nation's domestic policy, because I'm not sure that's an improvement over Trump making some flails in that vicinity. God help us with respect to foreign policy and defending the nation. No idea who's in charge, and just hoping the military continues to function even when decision-making is haywire.

[mimekiller]

I mean BOLTON tho is legit a direct threat to the tens of thousands of brown people he would happily murk. So at the end of the day I'm glad he's gone.

[Phoebe]

Last night's D debate should have been the first (or not even the first yet). Yes, they needed to have people out there getting name recognition, doing things in the public view, but not like this. I wasn't able to watch and this is the first one I felt like, well, at least the primary election is 4 months away for those first few places, so...

Also can't believe in my lifetime we are still on this exaggerated influence of a handful of states in picking the nominee.

[poorpete]

Dunno if I've said this here, but I think the best way (or at-least a better way) for the primaries to be scheduled is by how close a state got to the national percentage of the winning candidate the previous election.




The winner in 2016 got a national vote of 46.1% and the closest to that percentage for the winner was 46.6%. So in 2020, based on this, the first state to have a primary would be... New Hampshire. But moving forward, it would actually reward bellweather states and not just claim it's so.

Plus... Utah, which would usually go near-last because they tend to go deep-red, would go second in 2020 because of their protest votes in 2016. So in 2020 a Dem would have to win over more conservative voters and Trump would have to win-over its most weary-of-him red state.

[Tahlvin]

I like that idea, but I might modify it to somehow weight it by the number of the state's electoral college votes. A state with a high number of EC votes that was close to the average should have priority over a state with very few EC votes that was close to the average.

And yes, complain all you want about the electoral college and whether it should even exist or be used, but as of right now, it is what matters.

[poorpete]

3 of the 5 living presidents were born in 1946. The other two are Carter and Obama, aka the good ones.

(I think this is a humorous coincidence and not some anti-boomer shit)

[poorpete]

News reports say Pence didn't know.
For those interested in an orderly transfer of power, this is good news. Good news for everyone but Trump. I'm happy he didn't know....




Who's kidding who. Pence totally knew.

[poorpete]

Glad Bernie is on the mend. He's not in my top 5 candidates but he's important to have in the conversation.

Hot take: his fans will want him back quick to prove he's super human, but he's also super smart so he will listen to his doctors instead. Taking his time will be a good sign of a good president.

[poorpete]

[poorpete]

Is there any movement more honest and unswayed by but-they-are-allies than the Me Too movement?

Former NYS attorney general Eric Schneiderman and senator Al Franken taken down and the movement continues fine.*

Wish the drain-the-swampers would feel the same about the biggest swamp monsters in DC.

*Though I guess you could claim that they were ok because they knew an ally would take over their spots, but drain-the-swampers are in that same position.

[Phoebe]

Okay, I finally have a good one for ya:
I prefer Kavanaugh to Gorsuch. I don't know how to express that preference quantifiably or in behaviors, but it exists.

[Mike]

Listen to the Strict Scrutiny podcast.

Four women. All lawyers. Some are current law professors. Three have clerked for supreme court justices. They are law nerds and they talk over my head sometimes, but they try to break down the concepts and make it accessible. And their podcast is entirely about the Supreme Court, its justices, its politics, its docket, its decisions, its culture.

There's only about five episodes out so far, so it's easy to get caught up. I'm hypnotized by it.

And to your point, they put into words some instances that might very well make a decent feminist liberal prefer Kavanaugh to Gorsuch. Definitely the lesser of the evils, IMO.

[Phoebe]

Thank you, I definitely will check this out! It also matters to me that - whatever his motive may be - he came in off the blocks and hired 100% women clerks, and people like RBG expressed a certain degree of approval (whereas e.g. Sotomayor's affirmation of the need to work together was fairly impersonal and professional).

[poorpete]

Hot take: After decades of watching every word, Hillary now doesn't give a shit, which she has every right to, I don't think she's crazy, but obviously people are going to view her differently.

[poorpete]

Hot Take: every person in the national political sphere is regularly told by fans they should run for president. Hillary is just bragging calm down.

[Phoebe]

The country would have been better off with Romney and a Democrat-controlled Congress from 2012-2016.