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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#159201: Nov 28th 2016 at 10:49:51 PM

Doesn't Hawaii currently also have a supermajority of Democrats? As in entirely Democrats?

Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#159202: Nov 28th 2016 at 10:55:08 PM

[up][up][up]And it was decided by the Orange County race too.

It's always nice to know that my vote matters.

edited 28th Nov '16 10:55:47 PM by Eschaton

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#159203: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:01:11 PM

Go California. At least something positive came out of this miserable excuse for an election.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#159204: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:05:06 PM

Hawaii has had Democratic supermajorities in its legislature for a long time. To the point that the Republican party was for a time - or still is - reduced to one seat in the state senate.

Given that Hawaii is ethnically very different from the rest of the US (large majority Asian if memory serves), I suspect that Republican race politics just can't hook enough people there.

California has had Democratic majorities for decades in its legislature. But they only recently - 2012-2014 - had a supermajority there.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#159205: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:08:19 PM

I look forward to The Bear Flag Republic slowly taking over the US once the whole thing fragments into little weak countries.

We are the Land of the Setting Sun. Muahahaha!

edited 28th Nov '16 11:13:43 PM by MadSkillz

Ikiniks nor there from neither here Since: Jan, 2012
nor there
#159206: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:14:35 PM

Something needing to be discarded for not having factual basis is an opinion, not a fact. And something being important just because it's a fact is also an opinion, not a fact. Again, don't dismiss the role emotion plays in anything; the reason anyone does anything —like say, caring for other people in general— is because people feel things on some level, whether ethical, emotional, or both. If they think either is a fact, then that's what they think, and they will act on it.

Part of the reason many people supported The Moldy Tangerine —likely including some of the electors who voted for him— is because they perceive that another Democrat-run executive branch will only throw them further under the bus. It's one thing to say that their livelihoods are dying, but it's another to do so and just leave it at that. And I know it isn't just being left at that. But the solutions aren't appealing to them, because they haven't been convinced that they're the right ones, not emotionally, and not morally.

I do care about facts on some level. But the reality is that politics —and the progression of human history— is never just about facts. It never was and has been just about the facts. Facts are things that people work with, around, through, and even against, because it was thought of as right and/or because it felt good. If you want people to listen, then you've got to tell them your view in the ways that make them see it as being right in all the ways that aren't just factual. You have to make them think that your way is worth it. If we can't do that, then nothing will happen in our favor, maybe not even by outliving others.

On a last note, please don't turn into left-wing stereotypes like how many prominent republicans turned into right wing stereotypes. That will only worsen the divide and the conflict.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to be a stereotypical centrist extremist.

edited 28th Nov '16 11:17:51 PM by Ikiniks

but maybe somewhere
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#159207: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:26:38 PM

And in slightly good news, the pro-Trump asshole who loudly proclaimed "We got some Hillary bitches on here?" on a November 22nd Delta flight from Atlanta to Allentown has been banned from flying Delta for life and all other passengers on that flight have been given refunds.

edited 28th Nov '16 11:27:12 PM by tclittle

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#159208: Nov 28th 2016 at 11:38:30 PM
Thumped: This post was thumped by the Stick of Off-Topic Thumping. Stay on topic, please.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#159209: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:05:01 AM

Don't Think, Feel really shouldn't be how people vote. But it is. sad

Disgusted, but not surprised
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#159210: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:06:16 AM

The president-elect also is preparing to announce his pick for Treasury secretary as early as the end of the week, a person close to the transition team said Monday, and deliberations are turning to candidates to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Finalists for the Treasury job include Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), who heads the House Financial Services Committee; Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker and prominent Trump campaign supporter; and John A. Allison IV, who built one of the largest regional banks, BB&T, a transition official said.

The swamp just got 10 feet deeper.

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#159211: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:08:41 AM

How are his followers taking this? Or do they not actually care/don't believe it?

Oh really when?
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#159212: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:11:07 AM

[up] Pretty sure it's the latter. tongue

Disgusted, but not surprised
HallowHawk Since: Feb, 2013
#159213: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:19:21 AM

@ Alley Oop

As awful as Pence would be for the LGBT community, Supreme Court rulings mean he can't at least revoke same sex marriages or ban abortions completely. So some legal limit exists as to how far he can act to curb LGBT rights.

First if all, wouldn't the Supreme Court be dominated by Pence and his cronies? Second, if not, will they agree to curb Ne Neutrality too?

@ MadSkillz

If it will be the last bastion of freedom, they'll need foreign volunteers to organize a militia unit.

Gilphon (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#159214: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:29:51 AM

Not dominated. There's one open spot at the moment. 1 or 2 other spots may open up relatively soon. The other six are not in play at all.

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#159215: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:37:08 AM

The former screenwriting partner of Donald Trump’s senior aide Steve Bannon said that he once mused that it might be beneficial to restrict African Americans’ voting access.

Writer Julia Jones told the New York Times in an interview that Bannon, who was recently named as Trump’s chief White House strategist, would occasionally claim that some people were genetically superior and once suggested that the vote should be limited to property owners.

Jones said she told Bannon that such a policy would “exclude a lot of African-Americans.”

According to Jones, Bannon replied, “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”Jones asked specifically

about his longtime executive assistant Wendy Colbert, who is black.

"She’s different. She’s family,” Jones said he replied.

...

Jones, who described herself to the Times as very liberal, insisted that Bannon was “not a racist” but instead “using the alt-right—using them for power.”

Bannon's not racist. He just doesn't want black people to vote, guys.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#159216: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:45:41 AM

Bannon's a damn Nazi. Except the Nazis had better fashion sense thanks to Hugo Boss. Bannon's a slob.

Disgusted, but not surprised
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#159218: Nov 29th 2016 at 12:47:46 AM

I'm not even remotely surprised that he would suggest reducing suffrage to property-owners.

It dovetails right into what we were talking before about the "American Dream" and the implications of those who can/can't succeed. Here, non-property owners would be considered not "responsible" enough to have a say in government.

I'm sure it would also be easily excused by that whole "founder's original intentions" nonsense (vs. the 20th and 26th amendments).

edited 29th Nov '16 12:53:29 AM by Eschaton

MonsieurThenardier Searching from Murika Since: Nov, 2016 Relationship Status: Getting away with murder
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#159221: Nov 29th 2016 at 1:11:17 AM

Not...normal. None of this is normal.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Ikiniks nor there from neither here Since: Jan, 2012
nor there
#159222: Nov 29th 2016 at 1:38:58 AM

Normality was and is a falsehood. We can move on when people stop buying into it.

but maybe somewhere
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#159223: Nov 29th 2016 at 1:39:24 AM

Alright then, this is not acceptable. None of this is acceptable.

It's been fun.
JulianLapostat Since: Feb, 2014
#159224: Nov 29th 2016 at 1:42:32 AM

You know I am reminded of this quote by J. Arch Getty

In fact, authoritative modern constitutions are rare in the world. Rather than measure societies by this standard, or expect them to evolve or live up to them, we might better reflect on their rarity. Political clans, weak institutions, and personalized politics dominate almost everywhere. Even today, most of the world lacks strong, independent institutions. Most societies are still ruled by persons and patrons more than laws. Indeed, what we take for modernized society, with its representative governments and powerful institutions, began within a few hundred miles either side of the English Channel and exists in the world today mainly there or as transplants from there.
J. Arch Getty, Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars and the Persistence of Tradition, Page 289

I wonder based on that reality if having a Manichean attitude to dictatorship is healthy. Because it's a fact that people in real-life do not have that. I mean Singapore's Lee Kuan-Yew is a dictator and he's praised by Obama openly and praised by the likes of both liberal elites like Fareed Zakaria and authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, and that old scoundrel Henry Kissinger. I mean seriously, he ran Singapore like a Competent Trump (he had a habit of suing his opponents and shutting down and buying up newspapers) and yet when he died he's made into a hero. The same applies to that Saudi royal who died recently and got fawning comments by the Western allies. This despite the fact that it's a feudal theocracy that makes Iran look like a John Stuart Mill paradise.

Fidel Castro is a heroic figure in Africa, and was best friends with Nelson Mandela...he is considered one of the figures who played a part in curtailing the power of the Apartheid government (which was backed by USA). Obviously none of this excuses the other stuff he did, the crackdown on homosexuals in Cuba and the political prisoners. As a guy into tiers-mondisme/anti-racism and other issues, my feelings about Castro overall is close to that line in Touch of Evil: "He was some kind of man, What does it matter what you say about people?"

And historically some dictators are considered positively, Oliver Cromwell has a statue outside Parliament and then you have Napoleon, who was a hero to European Jews he brought out of the ghetto (like Heinrich Heine) but was weirdly made into a Hitler-analogue in wartime propaganda (forgetting that it was The Duke of Wellington who as PM denied, repeatedly, giving Jews the vote. and his descendant was a Nazi-enthusiast). And of course these days in some quarters, Julius Caesar is being reclaimed as a man of the Left.

So I am just thinking why have this attitude that a dictatorship is the worst thing in the world...its a terrible thing of course for a Democratic Society to have its institutions wither like that but ultimately there are some dictatorships which people will support and accommodate more than others. It happens today, everyday and it has happened in history. Hating Castro because he's a dictator and supporting other tyrants is not based on belief in democracy, it has everything to do with "our tyrant" and policies we approve of.

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#159225: Nov 29th 2016 at 2:02:02 AM
Thumped: This post was thumped by the Stick of Off-Topic Thumping. Stay on topic, please.

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