The Race For 2024

[southernhybrid]

N.C. Trump <1
Wis. Harris <1
Mich. Harris <1
Nev. Harris <1
Pa. Harris <1
Ga. Trump +2
Ariz. Trump +2
Minn. Harris +6
Texas Trump +6

According to the NYTimes, those are the latest polling results. Not that I take polls all that seriously, but I have a terrible feeling that the psychopathic, narcissistic, demented menace is going to win, and the Senate will flip to the Republicans. The House is up for grabs, based on my extensive, news junkie reading.

And, if Harris does pull this out, nothing will get done because it's highly unlikely the Dems will control Congress. We are fucked!

 

[Elixir]

I have a terrible feeling that the psychopathic, narcissistic, demented menace is going to win, and the Senate will flip to the Republicans.

I’ve had that feeling for several weeks now.
If Dems retain the House under such circumstances, we can look forward to SCOTUS stripping the house’s control over the purse strings and granting it to the Executive branch.

 

[Elixir]

It’s the immoveability of trumpsuckers that is so frustrating. They’re apparently eager to go broke and die in a third world shithole, just to pwn the libs.

 

[Swammerdami]

I still like Bill Maher. Here are two excerpts from his recent show with David Hogg, Mark Cuban, Joe Scarborough. The first 80 seconds are about drug pricing, but the rest is about the election. AND the way that young men have been shamed about their masculinity, inducing them to vote for Trump.

 

[ZiprHead]

dopey adjective (STUPID, DUMB)

silly, dumb or stupid: He's nice, but a bit dopey.

I never said dumb. Read what I wrote fella.

 

[Shadowy Man]

You didn’t say Harris is dumb, you just said she is stupid. Gotcha!

Nope, wrong again. I never said she was stupid. Read what I wrote fella.

You said “dopey”. I asked what you think it means. You said look it up. I did and it means “stupid”.

Now you’re acting all smug about some trivial semantic point you think you scored.

Whatevs, as you say.

I did not say Harris is dumb or stupid.

I agree. That’s what “trivial semantic point” refers to. You can look those words up if you’re unsure of their meanings.

 

[ZiprHead]

I feel like that well known saying “at clutching straws” is appropriate here

That'd require an actual argument though. Feels more like the Argument Clinic sketch.

We didn't sign up for abuse.

 

[Elixir]

If I said Swiz lacks two neurons and a spirochete to tie them together, would that mean I was saying he’s d**b?

 

[TSwizzle]

You didn’t say Harris is dumb, you just said she is stupid. Gotcha!

Nope, wrong again. I never said she was stupid. Read what I wrote fella.

You said “dopey”. I asked what you think it means. You said look it up. I did and it means “stupid”.

Now you’re acting all smug about some trivial semantic point you think you scored.

Whatevs, as you say.

I did not say Harris is dumb or stupid.

I agree. {snip}

Excellent. We are done here, no more to be said.

 

[Elixir]

We are done here, no more to be said.

Ah, but you didn’t say we were finished, so I want to further pursue the meaning of “dopey” and its relationship to “dumb”.

 

[Shadowy Man]

You didn’t say Harris is dumb, you just said she is stupid. Gotcha!

Nope, wrong again. I never said she was stupid. Read what I wrote fella.

You said “dopey”. I asked what you think it means. You said look it up. I did and it means “stupid”.

Now you’re acting all smug about some trivial semantic point you think you scored.

Whatevs, as you say.

I did not say Harris is dumb or stupid.

I agree. {snip}

Excellent. We are done here, no more to be said.

I agree. You have no more worth listening to.

 

[Toni]

But it is slavery: they have no choice, cannot leave or quit. They get paid a pittance as did some enslaved people prior to 1865, along with room and board.

By that logic you could argue that imprisonment itself is "slavery". And that's what I think the end goal of these initiatives is - decarceration and prison abolition.

I have already given you my more nuanced opinion. Yes, prisoners should be paid more than they are, but at the same time prisoners are very costly to the taxpayers so it is understandable that their hourly pay is not as high as somebody on the outside doing the same work.
And no prisoner should be forced to do "outside" work like making license plater or fighting wildfires. However, working on things for prisoners: kitchen, infirmary, library, laundry is very different. Expecting prisoners to pitch in for their own services is no more "slavery" than expecting children to help out with chores is "child labor".

It’s the lack of choice and the lack or remuneration that makes it very very akin to slavery. Add in the for profit prisons and it is very much slave labor. Conditions in most US prisons are quite harsh and there is an ongoing lack of basic services and absolute thievery when it comes to costs for inmates to make phone calls to loved ones.

The thing that I believe we must all consider when we think about what we want our prisons to be like is if we intend to incarcerate for life anyone who enters the prison system. I would guess that most of us think that most prisoners should be released after their non-life long sentence. So: How are those former convicts supposed to earn a living? How are they supposed to show that they are reformed if they can't get jobs, find places to live that are not around other criminals (usually a condition for parole or release from prison)? How are they supposed to function? This is true of ALL prisoners but particularly true for those who were sent to prison when they were very young.

If we have people incarcerated and imprisoned against their will for a term we decide suits us, then we have an absolute obligation to do our best to ensure their safety and their health and to ensure that they have a genuine decent shot at a decent life outside of criminal activity upon their release. It starts by treating them fairly and humanely, providing job training, necessary health (mental and physical) and addiction services, and treating them decently, something that sometimes these prisoners have never ever experienced in their lives.

If we want people to live decent lives, then we need to show them how and equip them with the necessities of making their way in the world decently: education and job training, for starters. Abusing them physically, emotionally, and economically doesn't just punish them, it teaches them that everyone, including the government is the same: just criminals who are trying to get ahead.

 

[TSwizzle]

You didn’t say Harris is dumb, you just said she is stupid. Gotcha!

Nope, wrong again. I never said she was stupid. Read what I wrote fella.

You said “dopey”. I asked what you think it means. You said look it up. I did and it means “stupid”.

Now you’re acting all smug about some trivial semantic point you think you scored.

Whatevs, as you say.

I did not say Harris is dumb or stupid.

I agree. {snip}

Excellent. We are done here, no more to be said.

I agree. You have no more worth listening to.

Oops, my mistake, I forgot how important having the last word is to you.

 

[bilby]

You didn’t say Harris is dumb, you just said she is stupid. Gotcha!

Nope, wrong again. I never said she was stupid. Read what I wrote fella.

You said “dopey”. I asked what you think it means. You said look it up. I did and it means “stupid”.

Now you’re acting all smug about some trivial semantic point you think you scored.

Whatevs, as you say.

I did not say Harris is dumb or stupid.

I agree. {snip}

Excellent. We are done here, no more to be said.

I agree. You have no more worth listening to.

Oops, my mistake, I forgot how important having the last word is to you.

Irony (n):

Kinda like steel

 

[bilby]

Well, the race for 2024 is over, and once again Andrew Barr and his Labor Party are victorious, with their win extending 24 years of Labor government out to an astonishing 26.

Yeah, I didn't even know the Australian Capital Territory was having an election until I saw the result being reported by the ABC. Perhaps we can ask the USA to take a similarly subdued approach to her Presidential elections?