So... CNN was talking about the Libertarian Town Hall this morning, praising it over how it didn't devolve into a name calling contest. That's how crazy this election has become: CNN is actually talking about the Libertarians and taking them seriously. 8 years ago, that would have been a gag soundclip, not an actual segment.
Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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Apparently Mitt Romney is making noise about possibly supporting Johnson/Weld. So, there's that. I also found it interesting that Johnson revealed that the candidate he identifies most with (besides himself, obviously) on IStandWith.com is Bernie. If he can attract enough of the #NeverHillary and #NeverTrump crowds, who knows?
Not on social issues.
And it comes down to what are you willing to comporomise on. Because if you're not getting the exact candidate you want, you're going to have to compromise. And not all of Johnson's platform would ever come to pass in full, especially the more "libertarian" of his economic policies. But his social policies are very realistc. Ending unconstitutional government surveillance of citizens. Ending the failed War on Drugs. Supporting LGBT rights. Supporting reproductive rights. Fixing immigration policies without demonizing illegal immigrants. Stepping back from being the world's policeman and not getting involved in endless wars.
For a Bernie supporter, is Clinton really a better choice?
It's going to be an interesting election... the identity politics/social issues Democrats and the expanded government/One World Democrats have not had to duke it out hard in a long time. Would the identity/social issue Dems jump ship if they thought they could get a better deal with Johnson? If so, what does that say about the liberal movement as a whole? More to the point, what right would anyone have to complain about some groups acting in their self interest at the expense of the election?
Dave
Staff member
Better than Trump, and a vote for Johnson is essentially wasted. I'm VERY anti-Hillary, but I'm even more vociferously against Trump.
A Trump/Bernie/Johnson/Clinton/Someone Green/Someone Republican election would be much more interesting. The French two-round system would be more effective at getting a leader most people agree with and be far more democratic.
GasBandit
Staff member
But that might break the 2-party deadlock, and they can't have that.
And this is why we need Instant Runoff voting. So you could write in Bernie as your first choice, and send a message that he best represents how you want to be governed, and you could put Hillary or Gary Johnson or Jill Stein in some order for second, third, and fourth choices. So you'd still have the Hillary vote if things don't turn out for Bernie or the third party candidates. With this system, people wouldn't have to fear voting for who they actually want if the opposing candidate is a fucking scary asshole.
Dave
Staff member
My only problem with this - the ONLY problem - is that our elections need to be run by people with no ties to either of the main parties. You think there's election fraud now, just wait until they get their hands on that! "Of COURSE everyone put Trump as their second choice! The computer right here says that!"
So the republicans who run the voting computer companies can steal the WHOLE election, not just certain states.
So the republicans who run the voting computer companies can steal the WHOLE election, not just certain states.
This should be a basic requirement before a country gets to call itself a functioning democracy.
Dave
Staff member
In the US the polls are manned by people from the major parties. Additionally, the computers that are used when electronic voting is done? Yeah, they are run by a republican company. And they are able to be hacked very easily and the results altered.
GasBandit
Staff member
The Supreme Court deadlocked at 4-4, thus letting stand the decision of a lower appellate court to block Obama's unconstitutional overreach of executive power to shield over 5 million illegals from deportation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ea5f1e-3950-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html
It's a reaffirmation that the president is not a despot, and cannot simply circumvent congress/laws he does not like by use of executive order/prosecutorial discretion. Bad president. No dictatorship. Not yours.
The fact that 4 judges (and you can probably guess which 4) wanted to rule in favor of the Obama powergrab is a sad and urgent reminder of how politicized the supreme court is, and how our unelected robed masters are more concerned with advancing their political ideologies than upholding the law.[DOUBLEPOST=1466714558,1466714100][/DOUBLEPOST]The Baltimore police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray died has been found not guilty of all charges.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/us/baltimore-goodson-verdict-freddie-gray/
This is the third police officer (out of 6 arrested) to be acquitted of all counts, and the one with the most dire charges of any of the six. This verdict throws stark light on the overprosecutorial zeal of Marilyn Mosby, and the willingness of her and her prosecutors to swing for the fences despite not having evidence to back their narratives. It makes it far more likely that the remaining 3 officers will similarly be acquitted as well.
Hopefully this will start to undo some of the damage in the form of the "Ferguson effect."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ea5f1e-3950-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html
It's a reaffirmation that the president is not a despot, and cannot simply circumvent congress/laws he does not like by use of executive order/prosecutorial discretion. Bad president. No dictatorship. Not yours.
The fact that 4 judges (and you can probably guess which 4) wanted to rule in favor of the Obama powergrab is a sad and urgent reminder of how politicized the supreme court is, and how our unelected robed masters are more concerned with advancing their political ideologies than upholding the law.[DOUBLEPOST=1466714558,1466714100][/DOUBLEPOST]The Baltimore police officer who drove the van in which Freddie Gray died has been found not guilty of all charges.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/us/baltimore-goodson-verdict-freddie-gray/
This is the third police officer (out of 6 arrested) to be acquitted of all counts, and the one with the most dire charges of any of the six. This verdict throws stark light on the overprosecutorial zeal of Marilyn Mosby, and the willingness of her and her prosecutors to swing for the fences despite not having evidence to back their narratives. It makes it far more likely that the remaining 3 officers will similarly be acquitted as well.
Hopefully this will start to undo some of the damage in the form of the "Ferguson effect."
Dave
Staff member
Incompetence is being hacked. Ideology is KNOWING the hacks exists, doing nothing, and blocking all access by experts to fix or observe. Which happened. Also, they found the exploits in Ohio and did nothing because it allowed them to alter votes. So in this case it IS ideology.
I agree with you on the "what they did next" part.
But it has become standard in the embedded software industry to not allow others to audit your code because "trade secrets LOL." Under the DMCA, it's illegal for people to even legitimately test your product for errors (because naturally how you test would be defined as "hacking" under the statute). Ostensibly this is because trade secrets, but I'm also willing to believe that no small part of this is because they don't want to be sued for any and all vulnerabilities which are found.
The rest is just a happy coincidence (for them).
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
The ferguson effect is the damage I was referring to, itself. Police not performing their duty for fear of prosecution.
Ah. And did that actually happen?
GasBandit
Staff member
According to Sam Dotson (Chief of the St. Louis Police), FBI Director James Comey, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, yes. Also a criminologist at the University of Missouri says his research data supports it as well (after at first thinking it debunked it).
Further reading from NPR
There is some sort of middle ground between "cops can kill whoever they want without repercussions" and "cops might as well go unarmed because they have to fill in 50 reams of paperwork when they draw their weapon".
[citation needed]
Agreed. Didn't one of the first places to use body cameras find complaints against police drop by a staggering amount?
GasBandit
Staff member
I believe I remember hearing that, yes.
...or for our safety. (Right, @Officer_Charon?)
All I can say is that since I've started wearing a camera, I don't worry about having my integrity called into question. I mean... it's going to be questioned, but I've already been exonerated twice based on footage.
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You can't have a re-affirmation without the court voting one way or the other, though I agree that it was probably an overstretch of his authority. This was simply letting a previous decision stand on the grounds that the Supreme Court doesn't have enough members (or too many, depending on how you look at it) to have a non-tied vote due to ideological differences, not that the decision was correct or incorrect in and of itself.
I suspected this was going to happen. They've had so much immigration forced on them as part of their participation in the EU and gained little else in the bargain... and yet the stability the EU provided economically was probably all that was keeping Britain out of a more severe recession. It's gonna be a tough few years.