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The Trump Presidency 13: The (James) Baker's Dozen

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KDLarsen said:
I remember that, and I seem recall there was even a video around, showing various military top brass going before congress committees saying as much, including how they would be driven straight to a long term storage, and the said committees then voting to tell the army to buy them anyway.

Gotta keep the pork coming in after all.
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You can make a case for keeping the plant open with a skelton crew for mainatence.....someday we will have to replace the M-1s we have from sheer wear and tear...but forcing the army to buy tanks it does not want or need is stupid.
 
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What gets to me is his feud with the late Senator McCain..what the hell does he gain from that? It just makes him look bad and petty to all but the hard core of his deluded followers>
 
dudalb said:
You can make a case for keeping the plant open with a skelton crew for mainatence.....someday we will have to replace the M-1s we have from sheer wear and tear...but forcing the army to buy tanks it does not want or need is stupid.
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It only seems stupid if you hold the philosophy that the military should spend money only on goods and services that it needs. Many Congressfolk have freed themselves from such limited thinking.
 
dudalb said:
What gets to me is his feud with the late Senator McCain..what the hell does he gain from that? It just makes him look bad and petty to all but the hard core of his deluded followers>
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And I expect it makes even them a little bit edgy.

There's no point to it at all, except in his childish, vindictive mind.

Kinda puts the lie to any claims of clever strategy on his part. He's just a blowhard.
 
Ladewig said:
It only seems stupid if you hold the philosophy that the military should spend money only on goods and services that it needs. Many Congressfolk have freed themselves from such limited thinking.
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Not to mention forcing the military to keep bases open that the military service do not need or want.
I can tell you that the Marines , if they had their way would close the San Diego Basic Training Depot and move it to Camp Pendleton, but no way will the local congress critters let that happen.
As it is, recruits spend nearly half of boot camp at Pendleton, because the Dago facility is so surrounded by civilian businesses that things like rifle ranges and other facilities for Combat training are simply impossible.
 
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dudalb said:
What gets to me is his feud with the late Senator McCain..what the hell does he gain from that? It just makes him look bad and petty to all but the hard core of his deluded followers>
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He is incapable of letting a grudge go, and he is incapable of feeling petty shame.

The claim he generously signed some paper re McCain's funeral is more of the same: "see what a great guy I am".
 
quadraginta said:
And I expect it makes even them a little bit edgy.

There's no point to it at all, except in his childish, vindictive mind.

Kinda puts the lie to any claims of clever strategy on his part. He's just a blowhard.
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He still thinks his base can save him. If he was try to keep the 100000 swing voters in three states who elected him, he'd let it go.
 
Obama made fun of him and made him look publicly silly. McCain said NO to him and made him look publicly silly. He's trying to undo EVERYTHING Obama put in place, for good or bad. And he will not let go of the bone about McCain even though the man is seven months dead.

It's a mental health issue.
 
The idea with the electoral college is that the states should elect the president. That the candidate who wins should always win a majority of the states. That idea goes back to the very beginnings of the United States -- as pundits always like to note, to a time when the name was pronounced with the emphasis on the word states -- though the votes apportioned have always been weighted to the population of each state. But the population growth in the south and southwest have changed the dynamics considerably. The 'Old Confederacy' (plus Oklahoma) now control 152 of the 270 Electoral votes needed to win. None of which had anything to do with the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Trump lost the popular vote by 2.7 million but won the Electoral College by virtue of a couple hundred thousand votes in Florida and Pennsylvania. A couple hundred thousand votes out of about 140 million cast.

This is more Monday morning quarterbacking by the guy who predicted the election would be "rigged" and then, when he won, tweeted
Donald J. Trump - Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair! Link
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What was he reacting to?
For the third day in a row since Donald J. Trump was elected president, thousands of people took part in protests that bloomed across the country, venting their frustration at the election results.
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Skeptic Ginger said:
He is incapable of letting a grudge go, and he is incapable of feeling petty shame.

The claim he generously signed some paper re McCain's funeral is more of the same: "see what a great guy I am".
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Why do I get the idea that if someone asked the president “if a person called you a loser on national television and then a few years later did something nice for you, would you be willing to say ‘thank you’ to that person,” the president would say, “of course not, what kind of loser question is that?”

Least self-aware person on the planet.
 
Mumbles said:
In reality, the two candidates spend the great majority of their time in about 5-6 states, while a far higher number of states receive 0-2 visits - there's simply no point in spending time or money in a state where one or the other is certain to win. In fact, here's a map that illustrates the problem - those small midwest /mountain states are still being ignored. Savvier people will watch the debates, and the conventions. Less politically connected people, regardless of why they're less connected, watch the news highlights or nothing at all. And if all they see is the type of nonsense horserace coverage and obsession with emails like last time, that goes badly. And this goes for ads, people on the ground (still tough in rural areas), and campaign surrogates as well.

The actual question is "How do you pull this off", and on that...I don't really know.
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Getting folks onboard with Maine-Nebraska would be a good place to start.
 
If the number of senators per state were apportioned by population in that state then that might make a difference.

For example, 350 million people, 100 senators to divide among them evenly. That's one senator per 3.5 million people. Now simply divide those among the states by their populations in units of 3.5 million, and always a minimum of one senator per state.

So say a state has 10 million people. One senator (first 3.5 million) plus another or possibly two more. A 35 million person state would have 10 senators. States under 3.5 million get one only. Some number-juggling may be necessary, of course. But it gives the population fair representation.

I would also suggest that senators be selected not on a winning-party-takes-the-state basis. Instead, it should be by some vote apportioning scheme based on their popular vote count in the state regardless of party. A more realistic representation of the voters' views. So evenly divided states get some of each party, and strongly left or right states get more from their one party.

That way is much closer to a fairer representation, I believe.
 
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dudalb said:
I think something close to a second Civil War is now inevitable...Now that the Dems seem likely to be takin over by a group of hard line ideologues, and become a mirror version of the GOP, with the political center frozen out complety. Think Spain in the 1930's.
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So hardline that Bernie's pretty much directly quoting FDR and basically trying to shift the balance back a bit to the state of things pre-Reagan. I think that you're seeing what the GOP's propaganda machine wants you to see, rather than what actually is.

dudalb said:
Just look at the threds here, and the total contempt the hard liners on the left have for moderates and centralist...some going so far as to pretty much deny their existence.
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Hmm. Total contempt? Denying their existence? I'm not sure which posters that you're talking about. I can certainly say that I quite tend to favor policy positions held by the more left leaning Democrats, though.

dudalb said:
I might just focus an the survival of my family, and forget tyring to save the country. It might be beyond saving.
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If that's what you want to focus on, far be it from any of us to stop you. The Civil War talk, though, is likely misplaced. Tensions are a bit nasty at the moment, but they've been notably worse in the past a number of times, by the sound of it. I would suggest that you prepare as you like, but, short of Trump being given enough rope to declare himself dictator, it's not likely to happen. Even when it comes to the form that such a war even could reasonable take, it's unlikely to actually escalate past small scale militias causing trouble here and there. Painful, but not even close to what happened in the actual Civil War.
 
Anyways, random news time.

Remember the wire that Trump was bragging about that was set up on the border? Shockingly, it's being stolen.

The concertina wire installed under the Trump administration to reinforce the U.S.-Mexico border is now being stolen and used to protect Tijuana residences as the city grapples with a surge in crime, officials confirmed Monday.

Thieves are stealing and selling the same concertina wire installed in November along the border by the Department of Homeland Security, and 15 to 20 arrests have already been made, city officials said.
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No one could have seen this coming! No one! After all, it was the WALL that people were saying would be prime stealin' material. There's just nothin' quite like using a $10 dollar tool to beat a $10 billion dollar wall, after all!

The US dropped notably again in the World Happiness Index.

Meanwhile, residents in the United States are becoming unhappier. The U.S. ranks at No. 19 in the 2019 report, dropping one position from 2018 and five from 2017. Except for income, the United States didn't finish in the top of any other metrics used to produce the happiness ranking. America ranked 12th for generosity, 37th for social support and 42nd for corruption. In addition, the United States placed 61st in terms of freedom.
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Somehow, I'm reminded about this youtube video that talks about some of the reasons why Denmark's people tend to be notably happier than the people of the USA.

Lawmakers nationwide are pushing dangerous anti-vaxx bills right now. The link goes into more detail, but... tellingly, it's almost exclusively Republicans pushing these bills. There's one Democrat and a mess of Republicans.

As a bonus... Alaska Governor Announces Koch Funded Americans for Prosperity Orchestrated Public Meetings. Short version? Alaska's Governor decided to offer up quite the budget -

Early and K-12 Education — 24% cut

University of Alaska — 44% cut

Health and Social Services — 31% cut

The Alaska Marine Highway (AKA the Alaska Ferry, the basic form of transportation for many places, like our capital Juneau, that aren’t on the road system) essentially shut down. Pioneer Homes (Alaska state assisted living for seniors) monthly costs would more than double for some. The Alaska Psychiatric Institute got an immediate secretly arranged no bid contract to private company Wellpath.

The key people spared cuts were the oil companies who get tax credits for exploration. People estimate this to be about $1.3 billion this year. Yes, we pay oil companies to explore. And that’s pretty close to the deficit the governor wants to fill.
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And... well, the Governor is advertising a tour to explain and justify things, with the events hosted by and at the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity organization and subject to the AFP's rules and restrictions. Not exactly heartening news for... anyone who thinks that big business should not be effectively running the government.
 
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