President Biden, critics corner

[gowlerk 2,245]

1 hour ago, airdvr said:

Have you met the "unwashed masses"?

I have met the enemy and it is us.

Edited January 14, 2022 by gowlerk

[kallend 2,103]

1 hour ago, GeorgiaDon said:

  Today most of the Justices are products of the Federalist Society, dedicated to (or at least strongly influenced by) ideas that favor putting political control in the hands of a few wealthy people.  After all if they are rich it must be because they more qualified to govern than the unwashed masses! 

A few wealthy people, like the signers of the Declaration of Independence?  

The Electoral College only exists to insulate the election of president from the unwashed masses.  It explicitly states as much in the Federalist Papers.

[GeorgiaDon 379]

7 hours ago, kallend said:

A few wealthy people, like the signers of the Declaration of Independence?  

The Electoral College only exists to insulate the election of president from the unwashed masses.  It explicitly states as much in the Federalist Papers.

I agree that that is one of the functions of the electoral college, but not the only one, at least at the start of the country.  The 3/5ths compromise was put forward to address concerns of the southern colonies that they would be dominated by non-slave states because they would only count votes of white males, making their population much smaller than it actually was.  For non-American readers, the 3/5ths compromise was an agreement to count slaves as 3/5ths of a person.  Of course slaves still could not vote, so 3/5ths of nothing is still nothing.  To go along with the 3/5ths arrangement, some mechanism had to be invented to turn that 3/5ths into presidential votes.  The electoral college filled that role.  Each state would be allocated some number of electoral college votes in proportion to their population, which in the case of slave-holding states was all the non-slave population plus 3/5ths of the total number of adult slaves.  The electoral college allowed slave states to derive political power in proportion to the number of slaves, without actually allowing the slaves themselves any power.

So I would say the electoral college had two functions: to keep power in the hands of the wealthy elite, and to allow southern slave owners to profit politically as well as financially from their slaves.  Today the system may not favor slave owners, but it ensures that residents of some states have a disproportionally large voice in presidential elections, and other states have their voice diminished.  For example, voters in Kansas have 3 electors, or about 1 for every 180,000 people.  On the other hand, Texas has 1 elector for every 763,000 people.  Are people who happen to live in Kansas really worth 4 times as much as people who happen to live in Texas?  Texas has about the same population as Alaska, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah combined.   Texas has 38 electoral votes, and all those states combined have 63.  You could make similar comparisons if you substituted California for Texas.  So much for one person/one vote!

The electoral college serves no useful purpose, it was conceived in order to support evil and it is deeply undemocratic.  It's past time for it to be abolished.

[Phil1111 1,149]

17 hours ago, GeorgiaDon said:

At the time the Constitution was written... The judiciary may not write laws directly, but they can strike down anything that doesn't conform to their political leaning.

This and the unwillingness of the political classes to stand against unending harassment. The republicans who voted for trump's impeachment have dropped like flies. Gerrymandering and primaries will send the most radical to the ballot box.The idealist from either party willing to stand up against the mob mentality of the tribe, has vanished. Liz Cheney the sole exception, you go girl.

It looks less and less likely that BBB will come to a vote.More and more likely that democrats will lose their majority. The dreams of addressing climate change and a more equitable society seems to be drying up.

[brenthutch 444]

1 hour ago, Phil1111 said:

The idealist from either party willing to stand up against the mob mentality of the tribe, has vanished.

Not so, Joe Manchin and Christian Sinema are two shining examples of principled individuals who resisted the mob.

[ryoder 1,590]

I fully agree with GeorgiaDon, with one exception: Slavery was the only purpose of the EC.

He also didn't address the motivation for creation of the EC. The authors of the Constitution wanted very badly for all of the colonies to join the union. The Southern states were balking because slavery was already on its way out across the civilized world, and giving up their current autonomy to join the union, meant there was a possibility of the new federal government banning slavery.

 

[ryoder 1,590]

1 hour ago, Phil1111 said:

This and the unwillingness of the political classes to stand against unending harassment. The republicans who voted for trump's impeachment have dropped like flies. Gerrymandering and primaries will send the most radical to the ballot box.The idealist from either party willing to stand up against the mob mentality of the tribe, has vanished. Liz Cheney the sole exception, you go girl.

You are forgetting Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

[brenthutch 444]

7 minutes ago, ryoder said:

You are forgetting Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

He was one of the dropping flies.

[kallend 2,103]

25 minutes ago, ryoder said:

I fully agree with GeorgiaDon, with one exception: Slavery was the only purpose of the EC.

 

 

Don't confuse the real reason for the EC with the ostensible reason.

[BIGUN 1,395]

18 hours ago, kallend said:

The Electoral College only exists to insulate the election of president from the unwashed masses.  It explicitly states as much in the Federalist Papers.

OK. Let’s see if we got it all:

 Article II– scrrrraaatch – got it.

2^nd Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twelfth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Fourteenth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twentieth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twenty-Second Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twenty-Third Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twenty-Fifth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment – scrrrraaatch – got it.

Chapter 1 of Title 3, United States Code Sections 1-20  – scrrrraaatch – got it.

 There, I think I got 'em all or did you want another meeting of let’s rip up the US Constitution.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

The EC was at least partly to allow the electors to over ride a blatantly stupid result because the 'unwashed masses' were conned into voting for someone really bad.

The fact that Trump was put in office in 2016 clearly shows that this has failed.

[GeorgiaDon 379]

1 hour ago, wolfriverjoe said:

The EC was at least partly to allow the electors to over ride a blatantly stupid result because the 'unwashed masses' were conned into voting for someone really bad.

The fact that Trump was put in office in 2016 clearly shows that this has failed.

When the EC was first set up electors could "vote their conscience" and were not tied to the popular vote.  If they felt the "unwashed masses" got it wrong, they could cast their vote for the other guy.  Since then, laws were passed to compel electors to vote according to their state's popular vote.  Since they can no longer "correct" bad choices by the general populace, and there are no slave-holding states, none of the original functions of the EC remain.  All the more reason to get rid of it IMHO.

[GeorgiaDon 379]

4 hours ago, ryoder said:

I fully agree with GeorgiaDon, with one exception: Slavery was the only purpose of the EC.

He also didn't address the motivation for creation of the EC. The authors of the Constitution wanted very badly for all of the colonies to join the union. The Southern states were balking because slavery was already on its way out across the civilized world, and giving up their current autonomy to join the union, meant there was a possibility of the new federal government banning slavery.

 

I'm aware that the 3/5ths compromise and the EC were enacted in order to entice the southern colonies to join the union.  I thought my post was already long without getting into all that.

[brenthutch 444]

MSNBC just referred to VP Harris’s husband as “the First Gentleman”

[SkyDekker 1,465]

37 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

MSNBC just referred to VP Harris’s husband as “the First Gentleman”

Oh no, the apocalypse is sure to follow.

[JoeWeber 2,809]

41 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

MSNBC just referred to VP Harris’s husband as “the First Gentleman”

Mein Gott! They're as senile as Biden!

[brenthutch 444]

14 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Mein Gott! They're as senile as Biden!

Foreshadowing 

[JoeWeber 2,809]

8 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

Foreshadowing 

When the horse you bet on wins you don't tear up your winning ticket and start dissing the horse. You collect your winnings and look to the next race. Simple.

[brenthutch 444]

I think the Biden horse is ready for the glue factory 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/bidens-approval-dips-to-new-low-as-independents-sour-on-his-leadership
 

If the Right to Vote bill fails this week I expect support in his base will start to crater.

[brenthutch 444]

Disastrous press conference and a voting rights failure.  Now the Democrats are starting to bail on Biden.

[brenthutch 444]

Biden refused to sign off on an aid package for Ukraine, passed by Congress for several weeks in deference to Russia.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/16/us-ukraine-russia-military-support-congress-biden-delay-aid/

[SkyDekker 1,465]

46 minutes ago, brenthutch said:

Biden refused to sign off on an aid package for Ukraine, passed by Congress for several weeks in deference to Russia.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/16/us-ukraine-russia-military-support-congress-biden-delay-aid/

If/when Russia invades Ukraine, how do you think the US should respond?

[BIGUN 1,395]

24 minutes ago, SkyDekker said:

If/when Russia invades Ukraine, how do you think the US should respond?

We'll shake our finger at them and threaten them with sanctions. 

[kallend 2,103]

Since 1945, trying to be the world's policeman has not worked out so well and has cost the US a lot of lives and $trillions.

[winsor 236]

1 hour ago, SkyDekker said:

If/when Russia invades Ukraine, how do you think the US should respond?

We should invade the Bahamas.