The Arizona GOP seems to be calling for volunteers to die for Trump.
Congrats to AZ, hitting rock-bottom first.
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You need a government to enforce the rule of law. No foreign government, no organization, no business, no individual can be so much more powerful than your government that they are beyond the reach of the law. The size and reach of those entities determine the size and reach of your government.
Texas decides to sue four other states.
I prefer to give people chances to recant their idiocy in the face of facts.
I think these populations of people have had enough time to jump off the Trump Limo-wagon. Time now to start the Culture of Cancel.
So, first up: All of Texas.
Paxton, who has also led the Trump-backed legal fight against the Affordable Care Act, himself is under indictment on felony securities fraud charges. Top aides also filed a recent letter of complaint calling for Paxton to be investigated over allegations of bribery and other abuses of office.
That, of course, makes him a perfect water carrier for Trump, who has his own history of using the power of his office for personal business gain.
It’s like criminals have nowhere to turn to except to hop on this sinking ship as an asylum. Yes, both kinds.
Next up: a few restaurants in my too-much-COVID-to-be-open area have stayed open and have become Magahat (the “h” is silent) gathering places.
Like these in this article:
Here’s one I liked the most for its out-and-out Trumpist me-me-me lie:
In Orange County Monday night, there was standing room only at Basilico’s Pasta e Vino in Huntingon Beach, with a line of people waiting for tables as dining areas were full both indoors and outdoors.
Tony Roman, the owner of the restaurant at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Hamilton Avenue, called Newsom a “mini-tyrant” and said the violation of rules isn’t just about keeping the business afloat or providing income to employees.
“Our stand has been about liberty and freedom,” he said. “And when you take that stand is bigger than yourself and it’s non-negotiable.”
When KTLA approached the restaurant’s host Monday night, he politely asked the reporter to take off her mask. On its Facebook page, the restaurant has been vocal against face coverings and coronavirus regulations.
Basilico’s policy of allowing employees to not wear masks has put it at risk of losing its liquor license, according to the Orange County Register. Roman said Monday the eatery is still fighting the state in court on that matter.
But Roman said he doesn’t plan to alter his business plan based on state or local rules.
“If there was a fine every day, we would take it,” he said. “I wouldn’t budge.”
For his part, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes has said he doesn’t plan to enforce the rules. Deputies will be dispatched to calls related to potential criminal acts and to protect life and property — not to solely enforce mask-wearing or these latest stay-at-home orders.
“Compliance with health orders is a matter of personal responsibility and not a matter of law enforcement,” Barnes said in a statement over the weekend.
However, it’s unclear what sort of action the restaurant may face from the state and county public health departments.
No, it’s all and only about your restaurant and your profits.
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This crash and burned before you even posted it.
Not sure what you mean. My canceling of Texas will still occur.
SCOTUS denied a PA GOP lawsuit, not the Texas one (yet).
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Oops, my misreading. Anyway, carry on with your canceling Texas, I’m sure they’ll be very sorry to lose you.
StE posted this on the Discord server:
Check out the “Expert Opinion” starting on page 20 of the pdf. Guy should be stripped of his bachelor’s degree. This is “intro to stats” level crap that he’s doing (wrong).
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Eh, Trump championed the birther movement even before he ran for president, and there are a depressing number of birthers. Becoming president just gave him that much more media coverage.
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I wonder how much Texas taxpayers are paying for this farce.
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It’s amazing how the “expert” doesn’t realize that when your “sample” is the entire population of interest for the study - statistics isn’t the right tool for the job. At that point, the tool you should use is called “counting”.
Those that vote is a sample of the population. His main argument is that there is a fixed percentage of Dems and Reps and variations over different elections are random so the fact that Biden’s vote increased 4% in Georgia has a Z score of 396. Also he assumes that the reports of votes over time are from the same population, so the Z score for the observed turnaround is something like 1800.
The expert is obviously a very smart guy. I bet he’s laughing all the way to bank for the con job he pulled off. The guy must be in his late 70’s so I guess he doesn’t worry very much about his professional reputation.
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In this situation those that vote ARE the population. They are the only ones that matter in determining the results of the election.
Even disregarding that, when your “sample” size is 4M people (actually more like 8M since he was doing a two sample test), it’s really easy to get ridiculously large z-scores. I would be willing to bet that the story would be very similar if you did the same analysis of Obama in 2008 and Obama in 2012.
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I am coming to realize this. I used to be more live and let live and I am very much that way socially, but the economy must be managed. We are also at the population point worldwide where the planet must be managed as well. We can’t just destroy our home in the name of limiting the government’s influence in our life.
I think once you realize not every cost is a dollar cost then you can start to understand that. When you look only at the dollars and look at them in the business GAAP type of scope a lot of regulations look burdensome and expensive. However when you look at some of the costs to society that not regulating can create then things change.
Terrible idea… reward the irresponsible and punish those who do what they’re supposed to and save for retirement. If you’re going to have payments for old people it should be for all old people. I’d be OK with moving toward a flat benefit amount though… even though that will hurt me personally since my benefit will be more than the flat benefit would likely be if they were to keep the same level of expenditure.
That said, I am quickly approaching an age where they might decide that it’s too late to mess with my benefits. In 1983 they did not decrease the benefits of anyone 46 or older… only those 45 and younger, which included all baby boomers.
I’m GenX, so a much smaller cohort than the baby boomers. The Millenials are going to strain the system when they start collecting benefits, but when they hit peak earning years they’ll help out quite a bit. They definitely need to raise the retirement age on the Millenials.
And it doesn’t look like either party has the appetite to step up and raise the retirement age again or otherwise muck with benefits in the short term. Certainly isn’t going to happen in this administration and I don’t think Biden is going to cut benefits in his first term. By 2025 I think I will definitely be old enough that they won’t cut my benefits.
So I’ll probably luck out and have Millenials pay a higher rate of tax so that I can enjoy benefits under the current benefit formula.
Not what should happen, but what I predict WILL happen, and beneficial to me personally.
I’ll join you in the canceling of Texas. First step will be to avoid anything that requires oil, because that would support Texas. I’ll avoid taking any motorized transportation. When our offices open again, I’ll bike to work, even when it’s 90 degrees outside. And I’ll use a hot-air balloon anytime I want to visit my family. And heating my house in the winter? That’s definitely out of the question - I’ll just sleep in a snowsuit.
You could light a fire, or get a pellet stove. Those things can put out a lot of heat.
My uncle has a wood-burning furnace in his 100+ year-old farmhouse. I’m not exactly clear on how it works but I know that every couple of days he loads it up with a bunch of firewood that he collects from his 100+ acre farm.
Seems like way too much work for me in the year of our lord 2020, but that’s what he does. 