Random Political Thoughts

Bunch of lawsuits asking SCOTUS to overturn more precedent are on their way up the pipeline. Kim Davis (KY clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples) is asking for Obergefell to be overturned. Obergefell, along with Griswold (right to contraception) and Lawrence (banning sodomy laws), was specifically listed by Thomas as a case that should be reconsidered.

Michigan, which still has a non-supermajority Democratic trifecta in power, outlaws the ā€œgay/trans panicā€ defense.

Previously, if you were to murder, assault/etc. a person and go to court, you could get a reduced sentence with the defense that you were actually committing a hate crime. If you thought the person was gay or trans and you thought they were hitting on you, the fact that you murdered them was considered a lesser offense.

This is still a valid defense in many states, but I canā€™t accurately recall how many. IIRC when I researched this a while back, the defense has been successfully used for a reduced/eliminated sentence something like 150 times in the past 20 years across the US.

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Hate laws get used so inconsistently with LGBTQ people. The Brianna Ghey murderers (UK, not US), said that they wanted to find out if ā€œit screams like a boy or a girlā€ but the court felt it wasnā€™t a hate crime.

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In reading Harrisā€™ wikipedia page I learned about the story of Gwen Araujo who was murdered and her assailants used this defense. To Harrisā€™ credit she was part of the movement to change this in California.

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A lot of the criticisms of things that happened when she was AG end up being that was the law at the time, she enforced it, and worked to change the law.

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Is the real Truth that Biden is dead and the Deep State is using AI to pretend heā€™s still alive, or is it that Biden didnā€™t want to drop out of the election but the Deep State forged his signature and heā€™s too senile to realize it, or is it that Biden wants to resign from the Presidency now, but the Deep State wonā€™t allow it?

Because theyā€™re all apparently 100% true and Iā€™m confused.

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Yes

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This one is really puzzling. What possible motive would there be for preventing him from resigning? Presumably if Kamala Harris was already POTUS that would help her election chances. Do people not understand how term limits work? Because she can run in 2028 (and not 2032) irrespective of whether she takes over today or January 20, 2025.

Easy explanation.

Biden is a puppet of the Clintons and Obama. Heā€™s drooling and senile, but he signs whatever Clintons/Obama/Soros/the New World Order tells him to.

Kamala Harris is a threat to the Deep State because she can form words without a teleprompter and may not be a rubber stamp to whatever the One World Government wants.

Kamala Harris also is the Deep State and is a radical socialist.

Speak logic and I can continue to twist it into MAGA-speak. Just donā€™t expect it to make sense.

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:laughing:

Ok, good enough I guess.

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Maybe this deserves itā€™s own thread, but Maduro is claiming he won the Venezuelan election despite fairly strong evidence that he did not. Is staying in power, at least for now. This is why you donā€™t want strongmen who are primarily interested in power in charge of your country.

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Now itā€™s up to the military imo. If they give him enough support itā€™s going to be ugly.
He should have gone full Saddam and claimed 98% of the vote. This made-up 51% figure is just insulting.

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Looks like the flight of companies from CA to TX is continuing.

Iā€™m going to praise Ken Paxton, or at least his office, for something:

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Wait until he finds out he can buy data of pregnant women leaving the state and returning unpregnant.

I knew a lawsuit like that was coming eventually.

Car manufacturers left themselves very exposed.

Insurers are probably next.

After catching up on my reading today, it looks like Labour in the UK is looking to introduce road pricing because they are losing a lot of revenue (more electric cars around now so no fuel duty).

Thats going to make a lot of people in rural areas quite angry.

Do you have registration fees for autos? If so, what is that supposed to cover? I thought the UK had high fuel taxes (duty) on gas/diesel. What are those fuel taxes supposed to cover? Is it a drop in fuel taxes due to EV adoption and increase in infrastructure costs? I wonder how the UKā€™s vehicles per road mile compares to the US. Do you have annual auto inspections (many states in the US do) where mileage can be recorded?

Iā€™m so glad Ds brought in a ringer at the last minute. If only Rs could do the same.

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We do have registration fees for autos, but the vast majority of tax revenue for road maintenance was extracted from fuel duty.

The Conservatives have frozen the fuel duty for 12 years, while the shift from gas to electric cars was occuring, which has led to decreasing tax revenue for road maintenance (as evidenced by the many pot holes you will find all over the UK now. They have become a big problem)

Effectively, road pricing (with I am assuming some adjustments for rural folks) is designed to tax the electric cars as well given that they obviously use the roads but donā€™t contribute as much given they dont pay fuel duty.

MOT checks (that your car is road compliant) in the UK are every three years after you buy the car. Thats the only time you could possibly get some data on mileage (officially). They are looking to extend this to four years as well (because drivers complained that it was expensive).