JoeWeber

"Hello, Central Committee, should we stop the race? This is Chen. Please call +86 16742264298 soonest." At least 16 people were killed and five more are missing after extreme weather hit runners taking part in a 100km cross-country mountain race in China, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday (May 23). 5 are still missing. Seriously? Probably 21 dead and there was no one who could see the possibility and stop the race? This, Trump voters, is what autocracy looks like.

Nope. You'd womb up. It's like having the rock when those of us with scissors think we've got the game won.

I'll take stubbornness for $2000, Ken.

I don't think it would be weakness and I'm out of pride. Are there more choices?

Not enough connections? Agreed on Bill. I just refuse to suck up to a mod.

Ken, I was most specifically thinking of Keith. Everything he has posted here, to my eye, reads decency and honor.

He's a man of honor who would carry the entire load if he could. As someone who would never turn his back on a solemn responsibility he, quite naturally, feels that he should have a legitimate right to a say. If the woman wanted the baby and he didn't I suspect strongly that he'd just man up and own the responsibility. The problem is that the sentiment just does not scale out very well. The reality is that the woman's and the baby's fate must never be left to the lowest common douchebag denominator. Hence, the only viability question must center on the one person who will be left holding the diaper bag. From a moral or policy perspective nothing else fits the truth of things.

Which is only to say it is the woman's decision, no period.

Which is why I'm never running for office or going to church.

Who'da seen it coming? Our first named storm, Ana.

Just a heads up, so is every Christmas tree.

I'm thinking it isn't called Brent Crude for no reason.

Apparently those forecasters aren't complete yo's.

Hadn't considered that. Several years back I put on a couple of Australian TM's. On a windy day I asked one if he'd like to come shag a few tandems. Talk about big eyeballs.

Nope. We just need laws that require doggers to keep their drooling, crotch licking, cat turd eating machines at home and away from airlines, restaurants and Home Depot.

You got the Canuck treatment, yo. You should have asked for the Pfizer dose.

Are you at least open to the idea the Max's fall rate will change over the course of those ten seconds?

The V-Dem report is a readable aggregation of viewpoints. I wouldn't carry it to the cross but I do think it is useful and generally accurate. Given that Democracy isn't an economic system I'm happy to look at the rise of autocracy worldwide on a numbers of people equation without economic issues. In that sense alone I'm not sure I see a paradox. But your main point is the big, giant point that to my way of thinking is the only important point: what are each of us willing to give on in the face of such a risk? I simply don't see Trumpism as a one off, a passed thing or an aberration. I see it as part of a worldwide trend towards electoral autocracies. It isn't even certain that, given the current conditions in America, it is possible to reverse the trend even locally. Believing that we are out of margin makes me willing to toss a few additional closely held views into the pot just to get the deal done. Right here, right now, what we all need to do is stop tearing down, and nit-picking at, what has become a very fragile democracy in this country and work to strengthen it whether we are getting what we most want or not.

Are you at least open to the idea that all areas of the planet aren't warming at the same rate?

Then let me be first to apologize for mocking your inability to speak factually.

Step back and away from all of that for just a minute and consider the play. The truth is, the Republicans in Congress had an interest and that interest wasn't truth. Truly, I don't think the most of them, or the overwhelming majority of the Republican base, have a clue as to what they are fighting for. I've pointed it out many times on these pages that autocracy is on the rise world wide and we ignore that fact at our peril. It happened in India, the worlds former largest democracy, and it can happen here. The 2nd Amendment, the end of abortion, Jesus in school again, white supremacy, and on and on and on. Are any of those things worth the creation of a functional electoral autocracy in America? DR 2021.pdf

You didn't sleep through every class at MIT, obviously.

Some people see the Virgin Mary on wet windows while others see the face of Jesus in grilled cheese sandwiches. I wonder what they were hoping to see when those things appeared?

O.K everyone, and you won't need Richard Simmons, it's called Brentercize! Ready? Now then, left, right, up, down, shake that booty, shake that booty! And again, left, right, up, down, shake that booty, shake that booty!

Honestly, I doubt for you that it is a tough one. For you, anti global warming and pro shale oil extraction policies are vastly more important than the plain fact that Trump and his complicit Republican henchmen would have turned America into an electoral autocracy, much like what happened in India. What I find maddening is how those like you preen your patriotic feathers as if you really were on the right side of democracy.