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"What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?"
From time to time, I have provided updates here on the progress of the National Popular Vote, a left-wing effort to effectively abolish the Electoral College via an interstate compact.
As of the last update, states with 196 total electoral votes had signed on, and as of the last mention here, that total had reached 209.
As of now, that total is 222, and, as Vox points out, there is a real chance that this year's midterms, fueled by widespread discontent with Donald Trump and his congressional Republican lapdogs, could cause the balance to tip over the decisive 270 electoral votes required to make the compact binding.
Assuming the agreement passes legal and constitutional muster, it would render the Electoral College moot:
-- CAV
As of the last update, states with 196 total electoral votes had signed on, and as of the last mention here, that total had reached 209.
As of now, that total is 222, and, as Vox points out, there is a real chance that this year's midterms, fueled by widespread discontent with Donald Trump and his congressional Republican lapdogs, could cause the balance to tip over the decisive 270 electoral votes required to make the compact binding.
Assuming the agreement passes legal and constitutional muster, it would render the Electoral College moot:
Nearly every blue or leaning blue state has signed onto the compact, the most recent being Virginia last month -- and reformers [sic] now have states controlling 222 of the 270 electoral votes they need.As I have explained in the past, this compact is a bad idea, and I stand by that assessment as true in the long term, even if it might have the happy result of preempting another MAGA Presidency after Trump's term expires.
The decisive batch would be the core swing states where partisan control is up for grabs this fall. If Democrats win governing trifectas (the governorship and both state legislative chambers) in enough of them, they could very well cobble together the remaining 48 electoral votes, and actually put this into place for 2028. Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and New Hampshire are the top targets.
-- CAV
By retroactively seizing earned wealth, California is acting as a ruler rather than a servant, treating its greatest producers like a piggy bank to be raided
The post California’s Billionaire Tax Is an Immoral Scam appeared first on New Ideal - Reason | Individualism | Capitalism.
"This is because we believe in freedom. ...
"Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs ha[d] in [1990s] Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered.
"It’s not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."~ PJ O'Rourke from his 1993 'Liberty Manifesto'
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"Only Trump could be stupid, ignorant and immoral enough to start a (just) war against an evil regime, and to leave them better off and more powerful than before the war. What a complete pile of shit he is.""I am still shocked that Secretary Rubio announced that 'The operation is over - Epic Fury,' without achieving any of their war objectives:(1) no removal of enriched uranium and elimination forever of Iran's nuclear program,(2) no constraints on missile production,(3) no end of funding for terrorists &(4) without liberating the Iranian people.."Epic Fury is going to be remembered as Epic Failure."TRUMP, Jan 13: "Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!... HELP IS ON ITS WAY"
"Donald Trump promised to come to the aid of Iranian protesters if the regime used lethal force against them. This undoubtedly played a role in their rising up. Now, possibly thousands lie dead ... this is another low point in a presidency of low points: making promises without the means to back them up, and now people lie dead. Shameful. This is the issue with a presidency incapable of thinking through second- and third-order effects. ...
"Trump was very specific in the support he offered. 'Knock hell' out of the regime. It is clear that promise was made when the US was not in a position to deliver."~ @AndrewFox"If this deal is actually signed, it would be a fitting end to a campaign that began as 'Epic Fury' and is ending as 'Epic Disaster.' What started as a war supposedly aimed at toppling the regime and dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities may instead leave Iran’s regime stronger than before — empowered by sanctions relief, still retaining significant missile capabilities, continuing support for its proxies, and almost certainly preserving uranium enrichment on its own soil. And then there’s the additional 'bonus' nobody even mentioned at the outset: the Strait of Hormuz is now firmly back at the centre of global strategic risk. The truly grim reality is that this may still be the best available option for the administration out of a set of deeply flawed alternatives. At least Iran is [possibly] unlikely to obtain a nuclear weapon in the immediate future. But the central question remains: what was the strategic logic of launching a war whose end state may ultimately be worse than the conditions that existed before it began? A failure from beginning to end."~ @Danny(Dennis)Citrinowicz
"Of all the objectives floated before and after the war began, almost none have been achieved.
"Yes, the US and Israel destroyed a lot of Iranian military assets. But strategically, Iran still holds the uranium, the regime, and the Strait. ...
"What I see is an American president desperately looking for a way out of the mess he created. So the administration is trying to put a bow on it ...
"This whole catastrophe rested on a false assumption that the regime would collapse once the supreme leader was killed. Everybody knew Iran would try to block the Strait. You cannot just bluster through everything and expect reality to bend to you."~ former Commander General USArmyEurope Ben Hodges"[A]n end to the conflict and long-term peace requires an end to the evil Islamic regime of Iran. Any 'agreement' is just a new Munich Pact of 1938 with the failed promise of 'peace in our time'."~ @AdamMossoff
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