Octopus Overlords

The wealthiest supporter of the GOP in Ohio said Thursday that he is no longer a member of the Republican Party.

“I just decided I’m no longer a Republican,” L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner said during a panel discussion at a leadership summit, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Wexner, who said he’s been a Republican since college, added that he is now an independent, before saying that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore.

Even if you consider yourself independent, it might be worthwhile to be part of a party, if for no other reason than to make it less partisan.

Holman wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:50 pm One of my high-school classmates (class of 87) just Facebooked a picture of herself meeting Tucker Carlson, and the oohing and ahhing from other FBfriends makes me what to murder everyone I met before I was 19.

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm
Is that wrong? I don’t want the Democrats to be Republicans, but I am not a fan of the move more left. Nor am I fan of refusing to work with the other party (yes, I am aware this is a bigger problem from Republicans). And I’m just a single person so obviously I wouldn’t have much influence.

Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

Holman wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:50 pm One of my high-school classmates (class of 87) just Facebooked a picture of herself meeting Tucker Carlson, and the oohing and ahhing from other FBfriends makes me what to murder everyone I met before I was 19.

Rip wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:08 pm

Holman wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:50 pm One of my high-school classmates (class of 87) just Facebooked a picture of herself meeting Tucker Carlson, and the oohing and ahhing from other FBfriends makes me what to murder everyone I met before I was 19.

Damn, Pass along my name and tell her to friend me up. Sounds like a great lady.

Holman wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:10 pm

Rip wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 3:08 pm

Holman wrote: Sat Sep 15, 2018 7:50 pm One of my high-school classmates (class of 87) just Facebooked a picture of herself meeting Tucker Carlson, and the oohing and ahhing from other FBfriends makes me what to murder everyone I met before I was 19.

Damn, Pass along my name and tell her to friend me up. Sounds like a great lady.

She believes masturbation is a sin.

Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Enrique Martinez fell in love with the military service that transformed him from a kid in Brownsville fresh out of high school into a man with a purpose greater than himself.

He wore the eagle, globe and anchor, ready to defend the United States, for 20 years in such far-flung places as Okinawa, South Korea and the Philippines.

Now Martinez, 51, is fighting the State Department, which denied him a passport almost a year ago. The agency said the same birth certificate that got him into the Marine Corps isn’t sufficient proof that he’s a U.S. citizen.

“It all boils down to the idea that as a fellow American, they’re telling me that they’re giving me permission to risk my life in defense of freedom, but they’re not giving me a right to consider myself American,” Martinez said.

Martinez is among thousands of Hispanics born along the U.S.-Mexico border who were told in recent years that they need more than a birth certificate to get a U.S. passport.

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm
Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

Kraken wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:01 pm

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm
Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

I was taught -- and it has long been my own belief -- that one should vote for the person, not the party. 90% of the time that leads me to the D, but every now and then the R is the better candidate. Plus, as an independent I can take either party's primary ballot...and sometimes I do. I know which tribe I run with, and I also know that my tribe is wrong sometimes.

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

Kraken wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:01 pm I was taught -- and it has long been my own belief -- that one should vote for the person, not the party. 90% of the time that leads me to the D, but every now and then the R is the better candidate. Plus, as an independent I can take either party's primary ballot...and sometimes I do. I know which tribe I run with, and I also know that my tribe is wrong sometimes.

Kraken wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:01 pm

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm
Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

I was taught -- and it has long been my own belief -- that one should vote for the person, not the party. 90% of the time that leads me to the D, but every now and then the R is the better candidate. Plus, as an independent I can take either party's primary ballot...and sometimes I do. I know which tribe I run with, and I also know that my tribe is wrong sometimes.

GreenGoo wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 2:23 pm
If only there was a clear answer. party membership for me would be based on much I agree with basic platforms, and how much I disagree with specific initiatives.

Some people are single issue voters, and that makes it easy. For everyone else in the middle, I think voting your conscience is the most important thing for being at peace with yourself. I realize that the system you're in requires you to support one party or the other. Anything else is "throwing away your vote" but while I agree that that is technically true, trying to second guess yourself or game the system so your vote "means" something is less important than just voting your conscience.

El Guapo wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:03 pm

Kraken wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 5:01 pm

Fitzy wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:50 pm
Should independents, moderates whatever move into the two parties in an attempt to influence the direction? Or is better to stay out?

I was taught -- and it has long been my own belief -- that one should vote for the person, not the party. 90% of the time that leads me to the D, but every now and then the R is the better candidate. Plus, as an independent I can take either party's primary ballot...and sometimes I do. I know which tribe I run with, and I also know that my tribe is wrong sometimes.

That doesn't really make sense in the current reality where the parties are pretty parliamentary in nature (e.g., 90%+ of the time the person votes in line with the party leadership). That can work for governor / mayor / etc., to be clear, but it doesn't really apply to federal elections anymore.

How strong is the association between campaign spending and political success? For House seats, more than 90 percent of candidates who spend the most win. From 2000 through 2016, there was only one election cycle where that wasn’t true: 2010. “In that election, 86 percent of the top spenders won,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that tracks campaign fundraising and spending.

****

Money is certainly strongly associated with political success. But, “I think where you have to change your thinking is that money causes winning,” said Richard Lau, professor of political science at Rutgers. “I think it’s more that winning attracts money.”

That’s not to say money is irrelevant to winning, said Adam Bonica, a professor of political science at Stanford who also manages the Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections. But decades of research suggest that money probably isn’t the deciding factor in who wins a general election, and especially not for incumbents.

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:35 am Which comes first, the money or the winning?

I don't doubt that donors place their bets based on who they think has the greatest chance of winning, all else being equal.

It has been shown that presidential elections are a different beast.

Farmers around the country have been hacking their way past the software locks that John Deere and other manufacturers put on tractors and other farm equipment, and the Farm Bureau lobbying organization has thus far been one of the most powerful to put its weight behind right to repair legislation, which would require manufacturers to sell repair parts, make diagnostic tools and repair information available to the public, and would require manufacturers to provide a way to get around proprietary software locks that are designed to prevent repair.

In most states, the legislation would cover all electronics, which includes tractors, cell phones, computers, video game consoles, appliances, and everything in between. So far, this legislation has been proposed in 19 states, but hasn’t yet passed. In any case, the momentum and outrage behind the right to repair movement is real, and the Equipment Dealers Association (which represents John Deere and other manufacturers) has been anxious to show that manufacturers like Deere aren’t actively trying to screw over farmers, while continuing to do just that.

In February, the Equipment Dealers Association promised to make a few concessions—notably, the group said Deere and others would begin to make repair manuals, product guides, diagnostic service tools, and on-board diagnostics available to farmers by 2021. Notably, it did not promise to actually sell repair parts, and it also contains several carve-outs that allow tractor manufacturers to continue using software locks that could prevent repair.

This is what the Equipment Dealers Association voluntarily offered to do for every farmer in the country earlier this year. In the meantime, the Equipment Dealers Association has continued to fight against comprehensive right to repair legislation, which would end their repair monopoly overnight (it has continued to put out information sheets that say self-repair is dangerous, and that tractors are too complicated for farmers to repair themselves. An example of one of these is embedded at the end of the article.)

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:21 am Michael Moore promises to move to Canada.

No thank you.

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:21 am Michael Moore promises to move to Canada.

No thank you.

A South Carolina Republican congressman joked at a Thursday debate with his Democratic opponent that 85-year-old Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was "groped" by Abraham Lincoln.

"Did you hear about this?" Rep. Ralph Norman said at the opening of the debate, according to The Post and Courier. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg came out saying she was groped by Abraham Lincoln."
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The congressman's jab prompted "some scattered nervous laughter from the Kiwanis Club of Rock Hill," according to the paper. Norman, a freshman lawmaker who won a special election to his seat in 2017, is currently running for reelection.

Norman's brief tenure in the House has attracted national attention before. Earlier this year, during a meeting with gun control activists, the congressman placed a loaded pistol on the table. Norman said he did this to show that "guns don't shoot people; people shoot guns." He also said he was "not going to be a Gabby Giffords," the former congresswoman who was shot and nearly killed while meeting with constituents in 2011.

Payments processor PayPal Holdings Inc said on Friday it decided to end its business relationship with popular U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars website after finding instances of hate speech and discriminatory content on the site.

“We undertook an extensive review of the Infowars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion,” the PayPal spokesman said.

Max Peck wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:50 pm This is shaping up to be the best Infrastructure Week ever!

In early June 2017, the White House kicked off its own Infrastructure Week.
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The White House went back to infrastructure in August.
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And this past February, the Trump administration finally unveiled its infrastructure plan.
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SHAPIRO: So now industry leaders are in Washington for their official Infrastructure Week, and NPR's David Schaper is in town covering it. David, good to see in person.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: Good to see you, Ari.

SHAPIRO: The industry leaders you're talking to are very aware of this running joke, right?

Kraken wrote: Mon Sep 24, 2018 5:49 pm That story is from May. I gather that we're about due for another Infrastructure Week now.