Trump was shot!

[timemeddler]

What it says is not complimentary.

As a counterbalance to what I just wrote, Harris has been much more effective than Biden on the matter of reproductive rights so maybe she will gain more votes to that hot potato issue than she will lose to being a woman of color vying for the top job.

or she just loses for helping screw up the country?

[Ray]

Timemeddler

Well, that’s a view - not one shared by observers on the eastern side of the pond - but a view nonetheless.

[moonshadow]

Serious and curious question...

What did Tennessee Governor Lee do to have Trump call him a RINO? I've read the reports and I can't find a reason. Lee has always kissed the ass of his Royal Majesty.

I don't get it.

Man things are getting crazy. If we're living in a simulation, I think it's time for a good old ctrl+alt+delete and maybe a hard reset.

[Coder]

Man things are getting crazy. If we're living in a simulation, I think it's time for a good old ctrl+alt+delete and maybe a hard reset.

If I weren't a religious man, at this point I'd be convinced this WAS a simulation. Heck, every single day there's a new thing that pushes me more and more towards simulation theory. And as AI gets better... even if this isn't a simulation one day we will be the ones creating a simulation and will have to wrestle with any ethical considerations.

[Kirbstone]

Jaysus!

T.G. things are an awful lot simpler here. We just need a few sunny days before next Winter.

Tom

[FranTastic444]

What did Tennessee Governor Lee do to have Trump call him a RINO? I've read the reports and I can't find a reason. Lee has always kissed the ass of his Royal Majesty.

It looks like he had the audacity to endorse someone for a State Senate race that didn't align with Trump's endorsement for the same election.

[moonshadow]

What did Tennessee Governor Lee do to have Trump call him a RINO? I've read the reports and I can't find a reason. Lee has always kissed the ass of his Royal Majesty.

It looks like he had the audacity to endorse someone for a State Senate race that didn't align with Trump's endorsement for the same election.

My God, the ego of that man. What a role model. I can remember when I was growing up, "to become the president" was such a high honor amongst us kids. It was such a respected office.

Sadly, this is no longer the case. It has become a disgrace.

Perhaps Harris will restore the integrity of this high office. And personally, I'd love to see the GOP restore its integrity as well, but they have to lose this God complex first.

[crfriend]

My God, the ego of that man. What a role model. I can remember when I was growing up, "to become the president" was such a high honor amongst us kids. It was such a respected office.

Sadly, this is no longer the case. It has become a disgrace.

And most of that change has happened in your lifetime. It's rather frightening to think about.

The last one to have any dignity and integrity to him was James Carter -- and he was rather ineffectual as a president because the neo-cons were starting to flex their muscles. It's been a downhill rocket-ride since.

Perhaps Harris will restore the integrity of this high office. And personally, I'd love to see the GOP restore its integrity as well, but they have to lose this God complex first.

We shall see, and that's only if she wins. If the other one wins, we've already been warned what will happen.

I agree about restoring some of the integrity of the GOP, but that's been highly questionable for the past 50 years. I think the place is going to implode into a civil war.

Like in 2016, I suspect I'll be waking up the second Wednesday of the month torqued off at the way the thing went.

[Grok]

In recent years, American domestic politics has been described as a Cold Civil War, or as an Internal Cold War.

One book author suggested that this might be eased by moving towards decentralization, using the countrys federal structure as an escape hatch.

[FranTastic444]

One book author suggested that this might be eased by moving towards decentralization, using the countrys federal structure as an escape hatch.

As a matter of interest, what book are you referring to, Grok?

To this Brit, the US already seems to be way more decentralized than the UK system. I was surprised to learn several years ago of the concept of home rule within the US.

[rode_kater]

To this Brit, the US already seems to be way more decentralized than the UK system. I was surprised to learn several years ago of the concept of home rule within the US.

Note this is more an example of differing styles of governance. What is called "Home rule" in the US is an example of an open system (decentralised/general competence) where local councils can act as long as they do not contravene national of international law. The alternative is a more closed system where a local council can only act in ways the national government has specified (ultra vires).

The UK is well known to be extremely centralised with very limited local councils. At the other hand the Netherlands is highly decentralised and local councils can do whatever they like as long as the are no other laws against it. As such the Netherlands can sometimes act more like a federation of ~340 local councils that a single country. The 4 biggest local councils can and do regularly protest and refuse to implement national policies. I imagine that's unthinkable in the UK!

It's good to remember that the UK is actually the outlier here, most of Europe is far more decentralised. It's example how the shared language means the UK spends more time comparing itself to the US, a radically different country, that to its nearest European neighbours with which it has far more in common than it would like to admit.

[FranTastic444]

It's good to remember that the UK is actually the outlier here, most of Europe is far more decentralised. It's example how the shared language means the UK spends more time comparing itself to the US, a radically different country, that to its nearest European neighbours with which it has far more in common than it would like to admit.

Interesting feedback, thank you. As someone who would have voted against Brexit had not my local council back home messed up my proxy vote, I can only wish that the UK spent a bit more time looking East than West for inspiration. It dismays me how some of my connections on Facebook are regurgitating meme's (particularly about immigration) that clearly originate out of the US. And how did the UK let what I think of as a very Trumpian / US issue of voter fraud influence the voting process by introducing ID requirements?

Edited to add, in England there has been an experiment around elected mayors. The feeling I get is that, outside of the London example, it has not been a great success.

[Grok]

American Nations

[rode_kater]

Edited to add, in England there has been an experiment around elected mayors. The feeling I get is that, outside of the London example, it has not been a great success.

Ah, yes, that conundrum. How to reconcile the requirements of (a) someone who has the support of the legislature (in the parliamentary sense) and (b) elected by the people. We've tried a few systems, like having the legislature propose candidates and let the people choose, but it wasn't popular. Currently we let the legislature appoint a mayor, but their terms don't end at the same time as the council elections, so they remain in place across council elections. It gets us good candidates which is nice, I don't mind it. The EU's approach is to have the upper house (the council) propose a candidate for the lower house (the parliament) to approve.

We should keep experimenting of course. There's no optimal solution here. We have many quite popular mayors, the mayor of Rotterdam has always been very popular, despite never being directly elected. The main problem is that in the current social media climate, less people want to be a mayor because it's a difficult and thankless job.