The Swamp

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 4:00 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 2:39 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:10 pm#voteharder

The GOP has a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court because people on the far left of the spectrum chose not to vote hard enough to stop it.

FWIW, the Liberal Justices were joined by Roberts and Kavenaugh in the majority for this opinion.

Sure. But the tweet that kicked this off was about the Court's 5-4 ruling in February 2022 to stay the lower court opinion that had held Alabama's districts illegal. By staying the lower court opinion, the Supreme Court left the illegally gerrymandered districts in effect for the 2022 election. Kavanaugh and Barrett were both part of the 5.

(Though thinking more about the guy's tweet, I'm not sure I understand how the Supreme Court issuing a stay in the Alabama case affected those other states.)

Anyway, here's an article by that guy from back when the Court issued the stay. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... worse.html

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 4:40 pm

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 4:00 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 2:39 pm

mister d wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 12:10 pm#voteharder

The GOP has a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court because people on the far left of the spectrum chose not to vote hard enough to stop it.

FWIW, the Liberal Justices were joined by Roberts and Kavenaugh in the majority for this opinion.

Sure. But the tweet that kicked this off was about the Court's 5-4 ruling in February 2022 to stay the lower court opinion that had held Alabama's districts illegal. By staying the lower court opinion, the Supreme Court left the illegally gerrymandered districts in effect for the 2022 election. Kavanaugh and Barrett were both part of the 5.

(Though thinking more about the guy's tweet, I'm not sure I understand how the Supreme Court issuing a stay in the Alabama case affected those other states.)

Anyway, here's an article by that guy from back when the Court issued the stay. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... worse.html

I should read deeper before guessing at this, but my take is that the original shadow docket ruling fucked the Dems before the election and would have been ruled Unconstitutional based on the Court's Opinion today. So yeah, too late and handed the GOP a few seats in 2022, but ultimately ruled correctly now.

That’s my reading too, Syb.

So, the town where my much of my father's side of my family lives has an annual weekend festival the weekend after Labor Day. A lot of the money generated at the festival comes from beer sales and, for the last could decades, an Anhueser-Busch distributor has been the provider of said beer, generally Bud Light, Bud, and Busch Light.

Apparently, Dylan Mulvaney could lower alcohol consumption in the area that weekend.

Bud light no longer America's beer. The highest selling beer in 'Murica now is....MODELO!

A_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 8:34 am Bud light no longer America's beer. The highest selling beer in 'Murica now is....MODELO!

Which is part of InBev, the parent company of Anheiser-Busch, maker of Bud Light.

God, Republicans are such fucking morons.

My son, who is getting his degree in brewery science/hospitality, has been on the Modelo tip for quite some time.

Voiceover

If InBev didn't have the business acumen to systematically swallow up every major North American beer manufacturer, they'd still be toiling in mediocrity in Europe.

If they didn't use a diverse branding mechanism for all of their beers to lower their risk, they would have put themselves in danger of not succeeding.

And if they never had the wherewithall to seek out increasing their market share through targeted advertising by using one of those brands to pander to the marginalized LGBTQIA community to look like heroes for a just cause, they would have just been another multinational drink and beverage corporation making slightly less profits with Pride Month just around the corner.

InBev's business is personal -- to their bottom line. And that's the mark of a Fighting Spirit.

Negra Modelo is one of my favorites.

I only drink Modelo when I walk into a dive bar full of regulars who don't like new people, only I win them over with my beer selection and a nod.

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 9:25 am Negra Modelo is one of my favorites.

In college, this was my favorite beer. Probably been 10 years since I've had one. Time to revisit.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:08 am

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 9:25 am Negra Modelo is one of my favorites.

In college, this was my favorite beer. Probably been 10 years since I've had one. Time to revisit.

Why do you love Belgium?

A_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:09 am

The Sybian wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:08 am

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 9:25 am Negra Modelo is one of my favorites.

In college, this was my favorite beer. Probably been 10 years since I've had one. Time to revisit.

Why do you love Belgium?

Who doesn't love Belgium?

Ballot for our upcoming mayoral election.

Note that there won't be a runoff - my feeling is that our next mayor will win with 20-25% of the vote.

Hope it isn’t somebody that Ford supports.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 11:29 am Hope it isn’t somebody that Ford supports.

He's officially staying out of the campaign, but it's clear that he prefers Mark Saunders (#84 in your programme). A former Police Chief and member of Ford's Progressive Conservative party provincially. (No parties on the municipal election here).

Frontrunner is former city councillor and NDP (old school socialists) Member of Federal Parliament. She sucks so badly.

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:03 am I only drink Modelo when I walk into a dive bar full of regulars who don't like new people, only I win them over with my beer selection and a nod.

That's Naragansett for me.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 1:16 pm

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:03 am I only drink Modelo when I walk into a dive bar full of regulars who don't like new people, only I win them over with my beer selection and a nod.

That's Naragansett for me.

The official gateway beer of the good beer place in town.

Pruitt IV wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:33 am Ballot for our upcoming mayoral election.

Note that there won't be a runoff - my feeling is that our next mayor will win with 20-25% of the vote.

Lotta good names in there.

Brad Bradford
Darren and Jamie Atkinson (husband and wife both going for it?)
Frank D'Amico and Frank D'Angelo (fill it out carefully!)
Isabella Gamk
DIONNE Renée (why is the first name in all caps?)

Dionysios Apostolopolous sounds like a Byzantine emperor.

The City Engraver is like please no

It's a freak show


And one of the candidates was arrested today... for the 74th time!

In the last two days, the Senate has confirmed two federal judges who came from the ACLU.

According to this Wikipedia article, there are no circuit (appellate) court nominees waiting for the Judiciary Committee to vote on their nominations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f ... t%20courts.

There are 8 district court judicial nominees pending before the Committee. But six of them were appointed in May and June; only two have been before the committee longer than that.

So it's probably a good thing Feinstein didn't retire when we all wanted her to.

Last ACLU attorney nominated to federal bench?

[+] spoiler

Notorious RBG

Pretty decent day of SCOTUS opinions as well.

It’s almost like agreeing to power shares with Mitch McConnell was a bad idea.

Oh boy.

Free link: https://archive.is/7eymj

Could Madison Cawthorne's tales of drug-fueled Republican orgies been true?

Of course it was.

They ended that dude for a throwaway comment from a podcast/interview and they did nothing when he was a psycho going after the left.

Have you guys ever kind of sat back and wondered, in today's internet driven economy (Amazon, Target, Wayfair, etc.) why major automobile companies don't go the way of Tesla and do straight to consumer sales?

Well, the car dealers sure have! And thanks to Ron DeSantis, they are going to make sure Floridians keep it that way!

https://www.carscoops.com/2023/06/ron-d ... n-florida/

Hey, big shocker, but the assholes that own car dealerships are major GOP/Trump supporters!

Hey, another big shocker, they bill specifically carves out an exception for Tesla... Musk is famously a huge DeSantis supporter. (The way the law was written (mostly by the dealership lobby) it carves out B2C exceptions for E/Vs.

Also in that bill, which goes into effect on July 1, dealerships who are found to be dramatically marking up the cost of their cars no longer face any punishment.

Chris Christie was on a mission to shut down Tesla stores and force them to go the dealership route. Not sure how that was stopped.

The Sybian wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 12:58 pm Chris Christie was on a mission to shut down Tesla stores and force them to go the dealership route. Not sure how that was stopped.

Florida (DeSantis & cronies) just passed a law banning direct auto sales EXCEPT for Tesla.

Wait. Am I being blocked by cheddar???

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 1:04 pm Wait. Am I being blocked by cheddar???

Tale no offense, you're not blocked. I'm just too busy to scroll up, or the "new post link" didn't start me at the right spot. Saw something recently on Twitter (which means it's now lost to the ether) about how powerful the car dealer lobby is.

I'm sure I saw that Ford was going the Tesla route only for EVs.

So, I'm guessing if auto manufacturers wanted to do direct to customer sales they would've done so by now.

This shit is on them mostly.

But yeah. Gouging via dealer markup is a fucking joke. But everything is an opportunity to gouge in a capitalist society.

I mean, I don't disagree with that, but car dealerships are the absolute worst. And in today's environment, where we can all do the research and know exactly what the MSRP is, it's just stupid to go into a dealership and allow them to fuck with you. When we bought the VW, I told the guy on the phone exactly what I wanted and if I get down there and you tell me "oh, no, that car left the lot" I'm walking straight out of there. And I don't want to haggle over the price that we just discussed.

I was in and of there in a little over an hour, which was mostly having him walk me through the bells and whistles (the AC is amazing, but there's a trick to it. The windshield wipers are also strange. Germans overthinking things.)

When we bought the Rav, we went through a CarMax-owned dealership. Zero haggling. Took even less time.

That's pretty much the only way I'm buying a car going forward.

=-=-=-==-

The car dealership lobby gave more $$ to the GOP than the NRA last cycle.

Fuck those guys.

I think a lot of states have laws banning direct sales by automakers. Maybe most states. And of course it's for the same reason - car dealers are local and they have lots of money to spend on politicians.

The exception for Tesla isn't necessarily nefarious. Tesla fought for years to get the Utah legislature to grant it an exemption to allow direct sales, since Tesla doesn't go through dealers. Without an exception, Utahns simply could not buy Teslas without going out of state.

Tesla got its exemption from the legislature in 2018 - back when no one really cared about Elon Musk and Tesla was a liberal thing, not a conservative thing.

Wouldn't capitalism and the free market determine the best way for manufacturers to get their products to consumers?

In the same way it would determine the best way to get people healthcare, I assume.

P.D.X. wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 2:11 pm Wouldn't capitalism and the free market determine the best way for manufacturers to get their products to consumers?

Only when it lines the pockets of the club.