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On January 05 2019 13:10 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 12:04 ticklishmusic wrote: another anecdote: airports are having a problem with TSA employees just calling in sick because they don't like working without pay. If your considered 'essential' personnel, you have to report for work. People are going to lose their jobs over this and have no way to pay bills. This is extra stupid because the TSA is pretty much a placebo when it comes to airport security.
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Every time I have hope the Democratic party can right the ship as the party of the sane ones, the ones we can trust to bring sanity back to a troubled landscape, something happens that crushes my hopes. Today, it was congressman Steve Cohen introducing leglislation to abolish the electoral college. Obviously it’ll never pass, as it would take a constitutional amendment to change such a thing, but still, I had never heard of this guy before. I assumed such a ridiculous move might have been attempted by one of the incoming progressive radicals as a publicity stunt, but alas this man has been in congress since 2007. It was a very sad day indeed
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Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing.
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On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times.
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On January 05 2019 20:11 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times.
Oh okay. I wasn't sure whether to interpret the comment as a bad move because the idea is bad, or a bad move because we currently can't win the fight in Congress.
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On January 05 2019 13:30 Kyadytim wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 13:10 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On January 05 2019 12:04 ticklishmusic wrote: another anecdote: airports are having a problem with TSA employees just calling in sick because they don't like working without pay. If your considered 'essential' personnel, you have to report for work. People are going to lose their jobs over this and have no way to pay bills. This is extra stupid because the TSA is pretty much a placebo when it comes to airport security. The TSA is a complete joke. When secretly tested, they failed abysmally.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-operation-us-airports/story?id=51022188
The news of the failure comes two years after ABC News reported that secret teams from the DHS found that the TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening.
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On January 05 2019 21:04 SenorChang wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 13:30 Kyadytim wrote:On January 05 2019 13:10 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On January 05 2019 12:04 ticklishmusic wrote: another anecdote: airports are having a problem with TSA employees just calling in sick because they don't like working without pay. If your considered 'essential' personnel, you have to report for work. People are going to lose their jobs over this and have no way to pay bills. This is extra stupid because the TSA is pretty much a placebo when it comes to airport security. The TSA is a complete joke. When secretly tested, they failed abysmally. https://abcnews.go.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-operation-us-airports/story?id=51022188Show nested quote +The news of the failure comes two years after ABC News reported that secret teams from the DHS found that the TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening.
I knew that the TSA was largely useless and at best acts as a placebo, but wow O.O How do they fail that badly? Is it just that their screening methods aren't able to detect the proper materials? Are they just profiling poorly? Considering how intrusive their process can be for the passengers who are being particularly scrutinized, I'm surprised that the failure percentage is so high. Every time I fly (anecdotal acknowledgment), the TSA/ security crew seem to be all about no-nonsense, taking their job very seriously, don't fuck with them.
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And of course, the conclusion from that is not "Hey, the TSA doesn't seem to be doing anything, and stuff still works, how about we don't have these horribly intrusive and humiliating procedure for everyone who wants to fly a plane?"
No, the logical conclusion is "Let's have more intrusive and humiliating procedures in every airport, because the current ones don't do anything!"
How does the fact that those guys don't seem to be doing anything useful in any effective way, and horrible things that they are supposed to prevent don't seem to be happening anyways lead to the conclusion that they need to do the stuff that doesn't seem to do anything harder?
They seem to work like a bear-repellent rock. "Haven't been eaten by bears since i have this stone, so it is working!"
Except that they are not just lying about doing nothing, but actively make things more annoying for everyone flying a plane. I guess making flying planes less attractive is a good idea from a climate POV, but there is gotta be a better way to do that.
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On January 05 2019 21:29 Simberto wrote: And of course, the conclusion from that is not "Hey, the TSA doesn't seem to be doing anything, and stuff still works, how about we don't have these horribly intrusive and humiliating procedure for everyone who wants to fly a plane?"
No, the logical conclusion is "Let's have more intrusive and humiliating procedures in every airport, because the current ones don't do anything!"
How does the fact that those guys don't seem to be doing anything useful in any effective way, and horrible things that they are supposed to prevent don't seem to be happening anyways lead to the conclusion that they need to do the stuff that doesn't seem to do anything harder?
They seem to work like a bear-repellent rock. "Haven't been eaten by bears since i have this stone, so it is working!"
Except that they are not just lying about doing nothing, but actively make things more annoying for everyone flying a plane. I guess making flying planes less attractive is a good idea from a climate POV, but there is gotta be a better way to do that. who you gibbering at mate?
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Isn't it obvious? He's just further critiquing the TSA...
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On January 05 2019 13:30 Kyadytim wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 13:10 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On January 05 2019 12:04 ticklishmusic wrote: another anecdote: airports are having a problem with TSA employees just calling in sick because they don't like working without pay. If your considered 'essential' personnel, you have to report for work. People are going to lose their jobs over this and have no way to pay bills. This is extra stupid because the TSA is pretty much a placebo when it comes to airport security.
It's not really tho. It's way too strict for sure, but you're not going to be able to bring ak47s on board an airplane any more and capture it (bringing in bomb materials big enough to blow one up is definitively possible, but you'd have to spread it among like 15 people, which would make the plan a lot more likely to be caught up front).
The TSA is stupid in a lot of ways, but compared to what we had before (nothing), it's definitively more effective than just placebo.
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On January 05 2019 20:11 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times. i mean, this seems like very poor reasoning. the congressman is showing you who he is, and hopefully earning your future vote(at least for his actual constituents.) how else do we know what congressmen actually stand for if not the legislation they support? you’d rather just go off his word?
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On January 05 2019 21:59 brian wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 20:11 Gorsameth wrote:On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times. i mean, this seems like very poor reasoning. the congressman is showing you who he is, and hopefully earning your future vote(at least for his actual constituents.) how else do we know what congressmen actually stand for if not the legislation they support? you’d rather just go off his word? If it's legislation that has 0% chance of passing, you don't need to actually support it if you want to grab people's vote, just say you do.
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Legislative acts that amount to gestures are a mixed bag, but many of the most monumental laws passed start as flashes in the pan that have no chance of passing when first introduced.
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United States24578 Posts
If the Democrats control the House, won't introducing a bill to take the first steps towards eliminating the electoral college at least allow for debate and discussion on the matter? Getting rid of the EC will never happen if it becomes a taboo topic, so I think it makes sense for congressmen who feel strongly we should get rid of it to introduce a bill for the purpose of getting the conversation going.
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On January 05 2019 21:59 brian wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 20:11 Gorsameth wrote:On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times. i mean, this seems like very poor reasoning. the congressman is showing you who he is, and hopefully earning your future vote(at least for his actual constituents.) how else do we know what congressmen actually stand for if not the legislation they support? you’d rather just go off his word? For 'pie in the sky' kind of stuff? Yes. Once you get close to having enough people/states saying they want to do it you can consider having a show of hands.
Are you going to have votes for every possible dream someone comes up with? Should we have a day for congressmen to have several votes on their dream stuff to inform their constituents? It'll only take about 2 years, not like they have anything better to do.
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On January 05 2019 22:11 micronesia wrote: If the Democrats control the House, won't introducing a bill to take the first steps towards eliminating the electoral college at least allow for debate and discussion on the matter? Getting rid of the EC will never happen if it becomes a taboo topic, so I think it makes sense for congressmen who feel strongly we should get rid of it to introduce a bill for the purpose of getting the conversation going. The rest of the world managed to have national debated on issues without having to throw them up for dummy votes first.
If the party wants to get serious about getting rid of the EC they can start that discussion without having to introduce bills about it first.
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United States24578 Posts
In the US how do parties who don't control the white house get the conversation started without using the legislative process? That congressman can just randomly go on MSNBC and talk about it I guess, but it will just get ignored by most people. I don't know exactly how the House works but I'd think any formal debate associated with introducing a bill would get more people to acknowledge why eliminating the EC is a good or a bad idea.
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On January 05 2019 22:04 Gahlo wrote:Show nested quote +On January 05 2019 21:59 brian wrote:On January 05 2019 20:11 Gorsameth wrote:On January 05 2019 20:09 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Why is introducing legislation to abolish the electoral college crushing your hopes? Abolishing the electoral college would be amazing. Because its pointless showmanship with no hope in hell of ever passing. Its like the GOP doing a repeal ACA vote 40 times. i mean, this seems like very poor reasoning. the congressman is showing you who he is, and hopefully earning your future vote(at least for his actual constituents.) how else do we know what congressmen actually stand for if not the legislation they support? you’d rather just go off his word? If it's legislation that has 0% chance of passing, you don't need to actually support it if you want to grab people's vote, just say you do.
The irony there is that the whole "essentially 0% chance of making a difference" is exactly why most Americans' votes don't actually matter at all in presidential elections... they have essentially a 0% chance of making a difference due to the electoral college. Legislation to end the electoral college would make votes matter and actually help the democratic process, and legislation can't be passed unless it's proposed.
It has to start somewhere, and even the gesture of creating legislature that doesn't yet have the support to pass can help draw the confidence of other Congressmen who might feel the same way (or could be persuaded), and that's something.
Otherwise, where do you draw the arbitrary line for how much Congressional support should be needed to even consider introducing anything onto the floor? Once 51% of them give you your word? 40%? Isn't a voting record more useful than just someone saying privately that they would endorse a new idea? I feel like actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to Congress.
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the wall will be trumps legacy,it will be there long after he has been president. There is no way the democrats will bring it down at a later time once it is in place. Maybe thats why democrats are so fierce about it. Why no go fund me or kickstarter page for the wall yet? Trump should make one to see how much support the wall really has. Could be decent argument to convince the democrats and also safe some of the costs. Funders then get exclusive rights to visit the wall up close and make some pictures to take home. Is all this mess over a 5 billion wall really worth it for the democrats?
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