Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Commenter_XY]

In any negotiation, one needs to know when to walk away.

What tells you when to walk away from a negotiation (any negotiation)?

Thinking of Iran, what actions or behaviors or spoken words would tell you to walk away from negotiations, and pursue a military option?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Neville Chamberlain went down in history as the loser who pandered to Hitler, and Jimmy Carter not much better with the Soviets.

But the fact remains the largest DOD budget increases, as a percentage of the whole, occurred under Carter, who also brought back draft registration.

I have heard the argument that Chamberlain knew that Britain simply was unprepared to fight a war at the time, and that his goal was to buy the time for Britain to rearm.

Trump is dealing with Brandon‘s navy, Brandon‘s military, and maybe finding inadequacies that we aren’t being told about. Only now is theGerald Ford going to thePersian Gulf, and will she be able to launch aircraft?

We really need three aircraft carriers there to go to war.

[Sebastian Cremmington]

Biden made America great again after the 2020 Trumpster Fire…but Republicans voted for Bush in 2004 when he was a failed president and so it doesn’t surprise me that they voted for Trump again. Biden reduced fentanyl ODs and violent crime and border crossings and inflation and the deficit and hostile action deaths and the unemployment rate and increased GDP growth and wages and jobs all the while allowing Israel and Ukraine degrade our enemies.

[Sebastian Cremmington]

Looks like Trump walked away from negotiations with the Taliban for us to reoccupy Bagram…basically the Taliban once again refused our help killing ISIS-K while giving them billions of dollars via NGOs.

[LexAquilia]

America has no interest in Iran.

[Brett Bellmore]

Pennsylvania's act 77, from 2019, extending absentee voting to everybody, has once again hit the courts.

And once again the courts have refused to apply the act's anti-severance clause, striking down as unconstitutional the requirement that absentee ballots be dated, but not, as the law mandates, voiding the whole law as a result.

Third Circuit Upholds Finding That Pennsylvania’s Practice of Discarding Misdated Mail-in Ballots Is Unconstitutional

Notably, this time they didn't even bother making excuses for violating the clause, they just outright ignored its existence.

[Dr. Ed 2]

300 pro forma impeachments….

[Dr. Ed 2]

The police corruption in Massachusetts goes deeper and deeper daily……

[hobie]

Should the police be allowed to investigate their own misconduct? Or should they hand over their evidence to another agency to conduct an investigation?

[hobie]

Grim tally: A look at each of Utah's 93 homicide victims of 2025
https://www.ksl.com/article/51435874/grim-tally-a-look-at-each-of-utahs-93-homicide-victims-of-2025

All the perps are plain old white Christian nationals with nary a tranny in sight.

[Sebastian Cremmington]

Crooks and Tyler Robinson were bitter clinger MAGA Republicans!! True DEPLORABLES!! Good riddance!!

[Moderation4ever]

I noted the death of crossing guard Steven Winn who was struck by a vehicle. My city, Madison, has had a lot of car pedestrian accidents in the past year. Yesterday a person was arrested in Madison for the death of a high school student killed while crossing a street. The cause of the death was excessive speed. People in general are not driving well these days. They are driving distracted and too fast. People over estimate their ability to handle problems on the road.

[Moderation4ever]

Yesterday, February 17, was the spring primary election day in Wisconsin. Wisconsin spring elections, primary and general, are non partisan elections typically to fill local government offices. The spring elections generally have lower turnout, especially the spring primary. There are rarely more than two candidates for open offices and incumbents often run unopposed. I worked the polls yesterday at the location where I worked only one office was on the ballot. At my own voting location, there were two offices on the ballet. Yet despite the low turn out and few real offices that require primaries, Wisconsin is compelled to undertake a full election. The polling site I worked had ten workers for each of two shift. Tabulators had to be tested, ballots printed, supplies packed for sites and all the other works for any election done. The spring primary is a massive waste of money and there is a much better option. I see no reason that the spring primary and spring general elections could not be combined using a rank choice election (RCV) scheme. The state would save money and the voter would get a better experience. Why doesn't this happen? I suspect that people would like RCV and would demand greater use of the scheme. This would mean a loss of power for the major parties. I don't believe the opposition to RCV is from the voters, but from politician afraid of losing power. Politician who harp about government waste but are willing to spend millions to keep themselves in a government job.

[Brett Bellmore]

I'd suggest an alternative: The state gets out of the business of running subsidized primaries for the parties, and only holds a general election.

Let the parties pick their own candidates, via whatever process they want, at their own expense. Why should the state involve itself in what is a matter internal to the party, a private organization outside the state government?

My own opinion is that government should have next to no say in who can run in the only election that counts, the general election. It's a severe conflict of interest for the incumbent government to have any say over who the voters can select among to replace them.

[hobie]

So how are Wisconsin's de-MAGA'd congressional districts looking this year? I expect good things from Wisconsin this go-around.