mtutiger

fwiw, Rosenthal and Passan did report that they are talking today.

The ECA is pretty clear, and SCOTUS would have enforced it IMO. In terms of the hypothetical above, I'm a lot less clear on what would happen.

I can't really disagree with you on any of this. I just don't think it's a reason to not reform the ECA.

He would have been in violation of the ECA, it would have been litigated, the Supreme Court would have stepped in and the votes would have ultimately counted. My understanding is that the ECA reform is looking to remove any sort of ambiguity on the question in the hopes of preventing a repeat of this from happening again. But I'll admit that I haven't read enough about the reform negotiations beyond that to know completely about the details.

Is it really clear there was anything that could be done on January 6th, 2020 anyway?

I would just add that, in regard to Trump's reasoning on the travel ban and the "it's not against all Muslims, just those countries", I thought one of the most telling lines during his Presidency was the "shithole countries" remark. Not just because he referred to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries", which is obviously terrible, but it was telling for the more forgotten part of that diatribe, where he lamented that "we should have more people from Norway". It's telling in that the large majority of immigration in the United States has generally happened because those immigrating are trying to escape something.... again, all of my ancestors (who immigrated during various centurites) were trying to escape economic hardship or war. People in Norway? They aren't immigrating because, you know, why the hell would you leave Norway? At best, it's just a fundamental misreading of the history of immigration in the United States... but I don't give Trump the benefit of the doubt on that.

Talk about a false choice... it's not even clear to me that the travel ban stopped any terror attacks from happening. Either way, what I don't get is that, at least in my experience, people who come here don't like their governments and like ours and our way of life better. For some reason, a lot people have trouble separating feelings about the governments of a place like Iran, Libya, etc with people who may want to come here from there. It's punitive against people who may want to come here for the same reason that my ancestors came here for. It's kinda sad and bigoted

The couple of people that I've met who came here from those countries, like most immigrants, appreciate America more than actual Americans do. And they came here because of the opportunity we provide. Maybe, just maybe, don't paint with a broad brush. Just because Trump singled out a country doesn't mean everyone from that country hates us.

Have you ever met anyone from any of those countries?

I do think people overestimate how many people listen to Podcasts.... like most things, the conversation seems to be dominated by white collar types who have the time or inclination to listen to Podcasts.. Overall, terrestrial radio is still a much bigger player in this space.

The Muslim ban didn't make me feel any safer. What it did do was produce a chill upon those looking to immigrate and come through legal means to this country to study or to work. I would know having been in contact with and befriending those who came here to do just that... they felt that it was punitive, and given Trump's past history of comments about Muslims, hard to disagree with them. I'd just add that in terms of threats, the threat of domestic terror, particularly from right wing groups, seems higher right now.

Shouldn't surprise anyone that, sure enough, Roody and the gang wasn't just freelancing this stuff...

This seems like a wild framing given that almost half of the sample either hasn't heard of or has no opinion on Joe Rogan.

As expected

That sarcasm wasn't so much directed at you, fwiw. We are pretty aligned on this topic.

He was great, as was Louis Jourdan... the backgammon scene is low-key one of my favorite scenes of the Moore era. If the cinematography were better and if they had cut some of the campier stuff, it'd probably have cracked the Top 10 in Bonds for me. I just saw it recently and, despite the Cold War motif being an outdated, I was struck by how transferrable more hardliner views on NATO of the time are easily transferrable to today and to Putin specifically... it didn't feel as outdated as it should have because of the Ukraine situation.

That's different because clearly that's just different.

The US has a demographically stagnant population.... all with boomers on the precipice of retirement. Maybe, just maybe, we should make it easier to legally immigrate. Or we should do things to help the economic situation in the places from which these migrants come. Doing what the Tennessee lawmaker doesn't do much except, to paraphrase Moynihan, throw some boob bait to the Bubbas.

This is a weird pop-culture reference, but it's almost like Putin, ala the Russian baddy in the Bond film Octopussy, just assumed that he could roll NATO with his scheme, when the reality is that NATO has projected more strength in the past week or so than the alliance has in a while. All on account of his aggression. The danger is that he's in a corner now.... just domestically, he has to come away with a W.

The focus on identity on this subject is weird considering how politicized this process is, and how political views are an "identity" in and of themselves.

I think this is fair... I just have a problem with the clear double standard being applied here. Whoever Biden picks will be very qualified... and in the grand scheme of things, most Americans are not going to notice or care about the selection process. Just a big deal over nothing.

Really happy for Matt Stafford... he deserves this!

Their loss I guess...