Off Topic Thread 5.0

Neil3030

Podge_irl wrote: »

Switzerland hasn't remotely managed it with a lot of money and decades of trying. The border moves quite smoothly most of the time, but massive delays also occur with reasonable regularity. It is simply impossible to rule those delays out because no matter what system you have in place it relies on people using it properly 100% of the time which will never happen.

Things will get better for sure, but the days of unfettered logistics are over.

Are trucks sent a different route to cars at the Swiss-Italian border?

Because I drove (a car) through a couple of times, and it wasn't any hassle at all.

(The border near Como)

Podge_irl

Neil3030 wrote: »

Are trucks sent a different route to cars at the Swiss-Italian border?

Because I drove (a car) through a couple of times, and it wasn't any hassle at all.

(The border near Como)

Yeah they are. Well, not so much a different route as a different lane at the border though certain routes will be heavily trafficked. The delays in cars are more akin to just bad traffic and the occasionally being hit with a search where your contraband French booze and meat gets taxed. Quite often you just sail through though. You can have hours long delays on trucks and they can't generally cross on weekends.

dregin

Anyone ever rung up bord gais and told them you're moving to electric ireland unless they give you the new customer goodies? I was about to buy hive for the house and saw they give it for free to new customers along with 25% discounts on electric and gas, but a move to Electric Ireland saves almost 500 euro for the year.

If you did, how did it go?

dregin

Hope you're both better soon Bazzo.

sydthebeat

hope you both come through it ok bazzo !

Zzippy

Deleted User wrote: »

Get well soon to the pair of ye. I'll drink some beer and wine in the hope it helps you both recover.

Good man Venjur, saving the whiskey for us

Get well soon Mr & Mrs Bazzo!

Dubinusa

Best wishes Bazzo and oh

aloooof

Hope yer both over it soon, Bazzo.

Some pretty grim reading from the NPHET briefing this evening... I think we could all do with an update from this fella rom back in March:

https://twitter.com/Rubberbandits/status/1243494193630191618

dregin

aloooof wrote: »

Hope yer both over it soon, Bazzo.

Some pretty grim reading from the NPHET briefing this evening... I think we could all do with an update from this fella rom back in March:

https://twitter.com/Rubberbandits/status/1243494193630191618

Completely forgot about this hero! Any of our Limerick brethren have any idea who he is? Not sure if it's a pisstake or not.

The Lost Sheep

dregin wrote: »

Completely forgot about this hero! Any of our Limerick brethren have any idea who he is? Not sure if it's a pisstake or not.

I know him. He's actually a rugby ref. He's an AIL ref
Tommy O Donoghue. Its very much a piss take.

swiwi_

What is Venjur’s prediction for the Georgia senate race? I’m hoping he’s predicting a republican victory as that’s a sure fire sign of a democratic sweep I’d probably only be more confident if he is picking Ireland to win RWC 2023.

swiwi_

swiwi_ wrote: »

What is Venjur’s prediction for the Georgia senate race? I’m hoping he’s predicting a republican victory as that’s a sure fire sign of a democratic sweep I’d probably only be more confident if he is picking Ireland to win RWC 2023.

Too close to call.

Uncomfortably consequential though and that stretches beyond the borders of both Georgia and the US.

We are very much living in the age of targeted reality altering and that's not going to end well for anyone. Intentional misinformation is a far greater plague than covid19.

ClanofLams

Two democrat wins, I think. Democrats riding momentum of November win for Biden have increased their margins in early voting. Trump voters haven’t tended to show up without Trump being on the ballot (2018 midterms, early voting here) and the very small percentage of Biden- R senate voters have to be at the very least a bit uncomfortable with recent events (trump pressuring/inciting hatred for local officials & neither senator speaking up about it).

It’s America though so who tf knows.

swiwi_

ClanofLams wrote: »

Two democrat wins, I think. Democrats riding momentum of November win for Biden have increased their margins in early voting. Trump voters haven’t tended to show up without Trump being on the ballot (2018 midterms, early voting here) and the very small percentage of Biden- R senate voters have to be at the very least a bit uncomfortable with recent events (trump pressuring/inciting hatred for local officials & neither senator speaking up about it).

It’s America though so who tf knows.

I reckon dems too. Dems will vote dem. Neutrals will more likely vote dem. Trump supporters will either vote republican or not at all. Republicans will either vote republican, not at all or possibly dem in small numbers.

I hope all hell breaks loose for trump once he’s out of office with lawsuit after lawsuit and ideally a criminal investigation.

Stheno

swiwi_ wrote: »

I reckon dems too. Dems will vote dem. Neutrals will more likely vote dem. Trump supporters will either vote republican or not at all. Republicans will either vote republican, not at all or possibly dem in small numbers.

I hope all hell breaks loose for trump once he’s out of office with lawsuit after lawsuit and ideally a criminal investigation.

Dems for me too, think the stunt with the phone call will drive more Dems and neutrals to vote

swiwi_

Stheno wrote: »

Dems for me too, think the stunt with the phone call will drive more Dems and neutrals to vote

If only it was a stunt...

Surely there is a great Netflix drama out of this. In Dolby vision and atmos please

stephen_n

Saw one suggestion today the Trump will resign on the 19th and the newly sworn in Pence as interim president will pardon him. Not sure you can be pardoned for future convictions though. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Trump tried that though.

irishbucsfan

stephen_n wrote: »

Saw one suggestion today the Trump will resign on the 19th and the newly sworn in Pence as interim president will pardon him. Not sure you can be pardoned for future convictions though. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Trump tried that though.

Yes, you can be pardoned before being convicted or even being indicted. A pardon can also be given to a group of people instead of just one person.

It would be completely legal for a president to issue a pardon for all members of the Trump family for any crimes committed before 2021. (although the "any crimes" bit may need to be more explicit)

Pardon would only apply to federal crimes though, he'd need Cuomo in New York to pardon him for state crimes there.

pickarooney

I misread that as pardoning him for crimes he has yet to commit.

And I wasn't shocked by it

Dave_The_Sheep

I would hope that it's a specific thing, ie you can't just blanket pardon, you have to pardon them for something in particular. I suspect it'll be blanket done anyway, and then the lawyers can argue about it up to the supreme court for another few years.

Stheno

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

I would hope that it's a specific thing, ie you can't just blanket pardon, you have to pardon them for something in particular. I suspect it'll be blanket done anyway, and then the lawyers can argue about it up to the supreme court for another few years.

They have some bizarre thing where you can be issued a blanket pardon in advance afaik

Dave_The_Sheep

The mind boggles, if true.

Stheno

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

The mind boggles, if true.

I might be wrong mind

irishbucsfan

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

I would hope that it's a specific thing, ie you can't just blanket pardon, you have to pardon them for something in particular. I suspect it'll be blanket done anyway, and then the lawyers can argue about it up to the supreme court for another few years.

One of the biggest complaints about the Michael Flynn pardon was about how broad it was. He was pardoned for "any and all possible offenses" arising from the investigation into him.

The pardon power is absolutely outrageous and Trump is far from the first person to abuse it. Bill Clinton was particularly bad, including pardoning his own brother for drug offenses.

Stheno

Myself and the OH cracked

Whoops wring tweet

irishbucsfan

Stheno wrote: »

They have some bizarre thing where you can be issued a blanket pardon in advance afaik

In advance of a conviction or indictment. You can't be pardoned in advance of a crime being committed, or rather that would require an extremely sympathetic supreme court to change very old precedent (which is not beyond them).

Stheno

Correct.tweet we laughed

https://twitter.com/THedrof/status/1346518370674479106?s=19

I don't understand how a pardon is even a thing. Outrageously corrupt concept.

Bazzo

irishbucsfan wrote: »

One of the biggest complaints about the Michael Flynn pardon was about how broad it was. He was pardoned for "any and all possible offenses" arising from the investigation into him.

The pardon power is absolutely outrageous and Trump is far from the first person to abuse it. Bill Clinton was particularly bad, including pardoning his own brother for drug offenses.

There's no way that sort of power should exist in a modern civilised society

Neil3030

Very interesting point in the NYT today re Georgia:

How will President Trump’s core supporters respond to an election he says is illegal?
The Georgia contests come 15 days before Mr. Biden is to be sworn in, but Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler have not been able to use their strongest argument — that they and a Republican Senate majority would serve as a check on the incoming Democratic president.

Mr. Trump’s repeated efforts to overturn the election results — the latest being a call on Saturday to Mr. Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, urging him to “find” more than 11,000 votes — have left the incumbents pledging to fight for the president rather than legislate in a post-Trump political era.

The political far right’s refusal to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory has led to high-profile calls for conservatives to boycott Georgia’s runoff contests and tweets from the president that the runoff system, embedded in Georgia elections for generations, is itself illegal.

What’s not known is how many core Trump supporters will be so put off by the president’s defeat, and angered by right-wing conspiracy theories about it, that they will abstain from voting in the runoffs.

Republicans have never lost a statewide runoff election in modern Georgia, since Democratic turnout has traditionally fallen from the level of general elections. But for the first time, Democrats have a mature and robust get-out-the-vote operation, and Republicans are the ones worried about their voters’ enthusiasm.

At a rally on Monday night in Dalton, Ga., Mr. Trump again falsely claimed that he won Georgia and vowed to get involved in 2022 primary challenges to sitting Republicans who he said had not been sufficiently loyal to his efforts to overturn the result of the election.

“I’m going to be here in a year and a half,” he said. “And I’m going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state.”

tl:dr - the best scare tactic for Loeffler and Purdue would have been "with Biden elected, don't let Dems control all branches of government", but it's very hard to hammer this home while Trump is still claiming he won, and people believe it.