The country changed today

[Lord Jim]

I'm sorry you're unhappy LJ.

But they times they are a'changin, and they'll be changing a lot more before you die - if you're lucky and stay healthy and eat your veggies like Lady Kelly asks you to.

I'd recommend accepting that the meek and brown are going to be running this country more and more with every passing year . . . especially considering the platform positions and public statements of your party's candidates, I don't think I'll live to ever see another from your party in the driver's seat.

That's a really meaningful response...

I don't think I'll live to ever see another from your party in the driver's seat.

Are you planning to dive in front of a 16 wheeler before November of 2016?

[BoSoxGal]

Nope, not at all.

[wesw]

is a sixteen wheeler actually an 18 wheeler who self identifies as one who has less wheels?

[Joe Guy]

No. That's a transwheeler.

[Econoline]

[MajGenl.Meade]

Surely a 16 wheeler is bi bi bi bi bi bi bi bi-axial?

[Lord Jim]

Okay, I guess I should have said "18 wheeler"....

I confess that as an upper-middle class suburban elitist, my knowledge of how many wheels a "big rig" truck has is rather limited...(I've never had occasion to count them...)

I couldn't tell you the difference between "NASCAR" and "Formula 1" either....

[Gob]

An elated US Ambassador to Australia John Berry declared it a proud day to be an American and lauded Australia's leadership on equality after the US Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage was legal in all 50 states.

The first openly gay US Ambassador to serve in a G20 nation, Mr Berry described what the landmark decision would mean before he spoke at a jazz event performed by the Gay and Lesbian Qwire at the Hellenic Club on Saturday night.

"All of the couples who have been married in the 37 states where it was legal will not feel constrained about where they can live, if they got a job offer in one of those other states, they can move there with comfort noting their marriage will be recognised from state to state, and that their children can be raised and the rights will go with them," he said.


"It's also an important day for us to hold true to our founding values, which is that all people are created equal and they deserve equal protection under the law."

Marriages would not occur in any US Embassy, however.

"Unfortunately the US, unlike the British High Commission, we don't perform marriages in the embassy," he said.

Asked whether he had a message for Australian lawmakers on the issue, Mr Berry said Saturday was a day to celebrate what the US had achieved.

"We recognise the debate here in Australia is one Australia needs to have for itself, we wish you well in that regard," he said.

"For most of my life, I've been involved in the LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex] community in the United States for over 25 years. We have looked over the horizon to Australia for our lighthouse of leadership on LGBTI, you've been ahead of us on gays in the military, on employment non-discrimination ... this is the only time where we might be ahead for a little bit.

"We've used Australia as the benchmark for equality in the United States."

Mr Berry praised Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority judgment, as a "patron saint" of the US LGBTI community.

"He struck down the sodomy laws ... he recently struck down the Defence of Marriage Act, and now today is extending that right throughout all 50 states," he said.

The 5-4 majority decided the US Constitution, through the 14th amendment, guaranteed the right for a same-sex couple to be married.

Mr Berry and his long-time partner Curtis Yee wed in August 2013, a month before he presented his credentials to then governor-general Quentin Bryce.

[Lord Jim]

Nope, not at all.

When you have a candidate who can't even pull 50% against Ted Cruz, I wouldn't count my chickens...

[BoSoxGal]

I support Bernie because he is 110% in support of positions I share, and he will push the conversation in the right direction during the very lengthy campaign season.

But I'm not concerned about a Republican getting elected - it won't happen. Your party isn't capable of winning the vote anymore in a general election. The times they are a'changin!

[Lord Jim]

I don't know what alternate timeline or parallel universe you're living in, but in the timeline and universe I live in, the GOP won their largest Congressional majority in 2014, since the 1920s...

In the timeline and universe I live in, the GOP netted nine seats in the Senate elections to take control of that body, 54-46....

In the timeline and universe I live in, the GOP holds a 31 to 18 advantage among Governorships, (with one Independent in Alaska) and a huge advantage nationwide among state legislatures...

If my party is headed for "the dustbin of history" as you seem to suggest, we seem to be going about it in a very strange way...

The reason we have so many Governors running for the Presidency, is because we have so many Governors...

I would agree (as I've made very clear from what I've said before) that we can not win the Presidency if we get ourselves locked into a 25-75 percent breakdown on the Latino vote...

We need 35-40%...(Like GWB got in 2004; Jeb could get that percentage, so could Rubio, and so could Kasich)

But against a likely Democratic nominee who can't poll 50% of the overall vote against anybody with an R next to their name, in 2016, we may not need even that much...

Now, you may think there's going to be some "social revolution" that will sweep Bernie Sanders into the Presidency....

But that compels me to ask if Montana has become a state where the consumption of Psilocybin mushrooms has been legalized...

[Lord Jim]

I tell you what BSG, if you're so cock sure that the GOP can't win the next Presidential election, how about we put a little wager on it?

Now, the last time I did this I got badly burned; I took a number of bets in 2004 that GWB would get 400 electoral votes...(I thought Howard Dean was going to be the nominee...if he had been, I have no doubt that I'd have won those bets, but as it was I wound up about $200 out of pocket paying them off...but I did pay those bets...)

What do you say to a $50 wager....

If the Republican nominee for President wins the election, you send $50 to my PayPal account...

And if either the Democratic nominee, or the Green Party nominee, or The Socialist Workers Party nominee, or The Peace and Freedom Party nominee (or any other off-brand "social revolution" party) wins the Presidency, I'll send $50 to your PayPal account...

I'll take the GOP against the field...

Do we have a bet?

[BoSoxGal]

The worst showing at the polls in 80 years your party wins because the haters came out to vote.

Did you see the rainbows everywhere this week? That's who will elect the next Democrat President.

$100 bucks - I don't generally gamble but will make an exception.

eta: This was my 5100th post, so I felt the amount was appropriate.

[Lord Jim]

Did you see the rainbows everywhere this week?

I live in San Francisco, how could I possibly miss them?

Rainbow flags don't vote, and they don't win elections...

$100 bucks - I don't generally gamble but will make an exception.

You're on...

We have a bet...

[Lord Jim]

It was Barney Frank, (of all people) who really hit the nail on the head in an interview I saw him do on Morning Joe a couple of months ago...

He said:

"You know what we liberals do when we're upset about something? We go out in the streets and march and chant...

"When Conservatives are upset about something, they turn out to vote..."

ETA:

The worst showing at the polls in 80 years your party wins because the haters came out to vote.

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but I just want to make sure that you're not trying to use that as a way to weasel out of the bet....

When a Republican is elected POTUS in November of 2016, you won't refuse to pay up by claiming they were elected by "haters'' so therefore it doesn't count...

[BoSoxGal]

IF a Republican is elected President, it's a foregone conclusion he'll have been elected by haters - have you listened to your candidates lately???

Rainbow flags don't vote, but the millions and millions of people who displayed them on FB across this nation are evidence of an electorate (60% in favor of gay marriage) who won't vote a Republican into the White House. Don't forget the Obamacare ruling and the Charleston massacre and the various terrible stories of racial hatred and violence within the criminal justice system/law enforcement and the mantra of idiocy that your party's candidates spout in response to these stories . . . and your party's propaganda machine over at FAUX News is the icing on the cake; that's a village full of bigoted moRons spouting lies and hate 24/7.

I will be if this country elects another moRon as president unless some kind of massive sea change occurs in your party - and that ain't likely at all.

[Lord Jim]

Yeah, whatever...

Just so long as you're not planning to use any of that shine to weasel out on the bet when you lose...

Whoever is standing up on The Capitol Steps taking The Oath Of Office on January 20 2017, is the POTUS...

If that person is the person who ran as the Republican nominee for the Presidency in the 2016 election, you pay me; if it's anybody else I pay you...

Easy peasy...

[Gob]

January 2017?!?!? and the dog and pony show is already on the sawdust. Beam me up Scotty!!

[Crackpot]

Jim the primaries and debates have t even started yet so the Pandering to the base really hasn't started yet. And that is your parties biggest problem. As Romey showed last time in the days of social media the post primary shift to the middle doesn't work as well as it used to. Not to mention with an even bigger republican clown car this time around they are going to be working hard to energize both the base of thier own party and the oppositions.

While I'm not fool enough to completely write off the Republicans I don't see the fact that they're not polling too badly as a positive sign either.

At this point I find it hard (not impossible) to believe that there will be a Republican president any time in the near future that is until the can either completely marginalize or jettison the Tea Party. (Tho the events of this past week might have created an opening to do just that) personally I think we're 20-50 years from a new center-right party.

[Lord Jim]

January 2017?!?!?

Okay, since I assume you already knew the election is in November of 2016, and since it's likely that you knew that Presidents don't get sworn in till the following January, would it be correct to interpret that as nothing but faux surprise intended as yet another gratuitous, repetitive "God your system is daft!" type slam on American democracy?