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[He was the legitimate head of state]

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

Let’s not pretend that the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of anything really.

Bizarre that the most obviously true part of his speech - “Being a mother and homemaker is important and rewarding, and you shouldn’t let your career get in the way of that if it’s what you really want” - is the most controversial.

Because that isn't the point he was making.

You mean that’s not the point that you read in?

From a Facebook friend:

Here's a theology lesson: For Christians,the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament presents (among other things) guidelines on how YOU should live... not on how you should control how OTHERS live. Any ‘church” that teaches otherwise is one you should run from.

If the New Testament gives guidelines on how you should live, those same guidelines can be applied to others. Your Facebook friend posted gibberish.

Talk more when you are ready to give up your career and dreams so that your- checks notes - life can start by being a homemaker, father, and husband. After all, according to Harrison butker you've been fed the greatest lies in the world by saying that you can achieve more satisfaction in life outside of those roles.

I mean, are we waiting for him to retire to take up those roles tomorrow? Or is he just selling some double standard BS dressed up as Christian piety?

Badger, if my partner made millions of dollars a year playing sports, I would gladly be a stay-at-home husband, wouldn’t you? Or are you under the delusion that your job is more important than raising your kids and having more time to devote to your hobbies (sh!tposting on Atlas Forum)? If so, it sounds like you’ve bought into a diabolical lie!

As would i. But the point is most of us don't have partners who earn millions of dollars a year taking a football. Most women work because they have to for starters. And more to the point it was beyond tone gift being downright sexist to tell a group of newly graduating young women - or frankly any group of young women - that they've been fed a lie about the joys of professional accomplishment and their lives will only truly start once they become a mother and homemaker

If Raisi did in fact die in the crash, they'll find a way to blame Israel, and then it's World War III. We should not be celebrating this.

We’re in a weird place right now where the national polls are looking better for Biden but the swing state polls are still looking pretty bad for him. However this looks to be the same polling outfit that showed close races in the rust belt trio.

I’m not skilled enough to offer a thorough explanation for this, but I still feel better about Biden’s chances compared to a few months ago.

I don't think the national polls are looking that great for Biden?  It generally averages to Trump by less than +1.  Biden does have a few +1 or +2 leads out there, but that's not really consistent with the median state in the EC being all that competitive.  If 2020 was Biden +2, he probably gains nothing over Clinton 2016 in the EC except maybe Michigan.  If you assume Trump is getting an additional 1-2% out of NYC and Florida, maybe that nets Biden Pennsylvania and Michigan while Trump wins all his other 2016 states (and with the clear Hispanic R trend, NV).  That's basically what current state polling looks like.  Biden might be up in PA and/or MI but he's in huge trouble everywhere else, and state level polling in WI understates Trump like nobody's business.

Biden led the National Polling Average during the entire 2020 Cycle between 4-6 Percentage Points. He is nowhere near there this year.

Was the helicopter sabotaged by Mossad by any chance?  If we find out it resulted in the deaths of everyone on it, then well done!

Looking at the heavy fog, it's likely that it was the cause of the crash, as it was with Kobe. Hacking a nuclear facility or striking an embassy is one thing, for which Iran did retaliate, but actually killing their President and Foreign Minister would be a pure declaration of war, which Israel almost unquestionably doesn't want at the moment.

FL is gone. Based on the rust belt polls from a few weeks ago this seems to confirm that the easiest path does in fact lie through those 3 states (MI/WI/PA)

That gets Biden only to 269. He would need NE-2 to win.

Can't believe I am saying this but for the first time in the History of the United States of America
269-269 seems legitimately in play this November.

You heard it here first: The EC is going to be a 269-269 split and Republicans are going to lose the House this November, but they are going to elect Trump president as their final act in power. It would just be too fitting.

The new house is seated before the electoral college convenes. However, they are still likely to control more state delegations (although the math is harder with Alaska in Democratic hands.)

Republicans currently control exactly 26 delegations (green = tied, which would mean no vote cast in a contingent election for president without bipartisan support for one candidate).



However, since it's the next congress that votes, we have to account for the likely changes.  Democrats have quite a good chance at flipping the delegation in AZ, but Republicans are sure to break the tie and pick up NC on the new maps in any situation where the national PV is remotely close.  Democrats control the PA delegation by one vote, and they have a representative in a 2X Trump seat who will have a tough race in this environment.  Democrats also control the MI delegation by 1 vote, but all their seats are pretty safe.  The best Dem pickup opportunities after AZ are probably flipping the western MT seat to tie or trying to flip the other eastern seat and create a tie in Kansas, both extreme longshots if the presidential election is close enough to be 269/269.  

In short, the NC remap ended any realistic chance for Dems to block a Trump reelection in a 12 Amendment vote.

I know there will be champagne corks going off in Washington and Tel Aviv, but this is very sad. He was the legitimate head of state on a diplomatic mission. And the world has only Iran's restraint to thank for the fact that WWIII didn't break out after the wanton attack on its embassy last month.

I was baptized in a UCC church yet raised Catholic in all but name (i.e. no church) because my dad was an atheist for most of his life and didn't like organized religion. I think he'd have preferred I came out as gay than express interest in working for the church. That aside, I suppose it's extremely difficult to honestly separate culture from religious convictions. I have witnessed enough things which I will not discuss or reiterate publicly anymore (because people would think I'm crazy... and maybe I am) to believe that there must be something beyond the material world, and the metaphysical intertwines with the physical. As a catholic/Anglican, the most significant example of that is the Eucharist.

I also believe because I want Christianity to be true, and I feel like that's the driving desire for most of the faithful. I live with the humility in knowing that I might be wrong and probably am wrong in my understanding of things. I trust that the Blood of Jesus is enough to save all people even if God's path for them did not necessarily lead them to Christ in this lifetime. But even if I am wrong, I try to live the way I think is best because I believe what is promised to followers of Jesus is worth doing so.

Christianity prompts ideas that are fundamentally absurd or impossible to define in concrete, non-abstract terms. A virgin birth with endless debate over what "virgin" means and whether Mary truly was one. The Holy Trinity.(!) Both individual and tribal interpretations of Scripture that eventually resulted in hundreds of different sects. All these things are absurd. But enter the Divine Mystery, and we peacefully accept the things we cannot understand or control and take a shot at changing the things we can control. That's what I believe each individual's mission in life is.

Faith, love, and hope are the only things humans can truly have and no matter how wretched either nature or humans are to us, they are insignificant in God's realm and in the context of an eternal being whose nature we know little of as a consequence of our finite minds. The same God - the only God that can actually destroy us, destroy our eternal being in ways that earthly things never can -  also loves His people in ways that nobody, and nothing, on earth can ever know.

Now is a time when we really could do with a strong and credible Irish Labour party. Which just makes what has actually happened there all the more tragic.

That ship arguably already sailed in 2011, but Dublin Bay South was a disaster disguised as a triumph. Bacik, who has spent her entire adult life ensconced in the bubble that is Trinity, has absolutely no idea how to connect with voters beyond Portobello and Ranelagh or even with her own councillor base.

Aye

First minister: Spiral

Parlament:
1. ASV
2. Shua