Utah? Utah?

Gun control is, as you have correctly deduced, the issue that makes screaming maniacs, out of us two reasonable people discussing things reasonably.  Screaming maniacs might be too extreme, maybe i should just say we become a wee bit intemperate and our discussion less than  decorous.

It's all your fault of course.  I laid out my position clearly, two, perhaps three, times, even bolded it the last time, but you never addressed the first proposition about semi automatics having no use in civilian life.  You merely ran into the bramble bush of ambiguous and contradictory definitions where anything is possible.

There were four niggling gun control measures brought up and defeated in the senate.  I didn't look up the details because what difference does it make, none of them were ever going to pass.  Sometimes both our ilks bring up measures that they know have no chance of passing, just so they can say they voted for such and such a position which their scalawag opponent opposed come election time.  I guess that fools some of the people some of the time which sometimes is enough.

Since we don't know where the dems and reps get their membership numbers from, because somebody has failed to do due diligence on the google machine, why are we even talking about them?  Well then I did due diligence googling 'how do you define membership in the democratic party' and 'how do you become a member of the democratic party' and came up with nada, except that you register to vote and vote in the dem primary and maybe you could donate some cash.  Which is the definition I have been going by and if you can make up another that would make you happier go ahead.  So I guess I do dispute your last sentence in the first paragraph.

What are your numbers on this majority in the majority of legislative bodies, and where did you get the numbers?  I think I have heard something along these lines, but I don't think we are talking vast majorities here.  But here is a place where big money does have influence, since nobody knows candidates that well, and we have seen the Kochs and their ilks move into states and invest heavily in ads for conservative candidates so that notably North Carolina, a purple state has a state legislature that is blood red.  Not to mention gerrymandering which is something that you can do when you control the state legislature come census time.  Not that the dems don't do it too, but the reps have had and used more opportunities. 

Why do you think the reps can't come up with any good candidates?  Look at the debate lineups for the last two primaries, they had like two dozen candidates, and the first time they picked probably the best candidate, but then most of them hated him and the second time they picked clearly the worst candidate and most of them hate him too.  Right now it's not evident that they hate him that much, but once his numbers drop further, they will hate him more.

No third parties, too complicated too late, too clearly suicidal for the party that births them.  Some Berns will come to their senses and vote for the big girl, some won't.  History says that most will.  We shall see.  Have you noticed that even the most prominent dump Trumpers are refusing to run on the dump Trump ticket?  It will never happen.  Some reps (like our Sen Kirk) will come out against Trump feebly but their dem opponents will tie them to Trump and when they try to untie themselves they will alienate a good part of the republican electorate, so they are in bad shape. 

I think there is no basis in fact about a third party taking a state the size of Utah and throwing the election into the house of reps.  I am not going to even bother to refute it, but I would like to know where you read that.

My houseguest is coming in today and I won't be back until maybe Friday.