All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[TheDarman]

One interesting thing that someone I know pointed out about O'Rourke's fundraising numbers elsewhere...

Without PAC money or SuperPAC money, contribution limits are $2,700 per individual, same as with Sanders and anyone who else who didn’t receive money from those sources. So, maybe the average contribution is higher and there are fewer contributors than with Sanders. But the idea he is a “big money” candidate isn’t supported by the facts. Relying on hit pieces is fairly unbecoming.

[worstblogever]

Why I can't take die-hard Berners seriously:

Bernie announces, raises a record sum, and we're told, "See? Bernie is the chosen one! He raised the most money!"

Wiser souls point out that Jeb Bush raised the most money in a primary and lost, but are ignored. Fast forward a fortnite, and Beto raises a record amount of money. The same Berners:

"FUNDRAISING DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING YOU GUYS!"

...

It's good to see Bernie's doing well with the goldfish-American vote.

[TheDarman]

If you are looking at a situation where only two groups have a realistic shot at the Presidency and still talking about that it doesn't favor those two groups?

I'm gonna have to just politely disagree.

Things favor you because you are one of those two groups. That the whole thing doesn't just get handed to you on a silver platter every single time?

That doesn't mean that the existing system does not favor you.

Just a quick note. The American system of government is virtually set up for a two-party system, especially at the presidential level. That’s because you can’t just win with most of the electoral college votes; you need a majority. While it isn’t impossible to see third party congressmen and women (and even Independent Senators), that’s because each state and district largely awards the winner of the most or plurality of the votes the win. Third party challengers inherently hurt the chances of a candidate they are much alike to in a presidential race. They can keep them from reaching 270 votes or could hurt their vote tallies in states where they might’ve been close.

This isn’t something set up by the parties (though their infrastructure speaks to why they are represented so well even in plurality winning seats); it’s something inherent in the system of government we have. If anything, having states move to awarding their electoral college votes to the popular vote winner could start to dissuade voters from having to choose within the party system (but, again, there are sociological reasons people fight for, and identify as, particular parties that wouldn’t be broken any time soon).

However, I will say this in Sanders’ defense. It seems certain posters don’t want him running in the primary because he isn’t a real Democrat. But they’d be even more upset if he ran as a third party candidate because then he’d do actual legitimate damage in the general election. Their ideas seem to be to just keep Sanders out. I don’t like him that much myself but I’m not going to pretend he doesn’t have popularity within the party and that his voters don’t deserve to have their voices heard just as much as mine does. I won’t cast a vote for Bernie unless it is in the general. But I do appreciate that he at least made the responsible decision to run in the primary rather than actively harm the Democratic nominee in a general election battle against Trump. That’s just responsible politics. On this, we just need to leave Bernie alone.

[numberthirty]

Without PAC money or SuperPAC money, contribution limits are $2,700 per individual, same as with Sanders and anyone who else who didn’t receive money from those sources. So, maybe the average contribution is higher and there are fewer contributors than with Sanders. But the idea he is a “big money” candidate isn’t supported by the facts. Relying on hit pieces is fairly unbecoming.

The facts that are in short supply in the numbers he put out.

It's entirely possible that most of that money came from individuals.

As it stands, we don't know much about exactly where and who it came from.

Now...

Let's go with what we actually do know...

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...-money-1176072

Bernie crushes 2020 Democratic field in first-day money chase

Sanders brought in more than $5.9 million from more than 220,000 donors in the 24 hours since he announced his presidential candidacy, according to his campaign.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...-address-never

Nearly 40 percent of Sanders 2020 donors so far appear to be new supporters: report

Meanwhile...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/polit...ord/index.html

Beto O'Rourke raised massive $6.1 million his first day in the 2020 race, campaign says

If you go through that article, it's a might light on "Who" and "How Much".

[TheDarman]

The facts that are in short supply in the numbers he put out.

It's entirely possible that most of that money came from individuals.

As it stands, we don't know much about exactly where and who it came from.

Now...

Let's go with what we actually do know...

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...-money-1176072





https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...-address-never



Meanwhile...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/polit...ord/index.html



If you go through that article, it's a might light on "Who" and "How Much".

Again, campaign contribution law states that there is a maximum contribution of $2,700. At the very least, that is over 2,000 people and individuals contributing the maximum amount, which seems unlikely. That’s just the way that works out. You can be upset about the lack of transparency part what is legally obvious but it certainly isn’t a host of “big money” donors, at least in so far as donating over a million dollars.

[jetengine]

If Teddy Roosevelt couldn't win as a third party Bernie certainly can't.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of profiled the current U.S. House Representative from Arizona's 4th District, Paul Gosar, who we noted consistently has one of the worst voting records on issues that impact women, and not just on abortion, because Gosar also voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, but also voted against legislation that would allow female victims of sexual assault within our military to decide who determines their case, a military trial or a civilian one. He also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the time came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. During the standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and Cliven Bundy in 2014, Gosar actually travelled to Nevada to show support for Bundy, stopping to take photos with him, as well. Gosar's also a conspiracy theorist, having called for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder over Benghazi, immigration, Fast & Furious, Guantanamo Bay and “violating criminal smuggling laws”. In September 2015, as the nation excitedly awaiting a visit from Pope Francis to come speak before the United States Congress, Paul Gosar, a Catholic in a district full of them, announced that he would be boycotting the pontiff’s speech because he refused to listen to the Holy Father’s talk of climate change, instead insisting writing an op-ed where he said he didn’t want to hear “leftist talking points”, and saying that “climate has been changing since first created in Genesis”.

Now, we want to point out before we get into our update on Paul Gosar’s EXTREMELY conservative voting record, that he’s made news over the past five months for being a complete… well, for lack of a better term, paranoid douche-nozzle. It might be one thing if we could only say he was trying to stir up right-wing conspiracies regarding California Congressman Devin Nunes dud of a memo regarding Carter Page’s FISA warrant, claiming that its contents “constitutes treason” by the FBI like he did back in early 2018.

No, what concerned us far more was how back in October of 2017, Rep. Gosar tried to revise history regarding the terrorist attack carried out by a Neo-Nazi in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August of 2016. Heather Heyer’s death is something Gosar couldn’t have Neo-Nazis left hanging on their spotless record as American protesters, so in the middle of an interview on CNN, he started pushing the conspiracy theory that the entire weekend of terror carried out by White Nationalists was actually orchestrated by George Soros. He wasn’t done slandering Soros, though, as he also claimed while he was fleeing the Nazis in Hungary eight decades ago that he was turning in other Jews to the Nazis. This entire narrative was so insane and bizarre that all six, yes SIX of Gosar’s siblings wrote a letter to publicly distance themselves from him. Gosar blew them off as “disgruntled Hilary supporters”, and that “Stalin would be proud” of them, and then a few weeks later, blamed Barack Obama on their rejection of him, because he’s a partisan lunatic.

And we can’t underline how explicitly true that is, as he chose to use his time in the House Oversight Committee a few weeks ago during the testimony of Michael Cohen to quite constructively taunt Cohen with the not-at-all-childish rhyme, “LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!” Not being content to simply do it out loud, he had in intern present a giant poster of Cohen’s face with the taunt, as well. Sane pundits, including Republican ones, were embarrassed of their party’s performance that day, as they looked like incompetent flacks for Donald Trump, grasping at straws, who failed to refute any of Cohen’s claims.

Because Arizona’s 4th Congressional District only has a +20 Republican lean according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Gosar still won re-election with 68% of the vote, even though he shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that made his own family turn their backs on him.

And so, Paul Gosar resumed being downright awful as a legislator:

• January 27th, 2019: Paul Gosar refused to vote for HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• January 22nd, 2019: Gosar votes against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Gosar passes on voting for HR 648, completely uninterested in ending the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 15th, 2019: Gosar votes against HJR 46, deciding that Donald Trump’s “national emergency” on the U.S. Mexico border is a legitimate threat to the United States, even though border crossings are at their lowest point in decades.
• February 28th, 2018: Paul Gosar votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.

We can’t decide at this point what Paul Gosar likes more, being a submissive for his Russian daddies, or defending white nationalists and Neo-Nazis. Either should be more than enough reason for him to get a primary challenger.

[numberthirty]

Credit where it's due, Gillibrand didn't duck talking about Franken or her own office.

That's a harder question than some folks are getting.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Muslims Praise New Zealand Prime Minister For Her Empathy, Actions After Attack

Within days of the attack, Jacinda Ardern has visited mosques, promised to reform gun laws and pledged solidarity. THIS is how a REAL leader responds to an unimaginable tragedy. I would suggest Donald Trump take notes, but since he totally lacks ANYTHING in the way of empathy, he won't learn jack **** from Madame Ardern.

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U.S. Islamic Council Calls On Advertisers To Boycott Fox News Until Jeanine Pirro Is Fired

The Council on Islamic-American Relations criticizes “Judge Jeanine’s” “long history of Islamophobic hate rhetoric.” It'll be interesting to see if sponsors will follow through.

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Exclusive: 7 U.S. Military Members Identified As Part Of White Nationalist Group

Leaked chat logs revealed military servicemen with ties to the extremist group Identity Evropa. That is damn disturbing to say the least.

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Elizabeth Warren Calls For Getting Rid Of The Electoral College

The Massachusetts Democrat endorsed abolishing the Electoral College, the first time she’s publicly taken the stance. Don't hold your breath waiting for THAT to happen.

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Putin Signs ‘Fake News’ Law Punishing Russian Media For Criticizing Him

The set of laws cracks down on “fake news” and any content that criticizes Russian authorities. I'm sure Dolt45 wishes he could enact laws like that here.

[numberthirty]

Wow, this Nunes/Twitter thing could get wild.

While some of what he is asserting is just flatly goofy, the whole "Defamation" aspect of how things go on Twitter might wind up getting interesting.

[aja_christopher]

However, I will say this in Sanders’ defense. It seems certain posters don’t want him running in the primary because he isn’t a real Democrat. But they’d be even more upset if he ran as a third party candidate because then he’d do actual legitimate damage in the general election. Their ideas seem to be to just keep Sanders out. I don’t like him that much myself but I’m not going to pretend he doesn’t have popularity within the party and that his voters don’t deserve to have their voices heard just as much as mine does. I won’t cast a vote for Bernie unless it is in the general. But I do appreciate that he at least made the responsible decision to run in the primary rather than actively harm the Democratic nominee in a general election battle against Trump. That’s just responsible politics. On this, we just need to leave Bernie alone.

Whether he's a Democrat or not has nothing to do with it for me -- I'm not a Democrat so that's not a real issue to me: Sanders and Clinton share about 90% of the same policy views, so realistically that label's not even worth fighting over.

However, I do understand that when you make an alliance with someone against a greater evil, you don't stab that ally in the back in order to build your own base -- or allow your supporters to do so -- in the name of winning the nomination.

I see your point but let's not make false accusations -- to me, this isn't so much about Bernie as it is the videos I posted where you saw his supporters and volunteers booing and throwing dollars at Hillary, violently attacking Trump's campaign rallies, and even shooting Republican congressmen.

And I'm not going to leave that alone because it hurts the Democrat's chances of removing Trump and the Republicans from office.

I know the argument will be made that Hillary supporters do the same, but they don't -- I know this both from direct experience and the videos where you see them booing, physically attacking, and even shooting other candidates.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Wow, this Nunes/Twitter thing could get wild.

While some of what he is asserting is just flatly goofy, the whole "Defamation" aspect of how things go on Twitter might wind up getting interesting.

Perhaps more interesting than the situation needs to be in my opinion.

[ZombieHavoc]

I don't even see what the big deal is if Beto's campaign numbers will be required to be released anyway.

At that time, if it's fishy, then fine. All the disdain is warranted.

Right now it feels like people are just clinging to the "Bernie is an Infallible God and There is No Way Any Mortal Can Best Him in Any Contest" thing. It's a very Trumpian thing.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I don't even see what the big deal is if Beto's campaign numbers will be required to be released anyway.

At that time, if it's fishy, then fine. All the disdain is warranted.

Right now it feels like people are just clinging to the "Bernie is an Infallible God and There is No Way Any Mortal Can Best Him in Any Contest" thing. It's a very Trumpian thing.

What really will shatter Bernie supporters is if Beto takes this early momentum and carries it on. Its a long way to 2020 primaries...so we shall see.

[ZombieHavoc]

What really will shatter Bernie supporters is if Beto takes this early momentum and carries it on. Its a long way to 2020 primaries...so we shall see.

I assume all of this talk about the campaign contributions is just setting up for claims that the DNC rigged the primary in Beto's favor if he does happen to get the nom.