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

[aja_christopher]

Bernie may run as an Independent in Vermont, but for the Presidential election, he damn well better run as a Democrat. If he runs as a third party candidate in the general election, he will guarantee Trump another four years.

I think they made him sign a "loyalty pledge" this time around but you shouldn't have to be forced to join the party that you are using as your political platform.

You should share that party's values enough to want to be a member of said party -- and not have supporters that try to tear it down from within.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...20/3074461002/

[Mister Mets]

You have provided no factual proof that the majority of Democrats are for "open borders" nor that they wish to pass said legislation outside of your biased opinion about a t-shirt.

You've also provided no factual proof that the election "litigated" the stealing of a Supreme Court pick because no objective "litigation" happened.

I'm done repeating myself since I've said this from the start -- if you want to believe your lies, that's fine, but don't expect others to buy them.

This is primarily to avoid discussing the faults of your party regardless -- Gaslight, Obstruct, Project.

-----
"Thousands of migrant children report they were sexually assaulted in U.S. custody"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...in/2988884002/

By "litigation" I just meant that the question of what to do with Scalia's former supreme court seat was argued and presented to the voters.

With the open borders thing, I've presented some evidence. It wouldn't be lying to myself since reasonable people have come to the same conclusion, and the argument that the moral energy is in favor of open borders has been made on the left. I still haven't gotten an answer on why you think Democrats haven't expressed any opinion about a limiting principle. I extend the question to anyone else; why haven't prominent Democrats given an upper limit on the number of people who should be allowed into the US?

He's talked before about family issues and what not as a reason to not throw himself in a presidential run, but now he's the Rolling Stones and sees that disco is getting big so he has to release "Emotional Rescue."

His family may be in a different place now that there is greater distance from his son's death.

The political argument is also different in the aftermath of the Democratic party's 2016 loss, rather than a time when it was understood there was a blue wall.

Irrelevant. 200,000+ Homicides (not suicides, injuries etc just explicitly murders) via gun since 2000.

Vietnam had 58,000 over 20 years
Korea had 36,000 over 3 years
Both Iraqs had 5000 together over a space of 8 years

This is without me going over the smaller wars and peace keeping stuff.

WW2 had over 400,000 over a space of 6 years.

Can you understand how utterly ridiculous it is ? In the span of over 30 years of serious warfare your barely hitting half of twenty years of civillian life. Said twenty years being half of the bloodiest war mans currently fought.

Percentages matter significantly, because the main question of how dangerous something is is the odds it'll affect an individual.

Ignoring percentages allows for abuse like if someone compares the number of murders in Baltimore with the number of murders in New York City without taking into account the much larger population of the other.

Except that punitive Justice doesn't ACTUALLY do anything to deter crime. States with the death penalty, which later did away with it, found that crime numbers barely fluctuated.

https://www.amnestyusa.org/a-clear-s...oes-not-deter/

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-a...-death-penalty

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ter-criminals/

The only people who still believe that the death penalty deters criminals are people who just like watching someone die. Period.

You said the goals of punitive justice were to "isolate the alleged criminal, separate him from society and from any support system, and punish him to the fullest legal extent possible." I brought up incentives as a factor.

I wasn't making any point on the death penalty when I wrote about incentives. Life imprisonment would be an incentive not to commit certain crimes.

Unless of course if the candidate that wins is problematic in some way. The biggest example of that is Trump. Most candidates won't rise to his level of obvious issues, but it does make you wonder about the other side of things. There should have been a mass revolt from "reasonable" conservatives.

A non-trivial number of voters went with a third party ticket consisting of two former Republican Governors.

In addition, the Democrats didn't present much reason for "reasonable" conservatives to vote for them. They saw Trump's nomination as an opportunity rather than a crisis.

[InformationGeek]

Regular reminder Steve King is a piece of crap.

[InformationGeek]

Big talk but you didn't tag this at Trump and spend most of the time kissing his ass.

As to @SenJohnMcCain and his devotion to his country: He stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body. (1/2)

[aja_christopher]

Regular reminder Steve King is a piece of crap.

It's all part of their plan -- just check the comments under this Yahoo story.

"Ordinary white man'? Picture of New Zealand accused emerges"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ordinary-...053353182.html

It's ironic because Yahoo is where I first encountered this kind of racist hatred online and even after all these years and all of these murders, short of moderating the racial slurs, Yahoo hasn't changed and neither have the racists who post there unabated -- some of them (like this guy called "nate") are posting the same racist cut and paste attack on black people that they did when I first visited the site almost twenty years ago.

War is what they want.

[PwrdOn]

Regular reminder Steve King is a piece of crap.

But Ilhan Omar is the real racist here, let’s censure her more and keep on ignoring this.

[aja_christopher]

Finally a few more profiles on the guy -- saw him on an hour-long MSNBC special earlier as well.

Be interesting to see if the honeymoon lasts until Biden decides to jump in, assuming he does so.

------
"BETO O'ROURKE IS THE TOUGHEST CANDIDATE I EVER PREPPED AGAINST"

"I helped prepare Senator Ted Cruz for his 2018 debates, and here’s what I learned: Beto O’Rourke is the toughest candidate I ever prepped against and one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. The media might not recognize his skills, but voters do — and will in 2020. In fact, being underestimated may be one of his biggest advantages.

For those who believe he’s a lightweight, that his social media habits are not presidential material and he doesn’t have enough experience or gravitas, I’m here to set you straight. What he managed in Texas in his race against Senator Cruz was not a fluke: Beto got out the vote in ways none of us expected. His four million votes surpassed Hillary Clinton’s 3.87 million votes in 2016, which had been the highest total ever achieved in Texas by a Democrat. In a state that’s redder than a red light, a state where a Democrat hasn’t won a statewide election since Governor Ann Richards did in 1991, Beto lost by a slim margin: 50.9% to 48.3%. On that basis alone, he’s the primary frontrunner.

How will he connect in Michigan? And Wisconsin? And Iowa? He ran the table in Harris County so my guess is, he can succeed in all kinds of environments.

How do I know? I spent lots of time studying Beto. I began by going to the game film. And my goodness, is there a lot. He livestreamed his life the way high school girls livestream theirs. Beto drinking coffee. Beto bowling. Beto eating a hamburger. Beto riding a skateboard. Even Beto doing his laundry. But what most interested me were the livestreamed town halls. It made studying Beto easy. So did the endless gushing profiles by every website, publication and media outlet imaginable, all essentially anointing Beto as the next Bobby Kennedy.

In May of 2017, Vanity Fair published a 1,993 word profile with this title: “Meet the Kennedyesque Democrat Trying to Beat Ted Cruz.” In February, the New York Times ran their own puff piece, running 1,690 words. Time Magazine followed with a 1,658 word press release masquerading as a news report. On July 9, Politico ran a 4,800 word profile, and Town and Country weighed in with a 3,823 word profile. You heard that right: Town and Country! Buzzfeed would follow with an 8,021 word piece, and not to be outdone, Texas Monthly ran an 8,373 word love letter.

The photos that accompanied the coverage had the feel of a Ralph Lauren ad. Beto always looked great. And made looking great easy. And always, he looked like a man of the people. I say all of this not to slight Beto. On the contrary, Beto — it was clear almost instantly — had real star power. And that matters. Democrats dismissed President Reagan’s star quality, and Republicans dismissed President Obama’s. Critics miss the point about star power. In politics, it’s a big deal. It can’t be taught. Or bought. You either have it. Or you don’t. Beto had it.

Beto loved the camera. And the camera loved him. More important, the people loved him. The people who attended those town halls he live streamed were not mere Democrat activists or the party faithful. They were, dare I say, fans. And having fans is more important than having voters. He had real talent on the stump, and didn’t use prepared remarks. He did what great pastors do when they get comfortable: he preached on his feet. His speeches had the feel of a religious revival, without any trace of Elmer Gantry sanctimoniousness. Always, he framed things simply and in a moral dimension. And not with the anti-capitalist shrillness of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

Beto was not an angry candidate. He was the opposite. I might even say he was a joyful candidate, and in this age of anger and resentment, this made Beto different. Beto wasn’t just a star on the stump, but off the stump, too. I watched him talk to people who lined up for a quick selfie, and he turned even those small moments into something personal. Meaningful.

Unlike President Obama, an introvert who didn’t seem to care for the palm-pressing, Beto seemed to draw energy from interacting with the public. In that sense, he had what Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had — an instinctive feel for the interpersonal part of campaigning. The retail nature of the business. Beto was a natural on the debate stage because he understood something profound about the ritual. It isn't actually a debate. It's an audition. It was less like Firing Line and more like American Idol. As often as possible, he kept a smile on his face and his eye on the camera, hoping the people watching at home would like him more than my guy.

Beto had advantages that critics thought were problems. He didn’t have a speechwriter, didn’t have any outside consultants, and he didn’t rely on big data. That made him dangerous. And difficult to prepare against in battle..."

https://www.newsweek.com/beto-orourk...-trump-1365360

[mogwen]

It's all part of their plan -- just check the comments under this Yahoo story.

"Ordinary white man'? Picture of New Zealand accused emerges"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ordinary-...053353182.html

It's ironic because Yahoo is where I first encountered this kind of racist hatred online and even after all these years and all of these murders, short of moderating the racial slurs, Yahoo hasn't changed and neither have the racists who post there unabated -- some of them (like this guy called "nate") are posting the same racist cut and paste attack on black people that they did when I first visited the site almost twenty years ago.

War is what they want.

Of course! And we have the same on yahoo France! If you look at the comments on yahoo UK, it's the same. Yahoo has always been a safe place for far-right loonies!

[aja_christopher]

Of course! And we have the same on yahoo France! If you look at the comments on yahoo UK, it's the same. Yahoo has always been a safe place for far-right loonies!

And Russian influence.

-----
"US charges two Russian spies and two hackers in Yahoo data breach: Four indicted in conjunction with the hack of a billion Yahoo accounts, amid intense political controversy over Russian interference in the US election"

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...oo-data-breach

-----
"Former Neo-Nazi: White Supremacy 'Is Certainly Not A Fringe Movement'"

"MARTIN: Has something changed since you were a member about the way these groups operate, in your opinion?

PICCIOLINI: Absolutely. So in the '80s and '90s, when this really was a fringe-type movement, we recognized that we were turning away the average white American racist because we were too edgy with our tattoos and shaved heads and boots and swastika flags. So I think today, what we're seeing is the ideas that I once had 30 years ago, the extreme ideas, sound just a little bit less extreme. But it's penetrated the mainstream. And I think that there is a certain subsect that wants to remain visible. And then there is a larger and more significant part of this movement that does not want to be outed as white supremacists and just want to normalize what it is that that they're trying to push.

MARTIN: The last time you were on this program was after that neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a young woman was killed, and a number of other people were injured. And at that time, the conversation was about white nationalism. But then this shooting in New Zealand shows that this is a global problem, and I'm wondering if we're kind of looking at the wrong thing - if we're thinking about this as a specific national issue as opposed to something bigger.

PICCIOLINI: Well, I can tell you the Internet has really changed the ballgame and made it a - you know, a transnational movement where people can self-radicalize into it based on the propaganda that's flooding the Internet. And it's become the largest and fastest-growing social movement that I've seen in my lifetime, and it is frightening...

It is certainly not a fringe movement. It is a large-scale terrorist movement. And while everybody is not going to be violent in that movement, now, because it's grown and because of the Internet and because of the rhetoric that he is feeding people - the same rhetoric that I used to say 30 years ago - build a wall, Muslim ban, you know, remove immigrants from the country - all the same things that I used to say.

Now, because of the Internet, it has spread farther and wider than ever before. And that narrative is landing on people all over the world. So it is not just contained to the United States. And never before in my life have I received emails from mothers of 10-year-old sons who are being recruited. So it is definitely growing..."

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/16/70413...ringe-movement

[numberthirty]

Finally a few more profiles on the guy -- saw him on an hour-long MSNBC special earlier as well.

Be interesting to see if the honeymoon lasts until Biden decides to jump in, assuming he does so.

------
"BETO O'ROURKE IS THE TOUGHEST CANDIDATE I EVER PREPPED AGAINST"

"I helped prepare Senator Ted Cruz for his 2018 debates, and here’s what I learned: Beto O’Rourke is the toughest candidate I ever prepped against and one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. The media might not recognize his skills, but voters do — and will in 2020. In fact, being underestimated may be one of his biggest advantages.

For those who believe he’s a lightweight, that his social media habits are not presidential material and he doesn’t have enough experience or gravitas, I’m here to set you straight. What he managed in Texas in his race against Senator Cruz was not a fluke: Beto got out the vote in ways none of us expected. His four million votes surpassed Hillary Clinton’s 3.87 million votes in 2016, which had been the highest total ever achieved in Texas by a Democrat. In a state that’s redder than a red light, a state where a Democrat hasn’t won a statewide election since Governor Ann Richards did in 1991, Beto lost by a slim margin: 50.9% to 48.3%. On that basis alone, he’s the primary frontrunner.

How will he connect in Michigan? And Wisconsin? And Iowa? He ran the table in Harris County so my guess is, he can succeed in all kinds of environments.

How do I know? I spent lots of time studying Beto. I began by going to the game film. And my goodness, is there a lot. He livestreamed his life the way high school girls livestream theirs. Beto drinking coffee. Beto bowling. Beto eating a hamburger. Beto riding a skateboard. Even Beto doing his laundry. But what most interested me were the livestreamed town halls. It made studying Beto easy. So did the endless gushing profiles by every website, publication and media outlet imaginable, all essentially anointing Beto as the next Bobby Kennedy.

In May of 2017, Vanity Fair published a 1,993 word profile with this title: “Meet the Kennedyesque Democrat Trying to Beat Ted Cruz.” In February, the New York Times ran their own puff piece, running 1,690 words. Time Magazine followed with a 1,658 word press release masquerading as a news report. On July 9, Politico ran a 4,800 word profile, and Town and Country weighed in with a 3,823 word profile. You heard that right: Town and Country! Buzzfeed would follow with an 8,021 word piece, and not to be outdone, Texas Monthly ran an 8,373 word love letter.

The photos that accompanied the coverage had the feel of a Ralph Lauren ad. Beto always looked great. And made looking great easy. And always, he looked like a man of the people. I say all of this not to slight Beto. On the contrary, Beto — it was clear almost instantly — had real star power. And that matters. Democrats dismissed President Reagan’s star quality, and Republicans dismissed President Obama’s. Critics miss the point about star power. In politics, it’s a big deal. It can’t be taught. Or bought. You either have it. Or you don’t. Beto had it.

Beto loved the camera. And the camera loved him. More important, the people loved him. The people who attended those town halls he live streamed were not mere Democrat activists or the party faithful. They were, dare I say, fans. And having fans is more important than having voters. He had real talent on the stump, and didn’t use prepared remarks. He did what great pastors do when they get comfortable: he preached on his feet. His speeches had the feel of a religious revival, without any trace of Elmer Gantry sanctimoniousness. Always, he framed things simply and in a moral dimension. And not with the anti-capitalist shrillness of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

Beto was not an angry candidate. He was the opposite. I might even say he was a joyful candidate, and in this age of anger and resentment, this made Beto different. Beto wasn’t just a star on the stump, but off the stump, too. I watched him talk to people who lined up for a quick selfie, and he turned even those small moments into something personal. Meaningful.

Unlike President Obama, an introvert who didn’t seem to care for the palm-pressing, Beto seemed to draw energy from interacting with the public. In that sense, he had what Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had — an instinctive feel for the interpersonal part of campaigning. The retail nature of the business. Beto was a natural on the debate stage because he understood something profound about the ritual. It isn't actually a debate. It's an audition. It was less like Firing Line and more like American Idol. As often as possible, he kept a smile on his face and his eye on the camera, hoping the people watching at home would like him more than my guy.

Beto had advantages that critics thought were problems. He didn’t have a speechwriter, didn’t have any outside consultants, and he didn’t rely on big data. That made him dangerous. And difficult to prepare against in battle..."

https://www.newsweek.com/beto-orourk...-trump-1365360

Lemme see if I have this straight...

While this does not appear to be an issue, Sanders' supporters being a cult is something we had better have a "Doomsday" plan to deal with?

Some of this stuff is just laughable.

Never mind that he made sure to throw in calling Ocasio-Cortez "Shrill".

[aja_christopher]

Never mind that he made sure to throw in calling Ocasio-Cortez "Shrill".

Don't forget Sanders and Warren -- he called them shrill too.

Anti-capitalistically shrill, if I'm not mistaken.

Apparently, not everyone likes their policies -- especially out in Texas.

[Tendrin]

On Wednesday, First Look Media delivered the latest in a flurry of bad news for digital media: the company, which includes The Intercept and was founded by a tech billionaire turned Twitter critic of Donald Trump, said it could no longer afford its research team, and was eliminating those jobs as part of a 4 percent cut in its workforce. “I am sickened,” Intercept co-founder Laura Poitras wrote in a March 13 email reported by The Daily Beast. The “beating heart of the newsroom,” she said, had been torn out.
That a billionaire is laying off employees is not a shock, except in this case the billionaire’s company was said to be in the public interest. Specifically, The Intercept is classified as a “public charity.” For nearly two years it has been soliciting donations from its readers for “fearless, independent journalism.”

Article at the Columbia Journalism review about First Look Media, parent company of the Intercept, it's status as a charity (what??), its lay offs and Glenn Greenwald's salary.

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news...-intercept.php

[aja_christopher]

"Trump backs Jeanie Pirro after fallout over comments on Islam"

[jetengine]

Regular reminder Steve King is a piece of crap.

Which side lost last time Steve ?

[norj]

Which side lost last time Steve ?

They lost the battle then switched tactics to continue the war.