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

[numberthirty]

I voted for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary in 2016. However, I said on Facebook that if Hillary Clinton won the primary, I would vote for her in the general election. For that, Sanders' campaign manager called me a Hillary-bot. I found that kind of name-calling very counter productive. I never encouraged anyone to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. I was simply realistic enough to realize that she would probably win the nomination.

That's why the most realistic third parties realize that they can't just prop up a Presidential candidate every four years and then whine about the system being rigged. Of course it's rigged! It's been rigged for decades! If you want a viable third party, you have to build it from the ground up, as they've done to an extent in Maine and Bernie Sanders' Vermont.

Which is all well and good until you look at the context you have to build them up in and who plays a role in creating that context.

[PaulBullion]

Paul Krugman tweets:

The GOP's success in demonizing Nancy Pelosi is remarkable and depressing. By any standard I can think of she's been the most effective legislative leader in decades, instrumental in defending Social Security and expanding health care

There's been no breath of personal scandal, which is amazing given the GOP machine's ability to manufacture such things out of thin air. And compare her with recent Republican leaders!

Newt Gingrich was a blowhard who shut down the government in a fit of pique; Dennis Hastert molested teenage boys; Paul Ryan is a poseur whose only achievement is a budget-busting tax cut that isn't even popular


Yet Pelosi is " controversial". Why? Two obvious things: she's a Democrat, and she's a woman. Oh, and for whatever reason the media have never liked her. But I repeat myself.

[PaulBullion]

Is there any reason you are posting so many things twice, and not editing the second post so someone doesn't have to read it a second time?

Edit:

- Post #395 is a duplicate of post #394
- Post #404 is a duplicate of post #402
- Post #413 is a duplicate of post #411

It's especially for you, because we know you don't get very obvious things after being explained only once.

[numberthirty]

I know it's probably my paranoia talking, but when somebody knows so little about the constitution and the newer history of American politics and still talks about it with such passion and conviction, my mind immediately goes to "Russian or Macedonian troll farm."

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/capital.html

Constitution: Capitalize references to the U.S. Constitution, with or without the "U.S." Place "constitutional" in lowercase. Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, First Amendment, and other legislation and treaties are capitalized.

..........

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Democratic National Committee Backtracks On Its Ban Of Fossil Fuel Donations

The move comes just two months after the party adopted a resolution to prohibit oil, gas and coal company contributions. Something about this reversal is....unseemly to me.

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Trump Will Try To Help GOP Candidates Whether They Like It Or Not

The president proved popular in Republican primaries, but general elections won’t be as easy. Damned if they have his help, damned if they don't. Speaking of elections....

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Kris Kobach’s Lead In Kansas Governor’s Race Shrinks After Vote Count Discrepancy

Ohio Finds Nearly 600 Uncounted Votes In Too-Close-To-Call Special Election

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Rips Trump For Bashing NFL Players, Not White Supremacists

“Rather than condemn the bigots” of Unite the Right, the president attacked athletes fighting racial injustice, Tapper said. Well, Jake, considering Trump is a dyed in the wool racist, is that any surprise?

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Lastly, some SPACE FORCE humor:

Mark Hamill Mocks Donald Trump’s ‘Space Force’ With ‘Star Wars’ Burn

Stephen King Causes Meme Meltdown With Trump ‘Space Force’ Twitter Request

Jim Carrey Savages Donald Trump’s ‘Space Force’ In New Art: ‘To Stupidity And Beyond’

[numberthirty]

Democratic National Committee Backtracks On Its Ban Of Fossil Fuel Donations

The move comes just two months after the party adopted a resolution to prohibit oil, gas and coal company contributions. Something about this reversal is....unseemly to me.

**********

Huh.

Sounds about right, to me.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Huh.

Sounds about right, to me.

Why adopt that resolution only to do a 180 and ditch it a short time later? Maybe I missed something, but it doesn’t seem, well, right to me.

[TheManInBlack]

The last 10 pages or so is a really fantastic example of the left consistently eating its own and why Trump won.

Want to beat the Republicans? Get the fractured democrat base to stop attacking each other, lose some of the self-righteous and snarky behavior toward your fellow democrats, and find some damn common ground. Or you're going to hand the elections to the Republicans. It happened once and it WILL happen again. A quick look at this thread would soothe any Republican's worries away in minutes.

[Tendrin]

The last 10 pages or so is a really fantastic example of the left consistently eating its own and why Trump won.

Want to beat the Republicans? Get the fractured democrat base to stop attacking each other, lose some of the self-righteous and snarky behavior toward your fellow democrats, and find some damn common ground. Or you're going to hand the elections to the Republicans. It happened once and it WILL happen again. A quick look at this thread would soothe any Republican's worries away in minutes.

The issue is that there's the Dems, and then there's the liberals, the liberal left, the progressives, and then the 'liberals aren't Left' crowd and so on and on. Beating the Republicans is the single most important thing right now, no matter what you actually believe, and we should all do everything in our power to make that happen. Unfortunately, some people would rather to continue to attack the Democrats for not being everything they want, because they were 'social fascists' and 'corporatists'.

I am consistently reminded of Ernst Thalmann and his refusal to make common cause with the social democrats during the rise of Hitler's Germany.

[PaulBullion]

Never mind that the argument "Sanders Does Not Do Well With Blacks In The South..." is essentially worthless when it leads to him losing to someone who loses all across the South.

Sanders could have done the exact same thing.

Much to your chagrin, blacks in the South have a say who the Democratic party's candidate is going to be.

[PaulBullion]

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/capital.html



..........

Are you trying to get me banned by nitpicking my polls and blaming board glitches on me now, bub?

I won't fall for that. Your mother is way too lovely a lady for me to insult you over your childish behavior.

[numberthirty]

Are you trying to get me banned by nitpicking my polls and blaming board glitches on me now, bub?

I won't fall for that. Your mother is way too lovely a lady for me to insult you over your childish behavior.

More like...

"If you are going to try to point to a lack of knowledge when it comes to the Constitution as some sort of an indicator of something, at least have the knowledge of the Constitution to know when you should be capitalizing the word."

[PaulBullion]

More like...

"If you are going to try to point to a lack of knowledge when it comes to the Constitution as some sort of an indicator of something, at least have the knowledge of the Constitution to know when you should be capitalizing the word."

We already knew your priorities are fucked up. No need to keep trying to convince us about that.

[Tami]

Call yourself whatever you want, but there is a simple 5-point test to determine if you are a Democrat or not:

1. Do you believe in making the lives of everyone better?
2. Do you believe in finding solutions to problems? Solutions that are fair, equatable, rational, reasonable, and most of all doable.
3. Do you believe in the the promise of the future? Do you embrace change? Do you support science, technology, and the pursuit of knowledge as the keys to wisdom?
4. Do you believe that no one is above the law? That the law needs to be both blind and unbiased. That laws [including regulations and public policies] need to be for the common good, used to protect, and not used as weapons against the most vulnerable people.
5. Do you believe that we are not an island, but a planet? That what happens to those on other parts of the planet affects us. That what happens to the ecosystem that we all share, affects all of us. That we need to work together not only to make for a better future, but to survive.

[Tami]

How to Kill a Presidential Scandal: Republicans smothered the Iran-Contra affair. The same might happen with Trump and Russia.

The Republicans today are doing what the Republicans of the Reagan/Bush era did. However, the situation is different now.