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  1. #8236
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Farealmer View Post
    Choice 3 - Not throwing a good man under a bus for a mistake. Your purity control has not helped a single thing except to give the right almost everything they wanted for the last 3 years.

    Serious question...

    To what degree do you honestly believe that you or I could steer folks towards that third option?

    To me, there is about an " '86 Straight Edge" degree of tolerance for cutting folks slack once you get under a certain age nowadays. I'd agree with you that some apologies should be acceptable, but I don't really think that we are in the majority nowadays. Feels a lot like it's going to be one of the first two most of the time. Ignoring that reality seems like it probably going to put folks in an even worse spot.
    Last edited by numberthirty; 09-20-2019 at 06:37 PM.

  2. #8237
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    Quote Originally Posted by numberthirty View Post
    Serious question...

    To what degree do you honestly believe that you or I could steer folks towards that third option?

    To me, there is about an " '86 Straight Edge" degree of tolerance for cutting folks slack once you get under a certain age nowadays. I'd agree with you that some apologies should be acceptable, but I don't really think that we are in the majority nowadays. Feels a lot like it's going to be one of the first two most of the time. Ignoring that reality seems like it probably going to put folks in an even worse spot.
    Probably not at all.

    The reality is that most of the world is conservative and it looks like the few places that aren't are slowly going back to the old ways. It's a little difficult to take purity control statements in this thread seriously with that on the horizon. The sad truth is regardless of what the left does a lot of people vote based on who they see online. And most of them see real or false flagged "SJW's" who tell them how to act and think and declare them monsters whenever they fail to live to those standards. That boogieman will not be going away regardless of how the left handles Trudeau.

  3. #8238
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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    She’s either a Trump Kool-Aid drinker or just plain deranged. One wonders why she’s even on that show, but I’m guessing the producers need her to be the villain of the group.
    She's just an idiot. I'll give her this, she hates Trump. After he came at her dad she's never said a nice thing about him. But she still is on team red and therefore is subject to traditional Fox News stupidity. She also doesn't know what the **** she's talking about. Only people on the right are pissed about this whistleblower. The left is glad for the most part because it makes Trump look bad. She's just trying to do whataboutism without the facts adding up

  4. #8239
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    Justin Trudeau is one politician that the blackface thing sticks to, more than others. Donald Trump would just deny it and say he's the least racist person. There's a mountain of evidence against Trump and it doesn't matter, because he can't be held accountable for his actions. Pierre Trudeau, Justin's father, would just say fuddle-duddle and he'd steamroll right over the mud--he never cared what people thought of him and everyone knew that.

    If either Andrew Sheer--leader of the Conservative Party of Canada--or François Legault--leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec--were in blackface, that would just confirm what everyone already thinks of them. It might stop a few liberals from shifting their vote to those conservatives, but it would probably increase support from their base.

    The problem for the Liberal Party of Canada is that Justin Trudeau has created this brand where he's supposed to be the most compassionate, the most progressive, the most intelligent. This fiasco shows that he isn't any of those things. He'd have to drastically change his political branding and become much more like his father--flipping the bird to anyone who challenged him--to get past this.

  5. #8240
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    Quote Originally Posted by Farealmer View Post
    Probably not at all.

    The reality is that most of the world is conservative and it looks like the few places that aren't are slowly going back to the old ways. It's a little difficult to take purity control statements in this thread seriously with that on the horizon. The sad truth is regardless of what the left does a lot of people vote based on who they see online. And most of them see real or false flagged "SJW's" who tell them how to act and think and declare them monsters whenever they fail to live to those standards. That boogieman will not be going away regardless of how the left handles Trudeau.
    All of that is true. My complaint is directed at the purity folks, in fact. I think we should condemn racism (and other offenses) and give people a legit chance to apologize. If we don't believe people can be better...then what the **** are we even trying to do?

    The issue is that in the past this ability has not been afforded to many individuals. If we suddenly change to "Oh...we like you. You can be forgiven" it makes that boogeyman a legit gripe. The right shouldn't get legit gripes, they don't deserve them.

    Purity is a left and right wing toxin. I'd hope we can agree that needs to change. Trudeau deserves to be allowed to mea culpa and earn trust with his actions. But so did a lot of other poor folks in the past too.

  6. #8241
    Invincible Member numberthirty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Theleviathan View Post
    All of that is true. My complaint is directed at the purity folks, in fact. I think we should condemn racism (and other offenses) and give people a legit chance to apologize. If we don't believe people can be better...then what the **** are we even trying to do?

    The issue is that in the past this ability has not been afforded to many individuals. If we suddenly change to "Oh...we like you. You can be forgiven" it makes that boogeyman a legit gripe. The right shouldn't get legit gripes, they don't deserve them.

    Purity is a left and right wing toxin. I'd hope we can agree that needs to change. Trudeau deserves to be allowed to mea culpa and earn trust with his actions. But so did a lot of other poor folks in the past too.
    One guy's take...

    The problem is that you don't get to have "We Are Going To See If This Person Is Redeemable..." and "There Is No Way We Are Doing This For The Wrong Reasons..." both at the same time. You don't get to decide for everyone else if you are doing something that is hypocritical or not.

    That hole gets even deeper when it isn't just one stumble.

    It's...

    - One
    - Oh Wait, Here's Another One...
    - You Know, I Actually Have No Idea How Many Instances There Might Be.

    It gets really tough to frame it like it's you allowing for the person being redeemable and not you covering their butt.

  7. #8242
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Donald Trump Is Asking A Foreign Country To Help Him Win. Again.

    The president sought Russian aid in the 2016 election — and got away with it. Now he’s asking Ukraine to do the same thing. And he could well get away with it, again, thanks to complicit Republicans in the Senate looking the other way, his personal Roy Cohn (AG Droopy Dog Barr) and Moscow Mitch who's hellbent on protecting Trump at all cost.

    **********

    Trump Says ‘Everybody’ (Except Him) Has Read Whistleblower’s Report, And ‘They Laugh At It’

    He has no idea who the whistleblower is, the president told reporters, but said it’s a “partisan” man. Well, let's have the whistleblower go public with his/her claims so we can all 'laugh at it'. However, word has it the White House is moving to keep said claims under wraps. Things that make you go hmmmmmm!

    **********

    Justin Trudeau’s Blackface Photos Force Reckoning On Canada’s Global Image

    The scandal has thrown Canada, and its upcoming election, into the spotlight, challenging Trudeau’s famous reputation as an inclusive, progressive leader.

    **********

    As Millions Join Climate Strike, Top Activist Warns: ‘It Could Get Ugly’

    Tired of empty words and emissions targets without plans to meet them, the strike movement is coalescing behind a Green New Deal.

    **********

    George Conway Blames Procrastinating Congress For Emboldening Trump

    “To borrow John Dean’s haunting Watergate-era metaphor ... there is a cancer on the presidency, and cancers, if not removed, only grow,” Conway wrote. And, at this point, that thing is HUGE.
    Last edited by WestPhillyPunisher; 09-21-2019 at 02:28 AM.
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  8. #8243
    Extraordinary Member PaulBullion's Avatar
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    I'm impressed that the President finally did a crime that we're still talking about 4 days later.
    "How does the Green Goblin have anything to do with Herpes?" - The Dying Detective

    Hillary was right!

  9. #8244
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    DC Circ. Tosses Clean Power Plan Challenges

    Law360 (September 17, 2019, 4:06 PM EDT)--The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday tossed legal challenges to the Obama administration's signature climate change plan, accepting theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency's argument that because it has replaced the regulations, the litigation is moot.

    In a brief, anticlimactic order with no explanation, the court granted motions by the EPA and several groups to dismiss the high-profile litigation over the Clean Power Plan, which aimed to slash carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.

    Several states, including Texas and West Virginia, and a variety of industry groups had challenged the CPP as a regulatory overreach. Other states, including California and New York, and environmental groups had intervened on behalf of the EPA to protect the rule.

    The legal battle prompted rare intervention from theU.S. Supreme Court, which in 2016 —in one of the late Justice Antonin Scalia's last acts —stayed implementation of the rule. Following the stay, the D.C. Circuit took the unusual move of holding en banc oral arguments in lieu of panel review. Now, whether the judges would have upheld or struck down the CPP will likely never be known.
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  10. #8245
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    As a foreign reporter visiting the US I was stunned by Trump's press conference

    As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president. Most mornings in Australia begin with news from America – the bid to buy Greenland, adjustments to a weather map hand-drawn with a Sharpie or another self-aggrandising tweet. Our headlines and news bulletins, like headlines and news bulletins everywhere, are full of Trump.

    As a political reporter for most of the last 30 years I have also endured many long and rambling political press conferences with Australian prime ministers and world leaders.

    But watching a full presidential Trump press conference while visiting the US this week I realised how much the reporting of Trump necessarily edits and parses his words, to force it into sequential paragraphs or impose meaning where it is difficult to detect.
    In writing about this not-especially-important or unusual press conference I’ve run into what US reporters must encounter every day. I’ve edited skittering, half-finished sentences to present them in some kind of consequential order and repeated remarks that made little sense.

    In most circumstances, presenting information in as intelligible a form as possible is what we are trained for. But the shock I felt hearing half an hour of unfiltered meanderings from the president of the United States made me wonder whether the editing does our readers a disservice.

    I’ve read so many stories about his bluster and boasting and ill-founded attacks, I’ve listened to speeches and hours of analysis, and yet I was still taken back by just how disjointed and meandering the unedited president could sound. Here he was trying to land the message that he had delivered at least something towards one of his biggest campaign promises and sounding like a construction manager with some long-winded and badly improvised sales lines.

    I’d understood the dilemma of normalising Trump’s ideas and policies – the racism, misogyny and demonisation of the free press. But watching just one press conference from Otay Mesa helped me understand how the process of reporting about this president can mask and normalise his full and alarming incoherence.
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  11. #8246
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    The new Rambo movie is essentially a MAGA fever dream of bigotry

    “Rambo: Last Blood,” the latest in the long-running franchise about a traumatized war veteran (Sylvester Stallone) turned on-demand badass, is less an escapist action movie and more a dramatized manifestation of the most notorious sentences from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announcement speech: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Even for a series that has always been shaped by a right wing worldview, the only reason for this latest sequel to exist — besides generating profits from die-hard Stallone fans — is to validate MAGA-world bigotries about Mexicans.This article first appeared in Salon.
    When New York Times film critic Janet Maslin reviewed the original movie in the series, 1982’s “First Blood,” she noted that “Vietnam is to ‘First Blood’ as rape was to ‘Death Wish’: it’s the excuse for a rampage of destruction.” She later added that “the movie tries hard to make sure that Rambo will be seen as a tormented, misunderstood, amazingly resourceful victim of the Vietnam War, rather than as a sadist or a villain.”

    All of this is true, but with a sinister twist: The film repeatedly perpetuates right-wing myths about America’s treatment of Vietnam War veterans, such as that they were regularly spit on and harassed by antiwar protesters (a 1971 Harris Poll survey found that 99% of veterans said they were treated in a friendly manner by friends and family, and 94% said the same thing of their generational peers). It makes valid points about PTSD and institutional indifference to veterans’ health, but focuses on the idea that America is full of ingrates who can’t appreciate the idealized, Nietzschean hyper-masculine men that supposedly represents everything noble about this country. When the protagonist goes on a rampage, it is morally justified by how he was persecuted by small-town cops — and his persecution is brought on by a sadism rooted not in the truth, but in right wing myths about America that allow its audiences to root for someone who would otherwise be seen as contemptible.

    That is the key to understanding the Rambo movies: They are gruesome, cruel, egregiously violent stories that justify their existence with political messaging. If they were straightforward exploitation films — explicitly meant to horrify, titillate or just in general get the adrenaline pumping — they’d be as innocuous as any other action movie created in that style. The problem is that they aspire to be more than escapist entertainment; their goal is to send a message. When you take action film genre tropes and graft a political narrative onto them, people often imbibe the ideology along with the spectacle. That is when they become propaganda.
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  12. #8247
    Astonishing Member jetengine's Avatar
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    Whilst I get what the articles saying, I disagree that the movies got a MAGA intent. At least intentionally. Its just Stallone doing a mediocre action movie and theres no real acceptable 'villains' left. So generic cartel members (who irl are pretty horrible) are seen as an acceptable target. If EVERY mexican in the movie is evil sure, but its no different then him murdering any ethnic gangsters

  13. #8248
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dalak View Post
    This is a ridiculous philosophy, does your neighbor have to do the right thing for you to feel you have to? If that's the case - Do the right thing to inspire your neighbor. Otherwise it's deserving of "If everyone's jumping off a cliff would you do it too?".
    I'm articulating the philosophy in order to address the problem; I am not endorsing it in any way.

    With climate change policy, it is relevant that that the problem won't be solved by Americans reducing our standard of living; we need to get other countries on-board with reducing emissions.

    Since you can't see it: What is loaded is you asking what people should infer from silence when you refuse to infer from direct action. Debating in bad faith is your assuming numbers are exaggerated before they've been compiled or you've seen how they were arrived at.
    I don't just ask people what we should infer from silence; I do allow the possibility that prominent officials within the party have clearly articulated a limiting principle on legal immigration and that I've just missed it. If prominent Democratic party officials have expressed a satisfaction with the status quo on legal immigration processes, that would be quite relevant to the discussion but I'm not seeing evidence of it.

    I disagree, as the individual pulling said BS does matter to an extent. In addition to what I posted earlier you don't get on folks like Jerry Seinfeld for making jokes about Jewish Stereotypes or Chris Rock for making jokes about Black stereotypes. Minorities dressing in 'Whiteface' isn't the same as white idiots going around in Blackface or otherwise wallowing in racist stereotypes.
    Looking at how Jerry Seinfeld jokes about Jewish stereotypes isn't individual-based; we could respond to a politically liberal Jewish comedian the same way we would to a politically conservative Jewish comedian.
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  14. #8249

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    On this date in 2014 “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Jake Knotts, a former South Carolina State Senator who after having a long-standing feud with former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, continued to take out his rage upon his heir-apparent, current Gov. Nikki Haley, during her campaign to follow in his footsteps. Perhaps if he really wanted to stop her from being elected, he shouldn’t have campaigned on behalf of her opponent, Andre Bauer, by going on conservative radio to say, “We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.” Knotts then continued to try to defend that racist statement by using the “Saturday Night Live” defense, that it was for a comedy show, before alternating back to claiming Nikki Haley was some sort of Sikh Manchurian Candidate and throwing men out of the woodwork who claimed they had bumped uglies with Haley. Knotts has been out of office, and politically off the radar now since 2012.

    It was on this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Tim Murphy, a seven-term U.S. House Representative for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. Murphy, as you might recall, admitted to seeing the “terribly shocking” Planned Parenthood videos TWO WEEKS before they were made public. When asked why he would have kept silent after witnessing such alleged atrocities (that were proven to be false), he gave the mealy-mouthed response of, “Um, I don’t know why. All I know is I saw it and he said he was going to post it eventually, so that’s all I know” before Murphy seemingly then ended the interview by trying to perform a Jedi Mind Trick, telling the reporter, “This interview didn’t happen”. That isn’t even his first botched media confrontation, either. Back in 2006, a reporter from KDKA television, Andy Sheehan, interviewed Rep. Murphy and presented him with documents that showed he had his District Office employees were (illegally) also working on his re-election campaign. Murphy, on camera, snatched the documents away from Sheehan, and refused to give them back, not realizing apparently that a reporter would be smart enough to have COPIES of evidence. Murphy's bad reactions to this weren't over, though... he fired his scheduler, Jayne O'Shaughnessy, for blowing the whistle. Luckily for the Congressman, though, the Bush administration Dept. of Justice didn't bother to follow up with an investigation of any wrongdoing, because they weren't going to throw a fellow Republican ot the wolves. Murphy was also one of many Republicans fear-mongering over the Ebola Virus prior to the 2014 elections, by calling for a travel ban that medical experts said would only exacerbate the problem. His staunch conservative voting record includes stances against same sex marriage, equal pay for women, support for radical pro-life legislation that includes voting to keep Terry Schiavo alive against her wishes, and a need to investigate or decry every faux-scandal the GOP have cooked up. He has been re-elected five times in spite of being rated as one of the most corrupt members of Congress by CREW. Congressman Murphy made some headlines around this time in 2017 when the self-professed "defender of marriage" got caught running around on his wife, and admitted to having an extramarital affair, after the details were exposed in his mistress' divorce proceedings. And, shock of shocks, there was a point where Murphy and his mistress had a pregnancy scare, and he was immediately pleading with her to have an abortion, as was revealed in e-mails and text messages between the two. After having his arm twisted by what passes for Republican leadership, Tim Murphy quickly resigned, his career likely damned. As such, we will retire his profile at this time, and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 786-40, since this was establish ed in July 2014.)



    Mark Burns

    Welcome to what is the 786th original profile on the “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” blog, where we’re going to discuss Pastor Mark Burns, who in 2018, was one of thirteen… yes THIRTEEN challengers trying to run for U.S. House of Representatives in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, hoping to replace the chief exploiter of Benghazi, Trey Gowdy, who opted to resign after realizing he wouldn’t be able to turn House Oversight Committee hearings into a three-ring circus while in the minority party after the Blue Wave hit.

    Anyway, Mark Burns is renowned for being the sort of Evangelical charlatan who endorses the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” that ignores most of the actual teachings of Jesus when it comes to wealth and charity, and was drawn into the spotlight of the GOP when Donald Trump asked that he give the opening prayer at the four-day hate rally that the 2016 Republican National Convention. In that benediction, Burns referred to Democrats as “the enemy” and called upon God to defeat Hillary Clinton, so that’s a little much.

    That was far from the last he was heard from during the 2016 campaign, though, because he began serving as a Trump surrogate, by doing things like defending Trump from being openly racist towards Judge Gonzalo Curiel, while sharing racist memes about Democrats, including a cartoon of Hillary Clinton in Blackface on social media. As one does in the name of the Lord.

    Not even a week after making headlines with that behavior, Pastor Burns sat down for an interview with Victor Blackwell of CNN, who came with receipts to read him for filth. Specifically, Blackwell wanted Burns to address several falsehoods on his church’s website that falsely claimed to have membership in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and served six years in the Army Reserve (South Carolina National Guard, in reality). When the interview was obviously not going Burns’ way, he tried claiming that he’d only agreed to talk to Blackwell “off the record”, and got up and walked out mid-interview. Within 24 hours, the church’s website deleted the lies from the pastor’s resume. Mark Burns then tried claiming he was the victim in everything for being “a black man supporting Donald Trump for President.”

    Pastor Burns continued to defend Donald Trump from warranted accusations that he was a racist for years, including in January of 2018 when Trump was facing public scrutiny for referring to Haiti and several African nations as “s***hole countries”. After another disastrous interview, this time with MSNBC’s Joy Reid where he embarrassed himself trying to shield Donald Trump from being called a racist when he obvious is, he made the very levelheaded decision to release a video on social media where he asked why Reid “doesn’t move to Haiti?” Joy Reid responded by quoting the Bible back at the pastor, which is fitting since he seems so confused about what’s actually in the book in the first place.

    Anyway, the only real steps Mark Burns took to repair his image with voters prior to his attempt at getting elected to Congress in 2018 was to start wearing colored contacts and make people think he had blue eyes. It didn’t help much. Burns finished eighth out of the thirteen Republican candidates vying for Trey Gowdy’s old seat, only getting 2.5% of the vote. Back in 2017, he was making noise about challenging Lindsey Graham for his Senate seat in 2020, but given how Graham has capitulated to being a Trump Republican, and Burns’ performance in 2018, we’re pretty sure he’ll be content to just be the opening act at the 2020 RNC/Bigoted Sideshow like he did in 2016.
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  15. #8250
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    Quote Originally Posted by numberthirty View Post
    One guy's take...

    The problem is that you don't get to have "We Are Going To See If This Person Is Redeemable..." and "There Is No Way We Are Doing This For The Wrong Reasons..." both at the same time. You don't get to decide for everyone else if you are doing something that is hypocritical or not.

    That hole gets even deeper when it isn't just one stumble.

    It's...

    - One
    - Oh Wait, Here's Another One...
    - You Know, I Actually Have No Idea How Many Instances There Might Be.

    It gets really tough to frame it like it's you allowing for the person being redeemable and not you covering their butt.
    I read this a couple times but I cant figure out what you meant to communicate. Clarify please?

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