All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[aja_christopher]

"Some food for thought for everyone arguing over impeachment:

- there is no timeline congress must operate within regarding impeachment proceedings. obviously it should be reasonable to prevent backlash, but as long as they are working in good faith and sharing their findings with the public, the house can theoretically keep digging until they are ready to pass the buck to the senate

- impeachment is not a one shot, one kill scenario. impeachment is in no way constrained by new articles being brought on top of those that are already the basis of the initial proceedings.

- impeachment will most likely force the courts to expedite subpoenas and requests for documents. the courts have consistently upheld that the congress is privy to great swaths of information during impeachment proceedings on the basis of criminal conduct. we can thank Nixon for that.

- impeachment, according to current OLC guidelines (which I can make arguments for and against), seems to be the only remedy for a lawless president.

- there is already substantial evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, bribery, and potentially treason (if you want to stretch it that far, though it will require impeachment proceedings to do more digging into potential compromising material and aid given to our enemies). also, the mueller report clearly laid bare the fact that trump is not upholding his oath of office and faithfully taking care of the laws, nor is he protecting our country from foreign attacks. furthermore, publicly available information provide sufficient evidence of money laundering and other financial crimes, not to mention his current lawsuits.

- congress has a duty to impeach regardless of political strategy"

https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/co...he_idea_of_an/

[numberthirty]

Here's what some people don't seem to get about impeachment. It's essentially a criminal case where Nancy Pelosi acts as the prosecuting attorney, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge and the US Senate acts as the jury. Now, in any state criminal case, the DA will only prosecute if she believes that she can get a conviction. It doesn't matter what the reason is, lack of evidence, biased jury, biased judge. If there is little chance of a conviction, the DA will not indict. Now, in a regular criminal case, there's a phase called jury selection, where a prosecutor can dismiss any juror that she finds to be biased and replace that juror with a non-biased one. However, in this case, the most that Pelosi could do is ask a given Senator to recuse himself due to a possible conflict of interest. But we all know that that's not going to happen. She is stuck with a Republican majority Senate, whom she knows will not convict.

And you can cry about the rule of law all you want, but if Trump is impeached and then acquitted, do you really, honestly believe there won't be people on the fence who will say, "Well, he beat the rap. I guess he's innocent," and then vote for him anyway or stay home and make it easier for Trump to win?

If that is the approach, then Democrats honestly need to cut the garbage.

Just come right out and say "Based on that we know that there is no path to a successful impeachment, we are going to drop this." Once you've done that, run on the other issues.

That said, it's completely ridiculous to still try to make the case that you have a President that is X/Y/Z, but you will not be even making an attempt at holding this person who has done X/Y/Z accountable because of what it means for you politically.

[Gray Lensman]

Antifa violently attacking anyone that doesn't agree with the extreme left. If it was just Neo Nazi's that would be one thing but now Nazi has become anyone who isn't fringe left. You also see Antifa violently attacking reporters for the crime of just being present during confrontations and recording them.

Black Lives matter supporters murdering cops. Two officers assassinated in New York City, 5 in Dallas by a BLM supporter, 3 in Lousiana not long after. Many others shot or killed since. All by those radicalized by of the lies of the left that would have you believe that cops are gunning down unarmed black men on a daily basis when in reality nationwide it was a total of 20 in 2017 and 15 in 2018. And most of them were clearly justified when facts came out - for instance here are a couple of the 2017 cases: 1) The unarmed black man was violently beating the cop to death including repeatedly smashing the cop's head over and over into the concrete ground, 2) A black man with a bomb strapped to his chest who had taken hostages and was threatening to blow himself and the hostages up. A sniper shot him before he could but later they found the bomb was a fake so he got labelled an "unarmed" black man. Most end up being like this.

For every instance of violence you can cite on the right I can cite one back at you from Antifa or unhinged BLM supporters. Its disappointing that Trump won't wholly disavow the Neo Nazi groups on the right but its equally disappointing that the left wont disavow Antifa or the BLM elements that are inciting the attacks and murder of police officers. Just this week there have been numerous attacks against NYPD where people are throwing water on officers just trying to do their job. Some will go "its just water" but mark my words this is going to end badly because its going to escalate into more than water and will soon end up being bleach or something else caustic or deadly. Where's AOC condeming this kind of attack or behavior seeing as its happening right there in her town?

I'm at work and can't look up the others, but the Dallas shooter was NOT part of BLM. The guy was part of the Sovereign Citizen movement, which coincidentally is the group most dangerous to police officers.

[InformationGeek]

Not that I felt Ilhan Omar had anything to worry about from any Republican challenger, but I thought this was funny.

Pro Trump Republican Candidate charged with Felony Theft.

I believe WBE said he was going to profile her at some point. Well, just a fun thing to add to the profile.

[InformationGeek]

Like there isn't anything else he could be doing right now.

Very disappointed in Prime Minister Stefan Löfven for being unable to act. Sweden has let our African American Community down in the United States. I watched the tapes of A$AP Rocky, and he was being followed and harassed by troublemakers. Treat Americans fairly! #FreeRocky

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Like there isn't anything else he could be doing right now.

Oh, please! This is nothing more than Dolt45 trying to suck up to black voters to show he’s not racist. Stevie Wonder can see what an awful con job this all is.

[aja_christopher]

I'm at work and can't look up the others, but the Dallas shooter was NOT part of BLM. .

That's why I called it propaganda -- because it is.

Right-wing outlets pushed that lie for a long time in an effort to galvanize support against both Obama and BLM.

In truth "Chief Brown said aid that [Micah Xavier] Johnson had told police negotiators that he was upset about Black Lives Matter" -- likely because they promoted non-violent protest.

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"Backers of the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday pushed back against suggestions that members of the movement held any blame for deaths of five Dallas police officers killed by a sniper late Thursday.

Leaders of the movement were quick to condemn the slaying of the officers who were killed during a Black Lives Matter protest of this week's fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn., two black men whose disturbing encounters with police, filmed by witnesses, had stoked anger throughout the country.

BLM backers said efforts to assign blame for the gunman's actions to an entire movement were dangerous and irresponsible.

“What we did last night was a peaceful protest,” said Dominique Alexander, who heads the Next Generation Action Network and helped organize the Dallas protest, told USA TODAY. “What we were doing as activists was pushing our government to do what was right to address the issues (surrounding police brutality), so more innocent lives are not taken in America.”

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh on Friday equated Black Lives Matter to a "terrorist group" on his radio program. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin lambasted the group as a "farce" and accused its backers of seeking to "weaken America through disunity." Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in an interview on Fox News on Friday slammed the Dallas protesters as "hypocrites."

After the ambush on Thursday, Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, threatened activists and President Obama, who has repeatedly called on Americans to grapple with the root causes of the tension between police and the African-American community.

"This is now war. Watch out Obama. Watch out black lives matter punks,” Walsh posted on Twitter. “Real America is coming after you.”

Twitter deleted the provocative post, but Walsh did not back down from his criticism of Black Lives Matter or Obama. Police reported that the lone gunman responsible for the ambush, Micah Xavier Johnson, told police before he was killed during a standoff that he was angry at white people, police officers and was upset about Black Lives Matter."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...bush/86866014/

[ed2962]

You are typical of why many of us are disgusted with what the left has become. You automatically assume I'm a Trump supporter because I'm upset with the left. Why didn't you just use the word Nazi since thats what you meant? I didn't vote Hilary Clinton because she was a power hungry, lying, evil sociopath with a rapist husband. I voted for Bill twice because I stupidly didn't believe Juanita Broadrick, the woman he raped, and looked the other way when Hilary attacked Juanita in the press for accusing her husband. But as I'm older and wiser I've accepted the #metoo movement in large part and there was no way in hell I was going to vote to put Hilary or her rapist husband back in the white house. A vote for Hilary was a vote for Bill because your utterly naive if you don't think that Bill as a former president would have had endless power shaping policy as First Dude. I ended up throwing away my vote at Gary Johnson because he was the only morally decent candidate even if he had no chance.

I wish to this day that Biden had run in 2016. I'd have voted for him in a heartbeat. If he gets the nomination in 2020 I actually probably will vote for him. The rest of the realistic candidates though seem to be trying to out fringe each other.

I respectfully disagree with this. I'd say it's almost the opposite. With the exception of Sanders ( who isn't anywhere near as radical as people want to pretend), most of the others are going out of their way to show how "relatable" and "normal" they are and how they won't do anything too upsetting if elected. I mean, how are people like Booker or Harris part of any fringe? Even Warren isn't some extreme lefty.

[aja_christopher]

I respectfully disagree with this. I'd say it's almost the opposite. With the exception of Sanders ( who isn't anywhere near as radical as people want to pretend), most of the others are going out of their way to show how "relatable" and "normal" they are and how they won't do anything too upsetting if elected. I mean, how are people like Booker or Harris part of any fringe? Even Warren isn't some extreme lefty.

If Trump says it, it must be true, right?



Their goal is to mark freshmen like AOC and Ilhan as the "face" of the Democratic party while ignoring the moderates and leaders like Pelosi and Biden.

Even then, they have to lie about them in order to appeal to their "base" which as you can see is effective with those who allow bias to supercede fact.

Apparently, "unhinged" in the Republican mind means addressing climate change and stopping immigrants and children from being abused at the border.

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"Fact check: Trump falsely accuses Ocasio-Cortez of calling Americans 'garbage'"

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/19/polit...ews/index.html

[worstblogever]

On this date back in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Herman Cain, the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO who ran for president in 2012, taking his “AWWW… SHUCKY-DUCKY” attitude and tax plan of “NINE, NINE, NINE” onto the campaign trail to try to upset the big favorite for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney. Cain inexplicably DID become the front runner ahead of Romney for a few weeks, in spite of an old video circulating of him singing a parody of John Lennon’s “Imagine” about pizza, his frequency to give an inspirational quote that was actually the lyrics to the theme song of the Pokemon 2000 movie, his belief that there may be a country called “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan”, and his promise to put up a 20 foot border wall… with an electrified fence… and a moat… with alligators in it. Cain also said African-Americans had been “brainwashed” for not having a conservative point of view, froze up when asked about intervention in Libya, asked how to say “Delicious” in “Cuban” (which isn’t a language), talked about how the country needed a “leader and not a reader”, promised not to sign any bill more than three pages in length, and created some of the most bizarre campaign ads, including one that closed with him smiling in super-slow motion, and another that ended with his own campaign manager taking a dramatic drag off of a cigarette. And, in spite of all that, he still had wide support as a presidential candidate… until women started to come forth in droves to report that Herman Cain had sexually harassed them while working for him. The day Cain announced he was leaving the presidential race, he pulled up in a bus, and then, passionately and from his heart… he read… the lyrics to “The Power of One” from Pokemon 2000. For two minutes straight. We almost miss him, given the state of Republican presidential candidates only four years later.

It was on this date in 2015 that we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Todd Courser, a fanatical zealot from the Michigan House of Representatives who entered politics because “Jesus wanted him to run to save the party”. He nearly won the role of being the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party but settled instead for a set in the Michigan House of Representatives. He was 100% pro-life, which did include no exceptions for rape, incest, or risk to the mother’s life, he also believed in no exceptions to the 2nd Amendment and supported “state’s rights”. But Courser’s favorite conservative battle was over “the sanctity of marriage”, where he not only opposed gay marriage, but even gay adoption. His credibility on trying to protect marriage took an amazing hit, though, when he was about to be caught having an affair with fellow anti-gay legislator Cindy Gamrat. Courser’s solution to covering up the affair when it hit the news cycle? He tried talking one of his aides into helping him stage a false separate scandal that would “bury the lead”, that he was paying for sex with male prostitutes. Fortunately, that aide recorded their conversation, and realizing how insane Courser really was, he went to the media with the WHOLE story. Courser and Gamrat were both kicked out of the Michigan state legislature, and have gone on instead, into what else? A career as conservative AM talk radio hosts. Last we heard, Courser was trying to win election as a county prosecutor, but even that seems unlikely. We still say he looks like Marvel Comics villain, the Hulk nemesis known as The Leader, if he were green.

It was on this date in 2016 that we published our original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about David Jolly, a one term Congressman who was once a lobbyist for The Church of Scientology. That… is not a traditional Republican affiliation, by any stretch. But wouldn’t you know it, his district has a higher-than-normal amount of big Scientology donors who contributed to his campaign, and he had the benefit of running for office in a special election, then was completely unopposed in the primary, and still only faced a Libertarian challenger, Alex Sink, in the general election. While Jolly was flying in under the radar in spite of his peculiar background, it became harder to hide as he decided, for whatever reason, to further elevate his profile and threw his hat into the ring to try and replace Sen. Marco Rubio for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat in the 2016 election. While up until this point, Rep. Jolly had no problem with folks knowing about his ties to Scientology, suddenly, he was caught trying to scrub that fact from his Wikipedia page by the press (as well as his previous support for same sex marriage that would hurt his chances in the GOP Primary). During his brief time in Congress, Jolly co-sponsored and voted for HR 36, a 20-week abortion ban, voted with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, voted for the Islamophobic American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act meant to try and stop aiding Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war there, and generally whatever terrible legislation the GOP vomited forth along partisan lines. Jolly’s ambition at running for U.S. Senate blew up in his face when Marco Rubio broke a promise to not run for re-election to the Senate and coasted past him easily in the GOP Primary, so Jolly has been relegated to cable news these days, where he has been a moderate Republican voice who admits he is embarrassed at what his party has become with Donald Trump as their flag-bearer, and would likely have zero chance to get elected as a member of the GOP anywhere as he’s started coming out in support of the Affordable Care Act (after having voted to repeal it while in Congress).

It was on this date in 2017 that we published our original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Jon Keyser, a former member of the Colorado House of Representatives, and a guy who was enough of a rising star in the Colorado GOP that he was the favorite to win their nomination in the 2016 Primary to challenge sitting Democratic U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. There was just one wee little problem with this huge upward leap that Keyser was trying to make… he got caught forging the signatures of people on petitions to have his name added to the ballot, in a completely stupid move. That’s not just a way to get disqualified from qualifying for office, but a crime, and it got Keyser 14 days in jail. It’s also the reason why Darryl Glenn became the nominee for U.S. Senate and let Michael Bennet coast to victory into what would have otherwise been a very tight race. Anyway, like we were saying, Jon Keyser only served a little more than a year in office in the Colorado State legislature, and in that time, there are a few other legislative priorities he had that gave us concern. Like his support of HB 1288, to try and allow racial profiling by police departments, his vote against HB 1265, which would have allowed transgendered individuals to change their listed gender from their birth certificate, but most troubling on his record on LGBT rights was his vote against HB 1175, which would have created a ban on the barbaric practice of gay conversion therapy being performed on minors. After his disastrous forgery scandal, Jon Keyser moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work as a corporate lawyer for Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.

[worstblogever]

Scott Perry

On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published our original profile of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District, Scott Perry, who was first elected to office back in 2014 after serving six years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. While there wasn’t really anything that Congressman Perry did to turn up on CSGOPOTD’s radar in his freshman term in Washington, D.C., in his second term in office, he has been decidedly more idiotic in the public eye.

Let’s start with his town hall from March of 2017, where when he tried arguing against EPA standards trying to stop pollution because “God pollutes, too”. No, we’re serious:

”When I was in the state house, we had a thing called the Chesapeake Bay strategy, which everybody in this room if you live in this district has to abide by. There was no law. There was no statute. This came out of the EPA, forced on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and left some violators out. And by the way, some violators, if you believe in, if you are spiritual and you believe in God, one of the violators was God because the forests were providing a certain amount of nitrates and phosphates to the Chesapeake Bay.”

Pollution is part of God’s design, you see, so we shouldn’t do anything about it. By this logic, we also shouldn’t treat preventable diseases, but hey, let’s not give ol’ Scott anything else to use to argue against the Affordable Care Act.

Heh. No, actually, Perry’s arguments on healthcare are even dumber, and more selfish than that. In May of 2017, while the debate over the GOP’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a far inferior healthcare plan, the AHCA were underway, Scott Perry argued why maternity care should not be included in health insurance coverage. His reason? He was too old to have kids, and therefore, he sure as hell wasn’t paying for it:

“I don’t want maternity care. I have two children, and we’re not having anymore. I don’t want to pay for maternity care.”

An Indivisible activist pointed out that people who don’t have children or whose children are older still have to pay property taxes, which fund schools, adding that there’s a “social contract” in American society for public goods.

“Without a doubt,” Perry replied. “But there’s also personal responsibility. Some people never want to start a family. ... Some people don’t want to own a Cadillac. But should we want to make everybody pay for a Cadillac?”

Babies aren’t Cadillacs, you simpleton, and comparing the two is nonsense.

Anyway, over the past year, Scott Perry has begun spiraling into flat-out conspiracy theory nonsense, instead of just your typical conservative ideologue like most members of the House Freedom Caucus. In October 2017, in the wake of Hurricane Maria devastating Puerto Rico, he went on CNN to yell at anchor Chris Cuomo and call the reports of a massive death toll and citizens struggling to recover “fake news”. (It’s not fake, almost 5,000 people died as a result of the storm, and almost a year later, the power grid was not fully repaired.)

By January of 2018, Rep. Perry was making guest appearances with Tucker Carlson on Fox News to try to re-write history… the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock wasn’t a mentally ill white guy with a gun fetish gone out of control… the entire Las Vegas shooting, per Perry, was a terror attack orchestrated by ISIS. There is zero evidence outside of Scott Perry’s mouth-hole to indicate that such a statement is true, and he should be removed from his position on the Homeland Security Committee for spreading such a paranoid conspiracy theory, in our humble opinion.

With a new district map for Pennsylvania without a gerrymander set up to grant him automatic victory, Perry barely hung onto office, winning with only 51% of the vote. If you weren’t getting the feeling that he’s terrible yet, let’s take a look at his voting record:

• January 22nd, 2019: Perry cannot be arsed to bother to vote 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. Perry voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history. And he definitely was enjoying it, as he trivialized government workers not getting paid as not a problem because “their pay gets caught up” when they’re over. The concept of anyone living paycheck to paycheck is a mystery to him.
• February 28th, 2019: Scott Perry votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Perry votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Scott Perry is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• June 4th, 2019: Perry votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Young is one of 187 Republicans who vote against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.

We’ll see if Scott Perry can hold onto his seat in Congress in 2020, but with voter turnout expected to be even higher and favor Democrats perhaps even more than 2018… this could be the end of the road for him.

[numberthirty]

A pretty worthwhile "Reality Check" on the mainstream media's role in how we wound up where we are...

[Iron Maiden]

Here's what some people don't seem to get about impeachment. It's essentially a criminal case where Nancy Pelosi acts as the prosecuting attorney, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge and the US Senate acts as the jury. Now, in any state criminal case, the DA will only prosecute if she believes that she can get a conviction. It doesn't matter what the reason is, lack of evidence, biased jury, biased judge. If there is little chance of a conviction, the DA will not indict. Now, in a regular criminal case, there's a phase called jury selection, where a prosecutor can dismiss any juror that she finds to be biased and replace that juror with a non-biased one. However, in this case, the most that Pelosi could do is ask a given Senator to recuse himself due to a possible conflict of interest. But we all know that that's not going to happen. She is stuck with a Republican majority Senate, whom she knows will not convict.

And you can cry about the rule of law all you want, but if Trump is impeached and then acquitted, do you really, honestly believe there won't be people on the fence who will say, "Well, he beat the rap. I guess he's innocent," and then vote for him anyway or stay home and make it easier for Trump to win?

I think most pragmatic people know that Trump is going to get away with it all and Trump can thank Mitch McConnell. He'll make sure that his toadies, I mean fellow Republican Senators, will fall in line. The only thing they can really do is maybe get the Don McGanns and others that mentioned in Mueller's report to testify and get it on public record. I really don't know enough about the guy to know if he would. I kind of doubt because he will be burning some bridges with the party and he may not want to risk it. Trump's base is unreachable and but it may help with those who held their nose and voted for Trump in 2016.

But I'm beginning to see how some are wondering just why it is that a Department of Justice opinion that a sitting president can't be indicted should be enforced at all. Why should a President be immune to prosecution for committing a crime. If Trump did shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue would he get away with it as he once bragged? If anything Trump is a prime example why this view should not prevail. Or at least they should suspend any statute of limitations on the charges that would very likely be prosecutable.

Trump is just crazy or stupid enough to think that he can get away with anything he wants now, and with an AG like William Barr he's probably right.

To quote the concluding paragraph of the author of the article I linked:

When should a federal prosecutor ignore the standard advice regarding indicting a sitting president? The short answer is: when there is no other way to stop such a president from corruptly misusing the powers of his office to shield himself from accountability. Such a prosecutor might be bucking DOJ tradition, but what hangs in the balance ultimately might be more important for defending the rule of law.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Election Warnings Blare, But Action Stalls In Congress

Sen. Chuck Schumer called inaction by Congress a “disgrace” and pledged to keep pushing for votes. Well, Republicans know that Russian meddling would help them, so why should they impede the work of the Ivans?

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N.J. School Board Member: ‘My Life Would Be Complete’ If Rep. Rashida Tlaib Died

Daniel Leonard is refusing to resign despite backlash from community members and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Yo, Tami! Have you heard about this shitstain and what he said?

**********

Democrats Just Blew Up A Top Trump Argument For Keeping His Taxes Secret

Contrary to the Trump administration, Congress actually HAS grabbed a sitting president’s confidential tax info before. Well now, isn't THAT interesting!

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Ilhan Omar Condemns Donald Trump’s Racism In Scathing New York Times Op-Ed

The Minnesota lawmaker said Trump’s campaign rally in which his supporters chanted to “send her back” will be “a defining moment” in U.S. history.

**********

Trump Introduces New Defense Secretary Mark Esper With New Word: ‘Infantroopen’

Is this the new “covfefe”? Probably.

[kjn]

Can someone from Britain enlighten me as to why the liberal democrats are still relatively powerless? From what I can tell, the moderates lost pull among the Tories once David Cameron stepped down, and Labor just sat on its ass doing next to nothing to offer itself as an alternative. Shouldn't the middle of the road liberal democrats have been able to capitalize on such an opportunity and seize a larger share of the middle?

Also not a Brit, but I try to follow along (and I have some friends who follow British politics closely).

Apart from what Mister Mets and Kusanagi mentioned, Britain runs on a strict FPTP system, and there are strong local differences in party support, causing an election map that is heavily gerrymandered in favour of Labour and Tories. The support for the LibDems is however much more diffusely distributed.

This effect can also be seen in seen in that the only parties with consistent representantion (keeping hold of their constituencies over several elections) in the UK parliament outside of Labour and Tories are regional ones: SNP of Scotland, Plaid Cymru of Wales, and the DUP, UUP, SDLP, and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland (and the FPTP logic and other factors have now reduced that to just the DUP and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland).

Meanwhile, neither the UKIP nor the LibDem (or their earlier versions the Liberals and the Social Democrats) has ever managed to gain any lasting strength in the UK parliament, while having some success in the European elections (which must be run proportionally).

Adding to what you said on why the Liberal Democrats are relatively powerless, they got destroyed at the polls when they aligned with the Tories to form government and backed austerity measures and other platforms that alienated their base who flocked to Labour for the most part. Re-making themselves as the Remain party in the brexit debate has seen some bounce back though.

Exactly. The LibDems bet hard on being able to change the UK election system to a more proportional one. If they had achieved that, they'd have managed a strategic win. But they failed in that, and the way they made themselves into a doormat for the Tories meant they came across as utterly spineless and ineffectual.