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

[numberthirty]

Might be because nobody heard about it or knows who she is. Sanders is a big name and his townhall was highly publicized, Klobuchar is a name only known to the kind of people that spend their evenings on political forums. Or maybe it's just that Sanders showed you can go on Fox News without being drowned out by conspiracy theories and hate mongering. Things are always easier when you know they're possible.

Sure. That could explain it not coming up everywhere.

Doesn't really explain it not coming up in a thread like this. It's not like no one participating in this thread is aware that Klobuchar is running.

As for what is in green, Sanders had to take the lead on something again?

[Tendrin]

I am unaware of Trump referring to white nationalists as "very fine" people. He did explicitly say that white nationalists should be condemned totally.

Mets, the Unite the Right ralley had people marching with Nazis. Actual, swastika wearing nazis. There were no fine people on that side, no matter how many times you try to find a way to pretend it away and defend Trump's 'context'. You're not unaware. You just choose not to see and find whatever excuses help you do that.

[Malvolio]

I think too many people are still waiting on that singular watershed moment that will change everything for the better. Democrats need to learn from the Republicans and start playing the long game, training up people to be professional agitators with a lifelong commitment to their cause, not a bunch of milquetoast dilettantes who go through an activist phase in youth but assume that winning one election means their job is done. I'm not sure if this is really possible though, the reason the GOP is so committed to their policies is precisely because they know that they didn't earn any of what they currently have and so they must abandon all principle and do whatever it takes to preserve their privileges, whereas too many liberals are still deluded enough to believe that they can beat the system with clever thinking and positivity, despite all the evidence to the contrary. One of the worst things that could happen is if the Democrats manage to beat Trump in 2020 with some lame moderate candidate, so that everyone can believe that everything is fine again.

That's it exactly. The Democrats won't win without getting their hands dirty. However, consider this: the Republicans let the Democrats win, so they can sabotage everything and then elect someone even further to the right than Trump in 2024.

[numberthirty]

That's it exactly. The Democrats won't win without getting their hands dirty. However, consider this: the Republicans let the Democrats win, so they can sabotage everything and then elect someone even further to the right than Trump in 2024.

If Democrats looked at the way Republicans ran on picking apart the ACA and still don't have a plan for contending with that sort of thing going forward, they might want to think about just packing it in.

[JCAll]

That's it exactly. The Democrats won't win without getting their hands dirty. However, consider this: the Republicans let the Democrats win, so they can sabotage everything and then elect someone even further to the right than Trump in 2024.

Can you think of any situation where the GOP wouldn't run someone even worse than Trump in 2024? Pushing the far right and running ranting psychopaths is a winning formula right now.

[jetengine]

Mets, just stop. Its really sad.

Those 'fine people' on the rights side at Charlottesville included....

Among the far-right groups engaged in organizing the march were the Stormer Book Clubs (SBCs) of the neo-Nazi news website The Daily Stormer,The Right Stuff, the National Policy Institute,and four groups that form the Nationalist Front:the neo-Confederate League of the South,the neo-Nazi groups Traditionalist Worker Party,Vanguard America, and the National Socialist Movement.Other groups involved in the rally were the Ku Klux Klan (specifically the Loyal White Knights and the Confederate White Knights branches), the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, the American Identitarian group Identity Evropa,the Southern California-based fight club Rise Above Movement,the American Guard, the Detroit Right Wings – misappropriating the name of the Detroit Red Wings NHL team, which usage was condemned by the team,True Cascadia,the Canadian-based ARM (Alt-Right Montreal) and Hammer Brothers, and Anti-Communist Action.

Prominent far-right figures in attendance included National Policy Institute Chairman and white supremacist Richard Spencer,entertainer and internet troll Baked Alaska,former Libertarian Party candidate Augustus Invictus,former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke,Identity Evropa leader Nathan Damigo, Traditionalist Workers Party leader Matthew Heimbach,Right Stuff founder Mike Enoch,Eric Striker of The Daily Stormer, League of the South founder and leader Michael Hill,Red Ice host and founder Henrik Palmgren,The Rebel Media commentator Faith Goldy,Right Side Broadcasting Network host Nick Fuentes,YouTube personality James Allsup,AltRight.com editor Daniel Friberg, former Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson,Right Stuff blogger Johnny Monoxide,Daily Stormer writers Robert "Azzmador" Ray and Gabriel "Zeiger" Sohier-Chaput, Daily Callercontributor and rally organizer Jason Kessler,and Radical Agenda host Christopher Cantwell.

Its almost farcical how many Nazis, Confederates, Klansmen and lunatics turned up.

[numberthirty]

Can you think of any situation where the GOP wouldn't run someone even worse than Trump in 2024? Pushing the far right and running ranting psychopaths is a winning formula right now.

While I don't want to be too optimistic, I do wonder how a potential primary challenger for Trump being in play will figure into that.

While the "What We Do Is Going To Have Zero To Do With What We Say..." bit is likely going to be a hitch, I do tend to wonder how a candidate who discusses that Republicans sent the debt through the roof(along with other issues) will play with the base.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

House Intelligence Committee Subpoenas William Barr Over Mueller Documents

Another House panel voted Wednesday to advance an effort to hold the attorney general in contempt over his refusal to release the special counsel’s full report. Let's see what Droopy Dog does next.

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Trump Bragged Nonstop About His Success While Quietly Hemorrhaging Millions

“Even if the world goes to hell in a handbasket, I won’t lose a penny,” he boasted the year his losses had mounted to $90.3 million. To quote Joy Behar from The View: “Would you want him investing your money?” Meanwhile, there's this bit of lunacy from Trump's personal propaganda network:

‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts Laud Trump Losing $1 Billion: ‘Wow, It’s Pretty Impressive’

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Mitch McConnell Broke From Precedent Again To Confirm A Trump Judge

For the third time in history, the Senate advanced a judicial nominee over the objections of both home-state senators. Turtle Boy strikes again, all part of the GOP's long game to stack the judicial deck with right wing ideologues.

**********

Democrats Grapple With A White House That Believes It’s Above The Law

Almost every dispute between Congress and the Trump administration ends in court. And gutless, cowardly and compliant Republicans in Congress continue looking the other way while Trump trashes the Constitution.

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Trump Pits Florida Against Puerto Rico Over Emergency Aid: ‘They Don’t Like Me’

The president told supporters at his rally that Puerto Rico received more hurricane disaster relief than states like Florida. The Divider-in-Chief at work. Why unite the country when he can create Grand Canyon sized schisms instead?

[PwrdOn]

Can you think of any situation where the GOP wouldn't run someone even worse than Trump in 2024? Pushing the far right and running ranting psychopaths is a winning formula right now.

Well it's worth pointing out that Trump is a total fraud as a far right demagogue, he's way too scatterbrained to have any coherent ideas of his own and has spent his entire life begging to be allowed into the corporate establishment, but it's hard to sell out when nobody's buying. So in a desperate last bid to stay relevant, he decided to tune his ramblings to the last group of people that were still listening to him, but he's never been a true believer when it comes to this white identity stuff.

[Tendrin]

Well it's worth pointing out that Trump is a total fraud as a far right demagogue, he's way too scatterbrained to have any coherent ideas of his own and has spent his entire life begging to be allowed into the corporate establishment, but it's hard to sell out when nobody's buying. So in a desperate last bid to stay relevant, he decided to tune his ramblings to the last group of people that were still listening to him, but he's never been a true believer when it comes to this white identity stuff.

Even were this true, and I don't think Mr 'execute the central park 5' isn't a racist white nationalist at his core, he'd be one simply by pretending to be one because sooner or later you are what you pretend to be.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Even were this true, and I don't think Mr 'execute the central park 5' isn't a racist white nationalist at his core, he'd be one simply by pretending to be one because sooner or later you are what you pretend to be.

In that vein, Trump could be seen as a chameleon, molding, altering and changing his political views to whatever suits his ends and directly benefits him on any given day.

[numberthirty]

Even were this true, and I don't think Mr 'execute the central park 5' isn't a racist white nationalist at his core, he'd be one simply by pretending to be one because sooner or later you are what you pretend to be.

Man...

That's where you get into a weird sort of "Thought Pickle".

On the one hand, I'd agree with the "Execute The Central Park Five" take. On the other hand, white nationalism isn't really driving him to the point where he will make sure that it's white people staffing his businesses even if it winds up making him less money.

[numberthirty]

In that vein, Trump could be seen as a chameleon, molding, altering and changing his political views to whatever suits his ends and directly benefits him on any given day.

Well, yeah.

There is absolutely a case to be made for that the guy is totally devoid of an actual center when it comes to ideology.

[mogwen]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...oot-immigrants

This is where you are, my american friends.
I'm so sorry for you.

[JCAll]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...oot-immigrants

This is where you are, my american friends.
I'm so sorry for you.

He wants to do it so bad, but he won't order it because his whole life revolves around deniability.
He'll just keep suggesting it until someone does it for him, they deny everything once the law gets involved.
Whoever the GOP runs in 2024, he'll be the kind of man that will give the order. That's what the base demands.