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

[KOSLOX]

My other brother who works in Washington gave another response: the decline in civility.

Save all that.

"Civility" hasn't done much to improve the standing of non-white people in this country. Bullets always seem to find the fierce and civil alike.

"Civility", or at least the popular concept of it, is just another means for the people who have historically maintained power to dictate or limit the scope of criticism.

[aja_christopher]

There are plenty on the left who seem to be concerned about the party's positioning on immigration.

Then you probably should discuss your hypothetical open borders with those hypothetical people on the "left" instead of constantly trying to sell it to those of us who have more important and much more real concerns -- like a racist, child-abusing, hypocritical, criminal supporting, authoritarian Republican theocracy attempting to take over our government by suppressing the votes of non-white American citizens, while simultaneously treating non-white asylum seekers worse than prisoners in order to motivate their "base" to vote.

[worstblogever]

My other brother who works in Washington gave another response: the decline in civility.

The president is a screaming racist leading hate rallies, locking migrant refugee children in cages after ripping them from their parents, is telling four people of color in Congress to "go back where they came from", and in the first year of his presidency, refused to criticize Neo-Nazis terrorized a town and a woman was murdered.

People who aren't hateful reject him, and the Republican Party's inability to say "enough" and use any of the excuses to impeach him that Mueller provided, or 25th Amendment the son of a bitch. It's not even "Democrats". It's just people who aren't filled with hate.

That's your little "decline in civility". People refusing to be tolerant OF the intolerant. Don't go with some bulls*** "both sides" about this. Full stop. Admit that the GOP need to reject racism, white nationalism and not DEFEND IT like all but five of them did in Congress this week, Mets. They wrote a rule to protect Trump from being called a racist even IF HE IS CLEARLY RACIST in the House, and then tried to invoke it to protect him from telling sitting members of Congress to "go back where they came from".

Your party has a problem. And you should look at what it is, and decide like so many others are that maybe it's a good time to stop calling it "your party".

[aja_christopher]

Save all that.

"Civility" hasn't done much to improve the standing of non-white people in this country. Bullets always seem to find the fierce and civil alike.

"Civility", or at least the popular concept of it, is just another means for the people who have historically maintained power to dictate or limit the scope of criticism.

Apparently he wants to pretend like none of us saw how "civil", "moderate" Obama was treated by the Republicans while he was the President and still is treated by many (like Trump) today.

Kenyan-Muslim Obama, as I think Trump and many other Republicans referred to him (when they weren't using racial slurs) -- Kenyan-Muslim Obama who all the Republicans treated with "civility" and respect while they blocked all of his legislation and even a Supreme Court pick before voting that same Trump into the office of the Presidency.

You want "civility" Mets -- get your party to stop telling people of color to "go back where they came from" first.

Better yet -- get them to stop violating the rights of "minorities" for "white" votes.

I'll add that I think most of us have been more than civil with you during this discussion, and the fact that you are still harping on theoretical "limiting principles" instead of directly addressing the fact that your party is a racist criminal organization shows us just how far "civility" goes when dealing with racism and corruption in both our society and in our government.

Your party needs to be voted out of power, and the criminals (like Trump) need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law -- that's about as "civil" a statement I can make on the issue.

[Kirby101]

My other brother who works in Washington gave another response: the decline in civility.

Has he said which side he has found less civil. Or is this just both sidism, ignoring what actually has transpired since Obama was elected.

And really, "civility" is the most pressing matter of our times? He finds nothing else more important?

[worstblogever]

I mean, a point where I thought "civility" went out the window might have been during the 2013 Government Shutdown when Ted Cruz led a mob of Tea Party loons outside the gates of the White House to wave a Confederate flag at it while the first African American president sat inside, and then had a preacher demand he "put down the Koran and come out with his hands up".

Didn't see any Republicans clutching pearls about the lack of civility at that point.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Jeremy Durham, a former House Majority Whip of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and, for lack of a better term, a colossal, skeevy f***-up. The first scandal that broke about Jeremy Durham back in December of 2015 seemed like something that a legislator might survive politically if they just kept a low profile… news leaded that back in 2013, Durham was accused of potential prescription drug fraud, having supposedly altered it in an attempt to get more Adderall. No charges were filed, no big deal, right? Well, a few days later, the media in Tennessee were digging more into Durham’s background, and saw that he had gone out of his way to ask a judge for leniency in the case of a youth pastor who had been caught in an improper relationship with a 16 year old, and while the cops were looking into that, the pastor was also found to be in possession of child pornography. Really interesting that this was the charity case Durham took up, huh? (More on this in a minute…)

Well, then a few days after that, the Tennessean ran a story about an ongoing sexual harassment claim against Jeremy Durham, and the next thing you knew, ladies in the state legislature started coming forward stories about uncomfortable encounters where they were similarly harassed by Durham, and one of the common threads seemed to be that he was trying to get them alone, or into an encounter where they’d partake in some alcohol. Over the course of several months, a ton of women were producing evidence in the form of sexually-suggestive text messages from Durham (often apparently while he was under the influence of alcohol), as well, and a state Attorney General’s investigation came to the conclusion that he was, quite frankly, a creepy bastard. The funny part of all this, though, is that Jeremy Durham had been one of the loudest voices calling for one of those transphobic bathroom bills a lot of state legislators around the country are calling for, based on the idea that there were men pretending to be women and rolling up on them in public restrooms to assault them (which actually isn’t happening).

But Durham was pervy enough that the Tennessee state legislature literally banned him to his own separate building, because he’s too much of a pervert to be trusted around the opposite sex. We wish we could share all of the details of Durham’s shenanigans to further embarrass him, but alas, Durham and his attorney are fighting to keep them legally sealed, even as the state Attorney General is trying to disclose them to the media, who sure want the dirt. A vote was held to officially expel him from the state legislature, and we’re going to guess that means his career in politics is mercifully over.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...-jeremy-durham



Back in 2014, 2015, and after a one year hiatus from us covering him, again in 2017, and then in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Mississippi who you might remember as the guy who considers any compromise to be a "surrender", and attends meetings of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. When he gets caught speaking to people who think the Antebellum South was keen, or cash donations from lawyers for the KKK, he frequently, gets caught lying about it, too. But McDaniel was the challenger to Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, who sent operatives into the nursing home where Cochran's wife is convalescing to have pictures of her taken laid up in bed to try and portray Cochran as some heartless monster who doesn't care about her. One of his aides committed suicide after being caught in the disgusting scandal, which McDaniel, not entirely convincingly, claimed he had no knowledge of. After many failed lawsuits stemming from his 2014 election loss to Thad Cochran (he was furious Cochran had Democrats vote in the open primary on the Republican ticket, and select Cochran, since he was less extreme of an option), McDaniel’s career as a Mississippi State Senator is beginning to stall, as well, as every piece of legislation he has written throughout his time in office thus far has died in committee. McDaniel remains an all-around heel, responding to the hugely attended Women’s March on Washington, D.C., the day after the Trump inauguration by trolling on Facebook, referring to the crowd as "a group of unhappy liberal women" and asking how they "can afford all those piercings, tattoos, body paintings, signs, and plane tickets, when they want us to pay for their birth control?" Well, that was akin to kicking a hornet’s nest. He was far from apologetic the next day, ranting that "no amount of liberal hell raising" would ever make him change his opinion about "free abortions" (This is the guy who considers any kind of compromise to be “surrender” of course), and laughing off the disgust at his remarks, because he felt that "literally 99 percent of you are not from MS. Perfect. It's nice to know I'm in your heads."

See? You can be an ***hole to the majority of the country… just make sure none of them are from your state, and no one will notice!

We noticed, Chris. We also noticed that as Sen. Thad Cochran announced his impending retirement in 2018, that Chris McDaniel was not content to sit and watch Missouri Gov. Phil Bryant appoint Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate, and McDaniel is entering the special election to fill out the remainder of Cochran’s term, that ends in 2020, to avenge his 2014 loss. During the primary for that race, polling showed Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith in a virtual tie at about 33%, and McDaniel trailing in a distant third, with about 12%. Although, McDaniel insisted that such numbers are from a “fake poll”, and just a “dirty trick” because of course he did. As the election advanced further, McDaniel tried to stir up support online among the Neo-Confederate crowd by first calling Conderate General Robert E. Lee a “hero” and posting a survey on his Twitter whether or not people should consider Robert E. Lee agreed. Let us us describe the response McDaniel received as “ratio’ed”.

Chris McDaniel ended up losing in the primary in the race for U.S. Senate, finishing third with only 16% of the vote. He was up for re-election in 2019 for his seat in the Mississippi State Senate, and will be re-elected on the basis that no one bothered to run against him. He thus will remain in office until 2023.

[Mister Mets]

Has he said which side he has found less civil. Or is this just both sidism, ignoring what actually has transpired since Obama was elected.

And really, "civility" is the most pressing matter of our times? He finds nothing else more important?

He's not saying the Democrats are less civil, or that it's limited to Democrats VS Republicans (Look at the fights between the Justice Democrats and the establishment Democrats, or Trump-supporting Republicans VS more skeptical Republicans.)

His view is that the decline in civility makes it harder to deal with anything else. When a prominent congresswoman's chief of staff accuses moderate members of the party being “hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.” that is not increasing the chances that the green new deal will be passed.

[KOSLOX]

He's not saying the Democrats are less civil, or that it's limited to Democrats VS Republicans (Look at the fights between the Justice Democrats and the establishment Democrats, or Trump-supporting Republicans VS more skeptical Republicans.)

His view is that the decline in civility makes it harder to deal with anything else. When a prominent congresswoman's chief of staff accuses moderate members of the party being “hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.” that is not increasing the chances that the green new deal will be passed.

Where dey at tho?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1UB2UD

[worstblogever]

He's not saying the Democrats are less civil, or that it's limited to Democrats VS Republicans (Look at the fights between the Justice Democrats and the establishment Democrats, or Trump-supporting Republicans VS more skeptical Republicans.)

His view is that the decline in civility makes it harder to deal with anything else. When a prominent congresswoman's chief of staff accuses moderate members of the party being “hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.” that is not increasing the chances that the green new deal will be passed.

All but 5 members of the GOP refused to condemn Trump's very racist statements. That would indicate the moderates are committed to defending racism. Also, the "moderate GOP" is committed to gutting voting rights, and keeping people of color away from voting, which sure seems to be like what her chief of staff is describing. They have been since 2010. Literally, e-mails have been retrieved where Republicans discuss holding onto power by keeping minorities from voting.

Clutch your pearls when someone speaks the truth, but his statement is not wrong. Your party is doing that. You can stop gaslighting us that it's not what's happening at any time.

Or admit it to yourself and abandon a party that's embracing racism, and rejecting democracy more and more by the day.

[BeastieRunner]

Looks like Congress will actually hear the measure to censure Trump.

[PaulBullion]

It'll be interesting to see what these women have to say about what happened.

.

Unless they are what Steve Bannon dissolved in that bath tub he destroyed in his Florida home.

[PaulBullion]

My other brother who works in Washington gave another response: the decline in civility.

I guess he is a white cis-het male?
Because those are the only people who were EVER awarded any kind of civility in the US of A on a regular basis.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While we're on the subject of civility (or the lack of same), let's not forget John and Jane Q. Deplorable, the scores of people who are just fine with the greed, the racism, the evil and the inhumanity of the Republican party, who attend Trump rallies and gleefully shout "Lock her up!", or the brand new catchphrase, "Send her back!" The repugnant hordes of ignorant scum all too willing to stand by and let democracy go right down the toilet because they get a charge out of the libs being owned by their orange skinned hero. Yeah, this mob couldn't spell "civility", much less practice it.

[PaulBullion]

More and more people are catching on:

I have covered fascist rallies and Trump rallies.

This Trump rally was a fascist rally.

https://twitter.com/letsgomathias/st...322558464?s=20

It's time to accept that the Trump government is a fascist regime.

It is time to accept that the detention centers are concentration camps.

It's time to accept that the National Enquirer, FoxNews and Breitbart are fascist propaganda tools.

It is time to accept that those who do not take a clear stance against Trump and ALL of the GOP that enables him are enablers of fascism in the USA.