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

[numberthirty]

Nope -- I don't want to argue at all, which is why I say votes and not rhetoric are what matter in this "debate".

The lesson is that if people want progressives like Sanders to win, then they need to vote for them instead of trying to drag down other Democrats who beat progressive candidates in elections -- attacking Hillary or Biden or Obama or Bill is not going to make people support progressive candidates.

Divisiveness and anger, rather than strategic thinking and planning based on actual data, leads to failure, which is exactly why the Republicans (and Russians) promote these divisions within the Democratic party whenever possible.

Just to point some "Basics..." out here...

This is from the above Flint article.

Amber Hassan, a 38-year old Flint hip-hop artist, said she wasn’t particularly impressed with any of the front-runners on Wednesday night. “I’m waiting for Kamala Harris to represent everyday black women,” she said, “I’m not talking about PhD black women, I’m talking about everyday, middle America, regular struggles black women.”

That isn't some division that "Division Sector X..." or whoever is exploiting. It is a pretty basic American reality. If folks want to look past that to focus on what they believe others are trying to do?

They are doing more damage to Democrats chances than any Russian outfit ever could.

[aja_christopher]

That isn't some division that "Division Sector X..." or whoever is exploiting. It is a pretty basic American reality. If folks want to look past that to focus on what they believe others are trying to do?

They are doing more damage to Democrats chances than any Russian outfit ever could.

I'm not going to argue with you -- less rhetoric, more wins.

If you cared as much about "progressive politics" in reality as you do on these message boards, you would have voted to keep Trump from taking office and scrapping nearly every piece of progressive legislation passed under Obama, just as he promised he would.

No one wants to be lectured by someone who can't even be bothered to show up when it really matters.

[numberthirty]

I'm not going to argue with you -- less rhetoric, more wins.

If you cared as much about "progressive politics" in reality as you do on these message boards, you would have voted to keep Trump from taking office and scrapping nearly every piece of progressive legislation passed under Obama, just as he promised he would.

No one wants to be lectured by someone who can't even be bothered to show up when it really matters.

Look...

If folks want to take a look at the reality that a couple of years into Trump's Presidency folks are still saying that Democrats don't really represent them and they would probably vote for Mickey Mouse and just essentially ignore that folks feel that way?

Entirely their call to make.

That said, there is no version of actual reality where doing so isn't throwing general election votes into the fireplace.

People want to vote "For" something. That article makes that reality painfully clear.

[aja_christopher]

People want to vote "For" something. That article makes that reality painfully clear.

Reality makes it "painfully clear" that they vote for moderates more than progressives -- you aren't the Scarlet Witch, your personal views don't bend reality.

Argue with reality and stop trying to argue with me.

[aja_christopher]

Trump: "Fine with me" if China doesn't trade with us anymore

[Theleviathan]

You are talking in terms of "Proof..."

If a nobody walked in with no support running on a progressive platform and took thirty percent of the vote away from someone who was "Untouchable...", you need to be able to show that it was not said progressive platform that snagged that thirty percent.

Otherwise, I've got no reason to doubt that folks voted for a progressive based on that they were a progressive.

Never mind the clear reality that more moderate Dems have clearly benefited from a bigger picture that is made up of progressives like AOC and progressive policy.

It's become painfully clear you are doing the very thing I take issue with "I think X and there is a massive amount of untapped voters just like me so that's why the Democrats should think X too". You have absolutely no evidence to support that. It's you selfishly projecting your ideology on the electorate and then throwing out garbage arguments like your Joe Manchin one thinking it's true. It's not true. It's a fairy tale you tell yourself.

They didn't pour out for Stacey Abrams or Andrew Gillum or a host of other progressives. Why? Because they're as real as unicorns. Stop projecting and move the conversation left with your vote.

And, most of all, stop trashing centrist wins over Republicans because you really like pretending you have a unicorn.

[Tami]

Bipartisan Bill Would Restore Administrative Law Judges to Competitive Service

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday reintroduced a bill that would place administrative law judges back in the competitive service, effectively overriding a 2018 executive order.

In July 2018, President Trump signed an executive order moving administrative law judges from the competitive service to the excepted service. At the time, the White House claimed it was necessary to comply with the Lucia v. SEC Supreme Court decision, which found that administrative law judges are “inferior officers” under the Constitution, limiting their authority.

The order shifted the method for hiring new administrative law judges. Previously, candidates' qualifications were vetted by the Office of Personnel Management before they were forwarded to agencies for final selection, but the order changed their selection to a more traditional presidential appointment process.

Lawmakers and groups representing administrative law judges have disputed the administration’s rationale, saying that the Lucia decision does not apply to the vast majority of the 1,900 administrative law judges across the federal government, and accused Trump of using the ruling as a pretext to politicize the ALJ corps.

It isn't enough that Trump and Senate Republicans are installing Federal Judges, Trump also wants control over ALJ's as well.

[Kirby101]

It's become painfully clear you are doing the very thing I take issue with "I think X and there is a massive amount of untapped voters just like me so that's why the Democrats should think X too". You have absolutely no evidence to support that. It's you selfishly projecting your ideology on the electorate and then throwing out garbage arguments like your Joe Manchin one thinking it's true. It's not true. It's a fairy tale you tell yourself.

They didn't pour out for Stacey Abrams or Andrew Gillum or a host of other progressives. Why? Because they're as real as unicorns. Stop projecting and move the conversation left with your vote.

And, most of all, stop trashing centrist wins over Republicans because you really like pretending you have a unicorn.

A correction. People did not pour out for Stacey Abrams because Kemp suppressed over 100,000 votes. In deep red Georgia, she "lost" by less than 3%
I am highly suspect of the Florida 2018 results as well.

[Tami]

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods

The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2914, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Stephen Broden, an old pal of Texas Gov. Rick Perry who accuses Planned Parenthood of committing "black genocide", that President Obama deliberately orchestrated the economic crash of 2007 (which would be amazing for him to have done from the Senate), and calling for armed revolution if he was not elected to office. He continues to speak publicly with radical views (including support for "religious freedom" to discriminate against the LGBT community).

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Scott Renfroe, a former Colorado State Senator and Personhood supporter who went on to declare during a debate in the state legislature about providing benefits for same-sex partners of state employees, started to volunteer his opinion that homosexual behavior was an “abomination” and began comparing homosexuality to straight up MURDER, after quoting the Book of Leviticus from the Bible. Which is amazing, because even Old Testament fans know murder is one of the Ten Commandments from the Book of Exodus, so Renfroe maybe needed some more Bible study on top of being given some sensitivity training to help him be just a functional human being. Still, Renfroe was re-elected during the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and went on to call for the National Guard to be tasked with sorting through protesters in the state capitol calling for the legalization of marijuana to find the ones with legalized medical marijuana cards, and confiscate them for their actions (note: the National Guard did not come). Renfroe also complained that cutting back on the number of hours of education in physics would somehow lead to the “feminization” of the boys. As you would expect, Renfroe’s voting record was awful, including a vote against a bill to provide emergency contraception for sexual assault survivors, votes against allowing Medicaid to pay for family planning, and a vote to avoid Colorado from adopting the United Nations Convention Against the Discrimination of Women. Renfroe made a bid for Congress in 2014, losing out to Ken Buck while running for the seat to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is only 50 years old at the time of this post, so we’re expecting he’ll resurface and run for office somewhere, at some point.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile of Pete Nielsen, a former member of the Idaho House of Representatives from 2002-2016 who was enough of an extremist that the Idaho Republican Party still thought he was unfit to be trusted to do much of anything, and in the fourteen years he served in the state legislature, Nielsen was never appointed to oversee a legislative committee nor won a legislative leadership position. What brought Pete Nielsen to our attention was that in February 2016, he was engaged in debate over a bill that would require mandatory intra-vaginal ultrasound bill for women seeking abortions, without exceptions for rape or incest, and Nielsen decided to state his belief that you can’t get pregnant from rape, and later clarifying to the media, "I'm convinced because of the trauma it would not be like it was with consensual sex." Sounds like yet another Republican who went to the Todd Akin school of f***ed up science facts, eh? A few days later, likely after Republican Party leaders cornered Nielsen and shook the holy f*** out of him for repeating one of the same mistakes that doomed them only four years earlier in the 2012 elections, he changed his tune, saying that he had once read medical journals that made him believe what he was saying was true, but that upon reviewing the facts, he was wrong, and a woman can get pregnant if she is raped. However, he wasn’t about to allow for the exception in the bill for rape or incest victims, in spite of his new revelation. Nielsen’s voting record also included GOP voter suppression efforts with Voter ID bill, a vote to attempt at nullify the Affordable Care Act, a vote for HJM 4, a resolution to seek the impeachment of any member of the judiciary who rules in favor of same sex marriage, a vote to try to have the Bible taught in public schools, and a vote against raising the minimum wage during one of the worst eras for economic inequity in our country in a century. Now, we would like to say that Nielsen didn’t run for re-election in 2016 because of that gaffe, but he was 78, so maybe he just felt it was time to call it a career. Or maybe, he felt he would have also been marred by his January 2016 arrest on the charges of illegally poaching an elk. The important thing is he’s out of office.



On this date in 2016, as well as in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Michael Folk, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who on July 15th, 2016, decided to get on Twitter to share his thoughts about former Secretary of State, First Lady, and current Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, posting “@HillaryClinton You should be tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution… then hung on the Mall in Washington, DC”. After receiving widespread criticism, Folk tried justifying his mindset, sending out a second message that read, “Sorry, I don’t mince words… read this story & watch this video & maybe you’ll understand. Hillary supporters coming out of the woodwork this morning…” The video he linked to was about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Which was not, and is apparently not worthy of prosecution per then FBI Director James Comey or anyone in that role since, but if you ask Michael Folk, amateur judge, jury, and executioner, someone should be prepping a noose for a public hanging. Anyway, United Airlines suspended Michael Folk while they investigated the matter, and he also was obviously given an audience with the Secret Service. As for what sort of legislator Michael Folk is… a quick glance at his voting record showed he’s a fan of stricter Voter ID laws to combat statistically non-existent in-person voter fraud at the cost of disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters, his vote for concealed carry of firearms without a permit, that he supported one of those conservative “religious freedom” laws that’s an end-around attempt to side-step the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage, a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, and a not at all inflammatory piece of legislation to ban a “dismemberment abortion”, which we can only assume is based on the sort of information someone would get from a fraudulent organization like the Center for Medical Progress.

Michael Folk did win re-election in 2016, and in spite of his troubling comments, he actually thought he was worthy of a promotion onto the West Virginia State Senate, planning a challenge to incumbent Democrat John Unger and facing no opposition to doing so in the GOP Primary in 2018. Meanwhile, he’s also trying to raise his profile by circulating a petition to try and impeach West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice because… he doesn’t live inside the state capitol? Yeah… feeling like you have to do a little better than that, Mike. Some people actually commit treason with Russia and folks aren’t hustling to impeach them… also, those same people don’t get you calling on them to be tried and executed, so there’s that.

Anyway, Michael Folk failed to get elected to the West Virginia State Senate, losing by just over 1500 votes. Has he realized he’s a lunatic who has no business running for higher office? Heh, heh. No. He’s declared himself as a gubernatorial candidate to challenge Gov. Jim Justice in 2020, continuing to refer to him as “Traitor Jim”.

We're hoping at some point, Michael Folk stops accusing people he doesn't agree with politically of committing capital offenses.

[aja_christopher]

A correction. People did not pour out for Stacey Abrams because Kemp suppressed over 100,000 votes. In deep red Georgia, she "lost" by less than 3%
I am highly suspect of the Florida 2018 results as well.

Another reminder that the problem isn't "moderate" or "progressive" Democrats -- it's Republicans who have no issues with cheating and subverting democracy to win elections.

-----
"Schumer suggests McConnell is blocking election security measures because he wants ‘the Russians to interfere’"

"Appearing on Joe Madison’s namesake radio show, Schumer said he could only think of two reasons for why McConnell derailed a couple of proposals last week that would have beefed up election security ahead of next’s year presidential contest — “neither of them good.”

“One, they want the Russians to interfere because they think it’ll help them,” Schumer said. “The second, is another reason not so good. Donald Trump in his puerile, babyishness, if that’s even a word, is so upset at the fact that the Russians might have interfered, that it delegitimizes his election, and McConnell is so scared of Trump that he goes along.”

Referring to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress last month, Schumer added, “Mueller made this clear: the Russians wanted Trump to win.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ona-story.html

-----
"Biden: McConnell Refused To Sign Bipartisan Statement On Russian Interference"

"The former vice president's account echoes reporting that first appeared in The Washington Post in June describing a meeting that occurred the same month between Obama's Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, then-FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco and 12 key members of Congress.

In the meeting, the Post reports:

"The Dems were, 'Hey, we have to tell the public,' " recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia's aim of sapping confidence in the system.

...McConnell (R-Ky.) went further, officials said, voicing skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House's claims. Through a spokeswoman, McConnell declined to comment, citing the secrecy of that meeting."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...n-interference

[Theleviathan]

A correction. People did not pour out for Stacey Abrams because Kemp suppressed over 100,000 votes. In deep red Georgia, she "lost" by less than 3%
I am highly suspect of the Florida 2018 results as well.

All fair, but even that horrid malfeasance by the Republicans could be overcome if this Unicorn 30% was a real thing.

[Kirby101]

All fair, but even that horrid malfeasance by the Republicans could be overcome if this Unicorn 30% was a real thing.

Yeah, I wasn't arguing against your main point.

[Mister Mets]

A correction. People did not pour out for Stacey Abrams because Kemp suppressed over 100,000 votes. In deep red Georgia, she "lost" by less than 3%
I am highly suspect of the Florida 2018 results as well.

How did Kemp suppress over 100,000 votes?

[Mister Mets]

Another reminder that the problem isn't "moderate" or "progressive" Democrats -- it's Republicans who have no issues with cheating and subverting democracy to win elections.

-----
"Schumer suggests McConnell is blocking election security measures because he wants ‘the Russians to interfere’"

"Appearing on Joe Madison’s namesake radio show, Schumer said he could only think of two reasons for why McConnell derailed a couple of proposals last week that would have beefed up election security ahead of next’s year presidential contest — “neither of them good.”

“One, they want the Russians to interfere because they think it’ll help them,” Schumer said. “The second, is another reason not so good. Donald Trump in his puerile, babyishness, if that’s even a word, is so upset at the fact that the Russians might have interfered, that it delegitimizes his election, and McConnell is so scared of Trump that he goes along.”

Referring to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress last month, Schumer added, “Mueller made this clear: the Russians wanted Trump to win.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ona-story.html

-----
"Biden: McConnell Refused To Sign Bipartisan Statement On Russian Interference"

"The former vice president's account echoes reporting that first appeared in The Washington Post in June describing a meeting that occurred the same month between Obama's Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, then-FBI Director James Comey, Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco and 12 key members of Congress.

In the meeting, the Post reports:

"The Dems were, 'Hey, we have to tell the public,' " recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia's aim of sapping confidence in the system.

...McConnell (R-Ky.) went further, officials said, voicing skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House's claims. Through a spokeswoman, McConnell declined to comment, citing the secrecy of that meeting."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...n-interference

There are multiple reasons to block election security measures, including fundamental disagreements on how to handle the problem (IE- mandating paper ballots throughout the nation goes against local control of elections; a mandate on reporting any offers of foreign assistance may be overly broad.)