All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Theleviathan]

She's among the better ones here, but that's not a hard thing to do and she burnt through any credit she gets with enthusiasm. When it comes down to it she's on the Bernie Bros side, not ours.

To be clear, I'm not on a side against Bernie. If Bernie is the nominee, I will hope he wins. Hell, at this point, I hope he starts blowing things out on Super Tuesday because otherwise I think we're screwed.

The team I'm on is Not Republicans. Simple as that for me.

[Superbat]

Most polls do not show this. They show Biden ahead, though Bernie has gained ground over time.

Biden led with black voters a month ago but recent polls have Bernie leading with black voters.

Among Hispanics:

Sanders 45%
Bloomberg 20%
Biden 12%
Warren 10%
Buttigieg 7%

Blacks:

Sanders 35%
Biden 30%
Bloomberg 19%
Warren 9%
Buttigieg 3%

Whites:

Sanders 30%
Bloomberg 18%
Biden 17%
Buttigieg 13%
Warren 12%

https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/s...98186028851201

[Steel Inquisitor]

To be clear, I'm not on a side against Bernie. If Bernie is the nominee, I will hope he wins. Hell, at this point, I hope he starts blowing things out on Super Tuesday because otherwise I think we're screwed.

The team I'm on is Not Republicans. Simple as that for me.

When I meant sides I should have said "all abuse is wrong side."

It's a pity the Bernie Bros don't see it like that.

[Theleviathan]

Biden led with black voters a month ago but recent polls have Bernie leading with black voters.

https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/s...98186028851201

That is one poll that consistently favors Bernie. Most show the numbers closer to 30-25 in favor of Biden. Citing single polls to evidence your claim is not a fair way to use polling. You should consult a wider range of polls, you'll find this is not representative.

[PwrdOn]

Moving the goal posts, generalising socialism to be meaningless in an effort to make it look as though any country with socialism is good and the capitalist countries are bad. "Freedom" being a word you want to be linked to the USSR but are too self ware to do this officially so its couched in terms where criticising any Communist country is the same as criticising Scandinavia. Stalin, Mao, Kim ii-Sung, Pol Pot weren't fascists to you? Your examples got defeated by the right wing, that's why socialism isn't stable, despite having long runs of success in places like Brazil. It's not the left has a good track record against the right. It's to bad when in power many of those socialist and Communist governments don't live up to their ideals of "freedom" you claim to adore.

Moving the goals posts, the argument we were having is about special Communist regimes which Sanders was supporting, being the USSR and Castro's Cuba - who have definitive ideologies. Were not discussing stateless Communism since they're irrelevant politically and Sanders isn't openly supporting them.

You know as well as I do how bad it looks to support dictatorships, which is why you're running away and obscuring your original argument and why we're having this conversation. But you can't admit you're wrong so shift the conversation to a general socialism/Communism discussion where the topics aren't so politically sensitive and won't remind people why Communism isn't liked in the West.

Which ignores the context for Sanders running for president in America, as though whatever you think applies to the global definitions matter in an election. Sanders thrives in political arena, not the revolution building one. Signalling that Sanders stands for workers and "the people" isn't a fact, it's propaganda. Except Sanders does reference support for nations like the USSR and Castro's Cuba by himself, with no prodding, if he didn't his adversaries would have less ammunition against him and would have to rely on lies rather than things he says. Why do you think they come into his ind at any stage while running for president, I don't see that going well had he did this in Scandinavia. There is no excuse for that, which you find it difficult to condemn.

You haven't acknowledged him saying those comments might be for Communists who liked Castro, and Stalin, either.

I mean, I'm trying to talk to you about a lot of the history and details of communism and socialism that the vast majority of Americans overlook because all we can ever think about is the death tolls, but you obviously have no interest in this discussion and are just trying to trap me into saying something that sounds like I'm in favor of totalitarian dictators that just go around killing people for shits and giggles, and rather inartfully at that. But since you seem so insistent, yeah I AM in favor of cracking a few skulls every once in a while because without at least the threat of a violent uprising, there is no way that an entrenched elite class will ever willingly give up any of their wealth and power for the sake of benefiting the greater good. The billionaires not only control the means of production, they have pretty much also bought control of the media, the legislature, and the courts, and if we were to forsake any kind of political violence then we would really be throwing way what little leverage we had left. Some way, some how, the rich and powerful in this country need to be reminded that they are here to serve us, not the other way around, and if you want to continue asking them nicely and hoping that they will go along with our plans to reform the system to their detriment.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

That is one poll that consistently favors Bernie. Most show the numbers closer to 30-25 in favor of Biden. Citing single polls to evidence your claim is not a fair way to use polling. You should consult a wider range of polls, you'll find this is not representative.

I wouldn't go by South Carolina (or most Southern) black voters who are traditionally more conservative. Black voters are a crucial part of the base but those are more often the black voters in urban districts that go heavy Democrat like all the major cities. South Carolina has two Republican Senators (one is shitstain Lindsay Graham) 5 of their 7 Reps are Republicans (Clyburn being the only one worth anything), their state Senate is a majority Republican, their state House of Representatives is majority Republican, their governor is a Republican and they've had 2 Democratic governors since the mid 1970's, Trump won it by 14 points in 2016, Romney won it by 10 points in 2012, McCain won it by 10 points in 2008, Bush won it by 17 points in 2004, Bush won it by 16 points in 2000, Dole won it by by 6 points in 1996, Bush won it by 10 points in 1992, Bush won it by 24 points in 1988, Reagan won it by 28 in 1984, Reagan won it by point in 1980, you have to go back to Carter's vs Ford in 1976 and Carter's a Southerner from the neighboring state of Georgia, then Nixon soundly won it the prior election by 43 points, got a slight win the prior election, basically you have to go back half a century for a time when ithat state was ever even remotely solid for a Democrat.

Point is, black voters aren't a monolith and Democrats don't win off southern black voters. It just doesn't happen. It's like a Republican in New York or Massachussetts, you are still far more to the right than the average Republican.

I'm more interested to see what black voters in a state like Illinois do.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, we ran our profile of Allen Weh, a failed candidate in races to be the Governor of New Mexico, and the U.S. Senator from there, as well. Weh was directly involved in the 2005 U.S. Attorney Scandal, being found to have sent requests to Karl Rove to fire David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney from New Mexico, who was eventually dismissed for partisan reasons. Weh also is a backer of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, partially because he owns a company that gets paid $700 per immigrant shipped back home via plane. Weh is also an advocate of the flat tax (making economists point and laugh at him), and went on record to say that President Obama’s policies “smacked of socialism”. Weh is now 76, and is not expected to ever win an election, should he even attempt to run again.

It was in both 2016, and in 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles about Susan DeLemus, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives whose wide-eyed stare does not seem to suit someone of rational mind. That unsettling gaze does not belie her wackiness, by any stretch, as DeLemus is a passionate believer in the Obama Birther Conspiracy to the extent that she caused other legislators to lock themselves in their offices as points to avoid having to deal with her furious insistence that Barack Obama was not a legitimate president. While during her first term in office, DeLemus supported a bill to sue the federal government for he Affordable Care Act, but in her second term apparently decided to just stop showing up to vote on bills altogether. Instead, it seems she was busy alternating her time with her husband in supporting the domestic terrorists related to Cliven Bundy, and rallying under the banner of one Donald J. Trump during the 2016 presidential race, pretending to be a “independent voter” in a CNN Panel until she was outed by some people who recognized her from her previous antics in the New Hampshire legislature. She believes many of Donald Trump’s most paranoid conspiracies even outside of the Birther movement… she also believes Cheeto Mussolini that there were "thousands of Muslims celebrating in Jersey City on 9/11". She also insists in that Barack Obama lies all the time and that Trump would never lie to us, as she herself lied right into the camera on CNN, saying she had "never been involved in politics" in spite of being a twice-elected state representative. Oh, and in February 2016, after Pope Francis spoke and said that "people who build walls aren't Christian", she rose to the defense of The Donald by getting on Facebook to warn everyone that “The Pope is the anti-Christ. [sic] Do your research. I’m not sure who the Pope truly has in his heart.” And mercifully, Susan DeLemus was booted from office by voters in 2016, when she was defeated by Democrat Chuck Grassie by 106 votes. She has yet to re-emerge.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Robert Morrow, the former Chairman of the Travis County, Texas Republican Party who, and we’re not going to mince words, if just f***ing nuts. His tenure began in June of 2016, and ended after only two months of insanity because he decided he should run for president as a write-in candidate. His supposed qualifications for office were his experience in sharing conspiracy theories and inappropriate comments about women on Twitter. We can’t even begin to cover all his conspiracy theories, including the insistence that Lyndon Baines Johnson facilitated the murder of John F. Kennedy and belief that Rick Perry and many in the Bush family participate in homosexual adultery or his presumption that he was “Pretty sure George W. Bush can suck a d*** better than Hillary Clinton”. Morrow tried ambushing Chelsea Clinton at a book signing, co-wrote an insane conspiracy theory book about the Clintons with Roger Stone of all f***ing people, and insisted on wearing a three-belled jesters hat in several photos, because sometimes, you just have to own being a fool. We can’t even begin to get into how utterly bats*** Robert Morrow is, but when you’re too crazy for the Texas GOP, that… that says something.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Gilbert Pena, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 144, squeaking into office by 152 votes in the 2014 elections, his third attempt to weasel his way into office. Pena immediately joined anti-LGBTQ madwoman Debbie Riddle in her transphobic culture war, making it his mission in his one term in office to prevent anyone from showing any sort of tolerance for transgender citizens to use the bathroom that applied to their sexual identity, rather than their birth. Specifically, Gilbert Pena’s “smaller government” idea was to jail building managers who accommodate transgender citizens using the restroom of their gender identity to be jailed for up to two years, and fined $10,000 while the person who used the restroom would be jailed for one year and fined $4,000. About six weeks later, Pena was at it again, specifically targeting a bill at school children and offering a $2,000 bounty to students using the “wrong” bathroom. Because nothing is more sane than financially rewarding children for bigotry. Pena’s other voting record history shows he was hard to the right on pushing for anti-choice legislation and that he was pro-gun enough to vote for the legalization of firearms on college campuses, because apparently high schools getting shot up wasn’t enough of a bother, and the Virginia Tech massacre never happened. He was toppled from office in 2016, and failed to avenge that loss in 2018. He is now batting .200 in attempts to reach office, and the one term he got there should be enough of a reminder of why he should be kept from it permanently. As such, we’ll set aside his profile at this time and profile a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 841-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Michael Moates

Welcome to what is the 841st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Michael Moates, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 26th Congressional District who is more renowned for being a conservative troll who does his best to promote the Qanon Conspiracy Theory (the one that insists opponents of Donald Trump are Satan-worshipping, child-molesting cannibals), and has been given temporary bans from Twitter for encouraging Donald Trump to order ICE to shoot at migrants crossing the border on sight.

And… go figure, Moates’ campaign would have likely been doomed from the start, but it was truly screwed when he was called out by several anti-choice protesters who he approached as allies, and then immediately started being a creepy bastard and hitting on teenage girls protesting at Planned Parenthood clinics. Multiple girls, aged 15-17. That ended his aspirations of reaching elected office only 10 days into his campaign.

Go figure, the guy who insists Democrats are all pedophiles was trying to pick up on underage girls. Who could have predicted that kind of irony?.

[jetengine]

Not to beat a dead horse, but again, Corbyn's last election very much had everyone of his supporters CERTAIN he'd win. Brexit... everyone thought Remain would, the polling, the politicians, the people. Hell, I swear no-one thought Trump would actually win (I could be wrong on that last one, I seem to recall everyone being utterly shocked, but that could just be election day PTSD).

Frankly ? Its because he was the only one giving a sensible option and no one assumed the North would be so wacked out on Brexit Juice /Toryganda that they'd vote Tory (numerous polls have shown thats all the North cared about) which is now hurting them badly.

Now dont get me wrong, Corbyn fucked up by being on the fence and not being more agressive with the papers, but the amount of **** flung at him by the mefua was insabe. We're talking USA Style smear jobs up until the last second. Stuff that could literally get the Tories in massive legal trouble if it had beennpushed further.

As for Blair ? Cause he's not a labourite. Dude was a Tory in a red tie whom made deals with Murdoch to get the rabid right wing press on his side and a good chunk of our current problems are tied to him and his neo-liberal ideals or him not squashing Majors blunders. Even if his policy record was spotless though he'd still have Iraq hanging over him meaning anytime someone goes "Be like Blair" its going to be loaded.

Corbyn wanted to change the system, he tried to like a gentleman wuth no dirty tricks. The poor bastard got savaged. Now we've git a cabinet in crisis, a country half underwater and a PM mucking around in a mansion instead of doing his job

[jetengine]

Did you even read my post? It had nothing to do with "American political thought". Do you think the Soviet Union was a grand old nation where everyone was happy? If you do, I know a few people you could talk to who'd tell you otherwise.

Or, you could check out this (well-informed) Russian guy's Youtube Channel. Here is his video ranking soviet/Russian Leaders -

I'm reffering to "political groups hate each other" and it was THOUGH not THOUGHT

[SquirrelMan]

Attachment 93924

Failing New York Times at it again!

Have you truly never heard of exit polls?

[Tendrin]

It is frequently weird to see people opposed to Trump mimic his insults towards things they also don't like.

Meanwhile:

The Conservatives took advantage of Facebook’s refusal to factcheck paid-for political adverts, with one study by First Draft News finding 88% of Tory ads featured questionable claims. And there was a substantial rise in the number of newly-formed third party campaign groups with opaque funding structures spending large five-figure sums on pushing pro-Tory adverts reaching millions of people.

If you think that didn't have an impact on the UK elections, I don't know what to tell you, and if it was bad for Corbyn it's going to be a thousand times worse here in the States. The mud will stick to Bernie better, unfortunately, no matter how well he polls now. I keep telling people: I won't say Bernie can't win it, but I will say that a lot of the people backing him so loudly and aggressively really have no idea at what's going to come his way. And if Bernie loses, the damage down ballot to the left will be immeasurable.

[Zauriel]

South Carolina primary ended. I really can't wait for Super Tuesday race. My money is on Bernie.

[SquirrelMan]

Bernie leads with black voters nationally.

South Carolina is not representative of all black people.

Biden won almost every group in South Carolina. Very liberal voters went to him by 14 points and that's a group that goes to Bernie in every other state.

Has gone to Bernie.
One thing you all are not talking about is that the vetting of Sanders that has been going on since his second place in Iowa and his two wins. Are very liberal voters that different in SC, or has Sanders just lost their grip on them as they found out some uncomfortable truths about him?

[SquirrelMan]

So, has anyone called the South Carolina primary "basically a tie" yet?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The White House Is Really Screwing Up Its Coronavirus Response

Trump Adds New Travel Bans But Continues To Downplay Coronavirus Risk

Washington State Probing Troubling Coronavirus Outbreak In Nursing Home

FDA Expands Coronavirus Testing After CDC Glitches Undermine Fight Against Disease

Here’s How Schools Are Preparing To Deal With The Coronavirus

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In non-coronavirus news:

Joe Biden Takes A Swipe At Bernie Sanders In South Carolina Victory Speech

“Democrats want a nominee who is a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a proud Democrat,” the former vice president said.

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U.S. To Withdraw From Afghanistan After Signing Peace Deal With Taliban

The aim of the peace deal is to withdraw all U.S. troops within 14 months and end America’s longest war. I'll believe this when it actually happens, and not before.

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Top Teachers Union Leader Is Endorsing Elizabeth Warren For President

AFT President Randi Weingarten is backing the Massachusetts senator in her personal capacity. Her union has backed Warren, Biden and Sanders.

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AIPAC Faces A Moment Of Truth With The Democratic Party

The pro-Israel lobby fought with Obama and welcomed bigots. Now progressives are challenging its bipartisan credentials with unprecedented success.

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Reporter Reveals Sexist Comments From MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

Journalist Laura Bassett has a theory on why the “Hardball” host defended Mike Bloomberg: because Matthews has been inappropriate to her, too. Maybe it's time for Matthews to be cut loose.