All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[PwrdOn]

They regained the initiative by historic with moderate candidates in 2018 -- something you are willfully ignoring.

So historic that they didn't even win the Senate, which meant that their impeachment trial got completely stonewalled as usual and the whole debacle probably ended up helping Trump more than it hurt him. I'm seriously baffled as to where all of this triumphalism is coming from when we are losing on every conceivable level here.

[numberthirty]

Trump says he will bring up Ukraine 'all the time' against Biden in general election

No surprise there. Just like with the rest of the GOP, Trump hadn't said a goddamn thing about Biden and Ukraine when it looked like Sanders was going to run away with the nomination. But, after Joe made like Dracula and came back from the dead two days ago, Now Dolt45 is back to yammering about the Burisma nothingburger. Pathetically predictable.

Should Biden wind up being the nominee, this is one of the few things that he has going for him.

Trump might actually be too stupid to bring up the times where Biden actually has just told working class Americans to go kick rocks after he said he would look out for them.

Hopefully, Trump has ran out of even remotely competent people to work in his campaign. If not? Someone about as competent as "I Got By With A D+ In Algebra..." is going to be able to take Biden apart.

[aja_christopher]

So historic that they didn't even win the Senate, which meant that their impeachment trial got completely stonewalled as usual and the whole debacle probably ended up helping Trump more than it hurt him. I'm seriously baffled as to where all of this triumphalism is coming from when we are losing on every conceivable level here.

Ignoring they won the House by historic margins by deflecting to the fact that they didn't "even win the Senate".

While simultaneously ignoring the failure of progressives in both along with the failure of Sanders in primary elections.

This is why people call Sanders supporters cult-like -- facts only matter to you when they support your cause.

You'd sacrifice success for failure and that's something that is unnacceptable.

Until progressives are consistently winning Congressional seats and White House elections, you're promoting a losing formula.

[Tami]

Tom Malinowski@Malinowski
I read the secret annexes to the Taliban deal today. Bottom line: the administration is telling a terrorist group the conditions (such as they are) of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, but not telling the American people.

This is wrong. And it serves no national security purpose.

Twitter Link

[Steel Inquisitor]

So historic that they didn't even win the Senate, which meant that their impeachment trial got completely stonewalled as usual and the whole debacle probably ended up helping Trump more than it hurt him. I'm seriously baffled as to where all of this triumphalism is coming from when we are losing on every conceivable level here.

Senate didn't have as many seats up for election that year, stop making things up to blame Democrats. The impeachment trial was never going to end any other way and it was the left who were the biggest supporters to that before it got popular with the mainstream. What you're omitting is that the fact they outperformed the left significantly and how the left mainly won safe blue seats. The Justice Democrats won 7 seats, they got 33.

[Gray Lensman]

So historic that they didn't even win the Senate, which meant that their impeachment trial got completely stonewalled as usual and the whole debacle probably ended up helping Trump more than it hurt him. I'm seriously baffled as to where all of this triumphalism is coming from when we are losing on every conceivable level here.

You are forgetting that the 2018 Senate election was perhaps the most unbalanced map in decades. Most of the seats up were already held by Democrats, and many of those were in states that voted for Trump in 2016. Republicans didn't have to defend much of anything that year except in the House, where even the gerrymandering wasn't enough.

[jetengine]

Impeachment had to happen to show that it was actually worth a damn (it isnt and should be frankly scrapped) but their hand was forced

[SquirrelMan]

Regardless of "competency" which is in this case is completely subjective, without votes you don't win elections.

Sanders supporters would drag the whole party down just to promote their chosen candidate, even when he doesn't win election contests.

Complaining about how Biden "will" lose while Sanders "is" losing to Biden with no sense of irony.

They're also saying candidates dropping out = rigging, while demanding Warren should drop out.

[SquirrelMan]

For the general elections, a lot of work has to be poured into Florida. Seriously.

Florida has been increasingly red. I don't know why but it's been very puzzling.

The last gubernatorial election was a heart breaker.

If Bloomberg or, hell, Oprah paid off all the outstanding fees of former felons to get their voting rights restored the way voters wanted, Florida should be an easy win for Biden.

[SquirrelMan]

So historic that they didn't even win the Senate, which meant that their impeachment trial got completely stonewalled as usual and the whole debacle probably ended up helping Trump more than it hurt him. I'm seriously baffled as to where all of this triumphalism is coming from when we are losing on every conceivable level here.

The Senate was never really in play for Democrats in 2018, and you know it.

[aja_christopher]

If Bloomberg or, hell, Oprah paid off all the outstanding fees of former felons to get their voting rights restored the way voters wanted, Florida should be an easy win for Biden.

Getting more black and brown people to vote works out heavily in favor of the Democrats and the "left" in general.

Republicans seem to understand that better than many Democrats.

-----
"Since 2012, Texas has shut down 750 polling stations across the state.

The last voter at Texas Southern University (TSU), a historically black public college in Houston, left the booth after 2 a.m. on March 4, seven hours after he got in line on Super Tuesday.

Many other black and Latinx Texans shared the same experience, and by the morning after the state’s primary elections, #VoterSuppression was trending on Twitter, with almost 20,000 tweets by 10 a.m.

Dozens of extra voting machines were sent to TSU and some other locations as lines in some precincts were estimated to be several hours long. While some, including Rogers, waited, others did not.

The turnout wasn't a surprise. In February, the Texas Democratic Party reported that early voting numbers had already surpassed those in 2016. Executive Director Manny Garcia said much of the increase was due to higher turnout within the party's Latino and black base.

“The Latino community is core to the Texas Democratic base, it’s a core to the entire state of Texas and it’s critical for any of the presidential nominees in order to receive delegates from this state,” Garcia told The Hill at the time. “When you begin to see Harris County, for example, which is bigger than 20-something states, performs at a high level, it’s because the Latino community and the African American community are turning out at high levels.”

Those districts are among those that have lost their polling stations. Across Texas, 750 polling stations had closed since 2012, meaning that voters have to travel farther to vote. Some polling stations were expected to serve more than 10,000 people. And a Guardian analysis found that the vast majority of the state’s poll site closures were in districts where the black and Latinx population is growing the most."

https://thehill.com/changing-america...accusations-of

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Getting more black and brown people to vote works out heavily in favor of the Democrats and the "left" in general.

Republicans seem to understand that better than many Democrats.

-----
"Since 2012, Texas has shut down 750 polling stations across the state.

The last voter at Texas Southern University (TSU), a historically black public college in Houston, left the booth after 2 a.m. on March 4, seven hours after he got in line on Super Tuesday.

Many other black and Latinx Texans shared the same experience, and by the morning after the state’s primary elections, #VoterSuppression was trending on Twitter, with almost 20,000 tweets by 10 a.m.

Dozens of extra voting machines were sent to TSU and some other locations as lines in some precincts were estimated to be several hours long. While some, including Rogers, waited, others did not.

The turnout wasn't a surprise. In February, the Texas Democratic Party reported that early voting numbers had already surpassed those in 2016. Executive Director Manny Garcia said much of the increase was due to higher turnout within the party's Latino and black base.

“The Latino community is core to the Texas Democratic base, it’s a core to the entire state of Texas and it’s critical for any of the presidential nominees in order to receive delegates from this state,” Garcia told The Hill at the time. “When you begin to see Harris County, for example, which is bigger than 20-something states, performs at a high level, it’s because the Latino community and the African American community are turning out at high levels.”

Those districts are among those that have lost their polling stations. Across Texas, 750 polling stations had closed since 2012, meaning that voters have to travel farther to vote. Some polling stations were expected to serve more than 10,000 people. And a Guardian analysis found that the vast majority of the state’s poll site closures were in districts where the black and Latinx population is growing the most."

https://thehill.com/changing-america...accusations-of

And that growth has Texas Republicans shitting bricks, thus the closing of polling stations. This should be a national story that gets HUGE press while shining a much needed light on the GOP's shenanigans.

[Steel Inquisitor]

It is somewhat telling that you are spelling it as "strong man" because it is definitely the most centrist thing ever to confuse a guy showing strength and conviction with a dictatorial strongman. No wonder you guys are obsessed with nominating spineless cowards who will sell out their base at the drop of a hat and call it "reaching across the aisle." How can you accuse progressives of valuing loyalty over all else, when in 2016 we were all told to suck it up and vote for the terrible candidate the DNC had decided we needed to have, and mostly did it without complaint? How are Corbyn and Sanders are the ones who value loyalty above all else, when Clinton literally ran on "I'm with her"?

I only do that with politicians who share traits with dictators and the left is rife with them, last we talked you are defending Fidel Castro of all people. The left aren't the base, they're new comers with a tiny portion of the electorate. Compromise is how congress works, it's not a dictatorship where presidents get to do what they want. Part of being in a coalition is falling into line in the general, this is what would happen with any candidate who won and the left lost in '16 but you'd think they'd won the nomination by how they speak about Sanders. The choice in generals is the Democrat or Republican, there is no third option who's going to win, so who's it going to be when the left loses the nomination? "Progressives," please. Call them by their real name: socialists. The voters chose the nominee, stop encouraging conspiracy theories which will demoralise voters. That's why we have elections, for the voters to choose the nominee. No, they didn't do it without complaint. They haven't shut up about Sanders losing since the primary was lost, they took it personally. They value loyalty to themselves, not the coalition they belong to - which bit them both hard through their careers. Hillary's more of a team player than Sanders ever was.

Honestly, I don't know if I can do it this time. I didn't like Clinton but at the very least she was intelligent and competent and could have done a reasonable job carrying out her agenda for what she thought was good for the country, no matter how much I or many others might disagree with it. I can't say the same for Biden, he may literally have dementia right now and even if you ignore all those weird gaffes, he was never quite the fighter that Clinton was to begin with. And if 2016 felt like a coronation for a questionable candidate, 2020 feels like we're just giving up and admitting defeat before the game even starts. The Clinton campaign is like the prechampionship celebration Miami Heat, sure they were ass clowns and everyone who jumped on their bandwagon felt like an idiot, but at the very least they were entertaining enough that nobody regretted buying a ticket. The Biden campaign is like the goddamned trust the process Sixers, it's so blatantly obvious that they're not even trying to win here, even if they can't just come out and say it, and who wants to pay to go watch that?

You've never shown any inclination to support the Democrats that I've known you so this isn't a compelling argument.

[Tami]

2020-03-05 MSNBC on Twitter Before Super Tuesday, Sen Sanders said whichever Democratic candidat.jpg

Twitter Link

Bernie might as well just say, 'Whichever way gets me the nomination. We can change it to whomever gets the Least Delegates and the Least Votes if needed.'

[Lord Falcon]

2020-03-05 MSNBC on Twitter Before Super Tuesday, Sen Sanders said whichever Democratic candidat.jpg

Twitter Link

Bernie might as well just say, 'Whichever way gets me the nomination. We can change it to whomever gets the Least Delegates and the Least Votes if needed.'

Yeah, saw this and rolled my eyes. For such a consistent person on policy, Sanders sure is willing to be a shameless hypocrite on this.