All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[kidfresh512]

She for sure would have won had she did that. And I have more respect for her then the GOP nut jobs. But her voting record is pure everything the GOP wants. Other then on Trump.

So I respect her for standing up to Trump which her party refuses to do. I respect ehr for taking a stand that lost her her seat. But truth be told she is not a person I would vote for.

I can respect what she did but still understand she is not a hero and that she does not support things I support.

Democrats enamored of Liz Cheney seem to have amnesia

But if you look at her record, it’s clear that Cheney is Trump without the lying, bullying and immorality. When Trump was president, Cheney’s votes in Congress aligned with his positions nearly 93% of the time.

The media was so fixated on Trump’s behavior as president that his policies often didn’t get the attention they deserved. He gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy, walked the U.S. away from confronting global warming, rolled back scores of environmental rules and did all he could to curb immigration.

Unfortunately, Cheney’s agreement with Trump’s positions has not broken through. And since the American public has short memory and even shorter attention span, the media adulation is a problem.

And there’s been a lot of it from smitten opinion writers. “Nonetheless Liz Cheney persisted,” a Daily Beast writer proclaimed, using a rallying cry for progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. A Bloomberg article predicted that her “martyrdom” would ultimately reshape the Republican Party. A Washington Post columnist compared her to Obi-Wan Kenobi warring against Trump’s Darth Vader.

But what is her actual record? Her bio proclaims her staunch support for “pursuing conservative solutions to create jobs, cut taxes and regulation, and expand America’s energy, mining and agriculture industries.”

She’s anti-abortion, pro-gun and approves of waterboarding. She opposed the Violence Against Women Act, although 29 House Republicans broke with their party to support it. She’s been a longtime foe of the Affordable Care Act, voting for Trump’s plan to dismantle it. She is a hardliner on immigration.

Boston Globe columnist Renee Graham, an exception to the media cheerleaders, called out this so-called champion of democracy for failing to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would protect the rights of all Americans to cast their votes and have them counted.

And she remains close to her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. They even wrote a book together, marinated in militarism. Long after it was discredited, the two Cheneys continued to defend the Iraq War despite its huge cost in blood and treasure and the fact that the elder Cheney’s claims of weapons of mass destruction proved to be unfounded.

Let’s not forget that Cheney also came relatively late to the anti-Trump party. She supported Trump in 2016 and defended him after the revelation of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about assaulting women. While calling Trump’s comments appalling, she insisted that “Hillary’s actions have been far worse.”

The perfect Liz Cheney reality check article imo

[GindyPosts]

I keep coming back to Aesop's Fables the way some staunch progressives talk. Specifically the one about the greedy child and the jar of nuts. Unwilling to let go of even a single nut, the child was unable to get their hand out of the jar, and had no nuts.

The US system is set up to require compromise, largely because there are millions of other people with ideas on How Things Should Be Done that are different than yours, and you either compromise, or resort to the only way for a minority to force it's ideas onto a majority - Tyranny.

The problem progressives have right now is conservatives are showing that they are offering no compromise whatsoever with what they want and they are essentially getting away with it, while establishment Democrats are telling left-wing Americans "No, you are bad for America because you're too extreme". When you have those kinds of mixed messages, you cannot blame progressive Americans from feeling like their voices are purposefully being ignored, which in turn will help the far right movement in turning the United States into a totalitarian state.

[GindyPosts]

Democrats enamored of Liz Cheney seem to have amnesia







The perfect Liz Cheney reality check article imo

It's as if the New York Times Opinion section nutted when Liz Cheney lost, thinking she would become a Democrat overnight. It doesn't work that way; it'll never work that way!

[Jbenito]

Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty in tax scheme
https://www.axios.com/2022/08/18/all...ilty-tax-fraud

The big picture: Last year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged Weisselberg and the Trump family business for taking more than $1.7 million in "off the books" compensation from the organization.

- Under the terms of the plea deal, Weisselberg, who was facing up to 15 years in prison, has agreed to serve five months in prison as well as five years of probation. With time credited for good behavior, he is expected to about 100 days behind bars, the New York Times reported.
- Weisselberg must also pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest, AP reported.
- Under the plea deal Weisselberg must also testify as a prosecution witness at the forthcoming trial for the Trump Organization
- Prosecutors alleged that the scheme allowed Weisselberg to skirt paying taxes on rent and private school tuition, per the Times.
- Weisselberg, 75, is the only person facing criminal charges so far in the investigation into the Trump organization's business practices.
- Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have tried to get the charges dismissed, claiming they were politically motivated.

[Mister Mets]

Democrats enamored of Liz Cheney seem to have amnesia




The perfect Liz Cheney reality check article imo

If the objection to Trump is that he’s a Republican, people are not going to agree with Liz Cheney on him.

It is worth noting it’s normal for Congress members to vote most of the time with the president if he’s a member of their party. This is more of a gauge of how they respond to bills that are brought to a vote.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...ongress-votes/

For contrast, Sinema votes with Biden more than Cheney voted with Trump. Manchin votes with Biden 88% of the time.

The problem progressives have right now is conservatives are showing that they are offering no compromise whatsoever with what they want and they are essentially getting away with it, while establishment Democrats are telling left-wing Americans "No, you are bad for America because you're too extreme". When you have those kinds of mixed messages, you cannot blame progressive Americans from feeling like their voices are purposefully being ignored, which in turn will help the far right movement in turning the United States into a totalitarian state.

How should political professionals compromise with progressives?

Since progressives want what moderate Democrats get (they typically want to go further) isn’t that already a compromise?

[Gray Lensman]

It's as if the New York Times Opinion section nutted when Liz Cheney lost, thinking she would become a Democrat overnight. It doesn't work that way; it'll never work that way!

Liz Cheney is about as far to the right as one can get without slipping into the Alt Reich wing - but she does still support something resembling democracy. Scary how that puts her in the minority of the GoP.

[useridgoeshere]

Unlike Cheney's 93%, the issue with Sinema and Manchin are more about the major things that they've derailed so they never get to a vote or when they do, they're less reflective of what Biden wanted and more about what those two will accept. If Dems had won two more seats with more aligned Senators, Manchin and Sinema's record would likely be very different.

[Gray Lensman]

The problem progressives have right now is conservatives are showing that they are offering no compromise whatsoever with what they want and they are essentially getting away with it, while establishment Democrats are telling left-wing Americans "No, you are bad for America because you're too extreme". When you have those kinds of mixed messages, you cannot blame progressive Americans from feeling like their voices are purposefully being ignored, which in turn will help the far right movement in turning the United States into a totalitarian state.

Republicans have long been a lockstep party. Deviate on any of the tentpole issues and your career is over. The opposition is a big tent of nearly everyone else, so they aren't going to operate the same. A large part of the issue with this is gerrymandering - it has shifted power in many elections away from the swing voters and towards primary voters, who are typically further towards the extreme than even the non-primary voting members of their own party. It's nearly impossible to lose a heavily gerrymandered district in a general election, as they are designed that way, therefore, only the primary matters.

There are other causes, of course. Business as usual politics have hollowed out the middle class, and finding someone to blame is easier than the hard and complicated work of fixing it. Plus, when your brand is to blow the system up, it makes it easy to push all the blame onto those who merely think the system needs an overhaul.

[ChadH]

I don't see it happening anytime soon, unfortunately. Just look at Liz Cheney's primary loss.

I’m not talking about the electorate. I’m taking about the party leadership who actively prevent representatives from voting in favor of legislation intended to improve the lives of average Americans simply to create a state of dissatisfaction. Trump wouldn’t have been elected if he hadn’t run as the outsider looking to “drain the swamp”. A swamp of gridlock and stagnation largely created by the obstructionist Republicans.
I’ll add that Liz Cheney was as much a part of that obstruction as anyone in the party.

[SquirrelMan]

Anyone who does not understand the majority of this thread SHOULD be about Trump and his terror cult does not understand what the General understands:

[hyped78]

Anyone who does not understand the majority of this thread SHOULD be about Trump and his terror cult does not understand what the General understands:

Sure, if you want to focus only on the negatives, then yeah it makes sense to talk only about Trump

[SquirrelMan]

For the love of god. google what words mean before you reply.

[hyped78]

For the love of god. google what words mean before you reply.

Care to explain?