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

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This hasn't stopped the party of "**** your tears" and the "GET OVER IT...SHE LOST" to cry on Facebook in 2+ days..."Its not over , he's not fully won yet !" and other conspiracy nonsense.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Which is was concerns me... the Democrats are letting the GOP's "torches and pitchforks" crowd dictate what the voice of the party sounds like.

Republicans are failing to reject fascism and white nationalism at the moment. Their opinion over what the Democratic Party should sound like to appeal to them is f***ing irrelevant. Don't listen to them, it's the independents and base you should be courting. And on that front, AOC is incredibly appealing.

What the Democrats think the direction of the GOP are irrelevant too what the Republicans think, they don't have much influence over that. The Democrats don't "let" the GOP do anything, the GOP do what they want.

The GOP has been defined by white nationalism and fascism for generations, Trump didn't start them down that road he was just the predictable outcome. Not entirely, a big reason the Democrats appeal to "independents" is because conservatives sometimes can be won over, this strategy has been just one tactic to getting the influence they need politically, as well as not alienating the moderates who are all about "balance" (I don't know how these people came to be but they are there in large numbers) and the conservatives in the party who want to recruit Republicans into their wing - who are a powerful group within the Dems. For example, politicians like Joe Liebermann before he retired. Independents aren't just from the left, they are moderates and right wingers. AOC's applying to the left independents, but she is not a silver bullet politically. She's got her niche, the problem is the Democrats are a group which aren't solely reliant on leftists got votes and leftists aren't the base. If they were the Democrats would have more leftists in their ranks and in their highest leadership for generations, instead the current leftist movement began in 2005 when Bernie ran for president.

Godisright is correct, the GOP are making her the new Hillary Clinton. She's been able to redirect that into popularity and influence but she isn't immune from GOP propaganda destroying her. She's been felling the psychological effects right now, that's why she entertained the possibility of quitting before running for a second term.

[JCAll]

This hasn't stopped the party of "**** your tears" and the "GET OVER IT...SHE LOST" to cry on Facebook in 2+ days..."Its not over , he's not fully won yet !" and other conspiracy nonsense.

Remember "We survived 8 years of Obama, you'll survive 8 years of Trump"?
In 2016 I foolishly thought that was a bar too low to miss.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Remember "We survived 8 years of Obama, you'll survive 8 years of Trump"?
In 2016 I foolishly thought that was a bar too low to miss.

Now its posting ever paranoid conspiracy , angry that their dream of a Trump reign is ended and looking forward to the lawsuits etc.They spent months and years telling us all how he was gonna win and stomp Joe Biden.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

So, despite all his protests, complaining and general whining, Trump is done as president, and his next act is scheduled for a New York courtroom sometime next year to stand trial for all his criminal dealings which have been mentioned here numerous times. That said, this begs the following question: If Trump loses that trial, does he actually get sent to prison?

Short answer: NOPE.

Look, I'm no legal expert, don't even pretend to be, but even if Trump is convicted, I seriously doubt he'll see so much as one day behind bars. For starters, Trump will file appeals out the ass to stave off being fitted for that bright orange jumpsuit, I've said the one thing he fears more than losing his wealth is losing his freedom, so he'll spend his last dollar on legal defenses which could last heaven only knows how many years. On top of that, Trump is 74, depending on how long his appeals last, he'll be pushing 80 by the time he's sentenced, hardly the sort of age that qualifies him for the big house. One last thing, and this is a purely silly opinion, I don't think a judge will want to send him up the river. I mean, what judge, even the most liberal one would want it on his (or her) resume that they put a former president in a cell? Taking all that into consideration, don't hope to see Trump in prison, because I think that's unlikely to happen.

[Robotman]

I’m very happy that we now have an administration that will take the huge threat of domestic terrorism seriously. It’s a good thing too as things will no doubt get even scarier in the coming months/years.


As far as Trump running again in 2024, I’m sure he’ll hold rallies and keep campaigning, but I just don’t see him actually doing it. He will most likely focus on his original goal of starting his own media company. This can not be allowed to happen by the way!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So, despite all his protests, complaining and general whining, Trump is done as president, and his next act is scheduled for a New York courtroom sometime next year to stand trial for all his criminal dealings which have been mentioned here numerous times. That said, this begs the following question: If Trump loses that trial, does he actually get sent to prison?

Short answer: NOPE.

Look, I'm no legal expert, don't even pretend to be, but even if Trump is convicted, I seriously doubt he'll see so much as one day behind bars. For starters, Trump will file appeals out the ass to stave off being fitted for that bright orange jumpsuit, I've said the one thing he fears more than losing his wealth is losing his freedom, so he'll spend his last dollar on legal defenses which could last heaven only knows how many years. On top of that, Trump is 74, depending on how long his appeals last, he'll be pushing 80 by the time he's sentenced, hardly the sort of age that qualifies him for the big house. One last thing, and this is a purely silly opinion, I don't think a judge will want to send him up the river. I mean, what judge, even the most liberal one would want it on his (or her) resume that they put a former president in a cell? Taking all that into consideration, don't hope to see Trump in prison, because I think that's unlikely to happen.

I’m very happy that we now have an administration that will take the huge threat of domestic terrorism seriously. It’s a good thing too as things will no doubt get even scarier in the coming months/years.


As far as Trump running again in 2024, I’m sure he’ll hold rallies and keep campaigning, but I just don’t see him actually doing it. He will most likely focus on his original goal of starting his own media company. This can not be allowed to happen by the way!

As posted above does anyone want to do business dealings with a man who will be likely prosecuted for his business issues ? Almost everything he's touched has either ended in bankruptcy or failure. I can't see a company or people willing to throw billions of dollars into something like this to satisfy really his own ego.

[Mister Mets]

So, despite all his protests, complaining and general whining, Trump is done as president, and his next act is scheduled for a New York courtroom sometime next year to stand trial for all his criminal dealings which have been mentioned here numerous times. That said, this begs the following question: If Trump loses that trial, does he actually get sent to prison?

Short answer: NOPE.

Look, I'm no legal expert, don't even pretend to be, but even if Trump is convicted, I seriously doubt he'll see so much as one day behind bars. For starters, Trump will file appeals out the ass to stave off being fitted for that bright orange jumpsuit, I've said the one thing he fears more than losing his wealth is losing his freedom, so he'll spend his last dollar on legal defenses which could last heaven only knows how many years. On top of that, Trump is 74, depending on how long his appeals last, he'll be pushing 80 by the time he's sentenced, hardly the sort of age that qualifies him for the big house. One last thing, and this is a purely silly opinion, I don't think a judge will want to send him up the river. I mean, what judge, even the most liberal one would want it on his (or her) resume that they put a former president in a cell? Taking all that into consideration, don't hope to see Trump in prison, because I think that's unlikely to happen.

This is probably true.

The people who want Trump to go to jail are most likely to be disappointed. Fraud cases tend to be settled, rather than resulting in jail time.

The Intercept has a decent overview of the potential charges against Trump.

https://theintercept.com/2020/10/18/...s-prosecution/

One danger for Trump is that putting a shameless liar on the witness stand is likely to result in said liar committing perjury.

Unlikely, but not impossible.

In 2000, the race came down to Florida with the recount. And the recount in Florida was really really close. Genuinely so that people were confused about who won. That's not the case in PA, GA, MI, AZ. The vote leads are clearly and unambiguously in Biden's favor. There's none there. The election in 2000 was genuinely, for real, too close to call. In 2020, not at all. It's as clear a victory as 2008 and 2012.

Why is that significant? Basically if a vote margin is that small, you could justify taking it to the courts as happened with Bush v. Gore (it was W. who went to the courts, not Gore...he just wanted FL to complete the recount by law). Remember that Al Gore won the popular vote but he won it by a small margin over W. and even then neither candidate claimed a majority of 50% votes (which to be fair happened to Hillary too in 2016, and also her husband Bill in 1992 and 1996). So the sense of unfairness that happened with HRC winning the vote by 3 million votes isn't there.

In the case of 2020, the victory is convincing and decisive. Biden's going to get a majority of 50% of the vote and upwards (in fact when this is over he's popular vote count is going to be around 80 million...basically the full population of Germany, largest pop. in Western Europe). Not a small sliver, but a huge one.

In fact, 2020 is essentially, for Biden (if not the Democrat Party), but for Biden this is a landslide. A landslide in slow motion.

I definitely agree that it's unlikely.

Due to the unusual circumstances of the election, there might be some kind of legal maneuvers to reject large swaths of ballots, so the election wouldn't have to be anywhere nearly as close as Florida in 2000.

However, that would have to be one hell of a legal argument. If it existed, you'd expect Trump's legal team to be making the case yesterday on the Sunday Morning talk shows.

Gerrymandering is actually quite common in a lot of early elections and different countries had their own name for it.

-- In England they called it pocket-boroughs (or "Rotten Boroughs" as critics more accurately called it). These were districts and allotments that were so unrepresentative that people could write their nomination and elections into Parliament. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotten...ocket_boroughs). And in the 19th Century there were calls to reform and eliminate it, and it was done.
-- That said, even in UK today, Gerrymandering exists in Northern Ireland specifically to enforce Unionist sentiments and ensure that Irish Reunification (which is always on the table per the Good Friday Agreement) never takes off.
-- It was also done in Bismarck's Germany and Austria, where the term was "electoral geometry" (in America considering the bizarre districting, it should be electoral scribbling).
-- One can argue that the US Constitution was founded on gerrymandering. The entire Electoral College, the notorious "3/5ths clause" was designed so that the South could increase representation by claiming that the large slave population counted for 3/5ths of human beings and use that as a basis for their power...that allowed the South to direct national politics until the Civil War and also during Jim Crow. Electoral College, which is basically an artificial districting and allocation that's inconsistent and illogical (it was concieved when it had 13 Colonies and not for a country with more and states added in...with two more on the table, set to be added in the coming decade).

The thing about gerrymandering though is this. In most countries that kind of thing ended in the 19th Century. That's not to say that countries don't use dirty tricks and regional quirks to game the system of course, but it's just not the same. What you see in USA since 2010 is the kind of gerrymandering directly comparable to UK before the Reform Acts of the 19th Century. It's very much the kind of system that European democracies evolved out of.

Partisan gerrymandering (and yes both parties gerrymander, but the Republican one is more extensive) in USA is an extraordinary instance of a 21st Century Democracy directly backsliding into an 18th-19th Century system. It's the definition of reactionary, i.e. overturn progress altogether.

I agree gerrymandering is a bad idea.

That said, if you had to guess, how many net seats do you think Republicans got in the House of Representatives circa 2017 as a result of gerrymandering?

If there's some kind of independent redistricting commission, what standards should they use when allocating legislative boundaries?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Your Donald Trump , you just lost an election and could try to end your 1 term on a good note.

Do You....


A- Concede defeat , act gracious and invite Biden to White House to discuss issues ?

B- Concede defeat and try to act gracious a little. But try to work on getting a Stimulus done before you leave office to show you care about American people.

C- Refuse to concede , hold rallies the rest of your term and refuse to do any work ?

If you picked C it appears that is now what were gonna see for the rest of 2020.

[worstblogever]

This hasn't stopped the party of "**** your tears" and the "GET OVER IT...SHE LOST" to cry on Facebook in 2+ days..."Its not over , he's not fully won yet !" and other conspiracy nonsense.

I just got to report someone freaking out about Hunter Biden's laptop and the "pedophile basements" (Qanon).

Thickest desperation.

[worstblogever]

What GOP messaging did in 2009 was... pretend Obama was a secret Muslim who would oppress all the Christians and who should be disqualified because "he wasn't born here".

That strategy isn't going to work with Joe Biden. He's pretty established as a U.S. Citizen, you know? Also, Joe Biden isn't a secret Muslim. He's a lifelong Catholic, and that would be odd for him to start "waging Jihad" against Christians. The idea that he is some socialist maniac is also laughable, as he's been widely viewed as centrist.

Like... he's a hard guy to hate. Even Lindsey Graham has sung his praises about what a good dude he is.


The country needs to come together to fight Covid-19, and it's not just that the GOP should.... it's that I don't know given who Biden is that they have a path to obstructing in public opinion compared to twelve years ago.


Odds are, they're going to start trying to demonize Kamala and AOC in advance of either being a 2024 threat.

[Tendrin]

American Christianity:

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/s...13157926932480

[JCAll]

What GOP messaging did in 2009 was... pretend Obama was a secret Muslim who would oppress all the Christians and who should be disqualified because "he wasn't born here".

That strategy isn't going to work with Joe Biden. He's pretty established as a U.S. Citizen, you know? Also, Joe Biden isn't a secret Muslim. He's a lifelong Catholic, and that would be odd for him to start "waging Jihad" against Christians. The idea that he is some socialist maniac is also laughable, as he's been widely viewed as centrist.

Like... he's a hard guy to hate. Even Lindsey Graham has sung his praises about what a good dude he is.


The country needs to come together to fight Covid-19, and it's not just that the GOP should.... it's that I don't know given who Biden is that they have a path to obstructing in public opinion compared to twelve years ago.


Odds are, they're going to start trying to demonize Kamala and AOC in advance of either being a 2024 threat.

They don't need Birtherism anymore, they have QAnon now. Birtherism was only good for targeting one man, QAnon can target anyone they want.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Michael Duvall, a former member of the California State Assembly who was a big supporter of Republican "family values" that compelled him to vote for Proposition 8 a few years back to "protect the sanctity of marriage". What he probably should have done to protect marriages, though, was to not get multiple mistresses to run around behind his wife's back with. This all came to light, and led to Duvall's resignation, after he was boasting about a new gal pal in the Assembly itself while a hot microphone picked up him boasting about the details to a colleague, including what panties his new paramour wore, and how she was into spanking. Adding to the seediness of the whole affair? This mystery woman turned out to be a lobbyist that he was literally in bed with. Anyway, Duvall resigned in disgrace back in 2010.

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Kathleen Tonn, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska in the 2014 elections who appeared in a Youtube video where she blamed a perceived lack of growth of daisies in the natural flora in Alaska on the presidency of Barack Obama and his support of same sex marriage. For whatever reason, that insane correlation that flies in the face of the scientific method did not garner Ms. Tonn’s video a ton of views, go figure. She then also decided to prove her credentials as a candidate by posting a video where she went to a local sauna fully clothed, and “sang in tongues” to, as she later explained, “save” a woman therein, because thankfully Satan cannot decipher when Christians speak in tongues. Now, just because she didn’t get elected doesn’t mean that Kathleen Tonn has decided to fade away into obscurity just yet. She turned up at an Anchorage Assembly, where she pulled out a multitude of props to make a spectacle of herself, including a Bible, a trumpet, and a tampon. During her alotted time to speak, she angrily read a passage from the Second Epistle of Peter about the Judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, and was outraged that the city was considering an ordinance for LGBTQ protections so people could not be fired for their sexual orientation. Instead, she asked them to consider an ordinance to protect against the real afflicted minority, people who speak in tongues which as far as signature issues go, is not one likely to see her ever elected to office.

On this date in 2016, Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Richard Cash, a man who decided to challenge Senator Lindsay Graham in the 2014 GOP Primary for his seat in the Senate representing South Carolina, based on his qualifications of owning a fleet of ice cream trucks. Cash, as it stood, is a climate change denier, who felt there wasn't enough evidence to do anything about the phenomenon, and seemed more convinced that climate change scientists were running a "scam". We're going to go out on a limb and assume he only doesn't want to do anything about increasing temperatures because it would help him increase his ice cream sales. But what was far more concerning was that Richard Cash was quite the social conservative, to terrifying extremes. He was opposed to same sex marriage because "God designed men and women for a unique type of companionship", and he was a supporter of Personhood, which because he believes life begins at conception, he thus would prevent such "murders" by not just outlawing abortion, but most forms of birth control. How far to the lunatic fringe did his views on abortion get? While speaking before a Tea Party group on Martin Luther King Day, he referenced MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, and then segued to his own "I Have a Dream" speech about preventing all abortions, and granting unborn babies Constitutional rights. Richard Cash finished third in that primary with only 8% of the vote, and seems to have gone back to slinging ice cream.



On this date in both 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Mary Dye, a member of the Washington House of Representatives who was first appointed to her position back in 2015, quickly dropped into place after her predecessor, Susan Fagan, resigned amid ethical violations.

Dye popped up on our radar back in January of 2016, when a few websites noted the story of how a group of high school students from Eastern Washington traveled to the state legislature in Olympia to meet with politicians there to lobby a bill they supported. The bill in question they chose was to expand insurance to include birth control. And the girls who made the trip got to meet Mary Dye, who responded about as poorly as you could. Because Dye, for whatever reason, started interrogating the teenage girls if they were still virgins or not, and began accusing one of having lost her virginity before their teacher stepped in and told the students they didn’t have to answer the Puritanically insane Dye. She would eventually give a half-assed apology where she claimed she was trying to be “motherly”, which would seem to only be the case if she was trying to be the mother from Stephen King’s “Carrie”.

Then again, Dye also has been fearmongering against the Muslim community in her district, claiming that Muslims were “staking out” the Snake River Dams with high-powered rifle, and insinuating they might be associated with an Islamic Center in Pullman. Because that’s not just an evil thing to accuse someone of without evidence, and couldn’t result in attacks against the Muslim community.

So far, there’s not a lot in her voting record, save for her vote against Washington Democrats’ move to approve automatic voter registration, because at this point, it’s obvious that the GOP want to restrict the vote so their party has a chance to win elections. her opposition to the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act, which would have required businesses to take special considerations for pregnant employees like considering things like that they might need more bathroom breaks. In 2020 thus far, she voted against gun regulations on daycare and child care facilities, because she apparently feels that not enough toddlers are dying from gun accidents in the home, so they should have a chance to stumble upon one at daycare, as well.

Mary Dye only faced a Libertarian challenger for her seat in the Washington state legislature in 2020, and was easily re-elected to another term in office. Hopefully she can get through her next term in office without asking anyone if their hymen is still intact, because seriously, WTF, man.

[worstblogever]

They don't need Birtherism anymore, they have QAnon now. Birtherism was only good for targeting one man, QAnon can target anyone they want.

But Qanon talk is starting to be shut down on social media as violent, anti-Semitic, white nationalist conspiracy theories.

If Twitter and Facebook really do take the air out of that, they're gonna need something more than, "PEDOPHILES!!! ALL THE PEDOPHILES!"

Especially when Trump never did the military tribunals they predicted for years, and Ghislaine Maxwell is on trial. Also, the number of other people who are sketchy in Trump's orbit far surpasses Biden's.