All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[4saken1]

Do you have a scenario where Comey would have been investigating if HRC had been using a government server during her time in the Obama administration?

Well, yeah.....there's the fact that nobody seems to give a fuck about other politicians doing the same until Hillary did it! Although it was careless, Comey also said there was no evidence that she intentionally mishandled classified information. How many people do you think heard that part?

[4saken1]

Let alone that you have to entertain that said "Three Percent" would actually have swung solely to Clinton in states where it would have mattered.

While that is certainly possible, it is not the only possible outcome.

No, just the likely outcome. There were several states (6, I think) where she was well within that margin.

[4saken1]

And you won’t be able to make any of those changes without a unified party.

The problem is, this will always be blamed on the Democratic Party and not those who refuse, and can rationalize their own refusal (see: Confirmation Bias), to come back into the fold.

[Mecegirl]

I think I'd be more sympathetic to the continued discussions about the primaries if Bernie wasn't an Independant. If someone like Obama, a young rising star politician within the party, was shafted in favor for an older more established candidate, then I'd get it. But that isn't what happend. And honestly, if Obama could come from nowhere and convince enough delegates to vote for him what is Bernie's excuse?

I get that what happend wasn't fair, but I can't be that mad at the Democratic party wanting the most qualified Democrat to be their standard bearer. No one even talks about the other Democrats that were in the race before it was just Hillary and Bernie.

The sad truth for the "far left" may be that maybe they don't fit in with the Democratic party. Though it's still weird for me to equate Bernie with the "far left" when looking at his voting record because he and HIllary are neck in neck about the issues.

[Mister Mets]

I recall seeing a story in the WSJ years ago about many advancements in internet commerce being developed and perfected in the porn industry. Payment, security, etc. all needed working out there. I imagine sex robots might provide a similar testing ground for actual artificial humanoids.

So will the sex robots be the most likely to develop sentience by virtue of being first and presumably more plentiful?

When i say meme is that for some reason this became trending in 2018 along with a bear yelling who touched their spaguetti and the Uganda knuckles.

I'm familiar with the memes. My point was that the deaths don't seem to come from that. People with dementia seem less likely to participate in meme culture.

[4saken1]

I also don't like the idea that your either with us or against us.

I get where you're coming from. I try not to look at it that way. Divide and conquer is a saying for a reason, though. From Trump's perspective, if he couldn't get people to vote for him, the next best thing was for them to stay home or vote Green.

I posed this as a mathematical problem because math is neutral and unbiased. Our electoral process is broken because it favors a two Party system. Mathematically, if one doesn't vote for the candidate who's views are most similar to their own, it only increases the other candidate's chances of winning.

I wish those Liberals who hold the Democratic Party in disregard would use that energy to try to get ballot measures passed which would fix Elections to make Third Party candidates a viable option.

[Iron Maiden]

a lot of people (regardless of political affiliations) hate women

especially women that are smarter than them

we ended up with W because people thought he was "relateable"

I think this is the factor that gets overlooked the most. Why do so many other countries have no problem with a female in a similar position yet the U.S. has yet to have their first female President? There were probably a number of males both GOP and Democrats that didn't vote for her just because of her gender but we'll never know what that number is.

[Tami]

I think I'd be more sympathetic to the continued discussions about the primaries if Bernie wasn't an Independant. If someone like Obama, a young rising star politician within the party, was shafted in favor for an older more established candidate, then I'd get it. But that isn't what happend. And honestly, if Obama could come from nowhere and convince enough delegates to vote for him what is Bernie's excuse?

I get that what happend wasn't fair, but I can't be that mad at the Democratic party wanting the most qualified Democrat to be their standard bearer. No one even talks about the other Democrats that were in the race before it was just Hillary and Bernie.

The sad truth for the "far left" may be that maybe they don't fit in with the Democratic party. Though it's still weird for me to equate Bernie with the "far left" when looking at his voting record because he and HIllary are neck in neck about the issues.

There is only one area that Bernie can be called 'Far Left' and that is in regards to economics. Elizabeth Warren has shown that you can be Far Left in terms of economic Issues yet still work within framework of the Democratic Party.

Facts are, he isn't a Democrat and he never will be. Many (some at least) of Bernie Sanders supporters still talk disdainfully about the Democrats.

Being a Demcrat means being liberal and progressive, but not necessarily about every single issue. You can be liberal about Immigration and realted issues, but lean more moderate about economics. You can be liberal about education reform and science, but still support increased border security or beefing up the miliatary. And so on.

I just persoanlly disagree with any kind of litmus test, outside the voting booth, that says if some candidates are 'liberal enough' or 'progreesive enough'. Politcal organizations have a right to support whomever they want to support, just as voters have a right to support and vote for whomever they want to.

[Mister Mets]

The past has lessons that could dictate the future, and I really don't think the Democrats have solved their schism that helped Trump win. If anything it got worse. So it is very relevant. You have progressive Bernie supporters more pissed and distrusting of the party than ever. You have Clinton establishment supporters more irate at the left wing of the party than ever and blaming them for the perceived loss.

Until they address that, there will always be a very real lane for Trump to have a victory if he runs again.

Considering the third party ticket with two former Republicans did several times better than Stein, Republicans seem to have had more of a schism.

Jeanne Ives is already in my queue, believe it or not, for just being a super anti-LGBT wonder. She's diversifying her insanity, it seems.



Not me, I want to re-litigate the 1972 Democratic Primary. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HUMPHREY, DAMN IT!

When I said Trump was the worst major party nominee in generations, I was careful to allow room for McGovern.

I can't decide if Hillary, at this point, makes a better dead horse, scapegoat, or a scarecrow.

Maybe there's some pathological reason why people keep s***ing on her 14 months after an election. I don't recall Mitt Romney getting any grief in 2012 past the GOP "Autopsy" that came out a few weeks later. Maybe that's because the left wonder how an obvious choice could get passed up on for Barron F***face von Clownstick. Maybe it's because the right were pathologically trained to hate her at the mention of her name for 30 years while the rest of the world admired her.

I agree with the sentiment that it's past due that people should move on and pay attention to what's happening now. And if they can't, they need professional help (See: Barron F***face von Clownstick).

Romney ran against a popular incumbent President who had recently been praised for how he handled a national crisis (Hurricane Sandy.) For Romney and Hillary to be comparable here, Obama would've had to suck

Given how presientiam elections tend to go in America, and hownon of the normal rules applied to Trump because "it was impossible for him to win", he was arguable the best candidate there ever was. How do you beat a candidate who is gets more popular from scandals and bad press?

ETA: "best candidate" here meaning 'best suited to winning the election', not 'best suited for the job'.

That assumes Trump did better than generic Republicans b would have, and I kinda doubt that (take a look at swing state Senate races where Republicans outperformed Trump.)

[TheInvisibleMan]

in other awful news

you all hear about this "family" in California, keeping their kids chained up in the house

one of them escaped and called the cops

[Tendrin]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slate...w1489353552204

Georgia is starting to look like a swing state, and Republicans aren’t happy about it. In 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by just 5 points, and demographic trends may continue to erode Republicans’ grasp on the state. Yet because of the state Legislature’s egregious gerrymandering, Republicans hold a near-supermajority in the state House. They’d like to regain an actual supermajority in 2018. So last week, the House passed a bill that would kick black voters out of several GOP districts, trading them for Republican-friendly white voters. The bill will become law with the approval of the Republican-controlled Senate and the signature of Republican Gov. Nathan Deal—both of which seem likely given the enthusiasm that the Georgia GOP has already shown for the measure.

But the real problem is geographic sorting, guys!!!

And then there's this:

JEFFERSON CITY • Before news of a scandal involving Gov. Eric Greitens broke on Wednesday, at least one of his taxpayer-paid attorneys was on an intelligence-gathering mission.
In audio obtained by the Post-Dispatch, an attorney who works in the governor’s office, Lucinda Luetkemeyer, is recorded speaking with St. Louis attorney Albert Watkins about the political storm that was brewing.
Watkins represents the man who has alleged that Greitens in 2015 took a compromising photo of the man’s then-wife and threatened to release it if she ever spoke of their affair.

It is unclear from the recording whether Luetkemeyer knew of those allegations.
“Can I just ask you this question, Al?” Luetkemeyer asks in the audio. “Is your client talking to anyone in the media right now?”
His client was talking to the media.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/g...03c73c8e1.html

[Mecegirl]

in other awful news

you all hear about this "family" in California, keeping their kids chained up in the house

one of them escaped and called the cops

Yeah. I heard about it. I'm just glad they were finally freed.

[Jackmando7]

in extreme situations, that's what it comes to

and the lack of that thinking has put us here now

Isn't that way of thinking kind of how we ended up with Trump though? I honestly don't know anyone who was a Trump supporter prior to him winning the Republican Primary. Yet I saw Trump signs all over the place after.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Isn't that way of thinking kind of how we ended up with Trump though? I honestly don't know anyone who was a Trump supporter prior to him winning the Republican Primary. Yet I saw Trump signs all over the place after.

because him winning validated their desire to put their ugly right up front

many people knew voting for him was a poor decision, but they wanted to stick it to "the libs"

especially in those "in between" states like PA, where it is very low key racist in some places and just outright racist in others

[Tendrin]

Mueller has subpoenaed Bannon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/u...-subpoena.html