All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[The Overlord]

Ah, copy that.

Biden is sort of a toss up.

While I would agree that he would run the same sort of "Progressive(but really not)" platform and there should be discussion of if that makes sense, I get the feeling that no Democratic primary candidate will make the same sort of flawed assumptions that were part of what tripped HRC up the last time out.

Its easy to inform the present with the recent past though. I think Biden and Clinton are part of the same system that wants the Democrats to stay the same center-right party they have been since the 90s. To me, Clinton's failure is a failure of the ideology she represented, third-way neoliberal economics, if Biden is chosen, I think he will repeat some (but not all) of the mistakes Clinton made. When Trump attacked Hilliary as a neoliberal and a war hawk, she had no answer to this and ceded a lot of ground Trump and I think Biden will do the same.

[InformationGeek]

Mueller is calling Barr out.

BREAKING: Mueller told the attorney general that the depiction of his findings failed to capture ‘context, nature, and substance’ of probe

[InformationGeek]

Oh by the way, another mass shooting, this time at a university in North Carolina. 2 dead and 2 hurt.

[numberthirty]

Sort of odd that Biden is essentially running on some of what George W. ran on against Gore.

[Tendrin]

Oh by the way, another mass shooting, this time at a university in North Carolina. 2 dead and 2 hurt.

Let's not forget the murder of four Sikhs in Ohio, too.

https://www.wlwt.com/article/murders...-hard/27312882

[Mister Mets]

BINGO! Early poll numbers don't mean jack shit right now. For all we know, Mayor Pete could be the frontrunner by the time fall rolls around while Biden and Sanders are bringing up the rear. Short and sweet: Nobody knows a goddamn thing about what might happen in this campaign.

The poll numbers are meaningful. Candidates with this kind of lead win fairly often.

It doesn't mean Biden is guaranteed to win the nomination by any stretch, but it shows that the race has changed from wide open to having a major frontrunner. This is going to affect campaign strategies, and will be part of the story of the next nominee, be it Biden, the David to his Goliath, or someone who benefits from the chaos of his collapse (Kerry rose in the 2004 primary when Gephardt and Dean went after one another).

Maybe Bernie Sanders has gone senile. He is, after all, over 70 years old

Interesting that he's losing to a guy only an year younger than he is.

If you think Sanders has gotten worse, you could look at Sanders' record and try to figure out when he would have been a good president. Was it when the commune kicked him out for not contributing enough?

Sort of odd that Biden is essentially running on some of what George W. ran on against Gore.

How so?

[Mister Mets]

Honestly, there's not even much of a point in responding to nonsense like that.

HRC probably ran the most progressive platform ever...

Please ignore that she wasn't even for a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage in 2016 while we try to sell you on some jive turkey nonsense about how she was taking on white privilege.

There are several ways of looking at it.

Her campaign was progressive compared to previous campaigns. Was there any category in which she was saying she would be to the right of Obama? This could have doomed her nomination by showing moderates that Democrats didn't see Trump's presidency as a crisis; she wasn't going with more appealing policy vision than she would have had against Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.

One can argue that the country has moved left, and that what matters isn't how someone compares to previous Presidents/ candidates but how they compare to the others. This would still have to be clearly articulated, since otherwise people arguing different things (Hillary was more progressive than John Kerry circa 2004 VS Hillary Clinton was further from the center than Obama) are going to be talking past one another. A serious version of this argument would take into effect the context of other comparisons (IE- If you're suggesting Jimmy Carter was further from the center of 1976 than Hillary was from the center of 2016, it requires further explanations of who they're compared to.)

A final argument is that Hillary's background as an elderly white woman married to Bill Clinton meant she had to make more promises to the base. She was in the perverse position that they didn't trust her, but her efforts to impress them scared away the swing voters who would back Democrats in the swing and red states.

Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes. She won the majority of votes. As long as you try to the game the way its stacked now, you will lose. Either flip the script or lose.

That's the problem, you seem unwilling to look critically at how the system allowed Trump to win.

The US has this 2 party system that promotes dysfunction, with only a center right party as opposition, nothing has stopped the GOP from becoming far right. As long as you do nothing about gerrymandering or what went on Georgia in 2018, the system will produce more Trumps, over and over again.

Hillary Clinton's electoral college loss shows she didn't play the game as it's stacked now. She was trying for meaningless BS like running up the vote in places it wouldn't matter (New Orleans and New York City.)

The "electablity" issue is coming to haunt Bernie again on the thread title here. Is the Center still the majority of this country?

Was Bernie's problem that primary voters agree with him, but think he'll be a weak nominee, or that they would prefer Joe Biden in the White House? Were primary voters secretly in agreement that the Boston Marathon Bomber has just as much a right to vote as they do but concerned this was a policy that wouldn't be useful in a general election, or did many of them think this was a crazy idea unworthy of a President.

It's called white privilege. Had that scumbag been black, he would've been thrown in prison for life. That's not hyperbole, people, that's truth!

Do African-American men who commit statutory rape universally receive life sentences?

[numberthirty]

How so?

If you are talking "How is it like what George W. ran on?", George W. had the whole "Bringing honor back to the office..." bit. Sounded a lot like some of what Biden has had to say.

[worstblogever]

A resolution was unanimously signed by an entire county Republican Party calling for a Austrian white nationalist with ties to the New Zealand mosque mass shooter to be allowed to emigrate to the United States.

This individual has already been investigated in his home country for criminal activity, has been banned from the U.K., but the Republican Party would like to inject his bile and venom into our country's politics.

But the GOP hasn't become a white nationalist party. Nope.

[The Overlord]

There are several ways of looking at it.

Her campaign was progressive compared to previous campaigns. Was there any category in which she was saying she would be to the right of Obama? This could have doomed her nomination by showing moderates that Democrats didn't see Trump's presidency as a crisis; she wasn't going with more appealing policy vision than she would have had against Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.

One can argue that the country has moved left, and that what matters isn't how someone compares to previous Presidents/ candidates but how they compare to the others. This would still have to be clearly articulated, since otherwise people arguing different things (Hillary was more progressive than John Kerry circa 2004 VS Hillary Clinton was further from the center than Obama) are going to be talking past one another. A serious version of this argument would take into effect the context of other comparisons (IE- If you're suggesting Jimmy Carter was further from the center of 1976 than Hillary was from the center of 2016, it requires further explanations of who they're compared to.)

A final argument is that Hillary's background as an elderly white woman married to Bill Clinton meant she had to make more promises to the base. She was in the perverse position that they didn't trust her, but her efforts to impress them scared away the swing voters who would back Democrats in the swing and red states.

Hillary Clinton's electoral college loss shows she didn't play the game as it's stacked now. She was trying for meaningless BS like running up the vote in places it wouldn't matter (New Orleans and New York City.).

Yes, she lost by the rules of the game, she cannot blame losing on the Electoral College, because she did nothing to oppose it before losing and neither did

I am saying the rules of the game favor conservatives more then anyone else, they can break the rules whenever they want and nothing will happen to them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbab8aP4_A&t=645s

Getting rid of the Electoral College is really difficult, so that would be tricky. I do think getting rid of gerrymandering would be easier and I do not think I have seen anyone defend gerrymandering with any sort convincing way, also the abuses we saw in the electoral system in Georgia are worth fighting against.

Was Bernie's problem that primary voters agree with him, but think he'll be a weak nominee, or that they would prefer Joe Biden in the White House? Were primary voters secretly in agreement that the Boston Marathon Bomber has just as much a right to vote as they do but concerned this was a policy that wouldn't be useful in a general election or did many of them think this was a crazy idea unworthy of a President.

The US prison population is about 2 million people, double that of China, if one thinks they are all serial killers or terrorists or something, I think one should look at how many nonviolent drug offenders are in prison.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pr...f-slavery/8289

I think you can limit who in prison should vote, but to say everyone in prison has committed a crime that makes them unworthy of voting is a position that should be debated, not assumed, I do not think a healthy legal system should have the highest prison population on the planet.

For all this talk of conservative small government, it seems like conservative politicians want to increase the prison population, probably because they get money from the private prison industry.

The fact that Joe Biden helped the Clintons dramatically increase in the incarceration rate in the 90s is one of many reasons for my dislike of him:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...on-drugs-mass-

[numberthirty]

Yes, she lost by the rules of the game, she cannot blame losing on the Electoral College, because she did nothing to oppose it before losing and neither did

I am saying the rules of the game favor conservatives more then anyone else, they can break the rules whenever they want and nothing will happen to them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbab8aP4_A&t=645s

Getting rid of the Electoral College is really difficult, so that would be tricky. I do think getting rid of gerrymandering would be easier and I do not think I have seen anyone defend gerrymandering with any sort convincing way, also the abuses we saw in the electoral system in Georgia are worth fighting against.

If anything, she was taking Trump to task for just talking like he might not abide by the Electoral College's result and accept the loss.

[The Overlord]

If anything, she was taking Trump to task for just talking like he might not abide by the Electoral College's result and accept the loss.

Exactly she only complained about it when she lost, which nullifies any complaints she made about it, it makes her sound like a sore loser, rather taking a principled stance.

I think the Electoral College is a bad thing at this point if you have to be against it, right out the gate, for your complaints to mean something and one has to realize that getting rid of it would be tricky. I do think gerrymandering and the type of abuses we saw in Georgia Election are easier targets to deal with right away, the Electoral College would be a long fight and I think gerrymandering and abuses by state officials are worse than the Electoral College.

[numberthirty]

Exactly she only complained about it when she lost, which nullifies any complaints she made about it, it makes her sound like a sore loser, rather taking a principled stance.

I think the Electoral College is a bad thing at this point if you have to be against it, right out the gate, for your complaints to mean something and one has to realize that getting rid of it would be tricky. I do think gerrymandering and the type of abuses we saw in Georgia Election are easier targets to deal with right away, the Electoral College would be a long fight and I think gerrymandering and abuses by state officials are worse than the Electoral College.

There's just no good way to discuss the means by which we have changed administrations needing to be respected, and then turn right around and dog out a central component of the way it happens.

While I'm not saying her post-election take wasn't on solid ground, there's a time where you just have to see that it's up to someone other than you to bring it up.

[numberthirty]

Since "Infrastructure" was in the news, it would be good to see the following get specific attention.

https://weather.com/news/news/2019-0...still-no-trust

Flint Water Crisis: Five Years Later, There's Still No Trust

Flint officials hope to have all lead and galvanized pipes replaced by the end of 2019.

When all the lead pipes are replaced, Flint's residents will get the all-clear to use their tap water again, mlive.com reports.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee says that may not be enough to regain residents’ trust.

“The reason people in Flint don't trust us is because they were lied to,” Kildee told mlive.com. “I don't think it's reasonable for anyone to expect the people of Flint just to get over that just because the pipes are being fixed.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

William Barr Says He Couldn’t Release Mueller Report Without Clearing Trump Of Obstruction

The attorney general, facing criticism for spinning the report’s findings, will tell senators the Justice Department should “stand apart from the political process.” In other words, Droopy Dog Barr gave Trump a get out of jail free card.

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The NRA Is A Crashed Car On Fire, Ready To Explode

The National Rifle Association is on fire. We can’t look away. And I've got the popcorn out to enjoy this wreck!

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Democrats Could Escalate Their Fight Against Trump’s Stonewalling

Democrats are talking about the power of “inherent contempt,” which theoretically would allow them to jail administrative officials. Fuck theoretically! Lock their happy asses up!

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Republican Senators Souring On Trump’s Federal Reserve Pick Stephen Moore

GOP Sens. Joni Ernst and Lindsey Graham said they are not confident in the controversial nominee. I guess Moore was too batshit insane for even Republicans to stomach.

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Anti-Semitism Hit ‘Near-Historic Levels’ In 2018, Report Finds

Physical attacks on the Jewish community more than doubled, the Anti-Defamation League finds. And what is the Trump Administration doing about it? Not much, after all, anti-Semites vote too, and Dolt45 needs all the support he can get.