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

[4saken1]

Alex Jones.

Yeah, that seems like where this country is headed. The Democratic candidate will probably wear a tie one day that doesn't match their shoes, thus ensuring Jones' victory.

[Dalak]

You? Eh, I'd vote for you. Why not.

I'm considering running for a position in my town government next year. Haven't decided if i want to do it or not yet.

I've lived for a time thanks to state assistance, and I've been to public school my whole life. I was far too fat and had knees too bad for military service, but I wouldn't have tried anyway as I'd have questioned orders. I've learned to live under a budget, and I honestly can understand where the working class comes from living from paycheck to paycheck unlike 99% or more of current politicians. While I know enough to see where privilege has benefited me, I also know it's unfair to not give everyone the same hand up unlike many who live by the philosophy "Screw the rest of you, I got mine!". I can also sympathize with those who need a little something to get through their days, whether it's a prescription, a drink or 2, or those funny green cigarettes.

TL;DR you could do worse than voting for me, I've actually seen things from the PoV of the average American.



As for running in your local elections, I say more power to you! Make sure not to compromise yourself as so many who go into politics are forced to.

[Jack Dracula]

On another forum I saw an old "Who is most likely to be the 45th President" thread, where no one has guessed the current occupant of the White House (although The Simpsons and Grant Morrison had guessed it.) That got me thinking about whether we'd be able to guess who is likeliest to be President in six years. This will be an odd task since the winner of the 2020 election might not run in 2024 (Trump would be term limited; Biden and Sanders would be in their 80s, a decade older than any current Governor.)

So who do you guys think has the best shot of winning the 2024 presidential election?

The previous four years will be the determining factor. If Dems can take the Presidency, maintain control of Congress and wrest the Senate from Mitch McConnell's clutches campaign finance reform may have some hope of success. Once dark money's out of the equation who knows what may happen.
This coming election may be the most important in the next 50 years.

[Tami]

Manager: Trump family building 'dynasty' for decades to come

President Donald Trump's campaign manager predicted Saturday that the president and his family will become "a dynasty that will last for decades," transforming the Republican Party while hewing to conservative values.

Speaking to a convention of Republican Party delegates in Indian Wells, California, Brad Parscale also said the campaign's goal is to build a national army of 2 million trained volunteers, far beyond the president's 2016 organization, that in California could help the GOP retake a string of U.S. House seats captured by Democrats last year.

He told reporters after the speech, "I just think they are a dynasty. I think they are all amazing people with ... amazing capabilities."

Parscale's speech was a highlight of the weekend GOP conclave, in which party delegates sought to map out an election strategy in an increasingly Democratic state that Trump lost by over 4 million votes in 2016. Polls show the president remains widely unpopular outside California's depleted GOP ranks.

Parscale also acknowledged the obvious — that California was not a target for Trump in the 2020 campaign. He declined to respond directly when asked by a reporter if Trump would campaign for candidates in the state known as the home of the so-called Trump resistance. He said that would be the president's decision.

This is the kind of 'Dynasty' that the Trumps are creating: When Crime Is a Family Affair

[Gray Lensman]

Kevin Spacey. He can act like Frank Underwood for real.

Still less crooked than the current PotUS.

That phrase might be the current version of "Still a better love story than Twilight."

[SquirrelMan]

When I read "Trump" and "Dynasty" in one post, I expect it to be about his shoulder pads.

[Mister Mets]

The previous four years will be the determining factor. If Dems can take the Presidency, maintain control of Congress and wrest the Senate from Mitch McConnell's clutches campaign finance reform may have some hope of success. Once dark money's out of the equation who knows what may happen.
This coming election may be the most important in the next 50 years.

What type of candidates would do well in a system without dark money?

Whoever is chosen as VP by whichever Democrat wins the election. Note that the only two candidates unlikely to run for a second term are the two oldest, Biden and Sanders. Warren is the third oldest, but she is still young enough to handle a 2nd term if elected.

If Trump wins, all bets are off. The GOP will probably either give Trump a third term, or install someone of his choosing.

Biden or Sanders' running mate would be the favorite, just because parties rarely get kicked out of the White House after just one term (and if Republicans were to get kicked out after one term of Trump it's an indication that the political mood favors the Democratic party.)

I do fully acknowledge the question may be ridiculous since it could very well be someone most of us have never heard of (IE- a Virginia state legislator who goes on to win the next gubernatorial election.) Trying to think of the people who have a more than ten percent chance, I'm wondering if it's Mike Pence or Elizabeth Warren. Should Trump be reelected, I would expect a standard general election race just as we're having in his first term.

Warren is probably one of the two likeliest Democratic nominees, and the likeliest to run for reelection. My sense is that she's a relatively weak general election candidate, but it doesn't mean there's no chance she'd be a reelected President. It's less likely but you could also imagine her running in 2024 as Biden's VP or after a Biden or Sanders loss.

Pence would be a top-tier candidate for the Republican nomination if Trump is reelected or isn't. There's also a non-trivial chance that he would be running as an incumbent President.

I'll note that any regulation that allows for Trump to run for a third term would allow Democrats to nominate Obama, so Republicans probably won't push for any changes to those rules.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

When I read "Trump" and "Dynasty" in one post, I expect it to be about his shoulder pads.

Same here. I could totally see Melania and Ivanka in those bitching outfits Joan Collins and Linda Evans wore. A catfight between those two would be even more awesome.

[JCAll]

Manager: Trump family building 'dynasty' for decades to come

This is the kind of 'Dynasty' that the Trumps are creating: When Crime Is a Family Affair

Instead of promising a thousand year reich, they cuts it down to a more reasonable twenty or thirty years.
Slackers.

[Tami]

I'm not certain of this, but it appears that Trump ordered Black Bahamians off the transport ships to Florida and is only allowing White Bahamians into the US.

[Gray Lensman]

I'm not certain of this, but it appears that Trump ordered Black Bahamians off the transport ships to Florida and is only allowing White Bahamians into the US.

While I wouldn't put that past Adolph Twitler, I need a link before I'll believe it. Even if I'd only be shocked but not surprised if it is true. That would be so openly racist that he'd lose supporters - at least many of the ones who still lie to themselves about what he is.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump’s Secretly Planned Taliban Talks Are Met With Bipartisan Backlash

The now-canceled negotiations were set to take place at Camp David just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the president revealed. Meeting with the Taliban at Camp David was bad enough, meeting just before 9/11 was horribad. Speaking of which....

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Chris Wallace Grills Mike Pompeo On Taliban Invite: ‘Who Thought It Was A Good Idea?’

The Fox News host questioned President Donald Trump’s attempt to host Taliban leaders at Camp David just days before the anniversary of 9/11. Who indeed? I'm guessing it was Trump, and the spineless sycophants in his cabinet didn't have the balls to tell him the timing wouldn't work.

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Donald Trump To Attend GOP Retreat In Baltimore, City He Called ‘Disgusting’

The president is scheduled to speak at the House Republican Conference retreat this week despite his previous insults. Well, that's mighty white of him.

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Unqualified And Ideological: A Guide To Trump’s Worst Judges

If you care about women’s rights, LGBTQ rights or voting rights — or about judges being fit to serve — you oughta read this. THIS is why Moscow Mitch and the GOP have gone out of their way to protect Trump, because he's helping them put these cretins on the bench.

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Chrissy Teigen Gives Trump NSFW Nickname After Latest Presidential Meltdown

The president’s attack on the model and her husband, singer John Legend, didn’t go very well. Yo, Donnie, ever heard that old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"? The newest Twiiter trend, care of Ms. Teigen: #PresidentP***yAssBitch

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, the woman whose original campaign for office in 2014 was built around running ads where she shot up copies of the Affordable Care Act with a gun (which she offered as a 2nd Amendment alternative to the government not operating as we like three weeks prior to the election), and promised to go to Washington, D.C. to use her experience growing up on a farm castrating hogs to make veteran politicians "squeal". Since being elected, Sen. Ernst has continued to be a vacuous never-ending stream of moronic, pandering statements. A few examples include her State of the Union rebuttal where she talked about walking home from school wearing bread bags on her feet on wet or snowy days during "tough times" (which she grew up during the Reagan administration, so...), the time she said Hillary Clinton "wasn't doing enough on women's issues" (ignoring like, her entire quarter century record on them), and claiming President Obama ordered flags lowered to half mast after a mass shooting in Chatanooga because "he wanted to distract from the Iran deal". She also voted against funding the Department of Homeland Security, as well as voted to defund Planned Parenthood in her first nine months in office. And the GOP is hell bent on making Joni Ernst one of their "rising stars" of the party.

Giving her the rebuttal of the 2015 State of the Union wasn't enough for them, and they wanted to make sure she got a prime-time slot at the 2016 Republican National Convention to cement herself nationally as a figure in the Republican Party. There was just one problem... the 2016 RNC was, of course, being overseen by the wisdom of Donald J. Trump. As such, the long line of Trump-backed speakers coming out to fearmonger pushed Ernst's remarks further and further back into the night, as well as The Donald's own WWE-styled entrance on Night 1 of the convention just to introduce his own wife, Melania, so she could plagiarize Michelle Obama at length took precedence. By the time Joni Ernst got on stage to bad-mouth Hillary Clinton (which everyone else had already spent the whole night doing), over half the delegates and attendees had already left that night, probably closer to nine tenths (check the photo from correspondent Alan Rappeport). Those who remained had already been in their seats for over four hours, and barely seemed to even notice a U.S. Senator was pandering to them, and Ernst reported found speaking to an empty arena "excruciating". We find that to be true of her voting record, where she has twice voted to defend the Second Amendment rights of suspected terrorists, and feels that anyone on the “no fly list” should still have a firearm. And even though she claims she’s “pro-life” to her core, Ernst voted against funding for the prevention of the spread of Zika Virus, which causes birth defects in the unborn.

In 2017 and 2018, Joni Ernst voted for the Senate GOP’s attempt to repeal Obamacare that crashed and burned on a 51-49 vote, voted to place Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court, and voted to confirm every single member of Donald Trump’s “Cabinet of Horrors”. That’s part of the reason her constituents wanted to make the supposed pig farmer “squeal” herself when she has returned to Iowa for her own halls in July of 2017, where people who depend on affordable healthcare to survive have kept her scrambling, and the only real applause she got through the whole night was when she agreed with them that Donald Trump should release his tax returns.

Six months later, it didn’t get much better. In January of 2018, Ernst hosted another town hall, and her own constituents laughed in her face when she defended their criticism that Donald Trump’s talk of white supremacy wasn’t doing anything to help our standing with countries around the world, and Ernst was asked what countries Trump’s rhetoric helped, and she meekly responded, “Norway”. As in, Norway, a country that is 83% Norwegian, and predominantly white. The crowd of Iowans also audibly groaned when Sen. Ernst defended Trump from charges of being racist, saying he wasn’t racist “deep inside”.

That town hall didn’t have the only folks back home who are disenchanted with Joni Ernst, as her husband filed for divorce. (And the timing would be potentially damning if there’s anything in the court documents that would get released in the middle of her 2020 re-election campaign by way of a FOIA request.)

Joni Ernst has 11 months left left on her freshman term as a senator before her first defense of her seat... She has yet to castrate anything in Washington, D.C., that we know of, has yet to produce any legislation of note, and seems to be a running joke for the GOP. Her re-election campaign kicked off in June, and what was Ernst’s rallying cry? “THE RADICAL LEFT WANT SOCIALISM FROM COAST TO COAST!!!” Keep in mind, she’s stupid enough to try to deride government assistance at a time when Iowa farmers are desperate to get more of it because of Donald Trump’s stupid trade war with China and all the tariffs getting thrown around crippling her state’s farm industry. She’s also claiming that “Medicare for All means Healthcare for None”, because she hasn’t developed a better lie to attack it like better people at messaging did during the Tea Party Wave to lie about the Affordable Care Act. And her constituents are noticing, heckling her at town halls throughout the state, and mocking her openly when she does things like try to convince people that active shooter drills were something that used to take place in schools when she was a child (again, she grew up during the Carter and Reagan administrations, so she’s full of s*** about that).

Republicans are going to be fighting tooth and nail to hang onto the Senate in 2020, so we’re expecting Joni Ernst to go out flailing and clawing like a drunken wildcat rather than show any grace or dignity.

[Tendrin]

While I wouldn't put that past Adolph Twitler, I need a link before I'll believe it. Even if I'd only be shocked but not surprised if it is true. That would be so openly racist that he'd lose supporters - at least many of the ones who still lie to themselves about what he is.

They'll just find new lies to believe that excuse it seemed to me that isn't what happened. Rather, Bahamans were told they'd be allowed to evacuate to the USA if they just had a print out of their criminal records without a VISA, as that was the policy. The policy changed to require a VISA, as they were sitting there, which was of course ridiculous and potentially murderous. Of course, given that VISAs are more likely to go white folks than black folks, it's still racist, just covered up in a layer of bureaucracy.

[Tami]

While I wouldn't put that past Adolph Twitler, I need a link before I'll believe it. Even if I'd only be shocked but not surprised if it is true. That would be so openly racist that he'd lose supporters - at least many of the ones who still lie to themselves about what he is.

This is what I saw on Twitter, but I can't find any news reports to back it up or explain it. I made a mistake in defining it by race, however, how many native Black Bahamians have Visas?

That’s it. We’re leaving — all Bahamian evacuees without a visa taken off. The Bahamians who remain are in shock. No one understands why the rule was changed at the last minute. The parents and kids now stuck on the island.

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