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U.S. Politics: Next-ennials vs stamps


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2 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

What's any of that matter?  The GOP has already demonstrated, as has been pointed out ad nauseum in this thread, that they already will do anything possible to sabotage a Dem SC pick.  The Dems have nothing to lose, and everything to gain from using whatever means necessary to stall this confirmation.  Because no matter what they do they'll be stonewalled next time around.  Whether it's accusations of pedophilia, or a refusal to even consider the nominee, the Republicans will resist kicking and screaming.  

It doesn't matter if the accusations are credible or not.  It's a strange argument for you to make after you've defended Trump's lies as quality propaganda (I remember you describing yourself as a 'connosieur of propaganda').  If you don't believe the accusations against Kavanaugh, you must at least appreciate the pragmatic political consequences, no?

You are conflating two different concepts here. It is true that as a political maneuver, this is can be argued to be a pretty good one: the Democrats are forcing Republicans to choose between antagonizing gullible fence-sitters and antagonizing their base (the long term implications aren't as good as you think, but the Democrats can deal with that later). It is also true that the people who ran this story made the most of it. I must particularly commend whoever wrote the Washington Post article de-anonymizing  the allegation -- that was clearly done by a professional.

However... the underlying content is thin and the most that can be made of it is still not very much so people who genuinely find this credible or plausible or anything of the sort need to think a bit harder.

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1 hour ago, Rippounet said:

I'd written a long text to try to explain why this is wrong, but I don't think I'll convince anyone who isn't already, so I'll just say that in the current context, such thinking is very dangerous.

You are clearly oblivous to the issue of what a stacked court at all levels means. You do realize what will happen yea? And how people will have their rights attacked? A sexual predator has no fucking business sitting as a judge at any level, let alone the supreme court. We already have on there in Thomas, we don't need another one. 

You'll welcome fascism with open arms because fighting it might upset republicans. I call that cowardly.

 

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2 hours ago, Rippounet said:

I'd written a long text to try to explain why this is wrong, but I don't think I'll convince anyone who isn't already, so I'll just say that in the current context, such thinking is very dangerous.

As of now I am convinced that any deference for procedure was nuked from orbit with the GOP refusing to even consider Garland.  What could the Dems get out of letting Kavanaugh get confirmed without a fight?

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Anyway, more incestuous sexual assault in the GOP:

 

http://m.startribune.com/state-rep-jim-knoblach-ends-re-election-bid-after-allegations-by-daughter/493988571/

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In 2015, Laura Knoblach, then 20 years old, was back home for the Fourth of July and her parents were shooting fireworks off in the backyard. "I was walking back in [and] my dad just grabs me and like throws me up against a car and he basically grabbed each of my wrists and like pinned my wrists above my head and just started like making out slobbering open mouth kisses with tongue on my neck and biting my ear," she said. Later that night, Laura Knoblach said the family was watching a movie together and her father put his face between her legs repeatedly, kissing and licking up her legs. At one point, according to Laura Knoblach, her mother told him to stop because it was inappropriate to do that to his adult daughter, but that her father laughed and continued the behavior.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Zorral said:

You have missed that at the time this assault took place many of Dr. Blasey's classmates noted how different she now was, and that she basically just disappeared from the scene.  Other of her classmates recall that at the time at the school the kids talked about it. 

I read about the classmate that claimed this in a Facebook posting, and then quickly took it down and has essentially refused to talk about it any further.  Dr. Ford has asserted that she didn't tell anyone about the alleged assault until 2012.  If that is the case and the classmate is telling the truth, then Kavanaugh and/or Judge must have told other people about their assault of Ford since there is no indication that anyone else has first hand knowledge of the alleged assault.  It's possible they bragged about sexually assaulting a girl, but I think that it's unlikely.  Most people don't go around bragging about committing sexual assault.  If they were that kind of people, I would think that there should be many victims coming forward by now.  If they really did brag about it, the press should be able to confirm this and confirm that many of Ford's classmates heard about the assault.  Ford and Kavanaugh went to different schools, so for this to spread from Kavanaugh's school to Ford's school means that tons of people should have heard about the assault.  That this hasn't been confirmed yet suggests to me that the classmate didn't really hear about the assault at the time and was just being overzealous in her support of Ford.

Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh are believable to me.  I wouldn't say I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt though.  More around 50/50.  I'm naturally a skeptic though and want to see more evidence or corroboration of existing evidence.  If a couple more women accused Kavanaugh of similar behavior, then I'd be much more inclined to believe them, and I'm sure that Kavanaugh would then be finished.  Maybe that's why the Republican's want to hurry up the confirmation process.  If no one else comes forward though, Kavanaugh is getting confirmed within a couple weeks.

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9 hours ago, Altherion said:

Very briefly, in this thread I'm mainly trying to convince people that identity politics as practiced by the modern American left is a bad idea. I don't have a What is to be done? pamphlet for you; if it was obvious (or at least as attractive as the original was to its contemporaries), somebody would have publicized it already.

1. I'd like to know what exactly what your issue with "identity politics" exactly is. It would be helpful if you could write your key objections in a few simple sentences that are easy to understand,

2. For the most part, I think analyzing policy through the lens of class, gender, and race and so forth is pretty sensible as policy or policy issues are likely to affect different groups differently. I'll give one example to make the point. Take Raj Chetty's study on social mobility. He found, among other things, that women tend have less social mobility and income than men, until you get to boys born into the lowest social classes and then the result flips for whatever reason. This what I believe many on the left would call "intersectionality" and it seems pretty sensible to me as a method to analyze policy and to understand a variety of issues.

3. Your notions of "neo-liberalism" and "the elites" seems vastly different from standard notions of those concepts. This is the only explanation I can think of why you claim to have no idea about what to do about neo-liberalism. The fact of the matter is that many people have written for years about the excesses of neo-liberalism, and there are several policies ideas out there about what to do about it. That you refuse to name just one of them makes me think you are pretty confused about what neo-liberalism is, as most people understand that term, or you're just throwing in ten cent words to make whatever point you're trying to make look credible.

4. If your real beef isn't with neo-liberalism, but with identity politics, then so state clearly and precisely as you can. If I wanted to read reams of obscure and impenetrable text where I'm sitting here scratching my head and saying to myself "what in the hell did I just read?" I'd go and read Ayn Rand or something.

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6 hours ago, Rippounet said:

I'd written a long text to try to explain why this is wrong, but I don't think I'll convince anyone who isn't already, so I'll just say that in the current context, such thinking is very dangerous.

You are already worried now that the Democrats are merely using credible arguments against the character of Kavanaugh. Which they have resort to since the GOP has been turning blind eyes to his lying, been hiding other data on his history, been ignoring the option of even trying for a candidate with a broader potential support.

This isn't some weird escalation, this is a basic inquest into someone who would gain a lot of power in the weird US system.

It doesn't make sense to worry about the basis due prudence the Democratic senators are doing now, in the eye of the GOP powers-that-be abandoning it already. And showing bad faith with regard to SCOTUS back to the last vacancy.

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19 minutes ago, Serious Callers Only said:

Frankly you should be more worried about the civil war than the civil discourse.

I shit you not there is a billboard of Abraham Lincoln about ten minutes from my house that says "a house divided against itaelf cannot stand" and then a call for "civility from both sides".  I don't think they're trying to be ironic.

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10 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

I shit you not there is a billboard of Abraham Lincoln about ten minutes from my house that says "a house divided against itaelf cannot stand" and then a call for "civilility from both sides".  I don't think they're trying to be ironic.

The irony of that billboard is that Lincoln was pretty much a moderate where the slavery question was concerned. He was pretty much willing to let the practice continue in the South.
But, the South wasn't all that interested in "civility" and decided to declare war.
Lincoln tried "civility."
It didn't work.
It would have been nice if the people who made that billboard had thought about that.

But, of course, we know how "both siders" roll. They think they look all reasonable and stuff by simply declaring it's "both sides". To bad for them, that just isn't the case at this current juncture in our history.

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8 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Ok. I hear what you're saying and understand why there would be mistrust in government.

@Altherion claims to be against neo-liberalism.

Then gets basically into a bunch of libertariannish public choice theory arguments.

Something here does not quite compute.

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4 hours ago, Mudguard said:

I read about the classmate that claimed this in a Facebook posting, and then quickly took it down and has essentially refused to talk about it any further.  Dr. Ford has asserted that she didn't tell anyone about the alleged assault until 2012.  If that is the case and the classmate is telling the truth, then Kavanaugh and/or Judge must have told other people about their assault of Ford since there is no indication that anyone else has first hand knowledge of the alleged assault.  It's possible they bragged about sexually assaulting a girl, but I think that it's unlikely.  Most people don't go around bragging about committing sexual assault.  If they were that kind of people, I would think that there should be many victims coming forward by now.  If they really did brag about it, the press should be able to confirm this and confirm that many of Ford's classmates heard about the assault.  Ford and Kavanaugh went to different schools, so for this to spread from Kavanaugh's school to Ford's school means that tons of people should have heard about the assault.  That this hasn't been confirmed yet suggests to me that the classmate didn't really hear about the assault at the time and was just being overzealous in her support of Ford.

Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh are believable to me.  I wouldn't say I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt though.  More around 50/50.  I'm naturally a skeptic though and want to see more evidence or corroboration of existing evidence.  If a couple more women accused Kavanaugh of similar behavior, then I'd be much more inclined to believe them, and I'm sure that Kavanaugh would then be finished.  Maybe that's why the Republican's want to hurry up the confirmation process.  If no one else comes forward though, Kavanaugh is getting confirmed within a couple weeks.

Really? Does the phrase ' grab them by the pussy' ring any bells? Kavanaugh is a creep and deserves all the shit heaped on him.

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On ‎9‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 12:19 AM, ants said:

 

I'm still trying to figure out how heavy drinking suddenly makes accusations against you credible.  Or how being nominated by Trump does either.  Or what the Republicans have been doing to get people to support his nomination.  None of these make this accusation more or less credible, unless you want to play party politics and stereotyping.  

Are you really that thick? I didn't say that being a heavy drinker makes you less credible. The stories about Kavanaugh and his jolly crew of friends is that they regularly got wasted in high school. Dr. Ford said in her story he was very drunk. Kavanaugh said he has no memory of any such party. Being blacked-out drunk is a historic defense for many crimes. Any lawyer can pull out many historic court decisions where men were either found not guilty or guilty of a lesser offence because of extreme drunkenness, including rape and murder, because the court found they were so drunk they could not form the necessary intent to commit the crime.

Ergo, if the Democrats nominate someone with a history of drunkenness in their youth they deserve to have Republicans uncover conduct like Kavanaugh's in their candidate.

Perhaps you have a history of drunkenness at university, or have good friends who had a history of drunkenness at school and you think holding that against them in the future is wrong? No one in this thread who wants this matter investigated have said that youthful stupidity should be held against someone later in life. EXCEPT IF THEY ARE BEING NOMINATED TO A LIFETIME POSITION ON THE SUPREME COURT. Cuz, ya know, credibility.

Of course, Kavanaugh said he wasn't even at that party, which implies that someone knows exactly what party was being discussed. Then the Republican talking heads (saw them on CNN) came out and started claiming it was just "rough play" between friends.  Then they rolled out "it was the other guy". That tells me the Republicans who vetted him know the story, and have been preparing for it to come out. I will repeat, I was extremely suspicious when I saw commercial after commercial with women praising Kavanaugh for what a great guy he is. Let's not forget the story that has come out of Yale Law School that he wanted women clerks who look like models.

And of course there are stories about Kavanaugh's heavy drinking in university and in law school that have come out from fellow students and from his own fond recollections. 

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Quote

 

"Former Donald Trump aide Jason Miller has been accused of secretly administering an "abortion pill" to a woman he got pregnant during an affair, new court documents show.

The court filing, obtained and reported on by Splinter, alleges that Miller had an affair with a woman he met at a strip club in Orlando, Florida in 2012. As a result of the affair the woman got pregnant, at which point Miller is accused of giving her with an abortion pill without her knowledge or consent. The woman claims that the pill caused her to lose the baby and nearly costed her her life.

The filing goes on to claim that Miller showed up at Jane Doe's apartment with a smoothie in hand. Unbeknownst to Jane Doe, the Smoothie contained an abortion pill. The pill induced an abortion, and Jane Doe wound up in a hospital emergency room, bleeding heavily and nearly went into a coma," the document reads."

 

https://www.newsweek.com/former-trump-aide-administered-abortion-pill-1134501

 

Party of family values

So murder and attempted murder? If we go by conservative definitions at least.

 

Anyway not the first time either:

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/536892/

(another affair with another Trump campaign latina aide which he pressured to abort and then was discarded after. His wife was pregnant too). I guess you can sell out the country and promote rapists to office but can't escape child support (yet). This worm was hired as a 'commentator' after the campaign at... drumroll... CNN!

 

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9 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

You are clearly oblivous to the issue of what a stacked court at all levels means.

Sorry, are we operating under the impression that this will actually prevent Kavanaugh from being confirmed now? Because I would have thought everyone agreed that this isn't going to change a thing for the Republicans, who mostly don't give a shit about women and women's rights anyway.

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Report: White House Drafts Order to Investigate Facebook, Google

https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-white-house-drafts-order-to-investigate-facebook-google

Quote

The Trump administration has drafted an executive order instructing federal antitrust regulators and law enforcement agencies to investigate the business practices of Google, Facebook, and other social media companies, Bloomberg News reports. A draft of the order reportedly seen by Bloomberg orders government agencies to recommend measures to “protect competition among online platforms and address online platform bias.” It also reportedly instructs antitrust authorities to “thoroughly investigate whether any online platform has acted in violation of the antitrust laws.

 

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