US Politics: The American Messias, Greenland and attacks on Jews voting Democrats. Or as we call it Wednesday.

[Bonnot OG]

Great. I can’t begin to describe my dislike of this arrogant foolish individual. She should’ve retired in 09 when she could’ve been replaced by someone younger. But her ego kept her sitting in that position, and now we gotta hope she doesn’t die while trump is in office so the farce that is SCOTUS doesn’t become even more far right than it already is.

[DanteGabriel]

Pancreatic cancer took my friend's dad in like six weeks. I hope they really did get everything.

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Bonnot OG said:

Great. I can’t begin to describe my dislike of this arrogant foolish individual. She should’ve retired in 09 when she could’ve been replaced by someone younger. But her ego kept her sitting in that position, and now we gotta hope she doesn’t die while trump is in office so the farce that is SCOTUS doesn’t become even more far right than it already is.

This is a really stupid take.  Politically, did I want Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer to all retire on January 20, 2009 (or maybe a couple months later when Specter switched parties)?  You bet.  But that's not how these things work.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg has done more over the past half century to advance the progressive movement than arguably anybody else in American politics.  Calling her arrogant, foolish, or egotistical for continuing to do so after Obama was elected demonstrates an insanely sophomoric take on politics.

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, Bonnot OG said:

Great. I can’t begin to describe my dislike of this arrogant foolish individual. She should’ve retired in 09 when she could’ve been replaced by someone younger. But her ego kept her sitting in that position, and now we gotta hope she doesn’t die while trump is in office so the farce that is SCOTUS doesn’t become even more far right than it already is.

How was she supposed to know that this is where the country would be?  Fuck even in 2016?  Pancreatic cancer is often a death sentence, she could have figured she'd die with Obama in office, but then at some point we end up crossing the line where McConnell won't let Obama's nominee even get a vote.  

Gonna disagree and say over the line Smokey, mark it zero dude.

[ThinkerX]

8 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

David Koch dying just made my decade. Now for the sequel to come along soon.

One does wonder at the potential for infighting similar to that besetting the NRA, especially if the other Koch Brother departs this world.

 

That, however, might deprive various far right pressure groups badly needed financing.  Hence, some of the boarders here go into work one fine day, and...

 

Boss calls meeting.

 

Boarder and others:  What's up?  Another safety thing?

 

Boss:  Nah, not safety.  I need you guys to make some political contributions to Keep America Great.

 

Boarder and others: Huh?  Hey, I already send off a few bucks.

 

Boss: Yeah, to them lying ass libtard traitors.  No, now your donating money to right thinking patriots.

 

Boarder:  Like hell I am,

 

Boss:  Yes you are.  It's coming out of your paycheck, five percent after taxes.  I already passed word to accounting,

 

Boarder:  That's illegal!  

 

Boss: Shut up.  Show respect when the President swings by next month,  No wise cracks, no mouthing off.

 

Boarder: No way.  You can't make me.

 

Boss: You're fired.

 

 

 

[Bonnot OG]

44 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

How was she supposed to know that this is where the country would be?  Fuck even in 2016?  Pancreatic cancer is often a death sentence, she could have figured she'd die with Obama in office, but then at some point we end up crossing the line where McConnell won't let Obama's nominee even get a vote.  

Gonna disagree and say over the line Smokey, mark it zero dude.

It was vident where this country was and where it could go. 

[Darth Richard II]

2 hours ago, Bonnot OG said:

Great. I can’t begin to describe my dislike of this arrogant foolish individual. She should’ve retired in 09 when she could’ve been replaced by someone younger. But her ego kept her sitting in that position, and now we gotta hope she doesn’t die while trump is in office so the farce that is SCOTUS doesn’t become even more far right than it already is.

Oh fuck off.

[DMC]

10 minutes ago, Bonnot OG said:

It was vident where this country was and where it could go.

So do you mean in 2008 when the GOP president had approval in the 20s, 2012 when Obama won reelection handily, or 2016 when almost everyone expected Hillary to win?

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 hour ago, Bonnot OG said:

It was vident where this country was and where it could go. 

Yeah but until 2014 looked like the Dems still had the Senate...What's the rush?  Easy one to call years later, but at the time?  Were you calling for her to retire then?

[Centrist Simon Steele]

4 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Eh, I'm not entirely sure that it was the one debate performance that caused her to tank in the polls. Iirc, her polling trendline was already declining before the 2nd debate.

While Gabbard certainly came loaded for bear, and while I agree with your assessment that Harris was completely unprepared for the question she should have been prepping against for months, I think it's rather been her lack of a natural constituency, along with trying to pander to both liberal and moderate Democratic voters that has caused her polling to flatline. 

I know I've mentioned on at least one previous occasion that she has an atrocious tendency to espouse liberal positions during high profile events, and then walk those positions back a day or two later when not as many people are paying attention.

Imo, if she really wants to have a chance at winning, she should pick the moderate lane and go hard after Biden. She was able to briefly cut deeply into his support after the 1st debate, and there isn't a whole lot of competition at this point for moderate primary voters, besides Biden of course. 

With the caveat that it's still early in the primary season, I don't think she has a shot at siphoning votes from the liberal wing of the party. Sanders and Warren pretty much have those voters locked down at this point, and Harris is too squishy when it comes to her policies to make serious inroads with that crowd.

Fair enough, and I agree. Her walking things back has to be noticed sooner or later. She's not a "progressive" in this race, and I use quotes not disparagingly, just to emphasize that the term is really synonymous with socialism right now. She has few (if any) socialist leanings, and she would be better served to run as a moderate, I agree. If she did get the nom, and she ran true to what she believed, I know I wouldn't even blink at voting for her in the presidential election (of course, I'll vote for her or any Dem either way). I just think you're right, she'd be best served going as the moderate and taking Biden's votes.

[Martell Spy]

2 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Fair enough, and I agree. Her walking things back has to be noticed sooner or later. She's not a "progressive" in this race, and I use quotes not disparagingly, just to emphasize that the term is really synonymous with socialism right now. She has few (if any) socialist leanings, and she would be better served to run as a moderate, I agree. If she did get the nom, and she ran true to what she believed, I know I wouldn't even blink at voting for her in the presidential election (of course, I'll vote for her or any Dem either way). I just think you're right, she'd be best served going as the moderate and taking Biden's votes.

Harris' main problem is that Biden is more resilient than expected. I'm not convinced that Harris is finished yet. We are in the August doldrums and we will find out what happens in the next debate. 

Healthcare is an important issue for me, but I don't really have a problem with Harris' plan. I'm kind of torn between Warren and Harris, as I have been through out this. I think that the filibuster in the Senate will not be removed any time soon and both of these woman as President will do something fairly similar, with a massive healthcare expansion and tax on the rich via reconciliation. The opposite of the zombie Trump/Ryan Care bills, and much more popular.

I'd be against Harris if she started talking like Biden about just tinkering around with Obamacare. I'm also quite curious what her stance on student loan debt is.

I like Warren's policies quite a bit though and she has proven herself a talent. I think Harris is quite skilled as well though and would make a good candidate. I would like to see her prosecute Trump. Also, there is a real value to making an African-American woman the next President. 

I should probably get on the Warren train though if nothing happens for Harris in the next debate. After all, my main goal is to see Biden defeated.

[Martell Spy]

2 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Oh, you might have missed the "plan" she put out.  There's relief so long as you're a pell grant recipient that's owned a certain kind of small business for x amount of years.  Not joking.

I'll have to look into it. That does indeed sound bad. That would be a deal-breaker for me.

[Larry of the Lawn]

7 hours ago, Triskele said:

It received a lot of mockery.  

I totally get the controversy over how sweeping the Sanders and Warren plans are as much as I would personally benefit from either of them.  But this Harris plan was such a nothing plan that it was bizarre that they even announced, because they did.  It shows further bizarre lack of savvy on either her part or her people's.  It was something so narrow as to benefit virtually no one (I don't want to discount anyone who would benefit) that it was like "how could they announce this like it was something to announce and not know that the only reaction this would get would be mockery."  

Yeah it was like if her immigration plan was "pretty much what we have now, but kids under ten can only be detained for up to three years, and everyone gets a toothbrush each year."

[DMC]

What the fuck is Joe Biden rambling about???

Quote

After speaking about the health care plan he introduced last month and taking a few questions, Mr. Biden grew most animated as he recalled the fraught political era of 1968, when he was a college senior, and two of his political heroes, Martin Luther King Jr. andRobert F. Kennedy , were assassinated within weeks of each other.

“My senior semester they were both shot and killed,” Mr. Biden said. “Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee. What would have happened in America?” 

"I think of where we are at the moment. You know, none of you men are old — women are old enough, but a couple of you guys are old enough to remember. I graduated in 1968. Everybody before me was, drop out, go to Haight-Ashbury, don’t trust anybody over 30, everybody not getting involved. I’m serious, I know no woman will shake their head and acknowledge it, but you guys know what I’m talking about. Right? But then what happened? Dr. Ki— I only have two political heroes. I have one hero who was my dad, but I have two political heroes were Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. My senior semester they were both shot and killed. Imagine what would have happened if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee. What would have happened in America?"

You know, him shitting on the entire hippie movement and acting like everybody who was around Haight-Ashbury at the time was lazy, disengaged, and shooting up (my parents lived around Haight-Ashbury at the time and were neither disengaged nor hippies) would have been offensive enough - except for it seems to all be a pretext for his weird fantasy that Obama got killed which would have made him president and...?  Just what a weird fucking thing to speculate about.  Maybe it's cuz I just woke up, but I'm honestly at a loss here.

[Zorral]

It's typical politico word salad + ramble, ramble, blather.  There is no there there with old as the political shill hills Biden.  Alas.

The current squatter in the oval is a demented geezer narcissist and sociopath, and this wanna be squatter is a blatherer;  both are stuck in fantasies of the past, rather than engaging with the present and the future in any meaningful, productive language.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Harris' main problem is that Biden is more resilient than expected. I'm not convinced that Harris is finished yet. We are in the August doldrums and we will find out what happens in the next debate. 

I like Warren's policies quite a bit though and she has proven herself a talent. I think Harris is quite skilled as well though and would make a good candidate. I would like to see her prosecute Trump. Also, there is a real value to making an African-American woman the next President. 

I should probably get on the Warren train though if nothing happens for Harris in the next debate. After all, my main goal is to see Biden defeated.

I'm definitely not counting Harris out of the race yet; she has proved that she can garner support and that she can go toe-to-toe with the top candidate and that she can siphon voters away from Biden. But, in order to do so, I don't think she'll be successful with the strategy she's employed of trying to pander to both sides. 

Biden, imo, has been displaying some serious not-ready-for-primetime issues lately. Whichever candidate that's not Sanders or Warren who goes hard after Biden with a moderate line of attack has a good chance to erode his support and shore up their own. Harris has already done so, albeit briefly, and I don't think her busing attack that ended up backfiring has doomed her chances as long as she picks a strategy going forward that she sticks with.

For Warren, I'm becoming more and more impressed with not only her policy proposals, but also her marked improvement as a campaigner.

[Ser Reptitious]

I don't understand why Buttigieg is not getting more love. He seems closest out of all the current candidates in terms of channeling Obama. He is quite moderate in terms of his politics, but he is young, passionate, well-spoken, and inspiring, and he ticks off one of the minority boxes due to being gay (for those who feel passionate about not just having yet another old straight white guy in the White House). Just like Obama, I think he could inspire the left-wing of the party simply because of who he is without alienating the more moderate wing due to his politics. And the contrast with Trump would be obvious in all the right ways!

[Zorral]

Buttigieg has the military outlook for how to do things, and a whole lot of trouble with the African American voters; he's done nothing to energize the latinx vote either.

And Harris can't overcome her cop - state prosecutor's soft ball with white establishments vs hard ball with the minority communities.

Warren - Castro is the best by far.

They show staying power and capacity to keep climbing, a little at a time, under the radar since the big media favors status quo, thus Biden -- who will totally buckle under pressure.  He doesn't have the energy of a 60 year old.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Personally, I don't think being part of a minority makes you better or worse qualified. It might give you some electoral boost from within your minority group, but that's about it. I mean Condoleezza Rice is a woman of colour, this ticks off two boxes, but nobody in their right mind would vote for her - I hope. 

Having that said, can't you guys make the Democrats speed up their nomination process a bit, and cut the field down to maybe 6 candidates? The non-entities are really sucking up air time. I mean nobody wants to see two nights in row of (mainly) middle aged men answering policy quesitons on CNN within 20 seconds, as if they were participants in a beauty pageant. "How would reform healthcare in the US? 20 seconds. Go!" If that's how you lot pick the candidate, we might as well just skip the questions and head straight for the bathing suit bit to decide the winner. Oh right, I forgot the talent show bit, which might be for the better. I mean nobody wants to see Joe Biden having a ventriquolist doll of Trump telling inappropriate jokes.

On an unrelated for the ones with the Christian relatives beholden to the orange one.

I am just curious, are there any of the ten commandments left unbroken by him (apart from the thou shall not kill bit).

1. No other gods, besides me. Check (I am the chosen one.)

2. Thou shall not misuse the Lord's name.  Check (Althoguh, that is properly more related to the Evangelicals proclaiming him to be God's candidate. Which he has adopted himself)

3. Not working on Sabbath. Ok, since he is not working at all, I guess he gets a pass there.

4. Honour thy Father and Mother. Check. (Him claiming his Father's fortune to make it to the Forbes list for the First time).

5. Thou shall not kill. Ok, like I said, I assume he had not violated this one.

6. No Adultery. Check.

7. Thou shall not steal. Check (He is a grifter, you can find sufficient stuff in his business record).

8.  Not bear false witness. Check (pick any proven lie of his. He is lieing more than than Henry fucking Kissinger in his prime).

9. Not coveting another man's house. Check. (Greenland, I interpreted that a bit more freely as in home, also wasn'T his Atlantic City misfortune to not so small degree based on his obsession with the Taj Mahal, if you want it more literal)

10. Not coveting another man's wife and belongings. Check.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Wow Florida jury finally getting something right.

The jury convicted guy trying to use a "stand your ground" defense.

https://news.yahoo.com/michael-drejka-invoked-stand-ground-defense-shooting-unarmed-025715170--abc-news-topstories.html

So I guess the era of getting away with shooting unarmed folks because your a scared pussy is over?