Maithanet Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 12 minutes ago, DMC said: Yeah just because Gillum didn't hit his turnout targets in urban areas does not mean the Dems can't make those gains in other states. I definitely would not cite Florida as a primary example when discussing the ability to increase minority turnout. I picked Florida because it was the only competitive state where 2016 and 2018 results were within a percent of one another. If you look at the shifts in other important swing states like PA or MI, the Democrats increased their margin statewide by more than 10%. In contrast, if you see a shift in the suburbs in Florida, you know its because the suburbs are changing, not just that everybody liked the Democrats more that year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Well Volker's turning out to be a much better witness than I expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 32 minutes ago, DMC said: Well Volker's turning out to be a much better witness than I expected. Better in what sense of the word? Better for Trump? I just turned on the hearing and Volcker just said he didn't think an announcement of investigations was necessary for a White House meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 My God Nunes is an asshole. 'The ratings are down...on whatever drug deal the Democrats are cooking up'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace, Extat Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Nunes couldn't get half a minute into the minority interview without mentioning how the "ratings are dropping." Damn right, I turned that shit off as soon as I found the remote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 22 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said: Better in what sense of the word? Better for Trump? I just turned on the hearing and Volcker just said he didn't think an announcement of investigations was necessary for a White House meeting. Well yes, Volker is gonna cover his ass first and foremost, that's to be expected. Which essentially means repeatedly admitting he was an idiot. But now he's saying that yes, in retrospect, I should have seen the connection between Burisma and Biden (duh), and that's fucked up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 46 minutes ago, DMC said: Well yes, Volker is gonna cover his ass first and foremost, that's to be expected. Which essentially means repeatedly admitting he was an idiot. But now he's saying that yes, in retrospect, I should have seen the connection between Burisma and Biden (duh), and that's fucked up. That's a good development. My understanding is that Republicans were relying on him more than anyone else and it doesn't sound like he delivered for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 15 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: That's a good development. My understanding is that Republicans were relying on him more than anyone else and it doesn't sound like he delivered for them. Yeah he was repeatedly and forcefully dismissive of any investigations into Biden or Ukrainian 2016 election meddling, referring to them as conspiracy theories. And this is the GOP's witness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 8 minutes ago, DMC said: Yeah he was repeatedly and forcefully dismissive of any investigations into Biden or Ukrainian 2016 election meddling, referring to them as conspiracy theories. And this is the GOP's witness. Hold on a minute. I've always considered you to be a really smart guy, but did you actually think that Devin Nunes was capable of crafting a coherent and tactical strategy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: I've always considered you to be a really smart guy, but did you actually think that Devin Nunes was capable of crafting a coherent and tactical strategy? Heh. In all seriousness, what I was surprised about was how defensive Volker was about Biden and, frankly, disparaging he was about the conspiracy theories the GOP members on that dais are still treating as legitimate. He basically sounded like a Dem MC during his opening statement. I didn't expect that, and I don't think Nunes did either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace, Extat Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: Hold on a minute. I've always considered you to be a really smart guy, but did you actually think that Devin Nunes was capable of crafting a coherent and tactical strategy? He shot that "the ratings are down" line like he was Alexander crossing the Hellespont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 7 minutes ago, DMC said: Heh. In all seriousness, what I was surprised about was how defensive Volker was about Biden and, frankly, disparaging he was about the conspiracy theories the GOP members on that dais are still treating as legitimate. He basically sounded like a Dem MC during his opening statement. I didn't expect that, and I don't think Nunes did either. Did they not vet him or something? Normally I would have listened to it, but it was a weird day in the office and I for once had do dedicate more than 1% of my talents to do my job. The struggle was real... 8 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said: He shot that "the ratings are down" line like he was Alexander crossing the Hellespont. He was just serenading his favorite orange clown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 OMG, Volker is now saying that the Burisma investigation was to investigate Ukrainians and Ukrainian corruption. Not the Bidens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 17 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said: So you are worth $40bn in one year and have to pay 6% of that in wealth tax. That’s $2.4bn. You take out a loan to pay that as you suggest. The next year your shares grow in value by 6%, bringing your net worth back to $40bn, even though you owe $2.4bn to the bank plus a year’s interest on the unpaid loan. So you get hit with another 6% tax - another $2.4bn which you pay by extending your debt to around $5bn. Then in year three the share price crashes and your shares drop down to $10bn in value. Suddenly the bank gets anxious and forces you to pay off the loan immediately as the erstwhile $40bn security is now worth only a fraction of that. You now have to sell half your shares to pay the loan, and with the founder selling half his stake the market takes that as a sign of no confidence and a run on the shares is the result, tanking the shares further, and the company goes under. But hey, at least Warren made $5bn from the deal, which vanished into the black hole of social spending with little to show for it. Isn't all this just a bunch of disingenuous posturing though? The Cult of Billions and their willing acolytes aren't arguing against the wealth tax because they're concerned about how they're going to pay it. It's not as if a perfect payment system that makes all parties happy were to be established, any of them would suddenly cool with the tax. They simply don't want to pay a wealth tax. It's honestly like the beginning of a Monty Python sketch: WE ARE THE BILLIONAIRE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE AND ALL SHALL UNFOLD AS WE WILL IT (...but we're a little cash poor right now, so go easy...)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 22 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: Did they not vet him or something? Normally I would have listened to it, but it was a weird day in the office and I for once had do dedicate more than 1% of my talents to do my job. The struggle was real... I would bet they assumed his testimony was going to mirror what he said in the closed-door deposition. But he "amended" his opening statement to try to save face by saying, "yeah, I should have seen that Burisma and Biden are linked, and that's inappropriate." It's basically pleading ignorance, and not credibly - but ya can't get him on perjury for being an idiot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 8 hours ago, Fez said: I took the Washington Post's "Which Democratic Candidate Do You Agree With the Most?" quiz. It's only 10 questions and they're not the most nuanced, but, be that as it may, I was rather surprised to find that apparently I'm closest aligned with Andrew Yang. Got 8/10 with him, no one else was higher than 6/10. Quiz here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/quiz-which-candidate-agrees-with-me/ I'm not more inclined to vote for Yang in the primary, my sole criteria continues to be who do I think has the best chance of beating Trump, but I found it interesting nonetheless. I haven't really paid any attention to him, other than knowing that he's the UBI guy. I took it and got 8/10 for Booker, which is surprising, and 7/10 for Bernie (I only got 5/10 for Warren, which is surprising considering that she's my now-#1 choice). I think a lot of the surprises are because I would like to see a lot more nuance on the "abolish private insurance" front (have mandatory single payer and then allow boutique plans to be purchased by those who want it), and because I think the student loan forgiveness thing is a waste of resources and political capital (easier fixes would be to expand forgiveness programs, regulate servicers more harshly and make student loans dischargable in bankruptcy) that would be better allocated toward climate change, healthcare or infrastructure investment solutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 Sondland's opening statement text is out. Sounds like he done flipped, confirming basically all the damaging testimony involving him, specifically characterizing it as a quid pro quo, and emphasizing he was acting on the express orders of the president. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 10 minutes ago, DMC said: Sondland's opening statement text is out. Sounds like he done flipped, confirming basically all the damaging testimony involving him, specifically characterizing it as a quid pro quo, and emphasizing he was acting on the express orders of the president. He's going full John Dean. Too bad House Republicans won't care, and Senate Republicans almost certainly won't either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 I'm kind of amazed. Surely if you were in this deep with the Trump administration you're already on board/complicit with breaking some laws? What's a little perjury going to matter? I'm glad he's doing this, but it's also really hard to see the rational reason for this flip. Is it that he actually has some scrap of integrity? Because this seems like it'll torpedo his career and possibly exposes him to different perjury charges from his initial statement under oath (although I doubt it will come to that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebla Posted November 20, 2019 Share Posted November 20, 2019 9 minutes ago, Fez said: He's going full John Dean. Too bad House Republicans won't care, and Senate Republicans almost certainly won't either. Indeed. I expect House GOP questions to him will be like:"When did you stop beating your wife?" and "Why do you hate America?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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