US Politics: Nancy's Knock on the Senate Door

[HexMachina]

9 hours ago, karaddin said:

So this thread which is focused on why we aren't seeing action on climate change has a detailed break down of the geopolitical and economic pressures behind the current situation which happens to also explain how hostility to Iran plays into checking China's growth, a detail which seems rather relevant at this point in time. It contains a number of details that I didn't know, and I assume plenty of other people are at my levels of ignorance!

Yes, its very long for a twitter thread, just pretend its a proper piece elsewhere that has been formatted oddly.

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

Someone has very kindly “unwrapped” the thread if others would like to read it in full

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1213949476391374848.html

[DMC]

6 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

"A functional democracy (small 'd') requires an educated and informed populace."

This is a lie. A democracy functions in the manner most expedient to the whims of representatives and spokespersons of a given populace. Right now, the whims are confused and reactionary, which grants initiative to the enemies of independent choice. The 2020 failure of the Democratic party will not be against Donald J. Trump, but rather against the predictable desire of every human being on Earth to imagine a simplistic worldview and work in reverse from there to justify faith in empty rhetoric.

Usually, democracy is a function of the ruling elites legitimizing their power to the populace and their subordinates.  Considering the "power elite" in the US is overwhelmingly composed of straight white males - in a significantly more disproportionate way than even most other industrialized democracies - the rightward shift over the past 40 years should not be surprising, empirically.

[Rippounet]

6 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I'm a leftist, to the point that it would likely frighten a lot of people who comically consider themselves 'liberal'.

Nah. You bark a lot, but I've yet to see anything frightening about your positions.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 hours ago, Triskele said:

I'm very surprised that Mike Lee apparently was so effusive in how it was garbage.  I don't doubt that it was, of course, but I thought the GOP was going to have a really united front on all of this stuff.  

He has the same loophole Mittens does. That’s why. Plus he’s not an absolutely terrible human being. He can be one of the rare stealth converts on major issues.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 hours ago, James Arryn said:

But Jace, we are where we are because Gingrich convinced the GOP to pursue a perpetual hard charge to the right.

Right actor, wrong action. Gingrich is the root of our current problems because he’s the one the promoted the concept of humiliating your political opponents. He’s the godfather of “own the libs.”

7 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

I'd argue we are where we are because Sherman displayed too much restraint.

Tell that to the Native Americans of his time.

1 hour ago, Rippounet said:

Nah. You bark a lot, but I've yet to see anything frightening about your positions.

Idk, she was one of the first people to support my idea to allow NFL players to have weapons.

No pistols though unless they are solely used to whip people with.

[Jace, Extat]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

He has the same loophole Mittens does. That’s why. Plus he’s not an absolutely terrible human being. He can be one of the rare stealth converts on major issues.

That's a generous interpretation I can't disprove. But for my money everything above is conjecture and the truth is that he has a single shred of dignity that was genuinely shocked at the White House's lack of effort to justify the attack.

I expect he'll be adjusting his statement within the day.

[DMC]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

He has the same loophole Mittens does. That’s why. Plus he’s not an absolutely terrible human being. He can be one of the rare stealth converts on major issues.

While I'm not gonna say "what?  Of course he's an absolutely terrible being" because that's ridiculous, I don't think Mike Lee is a good example of a potential convert.  He's more of the Rand Paul type (as the article Trisk cited suggests) - will take a quixotic stand against the party based on some weirdly contorted ideology they've conceived..until the floor vote.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

59 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

I expect he'll be adjusting his statement within the day.

Probably. Normally this would be grounds for a title bet, but I still have one Jacelyn sic’em left.

56 minutes ago, DMC said:

While I'm not gonna say "what?  Of course he's an absolutely terrible being" because that's ridiculous, I don't think Mike Lee is a good example of a potential convert.  He's more of the Rand Paul type (as the article Trisk cited suggests) - will take a quixotic stand against the party based on some weirdly contorted ideology they've conceived..until the floor vote.  

I mean, after those disparaging remarks you made about Darth Vader, would that really be that ridiculous? That said, the take is fair. I was grading on a curve and Republicans these days need a rather steep one.

[DMC]

So reports not just from US intelligence but independent outlets seem reasonably sure Iran did indeed shoot down the Ukranian plane, at least accidentally.  Yikes:

Quote

The Ukrainian jet that crashed after taking off from a Tehran airport probably was mistakenly shot down by an Iranian missile, a London-based global information firm says.

"Photographs purportedly taken near the site of the crash and circulated on social media appear to show the guidance section of an SA-15 Gauntlet short-range, surface to air missile, which landed in a nearby garden," the firm IHS Markit said in its report.

The firm said it could not confirm the authenticity of the photos but "assesses them to be credible."

 

[Jace, Extat]

2 minutes ago, DMC said:

So reports not just from US intelligence but independent outlets seem reasonably sure Iran did indeed shoot down the Ukranian plane, at least accidentally.  Yikes:

 

It's almost like tragedies occur when bombs are streaking through the air at hundreds of miles per hour.

As long as we learned something, it wasn't a mistake.

[DMC]

On the bright side, Robert McNamara's estate must be having a very good week.

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

 Universal Healthcare is now so broadly popular that a Republican majority couldn't get a repeal of the ACA through even with reconciliation when they had all levers necessary to enact such a political coup, but it still cost Democrats their future in enacting the pathetic and flawed version we have. 

 

But -- SNAP and food stamps and federally funded school meals are gone, and so much more. So much for ACA.

In the meantime --

"What if Democrats Tried Real Outreach?
We reached out to nonvoters and infrequent ones in the 2018 midterm elections and saw astonishing results."

By Kristee Paschall
Ms. Paschall is a community organizer.

As we see over and over and over, alas, this is exactly what the DNC refuses to do, in it's suicidal party dive off the cliff.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/opinion/voter-turnout-2020.html?

Quote

 

....This method of deep organizing blows up business-as-usual electoral politics. It threatens the huge paychecks of political consultants and strategists on both sides of the aisle who parachute into communities for elections. The progressive political industry spent $5.7 billion on congressional races alone in 2018. Much of that went to the usual Beltway power brokers who focus on tired attack ads or the vote for so-and-so emails. Our model, however, keeps money and power in the communities whose votes will change the electorate.

Voters want authenticity, not scare tactics or laughable digital and TV ads that even my 10-year-old daughter calls “phony.” Infrequent voters have sophisticated reasons for staying home and they see right through these tactics. Progressives need to invest in models of engagement that cut through the noise of electioneering and bring new people into political life.

If Democrats had used this model in 2016, they would have needed fewer than 10,000 people in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to commit to moving friends and family members who are not politically engaged to the polls in order to deliver the 79,000 votes needed to have changed the result of that election.

Expanding the electorate matters more than ever before. Some congressional races in 2018 were decided by razor-thin margins. If Democrats are to stand a chance in 2020, they need to invest in strategies that will shore up their base while also bringing in people who rarely or never vote. This has to start before the primaries and not be left as a last-ditch effort during closing arguments in October.

Our approach, though, isn’t about talking reluctant voters into casting a vote once, but about building a democracy in which each person matters and stays engaged in authentic participation long past Election Day.

As a community organizer who has worked for decades to build power from the ground up, I know that simply electing candidates who say they support the issues my community cares about isn’t enough. It is foolish to believe they will follow through without being pushed. We have to build a movement with the scale and depth to compel our leaders to pass the bold changes we need.

At churches and block parties and in classrooms, our experiment offered this call to action: You are the most qualified person to engage the people you love. Together we can imagine a new kind of government. Strengthening our democracy isn’t just about Election Day. It is also about building community ties that pull people sitting on the sidelines into public life....

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

You guys haven't shown your usual fascination for passenger jets that mysteriously crash this time around, and I am assuming that, perhaps unconciously, it's because Iran was involved. The fact it may have been taken down by defense forces has pricked up everybody's ears. Of course there hasn't been easy access to the crash site, but that hasn't stopped CNN from doing wall-to-wall coverage in other similar situations.

I have heard it mentioned by US media that 63 Canadians died, but the impact of the crash has been much harder felt right across the country. Of the 176 people on the plane, 138 were coming to Canada, not 63. These were university students coming back to school after the Christmas holidays, most of them graduate students working on their MAs and PhDs, and high school students prepping for attending Canadian university. Looking at the passenger information coming out, a huge number were doctors and engineers, living and working from BC to Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Flags are at half-staff right across the country. The human loss is just horrific.

I guess I'll open a thread.

[DMC]

9 minutes ago, Zorral said:

As we see over and over and over, alas, this is exactly what the DNC refuses to do, in it's suicidal party dive off the cliff.

The entire premise of the article is preposterous.  The DNC's very existence is based on trying to organize and coordinate grassroots organizing.  And that outreach encompasses targeting all potential voters for your side - trying to persuade swing voters, making sure the base turns out, and trying to mobilize non-voters.  The author's only substantive explanation for what the DNC is "missing" is, well, quite laughable:

Quote

Instead, we tried something different. We trained people in these swing states to knock on the doors of the people they know, or call or text them with selfie videos where they’d say: “I’m a voter. Come join me at the polls.” Then these people would contact their own neighbors and friends, and so on. This is grass-roots organizing, which has won big progressive victories in the past.

No, that's not "something different."  At all.  It's in fact the very concept of canvassers that are supported by and compose any party committee - including the DNC.  You do realize if the DNC (or RNC) has your information you'll be inundated with emails, texts, and phone calls for the rest of your life, right?  The article is rather nakedly making an ideological argument that the Dems should emphasize moderates less and disengaged leftists more, then painting it up as if there's evidence the latter is more effective than the former.  Which is not provided.  The notion "deep organizing" is somehow something anathema to those dastardly high-paid DC consultants completely betrays such a (perhaps willingly) naive perspective.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

20 hours ago, DMC said:

Yes, Santino would be basically every US regime since Roosevelt - Teddy.  Way too willing to fight, but still competent enough to lead his superior force into easily quelling any stones in his shoes.  Obvious correlation for Trump would be Fredo, but that really is a grave insult to Fredo in numerous ways.  Putin is not Barzini.  His moves are decidedly thuggish and, more importantly, way too out in the open.  That's not how Barzini operated.

Ok, a few problems there. The US are not dead. To use borrow a phrase from the financial crisis. The US are too big to fail. Not even the current management can truely destroy it (despite their best efforts). Furthermore, who is Michael (Don Michele) in your analogy?

[DMC]

1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

The US are not dead.

Um, sure.  The comparison was about character traits, not their fates (hey I rhymed!).  Not sure I can think of an appropriate Michael (or Vito, for that matter.  Or Tom Hagen.  Or Clemenza or Genco).  It was an off the cuff analogy I did not expect would receive such detailed scrutiny.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

The notion "deep organizing" is somehow something anathema to those dastardly high-paid DC consultants completely betrays such a (perhaps willingly) naive perspective.

You're so predictable.  Ha!

These people are unpaid and local, not D.C. consultants. Also, if you read instead of reacting with 'professional' pearl clutching horror, you'd have noticed that it also spoke of how when or if this purely local and personal action achieves results then bring in outsiders.  It;s what Obama tried to do in Chicago -- though he wasn't very effective, personally, because, ultimately, he didn't like engaging personally very much and would send in purely untrained people way too soon.

Moreover -- Hil and her campaign and the professional high paid D.C. consultants in the DNC didn't do anything like that at all in the 2016 campaign.  They sure as hell didn't do voter registration drives in latinx, latino, hispanic, etc. communities.  It was the young Dem challengers who did that in the mid-terms, not anybody from the DNC, local, state or national.  And boy are state and national fighting tooth and claw to not let that happen again. Which means, of course, the only elections in which Dems won in a long time.

[DMC]

7 minutes ago, Zorral said:

These people are unpaid and local, not D.C. consultants.

Thanks.  I was referring to the attack the article makes on high-paid DC consultants, which a large portion of the argument is committed to, as I'm sure you're aware of if you actually read the article you cited.

9 minutes ago, Zorral said:

It;s what Obama tried to do in Chicago -- though he wasn't very effective, personally, because, ultimately, he didn't like engaging personally very much and would send in purely untrained people way too soon.

It's revealingly reductionist to compare this article's author to Obama simply because they both share a job title as community organizer.  I also enjoy how you're evaluating Obama's job performance as a community organizer over 30 years ago based on absolutely nothing (which had very little to do with electoral mobilization, btw, if you had any idea what you're talking about).

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, DMC said:

Um, sure.  The comparison was about character traits, not their fates (hey I rhymed!).  Not sure I can think of an appropriate Michael (or Vito, for that matter.  Or Tom Hagen.  Or Clemenza or Genco).  It was an off the cuff analogy I did not expect would receive such detailed scrutiny.

I think we were collectively working towards figuring out who is the dead horse's severed head.

I nominate Boris. 

[mcbigski]

So I put out feelers from the Undisclosed Bunker Location today in order to get a heads up on how World War 3 was going.  Apparently the Dow is at another all time high and the Iranians, who could hit a refinery a thousand miles away in Saudia Arabia a few months ago can only pound a bunch of sand next door to US bases in retaliation now.  It's almost like they made the minimum symbolic response as a signal, and spun for domestic consumption.  And yet somehow after all of their deceit, big media's spin still gets traction here.

Possibly the draft won't be a thing?

http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=524

Quote

And let's look at the history of these protests:

Rescue run to Grenada: "ZOMG! DRAFT!"
Dig out a guy in Panama: "ZOMG! DRAFT!"
Several debacles in the Balkans, Africa and Caribbean under Bill Clinton: INFORMATIVE SILENCE.
Expedition to Kuwait: "ZOMG! DRAFT!"
Operations in Iraq: "ZOMG! DRAFT!"

Operations in Syria under 0bama: DEAFENING FUCKING SILENCE.
Angry tweet about NK. "ZOMG! DRAFT!"
Single fucking missile on a legit target. "ZOMG! DRAFT!"

  While I'm sure the author of this post is somehow problematic (who isn't?), my recollection tracks with his.  I was underage during Grenada and Panama, but first hand remember the Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran reactions.  Really, my impression is that you all are mostly thralls to the leftist elements of the media, alas.  I mean it's one thing to support them if you're in line for a cushy Burisma sort of job, but for the most part, the media has been just stoking the excitable for their ends.  Don't be a useful idiot please.