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US Politics - The Liar in Winter


Larry of the Lawn

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3 minutes ago, Fez said:

For what it's worth:

Personally, I absolutely trust Tim Alberta's reporting in Michigan, right up there with Ralston for Nevada. Outside of Michigan, maybe not, but he knows Michigan. If the state politicians there are telling him this, I believe it.

I hope you're right; but it really feels like we're living the plot of "It Can't Happen Here", while all the paid talking heads and politicians keep assuring us that it won't happen here.

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4 minutes ago, Fez said:

For what it's worth:

Personally, I absolutely trust Tim Alberta's reporting in Michigan, right up there with Ralston for Nevada. Outside of Michigan, maybe not, but he knows Michigan. If the state politicians there are telling him this, I believe it.

We need to dramatically shorten the lame duck period.  This interregnum is interminable.  It is another example of the founders presuming mature adults in power, not Trump and his ilk.

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10 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

And how much legitimacy do you think it will give his efforts if he somehow manages to flip Michigan? And then Democrats will be doing the same shit they are always doing, which is trying to respond. 

You're acting like the public needs the Democrats to tell them to "stand back and stand by" in such an event.  Like Maith said, in the event he is successful such public backlash will be inherent anyway, the Dems don't need to tell anyone anything right now.  And it frankly is at cross-purposes to trying to ensure Trump's efforts do not foment unrest and civil strife.  You're confusing not being feckless with playing right into Trump's hands.

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1 minute ago, DMC said:

You're acting like the public needs the Democrats to tell them to "stand back and stand by" in such an event.  Like Maith said, in the event he is successful such public backlash will be inherent anyway, the Dems don't need to tell anyone anything right now.  And it frankly is at cross-purposes to trying to ensure Trump's efforts do not foment unrest and civil strife.  You're confusing not being feckless with playing right into Trump's hands.

This is the same line that always gets trotted out about the left playing into Trump's hands, but I think the Democratic party needs to turn that lens back on itself.

It's patently obvious that the Democratic party has been getting outmessaged for over a decade, so who exactly is playing into whose hands?

And of course the public needs institutional support to help sustain a prolonged general strike; call me crazy, but I don't exactly expect support from establishment Democrats if I'm out there marching in the streets.

Can't imagine why.

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Gotta consider this good news.  WaPo article: "In Georgia, get-out-the-vote operations that helped Biden win haven’t stopped"

Quote

For Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, it's as if Election Day never ended.

The get-out-the-vote efforts of civic engagement groups like hers, which helped Joe Biden become the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in nearly three decades, have been ongoing since Nov. 3. The group is still knocking on doors, calling voters and signing up new registrants, with a big push involving 100 volunteers planned for this weekend. Another group that works to mobilize voters of color set up tables at a recent high school graduation to register newly eligible young voters. A third group is reaching voters at transit stations...

President Trump’s aggressive attempts at overturning the results of the presidential race could prompt a backlash from Democratic voters, particularly Black voters, whose support was critical to Biden’s success in the election. Many view Trump’s false accusations of voter fraud — targeting heavily Black cities including Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit — as racist attempts to invalidate African American votes.

“I’ve definitely met people in rural parts of the state who say, ‘Oh they’re trying to take away our vote? We’re not going to have that,’ ” said Wanda Mosley, senior coordinator for Black Voters Matter in Georgia. “It absolutely motivates Black voters across the state when they see our voting rights under attack.”

It is hard to be optimistic about the GA runoff, but if Dems were to win those seats, it would dramatically change both the trajectory of Biden's first two years and the overall impression of the 2020 election as a mediocre victory.  The deck is stacked against Democrats in the House, the Senate and the electoral college.  Any election where they take all three (even narrowly) is a huge victory.  And Dems could still pull it off.

I am considering donating to Georgia Stand-up - they sound like exactly the sort of ground-up organization that Democrats so often neglect.   

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28 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

"Considering inviting" is a pretty low bar to clear. 

I mean I don’t disagree, but it was asked yesterday what their strategy was and all I could come up with was creating a domino effect to through the election into doubt. It’s very unlikely it will work, but it appears to have been a reasonable guess.

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31 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Got damnit have they got Loki's fucking scepter there or something?

Given that they're the part of racists, I'm thinking the Spear of Destiny is the right mythological artifact reference.  It would certainly explain a whole hell of a lot.

I didn't have any respect left for the morals of Republicans, but I never thought they would be so weak minded as to fall for a fat balding city slicker con man from NYC of all places.   

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1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

I mean I don’t disagree, but it was asked yesterday what their strategy was and all I could come up with was creating a domino effect to through the election into doubt. It’s very unlikely it will work, but it appears to have been a reasonable guess.

I think this is making the common mistake of trying to figure out what the 'strategy' behind Trump's floundering around is, when in fact he's just floundering around.

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2 minutes ago, mormont said:

I think this is making the common mistake of trying to figure out what the 'strategy' behind Trump's floundering around is, when in fact he's just floundering around.

It's not floundering; he's doing what any abuser/grifter does - he's finding any weak spot he can and is seeing how far he can exploit it.

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Need to get the Democratic and Republican election officials of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona, and any other state that want to weigh  in, together to file a Class Action lawsuit against Giuliani, McEnany, Graham, and all the other Trump White House and Republican mouth pieces for slander and defamation of character in claiming they are involved in a wide scale fraud and vote tampering.

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1 hour ago, argonak said:

Unfortunately he's wealthy and will be fine.  Sadly Karma doesn't actually exist.

The Right wing propaganda machine has broad out reach.  The primary affect though is that if you don't hear about the awful stuff he does, then it doesn't really exist for you.  And so you add in the incumbent advantage if someone personally is doing ok, and that's probably where a lot of it is coming from.  

How many people even remember he kicked all the Trans folks out of the military?  Trump has done so many awful things in the past four years people have given up trying to keep track.  

I meant this nut-job that the Republicans are still trying to put on the Fed for 4 years as some sort of misguided Trump loyalty move. Sorry that I wasn't clear.

 

Controversial Fed nominee Shelton stalls in Senate test vote

https://apnews.com/article/judy-shelton-federal-reserve-nominee-eb3639871b967b8de16aaf57ffc22189

Quote

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nomination of Judy Shelton, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for the Federal Reserve, is stalled in the Senate after Vice President-elect Kamala Harris returned to the chamber to cast a key vote in a tally Tuesday.

Two key Republicans were absent because of COVID-related concerns. The 47-50 vote came as the Republican-controlled Senate continues to focus its energies in the post-election lame-duck session on confirming Trump’s appointees.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, mormont said:

I think this is making the common mistake of trying to figure out what the 'strategy' behind Trump's floundering around is, when in fact he's just floundering around.

I think you're missing one of the points here. Part of this is to throw a massive hail mary and hope that they get something out of it. It's entirely bullshit and performative, but with the US judicial system the way it is (and with things like the ACA garbage that made to SCOTUS) it's worth a shot and it's cheap. 

But the bigger one is that this is setting up the Republicans to not remotely accept Biden as a POTUS. It's setting up Trump to be able to run in 2024 on even more outrage and righteousness, fighting against the stolen election and the pretender Biden. This isn't about Trump winning now - this is about setting the environment so that Trump wins in the future, all the while having 4 years of nothing but fighting and resistance to every single action Biden takes on a popular level. Right now up to 70% of Republicans believe the election was unfair. And that number is going to only grow. 

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6 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

It's patently obvious that the Democratic party has been getting outmessaged for over a decade, so who exactly is playing into whose hands?

And of course the public needs institutional support to help sustain a prolonged general strike; call me crazy, but I don't exactly expect support from establishment Democrats if I'm out there marching in the streets.

Can't imagine why.

Yeah this all seems like you're misdirecting your general anger at the Democratic party to encourage them to make plainly irresponsible and strategically self-defeating appeals all in the effort to appear aggressive, "pro-active," or not feckless. 

The point about Dems always being "outmessaged" is an overwrought canard in and of itself.  The Dems are outgunned because of undemocratic institutions/institutional rules and lagging turnout in midterms (which actually appears to be changing), not messaging.  The GOP has only won the popular vote once in the past eight presidential elections.  If the playing field was fair it'd undoubtedly be the GOP who was perceived to be "outmessaged" by the Dems.

10 minutes ago, argonak said:

Given that they're the part of racists, I'm thinking the Spear of Destiny is the right mythological artifact reference.

In that case there's no reason to worry because Keanu Reeves is on the case.

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3 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

I think Democrats need to quit talking about how improbable Trump's path to a coup is, and instead start talking about what material actions they're going to take to stop it if it starts looking more likely. 

People better start gaming out some tail-risk scenarios PDQ, because I, for one, am pretty fucking tired of being told how "improbable" it will be for Trump to win the primary, or get elected, or get re-elected, or whatever.

Democrats keep waiting for Trump to be forced to acknowledge reality, but I think that McConnell and Trump have proved that the U.S. has deliberately been built in such a way that if the only thing you care about is power, and you have enough of it, reality bends to your will, not the other way around. Somehow, we just always thought it was a really good idea to base all that power on nothing more than a gentlemen's agreement.

I hear you on this, but I also think it'd probably be worthwhile to just ignore Trump at this point. He has no path to coup, and the sooner this is just ignored by the media, the sooner it goes away. But the media love the non-stop stories, panels, keeping their "cool" map screens out just a bit longer.

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3 minutes ago, Kalbear Total Landscaping said:

I think you're missing one of the points here. Part of this is to throw a massive hail mary and hope that they get something out of it. It's entirely bullshit and performative, but with the US judicial system the way it is (and with things like the ACA garbage that made to SCOTUS) it's worth a shot and it's cheap. 

But the bigger one is that this is setting up the Republicans to not remotely accept Biden as a POTUS. It's setting up Trump to be able to run in 2024 on even more outrage and righteousness, fighting against the stolen election and the pretender Biden. This isn't about Trump winning now - this is about setting the environment so that Trump wins in the future, all the while having 4 years of nothing but fighting and resistance to every single action Biden takes on a popular level. Right now up to 70% of Republicans believe the election was unfair. And that number is going to only grow. 

This could work out well for Democrats.  Not everyone on the right is crazy.  This litmus test of being a Trumpanista or not could (should) divide the Republican base.  If the establishment Republicans fall away from Trump when he leaves office the Trumpanista die hards will become the new Perot supporters.  If the establishment really becomes Trumpanista many rational Republicans will leave and attempt to form something else, either way, that bloc is then divided giving the Democratic bloc a shot at control.

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18 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Hey, we knew exactly what we were getting voting for Biden, same as Obama and Clinton.  Shitty neoliberal policies shined up with bloviations, more imperialism, almost total disregard for the suffering of their electorates, but they were way fucking better than the other option.  Sucks.  

I'd be surprised NOT to find oil execs and health insurance trust fund kids and war mongers and total pieces of shit all through Biden's cabinet.  

It's disgusting.  But always hold the nose and vote Dem every 4 years.  

I know I'm a sucker.  If it makes you guys feel any better to punch left now, rad.  Maybe it'll do you some good.

I thought I remembered a bunch of people saying that as long as we voted for Biden we could say whatever we wanted critical about leadership after the election?

Whatever.  @Simon Steele @GrimTuesday

Don't even feed it.  The story is never going to change.

If you read that ice cream thread it's pretty funny that DG is essentially making the same argument there as the left is about 'defund the police' now.

None of this shit matters.  We're all a bunch of imperfect hypocrites.  

This is what we voted for, harm reduction etc.  Don't feel bad when they talk shit about you for it.

I know, I know. I allow them to suck me in every time.

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6 minutes ago, DMC said:

Yeah this all seems like you're misdirecting your general anger at the Democratic party to encourage them to make plainly irresponsible and strategically self-defeating appeals all in the effort to appear aggressive, "pro-active," or not feckless. 

The point about Dems always being "outmessaged" is an overwrought canard in and of itself.  The Dems are outgunned because of undemocratic institutions/institutional rules and lagging turnout in midterms (which actually appears to be changing), not messaging.  The GOP has only won the popular vote once in the past eight presidential elections.  If the playing field was fair it'd undoubtedly be the GOP who was perceived to be "outmessaged" by the Dems.

In that case there's no reason to worry because Keanu Reeves is on the case.

Except the Democrats don't ever seem remotely inclined to do anything to remove some of those institutional barriers when they have the chance, like in 2009, so I'm not exactly sure why I'm supposed to assume their strategy is somehow superior to mine.

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3 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Except the Democrats don't ever seem remotely inclined to do anything to remove some of those institutional barriers when they have the chance, like in 2009, so I'm not exactly sure why I'm supposed to assume their strategy is somehow superior to mine.

Well now you're just being persnickety.  And while I definitely do agree with you the Dems should have done more in 2009, that is pretty much Captain Hindsight.  Most everyone was focused on getting the economy out of the shitter and passing healthcare - two really important goals.  I don't recall any groundswell calling for institutional change - beyond the national popular vote compact that's been around since 2000.  Where I will agree is Reid waited wayyy too long to abolish the judicial filibuster, and many including myself did say so at the time.

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6 minutes ago, DMC said:

Well now you're just being persnickety.  And while I definitely do agree with you the Dems should have done more in 2009, that is pretty much Captain Hindsight.  Most everyone was focused on getting the economy out of the shitter and passing healthcare - two really important goals.  I don't recall any groundswell calling for institutional change - beyond the national popular vote compact that's been around since 2000.  Where I will agree is Reid waited wayyy too long to abolish the judicial filibuster, and many including myself did say so at the time.

My point is that Democrats don't seem inclined to change their strategy, even though they're in a far worse position now than in 2009 (and I was definitely calling for major structural reforms that year and beyond).

"Don't rock the boat" as a strategy in 2009 was questionable.

"Don't even think or talk about rocking the boat" in 2020 is dangerous.

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