US Politics: Elections, Defections, Insurrections, Oh My!

[Martell Spy]

Back burner no more: Dems set Manchin talks on party-line bill to simmer
After appearing stalled out for months, Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have taken significant steps behind the scenes to cobble together another bill on climate and tax reform.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/17/dems-manchin-schumer-00040321

Quote

 

Senate Democrats are preparing for possible summer action on their still-elusive climate, tax reform and prescription drugs bill, grinding behind the scenes on a new version during high-profile gun safety talks.

With much of Washington’s attention on guns, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) met twice this week on a potential party-line package. There’s more afoot: Schumer and his staff are working with the Senate parliamentarian to help tee up a possible July or August vote. And a prominent Democratic pollster has tested how popular major components of a hypothetical bill would be in Senate battleground states.

 

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, KalVsWade said:

He'll still probably win, but yeesh

It wouldn’t change my vote, that’s all private affairs.

[Wilbur]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Herschel Walker be fuckin'. Turns out he now has three secret children out of wedlock.

Family values!  Many families!  Such values!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

It wouldn’t change my vote, that’s all private affairs.

Private affairs matter, and in this instance HW has gotten a lot of positive buzz in conservative circles for being the black guy yelling at black men for being absentee dads. Oops...

As per usual with conservatives, the accusation is probably an admission of guilt.

29 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Family values!  Many families!  Such values!

His family values might play well in Utah, and there he could actually be around all the time.  

[Kalbear]

2 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

It wouldn’t change my vote, that’s all private affairs.

Interesting.

It would not change your vote when you find out that someone who has said repeatedly how absent fathers are bad and that they should be discouraged repeatedly lied about having multiple kids AND has multiple kids that he doesn't have relationships with? 

Like, if he has multiple kids from multiple moms and he's out of the picture, that's on him. It's not exactly great, but it's not necessarily the worst thing ever. But lying about it? And taking the position that what he himself is doing is bad, and then not doing anything about it personally? That is exactly the sort of thing that is not private affairs, and speaks precisely to how he will govern and lead. 

[TrueMetis]

You'd think "I lie about what I actually care about and value" would be a pretty important consideration when electing someone since your electing them *to do the thing they say they are going to do*. What you think if he lies about having a problem with deadbeat dads he's totally going to fulfill his campaign promises anyway?

We expect so little out of politicians it's amazing.

[DMC]

As demonstrated, I don't think most here would have a problem just because a candidate had illegitimate and estranged children, it's the glaring hypocrisy.  Thing is, highly doubtful the vast majority of votes Walker is seeking care about that.  He can probably wave bye-bye to any chance of cutting into the black vote though.  Which was the predominant reason he was recruited in the first place.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

33 minutes ago, DMC said:

As demonstrated, I don't think most here would have a problem just because a candidate had illegitimate and estranged children, it's the glaring hypocrisy.  Thing is, highly doubtful the vast majority of votes Walker is seeking care about that.  He can probably wave bye-bye to any chance of cutting into the black vote though.  Which was the predominant reason he was recruited in the first place.

Walker presents a ton of complicated questions that frankly I don't even know how to approach. He has a legitimately diagnosed mental illness that's deeply problematic and we're to take it at his word he's fine. He held a gun to his ex-wife's head and threated to kill her. He clearly is incapable of telling fiction from realty. It's quite possible CTE is playing a role too. He is simply not fit to hold office, and that's before you try to look at his policies, which there are none other than what's put in front of him. But I don't think your average Georgia voter will care that much, especially if they're a UGA fan. 

[DMC]

Don't really see how any of that is germane to my point.  Steelers fans didn't help Lynn Swann overperform when he was the GOP nominee for PA governor. The appeal of Walker for the GOP was he may have overperformed/built on Trump's headway with black males in 2020.  Obviously it'd be marginal, but in Georgia that margin can bank a victory for a GOP nominee.  And I think their assumption was correct that all the things you mentioned - which were known - could be overcome with that targeted demo.  This, though, severely undermines that rationale.

[Zorral]

BTW -- that Luttig had a stroke is misinformation, put about by many sources, but there is no evidence anywhere that this is the case.

Whereas it is public record that he coached Thomas in the Anita Hill hearings, is against abortion in just about all caes, etc. etc. etc. and is just generally a pile of steaming horse shyte.

These jerkwaddie witnesses are anything but heroes.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

59 minutes ago, Zorral said:

BTW -- that Luttig had a stroke is misinformation, put about by many sources, but there is no evidence anywhere that this is the case.

Whereas it is public record that he coached Thomas in the Anita Hill hearings, is against abortion in just about all caes, etc. etc. etc. and is just generally a pile of steaming horse shyte.

These jerkwaddie witnesses are anything but heroes.

Sorry, you expect to find a genuine good (wo)man among the senior officials of the previous administration?

If you think there's a good person among them, you haven't been paying attention.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

a good person among them, you haven't been paying attention.

Nowhere is it demonstrated that I believe there are good people among Them, or have ever thought so my entire life since I began paying attention about age 15. Or have not been paying attention my entire life?  Colored>Confused.  

[Centrist Simon Steele]

22 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Back burner no more: Dems set Manchin talks on party-line bill to simmer
After appearing stalled out for months, Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have taken significant steps behind the scenes to cobble together another bill on climate and tax reform.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/17/dems-manchin-schumer-00040321

 

If I'm inferring correctly, this would be through reconciliation, right? If not, I see this as no different than any time Manchin stands up and says he'll vote with Dems when he knows it won't pass the filibuster. 

Either way, I think he'll tank it. He wants the attention again, that's all this is in my opinion. 

[Martell Spy]

51 minutes ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

If I'm inferring correctly, this would be through reconciliation, right? If not, I see this as no different than any time Manchin stands up and says he'll vote with Dems when he knows it won't pass the filibuster. 

Either way, I think he'll tank it. He wants the attention again, that's all this is in my opinion. 

Yes. And either Manchin or Sinema could tank it.

 

Herschel Walker gets a Father’s Day weekend pass from social conservatives
The former Heisman winner got applause from the Faith & Freedom crowd, after a week of reports that he had more children than he’d publicly acknowledged.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/18/herschel-walker-fathers-day-weekend-pass-social-conservatives-00040710

Quote

 

NASHVILLE — Herschel Walker received resounding applause from evangelical Christian activists on Saturday, following revelations he had fathered three children he had not previously discussed publicly.

The half-full room of conference-goers at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual gathering in Nashville went wild for Walker — perhaps the most high-profile Republican Senate candidate this cycle running in one of the most contested races.

In an onstage interview with Walker, Faith & Freedom founder Ralph Reed addressed the recent barrage of news stories by saying “Democrats and the media” were “firing artillery” at the candidate. Walker, in turn, said he loves and has never “denied” any of his children, before accusing unnamed forces of trying to mislead his family members.

 

 

[JGP]

I got nothing to say about this that wouldn't be derisive or mocking. 

[Wilbur]

I don't understand this position adopted by the current iteration of the NRA / far-right loonies regarding red flag laws.

And this is why:

When I was a kid, the old boys who ran the shooting ranges and taught us firearm safety had my parents' permission to paddle me if I misbehaved in any way.  These old boys were all NRA members, and their primary mission was to smoke, tell lies about hunting trips, and teach us how to handle firearms.  To them, "misbehavior" was defined as handling any firearm in an unsafe manner.  Fart, swear, pick your nose - that was all frowned upon, but the only time I ever saw a kid get strapped was when he turned around with his .22 and had it pointed back toward the shooting line.  He got it from the range master, and then from his dad when his dad came by to pick him up.

And kids who goofed around on the range or failed to pay attention in the classes got kicked out to sit outside on a bench until their parents came to collect them.  Kids who got detention in school weren't allowed to come to sessions that week.  Kid who got sent to the principal for fighting weren't allowed to come to sessions that week.  Parents would withhold sessions for bad behavior at home.  I know, as these were all punishments I received, and no amount of pleading to go would move my folks or the old boys who ran the range.

The number one rule that was drilled into our tiny little minds, incessantly and with incredible consistency, was, "never point a firearm at something you don't want to kill."  The number two rule for us was, "don't gear up with your firearm unless you have a valid plan to go out and hunt."  (Poaching was a popular sport, which is the basis for the qualifier "valid", I think.)

Thus in general, the NRA guys as I knew them as a kid basically enforced a social version of red flag laws on kids.  And the one guy who I remember had been abusive to his wife - no one would hunt with him.

So to me, "red flag laws" are just formalizing and making legal the good sense that surrounds responsible firearm ownership.  If you aren't a responsible person, you don't deserve to handle and operate firearms.

Even today, the NRA's guidance on safety is clear:  3_rules_1 (nraonlinetraining.org)  Red flag laws seem to me to just be extensions of range safety, in that you don't permit unstable people to operate firearms, as they are unlikely to control themselves or their firearms.

So why the weird political rantings about red flag laws?  Where is this coming from?  I have a really hard time picturing in my mind the people who regularly use firearms as a tool (hunters, in my mental picture) spending a lot of time filming themselves harassing politicians at conventions.  Generally, they have better things to do.  So who does this Alex Stein guy represent, other than the mentally unbalanced?

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

6 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

So why the weird political rantings about red flag laws?  Where is this coming from?  I have a really hard time picturing in my mind the people who regularly use firearms as a tool (hunters, in my mental picture) spending a lot of time filming themselves harassing politicians at conventions.  Generally, they have better things to do.  So who does this Alex Stein guy represent, other than the mentally unbalanced?

 

Gun manufacturers? Unstable people do have money (apparently), too. Would you buy three extra AR 15 to make up for Bushmaster's losses? Your misconception seems to be that you (still) think of the NRA as a lobby group for gun owners, while they are infact a lobby group for gun manufacturers. I mean Lapierre is by all accounts a danger to everyone in his proximity, when he is handling a gun.

[Mindwalker]

 

[Zorral]

38 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

 

I was taken aback too, yesterday, when I saw what she said.  It made no frackin' sense, particularly in light of Anita Hill.

BTW -- the devil knows everybody by name too, according to the so-called xtians.

 

[ThinkerX]

stitched together video making the rounds on Facebook. Clips of Chuck Norris shooting a bolt action rifle atop a desert hill followed immediately afterward with clips of ordinary people shopping or walking along the street or whatever falling down. A large percentage of the commenters insist this is 'funny' - and get *really* ticked off when told otherwise.