U.S politics: You got knocked the Warnocked out:

[Zorral]

4 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

AOC is under investigation of the House ethics committee.

Been seeing this for the last couple of days.  Rumor is that someone on her staff has committed corruption. ?????

In the meantime this is hitting the news: Deal with the devil': Evangelical pastor testifies about bargain Christian conservatives made with GOP

On Raw Story and All Things Considered just now, which is why I heard him testifying to the Committee.
 

Quote

The Rev. Robert SchenckSchenck, who was once a prominent anti-abortion activist, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he and his fellow conservative Christians made a Faustian bargain with the Republican Party as part of their quest to overturn Roe v. Wade.

 

[Zorral]

2 minutes ago, horangi said:

accepting tickets that would otherwise cost a member of the public money.

That's just dreadful, that's worse than accepting pay for play deals with the Saudis for billions of dollars!  What are They coming to!

[DMC]

9 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

In other news, AOC is under investigation of the House ethics committee. They won't announce why until next year... you know, when it's led by Republicans... curious as to the reason for the investigation though.

Wouldn't be surprised if it was still remnants from Republican members whining about her Met Gala appearance last year.

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

We literally just did this with Russia earlier this year. Trevor Reed was a civilian when he was arrested and sentenced to a gulag and the US got him back for a Russian cocaine smuggler.

And that sucked too! Another indication that this is the new thing. 

 

8 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Lower quality candidates losing more than their fellow party members.

You can ask me what I believe—we’re having a conversation here. 

Explain Kari Lake mot becoming Governor while another republican wins the SOS of Arizona?

I also pointed to the majority of Georgians overwhelming  voting for Kemp.

I've asked repeatedly what you believe and you've done things like this where you don't explain things, but the important point (as @DMC indicated too) is that it is not the case that candidate quality doesn't matter - it clearly does. But it certainly isn't indicated that candidate quality is the most important thing. Democrats and Republicans are mostly party-line voters first and foremost, and explaining Kari Lake losing is as simple as pointing out that 90% of the population of Arizona is a party line voter, with only 10% able to be somewhat swayed by things. That 10% is important there, but it is not a majority at all - and if dems run shitty candidates they can expect a fairly standard amount of votes for that candidate too in that place.

Put it another way: the candidate quality in, say, Alabama for a Republican matters significantly less than it does in Georgia or Arizona. The candidate quality for a Democrat in Washington matters significantly less than it does in Arizona or Georgia. 

[Mindwalker]

9 minutes ago, DMC said:

Wouldn't be surprised if it was still remnants from Republican members whining about her Met Gala appearance last year.

That's one of the theories, as the ticket would've been 35,000 bucks.

[Zorral]

What the Conviction of Stewart Rhodes Means for Right-Wing Militancy
Will imprisoning the Oath Keepers’ leader for seditious conspiracy derail the movement he helped build? 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-conviction-of-stewart-rhodes-means-for-right-wing-militancy

Quote

 

.... Last month, Rhodes addressed a jury as a defendant, not as a lawyer, when he testified in his own defense. At his sentencing, expected in April, he’ll face a maximum of sixty years in prison for seditious conspiracy and the two other charges on which he was convicted: obstructing an official proceeding and destroying evidence. The jury found that Rhodes had conspired to stop the transfer of Presidential power; after declaring the 2020 election illegitimate, he had called on then President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and hold a new election. On January 6th, he and other Oath Keepers stockpiled weapons in a northern Virginia hotel, and Rhodes stood outside the Capitol as some members of the group stormed the building with other rioters. In encrypted messages later cited by prosecutors, Rhodes compared the crowd with patriots from the seventeen-hundreds, declaring, “Next comes our ‘Lexington.’ ” When we met in Eureka, Adams recalled how, even when Rhodes seemed headed toward a promising legal career, he could become preoccupied with fears of tyranny and civil war, and a sense that the government was after him. “He literally created his own reality,” she told me.

Rhodes is the first person convicted of seditious conspiracy since the nineteen-nineties. ...

 

 

[Varysblackfyre321]

 

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

What the Conviction of Stewart Rhodes Means for Right-Wing Militancy
Will imprisoning the Oath Keepers’ leader for seditious conspiracy derail the movement he helped build? 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-conviction-of-stewart-rhodes-means-for-right-wing-militancy

 

Much like assassinating Al Qaeda leaders from time to time, I don't think it will change much, if anything it will motivate those already committed to the cause. Whether it helps with recruitment is a bit of a question, could go either way. But there are lots of people feeling aggrieved at their socio-economic conditions and feeling powerless to change anything through the status quo.

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

In the meantime this is hitting the news: Deal with the devil': Evangelical pastor testifies about bargain Christian conservatives made with GOP

On Raw Story and All Things Considered just now, which is why I heard him testifying to the Committee.
 

I remember reading an article back in the late 90's talking about how Christian conservative groups developed a strategy to gain political power through the Republican party.

[Varysblackfyre321]

4 hours ago, DMC said:

Sure you can argue the semantics.  Another example that doesn't get much attention because they both won is Ohio.  DeWine got 62.8% compared to Vance's 53.3.  But what Kal was saying is pretty much the same thing I have for over a decade now - nationwide and in competitive elections, both parties can count on about 45% of the vote as a floor.  It's that other 10% that's up for grabs.

You know what fair enough. The bulk of Walker’s support  was due to him having an R next to his name. If he ran independent he’d probably struggle to get over a thousand votes due to scandals.

[Zorral]

44 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Much like assassinating Al Qaeda leaders from time to time, I don't think it will change much, if anything it will motivate those already committed to the cause. Whether it helps with recruitment is a bit of a question, could go either way. But there are lots of people feeling aggrieved at their socio-economic conditions and feeling powerless to change anything through the status quo.

Or the run-up to Declaration of Independence in Boston particularly, and its great outreach to the many unhappy merchants and so on in the other Sons of Liberty cells and groups: whenever things seemed to be leveling off, the hostilities going away, the Samuel Adamses were working still assiduously behind the scenes, careful to keep a veil of secrecy between them and the public.  But they were making plans, and every time the stupid Brits gave them an opening, there they were, stirring up more trouble.  They had their armed mobs who rose and melted back into the shadows when called.

These people, like Rhodes himself, have studied this very carefully.  One cannot have a successful insurrection without mob violence, and the incels, the anti-vaxxers, the so-called xtians, all with their Ginnie Thomasas, etc. are very very very busy.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

You know what fair enough. The bulk of Walker’s support  was due to him having an R next to his name. If he ran independent he’d probably struggle to get over a thousand votes due to scandals.

That's for sure, I have in-laws who really didn't want Trump to be president in 2016 or 2020. But the ticked the box for him, because he had the R by his name. When you're in the tribe you do what the tribe tells you to do. This is a situation where the both sides argument applies, only the other side hasn't yet put people up as odious as Trump.

[Darzin]

Regarding Brittney Griner I'm a little torn on the one hand she probably wouldn't have been arrested without the tensions because she's famous on the other if she wasn't famous she very well could have been arrested for doing the same thing. It's not like the US doesn't have 1000s  of prisoners languishing in jail over minor drug charges. She wasn't kidnapped she legitimately broke the law and could have faced similar charges in the US. I don't mind the exchange Viktor Bout was a 90s villain and he seems almost quaint today, but the hand wringing from the American media that Russia would dare arrest someone for drug charges is a bit much. 

[BigFatCoward]

12 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

In a just world Griner wouldn't have to go play in Russia to supplement her income and then be detained as a political PoW. Obviously their transgressions are not the same, but this was the deal or she faced god knows what horrors in that prison camp. 

She makes $220,000 a year in base salary, and has a Nike deal.  Its not what the men make but she could get by without having to go to Russia.  

Edited December 9, 2022 by BigFatCoward

[DMC]

3 hours ago, Darzin said:

It's not like the US doesn't have 1000s  of prisoners languishing in jail over minor drug charges. She wasn't kidnapped she legitimately broke the law and could have faced similar charges in the US.

Not for under a gram of weed/hash, no.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Bloody hell. Biden could cure Alzheimers, and the republicans would  complain that he hadn’t cured cancer

[mormont]

Well, the thing about the Republicans is, if Biden had refused the Griner deal they'd have complained that he'd abandoned a US citizen and was terrible at making deals, whereas now he's agreed it they're complaining that he didn't get a better deal. So they can be ignored here. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

Not for under a gram of weed/hash, no.

If you count failing a drug test while on parole, @Darzin's statement is definitely true.  

and even in states where weed is legal black people are more than 3 times as likely to face weed possession charges than white people.  

I'm glad she's not in a Russian prison but it's certainly an opportunity to look at our still-often-draconian drug laws.  

Edited December 9, 2022 by Larry of the Lake

[Larry of the Lawn]

Lollll

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

8 minutes ago, Larry of the Lake said:

Lollll

I was about to post that.  What does her move do to Democratic control of Committees. @Fez @DMC @Tywin et al.

[Larry of the Lawn]

12 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I was about to post that.  What does her move do to Democratic control of Committees. @Fez @DMC @Tywin et al.

She said she doesn't expect committee positions to change so I assume she's still planning on caucusing with dems