In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up!
NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action.
This is the work of a god among morals. I can only dream of sending a letter this baller. If he is fired, he will exit exalted among his peers, a living legend.
Seriously read the whole letter.
vouching this as certifiable justiceporn
I don't think words can describe how fucking awesome that is.
He built it up so well and saved it all for the drop on page 2. I think after this, he might have to retire.
On August 04 2016 13:36 JumboJohnson wrote: Living in Utah, I hope that Romney has the balls to endorse Gary Johnson. He could win Utah.
He owes the GOP the dignity of letting them abandon Trump first. I don't think Romney will bother taking such a firm opposition to Ryan and other senior GOP leadership.
(CNN)CNN announced Wednesday it will host one of its town hall events with the Green Party's presumptive presidential nominee Jill Stein and her presumptive running mate, Ajamu Baraka.
The hour-long event will be held on Wednesday, August 17 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The event will broadcast live on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Espanol and online via CNNgo. Stein has consistently polled as the fourth-most popular option in the presidential race, after Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson. In the most recent CNN/ORC poll, Stein received 5% support nationwide, four points behind Johnson, her nearest competitor. Jill Stein: The Democratic Party 'fakes left,' marches right
This is the work of a god among morals. I can only dream of sending a letter this baller. If he is fired, he will exit exalted among his peers, a living legend.
Seriously read the whole letter.
vouching this as certifiable justiceporn
I don't think words can describe how fucking awesome that is.
He built it up so well and saved it all for the drop on page 2. I think after this, he might have to retire.
Damn. There are so many levels of baller I can't even begin to describe them.
On August 04 2016 10:38 Introvert wrote: I'd have to go looking again, but the effect is most certainly overblown. People act like the GOP would barely have a majority without it, which is completely false.
And if you want to talk about districts are are so heavily leaning in one direction that you get radicals... well you can find LOTS of heavy democrat districts with that phenomenon, but no one whines about those.
Edit: This is all pure partisanship combined with an inability to take of the blinders, it's really funny. Or at least it was funny the first 155464847 times I heard it.
Well, I for one think the gerrymandering is bad no matter who does it. I don't think it's only an issue of whether Republicans or Democrats have a net gain of x number of seats. The bigger issue is creating safe seats, for either party. Safe seats make politicians lazy, I think. One of the few significant tools voters have is to throw the bums out if they are not happy with the politicians job. By making safe Democrat and safe Republican ridings, this becomes increasingly harder to do. Now some ridings will just swing one way for ever and that's okay. The problem is if there is a systematic effort to create those ridings.
Voters want close election results so they can have an impact. Politicians want landslide victories so their victory is a forgone conclusion. We shouldn't want to politicians a systematized method of landslides except by actually getting our vote and being really popular. They shouldn't feel safe unless they really have earned it.
On August 03 2016 20:58 Biff The Understudy wrote:
On August 03 2016 19:06 Sent. wrote: It's not about Trump saying dumb things, it's about calling him literally mentally ill or adding:
Note to our readers: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
under every article about him, even when it's irrelevant to the article. I guess it's pointless complaining because it's impossible to control the media but it's still sad to see.
Hillary is and has been under WAY bigger scutiny than Trump.
Fact is, nobody talks about the numerous time Trump fucked investors who trusted him in the ***, when he abused credulous young students with his fake "university" etc etc etc. or simply the fact he lies to the nation every time he opens his mouth.
Meanwhile Hillary's campaign has been a mountain of minor scandals blown out of proportion and simple defamation both from the right media and the gop (there is not a single piece of evidence she's ever been corrupt for example).
That's just an 1 example from this week. Not that Trump has any room to make the critique, but she's corrupt by definition.
I feel like this election will be in full newspeak before the end.
No.
Corruption in politics means that you are being bought. That's it.
Using your power to further a legislation that benefits someone because that person paid you is corruption. Lying to cover your ass is not. That's how the word is used and that's what people understand when you say it in the context of politics.
When you say that Argentina is a corrupt country it's because you can buy a cop, or a judge, or a politician, and that those people instead of serving everyone, serve people who pay them secretly. That's what, for example, international rankings in corruption by the UN or other organizations mean.
Now if you want to keep going full right wing propaganda saying Hillary is corrupt because she has been lying about her email server, you can. You do it at the expense of your intellectual rigor and integrity.
On August 04 2016 10:18 Introvert wrote: Can't wait for the gerrymandering myth to die. By most analysis that I recall seeing, it's cost the Democrats like 8 seats max. There are many factors that go into the current House make up, but gerrymandering is a very small part of it.
And as for the GOP, if they die it will be due to demographics. People coming into this country from other places where large, proactive governments are the norm. Which party in the US represents what they are used to more (and which panders more)? The Democrats. Reagan did amnesty in the 1980s and it didn't help the party at all. "Comprehensive immigration reform" will result in more Democrat voters, which is why they want it. It won't help the GOP.
Third, "gridlock" won't have much of an effect this election. First of all, people complain but don't do anything about it. Remember how the government shutdown was going to cost the party dearly? That was incorrect. Combine this with Clinton's unpopularity- people hate her so much they aren't really going to care if the GOP stands in her way on a whole bunch of stuff.
But as usual I enjoy seeing the complaining and doom casters from the left talk about the Republican party.
African americans aren't coming from other countries with bigger government, and yet they vote like one man for the democrats.
You are right about one thing : the GOP represent a shrinking demographic, white men. The whole ideological root of conservatism is based on nostalgia from crumbling hierarchies and power structure : men above women, white man above black man, rich above poor, etc...
The demographic of the USA is indeed changing. It's becoming a more diverse country by the day, and not only because of immigration : women are empowered through decades of feminist activism, minorities are better represented, and so on and so on.
Angry white men can't win anymore an election on their own. So the GOP, and in fact the whole conservative movement will have to recycle its entire ideological foundation if it wants to survive the next decades.
This is really worth seeing, and John Oliver nails something really important : the sublime disdain of facts by Republican leaders :
I think the situation with the GOP is best summarized by this old quote from Isaac Asimov :
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
That sums up many many things in the political discussion today.
On August 04 2016 20:29 Biff The Understudy wrote: This is really worth seeing, and John Oliver nails something really important : the sublime disdain of facts by Republican leaders :
I think the situation with the GOP is best summarized by this old quote from Isaac Asimov :
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
That sums up many many things in the political discussion today.
I saw this a couple of days back and it made my brain hurt. Especially while trying to understand supporters who go "yep, he's right". Almost got an aneurysm.
On August 04 2016 20:29 Biff The Understudy wrote: This is really worth seeing, and John Oliver nails something really important : the sublime disdain of facts by Republican leaders :
I think the situation with the GOP is best summarized by this old quote from Isaac Asimov :
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
That sums up many many things in the political discussion today.
I saw this a couple of days back and it made my brain hurt. Especially while trying to understand supporters who go "yep, he's right". Almost got an aneurysm.
GOP manual :
1- Spread fear mongering propaganda completely dismissive of facts (eg: violent crime is up, the economy is doing horribly, ISIS is everywhere, etc...) Very easy with the help of Faux News.
2- Answer that it's what people feel when you are confronted with facts (you bet, you are the one who made them feel like that in the first place you asshole). Damn experts with your stupid numbers, you know nothing about "the people" (tm).
3- Exploit a political discussion that has been put on a ground that has nothing to do with reality whatsoever. Blaming brown people is a good trick, use and abuse it!
4- Win the election and proceed to fuck in the *** the people who voted for you, making huge tax cuts for millionaires and super high incomes and destroying social programs (social security is slavery, worse than Hitler!!). Let's be clear that was your only objective in the first place. Why do you think the Koch brothers give you so many $$$$??
(NB: That all work on the assumption that there is a huge resentment to exploit, which is the case with uneducated, disfranchised white men. Then again, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, that doesn't really work anymore because of changing demographics. Too bad, it was entertaining.)
Now a new chapter has been added :
5- Trump arrives, and you are fucked because his purpose is not to pull a con job that benefit the Koch brothers, but to fulfill his megalomaniac god complex. Also, there is another problem, you don't believe any of what you said, but he does, because apparently in his world, when he says something, it becomes magically true, even when he contradicts himself. That's not a con job anymore, but some kind of a psychotic mass delusion.
Yeah well, racism is becoming more and more commonplace. I saw a mod here on tl make this racist comment in a discussion about gun control a couple of weeks ago:
i prefer the remove kebab route. aint gonna give up my guns when they're around
Almost noone in the thread, which was about a presumed terrorist attack, even reacted...