US Politics Mega-thread - Page 9031

On October 20 2017 06:37 ticklishmusic wrote:


oh, so ellison is now a willing puppet of the evil establishment? wow we're really good at what we do i guess.

On October 20 2017 06:18 GreenHorizons wrote:


They made room for a cheater on the RULES committee but not longstanding members who happened to support Sanders/Ellison. Ain't nobody got time for that nonsense.

On October 20 2017 06:47 Plansix wrote:

Do you know if the bylaws allow them to kick her off without some sort of due process? What is the process? Because each state is different. So what if they kick her off for cheating and she files a lawsuit to stay on the ticket?

On October 20 2017 06:50 GreenHorizons wrote:


My understanding of the bylaws is limited, but she should have been cast out of leadership when CNN fired her. Let's not pretend she was temp chair after they knew she cheated because of some sort of process complications or that it would be a sensible explanation of this.

On October 20 2017 06:39 GreenHorizons wrote:


I said what I meant and it's true, which is why you didn't refute it.

On October 20 2017 06:54 Plansix wrote:

GH, lets assume she is trash and you are right on that subject. Do you know if the Florida DC could eject her from the process? Because my understanding of most primaries is that it is almost impossible to do so without overwhelming evidence of election fraud. So much so that it would hold up in court. Because that move ends with a lawsuit. If you want open primaries, she is one of the costs of that system. They can’t get rid of her if Florida democrats keep voting for her. I mean, fuck, Rhode Island could only keep the Mayor of Providence out of office by sending him to jail. And then he was still elected after he got out.

On October 20 2017 07:38 GreenHorizons wrote:


I'm saying the Democratic party and the infighting we're talking about can be summed up pretty well by the scenario you're describing anyway.

I mean we could nitpick around and try to play games like ticklish or we can confront the issue head-on and Democrats can stop losing. My point is/was Democrats continue to go down the losing route.

On October 20 2017 07:38 GreenHorizons wrote:


I'm saying the Democratic party and the infighting we're talking about can be summed up pretty well by the scenario you're describing anyway.

I mean we could nitpick around and try to play games like ticklish or we can confront the issue head-on and Democrats can stop losing. My point is/was Democrats continue to go down the losing route.

On October 20 2017 07:44 Plansix wrote:

GH, all we are trying to say is that this isn’t the hill to die on. You have this grand narrative about the DNC and how shit that are they you feel the need to keep driving, but most people have sort of come to Jesus on that subject. There are not a lot of Clinton voters in this thread that think the DNC needs to pull their head out of their ass. This stuff is just House committee drama and Florida being a dumpster fire of a state.

On October 20 2017 07:50 Mohdoo wrote:


Play games? He researched the topic more than you did and found your claims to be extremely misleading at best. He brought actual numbers and history to the discussion.

On October 20 2017 08:00 GreenHorizons wrote:


But they haven't though. Otherwise the DNC wouldn't still have their heads so firmly planted. I can concede the degree with which these last two headlines are examples could be exaggerated, but the worst interpretation of these most recent stories is still well below how bad the DNC actually is or how in denial so many still are.

On October 20 2017 08:07 Plansix wrote:

I've sort of said this before, but progress is a grind. This isn't a movie, there is no sweeping victory and everyone pats you on the back and says you're right. It is a slow, terrible grind against the banal and those who prefer things staying as they are. You don't have to win everyone over, just the majority. And that can't be done by primarying everyone out of office.

On October 20 2017 08:18 GreenHorizons wrote:


And they can keep choosing losing over admitting they are wrong. But I'm going to remind people frequently that they were perfectly capable of knowing better before it happens (like Hillary's campaign intentionally elevating Trump).

Fossil fuel energy is the lifeblood of the modern world. Before the Industrial Revolution, humanity depended on burning wood and candle wax. But with the ability to harness the energy in oil and other fossil fuels, quality of life and capacity for progress increased exponentially. Thanks to incredible innovations in the energy industry, fossil fuels are as promising, safe, and clean an energy resource as has ever existed in history. Yet, highly politicized climate policies are pushing a grand-scale shift to unreliable, impractical, incredibly expensive, and far less efficient energy sources. Today, "fossil fuel" has become such a dirty word that even fossil fuel companies feel compelled to apologize for their products. In Fueling Freedom, energy experts Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White make an unapologetic case for fossil fuels, turning around progressives' protestations to prove that if fossil fuel energy is supplanted by "green" alternatives for political reasons, humanity will take a giant step backwards and the planet will be less safe, less clean, and less free.

Chuck D: Why Donald Trump Is a White Supremacist
Trump is a bloated mess—and a weapon of mass distraction. Many people are so turned off and perturbed by the whole Trump-POTUS charade that they fail to understand that there are other things in motion behind the scenes.
On our track “Hail to the Chief,” we decided to focus on the seriousness of Vice President Mike Pence, who basically ran a regime in the state of Indiana that was a disturbing throwback rife with political and administrative bias. The wheels are now in motion for an eight-year regime that will prove very difficult for a lot of people to swallow. The music video to “Hail to the Chief” isn’t an attack on Pence, but rather lays bare who this guy is while posing the question: Why is everybody not paying attention to this guy in the background? It’s important not to trivialize this dude. There’s an underlying layer to this administration that is very sinister.
To me, David C-Doc Snyder is the greatest videographer of all-time. He’s been Public Enemy’s videographer for the last decade, and is able to brilliantly hone in on a subject. On the topic of Charlottesville, when you can’t condemn live and actual racists, you might as well be doing the Nazi salute, like Trump does in the video. He’s a 70-year-old white alpha male who looks down on other peoples, and bullies others to get what he wants. If that’s not supremacy, then what the fuck is? He’s the epitome of a white supremacist. He’s not about sharing the world; he’s about taking. He has no concern for the future of the world because he’s selfish, and is only going to be around for 10, 15 more years.
Trump also didn’t condemn those racists who marched on Charlottesville because he doesn’t want to lose his base. Everything has turned into entertainment to the point where we think politicians actually have “fan bases” now. They’re not rock stars—even though Trump’s calling Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man.” Everything cannot be popularized, and we’re in a society now that popularizes everything within a system of “popular” versus “unpopular.” Whatever happened to a person wanting to do the dirty work and not get any points for it? We don’t need the person who governs our country to have a freestyle, too. Obama wasn’t trying to be cool; he was just a cool black dude. All this trying to be cool has gone too far. It boggles the mind. So this toxic mindset reached the point where the country voted for a TV-star president. Donald Trump, some asshole television personality, as president of the United States? Get outta here.
The other day I was half-asleep in front of the TV and overheard a news report that said, “Trump and his generals.” As a sports fan, I immediately had a flashback to 1984 when he owned the New Jersey Generals of the USFL. Then I woke up and realized, oh, this guy’s in charge of real generals. It’s a crazy thing. So, Trump with a Nazi salute? Why not.
But we have to remember that Donald Trump’s rhetoric resonated enough to get him in the White House, and to actually get votes against the other candidate, Hillary Clinton, who wasn’t a pretty picture either. Because really, who wanted a monarchy? So, with all this mass distraction going on, there’s something that lies in the background that’s going to be a stench that will stink for the next 40 years, long after these people are gone. If you really give a damn about what world your children are going to inherit, you have to rail against these regimes now. It’s our duty.
The lynching images in the music video for “Hail to the Chief” are from America’s past, and used symbolically to represent what’s been happening in this country over the past decade. There was racial animosity towards the Obama administration that was completely uncalled for. If they had a chance to kill him, they would have. What I mean by “they” is, if the adversarial, far-right wing of society got away with what they wanted to get away with, President Obama would have been hanging from a tree. And that is the truth.
I recorded the track “Rebel Without a Pause” in 1987, and strangely enough, that song’s lyrics were in part inspired by Biz Markie who, in “Nobody Beats the Biz,” had one of the great political hip-hop lines that’s been largely overlooked: “Reagan is the Pres but I voted for Shirley Chisholm.” That line is so powerful that it inspired me to write this entire song about Ronald Reagan. At that time, R&B stood for Reagan and Bush. There were a lot of policies that affected people of color that we’re still fighting to free ourselves of now. President Obama helped unthread some, but we’ve been thrust into a situation where these discriminatory policies are being revived by the Trump administration. There’s a reason why Trump stole Reagan’s slogan. “Make America Great Again” means that the white male will always reign supreme, and there’s no room for anybody else.
Being black and taking on the term “radical” is all about survival. You must be radical to survive. Trump, after all, is the frontman for the rock group that is the United States of America. Trump has no moral scruples, no ethics, no knowledge of laws. Trump doesn’t know anything other than what he wants to know. But all the king’s men are different. Mike Pence is different. Jeff Sessions is different. How long will Trump be in office? Health-wise, I don’t think he’ll be there longer than two years, which is what inspired me to write “Hail to the Chief.” He’ll slide further and further into irrationality. If he doesn’t get impeached, he’ll come up with his own trumped-up reasons for why he can’t do the job. And then we’ll have to deal with the tyranny of Mike Pence.
Welcome to the United States of America.

On October 20 2017 08:22 zlefin wrote:

people won't admit they were wrong if you don't provide proof they were. and you don't. (in addition to you rarely admitting you're wrong, or admitting to the considerable flaws with bernie, or own up to your own part in causing losses, yet you expect others to act better than you)

On October 20 2017 08:40 GreenHorizons wrote:


lol, yup intentionally elevating Trump was a brilliant decision.

I've always said Bernie was far from perfect, but most of the critiques (from the center-left) are dumb or inconsequential.
No idea wtf you're talking about with my part in causing losses (not that I don't take responsibility where appropriate, just no idea wtf you're talking about) as far as acting better, I actually expect them to not want to lose, I don't expect them to be better people (the political-professional crowd).

On October 20 2017 05:19 IgnE wrote:


how do people who actually believe these theories talk about them?

Person A: I think <insert weird conspiracy theory>.

Other person(s) in the room: That's insane/ that's a conspiracy theory.

Person A: I know it sounds crazy man! I thought it was crazy too, but then I saw this: <insert link to YouTube video/weird Tumblr or blogspot/website with a url like "wakeupworld.com">

Someone else in the room: but I thought that conspiracy was supposed to be wrong for reasons x/y/z.

Person A: No no no, that's just a smoke screen put up by the <insert popular boogeyman (government, corporations, aliens, etc.). Take a look at this other link. How do you explain that?

Hillary Clinton, who wasn’t a pretty picture either. Because really, who wanted a monarchy?

Key Democrats met secretly to confer about the party’s future as America approached the one-year anniversary of their stunning and hilarious humiliation by Donald Trump. The key question they sought to answer: “How can we Democrats appeal to those Jesus-loving, racist idiots who hate science and don’t live on the coast like everyone we know?”

After opening the seminar by refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Chuck Schumer gaveled the meeting to order, sparking widespread protests. “Hammers are violent tools of oppression that cause oppressed people to literally shake. We need a national conversation about assault gavels that use automatic high-capacity clips,” sputtered the 112 year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein. “Sure, we should be able to have them, but not those, those … little people out there. They don’t need gavels.”

The assembly quickly agreed that in 2018 Democrats must prioritize sensible hammer control, including gavel background checks and ending the tool show loophole, and to enlist Lawrence O’Donnell in their campaign to stop the hammering.

This vital issue settled, Schumer continued: “Remember, we’re here to freely exchange ideas in an atmosphere of openness and unlimited inquiry. With that in mind, your program has a list of the things you can’t say, like ‘illegal alien’ and ‘Christmas.’ It also has a handy cheat sheet of everyone’s preferred pronouns. Mine are ‘he’ and ‘him,’ while Senator Menendez’s are ‘convict’ and ‘Number 675973.’ Also, be sure to observe the rule about not mansplaining, which should not be a problem with this group.”

He then turned it over to 105 year-old Nancy Pelosi, who asked, “Where am I?”

After Schumer whispered in her ear, she began: “With the economy booming, the stock market setting records, and America defeating ISIS, things have never been worse. That’s why we need to keep The Resistance going, because it’s been a huge success so far in my district in San Francisco and, I’m sure, in your districts in Manhattan, Chicago, and Havana. And we need to expand our party, which means we need to convince dirty, stupid, transphobic normal Americans to come to grips with their own failings and join us.”

“We could tell them they’re stupid even more often,” suggested Al Franken.

“And racist,” suggested Maxine Waters.

“Also, Islamophobic,” said Keith Ellison.

“In my state, I can go potty with girls!” said California’s Gavin Newsom.

“Clearly, there’s something wrong with these people, so we need to consult with someone with a genuine connection with normal Americans,” Pelosi said. “Sadly, Hillary Clinton isn’t here to help us. If anyone connects with Middle America, it’s her. Unfortunately, she’s fallen and she can’t get up.” Pelosi made the “drinky drinky” gesture, and the crowd nodded.

On October 20 2017 08:18 GreenHorizons wrote:


And they can keep choosing losing over admitting they are wrong. But I'm going to remind people frequently that they were perfectly capable of knowing better before it happens (like Hillary's campaign intentionally elevating Trump).