Political Digression Thread -- Save UP! Move the politically focused stuff here

[videtur quam contuor]

Donald Trump has the most damaged psyche anyone could imagine. His insecurity and cruelty has been on display for a lifetime. He has no friends in the sense of the word anyone here would understand. He has no principles, none. What is most damaging is that there are those who enable him, who are drawn to him and support him. They are the cause of this darkness.

Check, please.

Edited July 15, 2020 by tarhoosier

[Bikeguy]

Last night's fundraiser in Statesville for Dan Forrest...  find a face mask and social distancing, if ya can...

[kermit]

^ That is a photo of people who are actively and consciously making it more dangerous for us to return to work, school, church, the bar or normal. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but they are flipping the bird to all of us.

While I know we _should_ have tolerance for the views of those who disagree with us, its really hard to do that when people are actively and knowingly doing things that endanger our lives, our families and our livelihoods. They don't care if we live or die, F these people.

I honestly don't think Dan's mom (Sue Myrick) would approve of this.

Edited July 16, 2020 by kermit

[elrodvt]

1 hour ago, Bikeguy said:

Last night's fundraiser in Statesville for Dan Forrest...  find a face mask and social distancing, if ya can...

Without looking I'll assume he's a republican? How did the party become a collection of idiots? There used to be a lot of intellectuals but they're all gone or totally marginalized. It all started with the tea party nonsense.

[davidclt]

16 hours ago, elrodvt said:

Without looking I'll assume he's a republican? How did the party become a collection of idiots? There used to be a lot of intellectuals but they're all gone or totally marginalized. It all started with the tea party nonsense.

Don't fool yourself. The ground was salted/poisoned (pick your adjective) starting with the Reagan Revolution followed by Lee Atwater and Newt Gingrich. The election of Barak Obama just "legitimized" saying the quiet part out loud; more loudly than the Hands ad did to defeat Harvey Gantt in 1990. I don't for a moment regret the election of Barak Obama in 2008 but the timing could not have been worse for electoral politics.

The Republicans spent years saying "government doesn't work" and then they got elected and set out to prove it. They have defunded public schools to send money to charter schools and now to private (including religious) schools. I think a few charter schools may be doing things better and differently but they're also permitted to be selective about who they allow to be admitted at the expense of public education. I still generally think CMS is doing a good job in spite of the ongoing abuse from the state legislature and DPI in spite of being thrown in the water and having cinder blocks thrown in after them. That said, civics education is generally poor at best and not getting any better by design and low information voters remain a danger to our republic.

[navigator319]

On 7/15/2020 at 3:29 PM, Bikeguy said:

Last night's fundraiser in Statesville for Dan Forrest...  find a face mask and social distancing, if ya can...

Or a minority for that matter. 

[davidclt]

1 hour ago, navigator319 said:

Or a minority for that matter. 

And a bunch of what "the experts" might call "visible co-morbidities." But who needs experts when we have brilliant pundits to provide medical advice?

[tozmervo]

On 7/15/2020 at 5:19 PM, elrodvt said:

Without looking I'll assume he's a republican? How did the party become a collection of idiots? There used to be a lot of intellectuals but they're all gone or totally marginalized. It all started with the tea party nonsense.

Assuming today's polling bears itself out in four months, I think the GOP will permanently tear apart. I've had many conversations with life-long republicans that don't recognize their party anymore and are increasingly moving away from it. As much as the Republicans have spent several election cycles trying to market themselves as a party of the center, it seems the Democrats have taken over that position without even trying. (And, incidentally, making them not far-left enough for many in the part.)

[Tyrone Wiggum]

On 7/17/2020 at 6:07 PM, tozmervo said:

 (And, incidentally, making them not far-left enough for many in the part.)

Bernie Sanders is to the right of Angela Merkel.  Ten years ago, Obama was to the right of the Tories (before they lost their minds).

I'm told by a lot of people who've never been anywhere or seen anything that Obama and the Democrats are the libbiest libs to ever lib and that we're on the doorstep of a Maoist revolution, not realizing America is a country of center-right and far right political parties.  These are, incidentally, the same people who think the 4th amendment has something to do with not wearing a mask, that the world is approximately 6,000 years old, that global warming is a conspiracy involving George Soros, and  increasingly, that Bill Gates wants to vaccinate you with the Mark of the Beast. 

On 7/17/2020 at 4:29 PM, davidclt said:

And a bunch of what "the experts" might call "visible co-morbidities." But who needs experts when we have brilliant pundits to provide medical advice?

It never ceases to amaze me that most of the Kens and Karens of teh Intrawebs are, at minimum, pre-diabetic, just asking for heart failure, and severely emotionally dysregulated (it's like the Cluster A Olympics).  On second thought, given the behavioral health disturbances and double-think in play, that shouldn't surprise me at all.

[kermit]

 

[rancenc]

Who ever wins the Lieutenant Governor's face this fall, will become the first African-American elected to this office in North Carolina.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_North_Carolina_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election

[kermit]

Maybe Joe will help us remove the Belk and turn the land into something more useful and productive for the community.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by kermit

[kermit]

Another view on all the right wing pearl clutching about the USPS loosing money. Given that the recent decline is entirely a product of very unusual retirement plan funding requirements imposed by the GOP I would say they are doing pretty good.

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by kermit

[urbanlover568]

23 hours ago, kermit said:

Another view on all the right wing pearl clutching about the USPS loosing money. Given that the recent decline is entirely a product of very unusual retirement plan funding requirements imposed by the GOP I would say they are doing pretty good.

 

Can we stop these hysteria conspiracy theories? First it was trump claiming a rigged election in 2016, then it was the democrats claiming Russia hijacked the election. Now it's Democrats claiming a rigged election.  Both sides are acting like elementary schoolers at this point and it's embarrassing. 

[kermit]

1 hour ago, urbanlover568 said:

Can we stop these hysteria conspiracy theories? First it was trump claiming a rigged election in 2016, then it was the democrats claiming Russia hijacked the election. Now it's Democrats claiming a rigged election.  Both sides are acting like elementary schoolers at this point and it's embarrassing. 

Here is a recording  of donald on national tv saying he is withholding funds from the post office in order to suppress votes. In light of this recording, please explain how am I being hysterical or promoting conspiracy theories.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by kermit

[urbanlover568]

41 minutes ago, kermit said:

Here is a recording  of donald on national tv saying he is withholding funds from the post office in order to suppress votes. In light of this recording, please explain how am I being hysterical or promoting conspiracy theories.

 

 

Nobody's stopping you from going to the polling place. "there's no reason' in-person voting shouldn't be safe with masks and proper social distancing" - Dr. Fauci.  Both parties are a embarrassment at this point and it's disgusting. 

[kermit]

33 minutes ago, urbanlover568 said:

Nobody's stopping you from going to the polling place. "there's no reason' in-person voting shouldn't be safe with masks and proper social distancing" - Dr. Fauci.  Both parties are a embarrassment at this point and it's disgusting. 

Voting by mail is legal. Donald admitted, on national tv, that he is exploiting his political position to suppress people who may choose to exercise their legal right to vote that way (during a pandemic!). That aint kosher. 

Again, how am I being paranoid or hysterical? 

Edited August 18, 2020 by kermit

[elrodvt]

I'm not sure your point urbanlover568?

It is quite dangerous for people who have compromised immune systems to "just go to the polling place".

Does it make sense to you that we totally revamp the post office during an epidemic when people are relying on the mail more than ever?

I think the president told the truth for once and has been running backwards ever since. It's unforgivable.

Additionally,  yes both parties stink, but only 1 party has made it their mission to suppress the vote however possible. ID requirement etc which they keep losing in court over. We have pitiful turnout as it is and with them creating more and more confusion it's bound to get those who're too lazy or ignorant to cast a vote an excuse not to.   Evidently the calculation is that is more likely to keep away the minority vote and thus favor the GOP. Ironically, in FL, which they desperately need to carry, appears to be having the opposite effect. Poetic justice.

Finally, the whole mail in vote narritive is bullcrap, In CO we loved the convenience and efficiency of every registered voter being mailed a ballot. Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in the areas with mail in all attest to no increase in fraudulent votes. 

[eastsider]

21 minutes ago, urbanlover568 said:

Nobody's stopping you from going to the polling place. "there's no reason' in-person voting shouldn't be safe with masks and proper social distancing" - Dr. Fauci.  Both parties are a embarrassment at this point and it's disgusting. 

Is that right?

Quote

The GOP is recruiting 50,000 monitors, typically party activists and specially appointed volunteers, across 15 battleground states. Meanwhile, the party has filed, or intervened in, lawsuits challenging election rules across the country, including cases in battleground states like Nevada, Wisconsin, and Florida over laws related to absentee ballots and voting by mail.

Republicans say they are focused on preventing the fraud they have long maintained, without evidence, is rampant in U.S. elections. Democrats and voting rights groups fear the planned influx of poll watchers under the imprimatur of the RNC is a veiled effort to suppress Democratic turnout, particularly in minority communities.

 

[urbanlover568]

6 hours ago, kermit said:

Voting by mail is legal. Donald admitted, on national tv, that he is exploiting his political position to suppress people who may choose to exercise their legal right to vote that way (during a pandemic!). That aint kosher. 

Again, how am I being paranoid or hysterical? 

Whose suppressing you from going to your polling place? 

 

6 hours ago, eastsider said:

Is that right?

 

Did you not forget about this? https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/746800630/north-carolina-gop-operative-faces-new-felony-charges-that-allege-ballot-fraud

6 hours ago, elrodvt said:

I'm not sure your point urbanlover568?

It is quite dangerous for people who have compromised immune systems to "just go to the polling place".

Does it make sense to you that we totally revamp the post office during an epidemic when people are relying on the mail more than ever?

I think the president told the truth for once and has been running backwards ever since. It's unforgivable.

Additionally,  yes both parties stink, but only 1 party has made it their mission to suppress the vote however possible. ID requirement etc which they keep losing in court over. We have pitiful turnout as it is and with them creating more and more confusion it's bound to get those who're too lazy or ignorant to cast a vote an excuse not to.   Evidently the calculation is that is more likely to keep away the minority vote and thus favor the GOP. Ironically, in FL, which they desperately need to carry, appears to be having the opposite effect. Poetic justice.

Finally, the whole mail in vote narritive is bullcrap, In CO we loved the convenience and efficiency of every registered voter being mailed a ballot. Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in the areas with mail in all attest to no increase in fraudulent votes. 

Moving the goalposts from universal mail voting to those who are ill I see... I believe we already have a mail system in place for those individuals called the absentee ballot. 

 

 "there's no reason' in-person voting shouldn't be safe with masks and proper social distancing"  - Dr. Fauci

[kermit]

2 hours ago, urbanlover568 said:

Whose suppressing you from going to your polling place? 

Quit moving the goalposts and answer my question: how is my concern about the post office hysteria?

States make election law, not the president. All 50 states have legalized some form of mail-in voting, but donald explicitly SAYS  that he is trying to suppress vote by mail. That ain't legal. 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by kermit

[urbanlover568]

2 minutes ago, kermit said:

You still haven”t answered my question.

States make election law, not the president. All 50 states have legalized some form of mail-in voting, but donald explicitly SAYS  that he is trying to suppress vote by mail. That ain't legal. 

 

 

 

I can get a absentee ballot.  I can also go to my polling place on election day if i choose to do that and not go the absentee route. Are you prohibited from going to your polling place? You first wanted universal mail voting, then you changed it to those with " compromised immune systems". Again, it's called the absentee ballot. 

 

 

[southslider]

Early voting, absentee voting, the more options, the better.  Only autocratic, tyrannical, totalitarian, dictatorship types discourage voting.

[urbanlover568]

10 hours ago, southslider said:

Early voting, absentee voting, the more options, the better.  Only autocratic, tyrannical, totalitarian, dictatorship types discourage voting.

Early voting IS absentee voting LMAO. Calling trump a Dictator. The hysterics are laughable. 

[kermit]

1 hour ago, urbanlover568 said:

Early voting IS absentee voting LMAO. Calling trump a Dictator. The hysterics are laughable. 

Call it whatever you want. The point remains that in NC it is legal to vote by mail, in person early and in person on election day. Anything done to make any of those options more difficult without legislation at the state level  is an infringement of our constitutional right to vote, as such those actions could reasonably be described as dictator-like.

Edited August 19, 2020 by kermit