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The General 'Murican Politics Thread


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https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/federal-officials-heat-ray-ammunition-lafayette-square-protests/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-protest-lafayette-square/2020/09/16/ca0174e4-f788-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/barr-sedition/index.html

A whistleblower has reported that the Feds sought to use a "heat ray" (technology which had already been deemed too unpredictable for use in a military context) against protesters in Lafayette Square. Meanwhile Bill Barr has suggested charging protesters with sedition (i.e. Inciting rebellion against the United States).

The Trump Administration has officially entered super-villain territory.

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Depends on how nakedly corrupt the GOP wants to be 6 weeks before the election. Several GOP senators have already pledged that they will not confirm a new Supreme Court appointee, to fall in line with the precedent "established" in 2016. There's also one more (Romney) who would probably go against it even though he hasn't pledged to. That may not be enough to block a confirmation as is; but McConnell needs to tread carefully when there are several GOP senate seats that are vulnerable; which wasn't the case in 2016 when he pulled this against Obama.

 

This also happened and was reported just before a compromise was met with the House to prevent a government shutdown; which would be disastrous for everyone but is a nuclear option that is available to Democrats if McConnell wants to tell the Democrats in the Senate to fuck themselves and ramrod a justice into the court anyway.

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I fully expect McConnell to have Tom Cotton or some other equally odious shitstain confirmed by the end of the month. They don't care about looking corrupt (their base doesn't care anyway), they're all-in on power grabbing and don't give a single fuck about morals, ethics, or decency.

So if Biden wins and carries the Senate, he needs to have Schumer double the SCOTUS' size, pack it with shades of progressive and centrist (all young), impose retroactive term limits on all lifetime judicial appointments of 18 years (ensuring a new justice to the SCOTUS every two years), and look at adding Puerto Rico and DC as states to bolster the Democrats' ranks and balance the Senate more evenly, keeping it from being held hostage so readily by red states.

Would he actually do that? I don't know. But he needs to.

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Shit like this is why the left has a lot of trouble coalescing in politics. Criticizing her in good faith's one thing, but this open cynicism with desire to toss AOC to the side is one reason why the left and progressives have a lot of trouble gaining power and helps validate mainstream Democrats' desire to target Republicans instead.

The left/progressives have a really bad habit of "eating their own." Very often, they splinter, don't rally around, and are just too stubborn. Massachusetts had several people fighting for Joe Kennedy's old congressional seat (MA-04), and two progressives (Ihssane Leckey and Jesse Mermell) helped split the progressive vote while Jake Auchincloss, a former Republican, snuck through despite winning less than 25% of the vote.

In NY's 16th district, Jamaal Bowman wasn't the only progressive challenging Engel. A dem socialist, Andom Ghebreghiorgis, was also running despite little profile. However, when Bowman was gaining momentum and Eliot Engel claimed he only showed up to his district after hiding in his Maryland home because of a primary, Andom understood he had zero chance of winning. Seeing that progressives needed to rally around one to beat Engel, Andom dropped out and endorsed Bowman, a really mature thing for him to do. By dropping out and openly endorsing Bowman, Bowman capitalized on the momentum needed to win.

After lying about Bernie claiming a woman can't beat Trump during the Iowa debates, he and Warren became splintered. Whereas every moderate coalesced around Biden before Super Tuesday, Warren (despite no momentum) stayed in the ticket, and the split very likely helped Biden win in Texas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. When Warren dropped, she spent more time caring about being on SNL than getting back on the campaign trail and working to help progressives and the rest of her own coalition rally around Bernie, the one the most ideologically closest to her.

Yes, it's okay to stick to your morals, and it's okay to be politically pessimistic. But folks like AOC successfully build coalitions to help create power for folks on the left to build. She builds power from within, yet stands up for what's right. She's a progressive leader, and leaders like her generate the coalition and momentum needed to move forward. The Marxist-Leninist I linked above displays a really toxic, openly contrarian viewpoint of politics while putting in little effort to build beyond their own bubble.

Why are folks from The Young Turks, Justice Democrats, Sam Seder, Shaun King, and the late Michael Brooks more successful than, say, Jimmy Dore? Because Dore rants into a tunnel and is ready to toss folks away. TYT, Justice Dems, Seder, King, and Brooks openly work to try to make life beyond their comfort zones better. The more you rant into the bubble, the more it feels good, so you wanna do it more. Talking and screaming into a void, Twitter wars, and public ownage of a person with an opposing political ideology make great momentary stress relief, but it's extremely cheap.

Yes, it's much easier to smash your keys as you type and become the Fred Figglehorn of politics, but it's another to exit your bubble, put your biases aside, listen to others, and persuade. How do Bernie, Warren, Jayapal, AOC, and the rest of The Squad build their clout in the first place? By listening and coalescing to find common politics. Lefty babblers, wealthy blue-checkers living in multi-million-dollar glass houses, and centrist vote shamers on Twitter share one thing in common. Ranting, yelling, and ratioing others may feel good in the short term, but what does it do in the long haul? Nothing. This Burger King of politics accentuates discord that indicates little desire to help understand conflicting viewpoints. Over the long haul, persuasion is so much more rewarding. Listen to other people's shoes, offer your viewpoint, and work to help them buy into it.

This informative roundtable from The Michael Brooks Show understands how the internet can consume you and create such a bubble that it can mask your ability to think for yourself.

Think about why Rhode Island progressives and Ed Markey were so successful this cycle. Ed Markey has a moderate record, including voting for NAFTA, the Crime Bill, and Iraq War. So how did he convince two warring progressive factions to support him for the primary? Because Markey listened and worked with them. Being from Massachusetts, he was a proud and open Warren supporter in the presidential primary, and she in turn endorsed him back for the primary earlier this month. Plus, he worked with AOC to draft the Green New Deal, co-led Bernie Sanders' fight to make single-payer Medicare for All a reality, and openly worked with the Sunrise Movement to make the nation and world a better place. Bernie was the top choice among the youth, and Elizabeth was #2, and he helped them share a common goal that his ideas and leadership will help the Senate lead a better America than Joe Kennedy.

In Rhode Island, it doesn't matter what politics you have. As long as you have a "D" next to your name on the card, the conservative Democratic establishment in the state will welcome and fund for you. Warren and Sanders supporters share one thing in common: Progress will never occur with those political dinosaurs in power. Daniel Denvir, a podcaster and writer for Jacobin magazine, understood this, co-founded Reclaim Rhode Island, and worked with other political operatives there, including the Sunrise Movement, Working Families, DSA, and the new Rhode Island Political Operative, to change the entire political landscape in the state. In one year, these groups swept local seats throughout the state, which you can read and listen here.

In short, politics and coalition-building are all about communication. Twitter fights and helping ratio-gaming destroy that communication.

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Quote

The Trump campaign is reportedly 'discussing contingency plans to bypass election results'

Brendan Morrow
September 23, 2020, 11:31 am

President Trump's campaign is discussing "contingency plans" that would involve bypassing the result of November's election, reports The Atlantic.

The report delves into possible scenarios if Trump apparently loses the 2020 presidential election but doesn't concede, noting that although we're used to electors being selected based on the popular vote, "nothing in the Constitution says it has to be that way." Citing Republican Party sources, The Atlantic says that Trump's campaign is "discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority."

The campaign would reportedly assert that this step was necessary due to claims of supposed voter fraud, which experts have noted is extraordinarily rare, ahead of the "safe harbor" deadline to appoint 538 electors on Dec. 8.

"Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly," The Atlantic reports. "The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires."

A Trump campaign legal adviser who spoke to The Atlantic said that in this scenario, "the state legislatures will say, 'All right, we've been given this constitutional power. We don't think the results of our own state are accurate, so here's our slate of electors that we think properly reflect the results of our state." Lawrence Tabas, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, also told The Atlantic he has discussed the direct appointment of electors with the Trump campaign, saying, "I've mentioned it to them, and I hope they're thinking about it too." The Trump campaign said it is "fighting for a free and fair election."

This potential scenario is just one part of the broader piece in which experts warn "conditions are ripe for a constitutional crisis." Read more at The Atlantic.

Sources: YahooThe Atlantic

Alarm bells should be sounding and the Democrats should be preparing for every single contingency.

If nothing else, this should hopefully spur more states to sign on to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The sooner we toss out the Electoral College and bring about Proportional Representation and ranked choice voting in every election, the better.

Republican Senator Proposes Bill That Would Make It Illegal to Count Votes

Quote

On Thursday, Florida Sen. Rick Scott proposed a bill that would change election laws with less than six weeks to go until November’s election, causing complete mayhem and ensuring that untold numbers of otherwise valid votes would not be counted.

Scott’s proposal is simple and entirely unworkable. His "Help America Vote Act of 2020" would require that mail-in ballots be counted within 24 hours of when voting closes on Election Day. Scott’s proposed legislation would also prevent mail-in ballots received prior to Election Day from being processed and counted until the morning of Nov. 3, contradicting state election statutes across the country including one that he signed when he was governor of Florida.

Basically, the bill would move back the date by which votes can start to be counted and move up the date by which the count must end. This would limit the count to a single less-than-48-hour window, shortening the count in some cases by weeks.

In Scott’s own home state of Florida, as one example, votes can start to be counted up to 22 days before Election Day. In Colorado, which does all mail-in voting, they can be processed as soon as they are received and counted 15 days before Election Day. Under Scott’s law, those votes would all have to begin to be counted on Election Day itself. Any votes that did not get counted simply would not count.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/republican-senator-bill-illegal-mail-vote-count-deadline.html

If there's one thing you can count on Republicans to do, it's to continually try to destroy democracy.

MORE DISTURBING SHIT:

Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power, talks about throwing out ballots, and says there won't be a transfer of power.

Says it might take "months or years" before we know the election results.

Trump campaign reportedly discussing plans to bypass the election results, including abusing a loophole in the constitution.

Reportedly discussing the strategy of alleging voter fraud as an excuse to bypass the popular vote and select electors loyal to the Trump campaign, while trying to make sure that the courts support him when the issue is brought up.

Don't forget that Trump told his voters to vote twice!

Democrats warned that Trump may declare himself winner on election day.

Armed alt-right groups have been appearing at polling places, having organized via Facebook.

Trump supporters have been intimidating early voters.

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Exactly how much bullshit was trump just spewing in that 2 minutes of uninterrupted speaking?

 

Also lol at democratic officials getting upset at trump intentionally cutting down Biden’s time to speak when he got his turn. Bernie rn:

tenor.gif

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The one thing I wish Biden had mentioned was that Poll Watchers were abolished in the 1980s after it came to light that the Republicans had been using them to intimidate voters - particularly black voters.

Trump trying to glorify them was horrible to see. He told the Proud Boy scumbags to "stand back and stand by," too, clearly a message to prepare them to take up arms.

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I wonder if Democrats are gonna run with this “trump didn’t condemn white supremacy” angle all the way to election now. Or is that a bad thing to rally around “identity politics” this close to elections?

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I just say that cause people often lump ANY talk regarding racism/bigotry into that category, hence the quotation marks around the term.  

Also I’m asking cause I recall during Hilary campaign it was heavily advised I saw from leftists that Dems shouldn’t build their platform for the final stretch on talking about racism/bigotry/homophobia and other topics like that and how the opponents are those things

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That's because towards the end of her campaign she tried to come out strong in her appeal to those groups specifically when she had no standing with them; and when she hadn't actually completed the job of appealing to the people who she needed to in the first place to win. No one bought the image of Hilary Clinton suddenly being the champion of LBGT issues; and that skepticism would have been fair even if she wasn't still stepping in messes about transgender stuff as recently as last year.

 

It was her taking a victory lap over things people who were always skeptical of her didn't really believe her to give a shit about in the first place (and which the people she still needed to convince in order to win the election didn't give a shit about either) before she had actually won. Fair or not, stuff like which bathrooms transgender people should be allowed to use (as a specific example she talked about) was item #5432 on voter's minds in 2016; and it's not really remotely comparable in 2020 either to whether Biden and Trump should come out strong against groups that are just chomping at the bit to have the tacit approval to lynch black and Hispanic people if Trump wins again,

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So far, conservatives on social media are going to the extremes in bullshit to justify trumps words on white supremacy. It’s like maximum bootlicking. “He DID condemn it. He said “sure”. Maybe in his mind, that was good enough!”
 

Oh and then them posting a link to that one other time where he allegedly “denounced white supremacy” in super carefully worded vague speak that didn’t specify any actual groups or events, while not taking any action to combat its growing influence. These people are so desperate to make people criticizing him on this look like the unfair bullies 

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Honestly, all I have to say is that Chris Wallace was an excellent choice as a moderator.

Had they chose anyone else, I probably wouldn’t have been as excited.

Also, he needs a raise and a drink after that performance.

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God fucking damn, I was JUST about to report that too.

Wonder what he’s gonna do now?

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1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

God fucking damn, I was JUST about to report that too.

Wonder what he’s gonna do now?

I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses this as a way to oust himself from the White House only so he can say that he never lost the election.

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Been hit with a few realizations about all of this:

  • On one hand, this is karma somewhat
  • On the other hand, this happens a month before the election
  • This'll likely be used for his political purposes
  • He's gonna get proper treatment because.
  • They oughta test Biden and everyone else who was in that presidential debate too.

Lots of revelations man.

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Almost feels like this coulda also been done to deflect away from the myriad of things currently Trump has going against him, if even just for a few days, which could do a lot for him. A few days (hell, even a few hours nowadays) is all it takes after all to get people to move on

 

Also, in regards to the Melania stuff, I’m hearing a lot of conservatives claim the call is “out of context” or “not the full recording”.... is there a longer call that puts into context her going 

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I can't help but be suspicious this is an attempt to get sympathy votes from "undecided"/"centrist/moderates/whatever they call themselves" ala what happened to Boris Johnson after he got COVID.

That, and also play into a scenario where Trump "triumphantly" returns and claims he beat the virus and thus it isn't as bad as the "EEEVIL LEFTIST ANARCHIST BLM MUSLIM JEW COALITION OF DOOM" makes it to be.

Maybe it's just that Trump is such a pathological liar and monster that I can't help but be worried.

Not to mention this could be used to spread the COVID to Biden and other Democratic people.

 

EDIT: Additionally, there's also timing to consider. The next debate is in 2 weeks, and COVID generally takes anywhere between a few days up to 2 weeks to truly be certain of. Trump could just be using this to duck out of any future debates given what a disaster the first one was for him.

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