US Politics Thread |OT| THE DARKEST TIMELINE

[Great Rumbler]

Was it always like this? I remember irreverence during the bush era, but during clinton's reign i can't seem to recall the same sort of vitriol and bullshit leveled at presidents coming even from 'established' mainstream sources.

Clinton did actually get impeached by the House, though.

[Human Snorenado]

yea but before he got caught ghetto gagging interns he was a golden boy right

The right wing noise machine was basically INVENTED because of Clinton. He was apparently a draft dodging commie, he wasn't really president because he never won more than 50% of the vote, blah blah blah, you get the idea. Matt Drudge's entire career was MADE off of Clinton bullshit.

[Phoenix Dark]

Dude, they accused Clinton of rape and murder. A sitting US congressman accused him of that shit, and congress actually investigated Vince Foster's death.

militia movements increased significantly during his time in office, right wing violence spiked (Oklahoma City Bombing, Waco, etc).

[benjipwns]

You didn't know Bill Clinton was a serial rapist who had Vince Foster murdered?

Though I think PD is going a bit far by referring to Janet Reno as "right-wing violence."

[Great Rumbler]

i didn't know that.

Just start at the Independent Counsel segment on Ken Starr's Wikipedia page and go from there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Starr#Independent_counsel

[benjipwns]

Vag 

This is the liberal problem. We take every ridiculous and stupid ass argument and try to debate it on its merits. It's absurd. Period. Anyone who supports this idiotic drivel hates gays for totally different reasons and is just trying to reach the desired end point from a different angle.

There were countless different arguments for maintaining segregation, slavery etc. There are countless other arguments for repealing Obamacare etc.

We need to stop entertaining this stupidity by responding to it as if it's a serious rational argument. Bigotry, discrimination, homophobia, withholding of liberty and freedom to people you don't agree with are reprehensible and the result of morally depraved minds.

Whether or not the Bible allows for slavery, or state right's do, or government not intervening in the private plantation economy are irrelevant arguments. We spend years pushing back on every absurd argument they come up with instead of dispelling the smoke and mirrors outright and pointing out the underlying belief system.

In this case, it being that gays, gay love, gay marriage range somewhere from inferior and undeserving of respect and legal protection to a full fledged satanic abomination. You think they give 2 shits about pro-creation?

[Phoenix Dark]

You didn't know Bill Clinton was a serial rapist who had Vince Foster murdered?

Though I think PD is going a bit far by referring to Janet Reno as "right-wing violence."

this is why you're the GOAT

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/living/pot-edibles-halloween-eatocracy/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

ZOMG PARENTS, people might be handing out the DEVIL POT at Halloween in your kid's candy!!

It's like the 80's never ended.

[benjipwns]

[CatsCatsCats]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/14/living/pot-edibles-halloween-eatocracy/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

ZOMG PARENTS, people might be handing out the DEVIL POT at Halloween in your kid's candy!!

It's like the 80's never ended.

I like the ad on that page for me for a $70 sexy pizza costume.

Also, please point in the direction of any house handing out weed candy, I will dress up in multiple costumes like a tv trope

[Joe Molotov]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Rick Scott.

[Great Rumbler]

[benjipwns]

Apparently Crist travels with these fans all the time for his feet/legs?



FANGHAZI

[toku]

[Brehvolution]

[Human Snorenado]

(Image removed from quote.)

...why not both???

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ron-johnson-isis-ebola

[benjipwns]

FANGHAZI:

At the previous stop, Crist bragged to the crowd that his finance director, a former Obama campaign staffer named Jessica Clark, had helped him raise more money (about $5 million in 2½ months) than any Democratic gubernatorial candidate had raised over a similar period.

But now, as we arrive at the hotel, Clark is nowhere to be seen. Crist sent her to Target. While Crist sits patiently in a chair, rubbing anti-glare cream on his face, Clark jumps a curb in her car, carrying a mini tower fan. Crist can’t be seen sweating. “I definitely broke a few laws to get this,” she says, bursting into the room with moments to spare. She puts the fan on the ground beside Crist. But it’s not hitting him quite right. So she kneels on her leaf-print skirt and holds it up, the cool air kissing Crist’s face as it glows in the spotlight.

“Sorry,” he mouths to her.

“Don’t write about this,” she mouths to me.

[Great Rumbler]

But he wrote about it anyway. What a jerk.

[benjipwns]

MCCAIN GETS RESULTS:

President Barack Obama said Thursday that it may be necessary for him to appoint a czar to oversee his administration's response to Ebola and signaled that he is open to a travel ban but doubts it would do more to protect Americans.

"It may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person," Obama told reporters in the Oval Office following a two-hour meeting with top advisers. That person, he said, would  "make sure we're crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's" in the long run.

  MCCAIN/PALIN 2016

[Great Rumbler]

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Obama can appoint a Czar, he can't get someone to be Surgeon General (still an empty post) without congressional approval.

[benjipwns]

It still is even if someone is appointed to it.

[Kara]

Obama can appoint a Czar, he can't get someone to be Surgeon General (still an empty post) without congressional approval.

We don't have a permanent Surgeon General?! I'm glad I live on the mountain so to speak sometimes.

[Great Rumbler]

A month ago, Missouri GOP prosecutor Brian Stumpe had less than $100 on hand in his campaign to unseat Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Now, just a few weeks later, he has received $100,000 -- all of it funneled into his campaign by a national group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has spent a total of $200,000 so far in this race for a single state judgeship.

Money has no corrupting influence! FREE SPEECH!

[Mupepe]

I think my blood pressure dropped by like 20 points (or whatever unit it's measured in) the day I stopped following politics regularly.

same here.  I used to read every new post in this thread and PoliGAF as well as get the feeds.  I cut that cord and damn it feels good.

[Kara]

It's been a long time since I lived in a Democratic Party stronghold. I'd forgotten how obnoxious they are at "getting out the vote" despite our votes being meaningless due to our arbitrary geographic unit's status as a machine town.

At least in Red city/district country they know it's a sham and don't badger you to vote for them. Well at least here that's the case, though tbh given the party's interest in voter identification and the voting tendencies of the low participation voter, I'd be surprised if the GOP was interested in getting the vote out anywhere.

[Oblivion]

I would choose common sense over knowledge in almost every circumstance.

 

[Broseidon]

I think my blood pressure dropped by like 20 points (or whatever unit it's measured in) the day I stopped following politics regularly.

same here.  I used to read every new post in this thread and PoliGAF as well as get the feeds.  I cut that cord and damn it feels good.

More like PollingGAF, amirite? :lenowned

[benjipwns]

It's been a long time since I lived in a Democratic Party stronghold. I'd forgotten how obnoxious they are at "getting out the vote"

I'm in a "somewhat competitive" district and am personally getting deluged by the Democrats, but not the Republicans. (My parents are getting stuff from them.) Now they've started sending stuff from "non-partisan" groups that note in big letters that my VOTING RATE IS BELOW AVERAGE.

I wonder when they start mailing out the voting history of your neighbors to everyone.

[Kara]

"secret" ballot brehs

[benjipwns]

Guess that's already been happening:
http://www.nwahomepage.com/story/d/story/whos-looking-at-your-voting-records/23002/_Z8X46LvFEeAZAHM9SxwXQ

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102601937.html
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/10/your-voting-history-could-end-neighbors-mailbox
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/06/were-sending-this-mailing-to-you-and.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/mailings-that-list-voting-records-set-off-some-neighbors-me5lip3-157049485.html
http://www.kpho.com/story/19981906/mailer-lists-neighbors-names-addresses-voting-history

[Kara]

If my neighbors found out I didn't vote on the reg they'd just be like, "Oh yeah he's so busy he probably forgets," and not, "Wow I can't believe we live next door to an anti-electoral tankie."

Still doe, fucking at dis shit.

[benjipwns]

Reading about politics isn't depressing or rage inducing if you have a pathetic fatalistic / comedic attitude towards world events like i do

I've always wondered why anyone takes any of this seriously.

And been amused at how mad they get if you don't or question the seriousness of it all. Look at the horror at various things related to the "sacred ritual" of voting when this country used to vote by the parties buying big barrels of liquor, putting them in the town square and everyone getting wasted while voting. We've resurrected divine right within the deity of the "will of the people" which is exactly equal to however many people voted for the winner.

Elections/politics are just the Red Hour/Festival (or The Purge for those of you who are too referentially young) outsourced at multiple abstract levels because we're too lazy and secretly apathetic.

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Blessed be the body, and health to all of its parts.

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You speak in strange whispers. This is not the way of Landru.

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Best part of that episode is that Kirk destroys their entire society then just leaves and tells two random dudes "you're gonna need new jobs" on the way out.

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[Kara]

I knew a woman who was very dutiful about voting. "People died so I could vote," she'd tell me when I'd mock her longwinded justifications for her tactical voting that didn't really represent her societal aspirations (FPTP, it's so undemocratic friends).

Alright, sure, I can never really understand what that means as a dudebro, but it's not like Jewish fucking emancipation had to happen or anything and you don't see me frothing at the mouth to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress me every few years. If we didn't have the that was California's system of direct democracy I'd probably never show up at all. I could only laugh when I was researching the candidates in the last House election I voted in and my choices consisted of (1) our one-party rule Republican representative, (2) a pro-life Democrat, and (3) a pro-life Libertarian.

[benjipwns]

"People died so you could vote" is one of the weirder arguments. I know it's just supposed to be a shame tactic but I can never unpackage it. Especially considering the history of conscription.

[benjipwns]

heh, apparently their 2012 platform called for > $20 minimum wage

Seattle-based group The Freedom Socialist Party, which owns socialism.com and regularly campaigns for a $15/hour minimum wage, advertised a job on Wednesday that offers just $13 an hour.

The group has taken particular interest in campaigning for a higher minimum wage in Seattle, where the posted job is located.

...

“Seattle livable? Not hardly! The Seattle fight has moved from the streets to City Hall. In May, new Mayor Ed Murray, Democrat, announced his proposal for $15/hour — for some workers, after several years. Healthcare, tips, and other ‘compensation’ would be calculated into their ‘income.’ In short, Mayor Murray’s plan caters to big business,” the group wrote in June.

They also accused big businesses of showing ‘phony concern’ for small businesses.

“The campaign for a $15 minimum wage could expose big business’ phony concern for small businesses by demanding solutions that correct the huge tax imbalance between corporations and genuinely small businesses,” the group wrote.

[Kara]

The CPUSA is a landlord, I wonder how ruthless they are at that game.

"People died so you could vote" is one of the weirder arguments. I know it's just supposed to be a shame tactic but I can never unpackage it. Especially considering the history of conscription.

Why would a liberal have a problem with conscription? It ascended on the back of levee en masse.

[benjipwns]

I wonder what that last one looks like for the people who weren't identifying with either party.

[Phoenix Dark]

I didn't vote in local elections last year and the democratic party sent me a postcard shaming me for not showing up. Now they knock on my door on Saturdays to remind me to support candidates that support the middle class. Can't complain too much I guess...I like Gary Peters.
 

[benjipwns]

Gary Peters? Have you SEEN Jim Fulner?!?

I only had anyone come to my door in 2008, some girl data collecting for Obama, I told her I wasn't voting and didn't vote for corporate fascists anyway. I have no idea what she marked but I guess that put me on the party's list. I thought I had been protected for a bit because I was getting Heritage mailings because they were once offering free pocket Dec of Independence/Constitutions and I got one but they stopped sending anything after I never sent any money.

Local candidates stop by my parents house quite often if my dad's outside doing anything. Had the House Dem candidate come by to get voter turnout for the primaries and after my dad was like "there's no contested Dem races, so I'm going to vote in the GOP primary" the guy was all like, oh yeah, that makes sense...I guess they just chatted about things for a bit and the guy said Communism would be better than letting the Tea Party keep control of the House. 

Makes me jealous...so much opportunity for real life trolling. 

[Kara]

The last time I even remotely got into irl political trolling was when I was banking on behalf of a client and some dipshit Wells Fargo manager tried to convince me to come bank there which is like a big faux pas when dealing with someone operating as an agent so I told them that I didn't believe in for-profit banking.

[benjipwns]

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A brave white man like you is just what we need!

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[benjipwns]

Man fuck modern Presidents, and like half fuck Reagan because of that plaid suit.

Giant chart with all Presidents since Truman:

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http://inthesetimes.com/prison-complex/entry/16696/presidential_clemency_which_presidents_used_it_most1

No other two-term president had granted fewer pardons, commutations or respites after five years in office than President Obama. By the end of 2013, his office had used this executive power just 40 times. By comparison President Bush had done so 60 times at the same point in his administration. The second lowest use of executive clemency at the five-year mark of an administration was by President Clinton, who had only granted clemency 56 times by the end of 1997.

In fact, Clinton's time in office would have been a record low for a two-term president, were it not for a massive increase in pardons and commutations in his last months in office. As one former Pardon Attorney told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2001:

It was said that President Clinton did not want to leave office having pardoned less generously than any President in history, and only three weeks before leaving office he himself remarked publicly on his frustration with the existing system of Justice Department review.

[Kara]

You'd probably have to adjust for political prisoners. I'm sure they still exist, but we're not talking like Eugene Debs here or anything.

[Oblivion]

Did he think the image he saw of Crist on stage for 7 minutes was an astral projection and he just needed time to confirm?

[Joe Molotov]

There was already an electric fan on the stage, who can say whether or not that was actually Charlie Crist or possibly some kind of cyborg impostor?

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

Did he think the image he saw of Crist on stage for 7 minutes was an astral projection and he just needed time to confirm?

you know, he does look like Voldermort with a nose.  You might be on to something here...

[Oblivion]

Was posted on the last page, dawg.

[Oblivion]

So what do you guys think'll happen after the Reps take over the senate? I feel Obama will be even more inclined than he was before about giving in to Republican demands. The only reason we haven't had as much shitty right-wing legislation passed is cause Harry Reid used those Republican bills to heat up his office. Without him around to stop Obama, he may just have the opening he needs to finally pass his great "grand bargain" that he's been dying to do since 2010.

[Kara]

Just got a Democratic Party cold call.

[Mupepe]

Just got a Democratic Party cold call.

Nothing has turned me off more this election season than my emails from the Democratic Party this year.  The titles are written for like 20 year college kids

"BOEHNER STUNNED!"
"Boehner GONE"
"We are ashamed"
"DO NOT DELETE"
"Boehner HUMILIATED"
"Mic drop from President Obama!"

I just searched through my trash bin in my email and picked some random ones.  And I get like 30 a day even after I chose the "Only send me the most imporant emails" option

[Phoenix Dark]

Mine revolve around "URGENT FUNDRAISING NEWS - RICK SNYDER HAS RAISED X IN Y. WE MUST RAISE Z TO HAVE A SHOT TO WIN."

I don't remember how they got my email address. At least they're accurate about the race being a "dead heat." Often fundraising emails bullshit you on that. The governor's race is pretty tight. But I expect Snyder to win.

[Kara]

"Mic drop from President Obama!"

 

[Joe Molotov]

"Mic drop from President Obama!"

 

Pretty embarrassing, imo. First telepromptergate, now he can't even hold onto a microphone?

[Joe Molotov]

Thanks Chuck Todd, for asking the hard questions like "Is this responsible rhetoric?"

[Great Rumbler]

Chuck Todd is almost completely devoid of feck.

[Human Snorenado]

Chuck Todd is almost completely devoid of feck.

Unless, of course, you sully his reputation on tv.

http://crooksandliars.com/heather/chuck-todd-tells-jeremy-scahill-was-cheap

[Human Snorenado]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/20/obama-gay-marriage_n_6014116.html

President Barack Obama seems to have changed his tune on gay marriage, telling The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin he believes same-sex couples in all 50 states should be allowed to marry under the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/gremlins

Congressional candidate Anthony Culler is willing to use the g-word though and says "same-sex 'marriage' is a pestilence that has descended on our society, against our will, by those in the courts and government that do not value the traditional family."

[Joe Molotov]

Chuck Todd is almost completely devoid of feck.

Unless, of course, you sully his reputation on tv.

http://crooksandliars.com/heather/chuck-todd-tells-jeremy-scahill-was-cheap

When one user asked him why he is "always trying to win the midterm for the Republican Party," Todd was prepared.

"I think folks mistake analysis of political reality with cheerleading," he said.

But that accusation of bias was tame compared to what followed.

"Was false equivalence your dream or did it come to you over time?" another user asked.

According to Todd, that guy was on the wrong social media platform for that kind of sarcasm.

"Happy to answer any serious questions. If you want to snark, do it on Twitter," Todd said.

Todd responded similarly when he was taken to task for not investigating "GOP Voter Discrimination or the Sequester to Blocking everything Obama wants."

"Why didn't you ask me when I stopped beating my wife? Come on," Todd said. "Ask a serious question and I'll give you a serious answer. There's always more nuance to the facts that partisans, left and right, want to admit."

One user called Todd an "a$$ clown" for his suggestion that Alison Lundergan Grimes had "disqualified herself" for refusing to say whether she had voted for President Obama.

"I understand you have to be mad at someone, so why not a member of the press," Todd responded. "That's why God invented social media."

[Kara]

Terrorize your poorest brehs.

BTW as someone who's recently moved to a place where gentrification yuppie lebensraum is incubating, it's really a bizarre and revolting phenomenon. (And I'm aware that I suppose I'm contributing to it.)

There's not much like walking through a stereotypical quinceanera to go to some faux trashy eatery where they make shitty approximations of everyperson food and sell it for almost as much as they sell a glass of beer and everyone dresses like they make no money but the parking lot is full of vehicles that would seem to indicate otherwise.

Just glad I'll (hopefully) be gone before the community that made this place home for a long time and gave it its distinct character while being left to rot (in terms of social services) by the County and police is completely driven out by ein volk.