US Politics Thread 2016-2020

[Gorpet]

Originally Posted by eddie

Typical response from someone who hasn't the guts to follow up his threats,LMAO!! How does it feel to support the first President since 1932 to lose reelection, plus the Senate and House at the same time !!??!! He's a triple loser,lol

Gee Eddie, I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and during his one term in office he created the Department of Education.Which hasn't did a damn thing for you. And trust me Eddie this old man has more guts to back up threats if made than your SJW ass does.Now im going to have that drink and and watch the newest episode of Office of the President Elect and listen to them and the rabid left wing news media put the blame on President Trump.

Oh and Eddie do try and pull some brain cells together and catch up on what the Demorats have been doing the last 4 years. And if the distance between my state and yours gets shorter in the future we can do a rain check on those guts.

[Skybird]

At the core of the problem:

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...ly-ncna1252872

Republicans' efforts to end the American republic makes them Republicans in name only. The Party of Lincoln has given up its claim to that name and that legacy to support an undemocratic effort by a man who isn't even a conservative.

Though coined much earlier, the acronym RINO — "Republican in Name Only" — came into broader usage in the early 1990s by those on the extreme right to disparage members of the Republican Party whom they accused of being insufficiently "conservative." These days, though, people disparaged as RINOs are usually much more firm believers in republicanism than those deploying the so-called slur, who have commandeered control of the "Republican" Party and perfected the Orwellian art of using words to mean the opposite of what they are.

Put more plainly, it is the Trump acolytes and members of the Republican Party who have joined in their leader's efforts to overthrow the American republic who are Republicans in Name Only.

The Republican Party, after all, was established in 1854 as a reaction to efforts by Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party to expand the reach of slavery in the United States and the political power of enslavers within the republic. At the first meeting of former Whigs and other anti-Democrat forces in February that year, they tentatively adopted the name as a nod to Thomas Jefferson's Republican faction in the country's early days. In July, a much larger meeting of the nascent party formally adopted the name after having been christened such by New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, who wrote that "we think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery."

In less than a decade, the new party's first elected president, Abraham Lincoln, had emancipated the country's enslaved people and he shortly thereafter reunited the republic after secessionist forces tried to tear it apart in a bloody effort to stymie progress toward a more perfect — and less racist — union.

Republicans do not wish to end the republic in which they serve or else they are Republicans in Name Only.

Today's Republicans, who have taken what was once the Democrats' place in fomenting racial discord and in their efforts to tear the very fabric of the nation in two, plainly are not deserving of that inheritance or its name.

So, too, are their efforts to define themselves as conservatives little more than a falsehood. Actual conservatives value responsibility, self-reliance, tradition, norms, law, truth-telling, morality, manners, knowledge, loyalty, success in business, self-control, religious values, patriotism, stability, maturity, marital fidelity, a sense of history, the checks and balances of constitutional government, deliberation, fiscal restraint, accountability, ordered liberty, justice, principle, humility and compassion.

There is no way to justify continuing the false designation of radical rightists as "conservatives" and people willing to end the republic as "Republicans." The dozen-plus elected members of the Republican Party in the Senate and the more than a hundred in the House who announced that they would vote to overturn various states' electoral slates Wednesday should not, despite their nominal party membership, be referred to as "conservatives" or "Republicans."

All who fail to condemn President Donald Trump's phone call threatening and pressuring state officials in Georgia ("So look," he said in a recording made by the office of the Georgia secretary of state Saturday, "all I want to do is this. I just want you to find 11,780 votes" — or exactly one more than he lost by in the state) and who do not forcefully disassociate themselves from his reported musings about declaring martial law to remain in power show themselves to be opposed to conserving our republic.

The unconscionable effort to keep Trump in office despite the stated will of the people is tantamount to throwing democracy and the American republic into the dustbin of history. Republicans do not wish to end the republic in which they serve or else they are Republicans in Name Only. Conservatives who do not wish to conserve the very foundation of the American experiment — our democratic republic — is no kind of conservative their intellectual predecessors would recognize.

In their 2017 books, "Dark Money" and "Democracy in Chains," Jane Mayer and Nancy MacLean detail how a small number of radical rightists set out to further their cause of "freeing" the superrich from the constraints imposed through democracy by camouflaging their intentions with popular labels that obscured their goals. One example from MacLean: They "more and more adopted the mantle of conservatism, knowing full well that the last thing they wanted to do is conserve, but seeing advantages in doing so."

The only things today's self-styled conservatives seek to conserve are white male control and the bloated fortunes of the superrich. They do not want to conserve; they want to regress. They have made it clear that they wish to "take America back" — presumably to the 1950s, when the superiority of and rule by white men were taken as axiomatic.

But it has increasingly come to appear that the "'50s" to which some in the Trump circles seek to return may be not the 1950s but the 1850s or even the 1750s, when what would become the United States was ruled by a monarch of German descent (or perhaps even the 1650s, before the Enlightenment).

Plainly, the word to describe those with the goals of the ultra-rightists who pose as "conservatives" is "regressives." And one accurate name for those who shroud their anti-republican actions in the false label "Republican" would be the Anti-Republican Party; other truthful designations could include the Authoritarian Party, the Autocracy Party, the Radical Rightwing Party or the Anti-American Party.

Continuing to use familiar, unthreatening names for those politicians and their followers who are unwilling to respect the most fundamental principles of self-government makes us complicit in their assault on our republic. We need to call them what they really are, to make it easier for the public to see what they're doing. We must stop providing cover for their nefarious actions. And there's no better week to start doing so than this one.

[Skybird]

Sign of the times. Sign of the need for change.



How comes that the capitol, security was so ill prepared although already two - or was it even three - days before I red that the National Guard had been activated over the event?

[Rockstar]

Looks pretty intimidating with those sunglasses on, but no weapons. Smart move on the Guards part.

[Rosencrantz]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Actually, if you could suggest a country where men are still men, where people who don't work get hungry, and where the govt and half the populace aren't trying to run your life and tell you what is acceptable to think and say, I would be happy to renounce my US citizenship and move.

Hi Neal, good to see the site is still up and running after so many years! But now one thought about what you wrote before. Writing from Finland, I'd like to suggest that it is always not a bad idea to offer a meal, a flat and at least some kind of a decent life even to a man without work. We all know how reasons behind unemployment are various. Often - on individual level - those reasons can be addressed properly and positive progress made in someone's personal life. However, sometimes that is just not possible. Reasons vary.

Right now while I'm writing this, in our small country, we have more or less 40 000 people with academic background unemployed, true total figures of unemployed people passing 200 000 men and women. Counting also children, about 0,5 million people in our country have to face results of unemployment every day.

Personally I'm glad we have working social care, something US citizens can only imagine. I wouldn't mind to witness those 40 000 smart and academic people wandering around and starving. Nor the rest of those people, nor those children. Voluntarily "free billeting" people are minority among our unemployed people, the most frequent reason for unemployment is that there is just not enough jobs to all of us. That's something our long term academic studies tells clearly.

Maybe the very best part of good social network is, that is has nothing to do with communism. Nothing at all. That said by me, who - with his German roots - has never been a communist, quite opposite. Not trying to tell you, what you should think about things, but just saying there could be also good alternative ways to address some problems.

greetings,
-RC-

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Looks pretty intimidating with those sunglasses on, but no weapons. Smart move on the Guards part.

If their looks is your only problem... Politics, Marvel Comic universe style. Send in the Avengers.

Its the second time a Trumpist mob storms a capitol this year. Next time they might bring weapons with them. And ammo. The mob yesterday already threatened to mcome back - with weapons next time.

And nobody should think it is not possible or unlikely. The argument "it will not get this worse" is no longer valid, nor a sign for sane reasoning. If the Republicans do not hold the Trumpists in their rows accountable, civil war-like unrest and maybe even civil war sooner or later will be and must be the logical, outcome. They are an incompoatible extreme that cannot fit in. You just have to listen to bastanko06's tirades. I fear he is not alone with his extremist sentiments and mental state. Its dangerous. Its anarchistic. Its extreme rightist.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Skybird

If their looks is your only problem... Politics, Marvel Comic universe style. Send in the Avengers.

Its the second time a Trumpist mob storms a capitol this year. Next time they might bring weapons with them. And ammo. The mob yesterday already threatened to mcome back - with weapons next time.

And nobody should think it is not possible or un likely. The argument "it will not gat this worse" is no logner valid, nor a sign for sane reasoning. If the repoublicans do not hold the Trumpists i nt heir rows accoutnable, civil war-like unrest and maybe even civil war sooner or later will be the logical, outcome. You just have to listen to bastanko06's tirades. I fear he is not alone with his extremist sentiments and mental state. Its dangerous. Its anarchistic. Its extreme rightist.

Might bring weapons next time? So far its just been unarmed protesters then who have been shot and killed, that's the scary part. But because they're Trump supporters they deserve that? Seems Bstanko is not the only one with extremist views. This is such a mess, but hopefully its a wake up call how divisive and childish leadership has become. Grown men latching onto those same childish and divisive comments and regurgitating them here, its an absolutely pathetic circle. Where are the grown-ups?

[Skybird]

Imagine the mob yesterday would have been black.

"Security" would have been on a different level.

Double standards.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Where are the grown-ups?

Oh I'm here

Just spent an hour of my life catching up with this thread and feeling rather pleased that civility between the posters has remained victorious despite the shaky start earlier during the night (GMT).

Interesting times still lie ahead I suspect.

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Sign of the times. Sign of the need for change.



How comes that the capitol, security was so ill prepared although already two - or was it even three - days before I red that the National Guard had been activated over the event?

^ This picture you posted is from last year, when the National Guard troops were deployed to the Lincoln Memorial on June 2, 2020, during protests held in Washington, DC, over the death of George Floyd.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Skybird

How comes that the capitol, security was so ill prepared although already two - or was it even three - days before I red that the National Guard had been activated over the event?

That is a very good question. This was my first thought when this started. How could it happen?

must there be accountability for those charged with the security of the Capitol complex. If, as appears highly likely, intelligence failures are found to have occurred alongside inadequate preparations, both Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman should resign. For whatever reason, the courageous Capitol Police officers stationed outside Congress were totally inadequate in number and capability. Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller must resign, or be fired, if he failed to authorize the rapid deployment of National Guard resources in support of Capitol Hill police.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...curity-failure

But there is no reason why more resources could not have been held in reserve, even covertly, nearby. The National Guard was put on alert but, as of this publication, is nowhere to be seen. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the departments of Homeland Security and Justice must also answer questions here: What support was requested of them, when, and why was their response inadequate?

No doubt this event will change the security measures for the Capital Complex and other places but somebody droped the ball.

There must be accountability at the highest levels for this outrageous failing — and for those who took advantage of it.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Catfish

^ This picture you posted is from last year, when the National Guard troops were deployed to the Lincoln Memorial on June 2, 2020, during protests held in Washington, DC, over the death of George Floyd.

Cant tell, I took it today from the news coverage of either NBC or CNN.

P.S.

CNN indeed now headlines it as a story about the police reaction last year. Cant tell whether they have changed the story or I mistook it in the first.

[bstanko6]

Skybird...

CNN is hard to follow, they are mainstream media. They change everything they want, including elections!

[Hawk66]

The next generation has to fix it and https://www.statista.com/statistics/...-votes-age-us/ makes me confident about that.

Frankly if you follow this discussion here, you see that a lot of "older" people are not capable to realize that the world and economy has changed. They are still in the 20th century.

[Skybird]