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Post by Kapitan on Aug 10, 2023 12:20:35 GMT
We've got some mini-drama that has (just barely) been a national story lately: Rep. Dean Phillips, a third-term Democratic congressman from an area covering western suburbs of Minneapolis, has been publicly pushing for some legitimate candidates to enter the Democratic primaries to oppose Pres. Biden--and has said he's exploring that option for himself, if nobody else will do it. I love Rep. Phillips, and would gladly vote for him, though in an ideal world I don't think he'd be a candidate for President. He is only in his third term as a representative, and has no prior government experience. (He had previously led his family's company, Phillips Distilling.) As much as I don't like political lifers, neither do I think the presidency is a job easily accomplished by someone with limited experience. Phillips is known as a moderate Democrat, and was the first Democrat to win his congressional district since the early 1960s. He has now won it three times in a row. He is active in both "youth movements" and bipartisan/depolarization movements. He is a regular contributor/speaker to the fantastic Braver Angels organization. As you can imagine, the Democratic party is not excited at his ongoing discussion of the issue. Most of Minnesota's highest ranking Democrats--Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Angie Craig, Rep. Betty McCollum--have said that while they like working with Phillips and consider him a friend, they want to focus on reelecting Pres. Biden. A few of the more radical ones, like AG Keith Ellison and Rep. Ilhan Omar, naturally take harsher rhetoric about the danger of not towing the party line, how it will mean reelecting Trump, etc. ( Star Tribune article today.) Those "clashes" with Phillips generally relate to Omar's habit of repeatedly making what are considered antisemitic remarks. Phillips is Jewish. Phillips is also the sort of pragmatist and consensus-builder that Omar and Ellison openly despise (which is a big piece of why I can't support Omar and Ellison). In the end, Phillips doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell unless something awful happens to Pres. Biden--and even if that were to happen, I don't think he'd have much better odds. But it's interesting, and frankly I'm glad somebody from within the party is making these arguments.
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Post by carllove on Aug 10, 2023 14:11:04 GMT
I don’t think Biden is going to end up running in 2024. In order for the Democrats to save face when the paper trail of his families’ shell corporations containing payments from China and the Ukraine becomes too strong to deny, the powers that be will declare Joe Biden unfit for office, and allow him to ride off into the sunset, unscathed. Hell - at this point - the more I learn about Biden - the more I think I’d rather have his cackling idiot second in command as President. She seems pretty harmless, at least.
Now, if the stubborn Republican MAGA folks really cared enough about this country to let go of Trump and back someone like Scott or Ramaswamy, I would feel quite optimistic about the future of this country. Biden and Trump both need to go. It’s time for some younger folks to lead this country, even if it is DeSantis or Harris. I will look into your guy in Minnesota. How much experience did Obama have before he ran for President?
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 10, 2023 14:45:14 GMT
How much experience did Obama have before he ran for President? Not as much as I'd have liked! And remember, that was used against him in the primary (by Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Joe Biden). But Obama had been an Illinois state senator from 1997-04, then a U.S. senator from 05-08 (when of course he ran for and won the presidency). So while he had less federal government experience, he did have more than a decade overall.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 10, 2023 14:52:37 GMT
Hell - at this point - the more I learn about Biden - the more I think I’d rather have his cackling idiot second in command as President. She seems pretty harmless, at least. I can't agree with you there. I do think Harris is an empty suit, but I think that lack of conviction is dangerous in that she'll go where she's shoved. Granted, I think the octogenarian Biden probably is doing that, too, but he at least has a history of some kind of milquetoast priorities: relatively good (from my perspective) on labor issues, a relative consensus/bipartisan approach (which has been abandoned by him and almost everyone since Trump, but I mean historically), etc. Harris has gone all over the map historically, from a tough-on-crime prosecutorial position to a defund the police kind of position all within the span of her brief presidential campaign. And I will never, ever vote for her even if only for one thing: her cynical, obviously false pseudo-accusation of Joe Biden being a racist. ("I'm not saying you're a racist, Joe, but...") First, that phrase means one thing--that I am calling you a racist--and second, if she really believed that, she would not have agreed to be his VP. Her presidential campaign tanked because nobody in the Democratic party wanted her: she wasn't a legit progressive, and she wasn't a legit centrist. She is a legit nothing. She is an empty suit. She got the VP job mostly because she has been a DNC darling (due to her demographic characteristics (female, black) and her theoretical support from the big state of California) and because Biden promised to run with a black woman (and she was more available and qualified than someone like Stacey Abrams). Biden was trying to thread an assortment of needles, and she was the kind of compromise that nobody actually likes.
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Post by carllove on Aug 10, 2023 15:40:47 GMT
Hell - at this point - the more I learn about Biden - the more I think I’d rather have his cackling idiot second in command as President. She seems pretty harmless, at least. I can't agree with you there. I do think Harris is an empty suit, but I think that lack of conviction is dangerous in that she'll go where she's shoved. Granted, I think the octogenarian Biden probably is doing that, too, but he at least has a history of some kind of milquetoast priorities: relatively good (from my perspective) on labor issues, a relative consensus/bipartisan approach (which has been abandoned by him and almost everyone since Trump, but I mean historically), etc. Harris has gone all over the map historically, from a tough-on-crime prosecutorial position to a defund the police kind of position all within the span of her brief presidential campaign. And I will never, ever vote for her even if only for one thing: her cynical, obviously false pseudo-accusation of Joe Biden being a racist. ("I'm not saying you're a racist, Joe, but...") First, that phrase means one thing--that I am calling you a racist--and second, if she really believed that, she would not have agreed to be his VP. Her presidential campaign tanked because nobody in the Democratic party wanted her: she wasn't a legit progressive, and she wasn't a legit centrist. She is a legit nothing. She is an empty suit. She got the VP job mostly because she has been a DNC darling (due to her demographic characteristics (female, black) and her theoretical support from the big state of California) and because Biden promised to run with a black woman (and she was more available and qualified than someone like Stacey Abrams). Biden was trying to thread an assortment of needles, and she was the kind of compromise that nobody actually likes. You do have a point there Kapitan. I wouldn’t vote for her either. I don’t know what I will do if Trump receives the nomination, but it would be proof that Republicans don’t really care about the future of the country. We are at a crossroads in 2024 that will determine if this country will unite, or will remain divided. Neither Trump nor Biden will unite us.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 10, 2023 15:53:55 GMT
Sadly, I don't see any major-party nominee uniting anybody, because the two major parties need division to exist--at least unless they can be brave enough to find actual compromise and unity as a selling point, rather than the typical fear-mongering and divisiveness that unfortunately gets the partisan bases excited to donate and vote.
There just can't be a unifier emerging when both parties use messaging like "our country is at a crisis point, and it's [the other party's] fault. They are extreme! They are dangerous! They are ruining this country! Now is not the time to vote third party or abandon our party's leadership! The stakes are too high!"
Variations on this are what both parties do, and they aren't going to support candidates who don't support that messaging. Because parties care about parties, not the broad citizenship of the country. Truly centrist or unifying candidates--or even popular candidates who aren't "party men"--will be shunned, as they always are.
That is why I think the solution can only come from us. The citizens have to stop reacting to that toxicity the way that we usually do. We have to stop believing that 1/2 the country is evil. We have to realize that being "pure" (conservatively or progressively) is a race away from unity, not toward it.
We have to quit supporting those two parties and their media organizations and start supporting people who do what we say we want them to do.
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Post by kds on Aug 10, 2023 16:03:52 GMT
Sadly, I don't see any major-party nominee uniting anybody, because the two major parties need division to exist--at least unless they can be brave enough to find actual compromise and unity as a selling point, rather than the typical fear-mongering and divisiveness that unfortunately gets the partisan bases excited to donate and vote. There just can't be a unifier emerging when both parties use messaging like "our country is at a crisis point, and it's [the other party's] fault. They are extreme! They are dangerous! They are ruining this country! Now is not the time to vote third party or abandon our party's leadership! The stakes are too high!" Variations on this are what both parties do, and they aren't going to support candidates who don't support that messaging. Because parties care about parties, not the broad citizenship of the country. Truly centrist or unifying candidates--or even popular candidates who aren't "party men"--will be shunned, as they always are. That is why I think the solution can only come from us. The citizens have to stop reacting to that toxicity the way that we usually do. We have to stop believing that 1/2 the country is evil. We have to realize that being "pure" (conservatively or progressively) is a race away from unity, not toward it. We have to quit supporting those two parties and their media organizations and start supporting people who do what we say we want them to do. Sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon. When I see people I know, people who are intelligent and educated, being so easily taken in by the various divisive cable news networks, it does not fill me with optimism that things will improve. It's one of the reasons that I've essentially put my head in the sand the last two or three years. That might sound like a defeatist attitude, but at the end of the day, I'm well into middle age, and if I'm lucky, I'm at around the halfway point of my life, and I just have no interest in fretting over stuff that, really doesn't have nearly as much of an effect of my daily life as the cable news networks would suggest.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2023 17:58:58 GMT
Now we very well may have both of our major parties' presidential candidates tainted by serious legal charges... With the plea deal having fallen apart and "at an impasse," Atty Gen. Merrick Garland appointed lead prosecutor David Weiss to be special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation. I have read that there are signals a) the case jurisdiction might be changed from D. Del. to elsewhere (likely for the purpose of filing additional charges), and that b) the power of a special counsel means even the AG would have a hard time from blocking charges, even if he wanted to do so. (He can do it, but it requires a very high bar to meet and notification of Congress. I think it would be unprecedented.) Granted, this isn't an investigation into Joe Biden. But obviously Hunter's dealings at least seem to refer to Joe Biden. I know carllove, for example, is convinced. But I'm not convinced at all--just open to the possibility. (Some Republicans are already condemning the appointment of a special counsel, saying it is part of the coverup. Quite befuddling. Honestly, partisanship is so stupid. Nothing either side could possibly do would satisfy the other, because they depend upon the other as boogeyman.) Regardless, the GOP likely nominee faces three sets of felonies with at least one more set to come (Georgia, arguably the most damning), and now the Dem incumbent's son looks likely to be in even hotter water that might just burn the president. Lovely. Our politics are so healthy in this country.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 11, 2023 18:13:16 GMT
Actually I saw this really good (in my opinion) column from NYT's David Leonhardt that I believe was published this morning, though it seems they updated it since then. Not sure exactly how. Regardless, I think it's right on: Republicans and conservative media are at least exaggerating and hyperbolizing; but Democrats and progressives are putting their heads in the sand. Everything below is quoted from that column. (Actually it is quoted in full. I have not included the links within it, though you can guess where they are by context.) ... The Hunter Biden case has become the latest example of America’s dueling realities. If you’re a Republican, there is a good chance you believe that Democrats and the mainstream media are deliberately minimizing a scandal that calls into question President Biden’s honesty and threatens his presidency. I know some conservative readers of The Morning feel this way because they’ve written to me to say so. If you’re a Democrat, you likely believe that this so-called scandal is a transparent attempt to distract from Donald Trump’s far worse behavior. You may see the Hunter Biden obsession as the latest in a line of conservative conspiracy theories, joining Barack Obama’s birthplace, John Kerry’s Vietnam War record and the suicide of Vince Foster. Today’s newsletter is for both those readers who believe the case deserves more attention and those whose instinct is to skip any article about Hunter Biden. I hope to avoid committing the journalistic sin of false balance while explaining why the story deserves some attention from everybody. Cashing in When top Democrats are asked about Hunter Biden, they tend to dismiss his problems as a private issue. “Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said last month when asked about federal tax and gun charges against him. “The president, the first lady, they love their son, and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life.” This explanation is partially fair. Hunter Biden has struggled with drug addiction. His failure to pay taxes seems connected to the chaos of his life while he was using crack cocaine, and the gun charge stems from his claiming to be sober when he bought a handgun in 2018. But it’s a stretch for anyone to suggest that Hunter Biden is merely a private citizen. When his father was vice president from 2009 to 2017, Hunter tried to create the impression that he could leverage his family connections to help his clients, as a former business partner has testified to Congress. Some clients believed it. Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, put Hunter on its board, in an attempt to signal that it was pro-Western. A Chinese tycoon also signed a partnership with him. All told, Hunter made more than $800,000 in 2013 and more than $1.2 million in 2014. My colleague Luke Broadwater, who covers Congress, told me that he initially found the public discussion of Hunter Biden to be uninteresting — typical partisan noise. But Luke came to believe the story was more important. “Many rich and famous people try to cash in on their family name, including relatives of the politicians,” Luke said. “It’s certainly worth newspaper coverage.” Luke notes that Joe Biden made a false statement during a 2020 campaign debate when he claimed, “My son has not made money” in China. “The only guy who made money from China is this guy,” Biden continued, referring to Donald Trump. (Amazingly, Biden was correct about the Trump part: The Trumps received money from the same Chinese company.) These details are not pretty. The current president’s son made substantial sums of money from the perception of his proximity to top government officials, and the president has claimed otherwise. That story is notably different from past Republican lies about Obama’s birthplace or Kerry’s war record. Unsupported claims The problem for Biden’s Republican critics is that they are making their own untruthful statements — or at least statements lacking any support. House Republicans have claimed that the elder Biden himself received money as part of Hunter’s business dealings; they have produced no evidence to support the claim, Luke notes. There is also no evidence that Joe Biden altered policy to benefit Hunter’s clients. Sometimes, the Republican claims have turned farcical. House Republicans portrayed Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, as a truth teller who would expose the Bidens. Luft has not done so. Instead, a grand jury indicted him last month for acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and helping Iran evade sanctions. Luft denies any wrongdoing. For anybody who wants to dig deeper into the Hunter Biden saga, I recommend this detailed article by my colleagues Adam Entous, Michael Schmidt and Katie Benner. Here’s the key sentence: “The real Hunter Biden story is complex and very different in important ways from the narrative promoted by Republicans — but troubling in its own way.” As Michael said to me: “Should the vice president’s son be selling the perception of access to his father even if that son isn’t delivering anything for that money?” Jonathan Chait of New York magazine has compared Hunter Biden to the Supreme Court justices who have accepted large gifts from private citizens. “In American politics, the worst abuses by powerful people usually involve clever ways to exploit the law without committing crimes,” Chait wrote. Yes, Trump and his family have profited much more from their government service than Hunter Biden has. But that isn’t a fully satisfying explanation to many Americans. Perhaps, Chait argues, it’s time for stricter ethics rules for the highest officials and their close relatives: “It’s unsavory, but it’s not a crime” is a good argument for a defense lawyer. It’s not a great argument for people who are in a position to write new laws and whose survival depends on refuting the cynicism of a pseudo-populist whose appeal is rooted in the corrosive assumption that every politician is on the take.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 17, 2023 21:15:56 GMT
To get around rules forbidding candidate-oriented Super PACs from coordinating directly with campaigns, a Super PAC affiliated with Ron DeSantis posted on the website of a consulting firm associated with it, where the DeSantis campaign could view the materials. (Another example of how messed up our election laws and practices in this country are, by the way!) There are hundreds of pages of research and memos, including details on how the Super PAC (or at least some associated with it?) are advising DeSantis on his GOP primary debate strategy: defending Trump against Christie; attacking Ramaswamy HARD as "Fake Vivek" or "Vivek the Fake" (showing DeSantis doesn't have Trump's gift of juvenile nicknames...); naturally, attacking the Biden administration and the media "3-5 times"; and various other intel on other candidates (with Sen. Tim Scott another of the major targets, apparently). Focusing on Ramaswamy, Christie, and Scott would make some political sense, as they are DeSantis's other main competitors for second place. (Obviously Trump has a significant lead, so it all could be moot. But if he has to drop out of the race because of his legal issues, or is othewise unable to participate due to prison, etc., ...) But it also just reminds us how scuzzy the whole industry is. How fake. It's paid consultants telling candidates who to be, how to act, who to attack, in what words, etc. I loved Andrew Yang's comment in a '20 primary debate when he said how silly it is that they're all on that stage, in makeup, reciting prepared gotcha lines and stump speech fragments, pretending that is anything like real debate or discussion. www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/us/politics/desantis-debate-strategy.html
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Post by B.E. on Aug 18, 2023 23:30:36 GMT
I thought this was a very strong interview from Christie. It starts out addressing the DeSantis' Super PAC story (which was mentioned by Kapitan yesterday) and I think his follow-up answer about his approach to the debate is perfect. I'm also very interested in the story about Trump announcing, then cancelling, his "major" news conference which was to be held on Monday coinciding with the release of a "large, complex, detailed but(?) irrefutable report on presidential election fraud" which would "complete(ly) exonerate" him. Christie weighs in on this story as well. Click here to watch on YouTube
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 23, 2023 12:09:42 GMT
Tonight is the first debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, with eight Republican primary candidates taking the stage in Milwaukee. I am trying to decide whether the GOP frontrunner is right: is this a waste of time, or should I "be there"?
My attitude toward the debates has soured tremendously over the past two election cycles. I always recognized them as more about candidates' preparation and ability to reply to questions with parts of their talking points (as opposed to real answers), but as time has gone on, they've gotten dumber and dumber. And I mean dumb. Reality television. Name-calling. Gotcha moments. Embarrassing arguments. People treat them like professional wrestling, where they cheer on their favorites and root for an elbow smash off the top turnbuckle, rather than listening to serious people making their arguments as to why they deserve our votes.
I used to be able to just enjoy the political skill. Now I find myself hating everyone involved more and more, from the moderators (and their networks) to the candidates to their unseen (but hugely important, probably more so than the candidates) consultants and Super PACs.
And of course in this specific case, the felonious far-and-away frontrunner* isn't bothering to show up, holding a competing event to steal ratings. How mature and productive. (Meanwhile as far as I know the president has not yet agreed to debate either. So Dems ought not be too comfortable in their supposed superiority.)
*OK, he's innocent until proven guilty. (Though smoke/fire, etc.) But "felonious if proven guilty far-and-away frontrunner" doesn't have the same flow to it. This one was for the art of the sentence!
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Post by carllove on Aug 23, 2023 18:09:40 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 23, 2023 18:38:35 GMT
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Post by carllove on Aug 23, 2023 19:11:30 GMT
I'm pretty sure Trump and his family are guilty of the same sort of things. I thought Trump was a good President, but I just don't understand the Republicans who insist on he being the 2024 Republican candidate. The man is an egomaniac and thinks he is above the law. Just so frustrating! Trump has just as much baggage as Biden, yet so many refuse to see it. They both need to go. Evidently many Republicans are stupid. Hopefully the debates will open some eyes. I want someone who my age or younger, to take the reins of this country. Too many geriatrics who have fed at the government trough for too long. Looking forward to the debates tonight, even if you are not. I am hoping that the eventual Republican candidate comes from the group tonight. Of course Fox had to dog my current favorite, Vivek Ramaswamy, over his accepting a fellowship from George Soros' brother Paul and his Wife. I really wish they would stop pushing Trump. Fox had a similiar disparaging article about Ron DeSantis' Super Pac. At least Ben Shapiro has moved on from Trump.
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