The Political Junkie Thread

[mattman91]

I don't visit this place regularly, but I'll try to respond to a few posts.

Regarding "Trump wanted to leave'.

Yes. He did. I was all for it when he said it. As a matter of fact, I was all for it 20 years before he said it. We should have never stayed in Afghanistan to begin with.

The issue is NOT about "when", but rather "how". Everyone knows that. Quoting Trump saying he wanted to leave a year ago ignores the real issue while trying to point blame. This disaster is 100% on the hands of the Biden and George W Bush administrations. 0% Trump.

Regarding mainstream media.

I'll never stop criticizing the media. I'm well aware that Fox News, OAN, NY Post, NewsMax are all biased towards the right. They are also part of the problem. They make profit off of framing narratives and do not give a shit about facts. The same thing happens on the other side, but there are WAY more liberal media outlets, and I don't think any of you would disagree with that. It is our job to look for facts from all sources and form our own opinions about the rest.

Regarding the Biden dementia/Alzheimer's comment.

First and foremost, I know firsthand how awful Alzheimer's is. I lost my grandmother to it about a decade ago. I would NEVER make fun of anyone suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia. But let's be real, it is obvious that Biden shows signs of serious cognitive decline. The man is pushing 80 years old. To speculate that he may be in early stages of dementia is NOT "trashy commentary". Fuck that. For four years I listened to you people comment on Trump's mental and physical health with such disdain. You didn't care about his health, and openly joked about it nonstop. Don't try to act sanctimonious now that it is your guy's health being questioned.

[dudog]

What's that buzzing noise?

[lawgrad91]

A judge in Michigan sanctioned Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and other "lawyers" for bringing the lawsuits trying to decertify Michigan's election results. They will have to pay fines and take legal education classes. I'm sure this will not help convince the people who still think the election was stolen. I'm not losing any sleep over it but I'm still wondering what the basis is for their anger and why they are so convinced that the election was stolen.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/25/10311271 ... ction-laws

They also have to attend 12 hours of some legal education class, which I guess must focus on something that they didn't have in law school. I pity the person that has to lead those sessions. "Mr. Wood, would you please stop rolling your eyes? And Ms. Powell, we talked about passing notes in class once already."

In other political news, Herschel Walker is running for the Georgia senate seat. He hasn't lived in Georgia for years, nor held any public office, but those are minor quibbles.

Wonder if it's 12 hours of specific legal ed, or just any 12 hours. (I'm too lazy to look). Usually the Virginia State Bar requires specific types of classes related to the issue at hand if there are sanctions.

And FWIW, it is only tradition that a person running for Senate has to live in the state in which they run. A person running for the House of Representatives has to reside in that district, but there's no such requirement for the Senate. (not taking up for Herschel. Not a fan of a guy who threatens his estranged spouse because she had the audacity to have a life...But the Senate has its own rules.)

[CameronBornAndBred]

Well here's a novel ploy to win an election. Take away your opponent via the courts!

The Republican Party of Virginia on Thursday filed a lawsuit to remove Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe from the November ballot, alleging that his election paperwork failed to meet the official guidelines due to a missing signature, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The state GOP filed the lawsuit in the Richmond Circuit Court, arguing that McAuliffe failed to sign his "declaration of candidacy" form, which is a part of the process in qualifying for the primary and general election ballot in the Commonwealth. The lawsuit also alleges that two McAuliffe staffers who attested to witnessing McAuliffe sign the form made false statements.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-gop ... 21010.html

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Well here's a novel ploy to win an election. Take away your opponent via the courts!

The Republican Party of Virginia on Thursday filed a lawsuit to remove Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe from the November ballot, alleging that his election paperwork failed to meet the official guidelines due to a missing signature, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The state GOP filed the lawsuit in the Richmond Circuit Court, arguing that McAuliffe failed to sign his "declaration of candidacy" form, which is a part of the process in qualifying for the primary and general election ballot in the Commonwealth. The lawsuit also alleges that two McAuliffe staffers who attested to witnessing McAuliffe sign the form made false statements.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-gop ... 21010.html

The Republican party has made it very clear that they have no desire to win any elections based on policy positions or being likeable. They are investing all of their efforts into changing the rules and winning on technicalities. Meanwhile, people like their paranoid, narcissistic leader are convinced that the Democrats are doing the same thing (still waiting on that proof of the rigged election). But Democrats are too dumb and/or nice to do the same thing (I'm leaning towards nice). So the Dems are bringing a knife to a gun fight, figuratively and literally.

[Phredd3]

Here's the thing, if this were under Trump's watch, the media would be blasting him 24/7 calling him a disgrace. I can't wait to watch the media try to help Biden shift the blame to Trump and run damage control.

I don't claim to be an expert, but I can point out the obvious.

And this is how media criticism works in the modern era: Hypothesize a counter-factual situation, hypothesize a media response to the counter-factual, and then assert how terrible the hypothetical response would be. Emphasize the point by making a dire prediction about the future which cannot be fact-checked because it has not yet happened. Then assert that this is such a clear and cogent argument that it is above reproach.

It is not.

[CameronBornAndBred]

And this is how media criticism works in the modern era: Hypothesize a counter-factual situation, hypothesize a media response to the counter-factual, and then assert how terrible the hypothetical response would be. Emphasize the point by making a dire prediction about the future which cannot be fact-checked because it has not yet happened. Then assert that this is such a clear and cogent argument that it is above reproach.

It is not.

[Phredd3]

The COVID train wreck over yonder was kinda different. I didn't get to see it live, but the replay was...interesting. I don't often get a chance to see an extended exchange with a complete nutjob. Some heroic, but ultimately pointless, efforts were made.

It's a sad state we are in that we are so socially divided that we cannot even agree on facts. I think there are two major causes: 1. Social media algorithms which don't care at all about fact and only care about how much time you spend on the particular platform, and 2. Political forces, both foreign and domestic and both right and left, actively taking advantage of American freedom guarantees and item #1 to muddy the waters so that very little can be seen clearly without a substantial amount of skepticism, intellect, and resources being used on the part of the individual consumer. The destruction of respect for expertise has been absolutely tragic.

I wish I had viable solutions to offer.

[CameronBornAndBred]

The COVID train wreck over yonder was kinda different. I didn't get to see it live, but the replay was...interesting. I don't often get a chance to see an extended exchange with a complete nutjob. Some heroic, but ultimately pointless, efforts were made.

We tried. If the poster had simply put out his "facts", it might have survived, and he might not be on vacation right now, but he insisted on ending every post with a goading challenge. The equivalence of anti-vaxxers (of which he kept shouting that he wasn't) to folks who take sides in politics passionately is undeniable. (Talking about both GOP and Dems). Logic goes out the window, the lemmings fall in line, and over the cliff they go in support of their beliefs.

The destruction of respect for expertise has been absolutely tragic.

I wish I had viable solutions to offer.

It's truly maddening. I wish you did, too.

[OPK]

He didn’t play well with other children.

[CameronBornAndBred]

He didn’t play well with other children.

Well, he played nicely with the Israeli kids. The rest of the playground, not so much. ;)

[Phredd3]

He didn’t play well with other children.

Well, he played nicely with the Israeli kids. The rest of the playground, not so much. ;)

Yeah, I've never seen so much reliance placed on one data set as that. Too bad the posters in question obviously couldn't read the data set, since it didn't say what they thought it said.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

He didn’t play well with other children.

Well, he played nicely with the Israeli kids. The rest of the playground, not so much. ;)

It seemed like he has friends and/or family in Israel. As a Jew, I was really hoping he wasn't one of us. The guy was a d-bag. I think the others have summarized it well. I sparred with him a bit and finally privately requested that a mod shut him down. His tone was just nasty and not productive. And he was basically trying to say that he got a vaccine but they are totally useless. One could argue that the fact that they seem to be wearing off is troubling, but there is no basis for saying they are useless.

I was reading his non-sense while simultaneously reading articles about the abortion disaster in Texas and McCarthy trying to make it impossible to investigate January 6. There are a lot of miserable people in this country. Fortunately, there are also a lot of good ones (present company included!)

[ArkieDukie]

I did not see the discussion, and it’s probably a good thing I didn’t. I’ve gotten more frustrated, and more outspoken, in attempting to rebut covid disinformation. I know of 2 people who died within the past week, both of whom took ivermectin and ended up sicker because of it. All this brouhaha over yet one more compound that kills the virus in vitro (in a test tube). Bleach does, too, but I’m not going to drink it. To equal the concentration of ivermectin needed to kill the virus in vivo, you would need to take a dosage that is well over the amount known to be toxic to humans.

Serious question. I’ve been saying for awhile now that Faux News and Newsmax should be sued into oblivion for the misinformation they are knowingly spreading. Is such a thing even possible? How would one need to go about doing such a thing?

[OPK]

I did not see the discussion, and it’s probably a good thing I didn’t. I’ve gotten more frustrated, and more outspoken, in attempting to rebut covid disinformation. I know of 2 people who died within the past week, both of whom took ivermectin and ended up sicker because of it. All this brouhaha over yet one more compound that kills the virus in vitro (in a test tube). Bleach does, too, but I’m not going to drink it. To equal the concentration of ivermectin needed to kill the virus in vivo, you would need to take a dosage that is well over the amount known to be toxic to humans.

Serious question. I’ve been saying for awhile now that Faux News and Newsmax should be sued into oblivion for the misinformation they are knowingly spreading. Is such a thing even possible? How would one need to go about doing such a thing?

That’s what Dominion is trying to do in their voting machine suits.

Having said that, there are some significant legal hurdles.

[CameronBornAndBred]

(Another) Sad day in Texas.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed into law a bill that bans 24-hour and drive-thru voting, imposes new hurdles on mail-in ballots and empowers partisan poll watchers.

The restrictive voting measure adds Texas to the list of Republican-controlled states that have seized on former President Donald Trump's lies about widespread voter fraud and clamped down on access to the ballot box this year. Already, Florida, Georgia and other states have enacted new voting laws.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/07/politics ... index.html

[dudog]

I did not know this, but it makes sense: Tucker's top advertisers are My Pillow and 3 supplement companies. If you want to sell a load of crap, find people who buy a load of crap.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

[ArkieDukie]

I did not know this, but it makes sense: Tucker's top advertisers are My Pillow and 3 supplement companies. If you want to sell a load of crap, find people who buy a load of crap.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/ ... li=BBnb7Kz

Whoa. Never made this connection. Interesting read.

[dudog]

A couple of major books coming out, by Woodward/Costa and ex-press secretary/Melania chief of staff. The leaks have started.

Just when you think you've heard everything...

[CrazyNotCrazie]

A couple of major books coming out, by Woodward/Costa and ex-press secretary/Melania chief of staff. The leaks have started.

Just when you think you've heard everything...

Fake news!

Donald lives by the elementary school playground mantra: I'm rubber and you're glue. Anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

If a world-renowned PhD writes an academic piece about covid, Trump supporters are suddenly experts and act like it is garbage. If someone writes a book critical of Trump, it is garbage - they will focus on a minor typo or something like that to discredit the whole thing. But they take the words of Fox News as gospel, no questions asked. Dems admittedly do this some in the opposite direction, but it is apples and oranges.