[Obdigore]

Malankazooie, on 17 June 2020 - 06:40 PM, said:

Anyone know when Biden is going to name his VP? Seemed like Kamala Harris was a shoo-in at one time, but with recent events, there's been clamoring for Stacey Abrams or the Mayor of Atlanta. What's the haps oh sageful, wisdom bearers of all things US politics?

Kamala is a prosecutor - shes a no-go for the liberals that Biden needs to court. Stacey Abrams has said multiple times she wants to work on stuff locally, but hasn't been vocal about that recently.

I still think Warren is the best choice of the female candidates I know of, but if he promised to pick a woman of color, she doesn't fit the bill.

[Aptorian]

But Obdigore, Warren is part Native American!

[Malankazooie]

Supposedly there's another position for Warren in Biden's administration if he wins. Placing Warren in a role where she can really make an impact. Other then securing votes to win the presidency, the VP, for having an important sounding title, doesn't have much impact and is basically a proxy to make lower tier appearances for the president and not much else.

[Terez]

She's often mentioned for Treasury. My dream Warren job in someone else's presidency is Attorney General, though. Perhaps especially in the few short years when Trump can be prosecuted. She's not a prosecutor but she understands financial crimes better than anyone else in the upper echelon of politics, and I'd love to see a Justice Department focused on financial crimes with a vengeance. Seems unlikely in a Biden presidency, though.

Also, there's a reason why Sarah Palin thought the VP was the head of the Senate; Dick Cheney took that role seriously as VP and he was the VP when she was on the McCain ticket. It's not typical, but he's not the only VP to have worked primarily out of the Vice President's Room outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol. For that to work, the VP has to be someone the party Senators like. Otherwise it would be seen as administrative overreach. Cheney was definitely there to micromanage the administration's agenda.

[amphibian]

What's the knock on effect if Warren leaves her Senate position? Do the Democrats lose the seat for the next couple cycles?

[Terez]

The Republican governor would appoint someone and then there would be a special election.

[Cause]

So Bolton just accused trump of asking China to help him win the election. If there is any evidence it means months of back and forth and second impeachment trial at best. More political division.

I want to say I believe it but honestly if Bolton knee this and didn’t volunteer this info to the senate he belongs in jail as a traitor himself.

[HoosierDaddy]

amphibian, on 17 June 2020 - 09:54 PM, said:

What's the knock on effect if Warren leaves her Senate position? Do the Democrats lose the seat for the next couple cycles?

Doubtful. Mass is solid blue in general. And their Republicans are further left than blue dogs.

[Aptorian]

These stories that have been coming out related to John Boltons books are... not surprising, but pretty terrible. Which leads one to the question why didn't this asshole testify? Did they White House block any possibility of that or did he just want to sell his book?

[Terez]

He didn't want to go against the Republican establishment, that's all. He said he would be happy to testify is they subpoenaed him, but there was already a case going through the courts where someone was fighting a subpoena and the Democrats felt that they had enough evidence to impeach and that it wasn't worth dragging out the impeachment process for a year to get more. And they were right - they absolutely had enough evidence to impeach. And I really doubt that Bolton's testimony would have swayed enough Republican senators to change anything. Not saying he did the right thing; again, his only concern was keeping his credibility as a "team player" for Republicans. He obviously doesn't consider Trump to be on the team.

[QuickTidal]

Can someone in the know about US politics tell me what happens to the existing Republican Party if Trump loses. Like do we think they will all unhitch their wagons from the notions of his base and try to move away from it? Do they double down? I understand that some of that (perhaps lots of that) will have to do with the Democrats getting majority in the Senate, or getting McConnell voted out....becuase they'd probably fear nothing if they still ruled the senate...but let's say Trump loses in Nov, and the Senate becomes much more even on R VS D numbers...do some of the less staunch defenders bail? Or are they too deep now?

Also, did anyone else see Eric Swalwell try to get ANY Republican to say/acknowledge the phrase "Black Lives Matter" and not only would no one do it, but that waste of human skin Gaetz pulled the All Lives Matter nonsense?

[Slow Ben]

#mattgaetzisatool

[Terez]

QuickTidal, on 18 June 2020 - 11:41 AM, said:

Can someone in the know about US politics tell me what happens to the existing Republican Party if Trump loses. Like do we think they will all unhitch their wagons from the notions of his base and try to move away from it? Do they double down? I understand that some of that (perhaps lots of that) will have to do with the Democrats getting majority in the Senate, or getting McConnell voted out....becuase they'd probably fear nothing if they still ruled the senate...but let's say Trump loses in Nov, and the Senate becomes much more even on R VS D numbers...do some of the less staunch defenders bail? Or are they too deep now?

They can't move away from Trump's base. That's their base. Without it they don't have voters. Trump is the result of decades of the GOP red-baiting and race-baiting until finally the voters got sick of GOP politicians not being nearly as nasty as they promised to be. There's no turning back from that.

The Project Lincoln folks are really something else. They (perhaps especially Rick Wilson) created this mess and now they want out. They thought they could string racist whites along with dogwhistling and empty promises and now that the base has produced someone more to their own liking, the party goons are stuck holding the bill.

Post-2012, there was a lot of speculation about the end of the GOP. They even produced an internal "autopsy" report, stressing how much they needed to focus on inclusiveness for the party to survive. What seemed likely then was that the GOP would die and the left would fracture to produce a left-right division more similar to what you see in the rest of the world, but then Hillary Clinton decided it was a good idea to run again, despite the left knowing better in 2008 and going with the black guy who, despite the enormous racial tension in this country, was far less controversial than her. So here we are. 8 years of a black president stoked those racial tensions so high, we got Trump, and the Democrats ran one of the least popular politicians in living memory against him. His victories in the primary gave the "silent majority" of racist trash more confidence than they have had in decades. He energized them, and exposed the GOP base for what it is, for those who did not already know.

[Aptorian]

Wait, I thought the Lincoln Project people were nice guys? Their attack ads make them seem... Well, even as I type it out now I realize that your enemies enemy, isn't necessarily your friend. Also America really should ban attack ads. Political propaganda based on how terrible the other guy is (true or not true) does not make for a civil or productive political discourse.

[Terez]

Aptorian, on 18 June 2020 - 01:23 PM, said:

Wait, I thought the Lincoln Project people were nice guys? Their attack ads make them seem... Well, even as I type it out now I realize that your enemies enemy, isn't necessarily your friend. Also America really should ban attack ads. Political propaganda based on how terrible the other guy is (true or not true) does not make for a civil or productive political discourse.

Rick Wilson is the guy who created some of the worst racist attack ads against Obama. Now he's doing it for the Lincoln Project. tbh they're not even great ads; the best anti-Trump ad I've seen so far is this Biden ad:

[Aptorian]

So apparently Trump's team "randomly, totally not intentionally" used an obscure Nazi symbol in a political ad On Facebook.

https://www.mediamat...ous-nazi-symbol

Oh, and apparently, they made 88 of these ads. 88 of course being a neo Nazi number. Totally random. I hate when I accidentally invoke the third rich or mistakingly quote racist police officers supporting shooting protesters.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 18 June 2020 - 07:02 PM

[QuickTidal]

Aptorian, on 18 June 2020 - 07:01 PM, said:

So apparently Trump's team "randomly, totally not intentionally" used an obscure Nazi symbol in a political ad On Facebook.

https://www.mediamat...ous-nazi-symbol

Oh, and apparently, they made 88 of these ads. 88 of course being a neo Nazi number. Totally random. I hate when I accidentally invoke the third rich or mistakingly quote racist police officers supporting shooting protesters.

Everything that you can tie to racist and Nazi-ish crap that comes out this Administration is almost certainly the result of Stephen Miller, whose own family hates the shit out of him, and is NEVER a mistake. He intentionally means every single racist thing he weasels into official WH stuff.

[Morgoth]

It almost feels a little like Cabala, reading it this closely, but the first sentence of the add has 14 words too.

[Primateus]

Barr tries to fire SDNY U.S. Attorney?

I mean, what the fuck?

Wait no, I don't mean that. It's no surprise at all. What is surprising is that it had taken him this long to try this.

[Terez]

Judging by the reactions of the lawyers on Twitter, especially the prosecutors, this is a huge deal. Barr lied in writing that Berman was resigning. This has apparently happened before, but Berman refused to take the bait, and announced that he had not, in fact, resigned. Big talk of impeaching Barr, now. They've been talking about that for months but it keeps heating up and this might be the last straw.