The Politics Thread

[juppiter]

What are the thoughts on Peter Fonda saying Trump’s son should be locked in a cage with pedophiles?

[DRW50]

 

I'm not fatalistic, per se, about their chances, but I feel like a lot of people are still lulled into the idea of a huge anti-Trump backlash, the same way they were in 2016. It makes me nervous, because I feel like if we get another 2016, or even a better year but one that doesn't live up to expectations, many will hang up their hats for good, saying that America can't save itself, white people want everyone to die so why bother anymore, take your pick. I dread the coming, inevitable crash on the left. Hopefully there's enough work going on to where we will win back at least one chamber. Unlikely as it is, I really hope it can happen.

 

I'd say what others already said - it went too far and was stupid. I wish all the people who think they're being clever by going on about Trump's son realized that it is mostly desperate and pathetic, and gets them nothing beyond a few extra likes and retweets.

 

I've pretty much had my fill of "Celebrities yell about Trump...how brave...yay them!" I think the tipping point was seeing de Niro get his feet bathed for yelling random obscenities at the Tonys. I'm sure it made him feel good, but I'm not going to get my medals out, especially given the anti-vax documentary scandal a year or two ago.

Edited June 21, 2018 by DRW50

[ReddFoxx]

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/393311-ian-bremmer-trump-tossed-candy-to-merkel-during-g-7-said-dont?__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true

 

This is what sort of foreign policy the administration is offering. Childish, disrespectful, ignorant.

[DramatistDreamer]

Another similarity between Bibi Netanyahu and Trump has been that it appears that others around them will fall before they do.

 

[JaneAusten]

You know I am no longer naïve about the democrats and their chances. You guys do know the democrats have been flipping elections all over the country. I feel like this idea that the Beltway media seems to have their pulse on the elections. I'm sorry but has anyone here looked to see how candidates are actually campaigning and talking to voters in THEIR districts, THEIR states outside of the Beltway focus? I'll be happy to share local articles here.

 

In Il14 which is not considered a flappable district, a young African American nurse won the primary Lauren Underwood. The district is rural urban combination. She knows she needs to flip some moderates and needs independent support to win. Her opponent Randy Hultgren is unpopular wildly in his district. People all over the district care about public education they don't have charter schools, loads of private schools to choose from and Illinois is in financial crisis - our schools are. And rural areas. Farmers BELIEVE IN CLIMATE CHANGE. They see the impact daily. They are fearful of tariffs, our environmental policies, and their crop insurance is skyrocketing. And the main issue across the district is healthcare. One of our members asked her about Trump. She doesn't talk to them at all about that unless they want to discuss and they do when it relates to things he committed to helping them with and now realize he

s not. And healthcare is not just about individual coverage, its about employers. The second largest employer in the district are hospitals. More ACA cuts leads to closing in particular rural hospitals.

 

Now the fact I don't live in this district, am a political novice, and can articulate the issues people in districts likely across the country are concerned with I hope sends the message that it's not all anti trump and that the people in the Beltway who still can't acknowledge that the GOP a lesser degree has done this to themselves and this country are more the ones who are trump trump trump than the rest of the country. Frankly I find the arrogant Never Trumpers the worst. I follow Tom Nichols, Steve Schmidt but this inability to look internally is still not there so they point at the democrats and Trump, thinking he is some kind of anomaly versus a result of policies their and to a lesser degree democrats have pushed for years. And Joe Scarborough trying to call Trump a democrat doesn't absolve them either.

Edited June 21, 2018 by JaneAusten

[DRW50]

 

I think people are wary mostly because special elections can be an iffy qualifier (I think Democrats did well in them in 2004 and 2009/10). It's the special elections which are making me hope Democrats will win at least one chamber of Congress (I'm not completely up on whether they're able to put any state legislatures in play), but the map is against them.

 

As for the media, they support Republicans, generally, as this gets them more money/ad revenue  and this also helps their many "strong father" issues (see all the years of crying over McCain, and how excited they'd get when Trump would shoot missiles, etc.). I guess it depends on whether they will want to have Democrats do a little better so they can try to blame them for problems in the next few years to help Republicans in 2020. Most of the time, with a few exceptions, the press at large will always be partial to the GOP.

Edited June 21, 2018 by DRW50

[marceline]

I'm cautiously optimistic about Dems chances in November. My concerns are based mainly around election interference. We've done nothing to protect our election infrastructure, the SCOTUS just okayed voter suppression, I still see Russian bots and talking points swarming all over social media. Then of course there's the far left which is still trying to screw us. Bernie actually has a book coming out right before the midterms so he will obviously use that book tour to [!@#$%^&*] with us.

 

I wish people would tamp down the talk of a blue wave though. This isn't The West Wing. Millions of our fellow Americans are now full-blown fascists and we have internment camps on the border. That doesn't get fixed in one election.

 

The wild card in all of this is Mueller. From what I've seen in TrumpRussia circles, his report is due to come down in the next couple of months. If he drops it before midterms that could be a game changer.

[DramatistDreamer]

It's a shame that more people don't watch PBS.  The NewsHour is really the only TV news that I watch, (otherwise I just read the news). 

The NewsHour would be the type of program that goes in-depth, spends at least 10 minutes on a story in a town or small city to see the socio-economic and cultural factors when weighing them against the local politics.  Then they would revisit the town or city later on for a follow-up. 

I can't abide by most network & cable news that only seem to operate within soundbytes.

Edited June 21, 2018 by DramatistDreamer

[dragonflies]

Dayum Wanda Sykes is PISSED 

 

 

[Khan]

I can't blame her for being pissed, though.  Ivanka is just one of the most exasperating people ever to walk the earth.

[DramatistDreamer]

Congress can be wishy-washy but at least there's Mueller and this man-

 

 

[DRW50]

A rabbit hole of awfulness.

 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/21/scott-lloyd-anti-abortion-separated-kids-642094

[Vee]

Daytime's own speaks again:

 

 

I don't think the entire media leans GOP as it did in the 2000s. I do think it is still partial to easy narratives like 'both sides' and 'Democrats in disarray/are wimps', and a willful ignorance about more complex procedural issues. I think that comes from the top, from a lot of owners, producers, managers, etc. who are older and still entrenched in the mindsets of the Reagan '80s and the Clinton era. But I see a lot of good journalists on TV and in print working hard and speaking truth in spite of those cross-currents and frustrating recurring narratives.

 

The media has a long, long way to go to get its [!@#$%^&*] together - and answer for - but it's definitely not 2003 anymore. I certainly don't think their reasoning for hammering the GOP in 2018 is to do some sort of insane double reversal so they can blame Democrats in the next cycle for GOP problems. Like Trump, this is not some clever ploy or conspiracy. It's human nature and illogic. I think most of these people are just mortified by the GOP right now, period, and rightly so - and in the case of many of those journalists (or white people), simply failing to see or acknowledge their own complicity with the problems that led us here.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Vee

[JaneAusten]

Vee they are still doing it. They spent weeks on a narrative about how democrats were losing control of key races in the California primary citing alleged polling and such. And when the results started coming it and initially showed some positives for the GOP(which flipped as the night went on), they were crowing over it. MSNBC especially., Frankly they had eggs on their faces the next day when the GOP got locked out of 10 races in the state legislature and the democrats not one. I'm, sure a case could be made for a couple of races being close, but it's about winning elections as my Senator Durbin says. And I have not seen one publication or network apologize for their coverage. It still galls me that Scarborough can sit around and blame Trump being a democrat on the horribleness of the GOP.  The only time I have ever seen a visible reaction to Scarborough's idiotic comments was when Whoopi Goldberg rolled her eyes at him and didn't say one word when he and his "fiancé" appeared on The View several months ago.

[DRW50]

 

Good point, although I don't feel like they're hammering the GOP that much - I think they're fed up with Trump, because of the way he treats them, but they still have hope for Republicans. They are also still pushing the "both sides," as the NYT did in the last day or two with their latest "everyone says such bad things now" article. I think there's something inside the culture of the media and the men who run it that makes it difficult for them to ever detach from Republican ideals. 

 

Joe and Mika are the most vapid nobodies in all of cable news - they've never done a thing to help anyone and have never had a compelling word to say. She is a walking, talking SNL news sketch from 1989. Yet they are treated like royalty. I guess the industry still falls for this breathy faux-importance. I saw a thing about Mika making sure we know she and Ivanka are friends and she talked to Ivanka over the phone about immigrant policies and how Ivanka's response was a "joke." Every word had the trumpeting of vacuousness - "I'm so important and Ivanka is my friend even though I talk real talk to her!"

 

I just can't stand them. I really can't.