34 minutes ago, JaneAusten said:

Yes a lot of 2016 became about Trump but I am tired of people, mostly the media, but also candidates like Biden and now Buttigieg dragging us back there by commenting on and  relitigating this.  Maybe they are not really doing it but the media seems to fixate on these comments and want to make it a wedge yet again. As a Clinton supporter who wants to move on, it's not me or many of us who don't want to move on.

 

 I get the Clinton team being annoyed.  Sure there were mistakes made by the campaign, but can we stop with the it's all Clinton's fault. It wasn't her team that refused to discuss policy, that deciding covering empty podiums at Trump rallies, salivating at the next terrible comment Trump would make about any marginalized group spending days discussing it, while poking fun at Clinton's speech in Reno on the rise of White Nationalism. She was right by the way as they all said it was overblown. So the media can f-off. And  the white men running flapping their gums over it certainly need to stop this. I don't hear any of the women or men of color making stupid remarks like this, which is just another indication of lack of awareness on the part of these white male candidates because none of it ever touches them personally. 

 

I can see why people who supported Clinton would be annoyed, and I agree that white men have a privilege that no one else does (and I think that is another reason so many resent and dislike Pete, because they don't feel he has done enough to accept his privilege). It's just that in this case, when the comments are brought up two months after being said, and are brought up by a white man no less, then it feels less like genuine anger on behalf of Hillary to me and more like someone either not being able to have their campaign tactics criticized, or, possibly, someone who has an issue with Pete or is more inclined to support another candidate, and chooses to make this a topic just as Pete is gaining in the polls. 

 

All he's done is just yet again expose Hillary to negative media conversation and attacks, even as she has tried to move on. It gives me bad flashbacks to the way that Bill, Mark Penn, and so many others on her two campaigns behaved. 

Edited March 31, 20196 yr by DRW50

There is no question as Pete's popularity has risen @DRW50, people started digging. That's likely why this surfaced. And it's going to happen. That's what campaigns do.

 

I think Pete for the most part has stayed away from this stuff and in his case more self awareness I think. He's also discussed stories about himself and his own privilege, so he's aware of it, perhaps I am being unfair to him.  And let's be honest it's the digging and then the media globbing onto this that fed this story. I don't believe it's as important as twitter is making it out to be. I have to remember something I heard Jason Kander say is that the world does not live on twitter. Which is true.

In right wing money suck circle news, DC McAllister, who, sadly, is not a kick-ass newspaper editor from 1945 but is instead...this person, has gotten fired from her job at The Federalist. She claims it's because of her comments about gay journalist Yashar Ali, which included such gems as he is trying to "find himself in another man's [!@#$%^&*]," but the likely reason is because she decided to decided to go off about the ladies of The View, even though one of them is married to...the co-founder of The Federalist. And she was even at her wedding. Yes, it is nepotism icon, Meghan McCain. 

 

https://www.inquisitr.com/5369520/dc-mcallister-you-were-at-my-wedding-denise-meme-fired-by-that-weddings-groom/

 

http://www.papermag.com/meghan-mccain-denise-response-2632983881.html

 

Anyway, Ben Shapiro also canned her from her gig at the Daily Wire, she claims because of her comments about a gay man. I find that very hard to believe, so I wonder if he was just looking for an excuse. If not, then the idea of being too homophobic for Ben Shapiro is mind-boggling. 

 

I'm sure Trump will make her a Cabinet secretary soon enough. Or she can go drain money on whatever the far right uses in place of Patreon now. 

We'll be lucky if Democrats don't mortally wound their own candidate before the actual election even starts.  I remember the years when I looked forward to national elections with a sense of excitement. Now I just dread it.

1 hour ago, Juliajms said:

We'll be lucky if Democrats don't mortally wound their own candidate before the actual election even starts.  I remember the years when I looked forward to national elections with a sense of excitement. Now I just dread it.

 

That's exactly what will happen, and it's what many on the right and left want to happen. I really will be surprised if Trump isn't reelected.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

That's exactly what will happen, and it's what many on the right and left want to happen. I really will be surprised if Trump isn't reelected.

It's a lot like 2016, in that it seems impossible on the one hand, and yet you can almost feel history repeating itself.  Many on the left are over confident again. There is just no way we can lose right? Look at how awful he is! Look at the poll numbers! I'll never forget how pissed I got at my husband for saying he thought Trump could win it a few weeks before the election.  "There is no way in hell that's going to happen!" 

 

Well, "we"  let the monster in the door and it's not going to be that easy to get it out again. Not just Trump himself, but all the hate and the erosion of Democratic norms.  All of the things  that helped get us here such as Russian interference and voter suppression are still problems. The only difference is that Trump is already in power this time.

 

Of course, that doesn't even address the people on the far left who want to sabotage any democrat who doesn't fit into their effing revolution.

The media is really picking up the story with Joe Biden in earnest.  Because Biden has been in public office for so long, there's a lot of 'meat' to pick at there. 

I think it may also become a case of 'the more you know, the less there is to like' type of scenario.

It's been mentioned many times in this thread that Democrats and Republicans have different standards for their candidates. 

Republicans probably wouldn't have balked at backing John Edwards, despite his awful personal history, because look who is in office now.  Democrats have expected more, even before the emergent 'ultra-progressive' left arrived on the scene.

6 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

The media is really picking up the story with Joe Biden in earnest.  Because Biden has been in public office for so long, there's a lot of 'meat' to pick at there. 

I think it may also become a case of 'the more you know, the less there is to like' type of scenario.

It's been mentioned many times in this thread that Democrats and Republicans have different standards for their candidates. 

Republicans probably wouldn't have balked at backing John Edwards, despite his awful personal history, because look who is in office now.  Democrats have expected more, even before the emergent 'ultra-progressive' left arrived on the scene.

 

They would have just said Edwards made a mistake, everyone does, and say Jesus anointed him (as they say for Trump). You know they actually paint pictures of Jesus walking with Trump. It just makes your skin crawl. 

Can't say that I'm at all surprised by this. 

Russia has been in Africa before helping to train and arm resistance fighters, including anti-apartheid fighters in Southern Africa but this time the Kremlin appears to be aligned with autocrats in politically fragile countries if its alliances with the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Sudan and Libya are any indication (yikes!). 

And with the U.S. currently being run by a man who regards Africa, not as a continent but one big sh*thole country, it's not surprising that even democratic-leaning African countries like Mali are looking to the Russians more and more.

 

Russia has alarmed Western officials by steadily expanding its military influence across Africa with arms sales, security agreements and training programs https://t.co/23HH7UdFKP

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 31, 2019

To people who may not fully understand the history and impact of blackface and minstrelsy (beyond that sitcom from the 1980s), this Op-Ed essay offers a pretty concise and informative timeline of the act and its corrosive effects in American society.

 

"They darkened their faces to portray black people as grinning, dancing simpletons"
Brent Staples writes an informative opinion piece on how blackface continues to contribute to the devaluation of blackness just as it did in the 19th century. @NUjournos https://t.co/yru9FdHMSg

— Rhyia Bibby (@BibbyRhyia) April 1, 2019

Breaking: Whistleblower has told House investigators senior WH officials overruled concerns about *25* people whose security clearances were initially denied over fears about foreign influence & potential conflicts-of-interest – warning of grave implications to national security

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 1, 2019

The Hill is trash I know but this is indicative of how a reputable news agency at one time has really gone into the you know what. I hope people don't follow the AP as their main news source these days.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/436715-ap-mocked-for-report-saying-beto-orourke-spoke-at-rally-in-his-native-spanish

The whistleblower has been named and for her honesty, she has faced very petty and vindictive retaliation.

Sometimes I have to take stock of what kind of country this is and it just floors me that this is the reality.

 

Reminder: Tricia Newbold also suffers from a rare form of dwarfism. As retaliation for her disclosure, her boss, Carl Kline, suspended her without pay, and moved her files to a shelf she couldn’t reach.

Because that’s where we’re at now.

— Angry Staffer (@AngrierWHStaff) April 1, 2019

Tricia Newbold says as many as 25 White House officials were granted security clearances after initially being denied https://t.co/kVE1Vf3Wky

— POLITICO (@politico) April 1, 2019

39 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

The whistleblower has been named and for her honesty, she has faced very petty and vindictive retaliation.

Sometimes I have to take stock of what kind of country this is and it just floors me that this is the reality.

 

Me too, but I'm starting to get used to it in-between anxiety attacks.  I really don't expect her whistleblowing to make  a difference, but she's brave for trying.

This has GOT to be an April Fool's joke.

 

I’m in. We need someone in the middle. #2020 pic.twitter.com/IGt69bEQz1

— James Comey (@Comey) April 1, 2019