***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[RustyShackleford]

What would the penalty be for that then, if the claims were to be true?

I believe a fine

 

[InTheHallway]

Just because you scream the same lie at the top of your lungs 1000000 times doesn't make it true.

Democrats recuperated the dossier after the GOP failed to make use of it to make Trump lose the primaries.

Are you serious? Please watch Hillary's interview from today ... Your use of the term recuperation is either slyly intentional or you don't understand what it means ...

In short, Reps start digging for dirt, decide it's too much of a stretch given there was nothing there, and Clinton invests $9M into propaganda spreading, irrespective of facts ...

 

[RustyShackleford]

Are you serious? Please watch Hillary's interview from today ... Your use of the term recuperation is either slyly intentional or you don't understand what it means ...

In short, Reps start digging for dirt, decide it's too much of a stretch given there was nothing there, and Clinton invests $9M into propaganda spreading, irrespective of facts ...

This guy's shtick kills be every time.

Well, not when he is spewing bigotry, but the delusional political rants are hilarious

 

[chao7]

Are you serious? Please watch Hillary's interview from today ... Your use of the term recuperation is either slyly intentional or you don't understand what it means ...

In short, Reps start digging for dirt, decide it's too much of a stretch given there was nothing there, and Clinton invests $9M into propaganda spreading, irrespective of facts ...

 

[sonoftony]

I'm buying that man a beer. He's an American Hero

 

[rolaholic]

 

[trueprada]

 

[Mark Antony]

Mueller can just leave Sessions for last.

 

[elpablo21]

I'm buying that man a beer. He's an American Hero

Savagery

 

[dacomeup]

Mueller ain't getting fired at this point. That would be a political **** storm that I don't even think that these guys are dumb enough to attempt.

 

[RustyShackleford]

If Mueller gets fired, and Trump cites the same reason Comey got fired, the GOP have to impeach Trump at that point. It is would be clear obstruction of justice. Hell he should be done right now

But we know they wouldn't. They are amoral cowards

 

[IATT]

 

[trueprada]

 

[rolaholic]

'I'm the best negotiator'

 

[elpablo21]

 

[Methodical Management]

In my experience (and to my regret), few words cause people's eyes to glaze over as quickly as "epistemology." This, however, is a very accessible article that I think some of you may appreciate, given the recent discussion:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis

 

[EddieDoyers]

Northam is still a better choice than Gillipsie. Democrats have to realize a moderate like Northam is a key to winning back those red states.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Northam

I hope to god people still show up for him and the Dems though. So much more important things on the line. And if the Dems get control, hopefully enough of them tell Northam to kick rocks on that flip flop

 

[sonoftony]

Mueller ain't getting fired at this point. That would be a political **** storm that I don't even think that these guys are dumb enough to attempt.

GOP: hold my beer

 

[IATT]

 

[RIP sleazyy]

In my experience (and to my regret), few words cause people's eyes to glaze over as quickly as "epistemology." This, however, is a very accessible article that I think some of you may appreciate, given the recent discussion:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis

Really good read. This part gave me a weird feeling.

As long as conservatives can do something — steal an election, gerrymander crazy districts to maximize GOP advantage, use the filibuster as a routine tool of opposition, launch congressional investigations as political attacks, hold the debt ceiling hostage, repress voting among minorities, withhold a confirmation vote on a Supreme Court nominee, defend a known fraud and sexual predator who has likely colluded with a foreign government to gain the presidency — they will do it, knowing they’ll be backed by a relentlessly on-message media apparatus.

And if that’s true, if the very preconditions of science and journalism as commonly understood have been eroded, then all that’s left is a raw contest of power.

Unified left and right will be the only thing that can stop this runaway train. We're going to a very bad place. Literal alternate realities depending on your alignment in this country coupled with destabilizing efforts from a hostile state got us lookin real shaky.

And I read earlier that Russia and China are continuing their efforts to bring down the dollar. I have a sneaking feeling that they're waiting for Trump to do something stupid over in NK.

We're a bad decision away from living in a Tom Clancy novel.

 

[elpablo21]

In my experience (and to my regret), few words cause people's eyes to glaze over as quickly as "epistemology." This, however, is a very accessible article that I think some of you may appreciate, given the recent discussion:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis

Crazy conservative fairy tales have become numbingly common

The sheer absurdity of the tale is familiar these days, reminiscent of “Pizzagate,” the bonkers story about Democrats running a child prostitution ring out of a DC pizza joint. Even after it went viral on Reddit and some jacked-up angry white guy showed up at Comet Pizza with a gun, it still had the scent of parody. It is quite simply impossible for most people to imagine believing all the things that would be required to also believe that DC Democrats are into organized child trafficking.

It is similarly difficult for most people to imagine believing that Hillary Clinton has had multiple people killed, that Obama is a secret Muslim who wasn’t born in the US, that Trump had millions of votes stolen, that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump’s White House, that Seth Rich (the mid-level Democratic staffer who was tragically murdered) was assassinatedfor stealing DNC emails and giving them to WikiLeaks, or that Antifa, the fringe anti-fascist movement, will begin going door-to-door, killing white people, starting on November 4.
n short, an increasingly large chunk of Americans believes a whole bunch of crazy things, and it is warping our politics.

This basic story has been told plenty of times (my longer version is here), but the reason we should not let it out of our sights right now is the Mueller investigation.

But we are disturbingly close to the following scenario:

Say Mueller reveals hard proof that the Trump campaign knowingly colluded with Russia, strategically using leaked emails to hurt Clinton’s campaign. Say the president — backed by the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Fox News, Breitbart, most of the US Cabinet, half the panelists on CNN, most of the radio talk show hosts in the country, and an enormous network of Russian-paid hackers and volunteer ****posters working through social media — rejects the evidence.
They might say Mueller is compromised. It’s a Hillary/”deep state” plot. There’s nothing wrong with colluding with Russia in this particular way. Dems did it first. All of the above. Whatever.

Say the entire right-wing media machine kicks to life and dismisses the whole thing as a scam — and conservatives believe them. The conservative base remains committed to Trump, politicians remain scared to cross the base, and US politics remains stuck in partisan paralysis, unable to act on what Mueller discovers.

In short, what if Mueller proves the case and it’s not enough? What if there is no longer any evidentiary standard that could overcome the influence of right-wing media?

Well...this is pretty scary

 

[hipstermike]

it really is frightening how even they admit nothing will change a MAGA persons mind, they state so openly on twitter

I wonder how much of this was truly created by Russia vs just crazies here

 

[biggie62]

it really is frightening how even they admit nothing will change a MAGA persons mind, they state so openly on twitter

I wonder how much of this was truly created by Russia vs just crazies here

It’s a combination of both. They literally took the propoganda tools the US created in the past, put them on steroids, and modernized them to today in getting their agenda pushed. It’s firetening. Especially with how deregulated advertising is in this country. Some of the campaign regulations European countries here are badly needed here. Maybe not to that extent but to some extent. And no, no industry is going to self regulate. Their idea of self regulating is maximizing profits while deterring a small thing here or there to seem as if they are actually doing something. Seen it happen to many times in case studies when I was in business school.

 

[Mark Antony]

This *****.