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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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True to an extent, though the American body count is what would really dictate the effect on the 2020 election more than anything else.
Increasing the possibility of South Korea trying to enter talks with the North and thus a greater chance of unilateral American action.
edited 19th Mar '17 6:48:21 PM by CaptainCapsase
Granted, if the North shells the south into dust, it gets flattened in turn.
If they actually manage to nuke anything, let alone the US, South Korea becomes the world's newest island.
And that's assuming the Chinese don't organize an anti-Kim coup and put a more controllable regime in place.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.This is an actual tweet from Justice Democrats...
I can't...
These people literally have NO FUCKING IDEA how elections work, and they want to replace every single "establishment" and "corporate" Democrat?
The fuck outta here.
New Survey coming this weekend!As with the tea party, I suspect it's about 80% rhetoric and chest beating, and 19% more of a threat than an actual objective. The goal is a hostile takeover of the democratic party, which only requires a few people to actually be primaried to scare the rest into following the new party line.
edited 19th Mar '17 7:00:14 PM by CaptainCapsase
As someone else posted in the East Asia thread (Terminus Est I think), China isn't going to initiate a regime change. At least, not as long as the people loyal to the Party members who set up China's alliance with North Korea are still running around in the Party. I'm of the mind that if Xi Jinping had full control over the CCP — which I think would not be a good thing at all since he basically wants to create a Cult of Personality like Mao's — he'd toss Kim under a bus. Literally.
I had at least thought they had some basic understanding of how elections work, given the amount of dedication and interest they are supposedly pouring in to the effort. Hell, I'm not the most politically active person, and I apparently know more about how primaries work than the Justice Democrats!
Edit:
Seriously, they would have come across a lot better if they had just tweeted a friendly reminder to people to check their state's registration rules. Maybe tweet alerts every time a deadline approaches. But no, they have to shoehorn in manufactured outrage at the "corrupt DNC". And they wonder why mainstream Democratic Party members don't want them gaining influence.
edited 19th Mar '17 7:15:44 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedIs there a particular reason this group gets so much attention? I don't regard them as especially influential, just vocal, and while I don't particularly approve of their hardball approach that's because I don't approval of political hardball in general due to the long term consequences of that approach.
edited 19th Mar '17 7:33:28 PM by CaptainCapsase
x13 The dollar-swastikas were a nice touch. That artist has talent. Also
“Maybe put some thumbs down up there around Trump or something but I don’t like waking up to the Nazi signs,” he told Arizona Central.
As for Korea, one can only hope the incoming S. Korean administration is staffed with very lucky geniuses. I'd be impressed if the State Department still knows where Korea is.
And I'm reasonably certain that the Kims would prefer to continue sipping champagne on the backs of their subjects. That would abruptly end in any war, and ultimately, N. Korea is no match for any of its neighbors. (Taiwan might be able to take it out). Rationality might dictate that Kim postures to keep up appearances domestically, and remind all interested that they'll go down, but go down hard.
Problem is Trump is a strong leader(TM) whose ego matters just as much as realpolitik. If it comes to war, history'll record that the US stumbled into it.
edited 19th Mar '17 7:32:32 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our livesManchin's a DINO, if I recall correctly?
From the sound of things, I'd rather him be replaced...but at the same time, he does seem to have voted with the party on some issues, so it's probably better to keep as many seats as we can.
Oh God! Natural light!
We're talking about an "outsider group" looking to achieve a hostile takeover of the democratic party. The immediate goal is in fact to cause as much damage to the democrats electorally as possible, ideally by removing incumbents and replacing them with their own preferred candidates, but simply splitting the vote enough to cause incumbents to lose is more than enough to hold the party brass hostage with. It's the same strategy the tea party used to accomplish their hostile takeover of the GOP, because when you get down to it, "cutting off your nose to spite the face" actually works in the short term if those opposed believe you're prepared to go through with it. The long term damage is why I oppose such measures, especially if these hardball tactics are used in something more consequential than intra-party power struggles.
edited 19th Mar '17 7:35:10 PM by CaptainCapsase
Part of me suspects that several members of the Trump Administration look forward for a good ol' conventional war in hopes that it may bring about another World War-esque manufacturing boom for their vaunted white working class.
That, and an excuse to round up and intern citizens of East Asian descent as to confiscate and auction off their property to "share" the wealth of the model minority with the silent majority.
Here's one thing about the Manchin argument: West Virginia is, at this point, a very conservative state because the coal miners have all decided that only Republicans care about them. and Democratic platforms of environmentalism and civil rights, which is not popular (at all) with West Virginians at large.
So that leaves you with Joe Manchin (who is very popular in WV) and a few options: let him stay and then you get a Democratic vote in the Senate who will weasel on you a lot but at least vote your way like 75 percent of the time when it actually matters. Or boot him out and then you get the near certainty of a GOP Senator who votes with you absolutely zero percent of the time.
Sessions was getting in with or without Manchin. The 2018 map for Dems is basically a bunch of reasonably solid liberals, some of the red centrists, Manchin, Tom Carper, and Dianne Feinstein. You want to primary some people? Well, go for Carper and Feinstein.
edited 19th Mar '17 8:00:45 PM by Lightysnake
Joe Manchin and people like him are the only types of Democrats that can be elected in WV. Let's be clear — I don't like him and loathe what he represents, but goddammit, we need to fill seats with Democrats.
I'll bet Justice Democrats are sitting in Manhattan or San Francisco — they know less than nothing about Appalachia, so pledging to primary Manchin is beyond stupid.
Primary Feinstein and bring in someone at least twenty years younger.
edited 19th Mar '17 8:08:44 PM by CrimsonZephyr
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."A more capable negotiator (one that is exceedingly ruthless and cold-blooded) who is actually capable of using diplomacy would probably be pushing China to do just that. Saying something like "Look, we know you don't want to deal with North Korean refugees flooding your borders when one of the Kims inevitably fucks up and causes his country to go down in flames, and we know it's only a matter of time before that happens. It's a miracle it hasn't happened yet. Waiting for the Kims to fuck up will just make the ripple effects of them doing it bigger and more disruptive, and all the while a decent portion of your people are getting sick of always having to support NK."
"So, all that said, here's the deal: remove Kim and put in a more stable, less aggressive regime with no nuclear toys. It leaves you with a lesser risk of dealing with a North Korean collapse, we have much less reason to have our military on your doorstep, and in return maybe we'll give recognition to some of your territorial claims in the South China sea too, just to add a cherry on top. You can always say something like that the recent behavior of NK and the assassination of Kim-Jung Nam is what forced your hand, just so you save face when you do take action."
Of course, the X-factor here is that at least some of the NK nukes and conventional weapons are probably targeting China. Because while financial support and trade may make two countries friends, nothing keeps another nation friendly quite like the threat of one of their cities vanishing from the map in case you're ever feeling betrayed. If the Kim family has any brains at all, considering how dependent they are on China, they're probably doing just that in order to get some extra leverage.
Yeah, because Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and other such righties telling their fans to rush out to the open Democratic primaries and try to swamp it with their votes to intentionally fuck up the Democrats is exactly what we need. [eyeroll] (Yes, that has happened in the past.)
I wouldn't mind primaries being open to independents as well as registered Democrats, but even then you'd probably need some system, like that they can't have changed their registration from Republican to independent within the last 6 months or something just to make sure they don't game the system that way.
I'll bet Justice Democrats are sitting in Manhattan or San Francisco — they know less than nothing about Appalachia, so pledging to primary Manchin is beyond stupid.
This reminds me of something I heard on a local, ultra-liberal radio station coming out of Manhattan shortly after the election. They were blaring that the election was proof that Schumer and similar Democrats had to go, because it was obvious that their economically centrist ways had failed. At one point the host of the show was screaming "If you're not an economic leftist, what's the point of calling yourself a liberal? Being pro-gay rights and pro-choice?! Most Republicans are for those things nowadays!"
The sheer ignorance of what hard right Republicans are and want truly astounded me. The stupid shortsightedness still makes me cringe.
If you truly believe in an ideology, you have to go out and argue and fight for it to come to pass. You can convince people and bring them around if you do it right, but you can't assume that there are droves of people out there who believe exactly what you do and are just chomping at the bit to hear what you, specifically want to hear. Culture is different all across this country, and it takes a lot of time and effort to change culture. Being blinded by your own certainty that you're right, and coming to lose sight of your true opponents until you hate the people who agree with you +80% of time more than the people who agree with you 10% or so of the time is the true stumbling block of the ideologue.
edited 19th Mar '17 8:50:57 PM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |

What sort of effect would the recent scandals in South Korea have on this situation?
Oh God! Natural light!