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Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#288176: Aug 19th 2019 at 4:57:16 PM

The Democratic Party shed its racist bloc when Republicans adopted the Southern Strategy in the 1970s in response to the Civil Rights movement. This was completely intentional and designed to split the blue collar base of the Democrats along racial lines. Republicans had been building up to this for some time with religious messaging targeted at those same voters, teaching them that God loved the man who raised himself to success; that accepting the government dole was immoral; that unions were bad; that drugs, gays, and abortion were evil; that patriotism meant ignoring the flaws in their country; and that their religion was under attack from the elitist, science-minded left.

The Democrats had lived in a tense standoff with their racist bloc ever since FDR tried to get universal healthcare passed along with the rest of the New Deal. It failed because it would force Southern states to desegregate their hospitals. Many attempts at more progressive social legislation ran up against this bulwark. It was only a small step for the Republicans to associate blacks with the "greedy layabout fattening on the dole", which was enough to shift the balance among rural and blue-collar whites. Nixon got the movement going and Reagan sealed the bargain.

This is not to say that all racism is gone from the left. Far from it; there's still plenty of "pity the poor colored man" in the Democratic party, a patronizing assumption that we know what's better for them. It's getting weeded out over time, however, as the older generations cede political power.

Edited by Fighteer on Aug 19th 2019 at 8:00:51 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#288177: Aug 19th 2019 at 5:26:35 PM

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/08/19/day-942/

    Day 942: Damaging to our democracy 
1/ Trump claimed – without evidence – that Google "manipulated" votes in the 2016 election after a Fox Business segment aired Senate Judiciary Committee testimony in June of a psychologist claiming that "biased search results generated by Google's search algorithm likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton (whom I supported)." The authors of the study looked at search results for 95 people over the 25 days preceding the election and evaluated the first page for bias. They did not describe their process, provided no data on the searches, or discuss how Google personalizes search results on past searches, preferences, and location. Trump's tweet also appears to refer to documents leaked to conservative group Project Veritas. The documents, however, do not contain outright allegation of vote manipulation or attempts to bias the election. (CNBC / Washington Post / Tech Crunch)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/19/trump-claims-google-manipulated-votes-after-internal-docs-leak.html

2/ The Federal Election Commission chairwoman called Trump's repeated allegations of voter fraud in the 2016 election unsubstantiated and "damaging to our democracy" because they "undermines people's faith" in the election system. Ellen Weintraub's comment came after Trump asserted at a rally in New Hampshire that voter fraud is the reason he lost the state's four electoral votes in the previous election. "There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016," Weintraub added, "or really in any previous election." (Politico / CNN / Axios)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/19/politics/ellen-weintraub-federal-election-commission-donald-trump-election-fraud/index.html

3/ Trump falsely claimed that he has the authority to make decisions about which TV networks can host the presidential debates during the general election. While complaining that Democrats had barred Fox News from hosting or televising the 2020 Democratic primary debates, Trump warned that he could do the same to Fox News in the general election if the polls about his reelection chances coming out of the network don't change for the better. "My worst polls have always been from Fox," Trump said. "And I think Fox is making a big mistake, because, you know, I'm the one that calls the shots on that — on the really big debates." (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/18/trump-fox-news-polls-not-happy-1467182

Trump is "not happy" with Fox News after a recent poll by the network showed him losing head-to-head matchups with four of the top Democratic candidates. Trump said he didn't "believe" the poll. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/18/trump-fox-news-polls-not-happy-1467182

4/ Thousands of union workers at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania were ordered to attend a Trump speech last week or lose some of their weekly pay. The rules given to workers stated that attendance was "not mandatory," but only those who arrived at 7 a.m., swiped in with their work I Ds, and stood for hours waiting to hear Trump speak would be paid for their time. "NO SCAN, NO PAY," said the memo, which also prohibited the workers from doing "anything viewed as resistance" during the event. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / NBC News / New York Times / Yahoo News)

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2019/08/16/Trump-speech-union-crowd-Shell-ethane-plant-natural-gas-beaver-county-pennsylvania-attendance-pay-overtime/stories/201908160113

5/ Trump and two of his senior economic advisers dismissed concerns of a recession. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and White House trade director Peter Navarro appeared on all five morning talk shows this weekend, arguing that Trump's tax cuts and trade war with China aren't harming Americans. The economy flashed some warning signs of a recession last week with the stock markets plunging as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell below that of the two-year Treasury note, which is considered one of the most reliable leading indicators of recession. Consumer confidence has also dropped 6.4% since July. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters: "I don't see a recession." (New York Times / Associated Press / Washington Post / ABC News)

https://apnews.com/1ffff50df5ad479e89156f31ab9d6044

6/ Trump urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a full percentage point. The Fed cut rates last month for the first time in a decade, signaling it might further cut rates amid slowing global growth and uncertainty over Trump's trade war with China. Trump chastised the central bank's chairman, Jerome Powell, for a "horrendous lack of vision" and claimed that the U.S. economy "is very strong." (Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-calls-on-fed-to-cut-rates-by-100-basis-points-amid-recession-fears/2019/08/19/289f192a-c292-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html

7/ White House officials are discussing a temporary payroll tax cut to reverse a weakening economy and encourage consumer spending. Payroll tax cuts usually add to the deficit and – depending on how they're designed – take billions of dollars out of Social Security and Medicare. (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-officials-eyeing-payroll-tax-cut-in-effort-to-reverse-weakening-economy/2019/08/19/4cab28ec-c2bd-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html

8/ Planned Parenthood pulled out of the federal family planning program rather than comply with a new Trump administration rule that restricts clinics from referring patients for abortions. Forgoing Title X federal funding could affect more than 1.5 million low-income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services like birth control, pregnancy tests, and sexually transmitted disease screening. Planned Parenthood serves about 40% of the four million patients under Title X. (New York Times / Politico / Wall Street Journal)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/19/planned-parenthood-trump-administration-1468561

9/ Trump wants to set up a naval blockade along the Venezuelan coastline to prevent goods from coming in and out of the country. Trump suggested the blockade to national security officials as recently as a few weeks ago, and has been raising the idea periodically for the last year and a half. Senior Pentagon officials believe a naval blockade is impractical, has no legal basis, and would drain additional resources from a U.S. Navy that is already stretched in their attempts to counter China and Iran. "He literally just said we should get the ships out there and do a naval embargo," said one source who heard Trump's suggestion. (Axios)

https://www.axios.com/scoop-inside-trumps-naval-blockade-obsession-555166b0-06f9-494c-b9fb-9577a589e2ac.html

10/ Trump still wants to buy Greenland. He confirmed that he asked his administration to explore the possibility of purchasing the island from Denmark, even though officials in Greenland have repeatedly said they're not for sale. Trump, however, called it "essentially […] a large real estate deal." (NBC News / Washington Post)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/top-white-house-economic-adviser-says-trump-still-looking-buying-n1043701

PresidentStalkeyes Eats moldy bread and flies into windows from United Kingdom of England-land Since: Feb, 2016 Relationship Status: Do you like me? (Yes ⎕ Definitely ⎕ Absolutely!!! ⎕)
Eats moldy bread and flies into windows
#288178: Aug 19th 2019 at 5:49:41 PM

I half-suspect that Trump wants to buy Greenland because he's jealous that Putin has way more barely-habitable tundra than he does - Putin's got Siberia, all he has is Alaska. :V

Perhaps next he'll ask Denmark if they'll give him Greenland in exchange for sending in the US Army to deal with all the Syrian refugees that have completely overrun the country, or so he's heard on Fox News. :V

Those sell-by-dates won't stop me because I can't read!
Wryte Since: Jul, 2010
#288179: Aug 19th 2019 at 5:57:53 PM

I've been assuming it's because he thinks the way Greenland looks bigger than South America on maps is its actual size.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#288180: Aug 19th 2019 at 6:24:53 PM

Fox News host roasts NRA's La Pierre: 'An odious little grifter' who needs to go – Fox News host Steve Hilton is blasting National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne La Pierre, calling him "an odious little grifter" who needs to be shown the door

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/457962-fox-news-host-roasts-nras-lapierre-an-odious-little-grifter-who-needs-to-go

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#288181: Aug 19th 2019 at 6:38:58 PM

I see no reason to interrupt this beautiful circular firing squad.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#288182: Aug 19th 2019 at 7:59:51 PM

Agreed

Do not obey in advance.
HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#288184: Aug 19th 2019 at 11:28:24 PM

Good. Let them cannibalize each other for now, until La Pierre somehow gets replaced by someone even worse.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#288185: Aug 19th 2019 at 11:30:58 PM

Heck, even if the NRA itself collapses entirely, some other organization will rise up to pander to gun nuts and sovereign citizens and other gun fetishizing lolbertarians.

Disgusted, but not surprised
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#288186: Aug 20th 2019 at 12:19:56 AM

Granted, if the NRA does collapse then whatever comes up will probably have a harder time unifying to the same extent in public, a la what happened with the dissolution of the original KKK. Not that it necessarily did anything to actually curb racism in the US.

Edited by AlleyOop on Aug 20th 2019 at 3:20:16 PM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#288187: Aug 20th 2019 at 12:22:43 AM

But the less organized they are, the less damage they can do. Which I think a lot of us will take, at this point.

KnightofLsama Since: Sep, 2010
#288188: Aug 20th 2019 at 4:20:55 AM

[up] x3 Actually for the immediate future I suspect that several such organisations will pop up to replace them, but they'll be so busy fighting against each other they'll render themselves functionally powerless, or at least much less powerful than a single, united organisation to be.

The only real worry is that given their rhetoric any violence among them it likely to cease being rhetorical and become real and innocent people will get caught in the crossfire.

Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#288189: Aug 20th 2019 at 4:58:40 AM

After a good night's sleep, I feel I should explain what I meant (and what I didn't mean) when I called the Democrats the less racist party:

I don't mean that the Democrats are as actively racist in their policy as the Republicans, but less so.

I also certainly don't mean that the Democrats are as racist as the Republicans, but less open about it.

What I did mean is that because of the nature of US (and indeed 'Western') culture and history, any group that has a majority of old white guys is going to have a contingent of people who are, not openly, but certainly privately, somewhat racist. The Democratic party's leadership is, for now, still majority old white guys and still affects overall party policy. That's changing, but we're not there yet.

To paint the Republicans, who are dominated and dictated by the sensibilities of old white guys, as racist is accurate. But to paint the Democrats as not racist so long as its leadership is still majority white and males who grew up before and during the early days of the Civil Rights movement isn't.

And the reason I feel it's important to keep this in mind and point it out isn't that I feel that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans (they're definitely not) or even that they're bad at all, but that if you label the Democrats as they are now 'not racist', that implies that the often naive, paternalistic racism that still informs the Democratic Party's policies in the present isn't 'real' racism.

We've tried that before... That was sorta the entire 'Western' world's cultural approach to racism in the 80's through to the 00's. Which led to the rise of the 'race realists' who think they're not 'real' racists because rather than espousing the blind, obvious racism we see in media they back their racism up with (bullshit) statistics and of Alt-Right memelords who think they're not 'real' racists because rather than the aforementioned blind racism, all their racism is in the form of memes and 'jokes' (that aren't actual jokes).

Angry gets shit done.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#288190: Aug 20th 2019 at 5:12:31 AM

What I did mean is that because of the nature of US (and indeed 'Western') culture and history, any group that has a majority of old white guys is going to have a contingent of people who are, not openly, but certainly privately, somewhat racist. The Democratic party's leadership is, for now, still majority old white guys and still affects overall party policy. That's changing, but we're not there yet.

This. Democrats aren’t immune to racism. See: Joe Biden’s constant defense of his crime bill and regular racist gaffes, liberals who took ages to support BLM because they thought it was an overreaction, etc.

PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#288191: Aug 20th 2019 at 5:32:24 AM

To a lesser extent, there's also Everyone's Favorite Democratic Socialist (y'all know the one), who also has a shaky racial history (and who I'm treating as a Democrat regardless of what he has to say about it), but that's been beaten to death.

i'm tired, my friend
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#288192: Aug 20th 2019 at 5:50:55 AM

Speaking of Bernie Sanders’s criminal justice reform plan, explained.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#288193: Aug 20th 2019 at 5:59:19 AM

Elizabeth Warren confronts her handling of Native American ancestry claims

And it seems like Trump's preparing to rev up the "Pocahontas" crap again too in light of Warren's improved polls.

Warning - Op-ed:

Trump threatens Warren with death by 'Pocahontas,' again

Edited by M84 on Aug 20th 2019 at 9:02:18 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#288194: Aug 20th 2019 at 7:07:14 AM

Part of me wants to be cautiously optimistic that Trump now considers Warren a threat; it means she may actually have a chance of winning the primary.

i'm tired, my friend
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#288195: Aug 20th 2019 at 7:33:01 AM

I've made my choice already, so I'm largely ignoring the debates and the inter-candidate squabbling. They're mainly for the voters who haven't made up their minds or who aren't familiar enough with the candidates and their policies to make an informed choice.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#288196: Aug 20th 2019 at 8:38:51 AM

To be honest I think it's a testament to warren's strength as a candidate that she's managed to carve third place for herself so convincingly. Hell depending on the poll she's even ahead of Sanders who seems to not have a lot of momentum.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#288197: Aug 20th 2019 at 8:42:12 AM

Speaking of the primaries, Harris' poll numbers have fallen to the mid single digits (erasing her debate bump), while Biden has all but recovered from his middling to bad debate performance (he's back in the high 20s).

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/cnn-poll-08-20-19/h_7b57a7f94aafaddf52a5479b32fdefa1

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#288199: Aug 20th 2019 at 8:48:22 AM

The sad reality is I think too many people want a return to "normalcy" above all else and just want to shelve the Trump years as a horrible isolated period where the US went batshit for a while.

The problem of course is that while beating Trump is obviously the highest priority, it's naive to think that getting rid of him means all the problems he helped expose will be gone. White supremacists aren't going anywhere and it might be a matter of time before the Republican frontrunner has the same ideals of trump but is far better at PR.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#288200: Aug 20th 2019 at 8:50:21 AM

While Biden is light-years better than Trump in every conceivable respect, and would get my vote on that principle alone, I have a sinking feeling that his term(s) would be the epitome of political mediocrity.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

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