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CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#127476: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:14:33 PM

[up] http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28473-why-do-republicans-reject-man-made-climate-change

tl;dr: Republicans who've tried to break off from the party line on climate change have quickly been shut down by a lack of funding from the fossil fuel lobby, among other groups involved in climate change denial. Recently (Jul 2015), there was some defections from the climate change denial block, and the congressmen who owe their positions to those interests have abruptly gone quiet about climate change. It's probably an overstatement to assume they personally believe or don't believe in climate change, but their publicly stated opinion will follow the money as long as it keeps them in office.

edited 22nd Jun '16 5:19:59 PM by CaptainCapsase

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#127477: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:26:29 PM

Oh, there's no question that the GOP sells climate change denial as its party line, and conspires to shut down any of its members that break from the doctrine.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#127478: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:27:55 PM

I don't know. He boils it down to both sides being valid, both sides being afraid, and us being stupid if we think there's an easy answer. Seems pretty damn insightful to me.
He basically invents his own facts in order to support an argument where Democrats support gun control so they'll be able to freely shoot Republicans. He's saying that both sides have valid points, yes, but the points he's ascribing to each side are insane.

Yeah. My main issue is "Democrats use guns to kill people" and the repeat of "I support Hillary for my own safety" apropos of nothing else in the article.
The "I support Hillary" thing is a reference to a previous post, where he publicly declared that he was supporting Hillary because he's convinced that Hillary supporters will kill him if he didn't. No, seriously. Again: no one's entirely sure if he's legitimately insane or just an ubertroll.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Elle Since: Jan, 2001
#127479: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:31:02 PM

The article looks reasonable. (And we're back to the whole "threat of getting primaried" business and the fact that the Koch Bros probably had a lot to do with the astroturfing of the Tea Party).

...that doesn't mean I don't think that stupidity and willful ignorance aren't a factor in other things though. (A lot of them happen to link to religion.)

Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#127480: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:33:28 PM

The particular issue there is that, unlike with the Democrats, the problem isn't with the party apparat - as we can see, the GOP organization has recently become something of an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Instead, the GOP has been hijacked by extremely skilled wielders of money-as-speech who are quite capable of ignoring reality and forcing anyone who wants the (R) tag on their name to 1984 their brains into compliance or get primaried (and even the ones who should be immune to this shit, like McCain and Murkowski, have stuck with the party line).

[up][up]I am. He's an ubertroll.

It's important to remember that he's a comedy writer in the same vein as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. He's writing to rile people up and make good clickbait.

edited 22nd Jun '16 5:35:27 PM by Ramidel

Demonic_Braeburn Yankee Doodle Dandy from Defective California Since: Jan, 2016
Yankee Doodle Dandy
#127481: Jun 22nd 2016 at 5:41:25 PM

Russia's Culture Minister calls Netflix a US-backed brainwashing meachine.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#127482: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:05:48 PM

So you don't think Hillary will enact any progressive reforms?
Hillary's restrained by:

  • What her biggest donors are likely willing to support. (i.e. Socially Liberal Wall Street Moguls)
  • She can do via Executive Orders.
  • She can squeak by Congress.
  • The courts declare legal

Congress has basically frozen because the lack of Earmarks and Riders, along with hyper partisanship.

So Hillary would basically be restricted by what she can do vis-a-vis existing law, and the Supreme and Federal Courts.

And Wall Street has basically said "If you even so much as actually take on a Pro-Finance Reform Democrat as your VP choice, we will become your worst enemies or let your enemies drown you." to her.

So any actual meaningful financial reform/Trust enforcement is unlikely to happen, and most of her progress, if any will rely on things like the courts agreeing LGBT members of society are protected under the 1960s Civil Rights Act.

And yes, essentially, Congress needs to be allowed to bribe and capture each other. In its most innocent form, that bribery would be like, a Republican willing to support an Autism Bill, but only if he can get some of his off-hours friends among the Democrats to support an earmark pork that say, lets for a huge injection of funds to Autism related school programs in his state.

edited 22nd Jun '16 6:08:41 PM by PotatoesRock

majoraoftime (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#127483: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:23:44 PM

Donald Trump’s problems are making it too easy for Democrats to ignore their own

If you’re a liberal Democrat, you could be forgiven for feeling pretty smug these days. Though the convention is still to come, Hillary Clinton is virtually assured of getting the nomination. With presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump beset by a hostile media and a skeptical-at-best GOP leadership, the safe bet is to assume at least another four years of a liberal Democrat in office.

And yet look below the surface, and you’ll find that liberal Democrats face existential problems — none more glaring than a fundamental question of identity. The question that must preoccupy the party if it earns a third consecutive presidential term is simple but uneasily answered: What do liberal Democrats stand for?

smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#127484: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:25:54 PM

That article reads like nothing but fearmongering for dems. We know what we stand for. Livable wages, gun control, clean energy, LGBT rights, racial equality, pro life, etc.

Democrats don't lack ideals or policies.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#127485: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:27:30 PM

[up][up] You (may) need to append "neo" to that liberal.

edited 22nd Jun '16 6:43:27 PM by CaptainCapsase

GameGuruGG Vampire Hunter from Castlevania (Before Recorded History)
Vampire Hunter
#127486: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:47:25 PM

The thing is that Hillary Clinton is in the perfect position to call Wall Street's bluff with just one sentence...

"Then go support Donald Trump."

Wizard Needs Food Badly
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#127487: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:52:45 PM

"We sit out of the election and let you fend against the GOP fundraising machine on your own."

GameGuruGG Vampire Hunter from Castlevania (Before Recorded History)
Vampire Hunter
#127488: Jun 22nd 2016 at 6:59:56 PM

Which would be a point if the GOP's Fundraising Machine didn't decide to also sit this one in terms of the presidency.

As A Sidenote: I don't actually think Warren should be Vice-President since she would have less power as Vice-President than she currently has as a Senator.

edited 22nd Jun '16 7:04:52 PM by GameGuruGG

Wizard Needs Food Badly
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#127489: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:03:00 PM

[up][up]What GOP fundraising machine? Trump's campaign is a logistical disaster and the Dems are screwed in the House anyway. Apart from the Senate, which should be able to raise enough cash anyway, the Dems have an organizational edge (where they have a chance).

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#127490: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:15:36 PM

If Hillary's resources vanished into thin air, the GOP might make a second look and go "Time to pony up, we might as well get something done and try and bury her in attack ads..."

Point is, Wall Street has a carrot and a stick over Hillary and most of the Democrat elite.

Meaningful finance/bank reform is impossible until Wall Street's stick becomes unusable.

And unusable basically requires an economic meltdown.

edited 22nd Jun '16 7:16:23 PM by PotatoesRock

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#127491: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:38:29 PM

[up]Because of course Obama failed to get anything done due to Wall Street's stick. Oh wait, he got a lot of stuff done.

GameGuruGG Vampire Hunter from Castlevania (Before Recorded History)
Vampire Hunter
#127492: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:41:32 PM

Then this country is doomed to either a slow death or a fast one, because people like Sanders and Trump are going to continue to appear and eventually one of them will become President.

Wizard Needs Food Badly
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#127493: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:49:01 PM

[up] A Trump presidency is the only one of those two that would be catastrophic.

AmbarSonofDeshar Since: Jan, 2010
#127494: Jun 22nd 2016 at 7:53:37 PM

A handy summation of all the BS in Trump's last speech.

GameGuruGG Vampire Hunter from Castlevania (Before Recorded History)
Vampire Hunter
#127496: Jun 22nd 2016 at 8:06:58 PM

[up][up][up] Trump is the Fast Death. Sanders... Well, I would've preferred Sanders, but Clinton won the nomination.

edited 22nd Jun '16 8:07:28 PM by GameGuruGG

Wizard Needs Food Badly
LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#127497: Jun 22nd 2016 at 8:09:18 PM

[up][up]Smart man, he had an unfriendly team of prosecutors looking for specific answers and asking loaded questions.

Oh really when?
smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#127498: Jun 22nd 2016 at 8:09:50 PM

Sanders may not have been catastrophic, but he wouldn't try to handle as many issues as Clinton. He doesn't want to crack down on the gun problems, he doesn't want to deal with ISIS, and he just traces everything back to the banks. You can't pin all the problems on one thing.

Ekuran Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
#127499: Jun 22nd 2016 at 8:35:28 PM

That's an oversimplification, and isn't even accurate. His policies on climate change, immigration, campaign finance, LGBT rights, the criminal justice system, net neutrality, civil liberties as a whole, etc., are all great, and saying he won't push as hard or even harder than Clinton on these issues is a bold-faced lie.

And a dovish attitude and mediocre gun record doesn't negate the fact he'd try to do more for socioeconomic inequality and injustice than Clinton or any US President in history.

LeGarcon Blowout soon fellow Stalker from Skadovsk Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Gay for Big Boss
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
#127500: Jun 22nd 2016 at 8:36:26 PM

Given that he's repeatedly refused to acknowledge the racial aspects of social and economic inequality and the problems with the criminal justice system I'd say he wouldn't.

He keeps insisting they're solely economic issues. They're not.

edited 22nd Jun '16 8:37:54 PM by LeGarcon

Oh really when?

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