2018 Democrats thread

[caulfield12]

Is there such an unbroachable difference (between public meetings and "private" fundraisers) ? I’m pretty convinced that the press is part of the public, but I’m enough of a libertarian to be sympathetic to people like Ocasio-Cortez who want to control the gate for campaign listening tours. If she wants to hold a meeting with supporters without reporters (and it’s not an official government meeting) and can pull it off, more power to her. The press corps’ sense of entitlement doesn’t guarantee them automatic invitations to privately funded affairs, even if the subject is campaign politics. But I don’t see how an organizer of a mass event can hope to keep reporters out of such sessions unless they maintain an accurate database of the facial-signature of every member of the Fourth Estate. Even then, an enterprising news outlet could send an intern who hadn’t been scanned into the database to circumvent the blackout. It’s a losing war for a candidate.

If those analogies don’t move you, try this one. A movie distributor doesn’t owe a film critic an invitation to pre-release screenings, but once the movie is out, he can’t bar critics from attending a free screening or a paid one.

The funny thing about the Ocasio-Cortez kerfuffle is that her ban didn’t work. According to the Queens Chronicle, which broke the press-ban story, meeting attendees issued reports of the event on their social media accounts. “We’ve been polite with racist people for far too long,” Ocasio-Cortez was quoted as saying by Twitter user Nick Gulotta. Gulotta also tweeted a photo of Ocasio-Cortez speaking at the Queens meeting, proving that her moat was verbally and visually permeable.

Politicians have been trying to prevent reporters from hearing them speak for as long as politicians and reporters have walked the Earth. Enterprising reporters know how to sneak into closed events to gather news. On the occasions they fail to crash the gates, they can usually find a source who attended and who is willing to spill what was said inside. This moat-breaching happens with such regularity that I sometimes think that politicians contrive their closed sessions to attract the attention of reporters who would otherwise not attend and report on them. Yes, another variation of that pesky Streisand Effect.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/21/go-ahead-ocasio-cortez-ban-the-press-219376

 

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

#BetoForPresident

[StrangeSox]

6 hours ago, ChiliIrishHammock24 said:

#BetoForPresident

He's within a few points of Cruz in the last few polls, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[StrangeSox]

 

 

 

[GoSox05]

22 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

He's within a few points of Cruz in the last few polls, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

It would be funny as hell if he beat Cruz. 

Trump would go on Twitter and call Cruz a loser. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by GoSox05

[BigSqwert]

1 hour ago, StrangeSox said:

He's within a few points of Cruz in the last few polls, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

They could switch the candidates to the Green River serial killer (R) and the Pope (D) and the republican would still win. We're talking about Texas here.

[southsider2k5]

16 minutes ago, BigSqwert said:

They could switch the candidates to the Green River serial killer (R) and the Pope (D) and the republican would still win. We're talking about Texas here.

I hear the pope is pretty anti-semetic, and is happy about the death of a particular Jew.

[StrangeSox]

good news:

 

bad news: ever since Roberts and the rest of the SC conservatives pretended that the 15th Amendment didn't exist and wrote Shelby County, one of the worst decisions morally and legally in decades, nearly 900 polling sites in formerly pre-clearance counties have been shuttered.

 

Still, good that there is at least some resistance to Republican voter suppression and electoral rigging via gerrymandering that's gaining traction. There's still a solid possibility that Democrats win the overall vote in the House by a decent margin but R's still retain control this fall. A great "democracy."

 

[whitesoxfan99]

On 8/23/2018 at 9:56 AM, BigSqwert said:

They could switch the candidates to the Green River serial killer (R) and the Pope (D) and the republican would still win. We're talking about Texas here.

Well considering the Pope has a hand in covering up sexual abuse of children not exactly the best example. 

[StrangeSox]

7 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

good news:

 

bad news: ever since Roberts and the rest of the SC conservatives pretended that the 15th Amendment didn't exist and wrote Shelby County, one of the worst decisions morally and legally in decades, nearly 900 polling sites in formerly pre-clearance counties have been shuttered.

 

Still, good that there is at least some resistance to Republican voter suppression and electoral rigging via gerrymandering that's gaining traction. There's still a solid possibility that Democrats win the overall vote in the House by a decent margin but R's still retain control this fall. A great "democracy."

 

e.g.:

 

 

[Two-Gun Pete]

6 hours ago, whitesoxfan99 said:

Well considering the Pope has a hand in covering up sexual abuse of children not exactly the best example. 

OK, it is known that "this" Pope [the former Cardinal Bergoglio] apparently appointed a Cardinal in Chile with some history of sexual abuse cover-ups. But, are you saying that THIS Pope was directly involved in cover-ups, either by priests under his supervision, or other bishops within his Cardinalate? [Asking, because I hadn't heard this.]

 

Also to the group posting in this thread: 

There are a lot of posts that appear to have fuck-all to do with Democrats in this thread. Any particular reason why they're not [perhaps more appropriately] in the Republican thread?

 

Thanks in advance.

[StrangeSox]

These threads have historically always been threads for Democrats, Progressives etc to post in, not a thread about Democrats necessarily.

Same for the Republican thread

[Balta1701]

Democrats are, correctly, basically killing off "Superdelegates" for their convention in 2020. They'll set it so they only vote if the convention goes to a 2nd round of voting, so it will be impossible for superdelegates to actually stop a majority candidate. 

[Reddy]

5 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

Democrats are, correctly, basically killing off "Superdelegates" for their convention in 2020. They'll set it so they only vote if the convention goes to a 2nd round of voting, so it will be impossible for superdelegates to actually stop a majority candidate. 

Think it's dumb, but it was politically necessary going into 2020. Bring on liberal Trump!

I can't WAIT til we're begging for superdelegates to stop Avenatti.

[Balta1701]

7 minutes ago, Reddy said:

Think it's dumb, but it was politically necessary going into 2020. Bring on liberal Trump!

I can't WAIT til we're begging for superdelegates to stop Avenatti.

If the Democratic voters vote for a guy, they shouldn't be overturned. Our job is to not vote for a candidate just because he's a white supremacist like they did. 

[Heads22]

I remember a while ago getting an absentee ballot application when I was in college in the mail; if this is still legal, I've never understood why parties don't do this. Attempt to make voting as easy as possible by mailing them the stuff.

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, Heads22 said:

I remember a while ago getting an absentee ballot application when I was in college in the mail; if this is still legal, I've never understood why parties don't do this. Attempt to make voting as easy as possible by mailing them the stuff.

Which would be fine if the poor actually stayed in one house/apartment for a lifetime...or consistently received forwarded mail.

I remember in the Searching for Sugarman documentary (about the singer Rodriguez), one of the daughters said they moved 28 times while they were growing up.

[Reddy]

13 hours ago, Heads22 said:

I remember a while ago getting an absentee ballot application when I was in college in the mail; if this is still legal, I've never understood why parties don't do this. Attempt to make voting as easy as possible by mailing them the stuff.

That's literally what our campaign is doing every day. My little team signed up 26 people yesterday to vote by mail

[StrangeSox]

On 8/25/2018 at 11:00 PM, Heads22 said:

I remember a while ago getting an absentee ballot application when I was in college in the mail; if this is still legal, I've never understood why parties don't do this. Attempt to make voting as easy as possible by mailing them the stuff.

Many states have restrictive absentee rules where you have to have a documented reason on the approved list of reasons. Otherwise, sorry, only can vote on election day! This generally favors one party.

States like Oregon and Washington are 100% mail in ballots

[BigSqwert]

3 hours ago, StrangeSox said:

Many states have restrictive absentee rules where you have to have a documented reason on the approved list of reasons. Otherwise, sorry, only can vote on election day! This generally favors one party.

States like Oregon and Washington are 100% mail in ballots

They even added the prepaid postage on the envelopes starting this year (in Washington). 

[Dam8610]

On 8/23/2018 at 9:56 AM, BigSqwert said:

They could switch the candidates to the Green River serial killer (R) and the Pope (D) and the republican would still win. We're talking about Texas here.

I thought Texas was shifting toward being a potential battleground state?

On 8/25/2018 at 10:35 PM, Reddy said:

Think it's dumb, but it was politically necessary going into 2020. Bring on liberal Trump!

I can't WAIT til we're begging for superdelegates to stop Avenatti.

Or we could just let the will of the people happen. I know you can't conceive of a world in which the wealthy and politicians aren't allowed to conspire to move their agendas forward over the will of the people, but it's an idea that many, including the DNC now (though only out of fear), are embracing. Letting the wealthy and politicians decide is how we've gotten the last ~40 years of disaster. Insanity is trying the same thing and expecting different results. I'm glad the people and, by extension, the DNC, are being sane and embracing the concept of trying something different.

[StrangeSox]

It's hard to imagine a worse opposition leader than Schumer

 

 

[bmags]

There has to be some sort of...better deal available

[StrangeSox]

gonna love the inevitable capitulation on Kavanaugh

 

as much as the midterms and 2020 are important, we're locked into conservative judicial hellworld for 30+ years now. any remotely progressive legislation will just be torn apart in the courts as more and more rights are given to corporations as they're taken away from actual people

[caulfield12]

Sanders has been seeking additional information about working conditions in Amazon warehouses for a bill he’s preparing to introduce on September 5. The proposed bill targets not just Amazon, but also other big employers like Walmart. The bill would require big corporations to pay employees more, a continuation of Sanders’s call for income inequality, the centerpiece of his 2016 presidential campaign.

“If Amazon, Walmart and other corporations won’t pay their workers a living wage, our bill would establish a 100% tax equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers. The American taxpayer should not be subsidizing the richest people in history so they can underpay their employees,” said Sanders in a statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amazon-defends-bernie-sanders-claims-workers-pay-194656831.html

 

Bernie Sanders taking a different approach on income inequality...will Republicans actually side with corporations over taxpayers/deficit reduction? (Well, yeah...probably!!!!)

Hard to imagine this NOT being a winning position for attracting independents/moderates/centrists.

Edited August 30, 2018 by caulfield12