I agree that AMA was a terrible look for Wikileaks. They revealed that they have zero procedures for safeguarding themselves against becoming a cats-paw, and in fact don't even consider the possibility something to worry about.
It's also generally agreed that Obama is going to pardon Hillary in his last day in office. That would explain why her concession speech took so long. Had to get the deal through the works. There's usually a string of pardons that come through at the end of a president's second term, so I won't be surprised if it's the same with Hillary.
At this point, who cares? If Obama doesn't do it, I hope Trump does. Just let it go. Ford lost to Carter because he pardoned Nixon, but in retrospect most historians say it was the right thing to do so the country could move on. Going after Hillary would serve no purpose what so ever. It's over. Done. Fini.
Yeah, I completely agree. Just pointing out that that's likely the way they'll do it. I find it interesting that Trump might have been so serious about his charges it took the time from the election loss to her concession speech for it to be agreed.
I'm watching CNN and they just cut to the NYC protest. The reporter said "There's about 50 people here." Really? You're reporting on 50 people? Christ, we had more people at our bonfires in Mississippi.
This honestly pisses me off in a way. All everyone was screaming about during her candidacy was that she had done a bunch of illegal stuff, stuff that had other people had done would have gotten them fired or worse, and that the only thing that saved her was a back room deal with the justice department - which only amplified the accusations of corruption even more. If all of the sudden all of that's ok now that she lost, it frankly just proves what a lot of us believed all along: The GOP never really cared about the legality of the things she's supposedly done; it was all just a smear-campaign whose sole purpose was to discredit her.
This article was sent to me by another board member. In the election thread I tried to explain the Trump phenomena and my problems with the current left thinking as best I could. I think the loss of power in government across the board is convincing people that the party has flaws. I don't go to cracked.com much anymore because it seemed to be another cesspool of elitist garbage. The majority of people voting republican aren't doing it because they're racist, sexist, or they hate social progress. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/ Does a good job of explaining why this election in particular was a watershed moment for the country. If the left cares about the struggles of other Americans then they need to shut the fuck up and listen instead of rambling off social theories that don't make any sense.
Then why do they fight the Left tooth and nail every step of the way? Why is Planned Parenthood constantly under attack? Why did states immediately try to pass "Religious Freedom" acts as soon as gays and lesbians won the right to marry?
Some of it's ideological trash where they try to represent everyone at the same time so they can get reelected, deplorables included. The republicans who hate planned parenthood, most of them at least, literally have no idea what it does. They think they're abortion factories. It's every scary thing fox news or the internet tells them. They think their religion is under attack because of the way the media portrays the religion. It's always bashing the gays, always hating something. Anti-gay marriage is not a major issue to them, regardless of where they stand on it. That's not what they're voting on. The media just plays it up constantly.
I genuinely do not understand why a demographic that has such little sympathy for anyone but themselves expects so much sympathy from everyone else. I'm not even talking about race, or class, or urban/rural; I mean did the poor, rural, white voters in the Rust Belt give a single moment to think about how a vote for a climate change denier would affect the poor, rural, white citizens of the Gulf Coast?
That's exactly how they see the left, and it's true. The left constantly dictates their message to portray the worst people they can find on the right. As a result they reject it wholesale. Climate change? These people don't even believe in Jesus! It's about branding. The left is terrible at selling their message because they want to attack everything and lump people into groups. Most of the groups have common values that don't fit well into the left narrative, and as a result it makes them more trenched into old ideas, including the bad ones.
In your opinion, when did the Left take up this message? I get the impression that at one time you feel the Left had a different message - which is why you say you identify as left-thinking - but at some point the Left's message changed to the attacking message you now perceive. When do you think that was and what was the cause?
I agree with you. I am not a Republican and the ONLY reason I supported Trump was because he claimed he wanted to tackle corruption. I would like to see him chase the Clintons to the edge of the Earth and not rest until the are in prison. I want to see politicians fear for their futures over what they have been doing. That is a big first step in fixing this problem. Once he has them scared, then he makes a deal with them that if they pass all of the laws (term limits, multiple lobbying laws, campaign financing reform), then and only then can they expect to be pardoned for what they have been doing. It will never happen but if he was sincere, this is what he would do.
From captain smarter than me himself via pm: You're an idiot. There's no point in having conversations with people like this and you dumbasses have ruined this place. You don't understand science, economics, trade, foreign policy, you still think Clinton is innocent of the charges, you think all republicans are dim witted rednecks, and it goes on. You're a complete fucking idiot and you insist on believing you're an expert on these subjects while screaming at people. You're not worth my time. I'm leaving the board. I can respect a different view point, and I'm no gentle soul myself, but you jackasses go from zero to gorilla mode in the blink of an eye. This place has one foot in freak safari. I used to come here because of the funny. Most of the funny people have been pushed into leaving by the butt hurt. Now, I only post in the threads on sports, certain tv shows, and this one. There's no point in coming here for that anymore either because intelligent discussion has left the board, with only a few exceptions. People don't want to discuss anything, they just want to be right. Nett, Crown, DCC, and some of the other posters that are still here from the original TMMB; it was nice to know you, if only through the internet. Without a way to get new membership this place is dying and I'm out.
It's not a zero sum game dude. White working class voters saw their incomes drop by 9% since 1996. It would be hard for anyone to contextualize the larger picture when all they feel is a lighter wallet. Here's an interesting article on the Democratic campaign strategy that failed. Bill Clinton, arguably the best politician in modern American history, strongly recommended courting the very demographic that cost her the election, and the compaign staff more or less told him to fuck off.
Given Trump's choice of cabinet, I'm thinking you got conned. Facts: 1. Trump has never been in public service (political nor military). That's never happened before. 2. Trump's first foray into politics was his part in the birther controversy. That for me, is the textbook example of it takes 10x the effort to prove something is bullshit. 3. Trump has all the signs of fascism. Literally, all of them: https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/57kfia/redditor_thoroughly_explains_how_trump_fits_the/ 4. Trump is the only modern candidate to appoint family members to prominent positions. 5. Trump is the only candidate to refuse to put his holdings in escrow and release his tax returns. 6. Up until 4 years ago, he was not even Republican. 7. His businesses have declared bankruptcy 6 times. This is enough for me to say, nope. This has nothing to do with liberal or conservative, left or right, or any of the campaign's nonsense. His first move is to put Mike Pence in charge. Ask Indiana how well that worked. I am open-minded enough to be optimistic. I truly didn't imagine someone with the above credentials winning. I have a very sneaking suspicion Russia was using Wikileaks to further "their" candidate, and a ton of his social media spam originated from outside the US. It's not illegitimate, but he lost the popular vote and we're already seeing "voter's remorse". At least, I think we can agree that social media and the internet had a massive influence on this election, and it's likely that some of that influence came from abroad. That scares me, deeply. He has all the signs, listed above, of being corrupt, inept and unethical. I feel sorely tempted by his ramblings about draining the swamp and "maga", etc. Those are powerfully appealing sentiments, and I am clearly not alone in their appeal. But, based on the facts of this man, and what he has done so far, they are not credible.
The shouting down nature of political correctness started in the 90's, the wholesale labeling/writing off pattern really ramped up when Obama was elected. I never understood calling republican obstruction as a purely racist endeavor. I see it sort of like the sentiment expressed in this thread before the election, the candidates were so bad respectively, what are you supposed to do? Change your long held political philosophy because your candidate was terrible? Republicans that spent their lives in public service with the belief in limited government were supposed to do what when the most politcally left leaning president in generations starts pushing for programs that went totally against that belief? Then it is turned totally around that the single reason you oppose it is because you just simply hate his black skin? The right was is guilty in labeling, Obama was literally Marx, but it didn't become the backbone of their public argument for their ideals. I think the cause might be pyschological. It is very satisfying psychologically to essentially confirm your beliefs and effectively shut down your oppenents.
....so, let me see if i have this right: Before election: Mexicans are rapists and criminals, Muslims are terrorists, Obama was born in Kenya and is Muslim, grab them by the pussy. After election: we need to come together. Which is it? We need to come together or "White people need to come together." Sure as shit sounds like the latter to me. A conversation I had with my mother in law sums up my entire feelings. She swears up and down she isn't racist. In the same conversation, she dropped these gems: "If black people would just work harder they wouldn't all have to be on welfare." "I don't go to Mexico because they'd kidnap and rape me." (Note: ew, no) "I don't say "n****r," so I'm not racist." The last one is the key to this situation. People on the right swear up and down they're not racist/sexist/mysogynist, because they're not running around screaming cunt or n****r. Just because you're not using racial slurs doesn't mean you're not racist. If my wife complains about a customer being difficult, my mother in law's first question is "we're they black?" My father in law once said, while complaining about being a Catholic in a Protestant church, "I'm no better than a fucking jew in here." Both of these individuals swear they're not racist, not prejudiced, and voted for Trump because MAGA. They get offended when they get called on their bullshit. That's what this entire post election boils down too. A bunch of people who scream "I'm not racist!" And genuinely believe it, despite all their actions saying the exact opposite. The left is protesting because they see it. I've seen it here, with people on this board who swear they're not racist, and yet post pretty racist shit. They just don't say "look at what these stupid n****rs are doing now!" So they think it's totally cool. Even typing that many racial slurs, even in the context used here, I feel fucking dirty. Edit: couldn't leave those slurs. Just felt like a terrible person even posting them in this context.
The other point I want to make: If you want to say you didn't vote for Trump because of racial issues, you need to understand something: This is a guy who promised to deport Mexicans and put symbols on Muslims. He happily used antisemitic symbols in attacking Hillary, retweeted white supremacists and literal Nazis, welcomed support of the klan and alt right, and was literally caught on mic talking about sexually assaulting women. You may say you didn't vote for him because of that stuff, BUT, you must acknowledge that what you're really saying is that stuff just doesn't matter to you. In the same way Clinton voters had to say the email stuff just didn't matter to them and they could ignore it, you have to acknowledge the racist and sexist stuff just didn't matter to you. In doing so, you have to also come to terms with the fact that you still voted for that guy. That is the other problem: people actually saying racism wasn't a motivating factor for many Trump voters, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary since the election. It may not have motivated you to vote for him, but him being a racist mysogynist shitbag wasn't enough to stop you, and yeah, I kinda see that as a problem.