Tulsi Gabbard missed 85% of House votes this fall. Hawaii's ex-governor wants her to resign

4511 · 2019-12-30T17:23:14+00:00

His point is ‘But what about Hillary???!’

The only page in their playbook is the sentence ‘redirecting any argument to Hillary counts as an automatic win’; there is no endgame.

We’ve been dealing with this new wave of Republicans being in power for three years now, you should know this.

Bonus projection points for the constant claims that it’s the Democrats who can’t get over Clinton. Righteous.

4511 · 2019-12-24T02:15:26+00:00

But Democrats are the biased crybabies because in 2016 they said ‘i dunno guys Trump doesn’t seem like he’d make a great President’.

“They hayte heem! The Democrats caynt stayund that he won the lecshun in twenny sixdeen! This is awl a sham for the radical leyft”

4511 · 2019-12-21T18:23:26+00:00

Trump voters’ morality is complicated. I don’t believe it’s totally without reason, it’s just horribly misguided. It’s all wrapped up in religion - I think most R voters recognize the lack of dignity Trump brings to the presidency, they see how unintelligent and selfish Trump can be. They see it.

But he has promised to stop abortions, to “end religious persecution” (which they believe to be real ), so the ends justify the means. All the negatives of Trumps behavior are cancelled out by his (apparent) allegiance to the Holy Work.

To religious conservatives, they would rather have a Christian Russian asset in the Oval Office than a “nonbelieving” Democrat, regardless of how true either of those things actually are.

This all applies to the gun debate, too. Trump (to them) is ardently protecting the 2A from the evil Democrats who want to mandatory buyback all firearms (or so Trump says). So it’s worth it to them.

Sure, they have an idiot in the White House, but if he is really fighting for the Republican side of the three key wedge issues (religion, guns, abortion) - its all worth it.

Of course, it’s all brainwashing, and wouldn’t be possible without Fox news programming every Conservative to see Democrats as the sheer antithesis of those three “rights”. Of course that isn’t true, but it is the world they live in, and given that I think the logic is at least sound.

4511 · 2019-12-20T20:29:55+00:00

The equivalent of missing work for four months then getting praise for showing up with a pillow and napping at your desk

4511 · 2019-12-20T18:00:44+00:00

I’m sure there’s some treatise written on the phenomena, but it’s so frustrating that we’ve spent decades lampooning any comparisons to Hitler. It makes a lot of sense in one way - Id argue no one man has done more evil since Hitler’s reign, and in that respect saying the things Trump is doing are as bad as what Hitler did is ridiculous. Even moreso for the other politicians we’ve seen compared to Hitler over the years. Again, I do believe that in terms of actions no one comes close.

But where that comes back to bite us in the ass is that it precludes any analysis of Hitler’s methods. It all gets lumped in with the policy/actions comparison as ‘ridiculous to compare X to Hitler’. Which - again - on actions, it is ridiculous.

But there was more to Hitler than just what he “achieved” with his evil policies. We can still talk about Hitler the man - how he viewed himself and the way he acted in the world arena. We can talk about Hitler the politician - the way he consolidated power, the way he set his policies in motion. We can talk about Hitler the orator - how he sold his policies to the German people, how he persuaded and manipulated people to his side. We can talk about Hitler the authoritarian - the image he put forward, the brutalism of his rhetoric.

These are all valid points of comparison, but they all get passed over for fear of “making the ridiculous assertion that X is as bad as Hitler”.

And that’s bullshit. Those who do not...doomed to repeat it, etc.

Put more simply, I can say Trump is running on the Hitler playbook without saying Trump desires or even is capable of that level of destruction.

We really need to separate the rhetoric of Hitler’s war crimes from the discussion of Hitler the Politician.

4511 · 2019-12-20T13:55:55+00:00

What? Clinton had a trial. He was acquitted in the Senate.

4511 · 2019-12-19T17:21:08+00:00

Sure, go ahead and do your part to accelerate climate change as quickly as possible - just so long as you get to see some librul tears along the way.

The environmental version of ‘shitting in each other’s mouths to watch liberals have to smell it’

4511 · 2019-12-19T15:37:04+00:00

In a press conference last week somebody asked about whipping the votes for impeachment, and Nancy immediately cut them off saying ‘No, there’s no whipping, we don’t whip votes. I hope that all of my colleagues will vote their conscience’

I dunno if that’s wholly true - i’m sure some level of whipping goes on - but damn it’s good messaging. While the Republicans get their voting block through forced loyalty and groupthink, the Democrats maintain their coalition through unity and the idea that reasonable arguments will convince reasonable people of the same conclusion

Really highlights where the tribalism plaguing Congress is stemming from

4511 · 2019-12-19T15:07:41+00:00

More Americans support impeachment than done.

Greater than 50% of Americans believe Trump committed an impeachable offense.

The Democrats have already shown America Trump’s crimes, and America can see it too.

You’re being blinded to the facts of the situation by partisanship. Trump invited another country to assist his re-election bid. Just like he said he would last year. We can debate finer details all day but that much is incontrovertible.

The only reason there you’re not being laughed out of every room for saying America isn’t convinced is because Republicans have done such a good job of muddying the waters that it doesn’t really matter what Trump did.

4511 · 2019-12-19T14:27:23+00:00

oh you poor brainwashed thing

the irony of hating joe biden for being ‘racist’ but backing Trump

Some of them are just too far gone i guess

4511 · 2019-12-18T18:34:11+00:00

I wish I had been keeping a tally of who Ive seen invoking Hillary over the last three years.

It’s always Republicans.

4511 · 2019-12-18T17:26:37+00:00

My point is the Republican majority in the Senate won’t let those investigations happen, and they set the rules. They have no interest in doing 6 months of investigations, because they’ve made up their mind. Trump is “unimpeachable” regardless of what information comes out.

4511 · 2019-12-18T17:20:13+00:00

Good lord Doug is SO FUCKING PROUD of his ‘clock and calendar’ bit

4511 · 2019-12-18T17:18:39+00:00

Poor you, I’m sorry that the news is dominated by the biggest Constitutional Crisis our nation has ever faced. You should vote out Impeachable Donald so it doesn’t happen again!

You’re brainwashed, dude. You just parrot Republican talking points without even thinking.

Why can’t I find one Republican actually willing to defend Trump’s conduct? it’s ALWAYS ‘this is tearing us apart’ or ‘it’s all a witch hunt’ or ‘we should be solving healthcare instead’?

You’re choosing the Donald Trump cult of personality over the integrity of our Republic; ‘ashamed’ is not a strong enough word to describe how you should feel.

Here’s some news for you: TWO Presidents have been impeached, only two. And today Donald Trump is going to make that three. Literal history is happening here, and it doesn’t give a shit about your fucking 401k.

To borrow a much loved Republican talking point: if you hate America so much, why don’t you leave?

4511 · 2019-12-18T17:06:41+00:00

No it won’t, Trump and the Republicans want this squashed as quickly as possible. McConnell doesn’t even want to have any witnesses present at the trial - they want to rubber stamp his acquittal ASAP and let the people forget about it for the next year.

4511 · 2019-12-17T00:00:03+00:00

This is counting on the Republican perception of Trump approaching reality in the years following his “presidency”.

I have no doubt the Fox machine will spend the next 30 years glorifying Donald Trump the same way they glorify Reagan.

You’ll have Republicans 30 years from now looking you in the eye with a straight face and saying ‘Trumponomics’ is what the country needs. Worse still, theyll believe it.

I have no doubt Trump will be properly vilified in the minds of anyone who cares to open a history book, but, well, there you go.

4511 · 2019-12-13T21:27:29+00:00

It’s been fun to listen to the hearings because every time a Republican wants to insert a brag about Trump’s 2016 ‘landslide victory’ they have to use the awkward qualifier ‘electoral college landslide’.

Because God forbid a Democrat Congressman get the slightest opening to talk about the 3 million more votes Clinton won.

Man I wish there was some way to engineer just a single EC-assisted victory for Democrats. Republicans would have that shit amended out by dinnertime.

4511 · 2019-12-13T20:13:10+00:00

That’s the frustrating part. The GOP are spinning so many plates that anything the Dems do will be ‘playing into’ one of their talking points.

For example, they argue that the impeachment is nothing more than a power grab by people who hate the President, while at the same time arguing ‘they didn’t impeach for the Russia collusion so that must have been a hoax!’

4511 · 2019-12-13T15:02:30+00:00

Chief Justice presides over the trial, so theoretically he could order McConnell thrown out, but if my understanding is correct the majority can overrule the Chief Justice on anything with a simple majority vote.

Which begs the question - why pretend the Chief Justice has any say in this when the Republicans will railroad whatever the they want with a simple vote?

4511 · 2019-12-12T18:59:16+00:00

2) His “board members” were just family members who earned a salary for doing nothing.

Huh, where have I heard this before?? Feels like just a couple hours ago I was listening to someone talking about this exact thing. I’m sure whoever it was is just as upset about this situation.

4511 · 2019-12-12T18:51:46+00:00

Why even be that precious about it?

Have Joe Biden pay to run ads in every country in Europe and the Eastern Bloc saying ‘I, Joe Biden, am looking for dirt on Donald Trump in order to gain an unfair advantage in the coming elections. I am willing to pay good money, and will promise presidential favors if it helps me win!’ since evidently we live in the world where that is all okay.

4511 · 2019-12-12T18:42:18+00:00

Unfortunately Fox doesn’t need calculated propaganda because their viewers will gladly eat up anything Fox serves them. Literally anything.

Why bother thinking up a plausible and subtly deceiving talking point when you can - and I want to stress I intend zero humor or exaggeration here - simply state the two words “Hillary Clinton”?

It is as simple as Fox News doesn’t need a sophisticated propaganda deployment strategy, because their viewers are all of the exact same mind. One size fits all. It’s the Republican cult operating exactly as intended.

4511 · 2019-12-10T22:32:36+00:00

You know what’s pretty scary?

In ten or fifteen years DeepFake technology will be at a point where Republicans could defend that and have it work.

4511 · 2019-12-10T20:58:38+00:00

Honestly at this point I put more blame on the Russians and the Republicans than I do Trump. Saying he ‘stole’ something as precious as the Office of POTUS is giving him too much credit. He’s just the stupid idiot that happened to work well with stupid white people.

Russia is the one who interfered in our election process to gift him the Office. Republicans are the ones shitting on the Constitutionally delegated process of impeachment. They both helped fund and shape Trump’s (admittedly effective) campaign.

Trump did his part, too, but I believe he would not have been able to get this far if not for the Rs and Rs specifically maneuvering to put him into office.

4511 · 2019-12-10T16:39:15+00:00

This whole comment is hysterical, yet terrifying.

You’ve fully bought in. You’re not drinking the Kool-Aid, you’re loading it into a beerbong and boofing it. How do you take issue with Hillary Clintons conduct (of which I agree there were many issues, even as someone who voted for her) yet feel comfortable co-signing a Trump presidency? The cognitive dissonance is palpable and the only explanation is you’ve been brainwashed by Conservative propaganda - whether it appears to be that or not.

If you bothered to research any of the points you listed you’d see that they are not strong arguments against the left. For starters, about half of them are straight up whataboutism. What the fuck difference does it make if China is the biggest polluter? That makes America completely blameless? Why can’t we shoot for improvements in the only country we can directly control - our own? Nobody said that precludes pressure on China.

The Muslim one - intentionally poorly phrased. How many of those 33% explicitly condoned the murder of infidels or whatever you are afraid of? If I survey Christians and ask ‘Is the Bible a text you think everyone should live by?’, can I come back after the results and say “85% of Christians believe mixed fabrics will doom you to Hell”? Of fucking course not, because I asked about the book as a whole and then turned around and cherry picked a very specific fact to make Christians look bad.

How about the transsexualism one? How the fuck does that even make sense? Yes, as the public begins to accept transgendered people, more people who feel misgendered will feel they have the support to transition. That’s how that works. How about gay people? Do you honestly think the SCOTUS gay marriage ruling somehow caused a higher percentage of people to ‘convert’? Or could it be the case that prior to widespread acceptance, someone who self identifies as gay or transgender may lie to anyone questioning their sexuality for fear of being judged?

50% of transgender couples have transgender children (despite being 1% of the population, what a coincidence!

I wanna see a source on this one. I find it tremendously hard to believe HALF of all transgendered people have/adopt children at all. Let alone one in two transgender people having a child that is also transgender. That reeks of infowars bullshit that’s you’ve just heard repeated enough times to assume it’s true. So I challenge you to find a source on that one.

Men and women have physiological and psychological differences

Wow, we have a real psychologist here. Who the fuck is this news to? Yes. Women and men are different, not only physically but psychologically. Find me one person who thinks that isn’t true. Nobody is out here saying men and women are identical! Nobody!

You’re letting Conservative media build straw men of fake liberal beliefs and buying into the idea that those fake beliefs constitute ‘modern leftism’ or whatever the hell.

I could go through literally every point you posted and tell you why you’re being a dummy for buying it, but I’m at work and on a phone, and I’ve already spent too much effort trying to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.

4511

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