I read somewhere if Republicans ram a nominee through, moderate sems would be on board with packing the court.

St. Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters appear as guest stars during virtual Trump campaign event

If it's post Trump loss I could Lindsay Graham not smashing it through.. but who knows anymore

John Lewis just passed away...

We've posted and discussed ads from the Lincoln Project. I thought this was an interesting look at the group...

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/17/21316641/ ... t-gop-2020

threecount wrote:John Lewis just passed away...

another huge civil rights figure. Tough year for storied black congressmen.

Geez, according to DHS, what's happening in Portland is just the beginning and they will be doing this around the nation. I have no idea how many officers have been coopted or volunteered because of their ideology, but to do what he's talking about will take a lot of people. Can someone reassure me again that Trump can't do terrible things with the military? I mean, he seems to be building a force and is in the process of deploying them around the US in liberal strongholds. Am I really supposed to believe this is just to protect monuments and buildings?

From DHS:

Well, we are – we welcome – the more investigations, the better. With as much lawbreaking is going on, we’re seeking to prosecute as many people as are breaking the law as it relates to federal jurisdiction. That’s not always happening with respect to local jurisdiction and local offenses. But, you know, this is a posture we intend to continue not just in Portland but in any of the facilities that we’re responsible for around the country.

This is on top of Pompeo's words today:

“Americans have not only unalienable rights, but also positive rights, rights granted by governments, courts, multilateral bodies. Many are worth defending in light of our founding; others aren’t,” he said. “Prioritizing which rights to defend is also hard,” he added, saying his commission’s report prioritized “property rights and religious liberty.”

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-sent-380000-to-business-in-2-days-2020-7?amp

The link goes to a story about the campaign moving almost $400,000 in 41 transactions to Trump businesses over 2 days. Maybe they thought breaking it down into small transactions would make it go and noticed, but the FEC filing has them all next to each other. The article goes on to highlight other often large sums of funds that have come through Trump's businesses from the federal government. it's easier to take no salary if you can build the government for millions a year. Especially when part of the play is to not offer government rates, meaning that you rent something for say $17,000 a month to the secret service or you provide hotel rooms at $700 a night.

And scheme too big, no con too small.

jerseyhoya wrote:David Shor’s Unified Theory of American Politics - retweets are not endorsements, and there are things in here I don't agree with or obviously would frame differently as I come at many things from a different perspective than him, but this has been getting a lot of deserved love on Twitter today and is worth the read if politics/polling/elections interest you

Shor's obviously a smart guy. On some level, I'm very sympathetic with the overall view, as I have long thought the real cleavage in American politics (and it's not just the US) was between cosmopolitans and parochials and a good strategy for the Democrats would be to emphasize the economic issues that appeal to parochials. Bill Clinton did this, and even Obama did this. I'm not sure though he acknowledges enough how much the long term trend he cites that education levels will matter more, and ethnicity will matter less takes into account how much Trump has transformed the Republican Party, narrowing its base. That is, I think a lot of the "Obama-Trump" voters are going to swing back to Biden and perhaps stay with the Democrats. I don't think young non-church going African Americans are going to stick with the Republican party in significant numbers. He seems to think that for the Democrats to gain Texas, they'd have to lose Pennsylvania and Wisconsin because of age and education. I'm not sure I buy that at all.

I also don't think Shor (or really anyone for that matter) has fully digested the impact that Covid-19 is going to have on all this. It might for example do irreparable damage to the Republican brand in Florida and Arizona, and significant damage in Texas and Georgia. We might be on the verge of something like the 1932 election--a fundamental shift in American politics. I have come to believe that you cannot pull apart Republican ideology and Republican incompetence. The hostility to technical expertise is fundamental to Republican populism. It's as if you decided that modern medicine is some kind of scam, so instead of a doctor you decide that faith healing is the way to go.

Monkeyboy wrote:“Americans have not only unalienable rights, but also positive rights, rights granted by governments, courts, multilateral bodies. Many are worth defending in light of our founding; others aren’t,” he said. “Prioritizing which rights to defend is also hard,” he added, saying his commission’s report prioritized “property rights and religious liberty.”

[/quote]

ALL Americans should be terrified by those comments.

ReadingPhilly wrote:

close enough

TenuredVulture wrote:I also don't think Shor (or really anyone for that matter) has fully digested the impact that Covid-19 is going to have on all this. It might for example do irreparable damage to the Republican brand in Florida and Arizona, and significant damage in Texas and Georgia. We might be on the verge of something like the 1932 election--a fundamental shift in American politics. I have come to believe that you cannot pull apart Republican ideology and Republican incompetence. The hostility to technical expertise is fundamental to Republican populism. It's as if you decided that modern medicine is some kind of scam, so instead of a doctor you decide that faith healing is the way to go.

His dismissal of covid in this piece was odd. It's going to be THE defining issue of the election, and one that does not look favorable for the incumbent at all.

The Republicans say that government is the problem and set out every day to prove it.

ReadingPhilly wrote:

This was AMAZING

Amazingly F'd up

It's so much more horrible then as reported on the internet

someone please explain this, because, ya know, i just wanna make sure you understand it as well as i do

This is Elijah Cummings not John Lewis. It is however Marco Rubio.

thanks, just making sure you guys were on the ball

Watching the John Lewis documentary and Cummings talks about how so many people would come up to him thinking he was Lewis. He said it was a honor to be mistaken for a great man. So a tip of the cap to Rubio.