What happened to...

[weedywet]

Y’all Quaeda

[nobby]

A) there is no such thing as “too liberal”

B) the same morons in hats who fantasize that the US military is near invincible elsewhere imagine that they can win a war against F15s and cruise missiles with AR15s.

B) I watched some Afghanistan military footage and I think drones and attack helicopters seem to work better for guys running around with rifles and grenade launchers.

A) I agree, but Republicans already believe it's too liberal. Too much democracy is making it hard for fascism to flourish.

They were gearing up for a Civil War rematch when Trump unexpectedly won.

The NRA contributed $30,000,000 to Trumps campaign. That backfired badly because Trump won, and gun sales dropped like a stone because liberals aren't stupid enough to think an armed takeover is the way to get what you want in an established democracy. Unless what you want is to get killed.

People in Syria had plenty of rifles and handguns but they weren't effective against artillery and barrel bombs, so the people had a choice of dying or becoming refugees.

There is a revolution coming in the US, but it won't be fought with guns -- it will be won at the ballot box.

[Bob Olhsson]

The SS fascist party only cares about the ability of a given subject to divide people and distract from their corruption. Their 53 years of propaganda has converted around 30% of the public and disgusted another 30% to the point that they won't vote.

[John Eppstein]

In a word (or two) - CONOR LAMB.

If you're serious about retaking the government there is no better role model than Conor Lamb.

You will not retake middle America by continuing to hysterically babble about gun control. Not gonna happen. However, if you follow Mr Lamb's political; lead you have a clear road map for retaking both the House and the Senate, which gives us an almost certain ability to impeach not only Trump but his entire gang of spies and thieves.

That means you STFU about gun control in middle and Midwestern America, because to not do that is a guaranteed path to continuing to lose those key regions of the country.

Lamb is a moderate, FDR-esque Democrat who pointedly does not support gun control as the hysterical urbanites insist on pushing it, is moderate on the abortion issue, pointedly does NOT support Pelosi (who is a member of the ultra-hypocritical Feinstein cabal which I have hated for decades, for very good reasons that only a musician or artist who lives in San Francisco can truly understand, and goes out of his way to NOT stir up any of those hornet's nests. And he managed to flip one of the most hard core RED districts in Pennsylvania.

You can't get anything done if you have no power. You will not have power if you persist in handing large chunks of the voting citizenry to the enemy on a silver platter. Which is EXACTLY what the Democratic party has been doing and continues to do.

Conor Lamb got it right in Pennsylvania last night. If the Democratic party PAYS ATTENTION to his achievement and follows suit strategically, we stand every chance of retaking the country.

If we don't we're setting ourselves up for 2016, Act 2.

There's something else to this, which on the face of it may appear to be crazy, wild speculation - but if you follow the timeline and correlate already proven facts about various aspects of the situation over the past few years makes perfect, chilling sense. I'll get into that later.

[Bob Olhsson]

Something too many liberals miss is that while Lamb would never propose the Bernie talking points, he would also not vote against them unless he was convinced most people in his district were opposed. He's a small donations guy who is opposed to the corporate-backed leaders of both parties. If he were running in San Francisco, he would probably suppress turnout. The lesson is running the right anti-corruption candidate for each district.

[nobby]

An interesting side note is that the 18th congressional district is so obviously extremely gerrymandered that the district was ruled illegal and is slated to be dissolved before the next election.

So while Lamb won by a razor thin margin in this election, he would have won by a landslide if his district hadn't been extremely gerrymandered in republicans' favor.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has redrawn the map of the state's congressional districts, overturning a Republican gerrymander that's been used in the past three congressional elections.

The new map more closely reflects the partisan composition of the state, all but ensuring that Democrats will pick up several new U.S. House seats in November.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... a53a1a67f7

[Bob Olhsson]

It is a mostly union suburb of Pittsburgh. He brought the Reagan Democrats back into the party.

[John Eppstein]

Something too many liberals miss is that while Lamb would never propose the Bernie talking points, he would also not vote against them unless he was convinced most people in his district were opposed. He's a small donations guy who is opposed to the corporate-backed leaders of both parties. If he were running in San Francisco, he would probably suppress turnout. The lesson is running the right anti-corruption candidate for each district.

The SF party machine is so corrupt it's unreal. On the one hand it supports "ultra radical left" causes such as extreme gun control, while on the other hand supporting Wall Street and predatory building developers (sound familiar?) and killing Dodd-Frank (although they won't openly admit it. (Watch where the votes go.) Some call them "the Tea Party of the Left". I prefer "Republican Lite".

I think I really like Lamb. If wee follow his example ( which includes ditching the anti-gun hysteria into the dumpster where it belongs) we very well could prevail.

Lamb's posing with a AK-47 was pivotal in his being able to (barely) carry the election. That illustrates what I've been saying for months, that backing off on that issue is critical to our taking back Congress and eventually the presidency. And the way things are goi8ng the door may be closing on our opportunity to do that.

Incidentally I am becoming increasingly convinced that gun control is a Russian backed false-flag operation, designed to ensure that the Democratic Party continues to cripple itself. And to distract attention from the real business at hand - getting rid of Trump, discrediting the Republicans once and for all, and restoring sanity and stability to the country. Follow the timeline - with Russia's deep penetration of social media it's child's play for them to instigate new episodes of gun violence whenever things really start getting too hot for the League of Traitors in Washington.

[weedywet]

Conor Lamb campaigned:
1. For universal health care
2. Against Trump’s tax cut
3. For expanded background checks
4. For stronger unions
5. Against cuts to Social Security
6. For a woman’s right to choose
7. For medical marijuana

“Conservative Democrat” my ass.

[John Eppstein]

Conor Lamb campaigned:
1. For universal health care
2. Against Trump’s tax cut
3. For expanded background checks
4. For stronger unions
5. Against cuts to Social Security
6. For a woman’s right to choose
7. For medical marijuana

“Conservative Democrat” my ass.

And he posed for a photo op with an AR-47 and pointedly distanced himself from Nancy Pelosi*.

If you want to WIN, you play to your electorate. You don't do things to alienate them.

Seems like common sense to me. Doesn't seem to be enough of that around these days.



* - Because Pelosi presents the image of being a rabid, out of control "leftist" despite the fact that she's actually a really hard core conservative on most issues that really count, like banking, out of control development, opposition to the popular arts, deregulation of business and communications, foreign relations, etc. And she doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut nationally and stupidly assumes that everybody agrees with her San Francisco politics, although the majority of San Franciscans disagree with many of her positions and only vote for her because there generally is no choice in machine dominated SF politics, although there are signs that things may be changing this year.

[John Eppstein]

Conor Lamb campaigned:
1. For universal health care
2. Against Trump’s tax cut
3. For expanded background checks
4. For stronger unions
5. Against cuts to Social Security
6. For a woman’s right to choose
7. For medical marijuana

“Conservative Democrat” my ass.

Barry Goldwater was for legalized Marijuana, way back in the '60s - what's not "conservative" about that?

And he (Lamb, not Goldwater) posed for a photo op with an AR-47 and pointedly distanced himself from Nancy Pelosi*.

If you want to WIN, you play to your electorate. You don't do things to alienate them.

Seems like common sense to me. Doesn't seem to be enough of that around these days.



* - Because Pelosi presents the image of being a rabid, out of control "leftist" despite the fact that she's actually a really hard core conservative on most issues that really count, like banking, out of control development, opposition to the popular arts, deregulation of business and communications, foreign relations, etc. And she doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut nationally and stupidly assumes that everybody agrees with her San Francisco politics, although the majority of San Franciscans disagree with many of her positions and only vote for her because there generally is no choice in machine dominated SF politics, although there are signs that things may be changing this year.

[weedywet]

A lot of people LEFT of her (and younger as well) have issues with pelosi continuing as leader.

[John Eppstein]

A lot of people LEFT of her (and younger as well) have issues with pelosi continuing as leader.

You mean the REAL left (what's left of it), not the "San Francisco Left".

[weedywet]

I mean not the Wall St Democrats

but the fact remains that Lamb's criticism of Pelosi isn't necessarily because he's "conservative"

[Bob Olhsson]

Judging by the arguments, he obviously must be a REAL centerist! Common sense is so rare in politics.

By the way, as someone who is on Medicare, it certainly isn't nearly as good as the healthcare in Canada!

[Bob Olhsson]

In Pelosi's defense, she and her friends managed to completely rid California of the Koch party stench. Show me somebody else who has managed to do that.

[John Eppstein]

I mean not the Wall St Democrats

but the fact remains that Lamb's criticism of Pelosi isn't necessarily because he's "conservative"

No, more likely because, behind all the lip service to flashy, high profile PR causes, SHE is.

I don't have any problem with any of those causes, really, except gun control, because politically it is a sure fire way to keep the Democrats from completely retaking the country, and because I;m convinced that it's a feel-good "easy" (or, if you prefer, "simplistic") solution to a much deeper, more complex problem that really needs addressing, as it underlies a lot of our current problems.

In my more paranoid moments I wonder if all the hoopla about gun control might actually be a Russian false-flag media operation designed to prevent unity and sow chaos in the country. Think that's far-fetched? How about the Russians compromising our voting system? Is it more far-fetched than that?

Correlate the time line with "unrelated" events they might want to distract attention from.

And what better way to get people to vote against their own interests than to tie those interests to a widely unpopular, highly emotional ":hot button" topic that the people you'r attempting to convince to disenfranchise themselves oppose deeply and historically?

Perhaps more Americans should play chess.

[John Eppstein]

In Pelosi's defense, she and her friends managed to completely rid California of the Koch party stench. Show me somebody else who has managed to do that.

I'm not entirely certain that's giving credit where it's due. Or entirely accurate. We still have a-holes like Nunes.

Too often Northern Cal overshadows Southern Cal in the country's political eye. There are deep seated bastions of conservatism in the south. San Diego, Orange County, lots more - Even LA has a lot of very active conservatives.

[Bob Olhsson]

She helped trounce them. The SS's oldest tactic was to fund far left candidates who would then lose the primary and their supporters wouldn't show up to vote.

[weedywet]

I’m not sure I read the underlying issues the same way as John, but there isn’t any question that the Russian govt. supports the NRA covertly as a means of pumping up the crazy alt right types.
Just to maintain chaos and division.

even as in russia they’d never allow the public to be armed.

[John Eppstein]

Now what was that I've been warning about for the last couple of years about crazies moving to bombs?

[unitymusic]

I think we need to get rid of the terms "liberal" and "conservative" in these types of conversations, and to take it a step [or three] further I really think we should be done with political parties all together, at least on the ballots.

[nobby]

Now what was that I've been warning about for the last couple of years about crazies moving to bombs?

It just goes to show that guns are obviously a much better, more efficient way to kill people.

Only 2 dead besides the suspect? This is a terrible way to advertise bombs as a way of killing people.

Then you reply, "But what of the Oklahoma bombing?"

Then I reply that that was so difficult to pull off that it hasn't happened again in 23 years.

[John Eppstein]

Now what was that I've been warning about for the last couple of years about crazies moving to bombs?

It just goes to show that guns are obviously a much better, more efficient way to kill people.

Only 2 dead besides the suspect? This is a terrible way to advertise bombs as a way of killing people.

Then you reply, "But what of the Oklahoma bombing?"

Then I reply that that was so difficult to pull off that it hasn't happened again in 23 years.

Well, the last school shooting only got two people, plus the perp, so I guess guns aren't always that effective, either, right?

Naw, more likely that some people are just fuckups.

[nobby]

Well, the last school shooting only got two people, plus the perp, so I guess guns aren't always that effective, either, right?

You're cherry-picking. Statistics trump your anecdote.

How many school shootings compared to school bombings?

How many bomb murders overall, compared to gun murders?

[weedywet]

The lesson being that bombs, (which despite being “arms” are illegal) are much harder to come by.

If you could walk into Walmart and buy land mines or plastic explosives they’d be used a lot more.

[Bob Olhsson]

A lethal shot from a handgun smaller than a 45 is not going to stop somebody from shooting before they can empty their gun. The whole idea of a gun offering "protection" is a Hollywood fantasy unless somebody approaches your house shooting and you have time to go get a shotgun or rifle.

[nobby]

Putin loves this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/nation ... cd8b20743a

[weedywet]

the amazing bit of reframing the right has managed (over 50 years) is to position government that actually seeks to curtail rights as "liberty" while calling government that actually seeks to expand rights to everyone as 'unconstitutional' or 'power grabbing'

[Bob Olhsson]

A-Men. What's scary is how well it's working and that the Kochs, who created the Russian oil industry, are behind most of it along with America's hardcore anti-communism stance and today's pro-Russian fascism position. Mango "Sh!thole" Mussolini s just their latest version of Reagan.