US Politics

Trump sounding off again:

’He [Kavanaugh] was caught up in a hoax, that was set up by the Democrats, using the Democrats lawyers and now they want to impeach him. I have heard this from many people, I think it’s an insult to the American public. I think you’re going to see a lot of things happen on November 6 that would not have happened before. The American public has seen this charade, have seen this dishonesty by the Democrats...it was all made up, it was all fabricated, and it’s a disgrace,’

‘The Democrats have shifted so far left this country will end up being Venezuela...I think a lot of Democrats will be voting Republican on November 6.’

Video at the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us- ... hoax-trump

What is it with the hard right and Venezuela?

I hope the Republicans get absolutely shafted in the mid-terms. I fear that won’t happen though.

Moggy wrote:What is it with the hard right and Venezuela?

I hope the Republicans get absolutely shafted in the mid-terms. I fear that won’t happen though.

What gives me hope is that he didn't have a majority BEFORE, he almost certainly doesn't have one now. I doubt hes going to get lucky twice regards the Senate and all that. But obviously its hard tot hink that because we seem to live in the worst timeline. Maybe this is the moment we realise we don't.

DML wrote:

Moggy wrote:What is it with the hard right and Venezuela?

I hope the Republicans get absolutely shafted in the mid-terms. I fear that won’t happen though.

What gives me hope is that he didn't have a majority BEFORE, he almost certainly doesn't have one now. I doubt hes going to get lucky twice regards the Senate and all that. But obviously its hard tot hink that because we seem to live in the worst timeline. Maybe this is the moment we realise we don't.

I absolutely agree, there’s no chance he is going to increase his power in the mid-terms.

Which is exactly why I think it’ll probably happen.

538 seems to think that the House is favoured to flip, while the Senate will either remain as is, or go one seat more Republican.

The far right keep citing Venezuela because Venezuela is a far left basketcase - a shoddily attempted socialist country that's falling hard toward dictatorship.

I predict a landslide Republican win, the Democrats couldn't smooth a silk sheet if they had a hot date with a babe... I've lost my train of thought.

Don't underestimate the pissed offedness of the general public toward the Republicunts.

The party in power almost always suffers in the midterms.

Alvin Flummux wrote:The far right keep citing Venezuela because Venezuela is a far left basketcase - a shoddily attempted socialist country that's falling hard toward dictatorship.

I know why they do it, stop Alvinsplaining.

The idea of the Democrats being like Venezuela is astonishing, they are further right than the British Tory party used to be. The Tories might have slipped further right than the Dems recently though.

I think the Dems won't do anywhere near as well as many predict/hope. I'm also not sure about 2020.

If feels like the Left groups have a problem of "conscientious objectors" - people that won't vote for anything but their candidate. (e.g. BernieBros that would not vote for Clinton under any circumstances)

The Dem party has a lot of this bagage - and these "principled" people won't vote for the Dems in lots of circumstance - even if it means Trump (after all it's not their fault. it's the party's fault for putting up the wrong candicate)

In principle I agree with Hexx - but if these clowns were ever going to grow up and band together now is the time.

Moggy wrote:

Alvin Flummux wrote:The far right keep citing Venezuela because Venezuela is a far left basketcase - a shoddily attempted socialist country that's falling hard toward dictatorship.

I know why they do it, stop Alvinsplaining.

The idea of the Democrats being like Venezuela is astonishing, they are further right than the British Tory party used to be. The Tories might have slipped further right than the Dems recently though.

The real problem is many republican voters have this odd idea that any move towards any type of socialism (be it single payer healthcare or having maternity leave) will automatically lead to the US becoming Venezuela.
The fact that Europe has many of the things they say will cause this must baffle them as surely all Europe must be doomed all the time and how does any company even exist in Europe with the benefits (like 25 days holiday and maternity/paternity) that mush crush all the spirit from the poor downtrodden investors and management.

Hexx wrote:I think the Dems won't do anywhere near as well as many predict/hope. I'm also not sure about 2020.

If feels like the Left groups have a problem of "conscientious objectors" - people that won't vote for anything but their candidate. (e.g. BernieBros that would not vote for Clinton under any circumstances)

The Dem party has a lot of this bagage - and these "principled" people won't vote for the Dems in lots of circumstance - even if it means Trump (after all it's not their fault. it's the party's fault for putting up the wrong candicate)

I've been thinking this recently. All this talk of a 'blue wave' smacks very much of the Dems over confidence heading into the election. Fivethreeeight have also highlighted some stats that, although favourable for the Dems, fall within normal swing percentages. Considering the chaos engulfing the country, this in itself is a very bad sign that people are not, in fact, flocking to the left in the numbers the Democrats need.

Wouldnt it be wonderful if for once the shock was the Dems doing spectacularly well and wiping out the Reps. Its gotta go that way SOMETIME.

Kavanaugh to be sworn in from around 12am tonight with ceremony and FESTIVITIES, for those that want to stay up for that. Donald Trump will star, too.

Festivities you say? Might call for a few cheeky rounds of Devil's Triangle.

The other country the Far Right have a weird obsession with is Sweden. They seem to have alerts set up so that they are notified whenever anyone who is slightly brown over there commits a crime. It's hardly a groundbreaking revelation but they are staggering ill-informed about Europe. We are in the midst of a knifing crisis at the moment apparently. The insinuation being that if you don't have guns, you just constantly stab one another.

And another thing, totally unconnected. With the Ford-Kavanaugh thing, we had a lot of people try and hedge their bets and desperately try not to appear dismissive of Dr Ford by saying, "Oh I think she was definitely sexuallt assaulted, just not by Kavanaugh". There's clearly been some thinking that they didn't want to completely discredit her or call her a liar, because it sort of looks bad, especially to female supporters. The problem is, I can't think of anything more dismissive and uncaring to say to a sexual assault victim then that they believe they were sexually assaulted, but that they're mistaken about which man it actually was.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Hexx wrote:I think the Dems won't do anywhere near as well as many predict/hope. I'm also not sure about 2020.

If feels like the Left groups have a problem of "conscientious objectors" - people that won't vote for anything but their candidate. (e.g. BernieBros that would not vote for Clinton under any circumstances)

The Dem party has a lot of this bagage - and these "principled" people won't vote for the Dems in lots of circumstance - even if it means Trump (after all it's not their fault. it's the party's fault for putting up the wrong candicate)

I've been thinking this recently. All this talk of a 'blue wave' smacks very much of the Dems over confidence heading into the election. Fivethreeeight have also highlighted some stats that, although favourable for the Dems, fall within normal swing percentages. Considering the chaos engulfing the country, this in itself is a very bad sign that people are not, in fact, flocking to the left in the numbers the Democrats need.

The last time that anything like this happened (Clarence Thomas and the Anita Hill allegations) it generated a huge backlash from Democratic and independent voters, and was a key factor George Bush Sr. remaining a one-term president. It was also the cause of a tremendous upset against a generally well-liked Democrat senator, who only voted for Thomas' confirmation because, prior to Hill's allegations surfacing, he outright promised Bush he would. Needless to say, gooseberry fool got awkward there when the allegations emerged. In the end, it resulted in the election of the first female African-American senator to office.

Preezy wrote:Quite the quandary- a successful economy raises living standards but can also price out the bottom of the market.

In other countries this is somewhat alleviated by having a decent mass transit system so even though people have to move further away from the areas of economic growth they still have access to the jobs. The US has a very low population density combined with traditionally low cost of car ownership (which has now been on the rise for a while), and a dislike for public services. So all this produces a situation where a lot of people just have no way to reach good jobs, even when there are jobs available.

The mid-terms are a worry but the Supreme Court is where I think Trump will have the most lasting impact on America.

Out of the 9 judges, Trump has appointed two of them.

From the other judges, one of them is 85, one is 80, one is 70 and one is 68. It is perfectly conceivable that Trump could end up appointing another one or two lifetime judges to the Supreme Court.

That's decades of Trumpian influence on America, even if his Presidential policies fizzle out.

And most importantly, the two oldest are both Democrats.

Moggy wrote:The mid-terms are a worry but the Supreme Court is where I think Trump will have the most lasting impact on America.

Out of the 9 judges, Trump has appointed two of them.

From the other judges, one of them is 85, one is 80, one is 70 and one is 68. It is perfectly conceivable that Trump could end up appointing another one or two lifetime judges to the Supreme Court.

That's decades of Trumpian influence on America, even if his Presidential policies fizzle out.

But the next time the Dems control all 3 branches of Government, they'll be enormous pressure to change the structure of the Supreme Court. Appointing more justices and/or going for fixed term limits. The fact the GOP have seated an openly partisan judge will almost certainly force them to do so. I think reform of the SCOTUS will become orthodoxy for 2020 hopefuls.