The REAL USPol - February - The Something Awful Forums

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WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

What'd she do to earn your scorn?

"existing while black"

# ? Feb 28, 2016 17:17

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 18:18

Fried Chicken: Jan 9, 2011; Don't fry me, I'm no chicken!

axeil posted:

what the hell? those all seem like good policies the city council would support. was it mcconellism and not wanting to give the opposing party feathers in their cap?

Man, I could give you a list.

He wanted to build a new criminal justice center - our present jail/courts building is not the best, it is pretty old. He also wanted it to be bigger because he wanted a large health care wing built into it on the justification that a lot of those who end up in the city jail are having drug addiction or mental health issues as the root underlying cause, so he wanted to hit the problem there, and tap some ACA money to do it. This would also have been some backscratching for his supporters, because if he gets it he oversees where the construction and operations contracts go, and the Dems wanted to be the ones to do that. So you had the city council democrats killing it on cost and "why are we giving health care to law-breakers!" and effectively breaking with the Democratic platform and support of the ACA. We still need the new criminal justice building, so now we get to have the Dems do that so they can hand out the contracts, but since they ran hard against the health wing that is probably dropped.

Given the city's history and long time not-the-greatest-place setup (in the 70s people would hunt rats with .22s in downtown in broad daylight, and it was so deserted it didn't matter) the city has a fair number of downtown properties. Ballard handed those out on very restricted bid contracts where the people able to enter where inevitably those connected to the GOP. Which is shady as gently caress. But on the other hand constantly tossing out land for development helped keep the cost of living down and who they handed those properties out to and how they were zoned has lead to a huge resurgence in our downtown life - it is very walking friendly and there is an amazing restaurant and bar scene. Fountain Square was a shithole just 10 years ago, now it is home to 3 of last year's top rated new restaurants in the country.

He was pushing hard for police reform long before it was a thing on the nation's radar, mainly because the elected sheriff was a Democrat and the highranking police leaders were Dems. But more body cams and civil monitoring of police is a drat good thing; and it has turned out that the cops here were hugely involved in a drug ring, including said sheriff's son.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 17:22

Mc Do Well: Aug 2, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

UrbicaMortis posted:

McDowell, are you just blazed as gently caress 24/7?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 17:48

Unzip and Attack: Mar 3, 2008; USPOL May

Tulsi Gabbard just resigned from the DNC in order to support the Sanders campaign.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:17

WhiskeyJuvenile: Feb 15, 2002; by Nyc_Tattoo

Meanwhile DWS does it for free. Sucker

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:18

Wicked Them Beats: Apr 1, 2007; Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

Seems like poor timing to be jumping on the Sanders bandwagon, given his recent blowout in SC and his likely losses on Tuesday.

Maybe she was just tired of working with DWS; couldn't blame her for that.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:24

Uranium Phoenix: Jun 20, 2007; Boom.

Unzip and Attack posted:

Tulsi Gabbard just resigned from the DNC in order to support the Sanders campaign.

Here's a link for folks interested.

Meanwhile, another black kid just got shot:

quote:

Mohammad told the Salt Lake Tribune that the teenager was holding part of a broomstick at his side when officers ran up. �They told him to put it down, once, and started shooting him as soon as he turned around,� he added, saying his friend was hit in the chest and stomach.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:26

Wicked Them Beats: Apr 1, 2007; Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

And now for some election news - from Iran!

quote:

Partial results from Iran's elections on Friday indicate that pro-reform moderates will win all 30 of Tehran's parliamentary seats � a victory for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and a blow to Iran's hard-liners.

...

Reformists seem poised to win those 30 seats despite many pro-reform candidates being disqualified from the election before voting began. Moderate voters hoped that a heavy turnout would allow their relatively small number of candidates to edge out hard-liner opponents � and in the capital, at least, the strategy appears to have worked.

Moderate candidates also did well in Iran's other election, for the Assembly of Experts, which will someday choose the next Supreme Leader of Iran. "President Hassan Rouhani and former President Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both of whom have been embraced by reformists, are the leading vote getters," Peter says.

Assuming we elect a Democrat here, it looks like our relations with Iran might be a little less shaky going forward.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:35

MattD1zzl3: Oct 26, 2007; Can't post for 4 years!

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

What'd she do to earn your scorn?

WhiskeyJuvenile posted:

"existing while black"

There is that, but i was more thinking how she actually did the Hooper speech from chasing amy (a speech written by a very white kevin smith) about darth vader unironically on television. I always felt like turning the tv off and doing something else as soon as her show came on, so apparently did the rest of america.

vVV Thats my representative and she's p. cool. I'd rather she wasnt rumored to be rigging it for clinton.

MattD1zzl3 fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Feb 28, 2016

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:37

punk rebel ecks: Dec 11, 2010; A shitty post? This calls for a dance of deduction.

Can someone do a quick breakdown to as of why DWS is so hated?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:41

Nostalgia4Infinity: Feb 27, 2007; 10,000 YEARS WASN'T ENOUGH LURKING

Female

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:47

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

punk rebel ecks posted:

Can someone do a quick breakdown to as of why DWS is so hated?

Scapegoating and she says stupid stuff regularly. Also she's 100% for Hillary and while that isn't necessarily bad it is going to make you unpopular with an extremely vocal and insane bloc of Internet politics people right now.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:50

Wicked Them Beats: Apr 1, 2007; Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

punk rebel ecks posted:

Can someone do a quick breakdown to as of why DWS is so hated?

Because she's a Jewish woman, of course.

quote:

Throughout her time as chair, Wasserman Schultz has turned off colleagues, other top Democrats and current and former staff for a management style that strikes many as self-centered � even for a politician � and often at the expense of the DNC or individual candidates or campaigns. Many top Democrats, including some she counts as supporters and friends, privately complain about her trying to use the DNC as a vehicle for her own personal promotion, and letting her own ambition get in the way of larger goals.

Wasserman Schultz has a different sense of herself. According to people who spoke with her, when she sensed Obama was considering replacing her as chair in 2013, she began to line up supporters to suggest the move was both anti-woman and anti-Semitic. Under fire last fall for her leadership, she took Obama�s decision not to remove her then as evidence of renewed strength and said she was confident no one could get her out of the DNC before her term is over at the beginning of 2017, according to sources who�ve spoken with her. She�s also been known to joke around the office about how having a vacation home in New Hampshire might one day be helpful in a presidential run.

Basically she's a self-serving piece of poo poo like any politician, but she hides it worse than they do. And she hasn't really done anything to further the party, focusing almost all of the party's efforts on the Presidency while Dems continue to get routed in the House and Senate.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:51

Aurubin: Mar 17, 2011

punk rebel ecks posted:

Can someone do a quick breakdown to as of why DWS is so hated?

Generally blamed for incompetence and self promotion as well as being wholly impartial in her loyalty to Clinton. People usually oversimplify it by comparing Dean's tenure to hers. Allegations of misogyny aside, comb Politico if you want tabloid level scuttlebutt about her. That said I'll make it clear that I think most of the allegations are true.

EDIT: By allegations I mean that she's a bad DNC chair.

Aurubin fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Feb 28, 2016

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:52

Unzip and Attack: Mar 3, 2008; USPOL May

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

Female

Yeah that's it. Couldn't be for poo poo like this.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:55

Anime Schoolgirl: Nov 28, 2002

Litany Unheard posted:

Assuming we elect a Democrat here, it looks like our relations with Iran might be a little less shaky going forward.

maybe in 5 years we can finally get bibi dumped into the ocean in a boat with no paddle somewhere

# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:58

McAlister: Nov 3, 2002; by exmarx

Unzip and Attack posted:

Yeah that's it. Couldn't be for poo poo like this.

Are the republicans observing such a ban and is it her job to fund democratic candidates?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:00

woke wedding drone: Jun 1, 2003; by exmarx; Fun Shoe

MattD1zzl3 posted:

There is that

There is? You're just a straight up racist? Good to know, your kind have been testing the waters all over the place. Your blond master has given you all some courage.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:02

Unzip and Attack: Mar 3, 2008; USPOL May

McAlister posted:

Are the republicans observing such a ban and is it her job to fund democratic candidates?

Ah yes "the Republicans do it". Setting that bar really high, there. Guess Obama was just way too progressive for us.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:04

Anime Schoolgirl: Nov 28, 2002

SedanChair posted:

There is? You're just a straight up racist? Good to know, your kind have been testing the waters all over the place. Your blond master has given you all some courage.

My accusation didn't exactly come from nowhere...

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:05

HookedOnChthonics: Dec 5, 2015; Profoundly dull

Has Toobin's Scalia retrospective been posted yet? Just reading it now (dead tree style :shepspends:

) and oh boy is it even more scathing than the Bork piece. Opening line:

Jeffrey Toobin posted:

Antonin Scalia, who died this month, after nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy. Fortunately, he mostly failed.

Also, this :iceburn:

from Alito deserves to be excerpted:

Jeffrey Toobin posted:

Justice Samuel Alito interrupted Scalia�s harangue of a lawyer by quipping, �I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games. Did he enjoy them?�

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:05

woke wedding drone: Jun 1, 2003; by exmarx; Fun Shoe

Anime Schoolgirl posted:

My accusation didn't exactly come from nowhere...

I too am often conflicted about the dugger's sun.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:06

Aurubin: Mar 17, 2011

Litany Unheard posted:

And now for some election news - from Iran!

Assuming we elect a Democrat here, it looks like our relations with Iran might be a little less shaky going forward.

The thing about this is that the majority of Khatami style reformists were disqualified, and the "reformist" ticket was really more of a branding effort by the remaining candidates. Think of it more as a bellwether of Iranian political sentiment than what will actually occur.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:07

Islam is the Lite Rock FM: Jul 27, 2007; by exmarx

Anime Schoolgirl posted:

maybe in 5 years we can finally get bibi dumped into the ocean in a boat with no paddle somewhere

That's too nice. Send him to Kansas.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:21

SgtScruffy: Dec 27, 2003; Babies.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/28/donald-trump-retweets-post-likening-him-to-mussolini/?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Trump (or at least his twitter account) retweeted a quote from Moussolini, attributed to him. That's kind of a "ha ha that's Trump for ya" in itself, but the last line of the article was literally trump acknowledging that he can make any political gaffe at all, and it will just make him stronger.

quote:

Donald J. Trump on Sunday morning used his Twitter feed to post a quote attributed to Benito Mussolini, the founder of the fascist movement, from a parody account. The tweet compared the Italian dictator to Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner for the presidential nomination.

The tweet was posted by Mr. Trump�s account at 6:13 a.m.

The @ilduce2016 feed is a parody account, with a profile picture that is a composite of Mr. Trump�s hair and Mussolini�s face. �Il Duce� was how Mussolini was known by Italians.

Some conservative critics of Mr. Trump�s rhetoric about use of power, both in the United States and abroad, have suggested that his declarations fall along the lines of fascist oratory.

Mr. Trump is an avid Twitter user, and he often goes on posting sprees in the middle of the night or early in the morning. At times, his retweets have been questionable, including posts from accounts associated with white nationalists.

The website Gawker claimed credit for creating the parody account about Il Duce (which translates to �the leader� in Italian.)

Mr. Trump, in an interview on NBC�s �Meet the Press,� said he was unaware that it had been a quote from Mussolini. But he didn�t seem to care.

�It�s a very good quote,� said Mr. Trump. �I didn�t know who said it, but what difference does it make if it was Mussolini or somebody else � it�s a very good quote.�

Asked whether he wanted to be associated with Mr. Mussolini, Mr. Trump replied, �No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes.� And he added, �Hey, it got your attention, didn�t it?�

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:26

punk rebel ecks: Dec 11, 2010; A shitty post? This calls for a dance of deduction.

Was DWS the women on Real Time With Bill Maher who had a huge hatred of Cuba?

Litany Unheard posted:

And she hasn't really done anything to further the party, focusing almost all of the party's efforts on the Presidency while Dems continue to get routed in the House and Senate.

Well that is a huge thing.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:28

Stultus Maximus: Dec 21, 2009; USPOL May

Aurubin posted:

Generally blamed for incompetence and self promotion as well as being wholly impartial in her loyalty to Clinton. People usually oversimplify it by comparing Dean's tenure to hers. Allegations of misogyny aside, comb Politico if you want tabloid level scuttlebutt about her. That said I'll make it clear that I think most of the allegations are true.

EDIT: By allegations I mean that she's a bad DNC chair.

Yeah. She's so bad she managed to get rattled by Jon Stewart.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:39

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

SgtScruffy posted:

but the last line of the article was literally trump acknowledging that he can make any political gaffe at all, and it will just make him stronger.

This is pure comic/anime/cartoon tropism here. The ol' Whatever You'd Do Gives Me Strength thing.

The only course of action is to give him more power. At some point, a racist, xenophobic black hole will open up and swallow him whole.

And in 2019, he'll claw his way out of the negaverse, having finally assimilated the all-dark into himself, more powerful than ever.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:44

Wicked Them Beats: Apr 1, 2007; Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded.

SgtScruffy posted:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/28/donald-trump-retweets-post-likening-him-to-mussolini/?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Trump (or at least his twitter account) retweeted a quote from Moussolini, attributed to him. That's kind of a "ha ha that's Trump for ya" in itself, but the last line of the article was literally trump acknowledging that he can make any political gaffe at all, and it will just make him stronger.

And if that wasn't enough:

quote:

On Sunday, CNN�s Jake Tapper asked Trump if he was willing to say that he did not want Duke�s vote �or that of other white supremacists.�

�I don�t know anything about David Duke,� Trump insisted. �I don�t know anything about what you are even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists. So, I don�t know. I mean, did he endorse me or what�s going on?�

�Because I know nothing about David Duke, I know nothing about white supremacists,� he added. �And so, you are asking me a question that I�m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.�

Tapper pressed: �Would you just say, unequivocally, you condemn them and you don�t want their support?�

�Well, I have to look at the group,� Trump replied. �I mean, I don�t know what group you�re talking about. You wouldn�t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. I�d have to look. If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them, and certainly I would disavow if I thought that there was something wrong.�

�The Ku Klux Klan,� Tapper interrupted.

�You may have some groups in there that are totally fine, and it would be very unfair,� Trump continued. �So, give me a list of groups and I�ll let you know.�

�Okay, I�m just talking about David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan here but�,� Tapper noted.

�Honestly, I don�t know David Duke,� Trump remarked. �I don�t believe I�ve ever met him. I�m pretty sure I didn�t meet him, and I just don�t know anything about him.�

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:53

Armyman25: Sep 6, 2005

SgtScruffy posted:

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/28/donald-trump-retweets-post-likening-him-to-mussolini/?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Trump (or at least his twitter account) retweeted a quote from Moussolini, attributed to him. That's kind of a "ha ha that's Trump for ya" in itself, but the last line of the article was literally trump acknowledging that he can make any political gaffe at all, and it will just make him stronger.

So, the quote in question is "it's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." That's pretty innocuous stuff and it's disingenuous to dance around Trump retweeting the quote without posting what the quote actually was.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 19:55

Spatula City: Oct 21, 2010; LET ME EXPLAIN TO YOU WHY YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING

punk rebel ecks posted:

Can someone do a quick breakdown to as of why DWS is so hated?

Aside from abusing her position as head of the DNC to support Clinton in any way she can? Well, under her tenure, the Democrats have done rather poorly, losing races they perhaps should not have lost throughout the country. fuckin' Rick Scott and Paul LePage got reelected. While those things can't be directly laid at her feet, I believe a non-incompetent DNC leader would have limited the bleeding.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:01

Venom Snake: Feb 19, 2014; by Nyc_Tattoo

Armyman25 posted:

So, the quote in question is "it's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." That's pretty innocuous stuff and it's disingenuous to dance around Trump retweeting the quote without posting what the quote actually was.

lol at the placement of this post in contrast to the one above yours. It is indeed not at all troubling to quote the father of mid-euro fascism.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:03

Venom Snake: Feb 19, 2014; by Nyc_Tattoo

Spatula City posted:

Aside from abusing her position as head of the DNC to support Clinton in any way she can?

This accusation gets thrown around a lot with not a whole lot of evidence to support it. I agree DWS kinda sucks but uh I don't think shes throwing the election to Hillary.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:05

blackguy32: Oct 1, 2005; Say, do you know how to do the walk?

Venom Snake posted:

This accusation gets thrown around a lot with not a whole lot of evidence to support it. I agree DWS kinda sucks but uh I don't think shes throwing the election to Hillary.

The last I heard, people were really upset that they scheduled a debate on a weekend of a football game or something even though I don't think that really would have made much of a difference.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:10

Hellblazer187: Oct 12, 2003

Venom Snake posted:

This accusation gets thrown around a lot with not a whole lot of evidence to support it. I agree DWS kinda sucks but uh I don't think shes throwing the election to Hillary.

I think if anything this campaign season is showing that she made the right call vis a vis having fewer debates. Every GOP debate is chance for someone to say something ridiculous, and every Dem debate is just another boring affair where nobody really comes out ahead.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:12

Armyman25: Sep 6, 2005

Venom Snake posted:

lol at the placement of this post in contrast to the one above yours. It is indeed not at all troubling to quote the father of mid-euro fascism.

Hitler said smoking was bad, is it troubling if I agree with him?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:14

woke wedding drone: Jun 1, 2003; by exmarx; Fun Shoe

Armyman25 posted:

So, the quote in question is "it's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." That's pretty innocuous stuff and it's disingenuous to dance around Trump retweeting the quote without posting what the quote actually was.

He just said he doesn't care if Mussolini said it. What now? What now.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 20:15