Printable View
I've never been a Romney fan, and I'll never get over his dismissal of those who didn't vote for him as a bunch of moochers, but by Jove he nailed it in that speech. Maybe there's only one Republican with a spine, but that's a start. (The rest might very well have surmised that "your head on a pike" was not hyperbole, given the coven in charge. Vlad the Impaler would fit right in.)Quote:
Originally Posted by jp1
I really admire Romney!
7 years ago he was an evil, animal abusing, women hating, car elevator owning one percenter in odd underwear. Funny how he was able to redeem himself as easily as he did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
I do, too. What Romney did took some courage and some backbone and I take back some of the less than kind comments I made in regards to him and his Presidential aspirations in the past. I just wish more Republicans were equal to Mitt Romney. But at least one did the right thing. RobQuote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
Justification behind this about face? Trump really is that horrible of a human being and as a leader. Really. I know you are a conservative, Alan, and such is your right, certainly. My point is that I'm not the only one out there who has done an about face in regards to Romney as Trump really is that despised by roughly 1/2 of the US population. RobQuote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Not so fast, bae. In my neighborhood folks are taking the long term tack - for the most part, anyway, and are putting energy into supporting Dems with the hope of Trump losing in November - at which date there would be parties along with real block parties when a Democrat rightly assumes the Oval Office and begins the arduous task of repairing America from Trump's reign of destruction. We'll see how this plays out but one nice thing? Arizona at least is no longer reliably red due to liberal money moving into the state from California and the Northeast and Illinois and scattered Pacific NW folks who have sold a house and have moved to Arizona and paid cash for a house here with their real estate winnings. RobQuote:
Originally Posted by bae
I have never hated Romney. Sometimes I wasn’t thrilled with what he did but I wouldn’t have been upset if he had won the presidency. I haven’t always been thrilled with what the democrats have done.
He still is all those things in my eyes; but apparently he learned something from his father, seemingly a decent man.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Agreed. And from the other side, my conservative friends were singing the praises of Mitt years ago and now he is the evil ogre.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
come now folks. But I guess a politician is only as good as his current opinion on trend of the day.
I wouldn’t mind seeing him run again.Quote:
Originally Posted by jp1
The thing about Romney is he does not really belong in the current Trump-Republican party in some ways. However noone actually seriously believes he belongs in the Dem party either. He's kind of nowheresville on the current political landscape, but he holds office.
yes, Mitt belongs in the Republican party as did John McCain. As does Rand Paul.And Susan Collins.Quote:
Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore
I agree, I've been a Mitt fan for quite some time. He's a little bland in our fairly recent media and political landscape, but I've always thought of him as a good, solid executive, someone who could do well if allowed.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
I agree, too. I don't agree with his politics but I definitely admire anyone of either party with the courage to stand up to the herd.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Just saw a noted Political Scientist on CNN say exactly this--that it won't even matter much who the candidate is, it's all about getting out the vote.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
"Bitecofer’s theory, when you boil it down, is that modern American elections are rarely shaped by voters changing their minds, but rather by shifts in who decides to vote in the first place."
https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...-theory-108944
But right now the highly motivated opposition to Trump appears to be divided into a half dozen or so mutually antagonistic camps. Might we see something like 2016, where some Sanders supporters were so embittered at what they thought was game-rigging against their man that they stayed home or voted for other parties?Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Could a nasty 2020 primary cycle create such a situation writ large, or will anti-Trump sentiment outweigh internecine feuds?
I hope the anti -Trump brings the Dems all together, but I don't have much faith that it will. Keeping the House, gaining the Senate may stop this madness....but I don't have much faith there either. The number of judges already installed is frightening to me as well. So I just try not to think about any of it and live in the moment.
I think the Bernie Bros will re-elect Trump.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
Observing the local ones, they are pretty forceful about driving non-believers out of the fold, which I have to think will discourage those folks from participation.
I think a lot of those "Bernie Bros" are wittingly or unwittingly working for Russia. I like Bernie, but there are others I prefer.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Didn’t James Carville say something recently about the choice between being a major political party or an “ideological cult”? Are the Democrats in danger of repeating the Republicans’ RINO nonsense, except in a sort of self-purging manner?Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Do we really neomccarthyite theories to explain the present situation? Can’t the BBs simply be angry at the DNC?Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
I'm sure some of them are, but the Russian government under Putin has made a cottage industry out of interfering in Western politics.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
"Destroying the links that bind and strengthen Europe’s many nations individually and collectively is the Kremlin’s tried-and-tested strategy. The Russian leadership seeks to do what it accuses the Americans of wanting to do in Russia. The west has yet to show it has a plan to counteract the solvents that the Russians have injected into its democratic processes."
From the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...tin-superpower
The situation does seem to have some parallels to the early days of the Communist revolution, and the immediate aftermath, where the biggest crime was not being one of the evil capitalists, but rather being a member of the Party with slightly different beliefs. Purges are needed.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
This is the energy I observe in the Bernie-ites. Worse than Trump, or the GOP, are members of the Democratic Party who aren't on Bernie's side wholeheartedly. Non-believers must be marginalized, attacked, and pushed out to sea.
I hope you're wrong...Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
I'm a Bernie fan, and not happy with the DNC, but I certainly am not fundamentalist about it, and I'm sad if there are those factions rising up--I agree that it can only hurt Bernie and any efforts to keep Trump from being re-elected. I just hope they get the vote out. But a part of me also wonders how widespread it is, and whether some of it isn't being manufactured by the media (or Russia) into a bigger issue than it really is. I really don't see Bernie as a cult leader.
On Russian troll farms, from ABC news https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43093390:
But the work was round-the-clock. When the operatives - they called themselves "specialists" - weren't posting, they were learning and getting feedback on writing style. They were said to be constantly monitoring the viral success of their approach, tweaking and adjusting to maximise retweets and the spread of the message. The team is also said to have had a list of US public holidays, and appropriate content ready to go so they would blend in.
"According to court documents, the IRA took several measures to hide its tracks, duping the technology companies who were unaware, or unable, to stop what was filtering through their systems.
The key - and obvious - move was to hide the fact that these posts were coming from Russia. For that, the IRA is said to have used several Virtual Private Networks - VPNs - to route their operations through computers in the US. The operatives allegedly used stolen identities to set up PayPal accounts using real American names."
And I see Republicans are increasingly embracing Putin from https://www.politico.com/magazine/st...f-putin-215387:
"What I never expected was that the Republican Party—which once stood for a muscular, moralistic approach to the world, and which helped bring down the Soviet Union—would become a willing accomplice of what the previous Republican presidential nominee rightly called our No. 1 geopolitical foe: Vladimir Putin’s Russia. My message for today’s GOP is to paraphrase Barack Obama when he mocked Romney for saying precisely that: 2012 called—it wants its foreign policy back."
I wish Obama would step up and run as a Republican :-)
Under what basis could he get voted in? I don't seem to remember term limits covering the party, but the person.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
If anything is McCarthyesque it's the characterization as European-style social Democrats as "commies." Realistically, how many people these days identify as Communists? Very few.
Viewing Putin--a former KGB Lt. Colonel who regularly has his rivals killed in colorful ways--as a threat is merely prudent
Maybe, but the Russians have been weaponizing balderdash since the days of John Reed, and the Republic has endured. In my view, the only way they win is if we begin thinking everything that happens is masterminded from the Kremlin. That’s just one step up from believing in evil spirits.Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
Well, once Trump rewrites the 22nd Amendment, we're set.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff
Trump feels he has a holy mandate to get elected "for the good of the country." My God.
It's not hard to believe in evil spirits when you have the likes of Trump and Putin working together.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
He is trying so hard to get re-elected because once he is out of office he can be prosecuted for his crimes.
I'd like to mention there's a new super-pac composed of Never Trumpers who have banded together to oppose his re-election:
https://lincolnproject.us/
If there were evidence of crimes wouldn't they have been included in the impeachment charges?Quote:
Originally Posted by Teacher Terry
Actually the GAO concluded they were.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
They made the same conclusion several times during the Obama administration.Quote:
Originally Posted by jp1
About things that the house had impeached him for? I don’t remember that part of his presidency.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDAHL
Impeachment hadn't yet become the preferred way to nullify an election. Maybe next time?Quote:
Originally Posted by jp1
Good job regurgitating the silly fox talking point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan