Political Roundtable Part XXVIII

[dobrojim]

Just like we knew it would...

NRA Accidentally Forgets To Rise Up Against Tyrannical Government

An embarrassed National Rifle Association says it totally forgot to do the one thing it has been saying for years it is solely there to do.

“Our whole reason for lobbying for looser gun laws and amassing huge personal arsenals of weapons these past years was so that we could ensure the security of a free state and protect the people from an oppressive government. And then it actually happened, and the whole rising up against a tyrannical government thing just totally slipped our minds, which is a little embarrassing,” a sheepish NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said.

He said the morale around the NRA has been pretty low. “The guys feel pretty silly. We had our well regulated militia stocked up and ready to go, just waiting for the moment when the Government would turn on its own people. And then the government started shooting protesters and rolling tanks down the street, and we were like ‘guys this is the one we’ve been talking about, let’s go!’. But then something else came up and we forgot to do it. Damnit!”.

Observers were shocked that the NRA had missed their opportunity to defend their country. “I can’t believe it,” one analyst said. “It’s almost as if they weren’t worried about the government at all. It’s as if they were actually just scared of black people”.

I was expecting the Onion.

[bsilver]

Just like we knew it would...

NRA Accidentally Forgets To Rise Up Against Tyrannical Government

An embarrassed National Rifle Association says it totally forgot to do the one thing it has been saying for years it is solely there to do.

“Our whole reason for lobbying for looser gun laws and amassing huge personal arsenals of weapons these past years was so that we could ensure the security of a free state and protect the people from an oppressive government. And then it actually happened, and the whole rising up against a tyrannical government thing just totally slipped our minds, which is a little embarrassing,” a sheepish NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said.

He said the morale around the NRA has been pretty low. “The guys feel pretty silly. We had our well regulated militia stocked up and ready to go, just waiting for the moment when the Government would turn on its own people. And then the government started shooting protesters and rolling tanks down the street, and we were like ‘guys this is the one we’ve been talking about, let’s go!’. But then something else came up and we forgot to do it. Damnit!”.

Observers were shocked that the NRA had missed their opportunity to defend their country. “I can’t believe it,” one analyst said. “It’s almost as if they weren’t worried about the government at all. It’s as if they were actually just scared of black people”.

I was expecting the Onion.

Another interesting item on the The Shovel:
"How to avoid being lured in by clickbait with this one single trick"

[Wizardspride]

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[dckingsfan]

What we really need is for them to come out and say they will vote for and work for Biden.

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[Wizardspride]

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[dobrojim]

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Boom.

Or maybe on a wiz board, Dagger!

[montestewart]

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Boom.

Or maybe on a wiz board, Dagger!

Or maybe, among Trumpists, "so what, what about that goal post Rush moved this morning?" There is no right or wrong, no truth or fiction, no FAKE or real, just a vague, punitive, passionate, unprincipled, delirious, visceral, vindictive, guttural, righteous, unreasoned, and lazily furious TRUMP BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

Our president will say and do literally ANYTHING to win, and no one knows what he'll do if he loses (perhaps, in his pettiness, he'll say, "I never really wanted it"). Trumpists seem just fine with him and his behavior which continually challenges so many of their long held complaints (deficit spending, personal morality, honesty, Deep State, etc.), almost as if their stated positions were just a front for something else they wanted but usually couldn't quite put into words.

All you can do is HOPE enough people are moved by his uncontrolled and unrelenting obnoxious and otherwise unintelligible speech, behavior and positions that somehow a weak candidate like Biden squeaks by with a victory AND Trump surrenders power AND his armed and indoctrinated followers don't take to the streets and start killing people based on a STOLEN ELECTION.

Worst president, of anything at all, no matter how big or small, EVER!

[dobrojim]

objective proof of what most already knew...my daughter says this is useless pretty much for the reasons
you mention in your post ^

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14742837.2017.1381592?fbclid=IwAR1Nx0RytQXrIA_2R3JDbB35DqYRZ8ss2GEKf_pieK6dYHt7__ncBtHdlDE&journalCode=csms20

Using data on over 7,000 protests events in New York over a 35-year period from 1960 to 1995, I test these competing hypotheses and find that police respond to protests making anti-police brutality claims much more aggressively than other protests, after controlling for indicators of threat and weakness used in previous studies. Police are about twice as likely to show up to anti-police brutality protests compared with otherwise similar protests making other claims and, once there, they intervene (either make arrests, use force or violence against protesters, or both) at nearly half of these protests, compared to about one in three protests making other claims.

[Wizardspride]

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[Wizardspride]

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[Wizardspride]

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[pancakes3]

how messed up is it that dems were too cowardly to nominate sanders or warren and decided to trot out biden as the safe play and it ends up playing out what most ppl already knew - the anti-trump sentiment is the driving force of the blue wave, not joe's charisma or whatever...

only to realize that it isn't cowardice that led to this at all but rather a concerted effort by dem leadership to keep the party centrist because of corporate donor finance reasons.

we had a nation ripe for sweeping social change and the opportunity to seize the political capital necessary to enact those changes, and whiffed to try and recapture the status quo of 2008-2015. that is by definition conservatism. liberalism strives for a world better than what was in the rear view.

student loan reform. wall street reform. health care reform. social welfare. prison reform. police reform. tax reform. election reform. green new deal. infrastructure. all on the table, and require big brains and big balls to tackle, and we have to settle on joe freakin biden.

[Zonkerbl]

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My twitter feed right now full of people on both sides of the ideological spectrum mocking this

[Zonkerbl]

how messed up is it that dems were too cowardly to nominate sanders or warren and decided to trot out biden as the safe play and it ends up playing out what most ppl already knew - the anti-trump sentiment is the driving force of the blue wave, not joe's charisma or whatever...

only to realize that it isn't cowardice that led to this at all but rather a concerted effort by dem leadership to keep the party centrist because of corporate donor finance reasons.

we had a nation ripe for sweeping social change and the opportunity to seize the political capital necessary to enact those changes, and whiffed to try and recapture the status quo of 2008-2015. that is by definition conservatism. liberalism strives for a world better than what was in the rear view.

student loan reform. wall street reform. health care reform. social welfare. prison reform. police reform. tax reform. election reform. green new deal. infrastructure. all on the table, and require big brains and big balls to tackle, and we have to settle on joe freakin biden.

My perspective on how this all came about is that absolutely no one wanted Biden but they wanted Sanders even less, Dems threw a whole bunch of spaghetti on the wall hoping someone, anyone would end up getting more support than Sanders, and turned to Biden at the last second because Warren wasn't getting it done.

If any of the progressives other than Sanders was leading the polls they'd be the nominee now. So I don't perceive it as a big neoliberal conspiracy against progressives. Sanders burned a lot of bridges in 2016 and a lot of Dems just would not support him under any circumstances. My wife being one of them.

The fact that the black vote ended up favoring Biden was the nail in the coffin I think. Older black voters supported Biden, younger black voters supported Sanders, primary showed that the young vote wasn't turning out, bam Biden's the nominee.

[dckingsfan]

how messed up is it that dems were too cowardly to nominate sanders or warren and decided to trot out biden as the safe play and it ends up playing out what most ppl already knew - the anti-trump sentiment is the driving force of the blue wave, not joe's charisma or whatever...

only to realize that it isn't cowardice that led to this at all but rather a concerted effort by dem leadership to keep the party centrist because of corporate donor finance reasons.

we had a nation ripe for sweeping social change and the opportunity to seize the political capital necessary to enact those changes, and whiffed to try and recapture the status quo of 2008-2015. that is by definition conservatism. liberalism strives for a world better than what was in the rear view.

student loan reform. wall street reform. health care reform. social welfare. prison reform. police reform. tax reform. election reform. green new deal. infrastructure. all on the table, and require big brains and big balls to tackle, and we have to settle on joe freakin biden.

My perspective on how this all came about is that absolutely no one wanted Biden but they wanted Sanders even less, Dems threw a whole bunch of spaghetti on the wall hoping someone, anyone would end up getting more support than Sanders, and turned to Biden at the last second because Warren wasn't getting it done.

If any of the progressives other than Sanders was leading the polls they'd be the nominee now. So I don't perceive it as a big neoliberal conspiracy against progressives. Sanders burned a lot of bridges in 2016 and a lot of Dems just would not support him under any circumstances. My wife being one of them.

The fact that the black vote ended up favoring Biden was the nail in the coffin I think. Older black voters supported Biden, younger black voters supported Sanders, primary showed that the young vote wasn't turning out, bam Biden's the nominee.

Bernie and Warren were the progressive candidates but all the candidates were more "progressive" than what we have seen in the past.

Bernie chopped Warren at the kneecaps by going left of her on all her proposals. He then started to surge but didn't/couldn't reach out to build the big tent to win. If Bernie doesn't run Warren probably wins. The problem was Bernie - not on his proposals but his poor campaign execution.

Biden has reached out and put progressives on all his working committees. He is building a big tent.

[pancakes3]

the one pushback that i have against the narrative of "young voters didn't turn out" is that 18-24 is a 6 year window. generously, 18-35 is a 15 year window. the demographic of what constitutes the "older" voter encompasses a larger age range.

and yes, i agree that to a degree, Biden's nomination was secured by the votes of the people in the primary, but the party itself also put their thumbs on the scale to help pave the way for Biden. For instance, I have a hard time believing that Obama in all of his brilliance believes Biden is the best candidate, but sat on his hands for the sake of the party.

[Zonkerbl]

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[Zonkerbl]

Yeah I don't think there's a secret centrist Dem conspiracy funded by billionaires to keep them from going progressive. I think that happened already in the last several elections. After several decades of lurching to the right in response to GOP bullying and at the urging of well funded lobbyists, they're experiencing an uncontrollable, grassroots driven snap back to the left. If anything Biden is a four year bandaid they managed to throw on at the last second.

[montestewart]

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One person's pugnaciousness is another person's spoiled whining. What an obnoxious crybaby, the voice of the non-silent minority.

[montestewart]

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Politicians frequently look absurdly unnatural when they try to show alliance or solidarity with a cause or group. Think of all those politicians you've seen incongruously wearing a flannel shirt for appearances with farmers, or rolled up their sleeves two folds to shovel one spade full of dirt, or sing God Bless America together just before bombing foreign people. It's a farcically time honored tradition.