REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

A thread for Democrats Only

POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 13, 2024 08:08
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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 10:48 AM

REAVERFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:


She's referring to the countless forged ballots that voted only for Biden and no choices were made down ballot.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Where are these "countless forged ballots?" Trump's lawyers couldn't find them. Is there something you know that they don't?



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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 11:21 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Quote:

Proving, once again, that the election was legit.
Except the presidential one.



RF is an idiot. It's that simple.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 1:11 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Here’s a little story. I had lunch a few days ago with a Republican friend. Not a tea party crank, just a normal, moderate Republican. We were talking about Donald Trump and he said, Well, at least you have to give him credit for Warp Speed. No Democrat would ever have done that.

I just looked at him. I barely knew what to say. Why wouldn’t a Democrat have done it?

Oh come on.

But Warp Speed was mainly about spending money. Democrats love to spend money. You’re always complaining about it.

Hmmm.

Any president would have done it.

This is an example of how we inhabit different sets of realities. Aside from the admittedly catchy name, which I give Trump credit for, Warp Speed was a program that Bill Gates and others had been talking about for months. Warp Speed was funded by the CARES Act, which passed with unanimous Democratic support. Of course a Democratic president would have pushed for something like Warp Speed.

So what had convinced my friend that a Democrat never would have come up with something like that? It’s a mystery.



I'v encountered similar thingz befor. Its part uv the GoP eko chamber stratejy to claim anything that seemz popular or good that a GoP official duz woud not hav been dun by a Dem. They want to own it.

And like every false claim, they repeat it constantly to sement it into their sheepl'z brainz.

I credit Gene Roddenberry with creating the name warp speed.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

The real solution: https://fundrazr.com/71jIY1?ref=ab_f9ZUS0

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 1:39 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Quote:

Originally posted by JO753:
I'v encountered similar thingz befor. Its part uv the GoP eko chamber stratejy to claim anything that seemz popular or good that a GoP official duz woud not hav been dun by a Dem. They want to own it.

And like every false claim, they repeat it constantly to sement it into their sheepl'z brainz.

LINKS or it didn't happen

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 2:39 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:

Originally posted by JO753:
I'v encountered similar thingz befor. Its part uv the GoP eko chamber stratejy to claim anything that seemz popular or good that a GoP official duz woud not hav been dun by a Dem. They want to own it.

And like every false claim, they repeat it constantly to sement it into their sheepl'z brainz.

LINKS or it didn't happen

1kiki, there is about 85,100,000 results for: republicans taking credit for what democrats did
www.google.com/search?q=republicans+taking+credit+for+what+democrats+d
id


A Wee Little Republican Story
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/11/a-wee-little-republican
-story
/

Trump Takes Credit For Space Launch That Got Its Start A Decade Ago
www.npr.org/2020/05/30/863212676/trump-takes-credit-for-space-launch-t
hat-got-its-start-a-decade-ago


Obama swats Trump and the GOP for taking credit for economic growth
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/02/obama-trump-economy-republic
ans-959046


Republicans railed against the Democrats' massive economic-stimulus and spending bills as fiscally irresponsible, but some GOP lawmakers are taking credit for projects in their own districts funded by the measures.
www.wsj.com/articles/SB123759908731101583

Trump Takes Credit For Obamacare, Says Democrats Want to Repeal It
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/trump-preexisting-conditions-l
ie-health-care-obamacare.html


There are still 85 million more such stories, 1kiki.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 2:50 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



I'm sure JO had something particular in mind ... maybe he should let us know.

It's either that or he was just bullshitting.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 3:10 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

I'm sure JO had something particular in mind ... maybe he should let us know.

It's either that or he was just bullshitting.

He had this story in mind: 'There's a pattern' of Republicans running the economy 'into the ground' and Democrats having to 'come back and clean things up'
https://web.archive.org/web/20181101010217/https://www.businessinsider
.com/obama-on-republicans-democrats-recessions-and-trump-economy-claims-2018-10


Does the economy do better under Republicans or Democrats?
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/309cc8e1-b971-45c6-ab52
-29ffb1da9bf5/jec-fact-sheet---the-economy-under-democratic-vs.-republican-presidents-june-2016.pdf


Economists Agree: Democratic Presidents are Better at Making Us Rich. Eight Reasons Why. Democratic administrations over the last century have delivered far faster economic growth. What explains that?
https://evonomics.com/economists-agree-democratic-presidents-better-ma
king-us-rich-eight-reasons
/

There are 35 million more stories about Does the economy do better under Republicans or Democrats? The conclusion is Democrats do better.
https://www.google.com/search?q=does+the+economy+do+better+under+repub
licans+or+democrats


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 3:49 PM

REAVERFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:

Proving, once again, that the election was legit.

Except the presidential one.



RF is an idiot. It's that simple.

You keep saying that, but the FACT that you're completely wrong and have no evidence proves you are just a stupid little Russian bitch, talking out your lying ass.

I, as always, remain your moral and intellectual superior in every way.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020 3:59 PM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:

Originally posted by JO753:
I'v encountered similar thingz befor. Its part uv the GoP eko chamber stratejy to claim anything that seemz popular or good that a GoP official duz woud not hav been dun by a Dem. They want to own it.

And like every false claim, they repeat it constantly to sement it into their sheepl'z brainz.

LINKS or it didn't happen



Why don't you Google it?

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 5:26 AM

THG


Trumps a loser

T



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Thursday, November 19, 2020 6:43 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


The Final Solution to the Democratic Party’s Unpopularity

In the past 24 years the Democratic brand of economic moderation and social liberalism has been only slightly more popular than the GOP’s brand of White Christian blood-and-soil hegemony. In large part, I suspect this simply reflects the dying out of the Greatest Generation, which remembered the programs that the Democrats of the 1930s and 1940s had enacted to make their lives better; and their replacement by younger generations which know the Democrats mainly as the party of civil rights for minorities. There is a fundamental disaffection for both parties. Arguments and graphs to back that up are at:
http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-democrats-problem-in-senate.ht
ml


Democrats are *less UNpopular* than the GOP. Ultimately the reason for Democrats being unpopular is that the Democratic “brand” is “socially liberal, economically moderate,” while the US electorate as a whole is socially moderate and economically progressive, as shown in the scattergraph below:
http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2020/11/democrats-less-unpopular-party.htm
l


For Democrats, the path forward is to embrace, and pass, some simple economic fixes (like raising the minimum wage and ending the abuse of salaries, in addition to making affordable healthcare universal) that materially improve—and are *seen* to materially improve—average Americans’ lives, while allowing for some flexibility on issues that people perceive as ones of morality (and hence are hard to compromise about) in such a way that nobody’s ox gets gored too much. And completely unsurprising, the GOP will oppose every fix with all its might.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 7:23 AM

THG


The dynamic of the population has changed enough now that the minority is capable of changing elections second. If enough continue to show up at the polls more social programs are a given. In the digital age that may be a must.

T



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Thursday, November 19, 2020 9:29 AM

REAVERFAN




And scientists! SCIENTISTS! WTF!?



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Thursday, November 19, 2020 9:59 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
The dynamic of the population has changed enough now that the minority is capable of changing elections second. If enough continue to show up at the polls more social programs are a given. In the digital age that may be a must.

In order to form a functioning governing majority in the Senate, the Democratic Party must find a way to reliably bring several more States into the fold. There is a way to do that so that Democrats aren't helpless in the face of a rural-State packed filibuster-proof GOP Senate:

A roadmap to a Democratic Senate supermajority
https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-roadmap-to-democratic-senate.ht
ml
Quote:

Here’s the interesting thing. If you want to flip a Senate seat, the most efficient use of resources is in a *small* State, since flipping just 100,000 or 200,000 votes there makes all the difference, and the media markets - and their expenses - are a lot cheaper. With that in mind, I took a look at the 2018 Congressional results to see if I could identify 30 States where the Democrats might, admittedly with lots and lots of effort, elect Senators. I came up with 32, 5 of which are smaller states where a relatively small shift can make all the difference.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 10:09 AM

REAVERFAN






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Thursday, November 19, 2020 5:16 PM

JO753

rezident owtsidr


Thanks, 2nd.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

The real solution: https://fundrazr.com/71jIY1?ref=ab_f9ZUS0

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Thursday, November 19, 2020 8:40 PM

REAVERFAN






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Thursday, November 19, 2020 8:41 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by THG:

The dynamic of the population has changed enough now that the minority is capable of changing elections second. If enough continue to show up at the polls more social programs are a given. In the digital age that may be a must.

In order to form a functioning governing majority in the Senate, the Democratic Party must find a way to reliably bring several more States into the fold. There is a way to do that so that Democrats aren't helpless in the face of a rural-State packed filibuster-proof GOP Senate:

A roadmap to a Democratic Senate supermajority
https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-roadmap-to-democratic-senate.ht
ml
Quote:

Here’s the interesting thing. If you want to flip a Senate seat, the most efficient use of resources is in a *small* State, since flipping just 100,000 or 200,000 votes there makes all the difference, and the media markets - and their expenses - are a lot cheaper. With that in mind, I took a look at the 2018 Congressional results to see if I could identify 30 States where the Democrats might, admittedly with lots and lots of effort, elect Senators. I came up with 32, 5 of which are smaller states where a relatively small shift can make all the difference.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Interesting...

T



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Friday, November 20, 2020 7:32 AM

REAVERFAN






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Friday, November 20, 2020 7:37 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:

Interesting...

Even more interesting:

Making the Most of the Coming Biden Boom

The economic outlook is probably brighter than you think.

A vaccine is coming. Nobody is sure which of the promising candidates will prevail, or when they’ll be widely available. But it’s a good guess that we’ll get this pandemic under control at some point next year.

And it’s also a good bet that when we do the economy will come roaring back.

OK, this is not the consensus view. Most economic forecasters appear to be quite pessimistic; they expect a long, sluggish recovery that will take years to bring us back to anything resembling full employment. They worry a lot about long-term “scarring” from unemployment and closed businesses. And they could be right.

But my sense is that many analysts have overlearned the lessons from the 2008 financial crisis, which was indeed followed by years of depressed employment, defying the predictions of economists who expected the kind of “V-shaped” recovery the economy experienced after earlier deep slumps. For what it’s worth, I was among those who dissented back then, arguing that this was a different kind of recession, and that recovery would take a long time.

And here’s the thing: The same logic that predicted sluggish recovery from the last big slump points to a much faster recovery this time around — again, once the pandemic is under control.

Biden and his surrogates shouldn’t hesitate to call out Republicans, both in Washington and in state governments, when they try to sabotage the economy — which, of course, they will. I won’t even be surprised if we see G.O.P. efforts to impede the wide distribution of a vaccine.

What, do you think there are some lines a party refusing to cooperate with the incoming administration — and, in fact, still trying to steal the election — won’t cross?

Paul Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade and economic geography.

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201120030921/https://www.nytimes.com/202
0/11/19/opinion/joe-biden-economy.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, November 20, 2020 7:50 AM

THG


Does ANTIFA, the far left, still believe 911 was an inside job? Point being, those people are as nuts as the far right.

T



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Friday, November 20, 2020 8:03 AM

REAVERFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Does ANTIFA, the far left, still believe 911 was an inside job? Point being, those people are as nuts as the far right.

T



Where the fuck did that come from?



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Friday, November 20, 2020 8:35 AM

REAVERFAN


Why Charges Against Protesters Are Being Dismissed by the Thousands
https://news.yahoo.com/why-charges-against-protesters-being-201033263.
html


Now, more than five months later, as Kaufmann’s case and those of thousands of others finally land in courts across the United States, a vast majority of cases against protesters are being dismissed. Only cases involving more substantial charges like property destruction or other violence remain.

Prosecutors called the scale of both the mass arrests and mass dismissals within a few short months unrivaled, at least since the civil rights protests of the early 1960s. With police detaining hundreds of people in major cities, the arrests this year ended up colliding with the limitations of the court system.

In the aftermath, prosecutors declined to pursue many of the cases because they concluded that the protesters were exercising their basic civil rights. Cases involving free speech or free assembly rarely succeed in court, according to prosecutors across the country, and the coronavirus pandemic also played a role in the decision. A wave of thousands of minor cases threatened to capsize courts already floundering under hefty lockdown backlogs.





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Friday, November 20, 2020 12:50 PM

REAVERFAN






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Saturday, November 21, 2020 8:50 AM

THG

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Saturday, November 21, 2020 8:52 AM

THG


Agreed

T


Quote:

Originally posted by reaverfan:







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Saturday, November 21, 2020 6:02 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Does ANTIFA, the far left, still believe 911 was an inside job? Point being, those people are as nuts as the far right.
T



Quote:

Originally posted by reaverfan:Where the fuck did that come from?
It came from a guy who thinks that the 2nd and 3rd generations of 'Cuban' Hispanics in Florida, who've never been to Cuba and have not clue about it, are terrific for voting against Castro in the US presidential election. And they voted against Castro because they have no clue where they live, and THG has no clue where he lives, either.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/miami-hispanic-voters.html
How Hispanic Voters Swung Miami Right
Many expected that liberal young Hispanic voters would propel a Democratic wave. But Miami confounded expectations.

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Saturday, November 21, 2020 8:26 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Just like Trump is a FAR better salesman than most democrats give him credit for, he's also FAR better at knowing what's absolutely required by law, and what's merely customary. And Biden* doesn't win the vote until the votes are CERTIFIED.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/20/us/politics/2020-electi
on-certification-tracker.html

35 of 306 electoral votes certified so far for Joseph R. Biden Jr.
63 of 232 electoral votes certified so far for Donald J. Trump

Biden* isn't 'president elect' until the CERTIFIED votes say so. And that's despite everything you've been reading or hearing through the m$m, endlessly, and misleadingly, calling Biden* 'president elect'.

Calling Biden* the 'president elect' is just more outrage-manufacturing. He's not, at least, not yet.

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Saturday, November 21, 2020 9:15 PM

REAVERFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Just like Trump is a FAR better salesman than most democrats give him credit for, he's also FAR better at knowing what's absolutely required by law, and what's merely customary. And Biden* doesn't win the vote until the votes are CERTIFIED.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/20/us/politics/2020-electi
on-certification-tracker.html

35 of 306 electoral votes certified so far for Joseph R. Biden Jr.
63 of 232 electoral votes certified so far for Donald J. Trump

Biden* isn't 'president elect' until the CERTIFIED votes say so. And that's despite everything you've been reading or hearing through the m$m, endlessly, and misleadingly, calling Biden* 'president elect'.

Calling Biden* the 'president elect' is just more outrage-manufacturing. He's not, at least, not yet.

Why do you keep spewing your mindless bullshit, Russian troll?

Trump attempted to buy out Michigan, and that failed. The most he can do is delay the inevitable, and count on Russian trolls like you to keep lying for him.

He knows he lost. He also knows that his cult will still believe whatever he says. You are here to magnify that rift between the trumptards and the sane.

Tell us where you live.



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Saturday, November 21, 2020 9:55 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



I'm not disrupting the election. That's for academic statisticians with nothing else to do but unscramble all the anomalies.

I'm just pointing out that the m$m is misreporting the facts in order to spin people's heads upside down - yours included.

And finally, the NYTimes admitted the fact - the vote isn't sufficiently certified to call ANYone "president elect". You even quoted the NYTimes yourself, though apparently you can't understand written words. So here it is, again. Maybe you'll get it this time:


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/20/us/politics/2020-electi
on-certification-tracker.html

35 of 306 electoral votes certified so far for Joseph R. Biden Jr.
63 of 232 electoral votes certified so far for Donald J. Trump


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Sunday, November 22, 2020 2:12 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by reaverfan:
Quote:

Originally posted by THG:

Does ANTIFA, the far left, still believe 911 was an inside job? Point being, those people are as nuts as the far right.

T



Where the fuck did that come from?

The far left has made outrageous claims just as the far right. I see both as being a problem.




The people who think 9/11 may have been an 'inside job

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42195513







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Monday, November 23, 2020 6:01 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


American strongman — where does Trump fit in the past and future of authoritarians?

A few years ago, a student of strongmen — think Mussolini, not muscles — took a look at Donald Trump and saw something familiar. Lots of things, actually: a cult of personality. An exaggerated sense of virility. A bellicose tone. A desperate need to discredit the media or any entity that might conflict with his view of events. Ruth Ben-Ghiat had spent a career studying fascism, primarily, “Il Duce,” Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini. She had long recognized Trump’s strongman inclinations. She watched his march to the presidency. The 2017 op-ed Ben-Ghiat wrote for CNN on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, an event forever defined by the administration’s use of “alternative facts” to exaggerate public attendance, was headlined “Trump is Following the Authoritarian Playbook.”

Many laughed off such comparisons, thinking the reality TV star too bumbling, his approach too undisciplined, his ideological principles too nonexistent to present a serious threat to the world’s oldest democracy. The laughs quieted over the past four years and have all but ceased in recent weeks as Trump has refused to concede his obvious loss of both the electoral college and the popular vote, clinging to the presidency as though it were his birthright.

As we see in Ben-Ghiat’s new book, “Strongmen,” refusing to budge from power is also part of the authoritarian playbook. Trump admires Vladimir Putin, known to freely poison rivals and bend the constitution to his will, allowing him to stay in office until 2036 if he wants. Trump has only joked on Twitter about life without term limits, but his recent behaviors suggest he’d embrace such a life in a heartbeat.

About one thing Ben-Ghiat is adamant: It’s fruitless to compare Trump to any other president, at least from this country. “We can’t use democratic metrics to measure what Trump is doing,” she says by phone. “Those have never been his goals. He’s not interested in good government or public welfare. He’s interested in making money for Trump organizations.”

Books such as “Strongmen,” Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism: A Warning” and Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die” have all looked to place the rise of Trumpism in historical context, to remind us that he didn’t materialize in a cloud out of nowhere and to warn that things can get a lot worse. But “Strongmen” is unique for focusing on the character traits that bond authoritarian leaders, from sexual gluttony to a violent emphasis on past national glories real or imagined. (Ben-Ghiat steers away from labeling Trump a fascist — the U.S. isn’t a one-party system, and it still has open elections, as fraught as they’ve become — though his behavior practically does it for her).

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201120210030/https://www.houstonchronicl
e.com/opinion/outlook/article/Opinion-American-strongman-where-does-Trump-15742838.php


Get the free download of the book "Strongmen" (2020) from https://libgen.unblockit.app/search.php?req=Ruth+Ben-Ghia

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, November 23, 2020 6:39 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Get the free download of the book "Strongmen" (2020) from https://libgen.unblockit.app/search.php?req=Ruth+Ben-Ghia

Chapter Ten - Endings

On October 20, 2011, Gaddafi hid inside a drainpipe, hoping that his enemies would not find him. The Libyan Revolution had started eight months earlier, buoyed by the Arab Spring that had deposed Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Gaddafi had always dismissed the idea that he was next. His people loved him: he had given them the highest per capita GDP and life expectancy in Africa, and he was a different kind of man. “I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents,” Gaddafi said at the uprising’s outset, warning that he would never surrender. For his pursuers from the National Liberation Army, the military arm of the National Transition Council (NTC) interim government, the toll of forty-two years of terror outweighed any material benefits he had bestowed. Libyans lacked what mattered most: freedom. For the rebels who now closed in on his hiding place, Gaddafi’s end was long overdue.

Every strongman’s fall is different, but Gaddafi’s involved dynamics common to others in the past. A disaffected population found momentum from events in other countries to take to the streets. Elites who had supported the leader for decades now subtracted their support. A central opposition force gained international recognition and the assistance of foreign military. Several generations of exiles returned to fight. Each group waged resistance against Gaddafi in its own manner, but enough of them came together at a fateful moment to make his end possible.

The authoritarian playbook has no chapter on failure. It does not foresee the leader’s own people turning against him, from military men he trained to young people he indoctrinated to women he rewarded for having babies. It has no pages on how to deal with becoming a national disgrace, someone who is pelted with tomatoes and eggs when he appears in public after leaving office, like Pinochet, or forced into exile, like Amin. Its discussions of how to control minds and exploit bodies do not extend to the deterioration of the leader’s own. Aging and the ebbing of virile powers is difficult for leaders whose “entire sense of self is bound up in being revered,” in psychological profiler Jerrold Post’s words. Disappearing from the scene due to illness, as Mobutu did in 1996, can be dangerous for men already on the decline. Nothing prepares the ruler to see his propaganda ignored and his charismatic hold weaken until he loses control of the nation and is hunted by his own people, as happened to Mussolini and Gaddafi.

For the strongman, such outcomes are unthinkable and yet ever-present. They fuel behaviors that make him feel safer and brush away thoughts of mortality. That might mean persecuting more enemies, firing more truth-tellers, hoarding more women and riches, or consulting astrologers (many are superstitious) about his fate and his legacy. Such rulers also brood about what happens to their peers. Hitler made sure he did not end up like Mussolini, and Gaddafi cooperated with Americans and Europeans to avoid ending up like Hussein. Analyst Stanislav Belkovsky notes that the Arab Spring revolts made a big impression on Putin, who knew that “the destiny of Gadhafi could be waiting for him.” Trump’s desire to stay in office indefinitely reflected the same fear of meeting a bad end, losing immunity from prosecution, or becoming a nobody. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you,” said the president, who showed familiarity with the anxieties about irrelevance that spur authoritarians’ demands for loyalty and attention, especially in the end stage of rule.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, November 23, 2020 3:28 PM

THG


T








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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 6:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


William Barr’s Lame-Duck Execution Spree Is Unprecedented. With these plans, the administration not only thumbs its nose at precedent, it also reveals yet again its true character.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would continue to carry out executions in the days and weeks leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, with the last one now scheduled just five days before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, 2021. This bloodthirsty decision is another and particularly grotesque way in which President Donald Trump and his Justice Department are defying the norms and conventions for modern presidential transitions.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the last time an outgoing administration did anything remotely similar was more than a century ago, in 1889. At that time Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be elected president after the Civil War and the only president ever to have served as an executioner (when he was the sheriff in Erie County, New York), permitted three executions to proceed in the period between his electoral defeat and Benjamin Harrison’s inauguration in March 1889.

Since then, every outgoing administration has halted the federal death penalty during the transition period. Trump and Attorney General William Barr are not merely failing to engage in a merciful pause: They are rushing to execute persons who might be spared by a new administration.

Indeed, the Biden administration intends to try to abolish the federal death penalty and provide incentives for states to abolish it as well. A spokesperson reaffirmed this intention on Saturday: “The president-elect opposes the death penalty, now and in the future, and as president will work to end its use.”

It will be the first time that the federal government ends up carrying out more executions (10) in a single year than are carried out in all the states which retain capital punishment (8). Those 10 executions would be the most carried out by the federal government since 1896, when Cleveland’s second administration put 16 people to death.

From 1995 to 2000, 42 percent of the 183 federal death cases submitted to the attorney general for review came from just five of the 94 federal districts. And federal death verdicts, like those in the states, are concentrated in states that were claimed by the former Confederacy. Three of them—Texas, Missouri, and Virginia—account for 40 percent of the total.

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201125030835/https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2020/11/william-barr-lame-duck-execution-spree-is-unprecedented.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 6:43 AM

THG


T





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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 1:51 PM

REAVERFAN


RIP, Maradona.


Nice interview, if you speak Spanish.




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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 2:16 PM

REAVERFAN






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Wednesday, November 25, 2020 3:38 PM

REAVERFAN







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Thursday, November 26, 2020 10:14 AM

REAVERFAN






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Thursday, November 26, 2020 10:26 AM

THG


Busy I see. Hey, enjoy your turkey.

T



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Thursday, November 26, 2020 11:20 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Turkey's racist. Marcos doesn't eat turkey.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, November 26, 2020 11:39 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
William Barr’s Lame-Duck Execution Spree Is Unprecedented. With these plans, the administration not only thumbs its nose at precedent, it also reveals yet again its true character.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would continue to carry out executions in the days and weeks leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, with the last one now scheduled just five days before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, 2021. This bloodthirsty decision is another and particularly grotesque way in which President Donald Trump and his Justice Department are defying the norms and conventions for modern presidential transitions.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the last time an outgoing administration did anything remotely similar was more than a century ago, in 1889. At that time Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be elected president after the Civil War and the only president ever to have served as an executioner (when he was the sheriff in Erie County, New York), permitted three executions to proceed in the period between his electoral defeat and Benjamin Harrison’s inauguration in March 1889.

Since then, every outgoing administration has halted the federal death penalty during the transition period. Trump and Attorney General William Barr are not merely failing to engage in a merciful pause: They are rushing to execute persons who might be spared by a new administration.

Indeed, the Biden administration intends to try to abolish the federal death penalty and provide incentives for states to abolish it as well. A spokesperson reaffirmed this intention on Saturday: “The president-elect opposes the death penalty, now and in the future, and as president will work to end its use.”

It will be the first time that the federal government ends up carrying out more executions (10) in a single year than are carried out in all the states which retain capital punishment (8). Those 10 executions would be the most carried out by the federal government since 1896, when Cleveland’s second administration put 16 people to death.

From 1995 to 2000, 42 percent of the 183 federal death cases submitted to the attorney general for review came from just five of the 94 federal districts. And federal death verdicts, like those in the states, are concentrated in states that were claimed by the former Confederacy. Three of them—Texas, Missouri, and Virginia—account for 40 percent of the total.

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201125030835/https://slate.com/news-and-
politics/2020/11/william-barr-lame-duck-execution-spree-is-unprecedented.html





These guys - and their ilk around the globe - believe they have their own country. One with its own laws and rights, completely unrelated to any geographical or sentimental boundaries. "We do as we please - loyalty or die." He's just in America now because the grifts are easier.

Another day, another body count for the fwad in the White House. Now he is publicly encouraging people to gather in groups for Thanksgiving. People will die because they will take his advice. I just hope they're all Trumptards.

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Thursday, November 26, 2020 11:46 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


^ Have fun when Biden re-installs all of the gross warhawk neocon/neolibs that GWB operated with buddy.

You asked for it. You got it.





Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, November 26, 2020 12:56 PM

REAVERFAN


One thing we can all be thankful for.




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Thursday, November 26, 2020 1:00 PM

REAVERFAN


Amy's first portrait on the SCOTUS:




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Friday, November 27, 2020 10:45 AM

THG


T





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Saturday, November 28, 2020 7:36 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children

Further research was needed on a more diverse group of people and in other parts of the world. The self-selecting group in the study all lived in the US and were largely white, more highly educated and liberal. (And probably Democrats.)

Opinion polls of the general public indicated people were connecting the climate crisis and reproduction, with one poll in 2020 finding that among 18- to 44-year-old US citizens without children, 14% cited climate change as a “major reason” for not having children.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/27/climate-apocalypse
-fears-stopping-people-having-children-study


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, November 28, 2020 7:53 AM

REAVERFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Quote:

Originally posted by reaverfan:
Quote:

Originally posted by THG:

Does ANTIFA, the far left, still believe 911 was an inside job? Point being, those people are as nuts as the far right.

T



Where the fuck did that come from?

The far left has made outrageous claims just as the far right. I see both as being a problem.




The people who think 9/11 may have been an 'inside job

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42195513



You think Antifa is some kind of organized group with a list of things they all believe?

You have a lot to learn.





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Saturday, November 28, 2020 8:39 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Climate ‘apocalypse’ fears stopping people having children

Further research was needed on a more diverse group of people and in other parts of the world. The self-selecting group in the study all lived in the US and were largely white, more highly educated and liberal. (And probably Democrats.)

Opinion polls of the general public indicated people were connecting the climate crisis and reproduction, with one poll in 2020 finding that among 18- to 44-year-old US citizens without children, 14% cited climate change as a “major reason” for not having children.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/27/climate-apocalypse
-fears-stopping-people-having-children-study


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Correlation is not Causation.

You could list off literally 1,000 different reasons why college "educated" white kids aren't having children.



Now if we could only find a way to equally damage the brains of every ethnicity across the planet into not having kids, we might finally have a winner on our hands for how to solve the overpopulation problem that nobody ever wants to talk about.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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