Phoenix_person

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Big Short. It's the story of a few guys who saw the cracks in the CDO dam and got rich off of it. And according to the movie (grain of salt, I know) at least one of them DID try to raise alarms at the SEC and WSJ.

I'm just glad Bo Jackson's okay.

I thought it was Vermont? Last count I saw had 11 "uncommitted" delegates heading to Chicago from Minnesota. Which isn't a lot, but it's significant because Minnesota is purple at best, and Dem discord could turn us into a swing state. Combine that with last week's results in Michigan, which already IS a swing state, and we're looking at a very interesting convention. Does this show that there's a liberal bias in higher ed? Or that people with college degrees tend to vote more liberal? This perfectly encapsulates the phenomenon I outlined earlier, I believe in this thread, that party oversaturation can lead to elected officials with bipartisan disdain towards them (Lightfoot, Cuomo, Adams).

In November, yes. I think most leftists will as well. I also think that a lot of us will be using the "uncommitted" option today (or yesterday in my case) to send Biden a message. Screen_Recording_20240305_124758_X.mp4

Correct. The Dems and the Farm-Labor Party joined to form one party in 1944, with the latter being larger, more progressive, and more powerful at the time. Yep. The DSA realized that infiltrating the Democratic Party is easier than trying to operate as a legitimate third party. DSA folks typically favor the Bernies and AOCs of the Democratic Party over the Bidens and Clintons. You betcha! Something to remember about the Democratic leaders that are "ruining" deep blue cities/states is that a lot of them are massively unpopular within their local party elements. Here in Minnesota, it's Jacob Frey (MPLS Mayor) and Ken Martin (DFL Chair and DNC Vice-Chair). Elsewhere, there's former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and current NYC Mayor Eric Adams, not to mention former NY Governor Cuomo. They got power the same way Biden did: by kissing the right butts, raising the right amount of money, and not being Republicans. And in their states/cities, that was enough. We have head-scratchingly bad GOP leaders in states like Texas and Alabama for the same reasons. His hardening stance on the border isn't helping much either.

Not only did Trump know what would happen, he was counting on it. Yes, he paid the expected lip service to being peaceful and civil, but he knew it wasn't going to happen. The J6 commission and the information that was volunteered to them by Republicans made that clear.

Bill Kristol is one of the more outspoken anti-Trump Republicans, though he's not exactly a fan of Biden either.

Contested elections are common and a normal symptom of a healthy democracy. The same cannot be said about what happened on J6.

To you, someone who believes that Jesus was God, it seems like a stupid question. Nearly 70% of the world's population do NOT believe that Jesus was a divine being. To be clear, I'm not saying that Jesus was racist. There's no reasonable evidence for that. I'm just saying that a majority of people on the planet don't hold the views of him that you do, views that make the idea of Christ being racist inconceivable. I forget the exact reference(s), but there are stories in the apocryphal "gospels" that tell of a young Jesus using his divine powers to enact retribution on youth that had teased him. I know that isn't worth much because it isn't canon, but it's an interesting tidbit for those who believe that apocryphal texts have merit.

I think a lot of "uncommitted" voters are going to end up voting for Biden. Maybe not all of them, but hopefully enough to reelect him. This pushback during the primary cycle is meant to send Dems a message, namely that Biden can't win on the strength of suburban white liberal voters alone. He NEEDS leftists, Muslims, and other minority voters behind him, and their support isn't automatic. The hope is that the pressure will expedite efforts to establish a cease-fire in Gaza. The sooner that happens, the more time Biden has to mend bridges. I can't speak to how seriously the "uncommitted" movement is being taken at the White house, but I think it's safe to say that Michigan Dem leaders are nervous, and word I'm getting from the Twin Cities is that this week's DFL caucus was.... stressful. The senior caucus in particular seems worried about DSA "infiltration".

No, but I'm encouraged by this "Uncommitted" fellow that's rising up the Dem ranks. I have a feeling he's going to wallop Dean Phillips in Dean's home state next week.

I strongly disagree. J6 was the act of right-wing extremists. Left wing extremists have no love for Biden. Liberal Dems will weep if Biden loses, but there won't be an insurrection. Liberals don't have the stomach for that. Investigations, perhaps, but nothing outside the official bureaucratic channels.

I think most people in the military generally respect other people who wear the uniform, even people from demographics that they normally might avoid associating with in civilian life. I'll admit that I've been out of uniform for a little over a decade, so I don't know the current dynamics of military readiness, but my gut reaction is that social politics and combat readiness aren't mutually exclusive, or at least they don't have to be.

As someone who has a front row seat to DFL operations, I am very confident that the answer is no. A small contingent of leftists is entertaining your conspiracy theory about replacing Biden with Harris, but I don't see that being pursued with any kind of seriousness either.

I've been out of the game for a bit, but I always felt like a lot of civilians have a warped view of what military life is like (or should be like). Conservatives think it should be legions of Alpha Males™️ jumping out of helicopters with M60s. Liberals think it should be a peacekeeping force with a minimum capacity for actual violence. The reality is far more boring. Most servicemembers will never fire a weapon outside of a training environment. This was true at the peak of the "War on Terror", and it's a lot more true today. The most deadly weapons in today's military are run by computers. But on the occasions when violence finds us, politics don't matter, especially "identity politics". What matters is staying alive and keeping your buddies alive. The enemy doesn't care if the person they're shooting at is a MAGA warmonger or a transgender leftist pacifist. They're trying to kill you and your job is to kill them first. I don't know where this notion came from that people who don't fit traditional cishet roles aren't fit for combat (and best I can tell, that's what y'all are talking about when you bring up "wokeness" in the military). I've been in the line of fire with LGBTQ soldiers and never had the slightest doubt about their dedication to the mission at hand or their ability/willingness to use lethal force to defend themselves and their unit. I trust them a heckuva lot more than Petey Proud Boy who "almost" joined the Army but didn't because of the wokeification of the military.

Fun fact about gas prices, when they suddenly go *down*, it's usually because something very bad happened (or is about to). The reason why gas prices were going up drastically three years ago is because we were coming out of a global pandemic and the prices were normalizing. I disagree. It's pretty on-brand. A lot of people seem to have this false image of Biden as being some kind of leftist radical who hates capitalism and loves China. The reality is that he's barely a liberal on a good day and he's perfectly content to help the capitalist machine keep running by any means necessary.

It was Republicans who insisted on tying border security legislation to aid for Israel and Ukraine. And from a purely political standpoint, it makes more sense to go through Congress for two reasons: 1) it forces the GOP to vote on one of the biggest issues on their platform during an election year while a Dem is in office to take credit for it, and 2) Biden is already unpopular on the left. Using executive action to close the border would make that worse. Going through Congress won't exactly make him popular either, but at least this way he can play the "compromise" card.

Honestly, Haley has a better chance of defeating Biden than Trump does, mostly because leftists aren't threatened enough by her to reluctantly keep Biden in office if she's the alternative. Occam's Razor is dead, I suppose. RIP. There's currently a bipartisan border security bill in the Senate that has the full backing of the USBP and would probably get enough Dem votes in both houses to pass. The GOP is trying their best to bury it in order to prevent giving Biden a win on border security.

Papa Joe has a chance to do the funniest thing ever.

Those are two separate and notably different things.

Half of the media's coverage of him over the last three years has literally just been screenshots from Truth Social. And if it was true that "most people" see through the bologna, then he'd still be the President.

He does a perfectly good job of that himself, actually.

Maybe into Lake Superior...

If, by some freak strike of chance, Nikki Haley actually mounts a comeback to win the GOP nomination, I will either vote 3rd party if there's a decent option or I'll write in Mike MacDonald, though he has a long list of disturbing crimes to answer for. -lV3zFlgIYfCl45A (1).mp4

You sure about that? 😬