Can we talk Politics?

To whomever recommended listening to Beto. Thank you. I heard his now viral response to the Colin Kap kneeling issue and I could not have been more impressed. I hope be obliterates Ted Cruz. I’m donating today. 

For political junkies and aspiring political junkies a rather long tale touching on the Tea Party, the Christian Right and the Federal Prison System and its reliance on racism but must interesting and surprising to me the total corruption of the Iowa Presidential Caucus.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/21/kent-sorenson-was-a-tea-party-hero-then-he-lost-everything-220522

I'll read it LOST and coincidently just mentioned Ginny Thomas and her involvement with the Tea Party to a friend.

Wow, LOST, that's some story, for all the reasons you noted.  Thanks for posting!

I hope he manages to pull his personal life together enough to work on the prison issues, a total disgrace to our country.  And yes, what the **** can be done about the money-in-politics mess, so totally pervasive....

I am happy to see that you took my advice.

LOST said:
For political junkies and aspiring political junkies a rather long tale touching on the Tea Party, the Christian Right and the Federal Prison System and its reliance on racism but must interesting and surprising to me the total corruption of the Iowa Presidential Caucus.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/21/kent-sorenson-was-a-tea-party-hero-then-he-lost-everything-220522

 Fascinating article, thanks for posting.

ElizMcCord said:
To whomever recommended listening to Beto. Thank you. I heard his now viral response to the Colin Kap kneeling issue and I could not have been more impressed. I hope be obliterates Ted Cruz. I’m donating today. 

 I'm the one who keeps yammering about Beto. Thank you for your support! He's gonna win.

LOST said:
For political junkies and aspiring political junkies a rather long tale touching on the Tea Party, the Christian Right and the Federal Prison System and its reliance on racism but must interesting and surprising to me the total corruption of the Iowa Presidential Caucus.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/21/kent-sorenson-was-a-tea-party-hero-then-he-lost-everything-220522

Great article, but I am no closer to understanding the purpose and philosophy of the Tea Party. He acknowledges himself being unable to explain why he felt such an urgent need to impose his views on same-sex marriage on the rest of the state. I will probably never get it.

kthnry said:

LOST said:
For political junkies and aspiring political junkies a rather long tale touching on the Tea Party, the Christian Right and the Federal Prison System and its reliance on racism but must interesting and surprising to me the total corruption of the Iowa Presidential Caucus.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/21/kent-sorenson-was-a-tea-party-hero-then-he-lost-everything-220522

Great article, but I am no closer to understanding the purpose and philosophy of the Tea Party. He acknowledges himself being unable to explain why he felt such an urgent need to impose his views on same-sex marriage on the rest of the state. I will probably never get it.

 I thought it was a great article too.

As for "getting" the Tea Party, I look at it this way. The Tea Party was a means by which one set of people figured out a way to get rich and have some political power by exploiting another set of people like Sorenson, who respond to politics so emotionally and shallowly that if they ever reach the point of self-examination, (which Sorenson did but most don't) they don't know why they did things they did. Their "motivations", to the extent they think they have any, usually come down to parroting talking points  (I'm thinking of you, _________) ) . They're just pissed at something, and they're easily led to expressing their anger at things like same-sex marriage, or illegal immigration, since SSM is kind of off the table now.

I was struck by one piece of the article:

The NRTWC operation has been weakened, but the scheming continues: Campaign for Liberty, a group founded by Ron Paul and staffed by his loyalists, sent a fundraising email in May—signed by the former presidential candidate himself—alleging that Republican senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham were “teaming up with Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to ram through one of the worst nationwide gun confiscation schemes ever devised.”

Imagine how detached from reality you must be to believe that Rubio, Graham and Feinstein are plotting together to take your guns AND that you should give money for the effort. The TP, and the R's for that matter, are filled with people like this.

Most of the conservative movement simply exists as a grift. Unfortunately, besides enriching themselves, conservative leaders also feel a need to enrich the wealthy while impoverishing the rest of us.

kthnry said:

ElizMcCord said:
To whomever recommended listening to Beto. Thank you. I heard his now viral response to the Colin Kap kneeling issue and I could not have been more impressed. I hope be obliterates Ted Cruz. I’m donating today. 

 I'm the one who keeps yammering about Beto. Thank you for your support! He's gonna win.

 Here’s another viral Beto video. Twitter is baffled why Ted Cruz retweeted it. His followers think it proves that Beto is racist. 

https://twitter.com/hoarsewisperer/status/1043695764982169600?s=21

kthnry said:

kthnry said:

ElizMcCord said:
To whomever recommended listening to Beto. Thank you. I heard his now viral response to the Colin Kap kneeling issue and I could not have been more impressed. I hope be obliterates Ted Cruz. I’m donating today. 

 I'm the one who keeps yammering about Beto. Thank you for your support! He's gonna win.

 Here’s another viral Beto video. Twitter is baffled why Ted Cruz retweeted it. His followers think it proves that Beto is racist. 


https://twitter.com/hoarsewisperer/status/1043695764982169600?s=21

 C SPAN rerunning the debate now, 10 PM

ETA Loved it. I'm a debate addict and from my perspective, Beto owned it. Cheap shot from Cruz in the close when they were asked to describe a nice attribute of their opponent. Beto gave a generous response, Cruz did a not so passive aggressive comment linking Beto to socialism and comparing him to Bernie Warren etc. Beto squeezed in a remark, "True to form."

db says:  "Most of the conservative movement simply exists as a grift. Unfortunately, besides enriching themselves, conservative leaders also feel a need to enrich the wealthy while impoverishing the rest of us."

Not to mention fostering extreme distrust/dislike of US institutions and among groups of people. Such a setback for (what used to be?) American ideals. 

The latest Stockton University poll released this morning shows it's a dead heat between Menendez and Hugin. 

https://stockton.edu/news/2018/poll-us-senate-race-menendez-hugin.html

I suggest that the current drama in the Senate can hurt Hugin and help Menendez if Menendez exploits it, and especially if in the end every Republican Senator votes to confirm Kavanaugh.

Perhaps we should start evaluating potential Presidential candidates. Here's one I hadn't heard of:

 https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/01/inslee-iowa-2020-856801

Morganna said:

they were asked to describe a nice attribute of their opponent.

As a general observation about politics in this country, that is hands down, bar none the WORST debate question.  Period.  Full Stop.

I hate, hate, hate, hate that question and it shows up in nearly every big debate.  I think any moderator who asks that question should be taken outside and flogged. It's lazy, stupid, and NEVER reveals anything worthwhile.

ml1 said:

Morganna said:

they were asked to describe a nice attribute of their opponent.

As a general observation about politics in this country, that is hands down, bar none the WORST debate question.  Period.  Full Stop.
I hate, hate, hate, hate that question and it shows up in nearly every big debate.  I think any moderator who asks that question should be taken outside and flogged. It's lazy, stupid, and NEVER reveals anything worthwhile.
 

 Hillary Clinton thought it was safe to compliment Trump on his children.  Turns out that was just another Big Fat Hillary Lie.  Junior, Not Junior, and the female half of Javanka are anything but to be complimented about.

nohero said:

ml1 said:

Morganna said:

they were asked to describe a nice attribute of their opponent.

As a general observation about politics in this country, that is hands down, bar none the WORST debate question.  Period.  Full Stop.
I hate, hate, hate, hate that question and it shows up in nearly every big debate.  I think any moderator who asks that question should be taken outside and flogged. It's lazy, stupid, and NEVER reveals anything worthwhile.
 

 Hillary Clinton thought it was safe to compliment Trump on his children.  Turns out that was just another Big Fat Hillary Lie.  Junior, Not Junior, and the female half of Javanka are anything but to be complimented about.

I think she should have played it safe and complimented him on what big letters he has on the outside of his buildings.

ml1 said:

nohero said:

ml1 said:

Morganna said:

they were asked to describe a nice attribute of their opponent.

As a general observation about politics in this country, that is hands down, bar none the WORST debate question.  Period.  Full Stop.
I hate, hate, hate, hate that question and it shows up in nearly every big debate.  I think any moderator who asks that question should be taken outside and flogged. It's lazy, stupid, and NEVER reveals anything worthwhile.
 

 Hillary Clinton thought it was safe to compliment Trump on his children.  Turns out that was just another Big Fat Hillary Lie.  Junior, Not Junior, and the female half of Javanka are anything but to be complimented about.

I think she should have played it safe and complimented him on what big letters he has on the outside of his buildings.

 Or said that he has impressively-sized hands.

It’s an opportunity to display grace, humility and a little creativity, if one chooses and is able to. If one chooses not to or can’t, there’s that, too.

Another insight from GL2:

Saul Goodman was sunk in his attempt to regain his law license when he overdid the answer to "What does the law mean to you?," which invites the same sort of namby-pamby answer some pols offer in the "say something nice" question.

DaveSchmidt said:
It’s an opportunity to display grace, humility and a little creativity, if one chooses and is able to. If one chooses not to or can’t, there’s that, too.

It's begging for a banal answer like "I think he/she is a great parent."  And there are plenty of other opportunities for candidate on the stump to show grace, humility and creativity.  Debates are extremely limited in time and scope.  To spend five of 90 minutes on such an empty-headed question is a waste of time that could have been spent on one more question of substance.

and I should add that the fact that Ted Cruz was unable to show grace, humility or creativity in response to that question isn't in the least bit telling.  Everyone already knows Cruz is a smarmy weasel.

GL2 said:
Another insight from GL2:
Saul Goodman was sunk in his attempt to regain his law license when he overdid the answer to "What does the law mean to you?," which invites the same sort of namby-pamby answer some pols offer in the "say something nice" question.

 I thought it was the question that followed about the greatest influence on him, or something like it, and he answered by citing his law school rather than his brother.

ml1 said:

 It's begging for a banal answer like "I think he/she is a great parent."  And there are plenty of other opportunities for candidate on the stump to show grace, humility and creativity.  Debates are extremely limited in time and scope.  To spend five of 90 minutes on such an empty-headed question is a waste of time that could have been spent on one more question of substance.

Says you.

Damn. I blew it.

DaveSchmidt said:

ml1 said:

 It's begging for a banal answer like "I think he/she is a great parent."  And there are plenty of other opportunities for candidate on the stump to show grace, humility and creativity.  Debates are extremely limited in time and scope.  To spend five of 90 minutes on such an empty-headed question is a waste of time that could have been spent on one more question of substance.

Says you.
Damn. I blew it.

of course says me. 

But I should ask -- in your opinion, if you have roughly 5-6 questions to ask in a debate for U.S. Senate candidates, would you put "can you say something nice about your opponent" among that precious few questions?

ml1 said:

But I should ask -- in your opinion, if you have roughly 5-6 questions to ask in a debate for U.S. Senate candidates, would you put "can you say something nice about your opponent" among that precious few questions?

 I appreciate a glimpse of a candidate’s grace, humility and creativity (not to mention humor) under a bit of debate pressure. That may not be the most satisfying question — “Tell us about a time you really screwed up, and what you did afterward,” could be another approach — but if it’s the only one in the bunch along those lines, I’ll take it.

"I think Ted Cruz is a good man. I love this photo of his that features an oleaginous statue. The butter cow is pretty cool too." 

"I think it's great that because of Ted Cruz, millions of Americans have learned the German word 'Backpfeifengesicht.' It's important that Americans acquaint themselves with other languages."

"I admire Ted Cruz. It's very impressive when you make it to the top of your profession."