Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hanni ....... thanks for the discouraging insider insight.

[froot loops]

For all the big talk Sanders does he has been a fairly conventional/pragmatic senator voting wise. Warren was a much bigger pain in the neck to the Obama administration from the left. The socialist utopia you fellas fear is pretty far away as to make anything lasting you need the votes to make legislation. Getting something big passed is hard to do as we've seen with Trump.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jeff- Your President is waiting for you to apologize to him.

[Hannibal]

For all the big talk Sanders does he has been a fairly conventional/pragmatic senator voting wise. Warren was a much bigger pain in the neck to the Obama administration from the left. The socialist utopia you fellas fear is pretty far away as to make anything lasting you need the votes to make legislation. Getting something big passed is hard to do as we've seen with Trump.

You don't need legislation anymore. In between executive orders, activism, and appointments you can get most of what you want done. Obama accomplished far more with his appointments and EOs than he did with legislation. This is true of Trump as well. Trump didn't even need Congressional approval for tariffs and you can't come up with a more obvious role for Congress than that.

[froot loops]

If you are talking big socialist initiatives that cloud your nightmares, it needs to be legislative. That's the rules.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Dunno ...... would you call the wall and the tariffs big initiatives? I would and they were done without legislative process in the strict sense of those words.

I think the EO is a threat to what we are talking about here and other executive powers have gradually been seeded to the executive over the last several administrations.

[froot loops]

Meh, that stuff is ephemeral. We are three years in and not one new portion of "the wall" has been built. The ability to levy tariffs can easily be revoked by Congress and probably will be revoked by the next president. In history books years from now, the executive orders that Barack Obama implemented will not be listed as his biggest accomplishments. You guys all know that but it pierces this carefully crafted Fox News narrative about socialism coming to the US. If "executive orders, activism, and appointments" are all Obama needed he would have implemented the socialist Marxist utopia the Fox News crew accused him of. In fact the closest thing that can be lobbed at him is the ACA and that needed 60 votes in the Senate and its far from the socialist utopia. Plus it is constantly in peril from lawsuits looking to revoke medical coverage.

But the stuff you guys might abhor needs legislating. Specifically something like Medicare-for-all. You need the votes, just like you needed the votes to repeal the ACA.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Fair enough and good balance to Hanni's view ........ I'm more optimistic than he is and more a believer in the legislative process and established judicial institutions I mentioned in my first post to limit extremes.

[Ghengis Jon]

Which underscores the importance of Congressional elections. In 2016 it was the moderate Repubs, not the extremists, that fell to the Dems. In 2022, the shoe will be on the other foot, moderate Dems falling to GOP challengers. Unfortunately, its only the passionate, not the general electorate, that participate in the primary elections. As extremists nominate extremists, they count on sheeple to vote party rather than what the candidate brings to the table. Tribalism over all. That is a huge part of today's electoral problems.

[Ghengis Jon]

Depending upon who gets the Dem presidential nomination, I might be voting for Doc Hodgeman again in 2020.

[froot loops]

The primary election problem is asymetrical though, its a been a problem for the GOP for a pretty long time. So far the Democratic party has not had the same issues, its true you can name AOC as one but there have been very few successful primary challenges to sitting federal legislators.

[iam416]

The problem with throwing Trump under the bus for his behavior is that the only viable alternative to Trump in the next election appears to be a member of the kook Left. The Democrat Party is now a collection of foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics who have fully embraced open borders, Marxism, anti-White racism, and nut case Social ideas that are so extreme that they weren't even on the radar just ten years ago (e.g. transgender children). Every single one of America's major institutions, from academia to corporate America has embraced the insanity.

Correct. However, the United States is designed to move like a giant cruise ship. I told my pearl-clutching family members that part of the genius of the US government is that it constrains executive power. And I correctly told them PDJT would have a difficult time doing much than signing EOs (a practice I still generally despise because explicitly operates outside the system of checks and balances so vital to our country -- at least outside immediate checks and balances).

The fact is that the nutjob winner of the D Primary -- and right now I'd bet on the Nutjob Field over Biden -- but the nutjub winner won't be able to do much because of the Senate. The horrible countermajoritarian Senate that the Progs rail against. Fuck those clowns. It's a fucking godsend. And then, in 2022 the Rs will reclaim the House. Thoroughly divided government will return.

It is the GOP that has caused the only viable alternative to Trump in the next election could quite possibly be a member of the kook Left. It is a pendulum swing from the unhinged right to the looney left and this knee jerk reaction is indisputably on the shoulders of Trump's mindless Congressional sycophants. The Republican Party is now a collection of foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics who have fully embraced caging children, Nazism, White racism, and nut case ideas that are so extreme that they weren't even on the radar just ten years ago (e.g. activist judges/rapists to the USSC

This is a total fucking shit, Jon. Total. Fucking. Shit. I applaud your generally moderate political positions even though they are dominated by PDJT hatred at the moment. But this is absolute shit. It's the kind of shit I'd expect to see from some #GentryCommunist on twitter. Be better.

[iam416]

Which underscores the importance of Congressional elections. In 2016 it was the moderate Repubs, not the extremists, that fell to the Dems. In 2022, the shoe will be on the other foot, moderate Dems falling to GOP challengers. Unfortunately, its only the passionate, not the general electorate, that participate in the primary elections. As extremists nominate extremists, they count on sheeple to vote party rather than what the candidate brings to the table. Tribalism over all. That is a huge part of today's electoral problems.

And this is exactly correct, Jon.

[Ghengis Jon]

This is a total fucking shit, Jon. Total. Fucking. Shit. I applaud your generally moderate political positions even though they are dominated by PDJT hatred at the moment. But this is absolute shit. It's the kind of shit I'd expect to see from some #GentryCommunist on twitter. Be better.

Simply putting Hanni's nonsense into perspective. My satire is just as valid and accurate as Hanni's original statement. As in not very.

[Hannibal]

Simply putting Hanni's nonsense into perspective. My satire is just as valid and accurate as Hanni's original statement. As in not very.

No, your satire isn't accurate. There are mountains of examples and evidence to back up each of my points. Much of this stuff is in plain view. You being in denial about it because you are blinded by your hatred of Trump doesn't change reality.