Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

also she is kinda funny in portlandia idk

it's typical counterpunch lash out in the dark tactics, par for the course

Not OK to be buying the right wing narrative - no way.

Joni Ernst took herself out of VP consideration

I hear there's a lot of that going around.

Trump raised $51 million in last couple weeks of June (not sure how many of that is from scottish MPs)

er how much

in other news
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/bernie-sanders-booed-house-democrats-225161

I like that the URL makes it sound like Sanders was the one doing the booing

oh man: Paul Ryan wants Clapper to deny Clinton intelligence briefings.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-07-06/ryan-calls-on-clapper-to-bar-classified-briefings-for-clinton

Hillary Clinton’s failure to protect critical security information is not the only thing in her tenure as Secretary that deserves the term reckless, including her decision to pursue catastrophic regime change in Libya, and to support the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Ukraine and Honduras.

Is Jill Stein pro-Putin?

there's a left-wing meme that putin is acting out bc of nato's aggressive actions on his borders and that the west incited the protests in ukraine

isn't congress supposed to be in remission this week?

lol "remission"

there's a left-wing meme that putin is acting out bc of nato's aggressive actions on his borders and that the west incited the protests in ukraine

― Mordy, 6. juli 2016 22:32 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Are the Greens really that stupid? Sigh. Good luck, guys.

Congress will metastasize in the fall

xp

It's unquestionably true that the U.S did support the overthrow of the democratically elected Ukrainian government. The argument is whether it was right to do so. Clinton didn't really have much to do with it either way.

Xp

to what extent is that true? i remember reading a bit ago there was the nuland phone conversation leak but iirc that wasn't terribly conclusive? and maybe some circumstantial evidence regarding flyers? idk - can you link me to something that makes a slamdunk case that the US orchestrated, or participated in a meaningful way, in the coup?

Stein didn't claim it was orchestrated by the U.S., she claimed that it was supported. Nuland and Pyatt were literally down on the front lines handing out cookies. The phone call may have been ambiguous in relation to the degree to which they were pulling the strings but nobody was in any doubt from the public statements, before or after Yanukovich went, that they thought it was a good idea. There is an argument for saying they were right but it's not clear cut.

Not a lot in diplomacy is

Are the Greens really that stupid? Sigh. Good luck, guys.

there really aren't any US "greens" in terms of a complex party apparatus with a firm policy position. it's really just jill stein and a few folks around her.

For some reason they are covering this Ohio speech and he is more insane then ever

Trump raised $51 million in last couple weeks of June (not sure how many of that is from scottish MPs)

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-june-fundraising-report

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/750868980299104256

that's pretty good

#frozen

by the way, unless the Frozen pic is from another #WhiteGenocide account, I am now 100% sure that Trump frequents r/The_Donald

you can hear the NYT writers' jaws dropping while reading this lead graf:

Donald J. Trump on Wednesday offered a defiant defense of his campaign’s decision to publish an image widely viewed as anti-Semitic — saying he regretted deleting it — and vigorously reaffirmed his praise of Saddam Hussein, the murderous Iraqi dictator.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/politics/donald-trump-campaign.html

He's so bad at this

the only possible way it could make any sense (even if the calculation is wrong) is if he figured it would help him more to rile up his followers on that topic, i mean he had already been doing 'crooked hillary emails' all day and most of that speech right? he could have let the image thing drop, he was given a golden opportunity to bury it. but instead, no… he just seems to be completely hapless when it comes to his feelings of injury.

It's also prime troll - when you feel the ground firm enough under your defense, attack - you were clearly in the right, so what the fuck is wrong with these people attacking you for just making a point (so to speak)?

BTW I should apologize to Andrew Farrell. I thought AF was equating Comey's statements with "anyone else and we'd prosecute." AF noted that wasn't his opinion but rather the spin being spun on the right.

I looked into some fetid corners of the 'netz yesterday and he's exactly right: that is precisely how the dextrosphere is reading "this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences." OMG one law for the Clinton Crime syndicate and a different law for the rest of us, blah blah blah.

Yeah, no bother, that's where I picked it up from, I claim no powers as a the_donald whisperer :)

The thing that super frustrates me about the email scandal is that it's become this JFK-level conspiracy theory. It's so widespread it's not even political, and it's utterly, wholly impervious to the application of reason. When I was reading the fourth volume of Caro's LBJ bio he pointedly refused to take a stance on whether or not JFK was assassinated, restricting himself to observing that there is a complete lack of evidence that LBJ was in any way involved in the assassination. And that's not, you know, because the evidence on whether or not JFK's assassination was a conspiracy is inconclusive, but because if you say, from a position of authority, that the Warren Commission, for all its flaws, ultimately reached the correct conclusion, you make yourself a target for a vast, incredibly dedicated phalanx of conspiracy proponents, almost all of whom are utterly impervious to logic. (that last sentence needs more commas)

And it's the same thing with the email thing. Most people have, independently of their actual political beliefs, reached this axiomatic, core belief that Clinton's actions in running an email server were criminal, and if you express any doubt or skepticism about this belief they will simply laugh in your face.

Most people have, independently of their actual political beliefs, reached this axiomatic, core belief that Clinton's actions in running an email server were criminal

it's a common belief, sure, but i don't know that it's the dominant view. most people i know consider the whole thing a tempest in a teapot (caveat about reality bubbles goes here).

whether or not JFK was assassinated

"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes."

yeah i keep getting into this habit of words out. :(

the only possible way it could make any sense (even if the calculation is wrong)

he's incapable of apologizing or admitting mistakes. it's often dressed up as an 'art of the deal' component -- never back down -- but he simply can't do it, it's too much like 'losing'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSibtcXPKVg

When I saw that last night, along with other rambling excerpts from the speech, I thought "This guy's losing his mind." When he got to the mosquito part, I figured it was probably something he was planning to work in there. Which doesn't rule out that he might be losing his mind.

dog whistle for "mestizos"?

I'm listening to that rally speech right now. He's certainly no more substantive and no less insane than the last time I listened to him speak at any length. I feel more like I'm listening to a tape of Paul Stanley's onstage banter than a presidential candidate supposedly laying out his platform.

cronos for veep

I have to say, Trump's house really must be made of just the best glass, such great glass you can't believe it. It doesn't break, no matter how many stones he throws. Sad!!

Comey's testifying now. Does Trump have a nickname for him yet? Creepy Comey echoes Creepy Carrie nicely...

Mosquitos target our precious bodily fluids.

I'm surely not the first person to draw this parallel, but I'm getting some serious Drunk Uncle vibes from this Trump speech. He rambles incoherently until he tapers off and the crowd cheers...because he finished a sentence or something, I guess? Except for when he pays lip service to Hispanics or African Americans or the LGBT community, when they grow strangely quiet for some reason. I dunno. It's just more of the same. So goddamn bizarre.

Wow, I think Trump actually believes he was the first to ever refer to American politics as a rigged system. Really doubling down on that one. Such an innovator.

Clinton will very likely get through this, but I think the Republicans are decimating Comey.

The Republican questioners talk about Clinton; the Democrats talk about Petraeus and Trump,.

i wasn't going to vote for her but that was before i learned that if i vote for the green party i can cancel my student debt

http://i.imgur.com/tlOLiPk.png

I know almost nothing about James Comey but what I do know suggests he's a craven doofus who shouldn't have this job