2020 Presidential Election: let the jockeying commence

bystander said:
Why do Democrats always say Trump is subverting our Democracy?
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It's a convenient talking point used to associate the political Left with "democracy," which sounds good. A similar talking point is used by the globalist Left in Europe as well. They frequently condemn populist movements such as Brexit as undermining democracy while holding themselves (especially the EU) as guardians of democracy.

But is there truth to it? Just logically, what undermines democracy? It would be denying the right to vote to citizens or classes of citizens, weakening the power of democratically-elected institutions and empowering unelected institutions, and diluting the votes of citizens with the votes of non-citizens. I don't see much evidence of any of that in Trump's agenda or in the agendas of populist movements in Europe or Brexit.

I do see at least some evidence of it in the political Left. They haven't tried to deny anyone the vote. However, they certainly favor empowering unelected institutions with tremendous policymaking power, especially the bureaucracy and the judiciary (at least when they run those institutions). They haven't explicitly endorsed letting non-citizens vote, but at least in California, they are flirting with it and explicitly allowing it in some situations.
 
2003TexasGrad said:
Is this really a political talking point? Less plastic?
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Yes it is. It's not as big as climate change, but there is a movement to ban plastics, especially single use plastics. Obviously, you've probably seen that some cities (including Austin) have banned plastic bags in grocery stores, and there is a broader movement. Some places are banning plastic straws. They're damn near impossible to find in the UK.

Frankly, it isn't all ********. There have been huge amounts of plastic dumped into the ocean, rivers, and lakes, and it has had pretty substantial negative environmental and economic impacts. But in typical environmentalist fashion, the issue is mostly a weapon to bludgeon Western capitalism rather than a serious concern. Why? Because while Westerners are recycling much of their plastics, India and China are drowning in massive amounts of plastic waste that they dump into their bodies of water. It's about 95 percent a non-Western problem, but we're falling all over ourselves to self-flagellate and ban plastic straws on the off-chance that a few of them won't get recycled. It's a stupid farce and probably makes the problem harder to solve.
 
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Steyer sees the Dem playbook with Bloomberg gaining speed in the rich business man lane. Let the giveaways get bigger! Now promises minimum wage at $22 per hour.
 
Numbers from the Trump rally in NH --

52,559 Tickets

24,732 Voters Identified (41% From NH)

17% Didn’t Vote in 2016

25.4% Democrats​
 
Mr. Deez said:
However, they certainly favor empowering unelected institutions with tremendous policymaking power, especially the bureaucracy and the judiciary (at least when they run those institutions). They haven't explicitly endorsed letting non-citizens vote, but at least in California, they are flirting with it and explicitly allowing it in some situations.
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Socialism to me is measured by the growth of that bureaucracy. That is what is actually running the country. And it is very ironic that an un-elected force can have so much power.

I think the word democracy is very confusing to many people. I think Totalitarian Socialists use it because it's catchy in a sound-bite world. The will of the people. That's what it sounds like.

As for non-citizens, it's my contention that they don't have to actually vote. If you stack the census with non-citizens, then you reshuffle the electoral college vote count and there you go. I think they realize their attempts to invalidate the electoral college cannot be done except by amendment, so to defeat it you must game it.

So is it democratic to gain more votes by virtue of a census weighted by illegal aliens who are being politically protected by the racist tribal LULAC'S of the world?
 
Mr. Deez said:
Yes it is. It's not as big as climate change, but there is a movement to ban plastics, especially single use plastics. Obviously, you've probably seen that some cities (including Austin) have banned plastic bags in grocery stores, and there is a broader movement. Some places are banning plastic straws. They're damn near impossible to find in the UK.

Frankly, it isn't all ********. There have been huge amounts of plastic dumped into the ocean, rivers, and lakes, and it has had pretty substantial negative environmental and economic impacts. But in typical environmentalist fashion, the issue is mostly a weapon to bludgeon Western capitalism rather than a serious concern. Why? Because while Westerners are recycling much of their plastics, India and China are drowning in massive amounts of plastic waste that they dump into their bodies of water. It's about 95 percent a non-Western problem, but we're falling all over ourselves to self-flagellate and ban plastic straws on the off-chance that a few of them won't get recycled. It's a stupid farce and probably makes the problem harder to solve.
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I get all that but running for president on that... much more important things in my opinion. Straws should be the least of anyones polution concerns.
 
The secret desires of a straw

Forever human, don’t put me down
Forever human, don’t throw me away
I’ll help you drink your drink
You just got to keep me around

Keep me in your car
I’ll wait for you all day
Clean me up, dry me up
You'll never have to pay

We won’t pollute
We won’t substitute
I’ll be your forever straw

Give me your smoothie
Give me your shake
I’ll take care of them
You make the steak

You won’t need any other
You won’t rip another cover
I’ll be your forever straw

Forever human, don’t put me down
Forever human, don’t throw me away
I’ll help you with your drink
You just got to keep me around
 
Bloomberg passed $350 million in spending on advertisements. Good thing his net worth is over $60 billion.
 
Clean said:
Bloomberg passed $350 million in spending on advertisements. Good thing his net worth is over $60 billion.
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If the Totalitarian Socialists are honest, then he's toast:

Bloomberg said 'all crime' in minority areas

But we know all is forgiven if you toe the extremist talking point lines. It doesn't matter if you were once in the KKK (Byrd), a sexual predator (Kennedy, Clinton) or a racist in your profiling (Bloomberg)... it doesn't matter. All is forgiven and the get out of jail free card is to attack Trump.
 
Mr. Deez said:
They can't resist the virtue signalling opportunity.
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I wrote that little ditty up there in honor of my JuiceLand straw. Juiceland is a smoothie place extraordinaire in Austin; manned ably by virtue signaling hipsters who all like to laugh and smile at my over the top personality in the drive-thru window each morning. ANYWAY, it's a win-win-win. I have my own glass tumbler and straw which provide me a 50 cent and 10 cent discount respectively. Because I'm a VIP customer they gave me the tumbler/straw for free. It's the best rate of return in the history of the world. AND, I can crow about saving the planet. Like I said, it's a win-win-win. I win. Capitalism wins. The environment wins. We all win. That's how to do it.
 
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The democrats will end up compromising and run for president a ticket devoted to balancing the budget, free universities and degrees for all, forgive all debt of every kind, cut capital gains taxes while raising inheritance taxes, free abortions for trans women, beef up the military with more female and trans general officers, withdraw all US troops from everywhere, move all the poor people into places like River Oaks and Highland Park, free healthcare and enhanced pay for all medical personnel and free Bubble Up and rainbow stew in every pot.

So calm down.
 
huisache said:
The democrats will end up compromising and run for president a ticket devoted to balancing the budget, free universities and degrees for all, forgive all debt of every kind, cut capital gains taxes while raising inheritance taxes, free abortions for trans women, beef up the military with more female and trans general officers, withdraw all US troops from everywhere, move all the poor people into places like River Oaks and Highland Park, free healthcare and enhanced pay for all medical personnel and free Bubble Up and rainbow stew in every pot.

So calm down.
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But what about the straws?
 
huisache said:
The democrats will end up compromising and run for president a ticket devoted to balancing the budget, free universities and degrees for all, forgive all debt of every kind, cut capital gains taxes while raising inheritance taxes, free abortions for trans women, beef up the military with more female and trans general officers, withdraw all US troops from everywhere, move all the poor people into places like River Oaks and Highland Park, free healthcare and enhanced pay for all medical personnel and free Bubble Up and rainbow stew in every pot.

So calm down.
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huisache said:
The democrats will end up compromising and run for president a ticket devoted to balancing the budget, free universities and degrees for all, forgive all debt of every kind, cut capital gains taxes while raising inheritance taxes, free abortions for trans women, beef up the military with more female and trans general officers, withdraw all US troops from everywhere, move all the poor people into places like River Oaks and Highland Park, free healthcare and enhanced pay for all medical personnel and free Bubble Up and rainbow stew in every pot.

So calm down.
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We saw the reaction of well-to-do left-leaning Americans when the fed. gov't tried to move a bunch of poor people into tony neighborhoods just North of NYC. The feds were going to fund a bunch of low income housing projects in wealthy NYC suburbs, including Chappaqua (where the Clintons now live). The locals--which mostly consist of left-leaning folks with some $$--predictably went ape-sh!t and pulled out all the stops to shut the plan down.
 
Frankly, it isn't all ********. There have been huge amounts of plastic dumped into the ocean, rivers, and lakes, and it has had pretty substantial negative environmental and economic impacts. But in typical environmentalist fashion, the issue is mostly a weapon to bludgeon Western capitalism rather than a serious concern. Why? Because while Westerners are recycling much of their plastics, India and China are drowning in massive amounts of plastic waste that they dump into their bodies of water. It's about 95 percent a non-Western problem, but we're falling all over ourselves to self-flagellate and ban plastic straws on the off-chance that a few of them won't get recycled. It's a stupid farce and probably makes the problem harder to solve.
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The sad thing is that one beneficial use of waste plastic is burning it for fuel to produce electricity. Through it in a furnace and get power out of it. It would be better than recycling actually.
 
As for non-citizens, it's my contention that they don't have to actually vote. If you stack the census with non-citizens, then you reshuffle the electoral college vote count and there you go. I think they realize their attempts to invalidate the electoral college cannot be done except by amendment, so to defeat it you must game it.
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I say make a compromise and count each as 3/5s.
 
Mr. Deez said:
Yes it is. It's not as big as climate change, but there is a movement to ban plastics, especially single use plastics. Obviously, you've probably seen that some cities (including Austin) have banned plastic bags in grocery stores, and there is a broader movement. Some places are banning plastic straws. They're damn near impossible to find in the UK.
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Those who want to ban to so-called 'single use' bags have clearly never owned a cat and had to clean a litter box. Nor have they taken food into an office.

I also laugh at the claims they don't break down. I had one in the back of a 200SX I owned and that was not garaged. Had a few parts that I had placed into the bag. When I went to pull the bag out, it literally fell apart in my hands. I don't remember which store it had come from but given that it was in Austin, it would either have been Randalls or Target (given my shopping habits).

I was glad that the Austin house was not actually inside the City limits and that my Randalls in West Lake had not caved to the bag crap...

As for straws...tell us how many you want and I am sure we can figure out how to get them to you...for a price LOL!
 
All plastic breaks down. All chemicals do to. The issue is how long does it take and how toxic is it in the meantime.

UV and bacteria pretty much destroy everything there is.
 
Early New Hampshire exit polls show 11% of NH voters are 17-29, down from 19% in 2016. Significant change if it holds.
 
I have not been very kind to Joe Biden, but calling someone a lying, dogface pony soldier with a smile on your face is terribly offensive only with the humorless.
 
Crockett said:
I have not been very kind to Joe Biden, but calling someone a lying, dogface pony soldier with a smile on your face is terribly offensive only with the humorless.
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Actually, I think one , like me, would have to have a pretty good sense of humor to actually sense that his so-called joke lacked any humor whatsoever.

It was flat out stupid if he meant it and flat out unfunny if it was a joke.

Who's offended? I have only heard that it makes you scratch your head. Not offended though. Just another "gaffe".
 
So Bernie was throwing eggs at black people who were protesting for civil rights?
That is not a very socialist thing to do.
 
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