American Politics

[QUOTE=JustTK;2761778]Greenwald is one of the most important acrive independent journlists in the world. He handled the release of the whisltblowerr documents for Edward Snowden in the face of USA Govt hostlility. He also handled the leak of documents that exposed the corruption of Operation Car Wash. The corrupt anti-corruption operation that ended with the imprisonment of Lula. He was criminally charged in both USA and Brazil for both actions, but all charges were eventually dropped. Very courageous guy. People don't tend to display so much courage unless they are on the right side of the law and morality. He is on Lula's side.[/QUOTE]Please see my "Eating Crow, Maybe" post below. That's the closest you're going to see to a "you're right, I was wrong" confession in this thread.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2761782]Please see my "Eating Crow, Maybe" post below. That's the closest you're going to see to a "you're right, I was wrong" confession in this thread.[/QUOTE]Haha. Ok. I wrote my comment before I saw your reply. Sometimes replies seem to pass back thru the timeline when they get posted. Check him out sometime. Very intelligent, well spoken, courageous. Had to leave YT bcos he was being censored by the USA Govt. Had to give up his previous jobs bcos his employers were not prepared to show the same courage as him to speak truth to power. Now on Rumble.

People like him will be recognised in history for what he did, once truth is accepted.

Have a good night, Tiny. :)

[QUOTE=Spidy;2761760]Thanks for the [B]Repub-splaining[/b] on gridlock...I think? At the very least, I'm sure Elvis, will have benefited from it.

Tiny 12, perhaps I should have been clearer. I was relating / equating, the above examples (in quotes) of what Repubs do when they have power in all 3-houses, as being the same as gridlock. Meaning that, "nothing meaningful is accomplished" when Repubs are in power and that's why you and Elvis love the fact we have may now have gridlock.

Again, this gridlock example is very apropos of the [B]Excellent EihTooms Challenge,[/B] he put forth (check back a few days) and has yet to be disputed.[/QUOTE]Gridlock is OK after Dems have passed terrific economic recovery legislation in the wake of a typical Great Repub Crash, Massive Jobs Destruction and skyrocketing deficits with nothing of value to show for it.

For example, at virtually every Dem-to-Repub White House hand-off over the past 100 years.

OMG, the mind reels at the thought of how much better off America and the rest of the world would be if incoming Reagan, Bush2 and Trump had just taken their election victory lap, immediately retreated to their basement and spent their entire presidential terms watching cartoons on tv and playing solitaire. Or, alternately, had been reduced to those prefered and more fitting vocations due to insurmountable political Gridlock.

By stark contrast, at virtually every Repub-to-Dem White House hand-off over the past 100 years it would have been a criminal dereliction of duty as stated in their Oath of Office if the incoming Dem had succumbed to Gridlock and not heroically found a way to legislatively reverse course on the Multiple / Great Repub Recessions, Massive Jobs Losses and skyrocketing deficits with nothing of value to show for it that typically greeted them.

History, the data and all evidence shows the very best example of such a heroic effort in the face of an extraordinarily disastrous Repub-to-Dem hand-off and potential for Gridlock was when Biden took over from Trump.

Biden's effort (and success!) was even more heroic and impressive than that of incoming FDR's and incoming Obama's due to the typically horrific Repub stewardship results and the far greater potential for Gridlock facing him on day one.

[QUOTE=JustTK;2761788]Have a good night, Tiny. :)[/QUOTE]Igualmente amigo

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761704]Now, if I gave you a participation trophy for that one I would be insulting every clumsy kid who ever got a participation trophy. Which is not my style. So I hope you understand why I can't give you one.[/QUOTE]Do you really think I'm going to fall for that one? The best you get for participation is a flimsy ass paper certificate. Sticks and stones my break my bones but I'll never be upset that I didn't get some imaginary "participation trophy".

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2761836]Do you really think I'm going to fall for that one? The best you get for participation is a flimsy ass paper certificate. Sticks and stones my break my bones but I'll never be upset that I didn't get some imaginary "participation trophy".[/QUOTE]I didn't know that. I have only gotten actual trophies and medals of accomplishment. I'll buy a few blank certificates to fill in just in case then.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761716]Individual polls can sometimes be wildly off from the election results, even days before election day. But this time around, as usual, the Consensus of polls on that Generic Ballot Control of Congress question were quite accurate to within a normal +/-Margin of Error 3-4 percentage points.

Where they made the big Error on the Margin was in under-sampling likely or new Dem voters / over-sampling likely Repub voters with their insistence on dragging in "save the day for the Repubs" demonstrably Repub-leaning polls like Rasmussen, Trafalgar and Emerson too often.

As I pointed out here several times along the way. ... [/QUOTE]

BTW, thanks, w/r to the "411" on the Generic Ballot Control of Congress question poll...much appreciated!

Sorry, I hadn't notice any of your previous posts w/r to this poll. But apparently, it's been around for 40 yrs, but for whatever reason, isn't well known. Who knew? So having just looked into and briefly checked it out, it does appear to be predictive, accurate and evenly bipartisan. Which fares better than most of the other individual (and often partisan) polls.

Since I don't really put much faith into election polls, I tend not to follow them, too closely. However, I'll definitely be more mindful towards this poll as a "bell weather" reference, w/r to congressional and presidential elections.

I don't disagree with many of the other multitude of reasons you state w/r to the under/over sampling of the other polls, but in my mind, there has always been a plethora of unknown variables pollsters will never be able to account for and hence my reservation towards following polls. But I'm always learning, as was the case today.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761569]The first sentence in my previous post re Gridlock: No president in modern history faced more potential Gridlock in his first two years in office than Sleepy Joe Brandon.[/QUOTE]One of the many reasons I call you a Democratic douche Tooms is because Democrats assign alternate meanings to words. With the Republicans on the verge of taking the house, I said we would have gridlock. I am not sure what your point is with this dumb semantic douchery about gridlock. Are you so brain dead that with the Republicans on the verge of taking the House, there will be less gridlock?

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761569]led a violent, cop-killing Insurrection[/QUOTE]Yes, that was terrible. The guns, the violence, the deaths, the destruction. It was horrible. Wait, those were the BLM riots. Yes, it is a good thing those second amendment loving whack job insurrectionists left their guns at home wasn't it?

Violent, cop killing, and insurrection are more words where you make up meanings to fit your agenda. Orwell had a name for such slurring of words: doublespeak. You must have read 1984 like it was an instruction manual.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761569]lwhose slavishly devoted members in his Party spent every waking hour of his first two years repeating that lie to cheers from their voting constituents?[/QUOTE]To a Democratic douche, the 2016 election being rigged was truth, and the 2020 election being rigged was a lie. The charges of the 2016 election being rigged were definitively put down. That was literally a conspiracy. There was not one person deposed about the accusations that the election of 2020 being rigged and because of that, I think saying that election was definitively not rigged given the circumstantial evidence is a huge stretch.

Tooms, you should be the one getting a certificate. You have mastered doublespeak. The only part you missed is Republicans making up the word inflation.

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;2762031] Are you so brain dead that with the Republicans on the verge of taking the House, there will be less gridlock?[/QUOTE]Damn it Elvis, I don't think we're going to get Tooms to award us that special participation trophy or certificate or whatever it is. We're going to have to learn to think like Democrats if we're going to get that award.

So maybe you could explain how you come up with the Democrats' definition of gridlock? Apparently you can be a Democratic Senator, and go along 100% with what President Biden and Party leaders propose, and you're still responsible for gridlock. That's what Manchin and Sinema did with the $1. 9 trillion, budget-busting, inflation-supercharging American Rescue Plan. One of the revered pieces of legislation that the Democratic Party passed when it controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency. That just seems like an awfully low barrier for "gridlock."

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761704]No, that isn't what Gridlock means:

[URL]https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gridlock[/URL]

Actually, didn't you use to call what you described "split government"? Now you think it's "Gridlock"?

Good lord.

[b]Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are both members of the Democratic Party. They would not budge on a couple of important aspects of Democrat Joe Biden's brilliant American Rescue Plan.[/b]

Guess what they created on those aspects?

Yep. Gridlock.

No, it isn't Split Government either.

Now, if I gave you a participation trophy for that one I would be insulting every clumsy kid who ever got a participation trophy. Which is not my style. So I hope you understand why I can't give you one.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Elvis2008;2762031]One of the many reasons I call you a Democratic douche Tooms is because Democrats assign alternate meanings to words. With the Republicans on the verge of taking the house, I said we would have gridlock. I am not sure what your point is with this dumb semantic douchery about gridlock. Are you so brain dead that with the Republicans on the verge of taking the House, there will be less gridlock?[/QUOTE]You didn't just say " we would have gridlock. " What you said was this:

[QUOTE]I am happy with the results. Gridlock has been achieved.[/QUOTE]There are no alternative meanings to your words. Alternative meanings come later when you attempt to qualify the pure and unadulterated joy derived from the fact that the Reps might once again be able to do what they always do best: sabotage.

[QUOTE]Throughout Barack Obama's presidency, Republicans in Congress have deployed a strategy that has worked remarkably well for them: oppose, obstruct, and sabotage the Obama administration at every turn.

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president," Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, then the Senate minority leader, said in 2010.

A few months later, McConnell acknowledged that Republicans had decided to [b]deny President Obama any bipartisan support, not because they necessarily opposed each and every initiative, but to hurt Obama politically[/b]. "We worked very hard to keep our fingerprints off of these proposals," he said. "Because we thought correctly, I think that the only way the American people would know that a great debate was going on was if the measures were not bipartisan."[/QUOTE][URL]https://www.vox.com/2015/3/9/8177815/republicans-foreign-policy-sabotage[/URL]

What a party!

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2762080]Damn it Elvis, I don't think we're going to get Tooms to award us that special participation trophy or certificate or whatever it is. We're going to have to learn to think like Democrats if we're going to get that award.

So maybe you could explain how you come up with the Democrats' definition of gridlock? Apparently you can be a Democratic Senator, and go along 100% with what President Biden and Party leaders propose, and you're still responsible for gridlock. That's what Manchin and Sinema did with the $1. 9 trillion, budget-busting, inflation-supercharging American Rescue Plan. One of the revered pieces of legislation that the Democratic Party passed when it controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency. That just seems like an awfully low barrier for "gridlock."[/QUOTE]Gridlock can be achieved regardless of political party. It can result from Consevative vs Liberal, pro Universal Healthcare vs pro For Profit Only Heathcare, whatever.

Biden was hoping for a gain of at least 2 Dems in the Senate, numbering 52, in order to thwart the Gridlock posed by Sinema and Manchin in his own Party. He will have to settle for 51 this time around, at best.

If merely squeaking out a 2-3 House seat advantage by one Party "achieved Gridlock" as Elvis hilariously twisted himself into a pretzel trying to prove in another failed attempt to coax one of those highly prized Participation Certificates out of me, well, that would mean many administrations of various Parties got nothing signed and passed throughout their term / s.

Which, although this might come as a shock to history-challeged Repubs like Elvis, didn't happen.

[QUOTE=Xpartan;2762090]You didn't just say " we would have gridlock. " What you said was this:

There are no alternative meanings to your words. Alternative meanings come later when you attempt to qualify the pure and unadulterated joy derived from the fact that the Reps might once again be able to do what they always do best: sabotage.

[URL]https://www.vox.com/2015/3/9/8177815/republicans-foreign-policy-sabotage[/URL]

What a party![/QUOTE]It seems like every Repub on the planet ([blue][Deleted by Admin][/blue]) forgets that the Turtle said that his one goal was to make Obama a one-term President. The forget as well that when gasoline was over $4 per gallon in 2008 under W, how Repub politicians were falling all over themselves trying to explain how the President wasn't responsible for gasoline prices.

Now we have stupid Repubs calling for Biden's head because evidently President's [B]do[/B] control the price of gasoline. Dumber-than-dogshit Repubs can't spell [B]hypocrisy[/B] but they sure think that every voter is as stupid as they are.

But not to worry. Repubs will double-down on their idiocy. They will impeach every Democrat politician whose name they can spell. They'll investigate Hunter Biden for the next 2 years while ignoring the fact that Jaren received 2 billion dollars from the Saudis. They will shut down the government at least once and blame it on the Dems. They will continue to claim that every election that they don't win is fraudulent.

And yes, you are correct. Sabotage is the name of their game. It is the only thing they have in their playbook. Except for grievance politics and backing every cockamamie conspiracy theory that Q comes up with.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2762191]Gridlock can be achieved regardless of political party. It can result from Consevative vs Liberal, pro Universal Healthcare vs pro For Profit Only Heathcare, whatever.

Biden was hoping for a gain of at least 2 Dems in the Senate, numbering 52, in order to thwart the Gridlock posed by Sinema and Manchin in his own Party. He will have to settle for 51 this time around, at best.

If merely squeaking out a 2-3 House seat advantage by one Party "achieved Gridlock" as Elvis hilariously twisted himself into a pretzel trying to prove in another failed attempt to coax one of those highly prized Participation Certificates out of me, well, that would mean many administrations of various Parties got nothing signed and passed throughout their term / s.

Which, although this might come as a shock to history-challeged Repubs like Elvis, didn't happen.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2761252]No president in modern history faced more potential Gridlock in his first two years in office than Sleepy Joe Brandon....Biden had a mere 5 Dem seat advantage in the House. The rest were America-hating, Dem-hating QAnon Repub loons. He had 47 Dems and 1 Independent on his side in the Senate. The rest were Sinema, Manchin and 50 America-hating, Dem-hating QAnon Repub loons.

Yet he still managed to accomplish more positive legislation, many bipartisan, and positive results for America in these first two years than ANY POTUS of the past 80 years minimum including this current historic first midterm election result.

Biden is a razor sharp, calm, reasoned and seasoned professional who knows WTF he is doing and how to do it. Not a deeply in debt, failed former reality game show host.[/QUOTE]OK, I'm going to try a different tack. Maybe "we'll just have to disagree" will be sufficient to get a highly prized participation certificate. I'll try that. I guess poking fun at you for confusing the American Rescue Plan with the Build Back Better Bill was not going to get me a certificate. That was stupid on my part. You don't make fun of the Judge and come away with an award.

I strongly disagree with your statement that Biden accomplished more [B]positive[/B] legislation than any POTUS for the past 80 years. I don't think any of his headline legislation was positive. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan blew our national debt out by 8.5% and supercharged inflation. The infrastructure bill, chip bill, and green "Inflation Reduction Act" bill may have had some good points, but they were mostly corporate welfare, i.e. pork. Biden did get a lot of negative legislation passed, but I can't say it was the worst of any POTUS for the past 80 years.

And thank goodness for Sinema and Manchin! You should be thanking your lucky stars too. I don't know whether you're still a California resident, in the top couple of tax brackets, but if so you'd be paying over 50% tax on your rental income, capital gains and dividend income if not for those two. You should have been praying for Kyrsten's and Joe's good health every night for the last two years, like Mitch McConnell and I did.

[QUOTE=PVMonger;2762300]But not to worry. Repubs will double-down on their idiocy. They will impeach every Democrat politician whose name they can spell. They'll investigate Hunter Biden for the next 2 years while ignoring the fact that Jaren received 2 billion dollars from the Saudis. They will shut down the government at least once and blame it on the Dems. They will continue to claim that every election that they don't win is fraudulent.

And yes, you are correct. Sabotage is the name of their game. It is the only thing they have in their playbook. Except for grievance politics and backing every cockamamie conspiracy theory that Q comes up with.[/QUOTE]There's more truth in your post, as it relates to a large segment of the Republican Party, than I like to admit. A lot of it is because of Trump's influence on the party.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2762428]OK, I'm going to try a different tack. Maybe "we'll just have to disagree" will be sufficient to get a highly prized participation certificate. I'll try that. I guess poking fun at you for confusing the American Rescue Plan with the Build Back Better Bill was not going to get me a certificate. That was stupid on my part. You don't make fun of the Judge and come away with an award.

I strongly disagree with your statement that Biden accomplished more [B]positive[/B] legislation than any POTUS for the past 80 years. I don't think any of his headline legislation was positive. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan blew our national debt out by 8.5% and supercharged inflation. The infrastructure bill, chip bill, and green "Inflation Reduction Act" bill may have had some good points, but they were mostly corporate welfare, i.e. pork. Biden did get a lot of negative legislation passed, but I can't say it was the worst of any POTUS for the past 80 years.[/QUOTE]Yes, you are right that I confused the American Rescue Plan with the Build Back Better Act that was trapped in so much Sinema + Manchin + 50 Repubs in the Senate Gridlock that it had to be abandoned and brought back in a smaller form later as the Inflation Reduction Act, which, since we now know a sizable percentage of the lingering Inflation is nothing more than corporate price gouging, addressed that issue on a couple of important factors brilliantly.

Easy to confuse a historic legislation or two passed by Biden when there have been so many.

However, I am wondering which POTUS of the past 80 years or so you think passed [B]more positive legislation for America in his first two years[/B] than Biden, since that was my point.

I mean, I get that you don't think all of it was positive because you read some negative comments about some of it somewhere.

But in order to refute my point shouldn't you at least name another POTUS who passed more, ok, [I]potentially[/I] positive legislation in his first two years than Biden has?

Trump?

Clinton?

Reagan?

Bush 1 or 2?

And do tell us what those Acts or Bills were.