Examples of Democratic Party leadership

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
They are entrenched in their beliefs anyway. These are the same people when confronted with the fact there is no proof of election fraud respond with “there could be”.
Yep and a steady diet of bullshit not only created them, but maintains them and incites them, now social media supports them by congregating the like minded. Many people in America and Canada too were conditioned by a lifetime's worth of media, family and community, conditioning them to white superiority, if not outright racism. You don't need to appeal to the reason of such people, just blow the dog whistle and it's like flipping a switch that automatically runs the program in their heads. It's like religion, you can build a cult off the back of existing Christian beliefs, far easier than starting from scratch or introducing a foreign religion. Joe Smith and Mormonism are a pretty good example of this, it all starts with a sociopath and fabulist. We have another cult today that started with a sociopath and fabulist and most of the base are pseudo Christians, who worship the orange fucking antichrist!
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
One of my favourite lines from the show. Lol.

I say that and people look at me like I have 3 heads.
I never watched it, just caught bits and parts. I watched some violent clips of breaking bad on YouTube awhile back and guess what kept popping up during practice? I've cut way back on TV news, especially American news, something else that pops up during practice and can suddenly sweep my mind away! :cuss:
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
I think that the trick might be to swear in congress prior to hearings or better yet as soon as they are sworn into office, it covers the entirety of their term. Our politicians should not be allowed to lie (or even mislead) to the public.
 

CunningCanuk

Well-Known Member
I never watched it, just caught bits and parts. I watched some violent clips of breaking bad on YouTube awhile back and guess what kept popping up during practice? I've cut way back on TV news, especially American news, something else that pops up during practice and can suddenly sweep my mind away! :cuss:
I never watched Breaking Bad but The Sopranos was one of my all time favourites.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
I never watched Breaking Bad but The Sopranos was one of my all time favourites.
The Sopranos wasn't as violent as breaking bad from what I saw of it, violence was part of it, but not central like breaking bad. The Sopranos appears to be a psychological study and attempt to see what makes a mob boss who is not sociopath tick. Tribalism is the answer, it can cause us to switch off empathy for the "other", that ability is necessary for a "warrior". If someone attacks your family, you don't seek to understand them, just defeat them. The "ability" to switch off empathy voluntarily varies from person to person.
 

CunningCanuk

Well-Known Member

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Get ready for an increase in wind cancer.

Biden administration approves first major offshore wind project in US waters
I wonder if they are gonna build any off Donald's golf course? He was bitching about it before. Energy storage is the big issue with wind and especially solar, but there are many potential solutions coming online. Wave power is another untapped energy source, but like the other renewables storage is the main issue. Gas turbine generators are used to fill peak periods and when renewables can't meet demand. Biden is aiming for an entire grid overhaul with greatly increased cyber security, the present grid is vulnerable to hackers and the Russians can probably bring down or even destroy the North American power grid at will.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Well ya went from the Teflon Don, to Teflon Joe!
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Teflon Joe muddies GOP’s midterm strategy - POLITICO

Teflon Joe muddies GOP’s midterm strategy
Biden is proving to be a less-than-ideal foil, forcing Republicans to rethink the traditional formula for 2022.

When the National Republican Senatorial Committee sought to attack four vulnerable Senate Democrats in a series of new ads this spring, President Joe Biden was nowhere to be found. Instead, the NRSC juxtaposed photographs of the senators — Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — next to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

It’s a phenomenon that’s becoming increasingly pronounced as the outline of the 2022 midterm election comes into focus. Midterms are typically a referendum on the party in power, so the standard opposition-party playbook is to make every down-ballot race about the sitting president. But Biden’s elusiveness as a target is forcing Republicans to rethink the traditional strategy.

Interviews with more than 25 GOP strategists and party officials depict a president whose avuncular style and genial bearing make him a less-than-ideal foil. He doesn’t induce anger or rage, and at the moment, his White House is relatively drama-free.

In response, Republicans are preparing to break with time-honored custom and cast the president less as the central character in the midterm elections than as an accessory to the broader excesses of the left.
“Biden is not a good bad guy,” said Ed Rogers, the veteran Republican lobbyist and strategist. “Obama was a haughty professor … The Uncle Joe life story that he has — the tragedy, the losses, the obvious empathy the man has, I think that’s all legit. So, it’s hard to demonize him.”

The traditional formula worked spectacularly for Republicans in 2010, when the GOP tethered Democratic candidates across the country to then-President Barack Obama’s stimulus spending, health care plan and “arrogant” governance. And it worked for Democrats eight years later, when they retook the House by turning the midterms into a repudiation of President Donald Trump.

Now, however, Republicans are gearing up to run against everything from “defund the police” to socialism and cancel culture. They’ll hit Biden on gun control, spending and immigration. And if the economy stalls, they’ll whack him for that, too. But the emphasis will be less on Biden personally than it was on either Obama or Trump, the Republican strategists and party officials say.

That approach, currently under discussion with Republicans at every level and already visible in the GOP’s early advertising, will shape the entire arc of the midterm campaign. It’s risky. Though Republicans appear to be verging on taking back the House, that expectation is grounded in historical trends based on the opposition party’s ability to bludgeon the president in his first term.

But the GOP may have little choice.
“Because [Biden] is so boring, he’s not as scandalous,” said John Thomas, a Republican strategist who works on House campaigns across the country.

Though Biden “certainly is relevant” as the head of the party in power, Thomas said, “there are bigger bogeymen … We don’t need him as our No. 1 foil.”

Biden’s public approval rating is hardly off the charts, hovering in the low 50s. But it’s also unusually sticky, holding steady since the opening of his term. In addition, the lesson of last year’s election is still fresh in Republicans’ minds. From the Democratic primaries through the general election, they saw firsthand how difficult it was to drag Biden down, with their efforts to depict him as mentally unfit or corrupt largely falling flat. Even Trump seemed stung by Biden’s imperviousness, mocking his successor as “Saintly Joe Biden.”

“Biden gives a fireside chat, and the fire goes out,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who served as National Republican Congressional Committee chair. “I mean, he does not evoke the strong emotion that Trump did.”
...
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
I might think she has a good chance at being a radicalized troll, but I am glad we have her perspective in the Democratic party and the government of the United States.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/eight-minutes-with-the-president-rep-rashida-tlaib-the-lone-palestinian-american-in-congress-gains-relevance-in-israel-debate/2021/05/20/fe3139c6-b8c5-11eb-bb84-6b92dedcd8ed_story.html
Screen Shot 2021-05-21 at 9.09.35 AM.png
When Rep. Rashida Tlaib delivered a fiery condemnation last week on the House floor of what she called Israel’s “apartheid” and “racist” policies, she invoked arguments that have long made her a pariah among some Israel advocates, led Republicans to call her anti-Semitic and alienated some of her Democratic colleagues.

So it was a remarkable moment this week, just five days later, when the lone Palestinian American member of Congress stood face to face with the president of the United States on an airport tarmac and, for eight minutes, engaged in an animated conversation about the U.S. response to the latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestinians. Equally notable was the decision by President Biden later that day to praise Tlaib during an appearance in her hometown of Detroit.

“I admire your intellect, I admire your passion, and I admire your concern for so many other people,” Biden said Tuesday.
“And God, thank you for being a fighter.”

Biden’s words, and the images of the two from that day sent an unmistakable message that a congresswoman known largely since her 2018 election for her blunt criticism of Israel and her early call to “impeach the motherf-----” in reference to then-President Donald Trump had suddenly gained political relevance in a fast-changing U.S. political debate about the Middle East.

Tlaib, 44, had been an outlier in her party and Congress more broadly regarding Israel. She has supported the boycott, divestment and sanction movement to punish Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. And she has embraced a “one-state solution” that would combine Israel and the occupied territories into one democratic country with the potential to create a majority-Palestinian population rather than a Jewish state.

The liberal pro-Israel group J Street rescinded its endorsement of her in 2018 because she refused to “publicly express unequivocal support” for a “two-state solution,” the position espoused by Biden and many from both parties in which a Palestinian state would be created and coexist with Israel.

But in the 11 days of intensifying conflict between Israel and Hamas leading to Thursday’s announcement of a cease-fire, growing numbers of Democrats have shown a greater willingness to challenge Israel — including publicly pressing Biden to take a more aggressive posture toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Tlaib has not won support from her colleagues for a one-state solution, but the fact that Biden, a longtime pro-Israel hawk, was willing to grant an audience to one of Israel’s most prominent U.S. critics demonstrated the emerging clout of Democrats seeking to upend the status quo on U.S. policy in the region.

“Joe Biden was compassionate and listening, and Rashida almost burst into tears because she was so touched by it,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who witnessed the tarmac exchange.


The next day, Biden, who had appeared reluctant to publicly pressure the Netanyahu government, told the prime minister that he expected a “significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire,” according to the White House. The cease-fire, approved by Israel’s security cabinet late Thursday, was expected to take effect early Friday.

Tlaib declined to be interviewed for this story, but her spokesman, Denzel McCampbell, said the airport encounter was the first time in this presidency that Biden and Tlaib have talked.

“It was an important conversation for her to have,” McCampbell said. “The world is watching, and this is a situation where you talk about life and death.”

A Tlaib aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation, said that Tlaib’s message to Biden was that “Palestinian human rights are not bargaining chips,” that the current approach “is not working” and that White House policy should be changed.

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates, asked about the impact of Tlaib’s conversation on Biden’s policy, responded: “The president’s approach is informed by American national security interests, the facts on the ground and his long-standing convictions — not domestic political considerations.”

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, distanced Biden from Tlaib’s specific policy proposals and portrayed the president’s praise of her in personal terms and concern for her family in the West Bank.

Biden’s warning to Israel shakes up diplomacy — and politics

The recent turn of events has helped give Tlaib a prominent role in Democratic discussions of Middle East policy, even as she has aimed her rhetorical fire at members of her own party. She said on MSNBC on Monday that the White House had essentially ignored her until the latest conflict began.

“They are engaging me now, finally, after four months of me sending letters, with colleagues, talking about home demolitions, talking about the attack on Palestinians living in Israel,” Tlaib said.

Republicans accused Biden of abandoning Israel and aligning himself with figures such as Tlaib who they said symbolize the Democratic Party’s shifting views on Israel.

“I am stunned that politics today has reached a point where a president can praise someone who holds such radical views. And there’s really very little backlash to the president from his own party,” said Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush and now a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Tlaib, the eldest of 14 children of Palestinian immigrants, was born in Detroit and became a lawyer. After interning with a local politician and working with the Obama campaign, she was elected in 2008 to the Michigan House of Representatives, where she was a member until 2014. She lost a bid for the Michigan Senate and then won the U.S. House seat vacated by John Conyers Jr. (D).

A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, she joined the informal group of liberal members of Congress that became known as “the squad” and embraced a number of polarizing ideas. She tweeted that “policing in our country is inherently & intentionally racist. . . . No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed.” Police officials condemned the statement.

Rep. Tlaib vowed to be a plain-spoken fighter for her district. Her constituents consider whether she’s sending the right message.

Screen Shot 2021-05-21 at 9.12.48 AM.png
Continued:
 

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
Tlaib backed a fellow Democratic socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in the 2020 presidential primaries, but she vowed to turn out her district for Biden as Michigan again proved pivotal in the general election.

When Jill Biden campaigned in Michigan in October, Tlaib was in the audience when the future first lady said that the Arab American vote was crucial in the state. “You will all have a seat at the table. . . . We can’t do it without you,” she said.

As the latest conflict played out, with rockets launched from Gaza and Israel, Tlaib took to the House floor last week, summarizing what has been her message for years.

“I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do, indeed, exist, that we are human, that we are allowed to dream,” she said. “We are mothers, daughters, granddaughters. We are justice seekers and are unapologetic about our fight against oppressions of all forms. Colleagues, Palestinians aren’t going anywhere, no matter how much money you send to Israel’s apartheid government.”

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who also has criticized U.S. policy on Israel, said that Tlaib’s career had been building up to her House speech and the meeting with Biden at the airport.

“This is her moment,” McCollum said. “She speaks a perspective that most members of Congress, most people in the United States, don’t hear.” Still, McCollum said that when Tlaib asked her to support a one-state solution, she declined on grounds that that was a decision for the parties in the Middle East. “She said, ‘I get it,’ ” McCollum said.

A day after Tlaib’s meeting with Biden, Tlaib co-sponsored legislation to block the administration’s $735 million sale of U.S.-made weapons to Israel. The legislation, while not likely to pass anytime soon, has exposed cracks in Democratic support for such sales because of concerns that the United States is providing weapons that could be used against Palestinian civilians.

A Gallup poll found that support among Democrats for putting pressure on Israel to resolve the conflict with Palestinians in the occupied territories had risen from 33 percent in 2008 to 53 percent in February of this year. Republican support for pressuring Israel was unchanged during that period at 17 percent.


Peter Beinart, a Jewish author who has spoken with Tlaib about their shared support for a one-state solution, said he thinks her views will be more accepted by Democrats.

“I really deeply admire her. And as someone who lives in the Jewish community, I find it extremely painful and sad to see how constantly people who I know consider her to be and call her anti-Semitic,” Beinart said. “To me, it’s appalling, because she actually radiates a deep belief in the basic humanity of all people. And she’s done so at a tremendous, tremendous cost.”

Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that while Tlaib “does bring a degree of identity politics to this very complicated set of issues, her views with regard to Israel are outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party . . . Americans, overwhelmingly. Jewish Americans and Democrats support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and support U.S. military aid to Israel.”

Tlaib has spent the last several days talking privately with her colleagues about the conflict and her legislation to block U.S. arms to Israel, expressing her views in Twitter postings. She wrote, without citing any fellow member by name, that many more want to support her than are willing to say publicly.

“If my colleagues even mention Palestinians deserving human rights, they are aggressively bullied by those who prefer Israel as it is: apartheid, oppression, occupation and all,” Tlaib wrote. “My message to you all is this: do not be afraid to stand for justice. The American people are with us.”
 
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