The 2020 Presidential Election Primary Thread

[swampfrog]

Both sides are playing the game of staging "incidents." I don't believe that there's some conspiracy; there's probably just too many "ends-justify-the-means" folks at the extremes.

That there are actual incidents that are devalued by the staged incidents seems lost on the extremists.

Ugh.

Culture War 2.0 heating up. Not sure I like where it might go if we're not careful. Twitter mobs are too easily transformed into the physical.

[swampfrog]

Found this helpful.

Everyone who is suffering from collective Munchausen and mass hysteria are obviously of a particular political bent — the ultra-Left (who typically belong to the Democratic party). And these people have built their whole ethos, edifice, zeitgeist on Identity Politics. Identity Politics leads to victimology poker and the oppression olympics. These groups just end up competing to see who is more oppressed because it is the mechanism through which they attempt to solve problems. If you and I are having a genuine debate, I would present my evidence and you yours. The better evidence would win out.

That’s not what happens in an Identity Politics debate. My victimology card has to trump yours! Therefore people have to come up with ever stronger cards and hands and end up falling into victim mindsets.

[frank ryan]

Found this helpful.

trump and his hardcore supporters are some of the biggest snowflakes of all time.

[Eddie]

trump and his hardcore supporters are some of the biggest snowflakes of all time.

It all just pisses me off, to be completely honest.

It reminds me of those soccer flop videos where one dude pretends to be head-butted and drops to the ground in agony. And when the dupe left standing notices and thinks that maybe he's going to get carded, not to be outdone he quickly grabs his head and drops to the ground himself.

And both sides feel like the other guy started it and that they are completely justified in their actions.

[SeattleUte]

From the Jeffrey Toobin's mouth. The Mueller investigation is much ado about nothing. Unless you're interested in the cast of characters in this story as I am, just for human interest, you can skip to the last two paragraphs of this ludicrously long article where he admits there's nothing. Also, that Roger Stone is indicted for allegedly lying about when he contacted some guy in London about WikiLeaks releases about Hilary emails and why, even though he did nothing illegal or probably even wrong by doing that, is pretty scary. This is what the Jacobins did in the French Revolution, criminalized politics.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-in-the-barrel

[SeattleUte]

It all just pisses me off, to be completely honest.

It reminds me of those soccer flop videos where one dude pretends to be head-butted and drops to the ground in agony. And when the dupe left standing notices and thinks that maybe he's going to get carded, not to be outdone he quickly grabs his head and drops to the ground himself.

And both sides feel like the other guy started it and that they are completely justified in their actions.

What the article posted by Frog Man shows is that, because of their embrace of the extreme left, democrats now have blown any claim they had to be more grounded in reason, reality or humanism.

[swampfrog]

Did some recent reading/viewing triggered by the attention this has had. Trying to understand motivation. Forced me to revisit some of the hate crime in the US again. (Yes, I'm aware we've covered this before.)

The whole area of hate crime and their subsequent reporting is difficult to sort out. Everything that has a political component immediately obscures truth. Fake hate crimes provide social status and political capital if successful. The 2017 report from the FBI shows a 17% growth in hate crime, which is widely reported, but not always included is the 6% growth in the number of reporting agencies--895 new agencies.

Although the numbers increased last year, so did the number of law enforcement agencies reporting hate crime data...

I couldn't find a statistic of how many hate crimes were reported specifically by the new reporting agencies, that would be extremely helpful information to have, or only considering data from previously reporting agencies. It's almost pointless to draw year-to-year conclusions from self-reported aggregate data, yet that is often what's done in the media.

Also, it's an ongoing effort to provide training to law enforcement agencies on how to recognize and report.

The FBI is working with law enforcement partners across the country to encourage reporting of hate crime statistics. Next year, FBI personnel will provide training for law enforcement officers on how to identify bias-motivated incidents and report that data to the FBI’s UCR Program. Additionally, the Department of Justice launched a new hate crimes webpage, which has information for law enforcement on reporting incidents.

Given that training is ongoing, year-to-year statistics could grow. It's a point in software engineering measurement also that what gets measured gets optimized. If a priority is assigned to hate crime measurement, it will get optimized (read inflated in the direction of perceived approval). If hate crime reporting is emphasized as a priority, it will get additional attention, which will bias towards more incidents reported as hate crimes.

Hate crimes are the highest investigative priority in the FBI’s civil rights program.

Didn't reach any conclusions other than it's confusing and provides plenty of room for interpretation.

[Uncle Ted]

Bernie 2020! I always thought Bernie had a better chance of beating Drumpf in 2016. Too bad Hillary and the DNC screwed him over.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders enters crowded 2020 presidential race

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., announced Tuesday he will make another bid for president by entering the already crowded 2020 race, as he tries to rekindle the grassroots energy from his 2016 primary run against Hillary Clinton.
[...]
Sanders, a progressive populist who identifies as a democratic socialist, put up a serious fight against Democratic contender Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary.


He joins a field already that already consists of top Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker. And two of the most progressive lawmakers in the Senate – Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jeff Merkley of Oregon – are also seriously considering presidential bids. Merkley was the only senator to endorse Sanders in 2016. Another progressive, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii – who also backed Sanders’ first White House bid – is also in the race.
[...]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ver...sidential-race

Wait... I thought the new DNC rules wouldn't allow him to run as a Democrat? Independent Bernie?

Now all we need is Jill Stein and Hillary to run again.

[Uncle Ted]

I'm pissed off at this dude. Isn't there enough lying and political farce going on without dipping your toes in it, doing it poorly and then end up making #maga, who had nothing to do with anything, look like the good guys? What a dick.

But Smollett may have a witness:

mifrsgdmf5h21.jpg

The dems were sitting on this information for some reason only known to them.

[Moliere]

Bernie 2020!

2016: Feel the Bern!
2020: The Second Coming!

[Applejack]

But Smollett may have a witness:

[ATTACH]9391[/ATTACH]

The dems were sitting on this information for some reason only known to them.

Great meme, Uncle Ted! Keep up the good work for the libertarians!

[BlueK]

Real Libertarians are not too happy about this "national emergency" BS.

https://www.lp.org/trumps-only-natio...is-base-happy/

[Moliere]

Embedded Tweet

Pocahontas proposes to nationalize the child care industry

Makes me wonder how Kamala Harris is going to one up her on this. Maybe we can also nationalize the auto industry

[frank ryan]

Embedded Tweet

Pocahontas proposes to nationalize the child care industry

Makes me wonder how Kamala Harris is going to one up her on this. Maybe we can also nationalize the auto industry

Sounds like she is proposing aggressively providing funds to make affordable. I don't think that's nationalizing.

[Walter Sobchak]

Bernie 2020! I always thought Bernie had a better chance of beating Drumpf in 2016. Too bad Hillary and the DNC screwed him over.

Hopefully, Bernie doesn't keep spouting off those same crazy ideas from 2016.

Embedded Tweet

Sounds like she is proposing aggressively providing funds to make affordable. I don't think that's nationalizing.

Child Care Charter Schools!