Open Thread

Right-wingers agitating for civil war because they can’t accept that their Dear Leader lost the election is really something.

I suppose I’ve made it clear the Warmongering WP isn’t a site I much like, but I’ll give credit where it’s due.

“No, President Trump can’t pardon himself” – Dec. 8, 2020

IMO the logic is ironclad.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-president-trump-cant-pardon-himself/2020/12/07/774c7856-38d9-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html

The Hullabaloo site is one you’ve got to watch. Right now there is a piece there moaning and groaning about the evil Russian Intervention which prevented Our Blessed Lady Hillary from claiming her rightful throne in 2016.

But directly below that one is this:

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that U.S. sanctions are making it difficult for Iran to purchase medicine and health supplies from abroad, including COVID-19 vaccines needed to contain the worst outbreak in the Middle East.

The comment the blogger makes about the situation pretty well sums it all up:

“This administration is killing massive numbers of Americans. Of course it doesn’t care about the mass death of Iranian civilians. “

Trump has proved he doesn’t give a damn about American lives, and sure isn’t going to care much about dead Iranians.

https://digbysblog.net/2020/12/we-will-not-be-forgiven/

So metamars thinks that if Trump and the Republicans can just score a little more hydroxychloroquine they will be able to steal the election they lost after all.

I welcome some civil war action, Thomas, my targets are already laid in: every little red NRA dot in the back window of your truck, right behind your head; speakin’ of heads: every red hat; every asshole desecrating the flag, wearing it around their head like some kind of asswipe, flying off the back of your truck through the mud, carbon dioxide and road-wash.

You want a civil war, boi? Bring. It. On. I’m tired of waiting.

Q. – “I am curious as to whether all covid vaccines are of the mRNA type.”

A. – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7553041/figure/fig1/

and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7553041/

@Jeremy Thanks. Will bookmark these.

Even if safe and effective vaccines are developed, to have denied citizens in so many countries of useful prophylaxes and therapeutics is criminal. At least morally. If I were a billionaire, I’d organize a class action lawsuit against Fauci, Redford, and Azar for conspiracy to defraud the public, which resulted in massive manslaughter. Even if thrown out, or even (miraculously) found to be baseless (in the court’s opinion), it would at least draw attention to those most responsible for the high death toll from covid.

One would think that lefties preoccupied with the sins of capitalism would be more outspoken about the crying need of LOW PROFIT (see what I did there?) therapeutics; yet some of these same supposed lefties, while endlessly haranguing us about more scientifically dubious “strategies”, like mask wearing, are silent about the government failure to educate and make maximally available low cost prophylaxes and therapeutics. Some of these folks are so ignorant and fanatical, that, e.g., they blame “racism” for the high toll amongst African Americans, and say nothing about their pathetically high rate of Vitamin D insufficiency (about double that of whites, in the US). A condition that could easily be addressed, with extremely cost effective “free” vitamin D provided for those that would have trouble affording that very cheap supplement.

BTW, I caught the Randi Rhodes show, live, last week, and she showed a doctor who was still – after all this time & studies – saying hydroxychloroquine is useless. She seems way too smart to be this ignorant, so I assume she’s simply lying by omission. She did tell a woman who called in, who lost a loved one, that she was shedding tears for her loss. I can’t remember, exactly, but apparently it was all Donald Trump’s fault, so her tears were OK. If this woman has to live in terror of coming down with covid, and loses more of her loved ones, well, dammit, all the more reason to hate Trump and the Republicans! Only one solution, obviously! Vote Democratic!

Puritan’s Pride brand of 2,000 IU vitamin D, 100 per bottle, sells for $3.19. So, 3 cents per day, would provide substantial benefit. Tony Fauci’s reputed dosage of 6,000 IU per day would cost 10 cents per day. This dosage is probably closer to optimal for a white person, of his age. But it’s likely a black person of his age could do better with 8,000 IU, or a whopping 12 cents per day. Higher doses of D should be given with vitamin K2, so up that by a few pennies more.

Political fanatacism, tribalistically reinforced ignorance and denial, an unmitigated greed may be killing us, but lack of resources, collectively, is not.

* Maybe for the worse possible of reasons. I do take seriously the “Great Reset” conspiracy, even if I don’t talk about it much. After all, such putative do-gooders as Bill Gates surely know about Vitamin D – with his bucks, he could guarantee massive adoption of vitamin D sufficiency, and it’d probably be chump change, for him. Yet, he wants to vaccinate the world….

Your second reference says, “Additionally, there are indications that respiratory viruses are especially difficult to protect against with vaccines.” Aw, but Bill Gates is as undaunted in pursuing his questionable aims, as is Randi Rhodes in ‘explaining’, as she always does: reductio ad Republicans

“clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right”

–I am curious as to whether all covid vaccines are of the mRNA type.–

The second generation of vaccines, anticipated to advance to wide-scale trials in 2021, rely on several more traditional, tried-and-true technology (e.g., inactivated virus).

Cf.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccine-next/next-crop-of-covid-19-vaccine-developers-take-more-traditional-route-idUKKBN27E0G9

Hi
I can’t donate 25.00 on pay pal and I can’t change it to 5.00.

Yes, well. The Russia Thing began well before the 2016 election as some kind of idiotic revival of the repeated Red Scares of the 20th century. The Russian Federation had been targeted for dismantlement in the PNAC paper of 1999, and The Schedule called for ramping up the anti-Soviet… er… Russia propaganda so as to gear up for said dismantlement. The election just so happened to coincide. How convenient.

While plenty of individuals and opiners of various stripes were happy to claim that “Russian Interference” was the proximate cause of Mrs. Clinton’s loss to Trump in the Electoral College, neither she nor Democratic officials in general made that claim. Nor was that what the Mueller Investigation was about. Instead, they were — as some still are — claiming that there was Russian interference/involvement in the election (which there was) and that Trump and his campaign were associated with Russians who in turn were close associates of Putin (The Devil) and that the Russian influence assisted Trump and his campaign and amounted to illegal collusion — which is plausible though so far somewhat murky and unproven, and is by no means the reason why Mrs. Clinton lost.

Whatever the case, the whole Russia Thing exists and has existed independently of the 2016 election. It’s part of a long-term project to remake globe under the rubric of the New American Century. It is not going well. It has not gone well since the ill-advised “re-making” of the Middle East c. 2002 and subsequently. All of the destruction and catastrophic failures since then can be traced to the plans outlined in PNAC documents and personnel.

These persistent failures led to a shift of emphasis away from the Middle East and Russia to China, the Great Red Dragon, and the final conquest in the Plan put forward so long ago. China is resisting, but for how much longer? Hard to say. At any rate, the Russia Thing faded away because it was unwinnable and ultimately there was no point to it. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Russia is currently beset with internal and external revolts and problems, some obviously induced destabilization…

As for foreign policy propaganda, it will be China, China, China from now on. We’ll see similar processes play out as we’ve seen over and over again for decades. And failure. Plenty of failure.

Meanwhile, Israel is going ahead with its own Middle Eastern Project and assembling what looks to be a Middle Eastern alliance to attack and dismantle Iran.

Meanwhile this virus is spreading unchecked through the United States and much of the world leaving millions sick or dead.

Meanwhile, climate catastrophe is growing closer every day.

Meanwhile….

Meanwhile,

Reality to bruce, how many Republican lawmakers supported Clinton’s attempts to contest the 2016 election?

metamars manages to attack the response to the virus without mentioning Trump, you know the President, once. Don’t worry there’s still time to not wear a mask, drink bleach, and shine bright lights down your throat.

A traditional vaccine carries proteins from the surface of a virus or microbe your body can form antibodies to. An mRNA vaccine is a short-lived template so your body can form some of those proteins. Your immune response then will form antibodies to them as it does with the traditional vaccine. The difference is the mRNA vaccine is more targeted –in the case of covid-19 to its distinctive spike protein which the virus uses to attach to cells.

It’s long been my contention the Ruskies by all accounts ran the perfect con, the perfect game, but for a couple of things: the mark… the rube, the pigeon, trump; and the Ruskies themselves are a mark… a rube, a pigeon in some grander game. Who’s pushing all these pawns around, whose grander game? The answer is never the answer. What’s really interesting is the mystery.

Once again Tulsi Gabbard does the right thing…while the vast majority of D’s spend all their time trying to please their wealthy donor base.

Tulsi Gabbard Bill Would Bar Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports

https://www.newsmax.com/us/tulsi-gabbard-title-ix-transgender-sports/2020/12/11/id/1001081/

And since this blogs comment section has become a DNC megaphone, dedicated to defending the indefensible, using the Orwellian precept of making lies sound truthful, a place where the freedom of speech is construed to be the right to shout-down anyone who dares to say that “two plus two make four” or…any other manifestation of truth that runs counter to the ever-changing one party dictata.

For the record, I am [and have been] for transgender rights in employment/public-accommodation/housing as elucidated by Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch in his June 2020 majority opinion in support of a 6-3 ruling. That Gorsuch opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and stands in stark contrast to congressional Democrats who’s previous efforts on the subject had tried to write bills in such a manner to confer civil rights only to gays who followed accepted gender roles while, specifically excluding transgenders and those who did not conform to gender norms. Let’s give a big shout out to Barney Frank and his besty, Nancy Pelosi those two crazy party hacks that have always manged to be wrong on war and…on civil rights.

Yes, well. The Russia Thing began well before the 2016 election as some kind of idiotic revival of the repeated Red Scares of the 20th century.

Echoing Lex, and agreeing with Che, the whole Russia Thing is a long-term project/device to eliminate support for socialism in any form.

And again, the only real difference between Repugnant and Demented are the talking points they utilize to retain or gain power, especially useful are the ones that promise nothing (e.g. “I’m Not Him”). Yes, there are outliers. Given that, I fancy at some point Bernie received a set of high res images of people he cares about taken with a long range lens. This would explain a lot, if true.

It’s interesting that this supposedly “irrefutable” evidence of voter fraud has been refuted by 50 different courts so far. Oh, but wait, all those judges (including ones appointed by Trump) are all part of the Deep State/CIA/China conspiracy too!

People, take note: this is what right-wingers *actually believe.*

Blind boars and acorns. I keep telling people if they don’t eat shit they won’t smell like it and Natural News apparently agrees with me, though about not much else. My mother reads it, sends me stuff, often pretty good cooking with less orientation to meat, and their exercise regimen isn’t to be sneezed at but otherwise pretty well lost in the ozone. I thought Mike Adams was/is the mypillowdotcom guy, so it wouldn’t surprise me. Wasn’t quite so off-the-wall even as recently as five years ago, kind of a sad commentary on how quickly these things spiral out of control.

Never forget that 17 Republican Attorneys General, along with 126 Republican Congressmen, attempted to overthrow democracy in America and install Donald Trump as an unelected dictator.

Never forget that, in spite of 2,000 sworn affidavits so far, sworn under penalty of perjury, vote fraud and illegal vote denialists continue to whine about legal challenges to the selection – err, I mean the election – of 2020.

Well, so much for my legal opinion about Trump’s chances with the Supreme Court.

It remains to be seen if Trump will chose the martial law route. Of course, even if he attempts it, it’s not clear that the military would obey him. Trump has been mysteriously ineffective in dealing with the Deep State for all of his term. Note that he hasn’t fired Barr, even after it became clear that Wray sat on exculpatory evidence for Gen Flynn, and Barr didn’t fire Wray. I assumed, and still assume, that they have dirt on Trump. That and/or he’s too weak or cowardly.

However, Biden is likely a national security risk; furthermore, some of the headlines in the alternative press are claiming proof exists of manipulation of vote tallies, overseas. (Distinct from merely tabulating votes, overseas.) So, I think Trump has a basis for declaring a national security emergency, as Mike Adams has brainstormed. And this will obviously receive some sympathy amongst some military, though the details are what matters; and this is what is not known.

I can’t remember, for the life of me, the name of the “last honest Spartan”, who tried to resist the terminal degeneration of Sparta into a selfish oligarchy. I often remember (but only vaguely), the general outline of the story, if that.

Basically, when your countrymen are rife with corruption, your principled stand is likely to be your last one…. Does anybody know who I am talking about? I duckduckgo’ed “last honest Spartan” and “decline of Sparta”, but didn’t see anything like I was looking for in the first 2 pages.

Never forget that, you could get 2,000 sworn affidavits, sworn under penalty of perjury, from people that swear they’ve been kidnapped by aliens and experimented on using PROBES. The reason that more than 50 Trump lawsuits have been tossed is because they fail at the level of standing or timeliness. They fail because they have no evidence or only joke evidence (vacuous affidavits) to back them up. Curiously, Trump true believers don’t get that their delusions, even sworn to, don’t amount to serious evidence.

And as far as “sworn under penalty of perjury,” that almost never comes up when it comes to affidavits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/20/affidavit-giuliani-vote-fraud/

As the Trump campaign will remind you, these are sworn statements. But according to legal experts, the jeopardy faced by those behind them is relatively minimal.

“There is a remote chance that sworn statements (if they are actually sworn statements — most documents that appear to be ‘sworn’ don’t count within the meaning of the statute) could subject the declarant to some exposure under the perjury statutes,” said Lisa Kern Griffin, an expert on evidence at Duke University, in an email. “But perjury prosecutions are rare and almost never arise from statements outside of the context of proceedings in which oaths are formally administered — such as depositions, congressional testimony, grand jury proceedings, or trial testimony.”

A key issue is whether the affidavit is filed in court, as most filed by the Trump team haven’t been.

So it’s true that not all of these “sworn affidavits” were examined by courts, but that’s because they didn’t submit them to courts, because they knew the wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny. Here’s one of those “affidavits SWORN UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY” that they *did* submit:

During a Nov. 19 news conference, Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer representing President Donald Trump, charged that many precincts in Michigan — a key state won by his Democratic opponent, President-elect Joe Biden — recorded more votes than actual voters.

In Michigan, he said, “we have over-votes in numerous precincts of 150%, 200% and 300%.”

Giuliani’s source for these percentages was an affidavit authored by Russell Ramsland, a security consultant and former Republican congressional candidate. The document alleges that anomalies in the vote count indicate that Michigan election results were “manipulated.”

“There were at least 19 precincts where the Presidential Votes Cast compared to the Estimated Voters based on Reported Statistics exceeded 100%,” the affidavit reads. The document then goes on to list the 19 precincts, shown in this screenshot:

But there’s a problem, and it’s a big one: All 19 of the precincts cited in the affidavit are actually in Minnesota, not Michigan.

But of course, the only reason they lost in court was a giant Deep State conspiracy.

I see you almost never discuss Canada. Have you seen the latest news that Canada hosted Chinese PLA officials for cold weather military training? And that Trudeau was furious when the military decided to cancel troop exercises after the two “Michaels” were detained by China?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-global-affairs-objected-to-canadian-military-decision-to-cancel/

https://nypost.com/2020/12/11/canada-pm-justin-trudeau-was-upset-over-cancelled-invite-to-chinese-troops/

Trudeau seems to be hurtling down a slippery slope.

I don’t know if you like the NY Post link, but some news never comes up in MSM.

Tulsi, your slip is showing.

I used to have an Indian friend who told me that politics was much more corrupt in India, than the US. One of their politicians was known to have had somebody killed, and still got elected.

He told me that there was a joke about the relative corruption.

An Indian politician is visiting and American politician in his palatial home, and asks how he was able to afford it. The American draws apart the window shade, and asks, “Do you see that bridge? I built it.”

Later, the American visits the Indian politician in his palatial home, 10x over. He asks, “how can you afford this”? The Indian draws back the curtain on the window, and asks, “Do you see this magnificent bridge? I built it!” The American looks, and sees …. nothing.

Some years ago, I was chatting with the head of the physics department at NJIT, who is (or was) Indian. He told me that the corruption he sees in Newark, by James Sharpe, is so open, that it reminds him of India.

In this vein: https://twitter.com/SidneyPowell1/status/1337595044866510853

I like to think the US deserves better than “electing” the head of a crime family, whose son – a bagman of the family – is effectively abused by the father. His ill-gotten gains are used to finance the son’s drug and hooker problems. Gee, whiz, we can even see (partially obscured) videos of a hooker massaging Hunter’s penis with her feet. The Biden apologists must be SO proud!

In India, on Dec. 2, 250 million Indians went on strike. Don’t know what happened, and will happen, next. But I can see a day when US citizens will have to do similarly, if they want to salvage any freedom and self-determination, at all.

Some of the most compelling testimony against the illegal ballot counting processes ‘administered’ by Democratic controlled polling stations was by an Indian American woman, an immigrant. (No link handy). I think she makes a fine American, that her fellow citizens can be proud of. The cheaters, stealers, whore-mongers, and whore-monger-enablers, and their apologists : not so much.

Yes, if only Biden’s son had been as morally pure as Trump and his kids. Good thing metamars knows what Hunter’s penis looks like too. Thank you for a LOL moment and have a stormy daniels day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism[1][2] characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy

In this very comment thread, metamars was openly calling for Trump to declare martial law and seize dictatorial powers, which is the dictionary definition of fascism, so what I wrote was entirely accurate.

Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Trumpers, like most evangelical conservatives, are a bundle of mental defenses which looks like insanity to outsiders. I suppose that’d make me a bit angsty, ready to smear outsiders with whatever made me feel better, regardless of any actual facts, if I went that way.

It’s like some don’t know or don’t care that there is this thing called google.

Jerome Corsi co-wrote a book that served as the basis for the smearing of John Kerry when he ran for President and gave us the term swiftboating. He promoted the birther conspiracy with Obama. He worked as the DC bureau chief of the conspiracy site InfoWars for a while.

He was subpoenaed by Mueller. Corsi says he denied that he was Oliver Stone’s contact to Wikileaks although per wiki “Draft court documents released in November showed that he emailed Stone several times, updating him about impending WikiLeaks releases of stolen emails.”

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Corsi looks like he is about a million times less dependable.

And Trump was leading birtherism to de-legitimize Obama as the President, so he really should not complain when Democrats have been using Russia to de-legitimize him. It is all karma.

infowars:

President Trump’s legal team is filing retooled lawsuits that will be filed in each of the four Defendant States and expanded to Nevada and Arizona.

“We move immediately, seamlessly, to plan B, which is to bring lawsuits now in each one of the states. We had them ready. They’re just a version of the one that was brought in the Supreme Court. So last night, the president made the decision,” Rudy Giuliani said in an interview.

How many here used the “birtherism” argument? By my count a big fat 0, but the “Russia Spy” was used far and wide with our most prolific “disinformation specialists” commenting daily.

As a percentage, how many mainstream broadcasters used birtherism? 15% tops, giving the DNC the last word on the matter. Most networks [85%] fought hard and long to discredit the Birtherismstory.

How many 3-letter agencies gave Birtherism credence? 0% tops. All the agencies countered the story vigorously. And how many Special Prosecutors were put in place for four years…or even one day? A big fat 0, that’s how many. And how many intelligence committee members accused Obama of not being a naturalized citizen? Another 0.

Now when it comes to whether Trump is a Russian Spy and it’s handmaiden, “anything said negatively about a Democrat is Russian disinformation”, the inverse is true. “Russian Spy” was major headlines, top story on nightly news, 3-letter agency chiefs warned us, with great gravitas that it was well documented.

To compare “birtherism” to “Russian Spy”, in scale of distribution, in scale of severity, in scale of PROSECUTION, in scale of US Taxpayer money spent, shows an advocate of such comparison to be a knave of the first order or…a person so dimwitted that 3rd grade arithmetic is beyond their comprehension.

The four quadrants of political issues are:

1. Social issues

2. Economic

3. Foreign policy

4. I think immigration could be the fourth quadrant, as it does not strictly fall under economic or social issues. It impacts the economy, (immigration is good for the overall economy but hurts individual Americans… just like free trade is. Whatever economic benefits or gains from immigration and free trade… almost all of them go to the top-percenters. Regular Americans get almost nothing out of immigration and free trade; in fact, they get shafted.) On the other hand, immigration is also very closely tied to the identity politics of Latinos/Hispanics vs. White nationalism.

Another thing about immigration: it is a LOW PRIORITY issue for progressives on this issue but HIGH PRIORITY issue for conservatives on this issue. That means, for people who say they support immigration reform and a path to citizenship for illegals, immigration is NOT a high priority issue for them, i.e., “it’s nice to have immigration reform, but it’s not that important for me.” They do not let immigration be the issue that determines who they vote for.

ON THE OTHER HAND, for people who want immigration enforcement, who want to expel all illegal immigrants, who want to reduce immigrants… immigration is a high-priority issue for them. They vote for candidates who run on anti-illegals and anti-immigration.

Which means, if Democrats run on immigration reform… they are gonna lose to Republicans. Because conservatives on the issue rank immigration at much higher priority than progressives on the issue.

Which should not come as a surprise: people vote to protect their own (economic) interests. People do not vote to give stuff to other people, i.e., vote to give a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants, vote to give foreigners the opportunity to immigrate to America.

Tulsi Gabbard is modeate on immigration. She does not have a strong position on immigration. It is not a high-priority issue for her.

metamars brought up Corsi as his “legal” expert. Corsi is a nutcase conspiracy theorist and birtherism was one of the conspiracies he promoted. That’s how birtherism came up on this thread. metamars keeps citing nutcase wingers as his authorities and I keep calling them out by simply googling them. For fascists like SB, this is all terribly unfair and suspect because nobody should be allowed to criticize his Führer or the brainless minions who defend him.

On progressive economics and conservative culture —

These go together. Progressive economics protect you when you’re sick, lose income, suffer the financial and personal losses that hang over your head in a “you’re on your own” society. The conservative culture provides a backup that the state won’t. Your family, your faith community, your neighborhood are your insurance, and the conservative beliefs claim to preserve them for you. Adopt a rigorous welfare state and the conservative culture will lose lots of its allure.

KT Chong, good posts, much of your thoughts were covered in Thomas Frank’s “Listen Liberal”.

Sadly, today’s NeoDemicrats, “Liberals”, “Progressives” and Lefties” are incapable of listening, for them, shouting down others, who don’t share 100% of their doctrine, is how one signals ideological virtue.

But to this “The Republican Party is conservative on all social, economic and foreign policy issues” I would argue:

1] On foreign policy, the drafting dodging generation of NeoDemicrats, “Liberals”, “Progressives” and Lefties” are now the ones that are ardently pro-war. Hell, they’re chomping at the bit to have the working class fight the Ruskies in say…Syria for their amusement and to show how tough they can be with other peoples lives. Since Bush [the 2nd]’s war in Iraq almost every conservative I know [almost all have had kids or, friends who’s kids went to either the AF-PAK or Iraq theater] eschews war, they have no interest in the neocolonial wars of the Clinton/Bush-Cheney/Obama administration [singular intended].

2] On economic policy, the verbiage of the NeoDemicrats, “Liberals”, “Progressives” and Lefties” is sharply different but, when it comes to excecution it’s hard to slip a piece of paper between the two. Just recently, Nancy Pelosi refused to make a deal with Trump that would have kept millions fed and off the street in mid-winter, but instead she chose to play a political game with peoples lives. We know this because Pelosi has such a stone heart she bragged about her demonic plan and how it helped Biden. So brazen was Pelosi’s indifference to the working class she went on to boast that none of her demands per-election were genuine, she would be happy to now take the Republican plan. Sadly, all of Pelosi’s strutting caused massive embarrassment among with many Republicans backing away rather than be humiliated by Pelosi’s mephistophelean dealings. In the end, it’s likely Pelosi will take a Covid deal that’ll be 1/4th of what the working class was offered under Trump. Yes, Pelosi’s deal will help, it’s better than 0 but the .01% will get the lion’s share. Trump has complained that the deal is too miserly but his influence at this point is less than zero.

3] On Social Policy, it has escaped the attention of almost every one on this board but, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch just wrote a majority opinion that expanded the reading of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill to include the entire spectrum of gays and transgenders. Without a doubt, the biggest advance in social progress since 1964. For years NeoDemicrats ruthlessly stripped bills that offered any inclusion of gender deviation. For those who don’t know the streets, the most oppressed group of people in the United States male to female gender expression, killed at rate many times that of young black males, unemployment at a staggering 80% all to the studied indifference of NeoDemicrats.

Tulsi Gabbard’s bill is NOT anti-trans, it is a fairness issue, men are bigger, even if they take estrogen, those advantages don’t evaporate. It’s not fair to women and girls to have to compete athletically with a male who is still a physiologically male. I am all for letting boys who want to girls be girls but, what’s fair is fair…plus I think it’s cowardly to deprive women, who only recently started to be funded in athletics, of a shot to compete. If transgender male to females want to compete scholastically or in beauty contests with women..fine, I wish them luck but, not in athletics.

Actually, most Americans agree on ~85% of policies, it’s the media, it’s the 2-Parties, it’s the coastal elites that delight in creating “wedge issues” to exploit, to prevent the basic decency of most people from shining through, from becoming policy.