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Most Online294 Dec 6th, 2017
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Joined: Sep 2011
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Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
An unpopular president. An unpopular program. Republicans call it a ‘mandate.’ - WaPo. If 2016 was really a “change” election, you would have seen incumbents at all levels defeated as voters opted for something new. Or if it were a “change” election specifically aimed at ousting Democrats and bringing about a new era of Republican rule, you would have seen many Democrats defeated. But neither of those things happened. In the House, only one incumbent Democrat was beaten by a Republican, while six incumbent Republicans lost to Democrats. Ninety-six percent of the seats stayed with the same party that held them before the election. In the Senate, all of the incumbent Democrats won, while two incumbent Republicans lost. Only one incumbent governor was defeated, Republican Pat McCrory of North Carolina. There wasn’t much change in state legislatures around the country either: Republicans took control of three chambers, while Democrats also took control of three chambers. Here's the central point: Republicans have the power, and they intend to wield it - it is not a matter of the "popular will" - i.e., "Democracy" - because they are well aware they don't have that. They have their constituency, and they will manipulate the system as much as they can to achieve their ends no matter who stands in the way (and, that would be, us). I think it is entirely possible to find common ground, but not when there is such an effort to demonize the opposition (that goes both ways). If one were to follow Pew, for example, one would see that the majority of Americans want: liberalized laws regarding sexuality and marijuana, laws to rein in climate damage, Obamacare (with adjustments), fixing the budget through higher taxes on the wealthy, tuition relief, higher minimum wages, and women's reproductive rights (even those that oppose abortion). Pew - TopicsInstead, we'll get the most regressive GOP agenda in nearly 100 years (I'm not exaggerating), and we know what happened in the 1920s... When the 115th Congress begins this week, with Republicans firmly in charge of the House and Senate, much of that legislation will form the basis of the most ambitious conservative policy agenda since the 1920s. And rather than a Democratic president standing in the way, a soon-to-be-inaugurated Donald Trump seems ready to sign much of it into law.
The dynamic reflects just how ready Congress is to push through a conservative makeover of government, and how little Trump’s unpredictable, attention-grabbing style matters to the Republican game plan. Claiming mandate, GOP Congress lays plans to propel sweeping conservative agenda - WaPo. See also: 16 striking findings from 2016
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373
Member CHB-OG
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Member CHB-OG
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373 |
Oh but he's a businessman. He'll run the country like a business!! We saw how he ran his branded businesses into the ground. 
Contrarian, extraordinaire
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373
Member CHB-OG
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Member CHB-OG
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373 |
In 19 days, we'll see the destruction of the most progressive elements of our government. TW0-AND-A-HALF MILLION MORE voters to keep those progressive elements in tact, and adding to them, but because how the Electoral College works, that's how our Democratic Republic works. Sucks, really sucks.  I know of one conservative pro-Trump supporter who doesn't have a pot to piss in. She's 60, high school educated and lives in a very percarious living arrangement with no job and not hope of ever getting one and lives on SSI. Yet, she praises the dismantling of these fundemental support structures for people. I can only surmise that she is a very bitter individual with a scortched-earth mentality - because her life didn't turn out well and sucks big time - so should every one else's life. I guess living the way she does is called "pulling oneself up by their boot straps." 
Contrarian, extraordinaire
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,082 Likes: 134
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,082 Likes: 134 |
i was but a small hyperbola
You have every reason to feel the noize - your mental health is at stake
I don't have any confidence in his posse and so far he has said nothing to suggest he understands domestic nor foreign policy issues
ignorance is the enemy without equality there is no liberty America can survive bad policy, but not destruction of our Democratic institutions
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373
Member CHB-OG
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Member CHB-OG
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373 |
...so far he has said nothing to suggest he understands domestic nor foreign policy issues That's what happens when you hire a game-show host as President.  (What's up with CONserivatives and their fascination with Hollywood Celebrity types as politicians anyway? [Reagan, Schwarzenegger, Eastwood, Trump})
Contrarian, extraordinaire
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Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,177 Likes: 254
It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
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It's the Despair Quotient! Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 17,177 Likes: 254 |
I know of one conservative pro-Trump supporter who doesn't have a pot to piss in. She's 60, high school educated and lives in a very percarious living arrangement with no job and not hope of ever getting one and lives on SSI. Yet, she praises the dismantling of these fundemental support structures for people. I know (or knew) approximately 400 of those, maybe more. Most of them are former laborers who wound up getting laid off when TekSystems decided they didn't want to be in the data installation business anymore, which was right after Avaya and Lucent pulled up stakes in the massive Plano industrial park that they'd built maybe 20 years prior. General Dynamics, Lockheed, Martin Marietta, IHG, Sprint and Nortel and maybe 30 other companies in North TX all cancelled their huge install contracts with Tek and went with smaller contractors, or decided to go in house. That's when Tek decided to concentrate instead on Computer User Support Specialists, Network and Computer Systems Administrators, Software Developers, Applications, Information Technology Project Managers, Web Developers and Computer Systems Analysts, Software Quality Assurance Engineers and Testers, Information Security Analysts and Computer Programmers. They simply didn't think it was worth their time to hire data installation techs anymore. I was one of the lucky ones. TEK decided I was such a good worker that they would let me do "drive testing" for Sprint and Nortel, which is a fancy way of saying "Can you hear me now? Good!" while driving every single street in a test area and using seven or eight cellphone computer systems to log cell system call quality in a signal map optimization database. I drove a little PT Cruiser with eight to ten antennas on the roof, an antenna farm. That lasted eight more months. But I bet that to a one, all of them think Texas is doing the right thing by the working folks and that Republicans know how to run the country right, and Obama and all the Democrats are Commie lovers who hate America, and I wager they all think lefties are using food stamps and rioting in the streets, and embracing terrorist immigrants.
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Moderator Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 18,003 Likes: 191 |
Obviously I was not alive, then, but I think I now understand how my parents and grandparents felt in the 1930s as they watched the spread of Fascism with a degree of helplessness, and recognized the inevitability of disaster. I hope I live long enough to see its defeat, again, as they did.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,082 Likes: 134
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,082 Likes: 134 |
[hopefully] AMEN ... can i get another amen ... it becomes more powerful when more people sing it ... AMEN
ignorance is the enemy without equality there is no liberty America can survive bad policy, but not destruction of our Democratic institutions
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Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 729 Likes: 3
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 729 Likes: 3 |
Vote 2022!
Life is like a PB&J sandwich. The older you get, the moldery and crustier you get.
Now, get off my grass!
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 12,004 Likes: 133 |
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
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