Country Not as Divided as Seems

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a moderate republican for many years married to a moderate democrat. The lies and basic nastiness that spews from Trump's mouth makes me ill. But beyond that it is how he has destroyed what Republicans traditionally stand for and how McConnell and Ryan embrace it. They use to hate tariffs, now they love them. They use to hate deficits, now they accelerate them. They use to hate tyrants, now they embrace them. McConnell blaming the growing deficit on SS and Medicare is such BS because they have been issues for years. The tax cuts have simply not generated the growth needed to offset them. Cutting SS and Medicare to deal with a deficit acceleration caused by corporate and upper income tax cuts is a disgrace.

A big problem we have is that there are no democrats, at this point, worthy of presidential consideration and there is no leadership (Pelosi, Schumer) that has any degree of moderation. All moderate voices on both sides are being overwhelmed by well funded screamers on the fringes. The moderates can't be heard due to all of the noise generated by the dividers including our "Mouth in Chief"

I see a lot of "moderate" Democrats - I like many of the Democratic senators - Murphy, Klobachar, Coons, Whitehouse, Durbin, Cardin, Duckworth, Kaine, Warner, etc, etc. I don't know if any of them have Presidential ambitions though. But it seems to me the Dems have a very impressive political bench.

I like Cory Booker right now. I don't know if he'd be considered a moderate, but some of his speeches have an inclusive, uplifting message that is refreshing in these divided times. At least that's my take as a liberal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a moderate republican for many years married to a moderate democrat. The lies and basic nastiness that spews from Trump's mouth makes me ill. But beyond that it is how he has destroyed what Republicans traditionally stand for and how McConnell and Ryan embrace it. They use to hate tariffs, now they love them. They use to hate deficits, now they accelerate them. They use to hate tyrants, now they embrace them. McConnell blaming the growing deficit on SS and Medicare is such BS because they have been issues for years. The tax cuts have simply not generated the growth needed to offset them. Cutting SS and Medicare to deal with a deficit acceleration caused by corporate and upper income tax cuts is a disgrace.

A big problem we have is that there are no democrats, at this point, worthy of presidential consideration and there is no leadership (Pelosi, Schumer) that has any degree of moderation. All moderate voices on both sides are being overwhelmed by well funded screamers on the fringes. The moderates can't be heard due to all of the noise generated by the dividers including our "Mouth in Chief"

I see a lot of "moderate" Democrats - I like many of the Democratic senators - Murphy, Klobachar, Coons, Whitehouse, Durbin, Cardin, Duckworth, Kaine, Warner, etc, etc. I don't know if any of them have Presidential ambitions though. But it seems to me the Dems have a very impressive political bench.

I like Cory Booker right now. I don't know if he'd be considered a moderate, but some of his speeches have an inclusive, uplifting message that is refreshing in these divided times. At least that's my take as a liberal.

Booker is far from being a moderate and he was tiresome grandstanding during the SC hearings. I do wish that Michael Bloomberg was 10-15 years younger. He was an effective mayor, though not perfect, he built an incredible business, and he puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to the environment and gun control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Trump personally drives a lot of the nastiness and hate. Just look at his rally speeches. The GOP has become like the kid that loves to taunt others and then whines when they won't take it quietly.

When someone responds to nastiness with nastiness, what I take away is that they're both nasty and I wish they would both cut it out.

When someone responds to nastiness with a call for better behavior, or a disgusted reaction, it leaves the nastiness on the side that's displaying it rather than spewing all over everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Trump personally drives a lot of the nastiness and hate. Just look at his rally speeches. The GOP has become like the kid that loves to taunt others and then whines when they won't take it quietly.

When someone responds to nastiness with nastiness, what I take away is that they're both nasty and I wish they would both cut it out.

When someone responds to nastiness with a call for better behavior, or a disgusted reaction, it leaves the nastiness on the side that's displaying it rather than spewing all over everyone.

Being nasty has worked spectacularly well for the GOP, so your statement doesn't hold much water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Trump personally drives a lot of the nastiness and hate. Just look at his rally speeches. The GOP has become like the kid that loves to taunt others and then whines when they won't take it quietly.

When someone responds to nastiness with nastiness, what I take away is that they're both nasty and I wish they would both cut it out.

When someone responds to nastiness with a call for better behavior, or a disgusted reaction, it leaves the nastiness on the side that's displaying it rather than spewing all over everyone.

Being nasty has worked spectacularly well for the GOP, so your statement doesn't hold much water.

And responding to nastiness with a call for better behavior hasn't worked at all, so that statement really doesn't hold much water.

[Anonymous]

I am a liberal but most of my friends are Republicans. I only get angry with the anti-immigrant rhetoric because I’m married to an immigrant. We have been harassed because of the vitriol towards Hispanics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been a moderate republican for many years married to a moderate democrat. The lies and basic nastiness that spews from Trump's mouth makes me ill. But beyond that it is how he has destroyed what Republicans traditionally stand for and how McConnell and Ryan embrace it. They use to hate tariffs, now they love them. They use to hate deficits, now they accelerate them. They use to hate tyrants, now they embrace them. McConnell blaming the growing deficit on SS and Medicare is such BS because they have been issues for years. The tax cuts have simply not generated the growth needed to offset them. Cutting SS and Medicare to deal with a deficit acceleration caused by corporate and upper income tax cuts is a disgrace.

A big problem we have is that there are no democrats, at this point, worthy of presidential consideration and there is no leadership (Pelosi, Schumer) that has any degree of moderation. All moderate voices on both sides are being overwhelmed by well funded screamers on the fringes. The moderates can't be heard due to all of the noise generated by the dividers including our "Mouth in Chief"

I see a lot of "moderate" Democrats - I like many of the Democratic senators - Murphy, Klobachar, Coons, Whitehouse, Durbin, Cardin, Duckworth, Kaine, Warner, etc, etc. I don't know if any of them have Presidential ambitions though. But it seems to me the Dems have a very impressive political bench.

I like Cory Booker right now. I don't know if he'd be considered a moderate, but some of his speeches have an inclusive, uplifting message that is refreshing in these divided times. At least that's my take as a liberal.

Booker is far from being a moderate and he was tiresome grandstanding during the SC hearings. I do wish that Michael Bloomberg was 10-15 years younger. He was an effective mayor, though not perfect, he built an incredible business, and he puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to the environment and gun control.

Bloomberg is very uninspiring and isn't actually a Democrat, so no way will he make through the primary. Nobody cares what Trump does with his billions, why would anyone care what Bloomberg does.

And all politicians grandstand. It's like the ridiculous criticism that Hillary was "ambitious." As if there were people who aren't ambitious lining up for the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Cool story bro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meh. Trump personally drives a lot of the nastiness and hate. Just look at his rally speeches. The GOP has become like the kid that loves to taunt others and then whines when they won't take it quietly.

When someone responds to nastiness with nastiness, what I take away is that they're both nasty and I wish they would both cut it out.

When someone responds to nastiness with a call for better behavior, or a disgusted reaction, it leaves the nastiness on the side that's displaying it rather than spewing all over everyone.

Being nasty has worked spectacularly well for the GOP, so your statement doesn't hold much water.

Agree. What frustrates many of us is how the traditional Dems have been rolled for the past 25 years (since Newt basically), because they followed the old rules of civility while the Republicans played hardball. This culminated with Trump. I am happy the new generation of Dems is playing hardball - finally! If that means we have less civility, I’m ok with that. I’m far more likely to support a Dem who shows some fight than one who seems to be phoning it in. And to be clear, that doesn’t mean their politics need to be far left. To the contrary, I prefer moderate Democrats. I just want them to show some fight!

TL;DR? I’ve got no use for civility. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Did you write this yourself or copy it from some leftist nutcase publication? Either way, it reads like poorly written pulp fiction. Good grief, the melodrama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Did you write this yourself or copy it from some leftist nutcase publication? Either way, it reads like poorly written pulp fiction. Good grief, the melodrama.

So your only response is literary criticism?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Did you write this yourself or copy it from some leftist nutcase publication? Either way, it reads like poorly written pulp fiction. Good grief, the melodrama.

i know you think your response is clever and cute, but can you refute anything that was listed here? Facts sting a bit too much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Did you write this yourself or copy it from some leftist nutcase publication? Either way, it reads like poorly written pulp fiction. Good grief, the melodrama.

So your only response is literary criticism?

No, the factual criticism would take another huge post, so why waste the space. Though the first assertion is blatantly silly and untrue:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/15/khashoggi-apple-watch-recording-in-saudi-embassy-nearly-impossible.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45857777

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jamal Khashoggi was strapped to a table and dismembered alive by Saudi Arabian henchmen on October 2. His blood curdling screams were broadcast to the outside world on his Apple Watch for the seven minutes it took to kill him.

The next day, on October 3, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley privately drafted her resignation letter. (Thank you, Paula Cobia). Six days later, on October 9, she submitted it to a stunned public. No plausible explanation was offered for her sudden departure.

It was not until October 12, a full ten days later after the brutal killing, that the world began to even learn of Khashoggi’s disappearance.

It would take almost another full week after that for details of the gruesome ambush to publicly emerge.

What is clear, is that the American government certainly knew of Khashoggi’s killing before we knew, and most certainly in advance of the murder itself. Yet the past two weeks have seen nothing less than an absurd, obsequious public cover up from the president of the United States himself and top cabinet members for this gruesome ambush by the Saudi Arabian government of somebody Trump was certainly familiar with.

Pat Robertson of the Evangelical community has told his flock all the Trump talking points. That this man’s life and extrajudicial torture and assassination should not matter to us, because $100 billion is on the table in weaponry that the Saudis need to kill the Yemeni people with, and, as seems to be the new reality in Gotham, who could possibly know the truth anyway?

The worst part of what is happening is not Donald Trump. It is trying to understand the millions of people enabling this. The people who will send the same people back to let this continue while screaming about tyranny and the swamp and claiming some Orwellian moral high ground.

I never thought a party could take a trillion dollars from the treasury for their wealthiest donors, steal Internet privacy as the new electronic gold, end net neutrality, blame the massive deficit not on their tax heist but on your Social Security and Medicare then promise to slash those if re-elected, sell junk insurance plans to tens of millions and seek to take away insurance from tens of millions of others, imprison children literally grabbed from parents who are then deported with NO MEANS of reunification, put a man on the supreme court sexual assault allegations be damned, and cover up a brutal murder for a dictatorial regime for no proffered reason except to allow that dictatorial regime to continue genocide in Yemen using the weapons we were selling them.

Every day is a new lowest day in America.

Today is no different.

It is difficult wondering what the bottom might be.

Did you write this yourself or copy it from some leftist nutcase publication? Either way, it reads like poorly written pulp fiction. Good grief, the melodrama.

So your only response is literary criticism?

No, the factual criticism would take another huge post, so why waste the space. Though the first assertion is blatantly silly and untrue:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/15/khashoggi-apple-watch-recording-in-saudi-embassy-nearly-impossible.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45857777

That's a trivial objection. It's obvious why Turkey said it was an Apple watch. They didn't want to admit they bugged the Saudi consulate.

Most of the rest is either factual or interpretation. Trump is helping the Saudis cover up the murder with a lace napkin. It could be because of the arms deal, but it could be for other reasons. That's an interpretation. Nonetheless, assassinating someone in a foreign country is a big deal and any other President from either party would take it much more seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s no “both sides” to this, there’s no polarization from the left. Whatever your politics, you sound like an angry conservative,

Liberal here. I see a lot of polarization on the left. Both sides are angry right now.

Not a rhetorical question- What the heck do the Republicans have to be mad about? Can a real Republican please explain it to me like I'm 5?