Previous incarnations of Cleveland/P&C/D&D have had an image thread, to handle political cartoons and other image-based stuff that doesn't belong in the general post-a-picture threads.
If any of them spawn an extended discussion, please spawn it off into its own thread. Replies to non-picture replies should take the form of a link pointing to a post on a different discussion thread.
And I shouldn't have to say it, but the images still need to abide by the rules.
At this point I'm pretty sure the biggest problem with the Democrats is they aren't visibly angry enough. If you're going to be hamstrung by 48 votes, I want to see that you're just as upset about that as I am. I don't want to see you shrug your shoulders and give up.
I want them to try something, anything. Asking for more money and singing on the steps of the Capitol as women prepare to die isn’t inspiring leadership.
Agreed 100% and I have been saying for years the Republicans are so much better at marketing and propaganda than the Democrats.
It's more than marketing... Current elderly Democrat leadership may not actually believe in instituting some of the policies they claim to believe in. I know that's a hard thing to grapple with, but it feels like reality to a large chunk of their base right now.
My point was if the goal is to get the Republicans and fascists out of power, then we should be encouraging as many people to vote as possible. The more people that vote, the more likely it is Democrats win and we can stop some of the craziness. Posting stuff that encourages apathy, not voting, or "both sides" is just helping Republicans win. I have a lot of problems with the Democrats too, but they for sure are by far the lesser of the two evils.
It's not "both sides". It's that even if you vote for the other side they don't even try. Calling them out on it is an attempt to get them to act, because otherwise there is literally no point to voting.
dead horse....really
DS (I think it was DS) post a huge list of what the Ds have done - things like getting large numbers of judges installed.
It isn't enough but it isn't nothing.
Continuing to willfully ignore all that because they haven't done as much as you want isn't helpful either.
Lower judges are too little too late when the Supreme Court is stacked.
I want them to try something, anything. Asking for more money and singing on the steps of the Capitol as women prepare to die isn’t inspiring leadership.
So you want Dems to be more MAGA and Trump-like? Shitting out poorly worded and researched EOs that give the base a chunk of red meat while immediately being challenged and shut down in court and ultimately doing nothing?
Maybe Dems should rile their base and have them storm the Capitol to show how serious they are. Except, because the Democratic base is non-White, they'd all end up getting shot.
And they were singing on the steps of the Capitol because they had just managed to pass the first gun control legislature in thirty years. Weird how people who do nothing managed to accomplish something.
It's more than marketing... Current elderly Democrat leadership may not actually believe in instituting some of the policies they claim to believe in. I know that's a hard thing to grapple with, but it feels like reality to a large chunk of their base right now.
Again, how in the f*ck do the Dems "institute the policies they claim to believe in" when they don't have enough votes in the Senate?
Or are we just back to the handwavy "do something"?
It's not "both sides". It's that even if you vote for the other side they don't even try. Calling them out on it is an attempt to get them to act, because otherwise there is literally no point to voting.
The Democratic House passed two laws to codify abortion at the federal level over the past year. One died in the Senate in February and the other in May.
So, again, it's not that the Dems aren't even trying. It's that they don't have enough votes in the Senate (hence the calls to vote in more Democratic Senators). I honestly don't understand how this is such a difficult concept for some people to grasp.
And while left might think they're calling Democrats out to get them to act (which just means having bills die in the Senate), they're really saying "All Democrats (except us) are either incompetent, corrupt, secretly Republican, or all of the above."
And that is just so very, very helpful and makes the rest of the party really and truly want to listen to their concerns and carefully consider their well-thought out demands to *check notes* "do something, anything" which is immediately followed by a very unsubtle threat that if their demands are not immediately and totally met that they'll withhold their vote to 'punish' the party or, more likely, traipse off to a third party so they can continue to feel the smug satisfaction of being politically pure and righteous (though completely ineffectual at passing meaningful legislation).
Want to be mad at someone? Be mad a the Republicans and their Christian Nationalist supporters for getting us here.
Cram the "woe is me, voting is pointless" bullshit because everyone is f*cking screaming that voting is the only political solution to what we're currently facing. You don't have to like it. You just have to accept the reality of it.
Focus that effort on doing something to get more younger people to vote--instead of telling them its pointless--because, again, they could literally outvote the boomers.
Democrats need to stop worrying about perceived as hypocrites. They don't need to abandon data and truth, but they do need to take a "they go low, we go lower" when it comes to controlling the legislative and judicial process before they lose the power to do so.
There's a pretty big gulf between being MAGA-like and storming the capital and the sorts of honest emotional messaging and calls to specific action that AOC puts out. The latter is all I'm asking for.
There's a pretty big gulf between being MAGA-like and storming the capital and the sorts of honest emotional messaging and calls to specific action that AOC puts out. The latter is all I'm asking for.
This.
Focus that effort on doing something to get more younger people to vote--instead of telling them its pointless--because, again, they could literally outvote the boomers.
The party (I'm not in charge of the Democrats, I just vote for them) could do something to inspire turnout instead of blaming their voters for failing them. That's all I'm asking for them to do. Show that you're fighting.
The party has been so bad at party-building that most Democratic members of the Senate have been there for decades. They could try stepping aside if this is the best they can do. I wonder why young folks don't want to vote for them? It's certainly not because of critical forum posts, in spite of what you think.
DSG amer wrote:LeapingGnome wrote:I see the apathy campaign to discourage voting is ramping up for November.
My bad. I forgot that if you’re do don’t lie and pretend to be enthusiastic for the special brand of terrible leadership Democrats demonstrate on the issues then you’re a part of the problem.
It has been pretty thoroughly discussed but it isn't about bad leadership from Ds but how the system works when you only have 48 votes (reliably) on issues. So while I am no great fan of Ds leadership I don't see how they could do anything else.
The way I look at it is like we're in a car that's run out of gas. I'm not mad at them because they can't drive the car where I want it to go anymore, I know and understand why they can't currently do that. What I'm mad about is that they kept driving past all these gas stations without stopping, and now they're asking us to come up with gas money for them.
(Edit - I suppose a more complete analogy would have the Republicans putting a hole in the gas tank, but the Dems still never stopped to replace the gas that leaked out or make any effort to patch the hole until after the tank was already empty)
"Vote harder" doesn't work because I already vote for them every chance I get. "Donate" doesn't work because I've seen them have so much money they literally could not spend it all and still get soundly defeated. Those send such a counterproductive signal, like they're flailing about aimlessly with no plan to fix things, so they're just sticking to the things they know, either unable to recognize or unwilling to acknowledge that those are the very things that led to this problem in the first place. Too bad they spent so many years trying to rein in AoC rather than figuring out how to make use of the energy and enthusiasm she generates.
The party (I'm not in charge of the Democrats, I just vote for them) could do something to inspire turnout instead of blaming their voters for failing them. That's all I'm asking for them to do. Show that you're fighting.
The party has been so bad at party-building that most Democratic members of the Senate have been there for decades. They could try stepping aside if this is the best they can do. I wonder why young folks don't want to vote for them? It's certainly not because of critical forum posts, in spite of what you think.
It's weird that you hear Democrats blaming their voters when I hear Democrats explaining to the electorate (for like the n-th time) what it actually takes to for voters to get the policies they want enacted: more Democrats in elected offices. (And for the audience Democrats are trying to reach--people who who don't argue about politics over the internet--their message is simple and appropriate: f*cking show up and vote.)
There's been two elections in my lifetime where younger voters have been "inspired": the first terms for Clinton and Obama. And, judging by the left's view of those administrations, that wasn't a necessarily a good thing.
And, for once, please acknowledge the implications of statements like "old Democrats should step aside." That makes it sound like there's nothing to it. When, in reality, that means exposing a precious Democratic Senate vote to the chance that it could turn into a Republican Senate vote. For the next six years. At a minimum, considering all the advantages incumbents get at the polls.
I, too, would like younger Senators. I just don't want to have to sit through the damage half a generation of a Republican-dominated Senate would cause to get the chance for those younger Democratic candidates to, maybe, be seated.
The only substantial thing that would change if two more Democratic senators got elected is that two more purple state Senators would flake and I'd have to learn two more names to hate. The people who actually control the political process, large donation contributors, are not changing.
The only substantial thing that would change if two more Democratic senators got elected is that two more purple state Senators would flake and I'd have to learn two more names to hate. The people who actually control the political process, large donation contributors, are not changing.
Yep
DSGamer wrote:The party (I'm not in charge of the Democrats, I just vote for them) could do something to inspire turnout instead of blaming their voters for failing them. That's all I'm asking for them to do. Show that you're fighting.
The party has been so bad at party-building that most Democratic members of the Senate have been there for decades. They could try stepping aside if this is the best they can do. I wonder why young folks don't want to vote for them? It's certainly not because of critical forum posts, in spite of what you think.
It's weird that you hear Democrats blaming their voters when I hear Democrats explaining to the electorate (for like the n-th time) what it actually takes to for voters to get the policies they want enacted: more Democrats in elected offices. (And for the audience Democrats are trying to reach--people who who don't argue about politics over the internet--their message is simple and appropriate: f*cking show up and vote.)
There's been two elections in my lifetime where younger voters have been "inspired": the first terms for Clinton and Obama. And, judging by the left's view of those administrations, that wasn't a necessarily a good thing.
And, for once, please acknowledge the implications of statements like "old Democrats should step aside." That makes it sound like there's nothing to it. When, in reality, that means exposing a precious Democratic Senate vote to the chance that it could turn into a Republican Senate vote. For the next six years. At a minimum, considering all the advantages incumbents get at the polls.
I, too, would like younger Senators. I just don't want to have to sit through the damage half a generation of a Republican-dominated Senate would cause to get the chance for those younger Democratic candidates to, maybe, be seated.
1 - When you blame the voters you’re ignoring the real impact of voter suppression on why people don’t vote.
2 - I think Senators should step aside, because that’s what would happen in a dynamic, growing party that’s working to build a bench of talented politicians. So instead of building a robust national party they’re gong to teeter into their graves in their 90s and have left the country far worse off. It’s madness.
Why not both?
Why not both?
(margaret atwood twitter screenshot)
Seen a bunch of people on twitter reply with this 
He is holding that gun like it is a stylus for his phone. There is all sorts of wrong in that picture 
He is holding that gun like it is a stylus for his phone. There is all sorts of wrong in that picture :(
is... is that his tapping finger?!
He is holding that gun like it is a stylus for his phone. There is all sorts of wrong in that picture :(
He's got the gun pointed down at the ground, which is about as safe a direction as you can get with the other people around. The way he's holding his finger off the trigger does make it look like he's using it to work his phone, but that's largely down to the angle of the camera.
Everything else here is horrible enough; no need to invent stuff.
Its not inventing stuff. I know what you are saying but it is very unclear if the gun is off to the side or above and to the side of the phone.
Yes, I am glad he has his finger off the trigger, but again, the picture is ambiguous whether he will use his trigger finger to navigate his phone.
But I am not going to die on that hill because the footage of the truck crashing and passersby being shot at is damning enough evidence that this should have been over long before the gunman entered the classrooms.
It’s “cop stance,” they loop their thumbs into chest pockets or edges of body armor to rest their arms while still making sure they are ready to fire wildly and uncontrollably at something in case they get startled.
Because they are white and rich and most of the rest of us are not.
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