There are 68 comments.

1. Coolidge
   MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam…

   @ChrisCampion

   10:26 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 25, 2019

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Here’s another example of a publicity stunt:

   “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should [pull a publicity stunt] and declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

   To avoid turning it into a publicity stunt, they could have written up their resolution and then stamped it top secret, put it in a strong box, and hidden it in a dusty archive.

   By comparing Matt Gaetz to Jefferson you kind of make my point. You are free to like the stunt. You can even pretend like it was meaningful. But you don’t actually have the power to make others buy it just because you did.

   And you don’t have the “power” to make others discount it just because you did.

   ka-POW!  See how that works?

2. Coolidge
   MACHO GRANDE' (aka - Chris Cam…

   @ChrisCampion

   11:59 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 25, 2019

   Mollie Hemingway, killing it on this subject.

    

   https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/25/gop-has-a-choice-fight-anti-trump-coup-effort-or-surrender-government-to-democrats/

    

   Republicans have two choices for how to handle the Resistance’s latest attempt to undo the 2016 election through dramatic means. They can sit there and take it, or they can fight it.

   Some Republicans can be counted on to sit there and take it. This approach entails allowing Democrats to hold secret hearings where they handpick snippets to leak to a compliant media in service of setting a narrative. After the leaks are published by the compliant corporate press, these Republicans can impotently push back on some of it.

   The other approach is to learn something from the previous few years. Trump’s surprising election was followed by attempts to delegitimize the Republican victory in 2016 by claiming it was due to “fake news,” desperate efforts to overturn the Electoral College, anti-Trump riots in Portland and D.C., the Clinton-directed claims that Russia “hacked” the election, the Russia collusion conspiracy theory, the release of the completely ridiculous dossier alleging that Trump was a Russian agent, the whisper campaign that the truth of Trump’s collusion was so bad that he might not be inaugurated. Yes, all this was before the inauguration.

3. Member
   Judge Mental

   @JudgeMental

   9:09 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 25, 2019

   They should have chanted “Shame!  Shame!  Shame!” like the leftists always do.  It’s best to use their own tactics against them.

4. Inactive
   Reformed_Yuppie

   @Reformed_Yuppie

   10:29 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 25, 2019

   MACHO GRANDE' (aka – Chri… (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Here’s another example of a publicity stunt:

   “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should [pull a publicity stunt] and declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

   To avoid turning it into a publicity stunt, they could have written up their resolution and then stamped it top secret, put it in a strong box, and hidden it in a dusty archive.

   By comparing Matt Gaetz to Jefferson you kind of make my point. You are free to like the stunt. You can even pretend like it was meaningful. But you don’t actually have the power to make others buy it just because you did.

   And you don’t have the “power” to make others discount it just because you did.

   ka-POW! See how that works?

   Yeah, that’s how this works. Any other very obvious pieces of wisdom to impart while you’re here? 

5. Member
   Gary Robbins

   @GaryRobbins

   7:13 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 26, 2019

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):
   Why do we let these people govern us? And why are so many here so excited over a dumb publicity stunt? This is a fundamentally unserious response by our supposed lawmakers (though making laws hasn’t been their strong point) and everyone is just lapping it up. Stop being total marks.

   Mr. President, your Emancipation Proclamation is just a dumb publicity stunt. It doesn’t free a single slave in the north, south, or border states. It’s a fundamentally unserious response while a serious war is going on, though the management of this war hasn’t exactly been your strongest point anyway.

   Yeah, Trump and Ukraine is pretty similar to abolishing slavery. Almost indistinguishable tbh.

   I bet you really cleaned up on the analogy questions on your SAT exams.

   You’re the one who made the world’s dumbest comparison. Don’t blame me for noticing it. But please explain, in detail, how the two things are similar. The floor is yours. Wow us with your powers of persuasive.

   I think I already persuaded you; otherwise why would you be trying to divert attention from the point by playing dumb? Ooh! That’s another similarity! You’re playing dumb, and I can play that game, too! For example:

   Ukraine had an orange revolution, and the maker of the Emancipation Proclamation was eventually succeeded by an orange president. There is orange everywhere. The two cases could not be more similar.

   But as those who scored well on their SAT exams know, even though those two cases are exactly alike, the analogies don’t depend on that particular similarity.

   Here is a sample SAT analogy question that I found on the web:

   MEDICINE : ILLNESS ::
   

   law : anarchy
   hunger : thirst
   etiquette : discipline
   love : treason
   stimulant : sensitivity

   Now I suppose there is some genius who would say the correct answer is choice #5, because some prescribed medicines are stimulants, or choice #2 because doctors of medicine sometimes treat the effects of hunger, but that the other things don’t have anything to do with medicine. A person who thinks that way would score well enough to be admitted to a social justice math program at a university.

   I would choose #1.  Law treats anarchy, just as medicine treats illness.

    

6. Member
   Gary Robbins

   @GaryRobbins

   7:18 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 26, 2019

   Percival (View Comment):

   Susan Quinn (View Comment):

   On one adversarial site, these are the Republicans reported to be “stormers”:

   Republican Whip Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Mark Walker, Andy Biggs, Lee Zeldin, Mo Brooks, Mark Meadows, Kevin Hern, Paul Gosar, Steve Watkins, Debbie Lesko, Russ Fulcher, Buddy Carter, Steve King, Bill Johnson, Fred Keller, Brian Babin, Ken Buck, Michael Waltz, Ralph Norman, Louie Gohmert, Mark Green, Carol Miller, Vicky Hartzler, Alex Mooney, Jeff Duncan, Drew Ferguson, Gary Palmer, Jody Hice, Duncan Hunter, Ross Spano, Bradley Byrne, David Rouzer, Markwayne Mullin, Randy Weber, Pete Olson, Ron Wright, Scott Perry, Greg Murphy, and Ben C

   Ah. The Republican wing of the Republican party.

   The idiot wing of the Republican Party.  Paul Gosar (AZ) is Arizona worst Representative.  Steve King (IA) was so bad, he lost all committee assignments.  Louie Gohmert (TX) is as dumb as a rock.  Duncan Hunter (CA) is facing criminal charges.  What a sparkling example of humanity.

7. Member
   Gary Robbins

   @GaryRobbins

   7:24 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 26, 2019

   danok1 (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   DrewInWisconsin, Influencer (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):
   I keep hearing this argument that the GOP does nothing but lose and yet from 2010 onward all they’ve done is win more and more control nationwide.

   Yes. Conservatives put them in power, but what did they do once they got there?

   That’s an entirely different problem though. The first goal is to get in power. The second is to figure out how to effectively use it. Just because #2 wasn’t achieved does not invalidate #1. The issue was (and will continue to be) that large broker parties represent a pretty diverse range of ideas and tactics. Reconciling those differences are pretty hard. The Dems are going through that same dance now. Most of the party—that is, the actual voters—are generally not nearly as progressive as the Twitter wing of the party. If they get in power there will be a massive struggle to try to placate all the respective voices. That’s the nature of the era we’re in now.

   You have a point RY. And I accept that no one person will be 100% in agreement with me. However, there are a number of disconnects with even the most highly touted convervative “stars”. For example, Dan Crenshaw has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for POTUS. Yet he is in favor of greatly expanding the H1B visa program, undercutting American workers. And as @drewinwisconsin notes, we can’t even defund PP.

   For me, if a Republican candidate says s/he will do something during the campaign and then, once in office, doesn’t follow through when the opportunity arises, that is the sort of betrayal that rankles and makes me think “What have they conserved?”

   See the late John McCain and his promise to get rid of Obamacare.

   When McCain returned to the Senate Floor after his surgery and voted for the Motion to Proceed, he gave a speech that said that the bill to get rid of Obamacare needed to go through “regular order” or the committee process before he would support it.  

   McConnell and Trump thought that McCain was bluffing.  McCain wasn’t.

8. Member
   The Reticulator

   @TheReticulator

   10:08 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 26, 2019

   Gary Robbins (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):

   The Reticulator (View Comment):

   Reformed_Yuppie (View Comment):
   Why do we let these people govern us? And why are so many here so excited over a dumb publicity stunt? This is a fundamentally unserious response by our supposed lawmakers (though making laws hasn’t been their strong point) and everyone is just lapping it up. Stop being total marks.

   Mr. President, your Emancipation Proclamation is just a dumb publicity stunt. It doesn’t free a single slave in the north, south, or border states. It’s a fundamentally unserious response while a serious war is going on, though the management of this war hasn’t exactly been your strongest point anyway.

   Yeah, Trump and Ukraine is pretty similar to abolishing slavery. Almost indistinguishable tbh.

   I bet you really cleaned up on the analogy questions on your SAT exams.

   You’re the one who made the world’s dumbest comparison. Don’t blame me for noticing it. But please explain, in detail, how the two things are similar. The floor is yours. Wow us with your powers of persuasive.

   I think I already persuaded you; otherwise why would you be trying to divert attention from the point by playing dumb? Ooh! That’s another similarity! You’re playing dumb, and I can play that game, too! For example:

   Ukraine had an orange revolution, and the maker of the Emancipation Proclamation was eventually succeeded by an orange president. There is orange everywhere. The two cases could not be more similar.

   But as those who scored well on their SAT exams know, even though those two cases are exactly alike, the analogies don’t depend on that particular similarity.

   Here is a sample SAT analogy question that I found on the web:

   MEDICINE : ILLNESS ::
   

   law : anarchy
   hunger : thirst
   etiquette : discipline
   love : treason
   stimulant : sensitivity

   Now I suppose there is some genius who would say the correct answer is choice #5, because some prescribed medicines are stimulants, or choice #2 because doctors of medicine sometimes treat the effects of hunger, but that the other things don’t have anything to do with medicine. A person who thinks that way would score well enough to be admitted to a social justice math program at a university.

   I would choose #1. Law treats anarchy, just as medicine treats illness.

    

   Well, yes, that is the correct answer. But somebody would be sure to jump up and say you can’t compare law to medicine; they use completely different tools and facilities.