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Comments Posted By MurphTheSurf3

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The Mueller Hearing? Your Response….

That’s the gang alright.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:33 pm

I fear it will not be soon enough as the process for ridding the nation of a PM, while far more direct than our impeachment process, takes considerable time and the October deadline is….well…..pending and pressing.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:32 pm

I am going to keep my eye on the prize: a WH free of Trump and his creatures. I will do whatever is necessary to do my part. I hope that the vast majority of progressives do the same. Not voting, or protest voting is providing aid and comfort to DT. When a demand for the perfect becomes an enemy of what is just good, then we lose. I was active during the Gore/Bush race and I am very aware of what the Nader vote did, and keeps on doing. Imagine an America where Gore was president…..

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:29 pm

Thanks for this very complete narrative…..I am pleased, actually very please to make your re-acquaintance. You have jogged my memory. Yes, we had a number of spirited conversation and it appears that we have reestablished that pattern now. Grand.

Yes, my situation changed when I became involved with a co-op and then with the ACA as a navigator. There is no going back I am afraid. Most of my neighbors like me on a personal level and have excused my political leanings as being wrong-headed. I have left the co-op twice and it ran into trouble almost immediately. I was invited to reconnect and did so….that turned out to be a good move as it seemed to give me credibility…I was seen as someone who really wanted what was best for our community.

BTW…I still mask my location but now I do so because of denizens who prowl the web.

Your geographical discrimination is general on the mark.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:12 pm

I went to school in the UK from the age of 11 to 16….and Latin came with the public school I attended. I, like you, am glad that I had the foundation it offered that has served me well in my own academic life.

A question…your state is less Democratic than it was AND has become a right wing reactionary red state…or am I reading that wrongly.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:58 pm

NOW that is really, really interesting…the point being that the first question does not properly present the reality by intimating that removal is a reasonably expected outcome of impeachment. When that expectation is removed……1 in 20 thing it is a good idea. Do you have citation for that poll.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:49 pm

You really have a way of framing this……have you considered doing a feature article here (a long post)…..now seems a good time to name 8chan and its fellow travelers given the sad events of the last 24 hours.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:47 pm

I done a bit of reading on Hurd since you pointed out his intention to vote for Trump in 2020. ….I find myself humming along with your tune.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:43 pm

Well…having just mentioned the UK…I might note that Brexit was hatched by the political leadership of the Tory Party’s most right leaning crowd….and the everyday folk bought into it….the first referendum.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:40 pm

And the thing is that we are not unique…in much of the world where representative democracy is in place the dumbing down of the electorate is taking place (look at the UK in re. to this.)

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:38 pm

Yes, it has been interesting and as the saying goes: “Time will tell the tale.”

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 8:29 pm

Thank you. I am really enjoying these conversations. I see from other interchanges that you have been a part of the Planet for a long while….I do not think we have run into each other before but am very glad we have now…Your last paragraph sums up my thinking on those who do not bother to exercise the franchise responsibly and then complain about the failure of those elected to do what is right. Absurd.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:14 am

Anyone who quotes Cicero is Aces in My Book!

O Times! O Morals! Indeed.

I appreciate your approbation…..I would be please if my area were to even become purpule-ish! Hard to believe that in my life time this area was Democratic…..of course, it was Dixie Democrat so really have not changed that much.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 9:05 am

Did he now…..that is absurd…..

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 7:36 am

I do understand the argument that is based in principle and ethics but congressional action in everything is led by public opinion and not the other way around. Today’s mass shooting events and GOP response is another proof of this. They follow their voters (who are in turn led by various mechanism that shape public opinion). Pelosi understands this….

And I agree that our disagreement is just fine and a sign of a healthy exchange of perspectives.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 7:32 am

The figures I read show that Blacks, Hispanics and Asians have lower turnout rates that whites without a college education. I looked at Pew, The Voter Project and U.S. census…This article puts it into perspective. https://news.gallup.com/poll/248525/non-college-whites-affinity-gop-trump.aspx

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 7:26 am

If the Dems continue to put that truth in front of the public via a number of channels and the public does not rise to demand accountability that says something disturbing about the state of the republic. Adams noted that all it takes for representative government to fail is an uninformed electorate continues to ring true.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 7:14 am

Ok. Just interested in the conversation. You are of one mind with Kalima. Got it.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 4, 2019 @ 7:11 am

On Sept. 26, 1960, 70 million American viewers watched the first of four televised presidential debates between candidates Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. They were the first debates ever to be held between the presidential nominees of the two major parties during the election season.

Since 1983, the Democratic Party of the United States has held debates between candidates for the Democratic nomination in presidential elections during the primary election season. The GOP began to do this in 1986.

The format has been by and large the same…..candidates responding to questions from a moderator or moderators with some interchange among them.

As the process of choosing nominees has moved from being a party driven function with party functionaries maintaining a lot of control, both direct and indirect, over the selection of their nominee to one where the selection is done many months prior to the convention as a result of popular voting in several forms, televised so-called debates have been elevated in importance.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 8:05 am

I agree with most of what you say but there is a key piece that needs to be added. Those who we would think are predisposed to vote for Democrats are those who under-vote the most. Blacks, Hispanics, Millenials….need to vote and vote big to balance the impact of those who tend to vote GOP (and even more so Trump’s GOP)……I keep saying it…..had the black vote in 2016 been what it was in 2012 it would be Pres. Clinton right now but……”she did not go after that vote enough” is the counter that is tossed in reply to which I say “And how did that work out for you….?”

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:53 am

Agreed. The debates are basically parallel interviews by moderators of candidates who they maneuver into positions where sparks fly between opponents and then toss in a little legacy zapping to toss petrol on the pile. The hope is that the fire will attract viewers. This is easy to do in a mob such as the one we now have vying for the WH.

If you read my piece on who will be on the stage in September I list what I look for in a candidate and hardly any of that is revealed in a “debate” format like those we have. When you get down to four or so then they can, if they choose to and have the skills to, grab the reins from the moderators and engage. I like one on one in depth interviews to tease out how candidates think. I also do my homework looking at their stances, records, accomplishments across time.

It is hard work to be a good citizen but since who we vote into office has such an impact on our lives it is work worth doing.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:48 am

Agreed. The debates are basically parallel interviews by moderators of candidates who they maneuver into positions where sparks fly between opponents and then toss in a little legacy zapping to toss petrol on the pile. The hope is that the fire will attract viewers. This is easy to do in a mob such as the one we now have vying for the WH.

If you read my piece on who will be on the stage in September I list what I look for in a candidate and hardly any of that is revealed in a “debate” format like those we have. When you get down to four or so then they can, if they choose to and have the skills to, grab the reins from the moderators and engage. I like one on one in depth interviews to tease out how candidates think. I also do my homework looking at their stances, records, accomplishments across time.

It is hard work to be a good citizen but since who we vote into office has such an impact on our lives it is work worth doing.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:47 am

Those who took on Obama’s legacy were very foolish and played into the machinations that mark network moderation of the so called debates.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:40 am

Re. the 2018 midterm…….voters vote with their guts by and large….House elections are very localized the the wave that put Trump in hit a number of wavering districts washing away Dems and then the tide receded in those districts and Dems returned. As I read the studies of the midterms what seems clear to me is that Dems won with a message about health care and protecting people with pre-existing conditions versus a Republican message that swapped talk about the booming economy for a more Trump-fueled culture-war approach that put immigration front and center. The key demographic they appealed to was the over 50 crowd and that is who came out to unseat the GOP. It is homegrown issues that touch people…which is why I keep driving home to my red neighbors that the troubles they are having with selling crops, paying for meds, getting farm grants, keeping their kids in school, stopping the renewed poisoning of their water sources and land is what they must look to their political reps to address…bit by bit it is having an effect.

By and large most people re. ALL of government as corrupt and both parties as dirty as sin. Mention corrupt Trump and they counter with a diatribe re. Hillary and Barack. As to checks and balances there is is hardly a person these days who has the foggiest idea as to how government is structured….40 years of tearing away at an educational system that used to teach civics and history as core curriculum to maintain responsible citizenry has wrecked havoc……which is why the actual fake news flourishes.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:38 am

Reposting this to you with an addendum:

Morality and Politics rarely make good bedfellows. Having said that….I regard Pelosi as a pragmatist who wants to get stuff done….without her pragmatism the ACA would have been still born. She predicted that the GOP would get the House and the Senate at the midterms so she pushed hard to get what they could…….and they did, barely. She knows the power of the word “socialist” and the power of the idea of a “conspiracy to overturn the election of 2016”. She knows that Trump will not get convicted in the Senate. Hell, it is quite possible that McConnell will just refuse to take the matter up at all….so her effort is to get the most from the effort. A rush to launch Articles of Impeachment would play into Trumpian hands. So…she has chosen a path of incremental movement to build support first in the caucus and then in the party base…which is where this August’s town halls will be of value. From there it is a matter of placing the evidence in front of voters, again and again and again and again….while still pursuing Democratic goals in the House (acknowledging that not a thing that they have passed from their agenda has even been put on the floor in the Senate). She wants an enlarged majority in 2020 and a Dem Senate (which will be a challenge) and most importantly a Democratic President. Without that all will be folly.

Re. the 2018 midterm…….voters vote with their guts by and large….House elections are very localized the the wave that put Trump in hit a number of wavering districts washing away Dems and then the tide receded in those districts and Dems returned. As I read the studies of the midterms what seems clear to me is that Dems won with a message about health care and protecting people with pre-existing conditions versus a Republican message that swapped talk about the booming economy for a more Trump-fueled culture-war approach that put immigration front and center. The key demographic they appealed to was the over 50 crowd and that is who came out to unseat the GOP. It is homegrown issues that touch people…which is why I keep driving home to my red neighbors that the troubles they are having with selling crops, paying for meds, getting farm grants, keeping their kids in school, stopping the renewed poisoning of their water sources and land is what they must look to their political reps to address…bit by bit it is having an effect.

By and large most people re. ALL of government as corrupt and both parties as dirty as sin. Mention corrupt Trump and they counter with a diatribe re. Hillary and Barack. As to checks and balances there is is hardly a person these days who has the foggiest idea as to how government is structured….40 years of tearing away at an educational system that used to teach civics and history as core curriculum to maintain responsible citizenry has wrecked havoc……which is why the actual fake news flourishes.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:36 am

Morality and Politics rarely make good bedfellows. Having said that….I regard Pelosi as a pragmatist who wants to get stuff done….without her pragmatism the ACA would have been still born. She predicted that the GOP would get the House and the Senate at the midterms so she pushed hard to get what they could…….and they did, barely. She knows the power of the word “socialist” and the power of the idea of a “conspiracy to overturn the election of 2016”. She knows that Trump will not get convicted in the Senate. Hell, it is quite possible that McConnell will just refuse to take the matter up at all….so her effort is to get the most from the effort. A rush to launch Articles of Impeachment would play into Trumpian hands. So…she has chosen a path of incremental movement to build support first in the caucus and then in the party base…which is where this August’s town halls will be of value. From there it is a matter of placing the evidence in front of voters, again and again and again and again….while still pursuing Democratic goals in the House (acknowledging that not a thing that they have passed from their agenda has even been put on the floor in the Senate). She wants an enlarged majority in 2020 and a Dem Senate (which will be a challenge) and most importantly a Democratic President. Without that all will be folly.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:21 am

It is good to have the word impeachment on the table and the step by step approach will garner growing support….now let us see if the Inquiry actually gives the House Dems more tools and more clout to carry on an investigation….Trump has now appointed 107 federal judges, the most by any president in this amount time and that is having a very negative impact on court proceedings. Without the courts the Trumpistas can drag their feet for a long time. P.S. I know that Hurd had criticized Trump several times in recent months and was on the RINO list.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:13 am

I am all for the inquiry…..now let us see if that step strengthens the Democratic hand or not….I expect court battles but to have THE WORD….Impeachment on the table is important.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 7:01 am

You agree. Why? Interested.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 3, 2019 @ 6:58 am

At most they are 35 percent of the electorate….the key is who else comes out to vote against Trump.

» Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On August 2, 2019 @ 4:38 pm