You do see how Repubs try to misdirect us?

[OddBeMe]

Trump: “Grab em by the pussy.” 30 minutes later…Hillary’s emails are released by Russia. Clarence Thomas is in bed with a billionaire. Now unfounded allegations on Biden.
Everyone gets tax cuts! 90% goes to the rich.

Brilliant, if it wasn’t so depressing.

Yes

No

[Stoner710]

That’s not misdirection grab them by the pussy is vile it does not reach the level of white Hillary Clinton’s emails did, which was actively get Americans killed.

Your other example of Clarence Thomas, whose friend help him pay for his adopted child schooling did not expect anything back. Sonia Soto mayor got paid $3 million from Random House publishing and refused to recuse herself some providing over a good if it was 3 Different Court cases that involve them. Clarence Thomas hasn’t provided over any of his billionaires friends court cases. There is no corruption there. There is obviously corruption with Sonia Sotomayor.

Joe Biden, very obviously had corrupt business dealings with his son Hunter all over the world. The only reason Hunter got any of those jobs when he is a crack attic, would never have gotten any of those jobs in his last name wasn’t Biden

Your fishing for minnows we’re fishing for sharks. It’s not a misdirect when something has no effect on the American people it is misdirection when the Democrats are trying to say oh this is a minnow a. k. a. gram by the pussy versus oh this is a shark leaked emails that actually got Americans killed

[OddBeMe]

What about Hillary’s emails killed people?

[goaded]

How do you know Sotomayor got that money? Oh, right, she declared it.

"Crow’s business interests also came directly before the court in 2005 when the justices declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit alleging that Crow’s company had improperly used building designs made by an architectural firm, according to Bloomberg."
www.huffpost.com/.../clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-business-interests_n_64494a12e4b0d840388c2935

[OddBeMe]

@goaded oh shit. Didn’t hear that. Intent

[Stoner710]

@goaded no money changed hands between Clarance Thomas and Crow. All that happened was he paid the first year tuition of Clarence is Thomases great nephew, which Clarence Thomas adopted. Judges until a change in law last year did have to disclose any of that. All this is is trying to get Clarence Thomas to resign so that Joe Biden can get another Supreme Court justice. Nominated.. he won’t leave there nothing anyone can do. You can try to impeach him and remove him from office but that’s only been done once in 1804

[goaded]

You really believe the only way to bribe someone is to hand them an envelope full of cash? And, no, that's not "all that happened", there was the real estate deal (which was required to be reported but wasn't), the luxury holidays, the renovation of Thomas' mother's house, the gentrification of that neighbourhood, the employment of his wife... There will be more, there always is.

[Stoner710]

@goaded except for Clarence Thomas paid for the tickets to go see his friends I’m sure they had dinner at his house play much every Supreme Court justice that’s ever been a life has done the exact same thing as Clarence Thomas has done This is just a excuse to try to get Clarence Thomas to step down. He’s not gonna do it.

[goaded]

Of course he's not going to step down, he's a Republican. They've not had anything to do with honour for half a century or more.

"According to ProPublica, the trips included several on Mr Crow's luxury yacht and private plane, as well as a week spent every summer in the Adirondack mountains.

One trip, to Indonesia in 2019, may have cost as much as $500,000 (£403,000), according to the non-profit news website. "

[OddBeMe]

@goaded no shame republicans! We’re Hope, they’re Shame.

[Stoner710]

@goaded OK how about this will start going after Clarence Thomas when you start going after Sonia Sotomayer. This is it gonna resolve anything so we might as well just stop talking about it. All politicians are correct we know that you don’t want to grab politician you don’t want government

[goaded]

Here's a big difference between left and right. We say if there's corruption on both sides, we should do something about it, you say as long as there's corruption on both sides, we should do nothing about it.

And as usual with "both sides" arguments, these things are not equal. Sotomayor declared her income from the publishers and it was payment for work she did (writing a book). Thomas didn't declare all the valuable things he received, including one that he was legally bound to report (the house sale), and he deceived the public in an interview about his holiday preferences.

If you say justices should officially recuse themselves from cases involving the publisher of their book, then fine that's a reasonable request. Not doing anything about a public servant receiving (and concealing) hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free holidays and flights, rent-free accommodation, school fees, and indirect payments for family members is not.

You have no idea if there was any enthusiasm in SCOTUS to hear the cases involving Sotomayor's publisher; the court rejects most of the cases put before it out of hand with a single sentence.

[Stoner710]

@goaded first off you’re not going to get rid of corrupted anywhere unless you get rid of government.

Second half Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas have been friends since the 1960s during the civil rights movement or is Clarence Thomas supposed to not go out and party with a friend? Does he have to abandon his friend if KJP did the same thing you won’t care.

[goaded]

"Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas have been friends since the 1960s" That's just not true. They became "friends" after Thomas was on SCOTUS.

www.nytimes.com/.../...nce-thomas-harlan-crow.html

[Stoner710]

@goaded won’t let me check out the article unless I subscribe. I was heard they grew up with each other.

[goaded]

Sorry, I'll quote the relevant parts. Unless they attended "conservative policy forum" as kids, they weren't childhood friends.

"Mr. Crow first met Justice Thomas at a conservative policy forum, and the two became fast friends, according to “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas,” by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher. The book gives no date for the forum, but The New York Times has reported that Mr. Crow first met Justice Thomas in the mid-1990s, a few years after his October 1991 confirmation to the court."
www.nytimes.com/.../...nce-thomas-harlan-crow.html

"The two men met in the mid-1990s, a few years after Justice Thomas joined the court."
www.nytimes.com/.../19thomas.html

[Stoner710]

@goaded sounds good that doesn’t mean any influence peddling went on. Clarence Thomas was big into the socialist movement in the 1960s there’s a documentary talking about his entire life. It doesn’t mention Harley Crowe but I assume that’s where they met. Even if it was the mid-1990 doesn’t mean anything weird, went on other than some vacations. Harlan Crow even had a case go to the Supreme Court in 2004 and Clarence Thomas rejected it and never got Heard

[goaded]

Why would you assume that? Especially since I (and a newspaper, and a biography) told you they didn't. How do you think a poor black guy would meet a rich white millionaire in the 1960s socialist movement? (I find it hard to believe either of them would have been there, but I suppose Thomas might have been.)

The case before the court was declined, but it was an appeal against a case Crowe won; Thomas should have recused himself from the vote on whether to accept it or not.

[Stoner710]

@goaded I don’t really see how the supreme court justices can refuse them selves get him. There is only nine of them and you need an odd number to break ties.

[goaded]

Of course they can and should recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest. If there's a tie, they can either discuss it until there isn't or, possibly, the Chief Justice can break it (I don't know).

The point is, though, that while it may be true that "Harlan Crow even had a case go to the Supreme Court in 2004 and Clarence Thomas rejected it and never got Heard", rejecting it was in Crow's interest, it was a win for him..

[summiter]

I'm sick of it all

[OddBeMe]

Well…yeah. It’s just we need to be able to see it and avoid it.

[summiter]

I agree

[SaoirseS]

Changed category from Sexuality to Society & Politics.

[OddBeMe]

I thought I selected that, but yes it was going to file it under sex. Lol

[msc545]

The is a variant of the Gish Gallop method of debate which is used extensivly by the right wing in the US.

"The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm their opponent by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments."

[OddBeMe]

Interesting. I actually haven’t heard of this. Now I will deep dive into this and won’t sleep for five days. Thanks MSC! Lol…

[msc545]

It is really pretty interesting!

[goaded]

It's named after a creationist, iirc.

[msc545]

@goaded It might be but still - it is a good description of a technique I have seen used on here. Also, my neighbor uses it when arguing with me.

[goaded]

Oh, yes, it's a really effective technique in debates because it takes far less effort to make nonsense claims than debunk them.

[msc545]

@goaded A counter to this is to insist that your opponent pick one or two salient points and stick to arguing those. I have done that with mixed success. A key to success is not taking the bait that the opponent is likely to offer in his distracting off-topic points.

[goaded]

But then they simply ignore that and gallop some more. Anyone paying attention can tell, but nobody reads through a 200+ post opinion.

Of course, if it's your opinion, you can let them think they've had the last word and then silently delete it. (It happened to me.)

[msc545]

@goaded Good tactic! I never thought of that... but now that you have told me... well... :)

[OddBeMe]

@msc545 Insist to Joel that he be more rational next time. :)

[msc545]

LOL!

[monorprise]

Joe Biden's favorable attitude toward corruption has been public info for decades.

That he would actually carry thou with it has likewise been a not so hidden secrete.

Unfortunate when your a democrat 'elected' in a state like Delaware you tend to get away with everything as your voters don't care.

[LiamJHayden]

I find it easier to just assume all politicians are lying to me. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I envision them yelling at each other in public and then slapping each other on the backs and laughing at all of us after hours as they fill their pockets.

[OddBeMe]

I would say when a politician talks its…aspirational. But yes lots of filling pockets on both sides, won’t run from that. Pelosi nosedived AOC’s attempt to reign in back door stock purhcases.

But…we can’t equate both sides…. only one side is 10x worse.

[Fireguy17]

no different than what any other party has done in the past.
It is politics as usual.
Neither party has clean hands.

[OddBeMe]

Nope. Not equal at all. Dems do nasty shit. But it’s not equal in the slightest.

[NathanDavis]

it would be naive to think that only one side is doing some wrong things...

[OddBeMe]

Oh no, dems do a lot too. Pelosi killed a bill to stop congress from insider trading.

But don’t quibble, the sides aren’t equal. Repubs still have underage rapist Gaetz now on the judiciary committee while we cut Al Franken for a fckin photo.

[Dargil]

No, but I do see how Demos try to control and impoverish us?

[OddBeMe]

No…unfort you fcks can’t see that helping poor people helps us all.

[Anonymous]

The left wing are far worse

Shacked up with terrorists, pro-child molestation, pro-slavery and basically the phoenix of ashes of the SS

[goaded]

That would be a good example of the Asker's point.

[Opinion Owner]

I hoped you'd respond, like track deer with corn and salt the right bait will snag a liberal and the arch liberal no less with his profile of the 21st century swastika, fine citizens but terrible higher ranks like the last world war showed, they've waited until the vast, vast majority of the survivors died before enacting the same plans of genocide they had before

[goaded]

You're a moron, aren't you.

[Opinion Owner]

Truth is a bitter pill to swallow

[OddBeMe]

Yes political party names always keep the same politics over hundreds of years. We liberals were yuugge slave owners. Not the hippie abolitions.

[Opinion Owner]

Politics is a business and your name and reputation means everything, I love the dynamic of the party flip propagation that you knew the name was sullied by slavery and racism but still ran with it like a person trying to take in and revive a name like Hitler Stalin or Savile, it can't be done but that's because the liberals haven't changed anything, the new slavery is to have everyone not working, running amok

[OddBeMe]

Seriously, you’re still believing party platforms from 150 years ago stay the same? That don’t stay the same within 30 years, dumbass. Reagan would be at best a Manchin democrat today.

[Opinion Owner]

The left wing was anti-Semitic 150 years ago and remains that way to this day so core stuff doesn't change

[OddBeMe]

My god…150 years ago? How about Democratic-Republican party 200 years ago? Were they racist?

[Opinion Owner]

Yes but racism will see you sent to prison or executed by riotous mobs, anti-Semitic attitudes are perpetuated and encouraged by the left wing establishment

[OddBeMe]

Are they? Checking, no…Henry Ford was right wing. Hitler was right wing. Not saying we lefties don’t have devils…

[Opinion Owner]

You guys only say the Nazis are right wing once they went too far for you to redeem them, seems less than a 5 million is okay for outright genocide but 5,000,001 makes you a right winger

[goaded]

Churchill was on the right of British politics, he never claimed the Nazis were communists.

[OddBeMe]

How many a regime has killed has no bearing on political analysis. Stalin was a dictator, the platform was far left and he killed tens of millions.

Hitler also killed tens of million…of Soviets. Because their ideologies are technically complete opposites. no matter what the name says, analysis looks beyond bullsht marketing.

[AngryCarl2]

You're being gaslighted. You'd have to be pretty stupid not to notice. Cue stupid comments from MAGA Republicans.

[disgustingweebtrash]

Repubs and Dems are two sides of the same coin, the illusion of choice

[OddBeMe]

False equivalency. Dems suck Wall Street cck for funding just like Repubs. But only one side has devolved into crazy conspiracy theories and anti intellectualism.

[gorydetails]

lol, you are a great propagandist.

[OddBeMe]

I should be paid for my work goddammit!

[gorydetails]

Too bad you suck so much even the democrats won’t pay you.

[Jerre]

It’s the Democrats trying to misdirect us!

[goaded]

I miss the "funny" icon. It's impossible to tell if you're being serious or not!

[Jerre]

@goaded I’m serious!

[goaded]

You mean the way they distract from the Hunter Biden laptop by pointing out there's no evidence on it of the President doing anything illegal?

Or distract from the vaccines killing people by pointing out that catching the virus without being vaccinated kills many times more of all ages?

Or distract from the scurge of CRT by pointing out that it's not being taught in schools, and that the anti-CRT legislation causes teachers not to teach accurate American history?

etc.

[goaded]

By the way, did you know that now six people have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their part in the Jan 6th insurrection?

[PositiveFlight]

@goaded Wow, you sure have been programmed well to buy into all the BS you listed above from Covid, to Hunter’s laptop, to Jan 6th, to CRT. Like a good member of the party. Similar to the party back in the days of the USSR.

[goaded]

@PositiveFlight You just don't like reality. If there was any evidence of President Biden doing anything illegal, there would have been an impeachment already. Six people have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for Jan 6th, want to guess who they were conspiring with? "CRT" is just the same as "woke", a term Republicans can point at some fringe views and pretend that anything they don't like falls under that term. An anti-woke Florida Republican just said: “Our terrorist enemies hate homosexuals more than we do.”

Guess what? We, the people, are generally fine with them. 60% of Americans now support same-sex marriages.

[PositiveFlight]

@goaded Well let me test your consistency on the matter of lgbtq marriage. You stated that 60% of Americans are fine with same-sex marriage and I am assuming you are too, would you then also be consistent and also advocate for the full legalization and stopping discrimination of plural marriage in America? In other words would you be fully supportive of the supreme court also ruling in favor of plural marriage and nullifying unconstitutional laws such as Edmund-Tucker act?

[goaded]

@PositiveFlight First, let me apologise, I now believe it is seven convictions for seditious conspiracy, someone peaded guilty.

I'd never heard of the 1887 Edmund-Tucker act, but apparently it was repealed in 1978.

I don't care about what people get up to in their relationships as long as they're consensual. Disenfranchising women was a bad thing.

What do you want me to say? I thought we were talking about the present day.

[OddBeMe]

@goaded now we got that figured out Goaded and I have to go our Democrat brainwashing session.

[QuietRunner]

It was a fake Steele dossier

[OddBeMe]

That dossier was always described as alleged. But twelve Trump cronies went to jail for colluding with Russians.