***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[paradise50]

Nice comparison w/ Facebook & 4chan 

 never really looked at it that way, but you're exactly right. Them far right folks got free reign on there 

 

[ksteezy]

Yo how much longer can they keep this **** up before they jump ship? All these Republicans willing to burn with Trump is insane....I don't believe they are THAT loyal, they all dirty, they know Trump goes down, he's not hesitating taking everyone else down with him, what a glorious day that would be, to see all these POS in cuffs

 

[whywesteppin]

I'm just waiting for the final straw. What's it going to be? it's probably going to comey in the form of trump overreacting to something that threatens his ego.

 

[sonoftony]

This could be a good thing in the long run. Republicans will have no credibility after this term *shrugs*

 

[hipstermike]

Meanwhile in Nevada they are going to expand Medicaid for all

 

[hipstermike]

Yo how much longer can they keep this **** up before they jump ship? All these Republicans willing to burn with Trump is insane....I don't believe they are THAT loyal, they all dirty, they know Trump goes down, he's not hesitating taking everyone else down with him, what a glorious day that would be, to see all these POS in cuffs

The more they stick together and behind him the dumber they all look as a group

 

[Mr.Guy]

Trump ain't going anywhere until at least 2020 sadly.

 

[dathbgboy]

Trump ain't going anywhere until at least 2020 sadly.

Pretty much, dudes forgettin which country they live in. The country made for and by white males on the backs of black people and Native Americans

 

[stuntman mike]

Trump ain't going anywhere until at least 2020 sadly.

and in the meantime, we're getting out pockets picked while we're so distracted by phantoms.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Trump threw a Good Ol' Boy party to celebrate the AHCA passing the House, yet now he calls it mean.

This dude is such an incompetent insecure clown.

 

[aepps20]

Trump ain't going anywhere until at least 2020 sadly.

Barson grabbing Da Baton for 2020 B.

 

[Mr.Guy]

and in the meantime, we're getting out pockets picked while we're so distracted by phantoms.

Been happening for years sadly.

 

[noskey]

Trump ain't going anywhere until at least 2020 sadly.

Barson grabbing Da Baton for 2020 B.

GOD EMPEROR DAPPER DON GONNA STEP OUT DA SPOTLIGHT to give Benjamin Franklin Barson da baton to carry da USSR to DA PROMISED COOOAAAAALLLL LAND. DON TRUMP gonna step out da spotlight and into da COAAALLL MINES TO MAKE AMERICA COAL AGAIN HIMSELF, B

 

[EddieDoyers]

AP calls Virginia gubernatorial primary for Northam in a first test of Trump-era politics

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Virginians — many motivated by the nation’s tumultuous political climate — went to the polls Tuesday to select candidates for this fall’s election of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and every seat in the House of Delegates, as well as other local offices.

The Associated Press called the Democratic race in favor of Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam with 44 percent of precincts reporting shortly after 8 p.m. Gov. Terry McAuliffe then issued a statement congratulating his hand-picked successor on the win.

Republican Ed Gillespie, with 44 percent, was fending off a stronger than expected challenge from rival Corey Stewart, at 42 percent. State Sen. Frank Wagner (Virginia Beach) was a distant third, with 46 percent of precincts reporting.

The results had room for change, as precincts in vote-rich areas such as Hampton Roads and some Northern Virginia counties were still incomplete.

But Stewart’s strength was perhaps the biggest surprise of the early returns, as very low turnout among Republican voters gave Stewart’s committed base an outsize influence.

While overall turnout varied widely, many precincts in the vote-rich Northern Virginia battleground reported far more Democratic ballots cast than Republican. Statewide, some 240,000 votes had been tallied on the Democratic ballot by shortly after 8 p.m., while about 178,000 had been tallied for Republicans.

The nation is watching what otherwise would be a sleepy slate of primaries in Virginia, as the state serves as a political laboratory for how the parties handle the deep divisions that followed last year’s election of President Trump.

Many voters said they were inspired to come out because of events in Washington. Alexandria resident Curt Arledge, 32, had never voted in a gubernatorial primary before Tuesday but decided that this year that it was too important for him to miss.

Clothed in a T-shirt that displayed Smokey Bear wearing a “resist” hat, the Democrat voted for Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the party’s establishment favorite, because he thought Northam could win in November.

“I can’t recall any of the issues, I hate to admit,” he said. “I want to nominate Democrats who can get elected.”

Perriello won endorsements from national progressive leaders such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and waged an outsider campaign to get more people involved with the Democratic party. It was a steep challenge, as Northam had the full weight of the party on his side mobilizing supporters around the state.

Arlington resident Aaron Swartz, a 34-year-old Perriello supporter, was motivated to vote in his first gubernatorial primary in part because of how Democratic elites fought against Sanders last year.

“They treated him badly, so a lot of people seem to want to have more to say and I’m one of those,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”

The race for governor, especially, has focused nearly as much on reaction to events in Washington as to policy concerns within the state. Outside groups have poured money and attention into Virginia, and a vast army of new candidates have flooded the Democratic side of House races — including a record number of women candidates.

“It is really the first big test in a statewide election of the state of the Democratic Party in the Trump era,” said Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

On the Republican side, three candidates vying for the top spot on the ticket represent different paths for a party still adjusting to its unconventional president and the forces that propelled him into office.

Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, has run most closely in Trump’s image, drawing attention with provocative statements and rallies to promote preserving Confederate memorials.

Wagner based his run on his 25 years of experience in the General Assembly — a strategy that defies the anti-establishment fervor that accompanied Trump’s rise.

And Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman, played it down the middle. He has been a lukewarm supporter of Trump, but casts himself as a true conservative who will cut taxes and promote business.

Zach James, a sales rep for publisher McGraw-Hill, supported Trump in November. But he never warmed up to Stewart, the candidate most closely aligned with the president.

“I voted for Trump but I’m not off the deep end,” said James, 57, who chose Gillespie at Salisbury Presbyterian Church in Chesterfield County, outside of Richmond.

At the same polling place, financial adviser John Sarrett voted for state Sen. Frank Wagner.

“I think he’s realistic about his approach to taxes and his approach to education,” said Sarrett, 54.

The Democratic side also has echoed national themes. Northam is the hand-picked successor of Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is prevented by the state constitution from serving a second consecutive term.

Northam spent years cultivating support around the state and has the endorsement of almost all of Virginia’s elected Democrats, including both U.S. senators and every Democrat in the General Assembly. Perriello entered the race unexpectedly in January and upended the state party’s orderly plans.

Tapping into the populist fervor of last year’s Sanders campaign, and drawing most of his money from out of state, Perriello has turned the race into a referendum on Trump and was betting that Virginians are dissatisfied with their establishment Democrats.

[To shake up Democratic Party, progressives turn to primary race in Va.]

In Arlington, Matt Canella, 29, and Mariah Finkel, 30, were inspired to vote for Perriello in large part because they felt he had more aggressively attacked the president.

Finkel’s vote, she said, is “mostly based off what I see on commercials.”

“I think there’s something to be said about a strong response to Donald Trump,” said Canella, who works for an environmental nonprofit. “While they both have ads against Trump arguing against his agenda Perriello had more and said more.”

Neither was turned off by Perriello’s lack of experience.

“He has the right agenda,” Canella said.

John Gallahan, 64, was also inspired by a televised attack on the president — but one lodged instead by Northam.

Gallahan became politicized years ago and, with Trump’s election, was re-energized to fight the GOP. His passion caused him to seek out a reporter to whom he could vent his frustration outside Fairview Elementary School while he sat in his car, the air conditioner blasting through open windows.

“You’ve got a whole school of young kids here,” he said. “They’ve got to live through this nonsense.”

A retired electrician who grew up in Anacostia, Gallahan recalled a time when, as a boy, his family frequented a restaurant in Maryland that refused to serve African Americans. Years later, he saw Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) forgive a man who beat him during the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march.

“When you listen to him talk about it...,” Gallahan said, his eyes welling.

That experience, combined with former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s rejection of his gay sister in the mid-1990s, made him repulse discrimination.

“Something hit me,” he said. “I couldn’t tolerate it.”

That’s why, when he saw a Northam TV ad blasting Trump, his vote was decided.

“He was the only politician up there,” Northam said, “who called a spade a spade.”

Trump’s approval rating in Virginia is even worse than it is nationwide: Only 36 percent of Virginians were satisfied with his performance in a poll conducted last month by The Washington Post and the Schar School.

That creates a challenge for Republican candidates, because the party’s base still supports the president, said Rozell, the George Mason dean. Virginia’s primary, he said, will show “whether a prominent Republican in a major campaign is able to separate himself in the public’s mind from the unpopular policies and actions of the Trump administration, while at the same time not losing much of the Republican support a candidate is going to need to win a general election.”

In the purple trenches of Loudoun County, Peggy Clark said she was so incensed by Trump she cast a Democratic ballot, even though she might vote GOP in fall as she has in other governor’s races.

“I really don’t like Trump,” were the first words out of her mouth when asked about her choice for governor as she left her polling place in Pinebrook Elementary School in Aldie.

The 58-year-old retiree chose Northam because she heard more about him. But she wasn’t sure if she’d stick with him in the general.

But Wendi Manuel-Scott would give Republicans no such consideration.

“Absolutely not,” she told a local Republican committee volunteer who asked if she cast a GOP ballot.

The 45-year-old college professor said Trump inspired her to turn out for the primary, when she may sit out some lower profile local races.

“Anyone who will stand up to Trump and Republicans, it’s really that simple,” Manuel-Scott said. She chose Perriello, who impressed her with campaign ads featuring Obama praising him at a 2010. “It was memorable. And I literally feel sick to my stomach with Trump and Republicans,” she said.

Gillespie has kept a relatively low profile in the past several weeks, not even showing up at some events attended by his opponents as he tries to conserve money and cement his front-runner status.

But perhaps more than in most elections, voter turnout is going to play a major role for both parties.

This is the first time Virginia has ever held gubernatorial primaries for both major parties on the same day. Turnout for such springtime contests is usually small; but inflamed by events in Washington, voters could show up in greater numbers this year.

In one indicator, Democratic voters requested more absentee ballots this year than in last year’s presidential primary — more than 35,000, compared with just over 28,000 a year ago, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Republican absentee ballot requests were down, though — 18,000 this year, compared with more than 27,500 a year ago.

If Republican turnout is low, then Stewart’s strategy of firing up a small but intensely loyal base could prove decisive.

On the Democratic side, Perriello is particularly hopeful of a big turnout. Northam has the full machinery of the state party encouraging Democrats to come out and vote. So Perriello has been roaming the state trying to inspire voters who don’t usually participate in primaries — the young, for instance, and even red-district conservatives who might respond to his populist stance.

[Democratic nomination for governor could depend on black voters]

As always for Virginia Democrats, African American voters could make up as much as a third of the primary electorate. Both Northam and Perriello have stepped up their appeals to black voters in recent weeks. Northam and surrogates such as U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott and Del. Marcia Price (Newport News) have attended black churches, while Perriello has toured black-owned businesses.

Despite the shadow of Trump and the national overtones, a few actual issues have worked their way into the races.

The Republicans have tussled over taxes. Gillespie proposed a 10 percent income tax cut; Stewart promised to cut even more. Wagner, on the other hand, said Virginia’s budget is already tight and that cutting taxes further could jeopardize the state’s AAA bond rating.

He proposed raising the gasoline tax and using the money to improve transportation.

The two Democratic candidates have only a few policy differences. The sharpest is probably their stance regarding two natural gas pipelines proposed for the western and southern parts of the state.
Perriello is against both projects, and has slammed Northam for taking campaign contributions from Dominion Energy, the state’s biggest utility and builder of one of the pipelines. Northam has not taken a firm stand on the pipelines, saying only that they must be subject to strict environmental review.

The issue has stirred passions on the campaign trail, especially in the southwestern part of the state. And its influence on the primary could be significant.

Some people have gotten involved in the race simply “because they don’t like the pipelines,” said longtime Virginia political scientist Bob Holsworth. That includes some who would typically vote Republican, he said, but who “may vote in the Democratic primary for Perriello because he has the distinctive position.”

Among the Republican candidates, Gillespie and Wagner have supported the pipelines, while Stewart has blasted Dominion and its influence in the state.

In the battle for lieutenant governor, each party features three candidates. The Republicans are all members of the General Assembly — state Sens. Jill Holtzmann Vogel (Fauquier) and Bryce Reeves (Spotsylvania) and Del. Glenn Davis (Virginia Beach). That race has gotten ugly at times, as Vogel, a lawyer, and Reeves, a veteran and insurance salesman, have traded accusations of dirty tricks.

The Democratic slate for lieutenant governor features three candidates who have not held elected office. Justin Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor from Fairfax County, came close to winning the nomination for attorney general in 2013 and since then has worked with candidates around the state. The AP projected Tuesday night that Fairfax would win the primary.

He defeated Susan Platt, a lobbyist and former Democratic operative also from Fairfax, who has been campaigning heavily against President Trump. And Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, is running a self-funded campaign as an underdog and outsider.

In the House of Delegates, all 100 seats are on the ballot. Democrats caught up in anti-Trump fervor say they want to pick up enough seats to take over the majority, but that will be a tough task. Republicans have a 66 to 34 advantage.

Polls are open across the state until 7 p.m.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...ifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.da8cd6141753

 

[aepps20]

GOD EMPEROR DAPPER DON GONNA STEP OUT DA SPOTLIGHT to give Benjamin Franklin Barson da baton to carry da USSR to DA PROMISED COOOAAAAALLLL LAND. DON TRUMP gonna step out da spotlight and into da COAAALLL MINES TO MAKE AMERICA COAL AGAIN HIMSELF, B

TEARED UP READING THIS GEM B. Da Don in his graciousness will take a step back to allow Benjamin to take his rightful place as Da rightful LEADER OF THE USSR B. 2028 is my turn after I learn everything I can from BARSON and STEVEN HARVEY.

 

[whywesteppin]

boycott libbie snowflake Stephen King!

 

[paradise50]

Trump threw a Good Ol' Boy party to celebrate the AHCA passing the House, yet now he calls it mean.

This dude is such an incompetent insecure clown.

True 

He's not even a full 6 months yet and he seems on the edge of burnout 

 

[RustyShackleford]

Anyone concern with how long Trump will be in power needs to just commit themselves to voting liberal for the next decade.

The 2010 and 2014 midterms cost the Dems dearly.

If it weren't for those, Dems would probably be looking at a super-majority right now. And with Libermann gone and the base turning more progressive, it would have been a liberal super majority soon.

 

[Belgium]

boycott libbie snowflake Stephen King!

Well as a proud highschool dropout hillbilly (education is a liberal propaganda system b), I will officially never buy or read a Stephen King book again!!

 

[frink85]

Wait does he mean the nickname "Trumpcare"? If so dude is even more of a snowflake than everyone thought

 

[noskey]

boycott libbie snowflake Stephen King!

Well as a proud highschool dropout hillbilly (education is a liberal propaganda system b), I will officially never buy or read a Stephen King book again!!

Look at this European elitist with his reading ability. I dropped out of da school system before I eem learned how to check my sources, not enough time in da day to go to school and watch 26 hours of da Fox News, b [emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]9997[/emoji][emoji]128096[/emoji]

 

[aepps20]

Look at this European elitist with his reading ability. I dropped out of da school system before I eem learned how to check my sources, not enough time in da day to go to school and watch 26 hours of da Fox News, b [emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]9997[/emoji][emoji]128096[/emoji]

You a REAL WORKING AMERICAN B. DA TYPE OF PERSON THAT IS DA BACKBONE OF THIS COUNTRY B. LIBBIES don't have a clue about digital marketing COAL SMOKE B.

 

[EddieDoyers]

Trump is such a snowflake.

 

[IATT]

 

[whywesteppin]

Trump is such a snowflake.

No, you're da snowflake B. Crying your liberal tears over Jefferson Sessions straight sonnin' da entire Senate. Da establishment, red and blue alike, didn't have a clue B. Not only did Sessions answer once and for all that Russia is our friend and trump is guilty of NO wrongdoing other than being DANGEROUSLY DAPPER, he also reestablished slavery via twitter on his cell phone beneath da table at da hearing this afternoon. [emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji] All in a day's work. Now Barson is not only da HUD secretary but he's also in charge of keeping da linens snow white at da sessions plantation.

Meanwhile da don was sitting back with da cheat codes on, turning sonic da headchog into rings and coal and flying around while tails is being left behind. Why? Cause sonic has da passing power B. Tails don't have a clue B. [emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji][emoji]128133[/emoji]