DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Cuckoo Republicans, what they have become pt.5

No truer words ever spoken here lol. I'm 'bout to scoop you up and take you out for a drink, maybe try and get your BP down.

Always open to that, enjoy the three-hour drive.

I don't know how to report posts. And I'm not a ref.

I'm in Fort Wayne. I just borrowed Swish's ride -- I'll be there in 90 minutes regardless of where you live.

jc

Sotomayor accuses conservatives of ‘dismantling’ church-state separation

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court’s most outspoken liberal, accused the court’s six-member conservative majority of eroding the barrier between church and state on Tuesday by striking down a Maine policy that barred religious schools from receiving taxpayer-funded tuition aid.

“This Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build,” Sotomayor wrote, dissenting from the 6-3 decision that broke along ideological lines.

“In just a few years, the Court has upended constitutional doctrine,” she added, “shifting from a rule that permits States to decline to fund religious organizations to one that requires States in many circumstances to subsidize religious indoctrination with taxpayer dollars.”

Maine law gives school-age children the right to free public education. But because many rural districts lack a public high school, a workaround was devised that allows students to attend nearby qualifying private schools with public assistance.

The Maine law at issue in the case had deemed schools with religious instruction ineligible for the program.

The majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, sided with a group of Maine parents who sued over the law, with the conservative justices ruling that the challengers’ constitutional religious protections were violated.

“Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” Roberts wrote for the majority. “Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the program operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”

Sotomayor also joined in part a separate dissent written by fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, whose opinion was joined in full by Justice Elena Kagan, the court’s third liberal member.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...-of-dismantling-church-state-separation/


She nailed how I feel about religious schools getting federal money to indoctrinate people.

Trump World wants to ‘burn DeSantis down’: 5 takeaways from New Yorker’s DeSantis profile
Zac Anderson, Tallahassee Democrat
Wed, June 22, 2022, 3:20 AM
A new in-depth profile of Gov. Ron DeSantis in the New Yorker magazine includes interviews with everyone from President Donald Trump to the governor’s dad, who describes his son as “stubborn.”

The article also says those in Trump's orbit are trying to "burn DeSantis down" as the governor's growing popularity within the GOP rivals the former president.

The New Yorker’s interest in DeSantis is another sign that his national profile continues to grow amid talk that he could run for president.

Who are they? DeSantis has billionaire support, with at least 42 backing him

A new in-depth profile of Gov. Ron DeSantis in the the New Yorker magazine includes interviews with everyone from President Donald Trump to the governor's dad. The articles says those in Trump's orbit want to "burn DeSantis down" as the governor's growing popularity within the GOP rivals the former president.
A new in-depth profile of Gov. Ron DeSantis in the the New Yorker magazine includes interviews with everyone from President Donald Trump to the governor's dad. The articles says those in Trump's orbit want to "burn DeSantis down" as the governor's growing popularity within the GOP rivals the former president.
Here are five takeaways from the article:

Trump World is trying to “burn DeSantis down.”
Various reports have indicated there is tension between Trump and DeSantis. Trump told New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins they have a “very good relationship” and that he is “proud of Ron.” But other sources told Filkins that “as DeSantis’s popularity grew, tension hardened into resentment.” From the article:

Trump told me that he was “very close to making a decision” about whether to run. “I don’t know if Ron is running, and I don’t ask him,” he said. “It’s his prerogative. I think I would win.” In nearly every poll of likely Republican contenders, Trump still has a solid advantage: DeSantis’s constituency was Trump’s first. Trump seems to want to keep it that way. A consultant who has worked for several Republican candidates said that the former President had talked with confidants about ways to stop DeSantis: “Trump World is working overtime to find ways to burn DeSantis down. They really hate him.”

More of our coverage:

Conservative warrior DeSantis not as aggressive on guns or abortion

After saying little about mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, DeSantis signs school safety bill

Gov. DeSantis won’t reform Florida gun laws, bats down Democrats’ demand for special session

DeSantis’ dad is talkative
When Filkins knocked on the door of DeSantis’ parent’s home in Dunedin, Florida, Ron DeSantis senior initially said “I’d rather not talk to you.” But it appears that he couldn’t help himself. DeSantis’ father went on to describe his son as a “stubborn” child. From the article:

“If he set his mind to something, you couldn’t shake him.” DeSantis pointed into the street, where he and his son used to play catch; there were ball fields nearby, where he had coached Ron’s Little League teams. “I tried not to favor him, and Ron didn’t like that,” he said … The young DeSantis attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and then Dunedin High, where he was a star outfielder. He was focused and motivated, his father said, adding, “He didn’t get that from me.” DeSantis scored in the ninety-ninth percentile on his SAT and was accepted to Yale, his father said: “It’s still the thing I’m most proud of.” But he didn’t like to make too much of it. “Everybody wants to brag about their kids, and people ask me about Ron. I try to be modest.”

Pushaw 'the most powerful woman in Florida'
DeSantis’ combative spokeswoman Christina Pushaw has risen to prominence by channeling the same combativeness her boss is known for. From the article:

Her ferocity inspires cautious admiration. “She is the most powerful woman in Florida,” a consultant to several Republican candidates told me. “Ron loves her, because she says things that even he won’t say.”

DeSantis viewed as 'aloof' and 'selfish'
Descriptions of the governor as aloof and uncomfortable with retail politics are nothing new, but the New Yorker piece reinforces the perception of DeSantis as a not particularly engaging personality in intimate settings. There’s also a particularly stark quote from a former college baseball teammate who calls DeSantis “the most selfish person I have ever interacted with. He has always loved embarrassing and humiliating people.” From the article:

People who work closely with him describe a man so aloof that he sometimes finds it difficult to carry on a conversation. “He’s not comfortable engaging other people,” a political leader who sees him often told me. “He walks into the meeting and doesn’t acknowledge the rest of us. There’s no eye contact and little or no interaction. The moment I start to ask him a question, his head twitches. You can tell he doesn’t want to be there.” Nearly everyone I talked to who knew DeSantis commented on his affect: his lack of curiosity about others, his indifferent table manners, his aversion to the political rituals of dispensing handshakes and questions about the kids. One former associate told me that his demeanor stems from a conviction that others have advantages that were denied to him. “The anger comes more easily to him because he has a chip on his shoulder,” she said. “He is a serious guy. Driven.”

DeSantis ignored UF experts who spent 'years' preparing for pandemic
The governor takes pride in going against expert consensus on pandemic policies. He even ignored a University of Florida scientist who specifically had been recruited to “guide the state” through a pandemic. From the article:

Early in the pandemic, Scott Rivkees, the state surgeon general, convened a conference call of many of Florida’s leading public-health experts; at the end of the meeting, he announced that it would be the last. Among those boxed out was Glenn Morris, an epidemiologist whom the University of Florida had recruited in 2007 to set up a center that would help guide the state though the next pandemic. “We spent years preparing for this moment,” Morris told me… As the pandemic began, Morris and his colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville maintained close contact with the state Department of Health. Two or three times a week, the department shared new data, and a group of epidemiologists analyzed them, to inform research and to make recommendations to the state… In June, 2020, the epidemiologists say, the health department terminated the relationship and stopped sharing data… “The only reason you don’t collect data is that you don’t want to know what the data says,” Derek Cummings, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, said. “The recommendations we were making were consistently at odds with the policy of the state.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-world-wants-burn-desantis-102000763.html


I've been closely watching the relationship between the two. Right now, they are appearing to peacefully co-exist, but I do think that there will be something that comes to a head at some point. It could end any which way. My guess is that it will somehow end peacefully with DeSantis assuming the new role as "head" and him letting Trump claim that DeSantis was his anointed successor. That's a fragile assumption, though, because I don't think Trump can live with knowing that someone else has now taken the spotlight. The 2024 primaries will be very interesting.

Edit ~ I remember in a discussion I was having with 40 on here that he was actually hoping for someone else to be the new frontrunner. He didn't say who, but DeSantis is my guess. Correct me if I'm wrong, 40.

Follow Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: New Yorker profile of DeSantis includes Trump interview

Are you trying to suggest every Republican running for office is a Trumpian? If I were actually a Republican and had the option to vote for a moderate Republican or a true conservative running for office to prevent a Trumpian from being elected I would be even more motivated to vote for such Republican candidates.

The sad thing right now is that those who actually stood up to Trump have been ostracized by his machine, which is why you see people like Gonzo bowing out of the game. It's not good.

No it's certainly not good. However Brad Raffensperger who stood up to trump by refusing to overturn the Georgia 2020 election results just beat a Trumpian endorsed opponent in the primaries. I certainly can't disagree with you that the Republican party is getting more and more Trumpian all the time. I mean Texas Republicans just adopted the fact they refuse to accept Biden as the duly elected president to their state party platform.

But that is even more reason why if I were a registered Republican I would be even more intent in voting to try and take my party back.

A year or so ago, I thought we were seeing a handful of politicians opt for the "early retirement". They read the writing on the wall and didn't want to deal with it.

Pit: No but they are running in almost every primary, and I don't keep track of who wone on state levels or even all the HOUSE seats.

Fate: Of course, a member of the insurrectionist party would mock somebody saying that. And don't act like you're not a hardcore GOPer, as well as politically brain dead.

They are running in almost every primary. But so is their opposition.

I think that's what I said. But I don't keep track of who is who and that's bad. PLUS, think about this, how many republicans that used to be decent will stand up to the Trumpians harassing any R-moderate anti-Trumper that does get elected. If we don't stop these lunatics now, they will bring this country down. Bet on that. Guys like fate will sleep through it.

Trumpians are a brian dead mob of ruthless thugs, and I don't care who's grandma I'm labeling.

Don't worry li'l buddy... I'm sure that everyone reading these threads comes to the conclusion that I'm the one that is politically brain dead.

The info coming out now about Ron Johnson and his staff on January 6 is freaking horrendous.

Dude straight up pretended to be talking on his phone when reporters were waiting for him too. That part was hilarious.

Everything else is a combination of horrifying and sickening.

Good thing they weren't trying to end our democracy, huh. I don't know what else you call a violent coup and nefarious plot by one party to take permanent power and control of our country. And there is plenty of evidence that it's still ongoing for 22 and 24. But I'm chicken little saying the sky is falling. Smh. Traitors are the new norm, and anyone calling them out is a radical extremist.

I guess MEGA donors see what I see too.

Liberal groups devote millions to blocking GOP election deniers

The strategy has diverted some of the focus away from federal races toward governor and secretary of state races, election-administrator contests and measures aimed at protecting ballot access and tabulation.

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, one of the nation’s top political donors, gathered more than a dozen billionaires or their representatives over Zoom Friday to sound an alarm about the coming elections.

“MAGA leaders intend to use 2022 midterm wins to install Trump in 2024 regardless of the vote,” read a slide of the PowerPoint Hoffman presented to the group, which was obtained by The Washington Post.

He was pitching some of the nation’s wealthiest people on a doomsday idea that has become a growing obsession among the liberal donor community. Another slide, titled “How MAGA midterms can install Trump,” laid out a step-by-step hypothetical scenario: Republicans win statewide offices in key battleground states in 2022 and then change state laws in 2023 to give legislatures control over presidential electors. After the next presidential election, they declare votes from urban centers “tainted” and overrule the popular vote by sending their own slate of electors to Washington.

The goal of the presentation — described by someone familiar with the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations — was to raise tens of millions of dollars for groups that the PowerPoint described as being able to increase Democratic turnout, persuade swing voters to vote Democratic and “dissuade” Republican voters from going to the polls.

Pouring liberal money into the midterms to elect Democrats is hardly novel. What’s different about this new strategy is that a large portion of the 2022 efforts are actually aimed at 2024 — attempting to block Republican 2020 election deniers from gaining power and potentially upending valid results in a presidential election year.

The approach — born in the wake of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election — has diverted some of the focus away from federal House and Senate races and toward battleground state governor and secretary of state races, election administrator contests and even ballot measures aimed at protecting ballot access and tabulation.

Some donors are funding candidates and state parties directly, while others are sinking funds into state-level groups that are pushing out direct mail and digital ads. Others are funding new opposition-research efforts, recruiting candidates for local election-supervisor races and building out online news websites and Facebook groups designed to drive people to the polls.

The scale of the spending is hard to calculate because much of it has been routed through state-specific or niche nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors. But people involved in the effort described multiple parallel efforts that could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Our theory starts with the electoral college map in 2024,” said Scott Anderson, the executive director of the Strategic Victory Fund, a separate group of liberal donors that has spent more than $450 million on election and nonprofit work since 2017.

This year the group has decided to spend money in only five 2024 battleground states, mainly by funding an array of state level nonprofit groups. The targets are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nevada, where Democratic governors have so far pushed back on Republican efforts to change the way elections are conducted.

“The immediacy of this election for us is how do we have a veto pen and the ability to sustain the veto in those five states,” Anderson said. “The legislatures in those states have made clear that if they have a governor they will pass a whole laundry list of things.”

The Democracy Alliance, another liberal donor group, devoted much of its spring donor conference in Arizona on funding ideas to fight back on Republican efforts to change the rules of elections. Among the funding priorities this year: a ballot measure in Arizona that would expand voting access and prevent legislatures from appointing electors that do not follow the popular vote. Democracy Alliance donors are also funding an effort in Michigan to support candidates to the state Supreme Court, which could adjudicate election challenges in 2024.

“Democracy is the central issue of our time,” the group’s president Pamela Shifman said in opening remarks at the closed-door event, according to a transcript provided to The Post. “It calls us all to the field. It is why we are all here.”

Run for Something, a liberal group devoted to recruiting more Democratic candidates in local races, has an $80 million target over three years for an effort to recruit and train candidates for election-administration posts in 35 states across the country. They have already helped about 200 candidates get through the primaries in presidential battlegrounds, said Amanda Litman, the group’s co-founder.

“You can influence quite literally who is administering elections,” Litman said, pointing to conservative strategies discussed on Q-Anon message boards and on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s War Room podcast. “If we don’t do it we are absolutely going to regret it.”

American Bridge, a Democratic opposition-research group, started a new arm last year aimed at raising $10 million to uncover and distribute negative information about down-ballot state GOP candidates, particularly those involved in the effort to overturn the 2020 election result.

“That is definitely a sea change in terms of donor interest down ballot on the Democratic side,” said David Brock, the founder of American Bridge, an opposition-research group used across the Democratic Party. “The Bridge to Democracy PAC is one of the easiest things to raise money for at the moment.”

The Strategic Victory Fund has been sending much of its money to state-specific nonprofit groups engaged in a variety of organizing and advertising against GOP candidates. They include Progress Michigan, A Better Wisconsin Together, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota and Commonwealth Communications in Pennsylvania, which has announced a $6 million effort with Planned Parenthood and the Democratic Governors Association to oppose Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, a state senator who urged his fellow state lawmakers to throw out the state’s 2020 election results.

“We are going to get people out there talking to people about this race,” said J.J. Abbott, the executive director of Commonwealth Communications, who said the effort will include attacks on his positions on unions, abortion and the minimum wage. “They are going to be aware of the threat that Doug Mastriano poses to democracy. But they certainly need to hear the full story about him.”

In Wisconsin, state Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said he has seen a marked increased interest in Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’s reelection effort because of the concerns over administering the 2024 election.

“The threat of a Republican who in 2024 attempts to complete what failed in 2020 has been an enormous motivator of volunteers for donors large and small, for people who want to fight for democracy, almost regardless of their politics,” Wikler said. “The significance to the entire country of the governor’s race has become an argument that resonates in every part of the state.”

Another group of liberal and bipartisan foundations plans to launch a nonpartisan effort later this year, dubbed the Road Map for American Democracy. The group, led by Deirdre Schifeling, the former White House advocacy director for President Biden, plans to fund efforts to prevent changes to election rules that could limit access or skew the result, fight back against harassment of election workers and counter misinformation around elections.

“We are generally preparing to defend our democratic system when it comes under attack this fall,” Schifeling said.

Hoffman’s effort — organized through a group called Investing in US, which involves a network of private donors — is one of the most aggressive. He declined to comment for this story through a spokesperson.

Among the proposed beneficiaries of his latest push is Good Information, a network of online news websites with names like the Copper Courier in Arizona and The Gander in Michigan that donors hope will encourage Democratic turnout in the midterms, the person familiar with the group said. The group is also looking to fund the American Independent, a project affiliated with American Bridge, that sends targeted material to voters before elections, as well as more moderate groups like Third Way.

The PowerPoint slides presented by Hoffman painted a blunt vision of the coming election season, noting that “Dems have only a long shot to keep Congress” and that Democratic odds of picking up governors in Texas, New Hampshire, Florida and Arizona are unlikely. It also describes the powers under the U.S. Constitution for state legislatures that determine the manner by which they choose presidential electors.

“States long ago delegated the choice to popular vote, but that is reversible,” one of the slides says. “Trump needs only 37 Electors to flip from 2020.”

Dmitri Mehlhorn, co-founder of Investing in US, declined to comment on the PowerPoint or the meeting beyond one detail: The PowerPoint describes a funding goal of working to “dissuade” and “reduce enthusiasm” for some voters.

“Patriotic Republicans should not be enthusiastic about voting for these dangerous MAGA extremists who have taken over their party,” Mehlhorn wrote in an email about that strategy. “We are comfortable saying so, as are principled Republican leaders.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/22/liberal-money-election-deniers/

Bullying techniques.

SHUT UP!

You're way worse than that. Now run and try to get me banned.

Who is having the "meltdown?"

Sorry OCD, I tried to reason w/you when I asked you a question about who have I bullied. You made a lot of crap up, such as me attacking Purp first. That was completely untrue. Now, you get to deal w/the repercussions of your lies.

Actually, when I read your reply to purp a week or whenever ago, I thought "dang". You did attack him, with a "everyone hates me" attitude.

He can't see himself. He can't see that he bullies. I'm done listening to him tonight.

Well boys.........here is what Purp said to me and I dare you to find a post from me that addressed him before these comments. Let me give you a clue. There isn't one.




I responded to him AFTER that quote and we can make a bet on that one if you two like. I have proof.

Spin away.

That sounds like a threat. I'm not worried, but that's what it sounds like. You must be reporting me, I'll take a ban like a badge of honor for disagreeing with you. But I damn sure didn't lie.

I am not threatening you or reporting you. I am just saying I tried to reason w/you and you made some crap up that I will not forget. I was trying to be as civil as possible and you chose to attack me w/BS. I did not attack Purp. He attacked me and I responded to that. I don't gang up on people like some of you do. You could have been cool. You chose not to.

We all read what happened prior to that. So, show ALL the proof. So, IF this is a direct quote, he was correct.

I said something to mac about Florio being his hero. That is it. Nothing to Purp. Of course, you have said Watson was my hero and savior several times. No one questioned that.

Dude, how about this.........I will dig up what was said exactly. If I am wrong........I'll leave the board. If I am correct.......you leave the board.

That is a bet you best not take. But, you can act like your brother and ignore the truth to win a stupid board argument.

LMAO bye, Felicia.

j/c...

Notice where the scope of most DT interaction takes place within this pyramid? Literally, 75% is within the bottom three rows... and I'm being generous. Unfortunately, because of this, the only value to PP is the entertainment aspect. Sad, because there is plenty of intellect here; unfortunately very little emotional maturity. Maybe someday...




Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement lists name-calling as the lowest type of argument in a disagreement.

We're both guilty of it too.

Here is the link to the thread. Purp's comments are at the top of pg 2. Please read page one and see if I attacked him or not. I made a post to mac, and he---Purp, not mac-- went off. Was I wrong to defend myself? Apparently so. So, both of you can get bent.


https://www.dawgtalkers.net/ubbthre...tson-be-the-browns-starting-qb-continued

arch, you gonna leave the board? Or spin like your brother?

Thanks! I knew there was something missing from that pyramid. The "I know you are, but what am I?" sliver!

See.

I'll take the bet. I just read the whole exchange. It's been nice knowing you. Follow your rules, leave the board. Or not. It's your reputation on the line.

I don't know.................there are times when there are great conversations on this board. I've been on here and things are friendly. Not contentious. It's fun. it can be educational. I think that there are a few poster who kinda ruin it for all and that is why we have lost so many of the older posters that were once on here. Of course, those who don't like me will say that the same thing about me.

I will take some responsibility. I know I fight back w/a vengeance. This is a true story. I'm not the tallest guy, but I was built. Back in the day, I hated bullies. i fought them consistently. And I mean......literally. Fist fights. This story kinda epitomizes how I was. I was a RB on the HS team. Our biggest OL was in the same Algebra class as i was. he weighed about 260. LOL........this was in the 1970s and he was considered HUGE. Well, there was this kid who resembled Barney Fife in the most uncanny way. Tallish, skinny as can be, joints moving all over the place, etc. He even had a pocket protector. He gets called up to the chalk board and asked to solve an equation. On the way, our O-lineman trips him. Everyone laughs. Just like they always did when someone bullied this poor kid. I sat in the last row. A jock, but also a freak. [had to live back in that era to know what Freak mean.] I get up as the class was laughing and insulting the poor kid. I walk up to the big man and say.........>"You think that's pretty f....ing funny Rod? He says to get the hell out of his face and I drilled him as hard as I could.

Scenarios played out like that over and over. I despise bullies. Always have. Eventually, the Guidance Counselors sent me to the Boy's Club to box. There was no Boys and Girls Club back hen. Hell, it just helped me whup bullies in the long run.

Some of us live by this adage. Don't start a fight, but be damn sure to end one.

Show me where I responded to Purp first. Once again, you are just like Pit. Lying out your butt.

Like I said to Fate, we are all guilty of it. And I think the board reflects the times we are living in. Even before PP, politics were frequently discussed and highly partisan. Things get said in those environments. But I do my best to limit it to PP. Recently, I haven't done that very well. The DW thing is about all that is causing that. I don't care what you think about him or how you feel about it, that's your right. But I am going to express how I feel about it, and have been. Going back and forth with you might be a side effect of that for both of us. And I get along with Fate more often than not, but we go at each other from time to time too. Same with arch. Hell, Pit and I even butt heads from time to time with slight differences in our politics or world views. It just happens and I think few truly hate or despise anyone on here. We're just passionate. lol. I'll go with that.