US Politics

Carolina Red said:
http://www.logcabin.org/

Damn dude. You really don’t know about Lindsey Graham...? It’s been rumored for decades now that he’s not straight.
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Yes just googled log cabin. Of course I guessed he was and probably so has 99% the US. So if we all know/have guessed then why the heck doesn’t he just acknowledge it. It’s irrelevant, well it would be it was being used as blackmail. Why doesn’t someone tell him the world knows and couldn’t give a toss.

Are you sure there isn’t something else?
 
Red Defence said:
SC or not, they all know and they vote for him anyway.
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No. They don’t “know”. There’s a big difference in the south between “oh that’s just a rumor” and being out in the open about it.

You’re talking about southern baptists here. It’s not that they don’t visit the liquor store, it’s that they don’t talk to you if you see them in there and never ever mention it on Sunday morning.

The Southern “honor culture” is something that’s been studied by psychologists and sociologists for awhile now. It leads to denial of obvious truths and the preservation of appearances for the sake of honor and reputation. Things may be rumored, but that can be dismissed as gossip and overlooked. What can’t happen is for your transgressions to be made public.
 
Carolina Red said:
No. They don’t “know”. There’s a big difference in the south between “oh that’s just a rumor” and being out in the open about it.

You’re talking about southern baptists here. It’s not that they don’t visit the liquor store, it’s that they don’t talk to you if you see them in there and never ever mention it on Sunday morning.
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Perhaps it’s time for him to come out and stand as a Dem somewhere else. Either that or he suffers blackmail and loses his seat to boot.

Every single time I see or hear him my stomach badly knots up. Better to come out of the closet than live through the hell he’s living through now. Do you think he’ll keep his seat in 2020?
 
Red Defence said:
Perhaps it’s time for him to come out and stand as a Dem somewhere else. Either that or he suffers blackmail and loses his seat to boot.

Every single time I see or hear him my stomach badly knots up. Better to come out of the closet than live through the hell he’s living through now. Do you think he’ll keep his seat in 2020?
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Barring any scandalous revelation? He will win it in a landslide.
 
Red Defence said:
So he’s popular enough to win it but all those voters will vote for the Dem candidate if he “comes out?” Or just not vote at all?
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You need to read up on the honor culture of the American South.

Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the longest serving senator in history at the time of his death, literally held a 24 hour filibuster to oppose civil rights legislation and ran for president as a “Dixiecrat”. He had a secret love child with a black woman that worked for his parents way back in 1925. This wasn’t revealed until after his death at the age of 100 in 2003.
 
Carolina Red said:
You need to read up on the honor culture of the American South.

Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the longest serving senator in history at the time of his death, literally held a 24 hour filibuster to oppose civil rights legislation and ran for president as a “Dixiecrat”. He had a secret love child with a black woman that worked for his parents way back in 1925. This wasn’t revealed until after his death at the age of 100 in 2003.
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It’s something that should be addressed. If none of your politicians can “come out” (are there any who have come out?) then they are all subject to blackmail from national or international players. It’s a huge security risk.

If it’s not going to be addressed then all and any candidates should be vetted before being allowed to stand.
 
Red Defence said:
It’s something that should be addressed. If none of your politicians can “come out” (are there any who have come out?) then they are all subject to blackmail from national or international players. It’s a huge security risk.

If it’s not going to be addressed then all and any candidates should be vetted before being allowed to stand.
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We actually had a state level legislator elected a couple years ago who ended up coming out during the election. He was running unopposed at the time. As soon as he came out though, another republican challenged him via write in campaign and almost won.
 
Carolina Red said:
We actually had a state level legislator elected a couple years ago who ended up coming out during the election. He was running unopposed at the time. As soon as he came out though, another republican challenged him via write in campaign and almost won.
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So he came out and still managed to win. Well that’s good, it’s a start anyway. Hopefully Buttigieg will have led the way for more to do the same. There seems to be a few GOPs who could benefit from following his example.
 
Red Defence said:
So he came out and still managed to win. Well that’s good, it’s a start anyway. Hopefully Buttigieg will have led the way for more to do the same. There seems to be a few GOPs who could benefit from following his example.
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Yeah but he went from massive unopposed majority to barely winning.

And he won representing a city full of transplants from up north that have started moving here in the last 20 years for work.
 
Carolina Red said:
No. They don’t “know”. There’s a big difference in the south between “oh that’s just a rumor” and being out in the open about it.

You’re talking about southern baptists here. It’s not that they don’t visit the liquor store, it’s that they don’t talk to you if you see them in there and never ever mention it on Sunday morning.

The Southern “honor culture” is something that’s been studied by psychologists and sociologists for awhile now. It leads to denial of obvious truths and the preservation of appearances for the sake of honor and reputation. Things may be rumored, but that can be dismissed as gossip and overlooked. What can’t happen is for your transgressions to be made public.
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I’ve never heard of the term southern honor culture until now, but seeing it explained, I could definitely see that in areas of the south I grew up in.
 
183 Republicans vote against making prescription drugs cheaper

Republicans also rejected provisions aimed at strengthening protections for people with preexisting conditions.

House Democrats overcame massive opposition from Republicans to pass a bill aimed at reining in prescription drug costs and protecting people with preexisting conditions. The measure, the
MORE Health Education Act, passed Thursday evening by a 234-183vote, with all the no votes coming from Republicans.

Only 5 Republicans sided with all the chamber's Democrats in supporting the bill.

"We've seen repeated and ongoing attempts by President Trump and Congressional Republicans to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and threaten access to care for families across the country," Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) told Shareblue Media. In response, she said Democrats are "advancing legislation to lower the costs of care and prescription drugs while at the same time stabilizing our health care system."


The bill Kuster and Democrats supported contains a variety of measures aimed at two broad goals: lowering prescription drug costs and stopping some of Trump's attempts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

To address prescription drug costs, the bill would restrict the ability of generic drug manufacturers from blocking competitors, thus cracking down on anticompetitive behavior by pharmaceutical companies.

The bill also contains several provisions to roll back attempts of the Trump administration to push junk health insurance plans to the general public. These plans, which Trump and Republicans champion, do not contain the protections for people with preexisting conditions enshrined in the ACA, such as ensuring costs are not higher and that people with preexisting conditions cannot be denied health insurance.

Further, the bill would add $100 million in funding for the program that helps people sign up for health insurance through the ACA, as well as restore funding for marketing and outreach so more people are aware of the health care options under the ACA.

"People in New Hampshire and across the country made clear in 2018 that they want Congress to work to improve our health care system and abandon the partisan efforts to eliminate the law," Kuster said.

"Yet, the Trump Administration is in court trying to eliminate the Affordable Care Act in its entirety," Kuster said, referring to Trump's attempt to destroy the ACA. "Our efforts are gaining support from some Republicans in the House and it's time for Senator McConnell to put the American people ahead of his partisan agenda and bring our bills up for a vote," she added.

As Democrats lined up to support the health care measure, Republicans spent their time complaining to reporters about the vote.

"I'm not very happy at all," Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) whined to Politico about Democrats' decision to address both prescription drug costs and Trump's ACA sabotage in the same bill. "They know that we're not going to be able to support this, and for them to put that in there I think is just poor policy," Carter added.

Republicans claim to be in favor of reducing prescription drug costs, but their vote against the measure shows they care more about siding with Trump's efforts to sabotage the health care of millions of Americans.

Thursday's vote marks the first time Republicans have opposed addressing prescription drug costs, and the third time in the past six weeks Republicans voted against the interests of people with preexisting conditions.

Like Trump, Republicans in Congress refuse to take actions to help address the pressing health care needs facing millions of Americans.
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Look at these cowards.
Mr Hoyer told CNN that impeachment would not be "worthwhile". He said: "Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement."

Nancy Pelosi told the Washington Post that impeaching Mr Trump is "just not worth it."
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Most of Congress, the president and the courts work for those in power. They do not work for the American people.
Each election cycle, false hope is given with some malleable candidates.

the usual line is 'He or she is better than the guy in power'.

Those in power will never want someone who actually is interested in serving ordinary people.
They will use all the tools available to discredit/damage the person.

the final tool has not been needed.....since 1963.

To think these people will simply allow anyone to take their power away is to be extremely naive.
 
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Red Defence said:
No, I know that. Think I must be missing what you are trying to say.
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Linked this above.

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/Unspeakable/COPA2009.html

Truman's statement is important.
The fact that the CIA and other agencies were set up for the purpose of providing information and be accountable quickly went astray.
These agencies hide behind the Doctrine of Plausible Deniability. So they can be controlled by people outside elected officials if needed to further their agendas.



Truman Warns About The CIA

The man who proposed this secret, subversive process in 1948, diplomat 13] President Harry Truman, under whom the CIA was created, and during whose presidency the plausible deniability doctrine was authorized, had deep regrets. in a statement on December 22, 1963:

For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. . . .

We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it. [14]
Truman later remarked: 15]

President Truman’s sharp warning about the CIA, and the fact that warning was published one month to the day after JFK’s assassination, should have given this country pause. However, his statement appeared only in an early edition of The Washington Post, then vanished without comment from public view.

What George Kennan and Harry Truman realized much too late was that, in the name of national security, they had unwittingly allowed an alien force to invade a democracy. As a result, we now had to deal with a government agency authorized to carry out a broad range of criminal activities on an international scale, theoretically accountable to the president but with no genuine accountability to anyone.

Plausible deniability became a rationale for the CIA’s interpretation of what the executive branch’s wishes might be. But for the Agency’s crimes to remain plausibly deniable, the less said the better to the point where CIA leaders’ creative imaginations simply took over. It was all for the sake of “winning” the Cold War by any means necessary and without implicating the more visible heads of the government.

One assumption behind Kennan’s proposal unleashing the CIA for its war against Communism was that the Agency’s criminal power could be confined to covert action outside the borders of the United States, with immunity from its lethal power granted to U.S. citizens. That assumption proved to be wrong.
 
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