Posts Made By: David Cotterell

When Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme court, virtually every prominent Republican indicated that they would not proceed with dealing with the nomination until after the election. They cited as a main reason that a President in the last year of an 8-year term does not have a viable mandate for such a nomination. There was an extremely consistent statement from all of these Republicans - "Let the people decide!" "Wait until the election is over." There is a boatload of videos with McCain and other prominent congressmen saying this with great clarity. I'm not questioning these tactics - they actually seem somewhat reasonable to me - merely stating how they were clearly the Republican position some months ago when Garland was nominated.

Recently, however, there have been strong statements from all those same congress men saying that if Clinton wins the election there will be no approval of any Clinton nominee during her entire 4 years of office. They will obstruct any Clinton nominees with their greatest efforts. Again, there have been unmistakeable public statements to this effect from most prominent Republicans..

My question(s): What happened to "Let the people decide?" What happened to "Wait until the election is over?" Are the Republicans going to block every and any Clinton nominee for four years??? Does the will of the people not matter?

Dave

While watching the election returns the other night one of the commentators briefly mentioned the following:

"The Electors from some states are not compelled to vote as their state's citizens voted while in other states the electors are mandated to vote the way their state's majority voted. The election isn't actually final until Dec. 19 (?) when the Electors cast their ballots. Some electors could counter/ignore/flip their state's vote..." The commentator left that to hang in mid-air and it was not discussed again. I have since seen a Facebook 'campaign' to get some electors to change from Trump to Hillary...

So, is the above statement true? If so, in which states do the electors have the freedom to ignore their state's vote? Is there historical precedent for this actually happening?

Thanks,

Dave

The Republicans WON. They won it all. White house, SCOTUS (as soon as a an R nominee or two gets in), all of congress - Senate Majority - House Majority, State governorships majority. Nothing in the way of your vision for America.

No more blaming Obama or Hillary....This is Trump America now. YOU run the show, its all on Trump, his Cabinet, his SCOTUS, his Congress.. no backing down, no shifting the blame henceforward..

Own it. Own ALL of it.

Good luck.

Dave

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/castro-death-celebration-sorrow-1.3869258?cmp=rss

A giant political figure, whether you were for him or against him. Part brutal dictator and part benevolent grandfather figure....

Dave

https://imgur.com/7xHaUXf

"Don't read this!" vs "Just No!!"

Dave

Trump issued the following tweet this morning: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!”

The man who is about to become President of the United States continues to exhibit a mean-spirited, thin-skinned, narcissistic and vindictive character. He sees the world in terms of personal wins or losses, enemies or friends, supporters or critics.

Trump hasn’t yet figured out that a president holds a position of public trust that transcends personal animus. A president is supposed to represent all Americans, including those who voted against him and continue to oppose him. In a democracy, those who fight against a president’s policies are not his personal “enemies;” they are political opponents and critics. A democracy depends on the freedom to oppose those in power, without fear of reprisal, without being labeled “enemies.”

Happy New Year, Donald. You now have 20 days to learn how to become a president.

What do you think?

And before you answer I'd like to confine the discussion to Mr. Trump. His personality - his behaviour - his tweets. No saying how horrible Hillary would have been. That doesn't matter anymore. No talking about Obama - he's done. Discuss Trump because, by every reasonable reading of U.S. election law, Trump won the Presidency fair and square.

Is he suited to the position?

Dave

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.
Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans.

The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good.

He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every above protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

Poor old Joe.

Not mine but spot on nevertheless..

Dave

So, according to some CNN is waaaaaay over there in its bias and, according to others, FoxNews is waaaaay over in the other direction in its bias.

Most people here, left and right, will assume a story is false simply because of the source.

So, let me ask, in all innocence, where do you get your news? What do you feel is an unbiased, give-both-sides news source?

Dave

"These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase "alternative facts”…

When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…

When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….

These are not normal times.

The press has never seen anything like this before. The public has never seen anything like this before. And the political leaders of both parties have never seen anything like this before.

What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. "A lie, is a lie, is a lie!" And if someone won't say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar's malignant reach into our society.

There is one group of people who can do a lot - very quickly. And that is Republicans in Congress. Without their support, Donald Trump's presidency will falter. So here is what I think everyone in the press must do. If you are interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official, the first question must be "what will you do to combat the lying from the White House?" If they dodge and weave, keep with the follow ups. And if they refuse to give a satisfactory answer, end the interview.

Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that question."*

In just a few days Trump and his minions have just begun to show their disrespect for the country they are supposed to be leading.

You are living in interesting times now...

*words found on the internet, btw...

Dave

-- a closer look...

Dave