Random Politics & Religion #17

Guess I should have quoted Vicious cause Ravael beat me and for some reason I still cannot edit.

She is fine, she puts loads of work into fundraising and she is a strong leader, the challenge to her leadership was about elevating the status of other people which happened.

And obviously, altima is still an idiot that doesn't know anything.
Good luck with that repeal and replace strategy, ACA is going to remain in effect for at least another 2 years and there won't be any replacement anytime soon. After gaining ground in the Senate and given his historically low approval rating, there is no reason for Dems to go along with the Trump "agenda."
Health Care, Immigration, Supreme Court? All need 8 Dem votes with no defections. I would bet on 0-1, depending on how Bernie Sanders is feeling that day.

When I said leadership I wasn't referring to the elected puppets but to the people giving them direction and marching orders. The Democrat party, like all political parties, has two different sets of leadership. The first is the elected leaders, these are the ones you vote for and act as a face or marketing force for the party. The majority of them are no more important then the sales person at your local store. The second set of leaders hold the real power, they decide which legislation gets crafted and what provisions are put into it. They chose who gets nominated for what position, they chose where campaign money gets directed to, they setup and control the various sources of party wealth and power. This group isn't elected and for the most part isn't even publicly known, they don't like having a public political face because it invites too much scrutiny and attention. Occasionally, when there is some scandal or suspected foul play, you might here ones name or see some short lived news clip on TV, but generally they don't make waves. Big shot bankers belong here along with the directors of various liberal foundations. In fact our current political climate is just the culmination of decades of two financial factions battling it out trying to cut each others financial sources and weapons.

Now there is another set of people involved, the power brokers. These are people with connections who have access to wealth and power but aren't a leader in a party. Instead the party leaders work with these power brokers to provide them with some benefit in exchange for support or connections for the party and it's public candidates. These folks usually don't have allegiances to anyone but themselves and actively buy politicians on both sides of the isle by pledging support to their non-elected leadership.


Trump belongs to the power broker group which is why both parties are pissing themselves about his getting elected. Power brokers aren't supposed to run for office, their supposed to buy other people's support instead. Power brokers are simply too independent and unpredictable, they don't have any allegiance to a political entity to serve as a leash for them.


So three sets total,

People who can get elected
People with the connections and control of party resources
People with access to wealth and non-party resources

The people in the middle arrange for the first to get elected by leveraging the resources of the third.

You're not wrong on either point. I'm glad you are able to lay that out for others around here. You have quite the talent for getting your point across for anyone who cares to read it.

Congressional approval ratings, according to Rasmussen, give Pelosi the highest unfavorability rating among the House and Senate leaders. Paul Ryan crushes her. She may be a "good leader" for Congress because, hey, everyone likes money, but she's bad for the image of the party.

As for the rest of your post... yeah, I'm holding this one for later. Exercise caution with your predictions.

Yeah ... the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction nowadays. Democrats are going to be slowly losing seats if they stick with the same game plan as before.

Since I was asked about the italian political scene in the past and elections could happen this year, this is what current polls say about our parties(described by their ideology for your understanding):

Populists: 30.3% (growing)
Socialdemocrats: 29.3% (stable)
Moderate right(pro EU): 12.3% (waning)
Extreme right: 12.1% (growing)
Moderate right(anti EU): 5.1% (waning)
Other left parties(socialists, commies, radicals): 5% (waning)
Centre: 4.1% (waning)

If the battle was reduced between socialdemocrats and populists then the latter would have the support of the extreme right and the anti-eu moderate conservatives, while the rest would be in favour of continuing with the left.
A right wing government is unthinkable because the conservatives are too split between pro eu, anti eu, fascists and centre(these guys basically just go with whoever wins lol).

And in more cyberwarfare news: italian aeronautics servers have been hacked, apparently the attackers were looking for "secrets" about F35 but they were stopped before they could get there(?)
Last year instead our defense ministry was apparently hacked too and everything available was stolen that time. Great. Hope you guys didn't share too much important info with our country.

Obviously they're saying it was Russia, but they don't really know for sure. Or they are just afraid of saying it out loud.
"I don't wanna say it was Russia but...you know, it was Russia."

*unplugs Russia's router*

Everything should be cool now.

Yeah CNN was a lot more disruptive to our process than France. ....or anyone else.

Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele's frustration as FBI sat on Donald Trump Russia file for months

Exclusive: Steele was so concerned by revelations he worked without payment after Trump's election victory in November
The Independent (UK)

Openers:
The FBI was first informed in June...

You are ignoring the most important point in the intelligence report that any of the suspected Russian involvement didn't change the outcome of the election

but I, for one, think the tinfoil hats looks great on you and encourage you to keept them on.

The Rasmussen poll from December? Pelosi is at 38% in that poll, the obstructionist Mitch McConnell is at 30%, and sinks into the teens in followup Economist polls. No one is less popular than McConnell, only because they really don't take polls on non Congressional leaders, otherwise I'm sure it would be Ted Cruz. Its not like Congress ever has high numbers anyway, Ryan is still riding the "Not Boehner" wave.

smh


Like everything else, I guess it's totally okay when the Democrats do it, right?

Yup, Altima.

The first coverup of the Trump administration.

And it really stinks.

As soon as a Democrat filibusters their own bill, then I'll agree with you.

The only thing that stinks...is this thread !

Pic courtesy of Wonkette.

Nothing wrong with Russian women peeing on you...trust me....

One of us will start #18 tomorrow.

Now go to sleep.