Mr.TaterSalad

Why is it that you often find out how much the most strident homophobes, like Haggard, enjoy eating hot dogs and pie respectively?

The core problem with the Bernie Sanders, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Democratic-Socialists of America (DSA) brand of socialism is they don't know what they want socialism to be. Therefore, they are running around using a term that can't be uniformly defined in a marketable, palatable manner for voters and a term that scares off 60% or more of the American electorate. I think if Bernie had stuck to promoting his big ideas like Medicare for All, Debt-Free College, Democratizing the workplace, etc. and not used the term socialism at all during the campaign, he would have fared better for himself. For me, the Meidner Plan in Sweden from the 1970's is the direction I'd like to see a "socialist" left go. We need to be promoting workplace democracy where workers get a say and decision making power of their own pay, benefits, time off, etc. But it needs to go beyond that too, workers who are employed at a company above a certain size/market share should get to vote for their CEO and Executive Board at large. CEO's, CFO's, COO's, CMO's, etc. should be chartered in a corporate constitution that governs and structures the basic tenants of the company and corporate elections where workers, NOT shareholders, get to vote and decide who leads their company and what direction it will take. Workers should also get a vote and say in major corporate decisions like company mergers and acquisitions, and new product line or service role outs, and more. No, a waiter or waitress at Applebees won't be deciding how many packages of frozen shrimp or napkins need to be ordered this week, nor will they vote on who gets promoted to Store Manager. But if the parent company of Applebees needs a new CEO or if the company decides it wants to merge with Chilis, Red Robin, or Olive Garden's parent company, workers would get a voice in that conversation. The article below give a decent review of Sweden's attempt at socialism with the Meidner Plan and I think the American left could learn a good deal from it. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/11/16/a-plan-to-win-the-socialism-sweden-nearly-achieved/#:~:text=The Meidner Plan was the,been in power for decades.

Democrats have unique problems that Republican don't. These center around the voters that make up the Democratic Party versus those who makeup the Republican Party. The MAGA movement and far right was able to successfully take over the Republican Party and the left/progressive movement has not done so for the Democratic Party. The MAGA movement and Tea Party before it took over the Republicans with some blowback politically but not as much as pundits thought. They won in landslide fashion in the 2010 midterms. They won again, albeit thanks to a flawed system, in 2016 when no one thought they could and pundits were laughing at their candidate and counting unhatched chickens with the Clinton campaign. They then successfully mitigated their losses in the House and held onto the Senate (even flipping a seat with Bill Nelson in Florida losing) when many pundits projected a total annihilation at the ballot box for them in 2018. After the financial crash and derivatives crisis of 2008-2009, that should have been the left's movement to take over. Occupy Wall Street and other progressive organizations should have been able to show the world the incestuous greed and guilt of Wall Street and Corporate America. Show how unfettered and unregulated capitalism wrecked people's lives and ruined them financially. Instead, the left was unable to gain any real traction and the Occupy movement faded, while the Tea Part succeeded. But a unique problem that the Democratic Party has versus the Republicans is that a 1/3rd to a 1/4th of their voters don't really want to be Democrats and only vote Democratic out of the necessity to vote for the lesser of the two evils. Many progressives do not like identifying as Democrats because they see Democratic leaders identifying as capitalists and in-favor of a corporatized society, run by greedy capitalist actors. Many progressives and democratic socialists/social democrats in the United States fundamentally disagree with and reject a core tenant of the party, capitalism. So you're constantly having to fend off progressive primary challenges from that side of the party, deal with a party moving to the left faster than the rest of the country is, and overcome the challenge of motivating an anti-capitalist voters to vote for candidates they feel are flawed and/or downright terrible people. The American Left is a third party without a home and it presents constant challenges for the Democratic Party in convincing them to vote blue year after year. When someone as awful and dangerous as Trump is on the ballot for President, they'll show up. But when that same awful, dangerous person is running for City Council, School Board, County Commission, State Legislature, or Congress, they don't always feel the need to show up and vote or participate in GOTV efforts. Democrats, the left included, care more about the Presidency than down ballot races because we've been trained to care. The other problem the Democratic Party faces that Republicans don't, as often, is the lazy voters within the party. As Motown Bombers has said time and again here, Democrats don't treat voting as a civic duty like Republicans do. We want a Barak Obama, Bill Clinton, or Gretchen Whitmer to come along and motivate and inspire us. When Dems don't feel inspired, they often don't vote. Republicans understand better the consequences than Democrats of what staying home an do. That's why even in "blue wave" election cycles, Republicans can still hold the Senate and mitigate their losses.

The Grand Rapids district where Peter Meijer represents is Biden +9. Kent County is trending heavily blue. Hillary Scholten, the Democratic candidate for the seat, will likely win whether it is Peter Meijer or Josh Gibbs (the MAGA candidate). That said, I don't like the strategy either because it's sort of how we ended up with Trump as a candidate and as President ultimately.

This. The fundamentalist seem to have a general world view that somehow the person being abused or the person raped is at fault.

No idea either. Must be why we've signed so much defensive depth.

I'd also sneak in some Tyler Childers . . .

If there was only one song I was allowed to listen to from here to the end, this would be it. What a beautiful piece of art written by Isbell here.

What a stupid sounding person. If I were under investigation for sex trafficking of a minor like Maddog Matt here I don't think I'd be talking about anyone's anything, physical appearance or otherwise.

What kind of prison sentence, if any, is Bannon looking at?

#Hawlinass now trending on Twitter. Love it!

Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney are doing a great job leading the Committee hearings tonight in the absence of Benny Thompson.

Has anyone seen the clip of Josh Hawley upholding his oath to the Constitution of the United States of America . . . Yeah, I haven't either. Fuck that guy, he deserves to go down with the Trump ship.

LOL!!!!!!!!! Another good one from Fetterman prior to the MLB Allstar Game . . .

Look at the dull bulb you supported. Windmills cause cancer. 😄😄😄

Wasn't Uwe Krupp considered an asshole? And so what if Tkachuk is an asshole, if he get 100+ pts and 40+ goals in a season, as long as he's not toxic in the locker room, who cares. No one will care what type of player Tkachuk is if he's raising and kissing the Cup in a winged wheel uniform.

I wasn't necessarily on or off the Murray wagon. I do think Murray is a talented QB, but that contracting looks like it could be an albatross if the cap doesn't rise fast enough and Murray doesn't play at an elite level. I'm still waiting to see, with little hope, what Goff can bring us this year and if Campbell and Ben Johnson can bring out his best game. If not, we've got the draft capital needed to possibly make a move up the draft ladder and go and get one of Stroud, Young, Richardson, whomever is at the top-tier of the QB class.

It would be like running for Dearborn Mayor and posing with a burger from Miller's in West Dearborn and a shawarma plate from LaShish in East Dearborn. What Oz is doing is the most phony, disingenuous kind of pandering and he looks like a dope doing it. It's all moot though if base democratic voters in urban/suburban areas and progressives don't bother to turn out.

Tim Ryan is doing the same thing in Ohio to San Francisco's own JD Vance. It remains to be seen if it will be effective in flipping any independent votes. It also remains to be seen if low turnout voters and younger progressives will bother showing up. Because even if Fetterman and Ryan flip independent voters with this strategy if our base voter doesn't turn out at a high enough rate it is all moot. That said, I really like the effort Fetterman and Ryan are putting in. Democrats fight way too nice sometimes and this is the kind of attack strategy that, as you said, is normally employed by Republicans.

What's the equivalent in baseball to going winless in football? Having the worst record of all time maybe in a single season? Going winless is a pretty bad stain upon a franchise.

That's sarcasm right?

I wouldn't think Calgary would agree to top 2 protection. I do agree, I would want a contract in place first too.

One more point of consideration, would Bertuzzi even be allowed to skate for a Canadian team given his vaccine status?

I guess it depends then on which direction Calgary is looking to take. No way they will be close to being as competitive as they were last year without Gaudreau and Tkchuck on the roster. So are they retooling or flat out rebuilding. If it is a full scale rebuild I could see them wanting our 1st and/or multiple 1sts. If they are retooling, your idea of giving up Bert + Hronek + some combo of Berggren/Elmer/Wallinder would seem to be the more realistic option as it gets them more NHL-ready players now.

As opposed to a player like Hronek or a non-1stround draft pick? Or as an in addition to all the the aforementioned picks and players?