http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/13...age-239459

Can a Clinton friend be a true progressive? Can he shake off the connection, and does he have the stuff and background to win?

Well, as you may know, he scores at least 11-2 on my horoscope system, and maybe even better if he was born in the morning. The only possible candidate who scores higher is "America's new mayor" Mitch Landrieu at 15-2, whose style also echoes Bill Clinton's (who scored 21-3 with Jupiter rising).

McAuliffe looks past the Clintons, toward 2020
The Virginia governor is revving up his fundraising machine to boost Democrats — and his own prospects.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 
06/13/2017 05:16 AM EDT



As for Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe said she never asked him to join her PAC. He said he didn’t even know what it was called. | Bridget Mulcahy/POLITICO



Terry McAuliffe thinks Hillary Clinton has said enough — which is where he comes in.
He loves her. He feels for her. He believes her 2016 campaign was sunk in part by Russians actively “destabilizing our democracy,” aided by “treasonous” Americans advising them.

He also thinks she needs to stop talking about it.

“We, as a party, need to understand what happened,” the Virginia governor said in the latest episode of POLITICO’s Off Message podcast. “My advice would be to Hillary, ‘There’s enough people that will do that and get that information out.’”

McAuliffe still talks to Bill Clinton every day, sometimes several times a day. They’ve talked in passing about a White House run. The former president has said he’s supportive of whatever his friend does but keeps urging him to focus on finishing strong in Virginia.

As for Hillary Clinton, McAuliffe said she never asked him to join her PAC. He said he didn’t even know what it was called.
“What is the name of it?” he asked.
“Onward Together,” he’s told.
“Terrific,” he said.
“Like ‘Stronger Together,’” he’s reminded.
“Got it,” he said. “Very clever.”

McAuliffe has his own PAC, and his own plans: throwing himself behind the winner of Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the job he can’t run for again (which would be an important way of protecting a record he’d want to run on), spending all of next year campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial candidates around the country (which just might give him important beachheads ahead of 2020), urging his party away from the purity-test purge that’s all the rage these days (which would help protect him from the inevitable attacks that he’s not a true progressive, in touch with the presidential base).

“I’m trying to run a progressive state, putting progressive values out there. At the same time, making sure everybody has an opportunity for a job,” McAuliffe said in the interview. 
“I call it more values and a moral structure than labeling anything. The values of open and welcoming: pro-women’s rights, pro-gay rights, pro-environment, anti-gun. Those are a value system. You know, that’s who I am.”

No one should be talking about 2020, he said. He has said he’s making the case for Democrats in 2018 that just happens to be the case for doing what he did. Clinton pitched herself as a progressive who gets things done; McAuliffe is going with a progressive who gets people jobs.

“What I’m proud of is that people who would never listen to me on these topics before are now open to listening to me because the metrics, the job creation, they’ve had to say, ‘Well, I guess he’s right,’” he said.

But mention to top Democrats the White House run McAuliffe is cooking — by his account, still very much in we’ll-see territory; according to another insider, almost down to the question of whether to announce in December ’18 or January ’19 — and the word “Really?” gets thrown around a lot. Bill Clinton’s best friend? The guy who went into business with Hillary’s brother and ended up under FBI investigation? Who’s a one-name D.C. character, who already had a ridiculous nickname he was using himself 30 years ago: “Mary,” he “coos” in a 1987 Maureen Dowd column about the manic fundraising that had already made him Jimmy Carter’s national finance director at 23, “it’s your main man, the Macker. Got any wild dates this weekend?”

Separate him from the happy huckster insider caricature, and it makes more sense: a popular swing-state governor with a record to run on, a business background, and more connections to donors than any first-time presidential candidate ever. And no one outside the circles in which he’s famous for being the man working over donors or starring in Clinton conspiracy-theory fan fiction knows who he is (though it is true he had a chicken named “Hillary” who died right before the election, replaced by “Hillary Jr.”).

“Anyone who first knew him 30 years ago, you would have said great fundraiser, great guy. No one would have thought of him as a plausible president,” said Bob Shrum, the Democratic consultant who knew him then, when they were working on Dick Gephardt’s 1988 campaign. “The governorship of Virginia has changed him.”

And then there’s the other thought running through Democrats about 2020: “Maybe we need our own Trump.”

He’s not the guy you can see as president of the United States, goes the thinking, and that’s exactly why he needs to run. As for the Clinton connections, he may not want to run Hillary Clinton’s third presidential campaign, but he can run only so far. They couldn’t be closer. He guaranteed the mortgage on their house in Washington.

“Another candidate might not be able to get away with that, but Terry is such a big personality and so engaging, optimistic and happy, I see how he could pull that off,” said a veteran of the Clinton orbit. “He doesn’t have the ideal bio from which to run, but he’s a good athlete.”

McAuliffe can be both kooky and confrontational, like when he sparked a mini-blowup by offering up in an interview during last year’s Democratic convention that Clinton would of course reverse herself and back the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal once she won, or the story he tells about confronting Trump at the National Governors Association dinner at the White House in February: “I looked him face to face, four inches from his eyeballs, and said, ‘Everything you have done has hurt my economy.’”

Back in his Democratic National Committee chairman days, it was a reliable laugh line that he’d call every congressman “the greatest congressman in the country,” and he said he enjoys still being that guy. He takes credit for getting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi involved in the fundraising roadshow they’ve been doing together with Eric Holder on behalf of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, saying he called her with the idea the day after Clinton lost, though both had already been part of a preliminary redistricting pitch to donors in Philadelphia the afternoon before Clinton’s convention acceptance speech.


He exaggerates. He shoots his mouth off. He throws wild pitches.

He’s fine with people calling him a sort of Bizarro Trump, though he doesn’t get the reference.

“I have, luckily, boundless energy. I think everything is great. But yeah, I have fun,” McAuliffe said. “Listen, too many people are lemon suckers in politics today. I mean, at the end of the day, I have been successful by motivating people. People want to be with winners, not whiners.”

In 2013, McAuliffe got more votes than any Democrat ever running for Virginia governor, but nonetheless squeaked out a 2.5-percentage-point win, despite outspending Ken Cuccinelli by $30 million and running right after the government shutdown that dented many Virginians’ bank accounts.

Republicans’ first opposition research presentation on him, from 2013, is as accurate now as it would be in 2020, from the “28 lies, 21 half-truths, 2 overstatements, 2 mostly-false statements” identified in his 2008 memoir “What a Party!” to the section “Special emphasis — McAuliffe the Businessman” and the statement “McAuliffe insists he’s not running for governor simply because he had time on his hands once Hillary Clinton’s campaign derailed.”

Then there’s the presentation’s “What Manner of Man?” section that captures how, despite McAuliffe driving them crazy, Republicans can’t help but like him at least a little. The bullet points:
• Restless, obsessive — routinely stays up all night with Bill Clinton
• Sleeps no more than four hours most days
• Seven or eight cups of coffee each day
• Obsessive about golf
• Claims to have run a three-hour marathon (1980)
• Starts with a beer, before moving to something stronger




Under “Limitations,” the document reads, “Be alert to McAuliffe pals in GOP ranks,” identifying those as “golfing buddies, ex-party chairs, anyone whose support can be bought.”

“Terry McAuliffe is Bill Clinton without the women,” said Chris LaCivita, who was the general strategist for Cuccinelli’s campaign. LaCivita meant that as sort of a compliment, sort of not.

“They don’t know what to make of me,” McAuliffe has often gushed.

McAuliffe likes bragging about the record number of vetoes he’s sent back to the GOP-dominated state Legislature and said he’s proudest of restoring voting rights to felons who have served their sentences. He’s eagerly joining national fights, joining the state Climate Alliance formed after Trump announced the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and pardoning a woman who faced deportation after she was pulled over at a traffic stop because, he said, he wanted to make a statement even if he couldn’t stop the federal government from kicking her out.

The Virginia Republican Party is leaning in, accusing him of pardoning the woman as a ploy for George Soros’ affections ahead of 2020 to try to rustle up some more dollars. So, “If the thought of President Terry McAuliffe makes you sick to your stomach give $5, $10, $25, or $50 to stop him now.”

Just wait until they dig into his record as governor, LaCivita said. Just wait until they smack him with those Clinton ties to voters, while he’s working over his image with Beltway reporters. He won’t seem so enticing then.

“Politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” LaCivita said. “If you were to ask a blind question on a poll, what do you think of this, does it sound good? Of course it sounds good. But so does ice cream every day for a week, until you’ve eaten it for seven days. It certainly sounds good, but then you’re stuck with the end result.”

And Democrats are still processing the idea of this themselves. The guy who’s chased them down at parties and on the phone, running for president?

“What person,” said Jay Jacobs, the megadonor and former New York State Democratic Party chair, “who runs for president doesn’t call me for money?”

(06-09-2017, 04:43 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I tried to move this discussion, without luck so far.

Has it started yet?

I think sometimes we all need to vent.

I'll start.

One thing I can't stand is shitty email thread discipline.

Let's say someone sends an email out, asking a question / status / etc.

I read and respond to the mail, replying all, with a well crafted response that includes additional direction to others on the thread.

Then .... along comes that guy or gal.

They don't respond to my response, they respond to the initial mail. What's really bad is when that person's mail contradicts what I wrote, or causes confusion by being less clear. What's even worse, is, when I added people to the thread in my response, then, that guy or gal adds a different, possibly overlapping, possibly different group.

This is how threads branch, and sometimes, result in a absolute, clusterfucked up, shit storm.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Thread for the discussion of the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey. The public testimony is on Thursday morning (June 8); the closed testimony, likely to involve classified data. will be held this afternoon.

I thought of something to add to the discussion about quantum theory I was having with Bob, because I mentioned he might still be in the Saturn/brown stage in planetary dynamics in regard to his Newtonian views (the Saturn era being the last stage of the agricultural age, the age of kings and early western science). He claims Many Worlds is an interpretation of quantum theory that takes us beyond the Newtonian paradigm, and that emotion is a factor in the outcome of probabilities.

Plato and Heidegger as philosophers don't agree on a whole lot, but they both said that "care" is a determinative factor in human reality, at least. Care is an emotion, in a sense, and it could also be called love. Consciousness, which is recognized as a factor in updated Copenhagen versions of quantum theory, entered quantum theory as "the observer" which affects experiments. Care is a conscious emotion, and more than this, it is intentional. It conveys interest, or purposive behavior.

June distinguished "emotion" from "feeling." The latter includes love and caring, which are identified with F-feeling on many test questions of MBTI. People with strong F are those who care about relationships and people. Emotion, Jung said, was more reactive; an automatic physical expression. But IF emotion is taken to mean something like care or love, then Bob's physics enters territory compatible with existential and essentialist philosophy and with mystical awareness, in which the universe may be uncertain and spontaneous, but not "random," because there is intention within it.

The Nationalism I refer to is not based on:
- Ethnicity
- Political Party
- Race
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Nationality of origin

Or any other personal characteristic.

It is based solely on a deeply held belief in formative principles and a life long commitment to defend and uphold the US Constitution.

Imagine the formations which are possible based on this type of Nationalist concept. We could have a Citizens' Army that includes everyone from Communists to Constitutional Conservatives. The only exclusions would be for Totalitarians and others who do not believe in:
- Rule of law (and specifically, the Anglo-American constructs inherited from English Common Law)
- Human Rights
- The Scientific Method
- The "Arrow of Progress" described in this Forum by Bob Butler.
- Equal Opportunity
- And other classically American freedoms and positive rights

There are among our great land promising Arch Generals who are not caught up in the dark, negative patterns we have witnessed latterly in the 2016 Election and in or around the Trump Administration, White Nationalism, Duginism, Alt-Right, etc.

The ability to marshal greatness is not limited to any particular political group or set of them. There is an element in the human spirit which can align with marshaling of the good tenets of human progress and natural rights.

Let us begin the process.

There have been a number of alarming incidents lately.

Trump hails 'great win in Montana' for candidate who body-slammed Guardian reporter

Reporter Arrested in West Virginia After Persistently Asking Questions of Tom Price

A Jury Just Convicted a Woman for Laughing At Jeff Sessions

As far as I know Trump has said nothing about this incident, which happened the day he welcomed Erdogan to the White House:

Turkey Demands US Apology For Interrupting As Erdogan's Bodyguards Beat Up Protesters

Quote:Teenagers born after 2000 - the so-called 'Generation Z' - are the most socially conservative generation since the Second World War, a new study has found.
The youngsters surveyed had more conservative views on gay marriage, transgender rights and drugs than Baby Boomers, Generation X or Millennials.
The questioned were more prudent than Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers but not quite as cash-savvy as those born in 1945 or before. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3790614/They-don-t-like-drugs-gay-marriage-HATE-tattoos-Generation-Z-conservative-WW2.html#ixzz4hc4xPo3f
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Quote:Forget Millennials.  A new generation is coming of age:  Generation-Z.

It’s being heralded as the most conservative generation since 1945.

One reason, according to Charlie Peters, a member of that generation in Great Britain, is their love of freedom.  Not long ago, that impulse led young people to embrace the causes of the Left.  But now the Left is associated with suppressing freedom.

Now that Generation-Zs are entering the university, they are chafing against the Leftist establishment’s rejection of free speech.  These young people, Peters observes, grew up on the internet and social media where people can hold any position and say whatever they want.  So when they come to the university with its speech codes and taboo ideas, they don’t like it.  So they are becoming conservatives.

Anita Hill hearing in 1991 when the Silent had a peak majority in the Senate (65 out of 100). I wonder how a hearing like this would go now with a Boomer-dominated Senate. I'm guessing a lot less collegial and more openly combative. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc7KSINLF5U