I get the feeling there's some very desperate attempts at wedging right now.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Here at DU, the Democratic Party and all across the left-leaning political spectrum in general.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and anything to divide and conquer.

And make no mistake about it, it is already a very desperate time for one Mr. Donald J. Trump and his hardcore supporters.

[RKP5637]

1. I'm feeling the same. n/t

[CincyDem]

2. The more a majority shrinks, the more they invest in wedging minorities to minimize coalitions.

Politics 101.

It's like the two guys in the woods who come upon a bear. As the bear starts to chase them, one guy stops to put on his running shoes. The other says "what are you doing - you can't outrun that bear". His response: "I don't have to. I only have to outrun you".

I know, old joke but i think it fits.

The shrinking majority doesn't have to be more than 50%...it only needs to be bigger than the biggest minority coalition.

Welcome to the Apartheid, American Style.

[rzemanfl]

3. With a bot army as allies. n/t

[FSogol]

4. +1, Exactly. n/t

[hamsterjill]

5. Feeling the same here, too.

Do you remember when DU had the rule that a member had to reach 1000 posts to be able to start a new discussion? I do. I remember finally meeting my 1000th post and knowing I could start a topic if I wanted.

I seriously think that rule needs to be brought back.

[Weekend Warrior]

6. "a member had to reach 1000 posts"

That sounds like a very good rule. Tho I do see some people who have been here a long time and have yet to reach 1000 posts. Maybe 1000 or six months.

[hamsterjill]

7. I could agree with a time frame.

My post count isn't massively high for the amount of time I've been here, so I see your point. A lot of us don't post all day, every day, and many of us don't bother to add to a discussion when our points have already been made by others.

Six months sounds reasonable.

[Hekate]

18. Take it up with the Admins

Tho as long as we're on the topic of time vs posts, there are an unguessable number of sleepers and socks. When I alert, I check the date they joined. Believe it or not, there have been folks who started their account over a decade ago, posted very little or not at all, then "woke up" just to post something vile and anti-democratic. I always wonder who else they've been on the board.

[JusticeForAll]

28. I only hit 1000 a couple years back

...And I've been here 15 years. Definitely prefer a combined time/post rule!

[klook]

61. I remember seeing threads where new members posted 20 or 30 short messages

back and forth in a thread, openly exulting in their ballooning post count. I wonder how many of those posters eventually dined on DU pizza.

The system can always be gamed.

[uponit7771]

8. Yeap, every week there's a who's next thread that creeps me out too

[Squinch]

36. And then the ones that generally go like this: "IMO, in three weeks, aliens will land in

Passaic New Jersey. I feel that they will all have Ruth Bader Ginsberg's face, and they will eat our heads."

Always some completely crazy prediction, followed by anger at anyone who questions it or points out that it's crazy.

[jberryhill]

42. Yup

[jberryhill]

41. Yup

Each day I've started wondering who is going to be put on the dunking stool today.

[Vinnie From Indy]

9. I stay out of the nonsense

I know what my principles and values are.

[populistdriven]

10. Timed Perfectly With This Crap:

Jonathan Swan Jul 2
Scoop: Bannon pushes tax hike for wealthy
https://www.axios.com/scoop-bannon-pushes-tax-hike-for-wealthy-2452197801.html

Complete Propaganda

[Wounded Bear]

13. Much like the Repub "single payer health care" bill last week...

Always consider the source.

Always.

[moonscape]

50. Propaganda by whom? Bannon? n/t

[not fooled]

54. Well, one credible point in that article

is that pukes are interested in pushing for tax cuts for the wealthy even if the deficit blows up as a result. No problem putting the country more in debt in order to funnel more money to the rich.

[MoonRiver]

11. The cockroaches are coming out of the woodwork. eom

[tiredtoo]

12. Just posting here to increase my post count

(Sarcasm in title.) I too see some wedging going on and fight almost daily to put an end to it.

[dawg]

21. +1

[dawg]

22. This.

This exactly!

[dawg]

23. Kicking for later.

See how that works?

[Wounded Bear]

14. I feel you Tommy...

and I tend to stay out of those "discussions" as much as possible. Too many folks around here drawing lines and screaming out superlatives in lieu of real debate.

[bora13]

15. pull it

He's a bug on a rug without a drug until they pull the plug

[Hekate]

52. What does that even mean

[elehhhhna]

16. Hell, the DCC is trying to wedge us with the abortion issue

Trolled and abused by our own fucking party

[Hekate]

53. You're sure about that? Our 2016 platform is still in effect.

[lunasun]

57. Yes I'm pretty sure this still goes

Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion—regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured. We believe that reproductive health is core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing. We will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers, which provide critical health services to millions of people. We will continue to oppose—and seek to overturn—federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion, including by repealing the Hyde Amendment. We condemn and will combat any acts of violence, harassment, and intimidation of reproductive health providers, patients, and staff. We will defend the ACA, which extends affordable preventive health care to women, including no- cost contraception, and prohibits discrimination in health care based on gender.

[elehhhhna]

59. Can we send a copy of that to the DCC?

[Hekate]

17. Two separate topics in point at DU: Kamala Harris & abortion rights. Presented as "concerns"...

Yeah, sure. Presented as concerns.

Kamala Harris is being anointed for 2020 and the Dem Party gonna support anti-choice candidates

And they're off! My fellow DUers are drooling and barking like Pavlov's Dogs! Running in circles! Screaming at each other!

Bejayzus, people.

[NurseJackie]

19. It's totally obvious to me what's going on ... why can't others see it and do something about it?

#StrongerTogether

[Hekate]

25. Some people are easily triggered. Some aren't happy unless they're slugging it out.

And some people just like to stir shit.

It gets to be a drag.

[pnwmom]

30. I wonder why they feel so threatened by Kamala Harris? Probably because she's such

a strong candidate.

[Wounded Bear]

55. Me? I'm just not in the mood to discuss 2020 yet...

we have a lot on our plate just to do well in 2018, and all the in-fighting won't help, I think.

[pnwmom]

60. DT is already officially raising money for his 2020 campaign.

Unless Citizens V. United has been repealed, we need to raise money to compete.

[R B Garr]

58. I think the anti-Kamala Harris drumbeat started taking fire after her

fundraising event with Clinton donors just recently. Corporations oligarchs third way wall street, on and on. So inane and self-defeating.

[BannonsLiver]

32. More like irrational rage

I just read an OP that stated the party would now be welcoming racists and ant semites to the fold.

[Squinch]

35. Yes. Exactly. And though the abortion fight is one that I will always fight in the real world,

I'm not taking the bait with these obvious attempts by trolls to divide and conquer. (It's hard though!)

For the jury: I'm not saying that the people posting the threads here are necessarily trolls, but there are trolls seeding the issue into the zeitgeist of the week, so that the articles are picked up here and cause melees.

It's time for party discipline. We have always been easily divided, but we need to learn how to present different "public" and "private" faces, just like the Republicans. It's the one thing we can learn from them.

[Hekate]

43. This

[Salviati]

44. Agreed, and I think this is part of what helps feed the trolls that infect the site

Again, not everyone who participates in those threads is a troll, but that's the mark of a successful troll, they get you to fight with each other, not themselves. The disconnect is whether we think about DU as a place where we wear our public or our private faces. I think in times where we should be expecting lots of external attacks, it's best to view DU as someplace to wear our public faces, and defend those we mostly agree with, even if we do have reservations that we would not hesitate getting into in a more personal setting.

[Freethinker65]

45. Yep

[orangecrush]

20. I get the feeling

That you are 110% correct.

[LanternWaste]

24. Posts using "anointed" in reference to a Democratic candidate are leading indicators

I honestly believe that posts using "anointed" in reference to any viable Democratic candidate are leading indicators of trolling. Rather desperate trolling, at that.

[Hekate]

48. Yep. And they work.

[yardwork]

62. I hope we've seen the last of that word.

[C_U_L8R]

26. Desperate but not serious

The wedgies (or is its wedgors) are pretty obvious and hamfisted.
Don't feed the trolls when you see 'em. It seems to be the season.

[renegade000]

27. Absolutely

It's also bizarre in that pretty much any stance taken by the Democratic party is going to be criticized from pretty much any direction. I distinctly remember that after the election there were voices critical about how the dems needed to reach out to economic progressives regardless of their views on choice.

[BannonsLiver]

31. I wonder

If those who are worked up and consumed by hyperbole and drama were paying attention in 2006 when the party recruited a half dozen house candidates who were not adamantly pro choice?

What's changed since then? Oh that's right, coordinated efforts by a foreign power to influence Dems to self imolate.

[byronius]

29. Absolutely.

Hail Mary passes being thrown all over the place. 'SOS' going out as the water reaches the engine room.

And may they sink down forever.

[Doug the Dem]

33. Team Trumps pileup of fake conspiracies: Best possible way to conceal the real one

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/02/trumps-pileup-of-fake-conspiracies-best-possible-way-to-conceal-the-real-one/

Most of us, when growing up, were exposed to the Aesop’s fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” The story — in which a boy repeatedly pretends to have seen a wolf and loses all credibility, causing people to ignore him when he really is attacked by a wolf — was presumably meant to be a tale warning children about the dangers of lying.

But President Donald Trump and his minions appear to have learned the lesson backwards or upside down: If you have a real wolf that you want to hide, then your best bet is to cry wolf until people wouldn’t know a real wolf even if it was staring them in the face.

Last week, while much of the cable news and White House reporter pool was obsessing over flash-in-the-pan Anthony Scaramucci (I’m guilty too!), a far more important story was spooling out at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. A businessman named Bill Browder was explaining what he learned working in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. His testimony could provide the information that brings together a true understanding of what’s really going on with Trump and Russia.

LET'S NOT LOSE FOCUS!

[H2O Man]

34. Agree

recommended

[Iggo]

37. I don't even think they're desparate.

I think they see easy pickings and they're having a good old time.

[stonecutter357]

38. it's russian trolls amd RWNJ's

[Hekate]

49. Not always so easy to spot

[GoneOffShore]

39. The 'invincible ignorance' of Dolt45 supporters is amazing.

[jberryhill]

40. Yup

[Skittles]

46. are you referring to our latest pathetic troll wave?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Leith]

47. I'm Glad That I'm Not the Only One

I see it this way: if a candidate is a member of the Democratic party and believes and stands for most of what I do - AND that the rethug is for the opposite (which is always the case) - I will NOT start whining, yelling, or complaining that our candidate is not in lockstep with me. I will vote for the Democratic candidate. I will not sit out the election.

I will use my intelligence to see that the Democratic candidate is clearly the better one and vote for him or her. This whining that certain citizens are being shoved into second class status is imbecilic, divisive, and wrong. It would be terrific if DU members would quit falling for that shit.

[Skidmore]

51. Yes.

Something smells.

[pansypoo53219]

56. DIVIDE AND CONQUER!

[FreepFryer]

63. Yerp. Annoying, but gratifying to see them in such fear. We've got their number (n/t)