International Politics Thread - Disease and Disaster

[Great Rumbler]

He's out there chopping off the heads of rich people?

[curly]

https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/983408251864846336?s=19

"The link between church and state has deteriorated, it is our duty to repair it."

Macron things he's the neoliberal Louis XIV.

[Momo]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/get-ready-russia-trump-announces-syrian-missile-strike-twitter-gas-killing-animal-assad/

[Corporal]

Germoney is happily selling arms to Saudi Arabia (and Egypt and Quatar) despite posturing earlier about immediately ceasing arms sales to any countries involved in Yemen - this was one of the major sticking points of the Great Coalition agreement. Saudia Arabia even became our biggest client in Q1/2018 by tripling the order volume over last year. Good going, there.
 

Also: A couple thousand Syrian fugitives that Germany already has accepted are now actively trying (and succeeding) to illegally smuggle themselves OUT of Germany and back to Turkey, via Greece. Up to 4000 may already be "missing". Some smugglers have already stopped their usual inwards route and have gone full time Greece->Turkey, it's that bad.
The reason: German policy has changed to a far less cooperative stance with regards to allowing family members of fugitives in. That is also due to the above GCA. The policy change was sent in writing to the fugitives in question, who understandably were less than thrilled about this.
In case you're curious: getting from Greece to Turkey by illegal means costs you around 200 Eurobucks.

Meanwhile, our army is trialing to bolster our utterly depleted reserve stockpile by training civilians with weekend courses. The hell. Oh well, if it's stupid and it works, then it ain't stupid. (I very much doubt it will work, though.) In other news, our Tornados still aren't fully night flight capable. The public became aware of that back in... 2012-ish, I think. Six years of nothing, in between.

Seven months ago, the German public voted. Four weeks ago, the ministers were sworn in. Yesterday, they had a 24 hour meeting to "reach working capacity", as Merkel herself put it. Only slightly kidding, they were locked into a room and only allowed out a few hours later.  I feel this Great Coalition thing is off to a great start. Well, the budget for 2018 needs to be finalized within the next three weeks or so, so at least one of them is probably beautifully spinning in place. I mean, so far we don't even know what the government wants to do beyond the somewhat vague GCA. This is like flying blind. At night. In a German Tornado.

[Nintex]

The Russians have made a massive error with their latest move to try and change the narrative.
https://twitter.com/JamieRoss7/status/984814807961489409

[hungrynoob]

[Great Rumbler]

woah if true

[hungrynoob]

Coming back to report its been confirmed twitter post is fake intel. But big conspiracy going on right now, something major going on behind the scenes. Keep an eye out for Iran before end of april not sure what just something.

[Great Rumbler]

Coming back to report its been confirmed twitter post is fake intel.

no way

[hungrynoob]

lmao complicated. Let's just see what happens next.

[Nintex]

[hungrynoob]

Just keep awareness on the fact that whoever this source is, we have no evidence of intention.

[curly]

what

[hungrynoob]

Adding to post of source validation, theres been quite a lot and i dont have everything to hand but this is one i reference most.

OPEN THIS: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ1LtStVMAElD5g.jpg
THEN OPEN THIS:

(Part at 1:04)

[curly]

is hillary clinton a pedophile

y/n

[Mandark]

did hungryboob go full qanon?

[Mr Gilhaney]

is hillary clinton a pedophile

y/n

yes, but don't let this whole hillary pedo thing ,distract you from the fact that a man of the Island Erangel, an isolated region which you probably never heard of, with a population of only 100, armed himself with a kar98k sniper rifle, a ump fully automatic machine gun, and a standard kitchen frying pan and proceeded to slaughter the whole island's population. This terrible rampage, which started in a school and made its way through an underground bunker, eventually came to an end with the absolute madman enjoying a chicken dinner in the nearby military base, like nothing had ever happened.

[curly]

Adding to post of source validation, theres been quite a lot and i dont have everything to hand but this is one i reference most.

OPEN THIS: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ1LtStVMAElD5g.jpg
THEN OPEN THIS:

(Part at 1:04)

Your go to piece of evidence is somebody on 4chan asked q to get Trump to say "tip-top" at the State of the Union back in January. Trump did not say tip-top at the State of the Union, but he did on Easter, months later, in a speech that appears not to have been prepared beforehand. Again, this is your go-to piece of evidence.

[Broseidon]

hungrynoob please take your risperidone

[hungrynoob]

it is - if nothing else - entertaining

[Nintex]

(Image removed from quote.)

it is - if nothing else - entertaining

The best one was when Trump used +++ in a Tweet out of nowhere after Qanon used it in a post the day before.

I think Qanon is legit but he's not the super spy who he says he is. Probably a 4chan troll who got a job in the Trump admin and is making the most out of it.

[Great Rumbler]

Probably a 4chan troll who got a job in the Trump admin and is making the most out of it.

Given the character of the folk that Trump surrounds himself with, and the lack of any real vetting, I would not be surprised if it was some low-level staffer [who knows just enough to sound smart to people who are easily fooled].

[hungrynoob]

Theres no evidence to confirm it to be either or so everyones entitled to make their own mind up as the story unfolds, but let me ask you this, if the Iran prediction isn't disinfo, just how low a staffer are you giving credit to having such (what i would regard as) high class info?

[curly]

Actually I'm QAnon, I'm also guccifer 2.0 and Seth Rich

[Mandark]

Trump's talked publicly about leaving the JCPOA since he was a candidate. There's a deadline next month for European allies to figure something out to prevent this. Iran's already backing a different set of proxies than the US in Syria. We saw widespread and violent protests in Iran already this year. Inflation is running around 50% there.

Saying "something will happen with Iran, don't know what" like it's an actual prediction or evidence of insider info is basically astrology.

[curly]

https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/985986222198808578

Monopolytheism brehs

[EightBitNate]

Am g next?

[hungrynoob]

Saying "something will happen with Iran, don't know what" like it's an actual prediction or evidence of insider info is basically astrology.

Actually thats just terminology I used, the actual message was more direct about the information. It said Iran will be next missile target in April.

[Broseidon]

Am g next?

It's a cursive I and this joke was tasteless as fuck

what do you expect from someone who masturbates in the presence of their sister

[VomKriege]

Am g next?

It's a cursive I and this joke was tasteless as fuck

what do you expect from someone who masturbates in the presence of their sister

Suffer like G did ?

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/CSISKoreaChair/status/986661891157254144

 

[warcock]

https://twitter.com/CSISKoreaChair/status/986661891157254144

 :doge5

I hope kim jong sis shows a bit of cleavage or at least a bit of skin. An olive branch of sorts.

[Mandark]

The death of the two state solution is more a situation of most pro-Palestinian groups coming to the realization that after decades of negotiations towards two states they've made no progress and Israeli colonization of the West Bank has in fact worsened the situation, as well as making any chance of a viable Palestinian state more remote. Any hypothetical Palestinian state that could possibly get Israeli would be a bantustan with no real independence.

Parts (maybe the majority? not sure) of the Israeli right wants a one-state solution as well, although obviously under very different conditions where Israel would annex the West Bank and either keep them there as heavily policed non citizen residents with limited freedom of movement or expel them to someplace like Jordan (shoutouts to ethnic cleansing enthusiast Ben Shapiro). As a non-expert it sounds idiotic to me, the Palestinian Authority is quite convenient to Israel for managing unrest in the West Bank, but hey when you get the chance to reclaim Judea and Samaria you gotta take it.

The other side of this is that in many ways it already is a de facto single state if we put aside the more complicated situation in Gaza. The West Bank has been occupied for over 50 years at this point. Activist groups have been drawing the parallel to apartheid South Africa for a while now and imo at least it rings quite true. The Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement is a conscious emulation of anti-Apartheid tactics.

The apartheid comparison stings people who believe in the development and protection of a Jewish nation because of how accurate it is. Whatever your opinion of the national aspirations of Tibetens, Basques, Kurds, etc. they at least have the rights of citizens in the countries in which they are minorities. Palestinians don't get their own state and they don't get to participate with full rights in Israel. The main difference between this and historical South African apartheid is that this is ostensibly a temporary state of affairs until a peace deal can be agreed to, but Netanyahu's made it hard to pretend that's the case.

The demographics mean that Israel can only have two of the following three: territorial control of all historical Israel, status as a Jewish state, and democracy. Iran would basically troll Israel by calling for a single state where everyone got to vote, because everyone knew that meant the end of its Jewish identity. Peace activists believed/hoped that the last two were the most important and would eventually drive Israel to accept a two-state solution, but it looks increasingly like (non-herrenvolk) democracy is the odd one out.

[Mandark]

Pretty much.

Besides any religious reasons for wanting all of Eretz Yisrael, there's an underlying assumption that the Palestinians will always be implacable enemies, so peace can only be maintained through overwhelming force. It's not the official stance because a big part of keeping the appearance of a moral high ground (and support from the US) is the idea that they're trying to come to a solution, if only the unruly Palestinians would be reasonable.

So they keep stringing things along while supporting settlers as they change the facts on the ground. The upshot of this, and the hawkish behavior of AIPAC and its allies, is that support of Israel is moving from broadly bipartisan to polarized, like what happened with the NRA.

[Mandark]

I don't think it's wrong to assume that Arabs will always be hostile to a Jewish colonial state.

It's not a crazy idea, but it's also a pretty dang strong argument against Zionism in the first place.

[curly]

I don't think it's wrong to assume that Arabs will always be hostile to a Jewish colonial state. That's sort of why I don't think a two state solution is tenable at all. First of all because, what, the Gaza Strip is just supposed to sit there detached from the West Bank forever? It's the ultimate setup for revanche genocide decades from now. And second, it seems to me the reason the US even supports Israel at all is because it's supposed to serve as a model for a pluralistic democratic society in the Middle East. And it is! Arab Israelis are fully integrated into society and have full rights. There isn't any society in the Middle East that even comes close to western democracy besides maybe Kurdistan. The only difficulty is that Palestinian apartheid situation.

nah

[curly]

It's not a paradox because it's wrong

Arabs are not "socially integrated" into Israel, they're second class citizens. Do I have to dredge up all the quotes of members of the Likud government cosigning or explicitly stating that the Arab minority is a threat that must be contained or eliminated? Netanyahu himself uses the fear of Arab voter turnout to get out his own voter base. Arab parties have never been in government in Israel because it would threaten Jewish supremacy. Beyond political representation, anti-Arab racism is rife in Israel both in terms of speech and structurally (discrimination in employment and housing).

The idea that the US backs Israel because it is a beacon of democracy is the height of liberal naivete. Besides ignoring all the other reasons we support Israel (domestic lobbying, lingering affections from the Cold War, end-times Christian fundamentalism, anti-Iranian sentiment, etc) it doesn't make sense as a strategy. To convert the Arab masses to democracy, we prop up the state they hate the most, one based on Jewish supremacy at the expense of the indigenous Arab population? Israel itself doesn't want democracy in the Middle East (see Egypt), because they know that US backed autocrats will be much friendlier to them than any government that's actually responsive to the will of its people.

[benjipwns]

that may all change thanks to the Koch Bros. deep pockets funding anti-semitism leaders: http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/260210/koch-anti-israel-walt

Koch Dark Money Funds Anti-Israel Darlings
How Stephen Walt became the new foreign policy gatekeeper for the right

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overtly, at least, Koch Institute foreign policy programs do not seem to pay special attention to Israel—so far. “We think that the U.S. is going to be a friend of Israel,” said Will Ruger, a research fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and the Koch Institute vice president of research and policy. “What we’re really focused on is the kind of bigger macro question of how do we avoid problems like Iraq, how do we avoid problems like we saw with the nation-building project in Afghanistan—should we be expanding NATO to include Georgia and Ukraine, should we sell arms to Ukraine?”

“I don’t believe the Middle East came up in our proposal as a substantive matter,” MIT’s Posen recalled.

Yet,

[close]

[Broseidon]

http://www.alemarah-english.org/?p=28060

The Taliban have announced the start of their annual offensive for this year.

[Nintex]

Both our land and air space is under the control of foreign occupying forces and our religious sanctities as well as helpless people are indiscriminately being targeted. Religious scholars, students memorizing the Holy Quran, tribal chieftains and Afghan masses are ruthlessly martyred. Complete towns, health centers, sacred places, green crops and blooming orchards are uprooted. Thousands of our innocent countrymen are incarcerated and the stooge officials of the puppet regime are completely helpless in inhibiting this brutality of the American invaders. Rather they collaborate with them by bearing the felonies of the foreign occupying forces in most cases.

Besides sustaining the ongoing illegitimate occupation, the newly adopted war strategy of Trump has been ruthlessly implemented in the villages and rural areas against our oppressed Afghan people for the past nine months. Thousands of additional foreign forces are being deployed inside Afghanistan and they are supplied with new devastating weapons and vast military authorities.

We expect that our Mujahid masses will fully partake in the Al Khandaq Jihadi operations through their increased support for Mujahidin while remaining at sufficient distance from all enemy bases and convoys so that they are not unnecessarily harmed during these operations.

They never seriously tried to make peace with Obama when they had the chance. So I wish the dumbfuck Jihadi's luck in their endeavors while Trump is President.

[Atramental]

[Yeti]

Just like in DC's New Gods where Darkseid traded his son Orion with High Father's son Scott Free (Mr. Miracle)

[benjipwns]

i believe it is part of Juche philosophy that the child is prophesied to remove the father by throwing them into the Fire Pits and assume control of the DPRK, as Jong-un did to his father Jong-il who in turn had removed Il-sung

[Nintex]

Approval poll for our PM just came out.
28% approve, down from the usual ~48%.

Why you ask?

- He lied (for the 4th time actually)
- Then he lied about lying
- Then he released evidence that was going to clear him but that showed that he did lie
- Then he had someone else lie about his lying
- Then he lied about someone else lying about his lies

Finally the parliament had a vote on a motion that was basically a formal slap on the wrist.
The motion was rejected by the sitting government and 2 extreeeeeeme christian nutjobs.

Here he is sitting with the other liar.

[Sman]

What was the original lie?

[Nintex]

What was the original lie?

His first lie:

"Vote for me and you will get a 1000 euro's"

*voted in*

"Well, you know, I'm really sorry but economy and crisis. What I meant was not 1000 euro's more like tax relief"

"But the taxes went up!"

"Well, you know, I had to compromise"

Second lie:

"I will not give another cent to Greece if I'm elected again"

*voted in*

*1 day later*

"We will have to pay another couple of billion for the EU to stick together, solidarity etc."

"Technically this money isn't going to Greece itself but a fund that will send it to Greece instead so..."

Third lie:

"I will recover the truth about the MH17 disaster"

"I spoke frankly with the Russian President"

Putin: I had a nice chat with this gentleman"

Secretary of foreign affairs: "... some people still had oxygen masks on when they found them."

Researcher: "This is not true, everyone was dead when the blast hit"

Press: "Did you lie Mr. Secretary?"

"Researcher was under NDA and not allowed to discuss these matters in public"

Press: "But the secretary did on live TV..."

"He's the vice president of Europe now"

Fourth lie
New Foreign secretary: "I was in the room when Vladimir Putin said he wanted to restore the Soviet Union by force. I told this to my NATO colleagues and we took measures to reign him in."

CEO of oil company: "Actually, I was in the room and he misinterpreted my comment about the meeting"

Foreign secretary: "No I was there, I think"

"I believe him, he was there"

Staff: "He was never there. He never sat a foot on Russian soil"

Parliament: "This douchebag has to fly to Moscow in 3 days to talk to the Russians and he lied about meeting Putin and telling everyone he wanted to restore the Soviet Union."

Press: "Wait a minute. Is the whole Ukraine thing based on a lie from our foreign secretary who told this story to all of NATO when he was an envoy there?"

"I trust him, I think he's credible, he's my second hand man, he's a great guy"

Foreign secretary: "I'm outta here before everyone discovers I'm responsible for the new cold war because I bragged about meeting Putin."


Latest lie:
*Government decides to cut a specific corporate tax that cost 1.4 billion to tax payers*

Parliament: "Can we see how you came to this decision, are there any memo's, notes, policy papers? As parliament we are entitled to this information."

"No not that I recall. I recall we discussed it but there certainly weren't any memo's."

Staff: "Look what we found, a bunch of documents"

"Oops, well like I said there are no memo's, these are notes"

"Oh that does like like a document I guess. How about I release them to the public so you can all see the information that I told you didn't exist TRANSPARENCY"

Press: "It says MEMO right at the top of the document"

"Really? I don't remember what it looked like"

Dude that wrote the memo that is now secretary: "Well technically he never knew about my personal memo that this is we never talked about it"

Staff: "This memo was send all the place. Literally everyone in the department, had this memo it wasn't personal"

"Well technically we didn't lie. I told you I didn't remember these memo's existed"

Parliament: "These memo's have a timeline of meetings on this subject. Including with the CEO of Unilever"

"Well you know, we have lots of meetings, lots of memo's, I can't possibly remember them all"

Parliament: "So why didn't you say 'oops I made a mistake there are memo's' when the staff dug them up and waited for the media to uncover this"

"Honestly I didn't make a mistake and neither did the secretary. He couldn't possibly have known that I didn't know that these memo's existed and/or that his personal memo would be mixed up with the official notes of all meetings when we formed the new government"

Parliament: "But you discussed this one the phone?"

"The call was about something else, trust me"

Parliament "That's a load of horseshit"

"Well technically you say I'm lying. But I'm not lying, I told everyone the truth that I didn't remember."

Parliament "But isn't it bad for a PM to not remember 10 meetings on a subject and what happened to 1.4 billion in tax cuts?"

"I will release the timeline and my schedule so you can see everything that went down

Parliament: "This said, you called the new secretary TWICE to discuss these matters"

*6 hours of debate on the semantics of lying*


There was also the time the government had paid off some criminal and both the Justice Minister and his Deputy were removed from office.

Anyhow new poll. Now 75% of the country thinks he's a liar. Good Job mr. Prime Minister.

[benjipwns]

meanwhile, down under

[Nintex]

So Amber Rudd is gone from the government in the UK.
Theresa May is likely next.

Then the LION can take her place.

A Britain run by Boris Johnson and America run by Donald Trump



GOD WILLS IT!

[curly]

big if true

[curly]

https://twitter.com/mawilner/status/991119087739715584

lol

[warcock]

House of lords delaying or blocking brexit rofl. Britain saved by its monarchial legacy. It should sound ironic yet it is not, god save ye from the the will of the people. China got dis. Barnier gives no fucks tho, he seems pretty aggro lately.

[Great Rumbler]

https://twitter.com/mawilner/status/991119087739715584

lol

[benjipwns]

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180424-the-cost-of-changing-an-entire-countrys-alphabet

[Joe Molotov]

“It is more beautiful than the former variant,” says Kaipiyev. “I don’t like the old one because it looks like a tadpole.”

O I C

[FStop7]

https://twitter.com/mawilner/status/991119087739715584

lol

What the fuck?

[Mandark]

That whole presentation was basically "Iran has lied about its nuclear program in the past."

YES THAT IS WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO NEGOTIATE AN AGREEMENT WITH ACTUAL INSPECTIONS AND VERIFICATION. THAT WAS THE POINT.

[benjipwns]

That whole presentation was basically "Iran has lied about its nuclear program in the past."

YES THAT IS WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO NEGOTIATE AN AGREEMENT WITH ACTUAL INSPECTIONS AND VERIFICATION. THAT WAS THE POINT.

Typical Young Buchananite thinking debunked yet again by investigative reporting on the facts:

HANNITY: So you didn't watch Bibi Netanyahu's evidence today, or didn't believe it? I believed every word of it.

BUCHANAN: Bibi Netanyahu, with due respect, wants the United States to fight a war against Iran on Israel's behalf. I don't want my country getting into another war.

HANNITY: I don't want another war either, but if you look at North Korea... Bribing didn't work then.

...

HANNITY: Here's the problem. if you marry a nuclear weapon with the fanaticism of the mullahs in Iran, you're looking at a modern day Holocaust... The same people who strap bombs to their kids and promise them virgins in heaven, if they have nuclear capability the world is headed for more death and destruction that perhaps we've ever seen.

BUCHANAN: Sean, come on, Sean. Do you really think--?

HANNITY: Come on Pat, 100 million souls were lost in the last century. 100 million.

...

HANNITY: I don't think the old rules of detente, or the old rules of mutually assured destruction work on people that think they're doing God's will... the radical Islamic mullahs.

BUCHANAN: Hannity, let me ask you something. Why haven't they started a war with the United States already?

HANNITY: They just got $150 billion, they just keep holding out and someone keeps bribing them. Don't you think what Obama did was dumb?

Not surprised that Mandark takes the cowardly option of not glassing Iran immediately. 100 million souls, Mandark. 100 million.

[Brehvolution]

Still fucking that $150B chicken.

[thisismyusername]

In the interest of being Fair and Balanced™, for Jack:

*lights up the Jack Remington signal again*

SHILLARY SHILLARY SHILLARY EMAILS EMAILS EMAILS.

Ok, you here?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/01/midterm-elections-republicans-hillary-clinton-political-ads-congress-ohio-governor/565800002/

When Hillary Clinton lost her 2016 bid for the presidency, she retired from politics.

In Ohio, it's as if she never left.

More than 5,000 TV commercials this year have mentioned Clinton, all in the state's nasty GOP primary for governor. Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and Attorney General Mike DeWine are each trying to claim real-Republican status, using Clinton to cast doubt on their opponent's conservative credentials.

As a U.S. senator, "D.C. DeWine voted with Hillary Clinton 962 times" in six years, says one TV commercial from Taylor's campaign. The Senate roll-call voice then reads out "Aye" for both Clinton and DeWine on immigration, spending and gun control bills.

GOP ads around the country echo the Taylor campaign's use of Clinton. That's desperate, Democrats say: Republicans are pointing to a defeated presidential candidate to avoid talking about their party's short list of accomplishments since they took control of Washington.


In a GOP primary, though, it's actually a smart strategy, said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes governor and Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

"The end goal is to taint somebody as not conservative enough, and there are limited ways to do that," she said. "If you tie them to an unpopular Democrat, that helps really hammer home that message."

In total, nearly 13,000 TV commercials Jan. 1 through April 24 mentioned or showed a photo of Clinton, according to data compiled for the USA TODAY Network by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group.

Republicans in the Ohio governor's race ran the most ads, followed by West Virginia Republicans running for governor and the GOP candidates for Indiana Senate.

In fact, only former President Barack Obama has appeared in more ads. Clinton's total even tops that of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has been mentioned in nearly 10,000 commercials in 2018.

The strategy could forecast a slew of anti-Clinton ads this fall in states President Trump won handily, as Republicans try to beat back Democrats' push to regain control of Congress. In the same way, Democrats will be tying GOP candidates to Trump in the states where Trump's margin was thin, or where Clinton won, Duffy said.

Republican strategists say Clinton remains a deeply polarizing figure, even in defeat. Clinton proved that herself in March. During a trip to India, the Democratic nominee argued she won parts of the county that were more economically vibrant, while Trump won in the Midwest and other places by appealing to voters who want to move “backwards.”

“His whole campaign — ‘Make America Great Again’ — was looking backwards,” Clinton said in response to a question about how Trump won. “You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women, you know, getting jobs, you don’t want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are.”

National Republicans pounced on Clinton’s comments. The GOP’s Senate campaign committee immediately launched a digital ad campaign targeting 10 Senate Democrats in states that Trump won with spots reminding voters of their support for Clinton.

“She called you ‘deplorable,” one spot reminded voters in Missouri. “Now she’s called you ‘backwards.’ … And if Claire McCaskill had her way, Hillary Clinton would be president.”

McCaskill is one of the most vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrat up for re-election this year, running in Missouri where Trump won by 19 percentage points. The NRSC ads also ran in Ohio, Montana, and elsewhere — sending Democrats into a scramble to distance themselves from Clinton.

“Whenever (Clinton) inserts herself into the conversation and continues to make comments that Trump voters are backwards or deplorable, it’s a reminder to folks in red states that supported him that you’re sitting senator sided with her over the president you voted for,” said Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Republicans are the ones looking backward, Democrats say — because the GOP has nothing else to talk about as Republicans try to maintain their grip on power.

“It’s obvious that Republicans are desperate,” said David Bergstein, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The GOP tax cut isn’t as popular as Republicans had hoped, he said, and Republicans haven’t accomplished much else. Moderate and independent voters may be worried about losing health care coverage or paying more under GOP proposals.

“This election will be a referendum on how Republicans have used their control of Washington to make life more difficult and expensive for working families,” Bergstein said.

But using Clinton makes it possible for GOP candidates to change the conversation. Voters know her, and it's easy to associate lesser-known candidates with what voters know — and don't like — about Clinton.

"She is a loser," said Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. "Candidates are going to want to tie Democratic candidates to the person who lost. 'You rejected her. You should reject this person, too.' "

So far, in each of the states where negative ads mentioning Clinton have aired — Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Mississippi and Idaho — she lost badly to Trump in 2016. 

She lost by 42 points in West Virginia, which has a crowded GOP primary for U.S. Senate. There, Clinton was a natural tool in ads against U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, a former Democrat who switched party affiliations in 2013.

Although Jenkins backed Obama's successful 2008 bid for president, he attended an economic policy town hall meeting with Clinton in 2007. Ads accuse him of participating in a campaign rally for Clinton.

Jenkins is fighting back by using Clinton in his own ads. One spot shows her comment about Trump's campaign moving "backwards." "It's Hillary who's got it backwards," Jenkins says, looking into the camera. "I approve this message to help President Trump move America forward."

Trump and Republicans in Congress may be struggling with national approval, but there's no doubt where voters stand on Clinton, Republican strategists say. So Democrats may see Clinton-focused attacks this fall.

Take Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Polls show Brown leading his re-election bid. But Republicans could try to link him to Clinton, who lost Ohio by 8 points in 2016.

"For all the ups and downs across the country in polling, Ohio was a state for Donald Trump that he always had on lock," said Ethan Zorfas of Axiom Strategies, the GOP firm behind Taylor's anti-Clinton gubernatorial campaign in Ohio. "Democrats across the state of Ohio are going to have to weigh the support they gave to Hillary Clinton in 2016. It could affect the Senate race."

Brown appeals to Trump's working-class voters in Ohio, in part because of his longstanding concerns about free trade. When Trump was first elected, Brown wrote him a letter suggesting they collaborate on trade. Republicans, Duffy said, will try to tell voters: "Really, he was with Hillary and Obama. He's not who he says he is."

Even some conservatives disapprove of that strategy.

Commentator Tucker Carlson of Fox News has derided Republicans for running against "the ghost of some elderly retired nominee from last cycle," instead of telling voters what they would do with another two years in power. "Hillary Clinton doesn't run anything anymore — she doesn't represent the modern Democratic Party," he said last week.

But Clinton's ongoing comments, such as the "backwards" remark, show she never actually left politics, said Rob Secaur, executive director of the Ohio GOP. "If Hillary Clinton isn't the leader of the Democratic Party, who is?"

It's a bold strategy, but the democrats are right: She's no longer a front-runner. Attacking with that isn't a good move, but given Trump's states: It's preaching to the choir (his stupid voting bloc) and will energize them, likely. Will it work? Hard to say, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.

That aside:

"the ghost of some elderly retired nominee,"

Hello there, new tag.

[Nintex]

Like Thanos, Clinton will return.