Ladies and gentlemen, please.

[MineralMan]

We have two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for President. It Is possible that we will soon have three. None of them are Satan, Stalin or Hitler. All are Democrats who share most positions. Any of them would serve honorably and do a far better job of representing Americans than any of the republicans.

Support whichever candidate you prefer, but please do not imply that the others are evil or will destroy this country. Please do not step beyond the bounds of decency. If you do, I will alert or vote to hide, I promise.

Thank you.

[Thinkingabout]

1. K & R

[aidbo]

2. No Satan or Hitler, but I'm pretty sure Joe Biden is stallin' :-D

[ForwardMotion]

4. Nice.

[ronnykmarshall]

11. Do we still have the DUzzy awards? That would earn a nomination and a win.

[MFM008]

28. lol

[eggplant]

32. He's Biden his time. n/t

[TBF]

34. ...

[aidbo]

44. Noice!

[tomm2thumbs]

43. OMG Duzy!

'badump-bump'... on the drums for that one

[MindfulOne]

3. Will you vote to hide hideous posts that associate Sanders with the NRA using lies?

The member who posted the NRA lies about Sanders and refused to retract them should be ashamed.

Meanwhile, a DU treasure, who happens also to suffer a severe and terminal illness, is rightfully upset.

Omaha Steve took a principled stand. Nobody was hurt by the silly picture.

I stand with OS.

http://election.democraticunderground.com/11177921

[MineralMan]

5. Not if it comes from a major newspaper of record. I

might dispute the article, but would never post a vile photo of a Democratic candidate as a response. I will vote to hide any such photos, though. Thank you for asking.

[99Forever]

31. It was PROVED wrong.

Seems your "taking a stand" is dependent on the target of the vile lie or disgusting post.

Gee. What a fucking surprise.



Not.

Selective outrage, not just for Republicans anymore.

[MindfulOne]

36. Poor taste parody is bad, filthy lying debunked propaganda is A-OK.

At least that's the way it's been adjudicated.

[emulatorloo]

38. Nonetheless Hilary is not Hitler

And posting right-wing memes to that effect don't help Bernie win in Iowa, which is my personal goal.

[NuclearDem]

45. This pretty much sums everything up:

Unflattering statement about Sanders: CRISIS OH MY GOD PANIC

Call Clinton Hitler: Oh get over it you whiney HRC supporters.

[ronnykmarshall]

6. Thank you!

and I would like to ask this group ...when did the term "Billary" become ok on DU?

[MineralMan]

8. I don't know. That started as right-wing name calling,

and remains that, as far as I am concerned. I alert on every instance of "Billary" I see. We should be better than that.

[ronnykmarshall]

10. I'm looking for that ...

Someone used that term and it was altered to be hidden but the jury voted to allow it.

[ronnykmarshall]

12. and here is where it was allowed

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=652561

[MineralMan]

16. Yes, it has been left often by juries.

More's the pity.

[ronnykmarshall]

19. I alerted again ...

[Autumn]

9. That term is disgusting and RW all the way. it should never be used. Never.

Another thing that is disgusting is fuckthebern.

[artislife]

40. Probably about the time Berniebots did. nt

[ronnykmarshall]

7. and Herman Munster approves this post

[ronnykmarshall]

14. The OP message went right over your head.

What a shock.

[MineralMan]

15. You quote from Macbeth, in the speech given on news that the queen had died.

I'm not sure of your intent, but am quite suspicious of it, given the topic of this thread. I advise caution on your part, frankly. You may not be as clever as you think.

[yallerdawg]

17. This started with "Anyone but..." and "Someone else..."

This started with venomous anti-Hillary propaganda and is just tied to whoever is convenient. There is no discourse. There is no open-mindedness. There is no rational reasonable conversation.

It won't end with Hillary's victory.

Look at how Obama is supported here.

At DU, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

[Dawgs]

20. Sorry. This country needs much more than 'better than the Republicans'.

I'm not changing.

[MineralMan]

21. I don't believe anyone asked you to do anything

of the sort.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Your hall monitoring sound a bit Stalinist.

[MineralMan]

23. Do it?

I is sorry.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Yes it do. Are you adding typing errors to your list of sins?

[MineralMan]

26. Nope. I find them amusing, and make a

little joke about them. I laugh when someone points out my errors too.

Stalinistic seems a bit too strong, though. I made a request of DUers, which is all I can do.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. And threatened to punish them if they didn't obey your "request".

[emulatorloo]

39. Ooo ooh, MM will kill DU'ers just like Stalin did.

FFS, nobody dies when a DU'er alerts on a thread. It is just a discussion board.

[MineralMan]

48. Alerts are not "punishment."

Neither are jury votes. They're part of the community moderation on this website. Alerts and jury voting are the way this site maintains its standards of behavior. I alert rarely, and serve on a jury once a day, on average. I can't punish anyone on this site.

[NuclearDem]

46. As someone who lost quite a few family members during the Purge and Priboi

this is one of the most laughably stupid and ignorant things I've ever seen posted here. Congratulations.

[LostOne4Ever]

25. At least until Cthulu announces it will run

[Android3.14]

29. Interesting

If I may make an observation - One thing I've noticed about people is how they rarely know when they are being the "bad guy". We've all broken the law or done something mean or expressed something hateful, but no one wakes up some morning and says, today I will betray my values.

Not recognizing when you are being the "bad guy" is a classic path to a mistake.

What you have essentially done, MM, is allowed behavior you observed on DU to justify your own expressed intent to engage in alert stalking, a behavior that we all agree is unethical.

I think you are making a mistake.

Threatening people, who may have sincere legitimate feelings about this primary season and these candidates, is as unethical as threatening our resident nuclear power disaster fear mongers who wax eloquent about the imminent demise of all nature from the Fukushima screw up. People who express fears and warnings usually do so from a sincere portion of their being, and occasionally they are correct. While no one expects you to act on a warning that such-and-so is the next Hitler, there's also no need to threaten folks who do feel compelled to spread that warning.

Just prove them wrong.

There is also a "thought police" vibe in your OP that I find unfortunate to associate with you.

[artislife]

41. ^^ this nt

[MineralMan]

52. Alert stalking? Really?

I alert on a post about once a week. Usually it is for someone making a personal attack on another DUer. Like most active DUers, I get called to juries about once a day. When I do, I read the alerted post, check the context and vote, based on whether the post egregiously violates the general community standards on DU. Most often, I vote to leave posts.

What I try very hard to do is follow the lead of the admins of this website in alerting and voting on juries. I'm a guest here, and believe that the owners of the site have the right to make the site what they want it to be. If I didn't like their opinions on how a discussion forum should operate, I'd go find another place to discuss politics.

I alert on personal attacks and on really egregious attacks on Democratic candidates and elected officials. I treat jury duty as a very serious matter, too. I don't even believe alert stalking is possible on this website, and certainly do nothing of the sort here. Nor will I. I'll continue to use DU as I always have, always considering the wishes of the administrators of the website.

[Android3.14]

63. Like I said, we too often fail to recognize bad decisions

This, "do not imply that the others are evil or will destroy this country. Please do not step beyond the bounds of decency. If you do, I will alert or vote to hide, I promise", is a person announcing he is going to engage in alert stalking against people with whom he disagrees.

It is unethical behavior, and if you step away for a moment and give the situation some thought, you will see the truth of it.

A person of strong character will have the internal fortitude to examine his decision and recognize when it violates his own ethics, and then make a new decision.

A person of weak character will often defend unethical behavior through an appeal to a higher authority (community standards and admins in this case).

As humans, we can use our intelligence to place guideposts in order to change the trajectory of our behavior.

[FSogol]

30. Unrec. We have 3-5 leading candidates. End your "two" tyranny!

[MineralMan]

57. Hmm..."leading" is a simple word.

It indicates that someone or something is a strong contender in some sort of competition. Right now, there's Hillary and there's Sanders. All the rest are down in the single digits in every poll. Biden isn't running, but if he decides to, he'll join the group of leading candidates for the Democratic nomination. Leaders are at the front of the pack, whatever is going on. Those who are not are not the leaders, even though they're part of the pack.

Thanks for your reply.

[FSogol]

58. Who was leading at this time in 2008? Herman Cain and John Edwards.

Leading at the beginning doesn't always equal viable candidate at the end. DU should be welcoming of all qualified Democratic candidates and not try to stifle the process.

[MineralMan]

60. I have no problem with any of the Democratic candidates.

I'm not fond of Lincoln Chaffee, though. He was too recently a Republican to suit me. If any of the candidates becomes a leading candidate, that's fine with me. I'm just talking about things as they are now.

[FSogol]

61. Everytime someone pretends there are only 1 or 2 viable canidates, they are stiflling discussion.

Our party deserves better than inevitability, closing off of debates, PR events masquerading as open town halls, and the refusal to discuss issues.

[handmade34]

33. thank you!

I split my donations equally between the D candidates... important to put a Democrat in office

[workinclasszero]

35. You are going to be real busy MM

Good luck.

[Ned Flanders]

37. Sticks and Stones

Most of us here are adults, and sometimes adults use strong language that even crosses into bad manners and rudeness. I understand the whole, "be nice" thang, really, and love Bernie's positive manner. But sometimes strong words are called for, and instead of getting all bent out of shape, ignore it. Ya know, like we learned in kindergarten?

And beyond that, it is not hyperbole to say that the actions of the Republicans are destroying our nation, so why not call out Dem's when they share Republican views? Open, free speech really is the way to go, even if a few idiots cross the line.

P.S. MineralMan: are you a rockhound? Hit me up if you're ever in the Lake Tahoe area.

[MineralMan]

59. We apparently have different opinions.

In my opinion, "bad manners and rudeness" shouldn't have a place in discussions of Democratic nominees on a forum dedicated to Democrats winning elections. Others might feel differently.

I'm not a rockhound. I used to sell mineral specimens to collectors on the Internet. I haven't done that for eight years, but have kept my screen name, since I enjoyed owning that business and my own extensive mineral collection. Now, I'm doing something else, and sold my mineral collection to another mineral dealer. I have a habit of changing what I do every ten years or so. It keeps me interested and motivated.

[artislife]

42. Why don't you just trash threads or put people on ignore

It makes it more pleasant. Then you don't have to alert. I have never alerted, I got close this week and then decided I needed to put that asshat on ignore. It works!

[MineralMan]

51. I don't use either feature on DU. I want to see what everyone

is posting. That's my choice. Your choice might differ from mine.

[Chan790]

47. I don't agree with your first paragraph.

That is, I think it's factually-false though I believe that you believe it.

I don't believe at-least one of them will serve honorably...my own experience is that they are a dishonorable person who will do whatever it takes to be elected to an office they have felt for decades they are entitled to. I don't believe they actually have any deeply-held values or positions over than "I deserve to be President and I will do or say whatever I have to to make it happen."

[Le Taz Hot]

49. Moved these "pleas"

to one a week have we? I have to admit, the "threat" is an added touch.

[MineralMan]

50. Thanks for taking the time to reply and

kick the thread. I appreciate it. It's DU. People post here. I post here. What I post is what I choose to post. You will do the same, I'm certain.

[CanonRay]

53. Thanks for saying this MM

[MineralMan]

54. Thank you for your comment!

[tularetom]

55. We all knew kids who seemed to get a kick out of tattling on other kids

But I never knew one who actually boasted about it.

[MineralMan]

56. I also call the police when it looks like someone is

breaking into my neighbors' houses or committing other crimes. Odd, huh? I'm sorry, but that's my nature, especially when I'm a guest somewhere, like on DU. You might choose another way of doing things. That's your decision. I make my own decisions. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[lunamagica]

62. K&R.