U.S. Politics: Only Death Can Pay For Growth

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

A mediocre old white guy who isn't obviously psychotic is exactly the comfort food a scared America craves.

I can dig it. It's like the same reason I've been craving chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes.

[DMC]

7 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

In non-bizarro world, it seems like the only thing he can do is sign a hollow EO to claim a hollow victory, all while getting his allies pissed at him.

Once he gets reelected he'll be able to issue an EO outlawing beets.

10 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

he might be the messenger we need right now.

Stop calling Biden two-faced!  ....

4 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

I've been craving chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes.

....and making me hungry!

[Maithanet]

That Biden video is literally the first time I have thought that he might be the candidate we need right now.

 

Really hope that video is widely shared, because you can tell Biden is speaking from real, brutal experience.  Our family lost someone recently (non covid) and it had both me and my wife in tears.

[ants]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

Trump to sign executive order on social media amid Twitter furor:

I am very (VERY) curious to read this EO as someone that's had to repeatedly read the text of every EO in existence from Truman to Obama (I was wise enough to stop my dataset before Trump).

If they remove the protections against lawsuits from Twitter and Facebook, won't they effectively be forcing them to actually start cleaning up their act?  Wouldn't they have to make sure that whatever users posted was truthful?  Maybe force them to close accounts, or remove bots?  Protect the privacy of individuals being outed? 

That could all really hurt the right wing.  

Seems a strange move to me.  

[DMC]

44 minutes ago, ants said:

If they remove the protections against lawsuits from Twitter and Facebook, won't they effectively be forcing them to actually start cleaning up their act?  Wouldn't they have to make sure that whatever users posted was truthful?  Maybe force them to close accounts, or remove bots?  Protect the privacy of individuals being outed? 

That could all really hurt the right wing.  

Seems a strange move to me.  

I'm no mindreader, but I'm pretty sure you already put more thought into this immediately after writing "If."  For cereal, I expect the language to be completely non-binding, like many EOs.  Especially those Trump likes to sign and then take a picture with.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

4 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Dammit. I just watched Biden's address to mark the grim milestone of 100,000 official deaths, and...it's really fucking good. His team should be blasting that out to every news station there is.

I thought it wasn't so great. The man gets so lost in what he's saying.

[Fury Resurrected]

This might torpedo the talk about Klobuchar as VP pick. As prosecutor she declined charges against the Minneapolis murder cop in a previous incident

[Stannis Cool-Ranchus]

I changed my mind I'm voting for Biden. But from the absolute bottom of my heart, I am doing so in spite of the conversations I've had with the self-entitled white 'bros' in this circle-jerk, not because of them. And I still think Trump is almost certainly going to win.

Anyway, good luck.

[BigFatCoward]

2 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

I thought it wasn't so great. The man gets so lost in what he's saying.

He could orate like Martin Luther King and you would still moan your tits off.

[DMC]

55 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

This might torpedo the talk about Klobuchar as VP pick. As prosecutor she declined charges against the Minneapolis murder cop in a previous incident

I'd prefer Kobuchar is disqualified from the VP pick because she's absolutely the wrong choice politically.  Not because her office demonstrated the same type of institutional racism towards police shootings at the time that, well, everybody else did.  That piece linked is a rank hit job, nothing more.

[felice]

8 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Trump is choosing a bizarre hill to die on with both his Twitter feud and the Scarborough nonsense. He's not going to get anywhere with the Twitter thing, and the Scarborough conspiracy is nonsensical. He's burning through political capital like crazy, his allies in the media are starting to turn on him, and just what does he think the upside of this will be?

Trump is just continuing to be Trump; if his allies are turning on him now, it's not because he's doing anything different. The only question is what took them so long?

[Fez]

3 hours ago, Fury Resurrected said:

This might torpedo the talk about Klobuchar as VP pick. As prosecutor she declined charges against the Minneapolis murder cop in a previous incident

That incident occurred one week before she was elected to the US senate. I doubt she had anything to do with it. You could maybe say that she allowed an office culture that wouldn't press charges, but the decision lies in whoever her successor was.

[Maithanet]

New Sabato Crystal Ball piece comparing Biden's polling in swing states vs final polling average and vote margins from 2016. 

The Swing States they looked at were the 13 states with a margin of less than 6 points in 2016:  Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.  Based on polling averages, Biden is currently leading in all 13 states, and he is running approximately 5 points stronger than Clinton's 2016 results.  In addition, there was this (somewhat) reassuring tidbit:

Quote

The fact that there is a much stronger relationship between the 2020 polling and the actual 2016 results than between the 2020 polling and the 2016 polling suggests that pollsters have adjusted their sampling and weighting procedures to correct for some of the problems that occurred in 2016 in light of the 2016 results. That does not guarantee that the 2020 polling will end up being more accurate than the 2016 polling, but it does suggest that the sources of error may be different this time than four years ago.

[Reny of Storms End]

Just saw that in PA today some Dem State Reps are saying the GOP hide a positive Covid case of one of their own members, and failed to inform them they might have been in contact with the infected GOP rep. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/pa-democrats-accuse-pa-gop-leadership-of-covering-up-lawmakers-covid-19-diagnosis/2409904/%3famp

[aceluby]

33 minutes ago, Reny of Storms End said:

Just saw that in PA today some Dem State Reps are saying the GOP hide a positive Covid case of one of their own members, and failed to inform them they might have been in contact with the infected GOP rep. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/pa-democrats-accuse-pa-gop-leadership-of-covering-up-lawmakers-covid-19-diagnosis/2409904/%3famp

I read that last night, isn't this basically weaponizing the virus to infect political adversaries?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 hours ago, Maithanet said:

That Biden video is literally the first time I have thought that he might be the candidate we need right now.

 

Really hope that video is widely shared, because you can tell Biden is speaking from real, brutal experience.  Our family lost someone recently (non covid) and it had both me and my wife in tears.

Biden has many flaws. We all know this. But he is, still after all these years with great power, a humble man from humble beginnings, and he wears that on his sleeve as much as Tebow wears his religion on his. It's why he's so good at connecting with people even if he stumbles on his words. 

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, Reny of Storms End said:

Just saw that in PA today some Dem State Reps are saying the GOP hide a positive Covid case of one of their own members, and failed to inform them they might have been in contact with the infected GOP rep. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/pa-democrats-accuse-pa-gop-leadership-of-covering-up-lawmakers-covid-19-diagnosis/2409904/%3famp

What a pack of fucking fuckers. The CDC guidelines sets out guidelines for employers, including what to do if someone in the workplace gets symptoms or tests positive. So the Republicans only informed their employees.

They do not set out guidelines for legislative bodies, where two different sets of employers work together, so the Republicans obviously just ignored advising Democrats.

As long as Trump has been running for or been president, I have repeatedly said ‘this is a new low, it can’t get lower’, but my God, the Republicans find new ways to sink lower. And to label it a ‘privacy matter’ on top of that is such total bullshit.

Here in Canada numerous politicians have been either exposed to people who tested positive or caught Covid-19 themselves, and all of them have made that public. Privacy is not a consideration during a deadly pandemic.

[Reny of Storms End]

54 minutes ago, aceluby said:

I read that last night, isn't this basically weaponizing the virus to infect political adversaries?

That's what I'm thinking.

18 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

What a pack of fucking fuckers. The CDC guidelines sets out guidelines for employers, including what to do if someone in the workplace gets symptoms or tests positive. So the Republicans only informed their employees.

They do not set out guidelines for legislative bodies, where two different sets of employers work together, so the Republicans obviously just ignored advising Democrats.

As long as Trump has been running for or been president, I have repeatedly said ‘this is a new low, it can’t get lower’, but my God, the Republicans find new ways to sink lower. And to label it a ‘privacy matter’ on top of that is such total bullshit.

Here in Canada numerous politicians have been either exposed to people who tested positive or caught Covid-19 themselves, and all of them have made that public. Privacy is not a consideration during a deadly pandemic.

Yeah it's really disgusting behavior. It seems like this country laughs at the idea of hitting rock bottom. 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, aceluby said:

I read that last night, isn't this basically weaponizing the virus to infect political adversaries?

If you can't use a virus to infect your political adversaries, what good is it?

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

But he is, still after all these years with great power, a humble man from humble beginnings, and he wears that on his sleeve as much as Tebow wears his religion on his.

I think you should write poetry about him.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

He could orate like Martin Luther King and you would still moan your tits off.

But he doesn't orate like MLK and to compare him to a black civil rights leader seems pretty low, even for you.

I will give you and your buddy Biden this, he did read from a teleprompter more effectively than when he tries to say things off the top of his head. I'm sorry I rained on your little Biden parade. The man flat out sucks.