US Politics: Biden our time while Trump's on the stump

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 minutes ago, teej6 said:

Although I haven’t donated to the Lincoln Project and probably won’t in the future, I must say that their ads are far more effective in getting the message across than the ads from the Biden campaign so far. The repubs or ex-republicans in this case do know how to market their message far better than the democrats do. The Lincoln Project also has an ad called “Names” that goes after the senate seats. If they want to make the negative ads that the Biden campaign and DNC won’t, I say hurray! There’s an ad that the Trump gang is running claiming that Biden supports defunding the police. This ad is on repeat in all the swing states. I don’t think the Biden campaign has responded but the Lincoln Project has an ad called “Law and Order” that really nails it. 

The funny part about that ad is it claims that this will be Biden's America, completely ignoring the fact that these images are coming from when Trump is president. More projection, as discussed before.

[teej6]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

The funny part about that ad is it claims that this will be Biden's America, completely ignoring the fact that these images are coming from when Trump is president. More projection, as discussed before.

True! 

[HexMachina]

4 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

I bet Prince Andrew is fucking sweating now...

From his table at Pizza Express, no doubt

[kairparavel]

Where was the heroic Lincoln Project four years ago? Unconcerned/towing the party line for whatever reason (but her emails). It's not like Trump has changed in that time. And they will fall back in line if they help force Trump out. Let them do their thing I guess but also fuck them for letting the world burn to this point. 

Also this 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/14/lincoln-project-video-editor-is-out-over-crude-tweets-about-female-anatomy/?outputType=amp

[Argonath Diver]

If this was discussed before the Lincoln Project conversation, I apologize for missing it. Biden released his second plank of his Build Better Bath and Beyonds plan (I may have misquoted his title) plan today. I don't much care for the guy, but he'll have my vote come November. This article is quite intriguing to me. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan

Quote

To do that, the plan would aim to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. It would also upgrade 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes over four years to increase energy efficiency. And the proposal, Biden's campaign said, would seek to shift major cities toward public transportation and "create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure."

I can see the Repubs guffawing from here, but I truly think stuff like this is the only way we are going to have grandchildren flying around cool hovercars someday instead of a bitter dystopian Blade Runner world. Focusing his tenure's efforts on literally building a better country is right up my alley. Fuck Big Oil, let some new megacorporation pop up that puts solar panelling on half of all available buildings by 2035. Manufacture the panels here, install them here. Massively renovate and update mass transit - good lord MTA in New York, go fuck yourself in perpetuum. And that's the most complex mass transit in the country. Here in St Louis people laugh when you mention the Metrolink; the driving culture is that ingrained. 

Anyway, I like jobs, I like unions, and I like sweeping response to climate change. So although I am extremely skeptical such a measure would be instituted, it's a nice blue-collar dream while I wait for my state to revert its distancing phase. California's just the first, I tell ya.

[Martell Spy]

Just When You Thought Ivanka Trump Couldn’t Get More Out Of Touch
Suggesting people simply find new jobs during an unprecedented economic crisis is a new level of chutzpah.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-coronavirus-jobs_n_5f0dfc6cc5b6df6cc0b233b1

Quote

 

On Tuesday, Ivanka Trump ― the 38-year-old daughter of a wealthy man who has never once had to worry about finding the money to pay a bill ― proudly announced an ad campaign called “Find Something New,” which encourages people to get new jobs by learning new skills.

If you visit FindSomethingNew.org, the website created for this effort, you will find a very short list of jobs that are actually growing right now, according to the Labor Department.

One such job is contact tracer, to deal with the worsening spread of the virus that has basically set our economy on fire. Other jobs, like registered nurse, require a serious investment in education ― hard to pull off in a pandemic when schools are shuttered and you might not have the resources to pay tuition. Or when you need work to keep your health insurance and can’t simply go back to school.

 

 

[teej6]

Did anyone see Trump’s Rose Garden rambling today? Apparently his stream of consciousness diatribe was especially bad today. Here’s a snippet:

“We have great agreements where when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say don’t bring them back to our country, we don’t want them. Well, we have to, we don’t want them. They wouldn’t take them. Now with us, they take them. Someday, I’ll tell you why. Someday, I’ll tell you why. But they take them and they take them very gladly. They used to bring them out and they wouldn’t even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldn’t let the buses into their country. They said we don’t want them. Said no, but they entered our country illegally and they’re murderers, they’re killers in some cases.”

I didn’t see it but there’s a good report on it in the Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-news-conference.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[Fragile Bird]

1 minute ago, teej6 said:

Did anyone see Trump’s Rose Garden rambling today? Apparently his stream of consciousness diatribe was especially bad today. Here’s a snippet:

“We have great agreements where when Biden and Obama used to bring killers out, they would say don’t bring them back to our country, we don’t want them. Well, we have to, we don’t want them. They wouldn’t take them. Now with us, they take them. Someday, I’ll tell you why. Someday, I’ll tell you why. But they take them and they take them very gladly. They used to bring them out and they wouldn’t even let the airplanes land if they brought them back by airplanes. They wouldn’t let the buses into their country. They said we don’t want them. Said no, but they entered our country illegally and they’re murderers, they’re killers in some cases.”

I didn’t see it but there’s a good report on it in the Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-news-conference.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

I watched part of it until I couldn't anymore. It was bizarre.

[S John]

2 hours ago, teej6 said:

Although I haven’t donated to the Lincoln Project and probably won’t in the future, I must say that their ads are far more effective in getting the message across than the ads from the Biden campaign so far. The repubs or ex-republicans in this case do know how to market their message far better than the democrats do. The Lincoln Project also has an ad called “Names” that goes after the senate seats. If they want to make the negative ads that the Biden campaign and DNC won’t, I say hurray! There’s an ad that the Trump gang is running claiming that Biden supports defunding the police. This ad is on repeat in all the swing states. I don’t think the Biden campaign has responded but the Lincoln Project has an ad called “Law and Order” that really nails it. 

Reminds me a little bit of when Beto was running against Cruz in Texas and resolutely refused to go negative.  I think there are times when that is the appropriate approach but Cruz was so ripe for at least SOME negative ads in a machismo state like Texas when he’s got his nose halfway up Trump’s ass after Trump insulted his wife and father in front of the entire nation.  I feel like these kinds of behaviors on the part of Republicans should be loudly called out because there is an inextricable link between conservative voters and the ideal of the tough guy rugged individualist. If you could get a couple thousand conservative voters to say, well I don’t like Beto but I can’t support a man who sucks up to the guy who talked about his wife that way, then why not?  What is the down side of running a couple pointed ads when the criticism is true?  

Trump is a hypochondriac and a draft-dodging weenie. Why isn’t anyone drilling him on that? Why are we letting him act like he’s a tough guy?

Not that I necessarily blame him for trying to get out of Vietnam, but that isn’t the point - the point is about his lifelong privileged position that has shielded him from the harsh realities of the world - a world that many of his biggest fans know all too well. There hasn’t been enough of a concerted effort to get into the heads of his voters about this kind of shit, to tear down this ridiculous tough guy facade presented by a man who shits on a golden toilet, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, has never had to do a hard days work in his life, and absolutely has never voluntarily made a real personal sacrifice for anyone else in his entire life.  I don’t think his appeal to working class voters ought to be that hard to attack. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

27 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

If this was discussed before the Lincoln Project conversation, I apologize for missing it. Biden released his second plank of his Build Better Bath and Beyonds plan (I may have misquoted his title) plan today. I don't much care for the guy, but he'll have my vote come November. This article is quite intriguing to me. 

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan

I can see the Repubs guffawing from here, but I truly think stuff like this is the only way we are going to have grandchildren flying around cool hovercars someday instead of a bitter dystopian Blade Runner world. Focusing his tenure's efforts on literally building a better country is right up my alley. Fuck Big Oil, let some new megacorporation pop up that puts solar panelling on half of all available buildings by 2035. Manufacture the panels here, install them here. Massively renovate and update mass transit - good lord MTA in New York, go fuck yourself in perpetuum. And that's the most complex mass transit in the country. Here in St Louis people laugh when you mention the Metrolink; the driving culture is that ingrained. 

Anyway, I like jobs, I like unions, and I like sweeping response to climate change. So although I am extremely skeptical such a measure would be instituted, it's a nice blue-collar dream while I wait for my state to revert its distancing phase. California's just the first, I tell ya.

It's heartening, but i'm skeptical.  What might convince me would be Biden, on the day after the election, committing to banning fracking asap.  I get the arguments for its value as a part of producing a transitional energy source.  so let's make that transition go as fast as possible, instead of doubling down on fracking.

Also, didn't Nevada at one point put some kind of tax on solar panels that made them almost cost-prohibitive?  

 

[S John]

2 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

It's heartening, but i'm skeptical.  What might convince me would be Biden, on the day after the election, committing to banning fracking asap.  I get the arguments for its value as a part of producing a transitional energy source.  so let's make that transition go as fast as possible, instead of doubling down on fracking.

Also, didn't Nevada at one point put some kind of tax on solar panels that made them almost cost-prohibitive?  

 

If there’s not already massive incentives to install solar on all new homes in the South and Southwest - there should be.  I was in a near-constant state of being brutalized by the sun in Texas.  Solar is viable for the household energy needs of a huge swath of the US. Seems like an area ripe for ‘job creation’ but it’s one of those ‘no, not like that’ situations.

[Larry of the Lawn]

5 minutes ago, S John said:

If there’s not already massive incentives to install solar on all new homes in the South and Southwest - there should be.  I was in a near-constant state of being brutalized by the sun in Texas.  Solar is viable for the household energy needs of a huge swath of the US. Seems like an area ripe for ‘job creation’ but it’s one of those ‘no, not like that’ situations.

100%.  

[Argonath Diver]

I'm not even sure if his plan mentioned solar panels specifically - I ad-libbed that because like you guys I want every damn roof in the country that has decent sun exposure to have some big ol' panels across em. More initiatives for efficient electric cars and all that. All of us on this board will be dead or Simpsons heads-in-jars by the time the oil companies legitimately start running out of oil to dredge up. My grandfather was remarkably bitter about the US interstates ruining his vision of America - even as a kid I remember his rants about Them Damn Highways. They are big and ugly, but vital. In my opinion, so are big garish windmills and obnoxious black solar panels stamped onto every roof in a subdivision.

Then we can segue that into hyper-efficient fuel cell research, and maybe before I can die I can fly around in a goddamn Jetson's hovercar. That's all I really want here, to be a senile cynical bastard in 2050, and get a ride to Manhattan in a goddamn hovercar. It's not too much to ask.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Meanwhile RBG has been hospitalized with an infection.

Hopefully she will indeed be out in a few days. C'mon Ruthie, just 6 more months.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

25 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Meanwhile RBG has been hospitalized with an infection.

Hopefully she will indeed be out in a few days. C'mon Ruthie, just 6 more months.

 

If the worst were to come and then Republicans filled her seat despite what they argued just a few years ago....pack the shit out of that bitch and establish election laws that never let the right cheat again, because that and racism are basically their last cards to play these days.

[Lollygag]

10 hours ago, kairparavel said:

Where was the heroic Lincoln Project four years ago? Unconcerned/towing the party line for whatever reason (but her emails). It's not like Trump has changed in that time. And they will fall back in line if they help force Trump out. Let them do their thing I guess but also fuck them for letting the world burn to this point. 

Also this 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/14/lincoln-project-video-editor-is-out-over-crude-tweets-about-female-anatomy/?outputType=amp

Like everyone else, they thought he wouldn't win and thus the idea wasn't conceived yet. The never Trumpers were such a problem that the Trump administration has hiring problems to this day. Go after them for supporting or looking the other way on pre-Trump Republican policies, but they can't be accused of subsidizing Trump.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_opposed_the_2016_Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/have-never-trumpers-become-a-democratic-faction.html

 

Some questioning and skepticism of them is a good idea, but there's a political realignment going on across the board, not just in the US, and it's hard to say where everyone will land in the end. Based on the following, they themselves don't know.

https://thebulwark.com/can-the-republican-party-be-saved/

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

A slew of polls from Change Research (not the greatest pollster mind) for 'swing states' showing Biden up in most of them (including Arizona) by 6-8 points, except NC where he is up + 1.  Also, the national average for him has dipped somewhat to 50% ish, no doubt because of some new national polls that place him below 50% (and Trump lower too). Anyway, still up by 8-9 points.

 

Edit: Wanted to say everything is a bit groundhog-day like right now. Intermittent burst of craziness followed by long lulls seems to be the way things are.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

42 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

A slew of polls from Change Research (not the greatest pollster mind) for 'swing states' showing Biden up in most of them (including Arizona) by 6-8 points, except NC where he is up + 1.  Also, the national average for him has dipped somewhat to 50% ish, no doubt because of some new national polls that place him below 50% (and Trump lower too). Anyway, still up by 8-9 points.

 

Edit: Wanted to say everything is a bit groundhog-day like right now. Intermittent burst of craziness followed by long lulls seems to be the way things are.

What really frightens me now is Trump rigging the election.

[Guest]

I think Trump has badly miscalculated on the back to school thing. Here's an article from our regional paper (may be paywalled, not for sure) about plans to start school next month. Now mind you, they're still discussing plans for when OKC public schools start for the fall semester on August 10.

But that's not really what I wanted to post about. Rather, it was this tidbit:

Quote

“While we appreciate the requirement of masks for staff and teachers, we are pleading for you to establish the same requirement for students,” Oklahoma City AFT President Torie Shoecraft wrote in public comment to the district Board of Education.

A July 8 survey of local AFT members found 81.4% supported mask requirements for students, Shoecraft said.

The American Federation of Teachers is the 2nd largest teachers' union in the U.S., and anecdotally, it's more heavily favored in my neck of woods than the NEA.

Now, I'll concede that 81% backing for a mask mandate among a demographic that is already more likely to support wearing masks (urban, college degree, demographics skewed more heavily towards representation by women, etc.)

But I can assure you that the 81% of the polled OKC AFT members who want mask mandates are not all Democrats. A lot of them are probably Trump supporters. 

But...teachers deal with the nightmares of flu season every year. In my experience, the mortal enemies of teachers are 1) the school board, and 2) germs.

Regardless of whether other countries have been able to open schools after getting their baseline number of cases down to a manageable level, going back to in-person full-time learning in the U.S., right before flu season will be catastrophic.

Then, teachers see stories like this about the 3 teachers who shared a classroom over the summer to teach online classes, strictly followed guidelines, and all ended up catching it and one died. There weren't even students present, just the three of them.

And if Trump orders schools open and thousands of school districts around the U.S. tell him to go pound sand (which is what is already happening) it just makes him look ineffectual and weak, and being perceived as a strongman was the only thing a lot of his supporters liked about him.

[Fez]

If OAN is still cherrypicking Gravis polls, the fact that they put out a Trump+2 poll in Texas today is a hell of a good sign.