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

[Maithanet]

26 minutes ago, Fez said:

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.

Yeah, I thought that too, but there's really no way to know.  Maybe they just have a policy of putting out polls where Trump is tied/ahead, but nothing showing him behind, regardless of the state's lean.

[Gertrude]

 

1 hour ago, The Great Unwashed said:

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.

In Iowa the governor's guidelines for opening schools has no requirement for masks or social distancing. 

Quote

In Tuesday’s guidance document, the department said it is not recommending face coverings “because of the considerable health and safety, legal and training implications for such a policy.”

Des Moines has announced in-person schooling with masks required. Iowa City has announced on-line schooling to start the school year. The districts are confused as to who to listen to and it's all a patchwork of whatever. The teacher's union is not happy. I am involved with an optional summer school for kids and this year we decided not to do in-person, indoor classes, for obvious reasons. We did try to organize one outdoor activity. It would have been small groups of kids (10 at most), outdoors and the activity encourages distancing, actually (scavenger hunt). We had at least half the responses saying the parents weren't comfortable with it and wouldn't be attending.

It's just so very fucked. Kim Reynolds - aka Covid Kim aka the Kim Reaper - is handling this in the Trump mold. The only reason we don't have more cases/deaths is our population density. There was never a mask mandate and not much was ever closed down except restaurants and bars, gyms - maybe a few more. Apparently every job is essential during lock-down so like I said, it wasn't really ever locked-down. Hot spots in the meat-packing plants were less than transparent and didn't change the equation at all. I just hope all of these assholes have some sort of accountability come down on their heads because they all fucking suck. Joni Ernst first and I can't fucking wait.

[DMC]

2 hours 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. 

Interesting thing about that NC number is while they have Biden only up 47-46, they got Cunningham up 49-42.

[Martell Spy]

Florida GOP doctors Trump tweet to solve mail-in voting problem
Republicans privately fear the president is endangering one of the secrets to the party’s success in the nation’s biggest swing state.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/florida-mail-in-voting-trump-362519

Quote

 

MIAMI — President Donald Trump’s harsh rhetoric against mail-in voting is causing a big problem for Florida Republicans, who once dominated the practice here.

So the state GOP came up with a solution: They doctored one of Trump’s tweets on the issue to remove the stigma.

In a mass-solicitation designed to boost flagging interest in registering to vote by mail, the Republican Party of Florida featured a Trump tweet from June 28 that praised absentee ballots but that had his opposition to mail-in voting strategically edited out.

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

3 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

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:

Your governor has announced he's tested positive.

Surprise, surprise!

[HoodedCrow]

Florida seems to be using a “ catch and release” method of blocking information on the pandemic. It such a great idea they are going to bypass the CDC and send data to stooges at the HHS. I guess that they want to cancel public health information, such as fatalities from covid.

[GrimTuesday]

5 hours ago, Lollygag said:

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/

 

Why would you want these people in your party? The Democrats are already not a left wing party, why would we want to allow it to move any further right than it already is? These are the same people who have spent their entire careers working against the Democratic party and hurting the poor and minorities that we are trying to help. There is no contrition for their actions, there is no attempt at redemption outside of opposing someone who is doing exactly what they always wanted to do, except with the mask off.

And even if they weren't supporting Trump, they were still supporting scum like Rubio and Cruz who are just as bad as Trump in terms of policy.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

5 hours ago, Lollygag said:

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/

 

*sigh*

While I give credit to the Republicans that opposed the orange one, and stood by that. The wiki link features famous Trump opponents like Graham and Cruz, and no Republican Senator gets to say, they opposed the orange one - with the exception of Romney (and maybe the late John McCain), and to some very small degree Murkowsky. Otherwise the entire Republican Senate Caucus deserves to get burnt to the ground. The we followed merely orders, eh, the party line defense has not worked in the past, and it shall not work now.

Same with the congress Republicans, exception Amash. Hardly a fan of him policy wise, but he can walk away from the Trump presidency with a clear conscience.

WRT Lincoln project, while this is just a temporary alliance, you have to admire their clinical approach with their ads and targeting. They do not fuck around, they go straight for the jugular with their anti-Trump ads. Arguably there's something to be learnt from them for the future.

[DireWolfSpirit]

It is not safe in the U.S. to be sending children to onsite schooling. The virus has likely mutated with stronger strains that allow it to spread more easily and we shouldn't be gambling on children and teachers being safe in classroom settings imo.

I fear a epic disaster on the horizon if these red states willfully ignore these dangers and open up classrooms to appease the politicians that want to "make believe" all is normal again.

[Lollygag]

1 hour ago, GrimTuesday said:

Why would you want these people in your party? The Democrats are already not a left wing party, why would we want to allow it to move any further right than it already is? These are the same people who have spent their entire careers working against the Democratic party and hurting the poor and minorities that we are trying to help. There is no contrition for their actions, there is no attempt at redemption outside of opposing someone who is doing exactly what they always wanted to do, except with the mask off.

And even if they weren't supporting Trump, they were still supporting scum like Rubio and Cruz who are just as bad as Trump in terms of policy.

I'm not sure if they should be. They're not sure if they should be. We know what they're against (Trump), but they've given up a lot to be on this path, so what are they for now? I don't know. A lot of people are shifting these days. If they've seen the light or whatever, they should be accepted. I'm from the country, and I know how isolating that can be and how it can affect views. Buttigieg's All Lives Matter moment is a perfect example. Is he racist? No, but he is ignorant from living in his bubble and I know from experience that there's been decades of brainwashing that's gone into their views. If anyone wants to learn, good.

Bold: Like everyone, they should be listened to and not just have assumptions made about them. If they were standard Republicans, they'd be behind Trump. Have you seen any statements about the bold? The sacrifice they made (blowing up their careers) is pretty big thing to give up. The idea that every single Republican is what you suggest is impossible. A lot my family are brainwashed Republicans and the suggestion that they're all secret Confederacy supporters who want an oligarchy of a few rich folks to run everything is absurd.

The last sentence is wrong. Again.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article243939577.html

Quote

“The analogy would be in the same way that fire purifies the forest, it needs to be burned to the ground and fundamentally repudiated,” said Steve Schmidt, a Republican-turned-independent political strategist who now works for The Lincoln Project, one of the most pugnacious of the anti-Trump GOP groups. “Every one of them should be voted out of office, with the exception of Mitt Romney.”

 

[Fez]

1 hour ago, GrimTuesday said:

Why would you want these people in your party? The Democrats are already not a left wing party, why would we want to allow it to move any further right than it already is? These are the same people who have spent their entire careers working against the Democratic party and hurting the poor and minorities that we are trying to help. There is no contrition for their actions, there is no attempt at redemption outside of opposing someone who is doing exactly what they always wanted to do, except with the mask off.

And even if they weren't supporting Trump, they were still supporting scum like Rubio and Cruz who are just as bad as Trump in terms of policy.

Not true. Most of the long-time Never Trumpers were already a poor fit for the Republican party. They're a collection of libertarians, business-friendly moderates (and I truly mean moderate, John Weaver is one of the founders of The Lincoln Project; he worked for the DCCC during the 2002 midterms in between running McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaign), and foreign policy hawks that usually didn't comment on domestic policy. If they wanted to permanently join the Democratic party, they could fit in pretty easily without shifting the party rightward. They would undoubtedly try to stop the part from moving further leftward, but there's plenty of existing Democrats trying to do that too.

There's a pretty big difference between them and someone like Erick Erickson, who opposed Trump in 2016 but has pretty much entirely come around to him after seeing how conservative an administration he had. Or someone like Romney, who opposes Trump now, but is far too conservative himself to ever do something like endorse Biden.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

President asks Navarro to write scurrilous op-ed against Fauci, then promptly distances himself from Navarro. This is pretty much how he behaves with all his subordinates, and also why he will not gain loyalty from any of them. His supporters are a different matter altogether since they are so removed from him.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to be in his inner circle after so many cautionary tales. I think its just the proximity to power that hooks many of them in, but still.....

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

President asks Navarro to write scurrilous op-ed against Fauci, then promptly distances himself from Navarro. This is pretty much how he behaves with all his subordinates, and also why he will not gain loyalty from any of them. His supporters are a different matter altogether since they are so removed from him.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to be in his inner circle after so many cautionary tales. I think its just the proximity to power that hooks many of them in, but still.....

Reminds me of a story about how Trump loved to bring friends' and associates' wives into his office and then call them up and get them to talk dirty as shit on speaker phone. 

[Paladin of Ice]

Apologies if it's been discussed already, (although I didn't see it after a quick scan) but Jeff Sessions has officially lost the Republican primary runoff in Alabama.

Quote

Jeff Sessions lost an Alabama Senate GOP primary runoff on Tuesday to former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, CNN projects, a major blow to the former attorney general who faced fierce opposition to his candidacy from President Donald Trump.

Tuberville, who was endorsed by the President, will now advance to the general election as the Republican candidate set to take on incumbent Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Jones, who pulled off an upset in the deep red state in a 2017 special election, is widely viewed as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat facing reelection in 2020. As a result, the race is likely to be the Republican Party's best pick-up opportunity of the cycle.

The outcome of the race marks a significant political defeat for Sessions, who had been fighting to reclaim a Senate seat that he had previously held.

Sessions was the first US senator to endorse Trump in the 2016 presidential race and was once a prominent figure in the Trump administration as the top official leading the Justice Department. But he fell out of favor with the President and became a target of Trump's attacks after he recused himself while serving as attorney general from the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

Trump was quick to celebrate the victory for his candidate of choice on Tuesday night, tweeting, "Tommy Tuberville WON big against Jeff Sessions. Will be a GREAT Senator for the incredible people of Alabama. @DougJones is a terrible Senator who is just a Super Liberal puppet for Schumer & Pelosi. Represents Alabama poorly. On to November 3rd."

...

Tuberville hammered Sessions over the decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, saying in one ad that he "quit on the President" and "failed Alabama." In response, Sessions touted his support of the President. In ads, Sessions has worn the red "Make America Great Again" hat. He has also defended his recusal, saying that he "protected the rule of law" and contributed to Trump's "exoneration."

Tuberville has repeated Trump's slogans like "drain the swamp" and "build the wall" while reminding potential supporters of his winning tenure at Auburn from 1999 to 2008. Sessions, on the other hand, has tried to make an issue of Tuberville's residency, calling him a "tourist" who moved from Florida to run for Senate and "an empty suit" who has hidden from the public.

I suppose it's too much to hope that this guy winds up pulling a Roy Moore 2.0, but it feels satisfying to close the door on Sessions.

[Fez]

14 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Apologies if it's been discussed already, (although I didn't see it after a quick scan) but Jeff Sessions has officially lost the Republican primary runoff in Alabama.

I suppose it's too much to hope that this guy winds up pulling a Roy Moore 2.0, but it feels satisfying to close the door on Sessions.

Alabama Democrats seem to be going hard on Tuberville's coaching tenure. Which, considering its Alabama, might not be the worst idea:

In national news, no reversion to the mean yet in the latest Q-poll:

Biden+15 seems excessive; but is basically in line with the Monmouth+13 PA poll from this morning.

[DMC]

It's been obvious for awhile Tuberville was gonna beat Sessions.  I don't think Tuberville loses unless the wave becomes a tsunami.

[Lollygag]

On Navarro -

Trump is also doing a good cop/bad cop thing these days. He says he's now a little bit into masks, but his henchmen are still sending conflicting messaging. One Republican was just on MSNBC talking about how they passed out masks in Tulsa but neglected to acknowledge the real message that everyone knew to listen to as almost no one wore them. The base is aware of a fake message needed for mass consumption, and another real message just for them.

Fauci is popular and Trump can't speak out against him too much without political blowback. Easier for Trump to (relatively) play good cop and say they get along, but have Navarro (recently spotted with what some believe to be a QAnon pin) send out the real message. Trump gets credit for defending Fauci, but his base knows exactly what's going on.

[Maithanet]

25 minutes ago, Paladin of Ice said:

Apologies if it's been discussed already, (although I didn't see it after a quick scan) but Jeff Sessions has officially lost the Republican primary runoff in Alabama.

I suppose it's too much to hope that this guy winds up pulling a Roy Moore 2.0, but it feels satisfying to close the door on Sessions.

Not that I feel sympathy for the guy, but the fall of Jeff Sessions is pretty astonishing.  From the first Senator to endorse Trump to a disgraceful primary defeat four years later.  Hated by the right and the left (for different reasons).

[Winterfell is Burning]

27 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Not that I feel sympathy for the guy, but the fall of Jeff Sessions is pretty astonishing.  From the first Senator to endorse Trump to a disgraceful primary defeat four years later.  Hated by the right and the left (for different reasons).

It's almost like it's a bad idea to ally with Trump or something.

[Maithanet]

10 minutes ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

It's almost like it's a bad idea to ally with Trump or something.

Or to put Trump in a position of power...