US Politics: Veni, Vidi, Virus

[Relic]

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

I don’t think there’s been any indication that Grahman feels any sexual attraction towards men.

 

Plenty of rumors, however.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

I don’t think there’s been any indication that Grahman feels any sexual attraction towards men.

Referring to him as a self-hating gay—which there are certainly—is wrong.

Are we talking about the same person? 

You seem to be focusing on the wrong thing. I don't care if Graham is gay. Frankly I'd get a kick out of it if John Waters was my Senator. The point is when you have someone with power who appears to hate them self, you're going to get a bad outcome, and I'd dare you to argue Sen. Graham has ever been a positive thing.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

13 hours ago, SkynJay said:

I am in Weld County, and damn don't I know it. Our neighborhood Next Door is currently a Trump fan site.  I got caught behind a convey of about a dozen trucks with Trump flags last weekend.  The red parts of our state are LOUD.  But can they keep pace with the growth of Fort Collins and Aurora?  I, optimistically, don't think they can.

I'm not far from Weld! It's more liberal here, but there is still voter intimidation going on at our ballot boxes--I just saw a story and pictures posted on Next Door. They were physically intimidating to the people who posted, but they've backd up since. The strange thing is (according to the stories on Next Door) when people called the police, they said they'd been getting reports of it all day, but the sheriff should be out there not them. So the sheriff should be out there, probably knew about it, and wasn't the there. And the police were like, "We're not allowed to help." A lot of fishiness going on here. On the plus side, this sounds like even the MAGA folk know that no one is voting for Trump, so they're intimidating everyone. 

Sorry for the trouble you're running into. I was in Weld recently and a guy got mad at me on the highway (I have no idea what for), and when he flipped me off, I waved. We were at a stop light on the highway, and he got out to fight I guess. Trump and MAGA stickers. They're fucking losing their minds!

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, The Great Unwashed said:

You're right; he could absolutely be meaning it in the 2nd way. Who fucking knows with him. But I'm assuming he's meaning that he thinks he has antibodies, and he thinks those antibodies make him immune, so he can go to rallies and debate in person and not have to take a test.

The science on that is absolutely not clear yet, and there have been sporadic reports of re-infections. Plus, 20 days is the recommended time for isolation after serious cases of COVID. Whether he is still infectious is an open question, but I cannot imagine why anyone would ever give him the benefit of the doubt on that, especially when he nearly infected Biden once already.

You know what really sucks on a personal level? That I'm starting to hear what Trump says and possibly interpret it the way his mind does. We're all becoming dumber due to exposure.

[All Cats Are Bad]

I can't stop reading this tweet. It might literally be the first thing Trump has said I'd agree with, the first sentence at least. Like, does he realize what he's saying about himself here? I don't understand but it's fascinating, isn't it?

[Varysblackfyre321]

Ransemum is showing Trump’s approval rating in the high 40s again. 
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/trump_approval_index_history

[Xray the Enforcer]

1 hour ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

I don’t think there’s been any indication that Grahman feels any sexual attraction towards men.

He's gay. Someone in my social circle works for him. 

I have no idea if he hates himself, but he certainly hates a lot of LGBTQIA+ people because he constantly works to undermine our basic fucking human rights. 

[Ormond]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

I'm not far from Weld! It's more liberal here, but there is still voter intimidation going on at our ballot boxes--I just saw a story and pictures posted on Next Door. They were physically intimidating to the people who posted, but they've backd up since. The strange thing is (according to the stories on Next Door) when people called the police, they said they'd been getting reports of it all day, but the sheriff should be out there not them. So the sheriff should be out there, probably knew about it, and wasn't the there. And the police were like, "We're not allowed to help." A lot of fishiness going on here. On the plus side, this sounds like even the MAGA folk know that no one is voting for Trump, so they're intimidating everyone. 

 

This is too vague for me to understand what's really going on here. And the sheriff/police issue is probably a jurisdictional one. It sounds like the people calling the police did not live within city limits so it was the county sheriff that had jurisdiction. Police can't operate in a jurisdiction that doesn't employ them unless law enforcement within that jurisdiction specifically asks for their help. That part of the story doesn't sound fishy at all to me, but simply a case of people not knowing that their address isn't in the city limits. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

23 minutes ago, Ormond said:

This is too vague for me to understand what's really going on here. And the sheriff/police issue is probably a jurisdictional one. It sounds like the people calling the police did not live within city limits so it was the county sheriff that had jurisdiction. Police can't operate in a jurisdiction that doesn't employ them unless law enforcement within that jurisdiction specifically asks for their help. That part of the story doesn't sound fishy at all to me, but simply a case of people not knowing that their address isn't in the city limits. 

It's in city limits. But ballot box issues are county related. However, the protesters are on the street and sometimes surrounding the ballot box. If the sheriff won't take care of it, I think the police could find some loophole (like they always do when they shoot at us) to get over there and do something. 

The fishy part of the story is that the local sheriff is a HUGE Trump supporter in a liberal town. Why he and his deputies aren't there, I guess, isn't fishy to be honest. They are, in fact there, just not in uniforms.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

40 minutes ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

He's gay. Someone in my social circle works for him. 

I have no idea if he hates himself, but he certainly hates a lot of LGBTQIA+ people because he constantly works to undermine our basic fucking human rights. 

So he's acknowledged that about himself? I suppose plenty of people that belong to a community have worked to hurt that community, but damn, this guy is a scum bag.

[karaddin]

4 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

So he's acknowledged that about himself? I suppose plenty of people that belong to a community have worked to hurt that community, but damn, this guy is a scum bag.

He's not "out" at least on the national stage, but the strong impression I have is that it's widely known both within the GOP which is publicly ignored as long as he keeps up the pretense (privately I'm sure they view him with contempt) and within the states gay community.

Getting a nickname from the male sex workers in the state that is commonly known is a reasonably strong signal the rumours aren't just talking shit.

[IheartIheartTesla]

First day of early voting in Georgia with long lines (some folks waited pre-dawn in line)

[Ormond]

13 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

It's in city limits. But ballot box issues are county related. However, the protesters are on the street and sometimes surrounding the ballot box. If the sheriff won't take care of it, I think the police could find some loophole (like they always do when they shoot at us) to get over there and do something. 

The fishy part of the story is that the local sheriff is a HUGE Trump supporter in a liberal town. Why he and his deputies aren't there, I guess, isn't fishy to be honest. They are, in fact there, just not in uniforms.

Thank you for clarifying. From your first post I had no idea what you meant by "physical intimidation" and assumed you were talking about someone being harassed in their home because they had a Biden sign on their lawn or something similar. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

38 minutes ago, karaddin said:

He's not "out" at least on the national stage, but the strong impression I have is that it's widely known both within the GOP which is publicly ignored as long as he keeps up the pretense (privately I'm sure they view him with contempt) and within the states gay community.

Getting a nickname from the male sex workers in the state that is commonly known is a reasonably strong signal the rumours aren't just talking shit.

Yeah, I wasn't clear on that. I know he's not out on a public/national stage, but I was curious if he'd admitted it to himself, or if it was something he was trying to repress. I always assumed the latter. But it sounds like he's well aware of it. Good for him. Too bad he can't be a good person to others in his community.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

34 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Thank you for clarifying. From your first post I had no idea what you meant by "physical intimidation" and assumed you were talking about someone being harassed in their home because they had a Biden sign on their lawn or something similar. 

I'll have to go back and look. I typed it on my phone, which is always a disaster for me. But the intimidation was at the ballot box. The story I saw shared was that people stood in between them and the ballot box (as if on accident--like they were looking at something on the sidewalk). They didn't have masks and would cough loudly toward people. The person shared pictures and video but since took it down because she was afraid she would discourage voting. It's a mess out there.

[Martell Spy]

A former Republican could win the Kansas Senate race for the Democrats
Barbara Bollier is making the Kansas Senate race more competitive than many imagined.

https://www.vox.com/2020/10/12/21503061/kansas-senate-race-bollier-marshall

Quote

 

“I had tried for all these years to help move the party to a more central position, and it was failing,” Bollier told Vox recently. “Starting with the Brownback tax experiment, I remember voting no and saying ‘I sure hope I’m wrong.’ But I wasn’t.”

Kansas-based progressives say the increasingly extreme positions of the Brownback administration and conservatives in the state legislature reinvigorated the state’s decrepit Democratic Party — making it a more appealing option to people like Bollier, who were being nudged more and more to the center. At the same time, it was also nudging many everyday voters who hadn’t been active in politics to get personally involved.

“In 2014, things were bad,” said Davis Hammet, the founder of Loud Light, a Kansas-based organization focused on increasing young voter turnout. “Traditional Republicans were nearly extinct and there was talk of the state Democratic Party dissolving. There was no power structure to counteract the extreme far-right. Kansas is a story of everyone being down, then coming together.”

In the span of just four years, Kansas Democrats went from being a party considering dissolving itself to winning the governor’s race and a key House seat. Skip ahead two years and another House seat — the 2nd Congressional District — is in play in addition to the open Senate seat. As in many other states, the bluing suburbs around cities like Kansas City and Topeka are going to be critical areas for Democrats to win in order to do well.

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

Yeah, I wasn't clear on that. I know he's not out on a public/national stage, but I was curious if he'd admitted it to himself, or if it was something he was trying to repress. I always assumed the latter. But it sounds like he's well aware of it. Good for him. Too bad he can't be a good person to others in his community.

Why? Doesn't that just make him even more of a hypocrite? 

[Fragile Bird]

Kamala Harris has just joined the Judiciary Committee Bartlett hearing (remotely) and she’s scathing about putting people at risk to hold in-person hearings in a small, closed room without even requiring those present be tested. Instead, the priority should be passing relief measures, which the Senate has stalled for 150 days.

Barrett looks like she’s part of Silence of the Lambs in her black mask.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Fragile Bird said:

Kamala Harris has just joined the Judiciary Committee Bartlett hearing and she’s scathing about putting people at risk to hold in-person hearings in a small, closed room without even requiring those present be tested. Instead, the priority should be passing relief measures, which the Senate has stalled for 150 days.

My comments about Graham apply here, too.

Quote

Barrett looks like she’s part of Silence of the Lambs in her black mask.

I was thinking Mad Max myself. It's unfair to her because the only thing she can do is look neutral, and the mask just makes her look cold.

[Ran]

Nice NYT piece that shows a lot of the ground Biden has taken has to do with persuading people to vote for him rather than just an increase in Dem turnout. Nate Silver posted this image: