Search options (Page 43 of 80)

2020-08-11 14:33:20

Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his VP. I admire any man who gets excoriated by a competitor and proceeds to ask that competitor to work with him as a partner.

2020-08-09 21:20:20

WYNONNA EARP, a show that airs on Syfy in America, was renewed for a fourth season. But the studio, IDW, had financial issues and couldn't fund a fourth season. After over a year, Syfy offered additional funding to IDW to see a fourth season happen. By this time, however, all the cast contracts had expired. The lead actress and her supporting cast were under no obligation to sign new contracts and return to the show if they didn't want to return.

At this point, lead actress Melanie Scrofano declared that she would not return to the show unless the studio promoted her to executive producer and hired her brother to a regular role on the series. No, I'm kidding; all the actors signed back onto the series and Season 4 finally began airing two years after the Season 3 finale. The actors cared about the show and the fans so much that they were happy to return.

Hmm.

2020-08-09 15:29:16

In CIVIL WAR (the comic book crossover), Deadpool happily signs up for the Pro-Registration side so that he can be paid to capture renegade superheroes on Captain America's team. As Deadpool at the time was sharing the CABLE & DEADPOOL comic with Cable at the time, Cable comes across Deadpool in their shared base gathering up weapons to go hunting down Captain America's team (non-lethally). Deadpool chirps about how happy he is to earn money as a good guy on the right side against the Anti-Registration heroes.

Cable remarks, "Wade. You never asked me which side I'm on."

Deadpool stares at Cable blankly for a moment, almost as though wondering if this telekinetic, telepathic soldier from the future is going to be on the Pro-Registration's hit list and wondering if Deadpool's peak human strength, agility and guns can defeat a warrior who can stop bullets in mid-air.

Finally, Deadpool, hurrying out of the base, replies, "Honestly, this whole Pro-Registration versus Anti-Registration thing -- I kind of figured you're above all this."

... I kind of always thought of Temporal Flux as being above these petty political squabbles and not existing on the same level as us mere mortals.

2020-08-08 09:11:22

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I get why Biden is the choice. He's recognizable. He easily recalls a better time. He's popular with the right groups. And I think this is key, his age actually allows him to be a simple 4-year stabilizing force so that the country can breathe again and to give experience to Mayor Pete or Andrew Yang or Kamala Harris or even AOC.
But, man, I was expecting a better gauntlet for 4 years. I was expecting this election to have the perfect candidate. And while I probably like Biden more than most of you, he's definitely not that.

I was expecting Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Andrew Yang, someone who represents the transformational values that the Democrat party supposedly seeks.

But James Carville Jr., as I've mentioned, argued that the turnout model of American elections made the Warrens, Sanders and Yangs a non-starter in this election and that Democrats needed to gamble on someone whom nobody loves but whom progressives Democrats, moderate Democrats and non-Trumpist Republicans could tolerate.

James Carville Jr. wrote:

Do we want to be an ideological cult or do we want to have a majoritarian instinct to be a majority party?
Sanders might get 280 electoral votes and win the presidency and maybe we keep the House. But there’s no chance in hell we’ll ever win the Senate with Sanders at the top of the party defining it for the public. So long as McConnell runs the Senate, it’s game over. There’s no chance we’ll change the courts, and nothing will happen, and he’ll just be sitting up there screaming in the microphone about the revolution.
We’ve got to be a majoritarian party. The urban core is not gonna get it done. What we need is power! Do you understand? That’s what this is about.
The fate of the world depends on the Democrats getting their shit together and winning in November. We have to beat Trump. The Republicans have destroyed their party and turned it into a personality cult, but if anyone thinks they can’t win, they’re out of their damn minds.
You’re not going to change the turnout model. It’s never been done and it’s not going to be done. Eighteen percent of the country elects more than half of our senators. That’s the deal, fair or not.
The party has to have a majoritarian instinct. We’ve got to be skilled enough to excite our most important voters, African Americans, to get our own new exciting demographic out, these college-educated women, and also to cut into the margins in the more rural and small-town parts of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, places like that.
The purpose of a political party is to acquire power. All right? Without power, nothing matters. It means building coalitions to win elections. It means sometimes having to sit back and listen to what people think and framing your message accordingly.
That’s all I care about. Right now the most important thing is getting this career criminal who’s stealing everything that isn’t nailed down out of the White House. We can’t do anything for anyone if we don’t start there and then acquire more power.
Without power, you have nothing. You just have talking points.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21172111/ … le-podcast
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics … s-carville
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/20 … ical-cult/

For now, the gamble is paying off. Trump has been unable to land a punch on Biden because Americans have spotted Trump's pathology: he projects. He accuses others of that which he is guilty and to a far greater extent. Biden's a pawn to the radicals of his party? What do Republicans in Congress see Trump as besides an autopen for their legislation? Biden mistreats black people? Trump actively calls for their deaths by execution or arbitrary murder from police. Biden's mind is broken? Trump fell apart during a FOX interview and then fell apart again with Axios. Biden's America isn't safe? Trump's looking at 300,000 deaths by election day that he could have prevented. Biden's rigging the election? Trump is telling people they need to get sick to vote unless they live in Republican states.

Biden is a white senior citizen centrist and largely immune to Trump's arsenal whereas Warren, Sanders and Yang would not have Biden's (apparent) invincibility against Trump. It's three months to voting and Trump seems quite helpless against the Biden wave. Even his nicknames aren't working; people might have felt contempt for "Lying Ted," "Little Marco" and "Crooked Hillary," but "Sleepy Joe" sounds like a much less exhausting prospective president for Americans.

James Carville Jr. wrote:

The purpose of a political party is to acquire power. Without power, nothing matters. Without power, you have nothing. You just have talking points.

**

Politico posted a new article about how Biden's gaffes and behaviour when he makes gaffes -- the confusing, garbled sentences, the closed eyes, the struggle to speak -- they are not cognitive decline. They are his stutter, especially when he can't speak the word he needs and uses a poor substitution. Biden refers to his stutter in past tense, but it's clearly manifesting again.

The so called Biden gaffes, mangling of certain words, looking down when he speaks—all point to an occasional, present-day struggle with stuttering. Yet Biden avoids acknowledging the stutter in the present tense. One can understand the importance of Biden’s narrative of how he overcame his stutter, but the stakes here are way too high not to acknowledge that his stutter still occasionally exists.
Issaac Bailey, who has also struggled with stuttering, wrote in Nieman Reports in March 2020 that when he watched Biden squeezing his eyes during a debate, Bailey recognized that “this type of facial tic is common to stutters who have to, in a split second, decide to struggle through a speech block or quickly substitute words on the fly.”
It can look, said Bailey, “like a moment of forgetfulness—or cognitive decline when it leads to a nonsensical-sounding sentence.” Bailey concludes with “what to the untrained eye looks like evidence of cognitive decline might not be.” Yet Trump and some journalists are making the case that such moments are evidence of Biden’s cognitive decline. Biden cannot let that false narrative continue.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … ose-392611

2020-08-08 05:31:57

Grizzlor? What's Nicole Eggert like? I've always wondered.

**

Found a new case for the Samsung S7! Very thin. So thin that it doesn't intrude on a tempered glass protector and doesn't peel it off, so I got a new set of tempered glass protectors and the first of this new batch has lasted five weeks and counting. Since I could be sure to keep the phone intact through drops and falls now, I got a battery replacement and now have to keep the Samsung S7 for the next three years to justify the expense. Locked in now!

**

I haven't been to the dentist in seven months as they shut down when my April cleaning was scheduled and rebooked to August. Six weeks ago, I looked in the mirror and was shocked by the savage brown stains across my front teeth. And with my bottom teeth, surfaces unmarred by stains were also disturbingly translucent as though the enamel and dentin had eroded from too much citric acid in soda. I was horrified. I put on some Crest Whitestrips and I could see they would slowly remove the stains over the course of a 10 day treatment, but stain removal wouldn't address how my bottom teeth were rapidly becoming transparent.

I switched from an anticavity toothpaste to an enamel rebuilding toothpaste and switched from an antibacterial mouthwash to a fluoride mouthwash. Neither promised to do anything other than "reharden" worn enamel and were advertised as preventatives for translucent teeth. I switched to drinking my sugarless fruit sodas (and their citric acid) from a steel straw, rinsed my mouth with mouthwash after every cup of coffee -- but again, all this was to prevent what had already happened.

Desperate and six weeks from my dental appointment, I began taking collagen, calcium, magnesium and vitamin D supplements which were supposedly helpful for remineralizing teeth on dubious health and lifestyle websites. It was a long shot as most dentists' websites declare that one enamel is eroded, it can't be restored.

But I've been taking the pills for six weeks and looking now -- my teeth are recovering. I have a dental appointment for tomorrow, and as of today, the translucency in my teeth has filled back in by about half. The translucency isn't even visible unless I'm right against the mirror.

I'm always very suspicious of wellness articles written by people who can only offer anecdotal evidence and this single experience is no less anecdotal, but it's worked out. Hopefully, with a few more months of ongoing supplementation and fluoride use, my teeth will be fully restored.

2020-08-07 14:59:57

The whole point of Biden's campaign is that he is sensible, controlled and measured compared to Trump; when Biden is unintelligible, impulsive and reactive, he negates his own argument for office.

Transmodiar and Temporal Flux both called Obama a fake and a phony. But Transmodiar also called Trump an incompetent lunatic and TF was so appalled by Trump's nomination that he renounced the Republican party. That's the end of the spectrum I want to stand on; I don't want to be one of those pathetic cultists who call themselves patriots and yet excuse their president killing 150,000 of their countrymen (and counting). Democrats and progressives have to look at Biden just as sharply as we look at Trump and go after him just as hard.

And Biden's gaffes disturb me because Trump was sure to lose in 2016 and he still won. Democrats cannot assume that they'll win because just by the virtue of not being Trump. Their course is steady and their operation is strong, but even the best ship will sink if their captain keeps blowing holes into the hull.

But then WHY am I supporting Joe Biden anyway? Why? Here's why.

Barack Obama wrote:

I am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do. Whenever I campaigned, I’ve always said, “Ah, this is the most important election” -- especially, obviously, when I was on the ballot. That always feels like it’s the most important election.
This one, I’m not on the ballot, but I am pretty darn invested. We've got to make this happen. The election that’s coming up is on every level so important because what we’re going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy, that have become a stronger impulse in American life.
We’re seeing that internationally as well and it’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments.
It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of, "What’s in it for me and to heck with everybody else" -- when that mindset is operationalized in our government.
That’s why I am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden.

2020-08-07 06:29:54

Biden has apologized for his racist comments. https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1291540507416559617

Grandpa, here's a suggestion: be sorry before you say these things. Then don't say them.

**

Transmodiar says that Biden is senile. But looking at his polished performance last month and his meandering incompetence this month -- it looks to me like his stutter is tripping him up. He needs to come up with a new technique to manage it that suits his advanced years and the loss of the improvisational wit he had when sparring with Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani and Paul Ryan.

The Atlantic wrote:

A stutter does not get worse as a person ages, but trying to keep it at bay can take immense physical and mental energy. Biden talks all day to audiences both small and large.
In addition to periodically stuttering or blocking on certain sounds, he appears to intentionally not stutter by switching to an alternative word—a technique called “circumlocution”—which can yield mangled syntax.
I’ve been following practically everything he’s said for months now, and sometimes what is quickly characterized as a memory lapse is indeed a stutter. As Eric Jackson, the speech pathologist, pointed out to me, during a town hall in August Biden briefly blocked on Obama, before quickly subbing in my boss. The headlines after the event? “Biden Forgets Obama’s Name.”
Other times when Biden fudges a detail or loses his train of thought, it seems unrelated to stuttering, like he’s just making a mistake. The kind of mistake other candidates make too, though less frequently than he does.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar … le/602401/

2020-08-06 20:12:37

It always pissed me off that Informant would whitewash Trump's obvious racism, delusions and stupidity, Informant going so far to insist that what Trump described as a Muslim ban was not a Muslim ban, Informant insisting Trump had huge crowds at his inauguration. I think you have to be a truly sick and troubled mind to be incapable of seeing that your chosen standard bearer is incompetent

On the subject of incompetence: Joe Biden has been making gaffes. He has been gaffing hard. It's like Barack Obama took a week off coaching him and Biden has staggered back into his Mr. Magoo persona.

In a small gaffe on July 28, Biden welcomed reporters to the Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware where he was delivering his speech on the Biden campaign's Build Back Better plan. Biden then remarked that he was joking; they weren't actually at Kingswood, which was a different community center, one at which he used to volunteer. He confessed that he didn't know where he was, looked down at his notes, and welcomed everyone to the William Hicks Anderson Community Center and moved on.

To an internet audience unfamiliar with the names of Wilmington community centers and to whom it made no difference, this was irrelevant and Biden dismissed it gracefully. I myself have been to four different community centers recently to drop off some donations; I couldn't name any of them. Musicians onstage will often greet the wrong city during a tour, Barack Obama mistakenly referred to Monroe, Oklahoma as Moore when promising post-Tornado aid. Biden didn't make a scene and only a few isolated news outlets seized upon it.

Then we have his two latest gaffes: interviewed by the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Biden was asked if he'd taken a cognitive test. Biden responded with irritation to the reporter, "No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man. That's like saying to you, before you got on this program if you had taken a test were you taking cocaine or not. What do you think, huh? Are you a junkie?" https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/0 … est-391771

It's very strange that Biden, when asked this question at the end of June, had a much more capable answer: "Look, all you've got to do is watch me. And I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I'm running against." At the end of June, Biden showed irritation, took a moment to convey that annoyance silently -- and then responded in a forceful but controlled tone. He showed that while he was displeased, he was in control of himself and in control of the situation and his answer to the question.

This is an Obama technique that he demonstrated in 2009 when, during a speech to Congress about Obamacare where he asserted that it wouldn't cover illegal immigrants, Representative Joe Wilson shrieked, "You lie!" at Obama. Obama paused, looked sternly at Wilson and replied firmly, "That's not true."

Biden has failed to use a technique that he was able to use a month ago. When asked again about cognitive decline in recent days, Biden answered with an improvised expression of annoyance, a garbled comparison and a retort against the interviewer. Biden came off as defensive, irritable and unreasonable; cognitive decline is something any man in his 70s should be tested for. Rather than coming off as in control and confident, Biden's riposte drew attention to the issue and conveyed haphazard clumsiness and awkwardness.

From this same interview session, Biden seemed to say that Latinos were an extremely diverse culture while black people were all the same. Asked how he would engage with Latinos, Biden said: "Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly diverse attitudes about different things. You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration than you do in Arizona. So it's a very diverse community."

The Biden campaign later tried to clarify that Biden was referring to Latinos having diverse opinions from diverse countries of origin. But shortly after their clarification, Biden said in an online conference with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials: "We can build a new administration that reflects the full diversity of our nation. The full diversity of the Latino communities. Now when I mean full diversity, unlike African American community, many other communities, you're from everywhere. From Europe. From the tip of South America, all the way to our border and Mexico and in the Caribbean. And different backgrounds, different ethnicities, but all Latinos" -- again, declaring (intentionally or not) that Latinos are all different but black people are all the same. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/0 … ark-392354

It's awkward. It's clumsy. It's bad. I assume Obama had a bad taco or something and hasn't been able to coach his former VP lately.

2020-08-04 19:04:50

How to beat the post office: https://lifehacker.com/how-to-make-sure … 1844606441

**

Biden has an average 6.2 point lead in Florida. Somebody's scared.

2020-08-04 13:34:39

How to beat the post office:

By the way, one of the Republican campaigns that appears to be defying Trump's war on absentee ballots is — yes! — Trump's own campaign. In fact, his operation sent out at least one email to Pennsylvania supporters urging them to get their evil absentee ballots in time for the primary election. The email even promoted a Trump-branded web page meant to assist voters with the process. No wonder the Red Hats are going indiscriminately bonkers these days, given the whiplash-inducing mixed messages. Nevertheless, it might be too late for Republican voters, at least the ones who believe every word belched by their mendacious clown dictator.
As for the rest of us, the only way to overcome DeJoy and Trump's malfeasance is to get your absentee ballots and mail them right away as soon as early voting begins, state by state. The sooner ballots are in the hands of your county board of elections, the more likely they'll be counted before Donald Trump's lawyers step in. We're not powerless here. Trump can't stop you from voting unless you wait until the last minute. Don't. The mail may be crippled by Trump's cheating and conniving, but we don't have to be caught in his trap. Not this time.
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/04/destro … -election/

2020-08-04 09:29:59

That was very comforting.

And here is a floundering, flailing interview with Trump falling apart when an Australian reporter asked him basic follow-up questions about why Trump thinks he can spin the death toll as a positive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTZkq … e=youtu.be

Joe Biden wrote:

I can hardly wait to have my cognitive ability compared to the cognitive ability of the man I'm running against.

2020-08-04 04:48:13

TemporalFlux wrote:

This probably fits in this thread; Dubya even gets a passing mention in the responses.
Jerry O’Connell in the hot seat on stepping up for Ellen DeGeneres:
https://mobile.twitter.com/MrJerryOC/st … 5951516672
I don’t know enough about the situation to form an opinion, but I do admire people who stand up for what they believe even when it isn’t popular.

I've never missed an opportunity to take a shot at Jerry O'Connell, but right now, I can't. The post office, man! We have real problems here! Slider_Quinn21! I demand your positive predictions right now!

2020-08-04 04:19:06

Regarding the reported cancellation: Executive producer Jon Cassan says it's not true.

https://twitter.com/joncassar/status/12 … 71360?s=21

2020-08-03 18:11:57

Slider_Quinn21! This is Trump's plot! Oh my God, how can we stop it?

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … a=taps_top

... how do you fight the post office?

2020-08-03 16:17:34

Slider_Quinn21 is right. All the war game simulations where Trump exploited his presidential powers had the person roleplaying as Trump performing with the utmost competence and implacable drive matched with ruthless planning and decisiveness. But Trump is incompetent, distractable, unstrategic and indecisive: he got himself impeached in his frantic fear of Joe Biden, he couldn't respond to the pandemic effectively because it required focus and interest in something other than TV ratings, he asserts political powers he doesn't have and with three months before early voting begins, he no ideas to rebuild his broken country.

He could try to secure the ballot boxes, but he'll leave it too late or telegraph too early. He doesn't understand the electoral system well enough to manipulate it outside of sulkily insisting he won and he won't listen to people who do. He is defined by his hapless ineptitude and he has never been able to prepare and execute a plan of any kind even when someone else plans it for him. His plan was to lose in 2016, after all.

**

I don't think Biden's weirdly ineffectual performance in the Democratic debates was an act, and I'm sure no one thinks that. But after Biden won the Democratic nomination and Obama endorsed him, joined his campaign and began coaching him. Suddenly, Biden's performance shifted so severely that he seems like a different person.

Obama has clearly been working with Biden, helping him on keeping his answers short, to the point, encouraging and positive and adjusting his approach to use his current level of ability rather than his faded improvisational skills. Obama has also clearly been working with Biden on his anger issues, having him show anger in a forceful but measured fashion rather than an out of control rant towards a college kid or an auto worker. These are all the techniques that Obama used in his debate performances and when working with or around Congress, and now they're Biden's techniques.

I think this Obama-coached Biden could certainly jump like a lion on Trump.

2020-08-02 20:23:18

Now this is interesting. A bipartisan group, the Transition Integrity Project, has been enacting November 2020 war games, gaming out through roleplay: what are all the possible outcomes of the election? What actions might Trump take? What are the worst-case scenarios? The war games are quite disturbing, although TIP insists that the point of the exercise is to raise the worst case and try to mitigate or prepare to it, not to present predictions.

Please note that all these are hypotheticals.

This 80 person team roleplayed as Republicans and Democrats, as Trump and Biden, and played out scenarios where Biden won big or small, where Trump did the same -- and in every scenario, disaster was the end result no matter who won the election.

In the simulations, Trump's voter suppression tactics were made with the full force of his governmental powers: he attempted to stop the count of mail-in ballots, tried to seize them with a William Barr-backed force of federal agents, closed post offices to prevent delivery -- and in every scenario, both campaign teams attempted to convince each state to send rival electors citing voter suppression or fraud with Biden, in some of these war games, refusing to concede a loss due to the incomplete count.

In every case, the Biden team was reluctant and hesitant in action while the Trump team had no scruples in using military and other armed forces to secure the election in their favour. The Biden team were perpetually helpless in the face of a president who was willing to ignore the law and who, in every gaming situation, acted first to steal the election. The courts offered slow and ineffective responses to Trump trying to stop votes from being counted by force and seizure.

In numerous instances, the Trump team contested the results in individual states, leading to Congress determining where electoral votes would go and voting on party lines.

Every simulation led to political impasse and violence in the streets with armed militias claiming the election was being stolen from their hero and antifa marching for Democrats. December 14 was Trump's last date in these scenarios to alter the results.

In multiple outcomes, Trump's suppression tactics failed and Biden won the White House. But between November and January, the outgoing Trump team enacted a policy of scorched Earth: actively pardoning Trump and his family and staff for all crimes, sabotaging the census to benefit Republicans in 2022 and 2024, refusing all cooperation with the Biden transition team, deliberately deepening the pandemic and economic crisis to hobble recovery in 2021, funneling public funds to Trump businesses and doing everything possible to cripple the incoming president.

Podcast
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/28 … p-scenario

Summaries of the Simulations
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi … ng/614842/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions … ts-he-won/

Rosa Brooks, group organizer wrote:

I think the exercises led to some important insights, one being that forewarned is forearmed; in all our exercises, events unfolded very quickly in the days after the election, and those who had thought in advance about the 'what ifs' were better positioned to succeed than those who had not.

Max Boot, participant wrote:

I was on Team Trump and, needless to say, we did not concede defeat. Instead, we went to work, ruthlessly and unscrupulously, utilizing every ounce of power at our disposal, to secure the 10 electoral college votes to swing the election. We focused our attention on three of the swing states that Biden won in our scenario — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — because, in all three, Republicans control both branches of the legislature. Normally, the governor certifies the election results, and in all three states the governor is a Democrat. But there is nothing to prevent the legislature from certifying a different election outcome.
Trump got himself impeached by trying to blackmail a foreign country into helping his reelection campaign. He will stop at nothing to avoid the stigma of being branded a “loser.” Unless Biden wins by an electoral college margin that no one can credibly dispute, our democracy may be imperiled as never before. We had better start thinking now about how we would handle such an electoral crisis.

2020-08-02 12:10:20

Liberal propaganda from Salon regarding the desperation Donald Trump feels as he nears his doomed election:
https://www.salon.com/2020/08/02/donald … or-a-bang/

Look, that's fine. However, I think that there is a certain level of magical thinking in assuming that voter suppression isn't going to be a huge problem. The US Postal Service is being curtailed severely by a Trump appointee. Mail-in ballots could be declared to be stricken from the count if they arrive late assuming they even reach voters in time to be mailed back. Poll workers are in short supply; people could be too drained or unwilling to risk their health to withstand 12 - 18 hour lineups to vote in person. Those armed lunatics marching around Michigan ignored by police more concerned with unarmed black people may reassemble to intimidate voters of colour.

Slider_Quinn21 says that voter suppression works both ways. Grizzlor says that voter suppression is useless against Biden's enormous lead which would explain why Trump is flailing; he knows his tactics won't win him the White House this time. But I'm nervous about it. Barack Obama is nervous about it, saying voter suppression has been keeping him up at night. Joe Biden is nervous about it, having hired a team of 600 lawyers to battle for voter rights. But Donald Trump is clearly nervous about it too because he thinks he is losing.

**

A paywalled Washington Post article explains: Biden's 600 lawyers are working specifically on the issue of mail-in ballots being postmarked before or on the election day but arriving after the election day -- which, by US law, renders them inadmissible to be counted. And late arrival is a likely outcome with USPS' service issues. Biden's attorneys are trying to challenge the laws to allow ballots that are postmarked on time but arrive late to be included.

It looks like an uphill battle to me.

2020-08-02 11:56:26

Looks like SUPERNATURAL resumes filming on August 18 -- and the actors will need to self-quarantine for two weeks before that.
http://www.hollywoodnorth.buzz/2020/07/ … ugust.html

2020-08-02 11:07:54

Uh -- ORVILLE co-producer Tom Costantino has said on Twitter that THE ORVILLE has not been cancelled.

https://twitter.com/TomCostantino/statu … 7748195329

2020-08-01 15:10:07

Well, if they're all in on a drug that doesn't treat COVID-19 while providing many painful and deadly side effects for no benefit whatsoever, they can go right ahead. Trump is probably taking a palliative dose at most.

2020-08-01 13:37:13

ringringring ringringring

LAUREN: "What."

IB: "Hey, I just watched the episode of SUPERNATURAL where Kaia comes back to life and I think it had alternate dialogue in one scene."

LAUREN: "Yeah?"

IB: "When Jody Mills says that Claire is in Yosemite, there was a weird insert shot where Kim Rhodes turned to the camera and said, 'This is our not terribly convincing explanation to cover how Kathryn Newton was busy filming THE SOCIETY this week.'"

LAUREN: "Pfft."

2020-08-01 13:33:57

I finished watching the last two episode of SUPERGIRL for Season 5. They were okay. Episode 18 and 19 were terrific in providing the long-awaited reconciliation between Kara and Lena. The action was strong. The conflicts between Nia and Brainy were effective. Luthor's plans with Leviathan came to a strong climax. Episode 19 was apparently the result of combining the original episode 19 with the incomplete finale that would have been episode 20, so we had a climactic final battle with Leviathan but no resolution with Lex Luthor. In addition, Brainy's status is left unknown, the DEO is destroyed and Alex starts a new life as a vigilante but there is no real follow-up on any of those three arcs. It's a little messy.

However, because the episode had a strong shot at the end of Kara and Lena shaking hands, there was a sense of closure that was satisfactory and certainly better than THE FLASH cutting off in the middle of an arc. It was the best SUPERGIRL could have done under the circumstances and it was good enough.

**

LEGENDS, because of its short episode order, didn't end on a confused cliffhanger and it works. I was disappointed that the original Zari didn't return and we have the Instagram influencer staying on full-time. Apparently, there was some thought to keeping both Zaris, but it became clear during filming that it'd be impossible to have one actress play two roles for an entire season. It feels really disappointing to me because I really liked original Zari's deadpan nonchalance in the face of madness. When SUPERNATURAL resurrected Charlie as her alternate universe doppelganger, I was able to accept the new Charlie as much as the old one because they were so similar in mannerisms and history even if the alternate Charlie had a darker demeanor. The alternate Zari, however, is effectively a different character played by the same actress.

**

Still no word on GREEN ARROW AND THE CANARIES. I desperately need to see Katherine MacNamara fighting crime with a bow and arrow. Please let this happen.

2020-08-01 10:01:07

The United States' moral authority has become such a joke.

**

Politico asks: why aren't Republicans supporting Trump's desire to delay the election? Aren't they looking at being routed in the Senate? The answer: a delay in the election benefits them only not at all. They are preparing for elections on November 3 and have budgets, campaigns, plans and preparations that would be wasted if delayed and Trump is already dragging their poll numbers down. Siding with him at this stage wouldn't help them in their own re-election bids. In addition, even though Democrats look set to retake a Senate majority and hold a House majority, most Republicans are safe in their seats -- but might not be if they were to support a delay to the election. And even if they did support it, the Democrats hold a House majority and will never agree to pass a new law to change the date. Republicans know trying to alter the election date is a waste of time and offers no gain for them.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … ump-389753

2020-07-30 23:21:14

Grizzlor? What's Nicole Eggert like? I have always wondered.

2020-07-30 15:53:21

White House staffers have anonymously revealed that there has been no administrative preparation to try to change the date of the election. Republican House and Senate members have either uniformly rejected the idea that Congress will attempt to change the date of the election or not been quoted in any news outlets if they do support it.

It wouldn't work to keep Trump in office anyway. Even if the election were delayed, Trump's final day of his first term would be unchanged as set by the Constitution. I can't say what's going on in that wheezing engine that's Trump's brain, but even his supposed allies are against him on this one, and without their support, it's nothing more than the whining self-pity of a man who should start thinking about where he wants to move his stuff by January 20.

That said, it's pretty funny as Biden declared that Trump was going to try to delay the election and contrive an excuse to do so and various Trump staffers called Biden crazy and delusional for saying Trump would do what he just did. But it doesn't matter. As an unnamed Biden campaign administrator said:

The President has no message, no rationale for a second term, only tactics of distraction. We have ignored it. We do not care. We see it as totally a flailing, losing campaign.

2020-07-29 16:55:24

Calendar marked. Let's keep watch.

**

William Barr appeared before Congress and his obvious dedication to acting as Trump's personal fixer while claiming he serves the country when he only serves his client is outrageous.

Biden has infuriated me since I was old enough to read a newspaper, but in this recent cycle, he keeps saying what I want to hear. "The attorney general is not the president's lawyer," Biden declared. "The attorney general is the people's lawyer." Asked whether he'd pardon Trump for any crimes committed in office, Biden replied, "It's hands off completely."

**

It is foolish to have too much faith in a politician. Whether Biden makes true change or will remain a centrist isn't even really up to him; it depends on whether or not Democrats can gain a Senate majority and then eliminate the filibuster. But I read Biden's climate change plan, listened to his speech on how America can "Build Back Better" and -- it brought tears to my eyes to hear this 78 year old man declare that America can protect the planet and prosper economically and that the path to creating eco-renewing infrastructure, zero-pollution energy, ecologically sound homes and clean energy by 2035 will bring Americans good wages with a solid standard of living -- I mean, I know it's not his plan.

I know that it's the work of many, many economists and ecologists and activists. But it is a good plan because it speaks to both the need to save our world and the need to earn a living; "Build Back Better" is inspiring because it declares that both needs can be treated as one and the same; that we can save ourselves and get a satisfactory paycheque from living up to our responsibilities. It inspires me. Presenting environmental efforts as both a winning both as an ecological and an economical proposition -- yes. This is America. This is what America is supposed to be. I don't even live in America and I'm proud that this country would produce this plan.

But Biden has to win first. And he has to win huge and get the Senate on his side. I'm worried that Barr will use his federal mercenaries to interfere with the election. I'm almost certain he will.

2020-07-28 19:01:55

Informant is a men's rights activist. To be accurate, he insisted that he was not a men's rights activist, but he encouraged viewership of THE RED PILL, a men's rights activist documentary about how women exploit their victimhood to take advantage of men and the documentary and supported by prominent men's rights activists like Paul Elam (who writes long essays about how women who wear revealing clothing deserve to be raped).

As much as I'd like to laugh at this and move on, it has become very clear that the men's rights activist movement and incel culture (involuntary celibates who have the same views as men's rights activists) have propelled its members towards hate crimes and murders. Two years ago, a lunatic incel named Alek Minassian rented a van and started running over pedestrians. He did it in my neighbourhood a few blocks from my home.

He murdered 10 people and injured 16 -- because apparently, he felt that the best response to not getting any dates was to attack innocents with a vehicle and get thrown in jail. He was angry because women in the world and who passed through his life were not sufficiently servile and submissive. In February, a teenaged incel and men's rights activist in my city stabbed a woman in a massage parlour for refusing to have sex with him. In May, incel and men's rights activist Armando Hernandez shot up opened fire at mall shoppers in Glendale, Arizona and streamed it on Snapchat, angry that women wouldn't date him.

Most recently, in New Jersey, we have Roy Den Hollander, another angry, self-identified men's right activist who broke into the home of federal judge Esther Salas and shot and murdered Daniel Anderl, Salas' 20 year old son. Hollander joined the movement after his marriage to a Russian mail order bride ended in divorce. He wrote angry, semi-autobiographical novellas expressing hatred towards women who were not sufficiently subservient to him. He filed numerous lawsuits against nightclubs for ladies nights and against Columbia University for having a women's studies program. He wrote angry editorials on men's rights websites calling for men to take up arms against women. He was angry with Salas' work on one of his frivolous lawsuits and charged into her home with a gun, murdered her son and then shot himself.

My country is declaring that assaults and murders from men motivated by hatred of women will be charged and tried as acts of terrorism. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism has identified male supremacist terrorism as a rising threat.

Now, is my old sparring partner likely to pick up a rifle and start shooting at random people because he subscribes to men's rights activist beliefs? No idea, certainly hope not -- but I want it on the record that I recognize that we had in our midst someone who supports and spreads the dogma of what is now recognized as a terrorist movement. The time to be contemptuously amused by men's rights activists is over.

It can no longer be dismissed, ignored, forgotten, set aside or go unremarked upon. It must be identified, called out, confronted and condemned. Practitioners of these violent beliefs must be noted, reported and prevented from harming others and charged if they do to make it clear that civilization will not tolerate their monstrosity.

These aren't just aggrieved men with poor social skills. These men subscribe to a belief system that inspires random and savage murder because they are being denied the ability to treat women as possessions to be taken at will. And one of them murdered people on my doorstep because women recognized his toxic personality and wisely steered clear of him.

2020-07-28 15:23:11

Trump tweeted a video of Stella Immanuel advising failed drugs and not wearing masks. Stella Immanuel has also declared that government is run by lizards and that gynaecology problems are due to women having sex with witches and demons in their dreams.

Oh, Trump. Truly the Informant of all presidents.

2020-07-27 16:16:29

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell says that the polls are wrong. "I don’t believe that Biden is 16 points up in Michigan; that’s a bullshit poll," says Dingell, "and it’s the same people who said Hillary had it in the bag. I worry about polling suppressing votes. I don’t want anybody to think their vote doesn’t matter. I’m seeing lots of Trump signs start to pop up. There are some very complicated issues that Trump is playing to divide this country. He is energizing his base, and we have to energize ours."

NYMag, however, argues that Dingell is voicing trauma from 2016 and not reviewing the numbers objectively, noting that the 2016 polls merely reflected how they cannot predict an outcome if the two candidates are very close with the distance between them falling into normal polling margins of error (which Clinton and Trump were). The polls weren't that wrong, but the conclusions from the polls should have been that it would be a close election, not that Hillary was certain to win because Trump is ridiculous. In addition, Biden's lead is so much larger that he wins even if the polls are wrong; voters in 2016 who disliked both candidates went or Trump or third-party. In 2020, voters who dislike both candidates are, like me, tolerating Biden. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07 … -2016.html

Vox, however however, observes that polling will not be able to evaluate voter turnout under pandemic conditions. https://www.vox.com/2020/7/27/21324440/ … nnsylvania

2020-07-26 11:55:38

I can't speak to the banking concerns. For the election, I'd brace myself as counting will be delayed by 7 - 14 days at minimum. Trump will use that somehow.

But a lot of the terror that Trump will somehow mount a surprise resurgence to victory is, as The Bulwark pointed out, residual trauma from 2016. There was no silent majority of Trump voters in 2016, just the normal margin of polling error in key states that worked in Trump's favour. This anxiety that what happened in 2016 will happen in 2020 isn't based in objectively observing the numbers and situation which are that Biden was ahead of Trump before the failed lockdowns and is so far ahead now that even a polling error against Biden wouldn't see Trump win again. James Carville Jr. predicted a "Democratic wipeout" that I found arrogant; it now looks plausible.

The fear that Trump will lose the election, claim himself the winner and refuse to leave is also not based in the facts: the military will not take orders from a former president, his security clearances and authorizations will expire, his appointees will be dismissed and his commands will be ignored.

The real danger is that Trump will exploit the delayed results and that will somehow create a situation in his favour despite his perpetual ineptitude and incompetence.

2020-07-25 11:59:04

Trump's entire staff and entourage are constantly tested, so his wearing a mask is more basic self preservation than any act of decency. And he knows what to do: he went into office with a pandemic playbook, pandemic training, a pandemic office, all left by an Obama administration knowing it was the next threat. He had a phone call with Biden who reminded him that presidents can mandate production of protective equipment and tests. Yet, Trump persists in not doing his job. He's only interested in the attention and notoriety of his role. He is actively trying to prevent increased testing and reporting to reduce the reported cases without regard for the infected. He tried to cut health care during this pandemic. Trump and his enablers view government public service as something to loot and have no intention of serving.

2020-07-25 10:59:29

Trump isn't trying. He cancelled his convention because it was clear that no one would attend. He has still taken no direct action to produce protective equipment and supplies or provide a federal response plan or to enact social distancing and use of masks. He has recommended untested drugs, suggested injecting bleach, insisted that the virus will go away on its own even when it's topped 140,000 deaths. He is unwilling to do anything about the pandemic because its mere existence reflects on him poorly and disrupts his delusional world of magical thinking.

Biden has declared that he will not pardon Trump for any crimes committed in office. It's likely that in 2021, a newly appointed attorney general will mount a series of investigations into Trump. He can be charged with criminally negligent manslaughter for his refusal to do his duty, for his insistence on claiming a global pandemic is a hoax against him. He can be charged for campaign finance law violations, for his obstruction of justice in the Mueller probe, and for treason in ignoring Russia setting bounties on American soldiers and attempting to extort Ukraine into providing opposition research on Biden. In the event of an electoral defeat, Trump's immunity to prosecution expires at noon on January 20, 2021, a day he is undoubtedly dreading.

2020-07-24 19:07:40

Well, I've said before -- I almost hope Trump will receive a crushing defeat in November and then refuse to leave office, refuse to vacate the White House and refuse to accept the results. I hope January 20 comes and then Trump calls for the US Army to surround the White House to prevent Biden's entry only for them to explain that they're not incurring treason charges for an ex-president and hang up on him. That he demands the Secret Service circle the Oval Office only for them to leave too except for the small detail that remains for a former president. That he forces the officer with the nuclear codes to stay only to realize all the codes have now expired. That he calls for his followers (incels, men's rights activists, Informant, Independent American Party lunatics) to protect him only to find they're disinclined to stand between Trump and the National Guard descending upon the White House.

I almost hope that Trump be yanked out from behind the Resolute Desk by guardsmen and marched out of the building and past Nancy Pelosi who doesn't even glance in his direction. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … leave.html

But I don't really hope that because I really think America would do better with a peaceful transfer of power.

Barack Obama wrote:

If there's one thing we've learned as a country from moments of great crisis, it's that the spirit of looking out for one another can't be restricted to our homes, or our workplaces, or our neighborhoods, or our houses of worship.
It also has to be reflected in our national government. The kind of leadership that's guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace -- that kind of leadership doesn't just belong in our state capitols and mayors offices.
It belongs in the White House.
Republicans occupying the White House and running the US Senate are not interested in progress. They’re interested in power. They’ve shown themselves willing to kick millions off the health insurance and eliminate preexisting condition protections for millions more. Even in the middle of this public health crisis, even as they’re willing to spend $1 trillion on tax cuts for the wealthy, they’ve given polluters unlimited power to poison our air and our water and denied the science of climate change just as they denied the science of pandemics.
So our country’s future hangs on this election, and it won’t be easy. The other side has a massive war chest. The other side has a propaganda network with little regard for the truth. On the other hand, pandemics have a way of cutting through a lot of noise and spin to remind us of what is real and what is important.
This crisis has reminded us that government matters. It’s reminded us that good government matters, that facts and science matter, that the rule of law matters. That having leaders who are informed and honest and seek to bring people together rather than drive them apart. Those kinds of leaders matter.
Right now we need Americans of goodwill to unite in a great awakening against a politics that too often has been characterized by corruption, carelessness, self dealing, disinformation, ignorance and just plain meanness. And to change that, we need Americans of all political stripes, to get involved in our politics and our public life like never before.

2020-07-24 16:33:04

I've been reading The Bulwark, a site of centrist-conservative columnists (as opposed to Trumpists). They've written two articles on Trump's chances that I've found soothing -- https://thebulwark.com/the-2020-cake-is-almost-baked/ and https://thebulwark.com/newsletter-issue … ds-really/

Their columns point out: most polls have a 2 - 4 per cent margin of error. Trump's 2016 surprise victory was won with a slight edge over Clinton -- about 3.3 per cent -- which was within the range of polling error.

The Bulwark advises that people like me stop being haunted by 2016 and simply look at the objective numbers which are that Trump is grossly unpopular, Biden is 15 points ahead and was six points ahead before the pandemic, Trump has been unable to offer a coherent argument for a second term -- and also, November 3 isn't very far away.

Could there be an October surprise? No. There couldn't. At this point, Donald Trump has been oversaturating the media with his presence for 40 years. At this point, Joe Biden has been a politician for 40 years. We're not going to learn anything about them between now and November 3 that is going to change anybody's mind about them -- so the terror of a 2016 upset is residual trauma with no basis in actual reality.

That sounds good to me, so I'll move on to my next anxiety -- how will Trump exploit the 1 - 2 weeks where we won't actually know who won the election? How will Trump try to use his willingness to throw federal agents into cities to harass and tear gas civilians and, at times, city mayors? Politico says that election day and the weeks to follow could be a disaster for voting, voters and counting votes: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ … orm-372778

2020-07-24 08:26:29

Biden anticipates a slim Senate majority that will require eliminating the filibuster to enact his legislation.

2020-07-23 13:31:06

Obama and Biden, sitting on opposite sides of a room, having entered separately in masks, talking about public service in the face of crisis.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1286300138239979527

Beautiful. But it's left-wing propaganda, of course. Just because the propaganda is on my 'side' and calculated to my sentiments, morals and values doesn't mean I should fail to recognize it for what it is.

**

I'm supporting Biden in this election as best I can (as a Canadian) because there's a crisis and we're on the same side. In recent months, I also supported Doug Ford, the premier of my province (basically a Canadian equivalent of a state governor) because we were in a crisis.

Premier Ford, a far right conservative and basically a Canadian version of Donald Trump, proved himself unlike Trump with COVID-19. Ford had the sense to shut his stupid mouth during the height of the pandemic and speak only after public health officials, hospital managers, protective gear manufacturers and federal advisors had fed him the information he was to deliver and the guidance he was to provide.

Now that my province's economy is slowly, slowly reopening, I will resume my usual position of writing angry messages to Premier Ford's office about how he's ending extended benefits to low income workers who were laid off or furloughed, how he's making it easier for landlords to evict tenants and how his insistence on having individual cities set up their mask mandates is cowardice and how his extending his emergency powers is plainly a political grab.

I look forward to resuming my former position of frustration, irritation and dismay with Grandpa Biden after the election. I would rather be contending with him than with Trump.

2020-07-22 16:03:05

Five Thirty Eight's explanation for why Hillary lost in 2016 despite all the polling: the race tightened shortly before the election. Hillary was only ahead of Trump by 3.3 points -- but polls are generally off by 2 - 4 points that are conceivably in either direction, meaning Trump could have been (and was) slightly ahead. Five Thirty Eight also points out that Biden has a much bigger lead on Trump than Clinton ever had, 9 - 15 points ahead, which would require a much bigger polling error than even in 2016. Right now, it looks good. But right now is not November.

**

Five Thirty Eight says that there is little evidence for secret Trump voters being widespread. They may exist to a degree, but not significantly. If there were, the polls would have underestimated Trump's support in deep blue areas. This wasn't the case; blue state polls overestimated Trump's voters. Trump's supporters turned out to have been most underestimated in usually Republican states. There was only a 1- 2 per cent gap, not enough to significantly affect results. Trump's upset was due to Hillary's lead eroding to being within the margin of error. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q68gy2ZvuPM

I would welcome this being debunked if it's wrong.

2020-07-22 11:52:05

Transmodiar wrote:

Let's not conflate the polls; Biden isn't crushing Trump, TRUMP is crushing himself with his grandstanding and draconian actions.

Agreed.

Transmodiar wrote:

Biden is a complete non-entity who knows that if he just sits things out and doesn't make any major appearances or accept any debates, his vacuum leaves Trump flailing in the wind, damaging himself.

Letting your opponent implode is a strategy. Obama's campaigns were often about being steady and measured and letting John McCain and Mitt Romney self-destruct on their own.

Transmodiar wrote:

If Covid wasn't around Biden would be in terrible shape; he's a bully and a hothead, just not as big of one as our Cheeto-in-Chief.

I'd agree that historically, Biden has been a twit. How about that time he babbled an invitation to take a stand to a man in a wheelchair or described Barack Obama as "clean" as if to imply black people are generally dirty? But... something seems to have changed. For now.

His campaign is impressive. I'm sure it's less that Biden has always been how his campaign presents him. It's more likely that his doctor prescribed the right psychostimulants or his recent college grad speechwriters have found the right font or his speech therapist has given him some new techniques to master his stutter. But something has clicked in his working with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on his platform, in his statements warning Russia of a reckoning, in his declaring that the climate crisis is an opportunity to create jobs, in his warning his own wealthy donors that they won't like his tax policies, in his calling shareholder economy a farce.

Whoever handles his Twitter account has distilled his desired public image into a persona of warmth and understanding and I know it's just a PR campaign, but if he could live up to it, this could be something really special. Crisis can bring out the best and worst in us. The campaign presents Biden as someone who is remaking himself to meet the moment and I like it. But I recognize that it is an ideal, not a reality.

I will resume my former frustration at Joe Biden being the Democrat standard bearer after the election. You won't catch me sharing anecdotes of hearsay about Biden's supposed generosity after the election or screaming "fake news" at any of his critics.

2020-07-22 11:30:49

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

And we can take a shit on polls all we want and point over and over again to 2016 as the main reason, but 2016 was such an aberration. Things that are one in a million happen once every million times - it doesn't mean that the percentages were wrong if that one time happens first or fifth or whenever. Yes, the polls were wrong, but they've never been that wrong before or since.

TemporalFlux wrote:

People are scared to tell anyone they’re voting for Trump, though.

After 2016, no Democrat or left-leaning person can look at Biden's double digit lead without having flashbacks to Hillary Clinton's lead and remembering how it evapourated on election night. Polls are, in my view, a broad overview. A potential outcome. Yes, Trump's path to getting his 270 votes is difficult and nearly impossible. Yes, Biden's lead is so high that even if the polls are wrong, he's still on track to victory.

Yes, Trump looks done. But so did Biden a few months ago. Who's to say Trump couldn't experience the same reversal of political fortune? Or that the polls aren't misfiring like they did in 2016 and slanted just enough to see Trump win enough electoral votes even if he lost the popular vote? Is it likely? No. It's not likely. But you can't say it's impossible because it happened once and it could happen again if Democrats and Never Trump voters become complacent and think they're simply entitled to functioning government and take it for granted (again).

Joe Biden wrote:

Ignore the polls. We have work to do.

2020-07-21 17:09:07

While I don't live in America, a good portion of my income depends on the United States having a stable, reliable government with a thriving population in a strong economy. Under Trump, America is alternatively a war zone or a graveyard. Battlefields and fields of corpses are not conducive to business transactions. Trump has proven completely incapable of managing any hardship, crisis or difficulty. It's in my financial interest that Trump be voted out of office with such an overwhelming electoral defeat that he has no grounds to challenge the results beyond bluster and whining.

I would have preferred that the 2020 election unfold as the (relatively) bloodless culture war of Trumpism versus resurgent progressive Democrats like Andrew Yang. Instead, what we have is a catastrophic country of stormtroopers running amok with no way to prosecute their crimes against civilians and a health crisis where the federal government is stealing medical supplies rather than distributing them and insisting that there is no pandemic and banking on magical thinking to resolve the crisis. At this point, only way a strong federal response to the pandemic, to the recession and to the global tensions can be mounted is if Trump is defeated at the ballot box.

2020-07-21 15:11:38

What it comes down to is, unfortunately, a lot of Trump supporters aren't stupid. Some of them are brilliant intellects. And they admire Trump declaring what reality is without knowledge, information or awareness and when it's contradiction to reality; they want to behave the same way themselves: to declare themselves right regardless of the facts, to declare themselves above self-correction in response to new information. It isn't foolishness as much as a delusional sense of overinflated ego and admiring the biggest ego on display right now. We underestimate the savage, cruel intelligence of a Trumpist at our peril.

**

Biden is a problematic candidate on many levels. But throughout his career, he's shown the ability to get elected through choosing positions that are blandly triangulative enough to be tolerated by a wide enough variety of people, something he's put to use in working with the Sanders campaign on his electoral platform. He's also been accepting tutelage from Obama and it's clear that he's hiring twentysomething speechwriters; that's why all of his Medium posts and public statements recently have him talking like he's Captain America: thoughtul but commanding, principled but emotional, resolute but open-minded, authoritative but protective. I could easily imagine Chris Evans delivering Biden's recent promise of justice and sanction against electoral interference after he takes office. The campaign is good.

How much does it reflect the man? It's probably a reflection of his best qualities while not in any way presenting his true, complicated self: he's not as progressive as most would hope, he was in favour of mass incarceration bills, he's played fast and loose with campaign financing tricks, he's been vicious on drug users, he was in favour of Iraq despite the obviously faulty intelligence, he supported mass surveillance of Americans -- but he's also shown the ability to shift as circumstances change and people need his help. He is willing to change in response to new information and his vision of the presidency is to preside and delgate.

**

We're looking at a very difficult situation ahead of us. Biden is currently enjoying a double digit lead, but that could tighten. Trump's route to 270 electoral votes is near-impossible, but if the race tightens, it could get close. Close is a problem because the pandemic means the vote count will not be instant; it'll be delayed for at least a week during which, if the election is undecided, Trump could open numerous court challenges to try to block uncounted votes or claim electoral votes where the tallies aren't complete.

Nancy Pelosi remarked of Trump declaring he wouldn't accept the results of the election: "Whether he knows it yet, or not, he will be leaving. Just because he might not want to move out of the White House doesn't mean we won't have an inauguration ceremony to inaugurate a duly elected president of the United States. The presidency is the presidency. It's not geography or location. It has nothing to do with a certain occupant of the White House doesn't feel like moving and has to be fumigated out of there." But for this certainty, the outcome cannot be within a few thousand votes. The Democrats can't just win a few points ahead of Trumpism; it's not a victory unless they put it in the ground.

2020-07-21 13:23:08

One of my frenemies is insisting that the world is lying to claim that Trump is a failed crisis manager, a failure of a president and a selfish, greedy monstrosity.

His counterargument is to share third/fourth/fifth-hand anecdotes about how Trump was said to be generous to many random strangers over the years, paying off people's mortgages, sending them flowers and settling their medical bills -- all of which is argued with unsubstantiated, unproven, unverified hearsay delivered by people who heard it and repeated it. None of these anecdotes are told by the supposed beneficiaries in these stories. None of these tall tales in any way counter the fact that 140,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19 and there is no federal response to treatment or manufacturing protective equipment.

It is truly frightening to see a supposedly-intelligent individual fall prey to complete cult thinking where his chosen leader cannot be questioned and any positive claims, no matter how unprovable or devoid of evidence they may be, are declared to be absolutely true while any criticism is uniformly false even when there's a six figure count of bodies.

2020-07-17 20:28:27

In 2016, after Trump won, I wrote a SLIDERS script called "Resistance" where Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, Maggie and Diana discuss what they're going to do about it, whether or not they're going to use sliding and Sliders Incorporated to remove him. The sliders are all on board for this, but Quinn isn't, declaring that Sliders Incorporated is an apolitical relief organization, that ordinary people put Trump in power and have to be the ones to remove him, that it's an opportunity to recognize how Democrats can no longer ignore impoverished citizens and crumbling infrastructure while propping up corporations, that administrations come and go and Sliders Incorporated has to keep doing what it's doing -- social services, charity, research and development, and stealthily gifting interdimensional technology to the world. The end has Quinn and the other sliders deciding to volunteer with various other charities that will oppose Trump's policies on a civic and municipal level.

Transmodiar was kind enough to write Quinn's political opinions for me. Nigel Mitchell read the script and told me it was absurd, saying it was silly to present Donald Trump as some kind of supervillain.

Now we have Trump turning a blind eye to a pandemic that's killed nearly 140,000 people, sending stormtroopers into Portland to arrest anyone on the streets, demanding that schools reopen in the midst of a pandemic with no regard for children, tweeting White Power videos and having to be talked into taking it down, gassing protesters for a photo op -- I've never said this about Nigel Mitchell before, but Nigel was wrong. And also, I was wrong -- I was wrong to present a script where Quinn Mallory would declare that inaction, distant observation would be the best solution or to mischaracterize Quinn, a social justice activist and a moral crusader who could never stay away from people in trouble, as commanding the sliders to sit out a crisis.

SLIDERS REBORN was a dream project and I wanted to treat it was though it were real; as though the world that Quinn inhabited was our world. But I see now that simply isn't the case. The election results came in at a time when I was engaged in some world-building and seeking to present an interdimensional version of San Francisco as existing in our own reality with our electoral outcome. I see now that it was a mistake to write a script where Quinn would confront Trump but ultimately not do anything, a script that in retrospect declares Quinn to be ineffectual, cowardly and incompetent. I should simply have never put Quinn in that situation and accepted that REBORN and the real world had diverged.

I made a mistake. I got it wrong.

2020-07-16 08:39:43

They talk a bit about my EP.COM interview with Floyd in the podcast: https://earthprime.com/interviews/rober … looks-back

What has always really struck me about Floyd: his commitment to whatever he's doing at the time he's doing it and his ability to reinvent himself and his dreams. Floyd came into SLIDERS as Jerry O'Connell's scab, but he took the show very seriously and invested himself deeply in Jerry's acting and Quinn's character. He only really plays Jerry's Quinn in "The Unstuck Man," "Applied Physics" and "New Gods for Old," but he easily conveys the core of Quinn Mallory as the scientist and moral crusader, and he is relentlessly enthusiastic about SLIDERS whether it's 15 or 20 years after it went off the air.

Floyd left acting after he felt he wasn't spending enough time with his young sons as a single father. He became a roofer. He went back to bartending. But he missed performing and he found a way to combine his ability to create complex cocktails with his desire to entertain an audience, tell stories and create an event out of a beverage. He made a new career for himself. He could have seen going from acting to bartending as a backwards step, but he refused to think in two dimensions and he moved up and moved on.

And as evidenced in his interview, respect seems to be very important to him: he treats SLIDERS fans with gratitude when we often mock ourselves (or I do), he treats SLIDERS with appreciation (when many of us hold most of the show in contempt), and he treated his role as worthy of studious consideration and interpretation. We should treat everything in our lives with the same dedication.

2020-07-15 16:03:23

A President Hillary Clinton would have been highly ineffective, to say the least. But her campaign was bad and her candidacy was completely mismatched to the moment. Her record was one of global conflict and a fervent, ardent devotion to big banks and corporations. Her unwillingness to accept fault for self inflicted scandals was absurd. Her inability to connect with the electorate without every word she spoke having been scripted and refined by 10 staffers made her insincere and unrelatable. She ran an awful campaign that seemed competent only because of what she was running against, except her polling measures were clearly inept and useless because she thought she was winning when she wasn't.

Hillary has an absurd quote where when asked if she'd run again in 2020, she replied that she could probably beat Trump "again." You can't beat someone again when you've only ever lost to them. Never has a candidate in this digital age seemed so inhuman.

For all of Biden's gapingly problematic issues, Biden can relate to an audience and is not taking victory for granted.

2020-07-14 21:26:51

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/do … pt-july-14

I read that entire transcript of Trump's remarks today. So much for the myth of Trump as the master showman.

**

A Biden aide remarked on Trump's campaign: "The President has no message, no rationale for a second term, only tactics of distraction. We have ignored it. We do not care. We see it as totally a flailing, losing campaign."

Biden, however, tweeted that he is advising his staff to "ignore the polls" which strikes me as a solid attitude given how success seemed certain this time in 2016 and now we live in Trump's crapsack world.

**

Slider_Quinn21, do you regret being against a President Hillary Clinton? And would President Clinton be worse? I think you were definitely worried and even certain that she would have dragged the US into additional wars and the very worst aspects of neoliberalism.

There was a crazy amount of Democratic fanfic about how Clinton's lost presidency was a lost golden age, but that's silly. Even if Clinton were an angelic president, she would have been stymied by congressional gridlock and obstructionism and her own fealty to her corporate backers.

2020-07-14 21:10:29

https://thebulwark.com/joe-biden-should … ith-texas/

Interesting political commentary on how Texas is unlikely to turn Democrat and Democrats shouldn't devote their resources to what's political fool's gold.

2020-07-14 18:28:24

It's nice to hear his friendly, positive voice again. I wish Floyd would have led his own bar rescue show; his kinder personality would be a nice contrast to the more abrasive Gordon Ramsey types.

2020-07-13 18:57:00

Informant once remarked that I had more tech accidents than anyone he'd ever met. It was true: I smashed my Samsung S3 screen on three separate occasions, dropped my Samsung Note 8 tablet into a bucket of water, cracked my iPad screen -- but then low-cost tempered glass protectors came onto the eBay market. I would crack my Samsung S7 phone's screen protector 2 - 3 times a year and smash my iPad screen protector once a year -- but the $7 glass protectors and the plastic case would absorb any impact and leave the device underneath unscathed.

But recently -- my Samsung S7 case tore open after a drop on some sharp-edged rocks. I got a new case, ordered a new protector -- and discovered that the raised edge of the case would always slip UNDER the tempered glass protector and raise it off the screen. The thin-edged case I'd found before was no longer on sale. An edge-less case was available -- except that this new case no longer held the screen protector in place. The S7 has a curved edge to the screen. Adhesive is only on the edge of the protector to prevent distortion on the illuminated display. Without the thin-edged case to hold the protector down, it had a tendency to fly off every time I dropped the phone. Liquid also got under the protector every time I wiped the phone down with disinfectant, causing the glass to fall off the screen. I went from losing three screen protectors a year to losing three a month.

And my new iPad tempered glass screen protectors seemed to be slightly wider and thicker than previous models -- and would also not fit within the confines of the plastic case. I could apply the protector, but then I'd put on the case and it would raise the protector and sweep it off the screen.

I've found one last set of iPad screen protectors that fit under the case -- and the seller has sold out at this point, so if I smash these last three, there will be no more 360 degree protection on the tablet. There are liquid screen protectors that supposedly add a layer of silicon dioxide, but I have some of that on my watch and that hasn't prevented fine scratches. That said, my iPad rarely leaves my carpeted home these days, so I'm not too worried.

It's the phone that worries me. I've had to stop buying tempered glass protectors for my Samsung S7; it's too expensive to buy a new one every week. I'm down to my last two. After that, I have a hydrogel protector lined up. It is a layer of flexible plastic. The adhesive side of it is made sticky by spraying it with water and then sliding it onto the screen where it can bond to the curved edges of the device. It looks good and it has a thinly sponge-like surface that can 'heal' from scratches, but there is only limited impact protection. At this point, it seems likely that the phone will break soon once the last glass protector falls off and the hydrogel fails.

But I could be wrong. I'm basing this bleak prediction on my constantly breaking my Samsung S3 phone, but the screen on that had Gorilla Glass 2. The Samsung S7 has Gorilla Glass 4 which is (supposedly) eight times more resistant to breakage than the S3. I've never tested this as I always had tempered glass as a loss leader.

Protecting phones and tablets has become difficult: cases are being made more and more cheaply to increase margins, so the precise engineering and fit of previous years to allow a screen protector to fit on seamlessly is absent and even if it were, my iPad from 2017 and my phone from 2016 are unlikely to have new accessories designed for its protection.

Tempered glass depends on flat surfaces for strong adhesion; curved screens prevent this. Part of this is manufacturers wanting to create fragile products that need to be replaced, part of it is manufacturers trying to make generic slabs of rectangular glass seem more distinctive amidst a lot of competition.

I think my next phone needs to be something with a flat, uncurved screen even if it has a poorer camera or a weaker processor. Or it needs to have a readily available case that has a built in protector.

2020-07-13 12:57:31

I remember enjoying BATMAN FOREVER: Val Kilmer was convincing as a troubled and capable warrior. Chris O'Donnell was a bit too old to play Robin but very enjoyable. The costumes were cool and I craved all the action figures of Batman in the sonar suit and Robin in his garb. The Riddler was disturbing. Two Face didn't really stand out to me. Kilmer and Nicole Kidman had amazing chemistry. The action was exciting although a bit random at times with Batman randomly driving around and then being attacked in a coordinated assault (because the scenes had been moved around). I remember liking the novelization from Peter David a lot.

There's a lot of silliness in FOREVER that's at odds with the psychological tone of the film. Two Face is just a clownish presence. The henchmen are irksome. The competing clowning between Two Face and the Riddler is annoying. But the silliness seems quite isolated unlike BATMAN AND ROBIN where it went crazy with Batman attending charity balls.

I didn't consider the film to be in continuity with the Burton movies as Bruce says in this film that he's never been in love when he was clearly in love with Vicky Vale in BATMAN and certainly infatuated with Catwoman in BATMAN RETURNS.

It wasn't a great exploration of Batman, but it had all the charm and fun of creators playing with their Batman action figures and there was care and thought put into the story such as hiring puzzle creator and crossword designer Will Shortz to write all of the Riddler's riddles. It's a good effort and a fun time. It isn't THE Batman movie for me, but compared to the unpleasant BATMAN, the bleak BATMAN RETURNS, the obnoxious BATMAN AND ROBIN and that racist BATMAN TV serial, BATMAN FOREVER hits the dizzying heights of good enough.

**

Matt Reeves' THE BATMAN will apparently have a TV show called GOTHAM CENTRAL. No word on whether Robert Pattinson (Batman) and Jeffrey Wright (Commissioner Gordon) will appear. But -- it'd make sense if they didn't. How often would any police officer be in the same room as the city's police commissioner? How often would any cop encounter Batman in person?

If Batman were to appear, from the point of view of the police, wouldn't Batman be a distant or shadowy figure glimpsed only in silhouette? And to communicate with any GOTHAM CENTRAL characters through notes? It makes more sense for Batman to (not) appear in this fashion, played by a barely on-camera stuntman, than it did for, say, Dick Grayson's flashbacks to his childhood in TITANS where Bruce lives in the same house as Dick but inexplicably chooses to talk to him through handwritten letters.

2020-07-12 08:59:51

A friend/frenemy of mine has been bragging about how he won't wear a mask except when he can't get into a store without one.

My social media is filled with screenshots of people calling the virus a hoax followed by their obituaries.

I'm starting to feel guilt. I feel like instead of mocking, dismissing and disparaging this alt right Trumpist, I should have reached out to him, been a better friend and been kinder to him. I'm worried about him, but because of how I've positioned myself, he would never listen to me imploring him to, regardless of how he votes, engage in basic self preservation.

**

Slate had a hilarious editorial about how Congress should have paid Trump to resign.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … -away.html

2020-07-11 19:50:19

I liked FOREVER when I was a kid. I can't imagine what I'd think of it today. I found the first two Burton movies joyless and depressing and Batman was barely in them. Call me crazy, but I think the title character should actually be the star.

2020-07-10 18:36:48

I've seen the Schumacher cut of BATMAN FOREVER in the theatre of the mind -- which is to say I've read the adult and junior novelizations which adapted the original script and not the final cut that went to theatres. The original cut is definitely an improvement in specific and isolated areas: there's a more psychological arc for Bruce Wayne with an amnesia arc where he loses all memory of Batman, remembering only his Bruce Wayne identity, and has to decide whether or not he wants to be Batman again.

There's a peculiar and poorly-conceived (but beautifully dialogued) resolution where Bruce is haunted by guilt, feeling that as a child, he pleaded for his parents to take him to a movie and if he hadn't, they wouldn't have been robbed and murdered -- and the resolution is Bruce finding his father's journal and realizing that his parents didn't take him to the movie, that he has remembered it wrong, and that his parents' death wasn't his fault (but it wouldn't have been his fault regardless!) -- and he puts the Batsuit on again.

There are darker scenes throughout the film, but they exist within the day-glo, Vegas-style look of BATMAN FOREVER surrounding it, so the overall tone of the film wouldn't have changed. It wouldn't have been a better film, just a longer one and a more complete one. It wouldn't have been less silly; it would have just had the same silliness spaced out and diluted with darker scenes.

2020-07-09 08:42:29

On BATWOMAN -- the show has outmanuvered me and the fanbase.

Refusing to recast Ruby Rose with a new performer to play Kate was nonsensical and the fans were outraged. But then they cast Javicia Leslie as a new character who'd become BATWOMAN -- which means demanding that Kate Kane return (and be played by Wallis Day) is also demanding that a terrific black woman be traded in for a white girl. Calling for a recast Kate after Leslie's hiring is now an untenable position. There is no way to argue for that without arguing against representation.

The CW superhero lineup, aside from Black Lightning, is alarmingly Caucasian across the board. I want Kate Kane back, I want Wallis Day... but I also really want black women and girls to see someone who looks like them fighting crime in a cape and cowl. And I guess the BATWOMAN showrunners saw an opportunity to do that when their lead actress quit a 5 - 7 year contract on them and saw a chance to challenge their overly white image. I don't support BATWOMAN without Kate Kane. But I support women of colour in leading roles, so I'll have to swallow my frustration over Kate.

**

I think Hartley is great. The thing about Hartley is that in the hands of a more conventional actor like Jerry O'Connell, Ralph would be a collection of behavioural tics (much like Jerry on his TV show CARTER where he plays a needy, attention-demanding actor). Hartley gave Ralph this earnest sincerity and empty-headedness that seemed genuinely goodhearted but with his myopic dimness making him behave in unwitting selfish ways.

I think Hartley could probably go back to school and get his vet license and pursue another career in his passion for animals.

2020-07-08 18:39:53

I didn't want Kate Kane replaced. I wanted her recast with Wallis Day. I'm furious that Kate won't be in the show anymore. But Javicia Leslie is amazing. And I'm not a very sexual person, but I find Leslie's charisma and athleticism and screen presence and air of command to be irresistibly sexy. So... I guess I'll have to support this, if only because supporting a talented black actress playing the lead in a superhero show is worth the grief of losing Kate Kane.

2020-07-06 13:50:10

This past weekend, four old friends from the 90s who faded into non-existence in 2000 were restored and reborn with a new beginning and a new destiny before them. Yes, that's right: Netflix released a 10 episode reboot of THE BABYSITTERS CLUB. My sister and I loved these children's novels when we were kids in the 80s and 90s, thrilling to the adventures of four 12 year olds taking on the challenge of babysitting facing down disgruntled toddlers, hostile pets, abrasive neighbours, exploitative labour practices, diabetes, ghostwriters taking over the writing as the original author took over outlines and editing, spin-off upon spin-off upon spin-off.

I have fond memories of Kristy's bossiness and sense of vision, Dawn's environmental activism and vegetarianism, reading the books at recess, being mocked for reading girls' books at recess, having Dawn's debut book ripped in half by my scamp of a classmate Vishnu and me playfully putting thumbtacks in Vishnu's boots, me good-naturedly burning Vishnu's winter coat, me mischievously smashing Vishnu's bicycle with my grandfather's axe and me carefully removing all the screws from his glasses while he was swimming.

I may have had some childhood rage issues. Anyway! THE BABYSITTERS CLUB was basically a factory, pumping out 3 - 5 books a month from 1986 to 2000 in a recursive timeline where the kids had summer vacation after summer vacation but never seemed to get out of Grade 8. Everyone learned but nobody ever seemed to get all that much more mature. I loved the reassuring repetition and low stakes of THE BABYSITTERS CLUB, but I confess, around book #90 or so, it occurred to me that none of the girls had ever gotten their periods which made no sense to me as I grew up in an all-female environment.

The books were also written by middle and upper class Caucasians who were inclusive but had no cultural or social context to write minorities or truly address serious social justice issues. The values of the books -- friendship, teamwork, sharing, earning your way through life, caring for others -- they were well-considered and appropriate, but they were never challenged or tested. It was comfort food for kids and at this point hopelessly dated as they were written in an analog era without smartphones or social media. All the ghostwriters did a nice job of capturing the simple charm and pleasures of the first 13 novels written by Ann M. Martin, but there came a point when the sheer volume of the series was vastly overstretching the content through repetitive formula and a cyclical timeline. The original 13 novels are really all there is; the rest is just reruns and (barely) variations.

The Netflix reboot captures all the strengths of THE BABYSITTERS CLUB while addressing and repairing all of the weaknesses. The kids live in 2020 and have to face down social media; there's a new inclusivity for some of the originally Caucasian characters. I loved Dawn Schafer as a blonde vegetarian surfer from California, but there are plenty of blonde Caucasians on TV and we don't need another; it's wonderful to see Dawn reimagined as Latina and the geeky Mary Anne as biracial. Transgenderism and gay parents are introduced casually and socioeconomic class differences are shown with frustrated outrage. At 10 episodes, the show doesn't overstay its welcome. Everything that was strong and meaningful about THE BABYSITTERS CLUB is present, everything that is dated or shortsighted has been broadened with diversity.

What's also terrific: THE BABYSITTERS CLUB does not fundamentally alter the concept. I was expecting that a BSC reboot would have the kids as secret spies and assassins uncovering the terrible conspiracy behind the town with Kristy going on the run for murder, Mary Anne joining a biker gang, Claudia joining the FBI, Stacey having an affair with a teacher, the Babysitters Club guarding their charges with tasers and sniper rifles and all the parents being serial killers and sociopaths. Instead, the Netflix reboot leaves the characterizations and the family friendly appeal of the series intact, and tries to make its merits as strong in 2020 as they were in 1986, but also makes sure that girls get their periods in this reboot.

I hope someone will revive SLIDERS someday and let SLIDERS have its period as well.

2020-07-04 18:10:37

TemporalFlux wrote:

Just watched the premiere episode of a new NBC show, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”:
https://www.nbc.com/zoeys-extraordinary-playlist
I really enjoyed it. It’s not anything ground breaking - just a quirky female lead in kind of a mash-up between Eli Stone and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It’s also set in San Francisco and even had a passing joke about parallel realities. But I think what really hooked me in was her family. For the past four years, I lived that with my father; and it just really caught me off guard seeing that all of a sudden in this crazy little show. They’ve got a fan in me.

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

I like it too! Which was surprising since there were some reviews a couple of weeks ago (I believe they gave some press the first few episodes) and it was really panned. But the pilot certainly was enjoyable imo.

Renewed for Season 2!

https://gritdaily.com/zoes-extraordinar … eason-two/

2020-07-04 13:47:49

Trump is probably an addict who loathes his position but can't give it up. Much like me with pizza and Informant with Nazism.

Anyway. Biden could still screw this up and he has a long history of blowing his bids for president. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/0 … ump-348607

Will he? There's a good chance he'll manage just fine, but a few months ago, his campaign seemed deader than Season 6 of SLIDERS, so reversals can happen.

2020-07-03 10:56:34

This is one of those absurd theories that presumes studios and creatives obsess over continuity as much as the fans do. That's simply not the case; outside of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST resurrecting dead characters, FOX/Disney/Lucasfilm is not going to fixate on 'repairing' their previous films. As Grizzlor says, Lucasfilm is not going to dismiss the sendoffs for Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. There is no profit to dismissing FORCE AWAKENS, LAST JEDI and RISE OF SKYWALKER's place in history with Han, Leia and Luke when Harrison Ford is unlikely to do more than a cameo and Carrie Fisher is slightly unavailable for the foreseeable future. For better or worse, the sequel trilogy they made is the one we have. They're not going to replace it. They'll make new projects that may or may not be in theatres.

STAR WARS under Kathleen Kennedy has had its hits and misses, but aside from SOLO, her cinematic releases have made a profit. RISE OF SKYWALKER was the lowest return on investment, but it was still a return. I'm not sure "disaster" describes her term; I'd call it mixed to above average, about the same as most executives who survive in the business. She's not Kevin Feige with Marvel, but she's not Zack Snyder either.

2020-07-02 11:24:56

Something I like about Biden is his willingness to work with others. Kamala Harris blasted him, Bernie Sanders called him ineffectual, Andrew Yang called him weak on the internet -- but Biden has reached out to all of them to help him. The president shouldn't run the country; he should preside over many people running it.

He put Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin in their place. Can he perform against Trump in debates with the steadiness and sincerity and fire he demonstrated in his Wilmington press appearance? Or will he be reduced to incoherence like when Kamala torched him? Biden has been receiving some private coaching from Obama about being terse and spare in his comments.

Why was Biden so weak in the competition for the Democratic nomination? One theory is that the communication skills that made him so effective a politician have faded. But another is that he didn't really want to go on the offensive against his fellow Democrats whereas he has actual aggression to focus against Trump.

Search options (Page 43 of 80)

Posts found: 2,521 to 2,580 of 4,792

2,521 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-11 14:33:20

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,522 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-09 21:20:20

Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (724 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,523 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-09 15:29:16

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,524 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-08 09:11:22

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,525 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-08 05:31:57

Re: Personal Status Updates! (756 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,526 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-07 14:59:57

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,527 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-07 06:29:54

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,528 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-06 20:12:37

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,529 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-04 19:04:50

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,530 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-04 13:34:39

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,531 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-04 09:29:59

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,532 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-04 04:48:13

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,533 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-04 04:19:06

Re: Star Trek in Film and TV (and The Orville, too!) (758 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,534 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-03 18:11:57

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,535 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-03 16:17:34

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,536 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-02 20:23:18

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,537 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-02 12:10:20

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,538 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-02 11:56:26

Re: Supernatural (267 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,539 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-02 11:07:54

Re: Star Trek in Film and TV (and The Orville, too!) (758 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,540 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-01 15:10:07

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,541 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-01 13:37:13

Re: Supernatural (267 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,542 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-01 13:33:57

Re: DC Superheroes on TV & Streaming (1966 - 2024) (1,684 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,543 Reply by ireactions 2020-08-01 10:01:07

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,544 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-30 23:21:14

Re: Random Thoughts about TV, Film and Media (724 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,545 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-30 15:53:21

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,546 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-29 16:55:24

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,547 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-28 19:01:55

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,548 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-28 15:23:11

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,549 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-27 16:16:29

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,550 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-26 11:55:38

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,551 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-25 11:59:04

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,552 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-25 10:59:29

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,553 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-24 19:07:40

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,554 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-24 16:33:04

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,555 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-24 08:26:29

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,556 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-23 13:31:06

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,557 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-22 16:03:05

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,558 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-22 11:52:05

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

2,559 Reply by ireactions 2020-07-22 11:30:49

Re: American Politics: Discuss and Debate (3,573 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)