American Politics: Discuss and Debate (Page 23 of 57)

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.

I agree with this.

But to be fair, I think we also inject Trump into everything.  I follow a very select few of what I consider to be reasonable people who are truly conservative/Republicans that are wary of (but not fully against or fully supportive) Trump.  I do this because I feel like I need to at least understand where these people are coming from.  In the age of "block everyone who disagrees with you", I try to at least be educated so I don't start believing that everyone agrees with me.  I think that's how radicalization happens.

And these people get frustrated because people make everything about Trump.  Does he suck?  Yes.  Is he doing a terrible job?  Yes.  But I think we too often drag him into situations that he doesn't belong.  For example, there was a widely circulated video of a great lightning strike behind the Statue of Liberty.  That quickly devolved into Trump.  Trump didn't say anything about it (or maybe he did, I don't follow him) and the event itself had nothing to do with Trump.  And the conservatives I follow were exhausted by the idea that a cool weather shot ended up getting political.  I know there's symbolism there, but I think we need to be enjoying moments that Trump isn't affecting and not making *more* things about him.

The sad thing for us is that I think Trump is actually trying.  Covid is going terrible for him, and unlike BLM, there's no political reason for him to handle it the way he is.  I just think he's in over his head and has no idea what he's doing, and he's surrounded himself with sycophants that don't know what they're doing.  So it's just this circular disaster that he can't pull his way out of.

Biden, for his faults, at least has an inkling of what he's doing.  But more importantly, he can surround himself with people who know what they're doing.  And he's capable of replacing people who don't.

I think he's trying.  I just don't think he knows what he's doing.  All the people in his circle don't know what they're doing.  His son-in-law is in charge of everything, and he has no qualifications.

If he didn't care, he wouldn't have worn a mask.  He wouldn't have gone through with the shutdown.  He wouldn't have done anything.  But he's done enough to show that he's trying but hasn't done nearly enough because he's confused.

More reason to think he'll find somewhere to take asylum, and that's where he'll be election night.

Trump has most certainly NOT been trying.  He made meaningless gestures like enacting the DPA on auto makers to make ventilator parts, but they were already in the process of doing so.  He tried to have everyone take hydroxychloroquine, which continues to be shot down by study after study.  He has spent billions on his vaccine Warp Speed, which won't help anyone for at least a year.  Yes, he signed the stimulus bills, okay, big deal.  Did you expect him to veto???

He insisted on reopening when the data screamed NO.  He has until last week refused to suggest people to wear masks.  He became bored of the pandemic.  He's lazy, he didn't want to hear the bad news anymore, and as Biden snipes, he "quit."  There are people who KNOW how to deal with an epidemic, but he fired or ignored them all.

Now, most countries have somewhat failed on this virus, that's obvious.  The few that continue to "succeed" are mostly in Asia, or are islands.  They have no travel going in or out, and their economies are largely stymied.  They live in a state of constant vigilance.  It might be working for the time being but it's sure as heck no fun.  Trump's administration gambled this virus would, as he said, vanish during the summer.  They figured an economy that was back up running even at 2/3 or 3/4 steam would seal his re-election.  He does not care about the casualties from this pandemic, none in the least.

As I’ve mentioned previously, my mom watches these things and then shows them to me.  She doesn’t have a lot in life since my dad died, so I humor her; and we talk about them giving my perspective on what it means which is usually different from her.

The latest video making the rounds is linked below.  I will preface this by saying that I do not believe this man is a prophet.  I think he’s fairly well read and informed, and his dreams are his subconscious unpacking the information he’s collected into his personal logical conclusions.

https://444prophecynews.com/brace-yours … overstone/

Starting with the September dream, I think the school thing is obvious to anyone.  Schools won’t re-open or either they’ll re-open in August only to close after a few weeks due to a massive spike in virus numbers.

The part about the banks is being misinterpreted, I believe.  It could be massive inflation, but I think it’s more likely that the vision signifies implementation of negative interest rates (something Trump has been itching to do for awhile).  Negative interest rates, as their name implies, would force the banks to give out interest (bonus money) to people who take loans; and in turn, stimulate the economy by encouraging people to take out debt.  That “new” money then gets injected into the economy keeping afloat businesses, rental properties, etc.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/i … s-work.asp

But the dark side to this is that it would cause you to lose money if you have it in a savings account in a bank.  For instance, let’s say you have a million dollars in the bank, and you’ve been making ten thousand a year in interest.  With negative rates, you could now be *losing* ten thousand a year if you left it in the bank.

So what’s the man’s dream trying to say?  The roofs being ripped off banks and money flying out.  An action of force causing things to happen the bank wouldn’t want.  September could see a run on the banks as happened at the start of the Great Depression - get your money out before you have to start paying the bank to keep it there.

When this happened in the Great Depression, banks collapsed.  Banks never carry enough money to make good on everybody’s claim if everybody made their claim at the same time; so people couldn’t get their money if they were slow to act.  Their money was just gone.  Remember the bank in “It’s a Wonderful Life”?  That’s what happens except we probably now don’t have that nice, understanding community that George had then.

The November dream is also tricky.  Many are interpreting it to mean that Trump will lose, but I think it means Trump will win or claim to win.  These past few months, we’ve already seen what can happen if passionate flames are stoked, but a Trump victory would turn the dial up to eleven.  This really isn’t about Republicans and Democrats, though - it’s about both manipulating circumstances to get what they want.

The U.N. appearing in the dream?  What could they possibly show up for?  Claims of election interference with both halves of a government saying the other is illegitimate.  Couple this with massive unrest, and the request for help by one half of the US government could invite the U.N. and other countries to intervene.  The world gets to decide which side they think is legitimate and throw in their support.  It’s not an invasion - it’s aid.   Or at least it can be sold that way.

I don’t think the man who had these dreams is a prophet; but I can see how things could easily go down a dark, sideways path.  And to those who say impossible - how much of the past few months did you really think would ever happen?  Anything’s possible. Brace yourself.

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

Clearly, since they've both already had their conventions and announced their candidates; Dr. Jo Jorgensen for the Libertarians and Howie Hawkins for the Greens.

The undecideds aren't choosing between Trump & Biden.  It's Biden or smaller party.  Or Biden or don't bother.

I agree with you, though you I actually explained that in my post!  Most undecided's just don't bother to vote at all.  It's true, some don't really want either guy, but there's a massive number who don't want Trump but they want to have another option.  Biden's campaign from day one was to be that "other guy."

Those people simply won't vote at all.

In the press conference he said he liked her voice, but knew nothing about her.  Aka the Col. Klink defense!

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.

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.

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:

Today, the White House condemned Hong Kong delaying their elections saying it "undermines the democratic processes and freedoms"

Out of the blue, Trump approved $765 million dollar loan to Kodak so they could start making ingredients for pharmaceuticals that are presently made cheaply overseas.  Stock price of course doubled, then tripled, making certain people millions.  Then it came out today that one of the drugs they will focus on....Hydroxychloroquine.  Jesus H. Christ, the corruption simply never ends.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/ … ngredients

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.

Well, I think some of that is certainly possible, but I think we're allowing our nightmares to get the best of us.  We have to remember a couple of things that would drastically harm Trump's ability to do certain things:

1. If Trump is out, Republicans cannot help him scorch the Earth.  He may be leaving, but they aren't.  If Trump is setting fire to the Lincoln Bedroom and forcing himself to be carried out by the secret service or puts tanks in front of polling places, the Republicans will have to live with those images for decades.  It would put nearly every Republican politician in danger for the near future because it wouldn't just represent Trump - it would represent *them*.  I think that's part of the reason why Gore and Hillary didn't put up more of a fight than they did - it would reflect poorly on Democrats to do so.  So while, yes, Trump himself could potentially throw a fit, he wouldn't get support from anyone that wants to be in politics in 2021 and beyond.

That also might include his children.  If Ivanka or Don Jr. or Eric Trump want to be in politics, they can't be involved with a guy who threw the world's biggest hissy fit.  Same with Jared Kushner.  Trump can throw a temper tantrum, but it would tarnish the Trump name forever.  There's a really good chance that Trump's too narcissistic to care about his kids, but if they're fighting on it (because, again, they might want to have lives in the United States going forward), then it makes it harder.

Also remember that Trump's approval rating is hovering around 40%.  I think we like to think of Trump's MAGA people as all being indoctrinated wackos who worship him, but that number isn't anywhere near that 40%.  People support Trump because he's good for the economy or whatever - and setting fire to the country on his way out isn't going to be good for the economy.  Yes, you'd absolutely get white supremacists and evangelicals marching on behalf of Trump, but how many people is that in reality?

2. Trump's own incompetence.  People see Trump as this dictator figure who will pull off a suppression campaign with military precision.  But look at his presidency and tell me where he's shown any ability to pull that off.  He had a chance to do it in 2018 as a trial run, and the Republicans lost big.  His government, despite having control of the House and Senate for the first two years of his presidency, passed nothing.  He didn't repeal or replace Obamacare.  He didn't build a beautiful wall and Mexico didn't pay for it.  And even though it would've benefited him in every way to deal with the pandemic effectively, he botched that too.

Even when you look at his criminal enterprises, he's inefficient and sloppy.  He didn't win on Russia and Ukraine because the Democrats couldn't prove it - he won on technicalities.  He's winning on tax returns because of technicalities.

Trump doesn't know what he's doing and the people around him don't know what they're doing.  Trump might actively want to send the military to polling places, but he's just as likely to send them to the wrong polling locations or the wrong states entirely.  Nothing he's done so far has indicated that anyone in his administration is capable of pulling off a successful voter suppression organization, especially if he's lost support from the party.  And with the electoral map looking the way it is, he'll need to pull off something that he's just not capable of pulling off in my opinion.

***********

All that being said, Biden's team needs to keep up enthusiasm and do everything in his power to get people out voting early and voting in person.  There's plenty of time to organize efforts at a community level.  If people need to plan ahead, they can plan ahead.  How people can find time between the opening of early voting and the close of it.  How people can get their mail in ballots in quickly and efficiently.  There's tons of time to be working out kinks, and they know the Republican playbook.

With the map the way it is, if Trump is able to pull off a suppression campaign and win, Biden is going to have plenty of share of the blame because there's ways around everything Trump would try.

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.

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?

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!

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

How to beat the post office:

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.

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.

First of all, his statement wasn't racist.  Blunt and dumb, but wasn't racist.  Secondly, Trump tried to seize on it which is hilarious given that black people have had a morbidity rate in this pandemic which is off the charts.  Where's the uproar when Trump declared that Biden would "hurt GOD?"

The Biden gaffe crap is no different than Hillary emails.  They're insignificant when compared to the nonstop graft from Trump.  Who by the way is in hot water in the state of NY for likely tax, insurance fraud and money laundering. 

Speaking of NY, their mail-in vote during the primary was a total disaster, in which nearly one in five ballots were tossed for lateness or mistakes.  The GOP has refused to include mail-in vote money in the stimulus, and given that Democrats seem to be more interested in vote by mail during the pandemic, this may represent a serious problem for them.  Meanwhile, some 61% of poll workers nationwide are over the age of 60, leaving many jurisdictions scrambling for replacements.  The amount of voters, largely Democrat, who are due to be disenfranchised in November is quite high.

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.

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.

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.

**

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.

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

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.

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.

Personally, I wanted Gretchen Whitmer for the job. But -- black people are getting the crap kicked out of them right now. (Literally.) They need to see hope in the faces of their prospective leaders. And because Kamala Harris isn't a far-left figure like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders and has been a prosecutor, she is also immune to Trump's claims that she is a socialist radical or against 'law and order.' It's a choice that doesn't in any way rock the boat that is speeding straight to the White House.

This whole election is making me realize that you can't just appeal to those who agree with you; you have to appeal to those who would grudgingly tolerate you and build a coalition. The Biden/Harris ticket is the equivalent of "Double Cross" / "Dead Man Sliding" / "Season's Greedings" / "The Prince of Slides". It's good enough for now and will ideally create some stability pave the ground for more experimental, progressive ideas assuming nobody in charge has a serious drug problem and is really only there to get Roger Daltrey and his band to perform.

The USPS situation has me very worried, but if people vote ASAP and early, they can still beat the post office.