American Politics Discussion

[Stan]

 

[Bluewolf]

I see Trumps trying to weasel his way out of the next debate... 

[Dr. Gonzo]

1 hour ago, Bluewolf said:

I see Trumps trying to weasel his way out of the next debate... 

The reasoning he gave behind not wanting to do a virtual debate was essentially "they will shut my mic off if I try to interrupt Biden, that's not fair."  he's such a childish little cunt, I can't believe how popular he is with some people.

Speaking of how popular he is with some people... the more extreme of his base are going to be up to a whole lot of weird shit in the run up to this election. Here's a news story you might expect out of somewhere in the 3rd world... right out of America - https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921655143/militia-members-plotted-to-abduct-michigan-gov-whitmer-fbi-says a militia had plans to kidnap a state governor. I think that's pretty close to attempting a coup in that state.

Will be interesting to see the amount of fuckery that goes on in the runup to this election. My big fear is mass shootings at polling places.

[6666]

It would be somewhat funny if Trump still manages to win...

[Dr. Gonzo]

6 minutes ago, 6666 said:

It would be somewhat funny if Trump still manages to win...

I think he will, tbh.

[Harry]

4 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

The reasoning he gave behind not wanting to do a virtual debate was essentially "they will shut my mic off if I try to interrupt Biden, that's not fair."  he's such a childish little cunt, I can't believe how popular he is with some people.

Speaking of how popular he is with some people... the more extreme of his base are going to be up to a whole lot of weird shit in the run up to this election. Here's a news story you might expect out of somewhere in the 3rd world... right out of America - https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921655143/militia-members-plotted-to-abduct-michigan-gov-whitmer-fbi-says a militia had plans to kidnap a state governor. I think that's pretty close to attempting a coup in that state.

Will be interesting to see the amount of fuckery that goes on in the runup to this election. My big fear is mass shootings at polling places.

He will debate. This is just hot air

This image has gone viral about his debate refusal. He will not be able to accept being seen as weak or scared to attend.

[Harry]

7 hours ago, Stan said:

 

He can still win but the campaign is an unmitigated disaster.

Brad Pascale the guy who was running his campaign for the last two years was arrested last week. His new campaign manager has been sidelined with COVID. A lot of the key players for his campaign currently have Covid. Trump himself having COVID is a big pain for his actual campaign.

[Harry]

4 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I think he will, tbh.

There's just no way to know how much of an impact the voter suppression measures will close the gap. But the more states that Biden can compete in the harder it will be for that to become the differentiator.

The two big truths that are relevant as I see it:

Biden is doing much better at this same point than Hillary Clinton was. 

Trump being president means he has much more potential to undermine the election (postal ballots, voter intimidation from supporters, supreme Court majority, etc)

[Eco]

On 08/10/2020 at 04:08, Stan said:

Did anyone come flying out of the blocks last night?

I'd have love to be a fly on the wall to hear what was said after the debate. 

It was actually a decent debate, even if neither candidate answered the questions asked. 

I almost felt sorry for Pence at time, as I'm sure he has thought about just breaking script and saying, 'My boss is fucking moron' when asked about why Trump did this or that...

[Eco]

Everything I have seen has Ohio, Iowa, Georgia and Florida as the key battleground states. 

Polls showing Biden winning BIG, but I don't know what to expect.

[Harry]

1 hour ago, Eco said:

It was actually a decent debate, even if neither candidate answered the questions asked. 

I almost felt sorry for Pence at time, as I'm sure he has thought about just breaking script and saying, 'My boss is fucking moron' when asked about why Trump did this or that...

The main talking points seemed to be:

1. Talking over Kamala and frequently ignoring the female moderators wind ups, which seemed a bit ignorant in the metoo era.

2. Refusing to endorse a peaceful transfer of power. (He cops flak for this but if he answers honestly he's toast with Trump the next day.)

1 hour ago, Eco said:

Everything I have seen has Ohio, Iowa, Georgia and Florida as the key battleground states. 

Polls showing Biden winning BIG, but I don't know what to expect.

Those states are the closest contests but if Biden wins Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin he doesn't need any of those you listed to win.

 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

16 hours ago, Harry said:

There's just no way to know how much of an impact the voter suppression measures will close the gap. But the more states that Biden can compete in the harder it will be for that to become the differentiator.

The two big truths that are relevant as I see it:

Biden is doing much better at this same point than Hillary Clinton was. 

Trump being president means he has much more potential to undermine the election (postal ballots, voter intimidation from supporters, supreme Court majority, etc)

I can only really speak for my neighborhood, but we did have our local post office taken away right before ballots were to be mailed out. And the state let my wife (and any voter) track her ballot - it ended up being a few days later than anticipated.

Because it’s a pandemic more people are planning to vote by mail. So the postal service being fucked with doesn’t help.

I imagine there’s more election ratfuckery that’s gone on in parts of the country where the presidential vote isn’t as secure.

But either way, my wife’s decided to just take her ballot to a drop off place early rather than trust it with the federal mail service. But I don’t think all states have made voting for this election as easy. It seems Texas has done what it can to reduce polling places.

[Harry]

I normally hate this meme. But the photoshoppery made me lol

[Dr. Gonzo]

 

On the one hand, I think the Lincoln Project are a bunch of cunts who spent so long taking right wing discourse & making it nice and easy for Murdoch to sell to the American public.

On the other hand, I like seeing the US right cannibalise itself over the orange cunt they’ve foisted onto the world.

[Harry]

10 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

 

On the one hand, I think the Lincoln Project are a bunch of cunts who spent so long taking right wing discourse & making it nice and easy for Murdoch to sell to the American public.

On the other hand, I like seeing the US right cannibalise itself over the orange cunt they’ve foisted onto the world.

I wouldn't dismiss everyone formerly pro GOP as being terrible. There have always been broad coalitions of people in each party including those pulling it back towards the centre, and who are doing that in the mindset that America needs both it's major parties to be coherent, sensible and electable. 

The GOP now though had purged most of those types, and become pretty radical, and for the good of America long term needs to be punished, and spend two decades in the electoral wilderness finding their way again. Expansion of the supreme Court, abolition of the electoral college, statehood (and 4 new senators) for DC and Puerto Rico would be what's required to make that a likely reality but would be a tough battle to pull off especially if you're not taking that to an election as your established position 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Just now, Harry said:

I wouldn't dismiss everyone formerly pro GOP as being terrible. There have always been broad coalitions of people in each party including those pulling it back towards the centre, and who are doing that in the mindset that America needs both it's major parties to be coherent, sensible and electable. 

The GOP now though had purged most of those types, and become pretty radical, and for the good of America long term needs to be punished, and spend two decades in the electoral wilderness finding their way again. Expansion of the supreme Court, abolition of the electoral college, statehood (and 4 new senators) for DC and Puerto Rico would be what's required to make that a likely reality but would be a tough battle to pull off especially if you're not taking that to an election as your established position 

I will admit I lean left more than most due to being a Merseysider.

But fuck anyone remotely close to the American right. Them and Rupert Murdoch have done so much to erode political discourse in the English speaking world. They are fucking scum, quite frankly.

These same people making attack ads against Trump will once again be making the same ads against anyone to the left of a candidate like Biden.

The centre of America’s left are basically Tories, so I’m not too sympathetic to republicans switching over to be Biden democrats. America’s right that isn’t completely insane shouldn’t be celebrated.

The current GOP platform deserves widespread condemnation, and if it’s not going to come from within America (and I don’t think it will - the one GOP Senator that thought the orange man should be removed thinks the orange man should be able to appoint a Supreme Court justice) it needs to come from the international community.

Trump’s America doesn’t deserve to be considered a superpower. It has domestic terrorists trying to kidnap governors. That is some Taliban shite.

The people at the Lincoln Project played a part in that. They don’t just get a pass because they aren’t as fascist as their former colleagues.

[Harry]

5 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I will admit I lean left more than most due to being a Merseysider.

But fuck anyone remotely close to the American right. Them and Rupert Murdoch have done so much to erode political discourse in the English speaking world. They are fucking scum, quite frankly.

These same people making attack ads against Trump will once again be making the same ads against anyone to the left of a candidate like Biden.

The centre of America’s left are basically Tories, so I’m not too sympathetic to republicans switching over to be Biden democrats. America’s right that isn’t completely insane shouldn’t be celebrated.

The current GOP platform deserves widespread condemnation, and if it’s not going to come from within America (and I don’t think it will - the one GOP Senator that thought the orange man should be removed thinks the orange man should be able to appoint a Supreme Court justice) it needs to come from the international community.

Trump’s America doesn’t deserve to be considered a superpower. It has domestic terrorists trying to kidnap governors. That is some Taliban shite.

The people at the Lincoln Project played a part in that. They don’t just get a pass because they aren’t as fascist as their former colleagues.

The Republican party was hijacked by the tea party and freedom caucus and that led to further and further polarisation but sadly most voters either went with the radicalisation or were too dumb to notice.

I agree though that its unfortunate that the democratic party has become the sane persons party with many former Republicans and now has too much ideological ground to cover. 

[RandoEFC+]

A lot of very intelligent people in a lot of places in that party turned a lot of blind eyes to a lot of things for Trump to get anywhere near that ticket in the first place and every one of them is culpable in this episode of US politics.

When the election race was close, I was worried like many others about Trump trying to Houdini his way out of it or using some legal loophole to invalidate the result. At the moment it's a gulf between him and Biden in nationwide polls and in swing state polls. Maybe he can scrape it back but people are already voting. Unless there's a big change, the election won't be close enough for Putin's meddling to get him over the line, or for him to cry foul over postal ballots or challenge the result on some sort of technicality.

After that, his only option is to outright refuse to hand over the presidency, stage some sort of coup with the help of the military or by mobilising his extremist supporters to take to the streets with guns or something. Let's hope it doesn't go that far huh...

[Harry]

Weird shit

[Stan]

He is batshit crazy. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

He’s on powerful steroids to keep his lungs pumping... and has been tweeting insane shit as a result.

I’m watching the senate confirmation hearing for Amy Covid Barrett... and I don’t know why I’m watching it. It’s just making me angry.

[Dr. Gonzo]

19 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

A lot of very intelligent people in a lot of places in that party turned a lot of blind eyes to a lot of things for Trump to get anywhere near that ticket in the first place and every one of them is culpable in this episode of US politics.

When the election race was close, I was worried like many others about Trump trying to Houdini his way out of it or using some legal loophole to invalidate the result. At the moment it's a gulf between him and Biden in nationwide polls and in swing state polls. Maybe he can scrape it back but people are already voting. Unless there's a big change, the election won't be close enough for Putin's meddling to get him over the line, or for him to cry foul over postal ballots or challenge the result on some sort of technicality.

After that, his only option is to outright refuse to hand over the presidency, stage some sort of coup with the help of the military or by mobilising his extremist supporters to take to the streets with guns or something. Let's hope it doesn't go that far huh...

I’m actually pretty worried about that last paragraph. There have been weird militias and groups popping up all over the US. It’s shit you hear about happening in Iraq and Syria... so it’s pretty concerning.

Then you’ve got that group this week that was arrested in a plot to kidnap a governor. A sheriff in the county the militia was from, who had no idea the FBI had been investigating them, basically defended this attempt at taking out the leader of one of America’s states.

I never thought a US President would turn to weird militias to hold to power. I also never thought a militia would try to kidnap an elected official in the US though.

I think we’ll see some violence closer to the day of the election - I honestly would not be surprised if there is a mass shooting in the big lines around polls.

[Dr. Gonzo]

We've now got the first US Presidential candidate endorsed by the fucking Taliban: https://news.yahoo.com/taliban-endorses-president-trump-report-000600880.html

a coveted endorsement, I'm sure.

[Harry]

Hey Iowa, can you believe the stupid fake news media covered your huge floods instead of my nobel prize nomination? Isn't my life so unfair?

 

[Azeem]