I’m not sure any of the democratic candidates really would want the job after the effects of the pandemic. The DNC can select anyone it likes, right? Maybe Elizabeth Warren will end up the surprise pick.
Politics and in-fighting. Which I guess is just politics. Or infighting
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Speaking of political shakedowns, I wonder how serial child rapist Prince Andrew is doing.
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He’s doing what he has been so far, denying and getting away with it. Since 16 is the age of consent in the UK unless they can prove he knew she was trafficked or money changed hands, which seems unlikely since Virginia Giuffre herself says he was being set up for blackmail, he has no legal case to answer there.
He does definitely in the US Virgin Islands where it is 18 but what chance do you think they will let a British royal be extradited for a crime? Recently the UK tried to extradite a US diplomat’s wife because she ran over and killed a young man, they just said no.
It sucks but I’ll be amazed if anything moves from that position.
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Looks certain that tomorrow’s exam results are going to be an avoidable goddamn mess.
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My wife came home from work yesterday, opened her phone, saw why Kamala Harris was trending, and let out a long “Nooooo” like Darth Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith. Biden’s team have terribly misread* the moment we’re in now following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Harris has an abysmal “tough on crime” record as DA. Barbara Lee would’ve been a much better choice.
* Although it’s probably less of a misread and more of an FU to the Defund the Police movement.
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Yup on the schools Ben, although the earlier goddamn mess in Scotland means they’ve tried to head it off at the pass with the mock exams thing. Wales seem to be going with the idea that nobody will get a grade lower than what they achieved at AS level which seems a slightly better compromise.
I don’t know, months back when they said the exams were scrapped and they’d have to make estimates of grades I thought you’ll have to give the benefit of the doubt here and risk some slightly overinflated results. If I was assessing and a kid if a borderline C or B then I’d go with their potential to get the B rather than guess they’d perform at the lower level. None of it is their fault and hopefully it’s a one-off event so just live with it.
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* Although it’s probably less of a misread and more of an FU to the Defund the Police movement.
It can be two stupid things.
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The DNC just announced it’s line up of speakers, which include Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren, Part of me wonders if they are being offered cabinet positions (which I am sure they are, excepting maybe Buttigieg). There’s a couple of other interesting speakers – Ocasio-Cortez, Gretchen Whitmer, John Kasich is speaking for some reason presumably about crossing-the-aisle politics.
The daily themes are predictably couched in patriotic vagaries but I’m sure there will be some interesting speeches.
It appears to be all done via linked broadcasts so theres every chance it could be an interesting disaster of scheduling.
EDIT: Booker is there too so Tulsi Gabbard must be feeling pretty dissed right now.
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There are some interesting omissions from the DNC line up of speakers.
Also, Ocasio-Cortez is only being granted a single minute to speak.
Wait – seriously? That’s absurd?
Edit: And apparently so. Her tweet on the time limit is quite the gentle ribbing
Oh, cheers. I hadn’t seen her tweet until you mentioned it. She’s quick of the mark.
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Yes. Seriously. She’s pre-recording her speech.
I hope someone’s there monitoring her for deviation, repetition and hesitation.
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Yes. Seriously. She’s pre-recording her speech.
I hope someone’s there monitoring her for deviation, repetition and hesitation.
If Paul Merton gets to take over for the last 45 seconds that could be interesting.
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Some guy did an interactive timeline of all Trump scandals.
Holy shit it’s dense. I would however like a comparison with another President and their scandal. A control group.
http://jordanskahn.com/trump-scandal-timeline.html
(Site has bad functionality on mobile, use desktop or desktop settings if you’re on a browser app for your phone.)
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Trump admits he is undermining USPS to make it harder to vote by mail
Trump said on Thursday that congressional negotiations over stimulus aid were held up in part because of Democratic proposals to provide $3.6bn to states to run elections and $25bn in aid to the postal service. The president, who has falsely claimed that widespread mail-in voting will lead to fraud, suggested that without the funding it would be harder to vote by mail.
“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. “If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.
Pretty despicable stuff, and amazing that he’s being so open about it.
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It should be amazing, but if you consider that he’s never suffered any consequences for any terrible thing he’s done in his life it kinda makes sense that he would be so open. No one’s gonna do shit about it and he knows it.
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Nah, he doesn’t know shit.
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Ballot drop boxes are an alternative and have become increasingly prevalent in light of the pandemic. Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit against them in Pennsylvania.
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And just like that the lead story became French quarantine instead of unfair exam fiasco
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) August 14, 2020
Given that the French travel arrangements have been under review for weeks now, timing the announcement to knock the exam results fiasco off the following day’s front pages does seem a little convenient.
One might almost suspect the government was playing fast and loose with people’s lives for political gain!
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Downgrades I don’t 100% disagree with. As a teacher you would be tempted to go with the benefit of the doubt and mark up.
The algorithm is a big problem. It basically makes it impossible for a smart student in a crap school. Grading students from B to F is nuts. Private schools using past attainment have seen a teacher allocate a ‘U’ for a shit student who did nothing and they marked it up to E. An E is still crap but in the UCAS points system it counts for some points and can make the difference between getting into a course or not.
At the very least for me they should have instigated a system where at most a single grade down is the maximum.
The system used in Wales of guaranteeing AS level attainment seems the best but in England that is optional so can’t be used. GCSEs will be a shambles on a bigger scale I suspect.
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FedEx and UPS (United Postal Service) are commercial courier businesses. The United States Postal Service is a government agency specifically and explicitly authorized by the US Constitution. As such, it cannot be eliminated or substantially changed unless repealed via an Amendment to the Constitution, regardless of what that crook in Washington thinks.
Do you honestly think that’s going to stop them? Rules only count if the people empowered to enforce them actually enforce them
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USPS announced a lock of hours ago they’re going to stop the removal of post boxes until after the election.
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Cue some totally not politically motivated mail box vandalism.
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Which, if it happens, will motive more to strive harder to ensure everyone has a way to vote.
Funny how Trump and Co. are trying to instill fear of fraud and undermine confidence in the service whilst at the same time utilise the mail-in ballot themselves.
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Cue some totally not politically motivated mail box vandalism.
Anti-democratic terrorism.
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The new UK anti-obesity campaign clearly has been drawn up by Lord Flash. The slogans are:
– This is my new thing!
– Let’s do it!
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WOW!! I’m inspired!!
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It’s a bit baffling. Is the New Thing eating massive sandwiches? Because I reckon I can do that.
This is my new thing#BetterHealth #NHS pic.twitter.com/rVC1FNPufF
— Sirona care & health (@SironaCIC) August 16, 2020
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You guys are literally living in an episode of The Thick of It now, aren’t you?
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Nah, we’re way past that now.
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You guys are literally living in an episode of The Thick of It now, aren’t you?
I remember The Thick Of It being funnier.
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You guys are literally living in an episode of The Thick of It now, aren’t you?
I remember The Thick Of It being funnier.
Mel Brooks once said that tragedy is when I cut my finger, but comedy is when you fall down an open manhole and die. So I guess the UK has just fallen down the manhole for real?
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It’s been a ten-year fall down the manhole.
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It’s been a ten-year fall down the manhole.
With a serious amounts of deaths during the last year.
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Government education policy has evolved from doing U-turns to doughnuts, but means grades are now by teacher assessment only.
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So if your teacher hated you, you’re in trouble now. (Don’t tell me that doesn’t happen, teachers are only human.)
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Any decision without exams is going to be flawed. I don’t think anyone has ever claimed the teacher gradings were perfect but I think we’ve seen, after some time, unanimity in the UK that they were better than algorithms based on past performance by other students, and in many cases other teachers.
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Yeah, Republicans are working on their rebuttal though…
St. Louis couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matters demonstrators to take part in GOP convention https://t.co/8fIsZbDvPr pic.twitter.com/r1giwjnol0</p>— The Hill (@thehill) August 18, 2020
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Yeah, Republicans are working on their rebuttal though…
St. Louis couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matters demonstrators to take part in GOP convention https://t.co/8fIsZbDvPr pic.twitter.com/r1giwjnol0</p>— The Hill (@thehill) August 18, 2020
It’ll be “They were comin’ right fer us”, with a side of “we feared for our lives”.
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EU rejects British plan for post-Brexit return of asylum seekers
UK set to lose right to transfer refugees to other EU countries under Dublin regulation
Brexit helping the UK take control of its borders, there.
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Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon charged in border wall scheme
So much for “draining the swamp”.
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Shut the fuck up, Bolton; you had your chance to do the right thing, and you blew it. Same to you, James Comey; fuck off!
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Shut the fuck up, Bolton; you had your chance to do the right thing, and you blew it. Same to you, James Comey; fuck off!
At least for most of the world Bolton is arguably a bigger worry than Trump. He’s a hawk who want to be constantly invading places, if Trump had listened to him we’d be facing a pandemic alongside an armed incursion into Iran.
So yeah, fuck him.
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Who should Biden have chosen instead?
I was hoping for Warren, because she was the only choice that’d have terrified the fucking one percent. She was willing to go after Wall Street, and after the system creating greater and greater social injustice and wealth disparity. Her (and Sanders, but he’s out) were the only options for an actual policy change in the US.
Harris seems to be a good choice, and she’ll certainly leave a mark on US politics now. Chances are she’ll be running for president in 2024 now. Which means the Democrat left will have to wait until after that to get their candidate now. Let’s say biden wins, then being very optimistic two terms for President Harris, then one or two terms for the Republicans… well, at least AOC will be ready by then.
Harris seems to be good on climate change and energy, which are the biggest issues today anyway.
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Harris seems to be a good choice
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Again, I think people put too much emphasis on President and VP. Not that they aren’t important as they can certainly steer the direction of things (Trump sure has in the worst possible way). But meaningful legislation will only come if we can get enough progressives in the House and Senate (and on the state level you need the progressives as well).
Warren and Sanders may be more progressive and may have scared the top 1%…but they also may have scared enough of the moderate Dems and not gotten anything done. Something I like about Biden is he does seem malleable to an extent. So if America can get enough progressives in office I think they could help push Biden a bit.
And for those who don’t think Harris is progressive enough, that’s not really what her record as a Senator says, here’s a site attempting to give Senators a “Progressive” score: https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate
Depending on how you look at the score, she ranges between #4 and #9, which as times puts her above Sanders and Warren. She actually often ranks pretty highly in terms of progressiveness as a Senator most places I’ve checked. I know that her time as AG and DA give people pause, but it’s important to look at her most recent job as a creator of legislation and maybe weigh it a bit more than when she was upholding legislation? I’m not saying her time as DA and AG shouldn’t be scrutinized and fairly criticized, but it’s certainly possible she learned from that. At least that’s my hope.
End of the day, though, progressives need to vote for the most liberal option available to them with a chance to win. Because refusing to vote out of protest that the candidates are too moderate won’t lead to progress. People abstaining from voting just means the voices of those that always turn out to vote (usually older conservatives) will be the only voices heard. The elections go forward and people get elected no matter how low the turnout is. Electing people shouldn’t be like dating. It’s not about trying to find the perfect person to marry. It’s more like travelling. Sure, ideally you want to be able to hop on to a direct flight to your destination, but often that’s not an option. Instead of just refusing to travel, you take a flight to the closest airport, some time with layovers, and you drive or bus or train or hike the rest of the way. At least that’s how I choose to look at it.
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Again, I think people put too much emphasis on President and VP.
I agree and I think it maybe comes from the differences with a parliamentary system where the leader has a bigger say.
If the Dems win both houses with progressive candidates then they could pass Warren’s ideas. Biden is a centrist but the shift in his party also means he’s shifted a lot to the left from when he used to boast he was the most conservative Democrat.
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Again, I think people put too much emphasis on President and VP. Not that they aren’t important as they can certainly steer the direction of things (Trump sure has in the worst possible way). But meaningful legislation will only come if we can get enough progressives in the House and Senate (and on the state level you need the progressives as well).
In terms of domestic legislation this may be true, but the role of a leader can go far beyond that. Look at all the damage Trump has done on the international stage, both in terms of the ‘soft power’ of the US but also in terms of all the international agreements and collaborations that he’s sought to overturn or undo.
Like it or not, the influence of the leader of the US goes far beyond that country and its legislation, the president has a big impact outside of that.
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Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree that strong leadership matters. Which is why I think it’s important everyone vote for Biden and Harris. They might not be the most progressive, but they’ll be better leaders than Trump/Pence. Trump has been a disaster. Biden and Harris can at least bring back some stability. Maybe that’s not very sexy, but right now it’s very important. So yes, we need stable leadership in the White House and we need to focus on finding ways to get progressives into the state and federal houses/senates.
I understand progressives being frustrated with the system. They should be. I just don’t think abstaining in protest of voting 3rd party in protest works. Too many did that in 2016. What we ended up with was Trump and a GOP controlled house and senate…and Joe Biden 4 years later because voters just wanted someone they believed could beat Trump. Progress, unfortunately, is crazy hard and required unrelenting work. Because America is weirdly obsessed with capitalism and the myths we’ve been sold about the history of our country.
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I liked Colbert’s answer to the “where is America going?”.
“It’s a pandemic, the couch.”
As to what happens if the Democrats get both houses? Probably not much. Obama had to fight his own party and the Republicans to get healthcare through and still lost the majority over it.
Maybe at least 12 years of Republican bullcrap has motivated some actual unity but I wouldn’t bet on it.
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Who should Biden have chosen instead?
I was hoping for Warren, because she was the only choice that’d have terrified the fucking one percent. She was willing to go after Wall Street, and after the system creating greater and greater social injustice and wealth disparity. Her (and Sanders, but he’s out) were the only options for an actual policy change in the US.
Harris seems to be a good choice, and she’ll certainly leave a mark on US politics now. Chances are she’ll be running for president in 2024 now. Which means the Democrat left will have to wait until after that to get their candidate now. Let’s say biden wins, then being very optimistic two terms for President Harris, then one or two terms for the Republicans… well, at least AOC will be ready by then.
Harris seems to be good on climate change and energy, which are the biggest issues today anyway.
Warren would have been a terrible choice for Biden’s VP for the simple reason she is too damn old. Biden will be 78 this year and Warren is 71. While Harris is not who I would have picked (not sure who I would have), she’s 55.
Bernie will be 79 this year and while I did vote for him in the primaries, he is also too old. Biden, Bernie, and Warren really should have not run. They should have been mentoring and developing the next generation of Democrats in the last few years. The Democrats need new, young blood.
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I think the same applies to Will’s earlier suggestion of Barbara Lee.
What’s interesting to me is that I think the Bide/Harris ticket is in a lot of ways reflects the same youth/experience stability/idealism paradigm that comprised the Obama/Biden ticket, excepting Harris hasn’t quite convinced some of her party of her idealism and there appears to be be doubts in the swing whether Biden shows stability (as he was intended to in 2008)
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I understand progressives being frustrated with the system. They should be. I just don’t think abstaining in protest of voting 3rd party in protest works. Too many did that in 2016. What we ended up with was Trump and a GOP controlled house and senate…and Joe Biden 4 years later because voters just wanted someone they believed could beat Trump. Progress, unfortunately, is crazy hard and required unrelenting work. Because America is weirdly obsessed with capitalism and the myths we’ve been sold about the history of our country.
The problem is that the Democrats haven’t offered Progressives a reason to vote for them beyond “have you seen the other guy?”, and then brow-beaten progressives, social democrats and socialists online whenever they bring up valid criticisms of the Democrat Establishment, and also yelled at then that it’s their fault Trump got into power. The Democrats bend over backwards to reach out to Republicans every election season, and even if they do put progressive policies into their manifesto, the promises remain unfulfilled or walked back should they win. There are only so many times you can do this until the actual left in America won’t vote for you any more, even on the principal of harm reduction.
There’s a bit in This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein where she’s relating a story of having met a prominent climate activist a few hours after this man met then-President Obama to discuss climate issues. And Obama gave the impression of listening to and then dismissing this activists’ valid and urgent concerns to the point that when Klein met him, he was visibly upset, saying “I thought he understood”. To a lot of people, Obama is very much a “fool me once, shame on me” situation and the Democrats have done nothing to reach out to that alienated voter base.
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If anyone’s interested, the Republican speeches from their convention can all be found here:
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