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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Trumps major talking point, the economy, has no traction right now but that could change in 3 months.
I don’t think it can. Maybe stock markets but there’s no recovery of the majority of the jobs lost within the next 3 months. Recovery, at very optimistic thinking, is at least a year away.
That’s still no reason for complacency though. There’s every chance within 3 months for Democrats to fuck something up or an external event to boost Trump. Thatcher in her first term was presiding over a bad economy with high unemployment and poor polling but a blast of patriotism and a decisive victory in the Falklands turned it around quickly.
(If you are reading this – don’t go to war Donald. Seriously though I think the fact that Britain wasn’t the aggressor was a part of it, I don’t think you can get the same effect just randomly invading somewhere).
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I don’t think it can. Maybe stock markets but there’s no recovery of the majority of the jobs lost within the next 3 months. Recovery, at very optimistic thinking, is at least a year away.
Im inclined to agree, but it will be the rhetoric that matters in November, not the facts.
Its hard to see that the same folk in the rust belt that swung republican will do so again though, presupposing the initial swing was due to Trumps economic promises.
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Now, in 2020, everyone is sure he can’t win again in November.
Oh, in that quote I was talking long-term effect on the GOP, not Trump’s chances of winning or losing.
Where those are concerned, like I said earlier, I think his chances have decreased massively simply because covid-19 has tanked the economy and because he’s dealt with the crisis so badly. But I have no idea whether he’ll win or not, and if 2016 has shown us one thing then it’s that nobody really has any idea whatsoever.
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The only real way for Trump to “go away” is to have him suffer a really conclusive
head trauma.
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Trump does have the incumbent advantage, certainly. Before COVID I was sure Trump had the election in the bag. But his complete lack of leadership has extended the lockdowns well past expectations. It’s now killing Trump’s rallies and his big convention moment. We’re nearing 150k dead with potentially the worst yet to come in some big states now that icu capacity has been reached.
I think Trump’s best path to winning is if the unemployment rate drops in September and October.
But really this is a tough election to predict. Yes Trump is the incumbent, but Biden was VP not that long ago. I’m not sure we’ve ever had an incumbent vs a former VP? Trump’s net approval rating is also terrible. Only Carter and Bush sr had worse net approval ratings at this point. He also lost the popular vote by a lot in 2016 against an incredibly polarizing candidate.
All normal indicators say Trump is in deep trouble. But Trump isn’t normal and his base borders on fanatical so it’s hard to not believe he’ll find a way to win.
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I don’t know, I guess this might be a good thing? The right getting more fractured (in the way the left traditionally is)?
That generally isn’t what happens though. Right-wing factionalism tends to be more about personalities and groups that are followed, so when one wins out over the other the followers of the loser just shift loyalty to the leader – look at the 2016 Republican Primaires, where Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham and others were vicious in their attacks against Trump, and Trump was vicious right back, but as soon as Trump secured the nomination they defended him to the hilt and have continued to do so. And if Trump falls out of favour all his rabid followers will move onto the next demagogue.
By comparison, left-wing factionalism tends to be ideological, where nomally centre-left but really just neoliberals have deep disagreements with social democrats, who are seen as class traitors by socialists, and so on.
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Theres still along time until November.
Plenty of time for noone to change their minds on anything.
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Of note
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/27/bernie-supporters-medicare-single-payer-381972Hopefully this pushes the policy platform toward single payer, but as Sanders seems to indicate based on his comments from the Zoom call, it doesnt seem likely that those delegates will get everything they want but the conversation is ongoing.
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It’s so depressing that after months of this bungled fucking pandemic there’s still even a debate on single payer happening within our supposedly left-wing political party.
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It’s so depressing that after months of this bungled fucking pandemic there’s still even a debate on single payer happening within our supposedly left-wing political party.
you guys have a left-wing party?
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It’s so depressing that after months of this bungled fucking pandemic there’s still even a debate on single payer happening within our supposedly left-wing political party.
you guys have a left-wing party?
Just you wait til we really start to nudge Joe Biden left!
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Trump on Fauci’s High Approval Ratings: ‘Nobody Likes Me’
Cry me a river, you big orange baby.
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Trump on Fauci’s High Approval Ratings: ‘Nobody Likes Me’
Cry me a river, you big orange baby.
Well wouldn’t you know, there’s that honesty his supporters were going on about in 2016…
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“He’s working with our administration and for the most part we have done pretty much what he and others, Dr. Birx and others, who are terrific, recommended. And he’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating and the administration with respect to the virus? We should have a very high (approval rating),” Trump said.
Jesus, it’s all about him, isn’t it?
Psychology students will be studying Trump as a textbook case for narcissistic personality disorder for ages to come, I’m sure.
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Jesus, it’s all about him, isn’t it? Psychology students will be studying Trump as a textbook case for narcissistic personality disorder for ages to come, I’m sure.
You sound a bit jealous, Christian
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You sound a bit jealous, Christian
It’s pretty unlikely I’ll be appearing in any psychology textbooks, I have to admit.
Then again, there are always options to get there, regardless of age and other accomplishments or lack thereof, that’s the comforting thing there. Kidnap an Australian lawyer and replace his eyes with eyeless bees and Bob’s your uncle.
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and Bob’s your uncle.
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You sound a bit jealous, Christian
It’s pretty unlikely I’ll be appearing in any psychology textbooks, I have to admit.
Then again, there are always options to get there, regardless of age and other accomplishments or lack thereof, that’s the comforting thing there. Kidnap an Australian lawyer and replace his eyes with eyeless bees and Bob’s your uncle.
Ooh I knkw lots of Australian Lawyers I can recommend this for!
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I think he heard you, Christian. Germany is now a bunch of delinquents. This is a dumb move.
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If it’s really only to punish Germany, he’s spending a lot of money nonsensically. If it is truly a long-term strategy and Trump is only using it to drive home that Germany isn’t putting enough money into the military… fair enough, I guess? Plus, I mean, we did commit to a number that we then didn’t fulfill, so we’re kinda delinquents. “Ami go home” was a big slogan of the left in the eighties, so it’s fun to see that it’s the fiscal policy of the conservative party that finally actually makes them do that.
Can’t say I’m too sad to see American troops leave Germany, though I am sure we will remain an important foothold to bomb the middle east. But the idea that the Americans are here to protect us is quite laughable; since WWII, there have been many reasons why the US have a military presence in Germany, and protecting Germany has always been way down on the list, even if it was one of the effects of it.
Fun fact: The band Rammstein is written differently than Ramstein, the town with the American airbase whose yearly celebration I visited as a child only a year or two before there was that fatal accident in which during the air show a plane crashed to the ground and killed seventy people. The different spelling was a mistake by the band, though it allowed them to later claim that the name didn’t refer to the airshow disaster (which it did).
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Fun fact: The band Rammstein is written differently than Ramstein, the town with the American airbase whose yearly celebration I visited as a child only a year or two before there was that fatal accident in which during the air show a plane crashed to the ground and killed seventy people. The different spelling was a mistake by the band, though it allowed them to later claim that the name didn’t refer to the airshow disaster (which it did).
Pretty bold claim considering they have a song also called Rammstein that’s literally about the pane crashes.
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Fun fact: The band Rammstein is written differently than Ramstein, the town with the American airbase whose yearly celebration I visited as a child only a year or two before there was that fatal accident in which during the air show a plane crashed to the ground and killed seventy people. The different spelling was a mistake by the band, though it allowed them to later claim that the name didn’t refer to the airshow disaster (which it did).
Pretty bold claim considering they have a song also called Rammstein that’s literally about the pane crashes.
Actually, that song is about something else entirely. I know because they spelled it Rammstein, two Ms, as opposed to the accident which only had one M. Totally different.
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Grab your tub of popcorn, the main event is about to start:
Trumps floats the idea of postponing the November election
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Presumably he knows there’s little chance the date will change. Calling out the election for being inaccurate in advance seems to be the real tell.
Presumably he’s trying to galvanise his base? It feels like setting the stage for post-election unrest. Maybe he just wants to ensure he remains a cultish (I said cultish) figure afterwards.
It all seems pretty desperate at this point either way.
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Presumably he knows there’s little chance the date will change.
I’m not a constitutional expert on the USA but the NY Times summarised it. It needs both houses and the President to approve any delay, since one house is in the control of the Democrats that’s no chance. Then even if they get a delay the constitution says a new congress must be sworn in by January 3rd, to overturn that would need a change in the constitution which as you’ll guess needs pretty unanimous agreement, that’s no chance.
So yet it is posturing or maybe he just doesn’t know that as he is thick as mince.
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Never trust Tim with your prize-winning Baba Ganoush?
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Presumably he knows there’s little chance the date will change.
I’m not a constitutional expert on the USA but the NY Times summarised it. It needs both houses and the President to approve any delay, since one house is in the control of the Democrats that’s no chance. Then even if they get a delay the constitution says a new congress must be sworn in by January 3rd, to overturn that would need a change in the constitution which as you’ll guess needs pretty unanimous agreement, that’s no chance.
So yet it is posturing or maybe he just doesn’t know that as he is thick as mince.
The idea that conventional norms matter to Trump, or indeed that the Democrats will stand up to him have not exactly been proven in the last 4 years.
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True but this one is a lot more cut and dried than his previous nonsense. Things like releasing financial records, using the office to further your businesses and employing family members are defined by convention rather than specifically laid out in the constitution.
Also essentially the roles are now reversed. In impeachment they had to get the agreement of both houses with the Senate in Republican hands voting with their leader, as everyone expected. If Trump actually wanted to postpone the election he’d be the one facing the same hurdle in the other direction.
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Even the GOP doesn’t want to hear nonsense about delaying the election. This is just more of Trump trying to delegitmize an election he still could win and sow the seeds of unrest if he loses. I just hope liberals don’t get cocky or complacent. I get that people have legitimate gripes about Biden and will no doubt have issues with whomever he taps for VP. But letting up and allowing Trump to stay in power is dangerous.
On a related note, listening to Obama eulogize John Lewis reminded me what it’s like to have a comforting, compassionate and hopeful leader.
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Never trust Tim with your prize-winning Baba Ganoush?
That was the catchphrase for the old board.
The catchphrase for this board is
“Give Tim your baba ganoush please nom nom nom”
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Presumably he knows there’s little chance the date will change. Calling out the election for being inaccurate in advance seems to be the real tell.
Presumably he’s trying to galvanise his base? It feels like setting the stage for post-election unrest. Maybe he just wants to ensure he remains a cultish (I said cultish) figure afterwards.
It all seems pretty desperate at this point either way.
Yeah, that sounds about right. It’s impossible that he would lose in a fair election, so he’s already making sure that it’s clear that the election was rigged. He did the same thing last time, didn’t he? I also think you’re right that this’ll galvanise his base.
The idea of a post-election non-President cult figure Trump is none too pleasant. The only comfort is that the chances of him going to jail are probably pretty good.
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The idea of a post-election non-President cult figure Trump is none too pleasant.
I don’t see him going with quiet dignity, Obama style. I think he’s going to be a fixture way beyond his presidency, unfortunately.
Hopefully though he and his followers will quickly become seen as a fringe extreme group. Just one that happened to have held power during that weird four years.
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The UK has just announced a new round of local lockdown measures, applying to various areas in the north of the country.
I don’t disagree in principle with localised measures, but the way it was announced – via a Tweet from the health secretary after 9pm, with the relevant measures applicable from midnight – and the lack of clarity over what the measures comprise (apparently households within the affected areas are not able to visit each other’s houses and gardens, but households within the areas can do that with other households outside the areas – is that right?) leave a lot to be desired.
While the initial lockdown measures earlier this year were restrictive, they were at least clear and were announced publicly by the Prime Minister at a much-trailed news conference, so the message got out quickly.
Announcing the latest measures in this haphazard, ad hoc way not only makes it look like the government is making up policy on the fly and doesn’t really know what it’s doing from one day to the next (see also: people returning from Spain) but is also putting health at risk during this crisis by introducing significant uncertainty over what safety measures people should be observing where and when.
This government has shown plenty of willingness to spend time and effort crafting effective messaging and broadcast that widely when it suits their political purposes. I just wish they could also do that when lives are at stake.
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True but this one is a lot more cut and dried than his previous nonsense. Things like releasing financial records, using the office to further your businesses and employing family members are defined by convention rather than specifically laid out in the constitution.
Using your office to further your business is flat-out illegal for the President.
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The emoluments clause.
Veeery different from the santa clause.
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Using your office to further your business is flat-out illegal for the President.
Sure but it’s not as easily defined. In the early 2000s Rumsfeld and Cheney directed non-tendered military contracts to companies they were ‘about to’ divest their shares in, which technically is worse than Trump directing them to ones owned by his family.
I’m not denying that politicians and the press couldn’t have done loads more to call this out and not normalise it but the US system is set up to defend itself better against dictatorship and monarchy than it is rampant capitalism (which the founders, all very wealthy men, rather liked).
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Tucker Carlson calls Obama ‘one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures’ in US political history
Pot, meet kettle.
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the US system is set up to defend itself better against dictatorship and monarchy than it is rampant capitalism (which the founders, all very wealthy men, rather liked).
That’s a very good and fair point.
But for nuance and given the current political and social climate and the circumstances brought about by rampant capitalism I’d say the system is ‘less ill-equipped’ rather than ‘better’.
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What I’m getting at with the point above is that criminal behaviour or actually committing crimes won’t stop Trump, because the people who can stop Trump have as yet not actually stopped him, and just complained about it in public while still passing his budgets and working “across the aisle” because that’s what you’re meant to do even when it’s fucking over the populace. I have no faith that the Republicans who are saying Trump talking about postponing the election is bad now will do anything about it if Trump actually tries to do it. I have no faith in the Democrats at all.
Speaking of criminal behaviour, it turns out that Jared Kushner’s plan to deal with coronavirus was to assume that because it hit highly-populated areas badly first, that it would then only stay in Blue States, so they’d withhold support and blame it on Democrat governors and then use it as ammunition for the election. And like, you’d have to be ignorant of even the most basic patterns of how illness spreads to not see how this will backfire on you.
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The UK has just announced a new round of local lockdown measures, applying to various areas in the north of the country.
I don’t disagree in principle with localised measures, but the way it was announced – via a Tweet from the health secretary after 9pm, with the relevant measures applicable from midnight – and the lack of clarity over what the measures comprise (apparently households within the affected areas are not able to visit each other’s houses and gardens, but households within the areas can do that with other households outside the areas – is that right?) leave a lot to be desired.
While the initial lockdown measures earlier this year were restrictive, they were at least clear and were announced publicly by the Prime Minister at a much-trailed news conference, so the message got out quickly.
Announcing the latest measures in this haphazard, ad hoc way not only makes it look like the government is making up policy on the fly and doesn’t really know what it’s doing from one day to the next (see also: people returning from Spain) but is also putting health at risk during this crisis by introducing significant uncertainty over what safety measures people should be observing where and when.
This government has shown plenty of willingness to spend time and effort crafting effective messaging and broadcast that widely when it suits their political purposes. I just wish they could also do that when lives are at stake.
It was a mess, with a covert anti-Muslim edge as 31 July was Eid. Police were not happy that, with less than 3 hours notice, they were to somehow stop gatherings in private homes.
Add in thousands of morons hitting the beaches yesterday too and we’re fucked.
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What I’m getting at with the point above is that criminal behaviour or actually committing crimes won’t stop Trump, because the people who can stop Trump have as yet not actually stopped him, and just complained about it in public while still passing his budgets and working “across the aisle” because that’s what you’re meant to do even when it’s fucking over the populace. I have no faith that the Republicans who are saying Trump talking about postponing the election is bad now will do anything about it if Trump actually tries to do it. I have no faith in the Democrats at all.
What I’m getting at is process. They didn’t just complain, they impeached him, which was doomed to failure because they need the Senate to agree with it which is Republican controlled.
In a proposed delay to the elections the process means it doesn’t matter what Republicans think because the situation is reversed.
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What I’m getting at with the point above is that criminal behaviour or actually committing crimes won’t stop Trump, because the people who can stop Trump have as yet not actually stopped him, and just complained about it in public while still passing his budgets and working “across the aisle” because that’s what you’re meant to do even when it’s fucking over the populace. I have no faith that the Republicans who are saying Trump talking about postponing the election is bad now will do anything about it if Trump actually tries to do it. I have no faith in the Democrats at all.
What I’m getting at is process. They didn’t just complain, they impeached him, which was doomed to failure because they need the Senate to agree with it which is Republican controlled.
In a proposed delay to the elections the process means it doesn’t matter what Republicans think because the situation is reversed.
They impeached him, Congress also passed every budget that included funding for the DHS as they put kids in cages and all the other horrible things.
And like, yeah, procedure exists, but it only works if everyone agrees to follow it. Like, what good is procedure if Trump says “we’re going to postpone the election” and enough of America says “OK then”
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Quote of the day: “Libertarianism is astrology for men.”
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Speaking of criminal behaviour, it turns out that Jared Kushner’s plan to deal with coronavirus was to assume that because it hit highly-populated areas badly first, that it would then only stay in Blue States, so they’d withhold support and blame it on Democrat governors and then use it as ammunition for the election. And like, you’d have to be ignorant of even the most basic patterns of how illness spreads to not see how this will backfire on you.
Not quite how it was apparently.
Short summary is, Kushner’s team was apparently actually doing good work and had a plan to quickly ramp up extensive testing underway that was however scuttled because Trump’s approach to corona had change and, yes, possibly because Kushner might have gone for the logic you described.
Still horrible, but it’s interesting that there seems to have been a pretty good effort underway at the start of things.
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What I’m getting at with the point above is that criminal behaviour or actually committing crimes won’t stop Trump, because the people who can stop Trump have as yet not actually stopped him, and just complained about it in public while still passing his budgets and working “across the aisle” because that’s what you’re meant to do even when it’s fucking over the populace. I have no faith that the Republicans who are saying Trump talking about postponing the election is bad now will do anything about it if Trump actually tries to do it. I have no faith in the Democrats at all.
What I’m getting at is process. They didn’t just complain, they impeached him, which was doomed to failure because they need the Senate to agree with it which is Republican controlled.
In a proposed delay to the elections the process means it doesn’t matter what Republicans think because the situation is reversed.
They impeached him, Congress also passed every budget that included funding for the DHS as they put kids in cages and all the other horrible things.
And like, yeah, procedure exists, but it only works if everyone agrees to follow it. Like, what good is procedure if Trump says “we’re going to postpone the election” and enough of America says “OK then”
I think it’s fair to have little to no faith in Democrats at this point. But I’d also say that passing budgets is a far cry from allowing the president to unconstitutionally move the election. Especially when so much is at stake for the Dems this cycle. The current state of things gives them a real chance to take full control.
While it’s fair to ask what if he does it anyway and a lot of the country say “Okay”, I think enough people would say “Fuck no” and it would essentially be the end of the United States. Which maybe sounds hyperbolic, but we should remember that Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by a significant amount, he won a few key swing states by razor thin margins, he has a high disapproval rate, he’s lost the confidence of many high ranking, respected military officials, the Supreme Court which has a 5-4 conservative lean hasn’t exactly just handed him victory after victory. There are 24 states with Democrat Governors who I feel like would just go ahead with elections anyway because these aren’t just federal elections that are happening on Nov 3. GOP governors would also have their own state and county level elections to deal with and there’d be little benefit from them trying to keep federal elections off the ballot at that point. There would also be the fear that if the delay went on long enough they’d have to deal with President Pelosi. Not to mention the fact that the country would explode into riots all over.
I just think there’s no real gain for Dems or the GOP to not fight something like this. That said, the damage, to a large extent, has already been done. The point of these tweets isn’t really about delaying the election. It’s about distracting from the worst drop in GDP in recorded US history. It’s about distracting from the Russian Bounty Scandal. Its about distracting from the rising covid death toll (one of which was a close Trump ally who likely contracted it at his Tulsa event). And it’s about sowing the seeds of distrust. At this point 55% of Trump voters are basically saying they won’t accept the outcome of the election if they think mail in voting caused the loss. If Trump barely loses in a few key states they’ll cry foul and fraud. If he gets crushed in those states they’ll still cry fraud because the argument will be “Trump won these states in 2016, there’s no way he could have lost by that much this time. He’s the greatest president ever and we know we have a silent majority and blah blah blah.”
Election day is going to be kind of terrifying no matter who wins at this point. Shit is going to burn when the winner is announced. All because the GOP has allows a wannabe autocrat to takeover their party all so they could get a bunch of judicial nominees pushed through and give corporations and wealthy people tax breaks. In 3 1/2 years that’s really all they’ve accomplished. I can only hope that we manage to vote Trump out and give the Dems a senate majority so that history can start judging these men as harshly as possible. Because they sold out their country and basically have a tanking economy, unrest in the streets, and a pandemic death toll of 150,000 and rising to show for it. But somehow this is still all Obama’s fault in their mind.
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Barr Makes It Official—He’s Trump’s New “Fixer”
Our Attorney General, everyone.
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Our Attorney General, everyone.
That’s not MY attorney general.
My attorney general is impartialer than yours.
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Don’t gloat.
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Don’t gloat.
Don’t elect Donald Trump.
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I just think there’s no real gain for Dems or the GOP to not fight something like this. That said, the damage, to a large extent, has already been done. The point of these tweets isn’t really about delaying the election. It’s about distracting from the worst drop in GDP in recorded US history. It’s about distracting from the Russian Bounty Scandal. Its about distracting from the rising covid death toll (one of which was a close Trump ally who likely contracted it at his Tulsa event). And it’s about sowing the seeds of distrust. At this point 55% of Trump voters are basically saying they won’t accept the outcome of the election if they think mail in voting caused the loss. If Trump barely loses in a few key states they’ll cry foul and fraud. If he gets crushed in those states they’ll still cry fraud because the argument will be “Trump won these states in 2016, there’s no way he could have lost by that much this time. He’s the greatest president ever and we know we have a silent majority and blah blah blah.”
Nicely summarised. Trump talking shit always works for him when it comes to diverting the conversation.
Election day is going to be kind of terrifying no matter who wins at this point. Shit is going to burn when the winner is announced. All because the GOP has allows a wannabe autocrat to takeover their party all so they could get a bunch of judicial nominees pushed through and give corporations and wealthy people tax breaks. In 3 1/2 years that’s really all they’ve accomplished. I can only hope that we manage to vote Trump out and give the Dems a senate majority so that history can start judging these men as harshly as possible. Because they sold out their country and basically have a tanking economy, unrest in the streets, and a pandemic death toll of 150,000 and rising to show for it. But somehow this is still all Obama’s fault in their mind.
The day after this election is going to be crazy. If he loses, there’ll be a stark contrast between his followers going wild and paranoid and probably arming up for further conflict down the road, and the rest of the US dancing in the streets like never before after an election. Well, never after Obama’s win, but the energy of the relief will be incredible. Oh, and hopefully Trump won’t just be judged by history but also by the law once he’s out of office; I think it’s pretty likely that he’ll go to jail. He’s obviously done heaps of illegal stuff, and while currently he’s protected by that shadowy presidential immunity, once he’s out, everybody (including the GOP) will want to wash their hands off him as quickly as possible, and he’ll have made enough enemies that’ll want to see him go down hard.
If he wins… I’ve said this before, but I find it really hard to imagine the mood if he does. It’s going to be incredibly grim, and the darkness and frustration and anger of those four years would be an experience that’d change the US forever, I think.
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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/01/former-minister-arrested-sexual-assault-charge
A former Tory minister has been arrested on rape and sexual assault charges. At the moment no news source is saying who it is, I think it’s not allowed until charges are made.
Online Poirots though have been narrowing it down to a handful of names with the details given.
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Blowdartinneck is a really odd last name.
It’s an Old World name.
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Poll: Biden slightly ahead in North Carolina, Georgia
The CBS News Battleground Tracker poll showed Biden leading President Donald Trump in North Carolina, 48 percent to 44, and edging Trump in Georgia by a single percentage point, 46 to 45.
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Blowdartinneck is a really odd last name.
Pretty sure that name was in the running until George Lucas settled on “Skywalker”.
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I could be wrong…
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Good news everyone:
Joe Arpaio Loses Primary For His Old Job As Sheriff
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Speaking of people Trump has pardoned…
“Modern presidents have sullied clemency through disuse (both Bushes) and occasional self-serving grants (Clinton),” Mark Osler, a law professor and clemency scholar at the University of St. Thomas’ School of Law, told NPR via email. “However, no president has ever used clemency primarily to reward friends and political allies” — until Trump. […]
With only a handful of exceptions, Osler said, Trump’s clemency grants have gone to “people he knows or learned about from Fox News.” On a single day in February, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 11 people, all of whom had one thing in common: either their cases were promoted on Fox News or they had an inside connection to the president.
[…]
Trump’s immediate predecessor also faced criticism for his use of clemency powers. By the end of his two terms, Barack Obama had proudly granted more commutations than any other president in history — most of his later clemencies went to low-level criminals, especially those convicted of drug offenses with harsh penalties.
And some of Obama’s clemencies drew harsh criticism, especially from conservatives — such as his commutation for Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of sharing classified information, or Oscar López Rivera, a Puerto Rican activist who had served 35 years of a 55-year sentence after his organization set off more than 100 bombs in the 1970s and ’80s.
Sounds like Obama was the only president to have used this Presidential power in order to achieve social justice.
Where Trump is concerned, the verdict is not unexpected, of course, but it really is grating how obviously he is, in Stone’s case, just rewarding loyalty. Stone has said as much, he said he could’ve turned on Trump (the conclusion being that there was substance to some of the accusations, at least), but that he trusted that Trump would reward his loyalty by getting him out of this, and so he did. Fucking banana republic politics.2 users thanked author for this post.
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I think with these discretionary powers that there’s always the likelihood of misuse and abuse, but yeah, it seems like Trump is being more blatantly self-serving than ever.
In the UK we’ve recently had the latest announcement of peerages granted, expanding the House of Lords – which is still an important part of the legislature, let’s not forget – with a lot of big Tory donors and political allies added in the latest round.
https://www.ft.com/content/5a456127-6f9a-4f87-aacc-5a54d8da8da7
It’s an area that I think is in need of reform as again it’s susceptible to discretionary and usually politically-self-serving appointments in a way that doesn’t have sufficient controls in place.
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Post vanished, try it again:
Oh, this is going to end well:
Nearly 40% of A-level grades submitted by teachers are set to be downgraded when exam results in England are published next week, the Guardian has learned, as criticism intensifies of this year’s makeshift results.
Analysis of the algorithm and data used by the exam regulator Ofqual to distribute grades after the cancellation of exams amid the coronavirus pandemic found that a net 39% of assessments of A-level grades by teachers are likely to be adjusted down before students receive their results.
That would mean nearly 300,000 A-levels issued are lower than the teacher assessment of the more than 730,000 A-level entries in England this summer.
Including GCSEs, which are expected to have a similar downgrade rate, close to a net 2m teacher assessments will be adjusted downwards and in many cases ignored completely.There was uproar in Scotland this week when the exams authority rejected nearly 124,000 grade recommendations from teachers – a quarter of the total – but unlike in Scotland, English pupils are barred from appealing against their results on academic grounds.
Grades will instead be issued according to Ofqual’s statistical model, relying on a school’s recent exam history and each pupil’s previous exam results, to replace the exams scrapped by the government after schools were closed because of the coronavirus lockdown.
Can’t agree with this idea of going by previous results because learning and development isn’t predictable in the way being assumed. Don’t think they’ve realised what they’re messing around with here.
It’s also quite the insult to tell teachers they must assess their students and then ignore those same assessments.
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It’s a poor system. I saw a relative of Mike’s got screwed by it in Scotland with the Highers last week. She was predicted As and Bs and they go marked down (one was even an F). The logic is they are downgraded based on past results from that school which essentially prevents an individual working hard themselves and surpassing the average from that school. I understand some of the logic – otherwise you are rather letting teachers mark their own performance to a degree but there has to be a better balance than that.
What struck me is my kids do International Baccalaureate and their final exams are all done on computer, this is because the kids sitting them are in various countries and time zones. The program you download informs the central office when the exam has been opened and starts the clock so nobody can cheat, when 2 hours are up it closes the exam automatically.
If a system like that were in place everyone could have done their papers either at home or socially distanced at some venue with a computer.
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Yeah, adjusting by the (supposed) standards of the school just plays into institutional biases. I think the adjustments in Scotland had mostly state schools having grades downgraded and private schools getting upgraded.
Having teachers do estimates isn’t a great system to begin with (I just keep thinking of my GCSE History result: I was consistently good at History in lower years but my y10 teacher took a real dislike to me, destroyed my confidence and graded me consistently at a low C; I had a different teacher for y11 who was nice and a better teacher, but barely noticed me, given I was quiet and there were loads of loudmouths in the class, and so she just expected me to be at the level the previous teacher had pushed me down to and was openly astounded on results day when I got an A) but then arbitrarily meddling further with that doesn’t seem to do anyone any good.
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Kamala Harris is a shitshow and we are all doomed.
Just a reminder, Lorcan: You live in Ireland.
Yeah, but the US has an outsize effect on global politics, and Trump has a fucking golf course here.
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I’m somewhat skeptical that America will vote in a Black female VP, considering they wouldn’t even elect a White woman. Then again, said White woman was Sarah Palin.
I called this ticket years ago and that means I am the best.
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I think Biden/Harris is a fine ticket. I’m sure plenty were hoping for someone more progressive, and Harris has her issues but that’s politics. Will they beat Trump/Pence? Who knows. A week old sandwich and a stale beer is a better ticket than Trump/Pence, but America is fucking crazy.
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Kamala Harris is a shitshow and we are all doomed.
Why do you say so?
Harris appeals to nobody outside the already motivated Democrat base, and her record as a District Attorney is basically sticking two fingers up at the incredibly motivated BLM/police brutality protestors. Combine with with Biden’s dismissive statements on minority rights and Medicare, and they’re doing the typical Democrat bullshit of trying to appeal to undecided Republicans while they don’t realise that all the undecided Republicans became Democrats years ago, it’s not enough to reliably win and all they’re doing is further alienating the actual left.
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Who should Biden have chosen instead?
He should have stepped down and let someone competent run instead.
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Obviously, Biden will be a better President than Trump, but I have little hope that he’ll actually repair the damage Trump has been able to to do, let alone actually work on the deep, deep problems America faces.
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Obviously, Biden will be a better President than Trump, but I have little hope that he’ll actually repair the damage Trump has been able to to do, let alone actually work on the deep, deep problems America faces.
Yeah, I think it’s completely fair to want something better than the two options available, while also hoping that the preferable candidate wins in November.
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Who should Biden have chosen instead?
He should have stepped down and let someone competent run instead.
And that would be?
Warren or Sanders would have been the least-worst options, but really, the Democrats need to massively restructure and take a look at what they want to stand for.
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Ehh… it doesn’t matter, I don’t think anyone will be voting for Biden anyways… at this point the vote will be either for Trump or against Trump… The Hamburgler could be the democrat candidate and it wouldn’t change a thing.
Though I gotta say, the Trump administration has been playing rather nice with Mexico as of late, so if Trump wins… sucks for you, but it might actually be a good thing for us, all things considered.
Oh and speaking of Mexico, I don’t know if you guys get our news, but shit is hitting the pan pretty spectacularly these days, there’s about to be a MAJOR political shakedown, probably the biggest in our history… We might even see one or two ex-presidents s (here’s hoping) and many other high, medium and low ranking public servants in jail when all’s said and done. The amount of corruption in the last 20 years is finally being aired, and it’s just staggering… no wonder our country is a shithole, they really stole EVERYTHING.
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There were allegations involving El Chapo last year too weren’t there?
There’ve been several, yeah… right now there’s a big case in the US against one of the ex-ex-president’s top people (secretary of interior or defense or somesuch) for direct ties to another cartel (I think it also involves the Fast & Furious fiasco from Obama’s administration, IIRC) so right now it’s like a double assault from the US and Mexico on corruption & cartels. The other day they captured the head of one of the many big cartels in the country, btw… not that it matter all that much, cut one head etc…
But, yeah, lots of things going on right now… it’d be fascinating if it wasn’t just so damn tragic… =/
Malaysia might be able to challenge that one after our last Prime Minister was caught with $700m ‘resting in his account’.
Yeah that’s pretty bad too… I wish I had the hard numbers right now, but there soooo much shit that’s coming out that it’s hard to even keep track.
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