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8 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

Way too ****ing many. They primarily identify as "Libertarian" and unironically say things like "taxation is theft" while ignoring the corporate plutocracy that has resulted in $50 trillion in assets being transferred from the working class to the upper class over the past half century.

 

They're too chicken shit to just call themselves Republicans or register as such, even though they vote for them all the time. They are more than willing to do so while performatively pretending to not be a Republican because of all the baggage that rightly goes with it.

 

Enough to swing the vote? Need to manipulate Trump to get him to go all out anti-weed, wanting to make it all illegal and jail anyone who smokes it.

 

 

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I was recently contemplating whether debates with Trump would be beneficial or otherwise for Biden. Was initially undecided but now i'm thinking it may be massively beneficial. Watching Trump descend ever deeper into the realm of crazy in recent days I now see no way he can come out of debates with Biden looking good. I may be wrong in this but I feel there's even a possibility we may see him entirely unravel in front of the whole world.

The only similarity between 2016 and now is that there's a hard core of cult like followers who even now would continue whooping like seals at his every nonsensical grunt. A major difference now is that a large number of Republican voters have been turned against him to the extent they're going to be voting Democrat for the first time in their lives.

Trump will feel infinitely more pressure than in 2016 when he didn't even really think he could actually win. Nobody did. And he didn't even really care about winning. The whole thing was just a marketing device for his 'brand'. But this time he will indeed be desperate to win for countless reasons. Potential criminal charges ahead being only one of them.

All his raises the pressure on an extremely fragile ego in a fighting for his very future scenario.


There was no Lincoln project in 2016 there was no Republican voters against Trump in 2016. These are people who thought the clown act was just an act for the campaign. But that following the campaign he would become a rational adult, hire competent experienced people to important positions, and effectively become 'Presidential'. Well we all know how that has played out. The clown is a clown and can never aspire to be anything else.

The crazy core of cultists following him I can't understand. I expect you would need to be like them to understand it. I can speculate that a large number are hard core racists and that's undoubtedly true of many. They're going to vote for anybody dog whistling to racists as he does no matter what else he may do. And there may be others who simply became so committed it's difficult to extract themselves from it without looking like even more of an idiot.

Trump didn't actually take the party down the crazy path, they have been walking it for decades. He simply took it to the next level. Even George W. Bush, who isn't crazy, publicly dabbled in science denial to keep the evangelicals on board. He stated during his tenure that he thought creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science classes. Which is pretty much like saying the stork theory of birth should be taught in science classes.

But once out of office he conceded during interview that evolution has massive compelling evidence to support it, content to imply that instant life by magic spell did not. Trump will never change. He will remain crazy once ousted because he is crazy. These Republican groups are now opposing him because they have come to realise that he could permanently destroy any credibility they have left.

Trump didn't run for them because he has any strong affiliation with them. He did it because he knew there was zero chance of running on a Democrat ticket. So he doesn't care what happens to the Republican party once he's out. But if he isn't in jail he will continue running the cult from twitter or whatever. Poisoning Republican chances of being taken seriously by mere association with him. He may begin an Alex Jones style set up to make money out of his rambling. And to continue attracting the attention he craves.

Getting back to upcoming debates again it's not going to be like 2016. I believe that since 2016 Trump, who was never any great speaker or debater has visibly cognitively declined. There was no 4 year record of crazy and incompetence to point to when facing him.

He will have great difficulty just remaining on topic. Will likely constantly interrupt making himself look even worse. After 4 years of living this Fuhrer like existence I don't think he has the ability to restrain himself. Extremely limited self control.

Another major difference is that for some reason even many Democrats had developed a dislike for Hillary. Which was bizarre given that she was probably one of the best or even the best qualified candidates ever to run for the office. But Biden is no Hillary. He's a pleasant and likable personality who is going to come across as even more likable when standing next to the bluster and outright crazy of Trump.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Republicans even tried to skip debates because they know an unscripted Trump is a train wreck waiting to happen. That would be a big step and detrimental overall but would it be any more detrimental than watching a bleach drinking scenario unfold in a debate?

And at the end of the day what does Trump actually have to say? Nothing but implausible lies that should be easily deconstructed which in itself will push him closer to the self destruct button.


Biden is rational, stable, wont be easily unsettled. Trump on the other hand it's easy to press his buttons. I expect Biden to go out there primed to press those buttons and send Trump over the edge.

It wouldn't surprise me if we even saw a scenario unfold where he just walked out as he does in those press conferences when journalists actually ask questions rather than just praising him. "nasty"

For an example of that just watch this from the time I have primed it to begin. Watch him begin to lose control simply because a journalist is insisting on questioning his claims.  


"I don;t have to go through this". And that's exactly what he will be thinking/feeling in any debate scenario where the questions wont stop simply because he doesn't like them.
 

 

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Kalamazoo Jambo

Rest In Peace, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A massive loss for so many reasons.

 

Her death, and the subsequent Supreme Court vacancy, will likely completely change the focus of the next few weeks in U.S. politics.

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7 minutes ago, Kalamazoo Jambo said:

Rest In Peace, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A massive loss for so many reasons.

 

Her death, and the subsequent Supreme Court vacancy, will likely completely change the focus of the next few weeks in U.S. politics.

As someone who doesn’t understand the niceties of US politics I don’t fully understand this but I’ve just had a look at Twitter and the posts from very liberal Americans I follow is quite something. Words like worried and afraid seem to be pretty standard. 

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Eldar Hadzimehmedovic

Sad day for RBG and her family but this is going to throw a spanner into the campaign. Be fascinating. 

Edited by Eldar Hadzimehmedovic
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Kalamazoo Jambo
12 minutes ago, Tazio said:

As someone who doesn’t understand the niceties of US politics I don’t fully understand this but I’ve just had a look at Twitter and the posts from very liberal Americans I follow is quite something. Words like worried and afraid seem to be pretty standard. 

 

Basically, this is the nightmare scenario for a few reasons.

 

Obviously, a personal tragedy for her family and for those for whom RBG was an icon.

 

Trump has time to nominate a right-wing Supreme Court nominee, and the Republican-majority Senate has time to confirm one. Based on Mitch McConnel's actions four years ago when he stopped Merrick Garland's nomination in its tracks (his excuse being that a President shouldn't nominate a Supreme Court pick in the months leading up to an election), he shouldn't allow a nominee to be voted on now due to his own precedent. However, McConnell only really cares about the exercise of raw power so he won't care about little things like precedent or his own hypocrisy.

 

This will also probably fire up the white evangelical base just in time for the upcoming election. This group is obsessed with filling the U.S .Courts, especially the Supreme Court, with right-wing judges.

 

Finally, assuming Trump gets his nominee through, the make up of the court would have a solid conservative majority and a lot of things that white evangelicals obsess about could now be up for grabs such as abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights and so on.

 

Hard to express how devastated I am at this news. I hope the above makes sense.

 

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8 minutes ago, Tazio said:

As someone who doesn’t understand the niceties of US politics I don’t fully understand this but I’ve just had a look at Twitter and the posts from very liberal Americans I follow is quite something. Words like worried and afraid seem to be pretty standard. 

 

Whoever is in power when a supreme court justice steps down or dies picks the replacement. Trump will pick some Republican psycho and if I remember correctly that would mean the republican picks will now dominate on the supreme court. They can push through or negate anything they please.

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Kalamazoo Jambo
17 minutes ago, JackLadd said:

He can't force through a stooge pick before the election surely? 


it’s largely reliant on Mitch McConnell’s ethics so - yes, they absolutely can.

 

It would need several Republican Senators to break ranks to stop the move, and that seems highly unlikely.

 

edit: Lisa Murkowski (Republican Senator) apparently said earlier today (when the question was still hypothetical) that she wouldn’t vote before the election to confirm a new justice, so that’s one at least, assuming she sticks to that commitment. She’s probably the most independent minded Republican Senator.

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Took McConnell less than an hour.

 

Image

 

What an absolute ****ing scumbag. I've never felt quite the incandescent rage towards another human being that I do right now—this combined with the slow burning loathing I always have for that turtle *****.

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Kalamazoo Jambo
2 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

Took McConnell less than an hour.

 

Image

 

What an absolute ****ing scumbag. I've never felt quite the incandescent rage towards another human being that I do right now—this combined with the slow burning loathing I always have for that turtle *****.


Yep, that didn’t take long.

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It's really a big game. I f I have it right even if defeated in the election Trump and the present Senate can in his last days as President push through an appointment. The Democrats have apparently that if elected they will in turn push for an increase in Supreme Court Judges. Mean while the rest of the world will be looking on, shaking their heads and wondering what happened to this prior shining light of true Democracy.

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This is appalling news in many ways, but it's a huge boost for Trump.

 

We will now see in action the full hypocrisy of the Republican party, especially McConnell.  He's a despicable man and he's now going to prove it to everyone.

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16 hours ago, Cade said:

Trump bans TikTok from this sunday.

 

I'm sure all the 12 year olds planning to vote for him are now changing their minds.

 

I can't believe I'm going to write this but, I agree with him here. I suppose if you make enough decisions sooner or later one will make sense.

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Heidbangers already have a working majority in the Supreme court and the securing of another Republican stooge on the court only ensures their bonkers agenda can be pushed even harder.

 

Hopefully this would galvanise the voting public to actually go out and vote Democrat for President, House and Senate.

 

It's more important than ever that all three of these branches of government turn blue, to oppose the staunchly red courts.

 

But tbh America is finished.

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Eldar Hadzimehmedovic

How anyone can look at, listen to, read about, or even just consider for a fleeting second, Mitch McConnell and think, yeah, that's my guy right there, is completely beyond me. 

Edited by Eldar Hadzimehmedovic
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42 minutes ago, Eldar Hadzimehmedovic said:

How anyone can look at, listen to, read about, or even just consider for a fleeting second, Mitch McConnell and think, yeah, that's my guy right there, is completely beyond me. 

 I can't stand the man, I don't normally ,make judgement on personal appearance  but his  face just makes me distrust him. I aways think his mouth just hates the things he makes it say. I( watched some CNN last night their legal analyst did suggest what McConnell may try. He also stated that McConnell is probably the most knowledgeable person there on what he Senate can do and how to do it.

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6 hours ago, Stokesy said:

 

I can't believe I'm going to write this but, I agree with him here. I suppose if you make enough decisions sooner or later one will make sense.

 You have to be careful about saying anything about Trump that he may be right.I did and was told by doing so my previous criticisms were just a sham to cover my support of him. I don't make this allegation against you, I agree totally with what you say, Trump is everything negative we say about him but occasionally he comes up or is told to do something. If he gets all the Federal judges he tries to appoint and another Supreme Court Judge he could be President for life, if he lost the election he could as has been threatened stay, and fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, and end up getting another four years which would lead to another challenge which would be useless as a result of his actions in the second term.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Sharpie said:

 You have to be careful about saying anything about Trump that he may be right.I did and was told by doing so my previous criticisms were just a sham to cover my support of him. I don't make this allegation against you, I agree totally with what you say, Trump is everything negative we say about him but occasionally he comes up or is told to do something. If he gets all the Federal judges he tries to appoint and another Supreme Court Judge he could be President for life, if he lost the election he could as has been threatened stay, and fight it all the way to the Supreme Court, and end up getting another four years which would lead to another challenge which would be useless as a result of his actions in the second term.

 

 

 

 

The Americans are entering uncharted waters.  There are several possible outcomes and some of them are too sinister to bear thinking about. American democracy is hanging by a thread.

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54 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

The Americans are entering uncharted waters.  There are several possible outcomes and some of them are too sinister to bear thinking about. American democracy is hanging by a thread.

 

Democracy is over rated. I used to look at China and think **** that with their 1 party system and the cuddly dictator pulling the strings. Now I think it doesn't sound such a bad idea. There's too many stupid people in America and Britain to be given the choice these days

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1 hour ago, Maple Leaf said:

The Americans are entering uncharted waters.  There are several possible outcomes and some of them are too sinister to bear thinking about. American democracy is hanging by a thread.

 

Some system where the continuation of democracy could be predicated on an 87-year-old woman trying to beat cancer for the sixth time or whatever it was.

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31 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

Some system where the continuation of democracy could be predicated on an 87-year-old woman trying to beat cancer for the sixth time or whatever it was.

 

True enough.  Bizarre when one thinks about it.

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Shall we have a politically appointed, partisan, biased Supreme court?

 

Sure! What could possibly go wrong? After all, we have all these armed militias around to prevent a Tyrant taking over.

 

:hartley:

Edited by Cade
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9 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

True enough.  Bizarre when one thinks about it.

 

It is.


There's a lot of noise today on Twitter about how Hillary Clinton "warned us" about everything that is now happening and has happened, as if that were some hugely prescient thing and we all should have listened. Naturally this comes with blaming "the Left" for where we are now.

 

By far, more voters who voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary voted for Hillary Clinton in the General Election, than voters who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary voted for Barack Obama. Those figures are:

 

- Bernie primary voters in 2016, 89% for Clinton, me included

- Clinton primary voters in 2008, 74% for Obama

 

26% of Clinton primary voters, voted for John McCain in the general election. I 100% ****ing guarantee Clinton voters wouldn't have been blamed if Obama had lost in 2008 the way "the Left" has been blamed for ****ing everything for the last four years.

 

Clinton didn't ever campaign in, or refused to visit in the last weeks of the election, several states she lost in 2016 (most notably Michigan). She and her campaign went full Machiavellian in elevating Trump.

 

She lost to the worst opponent in American history, after doing everything to hand pick him. This is on her and the Democratic establishment. Not "the Left".

 

 

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It's also a tacit admission that there is nothing to the left about the Democratic party; it's a centre-right, war-happy, more-or-less copy of the non-ERG Tories in the UK.

 

Edited by Justin Z
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41 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

If he wins, the place deserves all it gets. 

 Absolutely true, but a lot of us who don't even live in the Country will face a lot of the negative affects. I don't comment on Scotlands decisions, or Brexit and if I have it is certainly not with the intensity and sometimes fear I have with whats happening in the USA. It is honestly what I saw as a child too young to really realise what was happening, but even as a child learned and appreciated the wrongness of it all. Sometimes getting old and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and learning its a train coming head on is no sae bad.

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1 hour ago, ri Alban said:

If he wins, the place deserves all it gets. 

 

"Every country gets the government it deserves" or "In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve", according to a very wise man about 200 years ago.

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20 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

 Absolutely true, but a lot of us who don't even live in the Country will face a lot of the negative affects. I don't comment on Scotlands decisions, or Brexit and if I have it is certainly not with the intensity and sometimes fear I have with whats happening in the USA. It is honestly what I saw as a child too young to really realise what was happening, but even as a child learned and appreciated the wrongness of it all. Sometimes getting old and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and learning its a train coming head on is no sae bad.

We never seem to learn from past historical mistakes. Hitler etc... etc... Its soul destroying how thick or forgetful Humanity can be. Or just plain evil. 

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There can be no doubting it all has striking similarities to the Nazi takeover. A flood of implausible lies, (Goebbels) and I would say Trumps lies are even more implausible than Nazi lies were.

Enemy within, antifa, (the Jews)

Intimidation, brownshirts on the streets attacking opposition, (homeland security, ICE, protesters).

Open attempts to manipulate the electoral process. Taking control of the institutions, judiciary, firing non compliant law officials, Comey. And more.

It's all there. And people still scoff at any suggestion of Trump being likened to Hitler. The fact is that Hitler was uncannily like Trump. He didn't become the finished article till the takeover was complete.

Prior to the complete takeover he was exactly like Trump. Right down to being seen as a buffoon.

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The news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing flashed up on the teleprompter as the show was in progress. Shock, horror, "this is going to get really really ugly"
 

 

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Kalamazoo Jambo
29 minutes ago, Barack said:

Lady G pins his colours firmly to the mast, upon the death of RBG.

 

As if anyone truly expected otherwise. It must be some kompromat on higher wise! Rat.


Could be kompromat, could also be that he just loves proximity to power. Anyway, his words from 2016...

 

 

5110EC82-2572-45F7-9A61-034F2062E687.jpeg

 

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Apparently there are at least a few Republicans struggling with the hypocrisy after the McConnell rant from 2016 regarding replacing a Supreme Court judge in an election year. When the Democrats were blocked from nominating a judge

And note how extreme the hypocrisy is. In 2016 the rant was based on replacing a Justice who had died in February, 9 months before the election. Now we have them wanting to replace one who has died less than 9 weeks before an election.

It would appear that level of hypocrisy is just too much for even some Republicans. And at the end of the say how could you possibly spin this hypocrisy to be justified now but not justified in 2016 nine months before an election.

The reality is that neither McConnel nor Trump give the proverbial flying about such hypocrisy. Necks of brass. But seemingly at least a few have some level of embarrassment.

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5 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

"Every country gets the government it deserves" or "In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve", according to a very wise man about 200 years ago.

 

In democracies, I agree.

 

This farce? Not the fault of the American people. They deserve none of this.

 

Screenshot_20200919-175422.thumb.png.545e31ea97407f4ffdfecd976878d8e6.png

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Watching Trump speak in North Carolina earlier. Now I know this is Trump and we expect incoherence. But this is bizarre even by his standards. He sounds drunk, and given that he doesn't drink I would then suspect drugged or cognitively impaired.

Slurred speech, even more mispronunciations than usual.

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And he just stated again that it's impossible for him to lose the election aside from if it's rigged. He can't maintain a thread. Starts on a topic then appears to forget what the topic was. Rambling all over the place.

And this is exactly why I think he may crash and burn in a debate with Biden. He rambled from fill that seat to "where is Hunter" with no connection. Geeze this is the worst I have seen from him and considering it's Trump that's bad.

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1 hour ago, JFK-1 said:

The new chant that has them whooping like seals? "fill that seat"

 

The do like those three, single syllable word chants, don't they!

 

Lock her up

Drain the swamp

Build the wall

Fill that seat

 

Here's a suggestion in the same format ... "We're all thick."

 

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25 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

The do like those three, single syllable word chants, don't they!

 

Lock her up

Drain the swamp

Build the wall

Fill that seat

 

Here's a suggestion in the same format ... "We're all thick."

 

 

Trump hoped it would become a new T shirt. He thought it would. His people are "very quick, I don't know how they do it"

Yes indeed, baffling.. The organisational/technical difficulties involved in printing on a T shirt is mind boggling.

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2 hours ago, Justin Z said:

 

In democracies, I agree.

 

This farce? Not the fault of the American people. They deserve none of this.

 

Screenshot_20200919-175422.thumb.png.545e31ea97407f4ffdfecd976878d8e6.png

If you enable Trump, you all deserve to be taken under his pending dictatorship. 

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43 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

If you enable Trump, you all deserve to be taken under his pending dictatorship. 

 

Every comment like this just further entrenches that what many people mean by "fascism" or "dictatorship", is when it affects white people. People of colour are looking at this situation now like

 

File:James Franco First Time.jpg

 

And I'm guilty of it too. It's been a good learning experience tonight reading perspectives on this. We're finally starting to feel what they have been feeling for basically all of American history. And well, it's unpleasant. Maybe we should've done something about this shit, oh I dunno, anytime in the last several centuries, before it started spreading to affecting us. But we didn't, so here we are.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...

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  • Kalamazoo Jambo changed the title to U.S. Politics megathread (title updated)
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