U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[Jambo-Jimbo]

3 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

In my view Trump is a national security risk for years to come and they need to do something about him. He has been in Russia on multiple occasions. Now is anybody naive to think that they didn't have any room he was in anywhere he went bugged in every manner possible?

They know things about him he would sell his entire family far less the nation to keep concealed.  If I can deduce that the security services most certainly can.

 

When he is no longer of any use, he'll either be thrown to the wolves or more likely accidentally drink some plutonium coffee.

[Maple Leaf]

Trump's reply to the Biden and Harris speeches was predictable.  He resorted to childish insults.

 

They're "stone-cold crazy" according to him.  They will take away people's guns (predictable), they will fund late term abortions (also predictable), and they will destroy suburbs by building affordable housing (say what?).

 

He should run on his achievements in the last four years:

 

- look how many of my associates have gone to jail!

- look how many books have been written about me

- look how little wall I've built and I didn't let Mexico pay for it.

- look how I've made America great ag ... oh, wait, that's next term, or maybe my third term

- I failed to ban Muslims from entering the country, but I tried really hard

- I've only played golf 300 times

- I didn't lock her up, but I insulted her, and lots of other women too.

- I didn't drain the swamp, but my family is swimming in it

- I've had more secret meetings with the Russians than any other President

- I've nearly grabbed Melania's hand several times.

- We've got the highest COVID score of any country in the world

[Justin Z]

34 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

They're "stone-cold crazy" according to him.  They will take away people's guns (predictable), they will fund late term abortions (also predictable), and they will destroy suburbs by building affordable housing (say what?).

 

Going back to this racist foghorn (hardly a dogwhistle) that he came out with a few weeks ago would have been deeply shocking to the conscience fairly recently. Now it's just another day in Trumpland.

 

It's really depressing.

[JFK-1]

3 hours ago, Justin Z said:

 

Going back to this racist foghorn (hardly a dogwhistle) that he came out with a few weeks ago would have been deeply shocking to the conscience fairly recently. Now it's just another day in Trumpland.

 

It's really depressing.

 

To me it's way beyond depressing. It's frightening that any major Western democracy in the 21st century can have a population a major segment of which consider this rambling idiot fit to lead their nation. And a band of enablers supporting it.

It's frightening and totally bizarre. Putin and Russia may be bad but they are not mad. Though hostile to Western democracy their actions are rational in the context of their aims.

Trump and the US are currently so unbelievably irrational the best analogy I can think of is the comedic farcical film 'Idiocracy'
 

Quote

During the 2016 presidential primaries, writer Etan Cohen and others expressed opinions that the film's predictions were converging on accuracy, which, during the general election, director Mike Judge also said.

At the time, Judge also compared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump—who later won and became President of the United States—to the film's dim-witted wrestler-turned-president, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.

When asked about predicting the future, he remarked, "I'm no prophet, I was off by 490 years."

 

[JFK-1]

11 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

They're "stone-cold crazy" according to him.  They will take away people's guns

 

And after the guns they're going to come for your Trump signs.
 

 

[Cade]

13 of the 15 nations that opposed Iran sanctions in the UN Security Council have sent formal letters to the USA reminding it that since the USA walked out of the Iran nuclear deal two years ago, it has no legal recourse for imposing sanctions.

 

Uncle Sam is isolated and humiliated.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Cade

[The Real Maroonblood]

1 minute ago, Cade said:

13 of the 15 nations that opposed Iran sanctions in the UN Security Council have sent formal letters to the USA reminding it that since the USA walked out of the Iran nuclear deal two years ago, it has no legal recourse for imposing sanctions.

 

Uncle Sam is isolated and humiliated.

[Cade]

Trump claims "the deep state" is deliberately slowing down research into a covid-19 vaccine to make him look bad and cost him the Presidency

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by Cade

[Maple Leaf]

8 minutes ago, Cade said:

Trump claims "the deep state" is deliberately slowing down research into a covid-19 vaccine to make him look bad and cost him the Presidency

 

 

 

 

Poor Donald, everybody's picking on him.

 

He really is beyond hope.

[Sharpie]

10 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Poor Donald, everybody's picking on him.

 

He really is beyond hope.

 Paranoia just another of his many mental problems, the question being asked is can he win an election, it should be is he mentally competent to be able to be in an election. It shows his complete loss of any mental capability that he continuously almost seems to go out and provide on a regular basis more proof that he has lost it. 

[JFK-1]

23 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

 Paranoia just another of his many mental problems, the question being asked is can he win an election, it should be is he mentally competent to be able to be in an election. It shows his complete loss of any mental capability that he continuously almost seems to go out and provide on a regular basis more proof that he has lost it. 

 

Saw his psychologist niece who wrote the book about him recently asked if she thought his cognitive capabilities were showing significant decline. The man can barely construct a coherent sentence.

She said that she couldn't comment on that because she's not his doctor, professional type of remark I suppose. But she did say that she thought his incoherence was a result of the pressure to be simply rational.

She said that his entire life no one, not even his own family, questioned his vacuous rambling on topics he knows nothing about. And she further commented that he clearly knows nothing about governance, economics, geo politics, any of the skills required to govern.

The constant questioning rather than people just listening to his rambling with no comment which has been the norm all his life is breaking him down she thinks. And she commented further on something we all know. Something it doesn't take a psychologist to see.

His thin skinned fragile ego being battered by the constant mockery which he doesn't have the capacity to ignore. It's eating away at any limited capacity he has to speak in a rational manner.
 

She also thinks he has a lifelong learning issue and struggles to simply read which is why at these rallies he's generally just rambling rather than reading a prepared piece.

The rambling goes all over the place because he has a limited attention span. He can't maintain a thread of thought all the way to a logical, rational conclusion.

This video is a classic example of it. What a load of utter shit. It begins as a whine, not unusual for Trump. Whining that no one gives him credit for being a great speaker. So why do people turn out to listen to me?

Keep in mind this is supposed to be a political speech.
 

 

[Sharpie]

Trump states the the Deep State are slow walking FDA with producing a vaccine for Covid. Also states the Democrats when swearing the Oath Of Allegiance removed the words Under God. Both statements totally false, many videos of Under God being used at the Convention. His sister was taped by his niece making statements about Trump and suggesting he has no principles. The niece is the one who wrote the book. Its hard to believe a man who has reached this level of election panic could go without having some form of breakdown.  

Steve Bannon out on Bail, made a video laughing about the charges. The Charges are Federal and the prosecutors come under the  AG Bill Barr. Will be interesting to see if Barr will impose himself in the Trial, and if he will just stand by if there is a conviction when the Pardon is issued. Of course Trump may be out of Office by the time a trial and verdict are reached so the Pardon is not likely especially by President Biden

 

[J.T.F.Robertson]

7 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Trump states the the Deep State are slow walking FDA with producing a vaccine for Covid. Also states the Democrats when swearing the Oath Of Allegiance removed the words Under God. Both statements totally false, many videos of Under God being used at the Convention. His sister was taped by his niece making statements about Trump and suggesting he has no principles. The niece is the one who wrote the book. Its hard to believe a man who has reached this level of election panic could go without having some form of breakdown.  

Steve Bannon out on Bail, made a video laughing about the charges. The Charges are Federal and the prosecutors come under the  AG Bill Barr. Will be interesting to see if Barr will impose himself in the Trial, and if he will just stand by if there is a conviction when the Pardon is issued. Of course Trump may be out of Office by the time a trial and verdict are reached so the Pardon is not likely especially by President Biden

 

 

The "man" is a AAA lunatic and has more belief in "under Trump" than the other imposter.

Who could have conceived of the grand ole US of A allowing itself to morph into such self-inflicted chaos?

 

[JFK-1]

25 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Trump states the the Deep State are slow walking FDA with producing a vaccine for Covid.

 

So are this 'deep state" running the entire worlds quest for a vaccine? The UK too is 'slow walking' a vaccine just to spite Trump? Entire EU holding back on a vaccine just to spite Trump. He's the most important factor in the worlds fight against the virus.

[ri Alban]

2 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

So are this 'deep state" running the entire worlds quest for a vaccine? The UK too is 'slow walking' a vaccine just to spite Trump? Entire EU holding back on a vaccine just to spite Trump. He's the most important factor in the worlds fight against the virus.

 

33 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Trump states the the Deep State are slow walking FDA with producing a vaccine for Covid. Also states the Democrats when swearing the Oath Of Allegiance removed the words Under God. Both statements totally false, many videos of Under God being used at the Convention. His sister was taped by his niece making statements about Trump and suggesting he has no principles. The niece is the one who wrote the book. Its hard to believe a man who has reached this level of election panic could go without having some form of breakdown.  

Steve Bannon out on Bail, made a video laughing about the charges. The Charges are Federal and the prosecutors come under the  AG Bill Barr. Will be interesting to see if Barr will impose himself in the Trial, and if he will just stand by if there is a conviction when the Pardon is issued. Of course Trump may be out of Office by the time a trial and verdict are reached so the Pardon is not likely especially by President Biden

 

Who or what is 'Deep State'? 

[Justin Z]

6 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

The "man" is a AAA lunatic and has more belief in "under Trump" than the other imposter.

Who could have conceived of the grand ole US of A allowing itself to morph into such self-inflicted chaos?

 

 

I mean, we've been doing it under nicer guises for decades, so I'd argue anyone looking at us from the outside could've seen this coming.

 

It's occurred to me that the biggest "begged question" in this entire debate about the upcoming election is that Joe Biden will necessarily do less harm than Donald Trump.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with that proposition . . . but it's hardly proved. So, especially directed at the people giving me pelters for not automatically casting my vote for Joe Biden: let's hear it. Let's hear your arguments that prove that another four years of Donald Trump will cause more harm than four years, minimum, of Joe Biden.

 

Keep in mind I lay this challenge down from a place of fearing for my own existence as an American citizen, as people are snatched off the streets in unmarked vehicles, as the US falls further in geopolitical stature by being given two straight up fingers by the UN, and so forth. Meanwhile, Democrats have failed to assuage the fears of the populace voting for them. Their recently concluded national convention said nothing about helping the 30 million people looking at eviction in the next several months, about the massive loss of jobs, about millions of small businesses that have gone under in the wake of Covid, about people owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Nothing. They had the entire country's attention for a couple of days and we got nothing but platitudes.

 

It's yet another reminder that it's the Democrats' fault that we have Trump. They gave nothing to nobody to convince them to vote for their candidate in 2016, and so far, they've mirrored that performance in 2020.

[ri Alban]

7 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

I mean, we've been doing it under nicer guises for decades, so I'd argue anyone looking at us from the outside could've seen this coming.

 

It's occurred to me that the biggest "begged question" in this entire debate about the upcoming election is that Joe Biden will necessarily do less harm than Donald Trump.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with that proposition . . . but it's hardly proved. So, especially directed at the people giving me pelters for not automatically casting my vote for Joe Biden: let's hear it. Let's hear your arguments that prove that another four years of Donald Trump will cause more harm than four years, minimum, of Joe Biden.

 

Keep in mind I lay this challenge down from a place of fearing for my own existence as an American citizen, as people are snatched off the streets in unmarked vehicles, as the US falls further in geopolitical stature by being given two straight up fingers by the UN, and so forth. Meanwhile, Democrats have failed to assuage the fears of the populace voting for them. Their recently concluded national convention said nothing about helping the 30 million people looking at eviction in the next several months, about the massive loss of jobs, about millions of small businesses that have gone under in the wake of Covid, about people owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Nothing. They had the entire country's attention for a couple of days and we got nothing but platitudes.

 

It's yet another reminder that it's the Democrats' fault that we have Trump. They gave nothing to nobody to convince them to vote for their candidate in 2016, and so far, they've mirrored that performance in 2020.

Oh Boo Hoo! 😭

Don't blame or pass the buck to others for your Trump enabling. 

Hillary lost because she was a woman, end of. Nothing about policy, she was demonised and Trump's campaign lapped it up. Any male candidate would've beaten Trump. 

As for your stupid voting system. Did Hillary not have a bigger number of votes. 

 

 

Anyway, it's down to you, no one else, how you vote. And if Trump wins because your wee soul couldn't vote Biden, let's be honest, is a vote For! Trump. Well... 

 

Don't ever moan about President Trump, again!!! 

 

 

Personally, I'd vote for Lucifer to get rid of Trump or Westminster, then I'd deal with him after. Needs must! 

[Sharpie]

6 minutes ago, Justin Z said:

 

I mean, we've been doing it under nicer guises for decades, so I'd argue anyone looking at us from the outside could've seen this coming.

 

It's occurred to me that the biggest "begged question" in this entire debate about the upcoming election is that Joe Biden will necessarily do less harm than Donald Trump.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with that proposition . . . but it's hardly proved. So, especially directed at the people giving me pelters for not automatically casting my vote for Joe Biden: let's hear it. Let's hear your arguments that prove that another four years of Donald Trump will cause more harm than four years, minimum, of Joe Biden.

 

Keep in mind I lay this challenge down from a place of fearing for my own existence as an American citizen, as people are snatched off the streets in unmarked vehicles, as the US falls further in geopolitical stature by being given two straight up fingers by the UN, and so forth. Meanwhile, Democrats have failed to assuage the fears of the populace voting for them. Their recently concluded national convention said nothing about helping the 30 million people looking at eviction in the next several months, about the massive loss of jobs, about millions of small businesses that have gone under in the wake of Covid, about people owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Nothing. They had the entire country's attention for a couple of days and we got nothing but platitudes.

 

It's yet another reminder that it's the Democrats' fault that we have Trump. They gave nothing to nobody to convince them to vote for their candidate in 2016, and so far, they've mirrored that performance in 2020.

  

I have no vote of course, and no direct contact with actual living in the United States. I can however well see the conundrum (is that the right word) you live in at this election time. My own political leanings have been conservative, having been raised in a world of Nationalisation of industry such as Railways, Mining etc. where the cost to use anything was according to my housekeeper mother ridiculous. That was Socialism to the extreme. It did produce an excellent health system but even a broken watch is correct twice a day.  To me Trump and the Republicans have achieved some what appear to be positives, but the poor handling of the Pandemic have erased some of those, I do not need to go further on my opinion of Trump but thats where the rubber hits the road. Does Joe Biden fill me with confidence, I have minimal left wing tendencies, but if I did have I am not sure that Biden would be my first choice. I am just as unsure about Bernie, primarily with both other than policy my concern is age and health. I quite like the nominee for VP in some ways, she is definitely strong, likes a scrap, but seems to also have her share of baggage. What about people like Buttigeig, and  Booker, did they have no saving graces, what about Democratic policy, is it going to be a compendium of Bernie and Joes ideas, with a wee bit of Warren thrown in or is there an actual party policy that will be produced prior to the election. If I was a registered voter in the States I would be in turmoil right now. Do I not vote, not acceptable, do I do a write in vote, again a waste or do I strictly out of party loyalty hold my nose and go for Joe, who I actually believe is a really nice man. Not a decision thankfully I have to make.

[J.T.F.Robertson]

 

They're too PC (oxymoron) to call the arsehole out as an arsehole. It wouldn't be considered traditional, but desperate times call for equivalent measures and hang the consequences.

But ffs, I think I get your Democrat policies setting the stage for this loonie toons, but JC, whatever led to him is long done, getting rid is all it's about now.

You can work on a utopic system, later.

 

 

[Maple Leaf]

26 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

 

Who or what is 'Deep State'? 

 

It is suggested by some that there are secret groups of people within the government who are trying to undermine the policies of the USA.

 

imo, it's a load of bollocks.

[ri Alban]

4 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

It is suggested by some that there are secret groups of people within the government who are trying to undermine the policies of the USA.

 

imo, it's a load of bollocks.

Just sounds like Trump. But I agree. 

 

 

[jambostuart]

10 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Saw his psychologist niece who wrote the book about him recently asked if she thought his cognitive capabilities were showing significant decline. The man can barely construct a coherent sentence.

She said that she couldn't comment on that because she's not his doctor, professional type of remark I suppose. But she did say that she thought his incoherence was a result of the pressure to be simply rational.

She said that his entire life no one, not even his own family, questioned his vacuous rambling on topics he knows nothing about. And she further commented that he clearly knows nothing about governance, economics, geo politics, any of the skills required to govern.

The constant questioning rather than people just listening to his rambling with no comment which has been the norm all his life is breaking him down she thinks. And she commented further on something we all know. Something it doesn't take a psychologist to see.

His thin skinned fragile ego being battered by the constant mockery which he doesn't have the capacity to ignore. It's eating away at any limited capacity he has to speak in a rational manner.
 

She also thinks he has a lifelong learning issue and struggles to simply read which is why at these rallies he's generally just rambling rather than reading a prepared piece.

The rambling goes all over the place because he has a limited attention span. He can't maintain a thread of thought all the way to a logical, rational conclusion.

This video is a classic example of it. What a load of utter shit. It begins as a whine, not unusual for Trump. Whining that no one gives him credit for being a great speaker. So why do people turn out to listen to me?

Keep in mind this is supposed to be a political speech.
 

 

Donald Trump really seems to have a fixation with Elton John. The same Elton who performed at a fundraiser for Hilary...

 

I can't believe the US really would vote him in a second term but this is the same US who requires a lockdown to break a record of mass shootings...

[Justin Z]

15 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

  

I have no vote of course, and no direct contact with actual living in the United States. I can however well see the conundrum (is that the right word) you live in at this election time. My own political leanings have been conservative, having been raised in a world of Nationalisation of industry such as Railways, Mining etc. where the cost to use anything was according to my housekeeper mother ridiculous. That was Socialism to the extreme. It did produce an excellent health system but even a broken watch is correct twice a day.  To me Trump and the Republicans have achieved some what appear to be positives, but the poor handling of the Pandemic have erased some of those, I do not need to go further on my opinion of Trump but thats where the rubber hits the road. Does Joe Biden fill me with confidence, I have minimal left wing tendencies, but if I did have I am not sure that Biden would be my first choice. I am just as unsure about Bernie, primarily with both other than policy my concern is age and health. I quite like the nominee for VP in some ways, she is definitely strong, likes a scrap, but seems to also have her share of baggage. What about people like Buttigeig, and  Booker, did they have no saving graces, what about Democratic policy, is it going to be a compendium of Bernie and Joes ideas, with a wee bit of Warren thrown in or is there an actual party policy that will be produced prior to the election. If I was a registered voter in the States I would be in turmoil right now. Do I not vote, not acceptable, do I do a write in vote, again a waste or do I strictly out of party loyalty hold my nose and go for Joe, who I actually believe is a really nice man. Not a decision thankfully I have to make.

 

Thanks for your solidarity, mate. I especially am thankful for you pointing out that even as a right-leaning person, you view this as a ******* of a decision—"turmoil" as you put it: to vote for Biden, or to not vote at all. I am half your age, and have been utterly radicalised by Covid and by the political developments that have sprung from it. I can't express strongly enough how much I appreciate your description of the way things are for us here in the States.

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Justin Z

[Justin Z]

13 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

You can work on a utopic system, later.

 

Mate, I also feel this is hyperbole. A non-utopic system that at least wasn't fundamentally self-destructive also wouldn't have led us to Trump. The true baseline is far from utopia, it's just not destined to destroy itself from within. That's literally all I'm asking for. And everyone saying "but you need to get Trump out"? Well, for me, they're saying, "but you need to vote for even more self-harm to stop the worst of the self-harm."

 

Drawing a line in the sand and saying "enough", to me, is not an immoral position to take.

 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Justin Z

[JFK-1]

Interesting dissection of Trump from a guy who has had interactions with him since the 1980's. In the first 5 minutes it's mentioned that Trump had been talking about running for president since 1985.

 

When he first actually did run he said "I'm going to be the first person to run and make a profit". Well we all know now that's been the priority from day one. The millions pouring into his golf clubs every time he goes there are a drop in the ocean in comparison to what he's really trying to engineer.
 

 

[JFK-1]

This was recorded before Trump had formed an administration. The video is primed to begin at a point where the guy is leading into describing what a Trump administration would look like.

Notable in it's predictive accuracy. Trump isn't enigmatic. There are people who could tell you what Trump will do next before Trump knows what he will do next. As this guy did.
 

 

[JFK-1]

2 hours ago, Justin Z said:

 

Mate, I also feel this is hyperbole. A non-utopic system that at least wasn't fundamentally self-destructive also wouldn't have led us to Trump. The true baseline is far from utopia, it's just not destined to destroy itself from within. That's literally all I'm asking for. And everyone saying "but you need to get Trump out"? Well, for me, they're saying, "but you need to vote for even more self-harm to stop the worst of the self-harm."

 

Drawing a line in the sand and saying "enough", to me, is not an immoral position to take.

 

 

What you're saying comes across as it's the systems fault it ended in Trump. So let's just roll on and let him continue with the destruction all the way into all out civil strife and totalitarianism. I don't care.

You express disgust for racism but are willing to do nothing to remove a racist president actually endorsed by the KKK. How do you think the minorities you have always expressed sympathy for would feel about this?

[JFK-1]

Over the coming weeks, we will do something we have never done before: We will publish a series of editorials on the damage this president has caused — and the danger he would pose in a second term. And we will unabashedly urge you to do your civic duty and vote: Vote early and vote safely, but vote.

More people have died of covid-19 in the United States than in any other country. Even adjusted for population, the death rate here is almost five times worse than in Germany, and almost 100 times worse than in South Korea.

These are facts. This is reality. And the excess deaths and illness are directly attributable to Mr. Trump’s failures of leadership.

He failed to prepare the nation for a pandemic, though experts for years had warned of the possibility.

When the virus emerged, he first praised China’s handling of it, then imposed travel restrictions too slapdash to offer any protection.

For months, when he could have been preparing the nation, he insisted the virus would just go away.

When reality washed that nonsense away, he allowed government experts to guide the nation for a few weeks. But as the nation began to make some headway, Mr. Trump — more concerned with the impact on his reelection prospects than with the risk to human life — urged Americans to ignore expert advice and “liberate” their states, never mind masks or social distancing.

The result is the worst of all worlds: unneeded deaths, no possibility of real reopening and intensification of the markers of “carnage” that Mr. Trump railed against four years ago: unemployment, inequality, opioid addiction.

Perhaps most frightening: Even now, there is no plan, no learning, no strategy for testing and reopening. Under his leadership, it is all too easy to imagine that our children will still be out of school a year from now, or two, or three.

A president’s first duty is to keep the nation safe. If he has failed at home, maybe Mr. Trump has a better record overseas?

He continued a successful campaign to demolish the Islamic State, the self-styled caliphate that established itself on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border after Mr. Obama’s premature disengagement.

The recently announced peace deal between Israel and the tiny United Arab Emirates is a step forward. Mr. Trump has kept the nation out of major conflict.

But neither the country nor the world are safer four years on. The nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, which Mr. Trump said he could easily take care of, are less constrained than ever.

Russia continues to illegally occupy parts of three sovereign nations, including Ukraine. The malign dictatorship in Venezuela, which Mr. Trump vowed to dislodge, remains firmly entrenched.

To the greatest challenge of our time, Mr. Trump has failed most destructively. That challenge is the rise of authoritarian powers, most notably China.

Like dictatorships before them, they threaten the values upon which this nation was founded: individual dignity and liberty, the freedom to worship and speak and think.

But unlike past dictatorships, they are bolstered by technologies that enable unprecedented surveillance and intrusion into what was once the private sphere.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said 80 years ago, when democracy was similarly under threat, “There can be no ultimate peace between their philosophy of government and our philosophy of government.”

If they should gain the upper hand around the world, “We should enter upon a new and terrible era in which the whole world, our hemisphere included, would be run by threats of brute force.”

Mr. Trump, in his fourth year, has branded China an enemy, mostly because he needs a pandemic scapegoat, but also because he hopes it will give him a campaign issue.

But for three years, he embraced and admired Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and made clear his indifference to China’s genocide of its Muslim Uighur population, its stifling of Hong Kong, the repression of its own people.

Mr. Trump’s one concern was mercantile, and even there he failed: China’s economy is no more open to U.S. business than it was four years ago.

A president truly attuned to the Chinese threat would be investing in American universities and science; welcoming the smartest young people from around the world to study and work in the United States; and building alliances with like-minded democracies such as South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany. In each case, the president has done the opposite.

Most of all, he would be modeling the virtues of democracy, but again he has done the reverse, admiring and embracing the methods of strongmen such as Mr. Xi. Mr. Trump denigrates a free press, makes a mockery of free markets, elevates insult over civil exchange, shows contempt for the rule of law in civilian and military courts, devalues truth, and dismisses legitimate oversight from Congress, the courts and executive branch inspectors general.

Last fall, Mr. Trump became the third president in history to be impeached. The House of Representatives charged him with what amounts to extortion for personal political gain: Mr. Trump held up an arms sale and a White House meeting in an effort to pressure the president of Ukraine to slander former vice president Joe Biden.

The House also charged Mr. Trump with illegally refusing to cooperate with its investigation.

In February, the Senate voted to acquit the president, with Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah the lone Republican honest enough to acknowledge that the evidence was irrefutable.

A few other Republicans, perhaps embarrassed by their own moral collapse, suggested that Mr. Trump would be chastened by impeachment and mend his ways.

Instead, he has been emboldened, and his behavior in the half-year since provides an indication of the lawlessness we can expect if Mr. Trump is reelected.

He has swept aside U.S. attorneys who would not bend the law to his whim; fired officials throughout the government whose only offense was to do their jobs honestly or seek to hold his administration accountable; sicced unbadged troops on peaceful protesters in D.C. and Portland, Ore., for the benefit of his reelection campaign; and ignored and lied about credible reports of Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers.

He has sought to undermine confidence in democracy itself, lying about the prevalence of fraud, floating the possibility of delaying the election and even suggesting he may not accept its results.

These are high crimes and misdemeanors, as the framers of the Constitution understood the term. But this time it is up to us, the American people, to remove Mr. Trump from office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/21/second-trump-term-might-injure-democratic-experiment-beyond-recovery/?arc404=true

[Jambo-Jimbo]

6 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

So are this 'deep state" running the entire worlds quest for a vaccine? The UK too is 'slow walking' a vaccine just to spite Trump? Entire EU holding back on a vaccine just to spite Trump. He's the most important factor in the worlds fight against the virus.

 

Or the Russians & the Chinese.

 

Trump only mentions and blames the 'deep state' because he knows that almost 30% of Americans will instantly believe him.

[Norm]

4 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

What you're saying comes across as it's the systems fault it ended in Trump. So let's just roll on and let him continue with the destruction all the way into all out civil strife and totalitarianism. I don't care.

You express disgust for racism but are willing to do nothing to remove a racist president actually endorsed by the KKK. How do you think the minorities you have always expressed sympathy for would feel about this?

I'll be honest, I get his frustration. He thinks his country is ****ed. Completely ****ed. Voting Biden is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as far as JZ is concerned, or at least that's the impression I'm getting. Biden will just make the ship sink that much slower with maybe an extra life raft or two.

 

But essentially, Biden will still lead the US further in to the Iceberg field. And JZ has said "Enough. A vote for either is condoning crashing in to icebergs and I'm not for that." I get it. I really do. I'd probably be the same if I had the mis-fortune to be an American. 

[The Internet]

8 hours ago, ri Alban said:

 

Who or what is 'Deep State'? 

 

It's a tv show starting mark strong. Heard good things. 

[J.T.F.Robertson]

12 hours ago, Justin Z said:

 

Mate, I also feel this is hyperbole. A non-utopic system that at least wasn't fundamentally self-destructive also wouldn't have led us to Trump. The true baseline is far from utopia, it's just not destined to destroy itself from within. That's literally all I'm asking for. And everyone saying "but you need to get Trump out"? Well, for me, they're saying, "but you need to vote for even more self-harm to stop the worst of the self-harm."

 

Drawing a line in the sand and saying "enough", to me, is not an immoral position to take.

 

 

I was being facetious with regard to my "utopic" comment.

You're a lot more knowledgeable (and smarter) than myself concerning your country's current predicament. The "land of the free" has rarely come close to practicing what it preaches, but ousting this particular balloon is an imperative.

 

 

[Justin Z]

10 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

What you're saying comes across as it's the systems fault it ended in Trump. So let's just roll on and let him continue with the destruction all the way into all out civil strife and totalitarianism. I don't care.

 

Correct, it is the system's fault, and the question begging you're still doing is to assume that voting for a less bad, right wing accused rapist architect of the carceral state and supporter of the Iraq War, who has a D next to his name and whose states will appear blue on the electoral map, will fix civil strife or totalitarianism. That's all I'm getting at. That's in no way proved, but it's necessarily being assumed by anyone who has a go at people who look at this dumpster fire and say "nah, not supporting this farce."

 

10 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

You express disgust for racism but are willing to do nothing to remove a racist president actually endorsed by the KKK. How do you think the minorities you have always expressed sympathy for would feel about this?

 

Yeah, this is a popular line/question trotted out to shame people for not just blindly going along with Biden as if that will magically solve everything. Tbh if I didn't know you better I'd assume you've asked it in bad faith, because it is so tired and debunked. In any event—believe it or not, it depends who you ask.

 

 

 

(the bottom replier there is Latino)

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/icecube/status/1297171670961192962

 

Just a small sample of what's out there if you look.

 

As I've already said I still, legitimately, don't know which choice is best / will help the most / will do the least harm, and I probably won't know right up to election day. But look at your reaction to me even bringing up the possibility that voting for Joe Biden isn't it—and that voting third party might be: instant playing the man instead of the topic. Maybe think about why that might be.

 

[Justin Z]

1 hour ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

I was being facetious with regard to my "utopic" comment.

You're a lot more knowledgeable (and smarter) than myself concerning your country's current predicament. The "land of the free" has rarely come close to practicing what it preaches, but ousting this particular balloon is an imperative.

 

Heh, that's what I get for reading while pished Should've picked up on that.

 

I might be more knowledgeable just by exposure but I don't think I'm any smarter. I appreciate your perspective and thank you for sharing it.

 

I think what you said about how phony our "Land of the Free" moniker is, is a good point. Would we have had the result we had in the UN Security Council recently with anyone else as president? I'm thinking not. The US is losing influence worldwide, and considering what it's done with its influence since the end of WWII, I'm not sure how anyone can argue that's a bad thing. This particular balloon may have done the entire world a massive favour through his idiocy.

[Maple Leaf]

@Justin Z You have skin in this election, I don't, so your opinion is much more relevant than mine.  I'm just a concerned neighbour looking over the fence wondering "What the hell is going on in that place?"

 

In an adaptation of Occam's Razor, I think of the upcoming election in the simplest of terms, cutting away all the unnecessary chatter. To my simple mind it's a binary decision ... who do I think would be the best person to win the election?  And it has to be either Trump or Biden.  It's an easy decision, Biden is a better choice, warts and all.

 

I shudder to think what Trump would be like if his bizarre presidency is rewarded by being granted a second term.  Concentrate on being given the chance of a third term, supported by his enablers in the Senate?  He'll go all out for a Constitutional Amendment.  Get the Supreme Court more Conservative?  Get Roe v Wade challenged?

 

Doesn't bear thinking about for me, and the Biden/Harris past screw-ups seem irrelevant in comparison.

[JFK-1]

There are no perfect politicians, everybody has mis-steps in their past. The difference in this instance is that we're looking at a mentally unstable conspiracy nut blunder machine beside people who are rational and based in reality.

A freak show promoting the rambling of witch doctors who believe in demon sperm and alien DNA. Telling wackos like Alex Jones to 'keep up the good work'.

 

This is beyond dysfunctional and cannot be tolerated by rational people. Even lifelong Republicans are shocked by the level of insanity and actually voting for the opposition out of sheer terror of what the lunatic may do.

  
This is a total maniac who is not just batshit crazy but compromised by a hostile foreign power. It's truly frightening to contemplate what Putin's agenda will be if he gets himself another term. Make no mistake. This orange idiot is his puppet. The entire world is at risk.

[JFK-1]

Opinion by 

Jonathan Capehart

Columnist

While I was a guest on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” on Wednesday, a listener named Ian called in with an enraging comment. He deemed the Democratic convention “Republican lite” because of speakers such as former secretary of state Colin Powell.

Ian declared that former president Barack Obama’s push to work with Republicans during his eight years in the White House was “an attempt to appease the Republican right wing, and that’s what brought us Trump.” But it was Ian’s last comment that sent me over the edge: “I have not been convinced. I am still abstaining.”

 

Listen, I know that Ian speaks for more Americans than I would like. But it is highly irresponsible for anyone to say they are “abstaining” from the November election.

After everything we have seen over the past 3 1/2 years — all the lies, racism, coddling of white supremacists and trampling of the rule of law — a decision not to vote is a vote for four more years of Trump.

 

I’m so tired of those holier-than-thou progressives who continue to demand purity in the face of an existential threat like Trump. They were probably quick to take to the streets to protest for Black lives and against racial injustice, but are hedging on whether voting for Democratic nominee Joe Biden is worth it.

They probably rail against inaction on climate change, but seem willing to let a science denier remain in the Oval Office. They most certainly thunder against income inequality and the increasing massive wealth of the mega-rich.

And yet, they want to lecture from on high instead of casting a vote that could help remove a man and his family who are using public office to enrich themselves.

In what turned out to be an unwitting preview of Obama’s speech later that night, I reminded listeners that everything is on the line on Nov. 3. Our nation and our democracy hang in the balance. But my fury was nothing compared to that of the 44th president of the United States.

 

“They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter,” Obama said from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. “That’s how they win.

That’s how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That’s how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks.

 

That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all. We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy.”

 

Obama was at his most powerful and most emotional when he widened the focus to reflect on the sacrifices of our American ancestors who endured much worse to make this nation better.

 

Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great-grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from.

Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

 

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives.

They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work.

 

Every four years, it seems, we proclaim the presidential election the most important in our lifetime. This time it is undeniably true.

As I told Ian, imagine a reelected Trump and what he would do with a second term. Or, as former first lady Michelle Obama said, “If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election.”

 

That change can’t happen if the Ians of the world “abstain” from voting. And it is the height of privilege for someone to stand atop a pedestal of ideological purity only to complain when their inaction helps breed more of the madness they decry below.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/20/trump-is-too-much-threat-anyone-abstain-voting/

[ri Alban]

Anyone who abstains is a closet Trump supporter. Sorry, 'I didn't vote for Trump' 

 

Aye, ye did! 

[Sharpie]

Trump to make an appearance every day at the Convention.

[JFK-1]

44 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Trump to make an appearance every day at the Convention.

 

Excellent. The Lincoln project only needs to save their Trump is a moron videos to be released each time before he appears. He wont be able to resist watching it, then have his thin skin so torn he will go out there and prove what an idiot he is.

Trump speaking is the worst thing that can happen to them. When the impeachment was coming up they tried to prep him to speak. Quickly discovered that he couldn't focus on what he had been told and would absolutely always veer off into an obvious and infantile lie.

They quickly realised if we let him speak this idiot will talk himself and some of us into jail. We can't let him speak. Which is exactly why he didn't appear at the impeachment hearing. 

Now I would be willing to bet they wish he didn't need to speak at this either. But the candidate speaking is something of a requirement at these pre election conventions. There is no way out of this for them.

Presuming they mean that appearing means actually speaking.

[SpruceBringsteen]

Can't vote, but if I could I'd definitely not vote for Trump, which is the same as a vote for Biden.

 

Anyway, fair play to the fat piece of shit for adding "teaching American exceptionalism" to his platform, as if 99% of the dribble lips that vote for him have any earthly idea of what "exceptionalism" means.

[Justin Z]

Holier-than-thou columns like these will not be bringing in any votes.

 

Not to mention the purity/privilege canard has been thoroughly debunked.

[Justin Z]

6 minutes ago, SpruceBringsteen said:

Can't vote, but if I could I'd definitely not vote for Trump, which is the same as a vote for Biden.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Goodbye Kellyanne Conway.  Maybe she sees the writing on the wall.

[NANOJAMBO]

10 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

Goodbye Kellyanne Conway.  Maybe she sees the writing on the wall.

The kid has put a 10 min vid on TikTok - she's left her parents nameless.

I didn't realise mum is on the Trump admin AND  her dad works for the Lincoln Project. Must be some interesting chats over dinner. 

[Mysterion]

3 minutes ago, NANOJAMBO said:

The kid has put a 10 min vid on TikTok - she's left her parents nameless.

I didn't realise mum is on the Trump admin AND  her dad works for the Lincoln Project. Must be some interesting chats over dinner. 

 

her twitter feed makes it clear she shares none of her parents political outlook. 

 

she seems to err towards blaming her mother for things, but effectively she's called her mum out multiple times with some pretty sharp comments.

[Lovecraft]

50 minutes ago, NANOJAMBO said:

The kid has put a 10 min vid on TikTok - she's left her parents nameless.

I didn't realise mum is on the Trump admin AND  her dad works for the Lincoln Project. Must be some interesting chats over dinner. 

Was just reading he is actually the founder of the Lincoln Project.

 

 

[Lovecraft]

Kellyanne Conway looks like someone stole her corpse and is wearing her skin as some kind of outfit.

 

[Maple Leaf]

50 minutes ago, Mysterion said:

 

her twitter feed makes it clear she shares none of her parents political outlook. 

 

she seems to err towards blaming her mother for things, but effectively she's called her mum out multiple times with some pretty sharp comments.

 

Claudia's parents are die-hard conservatives, Claudia is not.  The difference between the parents is that the mother adores Trump and is one of his leading enablers, whereas the father despises him.

 

As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, Claudia describes her parents' marriage as "failed", but I would say that the latest moves could be an attempt at making a go of it.  They're both deeply religious, so divorce might be off the table.

[Eldar Hadzimehmedovic]

Her Twitter feed is great...