Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[BoloOfEarth]

13 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Donald Trump doesn't run America like a business. He runs it like a Mafia territory.

 

I dunno.  Given his track record of bankruptcies and unwise financial decisions, he may just be running America like he runs his own business.  Which is a very scary prospect.

[TrickstaPriest]

I mean, the other option is just never to have to vote again.  Just see how Kentucky and Texas are solving that problem for everyone...

[Thia Halmades]

@Old Man This made me think of you:

 

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/10/01/amy-coney-barrett-not-rhodes-scholar-she-went-rhodes-college/5882148002/

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Donald Trump doesn't run America like a business. He runs it like a Mafia territory.

 

No, more like it's a ship, and he's the flogging captain.

[Thia Halmades]

And now, this:

 

https://apple.news/Axoy3HO5wS3OzYzgQixFo2Q

 

Short version: 10/1 at/around 10pm, it was announced Hope Hicks, aide to Trump and the Trump family, tested positive for Corona Virus.

[unclevlad]

3 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Trump is already stating he won't go along with any debate rule changes.  I'm trying to decide whether this is a bad thing or not.

 

 

This should allow Biden to take a higher ground.  If the people trying to set up the debate suggest rules changes, figure Biden will aprrove.  If Trump rejects, Biden can pull out.  Sure, Trump will say it's out of fear, but Biden can also say Trump refuses to debate.  Seems a wash.

 

But that's the way this entire campaign season has been.  Pointless.  SCREAMING.  CONSTANT.  Since there were so few primaries, everyone and their cousin has all their money to blow in the very narrow time window.  I can't *begin* to describe how nauseated I am by both sides...yeah, both.  The Republican ads are worse around here, but I'm also predisposed to detest them.  But the Democratic ads have their fair share of slimery.  I also figure I don't need to describe it, not to a lot of us here.

 

If you want to know why I think there's no hope for this country, just listen to the ads.  Reconciliation isn't going to happen when there is this degree of demonization.

[Thia Halmades]

That’s a fair point, there has been so much noise and it’s deafening, drowning out most positivity and hope. It really does a disservice to the whole process and pollutes the discourse. To be honest, there may not be a reconciliation between the “sides” but I also don’t believe that there needs to be one. Based on the actions and the ideas that I’m seeing there’s a group of people who believe that the function of government is primarily the protection of property, and another group who believe that the goal should be the common interest. Simply put, we need both to function as a society and refusing to recognize the merits of either defeats the whole point of the exercise. 

 

But that’s all beside the point. I believe that people matter, and I believe that all citizens deserve to be represented by people who believe that they matter. No matter where on the divide you fall, each and every one of us deserve to be treated with respect by our government. We deserve to be told the truth by people we have elected to be our agents. We deserve to have the services we pay for operate at a functional level. We deserve to be able to trust that our representatives are working in our best interests, no matter where they fall ideologically. And for me personally, even if I get nauseated, I’m going to vote for the person who can uphold that basic agreement. The only way to guarantee this new status quo continues — i.e., the venomous horror we’re all witnessing —  is to refuse to believe that an alternative can exist.

 

And an alternative can exist, but it only comes to fruition if we all vote in the people who we believe are going to balance what can be competing interests, but who, above all else, see the needs and inherent value of the people first. I have no issue with “conservatism,” i.e., the value of institutions, but what seems to be happening is that rather than act as agents for the people, but for themselves. As an example, defunding the Post Office is not in the public interest. It only serves a very small group under very unique circumstances.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Thia Halmades said:

 

Mafia had a code, honor, all kinds of things. He runs it like the idea he has of how the Mafia works based on a show he watched once.

 

Don't romanticize them. That's a pop-culture image they themselves like to spread, but ultimately their behavior is governed by greed and fear, like Trump.

 

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

I dunno.  Given his track record of bankruptcies and unwise financial decisions, he may just be running America like he runs his own business.  Which is a very scary prospect.

 

Absolutely. The biggest takeaway from Trump's leaked taxes isn't that he paid so little. He paid so little because his businesses have been bleeding money for years. Trump is heavily in debt, as in hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. Not only does this highlight his failure as a businessman, it makes him extremely vulnerable to outside coercion. And most of those loans are coming due in the next few years. If he's still President then, he'll have all of America for collateral.

[archer]

Trump and wife test positive for covid-19

 

[unclevlad]

30 minutes ago, archer said:

Trump and wife test positive for covid-19

 

 

Whoa!!!

Something like this requires confirmation.  SO...

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/hope-hicks-positive-coronavirus/index.html

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/president-trump-lady-test-positive-covid-19/story?id=73380448

And Trump himself tweeted it.

 

 

[archer]

2 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

Whoa!!!

Something like this requires confirmation.  SO...

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/hope-hicks-positive-coronavirus/index.html

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/president-trump-lady-test-positive-covid-19/story?id=73380448

And Trump himself tweeted it.

 

 

 

Well, I was watching TV coverage away from my keyboard so I ran over quickly to update the thread.

 

If it's any consolation, I beat out NBC TV news by two minutes.

[unclevlad]

8 minutes ago, archer said:

 

Well, I was watching TV coverage away from my keyboard so I ran over quickly to update the thread.

 

If it's any consolation, I beat out NBC TV news by two minutes.

 

Didn't mean it as criticism.  You aren't the type to post this if you didn't have legit sources.  I figured I'd drop references.  I didn't include Fox only because they didn't have it up just then.  (They do now.)  And, yes, I am at the point that I want to see confirmation about anything like this.

 

Disillusioned, much?

'scuse me, my bedtime nip is demanding my attention.

[Old Man]

19 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

Didn't mean it as criticism.  You aren't the type to post this if you didn't have legit sources.  I figured I'd drop references.  I didn't include Fox only because they didn't have it up just then.  (They do now.)  And, yes, I am at the point that I want to see confirmation about anything like this.

 

Disillusioned, much?

 

 

That's not disillusion.  This is disillusion: What if he doesn't actually have covid, but needs an excuse to get out of the next two debates without looking like a coward?  There's almost no way he makes the 10/15 debate now, and an extra safe three week quarantine would get him past the 10/22 debate.  Then he magically reemerges on 10/23, hale and hearty (ischemic tremor notwithstanding), inspiring his fans just in time to go to the polls.

 

Anyway, tinfoil hat off.  Get that man some hydroxychloroquine, stat!

[archer]

58 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

Didn't mean it as criticism.  You aren't the type to post this if you didn't have legit sources.  I figured I'd drop references.  I didn't include Fox only because they didn't have it up just then.  (They do now.)  And, yes, I am at the point that I want to see confirmation about anything like this.

 

 

No problem. I used to have the bad habit of beating out national news services to publication.

 

I'd already hurried across the house and was at my keyboard before it really hit me that I didn't blog anymore and didn't have to write a story.  

[Lord Liaden]

In this day and age, surely they can do the debate remotely. We're all doing a lot of stuff that way right now. The dual podiums look very theatrical, but they aren't necessary. And that would give the moderator a mute button.

 

I'd love to see Trump try to excuse his way out of that.

[megaplayboy]

He's a 74 year old man who is morbidly obese, has likely other comorbidities including circulatory issues and a possible adderall addiction.  If he becomes symptomatic, he is at very high risk for what is euphemistically called a bad outcome.

[Lord Liaden]

I feel like I should be a better human being, and care about that. But at this point I just can't.

[megaplayboy]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I feel like I should be a better human being, and care about that. But at this point I just can't.

Galatians 6: 7-9

 

⁷ Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

⁸ For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

⁹ And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

[Greywind]

I want better candidates to vote for. Same as I did in 2016.

[Cygnia]

7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

 

And Trump himself tweeted it.

 

 

First time he's tweeted anything positive...

 

Back to the cynicism, I'm also in the "does he just want an excuse to avoid more debates?" camp.

[Starlord]

I had posited to the wife a month or two ago that Trump wouldn't be above just lying that he was positive to show that the virus was no big deal, and/or how 'tough' he was at resisting it, and/or 'look at the positive effects of taking hydroxychloroquine daily'.

[ScottishFox]

6 hours ago, Old Man said:

Get that man some hydroxychloroquine, stat!

 

Seems like the ultimate put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is test.

[Thia Halmades]

9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Don't romanticize them. That's a pop-culture image they themselves like to spread, but ultimately their behavior is governed by greed and fear, like Trump.

 

Shut up! You’re not my real dad!

 

I wrote a whole post on the difference between reality and what’s seen on TV, but it seemed to veer too far into Simon-Land so I blipped it. Short version: You’re right, I was trying to draw a correlation between reality as concept and reality as seen on TV, and how some people don’t realize they’re two separate things. I think you can figure out the rest of what I was saying from there. My first post did not have the weight of the construction behind it and thus it’s my fault for being unclear.

[Hermit]

I predict that if Trump doesn't become symptomatic, he will portray this as bad as it gets, and what are folks whining about? If it does, well, he's got some of the best medical care the US Govt can afford on standby... and will probably try to make sure that even if he gets near to death he'll act like it was no big deal. He lies about everything anyway, and wants to be seen as 'strong' so yeah, he'll bull@#@ his way through this.

 

And spread misinformation galore anew, this time convincing trumpkins 'See, it was over hyped those who died were wimps or something'

[Starlord]

5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I feel like I should be a better human being, and care about that. But at this point I just can't.

 

The only thing that would bother me is if Barron got it and became ill, particularly since that likely occurred due the carelessness and ignorance of his parents.