Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[archer]

29 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

 

*Three guesses what the red hat said.

 

Eat at Joe's?

Kilroy was here?

My other hat is a Prius?

[archer]

The South Carolina Senate race just took an interesting turn. 

 

Senator Linsay Graham refused to be tested for COVID after having contact with Trump while he was probably contagious so a debate with his Democrat challenger was cancelled. Graham decided to do a forum instead.

 

At his own event, as he appeared to be arguing that race is not a barrier to success in South Carolina, he said, "I care about everybody. If you're a young African American, [or] an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state. You just need to be conservative, not liberal." 

 

The background he chose to have behind him appeared to be deliberately reminiscent of the Confederate flag.

 

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-lindsey-graham-says-black-people-immigrants-can-go-anywhere-in-sc-you-just-need-to-be-conservative-not-liberal/

 

1954 wants its talking point back.

 

Unfortunately, that one isn't a parody. The next one however....

[archer]

Overwhelmed White Nationalist Militia Spread Way Too Thin Plotting Attacks Against Everyone Trump Wants

 

“So, just looking at what President Trump would like from us right now, we’re supposed to kidnap several congresswomen in Washington, run over some protestors in Louisville, and blow up a mosque in Minneapolis—how is it possible for a handful of guys to do all that?” said Dennis Blanchard, commander of the Badger State Brigade, who stressed that his five-member pro-Trump vigilante group was still very committed to the ideal of a white ethnostate, but had really overextended itself by trying to oust 10 state governments at the same time. “Look, I’m a motivated guy, but if I’m locked and loaded and en-route to CNN headquarters in New York, don’t tweet about something that’s going on in California, because I just can’t be there. We’re exhausted enough as it is. We’ve already got training camps to run, weapons to stockpile, polls to watch, online recruits to groom. It would really help us out a lot if the president could stay focused.”

 

https://www.theonion.com/overwhelmed-white-nationalist-militia-spread-way-too-th-1845326351

[Ternaugh]

2 hours ago, archer said:

My other hat is a Prius?

 

Note to self, next hat needs to say this.

[wcw43921]

2 hours ago, archer said:

The South Carolina Senate race just took an interesting turn. 

 

Senator Lindsay Graham refused to be tested for COVID after having contact with Trump while he was probably contagious so a debate with his Democrat challenger was cancelled. Graham decided to do a forum instead.

 

At his own event, as he appeared to be arguing that race is not a barrier to success in South Carolina, he said, "I care about everybody. If you're a young African American, [or] an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state. You just need to be conservative, not liberal." 

 

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-lindsey-graham-says-black-people-immigrants-can-go-anywhere-in-sc-you-just-need-to-be-conservative-not-liberal/

 

 

Reminds me of the right-wingers who told same-sex marriage advocates that they can marry whomever they want, so long as that person was not of the same sex. Condescend much, Senator?

[Old Man]

4 hours ago, archer said:

 

Eat at Joe's?

Kilroy was here?

My other hat is a Prius?

 

сделай Америку снова великой

[BoloOfEarth]

How about:  он продает америку россии

[Cygnia]

What To Do If You Encounter Armed Militias At Your Polling Place

[Old Man]

Dropped my ballot in the county drop box yesterday. Didn’t see any militia around, they probably saw me coming and fled. 

[archer]

Trump coalition alienates a key demographic:

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/porn-world-mad-at-melania-trump-over-stormy-daniels-porn-hooker-diss

[DShomshak]

On 10/10/2020 at 3:49 AM, archer said:

But Texas' governor proclaimed early in the month that most already-existing drop off boxes for ballots around the state had to be removed and that no county could have more than one. (Understand that some counties in Texas are larger than the state of Delaware and a heck of a lot of them are larger than Rhode Island.)

 

In addition to that, in order to put a ballot in the drop off box, you had to show ID and sign a document stating that you were dropping off your ballot.

 

In Houston, there were lines which were hours long *for the ballot drop-off box*. There had been twelve drop off boxes in that country before the governor ordered eleven of them removed because doing that would (among other things) "limit voter confusion".

 

Anyway, a federal judge overturned the governor's order...pointing out that Texas had multiple drop off boxes in previous elections with no signs of voter confusion or voter fraud.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/520460-federal-judge-shoots-down-texas-proclamation-allowing-one-ballot-drop

 

Sadly, I heard on All Things Considered yesterday that a three-judge appelate panel overturned the judge's order and restored the one-box-per-county rule. All three judges are Trump appointees.

 

There's not even a pretense of judicial independence here, so I no longer see any reason not to pack the courts if Dems can manage the trifecta. Or start legislatively firing and replacing judges as was done in Poland. Then make micro-states out of the District of Columbia to pack the Senate, so Republicans will never be in a position to do the same, and say, "We win."

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

OTOH, I read in my morning paper that in Florida, Wisconsin and some other battleground states, Dems are pretty far ahead of Republicans in mail-in/absentee early voting, to an extent that worries GOP strategists. The bigger the early lead, the harder it is to catch up on Election Day.

 

Dean Shomshak

[unclevlad]

My biggest concern is, of course, Trump wins;  if that happens, the chance that the Republicans lose the Senate seems nil.

 

But, my second biggest is that it'll hardly matter.  If Trump loses, it'll be due mostly to his utter incometence, and his massive talent to alienate broad swaths of the country.  But that's not sustainable.  We've got to have serious doubts about Biden for a second term, for age reasons if nothing else, and the anti-Trump push will likely dissipate.  So, in 4 or 6 years...we'll be right back in this mess, with regard to a massively stacked judiciary.

ESPECIALLY if the Senate doesn't flip.  There's absolutely no reason, IMO, to think anything but utter gridlock if that happens.

[unclevlad]

First Scientific American.

Then Nature.

Now it's the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812?fbclid=IwAR1ZCqDgcZYFKsB3UF7hEOhLwqN-N2hs9YP2ESMF7G8gT5xCj5u4QFn__TM

[Cygnia]

California GOP Accused of Setting Up Unofficial Ballot Drop-Off Boxes Across State

[Old Man]

4 hours ago, Cygnia said:

California GOP Accused of Setting Up Unofficial Ballot Drop-Off Boxes Across State

 

Let me guess, they're easy to spot because they're not surrounded by armed militias?

[wcw43921]

NPR: We Asked Americans How They Feel About The Flag

[archer]

Despite his positive COVID-19 test, GOP Sen. Mike Lee speaks, in person without a mask and within six feet of other people, at Barrett's Supreme Court hearing.

 

 https://theweek.com/speedreads/943188/gop-sen-mike-lee-speaks-without-mask-barrett-hearing-despite-positive-covid19-test

[archer]

News outlets decline to send staff to travel on Air Force One with Trump to his campaign events over lack of coronavirus precautions:

New York Times

Washington Post

The Wall Street Journal

BuzzFeed News

Politico

Hearst Newspapers

 

Flight attendants, Secret Service agents, and White House staffers not wearing masks aboard the plane. Administration staffers accused of returning to work before the end of two-week quarantine periods following infection or possible exposure to coronavirus.

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/520699-news-outlets-decline-to-send-staff-to-travel-with-trump-over-lack-of

[Cygnia]

Group charged in Michigan governor kidnap plot discussed targeting Virginia governor, FBI agent says

[Pariah]

Romney decries state of America's 'vile, vituperative, hate-filled' politics, puts blame largely on Trump

 

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

Trump was a catalyst, but the recipe for this condition had been simmering in American politics, and society, for a long time. I believe Trump, or someone like Trump, was needed at this time to make it boil over, so everyone could see it and feel it. Like the civil rights movement, the Great Depression, the Civil War, sometimes it takes frightful events to force a nation to course-correct. I'm hoping it doesn't get as bad as those, but the precedents are frightening. Yet they're also hopeful, because after each crisis America has emerged better.

[Badger]

On 10/11/2020 at 3:22 PM, DShomshak said:

Sadly, I heard on All Things Considered yesterday that a three-judge appelate panel overturned the judge's order and restored the one-box-per-county rule. All three judges are Trump appointees.

 

There's not even a pretense of judicial independence here, so I no longer see any reason not to pack the courts if Dems can manage the trifecta. Or start legislatively firing and replacing judges as was done in Poland. Then make micro-states out of the District of Columbia to pack the Senate, so Republicans will never be in a position to do the same, and say, "We win."

 

Dean Shomshak

 

Can never there. If we say, tyranny as long as it is mine, it is time to give up.

[ScottishFox]

Trump wasn't the cause.  Trump was the symptom.

The only way a guy like that rose above the other 15-16 Republican candidates is because that level of aggression and vitriol appealed to half of the country.

 

The impeachment and the recent discussion of Amendment 25 proceedings and the insane level of hostility during recent supreme court nominations compared to the old ones are similarly symptoms of the out of control animosity between the two parties.  The party's are losing their ability to work together and like fans of rival footballs teams the public is forming up into sides capable of mass violence.

 

Both sides are losing their damn minds, imo.

[archer]

Trump administration admits that herd immunity is official government strategy.

 

A senior administration official told reporters in a background briefing call Monday that the proposed strategy — which has been denounced by other infectious-disease experts and has been called “fringe” and “dangerous” by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins — supports what has been Trump’s policy for months.

 

“We’re not endorsing a plan. The plan is endorsing what the president’s policy has been for months. The president’s policy — protect the vulnerable, prevent hospital overcrowding, and open schools and businesses — and he’s been very clear on that,” the official said. “Everybody knows that 200,000 people died. That’s extremely serious and tragic. But on the other hand, I don’t think society has to be paralyzed, and we know the harms of confining people to their homes,”

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/proposal-to-hasten-herd-immunity-grabs-white-house-attention-appalls-top-scientists/

 

Here's also a link to The Great Barrington Declaration which is the pro-infection pseudo-science document, mentioned in the article, which is guiding White House COVID policy.

https://gbdeclaration.org/