Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[archer]

49 minutes ago, ScottishFox said:

I'm still tripping over Twitter and Facebook silencing the 4th largest newspaper in America three weeks before election day.

And blocking links to government websites.

And blocking the press secretary.

And some celebrities.

And some other government officials who talk about things they don't want talked about.

 

We are entering Cyberpunk territory here with a mega-corp deciding what information the government can and cannot share with the public.

 

There's some real propaganda going on (I tried using screen clips, but they're over the file size limit now?)

This (Time stamped to part where Washington post verifies that Biden didn't get a prosecutor fired)

 

Can't be reconciled with: (Biden on video bragging about getting the prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold 1 billion dollar loan.).

 

 

FBI is investigating whether purported Hunter Biden-Burisma emails were part of a foreign intelligence operation

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-fbi-is-investigating-whether-purported-hunter-biden-burisma-emails-were-part-of-a-foreign-intelligence-operation/ar-BB1a4S1N

 

(Note: this is Trump's FBI with his hand-picked FBI director.)

 

• The news comes shortly after The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — who was a source for the New York Post story — was targeted by Russian intelligence.

 

(Here's a link to that story.)

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-biden-ukraine-russian-disinformation/2020/10/15/43158900-0ef5-11eb-b1e8-16b59b92b36d_story.html

 

 

[Old Man]

AG Barr has already stated that nothing is going to come of the Hunter Biden investigation.  If anyone was going to make a real case for it, it'd be him. 

 

As for the hysteria about "censorship", the tech platforms in question made their policies about unsubstantiated and/or illegally acquired information known months ago, and the hysterical people knew it.  This particular fake October surprise is so sloppy, it's pretty clear that the point was not to smear the Bidens but to manufacture anti-media hysteria in viewers.

 

The real question, as Archer linked, is where did the laptop really come from?  (Admittedly, it's kind of a rhetorical question, since we're all pretty sure we know the answer.)

[archer]

According to the New York Post’s report this week, “The shop owner couldn’t positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden, but said the laptop bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, named after Hunter’s late brother and former Delaware attorney general.”

 

 

President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani changed the story of how Hunter Biden’s laptop was acquired on SiriusXM Patriot’s The David Webb Show, Thursday.

 

“The process was that the laptop was left by Hunter Biden, in an inebriated… heavily inebriated state with the merchant,” claimed Giuliani on the show. “The merchant fixed the laptop, tried to reach Hunter Biden and Hunter Biden never came back for it.”

 

“The document that I have signed by Hunter Biden says that after 90 days the hard drive is abandoned and it becomes the property of the merchant."

 

https://www.mediaite.com/radio/rudy-giuliani-changes-laptop-story-now-claims-hunter-biden-left-it-at-store/

[Lord Liaden]

8 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

I'm still tripping over Twitter and Facebook silencing the 4th largest newspaper in America three weeks before election day.

And blocking links to government websites.

And blocking the press secretary.

And some celebrities.

And some other government officials who talk about things they don't want talked about.

 

We are entering Cyberpunk territory here with a mega-corp deciding what information the government can and cannot share with the public.

 

There's some real propaganda going on (I tried using screen clips, but they're over the file size limit now?)

This (Time stamped to part where Washington post verifies that Biden didn't get a prosecutor fired)

 

Can't be reconciled with: (Biden on video bragging about getting the prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold 1 billion dollar loan.).

 

 

Biden's bragging is obviously verifiable, because he's recorded saying it. Much of what's been coming out of some media sources and the current American administration has been unverifiable, deliberately misleading or outright lies, which have been caught multiple times, and which social media platforms have been criticized for years for allowing, until the chorus of complaints from users forced them to take action.

 

The American people have a right to facts and the truth. They also have a right to not be exposed to blatant propaganda masquerading as facts and truth, no matter where it comes from.

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

Because this is a separate story that the forum software merged : The stark, unbridgeable divide between rural and urban America

[Pattern Ghost]

9 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

We are entering Cyberpunk territory here with a mega-corp deciding what information the government can and cannot share with the public.

 

No, they control what the government can and cannot share with the public on their site. The government has vast resources and a multitude of ways to disseminate information besides Facebook.

[Pattern Ghost]

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

where did the laptop really come from? 

 

Almost certainly China. 🙃

[archer]

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

where did the laptop really come from?  

 

19 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

Almost certainly China. 🙃

 

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

where did the laptop really come from?  

 

It came from a small town just down the road from Vladivostok.

 

It's called Laffinkstok.

[wcw43921]

Internet Leaps To Mr. Rogers' Defense After Trump Staffer Mocks Biden Town Hall

[Lord Liaden]

Fred Rogers never talked down to anyone. He treated everyone with respect and compassion. He always told the truth, and didn't shy away from addressing difficult issues. No wonder this administration doesn't understand that that comparison is no insult.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Fred Rogers never talked down to anyone. He treated everyone with respect and compassion. He always told the truth, and didn't shy away from addressing difficult issues. No wonder this administration doesn't understand that that comparison is no insult.

 

Trump doesn't talk down either.

He shouts down.

[archer]

3 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

Trump doesn't talk down either.

He shouts down.

 

Trump thinks everyone below him are peons.

 

🤪

[TrickstaPriest]

25 minutes ago, archer said:

 

Trump thinks everyone below him are peons.

 

....

That's a little much...

 

Not that I like him in the slightest.  But I think that doesn't need to be said with my earlier rants.

[Lord Liaden]

No, I do think that reflects his attitude, when you look at the definition of "peon," and apply Trump's class/race filter.

 

My only dispute with archer's statement is the implication that anyone is below Trump.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

My only dispute with archer's statement is the implication that anyone is below Trump.

 

The president of Brazil?

 

Or at that point, are we asking the difference between the number of angels that can dance on the head of a straight pin versus a safety pin?

[Tom]

9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

No, I do think that reflects his attitude, when you look at the definition of "peon," and apply Trump's class/race filter.

 

My only dispute with archer's statement is the implication that anyone is below Trump.

 

Well, Archer did say that "Trump thinks" as part of the statement.

 

Does anyone think that Trump doesn't think everyone is below him?

[Cygnia]

You're implying he actually thinks

[Starlord]

2 hours ago, Cygnia said:

You're implying he actually thinks

 

Why would you say that?

 

But with regard to the forest: When trees fall down, after a short period of time — about 18 months — they become very dry.  They become, really, like a matchstick.  And they get up — you know, there’s no more water pouring through, and they become very, very — well, they just explode.  They can explode.  - Donald Trump 9/14/20

 

Oh.  That's why.

 

[unclevlad]

58 minutes ago, Starlord said:

 

Why would you say that?

 

But with regard to the forest: When trees fall down, after a short period of time — about 18 months — they become very dry.  They become, really, like a matchstick.  And they get up — you know, there’s no more water pouring through, and they become very, very — well, they just explode.  They can explode.  - Donald Trump 9/14/20

 

Oh.  That's why.

 

 

That's pretty good, but I don't know if it makes the top 20.  The list of contenders here is strong and deep.  But I'll still go with his whole rant about John McCain because he got caught.  It shows so many levels of utter thoughtlessness.  

[DShomshak]

On 10/16/2020 at 12:37 AM, Old Man said:

The real question, as Archer linked, is where did the laptop really come from?  (Admittedly, it's kind of a rhetorical question, since we're all pretty sure we know the answer.)

Is it certain the laptop even exists? Because the NYTimes story said the information, and its supposed chain of custody, comes from Rudy Giuliani. As of that article, we don't know the store, the owner, or anything else, apparently.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Ternaugh]

I dropped off my ballot at one the of 48 early voting stations in Clark County about an hour and a half ago.

 

[archer]

4 hours ago, DShomshak said:

Is it certain the laptop even exists? Because the NYTimes story said the information, and its supposed chain of custody, comes from Rudy Giuliani. As of that article, we don't know the store, the owner, or anything else, apparently.

 

Dean Shomshak

 

The FBI claims to have the emails which supposedly came from the laptop because they've stated the emails look like a Russian intelligence operation. I suppose they might have the laptop but if they physically have it, I'm not aware of them saying so.

 

As for the shop owner, here's his store's website and address http://www.demacshop.com/about/

 

And an article about the owner.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-who-reportedly-gave-hunters-laptop-to-rudy-speaks-out-in-bizarre-interview/

 

"spoke with the owner of the shop, a man named John Paul Mac Isaac who lives in Wilmington, Delaware. The audio of that nearly hour-long question and answer session is below.

 

"Mac Isaac appeared nervous throughout. Several times, he said he was scared for his life and for the lives of those he loved. He appeared not to have a grasp on the timeline of the laptop arriving at his shop and its disappearance from it. He also said the impeachment of President Trump was a “sham.” Social media postings indicate that Mac Isaac is an avid Trump supporter and voted for him in the 2016 election.

 

"Mac Isaac said he had a medical condition that prevented him from actually seeing who dropped off the laptop...

 

"Throughout the interview, Mac Isaac switched back and forth from saying he reached out to law enforcement after viewing the files in the laptop to saying that it was actually the Federal Bureau of Investigation that contacted him. At one point, Mac Isaac claimed that he was emailing someone from the FBI about the laptop. At another point he claimed a special agent from the Baltimore office had contacted him after he alerted the FBI to the device’s existence. At another point, he said the FBI reached out to him for “help accessing his drive.”

[archer]

MSNBC TV News is reporting that early voting in Texas is up 4849% (not a typo) compared to this date in 2016. (A lot of that is probably a reaction to the long lines on election day during the primaries. Voters there aren't used to waiting 4-8 hours in line just to vote. The state has drastically reduced the number of polling locations compared to earlier elections.)

 

MSNBC TV News also reported a number of battleground states with most of them up 300%+ to 500%+ with the exception of Ohio which showed a 149% increase.

 

They showed early voting skewed with 50% of early voters identifying as Democrat and 32% being Republican (an 18% advantage for Democrats). In contrast, at this time in 2016 there was a 7% advantage for Democrats.

[Lord Liaden]

8 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

That's pretty good, but I don't know if it makes the top 20.  The list of contenders here is strong and deep.  But I'll still go with his whole rant about John McCain because he got caught.  It shows so many levels of utter thoughtlessness.  

 

Posting this example again may seem unfair because it is edited, but it's still all Trump, and IMHO it so perfectly encapsulates both the depth of the man's ignorance, and his thoughtlessness.

 

 

[Ranxerox]

 

 

[Badger]

On 10/15/2020 at 10:23 PM, archer said:

 

I don't mind that part.

 

I did mind that he knowingly sent his surrogates out to lie about Gingrich's record (that Gingrich was one of Reagan's greatest obstacles when in reality he was known as one of Reagan's greatest supporters) while Romney was pretending to be a clean, upright Christian man and asking people to vote for him on the basis of being a clean, upright, Christian man.

 

I suppose it's easier to pull off that pretense if you have a cadre of people who are willing to lie for you. But it doesn't make you any more honest than a person who does his lying for himself.

I ended voting for Romney, because he wasn't Obama, in hindsight.

 

The mistake of voting against instead of for, is why I didn't cast a vote in 2016, and probably here (assuming Trump either/or Biden doesn't prove to marginally more palatable than a vacant lawn chair to me).