Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Ternaugh]

31 minutes ago, aylwin13 said:

 

Those are all their good points. What is it you don't like about the Raiders, really?

They wet their nests.

[DShomshak]

59 minutes ago, Iuz the Evil said:

Personality Disorders are not contagious

Well, you can get them from your parents. Trump may have: All that I've heard about his father is... appalling.

 

Not that this excuses Donald. Some of my friends had horrible parents, and overcame it.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Lord Liaden]

This strikes me as eminently practical advice.

 

 

 

[Old Man]

4 hours ago, death tribble said:

At the risk of being banned from this thread, and yes I have been drinking, what is wrong with your President and is it contagious ?

Yes, and yes. 

[Lord Liaden]

Among the worst features of Trumpism is that it does indeed appear to be contagious. Trump's success at using nationalist populist rhetoric to foster factionalism in his country, demonize foreigners, convince common Americans that catering to the elite actually benefits them, wage a propaganda war against facts and knowledge, all to advance his personal position, has inspired similar dilettante demagogues elsewhere in the world. E.g. Boris Johnson in the United Kingdom; Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil; Scott Morrison from Australia.

[BoloOfEarth]

14 hours ago, TrickstaPriest said:

 

 

Honestly, did you expect anything different from #PutinsBuddy?

[Lord Liaden]

Bolo, it might be prudent to rephrase your expression before Dan Simon drops by.

[BoloOfEarth]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Bolo, it might be prudent to rephrase your expression before Dan Simon drops by.

 

You're right (and post revised).  I'm just getting so dang frustrated with that twit. 

[csyphrett]

43 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

You're right (and post revised).  I'm just getting so dang frustrated with that twit. 

Only 30 days to go. Hold on.

\CES

[Tom]

I expect it will take longer than 30 days -- I somehow doubt Trump's twitter feed will go dark and nobody will be willing to listen to him, even following Biden's inauguration.

 

Hope may be a wonderful thing, but I don't generally have very much of it.

[BoloOfEarth]

Yeah, only 30 days to go, but I can't help but worry what harm he can do to America in that time (and what harm his cult followers can do afterward - as Tom points out, it's not like Trump will shut up after inauguration day).  He's reportedly entertaining Flynn's suggestion about imposing martial law, and considering appointing Sidney "Kraken" Powell as special counsel to investigate voter fraud.  I'm pretty sure the military leadership wouldn't go along with the martial law idea, but then again, in 2016 I was *positive* people wouldn't be so crazy as to elect Trump, so I can't be sure there aren't some military people who would follow such an order if given. 

[unclevlad]

I'm not worried about the senior military leaders backing any call for martial law.  Remember, many of the very senior brass advocated against Trump over the summer and fall.  To be sure, there's still quite a few who don't think Biden's up for it, but declaring martial law, presumably on the completely discredited election fraud issue, is a step I think very few of those who don't like Biden could stomach.

[Hermit]

IMO - I think Mitch is done with Trump. Mitch got the judges he wanted.. he's getting his corporate pals shielding . And the next four years will all be blamed on the Democrats and Biden despite the fact they'll be in the whole the GOP and Trump created. Mitch isn't going to let Trump try a military coup. He's got too much riding on it.

[Lord Liaden]

4 hours ago, Tom said:

I expect it will take longer than 30 days -- I somehow doubt Trump's twitter feed will go dark and nobody will be willing to listen to him, even following Biden's inauguration.

 

Hope may be a wonderful thing, but I don't generally have very much of it.

 

On that front at least, Twitter has confirmed their account for the POTUS transfers to Joe Biden after the inauguration. I'm pretty confident any other provocative tweeting Trump attempts will get him banned once he no longer has the shield of that office. Trump will have to find alternative platforms to get his message across, which I'm sure he will; but at least we can anticipate an end to tweetstorms.

 

 A lot will depend on how Trump reacts to the termination of his presidency. If he goes off to sulk on his golf course while his lawyers fight the prosecutions heading his way, his followers will probably dissipate. If he actively continues riling them up they could become a significant source of national unrest. Frankly I could see it going either way. Trump loves attention, clearly savors the power and status of POTUS, and is epically petty and vindictive. OTOH he's also lazy and undisciplined, and all the grand strategies he's talking about would require him to actually work at them.

[tkdguy]

30 days can't come soon enough.

[pinecone]

9 hours ago, Tom said:

I expect it will take longer than 30 days -- I somehow doubt Trump's twitter feed will go dark and nobody will be willing to listen to him, even following Biden's inauguration.

 

Hope may be a wonderful thing, but I don't generally have very much of it.

I dated hope in high school, but she dumped me.

[unclevlad]

Interesting story in NYT today.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/media/smartmatic-lawsuit-fox-news-newsmax-oan.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20201221&instance_id=25259&nl=the-morning&regi_id=101745266&segment_id=47474&te=1&user_id=618f95a4931087ea799b0e9f4a9d3344

 

TL;DR -- Smartmatic and Dominion look to have a very good case for libel, and the sheer frequency and reach of the reports may make for some very, very large judgments.  Smartmatic would seem to have an exceptionally good case, because they weren't even involved in the contested states.  And the owner has claims for damages:  he's getting calls from countries where he *does* do business, so his reputation and ability to do business has been damaged.

 

This will take a while to play out, of course, but I shall cheer for them from the sidelines.

 

[Lord Liaden]

If media spread provable blatant lies, they should be held to account, and have to pay massive compensation or serve jail time. If they won't choose to be ethical they need to be forced. And sadly these days, the only people who can and will hold big corporations to account are other big corporations.

[Cygnia]

Increasingly desperate, Trump turns to fringe figures, radical ideas

[tkdguy]

Barr sees no need to appoint special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden

 

Of course, he has nothing to lose at this point, since he leaves the office on Wednesday.

[Lord Liaden]

It really is striking how fast the rats are jumping ship, isn't it?

[Old Man]

1 minute ago, Lord Liaden said:

It really is striking how fast the rats are jumping ship, isn't it?

 

I'd rather they have jumped ship years ago, but I'll take it.

[Pariah]

This may be Barr's way of saying, "We've been told to investigate this guy for two years and we've never found anything. I'm out."

[Starlord]

Pro-Trump network Newsmax airs 2-minute video admitting it has 'no evidence' of outlandish fraud claims against 2 voting-machine companies

[unclevlad]

37 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Pro-Trump network Newsmax airs 2-minute video admitting it has 'no evidence' of outlandish fraud claims against 2 voting-machine companies

 

Pure, unadulterated attempts at CYA.  Given the extended period of time they pushed these claims...what, 5 solid weeks...I think this means squat in terms of mitigating their libel.