2020 US Election

[Squee]

I’ve been thinking… and I probably haven’t been paying attention but is this really the best that both parties can conjure up? Did no one under 80 stand up and say, “outta my way, geezers! It’s time for young American blood!”?

[exitonly]

1 minute ago, Squee said:

I’ve been thinking… and I probably haven’t been paying attention but is this really the best that both parties can conjure up? Did no one under 80 stand up and say, “outta my way, geezers! It’s time for young American blood!”?

everyone who could do that was too much of a coward to risk their reputation. i think they are all betting on keeping quiet now because if things go terribly wrong it wont be their fault for trying. then they can run in 28 and take their shot. assuming we still have elections at that point

[Squee]

Ok, kinda makes sense. Just keep in mind none of you are welcome here if you fuck this up. 

[Crazing]

This is horrific and hilarious. 

[auxien]

37 minutes ago, Squee said:

I’ve been thinking… and I probably haven’t been paying attention but is this really the best that both parties can conjure up? Did no one under 80 stand up and say, “outta my way, geezers! It’s time for young American blood!”?

there's still technically challengers to both, i believe. there was some small time Dem whose whole platform is 'Biden's good but he's too old so he should step aside and you should vote for me' ....Dean Phillips, had to look him up: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democratic-candidates-running-us-president-2024-2023-09-18/ and there's Marianne Williamson but she's a loon. everyone laughed at Phillips because (probably?) he's got no supporters and no money.

there was a number of people trying for the Republican ticket and the base/Trump shit all over most...Kochs and some other big money R influencers tried backing some of them, but it never caught on, Trump's got too strong of a hold on the core poor/idiots on the Right who outnumber the slightly more educated/rich conservatives: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/08/1160113954/2024-republican-presidential-candidates-who-is-running-tracker

i think both are technically the 'presumptive' nominees of their respective parties, so either or both could take their name out and have the party install someone else as the nominee....in case Biden just doesn't wake up one morning or Trump decides he really just wants to golf and work on his spray tan

[cern]

3 hours ago, Crazing said:

This is horrific and hilarious. 

What is? 

[Crazing]

25 minutes ago, cern said:

What is? 

The state of this absurd process of anointing a totally incompetent idiot to run a tyrannical military machine. 

[zazen]

 

[Squee]

All credit goes to PixelatedBoat (can’t embed the post from Bluesky, so I had to steal it)

[may be rude]

kind of a perfect example of the libs destroying themselves. the right are able to run someone like donald trump and act like he's great. the left run someone like biden and publicly lose their shit because he's not great at talking. 

even the people losing their shit over biden's debate performance generally admit that he can do the job and has been doing a great job. they're more worried about if he can do the job of beating trump. as usual, biden knows the situation and knows that people will realize: this is where he needs us. it's not just his job to beat trump. the public will adapt. 

he doesn't have dementia, that was an angry old man. he was looking at trump when he was talking, not the camera. he went into that debate knowing that part of his strategy had to be speaking to trump and letting the public see how biden would authentically address trump. that's what he was focused on executing, and to his credit, this was no-man's land. no one has ever been in a place where they had to publicly debate someone who is such a hazard to the country and who shouldn't even be the party's nominee. this was biden facing down a cult leader, in a public performance, to save the world, as an 81 year old, something that's never happened before and as usual biden understood the situation better than anyone. that was an angry old man, his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. but the old politics are gone. given that this was an angry old man confronting a cult leader who's trying to destabilize the nukes, i think we got a pretty good performance. it was authentic. some answers were poorly formulated but it was after 9pm, he was sick, he's 81, and he's confronting a cult leader in a televised performance. maybe not an obama style performance but this was a different thing, anyway. i'm just being honest, just describing the situation.

meanwhile, trump is over there saying he sympathizes with putin's dream of taking kiev, and saying russia will take ukraine, etc. there is no telling what would happen if trump got elected.

i think the political elite are still catching up to where we are, but the savvy like biden are already adopting my activism tactics. it's more existentialist and authentic in order to try to convey reality through the human reaction of it.

the only one who can make biden step down is biden, and he's unlikely to do it. there may be some shit at the convention but people should be ready to tell people to vote for a bowl of oatmeal in november and that bowl of oatmeal is joe biden. he has a good team around him and he makes good decisions. 

Edited June 30 by may be rude

[decibal cooper]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/bidens-family-keep-fighting-donors-alternatives-rcna159694

Quote

Biden's family urges him to 'keep fighting' as donors look for alternatives

A top campaign official held a tense call with donors Sunday, laying out what would happen to the campaign infrastructure should Biden step aside — stressing he had no plans to do so.

Quote

“There were some tough comments from those on the call. Some were upset that they are just hearing campaign talking points,” the participant said, adding that some donors even asked about having their contributions refunded.

Donors asking for a refund

[Rubin Farr]

[zazen]

I don't like trump but just for the sake of argument:

The people voting for Trump know exactly what they are voting for (more so than in 2016 because now we know what his administration is like). So isn't this just democracy?

In 2016 it was all 'oh everyone got psyopped by the russians on social media and thats why he won' but 8 years later he's just as popular. So maybe it was a long lasting psyopp? But then if thats what your country is, thats what your country is, if psyopps have permanently bent 50% of your population a certain way thats just where you live now. You still have to let people vote.

[EdamAnchorman]

2 hours ago, zazen said:

I don't like trump but just for the sake of argument:

The people voting for Trump know exactly what they are voting for (more so than in 2016 because now we know what his administration is like). So isn't this just democracy?

In 2016 it was all 'oh everyone got psyopped by the russians on social media and thats why he won' but 8 years later he's just as popular. So maybe it was a long lasting psyopp? But then if thats what your country is, thats what your country is, if psyopps have permanently bent 50% of your population a certain way thats just where you live now. You still have to let people vote.

Say you're on a bus and have to vote for the driver of the bus. Half the people on the bus are unfit to drive or have lost their license. Half of the sane half doesn't vote. The morons elect a rampaging lunatic to drive the bus you're on. Are you going to stand by and do nothing?  Get off the bus?  Try to stop them?  Sure, that's "democracy", but the adults in the room have a responsibility to act against the morons. 

Or not, who knows.

[zero]

4 hours ago, zazen said:

So isn't this just democracy?

I think if we went by the textbook definition of democracy, then you could argue that if the majority people in the country are in fact voting for a bat shit insane candidate (trump), then if he gets elected, it's because that's what the majority of voters wanted...but the problem we are dealing with is that one of the candidates (trump) despises democracy and the entirety of the democratic process, and instead prefers the way a fascist or authoritarian system of governance operates. he does this because that's the way he ran his businesses in the private sector, doesn't understand that a leader of a democratic nation cannot follow the lead of authoritarian dickheads like Kim Jong Un or Putin - dudes he has been on record of heaping praise onto.

in a sense, this is an election where the voters are either choosing to keep following the democratic path, or instead turning to a half-assed version of fascism. IMO the majority of voters choosing to vote for trump don't exactly understand the big picture here, and instead are voting for him because they have been brainwashed by MAGA-ism, BS memes posted on social media, or because of laughable Christian nationalist reasons - all of which most adults in the room can see through as lies and falsehoods. the MAGA idiots are all being played, and most sane individuals in this country can see that clear as day.

to make an extreme comparison - if trump wins, decides to round up people with brown skin and put them in camps, is that called democracy? should we just stand by and let something horrific like this happen? I don't think so.

[may be rude]

why did eric trump say the trumps get all the money they need from russia?

why'd flynn lie to the fbi about talking about dropping sanctions with russian ambassador kislyak, before trump took office? flynn knew that he did and knew that it may have been on tape, but he chose to lie to the fbi about it. 

why'd trump bring manafort on to lead his campaign? manafort is a kremlin sphere dude and he proceeded to closely coordinate with russian intelligence officer kilimnik about details of the trump campaign. at the same time, russian intelligence was deploying campaign propaganda for trump online, and carefully executed a hack-and-leak attack that effectively lost the election for hillary.

why'd trump fire comey, after comey wouldn't end the investigation into flynn lying to the fbi?

why'd trump's doj try to prosecute fbi deputy directory andrew mccabe, who also worked on the investigation into trump's ties with russia? this was a rare case of a grand jury rejecting a requested indictment, very indicative of prosecutors seeking an improper prosecution. 

why did trump's doj leadership leak embarrassing text transcripts of fbi agents who worked on the trump/russia investigation?

why'd the trump team hide, even omitting it from security clearance forms, the 2016 trump tower meeting with a representative of the kremlin, about putin's wish to help the trump campaign?

how did papadopolos know russia was going to help trump campaign with dirt on hillary?

why did bill barr keep the mueller report hidden, for a month, instead releasing his own summary of it which misrepresented the report, that found 11 likely counts of obstruction of justice (some of which fully proved by evidence described in the report), and that described concerning connections between trump campaign and russian intelligence, and a lack of cooperation from the trump team with the investigation?

why did the bipartisan senate intel committee release a 5 part report of information gathered from its years-long investigation into connections between trump campaign and russian intelligence, including lots of details describing clear, nefarious, outright collusion, such as manafort's secretive coordination with kilmnik?

why'd trump, as president, sanction the international criminal court?

why'd he try to fire geoffrey berman right before he was about to indict ghislaine maxwell?

why does trump advocate for dissolving nato?

why'd he fuck up covid so bad when he could have just done a good job and won reelection?

why'd he try a coup?

why did he endanger the lives of pence, his family, and his secret service detail, on jan 6?

why did trump wait until more than an hour and a half after ashli babbit was shot to tell jan 6 rioters to disperse?

why'd he actively steal and keep extremely sensitive national defense information after leaving office?

why did his supreme court justices just give him a shocking immunity ruling, severely reducing any checks on abuse of DOJ by a president?

why has he been undermining faith in the justice system of the US, and trying to normalize the idea of political manipulation of DOJ?

 

just a few things off the top of my head, without trying to spend a lot of time on this.

 

now, in the debate, he implicitly announced he wants to talk to putin and that he's willing to let him have ukraine

Edited July 4 by may be rude

[zero]

1 hour ago, may be rude said:

just a few things off the top of my head, without trying to spend a lot of time on this.

lol that's a lot of questions dude... I think what you're getting at is trump is a russian plant, propped up by Putin who seeks to overthrow (or throw a massive fuckin wrench in the gears of) democracy in the west... the thing that is a mystery is if donnie even realizes this. I mean the man can barely string together a coherent sentence, so who tf knows what he thinks is really going on.

[Hi Guys]

1 hour ago, may be rude said:

why did eric trump say the trumps get all the money they need from russia?

why'd flynn lie to the fbi about talking about dropping sanctions with russian ambassador kislyak, before trump took office? flynn knew that he did and knew that it may have been on tape, but he chose to lie to the fbi about it. 

why'd trump bring manafort on to lead his campaign? manafort is a kremlin sphere dude and he proceeded to closely coordinate with russian intelligence officer kilimnik about details of the trump campaign. at the same time, russian intelligence was deploying campaign propaganda for trump online, and carefully executed a hack-and-leak attack that effectively lost the election for hillary.

why'd trump fire comey, after comey wouldn't end the investigation into flynn lying to the fbi?

why'd trump's doj try to prosecute fbi deputy directory andrew mccabe, who also worked on the investigation into trump's ties with russia? this was a rare case of a grand jury rejecting a requested indictment, very indicative of prosecutors seeking an improper prosecution. 

why did trump's doj leadership leak embarrassing text transcripts of fbi agents who worked on the trump/russia investigation?

why'd the trump team hide, even omitting it from security clearance forms, the 2016 trump tower meeting with a representative of the kremlin, about putin's wish to help the trump campaign?

how did papadopolos know russia was going to help trump campaign with dirt on hillary?

why did bill barr keep the mueller report hidden, for a month, instead releasing his own summary of it which misrepresented the report, that found 11 likely counts of obstruction of justice (some of which fully proved by evidence described in the report), and that described concerning connections between trump campaign and russian intelligence, and a lack of cooperation from the trump team with the investigation?

why did the bipartisan senate intel committee release a 5 part report of information gathered from its years-long investigation into connections between trump campaign and russian intelligence, including lots of details describing clear, nefarious, outright collusion, such as manafort's secretive coordination with kilmnik?

why'd trump, as president, sanction the international criminal court?

why'd he try to fire geoffrey berman right before he was about to indict ghislaine maxwell?

why does trump advocate for dissolving nato?

why'd he fuck up covid so bad when he could have just done a good job and won reelection?

why'd he try a coup?

why did he endanger the lives of pence, his family, and his secret service detail, on jan 6?

why did trump wait until more than an hour and a half after ashli babbit was shot to tell jan 6 rioters to disperse?

why'd he actively steal and keep extremely sensitive national defense information after leaving office?

why did his supreme court justices just give him a shocking immunity ruling, severely reducing any checks on abuse of DOJ by a president?

why has he been undermining faith in the justice system of the US, and trying to normalize the idea of political manipulation of DOJ?

 

just a few things off the top of my head, without trying to spend a lot of time on this.

 

now, in the debate, he implicitly announced he wants to talk to putin and that he's willing to let him have ukraine

This is probably the most important post we are all going to read and we should be demanding honest answers to these questions. 

Edited July 4 by Hi Guys

[beerwolf]

Strange and dangerous times we live in

[zazen]

All good points.

But still - he has the votes, and largely I think the people voting for him understand what they're going to get: boasting, chaos, annoying the libs, endless scandals, pushing his luck at the end of his term. He's very open about liking Putin. But there's no way he can run a 3rd time right? Not without changing the constitution which he barely understands. The Supreme court might lean his way when they have a bit of wriggle room but they're not going to just trash the whole nation. Same for congress.

re: the immunity ruling last week: Genuine question from a brit: whats new with that, excactly? It was always taken for granted that Presidents could not be prosecuted, right? But whats new is that they also can't be prosecuted afterwards?

[cern]

39 minutes ago, beerwolf said:

Strange and dangerous times we live in

Imagine these nutfucks getting a grip of the future of AI

[usagi]

10 hours ago, zazen said:

The people voting for Trump know exactly what they are voting for

they don't, really. the majority of them are dumb kneejerk voters who have simply identified with this guy as "their guy". they do not care for policy or issues and have no idea how things will pan out in the long run.

[ignatius]

18 minutes ago, usagi said:

they don't, really. the majority of them are dumb kneejerk voters who have simply identified with this guy as "their guy". they do not care for policy or issues and have no idea how things will pan out in the long run.

there is a section of that group that is hoping to be able to punish the people they don't like/hate/have contempt for. they are in it for the possibility of gaining enough power to go for blood. they want the opportunity to do violence without consequences. the want the powers that be to let them off the chain so to speak so they can indulge in their fantastic blood thirsty violent fantasies.. all the things they do not understand or condone.. the things that confuse them or complicate them.. the people they are asked to tolerate etc.. they want those people off the landscape so they don't have to think about the answers to questions. they want things to be simple. getting rid of the problem makes it simple for them. 

[usagi]

right, but that doesn't mean people comprehend what another Trump govt would or would not do for them personally in regards to income, healthcare, security, etc. people don't know what they're "getting", other than the opportunity to oppress people they don't like.

[ignatius]

2 hours ago, usagi said:

right, but that doesn't mean people comprehend what another Trump govt would or would not do for them personally in regards to income, healthcare, security, etc. people don't know what they're "getting", other than the opportunity to oppress people they don't like.

of course.. they don't get it at all. they don't get the policy changes, the tax cuts.. fundamentally they don't pay attention to what is happening. they don't even know that they're paying for the trump tax cuts for the next 10 years or whatever as taxes on the middle class go up.  i don't have all the answers but i get that there's a big squeeze happening and the gains are evermore going to the top at the expense of everyone else. i know that trump isn't the guy to get in the ring and fight for the "little guy". ya hear people say things like "he's a business man.. he'll put more money in our pockets" and shit and they have no fucking clue what's happening in the world.  or their version of what's happening in the world is a narrative delivered to them that helps put people like trump in power. 

blah.. ugh. it's awful. it's all a big ass con from soup to nuts. i don't know.. i'm pretty negative about it all and i'm bummed about what is very likely to happen come november... even if biden somehow wins there's a lot of inevitable shit that is coming.