2020 US Presidential Election

[GlennS]

Most people in this thread are honest that they don't really like Biden, so they're voting against Trump.

Not that different from 2016. Trump won in 2016 because he was the protest candidate for otherwise mainstream republican voters who had a perverse loathing for Clinton and to a lesser extent a dissatisfaction with the rest of the GOP field in the primaries. And the united GOP wing in Washington was hardly united in 2016. They only flip-flopped and kissed his ring after he won. In fact a great many established Republicans openly warned that Trump would be a disaster for the country--only to turn around and bail him out of impeachment later. Gutless wonders.

 

[GlennS]

Translation: Romney is a mormon and sees an opportunity to roll back Roe v. Wade.

 

[FGG]

Translation: Romney is a mormon and sees an opportunity to roll back Roe v. Wade.

More specifically, President Nelson of the church likely told him to do it. Trump has met many times with the heads of the church, including their prophet. Most recently mid-August.

 

[Christiaan]

Romney says he will proceed with a vote on Trump's Supreme Court pick.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/0...ing-forward-to-fill-the-supreme-court-vacancy

If the nation is center-right, why are Republicans always oppressed?

Sure, let him think that. Senate Republicans represent 15 million fewer Americans than Senate Democrats (which tells a lot about the unfair political advantage for Republicans by playing the Gerrymandering book), let alone a president who lost the popular vote by 3 million. So yeah, the statistics are not really in his favour.

History will not be kind to soulless people with no sense of honour like Romney, Graham & McConnell, who once promised to withhold nominating a candidate for the Supreme Court during an election year. That was in 2016, and now apparently they all suddenly suffer from selective amnesia. How convenient

Links:
https://www.motherjones.com/politic...cans-are-preventing-a-fair-impeachment-trial/
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-el...preme-court-confirmation-ruth-bader-ginsburg/

 

[just1morething]

Ah, I expected your answer @just1morething Please leave the lovely people of the RLD out of our threat. Surely they didn't do any nasty stuff to you when you were in Amsterdam, right?

NOP, the problem will not solved with Trump at the helm. Most definitely not. He doesn't even understand the basics of climate change. Sweet Lord, he really beliefs that ''explosive trees'' (!!!!) are the cause of the California wildfire. The dude is ripe for the psych ward.

Link: https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...ia-science-denial-climate-change-b447113.html

I thought many of the trees died from some kind of beetle? So they would tend to burn easily.

 

[Christiaan]

Sure, let him think that. Senate Republicans represent 15 million fewer Americans than Senate Democrats (which tells a lot about the unfair political advantage for Republicans by playing the Gerrymandering book), let alone a president who lost the popular vote by 3 million. So yeah, the statistics are not really in his favour.

History will not be kind to soulless people with no sense of honour like Romney, Graham & McConnell, who once promised to withhold nominating a candidate for the Supreme Court during an election year. That was in 2016, and now apparently they all suddenly suffer from selective amnesia. How convenient

Links:
https://www.motherjones.com/politic...cans-are-preventing-a-fair-impeachment-trial/
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-el...preme-court-confirmation-ruth-bader-ginsburg/

Edit: nevermind the gerrymandering argument concerning senate representatives.

That's a senseless point & I didn't know what I was thinking. It's only fair game to say that Democrats represent more people in both senate and House plus popular vote presidential candidate, thus more political legitimacy Democrats vs. Romney's point of center-right balance SCOTUS representation

 

[Christiaan]

I thought many of the trees died from some kind of beetle? So they would tend to burn easily.

Global warming sets the stage for a more dry environment, making trees more susceptible to wildfires. True, beetle killed trees are more prone to fires that healthy trees, which have a thicker bark and thus does not burn easily, but it's still not strong enough as a protection against the effects of climate change.

Link: https://www.nationalforests.org/our...ine/how-trees-survive-and-thrive-after-a-fire

 

[Born To Slay]

Edit: nevermind the gerrymandering argument concerning senate representatives.

That's a senseless point & I didn't know what I was thinking. It's only fair game to say that Democrats represent more people in both senate and House plus popular vote presidential candidate, thus more political legitimacy Democrats vs. Romney's point of center-right balance SCOTUS representation

This is why we need to make DC and Puerto Rico states. That'd be 4 new Democratic senators sent to Washington.

 

[Luman]

Now that the ultra-liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finally kicked the bucket, after serving for 27 years. it's time to put a nice, conservative person in, to balance things out. I am hoping that Amy Coney Barrett is chosen and approved.

 

[Born To Slay]

Now that the ultra-liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finally kicked the bucket, after serving for 27 years. it's time to put a nice, conservative person in, to balance things out. I am hoping that Amy Coney Barrett is chosen and approved.

Balance things out? The court is gonna have a 6-3 conservative bias. How is that balanced? If anything, it was balanced before when we had 4 liberals, 5 conservatives but one was a swing vote.

 

[Born To Slay]

Now that the ultra-liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finally kicked the bucket, after serving for 27 years. it's time to put a nice, conservative person in, to balance things out. I am hoping that Amy Coney Barrett is chosen and approved.

Also, rereading this now, "finally kicked the bucket"?! And you think the Democrats are hateful? I don't think anyone in this thread has wished death on the President, or any other Republicans for that matter. I'm stunned to be honest. That's a really terrible thing to say.

 

[Lilah]

Now that the ultra-liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg finally kicked the bucket, after serving for 27 years. it's time to put a nice, conservative person in, to balance things out. I am hoping that Amy Coney Barrett is chosen and approved.

Ginsburg should have retired when Obama was President as she was already in her 80s, and could have spent her last years at the beach. Not many expected Trump to win. She probably expected to retire/pass away under Hillary.

 

[Luman]

Balance things out? The court is gonna have a 6-3 conservative bias. How is that balanced? If anything, it was balanced before when we had 4 liberals, 5 conservatives but one was a swing vote.

I meant, as compared to Ginsburg's reign for 27 years.

She's a nice woman, too bad she's not a politician in the sense of being able to run for VP with Trump, although Pence is OK. I used to quake at these types of conservatives, but lately, with the onslaught of the far-left, Social Justice Warrior outright lunatics that are out there, rioting and creating mayhem, I'd prefer bible beating, holy roller Pentecostal snake handlers, in the White House, Supreme Court, Senate, Congress, and governors' seats. They, at least, do not support, or believe in allowing, crime and destruction by some of the worst elements in our country.

 

[Juan]

Trump memo on Comey firing was 'tinfoil helmet material', Mueller prosecutor says

• Andrew Weissmann will publish memoir next week
• 'You could almost feel the spittle coming off the paper,' he writes

Donald Trump's original draft statement justifying his firing of the former FBI director James Comey was "tinfoil helmet material", according to a top prosecutor who worked for the special counsel Robert Mueller, and who in a new book calls the draft "excruciatingly juvenile, disorganized and brimming with spite, incoherent and narcissistic".

"You could almost feel the spittle coming off the paper," Andrew Weissmann writes in Where Law Ends, his memoir to be published on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Comey was fired on 9 May 2017, leading to the appointment eight days later of Mueller, a former FBI director, as special counsel investigating Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.

Mueller's report was published in April 2019. Though he did not establish a criminal conspiracy, he did lay out extensive contacts between Trump and Russia and 11 instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president or his campaign.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...-fbi-director-andrew-weissmann-robert-mueller

 

[Juan]

"One of the greatest failures of basic governance"
After 200,000 coronavirus deaths, the US faces another rude awakening
The US death toll has doubled less than four months after the 100,000 landmark – and with autumn nearing, there is little chance of containing the contagion, experts say

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/22/us-coronavirus-deaths-trump-autumn

 

[all to gain]

This economist agrees with you that we are doomed either way. He says the pandemic is speeding up what has been the economic and political decline in the US for the last 30 years.

Warning to some, he has a bit of a "Marxist" perspective but I think he makes some good points overall (but I don't agree with everything he says) including that people run to the far left and far right when things get bad and they inevitably do. He just thinks hard left is preferable to hard right.

I brought myself to watch this. I had to switch it off about two-thirds of the way through. He's more than a bit of a Marxist LOL So boring to listen to when someone is so bound to their narrative.

Hard left and hard right are as bad as one another, and it seems that more and more people in the US are fitting into these two groups. These opposing forces have no wish to find a common ground.

I really don't see how the US is going to bring itself together after the divisiveness of the current administration, especially if Trump gets in for another 4 years, and then if another of his ilk gets into power after him things will most certainly come to a head.

The US has itself to blame, no one else. Not Russia, not China, just itself. The pandemic has certainly quickened the pace of this decline though. Would have been more interesting to see where things stand now if the coronavirus hadn't happened. Trump's getting a lot of shit for his handling of it, but he didn't bring about this situation, it was brought to him.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Once 5 people were on a plane...
1. Kanye West,
2. Bill Gates,
3. Donald Trump,
4. Joe Biden,
5. and a school girl

Suddenly the plane developed a technical snag and only 4 parachutes were available.

Kanye says, "I am world's greatest talent." He takes a parachute and jumps.

Gates says, "I have done so much philanthropy." He takes a parachute and jumps.

Trump tweets, "I am the leader of the world." He grabs a parachute, and jumps.

Biden says to the school girl, "You are the future of this planet. Go on, take the last parachute."

The school girl smiles and replies, "Joe, we have two parachutes. Trump took my school bag and jumped."

 

[all to gain]

Once 5 people were on a plane...
1. Kanye West,
2. Bill Gates,
3. Donald Trump,
4. Joe Biden,
5. and a school girl

Suddenly the plane developed a technical snag and only 4 parachutes were available.

Kanye says, "I am world's greatest talent." He takes a parachute and jumps.

Gates says, "I have done so much philanthropy." He takes a parachute and jumps.

Trump tweets, "I am the leader of the world." He grabs a parachute, and jumps.

Biden says to the school girl, "You are the future of this planet. Go on, take the last parachute."

The school girl smiles and replies, "Joe, we have two parachutes. Trump took my school bag and jumped."

Of course, what the pilot didn't tell them was that it was an April Fool's joke and there was nothing wrong with the plane. They all jumped. Unfortunately none of the parachutes worked and they all died. Except Trump, who landed in the sea and used the school bag as a float.

 

[aot]

Over 200,000 American deaths and somehow Trump is doing a "great job"?

 

[Zugzug]

Of course, what the pilot didn't tell them was that it was an April Fool's joke and there was nothing wrong with the plane. They all jumped. Unfortunately none of the parachutes worked and they all died. Except Trump, who landed in the sea and used the school bag as a float.

The pilot was Elon Musk. And of course there was nothing wrong with the plane since Elon engineered it.

 

[Christiaan]

The pilot was Elon Musk. And of course there was nothing wrong with the plane since Elon engineered it.

Elon Musk behind the control wheel:

 

[FGG]

I brought myself to watch this. I had to switch it off about two-thirds of the way through. He's more than a bit of a Marxist LOL So boring to listen to when someone is so bound to their narrative.

Hard left and hard right are as bad as one another, and it seems that more and more people in the US are fitting into these two groups. These opposing forces have no wish to find a common ground.

I really don't see how the US is going to bring itself together after the divisiveness of the current administration, especially if Trump gets in for another 4 years, and then if another of his ilk gets into power after him things will most certainly come to a head.

The US has itself to blame, no one else. Not Russia, not China, just itself. The pandemic has certainly quickened the pace of this decline though. Would have been more interesting to see where things stand now if the coronavirus hadn't happened. Trump's getting a lot of shit for his handling of it, but he didn't bring about this situation, it was brought to him.

Last night I watched a documentary, "The Social Dilemma," on Netflix (I recommend it) and I realize that the stress of the current environment may not even be the primary force wedging people further and further into polarization (which was the premise of that video). In an effort to keep us addicted to social media, the platforms are wedging people apart. They make a compelling case for it.

And as for Trump, even if he obviously didn't cause Coronavirus, he has a responsibility to not make the situation worse than it needed to be.

 

[Zugzug]

In an effort to keep us addicted to social media, the platforms are wedging people apart. They make a compelling case for it.

As much as I hate Trump and think he has to go, I completely agree that technology (and recommendation algorithms!) is so much to blame for the divisiveness.

Conservatives and liberals don't even see the same information. It clicked for me one day when I was on YouTube casually watching some videos. If you watch a Sam Harris video on meditation, the next recommendation is Dave Rubin interviewing Harris. The next video is Rubin interviewing Stefan Molyneux. Next thing you know, you are watching Alex Jones talk about Sandy Hook being a conspiracy. It's unbelievable, on YouTube, how quickly one can go from a casual video to something full-on controversial.

It's incredible to me that we just "came out with" smartphones, instant internet, etc. and no one even thought about the serious detriment this has on our brains. We see in medicine how careful everyone is about testing drugs for safety. Yet something that destroys our brain chemistry was promoted like it was nothing. I sometimes find that I get stuck in technological habits that I struggle to cycle out of. Same video recommendations, TV recommendations, music recommendations (back when I could listen). The technology is casually designed to produce echo chambers.

Anyways, Trump is an opportunist. He is just feasting on the fact that we are all robots, having our brains manipulated every day.

 

[all to gain]

Last night I watched a documentary, "The Social Dilemma," on Netflix (I recommend it) and I realize that the stress of the current environment may not even be the primary force wedging people further and further into polarization (which was the premise of that video). In an effort to keep us addicted to social media, the platforms are wedging people apart. They make a compelling case for it.

And as for Trump, even if he obviously didn't cause Coronavirus, he has a responsibility to not make the situation worse than it needed to be.

I don't do social media. Probably why I'm the most level headed person in this thread LOL.

I wasn't saying he shouldn't be criticized for his handling of the coronavirus. I doubt Clinton would have done much better though, but that's an unknown. Whatever, it seems few of the larger countries have done a sterling job. Makes me wonder how they would cope with a full on war.

 

[all to gain]

The pilot was Elon Musk. And of course there was nothing wrong with the plane since Elon engineered it.

But he still landed safely LOL.

 

[FGG]

I don't do social media. Probably why I'm the most level headed person in this thread LOL.

I wasn't saying he shouldn't be criticized for his handling of the coronavirus. I doubt Clinton would have done much better though, but that's an unknown. Whatever, it seems few of the larger countries have done a sterling job. Makes me wonder how they would cope with a full on war.

I deleted Facebook years ago and never looked back. I can't even imagine what it would be like now.

This is the only social media I participate in much at all (if Tinnitus Talk counts) but I do get texted various things friends find on Twitter sometimes.

 

[Born To Slay]

I meant, as compared to Ginsburg's reign for 27 years.

She's a nice woman, too bad she's not a politician in the sense of being able to run for VP with Trump, although Pence is OK. I used to quake at these types of conservatives, but lately, with the onslaught of the far-left, Social Justice Warrior outright lunatics that are out there, rioting and creating mayhem, I'd prefer bible beating, holy roller Pentecostal snake handlers, in the White House, Supreme Court, Senate, Congress, and governors' seats. They, at least, do not support, or believe in allowing, crime and destruction by some of the worst elements in our country.

The democrats don't support them either. Top Democrats have already condemned the violence. What's the death count on the riots again? Is it anywhere near that of COVID-19? That virus that those folks u wanna see in power downplayed to save the stock market?

 

[FGG]

As much as I hate Trump and think he has to go, I completely agree that technology (and recommendation algorithms!) is so much to blame for the divisiveness.

Conservatives and liberals don't even see the same information. It clicked for me one day when I was on YouTube casually watching some videos. If you watch a Sam Harris video on meditation, the next recommendation is Dave Rubin interviewing Harris. The next video is Rubin interviewing Stefan Molyneux. Next thing you know, you are watching Alex Jones talk about Sandy Hook being a conspiracy. It's unbelievable, on YouTube, how quickly one can go from a casual video to something full-on controversial.

It's incredible to me that we just "came out with" smartphones, instant internet, etc. and no one even thought about the serious detriment this has on our brains. We see in medicine how careful everyone is about testing drugs for safety. Yet something that destroys our brain chemistry was promoted like it was nothing. I sometimes find that I get stuck in technological habits that I struggle to cycle out of. Same video recommendations, TV recommendations, music recommendations (back when I could listen). The technology is casually designed to produce echo chambers.

Anyways, Trump is an opportunist. He is just feasting on the fact that we are all robots, having our brains manipulated every day.

YouTube is a good thing to bring up in this context because a lot of people do not understand how they are a big contributor to the social media problem. A lot of people who say they don't participate in social media watch a lot of YouTube and the documentary goes into how you watch one video, then another and soon you are into flat Earth theories (as happened to one NBA player, who commented in the documentary that it happened to him).

Apparently, YouTube bloggers and algorithm AI recommendations was one of the primary reasons "pizzagate" happened.

 

[Lilah]

The Left keeps blaming Trump for COVID-19 deaths; it is China's and WHO's fault. What about the COVID-19 deaths in Europe (Italy, Spain, UK)... are their leaders being blamed the way Trump is? NO. The blame on Trump is political. 41K people died in the UK, 36K people died in Italy; the figures are much larger percentage wise when compared with their populations. Did these countries not get the memo that there is a deadly virus? Also, the Left keeps changing the goal posts; now they want a complete shutdown until there is a vaccine. Initially, they called for a shutdown until there was a downward tread.

 

[all to gain]

YouTube is a good thing to bring up in this context because a lot of people do not understand how they are a big contributor to the social media problem. A lot of people who say they don't participate in social media watch a lot of YouTube and the documentary goes into how you watch one video, then another and soon you are into flat Earth theories (as happened to one NBA player, who commented in the documentary that it happened to him).

Apparently, YouTube bloggers and algorithm AI recommendations was one of the primary reasons "pizzagate" happened.

Actually I forgot about YouTube. If you include that then I do use social media a little bit. Luckily I'm not one easily swayed by what I hear on things like documentaries or podcasts etc and anyway generally just use it for cartoons, a bit of music, listening to a bit of Russian and lately 2020 presidential election stuff.