2020 US Presidential Election

Isn't the PSOE-Podemos coalition trying to emulate the Nordic model in Spain? I thought I read it somewhere. It should certainly entail a more generous unemployment payment for keeping people out of poverty (80/90% retainment of former salary).
Spain has now nearly 4 million people unemployed (around 17% unemployment rate, not counting people who are not working but receiving monthly checks due to the pandemic... counting them it is close to 5 million people unemployed), so I don't think the country can afford to pay 80% of the previous salary as unemployment. Actually the unemployment payments are capped and, for a person without kids, the net monthly unemployment payment is around 1.000 euros.

In Madrid for instance it is just impossible to live on 1.000 euros per month. So basically people who earned 1.500 euros per month when they were employed are worse off, but those who earned better salaries are totally screwed up if they lose their jobs.

Maybe Podemos wants to raise the unemployment benefits making the average salary or the minimum wage rise. At any rate, the monthly unemployment payment would probably be capped like it is now... the country would go bankrupt otherwise.
 
Maybe a bit off topic, but doesn't anyone else think it's weird that Disney hasn't lawyered up hard against the various alt right fools using The Punisher logo?

Seriously, it's been years and nothing has been done. Especially frustrating since anyone who's read a (good) Punisher comic in their life would know that Frank Castle would be absolutely disgusted by what happened in the Capitol, the jackass with the zipties wearing a Punisher shirt specifically.
 
Best argument I've read so far on waiting on the impeachment trial (which I agree with).

Trump is deflating. Delay his impeachment trial to help Biden and raise conviction odds.

"... Trump's political power has been hollowing out since the morning after Election Day. Losing made this inevitable. No politician is more powerful out of office than in. But the process dramatically accelerated after two Georgia senators lost their seats, and their party's majority, in runoff elections Jan. 5. The attack on the Capitol the next day turned Trump from failed politician to political pariah...

... It's also likely that once the events of Jan. 6 have been fully investigated, Trump will look even worse than he does today. It's becoming increasingly clear that the president was initially very pleased about the attack and refused to take aggressive action to stop it...

... McConnell knows his caucus and he knows his politics. If he decides that the balance of political opportunity favors convicting Trump, then the 17 Republican votes necessary will be there to do it — and probably quite a few more — because much of his caucus will have reached the same conclusion.

So if you want to convict Trump, which paves the way for voting to ban him from holding public office, the best way to get to the necessary 67 votes is let the dust settle. Once Trump is no longer protected by the presidency, he's going to look a lot less formidable than he does today and the Republican political calculus will be different.
 
Best argument I've read so far on waiting on the impeachment trial (which I agree with).

Trump is deflating. Delay his impeachment trial to help Biden and raise conviction odds.

"... Trump's political power has been hollowing out since the morning after Election Day. Losing made this inevitable. No politician is more powerful out of office than in. But the process dramatically accelerated after two Georgia senators lost their seats, and their party's majority, in runoff elections Jan. 5. The attack on the Capitol the next day turned Trump from failed politician to political pariah...

... It's also likely that once the events of Jan. 6 have been fully investigated, Trump will look even worse than he does today. It's becoming increasingly clear that the president was initially very pleased about the attack and refused to take aggressive action to stop it...

... McConnell knows his caucus and he knows his politics. If he decides that the balance of political opportunity favors convicting Trump, then the 17 Republican votes necessary will be there to do it — and probably quite a few more — because much of his caucus will have reached the same conclusion.

So if you want to convict Trump, which paves the way for voting to ban him from holding public office, the best way to get to the necessary 67 votes is let the dust settle. Once Trump is no longer protected by the presidency, he's going to look a lot less formidable than he does today and the Republican political calculus will be different.
You guys are off your rocker and full of hatred. Did you watch Rand Paul's video and the Georgia election hearings?
 
You guys are off your rocker and full of hatred. Did you watch Rand Paul's video and the Georgia election hearings?
Question for you: why do you suppose Trump lost 64 election related lower court lawsuits (not counting SCOTUS here, even with judges he appointed)?

Why do you think Barr recently said that Giuliani fed Trump lies about election fraud when there wasn't any?

Why did Mitch McConnell say today that Trump lied and he's open to impeachment?

Why did all the Joint Chiefs of the armed forces sign a letter declaring Biden the next president?

Do you think all of these people are "off their rocker" too? Or "deep state"? And only people like Giuliani (who was caught deceptively editing video evidence no less!) are honest?

You seem like a nice guy and I do like you but you were conned big time and I really hope you snap out of it one day.
 
Question for you: why do you suppose Trump lost 64 election related lower court lawsuits (not counting SCOTUS here, even with judges he appointed)?

Why do you think Barr recently said that Giuliani fed Trump lies about election fraud when there wasn't any?

Why did Mitch McConnell say today that Trump lied and he's open to impeachment?

Why did all the Joint Chiefs of the armed forces sign a letter declaring Biden the next president?

Do you think all of these people are "off their rocker" too? Or "deep state"? And only people like Giuliani (who was caught deceptively editing video evidence no less!) are honest?

You seem like a nice guy and I do like you but you were conned big time and I really hope you snap out of it one day.
You never answered my previous post. It all comes back to the testimonies at the election hearings. They looked like real and decent people to me. I don't know if there was payoffs or if lives were threatened?
 
You never answered my previous post. It all comes back to the testimonies at the election hearings. They looked like real and decent people to me. I don't know if there was payoffs or if lives were threatened?
I did answer it. I watched half an hour (that reminds me, I need to get the rest), remember? I saw people give testimony based on videos Giuliani deceptively edited. How is that evidence?

You can see the original, unedited videos on the state of Georgia election website for comparison.

Are you saying Barr is lying when he said Giuliani lied about there being election fraud? If so, why?

Why does McConnell say Trump lied?

Are they dumb in your opinion? Lying? Or "deep state"?
 
You guys are off your rocker and full of hatred. Did you watch Rand Paul's video and the Georgia election hearings?
I watched it.

It confirmed what I have always thought about this guy - a sycophant and morally corrupt individual. The fat dude talking with him seemed like a nice guy who had a bit too much Valium and wonder bread to eat.

Rand Paul is a disgrace to any real Libertarian and is on par with Lyndsey Gram for being totally shameless and disgraceful in terms of a dereliction of duty and what it is to be an honest person.

Any consolation for White people is they both have blue eyes and could be poster children for an Arian right wing alternative reality.
 
I did answer it. I watched half an hour (that reminds me, I need to get the rest), remember? I saw people give testimony based on videos Giuliani deceptively edited. How is that evidence?
There was statistical evidence of fraud by unbiased people with expertise in their fields independent of Giuliani. Watch those and get back to me. You should be happy Biden-Harris won according to the States certified results.
 
Any consolation for White people is they both have blue eyes and could be poster children for an Arian right wing alternative reality.
I thought you were white @Daniel Lion? Don't you look like Tom Brady? I never paid attention to Trump's or Rand's eye color tbh. I looked them up and found out they do both have blue eyes.
 
Joe Biden Lifted His Health Care Plan From Insurance Industry Lobbyists

We need a real progressive agenda. Not this neoliberal crap.

Anyway, I've been away for a while. Tinnitus and hyperacusis have been off the charts. Hope you all are doing better.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Jacobin doesn't like Biden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)

"Jacobin is an American socialist quarterly magazine based in New York."

Given the starting point of Trumpism I'd say the hard-left should thank their lucky stars to have anyone even slightly left of center in charge.
 
Tinnitus and hyperacusis have been off the charts. Hope you all are doing better.
I'm sorry to hear that. Did you ever recover from the OAE? Many months ago, I did an experiment where I played low level music for an hour to see what it would do. It made my hyperacusis a million times worse; my LDL probably dropped from 50 dB to 10 dB after that. It's amazing how sensitive our ears are, once damaged already.
 
I thought you were white @Daniel Lion? Don't you look like Tom Brady? I never paid attention to Trump's or Rand's eye color tbh.
I look more like Bruce Willis, but a bit darker, seriously. I want to post my photo but some members on this forum have made me think that may not be such a good idea, shame.

The confederate flags and team Auschwitz shirts don't leave me feeling part of the team. Why would Trump doubt Obama being American? Skin color and eye color means a lot to some Americans, thus my quasi Joke.
 
There was statistical evidence of fraud by unbiased people with expertise in their fields independent of Giuliani.
Sigh. Do you really think if this was true, Mitch McConnell would be insisting on giving the election to Biden? And Bill Barr?

There reaches a point where one says if these smart and highly interested people insist something that goes against their interest is true, isn't there a good chance it is? Do you think all of those Republican appointed judges wanted Joe Biden to win? That Bill Barr wanted Biden to win?

How can people believe the steal is real? It's so whacky.

Also, I'm not a statistician, but I am a mathematician. To say something is "statistically significant" is not hard at all. Namely, you design the experiment or cherry pick a sample or make a misleading claim and adjust the alpha level to make it easy for a claim to be statistically significant.

Trust me, if it was actually significant enough to even dream of overturning the election, all of the people I mentioned would be fighting hard.
 
How about Chris Christie? Even after he got out of the ER from COVID-19 he was still running defense for Trump. He only completely threw his friend under the bus after January 6th.

There seems to be a lagging indicator between Trump's inner-circle and overall support among the public, and that's been true ever since Trump started shedding staff and cronies who then went on to write tell-all books and try to collectively warn the public about who Trump really is.

Cult-like thinking is really unhealthy. People change religions rarely for a reason. There is a huge cost associated from doing so, mental, social, etc... People should really reevaluate the way they go about pledging support to politicians and avoid investing so much of themselves into it or wrapping their identity around it. Don't elevate them to the level of savior. They're not as rare and precious as you think.
 
I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Jacobin doesn't like Biden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_(magazine)

"Jacobin is an American socialist quarterly magazine based in New York."

Given the starting point of Trumpism I'd say the hard-left should thank their lucky stars to have anyone even slightly left of center in charge.
You got me. I'm a socialist. The cat's out of the bag.

The hard-left realizes that it doesn't matter if Trump or Biden is in charge. Is Biden better than Trump? Yes. But, come on. That shouldn't be hard. I'm not going to discern between Republican and Republican Lite when we have much deeper problems on an economic, social, and racial scale.

Platitudes by the duopoly aren't going to fix a damn thing. I keep seeing how honor and decency are being restored to the White House. Honor and decency don't put food on people's tables or help pay the rent. We're not starting to heal anything. If we really want to begin healing, we need to establish that the two major parties work together to maintain power and appease the ruling class.

Remember, it was eight years of Obama that led to Trump. Now, we're restarting the cycle yet again thinking... this time it will be different. But it never is.

Biden was supposed to be the beacon of hope for progressives. Is he a progressive? Absolutely not, but many speculated that his agenda would be closest to progressive of any US president. After platforming on a public option (not even Medicare for All), that has been rescinded. Now, we get some form of the ACA plus subsidies to private insurers. Very progressive, indeed.

Our problems run deep.
 
I'm sorry to hear that. Did you ever recover from the OAE? Many months ago, I did an experiment where I played low level music for an hour to see what it would do. It made my hyperacusis a million times worse; my LDL probably dropped from 50 dB to 10 dB after that. It's amazing how sensitive our ears are, once damaged already.
Sorry to hear that. These conditions are so brutal and know no end. You become bitter after a certain point. This life is not exactly what I would deem fair.

For some reason, my issues have worsened even further. I've been homebound and avoiding noise to a strong degree. It's a sick joke. I really hope treatments are efficacious and available soon. It's about time our community gets some much-needed relief.
 
One of my neighbors still has a Trump 2020 sticker in her yard. Next to it is a sign that says "make liberals cry again" and "stop the steal" propaganda. The disinformation campaign isn't going away anytime soon. Trump could have resigned with dignity if not making a major ass out of himself post election day.
The fraud is called "disinformation" and Big Tech censors it.

That's all one needs to know.

In saying that, I apologize for any perceived insults. I find it difficult to participate in this thread. People think and act way too differently.

One of my opinions and perspectives garnered some unexpected reactions but I am not changing my opinion. If it's so provocative that you need to attack or report me, I will abstain from sharing my perspective (suggestion of border/dividing country with border).

I didn't mean for it to be insulting but proposing a solution everyone could agree on.

Thanks to the posters who stayed civil with me and I think politics and our current environment is very volatile and erratic right now. It's even more easier to get worked up, more than ever plus the tinnitus/hyperacusis condition just exacerbates everything.

Have a good day, all, or try.
 
You got me. I'm a socialist. The cat's out of the bag.

The hard-left realizes that it doesn't matter if Trump or Biden is in charge. Is Biden better than Trump? Yes. But, come on. That shouldn't be hard. I'm not going to discern between Republican and Republican Lite when we have much deeper problems on an economic, social, and racial scale.

Platitudes by the duopoly aren't going to fix a damn thing. I keep seeing how honor and decency are being restored to the White House. Honor and decency don't put food on people's tables or help pay the rent. We're not starting to heal anything. If we really want to begin healing, we need to establish that the two major parties work together to maintain power and appease the ruling class.

Remember, it was eight years of Obama that led to Trump. Now, we're restarting the cycle yet again thinking... this time it will be different. But it never is.

Biden was supposed to be the beacon of hope for progressives. Is he a progressive? Absolutely not, but many speculated that his agenda would be closest to progressive of any US president. After platforming on a public option (not even Medicare for All), that has been rescinded. Now, we get some form of the ACA plus subsidies to private insurers. Very progressive, indeed.

Our problems run deep.
Joe Biden never gave up on the public option. We haven't even had the Healthcare fight yet. First we have to fight over COVID-19 relief and apparently immigration. But I'm sure Healthcare will come up at some point.
 
@just1morething, fine fine you talked me into continuing with the rest :).

I'm on Dana Smith's testimony now. It's really immaterial because the Trump campaign got their signature audit and it passed. So her cherry picking her daughter's signature as looking different isn't really proof of anything in light of the fact that the later audit showed 99.9% accuracy -- maybe her daughter was the .1%, but that's not enough to change an election. I actually thought this was, by far, the weakest testimony in the whole thing (so far anyway).

Onto Susie's testimony (my hearing didn't catch her last name): She was shocked at 100 ballots of people who voted for Biden all voted identically down ballot and thought the ballots looked too clean? Nevermind, this is the weakest one. She is quoting bible versus and complaining about her boss, too. And she's actually said "Trump has to win or we become Venezuela!!" (paraphrased). Hmm... I wonder if she's super objective. Lol.

What is even this kangaroo court ("thank you! You're so brave!" by the presiders on this, meanwhile none of the actual election supervisors were invited to this)?

Still haven't gotten to the statistics that were promised yet but maybe that's in the last 45 minutes (I'm going to try to do that last bit as one chuck if I can but again, it's very tiring straining my hearing).

It's *clear* Giuliani entirely put this together with the help of Georgia state senators who were interested in finding "fraud" at all cost so that Trump would win. Because otherwise, you wouldn't a) have doctored the video footage in the beginning (huge red flag) and b) would have invited the people who have repeatedly shown evidence there was no fraud and have offered (but were turned down) to show the Giuliani and Trump campaign.

Onto the Wifi poll pad guy. This has been debunked a number of times:

Fact Check: Georgia Senate Masquerades Failed Treasure Hunter as Hacker and Election Security Expert

Okay, I'm at the hour mark. I'll try to finish next week (again, do you have a time stamp on the bit you want me to watch?)
 
Joe Biden never gave up on the public option. We haven't even had the Healthcare fight yet. First we have to fight over COVID-19 relief and apparently immigration. But I'm sure Healthcare will come up at some point.
Unless he revamps his plan, he seems to have pulled back on the public option. His proposal is a dream for private insurers.
 
Unless he revamps his plan, he seems to have pulled back on the public option. His proposal is a dream for private insurers.
How does he seem to have done that? His website still says he's for a public option and whenever he talks about healthcare extensively, it comes up. It's just that right now we're focused on a COVID-19 relief bills frankly, a public option fight in there would be a little much. The COVID-19 relief bill is not meant to be his entire healthcare plan.
 
@just1morething, fine fine you talked me into continuing with the rest :).

I'm on Dana Smith's testimony now. It's really immaterial because the Trump campaign got their signature audit and it passed. So her cherry picking her daughter's signature as looking different isn't really proof of anything in light of the fact that the later audit showed 99.9% accuracy -- maybe her daughter was the .1%, but that's not enough to change an election. I actually thought this was, by far, the weakest testimony in the whole thing (so far anyway).

Onto Susie's testimony (my hearing didn't catch her last name): She was shocked at 100 ballots of people who voted for Biden all voted identically down ballot and thought the ballots looked too clean? Nevermind, this is the weakest one. She is quoting bible versus and complaining about her boss, too. And she's actually said "Trump has to win or we become Venezuela!!" (paraphrased). Hmm... I wonder if she's super objective. Lol.

What is even this kangaroo court ("thank you! You're so brave!" by the presiders on this, meanwhile none of the actual election supervisors were invited to this)?

Still haven't gotten to the statistics that were promised yet but maybe that's in the last 45 minutes (I'm going to try to do that last bit as one chuck if I can but again, it's very tiring straining my hearing).

It's *clear* Giuliani entirely put this together with the help of Georgia state senators who were interested in finding "fraud" at all cost so that Trump would win. Because otherwise, you wouldn't a) have doctored the video footage in the beginning (huge red flag) and b) would have invited the people who have repeatedly shown evidence there was no fraud and have offered (but were turned down) to show the Giuliani and Trump campaign.

Onto the Wifi poll pad guy. This has been debunked a number of times:

Fact Check: Georgia Senate Masquerades Failed Treasure Hunter as Hacker and Election Security Expert

Okay, I'm at the hour mark. I'll try to finish next week (again, do you have a time stamp on the bit you want me to watch?)
You are doing all of us a public service, thank you.
 
Okay, I'm at the hour mark. I'll try to finish next week (again, do you have a time stamp on the bit you want me to watch?)
How about 4:23 on this video? Sorry, I don't feel like typing as my left ear is hissing loud and I'm typing with 1 finger on an iPad at the moment. Nothing really personal against anyone on this thread.

 
How does he seem to have done that? His website still says he's for a public option and whenever he talks about healthcare extensively, it comes up. It's just that right now we're focused on a COVID-19 relief bills frankly, a public option fight in there would be a little much. The COVID-19 relief bill is not meant to be his entire healthcare plan.
That's exactly the problem. A Democrat President, a Democrat-controlled House, and a Democrat-controlled Senate... and bringing a public option into play would be too much? That's where we're at.

I get that it may not be indicative of his full plan, but still. I don't have much hope. I guess now we await the $2,000 stimulus checks. I mean the $1,400 stimulus checks...
 
How about 4:23 on this video? Sorry, I don't feel like typing as my left ear is hissing loud and I'm typing with 1 finger on an iPad at the moment. Nothing really personal against anyone on this thread.
Okay. She's talking about a theoretical problem that *could* occur that might be missed by an observer. The reason we know this *didn't* happen though is the paper ballot recount by hand, which actually increased Biden's lead (which means if this was done, it was by people trying to change it to Trump, not Biden and on a tiny scale).
 
That's exactly the problem. A Democrat President, a Democrat-controlled House, and a Democrat-controlled Senate... and bringing a public option into play would be too much? That's where we're at.

I get that it may not be indicative of his full plan, but still. I don't have much hope. I guess now we await the $2,000 stimulus checks. I mean the $1,400 stimulus checks...
A public option takes time and effort to design properly. There's so many factors that go into it. The COVID-19 relief bill is supposed to be passed quickly to get help out as quickly as possible. I'm already shocked he's trying to get a minimum wage hike passed with it. Including his entire healthcare plan which included several changes to Obamacare, a public option, prescription drug reform and more in a COVID-19 relief that's supposed to be passed quickly just doesn't seem feasible.

And I can't believe progressives are complaining about this $2,000 check stuff. People were never supposed to get $2,600 a person. From the very beginning it was supposed to be a total of $2,000. The Democrats' Cash Act was literally written that it would amend the $600 to $2,000, not have $2,000 on top of the $600. They're acting like Biden is lying when what he's proposing is exactly what Democrats were pushing since the beginning. I'm a progressive but we have to be fair to the guy, he's doing what he said he would.
 

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