Trump

[constant escape]

The flipside of this is that a lot of white conservatives in the USA see no distinction between liberalism, socialism and even Marxism, so the spectacle of corporations falling over themselves to appear woke (be it ever so tokenistic or even hypocritical - a fast food chain that disproportionately employs black workers at minimum wage and in shitty conditions tweeting in support of BLM, let's say) is feeding into a general discontent with corporations and with capitalism generally, which under other circumstances would be leading people towards the left.

Do you think this might be a generational thing? And that a sizable portion of younger white would-be conservatives actually were persuaded by Sanders - maybe purely out of dissatisfaction with Trump?

And the right-wing populists are extremely adept at taking advantage of this, which is why you have a billionaire property baron for a president who, without a trace of irony, constantly rails against "the elite".

Don't want to prematurely dot my I's and cross my T's, but it seems Trump is clinging to an increasingly narrowing and cultlike base, hence his refusal to concede even the mildest of concessions (like his refusal, from what I gather, to denounce QAnon?). That is, the press, generally (from what little I've seen), seem to be lobbing him these opportunities at petty repentance, and he is refraining from hitting, because doing so would entail alienating the naked nucleus of enthusiastic backers he has left (the cortex of moderate supports seems to have been largely stripped away).

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah, that sounds plausible. He's probably banking on simply smearing Biden hard enough that a lot of people who aren't going to vote for him (Trump) won't vote for Biden either, and will either vote for a third party or just stay at home. I think you can see Trump's desperation in the inadequacy of the accusations, which seem to focus either on Biden and the Democrats in general being "far-left extremists" (while Crooked Hilary was in the pocket of Wall Street, remember!) or on the fact that Biden is old and sometimes rambles or stumbles verbally (physic, heal thyself).

Which, again, is music to the ears of the core base that really would still vote for him if he shot someone dead on Fifth Avenue, but (I sincerely hope) unlikely to persuade any floating voters.

 

[IdleRich]

I's and cross my T's, but it seems Trump is clinging to an increasingly narrowing and cultlike base, hence his refusal to concede even the mildest of concessions (like his refusal, from what I gather, to denounce QAnon?). That is, the press, generally (from what little I've seen), seem to be lobbing him these opportunities at petty repentance, and he is refraining from hitting, because doing so would entail alienating the naked nucleus of enthusiastic backers he has left (the cortex of moderate supports seems to have been largely stripped away).

I certainly hope that this is what's happening.
Twitter is no doubt a terrible thing - however it does have the advantage of preserving utterly stupid things that people say and allowing people to dig them back out when relevant.




(I haven't checked if that's real admittedly)

 

[constant escape]

And as for any potential tampering with the US postal system, would those who administer the collection of ballots show any kind of leniency, or willingness to extend collection deadlines?

 

[luka]

I'm sure Bannon is right in that there was a level of corruption which, if unconvered, could, theoretically, land a lot of people in prison. It depends on whether the Trump team can sieze enough power to make that happen. That seems unlikely at present. There's something of a stalemate. Criminals of both sides are protected. No one is going down.

 

[IdleRich]

I dunno what's going on, it's all moving so fast. Trump appointed a mate of his (who owns shares in UPS etc I understand) as Postmaster General seemingly with the clear intention of fucking up the postal service and preventing voting by mail... they took away mailboxes and stuff and there was a massive outcry cos people weren't getting their medicine and cheques etc that were supposed to come by post. Congress summoned the PG and interrogated him and he agreed to stop implementing any changes until after the election - think he got cold feet at the sheer strength of the response - but I don't think they're undoing the damage that had already been done. The main point is that there is a belief that postal voting (increased access to voting of any kind) benefits Dems and so the administration is trying to make it as hard as possible to vote in any way and especially by mail. Bearing that in mind they are gonna try and deny any attempts to add leniency for late votes and so on... there will probably be numerous court cases contesting this nearer the election and possibly after it.

 

[IdleRich]

I'm sure Bannon is right in that there was a level of corruption which, if unconvered, could, theoretically, land a lot of people in prison. It depends on whether the Trump team can sieze enough power to make that happen. That seems unlikely at present. There's something of a stalemate. Criminals of both sides are protected. No one is going down.

But loads of people have already gone down from the Trump campaign and administration - what are you on about?
Seems weird to say that Trump team can't seize enough power too - they control the presidency, the senate, the Department of Justice and have more appointees on the supreme court. The only reason that things like Obamagate can't be made to stick is cos Trump just pulls them out of his arse with no evidence, even Barr recognises it's pointless to pursue it cos it would be humiliating. Same with the supreme court, the reason that Trump loses there sometimes is that his arguments are so ludicrous and against precedent that even his appointees can't pretend to support them.

 

[luka]

the rest of the world could easily blow up America if we agreed to work together.

 

[IdleRich]

Pence: we think there is a miracle around the corner...a tribute to President Trump’s leadership.

And people say they don't have a plan to deal with the pandemic.

‘We think there is a miracle around the corner’: Pence responds to Biden’s criticism over coronavirus pandemic

www.msn.com

 

[version]

I dunno what's going on, it's all moving so fast. Trump appointed a mate of his (who owns shares in UPS etc I understand) as Postmaster General seemingly with the clear intention of fucking up the postal service and preventing voting by mail... they took away mailboxes and stuff and there was a massive outcry cos people weren't getting their medicine and cheques etc that were supposed to come by post. Congress summoned the PG and interrogated him and he agreed to stop implementing any changes until after the election - think he got cold feet at the sheer strength of the response - but I don't think they're undoing the damage that had already been done. The main point is that there is a belief that postal voting (increased access to voting of any kind) benefits Dems and so the administration is trying to make it as hard as possible to vote in any way and especially by mail. Bearing that in mind they are gonna try and deny any attempts to add leniency for late votes and so on... there will probably be numerous court cases contesting this nearer the election and possibly after it.

He's gone further than just postal voting,

“The things they had in there were crazy,” Trump said. “They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

That's an admission that higher turnout in general is an issue for Republicans.

 

[IdleRich]

He's gone further than just postal voting,

“The things they had in there were crazy,” Trump said. “They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

That's an admission that higher turnout in general is an issue for Republicans.

Sure yeah, that what I meant with this bit "The main point is that there is a belief that postal voting (increased access to voting of any kind) benefits Dems and so the administration is trying to make it as hard as possible to vote in any way".

 

[version]

It's mad he can just come out and say that - "levels of voting". As though it's something that should be tempered. Yeah, you can vote but not too much.

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah it's amazing. At the time it was reported fairly incredulously but it got lost in the everything else that was going on. To me it's obvious that if you're saying "we need to stop people voting so that we can win" then you're not on the side of democracy, you're the bad guy.
Or... has anyone seen this trend from the right recently to say that the US is not a democracy but is in fact a Constitutional Republic (I don't know why you can't say, yeah, a democratic one)? I wonder if that is step towards softening people up for democracy being removed.
eg this tweet yesterday

Hillary: "we're a constitutional democracy"
Patriots: "we're a constitutional republic"
Communists intentionally try to make us forget we are a republic.

This hair-splitting is now being used quite often to argue that the US is NOT a democracy.

 

[IdleRich]

Trump Postmaster General Louis DeJoy just testified that more than 600 mail sorting machines that were removed will NOT be reinstalled — including 135 machines in the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Answering my own question from above.

 

[version]

It's going to be such a shitshow if he wins. He's delegitimised his own potential second term before the election's even been run. There's no way the result can be taken at face value now that he's so openly tried to rig it.

 

[luka]

Good. Bring it all down. It's long overdue.

 

[version]

Trump confirms Stormy Daniels claim that he's 'terrified' of sharks

President said he’s ‘not a big fan of sharks’ at Pennsylvania event while in 2011 Daniels claimed he said ‘I hope all the sharks die’

www.theguardian.com

 

[version]

“They were saying the other night, the shark. They were saying, ‘Sharks, we have to protect them.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait.’ They actually want to remove all the seals in order to save the shark. I said, ‘Wait, don’t you have it the other way around?’

“It’s true,” he added. “I’m not a big fan of sharks either. I don’t know, how many votes am I going to lose?”

“I have people calling me up, ‘Sir, we want to have a fund to save the shark, it’s called Save the Shark.’ I say, ‘No thank you, I have other things I can contribute to.’”

“Sorry folks, I’m just not a fan of sharks – and don’t worry, they will be around long after we are gone.”

“Sharks are last on my list – other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!”

 

[version]

‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.’”

 

[IdleRich]

Seeing as the money going into Trump related charities and funds never goes where it's supposed to then what's the harm?