2020 US Election Thread

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

How could going back to the same **** that got us here possibly be pragmatic?

Because we have kinder, gentler capitalists now who put their cars in space rather than hire mercenaries to break strikes.

[SGR]

Trump encourages supporters to try to vote twice, sparking uproar

Attorney General Barr won't agree it's illegal to vote twice, as Trump urged, claims ignorance of state laws

[Lisnaholic]

I'm afraid, Bestie, that our bromance may soon be over.

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

How could going back to the same **** that got us here possibly be pragmatic?

Pragmatic is about taking the manageable best path forward: perhaps not the shortest or most direct route, but the one that offers the possibility of advancing.
Surely you're not swallowing Trump's eagerly promoted idea that "what got us here" was Obama's presidency? What got us here, covid and street violence, was 4 years of corrupt, incompetent divisive mismanagement from the Trump admin and GOP.

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Once the middle class white women see Biden humiliated in the debates their suburban pussies are going to dry up and tell them they better vote for Trump for the same reasons they chose to be suburbanites in the first place.

Yes, MB has had a laugh about Biden, who had to overcome a stammering problem. Not MB's finest moment, tbh, but no need to assume so fast that he will be so humiliated in the debates that he will lose his supporters. His rival:

"That basically means no windows, no nothing. It's very hard to do. I tell people when they want to go into some of these buildings, how are your eyes because they won't be good in five years."

"And I hope you don't mind cold office space in the winter and warm office space in the summer because your air conditioning is not the same as the good old days."

"You're going to abolish the suburbs with this."

"Human trafficking, one of the worst things ever, all at a level that it's never been at -- because of the Internet, you wouldn't think -- you'd think of it as an ancient statement."
"But you can't make a left anymore and come into the United States loaded up with human traffic."

Very quick quotes from just one speech as I have to go, and don't have time to track down Trump's remarks on cofoffe, etc.

[Psy-Fi]

Originally Posted by SoundgardenRocks

Trump encourages supporters to try to vote twice, sparking uproar

Attorney General Barr won't agree it's illegal to vote twice, as Trump urged, claims ignorance of state laws

[OccultHawk]

I'm afraid, Bestie, that our bromance may soon be over.

Nah man. That’s solid.

Pragmatic is about taking the manageable best path forward: perhaps not the shortest or most direct route, but the one that offers the possibility of advancing.

The environmental devastation we’ve embarked upon is a compounding set of interwoven problems that do not offer the luxury of time. Biden’s center right politics may be an improvement over Trump’s lunacy but it’s not a change of direction only a change of tempo. When you’re about to crash into a brick wall slowing down from 95 to 60 isn’t pragmatic. And in terms of social justice, it’s clear that Biden will not address hunger, homelessness, and lack of health care. Whether he has the support of black people or not, people of color will continue to suffer under Biden. The wealth disparity will continue to grow under his policies so in fact life for the disenfranchised will continue to get worse. Maybe at a slower clip than under Trump but still it will not stop getting worse. Housing will continue to be bought up and hoarded by the rich under the policies of Biden. That will mean the continuation of rent increases and pricing out the poor so more homelessness while the rich live in mansions. The affordable care act sucks. You can’t build on it because it’s nothing but a corporate power grab. The democrats can gain control of the house and senate and the presidency and we’ll see that at their core they’re all about the rich getting richer and the poor getting ****ed with a broken glass *****. I used the driving into a wall analogy. I’m not excited about the guy with a 22 pointed at me just because the other guy has a 45. 22’s do more damage than people think.

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Nah man. That’s solid.

As for this part, I have some reservations:

The environmental devastation we’ve embarked upon is a compounding set of interwoven problems that do not offer the luxury of time. Biden’s center right politics may be an improvement over Trump’s lunacy but it’s not a change of direction only a change of tempo. When you’re about to crash into a brick wall slowing down from 95 to 60 isn’t pragmatic. And in terms of social justice, it’s clear that Biden will not address hunger, homelessness, and lack of health care. Whether he has the support of black people or not, people of color will continue to suffer under Biden. The wealth disparity will continue to grow under his policies so in fact life for the disenfranchised will continue to get worse. Maybe at a slower clip than under Trump but still it will not stop getting worse. Housing will continue to be bought up and hoarded by the rich under the policies of Biden. That will mean the continuation of rent increases and pricing out the poor so more homelessness while the rich live in mansions. The affordable care act sucks. You can’t build on it because it’s nothing but a corporate power grab. The democrats can gain control of the house and senate and the presidency and we’ll see that at their core they’re all about the rich getting richer and the poor getting ****ed with a broken glass *****. I used the driving into a wall analogy. I’m not excited about the guy with a 22 pointed at me just because the other guy has a 45. 22’s do more damage than people think.

Nice metaphor about the car into the wall, but what sources do you have for those speeds? If the car is, instead, going at 60 m.p.h and slows to 10 m.p.h., that's a difference between death and slight damage, so voting for the 10 m.p.h option looks like a good choice.

Biden, afaik, is at least talking about touching the brakes on pollution, corruption, racial division. Trump has his foot on the gas.

There's also a lot of flat-out prophecy in your comments: I count 7 sentences with "will". Last time I read that many predictions was in Nostradamos. But what Biden might do is not so certain, especially if characters like Sanders, AOC and Markey are in the mix and BLM keep pushing for change. How can you be so sure when most commentators agree that these are extraordinary times in the US: just today, for instance, the Attorney General told America that he didn't know if it was illegal to vote twice. Who could've seen that coming?

If you can't bring yourself to place any trust in Biden, at least let's not condemn his debate performance and his admin before they have had a chance.

[OccultHawk]

Capitalism will do what it has never stopped doing.

[OccultHawk]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=...&v=crJHg5XazdM

[Neapolitan]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Pragmatic is about taking the manageable best path forward: perhaps not the shortest or most direct route, but the one that offers the possibility of advancing. Surely you're not swallowing Trump's eagerly promoted idea that "what got us here" was Obama's presidency? What got us here, covid and street violence, was 4 years of corrupt, incompetent divisive mismanagement from the Trump admin and GOP.

It goes both ways. Obama, during his presidency, constantly blamed the former president, George W. Bush, for the economy. I'm pretty sure B.O. did that even after he was reelected.

When B.O. took office the stock market took a dive, and when Trump took office it had a boom. It's like Wall Street was giving was giving its opinion, its vote of confidence. When Trump elected I was shocked he won, thinking about all the exit polls that had Hillary as a shoe in. Then I heard how much he was hated and a bunch of other stuff. And here Wall Street is behaving like they are confident in the newly elected President Trump, and for some reason there is a positive future. Now it's "was" a positive future - I guess that goes without saying.

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Yes, MB has had a laugh about Biden, who had to overcome a stammering problem. Not MB's finest moment, tbh, but no need to assume so fast that he will be so humiliated in the debates that he will lose his supporters.

JFTR Don't lump me in with the rest of MB. I am not laughing Joe Biden for "stammering" per se. It's the silly nonsense that comes out of his mouth e.g. "I have hairy legs." - Joe Biden.

Another thing about Joseph Robinette Biden Jr is that sometimes he can be lucid, and other times Scranton Joe can be easily derailed from what he was going to say next. It's not so much a "stammering" as in having trouble speaking or finishing ones thought. It's more like Scranton Joe pauses and goes off on an impromptu tangent of gibberish and non-sequiturs. I guess that is why Donald Trump is asking a drug test for both of them before debates?

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

His rival:
"That basically means no windows, no nothing. It's very hard to do. I tell people when they want to go into some of these buildings, how are your eyes because they won't be good in five years."

Trump sounds concerned.

"And I hope you don't mind cold office space in the winter and warm office space in the summer because your air conditioning is not the same as the good old days."

Trump sounds concerned.

"You're going to abolish the suburbs with this."

Trump sounds concerned.

"Human trafficking, one of the worst things ever, all at a level that it's never been at -- because of the Internet, you wouldn't think -- you'd think of it as an ancient statement."
"But you can't make a left anymore and come into the United States loaded up with human traffic."

Trump sounds concerned.

I don't know the context behind these statements, but each those four quotes he sounds concerned, especially about human trafficking. "Human trafficking, one of the worst things ever ... " - Donald J Trump. From other talks he speak about what else happens with that, like young women and children being victims of sex trafficking. Just the fact that Trump would recognize it, took me by surprise. No one really talks about that. Whether Trump stopped it or diminish the problem I am not sure.

How what Trump says is portrayed in the media or how it is reinterpreted, I'm not really sure, but I haven't written him off as someone who doesn't care.

[Anteater]

I need that Trump v Biden debate pronto. I can smell the memes coming, just like how the shark can smell blood from a mere drop in an ocean of water. The wave is coming...and it's time to ride.