President Biden and US politics catchall

[convoluted]

... They gonna shoot me up just prior (to announcing my VP) to make sure I’ll be sharp enough to pronounce it right. Bad look otherwise ...

Oh fcek. Medics!! Double the dosage!! Triple it!!! Senile babbling dribbling Joke Biden has just gone and pronounced her as "Camel-uh" rather than the correct "Karma-la".
You couldn't make this half-wit up, let alone could you invent his worshippers on this forum.

[Hugo]

it's the same choice as last time for them. Choose the devil you know or the devil you don't.

I agree with you on this apart from the fact that now Trump is a known quantity in office.

The Dem ticket has much the same feel as 2016, male-female, establishment centrist types, gaffe prone and uninspiring. From what I saw in the primaries Kamalas supporters (the so-called K-hive) are the die hard Hillary voters of 2016. They hate the Bernie bros. and in general are scornful of progressives. I suppose the democrats have done their homework and calculated that the votes of young progressives are not going to have a decisive impact on determining the outcome of the election.

I think the election is tough to call because whilst his administration has been an incoherent mess I think Trump successfully portrayed himself as the law and order President during the worst of the rioting and stuff like CHOP was a massive own goal for the democrat brand. For the mayor of Seattle to go from trying to portray the autonomous zone as a "summer of love" to then having to send the police in to end the occupation after murder and violence, to now having to layoff 100 officers and accept the resignation of her female African American chief of Police in the name of "defunding the Police", that stuff is sure to have resonated with voters. According to polling Americans trust the police as an institution more than politicians and the media and the stridently anti police rhetoric that has been swirling around this year could be met with a backlash in November imho.

[Glaston]

... They gonna shoot me up just prior (to announcing my VP) to make sure I’ll be sharp enough to pronounce it right. Bad look otherwise ...

Oh fcek. Medics!! Double the dosage!! Triple it!!! Senile babbling dribbling Joke Biden has just gone and pronounced her as "Camel-uh" rather than the correct "Karma-la".
You couldn't make this half-wit up, let alone could you invent his worshippers on this forum.

How will the new revamped Spitting Image deal with this?

The brain in the cup beside the bed along with the dentures has beeen done.

[Zig]

I think the election is tough to call because whilst his administration has been an incoherent mess I think Trump successfully portrayed himself as the law and order President during the worst of the rioting and stuff like CHOP was a massive own goal for the democrat brand. For the mayor of Seattle to go from trying to portray the autonomous zone as a "summer of love" to then having to send the police in to end the occupation after murder and violence,

Another way of looking at it is that Trump is ultimately responsible for the disorder that has gone on and has actually made things worse with his dictatorial actions. Nevermind the complete mess he has made of dealing with Covid 19.

It doesn't need many who voted for him in swing states to be fed up with his nonsense to turn the election decisively against him.

[CrazyIslander]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

In unconnected news the Sec. of State for Ohio, a Republican as it happens, has announced there will no no extra drop boxes for ballots this coming November. The idea of the drop boxes is that if you're under time pressure to get your ballot returned, either you're late posting it or there's a problem with the postal service, you can simply submit your ballot directly into one of the drop boxes. Drop boxes are pretty common in States used to postal voting, and Ohio is likely to see a lot of postal voting this coming election. Difficult to see how this is other than voter suppression

[Fonz]

I briefly resurfaced on the old forum to post a bit on this...my thoughts are now lost to the abyss though, I suppose.

Anywho, bearing in mind that VP picks usually don't matter (though it's unclear if the buzz surrounding Biden's condition will alter that), I don't consider this to be a strong pick. Despite the totally unwarranted hype she was gifted, she failed to ever gain a head of steam in the primaries; her past as a prosecutor and her more recent turn parroting the rhetoric of internet activists puts her in a middle ground that appeals to no one (though I think the former will ultimately prove more damaging).

They really should have expanded the criteria beyond "have a black vagina", but that's just where the Democrats are right now I guess. As I said in my PR posts, they probably did at least get the best one; the fact that neo-con Susan Rice was seriously considered is just fucking mind-blowing. So there is that.

It does go to show who really controls the party that despite all the talk of a leftward turn, the Bernie insurgency, etc., at the end of the day the Democratic donors and the professional class got exactly what they wanted. Quelle surprise.

[Zig]

They really should have expanded the criteria beyond "have a black vagina", but that's just where the Democrats are right now I guess.

This guy voted for Hillary Clinton, believe that?

[Rhubarb & Custard]

With Mike Pence doing such a sterling job leading the response against Covid she must be worried about any debate. Has Pence's team confirmed if he'll be able to debate Harris, or at least debate her if his wife isn't in the room?

[ScarfaceClaw]

... They gonna shoot me up just prior (to announcing my VP) to make sure I’ll be sharp enough to pronounce it right. Bad look otherwise ...

Oh fcek. Medics!! Double the dosage!! Triple it!!! Senile babbling dribbling Joke Biden has just gone and pronounced her as "Camel-uh" rather than the correct "Karma-la".
You couldn't make this half-wit up, let alone could you invent his worshippers on this forum.

How will the new revamped Spitting Image deal with this?

The brain in the cup beside the bed along with the dentures has beeen done.

The Land of Corruption rather than confusion.

[Fonz]

They really should have expanded the criteria beyond "have a black vagina", but that's just where the Democrats are right now I guess.

This guy voted for Hillary Clinton, believe that?

What's your point

[JM2K6]

... They gonna shoot me up just prior (to announcing my VP) to make sure I’ll be sharp enough to pronounce it right. Bad look otherwise ...

Oh fcek. Medics!! Double the dosage!! Triple it!!! Senile babbling dribbling Joke Biden has just gone and pronounced her as "Camel-uh" rather than the correct "Karma-la".
You couldn't make this half-wit up, let alone could you invent his worshippers on this forum.

It's not "Karma-la" either. It's "Comma-la" according to Harris herself.

[Rinkals]

This is from a couple of weeks back, but is pretty reprehensible, if true.

By early April, some who worked on the plan were given the strong impression that it would soon be shared with President Trump and announced by the White House. The plan, though imperfect, was a starting point. Simply working together as a nation on it “would have put us in a fundamentally different place,” said the participant.

But the effort ran headlong into shifting sentiment at the White House. Trusting his vaunted political instincts, President Trump had been downplaying concerns about the virus and spreading misinformation about it—efforts that were soon amplified by Republican elected officials and right-wing media figures. Worried about the stock market and his reelection prospects, Trump also feared that more testing would only lead to higher case counts and more bad publicity. Meanwhile, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, was reportedly sharing models with senior staff that optimistically—and erroneously, it would turn out—predicted the virus would soon fade away.

Against that background, the prospect of launching a large-scale national plan was losing favor, said one public health expert in frequent contact with the White House’s official coronavirus task force.

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07 ... o-thin-air

[ticketlessinseattle]

it's the same choice as last time for them. Choose the devil you know or the devil you don't.

I agree with you on this apart from the fact that now Trump is a known quantity in office.

The Dem ticket has much the same feel as 2016, male-female, establishment centrist types, gaffe prone and uninspiring. From what I saw in the primaries Kamalas supporters (the so-called K-hive) are the die hard Hillary voters of 2016. They hate the Bernie bros. and in general are scornful of progressives. I suppose the democrats have done their homework and calculated that the votes of young progressives are not going to have a decisive impact on determining the outcome of the election.

I think the election is tough to call because whilst his administration has been an incoherent mess I think Trump successfully portrayed himself as the law and order President during the worst of the rioting and stuff like CHOP was a massive own goal for the democrat brand. For the mayor of Seattle to go from trying to portray the autonomous zone as a "summer of love" to then having to send the police in to end the occupation after murder and violence, to now having to layoff 100 officers and accept the resignation of her female African American chief of Police in the name of "defunding the Police", that stuff is sure to have resonated with voters. According to polling Americans trust the police as an institution more than politicians and the media and the stridently anti police rhetoric that has been swirling around this year could be met with a backlash in November imho.

good point .....unfortunately

[ticketlessinseattle]

I think the election is tough to call because whilst his administration has been an incoherent mess I think Trump successfully portrayed himself as the law and order President during the worst of the rioting and stuff like CHOP was a massive own goal for the democrat brand. For the mayor of Seattle to go from trying to portray the autonomous zone as a "summer of love" to then having to send the police in to end the occupation after murder and violence,

Another way of looking at it is that Trump is ultimately responsible for the disorder that has gone on and has actually made things worse with his dictatorial actions. Nevermind the complete mess he has made of dealing with Covid 19.

It doesn't need many who voted for him in swing states to be fed up with his nonsense to turn the election decisively against him.

I prefer this point but that implies that Trump supporters will see through his bullshit so .....

[Sinkers]

A little trivia in the catchall category: did anybody know that Lance Bottoms is the daughter of prolific but underrated 60s soul singer Major Lance?

[ticketlessinseattle]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

In unconnected news the Sec. of State for Ohio, a Republican as it happens, has announced there will no no extra drop boxes for ballots this coming November. The idea of the drop boxes is that if you're under time pressure to get your ballot returned, either you're late posting it or there's a problem with the postal service, you can simply submit your ballot directly into one of the drop boxes. Drop boxes are pretty common in States used to postal voting, and Ohio is likely to see a lot of postal voting this coming election. Difficult to see how this is other than voter suppression

Jesus.....well at least its not one of the states that could decide the election.....

[Rhubarb & Custard]

I think the election is tough to call because whilst his administration has been an incoherent mess I think Trump successfully portrayed himself as the law and order President during the worst of the rioting and stuff like CHOP was a massive own goal for the democrat brand. For the mayor of Seattle to go from trying to portray the autonomous zone as a "summer of love" to then having to send the police in to end the occupation after murder and violence,

Another way of looking at it is that Trump is ultimately responsible for the disorder that has gone on and has actually made things worse with his dictatorial actions. Nevermind the complete mess he has made of dealing with Covid 19.

It doesn't need many who voted for him in swing states to be fed up with his nonsense to turn the election decisively against him.

I prefer this point but that implies that Trump supporters will see through his bullshit so .....

One of the features of the pandemic has been the number of people at home watching the news. Mostly people don't follow the new, and certainly don't follow politics, so they're pretty able to stay within their normal voting patterns without having the preference challenged.

But with the pandemic a large number of people who normally wouldn't have paid much attention to Trump, or indeed any President, have been sat at home thinking some variant on WTAF is he doing or not doing as the case may be. Now this mayn't be the same as Trump supporters, but certainly a lot of Trump/GOP voters have been given huge pause for thought by being exposed to his dangerous ramblings in a way that'd have never normally happened.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

In unconnected news the Sec. of State for Ohio, a Republican as it happens, has announced there will no no extra drop boxes for ballots this coming November. The idea of the drop boxes is that if you're under time pressure to get your ballot returned, either you're late posting it or there's a problem with the postal service, you can simply submit your ballot directly into one of the drop boxes. Drop boxes are pretty common in States used to postal voting, and Ohio is likely to see a lot of postal voting this coming election. Difficult to see how this is other than voter suppression

Jesus.....well at least its not one of the states that could decide the election.....

There might be some concerns about fraud around the use of extra boxes, but these last few months should have been used to plan for that, not to suppress the vote through the actions of one individual such as the Secretary for State, not to defund the post office. And as an aside if fraud is a concern then what on earth are they (Trump and the stooge he put in charge of postal services) doing telling the postal service that political mail isn't a priority mail anymore, and that postmasters needn't keep a log of political/campaign mail as they used to as a check on possible irregularities.

It's bad enough parties campaign to depress turnout through messaging. To have people in power actively try to reduce the numbers voting to subvert democracy, and in such brazen fashion, is if not quite the fall of America then certainly pushing it closer to the brink.

[JM2K6]

Another way of looking at it is that Trump is ultimately responsible for the disorder that has gone on and has actually made things worse with his dictatorial actions. Nevermind the complete mess he has made of dealing with Covid 19.

It doesn't need many who voted for him in swing states to be fed up with his nonsense to turn the election decisively against him.

I prefer this point but that implies that Trump supporters will see through his bullshit so .....

One of the features of the pandemic has been the number of people at home watching the news. Mostly people don't follow the new, and certainly don't follow politics, so they're pretty able to stay within their normal voting patterns without having the preference challenged.

But with the pandemic a large number of people who normally wouldn't have paid much attention to Trump, or indeed any President, have been sat at home thinking some variant on WTAF is he doing or not doing as the case may be. Now this mayn't be the same as Trump supporters, but certainly a lot of Trump/GOP voters have been given huge pause for thought by being exposed to his dangerous ramblings in a way that'd have never normally happened.

On the flip side it does mean that he's been given an incredible opportunity to campaign for re-election by using those briefings as naked political rallies, on a near-daily basis.

[ticketlessinseattle]

until someone asks him a mean question......this from a president that would take on an active shooter !

[Insane_Homer]

shower pressure, shower pressure. that's the important thing right now.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

I prefer this point but that implies that Trump supporters will see through his bullshit so .....

One of the features of the pandemic has been the number of people at home watching the news. Mostly people don't follow the new, and certainly don't follow politics, so they're pretty able to stay within their normal voting patterns without having the preference challenged.

But with the pandemic a large number of people who normally wouldn't have paid much attention to Trump, or indeed any President, have been sat at home thinking some variant on WTAF is he doing or not doing as the case may be. Now this mayn't be the same as Trump supporters, but certainly a lot of Trump/GOP voters have been given huge pause for thought by being exposed to his dangerous ramblings in a way that'd have never normally happened.

On the flip side it does mean that he's been given an incredible opportunity to campaign for re-election by using those briefings as naked political rallies, on a near-daily basis.

Diana Ross was more successful in front of an open goal. It was a chance though, had he appeared authoritative, calm, caring and empathic, even vaguely presidential, it would have helped him hugely, but he wouldn't be Trump if he could be those things.

[Sinkers]

shower pressure, shower pressure. that's the important thing right now.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the POTUS is being fact checked by the bloke that does consumer reviews for household appliances.

[JM2K6]

One of the features of the pandemic has been the number of people at home watching the news. Mostly people don't follow the new, and certainly don't follow politics, so they're pretty able to stay within their normal voting patterns without having the preference challenged.

But with the pandemic a large number of people who normally wouldn't have paid much attention to Trump, or indeed any President, have been sat at home thinking some variant on WTAF is he doing or not doing as the case may be. Now this mayn't be the same as Trump supporters, but certainly a lot of Trump/GOP voters have been given huge pause for thought by being exposed to his dangerous ramblings in a way that'd have never normally happened.

On the flip side it does mean that he's been given an incredible opportunity to campaign for re-election by using those briefings as naked political rallies, on a near-daily basis.

Diana Ross was more successful in front of an open goal. It was a chance though, had he appeared authoritative, calm, caring and empathic, even vaguely presidential, it would have helped him hugely, but he wouldn't be Trump if he could be those things.

He was none of those things when campaigning the first time round. He has near-total coverage and unlimited bully pulpit time. It makes a difference and it does sway people.

The fact that it does is horrifying, of course.

[Fangle]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

In unconnected news the Sec. of State for Ohio, a Republican as it happens, has announced there will no no extra drop boxes for ballots this coming November. The idea of the drop boxes is that if you're under time pressure to get your ballot returned, either you're late posting it or there's a problem with the postal service, you can simply submit your ballot directly into one of the drop boxes. Drop boxes are pretty common in States used to postal voting, and Ohio is likely to see a lot of postal voting this coming election. Difficult to see how this is other than voter suppression

There never have been drop boxes in Georgia and very limited postal voting. But voting is controlled by counties rather than the state.

[Zig]

They really should have expanded the criteria beyond "have a black vagina", but that's just where the Democrats are right now I guess.

This guy voted for Hillary Clinton, believe that?

What's your point

Self evident, I'd have thought, for anyone who isn't disingenuous.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

On the flip side it does mean that he's been given an incredible opportunity to campaign for re-election by using those briefings as naked political rallies, on a near-daily basis.

Diana Ross was more successful in front of an open goal. It was a chance though, had he appeared authoritative, calm, caring and empathic, even vaguely presidential, it would have helped him hugely, but he wouldn't be Trump if he could be those things.

He was none of those things when campaigning the first time round. He has near-total coverage and unlimited bully pulpit time. It makes a difference and it does sway people.

The fact that it does is horrifying, of course.

I agree people are being swayed, but none of the data suggests that's other than away from Trump.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Trump will rig the election by usual means - closing election booths, delaying postal votes, getting supreme court to dismiss votes etc. He will find a way.

In unconnected news the Sec. of State for Ohio, a Republican as it happens, has announced there will no no extra drop boxes for ballots this coming November. The idea of the drop boxes is that if you're under time pressure to get your ballot returned, either you're late posting it or there's a problem with the postal service, you can simply submit your ballot directly into one of the drop boxes. Drop boxes are pretty common in States used to postal voting, and Ohio is likely to see a lot of postal voting this coming election. Difficult to see how this is other than voter suppression

There never have been drop boxes in Georgia and very limited postal voting. But voting is controlled by counties rather than the state.

Not so long ago one might have assumed that wouldn't matter, and yet Georgia is putting its hand up to think about voting the other way for the first time in a long time. Is Georgia expected to have very limited postal voting during this coming election, or were they planning on encouraging voting and trying to limit the spread of an infectious disease?

[JM2K6]

Diana Ross was more successful in front of an open goal. It was a chance though, had he appeared authoritative, calm, caring and empathic, even vaguely presidential, it would have helped him hugely, but he wouldn't be Trump if he could be those things.

He was none of those things when campaigning the first time round. He has near-total coverage and unlimited bully pulpit time. It makes a difference and it does sway people.

The fact that it does is horrifying, of course.

I agree people are being swayed, but none of the data suggests that's other than away from Trump.

The data said the same thing last time.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

He was none of those things when campaigning the first time round. He has near-total coverage and unlimited bully pulpit time. It makes a difference and it does sway people.

The fact that it does is horrifying, of course.

I agree people are being swayed, but none of the data suggests that's other than away from Trump.

The data said the same thing last time.

It said he was losing the popular vote, it didn't say GOP voters who'd hold their nose and vote for Trump or some Dem supporters interested by his nonsense rhetoric on restoring the past were moving away from him. Though I'm not willing to believe he'll be out until he's out, so if others don't want to get their hopes up I get that.

[JM2K6]

I agree people are being swayed, but none of the data suggests that's other than away from Trump.

The data said the same thing last time.

It said he was losing the popular vote, it didn't say GOP voters who'd hold their nose and vote for Trump or some Dem supporters interested by his nonsense rhetoric on restoring the past were moving away from him. Though I'm not willing to believe he'll be out until he's out, so if others don't want to get their hopes up I get that.

I'm really conscious of how much "free airtime" with a captive audience can impact things. Look at Farage and the impact he's had thanks to endless appearances on TV.

[tabascoboy]

I'm really conscious of how much "free airtime" with a captive audience can impact things. Look at Farage and the impact he's had thanks to endless appearances on TV.

Certainly when you only say things you know people want to hear.

[Koalabyte]

Showerhead

[Rhubarb & Custard]

The data said the same thing last time.

It said he was losing the popular vote, it didn't say GOP voters who'd hold their nose and vote for Trump or some Dem supporters interested by his nonsense rhetoric on restoring the past were moving away from him. Though I'm not willing to believe he'll be out until he's out, so if others don't want to get their hopes up I get that.

I'm really conscious of how much "free airtime" with a captive audience can impact things. Look at Farage and the impact he's had thanks to endless appearances on TV.

The President is going to drive coverage, and Trump more than most. But that's largely the point of the data saying with people actually having the time to pay attention to what he says and does they're shocked at his ineptitude, and most people aren't following anything like people following a politics thread on a rugby board in normal times, so it's not going well for Trump. And every time Trump complains it's going badly for Trump he's only hurting himself more.

This might be part of the desperation to move the debate on from Covid, but unless Trump accepts it's not Covid or the economy he gets to address it's both he's not going to get any popular coverage. Though that only speaks to the desperation to suppress the vote, and there he might have some opportunities

[Camroc2]

I see Trump is now admitting that he is deliberately with-holding funding from the USPS in order to sabotage mail-in voting in the Presidential election.

Surely this is fraud on a huge scale and Trump is setting himself up for a huge fail ?

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-a ... ?r=US&IR=T

[Rhubarb & Custard]

I see Trump is now admitting that he is deliberately with-holding funding from the USPS in order to sabotage mail-in voting in the Presidential election.

Surely this is fraud on a huge scale and Trump is setting himself up for a huge fail ?

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-a ... ?r=US&IR=T

Trump can cite the USPS is making huge losses, and thus he's seeking to address that rather than anything else. However there are reasons USPS is struggling financially, some of the commitments expected of them don't apply to many agencies, or businesses, and they've struggled since Bush Jr. loaded them with a shit load of additional spend on future pension and health costs.

Now maybe those pension and health costs they're expected to set aside for are themselves reasonable, but almost nobody else has to fund programmes as does the USPS, and if you strip out the changes Bush made they would be making money, and that would undermine the stated concerns of Trump about them losing money.

There is also a debate about does it matter they're losing money? The post is a public service, if you just want to say services should be closed when they cost money how does Trump explain sinking vastly more into the amend forces? The loss on the postal service is small change next to the military spend

[Hugo]

I see Trump is now admitting that he is deliberately with-holding funding from the USPS in order to sabotage mail-in voting in the Presidential election.

Surely this is fraud on a huge scale and Trump is setting himself up for a huge fail ?

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-a ... ?r=US&IR=T

Trump can cite the USPS is making huge losses, and thus he's seeking to address that rather than anything else. However there are reasons USPS is struggling financially, some of the commitments expected of them don't apply to many agencies, or businesses, and they've struggled since Bush Jr. loaded them with a shit load of additional spend on future pension and health costs.

Now maybe those pension and health costs they're expected to set aside for are themselves reasonable, but almost nobody else has to fund programmes as does the USPS, and if you strip out the changes Bush made they would be making money, and that would undermine the stated concerns of Trump about them losing money.

There is also a debate about does it matter they're losing money? The post is a public service, if you just want to say services should be closed when they cost money how does Trump explain sinking vastly more into the amend forces? The loss on the postal service is small change next to the military spend

Yeah, the USPS were set up to fail by the W Bush administration by making them responsible for funding pensions and healthcare in advance.
https://theweek.com/articles/767184/how ... ost-office

This is just classic Republican politics, they undermine a public institution by making demands on it that are unreasonable and unnecessary and would never be applied in the private sector. Then when that institution inevitably starts to fail, or at least is in a perilous financial position they refuse to provide relief with the knock on benefit that it suppresses voting.

[EnergiseR]

Fonz is so balanced. Lucky to have his viewpoints here

[Fonz]

This guy voted for Hillary Clinton, believe that?

What's your point

Self evident, I'd have thought, for anyone who isn't disingenuous.

AFAIK you can still go back and read the old posts on PR from that time, if you really have no recollection about what I thought circa 2016. Not that you will of course. As if I have any reason to misrepresent my views here anyway.

As I've said before, I was still under the twin delusions of "I have to support SOMEBODY" and "the Democrats might not be great but at least they're good guys unlike those stinky Republicans" at the time.