President Biden and US politics catchall

[SaintK]

So what exactly have the Democrats offered as a counter to Trump?

And apart from being a loudmouth yank with a grandiose opinion of himself has Trump actually done wrong in his 4 years?

Hmmmm, I'd need to think about that for a while

[-RB-]

This may have been how the US portrayed itself (and was perceived) during the cold war but I think its time we moved on from this mythology.

The mass shootings, gun violence in general, militarized police forces, the hawkish foreign policy, lack of universal healthcare, the lobbying power of Big Business are just some of the really big problems facing the US.

I think its time to stop buying into this Hollywood fantasy that America is a model democracy or a model society.

You forgot the homelessness - it’s truly disgusting to see camps of homeless people scattered all over the place. Thousands. Everywhere.

Except I live in one of the largest cities in the country and there is no such thing here. I guess we must be the exception. Probably the only one.

Oh well move on then. Nothing to see here then.

Serious question Fonzee, have you travelled much, specifically to other western developed nations? You are clearly a very smart guy with your finger on the pulse as to what is going on there, people's motivations, historical context, minority background etc I enjoy your informative and insightful posts.

But...

...I don't think you really get just how abhorrent some of us from other first world nations on here view the rampant gun violence, the homelessness, the fucked up healthcare, the prison system, the cost of tertiary education, the lobbying, the opiod epidemic, the covid situation etc etc...

Look it's clearly a great place for the majority but nonetheless it's majorly messed up. It's not just america bashing all the time. It is possible to hold these views and still be thankful the US is around to keep all the bastard regime shitholes in check and be also remain aware of the problems in one's own backyard.

It's a perspective thing and being the US everyone has one.

[JM2K6]

Just more fuel for the fire of internal screaming: https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-the ... 0-election

[Sandstorm]

Just more fuel for the fire of internal screaming: https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-the ... 0-election

Surprising that a large majority of the conspiracy theory loons he interviewed were women.

[Raggs]

Just more fuel for the fire of internal screaming: https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-the ... 0-election

Surprising that a large majority of the conspiracy theory loons he interviewed were women.

As a likely biased and completely wrong opinion, women seem to latch onto the health conspiracies, vaccines, chem trails etc, whilst men seem to go more for moon landings and flat earth sort.

[Rinkals]

250,000 Covid cases emanating from a motorcycle rally.


It would seem that Trump's supporters are in danger of handing the election to Biden through Darwin.

While the BLM protests have also shown a disinclination for social distancing, at least they are more open to wearing masks.

[EnergiseR]

Just more fuel for the fire of internal screaming: https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-the ... 0-election

Jesus

[Hugo]

Strange goings on in twitter land.

Unless I'm much mistaken - Tulsi Gabbard tweets her disdain for a programme that sexualizes little kids on netflix. Then loads of the democrat true believers jump all over her calling her a QAnon conspiracy theorist, Republican, Russian asset etc. all for calling out child exploitation/pedophilia and despite the fact she endorsed Biden months ago when iirc Bernie was still in the race.

[CrazyIslander]

I wonder if QAnon has some mind control technique that can work of certain type of readers. There's always this "do your own research" explanation.

I wonder if the "research" is a controlled process of mind control.... eg Look at my watch..

[JM2K6]

Strange goings on in twitter land.

Unless I'm much mistaken - Tulsi Gabbard tweets her disdain for a programme that sexualizes little kids on netflix. Then loads of the democrat true believers jump all over her calling her a QAnon conspiracy theorist, Republican, Russian asset etc. all for calling out child exploitation/pedophilia and despite the fact she endorsed Biden months ago when iirc Bernie was still in the race.

The backlash against "Cuties" does appear to be repeating QAnon talking points. I'm not planning on watching it but there sure are a lot of people denouncing it as kiddy porn when it's explictily a film critquing the hypersexualisation of children.

https://www.vox.com/culture/21431237/cu ... -explained seems a pretty good primer on this.

Gabbard has plenty of form for entertaining conspiracy theories so I can see how this particular storm arrived

[Hugo]

Qanon talking point or not its an own goal by the democrats. Someone with a D after their name denounced child sexual exploitation and they vilified her for it. Its not the hill you want to die on.

[JM2K6]

Qanon talking point or not its an own goal by the democrats. Someone with a D after their name denounced child sexual exploitation and they vilified her for it. Its not the hill you want to die on.

Fake child sexual exploitation. "The democrats", by which I assume you mean random people on Twitter, need people to stop believe conspiracy theories.

[Hugo]

Qanon talking point or not its an own goal by the democrats. Someone with a D after their name denounced child sexual exploitation and they vilified her for it. Its not the hill you want to die on.

Fake child sexual exploitation. "The democrats", by which I assume you mean random people on Twitter, need people to stop believe conspiracy theories.

But Tulsi's argument is that by depicting sexualized children you are complicit in the act of sexualizing them and you are providing content for paedophiles. That's something that most people seem to agree upon so its a dumb thing to take issue with in an effort to score points against Tulsi.

[JM2K6]

Qanon talking point or not its an own goal by the democrats. Someone with a D after their name denounced child sexual exploitation and they vilified her for it. Its not the hill you want to die on.

Fake child sexual exploitation. "The democrats", by which I assume you mean random people on Twitter, need people to stop believe conspiracy theories.

But Tulsi's argument is that by depicting sexualized children you are complicit in the act of sexualizing them and you are providing content for paedophiles. That's something that most people seem to agree upon so its a dumb thing to take issue with in an effort to score points against Tulsi.

Well no, her argument, such as it is, is that the movie is child porn and will fuel the child trafficking trade. It's neither.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

I would hope most people wouldn't be looking to score points against Tulsi over this, much better to just ignore her in the first place

[Hugo]

Fake child sexual exploitation. "The democrats", by which I assume you mean random people on Twitter, need people to stop believe conspiracy theories.

But Tulsi's argument is that by depicting sexualized children you are complicit in the act of sexualizing them and you are providing content for paedophiles. That's something that most people seem to agree upon so its a dumb thing to take issue with in an effort to score points against Tulsi.

Well no, her argument, such as it is, is that the movie is child porn and will fuel the child trafficking trade. It's neither.

Many people appear not to share your view. Its almost like taking her to task on this particular issue is politically counterproductive and unwise.

[JM2K6]

But Tulsi's argument is that by depicting sexualized children you are complicit in the act of sexualizing them and you are providing content for paedophiles. That's something that most people seem to agree upon so its a dumb thing to take issue with in an effort to score points against Tulsi.

Well no, her argument, such as it is, is that the movie is child porn and will fuel the child trafficking trade. It's neither.

Many people appear not to share your view. Its almost like taking her to task on this particular issue is politically counterproductive and unwise.

Dude you're talking about random people on twitter having a go at her. It's not some sort of Democratic political strategy. It's people arguing on twitter.

[Hal Jordan]

Obama still living rent free in Trump's head as the Orange One brings out "Barack Hussein".

[Fonz]

Oh well move on then. Nothing to see here then.

Serious question Fonzee, have you travelled much, specifically to other western developed nations? You are clearly a very smart guy with your finger on the pulse as to what is going on there, people's motivations, historical context, minority background etc I enjoy your informative and insightful posts.

But...

...I don't think you really get just how abhorrent some of us from other first world nations on here view the rampant gun violence, the homelessness, the fucked up healthcare, the prison system, the cost of tertiary education, the lobbying, the opiod epidemic, the covid situation etc etc...

Look it's clearly a great place for the majority but nonetheless it's majorly messed up. It's not just america bashing all the time. It is possible to hold these views and still be thankful the US is around to keep all the bastard regime shitholes in check and be also remain aware of the problems in one's own backyard.

It's a perspective thing and being the US everyone has one.

Traveled plenty around this country, but apart from a dozen or so visits to Quebec in the past few years (got family there now), and my first visit to Europe (Portugal) last year to see my now-expat dad, no. Certainly plan to, definitely would love to, but vacations were mostly for visiting family growing up, and I've been effectively impoverished since I left the nest. God willing, that will change next summer when I graduate and get a proper job.

Anywho, I do understand how many of those things are viewed...I share many of those views myself! And trust me, you won't find an American who doesn't think the nation is majorly messed up -- all that varies is what they consider to be a problem, and correspondingly whether they blame it on rednecks or libs.

Nevertheless, some things I see and hear reflect a cartoon America that doesn't really comport with reality. Take the above example; there is no doubt that there is a massive homeless problem in places like California, really all up and down the West Coast. But an italicized everywhere (and I'm told we Yanks have trouble with irony and sarcasm, so please set me straight if I'm missing it), suggests that this is ubiquitous. And it's not, not even close. [My pet peeve-est cartoonish disconnect is on race relations; God knows how many fools I've had to smack down for insisting that blacks open-carrying would get lit up like Peter Weller in the opening scene of Robocop. Thankfully the aforementioned and well-named Not Fucking Around Coalition seems to have put that to bed once and for all.]

But let us also look closer at that post (and not taking a shot at you Ali Cadoo, you're just the nearest available source). Our failure to do anything about this is "truly disgusting"; in response to Hugo's post listing our various flaws, I don't think it's a leap to suggest that this is implying a collective moral failing. And I wouldn't say that there's nothing to that assertion.

But can we be real for one second? We are larger than Germany. The UK. France. Spain. And Italy. Combined. We are 66x larger than your great nation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this day and age we tend to assign moral blame to actors who have control over their (in)actions. Do you all really believe that we can just all get up tomorrow and fix all of these things? Do you believe we can fix anything?

I guess the tldr version is: we cannot be like your nations. A liberal democracy containing a third of a billion people has never been attempted, and when you think about all the money in play, the diversity (I don't necessarily mean ethnic, but probably that too to a degree), and the realities of information dissemination in the digital age, I don't think I'm being dramatic by saying that the odds are against it working.

It is an audacious project. Cut us some slack.

[Fonz]

A liberal democracy containing a third of a billion people has never been attempted

And if one of you clowns makes non-ironic peep about India, I'm gonna fucking lose it.

[Fonz]

Strange goings on in twitter land.

Unless I'm much mistaken - Tulsi Gabbard tweets her disdain for a programme that sexualizes little kids on netflix. Then loads of the democrat true believers jump all over her calling her a QAnon conspiracy theorist, Republican, Russian asset etc. all for calling out child exploitation/pedophilia and despite the fact she endorsed Biden months ago when iirc Bernie was still in the race.

The backlash against "Cuties" does appear to be repeating QAnon talking points. I'm not planning on watching it but there sure are a lot of people denouncing it as kiddy porn when it's explictily a film critquing the hypersexualisation of children.

https://www.vox.com/culture/21431237/cu ... -explained seems a pretty good primer on this.

Gabbard has plenty of form for entertaining conspiracy theories so I can see how this particular storm arrived

The Cuties saga that's been playing out is a bit of a funny one. While some images associated with it like the one above are truly a bit stomach churning, you do have to ultimately approve of what (apparently) seems to be the traditional-morality message. Of course, like you I don't intend to watch it.

People must realize: there are videos on Youtube and the like (at least there were, can't say I've checked, but I remember Daniel Tosh doing a segment on this a few years back) of young girls playing in sprinklers, doing dance recitals, things that would otherwise be cute home movies...with literally tens of millions of views. Deplorable of the parents who surely must have some awareness, but I digress. The point is, Cuties isn't the problem, and inasmuch as it's got anything to say about the problem of children-as-sex-objects, it seems they're coming out on the right side of things.

That said, though Tulsi occupies a truly bizarre place in the political sphere, I don't think opposition to Cuties is limited to the QAnon crew. She's appealing to the quasi-conservative wing of the cultural warrior gang as well as those skeptical of our new media overlords, not necessarily Qs. In other words, this is all part of her anti-establishment shtick.

[fishfoodie]

Strange goings on in twitter land.

Unless I'm much mistaken - Tulsi Gabbard tweets her disdain for a programme that sexualizes little kids on netflix. Then loads of the democrat true believers jump all over her calling her a QAnon conspiracy theorist, Republican, Russian asset etc. all for calling out child exploitation/pedophilia and despite the fact she endorsed Biden months ago when iirc Bernie was still in the race.

The backlash against "Cuties" does appear to be repeating QAnon talking points. I'm not planning on watching it but there sure are a lot of people denouncing it as kiddy porn when it's explictily a film critquing the hypersexualisation of children.

https://www.vox.com/culture/21431237/cu ... -explained seems a pretty good primer on this.

Gabbard has plenty of form for entertaining conspiracy theories so I can see how this particular storm arrived

The Cuties saga that's been playing out is a bit of a funny one. While some images associated with it like the one above are truly a bit stomach churning, you do have to ultimately approve of what (apparently) seems to be the traditional-morality message. Of course, like you I don't intend to watch it.

People must realize: there are videos on Youtube and the like (at least there were, can't say I've checked, but I remember Daniel Tosh doing a segment on this a few years back) of young girls playing in sprinklers, doing dance recitals, things that would otherwise be cute home movies...with literally tens of millions of views. Deplorable of the parents who surely must have some awareness, but I digress. The point is, Cuties isn't the problem, and inasmuch as it's got anything to say about the problem of children-as-sex-objects, it seems they're coming out on the right side of things.

The point is that the US, & to a lesser extent; other countries; has a real problem with parents viewing their children as an exploitable resource, to make money. The whole, child pageant scene is a sewer of adults using their children, to gain ..... ????

[Ali Cadoo]

Right: that's IT, Fonzee. DEAD. TO. ME.



.. or..

No, that's fair enough.

[Hong Kong]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/ ... ets-414883

[Ted.]

Well no, her argument, such as it is, is that the movie is child porn and will fuel the child trafficking trade. It's neither.

Many people appear not to share your view. Its almost like taking her to task on this particular issue is politically counterproductive and unwise.

Dude you're talking about random people on twitter having a go at her. It's not some sort of Democratic political strategy. It's people arguing on twitter.

Russian, Iranian or Chinese trolls/bots most likely. Or of course, Republican trolls/bots.

[Ali Cadoo]

'A firehose of lying' - to everyone's utter shock and amazement.

[Fangle]

I’m pleased to see that Georgia is preparing for this election. In my county they are increasing the early voting stations from eight to fifty. They report they they are getting many more voting machines because of the chaos at the primary elections where some voters had to wait after midnight to vote.

I have received forms to request absentee ballots, addressed both to me and to the residents of my address.

[Sinkers]

So what do we think of the Biden townhall?

Only watched some clips - a bit weak on the chicken farm thing but seemed on point elsewhere and no indication of cognitive weakness that I saw. Not barnstorming though.

[Saint]

So what do we think of the Biden townhall?

Only watched some clips - a bit weak on the chicken farm thing but seemed on point elsewhere and no indication of cognitive weakness that I saw. Not barnstorming though.

He was competent, fairly energetic. the usual contrast to Trump - stringing sentences together, making sense, showing empathy. There were a few moments where I thought he made strong points - on Trump belittling the military for instance.

Ordinarily you'd say it was nothing to really write home about, but when the bar has been set so low, it was a home run. The Trump campaign complaining yet again about the easy ride he got tells you exactly what they thought about it

[Rinkals]

So what do we think of the Biden townhall?

Only watched some clips - a bit weak on the chicken farm thing but seemed on point elsewhere and no indication of cognitive weakness that I saw. Not barnstorming though.

Disappointing really.

He was all over the place. He'd say one thing and then get sidetracked and forget what it was he was talking about in the first place. Which should give Trump supporters a fair bit of ammunition to use against him. Not that Trump is any better, but you know how these things work.

[Rinkals]

I'm expecting Moscow Mitch to swing into action this morning (in the US).

They've had plenty of warning that it was coming and plenty of time to prepare for a new nomination to replace RBG.

I can't imagine that there would be any sort of seemly restraint in the matter; it's just not McConnell's way.

Edit:- My bad: he did it last night.

[BnM]

Trumps twitter feed could be entertaining later today Needs volume on

[JM2K6]

I mean, this is a little more newsworthy:

[fishfoodie]

Trumps twitter feed could be entertaining later today Needs volume on

He probably had to go cower in the bunker again after that.

[Raggs]

"I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.... We wanna have... get rid of the ballots and there won't be a transfer, there'll be a continuation."

[Uncle fester]

I mean, this is a little more newsworthy:

I'd interpret that as him bragging that he'll win rather than threatening to hold on if he loses.

[Raggs]

I mean, this is a little more newsworthy:

I'd interpret that as him bragging that he'll win rather than threatening to hold on if he loses.

I interpret it as him lining up massive riots should he lose, from people complaining that the ballots were rigged.

[JM2K6]

It's a continuation of the months-long campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the election, all while he and his cronies work to mess with people's ability to actually vote.

[Raggs]

It's a continuation of the months-long campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the election, all while he and his cronies work to mess with people's ability to actually vote.

Yep. Cripple the mail voting system, on top of the craziness of the pandemic, convince your own lot that the pandemic isn't real, so they vote via normal means rather than mail. Make sure your crazy section are aware that you think it's all rigged.

[Hal Jordan]

And stack the SC so that when you launch your bid to have huge numbers of blue votes invalidated you get a 6-3 decision in your favour.

If this was happening in Africa they'd be yelling "Failed state".