USA Politics

[Karl Henning]

Brian Karem:

"In short, there is nothing notably Christian about Donald Trump's supposed Christianity and no reason a Christian would see him as such. His evangelical supporters' ability to turn a blind eye to his massive lack of piety is incredible.

He spends most of his Sundays on the back nine at his favorite self-owned golf clubs. He ignores the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic because he doesn't know how to handle it and is reduced to letting it rage in a futile attempt to obtain "herd immunity" at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead Americans.

While Jesus told us those who live by the sword will die by the sword, modern evangelicals support a president who lives by "might makes right," whose government caged children and reportedly forced hysterectomies on undocumented immigrants.

Many of these evangelicals have been showing up for the Trump tent revival traveling road show in the last weeks of the election. They were among those this week who were stranded in the freezing cold at an Ohio rally and passed out under the hot sun in a Florida rally.

Not since William Jennings Bryan—another famous "fly-catcher," as H.L. Mencken lampooned him—has an American politician so successfully conned the nation.

But while Donald Trump's cons are obvious and abhorrent to many, they are just as easily believed and easily embraced by others.

Next week it will be put up or shut up time for the United States of America."

[flyingdutchman]

My PhD dissertation actually is on the impact of nationalistic nativist trends on international engagement.  Donald Trump is the poster child.

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/09/15/us-image-plummets-internationally-as-most-say-country-has-handled-coronavirus-badly/

[drogulus]

     Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind!

     https://twitter.com/i/status/1317920644336513024

[drogulus]

Speaking of violence, I'll link this thread
https://mobile.twitter.com/ericcervini/status/1322336226792321025

     The curious thing is that BLM and antifa don't seem to be trying to create election problems. They aren't cooperating with the narrative the extreme right groups want to establish that the election is endangered by violent left wingers. So far it looks like the FBI made the right call, and Wray will be gone very soon.

     I think the idea that Trump will lose and sneak away in the dark of night is less plausible than another scenario, which is Bad Orange Man goes on a pardonpalooza of such grandeur that there won't be anyone left to rat on him except the incumbent rats like Cohen. By a strange twist of fate Barr might limit the damage. It sounds crazy but there are faint signs that he has a limit, whether that's due to possible personal consequences or something almost like duty to his office is impossible to say, so I will. It's some of both.

[71 dB]

Cenk Uygur's election prediction: Biden 335 - Trump 203.

[JBS]

Brian Karem:

"In short, there is nothing notably Christian about Donald Trump's supposed Christianity and no reason a Christian would see him as such. His evangelical supporters' ability to turn a blind eye to his massive lack of piety is incredible.

He spends most of his Sundays on the back nine at his favorite self-owned golf clubs. He ignores the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic because he doesn't know how to handle it and is reduced to letting it rage in a futile attempt to obtain "herd immunity" at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead Americans.

While Jesus told us those who live by the sword will die by the sword, modern evangelicals support a president who lives by "might makes right," whose government caged children and reportedly forced hysterectomies on undocumented immigrants.

Many of these evangelicals have been showing up for the Trump tent revival traveling road show in the last weeks of the election. They were among those this week who were stranded in the freezing cold at an Ohio rally and passed out under the hot sun in a Florida rally.

Not since William Jennings Bryan—another famous "fly-catcher," as H.L. Mencken lampooned him—has an American politician so successfully conned the nation.

But while Donald Trump's cons are obvious and abhorrent to many, they are just as easily believed and easily embraced by others.

Next week it will be put up or shut up time for the United States of America."

On behalf of Bryan I will object to a comparison between him and Trump. (And Mencken had a low opinion of almost everyone.)
He was an actual believer in the tenets of fundamentalist Protestantism, and he resigned from his position of Secretary of State as a protest against Wilson's increasing hawkishness against Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania. Imagine Trump doing anything like that.

[JBS]

     The curious thing is that BLM and antifa don't seem to be trying to create election problems. They aren't cooperating with the narrative the extreme right groups want to establish that the election is endangered by violent left wingers. So far it looks like the FBI made the right call, and Wray will be gone very soon.

     I think the idea that Trump will lose and sneak away in the dark of night is less plausible than another scenario, which is Bad Orange Man goes on a pardonpalooza of such grandeur that there won't be anyone left to rat on him except the incumbent rats like Cohen. By a strange twist of fate Barr might limit the damage. It sounds crazy but there are faint signs that he has a limit, whether that's due to possible personal consequences or something almost like duty to his office is impossible to say, so I will. It's some of both.

In fact a pardon will hurt Trump in some of those cases. Once pardoned, they won't be in danger of incriminating themselves, so they can't plead the Fifth if called to testify for Congress, grand juries, and trials (civil and criminal).  So any dirt they have on Trump would come out as evidence.

That's the likely reason Trump commuted Stone's sentence but didn't pardon him.  It allowed Stone to still plead the Fifth.

[greg]

From a year ago, but just finding this now.

Although it could have been just a dream, you know, back at the time the mainstream media said that Antifa was imaginary, so it must be true.

[Daverz]

In fact a pardon will hurt Trump in some of those cases. Once pardoned, they won't be in danger of incriminating themselves, so they can't plead the Fifth if called to testify for Congress, grand juries, and trials (civil and criminal).  So any dirt they have on Trump would come out as evidence.

That's the likely reason Trump commuted Stone's sentence but didn't pardon him.  It allowed Stone to still plead the Fifth.

Yeah, it's not like any former trumpies would lie under oath. 

[JBS]

Yeah, it's not like any former trumpies would lie under oath. 

Indeed. But they could be prosecuted for that since it would be post-pardon.

[Daverz]

Indeed. But they could be prosecuted for that since it would be post-pardon.

Sadly

https://www.google.com/search?q=prosecution+for+perjury+rare

[drogulus]

In fact a pardon will hurt Trump in some of those cases. Once pardoned, they won't be in danger of incriminating themselves, so they can't plead the Fifth if called to testify for Congress, grand juries, and trials (civil and criminal).  So any dirt they have on Trump would come out as evidence.

That's the likely reason Trump commuted Stone's sentence but didn't pardon him.  It allowed Stone to still plead the Fifth.

     Good point, maybe he's screwed if he loses whatever he does.

From a year ago, but just finding this now.

Although it could have been just a dream, you know, back at the time the mainstream media said that Antifa was imaginary, so it must be true.

     Nobody says antifa is imaginary. I think this guy is doing a great job and I support what he does. Here's how he got started:

While this was not his first country gig at the Silver Dollar Lounge, it was his most significant. After he and his band finished their set, Davis was approached by a patron who was around 15 years his senior. Not an unusual occurrence for a working musician. However, while praising Davis on his performance, the patron candidly noted that he had never seen a black man who could play like Jerry Lee Lewis.

More curious than offended, Davis used this encounter as an opportunity for friendly discourse rather than outrage. "I explained to this older white guy that Jerry Lee Lewis was influenced by the same black boogie-woogie and blues piano players as I was," Davis says with a chuckle. "He didn't believe me. Then I told him that Jerry Lewis is a good friend of mine and well, he didn't believe that either, but he was fascinated."

"So he asks me to join him for a drink," he continues. "I don't drink so I had a glass of cranberry juice and then he took his glass and cheered me. Then he said, 'You know, this is the first time I ever sat down and had a drink with a black person.' I was instantly curious and thought, 'What's going on here?' So I asked him why. He didn't answer at first but eventually admitted that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan."

     My opinion of anarchists is generally low. Frustrated idealists are closet absolutists.
     

[Karl Henning]

On behalf of Bryan I will object to a comparison between him and Trump. (And Mencken had a low opinion of almost everyone.)
He was an actual believer in the tenets of fundamentalist Protestantism, and he resigned from his position of Secretary of State as a protest against Wilson's increasing hawkishness against Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania. Imagine Trump doing anything like that.

Your quarrel is just.

[Herman]

And in Greg's home state it was Trump supporters  -  not 'Antifa'  -  that harrassed the Biden - Harris bus on the highway, creating dangerous situations while calling Biden a communist and trying to box him in on the road.

[greg]

Nobody says antifa is imaginary. I think this guy is doing a great job and I support what he does. Here's how he got started:

The idea seemed to be floating around a while ago, though, saw it in a few different places in a short amount of time...
it was probably some other words as well being used, the idea floating around that Antifa isn't real, etc.
if we go back a bit:

The joke clearly went over your head. Antifa isn't actually an organization one can sign up for. It doesn't have an institutional existence. You are the kind of citizen the Trump administration is performing for when it cites imaginary terrorist organizations as a justification for employing secret police in American cities: The massively, willfully ignorant.

This guy used the word "imaginary" around that time:
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/1591161757985/ex-antifa-member-slams-nadler-for-calling-far-left-group-imaginary-thats-just-false

I think this guy is doing a great job and I support what he does.

Definitely.

And in Greg's home state it was Trump supporters  -  not 'Antifa'  -  that harrassed the Biden - Harris bus on the highway, creating dangerous situations while calling Biden a communist and trying to box him in on the road.

*current state (only lived here one year)

And yeah, those people are idiots. Absolutely retarded.

[Herman]

And yeah, those people are idiots. Absolutely retarded.

And yet you don't seem to be anywhere near as worried about these things as about Antifa.

The discussion about whether Antifa is an organization is genuine. These are just ad hoc groups that respond to social media alerts.

Well, the same goes for these alt-right groups that appear out of nowhere and wreck things.

Fox and the White House do not condemn the latter instances, which is why some people are not as excercised about them.

[Florestan]

And in Greg's home state it was Trump supporters  -  not 'Antifa' -  that harrassed the Biden - Harris bus on the highway, creating dangerous situations while calling Biden a communist and trying to box him in on the road.

The discussion about whether Antifa is an organization is genuine. These are just ad hoc groups that respond to social media alerts.

Well, the same goes for these alt-right groups that appear out of nowhere and wreck things.

Bothsiderism! 

[prémont]

Cenk Uygur's election prediction: Biden 335 - Trump 203.

Do we dare to be that optimistic?

[71 dB]

Do we dare to be that optimistic?

You are just as optimistic or pessimistic as you want. Those are Cenk Uygur's numbers. Soon we will see how wrong he was.

Biden is nationally up about 8 %. People are overcorrecting because of what happened in 2016 thinking you can't trust the polls, but in 2016 Hillary was 3 % up in the polls and won popular vote by 2 % so the polls were not that wrong. She just got "too many" votes in blue states and not enough in the rust belt and lost the electorate vote. As a matter of fact the polling has been finetuned since 2016 to take likely voters into account better and the polls are a little bit more favorable to Trump than they were in 2016. That makes Biden's victory even more likely.

[Herman]

These predictions are about regular polling, not about vastly manipulated elections. (I believe Trump's word is 'rigged'.) They don't make Biden's real win more likely. They only show what would happen in unrigged elections.

In republican run states hundreds of thousands of votes are going to be thrown out on capricious rules put in place specifically to reduce the vote. It's the only way, as Trump and any other GOP-er will admit, the GOP can win, and they are dead-set to do just that, and use the next few years to put more crazy rules in place to ensure a permanent counterintuitive majority.