USA Politics (redux)

Started by bhodges, November 10, 2020, 01:09:34 PM

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Karl Henning

doesn't sound very papal, somehow.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus


     As Trump stews over election, he mostly ignores the public duties of the presidency

     Excuse please, I am new here, what is public duty of your President? I only know golf and tweet.

It was Biden who offered the first public condolences to the families of the service members who died in Egypt. "I join all Americans in honoring their sacrifice, as I keep their loved ones in my prayers," he wrote on Twitter in the early afternoon Thursday.

By that time, Trump had issued nearly four dozen critical tweets and retweets about the election results and Fox News, including a baseless conspiracy theory from a far-right television network that alleged votes had been improperly tallied in Pennsylvania. He also found time to thank actor Scott Baio for posting a photo of a craft store's candle display, which had been arranged to spell out, "Trump is still your president."

"Thank you Scott, and stay tuned. You are terrific!" Trump wrote.


     I will stay tuned, too. This is a wonderful country.
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flyingdutchman

Donald lost. Good for the United States and the world.

Now begins Joe's effort to work with a Senate that will hopefully be 50-50, but I don't expect it to turn that way. That said, I just sent money to Ossoff and Warnock with hopes they can pull it off.

No doubt, the Dems need to find new leadership in the House. Time for Nancy to step back.

In the end, I point you to loser.com

flyingdutchman

Quote from: Dowder on November 11, 2020, 04:46:48 PM
Stay tuned, Gurn. This election was like no other due to the vote by mail ballots being shipped out everywhere. Clearly a Dem strategy to win.

That Penn St postal worker has denied he recanted and has been suspended without pay for not staying quiet about the power grab. 

Biden may wind up as president but let the process work itself out. I do take heart in the GOP gains in the house and the chance to have 52 senate seats. At the very least the nutty left wing agenda won't come to fruition.

When January 5 comes and the vote is taken, don't be surprised if the Dems pull it out. Believe me, black and brown votes, along with progressive voters like me won't be voting red.  Atlanta is coming out in force for the Dems.

flyingdutchman

#164
When it does come to governance, I think Joe will outmaneuver McConnell and focus on those things that can bring people together and put Moscow Mitch into a corner. In the end, Mitch will look like the power hog that he is and Joe and the Dems will look like the saviors of our democracy that they are. After all, it isn't hard to bring back a sense of sanity when the inmates (Donald Trump and his sycophants) have been running the asylum.

Herman

Quote from: flyingdutchman on November 12, 2020, 08:23:13 PM
When it does come to governance, I think Joe will outmaneuver McConnell and focus on those things that can bring people together and put Moscow Mitch into a corner. In the end, Mitch will look like the power hog that he is and Joe and the Dems will look like the saviors of our democracy that they are. After all, it isn't hard to bring back a sense of sanity when the inmates (Donald Trump and his sycophants) have been running the asylum.

I'm not that optimistic.

If the Rs keep the Senate majority they will obstruct all legislation.

71 dB

Quote from: Herman on November 12, 2020, 10:37:56 PM
If the Rs keep the Senate majority they will obstruct all legislation.

No they won't.

They are happy to advance Republican legislation. Only if the Dems try to do something RADICAL/SOCIALIST such as give more people healthcare would they need to obstruct obviously.
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Daverz

#167
Quote from: 71 dB on November 13, 2020, 02:07:53 AM
No they won't.

They are happy to advance Republican legislation. Only if the Dems try to do something RADICAL/SOCIALIST such as give more people healthcare would they need to obstruct obviously.

I can't imagine any agreement on any consequential legislation with McConnell in charge. 

Here's a roundup of articles on things that Biden can do without a Democratic Senate:

https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/election-executive-actions-democratic-presidency/

Discussion with the author, David Dayen:

https://www.youtube.com/v/4WWRF3skZfQ?t=1380

Florestan

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 12, 2020, 11:17:59 AM
There were in fact incidents of voter intimidation. Are you sure you want to try to laugh it off?

There were in fact incidents of ballot fraud. Were they carefully planned, systematically executed and so widespread and massive as to really rig the elections? Of course not. The same goes for voter intimidation. Actually I'm sure that this is not the first presidential elections where both isnignifcant ballot fraud and insignificant voter intimidation occured.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

BasilValentine

#169
Quote from: drogulus on November 12, 2020, 08:56:05 AM
     Even if we gave him maximum credit for effort, Trump isn't a dictator. He's simply not up to it. To be fair, it would be difficult for anyone. Democratic states are designed to be deep enough to withstand assault by autocrats. It's not just a matter of form, it's how form and practice are fused. As an economist might say, the Constitution in the US is largely a "post facto identity", a compact to formalize a path already taken.

Of course he's not a dictator any more than he was a successful businessman or a great president. Those were just roles he played on TV, the former apparently successfully enough to entertain the clueless, the latter quite poorly one must say, since he got cancelled after the first season for perpetually low ratings. His current mimicking of authoritarian behavior is a screen test for one of the two roles he's currently up for, that of American dictator. The only other role on offer is con man and career criminal harried by the AG of New York, the criminal division of the IRS, and former victims launching libel suits. He already has that role down and doesn't like the inevitable final episode. So he's going for the other part. From watching those he admires who've made a success of it, Trump knows winning the role of dictator requires certain actions: co-opting the Justice Department, corrupting the courts, silencing dissenting bureaucrats, removing those in the Pentagon and defense department unwilling to use troops against US citizens, and so on. Is he serious about it? He's as serious about it as the world encourages him to be. He's just seeing if anyone finds him believable in the role. If the screen test goes well he will be perfectly happy to become president for life. On the plus side he's a sociopath who would have no problem jailing and killing opponents. On the minus side he's not too bright, he's lazy, and he's a coward. How is he doing so far? His base likes the act, the press is taking him fairly seriously, and lots of people on the left have their panties in knots over it, so he's encouraged and emboldened. Joe Biden is reacting exactly as we all should — rolling his eyes and dismissing it as too absurd even for reality TV.

Que

Reminder:
Response to the content of a post: yes
Personally directed comment: no.

Q

drogulus


     'Milk Him Like a Cow': Russian State Media Mulls How to Take Advantage of Trump Before He's Gone

In an interview with Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, the historian Valery Garbuzov, director of the Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, pointed out: "Trump has played a cruel joke on Russian political elites. In 2016, Russia placed a bet on Trump. I don't know what our top officials were thinking. But they made a major miscalculation... It's time for our elites to sober up..."

     State TV in Russia is almost as bad as it is in the US, where opinions are advanced that are nearly impossible for a sentient being to hold.
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Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 13, 2020, 07:22:59 AM
I just play a President on TV

The more interesting questions are why Pfizer opted to front its own costs when the federal spigot was open, and why it raced to distance itself from Operation Warp Speed once the clinical trial findings were released. For answers to those questions, we have to review the long, sad tale of the Trump administration's mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis over the past nine months.

Except for brief interludes, President Trump more or less fumbled pandemic policy and communications from the get-go. In service of his re-election campaign, he sought to downplay the seriousness of the threat. He has encouraged resistance to public health measures like masking and business lockdowns, leading to huge, rotating disease spikes first in the South and more recently in the Midwest. His overheated rhetoric against social distancing and restrictions on business ("Liberate Michigan!") culminated in FBI-thwarted plots to kidnap the governors of Michigan and Virginia. Finally, his resolute refusal to adhere to, or allow those around him to adhere to, basic disease mitigation practices resulted in a mini-epidemic for the first family and dozens of members of his administration. Back in August, even Mitch McConnell started avoiding a White House that looked every day more like a scene from The Hot Zone


The stable genius is denial and he simply can't deal with the fact that he has been wrong since day one about COVID. I'll be honest when I heard he got COVID himself I felt bad for him, then I realized it was a political hoax to downplay the severity of the virus. Given he's in his mid-70s now and sleeps only around 3-4 hours a night (by his own admission), it's nothing short than miraculous that he got over COVID in a few days. And yet, he still doesn't wear a mask. Unbelievable. Irresponsible. Inhumane. That's our president. :-[

drogulus


     Symptoms of mental difficulty manifest at The Bulwark.

These countries are left with few options to improve their budget balances and stabilize their public-debt ratios. Any attempt at belt-tightening when their economies are still weak would risk deepening the recession, which would  hardly reduce their debt-to-GDP ratio.

     Split these sentences to derive any meaning they might have.

These countries are left with few options to improve their budget balances and stabilize their public-debt ratios

     Countries should improve their budget balances and stabilize their public-debt ratios.

Any attempt at belt-tightening when their economies are still weak would risk deepening the recession, which would  hardly reduce their debt-to-GDP ratio.

     Oh, so......in order to reduce public debt-to-GDP we must do something that would hardly reduce debt-to-GDP.

     Let's review. We must do something that can't work in order to prevent the tragedy of doing something that does work, keeping the economy on life support until it can stop being dead and people can return to jobs.

     Budget balances and debt-to-GDP are measures, not goals. Goals are what happens in the economy. That's where "shoulds" are, not the numbers that occur while you're "shoulding".
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flyingdutchman

So, Trump's final gambit is to try and convince GOP majority legislators in PA, AZ, MI, and WI to toss the will of the people and select Trump electors.  https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-win-fantasy-electors-bid-053422014.html

Herman

The best thing that could happen to the GOP is to get rid of Trump and go for a solid reboot.

This would also allow for some spectacular make-overs for Cruz and Graham, who will be happy, once Trump's embroiled in multiple lawsuits, to claim they never liked him.

71 dB

Quote from: Herman on November 14, 2020, 02:51:27 AM
The best thing that could happen to the GOP is to get rid of Trump and go for a solid reboot.

The GOP could dump it's corporate donors and religious lunatics and became the left wing party for regular people advocating things like medicare for all, New Green Deal, tuition free education etc. AOC & co. would join it and then the US would have a left wing party (rebooted Republicans) and a right wing party (corporate Dems).
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Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
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My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Todd

Quote from: Herman on November 14, 2020, 02:51:27 AMThe best thing that could happen to the GOP is to get rid of Trump and go for a solid reboot.


The actual election results demonstrate otherwise.  In the midst of pandemic and depression, it was Democrats who underperformed and Republicans who did better than expected.  A "solid reboot" is the worst possible advice.  Republicans know this.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Zeus

The Trump brand is damaged.  Rather than a wily outsider, Trump is now an unhinged loser. 

He will help the Dems immensely.  I wish him many years in the spotlight – on OANN and Parler.
"There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. There are simply different ways of doing it." – Emmanuel Radnitzky (Man Ray)