USA Politics (redux)

[Herman]

That unfortunately doesn't work.  [...]  Highly educated, intelligent people seem to be MORE susceptible to this and not less.  The only cure is face to face conversation with people that think differently from you.

Yes, strange isn't it? People are using enormous amounts of brainpower to be right in the wrong way. (Disagree about the bothsideism)

Obviously the pandemic is very bad for this; people get even more isolated and more susceptible for fear and anxiety.

The Guardian writes that groups of Covid Hoaxers are invading hospitals to shout "covid is a hoax" outside ICUs where people are dying. I want to call this so insanely awful that it's like the Medieval St Vitus Dance craze, but I don't want to say bad things about the medieval age.

[drogulus]

     

     

     It's a mistake to think there can be a neutral point between a disease and it's cure. Should we try to understand what the virus wants from us in the name of unity? Should we move on?

[SimonNZ]

'My Antifa Lover': I read the weirdest Trump-era erotica so you don't have to
The Trump years were a powerful creative muse for self-published erotic and romance literature. We review four of the most memorable

[Herman]

I pass

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I felt sick to my stomach when I heard about Sen. McCarthy going down to Florida to visit Trump--particularly after his turnabout from condemning Trump's actions.

PD

[SimonNZ]

Giuliani's Loopy Voter Fraud Witness Says She's Running For Michigan House Seat
Mellissa Carone, who went viral for her bizarre and discredited testimony last month, now plans to run for a seat that may not exist after redistricting.

[SimonNZ]

Excited to learn that the authors of the excellent "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign" - an all-access and highly critical near oral history of the 2016 Clinton campaign - are about to bring out a new book "Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency" based on the same level of access.

[SimonNZ]

Seven million votes hardly qualifies as "barely".

I doubt that's what they're getting at with "barely". I suspect its more to do with the unfathomably high number who still voted for him after everything, and if he'd just done a little that was positive on covid or just gotten out of tje way of the experts and he'd done just a little of, say, infrastructure then that little might have won him a second term, all other sins forgiven. it may also refer to the ways the Ds undermine their own messaging.

Really: Shattered was excellent, I'll be ordering the new one tomorrow.

[DavidW]

Even Mitch McConnell called it as an unequivocal landslide victory so yeah it is not barely.  This has to be called out because of the dangerous use of language these times. Just look at "storming the capitol" which romanticizes what happened. The "steal the election" rhetoric is incredibly Orwellian. It is scary how outright lies become acceptable and promoted.

[SimonNZ]

(Shrug) I'll read the book and let you know.

If it's following the model of Shattered it's going to be focused on the behind the scenes decisions made during the campaign , both the good and the bad and who made those decisions and why..

[Fëanor]

Even Mitch McConnell called it as an unequivocal landslide victory so yeah it is not barely.  This has to be called out because of the dangerous use of language these times. Just look at "storming the capitol" which romanticizes what happened. The "steal the election" rhetoric is incredibly Orwellian. It is scary how outright lies become acceptable and promoted.

It's appalling when people prefer lies they want to believe over uncomfortable truths.  This is what has happened in case of 30-40% of the US electorate.

Why?

Whether rational or not, the majority of that minority believe the USA they believed in has left them behind, and they feel disposed of what they believe is their birthright.  (Again, this what they believe whether justified or not.)  They believe the Democratic Party have abandoned and disowned them.  They feel that Democrat elites now care only about Blacks and other minorities, and listen only to academic elites and liberal-control media.

Do they have a case?  Well what is a fact is that the median income in the USA, (and not only the USA come to that), has stagnated while ALL wealth increases have gone to the top 10% and most of that to the top 1% and most of that to the top .01%.  This is due global trends such as automation, (the main culprit), and globalization of the workforces;  in the case of the USA at least, it has been exacerbated by "trickle-down" policies of the last 40 years, especially on taxation, that have systematically favoured the rich.  While the Republican Party is the author of trickle-down, (a.k.a. supply-side), the Democrats have achieved very little to reverse it.

Ironic as it obviously is, this minority have rejected progressive measures such as universal healthcare, free education, etc., that tend to come from Democrats.  And there's the problem:  these folks would rather listen to lies coming from the alt-Right that pander to their fond myths and prejudices than understand what is in their own best interests.

With this as the reality can there really be any hope?

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I feel for him and his family. 

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Trump is having a hard time hanging onto his legal defense team.  Interesting to read about who his replacements are:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/31/donald-trumps-impeachment-defence-in-disarray-as-lead-lawyers-quit-reports

And from what I understand, Trump's lawyers are supposed to submit their defense memo/strategy tomorrow.

PD

[Karl Henning]

Trump is having a hard time hanging onto his legal defense team.  Interesting to read about who his replacements are:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/31/donald-trumps-impeachment-defence-in-disarray-as-lead-lawyers-quit-reports

And from what I understand, Trump's lawyers are supposed to submit their defense memo/strategy tomorrow.

PD

He ought to have had comparable difficulty with his frivolous court challenges to the election results ....

[Pohjolas Daughter]

He ought to have had comparable difficulty with his frivolous court challenges to the election results ....

That would have been nice!!

Interesting too to hear over the course of the past two days as to what some of the news commentators think might be possible reasons as to why the last round of lawyers abandoned him! 

And the new ones:  David Schoen who represented Roger Stone and also met with Jeffrey Epstein (don't know whether or not he agreed to represent him to be fair); Bruce Castor...well, see The Guardian article. 

[SimonNZ]

Well at least you're willing to say that he did indeed win.

[Karl Henning]

Well at least you're willing to say that he did indeed win.

"Meets Low Expectations"

[Herman]

Interesting view, that California voters somehow aren't real voters.

[71 dB]

Interesting view, that California voters somehow aren't real voters.

They are illegal immigrants, cannibalistic satan worshippers, globalist jews, communists and pedophiles. Many of them even believe in science. 

[T. D.]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-republicans-exclusive/exclusive-dozens-of-former-bush-officials-leave-republican-party-calling-it-trump-cult-idUSKBN2A1275