Politics-What's on your mind?

[charley]

I am watching the Nevada Caucus, and so far, Bernie is leading. I just listened to what he said regarding health care. He is right, ya know. We in Canada see health care as a right. I am beginning to see that the strongest candidate so far is Bernie. Everything he says resonates with me. Why can't one of the most powerful and richest countries in the world offer free health care when smaller and less financially able countries such as Canada, France and the UK, etc. (and other European countries) offer free health care to its citizens? It demands - I think - a change of attitude in the people who vote.

I have had a few accidents in my life, have a steel plate in my arm, many screws, visits to the orthopedic surgeon afterwards, etc. There was nerve damage (couldn't feel my fingers), shoulder problems, months of physio, and free reiki. Mostly, have all of my arm back (like more than 95%), and ya know, it didn't cost me a cent.

Recently, having some dental work done, and discovered that the B.C. govt has a $1000 amount available for me that covers most of the costs...

Will probably be having the cataracts removed in the hospital free of charge as well (I changed my mind regarding Lasik surgery).

I don't worry if anything else happens, as I know even as I age, that the govt will take care of me, and this from a country that is not as rich or powerful as the U.S.

It isn't perfect here in Canada, but I don't expect perfection.

If all the delegates across the U.S.A. can rally around one candidate, I now think the Dems can win, even if it is Bernie. I wish him luck.

I don't believe that Bernie in the last election "split the vote". The fact that he didn't get nominated to run did not cause the Dems to lose. One can't blame him for the Dems' loss in that election. The Dems lost cause of Trump and his promise to make America great again (the same promise that Hitler made in the 1930's that got him elected).

Bloomberg can't debate for beans and he has too much baggage, and Biden isn't strong enough. I still like Warren, so we shall see who gets chosen. I am beginning to get interested again to see what happens. :)

[homoe]

https://images.dailykos.com/images/293463/large/13891841_10154530521644255_7999519772859499872_n-1.png?1472506853

[nhplowboi]

They must have found a new med/drug for Donald as I didn't hear him sniffing during his India press conference. I did find him extremely flat and as usual talking and explaining things like a second grader (a little truth mixed in with a vivid imagination).

[~ocean]

They must have found a new med/drug for Donald as I didn't hear him sniffing during his India press conference. I did find him extremely flat and as usual talking and explaining things like a second grader (a little truth mixed in with a vivid imagination).

YNn361umypM

[nhplowboi]

“It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” Trump said at the White House Thursday.....I have often noticed what he spouts are reflections of himself. I can only hope one day I wake up, the miracle has happened and he is gone.

[homoe]

“It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” Trump said at the White House Thursday.....I have often noticed what he spouts are reflections of himself. I can only hope one day I wake up, the miracle has happened and he is gone.

...:goodpost:....

[Martina]

I'm going to miss Chris Matthews. I think it was probably time for him to go, but the MSNBC primetime lineup is weak without him. He has character and personality. I disagreed with him on many important issues, but I liked his show. I like Lawrence O'Donnell, but he's weird as fuck. I get really tired of Rachel's historical ramblings and tendency to exaggerate. Chris Hayes is a sweetheart, but omg his show is like watching paint dry. I guess they could bring Al Sharpton back from the weekend or rehire Melissa Harris-Perry so the weekday lineup is not lily white. Just don't move the homophobe "my emails were hacked" Joy Reid back to prime time, please.

They might put Steve Karnacki into the slot. I like him, but I hope not. It would be another dull white boy.

Well, I will miss Chris. There's no replacing that kind of experience. He was a power broker himself when he worked for Tip O'Neill. He knows politics from the inside. In contrast, Brian Williams is just a slick network journalist. And talk about dull. Anyway, in spite if his anti-Bernie hysteria, Chris Matthews will really be missed. Damn.

[homoe]

“I think it’s rigged against Bernie,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a campaign rally in North Carolina, adding that Sanders could still “pull through” and win the nomination.


He SO wants it to be Bernie he runs against!

His hope is to play the "socialist" card to the hilt! I mean he threw it into his state of the union speech to a resounding applause!

[C0LLETTE]

Until I see Trump hug, kiss, or even shake Xi Jingpin's hand without surgical gloves on, I wont believe a word either of these vile political demagogues say about controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Maybe Pence could be the "King's Taster"....Xi kisses Pence, if Pence doesn't die within 2 weeks, Pence kisses Trump.

[homoe]

Bloomberg says contested convention "only way I can win".


MIAMI (AP) — Mike Bloomberg acknowledged Tuesday he’s aiming for what some Democrats say would be the party’s worst nightmare: A contested convention. “It’s the only way I can win,” he told reporters during a campaign stop at one of his field offices in Miami.

Bloomberg has argued he’s the only candidate who can beat President Donald Trump in the general election.

[C0LLETTE]

BLOOMBERG THANKS SAMOA.

Bloomberg, in gratitude to Samoa, has announced he will buy it and make it the centrepiece of his financial and personal empire. He stopped short of announcing that he, personally, would move to Samoa but he did say that at least half of his Cabinet would be Samoans.

[Orema]

Mario Cuomo gave this keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1984. I was living in NYC at the time and was a fan Cuomo. Despite the roar of applause, most Americans weren't interested in what Mario had to say. The "Masters of the Universe" were in charge telling us to be patient because "trickle-down effect" would soon be in action. <snort>

This is what's on my mind this morning.

3l1iuB5ZNQI

[homoe]

~~~
It's about time these dems and reps put their dicks back in their pants and stop having these pissing contests at the American workers expense!

[homoe]

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,

"We are in the midst of a crisis in our country, a crisis caused by the coronavirus. I cannot believe that the answer to this crisis as we move to address the economic consequences that are so severe for the people of this country — that the answer from our friends on the other side of the aisle is delay, delay, delay. No sense of urgency, no hurry."

REALLY Susan really!!!!

[Kätzchen]

Mario Cuomo gave this keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1984. I was living in NYC at the time and was a fan Cuomo. Despite the roar of applause, most Americans weren't interested in what Mario had to say. The "Masters of the Universe" were in charge telling us to be patient because "trickle-down effect" would soon be in action. <snort>

This is what's on my mind this morning.

3l1iuB5ZNQI


Thank you so much for finding this video of Mario Cuomo's speech from years ago. I was watching Andrew Cuomo's co-vid 19 briefings via YouTube and a couple days back, a news reporter referenced Mario Cuomo while asking the Governor of New York some vital questions about the on-going status of the crisis NYC and NY state is dealing with daily.

I sure do Appreciate you posting this video. Thanks. :rrose:

[C0LLETTE]

Seems that Dan Patrick, a good Christian, small business owner and Lt Gov of Texas worth 25 million$ ( well, who knows) thinks old people and the vulnerable should be thrown onto a sacrificial funeral pyre to save him and the economy that provided him with 25 Million $.

Dan, Dan...want to contribute to the well-being of America? Buy 25 Million $ worth of ventilators and masks with your hefty nest-egg and send them to a hospital in Texas. And then send your kids to the basement to start sewing protective wear for health-care workers/. AND THEN YOU CAN PONTIFICATE ABOUT WHO IS WORTH SAVING>>>YOU PIECE OF EUGENIC SHIT>

[homoe]

Seems that Dan Patrick, a good Christian, small business owner and Lt Gov of Texas worth 25 million$ ( well, who knows) thinks old people and the vulnerable should be thrown onto a sacrificial funeral pyre to save him and the economy that provided him with 25 Million $.

Dan, Dan...want to contribute to the well-being of America? Buy 25 Million $ worth of ventilators and masks with your hefty nest-egg and send them to a hospital in Texas. And then send your kids to the basement to start sewing protective wear for health-care workers/. AND THEN YOU CAN PONTIFICATE ABOUT WHO IS WORTH SAVING>>>YOU PIECE OF EUGENIC SHIT>

Oh he's an idiot, but I think in all fairness he did say he'd be willing to die!
Just in case, let's hope he's working on his will and is leaving a little something to help the fight of this virus OR the countless workers affected by it!

[homoe]

~~
Well it's politics as usually, why am I surprised!? I educated myself recently on "earmarks" and it was quite a education!

Dems & Reps are equally guilty of this tactic. I couldn't find a listing of all the earmarks both parties are trying to slip into this stimulus bill, but the ones I did come across made my blood boil! They had NOTHING whatsoever to do with additional ways in which to help workers so severally affected by this economy.

[C0LLETTE]

Oh he's an idiot, but I think in all fairness he did say he'd be willing to die!
Just in case, let's hope he's working on his will and is leaving a little something to help the fight of this virus OR the countless workers affected by it!

Buddhist monks set themselves on fire to show the depth of their beliefs. This prick has zero credibility. Hand him some matches and we'll see how serious he is. F...ing demagogue.

[nhplowboi]

Agreed homoe! What the hell!!! Would you all PLEASE do your jobs and pass a bill that SOLEY addresses this crisis.

[CherylNYC]

Oh he's an idiot, but I think in all fairness he did say he'd be willing to die!
Just in case, let's hope he's working on his will and is leaving a little something to help the fight of this virus OR the countless workers affected by it!

If he's willing to give up his life in the service of something larger than himself, I encourage him to do something useful and help out with the real warriors at a hospital where real people are really dying.

Moron!

Traditionally marginalized people, (lgbt, POCs, differently abled people), have been considered expendable, but never, EVER in our county's history have elders been considered expendable!

[nhplowboi]

So I had to go to Wal-Mart today because our parrots think they need to eat and believe me they think loudly. The store was pretty empty and decimated of product although I did score the parrot happy meals. While being the designated parrot shopper, I couldn't help but notice THE most elderly customers (seriously)I have ever seen shopping there and we go there ALOT to buy product for the store. I would really hate to think they have bought into this philosophy of supporting the economy, even if they have to die for it.

[Stone-Butch]

Our Prime Ministers wife got the virus and now Prince Charles has the virus. Apparently money and power can't stop this baby.

[homoe]

Our Prime Ministers wife got the virus and now Prince Charles has the virus. Apparently money and power can't stop this baby.

You're absolutely right!

However I do think those with money and power get tested faster and results known quicker, than those who don't!

[C0LLETTE]

So I had to go to Wal-Mart today because our parrots think they need to eat and believe me they think loudly. The store was pretty empty and decimated of product although I did score the parrot happy meals. While being the designated parrot shopper, I couldn't help but notice THE most elderly customers (seriously)I have ever seen shopping there and we go there ALOT to buy product for the store. I would really hate to think they have bought into this philosophy of supporting the economy, even if they have to die for it.

Maybe the reason is that they have no one else to shop for them. I seriously doubt they are out there to "support the economy". Maybe they have no other choice and the economy isn't supporting them.

Lots of seniors simply don't have smart phones, know how to order online, understand "apps" etc. Or just have NO ONE TO HELP THEM or know how to find someone.

[kittygrrl]

i like the Governor of NY...i think he's an Independant?...He's very conservative and obviously argumentative..but that doesn't bother me because he's honest...just gives it to you cold..i respect that even though i may not like what you're telling me..if only he were President, i'd feel a lot more confident things will eventually get better...

[GeorgiaMa'am]

So I had to go to Wal-Mart today because our parrots think they need to eat and believe me they think loudly.

Maybe the reason is that they have no one else to shop for them.

Okay, so this is how I read this at first. It gave me a good laugh!

[Cin]

You're absolutely right!

However I do think those with money and power get tested faster and results known quicker, than those who don't!

Not only that, but when it comes down to who lives and who dies, as it has in Italy and Spain, it is the wealthy who will get the ventilator. And even more importantly, money has allowed the wealthy to be better prepared healthwise having had the income to afford good healthcare throughout their lives. They never had to choose between feeding their family or filling their asthma medication. People in lower economic classes are more likely to catch the disease and also more likely to die from it because of health issues. Also the wealthy have the privilege of being better able to isolate successfully, something that is not always easily done for some. And even those in lower economic classes who remain healthy are going to have to deal with the devastating effects of a loss of income and/or healthcare/insurance to a degree that the wealthy will not.

[C0LLETTE]

Okay, so this is how I read this at first. It gave me a good laugh!

Once I read your post a second time, I started laughing too!!!!

[homoe]

i like the Governor of NY...i think he's an Independant?...He's very conservative and obviously argumentative..but that doesn't bother me because he's honest...just gives it to you cold..i respect that even though i may not like what you're telling me..if only he were President, i'd feel a lot more confident things will eventually get better...


Yes, I like him too! He doesn't pussyfoot around, tells it like it is, no BS!

Andrew Mark Cuomo is an American politician, author, and lawyer serving as the 56th governor of New York since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the same position his late father, Mario Cuomo, held for three terms.

[C0LLETTE]

I loved this helpful hint in the Globe and Mail ( our National newspaper ):

At his home in rural Manitoba, Dave MacDonald, president and lead survival instructor with the International Canadian School of Survival, has enough food stored to feed his family of four adults, four dogs and two cats throughout the winter.

Each fall, he fills his deep freezer with around 300 to 400 pounds of wild meat, some of which he slices thinly and preserves by drying. He keeps about 50 pounds of white rice and another 50 pounds of wild rice in grain bags, which he stores in high, dry areas around his house safe from pests. He also keeps onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots and other root vegetables covered in dry sand inside plastic tote containers."

He'll survive while they find my body lying in the grocery store aisle with my hand clutching the frozen veggie freezer door. Empty BTW.

I'm also trying to find "dry sand" here in Canada. I'm going to raid the construction site across the street once it gets dark.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I'm also trying to find "dry sand" here in Canada. I'm going to raid the construction site across the street once it gets dark.

You can also try Home Depot or Lowe's or whatever the Canadian equivalent is.

[CherylNYC]

i like the Governor of NY...i think he's an Independant?...He's very conservative and obviously argumentative..but that doesn't bother me because he's honest...just gives it to you cold..i respect that even though i may not like what you're telling me..if only he were President, i'd feel a lot more confident things will eventually get better...


It's funny that you think Cuomo is very conservative. He calls himself a progressive! As Homoe wrote, he's a Democrat. I think he's more of a centrist within the democratic spectrum. He certainly likes to govern from the center by pitting the Republicans against the Democrats and holding the whole thing together by strength of will and, well, bullying everyone to get his way while they're distracted and fighting with the other team. He's known as a master manipulator.

Politics, especially in NY State, can be truly bizarre. Our NY State legislature has been consistently ranked as the least functional in the US. Until the last election, that is, when we voters finally had enough and threw most of the bums out. Now we're getting some really great things done, and Cuomo gets to claim credit even though he quietly abetted that gridlock for his first two terms while it suited his needs.

Those of us who have tangled with Cuomo's administration know him as a difficult control freak. He's well respected for the way he knows how to get 'er done, but not at all respected by good government groups. Even those who respect him the most don't particularly like him.

But all off the above made Cuomo THE IDEAL leader for NY during this crisis! Even those of us who wanted to pillory him just last month LOVE Andrew Cuomo right now. He's decisive, forceful, and he isn't afraid to make tough choices. He knows how to use the media, and he doesn't hold back. We see him fighting for us, and it's glorious. So, yeah. Politics and politicians are always complicated.

[homoe]

President Donald Trump on Thursday once again said the nation’s governors should be “doing more” to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and not rely so heavily on the federal government for help.

He claimed most governors “have been fantastic,” but then took a few potshots at Washington’s Jay Inslee (D) and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer (D), whose name he either forgot or simply didn’t want to mention.

I'm betting he doesn't even know her name!

As for our Governor Inslee, I think he's shot himself in the foot! When dealing with such a petty and vindictive personality like Trump, perhaps it's best to suck it up, as hard as that might be, and keep quiet! Remember you catch more bees with honey than vinegar!

[Buckaroo]

I feel like i am in the twilight zone. I wanna say that i cant believe trump is acting so oblivious to this outbreak, then I remember its trump. A zebra doesn't change its stripes. Then I hear Lt. Gov of Texas Dan Patrick say that he and other elderly are willing to die to save this economy. WTF!? Is he volunteering his parents? My mom is 83 and I can tell you this...she doesn't want to die of this virus. It took some time and talking, but she has finally grasped the severity of this virus and is staying home. What I do find interesting is...her views of trump and fox news. She no longer watches Fox News to get her info..she now watches CNN...she listens to trump ( she also voted for trump) BUT to get the real info she watches Gov. Cuomo and has stated that he does such a better job than trump at getting out the info. Trump's glaring shortcomings are so much more obvious in his lack of handling of this disaster. How anyone can say he is doing a good job is beyond me. Thank god for Dr Fousi!!!

[homoe]

DZWdX4GHuuo

[homoe]

President Donald Trump on Thursday once again said the nation’s governors should be “doing more” to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and not rely so heavily on the federal government for help.

He claimed most governors “have been fantastic,” but then took a few potshots at Washington’s Jay Inslee (D) and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer (D), whose name he either forgot or simply didn’t want to mention.

I'm betting he doesn't even know her name!

As for our Governor Inslee, I think he's shot himself in the foot! When dealing with such a petty and vindictive personality like Trump, perhaps it's best to suck it up, as hard as that might be, and keep quiet! Remember you catch more bees with honey than vinegar!

Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me ��

"I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it".

[homoe]

Meet the congressman who tried to derail the coronavirus bill.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRLd3ignPiZ4Vd8j75DBYAbxMtvmVE P86ybIgFvJXCgjCDdsjDL

PLEASE remember his name when he's up for re-election

[homoe]

Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me ��

"I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it".

Trump’s willingness to punish a state’s residents amid a pandemic over a feud with a governor appeared evident in a statement at his press briefing Friday. The president said he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence, who heads up the president’s coronavirus task force, not to call the governors of Washington or Michigan. The two states have among the highest number of coronavirus cases in the nation, and Michigan is experiencing a dramatic spike in cases from 350 a week ago to nearly 3,000 Friday.

“I say, ‘Mike, don’t call ... the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens,’” Trump said.

[nhplowboi]

What is it about Kentucky?! They need to stop tipping the bourbon. Mitch McConnell, Paul Rand, Thomas Massie....gives a whole new meaning to drinking the Kool-Aid.

[C0LLETTE]

don't forget Rosemary Clooney.

[nhplowboi]

don't forget Rosemary Clooney.

LOL I can deal with a drunk singer....but those laying down the law need to sober up.

[C0LLETTE]

Next time you're wondering if you can get hold of hydroxychloroquine, see if a double gin and tonic might work.

The Brits figured that quinine water (tonic) would help agst malaria in "the Colonies".

[theoddz]

8 months.......8 months.

We've got 8 months until we can get a new LEADER/POTUS in the White House to take the wheel of this car that is careening towards the ditch.

Until then.....

:vigil::praying:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[C0LLETTE]

It's a mystery:
Seems recent "polls" show Trump's "approval ratings " going up...particularly his handing of the pandemic. One of the polls showed he had a 97% approval rating amongst Republicans. Only thing I can imagine is that a lot of Republicans have switched parties ( but probably not ).

BTW, I'm going to remove that "signature" below. It just isn't true. There are some men that you just can't help but despise completely.

[homoe]

What is it about Kentucky?! They need to stop tipping the bourbon. Mitch McConnell, Paul Rand, Thomas Massie....gives a whole new meaning to drinking the Kool-Aid.



....AMEN!!!

[homoe]

DZWdX4GHuuo



The White House approved Michigan’s request for an emergency declaration Saturday, after a week of contentious public feuding between President Donald Trump and the state's governor over measures to combat the coronavirus.

The squabble between Trump and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which has played out across Twitter, cable news and radio airwaves, has been one of several conflicts simmering between Trump and governors who have criticized the federal response to the pandemic — and then seen Trump return fire online or in his press briefings.

I wonder if he'd approve Washington's should we need it?
When it came to Michigan, Trumped only refereed to Whitmer as "that woman" but he's came right out and called Inslee a snake!

[theoddz]

The White House approved Michigan’s request for an emergency declaration Saturday, after a week of contentious public feuding between President Donald Trump and the state's governor over measures to combat the coronavirus.

The squabble between Trump and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which has played out across Twitter, cable news and radio airwaves, has been one of several conflicts simmering between Trump and governors who have criticized the federal response to the pandemic — and then seen Trump return fire online or in his press briefings.

I wonder if he'd approve Washington's should we need it?
When it came to Michigan, Trumped only refereed to Whitmer as "that woman" but he's came right out and called Inslee a snake!

They just need to remember that they're dealing with a "malignant narcissist".

He was allowed to walk away, scot free, from being held accountable for his inexcusable, anti-American, treasonous, illegal and contemptuous actions following impeachment. Now there's nothing we can do to try to contain the damage that has been done and continues, other than to bide our time until we, The People, can remove him in November (although his stupid ass will be able to sit in the Oval Office until January 20, 2021). :rant:

I put this ALL squarely at the doorstep of Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP members.

Every. Stinkin'. Last. Bit. Of. It.

As for tRump's followers, I found this. It's interesting.

xoRuzpsLzTU

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[homoe]

White House COVID-19 Briefings Are Beating ‘The Bachelor’ In Ratings, President Trump Boasts

There was good news and bad news emanating from the White House on Sunday. First, the bad news: a deadly pandemic is apparently gaining steam and killing more Americans. The good news? The ratings for President Donald Trump’s near-daily briefings are beating The Bachelor and Monday Night Football, at least according to a boastful series of tweets from the Commander-in-Chief. “Because the “‘ratings’ of my News Conferences etc. are so high, ‘Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers’ according to the @nytimes, the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY,” Trump tweeted. He added, “Numbers are continuing to rise…” but didn’t clarify if he meant deaths or his ratings.

What President in their right mind would bring up ratings at a time like this!?

[C0LLETTE]

If I heard him right tonight during his address, Trump just learned that there are 151 countries in the world. How in Hell did this ignorant ignorant person become President of the United States.

[C0LLETTE]

Trump has now learned a new word and he's going to choke the life right out of it" : ASPIRATIONAL.

How long you figure before that word becomes meaningless. It will become a very SPECIAL word, very very special...a big beautiful special word, very special.

Poor Dr. Fauci. He tossed a piece of verbal chum in Trump's direction and Trump is devouring it.

[C0LLETTE]

A friend sent me an image of Boris Johnson talking on the phone with Queen Elizabeth.
He tells her he has Covid 19. She says: Ok now go touch Donald Trump.

[Orema]

The End of American Leadership (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/american-leadership-coronavirus-china.html)

The coronavirus pandemic may mark the final shift of global power away from the United States.

By Fred Kaplan

https://compote.slate.com/images/15b3a16a-1fba-4eb5-bbdb-a6e84d3eeb7a.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=4256x2837&offset=0x0
US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017. NICOLAS ASFOURI/Getty Images

In 1994, on his 90th birthday, the legendary diplomat George Kennan, architect of America’s Cold War containment policy, said, in a speech looking back on his life and times, “It is primarily by example, never by precept, that a country such as ours exerts its most useful influence beyond its borders.”

With our response to the coronavirus, so different from any crisis the country has faced for over a century, we are providing a very poor example and, as a result, our influence abroad is declining to a historic low point—so low that we may be experiencing a pivot in geopolitical power away from the United States and its allies.

American influence had already been waning for a host of reasons—the collapse of power blocs (which gave us leverage in the Cold War competition), the rise of terrorist groups and sectarian militias (which can’t be quelled by conventional military means), the surge of Chinese investment and pressure in Asia and beyond. All of these trends have been accelerated, sometimes willfully, by President Donald Trump, who has dissed or deserted traditional allies, embraced authoritarian regimes, and wavered in his response to China’s rise from obsequious kowtowing to self-destructive trade wars.

Even so, until recently, Trump’s retreat from the ways of previous presidents only highlighted America’s esteem and power. His behavior alarmed so many allies because they desperately wanted the return of U.S. leadership—and delighted so many adversaries because they could carve new inroads of influence in the absence of this leadership.

Now, however, Trump has taken us to the brink of irrelevance—not quite to the abyss, but teetering on its edge. To lead or to inspire, a country has to offer a model—an “example,” as Kennan put it, of what its leadership or values or system of politics can produce. And facing the coronavirus, we are showing that, at least for the moment, we’re offering little or nothing.

The New York Times and Washington Post have reported long, gripping tales of how slowly Trump responded to the pandemic, ignoring warnings from scientists and top officials. Even now, fully seized of the urgency, he has no plan for minimizing the damage or restarting the economy. He has appointed two advisory teams—and is about to appoint a third—thus only exacerbating personal and bureaucratic rivalries. He continues to shrug off his responsibilities as chief executive, leaving under-resourced state governors to squabble among themselves in bidding wars for scarce medical supplies. His lousy relations with foreign governments have impeded the international cooperation that usually fosters a solution to these crises (though scientists are building consortiums on their own). He even tried to buy a German research company, which was working on a vaccine, with an eye toward restricting its product to American buyers—a much-publicized attempt that could backfire if Germany or some other country comes up with a vaccine first.

Trump’s toxicity has infected our entire political system. The bureaucracy has been stripped of its experts; the few who remain often go ignored. The cabinet, which once held a few independent minds, is now filled with mediocrities who see that their main job is to nod vigorously whenever the president speaks. Congress had one bright moment, when, with no help from Trump, it put together a $2 trillion rescue package and passed it almost unanimously; but the rudderless, threadbare bureaucracy has been slow to implement it. We’ll see if Congress, which since that vote has gone silent, will double down in a few months, as it will need to do, when the money runs out.

Meanwhile, China is acting like a leader. This status may be undeserved: the virus took hold within its borders, the Communist Party leaders suppressed the earliest reports of its spread and have falsified data ever since. Still, China is the source of much of the world’s medicine and medical gear, and party leaders have made a great show of airlifting supplies to other countries, including the United States. As Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, tweeted, “Let’s be honest. It hurts to see China sending humanitarian aid to the U.S. and Europe.”

All over the world, people are asking: Who is the superpower now?

The impression is a bit misleading: much of the Chinese medical gear turns out to be defective. But the image is still powerful: at least, in the eyes of many, China is doing something. What, they ask, is America doing for the rest of the world’s suffering? What, for that matter, is it doing for the suffering of its own people?

All of this is occurring in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive network of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects in more than 60 countries, encompassing two-thirds of the world’s population, costing $200 billion (with estimates of $1.2 trillion over the next seven years). President Xi Jinping sees this as laying the foundation for a Beijing-controlled global trade system—which could eclipse the West’s dominance since the end of World War II.

Some of the countries receiving funds under the initiative have balked at the political conditions attached to them, but in the end, have nowhere else to go.

Others may soon feel the same way in a variety of realms. Many countries would prefer American leadership, flawed as it has been through the years. But if that’s no longer an option, they will turn elsewhere—to other sources of supplies and security, maybe to other forms of governance.

At the end of his 1994 birthday speech, George Kennan warned that “unless we preserve the quality, the vigor and the morale of our own society, we will be of little use to anyone at all.” That’s the fate that we await if Donald Trump stays in power much longer.

[homoe]

I'd love to clunk Pelosi and McConnell's heads together and give their nose a good twist like Moe used to do to Larry and Curly and shout STOP PLAYING POLITICS!!! For once think of the people who elected you to your high paying job and the many perks that comes with it, many of which could use your HELP now! Stop your bickering and get a phase IV bill passed to help those who so desperately need it NOW!

I know McConnell's up for re-election this year, let's hope voters remember his actions during this current crisis, the same goes for Pelosi!

[kittygrrl]

just a thought..if Biden should fall-i will not vote for Bernie or Trump..both of them cultivate cult followers and its alarming..having been involved in a cult .. when i see the vapid stare or extolled litany of Bernie's virtues from the followers of either cult it reminds me of the zombie mentality i saw in many of the followers in my group..and it's a turn-off..no thanks trading one false messiah for another or to choose which evil im willing to endure.. Neither of these choices will save us.

[homoe]

~~~

And again what my sarcastic friend Seinfeld would say..

That's A Shame!

[homoe]

~~
I've been watching with great interests how some of these republican senators are now getting more concerned with their upcoming race for re-election and less concerned with sucking up to and kissing Trumps ass!

[homoe]

After backing Republican Sen. Susan Collins in 2014, the political arm of the major gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety announced on Tuesday that it’s endorsing one of her Democratic challengers in this year’s Maine Senate race.


Poor Susan, perhaps her "buddy" Brett will take her out for a beer or two to help ease her pain!

[tantalizingfemme]

I am very frustrated with all of the infighting within the Democratic party in my state. The reactions that people are having to the protests have really been enlightening and disgusting at the same time. In one breath they laud the protests and yet in the next they condemn it, especially if the protest creates any perceived inconvenience, such as traffic needing to be rerouted. And let's not even bring up any looting because as with those who denounce the protests, this becomes the focal point and what the protest is about becomes lost. The hypocrisy is monumental. Many within these splinter groups are all about Biden as our savior. Ugh. Are we in the phase it will get worse before it gets better?

[homoe]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced Saturday she would work to overturn Trump Administration's new rule rolling back LGBT patients' protections in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

"The Trump Administration's decision to eliminate protections for transgender patients is simply wrong. I'll work to overturn this discriminatory policy," Collins tweeted.

[homoe]

O-8fC6nCjfk

[C0LLETTE]

" Britain’s economy is in free fall, and the government is struggling to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson isn’t giving an inch on Brexit."

Globe and Mail

[homoe]

The Trump campaign said Tuesday it would stick with its plan for a giant indoor rally in Tulsa — on the same day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Oklahoma showed a 7.7 percent increase in COVID-19 cases, the highest in the country.

State and local officials in Oklahoma have expressed concerns over the Trump campaign’s plan to hold a rally inside a packed arena as Tulsa contends with a COVID-19 outbreak. “I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event,” Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Bruce Dart said over the weekend.

[homoe]

“NeverTrump” Republicans, including former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci, have formed another Super PAC to boost former vice president Joe Biden in an effort to defeat Trump in November.

The “Right Side PAC,” founded by former Ohio GOP chairman Matt Borges — who clashed repeatedly with Trump in 2016 and was later voted out after Trump pressured Ohio Republicans to remove him — aims to complement the Lincoln Project, another anti-Trump PAC led by George Conway, husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, and other prominent GOP operatives.

Borges told Axios that the focus is on taking advantage of “an opportunity to kind of reset things.” He added that the project “would never” have happened if Senators Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) or Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) were the Democratic nominee. Warren is reportedly on the shortlist to be Biden’s running-mate.

“We’re not trying to become Democrats,” Borges explained. “I intend to vote for every other Republican on the ballot. And I expect that there are others like me who aren’t looking to leave the party.”

Scaramucci stated that Trump’s defeat “will be a very necessary part of the reorganization and the regrowth of the Republican Party,” and that he is “very confident” in shifting support to Biden.

“We can convince a large group of Republican voters that Biden is the right person to vote for if they want to stay true to their principles and to the legacy of the Republican Party,” he said, warning that Trump’s reelection “may set the Republican Party up to be a minority party for a generation.”

[homoe]

(CNN)On Tuesday, the Justice Department sued former national security adviser John Bolton in an attempt to prevent him from publishing a memoir about his time Donald Trump's White House. Trump told reporters that Bolton would face "criminal problems" if he went forward with the book.

That same day, The Daily Beast reported that Trump is weighing his legal options to stop his niece, Mary Trump, from publishing her own book -- "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man" -- that paints the President in an unfavorable light.

Last week, the Trump campaign sent a cease and desist letter to CNN -- asking for a national poll that showed Trump trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by 14 points be retracted. (He hasn't actually sued CNN over the poll.)

Notice a pattern? Faced with declining political fortunes and with former advisers -- and even family -- turning against him, Trump lashes out legally. What will come of these various threats? If past is prologue, not much. Because this oh-yeah-well-I'll-sue-you! strategy isn't just a pattern of late. It's basically how Trump has dealt with annoying or troubling facts his entire life.

[nhplowboi]

REALLY Mr. Mnuchin?! You are not going to tell us who our tax dollars went to in the coronavirus business loans program! That is a huge red flag. Me thinks all that money went to the undeserving and with that in mind, do not try and go back to that well again.

[nhplowboi]

Dang Matt Gaetz.....who knew? No wonder you have a drinking problem and are always so angry. Adopted my ass.

[~ocean]

rut row Kellyann Conway's face is stuck.

[homoe]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) removed herself from the running to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee, an acknowledgment that her chances at the slot had dwindled dramatically since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in her home state late last month.

Announcing her decision on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” on Thursday night, Klobuchar said she informed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of her decision on Wednesday and said he should pick a woman of color as his running mate.

“America must seize on the moment, and I truly believe — as I actually told the VP last night when I called him — that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket,” Klobuchar said.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, New Mexico Gov. Michele Lujan Grisham and former national security adviser Susan Rice are all seen as top contenders as running mates for Biden. All but Warren are women of color.

[~ocean]

If you don't vote it's a vote for TRUMP ~~~ VOTE ~~~

[homoe]

President Donald Trump on Thursday pledged to unveil a new list of potential Supreme Court nominees ahead of November’s general election, reprising a campaign tactic that helped him shore up conservative support during his 2016 White House run.

The announcement came hours after the high court dealt the president his second major defeat this week, rejecting his administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program’s protections for roughly 650,000 immigrants — most of whom entered the U.S. illegally as children more than a decade ago.

“I will be releasing a new list of Conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees, which may include some, or many of those already on the list, by September 1, 2020,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“If given the opportunity, I will only choose from this list, as in the past, a Conservative Supreme Court Justice,” he continued. “Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religous Liberty, etc.) – VOTE 2020!”

[C0LLETTE]

I've turned on CNN. Lots of interesting news today. I've recorded it so I can play it over later. CNN is great, pretty much everything that's important to know during your day. I love it.

[~ocean]

I've turned on CNN. Lots of interesting news today. I've recorded it so I can play it over later. CNN is great, pretty much everything that's important to know during your day. I love it.

me 2 Collette ~ It's my go to station for news ~ I respect all the journalist's starting w/ Anderson Cooper did you know he is Gloria Vanderbilt's son ?

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — When Senator Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic nomination and the economy collapsed this spring, two pillars of President Trump’s re-election strategy collapsed at the same time: his plan to run on prosperity and against a far-left opponent. But Mr. Trump’s campaign took comfort in the expectation that Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s penchant for gaffes would at least offer them dependable fodder for attack.

The pandemic, and Mr. Biden’s play-it-safe campaign, however, have starved them of even that.

With mandated social distancing measures entering their fourth month in many states, Mr. Biden has held few events and therefore committed few missteps. He conducts television interviews and has slowly started to hold public events. But Mr. Biden’s aides said they had no plans to stage the sort of rallies Mr. Trump will begin holding again Saturday — and which the president’s campaign had been counting on as the most reliable source of Biden gaffes.

So Mr. Trump’s advisers are trying to flush Mr. Biden into the open. They have taken to taunting him for remaining in the basement of his Delaware home, and counting the days since he last held a news conference. On Thursday they demanded that the former vice president agree to more debates in the fall, asking for four instead of the traditional three.

[nhplowboi]

A frightening story tonight on the Rachel Maddow show. The Voice of America has apparently been gutted by Trump this week. His political appointee, conservative film maker Michael Pack (an associate of Steve Bannon) was confirmed by the senate on June 4th of this year and within days had fired the heads of the various outlets and their board members. It appears the Director and her Deputy chose to resign upon seeing the writing on the wall. It is feared that the VOA will now become a Trump propaganda machine.

[firegal]

Wondering how trumps post Juneteenth rally is gonna fair in Tulsa. I hope and pray the protestors are safe!

[C0LLETTE]

A personal political credo

"It is possible to be committed and serious without being dour and dogmatic. We are all inconsequential specks in an absurdly vast universe. Our very existence is cosmically laughable, and amusement is an essential coping mechanism. I am much more inclined to trust leaders and fellow adherents who laugh – especially at themselves."

Steven Lewis

[C0LLETTE]

I've turned on CNN. Lots of interesting news today. I've recorded it so I can play it over later. CNN is great, pretty much everything that's important to know during your day. I love it.

I was joking. I need to use "LOL" more often.

[A. Spectre]

You know this is absolutely killing him, right? He has to be seething!


This rally exists for one reason, and one reason alone: assuaging Trump's ego and trying to snap him out of his funk. It's not about winning Oklahoma. It's not about looking Presidential. It's entirely to make a 74 year-old child feel better about himself.

And if there's one thing we know with 100% certainty, it's that he views crowd size as an indicator of success. This has to be eating him alive, and it's positively hilarious!

Let's play "What's he going to say?" I have a few:


"fake news"

"Jared's fault"

"dog ate most of the tickets"

"damn libruls scared my people away"

"Diamond and Silk were too black for my crowd"

"they took down our Craigslist ad"

"Hillary's emails"

[~ocean]

You know this is absolutely killing him, right? He has to be seething!


This rally exists for one reason, and one reason alone: assuaging Trump's ego and trying to snap him out of his funk. It's not about winning Oklahoma. It's not about looking Presidential. It's entirely to make a 74 year-old child feel better about himself.

And if there's one thing we know with 100% certainty, it's that he views crowd size as an indicator of success. This has to be eating him alive, and it's positively hilarious!

Let's play "What's he going to say?" I have a few:


"fake news"

"Jared's fault"

"dog ate most of the tickets"

"damn libruls scared my people away"

"Diamond and Silk were too black for my crowd"

"they took down our Craigslist ad"

"Hillary's emails"



LOL omg you crack me up ~ can I add one

" Bolton's Book Release " whewwww good thing my followers can't read

[C0LLETTE]

Anti-Trumpers whooping and hollering about how they trolled the Trump rally attendance system makes me think of bumbling bank robbers who rob the bank then tell the cops how they did it. Bank robbers are there for the money. The trollers have to decide why they're there.

Was the point to screw Trump or was it to chest thump and give him an out for his rally failure?

It's about as dumb as choosing "Defund the Police" as a slogan and handing Trump the keys to the Kingdom of Paranoia.

Don't Democrats have anyone smart sitting around the think tank ping pong table?

[A. Spectre]

Anti-Trumpers whooping and hollering about how they trolled the Trump rally attendance system makes me think of bumbling bank robbers who rob the bank then tell the cops how they did it. Bank robbers are there for the money. The trollers have to decide why they're there.

Was the point to screw Trump or was it to chest thump and give him an out for his rally failure?

It's about as dumb as choosing "Defund the Police" as a slogan and handing Trump the keys to the Kingdom of Paranoia.

Don't Democrats have anyone smart sitting around the think tank ping pong table?

Suppose not Collette, tell us Canadian what to do.

[C0LLETTE]

Now that you've asked: I'd have shut my mouth about what I did so I could do it again...and I'd have referred to reallocation of public safety resources...maybe not as snappy but neither does it confuse or scare the shit out of voters.

BTW "Democrat" usually refers to a political affiliation; "Canadian" refers to a nationality.. We have our own brands of political bozos. A reference to political strategy is not a condemnation of a nation.

[homoe]

~~~
No doubt he's already thinking up ways to blame his F A I L E D re-election!

[~ocean]

Trump makes himself the butt of many jokes ~ the entertaining part of dinner conversation ~ and yet the reassurance of your own political knowledge ~ the legal aspects of his antics intrigue me ~ and even in a closing of an event full night Trump puts us all to bed with embarrassment, fear , finical instability. Schumer, Pelosi, Schiff were outstanding and gave me American Pride. When the movie that is probably being written right now ~ will show the American Justice played out. As well as the mistakes that were made. I feel people don't want Trump as president for a second term. The mess he is going to create this year will be theater at it's best !! I hope they cast the movie well. ok enough of my Hollywood imagination lol All kidding aside seeing how our Democracy play's out is under close watch. I hope it shines like I feel inside as a proud Liberal American .

[homoe]

uBURKkKGuyw



Lets use some pepper spray on him and see!

[~ocean]

my mind has changed about Bolton he is a COWARD he could have said something and the deaths are on his hands as well as all the others that were "IN THE ROOM " esp. Donny Dolly Hands << who needs to be hand cuffed and thrown in jail ~ btw he looks like tomato sauce stained Tupperware.

[Stone-Butch]

I have never said anything here as I don't care much for politics because if it were a scientific and publically supportive group it would be worth my time.
All politicians are self-serving, egotistical, lying, selfish, power seeking money grabbers. It does not matter if you are American, Canadian or from the Sudan, ALL are corrupt with very few exceptions. Finding an honest, caring person who wants to help their country and not themselves is rare as hens teeth. So, ditching all that in here I will leave with one thought. If only we could go back to the soapbox politician who were voted in by the public who believed their sincerity to help all then and only then will politics be worth more than what money can buy.

[homoe]

The former Democratic candidate said Trump is “desperate” and “grasping at straws that aren’t actually keeping him afloat.” Former presidential contender Andrew Yang said Donald Trump’s repeated use of the racist term “kung flu” to refer to the coronavirus “is the desperate thrashing around of a losing candidate.”

Trump uses derogatory and offensive slurs to “distract attention from the fact that the administration has completely botched and mishandled the coronavirus pandemic,” Yang, who quit the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination in February, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Trump’s divisive rhetoric is “like the desperate thrashing around of a losing candidate,” argued Yang, who is Asian American.

Trump revived his “kung flu” slur during his underattended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, and repeated it at a rally in Arizona on Tuesday. “He shows up to a rally that has a small fraction of the people they are projecting and he’s somewhat desperate, in my opinion,” Yang continued.

Trump is “just degrading himself and the office of the president further by grasping at straws that aren’t actually keeping him afloat,” said Yang, who said he wished the president could “figure out a path that did not involve racist comments that end up throwing millions of Americans under a rhetorical bus.”

[homoe]

Donald Trump’s campaign removed thousands of stickers on arena seats encouraging social distancing before the president’s rally last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Billboard and The Washington Post reported.

The “Do Not Sit Here Please!” stickers were intended to help stem the spread of COVID-19 cases, which were spiking in the city at the time of the June 20 event — and continue to climb in Tulsa and throughout Oklahoma.

Campaign officials informed an executive of venue manager ASM Global to stop labeling the seats hours before the rally, ASM Executive Vice President Doug Thornton told Billboard.

“They also told us that they didn’t want any signs posted saying we should social distance in the venue,” he added. “The campaign went through and removed the stickers.”

By the time the Trump campaign interfered, arena workers had already affixed some 12,000 stickers on nearly every other seat, a person familiar with the event told the Post.

Both Billboard and the Post also viewed video showing Trump campaign staffers peeling off stickers from the seats.

[nhplowboi]

If the idiot had left the stickers on, the arena would have looked far more fuller. ;)Donald Trump’s campaign removed thousands of stickers on arena seats encouraging social distancing before the president’s rally last week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Billboard and The Washington Post reported.

The “Do Not Sit Here Please!” stickers were intended to help stem the spread of COVID-19 cases, which were spiking in the city at the time of the June 20 event — and continue to climb in Tulsa and throughout Oklahoma.

Campaign officials informed an executive of venue manager ASM Global to stop labeling the seats hours before the rally, ASM Executive Vice President Doug Thornton told Billboard.

“They also told us that they didn’t want any signs posted saying we should social distance in the venue,” he added. “The campaign went through and removed the stickers.”

By the time the Trump campaign interfered, arena workers had already affixed some 12,000 stickers on nearly every other seat, a person familiar with the event told the Post.

Both Billboard and the Post also viewed video showing Trump campaign staffers peeling off stickers from the seats.

[C0LLETTE]

Wow, who knew that campaign staffers had to do that kinda stuff!

[Kätzchen]

Katherine Johnson, who passed at the age of 101 years old, this past February?

It is because of Katherine Johnson and other members (Afro-American women) of their cadre's exceptional and superior mathematical calculations, that made it possible for male astronauts to orbit earth and land on the moon, 51 years ago.

I wish American Culture would evolve and liberate itself from the toxic stranglehold of patriarchal and racist constructs.

It would be so nice to see women get the credit and social recognition they deserve for their amazing achievements, in timely ways.

[Cin]

Interesting podcast. I didn't have the stomach to finish the whole thing yet, but I plan to. It's kind of disturbing.

Democracy isn't dying in the dark, it's dying in broad daylight.

https://megaphone.link/TRUO4922592667

[homoe]

Republican Sen. Susan Collins' bid for a fifth term could be in jeopardy, according to recent polls.

A survey of 500 registered Maine voters released Tuesday by the Bangor Daily News found the incumbent trailing her opponent Sara Gideon, the state's Democratic House speaker, 35%-43%. Gideon's lead shrunk to five percentage points among likely voters.


Another poll released Tuesday, which was conducted by RMG Group, also found Collins trailing Gideon by 7 points among registered voters, 41%-48%.

And a Quinnipiac University poll released Aug. 6 found Gideon leading Collins 47%-43% among registered Maine voters.

Collins is one of the last moderate Republicans from New England remaining in Congress. A majority of Maine voters have not gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988, but several Republicans have won statewide elections since then, including Collins and former Gov. Paul LePage. Maine's other U.S. senator, Angus King, is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

3_0N9DKtAH8

Liar Liar Pants On Fire..

[homoe]

uXgCyKmunXM

[homoe]

14bUmFgRBsE

[homoe]

6jWfh-e_LEQ

[homoe]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told CBS News that she believes President Donald Trump has learned his lesson following his impeachment.




Sidebar: She made these comments Feb 5th 2020. I wonder if she still believes them now in Aug 2020.



https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/02/05/susan-collins-trump-learned-lesson-state-of-the-union-sot-nd-vpx.cnn

[Wrang1er]

I worry because I see Trump signs EVERYWHERE. That's how it was last time when they said he was behind in the polls.

If Trump wins I am going to propose to Collette. Hopefully she accepts and I can move to Canada. ;)

[~ocean]

I'm watching the DNC and Andrew Cuomo just brought tears to my eyes with his statement ~ he's such an honorable man. I know not everyone agrees with this statement but this is how I see him .

[homoe]

Ted Cruz's Attempt At Slamming Joe Biden Backfires Spectacularly!!!

Critics of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) say he finally ― and quite accidentally ― had a good idea. On Tuesday night, Cruz attempted to slam Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. “If these guys win, we’re gonna wake up in January with Elizabeth Warren as treasury secretary,” Cruz said on Fox News, referring to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts.

But many Twitter users didn’t see that as the threat Cruz intended, given her support of consumer protections and regulations on big banks. Warren is also the sixth most popular Democrat in the nation, according to YouGov, and is even more popular within the party, with 66 percent saying they have either a somewhat or very favorable opinion of her in the organization’s most recent survey.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-joe-biden-elizabeth-warren_n_5f3c97bfc5b68352360380be

[Orema]

Arkansas Governor and Lawmakers Unveil Proposed Hate Crime Legislation

https://i.postimg.cc/MGcnRY0X/0-F9-D5-BFC-F2-D1-4627-91-DE-2-EC300-CB391-D.jpg
Photo: Alex Wong (Getty Images)

Arkansas is one of three states that has no laws regarding hate crimes on its books, but a new bill recently introduced by the state’s legislature will hopefully change that.

ABC News reports that Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson was joined by the state’s attorney general and over two dozen legislators in revealing a proposed bill that would add harsher penalties to crimes committed due to a person’s race, gender or sexuality. Such crimes would result in the perpetrator receiving a 20 percent increase in jail time and/or fines. “We need to say clearly that Arkansas will not tolerate violence against anyone because of their race, their religion or who they are,” Hutchinson said at a news conference at the state Capitol.

During the conference there were signs behind Hutchinson displaying the logos of businesses who back the legislation. Multiple business owners expressed that the bill was necessary to make the state appealing towards a more diverse group of workers.

“Arkansas needs to be open for business and growth and that includes protecting the individuals who need it the most,” Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, told ABC News.

Arkansas currently joins South Carolina and Wyoming as the only three states in the nation without hate crime legislation. Earlier this month, Georgia became the latest state to finally pass a hate crime bill.

Previous efforts to pass a hate crime bill in the state had faltered due to push back over the inclusion of sexual orientation which, sadly, is Republican af. Notably, this bill has the full backing of both parties in the Republican-led state legislature. Last year, Hutchinson indicated he was open towards passing a hate crime following a mass shooting at a Texas Walmart that is being tried as a hate crime.

https://www.theroot.com/arkansas-governor-and-lawmakers-unveil-proposed-hate-cr-1844779889
Joe Jurado, Jr Staff Writer @TheRoot
____________________
Here’s a link to the draft - https://senate.arkansas.gov/media/2727/hate-crimes-bill-8-19-2020.pdf

[C0LLETTE]

I worry because I see Trump signs EVERYWHERE. That's how it was last time when they said he was behind in the polls.

If Trump wins I am going to propose to Collette. Hopefully she accepts and I can move to Canada. ;)

I can think of worse things, however I might move to Australia so hold off and you might be able to go directly there . lol

[Wrang1er]

I can think of worse things, however I might move to Australia so hold off and you might be able to go directly there . lol

This sounds promising. However, if we tie the knot, I think I should do the cooking. That way there will be more than frozen chicken legs in the freezer. ;)

[C0LLETTE]

This sounds promising. However, if we tie the knot, I think I should do the cooking. That way there will be more than frozen chicken legs in the freezer. ;)

You know, chicken legs can taste just like frog legs if you use the right sauce.

[homoe]

The claim is the president’s latest effort to undermine the November election.

President Donald Trump said he planned to send law enforcement and U.S. attorneys to polling places around the country to protect against his unfounded claims there will be mass voter fraud during the November election.

Trump made the comments on Fox News on Thursday night, his latest efforts to sow doubt ahead of an unprecedented election as millions of Americans plan to vote by mail due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Poll-watching is a standard part of elections, but Democrats have expressed concern about the scale at which the GOP plans to do so.

“We’re going to have everything,” the president told host Sean Hannity during the final night of the Democratic National Convention, just before Joe Biden accepted his party’s nomination. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement and we’re going to have hopefully U.S. attorneys and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals.”

The president does not have the authority to send law enforcement to polling locations, CNN notes.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-law-enforcement-polling-places_n_5f3f5fdfc5b6305f3255d1dd

[homoe]

Fox News host Laura Ingraham turned Donald Trump Jr.’s smile into a frown with her middling praise for Joe Biden, saying the Democratic nominee gave a “fairly well-delivered speech” on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

Ingraham, who earlier accused Biden of using “personal tragedy for political ends,” complained to guest Trump Jr. that Biden failed to enact any meaningful change during his two terms as vice president. Then she surprisingly switched gears, conceding that Biden’s nomination acceptance speech “did beat expectations.”

“People were expecting him to flub every line and have a senior moment,” Ingraham said, adding that Biden’s speech “was devoid of any policy other than universal masking, but he delivered a good speech and for what he was doing, very emotional.”

Trump Jr. ― who wore a grin as he listened to Ingraham dismiss Biden’s record as vice president ― immediately turned serious and went on the defensive. He argued that Biden was incapable of being tough on China, attacked Hunter Biden’s alleged connections to Ukraine, and argued that Joe Biden ― a “50-year swamp creature” ― had failed to do anything worthy in his political career.

[FireSignFemme]

This sounds promising. However, if we tie the knot, I think I should do the cooking. That way there will be more than frozen chicken legs in the freezer. ;)

Wait a minute. I heard she hoards Top Ramen, and knows lots of ways to fix it. So you shouldn't have to do all the cooking to stave off a constant, steady diet of chicken legs. She's got talents too.

[Orema]

The Prosecution Rests

Without Kamala Harris, Senate Democrats struggle to pin down Trump’s postmaster.

https://compote.slate.com/images/eafd77ae-2d04-4efc-88e3-c2207832efcd.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=2801x1867&offset=230x0
U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is sworn in for a virtual Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Friday in D.C. Photo by U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee via Getty Images

Nothing less than the survival of our democracy will be on the ballot in November, the country’s most high-profile Democrats warned the public in four days of stirring messages at this week’s Democratic National Convention. And unprecedented numbers of those ballots will be cast by mail, meaning the main threat to the integrity of the upcoming election may be the sudden widespread slowdown of the postal system, backed by President Donald Trump’s promise to deny post office funding in order to hamper mail-in voting.

Yet on Friday, as the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee questioned Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Sen. Kamala Harris—the newly chosen Democratic nominee for vice president—was absent. And without her focused, prosecutorial style on their side, the committee Democrats struggled to make DeJoy explain why he’s launched a disruptive overhaul of postal operations just as voting by mail is about to begin, and whether he plans to do anything to restore normal delivery.

There was historical precedent for Harris to skip the hearing. It’s normal for a vice presidential nominee to put aside some of their congressional duties to campaign. In 2004, Sen. John Edwards stopped appearing at hearings after he was selected to be John Kerry’s running mate. The same was true of then-Sen. Joe Biden after he was selected as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008.

But in those past years, those candidates had to choose between actual physical campaigning and attending the hearings in person. Under the current coronavirus pandemic conditions, campaign events and hearings alike are being held by videoconferencing. And few of those hearings in the past were as important as Friday’s showdown with a former top Trump donor and now postmaster general who in his first few months in office has slowed mail service to a crawl while his boss has directly promised to starve the post office to harm the election.

Harris—a former prosecutor and attorney general who is often lauded as perhaps the best cross-examiner in the Senate—is just one of six Democratic members of the committee. Left to grill the witness on their own, the five remaining Democrats mostly watched as the members of the Republican majority used their time to literally praise DeJoy for his disastrous changes to the USPS. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the committee chairman, told DeJoy, “I think you should be commended for this type of initiative, not condemned.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada did a good job of pushing back on DeJoy’s complete refusal to explain the data—if any—behind his decisions to curtail overtime, remove high-powered mail sorting machines, and start leaving mail behind on the workroom floor. Democrats for the most part, though, failed to elucidate what was behind those moves. This allowed the GOP members of the committee to attempt to portray the postmaster as a humble public servant being wrongfully targeted by a smear campaign, eliding the mail disruptions over the past month that have resulted in lengthy delays for prescription drugs for veterans, delayed arrivals of bills and paychecks, and even the deaths of baby chicks intended to be sent to small rural farms.

Harris submitted to DeJoy a five-page list of questions she wanted answered. Her Democratic colleagues did ask some of the questions Harris had put forward, such as whether he would continue to curtail overtime during the election season and whether he would treat election mail with expedited priority service as in years past. The problem was that DeJoy did not give direct answers to critical questions, for instance falsely denying that USPS has curtailed overtime. And there’s nothing to stop his written responses from being even more evasive.

Here’s where Harris’ skill as a follow-up questioner would have helped Democrats on the committee pin down DeJoy directly on what changes he intended to keep in place and what continued impact they are going to have on mail service headed into the election season. Instead, they got the postmaster general’s vague and mealy-mouthed responses that allow for potential continued disruptions of mail service.

So, what explains Harris’ absence? It seems as though the Biden-Harris ticket is very much planning to continue the campaign strategy that seemed to work so well for the Biden campaign throughout the summer: staying as out of sight as possible and letting President Donald Trump self-destruct amid the worst dual crises in recent American history.

Biden’s acceptance speech on Thursday received wide acclaim, even from normally critical Fox News. So it is understandable, perhaps, that the campaign wouldn’t want the No. 2 person on the ticket stepping on that positive buzz one morning later, even with her own positive buzz. There’s also the likelihood that if Harris were to have taken a starring role in Friday’s hearing, she would have been criticized no matter how well she performed. It seems likely that conservative media would have cast such an appearance as outside of normal precedent and chastised her for using her position in the Senate to advance her campaign.

Given, though, that this is literally the accusation against Donald Trump and Dejoy—that they are using the power of their offices not just to advance Trump’s campaign but to diminish the post office and threaten the vote that is the very core to our democracy—Harris would have been more than justified doing her important job of congressional oversight.

By JEREMY STAHL
AUG 21, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kamala-harris-senate-trump-postmaster-hearing.html

[A. Spectre]

Mr. trump,

About those hurricanes headed for our gulf coast, could you please use your Sharpie and just re-route them please? Or maybe just draw a big seawall all along Louisiana and the Texas shoreline to protect all that property and save the insurance companies a BUTT-LOAD of claims.

We know you're busy planning a real doozy of a GOP convention, but this would just take you a second and then you could take credit for the rescue in your great acceptance speech. Just think of the visual aids you could use: not just maps but an actual VIDEO of YOU, Sharpie in hand, defeating Laura and ---heh, heh---L'il Marco!

[~ocean]

Mr. trump,

About those hurricanes headed for our gulf coast, could you please use your Sharpie and just re-route them please? Or maybe just draw a big seawall all along Louisiana and the Texas shoreline to protect all that property and save the insurance companies a BUTT-LOAD of claims.

We know you're busy planning a real doozy of a GOP convention, but this would just take you a second and then you could take credit for the rescue in your great acceptance speech. Just think of the visual aids you could use: not just maps but an actual VIDEO of YOU, Sharpie in hand, defeating Laura and ---heh, heh---L'il Marco!


Do you remember when he said there is NO global warming ~ and that California has bad leadership in controlling the wild fires. I think they should re-examine tanning beds effect on the brain ~ THAT was before he took the hydro - blah blah blah ~ He's insane ! money talks and money doesn't have a conscience ~ 800,000 reported deaths as of today.

[homoe]

14bUmFgRBsE


Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz) has cooked up an unusual fundraising pitch: She wants supporters to “fast” for a meal — then give her the money that they save for her campaign.

Stunned critics pointed out that this is the same senator who voted for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.

“We’re doing our best to catch up, you know, to get our message out,” she told backers in an audio recording of a recent meeting in northern Arizona obtained by CBS affiliate KPHO-TV. “But it takes resources ... if you can give $5, $10. If you can, fast a meal and give what that would be.”

McSally is struggling against her Democratic rival, former astronaut Mark Kelly — the husband of shooting survivor and former Rep. Gabby Giffords — who is polling at least five points ahead of the Republican. He also reportedly had more than twice the campaign cash on hand as McSally did in mid-July.

Officials with her campaign insisted that McSally was joking about skipping a meal — though she didn’t sound like she was joking.

“This is a dumb non-story about a candidate making a joke on the stump,” campaign spokesperson Caroline Anderegg told the Arizona Republic. She said McSally would “literally give the shirt off her back for anyone.”

[homoe]

President Trump on Saturday sought to downplay comments made by his sister Maryanne Trump Barry in audio leaked to the Washington Post that he has "no principles," is prone to "lying" and "you can’t trust him."

Why it matters: Maryanne Trump Barry has never publicly criticized the president on his policies. But, according to 15 hours of secretive recordings made by their niece Mary Trump, the retired federal judge said of his immigration policies in 2018: "It's the phoniness of it all. It's the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel."

When asked for comment on the revelations, President Trump said in a statement to Axios: "Every day it's something else, who cares."

https://www.axios.com/president-trump-sister-you-cant-trust-him-audio-washpost-d79f9659-658a-4dd6-b6b0-60103121b3df.html

[Orema]

Trump Might Not Know New York Attorney General Letitia James, But He’s Gonna Learn Tuhday (https://www.theroot.com/trump-might-not-know-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-1844831067)

Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
August 24, 2020

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_800/vouqg7qwq1fdcsbcicnj.jpg
New York Attorney General Letitia James • Photo: Michael M. Santiago (Getty Images)

I keep trying to tell y’all this, and I feel like this is not getting to the people in the back, but New York Attorney General Letitia James did not come here to play with you and your little friends. She, of the James family, which includes such luminaries as: LeBron, Jesse, King, Etta, Rick, and Trinidad, comes from a long line of people who shut the front door because they understand that their mother’s air conditioning is not trying to cool the whole damn neighborhood.

Maybe you’ve heard the name before? That might because she’s trying to take down a good-ole-white boys club more commonly known as the National Rifle Association.

And now the New York attorney general, casually known as Tish although everyone calls her Ms. James, is going after Trump’s private business for reportedly inflating the value of its assets according to a legal filing, Monday, the Washington Post reports (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-york-ag-trump-organization-lawsuit/2020/08/24/882c03a8-e60e-11ea-bc79-834454439a44_story.html?wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.e yJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSI sImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNTk2YjEzMWVhZGU0ZTI0MTE5YWQxY jU0IiwidGFnIjoid3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUiLCJ1cmw iOiJodHRwOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9wb2xpd Gljcy9uZXcteW9yay1hZy10cnVtcC1vcmdhbml6YXRpb24tbGF 3c3VpdC8yMDIwLzA4LzI0Lzg4MmMwM2E4LWU2MGUtMTFlYS1iY zc5LTgzNDQ1NDQzOWE0NF9zdG9yeS5odG1sP3dwbWs9MSZ3cGl zcmM9YWxfbmV3c19fYWxlcnQtcG9saXRpY3MtLWFsZXJ0LW5hd GlvbmFsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9YWxlcnQmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWF pbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249d3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUmb G9jYXRpb249YWxlcnQifQ.sNnvQgALj5C_DTr3lEIxsT3hbru0 rSFJKB2bke7G7Vk).

From the Post:

In the filing, signed by a deputy to Attorney General Letitia James, the attorney general’s office said it is investigating Trump’s use of “Statements of Financial Condition” — documents Trump sent to lenders, summarizing his assets and debts.

The filing asks a New York state judge to compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators — including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president’s son Eric.

The attorney general’s office said it began investigating after Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, told Congress in February 2019 that Trump had used these statements to inflate his net worth to lenders.

Eric Trump was initially supposed to be interviewed in late July but abruptly canceled that shit upon learning that “Tish” was Letitia James. The Trump not named Ivanka or Donald Jr. is now refusing to be interviewed and having his lawyers do the talking and they are claiming that, “We cannot allow the requested interview to go forward … pursuant to those rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution,” the Post reports.

The Post notes that much of the investigation has been left out of the filing, but three Trump properties valuations were listed: “a Los Angeles golf course, an office building at 40 Wall St. and a country estate called “Seven Springs” in Westchester County, N.Y.”

The Post has been following Trump’s money since the president took office and has noted that Trump inflated “the potential sale value of the Seven Springs property in a ‘Statement of Financial Condition’ — a type of document he sent to potential lenders to demonstrate his wealth.”

Also from the Post:

In 2011, Trump’s statement claimed that the property had been “zoned for nine luxurious homes,” and that the value of those home lots raised the value of the overall property to $261 million — far more than the $20 million assessed by local authorities. Local officials said Trump had received preliminary conceptual approval for those homes, but never completed the process or obtained final zoning permission. The homes were never built.

The court filing also mentions a question about a loan on Trump’s Chicago hotel, which one of Trump’s lenders forgave in 2010. The filing does not say why that forgiven loan is of interest to investigators.

“The Trump Organization has done nothing wrong,” Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, said in a statement. And, like most of those who follow Trump, Garten believes that the attorney general’s investigation is politically motivated.

The attorney general’s “continued harassment of the company as we approach the election (and filing of this motion on the first day of the Republican National Convention) once again confirms that this investigation is all about politics.”

James’ office told the Post that they’ve “not reached a determination” as to whether Trump’s company violated any laws.

But they are watching and there are only two people whose radar you don’t want to be on:

1. Omar (The Wire)
2. Tish James

https://www.theroot.com/trump-might-not-know-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-1844831067

[~ocean]

I think Donald Trump Jr. & his g/f KG were on cocaine. What a mess they are.

[homoe]

I think Donald Trump Jr. & his g/f KG were on cocaine. What a mess they are.


Couldn't agree more!

She was a raving lunatic all that screaming, I had to use the mute button and him, well he's just an all around lunatic IMHO!

[homoe]

Lou Holtz, a former college football coach, caused controversy during the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night when he declared that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a "Catholic in name only."

Biden has been vocal about his faith, which he says has helped him through difficult times in his life, like when his son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015. Holtz made his judgment while delivering a speech praising President Trump, saying he is a man who "genuinely cares about people" and is someone Americans can "trust."

Not long after Holtz was finished, liberals and conservatives alike jumped to Biden's defense on Twitter. WTF is the matter with Lou! Perhaps he's suffered a stroke or something we're unaware of?

[homoe]

Donald Trump and Joe Biden are scheduled to have their first presidential debate on Sept. 29, but Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem that excited about it.

The House Speaker told reporters on Thursday that she doesn’t see the point in having any presidential debates this year.

Her reasoning: “skullduggery.”

“I don’t think that there should be any debates,” Pelosi said, adding that she doesn’t want them to be “an exercise in skullduggery.”

“I wouldn’t legitimize a conversation with him, nor a debate in terms of the presidency of the United States,” she said.

Pelosi predicted that in the upcoming debate the president will “probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency; he does that every day.”

“But I think it will also belittle what the debates are supposed to be about,” Pelosi added. “And they’re not to be about skullduggery on the part of somebody who has no respect for the office he holds, much less the democratic process.”

If Biden asked for her opinion, Pelosi would tell him not to “dignify that conversation with Donald Trump,” she said.

Biden’s campaign has a different opinion on the matter and made that clear a short time later.

As long as the debate commission sticks to the rules it sets, the former veep told reporters that he plans not only to debate Trump but also to be “fact-checker on the floor.”

[homoe]

Lou Holtz, a former college football coach, caused controversy during the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night when he declared that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a "Catholic in name only."

Biden has been vocal about his faith, which he says has helped him through difficult times in his life, like when his son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015. Holtz made his judgment while delivering a speech praising President Trump, saying he is a man who "genuinely cares about people" and is someone Americans can "trust."

Not long after Holtz was finished, liberals and conservatives alike jumped to Biden's defense on Twitter. WTF is the matter with Lou! Perhaps he's suffered a stroke or something we're unaware of?

Notre Dame disassociates itself from Lou Holtz's RNC comments questioning Joe Biden's Catholic faith.

Notre Dame wants to make it clear that it doesn’t endorse what Lou Holtz said about former Vice President Joe Biden at the Republican National Convention.

Holtz spoke Wednesday night at the RNC and said that Biden was a Catholic “in name only.” Biden, a Catholic, has cited his faith as a constant throughout his life.

“One of the important reasons [President Donald Trump] has my trust is because nobody is but a stronger advocate for the unborn than President Trump,” Holtz said. “The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history. They and other politicians are Catholics in name only and abandon innocent lives. President Trump protects those lives. I trust President Trump.”

Holtz led into his line about trust in Trump by citing his time at Notre Dame and the fact that there’s a statue of him at the school.

Thursday, Fr. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, issued a statement that said people should not question the sincerity of others’ faith and that Holtz’s previous employment at the school “must not be taken to imply” that Notre Dame endorsed his views.

“While Coach Lou Holtz is a former coach at Notre Dame, his use of the University’s name at the Republican National Convention must not be taken to imply that the University endorses his views, any candidate or any political party,” Jenkins said. “Moreover, we Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of another’s actions, we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that person’s heart. In this fractious time, let us remember that our highest calling is to love.”

[A. Spectre]

Major US companies pledge to give employees time off to vote


Several major U.S. companies are pledging to give employees time off to vote in the November election, adding to a growing effort to help people vote while working on Election Day since it is not a federal holiday.

The Associated Press reports that a roster of large corporations including Starbucks, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Apple, Twitter, Cisco, PayPal and Uber have all committed to allocating time for employees to vote.

For Walmart, this means allowing its 1.5 million employees up to three hours of paid leave to go vote. Similarly, Apple is offering its workers four hours off. Coca-Cola, Twitter, Cisco and Uber are letting employees take the day off entirely.

Starbucks said it will give is 200,000 employees flexibility on Election Day, and encourages them to plan ahead with managers to schedule time to vote or volunteer at polling places. The company also announced that its app will help customers learn how to register to vote.

“No American should have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting,” PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said.

Giving employees a designated day off to vote is an idea that has been around since 1999, but has gained traction in recent years. The AP reported that 600 companies like Airbnb, Lyft and Paramount have partnered with ElectionDay.org, a nonprofit devoted to helping companies give employees information about voting, including obtaining mail-in ballots.

ElectionDay.org became active in 2018, and had 150 companies sign up. It now aims to secure 1,000 participating organizations by November 2020.

-----------------------

Our voter turnout trails other developed countries. During the 2016 fiasco, only 56% turned out to vote. A tragedy in spades. The founding fathers at first only granted white, male property owners the right to vote, so the expansion of voting rights has taken some time.

Frankly, only women should be allowed to vote, look at the GD mess the men have gotten us into. President Obama said recently that women should take over, they would do a better job. He's right! (Most women, not all. There are some whack-a-doos)

I have had a hate/hate relationship with Wal-Mart. I wonder if I should rethink.

[Orema]

How Fake News Was Born by Heather Henderson

https://i.postimg.cc/PqYX6JZ1/url-https-static-politico-com-d4-8f-8e6f9e404d478067291f3293bd67-gettyimages-138455325.jpg
NBC NewsWire/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Heather Hendershot is a professor of film and media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the author of Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line.

In the weeks leading up to the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley turned his town into a fortress. He sealed the manhole covers with tar, so protesters couldn’t hide in the sewers. He installed a fence topped with barbed wire around the Chicago International Amphitheater. He put the entire police force of 12,000 men on 12-hour shifts and called in over 5,000 National Guardsmen. About 1,000 Secret Service and FBI agents were also on duty, as the city braced for the 10,000 protesters who would soon arrive, wound up by a year of political assassinations, urban riots and the raging Vietnam War.

What could possibly go wrong?

With the whole world watching, the three major news networks brought the answer to that question into millions of Americans’ living rooms. They spared barely a second of the ensuing mayhem in their coverage—and in the course of doing so sparked a national debate about objectivity and journalistic integrity. The liberal-minded tuned in and saw textbook police brutality and “Gestapo tactics,” in the words of Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff. But millions of Middle Americans, the citizens Richard M. Nixon would later immortalize as the “silent majority,” saw an entirely different display of excess—on the part not of the police, but of the TV networks.

The Archie Bunkers of America, impassive to the hippies’ and yippies’ plight, saw them playing the newsmen like a fiddle, getting free publicity for their cause and, ultimately, getting what they deserved from the police. The protesters hurled profanities at the cops. They engaged in street theater, nominating a pig as the Democratic presidential candidate. They attempted to sleep in the parks (defying the 11 p.m. curfew) and to hold marches even though permits had been denied by the city. Allen Ginsberg even led the kids in chanting “Om.” The “establishment” response was swift and violent. As right-wing pundit Robert Novak later observed, “The demonstrators came looking for trouble and got what they wanted.” Viewed from that perspective, the 1968 Democratic convention was an inflection point for conservatives who would protest that the mainstream media was, in words that now echo from the White House, “the enemy of the people.”

The violence in Chicago was all-encompassing, and longhairs weren’t the only targets of what the federal government’s Walker Report later described as a “police riot” in the streets outside the convention. Delegates from the convention themselves—accountants in Brooks Brothers shirts, librarians with prim leatherette handbags—who wandered onto Michigan Avenue found themselves flying ass-over-tea-kettle through plate glass windows. Journalists with clearly displayed credentials were attacked, including, most notoriously, CBS’ Dan Rather.

Today, it’s taken for granted that much of our news coverage is slanted left or right, but in the network era there was still a deeply held belief that news could (and should) be completely neutral. The tumult of the 1960s tore apart that notion, even as many viewers struggled to hang onto it. We tend to think of the pre-Watergate era as an Edenic vista of trust and fidelity toward our institutions, especially the media—but the skepticism and stubborn partisan distrust that many feel today was present then, too. The real-time controversy and spin surrounding the shocking images that came from Chicago, many of them revisited here for the first time since August 1968, laid the foundation for the cries of “liberal bias” that hound and undermine the mainstream news media to this day.

This story is too long to republish in full on BFP. For the rest go to: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/02/how-fake-news-was-born-at-the-1968-dnc-219627

[C0LLETTE]

Defunding the police: Ensuring that Police can be the last resort, not the first.

There are many situations in which only police can provide the peace, order and good government every Canadian wants, which is why all Canadians need to know they’re served by fair, impartial and unbiased officers.

But public safety is always about more than just police. As the Peel Principles of Policing put it, “the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.”

Rethinking Canadian policing to make it so that police are not always the first call, but in many situations, the last resort? It’s a good idea.

[homoe]

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pushed and voted for policies that benefited her husband’s consulting and lobbying business, positions Democrats are set to attack in what is quickly becoming one of the most contentious and expensive Senate races in the country.

Collins is in a tight race with Democratic state House Speaker Sara Gideon in a race Democrats almost certainly need to win to have a chance at taking back control of the U.S. Senate. The race, which has brought an unprecedented barrage of tens of millions of dollars worth of television advertising to Maine, has become increasingly nasty. Democrats and Republicans are now airing television ads attacking the husbands.

“Collins’ husband, a former lobbyist, profited off the opioid crisis,” the male narrator says in an ad from Duty and Honor, a Democratic nonprofit controlled by allies of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“She tried to raise her taxes, but her family didn’t pay their own taxes on time,” a female narrator says in an ad slamming Gideon, referring to tax liens levied against a condo project her husband invested in. The ad is from 1820 PAC, a super PAC whose largest donors are ultra-wealthy Wall Street executives.

The attacks highlight how the race has become the nastiest of Collins’ long career in politics and show how Democrats are prepared to turn even relatively routine, bipartisan elements of Collins’ four terms in the Senate into fodder for attack ads, arguing she has become an irredeemable creature of the Washington “swamp.”

Republicans, meanwhile, are desperate to find new points of attack on Gideon that could damage her image enough to persuade Maine voters to cast ballots for Collins even though they are likely to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who is almost certain to win the state.

[homoe]

Couldn't agree more!

She was a raving lunatic all that screaming, I had to use the mute button and him, well he's just an all around lunatic IMHO!

Donald Trump Jr new book Liberal Privilege's who's had more privilege than this sniffling ass and lunatic....

[Orema]

Get Ready for a Feeding Frenzy Over the NRA’s Corpse

A lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA will also have to anoint its successor.

By ALEX YABLON

https://compote.slate.com/images/b23cf417-e717-4cba-802e-93005ceef926.jpeg?width=780&height=520&rect=1560x1040&offset=0x0
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference announcing a lawsuit to dissolve the NRA on Aug. 6 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

When a whale dies in the middle of the ocean, its corpse slowly drifts to the midnight-dark abyssal zone thousands of feet below the water’s surface. There, as the enormous carcass decomposes over the course of years, it sustains a flourishing array of bottom dwellers that pick apart the remains, in a phenomenon known as a “whale fall.”

A similar event may soon unfold in the gun rights ecosystem as the National Rifle Association implodes. Following decades of self-dealing business practices and financial mismanagement that enriched the leadership, board members, and vendors of one of the country’s most feared political interest groups, the NRA may be forced to shut down for good. A lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in August seeks to impose the rare corporate death penalty on the NRA, after an investigation revealed an organization so corrupt that her office contends it cannot be reformed. The death of the NRA would mark the end of an era, but the lawsuit won’t end the gun rights movement. Over its lifetime, the NRA has built up a massive organizational infrastructure, which will likely live on to sustain even more extreme pro-gun groups.

James’ effort to dissolve the NRA is unprecedented, says Michael West, the senior attorney at the New York Council of Nonprofits, but then again, so is the scale of corruption detailed in the lawsuit. When James’ office began its investigation of the NRA more than a year ago, West doubted the attorney general would actually try to dissolve the group, telling me in May 2019, “The more you go for a homerun, the likelier it’s gonna be a swing and a miss.” But after reading the complaint that New York filed this August, he revised his estimation of the case.

“The level of deception and the endless conflicts of interest at every level—I don’t know what you could do to rehabilitate it from a management perspective,” West told me in a recent interview. “The entire management team and board has to go. But if you take out the entire leadership, who runs it? It’s not the AG’s job to recruit new executives and board members. So dissolution is the only viable option.”

West could not think of a nonprofit of comparable size or scope that New York or any other state has shut down as James seeks to do with the NRA. According to New York state nonprofit law, in the event of dissolution, the courts have to disburse those assets to another nonprofit that shares the same values. The only recent similar case is the dissolution of the Trump Foundation, but that was on a far smaller scale, involving a much simpler nonprofit that just doled out cash without any kind of actual operations. It was easy for courts to release the remaining Trump money to uncontroversial charities like the United Way.

The National Rifle Association, by contrast, has a clearly defined mission, actually does stuff, and has real assets. Aside from any money the group may have left, the NRA also has less tangible but arguably more valuable assets: namely, its branding and membership rolls. The NRA’s uniquely close relationship with its grassroots and thus its political power rests on these two pillars.

If James succeeds, the court will direct her to find other groups who could take control of the NRA’s infrastructure, which could restart a national gun rights advocacy group. She would be bound by law to solely consider whether successor groups share the NRA’s values and are free from any taint of corruption. “The groups would have to be absolutely squeaky clean, but they could have really aggressive Second Amendment politics,” West said.

Though the NRA has defined the national gun rights movement for decades, it is by no means the only player on the scene. Rivals have grown in prominence in recent years. And many of the lesser-known groups are in fact much more extreme in their pro-gun stances, and closer to the far-right fringe.

Take Gun Owners of America, a smaller but still very influential group that bills itself as “the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington,” in implicit rebuke to the more mainstream NRA. GOA arguably tanked the post–Sandy Hook Manchin-Toomey gun reform bill that the NRA was initially prepared to accept. Its former executive director, Larry Pratt, isn’t shy about cozying up to militias and white power groups. Yet there’s no evidence the group is involved in any financial shenanigans, so GOA could credibly claim to be an inheritor to the NRA.

Or look to the states, where most gun policy is actually made: Though the NRA is the only group with the muscle to regularly shape federal gun policy, independent local groups frequently take a larger role in state policy fights. “Even before the NRA’s recent troubles, it was state groups that filed lawsuits challenging gun laws, even without the support of the NRA,” said Robert Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland who studies the gun rights movement. As the NRA has been sidelined by the investigation and other financial crises, Spitzer noted that “many of these state groups have picked up the slack.” State gun groups can turn out huge numbers of supporters. For instance, when Democrats retook Virginia’s Legislature after the most recent elections and promised to vote on a slate of gun control measures, it was the Virginia Citizens Defense League—not the NRA, which stayed away—that organized a massive rally outside the state capitol, which attracted scores of militias and other armed far-right extremists, some from out of state. The effort successfully stopped Democratic majorities from passing an assault weapons ban.

Longtime NRA power brokers untouched by the scandal could also simply start new groups. Chris Cox was the NRA’s former top lobbyist and was seen for years as Wayne LaPierre’s likely successor. He was forced to resign in June 2019 after LaPierre accused him of using the allegations of corruption to push out the elder leader. “Cox is someone who could be well positioned to create a more reputable, reliable gun rights organization,” said West. Cox could incorporate a new nonprofit, presumably in a solidly red state with friendlier oversight. He’d already have the relationships with Republican legislators that a new gun rights group would need.

Cox did not respond to a request for comment sent to the political consultancy he founded after leaving the NRA. GOA emailed a link to a statement, which said that the “rights protected by the Second Amendment will continue regardless of the radical Left’s attempts to destroy the individual right to keep and bear arms,” but specifically declined to comment on the merits of the case. The Virginia Citizens Defense League has not commented on the suit, but a member told the Christian Science Monitor that the demise of a national gun rights group and the rise of local organizations might not be such a bad thing.

The suit’s denouement will likely take years. The NRA is stalling with a federal countersuit alleging James is selectively prosecuting the group out of a political bias, though that doesn’t change the damning facts of the case. Whenever the suit reaches its conclusion, the parties—James, the NRA, and any groups vying to succeed the national gun group—will have to enter into talks that could make them all queasy. The NRA will have to take part in its own dissection. Hard-liners like GOA will have to approach the court to get a piece of the NRA, essentially blessing the efforts of deep-blue state government regulators. And James will ironically be in the position of midwifing the next phase of America’s gun movement.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/nra-lawsuit-gun-rights-movement-successor.html

[homoe]

Lou Holtz, a former college football coach, caused controversy during the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night when he declared that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is a "Catholic in name only."

Biden has been vocal about his faith, which he says has helped him through difficult times in his life, like when his son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015. Holtz made his judgment while delivering a speech praising President Trump, saying he is a man who "genuinely cares about people" and is someone Americans can "trust."

Not long after Holtz was finished, liberals and conservatives alike jumped to Biden's defense on Twitter. WTF is the matter with Lou! Perhaps he's suffered a stroke or something we're unaware of?

President Donald Trump announced Friday that former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among the country’s highest civilian awards.

The announcement came nine days after the coach delivered a speech in support of the president at the Republican National Convention, claiming Democratic nominee Joe Biden to be a “Catholic in name only despite significant evidence of the former vice president’s faith.

The speech was controversial enough that the president of Notre Dame released a statement a day later distancing the school from Holtz and chastising its former coach for questioning another person’s faith.

Trump announces Lou Holtz’s Presidential Medal of Freedom
While Trump did not mention Holtz’ speech in his announcement, he called the coach a longtime friend of his and claimed to have received letters from several other coaches in support of Holtz, including Nick Saban, Ed Orgeron and Urban Meyer.

He added that Holtz’s ceremony is still to be determined, but won’t be in the “too-distant future.”

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Michael Cohen stated that he believes T-P would "do anything" to keep himself in office, even go so far as to "start a war".

If Michael Cohen thought this thing through clearly, I wonder what kind of war he had in mind? Is it more feasible for T-P to start a war with another country (China?) or a civil war?

[A. Spectre]

Anyone else enjoying the panic


The maggot and his minions are in because of the Atlantic story.
Its a delight to watch.


Here is but a sample of the demented mind of donald j. trump's thought about the military.

1. Says Americans who die in wars are "suckers" and "losers."

2. ⁠“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers” he said about a U.S. military cemetery

3. ⁠Called John McCain “a fucking loser” when asked to lower flags to half staff

4. ⁠Called President George H.W. Bush a loser for being shot down during WWII

5. ⁠Asked his staff to not include wounded veterans because amputees make him uncomfortable

6. ⁠Trump knew since Mar 2020 that Russia paid bounties to kill American troops. On July 29, Trump defended Russia arming the Taliban against the US saying the US once did the same thing.

7. ⁠The Trump admin seized 5mil masks intended for VA hospitals. Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then sells the masks to the government.

8. ⁠Said 26,000 military sexual assaults were to be 'expected' bc America lets women serve.

9. ⁠Pardoned multiple war criminals, which betrayed the men of the 1st Platoon who helped convict him for violating long standing military values, discipline, and command (May&Nov, 2019)

10. ⁠Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange.

11. ⁠In Sept, 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall.


----------------------

This list is only a small partial of fucked up things the tangeranus has said and done. I have citations for each and everything listed above.

My god! Anyone placing a vote for this is lacking.....well, lacking something. It is imperative this menace is removed and we begin to heal.

[Orema]

Michael Cohen stated that he believes T-P would "do anything" to keep himself in office, even go so far as to "start a war".

If Michael Cohen thought this thing through clearly, I wonder what kind of war he had in mind? Is it more feasible for T-P to start a war with another country (China?) or a civil war?

The civil (race) war we’re in the midst of now?

I’ve read reports that Trump was on Twitter this morning confirming he wants to cancel taxpayer funded seminars on “critical race theory,” describing them as “a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue.”

His tweet followed the release of a two-page memo sent out by the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday, which asked federal agencies to identify such programs so that they can be purged.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-is-banning-federal-agencies-from-conducting-workplace-training-sessions-on-race-which-he-believes-are-anti-american-propaganda/ar-BB18Jlan?li=BBnb7Kz

I think this is the war he’s counting on.

[homoe]

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/v1Bscl.zYTTg2bBGSybEAw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/en-GB/theguardian_763/859e98febd24c3eb7d9aad3ee79b6181


Kamala Harris: what her sneakers mean..

Kamala Harris’s nomination as Joe Biden’s running mate is historic: the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, she is the first woman of colour to be on a major party’s presidential ticket. She is also the first to prominently wear sneakers on the campaign trail.

It is a small sartorial detail, but it is linked to the larger cultural moment in which we live. “Sneakers are a form of footwear finding their way into many women’s closets as part of a larger challenge to outmoded concepts of femininity,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, the author of Sneaker X Culture: Collab. Traditionally, there is a standard shoe etiquette for women in political office – either alpha (see: Nancy Pelosi’s stilettos, Theresa May’s leopard print heels) or conservative (Elizabeth Warren’s slide sandals, Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit-matching kitten heels). Semmelhack believes Harris’s shoes signal action. “The sneakers are acting as the sartorial equivalent of being willing to roll up her sleeves,” she says. They suggest Harris “is a woman of action”.

[A. Spectre]

From President Jimmy Carter


"Rosalynn and I are pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks. Our hearts are with the victims’ families and all who feel hopeless in the face of pervasive racial discrimination and outright cruelty. We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. But violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution.

"As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country. In my 1974 inaugural address as Georgia’s governor, I said: “The time for racial discrimination is over.” With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later.

Dehumanizing people debases us all; humanity is beautifully and almost infinitely diverse. The bonds of our common humanity must overcome the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

"Since leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and I have strived to advance human rights in countries around the world. In this quest, we have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence. People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say “no more” to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy. We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.

"We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this."

---------------------------

President Carter and his wife are two of the most decent people on the planet, I am proud of my work with Habitat for Humanity. These two kind souls do more in one minute than the entire family grift who are currently infesting the people's house in their entire pathetic lives.

President Carter offers hope, civility and kindness.

[C0LLETTE]

If I could, I'd add a pageful of "thanks" at the bottom of your post, A.Spectre.

[Orema]

https://i.postimg.cc/2yy8s7J2/b6047027-8b59-474b-b2b7-a784e2dbec48.jpg

How Maine Turned on Susan Collins

Inside the movement to topple the Republican senator.

By CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
SEPT 08, 2020

Six years ago, Karin Leuthy, a registered Democrat, voted for Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Like many Mainers, Leuthy, 48, took pride in not voting a straight party ticket that year. “I thought it was really important to have women in the Senate who were Republican, who were pro-choice, who would protect reproductive rights and be a check to the men in the Republican Party,” Leuthy said.

Leuthy lives in Camden, a coastal town with a picturesque harbor and a ski area that hosts a national toboggan championship every year. Her daughter raises sheep, which they board at a nearby farm. In 2014, when she last voted for Collins, Leuthy was an avid news consumer and regular voter, but not an activist. She admired Olympia Snowe, Maine’s long-serving Republican senator who retired in 2012 out of frustration with Senate partisanship. “Snowe was very thoughtful. She was straightforward. And she had a way of working in a diplomatic fashion that I think a lot of Mainers really appreciated,” Leuthy said. “I thought Susan Collins was going to serve in an Olympia Snowe model. I was very wrong. Very wrong.”

Ask a handful of Maine Democrats for their thoughts on Collins’ current reelection campaign, and you’re likely to hear at least a few stories that mirror Leuthy’s. At a late-February bean supper in Skowhegan hosted by Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and now Collins’ Democratic challenger, I talked to more than a dozen attendees. Some lived in the 8,500-person town in central Maine; others had traveled to the steelworkers’ union hall from up to an hour away. They were mostly registered Democrats—some committed to Gideon, some still considering her primary opponents. Almost all of them had voted for Collins in previous elections. None planned to do so again.

In 2014, Collins won her fourth term with more than 68 percent of the vote. She won every county, every age group, every education level, every income bracket, and nearly 40 percent of Democratic voters. The next year, with a 78 percent approval rating in the state, Collins was ranked the most popular Republican senator. Back then, she enjoyed a reputation among many of her Democratic constituents as a prudent, upstanding moderate, a perception shored up by her occasional consequential swing votes that swung toward the Democrats. A regular stream of analyses named her the “most bipartisan” and “most disagreeable”—as in party-bucking—member of the Senate.

That picture of Collins, who was also named the Republican senator most likely to back Barack Obama’s positions, hasn’t always told the full story. The tallies that led to those titles include votes made only for procedural reasons and votes to pass Cabinet or judicial nominations, which Collins almost always supports, regardless of the president’s party affiliation. The bills she co-sponsors with Democrats—the ones that make her the “most bipartisan”—rarely make it to a vote. They often concern important but not particularly far-reaching or controversial issues: helping states build out broadband networks or reauthorizing a geriatric care workforce development program. Many peter out in committee, making them far more consequential to the co-sponsors’ respective bipartisan rankings than to the American people.

In the more consequential votes, Collins’ record has been mixed. She memorably cast a decisive vote against the GOP’s attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act in 2017—but a few months later, she voted for the GOP tax bill that repealed the individual mandate. Collins opposed Betsy DeVos for secretary of education but only after casting an essential vote to send her nomination out of committee and onto the Senate floor. Collins made an eloquent defense of Planned Parenthood with her 2017 vote against the ACA repeal, then gave an equally impassioned speech in favor of Brett Kavanaugh, who’d go on to set the stage for a possible future rollback of abortion rights in his June Medical Services v. Gee dissent. She was one of just two Senate Republicans to vote in favor of allowing witnesses in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial but ultimately voted to acquit him, saying that Trump had learned an important lesson and would be “much more cautious in the future.” These actions have taken a toll: In January, Collins clocked in as the most unpopular senator, period.

https://i.postimg.cc/Yq2swydp/376a1772-8a9c-4c34-8682-a71dd365805b.jpg
Sen. Susan Collins at the Capitol on Sept. 26, 2018, the week Christine Blasey Ford testified against Brett Kavanaugh. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Her bid for reelection, a foregone conclusion in previous years, is now a tight race. Since getting the nomination, Gideon has beaten Collins in every major poll, with independents and undecideds both leaning her way. Collins still has a chance to win—she’s the incumbent, and Gideon’s lead is not that large—but she’s going to have to fight for it. And the stakes are high: Collins’ seat is a linchpin of the Democratic Party’s plan to retake the Senate. Democrats need to win four Senate seats to gain a majority—three if Joe Biden wins the presidency—and Collins holds one of the seven Republican seats that look flippable. Only Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona is rated more vulnerable, according to the Cook Political Report.

That vulnerability points to something else happening in Maine, something that polling data can’t quite capture. In the years since Collins’ last reelection, Donald Trump’s presidency and the new left-leaning activist infrastructure that has sprung up in response to it have changed the state’s political landscape. Many Maine independents and Democrats told me they felt they’d been awakened from a period of political complacency—able to see clearly, for the first time, that Collins wasn’t the moderating force in the Senate she claimed to be. People like Leuthy, who had voted for Collins in the past, are now actively organizing against her.

______________________
The rest of the article can be found here (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/maine-turned-on-susan-collins.html).

[homoe]

~~~
....:goodpost:.....

[homoe]

~~


Did Collins actually think voters would forget when she could of made a difference in the Senate she folded like a house of cards?

[homoe]

~~


Did Collins actually think voters would forget when she could of made a difference in the Senate she folded like a house of cards?


Kavanaugh's confirmation, Trump's Impeachment, oh the list goes on and on!

[homoe]

HqIiCkAYLT8

[homoe]

President Trump on Wednesday released his updated list of potential Supreme Court nominees and called on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to follow suit.

“Should there be another vacancy on the Supreme Court during my presidency, my nominee will come from the names I have shared with the American public,” Trump said in announcing the list. “Joe Biden has refused to release his list, perhaps because he knows the names are so extremely far-left.”

The new list adds 20 new names including Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri as well as Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is considered a likely next pick to fill a potential vacancy, remains on the list, as do Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Judge Amul Thapar.

Cotton said in a statement that he is “honored” to be named on the list, adding, “the Supreme Court could use some more justices who understand the difference between applying the law and making the law.”

Cruz expressed his appreciation as well, saying he is “grateful for the president’s confidence in me and for his leadership in nominating principled constitutionalists to the federal bench.”

The revamped list garnered praise from pro-life advocates who hope that a conservative majority of justices could overturn the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

The new list is “filled with all-stars” and “reflects the president’s firm and proven commitment to only nominating Supreme Court justices who will respect the Constitution and the inalienable right to life,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List and national co-chair of the Trump’s campaign’s Pro-Life Voices for Trump, launched in January.

[homoe]

3_0N9DKtAH8

Four candidates running for U.S. Senate in Maine will appear on the debate stage together Friday for the first time in one of the most closely-watched races in the country. The running battle between Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic rival Sara Gideon, the speaker of the state House of Representatives, could determine control of the U.S. Senate. It has drawn national attention and a steady flood of out-of-state contributions — the campaigns and outside donors have so far poured more than $60 million into appealing to Maine's one million registered voters. The two will be joined onstage by Max Linn and Lisa Savage, independents who, while not polling in the double-digits, could play spoiler roles in the ranked-choice election.

"We're glad we can offer voters an up-close look as the candidates make their case under questioning," Cliff Schechtman, the executive editor of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, said. "It's so vital now for the public to have enough information to make an informed decision."

Gideon has for months held a slim but steady lead over Collins, who has struggled to square her moderate, bipartisan reputation with the vagaries of hardline Trumpism.

[nhplowboi]

Currently watching Trump supporters waiting for his rally to start in Minden, Nevada. Most are maskless and they are crammed in, one atop of another and have been for hours. Keep having those daily rallies Donald.....all your doing is killing your voters.

[homoe]

Currently watching Trump supporters waiting for his rally to start in Minden, Nevada. Most are maskless and they are crammed in, one atop of another and have been for hours. Keep having those daily rallies Donald.....all your doing is killing your voters.

.....:goodpost:......

[Orema]

At least with Nixon, Woodward had to follow the money to expose the venality. With Donald Trump, he simply had to turn on a recorder. Trump is his own whistleblower.

—Maureen Dowd, New York Times.

[homoe]

JRjfGfvNHVk

[homoe]

pVVgq94oR_s

[homoe]

Kamala Harris....

She did not step off of her private plane on her way to visiting the scene of a devastating California wildfire so much as she bounced. The vice presidential nominee did so in Timberland boots! IMHO she rocked those Timbs...

LOVE IT!

[homoe]

~~
Of course he says that. He's trying to suck up to American Voters!

[homoe]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was left with egg on his face after a smear campaign against his Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison backfired in spectacular fashion.

Graham in the last week had been calling on Harrison, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, to release his tax returns and suggested on Twitter that Harrison was hiding something.Harrison, who pundits believe poses a threat to Graham’s 17-year career in the Senate, released his returns on Tuesday.

And he informed Graham with a zinger of a post that called on his 2020 rival, who is one of President Donald Trump’s most ardent apologists, to turn his attention to the president and demand that Trump release his own tax records.

Trump refused to release his own tax returns during the 2016 campaign and broke a promise to do so after taking office. Since then, the president has waged a pitched legal battle to hide his returns from the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into possible financial fraud by Trump and his company.

Graham blasted Trump multiple times before his 2016 election and has said repeatedly that Trump should release his tax returns. “I think you should release your tax returns if you’re running for president in 2020,” Graham said in 2019. “I think everybody should. That’s just my view. It’d be good for the country.” Graham, who frequently golfs with Trump, hasn’t pushed the issue since. Critics on Twitter hammered Graham for hypocrisy and cheered Harrison’s response:

[nhplowboi]

Wow Donald! I'm thinking you've really lowered the Barr.

[homoe]

onald Trump’s latest reported insensitive comment about COVID-19 sparked anger on Twitter Thursday, with accusations the president again has shown his contempt for Americans.

In a video released by the Republican Voters Against Trump group, former White House official Olivia Troye claimed the president (a notorious germaphobe) once said "an upside of the coronavirus pandemic was that he’d no longer “have to shake hands with these disgusting people.”

“Those disgusting people are the same people that he claims to care about,” Troye said. “These are the same people still going to his rallies today who have complete faith in who he is.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-disgusting-people-coronavirus_n_5f645c7ac5b6480e896c863d

[homoe]

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer for women’s rights, a fierce champion for equality, and an extremely accomplished American who broke countless barriers in the field of law,” Collins said in a statement. “Throughout her life, Justice Ginsburg surmounted discrimination and sexism through her brilliance, tenacity, and wit, becoming one of the most prominent legal luminaries of our time.” Collins added that she "had the great honor of getting to know Justice Ginsburg personally when the women Senators twice had dinner with her and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She has been a role model to generations of women, and her legacy will live on in the countless people she inspired.”


A representative for Collins declined twice to give an answer on whether she would vote for a Trump nominee, according to the Portland Press Herald in Main.

Sidebar: It does no good to try and lock the barn door after the horses have been stolen! You've made your bed Collins now lay in it!

[homoe]

Susan Collins: "Whoever Wins The Presidential Election Should Fill SCOTUS Vacancy"

Lets see if she sticks to her guns once Mitch starts pouring dark money into her campaign fund!

HqIiCkAYLT8

[homoe]

Lindsey Graham sides with Trump on filling Supreme Court vacancy: 'I fully understand'


Of course he flip flopped, all of those surprised raise your hand!

[C0LLETTE]

Lindsey Graham sides with Trump on filling Supreme Court vacancy: 'I fully understand'


Of course he flip flopped, all of those surprised raise your hand!


I suspect that if he didn't side with Trump he'd be shoved out of the closet before he took his next breath.

[homoe]

I suspect that if he didn't side with Trump he'd be shoved out of the closet before he took his next breath.


Correct AND of course he'd never be invited to golf with Trump again.....:caddyshack:

[homoe]

~~
In my humble opinion what does it matter what they have said in the past! With the exception of a perhaps one or two, few have the backbone to stand up to Trump or live up to the courage of their convictions!



https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-senators-confront-past-comments-212231780.html

[homoe]

PHOENIX (AP) — If Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly wins a seat in the U.S. Senate, he could take office as early as Nov. 30, shrinking the GOP’s Senate majority at a crucial moment and complicating the path to confirmation for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

Kelly has maintained a consistent polling lead over Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018.

Because the contest is a special election to finish McCain’s term, the winner could be sworn in as soon as the results are officially certified. Other winners in the November election won’t take office until January.

Trump has pledged to nominate a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon who died Friday, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed that Trump’s nominee “will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”

If Kelly wins, the timing when he formally takes office could be crucial in determining who replaces Ginsburg. It could eliminate a Republican vote in favor of Trump’s nominee — the GOP currently has 53 seats in the 100-member chamber — or require McConnell to speed up the nomination process.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-senate-race-could-impact-050916130.html

[Cin]

This whole idea of stacking the supreme court seems to go against the spirit of what the supreme court supposedly does, which is constitutional review. When the Supreme Court justices' rulings reflect the party that simultaneously controls the presidency and the senate at the time of the justices' appointments, it says that the supreme court will allow or disallow laws according to the views of the party that was in control at the time of the appointments, not according to the constitution. It reminds me how some religious leaders use the parts of the bible that fit their agenda to interpret God's laws. Supreme court justices use the parts of the constitution and interpret those parts to fit their liberal or conservative agenda. Adding 2 more justices when a democrat gets in the White House, as I've heard proposed as a possible solution to the conservative majority problem, won't do a thing to address the sad state of constitutional review. Just the fact that at one point the Supreme Court decides that campaign spending regulations are allowed (McConnell, 2003), and then at another point that they are disallowed (Citizens United, 2010) shows there is more going on than simply trying to best of one's ability as a Supreme Court justice to interpret the Constitution fairly and accurately. It might make more sense to have Supreme Court rulings about constitutionality be merely advisory and non-binding. I doubt that will ever happen though. We will continue to battle for the right to stack the Supreme Court with like minded individuals, true and honorable constitutional review be damned.

[dark_crystal]

This whole idea of stacking the supreme court seems to go against the spirit of what the supreme court supposedly does, which is constitutional review. When the Supreme Court justices' rulings reflect the party that simultaneously controls the presidency and the senate at the time of the justices' appointments, it says that the supreme court will allow or disallow laws according to the views of the party that was in control at the time of the appointments, not according to the constitution. It reminds me how some religious leaders use the parts of the bible that fit their agenda to interpret God's laws. Supreme court justices use the parts of the constitution and interpret those parts to fit their liberal or conservative agenda. Adding 2 more justices when a democrat gets in the White House, as I've heard proposed as a possible solution to the conservative majority problem, won't do a thing to address the sad state of constitutional review. Just the fact that at one point the Supreme Court decides that campaign spending regulations are allowed (McConnell, 2003), and then at another point that they are disallowed (Citizens United, 2010) shows there is more going on than simply trying to best of one's ability as a Supreme Court justice to interpret the Constitution fairly and accurately. It might make more sense to have Supreme Court rulings about constitutionality be merely advisory and non-binding. I doubt that will ever happen though. We will continue to battle for the right to stack the Supreme Court with like minded individuals, true and honorable constitutional review be damned.

I wholeheartedly agree. It is short-sighted in the extreme to even suggest it. If we add justices every time there is a power shift, aren't we going to end up with like 37 justices eventually?

It just sets a terrible precedent. If anyone is going to try to pull something like this, let it be the GOP and we will take the high road against it.

[homoe]

jRW72zW4MgQ


IF ONLY! Too bad he's such a liar....

[homoe]

QdII8YMegBg



R E A L L Y... after the way he treated Col Vinmar, one of just many?

[Cin]

I wholeheartedly agree. It is short-sighted in the extreme to even suggest it. If we add justices every time there is a power shift, aren't we going to end up with like 37 justices eventually?

It just sets a terrible precedent. If anyone is going to try to pull something like this, let it be the GOP and we will take the high road against it.

Yes, it is a terrible precedent.

I'm also uncomfortable with packing the court with justices who will allow or disallow laws according to the views of the party who appointed them instead of according to the constitution. I get that interpreting the constitution allows for a bit of manipulating/maneuvering just like interpreting the law in general does. But I think a judge needs to start the interpreting from a place of integrity, openness and honesty. There needs to be a willingness to be impartial and uphold the spirit of the constitution even while understanding that it was a different time so things change, meaning becomes obscured or irrelevant, allowing for dispassionate review and interpretation.

Of course justices are human beings and human beings have prejudices and personal belief systems but one is not on the Supreme Court to interpret the constitution according to one's beliefs. Once that becomes the norm we may as well remove constitutional review from the job description. Again I know it happens, it can't be helped. justices can't remove their beliefs from their motivations. But when it is not only accepted as a given, but is the exact reason the particular person is chosen to be a Supreme Court justice then I question the validity of the rulings the Court makes. Even the idea that the American people choose a president and through that choice should expect the Supreme Court justices appointed by that president to allow or disallow laws according to the views of the party that controlled the presidency and the senate at that time and not according to constitutional review is to my mind bizarre. A judge at least should give lip service to being impartial. Judges should judge with impartiality. I know democrats are expected to appoint liberal justices and republicans conservative ones. I get that. But lately this seems to be a bit more than that, extra as the kids say. I am probably being naïve here but I don't believe there was always this deep intractable split with Supreme Court justices. I mean I know justices always leaned to the right or the left, but this is ridiculous.

[homoe]

There you go Susan! See where all your loyalty got you!









https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-attacks-susan-collins-fox-024428657.html

[homoe]

(CNN)GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah signaled on Tuesday that he is on board with the Senate's taking up a new Supreme Court nominee during the current election year, an announcement that all but ensures a nominee put forward by President Donald Trump will be confirmed barring any potential missteps by the nominee during the confirmation process.

In a statement, Romney did not raise any objections to holding a vote on a Trump nominee this year and said, "If the nominee reaches the Senate floor, I intend to vote based upon their qualifications."

[kittygrrl]

X-OwbYctFNE

Vote

[homoe]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) re-election campaign is facing scrutiny from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and he is now being required to answer questions regarding suspected accounting errors.

The letter and a 60-page report, written by FEC campaign analyst Susan Worthington to McConnell's Senate Committee, were sent to McConnell's campaign treasurer, Larry J. Steinberg on Monday. The committee pointed out "Apparent Excessive, Prohibited, and Impermissible Contributions" regarding donations recorded in McConnell's July quarterly report that suggests multiple contributions may have exceeded the legal limits.

Worthington also pointed out that there were contributions "received after the 2020 primary election that are designated for the 2020 primary.

"These contributions may only be accepted to the extent that the committee has net debts outstanding from the 2020 primary election," Worthington wrote.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-election-campaign-slapped-143605136.html

[Cin]

I don't know why the democrats won't even try to stop the SCOTUS pick. Maybe they won't be successful, but they certainly won't be if they don't even try. Why throw your hands in the air and say there is nothing to be done, when there are certainly several things that can be tried. I truly don't understand. Here's an article about a memo circulating Capital Hill outlining ways in which the dems could try to stop or slow this farce. What is in it for the democrats to just roll over? It's so frustrating.

You can bet your life if this was happening to the Republicans, capitulation would not even be considered as an option. Regardless if they had a chance in hell of being successful they would put everything they had, all resources available to them, into making it as difficult for the Democrats as they possibly could and like as not they would end up stopping them.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/25/capitulation-not-option-memo-details-how-dems-can-stall-or-stop-gop-rush-confirm


'Capitulation' Not an Option: Memo Details How Dems Can Stall or Stop GOP Rush to Confirm Trump SCOTUS Pick
"Hill Democrats and MSNBC pundits have been saying there's very little Dems can do to block Trump's illegitimate Supreme Court pick. False."

Warning against "mere capitulation" to the unpopular effort by President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans to rush through another right-wing Supreme Court justice right before the November election, a memo circulating on Capitol Hill outlines a number of ways in which Democrats in both chambers of Congress can gum up the works and delay the advance of Trump's nominee.

First reported by The Daily Poster on Thursday and later published in full by The Intercept, the document was compiled by people familiar with the nuances of congressional procedure, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has frequently used to further his party's aims while stifling those of his Democratic counterparts.

The memo details a number of procedural maneuvers available to congressional Democrats, including the introduction of privileged War Powers Resolutions—an idea floated this week by Kate Kizer of Win Without War—and House passage of impeachment resolutions against Trump or other administration officials, which the Senate would be required to consider before moving to other business.

Acknowledging that their list of possible delay tactics is "far from exhaustive" and not guaranteed to succeed, the authors of the memo maintain that they "have reason to believe that not all potential options have been thoroughly explored" by Democratic leaders, who are facing pressure from advocacy groups and progressive lawmakers to pull out all the stops against Trump's pick to fill the vacancy left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Thus far, as Bloomberg's Steven Dennis reported Thursday, Senate Democrats not been doing all they can to slow activity in the chamber.

"As a threshold matter," the document recommends, "congressional Democrats must enter a war-room posture and convene a group of the people most knowledgeable of Senate (and House) procedure who can work together and be mutually generative of relevant tactical ideas."

The memo authors note that on top of the potentially disastrous confirmation of another right-wing justice—who the president has vowed to name Saturday—failure by Democrats to do everything in their power to slow Trump's Supreme Court pick could "be viewed by many as abandonment of the Democratic base and could undermine enthusiasm."

"Much of the broad electorate will want to see congressional Democrats fighting to protect the court and their constitutional rights," the document says.

Read the full memo:

Re: Safeguarding the Court

Democrats must act to delay action by Leader McConnell to fill Justice Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. Denying action before the election could markedly increase the probability that the results of the election would change the vote in the Senate and thereby allow for the seating of a more progressive Justice. Failing that, moving forward with confirmation during a lame duck session, if consent of the governed had been denied, would buttress the case for structural Court reform.

Moreover, much of the broad electorate will want to see Congressional Democrats fighting to protect the Court and their Constitutional rights. Mere capitulation to what Washington insiders see as the inevitable will be viewed by many as abandonment of the Democratic base and could undermine enthusiasm.

At least two contextual considerations make the current circumstance more favorable to the use of dilatory tactics than were the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh confirmations, both of which took place during the 115th Congress: 1) The electorate might vote to change control of the Senate and/or the White House in a matter of weeks and 2) Democrats control the House of Representatives, which can play a part in compelling certain action in the Senate.

Engaging in such dilatory tactics would also likely force McConnell to keep the entire Republican Conference in the vicinity of the Senate, in order to maintain a quorum and to win various votes. This might become increasingly untenable because up to a dozen sitting Republicans are defending their seats in close races and will want to return home to campaign — including to participate in debates and other events they will be loath to miss.

As a threshold matter, the Congressional Democrats must enter a war-room posture and convene a group of the people most knowledgeable of Senate (and House) procedure who can work together and be mutually generative of relevant tactical ideas.

Suggestions contained herein, even if all acted upon in good faith, might not be dispositive of the outcome of the confirmation process — but we have reason to believe that not all potential options have been thoroughly explored.

Actions Congressional Democrats should consider include the following — but what follows is far from exhaustive. We do not purport to have considered every possibility, and this document intentionally omits discussion of certain creative tactics that rely upon the element of surprise.

Exercising Rights To Delay Senate Action Generally

Speaking at Length — In the absence of a unanimous consent agreement governing time to debate or cloture, a Senator who gets recognized to speak can speak at length.

Objecting to Routine Consent Agreements — Any Senator may object to routine unanimous consent agreements, such as those to adjourn, to recess, to approve the Journal, or to dispense with the Morning Hour. Forcing roll-call votes on routine motions to adjourn or recess would require Senators to come to the Capitol and also prevent the Senate from taking other action during the time that it would take for Senators to come to vote.

New Legislative Day — If the Senate adjourns without a unanimous consent agreement providing for the handling of routine business at the beginning of a new legislative day, a new legislative day starts with the morning hour, a 2-hour period with a number of required procedures. As part of the morning hour, any Senator could make a non-debatable motion to proceed to an item on the Senate calendar.

Objecting to Lifting Quorum Calls — Any Senator can object to unanimous consent to lifting a quorum call, forcing a recorded vote that would require Senators to come to the Capitol and also prevent the Senate from taking other action during the time it takes for Senators to come to vote.

Motions to Adjourn and Recess — Any Senator can move to adjourn, to adjourn to a day certain, or to take a recess. All of these motions take precedence over a motion to proceed to the consideration of a nomination. Senators could make a series of motions of this sort to force roll-call votes.

Layover Requirements — Senators can raise points of order if measures have not lain over sufficiently under Rule XIV or XVII.

Raising Points of Order — Any Senator who gets recognized by the Presiding Officer can raise a point of order making a procedural objection. Once the Presiding Officer rules, a Senator can appeal the ruling of the Chair, and Senators can demand a roll-call vote. One could imagine an extremely large number of procedural questions on which to vote.

Filing Cloture — If the Senate is not governed by a unanimous consent agreement or post cloture, a Senator who got recognized could move to proceed to a measure or series of measures and file cloture on the motion(s) to proceed. Two days later, the Senate would be required to vote on the cloture motion(s). The number of these motions is limited only by the number of items on the calendar.

Fast-Track Vehicles — Several fast-track statutes, including the Congressional Budget Act, the Congressional Review Act, the War Powers Act, and the Arms Export Control Act, give any Senator the right to move to proceed to a vehicle and force a roll-call vote and sometimes a period of debate. For example, any Senator could submit a concurrent resolution on the budget, and by precedent, if action has not yet been taken on a budget resolution for the coming fiscal year, then the resolution would be immediately placed on the calendar. Once on the calendar, any Senator could move to proceed to the resolution, forcing a roll-call vote on the motion to proceed. Meanwhile, resolutions of disapproval under the CRA can be petitioned out of committee with 30 signatures after 20 calendar days. Such measures could be filed en masse now.

Utilizing Rule XIV — Any Senator can have any legislative measure placed on the calendar in two legislative days under Rule XIV. Leader Schumer could ask every Democratic Senator to introduce bills on their favorite subjects en masse and seek to put them on the calendar via rule XIV. Once they were on the calendar two legislative days later, if Schumer could get the floor, he could move to proceed to each in turn, file cloture, withdraw his motion to proceed, move to another, file cloture, withdraw his motion to proceed, and continue to repeat, stacking up an almost endless series of votes on motions to invoke cloture on motions to proceed to Democratic priorities, until the Majority Leader shut the Senate down.

To prevent this strategy, the Majority Leader would have to keep the Senate locked down post cloture at all times and prevent the Democratic Leader from getting recognition, or continue to recess the Senate to prevent there ever being another legislative day. If the Majority Leader did the latter, the Democratic leader could still file serial motions to proceed to bills already on the calendar, so long as he could gain recognition to make the motions. This strategy requires there being an opportunity for motions to be made.

House Measures Requiring Senate Action

Impeachment — If the House of Representatives exercised its impeachment power, then the rules of the Senate require the Senate to immediately address that matter.

Amendments Between Houses — If the House of Representatives passed amendments to Senate-passed bills now pending in the House and sent those over to the Senate, those messages between Houses would be privileged in the Senate. Thus, in the absence of cloture or a unanimous consent agreement governing the Senate floor, a Senator could ask that such a message be laid before the Senate and make motions in connection with the message that would require immediate roll-call votes or offer a motion to concur (or concur with an amendment) and file cloture, once again forcing a roll-call vote after two days.

Short-Term Funding — The House of Representatives could insist on very short-term funding measures until the Leadership of both Houses came to agreement on proceedings for the balance of the year. Short-term funding measures would then require more-frequent roll-call votes.

War Powers Resolutions — Generally, within a certain number of days, the Senate has to take up WPRs or any Senator can move to proceed.

There are likely additional measures available that, if passed by the House, would demand action in the Senate.

Exercising Rights in the Judiciary Committee

Time for Review and Hearing — The Judiciary Committee customarily takes time to review the record of Supreme Court nominees. Democrats should demand that the Committee take this time before a hearing commences.

Objecting to Committees Meeting — Any Senator can object to unanimous consent for committees to meet more than two hours after the Senate convenes on a day in which the Senate is in session.

Full Hearings — Democratic Members of the Judiciary Committee could try to continue the proceedings of any hearing that the Chairman calls.

Hold Over Committee Action — Under Judiciary Committee rule I, paragraph 3, “At the request of any member . . . a . . . nomination on the agenda of the Committee may be held over until the next meeting of the Committee or for one week, whichever occurs later.” A Democratic Senator on the Judiciary Committee should demand that the nomination be held over for the week.

Denying a Quorum — Republicans need to produce the presence of a quorum of Judiciary Committee Senators to report out the nomination. Democrats might choose not to help produce the necessary Senators.

[BullDog]

Why are you assuming the Democrats aren't going to try to do anything? Unlike Trump, they don't telegraph their every move. Schumer already used the 2-hour rule at least once.

I think these are just stall tactics and even if they manage to hold them off until after election (I'm really not sure if they can), the Republicans will ram this nomination through after the election even if they lose in a landslide across the board.

I think the Democrats will make efforts. Let's wait and see and not assume the Democrats will do nothing.

[homoe]

With Collins trailing in the polls to Democrat Sara Gideon, Politico dispatched Kathryn Miles to the state to interview voters and what she found was an assortment of voters who have become disenchanted with the formerly popular senator — mainly due to her bowing to the whims of President Donald Trump.

According to Merlene Sanborn of Skowhegan, who has voted for Collins in the past, "There's such an atmosphere of disrespect in the campaigning. I feel like both candidates have forgotten about what matters to Maine."

Sanborn pointed to the Republican rush to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — while noting Collins has given no assurances about a vote after the election but before a new Senate is seated — saying, "It's just too important to rush the process. The Senate needs to take the appropriate amount of time to really consider the candidates. I want to see Susan Collins be a true leader and publicly advocate for that."

One-time Collins voter Cheryl Staples, 63, echoed Sanborn's comments about the Supreme Court vacancy, stating: "We expect Collins to go with her conscience — not her party. It's going to take more than saying she won't vote until the election to demonstrate that."

The Politico report notes that a recent polls shows that 59% of Maine voters want Collins to "delay voting on the nomination and approval process until a new president is sworn in in January," with one Maine resident saying he doesn't trust her after she voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"He's a bad person and not fit for the court. I trusted her to take a stand on his fitness," explained retired Air Force medic Dick Enright who said he supported Collins until the Kavanaugh vote.

https://www.salon.com/

[Cin]

What's on my mind this morning is the upcoming election. Quelle surprise!

I was reading an article in The Hill about how Biden has a ten point lead on Trump. Information which I find very encouraging. But then the article goes on to say that "Biden leads Trump 54 percent to 44 percent in a head-to-head match-up, but his lead drops to 49 percent to 43 percent when the Libertarian and Green Party candidates are included." Then it goes on to note that Trump's overall approval is at a fairly steady 44 percent. Also important information is that the majority of voters, 52 percent (who are these fucking idiots?) continue to approve of Trump's handling of the economy. "More supporters of Trump say they are strongly enthusiastic about their candidate than supporters of Biden by 20 points. However, 59 percent of non-Trump supporters say Trump's reelection would be a crisis for the country versus 50 percent of non-Biden supporters who said a Biden victory would be a crisis." Seriously? How can sane people in numbers like 50 percent think like that? This feels like it will be a close race that will go down to the wire therefore subject to vote tampering and other shenanigans. I would be a lot more comfortable if the general population would show a degree of intelligence and an ability for critical thought, regardless of the reality that they have never even shown any indication that they possess that ability in the past. I was hoping everyone could sense danger and respond accordingly. But it seems many think very differently. 52 percent of the voters, not of Trump supporters, but of voters think Trump has done a good job with the economy. It's pretty disheartening.

Maybe everyone should mail in their vote and then go and vote in person at the polls. Then they can say their president told them to.

Here's the article. It's fairly good news I guess. It's just that I'm afraid in order to win the election considering everything that is stacked against the democratic candidate and the expertise the Republicans have at cheating, making it difficult for dems to vote and outright voter intimidation and the new ways they have come up with screwing with mail in ballots we need to win by a huge margin. We need a win that can't be denied. I just feel that not enough of the general population feel the sense of urgency that I do and that waaay too many people find Trump acceptable. It's very scary to me. I feel maybe I'm living in a bubble surrounded by like minded people and I just don't realize how many supporters Trump actually has. And that even if someone doesn't support Trump exactly, they just don't care enough to vote him out of office. Hopefully this isn't so. This is not the time for apathy. But I can't make that mean anything to someone if it just doesn't register for them.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign-polls/518468-poll-shows-biden-with-10-point-lead-over-trump

[homoe]

Lindsey Graham started the summer with more cash in the bank than any Republican senator other than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But now he’s begging for money. Twice on Thursday, Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went on Fox News Channel and implored viewers to donate to his campaign against Democrat Jaime Harrison in South Carolina, a closer-than-expected contest that Republicans need to win to protect their majority. “I’m getting overwhelmed,” Graham told conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity Thursday night. “LindseyGraham.com. Help me. They’re killing me, money-wise. Help me. You helped me last week — help me again. LindseyGraham.com.”

The story of how Graham became so desperate for cash illustrates the expensive, toss-up battle to control the Senate and the energy around President Donald Trump’s pending Supreme Court nomination. Grassroots Democrats are hyperactivated to take on Republican leaders like Graham, who once burnished a moderate reputation but has aligned closely with Trump.

Graham’s pleas have escalated over the past week since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, but trouble has been looming for the third-term senator for some time now. Harrison has outraised and outspent Graham in every fundraising period this year, and the polls have the candidates running neck and neck, despite Trump’s lead over Joe Biden in the state.

[C0LLETTE]

Manchurian Trump

If Trump does prove to be the "Manchurian Candidate", as is looking increasingly likely, what then?

He has access to ALL of America's secrets and it's a bit late to make him "unknow" what he already knows.

[Orema]

pkpfFuiZkcs

From YouTube: In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, John Oliver discusses the future of the Supreme Court, why the government doesn’t always represent the political leanings of the electorate, and how those issues will impact the next generation of Americans.

[homoe]

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Sara Gideon clashed Monday over the Supreme Court and the response to the pandemic during their second debate in the closely watched Senate race.

Gideon, the Maine House speaker, accused the four-term Collins of failing to use her seniority to show results for the people of Maine, especially when additional help is needed during the pandemic. Collins said the Paycheck Protection Program she authored saved hundreds of thousands of jobs while noting that the Maine Legislature adjourned during the pandemic. “She adjourned the legislature on March 17 and hasn't lifted a finger to do anything about the coronavirus. She promised to provide aid to small businesses but did not do so," Collins said.


Collins is facing the toughest campaign of her career as she seeks a fifth term in Washington. Democrats, meanwhile, view unseating Collins as key to retaking control of the Senate. The importance of the race is underscored by the millions of dollars pouring into Maine, making it the most expensive political race in state history.

Both Gideon and Collins agree on one thing: Both think the current vacancy on the court shouldn't be filled until after the election. Gideon accused Collins of rubber-stamping 181 of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, saying “that has pushed the Supreme Court far to the right and made it very ideological.” She said the Supreme Court is about to take up the Affordable Care Act and potentially take health care away in the middle of a pandemic.

D8v-Mgrw0kI

Well you got one thing right Susan, someone might be taking your place! Hopefully sooner than later

[C0LLETTE]

I know she's a Republican but I sure would love to see Anna Navarro demolish Trump in a debate...and I've no doubt she would leave him thrashing like a stomped cockroach .

[homoe]

~~
Trump being in quarantine for 14 days after testing positive for Covid-19.


It'll stop those "super spreader" campaign events for a while!

[theoddz]

Okay you political scholars, I have a question regarding this situation with the orange man-baby and his wife now testing positive for COVID-19.

Everyone knows that tRump is in a high risk category for the most severe reaction to the virus (obesity, probable hypertension (?), etc.). If he ends up really sick with this virus and unable to perform his duties as POTUS for the remainder of his term, then of course they would/could/should use Article 25 of the Constitution to have him step down and VP Pence step up as POTUS for the remainder of the term. At that time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be, in essence, in the "slot" of next in line for POTUS if something happens to Pence between the time he steps in for tRump and January 20.

Since it is so late in the election cycle, even now, with just weeks to go before the election, and the "lame duck" period would follow until January 20th, what would happen to the GOP ticket?? VP Pence is just that....the VP, as of now. There would be no Republican candidate for the Presidency.

What would happen?? Anyone know?? :thinking:

Thanks for the input. :winky:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[homoe]

Okay you political scholars, I have a question regarding this situation with the orange man-baby and his wife now testing positive for COVID-19.

Everyone knows that tRump is in a high risk category for the most severe reaction to the virus (obesity, probable hypertension (?), etc.). If he ends up really sick with this virus and unable to perform his duties as POTUS for the remainder of his term, then of course they would/could/should use Article 25 of the Constitution to have him step down and VP Pence step up as POTUS for the remainder of the term. At that time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be, in essence, in the "slot" of next in line for POTUS if something happens to Pence between the time he steps in for tRump and January 20.

Since it is so late in the election cycle, even now, with just weeks to go before the election, and the "lame duck" period would follow until January 20th, what would happen to the GOP ticket?? VP Pence is just that....the VP, as of now. There would be no Republican candidate for the Presidency.

What would happen?? Anyone know?? :thinking:

Thanks for the input. :winky:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

GREAT QUESTION, I have no idea as to the answer however!

[homoe]

Okay you political scholars, I have a question regarding this situation with the orange man-baby and his wife now testing positive for COVID-19.

Everyone knows that tRump is in a high risk category for the most severe reaction to the virus (obesity, probable hypertension (?), etc.). If he ends up really sick with this virus and unable to perform his duties as POTUS for the remainder of his term, then of course they would/could/should use Article 25 of the Constitution to have him step down and VP Pence step up as POTUS for the remainder of the term. At that time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be, in essence, in the "slot" of next in line for POTUS if something happens to Pence between the time he steps in for tRump and January 20.

Since it is so late in the election cycle, even now, with just weeks to go before the election, and the "lame duck" period would follow until January 20th, what would happen to the GOP ticket?? VP Pence is just that....the VP, as of now. There would be no Republican candidate for the Presidency.

What would happen?? Anyone know?? :thinking:

Thanks for the input. :winky:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

.....:goodpost:....

[~ocean]

Okay you political scholars, I have a question regarding this situation with the orange man-baby and his wife now testing positive for COVID-19.

Everyone knows that tRump is in a high risk category for the most severe reaction to the virus (obesity, probable hypertension (?), etc.). If he ends up really sick with this virus and unable to perform his duties as POTUS for the remainder of his term, then of course they would/could/should use Article 25 of the Constitution to have him step down and VP Pence step up as POTUS for the remainder of the term. At that time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be, in essence, in the "slot" of next in line for POTUS if something happens to Pence between the time he steps in for tRump and January 20.

Since it is so late in the election cycle, even now, with just weeks to go before the election, and the "lame duck" period would follow until January 20th, what would happen to the GOP ticket?? VP Pence is just that....the VP, as of now. There would be no Republican candidate for the Presidency.

What would happen?? Anyone know?? :thinking:

Thanks for the input. :winky:

~Theo~ :bouquet:



I would assume VP PENCE WILL TAKE OVER ~ then he will run against Biden ~ LBJ did not want another full 4 year term ~ then Nixon won the next election ~ LBJ stayed in office until the next election was over that Nixon won . Biden will prob. win over who ever wants to challenge him . I hope I am right , I am assuming from prior presidents.

[theoddz]

I would assume VP PENCE WILL TAKE OVER ~ then he will run against Biden ~ LBJ did not want another full 4 year term ~ then Nixon won the next election ~ LBJ stayed in office until the next election was over that Nixon won . Biden will prob. win over who ever wants to challenge him . I hope I am right , I am assuming from prior presidents.

I think I understand what you're saying here, Ocean (and thanks for your response to my question!!), but I guess what I am wondering is that, if Trump is not able to complete his term because of illness/health reasons, and is removed via Article 25, then the current GOP ticket of Trump/Pence would have no POTUS candidate. Pence is the VP candidate on the ticket. In that position, would Pence have to pick a running mate for POTUS/VPOTUS this late in the election cycle?? The next person in line, after VP Pence, is SOH Pelosi, who is of the opposing political party.

I'm seriously hoping that Biden WILL win the election, but how does Trump's health status impact the election and the GOP ticket now, if he has to step aside per Article 25, and especially since Trump is at risk for the most severe form of the infection??

The plot sickens. :twitch:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[~ocean]

ahh I capish !! good point ~ I would not know if there is a protocol for the VP positions. I would assume Speaker of the House (Pelosi) ~ I would love to know .

[nhplowboi]

I am sure Mike Pompeo has his hand in the air and is waving it madly.

[~ocean]

I am sure Mike Pompeo has his hand in the air and is waving it madly.

lolololol:hangloose:

[Kelt]

What’s on my mind… in the what if? dept:

While he is testing negative for now, what happens if Biden also gets it before the election?

Then add to that Trump either not recovering well or not recovering?

There could be an election where nobody is running. :blink:

[Pacificblu]

Okay you political scholars, I have a question regarding this situation with the orange man-baby and his wife now testing positive for COVID-19.

Everyone knows that tRump is in a high risk category for the most severe reaction to the virus (obesity, probable hypertension (?), etc.). If he ends up really sick with this virus and unable to perform his duties as POTUS for the remainder of his term, then of course they would/could/should use Article 25 of the Constitution to have him step down and VP Pence step up as POTUS for the remainder of the term. At that time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would be, in essence, in the "slot" of next in line for POTUS if something happens to Pence between the time he steps in for tRump and January 20.

Since it is so late in the election cycle, even now, with just weeks to go before the election, and the "lame duck" period would follow until January 20th, what would happen to the GOP ticket?? VP Pence is just that....the VP, as of now. There would be no Republican candidate for the Presidency.

What would happen?? Anyone know?? :thinking:

Thanks for the input. :winky:

~Theo~ :bouquet:

If there is enough time before the election, the RNC can vote on an alternate candidate, or the RNC convention can reconvene and select another person.

There is not enough time for those choices, so the electoral college will choose the next President.

All of that is part of the 25th amendment to the constitution.

[~ocean]

What’s on my mind… in the what if? dept:

While he is testing negative for now, what happens if Biden also gets it before the election?

Then add to that Trump either not recovering well or not recovering?

There could be an election where nobody is running. :blink:

I would write in Michele Obama ~

[homoe]

Near the end of a week in which he begged supporters to donate money to his campaign for a second time, embattled Senator Lindsey Graham took to the debate stage on Saturday to face his opponent in the race to represent South Carolina in the Senate.

Senator Graham is tied with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison at 48 per cent each, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, in a race that has become unexpectedly competitive and could play a role in flipping control of the Senate.

Mr Harrison has seen a surge in donations since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the incumbent Graham’s u-turn on his previous pledge to not fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year.

Reportedly $9m was donated to the Democrat in the three days following Justice Ginsburg’s death.

When the subject of the Court came up in the debate at Columbia’s Allen University, Mr Harrison said that listening to the senator flip-flop on the issue reminded him of playing Monopoly with his young son: “He changes the rules every [chance] he gets.”

Accusing the Senator of going back on his word on the issue to the American people and the people of South Carolina, Mr Harrison called it the “greatest heresy” you can do as a public servant is to betray the trust of the people.

“Just be a man about it,” he said, “and stand up and say, ‘You know what? I changed my mind. I’m going to do something else.’ But don’t go back and blame it on somebody else for a flip-flop that you’re making yourself.”

As the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr Graham is at the heart of efforts by the Trump administration to install Judge Amy Coney Barrett before election day, and certainly before inauguration day.

Senator Graham even referred to the appointment in a response about the coronavirus pandemic — a tactic he employed a number of times in what seemed to be a strategy of trying to scare the electorate away from Mr Harrison and the “radical left”.

Mr Harrison retorted at one point: “What we haven’t seen with Senator Graham and Senate Republicans is the same urgency to pass Covid relief like they are trying to ram through a Supreme Court nominee.”

[nhplowboi]

Listening to the news this morning and hearing 10 associates of Trump are now infected. Can't help but think, the whole Republican party has been infected by Trump.

[homoe]

~~
Joe, it's time to put back out the negative ads against Trump!

Start with a new one, how he held no thought to his actions during his Covid-19 might affected his Secret Service details, driver, pilot, etc etc....

[homoe]

Near the end of a week in which he begged supporters to donate money to his campaign for a second time, embattled Senator Lindsey Graham took to the debate stage on Saturday to face his opponent in the race to represent South Carolina in the Senate.

Senator Graham is tied with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison at 48 per cent each, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, in a race that has become unexpectedly competitive and could play a role in flipping control of the Senate.

Mr Harrison has seen a surge in donations since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the incumbent Graham’s u-turn on his previous pledge to not fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year.

Reportedly $9m was donated to the Democrat in the three days following Justice Ginsburg’s death.

When the subject of the Court came up in the debate at Columbia’s Allen University, Mr Harrison said that listening to the senator flip-flop on the issue reminded him of playing Monopoly with his young son: “He changes the rules every [chance] he gets.”

Accusing the Senator of going back on his word on the issue to the American people and the people of South Carolina, Mr Harrison called it the “greatest heresy” you can do as a public servant is to betray the trust of the people.

“Just be a man about it,” he said, “and stand up and say, ‘You know what? I changed my mind. I’m going to do something else.’ But don’t go back and blame it on somebody else for a flip-flop that you’re making yourself.”

As the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr Graham is at the heart of efforts by the Trump administration to install Judge Amy Coney Barrett before election day, and certainly before inauguration day.

Senator Graham even referred to the appointment in a response about the coronavirus pandemic — a tactic he employed a number of times in what seemed to be a strategy of trying to scare the electorate away from Mr Harrison and the “radical left”.

Mr Harrison retorted at one point: “What we haven’t seen with Senator Graham and Senate Republicans is the same urgency to pass Covid relief like they are trying to ram through a Supreme Court nominee.”

I just saw a brief clip of this debate, and from what they showed, Harrison wiped the floor with Graham IMHO

[homoe]

Melania Trump reportedly refused to leave Covid-19 isolation in order to keep from infecting Secret Service agents.


Melania Trump did not visit the president in hospital because she didn't want to expose Secret Service agents to the risk of coronavirus, according to reports.

Quoting an anonymous White House official, NBC News reported the first lady remained in isolation on the weekend over concerns of spreading the Covid-19 infection.

"She has Covid," the official told NBC News on Saturday. "That would expose the agents who would drive her there and the medical staff who would walk her up to him."

Ms Trump tweeted her support for medical staff and caretakers on Monday morning as she gave an update on her condition, saying she will continue to rest at home.

[C0LLETTE]

[QUOTE=homoe;1275992]Melania Trump reportedly refused to leave Covid-19 isolation in order to keep from infecting Secret Service agents.


Melania Trump did not visit the president in hospital because she didn't want to expose Secret Service agents to the risk of coronavirus, according to reports."

I suspect the real reason is that she'd kill the SOB for the risk he's brought to her and Barron.

[nhplowboi]

Watching MSNBC tonight I have to agree with Anand Giriharadas that the head of the snake must be removed. Here is an earlier quote by Girihara “He hosted a super-spreader event to honor a justice who would have the government control your body but refuse the duty to care for it, and when the virus he helped go around came around, he availed of the healthcare he would deny others, financed by the taxes he refuses to pay.” Sounds about right to me.

[homoe]

I just saw a brief clip of this debate, and from what they showed, Harrison wiped the floor with Graham IMHO

With less than a month until Election Day, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection bid, once thought to be a walkover, is now considered a toss-up, as his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, continues to rake in and spend cash.


In late September, Graham started appearing on Fox News repeatedly, begging for conservatives to help him keep up with Harrison. “I’m getting overwhelmed,” he told host Sean Hannity. “LindseyGraham.com. Help me. They’re killing me, money-wise. Help me. You helped me last week — help me again. LindseyGraham.com.”

[homoe]

Susan Collins generally keeps an even keel. But she’s had it with Sara Gideon.
“She will say or do anything to try to win,” Collins said when asked of her opponent during a wide-ranging 30-minute interview in her Capitol quarters last week. “This race is built on a foundation of falsehoods. And trying to convince the people of Maine that somehow I am no longer the same person.”

Collins wasn’t done as she accused Gideon of “defaming my reputation and attacking my integrity” in their increasingly nasty race. For good measure, the Maine Republican added that Gideon’s campaign was being run as an arm of Chuck Schumer’s Washington operation, scolded Gideon, the statehouse speaker, for not reconvening the legislature amid the pandemic and challenged Gideon’s handling of a sexual misconduct scandal.

3_0N9DKtAH8

I'd say, according to the above clip, Susan soiled her own integrity by not keeping her word about serving ONLY two terms........

[~ocean]

VP Pence is an idiot and deaf ~ he can't hear how stupid he sounds ~~ back to the debate.

[Kätzchen]

The debate kicked off on my drive home. Npr coverage.

Geeeeeez. Pence talks over both the moderator and Senator Harris. Wtf.

Can you hear the ominous roar of a gigantic 'blue wave', yet?

I do.

I am positive that American voters will deliver a big news flash soon.

I read tonight that Joe Biden has crossed the threshold, in terms of an electoral count. 270. That is positive news.

Me too (watch vp debate).

Go Biden, Go Harris!

[homoe]

VP Pence is an idiot and deaf ~ he can't hear how stupid he sounds ~~ back to the debate.


:goodpost:

And IF I didn't know any better I'd swear that Pence was "charlie mccarthy" and Trump was working the voice control!

[C0LLETTE]

Trump's erratic behaviour

A word to the wise, Melania: get away from him.

"Eventually, untreated syphilis can lead to damage to the brain, eyes, heart, nerves, bones, joints, and liver. You could also become paralyzed, blind, demented, or lose feeling in the body."

[Cin]

Why can't they fix it so during a debate if a candidate doesn't stop talking 10 seconds after being warned they just turn their mic off. It's just ridiculous already. They can make it part of the rules you must agree to if you want to debate.

Trump would have a fit but his last debate was a fucking shit show. I mean it's not really a debate if one party refuses to abide by the rules of conduct for a debate. Don't bother having debates if you can't control them.

And what is this shit where you can use the time you are allotted to talk about a previous question instead of the current issue at hand. If you really had to abide by the rules you wouldn't waste your time like that because you couldn't make it up by stealing more time. You would stay on point. That's what makes debating an art, a challenge, that's what makes a good debater. Not just steal time and have your say no matter what. Practice being more concise and live with your choices.

Instead it's about who's a big thug, who doesn't care about equality and fairness, who is completely without a sense of fair play, who is a shameless, arrogant, mansplainer, that's who gets to have more time to make their case. But I guess if those are the kinds of qualities people want in a leader then the choice is clear. Hopefully they prefer someone who understands how to play by the rules, shows a sense of fairness in their interactions with others, and in the case of Biden vs Trump can speak in complete sentences.

I guess I just needed to rant.

[BullDog]

Kamala Harris beat Pence soundly. He got a few "zingers" in I guess but the fly stuck to his hair said it all. His condescending attitude toward Harris and the moderator won't do the Trump-Pence ticket any favors with women voters.

The debate commission has announced the next debate between Biden and Trump will be a virtual event for safety purposes. Trump is refusing to participate. I'm sure there are more twists and turns ahead with that.

[~ocean]

Trump's erratic behaviour

A word to the wise, Melania: get away from him.

"Eventually, untreated syphilis can lead to damage to the brain, eyes, heart, nerves, bones, joints, and liver. You could also become paralyzed, blind, demented, or lose feeling in the body."

Did or Does Trump have syphilis ?:|:|:|

[C0LLETTE]

Patient confidentiality, nondisclosure agreements, payoffs...I guess we'll never know. But it's as good a conspiracy theory as any other.

[Cin]

Gilead here we come!

These 5 far-right extremist groups could pose a national security threat in the run up to the election

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/here-are-5-far-right-extremist-groups-or-movements-that-pose-a-national-security-threat-in-the-us/

[C0LLETTE]

Surprise: Trump does not win Nobel Peace Prize.

"The United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to combat hunger and improve conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas."

Someone has to tell Trump so he can restart his hate campaign against the UN for ignoring the "nomination" that he kept bragging about.

I guess they are serious about the word "peace".

[Cin]

A little perspective on what took place at the VP Debate.

https://theglowup.theroot.com/the-significance-of-im-speaking-1845313016


The Significance of 'I'm Speaking'
Maiysha Kai
Yesterday 3:07PM

Now that we have your attention.

We can talk about the fly, the facts (or lack thereof), the facial expressions, or the ineffectualness of yet another debate moderator, but what should never be forgotten in the midst of the many eyebrow-raising moments in Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debates is that no matter what you think of Kamala Harris, she made history on that stage as the first woman of color to come so close to holding such a high seat of power.

It was a point the current vice president, Mike Pence, made a point of acknowledging, offering up this milestone as a conciliatory gesture; his own sense of entitlement too entrenched to mask the tinge of condescension in his delivery. Even if the compliment seemed genuine to some, Pence’s behavior clearly communicated otherwise, as he repeatedly lied pontificated over any and all half-hearted attempts USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page made to moderate. He did not hesitate to interrupt and interject into several of Harris’ responses, as well, making it clear he considered her less an opponent than an inconvenience, as David Frum noted in the Atlantic:
"At the core of the Trump political project is the reassertion of dominance over the historically dominated by the historically dominant. That reassertion of dominance was Pence’s supreme project at this debate too. Pence did not imitate his boss’s manic and undisciplined—and ultimately catastrophically unsuccessful—style of dominance. Instead, he brought to this debate the more measured and controlled disdain of a man who had considered the matter carefully—and decided that the woman in front of him had no right to control him and that the woman to his right did not deserve to be onstage with him."

As several noted—and Harris herself repeatedly reminded Pence—it was he who was likely out of his depth in comparison to both her incisive intelligence and breadth of experience as the former attorney general-turned-state senator of California. Nevertheless, with the arrogance and cognitive dissonance only a man who has spent the last four years of his life bending to the will of Donald Trump can muster, still, he persisted. Frankly, his bulldozing, however sociopathically calm, wasn’t surprising. Pence has always been the controlled and docile Dr. Jekyll to Trump’s bombastic Mr. Hyde, two faces of the same dangerous and pathological white male superiority complex.

White male dominance is so foundational in American culture and discourse that Page was nearly prone within its grasp, literally thanking the vice president of electoral voters for disrespecting her role as moderator, and consistently allowing him to well exceed his allotted time. No such grace would be afforded to Harris, who repeatedly attempted to reclaim her stolen time with far more resistance from Page, who suddenly found her fortitude when regulating the Democratic vice-presidential candidate.

Were our democracy not hanging in the balance, it would’ve been an almost hysterically teachable moment, since the dynamic of the three individuals on that stage was a microcosm of American politics (and by extension, society) itself: the white man emboldened by his presumption of place; the woman of color dutifully if begrudgingly playing by the prescribed rules to fight the good fight against tyranny, and the 53 percent of white women too cowed by their proximity to white male power to do the right and rational thing in respect for the greater good.

These were the more obvious, all-too-familiar dynamics at play on the stage last night—but they made Harris’ simple and yet stunning declaration, “I’m speaking,” all the more significant. Women everywhere—and likely of every political persuasion—no doubt saw themselves in the much-remarked-upon moment when Harris dared to assert that she too was entitled to her time, space, and assertions about our democracy.

“Mr. Vice President. I am speaking.”

Women across social media immediately recognized Pence’s behavior as a facet of patriarchy and misogyny every woman has experienced, from the boardroom to our bedrooms. But make no mistake: Harris’ declaration most deeply resonated with those of us living very specific experience of being Black women in America.

Yes, us—you know, the ones expected to save a precious democracy that has never prioritized us (notably, doing that and other work for an average $.62 on the dollar paid to white men in the same positions). Us, upon whom the weight of being the “cleanup woman” for America’s messes is always thrust, no matter how high we climb—and especially while attempting to ascend to the second-highest seat in the land. Us, who remain the pragmatists despite blatant prejudices—not because we’re weak, but because we’ve historically found success in subverting the system from within. (Case in point: it was Black women who lobbied Biden to choose Harris as his running mate, in spite of many concurrently holding misgivings about her prosecutorial record.)

“America has this deep sense of Black women as people who come in to clean up the mess that they make. That has historically been our position,” educator and author of Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper, recently told us during a recent episode of The Root’s new podcast, It’s Lit! “I call it us doing the custodial work of democracy,” she continued, adding, “I hope that Kamala will not be constricted by that. And then she will be able to do the thing that Black women typically do, which is that we clean up the mess and then, we make some new possibilities...though I typically just think America gives us shit and then tells us they gave us a trophy.”

Given both the amount of shit and the outsized expectations placed upon Harris as she aspires to the vice presidency, her own assertion of her right to speak pales in comparison. And yet, while many will report on the moment, fewer will recognize or appreciate the tightrope she walked on Wednesday night. Teetering precariously between white disdain, male dismissal, and Black distrust, Harris was tasked with neither being too angry, nor too reactive, nor too...much. Arguably, this also includes being burdened with the restraint of not being too brilliant or dynamic, so as not to upstage the man she was there to represent and support (whom she had also previously trounced on the debate stage).

As noted by several Black women online, this is a dance exclusive to the Black female experience. Kerry Washington rightly noted (in response to a presumable criticism of Harris’ performance by CNN’s Dana Bash, no less) “the mental & emotional gymnastic required of Black women in these situations,” tweeting, “[There’s] not a chance in the world [Kamala Harris] wasn’t thinking about this. We don’t ever NOT think about it. Her superpower?! Making it look easy.”

To further understand both the nuances at play and Harris’ masterful restraint, one need look no further than Page’s complicity in upholding a white man’s right to speak over both her and the woman of color on stage, contrasted with her effective punishment of Harris for Pence’s rudeness. Page’s passivity echoed the largest failure of white feminism, which, for all its altruism, has unfailingly centered whiteness, first and foremost. (In case you’re wondering, Page says she “felt good about how it went,” reports The Hill.) That Harris should have to reclaim her time from the person tasked with keeping it echoed the ways in which Black feminists have been forced to reimagine and reclaim a liberation movement we helped build.

And so, we must center ourselves. Long after it leaves the news cycle, “I’m speaking” should be more than a meme-able moment. For Black women, it is a rallying cry. Our much-depended-upon participation in this ongoing American project cannot be predicated upon our silence. We are speaking, we are holding our space, and we are entitled to hold you accountable.

[C0LLETTE]

Il Duce

So, tomorrow, Donald Trump will stand on the grand balcony of the WH and salute his followers below in the grand style of Il Duce. The flags will wave, the crowd will wave, Donald will do his little wrist wave.

He becomes his own hero.

But I do wonder if he has had a good look at the last photo taken of Il Duce and his mistress, Clara Petacci in 1945.

Cover your eyes Melania.

BTW. Someone should tell Jared Kushner that Il Duce had his own son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, executed in 1944 cause he falsely believed he had betrayed him.

Take care Jared.

[Kätzchen]

The thought came to me today that elected democrats in office, have certainly lived and breathed their roles as elected officials representing Democrats everywhere. Wow, I think they have gone above set expectations and achieved a certain standard that I think sets them apart from ordinary senators and representatives. They have accomplished so much, in spite of adversarial attacks on a daily basis, if not more.

It's been a harrowing 10 months in progress. And a lot of books published by the most unlikely authors. The national election is almost here. Covid-19 is still on the rise. Unemployment is at unheard of levels of danger. We have an unhinged person occupying the WH and it scares me daily, to read on the web or hear anything about them.


I have not seen a ballot in the mailbox yet, but I did get two separate voter guides (lots of stuff to read).


It's possible the ballot will show up by next week, maybe? Not sure. I'm guessing it will come toward the last of the month.


But, yes, that's what I got to wondering about today, how our elected officials have been working relentlessly with hardly any break in pace. I find that humbling that they do all they can. I feel SO tired for them, just thinking about it. But grateful for all they do and continue to do.

[homoe]

SANFORD, Fla. —
After having to leave the campaign trail because of a diagnosis of COVID-19, President Donald Trump held a rally Monday evening in Sanford.
Trump spoke at Orlando Sanford International Airport in front of a large crowd that drew supporters to the venue more than 24 hours before he was set to take the stage. The thousands of supporters stood shoulder-to-shoulder, many of them not wearing masks.

The president made a dramatic entrance on Air Force One, walking directly off the plane and onto the stage to address his supporters. “It’s great to be back in my home state, Florida, to make my official return to the campaign trail,” Trump declared.

Trump had been scheduled to attend a rally at the airport Oct. 2, but the event was canceled after he contracted COVID-19.

Monday's rally came as the president faces a stubborn deficit in national and battleground state polls three weeks from Election Day. The Trump campaign said the president will also hold campaign events in Pennsylvania, Iowa and North Carolina this week.

[BullDog]

I am thinking about the voters.

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far, especially those who have had to wait in line. Please everyone else vote as soon as you can!

Yesterday was the first day of early voting in Georgia. They set a record with over 125,000 early votes and people waited hours and hours in line. You have my utmost respect and thanks.

I have never had to stand in line for hours to vote, but if I ever need to I certainly will.

VOTE!

Go Blue!

[Cin]

Looking at the reality of the Supreme Court for a generation I can only say it is bleak. I stumbled across this article in the Atlantic that was published in April. It's very interesting not that it matters a whit really unless something changes. However I always found originalism vs living constituionalism interesting. The way the conservative justices usually do it is originalism for issues for which it is convenient and common good constitutionalism (aka conservative living constitutionalism) when originalism won't get the results they seek. Anyway I found the article interesting.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/dangers-any-non-originalist-approach-constitution/609382/

[~ocean]

Barrett seems sneaky as all hell. Her voice is shrilling , untrustworthy. Barrett gets a look in her eye's that says crazy ~ Houston we have a problem. ~

[homoe]

Barrett seems sneaky as all hell. Her voice is shrilling , untrustworthy. Barrett gets a look in her eye's that says crazy ~ Houston we have a problem. ~

:goodpost:...


She steamed rolled over Diane Einsteinium and her questions but come tomorrow, I doubt she'll be able to do that with Sheldon Whitehouse after the foundation he laid out today!

[BullDog]

Barrett seems sneaky as all hell. Her voice is shrilling , untrustworthy. Barrett gets a look in her eye's that says crazy ~ Houston we have a problem. ~

She definitely has crazy eyes. I guess she thinks she is on a mission from God to save the unborn so it's okay for her to lie through her teeth.

[~ocean]

:goodpost:...


She steamed rolled over Diane Einsteinium and her questions but come tomorrow, I doubt she'll be able to do that with Sheldon Whitehouse after the foundation he laid out today!

^5 on that !!!

[dark_crystal]

Barrett seems sneaky as all hell. Her voice is shrilling , untrustworthy. Barrett gets a look in her eye's that says crazy ~ Houston we have a problem. ~

Houston says "YOU SURE DO!! WE ARE HERE TO HELP, THOUGH!!!"

Houston/Harris County had double the number of early voters today as we had on the first day of voting in 2016. AND THOSE ARE MAJORITY DEMOCRAT!

The Tea Party live in the sticks and don't vote with us!

[Orema]

On Facebook, Misinformation Is More Popular Now Than in 2016
By Davey Alba

https://i.postimg.cc/zGyFvzBN/merlin-163942155-8bde03dc-da7c-492c-9dd7-bc7fd9e1d13c-super-Jumbo.jpg
People are engaging more on Facebook today with news outlets that routinely publish misinformation than they did before the 2016 election. Credit...Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

During the 2016 presidential election, Russian operatives used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms to spread disinformation to divide the American electorate. Since then, the social media companies have spent billions of dollars and hired tens of thousands of people to help clean up their act.

But have the platforms really become more sophisticated at handling misinformation?

Not necessarily.

People are engaging more on Facebook today with news outlets that routinely publish misinformation than they did before the 2016 election, according to new research from the German Marshall Fund Digital, the digital arm of the public policy think tank. The organization, which has a data partnership with the start-up NewsGuard and the social media analytics firm NewsWhip, published its findings on Monday.

In total, Facebook likes, comments and shares of articles from news outlets that regularly publish falsehoods and misleading content roughly tripled from the third quarter of 2016 to the third quarter of 2020, the group found.

About two thirds of those likes and comments were of articles published by 10 outlets, which the researchers categorized as “false content producers” or “manipulators.” Those news outlets included Palmer Report and The Federalist, according to the research.

The group used ratings from NewsGuard, which ranks news sites based on how they uphold nine journalistic principles, to sort them into “false content producers,” which repeatedly publish provably false content; and “manipulators,” which regularly present unsubstantiated claims or that distort information to make an argument.

“We have these sites that masquerade as news outlets online. They’re allowed to,” said Karen Kornbluh, director of GMF Digital. “It’s infecting our discourse and it’s affecting the long-term health of the democracy.”

Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman, said that analyzing likes, shares and comments to draw conclusions was “misleading” because the data does not capture what most people see on Facebook. The social network does not make other data, such as the reach of posts, publicly available; engagement data is the only information it provides.

Ms. Kornbluh said Facebook users engaged more with articles from all news outlets this year because the coronavirus pandemic forced people to quarantine indoors. But the growth rate of likes, shares and comments of content from manipulators and false content producers exceeded the interactions that people had with what the researchers called “legitimate journalistic outlets,” such as Reuters, Associated Press and Bloomberg.

Ms. Kornbluh said social media firms face a conundrum because their businesses rely on viral content to bring in users, who they can then show ads to. Tamping down on misinformation “just runs against their economic incentives,” she said.

Davey Alba is a technology reporter covering disinformation. In 2019, she won a Livingston Award for excellence in international reporting and a Mirror Award for best story on journalism in peril.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/technology/on-facebook-misinformation-is-more-popular-now-than-in-2016.html?surface=most-popular&fellback=false&req_id=654553872&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&imp_id=774045409&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

[Orema]

One of things I like seeing two weeks before the election are the “big guns” who come out front and center to campaign for the party’s elected person. This year for the dems it would normally be the Obamas, previous Presidents and their spouses (Clintons, Carters), previous VPs and their families, the opponents (Sanders), etc.

For the repubs it would be the same (Reagan children, Bush, McCain family, Bob Dole’s old ass, current senior Senators, etc).

But not this year. The dems have big guns but we look desperate, as we are, and the repubs have none. Just Trump, his family, and the Justice Dept.

I don’t think things will ever be the same. Future Presidents, dems and repubs, will use some of the dirty tricks used by Trump.

Guess I should get used to it.

[homoe]

She definitely has crazy eyes. I guess she thinks she is on a mission from God to save the unborn so it's okay for her to lie through her teeth.


She's a slippery one that's for damn sure!

EVEN when there is a constitutional answer to a question she's being asked, she won't commit to quoting and giving it!

[BullDog]

She's a slippery one that's for damn sure!

EVEN when there is a constitutional answer to a question she's being asked, she won't commit to quoting and giving it!

I have only watched bits and pieces but the only straightforward answer I have seen is when Cory Booker asked if she condemned white supremacy and she did say yes.

Feinstein asked her if the president could delay the election under any circumstances. The answer is absolutely not, but Barrett wouldn't answer.

Klobuchar asked if it was illegal to intimidate voters at the polls. Of course, it is but she wouldn't answer, so Amy cited the specific law.

She is basically not answering any question at all.

I don't know much about originalism but times change lady. "All men are created equal" means something different now than it did in the 18th century. It's a crock of shit.

I thought Kamala Harris was outstanding yesterday.

Barret absolutely sucks. The worst hypocrite ever. If she really was a moral, honest person she would not agree to be shoved through during an election where people are already voting.

[homoe]

~~
Oh, because her decisions could effect the Affordable Care Act, LGBTQ issues, and Roe Vs Wade, I'm watching all of it either live or taped!

I can't wait to see how she does today when Sheldon Whitehouse has at her!

[Cin]

I don't know much about originalism but times change lady. "All men are created equal" means something different now than it did in the 18th century. It's a crock of shit.


Conservative Supreme Court Justices choose what works for their agenda. They claim to believe in originalism but when it won't work for a particular issue they are happy to switch gears and favor a little something called common good constitutionalism. Which is really just living constitutionalism dressed up in nasty. I have no respect for individuals with changeable morality like that. I believe this reflects a lack of commitment at best and at worse it shows a desire to put a specific agenda, for many conservatives it is religion, above any truth or honor. That is the heart of the matter.

I heard clips of the hearing on other people's computers and one of the things I heard sounded like questions about the right to vote. It sounded like people were talking as though the right to vote is constitutional. It is not. There's is no right to vote in the constitution or the Bill of Rights. The 15th Amendment guaranteed that the right to vote would not be denied on account of race. But that still didn’t recognize a right to vote – only the right of equal treatment. The 19th Amendment banned voting discrimination on the basis of sex, but did not recognize an inherent right to vote. The 2 amendments I would love to see added to the constitution is the right to vote and an abolishment of the doctrines of corporate personhood and of money equaling political speech (Citizens United).

[Vincent]

Conservative Supreme Court Justices choose what works for their agenda. They claim to believe in originalism but when it won't work for a particular issue they are happy to switch gears and favor a little something called common good constitutionalism. Which is really just living constitutionalism dressed up in nasty. I have no respect for individuals with changeable morality like that. I believe this reflects a lack of commitment at best and at worse it shows a desire to put a specific agenda, for many conservatives it is religion, above any truth or honor. That is the heart of the matter.

I heard clips of the hearing on other people's computers and one of the things I heard sounded like questions about the right to vote. It sounded like people were talking as though the right to vote is constitutional. It is not. There's is no right to vote in the constitution or the Bill of Rights. The 15th Amendment guaranteed that the right to vote would not be denied on account of race. But that still didn’t recognize a right to vote – only the right of equal treatment. The 19th Amendment banned voting discrimination on the basis of sex, but did not recognize an inherent right to vote. The 2 amendments I would love to see added to the constitution is the right to vote and an abolishment of the doctrines of corporate personhood and of money equaling political speech (Citizens United).


Wow
I didn't know that the right to vote was not enshrined in a law.

Here we have compulsery voting,you get fined if you don't
Our problem is the media and ignorance
truth is 98% of Australians are as dumb as a box of rocks,and have an attitude of "what's in it for me"It's also 98% white
when my ex from the US came here,she asked"where are all your POC"

my answer
we kill them,or work them to death...............bit of an exageration,but its very white here.

the sad thing is even our first nation look white,as rape was a form of genicide,if you dilute Aboriginal blood,you look white.

mt g grandfather was Aboriginal,but I look totally white

[Kätzchen]

I have only watched bits and pieces but the only straightforward answer I have seen is when Cory Booker asked if she condemned white supremacy and she did say yes.

Feinstein asked her if the president could delay the election under any circumstances. The answer is absolutely not, but Barrett wouldn't answer.

Klobuchar asked if it was illegal to intimidate voters at the polls. Of course, it is but she wouldn't answer, so Amy cited the specific law.

She is basically not answering any question at all.

I don't know much about originalism but times change lady. "All men are created equal" means something different now than it did in the 18th century. It's a crock of shit.

I thought Kamala Harris was outstanding yesterday.

Barret absolutely sucks. The worst hypocrite ever. If she really was a moral, honest person she would not agree to be shoved through during an election where people are already voting.

I tend to agree with you, Bulldog, especially with your assessment about her: "if she was an honest, moral person she would not agree to be shoved through".

I have watched some of the televised proceedings today. As a communications scholar, I find situations like this is rich with tell-tale non-verbal cues.

I think she is hyper focused on controlling her facial expressions, as well as not giving clear, concise messages orally.

But ... which way are her feet pointing?

Lol, sometimes it is feet which betrays the real message intended for the listener or viewing audience.

[homoe]

~~
Oh, because her decisions could effect the Affordable Care Act, LGBTQ issues, and Roe Vs Wade, I'm watching all of it either live or taped!

I can't wait to see how she does today when Sheldon Whitehouse has at her!

Boy her body language changed as soon as it was Senator's Whitehouse turn to question her!

She straightened up, sat back, as almost arming herself for battle! The great thing way, he wasn't even up for a battle! He informed her and he gave her several things to think about once she was a Supreme Court member!

[homoe]

All 83 ethics complaints against Brett Kavanaugh dismissed....

The big picture:

The complaints included allegations that Kavanaugh made false and partisan statements during his confirmation hearings, lacked judicial temperament and disrespected members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel of federal judges behind the decision called the complaints against Kavanaugh "serious," but said the cases had to be dismissed given Supreme Court justices are not bound by the same code of conduct that dictates the process for pursuing complaints against other judges.

Sidebar: I'm posting this because it was a concern that was brought up at today's confirmation hearing in case you missed it.

[Cin]

"Under committee rules, at least two members of the minority party must be present for a vote to take place. But on Thursday morning, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) the only Democrat in attendance, Graham moved forward with a motion setting Barrett's Judiciary Committee vote for 1:00 pm ET on October 22."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/15/unprecedented-lindsey-graham-openly-violates-committee-rules-schedule-vote-barrett

So rules are only rules if you chose to obey them? If you don't feel like it you just ignore the rules and apparently there are no consequences. We may has well have anarchy if that's how our government can conduct itself.

[BullDog]

"Under committee rules, at least two members of the minority party must be present for a vote to take place. But on Thursday morning, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) the only Democrat in attendance, Graham moved forward with a motion setting Barrett's Judiciary Committee vote for 1:00 pm ET on October 22."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/15/unprecedented-lindsey-graham-openly-violates-committee-rules-schedule-vote-barrett

So rules are only rules if you chose to obey them? If you don't feel like it you just ignore the rules and apparently there are no consequences. We may has well have anarchy if that's how our government can conduct itself.


Unfortunately, that appears to be the case. When I was reading up on how Democrats could try to stall the process, I read several times that a lot of the rules could be ignored or changed by the Chairman (Graham) or McConnell whenever they wanted to, including the quorum. Why they would even have rules if they don't need to be followed is truly beyond me.

The Democrats can't stop this. The only thing that will is if 2-4 Republican Senators (depending on how much you trust Collins and Murkowski to vote No) actually die before the vote is taken. Contracting coronavirus is definitely not enough because they will just wheel their infected bodies onto the Senate floor to vote.

If the Democrats win the Presidency and Senate, during the first 2 years they need to pass as much significant legislation as possible that will really make a difference

Get rid of the fillibuster. Yes, it could bite us in the ass later. Harry Reid changed the rules on federal judges so you didn't need 60 votes because the Republicans were blocking all of Obama's appointees and then McConnell did it on the Supreme Court Justices. That's how these Trump appointees are getting through to the Supreme Court without needing 60 votes. Break or ignore any rules if need be and act like the majority. The House has passed a lot of bills already so the Senate has plenty to work with. Basically, the way it works now is you have to be in the majority and then use brute power.

[homoe]

~~~
Begging again for money on Fox news this morning.....

[theoddz]

One of things I like seeing two weeks before the election are the “big guns” who come out front and center to campaign for the party’s elected person. This year for the dems it would normally be the Obamas, previous Presidents and their spouses (Clintons, Carters), previous VPs and their families, the opponents (Sanders), etc.

For the repubs it would be the same (Reagan children, Bush, McCain family, Bob Dole’s old ass, current senior Senators, etc).

But not this year. The dems have big guns but we look desperate, as we are, and the repubs have none. Just Trump, his family, and the Justice Dept.

I don’t think things will ever be the same. Future Presidents, dems and repubs, will use some of the dirty tricks used by Trump.

Guess I should get used to it.

I think (IMHO) that a real pivot point that began this trend of "gloves off" politics was when President Obama realized that he couldn't be decent and optimistic about dealing with the GOP anymore. They mistook his kind, humble, honest decorum and "when they go low, we go high" with perceived weakness. The GOP, most definitely, were the ones who brought this style of open, hostile confrontation to our political system. I believe that the rest of it has to do with greed, meanness and all of the rest of humankind's worst inclinations. I also think that there are so many negative aspects of human nature that have fed into the general frustration that there is no one simple answer to why things have evolved this way. There have been books written, saying that this is the "arse end" of capitalism, democracy, and well, this is just "what happens" with the impending collapse of democratic societies.

I have yet another theory to add. When I was just starting my adult life, in my early 20's, I asked my father why it seemed that so many people, society in general, were just becoming plain MEAN. Pop told me that there had been a scientific experiment conducted on mice to try to examine what happens in a community when resources become increasingly scarce, while the population steadily increases (think about the wealth inequality that exists now in the U.S.). A group of mice were placed in a container with a limited amount of food and water. Gradually, more mice were added while incremental amounts of food and water were withheld. The mice became increasingly hostile and aggressive. The conclusion?? High population and limited resources = Increasing aggression and hostile behaviors. So, with our current situation of wealth inequality, imagine that 99 of those 100 "mice" are able to see a container next to their crowded, under-resourced box, that is oversupplied with food and water, but with only 1 mouse in that box......and it is dramatically overfed!!! I have thought about how Pop explained that to me so many years ago. He was so right. Pop was a research scientist (phD Entomologist), and he was an excellent critical thinker. I can't help but know, for sure, that if he were still alive today, he would be absolutely floored at how bad things have gotten, just in the past 7 years since he has been gone.

RIP, Dad. You were so very, very right about so many, many things.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[homoe]

NBC was kind enough to broadcast to the world, yet again, that the President of the United States is completely insane. At one point during a town hall in Miami on Thursday night, Donald Trump explained that he shared a conspiracy theory with his 87 million Twitter followers alleging Joe Biden helped orchestrate the killing of Seal Team 6 members—to cover up that the Osama bin Laden assassination was, in this formulation, faked—on the following basis:

TRUMP: That was a retweet. That was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I put it out there, people can decide for themselves.

Sure! Just send it out there to millions of people. Who cares whether it has any relationship to reality? Who cares how many lives get ground up and discarded along the way? It might, in this deeply depressing view of the human race, get you a few votes.

Moderator Savannah Guthrie, doing what she could with a poisoned chalice of an assignment, had an apt response.

GUTHRIE: You're the president. You're not, like, someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/nbc-town-hall-president-demonstrated-024800314.html

[Cin]

This is what a normal, sane, presidential candidate sounds like. We are so used to the shit show of Donald Trump we have forgotten what the priority of a president should be and what a little humility in our leader might sound like. "Asked by Stephanopoulos what Biden thinks it would say about the state of the country if he didn't win this election, Biden said, "Well, it could say that I'm a lousy candidate and I didn't do a good job."

But what he hoped a Biden loss wouldn't say was "that we are as racially, ethically, and religiously at odds with one other as it appears the president wants us to be."

The former vice president said Trump's strategy is to "divide and conquer," but he, on the other hand, thinks people need hope."
"I'm going to take care of those who voted against me as well as those who voted for me. For real. That's what presidents do. We've got to heal this nation," Biden said

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/key-takeaways-joe-bidens-town-hall-abc-news/story?id=73641281&fbclid=IwAR3v6eLYBuRQa8_GJ93kReGqFPuyFcOEHwHHEJGyD z8ojbEUZeTJ3h2bKM4

[Cin]

I can't understand what would prompt Feinstein to say these things. If this is how the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee feels, and it appears that it is, no wonder we didn't have a shot in hell of stalling this travesty.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/521309-feinsteins-hug-of-lindsey-graham-sparks-outrage-on-the-left

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) praise of her Republican colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), which she followed with a friendly hug, is stirring outrage on the left and prompting calls by prominent liberals for her to step down as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Democrats, liberal activists and left-leaning pundits, many of whom were dismayed that Democratic senators didn’t put a tougher fight against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett expressed outrage.

Demand Justice, an advocacy group that has staunchly opposed Trump’s effort to fill the judiciary with conservative nominees, was first out of the gate with a statement calling for Feinstein to resign.

“It's time for Sen. Feinstein to step down from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee. If she won't, her colleagues need to intervene,” Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, said in a statement circulated about an hour after Barrett’s confirmation hearing ended.

“If Senate Democrats are going to get their act together on the courts going forward, they cannot be led by someone who treats Sunrise activists with contempt and the Republican theft of a Supreme Court seat with kid gloves,” Fallon said, referring to the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots environmental organization.

Prominent voices respected on the left followed with their own stinging criticisms.

“Diane Feinstein praising Barrett, and then inexplicably praising Graham, is a clear sign that she should not remain as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee,” tweeted Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor for the Atlantic magazine.

Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard, retweeted Ornstein’s statement, adding, “I’m afraid I agree, much as I like Sen. Feinstein personally and admired her work years ago.”

Feinstein appeared to undercut weeks of arguments by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic senators that Graham’s decision to schedule Barrett’s confirmation hearing a mere two weeks and two days after her nomination was announced on Sept. 26 was an outrageously unfair ramming through of the nominee.

Graham, who is up for reelection, is also one of Democrats’ top political targets in 2020. Donors from around the country poured $57 million into his opponent Jaime Harrison’s campaign in the third quarter of the year.

Senate Democrats have repeatedly slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Graham for speeding Barrett’s confirmation to the Senate floor for a final vote before Election Day after Republicans blocked a hearing and a vote for President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland, who was nominated nearly eight months before the 2016 election.

Feinstein didn’t appear to hold any grudge against Graham after he locked in a committee vote on Barrett’s nomination for Oct. 22, preventing Democrats from holding it over for an extra week as the minority party is customarily allowed to do.

“Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank you. This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in and I want to thank you for your fairness and the opportunity of going back and forth. It leaves one with a lot of hopes, a lot of questions and even some ideas — perhaps some good bipartisan legislation we can put together to make this great country even better,” she said.

“Thank you so much for your leadership,” she added.

When Feinstein capped off her praise of Graham with a quick hug, it sparked outrage.

Jon Lovett, who co-founded Crooked Media with prominent former Obama White House veterans, tweeted: “That she can say this about this ongoing travesty is another sad statement about how poorly represented we are by Dianne Feinstein.”

Adam Parkhomenko, a strategist who served as national field director for Democratic National Committee, tweeted: “Excuse me while I go punch a hole in the wall.”

One Senate Democratic aide called the hug “crazy.”

“For her to make those kind of statements and to embrace [Graham] was just bizarre and absurd to me,” said the aide. “This isn’t a progressive versus moderate issue. The intention was to spend this hearing period laying bare why Barrett is a problematic choice."

“That messaging was really important to her junior senator, her colleague,” the aide added, referring to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is on the Democratic presidential ticket, and used her time questioning Barrett to raise a full-throated alarm that she thinks the nominee poses to abortion rights.

Democracy for America, a liberal activist grassroots group that opposed Feinstein in her 2018 California Democratic primary, said Feinstein’s praise of Graham’s handling of the committee is unacceptable.

“It’s not the hugging, it’s the calling this one of the best set of hearings,” said Neil Sroka, the spokesperson for the group. “It’s an important reminder that she’s a senator for another era and Californians are incredibly poorly served by that kind of representation on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I can’t imagine very many Democratic voters in the state of California think the Republicans’ attempt to stick a far-right extremist on the court less than 20 days before the election is acceptable,” he added.

[Cin]

I have yet another theory to add. When I was just starting my adult life, in my early 20's, I asked my father why it seemed that so many people, society in general, were just becoming plain MEAN. Pop told me that there had been a scientific experiment conducted on mice to try to examine what happens in a community when resources become increasingly scarce, while the population steadily increases (think about the wealth inequality that exists now in the U.S.). A group of mice were placed in a container with a limited amount of food and water. Gradually, more mice were added while incremental amounts of food and water were withheld. The mice became increasingly hostile and aggressive. The conclusion?? High population and limited resources = Increasing aggression and hostile behaviors. So, with our current situation of wealth inequality, imagine that 99 of those 100 "mice" are able to see a container next to their crowded, under-resourced box, that is oversupplied with food and water, but with only 1 mouse in that box......and it is dramatically overfed!!!
~Theo~ :bouquet:

It has always puzzled me how people, or mice apparently, turn on each other when they are all in the same boat instead of banding together to tackle the problem. I thought it was something the power elite did to keep us divided, teaching us to look below us on the socio economic scale for the reasons for our problem so we don't have the power of being united against those who keep all the resources and wealth, along with keeping alive the myth of the American dream that we can all be successful and achieve wealth if we just try and also by convincing us all that there is scarcity when the reality is that they have hoarded everything for themselves. But maybe it's just something in animal nature that the power elite have learned to manipulate. Instead of getting aggressive with each other why didn't 99 mice band together and try to reach that container with only one mouse and tons of food and water? Why don't humans?

[theoddz]

It has always puzzled me how people, or mice apparently, turn on each other when they are all in the same boat instead of banding together to tackle the problem. I thought it was something the power elite did to keep us divided, teaching us to look below us on the socio economic scale for the reasons for our problem so we don't have the power of being united against those who keep all the resources and wealth, along with keeping alive the myth of the American dream that we can all be successful and achieve wealth if we just try and also by convincing us all that there is scarcity when the reality is that they have hoarded everything for themselves. But maybe it's just something in animal nature that the power elite have learned to manipulate. Instead of getting aggressive with each other why didn't 99 mice band together and try to reach that container with only one mouse and tons of food and water? Why don't humans?

You know, the truth is, I really don't know why. I think the answer may lie in the individual's self serving human survival instinct (human nature) that is focused inward instead of to the group. They say that the difference between humans and animal beings "lower" on the scale is our (humans') ability to think critically and reason out problems. I would almost venture to think that our inclination to lash out/place blame on others in our same situation is probably linked to Darwin's theory involving the survival of the fittest amongst us. It's already been established that, on the whole, all too many have lost the ability (or have never had it) to think critically. For critical thinking to exist, one must be able to see the circumstances, situations and truth/fact that surround them and be able to evaluate these factors to find root causes and begin the solving process. I don't know when the schools stopped teaching our children to think critically, but it's my opinion that a lot of it probably originates with this and was deliberately planned and executed. When people cannot use the power of intellect and reason and observation, they resort to decisions made based on ignorance, malfeasance and emotional manipulation of the truth. In short, they are "easily led". That's why Trump was able to get elected in the first place. In recent years, many people have largely ignored the political climate in this country. Too many are too reliant on others to tell them what to think that they've become totally unable to know how to think. Have you noticed how many young people these days no longer read a book, or newspapers?? Too many of our countrymen/women/people cannot even tell you the names of their congressional representatives and Senators. You'd better believe that they can name the characters on reality television and figures in pop culture. It is absolutely head spinning and just plain disgusting, really. :seeingstars:

There is a quote from the famous philosopher, Plato, and it says “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

Now, if Trump, McConnell, Barr and the likes of enablers like Lindsay Graham can manage to keep us looking the other way with pop culture, video games, reality shows and other such bullsh1t, they can continue to sit in their own private little boxes and eat up all of the food and water while we, the 99% of "the others" will be entertained and distracted.....all the way to our impoverished graves.

I'm sorry I rambled on. I hope my general idea came across through all of this!! :winky:

Thanks for bearing with me.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Pacificblu]

Although famine and economic inequality bring out the worst in most people, it is a thin veneer we all wear. If the world suddenly experienced something like an EMP by another country (China comes to mind), it would put an end to modern “everything” as we know it.

No electricity to pump fuel, no transport of food, sewage back up, total anarchy. People will do anything if their children are starving, and will kill because there aren’t any laws or police to stop them. People are already mean, they just have most of what they “want” and it keeps them in check.

The majority of people are only kept in check by the fear of the law.

[Cin]

You know, the truth is, I really don't know why. I think the answer may lie in the individual's self serving human survival instinct (human nature) that is focused inward instead of to the group. They say that the difference between humans and animal beings "lower" on the scale is our (humans') ability to think critically and reason out problems. I would almost venture to think that our inclination to lash out/place blame on others in our same situation is probably linked to Darwin's theory involving the survival of the fittest amongst us. It's already been established that, on the whole, all too many have lost the ability (or have never had it) to think critically. For critical thinking to exist, one must be able to see the circumstances, situations and truth/fact that surround them and be able to evaluate these factors to find root causes and begin the solving process. I don't know when the schools stopped teaching our children to think critically, but it's my opinion that a lot of it probably originates with this and was deliberately planned and executed. When people cannot use the power of intellect and reason and observation, they resort to decisions made based on ignorance, malfeasance and emotional manipulation of the truth. In short, they are "easily led". That's why Trump was able to get elected in the first place. In recent years, many people have largely ignored the political climate in this country. Too many are too reliant on others to tell them what to think that they've become totally unable to know how to think. Have you noticed how many young people these days no longer read a book, or newspapers?? Too many of our countrymen/women/people cannot even tell you the names of their congressional representatives and Senators. You'd better believe that they can name the characters on reality television and figures in pop culture. It is absolutely head spinning and just plain disgusting, really. :seeingstars:

There is a quote from the famous philosopher, Plato, and it says “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

Now, if Trump, McConnell, Barr and the likes of enablers like Lindsay Graham can manage to keep us looking the other way with pop culture, video games, reality shows and other such bullsh1t, they can continue to sit in their own private little boxes and eat up all of the food and water while we, the 99% of "the others" will be entertained and distracted.....all the way to our impoverished graves.

I'm sorry I rambled on. I hope my general idea came across through all of this!! :winky:

Thanks for bearing with me.

~Theo~ :bouquet:
Sad but so very very true. The deliberate dumbing down of America was a big success. I am certain it was not accidental that schools stopped teaching critical thinking. It is interesting to note how there are IQ limitations on police officers.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-court-ruled-you-can-be-too-smart-to-be-a-cop/5420630
US Court Ruling: You Can Be “Too Smart” to Be a Cop
Police department disqualifies anyone whose IQ is “too high"

I do think the powers that be use our baser instincts, our worse inclinations to keep us separate. They feed our fears and demonize people and groups for us to focus our discontent toward. We can't attack the 1%, we can't tax corporations or the rich because we could be in their number someday, ridiculous as that sounds it's in our sociological make up to think we have unlimited opportunity so we need to protect the rich. It's really sad. They systemically keep us off balance and at odds with each other. It's in their best interest we never find our power.

[BullDog]

The rich find groups that others can blame and scapeboat based on race, sex, cultural issues, etc. People like to feel they are superior to others and to blame someone else for their problems (other than the obvious one which are the wealthy).

One thing that none of these theories explain is that we don't all do the same thing. For example, a shockingly high number of people support Trump, but not all of us do.

[Cin]

Although famine and economic inequality bring out the worst in most people, it is a thin veneer we all wear. If the world suddenly experienced something like an EMP by another country (China comes to mind), it would put an end to modern “everything” as we know it.

No electricity to pump fuel, no transport of food, sewage back up, total anarchy. People will do anything if their children are starving, and will kill because there aren’t any laws or police to stop them. People are already mean, they just have most of what they “want” and it keeps them in check.

The majority of people are only kept in check by the fear of the law.

I don't know. People say the same sort of thing about atheists. Inherent in most religions is the belief that people need to be kept in check by fear. Fear of hell, of god, whatever. Without that belief atheists are immoral and capable of anything. We need a god to keep us doing the right thing. Nobody will do the right thing if there is no god to judge them or police or laws to force them. Maybe people will just do the right thing because they want to feel good about themselves. I do agree people will do anything if their children are starving, but I don't think they will kill because there aren't laws or police to stop them, they will kill because their children are starving and someone has food they won't share. Plenty of people don't have most of what they want. Many all around the world don't even have most of what they need. People do what they have to do to survive, to have their family survive. If they had the opportunity to have that without killing I'm pretty sure most people would chose to live somewhat harmoniously. Religion of course poses a different problem and people all over the world seem to think they need to kill those who believe differently so they aren't around to offend the delicate sensibilities of their particular god. I think in a lot of cases religion makes people mean. And it's the kind of mean where they might smile sadly and indulgently while they beat you to death. After all it's the sin not the sinner that's the problem.

[Pacificblu]

I don't know. People say the same sort of thing about atheists. Inherent in most religions is the belief that people need to be kept in check by fear. Fear of hell, of god, whatever. Without that belief atheists are immoral and capable of anything. We need a god to keep us doing the right thing. Nobody will do the right thing if there is no god to judge them or police or laws to force them. Maybe people will just do the right thing because they want to feel good about themselves. I do agree people will do anything if their children are starving, but I don't think they will kill because there aren't laws or police to stop them, they will kill because their children are starving and someone has food they won't share. Plenty of people don't have most of what they want. Many all around the world don't even have most of what they need. People do what they have to do to survive, to have their family survive. If they had the opportunity to have that without killing I'm pretty sure most people would chose to live somewhat harmoniously. Religion of course poses a different problem and people all over the world seem to think they need to kill those who believe differently so they aren't around to offend the delicate sensibilities of their particular god. I think in a lot of cases religion makes people mean. And it's the kind of mean where they might smile sadly and indulgently while they beat you to death. After all it's the sin not the sinner that's the problem.

People throughout the centuries have killed millions in the name of religion, would kill us if given a chance.

There is also part of the population that will sit around and wait for the government to save them. Can you imagine for a city the size of LA trying to provide a gallon of water per person, it would be millions of gallons for 1 day? Without trucks.

Then the mean will come out of everyone when they cannot meet even their basic needs. We are a country that loves our comfort, and when it is not given, we will degrade into a lawless society. Not even religion wil save us.

[homoe]

PORTLAND, Maine — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon sparred on health care and the nation’s coronavirus response during a Thursday debate that saw the two candidates heavily criticize each other’s records in office. Collins, a 24-year senator, and Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, are in a heated, expensive race that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate.

The tight race with Gideon is an unfamiliar position for Collins, who has typically cruised to reelection in previous bids. Democrats and liberal groups mounted a campaign to unseat Collins after her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018.

Now let me get this right, Collins has been in office 24 years. I figure that's WAY more than just two terms!

3_0N9DKtAH8

[homoe]

RpE3zllSJuk

[Cin]

People throughout the centuries have killed millions in the name of religion, would kill us if given a chance.

There is also part of the population that will sit around and wait for the government to save them. Can you imagine for a city the size of LA trying to provide a gallon of water per person, it would be millions of gallons for 1 day? Without trucks.

Then the mean will come out of everyone when they cannot meet even their basic needs. We are a country that loves our comfort, and when it is not given, we will degrade into a lawless society. Not even religion wil save us.

I think religion has likely destroyed more than it ever saved so I wouldn't but your eggs in that basket. You might have more luck with the government, although I wouldn't hold my breath there either. Maybe by the time we degrade into a lawless society there will be significantly less people because of various pandemics, wars and a myriad of climate catastrophes. But it is true that overpopulation makes it very difficult for the population to be reduced to anything sustainable. There are just too many people. It is likely that it's going to take a long time and people will suffer immeasurably before this mess is over. And here's the kicker, since the rich and the powerful have taken control of the wealth and resources, they can and will wall themselves off until this is over. Then those are the kinds of people who will be left to repopulate the earth. If there is an earth. Makes you almost wish there won't be one left.

[Cin]

Without that belief atheists are immoral and capable of anything. We need a god to keep us doing the right thing. Nobody will do the right thing if there is no god to judge them or police or laws to force them.
I don't think I was very clear in this post. I don't believe atheists are immoral I am an atheist and I don't believe I am immoral. I also don't agree that nobody will do the right thing if there is no god to judge them or police or laws to force them. Maybe I think too highly of people but I don't think most of us are inherently mean. Shit happens but given a choice I think most people want to live in peace. Unfortunately most people don't control jack shit, and are extremely easy to manipulate to boot.

[homoe]

PORTLAND, Maine — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon sparred on health care and the nation’s coronavirus response during a Thursday debate that saw the two candidates heavily criticize each other’s records in office. Collins, a 24-year senator, and Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, are in a heated, expensive race that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate.

The tight race with Gideon is an unfamiliar position for Collins, who has typically cruised to reelection in previous bids. Democrats and liberal groups mounted a campaign to unseat Collins after her vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018.

Now let me get this right, Collins has been in office 24 years. I figure that's WAY more than just two terms!

3_0N9DKtAH8

She's almost as good of a liar as Lindsey Graham!

[homoe]

Trump attacks GOP senator who accused him of pandering to dictators!

President Trump lashed out at Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., on Saturday, calling him “stupid and obnoxious” after he lambasted the president for his coronavirus response and accused him of being friendly with dictators and white supremacists.

Trump blasts Susan Collins over SCOTUS

President Donald Trump on Friday attacked Maine Sen. Susan Collins over her stated opposition to Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, lashing out at one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans less than three weeks before Election Day. There is a nasty rumor out there that @SenatorCollins of Maine will not be supporting our great United States Supreme Court Nominee,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Well, she didn’t support Healthcare or my opening up 5000 square miles of Ocean to Maine, so why should this be any different. Not worth the work!”

Boy this SOB can't get along with anyone......

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — For nearly four years, congressional Republicans have ducked and dodged an unending cascade of offensive statements and norm-shattering behavior from President Donald Trump, ignoring his caustic and scattershot Twitter feed and penchant for flouting party orthodoxy, and standing quietly by as he abandoned military allies, attacked American institutions, and stirred up racist and nativist fears.

But now, facing grim polling numbers and a flood of Democratic money and enthusiasm that has imperiled their majority in the Senate, Republicans on Capitol Hill are beginning to publicly distance themselves from the president. The shift, less than three weeks before the election, indicates that many Republicans have concluded that Trump is heading for a loss in November. And they are grasping to save themselves and rushing to reestablish their reputations for a coming struggle for their party’s identity.

Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska unleashed on Trump in a telephone town hall event with constituents on Wednesday, eviscerating the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of “flirting” with dictators and white supremacists and alienating voters so broadly that he might cause a “Republican bloodbath” in the Senate. He was echoing a phrase from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who warned of a “Republican bloodbath of Watergate proportions.” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the president’s most vocal allies, predicted the president could very well lose the White House.

Even the normally taciturn Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has been more outspoken than usual in recent days about his differences with the president, rejecting his calls to “go big” on a stimulus bill.

IMHO too little and WAY too late!

[Chad]

All I really want to say here is that if you have mobility issues try curbside voting. You stay in your vehicle and they bring the voting machine to you. Just call the number on your voter registration. Beats standing in line and risking your health.

[C0LLETTE]

If Trump gets turfed, does he still get Secret Service protection for life, does his family (btw, what's included in family, ie, Eric etc?). What else does he lose besides protection from criminal charges while he's a sitting president and having to pay for his own legal defence?