congrats to you know

[JohnRoberts]

It looks like VP Biden has a much easier path to 270 than President Trump so congrats.

I am personally looking forward to a vacation from being the forum Trump apologist piñata..

Historic perhaps for different reasons so we'll see how it plays out.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

It looks like VP Biden has a much easier path to 270 than President Trump so congrats.

I am personally looking forward to a vacation from being the forum Trump apologist piñata..

Historic perhaps for different reasons so we'll see how it plays out.

JR

To me, neither choice seems anywhere near optimum for the good folk of the USA. What happened to all the young(er) presidential candidates you used to have?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Matador]

It looks like VP Biden has a much easier path to 270 than President Trump so congrats.

It ain't over till it's over.  I wouldn't make any predictions of any kind until Jan 20th.

 

[Tubetec]

Hmmmm you did have quite a few fires lit under your arse over expressing 'Trumpinions' over the last 4 years  ;D

I just hope if and when the changing of the guard there happens the pot doesnt boil over , its just downright dangerous when the so called bastion of 'Western Democracy' ends up looking more like a 'crap shoot' . Social media has become the most divisory tool mankind has ever invented , really doesnt serve our interests at all , all it does is polarise and deliver us into the hands of the marketeers and their attendant corporations .

Points of view vary  ,what you have maintained here is a forum where we feel the freedom express our opinions openly, disagreement on certain subjects is inevitable , but I think we learn much more from absorbing opposing views than stewing in a cauldron of like mindedness.

Cheers ,
David.

 

[john12ax7]

What happened to all the young(er) presidential candidates you used to have?

It's crazy, but both candidates are older than the current age of the previous 3 presidents,  who served over a course of 24 years.  You could have brought back Bill Clinton and he would have been the youngest guy in the race.

 

[living sounds]

I just hope if and when the changing of the guard there happens the pot doesnt boil over , its just downright dangerous when the so called bastion of 'Western Democracy' ends up looking more like a 'crap shoot' . Social media has become the most divisory tool mankind has ever invented , really doesnt serve our interests at all , all it does is polarise and deliver us into the hands of the marketeers and their attendant corporations .

Social media exists in other places as well, but thankfully we haven't seen them turning dark like this. This has been much longer in the making, I think.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Social media exists in other places as well, but thankfully we haven't seen them turning dark like this.

Just wait a few years...    It's coming. :'(

 

[Scodiddly]

Social media exists in other places as well, but thankfully we haven't seen them turning dark like this. This has been much longer in the making, I think.

Social media right now is like a very slowed down version of the panic that happened when Orson Welles did his "The War of the Worlds" broadcast.  Many people haven't learned to be suspicious of the media yet.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Social media exists in other places as well, but thankfully we haven't seen them turning dark like this. This has been much longer in the making, I think.

Not sure what you mean by turning dark?

Social media is a mess all around the world, facebook and others are pedaling as fast as they can to stay ahead of government clamp downs in free countries (India reportedly has issues), and authoritarian governments have already taken control. 

In my judgement social media is just a technology and doesn't make people stupid, it just makes it easier for them to show how stupid they are.

JR 

 

[hodad]

Pennsylvania just flipped to Biden (expected, but it took long enough).  The margin in Ga. is razor thin and may not hold--still, it's very nice to see my state politically relevant again on the national level--even if all the ads get really annoying really fast.  I'm also pretty excited about the prospect of our 2 Senate runoffs (has that ever happened before?  Seems unlikely, but I haven't researched it).  Runoffs in Ga. have long favored Republicans, so it'll be an uphill struggle.  And there'll be no shortage of money flowing in on both sides. 

I heard a rumor that the reason the Nevada vote was going so slowly is that the Republican Secretary of State in NV didn't want her state to be the one that pushed Biden to 270.  Possibly not true, but I wouldn't be shocked.

 

[living sounds]

Not sure what you mean by turning dark?

I think you know what I mean, though you probably don't see it that way.

Even exluding the proto-fascist, purely hate-filled, conspiracy-mongering, violence-threatening subset of the Right in the US, there remains a sizeable portion of people either delusional or gripped by an egotistic zero-sum-gain approach.

And even though an authoritarian fringe on the left exists, the other side doesn't come close to approach being a mirror image.

And of course they are not all "bad people", far from it. For instance, watching the new Borat film, where he camps with two rural redneck Trump supporters, the guys seem likeable enough, not that bright, but serious, honest, not on the surface hateful, racist or misogynist, yet totally delusional wrt to their view of the world.

Watching that is revealing how people are led astray by talk radio and internet propaganda, their legitimate anger at being sidelined after decades of neoliberal economics and corrupt practices that favor big corporations and wealthy interests directed at the wrong target.

They need an FDR, instead they follow Trump (and those like him). It's tragic.

 

[living sounds]

And BTW, it's telling that these days someone like Karl Rove, who played a big part in getting to the situation the US is in today, now looks like a voice of reason among the cacophonie of lies and delusions eminating from the Right.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Pennsylvania just flipped to Biden (expected, but it took long enough).  The margin in Ga. is razor thin and may not hold--still, it's very nice to see my state politically relevant again on the national level--even if all the ads get really annoying really fast.  I'm also pretty excited about the prospect of our 2 Senate runoffs (has that ever happened before?  Seems unlikely, but I haven't researched it).  Runoffs in Ga. have long favored Republicans, so it'll be an uphill struggle.  And there'll be no shortage of money flowing in on both sides. 

I heard a rumor that the reason the Nevada vote was going so slowly is that the Republican Secretary of State in NV didn't want her state to be the one that pushed Biden to 270.  Possibly not true, but I wouldn't be shocked.

Enjoy, GA will be in the spotlight longer because of the two senate seat run offs (early Jan). If they both go democrat that could tie up the senate 50-50 for even more drama. The last time this happened they negotiated a power sharing agreement. I don't feel lucky about that much cooperation across the aisle this time (but I still can not predict the future, or read minds).

JR

 

[hodad]

I don't feel lucky about that much cooperation across the aisle this time
JR

As one sows, so shall one reap.  I hope. McConnell has abused his power mightily (I know you remember, JR, when the Senate was not so drastically polarized, thought I doubt you'd admit that the lion's share of the blame for this falls at the feet of the GOP.)  Schumer has never been a terribly strong leader, and Dems aren't in lockstep hardcore authoritarian mode the way the GOP has largely been since '94.  But still.  I would like to see the GOP get a taste of its own, rather bitter, medicine. 

 

[hodad]

Karl Rove

Rove laid the groundwork for Trump's rise.  The meaning of his contemptuous comments about the "reality-based" community in the early 2000s is laid clearly out in Trump's ascendance.  Who needs facts or evidence when lies are so much more effective, and so much more flexible?  The truth is okay if it serves your purpose, but there's no need to be limited by actual facts. 

 

[living sounds]

Rove laid the groundwork for Trump's rise.  The meaning of his contemptuous comments about the "reality-based" community in the early 2000s is laid clearly out in Trump's ascendance.  Who needs facts or evidence when lies are so much more effective, and so much more flexible?  The truth is okay if it serves your purpose, but there's no need to be limited by actual facts.

Yes, I know. That's why it's relevant that he's now one of those on the Right dismissing claims of widespread voter fraud.

 

[living sounds]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/06/republicans-break-ranks-with-donald-trump-over-baseless-vote-claim

 

[scott2000]

Yes, I know. That's why it's relevant that he's now one of those on the Right dismissing claims of widespread voter fraud.

and who says you can't teach an old dog.... We should cancel that saying before it's useful again..

 

[JohnRoberts]

Good luck managing cognitive dissonance over conservatives not living up to your pejorative stereotypes.



JR

 

[hodad]

Good luck managing cognitive dissonance over conservatives not living up to your pejorative stereotypes.



JR

Wait...did you just live up to my pejorative stereotype?  That's very meta, dude.... 8)