US Presidential Election 2020

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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Elvis » Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:24 pm

Once Trump says we need national single-payer healthcare, what are the Democrats going to do? Vote against it?

To paraphrase former Atty General John Mitchell, Biden's about to get his dick caught in a wringer.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Elvis » Wed Mar 18, 2020 11:26 pm

What, no Biden thread?

...Please don't! :rofl2
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby stickdog99 » Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:32 pm

Our oligarchs spent over $1 billion on ads and operated MSNBC and CNN as effective Super PACs all just to stop the most popular and trusted Democratic Presidential candidate.

Beyond these obvious and indisputable measures, establishment Democrats ran more than 20 candidates to splinter the field as much a possible. From Beto O'Rourke to Kamala Harris to Elizabeth Warren to Pete Buttigieg to Amy Klobuchar to Michael Bloomberg and finally to Joe Biden, we were treated with a never ending litany of biased corporate media coverage that always propped up every Democratic candidate not named Bernie Sanders while denigrating Sanders in comparison to each and every other potentially viable candidate at every turn. Then they directed Elizabeth Warren to kamikaze her campaign directly into Sanders' despite Warren's having branded herself over her entire campaign as the more technocratic enabler of Sanders' common sense policy proposals.

Establishment Democrats pulled out every stop, including rigging coin flips and making mathematical mistakes that they refused to correct to ensure that Sanders would not win Iowa, as well as to disparage the whole practice of having caucuses. (Why? There is nothing difficult about correctly counting people at a caucus, just as there is nothing difficult about ensuring a fair election by having people count votes cast with ink on paper. Could this wholly avoidable snafu been perpetrated because caucuses are harder to rig than totally unauditable fraud-o-matic voting machines?)

Finally, after Sanders had spread out his campaign in an attempt to win a resounding plurality in every blue or purple Super Tuesday state, establishment Democrats abruptly pulled the plug on every campaign other than Warren's and Bloomberg's and had all these candidates endorse Joe Biden to great fanfare and universal corporate media acclaim, changing the entire nature of the race with two days before Super Tuesday to invalidate all previous polling and create a narrative that would at least allow them to believably claim Joementum whether or this actually existed anywhere but in the unauditable fraud-o-matic voting machine results.

But all of this was not nearly enough. Establishment Democrats further flexed their muscles by selectively closing polling places and slowing down the voting process to ensure that voters had to wait literally hours to cast their votes in precincts that they knew Sanders had the majority of electoral support. And in yet another statistical miracle, Biden outperformed his exit polling estimates, often far beyond the statistical margin for error, in every single state! Somehow hard drives were lost, and vote counts (along with accurate estimations of delegate counts) were magically delayed for days and days in almost every Sanders' stronghold.

As the capstone to all of their previous Machiavellian machinations, just yesterday establishment Democrats forced people to vote against the CDC's expressed recommendations during a deadly pandemic by threatening states with severe (and totally undemocratic) delegate penalties were any to take the obvious and only responsible step of extending their primaries and encouraging everyone to vote by mail.

In the wake of all of this chicanery, establishment Democrats are now predictably using the same pandemic concerns that they just totally ignored one day ago to pressure Sanders into quitting his campaign and uniting behind their coronated candidate who still has done absolutely nothing to excite anyone in any way other than as the most convenient vehicle to stop the desperate cries of Sanders and his supporters for the US federal government to do anything to benefit regular working Americans, including finally joining the first world by guaranteeing healthcare as a right to all US residents.

Establishment politicians have secured their positions of power at a significant cost to the oligarchs they serve. They don't go down without a fight, and they are true masters at fighting dirty. But if the last five years have convinced me of anything, it that IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO FIGHT THAN IT IS NOT TO FIGHT.

I am old enough to remember the political atmosphere that spawned the Joe Bidens of the Democratic party. George McGovern lost in a landslide. Jimmy Carters' meekly progressive agenda was met with utter disdain by the burgeoning financial sector, which purposefully tanked the economy to deliver us 12 years of Ronald Reagan and Bush I. During this period, the neoliberals, abetted by their legion corporate sponsors, executed their almost complete takeover of the Democratic party, leaving the United States with two Chambers of Commerce parties fighting over little more than a handful of symbolic social and cultural issues. Working hand and hand with their fellow Republican oligarch lackeys, Biden Democrats delivered the entire neoliberal agenda of cheap labor chasing globalization, manufacturing flight, austerity, deficit hawking, incarceration for profit, endless "humanitarian" wars, windfall profiteering for credit card, pharmaceutical, health insurance, and countless other corporations, ever more intense fossil fuel extraction, security state expansion, corporate lobbyist capture of all of governmental regulatory agencies, the elevation of the financial sector's vulturism to its current status as the USA's most powerful "sector", and most critically the corporatization of our entire governmental system at almost every possible level.

Once again, the immediate national electoral efforts of well-meaning progressives have been crushed by oligarchs who have bought the "leaders" who currently control our institutions' levers of power. But whole generations of people are at least finally starting to wake up to their entire scam. And that's only because people like us have been fighting back the whole time.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128064903

LEWIS: Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." I say that power works 24 hours to remain in power. Throughout history. Go back to kings, feudal times. The same thing. ... Their fucking machine works 24 hours a day, man. It grinds; it grinds. Otherwise they don't stay in power; they topple.

SHADOW: So what do you think people can do in response to that power? What do you think we have to do?

LEWIS: First of all, (laughs) you have to agree that these people shouldn't have the power. ... You see, the thing is, ... Everybody in this society wants the quick fix, like the junkie that we just talked about.

SHADOW: So what keeps you going?

LEWIS: What keeps me going? My belief! (Laughs) You see, what happens with you "Johnny-Come-Latelies" -- and I'm not personalizing -- is like you take people of the Sixties. After five or ten years, they didn't get the victory, "Oh, fuck it, man, I'll take this job down on Wall Street and make the fuckin' money. I didn't get the immediate fix." ... "We didn't win!" America only knows the "win". ... After doing x amount of time or years, don't throw your hands up in the air, because, you see, everybody wants the "the win," they want it today. It doesn't happen. The struggle goes on. The victory is in the struggle.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Laodicean » Fri Mar 20, 2020 5:04 pm

Elvis » Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:26 am wrote:What, no Biden thread?

...Please don't! :rofl2


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Speaking of...where is Joe? Bernie out here doing livestream fireside chats and round-table discussions.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Elvis » Fri Mar 20, 2020 6:26 pm

stickdog99 wrote:Our oligarchs spent over $1 billion on ads and operated MSNBC and CNN as effective Super PACs all just to stop the most popular and trusted Democratic Presidential candidate.


Impressive and insightful overview, stickdog. People just don't get that there's a whole big machine working against them, right behind the curtain.


Laodicean wrote:
What, no Biden thread?

...Please don't! :rofl2

Image

Speaking of...where is Joe? Bernie out here doing livestream fireside chats and round-table discussions.


I wasn't really serious of course, and if anyone wants to start a Biden thread, I'm sure we can fill it faster than a stopped-up toilet. :tongout
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Grizzly » Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:38 pm

Only if Bernie drops out....

then..


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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Sounder » Thu Mar 26, 2020 5:27 pm

Excellent summation stickdog.

Elvis wrote...
Impressive and insightful overview, stickdog. People just don't get that there's a whole big machine working against them, right behind the curtain.


People do 'get' (everybody knows) that there is a whole big machine working against them, it's just that the curtain provides a lot of shade.

A lot of that is our own fault.
All these things will continue as long as coercion remains a central element of our mentality.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Grizzly » Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:27 pm

Save us paternal DADDY!

This could very well go in the main Coronavirus thread...

It looks like this is considered essential in NY, AND PRETTY EXTENSIVE. Our Governor, Steve Bullock, just issued a Shelter in place starting tomorrow night at midnight until April 10th, here. My question is are the proverbial, 'they' going to use this template across the nation to place Big Daddy Andrew M. Cuomo as the hero of the nation to rescue us bad, hapless and helpless children, especially since we have the Cheeto WHO has made such a disaster of it.

The 'New York State on PAUSE' Executive Order looks, AUTHORITATIVE, and that's what the in fear people want is an AUTHORITATIVE, Adult in charge. I can see all kinds of scenario’s and or plots or (get this...) pre-made plans already laying around, as Naomi Klein talks about in 'Disaster Capitalism'... As we jockey on into the summer before election. A sustained, stressed out anxiety driven, freaked out populace will be whipped into near desperation for a saviour by then and ready to submit to ANYONE who will look/sound smart and paternal.

Anybody else get my drift?

https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/JOelCNkG9Bh0MPyhmM65t
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby JackRiddler » Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:37 am

Oh good, Grizzly, you reposted it here. I was just bringing the cross-post in.

Grizzly » Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:45 pm wrote:Save us paternal DADDY!

This could very well go in the main US Presidential Election 2020 thread. [...]

My question is are the proverbial, 'they' going to use this template across the nation to place Big Daddy Andrew M. Cuomo as the hero of the nation to rescue us bad, hapless and helpless children, especially since we have the Cheeto WHO has made such a disaster of it.


Who knows. It's easy for me to confess (which I guess means brag) that I was there first. A couple of weeks ago, walking about at the edge before the Brooklyn panic, when people met and elbow bumps were still a thing, and the door of Trader Joe was not at the head of a three-block line of masked individuals spaced at 10-foot intervals (as I saw this morning), that is just the question I asked myself: Who, in the Democrats' universe, is in a position to call out the Biden-propping shenanigans, to say that the emperor has no clothes, that Joe is a sort-of walking-talking placeholder for Player to Be Named Later, incapable of making even a formal Reagan-style show of being president, let alone managing the crises. Who could do so without being obliterated to a crisp, aggressively and without prejudice, by all parties? Not Bernie, obviously: he could only walk in gently after others had thrown the first 50 stones. Any hope it could be Tulsi, well we saw where that ended up. And I figured the ice-breaker man, the fellow with enough ego and certitude, arranted or otherwise, and personal protection (as a governor and state machine boss) and maybe just enough ambition to do that, would be Cuomo. And then you know how things developed after that. He's having his moment, eh? I think it's on the verge of passing, and he won't make the move, and the likeliest one to make it for him would be Biden himself. In the meantime, I've run the full cycle, and my current prognosis differs. When the final history of the 2019-2020 election extravaganza is written, the phrases used to describe this moment when comforting St. Cuomo of the Corona appeared to be The One Revealed will be something like "Late-Stage Beto" or "Baroque Beto."

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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Grizzly » Fri Apr 03, 2020 6:26 pm

attending Biden's virtual fireside chat will cost $2,800

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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby JackRiddler » Fri Apr 03, 2020 7:41 pm

moi wrote:DON'T BACK DOWN ON WISCONSIN!

Friend wrote: "Joe Biden wants Wisconsin to proceed with in-person voting for their primary next Tuesday. This - a man so clearly lacking in judgment - is the person you want to lead this country in a time of crisis?" Furthermore, is this the person you think can defeat Trump?

Sanders has to challenge this all the way. The "Nice to Joe" season must end here. The Sanders campaign cannot be tainted in this through some weak halfway stance. It is clear-cut.

The Wisconsin election can be postponed. It can be turned into a mail-in vote that will be much more fair and authentic by comparison.

An in-person election on Tuesday is irreconcilable with the anti-contagion measures we are all called upon to follow. The Biden campaign is urging voters to disregard the medical experts it claims to respect.

By their own sights, what the Biden campaign advocates is to knowingly increase a death toll. Is there a word for that?
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:38 pm

Grizzly » 27 Mar 2020 13:27 wrote:Save us paternal DADDY!

This could very well go in the main Coronavirus thread...

It looks like this is considered essential in NY, AND PRETTY EXTENSIVE. Our Governor, Steve Bullock, just issued a Shelter in place starting tomorrow night at midnight until April 10th, here. My question is are the proverbial, 'they' going to use this template across the nation to place Big Daddy Andrew M. Cuomo as the hero of the nation to rescue us bad, hapless and helpless children, especially since we have the Cheeto WHO has made such a disaster of it.

The 'New York State on PAUSE' Executive Order looks, AUTHORITATIVE, and that's what the in fear people want is an AUTHORITATIVE, Adult in charge. I can see all kinds of scenario’s and or plots or (get this...) pre-made plans already laying around, as Naomi Klein talks about in 'Disaster Capitalism'... As we jockey on into the summer before election. A sustained, stressed out anxiety driven, freaked out populace will be whipped into near desperation for a saviour by then and ready to submit to ANYONE who will look/sound smart and paternal.

Anybody else get my drift?

https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/JOelCNkG9Bh0MPyhmM65t

Mate I spent a good part of the last six months doing exactly that.

I'm typing this on a shit old iPad and it wipes what I've typed if I forget to save a draft or look at another page so this will be the shit version of what I just typed...

This was always my attitude:

Remember that I'm just a man don't follow me nigga

Immortal Technique, from the song Point of no Return.

So anyway .... I'm now the captain of my bush fire brigade, for those that didn't know. That means I have a leadership role when things go to shit in my community. And it nearly did here, that's another story, but we dodged a bullet here last fire season, partly (maybe even mostly if I drop the false modesty, but luck plays a huge part too) cos of the work my crews did 50 kms west in the bush.

As much as that goes against me and how I see the world. And I've always naturally been in that position, in sporting teams and other things I've done... But I don't really like it.

But this fire stuff is different. It means when shit get real, and people are suddenly confronted with potential loss of homes or life and don't know what to do they expect you to tell them. To lead them cos they don't know where to go.

They are uncertain, worried and don't know which direction to move. And their lives may be dependant on me. I'm responsible for their safety, for the whole communities safety. Even if we can't be there to protect them we need to tell how to stay safe, when to stay and fight and when to go cos the fire is too big.

They need to hear an authoritative voice. Not necessarily authoritarian, but authoratative. They are different things, and often used to describe parenting. Funnily enough. If you sound wishy washy, uncertain or indecisive they won't listen. Why would they. You sound the way they are thinking. Even when what you are saying is spot on they won't hear it. They'll hear your wishy washy voice and switch off.

If you sound like you know what you are talking about they'll believe you.

I had to have public meetings and private assessments of properties and I had to tell people that we wouldn't be there to save them on the worst days, we have two trucks there are hundreds of houses and we'll be protecting emergency evacuation points cos that's where we'll save the most lives. That they'd need to have everything they couldnt bare to lose, or needed to rebuild their lives in a box ready to chuck in the car and go. They needed to be capable of doing this first thing in the morning on certain days or they would die if the fire came.

So I had to tell these beautiful houses they'd spent years building, their homes, would probably go.

It was hard.

But they were grateful for the honesty. They preferred to know exactly where they stood with no bullshit than be told everything would be all right. If I used that authoratative voice.

These are independent people, they think for themselves, thumb their noses at authority all the time and generally follow their own codes not anything imposed by society.

Outside of my community this was even more important. Those people didn't know me, and I look like trouble, not Fireman Sam (look him up).

I needed to use a very specific tone of voice, very paternal, just to deal with people who were scared and uncertain. And when I did they'd obey ... Hmmm ... yes I used the word obey. It was scary seeing this. I wouldn't order people around either, if I could get away with it, I'd state the circumstances and try to get them to make their own decisions along the line of what I thought they needed to do. But sometimes people don't want that. Especially otherwise authoritarian types.

So yes people are looking for a saviour, or if not a saviour someone who tell them where they stand with no bullshit attached.

Don't be surprised by this. Countless generations of evolution led us here.

Keep that in mind and use it where you can.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Elvis » Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:58 pm

Joe Hillshoist wrote:So anyway .... I'm now the captain of my bush fire brigade


Great insightful essay there Joe.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Sat Apr 04, 2020 5:09 am

It was an eye opening few months Elvis. I'm definitely different.

I thought I'd been thru a lot in my life but this was different too. It was epic and somethings happened in landscapes that were epic themselves, but you only realise that when you go back months later and everything isn't shrouded in smoke.

It's a natural thing in those emergencies, that voice. It's funny you can turn it on and people listen. A certain frame of mind comes with it, at least for me. It's almost like an altered state of consciousness.

Right now people are scared, and they just want people to get them thru safely. They'll trust anything they think will do that. That's not necessarily a good thing.

My community trusts me. Many of them have known me for decades. I have a reputation for some integrity and it means a lot to me. And it's cost me advantages at times but people have seen that. I dunno if everyone talking in this crisis is of the same mind. Sometimes I don't think it's possible to be in politics without having that compromised. I'm not in politics, I just run a volunteer fire brigade, I haven't had or wanted to climb any bullshit ladders.

It's funny... Alpha males in wild primate societies only survive because of their fairness and integrity. At least according to the info I've seen. It's the opposite of what seems to happen in our domesticated primate societies, well it seems that way anyway.

I don't want to sound like I'm talking shit, but that voice and the way people react to it... It's a phenomonen that emerges in these situations, it could even be a collective thing. I hope the people using it (in this case Cuomo) are trustworthy cos it's very powerful.
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Re: US Presidential Election 2020

Postby Elvis » Fri Apr 10, 2020 3:57 pm

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... JO?ocid=st

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Three tubs of ballots discovered in mail processing center after polls closed in Wisconsin
Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2 days ago



MADISON - Three tubs of ballots for Oshkosh and Appleton have been discovered at a mail processing center in Milwaukee, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and a state senator.

The discovery emerges as would-be voters across the state express a host of frustrations about absentee ballots they tried to avoid going to the polls amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many have said ballots they requested long ago did not arrive by Tuesday, the deadline for getting their ballots postmarked.

"I learned today that the (state Elections Commission) received a call from a postal service worker informing them 3 large tubs of absentee ballots from Oshkosh and Appleton, were just located," Republican Sen. Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac said on Twitter.

Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Elections Commission, said she is looking into the situation. She said she has not determined whether the ballots had been on their way to voters or already filled out and on their way back to clerks.

"We don’t have answers on that at this point," Wolfe said during an online media briefing.

Feyen wants the commission to go to court to give the voters a chance to have the ballots counted, according to his office.

Getting such a ruling will be exceedingly difficult because the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision Monday ruled absentee ballots must be in the hands of clerks by election day or postmarked by then to be counted.

Republicans sought that decision by the Supreme Court and Feyen this week called it correct. But he also said he believed the situation in his area was unique and those voters should be given accommodations that others aren't getting.

At issue is voters who didn't receive absentee ballots through no fault of their own. Many have registered such complaints, not just those in Appleton and Oshkosh.

Voters who did not receive their absentee ballots had the option of voting in person Tuesday — an act some voters were reluctant to take because of the global pandemic.

No details have been made available about how many voters who didn't get absentee ballots ended up voting in person instead.
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