Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[bodiddley]

Not only did they want more people crowded together in Tulsa, but they planned an overflow area, which at least was outdoors, but also would have had more people jammed together.

It really is bewildering that they didn't choose
1) an outdoor arena where they could at least plausibly claim the chance of transmission was low/lessened;
2) a bigger city or smaller arena where they could get the number of attendees/optics they wanted.  Of course in viral terms, that would have been a disaster, but in short-term political terms a half empty arena was a hit too;
3) a more contested state where folks might be more motivated to risk their health and attend.

Just seems odd how badly done everything Trump is involved with.  They are going to have to do a huge hatchet job on Biden to have any chance.  Can they get their act together to pull off negative hit jobs on Biden?

[Echo4]

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/07/09/coronavirus-task-force-white-house-cdc-donald-trump-schools-kth-ac360-vpx.cnn

More on the negative stuff they are doing.

Anderson Cooper is on target, but there is nothing good for him to say.

"Lies and buzzwords that mean nothing," is how he described the crap flowing from Pence, Birx, and Redfield today and listening to them, he's just right. It is very unfortunate.

[Echo4]

[Kam]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lady-antebellum-name-change-lawsuit-band-sues-singer-anita-white-over-lady-a-name/

They thought it would be best for their image to drop the word "Antebellum" from their name and be known as Lady A
You know, because black people have a voice now and that Antebellum nod to the pre- civil war south just isn't cool no more man....
Except now they're suing a black woman who has performed as Lady A since 2010.

Just an example of fake concern for black people.   Keep the old name.  Don't try to glorify yourselves while appropriating black property.

[Echo4]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lady-antebellum-name-change-lawsuit-band-sues-singer-anita-white-over-lady-a-name/

They thought it would be best for their image to drop the word "Antebellum" from their name and be known as Lady A
You know, because black people have a voice now and that Antebellum nod to the pre- civil war south just isn't cool no more man....
Except now they're suing a black woman who has performed as Lady A since 2010.

Just an example of fake concern for black people.   Keep the old name.  Don't try to glorify yourselves while appropriating black property.

Maybe they could be Fucking A.

[Echo4]

An example of the lies that Mike Pence was telling today:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pence-idUSKBN2492JW?fbclid=IwAR0DWnCe7mvppCllt1utZK7HBgyfHMundzK9Qas-g7lfybpgPC_QjDqtRn4

He claimed the new case loads were flattening in AZ, TX, and FL.

One look at Texas makes it clear just how full of shit he is. Arizona's is erratic. But Florida's is another like Texas', so far from flattening that it makes Mike Pence look like a flat out liar.

I mean, not even pretending too tell the truth!

[facilitatorn]

He lies to Mother about his late night “policy” sessions with Senator Graham. After that, lying to us is no big deal.

It’s not like he’ll ever be in danger of being called the biggest liar in this administration.

Speaking of lies, here’s some straight forward high praise of trump,

http://thebulwark.com/the-racial-tribulations-of-trump-agonistes/

[NeedsAdjustments]

I don't know who is the bigger asshole --> Murtaugh for uttering that crap or you for quoting it like gospel.

Naturally Trump's campaign spokesman knows more than the Director of Tulsa's Health Department.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Btw, the Trump rally was probably the largest human gathering in the world over the past 3 or 4 months. 

Nope.  Countries that competently contained the spread get rewarded.

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/06/15/new-zealand-super-rugby-coronavirus-fans-sellout

[NeedsAdjustments]

Really, I'd have Biden do one debate, and then say Trump sickens me I don't want to be around him any more and cancel the rest.  Or say I'm afraid Trump will sicken me, as folks around him keep turning up positive.  But after one debate, I wouldn't give Trump more opportunities.  When you're in the driver's seat you decide the direction.

The problem for Biden in these debates will be the same exact one he faced when he debated Palin.  No one expected her to know what she was talking about, so when she pretended to be 1/4 competent (and I'm being generous) it was declared a victory for her.

Its well established that Trump can spout whatever nonsense he wants to and bothsidist media will need to then cherry pick Biden statements to create the false impression of equivalency. 

That said, I really think Trump has gone round the bend.  It will be a real challenge for him to remain coherent even by 2016 standards for a two hour debate and no question in my mind that Biden would have the advantage.

What Biden should do is demand that Trump wear a mask, and be seen wearing it when the two approach the podiums (assuming they won['t even chance an elbow bump in lieu of the traditional hand shake.)

[NeedsAdjustments]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/08/warning-of-serious-brain-disorders-in-people-with-mild-covid-symptoms

More on the neuro/brain problems for people with mild COVID symptoms.

A little brain disorder never hurt anyone...

Its 99% harmless, and only 0.0004% of the US population has died, and most of those were going to die soon anyway.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Can they get their act together to pull off negative hit jobs on Biden?

Congressional Republicans are literally doing right now what Trump was impeached for trying to extort Ukraine into doing.  Ukraine said no, but Lindsey Graham said "You got it."

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/867688291/senate-republicans-launch-committee-investigations-involving-joe-biden

This quote is a doozy:

"The public deserves to know how a guy who was vice president of the U.S. who is currently trying to be president got away with using the U.S. government to force a foreign country to stop investigating a company that was paying his son over $80,000 a month," said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.

So much wrong in a single statement.  Why, it isn't like there is a letter signed by congressional Republicans calling for Ukraine to fire the prosecutor.  Oh, there is?

And its been well established that the prosecuter was not investigating Burisma which is part of the reason they wanted him out of there!

Any guesses when these genius sleuths will issue the conclusions of their professional and competent and not at all political investigations?

My guess is third week of October.

[LarryBnDC]

  My,my. Barton waxes dumbfoundedly (and with predictable snark) trying to calm his illiberal rage that Chomsky has a point those on the right can agree with.
There is no joke to laugh at. Only the truth which drives Barton nuts. 

Rage?   For a second there,  I thought you might be going to reply to my actual point.  Whew,  that was close.

Hilarious that my expressed support of RW free speech and public platforms,  and clear statement of support of Chomsky,  Brooks,  Atwood et al,  got so twisted.   I guess you didn't like that I pointed out that they also condemn cancel culture when the Right does it.   I was applauding their evenhanded application of a principle of tolerance.    Do you?   Or do you want to keep lying about what I wrote?

I'm of two minds.  I'm uncomfortable with anything that approaches censorship of writing and scholarship, but I also think its right for people to give their support and their consumer dollars to people they think are doing right by the world.  My 401K is pegged to stocks of companies that are environmentally conscious.   Its my right to do so, and I will continue to, thanks.

Take two recent examples, both appearing in the NYT.  Tom Cotton writes an op-ed that uses lies and falsehoods to argue that military opposition to BLM protests was justified and supported by the law.  Obviously, Tom Cotton is free to express his opinions and lie to people all he wants.  That doesn't mean that it is right for the NYT to publish those lies and distribute to a larger audience.  That isn't a "canceling" because they don't agree with the argument.  Its that the argument is baseless, and spreading lies does more harm than good. 

Then I also read a piece today about a cafe in Upper Manhattan where people have stopped getting coffee because the owner, despite supporting liberal causes, voted for Trump and said he might again:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/nyregion/indian-road-cafe-trump.html

This is a tough one for me.  Should a guy lose his business because of who he chooses to vote for in what should be a free democratic process?  No.

But then you can't deny that a vote for Trump means a vote for more families separated on the border, more people deported and children caged, the elimination of regulations that protect our environment, a national security policy that bows its head to dictators and murderers, the continued dilution and corruption of democratic institutions, and the deaths of more innocents should there be another COVID (or should this one continue past January.)  We aren't talking about tax cuts, here, or obscure arguments about the proper size of government.  This is life and death.  Of people and our democracy.

Maybe it comes down to the fact that buying your coffee there doesn't support or deny that vote one way or the other.  The guy will vote for Trump with or without the cafe.  So in the end, probably an example of "cancel culture" going to far.

My issue with the whole."cancel culture" thing is that it will be like "political correctness".- it will go from having a point to being a tool for the right to suppress liberal speech by reducing policy points and.arguments to a label and then simply applying the label to policies they do not like.

Yes, both of you, I think that anything that starts out as an evenhanded expression of tolerance can be appropriated by zealots.  Or used as a bludgeon against reputable news organizations which are, in fact, simply applying journalistic standards to what goes on their Op-Ed pages (as in the Cotton blather case)(yes, that's a Cotton Mather wordplay).  I guess free speech does require an openness in which bad faith arguments and meaningless slurs will happen.  If you let everyone swim in the pool, then the filter clogs up faster.  People are free to make bad faith arguments and apply idiotic labels, and those hearing and seeing them can point out what's wrong with those arguments and labels.  The real bad actors are news organizations that do not allow that calling-out of flawed reasoning, false assertions, prejudicial labels, etc. and present sophistry as "news." 

I do personally object to cancel culture when it does something like (my daughter passed this along to me) insist that I not shop at Home Depot because its CEO donated a crap-ton of money to Trump's 2020 campaign.  That's just wrong.  The guy can donate his money wherever he wants to.  And he's not going to change his political views, no matter what customers buy or don't buy from him.  If anything, a boycott of Home Depot would only make him more rigid in his ideology and less open to engaging in any reasoned discussion.

He can donate his money any way he wants, however, I don’t have to purchase goods at his establishment if I don’t want my buying power being used to support whom I consider to be my oppressor.

[LarryBnDC]

Hate to lose a good kid like this -


https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/vindman-retiring-alleged-white-house-retaliation/index.html

LOSE?

Trump ran this man out of the service for doing his duty.

[LarryBnDC]

Now, we know that the best shot they had at reelection was to handle COVID properly.

And you know what proper is?

  Americans supported the shutdowns by large margins.  They gave Trump that wartime approval rating.  If he had played the hero and gotten real results


Who says he isnt getting results?

Is he to be held to mistakes made by governors?  When Trump was elected the talk was that he would be a dictator, a tyrant adding rules across the nation.

Now that he allows governors to do states work, the Nicole Wallaces of the world cry that there is no federal mantra on COVID - no DICTATORSHIP over the virus.


Too damn funny.

But getting real results requires knowing what you are doing. 


It requires listening to many sides of the issue, then judging the better road.

Biden would admittedly have allowed flights to keep coming from Wuhan.  Is this fatal - that he once said this?  No.  But it stands out.

Joe likely didnt do the proper work before opening his mouth.  He took a political stance to demean an adversary - without thought to possible consequence

Does this mean he will suck as a president?  No.  Of course not.  And we all hope not.

Bizarro world logic...