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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

[Yankguy1]

I don't think he's bonkers.  That's for a doctor to determine.  I think he's a low-life, vile human being, without an ounce of compassion or honesty. 

[oilcan]

...plus make reporters look like fools most of the time....

Wow.  That has to be the most unhinged drank-the-koolaid post from you yet.  It's not the reporters who are looking like fools. 

I used to work in a direct care facility where we had dementia patients.  Trump seems very much like that in his use of words, his emotional volatility, and his inability to process obvious facts about the world around him.

[oilcan]

Where is Adjustment?  Did he quit the Elba forum entirely?

[bodiddley]

I didn't know that about Mayor Pete.  I just got back from Malta.  Enjoyed the Carnivale in Valletta.  The St John's Co-Cathedral is an amazing church.  The Knights of Malta lavished a lot of wealth on that.  The entire floor is made up of marble tombstones decorated with various symbolism (skeletons, flowers, coats of arms, etc).  A resplendent church with a few giant Caravaggios up on the wall.

The Maltese language is about 70% - 80% Arabic, specifically Lebanese Arabic.  From its early settlement by Phoenicians.  They were mostly dispossessed by the Normans in the 12th C.  And when the Ottoman Turks attacked Malta, the Great Siege of 1565 saw a small contingent of Maltese knights and friends defeat a huge Turkish army (30k - 40K).  One of the first defeats for the seemingly unstoppable Turkish Empire.  The warfare got nasty as the Turks started floating the bodies of dead Maltese on crosses into the harbour, so the Knights of Malta decapitated whatever Turks they killed or captured and fired their heads as cannonballs at the Turkish ships.

Malta has been conquered by so many different groups, it's probably hard to know where the name Buttigieg derives.

[bodiddley]

The Kaine pick was a regional play by Hillary to win Virginia and NC.  Kaine was a popular guy, but on the national stage seemed dull and lightweight.  Trump also went with a regional play, tapping IND Pence since Trump knew his only path was to pick off some midwestern states.
Hillary needed a male who wouldn't look too dominant, and Trump needed an establishment guy to reassure the GOP establishment.

Who do folks think Biden would tap for Veep?
I think he needs to pick a Midwesterner.
Amy, Sherrod Brown, Mayor Pete, someone else.
I like the notion of picking someone who has campaigned nationally and is up to that task.
Pete would be a young counterpart.   A woman such as Amy K would be a good addition for Biden.  Brown is from OH a key battleground, but he hasn't much of a national profile, and I don't really know his style.  I doubt Biden would go with Warren or she'd want that (though maybe since Joe might just be a one term guy who ages out of the job).  Uniting the moderates and progressives with Warren makes political sense, but I don't think they are comfortable with each other. Lotta possibilities for Uncle Joe, but I think a midwesterner is crucial.

[Hairy Lime]

30 years ago Trump owned Mar a Lago in addition to his 4 casino properties and many interests in golf resorts/buildings across the US.

He may have been a playboy - you follow that closely, I guess, but was also a mogul.

The only man I know who could routinely and consistently lose money in a casino by owning it.

[Hairy Lime]

And if you think Trump could possibly perform at all these rallies, plus make reporters look like fools most of the time...

The only reporters he makes look like fools are the fawning and obsequious ones at places like Faux News who try to spin his idiocies and lies.

[josh]

The supposed dementia he displays is like nothing I've ever seen and likely such a diagnosis should come from somebody who actually examines him.  He is, and always has been, a cretin and functional illiterate.  Why that needs to be softened with a possible medical explanation is unimportant to me.

30 years ago, he seemed quite lucid, Yank. Interviews with him showed a cogent man, albeit narcissistic in presentation.

30 years ago he was a playboy and celebrity mostly famous for being famous and who never had anything important to say.  You're giving him too much credit if you think he's deteriorated.  He's always been a creep.

I'm not denying the creepiness.

I am denying that his mental capacity has not dropped steeply from what it was.

He used to be more capable of holding a rational conversation (about himself) than he is now. Watch the interviews. Or don't, but the difference is palpable.

[josh]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/trump-coronavirus-mission-accomplished-kudlow-contained.html

“This came unexpectedly, it came out of China, we closed it down, we stopped it, it was a very early shut down,” Trump told reporters this morning.

Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, declared on CNBC, “I would still argue to you that this thing is contained.”

Tell me more, Kid, about how wonderfully well the administration is handling this disease.

“Contained” means there are a known, finite number of cases, and each one is being confined to a location where it cannot spread. Neither of these conditions is true. Authorities have no idea how many cases there are, due to haphazard testing, but new ones are appearing all over the country, and almost none of them are contained, but instead have been circulating.

[Yankguy1]

I am denying that his mental capacity has not dropped steeply from what it was.

And my point remains that you're giving him far too much credit.

[bodiddley]

When Kudlow was talking about an 80% recovery rate, I'm pretty sure he meant 80% recover without needing medical treatment.  That is 80% get mild cases or flu-like symptoms at most and get better.  That's been the % in China, with another 15% getting serious cases and the remaining 5% getting critical cases.
_______________________________

It's weird that a whole bunch of near octogenarians were/are the dominant candidates.  Sure, people live longer these days, but mental decline does kick in at some point.  And where's the next generation?  We have AOC down the road, but Obama can't be the only political star from my generation, can he?

[josh]

I am denying that his mental capacity has not dropped steeply from what it was.

And my point remains that you're giving him far too much credit.

shrugs

The interviews are markedly different in the caliber of his vocabulary, his ability to put together sentences, and his ability to stay on track in the exchanges.

Do you disagree?

[kiidcarter8]

30 years ago Trump owned Mar a Lago in addition to his 4 casino properties and many interests in golf resorts/buildings across the US.

He may have been a playboy - you follow that closely, I guess, but was also a mogul.

The only man I know who could routinely and consistently lose money in a casino by owning it.

The venture went broke because the Time of Circus, Carnival, Atlantic City and Coney Island has passed. After Atlantic City went bust the first time, the idea of Casinos was born = Las Vegas on the East Coast. But then Connecticut and “Indian Casinos” caught on.


Trump entered Atlantic City in the early days — it looked like a cash cow with low maintenance. And it was, which is why the Indian Casino idea caught on. But that ran straight into population demographics and many of the problems and non-problem-problems we hear politicians rant about to their simpleton bases.

Think about the era of the Circus, Carnival, Atlantic City and Coney Island … entertainment before TV and videos or the internet and local beaches with amusement parks that are easy for mobs of people to get to for a one-day vacation (and you didn’t need a car, because Greyhound buses or subways went there). That does not exist anymore. And it ceased existing in the 1980’s — when it became clear their time was passed (including the Greyhound bus and, as of last week, “The Greatest Show On Earth” the Barnum & Bailey Circus).

Casinos are a cash business for taking money from gamblers — but now there is the state lottery, instant win tickets and all kinds of similar emotional gambling experiences. Even many of the new internet scams are basically triggering that easy-money-instant-win response.

But. being in real estate, Trump knew how to structure the venture and so went bankrupt and he laughed all the way to the bank. George W Bush pulled the same in an oil veture with the Bin Laden Family.



One answer of the many - and quite true

https://www.quora.com/Why-exactly-did-Donald-Trump%E2%80%99s-casinos-go-bankrupt

[LarryBnDC]

I don't think he's bonkers.  That's for a doctor to determine.  I think he's a low-life, vile human being, without an ounce of compassion or honesty.

I think he is stupid, insane and addicted.

He has no sense of anything but himself and because he absolutely believes everything he says about himself believes he can say and do anything he wants. Now that he is president he KNOWS he can do whatever he wants.

[Yankguy1]

Yes.  I disagree.  I'd argue that he's woefully out of his depth and punching above his weight and that's why he sounds like somebody whose mental acuity has decreased.  He was fine in the past because he was glib and talked about things that high-profile celebs got to talk about.

My view is that there was nothing there to start with.