US Politics, March 2020 — There’s a very good chance you’re not going to die.

oh we're doing this on both threads now? Biden has no leverage or political power, he can't force anyone's hand at anything.

xps

the presunmptive Democratic nominee for president has no political power?

OK but can't they plug him in for 20 mins at a time? what the fuck is he doing right now? Trump was just on TV talking about how he inhereited an obsolete, broken pandemic response system, but now he's FIXED it

Maybe get out in front of this NOW so this guy can't get away w/ actually campaigning on this shitshow?

― Webcam Du Bois (Hadrian VIII), Saturday, March 21, 2020 4:35 AM (fifty-one minutes ago)

if you have not already concluded from his failure to do this that Biden is not capable of doing this (by interest or ability), I invite you to shave with one of Ockham's fine products

the presunmptive Democratic nominee for president has no political power?

crazy but true!

it's almost as if people have to win an election (or secure an appointment) before they have any power

that lash out at that reporter was fucking weird. Dude is cracking up.

In better circumstances, you would want the presumptive nominee on your "team" to be campaigning in order to win the election, not being hidden from the public in the hope that they don't realise he is incapable of thinking or discussing, let alone leadership, and somehow end up excited to vote for him.

I wish Biden would speak up. Obama spoke up lots about the financial situation in 2008. I understand the difference in that a) he was a sitting senator, and b) he was the nominee, not the presumptive nominee in a still contested nomination. He wasn't speaking up as a senator, though--he was speaking up as someone who might possibly inherit the present situation. I don't think for a second Biden would be laying back if he were younger and less like what's been on view the past few months.

Dude is cracking up.

He's never held any position of serious responsibility before in his life and now this happens.

also different because this is more than *just* money, it is potentially hundreds of thousands of people dying and we happen to be in a situation in which we have even less competent leadership than GWB

he was speaking up as someone who might possibly inherit the present situation.

Also it was only a month before the election and he wasn't running against the sitting president.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/11626189

So if I'm reading between the lines correctly, I guess what President Trump would say to Americans who are scared is that he's fucking terrified. Very comforting!

Even worse, for the shithead, is that for once he can neither take credit nor blame someone else, try as he might. His brain is broken.

his approval's gonna shoot up to 70% after that

for those that did not watch, when a reporter asked him about the senators that sold right before the market meltdown, (from memory) trump said he didn't know anything about it...but then stated Diane Feinstein only ...and others...all fine people. So the reporter stated the other names who sold and Trump totally jumped on the reporter for not mentioning Feinstein too. It was kind of hilarious.

uh, what?

The young Jedi B-Team that is the White House Press Corps have now been Groupon comp Lyfted back to their real jobs being overly astounded by new tailgate kick plates in unctuous Chevy Truck commercials.

— Dennis Miller (@DennisDMZ) March 20, 2020

oh

What is the coronavirus fix is to eat a Tide pod?

— Dennis Miller (@DennisDMZ) March 9, 2020

lmao

who has aged worse than dennis miller

rob schneider

donald trump

but tbrr that whole generation of SNL is a shitshow of execrable assholes

hoo boy

I still like Carvey (his show with Smigel was incredible), Nealon, and Hartman was great until the end...

Norm is still funny but his politics suck

Hartman's great obviously

He's been quiet.

political power getting confused with legislative power up in here

what's an example of political power that does not involve the legislative or legal process

power is, by definition, the capacity to achieve an end

Political power is wielded every day by people not in office. Barack Obama has tremendous political power. His endorsement, for example, his weighing in on most any issue.

Unions have poltial power. Fucking Sean Hannity has political power.

...to achieve legislative or policy ends

power to do what? convince voters or legislators to vote a certain way, right?

Biden currently has no significant power over anybody in Congress, and the power he is building up to the election is to motivate voters to vote for him. That is literally all the power he has. Making combative statements about Trump is not an exercise of power, it would be an attempt to accrue power (ie, votes in November)

or convince the public, yes, to sway opinions, to broker btw parties, to curry favor—all of it—which in turn can influence legislators, or in the case of the President mainlined from TV

political power is not restricted to office holders

I can't believe we're having a back and forth over wheter or not Joe Biden has any political power

I don't think Biden has much power to sway opinions, broker anything with the GOP (I mean come on, that is very lol), or influence legislators at the moment tbh. Nobody in the Senate, much less the House, is looking to him for leadership when he doesn't even have the nomination yet, much less hold an office.

like you think something Joe says is going to sway GOP voters? ok

it seems to me like what people wanted on this thread was someone to make them feel better about having sat through a Trump press conference, someone to express outrage in public - which isn't an exercise of power, it's an exercise in catharsis

This argument is really stupid

p much

xp nope, not looking for catharsis. expressions of public outrage at misinformation are necessary when people's lives are in the balance

I'd also prefer it if Biden didn't help Trump portray him as a crash test dummy during this business, but I guess that's inevitable

He's been on a a roll:

My Q: When will everyone who needs a coronavirus test be able to get a test?

Pres Trump: “No-one is talking about this except you, which doesn’t surprise me."

My Q: What about people w/ symptoms who cannot get a test?

Trump: "Yeah, well, OK. I’m not— I'm not hearing it."

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 20, 2020

This argument is really stupid

Board description

that lash out at that reporter was fucking weird. Dude is cracking up

Perhaps... increasingly isolated?

I'd call it Biden-esque

No different to the four years previous. Question you don't want? bully or ridicule the questioner, move on because nobody will ever call you out on it.

https://www.cbpp.org/blog/senate-gop-response-to-pandemic-recession-is-seriously-inadequate

Take two families of four, with incomes of $35,000 and $150,000. Both families have two children, who receive $500 each. The adults, however, are treated very differently. Each adult in the higher-income family gets $1,200, while each lower-income adult receives just $600. This means the less financially vulnerable family gets $1,200 more than the family that has a tougher time making ends meet. (See chart.)

That should be unacceptable on both humanitarian and hard-headed economic grounds.

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

Is it just yesterday that I observed that America is bad and stupid