rolling “Trump is gonna win” containment thread

On foreign policy, the EU is learning how to mobilize without the USA as an ally & maybe even as an enemy. This makes for a more dangerous world.

― Joey Corona (Euler)

it makes for a more dangerous _america_ certainly. the permanent loss of america's status as a global hegemon is going to come as a shock to many americans, who are blind to the privilege they still, even now, possess.

Glad we're finally talking about the damage Trump has done to the US's allies. Anti-American sentiment has reached an all-time high in Canada under his presidency and Europeans who hold a favourable view of 45 are almost invariably affiliated with far-right parties such as UKIP, the Rassemblement national, Fidesz, Truth & Justice, etc.

i think anybody in a country other than the us has a right to know the answer to the question:

what are you doing to make sure that this never, ever, ever, fucking happens again?

i want to know the answer to that question too. and whenever i ask it, all i ever seem to get is a lecture about "our democratic freedoms".

maybe you should just take a fucking break instead of telling other people how to fucking post

what are you doing to make sure that this never, ever, ever, fucking happens again?

Kate, just want to say that I appreciate yr posts here and elsewhere.

i think anybody in a country other than the us has a right to know the answer to the question:

what are you doing to make sure that this never, ever, ever, fucking happens again?

Yes, we're all dying to go back to the good old days of Bush/Cheney.

well, now we've seen that millions of Americans desire populist, hip-shooting racist Presidents, it's probably going to be an ongoing risk. We have QAnon kooks winning primaries, as well as White nationalists, and he's emboldened them.

But the other major problem is the expansion of the Executive branch's powers, which didn't start with Trump, but enabled him to enact most of his hate platform without much check and balance from Congress. not that I think the GOP would have ever pushed back on him. we really need new laws enacted to strip some of these excess powers where possible.

I don't know how you stop something like this outright, but one thing is that the faux-cutesy civility politics the Dems played up to the 2016 election belong in the cemetery. Call Nazis "Nazis", punch them too, attack hate rhetoric, and if you're in a position to stop hate, don't get entrenched with "fairness" optics. if you can confirm a SCOTUS judge through a recess appointment in the future...do it. don't ever expect the GOP to play nice again.

then, find and groom damn candidate that can at least appeal to progressives without alienating the moderate voting base but at least excite people. there's always going to be nose-holding to a degree, but at least don't run somebody whose chief quality is who he isn't.

idk why I said "again", as if the GOP has ever played by the rules

"Sending money to the NPVIC campaign. What about you?

― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto)"

ok, i wanna step back and clarify, because looking back i was pretty unclear about who the "you" was. that wasn't a personal question. that question is a question that _america_ needs to answer. _you are not america_.

"Kate, just want to say that I appreciate yr posts here and elsewhere.

― blue light or electric light (the table is the table)"

thanks table! i definitely appreciate what you're saying on this board as well.

Thanks, Kate, for the posts.

^cosign

not gonna lie, today has been very rough

Every time Biden is allowed to speak I go back to worrying

Mail boxes have been removed from the street in Portland, Eugene and Los Angeles today. (Presumably in other cities, too, I just haven't seen footage or reportage.)

Not sure what that achieves beyond inconveniencing people. The stuff in PA is more worrisome.

Inconvenience discourages a lot of voters.

Biden himself is way down on my list of worries, certainly behind mail-in fuckery, foreign interference, Bill Barr, and the Supreme Court

the mail shit is a legit concern, idk if enough to change results, but it's not something that should go uncommented/responded to.

think this can only backfire on Trump

vote by mail doesn't really help either party and if the mail is slow it's gonna piss off a looooot of boomers

Inconvenience discourages a lot of voters.

I get that, but is there any reason to think removing mailboxes in those cities will materially change the results or just generally suck?

I just worry that more of his voters are going to be happy to go vote in person because they think COVID is nbd.

The silver lining of the USPS shit is that it almost certainly makes fully funding USPS into a priority for the Dems. If they get the hat trick in November I expect a USPS funding package by April, if they don’t get the Senate then it could still turn into a piece of the next must-pass NDAA or whatever.

anecdotally at least, the mail shit is already backfiring on him

"is there any reason to think removing mailboxes in those cities will materially change the results"

yes!

So, to recap.

Trump gets famous for telling people they're fired.

A clear majority of people want to fire Trump.

The safest means by which they can do so requires a functioning postal service.

Trump realizes that the postal service works for him. So he fires them.

So now the people who want to fire him need people who he fired, so that they can fire him.

It's like a festival. Of fire.

I think Democrats are going to vote in person in massive numbers

Yep

the fact that they won that Supreme Court seat in WI a few months ago is a pretty strong sign that's the case

Because fuck this guy

That’s a good point, that does make me feel better.

I will drag my wretched corpse to the booth and yell Fuck Yooooooou as I cast my vote, and so will a bunch of other people. Seriously, fuck this guy

I don't want the end result of us voting him the fuck out = another 50,000 - 10,000 people dying tho

the fact that they won that Supreme Court seat in WI a few months ago is a pretty strong sign that's the case

― frogbs, Thursday, August 13, 2020 10:33 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

In fact a huge proportion of votes for that election came in by mail and data like this

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/wisconsin-mail-voting.html

is probably a big part of what's driving GOP efforts to find ways to trash legally cast mailed-in ballots

*100,000

i'll gladly do it but i'm in relatively good health

The good news is, there was really no spike in cases here coming from the election, in which tens of thousands of people did vote in polling places. We've had BLM protests, we've had lockdown protests, we had an election, we've had counties with mask mandates, we've had counties without mask mandates, basically the only things that seem to cause real spikes are a) meatpackers forced to work under unsafe conditions because the bosses don't care; b) bars being open.

good point.

we could also try vote-by-car, where basically you show up to a drive-up voting booth, and they put up cardboard cutouts of both candidates for each category, and you run over the candidates you hate and whoever is left standing gets your vote

it's when people are indoors, near each other, for extended periods of time. dipping in and out of a store or a polling station is not as bad as hanging out in a bar for five hours or sitting two feet away from your coworkers for eight hours.

you can certainly catch it at a protest or a polling station, but it's not as high risk as being in close quarters with people indoors for a long period of time. so when people are doing the latter, that's when it spikes, seemingly

lol @ vote by car

"is there any reason to think removing mailboxes in those cities will materially change the results"

yes!

also every single day has news about another act of sabotage to the postal system, and there are 95 day to go

xxpost yeah you're both right. I get irrational when I worry about this stuff. 2016 ruined my brain.

but should still hammer the USPS sabotage as an issue, not just because of the election (but definitely including it), but also the destruction of a needed and oft-taken for granted public service.

I will risk my life going to vote. For Joe Fucking Biden. In a state I'm 90% certain he will lose.

but I made my senior citizen mom request an absentee ballot

the post office stuff is ridiculous.

even if it was a harebrained scheme that has no chance of affecting the results, the fact that he is trying to do this warrants impeachment. i was skeptical that was his game until today, when he admitted it.

if the polling stations are run correctly, it could be very safe. there is no reason for more than two people to be in the polling station at a time.

like, i know people will get lax, but in theory it could be done well

i will spray fluids on anybody wearing a MAGA hat

perhaps not mine, but...fluids

I don't see how you could doubt be skeptical this was his game, not only has he been talking about this for months it's exactly the kind of incredibly obvious corruption he would do

if the polling stations are run correctly

That's the world's largest 'if' anywhere but a filthy rich exurb.