THE Political Thread (ALL Political Discussion Here - See Rules, P. 1)

Roger O. Thornhill · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 4:18 pm Post subject:

Another well-earned defeat for the Democratic Party. Another giant leap towards becoming a Christofascist (bleep) hole country.

jodeke · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:01 pm Post subject:

kikanga · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:06 pm Post subject:

Biden should start making multiple "official" acts. I'm not joking.
Make the most of his time moving forward. Use his king like power for good. Let the conservative SC overrule each one, down the line, if they want.

In the meantime, do as much as good as possible.

DaMuleRules · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:53 pm Post subject:

jodeke · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 6:15 pm Post subject:

Conservatives who aren't wealthy are ignoring what Trump's election will mean to them. Their health care, SS, and ability to vote to name a few losses. Only the very rich will be OK, and if they don't toe the line they'll be punished also.
_________________
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

eddiejonze · Star Player Joined: 19 Dec 2013 Posts: 7465

So I'm actually stoked by this ruling, since it means Biden can arrest trump, right now today, and doing so is part of his official duties as President.
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Creatures crawl in search of blood, To terrorize y'alls neighborhood.

DaMuleRules · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 6:42 pm Post subject:

DaMuleRules · Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 7:38 pm Post subject:

Saw this comment elsewhere regarding the idea of Biden dropping out and it is spot on:

“I've seen all kinds of people calling for Biden to step aside. But none of them seem comfortable with Kamala Harris stepping up as the replacement candidate, even though, as the elected vice president, she'd be the natural choice. I don't think these people understand the Democratic Party at all. Their idea seems to be that we'd dump Biden and then bypass the first African American woman elected vice president to pick some unidentified (but almost certainly white) candidate. Have any of these people stopped to ask how Black women might react? You know, the people who are the party's most loyal voters? This idea seems completely untethered from the reality of the party.”
_________________
You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that’s all for show
goes up in flames
In 24 frames

Jason Isbell

Man, do those lyrics resonate right now

focus · Star Player Joined: 23 May 2012 Posts: 2569

JerryWest_44 · Retired Number Joined: 22 May 2004 Posts: 25702

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/01/politics/video/carl-bernstein-biden-performance-presidential-debate-ac360-digvid

Is this freight train going slow down?

kikanga · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 3:19 am Post subject:

governator · Retired Number Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 25627

ChefLinda · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 6:19 am Post subject:

This is why I get upset when people continue to dump on Biden.

Here's the overall picture about the way our news/information/disinformation eco-system works.

The more something is repeated (whether it's true or not) the more it becomes a reinforced truth or given in the collective memory.

So in 2016, after Hillary explained the private server and it was established that no top secret material was inappropriately disseminated or hacked, the press elongated the arc of the story. Since Trump had so many scandals unfolding day after day, the press felt compelled to "balance" their coverage by repeatedly bringing up Hillary's emails every time a new Trump scandal emerged. But the media, and thus the public, never focused exclusively on any ONE Trump scandal. They came, they went, they disappeared.

This gave a structural media advantage to Trump.

So when Comey came out shortly before the election with a "new" Hillary email announcement (even though it was nothing new, and not a scandal), the public collective consciousness was primed to take the information as confirmation that Hillary had done something wrong. "OMG, it's one more thing! We can't trust her with top secret information! She's going to be tied up in court!" The new narrative reinforced the old narrative. Even though the old narrative was fueled by mistruths, propaganda and repetition of lies.

I warned people at the time that posting Hillary Clinton email stories every day WAS HELPING TRUMP. Even if the posted story was factual and not exaggerated, it was adding to the collective weight of, "BUT HER EMAILS!"

So here we are again. Biden's presidency has been scandal free and his administration has mostly worked like a well oiled machine. There are a hundred amazing policy accomplishments for every off decision. No administration is perfect.

On the other hand, Trump's post-presidency has been filled with more scandals, court cases, and criminal indictments that's it's hard to keep track of them all. Business fraud, insurrection, espionage, stealing state secrets, wanting to become a dictator, rape, felonies. and on and on.

When the economy was doing badly, the media beat Biden over the head with it every day. When the economy improved, the media either didn't acknowledge or played it down, and still beat Biden over the head with it. Then when the economy turned the corner, the media started leaving Biden's name out of the positive headlines. They gave him no credit for low unemployment, reducing inflation. stock market records, lowering the deficit, infrastructure, manufacturing jobs, combating climate change. And on and on.

But the media has to "balance" their coverage and there has to be "both sides" of the story. So for every Trump scandal, they had to do a "But Biden is old!" story. Over and over again. For any one Trump scandal story they would write 10 Biden is old stories.

Again, they were filling the news echo system and our collective consciousness with the Biden is old narrative through sheer repetition.

Now Biden is old. Just like Hillary had a private email server. But those things in and of themselves are not disqualifying or the deal breakers the press has made them out to be. Trump is old too, but the press doesn't focus on that or any of the hundreds of gaffs he makes at his rallies.

So again, Trump has a structural advantage. When he tells 100 lies in a day, it's not "new news" because he always lies. So the structure benefits him and his lies. He did this at the debate and instead of focusing in Trump's lies, everyone focused on Biden's performance. Why? Because it reinforced the "Biden is old!" narrative that was already in the news eco-system.

In 2016 Hillary lost the electoral college by only 77,000 votes in 3 swing states. In those same 3 swing states, 200,000 people voted for Jill Stein.

This election will be similarly close.

You have two choices.

You can support Biden 100% and stop criticizing him. Full stop. It serves no useful purpose in this election. It is solely a personal indulgence of the need to express your own feelings. You can choose to keep it to yourself until after the election. Biden is the nominee. Period.

Focus your criticism where it belongs -- on convicted felon Trump, the Republican Party, the right-wing Supreme Court, Project 2025, and the billionaires who support them in turning America into right-wing fascist authoritarian oligarchy.

Or you can support him 90% and keep criticizing him and thus add to the negativity and structural system that helps Trump every time you do it.

That is my theory of the case. That is all.

ChefLinda · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 6:53 am Post subject:

Here's an example of how misinformation spreads and how people are primed to believe it, and thus perpetuate a false narrative.

There is a right-wing propaganda meme about Biden that he can "only" read off a teleprompter and is incapable of simply talking on his own. (Actually if you look back over the last page you will see a poster implied that in his response to me).

In yesterday's statement, Biden quoted the Supreme Court. He said, "Quote, (read the quote). Then said, "End of quote." That's a normal thing to do. But a right-wing group clipped the video and tried to make it look like Biden was so stupid that he was reading "end quote" like it was a stage direction to him that he was mistakenly reading out loud.

ChefLinda · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 6:55 am Post subject:

trmiv · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 7:39 am Post subject:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/02/trump-sentencing-delay-supreme-court-ruling/?itid=hp_alert

tlim · Star Player Joined: 26 Jun 2002 Posts: 6652

trmiv · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 8:03 am Post subject:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/us/politics/trump-liz-cheney-treason-jail.html

ChefLinda · Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2024 8:41 am Post subject:

For general post-debate trend purposes. Feel free to ignore.

ocho · Retired Number Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 54808

Murdock · Star Player Joined: 16 May 2001 Posts: 6012