[Vengeance]

amphibian, on 14 April 2020 - 05:27 PM, said:

Cause, on 12 April 2020 - 09:47 AM, said:

Why does trump not want to support the post office?

This article really gives you an idea of why the Post Office is getting his ire right now: https://www.nytimes....-americans.html

It's both the "doesn't turn a profit" bullshit - in 2006, the post office made $900 million profit before the GOP saddled it with the "the post office must pre-fund pensions to an extent that no private company has to" burden in December 2006 - and that the post office employees are mostly black and mostly female.

As always, black and brown people are who Trump hates and he'll do what he can to cut them off at the knees, even if it's savaging the post office, which is one of the most valuable institutions in the country.

It is also one of the most beloved institutions of the government. Not to mention that it was one of the very first things that the founders put into the constitution. A national post office. This is known as the postal clause. article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the constitution. If I remember correctly Benjamin Franklin was the post master for the continental congress and a strong supporter of a national post office.

[Tavvar]

The reason trump is so concerned about COVID is because its wrecking the economy that he needed to be doing well to win. Many voters pretty much vote how they feel on election day, so a strong economy means they vote for the incumbent (this effect has even been found to have a correlation to sports: if the local team wins the weekend before the election, people feel happier and tend to vote for the incumbent). He also needs the economic conservatives who may not like him, but he keeps the economy running for them. Now I'm not sure he'll have these voters since his mismanagement is tanking the economy and businesses. This is the only reason I feel slightly positive about Biden: he is inoffensive to pretty much everyone, so *maybe* conservatives who don't like Trump will feel like they can tolerate 4 years of Biden.

[Primateus]

Tavvar, on 14 April 2020 - 08:08 PM, said:

The reason trump is so concerned about COVID is because its wrecking the economy that he needed to be doing well to win. Many voters pretty much vote how they feel on election day, so a strong economy means they vote for the incumbent (this effect has even been found to have a correlation to sports: if the local team wins the weekend before the election, people feel happier and tend to vote for the incumbent). He also needs the economic conservatives who may not like him, but he keeps the economy running for them. Now I'm not sure he'll have these voters since his mismanagement is tanking the economy and businesses. This is the only reason I feel slightly positive about Biden: he is inoffensive to pretty much everyone, so *maybe* conservatives who don't like Trump will feel like they can tolerate 4 years of Biden.

I would say that Biden is not inoffensive, it's just that he's less inoffensive than Trump.

There are a LOT of democrats and independents who do not like Biden even a little bit. Many of them just dislike Trump more.

[Gorefest]

Has it ever occurred to the American public to vote for policies instead of people? Like how they do it in most of the rest of the world?

[Terez]

Primateus, on 14 April 2020 - 08:11 PM, said:

Tavvar, on 14 April 2020 - 08:08 PM, said:

This is the only reason I feel slightly positive about Biden: he is inoffensive to pretty much everyone, so *maybe* conservatives who don't like Trump will feel like they can tolerate 4 years of Biden.

I would say that Biden is not inoffensive, it's just that he's less inoffensive than Trump.

There are a LOT of democrats and independents who do not like Biden even a little bit. Many of them just dislike Trump more.

Biden is a pretty offensive person on occasion. Depends on who you ask. People see him as the generic "presidential" candidate, meaning he has held the highest office possible short of the one he is now running for, long-serving party man, white and male of course. That is the only reason why he is winning; Democrats are too terrified to do anything other than make the most "obvious" choice.

Gorefest, on 14 April 2020 - 08:48 PM, said:

Has it ever occurred to the American public to vote for policies instead of people? Like how they do it in most of the rest of the world?

I don't think we are all that different from most places in that regard. The motherland has its Labor-Corbyn dynamic, for example.

This post has been edited by Terez: 14 April 2020 - 09:11 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Terez, on 14 April 2020 - 09:07 PM, said:

Primateus, on 14 April 2020 - 08:11 PM, said:

Tavvar, on 14 April 2020 - 08:08 PM, said:

This is the only reason I feel slightly positive about Biden: he is inoffensive to pretty much everyone, so *maybe* conservatives who don't like Trump will feel like they can tolerate 4 years of Biden.

I would say that Biden is not inoffensive, it's just that he's less inoffensive than Trump.

There are a LOT of democrats and independents who do not like Biden even a little bit. Many of them just dislike Trump more.

Biden is a pretty offensive person on occasion. Depends on who you ask. People see him as the generic "presidential" candidate, meaning he has held the highest office possible short of the one he is now running for, long-serving party man, white and male of course. That is the only reason why he is winning; Democrats are too terrified to do anything other than make the most "obvious" choice.

Gorefest, on 14 April 2020 - 08:48 PM, said:

Has it ever occurred to the American public to vote for policies instead of people? Like how they do it in most of the rest of the world?

I don't think we are all that different from most places in that regard. The motherland has its Labor-Corbyn dynamic, for example.

[Gorefest]

Terez, on 14 April 2020 - 09:07 PM, said:

Primateus, on 14 April 2020 - 08:11 PM, said:

Tavvar, on 14 April 2020 - 08:08 PM, said:

This is the only reason I feel slightly positive about Biden: he is inoffensive to pretty much everyone, so *maybe* conservatives who don't like Trump will feel like they can tolerate 4 years of Biden.

I would say that Biden is not inoffensive, it's just that he's less inoffensive than Trump.

There are a LOT of democrats and independents who do not like Biden even a little bit. Many of them just dislike Trump more.

Biden is a pretty offensive person on occasion. Depends on who you ask. People see him as the generic "presidential" candidate, meaning he has held the highest office possible short of the one he is now running for, long-serving party man, white and male of course. That is the only reason why he is winning; Democrats are too terrified to do anything other than make the most "obvious" choice.

Gorefest, on 14 April 2020 - 08:48 PM, said:

Has it ever occurred to the American public to vote for policies instead of people? Like how they do it in most of the rest of the world?

I don't think we are all that different from most places in that regard. The motherland has its Labor-Corbyn dynamic, for example.

Yes, but people still in general vote more for Labour policies than for/against the person leading the party at that time. And I think the UK system is pretty broken as well. It is stuck in the 1800s. But in the US it isnt even about politics anymore, it is a popularity contest like the Apprentice or Big Brother.

[Gorefest]

Oh, and now Trump is going full WHO scapegoating for his own failures. What a surprise. It is like the Tories and the EU.

[Terez]

Gorefest, on 14 April 2020 - 11:13 PM, said:

Yes, but people still in general vote more for Labour policies than for/against the person leading the party at that time. And I think the UK system is pretty broken as well. It is stuck in the 1800s. But in the US it isnt even about politics anymore, it is a popularity contest like the Apprentice or Big Brother.

I still think that's a little bit reductive. Most people vote party line (policies, effectively) no matter who is on the ballot, but presidential politics are increasingly important because of how much administrative power has been growing over the last several decades. There are not nearly enough people who understand the gravity of that situation well enough to rein it in. Even with Trump, some will never learn.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Late Monday evening, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered the Internal Revenue Service to print President Donald Trump's name on the stimulus checks it is sending to millions of Americans nationwide, reports The Washington Post.

The Treasury Department's order could cause the checks to be delayed by several days or longer, senior agency officials told the publication.

The unprecedented decision will mark the first time in history that a president's name has ever appeared on an IRS disbursement. Usually, presidents' names don't appear on checks issued by the Treasury Department in order to keep such payments non-partisan.'

https://www.newsweek...HYHfChyWg93SIUA

[Maark Abbott]

Gorefest, on 14 April 2020 - 11:15 PM, said:

Oh, and now Trump is going full WHO scapegoating for his own failures. What a surprise. It is like the Tories and the EU.

Demagogues are ever thus...

[Cause]

Azath Vitr (D, on 15 April 2020 - 03:55 AM, said:

'Late Monday evening, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered the Internal Revenue Service to print President Donald Trump's name on the stimulus checks it is sending to millions of Americans nationwide, reports The Washington Post.

The Treasury Department's order could cause the checks to be delayed by several days or longer, senior agency officials told the publication.

The unprecedented decision will mark the first time in history that a president's name has ever appeared on an IRS disbursement. Usually, presidents' names don't appear on checks issued by the Treasury Department in order to keep such payments non-partisan.'

https://www.newsweek...HYHfChyWg93SIUA

This is bad, this has apparently already caused a delay of a few days but now I’m sure that someone will ask the courts to block it. Than that will backfire because they will piss people off by slowing the process down

[QuickTidal]

It blows my mind that Trump is attempting now to shift the blame to the WHO by defunding them...as if they are the problem...

Meanwhile South Korea had the same exact info as the US did about COVID-19 from the WHO...and the difference in the response is staggering:

USA - 78 deaths per 1 million
South Korea - 4 deaths per 1 million

But yeah, The WHO is the problem, right Trump, you fucking orange windbag.

[Vengeance]

QuickTidal, on 15 April 2020 - 11:24 AM, said:

It blows my mind that Trump is attempting now to shift the blame to the WHO by defunding them...as if they are the problem...

Meanwhile South Korea had the same exact info as the US did about COVID-19 from the WHO...and the difference in the response is staggering:

USA - 78 deaths per 1 million
South Korea - 4 deaths per 1 million

But yeah, The WHO is the problem, right Trump, you fucking orange windbag.

The Man and his Family are hard core grifters. The very first thing that you learn when you are a grifter is to never accept blame. In order to do that you always have to have someone else in line for blame. When he and his criminal enterprise spend the entire month of February getting their next grift ready and not readying any actual coordinated response for the country. He has to blame someone and the WHO is an easy target that isn't going to be able to hit back. Like China could (financially hit him and his family in their grifting pocket).

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump threatens to adjourn both chambers of Congress

[...] Trump on Wednesday threatened to use his executive power to force both chambers of Congress to adjourn if the Senate did not confirm his nominees for vacancies across the administration.

[...] Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution grants Trump the power to "on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper."

That means that in order for the president to step in and dismiss both, the GOP-controlled Senate would have to adjourn while the Democrat-held House objected. Senate Democrats also have procedural tools to prevent the Senate from adjourning.

The National Constitution Center noted that "no President has ever exercised" the authority.

"Perhaps it's never been done before, nobody's even sure if it has," Trump said. "But we're going to do it. We need these people here. We need people for this crisis, and we don't want to play any more political games."'

https://thehill.com/...kp3VhNghRD-Q2zk

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 April 2020 - 12:03 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Pro-Trump PAC run by McMahon pledged $18.5 million the same day DeSantis deemed WWE an "essential business" in Orlando

[...] The "essential" label didn't make much sense to anyone, and in our first article, we speculated that either a massive campaign donation was promised or DeSantis thought spandex-clad guys wrasslin' counted as church.

Well, we weren't that far off.

On the same day that WWE was deemed an "essential business," the American First Action political action committee, which is chaired by WWE owner Vince McMahon's wife, Linda, announced a total of $18.5 million in television advertisement spending in the Orlando ($11.3 million) and Tampa ($7.1 million) media markets.

According to a press release from the super PAC, the money will be used for pro-Trump broadcast advertising from Labor Day through Election Day.'

https://www.orlandow...hD4utNT0AsVu7V4

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 April 2020 - 07:26 PM

[Puck]

Briar King, on 15 April 2020 - 04:45 PM, said:

That dr was China/Xi favor painting. It was obvious back then and even more obvious now when rewatch his Jan/Feb clips.

He totally was, but also keep in mind that the WHO is dependent on money from all the countries that fund it and equally eager to not displease any of them, especially the large ones. By cutting funding to the WHO Trump is doing the opposite of what he seems to think he wants. He's making the WHO MORE dependent on and thus even more eager to please whoever jumps in to fill the new financial gap, which is likely one of two countries: Germany, which won't give a shit about the neutrality of the WHO, and China, which will be very eager to draw the WHO closer to their nest. Either way it's the opposite of the supposedly intended effect, while everyone and their dog understands that Trump's true intention is to shift blame away from himself.

The WHO is a political organization dependent on funds and has always been.

This post has been edited by Puck: 18 April 2020 - 12:46 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'In Trump's 'LIBERATE' tweets, extremists see a call to arms

[...] pushed many online extremist communities to speculate whether the president was advocating for armed conflict, an event they've termed "the boogaloo," for which many far-right activists have been gearing up and advocating since last year.

[...] There were sharp increases on Twitter in terms associated with conspiracies such as QAnon and the "boogaloo" term immediately following the president's tweets, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute[...]

"We the people should open up America with civil disobedience and lots of BOOGALOO. Who's with me?" one QAnon conspiracy theorist on Twitter with over 50,000 followers asked. [...]

Law enforcement officials have previously identified "boogaloo" domestic extremists as a legitimate threat. A report released by the Network Contagion Research Institute about the term "boogaloo" being used to ironically mask violent overthrow attempts had "gone viral" within law enforcement and intelligence communities in February, Homeland Security Advisory Council member Paul Goldenberg told NBC News in February.

[...]

The protests have been a unifier of anti-government and conspiracy-minded subcultures, bringing anti-vaccination activists, anti-government militia groups, religious fundamentalists and white supremacists together at state capitols.'

[...] Huizenga reiterated his warning about violence.

"The message here that I had: Violence will happen and it will happen in two weeks when people literally don't have any food," he said. "When we're pitting neighbor against neighbor, people are going to be angry. Humans aren't designed to act like this, especially American humans aren't used to this at all. You're gonna rub people the wrong way. There will be violence. People are dying from the side effects of all this legislative action."

On pro-Trump message boards like TheDonald.Win, an offshoot of a forum that was effectively banned from Reddit earlier this year, Trump's tweets delivered a clear message: get ready for the civil war.

"Time to BOOG pedes. It's now or never," one highly ranked comment in response to Trump's "Liberate Virginia" tweet reads. "Earn our freedom for us and our kids like our forefathers did in 1776 or stay silent and be the frog boiled in the pot as we sit in the gulags and wonder why we didn't do anything."'

https://www.nbcnews....l-arms-n1186561

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 18 April 2020 - 12:56 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump Calls Rule-Breaking Coronavirus Protesters "Very Responsible People"

"They seem to be very responsible people to me. But they've been treated a little bit rough."'

[...] "It sounds patriotic, but to militia extremists it fans the flames of their fear and paranoia. Could push someone over the edge to plot or carry out an act of violence against Democrats, the police or someone else," Daryl Johnson, a former analyst of right-wing extremism at the Department of Homeland Security, said [...] "It also shows the anti-government and militia types that the president approves of their mindset and protest activities."

[...] Trump's tweets were also met with excitement on "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine," a Facebook group with more than 350,000 members that's become a hotbed for that state's anti-social distancing movement. Many groups members took Trump's tweet as a sign that he backed their effort to oppose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's (D) stay-at-home order; others saw it a signal to rise up against Democrats.

"Civil War doesn't seem like such a far fetched idea anymore…" wrote one member.

"The civil war is starting now!!! Rise up!!" wrote another.'

https://www.thedaily...people?ref=home

'"They want to take their guns away," Trump explained of his tweets. "That's the Second Amendment. That's Virginia. You have a governor—I guess he should be under siege. He seems not to be. If he were a Republican, he would be under siege. But he seems to have escaped something that is really bad…So when you talk about 'liberate' or 'liberation,' you can certainly look at Virginia."'

https://www.motherjo...WV2f44W_YQILy9A

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 18 April 2020 - 02:26 AM

[Macros]

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with America?