CAN BIDEN ACTUALLY WIN?
Let me get straight to the point.
Before Biden is crowned, we MUST ask the following questions.
Although I will vote for Biden (holding my nose,) I do not think he has a chance to win. The last several weeks have made it very clear that the Democrats must win the White House, as well as the Senate. I am certain that Biden won’t get us there.
After the ‘Reichstag Fires’ Rose Garden address last week where Trump theatened to bring martial law to this country both with the help of the military and his ‘second amendment supporters,’ he then illustrated what he meant by giving an authoritarian/fascist order to violently clear his path of peaceful protestors to St. John’s Church in order to stand with his Dominionist Christian supporters. Trump intends quash all types of dissent, the constitution be damned. It is totally clear to me that whatever it takes we cannot let this dictator in waiting get another four years.
It is imperative that the Democrats win this election. We will have to deal with our many problems with the Democratic Party after we win… and this time I believe we will have enough support to actually bring some much needed changes for the 99%. Our leverage after the election will come from the fragility and huge inequality of the economic system that the covid pandemic has blatantly uncovered and I do not think that the protests will stop, when in just a few months, joblessness/evictions/bankruptcies/homelessness/food supply problems etc etc will drag us all into a vastly new dystopian world. We will be able to exert pressure after the elections and drag the party to less neoliberal policies… something that has not happened before. And certainly, Democrats running for office in this new environment will have to be seen as offering more than lip service to the 99%.
However to get back to the main point, I really, really don’t think that Joe Biden is strong enough to win against Donald Trump, even after Trump’s abject failure as a leader, especially since March. To put it mildly Joe Biden is frail and more importantly is perceived as frail, not to mention the many credible scandals that surround him. The campaign against him will ask, with reason, 'what if his health or mind gives out?' There are so many videos of him not being able to clearly articulate a thought; in any debate Trump would crush him gleefully. And we haven’t even begun to see the beginning of the oppo research that you know is out there on him. In short, Trump and the opposition will make mince meat out of him and we will lose. And that is one thing that we must not allow.
The polls? Although Biden is showing well in the polls now, by contrast taking a gentler approach to the Floyd/BLM protests, we absolutely cannot rely on the polls. Anyone remember how accurate the polls were in 2016? Anyone think for a minute that they can’t be manipulated? Or actually be representative of the electorate?
So, the bottom line, in my opinion, in order to win, we must get a strong candidate. Like Andrew Cuomo. I will be the first one to say that he has problems, but I really think he CAN win… and that is what we must go for in this time of huge crisis. He has emerged as a front page example of what a strong, non-partisan and healing leadership looks like during the pandemic.
Secondly, and this is an important issue. We must pick our vice presidential candidate well. Biden’s plan to pick a woman is so ‘yesterday’s politics.’ Instead, I think that the Democratic Party can make a much stronger statement about the police abuse by selecting a strong black male as a vice president… an attorney general, a senator. We need to stand up to the world today and say that we support the black men who have been so criminally marginalized and we will do everything in our power to stop this abuse.
Above all, we must get reasonable ticket that CAN win. I will guarantee you that Biden will not win. Or Biden with a female VP will not win.
Even putting Cuomo as his VP would give us a chance. Remember how the Republicans reassured their voters about W’s inexperience by putting Cheney as VP? That strategy worked for them, it would hopefully work for us. So, I do think that choosing Cuomo as Biden's VP would be a positive game changer, like the Cheney move. It would give the electorate some insurance that if Biden failed physically or mentally, that there was strong 'presidential' alternative waiting in the wings.
But a far better ticket would be Cuomo as President and a Black Man as Vice President.
What do you think? Do you actually think that Biden is electable? Would you vote for a Cuomo ticket? Who do you think we should have for VP?
Comments
Dems always lead in June...
because GOP voters love to tease pollsters by expressing soft support for their guy.
But come September, those numbers will firm up, and by November the Goopers will be in full lockstep as they ALWAYS are.
Of course, all the extraordinary events this year lend extra credence to the perennial Dem response that, 'this time it's different'.
It's never different. Regardless of events, Republicans ALWAYS come home.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
No offense, but...
this IS, the definition of "insanity", at least according to Albert Einstein, who was a pretty smart cookie. I won't shame you for wanting to Vote Biden, even though you "believe" he won't win.
I truly do not understand this kind of "thinking", especially considering Biden's career as a DINO. (Democrat in name only)
The poor guy can't even string two coherent sentences together. Not to mention there is a direct line from the 1994 crime bill to #GeorgeFloyd's murder in broad day light, with 3 "police officers" just milling about while their fellow officer murdered an unarmed "suspect".
This is pure "cognitive dissonance" to me. If your guy is going to lose anyway, take this "opportunity" to send a message to the duopoly, you won't vote for the same shit we've been fed for the last 40 yrs, that hasn't worked for vast majority of "the people".
For me, voting for a republican or a democrat, is voting to keep the system in place, which is not something we as a people can really afford to do any longer. Our lives truly depend on changing the system, or humanity is toast in short order.
All the existential crisis's that humanity is facing are converging all at once, because, we have done the same thing for generations, vote for the lessor evil. It's insanity.
We can not afford to "water down" our demands for "system" change. The protests are scaring the fuck out of the 1%, which, as I've said many times, until they feel the heat of poverty or death, nothing will change. They are starting to feel that heat by these protests. We must keep them going, and most importantly, turn up the heat!
In answer to your question, no, I don't think Biden can win.
But honestly, him or Trump, it really doesn't matter. Trump will kick you in the balls, but Biden will stab you in the back. I would rather have the opportunity at least, to see the kick coming and try to block it, rather than have someone stab me in the back, without notice.
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
In no way is Biden "my guy"
I was a very staunch Bernie supporter... til he stopped. (don't want to open that wound again...)
But the whole point of this post is that I think the combination of the Protests and Trump's Rose Garden/St. John's response to those protests was an absolutely chilling historic moment alerting us to impending authoritarianism/fascism; I am not the only one who saw these events as a replay the Reichstag Fires (read about that if you are not familiar with it,) which Hitler, newly elected, used to rise to power and hold the people in a police state. The rest is history. The situation of police state risk we face today as a country has been amped up to the highest level in my lifetime... and that's saying something...
So, although PRE Protests and Rose Garden, I would agree with a lot of your arguments about not participating in a system, "the Duopoly," by voting for either one:
For me, voting for a republican or a democrat, is voting to keep the system in place, which is not something we as a people can really afford to do any longer. Our lives truly depend on changing the system, or humanity is toast in short order.
However, as I said, the game has completely changed and we need to adjust our perspectives and strategies to adapt to the new lay of the land. We are in a time of civil liberties crisis even more significant than the pandemic and economic meltdown.
So, my saying that I will vote for Biden is not a capitulation to the Duopoly. But rather a recognition that our struggle must first eliminate Trump. And then we can move to work with the neolibralism in the Democratic party.... this time with the new tools of protest and the upcoming economic meltdown.
However, although I will vote for him, I just don't see him being elected. For many of the reasons that you bring up... The Democratic Party is 'insane' in nominating such a frail candidate... 'what the h*ll are they thinking?' So, with my main mission in mind to get rid of Trump, I am thinking who would be a viable alternative? That's one of the reasons for this diary, to try to think up someone who could either replace Biden and be a strong enough VP to actually get the Democratic ticket elected.
And then if we can get a Dem elected, we work with new tactics to not let the Democratic Party abuse us anymore.
The world has dramatically changed in three weeks. We are no longer fighting 'system change' but a full on police state... big difference. We can not afford to "water down" our demands for "system" change. The protests are scaring the fuck out of the 1%, which, as I've said many times, until they feel the heat of poverty or death, nothing will change. They are starting to feel that heat by these protests. We must keep them going, and most importantly, turn up the heat! Something dramatically new has entered the equation to make these tactics be far less effective.
Its like we have been playing on a baseball field and fighting about how the rules are applied, etc and all of a sudden a temporal explosion happened and we were switched to participating in a live fire combat drill. We have to assess the new field as fast as possible, learn the new rules and come up with new skills and ways of protecting ourselves and winning!
Main point: we are in a different world now.. We must adapt... and in my opinion the first thing we need to do is make sure that Trump is not elected. After that, then we need to seriously work on the Democratic party with the new tools which will be at our disposal.
So in my opinion, here is how we start: Step One: How do we make sure that Trump is not elected?
...and btw, I don't take offense at a forceful, civil reply... thanks.
Sea Turtle
Agree the political-social
landscape has significantly shifted away from TPTB and towards major reform in institutions that affect people's daily lives. Politically too.
But it didn't take the latest protests and Trumpolini's photo op at the church to wake me up -- I was concerned about his authoritarian tendencies when he took office, let alone his grifter tendencies. Sorta like the reincarnation of Emperor Nero, only a little more unbalanced and corrupt, and with his finger on the nuclear trigger.
On the vote for Biden, which is unique on this board (and therefore kinda refreshing) I still hold to my undecided position, but it's easy as I'm in CA.
SeaTurtle
and I say this with all due respect, but, to me, you exhibit the signs of battered Spouse Syndrome. Seriously, apologies if that offends you, it truly is not my intent.
#CreepyJoe is proposing MORE funding for the police (kick in balls), as well as new "terrorism" legislation (ie knife in back) and has already made clear, he would not support a bill for any type of #MedicareForAll, even if it passes both houses of congress.
That's just "surface" contacts as it were.
I truly "see" the historical moment we are in and what have the "democrats" actually done?
Heck, they gave Trump every military budget and more than he asked for, and passed 1.5 trillion tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. They've allowed hm to rollback legislation across the board and gave up judge appointments, so they could go on recess.
Heck, Obama was the guy who increased funding and military hardware for police under the NDAA's, 1033 program. He started the kids in cages program! They have been constant Russia Russia Russia since 2016! Next is China!
It's all bovine droppings, I tell ya.
During this pandemic, they bailed out big business, (shafted small business) but where is the help for "the people"? Gee, we got $1,200 bucks, and those unemployed by the pandemic, lucky enough to "qualify", get some extra cash for a few months. But all that pales HUGELY in comparison to what they have given "the economic elites and business interests". Trillions that will continue for the next 4-5 years!
The list of knives to the back is endless with these "domestic terrorists", ie the Democrats or Republicans. Our "elections" are controlled by private, for profit corporations.
These protests have done more in a month in moving the "oberton window", than the democrats in the last decade!
We have already had 8 years of failed Democrat policies bailing out banks, letting criminals walk, while violently cracking down on protesters. Heck, it is democratic mayors and governors that are the ones calling in the police and national guard units on peaceful protesters.
Twice they rigged the primaries against Bernie. They freaked the F out when Bernie went on Fox News, and actually whooed the conservative crowd, with sound and reasoned policy explanations, a fricking 3rd grader could understand, ad which were very, very popular by all the public opinion polls.
Look at where we are now, Bernie sheep dawging progressives into the Democrat shit hole party. Sure he's "bucked" party leadership lately, by endorsing progressive down ballots, but, the "major damage" (loss of any opportunity to nominate him) has been done already.
But more importantly, I think many people have forgotten the Gilen's & Page study
Why keep giving them your vote, when clearly, scientifically, it does not matter and won't influence public policy. These protests are effecting change much faster than voting ever could!
Who would have ever thought "defunding the police" would get any traction what so ever?
We have a simple choice, either kill or leave our dead beat spouses (political parties) if we are to stop the abuse. I'm not willing to be abused anymore, and I can't "legally" kill them, so I have to walk away. There is no other choice, at least for me.
I appreciate your point of view, I just disagree with it.
(PS: I just saw this on twitter. This is the EXACT kind of cognitive dissonance that is THE pandemic in killing America's brain cells)
I can only speculate that the definition of "scandal" in this context, is that Obama didn't cheat on his wife, and he didn't rape his children.
#TheRoosterSays...
[video:https://youtu.be/z3QpZGL0vOQ]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Biden will never be president
Even if he wins, he will only be a figurehead or puppet. His mind is too far gone to make any important decisions by himself.
Having said that, I couldn't care less who wins. Evil in a red hat and evil in blue hat. What's the difference?
They (demonrats) need to know how badly they screwed up by appointing Botox Reagan as their savior. If that gets us another 4 years of the orange turd in the white house, so be it, I don't care. One boot looks just the same as another when you're underneath it.
Why would a black man as VP be good when we had a black man as prez for 8 damn years and diddly squat improved for us peons?
Wishing for Cuomo to be the candidate is just wrong. NO ONE voted for him in the primaries. At least ByeDone got some votes before they crowned him as the demonrat candidate. Also, if they can crown anyone who hasn't received any votes in the primaries whatsoever, why wouldn't they crown their queen again? I mean, they obviously haven't learned anything or they wouldn't have propped up Joe Dementia.
Is it great yet?
Cuomo didn't even run in the primary
The Dems have been known to install as their nominee a person who didn't run in the primary. Witness Hubert Humphrey, and we know how the general election against Nixon turned out.
I don't see the Dems placing Cuomo in the VP position unless their nominee is a woman. They are still devoted to cynically playing identity politics.
In any event, I wouldn't vote for Cuomo under any circumstances for any position.
Would I ever vote for Joe Biden? There is only one scenario in which I'd do that, and it's if they put either Nina Turner or Tulsi Gabbard in the VP spot. They won't do that, though, because they want the VP-who-will-be-president to be subject to their control,and neither Turner nor Gabbard would do that.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
The entire Biden nomination
is a sham, IMHO.
I see Hillary either helocoptered in at the Convention or installed as a temp VP to take the reigns after Biden goes full on bonkers.
Her perceived privilege of being THE first female POTUS will push her to pull out all the stops to make that happen.
I honestly think Bill promised her the presidency in order to stop her from leaving him during/after the Lewinsky affair in humiliation.
Yes, she is that ambitious and scornful.
It would explain a lot about her behaviour since Bill left office, broke.
Either way, we get Trump for another four years.
IMHO
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
This is the scenario I have seen for months
I keep going back to interview of Hillary some time ago. I do not remember who was interviewing her, but in the interview she said she KNEW who the nominee would be. And then she cackled. This is back when Bernie was leading. So Hillary was pulling the strings and I believe that she intends to pull strings at the convention to be the nominee.
If for some reason it is actually Biden versus Trump, I will not be voting period. I will not vote for Cuomo or Hillary either. My choice was Tulsi with Bernie my second choice. No other potential candidates represent my values. Lesser evil voting brought us to this point. Evil is evil whether is it in your face or behind your back. At this point, I will probably try writing in my choice.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
We owe Tulsi big time
I wonder if Harris would have gone farther in the race if Tulsi hadn’t done this? She was being manufactured in front of us to be the best person to take on Trump until Tulsi ended her.
Kudos Tulsi!
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
@snoopydawg
I couldn't agree more; Tulsi is the real deal.
Hope she can be in our country's future....
Sea Turtle
Precisely!
And I've clearly stated as much to half a dozen people now. Most are grossly uninformed and switch immediately to disbelief or irritation but in the actuality it may come to mind.
The die was cast in the first primaries.
The entire Biden nomination WAS A SHAM
And not just because as earthling says he will never be the true president, but a propped up puppet whose strings will be pulled by the people he puts in his administration. You know like Bloomberg, Dimon, Rahm Emmanual and other long time democrat failures that have constantly screwed the working class while propping up the power elite.
But the whole primary was setup in a way to keep Bernie from winning it starting with all the negative media attention and then stealing the Iowa primary right out in the open. This guy has some thoughts for Kyle Kulinski who says like you do that Trump cannot be allowed to win reelection because of his fascist ideas with having the military come in to police the protests.
But guess what? The reason Trump might be able to get away with doing that is because legislation that would make that legal has already been written. Especially the patriot act that Biden wrote way back in 1995 long before the DAY that changed our liberties forever. But besides that how much different is it for the military to police the protests than what the militarized police are doing right now? It was during Obama's tenure that we saw the massive influx of cops with their bearcats flood the streets of Ferguson after the Michael Brown killing. Yes they had overreacted many times before that, but after Ferguson it seemed that cops reacted that way after every time people flooded the streets after another unarmed person was killed by the cops.
Yes that was bad, however that was already happening all over the country anyway so did it really matter that Trump wanted to do it if the 'military' was basically doing it anyway? I am not that freaked out about it just because it was Trump. Imagine the silence if Obama verbally said what was already happening anyway? Lots of people freak out about something Trump does thinking that it is so abnormal and off the wall and I usually find that Obama had done many of them and yet not many people spoke out about it.
Why was the Iraq war so bad, but the wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, the pivot to Asia, the Tuesday kill lists sessions when Obama picked who would die soon and speaking of unconstitutional, the killing of 3 Americans without due process weren't? Of course these are just a few things off the top of my mind.
This sums up what a Biden administration would be like. Basically just going back to the things that allowed someone like Trump to get elected in the first place.
A Joe Biden Presidency Will Require Mass Protests, Too
Bush was all bad, Obama could do no wrong.
And probably the biggest reason I don't flip out over what Trump does is because if he really is so bad then why are democrats helping him do them instead of insisting that we elect Biden to stop him?
WTF Bernie? You know better.
Progressives Have Good Chance to Move a 'Receptive' Biden to the Left, Says Sanders
Biden has already shot down MFA even during a pandemic. He is calling for $300,000 more for cops even though we see that they need their wings clipped big time. He has said, "that nothing will change if he becomes president." I take him at his word. Especially after we saw what he and Obama did not accomplish during their 8 years.
Just my $.02
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Your .02 cents
were at least worth a buck fiddy! Well said.
Your $.02 is right on the money!
The Democrats paved the way for Trump and they keep re-authorizing legislation granting him more power? If Trump was that bad, why did they give him even more money than he requested in the Defense budget? And why did they re-authorize the Patriot Act? And why did they give his administration a blank check in the CARES Act? The Democrats under Pelosi did all three of those things. They are all on the same side and that is not our side.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I am serioulsy lmao over this
The impeachment managers have an op-ed in the WaPoo about Trump's lawlessness. Total hypocrisy on their part:
They go on to detail how Barr is committing lawlessness by going after Trump's enemies. Guess what that means? Getting to the bottom who started the seditious acts against Trump before and lasting long after he was elected. We are now getting daily information that the players involved in the impeachment fiasco admitted to Schiff and others that there never was any there there to Trump colluding with Russia. Everyone knew that at the time of the backroom hearings. They also admitted during the impeachment hearings that they did not see Trump do anything wrong on the phone calls. People would go on the TV and say one thing, but when questioned under oath they told the truth that those things never happened. And yet the hearings still continued. How can that not have consequences for Schiff and Nadler? Plus we already had the Horowitz report stating that the FBI lied to the FISA court 17 times about Carter Page to get their warrants on him. What was so bad? Page was working as an informant for the CIA. Everything that came from the warrants like the case against Flynn, Manafort, Papadopolous, and others should be considered fruit of the poisonous tree. Now we see how Strzok and Page knew that Flynn did not lie to them and yet he was still hounded into bankruptcy and only pleaded guilty to save his son. Lisa Page has been rewarded for that with a gig on MSDNC. Nice.
This is just one of the recent articles that highlights what congress and especially Schiff knew during the hearings and yet they still took the country down the Russia Gate rabbit hole for 3 odd years. The biggest thing that is coming from the reports is that MUELLER KNEW DAMN WELL THAT THERE WAS NO COLLUSION at 6 months or earlier and yet he continued the investigation for 12 more months until after the elections. Boy I'd call that messing with the elections being fair.
FBI Knew Steele's Russia Research Connected To Clinton, Dems From Earliest Interactions
This should put a cap in the Russia Gate saga and yet it hasn't and it won't because the media is still covering for the dems. Now it is the GOP's turn to question what they/we were told, but the media isn't covering it as far as I know so people won't hear the truth. Now anything that is told is being filtered as a conspiracy theory by both the media and the people that are so invested into believing that Trump is Putin's puppet. And they are being told that Russia is ONCE Again Interfering with the Election.
I doubt that Moscow Rachel has offered any retractions or admitted that she lied to her viewers who waited breathlessly every day for her to come and feed them her bullshit lies that fed into their own views on the Trump/Putin treason and of course that included Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsay.
Phew. I was going to essay this article, but y'all can read it instead if there is any interest in knowing about it. Most of the information coming out we had already known it years before and covered it then. So again take a bow c99 for seeing through the BS.
Heh one person think that some congress critters should be arrested for aiding and abetting Trump. Democrats:GOOD. Republicans: BAD
Hi lookyloos.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
You always have the best information!
Never heard of or saw "The Last Outlaws", sounds like something I would like to see more of. Will begin watching those videos...thanks for sharing.
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
You always have the best information!
Never heard of or saw "The Last Outlaws", sounds like something I would like to see more of. Will begin watching those videos...thanks for sharing.
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
I just discovered them this week
I liked how he spells out how the primary was rigged. Biden hadn’t even opened up offices nor did he do any campaigning in the states he won and one reason was because he didn’t have any money. Funny though isn’t it when Hillary didn’t campaign in the 3 states during the election she ended up losing them. But we are supposed to believe that even though Bernie was winning in most states on Super Tuesday just enough AA voters put him over the top? Others are beating dead horses here. Again.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
To your point about what the Democrats can do to reform
...the militarized police situation with Biden as President, I ran across this at the Bern at Reddit. earlier. It highlights why I am gainst any efforts to reform the Democratic Party. They are contaminated through and through. The Left is DOA inside that Party. And that has always been the plan.
Stop mingling with the Democrats. Stop voting for them.. Stop letting them neutralize your principles and take your power away. The sole purpose of government is to benefit the people governed. To see to their wellbeing and opportunities. Everything the government does should directly benefit the people and their environment. Everything that the people do should also benefit and protect society, and the wellbeing of the individual. That's it!
I'm with the movement toward the People's Party. I got the T-shirt! That's where the Left is being built — by the authentic Left. On high ground. They will come. The People need to take their rightful place. They need to hold the vision of an extraordinary civilization in their minds, and this time don't let it go!
Working together, people can do amazing, impossible things. For example, in seven months, the people of China will accomplish something remarkable in the world. They will lift all one-billion-three-hundred-and-ninety-three-million of their people out of poverty, All of them. This is something they have been working toward for 60 years. By accomplishing this, they also will have created their own self contained market economy and consumer base. Their domestic economy will always be secure. It is the people, alone, who have the power to build a better world.
Can the capitalist countries match this challenge and lift their populations out of poverty, instead of increasing the number of impoverished year over year? No. Western economies are based on predators killing prey. Winners destroying losers.. Dog eat dog. And the poor fighting over the scraps and filling the jails.
Capitalists need to create losers and then sieze their assets in order to win. Until the world is destroyed.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
I am with you on this
I do not think the dem party can be reformed from the inside or outside because people have been trying to do it for decades and they just keep moving to the right with the GOP. I haven't been pushing for that. First Obama's crime spree and then what they did to Bernie starting in 2016. So nope I am not advocating reforming them.
BTW just saw that 30 Demopulicans want to address social security because the deficit is getting to out of control. Yeah we know that it doesn't add to it, but what will decimate it is allowing companies to stop paying payroll taxes for 2 years until the economy 'recovers'.
Did that when Obama voted for the FISA bill that gave Bush retroactive immunity for spying on us and his cabinet picks. I have been calling out the dems complicity with the GOP since then. Of course calling on Obama's warmongering meant that I was a racist don't ya know?
Here is Byedone's plan on police reform.
He keeps telling people that he will not give them anything that they are protesting against and yet they will vote for him and give him their consent to f'ck them. Yeah that will tell him that he needs to do more right?
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Uhg!
Cuomo, Biden, Trump.
None of them represent ANY of my values. Zero. None.
So I won't be voting D for president. However, I think Biden will win simply because, when actual competence was necessary, Trump has shown he is a clown.
But don't kid yourself. No matter who is in the White House, the left will have absolutely no influence at all.
Agree on Cuomo
who would just be a more prominent version of Tim Kaine. About the same results as far as holding down AA enthusiasm and votes in the general.
Re Biden at least there's a chance for the Left to have some influence. And of course a chance he won't be able to finish his first term, or second, or decide to step aside after his first in favor of his younger VP.
Not a chance in Heck for the Left to influence Trump, as we've seen. He only wants to cater to his far-right base, which is the heart of the new TrumpGOP these days. Sadly, but not surprisingly, most of the remaining soft conservatives in that cultish party will pod people their way to voting for him too. So the latest anti-Trump offerings from Dubya and Colin Powell are probably going to sway about 50 Goopers out there.
People are sure overlooking what Cuomo is doing
Yes he can speak coherently, but why don’t people know what he’s doing with his budget? He is going to cut billions from Medicaid and this is after years of cutting it and closing down hospitals that serve the poor. He is just another Rorschach’s goon where people are seeing him through rose colored glasses and because of their feelings for Trump. Like the ones who see Biden as being much better than Trump, but in reality it’s not true.
The media has been shielding Cuomo from answering why COVID has ravaged nyc as hard as it has and especially why so many elderly from nursing homes have died. Putting recovering COVID patients in them seems like a really bone headed move.
I keep seeing people say that Trump won’t leave office if he loses. Yeah he will. The minute that the clock strikes the hour where power is transferred to the new president he stops being it. This country does still have some laws it follows and that is one of them.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
And besides, he gets to bask in the glory of having *been*
President, without having to put up with any more of the aggravation of actually being President. That's worth a helluva lot to anyone with that kind of outsize ego.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Thanks for mentioning Cuomo and nursing homes.
I was going to say that but you already did a great job of it.
Genetic analysis of tiny mutations of the virus show that much of the spread of the virus in the rest of the country came from New York. The US west coast had a significant number of cases of the Chinese variant of the virus, but most of the rest of the epidemic came from NY. I could write a 60 minute ad that would convince most people other than the science deniers on the D side. The Rs undoubtedly have people who could write the same type of ad.
The ads about people who died needlessly in the nursing homes write themselves.
I liked Cuomo's demeanor with his fireside chats about Covid until I found out more about his policies. As in independent voter I am waiting to see who the Dems put into the VP slot. Cuomo the Codger Killer is not acceptable. (Now that I have achieved Codgerdom I am especially unenthusiastic about electing Codger Killers.)
Cuomo has given nursing homes immunity from liability
This is on top of all the liability shields they have gotten through the years where if you put your family in them you are at their mercy for how they are treated. This has been going on for years, but now people are just hearing about because of what has happened all over the country with COVID. Newsom in CA has also given them carte blanch immunity for not providing PPE or taking all steps for their staff and patients to not get infected. I have tons of articles archived if anyone is interested. I is criminal what is happening without our knowledge, but of course it is not just limited to nursing homes.
Here is one.
https://truepundit.com/how-new-york-turned-nursing-homes-into-slaughter-...
This site has a way right wing bent,, but I think it links to another site so take this with a grain of salt, but it doesn't take away from the truth.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
If Biden wants to win against Trump
he needs to eat more freedom fries ...
gross
Sorry for that.
https://www.euronews.com/live
It’s a shame
I never actually put money in a jar every time I’ve heard the Democrats assure me of this:
Because if I did, I might have enough money to put up a billboard somewhere in the capitol telling them to blow it out their....well, you get the picture.
Good Luck in November!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Wrong question, IMHO
Sorry to jump on the bandwagon here, but I think the question should be:
Would it matter if Joe Biden wins?
In addition to all the examples others have pointed out, I'd add that many of these cities where out of control cops and other forces are mowing down protesters are run by Dems. They're the ones responsible for that, not Trump (although Trump is encouraging it and certainly doing his part too.) I'd also add that less than a week before George Floyd's murder, Joe gave his disastrous Breakfast Club interview where he defended the crime bill and generally proved he had no clue in addition to being racially offensive with his "you ain't black" comment. And his first appearance after, he proposed retraining cops to shoot people in the legs, not heart.
But to answer your question, I don't think Biden could win, but I do think Trump could lose. Right now, it seems like they're competing with each other to see who can lose the most support. To answer my question, I don't think it matters one inch really. A Biden administration would bring more virtue signaling and task forces designed to deflect, but never solve, any issues. And that's about it. There is no leadership in either party. All this election amounts to is a potential change of the name on the masthead and that's about it.
And Cuomo...yeeeeah, no. Dude can use Powerpoint, I'll give him that, but if you look at the reality, he's done a shit job handling the COVID-19 epidemic in New York.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Trump and Biden are different
The main difference is that if Trump wins he is term limited to only four years. If Biden wins he could theoretically get re-elected and go the full eight.
That makes Trump the LOTE.
"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush
You think Trump would
politely adhere to the Constitution and step aside after 2 terms? He might -- but only if Donnie Jr is ready and waiting in the wings.
Here, let me fix that for you
and even more absurd is the beating-a-dead-horsery about the Trump scenario.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I agree for the most part
but if Biden manages to win I don't see him making it through one term much less two terms. He's in bad enough shape now I cant even imagine in a few more years, So his VP pick is even more of an issue.
No, the better question
given the conditions of depressed economy and a lingering perhaps resurgent deadly virus is Can Trump Actually Win?
The news reports signal this is the proper question as they report on his camp's worries about the head-to-head national and state-by-state election polling numbers, even from the Fox News polls. Trump knows he's in big trouble not only in the key blue-ish states he won last time but in the bigger swing states like OH and FL which he won easily last time. Not only that, but he's in trouble in red places like AZ and even TX.
Gee, you don't have to have a PhD in Polly Sigh to figger out that the Don could be a goner soon. Only massive Dem voter suppression by the TrumpGOP can save him. GA is off to a promising start on that score.
Never Biden
The Democratic party of FDR has been entirely lost. Give them more power and you will get zero change, forever. If you believe that the Democratic party has any hope of bringing about change then you cannot vote for today's Democrat Party because if you do you will only empower Nancy and Chucky. If you believe that only a new party will bring about change then you will never vote for a Democrat. They are the enemy, focus. They were certain that there was no downside to the Dems for kneecapping Bernie and ignoring Tulsi (she is the most presidential of all of the candidates, but could not even get a hearing by successfully crated the meme that she is not a player, but why?). Last time 12% of Bernie voters voted for Trump. The Dems read the message but didn't get it. We're not speaking LOUDLY ENOUGH! I have taken a pledge to never vote for a Democrat in any race unless they are a certified, passionate, committed Progressive, speaking openly about the possibility of a third party. I re-registered as unaffiliated in MA. We can't take the power away from the Democrats until we take their votes away.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
I'll give you that Biden is unlikely to win
but disagree with almost everything else. Nothing personal. I just don't see anything either party does being any material change. The US is far from finding a bottom regardless of who is doing the digging.
Bernie has been the only presidential candidate during my life that I would vote for. That's in the past 48 years that I've been eligible to vote. I'm not going to get the chance to vote for him and would not vote for either Biden or Trump because my former home state will go Trump big time regardless of my vote. Not even Bernie as candidate would change the outcome. Living in Ecuador and without a valid permanent residence I won't vote anyway so it really doesn't matter. I also don't think that Bernie as president would have resulted in anything materially beneficial because both parties would oppose everything he proposed that would help anyone in the lower 99% of the socio-economic ladder. His efforts would be proclaimed as failure setting back those ideas for many more decades. The most I could hope for from a Bernie presidency is four years of sanity and a brilliant spokesman for saner policies that are more in line with the rest of the developed world. Again. It doesn't matter because it ain't gonna happen.
Let's look at the some of the possible combinations of presidency, Senate, and House control and how that is likely to go.
Anyway I look at this thing it comes around to Trump winning and Dems owning congress as the best outcome. Nothing good will come of it but maybe, only slimly possibly, will the bad be less horrible than the past 3 1/2 years.
I do not see anything that Biden, Pelosi, and whoever replaces Mitch will do as beneficial to anyone but the 1%. On the contrary, I see far more damage that they can do than without Trump's fat ass clogging up the toilet. Obama at least pretended to want to do something. Biden doesn't even pretend and has a solid track record of being a slightly more palatable Trumpish fool. Besides we have no idea who is now or who will be pulling Biden's strings as his mental capacity continues to circle the drain.
I don't see the calculus being different due to any VP pick. The only way I'd support Cuomo would be if he buggered Rudy Giuliani, twice, in the middle of Times Square on a live nationwide all network TV interview during prime time. I could scrape up some respect for him for that. Yeah, I think almost that much of him which is about average for anything I can say for either party or their leaders.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
The eight and a half minute kente kabuki led by
Pelosi shows us what Dems are prepared to do—nothing of substance. The fact that the entire party has worked tirelessly to scuttle Bernie Sanders campaign shows their contempt for his issues and the 99% who would finally benefit from those issues.
I se no hope in any of your scenarios, but Trump with an all Democrat Congress could be the least harmful. Of course, they could surprise me. The 1% is now so spoiled by their many victories that they may look to their friend Nancy to continue the gravy train.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Agreed.
There is no hope for anything from this election other than for a minimum increase to the damage to most people's lives. We are along for the ride, nothing more. The goal of both parties is to further the interests of themselves individually, with few exceptions, and their patrons.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Honestly, DT with a Dem House & Senate is the most scary
scenario to me.
I say that because 'O' came very close to striking a "Grand Bargain"--slashing Medicare and Social Security--when Repubs had control of both the House and Senate.
It was Boehner who pulled out of the Grand Bargain deal (after their Oval Office handshake), or, we'd already have some beneficiaries collecting very close to 50% of what they're currently slated to receive when they retire.
With 'Pay Go' Nancy still in charge, we're at substantial risk of having entitlements slashed. (IMO) Both she and Reid backed O's deal with Boehner, according to Bai's reporting.
Current SS beneficiaries will probably be okay--except for the implementation of a Chained CPI, and reduced COLA going forward.
Soon, TM/OM will either be transitioned to a full blown 'managed care' program, or, tailored to resemble Medicare Advantage. There are several proposals to do the latter, proposed by centrist Dems like Michael Bennett.
IMO--DT, with both a Dem House and Senate, would give perfect 'cover' to both Party Leadership Teams should they decide to "hold hands, and jump together." We pretty much know that DT could/would lie through his teeth, assuring his Base that he's still 'protecting' their programs, and, they'd likely not catch on, until it was too late.
And, it'd be a relatively easy sell to the DP Base. Remember how they fell in line, and supported the ACA? Frankly, I've seen nothing over the past several years to make me think that they're any less gullible, or malleable.
IMO, the best way to protect entitlements would be a 'one Party takeover.' Neither party would dare go after entitlements, unless, they can have the cover of the opposing party (having a hand in the deed).
Unless something changes, doubt Repubs could pull that off. Guess we'll soon know how strong a showing Biden is capable of. Since the MSM gives him so much cover--regarding his diminished mental capacity--I can see Dems sweeping the joint in November.
One thing, for sure--if I had not yet filed for Social Security benefits, I would keep my eyes peeled, and, be ready to move, very quickly. Especially, after the current fiscal crisis--it's just a matter of time before they're slashed.
Already, there's serious talk about slashing pensions at state level, etc.
Be safe.
Mollie
“Revolution is not a one time event.”
~~Audre Lorde
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I won't say there's anything these clowns
are incapable of doing. You make good points. Each of those things are possible. I do think though that one party in control, regardless of flavor, is more dangerous to the people of the US.
Trump could have done so much more damage had he not been so flaky and could keep focus on anything other than lining his own pockets. I don't think he would let another opportunity pass so easily.
I don't see the Dem leadership being unwilling to gut SS and Medicare, among many other programs, as a sacrifice to recovering from a terrible national emergency like we see today. Donnie would gladly go along if he got enough out of the deal. What I don't see is the rank and file in congress going along. It's a possibility but I just can't see it. Maybe it's my lack of imagination.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Cuomo is not going to
be replacing Biden, and even more absurd is the beating-a-dead-horsery about the Hillary scenario.
On his VP, he's already tossed his hat over the wall for a woman, and now has no choice but to follow it over the other side. So there will not be a Cuomo for VP either, sorry.
It's gotta be a woman, and ideally an AA woman. Such a pick would acknowledge the vital importance of this constituency in the DP, as well as recognize the key role of black women as the backbone of that group. A black woman pick would also match the moment, and it's not necessarily helpful or desirable that the woman have been a former police chief or prosecutor. Probably too many skeletons there.
Right now, the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Bottoms, is getting a lot of attention, and I probably would prefer her over Stacey Abrams. Frankly I don't see a number of other good possibilities. I don't think it's possible or wise for Biden to select a white woman at this time. If Latinos showed up more to vote, they would have more clout in this process.
Winning, and by a fair margin that can't be overcome with GOP cheating, will be all about GOTV, which was HRC's problem despite winning by 3m. Biden will need a boost in enthusiasm for the ticket and a black woman, the right one, could bring that.
When the discussion devolves to the point
...that you are selecting important leaders by the color of their skin and what's between their legs — you've got both a failed state and a dead empire. Time to bury it before it starts stinking.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
Heh, until recent times
picking candidates by the color of their skin and what's between their legs was always done -- but not spoken or much thought about -- and always in the same two directions, cycle after cycle. Were you okay with that situation when it was below the radar, and just the norm that white males only would be selected?
It's glaringly obvious that a) the GOP is the white male party, and b) the DP consists of several very important so-called identity groups. Would be gross political malpractice by the DP to ignore them.
And putting an AA on the ticket as VP would, with most of the available choices, enhance the enthusiasm for Biden, energy and GOTV that he badly needs.
If that’s the best you could come up with as a reply
To Pluto’s argument, might I suggest a trip back to the drawing board?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Guess there are no women in the Republican Party
Collins, Murkawski and many of the other women in it must be invisible. Or something? As for identity groups in the DP I’m wondering if he means the ex military, ex intelligence agencies and the other ex .... that democrats have embraced the last few years? Alternate reality again?
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
They don’t count because reasons
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
In the most self aggrandizing way
As history has shown with powerful members of the black caucus, as with any other political coalition, who seem more concerned with amassing influence and attaining fortunes rather than passing meaningful legislation. Imagine that? A politician paying lip service to their constituents? What you’re speaking to is merely window dressing for the political horse race that we laughingly call the electoral process.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Can Trump Actually Win??
This piece suggests the Don is furious about his poor poll numbers and that son-in-law Kushner is the object of his ire, and might be about to be fired.
This election is going to be about Trump, Trump and the depressed economy, Trump and the poor response to the pandemic, and not whether Biden is too old or too centrist or too whatever.
And when
The killings continue, the spending to militarize the police continues, the fall of the economy continues, POST Trump, in an alter universe, I see everyone who told us our problems were all about Trump scratch their heads and admit they were wrong, while in the real world, the Dem politicos tell us everything is great.
So, whaddya suppose will be their clarion call to get us all in the veal pen in 2024?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Nah
They will never admit that they were wrong. The same talking points have been debunked over and over and yet we’re still being subjected to them. I don’t see that changing because if they were honest with themselves they’d see that those things happened during Obama’s tenure and Clinton’s too. I posted a tweet yesterday about how Obama cut almost $9 billion from food stamps and Clinton kicked 1 million people off welfare and cut food stamps too which sent 1o million women and children deeper into poverty. But I’ll be told again how they were the lesser evil. This sure gets old.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
LOL Just saw your sig line.
Donnie's going to be ridin' Biden. Hard. Biden may actually regret his life choices before this is over.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
That's if he has enough brain cells left
to form an advanced concept like "regret". That's something I wouldn't care to place a bet on.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I lost my sister to CJD in March.
The last visit with her was in October when I returned to the US for a month. She wasn't the same person I had known her whole life. The disease had already taken a lot from her. There was more cognitive function in her speech and thought processes and life in her eyes than I see in Biden. Yesterday I opened a page with an autostart Biden video asking the viewer to join his team. He looked and sounded like a sock puppet. His goofy, hand drawn grin and wooden speech pattern were all wrong. That is what we're supposed to put in the presidency? NFW.
How does anyone suggest Biden should be president with a straight face? The memory of my last visit with my sister, that video, this essay, and author's comments have had a visceral impact. The overly developed smart ass in me sat down and got real quiet. I cannot take people seriously who suggest Biden is a viable candidate or deserves my vote much less the presidency. That's not sour grapes. That's having a brain and being able to use it.
Now I have to go upstairs and thank my wife yet again for first suggesting we live down here in a developing, AKA shithole, country. It has huge problems but is also where sanity and awesome people reside. I still can't believe my incredible good fortune.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
I’m very sorry to hear about your sister
Watching someone lose their minds as they are dying is one of the worst things to watch happen. Not knowing if they recognize you or can hear what you are saying to them.
My brother lost his mind to CMV or cytomegalovirus because of AIDS. He stopped talking the day after I got home and I got to tell him everything I wanted to, but I didn’t know if he understood what I was saying. He’d nod his head if I asked a question, but still.
This is a hard image to get out of your mind isn’t it? I hope you have found some peace with it.
How anyone can listen to Biden and then just say that he has a stutter is so f’cking mind boggling. There are plenty of videos that show him not being coherent, but again people are so desperate to get rid of Trump they find all kinds of ways to not see it. I admit that the last couple of times I’ve seen him talking he’s doing much better. But he has an ad on YouTube where for some reason they let him mess up the message.
I’m glad you got to escape this f’cking miserable country. No government should be at war with its citizens like ours is.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Thanks snoopy.
I feel cowardly saying that I'm grateful that I have the two days we could have together in October as my last memories of her. She was diagnosed only five months before but was obviously changed every time I spoke with her. I know my brother-in-law had a real shitshow on his hands. I ask myself every day if there was something more I could have done but I kept getting the answer that were fine with what help they had.
I knew they would be OK when my BIL said that the two of them had more time together in that last year than at any time in the previous ten years. Both worked a lot on opposite schedules. He said that the best part of their time together was that he rediscovered just how much he loved her and how much she meant to him. I'm very grateful that both of them were OK with the reality they faced. Character like that is really uncommon.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
It’s always the guilt that lingers isn’t it?
I hope that you get to the point that you can look at the two days that you spent together as the gift it was. For both of you. No matter how much we want to we can’t go back and change history. Like you my family kept the bad news from me and instead of going home the week before I did I wasn’t aware of how bad off he was. My mom didn’t tell me that she had put him in a nursing home on Monday until I called Saturday and he didn’t pick up. I called her and said where is Rick? I just knew something had happened. I was working part time and had that week where I could have gone home and he would have still be talking. It took me many years to stop being angry with her for robbing me, us of that time together.
You did ask if you could help, but you weren’t getting the whole story so you have to let yourself off the hook for that. But you did get the chance to say your goodbye and I hope you can just focus on that gift.
Speaking of gifts I got two. The night before my brother died I woke up feeling him in my room and I could pinpoint where he was. I knew that he was there telling me goodbye. And the day my mom died I heard her call my name the way that only moms can call it and knew that she too was saying goodbye. A half hour later my aunt called to tell me she was gone. But then I got another gift. I walked into her hospital room and she was still alive. For some reason she started breathing again. 10 minutes later my brother got there and 10 minutes after that she died again. We think that she wanted to wait for the two of us to be together before she left. I don’t know how else to explain it? My dad died two days ago, but he didn’t visit me in the spiritual sense....but I understand why he didn’t.
Deaths leave so much unfinished and it’s left to us to write the ending. Oh lord I’m going all philosophical here. I’m tacking it up to my mood. Too many memories being brought up right now.
Hey folks thanks for listening ....if you did.
Take care, vtcc and be kind to yourself. Cherish the memories you have of your sister. Or seest'r as Rick called me.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Hang in there Snoopy. (Is there a song in there somewhere?)
Wow. You're really close to one of the really big losses each of us usually have to endure. The second parent is not easy. Take care of yourself although I doubt I have to say that.
I don't beat myself up or regret much of anything anymore. I hadn't seen my father since I was eight, his choice, and only found out he died in 1981 when my mother applied for SS. She finally got some help from him as she said. She passed in 1999. I had just gotten home from a marathon captain checkout and type rating on the DC-10 when my sister called to tell me that our mother was in the hospital. She had been feeling poorly and the doc put her in the hospital for tests. She had been on O2 for tobacco related emphysema for two years, got off it for a year, and started smoking again. Now several months later she had cancer "everywhere". She chose to not suffer the pain and indignity of trying to beat the inevitable. Great choice actually. Sue said they thought she had a few weeks but that it would be best to come home soon. I had the rest of the month off but my son was still in school so we drove out on Friday afternoon.
We got there after midnight so I didn't call. Sue called at 6:00 the next morning to say she was gone. Now, there's the perfect setup for regret if we take the bait. Anything that hadn't been said up to that point is on me. There was a lot unsaid. I accept the responsibility and learned from it. This was merciful. She had a rough life. I would not trade any of my guilt for one more second of her suffering. Being responsible and accepting it is a small burden compared to being callously selfish.
I didn't make that mistake with Sue. We said it all. My BIL said that coming back even a month later wouldn't have been useful. The area of the brain first and most affected was memory and executive functioning. Sue wasn't at home for most of those last several months. I know she was grateful for that gift because she said as much. Who am I to argue?
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
This huh?
I think most of us expect to lose our parents at some time and we try to get ready for it as best we can. However losing a sibling at a young age takes the wind out us. And knowing your regrets at not saying what you needed to your mom gave you the chance to make sure you took it with Sue and I hope that comforts you.
Dealing with grief is often easier if the relationship was one of love and respect. You have all those happy memories you can look back on and eventually smile at them.
This is beautifully stated:
This should give you peace if should is the right word here.
My relationship with both my parents was complicated, but less so with my mom. I was okay with her passing because she had said that she was ready and smiled when she said that a week before she died and there was just nothing medically to be done. But with my dad it was so damned complicated and I am stunned by my reaction to his death. Lots of issues to work through, but without dredging up the past again because I have come to terms with that. But I am still dealing with my dawg Abby's death just because the places where she used to be are so empty and I think that is playing a part with my emotions. Abby went in peace and I am good with that, it is just that she is still in so many places, but she is not there. I was already raw with her and now this. I will be fine and work my way through it because of the skills I have learned dealing with our past.
ICYMI here is my tribute here to Abby. The site stepped up big time with love and comfort so I did not go through that alone.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
It's Elder Abuse
That's how power mad the Dems are.
They think the savvy among us can see they are shooting him up with meth and calling it B12? Dosing him for appearances?
But hey, in 2016 they were willing to attempt the overthrow of a newly elected government.
There is no bottom for them.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
I agree
That’s why I prefaced it as coming from an alternative universe, like you see in science fiction. We all know what they’ll say in real life, eh? Just variations on what they’ve always said. In one way, beating Trump, the Dems will have lost the best gift that kept giving, politically speaking.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
There are up to about 40% of Americans
to whom everything trump does is red meat. They don't care about anything but sticking it to "those people", the ones they don't like, and Donnie is on the job 24/7. These people vote.
The DNC gave us Biden. He was not selected by the people and how many of us know we were cheated out of Bernie or played? Take your pick. How many of us are going to vote for that crap, trump or no trump? Or vote for an obviously compromised (let me count the ways), fatally flawed candidate (Hillary 2.0+)? Donnie can't possibly win under those conditions, right? I bet the DNC thinks so because Hillary was so unstoppable. It can't possibly happen again. Are Americans really that deplorable?
Not that it matters but I don't. Biden hasn't even been let loose to convince people what a great president he'll be. WTF could go wrong with that? Wait for the debates. In his condition he could fuck up a one car funeral or a piss up in an Irish bar on St. Patty's Day. Failure is always an option for Joe the Shmoe.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Biden just had his 'deplorable' moment
Something about 10x15% of people aren’t worth it. I’ll try to find the exact quote. But it was a doozy.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Well, no, it wasn't the
DNC that gave us Biden. It was the many AA voters, starting in SC, that resurrected his dying campaign (thx in part to Bernie's incompetent SC team), along with Obama making a few phone calls.
Gee, who would have thought that Pres Obama would want to go to bat at some key point on behalf of his loyal 8-yr VP?
All the rest about poor Bernie and we wuz robbed is just sour grapes, imo. He lost fair and square. Sometimes that happens.
As for the 40% for the Don, of course, it's a given. Maybe even 44%. So what. Most elections are not won with 40 or 44%. Undoubtedly they will show up, and so Biden will need to match the DonnieGOP intensity. A younger more dynamic VP selection will help in that regard. Stacey Abrams. Atlanta Mayor. Even though not my first choice, Kamala Harris would likely help, as she's already been vetted and gotten national exposure and experience. Though if that happens, she would need to personally be taking point on Major Police Reform.
Re the Biden campaign and debates, for now he's better off staying mostly in the basement. Few are following politics now, more important things to do and follow, and most of the media attention revolves around the constant disastrous Con Man show from the WH. Trumpolini is the one screwing up. Debates not likely to matter, assuming cowardly Donnie shows up.
Been swilling too much MSDNC?
Those of us who were actually paying attention knew this primary was a crock, a sham, and a blatant open-air midday heist right from the get-go. But Bernie will never admit it, because he'd have to admit that he was played by his "friends" and "allies", times two. You can't do that and still work in Washington DC....
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
we wuz robbed is just sour grapes, imo. He lost fair and square
Congratulations, you just won the Good American award from TPTB. They thank you for your loyalty, but unfortunately, all you are getting is more of the same. Meaning more for them and less for us.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Bernie was cheated fair and square.
I have to ignore way too much "coincidence" to say he lost on his own. Or just not want to see it. I have to give it to the DNC for being artful, creative even. I don't think any of us saw it happening the way it did.
Calling it sour grapes is insulting to my intelligence. I go with my lying eyes over what I'm told to think and do every damn time.
In case it's not obvious I have to say that I can no longer give this [EDIT: I originally wrote "essay' when it should have been "commenter". My apologies to Sea Turtle for my error.] the benefit of doubt I initially gave it. It was too late in 2016 for "Can't we all just get along" and then fall in line. It was utter bullshit with Hillary and is worse today. The Dems have told us they don't need us for two presidential cycles in a row. Maybe it's time to listen, believe them, and just fuck off. That's the only way to deal with a serial abuser.
Besides, while I may be completely wrong that there is no combination of party in control of each of the three branches being beneficial to most people, I don't think we have as much to lose as long as there is a divide with one owning the congress and one owning the presidency. I also accept that even that won't do more than limit the damage. It's all lose-lose for most of us regardless. Nothing will improve until things get bad enough for people to say enough, mean it, and back it up with action. People with nothing left to lose is where the rubber meets the road in historical terms.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Somebody is really missing the point
Trump is not an existential threat, he is a problem. Biden's vice president is an existential danger. She will be a universally corrupt fascist hiding behind identity politics who will use racism to hide her corporatism and justify the complete destruction of American society.
On to Biden since 1973
You mean Elizabeth Warren?
The only name I see mentioned who fits that description is Susan Rice.
I couldn't understand why she was on a list of potentials. That may explain it.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
Cuomo? No, thanks.
Cuomo is just as thin-skinned and big-headed as Trump, if not more so, with an additional dash of paranoia about his particular flavor of white people having been discriminated against …
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/andrew-cuomo-n-word-radio.html
Cuomo’s go-to consulting circle and donor clientele are the billionaires … even in a crisis, Cuomo wants to spare billionaires the burden of sharing some of the cost:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/08/governor-cuomos-pandemic-w...
And Trump may be a snake-oil salesman, but dictator? Come on, man.
https://www.unz.com/chopkins/the-worst-literal-hitler-ever/
Perfect analysis
The worst Russian collaborator, too.
Populations don’t like wars. They have to be lied into it.
That means we can be “truthed” into peace. — Julian Assange
Since you asked
1. I think Biden is more demented on the campaign trail than Reagan was during his second term in office.
2. I think a ham sandwich is "electable", especially with all kinds of shit hitting the fan and effectively no ability to verify/audit vote tallies.
3. Cuomo? Oh hell no. (Like, so very many hell nos I am now wondering what the proper term is for a large group of emphatic hell nos. A choir of hell nos? A concert of hell nos? A convention of hell nos!)
4. There is no "we". I am not a Democrat. I've always been to the party's left, but have tried to work with them since the 90s. Can't be done. They are so corrupt, arrogant, and flatout dangerous, that I will not vote for any of them. Not top of the ticket, not downballot, not dogcatcher.
This right here
Is the real problem. No trust in the electoral system makes it difficult to care about any candidate.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Mostly, it doesn't matter
We have a 2 party system. One party is willing to compromise, work across the aisle....collaborate... with people that hate them, along with half of America. This party already fundamentally agrees with the rep/cons on mostly everything, to some degree. So whatever the neolibs legislate will have republican concessions baked in. Whatever gains will be incremental. Keep meeting something half way and you keep losing ground, by halves.
The police riots we've been watching were primed, ready and waiting for Obama to give the word to crush OWS. That Mr. Catfood didn't give the order saved his presidency. It would be interesting to find out Mr. Bidens thoughts at that time.
Hi Sea Turtle...good to hear from you.
I have to say a few things about your post.
First- Biden is a consummate liar. The list of his lies is so long it rivals Trump's. I can not vote for a liar, no matter what the stakes are.
Cuomo is very corrupt. All you need to do is read David Sirota's columns on this to see it. But he also is behind the push for charter schools and making money off of our public schools through hedge funds. He would be a big mistake for VP.
I honestly don't see the Democratic Party as any kind of savior from the scourge of Trump.
I think we desperately need a third party and am currently looking into Howie Hawkins as my alternative for not voting at all.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
You are exactly right
about Dems not being a savior from Donnie Boy. There is no saving us from him or those who came before or will come after. He is but a symptom of all that is wrong with us and America. He is our reflection in the mirror. We fix us and we don't have Trumps, Bidens, Pelosis, McConnels, Obamas, Cuomos or any of the rest of the sick fucks we have given the power to bugger the country so badly.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Well, Hello, Fishtroller!
how good it is to 'see' you! Hope you and yours have been keeping well...
My internet has been down for most of the day, so I am now just catching up...
Yes, agree that Biden/Cuomo being liars/corrupt...
However, I am not looking at them once elected to just take care of things as we sit back. No, now after the RoseGarden speech, a new path occurred to me.
Yes, a third party is logical, but any attempts have been roundly squashed.. Green Party and even Bernie was cheated this time around although in not such an obvious way as 2016,.. but it sure smelled a lot like it. Look at what happened to Tulsi... who I really hope still hangs around, because I think she is the real deal. Besides waiting for a third party to form, would take too long.
My focus is simply the election. Preventing Trump from staying and thereby getting a foot in the door. Not expecting anyone who was elected to serve the 99%. Once this criminal Wall Street bubble bursts, then chaos will hit. Then we will have some brand new tools (a coming Recession/Depression, protests, etc.) once Wall street has lost its iron grip, that we can really use to push for reforms that we need and get people-oriented down ballot politicians elected. We can make our demands and presence known... not just around election time, But for the full four years....I don't want to be too specific, although I have specifics in mind...
Yes, I have read and deeply respect Sirota. But one thing strikes me about Cuomo; he is a pragmatist, he is now approving legislation against chokeholds. But I just used him as an example of the type of person who could help Biden get elected. Usefulness stopped there.
What I am saying is proposing a new way to try and bring about change. But first we need Trump out of the way and then get a foot in the door. And then we need to work harder in the next four years than we have in the past to work on political reform to match societal needs which will be great. No one thinks that life is going to return to "normal."
The big difference, I repeat, is that we are all headed into some deeply difficult times... when people will be demanding things change. Lets use that energy and get rid of those we can and install those we can.
Thanks for coming into this diary and commenting. So nice to touch base with you again.
My Best,
ST
Sea Turtle
Thanks
Thanks for posting this essay, SeaTurtle. If nothing else, it's provoked a lot of discussion and that's a good thing. Further, as you probably are aware, there isn't too much love for Biden around these parts (frankly, me included), but I admire your courage in throwing this out into the breeze anyway.
Thank You
for responding and participating... I totally get the total mistrust of Biden/DNC/Cuomo etc etc. However things are dramatically changing and we must change our approach to accomodate the new times and to represent our interests.
...it is heartening to see how the protests have brought about a lot of actual changes in the police system... even this morning, Cuomo was saying that any increase in budget would be dependant on a review of police procedures.
...frankly the thing I most fear is the coming Severe Recession/Depression... which I don't think we can avoid... but we must be ready to represent our cause for the 99% while there will be a free for all in terms of trying to get power once the economic system hugely falters/fails. There will be hostile forces trying to grab for power, and we must be ready to work hard to protect the rights of the 99%...
But thank you for your comment.
Sea Turtle