...and, naturally, chaser:

BREAKING: Donald Trump announces the cancellation of the GOP convention in Jacksonville, FL

— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) July 23, 2020

It stuns me how he can ramble on such nonsense.

Yet he doesn't seem to be so vociferous in calling the virus a hoax (he still said it's going to go away).

I think it dawned on him that the virus and pandemic is really the only game in town. He is still blaming China, but the scary/sad part is, had he done this at the beginning in regards to dealing with the pandemic, he'd be coasting to re-election.

The goobers are going to do as they do. It was evident to me that after Tulsa, Trump and his scum decided to grab as much cash as they can.

Should they steal the election, it won't be a big deal. Should they lose, I would expect Biden to find an empty white house.

Like all the china, silver, and portraits?

SI

Cotton and Hawley seem like the two names that come up in this vein. If Trump wins, we're on our way to really bad places. But even if he loses, he's drawn up the blueprint for the hardcore fascists that come after him.

SI

Well maybe not the Obama portrait...

Or Bush Jr.

And the next one won't be lazy and stupid.

Or the Bush and Clinton portraits he had put in what's effectively a storage room last week.

They’ll have a bonfire rally

*Telerally

*Telerally (TM, patent pending)

SI

Lot of welfare for farmers in the new proposed bill.

Draft of GOP stimulus proposal reveals new insights into it, which is expected to be introduced nxt week. Senate GOP sources confirmed the doc was circulated Thurs, but stressed it could change by Monday’s expected unveiling. New from me, @caphilltrish & @AllisonMPecorin pic.twitter.com/TvxXUFIms7

— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) July 24, 2020

Kinda of sucks for those businesses that made an investment based on the idea of the RNC coming to town.

Yeah. Businesses in two cities (Charlotte and Jax) had expectations that were not fullfilled.

It is the right call as long as the virus is not contained. But it still sucks.

If we're going to spend a trillion dollars then we should just give a thousand dollar UBI to every adult legally here every month until the money runs out. That should last 4 to 5 months by my napkin calculations.

Remember how he bragged it was easy to win a trade war...what a fucking idiot.

Just In: New poll: Nearly half of Americans whose families lost jobs during the pandemic believe the jobs will not return https://t.co/H5X0stKoNI

— WRAL NEWS in NC (@WRAL) July 24, 2020

Rightly or wrongly, people blame the economy on the incumbent (or credit him if things are good).

If there were a way that things could somehow get worse for Trump than they already are, then this is it. I think that the numbers right now reflect strong displeasure for how the GOP has handled the virus. But people still had a rosy economic outlook. The V-shaped recovery and all that.

If that is changing, then my long-held "40% approval is Trump's floor" opinion might be proven wrong.

(Relatedly, a few weeks ago, GOP Senator Thom Tillis (in a tight race for reelection right now) said that the economy was still a winner for President Trump because people would remember how things were in February. And that seemed at least plausible then if a bit of a stretch. But, really, people just don't think like that. As someone noted "Were you better off 7 months ago than you were 4 years ago?" does not have quite the same ring to it as the original.)

Holy shit!

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1286493439312494599

"Everyone I talked to down here voted against him . . . "

Talk about outside the box political takes

I know that politicians know a lot more about politics than I do, but I have some political advice for them: If you come up with a plan to make this end, and tell everyone your plan, and then you make it end, you will be super-popular.

— Raffi Melkonian (@RMFifthCircuit) July 24, 2020

Wrongly, but you're right. That's why I think Trump lost the election when the virus hit China late last year. He's unpopular enough that without a strong economy there was no chance, and a strong economy will never survive a global pandemic.

He's not wrong

There may not be any grosser place on the internet then Aubrey Huffs twitter timeline.

I don't know if these ads have changed a single mind, or if the point is just to piss Trump off, but they are great.

Our friends at @ProjectLincoln have outdone themselves with this ad. LOL, as the kids say.pic.twitter.com/KpCGibxY8Y

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 24, 2020

OMG, that's hilarious!

That is awesome!!!!

That really is amazing

OK this is pretty funny too!

I fell asleep wondering why the rhythm of, “Person, woman, man, camera, TV,” sounded familiar and woke up realizing it’s the intro to If You Leave Me Now by Chicago. pic.twitter.com/5pxgl2abKK

— Noah Garfinkel (@NoahGarfinkel) July 24, 2020

Heh

Not sure what federal property there is to "defend". We have the Dirksen Building but I don't think that has seen any protests at all and is too ugly to vandalize anyway.

It's worked for Andrew Cuomo. You don't have to be perfect, or even good, but you do need to look like you're solving the problem and understand people's suffering.

Making him a clown rather than a supervillain is the way to go, IMO.

you know it is just an opportunity to flex against the communities with gang problems, so he can again turn it into "Look what I am doing for the black community"

Unless of course Wrigley field is considered an important strategical location....

Agree and that narrative writes itself so nicely

I feel really ooky when someone like Bill Kristol is "on my side". I'm willing to accept that maybe these people all believe that our very democracy is at stake.

But this is someone who killed the Clinton health care plan and helped start the Iraq War. I don't trust him any further than I can throw him and I'd watch my back as we get closer to election time.

SI

My concern is that once Biden is President, they will go back to their old ways of calling any Dem "the greatest threat to democracy" and other such nonsense just because they are used to being into opposition to any thing Dems want to accomplish.

I would like to see a change in discussions over the various issues using facts and data and not hyperbole and insults. But I'm not holding my breath.

Kristol has been anti Trump since the jump (2015 at least). So better to think of him that way.

So how do you feel about Joe Biden helping to start the Iraq war?

Disappointed. Though his overall track record is a lot better than Kristol's.

SI

I feel as ooky about Joe Biden being on my side, if not more, than SI does about Bill Kristol being on his side.

I'm okay with the executive orders. Ideally some sort of bipartianship deal would have been struck on prescription drug pricing but there's not been a lot of that since 2008.

I do think US has to pay a premium to sustain its innovation in drug research, production etc. and essentially subsidizing for much of the world. But more $ is spent on marketing than on research and I want some more balance.

Regardless, it does seem this will be a top-20 item on the Dem's agenda if they win the Presidency. Not sure it'll be a top-5 though.

With no new law to curb drug costs, Trump tries own changes for cheaper meds

dola

Sinclair stations are running a package with a claim from the Plandemic woman that Fauci created the COVID-19 virus and shipped it to China.

“ I didn’t see a single yard sign for him...”

Short answer... idiot cult members.

This Portland thing seems to have backfired spectacularly against the President. A Wall of Vets showed up in addition to the Wall of Moms and Wall of Dads.

https://twitter.com/Joshuajered/stat...350622208?s=19

Thousands (some reports say 10,000 but that seems a bit too much) now protesting.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Yeah, it keeps getting bigger every night. This town absolutely lives for this shit, I don't know what they were expecting. On the other hand, there's certainly plenty of imagery that fits into the FOX agenda as well.

I am proud of my local folks though, as we see the plan unfold to deploy troops in other cities across the US as part of the vague (and supposedly unrelated) 'Operation Legend' I hope that the backfire of trying to make an initial example of PDX & the volume of the resistance will instead only make that deployment as difficult as possible.

FYI here's a channel I've been watching with a collection of multiple live streams of the protest on a single screen (it's like a dystopian version of the RedZone network's octobox). There seems to be a live stream link put up around 8 or 9pm (pacific) every night:

AnterosLive - YouTube

Also: the unsung heroes of these protests are the drum corps.

Sinclair now says it will delay showing the program.

There aren't 38% cult members. It's more people who think the overall response has been overblown, 'cure worse than the disease' folks, etc.

Things are going well in Minnesota.

Today is the first day of MN mask mandate. These pics from Walmart in Marshall, MN. (h/t Raphaella M) pic.twitter.com/7xpMdv3oOp

— Erin Maye Quade (@ErinMayeQuade) July 25, 2020

Nah it is a cult. If the boss man said it was serious and wear a mask back in February, they all would be with no complaints.

Why would they invest in research when taxpayers will do it for them? We helped make Remdesevir and will now pay an arm and a leg for it. We are funding the vaccine research. Practically every major profitable drug on the market has beginnings in taxpayer funded research.

The new model is have the government research the drug, then get the government to give you a monopoly on that drug.

So what's your explanation for the group of people who have been opposed to Trump since the beginning, didn't vote for him, and are still anti-mask?

The same answer why there are anti-mask protests here in the UK - there is a lot of wilful ignorance in the so-called educated world

The COVID-19 thread (the political version)
 

Anti masks
Anti vaccine
Anti seat belts
Anti life jackets
Etc...

Sometimes people just believe the sinister far more than the science


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I've yet to see one of those, so I'd have no guess.

I know a number of them personally. Generally libertarian people tend to be in that boat. For them it's not necessarily about being anti-science or willfully ignorant either. Some people just see the same facts and assess them differently. I think they're wrong, but well-meaning people come to different conclusions all the time.

100 days to go. Beginning of the end or the end of the beginning.

The Hurricane in South Texas blew down part pf Trump's "beautiful wall"

LOL
I was on Yahoos front page and came across an ad that asked who will you vote for in 2020 Trump or a Democrat? I clicked wanting to see the comments. But it was a Trump ad poll.
Who will you vote for in 2020
1. Trump
2. A BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALIST

I thought that was pretty funny.

Details of the next stimulus/relief/CARES bill is pretty much up in the air other than there will be one.

I'm a little surprised the Dems haven't publicized (or capitalized) more that they had their $3T (?) proposal 6+ weeks go and the GOP is reducing it down to $1T (?) etc. and still not done.

It's like Trump's campaign think they are running against Bernie Sanders. Yes, Joe Biden has unveiled some really big government programs, but there has to be someone in the campaign who has to realize that attack really isn't going to work that well against Joe Biden.

The primary worked as well as possible for Biden.

From the perspective of the low-information voters who will decide the election, they got a vague sense that a few socialists were running and had a chance to win (Bernie, Warren, AOC), but that Biden ended up winning even though he wasn't as liberal at they were. Oh, and there was that young gay guy. He seemed nice. I guess he didn't win either.

So that makes it REALLY hard for the GOP to paint Biden as an extremist.

(And, yes, I know that AOC wasn't running; I was trying to get into the heads of the low information swing voters).

Don't worry Edward, you'll get your Peleton yet!

Biden also benefits a lot from having been Obama's VP and swing voters liked and weren't threatened by Obama.

TBH, I am a little worried I won't qualify. But that's okay, I'm all for it being more targeted this time around.

And I think a lot of those voters also thought/think Biden was more moderate than Obama.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/27/uk/bo...ntl/index.html

I wonder how America's obesity has affected its covid spread rate and/or death rate.

It can't have helped. It's why I was banging my head against the wall when early this year folks were poo-poohing the virus, saying it was only serious if you had 'underlying conditions'. Obesity is an underlying condition...

I know there's a lot of overlap, but add hypertension to obesity and you're already pushing 40-50% of the population with underlying conditions.

Any word if they are going to close the loophole that didn't give any to 17-25 yr olds who can be claimed as dependents?

Because that credit on my taxes was surely not anywhere close to $2400 each.

Ok, so the whole we think $600 extra a week is too much, we want to do a sliding scale may have been more likely if it was done a month ago. Getting a sliding scale in place is going to take some time - and announcing it the week when extra unemployment benefits expire is not really a serious proposal.

Trump NSA tested positive. He's been photoed in numerous groups without masks.

dola

This from Kudlow is the dumbfuckingest thing ever.

Hey, you haven't lived until you've gone to the covid strip club on the company dime.

Is that money for them or you? Reason i ask - my 21 year old didn't qualify being a dependent. He's now making more money than he ever has from unemployment. I can't imagine the windfall and further "working is for suckers" attitude if he gets an additional check above and beyond his unemployment.

From what I've gathered the Republicans are proposing keeping the checks the same way they were.

Didn't the RNC once try to deduct the expense of a trip to a bondage theme strip club?

lol

same people complaining about $600/week

A tweet for everything btw

The Fed continues to flood the market with US dollars. Wrong move.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2011

My situation was all 3 boys still at home. Oldest had a job, didn't lose it. Middle one graduated and actually got a summer job and held it. Neither got anything. I told the oldest that he would have to split whatever he got, and the younger would have to give all of it, but whatever. It was a shitty loophole. It's not like our expenses got smaller because they suddenly turned 18.

They are adults, so technically, they would've gotten the money, but they all understand that money has to go to support the house too.

Posting it here instead of the MLB thread or the non-political thread.. but the thing that drives me bonkers about this as a sports fan is.. Other nations got it right and they're seeing the rewards.

New Zealand had 30K for a rugby game this past weekend. (the league is averaging something like 15K)

Australia: Letting fans back into the stadium for NRL/AFL games

Korea: Letting limited fans back into KBO games

France: Letting limited fans back into the stadium for soccer games.

England: Starting very slowly to allow people back into sporting events (cricket)

USA: "We might have to shut down our major sports league after four days. because roughly two fifths of our population can't stand to wear a mask for a couple hours a day. Because FreeDUMB, I mean Freedom! HERP-A-DERP!"

Here's the thing about American Exceptionalism. We apparently have exceptional idiots as well, and that's not anything to be proud of.

Oh, and the great orange idiot wants to spread it even further because well, STOCK MARKET NUMBER MUST NOT GO DOWN!

:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

Yeah my 21 year old has been getting PAID as well.

The GOP plan that was unveiled today was basically identical as the last time with $500 per dependent with the loophole closed. The dependent can be of any age.

Not a done deal but you have an idea re: dependents.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/27/sena...lus-check.html

It also helps that the big cities are more liberal & have been willing to take some leadership/political heat (or at least Mecklenburg has, idk if the triangle counties have done much unilaterally too). It also helps to have South Carolina & Georgia next door, tough to not look reasonable next to them :lol:

CMS is completely screwed for this fall & doesn't have a coherent plan (allowing football workouts then backtracking on that 2 days later? SMH), but the heat for that is falling on them, no one's even talking about Cooper as long as we don't go back to "Phase 1" type restrictions.

I've been watching Taiwanese baseball for months as they've had it under control for a while

SI

I guess I am a bad liberal, but I do think the $600 a week should be reduced. $300 on top of the state seems better to me.

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I, too, am probably a bad liberal, but I think that they should scrap the enhanced unemployment altogether.

Give every American--regardless of income or employment status--a certain amount every month until unemployment gets below some target number.

Give people the money they need to survive, but do not give any incentive to people not to work.

And the people that don't need the money will spend it on stuff, stimulating the economy.

Not to ruin a good narrative, but UK is one of the worst countries at mask wearing. Much worse than us.

For once an email sent to congressman actually saw a change made. That's good news at least.

This. The government should've been giving out monthly cash to every family period. It's the only thing that will stave off the impending collapse.

I have said it before, but if we got stimulus money every dime would go to a local business.

The problem as I see it is the people getting this money, a large portion anyway, need it to pay bills. That money goes to big business, energy companies, banks for car loans, mortgages, etc...

Give money to people who don't need it for those purposes and a lot more of it will trickle down to the local economy.

IMO it is basically a de facto bail out for corporations.

So in the state of Georgia the maximum weekly unemployment is $365. $665 a week is an annual salary of $34,580 before taxes (and yes, you have to pay taxes on unemployment though some states don't tax them - GA is not one of them) and no benefits. Because of the pandemic plenty of folks who make more than that who have been laid off with no real work to be found.

Now if you have a decent monthly stipend, that prevents having to deal with enhanced unemployment benefits (that's what Canada did), but there is little stomach for that it seems.

Florida is even worse. The 70% replacement of former wages is just a bailout for mostly red states with shitty unemployment systems.

Florida caps unemployment at $275 regardless of what you were making. The system was designed to be broken because Republicans believe there are massive numbers of people sitting around collecting unemployment and not doing anything else. The pandemic has highlighted a lot of ways the GOP has fucked the state over the years. If Biden can't win the state Dems shouldn't consider it a swing state anymore.

FTFY?

SI

Right down to the delaying them again to get Trump's signature?

SI