We've had a front row seat to a President who excels at this. To the tune of 230K+ dead, in one particular instance of "planting the flag."

Newsflash, the threat of violence is indeed violence. I think you need to consider the possible outcomes. Wave guns and try to run somebody off the road, there are many possible pathways to death and/or serious injury. I'm shocked you are brave enough to admit on a public message board that attempting to run somebody off the road with weapons flashing is not a violent act. Maybe this is why people feel emboldened to do these things, because they have bothsiderists telling them it's not that big a deal.

This.behavior.is.not.ok. Attempting to run people off the road for campaigning is a sickness.

On a side note, there were idiots on I-75 yesterday with Trump flags draped all over their cars speeding up and slowing down while weaving in and out of traffic. I'm not really sure what they were trying to accomplish, but it could have ended badly for them or innocent people on the highway.

Twitter


There will be so much scorched Earth, Biden won't be able to do anything but fix the most blatant BS for a year.

And if anybody can't see the hypocricy of calling sth installed by educational institutions "Indoctrination" and the turning around and then doing this i don't know what to say to that person.

Finally, truth from a Trumper!

Welp.

Looks like Candace Owens flubbed her talking point.

Owens: "You are either on the side of mob rule or you are on the side of law and order. And I am on the side of mob rule. Tomorrow, I'll be casting my ballot for Donald J. Trump."

Tucker: "Amen. Nicely put." pic.twitter.com/9n1TnBtRTZ

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 3, 2020

fox viewers don't know what the word mob means so it's okay

trumplethinskin promised he would never visit Michigan if he loses today, I hope he extends that promise to California as well.

I hope he makes that promise to America.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1307491919384260609

SI

Now that would be one policy decision of his that I would fully support.

Uncle Joe swooping in with the zinger!

HAHAHA!

No bigger boat. pic.twitter.com/SiKSzffjqu

— Brad. (@bradmiska) November 3, 2020

Oh man that is fantastic!

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN27J0G0

Interesting if accurate.

" Deutsche Bank AG is looking for ways to end its relationship with President Donald Trump after the U.S. elections, as it tires of the negative publicity stemming from the ties, according to three senior bank officials with direct knowledge of the matter."

I don't think there's anything appreciably brave about expressing opinions on a message board. I'd say in fact that one pays a bigger price for withholding what they think due to fear of the reaction of others.

But more on point, I was explicit multiple times that I wasn't bothsidering, it was a big deal, the behavior isn't close to ok, etc. We seem to be in this strange situation where if something considered objectionable or ridiculous is said, it doesn't matter at all what else they said, we can just assume the worst (while quoting contrary statements they made even). Certainly my flaws as a poster might have some to do with this, but not much IMO given that I've seen this treatment handed out to others as well.

This has all pushed me past a tipping point; I don't think there is any point in me posting contrary opinions around here for the most part anymore. An increasing number of posters I respect have flatly stated they aren't interested in engaging opinions from people who don't share their core assumptions. I come here to have those assumptions challenged and to learn from people who think differently than I do; it's probably best that I find another place to do that, since it's not what a large proportion of the posters here appear to value.

If I was getting called out on ridiculous stuff I said constantly, I'd want to leave too

I don't want to come off like a dick, because I value a lot of what you post, but you may get a better response if you aren't constantly trying to come across as the smartest guy in the room. (and yes, I know a lot of you already think I am a dick)

That's ridiculous! I'm calling you out!

For the most part I don't get this - and relative to the last statement, I don't think you are.

I have admitted multiple times when I've been convinced by someone's argument that I've been wrong. I have often made reference to good points others have made, or explicitly complimented their intelligence, etc. From my perspective, I'm not sure it's possible for me to go much further in that direction without sacrificing honesty and straightforwardness in what I say.

FWIW, I think there are plenty of moderate left/right willing to engage in a conversation. For the others, just ignore them and they'll ignore you.

TBH this board reminds me more and more of the old Emo Phillips joke, to the point where I regularly just don’t post rather than spend the next ten posts ‘justifying’ what is usually largely in agreement with those piling on...

Dola, to emphasise the point, this is the third or fourth time I’ve thought about posting this, but the first time I have.

Largely as although I don’t agree always with Brian, I think he gets a unfair reaction to a lot of his posts, and it would be a shame to see him leave

It is why I rarely post anymore.

But its just a microcosm of the US. We agree on a good many things, whether right or left, but you go a smidge outside of the norm and you are vilified.

The internet is just a lousy & frutrating communication medium. It's super easy to generate some kind of primal anger/offense & practically impossible to get the opposite kind of positive emotional response.

Brian certainly makes me think. I disagree and get frustrated as hell with his rigid viewpoints, but he does make me consider my own points of view and challenge myself. Edward can, at times do that, but that they are willing to engage in conversation is a good thing.

+1

I post in these threads less than I used to, but I hope you keep posting too Brian!

I just wanted to apologize for being over the top critical specifically of Brian in the last couple of pages. Was being an edgy jerk and even I though I do disagree, didn't need to go full pit bull

No masks being worn by poll workers in at least one rural Minnesota township.

Voter suppression?

Trump now at -330 odds

Thanks for all your thoughts. I'm not leaving completely, I just don't plan on arguing nearly as much, reading more, asking questions more. I appreciate what Butter said as well - people being critical of my opinions though doesn't bother me that much. I wouldn't be here if it did - clearly someone of my persuasions doesn't post on this forum for the purpose of validation :).

Thanks for mentioning me.

You see? There are moderates (or at least non-radical leftists) on this board willing to engage in a discussion, accept that honest people can have honest differences of opinion!

Saw this somewhere...

Trump loses and in these last 3 months he kicks Pence to the curb, appoints Ivanka VP and resigns to make her POTUS so that as a family they can capitalize on her being the first woman POTUS.

I think there's a lot on the table and there's probably a 50/50 chance he does something to get a pardon on the way out the door.

He can't fire the VP.

I don't think that it is likely, but I could see a world where he has just enough of a frivolous lawsuit claim that he agrees to drop it and step down in exchange for immunity from all state and federal prosecution for him and his kids. I don't think that it could be an enforceable agreement. But if you got Biden agreeing, there'd be a ton of pressure on, say, New York State to publicly agree as well.

I probably won't get much agreement here, but I think a lot of republican senators are secretly delighted that Biden is going to become President. In many ways, they'll have a better relationship with Biden than they did with Trump.

I think it is a safe assumption that many of them will be glad to not have to pander and support that POS anymore.

Someone else said earlier. They still have the Senate and the SCOTUS. They're happy.

Mitch got everything he wanted last night

SI

Yup.

What did Trump give them?

Great turnout in Presidential election years and motivated Dems during the mid-terms.

And, if the GOP lost the Senate, Trump could have prevented things like reforming the Courts, House, etc.

And, of course, he gave them judges and justices.

They no longer need him for any of those things.

They can't throw him to the curb too hard, but I think that they think that they are better off being in opposition right now than continuing to take the blame for things.

Absolutely. Being the last line of defense against the Dem President is a much better look than having to defend Trump.

I think you will get a lot of agreement on that. They know what Trump is and will be glad he is gone.

Agree. This is McConnell's dream scenario.

I don't think you will get much disagreement at all. I think you would get much more push back if you had said the opposite. This is the problem many on the left had with Biden and with Democrats in general. When the Democrats have power, they have to listen and cooperate with Republicans. When Republicans are in power, they are not expected to listen to the other side because that is what the people voted for.

He's going to find out quickly how little support he has from congress and GOP members with any political ambition. Scott Walker has already said unless the numbers change drastically in the remaining votes a recount is pointless.

Voting demographics aren't complete yet but one more key thing Trump gave the GOP, momentum of the FL hispanic vote (and possibly in other states also).

Only 66.9% turnout estimated.

What the heck would take people to come out and vote? I'd like to know the post mortem polling on why people did not vote.

Estimate shows record voter turnout in 2020 presidential election - Vox

The very next sentence that you didn't bold said this" the highest rate since 1900, when 73.7 percent of the population turned out to vote".

Not sure what your expectations are, but anything above 60% should be considered solid turnout. Especially during a pandemic.

The last election to go over 60% was 1968.

Exactly. 67% is an extremely high number by any relevant comparative measure.

Some people don't care enough to bother. Some think there's no meaningful difference between the candidates, they're all corrupt, doesn't matter what clown's in there, etc. Some think that by voting, they're validating a system that is against them. There are all manner of reasons.

Can't say I've ever heard one that convinced me it was a good reason, but there are lots of bad ones. .

What kept them from throwing him out when they had the chance to impeach Trump?
Or am I disinformed and it wasn't up to them?

Their constituents?

Part of the problem with turnout is a lot of our votes simply don’t matter. I voted, but nothing I voted on was ever up for debate. Trump was always winning Indiana and Pence was always winning the house seat. There were no contested local elections or any initiatives on the ballot. I feel like outside of a few states most of us are probably in this same situation.

It would help if we stopped throwing people off of voting rolls and made it easier to vote. It was really easy for me to vote in Texas and you saw we had high turnout. Make it a Saturday, mandate the amount of polling places per population and distance from residences (so you don't get the whole shenanigans with certain areas having 5 hour lines and others having no wait) - but these things are features not bugs.

SI

They were afraid of in turn being thrown out themselves if they voted for impeachment. This is a big reason why the 17th amendment was bad. Previously, senators were answerable to the state legislatures. They had a bit more of a free hand because they were not up for elections. Currently, they are at the whims of the people. Yes, there were issues with appointing Senators before, but you in theory had more institutional knowledge and less of a demand to tear down Senate institutions than what you have today.

Side note, but one of the reasons why super majorities for some votes were nice was it kept us from lurching one direction then another when public opinion shifted a couple of %. When you had to get to 60%, there was a lot more horse trading and a lot more moderation. As the number of votes that require the super majority goes down, you get the swings we have seen, and all this doom and gloom because the wind of public opinion shifted slightly.

I said back then, the impeachment set a bad precedent because the evidence for impeachment was lacking. There is more solid evidence linking Biden to the stuff in the Ukraine than there ever was with Trump.

The tin foil hat part of me thinks that is part of the greater plan to get Harris in office. Biden wins the election because he is relatively harmless or won't generate the negatives Hillary did, then you force him out with the scandal and you get your preferred candidate all along in Harris. If they ran Tim Kaine with Biden I probably would have voted for him (again depending upon their platform, but a Biden-Kaine would in theory be moderate enough for me).

Exactly who prefers Harris? Her star faded after that cringeworthy "that little girl was me" moment in the primary debate.

Is is the far left that can't stand that she was a prosecutor with a bit of a sketchy history and views her as part of the problem of the center of the party like Biden or the middle that still has more than its fair share of racism and sexism and is like "I can't see a black woman as VP and Biden is so old"?

SI

...writes things like the above.

Wait

A government IG found the complaint against Trump valid enough to investigate yet Biden's link to Ukraine which largely came from the Steve Bannon opposition research group that brought us hits such as "Hillary sold our Uranium to Ukraine" is more valid?

There's as much evidence linking Biden as there is linking Hillary to the basement in a pizza parlor.

Harris didn't come close to winning a primary. It's absurd to see her as the "preferred candidate."

Harris as the "preferred" candidate is right wing talking point. It is all over that this was just a way to sneak Harris into the presidency. It is ridiculous, but it helps scare the white people.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Trump isn't getting much support from his fellow republicans.

"Claiming you've won the election is different from finishing the counting." - Mitch McConnell

"The votes will be counted and you will either win or lose," Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger replied to Trump on Twitter. "When the results are confirmed, we must accept the outcomes with respect for our democracy."

"Regardless of where you stand on this race and what party you are and who you voted for, most Americans really want a free and fair election process, and they want us to count the votes." - Gov. Larry Hogan

"It's best for everyone to step back from the spin and allow the vote counters to do their job." - Sen. Mike Lee

"Under our Constitution, state legislatures set the rules and states administer our elections. We should respect that process and ensure that all ballots cast in accordance with state laws are counted. It's that simple." - Sen. Rob Portman

"Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud." - Sen. Marco Rubio

Utah's Republican Gov.-elect Spencer Cox called the Trump campaign's claims "garbage" and said "there is nothing nefarious about it taking a few days to count all legitimate votes.

They used him. They kissed up to him. Now they're done with him.

Looks like his kids and Rudy are his go-to surrogates right now, and that's not good for him.

/EndThread

It's coming

She was locking up homeless mothers for truancy violations while Steven Mnuchin openly ran a fraudulent bank throughout the state with impunity.

She is fine for the position, but people can be upset that she was bought and paid for.

Orange is sus, vote him out!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This guy:rolleyes:

After his performance during the Trump administration, he could replace Jey Uso in the current Roman Reigns story line.

Wasn't today supposed to be the day where either:

a) COVID will magically disappear or,
b) An announcement of a readily available vaccine?

Exactly. Now that it looks like he's losing, they have no need for him. Mitch is evil, but he's smart. He knows what he's doing. They have the Senate. They'll be fine and can block anything they want. Another 4 years of Trump could just make the Senate more vulnerable, especially in 2022.

Everyone crunching numbers seems to think Biden will coast to a win in Pennsylvania. If Georgia flips, this might be a fairly large electoral victory.

Yes looking like PA win by 2 points if absentees continue to break like they have, and GA is going to be razor thin but if Biden takes about 70ish% he would probably win though a recount is virtually guaranteed. AK and NC to Trump, but that may be it.

I'm surprised Alaska hasn't been called for trump yet. That state hasn't gone blue since 1960.

I just can't celebrate until all the votes are counted-Biden could still lose

This is definitely me. No celebrating yet. I hope we can soon, but, after 2016, anything can happen.

We came pretty close to big problems last night. Apparently, the DoJ sent out a memo to federal prosecutors that said they could send federal law enforcement into counting locations. Luckily nobody took them up on the offer.

The tell-all stories about this administration will be horrifying. Like those nuclear near-misses we read about from the 70s and 80s.

SI

I know he could still win this one but 2024 NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trump Advisers Reportedly Say He Could Announce a 2024 Run If He Loses to Biden

The Republican Primary in such a scenario would be in freaking sane--every candidate saying what a terrible President teh Donald was, and Trump's campaign firing back with video clip of that candidate praising Trump.

I called this on Sportsdigs two weeks ago. It follows his behavior, and isn't a surprise at all. You can add that WHEN he does this, he will not abide by the precedent of previous presidents staying quite, and will weigh in with criticism multiple times per day, every day, in every media that will give give him time.

I wonder if the party will even have primaries in 2024 or just skip them like they did this year.

On the other hand, there are probably also clips of the candidates saying terrible things about Trump pre-2016 election.

Shouldn't the only reason for Trump to be scared about the election being rigged be based on being convinced the previous election was also rigged?

Of course he is. He can grift for four more years from rubes.

He needs to pay off those loans somehow.

I think the interesting thing to watch should he lose is how Fox News handles him. Do they let him call and take up 90 minutes on Fox & Friends? Is Hannity still his best buddy? He won't willingly go away, but will he have the same pulpit?

The contesting the election thing made Jill Stein a lot of money, and I'm sure Trump can do much better than her.

My wife and I talked about this over the last week. She almost wants him to win just so we'll be done with him since he wouldn't be able to run again.

You know that won't stop him, right? This is a man who has already talked about trying to get rid of the 2 term limits and clearly has no regard for things like rule of law, at least as it pertains to him

SI

Plus, with Trump, I'd never be to comfortable with him living another 4 years. Not a health nut.

I've always said if he managed to remove term limits then Obama just comes back and runs against him.

I don't think he makes it alive to 2024. If he is still alive, he won't have it upstairs to handle it.

We really need the press to ignore him. They're the reason why he was ever elected in the first place. Had they not given him as much run as they did, he never would have gotten elected.

Sadly this didn't work well here in SC with Harrison and others showing Lindsay doing this, so not sure it would even matter to Republicans

That would be... well, that would be amazing.

SI

This led me to try to figure out what city will eventually host Donald J. Trump International (?) Airport.

Yeah, I know. I mentioned that. We both just sighed and pretended that couldn't possibly happen....

I think it's more likely that a different Trump is running in 2024 due to the President's age.

Atlantic City?

SI

"Presidential Library? Why can't I build it in Central Park?"

SI

i believe you should have to read a book before you get a library.

Actually, I'm an idiot. It's so obvious: The West Palm Beach Mar-A-Lago Donald J. Trump International, no, Intergalactic Airport and Spaceport!

SI

Didn't stop Dubya from getting one

SI

I don’t want him to run, but forcing his GOP enablers to deal with him in the 2024 primaries would be the punishment they so richly deserve. I mean, now that I think about it, isn’t this the obvious answer to my poll? Whenever it becomes clear that his court challenges aren’t going to work, he just claims fraud, announces his 2024 candidacy against the rigged, corrupt system, and starts doing rallies as early as December. Heck, why wouldn’t he hold a rally at the same time as the inauguration?