This is what has me most concerned for this election. Well, what currently has me most concerned, I’m sure something else horrible will happen soon.

All media is strictly for profit now, and creating tabloid fodder has been Trump’s main business for decades. He’ll be the lead every time, because more people tune in for that. It’s the same reason Twitter and Facebook will never actually get rid of the conspiracy and hate speech. Companies that exist solely to make money don’t refuse when people insist on giving them money.

To Withhold or Not: Trump's Order Gives Employers a New Dilemma

SMH

I think that is the perfect definition of this administration in a microcosm.

The rollout itself may be expensive and time consuming for businesses. The payroll tax rate does not usually change in the middle of the year, Isberg said, and the shift would require businesses to reprogram computer systems that can be balky.


“Things of this magnitude normally take six months or so for orderly programming,” Isberg said. “So there will be some employers that just never get this done just from a technical perspective if they have systems that are old or difficult to maintain.”


In addition, by focusing on people who are employed, the measure fails to address the needs of the roughly 16 million Americans without jobs, some of whom are on the verge of losing their homes and cars.

Connecting to virtually everything in this conversation now... there was a time when I now realize how little I understood about the effects of "election meddling" and "social media manipulation" and "fake news." I'm not sure I was 100% of the way there, but my p.o.v. wasn't too far away from "hey, as long as they're not hacking in and changing votes, then i guess free speech and fair play and all that."

I suppose it has taken time, for an old never-Facebook person like me, to understand just how pervasive the forces of manipulated media and pseudo social presence is on people. The relative uniformity with which the people who years ago clicked on an article about, say, Obama's birth certificate are now so heavily in line on the "my science says masks don't do anything, and also not wearing one is suddenly my most important freedom" team... it's just stunning and awesome.


I don't really understand or comprehend what in this should be "illegal" (even setting aside foreign actors being a root source) but wow, it's a big fucking deal.

They just need to take that trillion dollars (or more) they're proposing and just send $1000 checks every month to every adult. For a trillion dollars it would last 5 months by my napkin math.

What about the dead people?! You'll send $1000s to dead people!!

Wait, we are sending checks via USPS? They can't be trusted with that type of money flowing through it.

Just think of all the fraudulent transactions when people steal a chunk of checks!

You send $1000 per person. Or you send $1000 per adult and $500 per child. I think this was very nearly my response when this hit. That the government would need to print and send money to everyone just to keep the economy afloat. Getting cute with tax cuts, and incentives, and whatever is not helping enough. A simple, short term solution is necessary.

They did spend a lot of money. Just gave it to the wealthiest people.

Wouldn't the wealthiest people have ended up with the money anyway? At least your way helps everyone else too.

I don't think Rainmaker was disagreeing, just saying the way it was done as opposed to giving everyone a stipend made it just go to the top.

I know that Sanders and Harris introduced a bill to give everyone $2000 a month. Do that and you don't have to worry about extended unemployment benefits arguments as well.

However, I would like to see the federal government help States and localities as well who are dealing with a lot more expenses and less tax amounts.

Let the local/state governments tax the stipend checks.

Also these taxes will be owed next year the article stated so people are recommended to save the "extra" money now to be able to pay the money everyone will owe next you do to this. That is if their particular employer even does this.

Some hopeful results for my fellow South Carolina Democrats-they had a special election today for a state Representative to replace a Republican who got a new job as a US Attorney, The District had strongly gone Republican for Trump and before him Romney. Not only did she beat the Republican, she did so by about 20 points. She will only hold the seat for 3 months, but her opponent in Nov will be the same one she just beat. So have faith, Lindsey Graham can lose in November too!

And the GOP is guaranteed a big Q supporter in congress with the GA14 results.

I am so proud that my state regularly produces these right-wing nut jobs.

That actress was great


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I said this a couple months ago, but I realize I was wrong. If there is no election, then the GOP loses their Senate majority on January 3rd. The Dems would then select the new President Pro Tempore. By tradition, it's the longest serving Senator int he majority party, which would be Pat Leahy. But there's nothing requiring that.

That was pretty amazing

I think this is one for the political thread.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...n-billy-woods/

Washington PostWashington Post
‘This is no longer a debate’: Florida sheriff bans deputies, visitors from wearing masks
Florida set a new record with 217 covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, while Marion County also set its own record for daily deaths with 13. (64 kB)

“We can debate and argue all day of why and why not. The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn’t,” Woods wrote in the email.

The GOP and Trump so far today,

- We love the Q woman from GA, she's our future!
- Is Kamala black or simply tan?
- Scarey black men are going to make you live next to other scarey black people

I'm at least comforted in that I'm pretty sure a George Wallace campaign can't win nationally.

edit- Just saw a new one.

-One of Kamala's ancestors owned slaves, so she's not really black.

If there's no election, then arcane Senate rules go out the window.

If there's no election, then the President will be whoever has the best combination of will to power/popular support/military & law enforcement support.

Here's something that occurs to me. It does not strike me as likely, but it does not strike me as impossible either.

As the election draws near, Trump looks very likely to lose.

So, a few days before the election, he declares that the whole thing is "hopelessly rigged" and then orders his supporters not to vote.

So he (and the GOP) loses in a mega-landslide. But he can go the rest of his days saying that he "would have won" if the results had not been corrupted.

This would devastate the GOP downballot, but Trump does not care about that.

I can't see this guy giving up like that. He wants the power that comes with the job. He is going to use that power to keep the job, no matter what it takes, right or wrong.

That would be awesome. I’m more inclined he’ll litigate if can’t steal the election.

I figure after the election if all is lost, he scorch Earth and then quit and have Pence fully pardon him and then he’ll Twitter, rally and talk show on how everything the Democrats will do is a failure while Pence is left to manage the transition.

They are just determined to prove to us that they don't understand racism.

This particular idiocy is being promoted by D'Souza. You'd think a person of Indian descent would understand the idea of British masters raping women of color.

D'Souza is a bootlicker of the highest order. He recently was trying to convince people that the British, Australians, and Indians pronounce Thailand as "Thigh-land" because Trump mispronounced the country's name. Which let to a bunch of Brits, Aussies, and Indians saying: No we don't.

I think it’s more they are determined to prove to the base that they will never acknowledge racism.

Only way I can see this happening is if his poll numbers are so low that its pulling all R's down ballot too, and they desperately cut their ties to Trump to try to squeak out a win. Trump's ego won't be able to handle such "disrespect" that he says "F&*! you all then" and laughs at them on the way out.

Trump will never admit defeat. That's one thing I know for certain. The only way that he loses is a "rigged election". He will drag this out in the courts afterwards. The chad counting in Florida in 2000 will look like nothing.

For as crappy as a number of months of this year have been, November and December have potential to be the worst. Buckle in?

SI

I've been saying for months that I am dreading Thanksgiving/Christmas with relatives because it's gonna suck when all of this political crap is going on. I got through a 3 day visit with my parents a couple of weeks ago, but 4-5 days with an election controversy is going to be very uncomfortable.

This is the price for everyone having a voice. The stupid/wrong/crazy/deceitful voices are indistinguishable from the rest. We have so much information that we're paralyzed by "both sides-ing" every single issue, because there is a purported "expert" voice for any argument you want to make on any issue.

Like QS said, I don't know how you police any of this, but the fact that there are differing viewpoint on science isn't new. But 50 years ago, the quacks didn't have the opportunity to reach as many people as they do today. And if they happen to say something that fits your politics or opinion or whatever, then they become your justification for refusing to go along with the vast majority of experts.

Authoritarianism of some sort will eventually be the answer. The only questions to my mind is how long until we accept that, and what form it takes. The civic requirements of a free society are ones we stopped pretending to accept responsibility for some while ago - not that we were ever fully accepting of them, but I do think it was quite a bit better than it is now.

One of my more (I think) radical proposal is that Sheriffs should be appointed by governors. It is silly to elect law enforcement officers.

There will be upwards of a dozen states involved this time instead of one. This is going to be a nightmare scenario.

Biden isn't a great speaker, but five minutes of him talking just obliterates all of the conservative taunts of his mental failings.

I'm really not sure who the GOP is trying to reach with the "not black enough" thing.

Trying to sway Biden voters to Kanye.

30% Trump, 30% Biden, regardless of the polls.

What 40% do the candidates get out? Pro black or pro White.

That is the election.

That's the only thing that makes sense, but if he's taken off the ballot in Wisconsin it's a hell of a lot of money and effort wasted by the GOP to bleed what's likely an insignificant number of voters away from Biden.

Unless something drastic happens it comes down to how many votes the GOP can keep from getting counted.

538 has Biden's chances at 71% and they've pointed out that polls adjusted in ways that would favor Trump after 2016 and they're skeptical those changes were needed. RCP has Biden's chances at 60%.

When I typed that I didn't even know if I was joking or not.

I think there's an idea in conservative circles that its dishonest to hold someone out as "the first black" this or that unless they're 100% African-American. I do remember Obama getting a little of that. Rush Limbaugh called him a "Hafrican American". He thought that appealed to his audience. Obviously those weren't swing voters. But whenever being diverse is portrayed as a positive thing, that seems to be their knee-jerk response.

Not sure where they're going with this. Her father is Jamaican and her mother is Indian, so she's the second biracial person in history to be on a presidential ticket.

Surely Trump’s trying to work his way towards this?

Trump WH is going on the attack against a GOP Rep that said QAnon was garbage.

Burn down the whole damned party and start over.

Who knew that "one drop" rule would come back to bite white America in the ass 100 years later?

Yeah, they're turning anti-miscegenation laws on their heads. 1/32 white counts as not black.