On the flip side, I wonder if this causes any fringe-left Biden supporters to stay at home and not vote.

I think they are probably just considering one of them for the "Republican" in the Cabinet. Kind of like how Bill Cohen was Bill Clinton's SecDef.

It's a balance.

From what I can tell from my pretty-far-left Twitter feed, most liberals are still going to hold their nose and vote for Biden. I think that he's got a bit of wiggle room with them. Not sure how much.

Btw, is it ANY coincidence that the leaked Republicans being considered for Cabinet positions are from Ohio, Arizona, and Florida? Just sayin...

Hehe, that is an amazing coincidence (TIC)

It could play well here n AZ, Flake is not loved by either left or right here, but has the respect of the moderates and if any are still on the fence, that could definitely help a bit here.

And Kasich / Bernie was my hope for 2016, and a lot of my more center friends like Kasich as well.

In general, Biden's lead is driven by moderates who are sick of Trump.

Regardless of how he plans to govern, I think that he would be foolish to start talking like a radical leftist at this point.

That's my thought. But I'll admit to not being in tune with the far left...:D

A great story about the crazy race in Georgia with the nutcase QAnon lady, and the average dude who ran against her, and how and why he quit is campaign after 31 days.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...a/?arc404=true

It helps that there's no Jill Stein/Ralph Nader type person to get any traction with the far left. Howie Hawkins just isn't making much of an impression.

It also may be one of the more ridiculous names running for office, which kind of helps people not take him seriously ;).

I'm still hoping that Al Franken and Jill Stein run together.

That ticket would be a monster.

The only a Republican can be Sec Def shit needs to end.

Say what? Leon Panetta and Ash Carter were both Democratic SecDefs under Obama.

But it's been a thing going back to Clinton. That's been where they've often stashed the GOP cabinet member. Dems need a clear stance on defense with Dems implementing those policies at the Pentagon.

That's literally just two Administrations... and in Obama's defense, Gates was highly respected among Republicans and Democrats when Obama decided to keep him. And Hagel, while a Republican Senator was actually filibustered by Senate Republicans because he wanted to cut defense funding and wanted to have talks with Hamas and Hezbollah.

Lesley Stahl was mean to me! Waaaaa! Waaaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaa!

Where do you think the token Republican should go in the cabinet instead of Defense, or do you think Biden should just not appoint one at all?

That's about all the Dems have had since 1968.

edit: I knew McNamara was a Republican, but I didn't realize Truman also had a GOP Sec Def for over a year.

Um... you missed one... :D

Kasich should obviously be Secretary of the Treasury ;).

(Flake could be Interior I guess)

"About all"

I don't know anything about Carter's Sec Def, but he was listed as Independent.

I don't think this matters to most people left of me that I am consuming content from. For most of those folks, the decision is whether Trump is bad enough to vote not-Trump. Once that decision is made, not much else matters.

I don't think having an opposition party member in the cabinet makes much sense without the opposition party also supporting some portion of the in power party's agenda. There's immediately either a question of loyalty or the person ends up basically out of the opposition party ala Hagel. It makes sense in a situation like WW2, but in ordinary times, it's just largely ineffective political messaging.

But with Sec Def, specifically, Dems need to have a clear policy agenda in regards to Defense and Homeland Security. Repeatedly handing that position to the GOP builds a narrative that Dems aren't qualified to run defense.

Since I just mentioned following some folks left of me... I am not really sure how many types of people or what definitions exist, but I make note of two types of people for the most part:


socialists: supported sanders in the primary, would be okay with democratic socialism but feels like a guy like Bernie is nowhere near left enough ideally. Sees no benefit to a moderate like Biden, other than not being Trump. A biden administration has no hope of progressing any of this person's core values. The vote is only about whether there is a real and pressing need to remove Trump from office.

black/native activists: Biden is not in favor of serious change to any structures of governance that uphold institutional racism. I definitely see some folks who will not be voting at all here. From the perspective of institutional white supremacy, no difference between Trump and Biden. Both of them will uphold the current level of institutional oppression. This does not, of course, speak to Trump the individual human being as a white supremacist, so most are voting, and voting Biden for this reason, kids in cages, that kind of thing. But I think the general perspective here is that these kinds of awful things and eye opening things to some of us are not really new at all, and yes they are horrible, but not as far away from the norm as many of us like to pretend.


Thus my takeaway that once the "not trump" decision has been made, there's really not a lot that could change it.

Makes sense JPhillips, thanks. I definitely agree with all of that. I don't think they should feel obligated or whatever to appoint someone who isn't the best person for whatever job they need done.

LOL. A convenient way to ignore an entire Democratic administration. Harold Brown is listed as an independent because he never ran for office (he was a scientist of physics), but was raised in a Democratic family and worked in Democratic administrations.

Also Gates and Hagel weren't the only Republicans in Obama's cabinet anyways. LaHood was Obama's Transportation Secretary (After W appointed a Democrat as Transportation Secretary).

So this he's going to make a Republican SecDef seems to be putting the cart before the horse.

lol

I'm not saying he's going to, I'm saying he shouldn't.

You've got to be shitting me

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncn...mpression=true


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Oh this is fun:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/u....co/3F2kJfXzJm

Trump has a Chinese bank account and has paid more in taxes to China than the US.

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They know they won't get paid otherwise.

Biden needs to work this in multiple times Thursday

"WHERE ARE THE KID'S PARENTS DONALD?"

I've done several wave and honk things now. And whenever there is an obvious trump supporter they always and i mean always shout angrily at me. It's so gross. Why is that their entire platform.

When all you have is unjustified anger, everything looks like a lib to yell at.

So the trumpent has a Chinese bank account? New York Times: Tax records show Trump maintains Chinese bank account

And things like this: Trump's business appears to have cut Matt Gaetz a RNC hotel discount that went unreported to the FEC Really makes it even easier to understand why the republican controlled Senate is so willing to rubber stamp pretty much anything trump wants or say...vote No on impeachment/removal from office or appoint a clearly unqualified judge (that can't even name some of the most basic rights of the 1st Amendment) to the Supreme Court.

Fox reports in this thread (contra the lead story on Fox home page) that the FBI may be eyeing the Mac repairman as a *target* rather than a cooperator and that the prospect of foreign interference re: the Hunter Biden laptop is still very much in play >>> https://t.co/pcn78RaqUz

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 21, 2020

Guiliani/Borat - 2020 just continues to horrify.

Considering the GOP's recent track record, it's safe to say if they're the ones accusing others of a pedophilia problem we can make an educated guess on where the problem really is.

It's hard to remember just how revered Rudy was after 9/11. People would tear up with joy and respect just invoking his name.

There should be a mandatory retirement age of 65 for all public figures. For their own sakes.

I always wonder about guys like Rudy and Chris Christie. They were moderates who had sigificant bipartisan support during their electoral successes. Then suddenly they went full Trump and abandoned their previous ideas. What I wonder is if they really were moderates who changed or were they just playing to their NY/NJ electorate while hiding their true beliefs?

The whole thing is unclear, but I don't think he believed she was under-aged. The actress playing Borat's daughter is in her 20s and was playing his daughter portraying a conservative journalist interviewing him, but until Borat busts in and makes the joke that she's 15 and too old for him, there's nothing that's been released that suggests he thought he was 15.

But I guess we'll find out from the movie.

That very well could be the case. I admitedly skimmed through it while on a break and I thought he knew she was 15.

Watch interviews with Rudy 10 years ago compared to now. His changes are strikingly similar to Trump's.

The woman that works for him that he was sexualizing in his Chinese voice video was a high school student last year.

That would have been nice. From other sources, the argument I've heard is this:

** Congress set the date for the election over 150 years ago.

** The Pennsylania court decision requires ballots to be accepted after that date, including mandating a presumption they were sent on time if there isn't evidence to the contrary.

** This puts that court in a position of contradicting the date Congress established.

** Equal protection - any extension of the federally determined voting date done in Pennsylvania is discriminatory if it doesn't apply to all states.

Many states already allow votes to be counted as long as they are postmarked by election day. Actually you would think equal protection would force all states to do the same. This argument really boils down to almost the abortion argument. "When is a vote a vote?" Congress set the date that all votes must be made, but that obviously doesn't mean counted (many states counts go way past election day). So, does it mean when the election board gets the vote, or is it when the it is marked and sent? I would say marked and sent, because that shows complete intent to vote.

Drudge has the Rudy pic! Ugh!

As a voter, I only have control over when I mail my vote. I don't know if it will take a day or a month to arrive. The voter should only be responsible for meeting a postmark deadline, not an arrival deadline.