Ben Carson is a perfect example. He's easily the stupidest smart person I've ever met. He knows damn near everything about neurosurgery, but almost nothing about anything else. His commencement speech at my college was elementary school level at best.

I got a text from the Trump campaign this weekend that Biden was in the pocket of Wall Street. I LOLed on that one.

Sometimes self-preservation can have positive side effects...

GOP senators fear Trump won't step down: Carl Bernstein - New York Daily News

I would have texted them back saying that they spelled trump wrong.

I wish I had saved the text. I think it was something about Trump being Main Street.

Mitt Romney deserves props. He's gone against Trump in public.

These 8-10 nameless GOP Senators don't even have the courage of Susan Collins to say that they are "concerned" in public.

They just talk off the record and act like that's doing something. I guess it might help them sleep better at night.

If only there was something they could have done earlier this year to prevent something like this from happening?

If lie detector or alternate universe, how many would have voted to impeach now knowing how it all turned out. Obviously if Trump wins or narrowly loses and the GOP keeps the Senate, it's pretty clear that all or almost all would vote the same even if he starts World War III.

But let's say Biden does win in a landslide and takes the Senate with him. They know in advance that their party was going down in flaming defeat. And they know that it's because of their ineptitude at handling a pandemic and economic fallout. They still get their 3rd Supreme Court justice, only it's been nominated by Pence instead of Trump.

Like how many of them would have voted for impeachment knowing what they know now (even if it's completely out of self-preservation)? Cory Gardner? Susan Collins? Joni Ernst?

SI

From Trumps first stop in PA


not sure how Trumps untold number of fabrications would rank, but this has to be top 3 :D

This coming from the guy who has spent the majority of the campaign running against the Obama/Hillary ticket.

I wonder how many GOP senators would have voted for impeachment and replaced Trump if they knew then what they know now. In an alternate reality, you have to figure that a President Pence still appoints the judges, still plays up the pro-life movement (only he is sincere with it), but probably does not botch the civil rights and (I'd hope and think not as badly, but I'm not sure based on his handling of HIV in Indiana) his response to coronavirus.

I don't know how the presidential election would play out, with Trump probably going scorched earth trashing the GOP and possibly running again anyway (at least I couldn't find anything that suggests that he couldn't run again if he had been impeached and found guilty by senate). Or if he would hold that against Pence, who has been nothing but loyal and kissed his ass throughout. But, you'd have to wonder if some of these senators that seem to be sweating it now may not be in better shape without Trump driving people to vote against them (do Lindsey Grahm, Joni Ernst, Martha McSally, and Thom Tillis get hammered by the Lincoln Project for protecting Trump?) and if so many Republicans would have come out in favor of Biden.

Dola. Looks like SI beat me to the punch.

Hehehe. Fair point generally speaking, but in the case of two of the folks I was thinking of when I made that comment, that's not the case. The doctor who is acting like, in a gathering of a few hours, it's more likely that teh gay might rub off on his 8-year-old son (who of course will spend soooooo much time hanging out with his 17-year-old cousin, rather than running around with the half-dozen or so other 6-10 year old cousins who'd be present,) than that COVID-19 might spread to one or more of the 10ish over-70 folks who'd be there if it happens, is definitely a bright guy. If he cared at all about sports, he'd probably be a text simmer. (He's definitely a geeky gamer type who is still playing in his late 40s, but falls into the "so geeky he doesn't even like sports" space.)


They call them "irrational fears" for a reason, I guess. But I don't get it at all.

I'll never quite get why President Pence wasn't an acceptable alternative for GOP Senators. The dude is as dyed-in-the-wool-GOP as you can get.

While we're in alternate realities, imagine the world where the Republicans are about to retake the House and WH, primarily because the Hillary Virus has killed 60,000 Americans and caused 20% of poor people to lose their jobs.

The virus probably originated in her emails.

Depends on how far the Senate went. The Constitution allows for not just removal from office, but disqualification from being an officer of the United States going forward, but disqualification isn't automatic.

If the Senate had voted to remove him, precedent holds that they would have had to hold a separate vote to disqualify him from future office-holding.

I don't think we're getting out of our end-of-the-empire death spiral that our country is on right now. But, if we somehow do, we will look back on this virus as being fortuitous in a lot of ways.

SI

GOP Senator's were way too afraid of being primaried to ever go against Trump. Most will still be afraid to speak against him even if he loses until his popularity drops in the party. Doesn't matter if they will lose the general if they can't even win a nomination. Trump's 90% approval rate among Republicans has to crater, or he will still completely control the party.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Yeah, even if he loses big, he's going to have a good chunk of the GOP who are going to be faithful to him. You likely will have folks like Hawley try to take up the Trump mantle and try to win favor - at least for the next decade.

irrational fear scenario-
Trump breaks from the GOP after 2022, runs as an independent, causes some more fucking insane than this election in 2024 and the house reluctantly approves GOP nominee Ted Cruz by virtue of nobody getting 270 votes.

"In a powerful and moving ceremony, GOP Senators observed 12 minutes of silence to commemorate the 12 Americans who died earlier this year in a Seattle nursing home from the Coronavirus infection that originated in Wuhan, China.

"President Clinton has said that the Pandemic Response team established by President Obama 'did it's job, and did it well' and indicated that the virus could have been a lot worse without the United States' early intervention.

"But Senator Ted Cruz seemed to capture the mood of many in the room when he said 'Even one unnecessary American death is one too many.'"

Fifteen thousand Benghazis.

You know, playing with Ben's hypo:

If Trump had lost and Hillary handled COVID well but not perfectly.

Everyone would have said something like "You know, Trump had a lot of faults. But the guy is a xenophobe and a germaphobe. Whatever else he might have done, he would have freaked out so much about a virus from China that you know it never would have gotten here."

That couldn't ever happen.

Everybody hates Ted Cruz.

Heh. You ain't lyin'.

I don't know where you're living, but this IS exactly what happened in our world. Nothing else is even possible. :confused:

Oh, I know. But in the reality we're in, if the GOP stands up to Trump and at least shuts down a potential Constitutional crisis, that will be a good thing.

Because most of their constituents still supported Trump and America is highly anti-impeachment and similar remedies in general. You don't get elected the Senate and/or stay there by not doing what the electorate wants you to.

I know obscenity when I see it.

Barrett officially confirmed.

This shocks me and tells me the dems are ball-less. How can they get over run twice in 2 election cycles. Shame on them.

i no rite!

What would you have liked them to do?

Right. I mean literally every Dem voted no.

Where was their fillibuster?

You can't filibuster SCOTUS justices anymore.

It was eliminated for SCOTUS justices during the Gorsuch nomination.

Yeah. This is totally the Democrat's fault. :rolleyes:

Dems are ball less if they don't respond if they win the Senate and WH. Right now though, there's nothing they can do.

Donald—I appreciate the free publicity for Borat! I admit, I don’t find you funny either. But yet the whole world laughs at you.

I’m always looking for people to play racist buffoons, and you’ll need a job after Jan. 20. Let’s talk!https://t.co/itWnhJ8TQF

— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) October 24, 2020

Paul Harvey explaining our world today from 1965. Great listen

PAUL HARVEY FREEDOM TO CHAINS 1965 (BEST VERSION) - YouTube

Division gets us exactly what we deserve. In this case a 6-3 conservative SCOTUS.

Well done, GOP, well done.

Trickle down may not work, but Reagan was fantastic

This. And do it immediately and point to the decision on the ACA, once that is made in the next few weeks, over and over again.

As I watched that video< i began to think. Are we products of our president? Meaning, I was 13-21 under Reagan. Imagine the people under Clinton. A different generation and a different time in politics. then think of the kids under Bush and Obama.

Does this lead to diviciveness?

And thus the nation died in a whimper of hypocrisy.

I think it has an impact. It doesn't determine anything all on its own - people make their own choices. But a lot of people are closer than we'd like to admit at swerving one way or the other on respect for others, general view of politics and society, tribalism, etc. Leadership definitely can give them a push, for good or ill. Someone to aspire to and inspire them, or someone to not become like at any cost.

Don't be absurd Izulde. When it comes to that kind of thing, the nation died a long time ago. This is just the latest in a multiple decades-long process. It's not the first, and it won't be the last indignity on the path away from the rule of law.

I'm pretty sure there's good research showing that a lot of people develop their political leanings as a response to what was happening in their HS and college years. That's why Gen X has a strong GOP lean and why the GOP is fucked due to Bush, Obama, and Trump.