The Race For 2024

[Politesse]

Fascinating. The Party that is currently lecturing us all on the dangers of disunity and political violence thinks vigilantism and murder count as "basic manly virtues" that all young people should aspire to.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

You talk of vigilantism and murder, but instead show a picture of Kyle Rittenhouse. You contradict yourself.

 

[Derec]

Fascinating. The Party that is currently lecturing us all on the dangers of disunity and political violence thinks vigilantism and murder count as "basic manly virtues" that all young people should aspire to.

Ritt did not murder anybody. He was attacked by three people, two of them felons, one of them armed with a firearm, and defended himself.
As they say, better be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

 

[Swammerdami]

Kyle Rittenouse was an immature 17-year old who got a semi-automatic rifle, and traveled to a different state to "protect his community." He then shot and killed three men, at least two of whom were unarmed. The fact that he was (perhaps rightfully) acquitted of depraved-heart murder does not change the fact that he was a vigilante. Stupid as it should seem, some Infidels cannot think beyond a "He was acquitted therefore he is a hero" fallacy. Rittenhouse has since become some sort of YouTube and video-game celebrity.

That this coward is held up by Trump's running mate as an important example of "manly virtue" just reminds us of how sick America's gun culture has become.

There is likely to be serious valence in the aftermath of this year's planned fascist takeover of America. Most do not appreciate how dire things may get; but idolization of thugs like Kyle Rittenhouse should be a reminder of the extreme moral corruption of the Trump movement. Trumpism has no philosophical backing; it is the brain-storm or Charles Koch, Vladimir Putin and QAnon.


ETA: Question for Rittenhouse fans: Is George Zimmerman another of your heroes? Again, attempt to engage your brain. I am NOT asking if his acquittal was rightful.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Also, I seem to remember Brandon lecturing us about how if you got vaccinated you couldn’t catch covid.

Cite?

No vaccine is perfect. The original vaccine was good enough to give herd immunity (assuming enough people got it) against Covid/Wuhan, but against the variants that keep springing up it pretty much just means a milder case.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So is anyone getting actual campaign ads this election season? Like "elect this guy, not that guy, here's the reason why" type ads? I realize I'm a Californian and not a boomer so no one is all that interested in my vote anyhow, but I don't think I've seen a single campaign ad this year as such. Bids for money, yes, Bernie and Obama entreating me that democracy will fall if I don't send them a check tomorrow, yes. But nothing like "As president, I'll do such and such!" No billboards, no internet ads, nothing in the mail. I don't watch broadcast tv, so maybe that's my problem. But I feel like if I didn't already go out of my way to follow politics assiduously, I'd have no idea what either candidates' positions even were. Where is all of this fundraising money even going? Ohio, I guess.

I've seen one when I happened to be near my wife's iPad.

 

[ZiprHead]

Shocker Poll Suggests Trump’s Lying May Be Huge Weakness for Him

One possible reason the polls haven’t moved as much as pundits expected: Voters still don’t like or trust Trump. Can the Democrats shift the focus to that?

newrepublic.com

A new Marist poll takes the novel step of asking registered voters which is more off-putting in an occupant of the Oval Office: dishonesty or excessive age. The results are surprising, and along with other polling along these lines, it should influence how Joe Biden’s and Donald Trump’s relative qualifications for the presidency are covered from here on out.

The poll asked: Which is more concerning in a president, someone who doesn’t tell the truth, or someone who might be too old to serve? The results were lopsided: By 68 to 32 percent, respondents were more concerned about the lying than the aging. Given the relentless media focus on presidential age of late, that’s simply remarkable.

While the poll doesn’t directly compare Trump and Biden on that particular question, it also finds that 52 percent of Americans say Biden has the “character to serve as president,” whereas only 43 percent say this about Trump. Fifty-six percent say Trump lacks the character to serve, which surely reflects public perceptions of Trump’s dishonesty.

 

[barbos]

Obama, Pelosi, Schumer, Clinton, virtually all demo-establishment are against Brandon now.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Kyle Rittenouse was an immature 17-year old who got a semi-automatic rifle, and traveled to a different state to "protect his community."

I know this may shock you, but some people live close to the edge of their state. There are people who live in one state and work in another state as a result. It happens quite often. You make it sound as if traveling to a different state is a weird and unusual occurrence.

He then shot and killed three men, at least two of whom were unarmed.

He then shot and killed three men who were pursuing him and attacking him. He defended himself. It is not a mortal sin to defend yourself from violent thugs.

The fact that he was (perhaps rightfully) acquitted of depraved-heart murder does not change the fact that he was a vigilante.

He did not go out to find bad guys, he went out to protect where he worked.

Most do not appreciate how dire things may get; but idolization of thugs like Kyle Rittenhouse should be a reminder of the extreme moral corruption of the Trump movement.

Saying that he is a thug because he was there to protect a certain location and then had to mortally defend himself from three criminals is itself a demonstration of extreme moral corruption.

 

[Elixir]

but against the variants that keep springing up it pretty much just means a milder case.

And WHY do variants “keep springing up”?
Because of Trumpsucking anti-vaxxers, that’s why.
We will never really know how many millions died because of the orange idiot. And more are still dying today.

 

[Swammerdami]

Thom Hartmann thinks the GOP has undergone a major change.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

but against the variants that keep springing up it pretty much just means a milder case.

And WHY do variants “keep springing up”?
Because of Trumpsucking anti-vaxxers, that’s why.
We will never really know how many millions died because of the orange idiot. And more are still dying today.

The variants would happen anyway. It simply mutates too fast to be stopped by vaccine. Not to mention that it also infects some animals. Things with animal hosts are all but impossible to eliminate.

 

[Elixir]

It simply mutates too fast to be stopped by vaccine.

“Mutation rates” * depend on the size of the replicating samples. If the pandemic guidelines issued by Obama’s professional epidemiologist had been followed, variants would have taken longer to emerge and slower to spread, saving millions, especially considering the “monkey see monkey do” conservative governments that emulated Trump’s cavalier response, to disastrous ends.

* even though the chances of a given cell/virus particle picking up a “successful” mutation might remain constant

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Do you wear the face mask when alone in your car?

 

[lpetrich]

Thom Hartmann thinks the GOP has undergone a major change.

I'll post from that article.

Trump Sounds the GOP's Death Knell: The End of the Old Republican Order

JD Vance, now the Republican candidate for vice president, is fully supportive of every aspect of Donald Trump’s cons and nakedly anti-American and pro-dictator policies...

Saying

It was the death knell of the old order, the Republican Party that has held a relatively consistent set of values since the 1880s, and the beginning of something entirely new.

The 1880's? Is that a typo for 1980's?

I grew up in a traditional Republican household. My dad, who had a good union job in a tool-and-die shop, was an enthusiastic Eisenhower, Goldwater, and Reagan Republican and I well remember the values and policy positions that animated the GOP from that era until Trump’s hostile takeover in 2016:

That goes back to 1952 -- Dwight Eisenhower was the first Republican President in 20 years.

• Trad: supporters of elections and voting. Trump: obsessed with supposed large-scale voter fraud that "stole" elections from them.
• Trad: supporters of trade with other nations. Trump: wanting big tariffs and trade wars.
• Trad: supporters of balancing the Federal budget. Trump: a big deficit spenders. (Me: what Trump did is what Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes did, talking about balancing the budget while running up big deficits)
• Trad: supporters of personal autonomy and privacy. Trump: hard-line anti-abortion (Me: Republicans have had a strong anti-abortion faction for nearly half a century)
• Trad: supporters of public schools. Trump: wanting to subsidize private schools and defund public schools.
• Trad: supporters of democracy all over the world, at least rhetorically. Trump: supporting Russia against Ukraine, and liking dictators more generally. (Me: Republicans have had a long history of liking anti-Communist dictators.)
• Trad: high moral standards from Presidents. Trump: a shameless lecher
• Trad: being honorable and on the right side of the law. Trump: a shameless crook
• Trad: respected religion. Trump: doesn't go to church, doesn't feel that he needs God's forgiveness, ...
• Trad: supported gun control. Trump: happy with guns in the hands of unstable people, armed militias who want to fight Civil War II (Me: the Republicans have supported gun-rights absolutism for nearly half a century)
• Trad: supported environmentalism. Trump: climate denialism and "drill, baby, drill!" (Me: Republicans have been like that for nearly a half-century. Consider Ronald Reagan and killer trees)

A big part of the problem is the Republicans welcoming the Dixiecrats and embracing their priorities, making the Republican Party the party of Jefferson Davis.

 

[Person19960]

Yo, LP, it's *abortion*. That's why the Republicans are so successful: the rich guys co-opted the fetus fetishists. I was there!

The Democrats will continue to lose because they won't stop being wrong about *abortion*.

See, the Democrats need to spread out and declare support for comprehensive, evidence-based, outcome-evident reproductive healthcare also known as obstetrics and gynecology, or, full, complete ob/gyn care for short. Not outside of ob/gyn care, or separate than ob/gyn care. Fukkin full on, full ob/gyn care, which includes all aspects of menstruation and pregnancy. WHICH INCLUDES abortion.

Being wrong led Dems to this point. The Democrats will keep on losing this fight due to messaging fail. They must change it.

Until then? Enjoy Jesusland.

 

[lpetrich]

Silicon Valley's Soulless Plutocrats Flip for Donald Trump—to Save Their Billions | WIRED - "Venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen claim the tech industry, California, and the country are doomed if we don’t embrace the former president."

In the early 1990's, Marc Andreessen was a coauthor of the first widely-used GUI web browser,  NCSA Mosaic He became a cofounder of  Netscape and Mosaic was succceded by  Netscape Navigator and in turn succeeded by  Firefox

Back to the article. What would be a great disaster for the US? Climate unlivability? Democracy troubles?

But if you are billionaire venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, apocalypse looms in another form: a proposed tax on unrealized capital gains that affects households worth more than $100 million.

...
Andreessen and Horowitz do enumerate several points of disagreement with Biden that affected their decision to go Trump. First, they are outraged that the administration is actively policing cryptocurrency and the blockchain, an area where Andreessen-Horowitz has huge investments. Horowitz, with typical hyperbole, calls the regulation lawless and nefarious. Strike two against Biden is the provisions in his executive order that attempt to rein in negative effects of huge artificial intelligence foundation models. But the “final straw,” they say, is a budget proposal that would tax unrealized capital gains at 25 percent, affecting only citizens worth over $100 million. Biden's goal is to prevent some (non)-taxpayers from working it so their investments are never realized, allowing them to endlessly monetize their earnings by borrowing against them.

Andreessen talks about the proposal as if it were Putin himself invading Atherton, California, the elite zip code where he resided until recently.

Saying that it will be a disaster for financing of startups.

There is another reason that these billionaires are turning to Trump. "They resent how the media, some of the “woke” population, and left-leaning politicians don’t appreciate them, and even vilify them." "To his credit, Andreessen expresses this grievance out loud." "Andreessen feels that the Biden administration in particular doesn’t give him and his cohort their due." "Again, kudos for expressing such entitlement out loud."

"That leads to the biggest tell of this podcast. It slowly unfolds that these two pugilistic masters of the universe adore and identify with Trump’s personality."

 

[TV and credit cards]

House Republicans say Biden must resign after ending reelection campaign
Unfuckingbelieveable, considering the assclown they want to handle the nuclear codes.

 

[laughing dog]

House Republicans say Biden must resign after ending reelection campaign
Unfuckingbelieveable, considering the assclown they want to handle the nuclear codes.

It’s just irony in action.

 

[Elixir]

Maybe that’s not a bad idea. Let Kami be the one to send Seal Team 6 down to Mag-A-Lardo.