Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[cubby]

More than one person can be wrong about the same thing, anyway, as you recall, I was asking why anyone should be worried about him, I didn't have "analysis" beyond not seeing a reason to worry. I haven't seen anything happen to change my dismissive attitude toward him, but please continue the personal attacks, they're really productive and winning me over.

Just following your line of attacks on me - if it bothers you, don't start it. But thanks for not contributing to the conversation. Keep in mind you still haven't answered the question, or participated in the conversation - you just "dismiss" it because *reasons* - literally your own words above.

And just so you know, the above by you about "why anyone should be worried about him" is the first time you bring this up in our conversations - you haven't previously said that responding to me. Your initial response to me was the race baiting one. In case you want to bother paying attention to your own posts.

But hey, keep avoiding the real issue and double back on your dismissiveness, it's really winning me over (am I doing that right? ).

[draynay]

And just so you know, the above by you about "why anyone should be worried about him" is the first time you bring this up in our conversations - you haven't previously said that responding to me. Your initial response to me was the race baiting one. In case you want to bother paying attention to your own posts.

This combativeness of yours is why I didn't respond further before, you just get riled up and become one of those guys who has to "win" and that isn't interesting to me.
My first post on the subject is below.

Why would any person vote for Kanye? I still don't understand why anyone is talking about him, let alone voting for him.

[cubby]

This combativeness of yours is why I didn't respond further before, you just get riled up and become one of those guys who has to "win" and that isn't interesting to me.
My first post on the subject is below.

I sure wish you'd initially responded that way, instead of initiating the combatativeness. Recall this was your first response to me:

Your lack of nuance on this topic continues to irritate. Not only implying that people are easily manipulated, but as with your VP picks heavily implying that certain people are even most easily manipulated.

I'm sorry your version of events doesn't match up with reality. You initiated the hostility. If you had just posted reasonably, and engaged in a reasonable dialogue, we wouldn't be here. But you didn't, so we are. The anonymity of the internet allows people to act in any way they choose.

Now, to draw it back to the issue - it sure doesn't seem like anyone would take him seriously, at least right now. But right now isn't before a $5M/state coordinated write-in campaign. Would it work? If I had to bet, I would say no. Would the Democrats be worried? Yeah, they probably would.

What do you think?

[draynay]

Now, to draw it back to the issue - it sure doesn't seem like anyone would take him seriously, at least right now. But right now isn't before a $5M/state coordinated write-in campaign. Would it work? If I had to bet, I would say no. Would the Democrats be worried? Yeah, they probably would.

What do you think?

That's a whole lot, $250 million worth, of assumptions before there is any cause for concern, but anyone with money could spend it, that is not unique to Kanye, is there any reason to worry about him in particular?

[Breccia]

The topic of Sweden has come up in this very thread. How's it going?

The NYTimes reports that --

"Paywall".

Um, MSN reports that the answer is "not great".

Ever since the coronavirus emerged in Europe, Sweden has captured international attention by conducting an unorthodox, open-air experiment. It has allowed the world to examine what happens in a pandemic when a government allows life to carry on largely unhindered.

This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better.

“They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, and they have no economic gains.”

The results of Sweden’s experience are relevant well beyond Scandinavian shores. In the United States, where the virus is spreading with alarming speed, many states have — at President Trump’s urging — avoided lockdowns or lifted them prematurely on the assumption that this would foster economic revival, allowing people to return to workplaces, shops and restaurants.

Sweden put stock in the sensibility of its people as it largely avoided imposing government prohibitions. The government allowed restaurants, gyms, shops, playgrounds and most schools to remain open. By contrast, Denmark and Norway opted for strict quarantines, banning large groups and locking down shops and restaurants.

More than three months later, the coronavirus is blamed for 5,420 deaths in Sweden, according to the World Health Organization. That might not sound especially horrendous compared with the more than 129,000 Americans who have died. But Sweden is a country of only 10 million people. Per million people, Sweden has suffered 40 percent more deaths than the United States, 12 times more than Norway, seven times more than Finland and six times more than Denmark.

The elevated death toll resulting from Sweden’s approach has been clear for many weeks. What is only now emerging is how Sweden, despite letting its economy run unimpeded, has still suffered business-destroying, prosperity-diminishing damage, and at nearly the same magnitude of its neighbors.

Sweden’s central bank expects its economy to contract by 4.5 percent this year, a revision from a previously expected gain of 1.3 percent. The unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent in May from 7.1 percent in March. “The overall damage to the economy means the recovery will be protracted, with unemployment remaining elevated,” Oxford Economics concluded in a recent research note.

This is more or less how damage caused by the pandemic has played out in Denmark, where the central bank expects that the economy will shrink 4.1 percent this year, and where joblessness has edged up to 5.6 percent in May from 4.1 percent in March.

In short, Sweden suffered a vastly higher death rate while failing to collect on the expected economic gains.

Varför hade du inte masken?

[Resurgo]

My personal take is that, I already learned my lesson in the 2016 election.

I couldn't vote for Hillary, and I couldn't vote for trump. So I voted third party, and I'm willing to admit I had a slight hand in enabling this shitshow.

Lesson learned, and if that means I need to vote straight blue for the next couple generations, I'll do it so long as it keeps trump and his ilk out of office and in a jail cell.

[Felya]

Ever since he married into the Kardashian shitshow, he's not really been a star to black people. Which is the point of this whole little diversion.

I saw him live on a summer tour, with Pixies closing the stage after him. Was absolutely brilliant... for a DJ and Konye alone, it was amazing. I wasn’t a fan, but totally got into the act. In saying this... it was like 15 years ago...

It’s affluenza... After he hit it rich, it was over. Gold Digger was his downfall... if you read/watch his interviews from back in the day, he was a very smart dude. I might not have been a fan, but his interviews were always compelling. Right now... if we are going to call him an artist... I think he is in his Dadaism stage...

[Milchshake]

I saw him live on a summer tour, with Pixies closing the stage after him. Was absolutely brilliant... for a DJ and Konye alone, it was amazing. I wasn’t a fan, but totally got into the act. In saying this... it was like 15 years ago...

It’s affluenza... After he hit it rich, it was over. Gold Digger was his downfall... if you read/watch his interviews from back in the day, he was a very smart dude. I might not have been a fan, but his interviews were always compelling. Right now... if we are going to call him an artist... I think he is in his Dadaism stage...

15 Years ago ... I think Frank Black was already mailing it in at that point. Was that Sasquatch 2005?

Remember in 2020 when all these famous billionaires announced runs for president. How everyone is talking about them now!

[Zan15]

So now SCOTUS had decided religious and moralistic employers can deny contraceptive coverage...

They also ruled that religious organisations are exempt from being sued for discriminating against people when they fire them for sex religion race and so on.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/08/88517...mployment-laws

and yet they had no problems accepting billions in tax payer dollars under the PPP program

Guess that was not against their morals and religious beliefs.

Although i could easily make a case that the good book specifically spells out they shouldn't. Remember guys You cannot serve both God and Money.

Even Jesus paid taxes...Peter and Mathew told us so!!!



How long before "going to the hospital" is against the religious organization's beliefs and they drop health insurance all together.

[Felya]

Lesson learned, and if that means I need to vote straight blue for the next couple generations, I'll do it so long as it keeps trump and his ilk out of office and in a jail cell.

The problem will be people holding Biden’s feet to the fire, without being afraid that criticism will lead to another Trump. Conservatives and Trumpsters will make shit up, but there needs to be reasonable pushback as well. I think it’s important to remember that these are very unique times.

[cubby]

That's a whole lot, $250 million worth, of assumptions before there is any cause for concern, but anyone with money could spend it, that is not unique to Kanye, is there any reason to worry about him in particular?

If I were the GOP, I wouldn't do every state. I would pick the top six or 10 battleground states (PA, WI, OH, FL, AZ, NC - [insert your choices here]) and run it only in those states. $50M is a drop in the bucket for the GOP.

Only because he announced. So far there is zero movement after that.

[eschatological]

It’s affluenza... After he hit it rich, it was over. Gold Digger was his downfall... if you read/watch his interviews from back in the day, he was a very smart dude. I might not have been a fan, but his interviews were always compelling. Right now... if we are going to call him an artist... I think he is in his Dadaism stage...

TBH, he fell off a cliff when his mother died. And then he married into Kim's family, which is its own mess of idiocy that just allowed his craziness to fester.

And then he makes songs like "I love it..." and suburbia loves him for his music video's Roblox aesthetic while real hip-hop heads roll their eyes. Meanwhile, the only song I ever really listen to that features Kanye is a Dilated Peeples song from like, 2004.

Again, he has no chance of siphoning off a black vote.

[Felya]

15 Years ago ... I think Frank Black was already mailing it in at that point. Was that Sasquatch 2005?

I don’t remember the year, but it was Sasquatch... Matesyahu was there as well... everyone else is a blur, since they either sucked or seen them too many times to distinguish.

Yeah, 2005... I think I am a couple of feet behind the guy filming:

[Breccia]

Eighty-one percent of people want the southern border to remain closed, citing the risk of people crossing over with the coronavirus.

"Yeah! MAGA!"

Yes, 81% of Canadians--

"Oh, god dammit."

--said they wanted their Canadian government to keep the border with the US closed, due to the risk Americans bring with their much higher rate of infection.

The response is actually quite surprising considering we are a border country that relies on the United States for our livelihood … [it] suggests that Canadians have a very high level of anxiety about what’s happening in the pandemic in the United States

Living on the border as I do, I know it's a two-way street. Businesses here are hurting for Canadian visitors. And most bordering states/counties are actually doing okay, at least okay by comparison with, say, Texas and Florida. But the sad truth is, if Canadians are okay with staying on their side of the border and passing up our quite frankly competitive gas and retail prices, if they're willing to literally pay more not to deal with US, it shows how bad the problem is.

Why didn't we just wear the mask, eh?

- - - Updated - - -

The National Governors Association, al fifty-five members --

"The hell? We have fifty states."

And five territories. All Americans. Anyhow, they've issued this press release asking for Trump to extend the declared public health emergency past its current July 25 deadline.

It might have something to do with our inability to know if the second wave is eating the first wave. 60k cases yesterday. Just shy of 1,000 deaths. States forcing their unruly residents to re-close because they didn't wear the damn mask. Taking care of these problems requires help, and there's a zero percent chance that this is magically going away in 17 days.

[Drutt]

The topic of Sweden has come up in this very thread. How's it going? *snip*

Thanks for that. I'm so tired of seeing people use Sweden as a golden example of what to do when the results are obviously not what people say they are, so go on the NYT for pulling everything together.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...take-risks-too

Astronauts take risks, so school teachers and students should too!

These fucking people. There isn't a hell of horrors large enough for them.

[cubby]

Six months ago, no one thought Covid-19 existed in the US.

[1 million infected within the first 99 days] The first reported case came on January 21. Within 99 days, 1 million Americans became infected.
[2 million 43 days later] It took just 43 days after that to reach 2 million cases.
[3 million 28 days later] And 28 days later, the US reached 3 million cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday.

These numbers seem bad. VERY bad. Catastrophically bad. I know it's not exponentially (yet), but holy fuck.

[SirBeef]

Even Jesus paid taxes...Peter and Mathew told us so!!!

Come on now, these conservatives and fake Christians wouldn't know that, they never actually read the bible.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...take-risks-too

Astronauts take risks, so school teachers and students should too!

These fucking people. There isn't a hell of horrors large enough for them.

If Trump and the conservative shit show that is the Senate want schools to open they better pay up. $200B is what is estimated to do this. DoE has $13B set aside from it. Amazing when Shake Shack needs money to stay in business the government opens the purse, but when schools need it to do what Trump says they have to do, crickets. Also, States are in control of schools not POTUS.

[Jotaux]

Eighty-one percent of people want the southern border to remain closed, citing the risk of people crossing over with the coronavirus.

"Yeah! MAGA!"

Yes, 81% of Canadians--

"Oh, god dammit."

--said they wanted their Canadian government to keep the border with the US closed, due to the risk Americans bring with their much higher rate of infection.



Living on the border as I do, I know it's a two-way street. Businesses here are hurting for Canadian visitors. And most bordering states/counties are actually doing okay, at least okay by comparison with, say, Texas and Florida. But the sad truth is, if Canadians are okay with staying on their side of the border and passing up our quite frankly competitive gas and retail prices, if they're willing to literally pay more not to deal with US, it shows how bad the problem is.

Why didn't we just wear the mask, eh?

It sucks for us because the stores here get a lot of US business but its just not worth the risk. I wouldn't open that border till you lot get your shit together.

[Zan15]

Six months ago, no one thought Covid-19 existed in the US.

[1 million infected within the first 99 days] The first reported case came on January 21. Within 99 days, 1 million Americans became infected.
[2 million 43 days later] It took just 43 days after that to reach 2 million cases.
[3 million 28 days later] And 28 days later, the US reached 3 million cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday.

These numbers seem bad. VERY bad. Catastrophically bad. I know it's not exponentially (yet), but holy fuck.

28 days later....how ironic....


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later


A highly contagious, rage-inducing virus is unleashed in Great Britain after a group of animal liberation activists free chimpanzees infected with the virus in a laboratory in Cambridge, spreading quickly among the populace and resulting in societal collapse. Twenty-eight days after the initial outbreak, bicycle courier Jim awakens from a coma in St Thomas' Hospital in London, where he discovers the city deserted.