Mega-Thread: 2020 United States General Election

[Felya]

Basically the moderator gave Kamala more time to talk, and constantly cut Pence off. Shocker, liberal media. Kamala also wouldn't answer the question "will you stack the supreme court if Biden wins?", and once again no answer, because they will. Pence said it best classic case of if I can't get my way I'm gonna change the rules.

What did Pence say about the first several question? What’s their healthcare or covid plan? Are there any talks with Trump about what happens when he is sick?

Bias is strong with this one... Trump is out of the second debate...

[Shadowferal]

Both sides did their respective jobs. No meltdowns.
Although the fly landing on Pence's head and strutting...won the media's attention.

[Machismo]

Basically the moderator gave Kamala more time to talk, and constantly cut Pence off. Shocker, liberal media. Kamala also wouldn't answer the question "will you stack the supreme court if Biden wins?", and once again no answer, because they will. Pence said it best classic case of if I can't get my way I'm gonna change the rules.

If the GOP wants to push through a candidate right now (which they are free to do), then she would be free to stack the court. Unless you want to condemn the former, don't bitch about the latter.

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Biden-Harris keep on giving me more reasons to vote for President Trump. I'm more concerned about the national debt than someone's personal debt. By politicizing an inevitable vaccine for the China Virus Harris disqualified herself from even being in the Senate, let alone a heartbeat away from the presidency. It's the President's duty to check Congress, so Biden-Harris's answer to allowing corrupt Dems to pack the Court with DNC activists/pawns should be a definitive "NO!"

So, why do you support a guy who has the largest debt in history?

I'll assume any lack of response is an admission that you are simply fucking lying.

Stacking the Courts is constitutional, so why do you hate the United States Constitution?

[Breccia]

While not listed as one, this article reads like an opinion piece, including the fact that many opinion pieces cite specific objective evidence. It also happens to be an opinion I share.

Vice President Mike Pence described a world in which he and President Trump led Americans' heroic effort to defeat the coronavirus during last night's vice presidential debate. The problem is, he described a world that doesn't exist.

The coronavirus is very much not in control in the U.S., and America's failed response begins with the individual actions of the president and the vice president themselves.

Instead of defending the administration's decisions and behaviors, Pence acted as if they never happened.

What Pence said: Trump's decision to shut down travel from China "bought us invaluable time to stand up the greatest national mobilization since World War II, and I believe it saved hundreds of thousands of American lives."

Reality check: The administration botched the initial response to the pandemic, producing a faulty diagnostic test and failing to stop the virus from taking hold across the U.S.

Despite the travel ban, the virus clearly found its way into the country.

Pence: "The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way."

Reality check: The Biden plan calls for a much stronger federal response than the one the Trump administration has put forward.

Pence: "When you say what the American people have done over these last eight months hasn't worked, that's a great disservice to the sacrifices that the American people have made."

Reality check: The virus has brutalized vulnerable populations, including the elderly, the poor and people of color, who have been left largely unprotected by the federal government.

Pence, on the Rose Garden event that is suspected of becoming a super spreader event: "Many of the people who were at that event ... actually were tested for coronavirus, and it was an outdoor event."

Reality check: Most attendees were maskless and weren't maintaining distance between one another. And the number of infected attendees speaks for itself.

Trump can't run on Trump's record. Pence can't, either. They're forced to lie, just to give themselves anything to talk about at all.

[Eviscero]

Pence: "The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way."

Don't say that Pence, it goes against the pure polarization that Trump needs to sustain breath.

[Machismo]

He's very easy to listen to, but he's an empty suit. He was an employee for McKinsey & Company for three years, and that company is everything you should hate about capitalist corporate abuses. They were tangentially behind Enron, were a big player behind the 2008 financial crisis, have had multiple involvements in predatory medical companies and practices, have done plenty of business with dictators in supporting their regimes, and so on.

Buttigieg may not be Dracula, but he worked for Dracula for years and got along well with him. He's clearly well-trained in how to frame things in the best possible light, but that's McKinsey's whole role as a consultancy firm, so that's not surprising. Once you dig beneath that, you don't find much.

I have no real issues with how companies operate, so long as they are not harming people, and are not trying to use government force. It's why I despise lobbyists as a whole, as they seek to push for government force.

[AntiFascistVoter]

The moderator was pretty bad. gee having conservative-lite as the default for a news hosty is a bad idea. It totally kills the idea of fact checking.

Anyways.
Mike Pence Fly has it's own twitter channel now!
https://twitter.com/MikePencesFly22

[Ausr]

Trump is being a chickenshit and backing out of the next debate since it's going virtual:

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/92153...ommission-says

I don't know, Trump, it may be because you are a fucking liar with the honor system and hosting super spreader events.

[Breccia]

This is CNN.

Frank Fahrenkopf, head of the debate commission, told CNN that the commission spoke with both campaigns "just before" they announced that the second debate would be held virtually.

"We did not consult with them," he said, adding that their decision is "supported by the Cleveland Clinic," the commission's health advisers.

The commission said the debate moderator, Steve Scully, and the attendees who will ask Trump and Biden questions will appear from Miami, the original site of the debate.

"The second presidential debate will take the form of a town meeting, in which the candidates would participate from separate remote locations," the commission said in a statement about the debate, which is scheduled to be held on October 15 in a town hall format.

Fahrenkopf noted that it was fully within the President's right to decline to debate.

Bill Stepien, Trump's campaign manager, accused the commission on Thursday of "unilaterally canceling an in-person debate" to help Biden and said the President will be holding a rally instead of attending the debate.

Because rallies don't get fact-checked to your face. Trump can't run on his record. He has given himself no choice but to run on blatant, objective falsehoods. You can't do that at a debate and expect it to work very well. That's why he did nothing but shout over Biden last time, which was already forcing changes so the Committee could enforce (not change) the rules.

My favorite part of the article is

Biden's campaign on Thursday swiftly agreed to the virtual format.

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it may be because you are a fucking liar with the honor system and hosting super spreader events.

Basically, a major neutral party said "we do not feel it is safe to be in the presence of Donald Trump".

He should feel offended. Problem is, he should feel it's accurate. Has anyone seen Giuliani?

[Felya]

He should feel offended. Problem is, he should feel it's accurate. Has anyone seen Giuliani?

He was on Fox recently, pushing chloroquine as the reason he didn’t get covid at the White House Massacre...

[Breccia]

He was on Fox recently, pushing chloroquine as the reason he didn’t get covid at the White House Massacre...

Dude dodges a bullet. Funny, hydrolics didn't help anyone else.

[AntiFascistVoter]

Or has anyone seen Chris Christie?

Considering the US-Covid Mortality Rate is 2.7%, and 34 cases came from the Rose Wedding. Statistically .9 persons will die.

So ya, that next Trump rally .... thoughts and prayers.

[Felya]

Or has anyone seen Chris Christie?

Considering the US-Covid Mortality Rate is 2.7%, and 34 cases came from the Rose Wedding. Statistically .9 persons will die.

So ya, that next Trump rally .... thoughts and prayers.

Yeah, Chris Christy kinda stands out in that lot... hope he survives and all that... but... if all of the ones who got covid at the Rose Garden massacre were told to look around at each other, because one will die from covid... most of them would sigh a relief, once they see Chris Christy...

[alexw]

Biden up by 9.8 points according to fivethirtyeight, and on a rising trend.

This will be getting baked into the final results as people continue to early vote.

We might be looking at a tsunami sized blue wave here.

Long may it continue.

[Felya]

Has this been covered:

The 9 biggest takeaways from 'Totally Under Control,' a new documentary filmed in secret about the Trump administration's coronavirus response
https://www.businessinsider.com/9-ta...ontrol-2020-10

In February, the Trump administration created the "CS China COVID Procurement Service" partly to encourage American producers like 3M to sell their inventories of N95 masks to China.

One month later, when American hospitals desperately needed N95s, they were forced to import them — and pay up to 10 times what American producers would have charged, according to the documentary.

As of March, just six of the 20 members of Vice President Mike Pence's coronavirus task force had scientific expertise. One of them was Ben Carson, who's a surgeon by training but has little public-health expertise.

Other members of the task force included Joseph Grogan, a former lobbyist for Gilead Sciences (the company behind remdesivir); Stephen Biegun, a former lobbyist for Ford who served as Sarah Palin's foreign-policy adviser in 2008; and Ken Cuccinelli, a climate-change skeptic who was formerly the attorney general of Virginia.

In April, when Newsom asked the White House for 350,000 testing swabs, Kushner told his advisers that the federal help would hinge on Newsom doing him a favor.

Newsom would have to call Trump, and he would have to thank him publicly. Newsom apparently did the former, and on April 22, he publicly thanked the president for a "substantial increase" in testing supplies.

Basically, the documentary claims that it’s hard to believe that it’s a coincidence that the Trump response was so helpful to Trump’s personal business.

[Breccia]

Or has anyone seen Chris Christie?

He's still in the hospital.

Pretty sure he was infected during Trump's pre-debate planning sessions.

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Rather than post the CNN pollthat has Harris winning, I'll post this TheHill analysis of the Harris-Pence debate.

Five takeaways from the vice presidential debate

Harris hit her goals

Pence did his job

Whole lotta dodging going on

The fly won

No game changer

Oddly enough, that last one's the most damning issue for Pence. As others have posted, including FOX News, Trump is losing and losing ground. Considering Trump just decided to flake out on the next debate, this could be the last one. For Team Trump to see a boost, Pence needed to do something amazing.

Instead, he attracted vermin.

[PhaelixWW]

Pence: "The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way."

Don't say that Pence, it goes against the pure polarization that Trump needs to sustain breath.

The only reason he said that was as a segue to accuse Biden of plagiarism.

Biden up by 9.8 points according to fivethirtyeight, and on a rising trend.

This will be getting baked into the final results as people continue to early vote.

We might be looking at a tsunami sized blue wave here.

Long may it continue.

Yeah, this is the welcoming sight on 538s aggregator this morning...

[Biglog]

A lot of noise coming out lately that Trump is planning to have Barr either formally or "leak" indictments of Biden in late October to give him a boost, similar to the Comey leak in late October 2016. If that isn't Nazi/Stalin tactics from the 1930's-40's I don't know what is.

On the good side I don't think it's going to give Trump anywhere near the bump he's hoping for (and it looks like he needs a big one from polls). Clinton had the mail server and Benghazi issues that some/many people had concerns with. So it probably did sway a few undecided voters. But I don't think anyone is undecided this time around. Voting should not be a tough call either direction for anyone who has existed in the US for the past 4 years. And it will be clear in Biden's case that it's a completely political case that would be thrown out in 2 seconds. His base might cheer, but it won't get him more votes this time like he is thinking will save him. The public doesn't have the same concerns about Biden (outside his Hannity cult base), and will see right through it. In fact it's kind of insulting that he thinks voters are dumb enough to fall for that, I think the abuse of power attempting it will backfire more with voters than it will help. A wise campaign manager would tell him this isn't the time to be behaving totalitarian.

Incredible that the US so quickly descended into moral bankruptcy with Trump that we have a puppet AG being used to indict political opponents right before an election. Never thought I'd see that in America in my lifetime. Belarus or Venezuela maybe. Ironic with the constant fear mongering of Socialism by the right when 1930's Germany is what we're actively already living in and what is happening already.

[PhaelixWW]

538 also updated their election simulation results...

[DingDongKing]

A lot of noise coming out lately that Trump is planning to have Barr either formally or "leak" indictments of Biden in late October to give him a boost, similar to the Comey leak in late October 2016. If that isn't Nazi/Stalin tactics from the 1930's-40's I don't know what is.

On the good side I don't think it's going to give Trump anywhere near the bump he's hoping for (and it looks like he needs a big one from polls). Clinton had the mail server and Benghazi issues that some/many people had concerns with. So it probably did sway a few undecided voters. But I don't think anyone is undecided this time around. Voting should not be a tough call either direction for anyone who has existed in the US for the past 4 years. And it will be clear in Biden's case that it's a completely political case that would be thrown out in 2 seconds. His base might cheer, but it won't get him more votes this time like he is thinking will save him. The public doesn't have the same concerns about Biden (outside his Hannity cult base), and will see right through it. In fact it's kind of insulting that he thinks voters are dumb enough to fall for that, I think the abuse of power attempting it will backfire more with voters than it will help. A wise campaign manager would tell him this isn't the time to be behaving totalitarian.

Incredible that the US so quickly descended into moral bankruptcy with Trump that we have a puppet AG being used to indict political opponents right before an election. Never thought I'd see that in America in my lifetime. Belarus or Venezuela maybe. Ironic with the constant fear mongering of Socialism by the right when 1930's Germany is what we're actively already living in and what is happening already.

Thing is unlike last time, Trump has pandered to his base so hard and has a record as President that is so bad, that only something irrefutable and seismic will make a difference. Also, by and large the blue voting base doesn’t have the doubts over Biden that they did over Hilary. Because he’s an old white guy.

Biden up by 9.8 points according to fivethirtyeight, and on a rising trend.

This will be getting baked into the final results as people continue to early vote.

We might be looking at a tsunami sized blue wave here.

Long may it continue.

Just for context, in the December 2019 U.K. elections, Labour kept pitching a silent majority. Conservatives were forecast at 44% on polls with Labour at 33%, with the Conservatives expected to win 308 seats and 18 short of a majority. They won 364. I voted Labour. Will again because the Conservatives are shit on so many damn levels.

Short of a massively rigged election (which is possible given who is in charge), I would say Biden’s chances look good going by the polls. Hilary wasn’t nearly as popular since she was far more divisive and Trump had the ‘what will you lose?’ factor. 200k+ deaths and countless other issues is what was lost. The Fuck Hilary folk should be ashamed.