Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[cubby]

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

I know you know this, and are probably just caught up in the moment/issue, but logical reasons for voting for candidates have pretty much left the building. He's a black superstar - and with a $5MM ad campaign in each battleground state, could probably catch some votes.

[cubby]

Any votes he'd get would be people that weren't taking the election seriously in the first place.

But who also showed up to vote. And they wouldn't be coming from the GOP electorate.

Look, I'll be the first to admit that this is more than likely just another of his BS publicity campaigns. But he could impact the Nov election, in a way that is easy to plan and see.

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Black voters are the most informed demographic...

Agreed. But they aren't ALL informed. Just 0.5% of the voting populace would impact the battleground states.

[draynay]

He's a black superstar

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.

[cubby]

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.

And your lack of tact continues to humor us.

Please explain your point or stop posting. You're just saying things, without any analysis. And your naivety on the subject of people being easily manipulated is, well, just delightful.

People are easily manipulated.
Superstars gather people around them because they are superstars.
A small number of people changing their vote in certain states could dramatically affect the outcome.

None of these things are false. All of them are salient to the point I've already made. If you have a counter, spell it out, but your little jibes are, well, kind of irritating.

(please do not think for one second I'm implying that only the minority groups would be affected by a serious write-in campaign with Kayne at it's center - that's you projecting)

[Breccia]

I’m not sure what she could add to what we already know about the trump family that would cause anyone, who is still willing to vote for Trump, to change their minds.

What if she had an abortion?

We also have an explanation as to why California's cases have been lower than expected this past weekend.

Hospitalizations jump 50% in California as coronavirus infections soar

New coronavirus cases soared in California over the July Fourth weekend, stressing some hospital systems and leading to the temporary closure of the state capitol building in Sacramento for deep cleaning, officials said on Monday.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased by 50% over the past two weeks to about 5,800, Governor Gavin Newsom said at a briefing.

About a third of those hospitalized were in Los Angeles County, state and local records showed, with about 630 confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients requiring intensive care.

And 25% of the hospitalizations in the county in July were among patients aged 18 to 40, health officials said, as new cases increasingly hit a younger population that may have been lax about safety precautions in recent weeks.

Farther north, nearly 1,400 inmates at San Quentin State Prison have been sickened by the virus, putting pressure on hospitals in Marin County, where the facility is located, Newsom said.

All told, 271,684 Californians have tested positive for the virus, including 11,529 in the past 24 hours, state records show. About 6,300 have died.

[draynay]

And your lack of tact continues to humor us.

It was deliberate, and who is "us"?

[Xyonai]

McConnell appears to be wavering on holding up future relief funds.

Or at least paying lip service to the idea in the same way Republican leadership comes out to say how 'Disappointed' they are in a President who's agenda they continue to fully endorse. Nothing concrete yet, so we'll see.

[cubby]

It was deliberate, and who is "us"?

So no basis for your adorable attacks on me. Cute, and interestingly not predictable. I don't recall you being this...obtuse.

I also expected better from you.

[pathora44]

I hear you there - and that is the smart move on your part. Maybe treat yourself to some noise canceling headphones for your break. Do you have to deal with their political chatter while you're actually working? What do you do btw? To answer my own question for you, I work in human resources.

I am just a paint salesman at Home Depot but generally it is just in the breakroom. The most senior guy in my department hates when anyone talks politics in the department so that is nice that I don't deal with it on the floor. One of the most infuriating things though happened to me today. Just got into work and was in the breakroom just relaxing and some of the other people were talking about the Seattle protestor who got ran over by the car and one of them starting laughing about it. Saying how that is what you get for jumping in front of a car and another person was saying what do they expect when they break open windows and surround cars. I broke my rule and just loudly said that the guy drove through a police barrier on a closed section of the freeway and ran that woman over.

[draynay]

So no basis for your adorable attacks on me. Cute, and interestingly not predictable. I don't recall you being this...obtuse.

I also expected better from you.

I'm not "projecting" when you call Kanye a "black superstar" instead of a "superstar". I find your fixation on race to be tiresome.

[PosPosPos]

I'm not "projecting" when you call Kanye a "black superstar" instead of a "superstar". I find your fixation on race to be tiresome.

It's not that he's "fixated" on race, as much as you projecting your naivete on voters as a whole.

Ironic you would talk about "nuance" when you handwave the stark possibility that popular icons like Kanye who also happens to be African American couldn't possibly swing a few key votes in certain states especially during a very emotional and turbulent America.

[ati87]

McConnell appears to be wavering on holding up future relief funds.

Or at least paying lip service to the idea in the same way Republican leadership comes out to say how 'Disappointed' they are in a President who's agenda they continue to fully endorse. Nothing concrete yet, so we'll see.

Ofc he is. Being conservative just means when it suits you, there is no point in staying conservative when you are on the path of annihilation.

[Toppy]

Really shows his respect for the black community that Kanye feels a need to throw his hat in the ring to make sure they "vote right".

[arandomuser]

trump wants to ban tik tok
because of his tulsa rally LOL
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/tech/...ban/index.html

yes i know tik tok is chinese spyware blah blah
so is kaspersky anti virus but thats not looking at being banned- probably because its made by putin
its personal because trump is a triggered snowflake

[Breccia]

McConnell appears to be wavering on holding up future relief funds.

We'll see if that actually happens, but the fact that he's even allowing it as an option is telling.

McConnell's "No to Everything" seemed mostly based on there being no money left, which is a foolish thing to say now that
a) we know there was PPP money left, and
b) he knows that because he saw the account balance when he handed his wife a check from it

We will never know what caused this change of policy. We know Trump is pushing for even more money, probably because he wants to sign these checks too and take credit for Congress' work. Maybe that's part of it, but I no longer believe "what Trump wants" is McConnell's primary motivation. I think he's worried the Senate will flip. I think he's worried about his own election chances. And I think the comment about

I think the people who have been hit the hardest are people who make about $40,000 a year or less. Many of them work in the hospitality industry.

was anything other than admission that COVID-19 remains a major problem and that states that reopened too soon Executus were doing more damage than help.

My opinion on matching funds remains unchanged, however. If McConnell allows the Democratic initiative (it certainly wasn't his) for another stimulus check, he'll only do so if he gets matching funds for things he wants, such as more money for his wife's company.

[Gorsameth]

Really shows his respect for the black community that Kanye feels a need to throw his hat in the ring to make sure they "vote right".

He said Slavery was a choice.

pretty sure he has no respect.

[Breccia]

The Facebook boycott is working. FB is planning to meet the heads of some of the boycotting companies, almost certainly to ask for a list of things they need to do to get their money again.

The program Farmers to Families Food Box, which I think we've talked about on these forums, was intended to fix the broken supply chain and bring food from farmers directly to food banks. It hasn't been working very well. The pledge was to deliver $1.2 billion worth of food, the result was under $800 million. Ivanka (this was her idea, apparently) simply didn't get enough experienced people involved, and deliveries would be late or just never happen.

The stock market is no longer betting on Trump. A Citigroup poll of 140 fund managers released last week found that 62% expect a Biden win, compared to 70% who expected a Trump victory in the same survey in December. If this is true, expect companies to act as if their taxes are going to go up h -- perhaps a period of development and expansion, spending more so their income is less?

Yet another new poll shows that people trust their state and local government on the COVID-19 lethal virus outbreak than Trump. When asked for comment, Trump said

It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine

A former CDC head was asked point-blank on live TV if we're seeing an increase caused by doing more testing.

Although it's true we're testing more, we're finding a whole lot more, and so, it is absolutely clear this is a real increase.You don't have to tell the doctors in the emergency rooms who are dealing with tons of patients right now throughout the South and Southeast, Southwest of the U.S. that this is real. It's real.

He also said the US made a mistake re-opening too soon, and that we're "an outlier" because of this.

And adding to my previous post re:McConnell, it should be noted that many economists are asking for exactly this.

The first round of economic impact payments were a lifeline that helped some get by for a few weeks. Even after businesses start to re-open and jobs begin to come back, there will be significant economic fallout, and demand will continue to lag if people don’t have money to spend.

During all this...Trump tweets about NASCAR.

[Thekri]

During all this...Trump tweets about NASCAR.

NASCAR was yesterday. Today he is tweeting about Hydoxy and how the media isn't reporting the falling fatality rate.

The Hydroxy parts is just Trump refusing to admit he is ever wrong on anything. That drug failed tests months ago, and the medical world has moved on. But some extremely questionable group (That ran a Pro-Trump PAC in 2016) put out a non-peer reviewed, non-conclusive test, so Trump tweeted about it three times today. (For the record, Hydroxy is a useful and effective drug. For Malaria. It was used because Covid shares some symptoms with Malaria, but failed to pass the trials.)

The Covid Death rate ones are... bizarre. As usual, they contradict Trumps own claims if they were true, since in order to meet his "99% of cases are completely harmless" and also his "The US has the lowest mortality rate in the world" claims, that would mean the average American has 1.4 cases of Covid right now. Neither claim is remotely true of course, because a person can only have a maximum of one case of Covid-19 at a time. As usual, Trump isn't sourcing anything, because literally no database supports his claim that mortality has plunged "Tenfold" or that the US has the lowest mortality in the world. But such is Trump. Continue to say the blatantly untrue, and his army of supporters will crank out conspiracy videos on YouTube to support the facts he just made up. Then those claims will be picked up by Brietbart and OAN, and get retweeted by Trump, completing the feedback loop.

[Breccia]

Today he is tweeting about Hydoxy

Ugh, is he really? The FDA already issued a warning on the stuff and he's still pushing it?

[Thekri]

Ugh, is he really? The FDA already issued a warning on the stuff and he's still pushing it?

Yep. Pushing it hard today. Claiming he was vindicated on it and such.