2020 US Election (Part Two)

[Arwon]

I am sorry, but you are overestimating the UKs influence wildly. You do add the caveat of the english speaking world, but why should this matter? Elections have been postponed and then held all over the World, i.e. France comes to mind. England just isn‘t that important, I‘m sorry to tell you.

—

The whole successio discussion is very interesting, but it just shows how crazy the US system actually is. And how so very 1777. It‘s time for reform and a little bit more democracy. In the short run, however, capturing public opinion counts. And the question, what to do with the Donald afterwards.

Also nobody really cares about local council elections, local government barely matters

 

[El_Machinae]

Thinking a bit more about the Legal Eagle video @El_Machinae posted... if a canceled election basically guarantees that legally the Democrats gain control of the Senate, Presidency and potentially the House as well, the Congressional Republicans have zero incentive to back any attempt by Trump to cancel the election, since an election gives them a good chance of keeping the Senate and at least the potential of retaining the Presidency. Trump would only attempt to cancel and/or postpone the election if it was going to allow him to stay in office. If Congressional Republicans aren't going to go along with letting him stay in office, he won't bother.

Trump's plan at this point seems to be to declare that the polls showing him behind are all unreliable, and that any election that includes mail-in ballots, which obviously, this election will... is fraudulent. So in other words, he is setting himself up to refuse to acknowledge the election result if he loses.

Yeah, thanks for watching it. I found it super-useful. And yeah, Trump is setting things up for destruction. It's the teardown of the liberal agenda, which is creating a functional society that thrives even if people cannot agree.

 

[Traitorfish]

Also nobody really cares about local council elections, local government barely matters

I would say that local government actually matter quite a lot, but that it tends to exhibit the same dysfunctions regardless of who is nominally in charge, so people mostly treat it as if it doesn't matter.

 

[Birdjaguar]

... And the question, what to do with the Donald afterwards.

I'm hoping he gets 7-12 on Riker's Island along with his kids.

 

[Hrothbern]

I'm hoping he gets 7-12 on Riker's Island along with his kids.

What is 7-12 ?

 

[AmazonQueen]

What is 7-12 ?

The length of his sentence.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I can see Trump wanting to be everywhere, on every tv show and news outlet. Maybe he will promote something new, a business opportunity. I see three questions here then: How far will the other Republicans follow him? How much will his family want to reign him in (since they have to deal with it after his death)? And most importantly: How much energy will the new Department of Justice put into investigating the corruption? The answer to that third question of course has a really big impact on the other two, meaning how active Trump will be afterwards. And I'm quite pessimistic that there will be any semblance of peace and a good governance in process terms anytime soon. And I put that at 2-4 years at least, not months.

If Biden takes office, things will return to "normal" in relatively short order. I say this because that is Biden's whole brand. Its at the core of what he is offering. "Vote this corrupt, incompetent madman out so this madness can end and things can go back to normal"... And in the current political, social, and economic climate, that is exactly what so many are desperate for.

Yeah, thanks for watching it. I found it super-useful. And yeah, Trump is setting things up for destruction. It's the teardown of the liberal agenda, which is creating a functional society that thrives even if people cannot agree.

See my above comment about Biden. What I expect Biden will do... what Presidents usually do... is just let the system run itself via the various departments and appointees that have been put in place, either by them, or by previous Presidents. The country does, figuratively speaking, run itself, in the sense that there are so many people, working in different levels of government, institutions, agencies, departments etc., with so many systems and rules and procedures and traditions in place... but here's the catch... this only works if you don't screw around with it too much and/or actively destroy and/or obstruct the functioning of the system.

Its like the plumbing in your house. It just works for the most part, with occasional very specific/targeted maintenance. Trump comes in and says... "I don't like all these brown pipes, I'd rather have white ones!" Then he rips out all the copper plumbing in the basement and sticks pcv pipes in the places that he remembers seeing copper pipes, without any knowledge whatsoever of what he is doing, what types/gauges/shapes of pipe go where, where all the connections were, how to create seals in the fittings, joints, etc. So then of course when you turn the water back on, its a total disaster, water/sewage everywhere and nothing works. Then he blames "the Democrats".

I would say that local government actually matter quite a lot, but that it tends to exhibit the same dysfunctions regardless of who is nominally in charge, so people mostly treat it as if it doesn't matter.

See my above comments. The systems pretty much run themselves as long as the people in charge don't screw things up too much.

 

[Traitorfish]

See my above comments. The systems pretty much run themselves as long as the people in charge don't screw things up too much.

I would offer the alternative interpretation systems have been in a state of slow collapse since the 1970s, and that elected officials are mostly carried along by that process.

Infrastructure and public services in much of the developed world, and particularly in both the United States and the United Kingdom, are increasingly unfit for purpose, and this isn't attributable to any one office-holder or party coming in and making a lot of stupid decisions (even if we could very reasonably point to certain office-holders and parties as disproportionately culpable), it's a long-term trend the reversal of which would require decisive large-scale action. Electing a leader who promises to do nothing of consequence is commitment to allow this slow collapse to continue at a steady pace, neither faster nor slower.

 

[AmazonQueen]

If Biden takes office, things will quickly return to "normal". I say this because that is Biden's whole brand. Its at the core of what he is offering. "Vote this corrupt, incompetent madman out so this madness can end and things can go back to normal"... And in the current political, social, and economic climate, that is exactly what so many are desperate for.
See my above comment about Biden. What I expect Biden will do... what Presidents usually do... is just let the system run itself via the various departments and appointees that have been put in place, either by them, or by previous Presidents. The country does, figuratively speaking, run itself, in the sense that there are so many people, working in different levels of government, institutions, agencies, departments etc., with so many systems and rules and procedures and traditions in place... but here's the catch... this only works if you don't screw around with it too much and/or actively destroy and/or obstruct the functioning of the system.

Its like the plumbing in your house. It just works for the most part, with occasional very specific/targeted maintenance. Trump comes in and says... "I don't like all these brown pipes, I'd rather have white ones!" Then he rips out all the copper plumbing in the basement and sticks pcv pipes in the places that he remembers seeing copper pipes, without any knowledge whatsoever of what he is doing, what types/gauges/shapes of pipe go where, where all the connections were, how to create seals in the fitting joints, etc. So then of course when you turn the water back on, its a total disaster, water/sewage everywhere and nothing works. Then he blames "the Democrats". See my above comments. The systems pretty much run themselves as long as the people in charge don't screw things up too much.

Some of the dissident Republican adverts are basically this, vote Biden for a return to normality

Not sure it helps to have a Republican who sounds like John Cleese doing the ad

 

[Patine]

Some of the dissident Republican adverts are basically this, vote Biden for a return to normality

Not sure it helps to have a Republican who sounds like John Cleese doing the ad

Ugh! George W. Bush. The only U.S. President who did more harm and was more blatantly criminal and treasonous than Trump in my lifetime is now being recast in a heroic role just for publicly opposing Trump. What a disgusting PR flip.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What is 7-12 ?

Amazon Queen is correct; 7-12 represents a typical prison term and Riker's is a nasty jail in NYC.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Amazon Queen is correct; 7-12 represents a typical prison term and Riker's is a nasty jail in NYC.

I knew all those cop series I've watched were worthwhile.

 

[Patine]

Amazon Queen is correct; 7-12 represents a typical prison term and Riker's is a nasty jail in NYC.

I knew all those cop series I've watched were worthwhile.

I thought Riker's Island was a remand detention centre and not a correctional prison.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I thought Riker's Island was a remand detention centre and not a correctional prison.

I choose to name Rikers because it is in NYC (in view of Manhattan), a very bad place, and generally known. You are over thinking my post.

The island is home to one of the world's largest correctional institutions and mental institutions,[6] and has been described as New York's most famous jail.[7] The complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 9,000 officers and 1,500 civilians managing 100,000 admissions per year and an average daily population of 10,000 inmates [8] The majority (85%) of detainees are pretrial defendants, either held on bail or remanded in custody. The rest of the population have been convicted and are serving short sentences.[9] According to a study done in 2015 by the Vera Institute of Justice, it costs the city approximately $209,000 to detain one person for one year at Rikers Island.[10]

 

[Ajidica]

Herman Cain died from Covid, now who will protect us from moon nazis and quote the Pokemon movie?

EDIT: Someone put a naughty word in the video title so here is the link.

 

[amadeus]

I know, but I expect a lot of them to get gradually less enthusiastic and more disillusioned over the next six months.

I certainly did. I’m not happy with Trump, Biden, or whoever the minor parties picked.

I read Joe Biden’s policy platform. I did not read Donald Trump’s as he’s already in office.

 

[Takhisis]

I think Donald's tweeting to the 20% of the electorate that are Trump Superfans, for whom he could shoot someone on Sixth Ave and they'd cheer him, or will believe him when he tells them the Deep State fixed the 2020 election, is going to cause untold misery to the GOP in 2022 and 2024, a lot more than the BernieBro contingent currently is for Dems.

The thing is that the BernieBro contingent says ‘you are not helping enough’ while the Trumpist nutjobs are saying ‘you're not destroying enough’ and that difference is not just quantitative but qualitative as well.

 

[Estebonrober]

The thing is that the BernieBro contingent says ‘you are not helping enough’ while the Trumpist nutjobs are saying ‘you're not destroying enough’ and that difference is not just quantitative but qualitative as well.

I mean this does fundamentally describe the position right now, the only nuance is that the democratic party as a whole seems to be in the "we should stay right here" camp thus contributing by default to the "you are not destroying enough" camp.

 

[Patine]

Herman Cain died from Covid, now who will protect us from moon nazis and quote the Pokemon movie?

EDIT: Someone put a naughty word in the video title so here is the link.

I thought the "Moon Nazis," were the product of Robert E. Heinlein's fervent imagination...

I mean this does fundamentally describe the position right now, the only nuance is that the democratic party as a whole seems to be in the "we should stay right here" camp thus contributing by default to the "you are not destroying enough" camp.

The U.S., and the world, would be much better off if both major American Duopoly Parties met, and were ALLOWED to meet, their long-deserved political demise, and a healthy and functional multi-party system with real voter choice and an actual chance and possibility of government accountability were able to replace it.

 

[Ajidica]

I thought the "Moon Nazis," were the product of Robert E. Heinlein's fervent imagination...

I thought Heinlein loved the moon, as the only thing he loved more than cryptofascist propaganda was libertarian free love.