Hodad

Nobody has EVER "done the same thing" in this country. No presidential candidate has ever told the American people that their votes had been taken from them--let alone run a post-election campaign to convince them of that fiction. No American President had ever before tried to stage a coup to seize power through the VP's ceremonial function in the certification process. It was unprecedented, extraordinary and awful. But it doesn't bother you people because you are no longer invested in the fundamental premise of America. Like Trump, you simply want power and dominance and you're willing to end the American experiment to get it.

That is pure, unadulterated genius.

How many innocent men, women and children do you think one would have to kill to break the will of political and religious zealots--terrorists--who celebrate martyrdom? 100K? 1 million? Every last Palestinian? That's the problem with this whole misguided war. No amount of "collateral damage" (or deliberately slaughtered innocents) will shock Hamas into surrender. It will, however, shock the consciences of civilized people around the world until entire populations abandon the perspective that Israel is "the good guy." Tens of thousands of dead children makes a pretty compelling argument that Israel is as cruel and evil as Hamas would have us all believe. There are plenty of people in Israel who understand this. Bebe is not one of them.

Look at the transcript. He said it once. Once before spending an hour working them into a frenzy and telling them they had to go down to the Capitol right now and fight to stop the the steal or they would've have a country anymore. He gathered a mob, worked them into a frenzy, created the illusion of an existential crisis, sicced them on their target and then sat his fat ass on the couch to watch the violence unfold on TV. You know he did those things. You just don't care.

You're not smart enough to hold the information in your head for more than 7 seconds, but the insurrection was only half of Trump's plan for the day. The other half is the well documented effort to use fraudulent electors to provide Pence with cover to overturn the democratic election and install the loser of the contest, Donald J. Trump. The only reason Trump failed to overthrow the government is that Mike Pence grew a backbone and wouldn't go along with the coup. And you know full well that the Trump campaign. Or, well, to be fair, you've been shown the reports multiple times, but it was more than 7 seconds ago...

Yeah, saying Trump caused J6 is ridiculous. He only propagated the big lie for months, gathered a mob, told them where to go, when to go, and to fight like hell "stop the steal" right now or they would've have a country anymore. But it's not like he caused it.🙄

Wow. I heard she just trounced some fool in a televised debate. If she's stupid then I can't imagine how unbelievably brainless that sucker must be.🤷‍♀️

Yep. The very first question was a huge miss for Harris. She went with her scripted answer to warm to. She should have cranked that question out of the park. Q: "When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?' A: "F*uck yes. Four years ago, under Donald Trump, unemployment was at 8.4%. It's less than half that today. The Dow was down to 28,000, and we're over 40,000 today. The GDP was down to 20 trillion. Today we're at almost 29 trillion. Donald Trump handed us a financial crisis when he left office after being fired by the American people, and under the Biden administration we've built back better--better than before the pandemic, even. The economy overall is, without question, dramatically better than it was 4 years ago. That doesn't mean that there aren't still people who are suffering, who are still trying to overcome what happened under Donald Trump. That's why I have a plan for jobs, a plan for housing, a plan to make sure that as our fortunes continue to rise, no American is left out. A plan to make sure that the prosperity were building as a country is prosperity for everyone."

This sort of sums up Republican politics ever since Trump descended his gold escalator to announce his candidacy.

All bullies are cowards. It's probably a good idea, politically, because he's way out of his depth and he got thoroughly embarrassed last time.

I absolutely would have supported the fry -- although it'd have to be branded as a "freedom fry." No fry--nor any other potato product, to the best of my knowledge--has ever attempted a coup to overthrow democracy in this country. So the fry is immediately the lesser evil.

I think the conversation in this thread has entirely missed the point. A celebrity endorsement isn't meant--or expected--to change anyone's mind. It's meant to raise awareness. It's meant to add energy and enthusiasm. It's meant to add a "cool factor" and social cachet to a candidate or cause. That's the entire point of the "influencer" industry. Influencers are powerful marketing tools, and Swift is among the most powerful influencers. Swift is particularly valuable an endorsement because she has enormous reach with a voter demographic (young women) that a) is not naturally politically active and b) predisposed to break heavily for Harris. She's activating inactive voters. And that's why this endorsement matters. More than 337,000 people visit Taylor Swift's link to register to vote That's the number in one day. The concrete, trackable, attributable number, not even considering the untracked effects. That's why it matters.

He can't do it without tanking the stock even further. But he also doesn't care. This was always a pump-and-dump scheme. 🤷‍♂️

I didn't catch her outright lying. I did see her mislead or decontextualize things on occasion (very fine people). But they really let all of that slide for both. They even let crazy numbers slide. I mean, obviously Trump didn't build the best economy ever and obviously the inflation under the Biden administration wasn't the worst in history. Etc. Etc. They let all of that slide or let the opponent worry about it. Frankly, I was disappointed that Harris didn't have some of those replies ready. I think she missed on a lot of stuff. But even considering that I share your view of the result. She worked circles around him. Really the only things they called out were the absurd statements of fiction made, immigrants eating pets, etc. I just don't think it's unreasonable for moderators to tell call out the occasional whopper. And I don't think Harris was making those kinds of crazy statements. Though you may recall something I don't.

Remarkably similar to how some decide decide who wins an election. "Did Trump say he won? Okay, he won!"

I disagree. News channels (and debate moderators as an extension) have a social responsibility for their platforms. They give the people who appear on the networks a massive megaphone and the power to reach and influence millions of people. These organizations SHOULD be obligated to call out blatant misinformation. The moderators did a good and fair job. 1. The moderators didn't "fact check" proposals or opinions or characterizations or spin. 2. They didn't do it very much at all--maybe 4 or 5 times over the course of 90 minutes. 3. They stuck to VERY basic facts--a basic shared reality. ETA: They could have done a dozen more. Best economy ever? Nope. Highest inflation ever? Nope. Etc. Etc. -- They showed remarkable restraint, actually. Ex. Trump starts talking about post-birth "abortions" which is pure nonsense. Moderator gently steers back to reality: "There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born." ^^Does reminding the debaters--and the public--of this basic fact serve the public? Yes, it does. There really is no reason to let him lie to their audience.

And significantly more speaking time. Which, of course, he squandered.

Easy A. No surprises.

Yes. Saying crazy things to titillate a backward base that doesn't know any better.

There are no radical communists anywhere in government--and damn few in the country. If you're going for outlandish statements, you might as well move on to lizard people or aliens.

I anticipate that she'll destroy him on facts and logic (as any attorney should) during an imperfect performance. Base will applaud that. His base will not care a bit and will think that snarky remarks and shouting constitute a win (as they always do). Independents will prefer Harris.

Bullshit. Excessive force is force beyond what can reasonably be expected to obtain compliance. They told him to get out of the car. He immediately opened the door and began to comply, and instead of letting him follow the direction they literally dragged him out, forced him to the ground. He did not resist and posed no threat, yet they put him face-down on the ground, a knee in his back and cuffs on his wrists There is simply no excuse for this unprovoked assault during a basic traffic stop. They rapidly escalated the situation for no reason. Massive overreaction by power tripping a-holes. And it wouldn't have happened to a white guy in a business suit. Betting now that MPD apologizes and fires at least one of the scummy cops.

WTF? They were wildly excessive. There was zero reason to drag him out of the car. Complete bullshit.

Right. Making T-shirts or cell phones 20% more expensive doesn't suddenly mean that there is a domestic replacement at a lower or comparable price point. It just means people--particularly poor people--are paying 20% more for their stuff.

Oh, thank you for pointing out that tariffs are targeted at imported goods. Clearly, I should be more careful with my language. And yes, stupid Trump is touring the country stumping about his blanket 10-20% tariff on imports and 60% on imports from China.