Shoblongoo

Or you know--just eliminate the electoral college and apportion legislative representation based on population

"I don't wear face masks like him. Every time you see him he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away ... and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen." -Trump at the debate-

That would be the general idea, yes.

watch that be the excuse for Trump to not do the next one

Aye. The country is on fire. The president is instructing nazi gangs to standby + watch over the polls on election day. And to call the current state of the race a clown show would be an insult to the circus. But at least the memes are extra 🔥🔥 🔥 today.

I mean what else could Joe have done besides try to yell over Trump during his time and be the bigger asshole??? Trump's strategy last night was to just ignore the rules of the debate, talk-out-of-turn, and speak over Biden every time he tried to give an answer + not let him get a word in edgewise. Biden's choice was to match-up and do the same. Or to just follow the rules, and let Trump be an asshole. I wouldn't have done that. I'd have been shouting over Trump and calling him a lying sack-of-shit and probably coming off just as bad as him tbh. ________ Biden's strategy was probably the correct one. Insofar as the reaction from the undecideds today appears to be by-and-large: "Biden came off like a normal person having a normal conversation. Trump came off like a kid who took too much Adderall."

...well I was way off... Highlight of the night thats getting replayed on all the headline reels is Trump refusing to condemn white supremacist violence + telling the Proud Boys to "stand by."

Frank Luntz (A Republican strategist and pollster famous for using focus groups to test messaging + figure out what exact wording illicits the strongest positive response and negative response from voters) ran a focus-group of voters who were undecided going into the debates. The words they attached to Trump’s debate performance were: “arrogant,” “obnoxious,” “unpresidential,” “unamerican,” “impossible to watch,” and “crackhead”

Its such a lay-up if he plays his cards right. [TRUMP]: "I did a tremendous job on COVID. The best job. The blue state governors didn't do their job." [BIDEN]: "Yep. Thats right. Nothings ever your fault. Did the blue state governors make you not pay taxes for 10 years?" (smack him just like that. every time.)

Generally: the debates don't matter unless one guy has a complete crash-and-burn moment on stage. But I agree that Trump kind of stepped in shit here by making "Joe Biden has dementia and is mentally unfit to be president" a cornerstone of his argument for reelection. He's made it so that literally all Biden has to do to "win" the debate is show up and sound cognitive. Because then thats a swing-and-a-miss for Trump. (Its kind of the same mistake Carter made against Reagan going into the debates in 1980) _____ I'll throw this out there as a prediction: Highlight of the night that gets replayed on all the headline reels tomorrow is the exchange thats gonna happen when Trump's taxes come up.

So in Summation: Trump got millions of dollars from daddy. Lost it all being a moron trustfund baby with no discipline or business sense. Made a name for himself as something of a cartoon character during his bankruptcy proceedings, then scored the gig of a lifetime getting paid millions of dollars to play a billionaire business genius on "The Apprentice." Used that money to try to become a real billionaire. Lost it all again. Ran for president using his billionaire business genius reality TV persona to try and rehabilitate his brand: doing what no candidate before him had ever done and hiding his tax returns to conceal the fact that he was dirt broke, $400 million in debt, and hadn't reported any positive income or paid any taxes for 10 years. Then used his public office to try and prop up his failing businesses with government contracts and taxpayer money. Also: he probably committed criminal fraud by failing to report his real income for years when he didn't pay taxes + misreporting that he was taking deductions for "business expenses," when the reported income was in fact being spent on his own private lifestyle.

And again it all circles back to "beautiful, ugly thing about democracy is the people get the government they deserve." The efficacy ("goodness," if you wish to be moralistic about it) of a democracy presupposes the 'goodness' of its people. Peoples that value community, working together towards a common good, rationality, and problem-solving are well served by democracy. Peoples who care only about helping those they can immediately identify as [their people], see the needs of others as adverse to their own, reject information inconsistent with belief rather than belief inconsistent with information, and look for scapegoats instead of solutions are poorly served by it. If the problem of America may be surmised in a single sentence: Its that America is drunk on a warped idea of freedom that celebrates selfishness and stupidity as virtues.

I think for many democrats who were previously willing to give their Republican colleagues the benefit of the doubt that whatever ideological differences existed between them, they were all working together to maintain the helm of state. And treated maintaining institutional norms and professional courtesies as the higher purpose than advancing causes while in power. The last 4 years have been--instructive--as to what exactly we are dealing with. And what we need to be prepared to do when we have a governing majority again, to level the playing field.

I mean lets be clear: what the Republicans are doing right now is Court-packing. Holding open a Supreme Court seat for 240 days before an election one cycle to deny a pick to Obama and then rushing a confirmation through at the 11th hour to make sure one more goes to Trump is Court-Packing. "Court-Packing" via expanding the court is becoming a mainstream idea right now among senior Democratic leadership because the way things are shaping up; it is required as a counter-measure to Republican efforts to pack the courts with a conservative majority, rather than as an affirmative power play by the left. _____ But why stop there??? For a snapshot of how badly the current structure of government has failed us: -We have a president that received ~3 million fewer votes then the opposition candidate -We have a senate where the majority party represents ~15 million fewer people then the minority -We're about to have a Supreme Court where a majority of 5 of the 4 justices were appointed by presidents that lost the popular vote ...its a broken system of minority rule by a shrinking conservative white {majority}, holding the government hostage across the board... And JUST packing the courts is, frankly, too small a fix for it. (whats to stop R's from getting back into power the same way they did last time and doing it again?) I'd encourage the D's to REALLY go hard if after November, they're back in control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency. Statehood for D.C. Statehood for Puerto Rico. Pack the SENATE with new blue seats, and give Republicans the hurdle of 58 seats they have to hold if they ever want to take it back. Republicans wanna play hardball? Lets play hardball.

Aight--Romney's a [YES]. They have the votes. ____ 100% fine with a Court Packing plan, if Dems win the White House and the Senate. Thats fair turn-around for blocking Obama from appointing Scalia's replacement for 240 days before the 2016 election and then ramming RBG's through in ~40.

Collins out as a [no] on replacing RBG with a Trump nominee before the election. Murkowski out as a [no] on replacing RBG with a Trump pick before the election. Thats 2 more Republicans that need to break ranks to stop Trump from ramming a nominee through without getting elected to a second term. Romney's the obvious one that comes to mind as a potential #3, as the only guy with enough of a conscience to break with the party on the impeachment vote. ...not particularly hopeful that there's a #4...but hey...stranger things have happened...

Bruh I posted Carl

Biden only has to marginally outperform Hillary by a few thousand votes in a few states to secure the win: But you can never completely discount the Dem's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

One of the all time greatest quotes in the history of American jurisprudence

Some would say its the exact opposite of art

Wut????

I stopped caring what the "Bernie Bros" think when the Tankies took over their facebook group

I don't disagree with what he said. What I'm saying is that if that after witnessing the past 4 years of Family Separation and ICE camps + Police Violence and Civil Unrest + Corporate Looting and Erosion of the Middle Class + Attacks on Journalism and Suppression of Science and Spread of Disinformation + Agitation of White Nationalist Militias and Vigilantes... ...if America is so far gone that it still can't rally the opposition to stop Trump from getting another 4 years... Then the best thing to stop the spread of fascism from further seeping back into the Free World might just be for America's star to fade. And for better-governed nations with stronger commitments to carrying the torch of democracy onward for the next generation to rise to the forefront.