I think a very good thing is happening. Trump has conceded defeat. He isn't man enough to admit it but he has. He's lost -- he's a loser. As a psychopath who was immensely damaged by his daddy, he can't admit it, and millions of Americans have decided that they must follow this fascist psychopath where ever he goes. And they're going to Parler, a Twitter-like social media platform that allows lies and falsehoods in a way that Twitter does not. On Parler, they're free to spout whatever nonsense they like about how Trump was robbed and millions of votes were cast fraudulently and all the other lies that Trump's lawyers have claimed but can't come close to proving in court and (this is the hilarious part) don't even try. These crazies are now leaving Fox News -- because it is telling too much truth for them -- and moving to OANN (One America News Network) and Newsmax television, who are happy to repeat lies for the sake of views of extremists. OANN just got banned from monetizing on Youtube for pushing a scam cure for COVID. Liars gotta lie. Trump is sharing creepy tweets from Randy Quaid, one of the weirdest Hollywood exiles in recent decades who blew up his career by going on a strange crime spree fully of loopy behavior. Just the guy you want to show your attempt to steal the election is based on solid unimpeachable evidence. But Trump conceded yesterday when he told the snaky Emily Murphy to start the transition, only three weeks late in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century that Trump thinks can be cured by more golfing. The truth is obviously that Trump doesn't care one iota that 1,500 Americans a day are now dying of COVID, equivalent to 550,000 a year, appalling losses that in any war would be shocking and send the country quivering. And Trump could not care less and wants only to keep golfing. It's another big reason why he is an immense failure as president and will easily go down as the worse president in US history, a one-term impeached loser who never won the popular vote, never had an approval rating above 50 percent, whose administration was full of corruption, who, like all Republican presidents ran the economy into a hole, and whose America was reduced considerably on the world stage. Trump is a racist, science-hating, intellect-hating, incompetent manager who offered nothing but bluster during his term, a dirty man who had nothing positive to offer or look up to and who no one but the deplorables would vote for again in 2024, though it won't matter because Trump will be yesterday's toast by then and Republican will be on to their next fascist who won't be making the mistakes of their first fascist. Hopefully all Trump's McDonald's Big Macs will do him dirty and put him out of our misery.
Anyway all these Trump wackos are leaving for Parler where they can safely play with each other ad infinitum, until one by one they lose interest in even that kind of crazy and it's only the droolers left. Then Parler and Rumble and whoever else can fold like all the priors and conservatives can pretend they're too angry to join the real world again. Is that enough to foment a real revolution? We'll see, esp come 2024 and a reprobate like Tom Cotton runs for president, who will be happy to vacuum up all those reprobates.
So the logjam has finally broken and the USA can move on towards pragmatic government.
ReplyDeleteDavid - I quit Twitter long ago, but I'm amused by the comment, "a Twitter-like social media platform that allows lies and falsehoods in a way that Twitter does not." Of course Twitter allows lies and falsehoods.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Of course, that statement is a kind of spin. To make the same point with opposite spin, one could write, "Twitter censors posts, but Parler allows free speech."
ReplyDeleteCheers
"'Free Speech' Social Network Parler Allegedly Censoring #WriteInTrumpforGA"
ReplyDeleteNewsweek, yesterday
https://www.newsweek.com/parler-censoring-write-trump-ga-hashtag-1549891
Of course Twitter allows lies and falsehoods.
ReplyDeleteSuch as?
David - there are zillions of comments posted on Twitter. It's impossible for Twitter to scan and check every single one of those zillions. They can only check a relatively small number of them.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Newsweek today is not terrible reliable. A story that Newsweek calles "alleged" is not highly credible.
However, if Newsweek is right, that would be a big deal.
Cheers
David, again you don't have any evidence, just vague assertions, just like Trump's teams of lawyers.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I suppose someone, someone on Twitter, once or twice, might have written something that wasn’t true, but you well know those aren’t the untruths I’m talking about, and don’t at all compare to the vicious lies Trump and many of his acolytes have been hawking lately. Why try to compare them?
ReplyDelete*second someone = somewhere
ReplyDeleteDavid -- comparing politicians' lies is just too depressing. Yes, Trump tells a lot of lies. Biden tells fewer than Trump, but he also tells a great many. Let's face it: we expect politicians to say whatever their side's position is. The media you and I rely also have lots of false statements. It's all ugly stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather look at policies. Trump's policies were pretty successful, with one exception. He wasn't successful with covid, although some European countries did worse. There's no evidence that Democrats would have done better.
I hope Biden's economic policies will be as successful as Trump's.
Cheers
David: You have swallowed all of Trump's copious lies without choking one bit. And now we're supposed to believe a few lies of Biden (which are??) are bothering your throat?
ReplyDeleteDavid in Cal wrote:
ReplyDeleteI'd rather look at policies. Trump's policies were pretty successful
Which were those?
David - I think I already produced a list here, but here's a few Trump accomplishments
ReplyDelete1. Lowest unemployment rate evers for black
2. Ditto for Hispanics
3. Longest economic expansion ever
4. Got the medical establishment to produce and distribute stupendous amounts of tests and protective equipment
5. Got the development of vaccines four times as fast as ever before
6. Got rid of NAFTA and replaced it with a better treaty
7. Began the process of acknowledging and resisting Chinese aggression in a number of ways
8. Installed a large number of judges who will rule based on the law and the Constituion, rather than their personal policy preferences.
9 Defeated al Qaeda in Iraq
10. Reduced Iran-backed terrorism by eliminating a terrorist master
11. Moved the US Embasshy to Israel's Capital, Jerusalem
12. Note that #11 and #12 were accomplished without the kind of "uprising in the Arab Street" that Trump's opponents predicted.
13. Got substantial real increased in income for lower paid Americans, for the first time in many years.
Cheers
14. withdrawing the Dept of Education policy that led to the unfair conviction of many men on charges of sexual misbehavior.
ReplyDeleteFailing to do bad things is a semi-accomplishment. Liberal Glenn Greenwald wrote,
ReplyDelete"Nothing Trump Did Compares to the 'Moral Evil' of Bush's and Obama's Wars"
https://reason.com/video/2020/11/25/glenn-greenwald-nothing-trump-did-compares-to-the-moral-evil-of-bushs-and-obamas-wars/
Cheers
250,000 Americans have died in the pandemic, about which Trump has done nothing except suggest they drink bleach. He couldn't have cared less and his incompetence and inability to manage and lead during it has been staggering.
ReplyDeleteIMO a lot of DiC's list is spin. Trump's conduct during the pandemic has been appalling. I don't think that anyone has done more to spread the virus in America than Trump. What's worse is that a lot of this wasn't mistakes, although some of it was, it was deliberate. Like discouraging masks and social distancing. Even now he's tweeted encouraging large gatherings for Thanksgiving without even suggesting protecting those with higher risk factors. What makes it worse is that if a vaccine is soon to be rolled out then a lot of the deaths this will cause are preventable.
ReplyDeleteLiberal Glenn Greenwald wrote,
ReplyDelete"Nothing Trump Did Compares to the 'Moral Evil' of Bush's and Obama's Wars"
I doubt that Greenwald was ever a liberal. He says himself he wasn't. Now he appears to be just another Trump apologist, suggesting for instance that the Mueller report was a scam and a fraud. He even suggested Bill Barr's summary of the report was accurate.
Anyway, Obama mostly inherited the wars from Bush so its disingenuous to call them "Bush's and Obama's Wars".
14. withdrawing the Dept of Education policy that led to the unfair conviction of many men on charges of sexual misbehavior.
ReplyDeleteHaven't studied this (have you, David), but with Betsy DeVos behind it I'm automatically very dubious.
Got the development of vaccines four times as fast as ever before
ReplyDeleteAlthough Trump did invest a lot of government money into vaccine development, and its probably the only covid related thing he got right, the speed of development was more down to long term vaccine research that had nothing to do with Trump. Of course it appears that his motivation for ploughing money into covid vaccines was more to do with improving his chances of re-election. The evidence for that is him pressuring companies to prematurely announce a viable vaccine before November 3rd.
David - yes, it's an issue with which I'm very familiar. Under Obama, the Dept of Education released a letter telling colleges not to give accused men proper due process for defending themselves. There have been a number of lawsuits won by men who were unjustly convicted by the campus Administration. Several of the cases I read about were shockingly unfair and unjust. One, I recall, involved a man who kissed his gay lover while they were lying together in bed.
ReplyDeleteJ.D. - Every politician wants to get re-elected. One way they do that is to take credit for everything good an deny blame for everything bad. A good example is President Obama boasting about the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Cheers
Anyway it amazes me that anyone can still support a President who has refused to concede an election that he has obviously lost. That he is still insisting that he won the election and is trying to use courts to undermine American democracy and have thousands of legitimate votes thrown out so he can declare himself winner shows he was never fit for high office. Instead of trying to turn a long established democracy into a dictatorship and doing his best to undermine the transition to Biden's presidency he should be doing what he can to deal with the growing coronavirurus crisis.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I know you want to ignore the deep trough the economy dove into during the pandemic (the second such deep trough in a row bequeathed by a Republican president), but it cannot be wholly separated from Trump. His job was (and remains) to manage it, not less than if we were at war. He has done a lousy job.
ReplyDeleteTrump's economy was nothing but a continuation of Obama's economy, though with even less job growth. And this was true before the pandemic started.
Through Feb 2020, Trump's economy had gained 6.84 M jobs in his first 37 months. Obama's economy had gained 8.25 M in its last 37 months.
That's an average of 1.5%/yr for Trump, 1.8%/yr for Obama.
Over that time, real GDP had increased an average of 2.1%/yr under Trump, and 2.4%/yr during Obama's second term.
And Trump's economy was fueled by some serious deficit spending. By the beginning of 2020 Trump's federal deficit was up to $1.6 T/yr, far exceeding Obama's.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD
Remember Trump promising to eliminate the deficit?
Remember him promising to bring back coal?
What else?
One way they do that is to take credit for everything good an deny blame for everything bad.
ReplyDeleteYes of course and until Trump became President I would never have criticized any one for arguing in favor of their preferred candidate. In fact for years I've avoided political discussions because a lot of it is down to just a matter of opinion. However it's obvious to most people that Trump is not fit to be President. He is a sociopath only concerned about his own interests. There have been many examples of this but his refusal to concede the election is the most glaring. It doesn't matter how many more court cases he loses or how obvious it is that there was no fraud involved in Biden winning the presidency, or how damaging it is to America and its citizens, he will still maintain that he won
3. Longest economic expansion ever
ReplyDeleteNow, David, you know it wasn't as long as Obama's.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1
Under Obama, the Dept of Education released a letter telling colleges not to give accused men proper due process for defending themselves.
ReplyDeleteDavid, why do you think you never have to provide supporting evidence, especially for something as crazy sounding as this?
Why do you think I would believe you without evidence? I won't.
David in Cal wrote:
ReplyDeleteThere have been a number of lawsuits won by men who were unjustly convicted by the campus Administration. Several of the cases I read about were shockingly unfair and unjust. One, I recall, involved a man who kissed his gay lover while they were lying together in bed.
I can't begin to believe this until you provide evidence.
Usually when I ask this you say you can't be bothered. Which to me is that same as saying it isn't true.
Glenn Greenwald just left The Intercept and went to Substack. He needs to build a paying readership, fast. It may well color his output.
ReplyDeleteDavid - See Brandeis branded gay student a rapist for awaking boyfriend with a kiss, suit says
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thecollegefix.com/brandeis-branded-gay-student-a-rapist-for-awaking-boyfriend-with-a-kiss-suit-says/
Cheers
P.S. This example shows why one must read some conservative sources, to supplement mainstream news.
David, that article uses the name "Doe" without even first saying who it refers to.
ReplyDeleteIt's not well written and has several statements that are clearly biased. It is not journalism.
David, this article is clearly not neutral.
ReplyDeleteIt's from April 2015. What was the final resolution?
The article says, "Even though the suit claims J.C. had indicated he preferred forceful men, Sanghavi ruled that Doe committed sexual assault by placing his hand on J.C’s crotch the day before they started dating."
His "preference" doesn't matter -- that does not give anyone the right to grab his crotch. It certainly would not be allowed with a woman. It's no different for a gay man.
It certainly sounds like assault to me.
I do not think this conservative source gave you a fair, balanced, neutral account of this story, and I think they overlooked a case of sexual assault.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need to read more liberal sources.
Yes, to his credit, Trump, or at least his cabinet and agencies like the CDC and FDA, sent money to pharm companies for vaccine development, but so did other countries, in particular the UK and Germany.
ReplyDeleteIt was the pharm Co scientists and govt scientists who are the heroes here, not Trump or any other national leaders. And of course Trump deeply resented Fauci taking any attention away from him to the point he was ready to fire him. Deeply inexcusable.
Trump would have us all drinking bleach and taking hydroq.
Didn't Trump say we were all going to get the same treatment he got in the hospital when he had COVID?
Yes, he did.
Another lie.
JD: I fully agree with you. At this point, anyone still supporting Trump and his efforts, however feeble, to overthrow the election is supporting a coup and is fully aware of, and responsible for, the damage they are doing to American democracy.
ReplyDeleteDavid - A conservative criticized the mistreatment of a gay man, so you respond by excusing or denying his mistreatment. Normally, I am sure you would defend a mistreated gay person. Automatically denying whatever a conservative says is sometimes not a good idea. Conservatives are sometimes right.
ReplyDeleteI put "Brandeis gay student sexual" into google and got everything you asked about at https://www.google.com/search?q=brndeis+gay+student+sexual&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US751&oq=brndeis+gay+student+sexual&aqs=chrome..69i57.7071j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
A judge rebuked Brandeis University for denying fundamental due process rights to a student who was found guilty of sexual misconduct for a variety of non-violent offenses: most notably, because he had awakened his then-boyfriend with nonconsensual kisses.
The process that Brandeis employed to investigate the matter was "essentially secret and inquisitorial," according to Dennis Saylor, a federal judge who ruled that the accused student's lawsuit against Brandeis should continue.
This is a significant victory for advocates of due process in campus sexual misconduct investigations.
BTW the court decision was reported in WaPo, a liberal organ.
Cheers