Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Lord Liaden]

It was always Biden's decision whether to go after one term, or fight for reelection. Nobody in a political party is going to gainsay a sitting President from their party who wants a second term. Biden must believe he's the best person to carry his agenda forward. And Biden's public speaking skills and debating skills have not deteriorated, as he showed on the campaign trail the very next day. He had a bad night, and a bad debate. Far younger people have performed as badly, if not worse. One debate is not the sum of a campaign. Biden's answers to questions were substantive, the manner in which he answered them doesn't change that.

 

What Trump did was put on a show, loud but empty. People who are impressed by nothing but show were already going to vote for Trump.

[Old Man]

Lost in the noise of Biden's debate performance was the catastrophic performance of Trump, whose gish gallop responses included such gems as "after birth abortion", "black and hispanic jobs", an outright denial of having had an affair with Stormy Daniels, and lots of fearmongering on immigration.  His one clear policy objective was deregulation, which I'm sure resonates with the people funding his campaign, but isn't going to earn him any votes at the ballot box.

[Cygnia]

To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race

Quote

President Joe Biden’s debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.

In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

 

[MrWolf]

I was talking about this with my wife today.

 

I don't vote for the Debater in Chief.  I vote for the Commander in Chief.

 

One single debate doesn't change my mind in any way about his fitness for office.  YMMV.

[Pattern Ghost]

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

It was always Biden's decision whether to go after one term, or fight for reelection. Nobody in a political party is going to gainsay a sitting President from their party who wants a second term.

 

I think that it's true that it's ultimately Biden's decision, but I don't think it was without party input. Even so, the Democrats should have been working on grooming someone for 2028 already, and I'm not seeing it. 

 

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

What Trump did was put on a show, loud but empty. People who are impressed by nothing but show were already going to vote for Trump.

 

Sadly, that's all he needed to do.

Edited Monday at 01:28 AM by Pattern Ghost

[Lord Liaden]

3 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

I think that it's true that it's ultimately Biden's decision, but I don't think it was without party input. Even so, the Democrats should have been working on grooming someone for 2028 already, and I'm not seeing it. 

 

 

Traditionally that is not done in a President's first term, and there are good reasons for that. One, it makes the sitting President look like he's going to leave after one term whether he intends to or not, which automatically makes him a lame duck. Two, the farther ahead a successor is chosen, the more time the opposition party has to focus their campaigning against that person. That's why you have party caucuses and candidate debates and primaries. The new candidate emerges out of the consensus of the party, just as Joe Biden did. Just as Barack Obama did, and, unfortunately, Donald Trump.

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:45 AM by Lord Liaden

[Asperion]

12 hours ago, Cygnia said:

To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race

 

 

I would modify this to say Trump should move to a country that has a death warrant for him. 

[Hugh Neilson]

Where would anyone get the impression that The Donald has any desire to serve his country, rather than the other way round?  "Ask not what your President can do for you, ask what you can do for your President!"

[Cygnia]

1 hour ago, Asperion said:

 

I would modify this to say Trump should move to a country that has a death warrant for him. 

No official death warrant, but I suggest North Sentinel Island...

[Starlord]

Voters kick all the Republican women out of the South Carolina Senate

 

The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate took on their party and stopped a total abortion ban from passing in their state last year. In return, they lost their jobs.

[MrWolf]

Sigh.  I just saw the court's ruling on presidential immunity.  I'm not surprised but I am very sad and disappointed.

[Hermit]

"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

--Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel

 

I'm sorry, Doc. I feel like we're letting you down.

 

[MrWolf]

You know, if Sotomayor is right, as long as it's an "official" act, I am worried that under this ruling absolutely no one in this country is actually safe ever again.

 

I don't know if the 6 justices care though.

 

"Writing for the ages", indeed.

 

As long as it's an "official" act, it's allowed.

 

And it can't be unofficial just because it may actually violate a law.

 

Wow.  Just wow.

 

 

Edited Monday at 04:23 PM by MrWolf

[Old Man]

At this point the only hope for the republic is for Biden to say "Thank you", round up everyone involved in the insurrection, Project 2025, and open corruption, and throw them in Guantanamo.  And shoot down Trump's jet with Trump in it.  And then engineer the Constitutional amendments necessary to ensure this never happens again.

 

But he won't, and the "justices" know it.

[Tom Cowan]

A president's main job is to put his people in power and keep it that way, right?

[Lord Liaden]

I'm not given to hyperbole, but this is the greatest crisis America has faced since your Civil War.

 

We in the rest of the world are not just sad. We're scared.

 

My greatest hope is that politically, the reaction to this decision will make overturning Roe v Wade look like Angry Birds. The right wing dog not only caught the car, it ate the tires and drank the gasoline.

 

(If you run into anyone celebrating this decision, remind them that Joe Biden has these powers right now.)

 

 

Edited Monday at 09:25 PM by Lord Liaden

[Sociotard]

The picture is of my local library:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Idaho/s/DDSPpcq9TQ

 

A nine-year-old can be compelled to give birth, but can't pick out any book she wants.

Edited Monday at 09:44 PM by Sociotard

[Hermit]

23 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I'm not given to hyperbole, but this is the greatest crisis America has faced since your Civil War.

 

We in the rest of the world are not just sad. We're scared.

 

My greatest hope is that politically, the reaction to this decision will make overturning Roe v Wade look like Angry Birds. The right wing dog not only caught the car, it ate the tires and drank the gasoline.

 

(If you run into anyone celebrating this decision, remind them that Joe Biden has these powers right now.)

 

 

 

To say I am terrified is to damn with faint understatement. I live in Tennessee, a state that has drank so deeply of the Fox News Pro Trump Koolaid as to give the feeling that over the last 20 years I have only two types of neighbors now. Servants of a cult, and hapless prisoners of the cult who have had all power gerrymandered and blocked from them.

 

I remember as a kid how Schoolhouse Rock would play a song about the American Revolution called "No More Kings".  It's bitter  to play it now.

 

 

[Old Man]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

We in the rest of the world are not just sad. We're scared.

 

You're scared?  I live here.

 

Quote

(If you run into anyone celebrating this decision, remind them that Joe Biden has these powers right now.)

 

Yeah but there's no chance he'll use them.

[Armitage]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

(If you run into anyone celebrating this decision, remind them that Joe Biden has these powers right now.)

 

 

 

I'm sure the Supreme Court is perfectly willing to come up with an excuse why their ruling only applies to Republicans, should such a situation arise.

[Pattern Ghost]

 

[DShomshak]

28 minutes ago, Armitage said:

 

I'm sure the Supreme Court is perfectly willing to come up with an excuse why their ruling only applies to Republicans, should such a situation arise.

Already implicit in the ruling, something an ATC legal analyst sort of glided over without pulling out the implications. The POTUS has absolute immunity for use of Constitutionally mandated powers, and presumed immunity for all the implied powers. But what are the limits? The Constitution actually says vbery little about the Priesident's powers (in contrast to the long list of Congress' enumerated powers). So when is an official act within those limits? Courts must decide case by case. Which cases will inevitably be appealed up to the Supreme Court. So... the implication of the ruling is that Presidents have immunity to do any damn thing they want, until the Supreme Court says they don't. Which a President cannot know in advance.

 

The gift of power to the executive branch conceals an even bigger grab of power by the legislative branch.

 

(Unless of course the President boots the existing court and replaces it with compliant judged -- as a number of elected despots have done to entrench their power. A course I would recommend to Mr Biden. After all, his new court can then make it legal after the fact.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[Old Man]

4 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

(Unless of course the President boots the existing court and replaces it with compliant judged -- as a number of elected despots have done to entrench their power. A course I would recommend to Mr Biden. After all, his new court can then make it legal after the fact.)

 

This.  What surprises me most about this ruling is that it happened so far from the election.  I expected the SCOTUS to punt the case back down to the lower courts or otherwise delay it so as not to coronate Biden.  Instead they made Biden king.  Which is a hell of a gift, except that we all know Biden is an institutionalist and will not do what needs to be done at this point.

[Cygnia]

3 hours ago, Sociotard said:

The picture is of my local library:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Idaho/s/DDSPpcq9TQ

 

A nine-year-old can be compelled to give birth, but can't pick out any book she wants.

My library was my literal place of safety as a child.  To be denied solo access would have terrified me (let's just say my parents were not Good People).

[Cygnia]

44 minutes ago, Old Man said:

 

This.  What surprises me most about this ruling is that it happened so far from the election.  I expected the SCOTUS to punt the case back down to the lower courts or otherwise delay it so as not to coronate Biden.  Instead they made Biden king.  Which is a hell of a gift, except that we all know Biden is an institutionalist and will not do what needs to be done at this point.

You just KNOW SCOTUS would find some way to twist it to ban democrats from taking any advantage of this ruling though....