SoTier

How f'n stupid!!!! Covid Donnie doesn't realize that he lost the popular vote by almost 5 million votes. Moronic Covid Donnie has also apparently forgotten that he only won the presidency in 2016 BECAUSE of the Electoral College since he lost the popular vote in that election by 3 million votes -- and he and his cult have the temerity to accuse Joe Biden of being senile.

I believe that more than one of Meadows' staffers have also tested positive. Meadows was meeting and greeting and circulating at the Election Night party at the White House, so it's likely going to be another superspreader event,.

Stop guaranteeing student loans to students at for-profit colleges and trade schools that are scams. These schools need to go through a periodic accreditation process by an outside organization just like non-profit colleges and universities go through. Allowing borrowers who've been paying their loans back for several years to be able to discharge them through bankruptcy if they suffer economic hardship for other causes like lost jobs or business failures, medical problems, etc. There's a program I believe that allows forgiveness of student loans based on public service. Right now, it's kind of hard to become eligible for that program. Expand it and make more job types/professions eligible. For example, I think that medical professionals from nurses to doctors working in public health ought to be eligible for 50-70% of their loans forgiven based on how many years they work in the field of public health.

I generally agree with your take here but I cannot agree with the statement I bolded. A "central news" authority of some kind that would regulate news, talk shows, social media, etc is a bigger danger to American democracy than having a demented bully as POTUS because the news would then be filtered through whatever lens the federal "authority" would approve. We wouldn't know that the POTUS was a demented bully because some unseen hand would clean up his words before anybody saw them or heard them and reject his most outrageous lies -- or there would be no way that we would be able to find out if what the POTUS said was a lie. We would never hear the other side. The US, in fact, had a couple of tries at something like this in the 1950s and 1960s. The first was a national censorship group that regulated "decency" on TV and in the media. The second one was more pernicious: a "gentlemen's agreement" among reporters and print a.nd broadcast editors/publishers to suppress any news stories that reflected poorly on the POTUS. This agreement to never publish stories may have predated the Cold War, but it peaked during the Cold War. Certainly the most egregious -- and dangerous -- example this agreement was the fact that JFK was having prostitutes brought into the WH at a time when the Soviet Union was well known for using female spies posing as prostritues and "party girls" (a British PM and his government were forced to resign amid allegations of trysts with such spies). All the reporters covering the WH knew what JFK was doing but kept it from the public. This didn't come out until decades after Kennedy's death although there had been rumors about it. No thank you to censorship, whether it's imposed from the top or self imposed. I think the best way to counter the negative effects of the democratization of the presidential candidate selection is to do away with the Electoral College. Most Americans are centrists, but the party bases are further to the left or right of the political spectrum. Electoral college gamesmanship allows parties to win elections with candidates who don't appeal to most American voters. Going with just the popular vote --- direct election of the POTUS -- would force party bases to move toward the center to appeal to most Americans. Nobody likes to lose. "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." -- Abraham Lincoln I think that this election proves this in spades.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. November 6, 2020 - US coronavirus cases topped 125,000. November 6, 2020 - White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for the coronavirus. November 3, 2020 - Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, reportedly urged “much more aggressive action” against the coronavirus in an internal memo to Trump administration officials offering a bleak assessment of the pandemic still raging across the country—as the president continues to insist the U.S. has COVID-19 under control. (Dr Birx ) October 22, 2020 - The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University reports that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from coronavirus could have been avoided with a better response from the US government policies and crisis messaging. (Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths) October 13, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 363,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by January 1, 2021 and more than 394,000 by February 1, 2021 with the seasonal flu making the coronavirus more deadly. November 6, 2020 - 236,064 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1210. November 5, 2020 - 234,944 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1210. November 4, 2020 - 233,734 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1096. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 4-6 2020: 1142 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 7-13, 2020: 851 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, September 30-October 6, 2020: 707 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

The problem is that it's not "the parties" that decide who runs for POTUS. Back in the 1960s, the state party insiders pretty much decided on which candidates that the states would support at the national conventions, but in the 1970s that changed due to the upheavals caused by the Vietnam War, the student protests, and civil rights movement. State primary elections selected national convention delegates pledged to specific presidential candidates while "special delegates" picked by party leaders shrank in number and influence or disappeared altogether. Today, in most states, it's rank-and-file members of the state political parties who decide which candidates get state delegates. That's more democratic, but it also makes it "base" voters -- rank and file party members who come out to vote in primaries -- very powerful, and many of those party members tend to be closer to the ideological wings of the parties than to the center.

Maybe the Trumplets and the Baby Trumps should be considering where Covid Donnie can hide out so that he isn't extradicted back to the US.

I agree. On January 20, 2021, Trump leaves the WH willingly and with as much dignity as he can manage or he leaves under guard like a common criminal. His power ceases when he ceases to be POTUS, and that happens as soon as Biden takes the oath of office.

He's clearly the worst POTUS of all time. He makes James Buchanan (who was a traitor IMO because he was complicit in allowing the seceded states to take over federal facilities including forts, arsenals, navy yards etc in the last months of his administration after Lincoln's election) and Andrew Jackson (who gave the US the spoils system, unregulated currency, the dispossession of the Cherokees, etc). I don't think so. People voted for Biden because he's the polar opposite of Donald Trump in demeanor and history. He's the competent, dependable old guy who gets stuff done. He's not the demented batshit crazy uncle who has no moral compass or empathy or self control.

Trump cultists are not most Republicans and certainly not most Americans.

Being a Jests fan, he's probably bored. Sometimes, though, sometimes one poster's spam is another poster's good read.

I think this is how most people who voted for Trump will feel, too. We owe allegiance to the US not to a political party and especially not to a specific politician, which is the road to dictatorship. The vast majority of Americans aren't going to go down that road.

Who put a burr under your tail, dude? If you don't like a thread topic, then don't bother with it.

PA has segregated the votes that came in after Election Day. Those votes currently number only a few thousand.

This isn't 1986 or 1994. Times change. People change as well.

He caught Covid 19 and "saw the light" that Covid Donnie's flouting of sensible public health measures was wrong. He had the temerity to say so, which undoubtedly incensed the Trumplet Cult.

I keep hoping Covid Donnie would demonstrate some real patriotism and leave with dignity befitting the POTUS so that the country can move on from his divisiveness but it's probably a pipe dream.

Sadly, the health carnage --- cases, hospitalizations, deaths --- and the economic and social consequences that result from it is going to continue long after Covid Donnie takes his sorry carcass out of the White House, possibly under escort by the FBI or SS or DHS.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. November 3, 2020 - Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, reportedly urged “much more aggressive action” against the coronavirus in an internal memo to Trump administration officials offering a bleak assessment of the pandemic still raging across the country—as the president continues to insist the U.S. has COVID-19 under control. (Dr Birx ) October 22, 2020 - The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University reports that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from coronavirus could have been avoided with a better response from the US government policies and crisis messaging. (Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths) October 13, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 363,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by January 1, 2021 and more than 394,000 by February 1, 2021 with the seasonal flu making the coronavirus more deadly. November 5, 2020 - 234,944 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1210. November 4, 2020 - 233,734 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1096. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, November 4-5, 2020: 1153 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 7-13, 2020: 851 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, September 30-October 6, 2020: 707 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

Sadly, you are probably correct. If Trump wasn't batshit crazy, he'd be interested in salvaging some shred of his reputation for history but that's too much to expect from Covid Donnie.

Mail-in voting has been successful and safe since1864 when soldiers in the Union armies helped sweep Abraham Lincoln to victory. That's 156 years of Presidential elections. Moreover, at least 3 states have been doing primarily mail-in voting for several years . The counting process probably needs to be changed in some places, notably where counting doesn't start until election day or later but I have no problem with states that allow absentee ballots postmarked on election day to arrive after election day. Mail in voting works. Fine tune it on the state level. As a retired IT professional, I totally agree that the US doesn't havt good enough cyber security to allow online voting. More importantly for me, I feel that going to an online voting system would disenfranchise many of the elderly and any other people who aren't comfortable with technology as well as the poor who don't have access to technology as well as those who live isolated areas where access to the Internet isn't practical for many reasons. I think the expansion of early in-person voting is the best way to get more people to vote in person (and facilitate faster vote counting) but the mail-in/drop box option should remain available as well as in-person election day voting. No, it would mean that the GOP would have to move to a position somewhat to the right of center if it wanted to win the presidency rather than espousing far right views that are not popular with the bulk of the electorate but are with its ever narrowing base. The Democrats learned that lesson already. Biden is a centrist, and his stances are somewhat left of center despite GOP rhetoric. A good example of this is the health care issue where seventy percent of Americans repeatedly say they want a health care plan that guarantees people with pre-existing conditions are covered. Biden and the Democrats have such a plan that would improve many of the problems with the ACA but the only thing the GOP has offered is getting rid of Obamacare and vague promises that they'll protect people with pre-existing conditions after the election if only people vote for them. There would have to be some mechanism to deal with the eventuality that a third party candidate would be competitive, so that the winner would have to get a minimum percentage of the popular vote -- and what to do in the case that no candidate got that minumum. I would say probably 40%. Lincoln got only slightly less than that IIRC in 1860 in a four way race. I believe that Bill Clinton got around 40% of the popular vote in a three way race in 1992. Most of the candidates haven't gotten 50% of the popular vote because of votes cast for minor party candidates since Ronald Reagan in 1984. We aren't a collection of isolated quasi-independent states with very different cultures like we were in 1789. We are one country with 50 political divisions plus a federal district and a territory that vote for POTUS where the differences within states are often bigger than the differences between states (primarily rural vs urban), thanks largely to mass communication technology. The Electoral College has never worked to prevent a "demagogue" from being elected POTUS: Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828 (and he surely fit the description of demagogue as the framers of the Constitution thought of demagogue fifty years before). It hasn't worked to prevent crooks and incompetents from winning the presidency. All it does is make some people's votes worth more than others depending solely upon where they live.

Paraguay undoubtedly is the perfect landing spot for you.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. November 3, 2020 - Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, reportedly urged “much more aggressive action” against the coronavirus in an internal memo to Trump administration officials offering a bleak assessment of the pandemic still raging across the country—as the president continues to insist the U.S. has COVID-19 under control. (Dr Birx ) October 22, 2020 - The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University reports that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from coronavirus could have been avoided with a better response from the US government policies and crisis messaging. (Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths) October 13, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 363,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by January 1, 2021 and more than 394,000 by February 1, 2021 with the seasonal flu making the coronavirus more deadly. November 4, 2020 - 233,734 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1096. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 3, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 7-13, 2020: 851 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, September 30-October 6, 2020: 707 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.

Be smart and get your flu shot. Be smarter and wear a mask and practice social distancing. November 3, 2020 - Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, reportedly urged “much more aggressive action” against the coronavirus in an internal memo to Trump administration officials offering a bleak assessment of the pandemic still raging across the country—as the president continues to insist the U.S. has COVID-19 under control. (Dr Birx ) October 22, 2020 - The National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University reports that between 130,000 and 210,000 deaths from coronavirus could have been avoided with a better response from the US government policies and crisis messaging. (Avoidable Covid-19 Deaths) October 13, 2020 - The U of Washington's IHME projects that more than 363,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by January 1, 2021 and more than 394,000 by February 1, 2021 with the seasonal flu making the coronavirus more deadly. November 3, 2020 - 232,638 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1082. November 2, 2020 - 231,556 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 553. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 447. October 31, 2020 - 230,556 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 962. October 30, 2020 - 229,594 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 946. October 29, 2020 - 228,648 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 947. October 28, 2020 - 227,701 Americans have died of coronavirus with a single day death toll of 1028. Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 28-November 1, 2020: 852 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 21-27, 2020: 800 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 14-20, 2020: 726 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, October 7-13, 2020: 851 Average daily deaths from coronavirus, September 30-October 6, 2020: 707 November 1, 2020 - 22,748 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of October, an average of 734 per day. October 1, 2020 - 21,311 Americans died of coronavirus in the month of September, an average of 710 per day. November 1, 2020 - 231,003 Americans have died of coronavirus October 1, 2020 - 207,808 Americans have died of coronavirus. September 1, 2020 - 185,594 Amercians have died of coronavirus. July 1, 2020 - 127,299 Americans have died of coronavirus.