Fascism is on the ballot

[pbrower2a]

(10-19-2020, 10:39 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(10-18-2020, 06:16 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Enough Americans have figured out what President Trump really is and despise him enough that they will vote for Joe Biden. "Establishment" wins against someone that the Establishment can successfully depict as a dangerous demagogue. Most polling indicates that he stands to lose in the range of 7% to 17% by margin. Such ranges between a defeat on the scale of the loser in the 1988 and 2008  for a lesser defeat and the defeat of Hoover by FDR in 1932. The larger numbers are more recent and suggest the collapse of a failing campaign.

All previous 4T's have redefined what America is, and this one will be no exception. You are welcome to believe what you want, but you would be wrong.

I doubt it, Biden isn't even close to being in the same league a FDR. FDR was handicapped but his mind was sharp. I don't think this is a good time for the media to pull off an epic hood wink myself.

Matching FDR is nearly impossible. Obviously the situation is incomparable. We don't have an economic meltdown as severe as that of the three years beginning with the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929, although I would not be surprised it President Trump tanked the economy as revenge. We have over. We do have nearly 225 thousand deaths from COVID-19. We just passed Spokane, Washington (99th-largest city)... next on the list are the state capitals of Idaho (98) and Virginia (97).   Just imagine that a city like Bose or Richmond being wiped off the map; that is how severe the loss is. We have nearly four times as casualties in a costly stalemate as America lost in either the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Well, South Korea is one of the most prosperous countries in the world instead of an economic basket case on par (then) many African countries; even though the Republic of Vietnam eventually fell to the Commies, America got some desirable citizens out of that. 

What existential benefit can anyone see in Donald Trump's bungled response to COVID-19? Try convincing me that his conduct does not constitute negligent homicide on a huge scale.  That's before I even discuss his horrid response to racist assaults on public order     

Quote:Like I said, you stand to lose the bulk of the country over it.

your word against Nate Silver, a statistical expert. I know that I am about as biased (if far more civilized than you)

Quote:President Trump is running out of time. Joe Biden leads by double digits in national polls, and state-level polling is only slightly closer. In fact, Biden’s lead is so large that traditionally red states like Georgia, Iowa, Ohio and Texas might now go blue. We’ve entered the last two-week stretch before Election Day, and Trump needs the race to tighten — we’re way past the point where a normal polling error could let Trump close the gap. Still, Trump has a meaningful chance per our forecast — a little worse than the chances of rolling a 1 on a six-sided die and a little better than the chances that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. And remember, it does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day.)

• The last two weeks of the campaign can be an incredibly stressful time, though, so here are eight tips from editor-in-chief Nate Silver to stay sane, including advice like paying attention to polling averages (not individual polls) and not putting too much stock in how either campaign “feels” (they usually do not have a better read on the race than the polls.)
  • Should you trust the polls this year? Yes. But we understand that many people have lingering questions after 2016, even though Trump was just a normal polling error behind Hillary Clinton. So here’s what 15 pollsters told us they’ve changed since 2016 (a lot of them weight by education now) and what still worries them about 2020.
    

Trump offers the caveats that strange events can happen that change the political narrative, that all statewide polls have margins of error, and that voters can be incredibly fickle. Long-shots occasionally win horse races and do so frequently. Long-shots, like Trump in 2016, can win when much goes right for them. Silver still gives Trump 12 chances in 100 in which to win 270 or more electoral votes and one in which to get a tie in electoral votes that would be decided in the House based upon statewide votes by the states. (California has as many electoral votes as Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Kansas combined, but those states will count for twelve votes to California's one. Indiana, South Carolina, and Oklahoma would be three to New York's one. A 269-269 tie goes effectively to Trump.  

There is room for an unpredictable surprise such as an accusation of gross wrong-doing by a Presidential candidate long ago or a 9-11 event of the type that causes Americans to unite behind the President... Silver makes allowance for that.  But note well: Biden has as much chance of winning 419 electoral votes (all Clinton wins, ME-02, NE-02, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Texas, Alaska, and Montana) as he has of winning 270 or more electoral votes. The median result is somewhere near Obama's 2008 win or Clinton's 1992 win.  I checked the nature of the potential wins for Trump, and none of them implied Trump winning any one of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, or Texas.           

Quote: I don't care if you starve to death. I don't care if the people in New York aren't free to leave their homes for years. I don't care if Wall Street goes broke and disappears over night. I don't care if Washington, DC ends up being looted and burned to the ground. 

You are far closer to Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, or Haile Mengistu, four killers who used Commie ideology as their excuse for mass death, than I am in soullessness. I have Asperger's, so I must act to seem as if I am a decent personality through some inherent quality.   What is it -- Josef Stalin said infamously that one death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic? 

Get help. I don't know what your religious heritage is, but I figure that you are not Jewish, Muslim, or a member of some non-Christian heritage. If you are an atheist or agnostic, then you fail at the great responsibility of atheists and agnostics: to develop a moral compass that does not rely upon some Deity, Prophet, or philosophical tradition. If you reject God but also morality, then you need to find God... and considering what little I know about Judaism (it accepts converts with difficulty, but only from among the righteous and after extensive study). 

You have no chance of developing a workable morality of the type that Bertrand Russell offers. Islam is probably too exotic for you, so may I suggest this fellow for you to follow:

       

Consider what you have just said; you need a Savior... and in view of His horrible death, one that He fully expected after a lynching that resembles a show trial as one would expect under the sort of judicial process that one might expect under a totalitarian regime or under puppet rulers subservient to a colonial overlord as brutal as the Roman Empire... just read His Sermon on the Mount, and recognize that He believed every word that He said in a political speech on par with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Churchill's "Finest Hour" speech, and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.   

Because you cannot formulate a moral code of your own, you need to accept something pre-packaged.  I don't ordinarily push religion, but you need to do something that one of the Presidential nominees does. Joe Biden is a devout Christian.  

Quote:America will unite, establish an interim government, organize it's armies and establish the rule of law/ law and order within its territories. We can repeat history again and boot the Liberal's like our ancestor's booted the Brits and leave the fascists and socialists fighting over the cities alone for years as they're slaughtering themselves. I feel bad for the sheeple Democrats but that's what happens to sheeple.

Matching FDR is nearly impossible. Obviously the situation is incomparable. We don't have an economic meltdown as severe as that of the three years beginning with the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929, although I would not be surprised it President Trump tanked the economy as revenge. We have over. We do have nearly 225 thousand deaths from COVID-19. We just passed Spokane, Washington (99th-largest city)... next on the list are the state capitals of Idaho (98) and Virginia (97).   Just imagine that a city like Bose or Richmond being wiped off the map; that is how severe the loss is. We have nearly four times as casualties in a costly stalemate as America lost in either the wars in Korea and Vietnam. Well, South Korea is one of the most prosperous countries in the world instead of an economic basket case on par (then) many African countries; even though the Republic of Vietnam eventually fell to the Commies, America got some desirable citizens out of that. 

What existential benefit can anyone see in Donald Trump's bungled response to COVID-19? Try convincing me that his conduct does not constitute negligent homicide.  Donald Trump has done more than any President to divide America into hostile camps. No, there are not 'good people on both sides' between violent racists and the rest of us, the people who prefer that there not be racial strife.  I see a smashing Democratic victory as a way of compelling people who voted for Trump for the wrong reasons in 2016 a fresh slate. I expect Trump supporters to hope for the best and be happy when things that Trump threatens do not materialize.

I have no question that President Biden will have his work cut out for him. This is a Crisis Era, and much about America now is nasty.  "Rona" is slaughtering Americans. Trump has soiled American political discourse. Economic inequality in America is typical of that in a fascist regime. Trump has done great harm to the Armed Forces, the intelligence services, federal law enforcement, education, and science. 

Is he up to the challenge? His age leaves some doubts. This said, Donald Trump is both immature and senile, which is a dangerous combination. Biden was a competent understudy for an above-average President... without the personal demons that Nixon had. I see Biden as a one-term President due to his age, but I also see him likely to have good people behind him.