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[MetalSlimeHunt]

Doesn't qualify as either under US law - all Trump has to say is that he really believes that Scarborough did the murder and that the forensics were a coverup. This is doubly true as Scarborough is a public figure, who have substantially reduced protections against defamation and slander.

Basically, you'd need to have a tape of Trump laying out how he's going to maliciously try to ruin Scarborough by falsely claiming he's a murderer. That would get you into court, and you would then lose anyway.

[The Ensorceler]

Biden strongly believes that we could improve our politics overnight if we flushed big money from the system and had public financing of our elections.

This includes an amendment to outright remove donations, and if I counted right four separate laws to attack big or obfuscated donations or bolster small ones. (tbh it reads like the amendment is unlikely, but I'll call my reps to support it and it moves the needle on pasding it eventually)

He also describes precisely a 1+ trillion dollar green new deal in all but name. And outlines a plann pushing from multiple angles to cut off the prison-industrial complex at the knees. And fully criminalize corruption, under a new government agency. And pass the Equality Act ASAP.

None of this is just-go-back-ism, except arguably the prison thing if you go really far back, but even that was never focused on community support and harm reduction strategies. It's new for America, it's left of Obama's administration, and in no way is it 'blue MAGA'.

[SalmonGod]

Biden strongly believes that we could improve our politics overnight if we flushed big money from the system and had public financing of our elections.

This includes an amendment to outright remove donations, and if I counted right four separate laws to attack big or obfuscated donations or bolster small ones. (tbh it reads like the amendment is unlikely, but I'll call my reps to support it and it moves the needle on pasding it eventually)

He also describes precisely a 1+ trillion dollar green new deal in all but name. And outlines a plann pushing from multiple angles to cut off the prison-industrial complex at the knees. And fully criminalize corruption, under a new government agency. And pass the Equality Act ASAP.

None of this is just-go-back-ism, except arguably the prison thing if you go really far back, but even that was never focused on community support and harm reduction strategies. It's new for America, it's left of Obama's administration, and in no way is it 'blue MAGA'.

Obama ran on a transparency and anti-war platform.

Platform doesn't matter.  Record and funding matters.

[The Ensorceler]

So about that push to rein in funding across the board?

[wierd]

Campaign finance reform has been a political topic for as long as I can remember. In a few years, I will be 40.

I'll believe it when I see it.  In the world of "Citizens United", which declared campaign contributions as speech, I am not gonna hold my breath, especially with a judicial as heavily GOP packed as the current one.

[SalmonGod]

Yeah, I still need to look further into it.  But I'm maintaining extreme skepticism until I see some indication of sincerity about it beyond "this is our current voter gaslighting strategy".  I'm 37, and my whole adult life my expectations have been conditioned by the Democrat habit of talking about representing things that sound good, and then when the opportunity comes along to actually take concrete action on that platform, there is suddenly an endless supply of excuses and manufactured distractions as they refuse fail to do what they talked about.  So I need proof of sincerity, not platform.  This is why record and funding are what matters to me.

He blocks younger leftward folks from running again I'ma friggin' riot.

Who?

Bernie's campaigns inspired more leftist youth to get involved in politics.  People like AOC have directly attributed him as inspiring their decisions to run for various offices.

Meanwhile, what young leftist are you aware of who was considering or in any position to run for president?

Though the statement you were quoting was less about, well, what you responded with, and more about bernie failing to build the bridges he needed to, to make up for being an ancient self-proclaimed communist vocally hostile to the democrat establishment. Guy fucked up pretty hard at pretty key points in the lead up to the primary voters deciding he was even worse an option the biden is, in ways that, like... makes him solidly losing the way he did super unsurprising. Media was milking or ginning up conflict between his campaign and other folks, sure, but there were plenty of self-owns involved, too. Which, y'know. Sucks.

I don't have the time or spoons right now to lay out all my reasons for it.  Should be pretty clear why, though, as I've discussed many specifics many times in this thread.  But I have the exact opposite perspective on this.  There were a lot of failures on the 2020 campaign, and I'm disappointed with Bernie.  But failing to build bridges has nothing to do with it.  Mainly he was too fucking nice as the Democrats and their allies repeatedly lied and propagandized about him, sometimes to his face, conspired from the top levels to stop him at all costs, convinced his one supposed ally to publicly stab him in the back, ruthlessly twisted and weaponized identity politics in intellectually dishonest fashion, massive evidence of suppression and corruption in the voting process, and even publicly stated that they'd consider voting for Trump over him.  Meanwhile, Bernie spends the whole primary referring to them all as his "good friends", telling everyone that his competition is good candidates capable of beating Trump if they win the primary, and promising to offer them support unconditionally if they do.  The problem was not failing to build bridges.  It was flat out ideological incompatibility with the party's true nature.

[Frumple]

He blocks younger leftward folks from running again I'ma friggin' riot.

Who?

Bernie's campaigns inspired more leftist youth to get involved in politics.  People like AOC have directly attributed him as inspiring their decisions to run for various offices.

Meanwhile, what young leftist are you aware of who was considering or in any position to run for president?

Like, I've forgotten their names 'cause the whole plague thing and 2020 being a small eternity already, but from what I recall there were at least two or three younger (if not AOC level young) left-wing politicos that were in at least as good a position as bernie was to make a run this cycle, but to all appearances didn't largely because he sucked the air out of the proverbial room. Want to say there was someone or another mid-west-ish that kept coming up, but hell if I can remember right now.

Flat out, sanders should have found one good enough and backed them 110% instead of running this time (shit, biden should have done the same thing, but when you say "geriatrics are good enough" you get goddamn geriatrics, and everyone left, right, and center has decided "septuagenarian" isn't a bridge too far this cycle) -- if he tries to run again I'll just be flatly pissed off, and I'd hope to hell everyone that said similar shit about clinton running this cycle would be in the same position. We didn't need a geriatric that lost to clinton to run this time (since, y'know, he proceeded to lose again), we damn sure don't need an even older one that lost to clinton and biden to run next time.

I've seen fairly common mention of confusion or disappointment in sanders just not doing much endorsement of down-ticket stuff, or doing much direct personal involvement in developing the next generation, too. Like, endorsements happen, but not nearly as much as you'd expect from 'im, and some of them have been kinda' odd (or ineffectual) on top of it. Sure, he's inspired some folks, but that ain't the same thing as buckling down and supportin' them, yeah? He probably would have done more good doing that instead of failing at another primary campaign.

The problem was not failing to build bridges.  It was flat out ideological incompatibility with the party's true nature.

I mean, if that's your problem you're flatly fucking not going to win the party primary, and pretty damn certainly going to fail to carry the general even if you make it on the ticket somehow.

Pull the other one about sanders taking the high road, though; guy cheerfully put attack dogs around him that could and would do that for him, and it's part of what sunk him -- you're not going to win a campaign for the votes of folks that have significant investment in a political party that way, and going hard for the establishment throat would just destroy you of you tried, putting people willing to do that in your near circle caused enough problems on that front. Add in not reaching out to more local folks and organizations he really should have been reaching for, getting fuckin' torpedoed in places like florida, and so on, and just... it didn't work. Again. Actually building significant networks within the party could have made the difference there, but I guess we'll never know

[LordBaal]

So, I have to ask honeslty, and without leaning to anyone because, honestly? We are fucked up no matter who wins anything anywhere anymore.

Who you think will gain the next election? I know lots of you here would love to have a democratic victory or heck even a socialist victory somehow (may the heavens have mercy upon you). But honestly, who you think will win regardless your prefereance?

From here it seems an Emperor Palpatrump victory is inminent and I should join the Bolivarian militia because you are going to invade us at any moment to steal our fields, rape our horses and burn our womans. But that its just our glorious regime propaganda I guess.

I could point you to some pretty funny militia training videos.

[TamerVirus]

The winner will be Coronavirus, for sure.

[LordBaal]

Thats depressing for sure.

[Ziusudra]

From what little I've seen polls are barely leaning Biden - so Trump'll win again. Not just because a toss up favors the incumbent - but we've been voting for change for decades and Trump still represents that way more than Biden.

[SalmonGod]

I still see Biden getting stomped.  First, because Biden is the worst presidential candidate I've ever seen in my life.  Second, because

Democrats don't offer anything that isn't better served by the right.  They offer hypercapitalist authoritarian systemic violence on a path to growing fascism and the environmental apocalypse.  People who want hypercapitalist authoritarian systemic violence will vote for a Republican, because they go harder at it and sell it proudly.  People who want hypercapitalist authoritarian systemic violence but want it polished and friendly looking so they're not prompted to analyze their political beliefs and feel like a bad person for them vote for Democrats.  Or people who are afraid of Republicans because they're more open about it will vote for a Democrat, like applying pressure to a massive bleeding wound on the country's neck while sobbing hysterically because they're all alone and have no better idea what to do than hope for a miracle.  The only voting base that's offered any appealing motivation to vote is those who want hypercapitalist authoritarian systemic violence, and that voting base is better served by Republicans.

[Naturegirl1999]

@Lordbaal
Empires usually need to collapse before changes can occur, and even then, change might not occur...leaders may change, countries may split, change, merge, shatter, but wars will continue occurring until everyone stops. That will likely not happen. The environment is irrevocably changed because of humanity’s actions, and we will live with and die with the consequences. We may or may not be victims of our extinction event we started, but if we somehow don’t go extinct, we will have to adapt to the new world we made for ourselves. What those adaptations will be, we cannot know. I think our future is bleak.

Oh whoops, you asked about the country, not humans as a whole, where would be a better place for this?

[LordBaal]

I rather have hope for mankind, while we are indeed fucked, there's still hope and mankind is too awesome as a whole despite some of us being blatantly stupid by choice.

We are the only sentient and techonological advanced species we known about and could be the only one existing, that's worth preserving in my book. At the expense of also the only planet capable of harboring life that we know about? Hell no, we have to find a balance, efforts are going towards that and Im confident that eventually well get there.

But enough of my crappy philosophy crap, yeah I asked about murican elections. They are due in what, 7 months?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'd say it's a tossup - Trump has proven you can win an election no matter how loud you say the quiet part, and Biden has proven you can win an election by doing nothing. The election will take place on incredibly arbitrary terms that could swing to either side and will experience rapid regression to the mean. There will most likely be another electoral/popular split if Trump is the winner. The Republicans will almost certainly either take back the House or narrow it to an uncertain advantage.

The most dramatic possibility is that Trump tries to postpone the election, but that'd take the support of Mitch and the generals to even get rolling, Trump himself is too cowardly. I'd say 1% chance or less.

This is why, in spite of my anti-Biden posting, my point isn't necessarily to convince you all not to vote for Biden. If you want to take on that moral stain, go right ahead. My point is to get you all off the hopium and aware of the reality around us instead of doing the thing the Democratic Party and friends always do, which is rewriting history for themselves and careening headfirst into disaster/capitulation. Because until you understand that, you're just gonna get fooled again, and soon enough you'll be rehabilitating the Trump days where at least we weren't dropping white phosphorous on every city further south than San Antonio to preserve our national salvation.