US Elections 2020 II - Bernie Topwin: "We'll see this trashcan dream come true"

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

i have yet to see any conclusive proof of this tbf

Agree to disagree then, rather than rehashing this tired argument. I feel it should be so overwhelmingly obvious to anyone who follows American politics that there's very little to say.

[Dewt]

Do you expect a presidential candidate of either party to not invoke that story (which has now dutifully passed into the realm of Fact through our paper of record) during a campaign against an incumbent?

Yes, given there's a glut of legitimate criticism that doesn't stoke xenophobic flames

Agree to disagree then, rather than rehashing this tired argument. I feel it should be so overwhelmingly obvious to anyone who follows American politics that there's very little to say.

The reason you think it's obvious is that you think the two parties are not wings of the same system

[Dewt]

It's like watching pro wrestling and thinking the people in the ring didn't train together and then boring everybody about how stupid they are for not seeing it your way

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1278145024585326593?s=21

Truly hilarious that Trump is going to go on the attack against Biden for his congnitive decline this campaign, as he crys out his dead paedophile best friends name for help because the tv was upsetting him.

Hoo boy the debates are going to be something.

[The Culture Bunker]

I mean he fired Bolton and made fun of him for wanting to start a war. I don't think he's an isolationist as such I just think he truly can't be arsed with a war.

I dunno - didn't Trump make noises about sending the boys into Venezuela? With the Iran thing, I suspect that even Trump, in his worst drug-addled comedown state, recognised that war with Iran would be lengthy and costly.

Given the chance for a wee war against some island nation that would be over in a weekend, I'm sure he'd be all over it.

[Old Nehamkin]

Former George W. Bush administration and campaign officials launch a new super PAC to support Joe Biden

(CNN) A group of former George W. Bush administration and campaign officials has launched a new super PAC to mobilize disaffected Republican voters for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The group, launched Wednesday under the name "43 Alumni for Biden," "seeks to unite and mobilize a community of historically Republican voters who are dismayed and disappointed by the damage done to our nation by Donald Trump's presidency," according to a release. The formation of the group is the latest example of efforts being made by anti-Trump Republicans to defeat the President in November.

Karen Kirksey, the director of the committee and who worked on the Bush 2000 election campaign and in the Labor and Agriculture Departments, said the endorsement of Biden is "not necessarily in full support of his political agenda but rather in full agreement with the urgent need to restore the soul of this nation."

"For four years, we have watched with grave concern as the party we loved has morphed into a cult of personality that little resembles the Party of Lincoln and Reagan," Kirksey said in a statement.

"Once elected, we look forward to working in a bipartisan way through civil, spirited debate on the many important issues facing Americans today and for decades to come," she continued later.

Reuters was first to report on the details of the group.

Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Office of Communications in the White House and in the State Department during the Bush administration, told CNN that about 200 former officials and those who were part of the Bush campaigns have joined the group.

"A lot of us who worked in government, who have held positions of public integrity, we know what normal is," he told CNN. "We're seeing now what abnormal is and we're seeing the damage it can do to the country. We're seeing the way it can divide the country."

"The reason we're supporting former Vice President Biden," he continued, "is we believe he can bring stability to the country and honor and integrity back to the White House. The leadership and moral authority of the United States has been incredibly damaged."

Many Bush alums have been frustrated with Trump's presidency, said John Farner, a member of the group's committee who also worked on the Bush 2000 campaign.

"We're made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents. We're a pretty diverse group that worked for the Bush administration during his eight years in office and a lot of us who have been involved in the Republican Party in the past were just looking for ways to get involved, to support Joe Biden for President because we haven't really campaigned with Democrats in the past," Farner told CNN. "We're not part of any other group, so this is a group where we felt comfortable going in and speaking with one voice."

43 Alumni for Biden is backing the former vice president as Trump's support slips in the polls.

Last month, a group of Republican operatives launched "Right Side PAC," that, according the group's founder Matt Borges, will work to turn "that group of Republicans who feels that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the country and this party."
A group called Republican Voters Against Trump launched a $10 million ad campaign in May targeting GOP-leaning voters in top swing states to encourage them to support Biden.

And a group of "Never Trump" Republicans formed the Lincoln Project in late 2019 and have run negative ads that have drawn the ire of Trump.

[chveik]

am I wrong in thinking that Bolton and his pals are more dangerous than Trump?

[Dewt]

How long until people are going to have to be actually beheaded?

I'm not encouraging it I'm just saying it's probably going to happen when you wind people up this much

[Old Nehamkin]

2036: a concerned group of former Trump staffers launch a new super PAC to support Democratic nominee Meghan McCain in her effort to oust incumbent president Logan Paul.

[QDRPHNC]

Look at the length of that hair!!!

[C_Larence]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-trump-militarism/

This ethical critique has merit, but the real problem with the Lincoln Project is political. To the extent that the ads articulate any political vision, it is a desire to return to the hard-line military aggression of the George W. Bush era.

On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project released an ad addressing accusations that Trump hasn't protected American troops in Afghanistan from a bounty on their lives supposedly placed by the Russian government. The ad, titled "Betrayed," features Dr. Dan Barkhuff, a physician and former Navy SEAL. "Months ago, Donald Trump learned the Russians were paying a bounty for dead American soldiers in Afghanistan and chose to do nothing about it," Barkhuff said. "Any commander in chief with a spine would be stomping the living shit out of some Russians right now—diplomatically, economically, or, if necessary, with the sort of asymmetric warfare they're using to send our kids home in body bags." He added, "Mr. Trump, you're either a coward who can't stand up to an ex-KGB goon, or you're complicit. Which is it?"

-

The claim that the ads could win over Republicans seems, at best, speculative. The main way they are distributed is via Twitter (where they are retweeted by the already convinced) and in very small TV markets picked to maximize the chance of Trump's seeing them. In other words, the game seems to be more about taunting and revenge than persuasion. Andrew Ferguson makes the fair point that "like a Trump rally, the ads work exclusively on the predispositions of the faithful."

-

Barkhuff's hard-line comments about launching "asymmetric warfare" offer a clue. On the merits, the idea of escalating the proxy war in the Middle East by taking out bounties on Russians is absurd. The war in Afghanistan has long lost whatever strategic rationale it ever had. In fact, from the moment George W. Bush failed to capture the escaping Osama bin Laden, the American occupation has made no sense. Still, a permanent occupation of Afghanistan is what the American national security establishment seems to want. Barkhuff's ad functions as a way of co-opting opposition to Trump and channeling it into support for a war effort that is otherwise indefensible.

This suggests that these ads should be seen as an attempt to stake a claim in Joe Biden's victory so that if he becomes president he'll give hawkish Republicans a seat at the table. Biden already has a tropism toward bipartisanship, especially in foreign policy. He voted for the Iraq War and has been criticizing Trump from the right for not being sufficiently hard-line on Venezuela and China.

By creating ads like this, the Lincoln Project is creating an impression that will prove useful to foreign policy hawks if Biden wins: that Trump's defeat was due in part to disaffected Republicans who didn't like Trump's questioning of national security orthodoxy.

[Dewt]

A Biden administration is the darkest fucking timeline possible.

https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1278382032788369409

[The Culture Bunker]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lincoln-project-trump-militarism/

Sort of ties in with the revelation that Bolton lost faith with Trump because the Prez wasn't willing to engage in some bombing of Iran due to the potential bodycount.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Sort of ties in with the revelation that Bolton lost faith with Trump because the Prez wasn't willing to engage in some bombing of Iran due to the potential bodycount.

Shortly after Trump summarily executed one of the top political leaders of a massive regional power currently developing nuclear weapons.

[The Culture Bunker]

Shortly after Trump summarily executed one of the top political leaders of a massive regional power currently developing nuclear weapons. Please spare me the Trump The Dove nonsense.

Not really what I meant, but carry on.

[Dewt]

Claiming that the argument is that "Trump is a dove" is dishonest and I doubt anybody is going to indulge in that game with you. The point is that a Biden administration is of that particular brand of insidious extreme hawkishness and they are going to be efficient in getting all that business up and running again.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

Claiming that the argument is that "Trump is a dove" is dishonest and I doubt anybody is going to indulge in that game with you.

That's good. But there were definitely people arguing in 2016 that Trump was an isolationist who wanted to reign in American military aggression overseas. (Although your post seems to suggest that the military hawkishness business stopped at some point?)

[Old Nehamkin]

That's good. But there were definitely people arguing in 2016 that Trump was an isolationist who wanted to reign in American military aggression overseas.

As far as this place goes that was mainly just one particular poster, wasn't it? It might have just seemed like a lot of people had that opinion because he posted it about 7000 times.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Shortly after Trump summarily executed one of the top political leaders of a massive regional power currently developing nuclear weapons.

Citation needed (presuming you mean Iran)

[C_Larence]

House Democrats have voted to block Trump's ability to withdraw from Afghanistan.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/505568-house-panel-votes-to-constrain-afghan-drawdown-ask-for-assessment-on

[Old Nehamkin]

I saw this image shared by noted spooksmith Stephen King on Twitter today, along with the comment "As The Beach Boys once said, "Wouldn't it be nice." :





This kind of content is more fundamentally nightmarish and dread-inducing to me than the most deranged MAGA shit.

[chveik]

Robinette lol. they might as well called him Joseph Bidet Biden

[Mister Six]

The new cabinet section is cursed as fuck.

Hoping Kingo - who's been pretty good about calling for higher taxes on the ultra-rich, of whom he is one - just really fucking wants Trump out more than he wants Bezos and Oprah Winfrey (!) in positions of political power.

[BlodwynPig]

Latin becomes Colonial America's first language

[PlanktonSideburns]

about time someone gave that bezos thing more power

[Ferris]

about time someone gave that bezos thing more power

Yeah he's been getting the short end of the stick for a while now

[Puce Moment]

That Biden video though. America is so fucked.

[C_Larence]

That Biden video though. America is so fucked.

Which one?

[Dewt]

If it's the one where he says "our culture isn't imported from some African country" it's not quite as bad in context, but still bad. In context, he's saying "we are bad because our culture is White European" but as far as I can tell that's still him declaring "America's culture is White European" which is incredibly dumb

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Is Don trying to lose? Or shore up the base? Or is he just a deranged old guy with brain worms?

What could possibly explain an unprovoked attack on the only black NASCAR driver, two weeks after his not-actually-a-hate-crime-in-the-end?