Difference with Al Gore was that Florida (the only state he challenged) was separated by a few hundred votes. Closest margin trump has is AZ, around 12,000. Even if trump wins AZ he loses the election. Regardless, his lawsuits are all failing epicly, so that’s amusing to watch.
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Interesting how we see things quite differently.
To me, Hillary’s spent an enormous amount of time touring the world touting her book and telling everyone who would listen that Trump knew she was really the President.
And as to Mueller, it’s pretty clear now that the whole thing was concocted in order to allow the Dems to surveil Trump.
One thing that does interest me though, is that right up until, well, late 2015 the Democrats were seen to have, let’s say, more tolerance towards Russia than the Republicans. And then the Democrats flipped. Trump was a Russian stooge and Russia were the US’s mortal enemy.
What are your thoughts on that @Englishd?
Yep, still agreeing with you - it’s a strange strategy - especially after the ‘red mirage’ was predicted.
But I’m not SEEING anything to make me think he’s going to have to be escorted out of the WH.
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As for Hilary I never was a fan so I really haven’t been following her. I just haven’t seen her in the news. Russia will always be Russia, we tolerate them because we have to, but nothing more. I was a Republican in 2015 and thought we could have been tougher on them, but I didn’t see it to be as it was now. And trust me I was definitely looking. The whole Muller quagmire is a wash imo. I honestly believe that two well meaning people could read the report and arrive at different conclusions. As I mentioned I think the whole thing was a waste of time and money. The only people to be punished were fringe actors and trump cronies who probably would have went to jail for something else. However, I do feel if the Dems did anything heads would have rolled. The Republicans have controlled the presidency and senate for 4 years and to my knowledge not a single democat has been charged, let alone convicted from any of those reports. The whole grandstanding by either party annoys me. It annoyed me when pelosi did it and it annoys me even more now because we have 1200 people a day dying from coronavirus and our senate (looking at you Mitch) and president don’t seem interested in doing anything about it. Instead both parties in congress are engaged in a pointless pissing match. I give biden some credit here as he seems pretty determined to not sink to that level. He’s trying to focus on starting his presidency with some actual action rather than blustering.
TL;DR I’m not a huge fan of our federal government
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It would be funny as hell to watch though.
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Yes, it’s a sad day when a Pandemic becomes a political football. The new Labour leader in the UK said his party were ready to stand with the Conservatives to beat the Pandemic, and within days started nit-picking and throwing insults - and it’s steadily got worse.
It seems like the only qualification needed to be a politician is to be an ass. UK ass or US ass.
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Sorry, I got distracted by tiktok but this is absolutely correct
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I watched Pompeo too. It did not seem like a joke to me at all.And Trump in that terrifying briefing, rambling and making dozens of false unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Also Didn’t sound like a joke to me. But also of course this administration has done a lot of having it both ways by saying things are jokes. Inject bleach, the size of the inauguration crowd, Covid disappearing, weather map with sharpie corrections: once the fact checkers get enough public ears, they are jokes, but otherwise, maybe not. Today, up is down, but if you call me on it, hey, I’m only kidding.
All this is textbook coup. Strongman leader denies legitimacy of democratic election, declares self winner, and also creates partisan takeover of courts, and military, and media. Turkey, Putin’s Russia, Hungary, Poland: not identical but close to same playbook. I don’t think American democracy will totally die this year; I think there’s enough semi functioning institutions, for now; but something is already dead when elected officials make baseless claims about legit elections, and 70% of republicans believe them.
I don’t think trump really wants four more years of having to pause his TV to show up to things. You can see how miserable he is, lumbering round the golf course in that futile angry way. But he wants to stay out of bankruptcy court, or jail, and keep center of attention. and if destroying democracy is what it takes, it’s fine by him.
@Charlesfreck I think we need something like the Warren plan to regulate and limit the power of big corporations, including social media. Not Rogan libertarianism, or Rogans own disinformation, which would make it a lot worse.
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I can’t see much changing until both sides admit that they are equally to blame for the state the US is in right now.
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I’d love to see the non partisan social science backing up the belief that both sides are equal.
I read a lot and I have not found it yet, but maybe you can share.
Here’s one of many articles about the divide, focused on democratic norms: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/12/republican-party-trump-authoritarian-data/%3FoutputType=amp
From what I have read, it seems there are a lot of issues that were once non partisan. In the 1970s the GOP deliberately focused partisan attention on guns and abortion, and created division that way, and fired up a new base. The GOP has done the same thing since Bush over immigration, which again used to be non partisan.
But I totally agree there needs to be acknowledgment of mistakes the Dems made. Eg Clinton opening the doors to massive corporate growth; a lot of the roots of white working class anger start there.
I’m a little bit encouraged that Biden has recognized the 1994 crime bill was a disaster, and the Anita Hill hearings were a dark day. I have some hope his administration might move away from all that, towards more corporate regulation, and addressing systemic racism. I haven’t seen any equivalent recognitions from GOP leaders but again, maybe you can share them.
I recommend The Darkhorse Podcast with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, Andrew Klaven, Victor Davis Hanson, Douglas Murray. They all provide a more centrist/conservative perspective to what’s happening. The mass media and social media is so far left now (especially in the US) that there’s absolutely no balance at all.
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That is really interesting. In the UK I think the media balance is for populism, probably right leaning populism. I imagined that Murdoch had just as big an influence in the US as he does here in the UK… I know Fox is big.
Edit to add, I don’t know useful it is to talk about ‘The US’ as if it’s one thing, it’s so big there must be a decent amount of variation across states.
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That seems a bit different from non partisan social science. I have read Hanson already… not so much.
I’m just suggesting some sources that I feel provide balance.
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I’m asking for evidence. That’s a different thing.
I think saying ‘the US’ is fair in the context of the mass media. From what I see you have Fox and then everyone else. For any other conservative view point you have to go to independents. Here in the UK it does feel more balanced and even e.g. we have The Guardian, but also The Times. We have BBC News, and Channel 4 news. It doesn’t feel so one sided to me.
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You might find some if you look at those sources 
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Murray makes a lot of sense to me, and he would have been considered quite Liberal in the UK 20 years ago.
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