GRALISTAIR
Established Member
VP Debate tonight. I wont be watching. I have had enough of politics!
VP Debate tonight. I wont be watching. I have had enough of politics!
At least it'll be a smidge more civilised than last week's..right? Regardless of what anyone thinks of Pence, he'll at least sensibly debate with Kamala Harris.
I suspect the comment was tongue-in-cheek.I think the Israelis, Italians and Spanish might have something to say about that!I hear America is the only developed country with a strong religious culture.
Yes, there lots of countries with high per-captia gun ownership that don't have the problems with gun violence that the USA does. As long as the mantra that "a good guy with a gun" is the solution for "a bad guy with a gun" that is unlikely to change.Hence why I think there's more to it than simply gun availability. Perhaps those who argue for more restriction on guns in the States won't reduce the horrendous rates of gunshot injuries without tackling the wider and much more difficult cultural issue.
Too calm. Almost comatose at times.Pence is very calm and collected. A perfect VP for Trump when you think about it.
In terms of choice neither are good choice in my view both old men who should retire. I would bar anybody over the age of 70 standing for high office, but aside that neither seem a good candidate, is that the best the US has to offer? similar to the last UK election Johnson or Corbyn was that the best the UK had to offer? but then you could argue anyone with high ability and integrity would not probably want to be a politician anyway.
Unless Trump slips him some of his dexamethasone.Too calm. Almost comatose at times.
I've not seen it yet but apparently a fly landed on his head during the debate and stayed there for about two minutes! Maybe he does need the dexamethasone.Unless Trump slips him some of his dexamethasone.Too calm. Almost comatose at times.
Just substitute "Prime Minister & First Lord of the Treasury" for "President".I think it was Plato who in "The Republic" argued that those most interested in power are least suited for the job.
Or as Douglas Adams said it:
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
I've not seen it yet but apparently a fly landed on his head during the debate and stayed there for about two minutes! Maybe he does need the dexamethasone.
The fly is all that they're talking about on reddit, which is a damning criticism on the quality of the rest of the debate!
Stephen Colbert said it best: he's so full of crap he's attracting flies.From what I saw this morning the fly was far more truthful than Pence was
It can't possibly be because the moderator could shut him down every time he started interrupting and not letting Biden explain his point could it?Next week's second presidential debate is confirmed to be going ahead and will be remote. Doesn't remove the problem of the interruptions but at least no-one is going to catch anything unpleasant other than extreme political apathy.
Edit - ok, now Trump claiming in a tv interview that he's not going to waste his time on a virtual debate. So back to square one.
President Donald Trump has refused to take part in a virtual TV debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The commission deciding the format of the 15 October debate in Miami said it would have to take place virtually.
It made the decision after Mr Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus. He was treated in hospital, discharged and has no current symptoms, his doctor says.
Mr Trump said he would not waste his time on a virtual debate he said had been ordered to "protect" his rival.
The first debate descended into insults and interruptions. US media used words like "chaos" and "ugly" to describe it.
The vice-presidential debate, held on Wednesday night between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, was a far more measured affair.
The next 90-minute presidential event is due to be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, with local residents in the audience posing questions to the candidates.
But the commission said candidates would have to take part "from separate remote locations".
Participants and the moderator will be in Miami.
The commission said the decision had been made "to protect the health and safety of all involved".
Mr Trump previously said he looked forward to debating Mr Biden on stage and on Monday Mr Biden said he would share a stage with Mr Trump as long as medical experts gave the go-ahead.
It can't possibly be because the moderator could shut him down every time he started interrupting and not letting Biden explain his point could it?
I've hilighted sections which indicate that the decision was made independently so Trump's accusation of bias may not stack up in most people's eyes.. Those who made the decision are given in the second source; they are unknown to me but from their job descriptions are not likely to be raving lefties. The former senator is a (moderate) Republican!
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-54465139 & https://debates.org/about-cpd/overview/
The Commission on Presidential Debates is about as impartial as they come.Those who made the decision are given in the second source; they are unknown to me but from their job descriptions are not likely to be raving lefties.
You have (rightly) used a logical approach. It makes absolute sense to the sensible but I am sure Trump (and his supporters) will see it as an attempt to blunt his best tactical weapon in a debate, bullying.With the daily rise in reports of White House infections, Trump would need to be 14 days on from contact with any of them, let alone his own infectious status, for a face to face to be justifiable. So an online debate is perfectly justifiable, and Team Trump's froth about Biden being wired and having teleprompters etc could easily be negated with impartial observers. Trump is now running scared, and hopefully has run out of options to turn his disastrous opinion poll ratings around.
Supreme Court - 'I wasn't allowed to debate'?Unfortunately, however, history suggests he will stop at nothing, so the next few weeks could become an even more dangerous time than we have recently experienced.
Unfortunately, however, history suggests he will stop at nothing, so the next few weeks could become an even more dangerous time than we have recently experienced.
That wouldn't hold any water - there's no legal right to a debate.Supreme Court - 'I wasn't allowed to debate'?
US politics is true popcorn entertainment at the moment --
Unfortunately, however, history suggests he will stop at nothing, so the next few weeks could become an even more dangerous time than we have recently experienced.
OK, this is from the Independent ( https://www.independent.co.uk/news...ws-clinton-obama-biden-obamagate-b885971.html) but the tweets are included. It is not just Trump that is of concern but his supporters. The concern must be that this sort of proposed action (over 3 weeks before polling day) will may make an inflammatory situation still worse.During a live phone-in on Fox Business, Donald Trump complained again that not enough of his political enemies have been arrested – and said attorney general Bill Barr could find himself in “a sad situation” if he doesn’t start rounding them up.
The president’s rambling and ill-tempered interview with Maria Bartiromo on Thursday saw him run through a long list of his usual grievances, but he was particularly rancorous on the subject of supposed Obama-era “crimes” against him for which he wants to see his predecessor indicted, along with Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and many others.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes,” declared the president, “the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re gonna get little satisfaction unless I win. Because I won’t forget it. But these people should be indicted, this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama, and that includes Biden; these are people that spied on my campaign, and we have everything.
But only if you like horror movies?Indeed, this is the worry. US politics is true popcorn entertainment at the moment
The issue is there was not really a peaceful transfer of power in 2016/2017...
In the USA it's not even tyranny of the majority. The Republican candidate secured the presidency in 2000 and 2016 while receiving fewer votes than the Democrat, and in 2000 probably only did so because of lobbying and legal pressure on a Supreme Court where a majority were appointed by Republicans (and I'll remind you again the winner's brother was the governor of the state in question). The Senate has two members per state so is inherently biased to smaller and more rural and therefore more Republican states, and many districts in the House and in state assemblies are "gerrymandered" because the party in power gets to set the boundaries. Apparently also if the electoral college is tied the House gets to choose the President, but rather than having a straight vote the votes are one per state (cast for the party with more representatives from that state) so the same bias applies as in the Senate.There's now a Republican senator tweeting about how democracy isn't important.
In itself that is enough to raise eyebrows but can probably be explained by going into some tyranny of the majority discussions (similar to what we had in this country in response to the Brexit vote - basically just because a "majority" votes for something does not mean that it is something a country should do), or by someone trying to be a bit too clever when describing what kind of government the US has (i.e. there are different types of democracy and strictly speaking the US has an interesting place in that discussion because of the whole electoral college stuff - where electors can totally ignore the popular vote if they want to).
But when added to the previous talk from Trump about refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he does lose the election, it feels a little chilling!
The poison pills left was what I was thinking of.I'm curious as to why you think this? There was certainly a lot of furore surrounding the Trump election campaign and a lot of "not my president" type protests, etc, but I was under the impression that the actual power was handed over pretty cleanly - no legal battles about the election, etc. Compared to the sort of potential for messy transfer this season (with Trump having to be forcibly removed) it was pretty tame
What was that all about @GRALISTAIR?The poison pills left was what I was thinking of.
The poison pills left was what I was thinking of.
What was that all about @GRALISTAIR?
I’ve not heard of this before.
Gentlemen I think you are being deliberately naive here - now come on.Poison pills?
Gentlemen I think you are being deliberately naive here - now come on.
This is just a sampling - there are literally hundreds more. You dont leave office and have loads of investigations pending which have since been proved as hoaxes -the whole Russian collusion narrative etc. then have the nerve to say these are not poison pills (yes they are my words) but you get the drift. 3 years it went on with people like Shiff saying he had absolute 100% proof but under oath denied he had. This was systematic and as late as WW2 this would in most circles be classed as Treason.