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You are here: Home / Archives for Election Year / Biden For President

Biden For President

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Saturday’s Child Works Hard for A Living

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Friday Morning Open Thread: If You Thought *You* Had A Bad Week…

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Vote Like Your Life Depends On It!

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(Where “economic desperation” = “socially embarrassed racism”, of course)

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Working With What We’ve Got

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(Thank you, Rikyrah and LAMH)

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Brah, Do You Even TikTok?…

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trump memorial cell phone - Tough Town

(Tough Town via GoComics.com)

Full credit to Mr. Swalwell for his sense of humor:

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GOP Massive Fail Open Thread: The Lying in Winter

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This is not much more than an hour’s drive from Boston, and so will inevitably re-seed the pandemic in one of the few areas of the country that’s been managing to bend the curve downward. Massachusetts and Maine may have to erect physical barriers to (re)entry at our borders. Does this putz have a sponsorship deal with Covid-19?


The NYTimes — if not Chief Court Stenographer Haberman — has turned:

Standing in a packed amphitheater in front of Mount Rushmore for an Independence Day celebration, President Trump delivered a dark and divisive speech on Friday that cast his struggling effort to win a second term as a battle against a “new far-left fascism” seeking to wipe out the nation’s values and history.

With the coronavirus pandemic raging and his campaign faltering in the polls, his appearance amounted to a fiery reboot of his re-election effort, using the holiday and an official presidential address to mount a full-on culture war against a straw-man version of the left that he portrayed as inciting mayhem and moving the country toward totalitarianism…

The scene at Mount Rushmore was the latest sign of how Mr. Trump appears, by design or default, increasingly disconnected from the intense concern among Americans about the health crisis gripping the country. More than just a partisan rally, it underscored the extent to which Mr. Trump is appealing to a subset of Americans to carry him to a second term by changing the subject and appealing to fear and division…

Most politicians, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, this year were forgoing any of the traditional holiday parades and flag-waving appearances. The vast majority of fireworks displays in big cities and small rural towns have been canceled as new cases reported in the United States have increased by 90 percent in the past two weeks.

Mr. Trump’s itinerary Friday and Saturday, however, had a different message: The sparkly, booming show must go on at all costs in the service of the divisive message and powerful images he wants to promote…

Throughout his presidency, Mr. Trump has tried to bend events to his will, often using social media to drive home his alternate version of reality and, thanks to the power of repetition and the loyal support of his base, sometimes succeeding. But the president’s attempt to drive deeper into the culture wars around a national holiday, during an intensifying health crisis that will not yield to his tactics, risked coming across as out of sync with the concerned mood of the country at a moment when his re-election campaign is struggling and unfocused.

“I don’t think it will work, because what he is trying to do is pretend that the situation is better than it is,” Mr. Beschloss said.

Mr. Beschloss compared Mr. Trump to Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the influenza pandemic in 1918 by trying to pretend it was not happening, and to Herbert Hoover, who in 1932 tried to project that the Great Depression was not as bad as people were saying…

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Independence Day

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J.M. Opal, history professor, for the Washington Post:

… It began in the mid-1760s, as hard economic times set in after Britain’s most recent war with France. To pay its creditors and reduce its debt, the British government imposed regressive new taxes and banned much-needed paper money throughout the American colonies. Sailors and tradesmen responded by rioting in Boston, which was full of unemployed men and war widows.

To their surprise, the beleaguered New Englanders found support from fellow colonials as far away as South Carolina, the only North American province with a black majority.

But after hearing white patriots demand “liberty” on the streets of Charleston, groups of enslaved men chanted that same slogan, sending local slaveholders into a long panic.

As the empire tightened the screws over the next decade, Colonial women began to renounce imported finery — London was the seat of British fashion as well as power — in favor of “homespun” clothing. The idea was to make the colonies more self-sufficient. “Women and Children, both within Doors and without, set their Spinning Wheels a whirling in Defiance of Great Britain,” noted one observer.

By standing up to the great men of England, these women often wrote that they felt “useful” and “notable” for the first time. They soon began to question old assumptions about female weakness and wickedness and to denounce cruel fathers and husbands as petty tyrants.

With rebellion in the air, the colonies became more democratic than ever before. In Massachusetts, people at town meetings looked past their traditionally parochial interests, telling their representatives to protect freedom of the press and stop the “unchristian and impolitick” practice of slavery throughout the province. They made clear that all authority came from “the body of the people” and that governments should advance the “general welfare” against arbitrary power and selfish individuals.

In New York, direct democracy by popularly elected committees replaced old patterns of gentry rule. Made up of a cross section of adult men, these committees didn’t just tear down royal authority; they assumed the ordinary work of governing, inspecting roads and taverns and enforcing fire and health regulations. For the first time, marveled a writer calling himself “A Poor Man,” ordinary people were “effectually represented” by accountable authorities.

In Philadelphia, workers and radicals rose up not only against British rule but also against Pennsylvania’s conservative assembly. They demanded voting rights and equitable tax and land policies. Among their leaders was the British emigre Thomas Paine, whose January 1776 pamphlet “Common Sense” urged Americans to look past their ethnic and religious differences and embrace the larger struggle: “The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.” That May, a huge crowd in Philadelphia sent the old assembly packing — the stunning culmination of a full-blown revolution in one of the most diverse parts of the British world.

By then, a good number of the roughly 2.5 million colonists were already committed to independence. One historian has found 85 small-D declarations of independence written before Thomas Jefferson’s famous version. These little-known texts came from towns in New England, counties in Virginia and Maryland, grand juries in South Carolina and one mechanics association from New York City. They turned particular grievances into a bold vision for a new kind of country…

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Independence DayPost + Comments (217)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Happy BDay, America…

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Kinda running with a theme, this week. Prove me wrong!…

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: One Day At A Time

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The smarter rats are scrambling for the ropelines…

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Biden Rulz, Repubs Droolz

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Late Night Minor Consolation Open Thread: At Least the Oval Office Occupant Is Miserable, Too

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
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The Biden shadow presidency continues apace!

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Friday Morning Open Thread: March (the Squatter Out of the White House)

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… “If Donald Trump won’t end his senseless crusade against health coverage, I look forward to ending it for him,” the presumptive Democratic 2020 presidential nominee said in a speech in Lancaster, Pennsylvania…

Biden linked Trump’s bid to undo Obamacare to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that those who suffer the virus could live caught in a “vise” between Trump’s “twin legacies.” Those, Biden said, are Trump’s “failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from American families.”

“If Donald Trump has his way, complications from Covid-19 could become a new pre-existing condition. Some survivors will experience lasting health impacts — like lung scarring and heart damage. And if Donald Trump prevails in court, insurers would be allowed to strip away coverage or jack up premiums — simply because of their battle with the coronavirus,” Biden said.

The former vice president called Trump’s effort “cruel,” “heartless” and “callous,” and said he believes Trump’s motivation behind the long-term effort to repeal Obamacare is that “he can’t abide to let stand one of President Obama’s great achievements.”…

Biden accused Trump of reacting to the pandemic “like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him. All this whining and self-pity.”

“Well, this pandemic didn’t happen to him. It happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it, his job is to do something about it. To lead,” Biden said.

“Mr. President, drop the lawsuit,” he said. “Stop trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. Stop taking away people’s health care and their peace of mind.”…

The former vice president on Thursday sought to reassure Americans as the country faces the twin crises of a pandemic and the soaring unemployment it has caused.

“If you’re sick, if you’re struggling, if you’re worried about how you’re going to get through the day, I will not abandon you. I will not leave you to face these challenges alone. And we’re going to get through this together,” Biden said. “We’re going to build a health care system. We’re going to build on it. We’re going to build our economy — our country — back to better than it was before this God-awful crisis, that I promise you.”

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Uplift Open Thread: Joe Biden Is A Thoroughly Decent Man

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

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From the AP:

… Joe Biden plans to accept the presidential nomination in person, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a significant in-person audience there to see it. The Democratic National Committee said in a statement that official business, including the votes to nominate Biden and his yet-to-be-named running mate, will take place virtually, with delegates being asked not to travel to Milwaukee.

It’s the latest sign of how much the COVID-19 pandemic has upended American life and the 2020 presidential election, leading Biden and the party to abandon the usual trappings of an event that draws tens of thousands of people to the host city to mark the start of the general election campaign. Not even during the Civil War or World War II did the two major parties abandon in-person conventions with crowded arenas…

Of course, they didn’t have streaming technology during World War II, either. Yay the World Wide Web!

… Party Chairman Tom Perez said scaling back Democrats’ festivities is a matter of public health. He sought to draw a contrast with Trump’s push for a traditional convention in North Carolina, clashing with the state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and public health officials over the details amid the pandemic.

The Republican National Committee has confirmed its official business will be conducted in Charlotte. But Trump has said he plans to accept his nomination in Jacksonville, Florida, because Cooper wouldn’t guarantee Republicans the ability to host a large-scale event in Charlotte’s NBA arena.

“Unlike this president, Joe Biden and Democrats are committed to protecting the health and safety of the American people,” Perez said…

Speaking of the Squatter-in-Chief…

Worth reading the whole thing, if you’ve got the stamina this early… but I won’t burden those of you who need a gentler introduction to their day.

Thursday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (155)

GOP Stupidity Open Thread: Dream City for Trump

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The Squatter-in-Chief wanted some balm for his chafed ego after the Tulsa ‘No REALLY?’ Rally, so his loyalest supporters found him a safe space at a rented megachurch in deepest Denialvania, and stocked it with prime specimens of the Next GOP Generation. The kids were pumped, and primed, and pampered. And they were dumb. Boy howdy, were they dumb. Proudly, deliberately dumb. Aunt-Jemima-was-a-real-person-who-is-being-cancelled dumb. Having a semi-famous dad makes me inherently better dumb. The clips I saw made it look like a livestock parade, or a canine conformation show: Glossy specimens bred over generations for maximum appeal to a very particular standard, raised on a rigorous routine of diet, exercise, and training.

It must be a certain consolation to all the not-Repub kids suffering these morons every day that these Prime Specimens are gonna be very little competition in any circumstance where Do you know who my dad is? doesn’t… trump. Times ain’t now buddy like they used to be… and the utility of being an upper-middle-class inheritor of a local car dealership or a five-store restaurant chain is unlikely to remain a lifelong sinecure. (Of course, the brightest of these Repub dim bulbs always have the fallback of stealing from their elders… )

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