The Politics Thread

[Faulkner]

 

[Vee]

I'm not pressed about polling from the last week-plus or earlier. It will get far worse for him again, just like a week ago.

[xtr]

According to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin the deadline to file taxes has been extended from April 15 to July 15th:

 

 

 

 

[Khan]

 

Agree.  Let's not forget the fact that Donald Trump (allegedly?) blocked the arrival of coronavirus test kits into this country in order to keep the numbers down and improve his chances for re-election.  Or that he (again, allegedly?) tried to buy those scientists in order to be first with the vaccine.

 

Again, the more the numbers of those who are and were affected by the coronavirus rise, the more people (Trump's diehards notwithstanding) will remember his initial, casual dismissals of the entire crisis, labelling it a "Democrat hoax" designed to ruin him politically, and that it would disappear once Spring arrived.

 

(By the way, Spring is here.  Is the coronavirus gone yet?)

Edited March 20, 2020 by Khan

[Faulkner]

 

[Khan]

Donald Trump: "The American people are looking for answers, and they're looking for hope."

 

Then, why don't you give them that, instead of picking yet another fight with a reporter!?

 

I don't care anymore what he or what anyone else has to say about our nation's media.  I just want someone to stop this virus before we all die from it.  Can you just do that, you schmucks!?

Edited March 20, 2020 by Khan

[dragonflies]

 

[Khan]

 

Except even the itinerant psychotic bobo would have known more how to handle this outbreak.

[xtr]

In addition to Tax Day being moved payments, Trump has said that Federally student loan payments could be suspended for 60 days without penalty or interest.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/03/20/trump-temporarily-suspends-payments-on-federal-student-loans/

 

 

 

[Khan]

 

Oh, FFS.  Just cancel the damn loans altogether.  Thanks to this outbreak and the effects it's having on our job markets and such, it's clearer than ever that most who have the loans will never be able to repay them fully.

[Vee]

What the new reality of this possible economic relief keeps reminding me of is how Sanders has wasted a golden opportunity. This crisis has proven the validity of many of his positions - there’s so much of what he says that so many of us believe in, but it's always been a question of how to get there over time, or what is feasible. He has lost badly and he will never win the party. But he could've gone out with dignity and pride by joining with Biden, the candidate, and saying, ‘we’re going to work together to get you through this crisis, and make the Democratic Party of the future for both young and old, combining our strengths and shared beliefs and finding workable solutions.’ That’s what he should’ve done with Joe on Sunday as they committed to speaking to the public about Trump’s failures and how Democrats and progressives of both stripes will fix it and change our future. Instead he’s still fighting for himself, nobody else, in a fractious civil war no one else cares about anymore. To anyone outside of the faithful he looks like an old man screaming at the wind as the rest of the world burns.

 

Through his own hubris Sanders is writing himself out of a living history and a moment that he should be at the center of in a positive way, and it’d be more tragic if it wasn’t so predictable.

[Vee]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

The Bernie stans must've heard you as they are now trying to get a #WhereIsJoeBiden? hashtag going. You can imagine the sorts of things being tweeted.

[Khan]

 

ICAM.

 

 

Seriously?  They must have been declared entirely safe from the coronavirus to waste their time on such petty b.s.

 

In a way, this is kind of like what happened immediately after 9/11, when people started to realize what was actually important and what was just total nonsense.  I, for one, couldn't care less about Bernie Sanders and his mindless followers.  I just want to live long enough to vote the GOP out of power, because they, and they alone, are responsible for where we are at this moment.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Khan

[DRW50]

 

I wonder if that's why Joe decided to do this. If so I think it's a mistake - he'll just be dragged, clips will be selectively edited, etc. Never give in to the cultists. 

 

 

The best I can say is at least he's raising money for some worthwhile causes (I assume), but the rest is very much the usual "clap louder" to ever-diminishing circles. People keep saying he's out there, where is Joe, where is Nancy, but doing a livestream and a fireside chat is not going to matter. This is one of the pitfalls of a movement that venerated a very old, very sick man and spit poison at anyone who could genuinely lead.