Dumb and irresponsible is so hot right now.
Well I think we can safely say pence had pivoted right- hard right. The calculus I’m sure is that he’s got all the liberal voters in the bag and they will vote for him no matter what. Conservative voters prefer a no mask candidate and seniors don’t believe in masks for the most part. I honestly can’t see myself voting for this bag of skin, they better find him an awesome VP maybe that will change my mind. Right now I’ll vote 3rd part or leave the box blank.
I think that’s exactly what the campaign manager is counting on. I think they are going to leave the Bernie bro’s behind and focus on the moderate conservatives. It might work but I don’t really see Biden as a candidate to vote for, it’s really for or against trump.
It's a reasonable campaign strategy. Independents decide general elections. If Bernie bros can't be persuaded by Bernie, there's less chance they'll be persuaded by Biden. They didn't really come out to vote anyway, and have possibly been over-hyped as a block. Loud on the internet, but not so loud at the polls.
Sthaid with lithsps (it's so great that someone with a lisp cannot pronounce the term for their condition) Now is the first clear signal on months-ish timescales since the end-of-2018 Trump-dictated gov't shutdown. He caved on the shutdown, but, like, what is he going to do this time? Begin to understand covid-19? He clearly hasn't yet realized that the business world is luring him and everyone else into a SNAFU. He'll lose his patience and command that everyone resume everything, probably within a few weeks. We've only just barely achieved curbing exponential growth. Or who knows, no one knows. Unsthertainty is sthooooo in this stheason, queen. I want the media to completely stop covering the entire White House. Both sides of that relationship are pouring gasoline into the dumpsterfire. Hey, they can both say "we helped destroy the fabric of society, sure, but we did stave off bankruptcy for a few more years". People think these are dark times? Re-open everything, with all our not-really-PPE masks, and see what happens. By the way, you guys really got the bingo on that one.Dumb and irresponsible is so hot right now.
You'll notice that approximately 0 Republicans had a problem with that dude and his pro-slavery flag. Is there ever going to be a point at which the rebel flag is viewed the same as the Nazi flag. At this point it seems more probable for the Nazi flag to become commonplace than the traitor flag to become widely scorned. It's particularly offensive in MI where, obviously, a lot of people died fighting against them. We used to be proud of the fact that we were the first state to ban the death penalty in 1846. Fun fact, there are only three states never to have executed anyone: Michigan, Alaska, and Hawaii. I find it sad that our once great state now tolerates morons of that caliber (he actually claimed he thought it was the flag of Tennessee or Kentucky--which is extra hilarious considering KY was one of 4 slave states that didn't secede, so he's racists and really stupid--usually correlated I guess). This dude and Kid Rock should both kill themselves.
I've noticed that the folks who seem 100% convinced that "their peoples” are the greatest in the world haven’t usually met many not-their peoples.
"I didn't want to upset the stupidest members of my base" must be the calculus(?) edit: > 2020 > assuming there's a calculus at all from senior members of the federal gov't > nope
I had a realization at the grocery store the other day. First, lemme back up. When I go shopping, I hit the following in order: 1) The butcher. They're small-town, redneck AF, great prices, incredibly busy, sort of a discontinuity in the universe. They have literally five aisles worth of hot sauce and three wrap-around counters of meat. They do not suffer vegetarians, they have nothing organic, and they have at least 35 different aprons and tea towels that offend your liberal sensibilities. 2) Trader Joe's. I used to be anti-Aldi until I realized Kroger was worse. Nonetheless Trader Joe's remains a hipster Grocery Outlet with the identity politics to match. 3) Fred Meyer, the Pacific Northwest's own Kroger casualty. Ours was recently "remodeled" to get rid of everything that the Pacific Northwest likes and replace it with what Cleveland likes. The staff are dying inside. The customers are increasingly becoming the ones who would shop at the Walmart Supercenter that will invariably replace it without noticing that the signage has changed. I was the first person to wear a mask at the butcher, the first person to wear a mask at Trader Joe's and the third person I saw wearing a mask at Fred Meyer. By early march I heard grumblings from behind the counter at the butcher that they should probably wear masks as "bobby is stuck in bed, has to be COVID-19". Trader Joe's started lines before anybody else up here and they've been on top of it; the demise of the tasting counter on March 2nd was the first real sign that things were going to change. Fred Meyer has been a nightmare from start to finish but we're now at about 80% masks at the butcher, about 95% masks at Trader Joe's and maybe 70% masks at Fred Meyer. I was distracted when I went to Trader Joe's on Sunday. Forgot my mask. My clue was a lady in a mask staring at me like I was about to murder her children. I turned around and got my mask and realized that while maybe I wasn't as visibly judging the people without masks? I was judging them. And so is everybody else. Up here in a liberal city in a liberal state, masks have become the default. It was perhaps easier because we have a big Korean population that jumped on masks immediately and a huge Ethiopian and Somali population where the women generally have covered faces anyway. But it was clear in watching the butcher's crew wrap their heads around it that take away the science, take away the epidemiology, take away the n rating and a face mask is a liberal MAGA hat. Face masks are about as visual a refutation of the President as you can think of. They are a bold and defiant statement of distrust, an acknowledgement that your leader is wrong and your guidance is elsewhere. And yeah - the facts are on your side and the science is on your side but really, the fear is on your side, too. And if you've been listening to the President up until now, the minute you put on that mask, you're wearing the other team's MAGA hat. You are wearing the away team's jersey. You are wearing enemy colors. You are rooting for the other side. Yes. Absolutely. Nobody is doing this for political reasons. Yes. Absolutely. Hygiene cares not for your affiliation. Yes. Absolutely. The preponderance of evidence is so thunderously on one side that debate is pointless. Still, he persisted. I don't think enough people are considering the impact of wearing a yellow ribbon. The Nazis put a yellow badge on the Jews; the IDF puts a yellow badge on their soldiers. I think the propagandists know, though. The minute we start dressing like the Deep State, the Deep State has won. We will never Make America Great Again if we can't see each others' triumphant smiles in the face of this vastly-overrated illness. As soon as people start dressing like victims, they'll start thinking like victims and before too long, they'll want a government that actually does something about it. I don't think Pence not wearing a mask is stupid at all. At this point the masks are fuckin' liberal flag lapel pins except so, so, so much more widespread. If you adopt their mentality, you belong to them and the only thing this administration has anymore is defiance.
Politco agrees with your assessment. Apparently even within the White House all the MAGAs go maskless and the reporters wear them https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/01/masks-politics-coronavirus-227765?cid=apn