American Politics Thread: The Hunt for Blue November

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by bizkitgto

The FBI opened an investigation into Hunter Biden and associates in 2019 on suspicion of money laundering, a Justice Department official told Sinclair Broadcasting.

The criminal investigation is ongoing, the DOJ official said.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/news.yah...222323906.html

Are you really ####ing dense, or just don't know how to read? Everything goes back to Tony Bobulinski and his claims, which have not only been refuted, but shown to have more holes than Swiss cheese. If you read the article, and this is nothing but repackaged information from the same debunked sources, it is all the same repetition of nonsense that came out of the NY Post and Giuliani's attempts to create something that isn't there. Now I could believe you are too dense to ascertain the details from a National Review opinion piece, as you need some decent critical thinking skills to roll through all the sources and see where they originate. I might suggest some media literacy exposure so you can develop these skills.

Now, to the FBI. Ever been interviewed by the FBI? I have in relation to computer crimes. When you are interviewed they don't give you any details of what the investigation is about. They don't bring you in and layout the case they are investigating. They are extremely vague and will share only the details they think they need to get you to talk, and many of those details are red herrings. They do nothing but ask you questions on what they already know and are looking for confirmation of information they believe to be true. It is bear trap after bear trap. What Bobulinski doesn't understand is HE may be the focal point of the investigation. You never know because they don't tell you. You only know when the charges are finally drawn and the arrests are made.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Regardless of anyone's politics, comments like this should have no place on the forum and deserve some time in the sin bin.

hmmmm in Shanghai eh...

But yes, always taking the other side in order to be controversial and to stir it up definitely needs some sinbin time.

Lighten up tongzi! lol

Oh and as a holder of chinese citizenship i think i get the right to call other people tongzis on here.

[ResAlien]

Try not to bertuzzied up the thread, Johnny.

[Lanny_McDonald]

This could be entertaining and very informative.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/1...ell-all-433790

I always like hearing from the fly on the wall, or the fly on Mike Pence's head. The unvarnished truth can be so enlightening.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

hmmmm in Shanghai eh...

But yes, always taking the other side in order to be controversial and to stir it up definitely needs some sinbin time.

Lighten up tongzi! lol

Oh and as a holder of chinese citizenship i think i get the right to call other people tongzis on here.

Whatever your citizenship is, posting stuff that promotes Chinese-CCP conspiracy theory stuff is irresponsible. Asians of all sorts are facing increased discrimination in Canada right now and part of that is coming from the conspiracy theory that Chinese are all under the influence of the CCP. It was a ####ty thing to post, and I don't think CP should be a place for that. You could disagree with Girly and make a point without pulling in some BS like that.

[bizkitgto]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

That's just the last post that I read from you. That's why I quoted it.

You keep banging the "Biden is a bad dude" drum. Why? You are shouting at clouds.

Millennials are losing faith in democracy.... Zizek tries to explain it here.

[Lanny_McDonald]

^^^ Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! An RT video.

You with the sad eyes
don't be discouraged, though I realize it's hard to
take courage in a world, full of people
you can lose sight of it
And the darkness inside you
will make you feel so small
But I see your true colors, shining through
I see your true colors, and that's why I love you
So don't be afraid, to let them show
your true colors, true colors
Are beautiful, like a rainbow

[bizkitgto]

Originally Posted by New Era

^^^ Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! An RT video.

You with the sad eyes
don't be discouraged, though I realize it's hard to
take courage in a world, full of people
you can lose sight of it
And the darkness inside you
will make you feel so small
But I see your true colors, shining through
I see your true colors, and that's why I love you
So don't be afraid, to let them show
your true colors, true colors
Are beautiful, like a rainbow

I get it's an RT interview (CNN, Fox aren't any better imo), but Zizek is a well respected philosopher, it doesn't take away what he's trying to say.

[Itse]

There is no convincing people that there wasn't something dirty going on with Biden, because the alternative is to accept that he was actually doing good things and protecting US interests like a good civil servant.

People might be able to accept that there's no proof Biden is corrupt, but they just can not accept that he might NOT BE corrupt. Both the extreme left and right justify almost everything with the idea that the establishment is fundamentally corrupt to the core, that everyone is bad and there can be no good people within the system, that nothing good can be done through the system as is. That's why people on the left don't vote, and why people on the right think it's okay to cheat in elections. Everyone is bad, we don't have to play, or everyone is bad so it's okay that we do bad things too.

They can't deal with the idea that Biden might have legitimately done something right. They can't deal with the idea that not everyone is as bad as they believe.

Biden was fighting corruption in Ukraine, to make sure US aid is used properly.

It's not like threatening to withhold US aid was an unrelated issue or something Biden could have used as leverage just because he felt like it. He was threatening to withhold it because it was his job to oversee it, and he saw that Ukraine wasn't serious about dealing with corruption, and did something about it.

That doesn't make sense to people who can't accept that not every politician is corrupt. They would rather believe any dumb conspiracy theory.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

It gets even funnier when you realize that even if the unconfirmed, unproven allegations that probably aren't true actually are, you end up with a scandal that's basically a less-bad version of SNC Lavalin.

[Heavy Jack]

I think what’s craziest of all with this Burisma joke is that Trump and his swamp actually did try to withhold foreign aid for a quid pro quo with none other than Ukraine. It’s maddening trying to argue against people who play the devils advocate game with Trump while claiming to be not for him. Biden did it as an American policy and to stand up against the indecencies being done in the Ukrainian government not because of Burisma and his sons apparent involvement. Trump withheld the money to get help to cheat another election... why are we even arguing which man is more indecent?? It’s laughable.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

They just need a *thing*. It doesn't need to be an actual big deal, because if you treat it like a big deal, and everyone acts like it's a big deal, then you get the Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon. Just keep telling people it's a massive story about hugely big corruption the likes of which has never been seen.

Last time it was emails, this time it's this. If it wasn't this, it'd be some other trivial nonsense.

[activeStick]

LOL. So, Scott Atlas, the President's adviser in Covid appeared on RT over the weekend in an interview. You can't even make this stuff up! He apologized after, saying he didn't know that RT is a registered foreign agent.

[Heavy Jack]

He even took that interview in the friggen White House. Brutal lol

[OldSam]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

He even took that interview in the friggen White House. Brutal lol

While attached to the WH network. Nope, nothing wrong here. What a frigging idiot. There is zero concept of security consciousness in that place. The super Russian hackers likely set up a connection to filter national secrets direct to Moscow.

[Heavy Jack]

Sooooo painful. And he still gathers swaths of people who seemingly support him both in politics and the general public... what is it people see that I don’t? The guy is infuriating to even just hear... everything every single thing is about him. How he’s treated the worst by far than any other president. How not any other president has helped the African Americans more than HIM not even Abe. How no one has ever been tougher on Russia than HIM. How only he does the best deals. And on and on and on and on... it might as well be called 100 Trumply street only it’s him as God and him who talks about how great he is.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Whatever your citizenship is, posting stuff that promotes Chinese-CCP conspiracy theory stuff is irresponsible. Asians of all sorts are facing increased discrimination in Canada right now and part of that is coming from the conspiracy theory that Chinese are all under the influence of the CCP. It was a ####ty thing to post, and I don't think CP should be a place for that. You could disagree with Girly and make a point without pulling in some BS like that.

Gotcha. I guess i'll just call her a troll next time.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Itse

There is no convincing people that there wasn't something dirty going on with Biden, because the alternative is to accept that he was actually doing good things and protecting US interests like a good civil servant.

People might be able to accept that there's no proof Biden is corrupt, but they just can not accept that he might NOT BE corrupt. Both the extreme left and right justify almost everything with the idea that the establishment is fundamentally corrupt to the core, that everyone is bad and there can be no good people within the system, that nothing good can be done through the system as is. That's why people on the left don't vote, and why people on the right think it's okay to cheat in elections. Everyone is bad, we don't have to play, or everyone is bad so it's okay that we do bad things too.

They can't deal with the idea that Biden might have legitimately done something right. They can't deal with the idea that not everyone is as bad as they believe.

Biden was fighting corruption in Ukraine, to make sure US aid is used properly.

It's not like threatening to withhold US aid was an unrelated issue or something Biden could have used as leverage just because he felt like it. He was threatening to withhold it because it was his job to oversee it, and he saw that Ukraine wasn't serious about dealing with corruption, and did something about it.

That doesn't make sense to people who can't accept that not every politician is corrupt. They would rather believe any dumb conspiracy theory.

That's an interesting point. It feels like the bipartisan cynicism has reached the highest point that I can recall in my lifetime, and yet it looks like we're seeing huge increases in participation this go around as well. Where do we go from here? Is the turnout this year a blip and an aberration, or do we see an increased engagement with democratic institutions going forward?

It does feel as though there are fundamental issues with the governance system that are causing wide dissatisfaction and cynicism. Information asymmetries between those in power and the common people are less than they ever have been, and the disparity in wealth and influence is also huge right now. I'm hopeful about younger generations finding better ways, but I struggle at this time to see how the reconciliation is actually going to take place.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Some interesting data about the swing states and the advanced voting verses the actual voting from 2016.

We must recognize that voter turnout is never equal to total registrations and is usually in the 60% range. Some are estimating that could rise to 62% and a record turnout of close to 150 million voters.

2020 Voter registrations:

Arizona - 3,262,000
Florida - 9,435,000
Georgia - 4,840,000
Iowa - 1,658,000
Michigan - 5,453,000
Nevada - 1,277,000
North Carolina - 5,160,000
Ohio- 6,062,000
Pennsylvania - 6,469,000
Texas - 11,634,000
Wisconsin - 3,129,000

Arizona - Total votes cast in 2016: 2,573,165, Early votes in 2020: 2,302,756 (89.5% of 2016 vote)
Florida - Total votes cast in 2016: 9,420,039, Early votes in 2020: 8,700,645 (92.4% of 2016 vote)
Georgia - Total votes cast in 2016: 4,114,732, Early votes in 2020: 3,903,356 (94.9% of 2016 vote)
Iowa - Total votes cast in 2016: 1,566,031, Early votes in 2020: 924,533 (59.0% of 2016 vote)
Michigan - Total votes cast in 2016: 4,799,284, Early votes in 2020: 2,571,492 (53.6% of 2016 vote)
Nevada - Total votes cast in 2016: 1,125,385, Early votes in 2020: 1,026,318 (91.2% of 2016 vote)
North Carolina - Total votes cast in 2016: 4,741,564, Early votes in 2020: 4,531,619 (95.6% of 2016 vote)
Ohio- Total votes cast in 2016: 5,496,487, Early votes in 2020: 2,854,258 (51.9% of 2016 vote)
Pennsylvania - Total votes cast in 2016: 6,165,478, Early votes in 2020: 2,370,510 (38.4% of 2016 vote)
Texas - Total votes cast in 2016: 8,969,226, Early votes in 2020: 9,677,963 (107.9% of 2016 vote)
Wisconsin - Total votes cast in 2016: 2,976,150, Early votes in 2020: 1,873,403 (62.9% of 2016 vote)

There are still 32,084,041 outstanding mail-in ballots.

Data scientists believe the vote is breaking 66/32 Biden for early voting. The are predicting that the election day vote will break 69/27 Trump, but have over sampled their projection to represent the expected red surge on election day.

Election day is going to be interesting. If it does break as suggested, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas may already be decided. That leaves Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the states left to watch. There aren't enough votes in the other states to make a dent in the lead built up. If that is indeed the case, the math tells you the story.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by bizkitgto

Millennials are losing faith in democracy.... Zizek tries to explain it here.

Žižek is respected by a lot of people, but he also has a long history of supporting authoritarianism and nationalism. Anything he says has to be viewed through that lens.

It's like Noam Chomsky. He is a respected philosopher, but mostly preaching to the choir. Or Joran Peterson for that matter. They are good for confirmation bias, but they aren't winning new converts.

It is always the same story with every younger generation. Has there ever been a younger generation that isn't skeptical and gives into to culturally subversive ideology?

And after 4 years of Trump, who hasn't lost faith in democratic institutions?