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A collection of 649 posts

2020 Election

US Politics for Beginners

Okay, for my British and non-US readers. If I get anything wrong, let me know. US POLITICS FOR BEGINNERS Here is my US politics for beginners, for those of you British people who might not understand the US election system. The system has a trifecta (3) of elements: President and

2020 Election

Why Religious Jews Should Reconsider Their Vote For President Trump

The other day, I posted a set of articles arguing that Christian should not vote for Trump using the Bible as rationale. This time, Michael J. Alter looks at the position from a Jewish background. Michael J. Alter wrote the masterful The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry. Unfortunately, the evangelical and

2020 Election

Putting the Trumpian Cognitive Dissonance to Bed

This is my second piece dealing with a comment from someone I know on Facebook. Yesterday, I went to town on the claims that, compared to Trump, Biden is a racist crook. This seemed to be one of the bases of this person's support for Trump against Biden.

crime

Astounding Cognitive Dissonance and Trump Support

I am writing this as both a challenge and a response to someone I know on Facebook who has featured namelessly as an interlocutor in a number of articles here. I am interested in his, as a well-read and educated British citizen, public support for Trump. He will produce memes

2020 Election

What Trump NEEDS but Won't Get to Be Re-Elected (Including Many White Religious)

Donald Trump is a truly divisive figure. You only have to look at the threads here to see that. In the UK, you'd say he was like Marmite - you either love him or hate him. I'd add quantifiers to that: you with really love him

Arizona

Some More Polling Analysis and Hunter Biden

Here are some interesting points of late: * The race, as predicted in the final stages, is tightening to some degree. * Even with Rasmussen, who skew Republican big time, have Biden to win 319 Electoral College seats. * Given that Trump won the three Rust Belt seats by less than 1% only,

China

Trump Strong on (Taking Money from) China

This is an absolute shocker. Trump claims he is strong on China whilst in his first year of office alone takes $25million in shady money from China. Corruption. Swampy corruption. Well done to the NYT for doing this work to show the scale of disreputable, monumental-emolumental behaviour. https://www.youtube.

Crime & Punishment

Amy Coney Barrett Shows Her True Colours

We are in a situation where Trump's one-term administration has had three times more indictments than Nixon's. This is corruption central, and nothing reflects this more for me than the deeply hypocritical manner the GOP are going about their SCOTUS nomination. They are prepared to do

Crime & Punishment

Dark Money and Selecting a Conservative Catholic Judge

This performance from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is stunningly good. And this should make anyone interested in far and honest politics utterly ashamed of what the GOP is doing right now. Vested interests. $250 million spent why? "If you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows.

2020 Election

Why Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists Should Reconsider Their Vote For President Trump (Longer Version)

The other day, I posted the truncated version of this longer essay. Here is the full-length version for you. It is from Michael J. Alter, who wrote the masterful The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry. Unfortunately, the evangelical audience that this essay finds in the thread below will react in a

2020 Election

Poll Analysis: Clinton vs Biden in Swing States; Grassroots Texas

I am interested in the polls for a host of reasons, not least because they supposedly got it so wrong in 2016 (they didn't nationally, though Wisconsin was inaccurate and some other states to a degree) and, if you look at present polls with a squint, they look

2020 Election

Why Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists Should Reconsider Their Vote For President Trump

Here is a guest essay from Michael J. Alter, who wrote the masterful The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry. Massive thanks to him. This is the short version; I will produce the longer version for you forthwith. Unfortunately, the evangelical audience that this essay finds in the thread below will react

2020 Election

Why Cheat Your Way to Victory or Challenge in Court?

Trump is hell-bent on ruling for longer than two terms. He has been mentioning 16 years at rallies. But he is seriously losing in the polls, so he is trying to cheat through voter suppression, disenfranchisement, gerrymandering and casting aspersions on the democratic values and mechanisms of the US. Why?

Joe Biden

The Pope, Catholicism and Trump, and other US Political News

Trump's Covid Trump has just returned from hospital, seemingly fairly well. I don't go in for conspiracy theories, but these things always persist when there is a lack of transparency and clarity, which there clearly is on a number of things: * When did Trump last test

2020 Election

My Debate Analysis

My debate analysis: Biden had absolutely everything to lose from the debate and lost nothing. Trump had everything to gain from that debate and gained nothing. Nobody gained anything. Nobody lost anything, really. It didn't change a thing. Those mad people who love Trump seem to think he

Debate

The Debate: What To Expect Tonight

America, and to some degree the rest of the world, are waiting with bated breath as to the outcome of the debate tonight between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Of course, only Biden has anything to lose so the event is more important to him than to Trump. Trump can

tax

My Favourite Interview This Week

This is my favourite interview this week. Good interviewing and holding her ground here and making sure the WH deputy press secretary answered the question and didn't fly off in a cloud of whataboutery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9D-BNoNHyA She does a good job of shutting

Crime & Punishment

Ginsburg and Her Replacement

Ruth Bader Ginsburg sadly passed away and there seems to be little that the Democrats can do to stop her replacement being installed. This meme points out some potential hypocrisies: Here are a few more for  you: This last one is interesting for me as it evokes the need to

2020 Election

Peaceful Transfer, Courts, Cheating and Lindsey Graham. Sweet Bejesus.

Reporter: Will you commit to making sure that is a peaceful transferral of power after the election? Trump: Well, we're gonna have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots; and the ballots are a disaster... Reporter: I understand

channel - politics blue

Quote of the Day: Republicans and the Economy

I had a rant about the Republicans earlier and there were some interesting comments on the thread worth dwelling on. Here are a few. These are from (((J_Enigma32))): And they don't even represent monied interests well, because what the Republicans are doing is utterly unsustainable. Their economic

channel - politics blue

Democrats Ignoring Young Nonreligious Voters

I've always been interested in the demographics of the nonreligious (hence my massive fanship of The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies by Zuckerman, Galen and Pasquale). As a result, this FiveThirtyEight article is of particular interest. The main point has been pretty obvious for some time: the

channel - politics blue

Republican Lawmakers, with Their Lack of Principle, Disgust Me

Get ready for a rant. And I'm holding back an awful lot. I can't help but think that this Ginsburg debacle - indeed, the last four years - has highlighted how far the GOP has sunk and how their politicians fundamentally lack principles. You could look

channel - politics blue

RIP Ginsburg. This Changes EVERYTHING.

Despite what Trump fanatics, such as commenters here, have been saying, Biden was going to romp the election. This is a great analysis of the state of affairs from A rate pollsters only (i.e., the best and most accurate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48WAFlhJa3c Before this news,

climate change

"It'll Start Getting Cooler... I Don't Think Science Knows, Actually"

I'm afraid these comments are absolutely fundamental to understanding the Trump administration's approach to…everything. I am absolutely staggered and listening to this response at the blatant stupidity on the show. What disgusts me most is when, in response to: "We've had temperatures

Coronavirus

"I Didn't Want to Cause a Panic" (At All Other Times: "PANIC! PANIC!")

When it comes to Trump's lies in the context of downplaying (lying about) coronavirus, Brian Tyler Cohen eviscerates him in this video: The GOP, with every election cycle, drives their electorate with moral panics and generating fear about abortion, Democrats taking your guns, immigration, law and order and