Even before the pandemic, I was saving for a second camera that would compliment my Panasonic Lumix FZ80, which I use for low-light stop action concert photography. With the weather improving and Covid restrictions easing, I also wanted to be equipped with a "daylight" camera better suited for quality stationary and portrait shots; outdoor concerts and events; higher-end video; and less-than-perfect weather.

The solution was the Lumix FZ300 camera on the left. A second Lumix saves me the time of having to learn it from the ground up, and also saves the cost of an additional set of accessories for the lens and flash. Most important, the price was right in more ways than one!

I bought the FZ300 out of the $600 that Biden immediately released -- the "rest" of the $1200 that then-President Duh Don "owed" us -- so I consider it to be "Trump's reimbursement." Meanwhile, I consider the $1400 stimulus to be "all" from Joe, especially since it allowed me to replace my FZ80, which I had purchased used nearly two years ago, with a brand new one -- that's the camera on the right!

Purchasing the FZ300 was a pre-planned business move that the stimulus merely allowed me to make ahead of schedule. But thanks to Biden, I was able to replace my FZ80 simply because I could afford to. I sure don't look at it as a "government handout," though -- after the past four years, it feels more like a war reparation. In retrospect, perhaps I should have put the FZ80 on the left and the FZ300 on the right!


rocktivity

Posted by Rocknation 3/12/21:

Newsflash, Salon (if you'll pardon the expression): Trump LOST the popular vote in 2016 and lost it by TWICE as much in 2020 -- why wasn't THAT worth mentioning? Why is it so far out of the realm of possibility that Trump's popularity could have simply diminished(?)

Posted By Rocknation 3/13/21:

...I suppose Biden WAS "lucky" that Trump DIDN'T inflate his popularity with his big lies, race-baiting, despotic management style, possible dementia -- oh, and escorting a half-million-casualty pandemic across the country. Which MIGHT explain why there were 26 million MORE voters in 2020 than in 2016, and why Biden was "lucky" enough that nearly sixty per cent of them sided with him...

rocktivity

than of taking a good photo of a hard rock drummer in mid-cymbal grab!!!




Rocknation

Imagine what would have been the outcome if there had been no pandemic.

I imagine that it would have been a replay of 2016, with most people voting in person by machine, and just enough swing state votes being flipped to Trump without arousing suspicion.

But in concert with Trump exposing his incompetence, bigotry, and flair for self-serving despotism, his handling of the pandemic took away mass in-person machine voting as a viable option, resulting in nearly 70% of the total vote being cast by mail-in or early request ballot. THAT'S why Trump immediately declared war on the postal service: out of fear that mail-in voters would comprise the real "landslide majority."

I also imagine that your 42,800 "margin of victory" votes out of the 11 million AZ/GA/WI votes cast for Biden or Trump would have been a LOT easier to flip if only thirty rather than seventy percent of them had been cast by mail.


rocktivity

the landslide majority of them came from the 26 million people who were either too young or too apathetic to vote Democrat or Republican in 2016. Biden won because he got the other 15 million -- a four million vote excess. Add those four million votes to the three million votes that contributed to Trump's popular vote margin of defeat in 2016 (how likely is it that the "landslide majority" of THEM changed their minds about him?), and you get Biden's seven million vote margin of victory.

You can also inform your disheartened heart that in addition to losing the popular vote TWICE in a row, Trump's 2020 margin of defeat was TWICE what it had been in 2016.


rocktivity

accounted for roughly 1 in 6 voters, and they broke markedly for Biden, especially in the 'Flipped' states. 1 in 10 voters say they decided their vote in the final month of the campaign, and contrary to conventional wisdom, they broke in Biden’s favor..."

1 in 6 averages out to nearly 17 per cent. In 2016, 129 million people voted Democrat or Republican; in 2020, 155 million people did. That's an increase of 26 million, which averages out to -- WAIT FOR IT!!! -- nearly seventeen per cent more!

I love the smell of vindication in the morning.


rocktivity

Trump lost because Biden got nearly 60% of them (which is why I consider this WaPo "analysis" to be "fake news"):

In 2016, 129 million people voted Democrat or Republican.
In 2020, 155 million people voted Democrat or Republican -- an increase of 26 million.

In 2016, Trump got 63 million votes and DIDN'T get 66 million votes.
In 2020, Trump got 74 million votes -- an increase of 11 million votes over 2016.
Add the 15 million votes that Trump DIDN'T get in 2020 from those who DIDN'T vote in 2016
to the 66 million votes that Trump DIDN'T get in 2016 -- and you get 81 million votes.
In 2020, Joe Biden got 81 million votes.

In 2020, Biden got four million votes more from those who didn't vote in 2016 than Trump did.
Add those 4 million votes to the three million votes by which Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 -- and you get seven million votes.
Biden's 2020 margin of victory was seven million votes.

Analysis accomplished, WaPo -- you're welcome.


rocktivity

A month earlier, I had contended that "No one is going down for Breonna's death criminally because nothing criminal happened to her." While it's not the cops' fault they'd been sent there, her name being on the warrant was the result of a deliberate criminal act -- now there are grounds for demanding criminal justice!


rocktivity

or around 2.86 million votes. What has kept me sane since that day was the fact that more people voted against Trump than for him.

Well, once it became clear that Joe had enough of both the popular and electoral college votes, I began quietly fantasizing about Trump losing the popular vote by TWICE as much as he did in 2016, with a side order of Joe getting at least 50% of the popular vote. You say that Biden now has fifty-ONE per cent of the popular vote, as well as surpassed margins of victory of 5.72 million votes AND 4.2 per cent? Woot woot woot -- trifecta accomplished!


rocktivity

From 2016:


From 2020:


According to USA Today, 65 million 2020 election votes -- FORTY per cent of the nearly 160 million total -- were cast by mail, and in addition, 35 million people voted early/absentee. Compared to nearly 129 million votes cast in 2016, where did those extra 31 million votes come from? That apathetic "green zone!"




With a combination of overall higher turnout (despite the voter suppression attacks); most of Biden's votes being cast early or by mail; and only about just one third of the votes actually being cast on Election Day, maybe there just weren't enough blue in-person machine votes to flip.


rocktivity