https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/politics/article/21130363/donald-trump-and-his-cult-will-get-people-killed-just-to-own-the-libs

This is a sold article that covers the manner in which trump has ran this into the ground, and also covers the so called "reopen" movement.

For the love of God, stop!

One of the things the Republicans have done successfully the better part of 20 years at least is to play the boomers against the Xers, then rinse and repeat the same formula with boomers versus XY and Z.Let me tell you this is God's, now the same people who pay very much to both Boomer feelings of superiority and the younger generations feeling of superiority are very successfully getting both sides to agree to exterminate each other. I should not be able to use the term exterminate in any literal fashion, it should be reserved for the sort of bad science fiction that usually gets filmed on the science-fiction channel. But look at what we have here, we literally have people like Larry Kudlow, Sean Hannity and others saying in no uncertain terms that we may need to tolerate the death of millions in order to keep the economy going.

Now, never mind the idea of the entire purpose of the economy is to make sure the people as a whole can have some stability, after all the billionaires stopped playing that game. Way back when this country was founded, folks like Alexander Hamilton advocated for aristocracy, because he thought that even if aristocrats were often greedy scum, they at least have to realize that thier countries were poor, then there is only so much luxury they would get to enjoy. All my friends the modern economy has made that idea completely obsolete, we have a whole layer of millionaires and billionaires who sincerely think that they can complete reduce their country it was smoking ash and that they will still be around. On the one hand, this is because a lot of the poor, and the working class have been sold by their churches really bad ideas about prosperity. On the other hand, there is a really scary reality that yes, for a lot of these billionaires they can in the reduce America to a junk pile and still make tons of money.

So what I'm saying is that we have a combination of the millionaires, the billionaires, and those stupid people who think that they are one brilliant idea away for the coming millionaires and billionaires. The fact is, America was built on the idea that if you kill enough of your rivals you will get prosperity, and that if someone fails it is because of their lack of virtue. Nevermind all that stopped that Jesus said about how it is harder for a camel to get through a needles eye then for rich men to get to heaven. Also, nevermind a lot of the other crap that all the generations have spouted about their particular claim to virtue. Yes Republicans have old hippies that turned greedy, former Gen X punks who seem to think that if they insult enough other people that takes away from their crudeness (and for the record I'm Gen X ), and sadly, there are some millennial's and others out there who really do like the idea of a quote Boomer remover virus because they think that it will finally clear the way for them. Idiots come in all generational stripes.

Now, political unity is not going to be some high ideal, something we can dream of as we sip coffee. Political unity is a matter of survival. No I do not mean political survival, economic survival, ideological survival, I need the simple matter of whether or not we are living or dead. Sadly, even though the plagues and ecological mess will indeed reach even the nobles in their high, gilded towers, they think that it is worth it to be the one who dies with the most toys. Since they are already saying that is is either us or them, we need to make sure that we survive, and yes that includes making sure they LOSE. Am i talking revolution, as ill defined as that term is, if need be, but to be honest, what we need to to make sure that rather than dress in costumes and play at war, we need to firmly establish the DEFENSE of all of us. Offense looks cool, but defense keeps you alive, and the onyl defense we have is unity.

I cannot help but think that the behavior that we would have to accept is in many ways conducive to trump/putin/and or Xi.

China gets to say "see, because we can oppress people, we can make them do what they need, we are the future baby!"

Putin gets to say global travel and trade is evil, and cocoon Russia in a silken web of Putin's corny system forever, just as the Constitution is changing to allow Putin to be in there for life.

Trump know that our ability to organize and even engage in pop culture is shot, whereas he knows his preachers will offer them silver colloids, folk remedies, and a trip to jesus if they vote.

add to this that the GOP would LOVE to see cities lose population, and therefore, influence and reps.

I do not like thinking this way, but this is where hopefully the folks at DU could take a page from maddow and talk me down without resorting to snark.

and yes, do i think either trump/putin or Xi is capable of using an agent like covid on us, yes...

I won't lie, the devil on my left shoulder wants to gloat. This is not because Rush was a people, evil person, but also because of what he helped stir into the world, many people were facing that same cancer diagnosis that he is dealing with will have a lot less resources to fight that same cancer. I thought he would've gained some compassion for others after he had his run-in with OxyContin addiction, make no mistake, especially in Florida, there are people who did very serious amounts of time for what he got caught doing. My hope was that he would understand that yes, anyone can find themselves in addiction, and anyone can find themselves in a lot of trouble.

However, as someone whose mother died of cancer, I know that even for the worst of enemies, it is not something to wish upon someone. It might be easy to say old he deserves it, the truth is, if we all got we deserved, there might not be enough dirt to bury us all. No I do not wish suffering upon him, if for no other reason that I do not want to become the very thing I do not like. It would be a sad irony if I wound up mocking rush have only to see a little bit of his face in the mirror.

However, let me be fully honest, is not enough to say the old line "quality of mercy is not strained", because when anyone, rich or poor, though especially poor, gets at the mercy of the medical system, mercy is quite strained, especially at the hands of doctors. This because I do not wish suffering upon old rusty does not mean I am not hoping that he finally learns something that we were trying to pound into his head for years. Yes, when the powers that be have use for you, everything is golden, but the very half second it becomes expedient to wish rush off in a matter of indignity, the very people that will do it are his friends, most especially the president.

The fact is, we Democrats are showing that we find it a lot easier to fight with each other than to focus on the enemy on the enemy.. Now now we can all find things about various people we do like, and various things we don't like. There are some things about Biden I like, about Warren I like, about Sanders I like. And just to lay all my cards on the table, even though I am not will be considered the "center", I can find things that I like about certain Democrats who are, even Amy from Minnesota.

I can also say that I have seen some bad actors on all sides of the spectrum. Hillary, you don't need to fire shots at Bernie now. If you wanted to go ahead and fight Bernie Sanders again you could've run, and heaven knows that there would've been plenty of people who have carried your banner, but you did not. The one thing you do not want to do is stir up some of the same feelings that lost us, or rather, made it easy for Trump to steal from us the 2016 election. Oh Bernie, believe me I have plenty for you, because you have seen people on your side act out right like jackasses and done nothing to corral them in. As for the members of "the squad" I am very happy that we have people elected who don't look like the standard template, yes I'm happy to see people that look like me in their, but that does not mean that you do anything that I can possibly give ammo to people that did use the animosity to steal votes and shut them towards the third-party sewer drain.

The brutal fact is, as much as we justifiably hate the GOP, they realize that if they can band together for one damn election, they can get at least 80% of what they want. Right now things that we have taken for granted, like Social Security, like Medicare, like the right to abortion, like gay marriage things that we have spent 40 years pouring our blood into are not merely just one Supreme Court justice away. They already have the courts folks, and someone like Trump will gladly go ahead and ship away at the actual media itself so that way not only are the three branches of government completely compromised, but the very press, the very Internet will be compromised. And yes no doubt there are plenty of pundits on both sides the centrist jerks and the liberal wimps and the far left would be revolutionaries/Russia's useful idiots that will go there there at you and do the old song "you should listen to me!" Nothing less than a true coalition of people who frankly do not like and trust each other is going to beat the GOP that is a coalition of people who do not like and trust each other.

We all know that the Christian people have the business people and the libertarians have the Dominionists all chomping at the bit to bite at each other. The difference is they know they have to wait until we are all annihilated. Indeed we also know that the worst thing that could happen to Republican Party is if we were all to go, because then they would go ahead and do a civil war. Hell we show them the template because after it looked like we were actually winning, we all decided to go ahead and fight each other, a trend that is occurring in this very day on this very webpage.

I am not asking people to deny their beliefs, or sell their candidate down the river. What I am saying is that even if we want to attack that one Democrat that we don't like, we have to remember that we have to spend 60% at least of our malice on Donald. We like to admit it or not, the very people that we will be attacking in the primary are the same comrades in arms we're going to need come fall to actually be Don. And where we can say about our fellow Democrats, especially whichever Democrat it is that makes your stomach sick, the truth is there that yes they at their absolute worst are going to be better than Donnie.

It is very easy to consider yourself a champion of an ideal. It is no accident that religions so martyrdom, because it is a cheap way of gaining all the benefits of a saintly life and all you have to do is do the one thing that not even the cockroaches can fail to do. It is much much harder to survive, and whether we want to admit it or not we're not just in recovery mode, we are in survival mode, with our very planet in the ICU. I know that we are not going to give each other a bowel like this pissed you off are offering the primary, then you are not willing to defeat Donald Trump, because it will take a unified effort, one that can least avoid killing each other the way that the libertarians and Jesus freaks want to kill each other, long enough to reach the finish line.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jersey-city-suspects-targeted-kosher-store-where-3-died-motive-n1099606?fbclid=IwAR1N5qsLu8_lYtfASTpreUNVBdOclWAigkRpM2-bzIIWfoeUQdB5DCqqp5A

"According to three sources, Anderson was a one-time follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, whose members believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites and may adhere to both Christian and Judaic beliefs, and his social media pages include anti-police and anti-Jewish writings. Investigators are looking to see if it was Anderson himself who posted that material."


Oh swell. Now we know this will encourage others.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/gators/2019/10/30/hey-ncaa-thanks-for-checking-in-on-athlete-pay-now-get-lost/

The thing to remeber about Athletics is that while there may be a few people that get paid very well, many of them are outright wrecked and wind up broke. This is especialy true considering how many of them come from poor backgrounds where making the coaches and collge presidents happy can make the difference between berign dirt poor in America, and being rich. it also says a lot about our Academics where frankly, many of these places are Football schools that just happen to have Academics as a side venture.

Oh, as far as the articles quip about overpaid coaches:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/the-highest-paid-public-employee-in-every-state/ar-AAehW7S

Notice that the state fottball coaches all make more than the GOVERNORS of their states.

"In the vast majority of states, college football and basketball coaches are the highest-paid public employee. When a millionaire coach is not the leading earner, high-ranking medical officials at state-run hospitals and college presidents are usually the next in line. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the highest-paid public employees in each state."

If we want to bring respect back to Colleges, we need to humble the NCAA. They have tirned our University systerm that exploits students with college debt, and exploits athletes like mules.

I do not think that is possible, but seeing Ivanka prance about, is there a way he could run without pence?

Look, I will play my cards on the table: if I had my way, Liz Warren would be the one. Liz was loud and progressive before progressive was cool. Yes, i can mention the ways that i am disappointed that Biden seems to be the head:
Do the ever so coveted "undecided white voters", i.e. the ones that the party seems to want more than the rest, really get to set the pace, despite the fact we know half of them will still vote Trump, even if he promised to sell them to a glue factory?

Do we still get to shush anything to the left of Eisenhower, despite the fact that he knows conservative ideas, even if they are packaged as centrist ideas, do not work?

Do we still get to slam Milennials and Gen X, even though Obama was the youngest in years?

Yes...I feel all of this, and it hurts. It hurts that even when we win, I know that Biden may not listen to us.

However, let me say this...I knwo full well that unless trump is removed from power, this country is DONE FOR. They are already ready to replace Ginsburg, despite this whole "let the election decide" BS they did with Garland. Yes, the centrists do use the lazy "who else you gonna vote fer": stuff, but in this case, Trump has changed the right to the outright fascist.

If Biden wins, yes even if Biden wins, he must get our vote, period.

I have heard Vats called everything from "how we pay for nice things" to "the things that makes it harder for the poor to buy bread." Which is it?, How, and why?