Election 2020

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 3:36 pm

In a rare "someone good that advises Biden" role we have Gary Gensler. He was a Goldman Sachs guy who Obama put in charge of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sounds bad I know, but unlike what everyone expected (being an absolute shithead who feeds piles of money to banks and does nothing else) he actually tried to crack down on bank derivative practices. This angered the Obama team who promptly froze him out and he was no longer in the Obama admin by the second term.

He is currently being rumored as part of the Biden transition team and considered for SEC Commissioner.

It looks like Biden appointees are going to be pretty good in Labor and financial regulation, and really bad in climate/energy.

Unfortunately, it also looks like the OMB is going to be filled with absolute ghouls, which will be a problem since they can fuck up basically all good decisions by anyone. His OMB team features representatives of Lyft, Airbnb, Amazon Web Services, and West Exec Advisors (who does 'strategic consulting' and basically is just a pooling location for retired NatSec people to get rich). Even the non corporate representatives like Bridget Dooling is a republican who Obama kept and left the OMB to work for George W Bush's chief admin of the OIRA (a division of OMB) being funded by the Kochs to provide fake reasons why government regulation is bad. Which will presumably now be her job in the Biden admin.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:19 am

Biden has picked Ron Klain as his chief of staff. A man who worked with dealing with Obama during the Ebola outbreak. Considering we're very likely going to be having to endure Covid for the foreseeable future I think it's an appropriate pick.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:12 pm

MGuy wrote:Biden has picked Ron Klain as his chief of staff. A man who worked with dealing with Obama during the Ebola outbreak. Considering we're very likely going to be having to endure Covid for the foreseeable future I think it's an appropriate pick.

Gonna have to say, this guy kicks ass. He knows what is up.

(Was able to find this tweet, it is in fact real.)

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Nov 17, 2020 7:39 pm

Another four years of a climate change denier president, but this time with a D in front of the name again. Well get em next time, but this time the person Biden picked to be responsible for interfacing with climate change activists is one of the largest recipients of fossil fuel money in the House who has repeatedly voted with Republicans against attempts to regulate oil and gas and for bills to help them.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:19 am

I don't think this is a move where Biden is engaging with denialism of climate but the idea that you can 'negotiate' with the entities that benefit from the actions that have effectively ruined the climate. Does it matter if effectively we are still not doing enough about climate change to prevent the increasing damage to our environment? I guess that depends on whether or not you believe we could have found ourselves in a better situation. If not then this reads as business as usual. If you had hope well better start finding your own coping mechanism because we might be past the point of no return already.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 5:46 am

Do you really think Biden believes in reaching across the isle?

That's not the read I have on him. My read is much more cynical. He isn't reaching anywhere they aren't honorable opponents to him, they aren't even his opponents.

Biden doesn't believe in parties because he believes in donors and favors and kick backs. The end.

Putting fossil fuels in charge of the environment isn't reaching across the fucking isle. It's giving the donors what he owes them. The end.

The truth is simple and obvious why imagine sillier more elaborate excuses?

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:07 am

Biden is to climate change denialism what weirdo internet nazis who say "maybe there was some killing of jews but I dont think they could have processed that many deaths that quickly. Maybe 200k jews died in the holocaust but the rest is made up" Is to holocaust denial.

You can articulate a distinction that allows you to call him something else but I cant imagine why you would bother.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 6:34 am

PhoneLobster wrote:Do you really think Biden believes in reaching across the isle?

That's not the read I have on him. My read is much more cynical. He isn't reaching anywhere they aren't honorable opponents to him, they aren't even his opponents.

Biden doesn't believe in parties because he believes in donors and favors and kick backs. The end.

Putting fossil fuels in charge of the environment isn't reaching across the fucking isle. It's giving the donors what he owes them. The end.

The truth is simple and obvious why imagine sillier more elaborate excuses?

Yes. I also think that's the bipartisanship Biden is thinking of when he talks about it. You wouldn't need to 'believe in parties' (which is something that doesn't mean anything on its own) but that the parties in the game are both operating on a level where there is a lot of favor trading and influence peddling being done while making sure not to upset the people funding them. I don't think 'that' is elaborate. Also I didn't even mention bipartisanship.

kaelik wrote:You can articulate a distinction that allows you to call him something else but I cant imagine why you would bother.

I didn't say Biden wasn't a denialist. I just said I don't think this move was made for that reason. I think that putting up a guy like this in that position is a signal to certain people. A sign that he intends to 'negotiate' with them so that anything they do to address the climate will definitely benefit these people. Why I thought it was worthy enough to go into detail about, well because I don't believe people like YLM or dead get a different reading from what you say than you intend. When I read you write the words 'climate denialism' I might be able to guess that you mean "questioning parts of the climate debacle" but I can guarantee other people are not. People might agree with your overall assessment but if they read you saying something that reads like "Biden doesn't believe in climate change" then you're likely to lose them and anyone who already believes your statements are too extreme. There's a chance that my (slightly) different perspective might be more digestible.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:22 pm

Trump met with Michigan GOP state legislators in an effort to flip the state's vote. Michigan's results are are certified by a four-person canvasing board consisting of two Republicans and two Democrats. If they deadlock, the GOP-controlled Legislature would then select their own electors, possibly flipping Michigan's votes to Trump.

Trump was talking about this same thing in Pennsylvania last week, but at the time it was said to be him just musing. It sounds like he's getting increasingly serious about trying to use the powers of his office to change the results of the election.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:50 pm

Trump isn't particularly serious about stealing the election. He is just posturing. And the other Republicans don't really want or need for him to win, they've got what they want.

Problem is your entire system is now designed at multiple levels for Republicans to steal elections. So Trump might accidentally steal the election just by posturing. And the Republican politicians and judges that don't really care for him that would be integral to that theft might just say "ah fuck it why not".

Your "democracy" is basically already so shit that even clown act shenanigans might unintentionally overthrow it. And if they don't, well it's obvious to everyone that your country is setup already for the day when Republicans just declare a forever coup. They just probably will pick someone far worse than Trump and most of you won't even notice because he won't be bright orange.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sun Nov 22, 2020 8:45 am

Yeah, Trump is clutching at the thinnest of legal straws here. But it is downright terrifying what a more competant wannabe dictator could have accomplished had he installed and/or bribed enough key election board officials well in advance of the election instead of attempting it as a slapdash afterthought

And I don't see any of the largely Republican controlled ( due to Gerrymandering that's about to be locked in for another decade ) State Legislatures with the power to fix such things moving to prevent that anytime in the next several election cycles.

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Sun Nov 22, 2020 3:42 pm

PhoneLobster wrote:Trump isn't particularly serious about stealing the election. He is just posturing. And the other Republicans don't really want or need for him to win, they've got what they want.

This is a terrible take. We all know that Trump is literally incapable of the discipline and self-reflection necessary to be good at anything. So when he does a shit job, that's hardly proof that he's indifferent to the outcome--he's always going to do a shit job!

We know the things he wants to do because he tells us. He's spent months announcing in public that his plan was to steal the election if he lost. Now he's going through all the steps of that plan. Poorly, yes, but he's committed to it. And that means we should expect him to continue escalating things, to the point of actual violence. Because he is very much not "just posturing".

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Sun Nov 22, 2020 7:56 pm

And at that point you can claim Trump is being serious about trying to do everything ever. What with having held a public position on virtually everything, certainly a hell of a lot of things, from multiple angles.

Maybe. You are overly focused on Trump. Rather than the waiting coup Republicans have independently spent decades putting in place that Trump might just stumble into. One of those things is more important and the real problem. The other one is an orange clown distracting you.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Nov 24, 2020 8:37 pm

Biden has been announcing cabinet picks, the have ranged from the truly fucking awful like Rahm Emmanuel for Transportation, but then when literally anyone with a brain yelled about it, backing off an instead putting him in Trade, which might be worse because Rahm Emmanuel HAS to be rewarded for covering up murders and fighting against the ACA SOMEHOW he can't just be left in the dustbin of history forever, to the oh god it's depressing that this is the best we can hope for, like John Kerry for National Security Climate Dude because John Kerry genuinely cares about Climate Change and even though he doesn't support anything even close to enough to save human civilization he can at least fight for some good things as opposed to more fossil fuel subsidies like Biden's domestic appointee and likely Energy appointee. And of course, it's very bad and stupid that democrats believe nothing can ever be done unless the CIA and FBI and Military do it, so climate change can only be addressed by the CIA and the Army, but since unfortunately democrats really do believe that at least it's good to have someone who cares about the climate in a NatSec Climate role.

But now he's shopping Mike Morell as CIA Director because democrats just absolutely love promoting people who do torture and defend torture.

For fucks sake. Opposition is organizing so hopefully this can be killed, but the fact that we have to waste our time fighting against Biden because Biden wants the CIA to torture people is pretty shit since it means we will have less time to fight against other shitty people and his likely second choice will then be accepted because he only promises to coup Venezuela like Biden promised instead of couping Venezuela and doing torture.

EDIT: Apparently this is his second pro torture nominee float because I missed that he already named a torture promoter for Director of National Intelligence. For fucks sake.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:08 am

Mayor of a huge surge in homelessness who explained that's good because in a good economy homelessness goes up is bidens pick for housing.

This is straight up Rick Perry for energy levels of appointee.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:03 am

Kaelik wrote: he already named a torture promoter for Director of National Intelligence. For fucks sake.

No comment on her politics, but Avril Haines's biography reads like a pulp adventure recap or a really convoluted PC backstory (competitive judo, theoretical physics, erotica readings, landing an airplane after both engines had died):

https://www.newsweek.com/2013/06/26/avr ... 37616.html

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:44 am

What congressional democrats were focusing on instead of trying to win elections.

https://prospect.org/api/amp/politics/e ... democrats/

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:12 am

I'd have thought this would have fallen under Biden admin news but it was an election so I guess there's that.

This looks like a bad move on the Dem's part. Of course I'm bias and any move made by conservative members of the party that are then backed by other Dems is going to ruffle my feathers. In a more practical sense this is still bad. AOC, however they may feel about her personally, is 'the' rising star among Congress members publicly. To make this kind of move against her because of (paraphrasing here) spite is a bad look. AOC has name recognition and consistently gets talked about in headlines. I don't think most people know who Kathleen Rice is. I certainly don't and looking at her record she's done nothing much of note in Congress.

The last minute pushing of a no name candidate with no apparent history of being interested in the position on this committee coupled with the drama makes it pretty hard to see this move as anything other than spiteful politics. My conspiracy brain tells me that this is more of a move to keep a vocal and popular progressive away from climate change and healthcare meetings and Rep. Cuellar's words are really a calculated maneuver. At least for the small portion of the public that pays any attention to these things it is probably more tolerable to express spiteful intentions based on AOC's history of challenging the establishment than to grapple with the reality that it is in their patrons' best interest to make sure someone like her doesn't get in on their meetings.

Better to have a stooge sitting on the committee instead. I'm just surprised that they didn't go with a woman of color though. They could've gone in on being extra inclusive with that decision at least.

If I were trying to make a big push toward progressivism in a highly public way I'd have gone out of my way to make sure AOC in particular got in on that committee. You get the benefit of a very visible and popular woman of color on one of your more exclusive committees. It would've been undeniably good PR. Instead it is clearly negative. If AOC had gotten the position I doubt you'd see headlines like 'Rice snubbed for committee seat'. You could have likely snubbed a number of other, lesser known, progressives and still got out ahead PR wise by granting her the seat. Not to mention it is a good time to be building up the profiles of such a promising young politician with these kind of appointments.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 6:41 am

There are a lot of different actors in play. Certainly Cuellar really does just personally hate for the crime of wanting a democrat to represent a democratic seat when he's been the republican with a D in that seat for his life and no one else ever complained. But the committee members are of course, mostly people who's oil donors pay them to be on that committee, so it makes sense that they would support anyone over someone who might somewhat address climate change in any way. The party leaders seemed perfectly happy to be "neutral" to a certain extent. They obviously in general support putting down the left whenever they can get away with it, but it isn't important enough to break norms most of the time since those norms are also what keep them powerful. But if enough oil dems want to make a stink of things, the path of least resistance in letting them is tantalizing because they can kick the left on the way by.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 3:41 pm

It's terrifying that covid19 is a godsend for actual authoritarian populists: the pandemic presents a chance to give government money directly to a large swath of the population AND a situation where smart people don't want to leave home (to say, protest). If Trump was 1% of the 7D chess player his fanbase believe he is, he would actually be USA's Dictator for Life by this point. Thankfully for you guys, he is just the lazy, dumb, malignant narcisist that he looks to be.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 4:17 pm

What's really funny is that Trump was trying to get a second round of checks when he caught COVID, so maybe if he hadn't he might have managed to actually keep the pressure on, and then might have even won the election. (Also he could have just caved because he isn't willing to work hard for anything ever.)

Even now, Trump keeps saying they should do $2000 checks and then his staff has to explain that this is definitely bad because [reasons] but of course the real reason is because they are republicans who care only about causing as much pain and suffering as possible, where he genuinely does just want to be loved by everyone while causing suffering to only the "wrong" kinds of people.

Thaluikhain · Post by **Thaluikhain** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:29 am

nockermensch wrote:It's terrifying that covid19 is a godsend for actual authoritarian populists: the pandemic presents a chance to give government money directly to a large swath of the population AND a situation where smart people don't want to leave home (to say, protest). If Trump was 1% of the 7D chess player his fanbase believe he is, he would actually be USA's Dictator for Life by this point. Thankfully for you guys, he is just the lazy, dumb, malignant narcisist that he looks to be.

Any guarantee that the next Trump will be useless as well as evil, though?

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:26 am

Thaluikhain wrote: Any guarantee that the next Trump will be useless as well as evil, though?

Likely, no. Trump showed the world the GOP voters will run straight off a cliff chasing an incompetent authoritarian with congress cheering them all on.

I think the whole experiment of Trump was largely an accident, but they've learned beyond a doubt that the party is ready to wholly embrace a competent authoritarian.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:44 am

Competent charismatic (to a limited group) authoritarians don't necessarily win out over the nutters, brown-nosers, time-servers and hacks though. If the GOP establishment had had the choice they might have anointed Jeb Bush the candidate over Trump for the 2016 election and from what I remember he was in the time-server category. I'm not sure who they had available who might have been a competent charismatic authoritarian, or who might fit that description in future.

No guarantee but don't place your bets on a competent Trumpoid either.

The Adventurer's Almanac · Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:48 pm

Maybe not in 2024, but I'd totally put money on a competent Trump popping up within the next 10-20 years. I'm sure some asshole teenager with a desire to get into politics was greatly galvanized by his presidency and eventually him and people like him will grow up and enter the government.
But that's kinda depressing.