Comments

1

I thought "plantation" was a olde tyme word for cash crop/commercial agriculture, distinct from subsistence/family type farming. Slave-worked tobacco and cotton operations most certainly were but the slavery bit wasn't necessary. Rhode Island can call itself whatever it likes, though.

On the polls, the outcome in 2016 was within the margin of error - those polls were not "wrong". On the eve of the election, Nate Silver was giving Clinton about a 2/3 chance of winning. Anybody who has played D&D knows that 3 up on a D6 is no sure thing.

2

Just let Trump win; I don't want to deal with a civil war.

3

"Even those college-educated whites—typically Republican strongholds—are evenly split among Trump and Biden."

So I go to New York Times story thinking that can't be true. And sure enough, it's not true. Biden is ahead of Trump among college-educated whites by 28 points.

5

No fans at Mariners games?
Nothing new there!

6

It would be dumb to trust the polls, but there are things working in Biden's favor. He doesn't have to deal with the misogyny that hurt Hillary. And Trump is no longer a novelty act. And the olds and the military are realizing he doesn't give a shit about them either. And there are well-established Republicans like the Lincoln Project working against him. So it's encouraging. Of course they will try to cheat and treason their way to another win, but there at least seem to be more roadblocks this time.

7

Establishment Democrat wins. People stop protesting. Nothing changes. Democrats lose power. Next Republican more fascist than the last. Repeat.

9

The US is 36% deplorable.

10

Its crazy that in a district with a population of 700K, you can win a primary with 27K votes.

11

@7 yeah yeah too bad Bernie wasnt the nominee. A guy who has spent decades being employed by the government is totally anti-establishment.

12

@7 Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Its all so Hegelian.

15

@12 A Hegel mention! Nice!

16

@11 if you don't see Bernie as being fundamentally different than establishment Democrats, then there's really nothing for us to talk about.

18

By the time election day came Trump/Clinton polls were within the margin of error in the swing states. He won electoral college across three states with less 80k votes. I’m not so sure Trump wants the gig again but he wants to stay out of jail. I’d look for a resignation and pardon on Jan 19th if Trump were to win. Because “Evil Democrats”.

@16 Sanders doesn’t subscribe to the Democratic platform. Then why does he run as a Democrat? As much as I support many of his proposals I see him as an ineffective leader. It’s similar to Trump in that it’s more a cult of personality than a viable national leader. The Dems have been so bad in developing candidates that they had to lean on someone outside the party to spark young interest.

19

@Rorschach why are you such a creepy asshole?

21

@15 If you go in for the modernism, we're all stuck in a deterministic history engine. So why worry about the future - its written into the laws of nature.

A president Sanders would be operating with the same political context as a president Biden. Joe Manchin determines the limits of what is possible. I guess a Sanders could make some differences around the margins, maybe. But executive orders are as fragile as the paper they are printed on.

22

Trump isn't happy being president. He's stuck, and fearful of the SDNY if he looses reelection. So if he were to announce that he would resign as president on the day of his reelection this November to be given a comprehensive and total pardon for him and the entire Trump family by Pence, it just might give him the win to slide down that exit ramp.

23

Yep -- this is certainly No Time for a Progressive like Bernie 'cause Obviously the Senate'll NEVER run Democratic after Moxcow McMitch has stolen the Dems' Gumption although Schumer'd prolly 'negotiate' (with Whom?) from the 'center.' So, it's Over. Oh, well.

Kids are just gonna hafta
Inherit a Doomed Planet.

C'est la Vie, baby.

24

So, last year I had a heated argument with my mother in law, who has a doctorate in education, and who insisted that Rhode Island was indeed an island cut off from the mainland but for bridges over waterways.

25

@24 - Given that she's your mother-in-law, I'd just let it rest and let her think she's won.

26

@1 - "Providence Plantations" meant farming, not slavery, and was a community of refugees from religious discrimination -sometimes on pain of death - in all other New England colonies.

Rhode Island, OTOH, became a HUGE player in the slave trade and slave holding, despite the very old and ineffective abolishment law and the later Gradual Emancipation Act.

If RI wants to clean up their state seal, they seem to be erasing the wrong part.

27

I stand by my earlier assertion that Handsy Joe wins this thing in a freaking landslide, and further that his staying out of the limelight isn't necessarily a bad thing. Christ, Trump just admitted in front of a national audience that he was willing to sacrifice the lives of countless citizens in order to spin the country in a positive light for PR. I'd like to see the DNC run a widely circulated ad that highlights the sheer absurd and reprehensible nature of such an admission but otherwise, I don't know what we could possibly do to make the case any clearer than Team Shithead does every time he opens his chalupa receptacle.

I do think it's interesting (though not necessarily constructive) to consider "what if" scenarios involving Liz or Bernie. As recently as a few months ago I really didn't think either of them would have stood much of a chance in the general, just owing to the centrist mindsets of so much of middle America, and how crucial their support is to winning. In the wake of his "handling" of the pandemic though, I gotta figure either one may have had a legit shot. Alas.

28

It occurs to me that it is just a matter of time until the families of Covid-19 victims organize.
Many of those people are dying unnecessary, preventable deaths in states whose governors have prioritized dollars and votes over lives.
Those governors need to be confronted with that fact.

31

@30 nope, but can't blame them, given Yakima.

33

@27 - The key isn't just winning the White House, but whether the Dems take the Senate. It's ironic that the Democrats appear to have made the right choice, by making the right-wing choice.
And FYI the Lincoln Project has already made an ad that shows Trump calling for fewer tests. Their series of anti-Trump ads are very good.

34

@30 Slog AM was posted hours before that announcement from NY/NJ/CT, but keep your fingers crossed for a mention in Slog PM.

I was surprised to see that, though. I took it for granted states don't have the authority to do that kind of thing. But maybe they do? Or maybe somebody is filing an injunction in Federal Court right now.

39

@38, but can individual states extradite someone from Russia?


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