JHFC it's not "cult-of-personality", it is CULT OF REALITY

You mentioned yourself the difficult logistics of replacing him on the ticket at this point.

Beyond that, there's this real fear -

If President Biden is removed from the ballot, the GOP will sue and keep the party off the ballot in a number of states

OR are you saying that is only "conspiratorial" and not something to be concerned about?

I'm sorry if some people feel they are personally being attacked. If those "some people" aren't politicians or media, then they should realize it ain't about them! If they ARE media or politicians - well if they really believe their position then fight for it, but they are undermining the Democratic candidate and they should be ready to shoulder the vitriol they will receive for that.

The "Crime Family"

This appears to be an old list, and some things are missing. But it's a pretty long list as is. (This came from a friend's post on FB; I assume the 4-para limit doesn't apply. Obviously can't link for privacy reasons.)

Yes and No. Here's why the No.

(The Yes is obvious)

Why No?

In my opinion, our capacity for feeling terrified should be pretty much exhausted by now.

1. Climate change has turned the corner to become absolutely devastating over the next couple decades, if that. (in some places, it already is there.)
2. Severe over-population is not only exacerbating climate change, but many other devastating global impacts. Wars are basically being fought over diminishing resources (with other reasons given as a cover story). Meanwhile the attempt to hide the real problem and even PROMOTE further rapid over-population, seems far better funded than any effort to acknowledge the problem and find humane mitigation approaches.
3. Biodiversity loss - the upcoming major extinction event - also triggered by the first two - we are kicking out the bottom of the life pyramid on which humans as a species depend.
4. Over-consumptionism (a proper word isn't coming to mind at the moment) moves on apace, accelerating items 1 and 3 and being accelerated by item 2.

So, I'd say if you weren't already terrified - or had exhausted any capacity for that - you haven't been paying attention. But you are sadly in a very large company, including many good people who just don't know. Kudos to the global education system, sigh.

Here, mail-in voting and proper voting machines answer many of the issues.

But since that means Republicans are less likely to win, they deploy FUD to try to take us back a few decades.

* mail in ballots = paper, recountable ballots
* proper voting machines = VVPAT machines, which also use paper, recountable ballots BUT speed the count by using optical scanner. (VVPAT = Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail; see more at https://verifiedvoting.org/ )

In my state, public inspection of the process is handled by a defined poll-watcher system. I presume this varies by state, but I feel it is done reasonably well in many states, at least.

Same night results could be had, if mail in ballots were allowed to be counted ahead of time. The potential issue there would be a leak of the intermediate results. Again, something that should be resolvable by a well-defined and regulated process.

It comes down to WILL, and the WILL of half-ish of this country is to obfuscate rather than clarify, so that they can continue to cheat. (And sorry to say, but at the local level it may not be only Republi-cons who are guilty of this.)

2019 CREW report: Tracking President Trump's unprecedented conflicts of interest

I'm gonna kick this old thread because it seems relevant these days

Trump raked in big money from foreign nations. Will he do it again? (Um, duh?)

I feel like we should be reminding people of this.

Wasn't "the emoluments clause" once a thing?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/02/trump-foreign-money-foreign-ethics-concerns/73969466007/

Headline and subheadline:

I just hid the NYT from my Google News feed.

Whatever the headline was this morning, it was the last straw. I don't recall having seen a useful article from the New York Times in months.

You can hide it from your feed in Google News by clicking the 3 dots to the right of the source name, and click on "Hide all stories from ...".

Not sure how many folks here use Google News, but I wonder if a sh*tload of people did this, would some message be received?

And not only in Google News, but of course in any other news feeds that allow hiding by source.

Just a thought.


EDIT TO ADD: as you'll learn if you do this, it *is* reversible, in case some day NYT goes back to the land of decency and sanity.

"Agenda 47" - Trump's own plan (beyond Project 2025)

That + distraction from the 100's of major reasons to not vote for Trump.

I am continually shocked that Trump can even be in this race.

Around 20 women accused him of rape or sexual conduct - including when they were minors.

He's been pronounced guilty of at least one rape. (sorry if my count is low, I do have trouble keeping up sometimes)

He literally STOLE classified documents and had them stored in a highly unsecure location.

He fomented an insurrection against the results of the 2020 election. (Anyone want to think about what would have happened if Gore had done similar in 2000? Or Kerry in 2004? Or Clinton in 2016?)

Every other word from his mouth is a lie.

He mocks people with disabilities, right there on stage in front of his fans, not even on a "hot mike" when he thinks no one can hear his shameful utterances.

He is a fucking lying narcissistic bully writ large, and the worst that could be said about the opposing candidate is that he is too old, or someone doesn't fully agree with his policies.

I am so sad for my country.