Politics Thread

[GoMuskies]

The number of people on Twitter (and I'm sure elsewhere) who thought Trump was saying literal coyotes brought children across the border was a bit disturbing.

[bleedXblue]

The number of people on Twitter (and I'm sure elsewhere) who thought Trump was saying literal coyotes brought children across the border was a bit disturbing.

Yep, that what concerns me in general about this country.........and they have a vote just like you and me.

[xubrew]

That was my reaction as well, particularly for the first hour of the debate. The mere fact that he stayed on topic and didn't try to physically take Joe Biden's microphone from him at any point in an attempt to continue speaking after he had been muted was a win for the Trump camp. It was a very low bar, but still - he cleared it. I think it's the inverse in some ways of the first debate in which Biden basically won by being able to speak in complete sentences and not having a stroke on the actual debate stage.

Other than that I don't think we really learned anything.

A few thoughts:

1. Hunter Biden is probably at least a little shady and almost certainly tried to benefit financially from being the VP's kid. It's unclear (and definitely unproven) if Joe had any knowledge or involvement. I'm not sure anyone really cares that much, though. Except people who are already voting for Biden.

2. Trump is at least a little shady and almost certainly has problematic overseas businesses and investments. This is doubly true for many of his close associates. I'm not sure anyone really cares that much though. Except people who are already not voting for Trump.

3. Trump is almost running as if he wasn't the sitting President, which is interesting. For example: attacking Biden / Obama for 'not getting more done' on Healthcare in 8 years, while never having actually laid out a plan for Healthcare himself despite 4 years in office spent trying to dismantle the ACA. Whether you like it or not, the ACA was probably the largest health care reform in a generation or more.

4. Biden had a much better command of talking points and strategy, however at times he tried too hard to bring things back to his key topics - mostly COVID and the Middle Class. Joe is definitely not a great debater or orator.

5. I think that Biden was at his best when he was talking about being a President for all Americans, which was a concept that Trump repeatedly seemed bewildered by. Trump sees the world in such a transactional, black and white, way that the concept of trying to help people who didn't vote for him literally baffles him.

6. I thought that the closing was probably Biden's best moment, and likely Trump's worst.

Note to the board's resident lunatics: I'm not following any twitter links to QAnon sources or any of that bullshit, so don't bother posting in response. You know who you are. I'm not responding to anyone that I don't think has the wherewithal to have a substantive discussion.

Great assessment!

I do want to know what's on the laptop and have kind of been frustrated by the whole thing.

The story is rather outrageous, but that in and of itself doesn't mean that it isn't true. Hunter Biden brought a MacBook Air into a computer repair shot in Delaware at a time when he was supposedly living in another part of the country (I think). The guy fixes it, but Hunter never comes to get it. So, he scans the hard drive (why? we don't know) and finds all this incriminating stuff and decides to hand it over to the FBI (which I guess would make sense), but also makes a copy of it for himself (which, quite frankly, doesn't make any sense at all, but...whatever). The shop owner, I guess, couldn't understand why the FBI had not gotten followed up with him because...he...thought they should?? (no idea what was going on inside his head), so he takes the copy he made of the hard drive to Rudy Guliani's office because...(you know what? who knows why?). Guliani then takes the copied hard drive to the New York Post, and they begin to publish what's on it. Depending on who and what you believe, Guliani first went to Fox News, but Fox News wanted to first take some time to have a cyber forensics expert substantiate the contents of the hard drive before publishing it, so rather than wait Guliani went to the NY Post instead. The NY Post begins publishing the contents of the hard drive, other news outlets ask for a copy of the hard drive so they can examine it and report on it, but Guliani does not supply it to them. So, the other MSM leaves it alone, and is then blasted by those on the right for "covering it up."

Okay, that is a lot to accept on face value. Even if you believe that everything on the hard drive can be verified as belonging to Hunter Biden, you have to agree that you can't buy that story without being able to see the hard drive for yourself. But, having said that...

Biden has dismissed it as a smear campaign, but he hasn't come out and flatly denied it. Why? If this is made up, it shouldn't be all that hard to prove.

While most of the rest of the MSM did ask for the hard drive, they weren't exactly emphatically asking for it. Why not?? It seems to me they should have been saying "We want the hard drive! We will have a cyber forensics expert go through it, pull out everything that's on it and where it all came from and report all of it." But, they didn't. Were they afraid of what they might find?

Guliani didn't give it to anyone else. Why not? Wouldn't he want to be able to say "I gave you all the evidence, and you ignored it." Is he afraid of what they might find?

In short, I just want someone to go through the damn computer. It's a MacBook Air. We aren't exactly talking about something that has the infrastructure of whatever servers the Pentagon uses, and from all accounts we aren't exactly talking about someone who's all that savvy when it comes to technology. Why not just give it to the media and let them go through it? Or, why isn't the media conspicuously demanding it so they can go through it?

[nuts4xu]

I think Trump won the debate. What do you guys think?

I will hang up and listen.

BOOBS

[paulxu]

The only thing I can think is that Joe couldn't know what all crazy stuff his son was up to, so is not commenting.

Meanwhile, Hunter is still not on the ticket (I don't think).

And if Guiliani wanted to widely spread it and get credibility...why didn't he give a copy of the drive to all the other outlets?

[STL_XUfan]

Great assessment!

The story is rather outrageous, but that in and of itself doesn't mean that it isn't true. Hunter Biden brought a MacBook Air into a computer repair shot in Delaware at a time when he was supposedly living in another part of the country (I think).

You left off the best part, the guy who accepted the laptop is legally blind. "But the store's legally blind owner John Macissac was unable to identify whether the computer was dropped off by Hunter Biden." https://www.newsweek.com/hunter-bide...ce-say-1540818

[xubrew]

The only thing I can think is that Joe couldn't know what all crazy stuff his son was up to, so is not commenting.

Meanwhile, Hunter is still not on the ticket (I don't think).

And if Guiliani wanted to widely spread it and get credibility...why didn't he give a copy of the drive to all the other outlets?

This is a great question. I'd like for someone to corner him and ask him that question. But that's not happening, which raises another question. Why aren't any of the other media outlets cornering him and asking that question?

[boozehound]

This is a great question. I'd like for someone to corner him and ask him that question. But that's not happening, which raises another question. Why aren't any of the other media outlets cornering him and asking that question?

Corner who? Guiliani? I'm not sure he is exactly sitting down with 'unfriendly' media outlets for an open discussion. Hell, when Fox News wanted to perform a fact check he went shopping around for outlets that wouldn't.

The problem I have with the Hunter Biden laptop story is the litany of bizarre things that have to happen for it to be true, as you eloquently laid out above. That's a pretty convoluted set of circumstances. Who just abandons a MacBook air? Particularly if they are involved in shady dealings. I think Biden has pretty flatly denied it, but I'm not completely sure. I do think that they are trying to avoid going down the rabbit hole of specifically countering every wacky Trump conspiracy theory. I also can't imagine that Trump's DOJ wouldn't be ALL OVER this if it was credible.

Having said that: I wouldn't be particularly surprised if Hunter Biden was running around trying to profit off his Dad being the VP. I'm also not ultra worried about it in the context of this election. I also don't know if Joe Biden knew anything about what Hunter was up to while he was busy being the VP. What I really can't understand is how there is anybody who thinks this is a smoking gun, but all the Trump Russia, Trump taxes, etc. stuff is completely false. That's applying a completely different standard of proof based on what happens to confirm your bias.

[nuts4xu]

I don't care what was on Hunter Biden's hard drive, who he was smoking crack with, or the prostitutes he paid to be with him.

I don't see the relevance. Dude has some issues, and has made some very bad choices.

I also don't care about Trump's kids. None of them have anything to do with this election, or the ability of their old man to run the country.

[STL_XUfan]

This is a great question. I'd like for someone to corner him and ask him that question. But that's not happening, which raises another question. Why aren't any of the other media outlets cornering him and asking that question?

Are you discounting the excellent journalism from the 4th best journalist in all of Kazakhstan?