These people will happily forgo state subsidised healthcare just because they want to make sure that people they don’t approve of also forgo it too.

Some yes, some no. Plenty of them are using medicare and trump has promised to protect that for them. For some highly technical reason that some cynics might just consider hypocrisy it doesnt count as state subsidised healthcare.
Thats the really crap thing about the US system. The government actually pays more per capita than the UK does and yet fails to provide universal healthcare.

I think a big part of it is that the world got big and complicated and scary, and so small and simple and comforting answers gain in popularity. PRobably more or less inversely to how useful they are.

TBF, I’ve never been a person to accept simple answers or to take solace in obviously comforting false answers, and that’s a big reason why I’ve spent most of my adult life depressed! I can definitely see the appeal. Imagine how good it’d be to actually believe you can solve all your problems by shooting some mexicans or leaving the EU.

^^ Some good points there.

Absolutely, trump (& Brexit) are simple answers to complex questions

The fact is that 3 word slogans work on many people,
build the wall
Lock her up
Take back control

The Lincoln Project are pushing out new stuff every day it seems…

Imagine how good it’d be to actually believe you can solve all your problems by shooting some mexicans or leaving the EU

I would settle for shooting johnson, cummings, gove and patel followed by saying hello to our european friends.

Absolutely, trump (& Brexit) are simple answers to complex questions

The fact is that 3 word slogans work on many people,
build the wall
Lock her up
Take back control

Feed our children?

I think a big part of it is that the world got big and complicated and scary, and so small and simple and comforting answers gain in popularity. PRobably more or less inversely to how useful they are.

Agree with this 100%, and this is force-multiplied by the fact that Politicians have figured-out that the “simple answers” don’t need to be true, or even remotely true/have a basis in truth. Politicians have always lied, but I feel like we are truely living in a (political) post-truth world. Choose the right lie, and so many people get behind it that you can get yourself in a position of power.

As with everything, it’s most brazen in the US, but it’s rife in the UK as well….. just lies lies lies lies, all the time.

Cruz is far from the only conservative with this opinion: https://t.co/8iHScGTqx3

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) October 27, 2020

Yeah the whole lying stuff is just going to get worse unless laws are implemented to make lying in public office have actual consequences but the turkey’s aren’t going to vote for Christmas. What a world we live in where we now rely on social media platforms fact-checking and stemming the flow of bullshit from our elected ‘leaders’

Absolutely, trump (& Brexit) are simple answers to complex questions

The fact is that 3 word slogans work on many people,
build the wall
Lock her up
Take back control

I’ve lost count of the number poorly spelled twitter responses I’ve read asserting “simples” to every complex Brexit related issue. Remember Michael Gove’s statement “people have had quite enough of the experts”?

I think a big part of it is that the world got big and complicated and scary, and so small and simple and comforting answers gain in popularity. Probably more or less inversely to how useful they are.

Pretty much this, also.

Simple answers are contagious. I worry that some (too many) people will now see Joe Biden as a “simple answer” – get Biden elected and the problems of the Trump years will go away. What will instead happen is that with a lot of effort, things will (hopefully) start getting better. But people were expecting a simple answer and sunlit uplands, so will get disillusioned and that will give the opportunity for a new Trump-like tosser to make a play for power.

…so will get disillusioned and that will give the opportunity for a new Trump-like tosser to make a play for power…

The issue is that the Trump like tossers are a symptom of a wider problem, not the actual problem itself. Part of the problem as I’ve discussed before is to do with funding, in that a small number of wealthy political donors can disproportionately skew policymaking.

From the Gruaniad, 2018

We have three difficult options – one, we lobby governments to impose strict limits on the amount of money that may be donated to political causes, two that we as consumers actively organise ourselves to deprive billionaire business owners of our custom until they stop giving money to despots, or three that we actively lobby governments to break up monopolistic big businesses and make it more difficult for multi-billionaires to amass the sort of wealth that can and does erode the social and democratic fabric of nation states.

We have three difficult options – one, we lobby governments to impose strict limits on the amount of money that may be donated to political causes, two that we as consumers actively organise ourselves to deprive billionaire business owners of our custom until they stop giving money to despots, or three that we actively lobby governments to break up monopolistic big businesses and make it more difficult for multi-billionaires to amass the sort of wealth that can and does erode the social and democratic fabric of nation states.

As a billionaire, you’re untouchable.
The Government aren’t going to put limits on how much they can be given (and as we’ve seen, it’s so ridiculously easy to get around that anyway using shell companies etc that it’s merely one more loophole for them to jump through).

Consumers aren’t going to stop buying whatever it is because the companies are so vast that they’re not dealing with consumers as in “the person on the street”. Ineos for example – billionaire Brexit-backing tax-avoiding arse owner – is involved in making so many millions of products that they are effectively insulated from anything but the most global of protests. Same with Amazon – people hate them for their tax avoidance and then buy all their Christmas presents from them because, convenience.

And it would require a truly socialist Government to prevent the build up of that amount of wealth and they’d be accused of all sorts of nanny-stateism. Even though anyone with half a brain can see that £1bn is more than an individual could spend in a lifetime unless you’re doing a LOT of massively charitable things. Never mind “several” billion. That is an absolutely obscene amount of money for one individual.

Imagine someone gave you a million pounds and told you to spend £1,000 every day and come back when you ran out of money. You would return, with no money left, in three years. If someone then gave you a billion pounds and you spent £1,000 each day, you would be spending for about 2,740 years before you went broke. (ignoring for the sake of simplicity interest accrued)

Delusion taken to a new level…
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/523013-white-house-science-office-says-trump-ended-covid-pandemic-as-us-hits

Covidical Ali

Branch Covidians seems apt given their current policy towards the virus, which seems to involve burning everything down.

Worth watching Newsnight tonight on iplayer for the interview with John Bolton

Remember under Dubya when we all thought he was a completely insane warmonger?

Right now he’s the voice of reason telling his story of trying to reign Trump in and failing. A man who he describes as ‘stunningly ill-informed’.

He’s railing against the same brainless populism that gave us Boris

A lot of Trump's hope stems from this.

Biden's lead isn't *quite* comfortable enough in PA.

And although he has some *good* backup plans if he loses PA… namely AZ/FL/NC/GA…he doesn't have a *great* one being ahead only 1-3 points in those states.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 28, 2020

Here’s what the map looks like if Pennsylvania is set as a toss-up. Trump would need to win all the toss-ups, plus something else. Unlikely, but can’t be written off as impossible.

There's no sign of tightening. Also no sign of widening. We have 34 post-debate polls, and the average change is … 0.1 points toward Trump. https://t.co/9AeTKX5o0O pic.twitter.com/mzdoJ2nBvA

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 27, 2020

SuperSpreaderMan strikes again.

President Trump took off in Air Force One 1 hr 20 minutes ago, but thousands of his supporters remain stranded on a dark road outside the rally. “We need at least 30 more buses,” an Omaha police officer just said, shaking his head at the chaotic cluster that is unfolding.

— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) October 28, 2020

⬇️ Ongoing coverage of police and rescue crews efforts to treat a number of patients who are suffering medical emergencies following a political event at Eppley Airfield. ⬇️ https://t.co/NX0nCvtf9C

— Omaha Scanner (@omaha_scanner) October 28, 2020

Remember under Dubya when we all thought he was a completely insane warmonger?

He was and is. At least part of his current dislike of Trump was that Trump didnt agree on which wars to fight.

Did anyone catch The Comey Rule on Sky? Brendan Gleeson pretty impressive as Trump. Would be great if they continue with this and dramatise the whole presidency, bit like The Crown.

Remember under Dubya when we all thought he was a completely insane warmonger?

W. was an utterly terrible president, but there’s a structural problem with the American system of having the President as Commander in Chief because it makes military force one his main tools of foreign relations. Trump is right about questioning U.S. involvement in so many conflicts (but that’s pretty much the only thing I can think of that he’s right about). Problem is that a president cannot afford to look weak, so there’s constant pressure to send troops all over the globe to try to resolve local conflicts. Obama tried to unwind some of that, but couldn’t because it’s almost impossible to untangle yourself once you’re involved.

No U.S. President could have not sent troops into Afghanistan after the World Trade Center, there was a smoking ruin in New York with a couple of thousand dead American civilians, so any President who didn’t set out to get OBL would have been political toast. Bush was really dumb to invade Iraq, but there was political pressure on him to deal with Hussein. Having the President as Commander in Chief pretty much guarantees that they will blunder into stupid mistakes like that because they cannot afford to let the opposition party portray them as weak (which was a major political problem for Obama, IIRC).

I think a big part of it is that the world got big and complicated and scary, and so small and simple and comforting answers gain in popularity. PRobably more or less inversely to how useful they are.

see also everything by Adam Curtis

Simple answers are contagious. I worry that some (too many) people will now see Joe Biden as a “simple answer” – get Biden elected and the problems of the Trump years will go away. What will instead happen is that with a lot of effort, things will (hopefully) start getting better. But people were expecting a simple answer and sunlit uplands, so will get disillusioned and that will give the opportunity for a new Trump-like tosser to make a play for power.

I think a lot of people, can’t believe that again they have such a poor choice to make for president. However there is a good chance the democrats will take control of both houses, so we shall see, will they make structural changes that really count, that empower voters equally for every election from now on. Will they de-politicise appointments to the judicial system instead of stacking the supreme court their way. or will they as most suspect just roll back a few of the trump policies (but not the tax cuts for the richest of course) and just go about business as usual.

It isn’t just because people get disillusioned with simple answers that provide the grounds for the populists, it is because both sides are really just serving the billionaires and corporate lobyists while people are living from paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay their mortgages worrying about feeding their children and praying their car or boiler doesn’t break down and send them further into debt.

It wasn’t just that Trump offered simple answers, he offered them any answers, most knew it was probably bullshit, but this is what life is like for most working people and they are completely ignored by policies of wage stagnation and asset inflation since the early 80’s, So any answer was worth a role of the dice instead of the usual ignorance on offer, the hope for many was that it might bring a reaction to make things right. Unfortunately the political powers idea of making things right is to paper over what went wrong, and pretend Trump never happened.

Dubya’s agenda was set by the Republican party of the day. As far back as 1998, the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) project and it’s acolytes like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz et al were pushing for “regime change” in Iraq.

The factors that led to the failure of PNAC are there for all to see, albeit with the benefit of almost two decades’ hindsight. The doctrine itself wasn’t universally accepted across the Republican Party, Colin Powell was half-hearted in his support given that the subsequent invasion of Iraq was conducted unilaterally by the USA, Powell wanted an international coalition to occupy Iraq but ultimately failed to convince the UN that Iraq represented the sort of threat to world peace that it had back in 1991.

By contrast, the modern Republican Party might seem to be entirely without doctrine or aim and with a puzzling unanimity in spite of some utterly bizarre and cruel policies but the Trump doctrine is there if you look hard enough – deregulation across the board which will entail the dismantling of the apparatus of the state, abandonment of any form of social welfare and labour market protections. These policies are not vote winners, especially for America’s poorest and most vulnerable, this is where populism and voter manipulation comes in to play.

The best parody is when you aren’t quite sure if it’s a parody or not right till the end.

Woman stranded at MAGA rally in Omaha says Trump wanted to teach them a lesson pic.twitter.com/SvqYw5MnOZ

— blaire erskine (@blaireerskine) October 28, 2020

Hmm, still not entirely convinced that’s a parody…..

Thanks for posting thols2 ,that scanner feed sure paints a picture 😉

“Eppley Police Chief and the Secret Service are having a pissing match”.

“Boys Town 912 enroute to Lil’ Creighton Code 2 with a 65 y/o male who “got a little excited about what President Trump was talking about” and began to experience weakness”.

“Medics treating numerous parties with medical issues as they are walking out”.

Woman stranded at MAGA rally in Omaha says Trump wanted to teach them a lesson

Sounds like she had an extra bowl of crazy for breakfast

We are lost. We've lost so much in so short a time.
On November 3rd, vote them out.

Hear more: https://t.co/ZacuLReNRu pic.twitter.com/jEbT0wP3Ee

— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) October 28, 2020

Tucker is claiming that his super-secret, extremely damming trove of documents about Hunter Biden was stolen while in the mail. pic.twitter.com/QGl4xS1SJD

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) October 29, 2020

i'm trying to imagine how deeply bubbled and how far you have to have your head up your ass not to realize that even if the Biden campaign sent ninjas to steal yr superduper docs package you still look ridiculous claiming that the Biden campaign sent ninjas to steal your package.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 29, 2020

And in Britain’s time of crisis, Farage is out there on the stump with Trump.

Well here's Nigel 'one of the most powerful people in Europe' Farage, hiding in a pub in Scotland from a handful of demonstrators. pic.twitter.com/Qj6lkddmaL

— KJG71 (@ngokoko123) October 28, 2020

Re: that Tucker Carlson “dog ate my homework” excuse, just a reminder that Fox News’ own lawyers successfully argued that Tucker Carlson’s show is fake news. He was sued for slander a few months back and the judge’s decision in the case includes the following:
As Defendant notes, Mr. Carlson himself aims to “challenge political correctness and media bias.” This “general tenor” of the show should then inform a viewer that he is not “stating actual facts” about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in “exaggeration” and “non-literal commentary.” Fox persuasively argues that given Mr. Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer “arrive with an appropriate amount of skepticism” about the statements he makes. Whether the Court frames Mr. Carlson’s statements as “exaggeration,” “non-literal commentary,” or simply bloviating for his audience, the conclusion remains the same—the statements are not actionable.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv11161/527808/39/

For this reason alone, alone, Trump must lose.

I should warn you, that even by Farage’s utter fawning standards this is puke inducing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-us-2020-54727921

Farage must be hounded for the rest of his life for backing this utter shit head of a president, let alone the tragedy of the Brexit to come.

@poopscoop – all I can say is what a pair of complete bellends.

No U.S. President could have not sent troops into Afghanistan after the World Trade Center, there was a smoking ruin in New York with a couple of thousand dead American civilians, so any President who didn’t set out to get OBL would have been political toast. Bush was really dumb to invade Iraq, but there was political pressure on him to deal with Hussein. Having the President as Commander in Chief pretty much guarantees that they will blunder into stupid mistakes like that because they cannot afford to let the opposition party portray them as weak (which was a major political problem for Obama, IIRC).

Its also a big failing of their strategy militarily  – because the president is the ‘head’ of the military the US seems to think the way to defeat other regimes is by decapitation- remove the head – Saddam Hussain, Osama Binladen, or whoever, and the body will die. As if all the generals and foot soidiers operating under that leader are just mindless  drones.

The problem is – no matter how nuts – we knew how Saddam Hussain thought and what he would do. When the head was cut off – the problem didn’t die – it sprouted ten new heads – all battling between themselves for power and all plotting revenge, and all complete unknown quantities.

Re Farage’s ass kissing moment

Its good in that it surely underlines to Leave voters that just possibly they might be on the wrong side here. They won’t see it that way of course so it’s just more anger fuel for the rest of us

But typical of Farage, seduced by US ‘glamour’ or told to by his alt right shady overlords, to paddle his little rowing boat over and board the Titanic just as it hits the iceberg

that Tucker Carlson “dog ate my homework” excuse

Maybe we should set up a gofundme page and buy Carslon’s producers a fax machine