2020 US General Election Thread VII: Summer of Discontent

[Jerzylvania]

Another measure for the Plaza from out west.

Oregon: Measure number four would effectively decriminalise psilocybin(magic mushrooms) and bring the state into the business. The Oregon Health Authority(OHA) would set up the Oregon Psilocybin Services Programme to allow the regulated manufacture, distribution, and possession of magic mushrooms with a two-year development period before the programme could begin. There would also be an advisory board, an administrative fund, and a requirement that anyone over age 21 who wants mushrooms has to go through a pre-screening process. Finally, there would be a state sales tax on all legal sales.

Somewhere out in the ether Jerry Garcia is smiling.

[Cisairse]

Another measure for the Plaza from out west.

Oregon: Measure number four would effectively decriminalise psilocybin(magic mushrooms) and bring the state into the business. The Oregon Health Authority(OHA) would set up the Oregon Psilocybin Services Programme to allow the regulated manufacture, distribution, and possession of magic mushrooms with a two-year development period before the programme could begin. There would also be an advisory board, an administrative fund, and a requirement that anyone over age 21 who wants mushrooms has to go through a pre-screening process. Finally, there would be a state sales tax on all legal sales.

nice

[Outer Sparta]

Susan Collins will be mildly concerned at Maine voters launching her into the sun.

If I had to pick only one GOP senator I desperately want to see losing its Susan Collins. Even more so than whatshisname McConnell whom I would love to see losing but I am not so naive as to think actually will.

Susan Collins has always been a pretender. She pretends to be all moderate and bipartisan while voting with the Trump admin on basically everything.

[The Andromeda Island Group]

Let's be real, he's gonna promote his brand and continue this PR stunt for the next few weeks then announce again come August "Trump is my brother, we both share dragon energy" etc etc, right before dropping an album or extended play, something like that.

Anything for attention.

Kanye is an attentioncrackwhore.

I don't know what Kanye has in store,
But we know he's an attention whore.
We all really know what Kanye wants.
His whole life is a publicity stunt.

[Cannot think of a name]

Another measure for the Plaza from out west.

Oregon: Measure number four would effectively decriminalise psilocybin(magic mushrooms) and bring the state into the business. The Oregon Health Authority(OHA) would set up the Oregon Psilocybin Services Programme to allow the regulated manufacture, distribution, and possession of magic mushrooms with a two-year development period before the programme could begin. There would also be an advisory board, an administrative fund, and a requirement that anyone over age 21 who wants mushrooms has to go through a pre-screening process. Finally, there would be a state sales tax on all legal sales.

So you're saying I have two years to plan my road trip to Oregon for a roadless trip.

[Shrillland]

Another measure for the Plaza from out west.

Oregon: Measure number four would effectively decriminalise psilocybin(magic mushrooms) and bring the state into the business. The Oregon Health Authority(OHA) would set up the Oregon Psilocybin Services Programme to allow the regulated manufacture, distribution, and possession of magic mushrooms with a two-year development period before the programme could begin. There would also be an advisory board, an administrative fund, and a requirement that anyone over age 21 who wants mushrooms has to go through a pre-screening process. Finally, there would be a state sales tax on all legal sales.

So you're saying I have two years to plan my road trip to Oregon for a roadless trip.

More or less.

[Kannap]

Susan Collins will be mildly concerned at Maine voters launching her into the sun.

If I had to pick only one GOP senator I desperately want to see losing its Susan Collins. Even more so than whatshisname McConnell whom I would love to see losing but I am not so naive as to think actually will.

If I had to pick one, it'd be Thom Tillis. Though I reckon I'm biased.

[Outer Sparta]

If I had to pick only one GOP senator I desperately want to see losing its Susan Collins. Even more so than whatshisname McConnell whom I would love to see losing but I am not so naive as to think actually will.

If I had to pick one, it'd be Thom Tillis. Though I reckon I'm biased.

Tillis is one of the more boring GOP senators. Cotton and Cruz just shout and post nonsense whenever possible while Susan Collins is "concerned" about the danger Trump poses.

[Kowani]

If I had to pick one, it'd be Thom Tillis. Though I reckon I'm biased.

Tillis is one of the more boring GOP senators. Cotton and Cruz just shout and post nonsense whenever possible while Susan Collins is "concerned" about the danger Trump poses.

Such concern, little vote-

[Farnhamia]

If I had to pick one, it'd be Thom Tillis. Though I reckon I'm biased.

Tillis is one of the more boring GOP senators. Cotton and Cruz just shout and post nonsense whenever possible while Susan Collins is "concerned" about the danger Trump poses.

Susan Collins ... ha!

As I filled out my absentee ballot for the Maine primary, I was overcome with a familiar sense of dejection.

I was reminded of the way I felt years ago, albeit in a very different situation. While writing a story about a solar system model built by volunteers in Maine’s northernmost county, Aroostook — the place where our senator, Susan Collins, grew up — I visited each installation. The impressive sun was in a building at the University of Maine, Presque Isle. Five miles south of that was a stunning Jupiter, built by local high school students. A mysterious Saturn, complete with rings, stood in a grassy lea in Westfield. I was in awe.

But when I got to Pluto, I just felt glum. The scale model — not much bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, affixed to the wall of the Houlton Information Center — was a little underwhelming.

When I voted a few days ago, so were my options.

This was not because of my lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic speaker of the House, Sara Gideon, the favorite to take on Senator Collins this November. (I participated in a fund-raising event for Ms. Gideon this spring.)

But it’s hard not to think of Susan Collins, of Aroostook County, without an accompanying sense of loss. In a poll released in January, 52 percent of registered voters in Maine said they disapproved of her. Fewer than half (42 percent) approved. She was the least popular senator in the country, even more loathed than Mitch McConnell. Which is saying something.

It wasn’t always this way. In 2015, her statewide approval rating was 78 percent — the highest of any Republican senator. That made her the nation’s second-most-popular senator among constituents; the first was Bernie Sanders.

What accounts for the change? In large measure, it’s her failure to stand up to Donald Trump, a man whom she described in 2016 as “unworthy of being our President.” This was “based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect,” she wrote, “an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.”

And yet, at so many moments of truth over the past four years, Senator Collins has voted to enable the man whom she described as incapable of change or growth. His actions leave her concerned. And dismayed. And disappointed.

Then she votes to empower him.

In 2017, Mr. Trump ended health care subsidies to low- and middle-class Americans under the Affordable Care Act. Senator Collins’s reaction? She was “very disappointed in the president’s actions.”

In February, she said she was “disappointed the Senate voted against calling impeachment witnesses.” But not so disappointed that she wouldn’t vote to acquit the president a few days later.

She told her constituents not to worry. Her sense, post-impeachment, was that Mr. Trump has learned “a pretty big lesson.”

On what possible planet has Mr. Trump learned his lesson?

Ms. Collins later said that her comment “may not be correct” and that his behavior is — oh no, what’s this? — “problematic.” Oh well.

So ubiquitous is Ms. Collins’s disappointment that there’s now a partisan mash-up video on YouTube of her expressing, over and over again, how upset and sad she is. On “Saturday Night Live,” Cecily Strong as the senator said that Mr. Trump makes her “want to shake my head vigorously and wag my finger once, perhaps twice!”

All of these disappointments were enough to sour Mainers on their once-popular senator. But nothing turned opinion as profoundly as her 45-minute speech on the Senate floor in 2018, leading up to her vote on Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. In that speech she acknowledged the allegations against him were “sincere, painful and compelling.”

But that didn’t prevent her from bitterly scolding anyone who had been moved by the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, accusing us of being manipulated by “dark money” and “special interest groups.”

She voted for Justice Kavanaugh in part because she took him at his word that abortion rights were a settled precedent. Then, last week, Justice Kavanaugh voted with the conservative minority on the court to uphold a Louisiana law that would have severely restricted a woman’s right to abortion in that state. In a statement, Senator Collins said that critics who saw this vote as a complete repudiation of her assessment of Kavanaugh were “reading too much into this specific decision.”

Right. Because otherwise, you might conclude that once again our senator had been, you know, bamboozled.

Of course it may be that progressive and moderate Mainers have been expecting too much of Senator Collins all along; she is a Republican, after all, and that she should vote with her party should, perhaps, surprise no one. Still, Maine’s politicians have a tradition of fierceness and independence, from Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain to James G. Blaine, from Olympia Snowe to William Cohen (all four of them Republicans, in fact). On June 1, Mainers observed the 70th anniversary of Margaret Chase Smith’s “Statement of Conscience” speech, in which she unequivocally denounced Joseph McCarthy.

For the longest time Senator Collins was clearly in that tradition; in 2014, this light-blue state re-elected her with 68 percent of the vote.

But it may be that the independence for which Ms. Collins was once celebrated is itself a thing of the past. “We’re in the era of Mitch McConnell, and he’s not interested in compromise,” Susan Young, the editorial page editor of The Bangor Daily News, has explained. “We’re criticizing her for not doing something that just isn’t happening in the Senate anymore.”

But that doesn’t mean that Mainers aren’t still yearning for it. Mainers expected Senator Collins to stand up to Mr. Trump, to show courage and conscience. Instead, she enabled him, leaving this country divided and adrift.

How do we feel? Disappointed.

[Outer Sparta]

Tillis is one of the more boring GOP senators. Cotton and Cruz just shout and post nonsense whenever possible while Susan Collins is "concerned" about the danger Trump poses.

Susan Collins ... ha!

As I filled out my absentee ballot for the Maine primary, I was overcome with a familiar sense of dejection.

I was reminded of the way I felt years ago, albeit in a very different situation. While writing a story about a solar system model built by volunteers in Maine’s northernmost county, Aroostook — the place where our senator, Susan Collins, grew up — I visited each installation. The impressive sun was in a building at the University of Maine, Presque Isle. Five miles south of that was a stunning Jupiter, built by local high school students. A mysterious Saturn, complete with rings, stood in a grassy lea in Westfield. I was in awe.

But when I got to Pluto, I just felt glum. The scale model — not much bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, affixed to the wall of the Houlton Information Center — was a little underwhelming.

When I voted a few days ago, so were my options.

This was not because of my lack of enthusiasm for the Democratic speaker of the House, Sara Gideon, the favorite to take on Senator Collins this November. (I participated in a fund-raising event for Ms. Gideon this spring.)

But it’s hard not to think of Susan Collins, of Aroostook County, without an accompanying sense of loss. In a poll released in January, 52 percent of registered voters in Maine said they disapproved of her. Fewer than half (42 percent) approved. She was the least popular senator in the country, even more loathed than Mitch McConnell. Which is saying something.

It wasn’t always this way. In 2015, her statewide approval rating was 78 percent — the highest of any Republican senator. That made her the nation’s second-most-popular senator among constituents; the first was Bernie Sanders.

What accounts for the change? In large measure, it’s her failure to stand up to Donald Trump, a man whom she described in 2016 as “unworthy of being our President.” This was “based on his disregard for the precept of treating others with respect,” she wrote, “an idea that should transcend politics. Instead, he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.”

And yet, at so many moments of truth over the past four years, Senator Collins has voted to enable the man whom she described as incapable of change or growth. His actions leave her concerned. And dismayed. And disappointed.

Then she votes to empower him.

In 2017, Mr. Trump ended health care subsidies to low- and middle-class Americans under the Affordable Care Act. Senator Collins’s reaction? She was “very disappointed in the president’s actions.”

In February, she said she was “disappointed the Senate voted against calling impeachment witnesses.” But not so disappointed that she wouldn’t vote to acquit the president a few days later.

She told her constituents not to worry. Her sense, post-impeachment, was that Mr. Trump has learned “a pretty big lesson.”

On what possible planet has Mr. Trump learned his lesson?

Ms. Collins later said that her comment “may not be correct” and that his behavior is — oh no, what’s this? — “problematic.” Oh well.

So ubiquitous is Ms. Collins’s disappointment that there’s now a partisan mash-up video on YouTube of her expressing, over and over again, how upset and sad she is. On “Saturday Night Live,” Cecily Strong as the senator said that Mr. Trump makes her “want to shake my head vigorously and wag my finger once, perhaps twice!”

All of these disappointments were enough to sour Mainers on their once-popular senator. But nothing turned opinion as profoundly as her 45-minute speech on the Senate floor in 2018, leading up to her vote on Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. In that speech she acknowledged the allegations against him were “sincere, painful and compelling.”

But that didn’t prevent her from bitterly scolding anyone who had been moved by the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, accusing us of being manipulated by “dark money” and “special interest groups.”

She voted for Justice Kavanaugh in part because she took him at his word that abortion rights were a settled precedent. Then, last week, Justice Kavanaugh voted with the conservative minority on the court to uphold a Louisiana law that would have severely restricted a woman’s right to abortion in that state. In a statement, Senator Collins said that critics who saw this vote as a complete repudiation of her assessment of Kavanaugh were “reading too much into this specific decision.”

Right. Because otherwise, you might conclude that once again our senator had been, you know, bamboozled.

Of course it may be that progressive and moderate Mainers have been expecting too much of Senator Collins all along; she is a Republican, after all, and that she should vote with her party should, perhaps, surprise no one. Still, Maine’s politicians have a tradition of fierceness and independence, from Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain to James G. Blaine, from Olympia Snowe to William Cohen (all four of them Republicans, in fact). On June 1, Mainers observed the 70th anniversary of Margaret Chase Smith’s “Statement of Conscience” speech, in which she unequivocally denounced Joseph McCarthy.

For the longest time Senator Collins was clearly in that tradition; in 2014, this light-blue state re-elected her with 68 percent of the vote.

But it may be that the independence for which Ms. Collins was once celebrated is itself a thing of the past. “We’re in the era of Mitch McConnell, and he’s not interested in compromise,” Susan Young, the editorial page editor of The Bangor Daily News, has explained. “We’re criticizing her for not doing something that just isn’t happening in the Senate anymore.”

But that doesn’t mean that Mainers aren’t still yearning for it. Mainers expected Senator Collins to stand up to Mr. Trump, to show courage and conscience. Instead, she enabled him, leaving this country divided and adrift.

How do we feel? Disappointed.

I love the last part of the spoiler where they said disappointed. A fitting feeling towards Collins.

[Zurkerx]

Who is Keisha Lance Bottoms? A Possible Biden VP Pick Sees Her Profile Rise Amid Crises.

This is a continued series by NPR for Biden's Short VP List. You can read the other articles here.

[Ifreann]

Let's be real, he's gonna promote his brand and continue this PR stunt for the next few weeks then announce again come August "Trump is my brother, we both share dragon energy" etc etc, right before dropping an album or extended play, something like that.

Anything for attention.

"Share dragon energy" lol fuck forgot about that. Dumb bitch, who does he think he is? The Dragonborn?

In their tongue he is Yeezykiin, KANYEBORN!

[Aureumterra]

Maybe Kanye West actually makes an effort and draws some of the Christian Taliban anti-vaxxer mask exemption card Karen vote

Yeah this thread’s officially worse than the MAGAthread

[No State Here]

Maybe Kanye West actually makes an effort and draws some of the Christian Taliban anti-vaxxer mask exemption card Karen vote

Yeah this thread’s officially worse than the MAGAthread

Hey everyone’s welcome on the Libertarian thread, since RWDT got purged

[No State Here]

I always love election season as a small business owner, especially in New York, you can order a bunch of shirts with something anti-Trump on it, or with a funny drawing of Trump as a pig or something and it gets sold out real fast. Nice profits. Kinda like with pride month, just order a bunch of rainbow stuff from suppliers and profit

[Ifreann]

I always love election season as a small business owner, especially in New York, you can order a bunch of shirts with something anti-Trump on it, or with a funny drawing of Trump as a pig or something and it gets sold out real fast. Nice profits. Kinda like with pride month, just order a bunch of rainbow stuff from suppliers and profit

1. Buy things people want
2. Sell them at a price higher than you bought them for
3. PROFIT!

[Aureumterra]

I always love election season as a small business owner, especially in New York, you can order a bunch of shirts with something anti-Trump on it, or with a funny drawing of Trump as a pig or something and it gets sold out real fast. Nice profits. Kinda like with pride month, just order a bunch of rainbow stuff from suppliers and profit

I think this is the most capitalist post I’ve read on this website so far

[Thermodolia]

If I had to pick only one GOP senator I desperately want to see losing its Susan Collins. Even more so than whatshisname McConnell whom I would love to see losing but I am not so naive as to think actually will.

If I had to pick one, it'd be Thom Tillis. Though I reckon I'm biased.

I’d love to see Perdue lose

[Baltenstein]

Kim Kardashian has already stated that she doesn't quite like the idea of being the First Lady of the United States because it's, like, the most stressful job ever (what with all the mean things people say and post about Melania)

I think Kanye will withdraw his candidature out of love for his wife, even though we all know he would have easily won.

[Cisairse]

Kim Kardashian has already stated that she doesn't quite like the idea of being the First Lady of the United States because it's, like, the most stressful job ever (what with all the mean things people say and post about Melania)

I think Kanye will withdraw his candidature out of love for his wife, even though we all know he would have easily won.

more likely, he drops her for standing in the way of greatness

[Kowani]

Kim Kardashian has already stated that she doesn't quite like the idea of being the First Lady of the United States because it's, like, the most stressful job ever (what with all the mean things people say and post about Melania)

I think Kanye will withdraw his candidature out of love for his wife, even though we all know he would have easily won.

Hasn’t he still not fired to run?

[Asle Leopolka]

As someone who has worked in polling and now manages a team of statisticians and data scientists, I've been urging everyone to avoid the polls until after the first debate. That being said, there's one stat that has a strong historical precedence and is hard to ignore:

SITTING APPROVAL RATING FOR INCUMBENT PRESIDENTS AT THIS POINT OF THEIR PRESIDENCY (Source):
Trump: 38% (TBD)
Obama: 46% (Reelected)
W: 48% (Reelected but lost popular vote)
Clinton: 48% (Reelected)
Bush Sr: 38% (Lost reelection)
Reagan: 54% (Reelected)
Carter: 31% (Lost reelection)
Ford: 45% (Lost reelection)
Nixon: 56% (Reelected)
LBJ: 40% (Chose not to seek reelection but would likely have lost)
Kenedy: 58% before assassination (easily would have been reelected)
Eisenhower: 73% (Reelected)
Truman: 40% and on an upswing (no data on this particular date) (Barely reelected)

Trump is part of a club he should really wish he didn't belong. At this point no president with an approval rating below 45% has been reelected - Truman's 40% is for the two weeks prior to this time period and when he started campaigning hard as hell and had a monumental upswing.

[Major-Tom]

I always love election season as a small business owner, especially in New York, you can order a bunch of shirts with something anti-Trump on it, or with a funny drawing of Trump as a pig or something and it gets sold out real fast. Nice profits. Kinda like with pride month, just order a bunch of rainbow stuff from suppliers and profit

Quality LibRight meme right there.

[Asle Leopolka]

I always love election season as a small business owner, especially in New York, you can order a bunch of shirts with something anti-Trump on it, or with a funny drawing of Trump as a pig or something and it gets sold out real fast. Nice profits. Kinda like with pride month, just order a bunch of rainbow stuff from suppliers and profit

Quality LibRight meme right there.

And damn good business sense; there's a reason everyone does it.