Why is the prestige of an educational institution seemingly so important specifically in the US (i am not from there but why is the ivy league etc regarded as so much better than other unis if what is being taught is the same specifically in the humanities where you do not need expensive equipment)? Except maybe that if there is higher selectivity then the profile of the students will be of ones that are more ambitious / with better grades so overall the level would be higher and the teaching/learning experience would be more intense? sorry for this dumb question, i went to uni in the uk (i am from eu) and their class system and this whole way of thinking astonished me, a lot of arrogance+ignorance+immaturity imo combined, so i am trying to draw parallels about the anglo world i guess

briefly put, universities are now jobs training centers (in a way they've always been so, but not explicitly like this) and the ivies are an employment network like no other. employers will look at your application more favorably if you have an ivy+ on your resume, and you can attend events and/or socialize to get your resume on an employer's desk to begin with; they will disregard your resume if you're from a bad public school. ivies weren't seen as academically rigorous until fairly recently in the context of their long history (berkeley, CA is a presigious "public ivy" city college and hunter college, CUNY, used to be seen as prestigious "public ivies" until funding got choked off), but they were always playgrounds for old money. there's an undeniably higher selectivity for quality, but a lot of those students are the fig leaf the universities use to cover something called legacy admissions, which is when your admissions chances to a school get significantly boosted by having one or both parents as that school's alumni. legacy admissions are at play at all the ivies and nearly all universities in the country, but notably not at MIT. the other reasons why prestige gets so played up, or why the ivies dominate attention, is because almost the entire elite attended ivy+ colleges. in a sense, it's both a self-referential circle and a personal affair on the pages of our dailies and everywhere else (like oxbridge and eton in the uk) etc. this is combined with the general anti-intellectual trend in america, exemplified by significant quantities of stupid people who, for instance, imagine every college student attends CRT 101: from maoism to the sea classes at the ivies (in reality, the vast majority of americans attend publics, and the ivies are quite conservative)

Calming my post-election anxiety with sweet sweet logic

So Trump is a wannabe dictator with crazy screaming fans who are headed toward violent armed meltdowns. What’s to stop him from going full dictator and refusing to leave office?

I’m glad you asked!

You see, the major difference between wannabe dictators and actual dictators is ALLIES. Dictators are surrounded with tight security, aided by the military, cheered on by media that they control, and are either helped, encouraged, or just ignored by other countries with the power to stop them.

Trump has charged the Secret Service money for the privilege of protecting him and his family since day one. You remember the first year, when his wife and son refused to move to the White House so the Secret Service had to RENT FLOORS in TRUMP’S BUILDING to be close to them? And how his extended family went globetrotting and the Secret Service had to accompany them? And when Trump himself insisted on hosting people at his golf club, he made the Secret Service RENT GOLF CARTS from TRUMP’S CLUB to follow him while he went golfing?

The end result was that halfway through the first year of his presidency, the Secret Service could not pay their own wages. Because half their yearly budget had gone straight to Trump’s pockets. And that’s just financially. I think we all remember how the White House came down with Covid and Trump still insisted on Secret Service agents driving him around to wave at people. He has not been kind to the people who are sworn to protect him. These people have had a front-row seat to his circus since 2016. When the time comes from Trump to leave the White House and Biden to take over, I doubt they’ll betray the country out of loyalty to Trump. If anything, they’ll be the ones to drag him out.

As for the military, Trump insulted and fired four generals from his administration staff. He said on multiple occasions that soldiers who get captured or killed are suckers and losers. He refused to visit a cemetery to honor the dead because it was raining. He tries to pander to the military by massive increases in defense spending, but that money goes to capitalists who make weapons and war technology, not the soldiers or veterans. (He also hypocritically accused military officials of being in bed with those same companies.) In a poll of 1000 service members 50% said they disliked Trump. Overall, he doesn’t act like a leader, and the way he skirts responsibility (like taking charge during the pandemic) doesn’t appeal to a group that functions on trust in their leadership.

A proper dictator would have spent the last four years cozying up to his generals and making sure they knew the financial and social benefits of answering to him personally, not the office of the President. And while Trump did adhere to the adage “find a foreign foe” to unite people against, he badly misjudged what most US citizens consider “foreign.” He hasn’t found a villain that we would root for the military taking down, and the people he targets (Latinx, Blacks, immigrants, and people in countries our military has already devastated) are not a minority he can turn the majority of the country against, especially with how many of the former two serve in the military themselves. When the time comes for him to leave office, the military might be the first to cut ties with the wannabe Dictator-in-Chief.

Now, the media. They’ve been treating him like a joke candidate since day one, but after he was actually elected and took office they’ve started to take him more seriously. He’s gotten his catchphrase “fake news!” to catch on, but that doesn’t change the fact that under his administration news reporters have been harassed, illegally arrested, and generally poorly treated by Trump, especially if they’re women. He’s trashed talked everyone, with Fox News being the last bastion of semi-legitimate news that openly supports him (and their credibility has taken a big hit over it.)

Despite this support, in recently months Trump has been increasingly dumping on Fox, even throwing the mediator they provided for the debate under the bus, and risking alienating them in the process. If his supporters listen to him and start considering Fox part of Big Fake News, it might possibly be the death of Fox, leaving most of his supporters adrift and isolated from their source of right-wing news, and sending the more extreme fringes into the arms of conspiracy theory websites. (I’m not saying this is bad, being cut off from Fox and its toxic stream of “information” can actually help rehabilitate the right.)

Honestly, I don’t think Trump ever had a shot at controlling the media like a dictator would, mainly because of social media. He’s in love with attention, and Twitter has provided him a nonstop stream of it. No other President has threatened, insulted, promoted, or hinted at war over social media the way Trump has, and he gets so much direct feedback and interaction with the public and the world as a result. He could have leveraged that by buying the company (through a shell corporation, obviously) and setting it up as The One True Source of Information, manipulating public perception of him and his administration by keeping a tight grip on what information he let out.

But he’s just. Not. That. Clever. He blurts out everything that crosses his mind, leaving his administration to play clean-up on his messes, put out fires he keeps pouring gasoline on, and claim he’s joking when everyone knows he’s testing the limits on what he can get away with saying. He took advantage of the direct communication with legions of supporters, but seemed to forget that his detractors had equal access and would absolutely call him out on things he definitely said, it’s right there on his Twitter account, they have the Tweet pulled up on their phone right now. Instead of operating a single state-run media outlet while crushing all free press and limiting internet access like other dictators, he’s mooned the world’s cameras and acted surprised when they put his saggy butt on tv. “Fake news! That’s not my butt! THIS is my butt! [image attached]” he tweets. “Twitter is so biased, they haven’t censored any of Sleepy Joe’s photos!” he later tweets.

And lastly. The key to a dictatorship’s success. To prevent outside intervention, the country a dictator runs must be unimportant and ignored, wealthy and well-connected, or scary and well-armed. Minor warlords are the former, Putin is the latter, Trump might have weaseled his way into being the middle. But at the end of the day, America’s whole thing is new leadership every four years. It was revolutionary to replace a lineage of kings and queens stretching generations with a non-royal elected leader who only held office for four to eight years, but we’ve stuck to that for 200 years and everyone’s used to it by now. It would take a charismatic and powerful person to move the American people towards abolishing such a basic tenant of our democracy, and despite the mob mentality that lead a small portion of his supporters to chant “sixteen more years!” in the heat of the moment, Trump is not that charismatic. He’s not that smart. He’s not that well-connected. He’s not that savvy. He’s not that good at politics. And he’s not that powerful.

(I was going to say something here about him being the laughingstock of the world’s leaders and shouldn’t expect any outsiders to help him stay in power, especially since his tax returns came out and showed he owes people a ton of money that he doesn’t have, but this post is long enough so let’s cut to the chase.)

Trump is a greedy, small-minded man that has clung to power by appealing to the worst in humanity and scraping away at the best. But he hasn’t succeeded. He’s a sad old man who will say anything to be loved, and I don’t think he even knows what love is, so he’ll settle for attention. He doesn’t have money, he doesn’t have an army, and the only allies he has are using him as a political pawn to further their own interests. They will cut him loose the minute he stops being useful.

Now, the bad part: crazy screaming fans. Fringe groups on the internet. Mobs chanting “sixteen more years!” Men with guns and bombs and kidnapping plots, men trying to get into voting centers to destroy the election, men driving trucks with black flags that say FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, TRUMP 2020 (available on Amazon for $11.99, I wish I was joking.) I have no idea how many people in this country genuinely love Trump. It is hopefully significantly less than voted for him. There are some big issues in this country that are make-or-break, and unfortunately by reason of running Republican Trump has aligned himself with some of them.

There are people who hate everything about Trump, but he put a pro-life judge on the Supreme Court so they’re voting for him. There are people who are uncomfortable with Trump, but they’ve forgiven their grandpa for saying worse at Thanksgiving dinner, so they’ll vote for him. There are people who don’t know a single thing about Donald Trump, but they see (Republican) next to his name on the ballot, so they vote for him. None of that means those people will side with him if he tries to make a move towards dictatorship.

Now there are people who love Trump. They’ve heard and seen the vile things he’s said and done, and are genuinely okay with it, because they are full of hate and rage and want to change the world to put themselves on top. I do not know how many of these people there are. I know they exist all over the country, not just in red states. I know some of them have guns and want a reason to use them, because they’ve been talking about it for decades. I don’t know if we can trust the police to side with us over them if fights start breaking out. (And I pray pray PRAY people de-escalate any fights, because monkey see monkey do, and one news report of a MAGA extremist shooting someone can inspire a hundred copycats can lead to full-on civil war like we've never seen.) I know we need to be careful the next few months, to take care of ourselves and watch out for the more vulnerable in our communities.

And above all, I know this: Trump is not going to keep this country. He got it through trickery and deceit and foreign influence and national indifference and people not taking him seriously. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. We’re taking him seriously now, and we will not let him take what we’ve already told him he can’t have. The election is over. He’s a loser. He’d better start packing his bags. Because he’s not staying in office.

November 3, 2020

12:05pm

I woke up at 7:00am today and I knew a few things: 1.) I would buy a Vitamix and begin to make smoothies every day 2.) I would stop holding onto the past 3.) It would be my last entry on this tumblr

Today, it is Election Day. I am very much hoping Joe Biden will win, not just for my sanity but for everyone’s sanity, for a little hope in humanity’s fight against the allure of anti-intellectualism, scapegoating, its growing tolerance of hate.

I remember the last election day, or rather, the evening. We all thought Hillary would win uneventfully. I remember my colleague dipping out of work early to go to the Javits Center to celebrate her victory. I remember watching in disbelief from my basement computer, walking upstairs with my eyes wide and jaw dropped. “Are you watching the news right now Mike?” “Yeah, Trump is in the lead. It looks like he’s about to win Pennsylvania (or was it Michigan? Or Wisconsin?)” I walked to bed in disgust, woke up in disgust, confirmed my disgust.

There was not one conversation I heard on the train or in the street that day that didn’t involve Trump. That night, I drank alone at Three Diamond Door. I still remember the buff black dude sitting in the corner downing Bell’s Two Hearted IPAs.

Anyway, election day 2020. I’m going out to vote in about 2 hours. I got today off. Thanks, progressive companies.

I’ve had a lot of internal discussions with myself on here, published them as blog posts. I have timestamps to remember them by, I’m glad. In the past ~8 months since the pandemic began, I’ve gone back to a lot of my entries -- oh, this is what it was like in the beginning in March. Oh yes, May, I was indeed watching a lot of K-Dramas, it was getting hotter. Ahhh yes, I did learn a lot about not having the city as my crutch.

Just in general, on this blog, on the countless loose leaf papers in my journal, I’ve had these battles about meaning. This blog pre-dates seeing Jody my therapist, who I’ve been seeing faithfully for over 1.5 years now.

I could go on. The point I’m making rn in this last entry is this -- all that stuff is in the past, it was important, I internalized it. Now it’s time to move on. I’m glad this exists, these 450 entries exist, they exist with a purpose. But now? I know who I am, what I want to be.

I have no dilemma of engineering vs artistry. Now that I’ve been away from loud bars, I have no FOMO about the nightlife. It’s kinda just time to start from scratch, this knowledge.

I just created a new tumblr, domo-knows. I’ll likely have a companion YouTube channel in the future. Anyway, a few and somewhat ambiguous bullets for myself since, you know, this blog was always just for me.

ON THINGS I’M LEAVING BEHIND ACTIONS 1. Random drinking. Today, I’m going to buy an Other Half Finback IPAs, pop them open around 8pm and start watching election results. I’ve gone into detail before about drinking, but just to sum it up, drinking alcohol is the one thing I can say captures how complex and funny it is being a human -- how we use it socially, justify it, cling onto it, how it becomes tangled up in our highest achievements and our most shameful insecurities. I’ve consumed alcohol for these various reasons in my life:

a.) I was avoiding doing something difficult b.) I didn’t want to be alone in my room, and preferred the loud chatter of conversations and music at a cramped bar c.) I did not trust my social abilities sober, so I drank alcohol because I’ve never known anyone who has not liked me when I’ve had a couple (when I’m shit-faced, another story) d.) To hook up with a girl e.) I was bored f.) I was about to do something boring and wanted to make it more exciting g.) Because it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for a beer on a patio h.) Because it was a cold and dreary day, perfect to brood over a Manhattan i.) I was lonely j.) My life was going too well, I wasn’t used to that, and I needed something to question k.) My life was going poorly, and I needed something to cheer me up for the evening l.) I needed to make a decision, so I drank alcohol and wrote in my journal and came to a good decision that I stuck with m.) I needed to make a decision, so I drank alcohol until I no longer cared, and the decision was punted off until the next day n.) I I needed to make a decision, I thought a drink or two would jigger my thought process, but I ended up getting distracted by something my drunk self was interested in, and the decision was punted off until the next day I’d come up with more but they’re all just variations of that and who wants to read more of that? 2. Eating sugary sweets, justifying it by saying I have “an addiction” I actually never cared for sweets until high school. Most birthday cake I had was gross, my parents bought Chips Ahoy or Oreos which tbh aren’t all that great, and I was never exposed to really good pastries until I was in college. In high school, I dropped a buncha weight entirely too quickly and I ended up with a fats and sweets “addiction” that I’ve “had ever since”. This is a common thing.

I’ve held it close to me mentally -- my “sweets addiction”. I didn’t question it, it was something I just had, something to hang onto for the rest of my life because I fucked up when I was younger.

But as I’ve gotten older, I understand that these things -- addictions -- serve purposes. They keep us comfortable in what we deem to be true of ourselves. They (poorly) provide temporary breaks from incessant mental gymnastics/fatigue. Anyway, blah blah, big sweeping declarations, blah blah, I’ve done that all before. But when I woke up today, I knew I would get a Vitamix like I’ve been talking about for years, and I made a decision to stop holding onto this. I always eat 2 meals a day with a wild west assortment of things in between, cake and cookies and granola bars and Halloween candy. Now, 2 meals and a protein smoothie/juice.

Let them muscles grow bb. Feel good about my body, treat it like the fucking temple it is.

3. Dicking around on the internet I enjoy reddit. I enjoy wikipedia. I also end up on these sites when I’m avoiding other major responsibilities and uncomfortable feelings. I know what I want: it involves a lot of deep practice. I could read about programming all day and I’d be fascinated -- you know, the history of Silicon Valley, Introduction to the Rust Programming language, new JavaScript frameworks, discussions on HackerNews about The Best Way to Build Something. But nothing beats getting your hands dirty. Nothing beats poring over source code, running into strange errors, resolving them, moving on, over and over ad nauseam until lo-and-behold, you are an expert.

I can read about music, listen to raps over and over, but nothing beats analyzing a verse over and over and actually hearing the syllables landing on, falling behind the beat.

I’m here to structure my day. I know what I want. Expertise, pride, and know-how. A differentiated skillset so I can collaborate with other differentiated skillsets. Good taste, a feeling of belonging. All that shit, all I ever wanted but didn’t know until recently. THOUGHT PATTERNS 1. FOMO What is it with being a human -- a Man, especially (sorry is that sexist, but also, not sorry) -- that makes us believe that everyone has everything we have and more? That we are the base model without power windows, and everyone else is an upgrade? I love going on walks in New York City. I love riding the trains in New York City. But while some of this love is healthy spectatorship, much of what I’ve engaged in is unhealthy envy.

I’m done with that though. I know what I like. And I know I have a dope life. And I know that I’m a good person to know, that people may have different qualities than me but I also have different qualities from them. I’m cool with my small close-knit friends. 2. INDECISION I kinda expanded on this above. I know what I want, and all questioning I’ve done (especially recently) has been my effort to save myself from doing the work, save myself from having to declare what I am. 3. ENGAGING IN FEELINGS OF BEING LATE I am 31 years old. This is something I know to be true: there is a 13-year old who can program circles around me. There is a kid who can play a rendition of Misty on piano so soulful that it’ll bring a tear to my eye. There is nothing, technically (as in, technical expertise), that I can do that can’t be done by anyone else. But I do believe in my taste and I do believe in my life experiences. And I do believe that whatever I create can only be mine, have my signature, and I think that whatever I create in this world that I’m proud of is going to be good. That’s a fact, and I’m going into the future with that as a fact.

Farewell, semi-anonyme Anyway, I was going to write more but I wanna get going, more to do. I’ve got some work to do, some voting to do, some writing to do, some planning to do.

I love you all. See you on the other side.

last vote

This may be your last chance to vote in a real election.

Here is something that most people don’t know. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), about 1.5% of all males are psychopaths and about 4% are sociopaths. A psychopath is defined as a person who is born with zero empathy, and thus sees all people as just objects to be used. Sociopaths on the other hand also have no empathy but are made that way growing up, and so do mostly petty crimes.

So if you combine the two we have 6 million Americans who have no empathy, but that gets worse because this is on a scale from the lowest empathy to the highest and there are another 10 million Americans who have little to no empathy or caring for others outside the people they know. They are antisociety.

This 16% of Americans, believe it or not, is fairly normal, but in the last 40 years the number of Americans who only care about their family and friends has grown to well over 100 million Americans, a third of America!!! They are now the Radical Right, Trump cult. If this doesn’t shock you then maybe you have become one of the 100 million who are antisociety.

Why is that, and why have we become so divided? The answer is simple; we have been divided on purpose.

One Australian study found that 1 in 5, 20%, of corporate CEOs and lawyers are psychopaths! Other studies now show that when most people become wealthy they lose their caring for anyone outside their circle, So today 75% of the wealthy have no feeling or caring for anyone outside their circle. Thus they are antisociety in general, and many, 20% to 50%, are psychopaths. In other words this group of rich people don’t care if you live or die, and most would kill you if you stood between them and their money.

There are around 600 billionaires in the US, and if just 20% are psychopaths or sociopaths, which is easily true, we are talking about at least 100+ billionaires who would love to take control of the US, and do not care who they hurt doing it. With their billions they could easily create a secret group which would have all the money they would ever need to pay for subversion, propaganda, or anything else they needed to divide us. Guess what, that is just what is happening.

A large group of sociopathic billionaires, which the New York Times thinks may be around 400 members, has started a secret group who’s major goal is to take as much control of America as they can, and turn it into an oligarchy, where only they can vote. Because they have kept what they are doing a secret, what is going on has only started to come to light in the last ten years.

We now know that the head of this subversive organization is Charles

Koch, CEO of Koch industries. He has an annual income of 110 billion, according to Forbes. His Father was cofounder of the John Birch Society, in the 1950s, and before starting the John Birch Society he wrote a 30 page anti communism booklet, which contained a way that the US could be taken over. It was poorly thought out, but his two sons are now using the writings of Vladimir Lenin to try and do it for real. The John Birch Society is the most radical right wing organizations in American history, and was condemned by the Republican Party at the time, but all of their radical ideology has now become main steam Republican ideology, through the uses of propaganda and subversion.

At minimum 75%+ of Republicans are now as radical right wing as they can get. They hate society, government, blacks, gays, Unions etc., and think they should have total free will, to hell with the other 320 million Americans.

Some of the first members of the Koch organization were Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon Banking and Gulf Oil; Harry and Lynde Bradley, defense contracts; John M. Olin, chemical and munitions Companies; Coors brewing family, and the DeVos family of Amway marketing.

I call them the Oligarchy because that is what they are trying to do, become the Oligarchy over the US, where only the wealthy can vote, and the 4 keys to subversion they use are Fear, Intimidation, Distraction, and Division. It has worked. We now are more divided than ever, in the whole of our history.

The Oligarchy budgeted 800 million to buy the president in the 2016 campaign, and every republican presidential candidate, except Donald Trump, had signed on and pledged allegiance to the oligarchy. Yes, literally signed a contract. Donald Trump used his own money to get elected by creating a cult following, just like Adolf Hitler did in Germany, and Benito Mussolini did in Italy. The oligarchy denounced Trump during the campaign, but once he got elected they made a deal with him to use members of the oligarchy in his cabinet.

Trump keeps saying he will be president for 12 more years. Where is he getting that? The president is term limited to 8 years and he has already had 4. I speculate that it may be part of the deal. Once they take control of the US he gets to have 12 more years.

So, for the past 4 years the Koch oligarchy has been setting up the US from the inside of the government to take control of it. Including packing the courts with their Judges, all trained at the Federalists Society, which is an oligarchy sponsored foundation for Lawyers.

Between 2015 to 2017 Mitch McConnell refused to seat any of Obama’s 100+ federal judges, including Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court. Then when Trump was elected McConnell quickly filled all the seats with Federalist Society Judges.

Keep in mind that it was the Radical Right Bolshevik party that took over Russia in the 1920s, and made Vladimir Lenin their leader. It was the Radical Right fascist party that took over Italy in 1922, and made Benito Mussolini their leader. It was the Radical Right Nazi party that took over Germany in 1933, and made Adolf Hitler their leader, it was the Radical Right Red Guard

that took over China in 1966, and made Mao Zedong their leader, and the list goes on. It is always the Radical Right that takes over a country and turn the country into an authoritarian government, and that is now happening in the US. It looks like it is our turn; the US now has a Radical Right that would rival any of these.

The best-documented book on the Koch’s and their syndicate, and how secretive they are, comes from an investigative reporter of the New York Times, Jane Mayer. Her book is called “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.”

Another book that shows, beyond any doubt, what the Koch syndicate is trying to do comes from Nancy MacLean, a social historian, who stumbled across a large stash of secret documents left behind after the death of a member of the Koch syndicate. Her book, after going though these secret files, is called “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.”

If you want to know more about how Trump created a cult following read: “The Cult of Trump” by Steven Hassa. Dr. Hassa is a psychologist who studies cults. He got started because when he was a young man in college he got sucked into a Cult, and has first hand knowledge of how they work.

Too many Americans live in the illusion that it can’t happen here, but it absolutely can and is. If you refuse to believe that this is true you had better open your eyes, and do some research. Before you say this is hype you should at least read Nancy MacLean’s book. I can guarantee you that if they get control of the US your civil rights will be gone, and the first things they will do will be to ban all guns and get rid of anyone who is a threat to the government.

Today the Koch syndicate is well over 100 think tanks whose main goal is to take controls of America. Most of these foundations are charitable foundations on the surface, but in the basement is a large staff that does nothing but look for ways to subvert, radicalize, and divide American Democracy.

The more divided we become, the more control they have. They can use the Electoral College to their advantage, and that is how Trump got elected; this is why we are so divided, it is on purpose. The Oligarchy now literally owns just about every Republican in the House and Senate, who does just as they are told. Their only allegiance is to the Republican Party, and it is 100% controlled by the oligarchy.

If Trump gets reelected, and that is very likely because of the oligarchies use of voter suppression, and use of the Electoral College, it will be all over, the end of American Democracy. Because by the end of his next term they will have massed so much control working from inside the government that there will be no turning back, and I’m betting if this happens the US will split up because the blue states won’t cooperate with an authoritarian government, and the world’s longest standing constitution will melt away.

The reason Trump was able to con so many people is because they where set up before hand by the propaganda coming from the Koch syndicate, which, as I said, is a spin off of the John Birch Society, which had a surge of

membership in 2010. So, you better wake up as to what is really going on or the US will become an oligarchy where only the rich can vote.

Don’t think for a second that the Democratic Party leadership doesn’t know about this. A number of them have endorsements in the front of Nancy MacLean’s book, “Democracy in Chains.” But if they talk about it in public it will be turned into a political football. Joe Biden has said, “If Trump gets elected it may be the end of America as we know it.” So, this may be your last chance to vote in a real election.

What Republicans Are Running For President

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-republicans-are-running-for-president/

What Republicans Are Running For President

How Mitt Romney Could Wind Up Running The United States 6 Years After Losing The Presidential Election

If, as expected, Mitt Romney wins his race for a Senate seat from Utah he may become the most powerful man in the United States Senate. As many of us remember, Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, ran for president in 2012 and lost to Barack Obama. It wasn’t one of those totally humiliating losses—the map did not turn blue—but we assumed Mitt Romney would fade into history.

Well, maybe not.

Here’s how. Just a few months ago, conventional wisdom was that while the Democrats had a good chance of taking control of the House of Representatives, the Senate was out of reach. In 2018 there will be at least 35 Senate seats up—of which 26 are held by Democrats. Democrats need a net gain of 2 seats to take control of the Senate. In an ordinary year this would be tough for two reasons. One is that incumbents usually win, and secondly, 10 of those Democratic senators represent states that went for Trump in 2016—so a somewhat popular president might be able to use his clout to win a Senate seat back from the Democrats. But this is no ordinary year as poll after poll and special election after special election indicate a “blue wave” for Democrats.

EKamarckrecent pollspolling aheadpolling close

Us Election 2024: Who Are The Likely Republican Candidates To Run For President Against Joe Biden

Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and Ted Cruz are among the rumoured candidates to become Donald Trump’s successor

The 2020 presidential race has only just finished, but the Republican candidates for 2024 are already preparing themselves for their shot at the White House.

We take a look at who may be looking to get themselves in to the race.

Nj Primary Elections 2020: The Five Republicans Who Want To Take Over As Us Senator

Colleen O’Dea, Senior Writer and Projects EditorNJ Decides 2020Politics

Five Republicans are vying for the chance to try to do something no one else has been able to do in almost a half-century: Convince New Jersey voters to elect a Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate, where Democrat Cory Booker now sits.

It has been 48 years since New Jersey voters have sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate, and registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly a million. In 2018, Republican and former pharmaceuticals executive Bob Hugin spent more than $39 million, including $36 million of his own money, and lost by 11 percentage points to incumbent Bob Menendez, who had been considered vulnerable after his trial on political corruption charges ended in a hung jury.

“Statewide races are the toughest ones of all for a GOP outnumbered by a million more registered Democrats in the state,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “But even before party registrations were so lopsided, Republican Senate candidates have fared more poorly here than almost anywhere else in the nation.” Since New Jersey last sent a Republican to the Senate in 1972, “the GOP has lost a staggering 15 Senate races in a row,” he said.

Thoughts On New Poll: Most Republicans Want Trump To Run For President In 2024

John Fletcher Jrsays:

May 29, 2021 at 11:48 am

There may not be an American Presidential Office to run for when Joe Biden is done. I still believe Joe Biden is a Counterfeit President. One thing is certain, Barack Hussein Obama is happy that Joe Biden now reigns as worst American President. America get yourself ready for HYPERINFLATION, it’s coming.

May 29, 2021 at 3:43 pm

I have hats of Trump that read ” make America Great Again”, Trump 2020?,and “KEEP AMERICA GREAT”,I also have flags of him ” TRUMP ON THE TANK”, “TRUMP 2020, NO MORE BULLSHIT”. and I just got a new one,“TRUMP 2024” and then I have a MASK that reads, “TRUMP 2024 and has 2 AMERICAN FLAGS .So I really hope he runs, otherwise all of this means nothing ! TRUMP 2024 and TRUE FIGHTING REPUBLICANSIN 2022 !! NO RINOS NEEDED ! STAND UP OR SHUT UP !

May 29, 2021 at 5:19 pm

IT is more than if he runs or not. YOU are sending a message that you stand for freedoms and still support that hard work he did while still in office. Trump stands for AMERICA FIRST and that is also part of your message to the leftists.You are sending a great message no matter what he decides….You know as well as I do that he is all about what is best for the AMERICA and All Americans….SO IF he supports someone else to run then we know that person is worthy of what we all need as AMERICANS.Don;t loose hope and wear your attire with pride knowing there are many others still hoping for another win.

Yes we want Donald Trunp be our presidentin 2024.

Republican Lawmakers Are Terrified Of Trump Running For President Again

A new report by Politico cites multiple unnamed Republican lawmakers – even those who publicly praise Trump – who say that they REALLY don’t want Donald Trump running for President again in 2024. They would much rather see Trump working “behind the scenes” to help shore up support for the Party as a whole, and they insist that the Party is stronger now than it was five years ago. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.

Transcript:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Recently, Politico interviewed several Republican lawmakers, who of course all chose to remain nameless. But Politico says that these were Trump supporting lawmakers, still are Trump supporting lawmakers, by the way. And each one of them said that they do not want Donald Trump to be the Republican party’s nominee in 2024. In fact, they don’t want Trump to run for president ever again. I’ll read a couple quotes from some of these lawmakers here. Here’s what one of them said, he’s one of the best presidents we’ve had in terms of policies. But having said that if it were up to me, I would never have Trump on any ballot ever again, because it’s such a distraction. I would love for him to play a behind the scenes role and not be on the ballot. Another one said, I’d like to see a fresh face. I think we have a lot of them.

Eight Republican 2024 Candidates Speak In Texas Next Week But Not Trump

Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, April 30 – A Republican Party event in Texas next week will hear from eight potential candidates for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024, without former President Donald Trump, a source involved in the planning said on Friday.

The May 7 event at a hotel in Austin is being co-hosted by U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, to thank donors who helped fund a voter registration drive and get-out-the-vote efforts in the state.

High-profile Republican politicians who are considering whether to seek the party’s nomination in 2024 are expected to speak to the crowd of about 200 donors.

They include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and U.S. senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and Rick Scott, the source said.

The event comes as Republicans wrestle with whether to try to move past Trump in the next election cycle or fall in line behind him. Trump told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that he was “100%” considering another run after losing in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump was not invited to Texas, the source said. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was invited but was unable to attend, the source said.

Many Republican insiders doubt Trump will follow through on his musings about running for president in 2024, leaving a void that other party leaders will seek to fill.

Fact Check: Trump Did Not Call Republicans The Dumbest Group Of Voters

5 Min Read

An old quote falsely attributed to Donald Trump has recently resurfaced online. The viral meme alleges Trump told People magazine in 1998 that Republicans are “the dumbest group of voters in the country”. This is false.

While the quote has been debunked several times since it apparently surfaced in 2015, users have recently been resharing it on social media. Examples can be seen here , here , here , here

The meme reads: “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific. – Donald Trump, People Magazine, 1998”

Snopes first wrote about the false quote here in October 2015 . Since then, the quote has been debunked multiple times .

People magazine has confirmed in the past that its archive has no register of this alleged exchange.

“People looked into this exhaustively when it first surfaced back in Oct. . We combed through every Trump story in our archive. We couldn’t find anything remotely like this quote–and no interview at all in 1998.”, a magazine spokesperson told Factcheck.org that year .

In December 1987, People published a profile on Donald Trump titled “Too Darn Rich”. The article quoted him saying he was too busy to run for president .

The Long Race For The 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination Begins

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — In the past week alone, Nikki Haley regaled activists in Iowa, Mike Pence courted donors in California and Donald Trump returned to the rally stage, teasing a third campaign for the White House.

The midterms are more than a year away, and there are 1,225 days until the next presidential election. But Republicans eyeing a White House run are wasting no time in jockeying for a strong position in what could emerge as an extremely crowded field of contenders.

The politicking will only intensify in the coming weeks, particularly in Iowa, home to the nation’s leadoff presidential caucuses and a state where conservative evangelicals play a significant role in steering the direction of the GOP. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is slated to visit on Tuesday, and others, including Pence, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are expected to appear in July.

The flurry of activity is a sign that there is no clear frontrunner to lead the GOP if Trump opts against a 2024 campaign.

“It definitely feels early, but it doesn’t feel like it’s a bad idea based on the situation,” said Mike DuHaime, a longtime Republican strategist. “The party has changed, the voters are changing and I think the process has changed. And I think many of the candidates have realized that.”

“We won the election twice,” he said. “And it’s possible we’ll have to win it a third time.”

As for Trump?

Are You Ready For Republican Tim Scott To Run For President In 2024

The Senate’s lone Black Republican member, Tim Scott, is opening eyes and creating conversation about his 2024 political prospects.According to Fox News, Scott has brought in $14.4 million in campaign fundraising, after posting $9.6 million during April-June. The total amount in his campaign coffers has led many to believe that Scott is eying higher office than just the U.S. Senate.Scott has kept his name ringing in the political arena during his tenure in the Senate, especially after delivering a GOP response to President Biden’s primetime address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year. Scott has also led his party in negotiations with congressional Democrats on a major police reform bill.

While Scott has downplayed the hype surrounding his political aspirations, people on the Hill and talking heads on camera are noting that he could possibly be a 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

“Tim Scott is a force,” Jim Merrill, a New Hampshire-based Republican consultant said to Fox News. “His strong numbers reflect how he has inspired activists and business leaders alike, good for both his reelection next year and for a potential presidential campaign in 2024.”

Fear of a Black Landowner

With Scott previously downplaying the notion of running for president and his recent declaration that he won’t run for Senate after 2022, Black America will just have to see if Tim Scott will lean-in to the dollars raised to bankroll a potential campaign for the White House.

Reaction

New Poll: Most Republicans Want Trump To Run For President In 2024

A new Quinnipiac University national poll released this week revealed that two-thirds of Republicans want former President Donald Trump to run for president in 2024.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,316 U.S. adults nationwide from May 18-24. The poll’s margin of error was +/- 2.7 percentage points.

Three key Republican findings of the survey included:

66% of Republicans want to see Trump run in 2024

66% of Republicans do not think Biden’s victory was legitimate

85% of Republicans want candidates that mostly agree with Trump

“The numbers fly in the face of any predictions that Donald Trump’s political future is in decline. By a substantial majority, Republicans: believe the election was stolen from him, want Trump to run again, and , if they can’t vote for Trump, prefer someone who agrees with him,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.

Malloy is right. The poll reveals what many American already know — Trump still serves as a top conservative leader.

But is Trump still up for another run? And if he does, can he win?

The first question looks like a yes. Trump recently told radio host Dan Bongino people will be very happy with his answer. However, Trump has also previously said he would not announce whether he is running until after the 2022 midterm elections.

The more important question is can he win? If two-thirds of Republicans already support Trump, how many more will be required, especially in key battleground states, to reach the needed electoral votes?

Native American Voting Rights Are Under Attack In Republican

Paul Blumenthal

After turning out to vote in record numbers in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Native Americans are now one of the biggest targets of Republican-backed voter suppression efforts in states where their votes mattered the most.

Republicans in states with significant Native populations like Arizona, Kansas, Montana and more have enacted new laws that limit voter access in ways that disproportionately impact Native voters. Imposing strict time limits on correcting a mail-in ballot, prohibiting third-party ballot collection, implementing strict voter identification requirements and making it harder to pay for election resources all negatively impact Native Americans in these states, largely due to specific circumstances on reservations where many of them live.

“The laws the state legislatures are passing are lethal to every Native American living in those states,” said OJ Semans, the founder of the Native voting rights group Four Directions and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. Such legislation, he said, “is going to knock us back 10 years” after “what we’ve been working through for the last 18 to 20 years to get more and more Native Americans to participate in elections.” 

It wasn’t until 1962 when New Mexico’s laws blocking Native voting fell. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also provided important protections for Native voting rights.

Trumps Role As Republican Party Leader Is Becoming Stronger

This weekend’s CPAC straw poll results showed that Trump’s popularity — along with DeSantis’ — in the Republican Party has grown in the last six months, according to Forbes.

In February, only 55% of attendees of a similar CPAC event in Orlando, Florida, said they wanted Trump to lead the ticket in 2024, Forbes reported.

If Trump stayed in political retirement, or at least stayed off the presidential primary ballot in 2024, DeSantis lead the poll with 43% attending Republicans choosing him in February’s hypothetical presidential primary.

Related

Inside the newsroom: Words matter, including the hateful ‘Murder the media’

When Presidential Primaries Started They Weren’t Decisive

Woodrow Wilson.

The Progressive Era at the beginning of the 20th century saw a backlash against local party machines and their bosses dominating American politics. This backlash was especially pronounced in Western states, where reformers implemented ideas like legislating via ballot initiative at the polls.

Progressive reformers also invented the presidential primary. In 1910, Oregon became the first to use a popular election to pick its delegates for national conventions, with the delegates pledged to support specific candidates.

But these primaries lacked the efficacy and decisiveness of those we have today, in part because most states didn’t have them and in part because the ultimate nomination decision was still made via a multi-ballot process at a national convention.

In 1912, ex-President Theodore Roosevelt decided to challenge his successor William Howard Taft for the GOP nomination. He crushed Taft in the primaries, carrying nine of the 12 states that held primaries, while Robert La Follette won two and Taft just one.

But that still left 36 other states, which mostly sent pro-Taft delegates to the convention, securing him the nomination. And that led Roosevelt to bolt the party and launch an independent bid for the general election.

But while McAdoo didn’t have enough support to win, he did have enough to block the party bosses’ favorite, New York Gov. Al Smith, a Catholic.

Why Donald Trump Is Republicans’ Worst Nightmare In 2024

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Earlier this week, amid a rambling attack on the validity of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump said this: “Interesting that today a poll came out indicating I’m far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024.”

this on Trump’s future political ambitions from Politico“Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health, according to two sources close to the former president. That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection.”new Quinnipiac University national pollhis growing legal and financial entanglementsAs CNN reported on Wednesday night“Manhattan prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump, his company and its executives have told at least one witness to prepare for grand jury testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter — a signal that the lengthy investigation is moving into an advanced stage.”

The Contenders Who Competed To Run Against Donald Trump

Tom MurseTom Murse

Within weeks of Donald Trump taking the oath of office as the nation’s 45th president, challengers began lining up to see who would attempt to unseat him in the 2020 presidential election. The controversial president faced early challenges from within his own party, but by and large, the focus remained on the candidates put forth by the opposing Democratic Party.

During one of the most crowded primary seasons in recent memory, several high-profile Democrats, including multiple sitting senators and rising stars in the party, competed for the party’s nomination. Ultimately, it was former vice president Joe Biden who won the party’s nomination. He selected Senator Kamala Harris, another primary candidate, as his running mate, and the ticket won the 2020 general election with 51.3% of the vote and 306 electoral votes to 46.9% and 232 electoral votes for the incumbent Trump/Pence ticket.

Here’s a look at the Democrats, and even members of Trump’s own Republican Party, who ran campaigns looking to unseat the controversial commander-in-chief.

Democratic Challengers

February 7, 2020

Former Us Ambassador To The United Nations Nikki Haley

Haley, 49, stands out in the potential pool of 2024 Republican candidates by her resume. She has experience as an executive as the former governor of South Carolina and foreign policy experience from her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Haley was a member of the Republican Party’s 2010 tea party class. A former South Carolina state representative, her long shot gubernatorial campaign saw its fortunes improve after she was endorsed by Sarah Palin. Haley rocketed from fourth to first just days after the endorsement, and she went on to clinch the nomination and become her state’s first female and first Indian-American governor.

As governor, she signed a bill removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol following the white supremacist attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston. She left office in 2017 to join the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Quinnipiac poll found she was at one point the most popular member of Trump’s foreign policy team.

“I think that she’s done a pretty masterful job in filling out her resume,” said Robert Oldendick, a professor and director of graduate studies at the University of South Carolina’s department of political science.

Haley criticized Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, saying she was “disgusted” by his conduct. Oldendick said he thought her “pretty pointed criticism of the president will potentially cause some problems.”

Republican Candidates Running For The Us 2020 Election

Bill Weld was married twice and has five children.

Weld ran for vice-president as a Libertarian on the Gary Johnson ticket in the 2016 presidential election.

As a conservative, Weld is strongly pro-choice on abortion issues.

The presidential race is on and the candidates are being whittled down to the very few. Who is running on the Republican side? Current President Donald Trump is going for re-election, and the only candidate now challenging him for election as president of the US this coming November 3rd, 2020 is Bill Weld, a former Massachusetts governor.

The 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Wild Cards

The first Democratic debate back in 2019 had 20 — TWENTY! — candidates, so don’t be surprised if the Republican field is just as large or larger. We could have some more governors or representatives run, or even other nontraditional candidates, like a Trump family member, a Fox News host or a celebrity, like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who’s said he’s “seriously considering” a run. Stranger things have happened.

Who Wants To Run For Governor As A Republican In 2022

Pennsylvania Republicans have been battling with Gov. Tom Wolf since he unseated incumbent Tom Corbett in 2014. Many of them are eager to take Wolf’s place, but there is no clear frontrunner this early in the race. Several Republicans have already announced their bid, and a few others have hinted or shown interest in joining what is expected to be a crowded primary. Thus far, it’s hard to find a Republican candidate without some sort of ties to former President Donald Trump. 

With a heated race to fill U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat next year, the GOP will have to be strategic about what candidates it wants to back for the Senate and for governor. Potential candidates will also have to weigh their options and decide where they fit best and can compete.

There are plenty of names that could be added to this list in the coming months, but here is our second iteration of potential Republican candidates for 2022. A couple of candidates have been added since the last edition.

Running

Former U.S. Rep Lou Barletta

Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale

Gale was the first Republican to formally announce his candidacy for governor back in February. An avid Trump supporter, he has criticized the Pennsylvania GOP and pledged to be a conservative populist. He’s also caught attention for and saying Trump’s presidency was sabotaged. 

Former Corry Mayor Jason Monn

Pittsburgh attorney Jason Richey

Dr. Nche Zama

Charlie Gerow

John Ventre

For These Republicans 2024 Is Just Around The Corner

Mike Pence. Mike Pompeo. Rick Scott. They share big ambitions, but one name hovers above them all …

President Biden told reporters last month that his “plan is to run for re-election,” despite already being the oldest person to have won a presidential election. So, for now at least, the question of who will lead the Democratic ticket in 2024 has been put to rest.

On the Republican side, however, certainty is in short supply. It’s beyond early to be talking about the next presidential election — but that’s only if you aren’t planning to run. Some Republican candidates have already made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, and others are laying plans to go, in what often represents the first step in building out a campaign operation in those early-voting states.

And on Wednesday, in a conspicuously forward-looking move, former Vice President Mike Pence announced the formation of a new political organization, Advancing American Freedom, whose advisory board is stacked high with former Trump administration officials and allies. The news came on the same day Simon & Schuster announced that it would publish Pence’s autobiography as part of a two-book deal.

The G.O.P. is badly fractured, trying to hold together a dominant base of those loyal to former President Donald Trump and a stubborn minority of pro-decorum, anti-Trump conservatives. Anyone looking to grab the Republican mantle will have to find some way of satisfying both camps — and maybe even expanding upon them.

Rivera Another Candidate Who Is Trying A Second Time

Another candidate making her second Senate attempt is Natalie Lynn Rivera. A social services coordinator from Sicklerville, Rivera ran as an independent under the slogan “For the People” in 2018, garnering about 0.6% of the vote.

Rivera, 44, said she wants to give typical New Jersey residents a voice in Congress. On her Facebook campaign site she calls herself a conservative. Among her priorities are restoring Second Amendment rights that she says are “under seige” in the state and outlawing abortion.

What sets her apart from the other candidates, she said, is that she “will be a servant to the people … I think I am authentic and will serve from the heart to put their best interests at the forefront.”

Another candidate running a shoestring campaign is Eugene Tom Anagnos, a retired middle school teacher who taught in Newark and Elizabeth schools. A Greek immigrant who now lives in East Hanover, Anagnos is an Army veteran who holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Indiana University.

General Election Candidates On Five Or More Ballots

In addition to Biden, Hawkins, Jorgensen, and Trump, the following candidates have qualified to appear on five or more ballots:

Roque De La Fuente   Gloria La Riva   Jade Simmons   Jesse Ventura/Cynthia McKinney   Sheila Tittle   Kyle Kenley Kopitke   Ricki Sue King/Dayna Chandler  

Incumbents are bolded and underlined The results have been certified.

Total votes: 158,379,904

0 states have not been called.

Here Are The Republicans To Keep An Eye On For 2024

Bradley Devlin

Republicans are paying extra attention to a number of Republican governors, senators, and former officials that might consider making a run for president in 2024.

The contenders come from various contingents of right-leaning thought, and will be fighting to capture parts of former President Donald Trump’s base. Whichever Republican hopeful prevails will not only become the Republican Party’s nominee, but also help determine the ideological trajectory of the Republican Party in the post-Trump era.

Vice President Mike Pence

It’s not uncommon for vice presidents to follow up their stint as second-in-command with a run for president. Former President John Adams, the nation’s second president, was America’s first vice president under President George Washington. More recently, President Joe Biden became the 46th president four years after he ended his eight-year tenure as former President Barack Obama’s vice president.

Vice President Mike Pence might decide to do the same, but Pence’s relationship with Trump seems to be severely tarnished after Pence did not contest the certification of the Electoral College results, as reported by The Hill.

Senator Ted Cruz

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz could run for president again come 2024 after he defended his senate seat in 2018 from Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. Cruz’s bid for the presidency in 2016 ended in failure as Trump captured the Republican Party’s nomination.

Senator Josh Hawley

Governor Ron DeSantis

Poll Results Are Fake Unless Theyre Good Trump Says

During his speech at the Dallas convention Sunday night, Trump said he only would have believed the results of CPAC’s straw poll if they were his favor, Business Insider reported.

“Now, if it’s bad, I just say it’s fake,” the former president told the crowd, reported Insider. “If it’s good, I say that’s the most accurate poll, perhaps ever.”

In the past, Trump has decried similar things he doesn’t like as false, like referring to unfavorable media coverage as “fake news.”

Early Nomination Contests Didn’t Involve Primaries

Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

Intraparty disputes over who should be nominated for the presidency are as old as the republic itself. But the modern system of determining nominees through a series of state primary elections is essentially an innovation of the 1970s. Before that, parties deployed a wide range of methods.

The Democratic-Republicans, the dominant political party of the early 19th century, used to select candidates via a vote of the party’s members in Congress.That method let it control the White House for 20 years, and lasted until the rivalry between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson made the party splinter into the Democrats and the Whigs in the aftermath of the 1824 election.

Back in 1836, in the early days of Whig versus Democrat competition, the Whig Party even tried nominating several candidates simultaneously in their bid to block Martin Van Buren from succeeding Jackson in the White House.

In most Northern states, William Henry Harrison appeared on the general election ballot, while Hugh White got the nod in most Southern ones. And Massachusetts Whigs went with Daniel Webster , while Willie Magnum was nominated in South Carolina.

But it did not work. Van Buren won the election, and in subsequent contests the Whigs emulated the Democrats, picking a single nominee at a broad national convention with representatives from all states.

Antifa VS Trump

In Nicole Awai’s presentation, a lot of what she talked about was the BLM protests, and the Charlottesville riot from white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.

It’s interesting to me how the right wing (most notably President Trump) deflects any white supremacy by talking about things such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter. It’s interesting, as a protester/technically antifa, hearing the President label me as a terrorist and hating the idea of BLM. It’s also incredibly interesting hearing people make up their own definitions of what Antifa is. Donald Trump has basically said that Antifa is an anarchist “organization” that wants to destroy the country, and people are buying it!

I’m going to say this right now: Antifa is an ANTI-FASCISM MOVEMENT. It’s literally in the name. Look, I’m not even using a politician’s definition. I’m using google.com and wikipedia. First thing both will tell you is that Antifa is an anti-fascism movement, and ideology. Antifa is technically the same people as the founding fathers that succeeded from the British empire, which is funny since the right wing is the side that talks about freedom and such the most.

It’s no surprise that Donald Trump and the right wing would straw-man and fear monger, though. Republicans like power. If they didn’t, why is it that I got tear gassed after peacefully protesting this summer? Why is it that medics have gotten attacked by police just by helping people out? That’s literally against the Geneva Convention, and the politicians did it to their own citizens. So... Yeah, again, I’m not surprised that Trump would straw-man, to entice fear. If you wanna exaggerate a claim, make it the extreme equivalent. Anti-fascism apparently means anarchism now. It’s so funny seeing people be like “we gotta kill the leaders of Antifa!” Like... It’s not an organization, there are no leaders.

A lot of people gave Joe Biden shit for saying that Antifa was “just an idea,” but he was technically right. He worded it poorly, as Biden tends to do, but it’s true. What’s funny to me is that there was this guy on twitter who tried to counter the left by saying “White supremacy is just an idea, not a group.” And... Yeah, that’s also true! Their statement didn’t counter Biden’s claim in any way. White supremacy isn’t a group, it’s an ideology. There’s no leaders of bigotry and racism. Are there organized groups based on White Supremacy? Yeah, the KKK and Proud Boys are just a few examples. However, bigotry is a state of mind, not action. I think people are so scared of being called racist, that they just deny it outright instead of wanting to improve on themselves. It’s dumb. I’ll admit, I’m somewhat racist. I have that bias within me (I actually remember when I literally saw no difference in skin color when I was roughly 7 or 8). I’d rather work to being understanding and eliminate that bias, than to just deny it and say “Oh, I have a black friend.”

It baffles me that people are buying Trump’s statement that there’s an equivalent to the KKK and Antifa or BLM. A group infamous for the supressing and murdering African Americans for 150 years because they aren’t slaves anymore VS not liking fascism and thinking that a group of people shouldn’t be killed by the police. Trump even said he was gonna label Antifa as a terrorist organization which... WHAT? Again, it’s just fear mongering, but... It’s not an organization! To be fair, while he hasn’t been as open about it, he is apparently also trying to label the KKK as a terrorist organization (which... How the hell did it take that long? And why is Trump of all presidents to be the one to do it?) He also said he was gonna give $500 billion to black communities... Without specifying which ones. Do I believe that he’s gonna do it? No. He’s literally said nothing about it after his initial announcement. It’s likely he just wanted to do that so when people criticize the Antifa thing people will rush to his defense about “UH ACTUALLY KKK!” If he labels the KKK as a terrorist organization and gives $500 billion to black communities, I’ll be happy, but again, I doubt it’ll happen.

You wanna talk about violence? Okay. Let me give you something from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremists-attacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa

“A new database by the Center for Strategic and International studies analyzed nearly 900 politically motivated plots and attacks in the US

0Victims killed in anti-fascist attacks since 1994

21

Victims killed in left-wing violence since 2010

95

Victims killed in jihadist attacks since 2010

117

Victims killed in right-wing violence since 2010

329

Victims killed in right-wing violence since 1994″

Since this poll there has been 1 recorded murder from a “member” of Antifa. That’s awful, but you get the point. Don’t buy into the whole “left wing violence” thing.

November U.S. Election- Storm Clouds. -  podcast link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/5365258

dr. jason johnson: (00:00) So we will have no idea who the president is, and there will be armed conflict in the streets with white nationalists, going to main voting areas in order to attempt to intimidate people or prevent people from counting ballots that is what's going to happen. I'll let you know how long it lasts. I have no idea. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (00:22) Hi everyone. And welcome to another edition of backstory. I'm the creator and host of this podcast. Dana Lewis, November storm clouds is a discussion about American democracy effected by race relations. COVID-19 the treatment of war, veterans and war dead by president Donald Trump, who said he wouldn't visit an American cemetery in France because the Marines buried, there were losers. No doubt. He said and meant many things. His character is atrocious as a foreign correspondent. I've covered political leaders in dozens of different countries. Trump breaks the American mold and the polls show us voters are turning their backs on him. Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by 12 percentage points nationally among likely us voters, according to a Reuters, September poll. And Trump knows he's in trouble. I gotta tell you I was sailing to an easy election. dr. jason johnson: (01:18) It was going to be so easy. I probably would have not been here tonight. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (01:22) Oh, we don't have to bother. This is the most bitter, ferocious, nasty American election campaign ever. The attack ads. Well, wow, dr. jason johnson: (01:33) Dangerous. And as long as Donald Trump is president he'll keep encouraging the cooks, the craziest, the extremists, angry fringe. It doesn't have to be this way. Reject the hate, reject the violence America or Donald Trump stand up for America. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (01:48) Okay. Here's where it gets chilling. In this upcoming interview, we ask will Trump, if he loses leave and you know what a lot of people think he won't and the November election could be a disaster for America. November storm clouds on this backstory are dr. Jason Johnson is a professor of political science. He's a well known commentator in America, and he has been racing around all day and he's fit us in just for a few minutes. dr. jason johnson: (02:17) Appreciate it. Jason, you just came dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (02:20) From a COVID-19 test. dr. jason johnson: (02:23) Yeah, yeah. Uh, it was a very interesting experience, um, and sort of public health and, and government administration. Uh, it was at a local pharmacy that we have here in the States called Walgreens. And yeah, just set up an appointment. You go in, you kind of administer on your own, but it's sort of, I want it dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (02:43) Well, cause it's personal, but what a runaway train in America and we all look at it from Europe. Like, I mean Britain where I am has had one of the worst outbreaks next to next to Brazil next to America, we had 57,000 dr. jason johnson: (02:57) Deaths around that. I mean, you guys are approaching 200,000. Well, yeah, I mean, and the reason why is because balsa Anoro and, and, um, and, and Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are cut from the same cloth. Boris Johnson almost died from COVID-19 and still hasn't recognized the importance of sort of general public health. There's a tax on NHS for, since he got into office have contributed to one of the difficulties that you all are having a managing it. But the United States is an absolute mess. It is, is it's an avatar of death. We're going to have over 200,000 people dead from, COVID not to mention the people who are living with the longterm health consequences by the time Donald Trump has his first debate with Joe Biden. So it has been an absolute mess. We are the world's dirty cousin at this point dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (03:42) Becomes the main election issue. If there, I mean, he's, he's hammering of law and order law and order law and order surely COVID-19 and the number of deaths and the health dr. jason johnson: (03:53) Care crisis you have there must rank up against that in probably is above that. Then I think what's important for, for everybody abroad to understand is that there is a disconnect and extreme disconnect between what you may see in 24 hour news coverage and what is actually affecting regular people and voters. Now, everyone can always say that it's always pretentious to say, they're missing the man on the street. They're missing the guy in the pub, but I'm telling you this because it is true. The most important story is not the polls. The polls are consistent. Donald Trump is losing Donald Trump has been losing. It doesn't really matter. He's acting like someone who's already lost. The biggest issue has been that he's cheating that the president of United States and the Republican party has already said that, uh, you know, national security agencies can no longer brief Congress on election interference. dr. jason johnson: (04:48) Uh, he has put one of his cronies and appointees in charge of the post office. It's it's hundreds of thousands of millions of Americans are gonna vote by the post office this year, shutting down post offices and destroying sorting machines is basically a way of gumming up the works. That is the problem. Donald Trump has already lost. He knows he's going to lose to Joe by all he's doing now is trying to consolidate, powering any discussion in America. I screamed this on TV and in writing any discussion in America that pretends that this is actually still an election between two competing sides is ignoring the obvious dangerous of Donald Trump poses to basic democracy. So what are the, dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (05:23) The graphics then in terms of black America? I mean, surely if they can vote, they will not, they will not vote for Donald Trump. If they can get to the polls, if they can navigate a pandemic, if they can deal with this mail in dr. jason johnson: (05:37) Ballot problem. Well, yeah, look demographically. If you look at the United States of America, the Republican party for 15, 20 years now, it's only a white people's party. They only function because they have almost a lock on white voters. And if you look at it, um, there hasn't a Republican who actually won the majority of votes in America since gosh, in 2000, I think the last time he Republican actually won the majority of the vote. He was 2004. When Bush ran for reelection, every other election, since they've lost, they have not gotten the majority of the vote. So they're not reflective of what people want. So demographically, while they may have the majority of the white vote Democrats usually get anywhere between 38 to 42% of the white vote, 90 something percent of the African American vote. Uh, Trump has been oddly competitive with the Hispanic vote in America, but you have to remember the Hispanics are, it's a hodgepodge term. I mean, there are white Hispanics in America who identify with white supremacy and racism and abuse that the president sort of engages in. So, you know, it is, it is a last desperate attempt for a certain kind of entrenched bigotry in America to maintain power because demographically, they lost this country 20 years ago. We were dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (06:54) By this Atlantic article at least. I mean, I was rock cause I spent a lot of time with the U S military embedded with them. I understand how they would react to it, dr. jason johnson: (07:02) Where, you know, w where he, he talked about, uh, worrying about dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (07:06) His hair and not going to a cemetery in France and calling for vets losers. dr. jason johnson: (07:12) It's just not the Atlantic, but it's been, uh, you know, five other news organizations have come out now and quoted the same source. And I think we can all guess probably who the sources are, who the sources, but does that stick to him or in this frenetic ferocious news cycle? Is that just forgotten about the next day? No, no, it doesn't say. And here's why it doesn't Cleveland in America. It's not between Republicans and Democrats. It's not even between conservatives and liberals. It's between people who pay attention to politics and people who don't, the people who pay attention to politics. I already know how they feel. And they look for you. They look for confirming information and they don't want to deal with cognitive dissonance. So there's a lot of people in America who haven't even heard of the Atlantic story. They don't care. Now, the military has heard about it. dr. jason johnson: (08:00) And Trump is doing very poorly with the military for an incumbent president who happens to be a Republican, but you know what he had already been doing poorly with the military. He was already a little approval rate with the military. Most of the information that we're hearing about now is simply allowing people to be more comfortable in the decisions that they're already making. There, not one person in America who heard that Donald Trump called soldiers losers, and didn't want to go visit a grave site. And France ain't changed their mind from buying to Trump. Nobody did because everybody knew that this was Donald Trump's personality beforehand. He attacked John McCain. He called John McCain, a loser for being a pow for five years in Vietnam. Who's going to be surprised by this dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (08:39) About the, the race relations in America. Will they play a very big role in that? dr. jason johnson: (08:46) Oh, they always do. Cause this is a pretty racist country and anyone who pays any attention to us, it's a racist country. Just like the UK, just like Brazil, just like any country. That's dominated by people who colonized and kill the indigenous population. The only difference this time is that Donald Trump has done the one thing that you can't do in America and still get legitimately elected. Because again, he may stay in power, but it's only going to be because he cheats like a third world country dictator. Um, Donald Trump has angered white people in America. Uh, there's a lot of white voters in America. They don't care about racism. They don't care about corruption. They don't care about, you know, massaging or anything else like that in the white house, but COVID-19 has wrecked our economy and COVID-19 has disrupted the way of life that most people are used to. dr. jason johnson: (09:27) We can't go to the movies. Kids are trapped at home trying to learn online. Uh, the grocery store lines can sometimes be all the way around the corner, depending on what covert precautions your schools have. So from a racial standpoint, Trump has alienated white voters in a way that most people have African Americans. Or if you're talking about these sort of protests in general, let's be clear state sponsored violence against black people in America is not new. We have merely been able to pay more attention to it over the last 15 years because of technology and because everybody is sheltered in place. Now everybody sees the violence. If you notice the support for black lives matter with white voters went from a peak of 63%. Now it's down to about 49 or 47, some less than sophisticated American analysts would say, Oh my gosh, the black lives matter thing. dr. jason johnson: (10:15) It's working against people now by no 63% of Americans don't care that much about how black people live. But let's be honest about the history of this country. It's about 50%. Think the black lives matter is fine. The rest are fairly ambivalent about, um, and, and there's not anybody in this country who sees protests in Portland and sees protests in Kenosha and suddenly changes their mind. How people are gonna vote was already baked into the cake. And I'll, I'll close with this. Cause I think this is really key is there's a, there's a great is an activist. The United States is very active on Twitter. Her name is Bree Newsome. Uh, and Bree Newsome is the woman who climbed to the top of the, uh, flag pole in South Carolina and tore down the Confederate flag after a white nationalist Dylan roof massacre nine people in a church after praying with them killed nine white people in the church five years ago. dr. jason johnson: (11:02) Horrible. And she has this great tweet where she says, you know, as a white person, these responses to black lives matter kind of like some white person saying, you know what I was against slavery. And then I heard some slaves burned down a cotton field. Well, either you were against slavery. If you weren't okay in burning down a cotton field or a slave verbal changes your mind, then you were never really against slavery. If protests in two American cities, one of the vast majority of American cities have seen nothing like this. And that's enough to change your mind. You were never in favor of black lives matter. You were always going to vote for Trump. So, so race relations in America are pretty much what they've always been. It's just now they're public and people are much more concentrated in what their preexisting opinions already dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (11:49) I'm nodding my head, but I I'm trying to process because I would think after George Floyd and in some of these terrible killings in video, now that that light, you know, sets the street on fire and can be seen from one from the East coast to the West coast so quickly that surely people now understand the level of brutality and they understand the police abuse and they understand how some 80,000 police departments, 85,000 police departments in America, you know, don't hire probably don't train. And in the end, most of these guys walk on criminal charges. dr. jason johnson: (12:25) Surely the, the level of awareness, dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (12:27) The amount of people who are disturbed, not just in the black community, obviously, but in the white dr. jason johnson: (12:33) Surely that's changed. I mean, look, here's here's thing, Dana people are awake. They always knew. It's like, it's like when you have a, it's like when you have a steroid scandal, right? In a popular sport, whether it was Lance Armstrong or tennis or football or basketball, and it's still ruined scandal. And people are like, Oh my gosh, you know, they didn't. And then there's a big discussion for weeks. We need to talk about storage and high school and college sports. Everybody already knew it was there. It's just occasionally I gets thrown in your face in a way that you can't avoid everyone in America. White people have always known that the police are more brutal and more violent with nonwhite people than with white people, regardless of the color of the police officer, everybody's already known that there's not one person American who didn't know that they may have not known how extreme it was. dr. jason johnson: (13:20) They may have not known data behind it, but they knew it all it happened with George Floyd is that a bunch of people who are trapped at home who were already frustrated, saw a murder. I mean, they saw a murder and people don't like steam murder because it forces them to confront the thing that they always knew was going on. But do I think it's transformed anyone? No. I think what it's done is made people who weren't ambivalent about the issue. More clear that it's a problem. And it may have raised it from being here on the list of important things to here for some white people. But there's not, there's nobody who saw George Florida's like my God, I had no idea. Police brutality was an issue until I saw them killed this black man in eight minutes. Anyone who says that, that was the case with them marijuana. I mean, you, you, it was a Steven Lawrence and typically Steven was Steve Lawrence was 2007. Right. And the UK. Yeah. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (14:13) And the riots that ensued after that. dr. jason johnson: (14:15) Yeah. Like, is there anybody who didn't know how the cops treated people? I lived in Brixton, I've lived in Manor house. I know how the cops three people and I was an American. So like, it's not like people don't know, uh, it's a matter of how important they take the knowledge that they already have and how it applies to how they behave politically. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (14:34) I think it elected and is the promise of a Biden victory going to change anything when it comes to race relations and policing. dr. jason johnson: (14:41) I have no idea if Joe Biden is going to end up being president of United States, that is the honest to goodness answer. He will very likely win the popular vote. He may actually win the election, but whether or not he ever becomes president of the United States, I don't know. Um, because we are dealing with an unprecedented administration that has made it abundantly clear that they will break every law, every norm, and every rule in the book in order to stay in office. What you're looking at right now is extremely important. And, and it's, it's no different than it's, it's, it's, it's not even just Brexit it's it's when, um, you know, the, the, the Scottish sort of independence happened, which basically broke the labor party. Right. Which is now going to allow the Tories and the conservatives pretty much stay in power forever until something changes up there with the SNP. dr. jason johnson: (15:29) I think it is what we are right now. But yeah, I mean, what we're looking at right now is 60 days from the end of what's left over American democracy. If Donald Trump is not removed from office, we will not have another free and open election for 30 years. Cause he's cheated and everybody knows he's cheated. And if he gets away with cheating and if he's able to stay in the white house, um, then we're not going to have any more elections here. They won't stop doing what they're doing. They'll get more bolt. So we'll Joe Biden win. I think he'll win by any empirical measure, but whether or not he ever steps into the white house, I have no idea. There are too many factors at play. And I think anyone that says that they know is, is being naive and foolish. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (16:14) And you're really making me feel foolish because here I went overseas as a foreign correspondent to places like Russia and to cover things like elections in Russia and Belarus thinking that that would never come to America. And, and, and we were watching the, the, the spread of democracy after the fall of the Soviet union. Now you're telling me, I should have just crossed the Canadian border down to the U S and done my foreign correspondent service there. And I'll watch it there. When Trump refuses to accept the, the results of it. dr. jason johnson: (16:40) That's fine. Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you what I saw more or less predicted. I pretty much where my, my closing, but I'll tell you what, I pretty much predict on this. I don't, we're not going to know on election night, we're not going to know who won the presidency on election night. What's going to happen is the president of United States is going to declare himself the Victor, no matter what the numbers are, he's going to say he's one. And then it's going to be up to the three main television networks as to whether or not they will broadcast the president claiming that he want. Then you're going to have States like Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, um, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, maybe even Pennsylvania are going to be saying, hold on, hold on, hold on. We have so many male imbalance. We have to take more time to count. And as those counts come in, most of those States, if they were purple are either going to get more blue or they may vacillate back and forth. Trump is going to tell people to stop voting. Uh, these neo-Nazi proud, boy groups are going to start attacking electors. You're going to have to have the national guard brought in. And all of that is going to be taking place in a situation where we know hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of ballots may michael shure: (17:50) Never have even been delivered to the people who needed them to vote. And our Supreme court said during the primary earlier this year, then if your ballot doesn't arrive on election day, even if it's postmark in time, they say that under some circumstances, you can throw it out. So we will have no idea who the president is. And there will be armed conflict in the streets with white nationalists, going to main voting areas in order to attempt to intimidate people or prevent people from counting ballots. That is what's going to happen on election night, how long it lasts. I have no idea. My head is spinning dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (18:23) Jason Johnson. Thank you so much for your insight. And as disturbing as it may be, uh, you know, it's enlightening. michael shure: (18:31) I appreciate your time. Thanks so much anytime. michael shure: (18:39) And even though our next guest thinks in order for Biden to win, he needs a commanding victory, but Trump is on track to lose. Alright. Michael shure joins us from Los Angeles. He's a well known political commentator and he's, he's hosted election coverage. Very insightful. Always, always try. We'll try. Now. I want you to cut through the smoke and mirrors for me because this article from the Atlantic, and I sense that this is not going to fade too quickly. I might be wrong. And I think you've talked about how fast the news cycle is right now, but I don't think it's going to fade very quickly, at least from some people's memories. So he wouldn't Trump wouldn't visit a cemetery in France. He was worried about his hair. He referred to 1800 Marines at Belo, Valeo wood as suckers for getting killed. He's denied it. michael shure: (19:36) Will it stick? Well? Here's the thing I don't, you know, and you're right. I often Dana, I think that things don't stick to this president and to this general news cycle. And in point of fact, they haven't. I mean, he's gotten away with more, uh, with one or two of the things from the access Hollywood tape, which would have sucked every presidential campaign in U S history, uh, till the two, an impeachment that didn't really show anything, um, that, uh, that was able to get him removed from office or to influence enough Republicans to vote for that. So I do think that we have to go in with that context. What this does do in, in an electoral way is having an enduring quality to it. Whether or not people are going to keep talking about it forever, it doesn't matter, but it's, it is further facilitating of those Republicans who voted for Trump holding their nose, uh, or those Democrats who went to Trump, thinking that they just didn't like Hillary Clinton. It is further evidence as to why they should be comfortable not voting for the president November. And that's the most important part of this. So you look at a lot of those Republicans who have a really hard time pushing D on their ballot. And they think of these that Donald Trump has done about the military specifically makes it a little easier for that vote to happen. And those are votes that Joe Biden and his campaign are according very, very seriously. So when you start dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (20:57) Being of the demographics and we're looking at these polls, okay, so he's lost seniors over COVID-19, michael shure: (21:04) He's lost seniors over COVID-19. He's also lost seniors by not really doing this almost demonizing social security. If I was Joe Biden right now, I would have, uh, I would be doing what Hillary Clinton didn't do, which was to talk to seniors directly about protecting social security. It's an issue that the Democrats have always done in campaigns, scared the other side into thinking he was going to be taken away. Hillary Clinton didn't do that. When she ran, I thought it was a mistake. I expect that the Biden people will begin to do that and they should do it pretty soon. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (21:33) Right? He's lost the military over this article, which has been confirmed by a half dozen different major news outlets. How important is the military book? michael shure: (21:41) Military goes very important in that a lot of people, it's not just the active military that you're thinking of, cause they don't, uh, they don't vote in the biggest numbers. They're difficult to pull cause they can't be open about what they are, um, what their, their landings are. But the veteran vote is so important in the United States and we have more and more veterans as we, as we've gone into Wars, uh, over the past 20 years that have created a bigger veteran pool. So when you do lose veterans, you're losing a big chunk. You're not just losing older veterans, you're using losing younger veterans who are going to begin to count on the veterans administration, the hospitals, the medical care. It's a very important voting block. Anybody who casts any, if there's any time, there's a doubt cast about the way a candidate feels about the military. It certainly is not good in terms of garnering that vote. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (22:27) That's a good point. And he's lost working women. michael shure: (22:31) Yeah. I mean, I, you know, listen, I, I w when you say he's lost, I think that there is still a, there, there, you know, people talk about the silent Trump voter. I don't think that there are that many of them, but some of them are, and some of them are white middle class working, uh, you know, uh, middle Midwestern working Americans. And when I say working Americans, working blue collar jobs, and by and large, uh, so you are, he has lost some of those, but working women, uh, within suburbs and within cities who may have not liked Hillary Clinton. Again, I think that, you know, I keep harping on this data because it's a very important one dynamic in this presidential race is that people by and large like Joe Biden, they don't necessarily love him, but they certainly don't hate him. And, and I think that that was something that Hillary Clinton brought to the race was this sort of vitriolic dislike, uh, that many people in America, from Democrats to progressive Democrats to Republican, certainly who really did not like her for whatever reason that dynamic doesn't exist now. So getting those voters, it's a lot easier for a Joe Biden to woo those voters to his side than it was for Hillary Clinton. And those are voters went to Donald Trump. So coming back home to the democratic party, which some of them are going to do, it's going be an easier task. And that he's proven so far in the polling that he's been able to do that. I often ask questions that I know the answers to. And one of those things in television news, right? Yeah, of course. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (23:56) But tell me here's one. I actually do not quite understand the answer to, and maybe you can enlighten me and Europeans and Canadians and everybody else, michael shure: (24:05) As long as it's not a math question. I'm, I'm, I'm good. Well, it's a pulling math question, but how does he, how, who are these people who no matter how offended they are, no matter how much they, you know, don't agree with his morality, uh, with his business dealings, his ethics, but they'll go and vote for the guy, no matter what, I mean, I did a mass murderer and they'd go and vote for him. I mean, what, what is well, many of them and I, you know, the mass murderer thing aside, but you're right. I mean, he's even said a thing that might've been a stretch. Yeah. Let's not stretch it because it might not be either. And I don't want to know if it isn't. I think, I think what you're looking at is you're looking at a voter here who has other, other interests in mind, for example, an evangelical Christian voter, that the only thing that lives on in perpetuity, Donald Trump will be dead and buried, but Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh may likely still be on the Supreme court. michael shure: (25:06) And there are people that, that are social conservatives that care deeply about that. And, and they, they, they're the types of people that will sit and they will fight all the way to the interesting dynamic in American politics that the Democrats and the left don't get, as well as the right. You can excoriate the candidate during the primaries. You can say, I will never vote for that candidate, but when it's that candidate up against the other candidate in the democratic party, these conservative Christians are always going to vote for the person they know are going to put on judges that will defend the, you know, that will fight for the rights of the unborn, uh, that we'll talk about, uh, you know, prayer in school that will protect the flag, all these sort of conservative, moral issues. Those are people that aren't going to come out for Donald Trump. michael shure: (25:53) The other thing is you have the types of voters who don't vote a lot. People who are, are wooed by both his celebrity. And the fact that he, you know, is really kind of giving the middle finger to a lot of the establishment politics. Now, of course, he then slid right into it when he got to Washington, but that was his way of getting there. And there are a lot of people that just like to see that, that play out. And that's really what Donald Trump has tapped into. But I don't think that it's a permanent thing. I'm one of the people that think that the Trump era is an aberration, but it will have a hang over your art. You are going to have Trump Republicans, whether he wins or not existing for a little while, until they're cycled out and then something new may happen, or I may be wrong. But I do think this is an aberration dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (26:36) Poisoning of Alexei Navalny. If taking you far away from America. Now, Trump astonishingly astonishingly refuses to condemn michael shure: (26:44) Putin. He has shaken NATO allies. I mean, Germany, Britain, what gives, I mean, I have a few theories, but what gets well, I mean, first of all, he doesn't want to anger Vladimir Putin right now, Michael Cohen is sort of conciliary though, who served time, who was as assistant, who has now basically turned state's evidence against Donald Trump has a book coming out today as we speak. I don't know when this is airing, but it's a Tuesday. And in the United States, the 8th of September, and this book is being released as we speak. And in this book, he said that Michael Cohen said the president has an adherence to Vladimir Putin. He likes the way he runs Russia, like a business. And these are quotes. And these sorts of things, these sort of like a business, otherwise he wouldn't have sanctioned so on and he wouldn't be jailing and poisoning people, but, okay. michael shure: (27:33) No, I agree with you. I'm this I'm just, I'm paraphrasing what Michael Cohen is saying, but there is an authoritarian, um, way of running a business that Donald Trump seemed to like to do and, and Cohen for his part. And again, we're talking about somebody who was, who served time in prison, but served time in prison, covering for Donald Trump. I think that Cohen is saying that he runs it like a mob boss and a mob boss doesn't care if the other guy gets whacked in the case, in this case. So if you see that the head of another family as Putin might be in Donald Trump's parlance, then you protect that person. There are also business interests that we don't know about this all ties into when we get his tax returns. What we know about his loans and Deutsche bank and those sorts of things, maybe if you don't know about as well, Hey, there could be that too. michael shure: (28:17) I know you gotta go Biden or Trump. I mean, really to call for you because the polls are like seven and a half, 8% for Biden. Yeah. It's not too early to call for me. I think that Biden's gonna win. I don't see a path that the Trump has electorally here or with the popular vote. I see him fighting in places that the Republican should not be fighting in this time. Dana, and even though Nate silver, and a lot of the good pollsters here in the United States are saying that he has better than a one in four chance of winning reelection. I think that you also have been Joe Biden with just the three and four chances. Pretty good. I do think that there are going to be places that you think the president is not going to do as well, where it's going to start doing well already. You're seeing him riding off Michigan. He's got to make up for that. And he's got to make up for a couple of other States. It looks like he's going to lose. I just don't know where he goes for those electrodes. dana lewis - host back story with Dana Lewis : (29:03) I think most of Europe will be relieved if you're, if you're right. And I have no doubt that Michael shore probably is right, Michael. Thanks. Thank you. And that's backstory on the American election. Please subscribe to backstory. And if you can share it, we really appreciate you listening. I'm Dana Lewis and I'll talk to you again soon.