UkWinds5353

You definitely deserve a great deal of praise for being out there trying to help others while fending for yourself. I have to agree with you there are a lot of Trumpsters willing to follow that man over a cliff and it's so sad to see because even those that want to believe in him, and support that crazy man do deserve to remain safe and free from the action's Trump is taking which endangers all of us. I should have said just like in Tulsa Oklahoma, he is struggling to fill a venue which is why he probably canceled their Convention in Jacksonville. It certainly wasn't because of the excuse he uttered that he wanted to protect the lives of his supporters. He could care less about them. All of this is so unnecessary.

140,000+ innocent people dead in America and estimates show there will be another 150,000 more that will pass before Biden can get things better under control. And many of them would not have died had there been a competent President in the White House. Trumpism kills innocent people.

But thank goodness Biden is running in this cycle, otherwise we might have been stuck with Trump for another 4 years and honestly I don't know if America could have withstood the damage he and a complicit republican party would do to a already indebted United States. Trump in 4 years would have ran up more debt than Obama and Bush combined. And Obama had to run up debt to bailout the country to keep it from falling into a Depression.

I know well the Palmetto area and love Sarasota and Bradenton. Because of Trump and DeSantis we are looking at years before Florida gets back to something that feels normal.
One thing is plain to see, Trump is running a campaign of fear trying to turn Joe Biden into that scary person who the American voters need to be scared of, and it ain't working. He's Uncle Joe and he is a well known VP. That's why it's hilarious when Trump keeps talking about cognitive test and radical liberals. He is flailing.
You can tell Trump truly wanted to run against Bernie and as wonderful as Sander's ideas are, Trump may have beat him. Many of his ideas are very smart but there is a large percentage of America that are just like those people you talked to at that park. Bernie would have frightened them. And Trump would have made sure of that.

SpoogleDrummer

I absolutely hate bumper stickers, one of the reasons I bought a bigger truck was so I wouldn't have to ever drives the wife's car again as she insists on sticking bumper stickers on it, I don't care what opinion you're expressing you'll always find some asshole who will damage your defenseless parked car because they disagree with the sticker.

zzrmark

Sorry to disappoint, I'm just a scabby old builder trying to put a crust on the table, my days of shouting obscenities at the ambassador in the SA embassy in Trafalgar Square are long past...

UkWinds5353

I wonder what ever happened to Zargof. He had an interesting point of view. Hope he is well. Maybe he took a break from the site. I've done the same a few times.

zzrmark

Not at all, our groceries are delivered to the front gate and I work on the exterior of homes, I try to avoid going inside anywhere that isn't on my property. My customers know in advance when I'm going to work on their property, I rock up, shout through closed door/window (assuming they are home) and start work - they stay inside and I sweat my proverbials off outside.

I'm recognized by many on most of the parks I work in and I think many of them just put my left wing stance down to my being from across the pond. I can only think of one instance where I may have offended a customer with my views (if they want to raise the topic then I will quite happily respond, politely), I said to him and his wife that I could understand some peoples reasons for following Trump but that I couldn't understand how Christians could morally follow him and that those who did were a bunch of hypocrites. In retrospect, they went a bit quiet, so I went back to work (pre-covid days when we could shoot the breeze), about two hours later they announced that they had to pop out to set up the satellite church, of a large church here, for Sunday's service. Ooops!

zzrmark

I'm fairly selective with my stickers, the Cross of St. James on my back window must confuse a few but probably not as many who are left wondering which country the Devon flag represents.
I've had a few ding my door in carparks but I think that's an generally accepted American pastime (grrr) and at least two muppets have parked their bumpers on my Tundra's tow bar, now mebbe if I was driving a poxy sedan things might be different...

Leslie

Ha! I forgot that I posted that but it's completely accurate and stayed that way right up until a few weeks ago when Abbott mandated masks. I'm glad he mandated masks but since he "reopened" we've been swamped (we never completely shut down but it was very sparse and easier to distance) so I'm in almost constant contact with other people now. I've had some close calls and been in and out of quarantine but so far everything has turned out okay. We follow tight restrictions overall.

To get the topic back to the election, one of the things that I've loved about being able to see so many in the community is that I get all of the gossip and can get an idea of what's on their minds and it's always the same thing. The pandemic. Sometimes they get political and go there about Trump. Even if the conversation doesn't get that deep, the general consensus is that everybody is disgusted with the whole thing. It consumes everything. It will be top of mind in every Texas voter..

Steerpike

So the million dollar question, relative to the thread topic, is ... are you seeing a transformation of people away from Trump? You say the pandemic is on everyone's minds and everyone is disgusted, but what do they think needs to be done about it - 4 more years of Trump or a change of guard? Getting that insight from your wanderings in Texas would be most useful!

In AZ, I reluctantly joined the neighborhood site (Next Door...) and what a cesspit that was! Tons of Trumpsters posting the usual nonsense (conspiracy, Fauci horrible, masks horrible, etc). I found myself doing battle with them hourly, and only later remembered that your real name and address are public on next door . But since the governor himself (Ducey, a Trump sycophant) and the Man Himself are now endorsing masks and admitting things are pretty dire, I'm seeing a definite reduction in the bullshit on the site.

carcajou

I spoke to some people this morning in the Upper Midwest, who told me that all the Trump people they know, are still saying they are voting for Trump even though the polls show Biden way ahead. That's extraordinarily unscientific and I don't put much stock in that, but that's an anecdote for you.

Trump, however, needs to grow his support. He won on 46.1% which is a major anomaly in electoral history. That was only a slightly higher percentage than what McCain got, and less than the 47.2% Romney got.

Biden, also, needs to improve on Hillary Clinton's total, which was squarely in the historic "lose zone" for Democrats, despite all the talk of her winning the popular vote. The difference is I think Biden only needs to grow about 1% where I think Trump probably needs 2-3% at a minimum. I don't think Trump can win again if he is on 46% or 47%. The Biden strategy is to stay quiet and let Trump do himself in, which isn't really a bad idea, but that won't work all the way to November and Trump is starting to adapt.

Concerningly, however, for the first time this week I could see the contours of a Trump pathway starting to take shape (not saying I think he will win, but I can see a possible avenue for it to happen developing). The strategy was always there (Nixon '68) but is now starting to generate some movement in a few public opinion indicators. If the dominant concern and priority for voters remains Covid-19, Biden will win. If it becomes BLM and Portland-style riots and anarchy, there is a pathway for Trump. Trump is going to try and make Patrisse Cullors and Portland anarchists Biden's de facto running mates and Biden will need a strategy to decisively deflect that away.

The current media culture, will be very unhelpful. Ordinarily, having near-unanimous support for a candidate like Biden would be a great thing. But currently the media has lost the pulse of the country it is supposed to be covering.

spouse of scouse

Best visual ever

Steerpike

I think I'm with you on the bolded part. If Florida and Arizona are still in the throes of the pandemic, it's not going to go well for Trump. But if the virus dies down by then, and the utterly stupid violence continues, then Trump could make this a 'law and order' election. I'm not buying into the narrative that we have massive amounts of violence going on, but why the f**k do demonstrators need to be setting fires and damaging buildings at all? It plays straight into Trump's hands. A Federal courthouse isn't exactly Trump's personal property.

Giantaxe

He disappeared after I and a couple of others called him out on his defensiveness on anything to do with Sanders.... I'm sure he'll be back to mock if Biden loses.

scrubbedexpat099

Washington Post settles $250M suit with Covington teen Nick Sandmann https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/washin...nick-sandmann/

All part of the bigger picture, the question is assuming the Dems do not separate themselves from the loons how many people will hold their noses and vote Trump

carcajou

Yeah, wow. I had forgotten about that. WaPo wouldn't have "settled" if things were going well for them.

I remember the incident now and it was awful. The rush to judgment wasn't any better in some of the threads on BE either.

carcajou

Donald Trump has signed an executive order allowing drugs to be imported from Canada, with an aim to dramatically lowering prescription costs.

An excellent move with tangible benefits for Americans, even if the motive was questionable (underperforming among senior voters).