Vox Populi, our weekly live chat about the week’s events begins tonight at 7:00 pm PDT. Hope to see you then!
AdLib3 hours ago
Hey TW! How are you feeling about last night’s debate today?
AdLib2 hours ago
Not much for me has changed. It wasn’t his finest night but he will bounce back and there is no doubt Biden will win reelection. I believe Biden has already admited he didn’t do well but if and it’s a big if there is a second debate he will kill it. But of course all the talking heads are saying he should drop out but what the hell do they know. 
twilson117
2 hours ago
Did you see the video of him at the rally today? Full of energy and aggressive. This is what he needs to be from now on.
AdLib2 hours ago
Hello….
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Hey Murph
twilson117
2 hours ago
No I didn’t see the video but did hear about it.
twilson117
2 hours ago
AdLib2 hours ago
AdLib2 hours ago
I am happy that you both seem to be positive…I am not.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
That’s right you get back up and you know the kick in the ass may be what Uncle Joe needs to stomp all over Trump.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Hey Murph! I’m still unhappy about last night but Biden as an underdog, with expectations now so low, definitely has the opening to bounce back.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph, we have to be because the alternative is not pretty at all.
twilson117
2 hours ago
The video wouldn’t embed from Twitter, so this is from YouTube. Let me know what you think.
AdLib2 hours ago
The news from the Supreme Court today tops a season of court behavior that has severely damaged the democratic experiment….the rulings today gut the authority of the Executive Branch and make SCOTUS the Praesidium that actually rules.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove laid out a plan for the take over of the nation by the right….the cornerstone was control of SCOTUS since its power is unbounded.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph – Your summary on SCOTUS is sadly right on target. Their decisions today have torn down our democracy and stolen power for themselves over issues they have zero expertise on as opposed to people with careers dedicated to science, ethics, etc.
AdLib2 hours ago
Bannon is on his way to jail. When I read that fire works were going off. I really mean fire works were going off. The minor league Red Sox BB where setting them off. Don’t know why I think it might have been in celebration of the Celtics winning the NBA Championship but I will apporpriate it for the fact that Uncle Joe is going to do some ass kicking moving forward.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Now, there need to be long, multi-year lawsuits decided by courts to stop water from being poisoned, polutants from speeding up Climate Change and medical policies. It’s insane.
AdLib2 hours ago
Guys as far as the SC goes is indeed an indication we are on the slippery path of losing democracy which is why Biden needs to win.
twilson117
2 hours ago
I repeat…..this country’s constitution is a failed fundamental law. We have a unique structure that has been rejected in nearly all of the rest of the world. It is easily corrupted
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
TW – That is one bright spot, knowing that Bannon will be in a non-cushy prison for the rest of the campaign season. His tears offer a bit of comfort.
AdLib2 hours ago
Ad His Tears?? Was he crying??? Was the big bad tough boy crying?? Doesn’t he know there is no crying in prision? 
twilson117
2 hours ago
TW If Biden wins he will be hamstrung by a court that has now given itself the embedded authority to overrule the executive branch at nearly every turn.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph – Just to look at possible blowback, perhaps SCOTUS declaring themselves kings and queens and Trump declaring he will be a dictator may make people uncomfortable with Biden hold their noses and vote for him anyway to push back against a return of Trump. COnsider all the people voting for Nikki Haley when they knew full well that she had dropped out of the race and had no chance to win. That could be what helps Biden win despite his terrible appearance last night.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph if Biden wins we’ll just have to deal with the court the best we can. As you’ve pointed out we need both the House and Senate then things can change with the court.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Ad…..your scenario requires that the average voter understand the how, what and why of Supremes. Most haven’t the foggiest. Your plan has merit but it requires an informed and connected electorate.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph – Your proposition is legit but maybe, that situation will make a Dem-controlled Congress expand the court to take away their authoritarian power and Biden would be far more inclined to support that when facing a neutered federal government. Blowback is not always intuitive. Just as SCOTUS ending Roe led to the blowback of Dems winning elections by bigger margins.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph valid points on your part. Most voters have little understanding of how the governement is suppose to work which is sad. But what is even sadder is they have no desire to learn.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Win the House, the Senate and the Presidency….to take on a court that seems willing to find in its favor at every turn and who can negate what they do? What Scotus undoes that court expansion for example….what’s to stop them. Checks and Balances…..it’s a myth.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph – I don’t think so. All we need is for the majority to remain opposed to the killing of Roe and the annointing of Trump as dictator. Not so complicated, a majority of Americans are already there. Many counted Trump out after Access Hollywood. Trump is being sentenced in two weeks and I have to imagine Merchan is not going to go so easy on him that it will help his campaign. And might Judge Chutkin and Jack Smith move swiftly on the prosecution of Trump after next week’s expected decision on immunity from the criminal SCOTUS?
AdLib2 hours ago
Ad…I do not trust the majority…….I was at a meeting today where a large group of black leaders were arguing that they needed to parlay their votes into. leverage over the dems…..heads in the sand….fooled, gulled and sullied.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
My question at the moment is do the dems have the means to keep the senate and the house?
twilson117
2 hours ago
Murph can you say more about the meeting?
twilson117
2 hours ago
Murph – There is nothing SCOTUS can do to stop court expansion. Even if they spitefully declare it can’t be expanded despite the Constitution providing that power to Congress, a Dem Congress and President would ignore their seditious “finding” and be twice as resolved to put them in place. Checks and balances? Remember, if SCOTUS does as expected to declare that a president can’t be prosecuted for official acts, ordering the military to protect and oversee the seating of additional judges to the SCOTUS will have already been ruled as part of presidential authority. And are 70 year old SCOTUS judges going to start fighting against the military at that point in hand to hand combat like their 1/6 MAGAs? Nope.
AdLib2 hours ago
The meeting was a strategy and planning meeting with key staff from 15 campaigns…..it did not go well…fractured and splintered….ending early with no consensus.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
All due respect Murph but the black voters in MO won’t affect the presidential race. The voters in swing states are what matter unfortunately and I guarantee Biden’s millions will be paying for advertising, GOTV, and outreach to black voters and others who may be on the fence.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph, so a typical democratic meeting that was all over the place?
twilson117
2 hours ago
Ad…..you presume the good will and cooperation of the military. I am not as confident. As to the seating of those new justices I can imagine a number of scenarios that forestall any meaningful action and undermine the legitimacy of all the key institutions.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
TW….typiical, yes, but very much one where wrath boiled just beneath the surface
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph the country has expanded and contracted the court before.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Murph – I don’t blame you at all for feeling pessimistic about Novemeber, surrounded by lunatic MAGA voters in a state run by lunatic MAGAs. But elsewhere in the country, Dems have beaten polls with bigger than expected margins this year and for the past 8 years. There are no actual election results that validate that pessimism.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph I should have said Congress has expanded and contracted the SC before, why wouldn’t it work again?
twilson117
2 hours ago
Murph – Like what? What power do SCOTUS justices have if they overthrow The Constitution and the President says, “No!”?
AdLib2 hours ago
I do not know enough about those period when this happened to offer much in the way of comparison but kb=nowing what I do of the contemporary setting I am not confident that the court will not become an instrument of its demise along with that of the other of the other branches.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
I read a number the most recent initiates as ones that de-couple the Scotus from the other branches meeting up a landscape for covert and overt conflict.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph I can accept that. Those were far different times and lot less billionaires around throwing money around to get what they want.
twilson117
2 hours ago
TW…yes…..plutocracy and autocracy are twinned.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph – Your pessimism is overflowing to areas where there is no grounding for it. Our generals and military are loyal as a whole and there is no indication, example, or motivation for them to turn against the United States. I know you’re upset but showering every institution as traitors just isn’t justified by the facts.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph if Congress passed a law that mandated SC expansion as they did in the past how does the SC negated that? There is precedent for that and if they are the orginalist’s they claim wouldn’t they have to accept the law passed by Congress if it chose to expand? And wouldn’t expansion lighten their work load?
twilson117
2 hours ago
Inconsistencies include the proposition that the SCOTUS majority wants a dictator to essentially strip them of power. Instead, these corrupt “justices” are power hungry and want to control every aspect of power in this country.
AdLib2 hours ago
One of the political operatives I know pretty well who operates in Illinois and Missouri shared with a small group that what he hopes for is a Biden and Harris withdrawal from the nomination with the naming of a new ticket at the same time. Looking to a convention that nominates by acclamation. He had a number of names in mind. Then as the current President and VP govern effectively a campaign hits the trails seeking to overturn Trump.as it lifts up X and Y.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Matters go before courts all of the time that are attached to judges who are supposed to recuse themselves. But what if they don’t.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Murph that’s not going to happen. What is wrong with people. Biden had a bad night it happens. Why hell are they all in a panic? The numbers are on their side. The economny is on their side, why are the crying like babies thinking their mother is going to spank them when she is nowhere in sight? What is it with these folks? I don’t get it at all.
twilson117
2 hours ago
I only mention this because it is a disappointing time right now for the future but I have generally been correct in my estimations, based on ground truths such as election results, that Dems would win. That includes Obama beating the odds, Dems winning back Congress, Dems holding Repubs to a tiny majority in 2022 and Dems winning hugely in elections last year and this year. Now is not the time to panic, give into pessimism or throw in the towel. These are indeed times that try men’s souls but times change very quickly nowadays and the public’s memories are short. Biden’s debate will be well forgotten by Nov, especially if Biden bounces back as Trump is sentenced and possibly prosecuted again. Big picture thinking is required especially when things in the short term are terribly discouraging.
AdLib2 hours ago
Murph – That sounds like a fantasy scenario. If Biden AND Harris are kicked off the ticket against their wills, the Dems will then REALLY be in disarray and infighting and Trump WILL win. No big picture thinking in that political operatives POV.
AdLib2 hours ago
I have to ask, are Dem’s buying with Trump is selling?? I mean have they fallen for his BS? Are they so singleminded around having a youthful president that they are willing to believe what Trump is saying? Have they forgotten Trump is old as well and more than likely in very poor health? Dems have need to grow a set.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Muprh I’m guessing there is a lot of stuff going on in your neck of the woods and there are alot of Trump people with guns and beleive in his BS and are willing to act out in his name. So is that playing into how Dems are feeling about Biden?
twilson117
2 hours ago
What many people are missing right now in their panic is that when Obama debated Romney in their first debate and struggled badly, many editorials and Dem insiders declared him dead and started lobbying for a replacement. Obama won solidly in Nov. When John Kerry kicked Bush’s behind in their first debate, Republicans saw Bush as doomed to lose and Kerry was pronounced to be the eventual winner. It takes a strong constitution and a knowledge of what’s happened before in this same situation to become grounded and realize that no one is doomed becuase they screwed up their first debate. And add to that, no modern debate was held this far away from an election either. If Biden pulls himself together as he did today at his rally and fights back, this panic will be forgotten well before Nov.
AdLib2 hours ago
Ad yes people have very short memories.
twilson117
2 hours ago
TW – Watch what happens. My guess is that as each day passes, as Biden promotes his “comeback” image of strength, as Trump is sentenced to incarceration of one kind or another and if Trump is further indicted in MI, WI, AZ, or prosecuted by Smith and Chutkin AND as Trump’s dementia worsens, the dynamics of the race will change.
AdLib2 hours ago
Ad Biden indeed needs to pull himself together, he also needs to figure out a way the get the talking heads to stop with their doom and gloom.
twilson117
2 hours ago
Sorry….got called away by a call…..emergency meeting of a number of operatives has been called for early tomorrow. I have no idea what is going on but I will be there.
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
Signing off……
MurphTheSurf3
2 hours ago
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