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Been waiting for this. As NK involvement increases with Russia, I was hoping SK involvement ramped up in favor of Ukraine.

You know I agree with much of what you say here. All I’ll say is that while there’s uncertainty in the outcome of this route, I’m convinced there is certainty at this point that Joe Biden will lose. Why? Because there is all there is to know about Joe Biden. Call it media saturation; diminishing returns… There is fundamentally nothing Joe Biden can do or say that people don’t already know and now their minds are pretty much made up. The desperation-play of even asking for that debate shows the Biden campaign knows how bad of a position they’re in… And it of course backfired tremendously.

So at this point, I view it as uncertainty versus a known loss.

And in that respect, I’m looking at this alternate path as appealing to those lizard-brain American Idol-watching popularity-contest voters. If we could distill election cycles down to a handful of things, chief among them would be “People Vote for the more interesting candidate” and “People vote for the fresher face” – Within the backdrop of age being a huge issue for >70% of American voters when polled, that rings even more truthful now.

So personally, I say we take the chance.

Ah yes, right-wing authoritarianism that helped cause mass immigration from regional instability thanks to ignoring climate change and sowing global conflicts… Let’s just give the fox the keys to the henhouse.

Nah, for starters those votes are of a private party and not the actual general elections. Second, there are protocols in place that allow a change in nominee, and third those votes were a snapshot in time not reflective of where people are necessarily now.

Are you asking that because you believe nobody is lining up wanting to be President, or that there is no candidate who fits that bill? Because I can think of half a dozen who both fit the bill and have obvious political ambitions:

• Whitmer
• Newsom
• Buttigieg
• Booker
• Abrams
• Warnock.

All far more youthful; all far more charismatic. All who have enough national name recognition and would trounce Trump in debates and contrast of age alone.

The question to me isn’t, “who else,” it’s, “Will Biden voluntarily step down and endorse such a person at the convention?”

The polls prove this could work:nobody likes either candidate, people want new faces, and age is a problem. Just give them another choice on the Democratic ticket and it’s game-over for the convicted felon. If I could I’d be money this gives better odds than sticking it out with Biden.

I disagree. I actually think you’d see a boost.

• Acknowledging age concerns of the electorate = good.

• Running someone fresh that appeals to this American Idol-esque popularity contest = good.

• Running someone Republicans don’t have their talking-points fleshed out on = good.

I am right now drafting a message to send to the White House contact form advocating for just this. Will do nothing most likely, but it’s my drop in the ocean.

Wholly agree. I will push back against anyone who suggests that. But personally, I am going to advocate we change our nominee while we have time. And if that doesn’t happen, well sure, I’ll fall in line and vote for Biden or anyone so long as it isnt Trump.

Says who? You do realize the convention hasn’t even happened yet, right? There are absolutely ways this can change and without too much issue.

Let’s not say it’s impossible when it absolutely can and a wide swath of the Democratic coalition are suggesting this in earnest.

Everyone from Jon Stewart to Pod Save America recognize Biden had one of the worst debate performances in history. Focus groups of undecided voters who watched said Biden lost.

Let’s stay in reality and face the facts. Let’s not stoop to maga alt-reality.

Instead let’s just fix the issue at hand, assuage the concerns of voters, and improve our odds of beating Trump. Because there is no good data to support a Biden victory.

The problem is that the people who agree with your statement aren’t the ones who we need to convince.

In my view too much is on the line to run Biden. He needs to voluntarily step down where then any younger fresh face that isn’t Kamala can win simply by peoples’ excitement for something different and youthful.

Everyone owes it themselves to watch the PBS Frontline documentary on the Uvalde response.

Cowardice, gross negligence, and outrageous incompetence.

The only people I had respect for was the BORTAC team that showed up and got the shit going and actually made entry into the room.

Because I was well trained

Well you see, many of these cops joined the force because they would’ve flunked or did flunk basic.

Look I’m from such a small Pennsylvania town. Rural Appalachian. Coal mines and specialty steel production most notably.

Both of you are right, and the problems feed back into each other to some extent.

After my family migrated west more than a decade ago, every single time we go back to PA to visit family, attend a funeral and so forth — it just keeps looking more and more run down. Honestly the place is a shit-hole nowadays. I’m sad to see my old county went for Trump by 70%. You couldn’t pay me enough to move my family back.

The young, educated, smart, and compassionate folks leave and GTFO asap — both for jobs, and for more diversity and tolerance. The sad part is I remember watching a slew of documentaries in the early 2000s forewarning of what would happen to these small-towns…

• Because of shipping manufacturing off elsewhere.
• Because of big box corporate eating up local shops, eroding community and draining out the money.
• Because administrations were unwilling to break the hard news that things like coal mines wouldn’t last forever and we’d have to help retrain and get them to new modern job sectors.

No doubt these communities feel the pressures they’re complaining about; they’ve just been exploited by right-wing media about who is responsible: the southern migrant more desperate than them, the trans, the homosexuals, the liberals, etc…

@FlyingSquid is also right that there is FAR more bigotry among these communities as well; and that ties back to not being well-traveled, our education system collapsing, and the right-wing fearmongering machine.

Edit: Shit, Inside Out 3 should be about being inside the head of a MAGA supporter.

I really hope Putin’s little picnic parade with Kim leads to South Korea increasing aid for Ukraine.

Elsewhere I read the pump actually did have an entrapment system engaged and shut off, but by the time she blocked the pipe and sensors detected the obstruction, she was already wedged 20 feet into the pipe.

In other words, if this had a simple grate and she blocked it with her body, the pump would’ve shut off almost immediately.

The other problem is this hole was supposed to be an outlet, not an inlet. But the pump was reversed for whatever reason.

Seems like litigation is still ongoing but most recent articles I’ve read state that pump was either recently repaired or replaced, and flow was in the wrong direction. If it was outflow, nobody could swim in there if they wanted to (but if it was off, a small child still could, so a grate still should’ve been on there). They suspect hole was installed later to probably align with flow requirements for the new pump.

Fuck sake that was a hard read. That poor mother. I can’t even comprehend the purpose of that pipe. They describe it as a lazy river so I’m assuming it’s some sort of equalizer pipe to the other side. Water flows in one direction around the pool and I think what they’re saying is the flow of the river was reversed for whatever reason. There would be quite a strong amount of suction through there, even if it wasn’t a direct intake line to the pump.

Edit: oh this is old news, months old. Looks like it was indeed an outlet:

“Her poor little body was contorted when she was sucked into this hole and pipe 20 feet back. Her body was inside of the motor when she had to be extracted," he said. "They had to break up concrete in order to extract her, cut pipe. It was absolutely horrific.”

Pump’s flow was reversed for whatever reason.

Elsewhere I read the pump actually did have an entrapment system engaged and shut off, but by the time she blocked the pipe and sensors detected the obstruction, she was already wedged 20 feet into the pipe.

That poor child… And those poor ems workers who had to dig out her little body…

I tagged along with my wife for a pool day at her friend’s house with our kids. I was swimming along near the wall of the pool when my foot was violently pulled into the vaccuum line. Really spooked me. It’s code for those suction lines to have a spring-loaded cover. This one didn’t. I luckily freed my foot and went to check the valves on the pump. All suction was routed to the vacuum line, none to skimmer.

Some expensive pumps have an anti-entrapment system but most do not.

I warned her to get that shit fixed ASAP…

For commercial pools of this scale, there’s just no chance to resist.

I own a pool now and I take all that shit very seriously. You don’t mess around with water.