Roundtable

Jim: It's roundtable time. Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com but you can also use common_ills@yahoo.com and, in fact, should this week Participating in our roundtable are  The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.

Jim (Con't): Okay, the endless election as C.I. called it.  Thoughts?

Trina: She's right and I'm tired of it.  Once upon a time, we could get honest between elections.  Those days are gone.  And I'm sick of it and I'm sick of men who think they can trash women online.  "TrustNoPolitician" is the jerk's handle.  I encountered him on YAHOO and he was the worst.  It reminded me of how much I hated DAILY KOS and the other sites.  He was going through -- and please note, he presents as a Democrat -- and just trashing women.  It was a thread that I'll call "How Great Art Thou Obama."  And a few women were pointing out that Barack promised Planned Parenthood in 2007 that if elected the first thing he would do was codify ROE.  And he never did that.  And women were bringing up things like that and he was attacking them and calling them Republicans and all this other garbage.  I thought, "Wow, they don't follow the YAHOO guidelines, do they?"  Because everything he said to me was an insult, and a vile one at that.

Dona: I remember those days well, back in the '00s, and how Democratic men would attack women over and over and be surprised when a woman called them out -- which I'm sure you did, Trina?

Trina: Indeed.  But it was so hateful.  You sort of picture him living in a psych ward.  My question is how did TrustNoPolitician think he was helping the mid-terms by going through and trashing every woman as stupid and as a Republican and so much more?

Isaiah: They live in their own little world, their own delusional world.  They're hateful and rude.  It's hilarious that someone going by "Trust No Politiican" is attacking people who just note Barack's failures.  What a fake and a fraud.  But that's obvious by the handle he chose, right?

Betty: I know very well what Trina's talking about.  I've spoken about it, I've written about it.  The toxic men of the blogosphere on the left who would trash you the moment you didn't act like Harry Reid was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  You'd think they'd work harder to be nice online but they don't think they need votes -- which is why they struggle.

Cedric: And they're racist.  I remember being at a Dean rally -- Howard Dean -- and being so excited because there was a guy with a Bartcop t-shirt.  I loved that site.  I walk over to say hi and he looks at me like I'm something he scraped off his shoe.  Then his friend comes over and they walk off talking about how "stupid" Black people are.  That was it for me and Bartcop.  If a racist is your norm, I don't need you.  The same with Kos and I love how they trashed us and then expected us to applaud them for endorsing Barack Obama.

Betty: Exactly.

Jim: I wonder if these people ever get off their lazy rears.  I'm referring to actually doing something?  Like a petition that requires you to interact with people or block walking where you go door to door for a candidate.  Or anything like that.  Because they never seem to grasp that the image they send out is not helping their party get votes.

Elaine: Can I talk about something election related?  I wish I knew the name of the group but they're buying up advertising spots trying to guilt and shame people into voting.

Marcia: I've seen those!  They show them on PLUTO during JUDGE JUDY!

Elaine: They say that it's your civic duty to vote and that if you don't vote your neighbors can look it up and find out that you didn't vote.

Wally: They're trying to shame you into voting.

Elaine:  Look it, if you haven't been paying attention, I honestly don't want you voting.  I'm not trying to insult you or be rude.  I just mean, don't go into a voting booth and eenie-meenie-minie-moe your way through a ballot.  

Kat: Agreed.  And they can't tell if you voted or not.  That's a lie.  They can tell that you didn't vote from a certain address.  All you have to do is say, "I get my  mail at Aunt Susie's house.  I do that when I go visit her because she's home with assisted healthcare and I need to check on her.  I voted absent ballot and it was sent to her address."  They won't be able to check.  And if they dare to ask you for the address, shame them.  You want my aunt's address?  What are you trying to do, harass her?  How dare you.  

Rebecca: And it's really no one's business if you vote or not.  This isn't the Soviet Union.  We're not expected to have a 100% voting rate.  If you choose not to vote, (a) that is a vote and (b) it's really not anyone else's business.  We live in a nanny state more and more each day.

Stan: Back to Trina's original point, we used to have to put up with this vote nonsense for two months or so.  Now it's constant.  And when it's active, no one is allowed to self-reflect or criticize their own.  Everyone's supposed to lie and be okay with lying.  We can't get any reality, we can't get any truth.  That needs to stop.

Betty: I remember 2008 and I think that's when it really changed.  Laura Flanders and others refused to hold Barack accountable.  That was in the primaries.  He was bringing up 'ex-gays' to preach their conversion garbage and despite being a lesbian herself, Laura refused to call him out.  She swore that when he got the nomination they would 'hold his feet to the fire.'  He got the nomination and they didn't hold his feet to the fire.  He won the election and they didn't hold his feet to the fire.  They were the worst clowns in the world.  I have no respect for Laura Flanders or anyone in her lousy family.  What a bunch of fakes and frauds.

Mike: Agreed.

Ty: As the election gets closer, Joe Biden's lies get more and more extreme.  I've noticed that even CNN and THE NEW YORK TIMES and THE WASHINGTON POST have started calling him out.  A long time coming, if you ask me.

Jess: There's a theory, Ty, that after the election, legacy media's going to push for Joe not to run for re-election.  Most voters don't want him to run, he's too old.  What does anyone think of that?

Marcia: This could be part of a rollout for that.  I don't know though.  But I do know that he's way too old.  He's 80 this month.  That's too old to be president.  He was never at the top of his game and it has only gotten worse since he was sworn in.  He needs to announce immediately that he will not be seeking re-election.  

Rebecca: I think this would be a bigger issue if it weren't for the baby boom.  Idiots like Jane Fonda know that Joe needs to step down but saying so is saying that they themselves are old.

Ava: Jane is old, but she's not baby boom.  She's older than the baby boom since she was born in 1937.

Ruth: She is older than my generation, yes.  But Rebecca is correct.  People like Ms. Fonda know that Joe Biden is too old but they're not going to say so for fear that their own children might take their keys away -- and, honestly, should take their keys away.  

Mike: We need younger politicians.  That's just a given.  These people who hold on and refuse to leave are embarrassments.

Isaiah: Like Dianne Feinstein who is now the oldest serving member of the Senate.  That's not an accomplishment, that's an embarrassment. When you're old enough that your nickname is "puddles,'' it's time to start staying home.  

Kat: Someone like Nancy Pelosi has no life and no one who wants to be around her.  That is why she continues in Congress.  Why wasn't she home the night of the attack?  Why wasn't her husband with her?  I'm sorry, if I'm married in my eighties, I'm going to expect my partner to be with me.  If he's not, then I shouldn't be married to him.  But I guess that's what happens when your marriage isn't about love.  

Jim: Mike, you wrote "" so Hakeem?

Mike: I know he's in his 50s but when we've got 80 year olds, he's practically a teenager.  I would very gladly get behind him to be the next Speaker of the House.  We are desperate for young blood.  

Ann: Throughout this community, the point has been repeatedly made that Joe doesn't care about climate change and he doesn't care about starting a nuclear war.  It's hard not to believe that if he were younger he wouldn't care so less about whether we all live or die.

Jess: You could say he's aged out of being concerned.

Ann: Exactly.

Jim: Biggest fear regarding the mid-terms?

Marcia: That we wake up Wednesday and a number of races are still undecided.  And that it drags on and on and on.

Cedric: And all that does is delay the discussions we need to have.  AOC is the biggest fake in the world.  You hold her accountable and she whines she's being picked on.  She's a member of Congress and she needs to be working for the people.  She's not.  She's posing for Tik-Tok and Twitter and VOUGE and she's doing nothing she was elected to do.  She is the epitome of a useless politician.

Isaiah: Agreed.

Jim: I'm laughing because of Isaiah.  I told him before the roundtable that a reader wrote in saying he didn't speak enough.  So Isaiah's adding "Agreed."  That's making me laugh.

Isaiah: But I speak as much as I want to.  It's not like you guys are trying to silence me.

Jim: I know, I'm just laughing.  Tuesday is the last day to vote.  

Kat: Unless you're doing a mail in ballot and then who knows because maybe you're state plans on ignoring the postmark.

Jim: Okay, well voting is supposed to end Tuesday.  This is a rush transcript. Thank you to Ava and C.I. for taking notes.