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Germany is not Eastern Europe. Poland is more West European than Germany is Eastern, Cold War boundaries notwithstanding.

Asexual cis man.

Biden should just pardon him the day after the election.

No, he shouldn’t.  This would be even more corrupt than Clinton’s pardon of Roger Clinton and Trump’s pardon of Charles Kushner.*  If Hunter Biden is convicted and said convictions survive appeal then Biden should respect the rule of law.  If Biden flagrantly abuses his pardoning power in such a manner, then he should be impeached and removed from office.  Obviously, he won’t both because I think he genuinely respects the rule of law and because it would be an irreparable messaging cluster**** politically speaking.  

Honestly, I think federal pardons should have an eight member oversight board where half of the members must be appointed by the previous President on their last day in office (as in the prior individual to hold the office) and half by the current President on their first day in office (with a tie or a vote without all eight members present resulting in a denial of the pardon).  The board would not be able to recommend or otherwise suggest/nominate candidates for a pardon, those would have to come from the President, but they could veto Presidential decisions to grant a pardon or commutation.  Obviously this will never happen since it would require a constitutional amendment, but it’d fix a lot of issues with Presidential pardoning power, but I digress.

*Of course, these were far from the worst abuses of Presidential pardoning power by Clinton and Trump.  With Clinton you had the rightly infamous Marc Rich pardon and Susan McDougal getting pardoned as a reward for refusing to answer certain questions during her grand jury testimony about whether Clinton committed perjury during her trial (he almost certainly did so).  

With Trump you had Roger Stone (after the equally corrupt commutation of his sentence to keep him out of prison), Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and George Papadopolous as a reward for not flipping on him.  The pardons of Paul Erickson and Alex Van Der Zwaan simply because he didn’t want any Mueller-related convictions to stand except for people who truly flipped, the politically-motivated pardon of convicted murderer Clint Lorance (soldier convicted of numerous crimes including convictions for murder x2, attempted murder, obstruction, and witness tampering) were all also deeply corrupt.

Recession, death or the Second Coming.

[Trump Planning His Revenge]

Trump Planning His Revenge

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7o5EGMOXHq/

Since Biden is losing I will only consider events that could make Trump lose, rather than the numerous possible events than could make Biden lose big, rather than by the slim margins that it currently looks like.

And frankly, I see only one truly realistic scenario that could upend Trumps campaign and that is a MASSIVE health scare or death. And frankly, such a scenario probably leads to Trumps VP being the candidate and winning due to sympathy voting. I am pretty confident that neither the recent conviction nor a possible N-word tape leak will make any significant difference and the three trials that actually COULD potentially make a difference, won't happen before the election, which is actually a massive SCANDAL. I really have no idea how the jan 6 or Georgia cases, which we've known about for over 3 years, still haven't made their way to the courts. That is just ridiculous.

So realistically speaking, I think this election is more or less over and yes, I would absolutely LOVE to be proven wrong on this, since another Trump presidency would be an unmitigated disaster and likely signal the end of the western era of global politics.

He isn't losing

[It was May 6th 1996]

It was May 6th 1996, the intense negotations with Perot's side were undergoing their final stage. It had been a few weeks since he had called Ross Perot in order to salvage his campaign, the atmosphere at the Wilson campaign was one of doom and gloom, how could they possibly beat Clinton in November? Many had told him that the smartest thing to do is go on the defense and try to salvage what he could in November.

Wilson was pleasantly surprised at how well he and Perot got along, they had agreed on most if not all key points : the budget, social issues, they were both moderate Republicans however, Wilson's support of NAFTA, marked by a November 1993 speech in Burbank, threw a slight wrench into the talks. Despite this, the two men got along incredibly well, as made evident by the fact that the phone call was three hours long. They had agreed on two meetings, one in Sacramento, California and the other in Dallas, Texas. The schedule was tight, the California meeting was on Monday, April 29th and the Texas meeting was today.

In California, Wilson had assembled a team of important Republican party members, including his primary-contender Bob Dole, who was going to retire after the election, former President George Bush, though Wilson had wished he could've convinced Ronald Reagan to come instead, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, about half a dozen Senators and Congressmen from key swing states and a few consultants like the young man from before, now identified as Zachary Comstock. For his part, Perot had brought Admiral Stockdale and several members of his 1992 campaign. They had discussed the viability of working together, the possible effect on the Republican party and how it could change how the party would function. Most of these allegations were foundationless in the eyes of Wilson. He deemed the Monday meeting to be vastly less important than the Friday meeting, the one-on-one meeting at Perot's private residence where they would discuss in more fine detail the conditions of the endorsement. Perot had a few important ones, all of which were reasonable to Wilson, granted Wilson was desperate for his endorsement.

          1. - A promise to balance the United States budget, preferably before fiscal year 2000 and possibly with the re-introduction and successful passing of a Balanced Budget Amendment, however both men knew this was unlikely.

          2. - Increased protections towards American industry affected by NAFTA and a possible renegotiation of NAFTA as a whole.

          3. - Keynote speakership at the Republican National Convention in San Diego. With a request to go before Pat Buchanan. Wilson had promised a several slots to Buchanan and other right-wingers at the RNC when Buchanan endorsed him.

          4. - A Vice-President picked from the state of Texas with Perot's backing and/or approval.

          5. - An active position in Wilson's cabinet to be determined at a later date. Probably Secretary of the Treasury or Secretary of Energy.

After deliberating with his team, Wilson accepted these terms with one minor objection, Wilson had barely any control over who spoke at the RNC and while Perot would surely be somewhere at the top.
For his part, Perot promised to endorse Wilson during the RNC and rally his voters behind Wilson. Some early internals had shown that while Perot voters split 50-50 for Dole however, the split was closer to 70-30 for Wilson, a massive advantage for someone trailing President Clinton. The two men shook hands and said they'll keep in touch, little did both men know but Perot was going to be a key asset for Wilson's campaign.

Dot and Bubble on the surface is about social media and 'the yoof', but it's actually about algorithms creating and supporting white supremacist spaces.

People are so quick to consciously 'count' diversity on screen, usually to attack it but even being supportive I just 'accepted' that everyone was white without ever realising it. Quite a gut punch.

Also a classic 'sometimes people don't deserve to be saved' RTD episode too.

Not enough of the population to matter in any state except MAYBE MI. Who cares

Marist was right in 2022 folks. That doesn't mean they will be right in 2024 but I'd be careful if I were you. Polling biases/errors do change/correct etc