Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:Abe, I found the same thing with Biden. The fine folks at Fox news and other trolling conservative outlets would basically isolate any clip of him where he was stammering or lost his cool and derided him for his senility (and yes, this type of tactic is no different than the fine folks at the liberal outlets that would parse through any of Trump's statements and blow it up into the biggest controversy in the history of civilization). Then I saw Biden in a couple of the debates and he seemed mostly coherent throughout the whole thing.

Having said that, I do think Trump's "mental" issues were more related to his extreme narcissism and not any material loss of mental acuity. Biden on the other hand really has slipped a bit - just not as bad as his critics make it out to be - but he could be on the front end of a more severe mental decline....

It was a surprise how well Biden was able to do at the debates. There were unsubstantiated rumors of his team using a drug cocktail to put him at his absolute best for the short term. Trump seemed to be on to it when he requested that both candidates be drug tested prior to the debate. Biden's camp refused. I think your last paragraph painting Trump as a narcissist is accurate, and he said some really dumb things during his term. But Biden's dementia is pretty obvious to any objective observer. I really don't believe he is performing much in the way of presidential duties. Other countries are laughing at us over the charade. But they're also worried at the same time. I'd just like to know who is really running the country right now. Pelosi seems to have the most power.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Abe, I found the same thing with Biden. The fine folks at Fox news and other trolling conservative outlets would basically isolate any clip of him where he was stammering or lost his cool and derided him for his senility (and yes, this type of tactic is no different than the fine folks at the liberal outlets that would parse through any of Trump's statements and blow it up into the biggest controversy in the history of civilization). Then I saw Biden in a couple of the debates and he seemed mostly coherent throughout the whole thing.

Having said that, I do think Trump's "mental" issues were more related to his extreme narcissism and not any material loss of mental acuity. Biden on the other hand really has slipped a bit - just not as bad as his critics make it out to be - but he could be on the front end of a more severe mental decline....

Quite possibly. He has a history as a bit of a goofy guy who makes more verbal mistakes than most... even when he was 20 years younger. His team's plan to keep him mostly under wraps seems like a wise one. Avoid anything too negative as tens of million of people were desperate for anything different from the previous regime.

As for having a president with declining mental acuity, it's not exactly unprecedented. I think Reagan's decline is well documented now... I don't remember how much of an issue it was at the time though.

I actually think some of his limited public appearances and speaking engagements are OK, oddly enough. Too many people became obsessed with Trump - either as a false idol on the right or the devil incarnate on the left - and it was really unhealthy. I've been heartened to see ratings go down big time for a bunch of the mainstream news organizations. Perhaps people are picking up hobbies and getting out more rather than obsessing over someone's tweets!

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Abe, I found the same thing with Biden. The fine folks at Fox news and other trolling conservative outlets would basically isolate any clip of him where he was stammering or lost his cool and derided him for his senility (and yes, this type of tactic is no different than the fine folks at the liberal outlets that would parse through any of Trump's statements and blow it up into the biggest controversy in the history of civilization). Then I saw Biden in a couple of the debates and he seemed mostly coherent throughout the whole thing.

Having said that, I do think Trump's "mental" issues were more related to his extreme narcissism and not any material loss of mental acuity. Biden on the other hand really has slipped a bit - just not as bad as his critics make it out to be - but he could be on the front end of a more severe mental decline....

Quite possibly. He has a history as a bit of a goofy guy who makes more verbal mistakes than most... even when he was 20 years younger. His team's plan to keep him mostly under wraps seems like a wise one. Avoid anything too negative as tens of million of people were desperate for anything different from the previous regime.

As for having a president with declining mental acuity, it's not exactly unprecedented. I think Reagan's decline is well documented now... I don't remember how much of an issue it was at the time though.

I actually think some of his limited public appearances and speaking engagements are OK, oddly enough. Too many people became obsessed with Trump - either as a false idol on the right or the devil incarnate on the left - and it was really unhealthy. I've been heartened to see ratings go down big time for a bunch of the mainstream news organizations. Perhaps people are picking up hobbies and getting out more rather than obsessing over someone's tweets!

Yep. How far removed are we from this line of thinking...

"Meh. Doesn't really matter who the president is. He's just a figurehead anyway."

Good or bad... right or wrong... maybe it's what our country needs in a way right now. Get back to individuals having their own agency and thinking for themselves instead of going with or against one guy.

So does anyone know what the noise about evictions is? Personally COVID shouldn'tt be an excuse not to hold up your end of a legally binding contract.

bleedspeed177 wrote:So does anyone know what the noise about evictions is? Personally COVID shouldn'tt be an excuse not to hold up your end of a legally binding contract.

There are 2 angles (actually more) of the evictions that weren't happening during Covid.

1. People lost some ability to make money and pay for where they live. That hasn't completely gone away. Some people I believe are still struggling. How many? Idk but there are still people that are in tougher times due to some circumstances beyond there control.

2. People that have done things to absolutely deserve to be evicted and that goes beyond whether or not they are paying their rent. I live next to a property that has had some people get evicted in the past because of various issues not regarding their rent. Landlords and people living in proximity have possibly had to put up with people that are not being good people/neighbors etc and I'm putting it kindly.

That's my limited perspective on the issue. It's not just and either or one sided thing it's nuanced like a lot of issues. It does annoy me a little when some people have made it sound like people that want evictions are cold heartless people with no souls. Plus some landlords are likely hurting for money too. There are some rental companies etc that say they are hurting but are doing fine relatively speaking but some places are probably really hurting for money. Still even if some companies are doing fine (and the ones that aren't) it wasn't the their fault there was a pandemic and people didn't have money to pay rent. I'm not sure what the solution is supposed to be. This is an unprecedented problem but I don't think just canceling evictions for however long is the answer either.

Monster -

I think this might have been the issue after first but then the government stepped in with unemployment benefits I do agree there will always be people that fit in category 1. I think even during the best of times you will have a group that is struggling.

I am more curious about what is going on with this now. I heard that the Biden administration is trying to overturn supreme court rules on this. What is going on? It seems like government overreach.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Monster -

I think this might have been the issue after first but then the government stepped in with unemployment benefits I do agree there will always be people that fit in category 1. I think even during the best of times you will have a group that is struggling.

I am more curious about what is going on with this now. I heard that the Biden administration is trying to overturn supreme court rules on this. What is going on? It seems like government overreach.

This is mostly anecdotal evidence... but there is a glut of available jobs right now... from fast food restaurants to truck drivers to engineers and administrative roles.

In fact, I can't recall another time in my adult life where there has been this much need to find employees.

Also anecdotally, we've heard stories of people not working because they make more money at home not to work.

That's not to paint everybody with one gigantic stroke of the paintbrush... but as noted by Bleed... there will always be people that are struggling, even unfairly. It's unfortunate... but how long should landlords (especially small ones) be expecting to foot the bill here?


[Note: To be fair, I'm not a landlord... maybe there are aid programs in place for them to help cover the lack of rent? I dunno.]

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:Monster -

I think this might have been the issue after first but then the government stepped in with unemployment benefits I do agree there will always be people that fit in category 1. I think even during the best of times you will have a group that is struggling.

I am more curious about what is going on with this now. I heard that the Biden administration is trying to overturn supreme court rules on this. What is going on? It seems like government overreach.

This is mostly anecdotal evidence... but there is a glut of available jobs right now... from fast food restaurants to truck drivers to engineers and administrative roles.

In fact, I can't recall another time in my adult life where there has been this much need to find employees.

Also anecdotally, we've heard stories of people not working because they make more money at home not to work.

That's not to paint everybody with one gigantic stroke of the paintbrush... but as noted by Bleed... there will always be people that are struggling, even unfairly. It's unfortunate... but how long should landlords (especially small ones) be expecting to foot the bill here?


[Note: To be fair, I'm not a landlord... maybe there are aid programs in place for them to help cover the lack of rent? I dunno.]

If someone finds an article or website that actually specifically outline the moratorium Biden issues that would be great. I went through 3-4 articles and nothing really spells it out.

Q here in Lincoln the economy is always better than much of the US in general. There are a shortage of people in a lot of service providers right know. There are a few reasons for that but yes there are plenty of jobs available right now in this area. I'm not sure if that's the case everywhere. There are probably some people still utilizing unemployment instead of working. I think for the most part the making more money not working has passed and the unemployment benefits only last so long. It's kind of a pain to keep going through the job search process to just sit on your butt. Some people did that before the pandemic too but obviously it's more. Of course some people that are in a difficult situation may not have qualified for the unemployment benefits in the first place.

There are also people that may not be reporting for work because they have a legit concern about staying healthy. I know of people that still have concerns with a family member in the house getting Covid because they have significant health issues. Some people are providing care for their family member instead of having a rotating group of people come provide care (if you can even find a provider that has staff...honestly you might not) etc. So does this moratorium actually address some of these legit problems? Idk like I said it's hard to say because the specifics are lacking.

There is supposed to be a bunch of money available for rent assistance. I think I saw something like 46 million. The reality is I doubt that would go very far even if it was distributed properly. I agree though what are the landlords supposed to be doing. Big or small they shouldn't just be hung out to dry either. They are providing a service and they should be getting compensated even at some sort of reduced amount or something or maybe a tax break.

My guess is that along with the pressure from some democrats Biden caved knowing that it would take a while to overturn things and during that time people that need this protection longer would have it.

Also I'm not sure what it's like in the areas you are in but people that need hoisting assistance the wait list is pretty long. This isn't the case for everyone on that wait list but some people do need the assistance because they do not have the capability to go get a full time job due to disabilities etc. I also know in the past that people I worked with got various government assistance and they worked 2 jobs. Being a single parent supporting a couple kinds on barely over minimum wage isn't easy and a couple of people I worked with were working plenty hard enough and weren't spending their money on wildly unneeded items. The cracks in the system for people that did need some extra help were only widened with the pandemic and I'm sure some people are in tough spots. I think in general most people know that and also it's true businesses are basically people who are some of the people in tough spots. It's not just individuals.

Interesting take. I was in a Lyft in Miami in May. The drive moonlighted in the role to pay for luxuries. Her day job was dealing with people on housing assistance. She said it is the most frustrating job. You have so many people abusing the system. Coming in with luxury items she is working a second job for. Saying they can't work, but have gym memberships. She said there are truly people that need assistance, but more than half are just lazy.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Interesting take. I was in a Lyft in Miami in May. The drive moonlighted in the role to pay for luxuries. Her day job was dealing with people on housing assistance. She said it is the most frustrating job. You have so many people abusing the system. Coming in with luxury items she is working a second job for. Saying they can't work, but have gym memberships. She said there are truly people that need assistance, but more than half are just lazy.

As is the case with most things in life, I'm sure there are those who have figured out how to grift the system. We see that from billionaires with influence and the means to avoid meaningful taxes to people collecting housing assistance despite being able to work.

But I'm probably not looking at one aggrieved Lyft driver who has a lousy day job as the best source for accurate statistics (>50%)...