The bottom line on Trump is that his rhetoric was off the charts but the actual governance from his administration was actually pretty staid and conventional. Trump Derangement Syndrome was a reaction from liberals to the rhetoric, a focus on symbolism rather than substance. When words are violence there can be no other reaction.
The bottom line on Trump is that his rhetoric was off the charts but the actual governance from his administration was actually pretty staid and conventional. Trump Derangement Syndrome was a reaction from liberals to the rhetoric, a focus on symbolism rather than substance. When words are violence there can be no other reaction.
Now of course all indications are that Trump will be the GOP nominee in 2024 and the result will be widespread civil chaos.
@Slaw - I really hope Trump gets out of the game. He is screwing every chance Republicans have in front of them. E.g., Mastriano and Oz in PA elections.
I did see your comment on the latest Freddie deBoer piece on PPP loans vs Student Loan Debt
"forgiveness". I upvoted it. I can't comment there for precisely the reason of his sort of "analysis" (with lots of "whataboutism, which I recall, he purports to deplore) I'd cancelled my subscription. He has some real cognitive biases, albeit he is a good writer. I was no fan of the PPP program - mainly in the complete forgiveness aspect - but enabling firms to pay employees was a benefit beyond the "1%", which deBoer and many of his sycophant fans can't understand - to them it is all class warfare, all day, everyday.
TDS and the maliciously false and baseless allegation of Russian collusion preceded Trump’s mean tweets. He was fighting back. How would you react if you were falsely accused of treason?
“Following a victory in appeals court, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington obtained the secret Department of Justice memo then-Attorney General Bill Barr pointed to in order to undermine the Mueller Report and justify not charging then-President Donald Trump with obstruction.
The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump. It significantly twists the facts and the law to benefit Donald Trump and does not comport with a serious reading of the law of obstruction of justice or the facts as found by Special Counsel Mueller. Among many other problems, it is premised on the fact that there was no underlying criminal conduct, which is not what Mueller found, and waves its hand at there being no exact precedent to compare it to.
The memo supports the chilling conclusion that any president can interfere with any investigation if they believe it could damage them politically. It is clear why Barr did not want the public to see it.”
You mean, like when Obama and Biden got together with Comey et al to entrap Michael Flynn after the case agents had cleared him, so that he couldn’t serve as the next National Security Advisor? That kind of Presidential interference?
“The elements required for a conviction on an obstruction of justice charge differ by code section. For a person to be convicted of obstruction of justice, they must have acted with the specific intent to create an obstruction. The statute criminalizes "endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede" the legal process, even if those endeavors were unsuccessful. Seemingly innocuous acts could become criminal activity if they have the intended effect of impeding justice.”
I didn’t read the entire report but enough of it to be certain that obstruction of justice, was clearly established. Mueller, for all his cowardice in the matter, concluded that if Trump had been exonerated by the investigation, they would so state, and they could not do so. And handed off the hot potato. That’s the bare minimum anyone but a liar has to concede. But it works this way on all fronts. I know leftists who will act like Putin’s lawyer when somebody gets poisoned by his people and talk about innocent until proven guilty. OJ Simpson is still innocent, too. Back to Trump, that’s just this tiny matter of obstruction on a particular case for Trump. He has built his entire empire on fraud and brags about it. There were times in history, the times Bill Barr likes, when somebody who called for a hostile foreign power to interfere in our elections could have been shot for treason before the election had a chance to conclude. He has a severely psychopathic personality and would best be locked up along with the other habitual offenders Bill Barr talks about. But Barr won’t see it that way because Trump is HIS goon. The entire Bible Belt of this crazy country endorses a guy who exhibits all the traits for which even Jesus might beat the crap out of him. Dick Cheney can’t even take it, the erstwhile favorite of the far right mob.
That's hyperbole at best. Mueller's team was loaded up with Democrats and they couldn't find anything criminal to charge him with.
When did Trump ever call for a foreign power power to interfere in our election? That's another falsehood.
The "Bible belt", as you call them, rejected a government establishment that oversaw the destruction of their opportunity in this country. On the Democrat side Bernie Sanders would have won their nomination if the Dem establishment hadn't fallen in line behind Hillary. Both sides rejected their establishments.
Since 2014, the United States has provided nearly $1.5 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine to help them fight off Russia which invaded the country in August of that year.
By July 2019, the Trump Administration had not delivered nearly $400 million in US support – including weapons, training and advisors – that Congress had previously approved for Ukraine’s continued efforts.
On July 25th, 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked about the aid on a phone call with President Trump, to which Trump now infamously responded, “I want you to do us a favor though.” Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Vice President Joe Biden – a potential political opponent in the 2020 presidential election. Withholding desperately-needed military aid for a political favor is, by definition, a quid pro quo.
On September 26, 2019, the White House released a summary of the phone call that confirms President Trump’s effort to pressure the Ukrainian president into searching for political dirt on Vice President Joe Biden.
On October 17, 2019, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s acting Chief of Staff, admitted at a White House news conference that President Trump froze the military aid in an effort to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democrats. After confirming the existence of a quid pro quo, Mulvaney said: “Get over it.”
You left out the fact that Joe Biden, while vice president, threatened to withhold financial aid to Ukraine unless they fired a prosecutor who was investigating the company that Hunter Biden worked for. Joe famously bragged of his influence pedaling saying "Well son of a bitch. He got fired."
Does that meet your definition of a quid pro quo, or is that kind of cover up OK with you?
As I understand that event, Biden made that threat to Ukraine with the full knowledge and backing of the U.S. government, including his boss, President Obama. He wasn't doing it on his own dime, he was doing it as part of his job.
Of course it was extortion. He said he would withhold loan guarantees if Ukraine didn't fire the prosecutor investigating the company Hunter worked for. And Obama was part of the extortion and cover up.
If you claim this is extortion, then Trump similarly extorted Ukraine by withholding congressionally approved arms unless Ukraine "investigated" Biden.
Trump didn't withhold anything from Ukraine. It was all delivered as scheduled. More to the point Trump never told Ukraine that if they didn't do something he would withhold the money. Biden did that explicitly, which is extortion. Trump's was simply a request which Ukraine apparently never complied with.
Dean, you said: “When did Trump ever call for a foreign power power to interfere in our election? That’s another falsehood.” I reply to your request, and now you want to go on the never-ending circle jerk of whataboutism; when I was a teen, my daddy told me never to participate in a circle jerk.
Yeah, because it's OK when your side uses extortion to shut down an investigation, but not when Trump asks them to restore the original investigation. That isn't asking them to interfere in our election any more than Hunter's laptop is Russian disinformation.
US voters deserve to know about influence pedaling by a presidential candidate? You call it interference I call it informing the voters.
What Biden did was obstruction of justice but he couldn't be charged because we don't have that kind of agreement with Ukraine.
"Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. " And the next day it did happen, Dean, because their buddy Donald asked them to do it. Russia interfered in the election, the Trump campaign knew of their interference and it welcomed it.
So then Trump is right when he said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president. He would just tell Putin "Don't invade Ukraine" and Vladimir would obey.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a press conference in Doral, Florida, Wednesday morning after the second night of the Democratic convention. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.”
The exact quote is very different from your falsehood. Trump said nothing improper. He was ridiculing Hillary for her gross negligence in handling classified documents.
Try just telling the truth for a change. Trump didn't ask Russia to interfere in our elections. Russia, and other hostile powers, have done that for decades.
Dean, Mueller identified nearly a dozen instances of Trump obstructing justice. More than a thousand former federal prosecutors from both parties signed a letter affirming their belief that the evidence was more than sufficient to prosecute Trump for that crime. Barr blew it off. Trump called the Secretary of State of Georgia and asked him to "find" the votes he needed to "win" that state. That's called election tampering and is being investigated for prosecution. He called elected officials from Michigan to his office and leaned on them to block the certification of results in that state. I could go on. He's now quite rightly being investigated for removing highly classified documents and holding them in his personal residence. And, of course, his company is being investigated for tax, insurance, and banking fraud in NY for which its CFO has admitted guilt. If you think Trump wasn't in on all this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be happy to sell you.
How many of those former federal prosecutors were Democrats? 90%? 99%?
You make lots of allegations but can show no violation that he could be charged with. If there were nearly a dozen instances of obstruction of justice the Democrats on Mueller's team would have made that charge. They couldn't because they didn't have a case.
As far as the NY prosecution goes that is as highly politicized as it gets. NY attorney general made a campaign promise to investigate everyone in Trump's family and all of his business connections. That is a general warrant and is as unconstitutional as it gets.
Wrong, Dean. Mueller did not make charges of obstruction because he left that up to Barr who ducked under DOJ policy that forbad prosecuting a sitting President. Then Barr issued a statement falsely suggesting that DOJ officials advised him that there was insufficient evidence to pursue prosecution. A Trump appointed federal judge has now reviewed the DOJ memo and has slammed Barr for misrepresenting its contents. A conservative group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, produced a video advocating prosecution for obstruction. The former federal prosecutors included: Donald Ayer, deputy attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, Paul Rosenzweig, deputy assistant secretary of Homeland Security under former President George W. Bush and Jeffrey Harris, deputy associate attorney general for former President Ronald Reagan. I notice you had no excuse for Trump's repeated efforts at election tampering, especially since the call to Georgia was recorded.
The Georgia call was recorded and when it came out there was no evidence of tampering. They purposely misrepresented what was said.
If there was any opportunity to charge Trump, they would have done it far before Barr came in and ruined their party .As for the Republicans for the Rule of Law, Never Trumpers have all sorts of organizations united in their hate - that doesn't make them any more legit than the Lincoln Project.
Yes, T247, it was recorded, and Trump pressured the Secretary of State with these words, ""I just want to find 11,780 votes," and Republican Brad Raffensperger responded to the pressure, "what happened in fall of 2020 is that 28,000 Georgians skipped the presidential race, and yet they voted down-ballot in other races. And the Republican congressman ended up getting 33,000 more votes than President Trump, and that's why President Trump came up short." What's "misrepresented?" And that's why Trump lost in all the battleground states. Moderate Republicans, especially suburban women disgusted with Trump's behavior, refused to vote for him, but went ahead and voted Republican down ballot. If the Democrats were plotting a massive scheme to win by fraud, don't you think they'd fix some of those down ballot votes as well?
Nice try, T247. but read the transcript. After Trump repeats lies about Dominion voting machines, and tosses out some numbers, this is the reply from the Secretary of State who refused to be pressured into "finding" votes: Raffensperger: "Well Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised. But they — I guess there was a person Mr. Braynard who came to these meetings and presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that's wrong. There were two." And if you bother to do the research, you'd find that the votes from dead people in Georgia and other states were for the most part submitted by Republicans who, in Republican states, got small slaps on the wrist, while Democrats caught for minor transgressions were given jail sentences.
So three people out of a thousand. The makes it 99.7% Democrats.
You haven't shown anything that Trump did that would be obstruction of justice.
And it was 50 out of 50 former intelligence officials who claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. You probably believe that too.
His *plan* to overthrow the election was obstruction of justice. The fact that it wouldn'a worked is immaterial.
The *plan* was devised by the lawyer John Eastman. After everything fell apart, he tried to claim it *wasn't* actually a plan. He "was just mapping out scenarios." Yeah, riiiiight.
He took the fifth in the House investigation, AFAIK.
"Eastman vs. Eastman's memo" lays it out for anybody to see plain and clear.
Naw, not so at all. First of all, Trump submitted his side-a the story to the Committee. I read it, and it was all fluff.
Second of all, You're completely wrong that if Trump did anything that was criminal Garland would have indicted him by now.
First of all, even *if* (and I'm just saying that, I don't think there's any "if" about it)... Well, if Trump completely broke the laws, there's a real good chance he'll *never* get charged. For reasons Barr said in this very interview.
And there may still be a little action from the Schiff / Cheney committee. But You gotta understand, right? All they were doing was gathering info for the DOJ. And they probably didn't get into it as deep as the DOJ could. So that's an on-going job.
Admiring your patience in suggesting this material to the demented Kommentariat of this newsletter. Would add that this interview was very interesting, giving insight into the mind of an ideologue who can make perfect sense on a lot of issues and then justify his further allegiance to a criminal that he would put back into the oval office just so that the heathens can't wreck the place with stuff like healthcare for all. And he talks about schools in "Europe". I actually went to one, which is why I know what a functioning public school system is like that works without prayers and pledges of allegiance and all the other 18th century crap. The idea that there would be an even tax base for all schools is the kind of atheist evil we have to prevent by putting the psychopath back in power. This time for good. And, oh, it's so difficult to find the right label for January 6th. That's just giving me angst. Hitler tried a coup first and got locked up. Then people like Bill Barr put him in power. And I mean, people exactly like Bill Barr. But you knew that already. Try explaining it to the dimwits who overwhelmingly read this source....
"...so that the heathens can't wreck the place with stuff like healthcare for all." As soon as you make goods or services provided by one individual to another a "right" for the second person (i.e. mandatory), you make the first person a slave.
1) What does Trump have to do with property taxes funding local schools? That's completely irrelevant.
2) What put Trump in power was NAFTA and trade with China. That kicked off the long chain of events that bankrupted blue collar workers and led to the current political climate.
Riots are parties for the deranged, whether it's January 6 or the federal building in Portland. What matters is not that there different versions of the deranged but that the former was orchestrated by a president who lost reelection and tried to stage a coup d'etat that failed. Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro, Erdogan etc. didn't require NAFTA or trade with China. Democracy ends sooner or later because it's too frustrating for enough people, so they band together and take over before the other tribe does. Just look out your window. You can see Antifa gathering at the gates. Joe Biden is their puppet. Time to act.
So you're part of the pompous "we-wear-watches-that-are-older-than-your country" set whose compatriots can't be bothered to stand up for Western Civilization and who are ceding Europe to young, determined, and unforgiving immigrants. Good for you.
If Trump planned to overthrow the government on Jan 6 so that he could stay in power, that was the worst coup d'etat ever carried out. What sinister megalomaniac bent on installing himself as president-for-life authorizes 20,000 National Guard troops two days before the coup (Pelosi and Mayor Bowser turned down the offer of extra security)? Also, what power-crazed despot to-be launches an attack on the most powerful seat of power in the world without a single armed person to carry out the plot? Instead, the so-called insurrection was led by a goof ball with a viking horn hat and a bunch of idiots who wanted pictures of themselves from inside the halls of Congress. Also, what tyrant tells his insurrectionists to "peacefully march and make your voices heard"? How's that going to stoke the necessary fervor to overthrow a government? Finally, even in third grade "Theory of Revolution" as taught in Venezuela, the kids learn that Hugo Chavez gained the backing of the military before he took power. Everybody knows that you need the guys with the biggest guns to take and hold power. I didn't see any "Tanks for Trump" streaming out of the Pentagon...
Check Politifact on those 20000 guard troops and Pelosi rejecting them. Just for a start. But I bet you're going to stick to Hannity and stay way to the right of even Rupert Murdoch on Trump's behavior on January 6. Then there's confusing the issue: nobody here said it wasn't a good idea for Europe to step up on it's own defense. And the fact that a lot of the people in the capitol that day were idiot partiers alongside the oath keepers and other armed lunatics proves nothing. When your own generals still understand that they have to protect the republic from YOU, you're going to incite an idiot crowd and say something only under pressure several hours later, blackmail Raffensperger in Georgia and file 60 frivolous lawsuits etc etc.
What does matter is that there are different varieties of the deranged. The issue isn't Trump, the issue is that both sides have weaponized and for the left that means that Democrats have weaponized against Trump. Hence the fake Russiagate scandal that resulted in a bogus impeachment, etc. Of course the response of Trump and the GOP is going to be extreme in the face of that extremism.
The issue is that both sides are spinning the country apart. The global populist movement is a symptom of a massive and growing schism between elites and everyone else. That's the underlying phenomenon but the specific dimensions are going to vary from country to country. In Brazil and the Philippines the catalyst was crime: in Brazil elites lives behind gated compounds with private security. Everybody else worries about getting shot on the way to the airport and that resentment is tearing the country apart. In the US the issue is economic uncertainty. Elites don't have to worry about losing their factory job and making do with 30 hours a week of driving delivery.
If the issue is a looming civil war the responsible thing for Biden to do would be to stop throwing gasoline onto the fire. Comparing Jan. 6 to Pearl Harbor? That's completely irresponsible, reckless, insane, etc.
Hi again, M. Slaw. Sorry I didn't get back to You on ACX. You probably noticed I'd gotten banned, so couldn't. I forget what it was about now.
I agree with everything You "said" except the last paragraph. It may be a bit of a stretch to compare it to Pearl Harbor. OTOH (On The Other Hand) both were an attack on the heart of the country. One on Hawaii. The other on our Constitution and the certifying of the Constitutionally elected President.
I saw that! That ACX guy is hypersensitive or something. I thought your post perhaps meandered a bit and ran on a little long but a ban seems like an extreme measure.
As for the riot, I think the real concern is that if things get really bad the issue won't be "riot" as in a singular event but "riots".
I think I remembered what You wrote on ACX M. Slaw. Wasn't it about the drowning child vs. the child with a broken leg?
In any event, I don't think that's a great analogy. *Anyone* can say they would obviously wanna save the drowning child. In TRW, how many would risk their lives if a kid was caught in a riptide? Would You? Me? I've seen stories where the child was saved and the rescuer drowned, and I'm not that great a swimmer. I'd try to stay away from drowning children in the first place, but that's just me.
But *main* point is it's a question of values, not drowning children. If You believe in the trope that *everyone* is Your neighbor, then yeah, You'd wanna donate to Africans. Like I posted on another comment, there's a *level* where that's true. In TRW, people form concentric circles of people that are close to them.
My values may be different than Yours. I value Americans very highly. I feel closer to my fellow American than I do to somebody in Africa. I don't think it's fair to say my values are bad in that respect. In fact, I could make a trivial case that what I'm doing is helping to produce the next Thomas Sowell. That'd be another bad analogy.
Not *certain* that responds to Your comment over on ACX, M. Slaw. But these are my views on that subject at any rate.
It takes a perfect storm of events for a riot to come about.
But happens, not doubt about it.
On ACX, I wasn't really aware of what I was "saying" to Scott. I was basically saying that EA is a bunch-a unnecessary crap. People should just give what they can, and save what they must. If I'd said it in those words, it might not-a slapped him so hard across his face.
My impression of him is that he doesn't like to be challenged, but not many do.
Look at the current spate of racist attacks by blacks on Asians. First, blacks are the racial group least likely to vote Republican. Second, the attacks are overwhelmingly concentrated in Democratic strongholds like CA and NY.
Finally, Trump improved his share of the minority vote from 2016 to 2020. For all of these reasons I find the argument that Trump is somehow a white supremacist to be nonsensical.
Slaw, provide evidence to support your assertions: “Look at the current spate of racist attacks by blacks on Asians. First, blacks are the racial group least likely to vote Republican. Second, the attacks are overwhelmingly concentrated in Democratic strongholds like CA and NY.”!
Reilly is a good source on this stuff generally and this was the correct reply to the challenge. What surprised me in his piece was that the percentage of whites was higher than I thought in these attacks. Very few people on both sides of the issue like to learn anything from empirical study. Good reference!
Ok, so there's agreement on some root causes, i.e. the insane wealth gap in the US and disenfranchised white middle class etc as the breeding ground for populist demagoguery. The disagreement is about the notion that Trump is a victim of some weaponized Democrat strategy. That's just as silly as the daily drumbeat about systemic racism on the left, for instance. Trump is no more innocent than Nixon ever was. It may turn out to be true that the DOJ handed him the nomination by having the FBI get the classified material they formally and repeatedly requested for months and months and we're lied to about. But it was the lawful and correct thing to do and signed off by a magistrate who had to be convinced of probable cause. That's one of your many witch hunt stories and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Finally, so what if Biden is a bit of a fool? Why is that the moral equivalent of what Trump and his associates have been doing? Answer: because any tortured logic will do to justify the horror people feel when they are made to believe that only Trump stands between them and the clown show from San Francisco coming to their town.
If the problem is Trump then why compare Jan. 6 to Pearl Harbor or 9/11? Look, in a parallel universe where Biden and Harris aren't disgusting assholes this is the speech they would have given on Jan. 6:
"Lincoln understood that a 'a house divided against itself cannot stand'. At a time of unique challenges abroad America's enemies seek to weaken her by dividing the country's citizens against each other. For the good of us all and for the sake of the country we must set aside our differences and recall that we are all Americans. We must unite for the common good. I call on all Americans to remember that our differences are insignificant in comparison to our shared values and I pledge that my administration will be one dedicated to national reconciliation."
But that's not what we got, is it? Instead we got more gasoline poured onto the fire as Biden forsakes the national good in favor of a short term political advantage. What's more it is very clear that he sees no difference between Trump and Trump's supporters: the MAGA crowd understands instinctively that attacks on Trump are only a proxy for an effort to suppress and disenfranchise his supporters.
Don't you get it? Neither side gives a fuck about the country. All they care about is going to war and if that plunges the country into an actual civil war that is fine with them.
Always mistakes. Meant to say I agree that neither side gives an eff about the country. That's basically what I said about the MAGA crowd in the longer comment.
Hi again, M. Slaw. Hafta disagree a bit on this one. Agree with a lot, tho.
"But that's not what we got, is it? Instead we got more gasoline poured onto the fire as Biden forsakes the national good in favor of a short term political advantage."
That describes Trump's presidency as well. That's why a lotta people voted against him, as opposed to voting for Biden.
"What's more it is very clear that he sees no difference between Trump and Trump's supporters: the MAGA crowd understands instinctively that attacks on Trump are only a proxy for an effort to suppress and disenfranchise his supporters."
That's very insightful. But probably not in the way You intend. You see, You're right that that MAGA crowd reacts instinctively. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's more-or-less what I've been "saying."
Here's the problem: While The Elect (as Professor McWhorter refers to the elites in his book) would sure like to suppress and disenfranchise You guys, they're not gonna be able to do that unless You *let* them. IOW (In Other Words), the MAGA crowd is it's own worst enemy. By eschewing all Rs who aren't MAGA, they're helping nobody but the Ds.
"Don't you get it? Neither side gives a fuck about the country. All they care about is going to war and if that plunges the country into an actual civil war that is fine with them."
I hear this mostly from the MAGA crowd. Including right here on this forum. It's fine with too many people here that we go to an actual civil war. And I don't see any pushback against that idea from anyone other than myself.
I'm only reluctantly a Trump supporter. I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 and but switched to Trump in 2020 because the left has gone crazy.
I would say that it takes two to tango. I blame both sides equally for the current acrimony that is spinning the country apart. The FBI raid on Trump is just one recent example. If there are no criminal charges I think that raises the specter of state sponsored action designed to impact the political process. Matt Taibbi, who is hardly a conservative, titled his article addressing the raid "Welcome to the Third World".
I skipped the Taibbi article. I'm pretty sure it was excessive and inflammatory.
I don't doubt that there was sufficient cause for the raid to recover those documents. Not sure it was handled correctly. It's still too early to say for sure because we haven't seen the affidavit.
But everybody wants to pour gasoline, right?
Personally, I seriously doubt there'll ever be *any* charges about *anything,* for the reason Barr said in this very interview. There should be a very *high* bar to charging a former president.
I'm not guaranteeing there *will* be a high bar, but I don't think even the Ds are *that* stupid that they'll just give '24 away, just because it'd be fun to charge Trump.
But never say never.
Now, if there's an *airtight* case of obstruction of justice, all bets are off. And, really, the evidence is there. But it may not be enough in a court of law, so there is that.
Pretty sure I heard Democrat Congress people ( Waters, etc.) and Senators (Warren, Schumer, etc.) urging people to go after the Supreme Court justices, attack them in restaurants, etc.
Slaw - Agree. Trump needs to take a different role, maybe as speaker of the house where he could get into some of the excesses and possible illegalities the Dems have committed.
But if he's the nominee for president I think it would be an escalation of this ongoing chaos and I sense we're about at the breaking point as it is.
The chaos is caused by the left because they won't accept the outcome of an election. The riots after Trump's election in 2016 were the precursor to Jan 6.
With more than 2 years to go until the next presidential election I think it's likely that the left will exhaust itself. But they will cause a lot of harm and probably loss of life. (The "mostly peaceful" riots in the 14 days following the killing of George Floyd resulted in 19 deaths.)
If Trump is the GOP nominee, we lose and the party that is moving further and further to the left wins. I believe the Dem party is fast becoming the Communist Party.
I don't disagree. But, see, I interpret it differently. The further the Ds move left, the quicker I believe it's likely there will be a backlash and a true reckoning against them.
Same with the Rs and Trump on the right, AFAIK.
And if they both continue in the directions they've *been* heading this past decade, I wouldn't rule out a viable third party in '28 or '32. That's just me.
From what I know of Andrew Yang, he's just like all-a them. Dishonest. But mebbe better days are on the horizon. (Gotta be part-fool to hope for things, but why *not?* ;-)
Well, the only reason he's running as a third party is he's been a candidate in two elections and nobody wanted him.
So, yeah, him holding himself as a shinging light of a new way forward (calling the party Forward) is really worse than a moron. Because he believes it himself.
What will matter is a) the state of the economy and b) how far Hispanic voters shift to the GOP. If inflation is still an issue in 2024 or the country is in the midst of a recession triggered to lower inflation then any Republican candidate will have a sizable advantage over the Democratic incumbent--and that includes Trump.
IMV (In My View), that's the *only* way Trump could win. Like You "say," pretty good chance the economics works out that way. So, yeah, he certainly *could* win.
But I'm not sure how many people are just gonna forget about Jan. 6 and all that led up to it. And given Trump's track record, he's liable to energize the Ds as much as, or more than, his base.
I don't think anyone other than Trump could *possibly* lose in '24, based on what I know now.
Trump is leading Biden in polls for the 2024 matchup and he is the favorite of the betting markets. A lot can happen in two years but the point that everyone should take away is that Trump is absolutely viable. He was defeated because of Covid, not because the country as a whole finds him intolerable.
Yeah, COVID did him in. At the same time, the majority *did* find him intolerable. At least I'm convinced that it took both-a those, and the latter was the most important.
How else You explain that *both* candidates got more votes than any candidate ever did before in history? You loved Trump, or You hated him. To his demise. It could be a repeat in '24. It would be, IMO, except Biden's been so bad (and had some bad luck to boot).
C'mon man! You and I both know that polls now mean nothing. In fact, polls the day before the election mean nothing. I can't recall, *exactly.* But I don't recall any polls being very accurate going back to Dubya. Especially not lately. Their method is, apparently, biased so bad they can't see straight, AFAIK (As Far As I Know).
Yeah, Trump *could* win like I've been saying over and over. I still think he's the *only* R that *could* possibly lose. I have my reasons for guessing that.
It doesn't matter what you think. Poll after poll has shown Trump at over 50% support for the next presidential primary with the next closest nominee at around 25%. That is dominating. The only thing that can stop Trump from getting the GOP nomination is a heart attack.
Next, regardless of who the GOP nominee is they will probably have a sizable advantage over the incumbent just because the economy is likely to still be screwed up. That means Trump, or whoever, will have a sizable advantage.
And the other wild card as I mentioned is the Hispanic vote. If it really does split 50-50 there is nothing the Democrats will be able to do to avoid defeat.
I get what you're saying and I hope you're right. I just know people that STILL with everything they see now would stand by their Biden vote. Even though they wouldn't let him run their personal business or watch their children. They also claim they would vote for anyone over Trump. I think they are so deranged they would vote for a rock instead.
The issue isn't politics, it's economics. No recession means high inflation for the next five or so years. And if there is a recession it will probably run through 2024.
I voted for Trump. I liked his policies and he did what most president never do and that is fulfill his campaign promises. But every time he spoke he made me cringe. I truly believe he is a megalomaniac who loves the sound of his own voice. He spoke without a filter. What popped into his mind, came out of his mouth.
I don't know if he is like Joe Biden who when he tells a lie he actually believes it's the truth. But then, Joe doesn't know what planet he's on.
Trump was the first President (in my 65 years) that I would actually watch when he gave speeches. He would be 30-40 minutes into a very powerful, historic speech, and then throw out some totally unnecessary and outrageous line that would negate everything he said up until that point. That line would be the MSM headlines and the rest of the speech would disappear. If you could put Obama's statesmanship with Trumps policies, it would be the perfect President.
True. Trump needed to be more statesmanlike and stop talking to the press so much. When he talked to press It never ended well because they hated him. Fewer press conferences would’ve helped him
Now, Obama *himself?* I just finished reading a book about the cause of the Great Recession. It was a bipartisan affair. Republican had a lot to do with repealing the regulation of Glass-Steagle (I think it's called). Gramm-somebody-somebody bill. Fought for by Gramm's wife who was head of Commodity Futures whatever, who SHOULD-a been regulating the over-the-counter crap.
But it was Clinton who signed that mess. Bush had no clue. Granted, most-a the bankers *involved* didn't really know. They thought the bubble would just go on forever. (Not *likely,* in my experience.)
Anyway, Obama's admin was made up of a lotta the guys that *caused* the problems. And one-a them, I was surprised to learn, was the recently interviewed Larry Summers. Oh yeah, he was *all* fired up by deregulating the OTC crap. One-a the main movers and shakers who did away with regulating the things.
Correct for the most part, JT. America had been dragged so far to the right by the Reagan years that the only way a Democrat could be elected was by moving to the center and adopting Republican policies like deregulation. Clinton and Summers do bear responsibility for the policy changes that sparked the financial bubble that led to the Great Recession. And, yes, Bush had no clue and the gaggle of economic advisors surrounding him were all Republican trickle-down, supply-side clowns who fiddled while Wall Street peddled packages of liar loan mortgages all over the world. The result was predictable. Unregulated capitalism always leads to corruption, excesses, financial malfeasance, and economic disasters. And then government steps in and bails out the "too big to fail" Wall Street giants, while average Americans are laid off to suffer.
Yeah, of all the billions, I think there was a pittance to help homeowners. I never saw the actual results of that. But heard so many anecdotes about how many people lost their homes that I think it didn't help much.
The banks? Couldn't be doing better. Yeah, they repaid the money they got. With interest. They never paid for the massive recession they caused, and all the harm that did for *years.*
I agree with you except, Obama was statesman. He wasn't. Obama said in a televised interview that he was lazy and I agree with him. He played more golf in his 8 years than Tiger Woods. He promised he would heal the racial divide in this country. He did more to widen the divide than anyone in modern times. I could go on but it would just make my blood boil so I won't.
LonesomePolecat. I always, after the initial shock of his over-the-top personality, paid attention to what he did and it was extremely good for the country. And, I agree with you, when he spoke, I cringed too.
I believe you are correct. The anti-Trump forces rioted after he won in 2016 because if they lose an election then democracy is at risk. So they show their support for democracy by rioting and trying to overturn an election with hoaxes.
The anti-Trump side set the precedent for not accepting the outcome of an election which the other side adopted on Jan 6.
I couldn’t help but think about the attempted character assasination of Justice Kavanaugh and the left’s attack on the Supreme Court after the Dobbs decision. How is that any different from January 6, except they are going after the Supreme Court in their homes, not in a building?
The "beast" seems to use manufactured hysteria and crisis to make it impossible for the average person to hold even recent political and social events in a workable daily context. I'm more aware of the growing homeless encampments in my city every day but can find no political discussion, and that's why we elect political leadership, that presents any rational discussion of or solution to the problem.There is opinion without end but national context and a dialogue based on practical cause and effect solutions and the implementation of such is entirely absent. TDS or not the homeless stay homeless. Drug use escalates and crime goes exponential.
It seems, in my opinion, that our elected political leadership has been totally subsumed and compromised by avaricious elitist finance which has abandoned America and moved to the world stage. It destroyed our economy and our industrial centers and is now in the final stages of gutting our remaining resources and installing a pretend Marxist feudal totalitarianism.
My point is that Americans, intentionally or not, have been stretched to the limits of survival. You're absolutely correct about the necessity of holding a clear sense of history and events but the psyop in place creates a power vacuum intended to prevent solutions that would benefit you and I.
I love that Barr spends half the interview talking about TDS and Bari’s TDS won’t let her focus on anything else.
By policy Trump was the best president of the last 50 years, at least, and it’s not especially close.
Of course stating that requires that we define what a “good” President is, which the left fundamentally won’t do - and ESPECIALLY the elite left - because then you can keep score. The left NEEDS it to be all about feelings to have a chance at competing (they know all their policies are awful for actual people) so they keep it all about feelings. That’s what Russiagate was - it kept it emotional. It’s what COVID was, and it’s what being the 5th losing presidential candidate in a row to challenge the results of the election but be the first to be decried as a “threat to democracy” for doing so is about.
I’d like to put a challenge down to Bari and/or anyone that writes for her to actually define what they would view as political success and then let’s see how their beacons - like Obama - did, relative to that scorecard. It’d be a very interesting game to play…
I agree with your take on Bari's TDS. When talking about Jan 6th she went out of her way to talk about the rebel flag and people with nazi emblems. As if that was a majority of the people. What about the vast majority of people with american flags? My favorite were the photos of the wild, out-of-control "insurrectionists" that calmly walked between the velvet ropes in the hallways. Yea, a truly dangerous bunch.
Overall I thought this was a very good interview. There is a lot for people who like/hate Barr or like/hate Trump to react to. Barr is very critical of Trump's temperment, and he backs it up with example. But then he still said he would probably vote for Trump depending on who was the democratic nominee.
By policy, Bill Clinton was a better president than Trump, and arguably the best of the past 50 years. Fiscally, under Clinton (and Bush 1), Democrats and Republicans passed bipartisan legislation in 1990 and 1993 that turned burgeoning budget deficits into surpluses within the decade, which also spurred economic growth. Clinton also championed and signed landmark legislation such as the crime bill and elimination of welfare.
Clinton's first two years were not good, with the health care debacle, but after he got his butt handed to him he figured out how to govern and produced great results his last six years.
On fiscal responsibility, Clinton gets an A, or maybe a B at worst. Bush 2, Obama, Trump, and Biden all rate a D- or F.
I'm sure many will argue Reagan was a better president than Trump, though Reagan was at best a C or C- on fiscal responsibility as his policies caused deficits to balloon. Bush 1 was a B or B-.
I like this, and Clinton did get a lot of things right. Of course Clinton's admin also carries the vast majority of the responsibility for the housing crisis in '08, and that can't be overlooked. Clinton's "everyone deserves a home" policy did not create economic freedom. He forced banks to give loans at sub market terms, they forced banks to do NINJA loans, and the rest is market catastrophe history.
Clinton was good on crime and welfare reform, I totally agree.
But, again, I used the analysis of freedom, and Clinton messed with the free market in a major way and we all paid for it handsomely in '08. He forced "freedom" isn't freedom.
Also, I want to be very clearly on the record as stating that on my grading curve the only way to get an A is to eliminate the 16th amendment. You could get a B if you cut government spending by 15% and tax revenue by 20%, which no one has even been close too.
I'd give Trump a C-. I'd give everyone else a D or worse. You get points for freedom and justice, you lose points for expansion of government (by definition a reduction of freedom) and lose TONS of points for injustice (starting wars really hurts here), and Clinton did some things right but he drastically expanded the bureaucracy, sent more soldiers overseas, and was responsible for massive financial market manipulation that crippled a generation.
Clinton ushered in the destruction of local media... And accelerated the global transfer of American jobs. China became a member of WTO under his watch.
Basically Clinton started centralizing power, increasing the scope of the Federal government. Main Streets in nook and crannies of this country were sold out, left to the dust bins of forgotten history.
He also helped NATO establish a more Offensive posture... which is great for the Neo-Con war machine AND Neo-Liberal global capitalism... Both which I would argue are bad for humanity, as a whole.
Bush II just continued many of the Clinton ways, but did so with a tax cut... And with more military stuff.
Bush was worse than Clinton, but the Trump years were invigorating. His policies I agreed with 75% of the time, as he looked to turn the lights of Main Street back on.
Decentralizing power in general.
His energy was a breath of fresh air. However, I have thick skin and am more of an 'actions speak louder than words' kind of person.
Actually, it was a great interview. Best if listened to to get the nuances of Barr's answers. That Bari comes with a set of biases of her own was obvious - you got it - to listeners. That did not interfere with Barr's responses nor the significance of this interview.
My personal take on Trump has little to do with his rhetoric at all, and a lot more to do with his actual policies, and his basic integrity and/or character. I thought he was a terrible president not because of his loudmouthed demagoguery (although that didn't help), but rather the things he actual accomplished while in office, and his overall leadership (or lack thereof) as someone befitting the office.
If you ask me, TDS applies to his reality-altering supporters, not his detractors. For the life of me, I still don't understand how anyone can look at his presidency in a positive light. And I'm not a lefty at all, just a reasonably-minded (I believe) independent.
Barring his behavior, please explain what things he accomplished as President that would lead you to say he's the best president in the last 50 years at least. Extra points if you can do so without an obvious nod to some sort of conservative ideology...i.e. good for everyone and not just anyone on the right.
You call that an argument? I see this repeatedly in these here comments.
Trumps trying to overthrow the election trumps all.
You're a MAGA-head and are deranged. DTS. Deranged Trump supporter.
You want some other bad policy decisions?
Again, Jan. 6 tops the right side-a the list (alluding to comment above).
Doing even more than Obama to divide the country into two sides that absolutely hate each other. A *lot* more than Obama. All it accomplished was empowering the Woke.
Cozying up to the totalitarians of the world. Getting a bad deal in Afghanistan. And I'm pretty sure he got a bad deal with China. Xi absolutely punked Trump when it came to the Wuhan virus. And here we are. His ambivalent actions during the pandemic cost thousands of lives. Nobody will ever know how many. His spending so much time on Twitter, rather than going over the daily Security Threats report.
That's without putting any thought into. The right side of my sheet could go on longer. The line at the top tho? Outranks anything You could put on the left side.
I fall somewhere between a supporter and a detractor since I voted for Obama in '08, non establishment candidates in both '12 and '16, and then Trump in '20, on the basis of his record alone. I'm not a republican, I'm certainly not a "Republican,", though I'm sure I share many things with them just as I, almost by default, do with "Democrats." I'd most aptly describe myself as a classical anarchist.
I view presidents through a simple lens - was the country more free and more just during their time. That's it.
Trump's criminal justice reform issues speak for themselves, I believe, but he reduced literally millions of petty drug offenses. He's the first president in my life to not start any foreign wars. He increased economic mobility by reducing corporate regulation at the fastest rate in 70 years - he is literally the first president in the last 70 years to increase real purchasing power of the bottom quintile of income earners.
He increased labor participation rate to the highest level since the 80's, violent crime fell off a map, we saw a 1 year increase in life expectancy in '19 before the ridiculous lockdowns undid all the progress that had been made regarding medical freedom.
I have no idea what "traditional conservative ideology" is, and I mean that generally, but those are the things I care about. He made the poor better off (Obama, on the other hand, made them literally worse off AND made the top 1% almost 400% wealthier - I covered it in my stack on big government eating the American dream), he reduced regulation returning energy independence to the US (once again gone) and he actually protected the border which saw fentanyl deaths take a two year decline as well (before once again skyrocketing in '20).
Those are the things I care about - and by those things he's the best president of the last 50 years, and again, this is from a guy who didn't even vote for him during his only actual term in office.
1. "He made the poor better off." Actually income disparity exploded under Trump thanks to his wasteful tax cuts. "Under Trump, the share of total income going to the prosperous and wealthy grew by a whopping 17 percent between 2016 and 2019."
2. "We saw a one year increase in life expectancy in 2019." You have no data to show that the small improvement in life expectancy was due to anything Trump did. It's far more likely attributable to the greater number of Americans who were covered my health insurance thanks to Obamacare. Trump, of course, failed to repeal that act as he promised, and never had an alternative replacement plan although he had promised that as well during the campaign. The U.S. lags far behind other G7 countries in life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality rates and other standards. We pay far more for healthcare and get far less for what we pay. It's disgraceful. That's your idea of "medical freedom" I suppose.
As for your comments about Covid deaths (you can't bear to mention the word) under Trump: "US health status worsened dramatically under President Trump when compared with the other G7 countries, a major study from the Lancet Commission1 has concluded. If the US had death rates equivalent to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK, some 461 000 fewer Americans would have died in 2018, and 40% of US deaths during 2020 from covid-19—around 188 000 people—would have been averted, the study estimated."
3. "returning energy independence to the US (once again gone) . . . " The claims of energy independence have been found to rest on manipulated data by numerous fact checkers.
4. ". . . he actually protected the border which saw fentanyl death take a two year decline . . ." Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl did drop modestly in 2018 before resuming their upward spiral in 2019. Trump's porous border wall, penetrated more than 3,000 times with ordinary tools, has done nothing to reverse the trends beyond a single, small reduction in 2018.
5. "Trump's criminal justice reform issues speak for themselves . . ." I'm glad Trump signed the bi-partisan reform bill but calling it Trumps's reform is a stretch. Democrats had been calling for these reforms for years and were happy to negotiate with Jared Kushner to realize the much needed changes.
6. Obama "made the top 1% almost 400% wealthier . . ." When he came to office the wealthiest 1% took (I won't say earned) 12.3% of personal income. After Obama raised taxes on the rich, that percentage dropped below 9% but as they always do, the rich and their tax lawyers found loopholes in the law and the percentage had climbed back to 10.9% by the time Obama left office, still lower than when he began. Meanwhile, the Republicans continued to reduce the IRS budget and audits of the rich kept dropping. The Republicans, predictably, are spreading hysterical claims about Biden's plan to augment the IRS staff and increase audits on the wealthiest Americans.
7. Obama made the poor "worse off." Nice try, Mr. Data, slipping in a comment without any context or factual data. Obama came to office as the economy was imploding in the worst recession since the great depression, a debacle caused by lax regulation (yes Clinton signed on to some of provisions that led to the debacle) and lax enforcement under Bush. Millions lost their jobs and the number of Americans living below the poverty line exploded. Obama's rescue plan and efforts by the Fed turned things around. At the start of Obama's Presidency, 13.2% of Americans were living below the poverty line. The number rose above 15% at the peak of the recession in 2010 and then began declining. By the time he left office the economy was growing steadily and the poverty rate was down to 12.7% and dropping. The final numbers for the Obama Presidency:
"The economy gained a net 11.6 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to below the historical norm.
Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.2 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.
After-tax corporate profits also set records, as did stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 166 percent.
The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million. Premiums rose, but more slowly than before."
Mr. Data, you appear strong on claims, but weak on substantiation. And your claim about Trump being a great President is laughable. Reputable historians and political scientists put him near the bottom of the rankings:
2. The data very clearly shows the increase in life expectancy was directly attributable to the decline in overdose deaths and murder. Nothing else about health has improved. No one agrees more that the US medical system is a DISASTER, but Obamacare made it worse, not better, and the data very clearly shows that in accelerating mortality trends, decreasing life expectancy and increased medical costs - https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/obamacare-has-doubled-the-cost-individual-health-insurance. So yes, our medical system is a disaster, we certainly agree on that. You don't actually think Obamacare is responsible for a 1 year decline in deaths do you? And here's the high level data - show me how obamacare helped? https://www.statista.com/statistics/184955/us-national-health-expenditures-per-capita-since-1960/
4. Sounds like we agree here, you just seem not to care, which is certainly fine. Or expect perfect, or, I'm not really sure but we're saying the same thing.
5. Again, we seem to agree.
6 & 7. I point you back to number 1 again. If you care, read through the piece, it outlines the data. You can agree with the assessment or disagree, but, as always, the data are what the data are when it comes to the complete destruction of economic mobility under Obama and the largest wealth transfer in US history.
I certainly agree that everyone who has a vested interest in the US government being as large as possible hate Trump. No argument there.
1. Thank you for your civil response. I look forward to reading your commentary about the decline of the American dream. I will come to it with my own views on the subject -- that the decline began in the 1970s and accelerated in the 80s under Reagan's trickle down, supply-side economic policies and his hostility toward working people and labor unions.
I'll be 78 years old in little more than a week. I grew up in the 50s and 60s when America had the world by a string. Europe and Japan lay in ruins, American corporations had little serious competition and labor and management took easy growth for granted. We reacted slowly and poorly when Volkswagens and Datsuns began to arrive on our shores. Detroit continued to build gas-guzzling behemoths strong on chrome and horsepower, but slow to adopt new engineering advances like fuel injection, disc brakes, and independent suspensions. The UAW beat Japanese imports with sledgehammers and attacked Asian Americans, killing at least one. Then came the Arab oil embargo, recognition of China, and a transformation of the American political economy that increasingly benefitted the wealthiest and best educated. Little has been done to reverse these trends. The financial sector grew and a new hi-tech sector emerged. Income disparity exploded and the middle class stagnated while the lowest income sectors slid into poverty
We need a Marshall plan for rural America and the rust belt to revitalize these sectors, to support family farms and rebuild the decaying infrastructure, especially in the decaying rust belt. Biden's infrastructure plan addresses some of these problems. Transforming the energy sector away from fossil fuels to renewables can also help. But labor and management must abandon dreams of a return to the easy days of the 50s and 60s. Manufacturing will become increasingly automated with robotics and the high dollar jobs will go to skilled technicians who keep the robots functioning. Job training and retraining is needed to address these changing realities.
2. "Nothing else about health has improved" since the advent of Obamacare. Not true. The difference is clear in states that expanded Medicaid. A detailed study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that states that expanded Medicaid (generally the blue states) witnessed "a 9.4 percent reduction (in annual mortality) over the sample mean, as a result of the Medicaid expansions." The Red states that declined to expand Medicaid under Obamacare saw no such improvement. Of course, the Republicans fought to eliminate the individual mandate and struggled to repeal the entire act which has reduced the number of uninsured Americans by more than 20 million individuals.
3. The article I cited in my previous comment affirmed my argument that "energy independence" is an abused and misleading term. You say Biden failed to "stay out of the way" and suggest that this ended our energy independence. In fact, Biden issued 34% more drilling permits in his first year in office than did Trump.
The spike in oil and gas prices is due almost entirely to the war in Ukraine and a sharp rise in demand as the global economy reopened. American oil companies were reluctant to expand drilling and pumping because they got burned so badly when the pandemic shut the economy down. They had taken on billions in loans to finance their fracking operations only to see the market grind to a halt. That's why I don't fall for the facile criticism progressives make about recent "windfall profits" among the oil giants. Those profits came after years of heavy losses and the oil executives are wary that another pandemic spike or the war in Ukraine may throw another wrench into the global energy market.
Gas prices have dropped more than a dollar a gallon since June, not because Biden stayed out of the way, but because he took action and ordered a record release from our strategic reserves and met with Saudis, however distasteful that may have been, and came away with a commitment to increase production. The spike in prices was demand driven and exacerbated by refinery closures from hurricanes and fires, not from Biden's interference.
Concluding remarks. "Everyone who has a vested interest in the government being as large as possible hate(s) Trump." Not true. As was the case for so many of Trumps promises, he failed in his commitment to shrink the government and "drain the swamp." According to the conservative Reason Magazine: "So under Trump's signature, before any true crisis hit, the annual price tag of government went up by $937 billion in less than four years—more than the $870 billion price hike Obama produced in an eight-year span that included a massive federal response to a financial meltdown. . . .So how about executive branch employment? According to the St. Louis Fed, crunching numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump inherited a civilian workforce of 2.815 million and kept that basically flat until it started rising around last July, presumably because the 2020 Census started to jack the number northward. No cuts."
And Trump ran the swampiest administration in my lifetime. Wall street magnates at Treasury and Commerce. A fossil fuel lobbyist running the EPA. McConnell's wife running Transportation and directing contracts to her family's shipping business. A billionaire with ties to the corrupt for-profit education industry at Education. A "developer" at Interior who was forced to resign for his corruption. I could go on. More cabinet and high level administration officials in the Trump administration were forced from office for their corruption than in any administration in my lifetime. Then come his temporary appointments -- unqualified loyalists and toadies willing to execute his majesty's commands. Not my idea of a great or even an acceptable President. Be well.
I am afraid I no longer trust your sources. Reason is hardly conservative as they would be the first to admit. But the main reason I question your opinions is simple. The left and the Biden admin do not allow serious criticism. They support the censorship and cancellation of serious critics. And they support the street thugs in every Dem run city who will beat up any pro Trump people. This Is quite obvious to me even if the media ignores it. This practice of the left tells me all I need to know about the left and the positions you take. If Bari Weiss dares go too far Commonsense will disappear.
Good Day, Dennies. It appears to me that you've chosen to dismiss everything I say because you think I mischaracterized Reason Magazine. The publication is libertarian, using the handle "Free Minds and Free Markets." I stand by my characterization. What's more, the data I cite from the Reason Magazine is from the St. Louis Fed and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unless you're an adherent of Rush Limbaugh's four pillars of denial -- deny anything from academia, the press, government statistics, or science -- my sources for that statement are pretty reliable. And it appears that you're guilty of making sweeping generalizations about sources, denying anything you deem to be from the left. I regularly read The Bulwark, The American Conservative and columns from such writers as David Frumm and Jonah Goldberg. I know. They're not Trumpists, so they're considered RINOs or worse by adherents to the Cult of Trump. Trump is no conservative. He's a narcissistic authoritarian who has neither respect for law, nor decency. Furthermore, I oppose the growing closed-mindedness that's infecting American campuses as I do the censorship of library and educational materials advocated by conservatives. Liberals aren't banning books from libraries or intimidating teachers who present a truthful representation of American history. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, closed-minded though they be.
Rather than offer any evidence that my statements lack veracity, you resort to smears and baseless allegations. It was not the left that partook in a seditious insurrection as part of a complex plot to reverse a certified election. It's not the left that's passing laws in state legislatures to empower themselves to overthrow the will of the voters. It's not the left that is issuing threats of insurrection and civil war from armed militias around the country. The greatest threat to democracy in our Republic at this time lies with the radical right.
IMV (In My View), it's Trump that gets in the way of it.
There are people, I think a lotta people, who could agree with most-a what You guys say. I'm one. But if You can't see through Trump and the harm he's, what can I say?
Again, in case everyone's forgotten. I've "said" repeatedly he's done a lotta good things. On balance? Nup. No question. See Charles Knapp and a few others.
Basically, what it comes down in favor of Trump is seeing things through the lens of a MAGA-head. I've posted this before. Take a sheet of ruled paper and draw a line down the middle.
Put all the things You like about Trump on the left side. All the things You dislike on the right. *Weight them accordingly.*
Most-a You would have blanks on the right side. And if You somehow managed a few items on the right, You wouldn't give them the proper weight. And the reason for most-a You (not all) is because You're *emotionally* invested in Trump.
And that's why a logical, really *organized* team will *likely* never happen. (Not impossible, Celia.) People with that big-a blind side get in the way, rather than helping.
Just brilliant! I am a classical liberal with a steel backbone to preserve freedom. Whatever your ideology, we are aligned. I love those few people left who see thru the BS and realize we need to fight hard to preserve freedom. If it is a man with an obnoxious personality, I do not care. Freedom is far too
It's interesting how you say you're Independent and reasonable... Don't we all self-report the same thing?
What I appreciated most about Trump was his internal and external transparency. He had strong opinions, and made everyone know exactly where he stood in real time. He had extensive (too much, IMO) media availability with adversarial journalists, who did what journalists are supposed to do... Ask tough questions and follow up with tough questions. [Where's our current President? Vacation?]
The external transparency was how he exposed the ugliness and unprofessionalism of the mainstream American news business.
They criticized everything, every day without context. The systemic bias in news organizations, something Ms. Weiss fans understand all too well, jumped off the page and screen. "The Emperor had no clothes!"
Now as far as his substantiative policies:
1) Controlled Immigration - which benefits low wage Americans
2) Eliminated ISIS Threat
3) De-escalated North Korea
4) Forced European countries to contribute more to NATO
5) Didn't get us in a war
6) Energy Independence
7) Raised Taxes on Rich by eliminating SALT deduction
8) Gave a voice to often forgotten "deplorables"
9) Oversaw economic conditions that benefitted full Economic spectrum (not perfect, but more equitable than Obama) -- even while the Fed began to taper QE (reducing their balance sheet)
10) Kept American life interesting and engaging
There are more, that people have mentioned, Abraham Accords, improved NAFTA, hard negotiating with China, etc...
E-Diddy, Let's consider some promises made, promises, kept, promises kept that didn't work out as he said they would, and promises made but not delivered.
1. Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. He failed to repeal and never had a promised "beautiful" plan to replace. He lied.
2. Trump promised to pass a giant infrastructure bill bringing us beautiful new airports, highways, and bridges. He never had a bill and delivered not a thing.
3. Trump promised to win a trade war with China, saying it would be easy. His tariffs drove up prices for American firms and consumers, the trade deficit grew, and China did just fine. Total failure. What's more, the tariffs have contributed to the supply chain disruptions that sparked inflation.
4. Trump promised and delivered on a promise to cut taxes, but the plan did not, as he promised pay for itself and it did include loopholes for big real estate tycoons that benefitted guys like Trump. The reduction in the corporate tax break did not spark a significant increase in capital investments; instead, the corporations used the breaks for executive bonuses and stock buybacks. The average taxpayer hardly noticed a thing.
5. The economy grew for the most part at the same pace sustained for eight years during the Obama administration. More jobs were added in the last eighteen months of the Obama administration than in the first eighteen months of Trump's rule. The tax cuts and spending increases blew the deficit wide open and when Covid hit, it exploded.
6. Trump repeatedly claimed that average household income grew by $5,000 due to his policies. In fact, a Census survey shows that median household income growth actually slowed in Trump's first three years to 2.1% annually compared with 2.6 percent under Obama.
7. Trump's love affair with Kim Jong-un was a fiasco that led absolutely nowhere but elevated a murderous dictator on the world stage.
8. Trump promised to revive coal mining in America. Thank goodness he failed; mining jobs actually declined. He promised explosive growth in the manufacturing sector. In fact, manufacturing jobs in America peaked in 1979 and saw growth only briefly during the Clinton years. Even Harley-Davidson closed a plant with Trump in office.
9. Trump promised to build an "impenetrable" wall along the Southern border and Mexico would pay for it. In fact, he completed about 250 miles of his wall and it's been penetrated more than 3,000 times using common power tools. Mexico, of course didn't pay a thing, so Trump took money from the Pentagon budget, which killed some much-needed housing repairs on our military bases. Failure.
I could go on, but most historians and Presidential scholars place the Trump years near the bottom in their rankings of American Presidents. I pray that we won't be subject to a second term.
A year and a half of Biden & America's best and brightest
1. Afghanistan fully & quite disorderly transferred a country to the Taliban. Including 7.1 billion dollars of weapons, ammunition, and vehicles. An organization that believes oppressing, raping and disallowing education to women is a right. 23 million women. Iran is looking at negotiating with the Blinken and Biden crew, mostly likely thinking- holy crap how did we get this lucky? Not a single person at State Department was held accountable. Why is Blinken still the Secretary of State?
2. As of yesterday mortage are on track to more than double for every American seeking to buy a home. At least 2-2.5% higher interest rate coming in the next year per the fed. The combination of higher mortgage and lending rates will flatten any gains of the half a trillion dollar student debt stunt (addressed below).
3. Parents groups are being reported to the FBI by school boards who disagree with policies that are negatively affecting their children.
4. Supply chain & transportation erosion in the US. Due to health and environmental policies. Due to health & environmental policies regardless of massive damage to citizens and communities across the US. Again, no legislation, no representation. Instead, governance by fiat.
5. Shutting off wide swaths of domestic energy production as the first presidential act of the Biden administration was the direct cause & one step away from the birth of violent upward inflation. The US consumes 20% of global supply. What did you think was going to happen? The oval office manufactured this with a Presidential order signed by JB. This will take a decade to fix economically.
6. A half of a trillion dollars of national treasure spent with no congressional oversight on student. Not one issue of the underlying cost or value of higher education was addressed or solved. Presidential fiat almost like a King would do, of course using basically an emergency order, like a doctor's note to spend half a trillion. This is not an investment in the interest of 80% of US citizens. Questions like; How do we change things so students and parents do not become enslaved to educational debt? How can we hold high school counseling and colleges responsible for horrible advice in personal spending? There is $1.7 billion dollars of debt that financed this mess- Should colleges and universities be taxed if their tuition is above a certain dollar value? Can a few thousand institurions who have raked in trillions of dollars still legitimately be considered non-profit institutions? How healthy would these types of conversations be for the US and it's citizens? However, we were deprived of this debate by fiat.
7. The DOJ investigating his son without a Special Counsel. It would be one thing if the American public did not see the pictures and all the emails. However, about a 100 million people have seen them & it's the kind of corruption you cannot just waive away.
8. The lowest amount of press conferences of any modern President.
Barr's assessment of Trump is spot on. I could never vote for him. Never did either. But if I had to keep Biden out of office- I might.
Matt, thanks for your civil comment. I had hoped to focus this thread on the original subject -- Trump. I share many of your comments regarding Biden's shortcomings, but many need to be put in context.
1. Yes, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a debacle. But Trump agreed to a May withdrawal. Biden pushed it into August. A clean withdrawal with evacuations of all our Afghan allies would have required another major escalation, and the Taliban would have resumed its attacks and the Afghan military would have collapsed -- it was worthless without U.S. leadership and air support. Biden was right in opposing the 2011 surge -- a major mistake of the Obama administration. Trump failed to end it and left the mess to Biden. Just like Vietnam (I'm a vet) we never should have intervened, and our intervention only made things worse.
2. Your comments relating to inflation: I'm among those who warned about impending inflation for years. We've been propping the economy up with funny money since the Bush Great Recession and the chickens have come home to roost. I opposed Biden's third pandemic rescue plan and thought the first two under Trump were far too sweeping and poorly regulated. Retired folks like me who neither lost jobs nor income did not need government handouts. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been scammed by fraudsters making phony claims for PPP support and the cost of prosecuting them will outweigh any money regained. But inflation is a global problem, sparked primarily by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and a tight labor market. Biden will take the blame, but the same things would have occurred with Trump in office.
3. Parents groups are being reported for disrupting meetings, threatening officials, and intimidating school boards. They should be. Same for those who threaten election officials. What policies are "negatively affecting their children?" Teaching a truthful version of American history? Explaining human sexuality in accordance with the best science? These angry parents have been triggered by mendacious reports about CRT and "grooming" of children. Parents worried about their children being "groomed" and abused should look to the three largest institutions responsible for child sex abuse, all conservative: The Catholic Church, the Southern Baptists, and the Boy Scouts. We have a nationwide teacher shortage, and our public schools are being ruined by meddlesome parents who don't know what they're talking about.
4. I'm not with you on the supply chain interruptions "due to health and environmental regulations." Trump's trade war sparked the supply chain problems and they were exacerbated by the pandemic. I take climate change and other environmental crises very seriously and favor doing far more than we have to preclude far worse summers of wildfires, drought, and flooding than we've seen across the planet this year. "Transportation erosion" follows years of neglect of our infrastructure. Trump promised to do something about it and of course, he failed. Biden, finally, passed a major infrastructure bill that will address our crumbling roads, bridges, ports, and airports.
5. Wrong, wrong, wrong. In his first year in office, Biden issued 34% more drilling permits than did Trump. The escalation in oil and gas prices is a demand problem exacerbated by the loss of refining capacity due to fires and storms, and the oil companies reluctance to resume drilling. American oil production largely depends on fracking, an expensive and inefficient process. The last time the oil companies took out huge loans to support fracked drilling the rug was pulled out from under them when the pandemic shut down demand. They lost a fortune. That's why I'm less critical about the "windfall profits" Big Oil is making now after years of losses. Gas prices have dropped more than a dollar a gallon since June. Biden consented to make nice with the Saudis and approved a major release from the strategic reserve. I didn't approve of either move.
6. I largely agree on the student loan executive order.
7. I have far more faith in an independent DOJ under Merrick Garland than I did under Trump and Barr. Several investigations have uncovered nothing of substance on Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, a softie on family issues, erred egregiously in approving Hunter's elevation to the Board of Burisma; the appearances are terrible, and he's paid the price for wanting to help his son recover from addiction. I'm wait-and-see on this.
8. Everyone knows Biden is prone to gaffs. It was a prudent decision to limit the number of formal Presidential news conferences and let Cabinet and administration officials explain policy. The daily press briefings are far more open and truthful than they were under Trump who banned reporters he didn't like. Presidential press conferences often are noting more than caustic exchanges with gotcha questions and carefully crafted messaging. Obama was occasionally funny and interesting to listen to at a press conference. The best press conference shows in my lifetime were staged by JFK. He was very clever, often self-effacing, and, when needed, effectively confrontational. Haven't seen another as good since, but that didn't preclude serious mistakes like the Bay of Pigs or the coup and murder of President Diem in Vietnam that led directly to our escalation.
If we're lucky, we won't have either Trump or Biden on the ballot in 2024, but stranger things have happened. Be well. I'd be happy to provide documentation for any of my comments. Here's a good one on the drilling issue:
Will we be reviewing the promises of every President in history?
Including Mr. Clinton's?
Don't forget, Trump was not exactly a Republican.
In the four year term he faced a Russian spy probe, an impeachment, a Pandemic, and another impeachment.
I'm not making excuses, just giving the political the environment. If you don't like Trump, that's fine. I'm not on Trump's payroll. He's suboptimal, but he was a first salvo for "Silent Majority" that is completely disgusted by the greed, corruption, and mismanagement of our institutions.
So many are looking to Drain this Swamp. It's the one promise I wish he kept. We are headed off a cliff, and our galant gentry, elite.
Well said, E-Diddy. I share your anger about the greed and corruption that pollutes our body politic and political discourse. But Trump ran the swampiest administration in memory. Wall street bankers running Treasure and Commerce. A flunky for Big Oil running the EPA. A billionaire tool of for profit "educational institutions" running Education. The wife of Mitch McConnell running Transportation where she steered business to her family's shipping business. I could go on.
And I forgot to mention that one promise Trump kept in spades -- he packed SCOTUS with three activist right-wing judges who will ensure that large corporations and the wealthiest Americans will continue to pour money into the coffers of lobbyists and political campaigns sustaining the power structure you call "the swamp." A Chicago billionaire just dropped more than a billion dollars on a far-right group that operates as a non-profit under our scandalous tax laws. If you think this group aims to advance the interests of average working Americans I have several bridges in Brooklyn I'd be glad to sell.
His personal decisions were bad terrible. Some very bad decisions, in retrospect. I'm hoping the events of his term, helped reveal the snakes within our midsts.
The Republican party was/is loaded with them.
The distinction between MAGA and Trump as well as, MAGA and Republicans is important.
'Far Right' doesn't mean what it used to mean thanks to our media and weaponized DoJ. MAGA is mostly a shoestring, grassroots, earned media operation. There are some true MAGA benefactors... But not nearly as much as establishment Republicans or Democrats.
That has been the biggest change recently. The political realignment is stark, especially where I live (Coastal Elite). Around here the Trump signs are all over working class neighborhoods. Up and down, as soon as you leave the hard pull of the urban centers.
The wealthy, urban, Leftist types are moving out of the city centers. The amount of wealth they have is grotesque. Second and third homes are in bidding wars, private schools are getting waiting lists, four story homes are being built on on the water, crammed in between two other new four story homes. Blocking the view of the water for everyone else... But not to worry. Those $9m homes all have a Ukraine sign, a Biden sign, a BLM sign, and/or a Pride sign.
Their are two oligarchies that have so much power. The tech oligarchy and the financier oligarchy. The tech oligarchy loathes Trump, around here the financial Oligarchy is turning on Trump because they prefer controlled opposition.
Chairman Powell is a good illustration. Mnuchen supposedly advocated for him because he was controllable.
Excellent comment, and keen observations. I share your sentiments for the most part. But MAGA world is being deceived by one of the greatest hucksters in history. Trump is a grifter and he's always out for himself. When he gets caught, he points fingers at the dark state and his fundraisers hit up his followers for contributions and the money flows in. Soon its being spent on Trump's estates or on Steve Bannon's yacht trips.
I've been in both of the worlds you describe. I spent 25 years in academia, publishing scholarly books. Then I spent 25 years driving a big rig and working in the trucking business. Yes, the coastal elites and much of the Democratic Party have lost contact with rural America and the working class. There are hopeful signs, however, such as Tim Ryan in Ohio. In 2016 I supported Bernie Sanders. It's a shame that working class Americans have been spooked by the word "Socialism." Bernie Sanders has fought all his life for working class issues. He stands up to Wall Street and giant corporations. He fights for better health care and education for everyone. Trump tosses out red meat and hits grievance buttons that spark anger and divisiveness but does little that actually makes a difference for working and rural Americans. Family farmers were hit hard by his trade war while the relief he offered went to large corporate farms.
And Bernie and I may differ with you on your apparent discomfort with efforts to confront systemic racism, misogyny, and homo-and transphobia. Trump and now DeSantis in their "anti-woke" campaigns are appealing to the basest of hateful sentiments. I condemn the most extreme expressions of "wokeness" on college and university campuses, but I equally condemn the far-right's hostility toward real immigration reform, its growing expressions of anti-sentimism, its denial of systemic racism, and its opposition to meaningful reform of law enforcement. MAGA types support the police until they don't and then beat the crap out of cops at the Capitol while participating in a seditious insurrection.
Abraham accords - the most substantial movement towards peace in the Middle East since WWII.
The return of manufacturing to the US, the build up of small business, the lowest unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics, the reduction in ILLEGAL immigrants proving fairness to LEGAL immigrants, and giving a sovereign country a real border so it can retain its sovereignty, making rich Germany start to pay for our protection, countering Chain. Gotta go - just off the top of my head.
Murder rate reduced in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (after back to back increases in 2015 and 2016). Then it went up in 2020 with leftist cities rioting and return to soft on crime / anti-police policies.
The Abraham accords were indeed something substantial, but whether or not it improves the peace in the Middle East is not very clear at all. It formalized and improved some of the relations between Israel, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, a few other minor nations. Yet it also further isolated Iran, which could be good or bad depending on how a lot of chips fall. And it also did almost nothing for the giant elephant in the room: Palestinian sovereignty and/or nation hood. Recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and moving our embassy there didn't exactly make relations better either, but that wasn't a part of the Accords. Ultimately it did little to really solve any of the old rivalries in the region, but economically it was a net positive. So okay, slight edge there I guess.
American manufacturing as a % of GDP has stayed at the same level, or very slightly declined, since 2009. Not sure how you can say it's 'returned'.
Small businesses; I'm assuming you mean his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? Yeah the pass-through deductions and individual cuts are nice...but they all expire in 2025. By contrast the corporate tax cut is permanent. It was much better for corporations than it was for small business owners.
Black and Hispanic low unemployment rate. They both have been trending down for a decade, which Trump policy did you think was helping push this down? Or push down faster?
Immigration and Borders. Yes, illegal immigration went down. Net positive for Trump.
NATO/UN (Germany). Yes, he did get some European nations to foot more of the bill. Net positive for Trump.
China. No...hell no. No idea how you think he made relations with China better, or is somehow countering them better. Pompeo rightly called it our (and the West's) biggest threat. But Trump, if anything, made things worse with China. And calling out the origin of Covid doesn't count.
Small note- the Abraham accords and the trump moving the embassy were and still are very important. There is a lot going on because of this. It has had a big effect on the region. Making israel strong makes the region more stable and helps israel when dealing with the Palestinian issues esp if they have negotiations. When the american government tries to make nice with the Palestinians the Palestinians abuse that and the opposite is achieved. The Palestinians rejected the peace plan before they even saw it, before it was released. If they truly want peace, they have a partner. But one can’t force peace if the other side isn’t serious about it. The rest of the Middle East coming together against Iran is a very good thing. It’s going to have a major impact on the future. Of course if the Americans give the Iranians 100 billion dollars and freedom to plot horrors that will not be a good thing.
I think some of the above posters just want a lot of people to pay attention to them and reply so they can haughtily dismiss every great achievement like some spoiled children… they abuse and slander Trump supporters while apparently knowing few of them well… they have to have the last word yet seem very little experienced with real life… overeducated for their intelligence probably :P
R U kidding about Iran? Obama & Biden are giving them the atomic bomb. Of course, Iran should be isolated and deprived of the bomb. And that is exactly what Trump was doing. I am very
Close to Israel and Israelis. They adored Trump. You have to be an Islamist who buys the woke narrative on Palestinians and Iran. Were you happy with the stabbing of Salman Rushdie? It is the most dangerous exporter of terror.
I was a furniture manufacturer for 28 years. I crossed the border nearly every day for 16+ years because I had a very large factory in Mexico. Those who are not familiar with the border have no idea how open it has been until Trump did everything against the open border crowd to give us a border. As an entrepreneur who knows hundreds of entrepreneurs including many Hispanic entrepreneurs, I know how he helped small businesses and manufacturing. I find your obvious bias may lead you to throw out false stats too obscure to research in a timely way for this forum. So I’ll just say I suspect your stats. Over and out.
"You have to be an Islamist who buys the woke narrative on Palestinians and Iran. Were you happy with the stabbing of Salman Rushdie? It is the most dangerous exporter of terror."
This is what I'd expect if You were a MAGA-head. Are You?
And it's really convenient to just say You suspect the stats. "Over and out." That's what it almost always comes down to when Centrists start pulling out the *facts* of the matter. Sorry.
Trump was the one who backed out the nuclear deal, which was created precisely for preventing Iran from acquiring bombs...not sure how you can read that another way.
I'm not close to Israel in particular. Or Palestinians. Or biased toward any of the people over there really...the specific religions and/or cultures are non-factors in how I approach an opinion on anything over there.
Rushdie, no...it was a tragedy. Freedom of speech is a sacred right. Same with Khashoggi. If you're going to judge Iran in that light, then do so for Saudi Arabia too. Not saying Joe would have done anything different, believe me, but Trump did nothing about Kashoggi's grisly murder. If anything he simply disregarded it completely when cozying up to bin Salman.
I already stated Trump was a net positive on the border.
Entrepreneurship is great, but that's like 1% of the population. The other 99% simply want a decent job. The vast majority of people can't and shouldn't be entrepreneurs, it's simply not close to being possible. I don't know why entrepreneurship is always put on this grandiose pedestal as if it's the pinnacle of all wealth and commerce or something. They're just the guys with good ideas, but most of the economy is simple transactions and bland supply and demand.
I literally got my facts by doing simple wikipedia and/or google searches while writing it, and disregarded any obvious biases like MSNBC and FOX. Look them up yourself if you like.
Hoping people here will confront the facts of the matter is probably a vain wish, but a nice thought, Sir Elliot.
"but that's like 1% of the population. The other 99% simply want a decent job. The vast majority of people can't and shouldn't be entrepreneurs, it's simply not close to being possible. I don't know why entrepreneurship is always put on this grandiose pedestal as if it's the pinnacle of all wealth and commerce or something."
I dunno the percentages.
I was basically a kid, less than 30, when I attempted two businesses. But finally went into freelancing in 1995, before it became a "side-hustle."
The reason most businesses fail is because people can dream big, but most people don't like to confront the facts of the matter. Same problem in all walks of life, and in all our personal actions as well.
Dennies is to be congratulated. I don't mean to compare what I did to what he's done.
But I do mean to say that even a small business has a lot to offer a person. Most people go into it because they wanna be their own bosses. No boss? What's not to like? Thing about it is, if Your in biz for Yourself, every customer is Your boss. If You don't have that attitude, that customer is *King,* You don't last long. (However, they may not always be right.)
And entrepreneurship gives a person who has a good capability of taking *responsibility* more personal agency than any other walk of life. Doing a good job is a *great* feeling, for *some* people. For the entrepreneur, there's absolutely *nothing* like it.
And we'll need a lot *more* entrepreneurs. Because they have the *best* chance of surviving the continuation of automation and AI, right? Dunno it'll happen. The multi-nationals are doing everything they can to squeeze out the little guys. And they got a big boost of success when the pandemic hit, right?
Yeah, shut down all business. Except the big-box stores. Riiiiight. ESG? Another way to bury the small businesses with pure unadulterated crap. Ask Yourself who has the money to support a bloated DEI bureaucracy?
I don't think these things are accidents, either.
TYTY for Your reply, Elliot. I wish others would try to engage with You more.
Yeah, I think this is a difference in definitions. To me an entrepreneur is not simply someone who owns their own business, that's just a sole proprietorship, small-business owner, or whatever. When I hear entrepreneur I think new and risky; someone who sort of gambles on an innovative idea or product in the marketplace.
So like, someone who opens up another gas station in town is not really an entrepreneur in my opinion. He or she is simply contributing to an already established and normal market.
But someone who opens up a new charging station for EV's in town, when there are none existing, that's an entrepreneur. They are taking a extra risk on something outside the normal risks associated with simply owning your own business.
Bezos is the poster-child for an entrepreneur who tried something new and succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But when that kind of business (massive online purchasing) gets normalized, like it already is now, I certainly would not consider someone else doing the exact same thing now that Bezos did 20 years ago to be some kind of entrepreneur. They are just a business owner.
The root of that word is enterprise, which by definition assumes a high degree of risk and/or difficulty. That's how I take the word, and why I used it in my response above.
Yeah, I get it that what You describe is the common notion of entrepreneur. The Billionaire.
That's so far from the truth of the matter is one reason why there aren't more entreprenuers. Until You've actually given up Your living wage and had all the money You make rest on Your shoulders alone, I don't think You can understand. That's *plenty* risky.
More risk than people can rationally deal with.
The guy opening the gas station doesn't get much glamour, true. To the person that saves time going to the next gas station it's pretty nice.
Not a billionaire per se, I was just using him as the most successful example of one. Most entrepreneurs are barely getting by, I understand that.
What I was focusing on was the risk and innovation aspect. Like the guy who came up with the OneWheel skateboard. Imaginative new take an old concept, started it all himself, really slick (if pricy) product. That guy's an entrepreneur.
But someone who simply owns a regular old skateboard shop (if that even exists) I would not consider an entrepreneur because he or she is simply continuing on a product that has existed for decades, ya know?
It's like, if someone comes up with a new concept for a 3-wheeled car, or even tries to open a new dealership for a 3-wheeled car that someone else came up with, I would say they are both entrepreneurs. But if someone simply opens a regular car dealership where they have always existed, there's no real enterprise to that equation. It's just filling a niche with a normal and common good.
There's a lot of subtlety to it I guess. All I'm saying is that if we are to consider every small (or even big) business owner that exists to be an entrepreneur, then almost business is one. That waters down the term too much for me. I don't see the guy who opens up another McDonald's in town as an entrepreneur, he's just another store manager.
I used to agree with that. Feelings are a large part, but since the Left has hijacked, once venerable, institutions, they can also just change operational definitions ad hoc.
So they can quickly appeal to rational actors by being more artful in their "statistics" and having their media cohorts quickly disseminate and popularize deeper rationales without much critical vetting.
Joe Public, doesn't think twice about how "deadly" COVID is for everyone, or how there are so many more "named storms" due to climate change, how "safe" the vaccine is for "everyone," and how Trump is an "election denier" because he perpetuates "the big lie."
Very well put E. When operational details are applied or challenged to the feelings-based rationales it's a mess.
As an example, electric cars, the universal solution to save the world, pure myopic thinking at its best. California declares no gas cars in 2035- well the average age of an electrician is 58. They've made a bunch of money and are retiring. There are 40 million cars in the state and no one to hook them up by 2035. How are colleges and their bailed-out students going to fix this whopper? The intellectual incest at these institutions- college, law, media, and the progressive religion is awe striking. I guess it needs to collapse to get a reset. It's hard to watch.
I totally agree, it is a shame that president Obama refused to peacefully turn over the presidency to President Trump in 2016, instead resorting to trumped-up FBI surveillance, falsified affidavits seeking FISA warrants, and never-ending politically motivated investigations embroiling our government and our fellow Americans in what has become years of divisiveness and turmoil.
Zuckerberg just admitted the FBI lied about Hunter's laptop! So Trump was right - the election was rigged! And let's not forget Hillary saying how Trump stole the election!
Yes, but not turning over power is not turning over power. Making a lot of noise, blasting out a lot of rhetoric, and floating legal theories that fail is very clearly not "not turning over power". It's "not turning over power gracefully."
I appreciate the dialogue here, but I will tell you candidly that when you basically resort to saying I'm blind to the facts, you start to come out looking very badly and lose credibility. Please cease ad hominem thrusts and try to parry by argument.
"And you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen. You know, I mean, I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."
"Oh, I don't know, look Brad. I got to get... I have to find 12,000 votes and I have them times a lot."
"We don't need that. All we have to do, Cleta [Trump's attorney] is find 11,000-plus votes."
Your problem seems to be is that you believed a lie, which came from a biased leaker, spoken to a journalist who used the very poor practice of going to press without confirming beyond one anonymous source.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's true You were just pointing out the faults.
I guess I was just trying to say that I'd appreciate it more if You could find fault with mine. I doubt there's any; be surprised if there were. But I've been wrong about as much as right a lotta times, so there is that.
My statement was one of shitty legal defenses - a client is accused of attempted murder so his lawyer argues that attempted murder shouldn't be a crime in the first place. Not a defense that is likely to succeed, but very analogous to MAGA zealots defending Trump's attempts at criminality as "mere attempts".
I caught the repetitive slurs. Crimes are prosecuted. An act or omission is a crime if a written statute of a jurisdiction is perceived by a prosecutor to have been violated. Most jurisdictions have various acts or issues that are delineated and then.there is a statutory definition of attempt. While I can conceive of a situation where a defense lawyer might argue that no crime was committed in an attitude case, it would nor be as a defense but rather in mitigation at best.
Sorry, but I view that argument as hinging on a technicality.
Yeah, Trump *literally* did end up handing over power. Very UNgraciously.
But, You see, making *plans* to overthrow the elected government to *keep* power goes a fair bit *beyond* the idea that he didn't turn over power "gracefully," right? Trying to pressure Pence to help him *overthrow* the elected government isn't a question of gracefully or not gracefully, right?
It's like Barr said. When the electors were certified, the election was OVER. Except according to Trump, and his looney-tunes advisers who told him what he wanted to hear.
jt, if Trump had done the things you asserted, six plus months of hearings would have turned up evidence to charge him with treason. Instead, it has resulted in a daily torrent of "news" releases merely repeating the false assertions. You and your fellow deranged accusers have turned up nothing to support your assertions.
I would say the Pence entreaties and then anti-Pence rhetoric were the worst thing by far, as they are the only thing (pending your answer to more specificity) that went beyond pushing within an existing system, exhorting someone to take a step that pushed beyond boundaries. But it's like suggesting that someone be aggressive on their taxes in a way you think might be legal but aren't sure, and is a world apart from not moving your stuff out and pulling guns. And, honestly, you introduce a bipartisan bill to clarify that that's not acceptable and you completely imply that it might have been.
In 1876 the election was even more contested, and in a similar way. The results were that one candidate won by one electoral vote, but the party that at first lost ended up getting their President into office after claiming that black people were denied the vote in too many circumstances for the election to be certified as it stood. The initial results of the election were overturned. Was that "not turning over power"?
Man, I've posted this so many times my fingers bleed. Don't make me repost the links.
Read "John Eastman vs. Eastman's memos." That was the plan. That was so far beyond the system that Eastman took the fifth during the House investigations.
I think You're referring.. Yeah, You are. Hayes. That was in no wise the same as the election of 2020, right? You're not gonna make a comparison are You? That'd be a false comparison, if You do try it.
BTW at this point to sum up the top level discussion, you admitted that Trump did turn over power, but you think it's more than ungracefully.
I only noted your absolute statement that a good President is one that turns over power. You have admitted that he turned over power, but you don't find Trump to be a good president.
So what remains is that you find a phrase to modify your original statement that is more powerful than "not gracefully". Perhaps "a good President is one that turns over power without legal challenges and election overturning maneuvers above and beyond what most consider reasonable". I can agree with that.
You're getting fancy with words. Yeah, I agree You're literally right. That doesn't say much, IMV.
I think it's plain on the nose on Your Mother's face.
Trump planned out how he could keep power. It's not a question of "gracefully" or not. To me, it's more a question of how delusional he was in his thinking that he thought he could actually get away with it.
A good President doesn't try to overthrow the election AFTER THE STATES ELECTORS HAD BEEN CERTIFIED IN MID-DECEMBER.
Is that clearer? In case You don't know, after that the *election was over.* The winner was chosen, and it wasn't Trump. He is of such poor character, and was such a sore loser, and for other reasons just could *not* psychologically admit to the truth of the matter.
It was a done deal. Any reasonable candidate would have seen that. He was UNreasonable, and I'm not at all sure that he wasn't largely unhinged from reality. Like I pointed out above.
Yeah, You're technically right about the way I phrased things. You missed the whole spirit of what I was saying. I think there's a reason for that. And I hope this has cleared up Your confusion. No sarcasm.
I don't need the links, familiar with all that stuff and stand by what I said. Also about 1876, it doesn't compare only in that when the persons who contested the election got loud enough, the whole thing was thrown into a special election committee. The only difference here was that Trump didn't have enough evidence (because it didn't exist) to push the argument credibly enough to get to a special election committee or similar brokered deal. So basically it was the kind of thing Trump wanted to achieve but did not, but it was a clear historical precedent that he would have loved to follow. The system was pushed so hard that the electoral college vote final tally had to be judged by a specially formed committee, and all parties agreed to do that.
If You're familiar with John Eastman's antics, and that doesn't convince You that Trump was planning on overthrowing the election, then You've gone through such mental contortions there's not much I can say.
Fact is, at this point, I don't recall what You're standing by that You said before.
I'm curious about this process of turning things over to a special committee. But not important. The whole thing was some-a the worst backroom deal-making that's ever gone on. From what I know of it, Hayes would do anything to get hold-a the presidency, and he accomplished that by ending Reconstruction. The rest is history.
It's actually an awesome story that everyone interested should review in detail, and has pragmatic implications to today's policy.
Fascinatingly, all parties agreed to the Election Commission because they both thought they could game it. One party thought they had the edge, but the other thought they could bribe to get the edge by offering an open Senate seat to one person who got put on the Commission - but then the person showed actual integrity, accepted the Senate seat but said it made him compromised and resigned from the Commission. So the Commission leaned to the at-first-losing party then and they slowly gained the upper hand, but the final deal actually required a massive side deal brokered for the losing party to get a major Federal policy concession that made them accept the results. Crazy.
Policy impact today: Sens. Collins and Manchin introduced a bill to "clarify" that the VP has a ceremonial role in accepting election certifications and that each state's final authority is the governor of the state - which is basically just going to shift to a scenario where a candidate pushing for overcoming election result targets the Governors rather than the VP - not exactly an improvement and the 1876 example clearly shows this, because the Oregon governor tried to singlehandedly determine the election outcome (which was standing at 1 electoral vote) by switching his state's result (invalidating an elector and naming a replacement from his party to swap one vote and change the outcome).
Well, I gotta admit I'm really interested. That's a fascinating story.
But to the question of cleaning up the 1800s Election Act? It needed done. I don't think it was all just about making the VPs role ceremonial. There were more loopholes involved that needed closing, AFAIK.
And I'd hafta think about whether making the role ceremonial raises the risk of misadventure. I rather think not.
It's always been at the level of the states. Anybody could-a dreamed up alternate electors prior to now and tried to get them seated right? VP role ceremonial or not, could-a happened.
It's just that it took a fill-in-the-blank kind-a guy like Trump to try to actually *do* it. Illegally.
I think we agree on everything except whether it was illegal or just very bad and undesireable working at the limits of a flawed system.
What i might see differently is that the wacko that does that can also accomplish otherwise unachievable things on behalf of the country. Not that there is a net positive, but that there is some positive.
What You say is technically true. He did leave office. Surely true.
I'm no debater. You can probably tell me what kind-a argument states a fact, which in no way, shape, or form covers the situation under discussion.
That's what You're doing here.
You and I *both* know that it's not what happened on Jan. 20 that's at issue. Mebbe this is what's called a strawman argument. No matter. It doesn't work.
What happened from mid-December on is what matters. Trump showed his true colors, and showed beyond *any* shadow of a doubt that he isn't a man fit for the office of President.
I believe (without rereading) that's the *only* thing I disagree with Barr about.
The POINT is that You show right here, with a very INsubstantial argument, how *extremely entrenched* Your position is.
It's not that You *couldn't* see it. It's that You do not *wish* to see Trump for what he *is.* And *that's* why there's no need for further discussion. It's all on You.
Not at all, Ma'am. Your Trump prejudice is coloring Yours.
The point isn't whether we've had piss poor presidents, right? It's whether there was one that was *so* piss poor he didn't leave office "amicably." He gave every effort so he wouldn't leave office at *all* which is a little different still.
So, you're talking about Obama? Who literally spied on the incoming administration and tried to have them removed before they were brought in through faking evidence to drive Russiagate? And tell me about how Trump didn't leave amicably? I realize you've watched a lot of CNN and MSNBC but show me actual facts about how Trump's actual departure from office was actually any different than anyone else's?
He screamed about voter fraud like Hillary screamed about voter fraud like Al screamed about voter fraud, and on, and on, and then he peacefully transferred power. I'm confused by what you think happened here exactly?
totally agree - can someone explain how otherwise intelligent people can allow themselves be so brainwashed? Is it a comfort of the hive thing? Too much "feelings" for sure, but how can people completely ignore reality and rationality. Mystifying.
Bari Weiss gets a very bad feeling when Barr speaks of the deaths of horrific murderers by relatively painless injection. Does this feeling represent her “thoughts” on the matter. I get a feeling of revulsion when I hear of these murderers’ murders, but I do
My best to do a cost/benefit analysis to arrive at my opinion. I do
Not believe
In the huge expense of life sentences. It robs society of more precious uses of OUR resources.
A mystery to me too, I live with a few. My sense of the matter is that the hatred of Trump takes over any and all other rational thought. And they choose to ignore the carnage - inflation, crime, high gas prices, no boarder, Afghanistan, etc…. Either that, or this is what they want and it was planned, but they remain silent.
Don’t forget the labor shortage and subsequent small business closure, Communists at the gates, elite-enforced farm-failure, threat of worldwide famine, squashing of protest, mandates for an experimental shot that’s sickened and maimed thousands…
Trump received 74,221,000 votes in the 2020 election, the second most votes ever. More than the 69,498,516 votes Obama received in 2008 and second only to the 81,284,000 ballots that were credited to Biden. Think about that, Trump received more votes than Obama and still lost to a senile, lifelong political joke who never managed to attract more than 50 people to one of his “rallies” when he dared venture out of his basement.
I agree that feelings can be a powerful force and undoubtedly the leftists and their media flunkies successfully manipulated them, but clearly something more sinister was involved.
I know an operative (with ties to billionaires I might add) who figured out a way for Dems to get 2 votes each and termed it the "Democrat Voting Superpower". It involved requesting an absentee ballot AND voting in person, no matter what "jt" says below.
LA - In Colorado we automatically get a mail-in ballot. I put mine through the shredder but if I sent it in and also voted in person I don't know if there's any protocols in place to catch that.
Our cities have known how to manipulate votes since forever. Is there a reason every city big and small is run [into the ground] entirely by Democrats for generations?
You're just repeating what Trump told You. He said, IIRC, that *nobody* could lose to Biden. It wasn't *possible* to lose to Biden. Painted himself into a corner with that.
But Biden did win. People voted in numbers *against* Trump. Probably as many as voted *for* Biden. That's why it was biggest turnout in history.
74 million votes is the largest number of votes for a single human being in history. And you tell me that Joe Biden got more? Because of Trump-hatred? My city has perfected the art of utilizing deceased voters for decades. It’s a dirty little secret that “no one can prove.” Because, the powerful of this city.
And can you call it “turnout” when millions of votes were cast invisibly from home?
Yeah, I saw your comments (all over everywhere…*) to Tim… I’m not sure what you see in yourself!
*not good manners to take over every conversation to make your opinion the center of it. I saw another commenter trying to helpfully reign you in [“dismissive”]…may you take this gracefully too. Have a good, learning-ful day!
BTW, You probably didn't take the time to notice, but what I do (almost without exception) is reply to people that reply to me. I just don't restrict myself to a few tiny conversations, when I don't feel like.
And I don't *only* read books and comment on this site.
So I have other interests besides pointing out to Trump supporters that they don't know him very well. And how that lack leads them to the mistaken notion he should run for office again. And at least over at that other site, people are polite, which doesn't seem to come to easily to the MAGA crowd sometimes.
Yeah, I should-a expected a few ad hominems thrown in there. Yeah, all for my own benefit.
I'll say same to You as I've said before. I rarely comment, buy You guys on the right need shaking up once in a while. I type like what I would say and say what I think. If that makes my opinion the center of it, too bad. I don't know who else's experiences I should be drawing on.
No matter. Actually, I'm reading a book on how the internet changes Your brain. About the only thing that takes me away from reading books is wasting time commenting. Dunno how many people have the attention span to read a book. According to what I'm reading, attention is a talent that has gone outta style.
So *what* he got more votes in 20 than 16. Think LOGICALLY. What does that PROVE?
Somehow that "proves" Your preconceived notions that Trump could not *possibly* lose.
Get over it. BOTH candidates got more votes than any other candidate in the history of the country. What does that prove? There was a lotta contention.
Slice it how You want, Biden got some number of millions MORE votes than Trump, is the end result.
Zuckerberg just admitted the FBI asked him to bury the Hunter laptop story. That coupled with every mainstream media outlet tv, print & online spewing Trump misinformation and hatred with the Democratic controlled counties with people willing to sell their souls to devil is the proof that the election was rigged!
In 2020, despite suffering through a worldwide pandemic we had a secure border, a 1.23% inflation rate, gas was $2.17 a gallon, mothers could actually buy baby formula, operation warp speed had just delivered a Covid vaccine in record time, Putin had not invaded any countries, Kim Jong Un was sending Trump love letters… and you want me to believe a record 81 million people voted against a man with that record?
You sound like a frightened little anti-Trumper. You’re frightened because after four years of the ass clown that was installed as president even more people would vote for Trump in 2024 and there won’t be enough illegal drop boxes or ballot harvesting or fools like you to make a difference.
Sorry, pal, but You're a frightened little MAGA-head.
You give good reasons to vote for Trump. I've "said" *repeatedly* that Trump did a lotta good things. If You don't know that by now, You're just being intentionally ignorant.
Again, the good reasons to vote for Trump? What does that PROVE about the numbers of votes cast.
You're so blind You can't comprehend logic. It proves ZERO, zip, zilch, NADA. Because YOU can't comprehend anyway that Trump could lose, You KNOW he didn't.
That logic is back-arsewards.
Your guess is NOT as good as mine when it comes to '24. Just to refresh Your memory, You frightened little MAGA-head, I've said that Trump *could* win.
I've also said that he's the *only* R that could *possibly lose.* That's how bad he is, in *most* people's eyes.
Folks, the answer is non-obvious but becoming more clear. Watch "the Social Dilemma". Our social media algorithms effectively use human emotions to create greater engagement with the platforms, in ways that create deep viscerally held opinions in the people that use them.
Trump plays the heel, specifically intending to trigger reactions. Social media spreads the word and triggers strong reactions in both constituencies, and become deeply held and felt issues for many folks. Journalists were among the first to use Twitter and the first to become way more indoctrinated than usual in this manner, and then through their work spread this effect well beyond the social media users.
Pew research shows that the massive shift leftward of Democrats happened from about 2010-2015 and the nearly as big shift rightward of GOP voters happened from 2015-2017. This correlates almost fully with social media adoption in these groups, which was later in those on the right.
Funny. You're the second today that recommended "the Social Dilemma."
Was that where they were harping on how *addictive* it is, or was that a different article?
Point is: Yup. The only social media I use is Substacks, and I need to cut back on that. (Now I remember where I saw that first article.) I saw a book today about how bad dopamine addiction is and what it does to people. Probably never read it, but put it on the list.
These tech giants? Surely everybody knows by now that they do *not* have Your best interests in heart. The exact opposite. If they can keep Your attention as long as they can, and anger does that about as well as anything, then they can sell You the shiny baubles their AI has determined You should need.
In short, outrage is viral because outrage creates engagement and engagement means more time spent on social media which means more ad revenue.
Social Dilemma says: "If you program algorithms to increase time spent on the system, which translates to greater ad revenues, the program finds out quickly which posts do that, and which recommendations do that, and the ones that do that are the ones that stoke basal outrage in people, so those things get promoted by the system and outrage is thus 'viral'"
I use an ad blocker because I got so tired of ads flashing in my face or intruding on the content of the article or whatever I was there for.
Most sites ask me to allow ads. When I do, the ads are just as obnoxious as ever. I figure if they want ad revenue from me they need to better choose what appears on their site.
If a site requires me to disable ads I hit the back button. Whatever they have I can likely find elsewhere
Yeah, Google and them are companies worth a TRILLION dollars. Because they have mined so much of Your personal information that they can guess pretty well the kinds-a shiny baubles people wanna buy.
And people *do* buy them. Or they wouldn't be worth a TRILLION dollars.
You're right to disable ads, Ma'am. Me? I don't use that social media crap, myself. I don't *want* them to know that much about me. Only thing I use of Google is their maps.
Browser and search I use Brave. They don't log *any-a* that stuff.
I actually wonder if medium to long term, groups that prefer longer form content like substack and podcasts versus short social media posts will outperform those that make less rational group decisions because of the inherent failures of short form communication.
I suspect so. But it's even worse than it appears.
If Your brain is fine-tuned to reading a 280 character piece, how're You even gonna *comprehend* a 15-minute read? Somthing complex that takes a half-hour or hour to cover? I just don't see it.
Twitter, Insta & FB = Brief, emotionally-fraught "memes" meant to trigger emotional responses. Rational argument and (ultimately) logical persuasion require a much longer form involving inference and both inductive (evidence based) and deductive (if this - then likely that) reasoning.
It appears that many on the left want the high gas prices which are helping to cause the high inflation. Every time I hear people like Jennifer Granholm, Mayor Pete or Biden use the phrase, “necessary transition from fossil fuels”, it highlights that fact. They are on record for making gas as expensive as possible to reduce consumption and force people into electric vehicles. Widespread support amongst Progressives for Soros supported AG’s like Gascon, Boudin, Fox, etc. also seem to show that a lotta people that are perfectly fine with high crime rates.
I'd go along with that if You hadn't said "*many* on the left."
You're talking about the Progressives. Sure, Progressives hold the power these days. But they're still the *minority* in the D party. Smaller minority when it comes to the whole country, right?
I see you write a LOT of words… dismiss a lot with little… but this one… I don’t think you really know ANYTHING about— those you think it is ok to slander yet— those “MAGA-heads.” Sad, friend.
I’nm in a small New England town and many of the wealthy Democrats agree with their current leadership, but hey, they can afford those Teslas. And, if they are and the Progressive wing are controlling the Democrat party, it doesn’t really matter if they only make up 51% of it.
Both can happen at the same time, Trump supporters can ignore his toxic personality and at the same time, be puzzled about what it is the left seeks to accomplish. Ignoring Trump’s personality does not negate the question about the left.
But I would say that it's just a question of ignoring Trump's "toxic personality" as ignoring his being totally unfit for the office. It's not *only* a question of personality, but even *more* a question of character.
Me? I got *plenty-a* questions about the left. Just *more* about the right for the reason *Barr said.* The Right has a *golden* opportunity to stop the left dead in it's *tracks,* right? But will piss that opportunity away, because they idolize Trump so much.
jt I think that is how the majority of centrist people think. The Right can apply Trump's policies without Trump. You cannot apply any policy if you are not in office. Barr's rationale is crystal clear.
Jarring! Pedophilia is just the next thing that is going to be foisted on us as being on the normal spectrum of human sexual behavior. We will all have to be accepting and supportive of our minor-attracted co-workers, even elevating their need to feel validated above our own need to speak the truth, or we will be fired or cancelled, or some such other nonsense. We should have taken a stand with all the trans crap and maybe that would have saved some children the irreparable harm of hormone tampering and surgeries that cannot realistically be reversed. Normalizing pedophilia is criminal. I will never use the words minor-attracted person. These people are sick and should seek help, not ask the rest of us to endorse their untreated mental illness as normal behavior.
Very often, the problem was the Left's total lack of a sense of humor or grasp of irony. Many of Trump's hilarious comments were intentionally distorted and presented as if they were meant to be taken literally. But anyone who watched the rallies and saw the context could plainly tell the man was joking and often poking fun at himself.
Trump Derangement Syndrome was the trauma of the Left who could never accept that half the country rejects their pursuit of utopia.
That's a rich one, Donna. So when Trump, speaking from the White House, suggested that Covid could be cured by injecting bleach or shining ultraviolet light inside one's body, he was being facetious or ironic and the poor fools who were injured when they followed his suggestion just failed to get the joke, right? And when he told the MAGA cultists gathered at a rally to "beat the crap out" of a protester, he was being ironic and the beating the protester sustained was all in fun. Or when a man from Arizona OD'd on Chloroquine because Trump advocated it as a COVID remedy, the man actually died from an inadequate sense of humor. And now, thanks to you, I understand what he meant when he called himself "a very stable genius." That's uproariously funny.
Trump’s comments initially were funny and the left got bent out shape by them. Their skin was too thin. Then the left attacked, and showed how thin Trump’s skin was. But as you stated, his later comments got outside the rails and were destructive. He was his own worst enemy and the reason he lost in 2020.
I'm not gonna argue about when Trump was being hilarious and when he was to be taken literally.
This You can take literally, straight from his mouth:
"Are you talking about disinformation or are you talking about lies? There is a more beautiful word called disinformation.”
So even Trump's supporters can't be *absolutely* sure about what Trump was up to, *all* the time, right? No matter.
The point is that Deranged Trump Supporter syndrome is similar. The trauma that *more* than half the country doesn't love Trump as much as You guys and gals do.
Like I've said *from the beginning,* Trump had his good side and one horrifically terrible bad side. Which made him unfit for the office. I disagree with Barr on that one point.
Ideological utopianism murdered millions and defined the 20th Century. The political system our Constitution put in place to insure human dignity and worth is compromised and the willingness of the DNC to paint American citizens as "terrorists" while exploiting Marxist tactics and pathology for their own ends is a threat to America and the world. There is no such thing as "soft" totalitarianism. The Democratic Party has held Americans hostage to a lie for too long. With or without Trump it needs to go.
I agree. Or the D party needs to change. I know, You likely can't conceive of a change they'd make that would be for the better. You *could* be right, but that's too far down the road for anyone to say for sure.
Except for certain people on the right, who can't conceive of it.
Yes. One of my favorite quotes from 2016 was that Trumps opponents took him literally but not seriously while his supporters took him seriously but not literally
Every quote published by the MSM from Trump would always be the punchline, without the setup. And shame on us when we didn't do a little research to discover that.
They were discussing the actual voting and election. The things that were manipulated outside of that are sort of in their own category. They certainly affected the election. I don’t know that it would have made a difference, bc the left thought of getting rid of trump as their holy war, and tried to reach everyone possible with their message. A lot of shady stuff happened. But Barr was talking about his actual job and the election process itself.
A poll showed that 5% of voters who voted for Biden had they known about Hunter’s laptop would have voted for Trump instead - making him win re-election.
Actually the number is 17% and not 5% - from the Media Research Center - an article from the Federalist, November 2020 - google = poll Vote change Hunter Biden laptop. I also saw a poll that said 5% but can’t find that citation….makes you wonder how many voters really want Joe Biden to be President .
It takes a giant leap of faith to believe this. There are not that many persuadable Americans period. Let alone that many to be swayed by the unknown contents of a candidate's son's laptop.
The "it's all in your head" gaslit distortion of American political reality by compromised and second rate D.C. leadership is the problem. There is no question that both parties are capable of manipulating and/or rigging an election. Rigged or not, the distrust, disgust and ever more justified anger "..we the people.." feel at being forced to watch a transparently criminal machine butcher everything it touches makes it possible to believe the reality of a rigged election is a certainty.
Why, in the face of modern technology, medicine, communications, thought and scientific advance does American political leadership remain opaque and unable to create practical solutions and pathways to a brighter future? The answer can be found in a homeless encampment near you.
Actually Barr said the DOJ investigates fraud and the rule changes, etc. were up to the states. He said there was no demonstrable evidence of fraud. He did not way in at all on the integrity of the election. IMO Trump failed in two important respects. First he was played by Fauci. The covid crisis made the second possible - he was played by the left with all the last minute changes to voting rules, influx of money to solicit votes, etc.. But we were all played by the latter and because we did not call for accountability it will happen again.
Correct me if I'm wrong. The states make up the election laws. Each state has to be held accountable on it's own. And that's up to the state's residents.
Me in Ohio? I'm plenty satisfied. You? Aren't You signed up to monitor the election? ICBW. Point is, it'll happen if people let it happen. And what it is that really bothers me is that there may be some Rs elected to office who will override the will of the voters, and place their own people as electors. Nothing I can do about that, tho.
It would be nice IF all but valid mail-in votes could be cast on same day with ID. Fact, I've always thought (and written) it should be a national holiday.
But, sorry. Anybody can come up with an if like that. No way to base that on anything real.
(That's disregarding the reality the IF was no way in the cards on that day to begin with.)
Yes the states handle election procedure. Usually through the Secretary of State. And yes I am an election volunteer in Texas so I am confident our elections are fairly run. But even here there were what I would call election integrity issues as a result of covid. For example Harris County, the 3rd most populous County in the U.S., allowed drive up voting ostensibly to facilitate covid concerns. But people were coming by the carful. So much for privacy at the voting booth. Plus the election worker who brought the voting machine out were in no position to monitor whether the voter was being improperly influenced by the others in the car or improper use of cell phones, for example. It certainly presented an opportunity for misconduct. And yes jt that stuff matters. As I have said before I thought huge donations to secure block-walking/ballot harvesting was fraud but apparently it was legal in some states. So again even if the election was legal it was certainly sketchy. I understand why Trump was upset.
When You first said, long ages ago, that the election was legal but was.. I forget how You put it.. "morally corrupt" or something along those lines...
... I accepted it as fact first time I read it. I disagree if You think there shouldn'a been any allowances for COVID. I voted by mail first time in my life. *I* sure didn't wanna go in person. But, like I explained before if You recall: In my country the mailed an application out to everybody so they could *request* a mail-in ballot. Everybody didn't just automatically get one. You filled that out, and then filled out the ballot when it came. It was a double hassle, actually, but I thought it was worth it. And then there was a website to say if they got Your ballot and if it was rejected. I think all that was under R administration. Pretty sure.
Point is, there's a right way and a wrong way, and I've never said that everything was done the wrong way.
But, if You actually *think* about things, Trump's whole M.O. was being upset. Besides that, he wasn't just upset. He was claiming fraud when he knew there wasn't any. I recall You saying we should give him a pass because he mebbe really *believed* there was fraud.
He believed that because of a couple basic character flaws. The majority of his insiders were telling him lost. Like Barr said, he made a conscious choice to listen to Sidney Powell. Guiliana who he ended up stiffing even paying him. John Eastman. And the character is so *basic.* Sure, it's a lot *easier* to listen to people who tell You what You wanna hear.
That's one-a the *worst* qualities a President can have, right? If Your an adult, and even if Your a reality TV star, You don't take the option of listening to people who tell You what You wanna hear. That's the oldest story in the *book,* right?
And like I said, he was just a poor loser. Convince *all* the MAGA crowd the election was stolen. *He* really was elected!!
Great move. That really helped. And all because he was a sore loser.
If You think this is unreasonable, then I'll add IMO.
I did.not say there should not be accommodations for covid. But those accomodations absolutely created an opportunity for abuse. And I think there are very few things that come down to a right way and a wring way. But if I was that kind of person I would feel strongly that the 2020 election was not handled the right way. And the people of this country have paid a very high price therefor.
When you have the full weight of the DOJ/FBI on a witch hunt throughout his Presidency that they KNEW was complete bullshit, I am not surprised that Trump was extremely suspicious of the election. Zuckerberg’s $450 million targeted at specific areas, Elias getting voting procedures changed by officials and not through Legislatures, large counties suspending vote counts then restarting in the middle of the night while restricting oversight, etc. make me a little suspicious of what happened. I love how Barr just wonders how so much happened, just can’t understand it. Prime example is him whistling past Weissman’s control of the Special Counsel while using Mueller as a shield. That was a coup attempt - right in front of everyone.
JT, you are overlooking all the factors that have reduced belief in the integrity of our voting. You can nitpick all day but you will never restore confidence in this system. And thus you insure the woke Dems and their WEF puppet masters will control our lives. I’m sure you have
I haven't overlooked the factors that have reduced belief in the integrity of our voting. I understand there's problems with mass mail-in voting. But that's up to the states to decide, nothing to do with me.
And the *fact* of the matter is that the *main* factor that's reduced Your belief in the integrity of Your voting is Trump's bald-faced lies. I'll post a quote, directly from Trump's mouth, that I've done before:
"Are you talking about disinformation or are you talking about lies? There is a more beautiful word called disinformation.”
Bill of Rights? Yeah, I noticed.
I wanna make one point that may not be obvious:
Yeah, pretty much all the WEF puppet masters are gonna be Woke. No, not all the Woke are WEF puppet masters. You make it sound like they're one and the same. They aren't. No biggie. I dunno if You really think like that or not. But if You do Your just plain wrong.
Naw, nothing to see here. Just ignore all of it. What was glaring about the examples Barr gave on the Special Counsel was that he couldn't understand how certain things could happen - non redacted report, rabid partisans running the special counsel. I know he shut it down eventually, but calling out Mueller as the senile figurehead of a dirty trick Democrat witch hunt by the DOJ/FBI right away would have been appropriate. And when you talk about the peaceful transition of power, the DOJ/FBI, knowing that Russiagate was bullshit, certainly did everything they could to curtail the rightfully elected President ability to govern for the first time in history.
Well, Barr shut it down. In this very interview he basically called "out Mueller as the senile figurehead of a dirty trick Democrat witch hunt by the DOJ/FBI."
What the DOB/FBI did about Russiagate wasn't the same as what Trump did. You can't see that, can You? Yeah, I gather HRC had something to do with that crap. But Obama *did* turn over power peacefully.
Trump didn't. He was caught red-handed trying to steal the election, if You could only look at the facts of the matter.
And all over the mainstream media they are telling stories of right wing extremism stepping over the line and engaging in violence. But never at all discussing why those folks have been pushed over the line. As if it was spontaneous and not caused by anything.
That’s the demented story of the 21st century. The MSM, Big Tech and the Democrats have framed a narrative about MAGA, the Right wing and about President Trump. They have to keep selling it otherwise what do they have left . Covid has all but disappeared. President Trump hasn’t. It’s becoming terrifying to live in America especially after the raid on the President home. Not sure if you listen to Dan Bongino , he has pleaded with level headed Americans not to do anything stupid hope we all listen!
The bottom line on Trump is that his rhetoric was off the charts but the actual governance from his administration was actually pretty staid and conventional. Trump Derangement Syndrome was a reaction from liberals to the rhetoric, a focus on symbolism rather than substance. When words are violence there can be no other reaction.
Now of course all indications are that Trump will be the GOP nominee in 2024 and the result will be widespread civil chaos.
@Slaw - I really hope Trump gets out of the game. He is screwing every chance Republicans have in front of them. E.g., Mastriano and Oz in PA elections.
I did see your comment on the latest Freddie deBoer piece on PPP loans vs Student Loan Debt
"forgiveness". I upvoted it. I can't comment there for precisely the reason of his sort of "analysis" (with lots of "whataboutism, which I recall, he purports to deplore) I'd cancelled my subscription. He has some real cognitive biases, albeit he is a good writer. I was no fan of the PPP program - mainly in the complete forgiveness aspect - but enabling firms to pay employees was a benefit beyond the "1%", which deBoer and many of his sycophant fans can't understand - to them it is all class warfare, all day, everyday.
TDS and the maliciously false and baseless allegation of Russian collusion preceded Trump’s mean tweets. He was fighting back. How would you react if you were falsely accused of treason?
Tell that to Ted Cruz' wife.
“Following a victory in appeals court, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington obtained the secret Department of Justice memo then-Attorney General Bill Barr pointed to in order to undermine the Mueller Report and justify not charging then-President Donald Trump with obstruction.
The memo presents a breathtakingly generous view of the law and facts for Donald Trump. It significantly twists the facts and the law to benefit Donald Trump and does not comport with a serious reading of the law of obstruction of justice or the facts as found by Special Counsel Mueller. Among many other problems, it is premised on the fact that there was no underlying criminal conduct, which is not what Mueller found, and waves its hand at there being no exact precedent to compare it to.
The memo supports the chilling conclusion that any president can interfere with any investigation if they believe it could damage them politically. It is clear why Barr did not want the public to see it.”
https://www.citizensforethics.org/news/press-releases/crew-gets-secret-barr-memo-on-trump-obstruction/
You mean, like when Obama and Biden got together with Comey et al to entrap Michael Flynn after the case agents had cleared him, so that he couldn’t serve as the next National Security Advisor? That kind of Presidential interference?
Name any criminal conduct on the part of president Trump in the Mueller report. Or anywhere else for that matter.
“The elements required for a conviction on an obstruction of justice charge differ by code section. For a person to be convicted of obstruction of justice, they must have acted with the specific intent to create an obstruction. The statute criminalizes "endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede" the legal process, even if those endeavors were unsuccessful. Seemingly innocuous acts could become criminal activity if they have the intended effect of impeding justice.”
https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/obstruction-of-justice.html
I didn’t read the entire report but enough of it to be certain that obstruction of justice, was clearly established. Mueller, for all his cowardice in the matter, concluded that if Trump had been exonerated by the investigation, they would so state, and they could not do so. And handed off the hot potato. That’s the bare minimum anyone but a liar has to concede. But it works this way on all fronts. I know leftists who will act like Putin’s lawyer when somebody gets poisoned by his people and talk about innocent until proven guilty. OJ Simpson is still innocent, too. Back to Trump, that’s just this tiny matter of obstruction on a particular case for Trump. He has built his entire empire on fraud and brags about it. There were times in history, the times Bill Barr likes, when somebody who called for a hostile foreign power to interfere in our elections could have been shot for treason before the election had a chance to conclude. He has a severely psychopathic personality and would best be locked up along with the other habitual offenders Bill Barr talks about. But Barr won’t see it that way because Trump is HIS goon. The entire Bible Belt of this crazy country endorses a guy who exhibits all the traits for which even Jesus might beat the crap out of him. Dick Cheney can’t even take it, the erstwhile favorite of the far right mob.
That's hyperbole at best. Mueller's team was loaded up with Democrats and they couldn't find anything criminal to charge him with.
When did Trump ever call for a foreign power power to interfere in our election? That's another falsehood.
The "Bible belt", as you call them, rejected a government establishment that oversaw the destruction of their opportunity in this country. On the Democrat side Bernie Sanders would have won their nomination if the Dem establishment hadn't fallen in line behind Hillary. Both sides rejected their establishments.
Since 2014, the United States has provided nearly $1.5 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine to help them fight off Russia which invaded the country in August of that year.
By July 2019, the Trump Administration had not delivered nearly $400 million in US support – including weapons, training and advisors – that Congress had previously approved for Ukraine’s continued efforts.
On July 25th, 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked about the aid on a phone call with President Trump, to which Trump now infamously responded, “I want you to do us a favor though.” Trump asked the Ukrainian President to investigate Vice President Joe Biden – a potential political opponent in the 2020 presidential election. Withholding desperately-needed military aid for a political favor is, by definition, a quid pro quo.
On September 26, 2019, the White House released a summary of the phone call that confirms President Trump’s effort to pressure the Ukrainian president into searching for political dirt on Vice President Joe Biden.
On October 17, 2019, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s acting Chief of Staff, admitted at a White House news conference that President Trump froze the military aid in an effort to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democrats. After confirming the existence of a quid pro quo, Mulvaney said: “Get over it.”
You left out the fact that Joe Biden, while vice president, threatened to withhold financial aid to Ukraine unless they fired a prosecutor who was investigating the company that Hunter Biden worked for. Joe famously bragged of his influence pedaling saying "Well son of a bitch. He got fired."
Does that meet your definition of a quid pro quo, or is that kind of cover up OK with you?
As I understand that event, Biden made that threat to Ukraine with the full knowledge and backing of the U.S. government, including his boss, President Obama. He wasn't doing it on his own dime, he was doing it as part of his job.
Making that neither a cover-up nor extortion.
Of course it was extortion. He said he would withhold loan guarantees if Ukraine didn't fire the prosecutor investigating the company Hunter worked for. And Obama was part of the extortion and cover up.
If you claim this is extortion, then Trump similarly extorted Ukraine by withholding congressionally approved arms unless Ukraine "investigated" Biden.
Trump didn't withhold anything from Ukraine. It was all delivered as scheduled. More to the point Trump never told Ukraine that if they didn't do something he would withhold the money. Biden did that explicitly, which is extortion. Trump's was simply a request which Ukraine apparently never complied with.
Dean, you said: “When did Trump ever call for a foreign power power to interfere in our election? That’s another falsehood.” I reply to your request, and now you want to go on the never-ending circle jerk of whataboutism; when I was a teen, my daddy told me never to participate in a circle jerk.
Yeah, because it's OK when your side uses extortion to shut down an investigation, but not when Trump asks them to restore the original investigation. That isn't asking them to interfere in our election any more than Hunter's laptop is Russian disinformation.
US voters deserve to know about influence pedaling by a presidential candidate? You call it interference I call it informing the voters.
What Biden did was obstruction of justice but he couldn't be charged because we don't have that kind of agreement with Ukraine.
"Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. " And the next day it did happen, Dean, because their buddy Donald asked them to do it. Russia interfered in the election, the Trump campaign knew of their interference and it welcomed it.
So then Trump is right when he said that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president. He would just tell Putin "Don't invade Ukraine" and Vladimir would obey.
Right...
"When did Trump ever call for a foreign power power to interfere in our election?"
When he said on live TV "Russia, if you're listening, please hack and publish Hillary's emails"
That is a false quote. Here is what he said:
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a press conference in Doral, Florida, Wednesday morning after the second night of the Democratic convention. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.”
https://time.com/4426272/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-russia-emails/
That link from time.com has video of Trump's comment.
Why is it that Trump haters won't tell the truth even when there is video evidence showing that what they say is false?
You say that as though the exact quote is any better. Trump still called for a foreign power to interfere in the election.
If it makes you feel any better, I could go back and edit my comment to use the more exact quote; the substance is the same either way.
The exact quote is very different from your falsehood. Trump said nothing improper. He was ridiculing Hillary for her gross negligence in handling classified documents.
Try just telling the truth for a change. Trump didn't ask Russia to interfere in our elections. Russia, and other hostile powers, have done that for decades.
He literally asked them to find her emails (and publish them as they'd done numerous other times).
The exact quote is interchangeable with mine. You're trying to claim a distinction without a difference.
Now you admit that Trump's taunt was harmless because the Russians had already published the emails.
Dean, Mueller identified nearly a dozen instances of Trump obstructing justice. More than a thousand former federal prosecutors from both parties signed a letter affirming their belief that the evidence was more than sufficient to prosecute Trump for that crime. Barr blew it off. Trump called the Secretary of State of Georgia and asked him to "find" the votes he needed to "win" that state. That's called election tampering and is being investigated for prosecution. He called elected officials from Michigan to his office and leaned on them to block the certification of results in that state. I could go on. He's now quite rightly being investigated for removing highly classified documents and holding them in his personal residence. And, of course, his company is being investigated for tax, insurance, and banking fraud in NY for which its CFO has admitted guilt. If you think Trump wasn't in on all this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be happy to sell you.
How many of those former federal prosecutors were Democrats? 90%? 99%?
You make lots of allegations but can show no violation that he could be charged with. If there were nearly a dozen instances of obstruction of justice the Democrats on Mueller's team would have made that charge. They couldn't because they didn't have a case.
As far as the NY prosecution goes that is as highly politicized as it gets. NY attorney general made a campaign promise to investigate everyone in Trump's family and all of his business connections. That is a general warrant and is as unconstitutional as it gets.
Wrong, Dean. Mueller did not make charges of obstruction because he left that up to Barr who ducked under DOJ policy that forbad prosecuting a sitting President. Then Barr issued a statement falsely suggesting that DOJ officials advised him that there was insufficient evidence to pursue prosecution. A Trump appointed federal judge has now reviewed the DOJ memo and has slammed Barr for misrepresenting its contents. A conservative group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, produced a video advocating prosecution for obstruction. The former federal prosecutors included: Donald Ayer, deputy attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, Paul Rosenzweig, deputy assistant secretary of Homeland Security under former President George W. Bush and Jeffrey Harris, deputy associate attorney general for former President Ronald Reagan. I notice you had no excuse for Trump's repeated efforts at election tampering, especially since the call to Georgia was recorded.
The Georgia call was recorded and when it came out there was no evidence of tampering. They purposely misrepresented what was said.
If there was any opportunity to charge Trump, they would have done it far before Barr came in and ruined their party .As for the Republicans for the Rule of Law, Never Trumpers have all sorts of organizations united in their hate - that doesn't make them any more legit than the Lincoln Project.
Yes, T247, it was recorded, and Trump pressured the Secretary of State with these words, ""I just want to find 11,780 votes," and Republican Brad Raffensperger responded to the pressure, "what happened in fall of 2020 is that 28,000 Georgians skipped the presidential race, and yet they voted down-ballot in other races. And the Republican congressman ended up getting 33,000 more votes than President Trump, and that's why President Trump came up short." What's "misrepresented?" And that's why Trump lost in all the battleground states. Moderate Republicans, especially suburban women disgusted with Trump's behavior, refused to vote for him, but went ahead and voted Republican down ballot. If the Democrats were plotting a massive scheme to win by fraud, don't you think they'd fix some of those down ballot votes as well?
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Trump-Raffensperger_Call_Transcript
Nice try, T247. but read the transcript. After Trump repeats lies about Dominion voting machines, and tosses out some numbers, this is the reply from the Secretary of State who refused to be pressured into "finding" votes: Raffensperger: "Well Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong. We talked to the congressmen and they were surprised. But they — I guess there was a person Mr. Braynard who came to these meetings and presented data and he said that there was dead people, I believe it was upward of 5,000. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. So that's wrong. There were two." And if you bother to do the research, you'd find that the votes from dead people in Georgia and other states were for the most part submitted by Republicans who, in Republican states, got small slaps on the wrist, while Democrats caught for minor transgressions were given jail sentences.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/587483-georgia-investigators-find-four-cases-of-deceased-voters-casting-ballots-in/
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/11/crystal-mason-illegal-voting-texas/
I didn't read the transcript. I take You at Your word, M. Debacher. Leastways, I haven't seen anyone counter the *facts* You provide.
I don't think anyone will. ICBW, 'course.
TYTY for Your efforts. I'll copy this to Word so I can review it at my leisure. TY again.
So three people out of a thousand. The makes it 99.7% Democrats.
You haven't shown anything that Trump did that would be obstruction of justice.
And it was 50 out of 50 former intelligence officials who claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. You probably believe that too.
His *plan* to overthrow the election was obstruction of justice. The fact that it wouldn'a worked is immaterial.
The *plan* was devised by the lawyer John Eastman. After everything fell apart, he tried to claim it *wasn't* actually a plan. He "was just mapping out scenarios." Yeah, riiiiight.
He took the fifth in the House investigation, AFAIK.
"Eastman vs. Eastman's memo" lays it out for anybody to see plain and clear.
Trump didn't testify to the Schiff / Cheney committee.
If Trump had done anything criminal Garland would have indicted him by now.
Naw, not so at all. First of all, Trump submitted his side-a the story to the Committee. I read it, and it was all fluff.
Second of all, You're completely wrong that if Trump did anything that was criminal Garland would have indicted him by now.
First of all, even *if* (and I'm just saying that, I don't think there's any "if" about it)... Well, if Trump completely broke the laws, there's a real good chance he'll *never* get charged. For reasons Barr said in this very interview.
And there may still be a little action from the Schiff / Cheney committee. But You gotta understand, right? All they were doing was gathering info for the DOJ. And they probably didn't get into it as deep as the DOJ could. So that's an on-going job.
DOJ doesn't talk about on-going projects, AFIAK.
So, in sum, Nup.
Well done, patiently going down the abbreviated list!
Admiring your patience in suggesting this material to the demented Kommentariat of this newsletter. Would add that this interview was very interesting, giving insight into the mind of an ideologue who can make perfect sense on a lot of issues and then justify his further allegiance to a criminal that he would put back into the oval office just so that the heathens can't wreck the place with stuff like healthcare for all. And he talks about schools in "Europe". I actually went to one, which is why I know what a functioning public school system is like that works without prayers and pledges of allegiance and all the other 18th century crap. The idea that there would be an even tax base for all schools is the kind of atheist evil we have to prevent by putting the psychopath back in power. This time for good. And, oh, it's so difficult to find the right label for January 6th. That's just giving me angst. Hitler tried a coup first and got locked up. Then people like Bill Barr put him in power. And I mean, people exactly like Bill Barr. But you knew that already. Try explaining it to the dimwits who overwhelmingly read this source....
"...so that the heathens can't wreck the place with stuff like healthcare for all." As soon as you make goods or services provided by one individual to another a "right" for the second person (i.e. mandatory), you make the first person a slave.
Indeed!
1) What does Trump have to do with property taxes funding local schools? That's completely irrelevant.
2) What put Trump in power was NAFTA and trade with China. That kicked off the long chain of events that bankrupted blue collar workers and led to the current political climate.
3) Riots are the voice of the powerless, right?
Riots are parties for the deranged, whether it's January 6 or the federal building in Portland. What matters is not that there different versions of the deranged but that the former was orchestrated by a president who lost reelection and tried to stage a coup d'etat that failed. Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro, Erdogan etc. didn't require NAFTA or trade with China. Democracy ends sooner or later because it's too frustrating for enough people, so they band together and take over before the other tribe does. Just look out your window. You can see Antifa gathering at the gates. Joe Biden is their puppet. Time to act.
So you're part of the pompous "we-wear-watches-that-are-older-than-your country" set whose compatriots can't be bothered to stand up for Western Civilization and who are ceding Europe to young, determined, and unforgiving immigrants. Good for you.
If Trump planned to overthrow the government on Jan 6 so that he could stay in power, that was the worst coup d'etat ever carried out. What sinister megalomaniac bent on installing himself as president-for-life authorizes 20,000 National Guard troops two days before the coup (Pelosi and Mayor Bowser turned down the offer of extra security)? Also, what power-crazed despot to-be launches an attack on the most powerful seat of power in the world without a single armed person to carry out the plot? Instead, the so-called insurrection was led by a goof ball with a viking horn hat and a bunch of idiots who wanted pictures of themselves from inside the halls of Congress. Also, what tyrant tells his insurrectionists to "peacefully march and make your voices heard"? How's that going to stoke the necessary fervor to overthrow a government? Finally, even in third grade "Theory of Revolution" as taught in Venezuela, the kids learn that Hugo Chavez gained the backing of the military before he took power. Everybody knows that you need the guys with the biggest guns to take and hold power. I didn't see any "Tanks for Trump" streaming out of the Pentagon...
Check Politifact on those 20000 guard troops and Pelosi rejecting them. Just for a start. But I bet you're going to stick to Hannity and stay way to the right of even Rupert Murdoch on Trump's behavior on January 6. Then there's confusing the issue: nobody here said it wasn't a good idea for Europe to step up on it's own defense. And the fact that a lot of the people in the capitol that day were idiot partiers alongside the oath keepers and other armed lunatics proves nothing. When your own generals still understand that they have to protect the republic from YOU, you're going to incite an idiot crowd and say something only under pressure several hours later, blackmail Raffensperger in Georgia and file 60 frivolous lawsuits etc etc.
What does matter is that there are different varieties of the deranged. The issue isn't Trump, the issue is that both sides have weaponized and for the left that means that Democrats have weaponized against Trump. Hence the fake Russiagate scandal that resulted in a bogus impeachment, etc. Of course the response of Trump and the GOP is going to be extreme in the face of that extremism.
The issue is that both sides are spinning the country apart. The global populist movement is a symptom of a massive and growing schism between elites and everyone else. That's the underlying phenomenon but the specific dimensions are going to vary from country to country. In Brazil and the Philippines the catalyst was crime: in Brazil elites lives behind gated compounds with private security. Everybody else worries about getting shot on the way to the airport and that resentment is tearing the country apart. In the US the issue is economic uncertainty. Elites don't have to worry about losing their factory job and making do with 30 hours a week of driving delivery.
If the issue is a looming civil war the responsible thing for Biden to do would be to stop throwing gasoline onto the fire. Comparing Jan. 6 to Pearl Harbor? That's completely irresponsible, reckless, insane, etc.
Hi again, M. Slaw. Sorry I didn't get back to You on ACX. You probably noticed I'd gotten banned, so couldn't. I forget what it was about now.
I agree with everything You "said" except the last paragraph. It may be a bit of a stretch to compare it to Pearl Harbor. OTOH (On The Other Hand) both were an attack on the heart of the country. One on Hawaii. The other on our Constitution and the certifying of the Constitutionally elected President.
I saw that! That ACX guy is hypersensitive or something. I thought your post perhaps meandered a bit and ran on a little long but a ban seems like an extreme measure.
As for the riot, I think the real concern is that if things get really bad the issue won't be "riot" as in a singular event but "riots".
I think I remembered what You wrote on ACX M. Slaw. Wasn't it about the drowning child vs. the child with a broken leg?
In any event, I don't think that's a great analogy. *Anyone* can say they would obviously wanna save the drowning child. In TRW, how many would risk their lives if a kid was caught in a riptide? Would You? Me? I've seen stories where the child was saved and the rescuer drowned, and I'm not that great a swimmer. I'd try to stay away from drowning children in the first place, but that's just me.
But *main* point is it's a question of values, not drowning children. If You believe in the trope that *everyone* is Your neighbor, then yeah, You'd wanna donate to Africans. Like I posted on another comment, there's a *level* where that's true. In TRW, people form concentric circles of people that are close to them.
My values may be different than Yours. I value Americans very highly. I feel closer to my fellow American than I do to somebody in Africa. I don't think it's fair to say my values are bad in that respect. In fact, I could make a trivial case that what I'm doing is helping to produce the next Thomas Sowell. That'd be another bad analogy.
Not *certain* that responds to Your comment over on ACX, M. Slaw. But these are my views on that subject at any rate.
It takes a perfect storm of events for a riot to come about.
But happens, not doubt about it.
On ACX, I wasn't really aware of what I was "saying" to Scott. I was basically saying that EA is a bunch-a unnecessary crap. People should just give what they can, and save what they must. If I'd said it in those words, it might not-a slapped him so hard across his face.
My impression of him is that he doesn't like to be challenged, but not many do.
Donald Trump is the accelerant
https://www.vox.com/21506029/trump-violence-tweets-racist-hate-speech
Trump’s incendiary Texas speech may have deepened his legal troubles, experts say
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/donald-trump-incendiary-speech-texas-legal-troubles-experts
Look at the current spate of racist attacks by blacks on Asians. First, blacks are the racial group least likely to vote Republican. Second, the attacks are overwhelmingly concentrated in Democratic strongholds like CA and NY.
Finally, Trump improved his share of the minority vote from 2016 to 2020. For all of these reasons I find the argument that Trump is somehow a white supremacist to be nonsensical.
Slaw, provide evidence to support your assertions: “Look at the current spate of racist attacks by blacks on Asians. First, blacks are the racial group least likely to vote Republican. Second, the attacks are overwhelmingly concentrated in Democratic strongholds like CA and NY.”!
https://www.commentary.org/articles/wilfred-reilly/crime-against-asians-isnt-due-to-white-supremacy/
Reilly is a good source on this stuff generally and this was the correct reply to the challenge. What surprised me in his piece was that the percentage of whites was higher than I thought in these attacks. Very few people on both sides of the issue like to learn anything from empirical study. Good reference!
Ok, so there's agreement on some root causes, i.e. the insane wealth gap in the US and disenfranchised white middle class etc as the breeding ground for populist demagoguery. The disagreement is about the notion that Trump is a victim of some weaponized Democrat strategy. That's just as silly as the daily drumbeat about systemic racism on the left, for instance. Trump is no more innocent than Nixon ever was. It may turn out to be true that the DOJ handed him the nomination by having the FBI get the classified material they formally and repeatedly requested for months and months and we're lied to about. But it was the lawful and correct thing to do and signed off by a magistrate who had to be convinced of probable cause. That's one of your many witch hunt stories and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Finally, so what if Biden is a bit of a fool? Why is that the moral equivalent of what Trump and his associates have been doing? Answer: because any tortured logic will do to justify the horror people feel when they are made to believe that only Trump stands between them and the clown show from San Francisco coming to their town.
If the problem is Trump then why compare Jan. 6 to Pearl Harbor or 9/11? Look, in a parallel universe where Biden and Harris aren't disgusting assholes this is the speech they would have given on Jan. 6:
"Lincoln understood that a 'a house divided against itself cannot stand'. At a time of unique challenges abroad America's enemies seek to weaken her by dividing the country's citizens against each other. For the good of us all and for the sake of the country we must set aside our differences and recall that we are all Americans. We must unite for the common good. I call on all Americans to remember that our differences are insignificant in comparison to our shared values and I pledge that my administration will be one dedicated to national reconciliation."
But that's not what we got, is it? Instead we got more gasoline poured onto the fire as Biden forsakes the national good in favor of a short term political advantage. What's more it is very clear that he sees no difference between Trump and Trump's supporters: the MAGA crowd understands instinctively that attacks on Trump are only a proxy for an effort to suppress and disenfranchise his supporters.
Don't you get it? Neither side gives a fuck about the country. All they care about is going to war and if that plunges the country into an actual civil war that is fine with them.
Always mistakes. Meant to say I agree that neither side gives an eff about the country. That's basically what I said about the MAGA crowd in the longer comment.
But, yeah. Same with the Progressives.
Hi again, M. Slaw. Hafta disagree a bit on this one. Agree with a lot, tho.
"But that's not what we got, is it? Instead we got more gasoline poured onto the fire as Biden forsakes the national good in favor of a short term political advantage."
That describes Trump's presidency as well. That's why a lotta people voted against him, as opposed to voting for Biden.
"What's more it is very clear that he sees no difference between Trump and Trump's supporters: the MAGA crowd understands instinctively that attacks on Trump are only a proxy for an effort to suppress and disenfranchise his supporters."
That's very insightful. But probably not in the way You intend. You see, You're right that that MAGA crowd reacts instinctively. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's more-or-less what I've been "saying."
Here's the problem: While The Elect (as Professor McWhorter refers to the elites in his book) would sure like to suppress and disenfranchise You guys, they're not gonna be able to do that unless You *let* them. IOW (In Other Words), the MAGA crowd is it's own worst enemy. By eschewing all Rs who aren't MAGA, they're helping nobody but the Ds.
"Don't you get it? Neither side gives a fuck about the country. All they care about is going to war and if that plunges the country into an actual civil war that is fine with them."
I hear this mostly from the MAGA crowd. Including right here on this forum. It's fine with too many people here that we go to an actual civil war. And I don't see any pushback against that idea from anyone other than myself.
I'm only reluctantly a Trump supporter. I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 and but switched to Trump in 2020 because the left has gone crazy.
I would say that it takes two to tango. I blame both sides equally for the current acrimony that is spinning the country apart. The FBI raid on Trump is just one recent example. If there are no criminal charges I think that raises the specter of state sponsored action designed to impact the political process. Matt Taibbi, who is hardly a conservative, titled his article addressing the raid "Welcome to the Third World".
I skipped the Taibbi article. I'm pretty sure it was excessive and inflammatory.
I don't doubt that there was sufficient cause for the raid to recover those documents. Not sure it was handled correctly. It's still too early to say for sure because we haven't seen the affidavit.
But everybody wants to pour gasoline, right?
Personally, I seriously doubt there'll ever be *any* charges about *anything,* for the reason Barr said in this very interview. There should be a very *high* bar to charging a former president.
I'm not guaranteeing there *will* be a high bar, but I don't think even the Ds are *that* stupid that they'll just give '24 away, just because it'd be fun to charge Trump.
But never say never.
Now, if there's an *airtight* case of obstruction of justice, all bets are off. And, really, the evidence is there. But it may not be enough in a court of law, so there is that.
Pretty sure I heard Democrat Congress people ( Waters, etc.) and Senators (Warren, Schumer, etc.) urging people to go after the Supreme Court justices, attack them in restaurants, etc.
T247, I believe you have idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality!
Hunter Biden, etc.
Slaw - Agree. Trump needs to take a different role, maybe as speaker of the house where he could get into some of the excesses and possible illegalities the Dems have committed.
But if he's the nominee for president I think it would be an escalation of this ongoing chaos and I sense we're about at the breaking point as it is.
The chaos is caused by the left because they won't accept the outcome of an election. The riots after Trump's election in 2016 were the precursor to Jan 6.
With more than 2 years to go until the next presidential election I think it's likely that the left will exhaust itself. But they will cause a lot of harm and probably loss of life. (The "mostly peaceful" riots in the 14 days following the killing of George Floyd resulted in 19 deaths.)
And a billion in property destruction.
If Trump is the GOP nominee, we lose and the party that is moving further and further to the left wins. I believe the Dem party is fast becoming the Communist Party.
I don't disagree. But, see, I interpret it differently. The further the Ds move left, the quicker I believe it's likely there will be a backlash and a true reckoning against them.
Same with the Rs and Trump on the right, AFAIK.
And if they both continue in the directions they've *been* heading this past decade, I wouldn't rule out a viable third party in '28 or '32. That's just me.
I would love a centrist third party.
From what I know of Andrew Yang, he's just like all-a them. Dishonest. But mebbe better days are on the horizon. (Gotta be part-fool to hope for things, but why *not?* ;-)
Yang can't be any worse than the rest of those morons running for office.
Well, the only reason he's running as a third party is he's been a candidate in two elections and nobody wanted him.
So, yeah, him holding himself as a shinging light of a new way forward (calling the party Forward) is really worse than a moron. Because he believes it himself.
Agree with both points.
What will matter is a) the state of the economy and b) how far Hispanic voters shift to the GOP. If inflation is still an issue in 2024 or the country is in the midst of a recession triggered to lower inflation then any Republican candidate will have a sizable advantage over the Democratic incumbent--and that includes Trump.
IMV (In My View), that's the *only* way Trump could win. Like You "say," pretty good chance the economics works out that way. So, yeah, he certainly *could* win.
But I'm not sure how many people are just gonna forget about Jan. 6 and all that led up to it. And given Trump's track record, he's liable to energize the Ds as much as, or more than, his base.
I don't think anyone other than Trump could *possibly* lose in '24, based on what I know now.
Trump is leading Biden in polls for the 2024 matchup and he is the favorite of the betting markets. A lot can happen in two years but the point that everyone should take away is that Trump is absolutely viable. He was defeated because of Covid, not because the country as a whole finds him intolerable.
Ooops. Always mistakes.
Yeah, COVID did him in. At the same time, the majority *did* find him intolerable. At least I'm convinced that it took both-a those, and the latter was the most important.
How else You explain that *both* candidates got more votes than any candidate ever did before in history? You loved Trump, or You hated him. To his demise. It could be a repeat in '24. It would be, IMO, except Biden's been so bad (and had some bad luck to boot).
C'mon man! You and I both know that polls now mean nothing. In fact, polls the day before the election mean nothing. I can't recall, *exactly.* But I don't recall any polls being very accurate going back to Dubya. Especially not lately. Their method is, apparently, biased so bad they can't see straight, AFAIK (As Far As I Know).
Yeah, Trump *could* win like I've been saying over and over. I still think he's the *only* R that *could* possibly lose. I have my reasons for guessing that.
I think if Trump runs we lose. Otherwise I think we've got this. TDS is the most powerful feeling for a whole bunch of people.
It doesn't matter what you think. Poll after poll has shown Trump at over 50% support for the next presidential primary with the next closest nominee at around 25%. That is dominating. The only thing that can stop Trump from getting the GOP nomination is a heart attack.
Next, regardless of who the GOP nominee is they will probably have a sizable advantage over the incumbent just because the economy is likely to still be screwed up. That means Trump, or whoever, will have a sizable advantage.
And the other wild card as I mentioned is the Hispanic vote. If it really does split 50-50 there is nothing the Democrats will be able to do to avoid defeat.
I still go by what I "said" above.
I get what you're saying and I hope you're right. I just know people that STILL with everything they see now would stand by their Biden vote. Even though they wouldn't let him run their personal business or watch their children. They also claim they would vote for anyone over Trump. I think they are so deranged they would vote for a rock instead.
I think You're right. Where I'd disagree is that I think a rock would be better than Trump.
2 years is a long long time from now politically. Anything can happen.
The issue isn't politics, it's economics. No recession means high inflation for the next five or so years. And if there is a recession it will probably run through 2024.
I hope you are right.
I voted for Trump. I liked his policies and he did what most president never do and that is fulfill his campaign promises. But every time he spoke he made me cringe. I truly believe he is a megalomaniac who loves the sound of his own voice. He spoke without a filter. What popped into his mind, came out of his mouth.
I don't know if he is like Joe Biden who when he tells a lie he actually believes it's the truth. But then, Joe doesn't know what planet he's on.
Trump was the first President (in my 65 years) that I would actually watch when he gave speeches. He would be 30-40 minutes into a very powerful, historic speech, and then throw out some totally unnecessary and outrageous line that would negate everything he said up until that point. That line would be the MSM headlines and the rest of the speech would disappear. If you could put Obama's statesmanship with Trumps policies, it would be the perfect President.
True. Trump needed to be more statesmanlike and stop talking to the press so much. When he talked to press It never ended well because they hated him. Fewer press conferences would’ve helped him
What's not to hate? But you are right. He should stop speaking to the press. But I think Trump will never do that. he loves the camera too much
Yeah, that'd be the ticket.
Now, Obama *himself?* I just finished reading a book about the cause of the Great Recession. It was a bipartisan affair. Republican had a lot to do with repealing the regulation of Glass-Steagle (I think it's called). Gramm-somebody-somebody bill. Fought for by Gramm's wife who was head of Commodity Futures whatever, who SHOULD-a been regulating the over-the-counter crap.
But it was Clinton who signed that mess. Bush had no clue. Granted, most-a the bankers *involved* didn't really know. They thought the bubble would just go on forever. (Not *likely,* in my experience.)
Anyway, Obama's admin was made up of a lotta the guys that *caused* the problems. And one-a them, I was surprised to learn, was the recently interviewed Larry Summers. Oh yeah, he was *all* fired up by deregulating the OTC crap. One-a the main movers and shakers who did away with regulating the things.
Correct for the most part, JT. America had been dragged so far to the right by the Reagan years that the only way a Democrat could be elected was by moving to the center and adopting Republican policies like deregulation. Clinton and Summers do bear responsibility for the policy changes that sparked the financial bubble that led to the Great Recession. And, yes, Bush had no clue and the gaggle of economic advisors surrounding him were all Republican trickle-down, supply-side clowns who fiddled while Wall Street peddled packages of liar loan mortgages all over the world. The result was predictable. Unregulated capitalism always leads to corruption, excesses, financial malfeasance, and economic disasters. And then government steps in and bails out the "too big to fail" Wall Street giants, while average Americans are laid off to suffer.
TY for all Your replies, Sir Richard.
Yeah, of all the billions, I think there was a pittance to help homeowners. I never saw the actual results of that. But heard so many anecdotes about how many people lost their homes that I think it didn't help much.
The banks? Couldn't be doing better. Yeah, they repaid the money they got. With interest. They never paid for the massive recession they caused, and all the harm that did for *years.*
Funny that.
I agree with you except, Obama was statesman. He wasn't. Obama said in a televised interview that he was lazy and I agree with him. He played more golf in his 8 years than Tiger Woods. He promised he would heal the racial divide in this country. He did more to widen the divide than anyone in modern times. I could go on but it would just make my blood boil so I won't.
I agree, Obama was “smooth” which I found nauseating, but never a statesman.
Obama was opaque and impossible to pin down. Trump was transparent and child-like in has myriad personal foibles.
I suppose 'Figurehead' would be a better term. He had an effective style, but was extremely shallow from a functional standpoint.
Shallow describes him perfectly.
I share your frustration.
LonesomePolecat. I always, after the initial shock of his over-the-top personality, paid attention to what he did and it was extremely good for the country. And, I agree with you, when he spoke, I cringed too.
I believe you are correct. The anti-Trump forces rioted after he won in 2016 because if they lose an election then democracy is at risk. So they show their support for democracy by rioting and trying to overturn an election with hoaxes.
The anti-Trump side set the precedent for not accepting the outcome of an election which the other side adopted on Jan 6.
I couldn’t help but think about the attempted character assasination of Justice Kavanaugh and the left’s attack on the Supreme Court after the Dobbs decision. How is that any different from January 6, except they are going after the Supreme Court in their homes, not in a building?
Very good point. Another double standard from the media.
People, especially Jan 6 scaremongers, tend to forget history.
The "beast" seems to use manufactured hysteria and crisis to make it impossible for the average person to hold even recent political and social events in a workable daily context. I'm more aware of the growing homeless encampments in my city every day but can find no political discussion, and that's why we elect political leadership, that presents any rational discussion of or solution to the problem.There is opinion without end but national context and a dialogue based on practical cause and effect solutions and the implementation of such is entirely absent. TDS or not the homeless stay homeless. Drug use escalates and crime goes exponential.
It seems, in my opinion, that our elected political leadership has been totally subsumed and compromised by avaricious elitist finance which has abandoned America and moved to the world stage. It destroyed our economy and our industrial centers and is now in the final stages of gutting our remaining resources and installing a pretend Marxist feudal totalitarianism.
My point is that Americans, intentionally or not, have been stretched to the limits of survival. You're absolutely correct about the necessity of holding a clear sense of history and events but the psyop in place creates a power vacuum intended to prevent solutions that would benefit you and I.
Nup. And I'll add that Jan 6 deniers tend to forget the Constitution.
I love that Barr spends half the interview talking about TDS and Bari’s TDS won’t let her focus on anything else.
By policy Trump was the best president of the last 50 years, at least, and it’s not especially close.
Of course stating that requires that we define what a “good” President is, which the left fundamentally won’t do - and ESPECIALLY the elite left - because then you can keep score. The left NEEDS it to be all about feelings to have a chance at competing (they know all their policies are awful for actual people) so they keep it all about feelings. That’s what Russiagate was - it kept it emotional. It’s what COVID was, and it’s what being the 5th losing presidential candidate in a row to challenge the results of the election but be the first to be decried as a “threat to democracy” for doing so is about.
I’d like to put a challenge down to Bari and/or anyone that writes for her to actually define what they would view as political success and then let’s see how their beacons - like Obama - did, relative to that scorecard. It’d be a very interesting game to play…
I agree with your take on Bari's TDS. When talking about Jan 6th she went out of her way to talk about the rebel flag and people with nazi emblems. As if that was a majority of the people. What about the vast majority of people with american flags? My favorite were the photos of the wild, out-of-control "insurrectionists" that calmly walked between the velvet ropes in the hallways. Yea, a truly dangerous bunch.
Overall I thought this was a very good interview. There is a lot for people who like/hate Barr or like/hate Trump to react to. Barr is very critical of Trump's temperment, and he backs it up with example. But then he still said he would probably vote for Trump depending on who was the democratic nominee.
By policy, Bill Clinton was a better president than Trump, and arguably the best of the past 50 years. Fiscally, under Clinton (and Bush 1), Democrats and Republicans passed bipartisan legislation in 1990 and 1993 that turned burgeoning budget deficits into surpluses within the decade, which also spurred economic growth. Clinton also championed and signed landmark legislation such as the crime bill and elimination of welfare.
Clinton's first two years were not good, with the health care debacle, but after he got his butt handed to him he figured out how to govern and produced great results his last six years.
On fiscal responsibility, Clinton gets an A, or maybe a B at worst. Bush 2, Obama, Trump, and Biden all rate a D- or F.
I'm sure many will argue Reagan was a better president than Trump, though Reagan was at best a C or C- on fiscal responsibility as his policies caused deficits to balloon. Bush 1 was a B or B-.
I like this, and Clinton did get a lot of things right. Of course Clinton's admin also carries the vast majority of the responsibility for the housing crisis in '08, and that can't be overlooked. Clinton's "everyone deserves a home" policy did not create economic freedom. He forced banks to give loans at sub market terms, they forced banks to do NINJA loans, and the rest is market catastrophe history.
Clinton was good on crime and welfare reform, I totally agree.
But, again, I used the analysis of freedom, and Clinton messed with the free market in a major way and we all paid for it handsomely in '08. He forced "freedom" isn't freedom.
Also, I want to be very clearly on the record as stating that on my grading curve the only way to get an A is to eliminate the 16th amendment. You could get a B if you cut government spending by 15% and tax revenue by 20%, which no one has even been close too.
I'd give Trump a C-. I'd give everyone else a D or worse. You get points for freedom and justice, you lose points for expansion of government (by definition a reduction of freedom) and lose TONS of points for injustice (starting wars really hurts here), and Clinton did some things right but he drastically expanded the bureaucracy, sent more soldiers overseas, and was responsible for massive financial market manipulation that crippled a generation.
😂😂😂... You're funny. I respectfully disagree.
Clinton ushered in the destruction of local media... And accelerated the global transfer of American jobs. China became a member of WTO under his watch.
Basically Clinton started centralizing power, increasing the scope of the Federal government. Main Streets in nook and crannies of this country were sold out, left to the dust bins of forgotten history.
He also helped NATO establish a more Offensive posture... which is great for the Neo-Con war machine AND Neo-Liberal global capitalism... Both which I would argue are bad for humanity, as a whole.
Bush II just continued many of the Clinton ways, but did so with a tax cut... And with more military stuff.
Bush was worse than Clinton, but the Trump years were invigorating. His policies I agreed with 75% of the time, as he looked to turn the lights of Main Street back on.
Decentralizing power in general.
His energy was a breath of fresh air. However, I have thick skin and am more of an 'actions speak louder than words' kind of person.
I think we’re saying exactly the same thing…
Actually, it was a great interview. Best if listened to to get the nuances of Barr's answers. That Bari comes with a set of biases of her own was obvious - you got it - to listeners. That did not interfere with Barr's responses nor the significance of this interview.
I agree. Barr’s responses were very nuanced and measured. He is a very deep thinker.
Ok, I'll bite.
My personal take on Trump has little to do with his rhetoric at all, and a lot more to do with his actual policies, and his basic integrity and/or character. I thought he was a terrible president not because of his loudmouthed demagoguery (although that didn't help), but rather the things he actual accomplished while in office, and his overall leadership (or lack thereof) as someone befitting the office.
If you ask me, TDS applies to his reality-altering supporters, not his detractors. For the life of me, I still don't understand how anyone can look at his presidency in a positive light. And I'm not a lefty at all, just a reasonably-minded (I believe) independent.
Barring his behavior, please explain what things he accomplished as President that would lead you to say he's the best president in the last 50 years at least. Extra points if you can do so without an obvious nod to some sort of conservative ideology...i.e. good for everyone and not just anyone on the right.
Peace in the Middle East?
We fought for freedom and choice in the 70's! Freedom to wear a bra or not! To work or stay at home and raise children!
Our journalist were not part of the establishment!
The college professors have become kings!
Then you obviously weren't paying attention!
Elliott
Trump’s policies and the results of same were excellent. You don’t cite one bad policy decision. You have incurable Trump derangement.
You call that an argument? I see this repeatedly in these here comments.
Trumps trying to overthrow the election trumps all.
You're a MAGA-head and are deranged. DTS. Deranged Trump supporter.
You want some other bad policy decisions?
Again, Jan. 6 tops the right side-a the list (alluding to comment above).
Doing even more than Obama to divide the country into two sides that absolutely hate each other. A *lot* more than Obama. All it accomplished was empowering the Woke.
Cozying up to the totalitarians of the world. Getting a bad deal in Afghanistan. And I'm pretty sure he got a bad deal with China. Xi absolutely punked Trump when it came to the Wuhan virus. And here we are. His ambivalent actions during the pandemic cost thousands of lives. Nobody will ever know how many. His spending so much time on Twitter, rather than going over the daily Security Threats report.
That's without putting any thought into. The right side of my sheet could go on longer. The line at the top tho? Outranks anything You could put on the left side.
I fall somewhere between a supporter and a detractor since I voted for Obama in '08, non establishment candidates in both '12 and '16, and then Trump in '20, on the basis of his record alone. I'm not a republican, I'm certainly not a "Republican,", though I'm sure I share many things with them just as I, almost by default, do with "Democrats." I'd most aptly describe myself as a classical anarchist.
I view presidents through a simple lens - was the country more free and more just during their time. That's it.
Trump's criminal justice reform issues speak for themselves, I believe, but he reduced literally millions of petty drug offenses. He's the first president in my life to not start any foreign wars. He increased economic mobility by reducing corporate regulation at the fastest rate in 70 years - he is literally the first president in the last 70 years to increase real purchasing power of the bottom quintile of income earners.
He increased labor participation rate to the highest level since the 80's, violent crime fell off a map, we saw a 1 year increase in life expectancy in '19 before the ridiculous lockdowns undid all the progress that had been made regarding medical freedom.
I have no idea what "traditional conservative ideology" is, and I mean that generally, but those are the things I care about. He made the poor better off (Obama, on the other hand, made them literally worse off AND made the top 1% almost 400% wealthier - I covered it in my stack on big government eating the American dream), he reduced regulation returning energy independence to the US (once again gone) and he actually protected the border which saw fentanyl deaths take a two year decline as well (before once again skyrocketing in '20).
Those are the things I care about - and by those things he's the best president of the last 50 years, and again, this is from a guy who didn't even vote for him during his only actual term in office.
OK, Mr. Data, let's check some of your claims:
1. "He made the poor better off." Actually income disparity exploded under Trump thanks to his wasteful tax cuts. "Under Trump, the share of total income going to the prosperous and wealthy grew by a whopping 17 percent between 2016 and 2019."
https://inequality.org/research/trump-income-inequality/
"The distance separating America's highest and lowest income brackets grew by almost 9 percent annually under Trump."
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/535239-how-trump-fueled-economic-inequality-in-america/
2. "We saw a one year increase in life expectancy in 2019." You have no data to show that the small improvement in life expectancy was due to anything Trump did. It's far more likely attributable to the greater number of Americans who were covered my health insurance thanks to Obamacare. Trump, of course, failed to repeal that act as he promised, and never had an alternative replacement plan although he had promised that as well during the campaign. The U.S. lags far behind other G7 countries in life expectancy, maternal and infant mortality rates and other standards. We pay far more for healthcare and get far less for what we pay. It's disgraceful. That's your idea of "medical freedom" I suppose.
As for your comments about Covid deaths (you can't bear to mention the word) under Trump: "US health status worsened dramatically under President Trump when compared with the other G7 countries, a major study from the Lancet Commission1 has concluded. If the US had death rates equivalent to Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK, some 461 000 fewer Americans would have died in 2018, and 40% of US deaths during 2020 from covid-19—around 188 000 people—would have been averted, the study estimated."
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n439
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-policy-failures-have-exacted-a-heavy-toll-on-public-health1/
3. "returning energy independence to the US (once again gone) . . . " The claims of energy independence have been found to rest on manipulated data by numerous fact checkers.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/18/the-myth-of-u-s-energy-independence-has-gone-up-in-smoke/?gclid=CjwKCAjwgaeYBhBAEiwAvMgp2po0pNFY9TM0DAa4qQ7v9mZK76NKwOd4x-2NI1xXiz5Kdye-4DBOyxoCWIsQAvD_BwE
4. ". . . he actually protected the border which saw fentanyl death take a two year decline . . ." Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl did drop modestly in 2018 before resuming their upward spiral in 2019. Trump's porous border wall, penetrated more than 3,000 times with ordinary tools, has done nothing to reverse the trends beyond a single, small reduction in 2018.
https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
5. "Trump's criminal justice reform issues speak for themselves . . ." I'm glad Trump signed the bi-partisan reform bill but calling it Trumps's reform is a stretch. Democrats had been calling for these reforms for years and were happy to negotiate with Jared Kushner to realize the much needed changes.
6. Obama "made the top 1% almost 400% wealthier . . ." When he came to office the wealthiest 1% took (I won't say earned) 12.3% of personal income. After Obama raised taxes on the rich, that percentage dropped below 9% but as they always do, the rich and their tax lawyers found loopholes in the law and the percentage had climbed back to 10.9% by the time Obama left office, still lower than when he began. Meanwhile, the Republicans continued to reduce the IRS budget and audits of the rich kept dropping. The Republicans, predictably, are spreading hysterical claims about Biden's plan to augment the IRS staff and increase audits on the wealthiest Americans.
7. Obama made the poor "worse off." Nice try, Mr. Data, slipping in a comment without any context or factual data. Obama came to office as the economy was imploding in the worst recession since the great depression, a debacle caused by lax regulation (yes Clinton signed on to some of provisions that led to the debacle) and lax enforcement under Bush. Millions lost their jobs and the number of Americans living below the poverty line exploded. Obama's rescue plan and efforts by the Fed turned things around. At the start of Obama's Presidency, 13.2% of Americans were living below the poverty line. The number rose above 15% at the peak of the recession in 2010 and then began declining. By the time he left office the economy was growing steadily and the poverty rate was down to 12.7% and dropping. The final numbers for the Obama Presidency:
"The economy gained a net 11.6 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to below the historical norm.
Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.2 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.
After-tax corporate profits also set records, as did stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 166 percent.
The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million. Premiums rose, but more slowly than before."
https://www.factcheck.org/2017/09/obamas-final-numbers/
Mr. Data, you appear strong on claims, but weak on substantiation. And your claim about Trump being a great President is laughable. Reputable historians and political scientists put him near the bottom of the rankings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_presidents_of_the_United_States#:~:text=Abraham%20Lincoln%20has%20taken%20the,bottom%20of%20all%20four%20surveys.
1. If you're so inclined give this a read, it lays out all the data. You can agree or disagree, but the data are what the data are - https://butthedatasays.substack.com/p/has-the-american-dream-been-eaten
2. The data very clearly shows the increase in life expectancy was directly attributable to the decline in overdose deaths and murder. Nothing else about health has improved. No one agrees more that the US medical system is a DISASTER, but Obamacare made it worse, not better, and the data very clearly shows that in accelerating mortality trends, decreasing life expectancy and increased medical costs - https://www.heritage.org/health-care-reform/report/obamacare-has-doubled-the-cost-individual-health-insurance. So yes, our medical system is a disaster, we certainly agree on that. You don't actually think Obamacare is responsible for a 1 year decline in deaths do you? And here's the high level data - show me how obamacare helped? https://www.statista.com/statistics/184955/us-national-health-expenditures-per-capita-since-1960/
3. Here's a reasoned take - and I appreciate the honesty here that the free market created energy independence and all the president's, both Trump and Obama, needed to do was stay out of the way. Trump did, Biden did not... - https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2021/11/14/is-the-us-energy-independent/?sh=231fbeb21387
4. Sounds like we agree here, you just seem not to care, which is certainly fine. Or expect perfect, or, I'm not really sure but we're saying the same thing.
5. Again, we seem to agree.
6 & 7. I point you back to number 1 again. If you care, read through the piece, it outlines the data. You can agree with the assessment or disagree, but, as always, the data are what the data are when it comes to the complete destruction of economic mobility under Obama and the largest wealth transfer in US history.
I certainly agree that everyone who has a vested interest in the US government being as large as possible hate Trump. No argument there.
1. Thank you for your civil response. I look forward to reading your commentary about the decline of the American dream. I will come to it with my own views on the subject -- that the decline began in the 1970s and accelerated in the 80s under Reagan's trickle down, supply-side economic policies and his hostility toward working people and labor unions.
I'll be 78 years old in little more than a week. I grew up in the 50s and 60s when America had the world by a string. Europe and Japan lay in ruins, American corporations had little serious competition and labor and management took easy growth for granted. We reacted slowly and poorly when Volkswagens and Datsuns began to arrive on our shores. Detroit continued to build gas-guzzling behemoths strong on chrome and horsepower, but slow to adopt new engineering advances like fuel injection, disc brakes, and independent suspensions. The UAW beat Japanese imports with sledgehammers and attacked Asian Americans, killing at least one. Then came the Arab oil embargo, recognition of China, and a transformation of the American political economy that increasingly benefitted the wealthiest and best educated. Little has been done to reverse these trends. The financial sector grew and a new hi-tech sector emerged. Income disparity exploded and the middle class stagnated while the lowest income sectors slid into poverty
We need a Marshall plan for rural America and the rust belt to revitalize these sectors, to support family farms and rebuild the decaying infrastructure, especially in the decaying rust belt. Biden's infrastructure plan addresses some of these problems. Transforming the energy sector away from fossil fuels to renewables can also help. But labor and management must abandon dreams of a return to the easy days of the 50s and 60s. Manufacturing will become increasingly automated with robotics and the high dollar jobs will go to skilled technicians who keep the robots functioning. Job training and retraining is needed to address these changing realities.
2. "Nothing else about health has improved" since the advent of Obamacare. Not true. The difference is clear in states that expanded Medicaid. A detailed study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that states that expanded Medicaid (generally the blue states) witnessed "a 9.4 percent reduction (in annual mortality) over the sample mean, as a result of the Medicaid expansions." The Red states that declined to expand Medicaid under Obamacare saw no such improvement. Of course, the Republicans fought to eliminate the individual mandate and struggled to repeal the entire act which has reduced the number of uninsured Americans by more than 20 million individuals.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w26081
3. The article I cited in my previous comment affirmed my argument that "energy independence" is an abused and misleading term. You say Biden failed to "stay out of the way" and suggest that this ended our energy independence. In fact, Biden issued 34% more drilling permits in his first year in office than did Trump.
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/new-data-biden-slays-trumps-first-year-drilling-permitting-by-34-2022-01-21/
The spike in oil and gas prices is due almost entirely to the war in Ukraine and a sharp rise in demand as the global economy reopened. American oil companies were reluctant to expand drilling and pumping because they got burned so badly when the pandemic shut the economy down. They had taken on billions in loans to finance their fracking operations only to see the market grind to a halt. That's why I don't fall for the facile criticism progressives make about recent "windfall profits" among the oil giants. Those profits came after years of heavy losses and the oil executives are wary that another pandemic spike or the war in Ukraine may throw another wrench into the global energy market.
Gas prices have dropped more than a dollar a gallon since June, not because Biden stayed out of the way, but because he took action and ordered a record release from our strategic reserves and met with Saudis, however distasteful that may have been, and came away with a commitment to increase production. The spike in prices was demand driven and exacerbated by refinery closures from hurricanes and fires, not from Biden's interference.
Concluding remarks. "Everyone who has a vested interest in the government being as large as possible hate(s) Trump." Not true. As was the case for so many of Trumps promises, he failed in his commitment to shrink the government and "drain the swamp." According to the conservative Reason Magazine: "So under Trump's signature, before any true crisis hit, the annual price tag of government went up by $937 billion in less than four years—more than the $870 billion price hike Obama produced in an eight-year span that included a massive federal response to a financial meltdown. . . .So how about executive branch employment? According to the St. Louis Fed, crunching numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump inherited a civilian workforce of 2.815 million and kept that basically flat until it started rising around last July, presumably because the 2020 Census started to jack the number northward. No cuts."
https://reason.com/2020/08/27/no-donald-trump-did-not-shrink-government/
And Trump ran the swampiest administration in my lifetime. Wall street magnates at Treasury and Commerce. A fossil fuel lobbyist running the EPA. McConnell's wife running Transportation and directing contracts to her family's shipping business. A billionaire with ties to the corrupt for-profit education industry at Education. A "developer" at Interior who was forced to resign for his corruption. I could go on. More cabinet and high level administration officials in the Trump administration were forced from office for their corruption than in any administration in my lifetime. Then come his temporary appointments -- unqualified loyalists and toadies willing to execute his majesty's commands. Not my idea of a great or even an acceptable President. Be well.
I am afraid I no longer trust your sources. Reason is hardly conservative as they would be the first to admit. But the main reason I question your opinions is simple. The left and the Biden admin do not allow serious criticism. They support the censorship and cancellation of serious critics. And they support the street thugs in every Dem run city who will beat up any pro Trump people. This Is quite obvious to me even if the media ignores it. This practice of the left tells me all I need to know about the left and the positions you take. If Bari Weiss dares go too far Commonsense will disappear.
Good Day, Dennies. It appears to me that you've chosen to dismiss everything I say because you think I mischaracterized Reason Magazine. The publication is libertarian, using the handle "Free Minds and Free Markets." I stand by my characterization. What's more, the data I cite from the Reason Magazine is from the St. Louis Fed and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unless you're an adherent of Rush Limbaugh's four pillars of denial -- deny anything from academia, the press, government statistics, or science -- my sources for that statement are pretty reliable. And it appears that you're guilty of making sweeping generalizations about sources, denying anything you deem to be from the left. I regularly read The Bulwark, The American Conservative and columns from such writers as David Frumm and Jonah Goldberg. I know. They're not Trumpists, so they're considered RINOs or worse by adherents to the Cult of Trump. Trump is no conservative. He's a narcissistic authoritarian who has neither respect for law, nor decency. Furthermore, I oppose the growing closed-mindedness that's infecting American campuses as I do the censorship of library and educational materials advocated by conservatives. Liberals aren't banning books from libraries or intimidating teachers who present a truthful representation of American history. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, closed-minded though they be.
You are a great lefty. Enjoy being
On the likely triumphant totalitarian side. Stay true and you should be safe.
Rather than offer any evidence that my statements lack veracity, you resort to smears and baseless allegations. It was not the left that partook in a seditious insurrection as part of a complex plot to reverse a certified election. It's not the left that's passing laws in state legislatures to empower themselves to overthrow the will of the voters. It's not the left that is issuing threats of insurrection and civil war from armed militias around the country. The greatest threat to democracy in our Republic at this time lies with the radical right.
Looks like you and I are the same team, even though it's not really an organized team. I wish it were, but it seems that will never happen.
IMV (In My View), it's Trump that gets in the way of it.
There are people, I think a lotta people, who could agree with most-a what You guys say. I'm one. But if You can't see through Trump and the harm he's, what can I say?
Again, in case everyone's forgotten. I've "said" repeatedly he's done a lotta good things. On balance? Nup. No question. See Charles Knapp and a few others.
Basically, what it comes down in favor of Trump is seeing things through the lens of a MAGA-head. I've posted this before. Take a sheet of ruled paper and draw a line down the middle.
Put all the things You like about Trump on the left side. All the things You dislike on the right. *Weight them accordingly.*
Most-a You would have blanks on the right side. And if You somehow managed a few items on the right, You wouldn't give them the proper weight. And the reason for most-a You (not all) is because You're *emotionally* invested in Trump.
And that's why a logical, really *organized* team will *likely* never happen. (Not impossible, Celia.) People with that big-a blind side get in the way, rather than helping.
Just brilliant! I am a classical liberal with a steel backbone to preserve freedom. Whatever your ideology, we are aligned. I love those few people left who see thru the BS and realize we need to fight hard to preserve freedom. If it is a man with an obnoxious personality, I do not care. Freedom is far too
Important.
That's pretty much my ideology. Yet, we're not aligned. Funny that.
(I hope You caught the comment above where I praised You highly, so there is that. :-)
It's interesting how you say you're Independent and reasonable... Don't we all self-report the same thing?
What I appreciated most about Trump was his internal and external transparency. He had strong opinions, and made everyone know exactly where he stood in real time. He had extensive (too much, IMO) media availability with adversarial journalists, who did what journalists are supposed to do... Ask tough questions and follow up with tough questions. [Where's our current President? Vacation?]
The external transparency was how he exposed the ugliness and unprofessionalism of the mainstream American news business.
They criticized everything, every day without context. The systemic bias in news organizations, something Ms. Weiss fans understand all too well, jumped off the page and screen. "The Emperor had no clothes!"
Now as far as his substantiative policies:
1) Controlled Immigration - which benefits low wage Americans
2) Eliminated ISIS Threat
3) De-escalated North Korea
4) Forced European countries to contribute more to NATO
5) Didn't get us in a war
6) Energy Independence
7) Raised Taxes on Rich by eliminating SALT deduction
8) Gave a voice to often forgotten "deplorables"
9) Oversaw economic conditions that benefitted full Economic spectrum (not perfect, but more equitable than Obama) -- even while the Fed began to taper QE (reducing their balance sheet)
10) Kept American life interesting and engaging
There are more, that people have mentioned, Abraham Accords, improved NAFTA, hard negotiating with China, etc...
E-Diddy, Let's consider some promises made, promises, kept, promises kept that didn't work out as he said they would, and promises made but not delivered.
1. Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. He failed to repeal and never had a promised "beautiful" plan to replace. He lied.
2. Trump promised to pass a giant infrastructure bill bringing us beautiful new airports, highways, and bridges. He never had a bill and delivered not a thing.
3. Trump promised to win a trade war with China, saying it would be easy. His tariffs drove up prices for American firms and consumers, the trade deficit grew, and China did just fine. Total failure. What's more, the tariffs have contributed to the supply chain disruptions that sparked inflation.
4. Trump promised and delivered on a promise to cut taxes, but the plan did not, as he promised pay for itself and it did include loopholes for big real estate tycoons that benefitted guys like Trump. The reduction in the corporate tax break did not spark a significant increase in capital investments; instead, the corporations used the breaks for executive bonuses and stock buybacks. The average taxpayer hardly noticed a thing.
5. The economy grew for the most part at the same pace sustained for eight years during the Obama administration. More jobs were added in the last eighteen months of the Obama administration than in the first eighteen months of Trump's rule. The tax cuts and spending increases blew the deficit wide open and when Covid hit, it exploded.
6. Trump repeatedly claimed that average household income grew by $5,000 due to his policies. In fact, a Census survey shows that median household income growth actually slowed in Trump's first three years to 2.1% annually compared with 2.6 percent under Obama.
7. Trump's love affair with Kim Jong-un was a fiasco that led absolutely nowhere but elevated a murderous dictator on the world stage.
8. Trump promised to revive coal mining in America. Thank goodness he failed; mining jobs actually declined. He promised explosive growth in the manufacturing sector. In fact, manufacturing jobs in America peaked in 1979 and saw growth only briefly during the Clinton years. Even Harley-Davidson closed a plant with Trump in office.
9. Trump promised to build an "impenetrable" wall along the Southern border and Mexico would pay for it. In fact, he completed about 250 miles of his wall and it's been penetrated more than 3,000 times using common power tools. Mexico, of course didn't pay a thing, so Trump took money from the Pentagon budget, which killed some much-needed housing repairs on our military bases. Failure.
I could go on, but most historians and Presidential scholars place the Trump years near the bottom in their rankings of American Presidents. I pray that we won't be subject to a second term.
Richard-
A year and a half of Biden & America's best and brightest
1. Afghanistan fully & quite disorderly transferred a country to the Taliban. Including 7.1 billion dollars of weapons, ammunition, and vehicles. An organization that believes oppressing, raping and disallowing education to women is a right. 23 million women. Iran is looking at negotiating with the Blinken and Biden crew, mostly likely thinking- holy crap how did we get this lucky? Not a single person at State Department was held accountable. Why is Blinken still the Secretary of State?
2. As of yesterday mortage are on track to more than double for every American seeking to buy a home. At least 2-2.5% higher interest rate coming in the next year per the fed. The combination of higher mortgage and lending rates will flatten any gains of the half a trillion dollar student debt stunt (addressed below).
3. Parents groups are being reported to the FBI by school boards who disagree with policies that are negatively affecting their children.
4. Supply chain & transportation erosion in the US. Due to health and environmental policies. Due to health & environmental policies regardless of massive damage to citizens and communities across the US. Again, no legislation, no representation. Instead, governance by fiat.
5. Shutting off wide swaths of domestic energy production as the first presidential act of the Biden administration was the direct cause & one step away from the birth of violent upward inflation. The US consumes 20% of global supply. What did you think was going to happen? The oval office manufactured this with a Presidential order signed by JB. This will take a decade to fix economically.
6. A half of a trillion dollars of national treasure spent with no congressional oversight on student. Not one issue of the underlying cost or value of higher education was addressed or solved. Presidential fiat almost like a King would do, of course using basically an emergency order, like a doctor's note to spend half a trillion. This is not an investment in the interest of 80% of US citizens. Questions like; How do we change things so students and parents do not become enslaved to educational debt? How can we hold high school counseling and colleges responsible for horrible advice in personal spending? There is $1.7 billion dollars of debt that financed this mess- Should colleges and universities be taxed if their tuition is above a certain dollar value? Can a few thousand institurions who have raked in trillions of dollars still legitimately be considered non-profit institutions? How healthy would these types of conversations be for the US and it's citizens? However, we were deprived of this debate by fiat.
7. The DOJ investigating his son without a Special Counsel. It would be one thing if the American public did not see the pictures and all the emails. However, about a 100 million people have seen them & it's the kind of corruption you cannot just waive away.
8. The lowest amount of press conferences of any modern President.
Barr's assessment of Trump is spot on. I could never vote for him. Never did either. But if I had to keep Biden out of office- I might.
Matt, thanks for your civil comment. I had hoped to focus this thread on the original subject -- Trump. I share many of your comments regarding Biden's shortcomings, but many need to be put in context.
1. Yes, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a debacle. But Trump agreed to a May withdrawal. Biden pushed it into August. A clean withdrawal with evacuations of all our Afghan allies would have required another major escalation, and the Taliban would have resumed its attacks and the Afghan military would have collapsed -- it was worthless without U.S. leadership and air support. Biden was right in opposing the 2011 surge -- a major mistake of the Obama administration. Trump failed to end it and left the mess to Biden. Just like Vietnam (I'm a vet) we never should have intervened, and our intervention only made things worse.
2. Your comments relating to inflation: I'm among those who warned about impending inflation for years. We've been propping the economy up with funny money since the Bush Great Recession and the chickens have come home to roost. I opposed Biden's third pandemic rescue plan and thought the first two under Trump were far too sweeping and poorly regulated. Retired folks like me who neither lost jobs nor income did not need government handouts. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been scammed by fraudsters making phony claims for PPP support and the cost of prosecuting them will outweigh any money regained. But inflation is a global problem, sparked primarily by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and a tight labor market. Biden will take the blame, but the same things would have occurred with Trump in office.
3. Parents groups are being reported for disrupting meetings, threatening officials, and intimidating school boards. They should be. Same for those who threaten election officials. What policies are "negatively affecting their children?" Teaching a truthful version of American history? Explaining human sexuality in accordance with the best science? These angry parents have been triggered by mendacious reports about CRT and "grooming" of children. Parents worried about their children being "groomed" and abused should look to the three largest institutions responsible for child sex abuse, all conservative: The Catholic Church, the Southern Baptists, and the Boy Scouts. We have a nationwide teacher shortage, and our public schools are being ruined by meddlesome parents who don't know what they're talking about.
4. I'm not with you on the supply chain interruptions "due to health and environmental regulations." Trump's trade war sparked the supply chain problems and they were exacerbated by the pandemic. I take climate change and other environmental crises very seriously and favor doing far more than we have to preclude far worse summers of wildfires, drought, and flooding than we've seen across the planet this year. "Transportation erosion" follows years of neglect of our infrastructure. Trump promised to do something about it and of course, he failed. Biden, finally, passed a major infrastructure bill that will address our crumbling roads, bridges, ports, and airports.
5. Wrong, wrong, wrong. In his first year in office, Biden issued 34% more drilling permits than did Trump. The escalation in oil and gas prices is a demand problem exacerbated by the loss of refining capacity due to fires and storms, and the oil companies reluctance to resume drilling. American oil production largely depends on fracking, an expensive and inefficient process. The last time the oil companies took out huge loans to support fracked drilling the rug was pulled out from under them when the pandemic shut down demand. They lost a fortune. That's why I'm less critical about the "windfall profits" Big Oil is making now after years of losses. Gas prices have dropped more than a dollar a gallon since June. Biden consented to make nice with the Saudis and approved a major release from the strategic reserve. I didn't approve of either move.
6. I largely agree on the student loan executive order.
7. I have far more faith in an independent DOJ under Merrick Garland than I did under Trump and Barr. Several investigations have uncovered nothing of substance on Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, a softie on family issues, erred egregiously in approving Hunter's elevation to the Board of Burisma; the appearances are terrible, and he's paid the price for wanting to help his son recover from addiction. I'm wait-and-see on this.
8. Everyone knows Biden is prone to gaffs. It was a prudent decision to limit the number of formal Presidential news conferences and let Cabinet and administration officials explain policy. The daily press briefings are far more open and truthful than they were under Trump who banned reporters he didn't like. Presidential press conferences often are noting more than caustic exchanges with gotcha questions and carefully crafted messaging. Obama was occasionally funny and interesting to listen to at a press conference. The best press conference shows in my lifetime were staged by JFK. He was very clever, often self-effacing, and, when needed, effectively confrontational. Haven't seen another as good since, but that didn't preclude serious mistakes like the Bay of Pigs or the coup and murder of President Diem in Vietnam that led directly to our escalation.
If we're lucky, we won't have either Trump or Biden on the ballot in 2024, but stranger things have happened. Be well. I'd be happy to provide documentation for any of my comments. Here's a good one on the drilling issue:
https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/new-data-biden-slays-trumps-first-year-drilling-permitting-by-34-2022-01-21/
Will we be reviewing the promises of every President in history?
Including Mr. Clinton's?
Don't forget, Trump was not exactly a Republican.
In the four year term he faced a Russian spy probe, an impeachment, a Pandemic, and another impeachment.
I'm not making excuses, just giving the political the environment. If you don't like Trump, that's fine. I'm not on Trump's payroll. He's suboptimal, but he was a first salvo for "Silent Majority" that is completely disgusted by the greed, corruption, and mismanagement of our institutions.
So many are looking to Drain this Swamp. It's the one promise I wish he kept. We are headed off a cliff, and our galant gentry, elite.
Well said, E-Diddy. I share your anger about the greed and corruption that pollutes our body politic and political discourse. But Trump ran the swampiest administration in memory. Wall street bankers running Treasure and Commerce. A flunky for Big Oil running the EPA. A billionaire tool of for profit "educational institutions" running Education. The wife of Mitch McConnell running Transportation where she steered business to her family's shipping business. I could go on.
And I forgot to mention that one promise Trump kept in spades -- he packed SCOTUS with three activist right-wing judges who will ensure that large corporations and the wealthiest Americans will continue to pour money into the coffers of lobbyists and political campaigns sustaining the power structure you call "the swamp." A Chicago billionaire just dropped more than a billion dollars on a far-right group that operates as a non-profit under our scandalous tax laws. If you think this group aims to advance the interests of average working Americans I have several bridges in Brooklyn I'd be glad to sell.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-conservative-group-gets-1-6-billion-donation-from-chicago-businessman-11661260649
His personal decisions were bad terrible. Some very bad decisions, in retrospect. I'm hoping the events of his term, helped reveal the snakes within our midsts.
The Republican party was/is loaded with them.
The distinction between MAGA and Trump as well as, MAGA and Republicans is important.
'Far Right' doesn't mean what it used to mean thanks to our media and weaponized DoJ. MAGA is mostly a shoestring, grassroots, earned media operation. There are some true MAGA benefactors... But not nearly as much as establishment Republicans or Democrats.
That has been the biggest change recently. The political realignment is stark, especially where I live (Coastal Elite). Around here the Trump signs are all over working class neighborhoods. Up and down, as soon as you leave the hard pull of the urban centers.
The wealthy, urban, Leftist types are moving out of the city centers. The amount of wealth they have is grotesque. Second and third homes are in bidding wars, private schools are getting waiting lists, four story homes are being built on on the water, crammed in between two other new four story homes. Blocking the view of the water for everyone else... But not to worry. Those $9m homes all have a Ukraine sign, a Biden sign, a BLM sign, and/or a Pride sign.
Their are two oligarchies that have so much power. The tech oligarchy and the financier oligarchy. The tech oligarchy loathes Trump, around here the financial Oligarchy is turning on Trump because they prefer controlled opposition.
Chairman Powell is a good illustration. Mnuchen supposedly advocated for him because he was controllable.
Excellent comment, and keen observations. I share your sentiments for the most part. But MAGA world is being deceived by one of the greatest hucksters in history. Trump is a grifter and he's always out for himself. When he gets caught, he points fingers at the dark state and his fundraisers hit up his followers for contributions and the money flows in. Soon its being spent on Trump's estates or on Steve Bannon's yacht trips.
I've been in both of the worlds you describe. I spent 25 years in academia, publishing scholarly books. Then I spent 25 years driving a big rig and working in the trucking business. Yes, the coastal elites and much of the Democratic Party have lost contact with rural America and the working class. There are hopeful signs, however, such as Tim Ryan in Ohio. In 2016 I supported Bernie Sanders. It's a shame that working class Americans have been spooked by the word "Socialism." Bernie Sanders has fought all his life for working class issues. He stands up to Wall Street and giant corporations. He fights for better health care and education for everyone. Trump tosses out red meat and hits grievance buttons that spark anger and divisiveness but does little that actually makes a difference for working and rural Americans. Family farmers were hit hard by his trade war while the relief he offered went to large corporate farms.
And Bernie and I may differ with you on your apparent discomfort with efforts to confront systemic racism, misogyny, and homo-and transphobia. Trump and now DeSantis in their "anti-woke" campaigns are appealing to the basest of hateful sentiments. I condemn the most extreme expressions of "wokeness" on college and university campuses, but I equally condemn the far-right's hostility toward real immigration reform, its growing expressions of anti-sentimism, its denial of systemic racism, and its opposition to meaningful reform of law enforcement. MAGA types support the police until they don't and then beat the crap out of cops at the Capitol while participating in a seditious insurrection.
Thanks for your thoughtful commentary.
I agree with most all. Could make a good case against a few, but no matter.
Spot on!
Abraham accords - the most substantial movement towards peace in the Middle East since WWII.
The return of manufacturing to the US, the build up of small business, the lowest unemployment for Blacks and Hispanics, the reduction in ILLEGAL immigrants proving fairness to LEGAL immigrants, and giving a sovereign country a real border so it can retain its sovereignty, making rich Germany start to pay for our protection, countering Chain. Gotta go - just off the top of my head.
Murder rate reduced in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (after back to back increases in 2015 and 2016). Then it went up in 2020 with leftist cities rioting and return to soft on crime / anti-police policies.
The Abraham accords were indeed something substantial, but whether or not it improves the peace in the Middle East is not very clear at all. It formalized and improved some of the relations between Israel, U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, a few other minor nations. Yet it also further isolated Iran, which could be good or bad depending on how a lot of chips fall. And it also did almost nothing for the giant elephant in the room: Palestinian sovereignty and/or nation hood. Recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and moving our embassy there didn't exactly make relations better either, but that wasn't a part of the Accords. Ultimately it did little to really solve any of the old rivalries in the region, but economically it was a net positive. So okay, slight edge there I guess.
American manufacturing as a % of GDP has stayed at the same level, or very slightly declined, since 2009. Not sure how you can say it's 'returned'.
Small businesses; I'm assuming you mean his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? Yeah the pass-through deductions and individual cuts are nice...but they all expire in 2025. By contrast the corporate tax cut is permanent. It was much better for corporations than it was for small business owners.
Black and Hispanic low unemployment rate. They both have been trending down for a decade, which Trump policy did you think was helping push this down? Or push down faster?
Immigration and Borders. Yes, illegal immigration went down. Net positive for Trump.
NATO/UN (Germany). Yes, he did get some European nations to foot more of the bill. Net positive for Trump.
China. No...hell no. No idea how you think he made relations with China better, or is somehow countering them better. Pompeo rightly called it our (and the West's) biggest threat. But Trump, if anything, made things worse with China. And calling out the origin of Covid doesn't count.
Small note- the Abraham accords and the trump moving the embassy were and still are very important. There is a lot going on because of this. It has had a big effect on the region. Making israel strong makes the region more stable and helps israel when dealing with the Palestinian issues esp if they have negotiations. When the american government tries to make nice with the Palestinians the Palestinians abuse that and the opposite is achieved. The Palestinians rejected the peace plan before they even saw it, before it was released. If they truly want peace, they have a partner. But one can’t force peace if the other side isn’t serious about it. The rest of the Middle East coming together against Iran is a very good thing. It’s going to have a major impact on the future. Of course if the Americans give the Iranians 100 billion dollars and freedom to plot horrors that will not be a good thing.
I think some of the above posters just want a lot of people to pay attention to them and reply so they can haughtily dismiss every great achievement like some spoiled children… they abuse and slander Trump supporters while apparently knowing few of them well… they have to have the last word yet seem very little experienced with real life… overeducated for their intelligence probably :P
I appreciate your patience with them.
R U kidding about Iran? Obama & Biden are giving them the atomic bomb. Of course, Iran should be isolated and deprived of the bomb. And that is exactly what Trump was doing. I am very
Close to Israel and Israelis. They adored Trump. You have to be an Islamist who buys the woke narrative on Palestinians and Iran. Were you happy with the stabbing of Salman Rushdie? It is the most dangerous exporter of terror.
I was a furniture manufacturer for 28 years. I crossed the border nearly every day for 16+ years because I had a very large factory in Mexico. Those who are not familiar with the border have no idea how open it has been until Trump did everything against the open border crowd to give us a border. As an entrepreneur who knows hundreds of entrepreneurs including many Hispanic entrepreneurs, I know how he helped small businesses and manufacturing. I find your obvious bias may lead you to throw out false stats too obscure to research in a timely way for this forum. So I’ll just say I suspect your stats. Over and out.
C'mon man!
"You have to be an Islamist who buys the woke narrative on Palestinians and Iran. Were you happy with the stabbing of Salman Rushdie? It is the most dangerous exporter of terror."
This is what I'd expect if You were a MAGA-head. Are You?
And it's really convenient to just say You suspect the stats. "Over and out." That's what it almost always comes down to when Centrists start pulling out the *facts* of the matter. Sorry.
Trump was the one who backed out the nuclear deal, which was created precisely for preventing Iran from acquiring bombs...not sure how you can read that another way.
I'm not close to Israel in particular. Or Palestinians. Or biased toward any of the people over there really...the specific religions and/or cultures are non-factors in how I approach an opinion on anything over there.
Rushdie, no...it was a tragedy. Freedom of speech is a sacred right. Same with Khashoggi. If you're going to judge Iran in that light, then do so for Saudi Arabia too. Not saying Joe would have done anything different, believe me, but Trump did nothing about Kashoggi's grisly murder. If anything he simply disregarded it completely when cozying up to bin Salman.
I already stated Trump was a net positive on the border.
Entrepreneurship is great, but that's like 1% of the population. The other 99% simply want a decent job. The vast majority of people can't and shouldn't be entrepreneurs, it's simply not close to being possible. I don't know why entrepreneurship is always put on this grandiose pedestal as if it's the pinnacle of all wealth and commerce or something. They're just the guys with good ideas, but most of the economy is simple transactions and bland supply and demand.
I literally got my facts by doing simple wikipedia and/or google searches while writing it, and disregarded any obvious biases like MSNBC and FOX. Look them up yourself if you like.
Thank You.
Hoping people here will confront the facts of the matter is probably a vain wish, but a nice thought, Sir Elliot.
"but that's like 1% of the population. The other 99% simply want a decent job. The vast majority of people can't and shouldn't be entrepreneurs, it's simply not close to being possible. I don't know why entrepreneurship is always put on this grandiose pedestal as if it's the pinnacle of all wealth and commerce or something."
I dunno the percentages.
I was basically a kid, less than 30, when I attempted two businesses. But finally went into freelancing in 1995, before it became a "side-hustle."
The reason most businesses fail is because people can dream big, but most people don't like to confront the facts of the matter. Same problem in all walks of life, and in all our personal actions as well.
Dennies is to be congratulated. I don't mean to compare what I did to what he's done.
But I do mean to say that even a small business has a lot to offer a person. Most people go into it because they wanna be their own bosses. No boss? What's not to like? Thing about it is, if Your in biz for Yourself, every customer is Your boss. If You don't have that attitude, that customer is *King,* You don't last long. (However, they may not always be right.)
And entrepreneurship gives a person who has a good capability of taking *responsibility* more personal agency than any other walk of life. Doing a good job is a *great* feeling, for *some* people. For the entrepreneur, there's absolutely *nothing* like it.
And we'll need a lot *more* entrepreneurs. Because they have the *best* chance of surviving the continuation of automation and AI, right? Dunno it'll happen. The multi-nationals are doing everything they can to squeeze out the little guys. And they got a big boost of success when the pandemic hit, right?
Yeah, shut down all business. Except the big-box stores. Riiiiight. ESG? Another way to bury the small businesses with pure unadulterated crap. Ask Yourself who has the money to support a bloated DEI bureaucracy?
I don't think these things are accidents, either.
TYTY for Your reply, Elliot. I wish others would try to engage with You more.
Yeah, I think this is a difference in definitions. To me an entrepreneur is not simply someone who owns their own business, that's just a sole proprietorship, small-business owner, or whatever. When I hear entrepreneur I think new and risky; someone who sort of gambles on an innovative idea or product in the marketplace.
So like, someone who opens up another gas station in town is not really an entrepreneur in my opinion. He or she is simply contributing to an already established and normal market.
But someone who opens up a new charging station for EV's in town, when there are none existing, that's an entrepreneur. They are taking a extra risk on something outside the normal risks associated with simply owning your own business.
Bezos is the poster-child for an entrepreneur who tried something new and succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But when that kind of business (massive online purchasing) gets normalized, like it already is now, I certainly would not consider someone else doing the exact same thing now that Bezos did 20 years ago to be some kind of entrepreneur. They are just a business owner.
The root of that word is enterprise, which by definition assumes a high degree of risk and/or difficulty. That's how I take the word, and why I used it in my response above.
You're sort-a misusing the word.
Yeah, I get it that what You describe is the common notion of entrepreneur. The Billionaire.
That's so far from the truth of the matter is one reason why there aren't more entreprenuers. Until You've actually given up Your living wage and had all the money You make rest on Your shoulders alone, I don't think You can understand. That's *plenty* risky.
More risk than people can rationally deal with.
The guy opening the gas station doesn't get much glamour, true. To the person that saves time going to the next gas station it's pretty nice.
Not a billionaire per se, I was just using him as the most successful example of one. Most entrepreneurs are barely getting by, I understand that.
What I was focusing on was the risk and innovation aspect. Like the guy who came up with the OneWheel skateboard. Imaginative new take an old concept, started it all himself, really slick (if pricy) product. That guy's an entrepreneur.
But someone who simply owns a regular old skateboard shop (if that even exists) I would not consider an entrepreneur because he or she is simply continuing on a product that has existed for decades, ya know?
It's like, if someone comes up with a new concept for a 3-wheeled car, or even tries to open a new dealership for a 3-wheeled car that someone else came up with, I would say they are both entrepreneurs. But if someone simply opens a regular car dealership where they have always existed, there's no real enterprise to that equation. It's just filling a niche with a normal and common good.
There's a lot of subtlety to it I guess. All I'm saying is that if we are to consider every small (or even big) business owner that exists to be an entrepreneur, then almost business is one. That waters down the term too much for me. I don't see the guy who opens up another McDonald's in town as an entrepreneur, he's just another store manager.
I used to agree with that. Feelings are a large part, but since the Left has hijacked, once venerable, institutions, they can also just change operational definitions ad hoc.
So they can quickly appeal to rational actors by being more artful in their "statistics" and having their media cohorts quickly disseminate and popularize deeper rationales without much critical vetting.
Joe Public, doesn't think twice about how "deadly" COVID is for everyone, or how there are so many more "named storms" due to climate change, how "safe" the vaccine is for "everyone," and how Trump is an "election denier" because he perpetuates "the big lie."
Emotional? Definitely. Logical? Maybe. Factual? Laughable.
Very well put E. When operational details are applied or challenged to the feelings-based rationales it's a mess.
As an example, electric cars, the universal solution to save the world, pure myopic thinking at its best. California declares no gas cars in 2035- well the average age of an electrician is 58. They've made a bunch of money and are retiring. There are 40 million cars in the state and no one to hook them up by 2035. How are colleges and their bailed-out students going to fix this whopper? The intellectual incest at these institutions- college, law, media, and the progressive religion is awe striking. I guess it needs to collapse to get a reset. It's hard to watch.
I'm a Centrist, but the answer is pretty simple. A good president is one that turns over power to the elected President, tho he doesn't like to lose.
The rest is statistics.
I totally agree, it is a shame that president Obama refused to peacefully turn over the presidency to President Trump in 2016, instead resorting to trumped-up FBI surveillance, falsified affidavits seeking FISA warrants, and never-ending politically motivated investigations embroiling our government and our fellow Americans in what has become years of divisiveness and turmoil.
Zuckerberg just admitted the FBI lied about Hunter's laptop! So Trump was right - the election was rigged! And let's not forget Hillary saying how Trump stole the election!
Trump didn't get a fair shake from the media.
But it really depends on what You mean by "the election was rigged" doesn't it?
Yes, but not turning over power is not turning over power. Making a lot of noise, blasting out a lot of rhetoric, and floating legal theories that fail is very clearly not "not turning over power". It's "not turning over power gracefully."
👏👏👏👏👏
Nup.
That's the old "attempted murder shouldn't be a crime because nobody ended up dying" defense.
No, attempted murder would be not moving out your stuff when the new pres came, pulling your guns out, but then getting ousted anyway.
See my point to Lynne below.
And see the article I referred to above. I don't You'll be able to see the point, but it's there for those who have eyes to see.
I appreciate the dialogue here, but I will tell you candidly that when you basically resort to saying I'm blind to the facts, you start to come out looking very badly and lose credibility. Please cease ad hominem thrusts and try to parry by argument.
Did You read the two comments I alluded to?
What did You *see?* That's the point.
Mebbe I should-a put it differently. I'm just skeptical that You'll be able to see the plain facts as they are. Judgment call on my part.
Attempted murder in this case is calling up Georgia's top election official and telling him to "find 11,000 more votes"
Ah you just lost me entirely, because when the media claimed that and in response the audio tape was leaked, I read the transcript.
Openly available on CNN.
"And you can't let it happen and you are letting it happen. You know, I mean, I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."
"Oh, I don't know, look Brad. I got to get... I have to find 12,000 votes and I have them times a lot."
"We don't need that. All we have to do, Cleta [Trump's attorney] is find 11,000-plus votes."
Your problem seems to be is that you believed a lie, which came from a biased leaker, spoken to a journalist who used the very poor practice of going to press without confirming beyond one anonymous source.
Charles Knapp already responded to this. Read that.
Which should be, and is, a crime
Attempt can, and is, a crime - attempted murder, attempted possession of a controlled substance, etc..
C'mon! This whole discussion below is ludicrous.
Attempted overthrowing the election is the issue, right? You guys are extending the analogy to the point of forgetting the point.
The odds of Trump being prosecuted for *anything.* IIRC (If I Recall Correctly) Barr addressed that in this very article. You want me to look it up?
Not me. I just pointed out the faults with the argument.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's true You were just pointing out the faults.
I guess I was just trying to say that I'd appreciate it more if You could find fault with mine. I doubt there's any; be surprised if there were. But I've been wrong about as much as right a lotta times, so there is that.
You have an extremely entrenched position regarding the former President. There is no point in further discussion.
Yeah, like YOU don't have an extremely entrenched position.
At least I back up my reasons with facts.
You don't have anything to offer to counter me, and You claim there's no point in further discussion. You and I *both* know that's a cop out.
Which is why it's weird that Trump supporters think he should get a mulligan on his coup attempt because "it was only an attempt".
You are mixing apples and oranges with a little golf thrown in. I simply responded to your statement regarding criminal law.
My statement was one of shitty legal defenses - a client is accused of attempted murder so his lawyer argues that attempted murder shouldn't be a crime in the first place. Not a defense that is likely to succeed, but very analogous to MAGA zealots defending Trump's attempts at criminality as "mere attempts".
I caught the repetitive slurs. Crimes are prosecuted. An act or omission is a crime if a written statute of a jurisdiction is perceived by a prosecutor to have been violated. Most jurisdictions have various acts or issues that are delineated and then.there is a statutory definition of attempt. While I can conceive of a situation where a defense lawyer might argue that no crime was committed in an attitude case, it would nor be as a defense but rather in mitigation at best.
Depends how (in)competent the lawyer in question is.
Sorry, but I view that argument as hinging on a technicality.
Yeah, Trump *literally* did end up handing over power. Very UNgraciously.
But, You see, making *plans* to overthrow the elected government to *keep* power goes a fair bit *beyond* the idea that he didn't turn over power "gracefully," right? Trying to pressure Pence to help him *overthrow* the elected government isn't a question of gracefully or not gracefully, right?
It's like Barr said. When the electors were certified, the election was OVER. Except according to Trump, and his looney-tunes advisers who told him what he wanted to hear.
jt, if Trump had done the things you asserted, six plus months of hearings would have turned up evidence to charge him with treason. Instead, it has resulted in a daily torrent of "news" releases merely repeating the false assertions. You and your fellow deranged accusers have turned up nothing to support your assertions.
On the contrary, they turned up plenty of evidence. You just didn't take it seriously.
Be more specific on *plans*
I would say the Pence entreaties and then anti-Pence rhetoric were the worst thing by far, as they are the only thing (pending your answer to more specificity) that went beyond pushing within an existing system, exhorting someone to take a step that pushed beyond boundaries. But it's like suggesting that someone be aggressive on their taxes in a way you think might be legal but aren't sure, and is a world apart from not moving your stuff out and pulling guns. And, honestly, you introduce a bipartisan bill to clarify that that's not acceptable and you completely imply that it might have been.
In 1876 the election was even more contested, and in a similar way. The results were that one candidate won by one electoral vote, but the party that at first lost ended up getting their President into office after claiming that black people were denied the vote in too many circumstances for the election to be certified as it stood. The initial results of the election were overturned. Was that "not turning over power"?
Man, I've posted this so many times my fingers bleed. Don't make me repost the links.
Read "John Eastman vs. Eastman's memos." That was the plan. That was so far beyond the system that Eastman took the fifth during the House investigations.
I think You're referring.. Yeah, You are. Hayes. That was in no wise the same as the election of 2020, right? You're not gonna make a comparison are You? That'd be a false comparison, if You do try it.
BTW at this point to sum up the top level discussion, you admitted that Trump did turn over power, but you think it's more than ungracefully.
I only noted your absolute statement that a good President is one that turns over power. You have admitted that he turned over power, but you don't find Trump to be a good president.
So what remains is that you find a phrase to modify your original statement that is more powerful than "not gracefully". Perhaps "a good President is one that turns over power without legal challenges and election overturning maneuvers above and beyond what most consider reasonable". I can agree with that.
Ah, glad we got back here. I was wondering.
You're getting fancy with words. Yeah, I agree You're literally right. That doesn't say much, IMV.
I think it's plain on the nose on Your Mother's face.
Trump planned out how he could keep power. It's not a question of "gracefully" or not. To me, it's more a question of how delusional he was in his thinking that he thought he could actually get away with it.
A good President doesn't try to overthrow the election AFTER THE STATES ELECTORS HAD BEEN CERTIFIED IN MID-DECEMBER.
Is that clearer? In case You don't know, after that the *election was over.* The winner was chosen, and it wasn't Trump. He is of such poor character, and was such a sore loser, and for other reasons just could *not* psychologically admit to the truth of the matter.
It was a done deal. Any reasonable candidate would have seen that. He was UNreasonable, and I'm not at all sure that he wasn't largely unhinged from reality. Like I pointed out above.
Yeah, You're technically right about the way I phrased things. You missed the whole spirit of what I was saying. I think there's a reason for that. And I hope this has cleared up Your confusion. No sarcasm.
Wasn't confused but good to close the loop. One man's missing the spirit is another man's reading the words written.
One man's reading the words written is another man's missing the entire point of what was written,
The old, often true, saw: Missing the forest by focusing on a single tree.
I don't need the links, familiar with all that stuff and stand by what I said. Also about 1876, it doesn't compare only in that when the persons who contested the election got loud enough, the whole thing was thrown into a special election committee. The only difference here was that Trump didn't have enough evidence (because it didn't exist) to push the argument credibly enough to get to a special election committee or similar brokered deal. So basically it was the kind of thing Trump wanted to achieve but did not, but it was a clear historical precedent that he would have loved to follow. The system was pushed so hard that the electoral college vote final tally had to be judged by a specially formed committee, and all parties agreed to do that.
If You're familiar with John Eastman's antics, and that doesn't convince You that Trump was planning on overthrowing the election, then You've gone through such mental contortions there's not much I can say.
Fact is, at this point, I don't recall what You're standing by that You said before.
I'm curious about this process of turning things over to a special committee. But not important. The whole thing was some-a the worst backroom deal-making that's ever gone on. From what I know of it, Hayes would do anything to get hold-a the presidency, and he accomplished that by ending Reconstruction. The rest is history.
It's actually an awesome story that everyone interested should review in detail, and has pragmatic implications to today's policy.
Fascinatingly, all parties agreed to the Election Commission because they both thought they could game it. One party thought they had the edge, but the other thought they could bribe to get the edge by offering an open Senate seat to one person who got put on the Commission - but then the person showed actual integrity, accepted the Senate seat but said it made him compromised and resigned from the Commission. So the Commission leaned to the at-first-losing party then and they slowly gained the upper hand, but the final deal actually required a massive side deal brokered for the losing party to get a major Federal policy concession that made them accept the results. Crazy.
Policy impact today: Sens. Collins and Manchin introduced a bill to "clarify" that the VP has a ceremonial role in accepting election certifications and that each state's final authority is the governor of the state - which is basically just going to shift to a scenario where a candidate pushing for overcoming election result targets the Governors rather than the VP - not exactly an improvement and the 1876 example clearly shows this, because the Oregon governor tried to singlehandedly determine the election outcome (which was standing at 1 electoral vote) by switching his state's result (invalidating an elector and naming a replacement from his party to swap one vote and change the outcome).
Well, I gotta admit I'm really interested. That's a fascinating story.
But to the question of cleaning up the 1800s Election Act? It needed done. I don't think it was all just about making the VPs role ceremonial. There were more loopholes involved that needed closing, AFAIK.
And I'd hafta think about whether making the role ceremonial raises the risk of misadventure. I rather think not.
It's always been at the level of the states. Anybody could-a dreamed up alternate electors prior to now and tried to get them seated right? VP role ceremonial or not, could-a happened.
It's just that it took a fill-in-the-blank kind-a guy like Trump to try to actually *do* it. Illegally.
I think we agree on everything except whether it was illegal or just very bad and undesireable working at the limits of a flawed system.
What i might see differently is that the wacko that does that can also accomplish otherwise unachievable things on behalf of the country. Not that there is a net positive, but that there is some positive.
We had several piss poor presidents who left office amicably. So surely your Trump.prejudice is coloring your statement.
Leaving office amicably is the most basic, necessary thing a president can do.
I absolutely disagree. And as another commenter stated Trump did leave office, just not amicably.
And as I replied on a different comment.
What You say is technically true. He did leave office. Surely true.
I'm no debater. You can probably tell me what kind-a argument states a fact, which in no way, shape, or form covers the situation under discussion.
That's what You're doing here.
You and I *both* know that it's not what happened on Jan. 20 that's at issue. Mebbe this is what's called a strawman argument. No matter. It doesn't work.
What happened from mid-December on is what matters. Trump showed his true colors, and showed beyond *any* shadow of a doubt that he isn't a man fit for the office of President.
I believe (without rereading) that's the *only* thing I disagree with Barr about.
The POINT is that You show right here, with a very INsubstantial argument, how *extremely entrenched* Your position is.
It's not that You *couldn't* see it. It's that You do not *wish* to see Trump for what he *is.* And *that's* why there's no need for further discussion. It's all on You.
Let’s give him a cookie!
Let's just move on.
Agreed!
Not at all, Ma'am. Your Trump prejudice is coloring Yours.
The point isn't whether we've had piss poor presidents, right? It's whether there was one that was *so* piss poor he didn't leave office "amicably." He gave every effort so he wouldn't leave office at *all* which is a little different still.
So, you're talking about Obama? Who literally spied on the incoming administration and tried to have them removed before they were brought in through faking evidence to drive Russiagate? And tell me about how Trump didn't leave amicably? I realize you've watched a lot of CNN and MSNBC but show me actual facts about how Trump's actual departure from office was actually any different than anyone else's?
He screamed about voter fraud like Hillary screamed about voter fraud like Al screamed about voter fraud, and on, and on, and then he peacefully transferred power. I'm confused by what you think happened here exactly?
No. I'm not talking about Obama at all. Read what I say, rather than putting false words into my mouth.
BTW, TV I bought a year ago is still in the box. So You're batting 0-fer.
Read my other posts to see how OBVIOUSLY it was different than anyone else's in history.
So not since 2008.
You mean what happened 2016? I dunno anything happened in 2008.
The last time a president turned over power to the elected president without any BS was 2008. That's what I was getting at.
Oops. Too fast.
The difference being that Obama *did* turn power over *PEACEFULLY.*
*UNLIKE TRUMP.*
But what was done after was like Barr said. That's what I meant by "true."
I'd hafta see a lot more on this Obama/Rice deal. HRC? Wouldn't surprise me.
But the POINT IS: He *did* turn power over peacefully, and Trump *didn't,* right? Those are the facts of the matter.
Ah. True.
Yes, it is all about feelings.
I know this first hand from family members.
The left has hijacked their feelings with false morality.
When feelings get hurt, there is no more conversation.
Full stop.
And yes, your challenge is a very good one.
What the fuck does this look like if the left succeeds in their quest ?
I’ve never seen this defined.
totally agree - can someone explain how otherwise intelligent people can allow themselves be so brainwashed? Is it a comfort of the hive thing? Too much "feelings" for sure, but how can people completely ignore reality and rationality. Mystifying.
My liberal friends usually use broad "compassion" for all but take responsiblity for no one.
Bari Weiss gets a very bad feeling when Barr speaks of the deaths of horrific murderers by relatively painless injection. Does this feeling represent her “thoughts” on the matter. I get a feeling of revulsion when I hear of these murderers’ murders, but I do
My best to do a cost/benefit analysis to arrive at my opinion. I do
Not believe
In the huge expense of life sentences. It robs society of more precious uses of OUR resources.
A mystery to me too, I live with a few. My sense of the matter is that the hatred of Trump takes over any and all other rational thought. And they choose to ignore the carnage - inflation, crime, high gas prices, no boarder, Afghanistan, etc…. Either that, or this is what they want and it was planned, but they remain silent.
Don’t forget the labor shortage and subsequent small business closure, Communists at the gates, elite-enforced farm-failure, threat of worldwide famine, squashing of protest, mandates for an experimental shot that’s sickened and maimed thousands…
Trump received 74,221,000 votes in the 2020 election, the second most votes ever. More than the 69,498,516 votes Obama received in 2008 and second only to the 81,284,000 ballots that were credited to Biden. Think about that, Trump received more votes than Obama and still lost to a senile, lifelong political joke who never managed to attract more than 50 people to one of his “rallies” when he dared venture out of his basement.
I agree that feelings can be a powerful force and undoubtedly the leftists and their media flunkies successfully manipulated them, but clearly something more sinister was involved.
Biden won because mail in ballots tipped the scales.
There is no other explanation.
You're probably right.
But I think there's a pretty good reason why the majority of the mail-in ballots went to the Ds.
Rather, the *main* reason is Trump.
I know an operative (with ties to billionaires I might add) who figured out a way for Dems to get 2 votes each and termed it the "Democrat Voting Superpower". It involved requesting an absentee ballot AND voting in person, no matter what "jt" says below.
My deceased grandmother got three ballots sent to her Democrat son’s house. No one can contradict that.
LA - In Colorado we automatically get a mail-in ballot. I put mine through the shredder but if I sent it in and also voted in person I don't know if there's any protocols in place to catch that.
Our cities have known how to manipulate votes since forever. Is there a reason every city big and small is run [into the ground] entirely by Democrats for generations?
Black Lives Matter. Stop voting Democrat.
I know an operative who told me it was Trump who assassinated both JFK and Lincoln.
Probably on MSNBC lol
Sorry, I've seen that argument before.
You're just repeating what Trump told You. He said, IIRC, that *nobody* could lose to Biden. It wasn't *possible* to lose to Biden. Painted himself into a corner with that.
But Biden did win. People voted in numbers *against* Trump. Probably as many as voted *for* Biden. That's why it was biggest turnout in history.
Isn’t this website called “Common Sense”?
74 million votes is the largest number of votes for a single human being in history. And you tell me that Joe Biden got more? Because of Trump-hatred? My city has perfected the art of utilizing deceased voters for decades. It’s a dirty little secret that “no one can prove.” Because, the powerful of this city.
And can you call it “turnout” when millions of votes were cast invisibly from home?
Yeah, that's what I call it. You make the same arguments as Timothy Kaluhiokalani. See my replies to him.
Yeah, I saw your comments (all over everywhere…*) to Tim… I’m not sure what you see in yourself!
*not good manners to take over every conversation to make your opinion the center of it. I saw another commenter trying to helpfully reign you in [“dismissive”]…may you take this gracefully too. Have a good, learning-ful day!
BTW, You probably didn't take the time to notice, but what I do (almost without exception) is reply to people that reply to me. I just don't restrict myself to a few tiny conversations, when I don't feel like.
And I don't *only* read books and comment on this site.
For example I bloviate on race relations and education here on this article at Professor Glen Loury's Substack. https://glennloury.substack.com/p/race-is-a-reality-in-america-heres
So I have other interests besides pointing out to Trump supporters that they don't know him very well. And how that lack leads them to the mistaken notion he should run for office again. And at least over at that other site, people are polite, which doesn't seem to come to easily to the MAGA crowd sometimes.
Yeah, I should-a expected a few ad hominems thrown in there. Yeah, all for my own benefit.
I'll say same to You as I've said before. I rarely comment, buy You guys on the right need shaking up once in a while. I type like what I would say and say what I think. If that makes my opinion the center of it, too bad. I don't know who else's experiences I should be drawing on.
No matter. Actually, I'm reading a book on how the internet changes Your brain. About the only thing that takes me away from reading books is wasting time commenting. Dunno how many people have the attention span to read a book. According to what I'm reading, attention is a talent that has gone outta style.
"People voted in numbers *against* Trump"
And yet he received 11.24 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, including record numbers of blacks and Hispanics
Again, that's a ridiculous comment.
So *what* he got more votes in 20 than 16. Think LOGICALLY. What does that PROVE?
Somehow that "proves" Your preconceived notions that Trump could not *possibly* lose.
Get over it. BOTH candidates got more votes than any other candidate in the history of the country. What does that prove? There was a lotta contention.
Slice it how You want, Biden got some number of millions MORE votes than Trump, is the end result.
Zuckerberg just admitted the FBI asked him to bury the Hunter laptop story. That coupled with every mainstream media outlet tv, print & online spewing Trump misinformation and hatred with the Democratic controlled counties with people willing to sell their souls to devil is the proof that the election was rigged!
In 2020, despite suffering through a worldwide pandemic we had a secure border, a 1.23% inflation rate, gas was $2.17 a gallon, mothers could actually buy baby formula, operation warp speed had just delivered a Covid vaccine in record time, Putin had not invaded any countries, Kim Jong Un was sending Trump love letters… and you want me to believe a record 81 million people voted against a man with that record?
You sound like a frightened little anti-Trumper. You’re frightened because after four years of the ass clown that was installed as president even more people would vote for Trump in 2024 and there won’t be enough illegal drop boxes or ballot harvesting or fools like you to make a difference.
Sorry, pal, but You're a frightened little MAGA-head.
You give good reasons to vote for Trump. I've "said" *repeatedly* that Trump did a lotta good things. If You don't know that by now, You're just being intentionally ignorant.
Again, the good reasons to vote for Trump? What does that PROVE about the numbers of votes cast.
You're so blind You can't comprehend logic. It proves ZERO, zip, zilch, NADA. Because YOU can't comprehend anyway that Trump could lose, You KNOW he didn't.
That logic is back-arsewards.
Your guess is NOT as good as mine when it comes to '24. Just to refresh Your memory, You frightened little MAGA-head, I've said that Trump *could* win.
I've also said that he's the *only* R that could *possibly lose.* That's how bad he is, in *most* people's eyes.
Fool.
Folks, the answer is non-obvious but becoming more clear. Watch "the Social Dilemma". Our social media algorithms effectively use human emotions to create greater engagement with the platforms, in ways that create deep viscerally held opinions in the people that use them.
Trump plays the heel, specifically intending to trigger reactions. Social media spreads the word and triggers strong reactions in both constituencies, and become deeply held and felt issues for many folks. Journalists were among the first to use Twitter and the first to become way more indoctrinated than usual in this manner, and then through their work spread this effect well beyond the social media users.
Pew research shows that the massive shift leftward of Democrats happened from about 2010-2015 and the nearly as big shift rightward of GOP voters happened from 2015-2017. This correlates almost fully with social media adoption in these groups, which was later in those on the right.
Funny. You're the second today that recommended "the Social Dilemma."
Was that where they were harping on how *addictive* it is, or was that a different article?
Point is: Yup. The only social media I use is Substacks, and I need to cut back on that. (Now I remember where I saw that first article.) I saw a book today about how bad dopamine addiction is and what it does to people. Probably never read it, but put it on the list.
These tech giants? Surely everybody knows by now that they do *not* have Your best interests in heart. The exact opposite. If they can keep Your attention as long as they can, and anger does that about as well as anything, then they can sell You the shiny baubles their AI has determined You should need.
All that to say... TYTY for You comment.
In short, outrage is viral because outrage creates engagement and engagement means more time spent on social media which means more ad revenue.
Social Dilemma says: "If you program algorithms to increase time spent on the system, which translates to greater ad revenues, the program finds out quickly which posts do that, and which recommendations do that, and the ones that do that are the ones that stoke basal outrage in people, so those things get promoted by the system and outrage is thus 'viral'"
I use an ad blocker because I got so tired of ads flashing in my face or intruding on the content of the article or whatever I was there for.
Most sites ask me to allow ads. When I do, the ads are just as obnoxious as ever. I figure if they want ad revenue from me they need to better choose what appears on their site.
If a site requires me to disable ads I hit the back button. Whatever they have I can likely find elsewhere
Yeah, Google and them are companies worth a TRILLION dollars. Because they have mined so much of Your personal information that they can guess pretty well the kinds-a shiny baubles people wanna buy.
And people *do* buy them. Or they wouldn't be worth a TRILLION dollars.
You're right to disable ads, Ma'am. Me? I don't use that social media crap, myself. I don't *want* them to know that much about me. Only thing I use of Google is their maps.
Browser and search I use Brave. They don't log *any-a* that stuff.
I actually wonder if medium to long term, groups that prefer longer form content like substack and podcasts versus short social media posts will outperform those that make less rational group decisions because of the inherent failures of short form communication.
I suspect so. But it's even worse than it appears.
If Your brain is fine-tuned to reading a 280 character piece, how're You even gonna *comprehend* a 15-minute read? Somthing complex that takes a half-hour or hour to cover? I just don't see it.
Twitter, Insta & FB = Brief, emotionally-fraught "memes" meant to trigger emotional responses. Rational argument and (ultimately) logical persuasion require a much longer form involving inference and both inductive (evidence based) and deductive (if this - then likely that) reasoning.
Yup.
I dunno who the "they" is You're referring to, Sir Brian.
I'm sure there are a *lotta* Ds and Centrists who don't like *either* Biden or Trump, right?
But if You really think there are a lotta people (not saying none) that want inflation and crime and high gas prices and all that? I dunno about that.
It appears that many on the left want the high gas prices which are helping to cause the high inflation. Every time I hear people like Jennifer Granholm, Mayor Pete or Biden use the phrase, “necessary transition from fossil fuels”, it highlights that fact. They are on record for making gas as expensive as possible to reduce consumption and force people into electric vehicles. Widespread support amongst Progressives for Soros supported AG’s like Gascon, Boudin, Fox, etc. also seem to show that a lotta people that are perfectly fine with high crime rates.
I agree.
I mostly did, as I "said."
I'd go along with that if You hadn't said "*many* on the left."
You're talking about the Progressives. Sure, Progressives hold the power these days. But they're still the *minority* in the D party. Smaller minority when it comes to the whole country, right?
Be careful, that very small minority, the progressives, will eat you alive if you don’t put them back into the hole they crawled out of.
Oh yeah. I'm not great on history. But I know enough to know that a virulent small energetic minority *does* shift the winds of fortune.
I'd like to see that amongst the Rs. BADLY.
*Anybody* other than the sad MAGA-heads.
I see you write a LOT of words… dismiss a lot with little… but this one… I don’t think you really know ANYTHING about— those you think it is ok to slander yet— those “MAGA-heads.” Sad, friend.
I’nm in a small New England town and many of the wealthy Democrats agree with their current leadership, but hey, they can afford those Teslas. And, if they are and the Progressive wing are controlling the Democrat party, it doesn’t really matter if they only make up 51% of it.
Correct, that very small minority, progressives, have taken over the Democrat party.
Look. Even You has to see that the wealthy Ds don't make up the majority of the D party, right? It's just that You see them all the time.
They're the minority. Nowhere even close to 51%.
I suppose You're a Trump supporter? If so, You don't have much call to support him *now.*
Or IF so, *You'd* be the one to ignore reality and rationality. No mystery at all. DTS says it all.
Both can happen at the same time, Trump supporters can ignore his toxic personality and at the same time, be puzzled about what it is the left seeks to accomplish. Ignoring Trump’s personality does not negate the question about the left.
I replied somewhat along these lines above.
But I would say that it's just a question of ignoring Trump's "toxic personality" as ignoring his being totally unfit for the office. It's not *only* a question of personality, but even *more* a question of character.
Me? I got *plenty-a* questions about the left. Just *more* about the right for the reason *Barr said.* The Right has a *golden* opportunity to stop the left dead in it's *tracks,* right? But will piss that opportunity away, because they idolize Trump so much.
jt I think that is how the majority of centrist people think. The Right can apply Trump's policies without Trump. You cannot apply any policy if you are not in office. Barr's rationale is crystal clear.
Barr was correct about that, I agree.
NAMBLA must be rejoicing...
It may be the preferred term of the Feelings Police. My preferred term for child molesters is, "the late pedophile."
Jarring! Pedophilia is just the next thing that is going to be foisted on us as being on the normal spectrum of human sexual behavior. We will all have to be accepting and supportive of our minor-attracted co-workers, even elevating their need to feel validated above our own need to speak the truth, or we will be fired or cancelled, or some such other nonsense. We should have taken a stand with all the trans crap and maybe that would have saved some children the irreparable harm of hormone tampering and surgeries that cannot realistically be reversed. Normalizing pedophilia is criminal. I will never use the words minor-attracted person. These people are sick and should seek help, not ask the rest of us to endorse their untreated mental illness as normal behavior.
They just keep nudging.
Very often, the problem was the Left's total lack of a sense of humor or grasp of irony. Many of Trump's hilarious comments were intentionally distorted and presented as if they were meant to be taken literally. But anyone who watched the rallies and saw the context could plainly tell the man was joking and often poking fun at himself.
Trump Derangement Syndrome was the trauma of the Left who could never accept that half the country rejects their pursuit of utopia.
That's a rich one, Donna. So when Trump, speaking from the White House, suggested that Covid could be cured by injecting bleach or shining ultraviolet light inside one's body, he was being facetious or ironic and the poor fools who were injured when they followed his suggestion just failed to get the joke, right? And when he told the MAGA cultists gathered at a rally to "beat the crap out" of a protester, he was being ironic and the beating the protester sustained was all in fun. Or when a man from Arizona OD'd on Chloroquine because Trump advocated it as a COVID remedy, the man actually died from an inadequate sense of humor. And now, thanks to you, I understand what he meant when he called himself "a very stable genius." That's uproariously funny.
Trump’s comments initially were funny and the left got bent out shape by them. Their skin was too thin. Then the left attacked, and showed how thin Trump’s skin was. But as you stated, his later comments got outside the rails and were destructive. He was his own worst enemy and the reason he lost in 2020.
Very true, Barr strikes me as a hypocritical coward
I'm not gonna argue about when Trump was being hilarious and when he was to be taken literally.
This You can take literally, straight from his mouth:
"Are you talking about disinformation or are you talking about lies? There is a more beautiful word called disinformation.”
So even Trump's supporters can't be *absolutely* sure about what Trump was up to, *all* the time, right? No matter.
The point is that Deranged Trump Supporter syndrome is similar. The trauma that *more* than half the country doesn't love Trump as much as You guys and gals do.
Like I've said *from the beginning,* Trump had his good side and one horrifically terrible bad side. Which made him unfit for the office. I disagree with Barr on that one point.
Plus he tweeted to get around the MSM. Which made the MSM double down in their disapproval until it was full-blown hatred.
Yep.
Ideological utopianism murdered millions and defined the 20th Century. The political system our Constitution put in place to insure human dignity and worth is compromised and the willingness of the DNC to paint American citizens as "terrorists" while exploiting Marxist tactics and pathology for their own ends is a threat to America and the world. There is no such thing as "soft" totalitarianism. The Democratic Party has held Americans hostage to a lie for too long. With or without Trump it needs to go.
Yes.
I agree. Or the D party needs to change. I know, You likely can't conceive of a change they'd make that would be for the better. You *could* be right, but that's too far down the road for anyone to say for sure.
Except for certain people on the right, who can't conceive of it.
That’s is true , his enemies took him literally , his supporters simply chuckled
Yes. One of my favorite quotes from 2016 was that Trumps opponents took him literally but not seriously while his supporters took him seriously but not literally
Which ironically is now what progressives say about BLM and Defund the Police.
"Defund the Police" was (apparently) supposed to be taken seriously but not literally.
Every quote published by the MSM from Trump would always be the punchline, without the setup. And shame on us when we didn't do a little research to discover that.
Feelings are raw.
They get hurt.
Dialogue stops.
Yep.
They were discussing the actual voting and election. The things that were manipulated outside of that are sort of in their own category. They certainly affected the election. I don’t know that it would have made a difference, bc the left thought of getting rid of trump as their holy war, and tried to reach everyone possible with their message. A lot of shady stuff happened. But Barr was talking about his actual job and the election process itself.
I noticed that omission as well.
A poll showed that 5% of voters who voted for Biden had they known about Hunter’s laptop would have voted for Trump instead - making him win re-election.
Citation needed.
Actually the number is 17% and not 5% - from the Media Research Center - an article from the Federalist, November 2020 - google = poll Vote change Hunter Biden laptop. I also saw a poll that said 5% but can’t find that citation….makes you wonder how many voters really want Joe Biden to be President .
It takes a giant leap of faith to believe this. There are not that many persuadable Americans period. Let alone that many to be swayed by the unknown contents of a candidate's son's laptop.
These stats reflect polled questions - polls are predictive tools.
The "it's all in your head" gaslit distortion of American political reality by compromised and second rate D.C. leadership is the problem. There is no question that both parties are capable of manipulating and/or rigging an election. Rigged or not, the distrust, disgust and ever more justified anger "..we the people.." feel at being forced to watch a transparently criminal machine butcher everything it touches makes it possible to believe the reality of a rigged election is a certainty.
Why, in the face of modern technology, medicine, communications, thought and scientific advance does American political leadership remain opaque and unable to create practical solutions and pathways to a brighter future? The answer can be found in a homeless encampment near you.
Because for the machine/blob it’s a feature not a bug.
Actually Barr said the DOJ investigates fraud and the rule changes, etc. were up to the states. He said there was no demonstrable evidence of fraud. He did not way in at all on the integrity of the election. IMO Trump failed in two important respects. First he was played by Fauci. The covid crisis made the second possible - he was played by the left with all the last minute changes to voting rules, influx of money to solicit votes, etc.. But we were all played by the latter and because we did not call for accountability it will happen again.
I always make mistakes. I may have implied that I thought the Zuckbucks were okay. But if You recall from my previous comments, I think the opposite.
There was no change-up here. Your simply making things up in Your head.
I've *always* said the Zuckbucks should never have happened.
Because I tell the truth is a really good reason for You to mute me. I'll give You that one.
Correct me if I'm wrong. The states make up the election laws. Each state has to be held accountable on it's own. And that's up to the state's residents.
Me in Ohio? I'm plenty satisfied. You? Aren't You signed up to monitor the election? ICBW. Point is, it'll happen if people let it happen. And what it is that really bothers me is that there may be some Rs elected to office who will override the will of the voters, and place their own people as electors. Nothing I can do about that, tho.
I believe that IF all votes were required to be cast on election day, in person and with valid ID, Trump would've won.
It would be nice IF all but valid mail-in votes could be cast on same day with ID. Fact, I've always thought (and written) it should be a national holiday.
But, sorry. Anybody can come up with an if like that. No way to base that on anything real.
(That's disregarding the reality the IF was no way in the cards on that day to begin with.)
Yes the states handle election procedure. Usually through the Secretary of State. And yes I am an election volunteer in Texas so I am confident our elections are fairly run. But even here there were what I would call election integrity issues as a result of covid. For example Harris County, the 3rd most populous County in the U.S., allowed drive up voting ostensibly to facilitate covid concerns. But people were coming by the carful. So much for privacy at the voting booth. Plus the election worker who brought the voting machine out were in no position to monitor whether the voter was being improperly influenced by the others in the car or improper use of cell phones, for example. It certainly presented an opportunity for misconduct. And yes jt that stuff matters. As I have said before I thought huge donations to secure block-walking/ballot harvesting was fraud but apparently it was legal in some states. So again even if the election was legal it was certainly sketchy. I understand why Trump was upset.
When You first said, long ages ago, that the election was legal but was.. I forget how You put it.. "morally corrupt" or something along those lines...
... I accepted it as fact first time I read it. I disagree if You think there shouldn'a been any allowances for COVID. I voted by mail first time in my life. *I* sure didn't wanna go in person. But, like I explained before if You recall: In my country the mailed an application out to everybody so they could *request* a mail-in ballot. Everybody didn't just automatically get one. You filled that out, and then filled out the ballot when it came. It was a double hassle, actually, but I thought it was worth it. And then there was a website to say if they got Your ballot and if it was rejected. I think all that was under R administration. Pretty sure.
Point is, there's a right way and a wrong way, and I've never said that everything was done the wrong way.
But, if You actually *think* about things, Trump's whole M.O. was being upset. Besides that, he wasn't just upset. He was claiming fraud when he knew there wasn't any. I recall You saying we should give him a pass because he mebbe really *believed* there was fraud.
He believed that because of a couple basic character flaws. The majority of his insiders were telling him lost. Like Barr said, he made a conscious choice to listen to Sidney Powell. Guiliana who he ended up stiffing even paying him. John Eastman. And the character is so *basic.* Sure, it's a lot *easier* to listen to people who tell You what You wanna hear.
That's one-a the *worst* qualities a President can have, right? If Your an adult, and even if Your a reality TV star, You don't take the option of listening to people who tell You what You wanna hear. That's the oldest story in the *book,* right?
And like I said, he was just a poor loser. Convince *all* the MAGA crowd the election was stolen. *He* really was elected!!
Great move. That really helped. And all because he was a sore loser.
If You think this is unreasonable, then I'll add IMO.
I did.not say there should not be accommodations for covid. But those accomodations absolutely created an opportunity for abuse. And I think there are very few things that come down to a right way and a wring way. But if I was that kind of person I would feel strongly that the 2020 election was not handled the right way. And the people of this country have paid a very high price therefor.
I agree, completely. (Except the 2030 part. ;-)
You overlook the price the country has paid for Trumps lies that the election was stolen tho.
When you have the full weight of the DOJ/FBI on a witch hunt throughout his Presidency that they KNEW was complete bullshit, I am not surprised that Trump was extremely suspicious of the election. Zuckerberg’s $450 million targeted at specific areas, Elias getting voting procedures changed by officials and not through Legislatures, large counties suspending vote counts then restarting in the middle of the night while restricting oversight, etc. make me a little suspicious of what happened. I love how Barr just wonders how so much happened, just can’t understand it. Prime example is him whistling past Weissman’s control of the Special Counsel while using Mueller as a shield. That was a coup attempt - right in front of everyone.
Naw. No coup was attempted. None was seen. And Barr summed up Meuller for the D lacky he was in this very interview. Nothing to see here.
But if You take a look around at who actually *DID* try to steal the election, that was nobody other than Trump himself.
JT, you are overlooking all the factors that have reduced belief in the integrity of our voting. You can nitpick all day but you will never restore confidence in this system. And thus you insure the woke Dems and their WEF puppet masters will control our lives. I’m sure you have
Noticed your
Bill of Rights is rapidly depreciating.
I haven't overlooked the factors that have reduced belief in the integrity of our voting. I understand there's problems with mass mail-in voting. But that's up to the states to decide, nothing to do with me.
And the *fact* of the matter is that the *main* factor that's reduced Your belief in the integrity of Your voting is Trump's bald-faced lies. I'll post a quote, directly from Trump's mouth, that I've done before:
"Are you talking about disinformation or are you talking about lies? There is a more beautiful word called disinformation.”
Bill of Rights? Yeah, I noticed.
I wanna make one point that may not be obvious:
Yeah, pretty much all the WEF puppet masters are gonna be Woke. No, not all the Woke are WEF puppet masters. You make it sound like they're one and the same. They aren't. No biggie. I dunno if You really think like that or not. But if You do Your just plain wrong.
Naw, nothing to see here. Just ignore all of it. What was glaring about the examples Barr gave on the Special Counsel was that he couldn't understand how certain things could happen - non redacted report, rabid partisans running the special counsel. I know he shut it down eventually, but calling out Mueller as the senile figurehead of a dirty trick Democrat witch hunt by the DOJ/FBI right away would have been appropriate. And when you talk about the peaceful transition of power, the DOJ/FBI, knowing that Russiagate was bullshit, certainly did everything they could to curtail the rightfully elected President ability to govern for the first time in history.
Well, Barr shut it down. In this very interview he basically called "out Mueller as the senile figurehead of a dirty trick Democrat witch hunt by the DOJ/FBI."
What the DOB/FBI did about Russiagate wasn't the same as what Trump did. You can't see that, can You? Yeah, I gather HRC had something to do with that crap. But Obama *did* turn over power peacefully.
Trump didn't. He was caught red-handed trying to steal the election, if You could only look at the facts of the matter.
Excellent!!
Would-a been a good question.
But Barr was talking about the election *counts.* And, IMO, You can take what he said to the bank.
I agree, it will get very ugly before this is all over.
If ever it’s over, I think it has just begun and what’s more I don’t think it’s going to end well for all of us.
I agree.
Based on the outright attack on the Constitution that Nancy has overseen to attack a former President, you are understating the situation.
Exactly Jon you don’t have to be a rocket scientist!
And all over the mainstream media they are telling stories of right wing extremism stepping over the line and engaging in violence. But never at all discussing why those folks have been pushed over the line. As if it was spontaneous and not caused by anything.
Exactly.
People just don’t do stupid shit, they have to be pissed off enough to do so.
That’s the demented story of the 21st century. The MSM, Big Tech and the Democrats have framed a narrative about MAGA, the Right wing and about President Trump. They have to keep selling it otherwise what do they have left . Covid has all but disappeared. President Trump hasn’t. It’s becoming terrifying to live in America especially after the raid on the President home. Not sure if you listen to Dan Bongino , he has pleaded with level headed Americans not to do anything stupid hope we all listen!
They plead for the same thing on the Clay & Buck show. Please please don't do anything stupid.
Yeah we got to keep our heads!!
Dan is correct to ask for civility in the face of these attacks.
I just don’t know how long people can put up with this.
I’m very worried.