It's funny that "Supply Side" continues to be seen as pejorative. This is stupid. Supply Side is the whole of economics from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, who roundly condemned Individualism and for all intents and purposes advocated Collectivism. Benito Mussolini called his ideas "Pure Fascism". If Mussolini did not understand Fascist economics, who did?
The root question is "who spends money more intelligently and sustainably, the government, or the invidual?" Put another way, Demand Side, Keynesian economists claim that the government knows what people want more than they do. It claims the government can run up huge deficits indefinitely buying shit people don't want, that is useless outside of very short bursts of injecting money into an economy, and that this builds prosperity. It doesn't. It is just a trick to increase government power.
What's insane and ironic is that the Chinese seem to have believed him, and seem to have implemented his policies and seem to be on the verge of a huge economic crash. Real estate prices are dropping precipitously. Millions of Chinese are losing their life savings.
And to return to Reagan, after he cut taxes, Federal tax revenues increased over the baseline about two years later. Look it up. Same thing happened with the George W. Bush tax cuts.
The Congress simply outspent the increases in revenue. It's that simple. The tax cuts worked. We just had awful and irresponsible Congresses and Presidents unable to reel them in.
As far as the election, what sort of idiot can EVEN NOW defend Joe Biden in any way? He's a crook. He's a creep. His people cheated him into office. And he is pissing himself on public stages into adult diapers, before and after babbling incoherent nonsense.
Trump is intelligent; he is patriotic; and he seems to be honest. That seems the most likely explanation for why nearly the whole of our corrupt System has been attacking him since he declared his candidacy. How is this complicated for anyone who is not stupid? Answer: it isn't. He has the support of two thirds of America.
An intelligent person who understands the Constitution would have understood that the Vice President has no right to substitute his opinion for that of the Electoral College or talks about grabbing pussies. And no decent man goes around grabbing pussies. American needs to do better than Trump and Biden.
The idea, and what he said, was that Pence should have demanded that the Legislatures at least of the States where there were OBVIOUS and LARGE problems with the votes either ratify, change or nullify their electors, which is to say who they were voting for. This is the way it is specified in the CONSTITUTION.
Were you aware, I wonder, Terence, that the Constitution can actually be consulted? Here is the text: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
Any sane reading of that is that the Legislature has final say. The Secretary of State is not mentioned anywhere. It may be that the Legislatures in most or all States DIRECT the SoS to certify the elections, but it is really their task at the end of the day. Period. Legally, I don't really see this as disputable.
And if pussy grabbing is bad, then why are you not angry with Joe Biden? He stuck his finger in Tara Reade, who told many people, and reacted appropriately at the time. And WORSE, his people have been so terroristic and bullying to her since she went public that she moved to RUSSIA, where she felt her freedom and rights would be better respected.
There is no principle involved for you. obviously; and although many people will pretend to be horrified to hear this, what Trump was describing, in my view, was that women who were very attracted to him, who got wet when he was around--this actually is a thing, Terence, even though I don't doubt you are unfamiliar with it--found him grabbing them to be a sexual turnon. You won't find many men complaining about women grabbing their crotch.
As a billionaire, he was not sued for sexual harassment once. Not once. That is my understanding. And there are dozens of beautiful women out there who have said publicly he was never anything but a gentleman. Joe Biden took showers with his daughter, and his son and daughter are both substance abusing sex addicts.
And to the most important point, DONALD TRUMP WAS AN OUTSTANDING PRESIDENT. The economy expanded steadily after the declines caused by Obama's socialism; we stayed out of wars; our allies respected us; and he furthered peace in the Middle East, Korean peninsula and Europe. Had he been President, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine because he would not have told Zelensky he would get rich if he sent his people to be slaughtered.
Of course Trump is no saint. But his conversation with Billy Bush was about the women who chase billionaires, athletes and actors and who are looking to be grabbed because their raison d etre is to sleep with a famous person. Paragons of virtue they are not.
It is called locker room talk. Most people have participated in it. It is not very mature but it happens. Trump talked about grabbing pussy. Bill Cliton didn't talk about it. He didn't need to because he did grab pussies and the Dem/Soc and their buddies in the press love him for it and actually defended him.
I am an active, happy participant in locker room talk. I also love guns, single malt and cigar smoke. But then again, I’m from Texas. I think we need more of all these things, not less (looking at you, Pence.) Maybe we should substitute testosterone for fluoride.
So do I. But I don't molest women, and anyone who does should not be eligible for the presidency. That's not manliness or testosterone, it's criminal assault and immense disrespect for women.
I agree that that kind of talk has always occurred. Everyone can be included in that...everyone including me. Our son was in high school when the Access Hollywood tape was released. Even as far back as middle school the disgusting things he would come home and tell us he heard at school were far worse than this tape. When he was a sophomore in high school, he had an acquaintance walk up to him one day and hold up his phone. It was a video of children playing on a playground then it switched to hardcore porn. My husband and I are grateful that he felt safe to tell us. At the time of the AH tape, I remember thinking how virtuous the Dem's were pretending to be all of a sudden. Most of Hollywood are part of the Left and look at some of the stuff that comes from their movies and mouths. So puh-lease.
Women chase old and fat billionaires so that they can have their pussies grabbed. Did Trump think he was a rock star? This is your idea of a conservative Republican?
Sorry the Bush tape thing didn’t work for you. It’s been 7 years now and the Democrats keep bringing it up like it’s a thing we are supposed to take seriously. Maybe tell some Nixon jokes or something next time, maybe that will get people’s attention? 😂🤷♂️🤦♂️
Let me put this simply in terms you can understand: I don’t believe single word you say about Trump and Republicans. Not one thing. I want a competent deal maker with experience in the White House. I don’t give a rats ass if he is crass or has a big ego. Every time the democrats use my justice department to go after their political enemies my position strengthens against them.
At this point, I will walk barefoot over broken glass and hot coals to vote for Trump and a legislative body that will have his back.
I'm wondering: who do you think you are conversing with, and about what? I'm not seeing enough there there to warrant pretending your opinions about anything should matter to anyone.
Is it the language or is it you can't accept reality? The topic with the language actually happened. It was real and should be discussed. How would you describe "grabbing pussy" without using the word "pussy"?
Pedantic people bore me. But worse are people who lie and still say that there was enough fraud in the 2020 election that would have changed the results. 60 Judges decided that there WAS NO EVIDENCE to change the election. As to your soliloquy on the Constitution you fail to mention (or know) that the section you referred to was changed by the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. AND lacking any Evidence of fraud, what you proposed would have been a coup d'état (that means government overthrow)
There has been no finding of election fraud. There was rampant irregularity. Some define it as cheating. They are not wrong. Paying people to "harvest " ballots from uninformed voters created the Biden presidency.
People unwilling to do the work of thinking who nonetheless sufficiently value their own opinions to impose them on others irritate me.
The evidence of election fraud was not admitted as EVIDENCE in any court in the country. If you want to claim otherwise, post a link. Hundreds of sworn affidavits carrying the penalty of perjury were taken out by eyewitnesses. None of them were deposed under oath.
The whole thing was riddled with statistical impossibilities vastly larger than needed for us to declare likely fraud in any nation but our own. It's a very, very long list, and the one FACT which nobody can dispute is that no honest audit of the process has been done anywhere, even in Arizona, where much of the data was deleted, and where they still found several hundred thousand ballots that should not have been counted.
And it is both odd and instructive that you would oppose pedantry, which in its best forms at least tries to get things right. I suppose what you are saying is that you oppose people who try to get things right when their conclusions do not match your lazy assumptions. If that is what you are saying, I believe you.
What the 12th Amendment did was in effect make the Vice President the same party and slate as the President, rather than allowing a President from one party and a Vice President from the other, as happened with Adams and Jefferson.
From Wikipedia: "The original system allowed the 1796 and 1800 presidential elections to elect a president and vice-president who were political opponents, constantly acting at cross-purposes. This spurred legislators to amend the presidential election process to require each member of the Electoral College to cast one electoral vote for president and one electoral vote for vice president. Under the new rules, a contingent election is still held by the House of Representatives if no candidate wins the presidential electoral vote of a majority of the electors, but there is no longer any possibility of multiple candidates winning presidential electoral votes from a majority of electors. The Twelfth Amendment also lowered the number of candidates eligible to be selected by the House in a presidential contingent election from five to three, established that the Senate would hold a contingent election for vice president if no candidate won a majority of the vice presidential electoral vote, and provided that no individual constitutionally ineligible to the office of president would be eligible to serve as vice president."
1. You have a right to believe there was no fraud, but working for a Republican candidate in Cook County, Il. I can give first hand evidence of election fraud. If you believe there is no election fraud in the United States, I have ocean front property in Colorado you can buy.
Need I mention Joseph Kennedy/Richard J. Daley/1960 election?
2. It's statistically impossible to close the polls when you're behind by 1-2% with 98% of the votes in, and win. You'd have to get 75-80% of the remaining votes......Impossible.
These polls in swing states were surreptitiously closed where Trump was ahead, and wound up losing.
OJ Simpson also won
3. Wikipedia is a left wing open source arm of the MSM heavily edited by far left wing activists. It lost credibility long ago.
In the 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, three social psychologists studied a small religious sect in Chicago called “the seekers,” who believed that the world would soon be destroyed by a flood, and that a flying saucer was coming to save them. The seekers were deeply invested in the prophecy’s fulfillment—many had quit jobs and left spouses to prepare. On the appointed day, they gathered at their leader’s home to wait for deliverance. The psychologists wanted to know how the seekers would react when the world didn’t end. Would they realize they’d been duped? Denounce their former belief system? Turn on their prophet? As it turned out, no. When Armageddon failed to materialize, they simply decided that God had spared Earth from destruction because of their faith; that they had been right all along.
The psychologists who studied the seekers attributed their rationalizations to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance: When a true believer is faced with “undeniable evidence” that what he believes is wrong, he “will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view.”
I get the sense that you feel that story has relevance to me. How?
Our government has turned on the People. Look at what they did to Michael Flynn. Look at the ludicrous charges being made up to impede Trump, like valuing a $300 million property at $18 million arbitrarily and they charging him with fraud.
Our system of law is being burned down in front of you and you want to do is rationalize. I could spend half an hour citing examples.
I am not 100% sure Trump is honest, but I AM 100% sure he is being attacked by liars and crooks, and those very enemies make me feel it is POSSIBLE he is honest.
If honest history is possible twenty years from now, sane people will wonder at how eager people like you were to defend the indefensible.
This is a nice back and forth on the constitution a document loathed by Democrats. It is also re- fighting the last war. Trump for one needs to let this die a quiet death. Otherwise we get a second Biden term. That will be much worse than the first.
if you look at the 12th Amendment it says: The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;
I definitely didn't exhaust reality, but I did my best to touch it, which is more than most people opining on the internet any more seem inclined to do. They touch each other, mostly, as far as I can tell!!! Or maybe they just touch themselves. It's hard to say. But Reality has little if anything to do with it, despite always being RIGHT THERE.
Donld Trump was a good President but he is not more important than the Constitution and Joe Biden is the disaster I predicted he would be.
But you are living in Denial Land.
In the 2 months between the election and January 6th not one State had elected an alternative slate of Electoral College Electors and yet you think the mob sent by Trump might have convinced the joint session of Congress to adjourn the confirmation vote in order to go down that rabbit hole? Such a course would have created chaos.
What happened when the mob arrived at the Capitol building was predictable.
Trump tweeted for the mob to disperse, but Twitter deleted the tweet. And the FBI had so many covert agents in that crowd they literally lost count. And Nancy Pelosi seemingly both predicted unrest and refused to do anything substantive about it. Conclusion: this was the outcome she wanted and planned for.
But there were no guns. The only gun seen was apparently owned by someone on the FBI payroll, which is why they were never charged. That is my understanding.
This was never an attempt to take over anything. Are you really so stupid that you think that mob thought they could get control of a $4 trillion government with at least half a million members of an active military, by breaking a few windows and trespassing on public property? Really? Really?
It was an expression of rage at the failure of our system--as I said, Pence could and should have asked the legislatures of at least Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan to either confirm the Electors they sent, or replace them--and the breaking of things was led by Agents Provocateurs on Federal payroll, which ITSELF is a huge violation of the law. If you lead people into breaking the law, that is Entrapment. It is illegal.
And have you not seen the videos of Capital Police ushering people in, and even giving them tours? C'mon man. Being stupid is not an argument, is it, even if it is often a substance?
Do you ever wonder, with all our Federal LE/investigative agencies and the supposed threat from "White Supremacists", how January 6 was allowed to happen?
You have a twisted sense of morality Terrence. Grabbing pussies upsets your sensibilities but prolonging a war in which over 3-400,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives is to be lauded. I’m willing to bet that the mothers and sisters of the lost generation of men killed during the last two years would willingly endure some pussy grabbing by the man who kept their men alive while he was in office if it could bring their loved ones back.
Your ad hominen is stupid. Of course grabbing pussies upsets my sensibilities but illegal invasions and the atrocities commited are much worse. Putin is attempting to reconsitiute the Soviet Union. You should buy a mirror and a history book.
He has occupied the Donbass, nothing more. He is not even trying to take over all of Ukraine. Poland, which you might read in your own history book that you no doubt know thoroughly, has declared themselves done with the whole thing. If they were in danger, they would know it.
Do you ever write anything without subtracting from the sum total of human knowledge?
He also occupied and annexed the Crimea. Both territories are part of sovereign Ukraine, not sovereign Russia, and Putin had zero legal authority or reason to do so.
How would you react to Russia or China occupying Florida and declaring it their property and you should suck it up and like it? Would you say, OK, fine, not worth fighting over? Or would you throw the might of the entire U.S. military at the invaders, and if that didn't work, ask the West to help out?
If you wouldn't, you're an un-American coward, and if you would, then you're doing exactly what Ukraine did and should have done---call in the clans and push Putin back to his compound in Moscow.
You obviously aren't even following this completely unjustified war on Ukraine. Putin has attacked Kiev. Russia is no longer advancing because it has been stopped by Ukraine. Poland and Ukraine have had a minor spat. Europe is united against Russian imperialism and has spent as much per capita assisting Ukraine as has Ameica.
Do you want help in crafting an insult that doesn't make you look stupid?
He attacked Kiev in the hope of shortening the war. If he had wanted to conquer Ukraine he would have sent 10x as many people. The Donbass has been a problem for at least 10-15 years, and this whole thing is Putin's resolution of it.
As far as YOU calling ME stupid? Well, I care about the opinion, a little, of my neighbor's toy poodle, but I am not sure how I could care less about your opinion. I wrote this for others, because you are speaking idiocies.
So is it your geopolitical and historical analysis that Putin attacked Ukraine for no reason? There is nothing you can think of that might give us some understanding of why the nation of Russia might feel the need to do this? Are we back to “they are just evildoers and they must be destroyed no matter the cost”??
I find it more and more difficult to understand how we possibly won the Cold War with thinking like this. My guess is I have difficulty relating to people who do not think past slogans, talking points, and other popular opiates.
Which history book is that, Terrence? The one your House of Commons speaker relied on to honor a Ukrainian Nazi “war hero” for fighting against the Soviet Union in WW II? The same book that failed to mention that at the time, the Soviet Union was an ALLY of the US and Canada in fighting Hitler’s Nazis? Or do you mean the history book that details U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials just prior to the Berlin Wall coming down and the ensuing process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991?
Only fools like you believe that “Putin is attempting to reconstitute the Soviet Union”. The US and its European lackeys lied to Gorbachev back in 1990 and have been expanding NATO eastward ever since. During the early 2000s, President George W. Bush, that famous “democracy” spreader in places like Iraq, pushed for Ukraine to become a NATO member, despite France and Germany being opposed to it, fearing escalation with Russia. Putin repeatedly warned that Ukraine NATO membership was a red line for him and when the Masters of the Universe running Obama's State Department engineered a coup in Ukraine back in 2014 to install an obedient lackey with the promise of NATO membership, the line was crossed and he promptly took Crimea.
History also tells us that when the “pussy grabber” got into office, Putin suddenly became sanguine and only invaded Ukraine AGAIN once the Obama administration re-treads got back into office. An intelligent person might ask why that happened, but that surely is too much to ask of you.
Yes Bruce Miller but what happens down there affacts what happens here. Any you knew I was a Canadian when you wrote several months ago that you appreciated my arguments and asked for my email address.
As a Canadian I am able to observe American politics without becoming involved in the political civil war down there. I am a conservative and generally favour Republican policies, but I try to be objective.
What happens down here affects the entire world. Which is why we are working for a dramatic refutation of globalist policies and a restoration of liberty.
To reference the Billy Bush locker room recording that was leaked is quite laughable. You probably should consult your husband for an explanation of the whole thing. Finally, intellectual neophytes should stick to Facebook.
Trump was describing a certain kind of woman who throws herself at rich men and wants to be grabbed. He did not say he, himself, did that to some woman.
In my house, it’s like this: I love Trump and my wife REALLY loves Trump. Anyone with a brain can look past the locker room talk and other manufactured media outrage. I don’t get libs and Never Trumpers who judge his words far more harshly than his rivals’ actions.
So here’s my question for you. It’s inauguration day 2025. Trump is POTUS again.
Now what happens? What will the democrats and RINOs do? Will there be riots in the streets again? How does Trump heal a divided country? Will he be able to get anything done?
The first thing he has to do is get honest people in charge of all Federal departments, or abolish them, if that is possible.
The second is a thorough accounting of the crimes of both Democrats and Republicans and the lying media that enabled both.
There will be hysteria, and probably violence in the streets, but I like the chances of his supporters, which include most law enforcement, most military, and most men capable of inflicting righteous violence when it is forced on them. But that is not a goal, and something which we should work hard to avoid.
Over time, as revelation after revelation hits at least Truth Social, the bitterness should ease.
And he's what - 79? would be 83 at the end of his term? Can't run for re-election, right? We can find better narcissists than him to run this country. (Considering some of the cruel things he says, I can't imagine what he'll be capable of as his age unties his tongue and his frontal lobe even more). And before you jump all over me, I voted for him twice. Won't do it a third time. And the last 8 conservatives I talked to this week said the same. Get over him, people, or we get 4 more years of Biden.
The animal hatred half of the nation passionately feels towards Trump tells me his presidency, if he is elected, will not be healing. Just the opposite. Scary to think of the violence that may ensue.
From a Canadian point of view, I liked Trump's anti-China and pro-Israel stance -- American geopolitics, after all, affect all of us in the world -- but I detest his bragging and conceit and rude behavior. I just don't understand why he is so popular with so many Republicans. There were some good people on that debating stage.
I find Trump's brashness off-putting at times and refreshing at others. But I saw no one on that stage last with the will to do what needs to be done. Particularly Haley, Christie, Pence are neocons IMO and their type have lead us to where we are now. I cannot support more of that. I like Ramaswamy in many ways but he would be gator chum in DC at this point. Of the group I like Scott and DeSantis but I do not think k either of them will be able to survive the DC swamp. My preference is to give Trump his mulligan. Then follow up in '28 with Pompeo, or DeSantis or Scott.
Perfect example of how the media from that point to the present have loved changing the meaning of what he obviously meant. He was 100% correct when he said the media is the enemy of the people…and no, I do not want him to win the primary, but it’s looking like it’s a done deal. No one last night did anything for me except maybe DeSantis. And he kept his cool this time.
Not really…It was nearly all fake news when it came to reporting on him. They hated him with a passion! They put opinion, emotion and feeling into their reporting. All of them! Look at the weak White House correspondents asking KJP questions. They’re as weak as Biden. But, yes, I stand corrected on the proper quote…thanks.
Nooo, I disagree. Most of the news outlets put out fake left wing news and they are the media. Who buttressed Hillary's lie that Trump was colluding with the Russians? The media. Who promoted the lie that Hunters' laptop was a Russian plant? The Media. Both times this was fake news by the leftist media.
He probably did, but what no one wants to admit is that probably none of them complained. He was more or less a rock star, and he was showing interest in them.
What is obviously wrong is the sort of thing Biden did to Tara Reade. She apparently had had googly eyes for him, but he misjudged the time and place and her interest badly. That's a common problem for sociopaths.
And the stupid media - even the conservative media - kept showing Tara as she was when the issue arose rather than the beautiful young woman she was when she was allegedly assaulted by Biden.
Tara Reid, 59, appeared in a video interview with Sputnik News Agency alongside Russian MP Maria Butina, who was imprisoned in the United States for attempting to penetrate political circles.
Reed said she arrived in Moscow as a tourist but felt "safe for the first time in a very long time". She explained that she decided to settle in Russia when a Republican deputy told her that her life was in danger.
"I want to apply to President Vladimir Putin for Russian citizenship," she said, promising to be a "good citizen".
And in early 2020, Reid accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in a corridor of the US Congress in 1993, when he was a senator, and she was an assistant to him.
The accusation, which the Democrat emphatically denied, was nonetheless embarrassing because of his campaign against outgoing President Donald Trump, who has been accused by several women of sexual assault, harassment or rape.
But inconsistencies marred Reed's statements. For example, no trace of the complaint she claimed to have filed with Congress after the fact was found.
The American, who introduces herself as a specialist in geopolitics, confirmed on Tuesday that she had received death threats after announcing her accusations in 2020.
" I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy."
But would you agree that a decent man would do his best, while in office, to return America to prosperity, national security, national pride, a strong military, honest voting (clean voter rolls and voter ID required), intelligent foreign policy (restructuring trade to our advantage, not theirs), strengthening NATO well in advance of Russia's second incursion into Ukraine (both under Democrat project-weakness and indecision administrations) and reversing our Let's- help-our- chief- adversary- succeed policies of the past? Trump understands, as the ideologically-blinded Left chooses not to, that the US is making itself enery-dependent upon its chief adversary, China, with its rush to Green policy before we are capable of mining and manufacturing on our own that which will be required for independence from Chinese control.
Everything was beautiful till you got to Trump. Trump doesn't believe anything. He is a mumble mouth who is a cult of personality. His only accomplishment as President was unwinding what Obama did with Regulations and appointing three justices. I voted for him the first time for that reason. That reason is now moot. But I can't vote for him again. He can't build a consensus; he has no vision and inspires no one. Unlike Lincoln, he appeals to the worst instincts of our nature, not our best. Anyone who wants people to kiss their ass with loyalty has no business being close to the oval office. He simply can't lead. All he did was run up debt and failed miserably during the pandemic. He couldn't pick good people and was a horrible manager of the White House. When the wheels come off, how will this guy fix it? He won't. But I did love 3/4 of your post. It was spot on.
From my perspective he walked into a den of vipers that was vastly worse than anything even he, as a cynical New Yorker, could have predicted. He was failed and betrayed nearly immediately by everyone around him. That included two FBI Directors, two Attorney Generals, and largely a nominally Republican Congress, and certainly Mitch McConnell.
In a world where everyone is just waiting their turn to stab you in the back, in defense of a system built around power, privilege, money and secrety, why not make honest loyalty an important value? Who didn't let him down? Mike Pompeo, maybe?
And his only real failure in the pandemic was enabling and allowing Fauci to issue nonsensical orders that contravened known Science. It was an election year, and no doubt he reasoned that him fighting with The Science--as he called Himself--was counterproductive, but in the end he lost the election he won because of pervasive organized cheating, and a judicial system that was and remains either corrupt, or too cowardly to do its job honestly.
He walked into North Korea. The leaders of the two nations met, for the first time since the cessation of active hostilities. He got the Abraham Accords signed, for which he was nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, which unlike Barack Obama he actually deserved--or at least Mike Pompeo did.
He doesn't appeal to our worst instincts, either. The people ATTACKING him do. They tell us he is horrible, nasty, mean, violent, awful and that the same applies to all his supporters.
Well, that is an appeal to our worst instincts, isn't it? Saying "you are a horrible person if you support Trump" promotes violence, doesn't it? Him defending himself from ridiculous, mean spirited, and purely mendacious attacks is not violence, is it? It is common sense.
The patent goal is to make everything he says something no one can agree with. If he says the sky is blue, the indoctrinating media will say that he forgot nighttime, and remind us that he is an evil, nasty person who divides us recklessly and we better not support him or we will be the proper victims of political violence.
That is more or less the literal truth. Trump is the lightning rod, but he is not the lightning. That comes from people who benefit from a secret system that benefits the one percent of the one percent. They want to build and boost hate, so that nobody can think rationally, or realize that by and large he only speaks truths.
I more or less agree: it was striking how much loathing the press had for Trump, how casually they implied he was a fascist, and did everything in their power to undermine him.
The press and the Democrats did, from my perspective, pour gasoline and then fanned the flames of division.
You have a bad case of TDS- Trump Devotion Syndrome - You remind me of the people in South America who believe whatever the strongman tells them to believe. Trump was none of that. He gets toyed with by the media. They play him like a Stradivarius. He is very undisciplined and can't hire good people. In any other industry, if you hired and fired as he did, they would get rid of you as they can't pick good people. Ultimately, he is a manbaby who is not enough of a leader to match the moment. I won't begrudge you your love for him, but you are just as bad as the people with the other TDS, living in an alternate reality.
He was an outstanding President. The economy, which has been floundering since Obama and his Socialists took office, took off nearly immediately. He kept us out of wars, and would have left Afghanistan with dignity and victory had the Democrats not stolen the election.
He built peace in North Korea and the Middle East, and it is astonishing that you would use it against him that nearly everyone in his circle betrayed him. They were all supposed to be good guys. He didn't live in that world. He walked into something ten times worse than the worst parts of the Mob world in New York at its height. There are trillions of dollars at stake, and smiling men in suits play the game of corruption at a very high level that would make Tony Soprano look like an amateur.
Substantially everything you wrote says more about you than Trump. He's got a lot of flaws. I don't deny it. And we may fail as a democracy even with him in office. But if we can't get him into office, I think a huge and fast precipitous fall in our liberty and standards of living is inevitable.
I don't trust him 100%, but I do mistrust everyone else 100%. I like Ron DeSantis, but he is not the guy to take on the FBI and CIA. I'm not sure it can be done, but if it can, Trump is the only one I see even possibly equal to it.
It says a lot about me. I see reality and don't live in a fantasy world. Trump is an entertainer, not a leader. He is a grown child, not an adult. He lacks discipline, can't find good people, and has no governing philosophy. Yes, I do want more than him. The country can do much better than him. He has proven himself to fail in everything I look for. I watch his interviews and compare him to those who came before him, not what is on the media. You can't refute anything. Yes, he did the Abraham Accords, but Jimmy Carter did the Camp David Accords. Any President does one thing right. Trump is different from the man to meet the moment. It's been great chatting with you.
I agree with you. Ron DeSantis is a real man who is not afraid of left. He calls them out at every turn and he may criticize his fellow Republicans but he does not put them down. He checks all the boxes for moral leadership, courage, intelligence, love of family and love of people in general. My prayers and my money are on Ron DeSantis!
Albert, I was going to chime in with the despair I feel at the prospect of another Trump V Biden run off. And the thought of another four years under either of them. But your comment above was much more eloquent so now I don't have to. Well said. I can't believe we, the good people of the United States, find ourselves in this dystopian moment. I dread 2024.
You won’t vote for Trump again, but your alternative will be Biden. Will you pick the lesser of two evils, as you perceive them, or will you enable Biden’s reelection by sitting it out? Hold your nose and vote for Trump, for the sake of our country.
But I think both will destroy the country. Trump is unhinged from reality and will do nothing to address the central issue. And if the wheels fall off the economy, he is so undiciplined and inarticulate that he could never forge a consensus. He will make things worse not better. I will vote third party for the first time in my life.
No, I think a vote for Trump is no different than Biden. He is not a leader, was mediocore in his first term and can't hire good people. He can't forge a consensus to pass anything meaningful in Congress. I don't feel virtous but sad. He's a clown. Why should I vote for a clown? And P.S. He is not going after entitlement spending and don't forget his spending is what started this inflation fire. So I know he's your hero but he is a second rate leader when we need a first rate one.
Do you agree that we had a very good economy under Trump? Low inflation and low interest rates?
We had no wars?
We did not have a wide open border with thousands being dumped in the streets of our cities on a daily basis? San Diego is the latest, if you read the WSJ today…
That we were for more energy independent than today? – – Biden vilified MBS, but now kisses his ring…
On policy and living conditions, I can go on and on, but I would like you to deny all of the above. I bought with my pocketbook, period.
1) I know honest people. I work with honest people. Honest people are my friends. Donald Trump is NOT an honest man.
2) Trump does NOT have the support of 2/3 of America. He has 60% poll numbers in the Republican polls, and I don’t think those include Democrat or Independent voters. And that 60% is evanescent. As soon as voters start to think in 2024 terms rather than 2020 terms, numbers will shift. Generals always fight the last war - politicians and the press are no different.
Folks need to focus on the real danger to this country. It’s NOT China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. It’s K Street and greed in board rooms. “WE The People”, people - you can look it up, folks. THAT’s what this country was founded on and we all know we’re getting “losted”. Washington - stop pissing on us and telling us it’s raining!!!
Sorry - that extra cup of coffee always gets me, I guess…
Where has Trump told a lie? If there are lots of them, give me one.
I've seen long lists of purported lies, but all of them were actually fabrications by the media. I am LITERALLY not aware of one lie he told, and certainly nothing on par with Obama's famous "if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance"; or substantially anything Joe Biden says anywhere when he forgets about the teleprompter.
I will give Trump credit where he is due though. He did cut taxes, he did move Israel’s Embassy to Jerusalem, and he did try and combat China, even if I didn’t agree with the way he went about it.
Seriously??? “How about I’ll build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it?” Or “When I’m president we will lock her up” or “when I’m president we will leave Afghanistan?”.
Have you ever seen that clip of Trump, when they ask him what his favorite book is and he says, “the Bible.” The interviewer is like, “oh what is your favorite verse?” And I’ve got to give him props. This is kind of an OG move, but says, “all of it.” He couldn’t name a single one!!! I mean, “let there be light 💡!”
Is that really the best you can do? He did his best to build a wall, but was opposed on many fronts by many people. Much of the wall did get built.
He did his best to lock up Hillary, but his own Attorney General and the FBI Director protected her.
And we WERE going to leave Afghanistan, just not without handing power over immediately to the Taliban. He had a deal with them that the Taliban broke. Joe let them. He was apparently paid to give China access to Afghanistan's resources.
If you compare his campaign promises to what he actually did, he obviously treated those promises as a To Do list. Sometimes for reasons beyond your control you can't get things done, but they do not then become lies.
I've asked this question many times, but most people just bow out immediately. But nothing you wrote there supports your case.
I have to tell you, all of these alleged sins of Trump are ridiculous. JFK was banging Marilyn Monroe when he was married to Jackie. Bill Clinton got a blow job from an intern, and then lied about it. Ted Kennedy left a young woman to die in Chappaquiddick, it became the “lion of the senate”.
I am long past voting for people on the basis of their “morality”.
“How about I’ll build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it?”
He prodded the Mexican government into placing troops along its southern border. It wasn't steel but from my perspective as well as illegal border crossers, was way more effective. And yes, Mexico paid the troops
I was a big Trump supporter and defender of his four years in office, appreciating nearly all of his policies, including reducing regulations and taxes to stimulate the economy, addressing the border crisis, isolating China for its cheating, attempting to break the decades-long conflict with North Korea, isolating the Palestinians for their rejectionism and support of terror, doing away with the horrendous Iran nuclear deal, putting sanctions on their rogue regime, and achieving the breakthrough Abraham Accords.
However, he lost me when he violated the most sacred tenet of our democracy: the peaceful transition of power, with his continued insistence that the election was stolen. This erodes trust in democracy, damages our global image, and diminishes America’s global influence in promoting democracy and human rights.
While 60% of Republicans support him, it’s important to note that Republicans make up only 30% of the electorate. That means a majority of Americans do not want him reelected. Republicans are stupid for making him their presumptive nominee.
So obvious that no proof was shown to the people who mattered in court. And why wasn’t any hard evidence shown to judges in the two months after the vote. What happened there? If it was so obvious where did it all go?
If you believe in the rule of law, which is another tenet of our democracy, then you will reject Trump. He had every right to sue because of his belief that the election was stolen. However, he lost or had all 63 cases dismissed, including many before Republican judges, some of whom he appointed. They were called frivolous and without merit.
Once he appealed, even to the Supreme Court, and lost, it’s over. It’s when Gore called Bush and said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President.’ Trump refused to even attend the inauguration.
None of those courts heard any evidence, did they? In all cases I know of, they used spurious technicalities—typically a lack if “standing”, as if every defrauded voter did not suffer from it—to rationalize a very real fear of left wing Brownshirt mobs.
Roberts reportedly cited his fear of riots explicitly behind closed doors.
Why are you so certain he's wrong, and that there was no interference, despite some of the information that has come out since? I know of at least 2 national presidential elections in fall of 2020 that are widely considered to be unfair elections -- in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan (the latter of which had a happy ending after some protesting). Tons of others around the world at various time; those two were just within 3 months of the US one. Why not a third one?
I respond to factual evidence -- let's hear what you've got. I know this: the Dominion voting machines was such a losing case that Fox was willing to settle for $850 million than risk losing $1.5 billion in a trial. Funny what came out in the depositions for that case -- that his biggest Fox anchor supporters, incluidng Tucker Carlson, were saying privately among themselves that his claims about the election being stolen was bullshit, as did his Attorney General Bill Barr and other close WH advisers.
I didn't say anything about Dominion voting machines. There are many, many other vectors of attack, such as a water pipe to bursting in Georgia and then wheeling in a lot of fake ballots. Such as passing out ballots around a certain ethnic neighborhood in Detroit and then coming by in person to collect them. Such as 50,000 people in Michigan having illegal addresses on their voter registration. Things that the party with more than 3x as much funding would be able to do at about a 3x rate. Things that the party which is supported by America's largest social media giants would be able to instantly cover up and ban people for talking about -- after all, nothing says "trustworthy and fair" than banning people for asking questions about it or arresting protestors.
But I'm guessing we're not going to convince each other of much. Maybe Lukashenko did get 4.6 million votes in Belarus without any cheating or manipulation, and maybe Biden got 81 million in America. Who's to say other than the "trusted" news sources and officials of each country, eh?
I'll go with 63 court cases where they couldn't provide enough evidence to convince even one court to side with them. Not one. So, go ahead and believe what you want or try to liken the United States with Belarus -- doesn't fly with me.
Then there are the things that are arguably legal, but result in a rigged election, like media suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story until after the election, or "Zuckbucks" turning selected county election offices into Democrat get-out-the-vote machines.
None of this is beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that Trump won. But I think it is impossible to have beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that he didn't.
OK, I was curious enough to look into the first issue about multiple absentee ballots sent to addresses in Maryland. Turns out that was true. But, missing from her story is that each ballot has a barcode and, like showing up at a sporting event or concert, if you try scanning your ticket after someone has already used it it won’t work:
Ross Goldstein with Maryland’s Board of Elections was quick to answer. “There should be no concern about double voting. We have procedures to catch that. On every ballot there is a barcode that's unique to that voter and we scan that into our system,” Goldstein explains. “So, we know if we get the same barcoded ballot back from the same voter. And we will only count one of those ballots from that voter." He says only the second ballot with the later date will count.
I bet every one of these other incidents she goes through is either very minor or has an explanation – and I’m sure were presented during the 63 court cases and were unconvincing.
Try again. The individual in that report did not try to vote twice with the same barcoded ballot, he was sent his ballot and a ballot for his brother, who for years has lived out of state. Two ballots with two barcodes, but only one eligible voter. A big problem in the states that mass mail ballots to everyone and who don't keep their voter registration lists accurate.
Orange Jesus attacked the First Amendment by asking Congress to pass a law that would allow him to sue the news agencies for articles that wounded his oversize ego.
Orange Jesus attacked the Second Amendment (after telling us in the NRA, "I've got your back") by banning bump stocks by executive fiat, nominating an anti-gun Attorney General, nominating an anti-gun BATFE director, asking Congress to pass a so-called Assault Weapons Bill, asking Congress to pass a Universal Background Checks bill and asking Congress to pass a Red Flag bill. He had our backs alright, by slipping a knife in...
Orange Jesus attacked the Fourth Amendment by signing the reauthorization of the so-called PATRIOT Act after promising to reduce the government's power, so yet another failed promise.
Orange Jesus ran up the national debt even faster than Obama (even when you discount pandemic spending). His best three years of deficit spending added more to the national debt than Obama's worst three years.
"Trump is intelligent; he is patriotic; and he seems to be honest."
Orange Jesus might be intelligent, but he has no understanding or respect for the Constitution. "Patriot" implies a love of country but Orange Jesus loves only himself. Finally, to say that, "He seems to be honest" cannot be taken seriously after years of his lying to us on a nearly daily basis.
If Republicans think that they can win without Independents, they are delusional and if he is the nominee, then Republicans will have only themselves to blame when Dementia Joe wins a second term.
Great recap, Barry, although this notion that Trump has the support of two thirds of America may be a stretch. The poll are demonstrably lousy predictors of eventual results. Trump is basically another Huey P. Long from Louisiana who was the only politician that FDR was ever afraid of. Like Long, Trump speaks directly to voters who none of the other politicians ever bothered with - those folks without fancy educations and high net worth. People who get up at 4 AM to go to low paying jobs. They are the folks left behind by major corporations sending their jobs overseas, major corporations and individuals buying candidates with massive campaign financing. These folks realize that the politicians could care less about them. Trump not only speaks directly to these folks, he speaks to them in the language and tone that they speak to each other. In return, they are ferociously loyal and will vote for him no matter what he does. The irony is that the more the Left attacks Trump, the deeper the support from this group. They represent about 30% of the Republican vote. As demonstrated by the mid-terms, this voting block is not, in and of itself, enough to swing the election. The key to this election, imho, are the independents along with people across the political spectrum that are sick of watching the country they love degenerate into a dysfunctional third-world country. Addressing this requires someone who can think big and, most importantly, bring people together. DJT is great at dividing people, not bringing them together. Also, turning the country around will require some of America’s smartest and effective people. Based on past performance, who in their right mind would work for the past President? I didn’t see any Ronald Reagan’s last night, but this is not Hollywood. There were a couple of people last night, however, who have demonstrated the capability to change course in a meaningful way. If it comes down to Trump v. Biden then Walt Kelly’s line applies : We have met the enemy and it is us.
Two-thirds? Trump has the support of less than half of America, and the 2020 vote proved it.
And I don't know about "the system," but I attack Trump because he routinely stiffed contractors for three decades; made fun of a disabled reporter during a rally; and molested E. Jean Carroll. "Honest?" Bullshit. He defrauded states on the financial value of his buildings, which deprived those states of tax revenue that had to be made up by higher taxes on the little people. "Patriotic?" He ordered a D.C. park cleared with batons and tear gas so he could take a photo op with a Bible in front of a church, and he and called for the assassination of the joint chiefs of staff. "Intelligent?" Conveve, The Battle of Bowling Green, and Sharpiegate.
These and a thousand and one other things--I haven't even mentioned the four trials he faces this and next year, in which he will be convicted--make him patently unfit for re-election.
That doesn't mean I like Joe Biden; I'd much prefer a younger person free of oily family entanglements. It means that in a one-on-one contest like the presidency, Biden is Flu and Trump is Ebola.
Thanks, Lee. Weird thing is, people can hate Biden, Pelosi, Democrats, or Them Child-Molestin' Commie Libtardzz (tm) and still admit that Trump is a the 9/11/1/6 of toxic landfill fires in Hell. It's not a mortal sin to admit we can do a crapload better.
Absolutely right. It's binary here. When you say you despise Trump, it's automatically assumed you're for Biden. We can do better. And one day, we will..
I feel the same way. I would love to see an agency that was dedicated to investigating the three branches of government and all high ranking government officials and if corruption is found the miscreants spend hard time in a supermax prison not club fed.
Did you mean to say 2/3 of the Republican party!? Definitely not 2/3 of the country. Looking back on the past almost 8 years I can’t get over the attack campaign against President Trump. It seems the powers to be have something to hide why else would they go to such extremes to ruin the man? Even though I haven’t ever voted for the Trump ticket I will never agree with what is going on in our sad corrupt government. What’s good for thee isn’t good for me!!!!
honest is not a word I would use for Trump. I am not saying he is some sleezy liar or anything, but nothing about him comes off as real or honest to me, aside from the fact that he seems to say things without a filter. But any time he is talking, I don't feel like I am getting an honest person. I feel like I am being sold to. I feel like he is saying things I want to hear (in my case they rarely are things I actually want to hear).
It is fine that people like him. But I don't see him as any more moral or trustworthy than most other politicians. He's just motivated about different things than they are.
Astonishing mix of truth (about supply side economics) and absurdity.
Trump is patriotic? Donald “Bone Spur” Trump has made it crystal clear that he looks at anybody who sacrificed something to serve their country as loosers. He is a card-carrying establishment crook who declared that servicemen who happened to be captured and suffer for years in prison are simply loosers. He didn’t attack John McCain just for his political views, but for being a prisoner in Vietnam, where he refused to be freed just because his dad was a big general. That is a direct insult from a draft-dodging member of the elite to those lower class “loosers” who were stupid enough to serve or loose children in defense of their country.
Just because senile Biden and his woke crowd lie, cheat and censor at every step doesn’t make Trump less of a lier and a crook, who has no other vision for America’s future than to vindicate his loss in 2020. How about all the elections since 2018 on, lost by the Republicans due to Trump’s treacherous, narcissistic obsessions?
Even if what you said about Trump wasn't mostly hyperbole, you simply can't dispute that all Americans were on an upward track when he was in office and are rapidly losing ground under the senile imbecile who was installed to replace him.
If you have been around for the last few years, you must have a very exact recollection that what I mentioned is exactly what Trump said, loud and clear. Did you learn from the wokes how to deny obvious truths or twisting facts has always been your thing? Yes, Trump had a good record in office due to able advisors who dampened his worst ideas and charted a reasonable path. He got rid of those advisors even before the end of his mandate and is now surrounded only by absolute loonies, with easy to foresee consequences.
Talk about engaging in fairy tale narratives. It wasn't Trump's "advisors" that animated his most successful and sane policies of border control, fair trade, confronting but also engaging with our foreign enemies, lower taxes and less regulation.
In distinct contrast, Biden and his advisor are entirely in sync - adopt whatever policies are ruinous for America and detrimental to its loyal, hardworking citizens.
So, are you taking back your lie about Trump insulting people who served their country being just “hyperbole” or you want to go the same way as your role model? You keep talking about Biden, but with your style of dealing with facts you should write for the NYT.
What all these people are missing is that much of what trump did was great for most Americans. Low gas and oil prices, booming economy, NO WARS, border security.
And that he was ruthlessly attacked for much he didn’t do. Start with those facts, then explain how it can be done without inciting hatred from the left and in a way that Trumps haters can embrace. He is hated because he beat Hillary and the press painted him as a terrible person.
This just scratched my brain in the best possible way. If I ran into you at a party, we would surely be asked to leave because I could talk about this all day and no one else ever wants to hear it.
Great economic comments, Barry. But you imply there is only a binary choice between a free spending, too powerful government and... Trump. I reject both, even if I have to vote “none of the above “.
What is wrong with Trump? He didn't balance the budget, granted, but he does not have full power over that. He says rude, true things, in ways which make squeamish people blush, despite knowing he is right. He is on his third marriage; he cheated in the first two and has cheated in this one.
But I had faith the future would be good when he was in office. I had faith he was doing his JOB to protect America and further the interests of all of us, by closing the border, creating incentives for economic growth (taking the risk of investing in expansion), keeping us out of wars, negotiating better trade agreements, and generally acting like he cared about ordinary Americans, which I honestly believe he does.
What is your beef with him? That he says mean things to people who deserve it? That he is arrogant? We're not inviting him to a cocktail party, are we? We are talking about running the largest economy and military in recorded human history.
Or are there any specific policy issues you disagree with?
Terry of the North appears unconcerned that we have a $2 trillion annual deficit under our senile imbecile in the oval office. In PEACETIME! This is arrant madness.
And Trump had to deal with the shutdown of the economy by the mostly Democrat governors that was tanking the economy. The Constitution does state that the government cannot deprive a person of their property without due process, so Trump, in providing Covid relief, was faithful to our national principles.
Stop making false accusations. I have been a fiscal conservative for 45 years. I preferred Trump over Biden and I have been been shuned by family members because I defended Trump. But I prefer several other Republicans to Trump. I believe that Desantis is a better person and much more electable than Trump
The interest on that debt is over $800,000,000,000 in 2023 alone. A traumatic increase as a result of higher interest rates. Caused by inflation. Caused by Democrat policies and feckless Republicans.
Let's be honest here: he enabled Fauci; managed to say some really, really stupid things about the Kung Flu despite having instinctively grasped almost out of the gate that it was really, really stupid to go OTT about an obvious nothing-burger; and basically doubled-down on losing his own re-election. The things that make him great also make him a bloody liability to himself. I genuinely love the guy; but ye gods...
I feel the same while I can’t disagree with some of the policies he put in place, He is a difficult character and my big question is who wants to work for him in the white house and better question who can he work with? So unfortunate that we the people can’t do better for the leader of this great country 🥲
Trump supported the lockdowns, billions of dollars in handouts and has yet to separate from Fauci on the vaccine. He criticized Governors Kemp and DeSantis when they reopened the beaches. Trump should’ve learned even if you go along with the permanent government they are still going to hate you.
Trump criticized DeSantis for closing beaches. More to the point, DeSantis never called for "all beaches" in Florida to close. In fact, he directed local officials to reopen their beaches as part of the state's phased reopening, which began in May 2020. As Dem states were locking down harder.
No Trump at a press conference specifically singled out Kemp critically for reopening Georgia’s beaches. Trump also commented on why so many people were on Florida’s beaches. Trump himself was the main reason he lost. The people who make sure Biden is semi conscious each day want Trump for an opponent.
You answered your own question. Like you, I agree with many of his policies (he screwed up the TPP trade agreement and distorted the steel industry) but I can’t get comfortable with that guy representing me and my country, and his lack of discipline is dangerous.
Trump is not a strong leader. If he was, he would have drained the swamp instead of the swamp draining him. I cannot for the life of me understand the support for Trump.
What should he have done differently? He was betrayed by two Attorney Generals, two FBI directors, and most of the Republicans in Congress.
My take is that nearly everyone is Washington is some combination of cowardly and corrupt. You can’t walk into that and fix it in one term while under continuous attack. If he wasn’t someone who likes fighting, he would not have even tried.
I pretty much agree with what you have to say. I would take issue with one thing and that is that supply side economics is always the answer.
Supply side makes sense when you have a situation where you have inflation due to a lack of supply. The goal is to increase supply to bring inflation down. Not necessarily the policy you are looking for when the basis of that inflation is not a lack of supply but of an over supply of printed money.
In the latter situation you have two choices. You either tax and contract the money supply to bring it more in balance with the physical supply of goods and services or you accept the inflation. You are not going to be able to increase supply of goods and services enough to match the supply of money. People can or will consume only so much and companies are not going to produce at cost or negative margins that would be required.
And, of course, this all gets a whole lot more complicated when you have an economy that is as financialized as ours is and has the kind of corporate and private debt that we have.
John Maynard Keynes was a genius. I would guess his IQ was 180 or more.
But he was an awful human being. As far as I can tell, the only honest book he ever wrote was "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", where he rightly pointed out that inflation is theft, but theft that almost nobody understands.
In my personal view, the quantity of money should NEVER change. Ever. Not by one penny.
And if this were the case, what would happen? The value of each individual dollar would go up steadily. The value of our labor would go up. Rather than losing value we would gain it. We would reverse all the negatives of inflation, which IS in fact theft.
So, I would submit that the profession of "economist" is only useful in a world made needlessly complicated, I would suggest that all the complex formulas and argumentation and math these people do should be abolished entirely.
I deal with these issues at length, including Keynesian economics, here. Just click on the picture for the actual paper: https://goodnessmovement.com/Page23.html
I actually emailed the basic paper to hundreds of economists around the world, but never got anything approaching an intelligent response. The forest has been lost for the superabundance of oaks, maples, birch and shrub.
It was 3 hours with Joe Rogan that killed RFK Jr's candidacy. That interview plus the pump it gave to his ego to get him out of his nutfarm closet made it clear RFK Jr is cuckoo. A literally twitching pot of WTAF there. His standing in polls has slid since then.
All the more reason to do it, then! I’m not a 3-hr podcast person, but if it’s an effective tool to get a better, more profound understanding of the major candidates (good or bad!), I’m all ears (channeling Ross Perot)!
That would be more informative, give the establishment media more material, and help the American people get to know each candidate intimately. Everybody wins. Who knows, he got Elon Musk to smoke a joint. Maybe he can get Pence to do something crazy like drink caffeine after 1:00pm.
Great point. Hilary was a slam dunk. It was going to be a landslide. She was the ideal marionette to advance the cabal’s global initiatives. Trump’s victory caught them and the establishment left with their pants down. His victory threw sand into the gears of the cabal and there would be hell to pay for it. They pulled and continue to pull out all the stops to regain control. It’s why we saw the press snap into line after 2016. Why we hear the dire “death to democracy” and “worse than Hitler” lines ad nauseam. It’s why instilling and promoting fear is rampant. The press is concerned about their role in “saving democracy” to the point they’ve abandoned all principles so as not to upset the people they work for.
Nov. 2024 is going to be ugly for America going forward. If you thought the last couple years were bad, buckle up.
Great post, I have buckled up since FJB came to unelected power, and yes I believe we are in for the ride of our lives and it’s not going to be pretty, however Americans are resilient we should be okay!
If Joe and his administration of dunces is good at one thing it is making enemies both around the world and at home. He’s the crotchety old man on the porch yelling at the neighbors.
We sure did in 2020! 2016 was a glitch nobody expected, and we know this because Hillary didn’t even think she needed to fully use her Steele dossier Russiagate hoax: she thought she had it in the bag.
Remember the way the press covered her loss? Her sadness over disappointing little girls? How she disappeared into the woods for a contemplative accounting of the soul, and then came back swinging? Bizarre.
She came back blaming Russia and everyone but herself. She’s truly the worst. I hope we’ve seen the last of Hillary. You know she’s looking for a way to swoop in and replace Biden on the ticket.
Speak for yourself. I spent 2016 thinking I'd wake up: England voted offski and the US did something sensible for perhaps the first time since you ratified your Constitution and your Bill of Rights.
We held the fucking line and we were all heroes just for one day! Un-fucking-believable.... but only unexpected to our enemies, the Self-Appointed Anointed who proved too smug and full of shit.
2020? Let's face it, I lost count of how many times our hero cut his own throat or insisted on shooting himself in the head.
I simply cannot wrap my mind around how many good people I know who can bear up against the cognitive dissonance it requires for Trump to poll at 55% among conservatives. But, alas, it proves your statement.
But these two things aren't mutually exclusive in any way. I just don't understand going with Trump again in 2024, though Barry Cooper above makes a good case I can only shake my head at what I see as a self-immolating choice. I also can't stand Biden at all and want to see him out of the Oval Office.
If Trump dismantles the administrative state - even a significant part of it - it is not a loss. It is, to the contrary, a huge victory for liberty and our Constitution.
Will his dismantling of the administrative state resemble his draining of the swamp? Because he didn’t do that, either. I think our goose is cooked. We should look to family and immediate community of like-minded folks. The federal stuff has been imploding for a long time and this next election cycle will be ghastly. I’m not voting anymore, I’m done.
Trump might not get a chance. The ultra MAGA lytes poor idiot McCarthy can’t control in the House might dismantle the state all by themselves. Government shutdown in days - no Social Security checks, no military pay, no funding for anything. Not even border security (how about that for irony?).
Bruce, this discussion isn’t abt whether we prefer Trump to Biden, it’s abt Republicans finding a candidate with the chutzpah of Trump and still manages to be a decent human being. My understanding of Jolene’s original point was our leaders are a reflection of us/our culture, not the other way around. I, for one, sure wish we were better!
"it’s abt Republicans finding a candidate with the chutzpah of Trump and still manages to be a decent human being."
Name one. It certainly isn't the execrable Haley, Christie or Pence. DeSantis might have worked but his campaign is a bungled mess. And Vivek is just too young.
I think that was the point. We are going to get some form of crap, because that is what is on offer.
Several of them could end up being contenders, but aren't yet. Also, what does Vivek's age have to do with anything? Too young because you don't think people will vote for a young person?
Please start being upset with Biden and every democrat behind the scene who’s pushing this. They are no better, in fact they are much worse, than Trump. At least he was willing to try to keep our country within a border, which is part of the definition of a country. He couldn’t even get help from idiots in his own party. Someday you’ll realize the unbelievable impact the millions of sick, trafficked, and mostly criminals there are roaming our country and stealing what is rightfully ours in healthcare education and safety because of him and his administration. It’s all part of their plan and it’s changed our country possibly forever. It breaks my heart.
No…nothing like this. Please study the border problem more closely. It’s too late for “root causes”. At this point, the national guard needs to be at the border and let no one else in. It’s out of control because Biden told the world to come, and they were on their way before the election! And no, KJP is wrong, they are not trying to clean up from the last admin like she loves to report. It’s so much worse than Trump left it.
I don’t know if it’s cognitive dissonance because he’s so full of contradictions it’s tough to pin him down. One thing he does do, guaranteed, is upset the status quo/kick the hornets nest. Which is enough for some. It’s interesting, though, that he went along with the initial flatten the curve stuff which undermines his alleged pro freedom position. I think the polls are failing to capture the other spectrum which is not left right but freedom vs authoritarianism.
I honestly think he was suckered into letting Birx and Fauci run the show by those around giving him advice. They were pretty “reputable” at the time. I don’t think he felt he had another choice, and if he did, that would’ve been the end of him for sure because those two were pretty popular at the time. That’s the only thing I can thing of to make sense of it. I was fooled by the two of them as well.
I voted libertarian in 2016 and thought for sure that pro-business, roaring economy Trump would know better than to try to shut down the economy and choke small businesses with the “curve flattening.” Boy, was I wrong. The buck stops with the boss and the boss agreed to it. Why are you giving him a pass? He failed.
Despite the unknown, Sweden’s health czar said that societal lockdown for a respiratory virus had never been tried and that there could be negative downstream consequences. He also said it isn’t clear that it was legal for the federal government to shut things down like that. So they didn’t. Spoiler alert: it’s not legal in the US either, but nobody bothered to consider that because politicians can use emergency declarations for absolutely anything they want, and then renew those declarations until citizens manage to find a court to reaffirm our freedom (which is inherent). Devilish trick they played on us. I will never forget a single thing that led to our brush with authoritarianism.
I understand where you’re coming from. I don’t think I’m giving him a pass as much as I felt it was his only option given every unique situation that was happening. They were ALL against him. Who stood by him during that time? Can you imagine the fake news outrage if he went against the beloved Birx and Fauci in the beginning? He would’ve been done, and I think he knew it. You could tell by his actions and his mood. All that said, I did become disappointed in a lot of how things went down with Covid. It basically lost his chances for reelection.
I haven’t been following-has he acknowledged that he blew it? Without blaming anyone but himself? That he, president and commander-in-chief, made a call, and that it was the wrong call? For me, there’d be no moving forward without it. What do you hope to see him accomplish if he gets another term?
Christie, Scott, Pence, & Burgum need to pack it up and go to the house. This is probably going to come down to Haley, Ramaswamy & DeSantis. Whoever is left from those 3 will face the orange 600 pound gorilla who will promptly kick them so hard, they'll be wearing their ass for a hat.
That said, I think it would be great to see Ramaswamy join the RFK Jr team as VP and see them run as Independents, but I've probably got better odds of catching on fire. Just sayin.....
Sorry, but there’s no way Gabbard, who has something resembling principles about respecting election results, would stand shoulder to shoulder with a charlatan opportunist like Trump, who respects election results only when he wins.
Does RFK Jr.’s climate activism give you pause? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for cleaning up rivers, but I wonder about cult-like thinking with him. I do think he’s courageous, though, which is admirable.
They are both ridiculously naive in their understanding of the world. 5% of what each one says make sense, the other 95% does not. Unfortunately, neither one understands that he sounds like an adult on 5% of the issues, and like a guileless teenager on the other 95% of the issues. Unfortunately, many would-be voters miss this split as well. As Churchill said, the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. [Who seriously supports either one of these gentlemen to run the country] can be added as a 2023 qualifier.
Kennedy seems to me to have a pretty good view of the world, but that's just my opinion. He also shows compassion with what people are struggling with, even in the face of fierce criticism & lies from the corporate media and DNC. I think Ramaswamy would be a good counter balance to him and both could learn from each other. They both come off as individuals who are actually well read on most of the topics they discuss. Neither would be ideal to me in every aspect, but of everyone I've heard so far, I like them both. If Tulsi Gabbard were to jump in, I'd support her too as she is a heterodox thinker. Just my 2 cents.....which is way overvalued BTW :-)
A personal sanity check that I do is "does this person have some viewpoint that is just so ridiculous and crazy that holding it calls into question their judgement and veracity on other topics". If the answer is yes, I become suspicious of their ability to separate bullshit from reality across the whole range of topics. Usually, this sanity check will involve a topic on which one may have extensive personal expertise beyond an average person. With both RFK and Vivek (and Gabbard) the answer is an emphatic affirmative. All three are ridiculously naive about Russia and Putin and Ukraine. This is a topic on which I have extensive personal expertise, so I am very comfortable using it as a litmus test. My views in this area are not in any way influenced, much less shaped, by any so-called "Western media" but are rather formed over several decades of first-hand interaction, living in that part of the world, speaking the language, knowing the culture, studying the history, and thinking deeply about it since at least 2010. (On a side-note, reading 99% of English writing on this topic is almost physically painful for the lack of understanding and naivete that people display. However, it often works the same way when reading in other languages the stuff people write about the US). In making this judgement, I don't hold their skeptic position against them. There is in fact a cogent argument to be made against US involvement in Ukraine, but none of the three make it. What they do, is fully and uncritically buy into unsophisticated propaganda by people that lie for a living, and repeat it, despite it obviously contradicting facts, and the "laws of physics". The fact that they are so easily fooled into buying into an obviously untrue and made up version of the world makes one question whether they are fit to serve on a city council, much less any serious role in governing the country. (For reference, their views on Russia and Ukraine, as articulated by each one separately, are as ridiculous in their factual basis, as those of the people arguing that the human species has more than two genders. This is not a well thought-through analogy, just trying to illustrate how mind-mindbogglingly naive and almost maliciously-uninformed they sound to someone with a deep understanding of the topic.).
So, if each one of the three is comfortable going around sounding off while being so resoundingly stupidly incorrect, what does that say about their ability to think through and understand deeply other complicated topics involved with managing our country on the world-stage? (Leaving the domestic agenda off of the table for this conversation as it tends to be less clear-cut, at least to me, than international issues of the day).
Well written and articulated. Based on that, good luck finding a candidate who will check your boxes. I'm gonna go with who I think would best serve me and my family, knowing that they will most likely fall short in quite a few other areas.
Thank you for the acknowledgement. Its not so much checking the boxes of the "wants" as checking the box of "can you honestly vote for that person to be President". The last candidate that checked that box with me was Romney, with whose policy positions I disagreed in at least 50% of cases. But I didn't have the sense that he was naive, or disingenuous, or dishonest. It's saddening and exhausting that such a seemingly low bar has become too-strong of a filter.
I try to align those with as much as I can with those in needs and the betterment of our nation as a whole. Hopefully they align, but where they don't/can't, its always with me and my family. I'd imagine its the same with you.
Excellent comments. But just can’t abide by RFKJr. His hard drinking, drugging and the sui demise of his last wife and the body nigh yet cold matrimony to his current one—just too much dark drama around him. Besides, he would be the second consecutive Pres with a tragically deceased wife in the White House, if elected. In addition, he’s a climate boil and Green New Deal advocate. That’s a hard no from me.
It is vital to elect someone who doesn’t look at slaughter as all in a days work. Ending the proxy war and all the money wasted on it is the first order of business before we can start addressing problems here at home. Nearly all of the current uniparty is tone deaf to their constituents.
Why should Scott go home? Polling of Republicans about who they would never vote for? Scott has the lowest number of them all. He's the candidate most Republicans would consider. He should stay for now. I agree, Christie, Pence, and Burgum should withdraw.
President Trump has no need to defend his record. While under constant assault by the left, the deep state, the media, and faux Republicans, he delivered the best economic policies and foreign policy since Ronald Reagan. Instead of meekly shrugging it off, like H.W.and G.W. Bush, and milquetoast candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney, he put on his boxing gloves and came out swinging. Imagine what the United States would be like today, in a second Trump term with a continuation and expansion of those policies, had not a significant number of “Republicans” decided that personality was more important than performance.
Re “that doesn’t do anything to mitigate the fear and anger of countless Americans who want to know how their country moves forward.” The answer to this is to absolutely crush the Democrat party, reverse all of the insane policies they have instituted, eliminate Federal employee unions, build our military back to maximum strength, stop allowing unelected Federal bureaucracy officials from making policy, eliminate or reduce the influence of Federal agencies, and purge the military and intelligence agency command staff. Perhaps an impossible task, but the only person mentioned in this article who might be able to accomplish some or all of this is the person who did not attend the debate.
Jim, I’m in agreement with some of what you said and I would vote for Trump (again) if he is the Republican candidate for president (as he likely will be if polls are to be believed), but I don’t know if I can agree with you about his foreign policy and handling of military affairs.
Fair warning, I serve in the USMC, so I realize you may roll your eyes when you read this, but consider that I have more exposure to these figures than the average American, and I believe that solidifies my trust in them rather than makes me simply biased for them:
Anybody that can drive men like Jim Mattis and John Kelly out of key positions by being obstinate gives me pause. James Mattis is one of the most well-read, revered, and feared (by his enemies) generals the nation has produced since the greatest generation, and John Kelly is no slouch either. These are men that, from my perspective, embody values that I deeply admire like honor, duty, temperance, and yes, aggression (with regards to tackling problems). The biggest criticism I’ve had about Trump’s presidency is that he is notoriously fickle on whether or not he likes someone and it seems entirely contingent upon them agreeing with him. People with proven track records of professionalism, dedication to their craft, and sincerity.
It is incredibly difficult for me, and if I had to guess many other Americans, to feel confident in a president that is known for his capriciousness. Trump seems to lack a certain stability, perhaps even if it’s just intrapersonal stability, that I think a lot of Americans really need in a leader these days.
Just wanted to share my opinion. Please don’t bite my head off if you reply!
Semper Fi Bill. USAF 856th Med Group, Beale AFB (SAC) 1968-1971. Strong supporter of our military. My concerns are based on all the articles about wokeness, DEI, etc. in the military that I see popping up, typically associated with top level command. I also understand your concerns.
Thanks Lee. Yes, I want to "build the military back to maximum strength" by purging the military command staff of those who are no longer focused on military issues, but instead are focused on wokeness, DEI, and other issues which weaken our military. All to be replaced by leaders who believe in a powerful military, serving a civilian government without political interference, who will train those they lead to be the best they can be in the service of our country. I'm not looking for a new world, but a return to the world we used to live in where our military was focused on combat readiness and protecting our interests abroad. I thought my general commentary negated the need for more detail on this point, but perhaps not.
Thanks for the expansive reply. I myself believe our military is still as capable as before, and that nothing has changed in that regard. When they get tested again, I guess we’ll both find out..
Lee, I will quit after this response. I hope you are correct. The other side of my concern has to do with resolve and willingness to fight among the younger generations. My Dad and my uncles served in WWII (the big war as they called it) and I had other uncles who served in Korea. It would never have crossed their minds to question the reasons or refuse to serve. My time was the Vietnam war era, when many were forced to serve. But, even though they may have disagreed with the rationale or objectives, or lack of objectives, they did their duty, and fought the good fight.
Savodnik whines....."Voters of all political stripes, and I am one of them, dread watching the two old men—Biden is 80; Trump, 77—battle it out. They dread the polarization, the ugliness, the stale ideas, the stale language. They want to know how America transcends this impasse. "
Sorry Peter - Biden, for whom I'd wager you voted, is patently senile. Trump is not. And while I'd prefer a younger president, only Trump has called out the true reason for the polarization and the ugliness. It is the relentless, totalitarian assault on our country and its values by the globalist leftists and their stale and absurd ideas of one-world socialism and the administrative state.
Good points Bruce. All “old” people are not senile and decrepit like President Biden. There is much to be said for the wisdom and experience of a Reagan or a Thatcher or a Trump. Many of my friends and I are in the 75-80 age range. We are still working, running companies, writing books, making music, movies, products, and services, and can (mentally) outperform most people half our age. We are not done yet.
Sadly, though the FP purports to be free and open minded, it’s editors-in-chief and writers still believe that some idyllic, easy-peasy, no mess political, social, and economic world is possible. The FP bias against conservatives and even moderates is striking. As has been said, “democracy” (the true kind, not the blue kind), “is hard and harder to keep”.
So, as soon as JoeB can safely walk down 8 steps and actually engage in a debate, we’ll see how clean or messy the Democratic debate is.
If you continue to implicitly support the public mental and physical degeneration of an elderly, obviously incompetent man who has been made the figurehead as POTUS, it will be time for me to cancel the FP.
As an aside, Bari, you left the NYT because of the censorship and criticism you suffered there. Think what it would be like if you were badgered daily 10x what you suffered and then, had the howling wolves of press, DA’s , and the DOJ and FBI continue to come after you when you resigned. That’s what Trump faces now. As someone who’s been wrongly accused professionally a couple of times and had to prove myself, not innocent, but not guilty, I sympathize with what he’s going thru even if some of it is self inflicted-but not illegal!
You’ve got 3 years of data on Bidenomics, the border, crime, etc. Throw out your, and the MSM howling at Trump mania, and look at the actual records of the two administrations. There is absolutely no comparison. At least, you should be willing to admit that those policies were very good for the country and objectively wrote about how bringing those policies back would begin to assuage the tensions that people feel about the present status of America.
Just my $0.02 but I’m just a small town redneck retired surgeon, not a famed national journalist, who’s story and independence I greatly respect but who’s blinders I question.
Trump is the nominee and these candidates are all vying for one of two things. They either want a job in the administration or they want to be the standard bearer for the republican establishment that is dying off.
NOTHING, not a conviction, not a great debate performance, NOTHING is gonna change that. And as counterintuitive as it may be to the elites and the media, each new indictment, each attempt by democrat prosecutors or democrat judges to hit him, just makes him stronger. They fail to understand that by going after MAGA supporters either literally with the FBI and police or figuratively by calling them racists etc, have tied him to them, they have put them in a boat with him and they sink or swim together. And, the overwhelming amount of effort that has gone into getting him with the legal system has caused a lot of marginal supporters to commit to him and it has made a lot of Americans that really really dislike the precedent of one party using the legal system to go after their opponent at least consider him as a rejection of that precedent.
You toss in the fact that the democrats have alienated a large swath of the country with woke policies. Toss in the fact that Black and Latino voters are questioning the values of the democrats and increasingly see that the democrats do next to nothing for them, and you have either more of them voting republican or staying home.
Then toss in how disliked Biden is, his age, the border, inflation that resulted from his spending (admittedly with help from the Fed) and you have a situation where Trump could very easily win next fall. If I had to put a number on it I would give Trump a 60% chance of winning next fall.
Now imagine Trump, a lame duck from day one, with nothing to constrain him. If he wins, it will break the democrats. They will have thrown everything they have at him. They will have thrown everything at him that they are convinced would have broken any other candidate many times over and yet still they lost? There will be finger pointing among the donors, the DNC, between the progressive and centrist wings. It will break the democrats and it will put a stake in the heart of the old school republicans.
This sums up the attitude of many, many people. The political establishment has sold the country down the river, and only a person from outside the establishment can stop this. Therefore, despite many alleged flaws, there is really no alternative to Donnie.
It might just be his flaws that make it possible for him to do it.
You gotta be someone who is unafraid to smash things and be unwilling to go along. Sometimes you just need an ahole to shake things up and say the things nobody else wants to say.
Agreed. I do not know how he succeeded to the extent that he did given the elements of the power structure aligned against him. A rabid D party, backstabbing R party (except for tax cuts), the FBU, DOJ and intelligence community, the career bureaucrats, and the corporate media.
Well said Wrung! When you say "They will have thrown everything they have at him," isn't it remarkable that despite the all-out media attacks, impeachment, legal charges, and dozens of outright lies and manipulations, they have NOT been able to come up with one decent, intelligent, under 60 year-old Candidate. Not a single one. Newsom is laughable coming from the biggest cluster on the planet - California. They are chronically ancient, conniving, filthy rich, self-absorbed, and unwilling to share power. What a mess!
It is NOT Biden's age. It is his increasingly apparent diminished capacity only exacerbated by the stress of the job. Newt Gingrich is the same age and Seymore Hersh is even older, yet both men are sharp as a tack. Even Nancy Pelosi at 83 is much more coherent. To us and all the world, it is elder abuse. I have never been a fan of plagiarist Joe Biden, but even I am feeling ashamed and extremely empathetic toward the man and the manner in which he is being dragged around the country like a corpse and propped up like a marionette on the world stage.
I'm reminded of the movie "weekend at Bernie's". In this case, though, it's four years at Bernie's and the script has gotten really stale. I'm finding it increasingly hard to imagine what the coutry will look like after another four years of that clownshow.
At least the Republicans are debating and without Trump it's probably better. If as I hope, both Trump and Biden drop out, then at least they are better positioned. The Dems have Slow Joe who hides and eats ice cream and Cackles who actually makes people skin crawl when she says anything with the Wicked Witch laugh. No one else besides maybe Mr. Hair Gel who has destroyed CA.
Hell the Dems won't even think of any debates to allow others in the party to gain exposure and offer something besides the current Clown Show. They truly believe in one party rule controlled by the top.
Plus, I for one think Fox has done a great job of hosting the debates and it does expose issues to people. The current news process in America sure doesn't. Plus, unlike CNN, it seems they don't give out the questions in advance to who they like. Right Donna?
So hot mess, nope, a process of elimination, yes. It definitely sets up the next candidate should Trump fall. The Dems will not have that, but then, when you see and hear who is next, you get a little ill anyway.
Of course the Democrats are going to swap in Newsom for Biden. He’s awful but he’s slick, and I fear he will win in a contest with Trump, whereas Biden would not. Until and unless the Republican obsession with Trump ends, we are all screwed. It feels like being paralyzed on a train track with a locomotive barreling down on us.
Something like 2/3rds of Americans polled think we will end up in some kind of civil war, this election could be the impetus, and it’s scary as hell right now.
You state that we are all screwed up unless the Republican obsession with Trump ends. But who is the republican alternative? Certainly none of those buffoons on the stage last night…
The mood of the average person in this country is not good right now. And I’m not talking about fake social issues, but rather, going to the supermarket and spending over seven dollars for a quart of ice cream or a loaf of good bread, etc. or having the interest rate on a home more than double in a couple of years. Then you say the UniParty paying the salaries of 77,000 responders in a country halfway around the world that virtually no one knew about until two years ago, or leading hundreds of thousands of migrants into our already overstressed cities.
Can you honestly say you Learned something about the candidates to help you decide who to vote for? I assume you haven't. If you have (and good for you!), my point still stands.
Until the moderators decide to turn off the mics at the end of the allowed time, the debates will be difficult to watch. No one should be permitted to talk over their opponent.
Oh, Heavens above! I am SO bored with this whole show! In my memory it started with the "Obama and the seven dwarves" debate way back in 2007/2008, and it has only gotten worse.
I switched it off after about 20 minutes. Everyone shouting over each other -- ironically like a pack of reporters we would criticize for doing the same -- made it unwatchablefor me.
And the so-called moderators were terrible, insisting candidates limit answers to timeboxes that no one but the moderators cared about.
Ask a question, give each candidate two minutes to answer, and let the candidates actually debate each other.
In fairness, other debates have gotten worse, too, since reporter/moderators decided to make the debates more about themselves.
At this very early election moment, it is hard to penetrate the hard-headed wall of Trump support. Despite the efforts of an interesting and diverse group of people, no amount of debate seems to penetrate the stubborn haze of Trump support. Trump supporters know all of his trademark shortcomings (egomania, paper thin skin, childish sarcasm, tenuous business ethics,etc.) and they simply don't care. They are beyond sick of being treated as simple-minded morons by the opinionated, arrogant and self-righteous left and have invested their whole stake in their champion; the one man who cannot be bullied, contained or stopped; the relentless warrior who will unflinchingly flip the bird to anyone who gets in their way... It's exactly that overbearing temperament that inspires his supporters who yearn for that "Great America" where patriotism is cherished, hard work is rewarded and opportunity is availed to anyone with the drive and tenacity to pursue it. They not only like Trump's governing policies, ideas and commitments, they absolutely love the fearless persona that is at the core of America's soul - a wealthy version of Archie Bunker if you will - with unflappable confidence. With each passing day, a minority of Republicans ponders the merits of a nice group of candidates, while the majority claps and cheers as their warrior continues to fight injustice in the Colosseum. His armor shows tarnish and there are still battles unresolved, but the patronage has proven beyond doubt that their support lies with Trump. No amount of argument between well-intentioned people not named Trump will make a difference.
" With each passing day, a minority of Republicans ponders the merits of a nice group of candidates, while the majority claps and cheers as their warrior continues to fight injustice in the Colosseum."
I don't know about a Minority. There have been *polls showing Large numbers of voter who don't want ether Grand Pa Joe or The Orange man.
*as an aside I do not have a good opinion of Polls. Waaaay to much emphasis put on them. I take them with a large grain of salt.
I generally agree. We'll see, but I am terrified that Trump is a foregone conclusion. I am relatively confident that the shuffling old man will soon be out. The DEMS pulled that off once and are realizing there is no future in trying it again.
" I am relatively confident that the shuffling old man will soon be out."
Agree. What Gets me is the Democratic Party/Corporate Media (but I repeat myself) have known about Joe for a very Long Time. Now they are acting Shocked! to discover 1. he's corrupt, 2 OLD. Now Donald Trump is OLD too, but he is as sharp as ever. Joe...Not So Much.
Something I read the other day, we are coming up on deadlines to register to be on ballots in many states. So Gavin/Whoever has to act fast.
I have been looking at the Democrat bench. Talk About Weak!
It seems clear that the DEMs will do anything necessary to get their way and/or win. They will look the other way on any number of lies and indiscretions - if they think they can get away with it! And while they are actively ignoring their own glaring flaws, they self-righteously will gasp at any indiscretion they can pin on a Republican. Their epic abilities to equivocate mesh perfectly with Hollywood, the rich elite and the pompous upper class who will lovingly embrace any scoundrel who lies on the right things, at the right time and helps propel their cause (Adam Schiff for example). All the while they maintain their superior countenance as if they are impervious to any potential consequence. When one of their lies, scams or strategies blows up, they just remove it from the talking points and move on. Has any Democrat, anywhere or at any time ever apologized for the whole Russian Collusion scam? Nope. Like a Monte Python skit, its "wink,wink, nudge, nudge..." and move on to the next giant foot stomping on some random victim or point. Ridiculous.
Republicans need to decide who gets to be the ONE alternative to Trump and clear the field no later than immediately after the Iowa caucus. Dems will go with whoever the Party/media tell them too. Republicans will very clearly choose whoever the hell they want, party preferences be damned, as evidenced by Trump, so if the Rep Party is going to get them to actually vote for someone else they need to finally propose a real person with a real message and have the time to let his/her messages resonate. They decide last minute to prop up one corpse of a candidate like Dems did with Biden vs Bernie, and not a single Trump voter will be swayed (which is to their credit).
Behold the inevitable false equivalency and begged question in one paragraoh:
"Voters of all political stripes, and I am one of them, dread watching the two old men—Biden is 80; Trump, 77—battle it out. They dread the polarization, the ugliness, the stale ideas, the stale language. They want to know how America transcends this impasse. "
Yes, there are unquestionably at least two persons of any identifiable stripe who agree with this statement. If one steps very far off the island (Manhattan, that is) one might be astonished to learn that a large number do not. A person who cannot see a clear difference between a person clearly having entered dementia and one ho equally clearly is not is doing the backstroke in a certain Egyptian river. Many man of us think that a bit of polarization is long overdue -- "hot mess" doesn't begin to describe the disaster the go-along-to-get-along has wrought. Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder, sir; the underlying begged question is, from whence comes any rational analysis that shows, by any OBJECTIVE measure, we Are better off now than we were during the Trump administration?
It's funny that "Supply Side" continues to be seen as pejorative. This is stupid. Supply Side is the whole of economics from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, who roundly condemned Individualism and for all intents and purposes advocated Collectivism. Benito Mussolini called his ideas "Pure Fascism". If Mussolini did not understand Fascist economics, who did?
The root question is "who spends money more intelligently and sustainably, the government, or the invidual?" Put another way, Demand Side, Keynesian economists claim that the government knows what people want more than they do. It claims the government can run up huge deficits indefinitely buying shit people don't want, that is useless outside of very short bursts of injecting money into an economy, and that this builds prosperity. It doesn't. It is just a trick to increase government power.
What's insane and ironic is that the Chinese seem to have believed him, and seem to have implemented his policies and seem to be on the verge of a huge economic crash. Real estate prices are dropping precipitously. Millions of Chinese are losing their life savings.
And to return to Reagan, after he cut taxes, Federal tax revenues increased over the baseline about two years later. Look it up. Same thing happened with the George W. Bush tax cuts.
The Congress simply outspent the increases in revenue. It's that simple. The tax cuts worked. We just had awful and irresponsible Congresses and Presidents unable to reel them in.
As far as the election, what sort of idiot can EVEN NOW defend Joe Biden in any way? He's a crook. He's a creep. His people cheated him into office. And he is pissing himself on public stages into adult diapers, before and after babbling incoherent nonsense.
Trump is intelligent; he is patriotic; and he seems to be honest. That seems the most likely explanation for why nearly the whole of our corrupt System has been attacking him since he declared his candidacy. How is this complicated for anyone who is not stupid? Answer: it isn't. He has the support of two thirds of America.
An intelligent person who understands the Constitution would have understood that the Vice President has no right to substitute his opinion for that of the Electoral College or talks about grabbing pussies. And no decent man goes around grabbing pussies. American needs to do better than Trump and Biden.
The idea, and what he said, was that Pence should have demanded that the Legislatures at least of the States where there were OBVIOUS and LARGE problems with the votes either ratify, change or nullify their electors, which is to say who they were voting for. This is the way it is specified in the CONSTITUTION.
Were you aware, I wonder, Terence, that the Constitution can actually be consulted? Here is the text: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
Any sane reading of that is that the Legislature has final say. The Secretary of State is not mentioned anywhere. It may be that the Legislatures in most or all States DIRECT the SoS to certify the elections, but it is really their task at the end of the day. Period. Legally, I don't really see this as disputable.
And if pussy grabbing is bad, then why are you not angry with Joe Biden? He stuck his finger in Tara Reade, who told many people, and reacted appropriately at the time. And WORSE, his people have been so terroristic and bullying to her since she went public that she moved to RUSSIA, where she felt her freedom and rights would be better respected.
There is no principle involved for you. obviously; and although many people will pretend to be horrified to hear this, what Trump was describing, in my view, was that women who were very attracted to him, who got wet when he was around--this actually is a thing, Terence, even though I don't doubt you are unfamiliar with it--found him grabbing them to be a sexual turnon. You won't find many men complaining about women grabbing their crotch.
As a billionaire, he was not sued for sexual harassment once. Not once. That is my understanding. And there are dozens of beautiful women out there who have said publicly he was never anything but a gentleman. Joe Biden took showers with his daughter, and his son and daughter are both substance abusing sex addicts.
And to the most important point, DONALD TRUMP WAS AN OUTSTANDING PRESIDENT. The economy expanded steadily after the declines caused by Obama's socialism; we stayed out of wars; our allies respected us; and he furthered peace in the Middle East, Korean peninsula and Europe. Had he been President, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine because he would not have told Zelensky he would get rich if he sent his people to be slaughtered.
Of course Trump is no saint. But his conversation with Billy Bush was about the women who chase billionaires, athletes and actors and who are looking to be grabbed because their raison d etre is to sleep with a famous person. Paragons of virtue they are not.
It is called locker room talk. Most people have participated in it. It is not very mature but it happens. Trump talked about grabbing pussy. Bill Cliton didn't talk about it. He didn't need to because he did grab pussies and the Dem/Soc and their buddies in the press love him for it and actually defended him.
I am an active, happy participant in locker room talk. I also love guns, single malt and cigar smoke. But then again, I’m from Texas. I think we need more of all these things, not less (looking at you, Pence.) Maybe we should substitute testosterone for fluoride.
Back at you Alison. I am a fellow Texan. I sleep with a Tarus Judge, loaded, under my bed and I know how to use it.
I am now crushing hard on you Alison. We don't often hear that kind of talk here in New Jersey
"I also love guns, single malt and cigar smoke."
So do I. But I don't molest women, and anyone who does should not be eligible for the presidency. That's not manliness or testosterone, it's criminal assault and immense disrespect for women.
Damn that's funny. But funny because it's true. Texans keep it real I reckon.
I agree that that kind of talk has always occurred. Everyone can be included in that...everyone including me. Our son was in high school when the Access Hollywood tape was released. Even as far back as middle school the disgusting things he would come home and tell us he heard at school were far worse than this tape. When he was a sophomore in high school, he had an acquaintance walk up to him one day and hold up his phone. It was a video of children playing on a playground then it switched to hardcore porn. My husband and I are grateful that he felt safe to tell us. At the time of the AH tape, I remember thinking how virtuous the Dem's were pretending to be all of a sudden. Most of Hollywood are part of the Left and look at some of the stuff that comes from their movies and mouths. So puh-lease.
Actually Clinton did talk about it, often, when golfing with his buddy Vernon Jordan.
Clinton talked about it because he was proud of what he did to women and the Dem/Soc loved him for it.
Yeah, I know but nobody went wild over it like they did with Trump.
Rumor has it the n word was liberally exchanged in these conversations.
And I might add in the Oval Office, talk about disrespect!
Yep. Clinton defiled the Oval Office
Off topic. We have known this all along but the press and govt agencies have covered it up. Let's hope there is jail time involved:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-gets-bad-news-from-judge/ar-AA1hmGVS?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d57a4a150b0b40b083c4195fcfd149bd&ei=9
Women chase old and fat billionaires so that they can have their pussies grabbed. Did Trump think he was a rock star? This is your idea of a conservative Republican?
Sorry the Bush tape thing didn’t work for you. It’s been 7 years now and the Democrats keep bringing it up like it’s a thing we are supposed to take seriously. Maybe tell some Nixon jokes or something next time, maybe that will get people’s attention? 😂🤷♂️🤦♂️
Let me put this simply in terms you can understand: I don’t believe single word you say about Trump and Republicans. Not one thing. I want a competent deal maker with experience in the White House. I don’t give a rats ass if he is crass or has a big ego. Every time the democrats use my justice department to go after their political enemies my position strengthens against them.
At this point, I will walk barefoot over broken glass and hot coals to vote for Trump and a legislative body that will have his back.
Not a rock star but a TV star and a billionaire.
I'm wondering: who do you think you are conversing with, and about what? I'm not seeing enough there there to warrant pretending your opinions about anything should matter to anyone.
Cue the "as a former attorney" retort in 3...2....
I am now crushing hard on Barry Cooper. You covered all the bases and for once, someone explained the Pence “ask” accurately.
You guys, your language is disgusting. I stop reading when the shock jock vocabulary starts.
Don't clutch so hard: your pearls will break.
Good description!
Is it the language or is it you can't accept reality? The topic with the language actually happened. It was real and should be discussed. How would you describe "grabbing pussy" without using the word "pussy"?
Grabbing the curly headed kitty.
Made me chuckle. Thanks.
Pedantic people bore me. But worse are people who lie and still say that there was enough fraud in the 2020 election that would have changed the results. 60 Judges decided that there WAS NO EVIDENCE to change the election. As to your soliloquy on the Constitution you fail to mention (or know) that the section you referred to was changed by the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. AND lacking any Evidence of fraud, what you proposed would have been a coup d'état (that means government overthrow)
Wow, 60 judges said there was no fraud? Get this: 51 former senior intelligence officials said the Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation!
I tRusT eXpErTs!
There has been no finding of election fraud. There was rampant irregularity. Some define it as cheating. They are not wrong. Paying people to "harvest " ballots from uninformed voters created the Biden presidency.
People unwilling to do the work of thinking who nonetheless sufficiently value their own opinions to impose them on others irritate me.
The evidence of election fraud was not admitted as EVIDENCE in any court in the country. If you want to claim otherwise, post a link. Hundreds of sworn affidavits carrying the penalty of perjury were taken out by eyewitnesses. None of them were deposed under oath.
The whole thing was riddled with statistical impossibilities vastly larger than needed for us to declare likely fraud in any nation but our own. It's a very, very long list, and the one FACT which nobody can dispute is that no honest audit of the process has been done anywhere, even in Arizona, where much of the data was deleted, and where they still found several hundred thousand ballots that should not have been counted.
And it is both odd and instructive that you would oppose pedantry, which in its best forms at least tries to get things right. I suppose what you are saying is that you oppose people who try to get things right when their conclusions do not match your lazy assumptions. If that is what you are saying, I believe you.
What the 12th Amendment did was in effect make the Vice President the same party and slate as the President, rather than allowing a President from one party and a Vice President from the other, as happened with Adams and Jefferson.
From Wikipedia: "The original system allowed the 1796 and 1800 presidential elections to elect a president and vice-president who were political opponents, constantly acting at cross-purposes. This spurred legislators to amend the presidential election process to require each member of the Electoral College to cast one electoral vote for president and one electoral vote for vice president. Under the new rules, a contingent election is still held by the House of Representatives if no candidate wins the presidential electoral vote of a majority of the electors, but there is no longer any possibility of multiple candidates winning presidential electoral votes from a majority of electors. The Twelfth Amendment also lowered the number of candidates eligible to be selected by the House in a presidential contingent election from five to three, established that the Senate would hold a contingent election for vice president if no candidate won a majority of the vice presidential electoral vote, and provided that no individual constitutionally ineligible to the office of president would be eligible to serve as vice president."
1. You have a right to believe there was no fraud, but working for a Republican candidate in Cook County, Il. I can give first hand evidence of election fraud. If you believe there is no election fraud in the United States, I have ocean front property in Colorado you can buy.
Need I mention Joseph Kennedy/Richard J. Daley/1960 election?
2. It's statistically impossible to close the polls when you're behind by 1-2% with 98% of the votes in, and win. You'd have to get 75-80% of the remaining votes......Impossible.
These polls in swing states were surreptitiously closed where Trump was ahead, and wound up losing.
OJ Simpson also won
3. Wikipedia is a left wing open source arm of the MSM heavily edited by far left wing activists. It lost credibility long ago.
https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud
In the 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, three social psychologists studied a small religious sect in Chicago called “the seekers,” who believed that the world would soon be destroyed by a flood, and that a flying saucer was coming to save them. The seekers were deeply invested in the prophecy’s fulfillment—many had quit jobs and left spouses to prepare. On the appointed day, they gathered at their leader’s home to wait for deliverance. The psychologists wanted to know how the seekers would react when the world didn’t end. Would they realize they’d been duped? Denounce their former belief system? Turn on their prophet? As it turned out, no. When Armageddon failed to materialize, they simply decided that God had spared Earth from destruction because of their faith; that they had been right all along.
The psychologists who studied the seekers attributed their rationalizations to the discomfort of cognitive dissonance: When a true believer is faced with “undeniable evidence” that what he believes is wrong, he “will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view.”
I get the sense that you feel that story has relevance to me. How?
Our government has turned on the People. Look at what they did to Michael Flynn. Look at the ludicrous charges being made up to impede Trump, like valuing a $300 million property at $18 million arbitrarily and they charging him with fraud.
Our system of law is being burned down in front of you and you want to do is rationalize. I could spend half an hour citing examples.
I am not 100% sure Trump is honest, but I AM 100% sure he is being attacked by liars and crooks, and those very enemies make me feel it is POSSIBLE he is honest.
If honest history is possible twenty years from now, sane people will wonder at how eager people like you were to defend the indefensible.
This is a nice back and forth on the constitution a document loathed by Democrats. It is also re- fighting the last war. Trump for one needs to let this die a quiet death. Otherwise we get a second Biden term. That will be much worse than the first.
If it is true that they cheated in the last election why would they not cheat in this one? And the next one?
It was Trump that wanted to disregard the Constitution.
This!
if you look at the 12th Amendment it says: The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;
And who appoints the Electors?
No. They did not say there was no evidence. They said there wasn’t enough evidence to change the outcome.
Thank you for explaining reality.
I definitely didn't exhaust reality, but I did my best to touch it, which is more than most people opining on the internet any more seem inclined to do. They touch each other, mostly, as far as I can tell!!! Or maybe they just touch themselves. It's hard to say. But Reality has little if anything to do with it, despite always being RIGHT THERE.
A lot of TDS on the Free Press Barry, again thank you your post was excellent.
Preach.
Barry Cooper
Donld Trump was a good President but he is not more important than the Constitution and Joe Biden is the disaster I predicted he would be.
But you are living in Denial Land.
In the 2 months between the election and January 6th not one State had elected an alternative slate of Electoral College Electors and yet you think the mob sent by Trump might have convinced the joint session of Congress to adjourn the confirmation vote in order to go down that rabbit hole? Such a course would have created chaos.
What happened when the mob arrived at the Capitol building was predictable.
Trump tweeted for the mob to disperse, but Twitter deleted the tweet. And the FBI had so many covert agents in that crowd they literally lost count. And Nancy Pelosi seemingly both predicted unrest and refused to do anything substantive about it. Conclusion: this was the outcome she wanted and planned for.
But there were no guns. The only gun seen was apparently owned by someone on the FBI payroll, which is why they were never charged. That is my understanding.
This was never an attempt to take over anything. Are you really so stupid that you think that mob thought they could get control of a $4 trillion government with at least half a million members of an active military, by breaking a few windows and trespassing on public property? Really? Really?
It was an expression of rage at the failure of our system--as I said, Pence could and should have asked the legislatures of at least Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan to either confirm the Electors they sent, or replace them--and the breaking of things was led by Agents Provocateurs on Federal payroll, which ITSELF is a huge violation of the law. If you lead people into breaking the law, that is Entrapment. It is illegal.
And have you not seen the videos of Capital Police ushering people in, and even giving them tours? C'mon man. Being stupid is not an argument, is it, even if it is often a substance?
January 6th was a small riot not an insurrection. The entire system failed but blame is being assigned to just one person.
Thank you.
Do you ever wonder, with all our Federal LE/investigative agencies and the supposed threat from "White Supremacists", how January 6 was allowed to happen?
That was some thrilling discourse. I love it.
You have a twisted sense of morality Terrence. Grabbing pussies upsets your sensibilities but prolonging a war in which over 3-400,000 Ukrainians have lost their lives is to be lauded. I’m willing to bet that the mothers and sisters of the lost generation of men killed during the last two years would willingly endure some pussy grabbing by the man who kept their men alive while he was in office if it could bring their loved ones back.
Timothy Kalukiokalani
Your ad hominen is stupid. Of course grabbing pussies upsets my sensibilities but illegal invasions and the atrocities commited are much worse. Putin is attempting to reconsitiute the Soviet Union. You should buy a mirror and a history book.
He has occupied the Donbass, nothing more. He is not even trying to take over all of Ukraine. Poland, which you might read in your own history book that you no doubt know thoroughly, has declared themselves done with the whole thing. If they were in danger, they would know it.
Do you ever write anything without subtracting from the sum total of human knowledge?
"He has occupied the Donbass, nothing more."
He also occupied and annexed the Crimea. Both territories are part of sovereign Ukraine, not sovereign Russia, and Putin had zero legal authority or reason to do so.
How would you react to Russia or China occupying Florida and declaring it their property and you should suck it up and like it? Would you say, OK, fine, not worth fighting over? Or would you throw the might of the entire U.S. military at the invaders, and if that didn't work, ask the West to help out?
If you wouldn't, you're an un-American coward, and if you would, then you're doing exactly what Ukraine did and should have done---call in the clans and push Putin back to his compound in Moscow.
You are an idiot.
Barry Cooper
You obviously aren't even following this completely unjustified war on Ukraine. Putin has attacked Kiev. Russia is no longer advancing because it has been stopped by Ukraine. Poland and Ukraine have had a minor spat. Europe is united against Russian imperialism and has spent as much per capita assisting Ukraine as has Ameica.
Do you want help in crafting an insult that doesn't make you look stupid?
He attacked Kiev in the hope of shortening the war. If he had wanted to conquer Ukraine he would have sent 10x as many people. The Donbass has been a problem for at least 10-15 years, and this whole thing is Putin's resolution of it.
As far as YOU calling ME stupid? Well, I care about the opinion, a little, of my neighbor's toy poodle, but I am not sure how I could care less about your opinion. I wrote this for others, because you are speaking idiocies.
“this completely unjustified war on Ukraine”
So is it your geopolitical and historical analysis that Putin attacked Ukraine for no reason? There is nothing you can think of that might give us some understanding of why the nation of Russia might feel the need to do this? Are we back to “they are just evildoers and they must be destroyed no matter the cost”??
I find it more and more difficult to understand how we possibly won the Cold War with thinking like this. My guess is I have difficulty relating to people who do not think past slogans, talking points, and other popular opiates.
"You should buy... a history book"
Which history book is that, Terrence? The one your House of Commons speaker relied on to honor a Ukrainian Nazi “war hero” for fighting against the Soviet Union in WW II? The same book that failed to mention that at the time, the Soviet Union was an ALLY of the US and Canada in fighting Hitler’s Nazis? Or do you mean the history book that details U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials just prior to the Berlin Wall coming down and the ensuing process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991?
Only fools like you believe that “Putin is attempting to reconstitute the Soviet Union”. The US and its European lackeys lied to Gorbachev back in 1990 and have been expanding NATO eastward ever since. During the early 2000s, President George W. Bush, that famous “democracy” spreader in places like Iraq, pushed for Ukraine to become a NATO member, despite France and Germany being opposed to it, fearing escalation with Russia. Putin repeatedly warned that Ukraine NATO membership was a red line for him and when the Masters of the Universe running Obama's State Department engineered a coup in Ukraine back in 2014 to install an obedient lackey with the promise of NATO membership, the line was crossed and he promptly took Crimea.
History also tells us that when the “pussy grabber” got into office, Putin suddenly became sanguine and only invaded Ukraine AGAIN once the Obama administration re-treads got back into office. An intelligent person might ask why that happened, but that surely is too much to ask of you.
Shameless plug for my reporting on Justin Trudeau the hobbit inviting an Orc veteran to Hobbiton
https://anarchyforamerica.substack.com/p/the-shire-commemorates-former-uruk
Sorry, Terry, but aren't you from north of our Border? Shouldn't you be more worried about Fidel's malevolent spawn in Ottawa than whom we elect?
And shouldn’t Canadians be cracking history books so they don’t give any more awards to Nazis?
What border?
The pretend one. Only exists for the law abiding….
Yes Bruce Miller but what happens down there affacts what happens here. Any you knew I was a Canadian when you wrote several months ago that you appreciated my arguments and asked for my email address.
As a Canadian I am able to observe American politics without becoming involved in the political civil war down there. I am a conservative and generally favour Republican policies, but I try to be objective.
What happens down here affects the entire world. Which is why we are working for a dramatic refutation of globalist policies and a restoration of liberty.
To reference the Billy Bush locker room recording that was leaked is quite laughable. You probably should consult your husband for an explanation of the whole thing. Finally, intellectual neophytes should stick to Facebook.
Trump was describing a certain kind of woman who throws herself at rich men and wants to be grabbed. He did not say he, himself, did that to some woman.
In my house, it’s like this: I love Trump and my wife REALLY loves Trump. Anyone with a brain can look past the locker room talk and other manufactured media outrage. I don’t get libs and Never Trumpers who judge his words far more harshly than his rivals’ actions.
So here’s my question for you. It’s inauguration day 2025. Trump is POTUS again.
Now what happens? What will the democrats and RINOs do? Will there be riots in the streets again? How does Trump heal a divided country? Will he be able to get anything done?
No one can unify a nation where half want to remain divided.
The first thing he has to do is get honest people in charge of all Federal departments, or abolish them, if that is possible.
The second is a thorough accounting of the crimes of both Democrats and Republicans and the lying media that enabled both.
There will be hysteria, and probably violence in the streets, but I like the chances of his supporters, which include most law enforcement, most military, and most men capable of inflicting righteous violence when it is forced on them. But that is not a goal, and something which we should work hard to avoid.
Over time, as revelation after revelation hits at least Truth Social, the bitterness should ease.
There will be riots. In Democrat cities they will be allowed. In the real world they will be quelled. Darwin.
And he's what - 79? would be 83 at the end of his term? Can't run for re-election, right? We can find better narcissists than him to run this country. (Considering some of the cruel things he says, I can't imagine what he'll be capable of as his age unties his tongue and his frontal lobe even more). And before you jump all over me, I voted for him twice. Won't do it a third time. And the last 8 conservatives I talked to this week said the same. Get over him, people, or we get 4 more years of Biden.
The animal hatred half of the nation passionately feels towards Trump tells me his presidency, if he is elected, will not be healing. Just the opposite. Scary to think of the violence that may ensue.
Love your house, my house is exactly the same and I can tell you it has a great Trump vibe!
From a Canadian point of view, I liked Trump's anti-China and pro-Israel stance -- American geopolitics, after all, affect all of us in the world -- but I detest his bragging and conceit and rude behavior. I just don't understand why he is so popular with so many Republicans. There were some good people on that debating stage.
I find Trump's brashness off-putting at times and refreshing at others. But I saw no one on that stage last with the will to do what needs to be done. Particularly Haley, Christie, Pence are neocons IMO and their type have lead us to where we are now. I cannot support more of that. I like Ramaswamy in many ways but he would be gator chum in DC at this point. Of the group I like Scott and DeSantis but I do not think k either of them will be able to survive the DC swamp. My preference is to give Trump his mulligan. Then follow up in '28 with Pompeo, or DeSantis or Scott.
Perfect example of how the media from that point to the present have loved changing the meaning of what he obviously meant. He was 100% correct when he said the media is the enemy of the people…and no, I do not want him to win the primary, but it’s looking like it’s a done deal. No one last night did anything for me except maybe DeSantis. And he kept his cool this time.
Trump said "Fake news is the enemy of the people," not "the media".
Big difference.
Not really…It was nearly all fake news when it came to reporting on him. They hated him with a passion! They put opinion, emotion and feeling into their reporting. All of them! Look at the weak White House correspondents asking KJP questions. They’re as weak as Biden. But, yes, I stand corrected on the proper quote…thanks.
Nooo, I disagree. Most of the news outlets put out fake left wing news and they are the media. Who buttressed Hillary's lie that Trump was colluding with the Russians? The media. Who promoted the lie that Hunters' laptop was a Russian plant? The Media. Both times this was fake news by the leftist media.
He probably did, but what no one wants to admit is that probably none of them complained. He was more or less a rock star, and he was showing interest in them.
What is obviously wrong is the sort of thing Biden did to Tara Reade. She apparently had had googly eyes for him, but he misjudged the time and place and her interest badly. That's a common problem for sociopaths.
The press and the left dismissed Tara but went wild over Bret Kavanaugh's accuser.
And the stupid media - even the conservative media - kept showing Tara as she was when the issue arose rather than the beautiful young woman she was when she was allegedly assaulted by Biden.
Tara Reid, 59, appeared in a video interview with Sputnik News Agency alongside Russian MP Maria Butina, who was imprisoned in the United States for attempting to penetrate political circles.
Reed said she arrived in Moscow as a tourist but felt "safe for the first time in a very long time". She explained that she decided to settle in Russia when a Republican deputy told her that her life was in danger.
"I want to apply to President Vladimir Putin for Russian citizenship," she said, promising to be a "good citizen".
And in early 2020, Reid accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in a corridor of the US Congress in 1993, when he was a senator, and she was an assistant to him.
The accusation, which the Democrat emphatically denied, was nonetheless embarrassing because of his campaign against outgoing President Donald Trump, who has been accused by several women of sexual assault, harassment or rape.
But inconsistencies marred Reed's statements. For example, no trace of the complaint she claimed to have filed with Congress after the fact was found.
The American, who introduces herself as a specialist in geopolitics, confirmed on Tuesday that she had received death threats after announcing her accusations in 2020.
And she was such a stable person.
Trump is not a rock star. And by his own admission not a role model. As well as being cognitively unfit Biden is a crook and a fraud.
And you aren't very observant or smart. You assume that because I criticize Trump I support Biden.
These are the same women that claim to be raped when politically convenient.
" I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy."
They appear to like that comment here. Who knew?
Well, I thought it would be best to get the factual, complete quote up.
Let the chips fall where they may.
He was also describing a certain kind of man.
Exactly!
I think you just got ratioed.
"And no decent man goes around grabbing pussies."
But would you agree that a decent man would do his best, while in office, to return America to prosperity, national security, national pride, a strong military, honest voting (clean voter rolls and voter ID required), intelligent foreign policy (restructuring trade to our advantage, not theirs), strengthening NATO well in advance of Russia's second incursion into Ukraine (both under Democrat project-weakness and indecision administrations) and reversing our Let's- help-our- chief- adversary- succeed policies of the past? Trump understands, as the ideologically-blinded Left chooses not to, that the US is making itself enery-dependent upon its chief adversary, China, with its rush to Green policy before we are capable of mining and manufacturing on our own that which will be required for independence from Chinese control.
I agree but Trump is still preferable to Tired Joe.
Everything was beautiful till you got to Trump. Trump doesn't believe anything. He is a mumble mouth who is a cult of personality. His only accomplishment as President was unwinding what Obama did with Regulations and appointing three justices. I voted for him the first time for that reason. That reason is now moot. But I can't vote for him again. He can't build a consensus; he has no vision and inspires no one. Unlike Lincoln, he appeals to the worst instincts of our nature, not our best. Anyone who wants people to kiss their ass with loyalty has no business being close to the oval office. He simply can't lead. All he did was run up debt and failed miserably during the pandemic. He couldn't pick good people and was a horrible manager of the White House. When the wheels come off, how will this guy fix it? He won't. But I did love 3/4 of your post. It was spot on.
From my perspective he walked into a den of vipers that was vastly worse than anything even he, as a cynical New Yorker, could have predicted. He was failed and betrayed nearly immediately by everyone around him. That included two FBI Directors, two Attorney Generals, and largely a nominally Republican Congress, and certainly Mitch McConnell.
In a world where everyone is just waiting their turn to stab you in the back, in defense of a system built around power, privilege, money and secrety, why not make honest loyalty an important value? Who didn't let him down? Mike Pompeo, maybe?
And his only real failure in the pandemic was enabling and allowing Fauci to issue nonsensical orders that contravened known Science. It was an election year, and no doubt he reasoned that him fighting with The Science--as he called Himself--was counterproductive, but in the end he lost the election he won because of pervasive organized cheating, and a judicial system that was and remains either corrupt, or too cowardly to do its job honestly.
He walked into North Korea. The leaders of the two nations met, for the first time since the cessation of active hostilities. He got the Abraham Accords signed, for which he was nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, which unlike Barack Obama he actually deserved--or at least Mike Pompeo did.
He doesn't appeal to our worst instincts, either. The people ATTACKING him do. They tell us he is horrible, nasty, mean, violent, awful and that the same applies to all his supporters.
Well, that is an appeal to our worst instincts, isn't it? Saying "you are a horrible person if you support Trump" promotes violence, doesn't it? Him defending himself from ridiculous, mean spirited, and purely mendacious attacks is not violence, is it? It is common sense.
The patent goal is to make everything he says something no one can agree with. If he says the sky is blue, the indoctrinating media will say that he forgot nighttime, and remind us that he is an evil, nasty person who divides us recklessly and we better not support him or we will be the proper victims of political violence.
That is more or less the literal truth. Trump is the lightning rod, but he is not the lightning. That comes from people who benefit from a secret system that benefits the one percent of the one percent. They want to build and boost hate, so that nobody can think rationally, or realize that by and large he only speaks truths.
I more or less agree: it was striking how much loathing the press had for Trump, how casually they implied he was a fascist, and did everything in their power to undermine him.
The press and the Democrats did, from my perspective, pour gasoline and then fanned the flames of division.
Russiagate bring exhibit A.
Add to Russiagate the-Hunter's-laptop-is-disinformation-so-say-51-former-intelligence-experts ploy.
You have a bad case of TDS- Trump Devotion Syndrome - You remind me of the people in South America who believe whatever the strongman tells them to believe. Trump was none of that. He gets toyed with by the media. They play him like a Stradivarius. He is very undisciplined and can't hire good people. In any other industry, if you hired and fired as he did, they would get rid of you as they can't pick good people. Ultimately, he is a manbaby who is not enough of a leader to match the moment. I won't begrudge you your love for him, but you are just as bad as the people with the other TDS, living in an alternate reality.
He was an outstanding President. The economy, which has been floundering since Obama and his Socialists took office, took off nearly immediately. He kept us out of wars, and would have left Afghanistan with dignity and victory had the Democrats not stolen the election.
He built peace in North Korea and the Middle East, and it is astonishing that you would use it against him that nearly everyone in his circle betrayed him. They were all supposed to be good guys. He didn't live in that world. He walked into something ten times worse than the worst parts of the Mob world in New York at its height. There are trillions of dollars at stake, and smiling men in suits play the game of corruption at a very high level that would make Tony Soprano look like an amateur.
Substantially everything you wrote says more about you than Trump. He's got a lot of flaws. I don't deny it. And we may fail as a democracy even with him in office. But if we can't get him into office, I think a huge and fast precipitous fall in our liberty and standards of living is inevitable.
I don't trust him 100%, but I do mistrust everyone else 100%. I like Ron DeSantis, but he is not the guy to take on the FBI and CIA. I'm not sure it can be done, but if it can, Trump is the only one I see even possibly equal to it.
It says a lot about me. I see reality and don't live in a fantasy world. Trump is an entertainer, not a leader. He is a grown child, not an adult. He lacks discipline, can't find good people, and has no governing philosophy. Yes, I do want more than him. The country can do much better than him. He has proven himself to fail in everything I look for. I watch his interviews and compare him to those who came before him, not what is on the media. You can't refute anything. Yes, he did the Abraham Accords, but Jimmy Carter did the Camp David Accords. Any President does one thing right. Trump is different from the man to meet the moment. It's been great chatting with you.
I actually think that Ron DeSantis is the one to take on DC at this stage. He sorted out Florida...
I agree with you. Ron DeSantis is a real man who is not afraid of left. He calls them out at every turn and he may criticize his fellow Republicans but he does not put them down. He checks all the boxes for moral leadership, courage, intelligence, love of family and love of people in general. My prayers and my money are on Ron DeSantis!
Mike Pompeo, who was one of the few to be able to stick it out with Trump, was called "My Mike" by Trump. Liked he owned him. Gross.
Barry I’m sending you to DC, you one of a few people on this site who posts the TRUTH!!!
Very nicely written!!
Absolutely!
Albert, I was going to chime in with the despair I feel at the prospect of another Trump V Biden run off. And the thought of another four years under either of them. But your comment above was much more eloquent so now I don't have to. Well said. I can't believe we, the good people of the United States, find ourselves in this dystopian moment. I dread 2024.
You won’t vote for Trump again, but your alternative will be Biden. Will you pick the lesser of two evils, as you perceive them, or will you enable Biden’s reelection by sitting it out? Hold your nose and vote for Trump, for the sake of our country.
But I think both will destroy the country. Trump is unhinged from reality and will do nothing to address the central issue. And if the wheels fall off the economy, he is so undiciplined and inarticulate that he could never forge a consensus. He will make things worse not better. I will vote third party for the first time in my life.
In other words, you will waste your vote. But you can feel virtuous and impress your friends, so there’s that.
No, I think a vote for Trump is no different than Biden. He is not a leader, was mediocore in his first term and can't hire good people. He can't forge a consensus to pass anything meaningful in Congress. I don't feel virtous but sad. He's a clown. Why should I vote for a clown? And P.S. He is not going after entitlement spending and don't forget his spending is what started this inflation fire. So I know he's your hero but he is a second rate leader when we need a first rate one.
Do you agree that we had a very good economy under Trump? Low inflation and low interest rates?
We had no wars?
We did not have a wide open border with thousands being dumped in the streets of our cities on a daily basis? San Diego is the latest, if you read the WSJ today…
That we were for more energy independent than today? – – Biden vilified MBS, but now kisses his ring…
On policy and living conditions, I can go on and on, but I would like you to deny all of the above. I bought with my pocketbook, period.
Great until the end, my friend.
1) I know honest people. I work with honest people. Honest people are my friends. Donald Trump is NOT an honest man.
2) Trump does NOT have the support of 2/3 of America. He has 60% poll numbers in the Republican polls, and I don’t think those include Democrat or Independent voters. And that 60% is evanescent. As soon as voters start to think in 2024 terms rather than 2020 terms, numbers will shift. Generals always fight the last war - politicians and the press are no different.
Folks need to focus on the real danger to this country. It’s NOT China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. It’s K Street and greed in board rooms. “WE The People”, people - you can look it up, folks. THAT’s what this country was founded on and we all know we’re getting “losted”. Washington - stop pissing on us and telling us it’s raining!!!
Sorry - that extra cup of coffee always gets me, I guess…
There is nobody K Street hates more than Donald John Trump. Vote accordingly.
It's NOT China? Backatcha on the fade to irrelevance, Mr McKenna
Greed is the enemy. So you plan to vote for whoever says they oppose greed? Is that how it works?
Okay, you had me on board until the last paragraph. I know, “orange man bad”, but Trump is a liar.
I do believe that he is treated unfairly by the media, but he is also a grifter and as fair weather as they come. He will say anything.
Where has Trump told a lie? If there are lots of them, give me one.
I've seen long lists of purported lies, but all of them were actually fabrications by the media. I am LITERALLY not aware of one lie he told, and certainly nothing on par with Obama's famous "if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance"; or substantially anything Joe Biden says anywhere when he forgets about the teleprompter.
I will give Trump credit where he is due though. He did cut taxes, he did move Israel’s Embassy to Jerusalem, and he did try and combat China, even if I didn’t agree with the way he went about it.
Seriously??? “How about I’ll build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it?” Or “When I’m president we will lock her up” or “when I’m president we will leave Afghanistan?”.
Have you ever seen that clip of Trump, when they ask him what his favorite book is and he says, “the Bible.” The interviewer is like, “oh what is your favorite verse?” And I’ve got to give him props. This is kind of an OG move, but says, “all of it.” He couldn’t name a single one!!! I mean, “let there be light 💡!”
Is that really the best you can do? He did his best to build a wall, but was opposed on many fronts by many people. Much of the wall did get built.
He did his best to lock up Hillary, but his own Attorney General and the FBI Director protected her.
And we WERE going to leave Afghanistan, just not without handing power over immediately to the Taliban. He had a deal with them that the Taliban broke. Joe let them. He was apparently paid to give China access to Afghanistan's resources.
If you compare his campaign promises to what he actually did, he obviously treated those promises as a To Do list. Sometimes for reasons beyond your control you can't get things done, but they do not then become lies.
I've asked this question many times, but most people just bow out immediately. But nothing you wrote there supports your case.
Jesus, Barry, I’m embarrassed for you
Should I care? Help me out here.
If I might riff on a cliche, you can often judge the caliber of someones mind by who misunderstands them and how.
I dont know you—and for that matter you dont know me—but I suspect your attempted insult is an unintentional compliment.
Thank you!!
You are just so clearly biased. Obama also tried to make it so you could keep your doctor. He also had people opposing him. Give me a break.
All of the sudden you’ve gone from, “where has Trump told a lie?” To what exactly? “But look what he did?” Pathetic.
I have to tell you, all of these alleged sins of Trump are ridiculous. JFK was banging Marilyn Monroe when he was married to Jackie. Bill Clinton got a blow job from an intern, and then lied about it. Ted Kennedy left a young woman to die in Chappaquiddick, it became the “lion of the senate”.
I am long past voting for people on the basis of their “morality”.
“How about I’ll build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it?”
He prodded the Mexican government into placing troops along its southern border. It wasn't steel but from my perspective as well as illegal border crossers, was way more effective. And yes, Mexico paid the troops
How can one “lie” about the future? Most predictions about the future are wrong. How can you seriously say that wrong predictions are lies?
A lie is a false or misleading statement concerning a verifiable fact. By definition, the future is not a verifiable fact.
Be careful of where you stick your head. Cats and dogs may have relieved themselves on the sand.
I was a big Trump supporter and defender of his four years in office, appreciating nearly all of his policies, including reducing regulations and taxes to stimulate the economy, addressing the border crisis, isolating China for its cheating, attempting to break the decades-long conflict with North Korea, isolating the Palestinians for their rejectionism and support of terror, doing away with the horrendous Iran nuclear deal, putting sanctions on their rogue regime, and achieving the breakthrough Abraham Accords.
However, he lost me when he violated the most sacred tenet of our democracy: the peaceful transition of power, with his continued insistence that the election was stolen. This erodes trust in democracy, damages our global image, and diminishes America’s global influence in promoting democracy and human rights.
While 60% of Republicans support him, it’s important to note that Republicans make up only 30% of the electorate. That means a majority of Americans do not want him reelected. Republicans are stupid for making him their presumptive nominee.
The election WAS stolen, and obviously so. There is nothing illegal, yet, about speaking obvious truths.
So obvious that no proof was shown to the people who mattered in court. And why wasn’t any hard evidence shown to judges in the two months after the vote. What happened there? If it was so obvious where did it all go?
If you believe in the rule of law, which is another tenet of our democracy, then you will reject Trump. He had every right to sue because of his belief that the election was stolen. However, he lost or had all 63 cases dismissed, including many before Republican judges, some of whom he appointed. They were called frivolous and without merit.
Once he appealed, even to the Supreme Court, and lost, it’s over. It’s when Gore called Bush and said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President.’ Trump refused to even attend the inauguration.
None of those courts heard any evidence, did they? In all cases I know of, they used spurious technicalities—typically a lack if “standing”, as if every defrauded voter did not suffer from it—to rationalize a very real fear of left wing Brownshirt mobs.
Roberts reportedly cited his fear of riots explicitly behind closed doors.
Nah… I don’t believe that for a second. Do you really think that’s how courts work?
Why are you so certain he's wrong, and that there was no interference, despite some of the information that has come out since? I know of at least 2 national presidential elections in fall of 2020 that are widely considered to be unfair elections -- in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan (the latter of which had a happy ending after some protesting). Tons of others around the world at various time; those two were just within 3 months of the US one. Why not a third one?
I respond to factual evidence -- let's hear what you've got. I know this: the Dominion voting machines was such a losing case that Fox was willing to settle for $850 million than risk losing $1.5 billion in a trial. Funny what came out in the depositions for that case -- that his biggest Fox anchor supporters, incluidng Tucker Carlson, were saying privately among themselves that his claims about the election being stolen was bullshit, as did his Attorney General Bill Barr and other close WH advisers.
I didn't say anything about Dominion voting machines. There are many, many other vectors of attack, such as a water pipe to bursting in Georgia and then wheeling in a lot of fake ballots. Such as passing out ballots around a certain ethnic neighborhood in Detroit and then coming by in person to collect them. Such as 50,000 people in Michigan having illegal addresses on their voter registration. Things that the party with more than 3x as much funding would be able to do at about a 3x rate. Things that the party which is supported by America's largest social media giants would be able to instantly cover up and ban people for talking about -- after all, nothing says "trustworthy and fair" than banning people for asking questions about it or arresting protestors.
But I'm guessing we're not going to convince each other of much. Maybe Lukashenko did get 4.6 million votes in Belarus without any cheating or manipulation, and maybe Biden got 81 million in America. Who's to say other than the "trusted" news sources and officials of each country, eh?
I'll go with 63 court cases where they couldn't provide enough evidence to convince even one court to side with them. Not one. So, go ahead and believe what you want or try to liken the United States with Belarus -- doesn't fly with me.
First segment (14 minutes) of report by Sharyl Attkisson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PaU04GBLDI
Estimate of votes by non-citizens in 2020:
https://www.justfactsdaily.com/quantifying-illegal-votes-cast-by-non-citizens-in-the-battleground-states-of-the-2020-presidential-election
Illegal vote harvesting in Florida:
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/florida-opens-criminal-probe-democrat-whistleblowers-evidence-ballot
The Gableman Report on vote fraud in Wisconsin:
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-3-5-wisconsin-report-reveals-how-systematic-election-fraud-is-done
Then there are the things that are arguably legal, but result in a rigged election, like media suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story until after the election, or "Zuckbucks" turning selected county election offices into Democrat get-out-the-vote machines.
None of this is beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that Trump won. But I think it is impossible to have beyond-a-reasonable-doubt proof that he didn't.
OK, I was curious enough to look into the first issue about multiple absentee ballots sent to addresses in Maryland. Turns out that was true. But, missing from her story is that each ballot has a barcode and, like showing up at a sporting event or concert, if you try scanning your ticket after someone has already used it it won’t work:
Ross Goldstein with Maryland’s Board of Elections was quick to answer. “There should be no concern about double voting. We have procedures to catch that. On every ballot there is a barcode that's unique to that voter and we scan that into our system,” Goldstein explains. “So, we know if we get the same barcoded ballot back from the same voter. And we will only count one of those ballots from that voter." He says only the second ballot with the later date will count.
I bet every one of these other incidents she goes through is either very minor or has an explanation – and I’m sure were presented during the 63 court cases and were unconvincing.
Try again. The individual in that report did not try to vote twice with the same barcoded ballot, he was sent his ballot and a ballot for his brother, who for years has lived out of state. Two ballots with two barcodes, but only one eligible voter. A big problem in the states that mass mail ballots to everyone and who don't keep their voter registration lists accurate.
Orange Jesus attacked the First Amendment by asking Congress to pass a law that would allow him to sue the news agencies for articles that wounded his oversize ego.
Orange Jesus attacked the Second Amendment (after telling us in the NRA, "I've got your back") by banning bump stocks by executive fiat, nominating an anti-gun Attorney General, nominating an anti-gun BATFE director, asking Congress to pass a so-called Assault Weapons Bill, asking Congress to pass a Universal Background Checks bill and asking Congress to pass a Red Flag bill. He had our backs alright, by slipping a knife in...
Orange Jesus attacked the Fourth Amendment by signing the reauthorization of the so-called PATRIOT Act after promising to reduce the government's power, so yet another failed promise.
Orange Jesus ran up the national debt even faster than Obama (even when you discount pandemic spending). His best three years of deficit spending added more to the national debt than Obama's worst three years.
"Trump is intelligent; he is patriotic; and he seems to be honest."
Orange Jesus might be intelligent, but he has no understanding or respect for the Constitution. "Patriot" implies a love of country but Orange Jesus loves only himself. Finally, to say that, "He seems to be honest" cannot be taken seriously after years of his lying to us on a nearly daily basis.
If Republicans think that they can win without Independents, they are delusional and if he is the nominee, then Republicans will have only themselves to blame when Dementia Joe wins a second term.
Great recap, Barry, although this notion that Trump has the support of two thirds of America may be a stretch. The poll are demonstrably lousy predictors of eventual results. Trump is basically another Huey P. Long from Louisiana who was the only politician that FDR was ever afraid of. Like Long, Trump speaks directly to voters who none of the other politicians ever bothered with - those folks without fancy educations and high net worth. People who get up at 4 AM to go to low paying jobs. They are the folks left behind by major corporations sending their jobs overseas, major corporations and individuals buying candidates with massive campaign financing. These folks realize that the politicians could care less about them. Trump not only speaks directly to these folks, he speaks to them in the language and tone that they speak to each other. In return, they are ferociously loyal and will vote for him no matter what he does. The irony is that the more the Left attacks Trump, the deeper the support from this group. They represent about 30% of the Republican vote. As demonstrated by the mid-terms, this voting block is not, in and of itself, enough to swing the election. The key to this election, imho, are the independents along with people across the political spectrum that are sick of watching the country they love degenerate into a dysfunctional third-world country. Addressing this requires someone who can think big and, most importantly, bring people together. DJT is great at dividing people, not bringing them together. Also, turning the country around will require some of America’s smartest and effective people. Based on past performance, who in their right mind would work for the past President? I didn’t see any Ronald Reagan’s last night, but this is not Hollywood. There were a couple of people last night, however, who have demonstrated the capability to change course in a meaningful way. If it comes down to Trump v. Biden then Walt Kelly’s line applies : We have met the enemy and it is us.
Good comparison of Trump to Long. I suspect Trump's story will end the same way Long's did.
Two-thirds? Trump has the support of less than half of America, and the 2020 vote proved it.
And I don't know about "the system," but I attack Trump because he routinely stiffed contractors for three decades; made fun of a disabled reporter during a rally; and molested E. Jean Carroll. "Honest?" Bullshit. He defrauded states on the financial value of his buildings, which deprived those states of tax revenue that had to be made up by higher taxes on the little people. "Patriotic?" He ordered a D.C. park cleared with batons and tear gas so he could take a photo op with a Bible in front of a church, and he and called for the assassination of the joint chiefs of staff. "Intelligent?" Conveve, The Battle of Bowling Green, and Sharpiegate.
These and a thousand and one other things--I haven't even mentioned the four trials he faces this and next year, in which he will be convicted--make him patently unfit for re-election.
That doesn't mean I like Joe Biden; I'd much prefer a younger person free of oily family entanglements. It means that in a one-on-one contest like the presidency, Biden is Flu and Trump is Ebola.
Nicely said, Shane. But I don’t think facts matter much on this thread. The Trump narrative runs too strong. Sad.
"Fuck your facts, Shane, I have feelings . . . "
Amirite???
Thanks, Lee. Weird thing is, people can hate Biden, Pelosi, Democrats, or Them Child-Molestin' Commie Libtardzz (tm) and still admit that Trump is a the 9/11/1/6 of toxic landfill fires in Hell. It's not a mortal sin to admit we can do a crapload better.
Absolutely right. It's binary here. When you say you despise Trump, it's automatically assumed you're for Biden. We can do better. And one day, we will..
Well said.
Now for off topic.
Off topic. We have known this all along but the press and govt agencies have covered it up. Let's hope there is jail time involved:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-gets-bad-news-from-judge/ar-AA1hmGVS?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d57a4a150b0b40b083c4195fcfd149bd&ei=9
The Clinton family corrupt? I am shocked, shocked to read this, LP!
Shane I posted a rather long post to you on your profile page. Did you get it?
I feel the same way. I would love to see an agency that was dedicated to investigating the three branches of government and all high ranking government officials and if corruption is found the miscreants spend hard time in a supermax prison not club fed.
Did you mean to say 2/3 of the Republican party!? Definitely not 2/3 of the country. Looking back on the past almost 8 years I can’t get over the attack campaign against President Trump. It seems the powers to be have something to hide why else would they go to such extremes to ruin the man? Even though I haven’t ever voted for the Trump ticket I will never agree with what is going on in our sad corrupt government. What’s good for thee isn’t good for me!!!!
honest is not a word I would use for Trump. I am not saying he is some sleezy liar or anything, but nothing about him comes off as real or honest to me, aside from the fact that he seems to say things without a filter. But any time he is talking, I don't feel like I am getting an honest person. I feel like I am being sold to. I feel like he is saying things I want to hear (in my case they rarely are things I actually want to hear).
It is fine that people like him. But I don't see him as any more moral or trustworthy than most other politicians. He's just motivated about different things than they are.
Barry Cooper
Astonishing mix of truth (about supply side economics) and absurdity.
Trump is patriotic? Donald “Bone Spur” Trump has made it crystal clear that he looks at anybody who sacrificed something to serve their country as loosers. He is a card-carrying establishment crook who declared that servicemen who happened to be captured and suffer for years in prison are simply loosers. He didn’t attack John McCain just for his political views, but for being a prisoner in Vietnam, where he refused to be freed just because his dad was a big general. That is a direct insult from a draft-dodging member of the elite to those lower class “loosers” who were stupid enough to serve or loose children in defense of their country.
Just because senile Biden and his woke crowd lie, cheat and censor at every step doesn’t make Trump less of a lier and a crook, who has no other vision for America’s future than to vindicate his loss in 2020. How about all the elections since 2018 on, lost by the Republicans due to Trump’s treacherous, narcissistic obsessions?
Even if what you said about Trump wasn't mostly hyperbole, you simply can't dispute that all Americans were on an upward track when he was in office and are rapidly losing ground under the senile imbecile who was installed to replace him.
If you have been around for the last few years, you must have a very exact recollection that what I mentioned is exactly what Trump said, loud and clear. Did you learn from the wokes how to deny obvious truths or twisting facts has always been your thing? Yes, Trump had a good record in office due to able advisors who dampened his worst ideas and charted a reasonable path. He got rid of those advisors even before the end of his mandate and is now surrounded only by absolute loonies, with easy to foresee consequences.
Talk about engaging in fairy tale narratives. It wasn't Trump's "advisors" that animated his most successful and sane policies of border control, fair trade, confronting but also engaging with our foreign enemies, lower taxes and less regulation.
In distinct contrast, Biden and his advisor are entirely in sync - adopt whatever policies are ruinous for America and detrimental to its loyal, hardworking citizens.
So, are you taking back your lie about Trump insulting people who served their country being just “hyperbole” or you want to go the same way as your role model? You keep talking about Biden, but with your style of dealing with facts you should write for the NYT.
What all these people are missing is that much of what trump did was great for most Americans. Low gas and oil prices, booming economy, NO WARS, border security.
And that he was ruthlessly attacked for much he didn’t do. Start with those facts, then explain how it can be done without inciting hatred from the left and in a way that Trumps haters can embrace. He is hated because he beat Hillary and the press painted him as a terrible person.
This just scratched my brain in the best possible way. If I ran into you at a party, we would surely be asked to leave because I could talk about this all day and no one else ever wants to hear it.
Great economic comments, Barry. But you imply there is only a binary choice between a free spending, too powerful government and... Trump. I reject both, even if I have to vote “none of the above “.
What is wrong with Trump? He didn't balance the budget, granted, but he does not have full power over that. He says rude, true things, in ways which make squeamish people blush, despite knowing he is right. He is on his third marriage; he cheated in the first two and has cheated in this one.
But I had faith the future would be good when he was in office. I had faith he was doing his JOB to protect America and further the interests of all of us, by closing the border, creating incentives for economic growth (taking the risk of investing in expansion), keeping us out of wars, negotiating better trade agreements, and generally acting like he cared about ordinary Americans, which I honestly believe he does.
What is your beef with him? That he says mean things to people who deserve it? That he is arrogant? We're not inviting him to a cocktail party, are we? We are talking about running the largest economy and military in recorded human history.
Or are there any specific policy issues you disagree with?
When he was a democrat in NYC doling out money to democrats, no one cared about his filandering.
Terry of the North appears unconcerned that we have a $2 trillion annual deficit under our senile imbecile in the oval office. In PEACETIME! This is arrant madness.
And Trump had to deal with the shutdown of the economy by the mostly Democrat governors that was tanking the economy. The Constitution does state that the government cannot deprive a person of their property without due process, so Trump, in providing Covid relief, was faithful to our national principles.
Bruce Miller
Stop making false accusations. I have been a fiscal conservative for 45 years. I preferred Trump over Biden and I have been been shuned by family members because I defended Trump. But I prefer several other Republicans to Trump. I believe that Desantis is a better person and much more electable than Trump
Is that clear enough for you?
My point was that I believe you to be a Canadian national who cannot vote in our elections.
So I believe you have your hands full with the authoritarian twit in Ottawa.
Is that clear enough for you? If I'm mistaken, then apologies.
The interest on that debt is over $800,000,000,000 in 2023 alone. A traumatic increase as a result of higher interest rates. Caused by inflation. Caused by Democrat policies and feckless Republicans.
Let's be honest here: he enabled Fauci; managed to say some really, really stupid things about the Kung Flu despite having instinctively grasped almost out of the gate that it was really, really stupid to go OTT about an obvious nothing-burger; and basically doubled-down on losing his own re-election. The things that make him great also make him a bloody liability to himself. I genuinely love the guy; but ye gods...
I feel the same while I can’t disagree with some of the policies he put in place, He is a difficult character and my big question is who wants to work for him in the white house and better question who can he work with? So unfortunate that we the people can’t do better for the leader of this great country 🥲
But you can do better. DeSantis and Scott are much better.
Trump supported the lockdowns, billions of dollars in handouts and has yet to separate from Fauci on the vaccine. He criticized Governors Kemp and DeSantis when they reopened the beaches. Trump should’ve learned even if you go along with the permanent government they are still going to hate you.
Trump criticized DeSantis for closing beaches. More to the point, DeSantis never called for "all beaches" in Florida to close. In fact, he directed local officials to reopen their beaches as part of the state's phased reopening, which began in May 2020. As Dem states were locking down harder.
No Trump at a press conference specifically singled out Kemp critically for reopening Georgia’s beaches. Trump also commented on why so many people were on Florida’s beaches. Trump himself was the main reason he lost. The people who make sure Biden is semi conscious each day want Trump for an opponent.
You answered your own question. Like you, I agree with many of his policies (he screwed up the TPP trade agreement and distorted the steel industry) but I can’t get comfortable with that guy representing me and my country, and his lack of discipline is dangerous.
Trump is not a strong leader. If he was, he would have drained the swamp instead of the swamp draining him. I cannot for the life of me understand the support for Trump.
What should he have done differently? He was betrayed by two Attorney Generals, two FBI directors, and most of the Republicans in Congress.
My take is that nearly everyone is Washington is some combination of cowardly and corrupt. You can’t walk into that and fix it in one term while under continuous attack. If he wasn’t someone who likes fighting, he would not have even tried.
I pretty much agree with what you have to say. I would take issue with one thing and that is that supply side economics is always the answer.
Supply side makes sense when you have a situation where you have inflation due to a lack of supply. The goal is to increase supply to bring inflation down. Not necessarily the policy you are looking for when the basis of that inflation is not a lack of supply but of an over supply of printed money.
In the latter situation you have two choices. You either tax and contract the money supply to bring it more in balance with the physical supply of goods and services or you accept the inflation. You are not going to be able to increase supply of goods and services enough to match the supply of money. People can or will consume only so much and companies are not going to produce at cost or negative margins that would be required.
And, of course, this all gets a whole lot more complicated when you have an economy that is as financialized as ours is and has the kind of corporate and private debt that we have.
John Maynard Keynes was a genius. I would guess his IQ was 180 or more.
But he was an awful human being. As far as I can tell, the only honest book he ever wrote was "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", where he rightly pointed out that inflation is theft, but theft that almost nobody understands.
In my personal view, the quantity of money should NEVER change. Ever. Not by one penny.
And if this were the case, what would happen? The value of each individual dollar would go up steadily. The value of our labor would go up. Rather than losing value we would gain it. We would reverse all the negatives of inflation, which IS in fact theft.
So, I would submit that the profession of "economist" is only useful in a world made needlessly complicated, I would suggest that all the complex formulas and argumentation and math these people do should be abolished entirely.
I deal with these issues at length, including Keynesian economics, here. Just click on the picture for the actual paper: https://goodnessmovement.com/Page23.html
I actually emailed the basic paper to hundreds of economists around the world, but never got anything approaching an intelligent response. The forest has been lost for the superabundance of oaks, maples, birch and shrub.
Rather than these glitzy staged food fights, let’s have Joe Rogan spend one hour with each candidate. Same questions.
Make it the full 3 hours and I'm with you. Each candidate goes the 3 hour distance with Joe.
It was 3 hours with Joe Rogan that killed RFK Jr's candidacy. That interview plus the pump it gave to his ego to get him out of his nutfarm closet made it clear RFK Jr is cuckoo. A literally twitching pot of WTAF there. His standing in polls has slid since then.
All the more reason to do it, then! I’m not a 3-hr podcast person, but if it’s an effective tool to get a better, more profound understanding of the major candidates (good or bad!), I’m all ears (channeling Ross Perot)!
I would love this idea so much.
That would be more informative, give the establishment media more material, and help the American people get to know each candidate intimately. Everybody wins. Who knows, he got Elon Musk to smoke a joint. Maybe he can get Pence to do something crazy like drink caffeine after 1:00pm.
No need. I've found Bari's interviews to be all I need.
Nice idea but Trump can’t complete a cognitive sentence and Biden forgets what’s asked.
Now THERE’S an idea, Maureen!
Excellent idea! Like nearly all our politics nowadays, these “debates” are mere entertainment--and lousy entertainment, at that.
Nobody can save us from ourselves. We’ll get the leadership we deserve.
In my opinion, we got the government the cabal decided we would have.
Great point. Hilary was a slam dunk. It was going to be a landslide. She was the ideal marionette to advance the cabal’s global initiatives. Trump’s victory caught them and the establishment left with their pants down. His victory threw sand into the gears of the cabal and there would be hell to pay for it. They pulled and continue to pull out all the stops to regain control. It’s why we saw the press snap into line after 2016. Why we hear the dire “death to democracy” and “worse than Hitler” lines ad nauseam. It’s why instilling and promoting fear is rampant. The press is concerned about their role in “saving democracy” to the point they’ve abandoned all principles so as not to upset the people they work for.
Nov. 2024 is going to be ugly for America going forward. If you thought the last couple years were bad, buckle up.
Great post, I have buckled up since FJB came to unelected power, and yes I believe we are in for the ride of our lives and it’s not going to be pretty, however Americans are resilient we should be okay!
If Joe and his administration of dunces is good at one thing it is making enemies both around the world and at home. He’s the crotchety old man on the porch yelling at the neighbors.
Description is perfect!
We sure did in 2020! 2016 was a glitch nobody expected, and we know this because Hillary didn’t even think she needed to fully use her Steele dossier Russiagate hoax: she thought she had it in the bag.
Remember the way the press covered her loss? Her sadness over disappointing little girls? How she disappeared into the woods for a contemplative accounting of the soul, and then came back swinging? Bizarre.
She came back blaming Russia and everyone but herself. She’s truly the worst. I hope we’ve seen the last of Hillary. You know she’s looking for a way to swoop in and replace Biden on the ticket.
😱
The Clingons never go away Mark much like the Kennedy’s and the Bushes, they believe they own America.
Hillary and Michelle, 2024...
Speak for yourself. I spent 2016 thinking I'd wake up: England voted offski and the US did something sensible for perhaps the first time since you ratified your Constitution and your Bill of Rights.
We held the fucking line and we were all heroes just for one day! Un-fucking-believable.... but only unexpected to our enemies, the Self-Appointed Anointed who proved too smug and full of shit.
2020? Let's face it, I lost count of how many times our hero cut his own throat or insisted on shooting himself in the head.
It could be. Do you vote? Because there would be no point in voting under the current system if you believe that to be true.
I do vote. It’s a cognitive dissonance that I’m learning to live with. I also believe in divine intervention, which would be useful at this point.
I simply cannot wrap my mind around how many good people I know who can bear up against the cognitive dissonance it requires for Trump to poll at 55% among conservatives. But, alas, it proves your statement.
The more pressing question is the people who are just fine with a corrupt, senile imbecile befouling our Oval Office and creating chaos in our land.
But these two things aren't mutually exclusive in any way. I just don't understand going with Trump again in 2024, though Barry Cooper above makes a good case I can only shake my head at what I see as a self-immolating choice. I also can't stand Biden at all and want to see him out of the Oval Office.
Yup-it’s lose/lose.
If Trump dismantles the administrative state - even a significant part of it - it is not a loss. It is, to the contrary, a huge victory for liberty and our Constitution.
Will his dismantling of the administrative state resemble his draining of the swamp? Because he didn’t do that, either. I think our goose is cooked. We should look to family and immediate community of like-minded folks. The federal stuff has been imploding for a long time and this next election cycle will be ghastly. I’m not voting anymore, I’m done.
Trump might not get a chance. The ultra MAGA lytes poor idiot McCarthy can’t control in the House might dismantle the state all by themselves. Government shutdown in days - no Social Security checks, no military pay, no funding for anything. Not even border security (how about that for irony?).
Isn’t this fun?
Bruce, this discussion isn’t abt whether we prefer Trump to Biden, it’s abt Republicans finding a candidate with the chutzpah of Trump and still manages to be a decent human being. My understanding of Jolene’s original point was our leaders are a reflection of us/our culture, not the other way around. I, for one, sure wish we were better!
"it’s abt Republicans finding a candidate with the chutzpah of Trump and still manages to be a decent human being."
Name one. It certainly isn't the execrable Haley, Christie or Pence. DeSantis might have worked but his campaign is a bungled mess. And Vivek is just too young.
I think that was the point. We are going to get some form of crap, because that is what is on offer.
Several of them could end up being contenders, but aren't yet. Also, what does Vivek's age have to do with anything? Too young because you don't think people will vote for a young person?
Too young because there are life experiences that he has yet to experience. And, it is to be hoped, learned as a result.
"DeSantis might have worked but his campaign is a bungled mess"
There is still a lot of time as far as news cycles and voter attention goes.
How about Jesus? Would Jesus do? I want a tough President who will be perfect in every way. And if can turn water into wine, all the better.
I can’t even be upset with Biden because I really think it’s elder abuse. But, yeah, it’s painful to watch.
Please start being upset with Biden and every democrat behind the scene who’s pushing this. They are no better, in fact they are much worse, than Trump. At least he was willing to try to keep our country within a border, which is part of the definition of a country. He couldn’t even get help from idiots in his own party. Someday you’ll realize the unbelievable impact the millions of sick, trafficked, and mostly criminals there are roaming our country and stealing what is rightfully ours in healthcare education and safety because of him and his administration. It’s all part of their plan and it’s changed our country possibly forever. It breaks my heart.
Our country has been undermined, by multiple administrations, for a very long time.
No…nothing like this. Please study the border problem more closely. It’s too late for “root causes”. At this point, the national guard needs to be at the border and let no one else in. It’s out of control because Biden told the world to come, and they were on their way before the election! And no, KJP is wrong, they are not trying to clean up from the last admin like she loves to report. It’s so much worse than Trump left it.
Biden has never been a good person. Trump may not be a good person either, but he was a better president.
I don’t know if it’s cognitive dissonance because he’s so full of contradictions it’s tough to pin him down. One thing he does do, guaranteed, is upset the status quo/kick the hornets nest. Which is enough for some. It’s interesting, though, that he went along with the initial flatten the curve stuff which undermines his alleged pro freedom position. I think the polls are failing to capture the other spectrum which is not left right but freedom vs authoritarianism.
I honestly think he was suckered into letting Birx and Fauci run the show by those around giving him advice. They were pretty “reputable” at the time. I don’t think he felt he had another choice, and if he did, that would’ve been the end of him for sure because those two were pretty popular at the time. That’s the only thing I can thing of to make sense of it. I was fooled by the two of them as well.
So was I! Nothing like Monday morning for armchair quarterbacks.
I voted libertarian in 2016 and thought for sure that pro-business, roaring economy Trump would know better than to try to shut down the economy and choke small businesses with the “curve flattening.” Boy, was I wrong. The buck stops with the boss and the boss agreed to it. Why are you giving him a pass? He failed.
You're forgetting there was very, very much unknown in the early days.
Trump acted the way anyone would and should have.
The election was less than 9 months after Covid blew up.
Despite the unknown, Sweden’s health czar said that societal lockdown for a respiratory virus had never been tried and that there could be negative downstream consequences. He also said it isn’t clear that it was legal for the federal government to shut things down like that. So they didn’t. Spoiler alert: it’s not legal in the US either, but nobody bothered to consider that because politicians can use emergency declarations for absolutely anything they want, and then renew those declarations until citizens manage to find a court to reaffirm our freedom (which is inherent). Devilish trick they played on us. I will never forget a single thing that led to our brush with authoritarianism.
I understand where you’re coming from. I don’t think I’m giving him a pass as much as I felt it was his only option given every unique situation that was happening. They were ALL against him. Who stood by him during that time? Can you imagine the fake news outrage if he went against the beloved Birx and Fauci in the beginning? He would’ve been done, and I think he knew it. You could tell by his actions and his mood. All that said, I did become disappointed in a lot of how things went down with Covid. It basically lost his chances for reelection.
He could have brought in authors of the Great Barrington Declaration.
I haven’t been following-has he acknowledged that he blew it? Without blaming anyone but himself? That he, president and commander-in-chief, made a call, and that it was the wrong call? For me, there’d be no moving forward without it. What do you hope to see him accomplish if he gets another term?
Christie, Scott, Pence, & Burgum need to pack it up and go to the house. This is probably going to come down to Haley, Ramaswamy & DeSantis. Whoever is left from those 3 will face the orange 600 pound gorilla who will promptly kick them so hard, they'll be wearing their ass for a hat.
That said, I think it would be great to see Ramaswamy join the RFK Jr team as VP and see them run as Independents, but I've probably got better odds of catching on fire. Just sayin.....
Tulsi Gabbard needs to be on a ticket. Not sure she'd throw in with Trump but that would stir things up.
Sorry, but there’s no way Gabbard, who has something resembling principles about respecting election results, would stand shoulder to shoulder with a charlatan opportunist like Trump, who respects election results only when he wins.
This is a question I've wondered about. Tulsi and Vivek are both Hindu. Do you think that will matter to Americans? Seriously pondering...
No
Does RFK Jr.’s climate activism give you pause? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for cleaning up rivers, but I wonder about cult-like thinking with him. I do think he’s courageous, though, which is admirable.
IIf he is a Climate All-Renewables ASAP True Believer, that is indeed a problem for many of us.
They are both ridiculously naive in their understanding of the world. 5% of what each one says make sense, the other 95% does not. Unfortunately, neither one understands that he sounds like an adult on 5% of the issues, and like a guileless teenager on the other 95% of the issues. Unfortunately, many would-be voters miss this split as well. As Churchill said, the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. [Who seriously supports either one of these gentlemen to run the country] can be added as a 2023 qualifier.
Kennedy seems to me to have a pretty good view of the world, but that's just my opinion. He also shows compassion with what people are struggling with, even in the face of fierce criticism & lies from the corporate media and DNC. I think Ramaswamy would be a good counter balance to him and both could learn from each other. They both come off as individuals who are actually well read on most of the topics they discuss. Neither would be ideal to me in every aspect, but of everyone I've heard so far, I like them both. If Tulsi Gabbard were to jump in, I'd support her too as she is a heterodox thinker. Just my 2 cents.....which is way overvalued BTW :-)
A personal sanity check that I do is "does this person have some viewpoint that is just so ridiculous and crazy that holding it calls into question their judgement and veracity on other topics". If the answer is yes, I become suspicious of their ability to separate bullshit from reality across the whole range of topics. Usually, this sanity check will involve a topic on which one may have extensive personal expertise beyond an average person. With both RFK and Vivek (and Gabbard) the answer is an emphatic affirmative. All three are ridiculously naive about Russia and Putin and Ukraine. This is a topic on which I have extensive personal expertise, so I am very comfortable using it as a litmus test. My views in this area are not in any way influenced, much less shaped, by any so-called "Western media" but are rather formed over several decades of first-hand interaction, living in that part of the world, speaking the language, knowing the culture, studying the history, and thinking deeply about it since at least 2010. (On a side-note, reading 99% of English writing on this topic is almost physically painful for the lack of understanding and naivete that people display. However, it often works the same way when reading in other languages the stuff people write about the US). In making this judgement, I don't hold their skeptic position against them. There is in fact a cogent argument to be made against US involvement in Ukraine, but none of the three make it. What they do, is fully and uncritically buy into unsophisticated propaganda by people that lie for a living, and repeat it, despite it obviously contradicting facts, and the "laws of physics". The fact that they are so easily fooled into buying into an obviously untrue and made up version of the world makes one question whether they are fit to serve on a city council, much less any serious role in governing the country. (For reference, their views on Russia and Ukraine, as articulated by each one separately, are as ridiculous in their factual basis, as those of the people arguing that the human species has more than two genders. This is not a well thought-through analogy, just trying to illustrate how mind-mindbogglingly naive and almost maliciously-uninformed they sound to someone with a deep understanding of the topic.).
So, if each one of the three is comfortable going around sounding off while being so resoundingly stupidly incorrect, what does that say about their ability to think through and understand deeply other complicated topics involved with managing our country on the world-stage? (Leaving the domestic agenda off of the table for this conversation as it tends to be less clear-cut, at least to me, than international issues of the day).
Well written and articulated. Based on that, good luck finding a candidate who will check your boxes. I'm gonna go with who I think would best serve me and my family, knowing that they will most likely fall short in quite a few other areas.
Thank you for the acknowledgement. Its not so much checking the boxes of the "wants" as checking the box of "can you honestly vote for that person to be President". The last candidate that checked that box with me was Romney, with whose policy positions I disagreed in at least 50% of cases. But I didn't have the sense that he was naive, or disingenuous, or dishonest. It's saddening and exhausting that such a seemingly low bar has become too-strong of a filter.
Romney? Re-ee-ee-ally? (Or you meant his father?)
Where do you and your family stand in relation to what the other millions of Americans want?
I try to align those with as much as I can with those in needs and the betterment of our nation as a whole. Hopefully they align, but where they don't/can't, its always with me and my family. I'd imagine its the same with you.
Excellent comments. But just can’t abide by RFKJr. His hard drinking, drugging and the sui demise of his last wife and the body nigh yet cold matrimony to his current one—just too much dark drama around him. Besides, he would be the second consecutive Pres with a tragically deceased wife in the White House, if elected. In addition, he’s a climate boil and Green New Deal advocate. That’s a hard no from me.
It is vital to elect someone who doesn’t look at slaughter as all in a days work. Ending the proxy war and all the money wasted on it is the first order of business before we can start addressing problems here at home. Nearly all of the current uniparty is tone deaf to their constituents.
ALWAYS extra points for a Churchill quote (or Sowell, for that matter). Both were the stuff of meme-dreams long before the invention of the concept.
Why should Scott go home? Polling of Republicans about who they would never vote for? Scott has the lowest number of them all. He's the candidate most Republicans would consider. He should stay for now. I agree, Christie, Pence, and Burgum should withdraw.
President Trump has no need to defend his record. While under constant assault by the left, the deep state, the media, and faux Republicans, he delivered the best economic policies and foreign policy since Ronald Reagan. Instead of meekly shrugging it off, like H.W.and G.W. Bush, and milquetoast candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney, he put on his boxing gloves and came out swinging. Imagine what the United States would be like today, in a second Trump term with a continuation and expansion of those policies, had not a significant number of “Republicans” decided that personality was more important than performance.
Re “that doesn’t do anything to mitigate the fear and anger of countless Americans who want to know how their country moves forward.” The answer to this is to absolutely crush the Democrat party, reverse all of the insane policies they have instituted, eliminate Federal employee unions, build our military back to maximum strength, stop allowing unelected Federal bureaucracy officials from making policy, eliminate or reduce the influence of Federal agencies, and purge the military and intelligence agency command staff. Perhaps an impossible task, but the only person mentioned in this article who might be able to accomplish some or all of this is the person who did not attend the debate.
Jim, I’m in agreement with some of what you said and I would vote for Trump (again) if he is the Republican candidate for president (as he likely will be if polls are to be believed), but I don’t know if I can agree with you about his foreign policy and handling of military affairs.
Fair warning, I serve in the USMC, so I realize you may roll your eyes when you read this, but consider that I have more exposure to these figures than the average American, and I believe that solidifies my trust in them rather than makes me simply biased for them:
Anybody that can drive men like Jim Mattis and John Kelly out of key positions by being obstinate gives me pause. James Mattis is one of the most well-read, revered, and feared (by his enemies) generals the nation has produced since the greatest generation, and John Kelly is no slouch either. These are men that, from my perspective, embody values that I deeply admire like honor, duty, temperance, and yes, aggression (with regards to tackling problems). The biggest criticism I’ve had about Trump’s presidency is that he is notoriously fickle on whether or not he likes someone and it seems entirely contingent upon them agreeing with him. People with proven track records of professionalism, dedication to their craft, and sincerity.
It is incredibly difficult for me, and if I had to guess many other Americans, to feel confident in a president that is known for his capriciousness. Trump seems to lack a certain stability, perhaps even if it’s just intrapersonal stability, that I think a lot of Americans really need in a leader these days.
Just wanted to share my opinion. Please don’t bite my head off if you reply!
One of the things I like about DeSantis is his service. It has been too long.
Semper Fi Bill. USAF 856th Med Group, Beale AFB (SAC) 1968-1971. Strong supporter of our military. My concerns are based on all the articles about wokeness, DEI, etc. in the military that I see popping up, typically associated with top level command. I also understand your concerns.
Well stated, and thank you for your service. I would add H.R. McMaster to your list.
I couldn't agree more
LOUDER!
So you want to ‘build the military back to maximum strength’, but at the same time ‘purge the military and intelligence agency command staff.’
So who will lead them in this new world of yours?
Thanks Lee. Yes, I want to "build the military back to maximum strength" by purging the military command staff of those who are no longer focused on military issues, but instead are focused on wokeness, DEI, and other issues which weaken our military. All to be replaced by leaders who believe in a powerful military, serving a civilian government without political interference, who will train those they lead to be the best they can be in the service of our country. I'm not looking for a new world, but a return to the world we used to live in where our military was focused on combat readiness and protecting our interests abroad. I thought my general commentary negated the need for more detail on this point, but perhaps not.
Thanks for the expansive reply. I myself believe our military is still as capable as before, and that nothing has changed in that regard. When they get tested again, I guess we’ll both find out..
Lee, I will quit after this response. I hope you are correct. The other side of my concern has to do with resolve and willingness to fight among the younger generations. My Dad and my uncles served in WWII (the big war as they called it) and I had other uncles who served in Korea. It would never have crossed their minds to question the reasons or refuse to serve. My time was the Vietnam war era, when many were forced to serve. But, even though they may have disagreed with the rationale or objectives, or lack of objectives, they did their duty, and fought the good fight.
Only getting to this now. Thanks, Jim.
Savodnik whines....."Voters of all political stripes, and I am one of them, dread watching the two old men—Biden is 80; Trump, 77—battle it out. They dread the polarization, the ugliness, the stale ideas, the stale language. They want to know how America transcends this impasse. "
Sorry Peter - Biden, for whom I'd wager you voted, is patently senile. Trump is not. And while I'd prefer a younger president, only Trump has called out the true reason for the polarization and the ugliness. It is the relentless, totalitarian assault on our country and its values by the globalist leftists and their stale and absurd ideas of one-world socialism and the administrative state.
Good points Bruce. All “old” people are not senile and decrepit like President Biden. There is much to be said for the wisdom and experience of a Reagan or a Thatcher or a Trump. Many of my friends and I are in the 75-80 age range. We are still working, running companies, writing books, making music, movies, products, and services, and can (mentally) outperform most people half our age. We are not done yet.
All true. Still I would prefer a younger man or woman but until that person steps up.....
Well said, Jim!
I agree, 100%. The “H“ narrative is designed to cover not for Biden‘s age per se, but for his senility.
Sadly, though the FP purports to be free and open minded, it’s editors-in-chief and writers still believe that some idyllic, easy-peasy, no mess political, social, and economic world is possible. The FP bias against conservatives and even moderates is striking. As has been said, “democracy” (the true kind, not the blue kind), “is hard and harder to keep”.
So, as soon as JoeB can safely walk down 8 steps and actually engage in a debate, we’ll see how clean or messy the Democratic debate is.
If you continue to implicitly support the public mental and physical degeneration of an elderly, obviously incompetent man who has been made the figurehead as POTUS, it will be time for me to cancel the FP.
As an aside, Bari, you left the NYT because of the censorship and criticism you suffered there. Think what it would be like if you were badgered daily 10x what you suffered and then, had the howling wolves of press, DA’s , and the DOJ and FBI continue to come after you when you resigned. That’s what Trump faces now. As someone who’s been wrongly accused professionally a couple of times and had to prove myself, not innocent, but not guilty, I sympathize with what he’s going thru even if some of it is self inflicted-but not illegal!
You’ve got 3 years of data on Bidenomics, the border, crime, etc. Throw out your, and the MSM howling at Trump mania, and look at the actual records of the two administrations. There is absolutely no comparison. At least, you should be willing to admit that those policies were very good for the country and objectively wrote about how bringing those policies back would begin to assuage the tensions that people feel about the present status of America.
Just my $0.02 but I’m just a small town redneck retired surgeon, not a famed national journalist, who’s story and independence I greatly respect but who’s blinders I question.
Bottom line?
Trump is the nominee and these candidates are all vying for one of two things. They either want a job in the administration or they want to be the standard bearer for the republican establishment that is dying off.
NOTHING, not a conviction, not a great debate performance, NOTHING is gonna change that. And as counterintuitive as it may be to the elites and the media, each new indictment, each attempt by democrat prosecutors or democrat judges to hit him, just makes him stronger. They fail to understand that by going after MAGA supporters either literally with the FBI and police or figuratively by calling them racists etc, have tied him to them, they have put them in a boat with him and they sink or swim together. And, the overwhelming amount of effort that has gone into getting him with the legal system has caused a lot of marginal supporters to commit to him and it has made a lot of Americans that really really dislike the precedent of one party using the legal system to go after their opponent at least consider him as a rejection of that precedent.
You toss in the fact that the democrats have alienated a large swath of the country with woke policies. Toss in the fact that Black and Latino voters are questioning the values of the democrats and increasingly see that the democrats do next to nothing for them, and you have either more of them voting republican or staying home.
Then toss in how disliked Biden is, his age, the border, inflation that resulted from his spending (admittedly with help from the Fed) and you have a situation where Trump could very easily win next fall. If I had to put a number on it I would give Trump a 60% chance of winning next fall.
Now imagine Trump, a lame duck from day one, with nothing to constrain him. If he wins, it will break the democrats. They will have thrown everything they have at him. They will have thrown everything at him that they are convinced would have broken any other candidate many times over and yet still they lost? There will be finger pointing among the donors, the DNC, between the progressive and centrist wings. It will break the democrats and it will put a stake in the heart of the old school republicans.
I love this whole analysis. You articulate how I and tens of millions of others feel.
This sums up the attitude of many, many people. The political establishment has sold the country down the river, and only a person from outside the establishment can stop this. Therefore, despite many alleged flaws, there is really no alternative to Donnie.
It might just be his flaws that make it possible for him to do it.
You gotta be someone who is unafraid to smash things and be unwilling to go along. Sometimes you just need an ahole to shake things up and say the things nobody else wants to say.
Agreed. I do not know how he succeeded to the extent that he did given the elements of the power structure aligned against him. A rabid D party, backstabbing R party (except for tax cuts), the FBU, DOJ and intelligence community, the career bureaucrats, and the corporate media.
Well said Wrung! When you say "They will have thrown everything they have at him," isn't it remarkable that despite the all-out media attacks, impeachment, legal charges, and dozens of outright lies and manipulations, they have NOT been able to come up with one decent, intelligent, under 60 year-old Candidate. Not a single one. Newsom is laughable coming from the biggest cluster on the planet - California. They are chronically ancient, conniving, filthy rich, self-absorbed, and unwilling to share power. What a mess!
And they thought it was bad when Hillary lost....
It is NOT Biden's age. It is his increasingly apparent diminished capacity only exacerbated by the stress of the job. Newt Gingrich is the same age and Seymore Hersh is even older, yet both men are sharp as a tack. Even Nancy Pelosi at 83 is much more coherent. To us and all the world, it is elder abuse. I have never been a fan of plagiarist Joe Biden, but even I am feeling ashamed and extremely empathetic toward the man and the manner in which he is being dragged around the country like a corpse and propped up like a marionette on the world stage.
I'm reminded of the movie "weekend at Bernie's". In this case, though, it's four years at Bernie's and the script has gotten really stale. I'm finding it increasingly hard to imagine what the coutry will look like after another four years of that clownshow.
At least the Republicans are debating and without Trump it's probably better. If as I hope, both Trump and Biden drop out, then at least they are better positioned. The Dems have Slow Joe who hides and eats ice cream and Cackles who actually makes people skin crawl when she says anything with the Wicked Witch laugh. No one else besides maybe Mr. Hair Gel who has destroyed CA.
Hell the Dems won't even think of any debates to allow others in the party to gain exposure and offer something besides the current Clown Show. They truly believe in one party rule controlled by the top.
Plus, I for one think Fox has done a great job of hosting the debates and it does expose issues to people. The current news process in America sure doesn't. Plus, unlike CNN, it seems they don't give out the questions in advance to who they like. Right Donna?
So hot mess, nope, a process of elimination, yes. It definitely sets up the next candidate should Trump fall. The Dems will not have that, but then, when you see and hear who is next, you get a little ill anyway.
Of course the Democrats are going to swap in Newsom for Biden. He’s awful but he’s slick, and I fear he will win in a contest with Trump, whereas Biden would not. Until and unless the Republican obsession with Trump ends, we are all screwed. It feels like being paralyzed on a train track with a locomotive barreling down on us.
Something like 2/3rds of Americans polled think we will end up in some kind of civil war, this election could be the impetus, and it’s scary as hell right now.
You state that we are all screwed up unless the Republican obsession with Trump ends. But who is the republican alternative? Certainly none of those buffoons on the stage last night…
The mood of the average person in this country is not good right now. And I’m not talking about fake social issues, but rather, going to the supermarket and spending over seven dollars for a quart of ice cream or a loaf of good bread, etc. or having the interest rate on a home more than double in a couple of years. Then you say the UniParty paying the salaries of 77,000 responders in a country halfway around the world that virtually no one knew about until two years ago, or leading hundreds of thousands of migrants into our already overstressed cities.
"At least the Republicans are debating"
We must have watched a different show.
Can you honestly say you Learned something about the candidates to help you decide who to vote for? I assume you haven't. If you have (and good for you!), my point still stands.
Until the moderators decide to turn off the mics at the end of the allowed time, the debates will be difficult to watch. No one should be permitted to talk over their opponent.
These are NOT Debates. They are joint press conferences.
Oh, Heavens above! I am SO bored with this whole show! In my memory it started with the "Obama and the seven dwarves" debate way back in 2007/2008, and it has only gotten worse.
I switched it off after about 20 minutes. Everyone shouting over each other -- ironically like a pack of reporters we would criticize for doing the same -- made it unwatchablefor me.
And the so-called moderators were terrible, insisting candidates limit answers to timeboxes that no one but the moderators cared about.
Ask a question, give each candidate two minutes to answer, and let the candidates actually debate each other.
In fairness, other debates have gotten worse, too, since reporter/moderators decided to make the debates more about themselves.
Amen.
I don't find this presidential run boring at all. In fact, it's highly entertaining.
At this very early election moment, it is hard to penetrate the hard-headed wall of Trump support. Despite the efforts of an interesting and diverse group of people, no amount of debate seems to penetrate the stubborn haze of Trump support. Trump supporters know all of his trademark shortcomings (egomania, paper thin skin, childish sarcasm, tenuous business ethics,etc.) and they simply don't care. They are beyond sick of being treated as simple-minded morons by the opinionated, arrogant and self-righteous left and have invested their whole stake in their champion; the one man who cannot be bullied, contained or stopped; the relentless warrior who will unflinchingly flip the bird to anyone who gets in their way... It's exactly that overbearing temperament that inspires his supporters who yearn for that "Great America" where patriotism is cherished, hard work is rewarded and opportunity is availed to anyone with the drive and tenacity to pursue it. They not only like Trump's governing policies, ideas and commitments, they absolutely love the fearless persona that is at the core of America's soul - a wealthy version of Archie Bunker if you will - with unflappable confidence. With each passing day, a minority of Republicans ponders the merits of a nice group of candidates, while the majority claps and cheers as their warrior continues to fight injustice in the Colosseum. His armor shows tarnish and there are still battles unresolved, but the patronage has proven beyond doubt that their support lies with Trump. No amount of argument between well-intentioned people not named Trump will make a difference.
"a wealthy version of Archie Bunker if you will"
Well Put!
" With each passing day, a minority of Republicans ponders the merits of a nice group of candidates, while the majority claps and cheers as their warrior continues to fight injustice in the Colosseum."
I don't know about a Minority. There have been *polls showing Large numbers of voter who don't want ether Grand Pa Joe or The Orange man.
*as an aside I do not have a good opinion of Polls. Waaaay to much emphasis put on them. I take them with a large grain of salt.
I generally agree. We'll see, but I am terrified that Trump is a foregone conclusion. I am relatively confident that the shuffling old man will soon be out. The DEMS pulled that off once and are realizing there is no future in trying it again.
" I am relatively confident that the shuffling old man will soon be out."
Agree. What Gets me is the Democratic Party/Corporate Media (but I repeat myself) have known about Joe for a very Long Time. Now they are acting Shocked! to discover 1. he's corrupt, 2 OLD. Now Donald Trump is OLD too, but he is as sharp as ever. Joe...Not So Much.
Something I read the other day, we are coming up on deadlines to register to be on ballots in many states. So Gavin/Whoever has to act fast.
I have been looking at the Democrat bench. Talk About Weak!
It seems clear that the DEMs will do anything necessary to get their way and/or win. They will look the other way on any number of lies and indiscretions - if they think they can get away with it! And while they are actively ignoring their own glaring flaws, they self-righteously will gasp at any indiscretion they can pin on a Republican. Their epic abilities to equivocate mesh perfectly with Hollywood, the rich elite and the pompous upper class who will lovingly embrace any scoundrel who lies on the right things, at the right time and helps propel their cause (Adam Schiff for example). All the while they maintain their superior countenance as if they are impervious to any potential consequence. When one of their lies, scams or strategies blows up, they just remove it from the talking points and move on. Has any Democrat, anywhere or at any time ever apologized for the whole Russian Collusion scam? Nope. Like a Monte Python skit, its "wink,wink, nudge, nudge..." and move on to the next giant foot stomping on some random victim or point. Ridiculous.
(Once Again) Well Said.
"All the while they maintain their superior countenance as if they are impervious to any potential consequence."
It is this lack of consequences that Ticks people off more than anything. Often they are rewarded.
ICBW but once nominated if unable to continue there is a process for replacement. That is when I expect the change to be made.
I am expecting trickery in this regard as well.
In a country of 330 million people, he's the only one that can lead us back from the brink! Get on the bandwagon, Old Crusty! :) (sarcasm)
Silly me...
The shoutfest is tiresome. Just cut their mikes when their time is up.
Especially Pence! I would have voted him off the stage in a heartbeat!!
Republicans need to decide who gets to be the ONE alternative to Trump and clear the field no later than immediately after the Iowa caucus. Dems will go with whoever the Party/media tell them too. Republicans will very clearly choose whoever the hell they want, party preferences be damned, as evidenced by Trump, so if the Rep Party is going to get them to actually vote for someone else they need to finally propose a real person with a real message and have the time to let his/her messages resonate. They decide last minute to prop up one corpse of a candidate like Dems did with Biden vs Bernie, and not a single Trump voter will be swayed (which is to their credit).
"Has anybody seen a vice president in that group? I don’t think so.” Actually, Trump, your vice president is in that group.
"Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber." Haley should feel dumber. Vivek is the smartest person in most rooms.
And every time Nikki cashes a check from Boeing or Allied Defense, she feels a little more like a whore.
I did love Dana Perino stepping in to remind us that Nikki Haley's husband is also serving in the military. Unbiased much, Perino?
Behold the inevitable false equivalency and begged question in one paragraoh:
"Voters of all political stripes, and I am one of them, dread watching the two old men—Biden is 80; Trump, 77—battle it out. They dread the polarization, the ugliness, the stale ideas, the stale language. They want to know how America transcends this impasse. "
Yes, there are unquestionably at least two persons of any identifiable stripe who agree with this statement. If one steps very far off the island (Manhattan, that is) one might be astonished to learn that a large number do not. A person who cannot see a clear difference between a person clearly having entered dementia and one ho equally clearly is not is doing the backstroke in a certain Egyptian river. Many man of us think that a bit of polarization is long overdue -- "hot mess" doesn't begin to describe the disaster the go-along-to-get-along has wrought. Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder, sir; the underlying begged question is, from whence comes any rational analysis that shows, by any OBJECTIVE measure, we Are better off now than we were during the Trump administration?