Politics

[Crazed_Insanity]

Dude, why are you talking like a sick fuck judgemental prick?

I already told you that I'd 'pray' to God about possibly making such changes, not making changes as if I am God okay?

I think our Supreme Court is playing God like the crusaders of the past... thinking that they're doing God's will... or maybe they're just doing their own wills and pretending to be doing it for God. I guess only God knows. However, it should be clear that our supreme court justices have been corrupted...

[21Kid]

Lol, only saw the quoted line, but I can't imagine why someone who believes in free speech absolutism also thinks that other things must have a "healthy balance."

FWIW, I think we had one. Anyone who wants an abortion can get one, and the government can't force you to have one. That's a pretty healthy balance.
<3

It amazes me how many of you still try to have a conversation with Billi. It's like trying to converse with a 1st Gen AI that's just pulling random things out of it's ass.

I completely skip posts referring to, or quoting him. It's a waste of time.

[Tom Servo]

I can't guarantee I won't have a moment of weakness again, but him trying to argue that snake oil people deserve a voice after the same people led my friend to take her own life was for now the last straw. Just the most fucked up thing I can think of him doing, and certainly as far from being Christian as I can imagine. And then to keep trying to do it when I think I made my feelings about what he did absolutely crystal clear was the icing on the cake.

Nobody who truly cares for their fellow man sits there and tries to get the last word/make their point in that situation. It was gross.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It amazes me how many of you are having conversations about Billi while pretending Billi doesn’t exist!

Anyway, I think it’s bull shit to think that I’m trying to argue for snake oil salesmen who supposedly caused your friend to commit suicide.

Anyway, whatever, it’s similar to us looking at the same person, say Peterson or Musk and we can see totally different things. Who’s really right? Who knows? None of us actually know them personally so we both could be wrong…

I think this is politics… neither side can know for sure if they’re truly right so it makes sense to work together to avoid extremism…

Seriously though, how diverse can your world be if somebody like Billi is too annoying to be acceptable? I can understand CCP finds Billi super annoying but anyways, if it’s really more about my inability to ‘read the room’, well, there are also plenty of socially awkward people… what are we suppose to do with them? Ignore them all?

[FaultyMario]

Assange is free and home in Australia with his wife and kids.

he is expected to travel to court in the US, declare himself guilty of espionage and be sentenced to time served.

[Tom Servo]

That's going to be an interesting one, because a lot of the conspiracy type folk thought it'd be Trump who would essentially let Assange off the hook. I'm personally of the opinion that wikileaks and his initial things were ultimately good and noble, but then he turned into a weird rapey crank and should probably serve time for that, but it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out amongst the more Q-aligned folks out here.

[FaultyMario]

rapey was part of character assassination by cia. i think both of the girls recanted their stories as exaggerated.

crankey? can you blame him, really? plus the guys who were hired as his security detail during his time in the equatorian embassy have spilled the beans on the times that they were contacted by British intelligence to do nefarious things to him.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, I can blame him. It's actually quite easy to do. He turned into a pro-Trump crank when he decided that was best for him and threw his morals away when doing so. Fuck that guy.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I still don't really know what to think of those guys like Assange and Snowden...

I understand the seriousness of disclosing classified documents; however, if you think US government is doing some hanky panky and on morally shaky grounds, must we stay silent and just do as told?

If I'm in a position to expose some dark US crap, I'd definitely leak it too. If I'll goto jail, so be it. For sure I wouldn't run to Russia or China or to seek refuge anywhere else. Of course I'd probably make sure my wife and kid are taken care of 1st before they lock me up and let me rot in jail...

This is one of the issues that soured my admiration for Obama. I thought he's different, but it turned out that he's just like W. There's simply not enough transparency with our government, and yet we expect to have no conspiracies to fly around when there are so many cover ups. Conspiracy theories are only around because there's a dense fog... of course eventually the fog will clear up. Truth will always eventually bubble up to the top no matter how people try to cover it up.

[FaultyMario]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRBpO0PW8AEaD6h.jpg

[Yw-slayer]

Is it time for us to WONDER who's behind these attempts?

[FaultyMario]

It's always a group of empowered local bullies.

where:

'local" means "we are respectful of the internal politics"
"bullies" conveniently means either "freedom fighters" or "rogue actors"

one only has to solve for "empowered".

[FaultyMario]

https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/da5c488763b2fe3f21e9e36454ab79cd.jpg

Trump Boys Break Into CNN Office Attempting To Steal Debate Answers (https://www.theonion.com/trump-boys-break-into-cnn-office-attempting-to-steal-de-1851554242)

[MR2 Fan]

I watched 30 seconds of Biden trying to speak halfway thru the debate and couldn't watch any more...it's bad man

[sandydandy]

I watched the whole debate.

Biden was low octane all evening, (some people are saying he had a cold), and Trump couldn’t answer questions without running circles around them first.

This was a waste of time.

[FaultyMario]

I watched the debate.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRH-NBeXgAEuWnO.jpg

[MR2 Fan]

I'm still voting for "Weekend at Biden's" over Mango Mussolini of course, but there really needs to be an age limit on Presidents/Congress/Supreme Court....this is just bad...Now Kamala Harris is going to be much more in the conversation (Referring to if Biden couldn't complete his second term) along with whoever Trump's running-mate will be.


I've seen some commentators that Biden "will recover" from this but you can't de-age someone.

[Rare White Ape]

He “will recover” after he has a nice afternoon nap.

[Yw-slayer]

*Points and laughs at Billi's options in 哈哈哈哈哈哈*

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, that was a rough one. It *should* matter more that Trump literally just never stopped lying. Daniel Dale pointed out that at one point he lied three times in a single sentence. Instead, everyone's focusing on the stye points.

On the plus side, people think that debates matter more than they actually do. Most people who watch them already have their minds made up.

[FaultyMario]

I think the person who was in front of the candidates was complicit in the orangegutan's lies.

You do not spend 39 minutes of blatant misrepresentations and then step in. you either come in prepared with an strategy of accountability to deal with the two persons vying for the single most powerful position on earth or you read your questions and shut up.

Lukewarmness is worse than favoritism.

Specially when one of the candidates is a proven threat to life on earth.

[FaultyMario]

I know there's no precedent for substituting a presidential candidate this late into the process*, and I understand that there's some sort of reverence to the figure of President that makes it hard to present that alternative to Biden but, could the Democrats just radio in telling him that "Kamala is faster than you"? I don't think that would present itself as a problem to voters, it's basically the same team and Biden would take a sort of Elder Statesman role over the presidency.


___
* That cluster is the democrats' own making, this could have been avoided had they tested Biden's public abilities against other candidates with a limited primary.

[FaultyMario]

FWIW, I don't think there's anything wrong with Biden's cognitive or leadership abilities. He seems to be respected and obeyed by his staff. He's just an older man who's lost agility and power in his communication but that is not a problem because he clearly still commands authority over his team.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, debate didn’t change my mind. Still voting for neither.

How much longer will we be forced to play this 2 party game?

How much longer will Xi lives so China will be under his rule?

I don’t know.

But I’m hopeful.

[Rare White Ape]

the single most powerful position on earth

I think it's kinda adorable if anyone thinks that this is so.

[FaultyMario]

Just wait and see Trump endorse those other idiots like Milei and watch the rest of the world crumble under their idiotic policies.

Just wait and see Trump appoint another sycophant like Peter Navarro on economic issues and watch billions of people suffer because of trade 'battles' and standoffs.

Just wait and see Trump ask his Joint Staff to carry out missile strikes against the Bad Hombres and watch them resign one by one, losing valuable human capital in the process.

[George]

Missed the debate last night due to a softball game, and I'm sure glad I did, now that I've seen some highlights. :eek:

Jon Stewart's after-debate show on YouTube was pretty good...or bad, if you know what I mean.

Also, Lauren Boebert, who narrowly won re-election in a district in western Colorado by a mere 554 votes in 2022, apparently saw the writing on the wall and carpetbagged over to the eastern half of the state and won the primary on Tuesday to become the Republican candidate for Colorado's 4th Congressional District.

Guess who else lives in Colorado's 4th Congressional District? :(

[sandydandy]

I noticed they didn’t shake hands at the beginning. The hate for one another seems so personal.

Ben Shapiro called Biden a corpse last night…and it’s hard not to agree. :|

[MR2 Fan]

This is what bothers me....last night he did a small event and sounded fine, and today...while this audience feels very....staged...he was much more active and fired up.

What sucks is it was Biden and his team who decided to do the debate schedule


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5CVZHAjrW8

[Crazed_Insanity]

Never mind Biden looks frail physically and not as sharp mentally. I thought it’s disingenuous to blame Trump for shutting down schools and businesses in a pandemic. As if he wouldn’t do the same?

Also, claiming that he sent no US troops abroad to fight forever wars and Trump sent troops to Afghanistan. These are factual statements but still full of BS.

As for Trump, the fact that Mike Pence won’t endorse him and lots of other folks who has worked for him refused to endorse him tells us a lot.

If we don’t demand change, one day, we’ll be forced to choose between Putinelli or Xitler and still be proud of our so called freedom and democracy!

[neanderthal]

All this ageist nonsense about Biden, DONALD TRUMP IS JUST 3 1/2 YEARS YOUNGER!!!!

And he doesn't sound nearly as batshit as Trump.

To me Trump has moments of lucidity and Biden has moments of old age.

[MR2 Fan]

Look, Trump only talked about admiring Hannibal Lecter 3 times in his rallies....I think.

Anyway, I don't think the debate will have long-term impact, there's plenty of time for Trump to get worse in his speeches and Biden seems like he can recover and possibly getting over a cold really was all it was (horrendous timing)

[MR2 Fan]

So the Supreme Court ruled Trump has *some* immunity but only in official capacity whatever that gets interpreted as. While this was BAD, it could have been WORSE.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I do agree presidential candidates and sitting presidents ought to have some immunity so that political opponents can't weaponize the court to try to sideline political opponents. Similarly, if we are to impeach future presidents, unless we have an independent partyless president, we ought to just count of votes of senators who are in the same party as the president. It's kinda stupid to let your political opponents impeach you. If people of the same party's unwilling to impeach you, then maybe what you have done wasn't so bad? The normal partisan fights in office are already bad enough, do we really want to tie them all down in courts?

If something is seriously bad enough, then we prosecute to the fullest extent and jail the sucker at the end of his term.

Most of the time when at the end of their political careers, such 'political justice' really won't matter anymore...

Bottomline is that we shouldn't allow our courts to get too 'political'. They should just fight for justice, not for any political sides. Any public political offices with term limits ought to have some sort of immunity while they're in office. We can deal with them when their term ends.

[MR2 Fan]

I'm completely ignoring whatever Billi is saying above....

The only good thing that might come out of this is that people may be less inclined to sit on the sidelines...the bigger threat from Trump, the more people who sat out in other elections who are left leaning (or, you know, sensible) would vote for Biden. The reason Trump won in 2016 is a lot of people thought it would be a Hillary landslide, so they stayed home or voted third party.

[Tom Servo]

The great thing about America is that nobody is above the law. Hang on, I'm getting a message in my earpiece here.....The great thing about America is that dictators fucking rule and should be able to do whatever they want.

[MR2 Fan]

and people wonder why I want to move out of the country

[Tom Servo]

A little backstory: CA passed a law banning extra fees. They had to be rolled into the price, and it was set to go into effect today. Hotel resort fees, airline ticket fees, concert ticket fees, all of that had to just be rolled into the price so when you see something saying it costs $150, it costs $150 (sales tax excepted, because of course it is).

Restaurants out here have gotten out of control with this. Lots of places tack on a 5% service fee for "fair wages" or whatever. Some charge another 20% for "security". Lately, a brunch spot has started a 20% mandatory tip for takeout orders. They were also going to have to just roll this into menu prices.

An "emergency" bill got written up and passed in the past couple of weeks exempting restaurants from this. It was co-written by one of my (formerly) favorite state senators.

It's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. This was a bill that was *wildly* popular. It was pro-consumer and just said "tell us what things cost."

Even the pols I like are trying to radicalize me.

I've sorta half joked with Michele about "should we just move to Barcelona?" and now I am 100% serious about the idea. This place is fucked.

(I am keeping in mind that I'm in the anger stage of grief and won't be making any rash decisions just yet)

[MR2 Fan]

Yes, the land of the free...

Where wackos can shoot you while shopping, or watching a movie, or attending a concert with now legal bump stocks to make their guns shoot fully automatic to hit as many people as possible.
Where one illness can bankrupt you for life.
Where housing is 40% higher cost than just a couple of years ago due to massive corporations buying up all of the housing and setting prices.
Where insurance companies can also charge extreme rates, then fight against actually covering you in the event you need them.
Where there are several places where there is a monopoly for cable/internet services or electricity.
Where one political party sits back and lets the other do whatever they want to subvert democracy and never holds anyone accountable.
Where the banking sector can bankrupt millions of people and also doesn't hold any bankers accountable, but gets propped up by our tax dollars to stay in business.
Where the police get to buy and use military-grade hardware while our schoolteachers struggle to buy basic necessities for their students out of their own pockets.

Yeah...great country we have here.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's not great, that's why we need to make it great again! :p

In case you did not realize that I'm joking, just want to clarify that I'm joking! Clearly Trump didn't make our country great again even if we ignore the pandemic dampening everything down. Like I've said before, I do like Trump making America way less 'invasive' than before.

Unfortunately Biden is making forever wars more forever again.

Speaking of that, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden felt to me like Boeing Whistleblowers... And US government feels like Boeing wish those whistleblowers could just shut up and die so they can go about their business making money.

I wonder if Trump would treat these whistleblowers fairly hoping to damage his political opponents? That'd be cool.

So maybe Trump could draining the swamp and hopefully not be a dictator and then hopefully somebody like Bernie Sanders can take over and truly build America and the world back better again? I'll gladly tolerate Trump for another 4 years if I could have that. A win for Biden will likely means we maintain status quo for longer?

Even France is moving right and nationalistic politically... is it really because the conservative right folks are too dumb and too out of control? Or perhaps they're just reacting to some of the bad liberal globalist policies?

I think globalists' greed and proudness are beginning to fall like the Tower of Babel... and global cooperation is ending and each nation has decided to exit out of globalism and looking after themselves...

[neanderthal]

A little backstory: CA passed a law banning extra fees. They had to be rolled into the price, and it was set to go into effect today. Hotel resort fees, airline ticket fees, concert ticket fees, all of that had to just be rolled into the price so when you see something saying it costs $150, it costs $150 (sales tax excepted, because of course it is).

Restaurants out here have gotten out of control with this. Lots of places tack on a 5% service fee for "fair wages" or whatever. Some charge another 20% for "security". Lately, a brunch spot has started a 20% mandatory tip for takeout orders. They were also going to have to just roll this into menu prices.

An "emergency" bill got written up and passed in the past couple of weeks exempting restaurants from this. It was co-written by one of my (formerly) favorite state senators.

It's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. This was a bill that was *wildly* popular. It was pro-consumer and just said "tell us what things cost."

Even the pols I like are trying to radicalize me.

I've sorta half joked with Michele about "should we just move to Barcelona?" and now I am 100% serious about the idea. This place is fucked.

(I am keeping in mind that I'm in the anger stage of grief and won't be making any rash decisions just yet)

A friend of mine is getting married in February, in South Africa. I DON'T DO DESTINATION WEDDINGS. You better believe i'm going.

Backstory. I was asking for stock tips from my cousin and he straight up said "Mo I don't even know why you're still working. If you cashed our your 401K, took the penalty and moved to South Africa you could retire comfortably with the money you have right now." He don't even know my shit trippled since 2018.
So yeah, i'm going to scout Mzansi in in February because fuck this shit.

Mum coming in a couple of weeks, I gotta have her bring her birth certificate, which i'll need to take to the embassy in Los Angeles to claim my citizenship. I'm done with this. The bullshit, the lack of accountability, the deterioration of standards and civics, the blatant lying from politicos, the overt schilling of the media, the wanton overt corruption in the Supreme Court, etc etc etc

All I need is electricity, clean water, and internet and im happy as a clam. I'm done!

[Tom Servo]

Feel free to hit me up when you're here in LA.

[sandydandy]

So Trump has presidential immunity...doesn't that mean Biden has it too now? Why doesn't Biden commit an outrageous 'crime' against the Republicans to cut Trump's legs out from under him, since he'll now be protected? Sign a bunch of executive orders or something to encumber Trump's ability to run, I don't know.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Wait a minute Neanderthal... what do you mean 'claim your citizenship'? You mean you don't have citizenship? So you didn't vote Hillary?!?!? Then how could you blame me?!?!? :p

Anyway, cashing out on your 401k and move to South Africa doesn't sound like a bad idea..., but then again I never been there. It's good to check it out and see if you could really retire early and comfortably there. Good luck!

[MR2 Fan]

So Trump has presidential immunity...doesn't that mean Biden has it too now? Why doesn't Biden commit an outrageous 'crime' against the Republicans to cut Trump's legs out from under him, since he'll now be protected? Sign a bunch of executive orders or something to encumber Trump's ability to run, I don't know.


If I was Biden and if it was actually possible to do this...throw out the tainted supreme court justices with obvious ethical issues, replace the supreme court justices, then move a case up the court so they could overturn the immunity thing, abolish the electoral college,...oh and pass a requirement that people running for president cannot be convicted felons.

[Tom Servo]

So Trump has presidential immunity...doesn't that mean Biden has it too now? Why doesn't Biden commit an outrageous 'crime' against the Republicans to cut Trump's legs out from under him, since he'll now be protected? Sign a bunch of executive orders or something to encumber Trump's ability to run, I don't know.

To quote a great philosopher over on Twitter:

"The last decade has been the Democrats clinging onto the rulebook going "but a dog can't play basketball!" while a dog fucking dunks on us over and over"

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol: I think that great philosopher summed it up well... we should allow dogs to play basket ball!!! Don't be such a K9-ist!

[Crazed_Insanity]

Oh man, Central Bank talk? Are we about to get Rothschilds discourse here?

Moving this from space to here…

This has nothing to do with Roth’s or Ruth’s child…

Too much centralization is just asking for trouble. Just like dictatorship, more power will usually result in more corruption. Even if it’s not about corruption, too big to fail is just not a good way to go. 2008 has demonstrated that. We don’t need huge banks, let alone a central bank that can print money. In the aerospace business, # of rocket companies dwindled down to one, ULA is a merged version of Lockheed and Boeing. We had a lot more companies in the mix during Apollo days… and I think it’s safe to say that one giant company is not the best way to go there…

I think clearly Catholic Church and MegaChurches have also demonstrated that too big to fail is a bad idea.

Of course I don’t want Elon Musk to start a rival central to Elon bank. Hopefully he’ll create a more decentralized bank and monetary system. US government is for sure way too powerful for its own good. Politicians and agencies no longer have to be accountable to voters/taxpayers anymore. DOD can be in a forever war and they don’t really care about the missing billions here and there.

This trend is just not good for my child.

[neanderthal]

Feel free to hit me up when you're here in LA.

:up:

[Tom Servo]

I will regret this.

Billi - can you point me at a Central Bank? Like, one that's real and exists and does something? A global one that centralizes money?

I am worried about you. This is Alex Jones/Q nonsense. Every once in a while you say something and it's textbook conspiracy theory insanity. It's not good, man.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I would point to federal reserve the place that sets our interests and prints money. Current chair is Jerome Powell. That place doesn’t exist?

Of course we can’t bank there but it does control all banks in US.

[sandydandy]

The formation of the Central Bank is the single greatest crime against the American people. They're your real enemy - not left vs right BS. Your country is stuck in perpetual debt that can never be paid off. There are plenty of YouTube videos about this that are not conspiratorial in any way.

[Tom Servo]

Oh my god, I'm surrounded by gold standard people.

I give up.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's not just about gold standard... I'm sure they didn't start Fed Reserve for evil intentions.

However, is it a public government entity or is it a private thing?

Jerome Powell and all other Fed chairs were most definitely just a puppet.

That organization really has zero accountability to anybody. It alone has the power to decide which bank survives and which bank fails. For sure it has done some good, but as it accumulate more wealth and power, what can check balance it?

If you want me to point to a symbol of the 'establishment', this is it.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are not really part of that and would often times go against 'them'. So naturally 'they' would not mind crushing those who get in 'their' way every chance 'they' get. Of course, not saying Trump and Musk are good. But they are at least attempting to fight back against 'them'. Bernie fought hard too. However, Bernie lacks sufficient resources... having voter support just isn't enough. Just as our 'democratically' elected leaders don't really end up looking after the interests of the people.

Conspiracy or not, people all around the world are fighting back against 'them'. This is why Britain wanted to exit from their central control. Even France is going further to the right. Centralization didn't really work that well and people now want things decentralized. Rise of nationalism is not purely because of misinformation and conspiracies and white supremacy. If enough of people's lives are really being improved and doing well, why would they bother rocking the boat? People usually 'exit' out of their relationship because they think they're getting screwed, right? Why break up with somebody that's good for them?

In Russian and China and NK, we can at least clearly see who's in charge. In the West, the ones in charge are well hidden. Are those 'puppet' leaders in the West selected by voters or by 'them'? I think the answer should clearly just be rhetorical... We could believe we actually voted for those lesser of the 2 evils, but it's 'them' who fed those crappy puppet candidates to us. It doesn't matter if it's W or Obama, forever wars went on!

Even if the 'establishment' is really a conspiracy and they don't exist, it is still true that our current political, professional, and even spiritual leaders don't really care much for the average folks. Most of them only care about amassing more money and power.

So I guess Elon Musk and Donald Trump are our only problem because they're gaining more power and money... Once we get rid of them, surely we'll have a better world?

Personally, I'd not side with Trump. The only reason why I'd still trust Elon is because I'm unaware of his political ambitions. If he's just focusing on making stuffs, I'd support him that way. If he's being rewarded handsomely for making things people want, why not? If he screwed up and failed and become penniless, oh well too bad. I just want SpaceX to survive. ;)

[Yw-slayer]

Oh my god, I'm surrounded by gold standard people.

I give up.

CRYPTO 4 EVAR BRO

[mk]

Something is upside down.

USA is never unable to pay its debt.

[FaultyMario]

Projected UK results:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GRrEhAYWMAACGg6.jpg

I hope some things get better.

[MR2 Fan]

Does this mean............BREENTER?

[Rare White Ape]

Something is upside down.

USA is never unable to pay its debt.

The debt that a country has is NOT the same as the debt that an individual has. You cannot equate the two, and anyone who tries telling you that there's something wrong with the government because it always has this debt is talking out their arse.

[FaultyMario]

Yup, I've always understood it as unpayable but manageable debt.

As in it should be weighed against other macro indicators such as rates of this and returns of that. And it really depends on the size and current role of the country.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I would not mind US financing Cold War, because that not only got us to the moon but perhaps also help raised standard of living with all the aerospace jobs.

However, when we start financing forever wars, if some are telling us there’s nothing wrong with that, clearly that someone would be talking out of his arse.

Plus, USSR has demonstrated that it is definitely possible for a country to end up unable to manage its debt.

[Rare White Ape]

Yup, I've always understood it as unpayable but manageable debt.

As in it should be weighed against other macro indicators such as rates of this and returns of that. And it really depends on the size and current role of the country.

It's definitely manageable. Sovereign debt should be seen as a 'rolling' debt. Money borrowed now is paid off later based on GDP and tax income, but in the intervening time more money has been borrowed and will be paid off later, and so-on. It's not as if the money borrowed by the founding fathers hasn't been paid off. And sure, having less debt is much better than having a load of debt, and accumulating more debt is worse. But think about how the economy would fare if money wasn't borrowed by governments to pay for society to function.

Also consider where the money comes from and where it goes. Believe it or not, the US government borrows money, but it also lends it out to other countries. Repayments on that help generate extra income through charging interest. On a grander scale, borrowing money for it to then be spent in the economy is essential, because money needs to move. If money doesn't move then commerce doesn't happen and the economy shrinks. That's how you avoid recessions. There's a huge paradox where people think if the economy is shrinking you need to tighten the straps to save money, but if nobody is spending money then it's hard for others to earn money.

Hoarding all the money in one place causes the economy to shrink. Letting billionaires get rich is actually really bad for the economy, as all of their wealth gets tied up in property or in bank accounts and doesn't move through the economy any more earning tax at each transaction for the state. Before people go off about government debt or spending on services or whatever, they should think about where a large proportion of the world's GDP is actually going, while the other 99% struggles to afford food and shelter.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I’d would think billionaires do not have all that cash hoarded in their bank accounts. It’s mostly in the assets they own. They become little government of their own in a way. Both government and billionaires need to borrow/invest in order to keep the economy growing. The fact that governments spent gazillions and there are still poor citizens around in the West, how come you’re not against governments as much as you’re against billionaires?

In a way I’m more concerned with government spending because billionaires are responsible for their own wealth and future; however, politicians don’t have similar concerns. They can always just spend and kick the problems down the road and expect future taxpayers to pay it back.

What’s worse is that non-elected government agencies have even less accountability. The scariest part is the zombie agency called federal reserves. Who is controlling it and keeping it in check? Swapping out fed chairs is about it.

It’s like Boeing swapping out its CEOs. Boeing still has shareholders and FAA to answer to. Fed reserve answers to… God? That’s be the best case scenario. The bank of all bank is more likely to be Sauron! :p

[MR2 Fan]

Interesting, been seeing more videos of democratic speeches where they're referring to the "Biden Harris administration" more than the "Biden administration"....then again I DON'T know if this is a change or I just wasn't paying as much attention before. My guess is they're hedging their bets and keeping Kamala's name out there.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Kamala is even less appealing to Biden, at least to me. If Dems have to play the race gender card and pick a black woman, Michelle Obama is probably the best bet. However, I’m not sure if she wants to run.

Personally, I love reluctant leaders. If Michelle runs, I wouldn’t mind voting for her.

[Tom Servo]

It's been a while since I've seen a Musk tweet. I see his radicalization is coming along nicely, now that he's calling for executing people who don't support a lawmaker's proposed bill.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:swgxwbir4rrimj57pf75jckf/bafkreiel6nueklko476c5hkzy4rfo7po3xk66wbcz3e7xscsq wexrds7oi@jpeg

[Rare White Ape]

Oh my god, I'm surrounded by gold standard people.

After my last post and subsequent reply, I have a renewed vigour from feeling this all over again :p

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's been a while since I've seen a Musk tweet. I see his radicalization is coming along nicely, now that he's calling for executing people who don't support a lawmaker's proposed bill.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:swgxwbir4rrimj57pf75jckf/bafkreiel6nueklko476c5hkzy4rfo7po3xk66wbcz3e7xscsq wexrds7oi@jpeg

Okay, maybe death penalty is a bit harsh, but whatever punishment, we probably should treat traitors and insurrectionists the same?

Left sees right as insurrectionists and right sees left as traitors, even without death penalties, lives will likely be lost if we get into another civil war anyway.

I wonder how far will the trend of decentralization go? Will USA eventually break up to become just a bunch of SAs?

What will be the reason for Lincoln II to try to save our union?

[mk]

Yup, I've always understood it as unpayable but manageable debt.

As in it should be weighed against other macro indicators such as rates of this and returns of that. And it really depends on the size and current role of the country.

Actually it's very payable, any day.
Fundamental difference against many others is that it's their own currency, both directions.

How many $1T coins are needed.

[MR2 Fan]

UK election results goes left. France election results stays(mostly?) left. Iran goes centrist (not that it means much)...pretty good

[Tom Servo]

Honestly, given the polls, all pretty relieving.

[MR2 Fan]

Back to the U.S., it's funny how much I'm seeing Michelle Obama's name mentioned even though she's never really been big into politics on her own. I think this is the "nice" way of saying people aren't huge fans of Kamala Harris but NOT because she's a black woman, so they bring up Michelle Obama as an alternative.

I'm also not sure about Kamala Harris, however I really haven't focused on her too much either. I bet most voters don't really pay a lot of attention to her either.

[FaultyMario]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GR6kAiXXIAES_EF.jpg

ABSOLUTE
CINEMA

[Tom Servo]

Back to the U.S., it's funny how much I'm seeing Michelle Obama's name mentioned even though she's never really been big into politics on her own. I think this is the "nice" way of saying people aren't huge fans of Kamala Harris but NOT because she's a black woman, so they bring up Michelle Obama as an alternative.

I'm also not sure about Kamala Harris, however I really haven't focused on her too much either. I bet most voters don't really pay a lot of attention to her either.

I've got my issues with Harris, mostly because of her anti-truancy stuff back in '06. That said, that was a long time ago. I do appreciate that she refused to back down on her anti-death penalty stance in the face of pressure from Feinstein and Boxer. Overall, I think she's good. It's been a lot of years, but I'm pretty sure I voted for her in the primary.

I think Michelle Obama's name comes up a lot because of Q-folk who like to claim that Obama is gay and she's trans and actually "Big Mike Obama" and come to claim the presidency, and that's obvious insanity, but it's how our media ecosphere works.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Man, you guys are pretty good at prejudging people. Support for Michelle Obama likely means you are a closet white supremacist and a Q folk? Not to mention if one believes in the existence of a central bank, then that dude must be going coocoo? ;)

Anyway, IMHO, Kamala is just a black Hillary, a very ambitious lady. Remember where she sided between the Clinton name and the intern. When push comes to shove, do you really believe she cares about women’s rights? If Trump could beat Hillary, he’ll be able to easily beat Kamala. I really think she has a lower chance than Biden.

As a possible ‘closet white supremacist’, my top favorite is still Bernie Sanders. Michelle Obama is acceptable too. Other than these 2, I’m not sure there’s anyone Dems can get me to vote for them.

My prayer is for God to remove both Biden and/or Trump and help us find better candidates… fingers crossed. I do wish to participate in the coming election, but hopefully we’ll have better choices.

[MR2 Fan]

I've got my issues with Harris, mostly because of her anti-truancy stuff back in '06. That said, that was a long time ago. I do appreciate that she refused to back down on her anti-death penalty stance in the face of pressure from Feinstein and Boxer. Overall, I think she's good. It's been a lot of years, but I'm pretty sure I voted for her in the primary.

I think Michelle Obama's name comes up a lot because of Q-folk who like to claim that Obama is gay and she's trans and actually "Big Mike Obama" and come to claim the presidency, and that's obvious insanity, but it's how our media ecosphere works.

Yeah I've seen the trash on various platforms regarding the Q stuff, but even beyond that it seems news networks are asking among the other possible candidates if Biden steps down...and Michelle Obama is one of them for some reason.

[Tom Servo]

I really think they're only entertaining it because weirdos keep throwing it out there. I've seen no sign that she has any intention of even thinking about it, and the media is being the media.

[Tom Servo]

Sadly, when I think about it, maybe it's just that we don't have a lot of great candidates to put up there so people are like "well, what about the other Obama?"

We're in a weird spot. Left leaning policies are popular. Pro-choice policies are wildly popular, to the point where states like Kansas are voting in favor of it. Yet somehow we don't seem to be able to find a progressive firebrand.

Maybe Beto O'Rourke, but he's got his own issues and it's way too late to try to jam him in there. I don't know why we can't find someone who can articulate this. Part of it is just that Trump is so ungodly shameless that it's hard to be a normal human being and counter him. Almost everyone has a shred of integrity that won't let them stoop to his level but he has no problem plowing into that level and demanding everyone else be there with him. I know it's easier to say "the old days were better" even if they weren't, but man, we just don't seem to bring up much of anything.

That's not to say I don't think the policies are good, it just feels like a Simpsons bit where one person is explaining how all these things will ultimately benefit society and the other is throwing Duff beer cans at him while the crowd cheers. I don't know the answer. I don't know if we've hit the ultimately self-destructing point of this civilization or if there's somewhere to go from here. I do know that the idea that presidents are immune from almost anything they do is a huge step forward into the self-destructing point, so that'll be fun.

[Rare White Ape]

Well one thing is the Republicans have slid further right in the last decade and the Democrats have followed them across the fence into that vacuum to hoover up the lost voters. Now the Democrat party is right-lite and has very similar policies.

The answer I think is to let them both continue even further right and let a new left wing party to rise up and fill the void that is opening up on the other side. Sadly it could be a 10 year process unless the Democrats realise what's happening and shift themselves back to the centre-left again.

[mk]

So king Joe orders SCOTUS judges killed and then fills in the change.
If congress objects orders congress members killed.
And...
And finally orders SCOTUS to pull back all king decisions.

Seems to be a busy year.

[MR2 Fan]

Well one thing is the Republicans have slid further right in the last decade and the Democrats have followed them across the fence into that vacuum to hoover up the lost voters. Now the Democrat party is right-lite and has very similar policies.

The answer I think is to let them both continue even further right and let a new left wing party to rise up and fill the void that is opening up on the other side. Sadly it could be a 10 year process unless the Democrats realise what's happening and shift themselves back to the centre-left again.

The people in charge of the Democratic party are always scared to push left thinking it will alienate their major voting base...aka older voters I think. Time and time again, left leaning policies are shown to be popular, but they're very reluctant to nationalize those platforms. Roe v Wade being overturned possibly made them change their mind a bit on how far left they can go.

So what will probably happen, let's say we continue to have a democrat as president and let's say we pick up 10% more seats overall in congress...the lesson they'll take from that is...."keep doing what we're doing, no need to change". If they don't win much "oh we need to move further right".

The news media keeps shifting further right and that doesn't help.

[Crazed_Insanity]

The problem with democratic establishment is that they have no back bone or no core message. Historically, the main thing they have running on is that they are the 'lesser of the 2 evils'!

A country doesn't need a lesser of 2 evils. Just give us a good leader please.

Obama, regardless of his skin color, looked real good! That's how he was able to break out and rise so quickly to the top! Remember he also ran as an early anti-establishment candidate against the more 'established' Hillary. It was so exciting voting for him. He's like the best Bernie Sanders we can have... until in the end, he seems pretty much the same as W foreign policy-wise. Also was not very transparent administration. The fact that he endorsed Hillary in the end and plotted against Bernie Sanders proves that he's not really anti-establishment. He just wanted power and would say and do anything to get there. I voted for you because I believe you are better than Hillary in the primary, but after 8 years, you're telling me we need to go back to Hillary? Why should we go backwards? Just because we should give woman a chance? Then why did you run against her? Had Obama appear after 8 years of Hillary, I'm sure Obama could easily defeated Trump.

Anyway, that's the problem with Dems. They just want to win... but after they win, will they really take care of the American people? Hey, they're only less evil, they never promised they'll be good. :p

Think of Boeing CEOs and board of directors. Majority of Dems are just like them. They don't care about making anything great. At least Donald Trump is selling that he'll make America great again. Boeing senior management moved from Seattle, away from the engineers and workers, and moved closer and closer to DC, with the politicians... the center of power and money and corruption...

Until we get a leader who truly cares about making airplanes... or about the lives of average Americans... things will probably only going to get worse before it gets better.

Personal conspiracy here... I still believe deep down Obama is a good person, but perhaps 'somebody' twisted his arms to do things similar to W admin. Maybe he couldn't do what he really wanted in order to protect himself and his family? Didn't want to end up like Kennedy? If this is true, then of course no way will Michelle ever run for that office. Now, if what happened was all because of character flaws of Barack himself..., then perhaps if Mrs. Obama were pushed to the spotlight, maybe she'll be able to fix things her husband screwed up? At least I don't believe Michelle is the kind of wife who'd always do what her husband said! ;) Anyway, point is, if she runs, I'd vote for her. Unless Bernie is running, then of course I'll go for him. :p

[Tom Servo]

The people in charge of the Democratic party are always scared to push left thinking it will alienate their major voting base...aka older voters I think. Time and time again, left leaning policies are shown to be popular, but they're very reluctant to nationalize those platforms. Roe v Wade being overturned possibly made them change their mind a bit on how far left they can go.

On a local level, our left-leaning city council who like to talk about environmentalism are all afraid of doing anything that might anger drivers, so we never get any infrastructure for public transit or biking, despite the fact that a recent bill attempting to force them to do the things they said they'd do ten years ago won by a nearly 2-1 margin. Like...I dunno what other kinda mandate you need to know that it's wildly popular, so stop listening to the loud minority that keep yelling about things.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Are you sure it’s just the loud minority and not the rich ‘donority’?

It’s always easier to blame the political opposition… both parties play the same damn trick.

When it’s wildly popular with their base and yet they don’t do it, then clearly there are other forces at work. I dunno, maybe it’s just a conspiracy. Maybe they’re just afraid of loud minorities because of their sensitive ear drums?

[21Kid]

Sadly, when I think about it, maybe it's just that we don't have a lot of great candidates to put up there so people are like "well, what about the other Obama?"

We're in a weird spot. Left leaning policies are popular. Pro-choice policies are wildly popular, to the point where states like Kansas are voting in favor of it. Yet somehow we don't seem to be able to find a progressive firebrand.

...Agreed. I've been seeing a lot of Pete Buttigieg killing it lately. He's very good a responding aggressively without sounding upset. He's always prepared with a response to the crazy Republican questions like "EVs catch fire and explode!" or "but the government is buying all the EVs, inflating their numbers!"

[Tom Servo]

I've been a big fan of Buttigieg, but for whatever reason he doesn't seem to be coming up a lot in the conversation, which is a bummer.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I also loved Mayor Pete at 1st and thought he might be the next Bernie Sander and be our 1st gay president.

However, later on I learned that he’s nothing like Bernie. I was fooled by his supposed grassroot support, kid Pete also wrote an essay about his idol, Bernie Sanders! However, turned out he had a lot of ‘established’ support and clearly forgotten about his childhood idol. Decided to gang up with Biden to put away Bernie during the primaries…

I still think he’s a decent person, but if a guy could flip and abandon his childhood ideal and his own personal ambition for a position of transportation secretary, what else will he compromise?

Kamala at least dropped out herself early enough, for those near the end who ganged up with Biden against Bernie last time, I’d never vote for them. Bunch of loser weasels.

I think he was 2nd right behind Bernie. He should've either continue to sell himself as the younger better version of Bernie all the way to the end... or drop out to endorse Bernie... I would've respected him more that way and surely I will vote for him next time. However, as it is, once you've already seen a person's character, why bother wasting your vote on such a person?

Anyway, for those of you who still think Hillary would be lovely to have as president... or the Obama years were just so perfect for us and for the world... then I suppose Pete may be the perfect guy for you. You will surely get the same or very similar things.

Just be prepared for more wars and more Assanges and Snowdens and more unsolved unknowable conspiracies... and then there'll be someone even crazier than Trump coming along to try to balance things out...

It's kinda sad that I still haven't found the next Bernie Sanders... and the dude is already old and probably will be dead in a few years... :(

On the right, I kinda find Vivek interesting. Still observing him like I was observing Andrew Yang... Andrew Yang turned out disappointing. Vivek might end up the same... Don't really have too high of expectations for him... we'll see.

[21Kid]

#Pete4Prez

[Crazed_Insanity]

Back to Elno related news, lawyers who sued Elon for his $56 billion pay package, demanded their fairshare of $7 billion legal fees. That's about $370,000/hr rate for each of the 37 lawyers working around the clock to help fight justice. There were a total of 3 law firms, which spent like 6 hours fighting over how much each of them represented the guy who owns like 9 shares of Tesla stock. Yep, he was unhappy with Elno turning his 9 shares over 10X their original value back when he bought in 2018. (I bought mine at around the same time as well... and even with the current slump, Elno has 10x my money.)

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/09/investing/elon-musk-tesla-legal-fees/index.html

I'd expect this is from somebody who bought Tesla at the peak and then lost money, but nope. This guy obviously made a lot of money out of his 9 shares. It's also funny that these lawyers are suing Elno on the basis of him making too much money selling EVs. Yet, billing $370,000/hr for a pro BS case seems totally reasonable to them. What a fucking joke!

I'm a little lost as to why these blue states are going all out to chasing Elno away. Elno voted for Biden last time too. But CA and Delaware don't want Elno's money I guess. Pushing Elno to the red part of country is a good idea? Why? You'd think politicians would love money? Guess not.

This is why I think it's likely because Elno is perceived as a threat to the Central bank somehow... the old money folks do not like this new money Elno guy for some reason. We'll see how things play out...

[Crazed_Insanity]

Jon Stewart for President!


https://youtu.be/S9LZXheHddI?si=IMI_g9Ws824QSu2h

[FaultyMario]

Do not forget that the state of Israel is carrying out a campaign of ethnic displacement and that it is using methods of terror to achieve it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbhQAJEZkTM

[MR2 Fan]

Sadly I don't think the policy toward Israel/Gaza in the U.S. would change no matter who is president

[Tom Servo]

You're not wrong there. There are a lot of people who are rightfully upset about the way the Biden administration is handling things with Israeli and Gaza, but Trump is basically running around saying that Israeli should do the whole "glass parking lot" thing to Gaza. He's literally said he'd go even farther towards the Israeli side and would be 100% shameless about it.

[Crazed_Insanity]

No question Trump will be pro-Israel.

However, so far the only thing I like about Trump was his foreign war/anti-war policies.

Yes, he can sound fucking ridiculously crazy... threaten to bomb Moscow. However, I'm pretty sure if Trump was in charge, Ukraine would not be invaded.

The problem with our current crop of usual presidents is that we'll continue to have the same damn forever wars regardless if it's W or Obama or Biden... at least Trump has been the only modern president to buck that trend.

I don't know what Trump will really do, if he can convince me that he will really broker peace in Ukraine and Gaza, I will definitely give him my vote.

For now, I think it's clear that we'll have status quo if Biden or Kamala or whoever else in line wins.

Trump definitely won't maintain status quo. Will that be better or worse? I can't say... ;)

Back to Michelle Obama... I think if she's somehow the president, she'll probably not maintain status quo of having forever wars either.

Any other more 'established' politicians regardless of party affiliation, surely they'll be happy with forever wars to enrich their donors. Not to mention winning subsequent construction contracts and bank loans for the rebuilding effort. Easy way to launder money too... maybe even outright steal taxpayer's money. I still cannot understand how DoD can just not do it's accounting properly and we continue to fund them...

We're all so focused on how insanely much amount of money Elno was making. We ought to stop Elon!!!! He is so annoying and evil!!!

[MR2 Fan]

The Biden dropping out vs. not dropping out argument isn't going away and might not until the official nomination. Now more people like George Clooney who JUST had a fundraiser for him is saying for him to step down which is weird.

One video I saw on twitter and wish I could find again mentioned that if he decides to step aside, it could be very difficult and costly to make changes to the ballot and delegates. I don't know details on that though....and it's still not the convention yet which is the final deciding factor (assuming they don't officially state it beforehand because one state...Ohio? I believe was trying to claim that they had to announce the candidate officially to be on the ballot PRIOR to the convention date)

Also, let's say he steps down right now from running, does that mean if he's not cognitively sound, that he should also resign as president now if it's that bad? or if he's just stepping down...in case he gets worse after his next term starts?

It's such a messy situation all around.

[Crazed_Insanity]

CNN is no longer backing Biden it appears… lots of calls for him to step down including publishing that George Clooney piece…

It appears even the ‘establishment’ is concerned about the condition of their puppet candidate.

Of course the so called ‘establishment’ isn’t just a single dictator, but probably a big conglomerate of entities… obvious it’s fracturing and some supports Biden and some are not… hard to say which side will win out.

I think the main issue is that do they really have a suitable replacement?

Pretty sure they wouldn’t want Michelle Obama nor does she really want the job. Any of the more progressive folks possibly making the list and eventual nod? I’d highly doubt that. So of all of the possible status quo folks, who has more appeal than Biden? At least I don’t know of anyone in their pipeline that’d have my vote. Unless they discover a new Obama?

[MR2 Fan]

So there's the next question...do they pick Harris...a black woman....or jump past her to pick another old white guy? THAT would also be a very tough situation.

I would HAPPILY be wrong and hope that all people who would vote for Biden would also vote for Harris...I just don't believe it.

[FaultyMario]

shouldn't the election be made by citizens in a democracy?

[Cam]

:lol:

[Cam]

:(

[Crazed_Insanity]

Deep down we all know we can only pick from the folks they picked for us.

From a more palatable point of view, people have to actually want to and declare their candidacy. We can’t just randomly pick MR2 for president. He wants to go to Japan soon. Plus, lots of people don’t want the thankless job.

[MR2 Fan]

democracy where 1 person = 1 vote for President instead of up to 1 person = 4 votes for President depending entirely on where you live.

[sandydandy]

I've heard RFK Jr's name thrown around as a possible replacement for Biden. That wouldn't be a bad idea given the prestige behind the Kennedy name. I have no idea about his politics.

[Rare White Ape]

I've heard RFK Jr's name thrown around as a possible replacement for Biden. That wouldn't be a bad idea given the prestige behind the Kennedy name. I have no idea about his politics.

He's an absolute fucking nut job.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Kennedy family doesn’t even back him. I was neutral about him before, but Swervo has convinced me that he might be a closet white supremacist. Anyway, if your own family won’t back you up, no reason why I should vote for you.

[sandydandy]

He's an absolute fucking nut job. I didn't know that...but maybe it's a good thing. Counter a Republican nut job with a Democrat one.

[MR2 Fan]

RFK Jr. also has brain worms...no I'm not joking

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, besides the possible white supremacy ties, that brain worm incident certainly didn't help. I don't have an issue with the brain worm itself, but the fact that he used that as an excuse to get out of paying alimony. He himself was claiming at the time that the brain/cognitive defect would reduce his income potential... so he can't pay all that alimony...

Now he's all physically fit! Whoopee!!!

I'm okay with a certain mental handicap, but he obviously also has integrity issues. If he can't take care of his ex-wife, imagine how many Americans he doesn't like he might leave behind as president...

The guy was up to 20% in the polls at one time, but now at 10%.

Anyway, even if it's RFK jr. vs Trump, I will still abstain from voting.

[Rare White Ape]

I didn't know that...but maybe it's a good thing. Counter a Republican nut job with a Democrat one.

Nah he’s a Republican in Democrat clothing. He’s been on a campaign platform on the left to try and get the Democrat nomination but there’s nothing left wing about him at all.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Well, Trump the New Yorker is actually a democrat in Republican clothing... so it's perfect! :p

Anyway, we need somebody better than those 2 or 3...

I think my dream match up would be Bernie vs Vivek. In such a match up, I'd vote Bernie. If it's Vivek vs Kamala or whatever whatever DNC approved candidate, then I'd go for Vivek. Whether left or right, I'm anti-establishment... or anti-status quo. We simply cannot continue on our current trajectory.

If only Trump could have a bit more integrity, I'd vote for him. For now, I can't in good conscience vote for a guy who mistreats kitty cats. That crossed the line! :p

[MR2 Fan]

ok, Biden's press conference was..........good....mostly. He flubbed twice today, first time he caught himself, second time he didn't...but he's always done this. His foreign policy stuff was great.

Other issues, he still has a cough, he's still slow and unclear, but I do believe he is not suffering any new mental issues. Unfortunately the only thing we'll hear is the two names he flubbed in the media.

[Tom Servo]

I didn't know that...but maybe it's a good thing. Counter a Republican nut job with a Democrat one.

It very much isn't. He's got a long history of being anti-vax (his own organization, Children's Health Defense, is one of the most prominent anti-vax organizations in the country). He claimed that Covid was engineered to spare Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews. He just professed to not having an opinion over whether 9/11 was an inside job.

At the very least he would demolish the public health apparatus in this country, one that already can use all the help it can get.

Oh, and his entire family have disavowed his campaign and endorsed Biden over him.

If you want more info, check out articles by Anna Merlan and Brandy Zadrozny on him. They've both done an excellent job of covering his nuttery.

[sandydandy]

It seems to be the age of nut jobs where you have to pick the least offensive one and give him the job of running the country.

[MR2 Fan]

I don't think Biden is a nut job...he's just really, really old and slow, but yeah, we don't really get 2 choices anymore and we really haven't since the days of Romney or McCain who were relatively mainstream, especially compared to now.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It is a tough and thankless job and reporters dug up a lot of shit about you... not to mention the amount of pressure once you have to job. Pretty much all before... and then after 8 years photos of presidents look shocking. Both W and Obama appeared to have accelerated aging over the 8 years...

If you're happy with your current career making cool EVs and reusable rockets, even if you're qualify to be a president, you'll likely want to continue on doing your own thing rather than work at the Oval Office. Even the young Donald Trump didn't want to be president back then...

So it's a job probably only sought after by ego maniacs with nothing better to do or people who might need some 'immunity'... I think both Trump and Biden could need this 'immunity' to fight off their legal battles? Not to mention I think they're both ego maniacs.

Biden needs Lord Almighty to tell him to not run in order to step aside? Really? What happened to democracy?

Anyway, it's kinda fun to see DNC establishment imploding at the moment, but also kinda sad.

Hope for some implosions happening on the RNC side as well.

May the Lord God Almighty provide us with some good candidates please... not just the lesser of the 2 evils... Somebody who's running because he actually wants to do some good for the country and maybe around the world too! No more forever war presidents. If we're going to fight a war, we're going to fight all out against it and win it as quickly as possible... not this kind of drawn out one hand tight behind our back and watch innocent children die approach... Those kind of pathetic wars might happen, but at least make sure US money and weapons are not involved please!

[Tom Servo]

I also don't think Harris is a nut job. Trump's not a nut job, he's just a narcissist who will do pretty much whatever it takes to gain and retain power. RFK Jr., on the other hand, is a certified nutjob.

Also thinking about the flubbing of names - I've been called by my sister's name more times than I can count by both my parents and multiple teachers over the years. That one doesn't seem that disqualifying to me. Unless, you know, "Ronny Jackson" or "Tim Apple" are disqualifying.

EDIT: My sister has chimed in to let me know that she is constantly calling her son Brian, so this sorta thing happens.

[Cam]

My mom goes through my bro’s names before getting to mine. :lol:

[Yw-slayer]

It's sweet that you guys both think that you elect a President, and that he runs the USA!

[MR2 Fan]

I'm TERRIBLE with names...someone tells me what their name is, I'll forget it immediately most of the time. Even working in an office with a lot of co-workers who I've known for a while, I'll pass someone I know in the hallway and be like "Hey.......you"

[Crazed_Insanity]

It's sweet that you guys both think that you elect a President, and that he runs the USA!

Very observant of western politics. Hope you’re equally as insightful with eastern politics. :p

Back to the West…, Oh no! Bernie Sanders is calling the Dems to quit bickering about Biden… to just give him full support so we can focus on defeating Trump!!!

Why did I say oh no? Because I’m pretty sure Dem establishment won’t listen to him and will likely gang up somehow to push Biden out…

Actually I’m not really sure whether if I should say oh no or oh yeah…

[MR2 Fan]

aw shit

[sandydandy]

This is crazy.

[MR2 Fan]

nothing good can come from this. Guess I won't be watching the news or social media for a while

[G'day Mate]

nothing good can come from this.

He will use it to call for more violence, and there will be more deaths

[Leon]

RIP the experiment in democracy.
Trump will lean into this hard. The combination of Biden being elderly, and now an attempt on Trump's life, means I'd be amazed if the USA isn't going to end up in a right wing religious autocracy.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Whether is this is a real attempt or staged, I guess advantage Trump.

[MR2 Fan]

He will use it to call for more violence, and there will be more deaths


He probably will...which will be the wrong thing to do if he expects sympathy. Of course, his extremist cult supporters will love a call for violence. It's still a long way to election day, but of all of the things that could have happened, this is probably the worst thing possible.

Also I wonder if he'll stay at Mar-A-Lago now and not leave

[Crazed_Insanity]

It’s interesting you guys still think the right wing folks are crazier and more violent when it’s Trump who ended up shedding the 1st blood. It’s definitely possible that this is staged to gain voter sympathy, but considering a bystander was killed, I think chances are this was a real attempt just that the shooter was a lousy shot?

It probably didn’t help to constantly remind voters that Trump is a threat to democracy… somebody perhaps saw Biden is now too senile to save democracy so he took matters to his own gun?

I did pray for both names on the ballot be changed, but not like this God…

[Rare White Ape]

You're fucked in the head Billi

[sandydandy]

It’s pretty clear who’s going to win the election now.

The feral side of me is saying: “the shooter had one job”.

[Crazed_Insanity]

What a surreal incident. Some amazing photos were taken…, one of which showed the bullet’s trajectory as it passes by Trump’s head…

The shooter is really perfect for generating more conspiracies. A young man who looks like a Trump supporter and a registered Republican, yet donated $15 to DNC. The weirdest part is that this young man has very little social media presence. So I guess we can’t blame social media for radicalizing the guy? The shooter’s dad doesn’t seem to know what happened, but he got the gun for the son I think…

Anyway, I’m still not voting for Trump.

I’m a little jaded by this kind of thing… Taiwan has a similarly close election once and then the candidate who went thru a failed assassination attempt end up winning the election. To this day, some thought the incident was staged, but I guess we’ll never know.

I’m not voting for Trump, but I’m kinda looking forward to see him ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Things will likely be messier at home though…

Still hoping our next president won’t be either Biden or Trump… At least hopefully we’ll have a new morer of the two good guys becoming president… somebody who can truly unite the country.

[MR2 Fan]

So Trump chose JD Vance as his running-mate? lol awesome. (yes, I am watching a little bit of the news)

So instead of choosing someone who might help his vote with minorities (like Vivek or Marco Rubio) or women (like Nikki Haley...not that she'd want it I don't think), he chooses another white guy...one who hated Trump in 2016 and IIRC barely even won his senate seat in a highly contested race.

Brilliant move.

[Kchrpm]

He's just trying to energize his base so much that they come out in better percentages than those who oppose him. He doesn't need or want to appeal to other groups, he just needs to convince his people to do whatever it takes to give him absolute power. And he's well on his way.

[Crazed_Insanity]

At least he didn't call for more violence... just Vance.

His VP pick is a surprise to me... because I've never heard of the guy. I suppose Trump knows it doesn't matter who he picks, he won't win my vote anyway. So I suppose this young senator, who's supposedly a good friend of his son, may be easier to control than Pence?

Or maybe he just likes to make things rhyme? Doesn't matter if it's Pence or Vance since I shall remain on the fence! :p

[MR2 Fan]

While I am concerned about the election, I DO still have hope that most voters can see through the b.s. and not give Trump a pass due to the recent incident. It is also going to be 3+ months away by the time November comes around.

[Tom Servo]

Democrats need to start hammering on Project 2025 and the way that he's stacked the courts to the point of basically lawlessness. We need to be relentless on this.

[MR2 Fan]

Democrats need to start hammering on Project 2025 and the way that he's stacked the courts to the point of basically lawlessness. We need to be relentless on this.

I agree but I think it's better to wait a few weeks...people also have short attention spans...once the democratic convention starts they can hammer it home. I'm also looking forward to the VP debate.

[Tom Servo]

Maybe it is. What I'm seeing right now is that the party calling for "second amendment solutions" and executing their opponents are somehow succeeding at getting democrats to almost accept the blame for "inflaming rhetoric." Even as it's becoming clearer that this appears to be more a "school shooter wants to be noticed and go out in a blaze of glory" thing rather than a politically motivated act. The democratic party is so atrociously bad at this so I think it's time to focus on a couple of the worst things and just start hammering them and not stop.

[Crazed_Insanity]

it's becoming clearer that this appears to be more a "school shooter wants to be noticed and go out in a blaze of glory" thing rather than a politically motivated act.

Regardless of the motive, imagine what'd happen if we have a dead Trump? Surely our nation will descend into a chaos and we'll possibly end up with another civil war. Attempts to impeach, indict and prosecute their guy isn't enough, you feel the need to assassinate him? That may very well be the last straw that breaks USA's back...

I still find it hard to believe that a crazy kid could plan it so well that government agencies simply missed him on the roof and also couldn't find any info about him on social media at all. This kid really is the perfect candidate for the job. Is he a Republican or Progressive? Nerdy smart kid who couldn't shoot? Very caring nurse working at a nursing home? From his dad to people in his school to his colleagues, it seems nobody believe he's capable of doing what he did. This is just weird.

I think worst case scenario is that Trump planned this himself... then we're screwed.

2nd worst case scenario would be establishment planning to push Trump out.

I suppose it's possible that he's just a crazy mass shooter who happens to be shooting up at a MAGA event, but Secret Service really screwed it up to allow a bullet to get so close to a president. Hard to believe SS planned it so badly...

We'll likely find no evidences supporting absolutely nothing and then we'll just let this go at that and blame people for believing in conspiracy theories as dumbasses...

[Tom Servo]

As usual, someone else on the internet put it better than I did. Right now the GOP is succeeding by basically saying "You complaining about me beating you is tearing this family apart!"

[FaultyMario]

I like how Francesca Fiorentini put it on her podcast: "Saying «political violence has no place in our politics» is like saying «money has no place in our politics» or «the Kardashians have no place in our politics»; it's a nice thought, but it's a little late".

The U.S. electoral system has been stretched out to its limits by fas (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSn1DsAWAAY-gCQ.png)cism (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSn1S__WAAk8Syi.png) and I can't see how it can revert itself back to a humanistic form of government.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Biden has been in office for 4 years now. Has it been more humanistic? I'd give him a passing grade at home, but abroad, he failed miserably.

Trump had 4 years as well. He failed miserably at home IMHO, but I think that crazy man deserves a Nobel Peace Prize! The world was definitely more peaceful while he was in the White House. He was scary crazy, but maybe that's what it takes to scare those other scary crazy dictators?

If it's inevitable that Trump wins again, I really hope he has really became a true 'born again'... then maybe we can finally return to a government of the people, for the people... and that Americans can truly have life, liberty and be able to pursue our dreams.

If Trump faked us out again and still wants to be a dictator, then I guess USA is screwed.

USA has been screwing around with the rest of the world for too long. If USA doesn't repent and change its ways, maybe it's better we collapse and shrink and end up more like Europe. Anyway, of course I'd like to see USA succeed and do more good around the world. Hopefully things will change for the better. May God continue to bless America.

[FaultyMario]

You're confusing "system" with "program".

I said: The electoral system is FUBAR. It can't be fixed, it needs to be founded again.

As for humanistic, I believe you're also mistaken. As a way of an example, the teachings of Christ could be said to be humanistic, but the catechism of the Christian church is definitely not humanistic. There was debate on the subject about 500 years ago. It got pretty intense.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I'm not advocating for theocracy here. Problems with organized religions is pretty self evident. Main reason why we now have religious freedom is so people can stop persecuting each other. Also to never ever give any churches actual political power.

Our electoral system isn't perfect, but IMHO, they're good enough. The problem is with human corruption. Is it really corrupted beyond repair? I'm not so sure. Do we really need to knock it down completely to rebuild? I'm not ready to risk that yet.

Trump has been the 1st person so far to take advantage of our corrupted systems to his own advantage. Obviously those establishment folks hated him. We'll see if Trump is really actually doing it to fight a broken system or simply taking advantage of it for selfish gains...

I personally think it'll be much easier to overthrow Trump the dictator than our current system...

[MR2 Fan]

Anyway, RFK Jr. basically has been found to be a Trumper the whole time due to a secret audio recording.

[Tom Servo]

Biden reportedly finalizing plans to endorse term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable SCOTUS ethics code, and a constitutional amendment to overturn the presidential immunity ruling.

All good stuff. More of this.

https://wapo.st/4bGC9gI

[MR2 Fan]

I think Biden is finally like YOLO...let's just do this shit

[FaultyMario]

Yeah, a constitutional amendment is a pretty smart way to push the reset button.

[Rare White Ape]

Should have done it in 2021.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Well, presidential immunity ruling can't be done in 2021, but yeah, a lot should be done to setup White House up in a way to prevent future presidents from becoming dictators. Have term limits in congress and supreme court.

However, we know that they won't want to limit themselves.

Our system is a bit screwed up this way. We'd punish a bank robber for robbing few hundred bucks harder than a banker for screwing people for millions. Rich and the powerful folks tend to have breaks, well, unless if you're Trump. They they'll try to get you for every little thing.

[Leon]

Biden reportedly finalizing plans to endorse term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable SCOTUS ethics code, and a constitutional amendment to overturn the presidential immunity ruling.

All good stuff. More of this.

https://wapo.st/4bGC9gI

I think he has to get this through, otherwise the level of being screwed will just escalate.

[Rare White Ape]

Did you know... the guy who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump... his mother is a registered DEMOCRAT?

Evidence HERE (https://boingboing.net/2024/07/16/trump-campaign-secretly-profiled-trump-shooters-father-in-2016-video.html)

Absolute proof that this is nothing but LEFTIST VIOLENCE

[Crazed_Insanity]

What’s the point you’re trying to make here?

Son of MAGA supporter must be MAGA? And it makes sense for him to kill Trump?

Mom is a gun owning democrat, so what does that make him?

To shoot Trump, the shooter must be a liberal, right? Assuming he’s not crazy.

Violence can happen anywhere from any side. Nobody made the claim the conservatives are bunch of peaceful gun lovers. At least Trump did not go as some of you predicted to call for more violence.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Finally looked into Vance a bit. I like his TED talk about his poor upbringing... he understands how lucky he is to be where he is. Most in his neighborhood are not that lucky. He credits his grandma filling in when his parents cannot. He seems like a good speaker. I really think Vance will turn Kamala into Biden in a debate. If there's any consolation, at least Vance married an Indian American. She's a hot shot corporate lawyer formerly registered as a Democrat. So I think we can safely assume that Vance isn't a Nazi white supremacist?

The guy obviously know what being a poor white is like... how 'unprivileged' they really are, but since they're white, they must be privileged and likely a Nazi? Only married an Indian girl for cover? ;)

Anyway, I think this guy has potential. At least he knows what being poor is like. We definitely don't need any more political leaders who grew up with silver spoons in their mouths. This is why I still prefer the anti-establishment candidate that is Bernie, than Trump.

Back to Vance, I'm not without worry. Like I've said before, Taiwan had a presidential candidate who ended up winning a close election due to failed assassination attempt. He had a pretty poor upbringing as well. In the end, the sudden increase of power and money ended up being too irresistible. He ended up as a corrupt president and later on allowed the opposition party to take over.

If Vance ends up at the white house with Trump, hopefully he has more integrity to be able to resist... if not, hopefully he'll never be president. Anyway, I guess we'll see.

[George]

On the lighter side of things, if elected, JD Vance would be the first vice president with facial hair since Charles Curtis left office in 1933.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Charles_Curtis-portrait.jpg/220px-Charles_Curtis-portrait.jpg

And, of course, Smilin' Bill Taft was the last president with facial hair. He left office in 1913 and was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court eight years later.

https://ohiomemory.ohiohistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/taft4.jpg

I figure most of the learned assembly here knows all this stuff already, but it's much more fun than discussing current events. :smh:

In any event, it is time for the Taft moustache to make a comeback. Who's with me? :cool:

[Crazed_Insanity]

That's a nice mustache... it makes him look like he's always smiling even if he's not! :D

[Tom Servo]

Heh, I saw Kyle Clark posting about that on Twitter.

[MR2 Fan]

Biden has COVID....apparently

[G'day Mate]

... and will apparently take heed if doctors tell him "sorry Jack, you'd be better off resting up in Scranton"

[Crazed_Insanity]

Back to Elno..., apparently he's fed up with the CA governor and ready to relocate SpaceX to Texas too.

Personally I think that's a stupid political move. I can under stand if CA passed some laws that hurt your company... or Delaware trying to sue you to block your pay... those are legit reasons for moving a business. But to move your company based on some wokish laws? Not that I agree with the new law, but business should be business.

Surely not all SpaceX engineers would want to move to Texas. It's one thing if majority of them want to move, but it's quite another to have boss mandate a move due to some personal opinions. Those employees who agree politically for sure will gladly move, but some might move begrudgingly... and some might not move at all.

I guess this is a good opportunity for other companies to steal talents away. Time will tell if SpaceX's success is due to all the talents within the company or due to the boss. If it's the talents, I'm sure some critical people might be lost during the move... and SpaceX's progress will be slowed...

Another thing I'm not sure how I feel is Elno's pledge to donate to Trump $45 million/mon. Why? Why the sudden alliance?

Similarly Vance was supposedly a never Trumper... and then a 180 degree turn...

One thing about Trump is that his people usually end up leaving him or turn on him. Will Vance become like Pence and make another 180 degree turn? How long will the alliance between Trump and Musk be?

In the mean time, it's interesting that DNC is still trying to assassi..., no I meant, assist Biden to slowly move aside...

One thing I have to give to Biden is that current polls are still close though. Kamala may be DNC's best bet, but I'm really not sure if she can do significantly better. Other than Kamala? Who else can take his place in a legit way(primary process)? When DNC doesn't even have an obvious winner in place, why are they still asking him to move aside? This doesn't make sense to me.

This year's election sure has a lot of plot twists and turns... most likely more to come.

[FaultyMario]

First as tragedy, then as farce.

https://y.yarn.co/86c8b640-4152-45d5-87ff-51f05693474c_text.gif



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS0TgJpW4AAVdbj.png

[FaultyMario]

Yeah, no lady. He'd still be the 45th president. We're counting persons, not terms.

[FaultyMario]

Cleveland did it first. Ok. I stand corrected.

[FaultyMario]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS0IOf4WYAAqQi_.jpg

[Tom Servo]

I have no idea how accurate that quote is, but Andre was in the Princess Bride, maybe one of the greatest movies ever made, and Hulk Hogan had a TV show where he drove a boat and shot at things. I think there's a clear winner here.

[Yw-slayer]

First as tragedy, then as farce.

https://y.yarn.co/86c8b640-4152-45d5-87ff-51f05693474c_text.gif



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GS0TgJpW4AAVdbj.png

The collage is a perfect example of the performative nonsense that gets votes. Well done Billi clap clap

[Tom Servo]

I actually wonder if that would sway anyone who wasn't already in Trump's thrall. It's hard to imagine an undecided voter being like "well, he does threaten to usher in the end of our democracy, but those people had pieces of paper stuck to their ears...."

[dodint]

An interesting wrinkle with the scenario of Biden stepping down is if the Democrats can prop up a good enough candidate to beat Trump this fall, they won't be subject to term limits in 2028 and would be the incumbent firmly in place to prevent a 2028 MAGA candidate.

[MR2 Fan]

That's true...I hadn't thought of that.

I feel like some voters are thinking about 4 years and not 4 months (closer to 3 now)...when Biden says he will still be as...um...coherent as he is today in 4 years time. Obviously that is not a guarantee and most people don't believe him...not that we can predict these declines.

Apparently Trump's speech at the RNC was very long and very rambling from what I saw on twitx, so that's good if other people finally start really questioning his mental fitness as well.

[Tom Servo]

It is a little bit fascinating there. They both flub and say nonsensical shit on the regular, it's just that Biden generally realizes he did it while Trump just powers on like nothing happened. Given all of our reactions to the debate, I think we almost all gravitate towards the "power on" thing as being more confidence inspiring, despite the fact that it's probably better if the person is like "oops, I flubbed that, what I meant was..."

It's wild that I think we all think that Trump had a better debate performance despite the fact that he basically just spewed absolute bullshit and rarely, if ever, answered an actual question.

[CudaMan]

Any Sane Human 2024

Democrats have an opportunity here. But it's politics (thinking internally with the party), so I have little hope.

[Freude am Fahren]

He puts the confidence in Confidence man.

[MR2 Fan]

I'm voting for Biden if he's on the ticket....I'm voting for Harris if she's on the ticket....heck, I'm voting for Biden's disgraced dog if that was the one on the ticket.....BUT I'm also in a reddish "used to be" swing state...I'm voting because I have hope that MAYBE, just MAYBE Floridians are fed up with the GOP...sadly our governor's race isn't for another 2 years.

[FaultyMario]

An interesting wrinkle with the scenario of Biden stepping down is if the Democrats can prop up a good enough candidate to beat Trump this fall, they won't be subject to term limits in 2028 and would be the incumbent firmly in place to prevent a 2028 MAGA candidate.

If that is the case, and now that the GOP internal structure has been firmly replaced by MAGAs and, say, that sanity is somewhat restored and reforms like those mentioned by Tom are passed, how do the institutional Republicans get their party back?

I've said elsewhere on this thread, but there are signs that elements in the U.S. electoral system are useless now, so it'll be interesting to see if they can be reformed or if something else comes along and takes its place.

[FaultyMario]

IMO, a lot of members of congress are eager to join a new neoliberal-corporate party that is the GOP without the MAGAs and the Democrat party without The Squad Ayanna, Rashida and Ilhan.

[George]

Cleveland did it first.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvO0UiGOE2y0mH5DfcdRS8efBQzeW0v mjldA&sp


Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I didn’t believe Trump became a born again Christian the 1st time around. He clearly just wanted to get votes. He also enlisted Mike Pence to help vouch for him I guess?

After surviving a near death experience, assuming he or his campaign didn’t stage it, I suppose he just might become truly ‘born again’ now. This divine intervention will be getting him momentum. It’s as if Lord Almighty is telling Joe to step aside. Surely Jesus didn’t save the guy to further develop hotels, golf courses and casinos?

Now unless God or angel appeared before me to tell me to vote for him, I’m still not voting for the guy. He probably doesn’t need m vote anyways…

Speaking of threat to democracy, remember how DNC manipulated the primary process and forced Pete and Amy to get out of the way so that Joe can win? Now they’re force Joe to move out of the way for…????

Can’t you just let American people vote? Do you have to manipulate every step of the way just to try to stay in power?

At least MAGA crowd used ‘democracy’ to grab hold of power. RNC establishment couldn’t wrestle the power back.

I sincerely hope this fiasco will cause the DNC establishment to completely crumble so that democratic process can actually work as democratic as possible for the democrats!

Anyway, hopefully Trump is now truly born again and a different man. Otherwise we’re screwed.

[Rare White Ape]

I actually wonder if that would sway anyone who wasn't already in Trump's thrall. It's hard to imagine an undecided voter being like "well, he does threaten to usher in the end of our democracy, but those people had pieces of paper stuck to their ears...."

People who do this are sycophants.

The hilarious thing is they hope to curry favour with Trump, but he neither knows them or gives a shit who they are or what they stand for. You can probably guess my level of sympathy for them for when their lives become measurably harder as a result of Trump's policies.

[Rare White Ape]

DSA boutta drop support for AOC.

About time…

https://www.dsausa.org/statements/status-of-dsa-national-endorsement-for-rep-ocasio-cortez/

[Crazed_Insanity]

Speaking of AOC and Bernie Sanders, their support for Joe Biden is kinda surprising.

I suppose they know Joe is liberal’s best bet at this stage. They don’t want Trump to win. Dems need to be united, especially now!

The same group orchestrated Biden’s win 4 years ago is now trying to force him out.

I wonder who is really the leader of the DNC. For sure not the sitting president.

Personally, I think the DNC establishment is the bigger threat to democracy. Who are they to manipulate the primary process 4 years ago in order to achieve an outcome they want? Further, let’s say that was a legit democratic process, who are they to force out a democratically elected president? They need to stop acting like the Lord Almighty.

IMHO, both sides are pretty bad. I saw a cool bumper sticker recently that said:

“Reelect nobody !”

I thought that’s cool and very sensible. :p

I think the shooting only solidified Trump’s power within the GOP, but didn’t really cause his national polls to increase by much. Kamala is the only legit successor and her poll #s are not much better than Biden’s. Not really sure why Dems are still trying to push out Joe.

[MR2 Fan]

Weird bit of irony/coincidence someone on twitx just mentioned....Trump keeps going on about Hannibal Lecter....who was trying to impress someone played by....Jodie Foster. The last time someone tried to assassinate a president was...........trying to impress Jodie Foster.

We're in the weirdest timeline.

[Leon]

Any Sane Human 2024

Democrats have an opportunity here. But it's politics (thinking internally with the party), so I have little hope.

Even if Biden's cheese slid entirely off his cracker, he'd be puppeted by competent advisors.

The other guy.... well, you all know about the other guy, you had him for four years, and he's unlikely to be any saner now, nor surround himself with sane and competent people.

[Rare White Ape]

The other guy....

The other guy regards Biden the same way I regard Biden, except he's on the right of him, and I'm a violent leftist.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Half of Americans don’t want a puppet. Half of Americans don’t want the crazy dude.

Neither side will get what they want.

Pandemic ended and Biden successfully returned the world to normalcy… well, are you guys seriously okay with this new ‘normal’?

So what if you don’t dismantle NATO and sign on to climate change initiatives but you end up with forever wars?

[sandydandy]

If Biden drops out of the race (which he should), I wonder if he’ll continue on as president and complete his term. Or maybe step down entirely and hand it over to Kamala.

[FaultyMario]

Biden dropping out is all about the money, money, money.

The donor's, obviously.

[sandydandy]

I saw a video of a Sikh woman doing a Sikh prayer at the RNC. Audience seemed respectful enough, but YouTube comments section however was a cesspool of hate and rage. Seriously devilish comments from people who pretend to be good and righteous.

Seems like freedom of religion does exist in America…as long as you pray only to Jesus with the barrel of a shotgun in your face.

[Tom Servo]

You should see how some of the MAGA faithful are reacting to JD Vance's wife and child. It's pretty gross.

[sandydandy]

I've been curious about that, but haven't looked it up for fear of learning the obvious.

[FaultyMario]

This, I think, sums it up (https://www.theonion.com/usha-vance-gently-corrects-rnc-usher-attempting-to-depo-1851598821).

The source is spot on pretty much always.

[MR2 Fan]

BIDEN DROPPED OUT

[Phil_SS]

Pretty dang crazy election cycle.

[MR2 Fan]

Biden endorses Kamala for the nominee...it will be interesting if Dems fall in line or try to find someone else.

EDIT: FWIW I don't think they have a choice, since the money and delegates apparently automatically go to Kamala....that MIGHT be the reason why Biden waited so long...to possibly ensure less issues.

[sandydandy]

Billi is uncharacteristically quiet right now. It’s almost scary and uneasy.

I have very little faith that Kamala will be able to beat Trump. The only person on earth who could is not allowed to run. O’bummer. :(

[G'day Mate]

All I want is to see Trump held accountable for his crimes, so someone has to beat him at least.

[MR2 Fan]

As soon as Biden contracted COVID again I started to wonder (and it's possible this was convenient...I really don't subscribe to conspiracy theories from the left but this could give him a reasonable spot to drop out)

I do know that it will be nice to have a much younger, more coherent and vibrant person on the campaign trail. It also forces all of the news media to stop talking non-stop about Biden's age/mental decline....will be interesting to see what narrative they do next.

I'm hoping we see another debate, or if Trump chickens out...Kamala should have her own "debate" where there's an empty podium, she takes questions from someone then gives the empty podium a few minutes to "answer"....optics would be hilarious

[FaultyMario]

I have very little faith that Kamala will be able to beat Trump. The only person on earth who could is not allowed to run. O’bummer. :(

I mean she is a terrible speaker BUT she has the benefit of having a repeat offender in front of her (https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?user=3254822&id=462720043&clippingId=29091340&width=711&height=789&crop=27_5489_711_789&rotation=0).

[Crazed_Insanity]

Younger Biden, even just 4 years ago was still a tremendous speaker. We are witnessing a rapid decline and that’s the main concern. Whereas Trump has pretty much stayed at the same covfeefee level so MAGA base are okay with that! :p

I’ve prayed for Biden to go, so I guess Lord Almighty answered that half of my prayer. However, I’m really not sure if Kamala is better or if she can speak better or even do better. I’m pretty sure I won’t like the candidate hand picked by Pelosi/Obama/DNC establishment.

I can only hope the old Trump was shot dead and we have a new and better Trump now?

Like I said, I’m still not voting. However, I’m hoping President Trump will once again find a way to end forever wars. That is the top thing I’m praying for. I don’t see anyone else dare to end those 2 wars… other than Bernie? But surely DNC won’t nominate Bernie.

[Tom Servo]

Also, she's got the benefit that presumably people were okay with the possibility she'd be president given Biden's age even in the last election, so she's sorta already leapt that hurdle.

[Crazed_Insanity]

IMHO, Pete or Amy should’ve been picked as VP, but too bad they’re not black enough. So that opportunity landed in Kamala’s lap.

Remember, Kamala dropped out of the 2020 primary all by herself, she was not asked to step aside like Pete and Amy in order to clear a path for Biden.

This time around, Biden was asked to step aside, I wonder who does Obama have in mind?

Michele?

There’s also talk of Obama as VP?

I’m beginning to dislike Obama more and more. Stop messing with the political process dude! Enjoy your retirement!

[G'day Mate]

Obama (Barack that is) would be ineligible - check the last line ... https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-12/

[MR2 Fan]

Kamala has raised over $40 million today alone (and that was reported several hours ago, could be much higher now)

[G'day Mate]

And Trump wants a refund on money spent campaigning against Biden ... what a lolcow

[Kchrpm]

Kamala has raised over $40 million today alone (and that was reported several hours ago, could be much higher now)

I just saw it got over $52 million. I just hope she can get out and present herself in a way that is actually energizing and exciting to the people that think the Democratic party has already gone too centrist and that it doesn't really matter who they vote for because the establishment/big money donors will make all the decisions anyway. I feel like that is the largest contingent of people who could be convinced to vote for her vs not voting at all.

[MR2 Fan]

I think Biden always has been boring and with his slowness lately, people just weren't energized at all...he also talks like an 80 year old with really outdated terms.

Kamala is 59 years old and the more I think about it, the more interesting this race has become. Trump is unable to process what just happened apparently as he can't stop talking about Biden this morning.

Remember that a LOT of races, even in red states, since Roe v Wade was overturned have gone to Democrats, specifically about that issue and Kamala has been talking about that for a while. She is a woman who can speak directly to this issue...it will get more women fired up to vote for her.

[Tom Servo]

For sure Trump and the GOP were pretty desperate to keep Biden in the race. I think they've spent so much time hung up on Hunter Biden and these supposed corruption cases with Ukraine and China that they don't really have a ton on Harris. Most of it just seems to be they think she laughs too much, which isn't really that much of a talking point.

EDIT: Case in point, just saw Libs of Tik Tok posted a video montage entitled "They want this woman to be President" and it's literally just video clips of her laughing at things. If that's the best they got....

[Crazed_Insanity]

If he could beat Hillary, he could beat Kamala. Personally, I like Hillary more than Kamala because I think Hillary is smarter and more competent.

If we’re just electing another puppet, then I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

Hopefully she learned her lesson regarding why her primary race stalled. She can be good at picking a fight against Trump perhaps, but I really think she lacks substance. Can you guys recall any good things she’s done as VP?

[Tom Servo]

Trump is posting to his own social network a claim that Biden didn't actually have covid and that he's a "threat to democracy." Dude's still running against the guy who dropped out, and also apparently trying to start new conspiracy theories while he's at it.

[MR2 Fan]

The only reason Trump beat Hillary in 2016 is because the media ran as if she was basically guaranteed to win and that Trump had no chance...so a lot of people just didn't bother to go out and vote for her. That and the attacks she had against her for decades. Also, if it was a fair voting system (aka not electoral college) she would have won.

[sandydandy]

I thought it was because of the "deplorable" comment, and because she was skipping over states she didn't like.

[Tom Servo]

Oh, for sure. The GOP apparatus had spent *decades* hammering their attacks on the Clintons, they basically had about 24 years worth of attacks that had bled into the mainstream. Part of why some of these things are so successful is that they start in the weird far-right echo chambers of the internet but slowly creep their way out. InfoWars is spouting nonsense until it starts to be repeated by guests on outlets like "Real America's Voice", which then slowly bleeds over to places like Fox News until finally it just becomes part of the main discourse, no matter how true or untrue it might be. They've basically paid no attention to Harris, and there just isn't the time necessary to get the shit the weirdos are saying out into the general populace, especially since the weirdos so far are basically just trying to spread theories that she isn't eligible because her parents weren't citizens when she was born or that she goes against the general idea that liberals are joyless people who know nothing of happiness and laughter.

[MR2 Fan]

and attacks against Kamala are going to inevitably be standard fare racist/misogynist attacks because that's all they're "good" at.

They can try to tie her to Biden's record on...............well he didn't really do much wrong did he? They complain about inflation which is now going down. Yes, the Israel/Gaza conflict is horrid but they can't preach they will do any better as Trump already said what his plans are.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, I think the best they can do with the Israel/Gaza issue is try to siphon away voters from Harris to someone like RFK Jr., but the problem there is that RFK Jr. is enough of a wingnut that I think most of the voters he's pulling are coming from Trump's camp. Trump and his sycophants have made it a regular thing to engage in conspiracy theories, so a lot of his most fervent supporters are all about the candidate who says he won't run out 9/11 being an inside job and runs the biggest anti-vax org in the world.

[mk]

I read that four white men have better percentages against TFG.

If that is based on something that guestimation makers already have I guess they should do a new poll.

[George]

Amazingly, even to me, after all this time, I am still surprised by Trump's lack of class, dignity, and just plain old human decency this morning.

I believe history will be kind to Joe Biden.

[Crazed_Insanity]

What happened this morning?

I think some people enjoy Trump’s and Elno’s speeches precisely because they have no class!

It’s opposite of the politically correct speeches.

I wish leaders can speak somewhere in between… not too political and not too aclassical…

[MR2 Fan]

hint: he never had human decency to begin with. I believe he has always been mentally deranged, but his daddy gave him hundreds of millions of dollars to blow on stuff to make up for it.

I remind you that Trump never laughs...he is mentally incapable of laughing at a joke...he has no sense of humor whatsoever, even when he's telling jokes, he does it because it makes others warm up to him (in his mind). That's why he's talking about Kamala laughing because he doesn't comprehend it.

[George]

What happened this morning?

Oh, more of the same crap. I saw a statement from Trump on the news this morning. Don't know any of the Twitter-style platforms well enough to go find it, and don't really care now, but it pretty much said something like Biden is incompetent and unfit to hold the office and so forth.

I get annoyed with myself for occasionally thinking Trump can't possibly be an asshole every minute of every day.

[Crazed_Insanity]

It is kinda interesting why Trump is still attacking Biden when he’s no longer a threat.

Anyway, he thinks he can grab whatever kitty cats because he’s rich tells a lot about his character. That’s the main reason why I can’t bring myself to vote for him.

I sincerely hope he’s a changed man after the near death experience… or otherwise America will be a mess under his White House…. However, I’d rather we are a mess rather than US messing up other parts of the world for our own gains though.

[Tom Servo]

Lauren Boebert out here "demanding" a proof-of-life video by Biden.

Just the least serious people.

[G'day Mate]

It is kinda interesting why Trump is still attacking Biden when he’s no longer a threat.

Biden? He still attacks Obama

[Tom Servo]

Lauren Boebert out here "demanding" a proof-of-life video by Biden.

Just the least serious people.

Oooh, that's why. Laura fuckin' Loomer is out there claiming that the letter Biden put out announcing he was going to drop out of the race isn't on some specific letterhead she thinks it has to be on, so now she's convinced that Biden died and they forged his signature and they're just going to do a Weekend at Bernie's until November.

Hoping she goes and handcuffs herself to some other building soon.

[MR2 Fan]

I can't believe people are gullible enough to get "info" from her....in a party of nutcases, she's one of the nuttiest.

[Rare White Ape]

So anyway, will electing Harris as president finally get you guys some healthcare?

[MR2 Fan]

:lol:

[Tom Servo]

I believe she actually did co-sponsor a Medicare for All bill with Bernie Sanders, so probably more hope than one might normally have. Really depends on how the down ballot races go.

[mk]

How many percentages are moving voters?
I remember somebody was estimating a value as low as 5%.

Moving here is moving horizontally.
Other part is moving vertically, yes or no vote style.

I remember also that one southern east cost state Dems did well by agitating voters to vote.
Seems to be a GOP tactics now.

Flipping a vote is of course more effective.
But two new voters has a better probability.

[JSGeneral]

So anyway, will electing Harris as president finally get you guys some healthcare?

No, but it will get girls some healthcare back.

[MR2 Fan]

No, but it will get girls some healthcare back.

This is true...and Trump's Project 2025 has some truly insane anti-women's healthcare measures, like tracking and arresting women who try to cross state lines to get abortions, and banning contraception entirely.

Basically the GOP's plan is, they know they need more workers but they don't like immigrants...(or other minorities) so the way around this is forced birth. That's why they keep going on about these "traditional marriages" and that women's place is at home raising kids. Banning contraception and abortion gets them closer to that goal.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I really don't get how anyone can be against life and how anyone could be against choice. Roe vs Wade is really a dumb thing to fight about. We just can't be so pro-life that we stop caring for women's life. We also shouldn't be so pro-choice to complete deny the baby's opportunity to make a choice. This is definitely a major reason why I don't like either side.

As for immigration, I do feel the left is not understanding the concern of the right... that is they are against 'illegal' immigration, not immigration in general. Both Trump and Vance's wives are not originally from the US. At least Vance has proven to not be a white supremacist by having a dark skinned wife?

We now even have Chinese illegally crossing the Mexican border because it's easier to get in that way. Imagine who else could come in? The word is out around the globe! While we're bickering about it, our borders are being crossed. I don't think there's anything wrong to secure our border. So that we can have more 'legal' immigration, rather than illegal ones.

As for 'traditional marriage', it's now beginning to sound bad for one man and one woman to raise a family with single income. Hey, it's your life so your choice, but I for one have no problem with 'traditional marriage/family'. I think it's still the most ideal way to raise children. Of course, we don't live in an ideal world, so we need to be more realistic and more accepting, but I don't think we need to make it sound bad for women to actually want to stay home and take care of the kids... I suppose it's not really about gender, if my wife can make more money, I'd gladly stay home to take care of my daughter. Point is that it's better if we could raise our own kids rather than let some paid baby sitter do it all the time.

Anyway, back to the election, it does seem Obama hasn't yet endorse Harris. I wonder what's he cooking up... maybe Michelle will run? :p

[neanderthal]

PETE BUTTIGIEG FOR VICE PRESIDENT.

What a dynamic, forward looking, White House that would be.

But the USA white republiKKKan voters not ready to acknowledge minorities are human beings, much less give them basic respect and dignity.

[MR2 Fan]

I wonder what the # of people who would vote for a black/indian woman but wouldn't vote for a gay man is...actually I don't want to know because it is probably higher than it should be

[Crazed_Insanity]

Most people probably don't care what Bernie has to say, but he has laid out a path for Kamala to win big.

However, DNC establishment tend to want to lay our their own path... such as derail Bernie... and now derail Biden... and to continue on the path of finding a new puppet for them...


https://youtu.be/RVtX9ri5V7I?si=nDLm87PlSqx4l8Yc

Besides, black folks, Joe Biden also had an appeal for the working class white folks.

Trump has clearly strategically picked Vance to try to appeal to the working class white folks.

I can only hope Kamala will also move the democratic party more toward the people's side rather than the big corporation side. Offer the people real affordable healthcare for all... rather than just offer free abortions and sex change operations.

I love that Joe Biden forgives student loans, but I hate that he did nothing to lower the cost of higher education and stop such predatory lending practices from the banks. We are enslaving our future generations here! Yeah, it's nice to use taxpayer's money to buy their freedom, but you haven't abolish 'slavery' yet!

I get the feeling that the best any democrat can do is perhaps also forgive our big medical bills, but cost of healthcare will continue to skyrocket for all.

Same with the border... everyone can come in! This is a free country after all! Don't be a racist! If you say or do anything that's not approved by the DNC, then you're a racist! Lab leak is racist, but virus came out of chinese wet market is not. Go figure.

I want a leader who's committed to really solve problems.

At least I saw Trump solved the forever war problem within his 4 years. After we kicked him out, we're back to forever war mode.

At this point, I honestly see Trump as the lesser evil. However, unless Lord Almighty personally tells me, I'm still not voting for him.

[Dicknose]

Also, if it was a fair voting system (aka not electoral college) she would have won.
By fair you mean a simple country wide majority...
Most places with a parliamentary government dont work on a simple majority, its seat based, most seats wins. So similar to electoral college.
That includes UK, Canada, Australia, NZ

[Dicknose]

I wonder what the # of people who would vote for a black/indian woman but wouldn't vote for a gay man is...actually I don't want to know because it is probably higher than it should be

How many would vote for an atheist??

[MR2 Fan]

How many would vote for an atheist??

oof....20%?

[FaultyMario]

Australia

You're not a presidential system!?

[FaultyMario]

What a dynamic, forward looking, White House that would be.

It was my impression that he hadn't been that effective in the Ministry of Transportation.

[Tom Servo]

oof....20%?

According to Gallup in 2020, not nearly so bad. They're saying that 60% of people would vote for an atheist candidate.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/285563/socialism-atheism-political-liabilities.aspx

[neanderthal]

It was my impression that he hadn't been that effective in the Ministry of Transportation.

They (the right wing media) have tried to paint him as ineffective. But EV sales have gone up year over year, and EV charging stations are popping up everywhere. The fliers bill of rights is a thing. They have tried to pin Boeing's woes on him but those are endemic to Boeing and not to the current administration. High speed rail is on the cusp of being implemented all over, not just the eastern corridor. (There's a line in Florida, one planned for Texas, another in the works for LA to Las Vegas.) Roads and bridges are being improved/ repaired/ updated thanks to the infrastructure bill. Etc etc etc.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I wonder what the # of people who would vote for a black/indian woman but wouldn't vote for a gay man is...actually I don't want to know because it is probably higher than it should be

I think that’s a similar mentality as Trump… if I don’t win, then it must be that election was rigged!

If a black/indian/athiest couldn’t win, it must be because there are too many racists in America!

I’d definitely vote for Bernie the atheist. It’s not about how religious somebody is, but how Christ-like the candidate is.

I voted for the black dude, I didn’t vote for the white lady, I reluctantly voted for Joe because I thought he’s be better than the white lady and definitely better than the orange man! However after 2 forever wars, I’m back to abstaining my votes again.

Kamala doesn’t care to immediately get Bernie’s endorsement tells me plenty of what kind of president she will be. Without Bernie’s endorsement, I won’t cast my vote.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, my only reservation about Buttigieg is my doubts about my fellow Americans. I really like him and would be thrilled with that ticket. Buttigieg has been great in a role that is normally reserved for people who just want a paycheck.

[George]

I wonder what the # of people who would vote for a black/indian woman but wouldn't vote for a gay man is...actually I don't want to know because it is probably higher than it should be

I sure like Colorado governor Jared Polis. Like his predecessor John Hickenlooper, he seems like a regular dude with common sense and not a career politician. I'm not saying either man isn't a career politician; just that they don't act like it.

I liked this quote from Polis a day ago:


"If they do the polling and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old balding gay Jew from Boulder, Colorado – they got my number."

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol:

Makes me wonder how Do they figure out who to pick as VP…

For Kamala, she’s both african(Jamaica is close enough) and Asian(indian), so if she’ll probably have a Latino/a VP!

[MR2 Fan]

I was going to joke about Pete's "elephant in the room".......then go on an on about how difficult it was because he.............has a last name a lot of people can't pronounce correctly

[Crazed_Insanity]

That was a problem back in early 2020 primary race, but as he skyrocketed near the top, I think most liberals know how to pronounce his name by then? If Bernie wasn't in the running, he would've been the nominee by a huge margin over Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Now, maybe he could be the VP. This is what he gets for listening to Obama by stepping aside so that Biden could have a chance...

I think lots of folks eyeing for the presidency are probably rolling their eyes right now with the possible Harris admin, but there's nothing much they can do about it... this is the easiest and most legit transition and they need to appear united.

As a former prosecutor, Kamala should be good at attacking. That sort of got Kamala into the spotlight for a while during the primary race. Audiences love to hear her ripping attacking Trump, but when time comes for her to demonstrate something of substance, that's when she falters.

If I were her campaign manager, I'd want her to constantly stay on the attack mode and rip Trump into pieces. That's probably her only path to victory. She can also probably be good when debating about divisive political issues.

However, Pentagon will probably be telling her what to do about forever wars. Corporations will likely tell her how to handle nation's economy. Will the average black and indian folks be proud of her after 4 years in the WH? I'm not so sure.

As for a latino/a VP, I'm not sure who's the most prominent latino dem at this point. Senator Menendez should be top of the list, but he's currently charged with corruption... so perhaps CA senator Padilla? He's the one who actually replaced her when she was pulled into the VP position. I kinda like Padilla because he's an engineer graduated from MIT! They need more brains in their operation! :p

[MR2 Fan]

I watched Biden's oval office speech and....I'm so glad he's not running anymore...he just has no energy or much clarity anymore, even if what he's saying is great.

[G'day Mate]

...has a last name a lot of people can't pronounce correctly

Speaking of mispronouncing names ... are they doing it on purpose with Kamala Harris? Seems like no one in the Republican party or right wing media can get it right?

No, wait, I watched a Greg Gutfeld bit and he got it right, but the other hosts now seem to just avoid saying her name.

[Tom Servo]

I think it's a weird bit they're doing. Everyone seemed to be able to handle saying her name right for years and suddenly there's all sorts of weirdness, I think it's on purpose.

[Rare White Ape]

I did hear something from the last election about Donald Drumpf purposefully mispronouncing Harris’ first name on purpose as a deliberate sign of disrespect… probably because Trump isn’t able to formulate a suite of mature ways to compete with her as equals in an election, nor can he refer to her gender or skin colour.