US US Politics 2024
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Jamie in Chile
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There's a number of ways you can look at this election and try to explain what happened. A few thoughts:
---The democrats really have been taking up more centrist positions on crime, immigration and the negative side of wokeness is actually in retreat. And yet that didn't help. Was it too little, too late? Or does the not-paying-attention public need more time to absorb the fact that democrats are less clueless on border security and are not trying to 'defund the police' anymore (not that they ever really were) Or maybe that stuff didn't really matter. Maybe it's just a sea of disinformation at this point and no way through with sensible policy until we regulate social media?
---Kamala Harris was the wrong choice. She was never popular, so shouldn't have been chosen just because she was the VP. Should have been an open contest at an earlier stage. Biden should have stepped out earlier. (And please don't ask me "if not Harris then who" simply because I'm sick of answering the same question and having that same debate over and over again. The contest would have been necessary to determine who the best candidate was and allow someone unexpected to come to the front.)
---Inflation was what did it. Inflation may be low now, but prices are still high. It makes no sense whatsoever to blame the Democrats for this, but most people are not smart enough or don't know enough to realize this. Perhaps the democrats should have done a better job of focusing on inflation as the no 1 election issue. Or maybe there was nothing they could do.
---We need to just accept that most people are incredibly selfish and have no independent sense of ethics/morality. Their ethics are mostly or only due to social norms. The fact that a candidate is a truly awful person and obviously incompetent is a second or third tier consideration for most people. Some people say that the normal rules don't apply to Trump, like he is the only one who can win with no ethical standards. And yet we've seen around the world obviously awful people like Javier Milei, Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson win elections as well, so I don't think that's it.
---The democrats really have been taking up more centrist positions on crime, immigration and the negative side of wokeness is actually in retreat. And yet that didn't help. Was it too little, too late? Or does the not-paying-attention public need more time to absorb the fact that democrats are less clueless on border security and are not trying to 'defund the police' anymore (not that they ever really were) Or maybe that stuff didn't really matter. Maybe it's just a sea of disinformation at this point and no way through with sensible policy until we regulate social media?
---Kamala Harris was the wrong choice. She was never popular, so shouldn't have been chosen just because she was the VP. Should have been an open contest at an earlier stage. Biden should have stepped out earlier. (And please don't ask me "if not Harris then who" simply because I'm sick of answering the same question and having that same debate over and over again. The contest would have been necessary to determine who the best candidate was and allow someone unexpected to come to the front.)
---Inflation was what did it. Inflation may be low now, but prices are still high. It makes no sense whatsoever to blame the Democrats for this, but most people are not smart enough or don't know enough to realize this. Perhaps the democrats should have done a better job of focusing on inflation as the no 1 election issue. Or maybe there was nothing they could do.
---We need to just accept that most people are incredibly selfish and have no independent sense of ethics/morality. Their ethics are mostly or only due to social norms. The fact that a candidate is a truly awful person and obviously incompetent is a second or third tier consideration for most people. Some people say that the normal rules don't apply to Trump, like he is the only one who can win with no ethical standards. And yet we've seen around the world obviously awful people like Javier Milei, Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson win elections as well, so I don't think that's it.
From a point of view of foreign police is difficult to find one worse, although the path of both parties' administrations has been going consistently in that same direction for some three decades now.
That's probably why many alternative pro Trump analysts are skeptical about him changing much on foreign policy. Zionism and the industrial military complex will probably keep leading the US and its European vassals in a path that it is not clear if it won't be of self destruction, at least for part of Europe. Certainly terrible for the environment, human rights and democracy.
Brian W
Conscientious Christian
I am not making this up! This is Trump's new team meeting to discuss how to make America healthy again.....while eating a MacDonalds. 
I have read today the opinion that staging this photo was deliberate on Dump’s part to show RFK jr. who is boss.
Regarding the view that there would have been no possible worse candidate than Biden on foreign policy - let’s just wait until Americans get drafted for the war on Iran that will help improve Repugnicans’ midterm results come 2026… (if elections should still be a thing in 2026)
Regarding the view that there would have been no possible worse candidate than Biden on foreign policy - let’s just wait until Americans get drafted for the war on Iran that will help improve Repugnicans’ midterm results come 2026… (if elections should still be a thing in 2026)
Brian W
Conscientious Christian
Yeah, he seems to be systematically humiliating each of his team and they just look up to him with puppy dog eyes!
Lou
Forum Legend
how about no aide to Ukraine. No guardrails for Israel. Support for the all the dictators around the world. Pull out of NATO, end all climate agreements....
@Brian W , do you have a source for that picture?I am not making this up! This is Trump's new team meeting to discuss how to make America healthy again.....while eating a MacDonalds.
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Brian W
Conscientious Christian
I had it in my FB feed so I don't know where it originally came from but there is at least one video on YT that uses it. I haven't watched the video myself.
Brian W
Conscientious Christian
There has been a huge spike in people googling "Can I change my vote" and guess where the people are who are googling this? In the red states - those that voted for Trump.
Jamie in Chile
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I heard the argument that Gaetz is a distraction. Create a lot of noise in the media and make it so that once the Republicans have rejected him they'll be wary of rejecting others, so a bunch of other dodgy peaks will sneak through.
The theory says it doesn't matter to Trump whether or not Gaetz is appointed, but the idea is to distract from your really bad picks by having one or two REALLY REALLY bad ones.
The theory says it doesn't matter to Trump whether or not Gaetz is appointed, but the idea is to distract from your really bad picks by having one or two REALLY REALLY bad ones.
He is a master of distraction. Gaetz is such a ludicrous pick for AG, and I hope the other sane (if there are any left) GOP members will see right through this nonsense. I have loathed the orange one for decades. I just don't get how people don't see that all he is is a con artist, albeit a very good one.
Brian W
Conscientious Christian
I wouldn't say a very good one - I find him easy to see through. He just stirs up excitement in excitable people to get them on his side like a typical cult leader or evangelical preacher.
Lou
Forum Legend
I googled it and it's all over and many reputable news agencies are covering it. Nothing from Snopes so far.
Lou
Forum Legend
I do, too, but apparently half the voting public doesn't. It's scary, really.
Absolutely!
If there is one thing Dump is good at, then it’s at creating a never-ending stream of outrage.
I would not call him a shrewd political operator, but anybody who discounts him as only a lazy, bumbling, venal buffoon, does so at their own risk. He certainly has lots of smart and evil people standing behind him who are whispering advice to him.
My guess… he doesn’t really give a **** or two about really having Matt Gaetz as his AG, this is his first diversion. It’s such an outrageous choice, he threw it out to test the waters. Let “progressive-appearing” and “sane-appearing” Repugnican congresspeople and senators bluster and balk, so that they can later tell their constituents that they successfully prevented Matt Gaetz, before he throws out some other, slightly less horrible, but equally loyal, other candidate, which those “adult” Repugnicans can then rubberstamp.
Chryssie
Internet Junkie
Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. I do think he was afraid of what was going to be made public about his perverted lifestyle.
Yeah, he resigns from Congress so he avoids having his case opened, withdraws from nomination and gets his seat back without any repercussions.
. A pretty shrewd plan you'd expect out country to be able to subvert...but now we know better .
