US Politics Thread

[Moxie]

Ok, that was funny. And only this guy could come up with something like that and actually say it out loud.
You know how older people do not care after a certain age where and how loud they fart? That's how Trump talks.
I like it .

There's nothing funny about it. I mean, it's not a good joke, it's just a shocking thing to say. Crass, undiplomatic, outrageous. Well, if you like that sort of thing in your politicians. Except that he's not your politician, he's mine, and I am mortified that he spoke to the Japanese PM that way. If he wants to retire and fart and bluster embarrassingly in public on his own time, fine. If he's going to represent me, I'm find him a continuing national shame.

 

[Murat B.]

Was it as embarrassing as, say, Biden's debate performance?

Come on, it was a little bit funny ! You don't see the irony of a Japanese reporter asking " Why didn't you let us know?" Of course it is shocking...it is Trump. He does not have that career politician chip installed that provides filtered speech.

By the way, I take back what I said about Biden. It was not his fault what happened to him. Age caught up. Everyone with a little bit of common sense knows who the real evil person is in that situation.

 

[Kieran]

I think if people are expecting Trump to be diplomatic, they’re on the wrong train. People like him because he’s not diplomatic, he’s not all veneer and smooth edges, but with a dark soul. He’s no darker than any other President, but at least he doesn’t pretend about who he is. He’s changed the face of politics and not always in a good way, but we’ve had enough hypocrites and shady smiling devils in high office, everywhere.

 

[Kieran]

It’s funny how quickly the tide turns. Cocky abuse switches to grovelling and begging. There’s something very disturbing in the leadership here, as in, the complete absence of any:

 

[Front242]

 

[Federberg]

This is a worthy read…

 

[Federberg]

fascinating podcast... Makes some very good points about what happens once the midterms are past, what Trump will be like when he's a lame duck President etc... also points out the incompetence of Democratic politics and the damage to the DoJ. Lots of food for thought and optimism for Dems tbh...

 

[Federberg]

Was it as embarrassing as, say, Biden's debate performance?

Come on, it was a little bit funny ! You don't see the irony of a Japanese reporter asking " Why didn't you let us know?" Of course it is shocking...it is Trump. He does not have that career politician chip installed that provides filtered speech.

By the way, I take back what I said about Biden. It was not his fault what happened to him. Age caught up. Everyone with a little bit of common sense knows who the real evil person is in that situation.

not sure it makes sense to compare a debate performance which is basic domestic politics to a foreign policy gaffe in the midst of a war of whim. Big difference no?

 

[Murat B.]

not sure it makes sense to compare a debate performance which is basic domestic politics to a foreign policy gaffe in the midst of a war of whim. Big difference no?

Biden's issue was not his fault. Others, mostly his evil wife Jill propped him up like in the movie Weekend at Bernie's and fed him to the sharks. Although it was not his fault, it was still super embarrassing. Donald, on the other hand, said what he said knowingly, because that is what he does. You can look at it in two ways. You can clutch your pearls and say oh my god no politician would ever say that and you would be correct. Or ,as someone who understands Trumpisms, you say that is Donald being Donald and it is pretty funny what he said. And you would be correct too. The two sides have no interest in talking to each other, hence the situation they are in.

 

[mrzz]

This is a worthy read…

I don't know Robert Mueller apart from what surfaces in the news, but this is a very good text indeed. Even if Robert Mueller was a bad man (again, I have zero idea about that), some points here are very well put. Actually, given that people are way more complex than the good/bad binomial indicates, what he was becomes less relevant, at least to the points risen here.

This good/bad thing is what I hate the most on today's politics. Trump embraces it to the core. But he is compounding his mistakes, and this definitely was another one.

 

[Federberg]

Biden's issue was not his fault. Others, mostly his evil wife Jill propped him up like in the movie Weekend at Bernie's and fed him to the sharks. Although it was not his fault, it was still super embarrassing. Donald, on the other hand, said what he said knowingly, because that is what he does. You can look at it in two ways. You can clutch your pearls and say oh my god no politician would ever say that and you would be correct. Or ,as someone who understands Trumpisms, you say that is Donald being Donald and it is pretty funny what he said. And you would be correct too. The two sides have no interest in talking to each other, hence the situation they are in.

wow! His wife is evil now? How did we get here? Isn't it enough to say she or whoever made the decision made a mistake? Where does good and evil come into it? I'm floored.

But again... We're essentially talking about errors here. I don't see how you can compare gaffes with a major ally during a war to a Presidential debate. I honestly don't get it

 

[Federberg]

The more I think about it, the more I think Trump might have broken the military industrial complex. I don't think folks have figured it out yet, but looking at what both Iran and Ukraine have been able to do with sparse budgets, the age of multi-billion dollar defence contracts might be over. What use are multi-million dollar weapons systems if they can be destroyed by thousand dollar drones? The cost benefit doesn't make sense. We'll get a better sense of this as we begin to see how Germany rebuilds its military. I'm guessing they'll allocate far less to fighter jets, tanks and warships than some might have assumed in the past. US defence contractors are going to be screaming when they see that a huge amount of funds will be allocated to new hungry Ukrainian drone manufacturers. I haven't figured out what the politics will be in the United States, but some very powerful, very wealthy people and companies are suddenly going to realise that their massive factories are effectively obsolete!

It gets worse when you consider that the obvious place to turn their investment towards is space. The likes of Bezos and Musk are already there. What are they going to do??

 

[Murat B.]

wow! His wife is evil now? How did we get here? Isn't it enough to say she or whoever made the decision made a mistake? Where does good and evil come into it? I'm floored.

But again... We're essentially talking about errors here. I don't see how you can compare gaffes with a major ally during a war to a Presidential debate. I honestly don't get it

Let me try to explain . Jill Biden was and is the closest person to Joe Biden. She knew exactly what was going on with him. Any loving and caring wife (or husband ) would tell to their spouse "Listen, you have done all you can , you served your country. It is time to pass the torch. You are not well and I do not want you to be in an environment where things can get nasty and embarrassing" But what did the power hungry Jill do? Fed her husband to the wolves. I will never forget how she treated him like a toddler after that embarrassing debate.
She was there, she saw the decline, she saw everything. Yet she did not put a stop to it. She was in the position to do it as his wife. That makes her evil in my books. She fucking KNEW !

 

[mrzz]

There's nothing funny about it. I mean, it's not a good joke, it's just a shocking thing to say. Crass, undiplomatic, outrageous. Well, if you like that sort of thing in your politicians. Except that he's not your politician, he's mine, and I am mortified that he spoke to the Japanese PM that way. If he wants to retire and fart and bluster embarrassingly in public on his own time, fine. If he's going to represent me, I'm find him a continuing national shame.

Trump is an elephant in a glass cabinet. In this particular case, what strikes me is something that I have not seen anyone mention so far. I have zero problems with him being blunt about a historical fact. Japan did attack Pearl Harbor without notice. If people are touchy about it, that is their problem. Now, you can tell me that this was not good diplomacy, which could well be the case, but it depends on which diplomatic position the US wants to take with regards to Japan at this moment. I am no expert in the US-Japan relations, so I have no idea. But sometimes bullying is indeed required in international relations. Of course, the chance that Trump did some deep analysis regarding that before he opened his mouth is quite low, but I believe that st least he had in mind some general plan in which he was the toughest guy in the room.

But what I have not seen is someone calling attention to an obvious fact: in Pearl Harbor Japan was an openly imperialistic power, doing an explicit imperialistic action. You can analyze the context, classify the US as imperialistic as well if you want, but no one disputes that Japan committed an unprovoked (military at the very least) aggression, with imperialistic intentions.

Then Trump comes in and says that he did absolutely the same thing. Of course, he was hardly thinking about the context, but the Freudian slip is obvious (regardless of my, or anyone's take of the Iranian regime).

 

[Kieran]

Let me try to explain . Jill Biden was and is the closest person to Joe Biden. She knew exactly what was going on with him. Any loving and caring wife (or husband ) would tell to their spouse "Listen, you have done all you can , you served your country. It is time to pass the torch. You are not well and I do not want you to be in an environment where things can get nasty and embarrassing" But what did the power hungry Jill do? Fed her husband to the wolves. I will never forget how she treated him like a toddler after that embarrassing debate.
She was there, she saw the decline, she saw everything. Yet she did not put a stop to it. She was in the position to do it as his wife. That makes her evil in my books. She fucking KNEW !

Absolutely, Murat. My dad had Alzheimer’s and it’s a brutal, degrading experience for the person who has it, and Jill Biden pushed her husband on stage to face the most humiliating experience of any election campaign ever.

And after she patted him on the head and said, well done, little boy! You answered all the questions.

I was furious watching it, as I’m sure all democrats are now, if any of them actually even cared about the man. Comes out later that they all knew. Everybody in the world could see it. You could see it from Ireland and they could see it up close. Obama, the lot of them. None of them cared for Joe Biden, especially his wife, and none of them cared for America or Americans, they just thought, them idiots will vote for anyone under our blue flag. If they don’t, and they’re black, then they ain’t black, and the rest of them, they’re deplorable.

It was disgusting. They then put forward a meme for President, with a corrupt asshole from a failed corrupt state as the veep.

They don’t care about America, they only care about winning, and their followers have been persistently insurgent ever since..

 

[Federberg]

^I think you're both giving President Biden zero agency. If you seriously believe that anyone, including his wife, could tell Biden that he was unfit to debate then I've got a bridge to nowhere I can sell to you. I haven't heard anywhere that Biden had Alzheimer's, what I did hear was that he had episodes where his age and ability to function at optimal levels wasn't there. That's a perfectly normal part of the aging process. It would be more appropriate to criticise his team, including his wife, of not being strong enough to persuade him that he shouldn't run. But to attribute evil seems extreme. My biggest gripe with Biden was the fact that he lashed out by nominating Harris without a truly democratic process. Even then she had a chance to fight and win but she completely blew it by trying to curate a persona that was clearly not authentic to the American people. Another "crime" Biden perpetrated was handcuffing her and not allowing Harris to separate herself from his Administration. In retrospect one of the biggest mistakes in her campaign was her failing to differentiate herself when asked on The View. She completely messed up and failed to realise that the American electorate blamed Biden for the cost of living crisis and when given the chance she couldn't even offer up a plan to fix the problem. No one can make me believe that her people weren't aware that that was one of the biggest concerns for voters

We're in a weird place folks. Maybe I'm old school but I believe in holding people accountable for their mistakes. Can it be that we're now wilfully washing away responsibility just so we can blame others? Why? Let's man up and make those who make mistakes own it. Or are we really trying to suggest that Biden was such a doddering helpless weakling that he couldn't even wipe his own ass? Come on guys!

 

[Kieran]

^I think you're both giving President Biden zero agency. If you seriously believe that anyone, including his wife, could tell Biden that he was unfit to debate then I've got a bridge to nowhere I can sell to you. I haven't heard anywhere that Biden had Alzheimer's, what I did hear was that he had episodes where his age and ability to function at optimal levels wasn't there. That's a perfectly normal part of the aging process. It would be more appropriate to criticise his team, including his wife, of not being strong enough to persuade him that he shouldn't run. But to attribute evil seems extreme. My biggest gripe with Biden was the fact that he lashed out by nominating Harris without a truly democratic process. Even then she had a chance to fight and win but she completely blew it by trying to curate a persona that was clearly not authentic to the American people. Another "crime" Biden perpetrated was handcuffing her and not allowing Harris to separate herself from his Administration. In retrospect one of the biggest mistakes in her campaign was her failing to differentiate herself when asked on The View. She completely messed up and failed to realise that the American electorate blamed Biden for the cost of living crisis and when given the chance she couldn't even offer up a plan to fix the problem. No one can make me believe that her people weren't aware that that was one of the biggest concerns for voters

We're in a weird place folks. Maybe I'm old school but I believe in holding people accountable for their mistakes. Can it be that we're now wilfully washing away responsibility just so we can blame others? Why? Let's man up and make those who make mistakes own it. Or are we really trying to suggest that Biden was such a doddering helpless weakling that he couldn't even wipe his own ass? Come on guys!

Definitely a weird place right now, but Biden clearly wasn’t well for ages before the debate, but they thought they’d wing it. That’s politics - but his wife? She ought to have looked after him first, and told them to start a process to select an actual viable candidate.

I doubt very much he’d have passed a simple test for dementia, after which he could have been removed from office whatever his own feelings about it. He could have stepped down with dignity, nobody would have blamed him, and I found it horrible to watch her tell him did great after the debate. It was the shambles they all feared. But imagine if he’d somehow stumbled through it, and been reelected?

They knew what they were doing, and whether it’s evil or not, it’s the opposite of good…

 

[Murat B.]

^I think you're both giving President Biden zero agency. If you seriously believe that anyone, including his wife, could tell Biden that he was unfit to debate then I've got a bridge to nowhere I can sell to you. I haven't heard anywhere that Biden had Alzheimer's, what I did hear was that he had episodes where his age and ability to function at optimal levels wasn't there. That's a perfectly normal part of the aging process. It would be more appropriate to criticise his team, including his wife, of not being strong enough to persuade him that he shouldn't run. But to attribute evil seems extreme. My biggest gripe with Biden was the fact that he lashed out by nominating Harris without a truly democratic process. Even then she had a chance to fight and win but she completely blew it by trying to curate a persona that was clearly not authentic to the American people. Another "crime" Biden perpetrated was handcuffing her and not allowing Harris to separate herself from his Administration. In retrospect one of the biggest mistakes in her campaign was her failing to differentiate herself when asked on The View. She completely messed up and failed to realise that the American electorate blamed Biden for the cost of living crisis and when given the chance she couldn't even offer up a plan to fix the problem. No one can make me believe that her people weren't aware that that was one of the biggest concerns for voters

We're in a weird place folks. Maybe I'm old school but I believe in holding people accountable for their mistakes. Can it be that we're now wilfully washing away responsibility just so we can blame others? Why? Let's man up and make those who make mistakes own it. Or are we really trying to suggest that Biden was such a doddering helpless weakling that he couldn't even wipe his own ass? Come on guys!

It is simple man. Biden WAS in a bad situation, people close to him knew it, Jill Biden knew it better than anyone else. Biden was past personal accountability. He needed help, guidance and a retirement with dignity, all of which his wife should have provided, if not forced him to do.She did none.
I do not believe for even a second that Biden had anything to do with Kamala being picked. It was the democratic establishment. And she was a flawed candidate from the start. Why would you pick the person that left the primaries first with %1 of the voters voting for her. Dems keep picking people like this and than blame it on misogyny and sexism when things don't go well, instead of the horrible candidates they push on people but that is another debate. The fact remains that Biden was in bad shape, he campaigned hidden , from his basement, had the least amount of contact with the press and the public of any candidate running for the presidency, and all for a reason and Jill was the only person who could put a stop to this. She chose not to.

 

[Fiero425]

All of this is "WHAT?" No one seems to care what's going on now, right now under our very noses! Punishing Biden, his wife, & Kamala can't help what TF is going on right now; the inflation, the unemployment, the gas prices, now a war! WTF is hashing out Biden gonna do?

 

[Kieran]

All of this is "WHAT?" No one seems to care what's going on now, right now under our very noses! Punishing Biden, his wife, & Kamala can't help what TF is going on right now; the inflation, the unemployment, the gas prices, now a war! WTF is hashing out Biden gonna do?

Well, I suppose the discussion really is, why didn’t the democrats put forward a candidate to beat Trump? You will say they did, they put forward Kamala Harris, to which the answer is simple: Americans preferred Trump..