ewsieg

I'm not trying to say Biden is as bad as Trump on this, but anyone that defends Biden on this needs to go and read this report.

I don't think they are right, but I do understand them. Frank Turner is coming into town and it led me to listening to his new stuff and some of his old stuff last night. In one song he has a line something like 'you can't fix anything if all you have is a hammer'. Tearing down is easy, and even sometimes fun....rebuilding though.....

We also know Trump likes to boast of things 'he has'. We also know there have been tons of folks that cooperated with officials and gave their accounts, many of which have been shared here, which indicate he knew he had them and boasted of them to others, in one account showing a map to people but telling them not to get too close because they shouldn't see the details of it. As of now, there are zero reports indicating he sold them. I agree with you, he probably would have if the price is right, but again, zero reports he sold them. Meanwhile, the report on Biden is that he knowingly kept them and knowingly shared information from them to the Ghostwriter in an attempt to make money from the sale of a book. Rather it made it to the final copy of the book or not, has no bearing on the situation. This report indicates Biden did something that you can only accuse of Trump doing because 'it sounds like something he'd do'.

Report on the Investigation Into Unauthorized Removal, Retention, and Disclosure of Classified Documents Discovered at Locatinos Including the Penn Biden Center and the Delaware Private Residence of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (justice.gov) I guess the blame should be on Biden for disclosing this, maybe he forgot to tell Garland it shouldn't be released. If you were all in on Trump should be brought up on charges (and should be found guilty) for the Mar-a-lago documents case, I don't see how you don't think Biden should be in the same boat here. This might be the first case that Biden is worse than Trump here. The facts we now know is that Trump had documents he knew about and kept. We have no evidence he sold secrets, but he apparently bragged about having them for clout. Biden had documents he knew about and kept. The difference for Biden is he wanted them to make money off of them to help him document his book with his ghostwriter. This isn't changing my vote, i'm still voting for any D on the ballot....but please, you folks claim you're the adults in the room, you can't find someone else in your party for me to vote for?

https://abcnews.go.com/US/ag-special-counsel-finished-probe-bidens-handling-classified/story?id=107004130#:~:text=Garland said that Hur had,Counsel's report public as possible.” Based on this, it appears Garland expected to publicly release it and i've heard no push back from anyone on this report not coming from the Justice Department.

I haven't read it and regardless of how it reads I'm sure people will be taking it out of context, but if it's a special investigator giving a report to a prosecutor, I'd absolutely expect this. Once a prosecutor decides to charge someone, it's no longer about right or wrong, it's about winning. They aren't going to try a case that they don't think they can win, even if they feel they have facts on their side. That would definitely come into a discussion about advising on a decision.

In the little I was able to listen towards the end, if Jackson sides with Colorado, she made them earn it. She seemed particularly tough on their argument.

In no way am I looking to defend either parent and I'm not upset with this ruling. But even as one of the lone conservative voices on this forum, I recognize many good intentioned laws/rulings don't always work out the best for the most impoverished. To note, I don't think they illegally supplied a gun for him. They purchased it for him and did not intend on him having access to it without their involvement. I don't think that is illegal. Granted they were reckless in more ways than just being reckless with gun access and suspect all of that came into play with the decision.

Trump generally has the ability to just flip on whatever he wants and the MAGA crowd just goes with it. I really think he messed up politically here on immigration. 1) This immigration bill isn't even that great, it's not like it was a compromise, senate republicans got almost everything they asked for. 2) High profile house republicans are pissed. Immigration was in their minds a big factor for their re-election bids, either as an achievement or as a issue that they can claim they'd deal with. Now at best for them, hopefully it's an issue that folks ignore, the same folks they've been riling up to care about it so much. 3) Biden appears to be looking to take advantage of it and not just let it sit as an unforced error. Regardless if the House GOP ignores it or buckles and passes it, Biden (if ignored) could actually have it as part of his platform, taking it away from republicans to campaign on, or Biden (if passed) touts it as bi-partisan work that he got to the finish line. I'm not sure which one would help him more with voters, but I feel like Trump (once again) put the GOP in a no win situation. I don't think he's realized yet he put himself in that position too.

I agree with you the most on everything I've seen in this thread for the past few hours. This portion somewhat surprised me though. I would actually think it would be a liberal person that would be concerned about this setting a precedent and being used for gun crimes relating to black youth.

A buddy of mine lives just outside Knoxville, TN, has quite a gun collection, and enjoys shooting. He is contemplating buying some property just so he can shoot somewhere without having to associate with other people who assume he's like minded.

Hopefully there are some background talks with China regarding this. This is increasing shipping costs for them too, it would be nice for them to put some pressure on Iran.

You have to trust Joe Biden in order to grasp it like this, and most average voters do not trust any politician. I can listen to you say that it's smart for him to negotiate the tariff away and agree that you might be right. But again, when you say Soybean farmers were destroyed by Trump over these tariffs, but it's alright that Biden is still destroying them because it's the smart thing to do and if there is any blame for soybean farmers going bankrupt in years 4, 5, and 6 they should still blame Trump and not Biden, that's tough for the average voter to swallow.

1984, The average voter does not get into the weeds on issues like those of us on this forum do so it is a little bit more difficult to understand than you claim. I'm not defending the tariffs. All I'm saying is that to the average Trump voter, you can't outline all these reasons why Trump's tariffs were the most idiotic decision in the history of all time, then try and defend why Biden still has them in place 3 years later.

Gehringer, there you go again by analyzing the decision, it's impact, how it can be leveraged now, and the host of variables that come with all of that. In looking at what you wrote, the only difference I think we have on it is that initially I was not critical of Trump for imposing them even though I tend to be against tariffs. I was willing to accept the tax on us to try and send a message.

How utterly ****ing STUPID are you Biden supporters for supporting a guy that knew they were bad but kept them? That is how a MAGA would respond to you and on its surface, it's a legitimate response.

I don't want to see Biden go down this route either for the sake of decorum, but 1) I don't think it would turn off any of his current voters and 2) It would directly speak to and get the attention of Trump leaning voters. It's always annoyed me that it's the folks with '**** Joe Biden' stickers on their cars that are at the library meetings screaming about watching out for the kids and making sure they don't read inappropriate things.

The problem with everyone on this board is that they have interest in politics and therefore keep up on news related to it. This leads to more nuanced responses and more push back on claims. That's a good thing, but my point on the average Trumper (and honestly the average Biden supporter) is that they don't pay attention to the details, they respond to the slogans. Obviously the type of news and how you interpret it leads to differing opinions, but the facts are Dems, over my lifetime, were the party of the unions and were much more open to tariffs. Maybe I went to far to say they 'love' them, but in the last 40 years, until Trump, no republicans were pushing for them. Biden did let a small one expire without pushing to extend it, outside of that nearly all of the Trump imposed tariffs still exist today. If Trump is an idiot that for idiotic reasons imposed the tariffs, what is Biden if he is the grown up finally back in charge and keeps them? That's a rhetorical question, in the second link below there are some reasons noted why he kept them, but again, most people don't care to go that in depth. Your average Trumper just sees this: * Trump enacted them and got ridiculed for it * Biden comes in, keeps them, and when pushed on it, his defenders explain why they are good while simultaneously saying Trump was an idiot for doing it. And to Lee, the Trump voters I know differ on that. Some steadfastly claim he's not in it for himself, the left just paints it that way. Most seem to think he's definitely trying to 'get his', but also that he wants to expose everything else that it wrong with government so they are fine with it. https://www.csis.org/analysis/democratic-trade-policy-part-i#:~:text=For roughly its first 150,greater choice that trade brings. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/27/1184027892/china-tariffs-biden-trump#:~:text=Biden hardly ever mentions the,wrap up later this year.

Democrats loved tariffs, then Trump imposed them and every democrat said they were the dumbest thing in the world. Biden kept them in place and it's a non story now. Lots of things don't make sense to sensible people. I don't think we're dealing with that with the Trumpers.

I'm not saying there aren't people that are like what you describe, but as a whole I think you're misguided. There is no advantage for the GOP here. Right now, for the politicians, yes, they have to play the Trump game. It allows them to stay in power in red districts/states and for independent/blue states, it allows them to stay in the party should it ever turn around, but they know they will lose elections until Trump is gone. Eventually it will force a change in the party in order to win elections. Without the unique ability of Trump, I'm confident you would have already seen that. And in today's world, who cares about who shares their politics. If it weren't for Sanders primary voters voting for Trump over Hillary, we may not have ever had Trump. They couldn't be any further politically, but the message resonates the same. That message is powerful people are taking advantage of the government and you, and there is no politician that is going to do a damn thing about it. That's why the Strong Man/Fascist view resonates, because for years, both sides says the other side is stopping progress from fixing issues. They are finally believing both sides and figure it's the only option to fix it.

Sounds like they had just hired this guy for their upcoming tour. Opening band refused to play with them and now the tour has been cancelled. I listened to several songs of theirs and enjoyed them. Hopefully they can get through this.

I say 'republic' now, so I guess this fits me. That said, I say republic because I got roasted on this site for saying we were a democracy years back. There are some that truly believe the election was stolen, thus they don't believe in democracy/republic/democratic republic anymore, but most of the Trump folks I know simply want to burn it down and seem to think we'll be better to start fresh. As with most people, they don't follow politics/news/business enough to truly understand what 'burning it down' would entail. Both sides have been telling the other how the other side wants to destroy America. It's not that the Trumpers picked a side, it's that they ended up believing both sides.

Ironically the Dems have been subtle in slowing drifting towards immigration in the past month or so. Wasn't too long ago there simply wasn't an immigration problem, at least if you asked the WH. Smart move IMO and Biden hammered that home the other day with the "I'll close it down" talk. GOP has been overblowing the immigration issue since Biden got in. This could seriously downplay that as an issue heading into next year. (edit: this year)

I just rewatched it myself and agree completely.

TV ratings were much different in 2016 then they are now. The show doesn't have the reach it once had. I notice someone say republicans don't watch it and that's probably right under the Trevor Noah, but I can see clips getting shared quite a bit on social media if Stewart had a take on things. So while I doubt it could have the effect I think it could have in 2016, it still could be helpful. I think Stewart is similar to Maher in that those on the right know they are lefties, but trust that they will call out the left and not just the right. Stewart's rant on Colbert over the lab leak theory was all over right focuses media / social media. So when they have a pointed attack on the right, I feel like people on the right are more receptive in listening to the complaint versus simply trying to find a way to attack back.