Biden's presidency

[Mr.TaterSalad]

The Hill: Yet another Hunter ‘bombshell’ is a dud

I'll say what I have always said, if Joe Biden is provably implicated in business dealings with his son and tried to enrich himself in anyway I think he should be investigated and held to account to the fullest extent of the law. But I keep hearing and seeing things about Burisma, Devon Archer, etc. and have yet to see determinative and definitive evidence that Joe did anything wrong.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

9 minutes ago, digitalpigsmuggler said:

Trump to Howard Stern: You can call my daughter a “piece of ass”

[digitalpigsmuggler]

Sad.

Edited August 3, 2023 by digitalpigsmuggler

[digitalpigsmuggler]

35 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The Hill: Yet another Hunter ‘bombshell’ is a dud

I'll say what I have always said, if Joe Biden is provably implicated in business dealings with his son and tried to enrich himself in anyway I think he should be investigated and held to account to the fullest extent of the law. But I keep hearing and seeing things about Burisma, Devon Archer, etc. and have yet to see determinative and definitive evidence that Joe did anything wrong.

FLASHBACK, 2018: Joe Biden Brags At CFR Meeting About Withholding Aid To Ukraine To Force Firing Of Prosecutor

Quote

 

Quote

In this clip from a January 2018 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Vice President Joe Biden seems to brag about threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine as a pressure tactic to force the firing of a prosecutor he did not like.

FLASHBACK, 2018: Joe Biden Brags At CFR Meeting About Withholding Aid To Ukraine To Force Firing Of Prosecutor | Video | RealClearPolitics

[digitalpigsmuggler]

36 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Trump to Howard Stern: You can call my daughter a “piece of ass”

[smr-nj]

You need to stop using our threads for your constant dump of crap stories and your ridiculous large font and today - large red font.

Today could be the day you push the wrong button.  

Then, I honestly don’t give a **** to whom you cry/complain to.  If the powers that be want to pick you over me, I can live with that too.

So, go ahead, try me.

[oblong]

yeah the spamming of memes needs to stop.

Engage all you want but doing nothing but posting pictures and tweets is not engaging.  It's littering and does not add any value to the site.  It's pollution.

You need to stop or else you will be stopped.

 

[digitalpigsmuggler]

34 minutes ago, smr-nj said:

You need to stop using our threads for your constant dump of crap stories and your ridiculous large font and today - large red font.

Today could be the day you push the wrong button.  

Then, I honestly don’t give a **** to whom you cry/complain to.  If the powers that be want to pick you over me, I can live with that too.

So, go ahead, try me.

What rule am I violating? or is it you disagree with what I am posting.

[smr-nj]

See ya. 👋🏻 

You don’t add to our community.  

[Tigerbomb13]

2 hours ago, digitalpigsmuggler said:

Well, I’m convinced

[romad1]

today could be like a two-fer

[chasfh]

Seven likes in 528 posts may be the lowest batting average for any qualified poster in the history of here.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

 

[oblong]

It's almost like things happen outside of anyone's control and the basic laws of economics take over....

 

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

It's almost like things happen outside of anyone's control and the basic laws of economics take over....

 

There is a kernel of truth in saying that people expect the government to control the game more than it should or can. The government's job is to control the rules of the game. At best the game runs largely by itself.  It's up to the gov to keep watch and push it back when it starts crossing the wrong lines.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

15 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

There is a kernel of truth in saying that people expect the government to control the game more than it should or can. The government's job is to control the rules of the game. At best the game runs largely by itself.  It's up to the gov to keep watch and push it back when it starts crossing the wrong lines.

The thing I cannot wrap my head around is how the MAGA right and Republicans are always talking about how they are being ripped off and the game is rigged by powerful special interests. Yet, when government does step in and try to course correct and put regulations in place they fall hook-line-sinker for the same old "but that's socialism" bit and regurgitate it. So they want things to change, but when change does happen it's socialism. There are some on the right still who legitimately believe the Milton Friedman/Ronald Reagan line of government is the problem. But I think most of your modern day Republicans and the MAGA right would not want or endorse the kinds of deregulatory measures we saw under Reagan and Clinton. Yet ever measure of regulation is evil Socialism.

The other thing that's always hard to comprehend, and this centers around the Ukraine argument, is the whole "imagine if we spent all the money we're sending to Ukraine on the American people." Spend that money on what exactly? We did do that in 2009 under President Obama with the ACA and the expansion of Medicaid and the right lost their minds of expanding Medicaid. They had an entire tea party movement, the precursor to MAGA, form partly as a result of expanding Medicaid and diverting resources away from Iraq and Afghanistan towards helping actual Americans.

It's a real headache trying to dissect and understand the mental gymnastics of the right.

[smr-nj]

17 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

It's a real headache trying to dissect and understand the mental gymnastics of the right.

Pretzel logic.  They tied themselves into unbelievable knots trying to justify their thinking. 

[mtutiger]

59 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The thing I cannot wrap my head around is how the MAGA right and Republicans are always talking about how they are being ripped off and the game is rigged by powerful special interests. Yet, when government does step in and try to course correct and put regulations in place they fall hook-line-sinker for the same old "but that's socialism" bit and regurgitate it. So they want things to change, but when change does happen it's socialism. There are some on the right still who legitimately believe the Milton Friedman/Ronald Reagan line of government is the problem. But I think most of your modern day Republicans and the MAGA right would not want or endorse the kinds of deregulatory measures we saw under Reagan and Clinton. Yet ever measure of regulation is evil Socialism.

The other thing that's always hard to comprehend, and this centers around the Ukraine argument, is the whole "imagine if we spent all the money we're sending to Ukraine on the American people." Spend that money on what exactly? We did do that in 2009 under President Obama with the ACA and the expansion of Medicaid and the right lost their minds of expanding Medicaid. They had an entire tea party movement, the precursor to MAGA, form partly as a result of expanding Medicaid and diverting resources away from Iraq and Afghanistan towards helping actual Americans.

It's a real headache trying to dissect and understand the mental gymnastics of the right.

It's helps to understand and acknowledge that, with a few exceptions, most of the party tends to approach policy by starting from a conclusion (ie. whatever points them at odds / against their political enemies) and working backwards, when thinking in terms of policy requires the inverse of starting from a place of factfinding and working toward a conclusion.

And if you're starting from a conclusion and working backward, you are never going to exhibit anything resembling ideological consistency.

[RatkoVarda]

1 hour ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

It's a real headache trying to dissect and understand the mental gymnastics of the right.

think this was posted elsewhere but it is just tribalism; something seen as bad, is seen as good if Trump did it

As if you needed it, here’s more evidence that the GOP base has become a cult. In a lengthy story about the DeSantis Slump, the New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells includes this nugget:

Even attaching Trump’s name to an otherwise effective message had a tendency to invert the results, this source said. If a moderator said that the COVID lockdowns destroyed small businesses and facilitated the largest upward wealth transfer in modern American history, seventy per cent of the Republicans surveyed would agree. But, if the moderator said that Trump’s COVID lockdowns destroyed small businesses and facilitated the largest upward wealth transfer in modern American history, the source said, seventy per cent would disagree.

[romad1]

https://x.com/maxboot/status/1692234673747898383?s=46&t=76Y1aNflZsD8yrwQrvLC2g

 

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

https://x.com/maxboot/status/1692234673747898383?s=46&t=76Y1aNflZsD8yrwQrvLC2g

 

Doing instead of shouting tends to work better.   It's not exciting, though.   

[romad1]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Doing instead of shouting tends to work better.   It's not exciting, though.   

I still want him to hold a state dinner for each of the important central Pacific and south Pacific countries to get them all inside the tent.  I recall he had to cancel on Paupa New Guinea’s president because he was dealing with some asinine congressional maneuvers .

[Jim Cowan]

2 hours ago, romad1 said:

I still want him to hold a state dinner for each of the important central Pacific and south Pacific countries to get them all inside the tent.  I recall he had to cancel on Paupa New Guinea’s president because he was dealing with some asinine congressional maneuvers .

Yeah, plus it would help to get the lingering stench of Modi out of the White House.

[romad1]

5 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Yeah, plus it would help to get the lingering stench of Modi out of the White House.

The Western allies had to kiss Stalin's ass because he had a long border with Hitler --he made the border by invading the baltics and Poland of course.   India, Vietnam and the Philippines fall into that category now. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by romad1

[chasfh]

18 hours ago, romad1 said:

https://x.com/maxboot/status/1692234673747898383?s=46&t=76Y1aNflZsD8yrwQrvLC2g

 

 

This matters in terms of stability of the world, but to Trump world, diplomacy is de facto weakness, so they still see it as a Trump win and Biden loss. The trick is, getting people to vote for the stability of the world.