The Many Faces of US Politics...

[J70]

The border mess is 100% on this administration and the people most impacted are the Democrats own supporters

Here in Boston, the State has commandeered a community center in a the poorest neighborhood in the city and turned it into a shelter. The locals are going ballistic

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/02/02/politics-healey-wu-shelter-roxbury-migrants-melnea-cass-recreation-center

Just because Trump is a d1ckh34d doesn't mean he was wrong about everything

The whole GOP is on the same page as Trump on that.

They could put up Haley and get pretty much the same policies without all the derangement, corruption, bigotry and naked worship of despots.

[Blowitupref]

Biden is a shambles. Sophie's Choice in the US.

Representative democracy is a shambles.

Look at the state of those being elected across the world. If it were a professional position that required submission of CVs and interviews, how many would pass the first stage of vetting?

It's completely depressing

Joe obviously isn't calling the shots

Whether or nit he is, the perception is that he isn't, and he's only going to slow down more.

I think the people around him need to make him see that he has to pull out for the good of the country. There is too much at stake.

When he was running for his first term were they really planning on him seeing out 8 years?! They fucked with the initial term - there must have been better candidates! If even liberals are seeing him as a busted flush then things are bad. He needs to get gone on medical grounds ASAP.

I think many people, including myself, figured he'd only want to a single term. There was no one else at the time. We needed a moderate candidate who stood a reasonable chance of beating the mentally ill freakshow. Sanders would have been crucified as a pinko commie and the second coming of Lenin. Biden was the only option who could appeal to a broad enough section of the electorate to keep Trump out. We need the same again, but unfortunately Biden is now too old.

Plenty about Biden's age and memory then you have Trump only a few years younger who thinks he running against Obama and can't tell the difference between Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Yeah, Trump is older now than Biden was last time, and we heard plenty back then about how Biden was too old.

They are both too old, but it's too late to do much about that now.

[RedHand88]

Haley dropping out of the republican race.

[befair]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

[markl121]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

Didn't think id be seeing paisley referred to as handsome today anyway

[Captain Obvious]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

Didn't think id be seeing paisley referred to as handsome today anyway

True what they say. "beauty in the eye of the beholder"

[J70]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

His appeal isn't that bewildering though when you see the diet of fantastical, paranoid nonsense that the right wing media feeds it's audience. Trump is exactly like Paisley and meets the worldview nurtured by the right wing media, preaching apocalypse and doom and victimhood. You better rely on him, or else you'll be sold down the river in your own, rapidly changing country by the treacherous forces of evil.

I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse.

However, like much populist demagoguing throughout history, it is very effective. Trump is the nominee, and there is a very real chance, given the small number of deciding states and the inbuilt advantage of the electoral college for Republicans in the current political system, that he will win the general election. He is successfully dragging out the court cases and will probably not be held accountable before the election, and even if he is, his supporters either won't hear about it or they won't care (he's been convicted, by a jury, of sexual assault, in case you don't know). It's all a liberal conspiracy to them. Nor do they care that Trump ordered the GOP to kill the legislation last month that would have given them almost everything they ever asked for in terms of border security (Trump wanted the preserve the border concerns as a political football rather than actually address the problem).

All that said, those bigoted, braindead die-hards do not constitute a large enough segment of the voters to put him back in office. Which is where you come to Biden. The man is simply seen by most people, unfairly or not, as too old for the job, even among those who think he has done a really good job on the whole. His obstinate insistence on running again is one of the primary reasons Trump could easily win this. Had he said "f**k it, I did my part" and handed it over for a real Dem primary, we could be looking at a fresh middle-aged nominee coming out of tough contest, someone who would have real advantages over the also-old, widely despised and feared, probable future felon Trump. Life isn't always fair, but Biden should be doing the right thing here. If not, he could go down in infamy as the man who facilitated the return of the orange travesty and all that means for the US and the world.

[seafoid]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

His appeal isn't that bewildering though when you see the diet of fantastical, paranoid nonsense that the right wing media feeds it's audience. Trump is exactly like Paisley and meets the worldview nurtured by the right wing media, preaching apocalypse and doom and victimhood. You better rely on him, or else you'll be sold down the river in your own, rapidly changing country by the treacherous forces of evil.

I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse.

However, like much populist demagoguing throughout history, it is very effective. Trump is the nominee, and there is a very real chance, given the small number of deciding states and the inbuilt advantage of the electoral college for Republicans in the current political system, that he will win the general election. He is successfully dragging out the court cases and will probably not be held accountable before the election, and even if he is, his supporters either won't hear about it or they won't care (he's been convicted, by a jury, of sexual assault, in case you don't know). It's all a liberal conspiracy to them. Nor do they care that Trump ordered the GOP to kill the legislation last month that would have given them almost everything they ever asked for in terms of border security (Trump wanted the preserve the border concerns as a political football rather than actually address the problem).

All that said, those bigoted, braindead die-hards do not constitute a large enough segment of the voters to put him back in office. Which is where you come to Biden. The man is simply seen by most people, unfairly or not, as too old for the job, even among those who think he has done a really good job on the whole. His obstinate insistence on running again is one of the primary reasons Trump could easily win this. Had he said "f**k it, I did my part" and handed it over for a real Dem primary, we could be looking at a fresh middle-aged nominee coming out of tough contest, someone who would have real advantages over the also-old, widely despised and feared, probable future felon Trump. Life isn't always fair, but Biden should be doing the right thing here. If not, he could go down in infamy as the man who facilitated the return of the orange travesty and all that means for the US and the world.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (15 Jun 1936)

The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true desserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damnfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. If these villains could be put down, he holds, he would at once become rich, powerful and eminent. Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party, live and have their being by promising to perform this putting down. In brief, they are knaves who maintain themselves by preying on the idiotic vanities and pathetic hopes of half-wits.

[befair]

In Ireland we've experience of a populist making people scared, then selling fear. But it was more understandable; Paisley was handsome, articulate, informed.
Trump, in contrast, looks ridiculous (fake hair/tan), is vulgar, inarticulate, uninformed. His appeal is bewildering.
Netanyahu has really screwed everyone, exploiting Gaza as an excuse to stay in power; his 'Falklands moment.' Biden may lose the young vote, and the Arab-American vote, which may be enough in the swing states

His appeal isn't that bewildering though when you see the diet of fantastical, paranoid nonsense that the right wing media feeds it's audience. Trump is exactly like Paisley and meets the worldview nurtured by the right wing media, preaching apocalypse and doom and victimhood. You better rely on him, or else you'll be sold down the river in your own, rapidly changing country by the treacherous forces of evil.

I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse.

However, like much populist demagoguing throughout history, it is very effective. Trump is the nominee, and there is a very real chance, given the small number of deciding states and the inbuilt advantage of the electoral college for Republicans in the current political system, that he will win the general election. He is successfully dragging out the court cases and will probably not be held accountable before the election, and even if he is, his supporters either won't hear about it or they won't care (he's been convicted, by a jury, of sexual assault, in case you don't know). It's all a liberal conspiracy to them. Nor do they care that Trump ordered the GOP to kill the legislation last month that would have given them almost everything they ever asked for in terms of border security (Trump wanted the preserve the border concerns as a political football rather than actually address the problem).

All that said, those bigoted, braindead die-hards do not constitute a large enough segment of the voters to put him back in office. Which is where you come to Biden. The man is simply seen by most people, unfairly or not, as too old for the job, even among those who think he has done a really good job on the whole. His obstinate insistence on running again is one of the primary reasons Trump could easily win this. Had he said "f**k it, I did my part" and handed it over for a real Dem primary, we could be looking at a fresh middle-aged nominee coming out of tough contest, someone who would have real advantages over the also-old, widely despised and feared, probable future felon Trump. Life isn't always fair, but Biden should be doing the right thing here. If not, he could go down in infamy as the man who facilitated the return of the orange travesty and all that means for the US and the world.

This is a very fair summary J70; bookies still have it more or less evens (a Dem vs GOP winner), so we can but hope

[bannside]

"I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse." Quote.



I've absolutely no skin in the game  think America is nuts tbh, and rotten to the core.  Both political parties controlled blackmailed or bought out by Israelis and its been that way for decades.

My daughter and son in law spent 5 days in NYC just a few weeks ago. They did all the major sights and attractions which were fine, but said that there was proper menace on every sidestreet, junkies popping out everywhere, looking like zombies. They felt like they were being followed and said it was a very unpleasant experience, because it was not an isolated thing, it was everywhere! And neither of them are shrinking violets!

Surely America can do better than put up a pervert and multiple charge sheet narcissist  and an octogenarian who sadly has lost his way. I've zero intention ever to go near the place tbh...

[93-DY-SAM]

"I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse." Quote.



I've absolutely no skin in the game  think America is nuts tbh, and rotten to the core.  Both political parties controlled blackmailed or bought out by Israelis and its been that way for decades.

My daughter and son in law spent 5 days in NYC just a few weeks ago. They did all the major sights and attractions which were fine, but said that there was proper menace on every sidestreet, junkies popping out everywhere, looking like zombies. They felt like they were being followed and said it was a very unpleasant experience, because it was not an isolated thing, it was everywhere! And neither of them are shrinking violets!

Surely America can do better than put up a pervert and multiple charge sheet narcissist  and an octogenarian who sadly has lost his way. I've zero intention ever to go near the place tbh...

It is a damning indictment of the state of America at present that this is all they have to offer as the respective nominees from their parties.

[Rossfan]

Must be 100m people eligible for the Presidency and they end up with those 2!

Sick sad place which has probably outlived its time.

[LeoMc]

The key will be the 2 VP nominees. It will be those 2 finishing out the term in the hot seat.

Is Harris a shoe in for the Dem VP or do Presidents often change VP nominees ahead of 2nd term?

[seafoid]

"I've said this before here, probably on this thread, but I've a cousin who lives in Florida and who is a mild Trumper. They came to NYC last year for Paddy's Day, but they were telling me that their friends were pleading with them not to go. The friends were genuinely terrified that my cousin wouldn't make it out of NYC alive, such was the barrage of nonsense circulating through the right wing media about the safety of NYC and other large "Democratic" cities. Never mind that crime rates are historically low, that NYC is among the safest large cities in the US, and that millions of New Yorkers go about their daily lives without incident. All lies and bullshit to those who consume right wing media and political discourse." Quote.



I've absolutely no skin in the game  think America is nuts tbh, and rotten to the core.  Both political parties controlled blackmailed or bought out by Israelis and its been that way for decades.

My daughter and son in law spent 5 days in NYC just a few weeks ago. They did all the major sights and attractions which were fine, but said that there was proper menace on every sidestreet, junkies popping out everywhere, looking like zombies. They felt like they were being followed and said it was a very unpleasant experience, because it was not an isolated thing, it was everywhere! And neither of them are shrinking violets!

Surely America can do better than put up a pervert and multiple charge sheet narcissist  and an octogenarian who sadly has lost his way. I've zero intention ever to go near the place tbh...

It is a damning indictment of the state of America at present that this is all they have to offer as the respective nominees from their parties.

The political process is owned by the plutocrats. Trump has more superpac money than Haley. Haley is coherent and Trump has dementia but Trump won because of the superpacs. they were introduced under OBAMA with Citizens Unlimited and are allowed unlimited money . so it's down to a handful of billionaires who control politics in the US. They want Israel and no taxes on wealth .

Haley controls between 25 and 30% of GOP votes. People who cannot stomach trump. The double haters.- they also hate Biden. In the Democratic party, 100'000 voted against Biden in the Michigan Primary. There is no representation for most people.