Politics

[NE 7x57]

Trump is a narcissist. He takes no responsibility for his actions when they lead to failure and he's convinced he's the smartest individual on the planet. His Presidency had some high points, his China policy, his supreme court picks, his efforts at cooling the North Koreans down and others. But this inability to refrain from acting like a petulant child hurt him throughout his 4 years and did much to cost him a second term.

The truth is to win in 24 Trump has to appeal beyond his super loyal base and there is no way that is ever going to happen. Part of his own party won't even support him, independents won't support him and the Democrats hate him. Because of that there's no way mathematically he can win, even against Biden, the very weakest of candidates the Democrats could put against him. If the Democrats actually come up with a plan B where they run someone who is not far left, someone who is actually positioned more to the center, It would be an electoral massacre in their favor.

Finally with regard to Trump's latest rant/threat/diarrhea of the mouth or whatever you want to call it, you've all heard the line, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Donald Trump doesn't understand this. So instead of shutting up and getting his legal ducks in a row he's once again using his mouth to dig himself a deeper hole. He simply lacks the discipline to think about what he says before it comes out of his mouth and at this point in his life that is only going to get worse.

I do agree, the idea that Trump is being indited for some of this crap while the Biden and Clinton crime families have never, and will never be held accountable is BS. But his actions do not help his cause.

If he's the Republican nominee I'll probably vote for him just so I can say I didn't vote for whoever the Democrats run but I hope and pray the Republican Party can pull their heads out of their butts and find someone else to run. If not this country will be profoundly altered by another 4 to 8 years of liberal policies.

 

[WAB]

Don’t be too quick to discount DeSantis. This is an electoral college fight and there is a real chance that he takes the first three states. Trump is busy here in the SE drumming up support in the next tranche of states because he sees the same thing.

 

[steve white]

Back in 1980 I started college at a local Community College. One of my classes was Business Law. The professor asked the class about work, work ethics, pros and cons of workers having to pay for those on these government programs and comparing what a typical/average worker earned after taxes and expenses.

Note: minimum wage was around $3.25(?)/hour. Food/restaurant workers minimum wage was $2.25/hour with tips to make up the $3.25/hour minimum wage.

One female student spoke replied:

'...why should I work or get married, when I get ~$30,000 a year [(?) I don't remember the exact dollar amount she actually received but it was close to this amount] when she had totalled up her education benefits and grants, monthly monetary income, food stamps/ SNAPS, vehicle (a nice vehicle) and home (not in the projects) subsidies. "...and I don't have to pay taxes."....'.

Fast forward to the early 2000's. I had a very short time relationship with a girl whose parents operated a legal Foster Parent scam.

Her parents would barely qualify financially as Foster Parents, by program standards they qualify and would foster up to 2 young children, (they would only select children out of diapers), then tend to them according to government minimum standards. Once the children reached 16 they would apply to foster 2 more children and so the cycle continues.

The parents received a monthly income for fostering each child, they would also receive each child's monthly government estimated allotment for basic needs care, ie clothing, education, routine medical, dental and vision, etc. plus each child received medicaid / Medicare benefits.

Only the older children received new clothing the younger children clothing are the "hand me downs" from the older children until these clothes became only good for rags.

Food portions were in accordance to the minimum government requirements. ie 4 ounce serving of meat, 3 ounce serving of 2 vegetables, etc according to breakfast, lunch, and dinner meal.

These "Foster Parents" had 2 large almost commercial size freezers, 2 large refrigerators with freezer, a normal kitchen pantry and a 6 × 8 pantry, and various size kitchen cabinets, stuffed with more food than a small grocery store.

When a foster child asked for seconds they were told you ate all your food to go do their homework or go play.

The monthly food allowance was $400.00+ per child per month. Seems our government felt $1600.00/ month for food wasn't sufficient so our government increased the food allotment to $2500.00+/month. Even though these "Foster Parents" were having a hard time spending the previous $1600.00/month food allowance.

I said, I had a very short relationship with this daughter, her parents have 4 children of their own. Their parents would take them grocery shopping use the food stamp card to help purchase their own children's groceries to use up the food stamp/ EBT card and charge their children for the groceries they purchased.

The reimbursement money the parents got from their children along with the other monies meant dor the foster children's care went toward the parents vacations and other household monthly expenses and whatever else they felt they needed for themselves. ie new TV's, travel video players, etc.

I was working 2 full time jobs, one to pay my own monthly expenses and the second paycheck to use as "fun money". When this girl's parents figured out about how much money I was making, they thought I should contribute to their needs and pay for dating their daughter. I stopped dating their daughter.

I know a couple of different Foster Parent couples who really get involved with and care about their foster kids. But this couple and unfortunately many more like them all Foster Parenting means to them is a racket to live well off of government/ working taxpayer's money.

In Mullein, Tx it's almost hard to find someone who is NOT paying off their land with a couple trailer houses full of foster kids! It is a "point farthest from" place where it is hard to get a friend from back in a city to come get you out of there, and the state seems to love it as a foster destination. The baptist church there is always helping "the foster kids". One new person had to ask, "who is this Foster family with all the kids?"

 

[Jfet]

 

[rookhawk]

Don’t be too quick to discount DeSantis. This is an electoral college fight and there is a real chance that he takes the first three states. Trump is busy here in the SE drumming up support in the next tranche of states because he sees the same thing.

DeSantis could and will win a reasonable amount of democrats as well. All those union workers that go to church on Sunday and own guns? Yeah, they’ve had enough of woke and would definitely vote for DeSantis.

 

[Red Leg]

RedState is as solidly anti-progressive publication as exists on the web. Generally, they have been very supportive of Trump. This article was published today. I find a lot to agree with, and it touches on a major issue I have with Trump and his unquestioning supporters. The decisions he made with respect to the nation's response to COVID caused economic damage to this country on par with that which sits firmly at the feet of Herbert Hoover.

That chaos, the draconian restrictions dictated by the federal government, and the accompanying hysteria set the stage for everything that followed. Twisted voting rules, out of control spending, virtually all of it can be traced directly to the course set by Trump. His fawning supporters give him a total pass - he was badly advised. There are others on this thread who hold leadership positions in major business ventures. How many of us would have survived such a set of blunders with the excuse we were badly advised - or my favorite - the swamp made me do it.

In any case I commend the following as worth reading. Perhaps a few scales are beginning to fall from the eyes.

"So, I’m having a friendly debate with somebody about this “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” post by Mr. Trump…

My friend, a retired police officer, is a great guy, salt of the earth, etc. He thinks it’s an understandable representation of Trump’s frustration. And maybe it is. But the question remains, did Trump’s attorneys have the chance to see that post before he pushed “send”? Did anybody above the age of 14? Does anybody honestly think had his attorneys seen it, they’d have said, “Yes, Mr. President, we think that’s a really swell post; put that jazz up ASAP”? Does Donald Trump have a moral obligation to listen to his attorneys if they didn’t? Well, when you consider that his working-class supporters, through their small-dollar donations, are picking up his attorneys’ bills, I’d say he has some sense of obligation to try to help them win their case. I mean, good God, people.

What are we doing? The man isn’t somebody you would hire to do a really big and important job like running the largest hotel conglomerate in the world, based on his Truth Social posts alone. Well, we’re also not supposed to re-hire him to run the largest corporation in the history of the world, either. Not at this point. Not after what happened the last time.

I can anticipate the Trump swarm coming down on that statement and asking, what about what happened last time? He had the greatest economy in history, the cheapest gas ever, no world wars, et cetera, et cetera. Fine, but he also shut down the economy and took the repeated advice of two of the most destructive public health bureaucrats in the country, if not the world. Their advice led to some of the most profoundly destructive economic and social impacts the world has seen in decades, if not in a century.

I truly think we need to go back to Herbert Hoover signing the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, which caused the Great Depression, to find an equivalent level of presidential mistake.

President Trump agreed to shut down the U.S. economy because of a healthcare panic; the most important, dynamic, complex, and successful market economy on the planet, due to a bad virus, was Hooverian in its depths of disastrousness. And this, of course, also resulted in other developed economies following suit, some even more violent economically and socially than we did. I don’t think that is a hyperbolic statement. I think it is a fair and accurate statement.

Let’s be brutally clear. Hoover’s well-intended but wrongheaded policy caused the Great Depression, and we know how that all went. Equally true, Trump’s well-intended but wrongheaded policy caused untold pain, suffering, and misery, not to mention bankruptcies, foreclosures, suicides, and premature deaths. It also wiped out a crucial block of irreplaceable time for in-person instruction for tens of millions of American kids, the full ramifications of which we’ll not sustain for about a decade.

Trump has disqualified himself from ever being elected president again simply by virtue of that single, solitary decision while in office. And this I believe in the marrow of my bones."

Does Trump's Shutdown Decision Disqualify a Future Presidency?

redstate.com

 

[WAB]

Well worth reading, particularly given the publication that ran it.

 

[CJW]

Not sure if this has been posted before.

I mean we've all known for a long time that Michelle is actually a dude.

Obama Fantasized ‘About Making Love To Men’ In Letter To His Girlfriend, His Biographer Says | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

What the USA needs now more than ever before is a leader, an intelligent leader, an adult and non-emotional leader. This is not the time for petty internal politics. There are some pretty formidable forces and re-alignments happening out in the world. The world needs a leader nation and you can’t be that leader nation if you are divided over petty issues and pulling in different directions. The greatest attribute required of this potential leader of the leading nation is the ability to unify the USA. I am not seeing that candidate on either side of the aisle. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman)? I pray so.

 

[bowjijohn]

What the USA needs now more than ever before is a leader, an intelligent leader, an adult and non-emotional leader. This is not the time for petty internal politics. There are some pretty formidable forces and re-alignments happening out in the world. The world needs a leader nation and you can’t be that leader nation if you are divided over petty issues and pulling in different directions. The greatest attribute required of this potential leader of the leading nation is the ability to unify the USA. I am not seeing that candidate on either side of the aisle. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman)? I pray so.

Bravo

The West can’t continue to wait for the biggest kid in the playground to grow up!

Stop playing and start leading

As was once said

“Either lead, follow, or get out of the effing way’

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

What the USA needs now more than ever before is a leader, an intelligent leader, an adult and non-emotional leader. This is not the time for petty internal politics. There are some pretty formidable forces and re-alignments happening out in the world. The world needs a leader nation and you can’t be that leader nation if you are divided over petty issues and pulling in different directions. The greatest attribute required of this potential leader of the leading nation is the ability to unify the USA. I am not seeing that candidate on either side of the aisle. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman)? I pray so.

I was kinda hoping Mike Pompeo was going to be that guy. A longer long shot that I think would do a good job is H.R. McMaster. Both of these guys are smart and I think are capable of acting presidential.

From the other side of the aisle, Manchin has show enough common sense and anti wokism to be reasonably appealing to many.

 

[Brent in Az]

What the USA needs now more than ever before is a leader, an intelligent leader, an adult and non-emotional leader. This is not the time for petty internal politics. There are some pretty formidable forces and re-alignments happening out in the world. The world needs a leader nation and you can’t be that leader nation if you are divided over petty issues and pulling in different directions. The greatest attribute required of this potential leader of the leading nation is the ability to unify the USA. I am not seeing that candidate on either side of the aisle. Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman)? I pray so.

We also need a leader who is willing to go "toe to toe" with the radical wing of the Democrat party. Someone who will put some of these corrupt players behind bars where they belong, or the current nonsense will intensify. Got to beat the Democrats at their own game.
The RINO's and the status quo are also a big part of the problem.

 

[Red Leg]

We also need a leader who is willing to go "toe to toe" with the radical wing of the Democrat party. Someone who will put some of these corrupt players behind bars where they belong, or the current nonsense will intensify. Got to beat the Democrats at their own game.
The RINO's and the status quo are also a big part of the problem.

What are you proposing Trump do about the Republican RINOs you seem to so despise? Last I looked they were elected by their own constituents. Lindsey Graham's seat is as secure as any because his constituents could care less what someone in Arizona or here in Texas thinks about him. Last I looked Arizona can't seem to elect a Republican senator of any stripe.

At least those horrible RINOs are Republicans even if not Trump populists or even fans. Trump can accomplish almost nothing without the support of Congress. The reality is that Congress will be composed of a lot of people in both parties that are in no way personally loyal to him. That means he has to actually govern by creating political alliances. Who really believes he can do that?

Narrowing the Republican constituency is a suicide pact for any national election. The tent has to be bigger, not smaller. Ronald Reagan understood that with absolute clarity. Donald Trump seems ever more determined to try to win the election with just his 35% of the electorate. I still do not see a path where that math would work.

 

[WAB]

I was kinda hoping Mike Pompeo was going to be that guy. A longer long shot that I think would do a good job is H.R. McMaster. Both of these guys are smart and I think are capable of acting presidential.

From the other side of the aisle, Manchin has show enough common sense and anti wokism to be reasonably appealing to many.

I’ve got to admit, if it were Manchin vs Trump, I just might vote Democrat for the first time in my life!

 

[Brent in Az]

What are you proposing Trump do about the Republican RINOs you seem to so despise? Last I looked they were elected by their own constituents. Lindsey Graham's seat is as secure as any because his constituents could care less what someone in Arizona or here in Texas thinks about him. Last I looked Arizona can't seem to elect a Republican senator of any stripe.

At least those horrible RINOs are Republicans even if not Trump populists or even fans. Trump can accomplish almost nothing without the support of Congress. The reality is that Congress will be composed of a lot of people in both parties that are in no way personally loyal to him. That means he has to actually govern by creating political alliances. Who really believes he can do that?

Narrowing the Republican constituency is a suicide pact for any national election. The tent has to be bigger, not smaller. Ronald Reagan understood that with absolute clarity. Donald Trump seems ever more determined to try to win the election with just his 35% of the electorate. I still do not see a path where that math would work.

Personally, I think you support the swamp.
I guess the Republicans can do what they do best......sit back and do nothing, while the Democrats continue to steamroll over them.

Arizona is lost. Too many minorities, retiree's, as well as idiots from California moving here that will vote for anyone with a (D) next to the name. Too stupid to realize, who & what, they are voting for.
Katie Hobbs is a perfect example.
I despised war monger John McCain even though I voted for him many times. After McCain bit the dust, Jeff Flake, who's last name sums him up perfectly, scurried off with his tail between his legs. He knew his days were numbered.
The latest election has shown that Arizona voters are scraping the bottom of the political barrel

Just like this country, Arizona has been swirling the political toilet drain. Democrat's and RINO'S have their hands firmly clamped on the flush lever

 

[wesheltonj]

It's a new month, so I will repeat. Trump is the R and Newsome is the D. The question is can any of the R's beat Newsome? Answer - NONE.

 

[Mark A Ouellette]

It's a new month, so I will repeat. Trump is the R and Newsome is the D. The question is can any of the R's beat Newsome? Answer - NONE.

I'd love to see Manchin and RFK Jr. run as third party candidates.

 

[cash_tx]

Exactly. To be succinct, there are 38% of the population registered republican. That means that to win the presidency you need another 13% of independents and democrats.

I find how great Trump is tracking in Republican polls completely irrelevant. Of all Republicans, he is the least likely get a democrat or independent vote, guaranteeing that ANYONE running as Democrat wins the presidency.

This Trump lunacy has destroyed the Republican party. So many idol worshippers more interested in supporting Trump than actually WINNING the presidency with a conservative.

And even after all his antics and missteps, the Trump worshippers still manage to reach the conclusion that fighting for Trump somehow equates to fighting for the future of this country; when in fact, they are unknowingly handing the future of this country to the Democrats on a silver platter.

 

[cash_tx]

It's a new month, so I will repeat. Trump is the R and Newsome is the D. The question is can any of the R's beat Newsome? Answer - NONE.

You may be right, or I could also see the Dems employ a strategy of running a Biden/Newsome ticket for 2024; knowing full well that old Joe is never going to complete the second term. Either way, I think that a Desantis/Gabbard ticket would have had a legitimate shot at winning (just my gut feel).

 

[Red Leg]

Personally, I think you support the swamp.
I guess the Republicans can do what they do best......sit back and do nothing, while the Democrats continue to steamroll over them.

Arizona is lost. Too many minorities, retiree's, as well as idiots from California moving here that will vote for anyone with a (D) next to the name. Too stupid to realize, who & what, they are voting for.
Katie Hobbs is a perfect example.
I despised war monger John McCain even though I voted for him many times. After McCain bit the dust, Jeff Flake, who's last name sums him up perfectly, scurried off with his tail between his legs. He knew his days were numbered.
The latest election has shown that Arizona voters are scraping the bottom of the political barrel

Just like this country, Arizona has been swirling the political toilet drain. Democrat's and RINO'S have their hands firmly clamped on the flush lever

Whatever you believe about me is irrelevant. What I do know is that anything beyond the art of the possible is nothing but fantasy. And Donald Trump is happy to take every penny from anyone willing to believe his fantasy. He will then spend it all on his lawyers.

I would Suggest Arizona go to school on Florida. They are very similar - particularly demographically. Florida has the additional burden of fleeing emigrants from NY and NJ. From battleground state a decade ago, Dems don’t even plan to seriously contest it next year.