Oh you mean things like creating good paying jobs in the things we will need, as we move into a better for the planet way of living? Getting ready for more electric vehicles and Broadband for all. Finding ways to care for our parents, as well as ourselves and our children while paying those who do health care, adequately. Shining a light on people who do good in our communities and still trying to work with the stinking GOP!
Our weather is the weather. It has to do with Earth. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not a bit. Can you say fires and floods? Not unlike a lot of Canada these days. We do have some good weather here. If you like Wales type weather, you would love Oregon! But, we can't ship our weather anywhere. If you want good weather all the time, your best bet is Florida, a southern state. They are unlikely to leave any country controlled by Trump and crew or their successors. Because, even if we vote Trump out by 2028 and keep him out, the people who voted for him two (or three) times, are still there, and their voting habits will remain what they have demonstrated them to be since before the Civil War era. What Canada would get would be three flawed but productive US states who have had enough. We do want to build economies that are respected and supported, and not be the target for destruction we see in Trump and his many followers who will continue his behavior into the forseeable future. That being said, talking California, Oregon, and Washington into the leaving the US won't be a simple matter either. My wish is mostly a joke because of that reality, though many of us on the west coast feel leaving what is left of the US would be best.
Florida? I spent what seemed like a month there one week.
I was fortunate, I only had one guy show me his gun while in the line at the grocery store. He spent 5 minutes explaining "open carry" to me and was very curious what I "carried" at home in NS? I told him a slingshot and ball bearings.
Would you send a link to a reliable weather station so I can stop using NOAA that was pretty slaughtered? You can't ship your weather stations here somehow? (Sorry about your fires, we've gotten the smoke and feel bad for you folks.)
Florida? Intrusive bugs, especially palmetto bugs, roaches so big you can hear their footsteps in your house at night. Far too hot and humid except on the beach. And politics worse than Georgia and North Carolina.
I have to respectfully disagree with you. As a Californian, I can say that California's climate (a Mediterranean climate) is the best in the country - indeed, the best in the world. Florida's climate is only good if you like sticky gross and nasty humidity, big bugs and alligators.
Well Professor, that proposal is in direct competition with the State of Jefferson that wants to carve-out a 51st state from rural-red MAGA-Land they now can't decide whether to call Greater Idaho or “Mittelwestcoastia”.
So, the 11th Province supporters in Canada better get Carney on board ASAP before Felon47 turns his lidless eye to the West.
What is the State of Jefferson? Is this the MAGA view of land ownership? In any case, now you talk about the arguments in Oregon about where land governance goes: clearly east of the mountains many Oregonians want to go with Idaho. Let them. We are talking about absolute change now. We are free in this free land to do that: change absolutely.
West of the mountains along the 1-5 corridor, many Oregonians want to leave. But, we have a lot of arguing to do before we are in the position to petition Canada for Provinceship. Okay.
The plan is doomed IMHO. Too many US Citizens would want to come to the newly formed State. The State of Jefferson was/is a proposed State intended to be carved out of the rural counties of Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Yes, after obeying my draft notice and reporting, volunteering for Vietnamese language school, serving 10 months in-country I should have gone to law school in Canada and applied for citizenship.
If you are looking for a stable democracy with a worldwide network of long term allies that you aren't interesting in alienating, yes, Canada would be more that way.
Robert if you are really interested and can prove relative born in Canada check federal government for bill C-3. It will speed up the process.
Come in January it is quite balmy then, plus it will test your desire for Canada. Depending on the province you only get 4 months of good sledding, the rest is slush. It will grow on you though.
Thou haveth an escape from the land of the monkeys swinging endlessless in the banana republic with nukes... (sorry). Hope you'll just stay safe but ...
Might as well make it the 11th, 12th, 13th provinces. Ca is the 4th largest economy in the world, OR and WA would make a great province. Add in Hawaii for your winter vacation destination. Hell, Alaska would LOVE universal health care so make it 14. Next stops Minnesota and Michigan. Interesting idea.
I don't think you want us there. I read it's very hard to live there unless you're young, possess a needed skill, or have a lot of money. (which I understand and think is a reasonable immigration policy).
I'd love to move to Canada, but I don't meet the criteria. I'm too old, not rich enough, not a refugee, and I don't speak French. (I'm sure I could learn French, but otherwise, I'm considered a liability.)
A lot of people would love to do just that - joining you. However Canada has immigration laws too, and in recent years made it harder for people to immigrate. Basically you need to be of a young age, well-educated/skilled, preferably have a job offer, speak/read/write English at a certain level (and/or French), have some money in the bank, and be healthy, if you want to enter Canada work-bound (legally).
Yes, but it is akin to people being allowed to immigrate into the US a long as they have a US citizen family member. How has that worked out for the many fleeing violence and poverty? How is that an option for those who are told "that they should do it legally" (or not come at all).
Canada found a nice way to add a number of mostly white citizens?
Both socialism and communism come in multiple varieties. Neither the old Soviet Union nor the current China were "communist" by any stretch of the imagination -- but these many, many decades of shrieking about "Red Menaces" do tend to divert our focus from the inadequacies and vulnerabilities of capitalism.
The closest thing to socialism or even communism today would be what you would see in the nearly countless Hutterite communities across Canada, where private property is abolished and the people live in a classless society. Although these communities may not be utopia for all, there is no poverty, inequality, homelessness, unemployment, violence, gangs, corruption, etc, which is so prevalent in our cities. In fact, these communities are quite wealthy and that wealth is shared equally among all.
Maybe (re)read Das Kapital? It was, and still is, one of the most influential works of social science, economics, and political philosophy ever written. The Manifesto was a pamphlet.
Indeed! Canadians are those evil-doer socialists, Marxists, commies, radical, baby killing, anti-Christ terrorists. Just ask toddler Trump and his brainwashed Maggots.
You are correct buddie. I have a flag pole in from of my house. The flag on the top is the red & white Maple Leaf, below that the Commie Red with the Hammer & Sicle, below that a flag of a burning Bible, below that is a pro abortion, and last my big Weed flag. If we get anymore freedoms in Canada I will have to get a taller flag pole.
So, if you are so happy Brian, why do you do so much whining? Isn't it time to move on and tell us how you are enjoying your life? Read any good books? Learned a new dance step? Bake a cake or done anything else to float your boat?
Agreed. Except on Broadband, recently I’m wondering if it would be better to take over muskrat’s starlink for the common good. Maybe devise a counsel or advisory system to protect our data from politics etc. having satellites that don’t require below ground or above ground infrastructure and cable seems much better for a variety of reasons.
Satellites wear out, are decommissioned, and then become (dangerous) debris circling our planet. What we build "below and above ground" can be dismantled. Which we often fail to do too.
The second Trump administration, now going into its second year, has been characterized by an impressive succession of failures across every front — from the Treasury to the Pentagon, from trade to public health, from agriculture to debt management.
And regulating AI and the Silicon Valley fascists like Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who are currently pulling MAGA and Trump's strings.
Good news on that front: Gil Duran's book (The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy), released on 8-18-26, became an instant best seller on Amazon and The Bookshop, and is now #1 on the NYT bestseller list. He's also been interviewed on Democracy Now, The Commonwealth Club in SF, NPR, and the Guardian.
You americanas are in big trouble. I live in Honduras, a banana republic. You are now a banana republic. You are welcome to live in my country. And please bring your dolars
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, West Bank atrocities along with Syria and Lebanon, and worst of all running, incredibly, for a second term and giving us four more years of Trump. A few charging stations? some infrastructure to benefit contractors and the few union workers we still have? Failing to fix our for-profit medical system, No.1 in cost but somewhere about 15th in results.
What is more disgusting and dangerous than the Biden Derangement Syndrome is that Trump's approval rating is 33% and not 5%. The rating means about 50 million people, who are registered voters, approve of Trump despite the blatant corruption and violations of law, the lying, the attacks on democracy and elections, the lack of affordability, the ICE raids on immigrants including the murders of American citizens and the war with Iran. The 50 million includes MAGA filled with white male supremacists who hate women, blacks, immigrants, democracy and the rule of law.
However, the problem in America isn't just Trump and the 50 million who still approve of Trump. The problem is the lawless fascist autocracy which is being installed with an insurrection that unfortunately was not stopped by Garland and Biden and has been totally supported by Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs. Trump's insurrection began on January 6, 2021, but the insurrection continued into 2025 and 2026.
Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs are violating federal law against insurrection and rebellion which is 18 U.S. Code § 2383. According to the federal law 18 U.S. Code § 2383, a felony crime is committed by “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office”.
In 2024 SCOTUS violated 18 U.S. Code § 2383 by refusing to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that permanently bars individuals from holding state or federal office if they previously swore and oath to the U.S. Constitution and later engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Therefore, Trump was allowed to be on the ballot and get elected.
The core problem in America is a corrupt legal and political system that refuses to enforce the criminal law against insurrection. Where are the voters? They are totally misinformed and misled by the news media and Democrats who have never recognized the violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2383.
America can be saved if a new generation of progressive Democrats get elected in 2028 to control Congress and the White House with a Democratic president and only if they follow their sworn obligation to defend the Constitution which means enforcing the federal law against insurrection to prosecute, convict, and imprison these insurrectionist felons, Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and multiple billionaire oligarch including Musk. After conviction and imprisonment of the insurrectionist felons, the new generation of Democrats will have a super majority in Congress and a new SCOTUS with all nine justices appointed by Democrats. The new president, Congress and SCOTUS can then easily implement multiple new laws to correct the damage and the causes of damage such as overturning Citizens United and many other corrupt decisions by SCOTUS, and eliminating the Republican directed tax cuts since the 1970s that enabled theft of the wealth from 99% of Americans and destroyed affordability. Solutions to core problems including affordability of housing, food, energy and healthcare that includes Medicare for All can be funded by raising taxes on billionaires and corporations. Solutions also include correcting damage from tariffs, stopping foreign wars, and reducing wealth inequality.
Why do you say Democrats have never recognized the violation of the law that prosecutes engaging in insurrection? If Republican Senators had agreed to convict trump in that impeachment process, he could never have run for office again. Democrats voted to convict him. Susan Collins didn’t, & said trump had ‘learned his lesson’. Yes, he had! He had learned that he could do anything he wanted to, with complete impunity!
Colorado tried to keep trump off the ballot for the reasons we all know — that he had incited insurrection. Colorado was overruled — by the corrupt 6: the product of the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ warned of years ago by Hillary Clinton (a Democrat). Why in the world is this somehow the Democrats’ fault?
Agreed that trump support should be @
0 - 1% !!!! Is it the Democrats’ somehow fail[ing] ‘to recognize the violation’ inherent in the self-coup of January 6th that is responsible for the 1/3 of Americans who still support this monstrous installation of Project 2025? Come on!!!!
Right and forget all Krugman’s fancy charts with their exaggerated scales to make The President look bad. The White House message feels “truthy” enough for the MAGA faithful. As the Eagles told us [You can’t] “hide your lyin eyes”.
These people descended from slavers. You know what the Confederacy did every day to black people and poor whites! Trying to get them to be kind and decent results in people like Musk (empathy is evil) and Thiel (democracy is evil). It is a losing and futile proposition.
On my side of the Atlantic, we were distinctly envious of how well the US economy was doing in 2023-24. We were all recovering from the same external shocks over which we had no control, but there's little question that the Biden administration did a much better job of stabilising things afterwards.
Voting for Trump on economic grounds given that he was explicitly promising to make things worse (his tariff plans were scarcely a secret, and the outcome has been precisely as was foreseen by anyone even vaguely economically literate) was a collective act of... well, at best wilful ignorance, at worst lunacy.
We also had a corporate media and polling industry that played up economic hardship before the election. Some people were struggling, and the Republicans played them for fools.
The US in living in a corporatocracy, not a democracy, where the ungodly rich oligarchs own the economy, mass information (the corporate media) and the political arena.
No doubt about that. When inflation went up just one tenth of a point under Biden. It would be headline news on the network nightly news casts. First story. Dramatic announcement. "Inflation is up again". Since Trump has become president. The corporate media doesn't do that anymore. Even though inflation is now higher than when Biden left office. It's not a dramatic announcement. It's not the first story covered. Certainly not the doom and gloom they imparted when Biden was president. It was the corporate media that did everything they could. To get Trump re-elected.
Voting for Trump in 2024 was demonstrably insane, given that his promises were patently impossible. His crazy decisions only turned probable issues into certainties. He now feels that too many Americans do not give him worship and adulation, as Dr Krugman wrote in his last Substack Trump now intends to punish them for his losses and failures. Good luck America.
The attack on education began decades ago. Civics stopped being taught, I got to wear slacks finally to HS in tenth grade (there was some good in the changes) and the expression, "The dumbing down of America," was in full swing.
Many were affected by this. We're pretty dumb but I believe the majority of us are remain very aware of what's going on. The smaller % of those who have no clue have been sucked up into being blindly led by <fill in your own nasty word>.
When people said they believed Trump when he said no new wars, or he would lower prices. I ask why did they believe a liar? I believe it's because the corporate media would never label anything he said a lie. All through the campaign. Both print and news journalists would not say lie. They would say "Factually incorrect", "Misleading", "Inaccurate". Because if they called it a lie, somehow they would be violating the rules of journalism. The benefit of the doubt should be extended to regular candidates. If they say something incorrect. Yes, it would violate journalism rules to call that a lie. Because it might have been a mistake. That should not apply to a man like Trump. That the Washington Post documented over 30K lies in his first term. After that, no benefit of the doubt should have been given to Trump. His lies should have been labeled lies. It was journalistic malpractice not to label Trump a liar. If the press had done their jobs right. No one could have claimed they believed Trump's words. Because they should have known he was a liar.
The sanewashing was, and continues to be, pervasive and inexcusable. The main stream media is an enabler of the admin by not continually pointing out the lies, corruption, and incompetence.
Since Trump got back into office. .The MSM doesn't even bother to fact check anything he says. They just report it as fact. Trump says this and Trump says that. At least during the campaign, they tried to fact check his comments. They've stopped doing that now.
There really should not be a need for "fact-checking". Anyone with an IQ above 80 should be able to tell that his utterances are 100proof bovine excreta.
People didn't vote FOR Trump, many of them voted against Biden/Harris and their "ironclad support for Israel's mass killing, including over 20,000 children. Over 10 million refused to vote at all.
AI: "Since 2016, the U.S. has experienced significant inflation, with an average annual rate of approximately 3.36%, leading to a cumulative price increase of about 39.13% by 2026. This means that $1 in 2016 is equivalent to about $1.39 today.
The Biden (and Trump) "stimulus programs" drove inflation. Many grants to individuals, big ones, and grants and loans to businesses, many fraudulent. Businesses were reimbursed for the salaries on employees who never existed, or the businesses didn't exist.
Well said. As a country, we are more inclined to fantasy than facts. Facts do tend to be a better basis for decisions, but Americans prefer myths. It’s more fun. Vietnam is a classic example. It was a stupid decision, and, though we don’t acknowledge it, we are still paying the consequences. And another key factor is white racism. If you wonder how Trump still holds his 30% support, please stop avoiding the reason. It is white racism. That 30% is pretty much unshakeable. They will die on that hill.
Michael, the internet and bots amplified his popularity and dimwits got aboard for fear of missing out. Fox and other propaganda sites nailed the coffin. Recall Hillary won the popular vote even with widespread gerrymandering but lost in the electoral college.
But he still garners 40% support, which is unbelievable. Don't be surprised if he pulls something with the mid-terms and gets away with it. The US will then become a full blown fascist state.
I think Biden was a decent human being who was very effective on many fronts - but I am very angry that he failed to see Trump's threat to democracy and do something about it. Those treasonous bastards should have been tried and locked up in expeditious fashion - and Biden's inaction combined with Garland's timidity and undeserved faith in our institutions gave us this awful, awful Administration.
He had other failures that stemmed from his inability/unwillingness to use the Bully Pulpit to educate the American people about Trump, COVID/vaccines, immigration, DEI and other "hot button" topics.
Biden's inaction on immigration was also foolish. Had he not allowed asylum entries to spike -- even though tamping it down required the illegal EO he eventually issued -- I don't think Trump would have been able to win even if he'd stayed out of jail. Biden didn't need to be especially harsh about it, just reduce it to a more manageable flow.
Biden "gave" immigration to Kamala Harris - she appropriately went to Central America to try to deal with "root causes." But people weren't just leaving because their countries were gang-infested and poor, America has always been a haven for immigrants. Harris failed at this - and failed to grasp, as did Biden - the degree to which it was both a real and manufactured problem. They could have done a lot by working more closely with Mexico.
The bigger issue is that our country needs immigrants - although Trump no doubt thought if he fired enough Federal workers, there would be "black jobs" cleaning houses or picking vegetables. Putz. Or Elon convinced him that robots would do those jobs.
Less likely if the Democratic Party continues its preference to waste time, money and messaging with a focus on replacing one Democrat for another in safe Democratic districts instead of hammering away in Republican districts corruption, the chaos in the economy, and stupid wars will not end by returning Republican incumbents.
Spare us the Murc's law please. If you don't know what Murc's law, it's the belief that only democrats have agency. That everything that happens is to be blamed on democrats. It's the republicans in Congress that are allowing Trump to do all of this. It's the republicans on the SC as well. Democrats aren't responsible for republican gerrymandering.
I have respect for Joe. He was the man in 2020. He made a giant mistake not stepping down and his staff made a bigger mistake keeping him in office. It doesn’t make him a bad man. It does mean he made a bad choice.
Revise history as you like. It isn’t a winning strategy.
Republicans' strength (if you can call it that) is their professed dislike of big government. It means that they can be utterly incompetent when they are power at the Federal level and still be completely true to their avowed principle. The principle excuses the incompetence and recklessness; the incompetence and recklessness enact the principle. It's genius - though of the unstable variety.
Murc's law is not germane to a comment about the Democratic Party's choice in this campaign season to distract the electorate's focus from DJT corruption and the Republicans in the House and Senate inability to govern. Except for "hammering away" in Republican districts (read in Republican incumbant districts) about corruption and inept governance by Republican majorities, how would a campaign put the blame for current chaos on Republican incumbants outlined in the A Miller rebuttal comment?
To A Miller's specific point about Republican gerrymandering. Any gerrymandering works when past voting practices predicts future ballot choices. The Hungarian opposition party defeated Orban (and his party's gerrymandering) in the Hungarian parliamentary elections with a campaign focused not with divisive primary campaigns within a minority party but drawing attention to the consequences (corruption, ineptitude, etc) experienced by all voters when one party dominates the government.
Unfortunately Joe Biden paved the way for Trump 2.0 by running again in 2024, which he had promised not to do in 2020. It may have worked out if the dementia hadn’t set in, but by 2023 it was pretty apparent that Joe was declining.
No, that is not true at all. Biden was not suffering from dementia. Ever watch Biden at a press conference? He gave detailed answers. Not just repeat himself endlessly like Trump does. Saying the same things over and over. Watch his NATO press conference before the debate. Tell me that man had dementia. Don't insult my intelligence dude. He was tired at the debate and suffering from a cold. Plus it was a CNN set up announcing they wouldn't do any fact checking. No fact checking with a man that is a serial lifelong liar. Biden's mistake was scheduling the debate the day after the NATO conference. When CNN announced no fact checking, Biden should have said cancelled. Biden was not suffering dementia or "declining" as you say. He was aging. He walked stiffly because of arthritis. He spoke slowly because he's a lifelong stutter. That's what people that stutter do. They talk slowly to not stutter.
He wasn't hid. He was too busy running the country. Biden's "sin" to corporate journalists. Was that he didn't make himself available at all times to them. Journalists think the job of the president is to be there for them. Why they love Trump. He always answers their questions. You sound like a bot anyway. I don't trust posters that don't give their full names. Are you a bot?
Do not insult our intelligence. This part of his comment is quite true: "...which he had promised not to do in 2020..." and it is both impactful and damning. The Democrats failed to promote and showcase high quality alternative candidates as Biden became visibly enfeebled in 2023 and 2024. (Including Harris; she was thrust into the race at the last minute, and was obviously not made ready in the preceding months and years; elite Dems treated her like a placeholder card until they were desperate in mid-summer 2024).
Cutsey attempts to relieve the Democratic leadership of their joint responsibility for the debacle of a second Trump presidency are pure rot (i.e. cute little phrases like "Murc's law") . The Presidency was theirs to lose in 2024. They made a desultory, noticeably inadequate effort to keep it.
That is correct. Biden never explicitly said he would not run for a second term. He never said that. He sure did imply it though. You can understand why people thought he said it. Because Biden said "He would be a bridge to the next generation". That implies he would only serve one term. But yes, you are technically correct. Biden never said he would only serve one term. If he had honored what he implied. Allowed for a real primary. Anyone not connected to his administration would have easily beat Trump. I can understand why people blame Biden for giving us Trump again. I am one of them. I loved the man but he really screwed us running for a second term.
A lot if Anglo men wouldn’t vote for a woman either. The ones I knew didn’t want to think it about themselves, but when I asked they had no real reasons why they let Trump be reelected rather than vote for Kamala. And it’s worse when it was Democrats who KNEW what Trump could do.
I have a wonderful photo of Joe being inaugurated. Marcus corgi is on his back, fully relaxed and totally exposed. He looked like he felt totally safe with Joe looking lovely on a large screen tv. I want to go back to those days or Obama.
All true & mostly due to external events, over which, Biden/Harris had no control.
Their messaging sucked, as it did on the three infrastructure bills, & they paid for that.
A World Wide Pandemic & World Wide Inflation. By 2021, the US was the strongest & most successful economy in the world & was beating down inflation faster than any other industrialized economy, including China, esp China.
Little Donnie Dirty Pants has destroyed all of that & inflation is streaking up.
"Like using your credit card to pay down your mortgage" really is about where the Trump administration's reasoning is functioning. Or as a friend of mine put it, if Trump were driving and got a flat tire, he'd jack up the car and rotate the tires to see if that fixed the problem.
Tsk, tsk. All those comments - all taken out of context, mind you - are from the lying Liberal media. You are obviously suffering from a bad case of Truth Derangement Syndrome!
And when that doesn’t work, he’ll flatten the other tires. And then blame the road, the car, the auto industry, the tire industry, rubber trees… and Biden.
He wanted 40 year mortgage as he LIKES COSTLIER HOUSING! BANKS WIN… TRUMPS NOW HAVE A CHARTER FOR THEIR OWN BANK!
IMAGINE AFTER CAPITOL ONE TOSSED OVER 300 accounts they were concerned were laundering money!!!
More and more Criminal Money on top of his WASTE and Crisis of WAR.. he asked Russia??? to help?
THROW HIS ASS OUT BEFORE CHINA TAKES TAIWAN AND THEN US!
Give him jail with HGTV to watch as we go to Civil Court to take all Trumo and Co-conspirator monies until our Debt is back to the 2016 level!
Then what does he owe us As Goodwill IS an Aaset on an Acctng Sheet and he CRAPPED OVER ALL OUR RELATIOMSHIPS AND IT’ll BE AT LEAST 20-40 yrs IF we can regain their TRUST!
Democrats paved the way to the current administration blaming President Biden for every one of the administration’s failures by having Democrats stab Biden in the front. It was a boneheaded move, many thanks to actor George Clooney, who took a high profile role in making President Biden the avatar of no good deed going unpunished.
Biden did a creditable job as president. He was also showing his age at the end. Had he declared victory in 2023 and said that he intended to pass the baton he would be remembered as the guy who saved America. Instead, he's remembered as the doddering old man who appeared lost and shell-shocked in his debate with Trump. That isn't who Biden was. But he certainly looked that way to America.
That’s one thing, but by relentlessly trashing President Biden, Democrats are unable to explain, at every opportunity, that Biden did an incredible job navigating the economic mess that followed in the wake of the Covid pandemic, made worse in the U.S. thanks to Trump’s mangling of the country’s response. Democrats shouldn’t defend anything indefensible in their own party, but they need to stop the needless internal cannibalizing of their own.
And if you do what any sensible person does these days, i.e., READ THE TRANSCRIPT rather than put yourself through an hour of agony, it's obvious that Biden beat Trump by a mile. These sorts of events tend to make for the sort 'good TV' (that is, TV at its worst) that does absolutely no one in the audience any favors.
President Biden succeeded admirably in doing much of what needed to be done after Trump's first term except for two things. He didn't succeed in forcing Trump to face consequences for his crime. And he didn't succeed in keeping Trump from winning in 2024. Unfortunately, those were the two things he needed more than anything else to accomplish.
What many don’t seem to understand is that the president is a manager and a great manager gets the best people for their team (the government). Biden assembled the best cabinet in decades (at least).
Fact is, millions upon millions of Americans will simply not vote for any other presidential candidate than a white man (preferably of advanced age). Without the dem circular firing squad, Biden would have been re-elected and Lina Khan would have broken up the tech monopolies by now, and Ukraine’s cities wouldn’t be defenseless against Russian ballistic missiles.
"Biden assembled the best cabinet in decades (at least)." Exactly that I have been saying. Biden picked and surrounded himself with smart, capable people and deserves a lot of credit for doing that and for allowing them to do their jobs!
All of Biden's picks were outstanding, except for a certain individual who might have made an excellent Supreme Court justice was but not fit for running a DOJ in a political minefield.
I'll correct one thing. That's how the corporate media made Biden look to America. Every time he made a gaffe. It would generate a week of speculation on corporate news. Is Biden mentally fit to be president? Now look how they treat Trump. The man is clearly suffering from dementia. He talks in gibberish. Yet there is no discussion in the news media. If Trump is fit to be president. They go out of their way not to show his more insane comments.
That's what fascists do. They overwhelm you with everything. Throwing at you so fast and furious that you can't keep up. Because in chaos you can steal. Which is what Trump is doing. Stealing everything he can.
I liked Biden but in point of fact he sometimes came off as disengaged. The press was rough on him. But they are rough on mango-man too, though not as tough as they should be. Any number of major news outlets have had stories about his declining health, increasing weight, mental instability, and ethical failures.
This is true. The last two years he was hardly visible, protected by his staff, and when he was, he never looked anything but like a doddering old man. The Biden is old and in decline narrative was baked in, and not only by the GOP and conservative media. And keeping Biden away and largely out of the public eye only cemented this.
I love Biden, but I'll always be more upset that he decided to run for a second term...and madder still at myself that I convinced myself he could and should run for a 2nd term.
It's striking how well the government ran even when Biden wasn't at his best. This is the power of a competent cabinet. Compare and contrast with the comical cast of prancing, mugging incompetents comprising Trump's cabinet, all it must be noted, confirmed by Senate Republicans who saw fealty to Trump as fulfilling their Constitutional obligation for advice and consent.
Agreed with JE Thomas. Biden’s administration did a great job on bringing us back & improving things & setting up pathways for a better future. (Also, the complaints about inflation often omit the devastation that covid brought to the economy. It was not all ‘Biden’s fault’.)
However, I blame Jill & Hunter & even Joe himself. He should have accepted the laurels & retired, as he had practically promised to do at the outset. He should have allowed someone else to run, with enough time to run a campaign. It was a disaster.
And it is so strange & ironic that one debate catastrophe imprinted the image of a ‘senile Biden’ on the opinions of so many Americans, that they allowed themselves to put back in office a doddering old man not only senile but stupid: a deranged, destructive, demented, ignorant, bullying, incompetent pretender who has no business being anywhere near the White House, (the East Wing, the reflecting pool, the South Lawn for a UFC cage fight, the Kennedy Center, the granite Eisenhower bldg, the Defense Department, the Dept of Education, or ANY OTHER Department of the government, and on and on), much less engaging in international affairs re: Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, NATO, Ukraine, CANADA!!! …, or anywhere else.
If one is feeling very angry, one can be amazed that Jill, according to her book, was so surprised & horrified by her husband’s lapse of focus after a long trip. The decision not to run should have been made long before that, and is not George Clooney’s fault.
Biden would surely have lost to the Orange Man. Unfortunately the Democrats “coronated” VP Harris and didn’t allow Democratic voters to have a say. I know time was short and it was a “desperation move.” But look at the results. America will never recover from this catastrophe.
There wasn’t time to have a primary which likely would have been bruising. Like him or not, Bernie Sanders did a lot of damage to Hillary even though the polls showed clearly he had never had a reasonable chance of winning the nomination. In fact he lost the primary to her by a whopping 12 points, a fact the media never made clear, but many on the left were led to believe he had been robbed by the DNC.
There was no primary in 2024. There was a primary in 2016. Hillary and Bernie. 8 years prior. The function of primaries is to test candidates and platforms. Hillary, you will recall, won that primary. The damage done to her was done by Hillary who treated the election as a coronation. She visited Wisconsin zero - 0 - times in the runnup to the election. She treated the election as a fait accompli. And she got beat by a morally bankrupt fool with faux orange skin. That wasn't Bernie Sanders's fault. It was hers.
Primaries, as we conduct them, are huge part of the problem. They cater to specific (swing) states often having a clear front runner based on just a couple, before they even hit all of the “important” swing states. Not only does that mean candidates hyper focus on specific areas and the opinions and habits of the people in them, ignoring the vast majority, but it also means that a relatively low percentage of people get to pick who the candidate will be. It’s not at all democratic. It is one of many problems with the American election process. But not campaigning in 50 states also hurts the nominee, even the primary winner. Let’s say a D lost a state to an R by 8 points. They see “8” and say it’s a lost cause. How about seeing a +4 point swing and thinking maybe that is doable? But then again, the driver for all of this is the Electoral College whose abolishment would fix probably the biggest flaw in our presidential election process.
According to Heather Cox Richardson, the Electoral College was never meant to be winner take all, but Thomas Jefferson pushed it in that direction. In the early days of the Republic it was proportional.
One problem with the electoral college is that in most states it is "winner takes all", which in itself creates "swing states".
Counting the 2 senators of each state in the electoral college, gives an advantage to the smaller almost all rural states, which by the economic structure (which subsidizes rural areas) tend to vote conservative (Republican).
Just eliminating "swing states" will do a lot to solve the problem, forcing Republicans to be less extreme to get elected.
Limiting the power of the president would help as well. The power to make war or impose tarifs should rest with Congress (or Senate), not the president.
Your comment also highlights another issue…that the states decide how to award their EC votes and they don’t all do it the same! It’s infuriating (and baffling, frankly) that every vote is most definitely not weighted the same.
Totally agree on the Senate, too. My proposal is one D and one R from every state. Gives everyone in a state at least some representation and forces the buffoons to work together to get things done. Of course, it wouldn’t really work. They would find a way to manipulate it and break it.
Before a vote is cast, the corporate media and the rich donors tell us who are the "real" candidates. There were better candidates running than John Kerry in 2004 and Clinton and Obama in 2008. In 2020, there was a proliferation of joke candidates who muddied the field and helped enable the selection of Biden even when he finished fifth in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Wrong on all counts. There was a primary in 2024. I know because I voted for Biden in it. He ran unopposed but there was still a primary. Hillary never visited my state. Somehow I was able to vote for her. Someone has to visit your state, in order for you to vote for them? GROW UP. Hillary didn't lose to a con man. She lost to a hostile press that was determined to beat the hell out of her. Hillary's emails. What was the scandal there? Anyone remember? She was allowed to use a private server as Sec. of State. Both Condi Rice and Collin Powell did the same thing. Why wasn't that a scandal for them, but it was for Hillary? The rules weren't changed til after she left the job. She lost to Russian interference. They hacked the DNC website and RNC website. Only released the DNC emails. Russians working hand in glove with the Trump campaign. Remember the Trump Tower meeting? She lost due to James Comey announcing she was guilty of mishandling classified information. Even though the FBI determined there was nothing to charge her with. Lastly she lost due to James Comey announcing 2 weeks before the election. They were reopening the investigation over newly found emails, that weren't new at all. That's what killed Hillary. So when you say she lost. Be accurate why she lost. She didn't lose to a con man. She lost for all the reasons above. Even with that. She still got 4 M more votes than Trump nationwide. If it hadn't been for those damn Jill Stein voters in MI, WI and PA. Hillary would have won the EC and become president. Trump's margin of victory in those states was less than the number of Jill Stein voters. If you didn't vote for Hillary. You helped give us Trump.
Right you are about Democratic primaries. They were held in every state except Florida and Delaware. But after that you've gone off the rails. Time for remedial reading comprehension, perhaps. I never said that a candidate must visit a state in order for a resident of that state to vote for them. I said that Clinton did not visit Wisconsin, a state that her campaign expected to win without effort, a state that arguably cost her the election.
The rest of your screed is mostly opinion and you're welcome to it. My opinion is that Hillary was a deeply flawed candidate who didn't take her opponent seriously, a candidate who made her contempt of the canaille as clear as her sense of noblesse oblige. I voted for her. But I held my nose when I did.
All candidates are flawed dude. Because all candidates are humans. Was Trump also not flawed? It's you liberal purists that always demand perfect candidates to vote for. Then act like children and help the republicans win the election. If you don't get your way. Bernie lost the primary and you couldn't be an adult about it. Decided to help the worst candidate win because you wanted Bernie. I don't believe for a second you voted for Hillary. Why do you people always lie the same way? "I held by nose to vote for Hillary." Heard that a million times from people like you. If you did vote for Hillary. I'm sure you did a lot to help her win. "Vote for Hillary, she sucks". Wow, what a great messenger you were. Bet you got a lot of votes for Hillary with that winning message. Give me a break pal. Don't piss down my leg and tell me it's raining. You didn't vote for Hillary and we all know it.
Hillary lost because of the email server and two cellphones. Just stupid bonehead security lapses by a boomer generation politician that never developed any sense of tech savy and security. It didn't help that her husband had a heavy influence. And she had no advisers that she would listen to who would get her out of the clouds. But, the single big blow came from the Comey disclosure of the Email server contents. It made her look clueless.
Hillary's server was never hacked. It was the DNC server that was hacked. Hillary was allowed to use a private server as sec of state. Both Condi Rice and Colin Powell did the same thing when in that job. The rules weren't changed til after she left. The FBI found there was nothing to charge her with. It was Comey that declared her guilty in violation of DOJ policy. You are blaming the victim.
Not disputing anything you say. It' about optics. She was following rules that pre-dated a rapidly changing security environment. It was a security risk to store government business on a private server. By the time it was disclosed in 2016, it looked like a bonehead move or Obama admin negligence for not updating the rules. I recognized at the time of disclosure it was poor head work. BTW I trusted her and voted for her.
"Socialism" is the govt acting collectively in the interests of the population.
It includes building infrastructure (roads, railways, canals, airports, ports), welfare systems (retirement, unemployment, health care, regulations), public education, and progressive taxes to pay for this.
Trump and his minions are acting against much of this, to the detriment of the US.
It will end up hurting much of the better off in the US, as well as those already worse off.
But Trump is happy, as long as he gets his grift and can pretend to be strong.
BTW, properly funding "socialism" will benefit everyone (except maybe the top 1%), and cost less than Trump excesses.
Yes, you and II know/understand all that. But a vast majority of Americans simply don't, or won't.
Dems forget the truism, every cycle: if you're explaining, you're losing. Especially when you're up against a massive conservative propaganda media machine.
No he wouldn’t have. Biden got 6 million votes more than Harris four years later, more than half of them misogynists who stayed at home rather than to vote for a woman.
The only thing Biden was punished for was getting old which we all are bound to do. Trump is much worse now than Biden was at the end of his term, but the Rs won't admit it and in fact all lie about his condition.
Trump doesn't need any help from Dems to blame Biden. Trump is incapable of believing anything other than that he is never wrong. His last dying breath will be to blame Biden for something, anything.
The way I see it is that Biden set the stage for defeat by failing to abide to his promise of being a one term president. He set up a repeat of the 1968 debacle by going back on that. George was not involved in Biden's disastrous debate performance that showed his mental decline. By then it was too late to have a genuine candidate selection process so the Democrats had little choice other than to repeat the failed process of 1968.
In 1968 I was for Gene McCarthy, and because Hubert Humphrey refused to repudiate Richard Daly's treatment of war protesters and Johnson's war policies I joined millions of others in withholding my vote. That was a mistake. But it enabled me to see clearly that in general people want to see candidates selected via a process as opposed to being anointed by the elites. Though Harris was not my first choice in 2024 I made a sizable (for me) donation to the Democrats and voted Blue. It didn't matter.
We can only speculate about how the 2024 election would have turned out had there been a series of primaries involving multiple candidates. Perhaps Harris would have emerged as the candidate of choice, but she-or whoever else won- would have had the time to establish credibility as well as legitimacy. Harris had to fight with one arm tied behind her back, and for that we can blame Joe Biden.
Biden objectively delivered a horrible performance at that debate, there is no way to deny, excuse, or relativize that.
It didn’t really decide anything though. If horrible debate performances would swing elections, Clinton would have beaten Trump by double digits in all battleground states.
It certainly didn't help that the media piled on and relentlessly attacked Biden. That's one big difference between 2024 and 2016.
For all the mistakes the Democrats made in the lead up to the 2024 election the fact remains that the American people elected Trump, a convicted felon, racist, misogynist and fascist, who had shown himself for what he is in his first term. So, as Pogo said, we have met the enemy and he is us.
I watch the ABC Nightly news every night. After the debate every newscast started with "How long until Biden drops out?". Biden said a hundred times he wasn't dropping out. It didn't matter. They just kept it up. They hounded him for 2 or 3 weeks until he dropped out. The media forced Biden out as much as his own party did.
Debates are so overrated. Hillary wiped the floor with Trump in her debates. Gore beat Bush in his debates. Harris made Trump look like a fool in their one debate. So much he refused to debate her again. We see how those contests worked out. A bad debate could have been overcome. If his own party hadn't turned on him. If they had rallied behind him instead of stabbing him in the back. That debate could have been overcome What can't be overcome is when your own party demands you get out of the race. Why I will always hate Nancy Pelosi going on CNN. Telling Biden to drop out. My own senator Michael Bennett doing the same. I will never forgive them for that. I will never watch another George Clooney film as long as I live. He's dead to me now. I liked his films too.
If you look at the content of the Biden-Trump debate, in many respects Biden did much better. However at points Biden seriously lacked in energy, and Trump had the ignorant (and lying) bluster that many voters appreciate.
Looking at a transcript, Biden did better than Trump.
Forcing Biden out was a mistake. There is no doubt about that. Even if they hadn't done that. Biden probably still would have lost. Americans were in an angry mood. The corporate media had hammered him for 4 years. Blaming Biden for inflation. Allowing republicans to spread the lie of "Open Borders". Biden never had an "Open Border" policy. However, they allowed republicans to repeat the lie thousands of times. On tv and in news articles. Never once did I see a reporter say "No, Biden doesn't have open borders". But the fact is we will never know how Biden would have done. Because that election never happened. It's just a waste of time arguing over something that didn't occur.
Biden and his economic team did a great job but I wish Biden would have decided to leave after one term. Also, the news media did an awful job at covering the economy during Biden”s presidency and leading up to the 2024 election!
Until the oligarchy is dismantled Dems aren't gonna be treated fairly by the billionaire-owned media. Until the oligarchy is dismantled, lobbyists will direct Democratic administrations to do things their voters don't want them to do, like fund and facilitate a genocide. Joe Biden broke an important railroad strike and spent billions on helping the Israelis murder the last few natives in the Gaza reservation that could have gone to improving our situation and thereby motivating his supporters.
Our media never reported on what Biden was doing for the American people. Our media sucks and is the main reason we have this obvious traitor in the White House.
The underlying reason our media sucked re Biden can be explained in one name, Lina Khan. The media monopolists wanted her gone at all costs, step one was trashing the man who appointed her to fight monopoly power.
The NY Times has been "both-sidesing" the parties and attacking Dems since long before Biden. I'm sure you recall "Hillary's emails" - to say nothing of the run-up to the Iraq war where they ran literally fabricated pieces on WMDs to bolster Bush fils. The way they treated Biden was just more of the same.
The stupidest thing about the email server saga was that yes, it was wrong of her, but it was presented as some unique bad thing only she did. It took less than a year for Mike Pence and Jared Kushner to do the same thing, but those stories never got traction because nobody cared.
It is a long time ago that I read a long article about this issue. But if I remember correctly, one of the reasons for the private server were issues with the IT system at the Department of State. She was allowed therefore to have that server. James Comey, after it turned out nothing was wrong with the emails, announced just before the election that he had found a few more. Again, nothing to see there. But Mr. Trump had already won. I found Mr. Trump's invitations towards Russia to access Ms. Clinton's emails bordering on treason. But apparently I was the only one?
IIRC, what was found was a laptop shared by Hillary's aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner, who was being investigated for sexting minors. Nothing new was found.
Comey announced it because he was sure it would leak if he didn't. FBI NY Field Office was referred to as "Trumplandia" at the time. SDNY had had to force them to stop investigating the Clinton Foundation after they repeatedly found nothing there.
The first time I stopped reading Ezra Klein was when he couldn’t stop his Biden-bashing in an election year. (The second time was when he claimed Charlie Kirk did debating “the right way”).
This admin has done exactly what you’d expect them to do, if they worked for putin & against democratic values. I’m old enough to remember a time when human rights were paramount. American exceptionalism indeed
This is why I keep saying that Trump is a Russian asset. I don't really see how you can square what he's done with loyalty to America in any way shape or form. If you had asked anyone, right wing or left wing, what an enemy of America would do if they had presidential power I'm pretty certain it would resemble what has happened since Trump became engaged in the political arena, and has vastly accelerated over his second term. But hey, keep ignoring the fox in the henhouse. That'll work...
First, it is incontrovertible that Trump doesn't care about the country - that's an easy one, b/c he doesn't care about anything. Except himself, of course. He's a grifter, a psychopath and a moron - and I don't think he's ever sat down with a Russian, or anyone working for the Russians, and planned out how he was going to f--- over the US. It's just what he's doing, all by himself, without Putin's help, without any planning at all. The Russians didn't need to hire him - they just need to sit back and watch him destroy the US. They couldn't have imagined something this good for them in their wildest dreams.
Some of what you say is clearly true, Rena, but they’ve been all over his properties, financing and deals from the beginning- from fla real estate deals to trump tower- so please be a realist here
You're 1000% on this. Careful though as you will be inevitably accused of forgiving DJT for his criminality and shifting the focus to Putin. The latter is giggling [is he capable?] all the way to the Bank, and, oh yeah, the Bank is a Crypto repository run by Donnie, Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Jared.
"Biden" seems to be a speech tic for Republicans these days, activated whenever they are confronted with proof of Trump's idiocy or insanity. I was thinking about more insanity we should expect to hear from Trump and his Band of Lackeys:
Who caused World War II? Biden!
Who caused The Great Depression? Biden!
Who caused stagflation in the 1970s? Biden!
Who caused COVID? Biden!
Who caused the 1918 pandemic? Biden! And World War I while he was at it!
Who caused Hurricane Sandy? Biden!
I could go on all day. Biden apparently is the cause of everything bad happening now and everything bad that happened in the past. 🤦♀️
It has been hard, Mr. Vovchuk. At 92, I am privileged to understand, and Ukraine has been among the inspirations for my fight to make America sane again.🇺🇸🇺🇦
Vaseline, Putin is behind the numbers. MAGA is loud, but not adequately numerous. Old Vlad can and did rig the electoral quotas in 7 swing states to bring in the Destroyer-in-Chief and is getting his life long dreams [threats to destroy NATO, actual collapse of the US economy and military, divisive hatred among social factions, intimidation of minorities...I could go on], without wasting a single bullet or tank or drone. Pretty clever. As 47 has said over and over, the 2024 election was rigged. Now he is carrying out orders to destroy whatever he can as quickly as he can...after all his health and endurance will not last forever.
Unfortunately, the true maga believers believe it all Biden’s fault. I have a relative who thinks it is all Obama’s fault and he has been out of office since January 2017. I think it is why trump’s poll numbers never go below 30%. My maga relatives watch a steady diet of Fox News, Newsmax and Facebook. Their faith in Trump is unshakable.
30-35% doesn't win elections without a *lot* of money supporting them - and an unforgivable number of non-voters and idiotic 'swing'/'undecided' voters..
In Canada, there are laws against hate messaging, an impartial high quality national news media network (partially govt funded) competing with independant media networks, and a govt where extremists have difficulty getting elected.
The few very marginal Fox-like media exceptions are funded mostly by money from the US.
At first I was outraged when I saw that trump thing at the top of your post. My immediate reaction: how DARE they! What a relief to discover you put it there!
The media deserves a lot of the blame. They chose to focus on inflation but not the fact that it was a world-wide phenomenon that was as bad or worse in most other countries. When inflation started easing the media chose to focus on the high price of gas caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine. When those prices came down they buried that story in back pages in favor of prominently placed stories about the high price of eggs. And that wasn’t all the media misled us about. From Dean Baker:
“Yes the Media Lied About the Pre-Election Economy”
What I don't get is that it was obvious the media was lying. And it didn't take a lot of work to figure out either, just a bit of critical thinking. Yet people fell for the narrativem hook, line, and sinker and I'm still scratching my head over that one.
This kinda reminds me of the foofaraw at the time when it turned out that Saddam Hussein did not, in fact, have 'weapons of mass destruction'. When those of us who had been saying this all along, saying it for years in fact, we were told in essence that the Top Men were wrong, yes ... but they were wrong for the right reasons. Us naysayers, by contrast, were right only 'by accident'. But no, that was not the case. Anybody who examined the evidence both individually and in toto could see at once that for an administration this obviously eager to go to war it was awfully thin gruel, and if there was any better evidence out there, it would have been relentlessly pushed 24/7. Ergo no such weapons existed or were being developed. I don't see how anyone could say that line of thinking was the work of a genius. Yet somehow, both our media and our so-called impartial so-called Top Men uncritically pushed what little evidence there was as proof dispositive, sigh.
Two things - "just a bit of critical thinking." So, you're talking about 'muricans, so there's your problem right there. :( Second, re WMDs - yes! The only time I had a bit of a waver in seeing that it was all drummed up nonsense was when Colin Powell gave his spiel - then I thought a bit more and concluded, "Nope."
The worst part is that the self inflicted wounds are likely to be long lasting. We are becoming more corrupt, less dependable, our workforce is shrinking, our innovative lead receding.
Last year I emailed President Trump at the White House on two occasions. They were polite and pleading letters about important issues to me. In return, I was put on his White House propaganda list serve as you showed today at the top of your column. I read what he sent and unsubscribed and unsubscribed and unsubscribed. Finally it stopped coming, but lately I’ve begun to receive pro maga and Trump texts! Thank you apple for the immediate block feature! When I wrote Presidents Obama and Biden, I would receive a pleasant response and at Christmas, a beautiful card.
Good article, thanks for sharing. Pathocracy is a fitting term. It’s really not altogether difficult to spot the psychopaths anymore, the. ones totally devoid of empathy, because they are announcing it publicly in plain language; the same ones who keep saying that empathy is a weakness.
I’ve thought a lot about that lately and it’s kind of pathetic because if you can’t feel empathy, you can’t truly feel love, ecstasy, transcendence, or any deep emotion; at best they get a pale imitation of from some chemical substance, or from wielding power, or dominance.
Trump’s sociopathy coupled with his extreme narcissism makes him dangerously unqualified to be president. He’s also showing increasing signs of frontotemporal dementia, and the dementia increases his dangerous personality disorders.
I have always been amused by the disconnect between Trump's boasts and reality. He porrtrayed himself as a genius businessman whike running 4 casinos into bankruptcy. Casinos are essentially licenses to print money. How do you eff that up??? In business and in politics getting tied up with Trump usually leads to disaster. Not always for him. Almost always for those who trust him. When Trump had worn out his welcome with virtually every major bank, one of his bright-bulb sons said something to the effect of. , "it's not a problem, we get all the money we need from the Russians." And now, as the economy spirals in a flat spin for those in the bottom 8 or 9 deciles, lots of the MAGAts that have watched their personal situations erode - farmers, factory workers, and small businesspeople still sing his praises. Color me cynical but they deserve what they get. Sadly, the rest of us are getting dragged along for the ride.
I've often said that if we were a sane country, the only person approving of Chump's performance would be his mother (I give moms a lot of leeway) - and she's dead.
Could we please have more of whatever Joe Biden did?
Oh you mean things like creating good paying jobs in the things we will need, as we move into a better for the planet way of living? Getting ready for more electric vehicles and Broadband for all. Finding ways to care for our parents, as well as ourselves and our children while paying those who do health care, adequately. Shining a light on people who do good in our communities and still trying to work with the stinking GOP!
Well if you are really interested in helping us to achieve those goals come and join us in Canada. We are slowly but surely getting there.
It is my firm belief that the US west coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) should petition Canada to join you as the 11th Province!!!
Teresa, any chance that your offer would include the weather from those states and ship some to Nova Scotia.
Our weather is the weather. It has to do with Earth. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not a bit. Can you say fires and floods? Not unlike a lot of Canada these days. We do have some good weather here. If you like Wales type weather, you would love Oregon! But, we can't ship our weather anywhere. If you want good weather all the time, your best bet is Florida, a southern state. They are unlikely to leave any country controlled by Trump and crew or their successors. Because, even if we vote Trump out by 2028 and keep him out, the people who voted for him two (or three) times, are still there, and their voting habits will remain what they have demonstrated them to be since before the Civil War era. What Canada would get would be three flawed but productive US states who have had enough. We do want to build economies that are respected and supported, and not be the target for destruction we see in Trump and his many followers who will continue his behavior into the forseeable future. That being said, talking California, Oregon, and Washington into the leaving the US won't be a simple matter either. My wish is mostly a joke because of that reality, though many of us on the west coast feel leaving what is left of the US would be best.
Florida? I spent what seemed like a month there one week.
I was fortunate, I only had one guy show me his gun while in the line at the grocery store. He spent 5 minutes explaining "open carry" to me and was very curious what I "carried" at home in NS? I told him a slingshot and ball bearings.
Would you send a link to a reliable weather station so I can stop using NOAA that was pretty slaughtered? You can't ship your weather stations here somehow? (Sorry about your fires, we've gotten the smoke and feel bad for you folks.)
Florida? Intrusive bugs, especially palmetto bugs, roaches so big you can hear their footsteps in your house at night. Far too hot and humid except on the beach. And politics worse than Georgia and North Carolina.
If the stresses get any higher…
I have to respectfully disagree with you. As a Californian, I can say that California's climate (a Mediterranean climate) is the best in the country - indeed, the best in the world. Florida's climate is only good if you like sticky gross and nasty humidity, big bugs and alligators.
Or vice versa? A bit more precipitation during months of drought might be helpful to those states.
Well Professor, that proposal is in direct competition with the State of Jefferson that wants to carve-out a 51st state from rural-red MAGA-Land they now can't decide whether to call Greater Idaho or “Mittelwestcoastia”.
So, the 11th Province supporters in Canada better get Carney on board ASAP before Felon47 turns his lidless eye to the West.
A huge, lidless eye wreathed in farts, in Trumps case.
What is the State of Jefferson? Is this the MAGA view of land ownership? In any case, now you talk about the arguments in Oregon about where land governance goes: clearly east of the mountains many Oregonians want to go with Idaho. Let them. We are talking about absolute change now. We are free in this free land to do that: change absolutely.
West of the mountains along the 1-5 corridor, many Oregonians want to leave. But, we have a lot of arguing to do before we are in the position to petition Canada for Provinceship. Okay.
The plan is doomed IMHO. Too many US Citizens would want to come to the newly formed State. The State of Jefferson was/is a proposed State intended to be carved out of the rural counties of Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Yes, after obeying my draft notice and reporting, volunteering for Vietnamese language school, serving 10 months in-country I should have gone to law school in Canada and applied for citizenship.
If you are looking for a stable democracy with a worldwide network of long term allies that you aren't interesting in alienating, yes, Canada would be more that way.
Call it Ontario II.
Well, since it will be democratic, we'll have to have lists and a vote!
Please also take Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and New York too!
Yes, please. I will brush up my high school French - I already love a double-double!
And Maine!
What a lovely idea!
Thought about it.
One of my grandmothers was born there.
Robert if you are really interested and can prove relative born in Canada check federal government for bill C-3. It will speed up the process.
Come in January it is quite balmy then, plus it will test your desire for Canada. Depending on the province you only get 4 months of good sledding, the rest is slush. It will grow on you though.
I’m descended from Scots (Father 96%).
Winter doesn’t scare me.
In fact I prefer cold to hot.
I’ve been to Mexico 16+ visits.
No thanks.
Nice people, too hot.
@Brian. I can attest to that. We lived for almost 16 months in Canada, in Ontario. We were lucky as it was a not-so-bad winter. I wanted to stay.
Then come back home!
Thou haveth an escape from the land of the monkeys swinging endlessless in the banana republic with nukes... (sorry). Hope you'll just stay safe but ...
@Robert. Canada as well as the US allow dual citizenship.
Don’t think I haven’t thought of it!
Might as well make it the 11th, 12th, 13th provinces. Ca is the 4th largest economy in the world, OR and WA would make a great province. Add in Hawaii for your winter vacation destination. Hell, Alaska would LOVE universal health care so make it 14. Next stops Minnesota and Michigan. Interesting idea.
I don't think you want us there. I read it's very hard to live there unless you're young, possess a needed skill, or have a lot of money. (which I understand and think is a reasonable immigration policy).
I'd love to move to Canada, but I don't meet the criteria. I'm too old, not rich enough, not a refugee, and I don't speak French. (I'm sure I could learn French, but otherwise, I'm considered a liability.)
A lot of people would love to do just that - joining you. However Canada has immigration laws too, and in recent years made it harder for people to immigrate. Basically you need to be of a young age, well-educated/skilled, preferably have a job offer, speak/read/write English at a certain level (and/or French), have some money in the bank, and be healthy, if you want to enter Canada work-bound (legally).
Yes, but it is akin to people being allowed to immigrate into the US a long as they have a US citizen family member. How has that worked out for the many fleeing violence and poverty? How is that an option for those who are told "that they should do it legally" (or not come at all).
Canada found a nice way to add a number of mostly white citizens?
A lot of the Scottish Diaspora from the Highland Clearances ended up in Canada.🏴
And New Jersey?
Wait! That’s Socialist, right! Communist, even. Certainly Godless.
Socialist sort of, communist no.
Both socialism and communism come in multiple varieties. Neither the old Soviet Union nor the current China were "communist" by any stretch of the imagination -- but these many, many decades of shrieking about "Red Menaces" do tend to divert our focus from the inadequacies and vulnerabilities of capitalism.
The closest thing to socialism or even communism today would be what you would see in the nearly countless Hutterite communities across Canada, where private property is abolished and the people live in a classless society. Although these communities may not be utopia for all, there is no poverty, inequality, homelessness, unemployment, violence, gangs, corruption, etc, which is so prevalent in our cities. In fact, these communities are quite wealthy and that wealth is shared equally among all.
Communism was always an opium pipe dream of two disgruntled German intellectuals.
Any close analysis of Marx & Engels’ “Communist Manifesto”” clearly shows the foundational & practical weakness of Communism.
It reminds me of Fundamentalist theories of “God” based government.
Pipe Dreams
Maybe (re)read Das Kapital? It was, and still is, one of the most influential works of social science, economics, and political philosophy ever written. The Manifesto was a pamphlet.
Indeed! Canadians are those evil-doer socialists, Marxists, commies, radical, baby killing, anti-Christ terrorists. Just ask toddler Trump and his brainwashed Maggots.
Soon Trump's going to announce a wall on the northern border, and Canada is going to pay for it. MAGA, winning, etc.
You are correct buddie. I have a flag pole in from of my house. The flag on the top is the red & white Maple Leaf, below that the Commie Red with the Hammer & Sicle, below that a flag of a burning Bible, below that is a pro abortion, and last my big Weed flag. If we get anymore freedoms in Canada I will have to get a taller flag pole.
So, if you are so happy Brian, why do you do so much whining? Isn't it time to move on and tell us how you are enjoying your life? Read any good books? Learned a new dance step? Bake a cake or done anything else to float your boat?
Agreed. Except on Broadband, recently I’m wondering if it would be better to take over muskrat’s starlink for the common good. Maybe devise a counsel or advisory system to protect our data from politics etc. having satellites that don’t require below ground or above ground infrastructure and cable seems much better for a variety of reasons.
Satellites wear out, are decommissioned, and then become (dangerous) debris circling our planet. What we build "below and above ground" can be dismantled. Which we often fail to do too.
The second Trump administration, now going into its second year, has been characterized by an impressive succession of failures across every front — from the Treasury to the Pentagon, from trade to public health, from agriculture to debt management.
https://marcusnunes.substack.com/p/the-administration-of-incompetence
3rd year.... going into 3rd miserable, horrifying, disgusting, destructive, hateful year.
They should make a movie Gaslight II: How Donald Trump Deceived The World.
I do not think Mr. Trump deceived the world. He deceived a large number of USAmericans.
Not sure those are all failures—if the plan was the destroy everything worthwhile and good in the US he’s off to a great start.
And regulating AI and the Silicon Valley fascists like Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who are currently pulling MAGA and Trump's strings.
Good news on that front: Gil Duran's book (The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy), released on 8-18-26, became an instant best seller on Amazon and The Bookshop, and is now #1 on the NYT bestseller list. He's also been interviewed on Democracy Now, The Commonwealth Club in SF, NPR, and the Guardian.
You americanas are in big trouble. I live in Honduras, a banana republic. You are now a banana republic. You are welcome to live in my country. And please bring your dolars
Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, West Bank atrocities along with Syria and Lebanon, and worst of all running, incredibly, for a second term and giving us four more years of Trump. A few charging stations? some infrastructure to benefit contractors and the few union workers we still have? Failing to fix our for-profit medical system, No.1 in cost but somewhere about 15th in results.
Decency and kindness? That is not the MAGA way.
Gisele
What is more disgusting and dangerous than the Biden Derangement Syndrome is that Trump's approval rating is 33% and not 5%. The rating means about 50 million people, who are registered voters, approve of Trump despite the blatant corruption and violations of law, the lying, the attacks on democracy and elections, the lack of affordability, the ICE raids on immigrants including the murders of American citizens and the war with Iran. The 50 million includes MAGA filled with white male supremacists who hate women, blacks, immigrants, democracy and the rule of law.
However, the problem in America isn't just Trump and the 50 million who still approve of Trump. The problem is the lawless fascist autocracy which is being installed with an insurrection that unfortunately was not stopped by Garland and Biden and has been totally supported by Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs. Trump's insurrection began on January 6, 2021, but the insurrection continued into 2025 and 2026.
Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and billionaire oligarchs are violating federal law against insurrection and rebellion which is 18 U.S. Code § 2383. According to the federal law 18 U.S. Code § 2383, a felony crime is committed by “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office”.
In 2024 SCOTUS violated 18 U.S. Code § 2383 by refusing to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment that permanently bars individuals from holding state or federal office if they previously swore and oath to the U.S. Constitution and later engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Therefore, Trump was allowed to be on the ballot and get elected.
The core problem in America is a corrupt legal and political system that refuses to enforce the criminal law against insurrection. Where are the voters? They are totally misinformed and misled by the news media and Democrats who have never recognized the violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2383.
America can be saved if a new generation of progressive Democrats get elected in 2028 to control Congress and the White House with a Democratic president and only if they follow their sworn obligation to defend the Constitution which means enforcing the federal law against insurrection to prosecute, convict, and imprison these insurrectionist felons, Trump, members of his administration, Republicans in Congress, six justices on the Supreme Court and multiple billionaire oligarch including Musk. After conviction and imprisonment of the insurrectionist felons, the new generation of Democrats will have a super majority in Congress and a new SCOTUS with all nine justices appointed by Democrats. The new president, Congress and SCOTUS can then easily implement multiple new laws to correct the damage and the causes of damage such as overturning Citizens United and many other corrupt decisions by SCOTUS, and eliminating the Republican directed tax cuts since the 1970s that enabled theft of the wealth from 99% of Americans and destroyed affordability. Solutions to core problems including affordability of housing, food, energy and healthcare that includes Medicare for All can be funded by raising taxes on billionaires and corporations. Solutions also include correcting damage from tariffs, stopping foreign wars, and reducing wealth inequality.
Why do you say Democrats have never recognized the violation of the law that prosecutes engaging in insurrection? If Republican Senators had agreed to convict trump in that impeachment process, he could never have run for office again. Democrats voted to convict him. Susan Collins didn’t, & said trump had ‘learned his lesson’. Yes, he had! He had learned that he could do anything he wanted to, with complete impunity!
Colorado tried to keep trump off the ballot for the reasons we all know — that he had incited insurrection. Colorado was overruled — by the corrupt 6: the product of the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ warned of years ago by Hillary Clinton (a Democrat). Why in the world is this somehow the Democrats’ fault?
Agreed that trump support should be @
0 - 1% !!!! Is it the Democrats’ somehow fail[ing] ‘to recognize the violation’ inherent in the self-coup of January 6th that is responsible for the 1/3 of Americans who still support this monstrous installation of Project 2025? Come on!!!!
Some people live and die by Murc's law. Everything is the fault of the democrats. I'm guessing this might be a bot or troll.
Well said & 100% in agreement.
To MAGA being decent and kind is being "woke." And, as we all know, that's a bad thing!
Right and forget all Krugman’s fancy charts with their exaggerated scales to make The President look bad. The White House message feels “truthy” enough for the MAGA faithful. As the Eagles told us [You can’t] “hide your lyin eyes”.
He doesn't need any help with looking bad. That is his one competence.
Correct. And cruelty is the way one exhibits strength.
These people descended from slavers. You know what the Confederacy did every day to black people and poor whites! Trying to get them to be kind and decent results in people like Musk (empathy is evil) and Thiel (democracy is evil). It is a losing and futile proposition.
On my side of the Atlantic, we were distinctly envious of how well the US economy was doing in 2023-24. We were all recovering from the same external shocks over which we had no control, but there's little question that the Biden administration did a much better job of stabilising things afterwards.
Voting for Trump on economic grounds given that he was explicitly promising to make things worse (his tariff plans were scarcely a secret, and the outcome has been precisely as was foreseen by anyone even vaguely economically literate) was a collective act of... well, at best wilful ignorance, at worst lunacy.
We also had a corporate media and polling industry that played up economic hardship before the election. Some people were struggling, and the Republicans played them for fools.
The US in living in a corporatocracy, not a democracy, where the ungodly rich oligarchs own the economy, mass information (the corporate media) and the political arena.
No doubt about that. When inflation went up just one tenth of a point under Biden. It would be headline news on the network nightly news casts. First story. Dramatic announcement. "Inflation is up again". Since Trump has become president. The corporate media doesn't do that anymore. Even though inflation is now higher than when Biden left office. It's not a dramatic announcement. It's not the first story covered. Certainly not the doom and gloom they imparted when Biden was president. It was the corporate media that did everything they could. To get Trump re-elected.
Biden's peak monthly inflation was over 9%. The total during his administration was over 20%.
Voting for Trump in 2024 was demonstrably insane, given that his promises were patently impossible. His crazy decisions only turned probable issues into certainties. He now feels that too many Americans do not give him worship and adulation, as Dr Krugman wrote in his last Substack Trump now intends to punish them for his losses and failures. Good luck America.
The gullibility of the American electorate is incomprehensible.
The attack on education began decades ago. Civics stopped being taught, I got to wear slacks finally to HS in tenth grade (there was some good in the changes) and the expression, "The dumbing down of America," was in full swing.
Many were affected by this. We're pretty dumb but I believe the majority of us are remain very aware of what's going on. The smaller % of those who have no clue have been sucked up into being blindly led by <fill in your own nasty word>.
When people said they believed Trump when he said no new wars, or he would lower prices. I ask why did they believe a liar? I believe it's because the corporate media would never label anything he said a lie. All through the campaign. Both print and news journalists would not say lie. They would say "Factually incorrect", "Misleading", "Inaccurate". Because if they called it a lie, somehow they would be violating the rules of journalism. The benefit of the doubt should be extended to regular candidates. If they say something incorrect. Yes, it would violate journalism rules to call that a lie. Because it might have been a mistake. That should not apply to a man like Trump. That the Washington Post documented over 30K lies in his first term. After that, no benefit of the doubt should have been given to Trump. His lies should have been labeled lies. It was journalistic malpractice not to label Trump a liar. If the press had done their jobs right. No one could have claimed they believed Trump's words. Because they should have known he was a liar.
The sanewashing was, and continues to be, pervasive and inexcusable. The main stream media is an enabler of the admin by not continually pointing out the lies, corruption, and incompetence.
Since Trump got back into office. .The MSM doesn't even bother to fact check anything he says. They just report it as fact. Trump says this and Trump says that. At least during the campaign, they tried to fact check his comments. They've stopped doing that now.
There really should not be a need for "fact-checking". Anyone with an IQ above 80 should be able to tell that his utterances are 100proof bovine excreta.
That was fake news…
People didn't vote FOR Trump, many of them voted against Biden/Harris and their "ironclad support for Israel's mass killing, including over 20,000 children. Over 10 million refused to vote at all.
It wasn’t “Biden’s.”
It was world-wide due to Covid.
It peaked @ 9.1% & was 3% when he left office & going down.
Stop cherry picking facts, please
AI: "Since 2016, the U.S. has experienced significant inflation, with an average annual rate of approximately 3.36%, leading to a cumulative price increase of about 39.13% by 2026. This means that $1 in 2016 is equivalent to about $1.39 today.
The Biden (and Trump) "stimulus programs" drove inflation. Many grants to individuals, big ones, and grants and loans to businesses, many fraudulent. Businesses were reimbursed for the salaries on employees who never existed, or the businesses didn't exist.
Well, maybe.
MAGA voted for Little Donnie Dirty Pants, en mass
& there was a lot of sexism & racism evident in the vote.
If you want to ride your hobby horse about Israel, that’s your privilege.
However, remember the horrific attack, murders & rapes by Hamas.
The Israelis have a lot to answer for.
So do Iran & Hamas.
The mess in the old Fertile Crescent is not B&W.
It is ancient, complex & as much a family argument as anything else.
Well said. As a country, we are more inclined to fantasy than facts. Facts do tend to be a better basis for decisions, but Americans prefer myths. It’s more fun. Vietnam is a classic example. It was a stupid decision, and, though we don’t acknowledge it, we are still paying the consequences. And another key factor is white racism. If you wonder how Trump still holds his 30% support, please stop avoiding the reason. It is white racism. That 30% is pretty much unshakeable. They will die on that hill.
Alternative facts…
A bunch
Most countries prefer their soothing myths.
It’s a tribal thing.
I think you are being too kind here. We have an ugly streak in our culture and it is currently ascendant in our governance.
Michael, the internet and bots amplified his popularity and dimwits got aboard for fear of missing out. Fox and other propaganda sites nailed the coffin. Recall Hillary won the popular vote even with widespread gerrymandering but lost in the electoral college.
Stupidity. &, I suppose, willful ignorance.
He’s still a minority President.
But he still garners 40% support, which is unbelievable. Don't be surprised if he pulls something with the mid-terms and gets away with it. The US will then become a full blown fascist state.
Maybe.
The MAGAt pile is softening & shrinking.
Still 1/3rd which is a problem.
Blue Tsunami in Nov. Fixes that .
Clearly you weren't paying attention during his term of office, since you ask what he accomplished. Stupidity and willful ignorance indeed.
Down to 33% as of this wkend
I think Biden was a decent human being who was very effective on many fronts - but I am very angry that he failed to see Trump's threat to democracy and do something about it. Those treasonous bastards should have been tried and locked up in expeditious fashion - and Biden's inaction combined with Garland's timidity and undeserved faith in our institutions gave us this awful, awful Administration.
He had other failures that stemmed from his inability/unwillingness to use the Bully Pulpit to educate the American people about Trump, COVID/vaccines, immigration, DEI and other "hot button" topics.
Biden's inaction on immigration was also foolish. Had he not allowed asylum entries to spike -- even though tamping it down required the illegal EO he eventually issued -- I don't think Trump would have been able to win even if he'd stayed out of jail. Biden didn't need to be especially harsh about it, just reduce it to a more manageable flow.
Biden "gave" immigration to Kamala Harris - she appropriately went to Central America to try to deal with "root causes." But people weren't just leaving because their countries were gang-infested and poor, America has always been a haven for immigrants. Harris failed at this - and failed to grasp, as did Biden - the degree to which it was both a real and manufactured problem. They could have done a lot by working more closely with Mexico.
The bigger issue is that our country needs immigrants - although Trump no doubt thought if he fired enough Federal workers, there would be "black jobs" cleaning houses or picking vegetables. Putz. Or Elon convinced him that robots would do those jobs.
Citizen Act of 2021.
Bipartisan Border Security Bill 2024
Both killed by Republicans
Donnie Dirty Diapers ordered the GOP Senators to renege on their promises to vote for it.
Be careful about sweeping generalizations & memes.
I'm aware. I followed it all closely. That's why I said it required an illegal EO.
Less likely if the Democratic Party continues its preference to waste time, money and messaging with a focus on replacing one Democrat for another in safe Democratic districts instead of hammering away in Republican districts corruption, the chaos in the economy, and stupid wars will not end by returning Republican incumbents.
Spare us the Murc's law please. If you don't know what Murc's law, it's the belief that only democrats have agency. That everything that happens is to be blamed on democrats. It's the republicans in Congress that are allowing Trump to do all of this. It's the republicans on the SC as well. Democrats aren't responsible for republican gerrymandering.
You’re busy today Alvin. #trolllife
I have respect for Joe. He was the man in 2020. He made a giant mistake not stepping down and his staff made a bigger mistake keeping him in office. It doesn’t make him a bad man. It does mean he made a bad choice.
Revise history as you like. It isn’t a winning strategy.
Are you a bot? Never answered the question.
Oh you got me
Call me Chat for short
🙄
Half the comments on the internet are from bots. Read up on Dead internet Theory. Over half the net is computer generated and not by humans.
Republicans' strength (if you can call it that) is their professed dislike of big government. It means that they can be utterly incompetent when they are power at the Federal level and still be completely true to their avowed principle. The principle excuses the incompetence and recklessness; the incompetence and recklessness enact the principle. It's genius - though of the unstable variety.
They’re not adverse to Big Government, if it works for them.
They’re adverse to Big Government that actually serves the citizens.
All of the citizens.
All colors
All sexual ID
All women
& if you must, even wealthy putz’s & well trained men
Murc's law is not germane to a comment about the Democratic Party's choice in this campaign season to distract the electorate's focus from DJT corruption and the Republicans in the House and Senate inability to govern. Except for "hammering away" in Republican districts (read in Republican incumbant districts) about corruption and inept governance by Republican majorities, how would a campaign put the blame for current chaos on Republican incumbants outlined in the A Miller rebuttal comment?
To A Miller's specific point about Republican gerrymandering. Any gerrymandering works when past voting practices predicts future ballot choices. The Hungarian opposition party defeated Orban (and his party's gerrymandering) in the Hungarian parliamentary elections with a campaign focused not with divisive primary campaigns within a minority party but drawing attention to the consequences (corruption, ineptitude, etc) experienced by all voters when one party dominates the government.
A Blue Tsunami in November.
We run against the corruption
& we run to restructure SPOTUS:
21 Justices
Term limits
Staggered terms - 14yrs
Retirement at 67
Code of Conduct W teeth & subpoena power
Impeach, at the least, Alito, Thomas & Roberts for gross corruption.
We run to our strengths & everybody STOPS WHINING
Unfortunately Joe Biden paved the way for Trump 2.0 by running again in 2024, which he had promised not to do in 2020. It may have worked out if the dementia hadn’t set in, but by 2023 it was pretty apparent that Joe was declining.
No, that is not true at all. Biden was not suffering from dementia. Ever watch Biden at a press conference? He gave detailed answers. Not just repeat himself endlessly like Trump does. Saying the same things over and over. Watch his NATO press conference before the debate. Tell me that man had dementia. Don't insult my intelligence dude. He was tired at the debate and suffering from a cold. Plus it was a CNN set up announcing they wouldn't do any fact checking. No fact checking with a man that is a serial lifelong liar. Biden's mistake was scheduling the debate the day after the NATO conference. When CNN announced no fact checking, Biden should have said cancelled. Biden was not suffering dementia or "declining" as you say. He was aging. He walked stiffly because of arthritis. He spoke slowly because he's a lifelong stutter. That's what people that stutter do. They talk slowly to not stutter.
Weak excuses. This is what’s wrong with the party today.
Biden, dementia or not, was not on his game by 2023. That’s why they hid him. The debate shredded that mask for good.
We need stronger younger leaders with a new vision. Or more losses will come.
He wasn't hid. He was too busy running the country. Biden's "sin" to corporate journalists. Was that he didn't make himself available at all times to them. Journalists think the job of the president is to be there for them. Why they love Trump. He always answers their questions. You sound like a bot anyway. I don't trust posters that don't give their full names. Are you a bot?
Yes.
Do not insult our intelligence. This part of his comment is quite true: "...which he had promised not to do in 2020..." and it is both impactful and damning. The Democrats failed to promote and showcase high quality alternative candidates as Biden became visibly enfeebled in 2023 and 2024. (Including Harris; she was thrust into the race at the last minute, and was obviously not made ready in the preceding months and years; elite Dems treated her like a placeholder card until they were desperate in mid-summer 2024).
Cutsey attempts to relieve the Democratic leadership of their joint responsibility for the debacle of a second Trump presidency are pure rot (i.e. cute little phrases like "Murc's law") . The Presidency was theirs to lose in 2024. They made a desultory, noticeably inadequate effort to keep it.
Thanks for the view from Russia.
That is correct. Biden never explicitly said he would not run for a second term. He never said that. He sure did imply it though. You can understand why people thought he said it. Because Biden said "He would be a bridge to the next generation". That implies he would only serve one term. But yes, you are technically correct. Biden never said he would only serve one term. If he had honored what he implied. Allowed for a real primary. Anyone not connected to his administration would have easily beat Trump. I can understand why people blame Biden for giving us Trump again. I am one of them. I loved the man but he really screwed us running for a second term.
We could have but too many Democratic men would not vote for a woman.
Exactly. Los Padres del Rio in South Texas could not bring themselves to vote for una muchacha.
A lot if Anglo men wouldn’t vote for a woman either. The ones I knew didn’t want to think it about themselves, but when I asked they had no real reasons why they let Trump be reelected rather than vote for Kamala. And it’s worse when it was Democrats who KNEW what Trump could do.
I have a wonderful photo of Joe being inaugurated. Marcus corgi is on his back, fully relaxed and totally exposed. He looked like he felt totally safe with Joe looking lovely on a large screen tv. I want to go back to those days or Obama.
All true & mostly due to external events, over which, Biden/Harris had no control.
Their messaging sucked, as it did on the three infrastructure bills, & they paid for that.
A World Wide Pandemic & World Wide Inflation. By 2021, the US was the strongest & most successful economy in the world & was beating down inflation faster than any other industrialized economy, including China, esp China.
Little Donnie Dirty Pants has destroyed all of that & inflation is streaking up.
Agree
It pops up every now & then. A buncha backwoodsmen get drunk in a bar in Alturas & off we go.
I was born in Frisco & have watched the State of Jefferson ebb & flow for over 70yrs.
Never gonna happen.
Or if it does it means the whole damn country has descended into madness.
"Like using your credit card to pay down your mortgage" really is about where the Trump administration's reasoning is functioning. Or as a friend of mine put it, if Trump were driving and got a flat tire, he'd jack up the car and rotate the tires to see if that fixed the problem.
For Trump, jacking up a car is really too much of an effort, he rather plays the harp.
I see what you did there, and it's GLORIOUS
Had to get help to figure it out! Touché
While America burns..
Yep. Trump lies from 2024:
“Under my administration, we will be slashing energy and electricity prices by half within 12 months, at a maximum 18 months.”
“We’re going to get your energy prices down. We’re going to get your energy prices down by 50%.”
“I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars.”
“Regime change is a proven, absolute failure.”
“I will be the peace president.”
Tsk, tsk. All those comments - all taken out of context, mind you - are from the lying Liberal media. You are obviously suffering from a bad case of Truth Derangement Syndrome!
Or start a distracting trade war with Canada.
And when that doesn’t work, he’ll flatten the other tires. And then blame the road, the car, the auto industry, the tire industry, rubber trees… and Biden.
🤣😱
Trump would hire someone to jack up the car and then refuse to pay them, claiming they did a poor job.
Reading thru these, I think Magus' retort is most accurate. Following up; Trump would then sic ICE on the guy's family.
I think rather than jackin' his own car, he'd hijack another.
I'd give you another upvote just for your nym!
As if Trump could figure out either action or execute either? But maybe Natalie would jump out and do it for him?
Jump out? Of bed?
LOL
To be fair, that sounds like work and Chump doesn't do work - or anything resembling it.
The thing is, using a credit card to pay down a mortgage is the kind of thing Trump supporters would be doing to try and get by in this economy.
If he got a flat, he'd blame Biden, deny there was a problem, and drive faster.
He wanted 40 year mortgage as he LIKES COSTLIER HOUSING! BANKS WIN… TRUMPS NOW HAVE A CHARTER FOR THEIR OWN BANK!
IMAGINE AFTER CAPITOL ONE TOSSED OVER 300 accounts they were concerned were laundering money!!!
More and more Criminal Money on top of his WASTE and Crisis of WAR.. he asked Russia??? to help?
THROW HIS ASS OUT BEFORE CHINA TAKES TAIWAN AND THEN US!
Give him jail with HGTV to watch as we go to Civil Court to take all Trumo and Co-conspirator monies until our Debt is back to the 2016 level!
Then what does he owe us As Goodwill IS an Aaset on an Acctng Sheet and he CRAPPED OVER ALL OUR RELATIOMSHIPS AND IT’ll BE AT LEAST 20-40 yrs IF we can regain their TRUST!
But first he’d blame the puncture on your friend.
LMAO
Democrats paved the way to the current administration blaming President Biden for every one of the administration’s failures by having Democrats stab Biden in the front. It was a boneheaded move, many thanks to actor George Clooney, who took a high profile role in making President Biden the avatar of no good deed going unpunished.
Biden did a creditable job as president. He was also showing his age at the end. Had he declared victory in 2023 and said that he intended to pass the baton he would be remembered as the guy who saved America. Instead, he's remembered as the doddering old man who appeared lost and shell-shocked in his debate with Trump. That isn't who Biden was. But he certainly looked that way to America.
That’s one thing, but by relentlessly trashing President Biden, Democrats are unable to explain, at every opportunity, that Biden did an incredible job navigating the economic mess that followed in the wake of the Covid pandemic, made worse in the U.S. thanks to Trump’s mangling of the country’s response. Democrats shouldn’t defend anything indefensible in their own party, but they need to stop the needless internal cannibalizing of their own.
And if you do what any sensible person does these days, i.e., READ THE TRANSCRIPT rather than put yourself through an hour of agony, it's obvious that Biden beat Trump by a mile. These sorts of events tend to make for the sort 'good TV' (that is, TV at its worst) that does absolutely no one in the audience any favors.
Wish I could put multiple "likes" up for this. Brilliant and accurate. Thank you!
President Biden succeeded admirably in doing much of what needed to be done after Trump's first term except for two things. He didn't succeed in forcing Trump to face consequences for his crime. And he didn't succeed in keeping Trump from winning in 2024. Unfortunately, those were the two things he needed more than anything else to accomplish.
What many don’t seem to understand is that the president is a manager and a great manager gets the best people for their team (the government). Biden assembled the best cabinet in decades (at least).
Fact is, millions upon millions of Americans will simply not vote for any other presidential candidate than a white man (preferably of advanced age). Without the dem circular firing squad, Biden would have been re-elected and Lina Khan would have broken up the tech monopolies by now, and Ukraine’s cities wouldn’t be defenseless against Russian ballistic missiles.
"Biden assembled the best cabinet in decades (at least)." Exactly that I have been saying. Biden picked and surrounded himself with smart, capable people and deserves a lot of credit for doing that and for allowing them to do their jobs!
All of Biden's picks were outstanding, except for a certain individual who might have made an excellent Supreme Court justice was but not fit for running a DOJ in a political minefield.
I'll correct one thing. That's how the corporate media made Biden look to America. Every time he made a gaffe. It would generate a week of speculation on corporate news. Is Biden mentally fit to be president? Now look how they treat Trump. The man is clearly suffering from dementia. He talks in gibberish. Yet there is no discussion in the news media. If Trump is fit to be president. They go out of their way not to show his more insane comments.
Trump uses the “flood the zone” technique. A new awful story every day, often more than one. The media can barely keep up.
Stories that would have been huge scandals in previous presidencies just sail past because there’s some new outrage the next day or even after lunch.
That's what fascists do. They overwhelm you with everything. Throwing at you so fast and furious that you can't keep up. Because in chaos you can steal. Which is what Trump is doing. Stealing everything he can.
For example, to make sure today doesn’t pass without incident he’s signed an EO renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America! He’s mad at us Canadians.
I liked Biden but in point of fact he sometimes came off as disengaged. The press was rough on him. But they are rough on mango-man too, though not as tough as they should be. Any number of major news outlets have had stories about his declining health, increasing weight, mental instability, and ethical failures.
Trump gets kid glove treatment compared to Biden from the press.
This is true. The last two years he was hardly visible, protected by his staff, and when he was, he never looked anything but like a doddering old man. The Biden is old and in decline narrative was baked in, and not only by the GOP and conservative media. And keeping Biden away and largely out of the public eye only cemented this.
I love Biden, but I'll always be more upset that he decided to run for a second term...and madder still at myself that I convinced myself he could and should run for a 2nd term.
It's striking how well the government ran even when Biden wasn't at his best. This is the power of a competent cabinet. Compare and contrast with the comical cast of prancing, mugging incompetents comprising Trump's cabinet, all it must be noted, confirmed by Senate Republicans who saw fealty to Trump as fulfilling their Constitutional obligation for advice and consent.
"Prancing, mugging incompetents" and those are their good points.
Even a comatose Biden would have been a better choice than Trump. Biden was surrounded by adult human advisors, not Maggots.
Agreed with JE Thomas. Biden’s administration did a great job on bringing us back & improving things & setting up pathways for a better future. (Also, the complaints about inflation often omit the devastation that covid brought to the economy. It was not all ‘Biden’s fault’.)
However, I blame Jill & Hunter & even Joe himself. He should have accepted the laurels & retired, as he had practically promised to do at the outset. He should have allowed someone else to run, with enough time to run a campaign. It was a disaster.
And it is so strange & ironic that one debate catastrophe imprinted the image of a ‘senile Biden’ on the opinions of so many Americans, that they allowed themselves to put back in office a doddering old man not only senile but stupid: a deranged, destructive, demented, ignorant, bullying, incompetent pretender who has no business being anywhere near the White House, (the East Wing, the reflecting pool, the South Lawn for a UFC cage fight, the Kennedy Center, the granite Eisenhower bldg, the Defense Department, the Dept of Education, or ANY OTHER Department of the government, and on and on), much less engaging in international affairs re: Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, NATO, Ukraine, CANADA!!! …, or anywhere else.
If one is feeling very angry, one can be amazed that Jill, according to her book, was so surprised & horrified by her husband’s lapse of focus after a long trip. The decision not to run should have been made long before that, and is not George Clooney’s fault.
Yeah. George kinda wasted all of his political capital on that.
he's been kinda quiet lately
George and his family moved to France for more privacy and peace.
Too busy fixing up his giant French estate. 🙄
Biden would surely have lost to the Orange Man. Unfortunately the Democrats “coronated” VP Harris and didn’t allow Democratic voters to have a say. I know time was short and it was a “desperation move.” But look at the results. America will never recover from this catastrophe.
There wasn’t time to have a primary which likely would have been bruising. Like him or not, Bernie Sanders did a lot of damage to Hillary even though the polls showed clearly he had never had a reasonable chance of winning the nomination. In fact he lost the primary to her by a whopping 12 points, a fact the media never made clear, but many on the left were led to believe he had been robbed by the DNC.
There was no primary in 2024. There was a primary in 2016. Hillary and Bernie. 8 years prior. The function of primaries is to test candidates and platforms. Hillary, you will recall, won that primary. The damage done to her was done by Hillary who treated the election as a coronation. She visited Wisconsin zero - 0 - times in the runnup to the election. She treated the election as a fait accompli. And she got beat by a morally bankrupt fool with faux orange skin. That wasn't Bernie Sanders's fault. It was hers.
Um, no. Just no. Hillary lost because she was a woman, full stop.
Sadly, you're right. Our misogyny is right up there with our racism.
She won the popular vote by a decent margin,
Primaries, as we conduct them, are huge part of the problem. They cater to specific (swing) states often having a clear front runner based on just a couple, before they even hit all of the “important” swing states. Not only does that mean candidates hyper focus on specific areas and the opinions and habits of the people in them, ignoring the vast majority, but it also means that a relatively low percentage of people get to pick who the candidate will be. It’s not at all democratic. It is one of many problems with the American election process. But not campaigning in 50 states also hurts the nominee, even the primary winner. Let’s say a D lost a state to an R by 8 points. They see “8” and say it’s a lost cause. How about seeing a +4 point swing and thinking maybe that is doable? But then again, the driver for all of this is the Electoral College whose abolishment would fix probably the biggest flaw in our presidential election process.
According to Heather Cox Richardson, the Electoral College was never meant to be winner take all, but Thomas Jefferson pushed it in that direction. In the early days of the Republic it was proportional.
One problem with the electoral college is that in most states it is "winner takes all", which in itself creates "swing states".
Counting the 2 senators of each state in the electoral college, gives an advantage to the smaller almost all rural states, which by the economic structure (which subsidizes rural areas) tend to vote conservative (Republican).
Just eliminating "swing states" will do a lot to solve the problem, forcing Republicans to be less extreme to get elected.
Limiting the power of the president would help as well. The power to make war or impose tarifs should rest with Congress (or Senate), not the president.
Your comment also highlights another issue…that the states decide how to award their EC votes and they don’t all do it the same! It’s infuriating (and baffling, frankly) that every vote is most definitely not weighted the same.
Totally agree on the Senate, too. My proposal is one D and one R from every state. Gives everyone in a state at least some representation and forces the buffoons to work together to get things done. Of course, it wouldn’t really work. They would find a way to manipulate it and break it.
Before a vote is cast, the corporate media and the rich donors tell us who are the "real" candidates. There were better candidates running than John Kerry in 2004 and Clinton and Obama in 2008. In 2020, there was a proliferation of joke candidates who muddied the field and helped enable the selection of Biden even when he finished fifth in Iowa and New Hampshire.
America is not going to elect a woman. Pure and simple. We have proven that twice.
Clinton won by 3 million votes. It was the EC that anointed Trump.
Hillary would have won the EC, if it hadn't been for the Jill Stein voters in WI, MI and PA.
I agree that Hillary Clinton did not pay enough attention to the issues in the Midwest, which gave the opening to Trump.
The Bernie Bros helped split the vote.
Not everyone who was supporting Bernie was a Democrat. Many were people who wanted something "different." Those voters went to Trump.
Even if true, that does not negate my thesis.
Wrong on all counts. There was a primary in 2024. I know because I voted for Biden in it. He ran unopposed but there was still a primary. Hillary never visited my state. Somehow I was able to vote for her. Someone has to visit your state, in order for you to vote for them? GROW UP. Hillary didn't lose to a con man. She lost to a hostile press that was determined to beat the hell out of her. Hillary's emails. What was the scandal there? Anyone remember? She was allowed to use a private server as Sec. of State. Both Condi Rice and Collin Powell did the same thing. Why wasn't that a scandal for them, but it was for Hillary? The rules weren't changed til after she left the job. She lost to Russian interference. They hacked the DNC website and RNC website. Only released the DNC emails. Russians working hand in glove with the Trump campaign. Remember the Trump Tower meeting? She lost due to James Comey announcing she was guilty of mishandling classified information. Even though the FBI determined there was nothing to charge her with. Lastly she lost due to James Comey announcing 2 weeks before the election. They were reopening the investigation over newly found emails, that weren't new at all. That's what killed Hillary. So when you say she lost. Be accurate why she lost. She didn't lose to a con man. She lost for all the reasons above. Even with that. She still got 4 M more votes than Trump nationwide. If it hadn't been for those damn Jill Stein voters in MI, WI and PA. Hillary would have won the EC and become president. Trump's margin of victory in those states was less than the number of Jill Stein voters. If you didn't vote for Hillary. You helped give us Trump.
Right you are about Democratic primaries. They were held in every state except Florida and Delaware. But after that you've gone off the rails. Time for remedial reading comprehension, perhaps. I never said that a candidate must visit a state in order for a resident of that state to vote for them. I said that Clinton did not visit Wisconsin, a state that her campaign expected to win without effort, a state that arguably cost her the election.
The rest of your screed is mostly opinion and you're welcome to it. My opinion is that Hillary was a deeply flawed candidate who didn't take her opponent seriously, a candidate who made her contempt of the canaille as clear as her sense of noblesse oblige. I voted for her. But I held my nose when I did.
All candidates are flawed dude. Because all candidates are humans. Was Trump also not flawed? It's you liberal purists that always demand perfect candidates to vote for. Then act like children and help the republicans win the election. If you don't get your way. Bernie lost the primary and you couldn't be an adult about it. Decided to help the worst candidate win because you wanted Bernie. I don't believe for a second you voted for Hillary. Why do you people always lie the same way? "I held by nose to vote for Hillary." Heard that a million times from people like you. If you did vote for Hillary. I'm sure you did a lot to help her win. "Vote for Hillary, she sucks". Wow, what a great messenger you were. Bet you got a lot of votes for Hillary with that winning message. Give me a break pal. Don't piss down my leg and tell me it's raining. You didn't vote for Hillary and we all know it.
Hillery was as "deeply flawed" as Trump ?
Only to those susceptable to ignorant bluster.
Trump was and still is a morally bankrupt and willfully ignorant basket case.
Why would any self-respecting voter choose "nyah nyah" for president ?
Hillary lost because of the email server and two cellphones. Just stupid bonehead security lapses by a boomer generation politician that never developed any sense of tech savy and security. It didn't help that her husband had a heavy influence. And she had no advisers that she would listen to who would get her out of the clouds. But, the single big blow came from the Comey disclosure of the Email server contents. It made her look clueless.
Hillary's server was never hacked. It was the DNC server that was hacked. Hillary was allowed to use a private server as sec of state. Both Condi Rice and Colin Powell did the same thing when in that job. The rules weren't changed til after she left. The FBI found there was nothing to charge her with. It was Comey that declared her guilty in violation of DOJ policy. You are blaming the victim.
Not disputing anything you say. It' about optics. She was following rules that pre-dated a rapidly changing security environment. It was a security risk to store government business on a private server. By the time it was disclosed in 2016, it looked like a bonehead move or Obama admin negligence for not updating the rules. I recognized at the time of disclosure it was poor head work. BTW I trusted her and voted for her.
The idea that a septugenarian Jewish guy with "socialism" anywhere in his resume could be potus always seemed like a fantasy. And it was.
"Socialism" is the govt acting collectively in the interests of the population.
It includes building infrastructure (roads, railways, canals, airports, ports), welfare systems (retirement, unemployment, health care, regulations), public education, and progressive taxes to pay for this.
Trump and his minions are acting against much of this, to the detriment of the US.
It will end up hurting much of the better off in the US, as well as those already worse off.
But Trump is happy, as long as he gets his grift and can pretend to be strong.
BTW, properly funding "socialism" will benefit everyone (except maybe the top 1%), and cost less than Trump excesses.
Yes, you and II know/understand all that. But a vast majority of Americans simply don't, or won't.
Dems forget the truism, every cycle: if you're explaining, you're losing. Especially when you're up against a massive conservative propaganda media machine.
Maybe passing "critical thinking 101" should be required to vote. I realize that won't happen either.
No he wouldn’t have. Biden got 6 million votes more than Harris four years later, more than half of them misogynists who stayed at home rather than to vote for a woman.
The only thing Biden was punished for was getting old which we all are bound to do. Trump is much worse now than Biden was at the end of his term, but the Rs won't admit it and in fact all lie about his condition.
And the MSM (looking at you, NY Times) more or less ignores it. Whereas, when it was Biden, they were relentless .
Trump doesn't need any help from Dems to blame Biden. Trump is incapable of believing anything other than that he is never wrong. His last dying breath will be to blame Biden for something, anything.
The way I see it is that Biden set the stage for defeat by failing to abide to his promise of being a one term president. He set up a repeat of the 1968 debacle by going back on that. George was not involved in Biden's disastrous debate performance that showed his mental decline. By then it was too late to have a genuine candidate selection process so the Democrats had little choice other than to repeat the failed process of 1968.
In 1968 I was for Gene McCarthy, and because Hubert Humphrey refused to repudiate Richard Daly's treatment of war protesters and Johnson's war policies I joined millions of others in withholding my vote. That was a mistake. But it enabled me to see clearly that in general people want to see candidates selected via a process as opposed to being anointed by the elites. Though Harris was not my first choice in 2024 I made a sizable (for me) donation to the Democrats and voted Blue. It didn't matter.
We can only speculate about how the 2024 election would have turned out had there been a series of primaries involving multiple candidates. Perhaps Harris would have emerged as the candidate of choice, but she-or whoever else won- would have had the time to establish credibility as well as legitimacy. Harris had to fight with one arm tied behind her back, and for that we can blame Joe Biden.
Biden objectively delivered a horrible performance at that debate, there is no way to deny, excuse, or relativize that.
It didn’t really decide anything though. If horrible debate performances would swing elections, Clinton would have beaten Trump by double digits in all battleground states.
It certainly didn't help that the media piled on and relentlessly attacked Biden. That's one big difference between 2024 and 2016.
For all the mistakes the Democrats made in the lead up to the 2024 election the fact remains that the American people elected Trump, a convicted felon, racist, misogynist and fascist, who had shown himself for what he is in his first term. So, as Pogo said, we have met the enemy and he is us.
I watch the ABC Nightly news every night. After the debate every newscast started with "How long until Biden drops out?". Biden said a hundred times he wasn't dropping out. It didn't matter. They just kept it up. They hounded him for 2 or 3 weeks until he dropped out. The media forced Biden out as much as his own party did.
Debates are so overrated. Hillary wiped the floor with Trump in her debates. Gore beat Bush in his debates. Harris made Trump look like a fool in their one debate. So much he refused to debate her again. We see how those contests worked out. A bad debate could have been overcome. If his own party hadn't turned on him. If they had rallied behind him instead of stabbing him in the back. That debate could have been overcome What can't be overcome is when your own party demands you get out of the race. Why I will always hate Nancy Pelosi going on CNN. Telling Biden to drop out. My own senator Michael Bennett doing the same. I will never forgive them for that. I will never watch another George Clooney film as long as I live. He's dead to me now. I liked his films too.
If you look at the content of the Biden-Trump debate, in many respects Biden did much better. However at points Biden seriously lacked in energy, and Trump had the ignorant (and lying) bluster that many voters appreciate.
Looking at a transcript, Biden did better than Trump.
Forcing Biden out was a mistake. There is no doubt about that. Even if they hadn't done that. Biden probably still would have lost. Americans were in an angry mood. The corporate media had hammered him for 4 years. Blaming Biden for inflation. Allowing republicans to spread the lie of "Open Borders". Biden never had an "Open Border" policy. However, they allowed republicans to repeat the lie thousands of times. On tv and in news articles. Never once did I see a reporter say "No, Biden doesn't have open borders". But the fact is we will never know how Biden would have done. Because that election never happened. It's just a waste of time arguing over something that didn't occur.
I agree, and the political powerhouses in the house and senate were part and parcel of that disgrace.
Biden and his economic team did a great job but I wish Biden would have decided to leave after one term. Also, the news media did an awful job at covering the economy during Biden”s presidency and leading up to the 2024 election!
Until the oligarchy is dismantled Dems aren't gonna be treated fairly by the billionaire-owned media. Until the oligarchy is dismantled, lobbyists will direct Democratic administrations to do things their voters don't want them to do, like fund and facilitate a genocide. Joe Biden broke an important railroad strike and spent billions on helping the Israelis murder the last few natives in the Gaza reservation that could have gone to improving our situation and thereby motivating his supporters.
Our media never reported on what Biden was doing for the American people. Our media sucks and is the main reason we have this obvious traitor in the White House.
The underlying reason our media sucked re Biden can be explained in one name, Lina Khan. The media monopolists wanted her gone at all costs, step one was trashing the man who appointed her to fight monopoly power.
Interesting take. Not sure why an independent powerhouse like the NYT would join in though.
The NY Times has been "both-sidesing" the parties and attacking Dems since long before Biden. I'm sure you recall "Hillary's emails" - to say nothing of the run-up to the Iraq war where they ran literally fabricated pieces on WMDs to bolster Bush fils. The way they treated Biden was just more of the same.
The stupidest thing about the email server saga was that yes, it was wrong of her, but it was presented as some unique bad thing only she did. It took less than a year for Mike Pence and Jared Kushner to do the same thing, but those stories never got traction because nobody cared.
It is a long time ago that I read a long article about this issue. But if I remember correctly, one of the reasons for the private server were issues with the IT system at the Department of State. She was allowed therefore to have that server. James Comey, after it turned out nothing was wrong with the emails, announced just before the election that he had found a few more. Again, nothing to see there. But Mr. Trump had already won. I found Mr. Trump's invitations towards Russia to access Ms. Clinton's emails bordering on treason. But apparently I was the only one?
IIRC, what was found was a laptop shared by Hillary's aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, Anthony Weiner, who was being investigated for sexting minors. Nothing new was found.
Comey announced it because he was sure it would leak if he didn't. FBI NY Field Office was referred to as "Trumplandia" at the time. SDNY had had to force them to stop investigating the Clinton Foundation after they repeatedly found nothing there.
That’s true. She’s hated.
Agreed. From Dean Baker:
“Yes the Media Lied About the Pre-Election Economy”
https://deanbaker22.substack.com/p/yes-the-media-lied-about-the-pre?r=40l5a&utm_medium=ios
The first time I stopped reading Ezra Klein was when he couldn’t stop his Biden-bashing in an election year. (The second time was when he claimed Charlie Kirk did debating “the right way”).
This admin has done exactly what you’d expect them to do, if they worked for putin & against democratic values. I’m old enough to remember a time when human rights were paramount. American exceptionalism indeed
This is why I keep saying that Trump is a Russian asset. I don't really see how you can square what he's done with loyalty to America in any way shape or form. If you had asked anyone, right wing or left wing, what an enemy of America would do if they had presidential power I'm pretty certain it would resemble what has happened since Trump became engaged in the political arena, and has vastly accelerated over his second term. But hey, keep ignoring the fox in the henhouse. That'll work...
First, it is incontrovertible that Trump doesn't care about the country - that's an easy one, b/c he doesn't care about anything. Except himself, of course. He's a grifter, a psychopath and a moron - and I don't think he's ever sat down with a Russian, or anyone working for the Russians, and planned out how he was going to f--- over the US. It's just what he's doing, all by himself, without Putin's help, without any planning at all. The Russians didn't need to hire him - they just need to sit back and watch him destroy the US. They couldn't have imagined something this good for them in their wildest dreams.
Some of what you say is clearly true, Rena, but they’ve been all over his properties, financing and deals from the beginning- from fla real estate deals to trump tower- so please be a realist here
Exactly. Putin knows how to push Trump's buttons, which are focused on the self-interest of Trump (and his minions).
That is why the Russians did their best to get the loose canon Trump elected as president.
Chaos in the US (and with allies) was Russia's reward.
You're 1000% on this. Careful though as you will be inevitably accused of forgiving DJT for his criminality and shifting the focus to Putin. The latter is giggling [is he capable?] all the way to the Bank, and, oh yeah, the Bank is a Crypto repository run by Donnie, Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Jared.
Hear, hear!!
And both his FBI director and CIA director have made mysterious visits to Moscow...
A snake-like fox
He sure acts like a Russian asset!
Dr. Paul has a very high slugging percentage!
Think baseball.
Most of his posts are home runs.
Todays sure is.
"Biden" seems to be a speech tic for Republicans these days, activated whenever they are confronted with proof of Trump's idiocy or insanity. I was thinking about more insanity we should expect to hear from Trump and his Band of Lackeys:
Who caused World War II? Biden!
Who caused The Great Depression? Biden!
Who caused stagflation in the 1970s? Biden!
Who caused COVID? Biden!
Who caused the 1918 pandemic? Biden! And World War I while he was at it!
Who caused Hurricane Sandy? Biden!
I could go on all day. Biden apparently is the cause of everything bad happening now and everything bad that happened in the past. 🤦♀️
Hard to believe Americans voted in an economic ignoramus(es?)
It has been hard, Mr. Vovchuk. At 92, I am privileged to understand, and Ukraine has been among the inspirations for my fight to make America sane again.🇺🇸🇺🇦
To paraphrase George Carlin, think of the average American and remember that half of the population is dumber than him.
Or certainly less informed.
Vaseline, Putin is behind the numbers. MAGA is loud, but not adequately numerous. Old Vlad can and did rig the electoral quotas in 7 swing states to bring in the Destroyer-in-Chief and is getting his life long dreams [threats to destroy NATO, actual collapse of the US economy and military, divisive hatred among social factions, intimidation of minorities...I could go on], without wasting a single bullet or tank or drone. Pretty clever. As 47 has said over and over, the 2024 election was rigged. Now he is carrying out orders to destroy whatever he can as quickly as he can...after all his health and endurance will not last forever.
Um, the autocorrect😆
we didn't. GregPalast.com and ElectionTruthAlliance.org have proof.
Hahaha
Stupid is as stupid does.
Unfortunately, the true maga believers believe it all Biden’s fault. I have a relative who thinks it is all Obama’s fault and he has been out of office since January 2017. I think it is why trump’s poll numbers never go below 30%. My maga relatives watch a steady diet of Fox News, Newsmax and Facebook. Their faith in Trump is unshakable.
30-35% doesn't win elections without a *lot* of money supporting them - and an unforgivable number of non-voters and idiotic 'swing'/'undecided' voters..
"Everyone else" or "Everyone else *who was eligible* that voted"?
"..and an unforgivable number of non-voters.."
As I understand it -- and I may very well be wrong -- for a variety of reasons, outfits like Fox 'News' simply don't exist in the EU.
That is also true in Canada.
In Canada, there are laws against hate messaging, an impartial high quality national news media network (partially govt funded) competing with independant media networks, and a govt where extremists have difficulty getting elected.
The few very marginal Fox-like media exceptions are funded mostly by money from the US.
Apparently there’s some imitations but I think they’re marginal.
At first I was outraged when I saw that trump thing at the top of your post. My immediate reaction: how DARE they! What a relief to discover you put it there!
The media deserves a lot of the blame. They chose to focus on inflation but not the fact that it was a world-wide phenomenon that was as bad or worse in most other countries. When inflation started easing the media chose to focus on the high price of gas caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine. When those prices came down they buried that story in back pages in favor of prominently placed stories about the high price of eggs. And that wasn’t all the media misled us about. From Dean Baker:
“Yes the Media Lied About the Pre-Election Economy”
https://deanbaker22.substack.com/p/yes-the-media-lied-about-the-pre?r=40l5a&utm_medium=ios
What I don't get is that it was obvious the media was lying. And it didn't take a lot of work to figure out either, just a bit of critical thinking. Yet people fell for the narrativem hook, line, and sinker and I'm still scratching my head over that one.
This kinda reminds me of the foofaraw at the time when it turned out that Saddam Hussein did not, in fact, have 'weapons of mass destruction'. When those of us who had been saying this all along, saying it for years in fact, we were told in essence that the Top Men were wrong, yes ... but they were wrong for the right reasons. Us naysayers, by contrast, were right only 'by accident'. But no, that was not the case. Anybody who examined the evidence both individually and in toto could see at once that for an administration this obviously eager to go to war it was awfully thin gruel, and if there was any better evidence out there, it would have been relentlessly pushed 24/7. Ergo no such weapons existed or were being developed. I don't see how anyone could say that line of thinking was the work of a genius. Yet somehow, both our media and our so-called impartial so-called Top Men uncritically pushed what little evidence there was as proof dispositive, sigh.
Two things - "just a bit of critical thinking." So, you're talking about 'muricans, so there's your problem right there. :( Second, re WMDs - yes! The only time I had a bit of a waver in seeing that it was all drummed up nonsense was when Colin Powell gave his spiel - then I thought a bit more and concluded, "Nope."
Canada didn't fall for it either.
Shameful how a good man - Mr. Powell - was used for that.
The worst part is that the self inflicted wounds are likely to be long lasting. We are becoming more corrupt, less dependable, our workforce is shrinking, our innovative lead receding.
Brain drain is real. My college bound child is already looking into how he can make a life elsewhere.
He's very smart to do so!
Last year I emailed President Trump at the White House on two occasions. They were polite and pleading letters about important issues to me. In return, I was put on his White House propaganda list serve as you showed today at the top of your column. I read what he sent and unsubscribed and unsubscribed and unsubscribed. Finally it stopped coming, but lately I’ve begun to receive pro maga and Trump texts! Thank you apple for the immediate block feature! When I wrote Presidents Obama and Biden, I would receive a pleasant response and at Christmas, a beautiful card.
How horrible!
I did. They have more than one address!
US voters say the 6 Trump bankrupcies and thought "7th time's a charm"
Spot the "Psychopath-in-Chief" 👇
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/27/how-to-spot-a-psychopath-its-like-the-difference-between-a-domestic-cat-and-a-wild-cat?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Good article, thanks for sharing. Pathocracy is a fitting term. It’s really not altogether difficult to spot the psychopaths anymore, the. ones totally devoid of empathy, because they are announcing it publicly in plain language; the same ones who keep saying that empathy is a weakness.
I’ve thought a lot about that lately and it’s kind of pathetic because if you can’t feel empathy, you can’t truly feel love, ecstasy, transcendence, or any deep emotion; at best they get a pale imitation of from some chemical substance, or from wielding power, or dominance.
Great link. Been a fan of Robert Hare and subsequent research in the sympathy of the corporate world. DTJ seems to fit the model.
Trump’s sociopathy coupled with his extreme narcissism makes him dangerously unqualified to be president. He’s also showing increasing signs of frontotemporal dementia, and the dementia increases his dangerous personality disorders.
He's dangerously unqualified to work the counter at a Burger King - there is no circumstance under which he would last for more than a single shift.
Knows no shame
a very disturbing read.
I have always been amused by the disconnect between Trump's boasts and reality. He porrtrayed himself as a genius businessman whike running 4 casinos into bankruptcy. Casinos are essentially licenses to print money. How do you eff that up??? In business and in politics getting tied up with Trump usually leads to disaster. Not always for him. Almost always for those who trust him. When Trump had worn out his welcome with virtually every major bank, one of his bright-bulb sons said something to the effect of. , "it's not a problem, we get all the money we need from the Russians." And now, as the economy spirals in a flat spin for those in the bottom 8 or 9 deciles, lots of the MAGAts that have watched their personal situations erode - farmers, factory workers, and small businesspeople still sing his praises. Color me cynical but they deserve what they get. Sadly, the rest of us are getting dragged along for the ride.
His various enterprises, such as Trump Wines, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks all failed.
Don't forget Trump University :-)
Yes, that was one of his major scams!
All true. So why isn't Trump's approval rating in the single digits?
I've often said that if we were a sane country, the only person approving of Chump's performance would be his mother (I give moms a lot of leeway) - and she's dead.
MAGA Christian Nationalists.