US US Politics General - Discussion of President Biden and other politicians

 

[MadStan]

So honest question, say Trump gets back in, what exactly can he do to unfuck the situation?

Print more money.

Appease other superpowers and let them take lands that aren't their's.

Use Tariffs against allies that don't allow him to get a BJ from the Middle East, Russia and China.

 

[The Ugly One]

Just more rock solid evidence that'll later nuke the argument of dIvErSiTy and affirmative action when the pendulum finally swings back.

The "argument" for diversity is that the EEOC will rape you in court if you don't practice it.

The vast majority - something like 90%+ of Americans - have an almost religious faith in gender & race equality. Your average American's sense of being a good person comes from at least a verbal commitment to women in the workplace, lifting up the black man, America being for everyone, etc.

 

[Dracula's Spirit Animal]

You were 10 at the most.

NOBODY saw it coming, and anyone who says they saw it coming and it was obvious at the time is full of shit.

Have to disagree with you on that. People knew it was coming that entire summer.

yes.


our history books in school were full of articles and people who talked about the end of the east in the 80s, from east and west.
the articles from summer of 89 were all talking about the end of east germany with some fear about blood on the streets. there was no doubt that the wall would fall soon, because Poland had free elections in 1989 and hungary opened up the iron curtain that summer.

people who talk about the fall of the wall as a wonder are building a myth, it was just the last domino and not the start of it all.

The big moment, if it can be called that, since, like you say, it was a series of dominos, was Lech Walesa and Solidarity (in hindsight in 1983, I think) that signalled the end. By the start of 1989, Poland was already broken from the USSR, although they hadn't had elections yet.

IMO, you can put the inevitable collapse of the USSR on two people: Reagan and Walesa.

 

[Disc]

Explain this physics lesson.

theoretically, they want to get the pendulum to a theoretical point of no return, either by passing laws that make democrats losing elections illegal or otherwise asserting absolute power. In the metaphor, this'd be like pushing the ball up to a ledge, where it can theoretically rest and not risk falling further.

But the further and further they push, the more kinetic energy - in this case, it's equivalent would be a desire to move conservative - builds up. This is both because their further movements are alienating people, and there's problems that they can't solve within the scope of their ideology.

While they could theoretically reach that point, just holding it stable requires more energy (political power) the further and higher you push, and by all accounts, it seems like their grip is increasingly slipping. moreover, when their grip finally slips, their hands will still be sweaty and gross and they'll struggle to grab the ball (expended their political goodwill and struggle to regain credibility) and they will have to take off at a dead sprint to catch up to it once it starts swinging (quickly denounce their standing and make a desperate play for a more centrist position).

 

[The Ugly One]

Anything, everything. He could start by firing everyone who doesn't obey orders. He won't do this which means if he wins we're just getting another 4 year stalemate.

The President doesn't have any legal ability to fire anyone below (IIRC) the director level, and neither does anyone he appoints. As Carter's polls crashed, he and the Democratic Congress signed the Civil Service Reform Act of '78 to permanently insulate the government from any real ability of the President to control what it does. It's not absolutely airtight, and there are things you can do, but it's not at all like running a business, which is why most people who come in from the private sector get steamrolled. Rex Tillerson was completely ineffective at State because he wasn't used to people who work for him being allowed to completely ignore him with no consequences.

He could follow it up with building the wall, refusing to sign a budget until Congress yields to his every demand, and several more proposals which I spent 4 years hoping he'd figure out for himself but he never could.

After 2 years of the GOP trying to find a way to have him impeached without taking the blame from the voters, then another year of the Democrats actually impeaching him, he'd finally built the relationships he needed to get things done when the 4am Vote Fairy gave the presidency to Joepedo. Also, shutting down the government is always a loss for Republicans.

 

[SCSI]

theoretically, they want to get the pendulum to a theoretical point of no return. In the metaphor, this'd be like pushing the ball up to a ledge, where it can theoretically rest and not risk falling further.

But the further and further they push, the more kinetic energy - in this case, it's equivalent would be a desire to move conservative - builds up. This is both because their further movements are alienating people, and there's problems that they can't solve within the scope of their ideology.

While they could theoretically reach that point, just holding it stable requires more energy (political power) the further and higher you push, and by all accounts, it seems like their grip is increasingly slipping. moreover, when their grip finally slips, their hands will still be sweaty and gross and they'll struggle to grab the ball (expended their political goodwill and struggle to regain credibility) and they will have to take off at a dead sprint to catch up to it once it starts swinging (quickly denounce their standing and make a desperate play for a more centrist position).

The political version of this:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

- "The Second Coming", William Butler Yates

 

[thyme's up]

Re the list of things Trump would/could do if reelected--if Biden/Dems did even one of those things, like open up the baby formula plant, they'd earn goodwill from the people. "He crashed the economy but at least he fed the babies" would be a decent rallying cry in addition to "anything but Trump." Importing formula and using military resources isn't remotely sustainable. It's like putting a bandaid on a severed limb.

But they won't even do that.

 

[Dammit Mandrake!]

Understatement of the decade....try utterly fucking clueless.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/amateur-hour-at-the-white-house-briefing-room/ar-AAXA8Pi?li=BBorjTa

https://archive.ph/Se6Mw

Trump's blonde that took notes needs to come back. Good looking and competent makes people seethe.

 

[The Ugly One]

This is one of the soulless husks that Noem got to run. Noem has managed to snake by just by being moderately attractive. Hopefully the MAGA candidates pull thru and hopefully Trump is smart enough to not endorse her. That'd look real bad when she turns on him in 2024.
View attachment 3309324

me: women shouldn't vote or hold office
everyone: why would you ever say that
me: ???

Democrats try to cope by saying that 'tHerEs NoTInG bIdEN caN dO aBOuT inFLatIon bC cOVId!" but no ones buying it. Everyone can see the inflation hitting staples and nuking the market. I know people that work in the banking industry and they expect it to peak in August-September so bye bye midterms.

We had to destroy the global food & energy markets to defeat Putin! You don't want to just...not defeat Putin, do you? He's like Voldemort! And Zelensky is like Iron Man! DON'T YOU REMEMBER ALDERAAN?

 

[quaawaa]

Also, shutting down the government is always a loss for Republicans.

Only because the RINOs always cave. No one cares about the government being shut down. Government workers view it as a paid vacation and everyone else doesn’t even notice that it is shut down.

 

[mold]

The Biden Admin is just Portland on a larger scale.

no, it's SF on a larger scale

The entire PNW really never had functional governing institutions, there's not enough here to rot

You were 10 at the most.

NOBODY saw it coming, and anyone who says they saw it coming and it was obvious at the time is full of shit.

Everyone saw it coming who actually looked with their eyes. Heinlein wrote about the obvious fakery of the Soviet's claims in the 70s, for example. But NATO countries' intelligence agencies didn't want to stop existing and arms manufacturers wanted to keep getting paid, so they made the Soviet threat seem legit.

 

[Hollywood Hitler]

She reached her peak in her 70s.

You're the only person I know who's into dry, prickly pussy that smells like gin and medicine.

 

[Puff]

I've been thinking of making my own sticker that says something to the effect of: "If you voted Biden, you should be proud! Don't scratch the stickers off!"

A simple "you did that" would work

 

[Hollywood Hitler]

No one cares about the government being shut down. Government workers view it as a paid vacation and everyone else doesn’t even notice that it is shut down.

One can argue that things run more efficiently when the government shuts down.

 

[Blacklight]

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1528422672052502535

America is now a 3rd World country flying in aid from other countries. Holy shit.

 

[HTTP Error 404]

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1528422672052502535

America is now a 3rd World country flying in aid from other countries. Holy shit.

Managed. Decline.

 

[NJBear]

 

[Absolutego]

Re the list of things Trump would/could do if reelected--if Biden/Dems did even one of those things, like open up the baby formula plant, they'd earn goodwill from the people. "He crashed the economy but at least he fed the babies" would be a decent rallying cry in addition to "anything but Trump." Importing formula and using military resources isn't remotely sustainable. It's like putting a bandaid on a severed limb.

But they won't even do that.

The baby formula plant thing has been easily thrown aside by the media as a right-wing conspiracy b/c it makes the admin look incredibly bad, and if they called attention to themselves by touting their decision to re-open the plant, it'd just invite more questions as to why it was shut down for so long. And that would make the FDA look bad, which they don't want.

There's a reason they're importing formula from Germany and pretending it's the most heroic thing since the Berlin Airlift instead of re-opening the plant or, I dunno, overriding the FDA and letting Americans import formula from Europe themselves.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1528422672052502535

America is now a 3rd World country flying in aid from other countries. Holy shit.

This was posted under the tweet:

As if people give a shit about student loan forgiveness when their babies are starving.

 

[Blacklight]

This was posted under the tweet:
View attachment 3311076
As if people give a shit about student loan forgiveness when their babies are starving.

Call me cynical, but I'm amazed there wasn't a shot in the video of a crying woman (black preferrably, the blacker the better) crying as she gets handed a jar of formula.