Thought for the Day

[Stavros]

I would debate that both major parties are isolated to a degree - otherwise, there wouldn't be 2 major sides with separate views.
I suspect that at some point, Hispanics, Jews, and Blacks will become more Independent.....due to the strong influences of the Black and Hispanic churches....alone with Jews becoming more isolated....

Maybe I could have said the Republicans have retreated into their own camp rather than isolated in a bubble? They have circled the wagons as they see their cherished vision of America under assault from Liberal Tribes.

That said, surely you agree the Democrats are a much more inclusive party? Indeed, in 1968 they were a mosaic of special interests who could not prioritize one over the other though they tried, with the result the 1968 Convention was chaotic and with Vietnam in full swing and LBJ walking off stage, they lost, and again in 1972.

It may be that the demographic changes since then have advantaged the Democrats but I think you will agree it is often the case that immigrants are economic and also often social conservatives, which makes a mockery of the silly claim Trump and others make that immigrants are encouraged by Democrats to cross the border as they then vote Democrat and replace 'indigenous' Americans because they have 10 children, and so on.

I believe immigrants want to prove they can make it in America without hand-outs, I think this/has been important for Korean and other Asian immigrants.

Also, while I think most Americans vote not on party lines but on the basis of their interests, there are still tribal affiliations, as with the 'Evangelical Christians', the White Racists, the 'Black Vote' which may not be as secure as once it was, but cannot be denied as a crucial vote for the Democrats in the South. After all there once were 'Reagan Democrats' and the multitudes who voted for Obama who were not normally Democrat voters. And so on.

The real puzzle in America, is that the Right to Vote might be enshrined in Law, but each State can interpret that law in its own way, so while it might claim not to deprive people of the Right to vote, the conditions attached in effect mean the vote being taken away -convicted felons who cannot vote, or not vote if released from prison but not having paid a fine, for example. Registration issues, voter ID issues, polling stations in majority Black areas closed on polling say for 'Health and Safety' reasons -sometimes in the US it is not party affiliation or class or religion that matters, but the simple fact that if the Republicans fear for their majority they will use 'State's Rights' to rig the election in their favour.

You might say, in such an election, the voters have been trumped. 2024 is going to be, shall we say, interesting...

[Stavros]

And, for example this is 'interesting'...

President Trump’s repeated claim: ‘The greatest economy in the history of our country’ - The Washington Post

[broncofan]

In my view Trump poses a fairly unique threat to the rule of law and there's no policy difference on the table right now more significant than that. He is someone who has tried to break down institutional safeguards for political reasons, who had spread malicious lies when he lost an election, and incited an insurrection that was not close to succeeding but showed a violent disregard for democracy, the truth, and human decency.

I could highlight a lot of the things he did during covid that encouraged people to threaten scientists and that exacerbated the public health problem, but I did that years ago.. Even if he himself is not an anti-vaxxer, his incessant lying helped bolster that movement, which is a frightening example of scientific illiteracy in this country and of people's resistance to facts they don't like.

During Biden's presidency we have not seen tweets threatening to destroy other nuclear powers. Or threatening to decimate Iran. I'm not sure what would cause a Democrat to be so disenchanted with Democrats that they would vote for a party that overturned Roe, threatens to overturn Obergefell, that is every bit as hawkish as Biden on all foreign policy matters, and that thinks school massacres in the US are not caused by differences between the US and countries that don't have them, but some other cause.

Yes, Biden is old and not a great speaker. Trump is also fairly old and an equally abyssmal speaker even if he confidently says things that don't make sense or uses neologisms in place of really common words because his vocabulary is shrinking. Biden is sane, does not have a character disorder, is not a threat to the existence of democracy in this country, and if one is a Democrat, he supports the entire domestic agenda of the party.

[filghy2]

In my view Trump poses a fairly unique threat to the rule of law and there's no policy difference on the table right now more significant than that. He is someone who has tried to break down institutional safeguards for political reasons, who had spread malicious lies when he lost an election, and incited an insurrection that was not close to succeeding but showed a violent disregard for democracy, the truth, and human decency.

The most ominous thing in my view is the plan to gut the Federal bureaucracy and fill it with MAGA loyalists whose only concern will be to do Trump's bidding. If they gain control of the Senate they will also be able to stack the judiciary with friendly judges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

The saving grace in Trump's first term is that Trump generally had little idea what he wanted to do or how to get things done. It seems that more normal people in the Administration were able to ignore or block many of his more egregious whims. That's unlikely to be the case in a second Trump administration and Trump has a clear purpose now - retribution against 'enemies'.

Unfortunately, many Americans seem to be taking false comfort from the first term and assuming most of Trump's talk is just rhetoric that won't amount to much.

But whatever happens I'm sure we'll get nothing from Mr Fanti but vacuous bothsidesism.

[broncofan]

The most ominous thing in my view is the plan to gut the Federal bureaucracy and fill it with MAGA loyalists whose only concern will be to do Trump's bidding. If they gain control of the Senate they will also be able to stack the judiciary with friendly judges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025


But whatever happens I'm sure we'll get nothing from Mr Fanti but vacuous bothsidesism.

I hadn't seen that project 2025 link. That's terrifying to me. I read what tpusa commentators say on twitter. They are dangerously unhinged.

It's amazing anyone could take comfort from the first term. If someone suggested prior to it that Roe would be overturned I would have been very surprised. Not because I wasn't afraid of Trump's behavior but because I thought politically he was not a social conservative.

The other day the tpusa crowd was suggesting that Jon Stewart, the comedian, committed tax fraud because he sold a place for more than the tax assessment. That happens all the time because assessments are only done every so often and lag fair market value. Sometimes you have enormous differences because there's no way to market test high value properties. They think this is the same as offering falsified info to banks in order to induce them to provide loans, which is what Trump did. The problem is that property owners have no role in the assessment process in my experience and I doubt Stewart even made any material representations to the county assessors. Anyway, I know all of that is a digression, but it illustrates that these people operate in a fantasy bubble.

There's no both sides here. Trump threatens countries on social media. Makes false pronouncements about diseases. Makes threats against opponents. Lies about the political process knowing that the outcome might be vote suppression for the other side and violence from his side. And not only that, his entire agenda is about as aggressively opposed to the policy preferences of the Democratic party as any mainstream figure's. It's not like he's in any way a compromise like some people suggested before his last term. I avoided the main part of Mr. Fanti's bait (and plan to continue tbh) but it doesn't mean he even requires a segue to repeat himself.

[broncofan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clanton

This was one of tpusa's hires. They did fire her. Look at her racist statement. She claims she made it as a teenager, which would have to mean it occurred before her March birthday in 2015 or she'd have been 20. Charlie Kirk praised her in one of his books. Anyone who is curious, just take a look at comments of people who have worked for them or who are working for them on twitter. It is barely disguised neonazi stuff.

Yes, there are real policy issues to discuss, but the thing about Trump is he mainstreams hateful people.

[filghy2]

I haven't heard of that person or organization, but the most disconcerting aspect of the past 9 years is how readily views previously seen as fringe and extreme have been mainstreamed into right-wing politics, with little pushback from the great majority of Republicans. Either these people are spineless cowards or they never truly objected to those views in the first place.

[Stavros]

Project 2025, Turning Point USA and so on -what these show is that Trump might be the Prow on the Ship, but is just an ornament. John Bolton says Trump doesn't have the brains to be a Dictator, but neglects to say that other people do, and that they are the prominent threat to the USA as a Union of 50 States, the Rule of Law and Democracy.

It was, after all, Bolton who even before he joined the Trump administration called for the US to withdraw from the 'Iran Nuclear Deal', thereby weakening any impact the US might have had on Iranian decision making, individually or as part of a collective international response. It was Bolton who, during the 'mini-war' the US fought with Iran in Iraq who wanted the US to attack Iran directly but failed because Trump was, and is, too much of a coward to take decisions like that, though he may have been dissuaded not to by someone in the military, given that Trump cannot make up his own mind on 'difficult' issues and relies on others. Just as he wanted the US to withdraw from NATO in his first term but was persuaded it was not a good idea, and in reality he never then or since, has understood how NATO works, or why it exists in a post Cold War world.

The reality is that power devolved to States can cement issues to such an extent that it is hard to change policy -how will policy on Abortion be changed in States like Texas and Mississippi and Alabama if the Federal Govt cannot impose the policy and the Supreme Court decides it is a matter for States anyway?

How will policies on Transgender issues, particularly with regard to the treatment of teenagers be changed when the language and the policies in States like Florida may defy common sense and decency, but is the State's policy to make?

At some point it seems to me, Republicans even want to force an intervention from the Federal Govt, to take them on, and to thus argue against a 'tyrannical' form of politics, even though that is what they practice in their own State. The fact that the majority of Americans are opposed to many if not all of these policies further underlines the problem: the Republicans don't care about public opinion, they are committed to an ideological agenda that is shaped by their belief that their vision of America is being betrayed by people they don't even consider to be American, unlike the 'indigenous' Americans they claim to be.

So Trump is merely the symptom of a political illness that at the moment has no cure, for I don't see how two-thirds of the US can 'correct' the third which wants out of the Union.

Trump will be defeated in November, he cannot win, he doesn't have the votes. The winners will be people like JD Vance, the Greg Abbott's and the Ron DeSantis of their American world, unless there is an earthquake of the kind people are predicting for the Conservatives in the UK this October, the most likely month for a General Election here. For as we have seen before, even when Republicans lose the popular vote, they contrive to win power in the State legislature by other means.

I think the US is entering one of the darkest periods in its history -Bannon might be in prison by the time the next administration is formed in January 2025, but Mr Stalingrad may yet have the last laugh when it comes to bloodshed and much more, if Trump -and his supporters- yet again refuses to accept defeat.

[filghy2]

100-year Reich, anyone?
"New book details Steve Bannon’s ‘Maga movement’ plan to rule for 100 years"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...nnon-book-maga

[Stavros]

A WARNING TO AMERICA, from Marge

"“God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent.
Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come.
I pray that our country listens.”"
Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'Repent' Earthquake Tweet Shakes Up Internet (yahoo.com)

The epicentre of the earthquake was in Bedminster, New Jersey, ponder that, O ye mortals.

And now for the other Marge, probing the women of America