Republicans today are not the same as Republicans back then. Reagan did more for illegal immigrants than any president since. I’d vote for him in a heartbeat if it was him versus the two bad jokes currently campaigning.
I understand and ultimately it’s impossible to quantify and compare these things. I’m not trying to defend his AIDs policies. I just grew up as an illegal and I understand what it’s like living in fear.
You see a police officer and you immediately get a flight or fight response. You need to find roundabout ways to get jobs, finance a car, or rent apartments. You never know if ICE will just show up to your house one day. Or if you pick up a family member from the airport and they ask for your papers (my old boss got deported that way. His girlfriend’s niece came to stay a week. He went to pick her up. CBP was waiting with her to get documents from whoever came to pick her up)
You have to pay taxes but you don’t get to apply for things everyone else does. You wanna go to community College? Tough shit, you don’t qualify for instate tuition so you’re paying 3x the normal price. Even if you’ve lived there for 15 years and did your entire elementary / high school in the state. You’re American in all ways except one- documents
Etc etc
There are over 10 million, I think around 13 million people living just like that.
And Trump is awful. But Biden pretended like he would do something, he promised immigration reform. Promised to halt construction of the wall. Instead he expands construction and the next day does a photoshoot at the border with CBP. Month or two ago he actually used the term “illegals”
Which in my opinion isn’t a big deal but for a lot of people showed how far right he has shifted
That’s why I brought up Reagan. He gave millions of illegals amnesty and essentially removed a constant anxiety and lifted up a people that were all hiding in the shadows.
No president has done anything like that. Obama is probably second place because of DACA. I would vote for him again in a heartbeat.
So yeah I understand Reagan did the AIDs thing not trying to diminish it although we are essentially picking between people who have all done awful things. Biden went and publicly bent the knee to Israel at the start of their invasion. Trump I don’t think I even need to elaborate on
If a kid has a heart condition and they have to have a risky surgery, the doctors ask the parents. Because the child is not old enough to understand the implications of these things.
I see gender dysphoria as a similar thing. The suicide rate is very high for these individuals so some form of treatment is essential if you care about your child. It’s the same as if they had a heart issue with like a 40% risk of dying. It’s life or death.
The transitioning process works best if it happens before puberty. When a child goes through puberty, the sexual hormones start pumping and that permanently changes many parts of the body. Literally the shape and size of bones will change.
If you catch gender dysphoria before puberty, the end result of the transition will be much more effective than doing it at 18 or 20. By that point there’s no going back from puberty.
So essentially - the child isn’t making a decision. The parents are making an informed medical decision based on a diagnosis by a medical professional.
I really don’t see this as any different than any other medical issue. The difference is this is unusual and many people think emotionally.
A) transitioning is an effective treatment for gender dysphoria and significantly lowers the suicide rate for these people
B) there is a medically accurate way to diagnosis gender dysphoria
So you say “one is death if not treated but the other is a life choice”
The trans thing is life or death too. If you have a child and they are displaying these types of behaviors (wanting to play with dolls as a boy, saying they are a girl, trying to wear dresses, etc) then you have a kid that is very very likely to kill themselves and have other mental health problems
Getting medical treatment ASAP is the logical thing to do
I know it’s still relatively new and can potentially be harmful to the child if not diagnosed properly. I also understand there are some crazy parents out there who project their BS onto their kids.
But I think as a parent I would want the best for my kid so I would do whatever it takes to make sure they have the best quality of life and just chance at life in general.
If they are going to transition, they will pass much better if they do it pre-puberty. By the time they’re in high school they would probably look imperceptibly like the opposite sex.
I would only want it done after rigorous tests by medical professional that absolutely rules out weirdo parents
I would want more research before mandating it as if it were lifesaving operations. But yeah, I agree in a general sense.
I think a lot of people that disagree would change their minds if they had a child with gender dysphoria. A lot of conservatives believe the parents are manipulating the child or seeing things that aren’t there.
But I’ve seen it before. I met a little boy maybe 8 or 9 years old in a very religious conservative household some years back. It was the neighbor of a family friend. Nobody manipulated him into saying stuff like “I’m a girl in a boy’s body”. Or trying to sneak makeup or dresses. They tried to pray it out of him. But it was persistent, year after year he would day these things.
I think the same thing with a lot of anti-gay people having a gay son or whatever. Once you meet someone like that it sort of becomes real and makes you realize “oh wow maybe I’m wrong”
I changed my mind after meeting that family and seeing the boy. I used to think differently on this.
Trump has waffled on whether the Israel-Gaza war should end. But speaking to wealthy donors behind closed doors, he said that he supports Israel’s right to continue “its war on terror.”...
Voting for someone is giving them a stamp of approval either explicitly or implictly. Democrats need to lose. They need to be afraid of losing votes. If they can act in this manner and still win, they are learning the wrong lesson. The quiet part that Trump said out loud - that he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and people would still vote for him.
I’m tired of this end of the world argument for voting Biden. If our institutions are so fragile that this election topples our democracy for good - then sorry to burst your bubble but the democracy is already a goner.
Israel is committing the worst ethnic cleansing campaign of our generation. I cannot and will not vote for someone embracing them and helping them get away with it. We cannot let fear cloud our principles.
I think you’re wrong. I think if Democrats lose this election they will do their analysis and focus groups and surveys and if it points to the decisive issue being Gaza then they will change their attitude on Gaza - even if marginally, they will be forced to.
As for me, I just got my right to vote 2 years ago and I’ve been living here 25 years. I’m going to vote. I’m just not voting for Biden or Trump. I’ll write uncommitted or blank or something.
This is what democracy should be. Candidates lose votes if they don’t act in a manner congruent with the beliefs of the base. This “vote no matter what because the alternative is worse” is not democracy. If you don’t have a choice, you don’t have a vote. You’re headed same direction either way.
Tell me where in Sudan you had some of the most densely populated urbanized places in the world carpet bombed and 2 million people tossed around and ping ponged around from evacuation to evacuation - all committed by a supposed democratic advanced country? Even worse- a key ally of the US? Nation who cares about human rights, egalitarianism, etc?
Darfur genocide happened 20 years ago over the course of years. Gaza we haven’t even seen a year yet. You want to argue semantics about what generation means? You want to compare and contrast? Did you see the US president get on TV and hug a warlord with tears in his eyes as F16s dropped MK84 bombs onto women and children like Biden did with his precious Bibi?
Let’s see. Maybe you are the disinformation agent. Trying to muddy the waters. Make it seem a little less bad. Very easy to say to discredit, yeah? You are a bot. Part of pro-Israel hasbara campaign. You’re a shill, a dope, a duntz
Look I did it too. I’m so tired of this nonsense online. This all started around 2016.
President Joe Biden is taking fresh steps to help keep gas prices from climbing. For Republicans to see this as “disgusting” and “disgraceful” is bizarre.
That is an inverse progressive tax. The lower income you are, the higher % of your income you pay.
It’s essentially a tax on the poor trying to subsidize renewables. If the US had viable alternatives, maybe I’d support this. I don’t think the poor need more taxes right now, though.
Trust me marginally reducing the gasoline burned by the working class commuting to work will not make a difference. It’s political theater masquerading as activism.
Go after the largest items. Build solar, wind farms, nuclear power. Once we have 90% of the power in this country being generated without carbon emissions then maybe we can talk about the pennies worth from gasoline.
Because right now 40% is natural gas and 20% is coal. Think of all the A/C units in the whole country, all of the Google data servers beeping and whirring, and every single Tesla supercharger station and behind them is a giant plume of black smoke sinking up to the atmosphere.
Biden’s been down in the polls all year. Even worse, he’s losing 5/6 of the battleground states that will decide this election.
Why is he losing? The most important issue to Americans in 2024 is the economy. Vast majority of Americans feel they are worse off or the same as 2 years ago.
Inflation & high interest rates hurt no matter how the administration tries to spin the numbers. Everyone is going to the grocery store and they see how everything is shooting up in price.
Add to Biden not really being able to point to much he accomplished besides the infrastructure bill (which was significantly watered down by the time it passed) and his constant gaffes/ sleepy appearance in his speech…
It’s really surprising he’s only losing by a couple %. It’s a testament to how unpopular Trump is. Trump was one of the most unpopular presidents in history. Biden somehow managed to be even more unpopular than Trump.
Listen to Biden talk 30 years ago. Nobody was making fun of his speech. He was energetic and charismatic. People make fun of him today because he frequently sounds like a sleepy old man.
Many voters believe, with good reason, that none of this would have happened without Biden’s assent. Biden has continued to speak of Israel’s attack on Palestinian civilians using the absurd language of “self-defense”. He has insulted Jewish Americans and the memory of the Holocaust by invoking them to justify the...
The lesser evil campaign strategy isn’t going to work anymore. It’s ran its course. Biden needs to offer something meaningful otherwise Trump will win.
there isn’t a whole ton of legitimate reasons why civilians need .50 cal rifles.
We should be asking the opposite question. What are the legitimate reasons civilians should not have them? I can’t think of any. .50 cal weapons are not used in crime or mass shootings.
By default, everyone should be able to do everything. We impose restrictions when the costs to personal liberty outweigh the benefits to society.
Washington’s criticism is misplaced: attacks on oil refineries will not have the effect on global energy markets that U.S. officials fear. These strikes reduce Russia’s ability to turn its oil into usable products; they do not affect the volume of oil it can extract or export. In fact, with less domestic refining...
Even if Russia increases crude oil exports to compensate, virtually all of their gasoline is produced domestically for domestic consumption. That demand isn’t going to just disappear. Every liter that Russia stops producing from these refinery strikes will be imported from other sources.
They will have to Kazakhstan in order to make up the difference (which they have already started, afaik), then prices go up on the global market for gasoline.
If gasoline price goes up, there’s economic incentive to buy crude oil to produce gasoline. That raises price of crude oil. You can’t avoid it. It’s all connected. You reduce global production and you raise price.
How much is acceptable to you? Is there a point where it isn’t worth it anymore?
Inflation was around 10% before the federal reserve hiked the interest rates.
Your rent going up $200 every year OK? Grocery bill, gas, etc?
I wonder where people draw the line between acceptable and not acceptable. We’re still feeling the economic effects, just the fed managed to reduce inflation at the cost of other economic pains. For example people buying homes or financing cars is much more expensive now. Or companies are laying people off because credit is more expensive and it’s harder to expand. Big companies like Comcast may choose to wait a few years before building a new fiber network- waiting for rates to go back down. That kills lots of high quality jobs that would have existed otherwise.
How much economic pain is acceptable? You call it an inconvenience and then you call it callous. I believe it is a bit callous, yes.
You and I may be in a good financial position (I’m personally not afraid), but what about the rest of working class America?
There are two directions at this point that the war can develop A) negotiated settlement where Russia annexes territory or B) war between Russia & Western countries.
Do you have a brother? Nephew? Cousin? Would you be willing to sacrifice his life to help Ukraine? Would you be willing to sacrifice your own life?
I ask these things not to say supporting Ukraine is foolish or anything like that, but just to point out that Russia is willing to sacrifice everything for Ukraine. If we are committed to Russia losing, we will need to sacrifice a lot more than we currently are.
If we are not willing to go all the way, what are we even doing in Ukraine?
Chomsky had a phrase along the lines of: we will fight forever- to the last Ukrainian. Basically switching up the “fight them to the last man”
Realistically, we all know where this war is going to end. At some point in the next couple years it will end in a negotiated settlement where Russia annexes some territory and maybe Ukraine is forced unto neutrality.
The only other possible scenario is a hot war between NATO and Russia.
We know Ukraine doesn’t have the offensive capacity to recapture territory and everyday Russia takes some village or another. Moving like 10 miles a month but moving.
So assuming that’s true, for the sake of discussion, what are the possible benefits and the possible negatives from continuing to support Ukraine?
Pros:
Our MIC gets a nice shot in the arm and shareholders are happy. They get to funnel more taxpayer funds into their portfolios.
Russia has to spend a dramatically increased number of resources in order to capture the land. More Russians will die, more Russian tanks will be destroyed, etc.
Cons:
Ukraine will be destroyed. As of November of last year, costs for reconstruction was estimated at $350B. That has likely increasing dramatically. We can barely pass $60B worth of military aid that mostly benefits our defense contractors. You think we are going to front them $500B?
Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of additional Ukrainians will die. They already lost over a quarter of their population. They won’t recover for a century.
Is it really worth it? Are we really that cynical? It’s not only conservatives that think this way.
The Israel one I at least understand. Israel is a long time ally and is a powerful player in the Middle East. Supporting Israel would be consistent with what we’ve been doing for nearly a century.
I don’t agree with it personally- I would have never killed the Iran Nuclear deal for example. But I can at least understand it.
What I don’t understand is the obsession with Ukraine. Ukraine has been under Russian control for centuries. Under Russian empire back during the Tsar times. Under USSR. And even after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 the Ukrainian government was pro-Russian.
It wasn’t until 2014 where the Euromaidan protests led to violence which forced the pro-Russian government to flee the country and installed a pro-Western government. Immediately that government started cooperating with the CIA and other western institutions and a few days later, Russians tanks roll into Crimea and little green men pop up in Donbas.
What I don’t get is the fear of Russia taking Ukraine as some sort of domino effect for the rest of Europe. Russia has controlled that territory for literally hundreds of years. Why was it perfectly OK for the entirety of the Cold War up until 2014- and now it’s the end of the world?
Why does it matter to us what corrupt eastern European government rules over the Ukrainian people? The Ukrainian government isn’t some bastion of democracy. It looks better compared to Russia in some areas (not a high bar) but it is nowhere near a Western country like is presented on mainstream media.
They ban political parties (including one that had something like 15% of the vote), delayed an election, they lie all the time, they incorporated a literal neonazi white supremacist militia into their official national guard apparatus and used their popularity to drive up recruitment.
They bomb civilian areas just like Russia does, they cut off water to Crimea (their own supposed citizens- no wonder crimeans prefer living under Russia), the president was caught with secret offshore shell companies… I could go on and on
We sacrifice so much for the Ukrainian war effort (inflation & high interest rates are a direct consequence of Ukrainian war) while people in the US struggle to make rent and pay for food.
Meanwhile that support is looking increasingly like it only delays the inevitable. Russia will eventually win (because we don’t actually want to help enough for Ukraine to win, just lose slowly), so Ukraine gets the worst of both worlds. Their country is destroyed and their people die needlessly- and they lose the war anyway.
It’s honestly insane. Cynical sadists are in charge of the world. I think this is a strong indicator that we are headed towards another global war like the early 20th century. Almost everyone - including so called leftists- are becoming neoliberal jingoists.
The goal was always to help just enough to keep Ukraine alive as long as possible but not to actually let Ukraine win.
It’s because the purpose is to hurt Russia and help our MIC. Everything else is rhetoric and propaganda. Russia has controlled Ukraine for centuries. Nobody actually cares about Ukraine strategically except for Russia. They are willing to sacrifice infinitely more for Ukraine than the West.
The only way to really save Ukraine at this point is to send troops. And that isn’t happening unless we are on the brink of WW3. Which may very well happen, but I think probably not for at least another 5~10 years and Ukraine war will over by then.
You know who suffers in a war? The average person. Not Putin, not the corrupt oligarchs, not the defense contractor board of directors, not the congressmen, and not the journalists.
It’s the average American who finds it harder and harder to live, the Ukrainian who is now living through power outages, the Ukrainian man who gets kidnapped off the street, the young Russian men who get thrown into a meat grinder. The families who live without their husbands and sons. Who get their living rooms blown up as a necessary evil. It’s the billions of poor in the global south who live through the economic instability caused by global inflation. Remember that every 0.5% increase in unemployment, tens of thousands of people die. There are similar relationships with rising food prices.
And when real war kicks off (which is inevitable) this will seem like a cake walk.
Just because you cannot envision another perspective besides constant war and death that you’ve been impressively convinced is somehow morally superior- doesn’t mean other people can’t.
Just because Russia illegally invaded does not automatically make it a good idea for us to drag out the war. The US supporting Ukraine extends the life of the war. Our actions directly impact whether tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people die.
It’s a question of looking at the potential positives and the potential negatives. And the outcome of that analysis depends on what incentives you prioritize and which you don’t find important.
The total value of Ukrainian aid is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall economic effects of the war. Right at the onset of the war, our inflation jumped up to nearly 10% until the Federal Reserve stepped in and pumped up interest rates to try and bring it to heel.
This has consequences. They seem arbritarily and abstract because it’s just numbers but they have serious nationwide (and global) impacts on everyone- especially the poorest members of society. The difference between a working class individual being able to afford or not afford a mortgage. Paying 20% or 30% in credit card interest. Parents who have to decide whether food or rent is more important.
Take that and multiply by hundreds of millions. We are sacrificing our own people (including everyone else) for the benefit of our defense contractors.
NATO does not actually care about Russia controlling Ukraine. It’s not of strategic value. Russia has directly or indirectly controlled Ukraine for centuries. Nobody cared until 2014. Russia is infinitely more invested in Ukraine than the west. Which is why Russia is able to easily outproduce the EU and the US combined in artillery shells- even when Ukraine is desperately fighting a 1:10 difference in artillery fire.
I will tell you what is going to happen. Sometime in the next couple of years, the war will end in a negotiated settlement. Ukraine will sign a peace treaty and become a neutered failed state while Russia annexes roughly the areas they control right now.
Except instead of just letting it happen quickly, it will happen over half a decade resulting in magnitudes more damage and death.
You know why we will sacrifice Ukraine? Because of the reasons I outlined above. A) funnel taxpayer $$$ into Lockheed Martin and friends B) make Russia bleed for every inch of land they take
The powers that be could not care less about Ukrainian sovereignty of the lives of the tens of millions who will bear the consequences for the rest of their lives.
You have been duped into adopting a brutal and cynical amoral worldview and the worst part is- you believe it’s the morally superior option.
Virtually everyone else’s opinion is meaningless. Russia has controlled Ukraine for centuries. It doesn’t fundamentally change the strategic situation. Sure, Poland feels vulnerable. Moldova is terrified. The Baltics, the Scandanavians, etc.
But fundamentally the EU and the US position doesn’t change whether or not Russia controls Ukraine. They will do their best to make Russia bleed for the ground they take, but they are unwilling to do what it takes for Russia to lose.
Why? Because Russia has signaled it is important to them. They are putting their economy on a war footing. They outproduce US + EU in artillery. They were willing to totally reroute their gas exports. Willing to sacrifice a terrifyingly high number of soldiers and equipment.
The ideological and strategic incentives for Russia make this a priority for them.
So if you actually want to stop Russia, you are risking WW3. And for what? For some poor backwater corrupt eastern European Slavic country? It simply isn’t worth the costs.
The EU has more incentive, as you point out, because Russia is on their border. And if WW3 starts, it will come from something like France sending troops to Ukraine.
I still don’t know whether that’s Macron showing diplomatic bluster in an attempt to escalate the rhetoric OR an actual threat of military intervention.
I believe Ukraine passed the tipping point of being able to succesful defend this war on their own. Their reckless failed offensive last year guaranteed they eventually lose this war. All the land theyve lost right now they have no ability to take back.
So their position can literally only get worse- lose more land- until they eventually settle.
You can send them all the equipment in the world. They played lassiez Faire with their mobilization and simply don’t have the manpower to use that equipment. They didn’t bother building defensive lines and now Russia has captured nearly 20 miles worth of territory in less than a month in the Adveevka direction.
Their position is becoming untenable long term and it’s becoming increasingly clear. So how much is everyone willing to sacrifice for Ukraine? Are we ready to send our boys to die? I’m personally not.
It really goes to show how scared the Federal Reserve is of the current economic situation. They keep the interest rates high, essentially putting a damper on the economy because they think inflation could get so bad it’d be even worse.
Russian central bank is doing same thing in an attempt to control inflation. I believe they’re at 16% right now & 7~8% inflation.
I think the Ukrainian war is the cause of much of this. The Iranian situation of course threatens to raise inflation even further.
Biden’s in a tough position. It’s a very good thing the president can’t control the Federal Reserve. I would have dropped the rate if I were him.
This is the primary reason I won’t be voting for Biden. He promised immigration reform and to halt construction on the wall. Instead, he expands construction and does a photoshoot at the border with CBP.
I could even tolerate him supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign if he did something for the millions of people here illegally. The hundreds of thousands of people in DACA. The invisible underclass of people who live quietly but are the backbone of many of our industries.
I guess because they are invisible, they are easy to ignore. Ronald Reagan did more for illegals than any other president after him.
Americans love dogs. Even the brainwashed MAGA loonies. I can’t believe she is a successful politician and thought this would be an OK thing to include in a book.
Usually psychos who make it into power understand the public sentiment enough to hide certain things like this.
Maybe it was a calculated risk- an attempt at courting controversy like Trump does and just dramatically backfired.
That makes sense. I did figure the story she’s telling is probably not the whole truth. When we tell a story about ourselves, we tend to consciously or subconsciously manipulate it so that it looks better.
So this story already makes her look really bad. The truth is probably even worse. Like you mentioned.
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”...
I don’t believe he would actually deport anything close to even 1 million people. Maybe I’ll bite my words… but the economic impacts would be massive. Inflation would shoot up.
Try working on any large scale construction projects without illegals. Costs go up dramatically.
For example, lemme talk about an industry I have experience in. Let’s say Comcast or AT&T wants to build a fiber optic network in a city.
They hire a prime contractor to do this. They pay something, let’s say $10 a foot of fiber. That prime contractor has to make sure everybody that works for them is a legal citizen. Comcast has rules - can’t hire illegals.
But what happens? That prime contractor hires some subcontractors. And those subs hire more subs. It becomes a little tree branch which each lower branch having less and less regulations until you reach the bottom where Juan and Jose are the ones actually digging the potholes and pulling the fiber cable through the pipe.
This is why Comcast is able to pay $10 a foot. Because Juan and Jose are happy working for $150 a day.
Americans doing that amount of hard labor would cost much more. You would have to pay taxes, workers comp, overtime, much higher base salary, etc. All sorts of things you don’t really gotta worry about when you have Juan and Jose doing it.
That $10 a foot can easily double.
And that’s just fiber optic cable. Imagine all construction, landscaping, etc shooting up in price. That’s inflation baby.
Trump’s whole shtick is economy. I have a feeling he’ll do the bare minimum and then advertise it as the biggest deportation campaign in history. Sort of like his wall.
The biggest best wall in the world but it actually barely covers 52 miles in 2000 miles of border.
I work in Florida. What happened is there was a sort of mass exodus initially and then everyone slowly started trickling back when they realized the law had no teeth.
It was meant more as political theater and not really enforced. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has been arrested to this day.
Of course, I agree with you. They are playing with fire. They ultimately represent business interests and those business interests can be hurt very badly should some true ideologue populist politician rise into power.
Trump (and mini-Trump aka DeSantis) is a conman pretending to be a Jesus. What if an actual MAGA Jesus shows up? One who believes in what he’s preaching and actually has the capacity to enforce it?
We live in a post-truth era. You can’t trust anything, not even video or audio. You can’t trust your typical institions like the federal government. You can’t trust the “free press”. You can’t even trust that the comments you read online on your favorite social media site aren’t written by a bot.
How do we adjust to this? I guess “critical thinking” is a pretty good thing to have, although do we trust the general population to have that ability? Common sense sometimes isn’t so common.
I think what people need is to expand their “media diet” to all sorts of different sources. Read Fox News, read RT, watch GOP debates, read Al Jazeera and the Jerusalem post. Follow pro-Russian telegram groups and pro-Ukrainian subreddits.
When everyone is lying, everything is like those logic puzzles they used to give us as kids. With all the boxes. You have to figure out what some group has an incentive to lie about and what they don’t.
Israel has incentive to downplay their crimes - like when they arbritarily killed that journalist. Al Jazeera has incentive to amplify all crimes by Israel. Truth is usually somewhere in the middle.
I think it depends on topic, which is what I was trying to get at with my comment. Everything is biased, so virtually everything has been a purveyor of false information depending on your interpretation.
It’s just that certain sources are more guaranteed to lie about certain topics.
Example CNN at least historically has been very “catastrophising” so perhaps something about climate change may show only worst case predictions.
Whereas Fox News may intentionally downplay climate change studies.
The truth is somewhere in the middle- climate change is a catastrophe but we’re talking about the most serious effects probably not showing up for hundreds of years. Etc
Maybe a bad example but my main point is that you can’t trust any one organization and instead need to get a sense of the big picture in order to determine the truth (or as close as we can get to the truth) for yourself.
Yes I agree I don’t use either of those sources it’s more to just illustrate what I’m trying to say with an extreme example of obvious bias. Here, let’s try this.
Embracing the ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza (young people aren’t as brainwashed towards Israel) and getting rid of TikTok basically guaranteed that he was going to lose the young vote.
Trump probably would have signed the TikTok ban too… but it doesn’t matter since Biden will take the blame.
Trump is probably going to win in November. We never know, because polls aren’t definitive (like 2016 where Trump won even though Clinton was beating him in polls)…
But Biden is incredibly unpopular. Trump was one of the most unpopular presidents in US history. Biden is even more unpopular. I think it’s actually a bit surreal out of 330 million people this is the best we could do. Our institutions are broken.
The move effectively reinstates a net neutrality order the commission first issued in 2015 during the Obama administration. In 2017, under then-President Donald Trump, the FCC repealed those rules.
Ajit Pai, the head chair of the FCC that railroaded the repeal of Net Neutrality in 2017 was originally appointed to the board by Obama and then promoted to head chair by Trump.
He used to be a lawyer for AT&T.
I’m happy it was repealed. Ironically the head chair right now is a woman who was also originally appointed by Obama. Goes to show how long President appointments can influence our country.
This is one of the reasons I am hesitant to get any “digital car”. I’ve read that government has backdoors to turn off engine or otherwise control cars.
interesting idea for what really amounts to a terrorist attack. any others? i figure you may have some other cool ones
personally, i’m more scared of our government in most cases. of course, foreign bad actors can and will do damage but over the long term the government, should it morph into something a bit more authoritarian than it is today, would have much more incentive and capability to do harmful things
i remember there was some leak nearly a decade ago already that showed NSA can access all smart TVs. some TVs even have microphones so that they can listen to what’s going on in your living room. Makes you wonder if Orwell was a time traveler
That was one of the more interesting SOTU addresses I’ve seen. Personally, I think he said most of the things that needed to be said, and he said them reasonably well. I’m sure he’s going to get some flack for attacking Trump directly (though not by name), but I was frankly glad to see it. Doing otherwise makes it seem...
Going into it, I was wondering if he could pull this off. He needs to be giving more and more public speeches as November gets closer. And every single speech has a chance of hurting him in the polls, helping him in the polls, or not moving the polls.
I felt that the probability of this SOTU was more leaning towards hurting him because of potential stumbles and gaffes - of which he had a few but not many. After watching, if I had to guess 0-100 where 0 hurts hims absolutely and 100 helps him then I would say it was a 60.
I was expecting somewhere closer to 40. We’ll have to see what the polls say in the next few days to really get a clear picture of its effects.
He definitely started off strong, with energy. Which is exactly what he needs to convey if he wants to convince people he’s not too old to be president. But he did have some moments there where he messed up certain words. For example mentioning taking Air Force One to Moscow or women’s “electrical power” instead of electoral.
Regardless, I think it was a good job by Biden and he’s gonna need to keep this up if he wants any chance to win this election because the polls are preferring Trump at this point in time.
obviously the republicans are more to blame for the roe v wade repeal, but Democrats have blood on their hands too. It’s been half a century since 1974 and the Democrats have had many majorities and presidencies since then. At no point did they pass some sort of abortion bill.
and joe biden has been a leading figure in the democratic party for nearly as long
America under Trump is still better than most of the world. Take it from someone born in a 3rd world country.
And if you have the qualifications and/or skills necessary to migrate to 1st world countries like in Europe… you’re making a good wage here and have little reason to leave here anyways.
You can try actually saying something instead of the mild attempt at being disparaging
I’ll repeat it
a) the countries that most working class Americans can escape to aren’t any better and functionally worse. you ever live in a country that doesn’t have hot water or A/C?
b) the countries they want to go to won’t accept them. have you ever tried to immigrate anywhere? it’s not simple and there are requirements that most Americans simply will not meet
The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove — and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of U.S. support for Israel. Biden’s support on the issue among Democrats is down slightly from August, as an AP-NORC poll conducted then found that 57% of Democrats...
i didn’t say i’m not going to vote. i’m leaning towards 3rd party.
if enough people voted 3rd party, we could break free from this quasi one-party state we have
in the early 1900s we actually had a socialist/communist presidential candidate get over a million votes
it’s possible if people stopped towing the democratic party line. they are not our friends. they will do the bare minimum necessary and oftentimes they won’t even do that, just promise to do it. i’ve been waiting for immigration reform my entire life. NADA is the total value of what has come out from Democrats beside’s Obama’s DACA which was a stopgap measure. we’ve had democratic majorities multiple times since then. how many times could they have put abortion into law? how many times could they have gotten in universal healthcare?
it’s a joke. they don’t actually want to do anything. we have 1 party and 2 factions. business faction A and business faction B.
and now Biden goes out and gives Netanyahu a big hug after Israel announced to the world they were about to slaughter tens of thousands of civilians?
What world do you live in where this is OK? What kind of men does our country breed? It’s ridiculous
the modern GOP is a death cult. the modern democrats are a corporate theocracy
choose between psuedo-religious fascism or fascism that lets you wear a little rainbow pin on your shirt
we’re headed towards fascism either way. look at europe, already censoring protests. look at our American websites like reddit and twitter, banning and silencing pro-palestinian accounts. they’re using the techniques they learned during COVID to “fight misinformation”. You cannot stray far from The Narrative
the scope of the information you will receive will continue to get smaller and smaller and more and more people are getting filtered into echo chambers
we need to wake up before it’s too late, the noose is tightening. a modern fascist state with the surveillance technology that we have (we can even read minds now) is not going to be pretty. add in an economic crisis, another world war… it’s the 1930s all over again baby.
Joe Biden gets "worst-ever" polling result in Democratic stronghold (www.newsweek.com)
President Joe Biden’s favorability rating is its lowest ever in New York, according to a Siena College poll this month.
"I can't stay quiet": Melinda French Gates backs Biden in first-ever POTUS endorsement (www.axios.com)
The Christian right is coming for divorce next (www.vox.com)
Before the 1960s, it was really hard to get divorced in America....
New poll finds strong majority opposes gender-affirming care bans for trans minors (www.lgbtqnation.com)
Trump told donors he will crush pro-Palestinian protests, deport demonstrators (www.washingtonpost.com)
Trump has waffled on whether the Israel-Gaza war should end. But speaking to wealthy donors behind closed doors, he said that he supports Israel’s right to continue “its war on terror.”...
Republicans enraged by Biden’s efforts to keep gas prices lower (www.msnbc.com)
President Joe Biden is taking fresh steps to help keep gas prices from climbing. For Republicans to see this as “disgusting” and “disgraceful” is bizarre.
May 2024 National Poll: Trump 46%, Biden 44% - Emerson Polling (emersoncollegepolling.com)
Biden and Trump both see opportunity in June debate, but they’re preparing in different ways | CNN Politics (www.cnn.com)
Biden is dramatically out of touch with voters on Gaza. He may lose because of it | Moira Donegan (www.theguardian.com)
Many voters believe, with good reason, that none of this would have happened without Biden’s assent. Biden has continued to speak of Israel’s attack on Palestinian civilians using the absurd language of “self-defense”. He has insulted Jewish Americans and the memory of the Holocaust by invoking them to justify the...
Stop Arming Cartels Act makes it unlawful to make, sell, possess a rifle ‘capable of firing .50-caliber ammunition’ (www.wavy.com)
Why Ukraine Should Keep Striking Russian Oil Refineries (www.foreignaffairs.com)
Washington’s criticism is misplaced: attacks on oil refineries will not have the effect on global energy markets that U.S. officials fear. These strikes reduce Russia’s ability to turn its oil into usable products; they do not affect the volume of oil it can extract or export. In fact, with less domestic refining...
The Biden Admin Is Trying to Guarantee a Forever War in Ukraine (www.theamericanconservative.com)
Fed keeps interest rates at 23-year high (www.npr.org)
As border debate shifts right, Sen. Alex Padilla emerges as persistent counterforce for immigrants (apnews.com)
Archived at web.archive.org/…/alex-padilla-immigration-biden-…
Kristi Noem doubles down on dog-killing to win over MAGA — here's why her story is backfiring (www.salon.com)
South Dakota’s governor gets the sadism of Trump supporters, but screws up by saying the quiet parts out loud...
How Far Trump Would Go (time.com)
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”...
How do you counter misinformation? Critical thinking is step one (www.npr.org)
Biden’s young voter problem keeps getting worse (www.cnn.com)
Net neutrality restored as FCC votes to regulate internet providers (apnews.com)
Mitch McConnell’s billionaire sister-in-law Angela Chao made panicked last call before dying in ‘completely submerged’ Tesla on Texas ranch: report (nypost.com)
Biden uses feisty State of the Union to contrast with Trump, sell voters on a second term (apnews.com)
That was one of the more interesting SOTU addresses I’ve seen. Personally, I think he said most of the things that needed to be said, and he said them reasonably well. I’m sure he’s going to get some flack for attacking Trump directly (though not by name), but I was frankly glad to see it. Doing otherwise makes it seem...
If Trump is reelected, Americans are planning to flee in droves (www.yahoo.com)
Nearly half of Democrats disapprove of Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, AP-NORC poll shows (apnews.com)
The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove — and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of U.S. support for Israel. Biden’s support on the issue among Democrats is down slightly from August, as an AP-NORC poll conducted then found that 57% of Democrats...