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B402, You are incredibly stuck in your selfish little world to not be able to say Trump has talked up political violence over the past four years. I hope, to whomever's God, more Americans are able to look at who is responsible for the terrible violence in your political scene more objectively than you are able to. Not responsible for this terrible incident, but beyond doubt before and after Jan. 6, 2021.
Already conservatives are blaming Biden for the shooting.
There is no place for violence in politics. No place. Just goes to show how fragile your democracy is.
"Has anyone shot at Biden.....You dems don't understand 1/2 the country, they don't hate the dems,
they don't like em much and feel betrayed by them, but they don't hate you as you hate them....
They dislike and have grown to hate the system......that is what its all about....
Keep hating though.... "
They feel the system has failed them. They don't shoot candidates to express that feeling.
Your saying what you did there serves only to serve your own agenda. Nothing else.
Was totally then. Hadn't heard of it. it was awful to hear.
B402, Yeah, it would help if you decided to look at both parties more realistically.
"Perhaps everyone should tone it down a bit..... "
Which of Trump and Biden has contributed most to the violence today in your political scene.
Try answering that objectively. Shouldn't be hard to name one or the other. Can you...
OMOLIVES, She didn't say it was Trump's fault. She said Trump bears much responsibility
for the violence in your countries political scene today, and no one could sensibly dispute that.
Why twist words as you did there.
B402, So what. I'll never understand why you wouldn't post a link there. Consideration for others much???
LOL, You know I'm always catching up. Seems you only need have to have residency in the state on election day
* At the time of election, be a resident of the state
https://walberg.house.gov/about/how-congress-works
Guess it comes down to each state rules. Still can't get over you have so many.
Trump's campaign lies too - Trump wants Black and Latino support. But he’s not popular with either group, poll analysis shows
Image .. [you know what the scab looks like]
By LINLEY SANDERS
Updated 2:04 PM GMT+10, July 11, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he prepares to accept the Republican nomination for the third time, Donald Trump has promised new efforts to expand his coalition — and, in particular, to win over more of the nonwhite voters who largely rejected him during the 2020 election.
But an AP analysis of two consecutive polls conducted in June by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research .. https://apnorc.org/ .. shows that about 7 in 10 Black Americans have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Trump, as do about half of Hispanic Americans. While both groups do see Trump a little more favorably than when he left office in 2021, their opinion of him is still more negative than positive.
[Insert: More favorable now he wears the felon tag. I'm missing much everywhere.]
Any gains in support among Black or Hispanic Americans would be helpful for Trump, who won 35% of Hispanic voters and 8% of Black voters in 2020, according to AP VoteCast, and has struggled to grow his appeal beyond his base. He’s hoping, in part, to capitalize on frustration with his opponent, since President Joe Biden’s favorability among Black and Hispanic Americans has also fallen since 2021. It’s not clear, though, that Biden’s loss of enthusiasm among Black and Hispanic adults is helping Trump’s own standing among these groups.
Views of Trump are remarkably stable
Most Americans have a negative view of Trump, according to the AP-NORC analysis, which combined two polls conducted close together to yield a bigger sample size. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion of him, while about 4 in 10 have a favorable opinion. Overall views of Trump were similar in January and July 2021, too, in the months after Biden took office.
IMAGE
Views of Trump are generally very stable — even a felony conviction didn’t change how Americans see him. After he was convicted in May of 34 felony counts in New York for falsifying business documents, polls from the AP-NORC Center found that overall views of Trump barely budged. During the Trump presidency, Gallup polls found that Trump’s average job approval rating was 41%, and it never exceeded 50%.
About half of Hispanic adults view Trump negatively
Trump has said on the campaign trail that he has “great support” from Hispanic communities. But the AP analysis found that about half of Hispanic adults have an unfavorable view of Trump. About 4 in 10 Hispanic adults in the recent AP-NORC polls see Trump positively, up from about 3 in 10 in January 2021.
And even though Trump’s campaign advisers have said he has specific appeal among Hispanic men and younger Hispanic adults because of his business focus, that’s not what the poll analysis shows. Current views of Trump are similar among Hispanic men and women, older and younger Hispanic adults, and those with and without a college degree.
Biden, too, is facing a perception problem among this group. The new analysis found that about half of Hispanic adults have an unfavorable view of him, while about 4 in 10 have a favorable view. That’s a substantial decline from early 2021, when about 6 in 10 Hispanic Americans saw Biden positively.
Trump remains unpopular among Black adults
The Trump campaign has claimed that he could perform better among Black adults this year than in 2020, speculating that his legal woes could endear him to a community that has faced systematic discrimination by the criminal justice system, and that his immigration policies could also hold appeal.
Black adults continue to have broadly negatively views of Trump, however: About 7 in 10 Black adults have an unfavorable view of Trump, a decrease of about 20 percentage points since early 2021. And although the Trump campaign has said Black men may be more receptive to his message, Black men and women have similar views of him.
Younger Black Americans might be a little more open to Trump’s appeals. About one-third of Black younger adults — those under 45 — see him positively, compared to around 1 in 10 Black adults who are 45 or older. But most younger Black adults view him unfavorably.
About 6 in 10 Black Americans, meanwhile, have a positive view of Biden — down from 8 in 10 when he took office.
___
The poll of 1,115 adults was conducted June 7-10, 2024 and the poll of 1,088 adults was conducted June 20-24, 2024. Both were conducted using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. ___
Associated Press writer Matt Brown in Dallas contributed to this report.
LINLEY SANDERS
Sanders is a polls and surveys reporter for The Associated Press. She develops and writes about polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and works on AP VoteCast.
More links - https://apnews.com/article/trump-black-hispanic-americans-voters-of-color-59acadcda6cf9cb1082d4bdd9d4c4a81
knew you would be -- GL with the 5.
Sorry for your loss, but IF -4 i would have had a team of one. LOL, whew. Only have five because i was tossing up who to put in for
Bezuidenhout who was my sixth, by accident left it open, and again by sorta accident ended up getting home after the early start.
"I was hopin' the cut would go to -4----would have helped me a bunch at Draftkings as I have no -3's over there... "
Hot hands, mick, is still firing. Good going, mick. MacIntyre is about as erratic as they come ..
https://www.pgatour.com/player/52215/robert-macintyre/results .
The VP race’s Florida question: Would Rubio or Donalds have to move if Trump picks either of them?
[...]
The U.S. Constitution prohibits a president and vice president from residing in the same state. If Trump, who declared his Palm Beach estate his home in 2019, were to pick U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio or U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the 12th Amendment could prevent the 30 Florida electors from casting their vote if Republicans win the state.
There are several ways for the Trump campaign to overcome this, legal experts say, though doing so might create some inconvenience for the vice presidential candidate.
“It’s just easier to run candidates from two different states,” said Sanford Levinson, a constitutional scholar at the University of Texas School of Law. “It does seem to be easy to evade any problems if you want to.”
What’s the issue in the Constitution?
The amendment was added to the Constitution in 1804 when large states such as Virginia dominated the nation’s political discourse, Levinson said, as a way of limiting their power.
If Trump wins Florida, the state’s 30 electors could vote for him for president, but not for another Floridian for vice president.
Florida has the third most electoral votes behind California with 54 and Texas with 40. In a close election, the state’s votes could be less than the total margin.
Florida’s electors could abstain from voting, which might not matter if Trump does not need those 30 electoral votes to reach the 270 required for victory. The electors could still go ahead and vote for an all-Floridian ticket, with the possibility of facing legal challenges.
Has this issue come up before?
In July 2000, four days before then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush selected his running mate, Dick Cheney changed his Texas residency by registering to vote in Wyoming, where he grew up, had a home and represented Congress for 12 years.
The move was seen as an indication that Bush had made up his mind about Cheney joining the ticket.
There were legal challenges filed against Bush, Cheney, the Texas secretary of state and the Texas electors. Ultimately, courts sided with Cheney in that he was qualified to be vice president because he had proved he was a Wyoming resident.
Will Rubio or Donalds have to move?
Likely yes, but not right away.
The Electoral College will meet on Dec. 17. If Trump wins the Nov. 5 election, his running mate could make the switch afterward because he would be leaving his congressional office anyway.
“If I were advising Rubio, I would tell him not to change his residency until after the election,” said Bob Jarvis, a constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University.
Where might they move?
https://apnews.com/article/trump-vice-president-florida-rubio-donalds-constitution-da837d4dcbc49dcf4fb98f41015368c7
A reporter writing of the result of a poll, a good one or not, is hardly grounds for saying the guy is a Trump toady.
Tommy Tuberville reportedly doesn’t live in Alabama - should he still be its senator?
Published: August 15, 2023 3.44am AEST
Author Charlie Hunt
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State University
[...]
Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville has come under scrutiny following reports that he recently sold the last remaining properties he owns in the state that he represents in the U.S. Senate. Instead, Tuberville appears to live almost full time at his beach house in the Florida panhandle.
Although details are still emerging about Tuberville’s precise living situation, The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler has reported that the Auburn, Alabama, address Tuberville listed when he declared his candidacy for Senate in 2019 is co-owned by his wife and son. Kessler’s review of campaign finance reports and property documents related to Tuberville “indicate that his home is actually a $3 million, 4,000-square-foot beach house he has lived in for nearly two decades in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.”
Why does this matter?
Because Tuberville is running up against one of the oldest constitutional requirements that apply to anyone running for Congress: that candidates must live in the state they represent by the time they take office.
But whether Tuberville’s situation actually violates the Constitution – or matters to voters – is another question.
IMAGE
Residency requirements in Congress
The legal requirement that candidates and members of legislative bodies live in the place they represent is not new. In the case of Congress, it was debated heavily during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
The framers decided that members of both the House and the Senate would be required only to be “an inhabitant” of the state they represent. Strange as it may sound, this means that House members don’t even need to live in their specific district – just their home state. In fact, a 2017 report from The Washington Post .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/04/21/at-least-20-members-of-the-house-are-registered-to-vote-outside-their-districts/ .. found that about 5% of all House members don’t live in the districts they represent.
Legal consequences for nonresidency
In Tuberville’s case, it’s possible that he doesn’t meet the constitutional minimum of state residency. Whether he might face any consequences for this potential violation, however, is unclear.
Courts and congressional committees have looked into similar violations in the past. They have generally opted for a wide interpretation of what is called “inhabitancy,” often settling for evidence that a member paid taxes in or was registered to vote in the state, even if it was at an address that the member spent little to no time in.
Officials at state and local levels, however, where residency requirements can be stronger, have paid the price for being a nonresident. A 2001 legal opinion from the Georgia attorney general found that if a state legislator “moves his permanent residence outside his district, the office will become vacant as a matter of law,” meaning that the lawmaker would disqualify themselves from serving.
This is precisely what happened in my hometown of Boise, Idaho, when a city councilwoman was legally forced out of office after she inadvertently moved out of the district she was representing.
Why have residency requirements?
https://theconversation.com/tommy-tuberville-reportedly-doesnt-live-in-alabama-should-he-still-be-its-senator-211490
??? I don't see anything in the excerpt you chose which supports your
One: this reporter is a media sheep for far right...
Two: he outright lies about orangeshitface.
This is paid propaganda.... from the contributor.
Until i see otherwise i agree with janice's comment ..
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174749524 .
Maybe you read that excerpt differently than i did..
That's right. it's sorta cyclic. Democrats fix the economy, conservative small government, deregulation ideologues cut safety nets, exacerbate wealth inequity, cut taxes and safety nets more, disrupt financial markets and drive inflation. See the UK. Democrats mend the fracturing economy again.
All parties recognize the right to agree to disagree to a degree.
Political independence in no more than not belonging to a party.
Some as you see it as a badge. Others, more balanced, see it for what it is.
Very few, not including you, are truly independent in political thought.
All parties recognize the right to agree to disagree to a degree.
"Independence is the unwillingness to say you agree when you don't, but neither party can stand it..."
That's still pretentious.
Would you rather the U.S. didn't have political parties. Are you arguing to get rid of your
electoral college. What is it in you that you see makes you better than the rest of us.
Many remember solid economy under Trump, but his record also full of tax cut hype, debt and disease
"Oh boy. Trump’s Doral rally tonight was a doozy. Let’s recap it:"
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, May 1, 2024,
in Waukesha, Wis. Numbers show that the economy during Trump’s presidency has never lived up to his own hype.
But polling shows Americans are more confident about his economic leadership than that of President Joe Biden.
The question of who can best steer the U.S. economy could be a deciding factor in who wins November’s
presidential election.( AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
By JOSH BOAK
Updated 2:07 PM GMT+10, May 20, 2024
All links
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a time of fear and chaos four years ago.
The death count was mounting as COVID-19 spread. Financial markets were panicked. Oil prices briefly went negative. The Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rates to combat the sudden recession. And the U.S. government went on a historic borrowing spree — adding trillions to the national debt — to keep families and businesses afloat.
But as Donald Trump recalled that moment at a recent rally, the former president exuded pride.
“We had the greatest economy in history,” the Republican told his Wisconsin audience. “The 30-year mortgage rate was at a record low, the lowest ever recorded ... 2.65%, that’s what your mortgage rates were.”
The question of who can best steer the U.S. economy could be a deciding factor in who wins November’s presidential election. While an April Gallup poll found that Americans were most likely to say that immigration is the country’s top problem, the economy in general and inflation were also high on the list.
Trump may have an edge over President Joe Biden on key economic concerns, according to an April poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. The survey found that Americans were more likely to say that as president, Trump helped the country with job creation and cost of living. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans said that Biden’s presidency hurt the country on the cost of living.
But the economic numbers expose a far more complicated reality during Trump’s time in the White House. His tax cuts never delivered the promised growth. His budget deficits surged and then stayed relatively high under Biden. His tariffs and trade deals never brought back all of the lost factory jobs.
What to know about the 2024 Election [1 of 4]
Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
[A sitting president tried to overturn an election and his supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the winner from taking power. Supporters of that attack launched a campaign against local election offices, chasing out veteran administrators and pushing conservative states to pass new laws making it harder to vote.]
https://apnews.com/article/democracy-threats-trump-2024-election-lies-biden-716360db82a28a023bbee0d99f607a76
And there was the pandemic, an event that caused historic job losses for which Trump accepts no responsibility as well as low inflation — for which Trump takes full credit.
If anything, the economy during Trump’s presidency never lived up to his own hype.
DECENT (NOT EXCEPTIONAL) GROWTH
Trump assured the public in 2017 that the U.S. economy with his tax cuts would grow at “3%,” but he added, “I think it could go to 4, 5, and maybe even 6%, ultimately.”
If the 2020 pandemic is excluded, growth after inflation averaged 2.67% under Trump, according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Include the pandemic-induced recession and that average drops to an anemic 1.45%.
By contrast, growth during the second term of then-President Barack Obama averaged 2.33%. So far under Biden, annual growth is averaging 3.4%.
MORE GOVERNMENT DEBT
Trump also assured the public that his tax cuts would pay for themselves because of stronger growth. The cuts were broad but disproportionately favored corporations and those with extreme wealth.
The tax cuts signed into law in 2017 never fulfilled Trump’s promises on deficit reduction.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, the deficit worsened to $779 billion in 2018. The Congressional Budget Office had forecasted a deficit of $563 billion before the tax cuts, meaning the tax cuts increased borrowing by $216 billion that first year. In 2019, the deficit rose to $984 billion, nearly $300 billion more than what the CBO had forecast.
Then the pandemic happened and with a flurry of government aid, the resulting deficit topped $3.1 trillion. That borrowing enabled the government to make direct payments to individuals and small businesses as the economy was in lockdown, often increasing bank accounts and making many feel better off even though the economy was in a recession.
Deficits have also run high under Biden, as he signed into law a third round of pandemic aid and other initiatives to address climate change, build infrastructure and invest in U.S. manufacturing. His budget deficits: $2.8 trillion (2021), $1.38 trillion (2022) and $1.7 trillion (2023).
The CBO estimated in a report issued Wednesday that the extension of parts of Trump’s tax cuts set to expire after 2025 would add another $4.6 trillion to the national debt through the year 2034.
LOW INFLATION (BUT NOT ALWAYS FOR GOOD REASONS)
Inflation was much lower under Trump, never topping an annual rate of 2.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The annual rate reached as high as 8% in 2022 under Biden and is currently at 3.4%.
Advertisement
There were three big reasons why inflation was low during Trump’s presidency: the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis, Federal Reserve actions and the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump entered the White House with inflation already low, largely because of the slow recovery from the Great Recession, when financial markets collapsed and millions of people lost their homes to foreclosure.
The inflation rate barely averaged more than 1% during Obama’s second term as the Fed struggled to push up growth. Still, the economy was expanding without overheating.
But in the first three years of Trump’s presidency, inflation averaged 2.1%, roughly close to the Fed’s target. Still, the Fed began to hike its own benchmark rate to keep inflation low at the central bank’s own 2% target. Trump repeatedly criticized the Fed because he wanted to juice growth despite the risks of higher prices.
Then the pandemic hit.
[Insert: [...]Insert: Remember Trump cuts to major agencies caring for the health of American citizens. One unarguable
point arising from the information around that is that Trump has never cared for the care or welfare
of one American more than he has cared for his own political interests. See again:
P - Trump's cult is a death cult. At least, on the best evidence available, it is accurate, fair and just to say Trump's
cult, energized by Fox News, was a death cult. And it has cost both American families and the GOP big time. ]
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722438
Inflation sank and the Fed slashed rates to sustain the economy during lockdowns.
When Trump celebrates historically low mortgage rates, he’s doing so because the economy was weakened by the pandemic. Similarly, gasoline prices fell below an average of $2 a gallon because no one was driving in April 2020 as the pandemic spread.
FEWER JOBS
The United States lost 2.7 million jobs during Trump’s presidency, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If the pandemic months are excluded, he added 6.7 million jobs.
By contrast, 15.4 million jobs were added during Biden’s presidency. That’s 5.1 million more jobs than what the CBO forecasted he would add before his coronavirus relief and other policies became law — a sign of how much he boosted the labor market.
Both candidates have repeatedly promised to bring back factory jobs. Between 2017 and the middle of 2019, Trump added 461,000 manufacturing jobs. But the gains began to stall and then turned into layoffs during the pandemic, with the Republican posting a loss of 178,000 jobs.
So far, the U.S. economy has added 773,000 manufacturing jobs during Biden’s presidency.
JOSH BOAK
Boak covers the White House and economic policy.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-economy-biden-election-president-e3a153c9b0c615ea6e0f2afb91cdc785
Lime Time. You first suggested you would be back in a month, then it was two, now you make it three. Do it.
Lime Time, "I'm way smarter than you." Trump thinks he is too, but doesn't think you are.
Lime Time, So you are in favor of allowing a tyrant who assassinates
his political opponents to invade and take over a sovereign country.
Just as you are in favor of a wannabe domestic tyrant
destroying the democratic institutions of your country.
Ok. Now take a month off as you suggested you were going to do.
B402, It doesn't. Clearly it is the MAGAites who are enslaved to the whims of Trump's GOP. You are a good example of why no libertarian party has ever led a country. Basically a bitcher who seems to only gain comfort by seeing himself as more moral than all others.
Libertarianism is for white men: The ugly truth about the right's favorite movement
Republicans' demographic challenges have been well documented. Libertarians' problems are even worse
By Conor Lynch
Published June 10, 2015 5:54PM (EDT)
(Shutterstock)
Why are libertarians so overwhelmingly white and male? This is a question that Jeet Heer of The New Republic explored last Friday .. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121974/cnn-poll-rand-paul-not-popular-republican-women , after a new CNN poll found that presidential hopeful Rand Paul, who happens to be the favorite among libertarians, is very competitive in the primaries amongst male voters, but almost completely rejected by females. This is a problem that has long haunted conservatism, but it is even more drastic for ultra-right wing libertarianism.
In a 2014 Pew poll .. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/ , it was found that about one in ten Americans describe themselves as libertarian, and men were more than twice as likely to be libertarians. In a 2013 Pew poll that Heer states in his article, it was found about two-thirds (68 percent) of American’s who identify as libertarians are men, and 94 percent are non-hispanic whites. Compare this to "steadfast conservatives," who were found to be 59 percent male and 87 percent white, or "business conservatives," found to be 62 percent male and 85 percent white, according to another survey done by Pew .. http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/26/section-9-patriotism-personal-traits-lifestyles-and-demographics/ . Clearly, the entire conservative movement is dominated by white males, but libertarians are the most male-dominated.
Obviously this is a major problem for anyone who is hoping for libertarianism to take off in American politics. So why are libertarians mostly white guys? Heer points out a few different possibilities that some libertarian writers have offered. One of them being that libertarianism has attracted many male-dominated subcultures, like computer programming (think Silicon Valley), gaming, mens-rights activists, and organized humanism/Atheism, and another, argued by Katherine Mangu-Ward, that libertarianism has long been a fringe movement, and fringe movements tend to be dominated by men.
Okay, so libertarianism attracts nerdy white males, but surely these are not the only ones making up the dedicated crowd? While looking at the larger conservative movement, it becomes a bit more clear that the hostility towards government and collective movements in general tends to attract white males who want to preserve their dominance in a society where they are quickly becoming minorities.
Take the following passage written by a young libertarian activist:
“[E]very piece of anti-discrimination legislation passed over the past few decades, ignores
one of the basic, inalienable rights of man — the right to discriminate. [Though] eliminating
racial and sexual prejudice [had] noble aspiration, [anti-discrimination laws] necessarily
utilize the ignoble means of coercive force.”
That young activist? Rand Paul in 1982 .. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/04/07/3643434/rand-paul-worst-president-civil-rights-since-reconstruction/ . Sure, that was more than three decades ago, and its not fair to go after someone for something they wrote back in those naive college days. But has Paul’s outlook changed at all? Not really. In his now infamous interview with Rachel Maddow, he admitted that he had a major problem with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, particularly the provisions that “harbor in on private businesses and their policies.” In other words, he didn’t like the government telling businesses that they had to serve black people. According to libertarians, this is a clear violation of one's freedom to discriminate; that if a business owner does not want to serve a black person, that is their right. Of course this kind of philosophy is going to be very attractive to those racist business owners.
Libertarianism is inherently opposed to collective movements, and collective movements have long fought to achieve equal rights for women, minorities, workers, etc. Is it any surprise that libertarianism attracts white (and generally privileged) men? If we take a look at the larger conservative movement, a similar story presents itself.
Last year, a study at Northwestern University .. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/demographics_conservatism_and_racial_polarization_could_america_become_mississippi.html .. found that white, independent-minded American’s tended to shift towards conservatism when they found out that demographic changes would be making them minorities. “Perceived group-status threat, triggered by exposure to majority-minority shift, increases Whites’ endorsement of conservative political ideology and policy positions,” wrote the researchers, Maureen Craig and Jennifer Richeson. This study seems to confirm that conservatism, for many white Americans, is the last bastion of hope against the inevitable decline of white dominance.
Libertarianism is especially alluring to these individuals, though there are cutthroat strifes within the libertarian movement itself, between the more studious and tolerant factions, like the folks at Reason magazine, and the more reactionary and bigoted groups, like the “neo-Confederates,” largely influenced by the libertarian writer Lew Rockwell. You may remember hearing about Rockwell because of his association with Ron Paul. Reason reported .. http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter .. back in 2008 that Rockwell had ghostwritten Ron Paul’s newsletter, which had written some extremely distasteful and downright racist stuff, like the following comment on the L.A. Riots:
“Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks
to pick up their welfare checks.”
So, while the libertarian movement as a whole is not inherently bigoted, and many believers despise intolerance, the ideology itself does attract many bigots who see the freedom-obsessed culture as a way to protect their “right” of intolerance, and crack down on collective movements that fight for equality. Many of these folks would like to return to the good old days, when robber barons and white men ruled. The free market ideology is particularly well-suited for the robber barons, while the freedom to discriminate comforts the neo-Confederates. Like the larger conservative movement, libertarianism is a sanctuary for nostalgic white males. Fortunately, nothing can prevent the white mans inevitable fall from dominance, and in the future, many white males may very well change their mind on the so-called "right to discriminate."
By Conor Lynch
Conor Lynch is a writer and journalist living in New York City. His work has appeared on Salon, AlterNet, Counterpunch and openDemocracy. Follow him on Twitter: @dilgentbureauct.
MORE FROM Conor Lynch
https://www.salon.com/2015/06/10/why_libertarianism_is_so_popular_on_the_right_its_the_last_bastion_of_white_male_dominance/
LOL Well said George. And it Biden becomes ill Harris would make a fine president irrespective
of how some, some say somewhat unfairly, rubbish her time as California AG ..
Kamala Harris’s controversial record on criminal justice, explained
Harris has characterized herself as a reformer. But some critics disagree.
by German Lopez
Aug 13, 2020, 12:25 AM GMT+10
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/23/18184192/kamala-harris-president-campaign-criminal-justice-record
OMOLIVES, Your word salad opinion is obviously rubbish irrespective of your excuse for refusing the 1st question. So you don't like either Biden, who has given you guys your strongest economy for decades, or Trump, who denied you any positives of his own initiative, and you don't like the social democrat Sanders.
Say for question 3, whom would you vote for in November, i wonder. I could only guess at your refusal of the 2nd question, what positive could you offer the board.
OMOLIVES, Mine there is what rational people see as good information from decent research.
"? What the fk' is that. Word salad? Have you not figured out that I hate fn' Trump just as much
as Biden?? You cat's are just in "clicks" like high school...and totally lost man. For fucks sake."
The fact you didn't seriously consider any of it suggests strongly you
are an ignorant clown with nothing but nuisance to contribute here.
You got zero on the first question:
OMOLIVES, How are you on answering simple questions. Here's one:
What is it about the conman and pathological liar Trump, who has already been ranked by experts
dead last of 45 American presidents so far, that has you thinking he is worthy of a 2nd term.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174747219
A 2nd for you: Have you anything better to offer this board.
OMOLIVES -- Unreliable trolls need to post links to support questionable assertions they make. You need to provide a link to support your
"And Biden always had a very good gift of jab when he was younger....he lied a lot..lol "
And since when is it funny that anyone lies a lot. Anyway, you need to provide a credible supportive link to that statement of yours.
OMOLIVES, You have a negligently lousy grip on reality. Biden's achievements as president
far outstrip Trump's effort, presidential scholars have made that clear beyond doubt. See
He is dangerous in word, deed and action
He puts self over country
He loathes the laws we live by
[...]
He is, quite simply, unfit to lead.
"The Mass Psychology of Trumpism
[...][ Insert: Trump Floats the Idea of Executing Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley
The former president is inciting violence against the nation’s top general. America’s response is distracted and numb.
By Brian Klaas
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitement-violence/675435/ ]
He now urges police to shoot shoplifters.
[Trump calls for police to shoot shoplifters as they leave the store
Candy Woodall USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/10/01/trump-police-shoot-shoplifters-california/71021289007/ ]
He has begun characterizing his political adversaries as subhuman “vermin” who must be “rooted out.”"
The Democrats are rightly engaged in their own debate about whether President Biden is the right person to carry the party’s nomination into the election, given widespread concerns among voters about his age-related fitness. This debate is so intense because of legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security and national character — and that a compelling Democratic alternative is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. It is a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer, instead setting aside their longstanding values, closing ranks and choosing to overlook what those who worked most closely with the former president have described as his systematic dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence.
[Insert: B402, Experts presidential rank 14th vs 45th. Republicans moment of truth came when they capitulated to Trump.
[bit outed July 12, 2024: ReasearchThis, Trump 45th. Biden 14th. Would any rational and/or
reasonable voter choose 45th over 14th? The answer has to be NO.
P - "So you're saying Biden is a Cat! I guess your right Biden is a catastrophe " castsasstrophy " if you know what I mean."
P - 14th vs 45th, yet you say Biden is a catastrophe. What is wrong with you.
P - Presidential experts rank all 45 U.S. Presidents from best to worst: Where did Biden and Trump place on the list?
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722001]
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722043
That task now falls to the American people. We urge voters to see the dangers of a second Trump term clearly and to reject it. The stakes and significance of the presidency demand a person who has essential qualities and values to earn our trust, and on each one, Donald
Trump fails.
I. Moral Fitness
II. Principled Leadership
III. Character
IV. A President’s Words
V. Rule of Law
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174747042
OMOLIVES, How are you on answering simple questions. Here's one:
What is it about the conman and pathological liar Trump, who has already been ranked by experts
dead last of 45 American presidents so far, that has you thinking he is worthy of a 2nd term.
"Wow....so you just want to nuke the nation...lol. That is one hell of a creative, crazy, fantasy man....good one though..lol."
You are already proving you have little if anything of value to offer here. Consider your status as you being on a trial basis.
He is dangerous
in word, deed and action
He puts self over
country
He loathes the laws
we live by
Opinion
Donald
Trump
Is Unfit
to Lead
"The Mass Psychology of Trumpism
[...][ Insert: Trump Floats the Idea of Executing Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley
The former president is inciting violence against the nation’s top general. America’s response is distracted and numb.
By Brian Klaas
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitement-violence/675435/ ]
He now urges police to shoot shoplifters.
[ Trump calls for police to shoot shoplifters as they leave the store
Candy Woodall USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/10/01/trump-police-shoot-shoplifters-california/71021289007/ ]
He has begun characterizing his political adversaries as subhuman “vermin” who must be “rooted out.”"
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists
whose views are informed by expertise,
research, debate and certain longstanding values.
It is separate from the newsroom.
Next week, for the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president of the United States. A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.
It is a chilling choice against this national moment. For more than two decades, large majorities of Americans have said they are dissatisfied .. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx .. with the direction of the country, and the post-Covid era of stubborn inflation, high interest rates, social division and political stagnation has left many voters even more frustrated and despondent.
The Republican Party once pursued electoral power in service to solutions for such problems, to building “the shining city on a hill,” as Ronald Reagan liked to say. Its vision of the United States — embodied in principled public servants like George H.W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney — was rooted in the values of freedom, sacrifice, individual responsibility and the common good. The party’s conception of those values was reflected in its longstanding conservative policy agenda, and today many Republicans set aside their concerns about Mr. Trump because of his positions on immigration, trade and taxes. But the stakes of this election are not fundamentally about policy disagreements. The stakes are more foundational: what qualities matter most in America’s president and commander in chief.
Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.
He is, quite simply, unfit to lead.
The Democrats are rightly engaged in their own debate about whether President Biden is the right person to carry the party’s nomination into the election, given widespread concerns among voters about his age-related fitness. This debate is so intense because of legitimate concerns that Mr. Trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security and national character — and that a compelling Democratic alternative is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. It is a national tragedy that the Republicans have failed to have a similar debate about the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of their standard-bearer, instead setting aside their longstanding values, closing ranks and choosing to overlook what those who worked most closely with the former president have described as his systematic dishonesty, corruption, cruelty and incompetence.
[Insert: B402, Experts presidential rank 14th vs 45th. Republicans moment of truth came when they capitulated to Trump.
[bit outed July 12, 2024: ReasearchThis, Trump 45th. Biden 14th. Would any rational and/or
reasonable voter choose 45th over 14th? The answer has to be NO.
P - "So you're saying Biden is a Cat! I guess your right Biden is a catastrophe " castsasstrophy " if you know what I mean."
P - 14th vs 45th, yet you say Biden is a catastrophe. What is wrong with you.
P - Presidential experts rank all 45 U.S. Presidents from best to worst: Where did Biden and Trump place on the list?
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722001]
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174722043
That task now falls to the American people. We urge voters to see the dangers of a second Trump term clearly and to reject it. The stakes and significance of the presidency demand a person who has essential qualities and values to earn our trust, and on each one, Donald
Trump fails.
I. Moral Fitness
II. Principled Leadership
III. Character
IV. A President’s Words
V. Rule of Law
I. Moral Fitness Matters
Presidents are confronted daily with challenges that require not just strength and conviction but also honesty, humility, selflessness, fortitude and the perspective that comes from sound moral judgment.
If Mr. Trump has these qualities, Americans have never seen them in action on behalf of the nation’s interests. His words and actions demonstrate a disregard for basic right and wrong and a clear lack of moral fitness for the responsibilities of the presidency.
He lies blatantly and maliciously, embraces racists, abuses women and has a schoolyard bully’s instinct to target society’s most vulnerable. He has delighted in coarsening and polarizing the town square with ever more divisive and incendiary language. Mr. Trump is a man who craves validation and vindication, so much that he would prefer a hostile leader’s lies to his own intelligence agencies’ truths and would shake down a vulnerable ally for short-term political advantage. His handling of everything from routine affairs to major crises was undermined by his blundering combination of impulsiveness, insecurity and unstudied certainty.
This record shows what can happen to a country led by such a person: America’s image, credibility and cohesion were relentlessly undermined by Mr. Trump during his term.
None of his wrongful actions are so obviously discrediting as his determined and systematic attempts to undermine the integrity of elections — the most basic element of any democracy — an effort that culminated in an insurrection at the Capitol to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump incited a mob to violence with hateful lies, then stood by for hours as hundreds of his supporters took his word and stormed the Capitol with the aim of terrorizing members of Congress into keeping him in office. He praised these insurrectionists and called them patriots; today he gives them a starring role at campaign rallies, playing a rendition of the national anthem sung by inmates involved with Jan. 6., and he has promised to consider pardoning the rioters if re-elected. He continues to wrong the country and its voters by lying about the 2020 election, branding it stolen, despite the courts, the Justice Department and Republican state officials disputing him. No man fit for the presidency would flog such pernicious and destructive lies about democratic norms and values, but the Trumpian hunger for vindication and retribution has no moral center.
To vest such a person with the vast powers of the presidency is to endanger American interests and security at home as well as abroad. The nation’s commander in chief must uphold the oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” It is the closest thing that this secular nation has to a sacred trust. The president has several duties and powers that are his alone: He has the sole authority to launch a nuclear weapon. He has the authority to send American troops into harm’s way and to authorize the use of lethal force against individuals and other nations. Americans who serve in the military also take an oath to defend the Constitution, and they rely on their commander in chief to take that oath as seriously as they do.
Mr. Trump has shown, repeatedly, that he does not. On numerous occasions, he asked his defense secretary and commanders in the American armed forces to violate that oath. On other occasions, he demanded that members of the military violate norms that preserve the dignity of the armed services and protect the military from being used for political purposes. They largely refused these illegal and immoral orders, as the oath requires.
The lack of moral grounding undermines Mr. Trump even in areas where voters view him as stronger and trust him more than Mr. Biden, like immigration and crime. Veering into a kind of brutal excess that is, at best, immoral and, at worst, unconstitutional, he has said that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” and his advisers say he would aim to round them up in mass detention camps and end birthright citizenship. He has indicated that, if faced with episodes of rioting or crime surges, he would unilaterally send troops into American cities. He has asked aides if the United States could shoot migrants below the waist to slow them down, and he has said that he would use the Insurrection Act to deploy the military against protesters.
During his time in office, none of those things happened because there were enough people in military leadership with the moral fitness to say “no” to such illegal orders. But there are good reasons to worry about whether that would happen again, as Mr. Trump works harder to surround himself with people who enable rather than check his most insidious impulses.
The Supreme Court, with its ruling on July 1 granting presidents “absolute immunity” for official acts, has removed an obstacle to Mr. Trump’s worst impulses: the threat of legal consequences. What remains is his own sense of right and wrong. Our country’s future is too precious to rely on such a broken moral compass.
II. Principled Leadership Matters
Republican presidents and presidential candidates have used their leadership at critical moments to set a tone for society to live up to. Mr. Reagan faced down totalitarianism in the 1980s, appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court and worked with Democrats on bipartisan tax and immigration reforms. George H.W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act and decisively defended an ally, Kuwait, against Iraqi aggression. George W. Bush, for all his failures after Sept. 11, did not stoke hate against or demonize Muslims or Islam.
As a candidate during the 2008 race, Mr. McCain spoke out when his fellow conservatives spread lies about his opponent, Barack Obama. Mr. Romney was willing to sacrifice his standing and influence in the party he once represented as a presidential nominee, by boldly calling out Mr. Trump’s failings and voting for his removal from office.
These acts of leadership are what it means to put country first, to think beyond oneself.
Mr. Trump has demonstrated contempt for these American ideals. He admires autocrats, from Viktor Orban to Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un. He believes in the strongman model of power — a leader who makes things happen by demanding it, compelling agreement through force of will or personality. In reality, a strongman rules through fear and the unprincipled use of political might for self-serving ends, imposing poorly conceived policies that smother innovation, entrepreneurship, ideas and hope.
During his four years in office, Mr. Trump tried to govern the United States as a strongman would, issuing orders or making decrees on Twitter. He announced sudden changes in policy — on who can serve in the military, on trade policy, on how the United States deals with North Korea or Russia — without consulting experts on his staff about how these changes would affect America. Indeed, nowhere did he put his political or personal interests above the national interest more tragically than during the pandemic, when he faked his way through a crisis by touting conspiracy theories and pseudoscience while ignoring the advice of his own experts and resisting basic safety measures that would have saved lives.
He took a similar approach to America’s strategic relationships abroad. Mr. Trump lost the trust of America’s longstanding allies, especially in NATO, leaving Europe less secure and emboldening the far right and authoritarian leaders in Europe, Latin America and Asia. He pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, leaving that country, already a threat to the world, more dangerous, thanks to a revived program that has achieved near-weapons-grade uranium.
In a second term, his willingness to appease Mr. Putin would leave Ukraine’s future as a democratic and independent country in doubt. Mr. Trump implies that he could single-handedly end the catastrophic war in Gaza but has no real plan. He has suggested that in a second term he’d increase tariffs on Chinese goods to 60 percent or higher and that he would put a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods, moves that would raise prices for American consumers and reduce innovation by allowing U.S. industries to rely on protectionism instead.
The worst of the Trump administration’s policies were often blocked by Congress, by court challenges and by the objections of honorable public servants who stepped in to thwart his demands when they were irresponsible or did not follow the law. When Mr. Trump wanted an end to Obamacare, a single Republican senator, Mr. McCain, saved it, preserving health care for millions of Americans. Mr. Trump demanded that James Comey, his F.B.I. director, pledge loyalty to him and end an investigation into a political ally; Mr. Comey refused. Scientists and public health officials called out and corrected his misinformation about climate science and Covid. The Supreme Court sided against the Trump administration more times than any other president since at least Franklin D. Roosevelt.
A second Trump administration would be different. He intends to fill his administration with sycophants, those who have shown themselves willing to obey Mr. Trump’s demands or those who lack the strength to stand up to him. He wants to remove those who would be obstacles to his agenda, by enacting an order to make it easier to fire civil servants and replace them with those more loyal to him.
This means not only that Americans would lose the benefit of their expertise but also that America would be governed in a climate of fear, in which government employees must serve the interests of the president rather than the public. All cabinet secretaries follow a president’s lead, but Mr. Trump envisions a nation in which public service as Americans understand it would cease to exist — where individual civil servants and departments could no longer make independent decisions and where research by scientists and public health experts and investigations by the Justice Department and others in federal law enforcement would be more malleable to the demands of the White House.
Another term under Mr. Trump’s leadership would risk doing permanent damage to our government. As Mr. Comey, a longtime Republican, wrote in a 2019 guest essay for Times Opinion, “Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from.” Very few who serve under him can avoid this fate “because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites,” Mr. Comey wrote. “Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values. And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.” America will get nowhere with a strongman. It needs a strong leader.
III. Character Matters
Character is the quality that gives a leader credibility, authority and influence. During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s petty attacks on his opponents and their families led many Republicans to conclude that he lacked such character. Other Republicans, including those who supported the former president’s policies in office, say they can no longer in good conscience back him for the presidency. “It’s a job that requires the kind of character he just doesn’t have,” Paul Ryan, a former Republican House speaker, said of Mr. Trump in May.
Those who know Mr. Trump’s character best — the people he appointed to serve in the most important positions of his White House — have expressed grave doubts about his fitness for office.
His former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, described Mr. Trump as “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.” Bill Barr, whom Mr. Trump appointed as attorney general, said of him, “He will always put his own interest and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest.” James Mattis, a retired four-star Marine general who served as defense secretary, said, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try.”
Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s vice president, has disavowed him. No other vice president in modern American history has done this. “I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Mr. Pence has said. “And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.”
These are hardly exceptions. In any other American administration, a single cabinet-level defection is rare. But an unprecedented number of Mr. Trump’s appointees have publicly criticized his leadership, opposed his 2024 presidential candidacy or ducked questions about his fitness for a second term. More than a dozen of his most senior appointees — those he chose to work alongside him and who saw his performance most closely — have spoken out against him, serving as witnesses about the kind of leader he is.
There are many ways to judge leaders’ character; one is to see whether they accept responsibility for their actions. As a general rule, Mr. Trump abhors accountability. If he loses, the election is rigged. If he is convicted, it’s because the judges are out to get him. If he doesn’t get his way in a deal, as happened multiple times with Congress in his term, he shuts down the government or threatens to.
Americans do not expect their presidents to be perfect; many of them have exhibited hubris, self-regard, arrogance and other character flaws. But the American system of government is more than just the president: It is a system of checks and balances, and it relies on everyone in government to intervene when a president’s personal failings might threaten the common good.
Mr. Trump tested those limits as president, and little has changed about him in the four years since he lost re-election. He tries to intimidate anyone with the temerity to testify as a witness against him. He attacks the integrity of judges who are doing their duty to hold him accountable to the law. He mocks those he dislikes and lies about those who oppose him and targets Republicans for defeat if they fail to bend the knee.
It may be tempting for Americans to believe that a second Trump presidency would be much like the first, with the rest of government steeled to protect the country and resist his worst impulses. But the strongman needs others to be weak, and Mr. Trump is surrounding himself with yes men.
The American public has a right to demand more from their president and those who would serve under him.
IV. A President’s Words Matter
When America saw white nationalists and neo-Nazis march through the streets of Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and activists were rallying against racism, Mr. Trump spoke of “very fine people on both sides.” When he was pressed about the white supremacist Proud Boys during a 2020 debate, Mr. Trump told them to “stand back and stand by,” a request that, records show, they took literally in deciding to storm Congress. This winter, the former president urged Iowans to vote for him and score a victory over their fellow Americans — “all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps.” And in a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire, he used the word “vermin,” a term he has deployed to describe both immigrants and political opponents.
What a president says reflects on the United States and the kind of society we aspire to be.
In 2022 this board raised an urgent alarm about the rising threat of political violence in the United States and what Americans could do to stop it. At the time, Mr. Trump was preparing to declare his intention to run for president again, and the Republican Party was in the middle of a fight for control, between Trumpists and those who were ready to move on from his destructive leadership. This struggle within the party has consequences for all Americans. “A healthy democracy requires both political parties to be fully committed to the rule of law and not to entertain or even tacitly encourage violence or violent speech,” we wrote.
A large faction of one party in our country fails that test, and that faction, Mr. Trump’s MAGA extremists, now control the party and its levers of power. There are many reasons his conquest of the Republican Party is bad for American democracy, but one of the most significant is that those extremists have often embraced violent speech or the belief in using violence to achieve their political goals. This belief led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and it has resulted in a rising number of threats against judges, elected officials and prosecutors.
This threat cannot be separated from Mr. Trump’s use of language to encourage violence, to dehumanize groups of people and to spread lies. A study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, released in October 2022, came to the conclusion that MAGA Republicans (as opposed to those who identified themselves as traditional Republicans) “are more likely to hold extreme and racist beliefs, to endorse political violence, to see such violence as likely to occur and to predict that they will be armed under circumstances in which they consider political violence to be justified.”
The Republican Party had an opportunity to renounce Trumpism; it has submitted to it. Republican leaders have had many opportunities to repudiate his violent discourse and make clear that it should have no place in political life; they failed to. Sizable numbers of voters in Republican primaries abandoned Mr. Trump for other candidates, and independent and undecided voters have said that Mr. Trump’s language has alienated them from his candidacy.
But with his nomination by his party all but assured, Mr. Trump has become even more reckless in employing extreme and violent speech, such as his references to executing generals who raise questions about his actions. He has argued, before the Supreme Court, that he should have the right to assassinate a political rival and face no consequences.
V. The Rule of Law Matters
The danger from these foundational failings — of morals and character, of principled leadership and rhetorical excess — is never clearer than in Mr. Trump’s disregard for rule of law, his willingness to do long-term damage to the integrity of America’s systems for short-term personal gain.
As we’ve noted, Mr. Trump’s disregard for democracy was most evident in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to encourage violence to stop the peaceful transfer of power. What stood in his way were the many patriotic Americans, at every level of government, who rejected his efforts to bully them into complying with his demands to change election results. Instead, they followed the rules and followed the law. This respect for the rule of law, not the rule of men, is what has allowed American democracy to survive for more than 200 years.
In the four years since losing the election, Mr. Trump has become only more determined to subvert the rule of law, because his whole theory of Trumpism boils down to doing whatever he wants without consequence. Americans are seeing this unfold as Mr. Trump attempts to fight off numerous criminal charges. Not content to work within the law to defend himself, he is instead turning to sympathetic judges — including two Supreme Court justices with apparent conflicts over the 2020 election and Jan. 6-related litigation. The playbook: delay federal prosecution until he can win election and end those legal cases. His vision of government is one that does what he wants, rather than a government that operates according to the rule of law as prescribed by the Constitution, the courts and Congress.
As divided as America is, people across the political spectrum generally recoil from rigged rules, favoritism, self-dealing and abuse of power. Our country has been so stable for so long in part because most Americans and most American leaders follow the rules or face the consequences.
So much in the past two decades has tested these norms in our society — the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, the failures that led to the 2008 financial crisis and the recession that followed, the pandemic and all the fractures and inequities that it revealed. We need a recommitment to the rule of law and the values of fair play. This election is a moment for Americans to decide whether we will keep striving for those ideals.
Mr. Trump rejects them. If he is re-elected, America will face a new and precarious future, one that it may not be prepared for. It is a future in which intelligence agencies would be judged not according to whether they preserved national security but by whether they served Mr. Trump’s political agenda. It means that prosecutors and law enforcement officials would be judged not according to whether they follow the law to keep Americans safe but by whether they obey his demands to “go after” political enemies. It means that public servants would be judged not according to their dedication or skill but by whether they show sufficient loyalty to him and his MAGA agenda.
Even if Mr. Trump’s vague policy agenda would not be fulfilled, he could rule by fear. The lesson of other countries shows that when a bureaucracy is politicized or pressured, the best public servants will run for the exits.
This is what has already happened in Mr. Trump’s Republican Party, with principled leaders and officials retiring, quitting or facing ouster. In a second term, he intends to do that to the whole of government.
Election Day is less than four months away. The case against Mr. Trump is extensive, and this board urges Americans to perform a simple act of civic duty in an election year: Listen to what Mr. Trump is saying, pay attention to what he did as president and allow yourself to truly inhabit what he has promised to do if returned to office.
Voters frustrated by inflation and immigration or attracted by the force of Mr. Trump’s personality should pause and take note of his words and promises. They have little to do with unity and healing and a lot to do with making the divisions and anger in our society wider and more intense than they already are.
The Republican Party is making its choice next week; soon all Americans will be able to make their own choice. What would Mr. Trump do in a second term? He has told Americans who he is and shown them what kind of leader he would be.
When someone fails so many foundational tests, you don’t give him the most important job in the world.
From top, photographs and video by Damon Winter/The New York Times (2) and Jay Turner Frey Seawell (5).
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/11/opinion/editorials/donald-trump-2024-unfit.html
Donald Trump is only interested in having sycophants around him.
He is not interested in having any one of integrity working with him.
B402, It's nothing to do with false hope. That is your bag. As i have made clear to you more times than should be necessary, Republicans failed America when they deserted their ethical and moral standards and accepted Trump. The 'Chosen One'. Trump. Any decent God would sob in dismay. You say Biden is not fit to hold office, even though Biden's presidential record put's Trump's to shame. You ignore fact, decency and caharacter in your virulently boring anti-Biden campaign. Democrats will do what is right for America. You would make be sick if i were as weak as you. As it is you simple bore the hell out of me.
It's terrific Americana. A reminder, in tragic Trump times, of America's good.
B402's record has been stuck for a year. Around and around and around it goes, with each turn
his anti-Biden/you Dems failed America a decades ago, the rut gets deeper. And more boring.
Well said Rick Wilson. 16 min of professional insight is always time
well spent. Over porridge with banana and orange it's cozy.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_DJNxH40u0c
Don't fret about Biden. Don't worry. Fight Donald Trump every waking moment.
ReasearchThis, Born to unacceptable insult.
Well I thought your teacher showed you how to pick nits.
Then I thought NO! She wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174746415
Born to boost a criminal, wannabe strongman intent on destroying American democracy. Born to uncalled for abuse.
Your were the teachers pet right! Did she ever ask you to pick
Nits? Or was that your own idea?
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174744719
Born to be a purveyor of baseless misinformation.
"Today for all practical purposes. Communists and Democrats are just about the same thing."
That is your problem! You have allowed you degrees to prevent you
From seeing the disinformation you have fallen victim to.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174735415
Final positive contribution/unjustified negative nuisance score 1/48.
To help you understand:
Our trolls are substandard. We have one that is on a loop of hatred of biden, one that sniffs too much sewer gas, and now one that just posts unmitigated horseshit that so unsubstantiated that it probably makes AI apps burst out in laughter. It would be cool if we could get a couple that actually understand how to discuss an issue without clogging it with absolute nonsense.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174720483
Too much nuisance tolerated before now. Goodbye.
Be better. Goodby.
Goodbye.
Too stupid to leave.
Trump is right when he says -- "Only a fool, only a fool or somebody that hates our country could
like what’s happening right now." He should do what's best for the country, he should go to jail.
Basically same here. Wealthy, huge properties, no tax paid even by businesses churches
run, and while public schools take all students privates are under no obligation to.
You'd be right. It's not before time.
100%. Exactly what i've been thinking for some time. I agree with all of it.
And have been feeling for some time that where we are headed. Thanks.