'Murica! (146 Viewers)

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,674
Jimmy O. Yang not being Jian-Yang :D


This man is brilliant and spot on, what he is saying is exactly true and he wants protect his own country and bring prosperity for his people
If I may invoke my best Jian-Yang translation (using his Chinese accent):

"Americans so poor!"

sddefault.jpg


Hey, I couldn't help but notice you didn't address my earlier two posts. Maybe you missed them.


Because you are so worried about the moral values of children (as are we all!), I was wondering how you reconcile that with voting for a man who:

- forcibly and nonconsensually penetrated a woman's vagina with his fingers (which, just to be clear, would be defined as rape if it occurred today);
- is accused by no less than 26 women of sexual assault;
- committed adultery by having sex with a pornstar?

I'm sure you are able to provide an extensive, well argumented answer.
I think yer blocked, dude

Bare iron servers ftw?
Sounds hawt.

What if covid takes him out:shifty:
Isn't it like the third attempt this year?
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,245
Jimmy O. Yang not being Jian-Yang :D



If I may invoke my best Jian-Yang translation (using his Chinese accent):

"Americans so poor!"

sddefault.jpg




I think yer blocked, dude



Sounds hawt.



Isn't it like the third attempt this year?
We know he read them.

He just doesn't have an answer. Why? Because @Bjerknes is right. Dude is a hypocrite. But, most importantly, he lacks substance. It's just an empty box.
 

icemaη

Rab's Husband - The Regista
Moderator
Aug 27, 2008
36,269
Once you treat politics like a team sport, you start actively voting against your own principles and your own best interest. Sadly that’s how politics is turning out across the world these days and it’s especially true in the US.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,245
Once you treat politics like a team sport, you start actively voting against your own principles and your own best interest. Sadly that’s how politics is turning out across the world these days and it’s especially true in the US.
I think the US is exceptional to the degree this happens.

It's natural to feel part of a team, when you're regularly voting for a party that you seem to align with. In the US there are people who just want to vote for their side and just want to 'win'.

And this is without the cult aspect of it all. Obviously not all Trump voters are cultists. Not all see them as a demigod. But if you listen to the reactions of participants of the RNC, some definitely do.

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Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
115,698
Once you treat politics like a team sport, you start actively voting against your own principles and your own best interest. Sadly that’s how politics is turning out across the world these days and it’s especially true in the US.
The irony in that being the politicians themselves only care about self interest. The millions of useful idiots are just numbers to them.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,245
The irony in that being the politicians themselves only care about self interest. The millions of useful idiots are just numbers to them.
Just this morning I listened to a woman saying she's voting for Trump, because he is the only one that cares about her and her family.

Fuck me.

No idea what gave her that impression.

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swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,674
Just this morning I listened to a woman saying she's voting for Trump, because he is the only one that cares about her and her family.

Fuck me.

No idea what gave her that impression.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn ONEPLUS A6003 met Tapatalk
Was the caller Nayib Bukele?

Because he and his LatAm cult just got a rekt reckoning

 

icemaη

Rab's Husband - The Regista
Moderator
Aug 27, 2008
36,269
Just this morning I listened to a woman saying she's voting for Trump, because he is the only one that cares about her and her family.

Fuck me.

No idea what gave her that impression.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn ONEPLUS A6003 met Tapatalk
The story about the lady whose fireman husband was killed at the rally not taking Bidens call while not receiving any sort of sympathy or condolence message from Trump and then Trump proceeding to (what looks like) making out with a fireman’s uniform on stage is just :boh:
 

icemaη

Rab's Husband - The Regista
Moderator
Aug 27, 2008
36,269
I have asked this before and I guess I’ll ask it a million times again. How the fuck are these guys your best candidates? Your authoritarian candidate is not even good at being authoritarian. Both candidates have zero charisma, can’t even stick coherent sentences together and yet here we are. Absolutely blows my mind. Rahul Gandhi has more charisma than either of these two and he has the charisma of a wet chicken. If Nigel Farage was on a debate with these two, he’d win by a landslide. Seriously, what the fuck Murica.
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,674
I have asked this before and I guess I’ll ask it a million times again. How the fuck are these guys your best candidates? Your authoritarian candidate is not even good at being authoritarian. Both candidates have zero charisma, can’t even stick coherent sentences together and yet here we are. Absolutely blows my mind. Rahul Gandhi has more charisma than either of these two and he has the charisma of a wet chicken. If Nigel Farage was on a debate with these two, he’d win by a landslide. Seriously, what the fuck Murica.
It's a great question and it gets to the root of dysfunction.

People will argue these points, but Trump has become a lightning rod for grievance politics today. Yes, you could easily argue there's grievance politics for Blacks (see: George Floyd) and other minorities. But (mostly) white grievance is a different kind of thing, partly rooted in feeling like the last unprotected class (while, male, Christian, hetero, etc.). Trump is very, very good at speaking to it in a caricature that resonates with them. Think Hulk Hogan doing his best President Camacho the other day. So I think you've got that wrong: with the right audience, Trump has a ton of charisma... bordering on religious redemption.

His in-party competition seems mostly too establishment to resonate as effectively. There is a lot in this group that feels there's a Deep State with cards stacked against them. It's best analog may be more Silvio Berlusconi in how Italians felt in their era: "Well if all politicians are crooks, better to have a rich crook with less need to steal."

And you're right that as an authoritarian, Putin would run circles around him. I still feel his biggest mistake in his first term was not siding up enough with the military. Political power without coercive force only gets you so far. My worry is the stacked courts and systemic failures of checks and balances we've seen to date are laying a playbook for a craftier, more Machiavellian successor in the future who won't stumble over his own ego the way Trump has.

Biden is a lifelong servant but hardly the politician that makes national and world leaders swoon to earn his favor. Normally I say the world is mostly driven by reactions to the thing rather than the thing itself. For example, Fauci is hated by the right partly by who he is and what he's done, but mostly because he's so adored by a voting opposition they despise. Biden is none of that. An enthusiastic Biden supporter is kind of a myth, really. (It's probably a healthier relationship between voters and their officials, to be honest.)

Biden is a boring career guy, elected only by the Democrats during Covid because none of the younger generation could get its act together to thwart Trump's follow-up term. Biden was experienced and competent enough to pull that off with a broader base, but more "a trusted, lesser bad" than an enthusiastic good.

The puzzler is how two politicians where age is making their wheels come off is the best the nation has to offer. I attribute that to risk-aversion, over-familiarity, and a party system where the parties serve as more of a Deep State than any government administration has. I mean, look at what happened to Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton before the 2016 DNC. We're seeing the Democratic Party doing that now with Biden, except this time I honestly think it's warranted.
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,674
The other weird thing I will add is that Trump is arguably running an identity-driven social club more than a political campaign. It truly is identity politics. It's loaded with symbolism but light on ideology other than grievances around immigrants, inflation, and trans people. The DEI, BLM, ESG reactions are all three-letter grievances.

The ideology part is telling. Project 2025 is attempt to do exactly that and fill the void. Trump says he never heard of it. He clearly did, but he's not an ideology guy.

This also brings out a surrounding grifter economy of Trump t-shirts, flags, shoes, coins, memorabilia. In that sense, he has more in common with Taylor Swift and her bracelets than politics, because none of that happens with Biden.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,245
My worry is the stacked courts and systemic failures of checks and balances we've seen to date are laying a playbook for a craftier, more Machiavellian successor in the future who won't stumble over his own ego the way Trump has.
This is absolutely true and something that, for reasons I do not comprehend, mostly goes unnoticed.

People compare Trump to Hitler, but that's ridiculous. Hitler actually wanted to get things done. Trump doesn't have an agenda. He just wants to be CEO, president, king, whatever.

And even if Trump did have sinister plans, the guy is likely to be dead in 5 years, 10 at the very worst. He looks like he could drop dead any second now, but it's not obvious because Biden is already decomposing and they compare the two.

But the courts.. that is incredibly dangerous. Look at Italy and Germany in the 1930's. As soon as they can get around the checks and balances of a democratic society by dismantling or influencing the courts, it becomes very easy to create a fascist authoritarian society.

My personal belief in America is strong. I believe these wrongs will be corrected in the coming years and much needed change will come. But man, this is not the kind of game you should be playing.

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swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,674
This is absolutely true and something that, for reasons I do not comprehend, mostly goes unnoticed.

People compare Trump to Hitler, but that's ridiculous. Hitler actually wanted to get things done. Trump doesn't have an agenda. He just wants to be CEO, president, king, whatever.

And even if Trump did have sinister plans, the guy is likely to be dead in 5 years, 10 at the very worst. He looks like he could drop dead any second now, but it's not obvious because Biden is already decomposing and they compare the two.

But the courts.. that is incredibly dangerous. Look at Italy and Germany in the 1930's. As soon as they can get around the checks and balances of a democratic society by dismantling or influencing the courts, it becomes very easy to create a fascist authoritarian society.

My personal belief in America is strong. I believe these wrongs will be corrected in the coming years and much needed change will come. But man, this is not the kind of game you should be playing.

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Completely. Trump won't destroy democracy as some of them libs are panicking about. But what he is doing is giving others excuses to erode conventions and checks and balances because they are situationally convenient in the now. That's never a good long term strategy for a stable nation to sell out its future for short-term gains.

And as for the courts, yeah, the anti-lawfare crowd is notching their wins. But I do think at the expense of a president holding power over assigning and influencing the court system that it should never have in the first place. Separation of powers is fundamental and a good part of the reason why people in the EU freaked about Poland and Hungary.

I'm not so sure that the current environment is conducive to repairing the damage though. There's more interest in winning at all costs it seems than doing what's best for a healthy, functioning state with a proper immune system to abuses.

I say it would be fair to call the US an immunocompromised democracy right now.
Back in 2020, the Democracy Matrix placed the US as a "Deficient Democracy", which I would also agree with.
https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking
As f'ed up as Portugal is, I would even agree the democracy is stronger here. We just had a funding/financial influence scandal that took down our elected government last year, but at the same time ... it took down the government. It would have been worse if it didn't.

Back on the short-term sellouts, Hillbilly Sellout JD Vance is out now suggesting that "if you can't run, you can't serve". Which is not only a weird game of chicken to maybe try to keep Biden as his opponent, it's also a terrible precedent. LBJ had the personal sense not to run again. And every last-term president could theoretically be opened up to resignation demands if this shifts the Overton Window on the topic. All of that very, very bad ... and for what gain?

So shortsighted and stupid.
 
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