American Politics

[MarquisdeSade1]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/u...in-voters.html

The Most Durable Force in American Politics: Trump's Ties to His Voters.

If Donald Trump's rivals want to stop his rise, they'll need to break his bond with his supporters. They didn't come close in Iowa.

Donald Trump wears a white hat and pumps his fist onstage. The hat says "Trump Caucus Captain. " Visible but out of focus in the foreground is a person making a heart shape with their hands.

Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, the day before the state caucuses. Credit. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times.

Michael see. BenderKatie Glueck.

By Michael see. Bender and Katie Glueck.

Jan. 16,2024.

Updated 1:54 am ET.

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Bill Clinton once explained the nation's two political parties by saying that Democrats want to fall in love while Republicans want to fall in line.

That adage has not withstood the Trump era. Today, it is Republicans who are besotted.

Donald J. Trump's decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party. For eight years, he has nurtured a relationship with his supporters with little precedent in politics. He validates them, he entertains them, he speaks for them and he uses them for his political and legal advantage.

This connection — a hard-earned bond for some, a cult of personality to others — has unleashed one the most durable forces in American politics.

Iowa Republicans, following the lead of party officials across the country, rallied behind the former president despite a list of reasons to reject him. Republicans lost control of the presidency, the Senate and the House during his four years in office. He failed to deliver the red wave of victories he promised in the 2022 midterms. He has been charged with 91 felonies in four criminal cases this past year.

And they stayed with him even as they were offered viable alternatives: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a popular, young governor who embraced Mr. Trump's policies, and Nikki Haley, one of the Deep South's first female governors, who credibly promised she could win back voters Mr. Trump drove away.

Yet in the first chance Americans had to cast judgment on Mr. Trump since he tried to overthrow an election, many Iowa Republicans made clear they don't judge him. They adore him.

"Trump is not a candidate, he's the leader of a national movement," said Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker who has advised Mr. Trump. "No one has come to grips with what's it like to take on the champion of a movement. That's why even as all these legal issues pile up, it just infuriates his movement and increases their anger unbelievably. ".

The risks associated with the kind of unusually strong hold Mr. Trump maintains on the party have already emerged.

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Image.

A woman wearing a red sweater stands behind a red, white and blue barrier. She holds Trump a campaign sign.

Supporters cheering for Mr. Trump at a rally in Indianola, Iowa. Credit. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times.

He has encouraged supporters to view him as above fault or defeat, a mindset that can lead to the kind of political violence that shocked the nation during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Elevating charisma over character can open the door to the kind of authoritarianism that Mr. Trump has promised on the campaign trail this past year.

"A lot of the people that support Donald Trump really are fed up with democracy, representative democracy, they think that an authoritarian-style government would probably be preferable at this point, in order to save the nation or whatever," said former Representative Charles Bass, a New Hampshire Republican who previously voted for Mr. Trump, but said he would not do so again. "I don't think they feel threatened by having somebody who at least has the trappings of being more authoritarian than past presidents. ".

Although Mr. Trump's win was resounding, the Iowa results suggest the party remains deeply divided over his return to power. Roughly half of Iowa Republicans voted for one of Mr. Trump's rivals, including about 20 percent who backed Mr. DeSantis, who finished in second, with Ms. Haley close behind.

Republicans who resisted Mr. Trump in Iowa included the party's youngest voters and anti-abortion-rights conservatives who backed Mr. DeSantis, according to entrance polls.

Iowa Caucuses: Live Updates.

Updated.

Jan. 16,2024, 12:50 am ET2 hours ago.

2 hours ago.

5 takeaways from Trump's runaway victory in the Iowa caucuses.

The mood at the DeSantis watch party was anger and disbelief — over how fast the call was made.

Trump invested in a muscular turnout operation, and it paid off.

Similarly, Ms. Haley won moderate voters, Republicans who believed Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election, those who support a muscular foreign policy and the segment of the party that prioritized temperament in their choice for a presidential nominee.

Party strategists and officials in other states caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from the votes of a narrow slice of Republicans in a small state. As the Republican nominating contest moves to New Hampshire next week, one poll this month showed Ms. Haley within striking distance of Mr. Trump. The state's voters tend to be more moderate and less religious, suggesting an opening for her.

Mr. DeSantis's ability to threaten Mr. Trump is less clear. He marketed himself to voters as a Trumpian wunderkind, able to deliver America First policies without the drama and chaos that often trail the former president.

But MAGA Nation rivals the Queen's Guard when it comes to standing at the ready to defend their sovereign, and Mr. DeSantis was turned back as Republicans showed they are less interested in policies than they are the man.

"I know that he is picked by God for this hour," said Patricia Lage, an Iowa caucusgoer who spoke in support of Mr. Trump on Monday night in Carlisle, outside Des Moines. "There are things that he has done in the past, but we all have pasts. ".

Image.

Ron DeSantis approaches a stage. A "DeSantis for President 2024" sign is on his left.

Mr. DeSantis taking the stage at a campaign stop at Jethro's BBQ in Ames, Iowa. Credit. Jordan Gale for The New York Times.

Mr. Trump has spent years tending to his voters — taking aim at their shared enemies and anticipating their grievances. He has compulsively tried to ensure that he was never out of step.

That preoccupation repeatedly drove his decisions in the White House, from refusing to wear a mask during the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 to his opposition to striking the names of Confederate generals from USA Military bases.

More recently, Mr. Trump has attacked Mr. DeSantis for signing a six-week abortion ban and avoided committing to a federal ban on the procedure, betting that his voters will either agree or forgive him for deviating from a core conservative priority.

Perhaps most significantly, he has rallied their support amid unprecedented legal troubles in part by describing the prosecution of him as an attempt to silence them.

"You and I have been in this battle side-by-side, together — and we have been taking on the entire corrupt system in Washington like no one has ever done before," Mr. Trump told Iowa supporters at a rally on Sunday, adding that the political establishment and global elites "are at war with us — we have to fight. ".

Voter anger at political institutions remains sky-high — a dynamic that explains what appears, at first glance, to be nothing short of a political magic act: The billionaire son of a multimillionaire has become the voice for working-class Americans.

"His gift is that the average voter in Iowa, New Hampshire and state after state feels like he connects with them," said David Bossie, Mr. Trump's deputy campaign manager in 2016. "he's a blue-collar billionaire. ".

Both Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley have tried to weaken Mr. Trump's ties to his supporters without issuing many direct attacks on Mr. Trump. But the race to emerge as the Trump alternative is becoming increasingly urgent, with limited time for the candidates to cement that standing.

Image.

Nikki Haley, wearing a bright pink blazer, talks to a man holding a child in a rainbow color coat.

Ms. Haley talking with supporters at a Caucus Day stop at PB'S Pub in Newton, Iowa. Credit. Ruth Fremson / The New York Times.

Former Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Haley supporter, lamented that much of his party had become "sort of a cult" around Mr. Trump. He still considers himself a Republican, though, and views Mr. Trump as the interloper.

"I don't think Trump's a Republican," Mr. Gregg said. "he's a demagogue. ".

David Kochel, a longtime Iowa Republican operative opposed to Mr. Trump, said the former president's bond with his voters was unlikely to be replicated by other candidates. The party has become more populist and anti-establishment, but Mr. Trump's ability to capitalize on his celebrity status while harnessing the swirling mix of anger at elites, racial grievances and mounting distrust of political, judicial and international institutions was, for now, unique.

"he's a unicorn in our party," Mr. Kochel said. "Republicans have become more populist and anti-establishment, but that doesn't mean the party will nominate Majorie Taylor Greene or Jim Jordan next. There's no going back to the old party. ".

[EihTooms]

https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2024...-her-on-train/

Even without properly crediting Trump for spending 2018,2019 and all of 2020 laying the foundation for Trump's Pandemic and only crediting him with lying about it and handling it all wrong in critical year 2020, the studies show Trump is responsible for at least 40% of the American deaths from his Pandemic:

US could have averted 40% of Covid deaths, says panel examining Trump's policies.
The country began the pandemic with a degraded public health infrastructure, leading to more deaths than other high-income countries.
Feb. 11, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-health-policy

And I hear some of those 400,000 (at a MINIMUM) Americans that Trump has Mass Murdered so far lived in Chicago and sometimes rode trains.

[MarquisdeSade1]

"Are most Americans stupid about the economy?

Your link and all available evidence strongly suggests the answer is Yes.

"Mr. Biden inherited a tough hand: an economy upset by Covid and supply chain disruptions. ".

Hey, no kidding.

Trump's claim that Biden's remarkable Recovery is the result of "running on the fumes" of what he did is, of course, a preposterous lie. Trump's first couple of years was coasting on the fumes of what Obama-Biden handed him. He didn't even pass his one ineffectual economic legislation until the last working day of 2017. A year later that godawful legislation was presiding over fewer jobs with it than without it, skyrocketing increases in the deficit and a 20%+ Bear Market decline in the broad stock market.

By stark contrast, Biden and his Dems proposed and passed several pieces of historic and positive economic legislation beginning early in his first year and those were in the system and on the table throughout the Great Dem Recovery and Historic Jobs Creation.

Also, the same typically pro Repub Mainstream Media that allowed Larry Summers and others to muse blithely and idiotically about Biden and the Dems not nailing the precise amount of stimulus to the dime necessary to recover the world from Trump's Pandemic with zero assurance that the historic, unprecedented health and economic set backs from it were truly over and while all previous electoral midterm patterns strongly suggesting there would be one and only one year to get it done also allowed Trump to lie for every year since that his Pandemic was simply something that "happened out of the blue" to the poor feller when the verifiable facts show his Classic Disastrous Repub economic and national security policies and stewardship over three years contributed more to producing Trump's Pandemic than any other human being on the planet.

And, as a Classic Repub, Trump would lay the groundwork for and blunder us into the next Great, Unprecedented, "Once in 100 Years" Repub Economic Disaster again ASAP, early and often.

That said, bear in mind polls can only telling us what poll respondents "say" to pollsters about how they feel. They can not tell us how they really feel. Voting results tell us how they really feel. And on that count, since 2020 voters have been telling us they definitely trust and believe Biden and the Dems "handle the economy better" than Repubs.

If anything, the greatest political risk for Biden and the Dems in 2024 is that their economic recovery and jobs creation results were so good for so many Americans that they are now free to fall for the usual sucker social issues and empty, jingoistic clap trap that Repub con men have had to run on instead of their disastrous economic and national security results since at least Nixon. ".

[EihTooms]

Are most Americans stupid about the economy?

Your link and all available evidence strongly suggests the answer is Yes.

"Yes, what happened to "I alone can fix it"?

Trump Dreams of Economic Disaster.

Jan. 11,2024.

https://dnyuz.com/2024/01/11/trump-d...omic-disaster/".

Here's something to choke on beeches.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/o...s-economy.html

OPINION.

GUEST ESSAY.

What Trump Voters Understand About the Economy.

Jan. 15,2024, 5:01 am ET.

A wooden Trump sign made less legible by being weather-beaten.

Credit. Grant Hindsley for The New York Times.

Share full article.

By Roger Lowenstein.

Mr. Lowenstein is a journalist and the author of "Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War. ".

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Why is Donald Trump continuing to poll so strongly with voters?

As unpalatable as a second Trump term would be, many pundits who tackle this question have ignored a striking fact: The typical household's living standard improved during the three Trump years before the pandemic. Under President Biden, Americans have (at best) struggled to keep even with inflation.

Mr. Trump's huge personal negatives his meanspirited personality, his toadying to dictators and shunning of American allies, and his unpardonable effort to steal an election should more than offset his economic record. The old saw that Mussolini got the trains to run on time should not be understood as an endorsement.

But it is one thing to loathe Mr. Trump and hope for his defeat. It is another to wish away his successes or, as has become common, to ascribe his popularity to voter prejudices or weaknesses of character. The leitmotif in such arguments is that blue voters are rational political actors voting on merit while Trump is appealing primarily, if not exclusively, to irrational semi-citizens devoid of even self-interested calculation.

That might be. But it can't be ignored that they might also have experienced the pointed rise, after adjusting for inflation, in median household incomes how the typical family lives during the Trump years prior to the pandemic: 10.5 percent from 2016 to 2019. And inequality contracted noticeably. Thus, the 2020 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances on (roughly) the Trump era: "In grouping families by wealth, families at the top of the distribution experienced a sharp decline in average income (following particularly outsized gains over the 2010-16 period), whereas families in the lower and middle portions of the wealth distribution all saw modest gains. ".

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This is not to say that Mr. Trump's policies caused inequality to fall (a complicated question) or were responsible for most of the economy's improvement. While his tax cuts were a stimulant, his tariffs on imported steel, a signature policy, probably cost the country more jobs in manufacturing than it gained in steel, and at great expense to American consumers.

And modern economies are not puppets dancing to a president's string; they are susceptible to many influences beyond the control of one official, even those of an Oval Office bully. Moreover, Mr. Trump inherited a strong tailwind; real median household income rose by almost 12 percent during the second term of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Mr. Trump was fortunate.

But voters aren't economists. They often judge presidents on the basis of coincident economic performance. Jimmy Carter had to deal with serious inflation and George H. W. Bush endured a recession; each was voted out. Mr. Bush's successor, Bill Clinton, reaped the recovery; he got four more years.

Mr. Biden inherited a tough hand: an economy upset by Covid and supply chain disruptions. Yet he presided over a return to growth and dodged a much-predicted recession (touch wood). Jobs came roaring back. Early last year, unemployment dipped below the prepandemic low of 3. 5 percent under Mr. Trump, and it remains a still-impressive 3. 7 percent.

Wage inequality is also contracting under Mr. Biden. I would argue that voters care less about inequality than pundits do. What they care most about is whether they are doing better.

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And this is where Mr. Biden has fallen short. Inflation has snatched away the gains from even a very strong labor market. Over Mr. Biden's first two years, as price hikes outran wages, real median household income fell 2. 7 percent. The census has yet to report median income for 2023, but given that real wages were up about 1 percent through November, the cumulative change in household median income, adjusted for inflation, over Mr. Biden's first three years is likely to be in the range of mildly negative to very mildly positive. In other words, in the all-important category of improving living standards, the country did not make progress.

This shows that jobs and output, while very important, are not the only economic indicators that matter. Inflation matters, too because high inflation taxes away prosperity. This is one area in which I think the president along with the Federal Reserve does bear some responsibility. He was warned by voices within his own party notably, Larry Summers that his first budget package, enacted nearly a year after the Covid recession had ended, was too big relative to the need. He went ahead and inflation in 2022 soared to 8 percent, a 40-year high.

While Mr. Biden is still a big deficit spender, the Fed has brought inflation down by more than half. Economic growth in the remainder of Mr. Biden's term may well contribute to rising living standards. I hope voters judge him on this improving picture. And I hope they take noneconomic factors into account, including Mr. Trump's continued refusal to acknowledge his defeat in 2020, which has poisoned the public square and eroded the civic fabric supporting the country's democracy. In a phrase, Mr. Trump is unfit for office.

That does not mean we should shrink from honestly assessing performance, including economic performance, under Mr. Trump as well as under Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump is so off-putting, many find it hard to evaluate him rationally, as we would anyone else. But it is right to do so, and we learn from having our eyes wide, not shut. And something Democrats should have learned by now condescending to Trump voters will not win many of them over.

"Mr. Biden inherited a tough hand: an economy upset by Covid and supply chain disruptions. ".

Hey, no kidding.

Trump's claim that Biden's remarkable Recovery is the result of "running on the fumes" of what he did is, of course, a preposterous lie. Trump's first couple of years was coasting on the fumes of what Obama-Biden handed him. He didn't even pass his one ineffectual economic legislation until the last working day of 2017. A year later that godawful legislation was presiding over fewer jobs with it than without it, skyrocketing increases in the deficit and a 20%+ Bear Market decline in the broad stock market.

By stark contrast, Biden and his Dems proposed and passed several pieces of historic and positive economic legislation beginning early in his first year and those were in the system and on the table throughout the Great Dem Recovery and Historic Jobs Creation.

Also, the same typically pro Repub Mainstream Media that allowed Larry Summers and others to muse blithely and idiotically about Biden and the Dems not nailing the precise amount of stimulus to the dime necessary to recover the world from Trump's Pandemic with zero assurance that the historic, unprecedented health and economic set backs from it were truly over and while all previous electoral midterm patterns strongly suggesting there would be one and only one year to get it done also allowed Trump to lie for every year since that his Pandemic was simply something that "happened out of the blue" to the poor feller when the verifiable facts show his Classic Disastrous Repub economic and national security policies and stewardship over three years contributed more to producing Trump's Pandemic than any other human being on the planet.

And, as a Classic Repub, Trump would lay the groundwork for and blunder us into the next Great, Unprecedented, "Once in 100 Years" Repub Economic Disaster again ASAP, early and often.

That said, bear in mind polls can only telling us what poll respondents "say" to pollsters about how they feel. They can not tell us how they really feel. Voting results tell us how they really feel. And on that count, since 2020 voters have been telling us they definitely trust and believe Biden and the Dems "handle the economy better" than Repubs.

If anything, the greatest political risk for Biden and the Dems in 2024 is that their economic recovery and jobs creation results were so good for so many Americans that they are now free to fall for the usual sucker social issues and empty, jingoistic clap trap that Repub con men have had to run on instead of their disastrous economic and national security results since at least Nixon.

[MarquisdeSade1]

They cheated in 2020 now they figure they can't cover the differential this time.

So Scumbag Joe is planning to stay even after losing a 2nd time even if he has to use the Pentagon to protect him.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...-if-reelected/

Who is a threat to democracy?

No surprise Zuckerturd built that bunker.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/...ground-bunker/

[MarquisdeSade1]

https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2024...-her-on-train/

[MarquisdeSade1]

"Yes, what happened to "I alone can fix it"?

Trump Dreams of Economic Disaster.

Jan. 11,2024.

https://dnyuz.com/2024/01/11/trump-d...omic-disaster/".

Here's something to choke on beeches.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/o...s-economy.html

OPINION.

GUEST ESSAY.

What Trump Voters Understand About the Economy.

Jan. 15,2024, 5:01 am ET.

A wooden Trump sign made less legible by being weather-beaten.

Credit. Grant Hindsley for The New York Times.

Share full article.

By Roger Lowenstein.

Mr. Lowenstein is a journalist and the author of "Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War. ".

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

Why is Donald Trump continuing to poll so strongly with voters?

As unpalatable as a second Trump term would be, many pundits who tackle this question have ignored a striking fact: The typical household's living standard improved during the three Trump years before the pandemic. Under President Biden, Americans have (at best) struggled to keep even with inflation.

Mr. Trump's huge personal negatives — his meanspirited personality, his toadying to dictators and shunning of American allies, and his unpardonable effort to steal an election — should more than offset his economic record. The old saw that Mussolini got the trains to run on time should not be understood as an endorsement.

But it is one thing to loathe Mr. Trump and hope for his defeat. It is another to wish away his successes or, as has become common, to ascribe his popularity to voter prejudices or weaknesses of character. The leitmotif in such arguments is that blue voters are rational political actors voting on merit while Trump is appealing primarily, if not exclusively, to irrational semi-citizens devoid of even self-interested calculation.

That might be. But it can't be ignored that they might also have experienced the pointed rise, after adjusting for inflation, in median household incomes — how the typical family lives — during the Trump years prior to the pandemic: 10.5 percent from 2016 to 2019. And inequality contracted noticeably. Thus, the 2020 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances on (roughly) the Trump era: "In grouping families by wealth, families at the top of the distribution experienced a sharp decline in average income (following particularly outsized gains over the 2010-16 period), whereas families in the lower and middle portions of the wealth distribution all saw modest gains. ".

ADVERTISEMENT.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT.

This is not to say that Mr. Trump's policies caused inequality to fall (a complicated question) or were responsible for most of the economy's improvement. While his tax cuts were a stimulant, his tariffs on imported steel, a signature policy, probably cost the country more jobs in manufacturing than it gained in steel, and at great expense to American consumers.

And modern economies are not puppets dancing to a president's string; they are susceptible to many influences beyond the control of one official, even those of an Oval Office bully. Moreover, Mr. Trump inherited a strong tailwind; real median household income rose by almost 12 percent during the second term of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Mr. Trump was fortunate.

But voters aren't economists. They often judge presidents on the basis of coincident economic performance. Jimmy Carter had to deal with serious inflation and George H. W. Bush endured a recession; each was voted out. Mr. Bush's successor, Bill Clinton, reaped the recovery; he got four more years.

Mr. Biden inherited a tough hand: an economy upset by Covid and supply chain disruptions. Yet he presided over a return to growth and dodged a much-predicted recession (touch wood). Jobs came roaring back. Early last year, unemployment dipped below the prepandemic low of 3. 5 percent under Mr. Trump, and it remains a still-impressive 3. 7 percent.

Wage inequality is also contracting under Mr. Biden. I would argue that voters care less about inequality than pundits do. What they care most about is whether they are doing better.

Editors' Picks.

How to Win More Games Than Anyone.

How Well Do You Know Paris and Its Literary Landmarks?

Voices of Peaceful Protest.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT.

ADVERTISEMENT.

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT.

And this is where Mr. Biden has fallen short. Inflation has snatched away the gains from even a very strong labor market. Over Mr. Biden's first two years, as price hikes outran wages, real median household income fell 2. 7 percent. The census has yet to report median income for 2023, but given that real wages were up about 1 percent through November, the cumulative change in household median income, adjusted for inflation, over Mr. Biden's first three years is likely to be in the range of mildly negative to very mildly positive. In other words, in the all-important category of improving living standards, the country did not make progress.

This shows that jobs and output, while very important, are not the only economic indicators that matter. Inflation matters, too — because high inflation taxes away prosperity. This is one area in which I think the president — along with the Federal Reserve — does bear some responsibility. He was warned by voices within his own party — notably, Larry Summers — that his first budget package, enacted nearly a year after the Covid recession had ended, was too big relative to the need. He went ahead and inflation in 2022 soared to 8 percent, a 40-year high.

While Mr. Biden is still a big deficit spender, the Fed has brought inflation down by more than half. Economic growth in the remainder of Mr. Biden's term may well contribute to rising living standards. I hope voters judge him on this improving picture. And I hope they take noneconomic factors into account, including Mr. Trump's continued refusal to acknowledge his defeat in 2020, which has poisoned the public square and eroded the civic fabric supporting the country's democracy. In a phrase, Mr. Trump is unfit for office.

That does not mean we should shrink from honestly assessing performance, including economic performance, under Mr. Trump as well as under Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump is so off-putting, many find it hard to evaluate him rationally, as we would anyone else. But it is right to do so, and we learn from having our eyes wide, not shut. And — something Democrats should have learned by now — condescending to Trump voters will not win many of them over.

[Spidy]

WARNING: Incels, take out your tinfoil hats and protect yourselves!

3. Taylor Swift vs. Far-right QAnon/MAGA Repubs

How Taylor Swift, has sent the QAnon/MAGA far-right Repubs in a mind dizzying frenzy, to the point where, the far-right QAnon\MAGA conspiracists, have crawled from under their rocks, to accuse, the newest billionaire popstar artist, of election interference, unsavory alliances with the Soros family and god knows what other nutjob conspiracies they can think up.

How rich that is, coming from the violent, coup plotting, election denying insurrectionists, themselves? (...kkkk!)

A Taylor Swift Instagram post helped drive a surge in voter registration
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/12011...r-registration

It's just like the Repubs, not wanting Americas to get out and exercise their right to vote. Because we all know, when Americans get out and vote, especially in large numbers....Repubs LOSE!!! BIG TIME!!!

4. Taylor Swift Person of the Year vs. Far-right Losers of the Year

Taylor Swift is Time's person of the year and the far right is big mad about it
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...g-mad-about-it

Taylor Swift is Time Magazines person of the year, a choice that makes perfect sense. Swifts Eras Tour is on track to break global records for tour earnings. A concert film also smashed records for that genre and provided the AMC movie theater chain with its highest single-day ticket sales ever. ...

Prominent far-right influencers are very unhappy ... Has @taylorswift13 made a deal with George Soros and Alex Soros to get the rights to her music back in exchange for getting Zoomers registered to vote Democrat against President Trump ahead of the 2024 Presidential election?
. . .

Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec also weighed in. The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated. ...

How Taylor Swift sent the far right into a tailspin
https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldi...n-199902277638
https://news.yahoo.com/taylor-swift-...032229990.html

To conclude, I think Rolling Stone said it best, "Taylor Swifts Time Cover Is Breaking Far-Right Brains". The megastar's success is once again throwing right wingers into a conspiracy theory frenzy"

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...es-1234918882/

Hard to imagine Incels, will ever be the same after reading this! (...kkkk!)

[Spidy]

WARNING: Content posted below may cause Incels' brains and heads to explode and/or Incels may also experience, shriveled up dicks or erectile dysfunction, should they read on further... Don't say I didn't warn you Incels...you know, who you are! (...kkkk!)

1. Taylor Swift vs. The Incel/"He-Man" Haters Club

--- Taylor Swift named Time magazines person of the year ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style...n-of-the-year/

Bloomberg reports, Taylor Swift, is busting all kinds of touring records. Her Eras tour will become the greatest grossing tour of all-time (surpassing the Rolling Stones and Madonna). Her Eras tour (and Beyonce's Renaissance tour) have generated $6-8 billions of dollars to the US economy. And lets not forget about the "Beyonc 'Economic' Bump", that infuses billions in to the local economies of the cities she tours.

Incel dick shriveling 'Fun Fact':

• Taylor Swift, money generating prowess, is so great, World leaders around the globe, are begging Taylor Swift, for a tour stop.

Bloomberg, NPR dubs 2023, the "Economic Year of the women".
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/video...-in-2023-video

From Swiftie beads and Barbie to Beyonc, girls ran the world economy in 2023
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/27/12214...ce-barbie-2023

2. 2023 The Economic Year of the Woman

Taylor Swift, Janet Yellen and Barbie: The Year of the (Economic) Woman
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...conomic-woman/

From Swift, Beyonce, Barbie to Janet Yellen - The year of women as economic powerhouses, sees women spending tons of disposable income, as become a tour de force. According to a recent April 2023 consumer study, 78% of women identify as the primary shopper of their household.

Well hardly the "economy running on fumes", the Repub front runner for the Repub leadership, is crowing about, or the "recession in the next 12 month", he want to see either. I just love the irony of it all, where women, after women, after women, just seem to be the nail in his proverbial coffin. R.I.P.!!

[EihTooms]

Yes, what happened to "I alone can fix it"?

Trump Dreams of Economic Disaster.
Jan. 11, 2024

https://dnyuz.com/2024/01/11/trump-d...omic-disaster/

Did Donald Trump just say that he's hoping for an economic crash? Not exactly. But what he did say was arguably even worse, especially once you put it in context.

And Trump's evident panic over recent good economic news deepens what is, for me, the biggest conundrum of American politics: Why have so many people joined and stayed in a personality cult built around a man who poses an existential threat to our nation's democracy and is also personally a complete blowhard?

So what did Trump actually say on Monday? Strictly speaking, he didn't call for a crash, he predicted one, positing that the economy is running on "fumes" and that he hopes the inevitable crash will happen this year, "because I don't want to be Herbert Hoover. ".

If you think about it, this isn't at all what a man who believes himself to be a brilliant economic manager and supposedly cares about the nation's welfare should say. What he should have said instead is something like this: My opponent's policies have set us on the path to disaster, but I hope the disaster doesn't come until I'm in office because I don't want the American people to suffer unnecessarily, and, because I'm a very stable genius, I alone can fix it.

But no, Trump says he wants the disaster to happen on someone else's watch, specifically and openly so that he won't have to bear the responsibility.

Speaking of which, when did Trump start predicting economic disaster under President Biden? The answer is before the 2020 election. In October 2020, for example, he asserted that a Biden win would "unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions. ".

Now, everyone who makes economic predictions gets some of them wrong. I personally predicted a recession if Trump won in 2016, partly because markets seemed to believe that a Trump victory would be bad for the economy. But I retracted that call just three days after the election, acknowledging that I had briefly succumbed to motivated reasoning.

Trump, by contrast, has been predicting disaster under Biden for more than three years, without ever admitting that his predictions haven't come true. What we've gotten from Trump instead is a series of desperate false claims about the state of the economy. No, the price of bacon isn't "up five times" under Biden.

Some of these false claims fall into the category of: Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes? Last month, for example, Trump declared that gas costs "$5, $6, $7 and even $8 a gallon," when there are big signs all around the country advertising gas prices a bit over $3.

Maybe he doesn't get out much.

What Trump surely does do, though, is watch a lot of TV, which means that he's aware that the stock market has gone up a lot lately. This clearly troubles him. Indeed, he's apparently so rattled by stock gains under Biden that in a recent speech he managed both to dismiss those gains as irrelevant just "making rich people richer" and to claim credit for them: "The stock market is good because a lot of people think we're going to win the election. ".

If this sounds ridiculous, that's because it is. Here we have a guy who spent much of his time in office bragging about a rising stock market suddenly declaring that stock gains are bad when someone else is in power, while insisting that he deserves credit for good things (or are they bad things?) that happen when he isn't even running the country.

Does this matter? Trump may want an economic crash, but he doesn't have any tools I'm aware of that could produce one. But as I wrote the other day, there's a risk that pressure from Trump and his allies will lead the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates too high for too long.

Practical concerns aside, however, Trump's flailing on the economy and the stock market deepens the mystery of his political appeal.

I hate saying this, but I do understand why millions of people are drawn to Trump's dictatorial ambitions, his encouragement of violence, his declarations that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country. " The sad truth is that there have always been many Americans who fundamentally don't believe in America's democratic ideals.

But I find it puzzling that Trump doesn't pay more of a political price for his boasting, whining and transparently self-serving lies.

MAGA types tend to idealize the 1950's, largely based on a delusional image of what life was really like at the time. It was especially terrible if you weren't a white male, but things could be pretty bad even if you were. One thing the '50's did have, however, was an image of how men were supposed to behave, one that emphasized stoicism, honesty and a willingness to take responsibility for one's actions what my parents would have called being a mensch.

Trump is as far from being a mensch as is humanly possible. Yet his supporters either don't see that or don't care, which seems to me to be a bigger departure from traditional values than all the wokeness in the world.

[EihTooms]

As I easily predicted here when the Repub Douche Getting Smaller and Smaller All The Time Pink Tinkle took control of the House thanks to their unprecedented efforts to cheat and rig elections in their favor in at least 41 states, their nearly sole focus for their term will be to gaze upon, drool over and share among their Repub base nude photos of Hunter Biden while setting about Impeaching President Hunter Biden.

It would not be about reducing Inflation and Crime in America. Joe Biden has already accomplished that.

And it would not be about controlling the border and reforming Immigration Policy, which is by far more the responsibility of Congress than the POTUS.

Nope. This is what it will be all about this Repub Pink Tinkle Congressional Term. Lolol:

MTG (Repub Marjorie Taylor Greene) Shows Hunter Bidens Nudes on Capitol Hill
Again

https://news.yahoo.com/mtg-shows-hun...221404743.html

[EihTooms]

The Toomsian pretzel brain is now becoming much clearer. Laws are for Republicans and they can break them and go to jail. Democrats or in this case illegal aliens expected to vote Democrat cannot break any law. It is perfectly legal for anyone from any country to cross over the border from Mexico, even people from Africa and Asia.

If you have a Democratic douche brain, you can be against racism and racist against white people. You can be a soy boy like Spidy and be against sexism while being sexist versus men.

And anyone including Elon Musk, whose brain you could not hold a candle to Tooms, who criticizes Democrats when they exhibit this illogical pattern is an idiot.

Rule #1 is the Democratic party is always right. Rule #2 is if the Democratic party is wrong, see rule #1.

This is right out of Orwell and Animal Farm.

LOL. And the leaders of oil companies were hypercritical of Biden for their not producing more early in the administration. At this point, the oil producers just tuned Biden out and said fuck it and went ahead and started drilling. And lo and behold, look at this wonderful result.

If Biden were so damn pro drilling, why the fuck was he draining the SPR early in his presidency? The guy was so desperate to get oil he was schmoozing up to Iran, Venezuela, and then tried the Saudis who blew him off. The guy has been the biggest anti fossil fuel and global warming cuck the oval office has ever seen.

Joe Rogan had a guest on his program from Alaska, and he was like if we did not spend so much money on Ukraine, we could have used said money to secure the border and had both a gas and water pipeline from Alaska to California with change to spare.

All the gains the USA has made on carbon emissions have been due to the change from coal to natural gas for electricity.

Having been to Alaska, I saw the whole state was practically drenched in fresh water. All this talk about Lake Mead and the Colorado river drying up, and it could be solved with a water pipeline from Alaska? LOL. No, the Democratic douche logic is we want to use the Ukraine war to oust Putin since he cost us the 2016 election.

If you are a Democratic douche, you care more about getting Putin than water and safe, cheap, and clean electricity. SMH. Only good part about all this might be seeing those Democratic douche Californians dying of thirst.

1. Repub Douche Trump could not prevent migrants claiming refugee status from crossing the border and providing their Constitutionally-mandated due process to have it investigated and then approved or denied without violating the USA Constitution and, BTW, a recent Repub Douche Supreme Court ruling, any more than Biden has.

Those hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the border lately are not crossing "illegally. " Which means Trump just confirmed he would do nothing different about them than Biden is doing.

Please explain that to Elon Musk. I have time to shoot off these posts every now and then. And it's fun. But there is not enough time in one life to explain these simple concepts to numbskulls like Elon Musk. Have at it.

2. The USA is producing more oil under Biden than was produced under Trump.

Oh, and I see the average price of a gallon of regular gas dropped even lower since my post yesterday.

And all without Joe Biden becoming a dictator for even 1 minute much less a day.

And without Dem Biden producing the usual Great Repub Crash or Great Repub Depression or Great Repub Recession or Great Repub Massive Jobs Destruction that is the usual way Repub Douches lower the price of gas, the value of your home, the value of your investments, lower wages, wipe out millions upon millions of jobs and, so impressive, lower Inflation.

[Elvis 2008]

In keeping with the classic Republican move since forever, Repub Trump's 2 big campaign promises are things Dem Biden has already shouldered all the heavy lifting and assumed all the political risk to accomplish.

1. Illegal border crossings are already way down under Biden. Despite confusion about it in numbskull minds like that of Elon Musk, the high migrant crossings occurring now are not "illegal" until and unless their claim of refugee status is investigated and denied.

The Toomsian pretzel brain is now becoming much clearer. Laws are for Republicans and they can break them and go to jail. Democrats or in this case illegal aliens expected to vote Democrat cannot break any law. It is perfectly legal for anyone from any country to cross over the border from Mexico, even people from Africa and Asia.

If you have a Democratic douche brain, you can be against racism and racist against white people. You can be a soy boy like Spidy and be against sexism while being sexist versus men.

And anyone including Elon Musk, whose brain you could not hold a candle to Tooms, who criticizes Democrats when they exhibit this illogical pattern is an idiot.

Rule #1 is the Democratic party is always right. Rule #2 is if the Democratic party is wrong, see rule #1.

This is right out of Orwell and Animal Farm.

The United States is producing more oil than any country in history.

LOL. And the leaders of oil companies were hypercritical of Biden for their not producing more early in the administration. At this point, the oil producers just tuned Biden out and said fuck it and went ahead and started drilling. And lo and behold, look at this wonderful result.

If Biden were so damn pro drilling, why the fuck was he draining the SPR early in his presidency? The guy was so desperate to get oil he was schmoozing up to Iran, Venezuela, and then tried the Saudis who blew him off. The guy has been the biggest anti fossil fuel and global warming cuck the oval office has ever seen.

Joe Rogan had a guest on his program from Alaska, and he was like if we did not spend so much money on Ukraine, we could have used said money to secure the border and had both a gas and water pipeline from Alaska to California with change to spare.

All the gains the USA has made on carbon emissions have been due to the change from coal to natural gas for electricity.

Having been to Alaska, I saw the whole state was practically drenched in fresh water. All this talk about Lake Mead and the Colorado river drying up, and it could be solved with a water pipeline from Alaska? LOL. No, the Democratic douche logic is we want to use the Ukraine war to oust Putin since he cost us the 2016 election.

If you are a Democratic douche, you care more about getting Putin than water and safe, cheap, and clean electricity. SMH. Only good part about all this might be seeing those Democratic douche Californians dying of thirst.

[Spidy]

Speaking of political career meltdowns, here is a funny excerpt from Rick Wilson (Lincoln Project).

• He first tell us that, "Kevin McCarthy made an announcement on social media somewhere and says he gonna join/work with Silicon Valley and help craft A.I. Regulation/Legislation"
  
  He then laughingly goes on to say, "Oh God!...Skynet and the T1 [and Judgment Day T2's] Terminators may as well just show up NOW, and kill us all." (...kkkk!)

Yeah, just what the world needs, "a Kevin McCarthy", taking their Republican "Frankenstein politics" to the world of AI...'"God help us indeed!!!"

[Spidy]

For Florida Repubs and Ron DeSantis, all is not well as of late. So could a DeSantis/Repub Florida meltdown be coming?

What with DeSantis' 2024 presidential campaign run being a huge flop, having been in a downward trajectory since its inception having been on equal footing with Trump, financial backing drying up and now finds itself last, in some polls running behind Nikki Haley (who according to Vivek Ramaswamy, is "Dick Cheney in 3-Inch Heels"). Is his political career is on the ropes?

But hey, I'm not one to believe in polling numbers so he may very well "a punchers chance". But with Haley nipping at his heels and being down 50+ points to the original "OG grifter" front runner, is this really just the least of DeSantis's problems?

With his lack of attention to the state, weak governorship and mounting problems everyday Floridians are facing at home, while he tries to prop up a brutally failing campaign, it has not gone unnoticed by Floridians.

Followed by recent Florida RNC Chairman, Zielger's sexual assault, rape allegations and LGBTQ 3-threesomes with wife Bridget Ziegler, has only inflamed and underscored the hypocrisy of their "Christian family values", "war on woke", "war on Don't Say Gay" bills and anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Now it should be said, that while Ron DeSantis had hand picked Christian and Bridget Ziegler (two buffoons for public positions they have no business holding) and it is relevant that Bridget is (or was) "bestees" with Casy DeSantis. Again calling into question his due diligence when "hiring" , the "qualifications" of his appointments and thus his governorship.

Although it's refreshing to see the MSM haven't yet maligned, disparaged and accused the DeSantis', of also engaging in LGBTQ 3-threesome, by just being the Zielger's "friends and bestees adjacent", unlike what the MAGA Repubs are doing with Hunter Biden and his father.

DeSantis Lobs Most Forceful Attacks Yet Against Trump, Days Before Iowa Caucuses
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/u...town-hall.html

But the die is cast and the spectre of Zielger's LGBTQ hypocrisy and political fallout for Desantis will loom like a dark cloud over his campaign, despite any last minute feeble heroics, to "lash out" at Trump", during the bogus Fox News Channel town hall.