American Politics

[Tiny 12]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...cret-103233093

What do you think is up with that Marquis?

On a separate note, I guess we're going to have to start digging up links from Crooks and Liars to support our posts. Tooms doesn't trust the New York Times, it's too right wing.

[MarquisdeSade1]

I guess Crooks and Liars must unqualifiedly and consistently support the Progressive line while the New York Times doesn't always do that. Well good for the NYT. While their news articles are somewhat biased towards your side, at least more so than the WSJ, at least they occasionally try to be objective. ".

For their mega agenda.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023...ut-of-the-way/

[MarquisdeSade1]

"That's sad, that he had to spend 5,000 a day on security for his family.

It's somewhat reminiscent of Ray Epp's situation. Epps was a strong supporter of Trump, and a regional leader of the Oath Keepers. Because of a false conspiracy theory spread by Revolver and Tucker Carlson, that he was some kind of federal agent, he had to sell his business and house in Arizona and go into semi hiding somewhere in the Rockies. Epps says the government is going to soon charge him for encouraging people to peacefully trespass on Capitol grounds on January 6. That may actually help him. Maybe it will cause his potential persecutors to realize he wasn't a government agent.

Epps actually may be the reason Fox fired Carlson. It didn't help them though. Epps has since sued Fox for fucking up his life.

I'm not sure you can blame all of this on Trump though. A very small minority of his more ardent supporters would take things too far. ".

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...cret-103233093".

https://www.businessinsider.com/chec...ng-down-2011-8

$5000 shouldn't be nearly enough!!

[Tiny 12]

I would no more contribute money to typically pro-Repub Mainstream Media than to outright direct Repub Media like Fux News, Newsmax and Breitbart. LOL.

Maybe we can get Marquis to copy and paste this NYT article that somehow got past its pro-Repub panel of editors. Or, like most MSM, they are simply imparting warnings and pointers to help their Repub darlings improve their game. I suppose you can copy and paste it too.

Trump's Electoral College Edge Seems To Be Fading

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/u...rump-2024.html

I guess Crooks and Liars must unqualifiedly and consistently support the Progressive line while the New York Times doesn't always do that. Well good for the NYT. While their news articles are somewhat biased towards your side, at least more so than the WSJ, at least they occasionally try to be objective.

[Tiny 12]

Clearly, it is a rigged system that favors Repubs. Rigged FOR them today, not by them in the beginning. Although in the beginning it was rigged to favor land masses and land owners over human beings.

So, in that sense, it was preordained to be rigged FOR Repub Red States that even today have more tumble weeds, rattle snakes and outhouses than human beings, tax payers and skyscrapers. Compared to a huge, popular and economically critical state like California, both Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc etc combined should have nothing rigged in their favor to in any way inch them toward as much national election influence as California.

However, that is what the EC system does for their benefit in terms of presidential election outcomes. Certainly not for their benefit or the benefit of the country at large in terms of the economy, national security, health, wellbeing, democracy or American values.

Baloney. You just posted a link purporting to show that neither party has an unfair edge in the electoral college. The Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc. are assigned electoral votes in proportion to their populations, just like California. Trump's margin in Wyoming and North Dakota was higher than Biden's in California, and Trump's margin in South Dakota was only slightly smaller.

Trump's EC win in 2016 was a fluke. After Rutherford B. Hayes, who was selected president in a grand bargain so that Union troops would leave the south, there's been no election where a candidate lost the popular vote by more than 1% and won the electoral vote, up until 2016. And if I understand your link, this is no longer likely to happen.

This is the United STATES of America. That's probably the reason the founders came up with the electoral college. And it's a good thing that we are the United STATES. If Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Elizabeth Warren et al fully imposed their agendas on states like Wyoming and North Dakota, there just might be open rebellion.

[MarquisdeSade1]

"That's sad, that he had to spend 5,000 a day on security for his family.

It's somewhat reminiscent of Ray Epp's situation. Epps was a strong supporter of Trump, and a regional leader of the Oath Keepers. Because of a false conspiracy theory spread by Revolver and Tucker Carlson, that he was some kind of federal agent, he had to sell his business and house in Arizona and go into semi hiding somewhere in the Rockies. Epps says the government is going to soon charge him for encouraging people to peacefully trespass on Capitol grounds on January 6. That may actually help him. Maybe it will cause his potential persecutors to realize he wasn't a government agent.

Epps actually may be the reason Fox fired Carlson. It didn't help them though. Epps has since sued Fox for fucking up his life.

I'm not sure you can blame all of this on Trump though. A very small minority of his more ardent supporters would take things too far."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...cret-103233093

[MarquisdeSade1]

"When do I point out so many spelling errors?

Uh. The two worst presidents of all time, both Repubs, both incalculable scourges on America and Americans, just within the past 23 years were installed in the White House despite losing the vote by Millions solely because there is such a thing as the Electoral College system. Well, that and that the majority in the Supreme Court was Repub too one of those times.

Clearly, it is a rigged system that favors Repubs. Rigged FOR them today, not by them in the beginning. Although in the beginning it was rigged to favor land masses and land owners over human beings.

So, in that sense, it was preordained to be rigged for Repub Red States that even today have more tumble weeds, rattle snakes and outhouses than human beings, tax payers and skyscrapers. Compared to a huge, popular and economically critical state like California, both Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc etc combined should have nothing rigged in their favor to in any way inch them toward as much national election influence as California.

However, that is what the EC system does for their benefit in terms of presidential election outcomes. Certainly not for their benefit or the benefit of the country at large in terms of the economy, national security, health, wellbeing, democracy or American values."

The 'rig' that means "to manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means" first appeared in an 18th century slang dictionary with the definition "game, diversion, ridicule. See 'fun'."

[Tiny 12]

Did the orange devil spawn, really get "street creed" with his new found mug shot?

According to Mitt and other Repub congressmen and women who would have voted to impeach the tyrannical insurrectionist 4x indicted ex-president, feared for their very lives, from the QAnon/MAGA right-wing lunatic fringe.

The orange devil, as most of us already knew, was thuggin', mobbin' and threatin' and was acting like a mob boss from the jump. These Repub congresspersons and "Never Trumpers" say, if it were not for the death threats on their own lives, their children and their families lives, they'd have impeached the devil.

So getting "primaried" by the vindictive little orange devil, I imagine, was the least of Mitt's problems, as the dude was doling and shelling out a whooping $5K a day, to protect himself and his family, with private security, since the J6 riot.

99 Problems, but Mitt getting "primaried" ain't one...as Sen. Romney, reveals all, as he announces and prepares for retirement.

Repubs...thuggin' R us?

That's sad, that he had to spend 5,000 a day on security for his family.

It's somewhat reminiscent of Ray Epp's situation. Epps was a strong supporter of Trump, and a regional leader of the Oath Keepers. Because of a false conspiracy theory spread by Revolver and Tucker Carlson, that he was some kind of federal agent, he had to sell his business and house in Arizona and go into semi hiding somewhere in the Rockies. Epps says the government is going to soon charge him for encouraging people to peacefully trespass on Capitol grounds on January 6. That may actually help him. Maybe it will cause his potential persecutors to realize he wasnt a government agent.

Epps actually may be the reason Fox fired Carlson. It didnt help them though. Epps has since sued Fox for fucking up his life.

Im not sure you can blame all of this on Trump though. A very small minority of his more ardent supporters would take things too far.

[Spidy]

Did the orange devil spawn, really get "street creed" with his new found mug shot?

According to Mitt and other Repub congressmen and women who would have voted to impeach the tyrannical insurrectionist 4x indicted ex-president, feared for their very lives, from the QAnon/MAGA right-wing lunatic fringe.

The orange devil, as most of us already knew, was thuggin', mobbin' and threatin' and was acting like a mob boss from the jump. These Repub congresspersons and "Never Trumpers" say, if it were not for the death threats on their own lives, their children and their families lives, they'd have impeached the devil.

So getting "primaried" by the vindictive little orange devil, I imagine, was the least of Mitt's problems, as the dude was doling and shelling out a whooping $5K a day, to protect himself and his family, with private security, since the J6 riot.

99 Problems, but Mitt getting "primaried" ain't one...as Sen. Romney, reveals all, as he announces and prepares for retirement.

Repubs...thuggin' R us?

[EihTooms]

In a 4 minute video, she does a brilliant job of underscoring the damaging effects of typical pro-Repub Bothsiderism in Mainstream Media:

Dear Media, Do Your Job!
Remember when the media used to actually report the news?

https://crooksandliars.com/2023/09/d...ia-do-your-job

One of my favorite quotes regarding journalism is from Sally Claire who said, "If someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true."

[EihTooms]

"Please don't work too hard to help Marquis come to the realization that his and your Party's support for his lord and savior has contributed mightily to it losing, losing, losing and losing since his infamous ride down that escalator.

Losing the vote in 2016, but snatched from total defeat only by the Repub-rigged EC system.

Losing the House.

Losing the Senate.

Rightfully losing the WH vote and the Repub-rigged EC system in 2020.

Lose another Senate seat in 2020.

Losing practically every special election along the way.

Losing even the middling average number of House seats in their WH opposition's first midterm, squeaking out a pathetic Pink Tinkle instead and perjaps only that much because several districts were redrawn by Repub governors whose creative Repub magic marker redrawing penmanship has since been spanked by federal judges.

I would add Losing at least a million Americans, millions upon millions of jobs due to his typically atrocious Repub economic and national security stewardship as well as an unlimited number of Trillions added to the deficit going forward until his one and only economic legislation is repealed or dramatically altered. But I'm not sure the usual virulent Repub / Trumpster would even see those as "losses" of any real significance compared to those Losses in Power / Elections.

But the much bigger Losing problem for your and Marquis' Party is that Trump is not the Loser that in some curious way changed the Repub Party into the Losing Party it has become lately. He did not change the Repub Party at all. He only REVEALED the Repub Party.

It could never have found a better representative of everything it values and has stood for over at least the past 100 years than Donald J. Trump. He knew it was a match made in Loser heaven. That's why he joined that Party. He knew it was calling on someone like him.

If Trump was justifiably dragged off in handcuffs and leg irons to the penetentiary to serve the rest of his life in solitary confinement for his crimes against America, the Repub Party would simply replace him with the Trumpiest clone on the scene.

Their voters would demand nothing less. ".

So much nonsense even for you Bangkok Bob.

Lets just address.

Repub-rigged EC system? WTF?

So the US Constitution was rigged by the GOP? LMAO.

Post script someone that points out others spelling errors no matter how minor.

Should not make so many errors?

Let me guess you went to public schools in California LMAO.

When do I point out so many spelling errors?

Uh. The two worst presidents of all time, both Repubs, both incalculable scourges on America and Americans, just within the past 23 years were installed in the White House despite losing the vote by Millions solely because there is such a thing as the Electoral College system. Well, that and that the majority in the Supreme Court was Repub too one of those times.

Clearly, it is a rigged system that favors Repubs. Rigged FOR them today, not by them in the beginning. Although in the beginning it was rigged to favor land masses and land owners over human beings.

So, in that sense, it was preordained to be rigged FOR Repub Red States that even today have more tumble weeds, rattle snakes and outhouses than human beings, tax payers and skyscrapers. Compared to a huge, popular and economically critical state like California, both Dakotas, Wyoming, Kansas, etc etc combined should have nothing rigged in their favor to in any way inch them toward as much national election influence as California.

However, that is what the EC system does for their benefit in terms of presidential election outcomes. Certainly not for their benefit or the benefit of the country at large in terms of the economy, national security, health, wellbeing, democracy or American values.

[EihTooms]

Hey Tooms, you need to subscribe to the New York Times like the Marquis and I do, so you can read all the dirt on Biden.

I would no more contribute money to typically pro-Repub Mainstream Media than to outright direct Repub Media like Fux News, Newsmax and Breitbart. LOL.

Maybe we can get Marquis to copy and paste this NYT article that somehow got past its pro-Repub panel of editors. Or, like most MSM, they are simply imparting warnings and pointers to help their Repub darlings improve their game. I suppose you can copy and paste it too.

Trump's Electoral College Edge Seems To Be Fading

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/u...rump-2024.html

[EihTooms]

My comments about Volcker, Miller and Powell were tongue in cheek. In fact I believe the Volcker led Fed did a good job. It slayed the inflation beast. You however are stone cold serious, praising Volcker for a job well done, when the Fed caused unemployment to increase with tight monetary policy. While at the same time putting the blame for said unemployment on Reagan, your reasoning being that Volcker was appointed by a Democrat. That makes about as much sense as blaming the 2020 recession on Trump because he caused the pandemic.

I agree with you about the insulin. Thats just a drop in the bucket though. Health care costs in the USA are out of control.

Reagan's whopping ten consecutive months of 10%+ Unemployment Rates began a year after he was elected, which itself happened a year after Carter's Fed Chairman Volcker began to enact the Fed Funds rate increases that also began to steadily reduce the rate of inflation about 3 months later. And Volcker reduced the Fed Funds rates right slong with the steady, almost monthly decline in inflation.

They did not occur in the midst of steady Fed Funds rate increases or a steady increase in the rate of inflation.

Reagan had already inherited a declining Unemployment Rate by January 1981, down from a one month spike to 7. 8% to around 7. 2% that continued well into late 1981, all while the rate of inflation and the Fed Funds rate trajectories were trending downward, not upward.

LOL. I see Trump is on NBC bragging about when he begged his Fed Chairman appointee to lower interest rates even before he crashed worldwide economies in 2020 with Trump's Pandemic because, "we had the Greatest Economy ever"!

Which, of course, is exactly what "the Greatest Economy ever" desperately needs. Lolol.

And you think numbskulls like the lord and savior perfect Repub Leader like him could even come within 1000 miles of an effective economic stimulus legislation much less propose, sign and pass one?

Oh, BTW, his begging for lower interest rates had everything to do with his colossal outstanding debt on his colossally failing golf resorts and nothing to do with "the USA economy. " So we add blatantly obvious con man to his numbskull characteristic. Yes, the perfect Repub Party lord and savior.

[Tiny 12]

....In the past seven days, President Biden was targeted for impeachment and his son was indicted. That was just the start....

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/u...bad-week.html#

Hey Tooms, you need to subscribe to the New York Times like the Marquis and I do, so you can read all the dirt on Biden.

[MarquisdeSade1]

"My comments about Volcker, Miller and Powell were tongue in cheek. In fact I believe the Volcker led Fed did a good job. It slayed the inflation beast. You however are stone cold serious, praising Volcker for a job well done, when the Fed caused unemployment to increase with tight monetary policy. While at the same time putting the blame for said unemployment on Reagan, your reasoning being that Volcker was appointed by a Democrat. That makes about as much sense as blaming the 2020 recession on Trump because he caused the pandemic.

I agree with you about the insulin. Thats just a drop in the bucket though. Health care costs in the USA are out of control. ".

The fat lady is wailing Ave Maria!

White House MEMO.

Biden's Tough Week: The President Faces Personal and Political Setbacks.

In the past seven days, President Biden was targeted for impeachment and his son was indicted. That was just the start.

Share full article.

President Biden grasping his hands near his face.

President Biden faced multiple political challenges this week. Credit. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times.

Peter Baker.

By Peter Baker.

Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents and reported from Washington.

Sept. 15,2023.

Updated 5:53 pm ET.

It says something about the way things have been going for President Biden lately that being targeted for impeachment was not the worst news of a tough week.

To be sure, it was not a highlight. But over the course of the past seven days, Mr. Biden was besieged on multiple fronts, both personal and political, challenging his capacity, threatening his family and jeopardizing his political position.

He was panned by critics for his performance at an overseas news conference. One of his favorite columnists urged him not to run again, sparking more hand wringing in his party. A top ally implicitly questioned his choice of running mate. The auto industry fell into a paralyzing strike that could undermine the economy. His son was indicted on three felony charges. And oh yes, House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry aimed at charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors.

Politics in Washington being what it is today, Mr. Biden and his team exhibited no particular concern over the course of events. After a rocky campaign and two and a half turbulent years in office, they have become accustomed to the gyrations of the modern presidency. Facing a disagreeable short view, they prefer to take the long view, comforting themselves, and arguing to outsiders, that it will work out all right in the end because it has worked out all right before.

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And Mr. Biden has been blessed by helpful enemies, who now appear poised to provoke an unpopular government shutdown at the same time they pursue an impeachment inquiry that even some Republican lawmakers say is not based on evidence of an impeachable offense. If there is anything that could rally disaffected Democrats and independents, the president's strategists believe, it is Republican overreach.

Image.

Mr. Biden at a lectern in front of a display showing the Vietnam flag.

Conservatives mocked Mr. Biden for his speech in Hanoi, Vietnam. Credit. Kenny Holston / The New York Times.

"President Biden was underestimated two years ago and then he went on to pass historic legislation that has led the USA To have the strongest recovery of any developed economy in the world," Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, said on Friday. "We don't get distracted by Washington parlor games that most Americans are entirely uninterested in. ".

Avoiding distraction is hardly easy. Mr. Biden was told of the indictment against his son Hunter Biden on Thursday just before leaving the White House to give a speech in Maryland assailing Republican budget plans, forcing him to put the consequences out of his mind long enough to deliver the talk and work the rope lines.

He said nothing about the indictment and little about the rest of the setbacks of the week in public, although there was a moment at an evening campaign fund-raising reception when he lamented the changing culture of politics since he was first elected to the Senate in 1972.

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"Did you ever think you would have to worry about going through protests where you see people standing with their little kids giving you the middle finger and have banners saying, 'F the Democrat' he asked Democratic donors at a private home in McLean, Va. "It's becoming debased, our public disgust," he added. "We just have to change it. ".

The week started in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he gave a news conference on Sunday evening that conservatives quickly mocked because of a few rambling moments and an odd reference to John Wayne. Mr. Biden had barely landed back home and gotten a few hours sleep before Speaker Kevin McCarthy opened an impeachment inquiry accusing the president of corruption without evidence that he had either profited from his son's business dealings or misused his power to help.

The next day, the president picked up The Washington Post to find a column by David Ignatius, who has enjoyed considerable access to the Biden White House, arguing that despite what he considered a laudable record, the 80-year-old president should not run for another term next year. The column caused much buzzing in Washington because Mr. Ignatius has broad respect in the nation's capital as a reasoned voice often supportive of the president and represents the establishment whose approval Mr. Biden has long craved.

Mr. Ignatius's plea for the president to reconsider his decision to seek a second term resonated among many Democrats deeply anxious about his prospects but reluctant to say so out loud for fear of undermining him. Mr. Ignatius addressed the matter on "Morning Joe," the MSNBC show that Mr. Biden is known to watch, with much discussion of whether the president was too old for another term, as polls show many voters believe.

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Just hours later, Senator Mitt Romney, one of the most prominent Republican critics of former President Donald J. Trump, announced that he would retire in favor of "a new generation of leaders" and urged Mr. Biden to do the same. Charlie Cook, a well-regarded nonpartisan election analyst, then weighed in with a column making the case for the president stepping aside.

Image.

A crowd sits under a blue banner reading "Bidenomics, Largo, Maryland. ".

A crowd listening to Mr. Biden speak on Thursday at Prince George's County Community College in Largo, Md. Credit. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times.

Hunter Biden's indictment was followed on Friday by the first union strike against all three major American automakers, a seismic disruption of a key industry with uncertain effects on the economy. White House officials were watching the situation in Detroit with some trepidation, reasoning that a short strike would not make much difference in the long run but an extended walkout could unsettle the economy at a tenuous moment.

While many Democrats for months have privately hoped for what Mr. Ignatius publicly voiced, there is no indication that Mr. Biden is or would consider abandoning his re-election campaign. Advisers say privately that the idea never comes up and would be ludicrous. If anything, the importunings of the "chattering class," as they like to put it, would push Mr. Biden, who believes he is consistently underestimated, in the opposite direction.

"The Ignatius thing probably did break his heart, however that's the kind of thing that forces him and the campaign and his family into their comfort zone of being underdogs," said Michael LaRosa, a former spokesman for Jill Biden. "The way they view it is: You guys said he couldn't win last time, he couldn't win from the center, he couldn't beat Bernie, he couldn't bring back bipartisanship, he couldn't beat Trump, he couldn't win the midterms. That's how they see things. ".

There is no class of elder statesmen who might persuade Mr. Biden of the opposite, no one he would listen to, according to Democratic strategists. Mr. Biden is said to still resent former President Barack Obama for gently pressing him not to run in 2016, and his relationship with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is complicated by conflicting ambitions.

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The only ones who might persuade Mr. Biden to change his mind would be his own family, particularly Jill Biden, who talked him out of running for president in 2004. But by all accounts, she and other family members strongly support another campaign, viewing any alternative as a capitulation to the doubters who never believed in the president and the enemies who in her view have weaponized their family against him.

For all the concern in the party — and interviews make clear it is deeper than White House officials are willing to acknowledge — there is also a sense of resignation among many Democrats that there are no obvious alternatives to Mr. Biden ready and able to beat Mr. Trump.

Image.

Jill Biden, left, and Mr. Biden walking down the steps of Air Force One.

Jill Biden talked Mr. Biden out of running for president in 2004. Credit. Tom Brenner for The New York Times.

Even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has worked closely with Mr. Biden to pass his legislative agenda, seemed to call Vice President Kamala Harris into doubt in an interview this week. Asked on CNN twice if she were the best running mate for Mr. Biden, Ms. Pelosi did not directly say yes. "he thinks so," she said of the president, "and that's what matters. ".

Keeping Mr. Trump out of the Oval Office is such a paramount goal for Democrats that even skeptics of Mr. Biden within the party are increasingly coming to the conclusion that it is too late to think about an alternative and more important now to rally around him.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who was seen as a possible candidate if Mr. Biden did not run, recently told fellow Democrats it was "time for all of us to get on the train and buck up," as he put it in an interview.

Donna Brazile, a former Democratic Party chair, insisted that reports of hand wringing are overwrought. "No matter his age or accomplishment, Democrats must begin to focus on every branch of government, preserving our democracy, inspiring young people to run for office and vote — not to mention raise money and run as if we are 10 points behind," she said. "There's only one way to win: You have to believe in the candidates on the ballot. ".

So far, the polling has been unforgiving, undercutting Mr. Biden's argument that he is the safest choice to defeat Mr. Trump. Multiple surveys have shown him statistically tied with his predecessor, and his approval rating has remained mired around 40 percent despite improving economic conditions.

Mr. Biden's advisers dismiss such findings, noting that Ronald Reagan, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama all rebounded from low approval ratings to win re-election handily. Mr. Biden's campaign has already started airing ads in battleground states, and advisers argue that when the time comes for a choice that matters, voters will return to Mr. Biden rather than switch to an unpopular challenger who has been indicted four times, including for trying to subvert democracy.

In the meantime, they said, no one should worry about one week or another. The president survived plenty of tough weeks before pushing through landmark legislation and enacting other major policy goals. After a half-century in politics, they said, he has seen it all and he sets the tone for his White House.

"When I read these stories on Biden's age or polling status, it reminds me of what I used to tell the staff," said Ms. Brazile. "Keep your head down, make your phone calls and just do the work. ".