~46~ Lame Duck Unfit Uncle Joe Biden ~46~

[kramerica.inc]

You hate all the BAD cops, right Kram? Trolling general terms like "hate police" is beneath you (i think)...maybe you're reading yourself too much Petey lately...? Having another point of view is good to chew over...but Kreepy Kram? Leave him in Hamsterdam.

"30% of the whacko Democrats that hate police" would be, like maybe, 3 individuals...

..

Nope, more than that. When the wife, an avowed and witnessed, relatively moderate democrat (like some who will go nameless here) automatically disparages anyone who is a LEO based upon the bad apples, I know even the best libs are drinking the Koolaid. And it happened in my kitchen the other day. Sad day.

[NattyBohChamps04]

Explain the Resistance then genius, comprised of innumerable hateful progressives, left-supporting MSM, left-supporting Big Tech, and politically corrupt institutions leaning left as well.

Swing and a miss buddy, they're not in charge. (also nowhere near as off the charts whacko as the lies you lap up tell you they are)

What a complete red herring response (no surprise). Where's the requested explanation genius? Can't come up with one can you?

BTW, both sides obviously lie big time... at least some on here can admit it.

Clown claims get clown responses. The onus is on you to support your wildly outlandish claims before I'll dignify them with a response.

"BoTH SiDeS ArE ThE SaME" - talk about red herrings my man.

Ha... Good reading comprehension! Not what I said, but when you don't have anything credible to add, your silly response is not unexpected.

So you obviously can't explain how your list of ne'er do wells are in charge of the Democratic Party and the Presidency. Why would I explain their irrelevancy to the current Democratic leadership when you can't even explain their relevancy?

A vast majority R's and their leadership hated Trump... until he won the primary because of the stupid way we elect candidates. Now the wackos are driving the boat of the R party. Very simple explanation. Easy-peasy, NYIT squeezy (or maybe WPI or RIT or RPI?)

Again, clown claims bro. Tired of em.

[old salt]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

[NattyBohChamps04]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Hypothetical? Pass from the scene?

I mean it's only been what... checks watch... FIVE years? How many more years do you think until he and his crotch goblins pass from the scene & R leadership? A decade? They're embedded now. Ticks, the lot of them, sucking the dollar bills from your fellow fan base, injecting who knows what diseases and more into the party and ruining a good chunk of the rest of the country in the meantime. This isn't some passing fad. They've been here longer than the Confederacy and are going strong.

It's way past time you exercise the demons in your party. Your service to your country is required once again.

[PizzaSnake]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Sweet baby kernel corn!! Are you for real?

[old salt]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Sweet baby kernel corn!! Are you for real?

The Dems missed a golden opportunity. They should have drafted J D Vance. Just imagine the campaign former Marine Corps Corporal James Carville could have run with former Marine Corps Corporal J D Vance.

https://time.com/6078483/j-d-vance-interview-trump/

“I’m not just a flip-flopper, I’m a flip-flop-flipper on Trump,” J.D. Vance says with a laugh... The Hillbilly Elegy author and newly minted Republican Senate candidate is sitting at the counter of a Cincinnati diner on July 2, explaining why he thinks he can win.

The prior evening, Vance had launched his 2022 bid at a steel-tube factory in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, with paeans to the American Dream and blasts of populist rhetoric. “The elites plunder this country and then blame us for it in the process,” he told a crowd of several hundred.

Running for office was a predictable next step for Vance, whose hit 2016 memoir traced his rise from troubled Appalachian roots to the Marines and Yale Law School. Hillbilly Elegy was cited by Hillary Clinton and feted at pointy-headed panel discussions, though some liberals criticized its up-by-the-bootstraps framing. At a time when elites struggled to comprehend Trump’s appeal, Vance’s diagnosis of rural white Americans’ disillusionment with a government and society that had left them behind seemed prescient.

These days, Vance’s persona is more right-wing provocateur than establishment darling. But it’s his stance toward Trump that seems destined to dominate his campaign in a primary that could be a bellwether for the post-Trump GOP. As his rivals strain to outdo one another with displays of fealty to the former President, Vance’s past opposition has been cited as proof of an all-too-convenient conversion.

Vance admits it took him time to come around, but points to his book and commentary as evidence he understood Trump’s appeal before most. “I sort of got Trump’s issues from the beginning,” Vance says. “I just thought that this guy was not serious and was not going to be able to really make progress on the issues I cared about.”

But as the longtime Democrats he grew up with, including his family, embraced Trump, Vance, who voted for independent candidate Evan McMullin in 2016, reconsidered. Once he looked beyond the hysterical media depictions of Trump, he claims, he saw someone changing the debate around issues like China and immigration. In March, the two men held an hourlong meeting brokered by Vance’s friend and former boss Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley titan who has seeded a $10 million super PAC on Vance’s behalf.

Trump is “the leader of this movement,” Vance tells me, “and if I actually care about these people and the things I say I care about, I need to just suck it up and support him.”

Republican voters still love Trump, but it’s unclear what that means for other aspiring pols. Should they be loud and racist and lie a lot? Should they spout conspiracy theories? Should they be businessmen and “outsiders”? Should they adopt Trump’s positions on issues, to the degree that he had positions on issues?

However you define Trumpism, it had a powerful effect in Ohio. Barack Obama took the state twice before Trump won it by back-to-back 8-point margins. The GOP’s conundrum is how to hang on to Trump’s white working-class supporters as suburban and college-educated white voters jump ship. “This is our first post-Trump test case,” says Josh Culling, a Toledo-based GOP consultant. “How many of Trump’s positions have staying power vs. the old Chamber of Commerce priorities of lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government?”

The former President has not endorsed a candidate, leaving Vance’s rivals to compete to embody Trumpian outrageousness. Josh Mandel, who aligned himself with Mitt Romney during his unsuccessful 2012 run, now gets himself suspended from Twitter for posting about “Mexican gangbangers” and “Muslim terrorists.” Jane Timken, a Harvard-educated lawyer and longtime GOP donor, also tries to channel the former President’s furies.

To some Ohio Republicans, the field is not inspiring. “There’s a significant void,” says Republican state senator Jay Hottinger, who has served in the legislature for more than two decades, of “serious candidates that are trying to address the real issues and talk about potential solutions.” Hottinger would prefer someone like Senator Rob Portman, the straitlaced fiscal conservative whose retirement created the vacancy Vance hopes to fill.

Vance thinks the party is looking for a new direction. “Rob’s a good guy and he’s done a lot of good, but he’s sort of out of alignment with where a lot of voters are right now,” Vance tells me at breakfast. “He’s a cautious guy, and the voters are not in a cautious mood.”

Vance, 36, believes he has a finger on the pulse of this new GOP, for whom Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley are role models. “Voters really want us to do something about the tech industry "...It’s not uncommon, he says, for people to approach him “and say things like, ‘I love what you said, but why don’t we break up these companies and put all the CEOs in jail?’”

Vance is a venture capitalist with deep ties to Silicon Valley, but says knowing the industry will help him figure out how to fix it. He answers charges of hypocrisy by pointing out that Thiel is a conservative outlier: “It’s not like I’m being funded by Mark Zuckerberg.” When I ask if any of the policies he favors would affect Thiel adversely, he replies, “Oh, absolutely, I think Peter should pay higher taxes,” and lets out a big laugh.

In his Middletown speech, Vance excoriated corporations for not paying their fair share to the country that’s given them so much: “Who built the roads and bridges that allow you to do your business?” ...Vance supports free markets, but only to a point. “This is a mistake of the modern conservative movement, to say, Well, these are private companies; we have to keep our hands off,” he tells me. “I do generally think that cutting people’s taxes is a good thing. On the other hand, when there are companies that have effectively rigged the economy- such that they pay a lower tax rate than my middle-class sister, that’s not fair.”

Vance favors punitive tariffs and pulling out of Afghanistan, and he’s taken up the faddish right-wing crusade against critical race theory. He won’t say the 2020 election was stolen, exactly, but contends it was “unfair.” “I think Josh Hawley did the right thing,” he says of the Senator’s objection to certifying electoral votes on Jan. 6. Nor does he think Trump deserved to be impeached over the insurrection. “There were some bad apples on Jan. 6, very clearly, but most of the people there were actually super peaceful,” he says of a riot that left five dead and more than 100 police officers injured. “Some of them were, like, let into the Capitol by the police officers!”

As for his evolution on Trump, Vance describes it as an awakening. “It’s sort of a—what is the word people online use—-blackpilling or redpilling or whitepilling,” he says. “I’m not trying to cop his style. But when you stop trusting what the press is saying in the same way, it does have a transformative effect on the way you see not just Donald Trump the man, but the whole movement.”

[seacoaster]

You might move this to the Conservative Ideology thread, or just a new sad capitulation to gross self interest thread.

I read and enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy. And I find his little transformation to Trumpist populism really, really sad. The article you posted shows him, in the crucible of the primary, to be nothing more than a coopted toady to a movement that is simply at odds with democracy. He's OK destabilizing the truth and facts; he adopts a nearly full throated white grievance; he asserts that the "pulse" of the GOP is embodied in Carlson and Hawley; and he keeps adopting the narratives du jour that the FNC crowd pushes.

This line is telling: “There were some bad apples on Jan. 6, very clearly, but most of the people there were actually super peaceful,” he says of a riot that left five dead and more than 100 police officers injured. “Some of them were, like, let into the Capitol by the police officers!” So he adopts the soft-peddle narrative fully, even in the face of the overwhelming, realtime video evidence. Despicable. Has anyone asked him if Biden is the legitimate President -- because the answer to that question will be key to the Moron's support.

[MDlaxfan76]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Sweet baby kernel corn!! Are you for real?

For a moment, I thought Salty was just joshing me, in his usual nastily biting tone, but he actually believes this stuff.

As others have subsequently responded, "Trumpism" indeed has its cancerous, creeping roots deep throughout American history and remains very much alive and well in the current GOP. JD Vance appears to have decided that his future political aspirations are dependent upon tapping into those "populist"/nativist/racist roots.

My comments, however, were addressing this equivalency in the parties' compositions and control that tech was suggesting, an equivalency belied by reality.

I don't know if or when we can return to a two party system in which both parties truly support the ideals of democracy and strive in both comity and competition to continuously reach to better realize those ideals, but it's definitely not happening until all of the worst aspects of Trumpism are fully exorcised. And that's not happening until they are fully admitted to be the evils that they are and the enormity of the error that was the ascendancy of Trump himself.

I don't see any signs of that happening soon with GOP leadership, nor from the likes of JD Vance.

Salty, there may be specific policies that you prefer, for sound reason, but until you and those like you fully confront the enormity of the mistake of Trumpism, we continue to be in the precarious situation where "it can happen here" is all too within short reach.

[jhu72]

You might move this to the Conservative Ideology thread, or just a new sad capitulation to gross self interest thread.

I read and enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy. And I find his little transformation to Trumpist populism really, really sad. The article you posted shows him, in the crucible of the primary, to be nothing more than a coopted toady to a movement that is simply at odds with democracy. He's OK destabilizing the truth and facts; he adopts a nearly full throated white grievance; he asserts that the "pulse" of the GOP is embodied in Carlson and Hawley; and he keeps adopting the narratives du jour that the FNC crowd pushes.

This line is telling: “There were some bad apples on Jan. 6, very clearly, but most of the people there were actually super peaceful,” he says of a riot that left five dead and more than 100 police officers injured. “Some of them were, like, let into the Capitol by the police officers!” So he adopts the soft-peddle narrative fully, even in the face of the overwhelming, realtime video evidence. Despicable. Has anyone asked him if Biden is the legitimate President -- because the answer to that question will be key to the Moron's support.

+1

He is not too bright. He doesn't realize that making up to these people, you can't go back.

[seacoaster]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Sweet baby kernel corn!! Are you for real?

For a moment, I thought Salty was just joshing me, in his usual nastily biting tone, but he actually believes this stuff.

As others have subsequently responded, "Trumpism" indeed has its cancerous, creeping roots deep throughout American history and remains very much alive and well in the current GOP. JD Vance appears to have decided that his future political aspirations are dependent upon tapping into those "populist"/nativist/racist roots.

My comments, however, were addressing this equivalency in the parties' compositions and control that tech was suggesting, an equivalency belied by reality.

I don't know if or when we can return to a two party system in which both parties truly support the ideals of democracy and strive in both comity and competition to continuously reach to better realize those ideals, but it's definitely not happening until all of the worst aspects of Trumpism are fully exorcised. And that's not happening until they are fully admitted to be the evils that they are and the enormity of the error that was the ascendancy of Trump himself.

I don't see any signs of that happening soon with GOP leadership, nor from the likes of JD Vance.

Salty, there may be specific policies that you prefer, for sound reason, but until you and those like you fully confront the enormity of the mistake of Trumpism, we continue to be in the precarious situation where "it can happen here" is all too within short reach.

Great post.

[old salt]

But ok, simply observing as a political scientist, it is certainly clear that the far right/hard right elements currently controls the GOP, thoroughly dominating its apparatus and leadership, in thrall to a single person. While they have embraced and supported the most radically nativist, racist, white supremacists and conspiracy mongers, they have actively removed any GOP members not in thrall to the Leader from party leadership, often through primary threats or contests and more recently through demotion. Voters, like me, who considered themselves to be moderate members of the GOP are called RINO's and mocked and shunned.

OK, that's simply the reality of where the GOP is today.

And hey, while we're at it, why don't we just blanket label various organizations "politically corrupt, leaning left"...after all, science, expertise, professional...are all dirty words now for the populist fascist.

The world has seen it before. It can happen here.

Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself & looking for a hypothetical boogeyman.
Most of us simply roll with it, waiting for Trump to pass from the scene,
...while paying attention to the things that matter to his supporters which were long ignored.
Pay attention to JD Vance.

Sweet baby kernel corn!! Are you for real?

For a moment, I thought Salty was just joshing me, in his usual nastily biting tone, but he actually believes this stuff.

As others have subsequently responded, "Trumpism" indeed has its cancerous, creeping roots deep throughout American history and remains very much alive and well in the current GOP. JD Vance appears to have decided that his future political aspirations are dependent upon tapping into those "populist"/nativist/racist roots.

My comments, however, were addressing this equivalency in the parties' compositions and control that tech was suggesting, an equivalency belied by reality.

I don't know if or when we can return to a two party system in which both parties truly support the ideals of democracy and strive in both comity and competition to continuously reach to better realize those ideals, but it's definitely not happening until all of the worst aspects of Trumpism are fully exorcised. And that's not happening until they are fully admitted to be the evils that they are and the enormity of the error that was the ascendancy of Trump himself.

I don't see any signs of that happening soon with GOP leadership, nor from the likes of JD Vance.

Salty, there may be specific policies that you prefer, for sound reason, but until you and those like you fully confront the enormity of the mistake of Trumpism, we continue to be in the precarious situation where "it can happen here" is all too within short reach.

Great post.

Yes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[Farfromgeneva]

...of walking down a city street

[kramerica.inc]

Probabaly wise...if in Baltimore

[Farfromgeneva]

Says it all

[Typical Lax Dad]

Probabaly wise...if in Baltimore

Particularly Homeland

[kramerica.inc]

There are no areas free from crime in Baltimore. There are few sections that aren't bordered by zones with historically high criminal activity. Everyone is effected. Even those in nice old neighborhoods like Homeland. Why would you want to pay the exorbitant Baltimore City taxes but live in an area where you cant walk your neighborhood at night or a block over? Or have to worry about nonstop property crimes?

[MDlaxfan76]

There are no areas free from crime in Baltimore. There are few sections that aren't bordered by zones with historically high criminal activity. Everyone is effected. Even those in nice old neighborhoods like Homeland. Why would you want to pay the exorbitant Baltimore City taxes but live in an area where you cant walk your neighborhood at night or a block over? Or have to worry about nonstop property crimes?

That's true in all the surrounding counties too Kram.
There's crime, both property and violent, everywhere, no where is exempt.

But, yeah, there are indeed neighborhoods where it must be hellish to be a resident.

[dislaxxic]

The truly astonishing thing is that people like Kram think that all that crime in Baltimore is the result of a liberal/Democratic party mindset of some sort...

..

[Typical Lax Dad]

There are no areas free from crime in Baltimore. There are few sections that aren't bordered by zones with historically high criminal activity. Everyone is effected. Even those in nice old neighborhoods like Homeland. Why would you want to pay the exorbitant Baltimore City taxes but live in an area where you cant walk your neighborhood at night or a block over? Or have to worry about nonstop property crimes?

You would have to ask all of those people that live there….

[Typical Lax Dad]

The truly astonishing thing is that people like Kram think that all that crime in Baltimore is the result of a liberal/Democratic party mindset of some sort...

..

Baltimore on a smaller scale:



The Dems went in and shut down all the factories!!

my man JD!