@kmax87 said
I know. I've undone the spell.

Yes. What’s wrong with you!!!

It’s incredible that the most powerful nation on Earth has had 7 years, since the day Trump got into office by an electoral college fluke, to start grooming a credible candidate, and has so far come up with …. what ? A doddering fool, a convicted fraudster tax cheater and sex offender, and a vaccine-conspiracy theorist ‘Kennedy’ disowned by his own. Pathetic. Just pathetic. Bernie Sanders actually looks sane by comparison now; who’d a thunk it.

@wildgrass said
Yikes, Joe asks a question, everyone answers. Then Joe rants about no one answering his questions.

AND the question itself was insane. Should illegal things be illegal?

A better question, Joe: why is the speaker of the house flying to mar a Lago to meet with the former president and declare they're making things illegal that are already illegal?

That's too hard for joe. He's the kindergarten kid who says
* why?
the adult tells him in simple words.
* but why?
adult patiently repeats simple answer.
* but you don't say just why?
adult tries a more detailed answer, but patience is wearing thin.
* but you never answer my questions. why can't you give me an answer?
adult, at his wit's end: either "go play in the road" or "because I said so"
* stamps foot and runs to mom for sympathy.

Joe - you're the asterisk.

@ponderable said
There is no peak to stupidity, like there is no biggest number...

Ich stimme zu.

The correct thread title would have been 'is this MAGA's nadir?'

To which the correct answer would have been, 'you ain't seen nuthin' yet!'

@phranny said
There are really two major Republican political stories dominating the news these days. The more obvious of the two is the attempt by former president Donald Trump and his followers to destroy American democracy. The other story is older, the one that led to Trump but that stands at least a bit apart from him. It is the story of a national shift away from the supply-side ideo ...[text shortened]... /2024/04/10/theyre-still-playing-games-ex-prosecutor-warns-may-face-asset-seizure-over-invalid-bond/

This summary of the GOP over the last 40 years leaves out a critical juncture: the rise and assimilation of the Tea Party. The Tea Party was initially an attempt to inject a third party into the broken two-party system in the USA. The GOP at that time realised that the Tea Party would likely split the Republican vote and severely reduce their ability to maintain their hold on power. So, the GOP leadership tried to assimilate the Tea Party, thinking that sensible Republicans (Cheney, Romney, Sass, etc.) would moderate the more radical Tea Party elements. The opposite occurred: the Tea Party has dragged the traditional Republican agenda far far to the right, and polarised the political climate in America to such an extent that an experienced, politically savvy, and reasonably moderate speaker of the house (McCarthy) was ousted simply for securing bi-partisan support for a necessary finance bill. The current speaker (an inexperienced and incompetent toady) is in no less peril from a challenge by another inexperienced and very radical member of Congress who is holding him hostage to an ouster-threat.

The bizarre result is that a non-elected person is now holding the entire US Congress hostage; if Trump tweets 'kill the bill', then Congress is hamstrung, and the continued existence of a sovereign nation invaded by superior military forces now actually hangs in the balance, depending on whether one man, not an elected official, says 'yes' or 'no'. This is not how domestic democracy is supposed to work, much less international diplomacy.

The really really Big Lie is not that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. That's just a fib. The really really Big Lie is that Donald Trump is fighting for the rights of the Jane Doe and Average Joe. He's interested in no such thing. What he's fighting for is the privilege of his fellow plutocrats to make endless profits (e.g. $2 bn. Jared Kushner from the Saudis for unknown services 'rendered' nudge nudge wink wink).

"I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward." - John Mortimer

@sleepyguy said
Well if he does make a flying car, I'm sure it will be the strongest most powerful flying car the world has ever seen.

'Flying Car' is a trope in libertarian circles and virtue-signals that you hate government.

'If the government would just get out of the way, we'd all have flying cars by now! Where's my flying car?!' I've heard it many times. It's a lot like chanting 'taxation is theft!' You are expected to conform to the party line.

@spruce112358 said
And if you point out what a bad Christian DJT is, they are unfazed. Because, they will say, "God can use even a flawed instrument."

Americans have always been very susceptible to waves of religious revivalism. We have a long history of it. Such waves can give birth to whole new religions - Mormonism, for example. Trump-"ism" has a lot more in common with religion than it does with politics.

Evangelicals know perfectly well The Donald is no model Christian and that Trump himself even mocks them in private. He’s a useful tool, unwittingly doing God‘s work. They cite the fact that he stacked the Supreme Court, which then overturned Roe. The logic of this is stupendously stupid. If God had wanted the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, God would’ve stacked the Supreme Court in the 1970s and they never would’ve made that decision in the first place.

@wajoma said
You don't have to be loyal to appreciate the humor in people taking an obvious joke seriously, in fact the more obvious the joke and the more seriously you take it the funnier it gets.

Another essential element of humor is originality, you've got to go out on the edge. Perhaps you're envious of Trump for having that ability.

There is nothing funny about a narcissist wearing a big red tie.
A lot of diplomats did not think hitler was serious about his intentions and extra sadly neither did a lot of Jews until it was too late
Trump has told you who he is and you love him for who he is. Sad but true.

@phranny said
There are really two major Republican political stories dominating the news these days. The more obvious of the two is the attempt by former president Donald Trump and his followers to destroy American democracy. The other story is older, the one that led to Trump but that stands at least a bit apart from him. It is the story of a national shift away from the supply-side ideo ...[text shortened]... /2024/04/10/theyre-still-playing-games-ex-prosecutor-warns-may-face-asset-seizure-over-invalid-bond/

During the Reagan years, this was known as the 'trickle-down theory': if the rich are allowed to pursue profits unhindered by govt regulation and encouraged by tax cuts, then the rich will get richer and some of it will eventually 'trickle down' to the poor and the middle class. The only thing about trickle-down economics which is valid is the trick of getting the middle class, the Average Joes of America, to vote for it, by holding up the illusion that if Average Joe works hard enough, he too will someday be among the rich. Didn't happen. The rich got richer all right, but the middle class didn't, and the poor got even poorer.

Just to refresh people's memories what happened when Reagan deregulated the banks: a handful of bank CEOs absconded with billions of little old ladies' life savings, they were never caught and brought to justice, and Reagan's successor, Bush Sr., had to levy a tax to cover the bank collapse. It was the biggest bank robbery of all time, and the losers not only lost their life savings, they had to pay Bush's tax to cover the bank failures.

@averagejoe1 said
So, you too? Don't understand the logic, common sense, rationale and the law with regard to the Roe decision?. What else could their findings have been? You are aware, I am sure, that their total deliberatoins are based solely on the provisions of the Constitution. Why, you seem to disagree with Constitutional law??

It’s funny how Roe vs Wade was possible, until fundamentalists took over the supreme court… and suddenly it’s not.

Anyhoo, as I’ve stated before, your supreme court and constitution both need a serious do-over; antiquated garbage.

@averagejoe1 said
Not exactly. Spruce, 3rd post on p 2, did not answer it there. (he posted a youtube, but did not answer. Certainly a youtube was not his answer?) So he did not answer on page 2.
Moonbus did answer on page 2, I must have missed it because of his unnecessary typing at the beginning. You guys can really get wordy. Did he mention Trump while he was at it. Anyway, ...[text shortened]... king traffic a crime?? Protest is legal. What a mess. Thanks libs. I missed my flight to Syria.

It has been mentioned before: unless you get an answer that fits your world view, you seem to think you’ve gone unanswered.

Take it from me lad, 99% of the time, you are wrong. On every subject.

Learn or live with it. Nobody outside the alt-right bubble agrees with you on anything.

@averagejoe1 said
I am NOT being funny.....is not Biden being a dictator when he views our country being ruled by people instead of laws? YOu know, the tuition thingy, for example? I'm thinking I am obliged to do a thread shortly to enlighten you little fellers about Congress, the purse string thingy.

YOu know, the tuition thingy, for example?

I think college education should be free to anyone who wants it. If 35 other countries can do this, then so can the (so called) greatest country in the world. God bless "the tuition thingy" may it grow and prosper. 🙂

@spruce112358
The Trump tax cut was a clear bribe to the ultrawealthy, he touted it saying companies will be rushing to build manufacturing back in the US but what really happened was they used the bribe to do stock buy backs, yep, SO many new factories built.
And a 2 trillion dollar tax cut meant they still needed that 2 trillion dollars so strangely enough the national debt went up 2 trillion dollars.
What a shocker.

I think X45 said 'all hell will break today'' when he is charged with a felony. Well, 34 felonies but who is counting😉
At LEAST 2 dozen dye hard Trumpites showed up in Manhattan today, and 2 dozen or so AntiTrumpites, all peaceful, Jimmy Kimmel took a picture of a sleeping baby in that crowd. No flagpoles as weapons, no thrown fire extinguishers.
Also no trumpites anywhere else in the US. Millions of supporters and we get 2 dozen to support him?

I guess that explains why he fell asleep on his first day in criminal court. Spends so much time tweeting, he has no energy left for his trail.

So here he was near our neck of the woods in Shnecksville PA telling how BEAUTIFUL the Battle of Gettysburg was, exciting. The same amount of Americans dead in one battle as the entire Viet Nam war, 50,000 lost their lives that day. Yep, BEAUTIFUL.