Hodad

Yeah, just regular old reality. John Bolton and H.R. McMaster, two former Trump national security advisers known for their hawkish views, have lambasted both Trump and Biden for the withdrawal — though both have long been critical of the Taliban agreement. "Our secretary of state [Mike Pompeo] signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban," McMaster said on Bari Weiss' podcast. "This collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. The Taliban didn’t defeat us. We defeated ourselves."

^^ This is wildly disingenuous and I think you know it. Hence why you did not link anything. I've never heard of either of these people, so I had to look them up. Turns out neither is of them are Americans, let alone Democrats. The first is a Palestinian journalist who worked for the BBC, WHO POSTED THAT IN 2014 and was promptly fired following an outcry after the old tweet was discovered. The other is a Pakistani actress who is a reality TV star in India. Really. These are our "most prominent voices"? People in other countries that hardly anyone here has even heard of? Okay, consider those statements thoroughly condemned. Now knock it off. There's a thread on this forum right now started by a poster sympathetic to the Palestinian people (not Hamas) condemning Elon Musk for his anti-semitic posts. If you actually care, you're welcome to join in. Let's decry anti-semitism together. (Now that's a prominent voice.) Or you might mention the actual farking Nazis showing up at Trump rallies. Or Trump cozying up to white nationalists--stand back and stand by, boys. Or inviting well known anti-semites to dinner. How do you honestly think American Nazis vote? They used to not be welcome anywhere, but Trump extended the tent so far to the right that they are part of the base now. This tangent you're on is completely absurd. One does not have to be pro-Hamas or anti-semitic to call for Israel to stop blowing up families, to stop dropping bombs on children. One simply has to be human. I fully understand that it's very difficult to prosecute a war against terrorists that mingle among and hide behind civilians. That's a despicable tactic. I understand some collateral damage is inevitable. But if they use similarly indiscriminate tactics--or insufficiently discriminate they any better today than the terrorists? Instead we have a very uncivilized conflict, with both sides committing atrocities. I recognize that things suck for the Palestinians. They have some legit beef. But I have always supported Israel. I married into a Jewish family--some are even Israeli--but my support isn't unconditional. They are going too far. They are surrendering the high road and allowing Hamas to drag them down to that level. The slaughter of Innocents will not make them safer, it will not make them better loved., and it will not bring them peace. For every dead child there are fathers, brothers, sisters cousins and more who will forever believe that Israel is exactly as evil as Hamas claims them to be. Israeli bombs are not seeds of peace. They are sowing seeds of further radicalization. The seeds of escalation and more bloodshed and more death.

You've gone round the bend, dummy. If denying support for Hamas means one supports Hamas then you clearly support Hamas ?

You mention lack of self awareness in the same post where you call someone else dumb? ???

I assume you're referring to Afghanistan, which Trump actually "surrendered" before Biden took office. A ticking shit bomb left for old Joe.

Right. I guess the clarification I'm making is that, in my view, the deficits didn't fuel prosperity. There was no "boom." Almost every indicator continued to progress steadily at the same rates that they had been for the previous 4 years. Stocks actually did grow faster, but the economy didn't. Trump made a lot of noise but didn't change the rate of recovery/growth at all. If he had done nothing at all we'd have had the same result.

I don't have much personal sense of likeability from anyone before Carter, but I think Carter, Obama and Bush II were nice people. GWB was woefully inept, but he wasn't evil ( that was Cheney's job). But it's hard to beat Carter in the "good guy" department.

Exactly. I'm casually in the market and may have already purchased a Model S if Musk hadn't decided that bad politics makes for good business. I simply can't support him.

Is actually disagree with that. The economy continued on nearly the exact same trajectory under Trump as under the Obama recovery. Little to no change. It's possible that the timing coincidentally aligned so that Trump's massive elective deficits supported what might have otherwise been a slowdown, but I think it far more likely that the deficit was pure waste. Kind of like adding more gas to an engine that's already at capacity. You can do it, but it just gets burned off as exhaust. Running rich, as it were. It was tax cuts for the wealthy rather than strategic spending. And tax cuts only bolster the economy if it becomes disposable income that is spent back into the economy--money that wouldn't otherwise have been spent. As we've learned from multiple experiments with "trickle down" economics, it doesn't work. When you cut taxes on the wealthy their net worths will grow a bit, but they don't spend more. They were already buying everything they want.

Lol--on every level. All those pollsters are going to be out of work when they discover that we no longer need polls. We can just save time and ask some Internet jackass called Deluge how everyone feels about issues.?

A. Whether or not they are priority issues had no bearing on whether or not those specific issues identified by Deluge are supported by a majority of Americans. Indeed, they are. B. If you think those issues don't translate at the polls you clearly didn't pay attention to the midterms, where abortion rights were on many ballots and so popular that the turnout even carried some surprising Democrat victories in unlikely areas.

Nothing I've said can remotely be construed as support for Hamas. In fact, I've explicitly said the opposite. You can continue with your dishonest trolling if you want, but you're not fooling anyone.

Try to keep up. 4 years ago from today is November 22, 2019. That is pre-pandemic. Key economic indicators are as good or better than we were 4 years ago-- and not by a little or by trivial amounts. Good, solid growth. Inflation has been worrisome at various points, but wage growth has outpaced inflation, so even taking that into consideration, people are generally better off. No, that doesn't mean every person in every circumstance is better off, but collectively we are. Some people like to pretend that the Trump numbers during the pandemic don't count, but those too are real. By the time the election rolls around the "4 years" question we will be even rosier in contrast. I know you're helpless with data (hence the preference for feelings) but you're welcome to look up any of those economic indicators yourself. You can literally see for yourself. Here, go nuts: FRED.

Your brain is skewed. ? You look at data showing people's position on issues and just wave your hand and say it's not now they really feel. lol

Those are people's feelings, not economic data. I know you make your decisions based on feelings rather than data, but it's a terrible way to try to run an economy. In short, the feelings are wrong. The doom-and-gloomers have been marketing negativity and it's working. Doesn't change the fact that we're better off.

?Got it. That metric is also up, trending in line with the rest. I would love for "are you better off than you were 4 years ago" to be the theme of this campaign season. The answer is an easy "yes" by pretty much any measure. Republicans (and people in other countries who desperately wish they were Republicans) have mainlined FOX news and built themselves an entirely fictional doom-and-gloom imaginary economy. Apparently way too hard to check the data first. ? A prepared debater would absolutely destroy that question. But I don't trust Biden to rattle off any accurate list of key economic indicators from memory.

You're insane. There was worldwide outrage over what happened to the Israelis in October. They had near-universal support. That empathy, sympathy and support does get eroded quickly as the retaliation blows up civilians day after day. What we're actually observing is an example of recency bias. We can all look at what Hamas did in October and say that was wrong. But what the Israelis are currently doing is active and ongoing--they are killing civilians day after day--so of course the emotional support shifts very quickly to STOP THE KILLING. So of course we see protests supporting a cease fire. That simply is not the same as a protest in support of Hamas. It's stupid and/or deeply dishonest to say that it does. As for the rest of your nonsense and my "allegiance," just go fark yourself with something sharp.

Yep, I mentioned several above. All show we are better off than 4 years ago, despite WCM's mantra. -- Although I added PPP rather than PPE. What is PPE?

Check a different source or check your visualization options, stupid. I gave you the correct number. Your image shows the DJI breaking 40K under Biden, and that has never happened.

I think you're absolutely full of it. Links to anyone in the DNC (or US liberal in general) supporting Hamas? As mentioned many times before, there is a huge difference between sympathizing with the terrible plight of the Palestinian people and support for Hamas. That you would conflate the two is just a cynical exploitation of human suffering for cheap political taking points. Pretty gross. Do better.

Yes, former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough. And for people who aren't aware, the NY Times is a print media company, not a cable news network. ?

Let's ignore your other bizarro impressions of the world and stick to numbers. Numbers which once again reveal that you are just a massive lying sack of crap. The DJI to close December 31 2019 (the time you selected) was $28,538.44. Not whatever number you made up. The DJIA at time of this posting is $35,071.82 So yes, by math that EVEN YOU can do, the DJI is significantly better than it was 4 years ago. Those are real numbers. And for the record, Biden is up over 4K in his term--as much as presidents have to do with the stock market, whoopty do. Here's a graph for the visual learners. Again, nearly every metric is as good or better than it was 4 years ago. Yes, we are better off than we were 4 years ago. Now that this particular lie of yours has run its course, you wanna try a different metric? Great. Have at it.

We can't KNOW the lizard people aren't real without blood testing everyone, so we should just assume they are real and pass laws accordingly. ?

?Hey, fiction bot, save your lies. They're not working. Biden didn't call the MAGA a-holes terrorists. (It's not that hard to spell.) You just made that up. He did call them extremists, and that's 100% accurate. They are election deniers. And Trump did remodel the Republican part to be a welcoming place for hate groups. Look who's coming to dinner. No they didn't cheat in the 2016 election, which, you may recall, they lost. And the FBI, Comey and McCabe in particular both hurt the Clinton campaign badly, including the October surprise that turned out to be literally nothing. The Democrats didn't "commit crimes" with the the FBI to overturn the election. That's absurd. And trump's DOJ and his hand-picked head of the FBI did the right thing furthering the investigation. In a legit investigation of Carter Page, one guy at the FBI cheated on his paperwork for the FOURTH FISA WARRANT on Page. Absolutely he should not have done it, but it had no real impact on the unfolding of events or upon anyone else. The sum total of the Durham investigation is one guy getting probation. And even Durham concluded that it was reasonable to investigate Trump + Russia. Yes, you say ridiculous things and then I publicly correct you. That's that nature of our relationship. Again, yes, things are as good or better in just about every metric compared to 2019. The DOW is higher. NASDAQ is up. S&P is up. Unemployment is the same. GDP is up. PPP is up (wage growth has outpaced inflation). I understand that some people don't feel better off, but the whole point of data is that we don't have to make decisions based on your feelings. ? You have no idea what individual actors within the FBI "knew" and they absolutely did the right thing to warn social media outlets if they had intel about anoher sketchy October Surprise story likely dropping. Trump is the most hateful, vindictive and divisive figure to ever to sit in the Oval Office. He's directly responsible for the disastrous state of politics in this country. His ENTIRE political platform is based on spite, creating enmity and attacking anyone who disagrees with him through alienation and demonization. With zero hyperbole, it's like he dusted off Hitler's campaign strategy binder. And HE DID TRY TO STAY IN OFFICE. The man staged a quiet coup to try retain power after being trounced in the election. And his lunatic supporters laid siege to the Capitol on his behalf. He convinced a huge population of simpletons that they couldn't trust the media, couldn't trust law enforcement, couldn't trust elections and more-- that they couldn't trust anyone but him. To the point that they attacked their own government and their own elected representatives calling for the blood of a dutiful vice president. You live in a complete fantasy world. The total nonsense, that you repeat like a mantra, isn't going to convince anyone outside of your infobubble. Give it a rest, already. Come up with some new material--preferably grounded in fact--and stop spamming the same stupid crap.

Lying about it won't help you at the polls. Or are you just so isolated in your infobubble that you really think most of America thinks like you. They don't. And you're on the far extreme of even people who lean conservative. As I said, all three are majority positions--and they're moving the wrong direction for you. As before, you're losing in the marketplace of ideas, so you'll continue to drift away from democracy and conservatism and toward authoritarianism where you can get your way by oppressing the will and liberty of the majority. Pew on climate change Pew on abortion Pew on gay rights