brianlux said:

OnWis97 said:

He needed to announce some time last year that he was not going to run again. Nobody would blame him. I voted for him as a stop-gap because his party 1) recognized they didn't have a deep bench and 2) thought his ties to Obama made him most likely to beat Trump. Fine but he and the party should have done a better job getting for this moment. And now, because of the Orange Menace, I can't even consider voting 3rd. 

The people that don't live in left/right echo chambers must really be annoyed at the 160 combined years of mediocrity and/or mobsterism at the top of the two tickets. Seems like a fresh-faced 55-year-old would have some advantage with the them...

This all sucks.

Hate to say it, but we may have to wait until 2028 for better things to happen.

cincybearcat said:

mace1229 said:

OnWis97 said:

He needed to announce some time last year that he was not going to run again. Nobody would blame him. I voted for him as a stop-gap because his party 1) recognized they didn't have a deep bench and 2) thought his ties to Obama made him most likely to beat Trump. Fine but he and the party should have done a better job getting for this moment. And now, because of the Orange Menace, I can't even consider voting 3rd. 

The people that don't live in left/right echo chambers must really be annoyed at the 160 combined years of mediocrity and/or mobsterism at the top of the two tickets. Seems like a fresh-faced 55-year-old would have some advantage with the them...

This all sucks.

Up until even less than a year ago, I was saying Trump has no chance of being the nominee.
I still can't believe I was wrong. And cant believe the dems didn't support a different candidate starting a year or 2 ago. 

I said it about trump the entire time he was running the first go 'round.  No way he'd win the nomination....and then of course he did.  Then, no way he would win the general election...and then of course he did.  So I stopped thinking he wouldn't and just now hope he wouldn't.  And vote he won't all along.

Yeah...I've been in disbelief the entire time. Still can't believe there are enough idiots that support him.

But I'm resigned to just accepting whatever happens. If the stupid morons outnumber us then so be it. God bless Amurikkka.

OnWis97 said:

Gern Blansten said:

cincybearcat said:

mace1229 said:

OnWis97 said:

He needed to announce some time last year that he was not going to run again. Nobody would blame him. I voted for him as a stop-gap because his party 1) recognized they didn't have a deep bench and 2) thought his ties to Obama made him most likely to beat Trump. Fine but he and the party should have done a better job getting for this moment. And now, because of the Orange Menace, I can't even consider voting 3rd. 

The people that don't live in left/right echo chambers must really be annoyed at the 160 combined years of mediocrity and/or mobsterism at the top of the two tickets. Seems like a fresh-faced 55-year-old would have some advantage with the them...

This all sucks.

Up until even less than a year ago, I was saying Trump has no chance of being the nominee.
I still can't believe I was wrong. And cant believe the dems didn't support a different candidate starting a year or 2 ago. 

I said it about trump the entire time he was running the first go 'round.  No way he'd win the nomination....and then of course he did.  Then, no way he would win the general election...and then of course he did.  So I stopped thinking he wouldn't and just now hope he wouldn't.  And vote he won't all along.

Yeah...I've been in disbelief the entire time. Still can't believe there are enough idiots that support him.

But I'm resigned to just accepting whatever happens. If the stupid morons outnumber us then so be it. God bless Amurikkka.

He doesn't really lose anyone. I mean, there are probably a few anecdotes out there but the devotion cannot really be undone because of anything logical. Unfortunately, the whole "being a victim" thing seems to be contagious and help him pick more people up than he loses. Elon Musk has become Donald Trump right before our eyes. And I don't think it's totally unusual.

There is polling that shows tRump losing support IF he is convicted of a crime. That's our next hurdle.

My concern is with who tRump would put in positions around him. It's like a fucking clown car unloading morons on our system.  

I don't think a second tRump presidency would even get people like Pompeo/Mattis/Tillerson, etc. It's going to be Defense Sec Boebert, Sec of State MTG, AG Alex Jones, etc.

Special counsel Robert Hur’s report released Thursday did not charge President Joe Biden with a crime, but it painted a picture of a forgetful commander in chief who failed to properly protect highly sensitive classified information – a depiction that could hurt Biden politically.

The special counsel report found that Biden willfully retained classified information, including top secret documents, and knew he was in possession of some documents as far back as 2017. He also shared some of that information with the ghostwriter of his 2017 memoir.

The special counsel decided not to charge the president in the case – primarily because he found that nothing proved a willful intent by Biden to illegally hold onto classified information and his cooperation with the investigation.

Yet, in a politically damaging line of reasoning, Hur wrote that one reason Biden wasn’t going to be prosecuted was because he would present to a jury as an elderly man “with a poor memory.” Biden’s lawyers objected to the description – calling it “investigative excess” and accusing Hur of flouting Justice Department rules and norms.

The report is sure to become an issue in the 2024 campaign – where Biden’s likely opponent, Donald Trump, is facing criminal charges for his handling of classified material, even though Hur made clear how different the two cases were.

A painful report for Biden

Hur laid out in detail how Biden mishandled classified materials, writing that FBI agents discovered materials from “the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home.”

The materials included classified documents, including some marked at the highest top secret/sensitive compartmented information level, related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, as well as and notebooks “containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence source and methods.”

The special counsel raised Biden’s age and memory in explaining why he didn’t bring charges.

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote.

“Mr. Biden’s memory also appeared to have significant limitations,” Hur wrote in another passage, adding that his conversations with his ghost writer “from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries."

Gern Blansten said:

OnWis97 said:

Gern Blansten said:

cincybearcat said:

mace1229 said:

OnWis97 said:

He needed to announce some time last year that he was not going to run again. Nobody would blame him. I voted for him as a stop-gap because his party 1) recognized they didn't have a deep bench and 2) thought his ties to Obama made him most likely to beat Trump. Fine but he and the party should have done a better job getting for this moment. And now, because of the Orange Menace, I can't even consider voting 3rd. 

The people that don't live in left/right echo chambers must really be annoyed at the 160 combined years of mediocrity and/or mobsterism at the top of the two tickets. Seems like a fresh-faced 55-year-old would have some advantage with the them...

This all sucks.

Up until even less than a year ago, I was saying Trump has no chance of being the nominee.
I still can't believe I was wrong. And cant believe the dems didn't support a different candidate starting a year or 2 ago. 

I said it about trump the entire time he was running the first go 'round.  No way he'd win the nomination....and then of course he did.  Then, no way he would win the general election...and then of course he did.  So I stopped thinking he wouldn't and just now hope he wouldn't.  And vote he won't all along.

Yeah...I've been in disbelief the entire time. Still can't believe there are enough idiots that support him.

But I'm resigned to just accepting whatever happens. If the stupid morons outnumber us then so be it. God bless Amurikkka.

He doesn't really lose anyone. I mean, there are probably a few anecdotes out there but the devotion cannot really be undone because of anything logical. Unfortunately, the whole "being a victim" thing seems to be contagious and help him pick more people up than he loses. Elon Musk has become Donald Trump right before our eyes. And I don't think it's totally unusual.

There is polling that shows tRump losing support IF he is convicted of a crime. That's our next hurdle.

My concern is with who tRump would put in positions around him. It's like a fucking clown car unloading morons on our system.  

I don't think a second tRump presidency would even get people like Pompeo/Mattis/Tillerson, etc. It's going to be Defense Sec Boebert, Sec of State MTG, AG Alex Jones, etc.

Biden might be as old and un-sharp as his detractors think. So might Trump. So it's absolutely about the people that are around him (which is why it pains me a bit less to vote for him).

While I'm obviously happy Trump lost, the potential backfire is that now he and his handlers have had time to learn from their mistakes; the biggest of which is not doing a good job of vetting for complete and total loyalty to DJT, MAGA, and one-party dictatorship. If he wins, there will be no disloyalty anywhere. His running mate will be committed to never allowing a Dem presidential victory to be certified. Loyalty to Trump will be the only thing that matters in the federal government.

OnWis97 said:

Gern Blansten said:

There is still the Cheney wildcard. She might run third party to slurp some votes away. Which I support.

It just pains me that tRump still has that much support. He doesn't fucking deserve it.

It's really amazing. 

A third of the country really believes:

• He has a super-human love for America and gave up his billionaire lifestyle when just about everything he ever says/tweets/posts is clearly all about himself and he's constantly getting money from them.
• He's a Christian savior when he seems to be an agnostic.* Not to mention having  cheated on three wives.
• He's a brilliant businessman, when he's just a guy born into money and has been a sub-par casino tycoon.
• He relates to, and is fighting for, the working man (and against the élite) when he's never washed a dish, mowed a lawn, applied for a job, or filled a gas tank. Oh yeah; and an NYC-born silverspooner who attended an Ivy League school. The only thing even close to relatable to the average American is his love of fast food.
• He's an alpha male when his primary personality trait is being a victim and he's never done anything "alpha."** Oh, and his petulant whining every time he loses anything (an Emmy, a caucus, an election).
• He's going to save America when at best he admires dictators and at worst would sell us out to one for his own benefit without thinking twice.
• He's smart when, well, come on...

*As am I; so it doesn't bother me that he doesn't know much about the bible; but the way the religious right sees him is mind blowing.
**Another one I don't care about but the label is so funny.

Gotta say, I really appreciate your use of the bullet points here. Hell of a post. 

shecky said:

Special counsel blows open debate over Biden age and memory: ANALYSIS

A report on Biden's handling of classified documents carried a political punch.

ByRick Klein

February 8, 2024, 3:31 PM

The legal headline -- that President Joe Biden will not face prosecution in connection with his handling of classified documents, in stark contrast with the former president he is set to run against again -- is not what carries the political punch.

Instead, the special counsel's extended rationale for why Biden would likely not be convicted is what immediately stirred up fresh questions about the president's ability to continue to do the job.

The report from special counsel Robert Hur found that "no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," despite evidence that Biden retained classified documents related to Afghanistan policy from his time as vice president, and even shared them with a ghostwriter to aid in his memoirs.

Things get worse from there in Hur's accounting, drawing specifically on the recorded interactions the president had, voluntarily, with the special counsel's office. In the interviews last October, the president had "limited precision and recall," according to Hur, who ultimately found that a jury would likely find Biden to be "a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory."

"Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt," Hur writes. "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him -- by then a former president well into his eighties -- of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

Specifically, Hur writes that Biden, now 81, did not remember when his time as vice president either began or ended; did not recall the date of his son's death "even within several years"; and had a "hazy" memory about key players in the Obama administration's Afghanistan debate that was "once so important to him" – the subject on which Biden was found to have retained documents, to aid in a historical retelling of his role.

Details ostensibly meant in part to explain a lack of criminal liability border on mockery. The special counsel's report -- which includes ample photographs -- states flatly that a cache of Afghanistan documents Biden kept at his Delaware home were stored "in a badly damaged box in the garage, near a collapsed dog crate, a dog bed, a Zappos box, an empty bucket, a broken lamp wrapped with duct tape, potting soil, and synthetic firewood."

Meh. I was told Obama was really in charge.  Since right wing news never makes things up, it must be true. Therefore this has no effect on the handling of the country. 

By contrast, since Trump listens to no one,  we should be more concerned about his many gaffes and mistakes he is making. Maybe Eric Trump can really call the shots.  He seems pretty smart. 

Merkin Baller said:

Trump blamed Nikki Haley for what happened on 1/6 recently, so… 🤷‍♂️

Nikki is responsible for a peaceful protest by Antifa members led by Ray Epps? You don't say...

Old vs old& nuts

hmmmm