Iâm wandering in Scandinavia for a bit and the posters mocking Trump, and the people asking WTF are âweâ thinkingâ¦itâs embarrassing, especially to admit that our rules allow to loser of the popular vote to be President. We are a laughingstock for even considering him again.
Don't talk to me about Biden's gaffes. Trump looks and sounds more like Will Ferrell's parody of Harry Caray all the time.
Iâm wandering in Scandinavia for a bit and the posters mocking Trump, and the people asking WTF are âweâ thinkingâ¦itâs embarrassing, especially to admit that our rules allow to loser of the popular vote to be President. We are a laughingstock for even considering him again.
Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.
Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation. But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't. He will define one group after another as the enemy. This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line. But now fear is the essence of life. The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.
We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America. But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer. An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators. He will befriend them and compete with them. From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.
At least, the fantasy goes, the strongman will get things done. But dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive. It is about preventing anyone else from achieving anything. The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else weaker.
When it comes to rallying his voter base, the men-of-color-as-sexual-predator trope has to be the most fail-safe tool Trump can invoke, since white men have been using this lie to scare white women and each other into submitting to racism for as long as race relations have existed.
The myth of black and brown men as sexual predators toward white women is a deeply psychological motivator that activates peopleâs basest survival instincts, one that's been around as long as white men have been colonizing places filled with darker-hued humans. And, itâs clearly been highly effective for getting voters to leave logic behind; It's part of how Donald Trump won the White House. (...)
It's that excitement, that unseemly pleasure that men like Trump apparently take in asserting that we should all fear the sexual predation of nonwhite men, that makes it so easy for me to believe that the entire racist structure of colonialism is founded upon white menâs sexual insecurities. There is a perverse pleasure taken in making these warnings, in calling us savages, in generating and regenerating the myth that they are protecting "their" women (and thus their pale future) from the voracious sexual appetites of nonwhite men. They can feel their obsolescence encroaching; they always have.
The vilification of men of color also serves as an indicator about some white menâs own malicious intentions: It takes a rapist to believe that everyone else is intent on rape. In the United States, from the colonial period to well into the 1960s, white men raped women of color with impunity even while setting up their white female counterparts as beholden to them for protection against men of color. Through this mind-bending logic, they managed to create a system that had virtually no legal consequences for a white man who raped a black or brown woman, while black men could only ever be rapists to white women (and thus strung up at the nearest tree after any accusation, regardless of evidence).
"I see no difference when using your terms." Either you didn't watch the video or you're just a f$^kin' numbnut.
The guy who needed his AC fixed this week during a record-breaking heatwave is complaining about addressing global warming as a comparative "whatabout" to support the removal of all government capability. You left out option C: BOTH
Yeah, the 25 year old start up capacitor for the 25 year old compressor failed. Yep, the only reason for that is global warming.
Fortunately, when it failed at around 10 pm, made a call shortly thereafter and got an appointment for noon the next day and was up and running by 4 pm.
At the height of this once in a (short) lifetime global warming heat wave attacking the East. Without needing government assistance.
It's always good to know who to call and get things done.
Trump's plan would reignite inflation and slow down economic growth
Economists have spoken: President Biden is better for the economy than Donald Trump.
According to an analysis from Moody's Analytics, Trump's MAGAnomics economic plan ⯠slash taxes for the rich, spike import tariffs, and institute mass deportations of immigrant workers ⯠would trigger a recession by mid-2025, with an economy that would slow to an average 1.3% annual growth, vs. 2.1% under Biden.
"Bidenâs policies are better for the economy," said Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moodyâs Analytics.
Trump's plan to fund the government through higher import tariffs would cause companies to pass their increased costs onto consumers: reaccelerating inflation that has been steadily cooling during Biden's term.
According to Moody's, next year under a Trump administration inflation would rise from the current 3.3% to 3.6%, well above the 2.4% forecast for next year under Biden. The U.S. would have 3.2 million fewer jobs and a 4.5% unemployment rate at the end Trump's term, compared to Biden's 26-straight months of unemployment under 4%.
Increased tariffs on imports and the resulting higher inflation would also dramatically increase the value of the dollar, leading to fewer exports of U.S products, harming manufactures and their employees.
"I think it would be bad for workers and bad for consumers," said Michael Strain, Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Trump's tariff plan also likely won't fully offset his planned tax cuts, adding trillions to the national debt.
"Trump just received a report card for his extreme MAGAnomics plan, and Moodyâs gave him a failing grade. The latest report by Moodyâs details how a second round of Trumpâs MAGAnomics agenda would tank the economy, and trigger a recession by 2025," DNC National Press Secretary â¨Emilia Rowland said in a statement.
By contrast, if Biden wins the Presidency and maintains a divided Congress, the most heavily-predicted scenario, economists predict cooling inflation trends will continue, reaching the target 2% sometime around summer 2025.
Either you didn't watch the video or you're just a f$^kin' numbnut.
The guy who needed his AC fixed this week during a record-breaking heatwave is complaining about addressing global warming as a comparative "whatabout" to support the removal of all government capability.
Ah, yeah I know that one and I still want to be a dental floss rancher when I grow up but Sears Jewish didn't register. Never heard that one before actually. My first thought was in like Jewing down, or haggling or being cheap.
You forget that I work in Hebrew Central so certain Jewish references get lost amongst the very many.
Ah, yeah I know that one and I still want to be a dental floss rancher when I grow up but Sears Jewish didn't register. Never heard that one before actually. My first thought was in like Jewing down, or haggling or being cheap.
You forget that I work in Hebrew Central so certain Jewish references get lost amongst the very many.
I didn't get that one either. I'm a Zappa fan but don't have all the lyrics memorized, and I guess I'm Sears Jewish too. I get it now that I know what it's about.
Man I am so disappointed if you missed the “Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?” joke. We might see politics differently but…
Ah, yeah I know that one and I still want to be a dental floss rancher when I grow up but Sears Jewish didn't register. Never heard that one before actually. My first thought was in like Jewing down, or haggling or being cheap.
You forget that I work in Hebrew Central so certain Jewish references get lost amongst the very many.