Andy1

All this Biden news about his mental and physical health is why we need an age limit of about 70 to run for President. It’s pretty clear people around Biden were managing his mental decline, limiting his speaking appearances. With his prostrate, either they have known he has had the cancer (without telling America) and has been secretly receiving treatment all along and the treatment hasn’t been effective, or he has refused treatment while knowing he has it allowing it to advance (which seems unlikely), or for some stupid reason they haven’t tested for it because they/he didn’t want to know if he had it. It’s all bad. Hopefully he has plenty of days ahead of him to enjoy with his family and friends.

It’s all stupid. Instead of using ambiguous code terms people should just say what they mean. “Vote the bum/idiot out” is all anyone needs to say. There isn’t any context in current society where violent language desired in our politics. Convince people with reason over threats. 10-10

My Dad went through some dementia before he passed. He had good days and bad days and you didn’t know what to expect. Trump will go through the same. Father Time is undefeated. Many say Trump is already in a state of mental decline from years ago as his speech patterns have changed. So when Trump starts to slip up more, will he step down for the good of the country he lives so much? Who will be making the decisions then? Will his supporters want him to step aside? Of course the answer is no and so it is.

Sounds about right. Keeping the coalition of various subgroups together is always a challenge for the Dem leaders.

What’s CBC? Never heard that abbreviation. Never mind. First google gave me complete blood count🤷🏻‍♂️. Further digging found congressional black caucus.

I’m not so sure about that. Trump is a low bar to clear. The Biden team did no favors in helping Harris. If he declined to run a second time, they could have had a better process to choose the nominee. Still doesn’t mean that person would have beaten Trump. Voters were pissed about inflation and the border and that was a Dem problem.

I agree. And deception of supporters happens on both sides as we are seeing with regret of many Trump voters.

Clearly he was in mental decline. Reagan also may have had some age decline while President. Same issue with senators on both sides. We will watch time catch up to Trump as he will be older than Biden by the end of his term. We definitely need an age limit to run for office at the Federal level, yet politicians won’t address that issue. Biden and his advisors betrayed the Democratic Party by concealing his decline and trying to run a second time. He said he was going to be a one term bridge, then his ego got too big.

The fake outrage is crazy. This term is a long way from meaning assassination that Trump and company want you to think. It was still stupid for Comey to post it though. 8646 Tshirts were sold to the MAGA crowd in 2024. Eighty-six is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to." It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/eighty-six-meaning-origin

Ok here is the quote: “Let's put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face." Are seashells worse than that? Go ahead and debate the semantics. Can we all just agree that violent language in politics is all bad and don’t support it no matter who says it?

Has everyone forgotten about Trump musing about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad? Excusing that and being upset about seashells is wild, unless people are too dumb to see the hypocrisy.

That is sick. Nothing else needs to be said.

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting things of value, or “emoluments,” from foreign governments without congressional approval. “This is a classic example of what the founders worried about,” said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. “But I don’t think the founders anticipated it would get this bad.” In his second term, Trump’s family business has been very busy overseas. In December, it struck a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi firm that two years earlier it had partnered with for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced last month another Trump branded resort along the coast. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/will-the-new-air-force-one-be-secure-qatars-gift-to-trump-raises-questions#:~:text=The two planes currently used,design of his personal plane. Does everyone here think there is no ethical conflict with Trump and family and the Saudis or Qatars? For all the justifiable outrage about Hunter Biden, republicans just ignore Trump and family deals. What a cult. Rule #1: You can never criticize the Great Orange Leader.

I get why people will support this EO. I just wonder if it is really legal. I’m no attorney so have no insight on that issue, but if it is legal, it would suggest that the President can order other private companies to lower prices too, just because he can with an EO. Why doesn’t he sign an EO ordering phone manufacturers and cell phone companies (or any other product) to lower prices 25%, or whatever he wants? That would also benefit everyone. It all sounds like a big nothing for distraction as they try to cut Medicare/Medicaid.

In my opinion, EOs should only be used to respond to respond to extraordinary crises or emergencies like 9/11, Covid, etc. Presidents on both sides have used them to avoid governing through congress and congress has obliged since they want to avoid responsibility and ownership for anything. This isn’t the democratic process as envisioned by those guys back in 1776. Governing should be hard. That is what forces compromise and moderation in practice which is what we need more of.

No hate here. My comment was just leaning into the fact that the entire Trump 2.0 presidency is about executive orders. Republicans own all three branches, yet congress seems to be sleep walking, letting Trump issue order after order with no enactment of law to implement his agenda. What’s Mikey doing these days? I remember the Republican outrage about executive orders when Biden or Obama issued them, but not a peep now. For reference, in eight years Bush signed 291 and Obama did 277 EOs. In four years Biden issued 162 EOs while Trump 1 issued 220. In a bit over 100 days Trump 2 has already signed 146.

If he has a great plan to lower prices, then Republicans should make it the law, as Biden did with drug prices in the Inflation Reduction Act. These executive orders have no sticking power.

Thanks much for the clarification. I see your point now. You have better knowledge of economic theory than myself. The one thing I’m confident about is that a group of corporate elites will mightily enrich themselves along with Trump during his term. Lower income Americans will struggle due to the various impacts of the Trump tax. During this period and after, there will be a battle of ideas on what to do differently and those wealthy elites will push their corporate propaganda on the public and through the halls of Congress to prevent change. Here is the chart I think you are referring to. One of Trumps advantages (?) is that he speaks at a fourth grade level. He does not speak about logical, rational, realistic solutions to issues. He does not explain complex issues. Instead his speech connects to many people’s emotions. Immigrants are rapists and murderers, Mexico will pay for the wall, America is getting ripped off by other countries, tariffs will force other countries to pay us billions and billions of dollars, we will be richer than ever before, etc. His message is unconstrained by reality. Trump has proven that a lot of the undecided Americans, who do decide elections, believe these types of emotional messaging. Dems need to find a simple message and a messenger who speaks below college level language, to connect with the common, uninterested voters. They shouldn’t fall into the trap of campaigning on rational programs for real problems (CHIPS act was that) as the voters who decide elections don’t care about that. Their message needs broad appeal and drop the group identity politics. Given the nature of their supporters, that will be a challenge.

If both the far left and the far right are upset with Pope Leo, then he is probably doing his job well.

It’s taken me a few rereads to see what you are getting at about the socialism comment. Every time dems propose modest tax increase, increases in fuel efficiency standards, health care, or just about any progressive social policy, the immediate reaction by the right is to scream socialism/communism. Now Trump (the guy with the golden toilet) is imposing the largest tax increase in history, telling Americans they should be happy with less, and all we hear is crickets from the right. I totally agree with how progressive tariffs would and have differed from the moronic Trump approach. The Trump tariffs are on everything and everywhere, and that means they are really not about anything they claim. The reason for them is not about trade deficits since they apply to countries we have trade surpluses with. There is no national trade deficit emergency, which is what Trump declared, since we have had trade deficits for 50 years. They are not about curbing fentanyl (the justification originally used) since they apply to all countries. It’s not about returning jobs to America since they apply to everything, including products or food items we will never produce here. If it were about helping American companies, there would be stated policies, gradual implementation with predictability so business could plan and adapt and incentives would be offered. None of that applies. So by default, it’s about something they can’t say. And that answer is likely the greed for wealth and power of a megalomaniac and corporate greed of the oligarchs. Everything else is distraction for justification of their actions. They can’t lie about the economy though. When store shelves are empty and prices are stupid high, people will know why. Companies will show the Trump tax on their invoices. Trump has put himself in quite a box of his own making. The pressure is on to deliver amazing trade deals. Otherwise he, his party and his economy will be a colossal failure. The extreme Trump agenda may be what brings a future public backlash favoring more social democratic policies and anti corruption legislation.

So Trump now taps into Fox entertainment for yet another key position. He just can’t get enough of Fox in his administration as he hires only the finest, most qualified people. This just shows that you can get just about any job in government working for Donald if you first get your training at Fox.

There's a lot of truth to this. If it wasn't so hard or took so long I'm sure more people would do it legally. 20 yrs ago, it was at least 10 years to get family members here legally, even if they were financially sponsored by an American citizen. That is ridiculous and a sign that the system is completely broken. Before, Republicans always said that legal immigration can’t be fixed until illegal immigration across the border is stopped. Well, that time is now. Fact is, America needs a lot of legal immigrants to do alot of jobs Americans won’t do. A lot of jobs just need bodies we don’t have to do them. Instead, Trump and Republicans doesn’t want legal immigrants either.

I hope I’m wrong but in the coming months, I fully expect Trump to insult, mock or demean Pope Leo. Trump will call it a joke or claim it is not an insult as he usually does. Trump will feel the need to knock the new Pope down a notch. A man on the world stage who draws bigger crowds and more admiration than him; and who speaks a message of love for others and who criticizes or opposes any of Trumps actions will drive him nuts. Interesting choice by the cardinals.

That article is 100% right. There is no longer a Free market. Instead Trump is using his power to determine winners and losers in his economy. The tariffs are whatever he wants without the logic of policy behind them. All based on the phony rationale of a national emergency.

This is quite an interesting thread with the discussion on theology and history of the churches practices, etc. Sounds like most of us, myself included, have a Catholic background regardless of which side of the political spectrum we are on. We all may be looking at each other in the church pews. I just hope the Cardinals choose someone who can continue to speak truth to politicians and be a voice for peace, democracy and advocate for the poor, homeless and disadvantaged across the globe. Carry on chaps…